MaxQuest

You are not wrong ) In a prolonged fight even a priest has potential to out-double their total damage (if damaging scrolls are put aside). The good thing about FoD paladins is their alpha-strike. In short skirmishes it's like you have an extra dedicated dps. While in boss fights he transitions into a tanky supporter.

Last time I got Swaddling Sheet, it was on lvl 14. You've got to comfortably get there, unless you have a priest of Random in your party

The main trick probably is to not run into another pack of enemies )) That's an interesting style. But I came to really love the 'stun-them-and-decimate-em' approach. Something with a stunning barbarian, interdiction/proning priest, borresaine cipher, pale-shades blasting wizard, and extra cipher for even more paralyzes/prones/saving charms. Disabled enemies just can't say no My interest in this topic, was partially related to trying to see if a chanter could take the place of main tank in such a group, the spot where I currently have an orlan pala in a variation of pillardin build. But I will probably leave it as is, as I will need the paladin for dragon tanking. We need a new order! Something something with Aefyllath-like effect on Flames of Devotions ))

From one point of view, comparing to dedicated dps'ers his melee dmg output can be neglected, so there is not that much incentive to go for Vulnerable Attack. From another, giving him extra deflection, while increasing his tankiness also gives more incentive for enemies to go after other team members. How about Critical Focus?

That's close to how I used him in my previous run Having two ranged ciphers, stormcaller ranger and ranged Pallegina. With Kana on offtanking and buffing duty, via Aefyllath, Sure-Handed and lots of scrolls. I need to say, ciphers were especially happy, due to extra focus and more damage on all the detonates and waves they were chaining. Basically it was a great, high alpha-strike, low-maintenance party. But there were few rough moments: - chanter being melee, required all backline coming closer - when he was engaged in the front; and some of the enemies were teleporting to squishies, there were moments when chosing to come closer would result in disengagement hits. - plate armor and below average dex, were resulting in slow scroll buffing I had an idea of making him ranged then and change places with Pallegina (once she alpha-strikes). But didn't think of Quick Switch. That's indeed close to an optimal build Just.. gonna think if I'm ok with extra supervision it requires.

It depends on the kind of target you are attacking Against Alpine Dragon, for example, the hammer will be useless. Against Llengrath pets, the hammer would be better; because they are immune to corrode and have higher DR against slash than crush. The beauty of Bittercut lies not only in Spirit of Decay, but the fact of dual damage type itself. Think blights. The beauty of Hammer comes from the free stun per-encounter. And 4 bonus might (although this is more important to other classes than rogue) No, annihilation adds 0.5 to the damage coefficient. For example: you have 15 might, superb weapon and crit with an annihilation weapon on a sneak attack. The damage coefficient is going to be: 0.15+0.45+1.5+0.5+0.5 = 3.1 This coefficient is multiplied by your weapon damage roll. In case of sabre, it is a random number from 13 to 19. That's your damage. And that's why rogue can deal solid damage with average might, and doesn't need annihilation that much in the late game when he has a weapon of high quality, but is heavy dependent on sneak attacks and deathblows. We'll need to test this. I was surprised to see that Divine Mark from Silver Flash didn't benefit from deathblows.

Yeah. Summons are great for solo runs. But in a well-put full party they are kinda lackluster... At the same time, hmm, indeed not. But a max-might moon godlike priest, scrolling paladin, or a barbarian with stunning weapons and revival scrolls, are somewhat close to that ^^ I can totally see how a a chanter can work as a sturdy dps frontliner with high AoE damage, adds offtanking and occasional cc/revivals. And your Drake Ambassador build optimally capitalizes on it. My gripe is that it is quite hard to come with other optimal ways to play him. I mean, not just viable, but optimal, when everything fits just well together. For example: I already have enough dps in my party, and I want to have Aefyllath and probably even Sure-Handed buffing my group. And that's where the non-optimality starts; if chanter is not going to deal damage on his own, rising Might is a no go. Also he either has to shift from off-tanking to main-tanking to free the offtank dps slot; or provide decent and reliable cc in order to save the backline against teleporting enemies. But, as a main-tank he will struggle to solo hold against harder enemies, read dragons. At least not with that fortitude and health-per-endurance. Also sending him away, will lead to chants being out of reach. So it remains to play him akin to a wizard control-freak. But can he beat the tankiness of such wizard, debuffing provided via Ryngrym spells, Miasma and Blackened Sight, and cc provided by Shadowflame, Slumber or Gaze of Adragan? I like him for the damage and buffs he brings to the group. For his ability to do stuff without much supervision. And I hate him for my inability to come with an optimal build around Aefyllath, and not Dragon-Thrashed.

