MaxQuest

General - yes. From dps point of view: - Dual-wielding is favoured when your character has many full-attack abilities: Knockdown, FoD, Rogue Strikes, Barbaric Blow, HoF. Plus DW can achieve zero-recovery earlier. Although Barbarian (with maxed Mig/Int) can also make great use of Tidefall, due to wounding DoT. - 2H (with speed) is favored for late game dps on characters who use auto or primary attacks. Notably cipher can respec in the late game from DW to a 2H build. Plus he has bonus 0.4 dmg coefficient which scales nicely with extra base damage. - While 2H weapons (without speed) are mostly used for utility and effects they provide (Redeemer, Abydon's Hammer, Tall Grass, etc) Yeap. This is how 2H vs DW compare once you have achieved zero recovery: spreadsheet Bittercut gets outclassed against even DR, although it still keeps the benefit of dual damaging type.

My favorite are Darcozzi and Kind Wayfarer. Darcozzi because: - you get extra acc stackable with everything, which maybe quite important when in need to land a cc on a boss, or crit with a DoT. - if you go for a Darcozzi tank, you can ignore FoD completely, and basically save two talents immediately (FoD and it's upgrade). Kind Wayfarer because: - of extra healing duh. I'd also like to mention the talents that I find underwhelming: - The Black Path: quite many enemies are immune to frightened. Also it requires the paladin to take the kill, and if you have many specialized dps'ers in party the chance for it lowers. If he misses the opportunity to kill his first engager, the moment when party can benefit from enemies getting lower acc, is quite delayed. - Fires of Darcozzi Palace - the damage is too low. - Enduring Flames - afaik that is a fixed DoT and intellect reduces it's dps. Moreover because it is a non-raw DoT, Int reduces even total damage as the number of ticks increases, and more of it is eaten by DR. - Shielding Touch - oh common.

