Braven

According to a video stream I watched recently, it was 2/encounter. It also benefits from the huge INT for a pretty long duration all together. With + 5 DR bypass from vulnerable attack, that is 13 total bypass. I will probably have two harder hitting speed weapons (I already got the wax quest) that doesn't have the 3 dr bypass enchantment of the rapier. Aren't there quite a few enemies with 13 or more DR besides boss enemies? Also, if my math is right, the amulet + troll belt should be at least as good as cloak and bountiful healing (haven't found the bountiful belt yet to test). +10% more healing multipler is better than 1 additional base endurance, since it applies to all healing sources, and seems to apply multicatively (after) might.

Not yet, but soloing I can just auto attack and win every battle without really trying at all, or any risk of death. It is only if I am purposely trying to die that details like extending the health pool even come into play. It will probably only matter for the hardest fights in the game like Adra Dragon and whatever waits for me in the expansion. By then DPS will be through the roof with 0 attack speed and sunder blows. If i wait until level 15, it will probably be a cake walk with triggered immunity. So, I really don't think hard would be much different. POTD will be the real test. I am now thinking that sundering blows will be very powerful with 0 recovery attacking. If more endurance regeneration is desired with Unbending ability, the worst Ability is now Weapon specialization. 15% additive damage bonus is quite minor compared to the hundreds of damage sundering blows is capable of.

Rest in caed Nua and add bonus from resting in wilderness - that is what i often do ;-)Me too. The best inn bonuses only last 1 day so they can't stack with survival and the others are generally worse than the stronghold and don't last as long (two nights instead of three). Finally, resting at the stronghold costs nothing (you want to build it up for the quests anyways, so I don't count that cost).

Oh, I thought it would revert to how it was in patch 2.03 after the bug is fixed. Didn't know there was a planned nerf.

Do I understand correctly that the speed enchants and Durgan of dual weapons stack? In other words, dual Durgan speed weapons and two weapon fighting alone = 90% and all you need is 10% more (not considering penalties) to reach 0 recovery? 40 attack speed enchants 30 Durgan 20 dual weapon style 10 gloves (or something else) = 100

My favorite race, depends on the build, stats, and play style I am looking for. I don't think there is a strictly best race. For a typical wizard: wood elf (if not melee based) or wild orlan is always solid. Even if you are mostly melee-based wood elf is very good for the defensive range bonus and occasional ranged spell you cast. Also nice if you start out battles with a gun/arbalest. If hearth Orlan works with AOE spells, or you plan to melee, that would be good too (if not soloing). I think god-likes are a lot worse now because hats have become so much better. Some offer status immunities which would be sad to lose. No one wants a confused wizard.

Did you ever specifically test it with "bind wounds"? Is there any other way to raise health, besides camping? I did some more testing and it seems the +25% healing multiplier amulet (obtainable for free immediately in ACT 1) is strictly better in all situations than Cloak of the tireless defender. Since they use the same item slot, I now recommend the amulet over the cloak, unless you want a companion to have it instead. As an added Bonus, it has +5 reflex if you need it.

I like mechanics on the main PC because I always want the mechanics person in my party on this ensures that. However, it doesn't really matter. If you have a favorite companion you can give it to them instead. Two other considerations: - do you want your PC to be even more powerful? Athletics and survival directly help combat, but mechanics does not (I never use traps, at least). - did you start with any mechanics skill points from your class or background? Most of the companions don't, but if you like the rogue one or cipher, they might be slightly better suited (less skill point investment needed). However you really want to get mechanics right away and you won't find those companions for quite some time. One lore companion is probably enough, unless you really like scrolls. I guess more would allow you to cast multiple at the same time, but I doubt you will actually need to very often. You could have more study lore, but only raise them to like 4 lore. They can cast the lower level scrolls. For a really tough encounter, there is actually a scroll that increases everyone's lore by 3 and can be used out of combat. Athletics and survival are both great! Everyone should have at least some in both. Athletics does not scale that well into the late game, so you might not want a ton, but it is really good for the early game and even more so for those with high Might stats or healing multiplier items. Around 3 or so is fine, really. Make sure to have at least 1 point ASAP to unlock second wind. I think survival is the best long term and it is hard to have too much of it. Again, put at least one point in immediately to unlock a rest bonus. For that reason, the colonist background got a lot more interesting and inns got less interesting.

