Braven

Cipher used to be fairly balanced (except for that AOE prone spell before it was heavily nerfed). However, now I feel like they are more unbalanced than ever. The way focus scales makes most of their powers worthless because they are simply not worth the cost for the benefit. So now the only ones worth using are level 1/2 powers and the OP 80 focus ones (and detonate). The rest are completely forgettable. Sure you could charm or blind an enemy, but why not just kill them and gain focus in the process? Even if the powers and costs were better balanced, it will always suffer from the problem that there is no reason to cast anything but the best power since they all draw from the same mana pool and there are no limits on how often you use a specific power. With other casters, they are forced to use at least one spell from each spell level. A cipher can just spam Amplified Thrust from level 3 to level 16 and just ignore all of the other spell levels completely and not bother with attacking with weapons at all, except maybe an opening gun shot. One way to balance that problem is having only very situational powers, thus forcing you to change the spell for the occasion... but their best powers are optimal in every battle so there is no reason to ever switch tactics. Why wouldn't you want massive bonuses to all defenses, massive single target damage, or massive focus generation (while also dealing tons of damage)? As a result, they are pretty one-dimensional and not really very balanced at all, in my opinion.

What role does the rogue play? Is he there just because of his, in general, high single target damage and the fact his weakness (low defenses) are canceled out by the mind web. Guess he could get the ability that counterattacks on miss too, given the mind web.

I got the soul bound dagger fully unlocked now. The firebug damage is quite nice. Seems to proc most battles. I also unlocked the shield for fun. Never notice it ever proc, though. Do you actually need 0 recovery to have no recovery bar? The dagger and a speed weapon results in no recovery, even with no gauntlets of swift action, plate armor, no frenzy or other globals, and vulnerable attack on. My dex is 18. The math would suggest I am still quite a ways off from zero recovery. Even if it is not technically zero recovery, as long as I see no bar, I am happy.

Don't forget, it also applies to stilettos; not just daggers. Though they are less interesting past the early game. Too bad there are no soulbound stilettos.

Fighters shine best when played very aggressively, with either a two-hander or two weapons. All of their best abilities are only fully utilized if they get hit a lot and actually receive damage at a steady pace, so boosting their deflection skyhigh with shields and defensive talents is actually anti-synergy. Doing so wastes the fighter's best powers like constant recovery, unbending, triggered immunity, unbroken, and others. I think defense-oriented, shield bearing characters are much better off being a chanter or paladin. Those classes have better synergy focusing on high defenses at the expense of offense. A fighter is meant to be a front liner that doesn't mind getting hurt a lot and believes that the best defense is all his enemies dead as quick as possible. This is because they want the battle over before their powerful per encounter ability durations and endurance regeneration duration runs out. They are both a great "tank" and a high DPS killing machine if built optimally.

Do you actually get anything worth-while from Nalrend the Wise? The bounties might not be worth trying to complete. The main benefit of them is EXP, which Noober doesn't need. I guess they provide gold too, but there are probably easier sources for that. The Keep in Act 1 has lots of gold for the taking in the form of "fine" weapons and armor, if you need that. Anything you are looking to buy?

It used to be, besides just slower damage, much worse overall damage too due to a bug. Not sure if that is still the case.

I thought it was when your opponent ran out of money. Once, I spammed forever and ever and never got it. Another time, I just played a few games and got it. Pretty sure the one I tried forever resulted in more total victories.

There is a quarterstaff sold in Elmwood at a store that grants 3 fireballs per rest to anyone. Maybe that would be helpful to Noober for when he has to stand and fight?

Retraining to high DEX/PER and retraining back is probably the easiest way. Only costs a couple thousand copper, which is really not a big deal. People pay that kind of money just for weapon and armor enchants without a second thought. Alternatively, if you use the stronghold rest bonus and items that buff those stats (and food of course), it should be easier. 3 rest bonus + 2 food + 3 item = 8 stat boost and I am sure there are easy ways to get it even higher temporarily. Of course, this all assumes that the stats actually matter. I don't know that we have proof of that yet, for certain.