Good question. The most important thing is: recovery reducing effects are very weak, while there is only 1 of them. Yet they provide a very, very sensible benefit when they start to pile on. For example, let's take warbow: 5 frames (delay) + 45 frames (attack) + 75 frames (recovery) = 125 frames. If you equip only gauntlets of swift action (15%): 5 + 45 + 63.75 = 113.75 (or just a x1.09 action duration reduction) If you only used DAoM (50%): 5 + 45 + 37.5 = 87.5 (or just a x1.42 action duration reduction) On the other hand, if you amassed enough effects, especially from the same category (since they multiply), you could have: DAoM + Durganized Weapon + Gloves: 5 + 45 + 0 = 50 (or a x2.50 action duration reduction; or a x2.50 increase in dps) Another interesting thing, is that estoc and dw stilettos are amazing for heavy armored character, early in the game. See spreadsheet. And plate armor is especially good early as well. You have probably missread)Armor penalty only affects recovery duration. Reloading is the same, be your character naked or encased in plate. Imagine a 10 dex character: naked arquebus: 5 + 45 + 75 + 204 = 329 naked warbow : 5 + 45 + 75 = 125 plate arquebus: 5 + 45 + 112.5 + 204 = 366.5 plate warbow : 5 + 45 + 112.5 = 162.5Plate has increased action duration for warbow: 125 -> 162.5 (by 30%)Plate has increased action duration for arquebus: 329 -> 366.5 (by 11.3%) So generally, from auto-attack dps point of view your gunners don't lose that much from wearing heavy armor. Still through, it depends on what niche does a character fill in your party. For example I had a fire priest with an arquebus, but still used robe, because: - I wanted faster buffing - I was using that moon godlike as a bait for shades. (placing her closer to frontline than other squeshies, and setting the def/dr to be the lowest in my party). From pure auto-dps perspective, I think a flail + Larder Door would be better than a flail + non bashing shield, early on before you are able to enchant weapon quality and lash.Otherwise it all comes to what proc a shield has. Badgradr's Barricade has a natural synergy with deathblows rogue. Dragon's Maw Shield has synergy with carnage. 25% chance to cast Taste of the Hunt on Hit or Critical Hit - would be a 25% for a 55.8 dmg dot (@18 mig, 20 int); or, assuming it stacks with itself: 14 raw dmg per hit/crit. So consider that a bash attack for such barbarian inflicts: 1.24 * [13-18] + 14 (if taste of the hunt stacks with itself). Although main hand will attack slower, as it will be affected by single-weapon-penalty. And dual-bittercuts with corrode enchant / spirit of decay, would still out-dps it. The plus of dual-wielding is that you can achieve zero-recovery earlier in the game. And at that moment DW is quite ahead. Although later, two-handlers with speed enchant start to catch up. Especially Blade of the Endless Paths. If you have a quick-switching gunner, or a a character who after unleashing a few full attacks switches to supporting; it is not that necessary.But for a character focused on auto-attacking, like interrupt barbarian, blasting wizard, stormcaller ranger and especially cipher, it is indeed very important. Being able to increase your dps by x2.5 is huge. Dual-wielding Lady of the Pain due to Armored Grace + Outlander's Frenzy / Sanguine Plate proc. Without frenzy it could be: Dual-wielding ranger with Swift Aim. Dual-Wielding monk with Swift Strikes. In any case you want gauntlets of swift action and durgan enchants asap. Hmm. I've forgot about it.But I am 99% sure it will have same behaviour/suppression as Vielo Vidorio. Same thing happens.As JerekKruger already said "+x% Attack Speed" only affects recovery duration. Look: Hunting Bow (no speed): 5 (delay) + 30 (attack) + 50 (recovery) = 85 War Bow (no speed): 5 (delay) + 45 (attack) + 75 (recovery) = 125 Arbalest (no speed): 5 (delay) + 45 (attack) + 75 (recovery) + 180 (reloading) = 305 Hunting Bow (with speed): 5 (delay) + 30 (attack) + 40 (recovery) = 75 (13.3% action duration reduction) War Bow (with speed): 5 (delay) + 45 (attack) + 60 (recovery) = 110 (13.6% action duration reduction) Arbalest (with speed): 5 (delay) + 45 (attack) + 60 (recovery) + 180 (reloading) = 290 (5% action duration reduction) A Kind Wayfarer will use FoD a lot. Since it is a primary attack, 2H is not optimal.For a melee KW it is either DW sabres or [strike Hard + Shatterstar / Godansthunyr] or [Rimecutter + Wē Toki]. While a ranged KW would: - either opt for Dulcanale. If it is an aumaua, quick switching pistols could be an option. - or stack penetration stuff (vambraces + penetrating shot + wizard's Expose Vulnerabilities) and use blunderbusses. A melee Darcozzi imho is best used as a support or main tank. No FoD. Outwarn Buckler + Shame or Glory / Marking Cladhaliath / Strike Hard. A ranged Darcozzi would love Pliambo per Casitàs. 2 FoD uses plus Runner's Wounding Shot. You emphasize on alpha strike and providing extra acc to the party. Which one out of these four to use, depends on your party composition. Note-worthy is KW synergy with a chanter: - it is easier to finish enemies gradually reduced to low-hp by Dragon Thrashed. - Mercy and Kindness Followed Where'er She Walked, amplifies healing done by paladin as well. - Aefyllath + FoD + Scion of Flame. Shortly speaking: - Wayfarer is best suited for sturdy parties that gradually bring enemies down - While Darcozzi is best suited for low-hp and crowd-control oriented parties, especially if you have weapons with onCrit procs.

Agreed / and not quite. Imagine two parties: - 1. is able to kill bosses. Goes fast through trash encounters. - 2. is able to kill bosses fast. Goes through trash encounters slowly. It comes up to the trash/boss fight ratio, to determine which party on average will have an easier time. Yeah, I am biased towards ciphers) And have to mention that a dps cipher mostly shines if you already have a cc cipher in your group. On the other hand, even having one adds enough power to kill dragons. (link) I know their st-damage potential. And was considering one, along with monk and 3rd cipher, as mains for the next run. Although would probably change [We-Toki + Starcaller] to [Rimecutter + We-Toki/Barricade], with task of enabling deathblows delegated to party cipher. As MC, a rogue with The Merciless Hand can be decent.