Regarding starting post: I will disagree on damage department and lack of contribution to the bursting phase, just because of the Aefyllath chant. Provided every team member already has a lash, the chant adds 20% to the damage output of every team member. Also White-Worms/Seven-Nights on paralyzed or even better petrified targets is usually a quite pleasant experience. And will agree completely on Summons and Debuffs. "There are 10 mobs. After 12s there are 1-2 last one standing. AI casts a summoning invocation. And combat ends." The above scenario happened way to often with Kana. In a six-man party, summons come too late in easy-medium encounters. Are are close to useless in the dragon fights, dying like flies. And I have a strong impression that the more creatures there are close to the dragon, the higher chance for the dragon breath there is. As for debuffs, you pretty much nailed it with the "they're not on demand". There are many enemies in this game that have a set preference to go for the squishies. Cean Gwlas and monks that are teleporting to your backline from the start, need to be controlled asap. And.. cipher can do it. Wizard can do it. Priest can prone them or contribute via increasing defenses/withdrawal. But chanter.. right when the necessity is there, can't. He has to build the chants first. Tbh, I would salute a change that would let chanters start with chant counter already set to 3; but tweak summoning invocations, such that they require at least 10s of combat.

No, sadly not. I have no idea if this is working as intended. It's indeed unclear. But judging by tooltip, deathblows talent is likely to be overlooked: - because it either could be consistent with SA - or it should read simply "self: +100% damage"; because adding "+100% ranged" is redundant. Or... hmm, have anyone checked the final damage coefficient with deathblows when using ranged weapons, for the matter of stacking? I'm inclined to think that every talent that has "self: +x% damage" without mentioning ranged/melee part should work with all scrolls. Need to check the exact wording on Scaen Baby Sneak Attack and Two-Handed Style.

Exactly! The more I think about it, the more I find it most optimal to have two ciphers. One more damage oriented, another slightly more inclined for cc. Which is which, mostly depends on the weapon they are going to use: - Dulcanale? CC oriented, with maxed DEX/PER/INT. - Blunderbuss? Dmg oriented, with maxed MIG/PER/DEX. - Warbow? Dmg oriented, with maxed MIG/DEX, and maxed PER if it is Borresaine/Sabra Marie. - Bittercut? Dmg oriented, with maxed MIG/DEX - Purgatory? CC oriented, with maxed PER/DEX, high INT - Resolution? a mix between the last two options You got the idea. Worth noting that Estocs have the same attack and recovery durations as a sabre. (38 + 47 respectively) But how good are they? Lets do some math: To sumarize, what are current ways to increase focus generation?- Higher physical dps (obviously) - Non-raw lash - Aefyllath chant - Draining Whip talent - Talisman of the Unconquerable - Spark the Souls of the Righteous - Attacking petrified targets - Side damage from Detonate (unless it was fixed together with Amplified Thrust) Anything else?

My current MC is a melee cipher. And tbh having great fun with him. First: stats. I went with 16/9/13/18/15/7. (but I still slightly adjust them on the run) Initially I had higher base resolve, and started with padded armor and 1h+shield. But, quickly noticed that deflection doesn't make a big deal; and I better have higher DR against lightly hitting mobs, and just paralyze/charm the hard hitters. So I switched to plate armor and dw sabres. That way the character hits as often as if he would be naked but with a single weapon. Reason for sabres as the weapon of choice is their higher base damage, which unlike DR bypass, nicely scales with soul ship and weapon quality enchants. Not saying that estocs are bad, but you can view them more as early game weapons. While Bittercut, Resolution and Purgatory are the practically BIS options. As for race, I've chosen Pale Elf. First, due to the extra DR which improves the situation with the health pool. Second due to aesthetics and RP point of view. But hearth orlan should work nicely as well; especially if you will go for annihilating sabres. P.S. I've also added in my party a ranged cipher companion, which has the stats/weapons akin to my MC from the previous run. And watch them closely, competing for damage. So far, the melee one is slightly ahead, and that's provided that the ranged variant was quite a beast

Hehe, from the title and character appearance was thinking it's a wizard build. But hey, that's a better spellcaster than the wizard himself (if taking the fact that scrolls are consumables aside, that is). Btw, this archivist build can make great use of: Necklace of Fireballs, The Flames of Fair Rhîan and Bittercut. Also deathblows might work with Cloudpiercer's proc too

It was Quality, damaging, speed properties always applied only to the weapon itself. But, there is paladin's Coordinating Attack talent which afaik doesn't care with which hand the attack is performed. And knowing Obsidian, I wouldn't be surprised if some of that code would get re-used, for some non-consistent behavior. I was thinking about a barbarian with double Coordinating weapons attacking the same target as a paladin with Coordinating talent and Marking Weapon.

