MaxQuest

Nope. My priest is squishy, plus is a moon-godlike built to attract attention over other squishies. Additionally giving her a shield, would make me disable her AI auto-attacking, and I liked her damage contribution at least in the early game (with Kana's arquebus). But yes, technically it be best to continue using Raiment of Wael + Gyrd, and switch to 1h+shield when Gyrd has already procc'ed. But I am too lazy, plus there are tons of hard-cc at my disposal anyway. As for late game I opt to giving her Abydon's Hammer (for that per-encounter AoE stun and the +4 MIG passive). Btw, if you don't want your priest to deal damage, and it's not a moon-godlike, you can take a look at Andrea's "How I buffed the others" build. Also such a priest could be taken to the extreme, i.e. reduce his damage even further but make him a completely viable offtank. I am thinking of something like 5/18/18/3/19/15 coastal aumaua with heavy (!) shield + marking 1h or Forgotten Tear of the Beloved. (and 1h&shield style + other defensive talentes) And if you think there is still not enough health: Wound Binding + 25% healing item + 60% healing from survival will fix that. Now add there Minor Avatar and Aggrandizing Radiance for the extra +0.3 coefficient to restored health/endurance and you get a character who can restore 80+% of his health once per rest. If you upscale the WM1, then you might want to wait till level 11 for the GW. And buff your mechanics, via gloves or scrolls. I like running in fast mode, and half of my knockdowns happened in that area)

I like carrying scrolls of confusion + paralyze + revival, because it gives me room for an error; even if my 3 main debilitators got chain-cc'ed to death I can still recuperate. Atm I have 3 characters with 8 lore (chanter, priest and main cipher), 1 char with 10 lore (wizard) and 1 with 4 lore for scrolls of protection. Basically (aside from the mech guy) every one is a colonist who invests in survival + lore (plus has 1-4 points in athletics). In your case I would probably do the same. Make wizard or chanter your mech guy, and everyone else invest into surv/lore.

Hah, in every playthrough I am repeating the same thing: - going for Crucible Knights - removing Second Skin via console - and adding The Merciless Hand

^ Let's say all 6 pellets roll for the highest base damage: 9 The damage coefficient on crit, could be: 1 + 0.45 (superb) + 0.42 (24 might) + 0.5 (crit) + 0.3 (doemenel) + 1.0 (deathblows) + 1.5 (backstab) = 5.17 That's: 6 * 9 * 5.17 = 279 damage (if backstab bonus is additive, isn't it?) As for DR: 7 (lead spitter) + 3 (vamb) + 5 (penetrating shot) = 15 passive; and +25 for one shot if you use that last watcher ability. P.S. Does Finishing Blow work with ranged weapons?

Regarding consumables: I do use food, potions and scrolls during boss fights. I also occasionally throw some non tier-1 mig/con food and sugar on my characters (esp. chanter and ciphers) when I just happened to open the inventory. Regarding figurines: I do have 4 or 5 of them in the quick items spread among the party members. I use them when I need someone to sponge a bit of damage, and especially if they can eat a hard cc. But quite often enemies are somewhat grouped-up so I can cover all of them with aoe cc, and continue chain-disabling them. In these cases figurines feel like an overkill. But yes, that was a good call, as I probably should summon few weak ones during the spores fight as they could take few dominates instead of actual characters. I like the Gyrd's spellholding effect on priest. Couple it with the Raiment of Wael Eyes, and you get Llengrath's Displaced Image + Mirrored Image on priest every time he draws attention. Yes, I do miss the Gref's Authority stun which I would get if Gyrd would go to wizard, but I have enough cc so can live with that. Also I indeed gave Golden Gaze to wizard. Plus was thinking about using Minor Blights wand in longer battles. Btw, even on priest, Gyrd dominates enemies often enough (~1 in every 2nd fight). On wizard it would probably trigger twice per fight due to blast. And I have not yet settled my mind on if I want to unexpectedly dominate on random. Because they would no longer take damage from my AoEs. You can give names to your chanting sequences Dragon Roar is the name for my: Blessed Was Wengridh -> Dragon Trashed x8 Why do I start with Blessed? Because when combat starts, chanter is still far from the enemies, and DT would not catch them all, so I've just added a rank 1 chant. The ranged rogue's damage contribution is even worse than I thought. With Sneak Attack and +0.25 bonuses on their abilities I would expect him to do at least double damage compared to the chanter on pre-lvl 9. Also I am bit amazed to see the 1h+shield fighter come that close to him. In a way you could sub the rogue with a 2nd fighter, keep the same dps, but make your party even sturdier. (Fighter could take that Tall Grass from chanter; while chanter could use Durance Staff). P.S. Another update: I didn't make a dedicated save for that area \ But: their Explode ability is an active one. I.e. I was just paralyzing them (via Mental Binding) without the fear for explosion. The main thing that was giving me problems were the local traps. I've accidentally game my mech guy the colonist background instead of the merchant, and was struggling with 10 mechanics vs Galvino's upscaled traps.