Depends in what department If we look by amount of total damage a character can dish out in 30-60s, fire priest is indeed #1. If we look by amount of lazy per-encounter damage, than chanter, barbarian and cipher would get higher #. If we look by overall cc than it's a tie between cipher and druid. And for hard/boss fights wizard is joining the club. Also there is bonus utility in form of body-blocking, scroll using, buffing and healing. In my personal opinion, I'd order classes in following manner: - overall (without boss fights, rare resting): cipher >= dw_barbarian >= blasting-wizard >= monk >= druid >= chanter (past 9) >= paladin (past 13) >> paladin (pre 13) >> chanter (pre 9) - overall (boss fights): priest > wizard > cipher >= druid > paladin >= chanter >= monk > barbarian - overall: wizard >= cipher >= priest > druid > paladin = chanter > barbarian = monk I didn't include fighter, ranger, nor rogue. Because: - I haven't yet made a full play-through with a rogue. But imho they have two heavy opportunity cons: a). they are single target specialists, and there are many enemies on PotD, so one might take a class that also has some AoE; b). they lack hard cc. - Fighter has no important group-oriented buffs, nor auras. His role of tank is often superseded by paladin. While a dps fighter can be substituted by melee cipher. - Ranger - can be also superseded. Depending on party, it could be blasting-wizard, cipher, barb or monk. Barb really shines in trash fights. Barbaric Blow + HoF can literally reduce fight duration by half, allowing you to rest twice as less. Regarding accuracy: don't forget that carnage gets +1 acc per character level. Also any AoE stun/paralyze or brute force + painful interdiction do provide a huge bonus.

Yes. All categories are additive between themselves. While effects that belong to the same blue category are multiplicative. This is correct.

It is. Double Bittercut (with Spirit of Decay) is the best steady focus generation option for cipher. It is somewhat followed by Double Purgatory (depending on how often do you crit, and how often do you face slash-immune or high slash-DR enemies). Both of these are sabres. I would advocate against stilletos for cipher through. Another decent option is the Blade of Endless Paths estoc, due to it's 5 DR bypass, speed property and higher base damage. Would have to rerun the math through, in order to check if it is still out-classed by bittercuts + vulnerable attack.

Ah, Two-Weapon Style talent. That one belongs to DualWieldAttackSpeedMult category. And since it is the only one from it, it is applied additively with everything else. It does. Same recovery factor is used for all (melee and ranged) weapons. It is also used for majority of "regular" spells.

Yeah, bear and lion being so slow was quite a surprise. All animal companions have the same base damage: 11-17. Wolves get a bonus +2 to that. You can check this thread for more info. As for druids... Tbh I have never checked their base damage. Although according to wiki, they all have 11-22. Exception being Stelgaer: 21-33 And it also looks like Boar deals pierce damage. But again, I haven't test it. Similar story with fists damage. I have read, many times, that Novice/Transcendent Suffering is added as a flat bonus (which renders talents like Savage Attack a bit useless). While playing, my personal experience matched expectations. But I haven't tested it to be able to assert it and being 100% sure. More like 90% sure You might find this thread of use.

According to numbers in that spreadsheet, it does indeed appear so.The good thing is, those numbers are wrong. Just to be sure I have just frapsed a 10-Dex character dual-wielding stilettos: But the recovery line once it is shown, already appears heavily started. So action is either [4/5 + 20/21 + 15] or [4/5 + 19/20 + 16] delay/att/rec respectively. There is no way for recovery to be 24 frames. In any case I would advice using values from here: http://i.imgur.com/QqMIkII.png Because these were logged from the game itself. And frapsing is less exact (especially for quick weapons). 0.636s and 1.061s for stilettos would correspond to: - single_weapon: [4-5 delay + 19 attack_duration + 31.66 recovery_duration] - dual_wielding: [4-5 delay + 19 attack_duration + 15.83 recovery_duration] P.S. I know exactly, that there is a division by recovery factor (i.e. x/1.2), because that is how it is in the code. - There is no speed bonus for attacks made while dual-wielding.- There is speed penalty for attacks made with single-weapon. That penalty (Single1HWeapRecovFactor) is additive. You can check how it makes into the formula here. P.S. RateOfFireMult category coefficient is additive with other categories. Thus technically Sure-Handed Ila is multiplicative with Vicious Aim; and additive with everything else.

