Blunderboss

managing doesnt mean its worth it , meanwhile in act 2 where enemies dont always come in groups of atleast 15 its possible to flank somewhat reliably , it all changes when u start fighting hordes of WM enemies , who always come in large groups in somewhat limited space enviroments , then the best(and in most cases the only possible) way to use pet is for holding the frontline , but then your ranger has to either attack frontline enemies who rarely pose any threat or attack the backline while loosing all pet related bonuses(because the pet will be stuck in melee) , this all ofcourse is not a big problen when u are using stormaller and fights are cakewalk because of mass stun, but without it its different story . In fact because of retrain feature i had a chance to try all the ranger pets in practice and there are only few pets that are worth using imo , thats bear for making it a decent frontline off-tank ( make sure u have only 2 melees with a pet as 3rd or ur movement will be too limited most of the time ) and Stag , this is the only pet that can work nice with all the damage talents because of carnage (considering u position him well between two of your tanks so he can carnage as many enemy as possible), with other pets its just not worth it to spend 3 talent and few ability points so they can do bit more damage to one melee enemy or die trying to reach a backline where u cant even heal them . With current Pathfinding and Unit colision pets are somewhat annoying to use and cause you more harm than good unless u build them as stationary front line off tank in which case they do the job just fine except that they might be taking melee space from your melee dps character and if your melee wastes time cuz pet is blocking his path thats very bad

you cant flank anything when enemy is blocking all the space and standing in 3 lines behind each other , which is the case in 80% encounters on PoTD especially in WM and WM2 , in this game flanking is done by casting Phantom Foes

You can replace a priest , with a character that is focused on lore and casting scrolls , but then again why would u build such character if you can simply make him a priest in the first place , Triumphant Kind Wayfarer Paladin can replace priest in healing , but then you still need to craft scrolls for Immunity , And then there is that level 7 Firestorm spell priest can cast ..... and those Accuracy buffs .... yeh...

My rogue with Eyestrike armor and Nightshroud mace crying he been crying for some time now tho anyway

If you want challenge go PoTD , on hard you will over level everything no matter how you scale the game . You can do all act 1+act 2 before going to White March , this is gonna bring you up to lvl 9-10 and from then you can upscale WM , Act 3, WM 2 and do them in same order Start with WM1 do everything up to Alpine Drake / Opening the Forge , do some act 3 business , comeback to finish WM1 and start WM 2 , do some easier stuff in WM2 , finish Act 3 up to going to Burial Isle , finish WM2 , finish the game . I was very happy with the difficulty going this route , WM was challenging from the start , ACT 3 was very tough when i upscalled it and became easy only after few levels , and upscalled WM 2 is ultimate test for your party Imagine my surprise when i upscalled Act 3 at lvl 10 , went to do only one Ogre Bounty so i can unlock rest of the bounties , i bumped into ogre group in Elmshore before entering the cave , and had to go back crying , those ogres eat my lvl 10 party easily .

Everyone who doesnt believe in DPS paladins should try one with 2x Bittercuts ( i seen FoD swings for 150 damage and that is only 1 out of 4 swings u get per fight , biggest problem is when enemy has only half HP u know that one FoD swing will get wasted :/ ) , also DPS is funny thing meanwhile rogue might do 100 damage per second for total of 4 seconds before he uses all his skills and becomes useless paladin can do 50 dps for 3 minutes while tanking a boss and 3 adds

Arent they immune to blind :D cuz if they not its too funny lol

Sharpshooter = Rogue with Boressaine Use Cloudpiercer / Boressaine switch after Cloudpiercer proc , make sure u have someone who can mass debuff for SA , like cipher or Priest with Painfull Interdiction You will have reliable damage dealer that will do ranged damage from level 1 to level 16 , meanwhile rangers only starts working after lvl 13 after you got Stormcaller