- ignore this post - (asked a question, but already understood the answer)

He is computing the chance to not hit at all first, which is (1 - 0.2) * (1 - 0.2) = 0.64 Thus chance to hit is 1 - 0.64 = 0.36 Tehe, that was the very first problem, on the very first lecture in Uni. Strange, 12 yeas have passed, but I still remember it)

@OP, agreed on the points made, but after witnessing the power of Isaac's Greater Missile Storm from NWN2 which has no save, I am very reluctant when it comes to making a spell that ignores defenses/saving throws. There is a middle ground though: spells that lower enemy def, fort, reflex or will, but do not deal damage by themselves, can have a hefty bonus to accuracy.

What to do with the souls of hollowborn is always a tough choice to me. I usually try to rule out options that I would obviously not pick, so it is: - minus Skaen - because I do not feel like completing Thaos work - minus Rymgrand - because he is super-seeded by Galawain - i.e. souls are destroyed, but at least there is some use of it So the 4 choices remain: - Hylea: > pro: souls are returned to the bodies. > con: legacy bagan 15 years ago, and many with the souls returned will be very delayed in their development. > con: many will have to live with the fact that their neighbors' children did got the souls back, while their didn't. Many killed their hollow children themselves. And that's gonna be a new new source of grief. - Berath: > pro: when people die - souls get into the wheel anyway, so this is like a reset. > con: we don't know the state of these souls, how much did they fragment and weaken, nor what stuff did they see/feel and how will all this influence their next lives. - Wael: > pro: maybe these souls will experience something new, undiscovered, that will help them strengthen. > con: the unknown place is usually a bad idea, as you don't know how safe it is, nor if the souls will like it; could as well be another soul prison or some place of eternal torment. - Galawain: > pro: those who deserve the most (i.e. victims/dyrwoodans) are getting strengthened, and can leave the grief and move on. > con: the souls are destroyed - which is bad if they are in good 'condition', or good if they are heavily fragmented. Also do note: "Shadows are created when creatures with heavily fractured souls die without re-entering the cycle of rebirth." P.S. I am mostly torn between Berath and Galawain. In order to make a wiser decision character would need to have more information. So far, voted for Galawain. P.P.S. @Messier Here's the direct link to current percentages.

Tehehe, that's pretty much how I did it here. Had 22MIG/29INT though. That's 240 base damage * 1.36 * 1.95 * 1.5 = 954 damage over 44s on crit. Btw, Recall Agony not only benefits from MIG, but also works with all damage, including DoT ticks. So even if one was unlucky to get a crit... a hit + RA would be enough. Although still, as Boeroer mentioned it's rather a one-melt than instant kill.

And how would I do that You can't just pick him and put into existing party. A melee rogue needs the whole party built around him. Additionally no-cc and no-aoe coupled with the extra micro, and the need in extra supervision (by party debilitators) make rogue feel subpar for me. And I am often lazy to even start with a shot from Lead Spitter which I carry in the offset of my MC.

There will be alchemy skill, and.. having decaying-over-time toxicity as a gating mechanism could be an interesting approach. Also we are getting reverse pick-pocketing. Can't wait to see what shenanigans will become possible.

Trying to build a character with the highest uptime already? Tonight, a tale of true terror, or The Dragon Trashed, The Dragon Barfed. (by some drunk troubadour probably)

Adra Dragon has 477 endurance on Hard, or 597 (477 * 1.25) on PotD. Since she has 24 CON, this means her base endurance is ~280 (477 / 1.7). While being affects by -10 CON from the Wild Leech, she would have 14 CON remaining => 280 * 1.20 * 1.25 = 420 endurance on PotD (or by 42% less than before).

I have indeed taken Scion of Flame. And let's estimate how much did it help. At 20 MIG/22 INT: - w/o Scion: DoT damage = 1.3*1.6 slash base_dmg + 1.3*1.6 burn base_dmg = 4.16 base_dmg vs targets of 0 DR - with Scion: DoT damage = 1.3*1.6 slash base_dmg + 1.3*1.6*1.2 burn base_dmg = 4.58 base_dmg vs targets of 0 DR So it's a ~10% damage increase vs 0 DR (and I would expect ~15% damage increase vs targets of 20 DR). Also here's another snapshot: (*) pre - means right before hitting that level Initially I was a big fan of Aefyllath as well. It's a great chant that increases your damage by 25% (for non-DoT spells and unlashed auto-attacks), by 20% (for lashed auto-attacks) and by 0% for DoTs. This is my first run when I am using Dragon Trashed. As you can see: - from lvl _9 to 10, chanter dealt: 10496 = 28.8% out of 36416 (total party damage) - from lvl 10 to 11, chanter dealt: 18618 = 32.3% out of 57506 (total party damage) - from lvl 11 to 12, chanter dealt: 23821 = 38.4% out of 61959 (total party damage) - from lvl 12 to 13, chanter dealt: _7985 = 26.0% out of 30650 (total party damage) And currently he is my #3 damage contributor. Barbarian btw also made a step forward. First: when he got access to HoF; and second: to durganized dual bittercuts + decay. And on 13th level there is Dragon Leap which helps a lot with positioning. As for echo - I spammed that a lot during my very first playthrough (which I started on hard and than switched to PotD around lvl 7). I would say on that difficulty it is superb. But on PotD there could be placement problems, because even if you try to stealth a ranger's pet behind enemy ranks it either gets occasionally killed, stuck, blocked. So I find it closer to being situational now. So far, everything except for upscaled Battery Sirens was dying so fast it was no point to play with additional micro.