The first thoughts that come to mind: - 1. I don't quite see how 1 is countering B. - 3. Summoning can be also improved via extra talents. Like "chanter starts an encounter with 2 counters" or "chanter starts an encounter with 4 summoning counters". - 4. The difference is, that number of boss fights is quite smaller than number of medium + hard encounters. I would probably still vote for first option. But after reminding my Tyranny experience (cast buff1, cast buff2, cast buff3, cast buff4, cast buff5, engage, kill; repeat), I'll better keep my vote)

That's a good question. Looking at Dex vs Concentration, there is certainly a sweet spot on that axis somewhere, where 1 point in resolve becomes more important than 1 point in dex. And it's position depends on: - how often are you hit - are you ok with being hit - do you have any means to rise your concentration directly (buffs, potions) - do you have any cc means to make concentration a non issue P.S. When trying to solo Alpine Dragon, I had to take Potion of Spirit Shield, and actually increased Res from 3 to 5 on behalf of Dex. I was even thinking of increasing it higher, until I've decided, screw it! I am using scrolls. Confused/Paralyzed enemies don't interrupt)

Yeap. Sure-Handed makes part of Rate of Fire category. Besides ranged weapons recovery, it also affects recovery of spells that are internally considered as AttackRanged (basically majority of targeted spells) Not working, but I was thinking of that. If I'll have enough time, I actually could do such calculator. We'll see.

Without any other buffs or stuff that influences recovery, [DAoM + plate] and [no DAoM + naked] would net the same recovery duration.But yes, if there are any recovery reducing effects, the first variant would be much more favourable, as majority of coefficients do stack with DAoM multiplicatively (unless suppressed). That's because the stacking is neither pure additive, nor pure multiplicative.- alacrity (daom), speed (rain of goddah), gloves and durganized weapon enchant stack multiplicatively between themselves [1.5 * 1.2 * 1.15 * 1.15 = 2.38] - while sure-handed chant makes part of other 'speed category' (called 'Rate of Fire'), and it stacks additively with the above value [(2.38 - 1) + (1.2 - 1) = 1.58] Now substract from that 1.58 a 0.5 penalty for making an attack with single weapon. Plus substract extra 0.5 due to 50% recovery penalty, and you end up with 0.58 coefficient, which is enough to achieve zero recovery, because: recovery_duration = attack_duration / recovery_factor * max(0, 1 - 2 * speed_coef) Jerek explained it right. We can write the same thing in two ways: attack_duration = base_attack_duration / dex_coef recovery_duration = attack_duration / recovery_factor * max(0, 1 - 2 * speed_coef)or: attack_duration = (base_attack_duration / dex_coef) recovery_duration = (base_recovery_duration / dex_coef) * max(0, 1 - 2 * speed_coef) where: base_recovery_duration = base_attack_duration / recovery_factorSame thing. I've chosen the first, because that's how it is presented in code. The game doesn't stock base recovery values; recovery is calculated every swing based on total animation duration of last attack phase.