One thing to keep in mind is that crits add 50% duration to status effects, something might can't do and makes a bigger impact than just damage. Similarly, a graze reduces the duration by 50% and should be avoided at all cost. If you prefer those types of spells over the pure, raw damage ones, PER might be preferable. Faction choice (the one benefiting crits) or weapon choice (durgan steel?) could also make Perception more enticing.

If by tank, you mean doing whatever is reasonable to get max defensive stats across the board, it depends on class. The paladin is the best. Hard to beat +27 to all saves which is very important for solos. Monk has an honorable mention - good, flexible defensive abilities and he has superior DR and health. Not sure of the raw numbers, but my solo paladin was untouchable in 2.02. I mostly just switched out items with situational bonuses when I needed them. Since you do not need to share items with a party, everything is at your disposal. Has 5 less deflection now, but still the best when it comes to pure defense since saving throws are so important for solo. If you are concerned about dragon fights, a shield will help with reflex, if you have sword/shield talent. Dragons use a fear aura which can be negated completely with either a scroll, a fighter talent, or one of the new soul bound weapons. I think there is a new item that grants paralyze immunity (though a boot item that helps with this is currently bugged) If you are not above cheesy tactics, you could always retrain your character into a dragon killer and then retrain back after the fight. Could take talents like the beast killer one and defensive talents that would otherwise be too situational to consider.

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I totally misread those items as triggering based on ENDURANCE instead of HEALTH until you corrected me in a different post. Mind is blown. That could make those items much nicer than I originally though. Does the effect go away if your health increases above 25%? If not, that would make the "binding wounds" talent even better by effectively increasing the +50% DR buff to about 55% of your health instead of just 25%. Over 100% improvement.

I think a fighter that already invested in the new "courage" ability would be even more sad by Steadfast, since it makes it completely useless. I am not sure that any of the soul-bound weapons are always strictly better than uniques, since you can't apply durgan steel or lashes and the % chance effects can be unpredictable. However, they sure are a lot of fun to use. It still cracks me up to see meteors and skeletons appear out of no where with the The Gray Sleeper.

Unfortunately this is not right. It gives you +50% DR if your HEALTH is lower than 25%. Isn't that what I said? (without giving the exact percentages). Oh, is it HEALTH instead of ENDURANCE? I never realized that! That could make a huge difference for my low con Fighter Build, if so. Does the "scars" armor work the same way?

I very much agree with and highly recommend the endurance regeneration items. The best one can be bought from a store so it is easy to obtain (shod in faith). As a bonus, I think it fits the monk aesthetics pretty well, since they are traditionally more spiritual in nature. As long as your deflection isn't super high, those boots are absolutely amazing (though the sound effect they generate can be kind of annoying) One thing I am not sure about is whether Intelligence affects how long wounds last. The one thing that really bummed me out about Monk when I tried one is that the wounds expire (disappear) pretty quickly if you don't use them. At least they did when I last played monk a while back... not sure if that changed. Granted, I was playing a super defensive solo monk with low intelligence, so battles lasted a really long time. It might not be a problem with a more aggressive monk. I mention this because Iron Will and Iron wheel work best with 10 wounds. I also don't know which wound expires first. Is it the first one gained? Do you always use the "oldest" wound? Is that even tracked? I have no idea and it isn't explained in the game at all.

I edited my post, but if you want to be a true min maxer, you need to retrain your character a few times over the course of the game. After all, it is only a little gold and easy to come by. I don't think that was the intention of the retrain feature, so it is borderline cheating. The real reason for the feature is so players don't feel the compulsion to start all over again because they "messed" up when leveling up their character or distributing stats. Another non-cheesy reason to retrain, in my opinion, is to try out a new build with cool new items found while adventuring, or had a new idea for an interesting new play-style. (in other words, not a pre-planned retraining)

Main issue I think would be the extremely low Con (if you completely dumped it). You could just die from a single AOE; particularly if you fight in melee range. Also, even with zero recovery speed, high dex is still really good and better than might for a DPS rogue (self healing consideration aside). It still makes your actions 3% faster for each action since it makes the actual attack animation faster. That said, rogues have tons of abilities that benefit greatly from INT, PER, and RES, so I agree that it can totally work and could even be the best stat line at some point in the game (mental stats tend to help most in the late game, in my experience). Really, you can't go wrong with any distribution unless you have a specific "Gimmick" character build that synergies items and stats in crazy ways, and even then it will only be a little sub-optimal. The "best" stat distribution is one that changes periodically through out the game by retraining the character... But that is rather cheesy. Stats, abilities, and talents have specific times when they are optimal and sub-optimal. Con, is crazy good early and worse at end game. Resolve is best after you have tons of it (late game). Might is best early before you gain other damage multipliers. Int is best late game when you have all your abilities unlocked. Perception is good late game when you have all the items to make crits reliable, or need to fight bosses with huge deflection. Dex... Is always good.

