mosspit

Truly, what was the rationale behind the Cipher nerfs? Although they have some spells that were very effective, they still had to juggle between physical attacks and spellcasting. Beyond specific combos, Ciphers already have some issues with keeping up with spellcasting in boss fights as focus generation have to be dependent on weapon attacks on bosses with good defences especially on higher difficulties. And facing that, it is now even harder to cast spells during boss fights?

I started using Island Aumaua because of Soulbound weapons due to the nature of the soulbind. Otherwise, I treat Island Aumaua ability as a nice quality of life feature. I am one of those who will go into the equipment screen to change up equipment to suit the enemy composition I am going to be up against. But that does require pre-emptive knowledge of the enemies you are going to fight though.

Well, I do not have the audacity to say that I am 100% correct 100% of the time either. My grammar mistakes in posts can attest to that Moreover, this was not found by me so I will not take the credit for it. Interaction with Blunderbuss multiple projectiles has always been a little wonky. From the old draining whip + Blunderbuss to the Combusting Wounds / Wounding shots / Blunderbuss interactions. And if I had to guess, I will guess that the modification of the Blunderbuss pellet interactions isn't straightforward. To the point where Draining Whip was changed to give focus % increase instead of just modifying Blunderbuss to trigger +2 Focus per shooting instance via the old DW (although Carlow Golan still works currently). CW interaction with Blunderbuss also has been documented way back as well.

It is an intermittent bug. I had it happen to me once before on a Beetle summon (via figurine). I had to force attack the summon with my party to kill it.

Well Boeroer, I thought I would have established the fact that I do not pull things out of my ass by now For the 1% outlier, here's a screenshot to show the effects of the stacking. Against hostiles, the indication is less direct but the effect still stacks. In any case, in the spirit of brokeness, I will leave you guys with this.

I think another poster was saying that the Blunderbuss Scon Mica's Roar does the disorientating effect for all 6 pellets. So it is -30 def in total. -30 def is pretty nuts and when translated to gain in acc is more effective than Marking + Disorientating lol.

Maxing the number of revivals is not a real issue I feel. Unless you restrict against scrolls, Scrolls of Revival are readily available to any member with decent lore investment to have reviving capabilities. That being said, I prefer Reviving Exhortation too. Besides range as Boeroer said, it is insta-cast. Based on my own Toi experience, I greatly appreciate the fact the skills does not need channeling prep as compared with a rez from a priest. Especially in the situations where it is needed. And the rezzed character is usually rezzed with full hp so s/he can start combat immediately. Still remember when RE used to deduct HP from the rezzed character to the point where the character gets unconscious again? My last playthrough actually saw limited use of LoH lol

I have been plaything a party without a front "wall" since the later part of 1.06. Not really because ob's intention to move away from Tank-and-Spank but because the playstyle isn't very dynamic to me... it gets boring. I tried my first playthrough where most characters has at least decent survivability after I had to abandon 1 playthrough due to said boredom. Corridors aren't really too bad actually. In early game, I have at least half of my party equipped with reach weapons. Late-game, I unlocked mobility skills like Flagellant's Path and Dragon's Leap. You *can* still do Tank-and-Spank though. I mean no reason why getting your squishes to have their back against the wall and cover their front and flanks entirely with tanks and summons will not work. @Kneller: A Cipher's physical dps can be quite good as well due to Soul Whip. I tried a dual wield stilettos/sabre Cipher that is quite decent. One of the best cipher skills I feel is Psychovampiric Shield. It increase your deflection whilst decreases the enemy's deflection and Will by 10. So makes your enemy easier to hit while you are harder to be hit, and it last for a good amount of time. Then they are the usual skills like Ectopsychic Echo and Amp Wave. A ranged Cipher will suffer with lower Focus generation as the physical dps (associated with Focus generation) will generally be lower when compared to melee. If you will like to stick with a ranged Cipher, I will suggest a Blunderbluss Cipher consuming Carow Golan. It reverts the Cipher back to the pre-1.06 days of where you can gain +2 Focus per hit of the Blunderbuss (so +12 Focus as long as all 6 pellets land not including the actual dmg).

It depends on your party compo and strats. Yours probably have a frontline and you utilize bottleneck strats. I did my Triple Crown run with an all martials party (with a pally, fighter, barb, monk, rogue and ranger, and ranger being the only ranged char there). I did a PotD ToI with a all melee class. I basically enjoy a non-frontline approach and it can be still effective.

Is fighting Penhelm intentional? In any case, I will usually front load all non-combat side quest to gain levels fast as you would know. Doemenel's quests (not including Changing of the Guard) in particular are quite notable as they are easy and pay quite well. As you said, I will normally start on the quest that involve fighting at around lv5.