If you have a focus generating machine, like reeping knives, it seems like all you need is two shots and then you will never need to attack with weapons again anyways since you will just be using focus powers. Basically the same as a couple quick-switched guns, but without the micro-management (if the crossbow actually works like that)

Anyone know if Intelligence is still bad with wounding weapons? It used to work much better with 3 Int then 18 and the damage calculation was extremely buggy. Even if it is no longer worse, total-damage wise, if it takes longer to actually deal the damage because of intelligence, it could be bad for that reason.

Do other critical mods, like the faction bonus work? If so, I am glad I went with second skin. A fighter can reach max speed with vulnerable attack, armored grace, swift gauntlets, and a potion and still wear plate and wield any two Durgan weapons, like double Drawn in Sping or Double Sabers. A good non-potion, non-frenzy second weapon set, is to just use your choice of double speed weapons. Still can wear the same plate armor with no recovery. This setup means no wasted talent/time using frenzy and no duration limits to worry about. Since you only use potions for boss fights, no need to scramble for potion supplies. If double Drawn in Spring are used, "noble" speed weapons would compliment nicely for set two and provide pierce damage option.

Losing the shadow figurine is sad since that is the best one, and scrolls are nice, but it is hard to get everything as a level 1. Kiting is probably more useful, though with boots of speed, that +movement doesn't really matter so much now.

Though rimecutters, in theory, have the crit multiplier for max damage, does it have other unique enchantments? Strike Hard targets two damage types (sometimes DR bypass, not worry about immunities), supports better lashes (freeze is not the best), and has dis-orienting enchantment, which also helps the other weapon (should you want a soul bound in the other hand) and increases accuracy. Also good for allies and/or summons. Not sure if disorienting means the enchantment limit removes legendary option. I think the best combination is to use speed weapons for most encounters, but switch to second weapon slot with better weapons and drink a potion for really tough fights (like the Alpine Dragon). Maybe use soul bounds instead of sabers since there are no speed weapons in Ruffian weapon set. Or use two Drawn in Spring. Wounding is so powerful, has lots of accuracy, and even though base damage is lower, you can attack around 25% faster. Also, noble has lots of speed weapons for when you don't want to quaff potions. Side note: I was happy to see that the Scars armor's two existing enchants only take up 1 enchantment point each . That means you can get it to Legendary and +2 stat enchant it.

I hit level 15 and played around with immunity and double spell tongue. Sadly, double doesn't seem to be any more effective than a single, at least against the Alpine Dragon. While it delayed the expiration of immunity a bit, it didn't extend it by much. Also, because immunity covers only one damage type, and both per/encounter triggers at the same time, they don't last long. In short, I lost vs the Alpine dragon, but it was close. I was only basically auto attacking for testing. I think if I were immune to Terrified I could beat him without any kind of cheese since accuracy was the main problem. Either the fighter ability courage or that new sword grants it. I also discovered that charge is useless since he is immune to crush. The other problem was that my endurance regen couldn't quite handle his huge hits after immunity wore off. I might need unbending (didn't have it trained) for the big fights. I'll see later how helpful it is. I also did a couple bounty quests and it triggered for those early even though it didn't look like I took 10% of my endurance in damage. Also, since I hit level 15 I have noticed my health seems to get restored magically, sometimes back to full without resting or binding wounds. No idea what causes it, but there must be a bug someplace but I haven't yet pin pointed exactly what causes it. I also picked up mourning gloves at the same time so maybe it is doing something funky. I noticed the icon for it remains, even after battle, and the "endurance gain" is suppressed.

Durgan steel is an expansion enchantment you can find as you progress through the game. Increases weapon speed, amoung other things. Wonder if there is any kind of monk archer build. Yes, makes no thematic sense, but they seem to have a lot of ways to move fast around the battlefield and break engagement. Add boots of speed and speed bow and he could probably kite all day. There is also the new ranged fists ability. For ranged enemies, they have a power to reflect their attacks back. If things get ugly, just knock everyone prone and run away. Does swift strikes help bows or guns? Guess it would be pretty low damage, though.

