Dr <3

Ok thankyou i didn't use enough the debuffing spells, i will retest.

Don't get me wrong, that was just a comparison, i like your build very much! Going to test him in solo in my next playtrough!

Double post, sorry

What is your typical spell routine in fight? I tested your build yesterday, was good but i expected to do more DMG with toxic spells (after a couple of fights i run always out of spells, usually i needed 2-3 toxic cloud + 1 Wall of training and 1-2 noxius burst as finisher). Just to be clear my typical comparison for "aoe DMG guys " is a Chanter with High Strenght & int and dragon slashed chant, up to now i feel it is much stronger than a paladin with immolation and a tempest druid. The strongest sinergy i found was Wall of drain + arcane veil, always ended with 100+ sec of active veil, that was new for me, thank you!

I wondered if a druid version of this could make sense but i reminded to mysalf that all the good druid aoe DMG spells ( storms, insects swarms) are already foe only... Priest also more or less

Doesn't stack with the diving helmet (which I like very much). And because you get that mantle very late. So I chose the helmet and the teeth. You can get that stuff early via stronghold quests. Together it's better in terms of defense against poison. But of course you can use the mantle. Especially i you don't like the diving helmet. No, no like other said the big Daddy helmet is a must!

Why not mantle of excavator instead of fathers theet?

Wonderfuf job, as always! Just a question for the Ice element variant: i always toght that most AOE effects ( freezing pillar, ice cloud, shadowflame ... ) affect refex for the hit/ grazie/ miss... Is not best to pile up reflex savings instead of fortitude if you go for the "Ice path" variant? Getting paralyze is not an issue if you are miss from the start by the spell Edit: when i have time i will try a pale Elf build with max refex ( High dex & per, good/ average str& int, sword & shield, some reflex boosting item) and see how it performs. I hope that with reflex High enough i will always miss myself with aoe spells so i don' t even have to bother for the save vs the affliction...

I think not, but i'm not sure. I tryed steadfast in my double wield monk build ( illuminated master ) but i abandoned it for double purgatory, sice the proc of Champions boon where very rare ( i did the whole iron flail fort in solo and saw it activate only 2 times, spamming torment reach all' day long) The main problem was that i killed all the people with purgatory and no One with steadfast because the sword deal much more less DMG.

I feel that the most important thing of mechanic is not actually open chest/ traps, but spot hidden objects. If you have 11 or more you can find anything also in wm 1 and 2. So i go with 9+ gloves usually.

I don't have a photo of the combat log, but in my game i saw enemies hit 4-5 times for sure. Often swaddig sheet processed also 2-3 whave " togheter " for mass annilation.

Swaddig sheet for me will be totally ok if it process really only 1 time every fight. Since it is currenly bugged ( at last for me), as long as you have a charachter with enough endurance or regeneration it can win battles alone for you. In my last monk run ( the illuminated master build ) i stopped to use it in wm1 after i started to istantly win all the fights vs the languefath... I see them, they paralyze me, swaddig sheet procs 5-6 times in a row, no enemys left in the whole screen! First time is laugh, second meh, third boring.

Screw irenicus, sarevok ecc, best moment ever in bg2 is the discussion with the beholder guarding the treasure in the underground. Best moment in a game ever.

And while you are dressing the 50th pair the transformation expires !

My personal training ground foro solo build is craghold cliffs. You can find in one place a lot of different High lvl battles ( first test are the two guards, after you can go for the "boss" Orlan monk or the Group fight on North or East. If you can solo survive this battles than the build is good enough.

I think they are the boot from cyredel ( the death godlike) in megran's fork

Tks Andrea!