Well, lets theorycraft. At zero recovery, barbarian with that dagger and non-bashing shield will hit every 27 frames with his main hand. At let's say 16 DEX, it gonna be every ~23 frames. With various buffs and talents, we can expect him to have his acc at least by 15 higher than enemy's def/fort. With One-Handed Style, he is going to hit-or-crit 75.5% of the time. At 10% proc rate, barb will generate a firebug on average every 23/0.755/0.1 = 304 frames or once in 10 seconds, when attacking a single target with no carnage neighbors. Also we need to note that this is the worst case scenario, as the firebug needs at least two targets to bounce. So: - against 1 target + 0 carnage neighbors: 1 firebug hit every 10s - against 1 target + 1 carnage neighbor : 8 firebug hits every 5s - against 1 target + 3 carnage neighbors: 8 firebug hits every 2.5s And so on. With high Might and Scion of Flame, each firebug hit has potential to deal over 100 dmg. Having 800 burning damage proc every 2.5s, from just auto-attacking for sure is nice.

My understanding is that Reinforcing Exhortation and Shielding Flames both count as a spell bonus, hence only the highest applies. While Shielding Touch is coded to stack with pretty much everything (just like Inspiring Liberation). It also stacks with itself, and is being castable outside of combat, as reported in this bug report. Btw, while we are on stacking topic, how does stacking work when dual-wielding weapons with: - marking: +10 Accuracy granted to an ally attacking the same target - valiant: x1.2 Damage and +10 Accuracy when below 50 % Endurance - coordinating: +4 Accuracy and x1.25 damage when attacking the same enemy as an ally - vicious: x1.2 damage against against proned, stunned and flanked enemies. I.e. do these bonuses apply only to the weapon they are on, or they are counted as "character-wide" buffs?

- Race - I wouldn't advocate for a godlike on a main character with all those helmets around, unless you want to go for a full support role. In a party with many ranged characters I would advocate against Pale Elf as well. Because higher DR gives more reason to the AI to go after other party members. But with 4 melee, it should be ok. Another variants would be plain and simple: human, or boreal dwarf. These would be a better variant if you intend to go specifically for kind wayfarer/bleakwalker orders. - Order - Shieldbreaker/Darcozzi for support build (Breaker is better earlier. Darcozzi later). Kind Wayfarer / Bleak Walker for dps/triumphant builds. But playing a support as MC, might be a bit boring, imho. - Attributes - unexpectedly, but resolve is not 'extremely' important. You want first of all max Might/Int, for all the dmg, heals, durations, aura radius. Followed by decentish PER if dps, or CON if tank. Keep in mind that if you want to tank dragons with this pala, you better have high fort and reflex. Will and deflection are less useful. And with high INT, you will have decent will saves anyway. - Skills - personally, I bother with stealth no more. So it's athletics up to 5 (due to checks and little heal), lore up to 6/10 for conversations and scrolls and rest into survival for the bonuses. For the mechanics, let Kana max it, and if possible let him get 4 in lore.

Male tribute: Priest of Scaen/Berath/Magran:

I like Hellwolve's cipher and Commander's chanters P.S. Few more: Condemnating Priest: Relentless Druidess: Various:

