K Galen B

The flanking bonuses from stalking boots and survival work with area spells?

I am strangely allergic to potions. It's something I really ought to get treated. PoE potions are kinda yucky anyway. Party members will take any distraction as an opportunity to stop drinking them. Sometimes the buggers will pour it out under a bush while you're not looking, too.

Many single-target, chaining, and line direct damage spells/scrolls/etc. seem to work with Penetrating Shot... and I'm not sure the attack speed penalty applies? Boerorer is possibly the expert on this. Missile spells (primary target or chained targets only I think), Tayn's Chaotic Orb, Crackling Bolt, Rolling Flame, probably Chain Lightning if anyone ever used it all work with Penetrating Shot. Edit: I was thoroughly ninja'ed. Must've been on another tab when I was warned about missing a post, even.

Are you talking about that single skirmisher at the north Madhmr(sp) Bridge entrance? If so, that is an optional area that can be accessed from another direction, or you can level up more, increase your defenses via potions, scrolls, shields, items, etc.

Fireball, yuck! It would almost be a mediocre spell if it weren't on the same level as DAoM, Kalakoth's Blights, Expose Vulnerability, or Displaced Images. I get what you mean though.

Hah, this is fun to think about. I think you'll want at least three wizards with Blast and a different implement for each, even if they do other things half the time. Golden Gaze, Gyrd Haewanes, and Curoc's Brand are too nice to miss if you can AoE with all three at once. A lot of the difference between the others (except maybe the tank) will be spell mastery, elemental talent, and memorized spell choices. Well... gear too. You might juuust a little low on optimal wizardy pieces. Maxing con might not be all that necessary, particularly late-game - just enough to survive nasty hits. A dedicated tank can sleep with survival healing bonuses and use spell mastery: Infuse with Vital Essence every single fight and Veteran's Recovery + being mostly unhittable when facing the really nasty stuff. Edit: forgot about the not-quite-as-amazing-but-still-awesome CC wands. Now I want to see a 7-person party with just one wizard-tank and 6 wizards disorienting, stunning, pronating, interfering, making vulnerable, dominating, and igniting wounds. Might not need offensive spells vs anything vulnerable to crushing damage... ...I guess you could drop Elawen Ein from the implement rotation, though, barring any 7-person parties.

Are you talking about compound effects, like a spell that has to hit deflection and a secondary effect that needs to hit Fortitude? Either way, with buffs and debuffs it isn't a horrible problem in my experience, even solo.

You should probably be able to drop some Dexterity since you're using two weapons, particularly as a fighter. Two Weapon Style & Armored Grace should help keep you attacking fast.

Hmm. You tend to leave +accuracy talents until later levels - I wouldn't. PotD enemies have higher deflection and the extra accuracy helps most in the early game before you have a ton of buffs and debuffs available from your casters and scrolls. Inspired Flame gives more accuracy for both Sword and Arquebus than Weapon Focus - you're probably better off taking it first. Don't dump Strength on a wizard - it is very nearly the only way to increase spell damage except critting. Dumping both str and con means you'll have awful Fortitude defense, which is overall the most important one in the game. Spells don't use weapon accuracy and perception does increase spell accuracy. In a 4+ person party you can leave res at 10 or less. Use the level 1 spell Spirit Shield for extra concentration if you get in a situation where you need it. The Spell Heuristics stuff isn't in the game at all, Scion of Flame is very poor value for wizards compared to Secrets of Rime (wizards' fire spells are weak overall, while their frost spells are amazing and corrode spells quite good), and mental fortress & body control, while nice, are better for tanks. Grimoire Slam is also weak compared to lots of other talents. I would try to get Blast, Weapon Focus (Noble), and Penetrating Blast at low levels, while leaving whatever elemental talent(s) you choose for later. This allows your wizard to continue adding significantly to the party's damage while conserving spells per day. Arcane Veil is a good 1st or 2nd talent, though, and Hardened Veil is nice, too.

I rarely see them mentioned, but Fenwalkers are fantastic against paralyze. The wiki and Gamebanshee both show old stats. Currently they give +20 defense and -3 seconds duration to paralyze/stuck/hobbled. That can take a lot of the sting out of being paralyzed. Particularly grazes, since their duration is already low.

I have to agree about The Unlabored Blade. At 3% proc chance it will be underwhelming for anything other than a barbarian. Of course, at 10% it seems to proc constantly with Carnage. I don't think nerfing it for every class is the right solution - but on the other hand Obsidian can't spend forever working on this game... Edit: 5 or 6 percent might be still be appealing for non-barbarians.

I imagine it can be pretty difficult for a monk in a 6-melee party to take enough damage to really shine in any case. I wonder if that would make Lesser Wounds worthwhile?

Hmm, right. Accuracy stacking can obviously get nuts, however you add it. Auto-crit vs the toughest enemies in the game without debuffs. Maybe while you're the one with accuracy debuffs.

Might as well be using Flames of Devotion for +36 more (+16 of that for using an ability at level 16). Right? Hmm... Unlabored Blade would get pretty high, too, though it doesn't have

Are we including species bonuses? Doesn't Wild Leech stack with itself? With Spelltongue to keep it going and enough enemies that could get kinda crazy.