you are totally right it works like that. BUT the thing is : if an action is very long (cast a slow spell, attack with 3 DEX) you can get hit by a lot of attacks and every attack have a chance to interrupt you, and this is very bad since you can't ever "complete" the action, resulting is some kind of perma-stun. INSTEAD, if you have "fast" action (cast a fast spell, attack with high dex) the chances to get hit between the start and the end of the action are very low, so you can complete the action and start another. Or to be more clear: if you are interrupted at the 75% of a cast, after the inerrupt time wear off, you don't continue the cast from the 75%, but have to restart from 0%. So all the time spended tryng to cast something is totally wasted. With fast casts or fast attacks is very rare to be interrupted in the middle of the action, so you don't "waste" time, you are just slowed down for the interrupt time That's not how interrupts work. Each time you're "interrupted" you have the delay of the interrupt added to your recovery time. ok but the result is that when you are surrounded somehow you can still spam torment reach with success, while is actually impossible (for me at least) to evocate the twins. And if you get interrupted "too much" (i still have not understand clearly the rule) you "forget" the action you were doing es: i try to evocate twins. I get surrounded in the meantime and get interrupted several times. For 2-3 times the "evocation animation" restart every time, after more hits when an interrrpution expires my char have only dots upon the head and don't even try anymore to perform the action. With wizard sometime i also "lose the spell", the game considered it like "casted" while it was not casted at all, just interrupted. I'm sorry to answer to you in this trivial and experience based only way, since your post are every time of high quality and contain very precise math (i'm your fan)

i can understand your points, but you don't need speed as long as you have teleport (flagellant path) this is a battle sequence of the iron flail battles at Hard, as you can see good positioning is very easy to achive. The second pick is after 2 torment reach + 1 flagellant path

if for some reason i need fast run speed i can go for aru bracker (red armour) + sugar or other food that gives speed, is more than enough to outrun mobs. But basically you kill people so fast and hard that you doesn't need much speed like the normal "cheese tactics" like kiting with ranged weapon, abuse engagement range ecc. And during the fight you have always flagellant paths to ingore the tank, kill casters/archer and go to a place where your back is shielded by a wall (complete surround is the only thing that can actually kill you). We have to much better options than long stride to pick it.

you are totally right it works like that. BUT the thing is : if an action is very long (cast a slow spell, attack with 3 DEX) you can get hit by a lot of attacks and every attack have a chance to interrupt you, and this is very bad since you can't ever "complete" the action, resulting is some kind of perma-stun. INSTEAD, if you have "fast" action (cast a fast spell, attack with high dex) the chances to get hit between the start and the end of the action are very low, so you can complete the action and start another. Or to be more clear: if you are interrupted at the 75% of a cast, after the inerrupt time wear off, you don't continue the cast from the 75%, but have to restart from 0%. So all the time spended tryng to cast something is totally wasted. With fast casts or fast attacks is very rare to be interrupted in the middle of the action, so you don't "waste" time, you are just slowed down for the interrupt time

tks, fixed yes, but they are all fast abilities, so interrupt acutally "interrupt" you very rarely. The only ability that can really be "interrupted" is the evocation of the twins since the long "cast" time, but i haven't pick it anyway. Just torment reach spam do more for us. EDIT: i just discovered an horrible bug: after triggered immunity from ruona plate wears off you can't get any wound until the end of combat had to reload and not sleep anymore in dragon's cave!

PS for future use # this is me fighting alpine dragon, most difficut fight so far (very high def--> so no crits, crush immune, high lighting resistance, it is practically immune to half of my build). I just needed to swich resolution for bittercut and to use some blind monk venom to kill him preatty fast (189 pure dmg over time) BUG REPORT #1 i just discovered an horrible bug: after triggered immunity from ruona plate wears off you can't get any wound until the end of combat had to reload and not sleep anymore in dragon's cave