There seem to be no clear rules. But as a partially working rule of thumb you can use: - DoTs that come from AoEs, or weapon damage based wounding, do stack - The rest do not stack This would make it more consistent, yes. Part of me liked that wounding was getting higher damage; but yeah, it would definitely be more consistent. First time I've casted it was on 3rd play-through. And only because I explicitly wanted to check if it is indeed that bad) - Int does not increase total damage of DoTs with "fixed" damage, e.g: wounding (enchant from Tidefall, DiS, Persistence), Wounding Shot, Runner's Wounding Shot. (increasing int actually decreases their dps - and this is what I was marking as an inconsistency) - Int does increase total damage of all other DoTs. This would be a bit unfitting PoE1, because: - tick rate would have to be 1s; each tick going vs 0,08(3) of DR, which is not as clean/elegant/calculable-in-mind as 0.25 - this could result in lots of floating combat text, especially in case of stacking AoE DoTs But yeah, this probably could be done in PoE2, since there will be no flat DR, and maybe there would be some spam prevention that would aggregate displaying of multiple ticks. What kind of delay do you mean? As for Int, it already increases duration by adding more ticks, for all of DoTs. P.S. @Madscientist, you shouldn't post that link to nwn2db! That's such a time killer ))

I dunno how visual is that, but here you go: Base values: Sabre: 30 frames attack phase -> 50 frames recovery phase Dagger: 20 frames attack phase -> 33.3 frames recovery phase recovery_factor = 1.2 First option: dex_coef = 1.3 speed_coef = 0.15 - (0.40 - 0.15) + 0.2 = 0.1 note: pilferer gloves bonus is surpressed by durganized armor enchant Sabre: attack_duration = base attack_duration / dex_coef = 30 / 1.3 = 23.07 frames recovery_duration = attack_duration * max(0, 1 - 2 * speed_coef) / recovery_factor = 23.07 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.1) / 1.2 = 23.07 * 0.8 / 1.2 = 15.38 frames Dagger: attack_duration = 20 / 1.3 = 15.38 frames recovery_duration = 15.38 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.1) / 1.2 = 15.38 * 0.8 / 1.2 = 10.25 frames Second option: same as #1 Third option: dex_coef = 1.3 speed_coef = 0.15 - (0.20 - 0.15) + 0.2 = 0.3 Sabre: attack_duration = 30 / 1.3 = 23.07 frames recovery_duration = 23.07 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.3) / 1.2 = 23.07 * 0.4 / 1.2 = 7.69 frames Dagger: attack_duration = 20 / 1.3 = 15.38 frames recovery_duration = 15.38 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.3) / 1.2 = 15.38 * 0.4 / 1.2 = 5.12 frames Fourth (bonus) option: If you had Gauntlets of Swift Action in your #3 scenario: dex_coef = 1.3 speed_coef = (1.15*1.15 - 1) - (0.20 - 0.15) + 0.2 = 0.47 Sabre: attack_duration = 30 / 1.3 = 23.07 frames recovery_duration = 23.07 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.47) / 1.2 = 23.07 * 0.06 / 1.2 = 1.15 frames Dagger: attack_duration = 20 / 1.3 = 15.38 frames recovery_duration = 15.38 * max(0, 1 - 2 * 0.47) / 1.2 = 15.38 * 0.06 / 1.2 = 0.77 frames So for example in case of sabre, making one swing would go down from [5 + 30 + 50] frames to only [5 + 23.07 + 1.15]. Or ~x2.9 faster. Hope this will help you out

From one point of view, it's not a bug; as all spells and abilities are gaining extra +1 acc per character level, in order to compete with weapon accuracy enchants and talents. On the other hand, carnage uses weapon acc as baseline, right?

Had a summoner chanter with dumped Per/Dex, but high Mig/Int for buffing chants/scrolls/beloved spirits and summoning invocations in mind for awhile. But imho, summons are just too fragile. Was thinking about this one too. Still, if you need that extra acc, it's easier to throw a mass paralyze and thus dump enemy reflex to oblivion. Another possible way could be a cc-chanter. A 2/15/5/20/18/18 wild orlan offtank, focused on cc-invocations + scrolls, and either completely low-level chants or Aefyllath + Sure Handed, if you have many ranged (non-dot) dps'ers.