Lesser wounds is great. Basically 20% more wounds, which is the monk's "mana" pool. That said, I think I would wait a few levels before taking it as it isn't too noticeable early on. You won't be relying on monk abilities too much until after Act 1 when you start taking more damage from enemies, have a larger endurance pool, and more abilities to spend wounds on. Early on, I think more value can be had with something that helps your core combat skills, like vulnerable attack (very powerful early) or a weapon style talent. But, that might just be personal preference.

The Paladin's armor has an enchantment. Increased damage reduction if you have low endurance (Correction: HEALTH).

I didn't even think about those AOE chants. I will concede to you victory on the matter. PER is good for chanters. At least those who don't just use defensive chants and summons. I suppose I should stop hijacking the monk topic now with chanter talk.

Admittingly, I am a min-maxer, but the chanters role is just to survive as long as possible since their powers are benefit from longer combat durations and the best ones don't use accuracy at all (the creature summoning spells). With 3 dex and plate armor, you will be lucky to get 2 swings of your weak, one handed sword. I don't think that is worth 10 stat points improving.

Couldn't the chanter just hold a large shield? Fully enchanted with the sword and shield talent, it provides something like 38 reflex. Since they are a tank, they probably want a shield anyways. Accuracy would be terrible, but with 3 dex, who cares. You are never going to deal much damage anyways. Also, the worst afflictions target FORT and WILL, so I would rather have those higher.

I agree about the Dex. Personally, I never go less than 15 because it is just so useful for almost every build. It helps to swallow that clutch healing potion in time, cast scrolls quickly, knock an enemy down before a killing blow is landed on your Mage.... Lots of uses besides just being a great damage booster. The only time I can see tanking dex for a melee class, or even keeping it low, is a 0 recovery time build (though it is still useful for them, just not as much, and won't come together until a ways in the game) and party-based builds where your role is to be a pure meat shield that does no damage and stands in doorways, in which case you probably also tank Perception. There is also the theory that your most important actions are wound abilities and as long as your dex keeps up with your wounds, you get diminishing returns after that. Same applies to casters with limited per rest abilities.

That looks good for a monk, if you want to focus more on damage dealing abilities and endurance regeneration. However, I would consider lowering Perception, unless you want that for Role playing reasons, or more conversation options. Perception is best for low accuracy classes (monks have naturally high accuracy) or if you want to use special weapons that benefit more from critical hits or that have a particularly high interrupt rating. If you want to use your fists, I think it would be better placed in Might or dex. I think fists have the lowest interrupt rating, like other small, fast weapons.

I think it would work fine. More wounds = more powers! You will certainly want maxed out CON. If you are the tank, you will benefit greatly from as much endurance regeneration as possible (paladin heals, veteran's recovery, moon godlike, etc). You can also consider maxing out your deflection, since armor doesn't matter if you simply dodge everything and heavy armor can sometimes be overkill for glancing blows. Another option is investing in disabling abilities that stun or prone your enemies. They can't hit you if they are lying on the ground. If you go that route, I recommend high Intelligence so the stun durations lasts longer. Also, keep in mind that high might is not always required. High might is best if you rely on self healing and using your fists (they have high base damage, which is great paired with Might) and spamming torments reach. Also, monks have less passive damage modifiers, so might is better for them those with many, like melee rogues or ciphers, due to the diminishing returns of damage additives. If you are focusing on using the monks disabling abilities and playing a crowd-control style that stuns and knock down enemies, Intelligence and Perception maxed are much better than might because they both increase debuff durations (perception for criticals which increase durations). If that is your style, you can keep might and resolve low. For damage calculations, might matters most at the start of the game. After your weapons or fists are fully upgraded, the benefits of might are greatly reduced since it is now only a small slice of the bigger damage pie. Some people suggest retraining might to a different stat late game, if you are not morally opposed to abusing retrain. Also, I recall that torments reach has some weird damage math (or at least used to) so this General rule might not apply if you rely on that ability.