here for you

[disclaimer : i'm still doing my run, currently i'm LVL 14, so the build is not 100% "complete" at the moment] This is the build i'm using in my last solo run. 3.02 bring us many awesome things for monk that we are going to abuse as much as possible: - torment reach is become a OMG SO GOOD I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT good enough ability that transform us into little barbarians on steroid, basically you have an endless source of FULL ATTACKS with +50% dmg as crush, PLUS an huge AOE cone of dmg - swift strikes lighting lash FINALLY STACK with turning wheel fire lash - iron wheel FINALLY STACK with turning wheel have a fast resume: =================================== Illuminated Master =================================== Difficulty: Normal (rofl-stomping/ never used a figurine-scroll) / Hard (challanging) / PothD (viable with normal solo PothD tactics : es kiting, divide mobs in little groups, ecc) -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Monk -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan® (+10 def bouns that stack with Crucible of suffering and Duality of mortal presence) / Amanua (+ 20 res to stun and prone is very good, we want to kill everyone, not to kiss the groung) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Living Lands - Scientist (for +1 to mech mainly) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 18 --> DMG, DMG, DMG !!!! CON: 10 --> honest DEX: 14 --> honest PER: 12 --> honest (in case take 2 point from cost and dex for go to 16 PER at the beginning) INT: 14 --> bigger AOE for torment reach / longer duration for swift strikes RES: 8 --> we don't have to cast much -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Athletics 4, Mech 10 , Lore 4, Rest to survival -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities/Talents (a=auto, !=important, r=recommended): order is not important apart from the second one: Trascendent suffering (a) / we don't even care Torment reach (!!!) / HELL YEAH Swift strikes (!) turning wheel (!) dluality of mortal presence (!) flagellanth path (!) crucicble of suffering (!) iron wheel ® note: no stunning blows, no clarity of agony, no rooting pain ONLY BEACAUSE I HAVE NOT SPACE FOR THEM. They are actually very good, but other abilities are just better (sadly). Dragon kick, exploding palm, whatever are not doing good enough for us. Force of anguish? I can spend better my wounds. Weapon Focus SABRE ® Two Weapon Style(!) Vulnerable attack (!) Veteran's Recovery ® Heath of the storm ® gallant focus ® merciless hand (!) machinary gift ® duengon delver ® effigy resentment eder or Mahea [...] --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (* = additional echantments by me; ! = essential, r = recommended): Weapon set 1: Resolution + Sabre (max enchant possiible, add lighting lash to both) --> Double purgatory (max enchant possiible, add lighting lash to both) / Double bittercuts / Purgatory + Steadfast Weapon Set 2: whatever, maybe a ranged weapon if you play pothD and need to pull mobs from safe distance Boots: shood of faith / Viettro formal shoes Head: whatever --> garoth chorus (conservation version) --> maegfolk skull (!) Armor: Aru Barker / Blaidh golan --> Ryona plate (!) / Hunter mail (weak alternative) Neck: Cloak of Comfort / Cloak of protection / Cloak of deflection / Rygimald mantle (depends on fights) Belt: blunting belt / bountiful healing belt--> binding rope ® (binding rope is very powerful, do 2 things for us : 1) block the mobs if for some reason we need to run away (very rare) / 2) stuck on hit means -20 deflecion vs everyone we are actually fighting, so il like a +20 to accuracy for me ) Rings: Ring of Deflection / + 4 int ring / protection ring / bartender ring / .... (depends on fights) Hands: +2 mech gloves (!) / Gauntlets of Precision / Ryona vambraces (depends on fights/exploration) Consumables : white Ynefer is very cheap and gives + 3 DR, use it in every fight, drink with friends is always good --------------------------------------------------------------- Thoughts: Fact: In solo you always get plenty of wounds, so spam abilities is not a problem at all and we will still have enough for give sense to iron and turning wheel . Fact : swift strike is istant and give us +25% dmg, try to keep it alway active Fact : tha bad thing of this build is that it needs A LOT of micromanagment (spam torment reach in the right direction, keep on swift strikes). So is better for solo, you can try also in a party with th aggressive I.A. setting but it will not be the same thing With torment reach we do constantly double attack. So dexterity is not so important as it can be for others melee buids. We also don't care about the whole 0-recovery thing. So we privilege dmg and accuracy over speed. A "full" torment reach attack can do for us: 2 sabre hit , with + 25% lighting lash from enchant, + 25%lighting lash from swift strikes (both +5% for hearth of the storm), + 50% crush, + 50% fire dmg. So we are already at +150% dmg to a single target. IF WE CRIT we get another +50% from crit, + 50% from annhilation, + 30% durgan, + 30% merciless hand, + 10% dungeon delver --> more 170% dmg Sides notes: - BEST WEAPON POSSIBLE is double Purgatory (doubled with the wax item). The dmg it deals with annilation is unpaired by anything, and the lifesteal keep us alive at long as we attack. Little subotpimal is Purgatory + Resolution. Alternative can be Double bittercut with corrode lash and spirit of decay talent, the difference is that the dmg output will be a little less BUT more stable overall (you get +20% from spirit of decay versus + 50% from annilathion). Another item i'm still testing is steadfast, the + 10 might from chapion boon (read +30% dmg) + the immunity to featt can be on par with the annilathion + lifesteal of purgatory. - When rest i go always for +20/40% of healing, with the lifesteal, veteran recovery, shood od faith we are really VERY HARD to kill. Only is some place is better go for +10 ccuracy vs spirits (hi durgan battery!) - after you got the binding rope can have sense to take also apprentice sneack attack talent added photoes : #what happen in a normal fight