Well, the dirty secret is that the trial of iron part of it can be faked. It is still a program after all. Doing a proper ToI (and by extension TCS) is more of a matter of principle. And as long as a Solo Potd is possible, a TCS is theoretically possible. Being practically probable, that's another thing altogether.

I think it's just a balance thing. They are already plenty decent in the other categories of support, tank and dps. But yeah who knows, WM2 might introduce new awesome stuff like Sacred Immolation

Im impressed with the looks of the character. Liking the colour combination. But you might need some changes to the guide when 3.0 hits next month though. If im not mistaken, chanters will be receiving some significant changes. I haven't been using chanters, wizards and druids for 3 playthroughs now so I will most likely have a chanter in my party once 3.0 hits. Hopefully they become less passive as that's one of the main reason I find them boring. I was also using the Little Savior and Outworn Buckler combination in my last run, on a pally and priest. But the thing is Little Savior comes really late, or you have to rush for it where the rush is actually descending to the last level of Endless Paths. It is still great but the application of the combo is limited.

Looks aside, does it really matter though? With enchantments and all.

Ideally you will want a bit of both. Having only AoE dmg will make boss encounter slow as you can't burst them fast or enemy casters wind up staying alive for longer than they should. That's where single target dps shines - taking down priority targets fast. AoE makes sense as there are alot of trash encounters in the game. And also there are boss encounters which have lots of adds added so thinning down the numbers fast is desirable.

Well for me, I think the class system got to be designed with dual or multi-class in mind. So that the integration can be done better.

It is a personal choice though. For me, it was my most recent all-melee playthough. The party composition (Pally, Barb, Monk, Fighter, Cipher, Priest) gave enough options to get through the most demanding encounters in the game, but at the same time not a complete roflstomp through everything. The Trial of Iron mode really does help keep me from treating encounters lightly. I think alot of fun can be derived from using a party composition and playstyle that is very different to the one you are used to or think is highly effective.

Well, I had a lot of fun by changing up my playstyle. Pre-2.0 I used to utilize tank-and-spank and bottleneck strats. Quite effective but also a tad passive. To the point I stopped my 3rd playthrough at the end of act 2 as it was too boring (even though the party composition was quite optimized). From then, I tried deviating away from bottleneck strats. The new approach where I don't have split my party into a front and rear line is quite refreshing and fun. This was still at pre-2.0 before the changes to engagement were implemented. I also used only martial class to keep things interesting. Later on in WM1, I still carried on the non-bottleneck approach but added themes to it. One was a no-caster Triple Crown playthrough and another was a Potd/Trial of Iron with all-melee playthrough. The restrictions is kept things exciting and balanced off the knowledge I gained throughout multiple playthroughs.

Useful for characters who takes alot of consumables. The good thing about Survival is that unlike Mechanics, Lore and (to a certain extent) Athletics, there isn't a hard breakpoint for Survival. Meaning to say, you don't need a specific level in Survival to utilize certain consumables. So it is pretty flexible in that regards. There are some conversations that check on Survival though.

I actually used speed boots in somewhat the same context in which Adrea and Boeroer stated. My fighter has speed boots as he is my designated melee caster disrupter who can wrap around enemy lines and reach casters fast for a Discipline Barrage powered Knockdown. Even if he gets engaged, his speed will make disengaging easier (at the cost of eating a disengagement attack). I also have a speed boots on my Priest so that she can get to characters who needs certain buffs faster (for those that are centered around her) and also get away from danger if needed. I also used the mobility given by speed boots in a specific manner. My priest has the boots and lv3 Nightshroud. For final part of both Durgan Battery and Cragholt, I had my priest trigger the event and immediately use Shadowing Beyond and run back to the rest of the party positioned elsewhere with a better tactical advantage. The mobility helps the priest return the party fast for a very reliable and effective split pull strat.

Do note that I only referred to Dominate

Well, ToI will keep the game from getting too boring and stale. Sometimes, all you need is a bad dice roll. And Torm you're definitely knowledgeable yourself... ah what the heck, just go for it

Same here. I had 14

2 minor corrections: Elemental Endurance is +10DR to Fire and Cold, and Suppress Afflictions does work against Dominate as of 2.03.

Why the shift to 18 Con though? In my just completed PotD / ToI, my pale elf paladin only fell unconscious twice. Beyond that, I can only remember her going down to below half End at Adra (where she got her 2nd unconscious) and upscaled Thaos. The Fort you are gonna get is also overkill, In my experience, my fort was significantly lower that yours but I did supplement it with Bear's Fortitude. Did pretty well in terms of avoiding the stuns and prones.