ottffsse

You have zahua? Great! Build him like juggernaut, position him behind the enemies (opposite direction from your party's attack position so if you engage the bounty from the right side of map position zahua left and stealth him). Now send tank to aggro and buff everyone like you would in a dragon fight. This is a big drawn out fight so buff. Once everyone is engaged zahua should have also buffed up a bit with potions and food, take a potion of deleterious alacrity and wipe the priest and druids in order from the back. Worked for me. Zahua single handedly koed the priest and druids while basically. I had to support his endurance though with several endurance pots. This was at level 13 or 14 on potd. Items like swaddling sheet or white Crest armor also help at the start to knock everyone off with the wave. Then proceed to debuff their will saves and defenses, painful interdiction and cast confusion from a wizard. Meanwhile zahua is harassing the priests forcing them to stop buffing and attacking your other toons. Once a few priests go down the druids start to go at zahua and also die.

Hi, I did not solo at early levels but my tip would be: 1.) wear brigantine or plate the best you can get. 2.) use medium shield (or small buckler) and a + accuracy weapon like a rapier. 3.) get arcane veil at level 2 and fast runner at level 4 and use food to increase move speed to split pull. (sword and shield is a good option too until about level 8-10 where you can go dw) In most difficult early encounters like bears or sporelings where you can't run you use arcane veil, follow up with fan of flames multiple times and the lvl 2 confuse spell. Reposition switch to scepter and finish off at range. (you can kite 1-2 enemies at close quarters but not a pack of bears or sporelings). With 1 or 2 weak enemies you can also finish them with a rapier. In temple of eothas do the same standing behind @ doors with every group you pull and at lvl 2 split pull the shades (takes a lot of patience unless you are a pale elf here) Getting remgrands cloak helps too for the temple in the gilded vale Inn chest. Rest after your fan of flames reserves are exhausted you need them to dps solo the groups. You want a scepter to kite fight ranged the skulder king group on the second level. Raedric you are a noble anyways and might as well support raedric as that is lawful (and don't start a bloodbath in the castle). Get the figurine if you so choose from the gv armor merchant and then you should have no problem with the shades in the stronghold and maervald. Just by taking say arcane veil and scion of flame you can dish out lots of dps fast on fan of flames with high might and later fireball.

Bounties can be kited solo except the ogre druid in the cave and the troll in lower level of cilant lis. As for group and stuff like brynlod or magram just pick a good position to pull the enemies. Fight before from the right side of the ruins with brynlod and pull the enemies into a bottleneck. Buff your party with a priest while your tank goes ahead and tank and engagement battle starts. Then Unload cc on them with a wizard or druid as they cluster around tank. And go from there. A secondary off tank like monk or rogue can be sent around main enemy lines to their casters to distrupt and kill the enemy mages priests and druids. In my party pallegina tanked while maneha off tanked the fighters. Zahua was sent to ko the enemy back flanks. Priest buffed everyone. Cipher and wizard cced and then switched to aoe damage.

Endgame it's not that a cipher can't out dps anyone like Ranger barb etc it's that you have abilities on cipher to buff the overall effectiveness of everyone like mindweb and reaping knives plus you generally want to time parasite as well for the longer battles. But after a few blunderbuss shots you have 160+ focus and can usually immediately follow up with 2x amp wave and that is usually enough to end most fights. That's a lot of damage. But by that time your other party members like Ranger barb and monk are pretty damn effective at what they do too and will deal a big percentage of the damage. (not so in mid game before lvl 11 and by then a dps cipher has a huge lead in total damage done already as long as you don't overrest for your wizard / druids).