Surprise) That's why I was advocating for maxing might on Drawn-in-Spring/Tidefall/Perseverance Persistence users. * At least it doesn't directly benefit from deathblows. This has reminded of Average Joe build. Many considered pure fighter to be a quite weak. Surprisingly it beat many of martial non-kaedrin power-builds. Point taken

Humpf, wanted to write that it doesn't compute, but... just now have realized that attack duration of a weapon (which is hidden) also is decreased by haste and spell surge effects (in Tyranny). Anyway, sure it would be better if the game would communicate/show us that data On second thought it would be better if I'd name them non-dot lashes and dot-lashes. It's the fact that wounding is a dot, that allows it to benefit from might. I actually like this might thing. But I do agree, that high int should not reduce it's dps. - In terms of pure auto-attack dps, for characters in plate: yes. - In terms of pure auto-attack dps, for characters in light armor: not necessary. You can still reach zero-recovery even with Vulnerable Attack, so having [1h+shield] will catch up in dps, while also providing extra defences. - it is worth noting that it's not the sabres themselves being stronger options than other alternatives, but specific two uniques: Bittercut and Purgatory. For example take a look at Purgatory vs Edge of Reason. Hmm no. Not always. It's complicated even without taking wounding in consideration. In any case, it's important not only how hard you hit, but how often, and which weapon procs there are. Plus the amount of full attack abilities available to your class (as these do benefit from dual-wielding more than from melee 2H).

This is an internal variable related to animation. Attacks made with weapons of the same variation are animated the same; and hit/release the projectile at the same frame from the start of attack. Yeap I agree that knowing the per-tick damage is important, especially because of DR. I guess devs didn't make tooltips display the tick damage, because it quite varies depending on graze/hit/crit/int. While for total damage is enough to just multiply by 0.5/1.0/1.5/int_coef. Also similar approach is used in WoW which spent quite a lot of time to simplify stuff. (e.g: Corruption: corrupts the target, causing x Shadow damage over 14 sec.) I like the proposed variant. Alternative could be: v1. (combat log) Dot of Doom causes 45 fire damage over 10.5 seconds. (4.5 ticks for 10 damage) v2. (tooltip) Dot of Doom: - causes 45 fire damage over 10.5 seconds. - tick rate: 3s - 4 ticks for 10 damage, plus 1 tick for 5 damage. Let's take for example Envenomed Strike which is a poison. Currently we can 'use' it on a poison-immune target. Ofc poison won't be 'applied', and we would just lose one per-rest charge. Maybe the game should make it impossible to even 'use' poison on poison-immune targets? Like you can't even attack a party-member in Tyranny. But since I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, I marked it as just optional. Yeap, Tyranny did show you your recovery duration. It didn't show attack duration. But it was displaying weapon average damage, and it's current dps. In theory that should be enough to calculate attack duration... E.g: att_duration = avg_dmg / dps - recovery_duration But the data didn't compute: avg_dmg = 49.5 12 dps @ 3.2s recovery 32 dps @ 1.2s recovery 39 dps @ 1.0s recovery I agree, it is confusing. And tooltips using more intuitive but kinda wrong descriptions don't really help at that. I've called the system great; I like it, it doesn't have big balance-flaws like the one from Tyranny, and I don't think it should be simplified. But it definitely should be more transparent. And displaying attack/recovery durations for weapons on the character sheet is a great suggestion. - Non-DoT lashes (like all current elemental lashes) benefit from might indirectly. Might increases the damageRoll of weapon attack. And lash uses 25% of that vs 25% of related elemental DR. - DoT lashes (like wounding enchant-property) benefit from might both indirectly AND directly. The direct part is related to the fact that wounding is a damage over time effect and it's damage is increased by might. So for example you deal 60 damage to a zero-DR enemy. If you have 10 might, wounding would deal 15 damage. If you have 20 might, wounding would deal 19.5 damage. This post might be useful on how is lash damage calculated. Yeah. Something like: - Regular (scalable with Int DoTs): .- Might increases totalDamage via increase in dps (i.e. damage of ticks) .- Intellect increases totalDamage via increase in duration (i.e. adding extra ticks) - Fixed (DoTs that deal fixed amount of damage like wounding): .- Might increases totalDamage via increase in dps .- Intellect does not affect them at all (note: at the moment unfortunately int reduces dps of such dots) A yes, I remember that. Adding) Plus weapon status effects, and powder-burns lacking FoE area. 1. Depends what do we call a stat. If attributes like might, dex, int the answer is yes. If reloading duration is also a stat, the answer is no. Would be nice if you will provide an example. 2. On top of that. Example: weakened target gets -28 fortitude (-20 as mentioned in tooltip; and -8 from -2 mig and -2 con). Well said)