Boressaine is good bow .... but........ Stormcaller .. is most overpowered item in the game . You can stunlock entire group of enemies with Stormcaller no problems , actually rangers arent that good as everybody say they are , i mean pet is still useless for everything except tanking , you cant really maneuver with melees in PoTD and flanking someone is a legend that people tells on forums so all your pet is going to do trough entire game is stay in front line tanking meanwhile stealing one melee spot you could use on other character , but after you get Stormcaller you become overpowered stun machine and then you can say rangers are best class in game , i even took lvl 15 talent on ranger that gives him more attack speed after pet dies , because More attack speed = more stormcaller = more auto win fight I was having trouble with magrans faithful bounty , but in the end i managed to stunlock them ALL until i killed the priests , all i needed to stunlock 25 enemies was ranger with Stormcaller and melee with Swaddling Sheet ( one proc of this cape was enough to get the ranger going and then he kept them all stunned until the very end ) Actually when u get ur Stormcaller ranger going game becomes to easy instantly , because yeh instead of fighting enemies you kill stunned victims all the time , it even stuns dragons together with their ads making those fights trivial . If not using stormcaller , really i would go for ranged rogue u will do more damage for the big part of the game ( rangers and their pets dont do real damage in practice on PoTD unless u have stormcaller , meanwhile rogues will always do increased damage because of SA ) , rogue will always be better at doing single target damage to target of your choice , ranger needs to attack same target as his pet for that to happen , and in practice u will never be able to attack important targets with pet , pet usually ends up tanking enemy fighters in front line .

U dont need adra dragon scales for exceptional .

I have 3 Rimecutters by now :D he keeps bringin em !

Eye Patch has 10% Bonus Damage to Flanked , so you can replace your Glanfathan boots with something else , thats a big plus

For those of us anal about not getting caught stealing: Is there any way? High Stealth works

I love the Celebrant's Gloves, but sadly they're not compatible with using the Forgemaster's Gloves. I was not aware of the Belt of Chimes, +25 Concentration is nothing to sneeze at. I wish there was an easy way to get certain Stronghold quests. There are some great items there. there might be a way to save scum stronghold adventures , from what i noticed saving before turning in a quest and then reloading if adventure didnt happen does not work , BUT if you get an adventure after turning in quest , reloading and turning it again might wield different adventure this happened to me just today , so basically you could try to save before turning in / advancing quests and after you get adventure you reload if you dont like it until you get the one u wanted

Problem with opening with gun is : You start a fight in front line , You need to cast Sworn Enemy before enemies are in melee range , Now if you also fire a gun u have to switch to melee , which leaves you with huge recovery penalty untill u can attack again , god forbid if you move during that time it adds even more recovery , and enemies will be slashing ur face while u cant do anything even worse if they crit u during that time and frenzy is already up , and if u have Swaddling Sheet and need to cast Recal Agony with Sworn Enemy this not even an option honestly . With this build you want to get crit at combat start proc Frenzy , consecrated ground , overwhelming wave and start smashing enemies using one fod per enemy and killing the bigger ones with Recal Agony , Sworn Enemy and 0 Recovery dual wield attacks , meanwhile healing allies with shod in faith and doing aoe damage with Sacred Immolation

math means nothing if it doesnt work in practice you know

Using arquebus with this build is gimping urself , believe me i tried , even Alpha Strike is not worth it , u better cast Sworn Enemy ( and recall agony if u have the cape ) for that it has no recovery and swapping weapon without quick switch is simply too slow , and no Arquebus will never do damage with FoD that is equal to 2x Bittercuts full attack with all the lashes , full attack with fod and 2x bittercuts is devastating . Shooting Guns is another paladin build which i bet is very interesting and fun

Second Chance armors are very decent early-midgame , when your party has no ressurects , and characters knocked down and brought up dont die instantly right after , it looses all of its value after midgame imo because endurance u get brought back with is not really enough unless ur character is a tank , but then again i never use second chance on tanks . Ofcourse Robe with Second Chance is another category due to how easy is to get 0 recovery with it , also if you are playing with knockout injuries second chance is not that good anymore

I love Vicious Aim with Quick Switch since PoE release , both ways can be viable i think Reloading and Quick Switching , QS is always harder tho and requires microing for anything to happen

After u reach White Forge , u attack with no recovery with Sabres assuming u got crit and proc frenzy , this actually allows u to do serious damage even after FoD is used , especially with Sworn Enemy and Recall Agony( From the cape ) active on enemy