You can calculate it out based on what you need. You need a final sum of 2.0 to have zero recovery. Any thing more is wasted. Right now it is 1.2x1.2 so 1.44. Durgan would be (on both weapons) 1.2x1.15x1.2x1.15 so 1.9! Outlanders French is another x 1.25 on top Frenzy from sanguine plate x1.33 Potion of delirious alacrity x 1.5 (In all cases above multiply not add!) Now two weapon style is additive so you have +.20 if you have that talent Vulnerable attack you also subtract -.20 Dex bonus is added so around 18 dex is +.22 etc whatever that modifier is. Armor penalty you subtract so a plate would be -.50 If the plate us durganized it is .15 less than its original value so durganized sanguine plate is -.35 for example. First multiply then add / subtract. Durganized sanguine plate is best on dual wield rogue as you will get crit but then go into frenzy with the 1.35 multiplier to speed. Let's you ignore taking two weapon style and outlanders frenzy basically and still getvto 0 recovery consistently.

If you are OK to micro your rogue in addition to your casters yes go dual wield rimecutters or unlabored blade + x whatever (if you have a barb barb should use unlabored blade for carnage fire bug thoug). But if you just want to point the rogue the enemies mage squishy back line and let him to his thing go drawn in spring or one fast speed weapon like rimecutter + durganized shield like bardrakher or little saviour way less micro that way with weapon + shield setup. Because a DW rogue no matter how well buffed will get into oh **** moments.

I always cleared that ambush and the key ambush in the mines with a rogue shadowing beyond. I would recommend door tanking I guess and hope a lesser spirit engages you first before a siren so you have time to build up cc. If that fails you have to try to run past the enemies and kite and hope a shadow does not abduct you or stun you. Watch out for slow fireball traps on the panels if you time right they can hit the enemies.

Damn, and I always thought that wounding deals 25% from the final, post-DR damage...Just checked ingame, and the results show that it takes x0.25 of pre-DR damage, and moreover, it also multiplies that value again with your might modifier. (as for int, it only increases duration without affecting total damage) If only it would generate bonus focus... Damn. Thanks for reminding me. I was going to give GM the Persistence hunting bow. But now, why bother. It's a good bow on cipher but only if you have 22+ might and penetrating shot. Nope GM has low might needs higher base damage weapons or stormcaller. But leadspitter works OK on her with pen shot and a +3 might item. Sabres work too if she is made s+s.

Best weapon for a barb may be strike hard (durganized) + Unlabored blade as that way it is really easy to get to 0 recovery. Or spelltongue + Unlabored blade. And rheingold also forgot drawn in spring dagger (highest damaging single hand weapon).

Great armour : Wayfarer hide Sanguine plate Those 2 are top for a barbarian. Others are: Vengiatta rugia Blaidh Golan Gwisk glass Tidebringer robes (white crest armor and coat of ill payment) Coat of ill payment less so now though as retaliation got nerfed) I don't really use scales or half plate but if you can get to 0 recovery in those while wanting protection the best are Pikes pride Osrics breastplate Shields : Little savior Baradher *spelling that shield with bash you get on first level of durgans battery. Outworn buckler *if you have a spare ingot and a paladin in the party.

Great work!

I consider liberating exertion must on any paladin personally. Same with reviving exertion. Lay on hands is good. For me the choice is between lay on hands and reinforced exertion (+, deflection) usually. I have to pick one of those or no aegis of loyalty. Actually if you have a priest you don't need aegis.

Have one cipher be like backlash bedlam. Gm can do that it's not optimal but it works as a debuffer. Definitely slower than a priest or wizard. Just dominate everything. Zahua and Maneha and even Eder have decent stats. It's the spellcasters that are a bit messed up. I actually turned aloth into a skaen priest lol with ie mod. As he had better perception and dexterity than durance.

^that is pretty spot on. Once you find your wizard cipher everyone else being able to generate their own haste through alacrity or time parasite or outlander frenzy or you have enough potions of daom you can take something like vulnerable attack on pallegina to help her do a bit more damage in melee auto attacks. Instead of vidorio. Or take vulnerable attack last at level 12 / 14. The upgrade critical focus is also a good late talent choice but the list above is the essentials and the recommended order is very good for most parties.