^ It's also interesting to know if [all] beneficial spells on them do have a shortened duration, or only those cast by them. It could be a nice subclass for a melee debilitator. Particularly thinking about mage slayer + skald combo. Dump MIG completely, max PER/DEX/INT and focus on spamming cc-invocations. Assuming that carnage hits do count as "melee crits". Another cc-skald variant could involve berserker. If inflicted allied damage is low enough, such skald could also crit his own partymembers for the phrase generation. Also if "more powerful frenzy" means that it gets a higher bonus to recovery speed or a bonus hit-to-crit conversion it would be even better. And if not... than skald-berserker could be built as a damage dealer instead, with high MIG and focused on something like Seven Nights. Also thinking of a plain and simple Devoted Sharpshooter with a [low penetration, high damage] ranged weapon. Can't wait to see the penetration damage coefficients.

Immersion

Hmm ok. My party is currently in Clîaban Rilag, so here is the fight with spores: link. And the fight vs druids is currently uploading. Edit #1: here it is: link. Edit #2: just did the Nalrend bounty: link. Btw the group of ogres outside of the cave is tougher than Nalrend's gang) Edit #3: just ding'ed level 11. You can see the total damage here.

My party have finally arrived to level 10. And what I did is: note down the total damage inflicted by each party member, right before hitting level 9, and once again right after hitting level 10. So, this is what I've got: I knew that Dragon Trashed is good, but didn't expect it to outdps my main. Actually they were going toe-to-toe, but during The Battle of Yenwood Field, chanter took a clear lead.

Yeap, the Helwalker, Nalpazka and wizard subclasses do appear slightly different in update #40 video in comparison to update's post. In case of Helwalker - he takes 5% extra damage per wound he has. So that Might bonus comes at a hefty cost. On the other hand this subclass is not limited to being melee. He can: - either grab 10 wounds in melee, re-dislocate to backline and use Long Pain - or be ranged from the start, and get wounds from one of our own AoE; especially provided that there is no longer health limit, and with such MIG he can cast even more potent healing spells (not to say DoTs..)

Getting access to wizard's fire spells is indeed not bad. But so far I see it as "not bad but not good enough". For example I would easily take druid storm spells over wizard fire ones as I find them much more useful; plus PoE1 was manageable without protection spells so I can live without them. Additionally being a priest of Magran does not grant a bonus to power level with fire spells, like in the case of wizard's subclasses. But yes, having fire spells of/on every rank is an argument.

Imho, Adra Dragon is easier than Alpine, because she: - is very slow, iirc she has move speed of 3 and could be stopped completely via Hobble. - has much lower melee dps: damage (58-88 vs 74-101), no deathblows/finishing strike... and Alpine is "dual-wielding" and attacking faster than the "single-wielding" Adra Dragon. On the other hand, she is immune to fire, has comparable in damage Dragon Breath but of wider (!) cone, and also has the Wing Slam which can insta-kill unfortunately placed squishies.

This made me think, what if there was a faithless priest subclass (or heretic/atheist/whatever) that loses the ability to cast Prayers and Symbols, but in return: - v1. can learn fighter's active abilities. - v2. can learn monk abilities and passives that do not use "wound" keyword. - v3. automatically learns Transcending Suffering. - v4. ? And if disposition for Radiance is a problem, the bonus could: - use 2xrational - be computed automatically as for NPC priests - use user selected as the new favored dispositions - just stay zero

It wasn't confirmed in a direct sentence, but it is implied by the combination of these two tumblr posts (one, two) with this progression table. There were "Bonus xth Level Spell" talents which would grant you an extra spell-usage. It's great, and I will be taking it (for Shinning Beacon/Shadowflame/Confusion probably); but it doesn't make you learn a new spell)

You got me Although paralyze aside (-40 def), blind (-20 def) and charmed (-25 def) effects can help with lowering deflection as well. And for early game there are: - sunbeam, chill fog, curse of blackened sight - the lover cried, whispers of treason, charm beast