dgray62

Heldred in another thread gives great advice on building a party that is tanky, strong on defense. Generally, you want to give everyone, including casters, Veteran's recovery and the weapon & shield talent ASAP. You also should avoid min-maxing and dumping CON and RES. While wizards are often build as caster/blaster glass canons, for this party you'd want at least one, and maybe both, to be melee oriented. Properly built, a buffed melee wizard is really tough. The same is true of priests, with all of their great defense buffs. Druids are a bit more squishy. You probably want to arm them with dual hatchets or a hatchet and shield so they're tankier while casting. Once they have their spells unleashed, and the enemies are stunned (perma-stunned if have two druids!) from returning storm/ relentless storm, then they can spiritshift and decimate the mobs.

Spiritshift druids can do tremendous damage, and the Boar druid is particularly sturdy due to stamina regeneration while shifted. As Boeroer as outlined in other posts on his "Shock-hog" build, you want high MIG and INT and decent CON and DEX to make him/her sturdy and fast. You can keep PER flat if you're not playing POTD, and can dump RES as much as you are comfortable. I usually play this build (one of my favorites) with STR 16/CON 16/DEX 15/PER 10/INT 16/RES 5. Given the low RES, you can give it items with spell holding effects such as Sanguine Plate. And you should take Veteran's recovery ASAP. I like playing with Boreal Dwarves for this build for the extra accuracy against beasts, which seems to fit the build, and also really comes in handy when fighting nasty beasts and primordials, i.e., dragons and radiant spores. I'm currently playing a melee wizard MC that is truly badass, fighting with a weapon and shield (for extra deflection and reflex w/ the weapon and shield talent), and using summoned weapons for the more challenging fights. This character is a Pale elf for the extra fire/ice DR, and I believe the starting stats were STR 18/CON 10/DEX 12/PER 12/INT 18/RES 8. With the wizards defensive buffs and the spell Infuse with Vital Essence you don't need a high CON, and with Alacrity your attack speed and spell speed is also quick without super high DEX. Overall this is probably the most OP build I've ever played, although it takes more micro to get the buffs off at the beginning of each fight.

Ah, I see. The Cat would cut through mobs with low DR more rapidly, while the Boar's wounding would work better against the higher DR foes.

Boeroer, to me it seems that boar druids are far superior to cat druids, with the constant wounding and regeneration buffs as opposed to the 1/rest haste effect. Is the reason for going with a cat druid to have the slash attack, for the relatively many foes who are immune to pierce and shock attacks? What about another boar druid with Wildstrike Corrode and Spirit decay, dual wielding Bittercut and Bleakfang when not shifted, and using Rotskulls as a ranged attack? Regarding the priest of Berath, would The Hour of St. Rumbalt be better than Tidefall, given the high MIG and INT?

I am currently playing a melee wizard, and just got The Glass Tree grand adventure. Glittering Gauntlets would be great for this character, but according to the wiki for this item, it was bugged as of 3.02, in that "hits" when you self-buff can inflict the daze affliction. I was wondering if anyone has encountered this problem with more recent versions of the game. I suppose the item could still be useable, at least for a character wearing the Company Captain's hat, since this grants daze immunity.

You will rarely be in combat long enough to chant 6 phrases and get off a 4th level invocation; it is only during the long difficult battles, such as the dragon fights, that you'll be able to cast them. It seems to me champion braved the horde alone may be good choice for such battles, just for the +40% attack speed. But it seems underpowered for level 4 inovocation; +10 deflection is meh, and the interrupt bonus is is useless for most builds. Your probably better off casting some of the lower level invocations earlier. It seems well suited for ranged chanter builds, if it stacks with Sure Handed Ila, although I'm not sure if it does.

It's entirely up to you. Generally I always give a paladin the soulbound two-handed sword St. Ydwen's Redeemer to use against vessels. For a Bleak Walker, I would usually given Bittercut as well as the Monsterlash is too good to not use. But it is up to you. Two-handed weapons are slower but pack more of a punch, and are best against high DR enemies. But if you clone Bittercut and dual-wield it you'll rapidly cut down most foes, with the exception of bosses and earth blights.

I haven't tried it out, but the next time I encounter an ancient death guard I'll pay closer attention to their armor.