Yeah Whispers is pretty op on cipher since revision. With with 3.2 amp thrust will get the nerf though I don't know about detonaTe. I ran a ranged cipher in 3.1 and had great success only my barb was catching up to me in damage but that was late game and Maneha still did not catch up. I used death godlike with arms bearer talent and coil of resourcefulness to quickswitch opening gunshots without the actual talent. Endgame my weapons were 2 superior durganized lead spitters and rain of godagh field as my last weapon after the opening gun salvo. Sometimes I switched to persistence though which was really nice too. I played mostly at 33% XP nerf as I did want to try out the level 15/16 powers before the last fight. Abilities were: 1: Whispers, soul shock, mind wave 2: recall agony, mental binding, amp thrust, psychovampiric shield 3: pain link, dominate, echto echo 4: pain block, going between, body attunement 5: detonate, borrowed instinct, tactical meld 6: disintegrate, amp wave 7-8: all You can skip stasis shell tbh and take another lower level quality debuff spell like eyestrike or flanking foes if you have rogues. Talents were : 2: biting whip 4: arms bearer 6: outlander frenzy (later replaced by bloody slaughter once I got time parasite). 8: penetrating shot 10: marksman 12: draining whip 14: weapon focus adventurer 16: I hit lvl 16 just before battle with end boss did not bother to lvl up. Had a priest and Pali in the party to offset the need for accuracy talents + used survival bonus to rest 4 accuracy vs enemy type. And also integrated a wizard into the party to debuff enemies will saves so my cipher always hit with Whispers or mental binding.

Alpine dragon unless you are level 14+. You really have to prepare for that fight and I have never done it on potd without cheese tank distraction tactics but I have always done it at level 11 / 12. Magran and brynlod bounties are no joke either. I wonder if anyone soloed them. Spirit of od nua can also be tricky, also any fight with adragans Can turn nasty if they get their returning storms and dominate off and you don't have priest and are sleeping.

ottffsse first thanks for posting the build. My goal for the character is very similar to your description above. I'm not trying to create a self buffing melee grunt. I wanted to create a fully functional wizard with CC and damage spells who could as the situation dictates throw a buff or two on and enter melee. For certain circumstances it might make sense to use spirit lance and martial powers (and I would like to do good damage when I do), but I don't want to be melee only and dependent on resting every two battles. You bring up an interesting point about spell tongue and buff duration. Are there any other weapons that synergize particularly well with a melee wizard? I think spelltongue and the firebrand granted by the forgemasters gloves (crucible keep merchant). Firebrand for the damage output and the rapiers because they have high accuracy and are fast and the high accuracy basically compliments savage attack very well (+20% melee damage but - 5 accuracy). And rapiers fall in the same group of weapons as scepter and dagger so good options. The main difficulty with a hybrid build is that you can make it "solid" at everything but you won't be super exceptional at one thing because you have to split talents. You can't go the full ranged dps route by taking blast, penetrating blast, dangerous implement, penetrating shot and have talent points left for all the melee talents like vulnerable attack, two handed, savage attack etc. So one can either go dual wielding and just take blast + penetrating blast (maybe) to trigger on hit effects from your scepter at range using either golden gaze or gyrd haewanes staneas) and then switch to melee layout and talents to do actual weapon damage (you can still "nuke" things at range with ice spells especially if you take secrets of rime). And it is easy to get to zero recovery that way with two fast weapons with speed (spelltongue + sword of dyanisos or unlaboured blade for example) anything with speed enchantment on weapon basically + the durgan bonus. Or go all out on ranged damage talents and use brights but take for instance two handed weapon talent to also excel in summoned weapon and firebrand damage. At range you will be a monster that way and you might find it adictive to actually bother with melee. You will be attaking a bit slower than the dual weapon setup but will have bigger hits. Citzdals spirit Lance (5th) level spell is ridiculous here as it has blast property even though it is a two handed melee weapon with a very good damage base and speed). Firebrand fully optimized with scion of flame may out dps it on single targets but on groups nothing beats it. If you take interrupting blows (which makes total sense if your perception is high and you have blast talent) there is a unique rapier in dyrford merchant which attacks fast but does a great. 75 's interrupt. Dual rapiers like spelltongue + mosquito for example are good at chain interrupting a tough boss enemy like a langerfurth broodmother or battery siren) and since those usually have buffs on them using spelltongue against them is particularly great.

