MaxQuest

Hmm, yes. But to avoid the emerging issue with low health, it's optimal to let Shod-in-Faith and Silver Tide deal with gradual endurance loss due to enemy AoE or some low-hitting mobs, and to preemptively cc the bigger threats. Yes, yes, I know,.. I am guilty of this. Of preemptiveness. You are right. Preferred playstyle and the way you approach signature fights, highly affects equipment selection and stat spreads. I never even casted Wild Leech, and probably used Psychovampiric Shield 2-3 times top. Mostly relying on hard-cc for survival, plus high-dps to make fights shorter and get more value from the aforementioned cc. Hmm, maybe not. It's just an urge to over-optimize things; followed by a personal preference in giving (sometimes over-)extended responses/replies. P.S. I am not forcing either. As usual one listens to all opinions, but decides what to do himself.

Nope. PotD: increases enemy accuracy and defenses by 15; it increases their endurance by 25%; adds more enemies, and substitutes some of them with a more powerful version (e.g. ooze -> greater ooze) Upscaled content: increases enemy level by 3 (this indirectly results in +9 acc/defenses), and additionally iirc it adds +2 to their stats.

Tidefall is a great weapon. But in terms of focus generation Blade of the Endless Paths is still the best 2H option (for cipher), due to the following reasons: - 5 extra DR penetration will increase your average dps by ~10-20%. (yeah Great Swords have dual damage type, but there is only one single non-boss enemy type that has pierce DR higher than it's slash DR by a value of 5, specifically Rain Blight; as for bosses it's Adra Dragon and Turisulfus, but cipher is not going to come close to them; he will hit and use as focus batteries their minions instead) - botep has speed enchant, it allows achieving 0-recovery so much easier, and that last extra mile has great increasing returns. Especially if you are going to wear plate armor. Also there is a thing to say about Tidefall's lash. As Boeroer already mentioned: it doesn't generate focus. Also it's best used on a character with maxed Might. Because it scales twice with it. First it takes 25% from your weapon hit (modified by might). And then, being a DoT it get's increased by Might again.

The first things coming on mind are cipher with carnage and barbarian with chants. But I guess getting multiple class signature stuff won't be allowed? If so than a cipher with golden gaze and just enough wizard levels for blast and penetrating blast for the uber focus gain.

It would. That's why you don't let your melee cipher get hit too much. And give Shod-in-Faith to other frontliner, with maxed Mig, Int, low-deflection and high health pool. Usually it's a monk or barbarian. On a side note, Wound Binding is increased by Might and is usable in combat) Moon godlike, shod-in-faith'ed barb/monk with high Mig/Con/Int can just stand and stand and stand alive.

Yeap, it scales. As for base damage: Level 16 hireling: 80 Level 16 MC: 80 + bonus_per_disposition * (favorable_dispositions - negative_dispositions) Iirc bonus_per_disposition = 16

You are thinking in right direction) I understand your point of view, and basically agree from where we are standing. But I'd like to paraphrase your statement a little, and provide a second PoV: 1. "There is little point in making a melee Cipher if there is a better alternative for that melee spot/niche in your party." For example I already had a ranged cipher, and had a right-flank spot empty on the frontline. I could take monk/rogue/fighter/cc_wizard_offtank/chanter. What I mean by this example, is that I wasn't comparing melee cipher with ranged cipher, but with other frontliners. Now about focus generation. You make a completely valid point about focus generation and provide an ok solution for early game survivability: 1. [Hatchet + Shield] I just wanted to add that there are two more decent alternatives for the early game (I tried all 3) 2. [Estoc/DualWielding Sabres + Plate, preferably Sanguine] + Mental Binding those who hit you 3. [Estoc/DualWielding Sabres + Plate, preferably Sanguine] + use damaging powers; and let your ranged cipher Paralyze the enemy who hits your melee cipher, if it is his target, or Treason otherwise. The increase in damage, was leading to substantial increase in focus. I started with a shield too, but having a higher paralyze uptime ended up in more survivability gain than +10/15 deflection. Plus debuffed deflection (-40 malus) on the enemy was leading to scoring more hits/crits, leading to even more focus gain.

A fighter will indeed outdamage cc-cipher. But not damage-oriented cipher. Auto-attacking is merely a third of this damage output, while powers are the main source. Mind Lance, Echo, Silent Scream, Amplified Wave and the best of them: a well placed Detonate (which although has a short range is easy to use by a melee cipher, especially when body blocking a door passage and most of enemies are on the other side).

No. No it isn't. And to add to the synergy list it can also work nicely with beams. Iirc those hit every second just like the walls. And perhaps White Worms, depending on number of corpses.