Ten complete potd runs denote that you have quite an experience with this game, which probably surpasses that of majority here. You ask this question of worthiness. Yet, already have a quite firm opinion regarding current state of the class: "The only useful talent he has is carnage. Now seriously I think carnage is a complete waste of time.", not to mention that it's a quite sith way to put. So what's your goal? If you are really interested in community opinions, ok. The barbs worthiness is situational. From a certain point of view, comparing barb with rogue is like comparing cucumbers with tomatoes. In the end it depends on the kind of salad you want to make. For example, my current (potd, ironman) party consists of: warbow cipher, blasting wizard, ranged priest, melee cipher. paladin main tank, and a barbarian, because of the great synergy he has with the rest of the group. It's kind of obvious, but I will list a few interactions: - barb squishiness is not a problem due to two ciphers with paralyzes and charms on per-encounter base. Not to mention the overall amount of buffs available to this party - painful interdiction + threatening presence, greatly reduce enemy will/fort, allowing for easier and longer stuns, paralyses and charms - above + brute force: is not just more crits, but more procs from stunning weapons; + Dire Blessing - barb does greatly benefit from might buffs and DR debuffs - barbaric blow / heart of fury + petrification - above + reaping knives - dragon leap + double echo - dragon leap + chained amplified wave - barb high endurance/health + pain link, if I'll happen to need it - ability to switch from frontline to mid with tall grass during passage blockings - aditional weapon versatility: stunning weapons / unlabored blade + non-bashing small shield / unlabored blade + dragon's maw - etc With ciphers I already have enough of single target damage. Dragons are not a problem with double disintegration. For ogre druids there is charm. And for melee ogres/eyeless there is paralysis vs will. So all I needed was lazy AoE vs hoards of easier mobs. Thus the last spot went to barbarian over rogue. And because the party is cc-heavy, it also went to barbarian over monk, as that one could potentially end often starving on wounds. TL.DR: in certain party compositions, barbarians actually are worthy.

Look how it works: By default, cipher gets 0.35 of physical (melee or ranged) damage dealt as focus. Draining whip increases this coefficient by 33%. So it is 0.35 * 1.33 = 0.4655 Having Talisman of Unconquerable increases that gain furthermore, in multiplicative manner: 0.35 * 1.33 * 1.25 = 0.5818 When you attack with a weapon that has non raw-lash, all post-DR damage is summed up, and multiplied by that coefficient. That's your focus gain. Examples: (against target with 5 corrode DR and 20 slash/freeze) - v1: Bittercut with corrode enchant: 26.5 - 5DR = 21.5 Corrode + 5.4 corrode | post-DR total is 26.9 - v2: Bittercut with freeze enchant: 35.2 - 5DR = 30.2 Corrode + 3.8 freeze | post-DR total is 34.0 - v3: Bittercut with freeze enchant: 21.5 - 5DR = 16.5 Corrode (MIN) + 0.4 freeze | post-DR total is 16.9 5.4 = (26.5 - 5)/4 or 26.5/4 - 5/4 3.8 = (35.2 - 20)/4 0.4 = (21.5 - 20)/4 | * note that although it displays MIN, lash damage doesn't have that minimal of x0.2 DR bypass Notes: - DoTs and raw lashes do not generate focus - Aefyllath chant does increase focus gain

That's sad... If it doesn't trigger extra attacks, and just amps the next one, it's usefulness is greatly reduced. And I bet it doesn't even stack with itself, if there was several procs on carnage hits from a single swing... Interesting why... I remember clearly that FoD from Vent Pick was triggering Pallegina's Vielo Vidorio on my previous run.

^ We Toki and stunning Cladhalíath are awesome

As an offset weapon for a main-tank paladin. First set: Shame-or-Glory/Strike-Hard + Outworn/Little Saviour | this set is used when tank is near party on easy/medium encounters. Second set: Steadfast + Old Gerun's Wall | when sending pala to solo tank dragons.

Usually I'd say something with stun or prone on crit. But at that low PER, and with a medium shield, it should be a more guaranteed effect like disorienting, so: Strike Hard followed by The Vile Loner's Lance. Another route would be to go for marking weapons; or spelltongue.

I like the idea, but not quite sure if spelltongue is needed. Due to DW, speed enchant and frenzy, you are already at 2.096 speed coefficient. Enough to compensate for 1.1 from durganized hide armor. Sure, the buffs prolongation is good. But if you have a priest (and with that low acc, you probably have one), you will have Salvation of Time available in case the fight goes for longer than usual. As for offhand weapon Vent Pick might be a viable alternative. Theoretically it's full attack proc should also lead to more firebugs. ----------------------- Another variant would be to go for Unlabored Blade + Small Shield. The benefit of it is, that at zero recovery you will attack with your main hand every n frames, and not every 2xn (n = 27 at 10 dex). Practically doubling your firebug rate. Also you will get sweat bonuses in the form of extra def from the shield, and even more if you will take Weapon&Shield and OneHandedStyle talents. The only downside is that you will have to take Gloves of Quickness instead of vambraces, such that: 1.33 x 1.2 (speed) x 1.15 (gloves) x 1.15 (durganized shield) = 2.11