That two rapier battlemage I suggested goes into melee but acts more like a skirmisher rather than a grunt so I engage in melee once my tanks are already engaged so likelihood of interrupt is less. Plus there is the first level spell spirit shield to buff concentration. That mage is a mix range / melee build which opens with debilitating spells from range and than buffs up for melee should that be required. I was going for flexibility as a sort of "glue" member in a party who can take on various roles on the fly. I used two rapier fast weapon setup to utilize spell tongue basically to extend duration of buffs and have high interrupt and 0 recovery (if durganized). But the summoned weapons work too and are quite awesome as long as you have the spell per rest to cast them. I usually unload my spell uses on cc rather than summoned weapons but that is a playstyle choice. Yeah and who can achieve most damage by stacking your wizard buffs, two handed style, scion of flame, Savage attack apprentice sneak attack, and firebrand from forgemasters gloves if you go that route.

^it was an eye test in terms of crit numbers but they were not noticeably higher than the other warbows. But in terms of overall damage done it was inferior to the other bows. On a separate beneficial note I noticed that bloody slaughter sometimes triggers even when a target has more health than just badly wounded or near death. Has anyone else gotten this?

I did tests with that bow and damage was not in anyway more than with durganized godagh field. Both bows were superb. And persistence was still better in terms of sustained single target damage because of raw dot ticks while godagh field was best for focus generation because of speed. And stormcaller was really good as long as the target had weak shock Dr but 20+ Pierce Dr.

Except Annihilation property does not work atm at all on all weapons anyways with it correct?

only problem is that scion of flame does not effect the dragon threshed.

quite frankly barbaric blow is not that strong, but it is once per encounter at least. you can take greater frenzy though instead I guess. I took barbaric blow because it is one of the first things the ai does. Ai sometimes never went into frenzy before the battle was over.

In my recent playthrough Maneha rocked. (You can adept this to any barbarian btw but this was specific to a high might / con / int dps barbarian, average (10) dex, perc so no interrupt build) Setup: main hand: strike hard, durganized (optional: superb) off hand: unlabored blade Before strikehard and unlabored blade I had Tidefall, but the dual wield setup allows 0 recovery. Other Items: armor: Sanguine plate or wayfarers hide belt: blunting belt or rope that binds gloves: glittering gauntlets!!!!! helm: white crest helm or hermits hat cape: swaddling sheet ring of protection ring of wonder abilities: -frenzy -brute force -threatening presence -one stands alone or blooded -vengeful defeat -heart of fury -whatever that 15th level ability (stun wave shout) is talents: -barbaric blow -veterans recovery -vulnerable attack -weapon focus: soldier -scion of flame (for unlabored blade firebug+lash) -bloody slaughter -apprentice sneak attack max survival (as you skip savage defiance to take other abilities) theory: maximize carnage with items like glittering gauntlets, strike hard, unlabored blade. veteran's recovery provides basic protection and dying on occasion does not matter as you have vengeful defeat and hopefully a paladin/ priest buddy to resurrect you. WHY it's great: the combination of strikehard (already with speed) durganized and unlabored blade (also speed) allows 0 recovery without two weapon fighting talent so you can get another talent, and those items work very well with carnage.

Unlabored blade + your choice of drawn in spring, or any "average" attack speed weapon with speed enchantment so you can get to 0 recovery.