I like ciphers being specialized. - Either he focuses on AoE damage powers and casts CC mostly on emergency. - Or he is a cc-specialist who covers your other dps'ers, plus indirectly amplifies their damage, due to stuns/paralyzes reducing enemy defenses. melee cc: - 10/10/18/16/16/8 Boreal Dwarf with BotEP - 10/8/18/18/16/8 Pale Elf with BotEP - 10/8/18/19/15/8 Boreal Dwarf with Dual Purgatory or Bittercuts melee dps: (works best if has his ass covered by a ranged cc-cipher; and his targets chain stun/paralyzed) - 18/8/17/12/17/6 Boreal Dwarf/Pale Elf/Hearth Orlan with Dual Bittercuts melee dps: (if left without cc-support; not recommended) - 18/10/15/10/15/10 Boreal Dwarf/Pale Elf/Human with Small Shield + Rimecutter/Purgatory/Bittercut (need to run attack speed math on this) melee dps: (there is also a dumped-INT variant, when you focus exclusively on echo beaming, mind lance spamming and low-radius detonate) - 18/12/18/15/3/12 Boreal Dwarf/Pale Elf/Human; DW or 1H+Shield depending on party composition P.S. Until you get your BotEP/Purgatory/Bittercut/etc, going for plate armor + dw-sabres (enchanted with lashes asap) proved to be the most efficient (and knockdown'less) way.

Hireling Priest's Holy Radiance base damage is affected only by his character level. Specifically: lvl 1: 30 lvl 2: 30 lvl 3: 30 lvl 4: 40 lvl 7: 50 lvl 10: 60 lvl 13: 70 lvl 16: 80

Confirming, that each CW's procced DoT's tick will go against 1/4 of target's fire DR. No. The last tick might deal less damage, if the duration is not divisible by 3.Also CW DoT's damage is affected by Might, so it can be greater than 5. Combusting Wounds are no longer working that way. For the sake of completeness: - CW_Spell was slightly bugged prior to v3.02 (although I don't remember what exactly already) - CW_Spell was completely broken in v3.02 (no procs at all) - CW_Spell was fixed in v3.03 That's how CW works now: ------------------------ As for OP post: - Kalakoth's Minor Blights + Blast/Penetrating Blast + Combusting Wounds, is the main combo that comes to mind. - Others are related to debuffing one defense with spell_1, and then strike with spell_2 that targets that defense. E.g. target has low will, but high reflex; so you can Call to Slumber first, and follow up with Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst, Kalakoth's Freezing Rake or simply Fireball spam. - Also quite notable is the use of stunning/paralyze spells in combination with Sacred Immolation/Dragon Thrashed/White Worms. In case your paladin or chanter lack the accuracy, this will provide them a huge bonus. - If your wizard is a cc-offtank with a shield you could use Dimensional Shift + Ectopsychic Echo; and Arcane Veil + Defensive Mindweb - And lastly there is Gaze of Adragan. Want to make the most out of your barbarian's Barbaric Blow or Heart of Fury? Gaze first and enjoy the carnage (since petrified targets take x2 the damage). Or maybe you'd like to double your cipher's focus generation?

^ Sincerely haven't ran the math on this. But I guess it really depends on the target's DR and if it's paralyzed/unconscious or not (such that thrust could reliably keep proccing). Another factor to take in consideration is if rogue needs that extra tankiness that shield provides, and if there are no other items with higher priority for the mold, or even a second character who could wield that second Drawn-in-Spring.

I guess rogue has quite a wide array of optimal builds: v1. melee: (if having his targets chain-paralyzed) - 18,12,18,19,3,8 (with Drawn-in-Spring + Barricade) (or dual Drawn-in-Spring as suggested by Dr <3) - 10,13,18,19,10,8 (with Battleaxes, 2xRimecutter or 2xWeToki depending on armor and how close to zero-recovery he is) v2. melee: (relatively tanky) - 10,13,18,19,3,15 (with Battleaxes, Rimecutter + Small Shield) v1. ranged: (if has his ass covered and his targets chain-cc'ed) - 18/7/19/12/18/4 (Dulcanale/Pliambo per Casitàs + Quick Switch + Scrolls) (5 Scrolls of Insect Swarm + Deathblows should be enough to finish pretty much any fight) v2. ranged: (relatively tanky) - 18/16/19/19/3/6 (Persistence or blunderbuss-switching) If your cipher is a dedicated cc'er and has enough time/focus to keep your rogue unharmed, you can give v1 a try; otherwise go for tankier builds.

There are videos on youtube, of: - cipher with antipathethic field + whispers of treason - moon godlike monk with Torment's Reach soloing that cave too.

If you can AoE-paralyze those who come at your rogue, not only he will start surviving, but also will be critting a lot more often, and might go for battle-axes route. Annihilation property plus getting sneak-attacks/deathblows will allow you to lower your might score, and spend the free attribute points elsewhere. I am not advocating specifically for this build through, I just want to point that it completely depends on your party composition and the crowd-control at hand. Also just to note: besides dw and ranged, there is also an auxiliary option of going for 1h+barricade. If you have enough cc to keep enemies at bay, and can drop res/con in the favor of dps. Or if you have a chanter with Sure-Handed/Aefyllath. My favorite is having 3 melee and 3 ranged. frontline: res_tank/sup + fort_tank/offdps + dps (or cc) backline: cc/dps + sup/per-rest-aoe-dmg + cc (or dps) And if I need more bodies for blocking, I can always paralyze or confuse enemies for my advantage. Or summon Iridescent Scarab Figurine.