Bleak Walker Dual-wield Paladin How does this character work ? This paladin is an off-tank ( You have to be tanking for this build to work ! ) , melee DPS who uses Dual-Wield to achieve 0 recovery while using Sanguine Plate , coupled with other Spell-Holding items for offense and defense , you will have fair amount of abilities considering you play paladin , meanwhile keeping the character very low maintenance , it does 3 types of damage : Slash/Corrode/Fire , and turns the fight every time it receives critical hit . Monsterlash Included @ Boeroer This is Not solo Build ! Race - Human/Coastal Aumaua/Any Races that have increased might , and melee related bonuses are best choice . Culture - Living Lands , Colonist ( +2 Survival ! ) Attributes : MIG 20 ( MAX ) CON 10 DEX 10 PER 10 INT 18 RES 10 Attribute build with Sacred Immolation in mind , Consider Starting with more PER/RES and retrain @ lvl 13 to put attributes for better use before you need max INT, this is not needed however . Build : Level 1 - Flames Of Devotion Level 2 - Remember Rakhan Field Level 3 - Zealous Focus / Lay on Hands Level 4 - Intense Flames Level 5 - Sworn Enemy Level 6 - Two Weapon Style Level 7 - Reviving Exhortation Level 8 - Savage Attack Level 9 - Liberating Exhortation Level 10 - Spirit of Decay Level 11 - Deprive the Unworthy / Healing Chain Level 12 - Deep Faith Level 13 - Sacred Immolation Level 14 - Scion of Flame Level 15 - Any Level 16 - Any Pick Lay on Hands and Healing Chain if party has no priest , however healing same as scrolls is not this paladins business . Skills : Survival 11 ( +2 Sanguine Plate ) or Survival 13 Without Sanguine Plate Rest Athletics You can put some points into lore as well but this paladin build is not aimed at casting scrolls even if attributes are perfect for that , id rather spend my time auto attacking and tanking , and you have your own stuff to cast when encounter starts Items : ! - Essential Head : Maegfolc Skull Armor : Sanguine Plate (!) + Durgan Ring1 : Gathbin Family Signet / Ring of Overseeing (!) Ring2 : Gwyns Band of Union Feet : Shod-in-faith (!) Neck : Swaddling Sheet Hands : Gauntlets of Swift Action (!) Belt : Looped Rope Weapons : Bittercut (!!!) + Corrosive/Fire Lash + Durgan Refined Vent Pick + Corrosive/Fire Lash Or use Helwax Mold for 2x Legendary Bittercut Durgan Refined Corrosive Lash You dont need all these unique end game items only the ones marked with (!) , tho if you have those items , you can hardly put them in better use honestly , stacking Spell-Holding items is the key to ultimate power If you are lucky like me and get Swaddling Sheet ( Cape that proc Overwhelming Wave on crit and has Recall Agony spellbind 0_o ) this character becomes really strong . The sole armor i would swap Sanguine Plate for is Ryonas Breastplate soulbound armor from WM2 , then you kinda have to drink DAoM potion every single fight . If you can spare Mold for double Bittercuts you will witness real power of this build . Try it out !

Im going for double Bittercuts , most of other characters use soulbounds or atleast one soulbound weapon , so my paladin will be happy , tho i probably want to get done with WM2 before that for it to be legendary aswell

Defense Against some status effect looses all of its value when u have priest in party who can make everybody immune to it

Im sure bounties from WM and WM2 and those which are in ACT 3 maps ( ogre shaman ) scale but what about bounties u get from Caed Nua warden the ones that are in Act 1 and 2 Maps , do they scale ? Considering you need to beat upscalled Ogre Shaman to open next levels ...

Im Playing PoTD ( not first playtrough ) , with upsclled WM , WM 2 , Act 3 , im lvl 12-13 now and i can say that im not gonna "overlevel" anything , i completed everything up to WM 2 and ACT3 and started doing quests in both areas now and remaining fights are hard as hell , not even talking about Alpine , Sky , Adra ( not sure how is this fight because its the only one that doesnt get upscalled ) dragons , and both archmages that i have left , but even simple "trash" fights are challenge . i actually wish sometimes that next fight vs common enemies in area would not be that tough , but it is always is tougher than expected . Basically play on fully upscalled POTD and u wont have problems with exp/level curve at all .