Indeed I am. I can hardly imagine other pros of ceiling approach, that would also not be applicable to no-ceiling. Tbh, I had to google what exactly a meaningful choice is in order to know that we discuss the same thing. And judging by that definition, I don't understand why the mentioned pro is exclusive to ceiling only. Makes a lot of sense. When you are going for 2nd, 3rd, 4th play-through, the joy of discovering new items is greatly diminished. It's substituted by planing and joy of efficient usage.

I also am not that into voice-over, but I do like her voice, and it fits Xoti as I see her perfectly. Allegra's voice is nice too, but it's more rogue-like. I'd like to see it as one of mc/hireling voice-sets.

Created such a thread here.

List of PoE1 stuff that in my opinion is inconsistent or potentially confusing. It would be nice to have it fixed, changed or improved in PoE2: 1. Modals Problem: - there are no clear rules which would state which modals are mutually exclusive - it is unclear why Galant's Focus is mutually exclusive with any of ranger's modals - it is unclear why Reckless Assault is not mutually exclusive with anything, why Savage Attack switches-off Cautious Attack, Defender and Guardian Stance - modals exclusivity table for reference: link Suggestion: - create modal categories and two category groups: .- Unrestricted (can have any number of modals of this group active at a time) .- Restricted (can only 1 be active at a time), for example: Defensive Self, Offensive Self, Ranged Mastery, Supportive Aura - this way it's clear, you can have one defensive modal, one offensive, one ranged (swift/vicious/twinned-arrows/powder-blast), one aura and any number of unrestricted modals enabled at the same time. 2. Lashes Weapon damageRoll goes against enemy respective DR. Weapon lash, is 25% of damageRoll that goes against 25% of enemy respective elemental DR. One could expect that lash has similar behaviour to regular weapon damage, just is multiplied by 0.25. But it doesn't deal MIN damage, meaning that it can be completely eaten by DR. 3. Weapon UI speeds Expected behaviour: - fast weapons are faster than average - average weapons are faster than slow Encountered behaviour: - slow 2h melee weapons have the same speed as average 1h melee weapons - fast ranged weapons have the same speed as slow 2h and average 1h melee weapons - weapons base speed values for reference: http://i.imgur.com/QqMIkII.png Problem: - creates confusion for the player, when he tries to evaluate relative efficacy of one weapon over the other. One will think that all fast weapons have the same attack rate. Suggestions: - rename fast melee weapons into "very-fast" - rename average and slow melee weapons into "fast" - this way all weapons of the same UI category will have the same speed. 4. +x Attack Speed tooltips Problem: - not a single talent, property or buff that states that it increases attack speed, actually affect it. - instead they reduce recovery duration Suggestions: - update all related tooltips to reflect the true state of things "+x attack speed" => "reduces by x% recovery duration" / "reduces by x% base recovery duration" - change recovery_factor from 1.2 => 1.0; this way x% at least will reflect a closer to reality reduction in action duration (provided there are no other similar effects active yet) Notes: - current attack speed system is actually great. It is deep, and in current "ecosystem" (items/talents/buffs/encounters at hand) quite is balanced. There is no need to revamp it, just to tweak a little; update tooltips and overall make it more transparent to the player (perhaps even showing system-calculated action duration) - reference: link 5. Damage over Time Problem: - DoTs do no benefit from Elemental talents like Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay and so on - DoTs do no benefit from Creature Slayer talents like Beast Slayer, Ghost Hunter and so on - The rule of thumb is that DoT DPS is not influenced by INT. Regular DoTs obey this principle, increases both their duration and damage, DPS remaining the same. But DoTs with