It's too bad that there isn't a dark colored set of plate armor for a Dark Knight build.

If you've purchased the expansions you might want to get the Bittercut sabre, which does corrode/slash damage, and works well with the Bleak Walker's Remember Rakhan Field talent and the Spirit of Decay talent to achieve a "monster lash" when you use Flames of Devotion. See Blunderboss' build focusing on this. Per the guide, I'd recommend that you boost INT. You'll want a higher INT when you reach lvl 13 and get Cleansing Flames. You could lower CON and RES to 10, and raise INT accordingly. You could then get Veteran's Recovery, which works best with high MIG and INT. You'll find that a paladin with this build will be very sturdy.

Yes, I suppose that "Death Knight" in this game is not an option for an MC, unless you aspire to be the mindless vessel minion of a Vampire lord or lich archmage!

I usually forget to use them as well, which is the main reason I like to rely on the AI, which is poor, in my experience, if you pick the summoning option, but works better if you select damaging or disabling invocations and the aggressive AI option.

I agree that the summons aren't too useful after Act 1. One of the problems with summons is that the summoning AI will always use the level 1 summoning invocations when you hit 3 phrases. If you want to use the more powerful summons, you have to micromanage the chanter. This is one of the main reasons I like the aggressive AI for chanters. You chanter will autoattack while chanting Dragon Thrashed, and periodically cast Killers Froze Stiff or Thunder Rolled.

Many thanks for the answers to my multiple questions!

A "Pallid Knight" priest of Berath with Tidefall could work too. With this, you'd be building a "death knight" that fits in with the game's lore.

Does the speed of the Paladin's weapon effect the speed of abilities like lay on hands and the exhortations?

I suppose it does make sense for some bard builds, thanks! That way you could really spread the debuffs around, right?

I recently gained access to the Deadfire pack additional items, and I had a question about the War Club of the Mataru. It seems like an item designed specifically for rogues, since it can cause afflictions that enable sneak attack. But it's not clear to me that it is useful for any other character classes. I have a paladin and priest in my current party, but no rogue, but it does not seem a particularly useful weapon for these classes. I was wondering if anyone has found it worthwhile for any classes aside from rogues.

I agree that Reny Daret's Ghost is useful early on, but once my chanter gets At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff I shift the AI to "Aggressive," as this leads the chanter to reliably use this invocation instead, which is generally far more useful.

Personally I prefer using it for a spiritshift druid. It's the ONLY way in the game that you can get a second use of the spiritshift ability in a single encounter. Granted, most encounters end before the expiration period for a single spiritshift, but it's very useful for longer battles. Typically I open with a spell or two, perhaps a defensive buff and returning or relentless storm, and then shift. If the battle's still raging, you can switch to Gyrd, and since the proc rate for restore spiritshift is 20%, you typically do not need to wait long before you can shift and wade into battle again. This is the only good use for Gyrd, IMO. There are better wands/rods/scepters for blaster wizards, and priests are better off buffing and then wading into melee.

Longwatch Falls is a tough area, and a level 7 party will struggle there. I usually don't go there until I've cleared out Durgan's Battery, and thus usually have a level 11 or 12 party by then. Having a druid in the party can really help with crowd control. Opening with an Overwhelming Wave, followed by Returning/Relentless Storm can bring a quick end to most encounters. In fighting Lagufaeth, it really helps too to have a Priest who is 9+ level, who can cast Prayer Against Imprisonment. Also, if you're having trouble, don't take the Gleaming Society Bounty until you've cleared out the Lagufaeth; the Gleaming Society baddies spawn very close to a nasty bunch of Lagufaeth and Ice Blights, and if you aggro both groups it will be a very tough fight for low level parties.

Perhaps so, given the fact that it exploits a deficit with the AI. Actual bad guys or sentient monsters would presumably notice if some of their comrades ran off screaming!

Ah, too bad! I guess that Novice Suffering is best used with class like priest that can get huge boosts to MIG.

Jojobobo designed a build around the Silver Flash. Unfortunately the Silver Flash is attainable very late game, as loot following a very difficult battle.

I now understand why Heldred included Blights in the spell list. Thanks for the clarification on both points, Boeroer!