So you think it was more than 40% of max health? I wonder if might serves as a modifier...

I agree about trying out a monk. Seems to fit what you want best. A lot of people get hung up over the fact that the game seems to lead you towards using "fists" and some feel like they are wasting their class power if you don't only use fists. Really, fists are completely optional and not always the best choice anyways. I want to try a high-regeneration monk soon as a "more fun" alternative to my fighter build. Basically, see how many "wounds" I can make a single monk bleed out without actually falling over and dying. To control the pace of damage, I think the stunning abilities would be great, and also the most fun. DPS would also be pretty good since he would need to hit things fast and hard with endurance draining weapons to fuel the wounds. Just need to think it over some more. One problem is that the monk really wants every stat (except maybe resolve). I think "maximum healing multiplier" will be key. Ranger doesn't have any spells, or even spell like abilities, so the "interesting part" would be positioning the pet and keeping it at the edge of death. But that really isn't that interesting. There abilities/talents tend to be just about making the pet stronger, which is also kind of boring.

I wonder what the best quick-slot item to copy would be. that 3-phantom figurine is nice, but maybe there is something better (if a weapon copy is not needed). Seems like a lot of the stronghold quest items are quickslot, with limited charges. I feel like there has to be something game-breaking we are all forgetting about. Maybe some ring or something that stacks with itself that was never discovered because there is only one of them. Or something that grants "even more per-rest fireballs". Could always throw enough staff of +3 fireballs into a spare weapon slot.

What? No. Outlander's Frenzy is of no use if you already have any other ability (or potion) that gives you an universal speed buff like Swift Strikes, Swift Aim or Alacrity. Those don't stack (only exception is the Ila-chant because that's explicitely buffing ranged attack speed only, not universal attack speed). But it's the only way for druids, rogues, fighters and rangers (who use Vicious Aim) to get more attack speed by themselves in order to get less (or even zero) recovery. Oh, I was confused by what you said about countering those things. Thanks for the clarification.

Braven, is wound binding literally healing 40% of the character's base health? That is, if a character had 1000 Health (when fully healthy), does it add 400 points of health to whatever your current remaining health is? I am not exactly sure. I haven't looked at it really closely to see how much it heals or if it varies based on current health and it doesn't help that my fighter is in a constant state of frenzy so my health bar is hidden all the time. I will do some testing later and let you know what I find out. Note: it is a "healing over time" effect so you don't get the health all at once. I usually use it around half-health.

Apparently a monk and paladin can be a fighter. The soul-bound armor provides the fighter's level 15 ability and a couple of other great fighter powers. The frenzy multi-class talent seems quite minor in comparison. Also, all the classes share abilities via multi-class talents (with reduced effectiveness) Keep in mind that Outlander's Frenzy is not as good as actual barbarian frenzy. It is only 25% speed modifier instead of 33%. It also provides less STR and CON and still has all the negatives (and costs a talent). The main reason to pick Barbarian is because the carnage AOE ability allows for all kinds of cheese like permanently stunning all your enemies when using special weapon combinations or never-ending duration extension with spell tongue. I think the sad thing about Barbarians is that to play them optimally, you need high INT and a silly looking rapier... which is very non-barbarian-like.

The gauntlets that give 10% more attack damage is not great because they don't actually give 10% ever. It is more like a fraction of that, typically, because of how the additive math works for damage modifiers. It is basically 3 might that only helps melee damage and doesn't help ranged/spells/healing/etc. Pretty weak in my opinion by the time you find them. Between those two, mourning gloves are way better, even if it does not stack with itself. I have never found them (yet), so I can't attest to how they work exactly.

Since the entire game (all content) can be soloed with a single character, I would say that any party combination is viable. It is possible that one or two of your guys will sometimes run back and forth behind the others trying to find a spot to engage. You might need to take more care to ensure the battle happens out in a larger area (middle of room), or have one of them wield a Pike or Quarterstaff so they can hit from behind another's shoulders (if that still counts as melee in your book). Also, if you do position in the open (instead of using doorways as a choke point), it will be much easier for your melee rogue to flank.