Ehehe, that's why I always had two ciphers in my party. And the sole reason why I wasn't taking a 3rd one is because I want to experiment with other classes too I can't disagree with a logically true statement I'd just look for the convenience in tweaking rogue's other facets, like elusiveness or hard-cc. I can't help, but imagine the rogue being a swindler, a juggler, an acrobat, a cheat. He lives on the edge. And he's not buff. Agility and tricks up his sleeve are what make it for him.

I yet again agree with you that rogue needs some minor tweaks. Many times I was considering taking a rogue in party, and every time he was denied a spot, simply because there was some other class that could do the same job plus be more versatile. On PotD, as a rule of mine I use: every of the glassier companions should have at least some emergency hard crowd-control ability to stop his other mate from being swarmed. Ciphers, Wizard, Priests, even Druids have it. And they all can dish out considerable amount of damage. Hard CC is the thing that rogue lack for me. This leads to: - make Sap available earlier (for example starting from lvl 5 or 7) because that stun is needed. - buff Smoke Cloud. Add a stronger cc to it. E.g. instead of Distraction, let it inflict a random of [Distraction, Blind, Confusion] rolled for each affected enemy separately. - using Coordinated Positioning could provide a short duration buff to rogue's reflex and deflection (let's say +10 for 8s or +15 for 5s) Plus I strongly agree on the suggested: While I specifically disagree on:

Afaik base damage is still the same. Iirc I made a few tests in v3.01 and got the same values as you back in 2015: Stats presented on gamepedia are also up-tp-date. While for their attack/recovery durations you can check this table: Scaling was changed to: +5 accuracy, +0.2 to damage coefficient and +2 DR bypass every 3 levels. (i.e. at levels: 4/7/10/13/16) While their base DR bypass was set to 5. What else... I don't remember which talents exactly were buffed, but current values are: Vicious Companion: +0.15 dmg coefficient and +3 DR bypass Predatory Sense: +0.5 dmg coefficient Marked Prey: +0.2 dmg coefficient

Kinda late reply, but... I would recommend using ILSpy instead of dotPeak. Tried both and the former was producing a more readable code. 1. This very forum, but info is spread between multiple discussions 2. Do you refer to these spreadsheets?: one, two, three, four. (note through: the first two have a bit inexact attack/recovery durations)

Confirming. If you perform a full-attack (such like Barbaric Blow) you will first attack with your offhand (this attack will have zero recovery). Then it will be followed by main-hand swing (and this attack already has recovery).

Rumble, rumble. They could add this change to the update notes. I am 100% sure this talent was adding just 2.5 to starting focus in the v2.03. And had to recheck all past notes for that change. (and it's not there)

I'm always glad to inspire I was most curious on how will you handle the Adra Dragon. Wounding coupled with Scrolls of Insect Swarm (plus optional Tanglefoot) indeed do the job nicely.

This might be only the first impression. There is actually more than one optimal (not just viable) build for most of classes. It all comes to what will complement your party most.

In context of Pillars, my favorite class would be Cipher. Reasons being: + nice concept. I like character having various mental powers and stuff. + is mechanically comfortable + easy to incorporate in party; and has nice tactical utility in addition to dps + powerful enough on all stages of the game + nicely integrates into the game world Least favorite / reasons: Paladin: - RP. I have a feeling that going a paladin main will make me feel conflicted when it will come to chaotic options (which I usually prefer over the lawful ones) - Stereotype. Many years of wow (vanilla + BC), made me believe that it is quite hard if even possible to balance such a hybrid like a paladin. And unless he is outright OP, he will lack something that a specialist class has, something that will let a player with enough game knowledge win against him in 99% of cases. + But yeah, they are almost always welcome in a party. Barbarian: - RP. I can't play a character who has supposedly has low intellect and mindlessly charges into the fray. - Party: he shines most in encounters vs many easier mobs; encounters which by definition are easier than boss fights. When you add one in a party you have to think how to complement/support them, and if you don't weaken your party in harder encounters. Warrior: - Party: unless the warrior is your main; you have to think what does warrior adds to your party. Any buffs? Tactical Auras? Maybe some unrivaled boss tanking? But unfortunately it's not that much. Rogue: - Party: requires much babysitting. Doesn't have hard cc. Druid: - Party: opportunity cost. If I put one in backline, I would have to kick cipher, wizard or priest. I always want to keep first two. As for priest, he has potential to both out-dps and out-support a druid. As for frontline, he is squishy, and it comes to matter of convenience where something like barb will just help clear easy and medium encounters faster; while for harder fights I have enough of answers already. Basically I avoid taking warrior/rogue party members, although I could main them. And I avoid maining paladin and barbarian, although I am ok with having them in the party. As for druid I just struggle to find a free spot for him, so he could complement the party better than other alternative classes.