fixed damage (like wounding shot) violate this idea. Duration gets increased by Int, total damage remains the same, and DPS is going down. - There is a lack of unambiguous rules regarding stacking. Wounding does stack with itself. Deep Wounds doesn't. There is no way to tell if Dragon Thrashed or Shining Beacon stacks with itself, until we test it. Mouseover tooltips display only one appliance active at a time; but they do stack. Suggestions: - DoTs should benefit from Elemental and Creature Slaying talents. Or at least explicitly stated in their tooltips that they do not. - DoTs with fixed damage, should not have their duration affected by Int. - DoTs should have an extra field in their tooltips. Stacking: .- Stacking: (unrestricted or) complete .- Stacking: (restricted to) one per caster .- Stacking: (restricted to) one appliance Current DoT mechanics for reference: link 6. Shield Bash Expected behaviour: - in terms of dps [1h + bashing_shield] is between [1h + shield] and [1h + 1h] Problem: - provided enough recovery reduction, [1h + bashing_shield] falls behind of [1h + shield] in terms of auto-attack dps (provided there are no special proc effects) 7. Immunities Problem: - When trying to apply Envenomed Strike to a poison immune enemy you get "misses with addional effect (Fort:Imm. = Imm..)" message in combat log. That is not that descriptive Suggestion: - When an effect is "missed" due to an immunity, combat log should state just so. - It would be nice to have all Ground, Poison, Diseases spells and abilities have it stated in their tooltips. - (Optional) If the target is immune anyway, maybe it would make sense to make it impossible to try to apply related effect, which results in a waste of charge/spellusage/casttime. 8. Self buffs that last until hit or crit Compare the following 3 wizard spells and their tooltips: - Wizard's Double: +40 Deflection until hit or critically hit (no duration limit) - Mirrored Image: +25 Deflection until hit or critically hit for 60s - Ironskin: +8 Damage Reduction until hit or critically (no duration limit) Problem: - inconsistency - wrong tooltips Reality: - Wizard's Double: +40 Deflection bonus; bonus disappears on first incoming hit/crit - Mirrored Image: +25 Deflection bonus; bonus is reduced by 5 on each incoming hit/crit - Ironskin: +8 Damage Reduction; bonus disappears on 10th incoming hit/crit Suggestion: - ... at least make tooltips reflect real spell effects and decay) 9. Elemental talents Problem: - as was already mentioned in #5, they do not increase damage of elemental Damage over Time effects - the second problem is related to inconsistent interaction with weapons that deal elemental damage: .- Matching elemental talent (e.g. Scion of Flame) increase damage dealt by pure elemental weapons (e.g. Firebrand) .- Matching elemental talent (e.g. Spirit of Decay) increase damage dealt by elemental/physical weapons (e.g. Bitercut corrode/slash). And they even increase the physical damage. (i.e. in case of Bittercut, Spirit of Decay increases slash damage as well) .- Elemental talents DO NOT increase damage dealt by physical/elemental weapons (yes, even if enemy has high physical, but low elemental DR, and elemental damage is dealt) (e.g. Durance's Staff, crush/burn) 10. AoE/FoE inconsistency If you have high int, AoE spells get increased area of effect. This yellow zone is FoE meaning that friendly targets inside it should not get hit. Problem: - Powder Burns disregards it's FoE zone. Allies standing in yellow part of the cone are still being hit. Note: - When the system uses a check for party member, Animal Companion should also pass it. Iirc, depending on patch, pets had problems with FoE zone of some AoE abilities. 11. Weapon procs and status effects Problem: - there is no way for a player to know exactly how long is the proc duration (e.g: the stun of stunning weapons; or prone of overbearing weapons) - game also doesn't communicate if duration is modified by hit quality or not Effects for reference: Will probably add more stuff as I remember it. P.S. Feel free to add to the list, I will append it.