Lampros

"Marking"? What talent are you referring to here?

Hmmm, I wanted to use Borresaine on a Ranger, because I thought you said on a different thread that a Ranger can almost achieve the same crit rate that a Rogue can? So I thought on-crit effects will be useful on a Ranger, too?

Hmmm, but Persistence is slightly later (e.g. I can buy Borresaine at level 5, but I had trouble even at Od Nua level 2 at level 5 and decided to come back later). I am also not planning on micro-ing the animal much. He will just be a sacrificial lamb Ranger is definitely my third favorite class (#1 Rogue, #2 Druid). Master's Call and Takedown saved my butt more than once. I also second Persistence. Borresaine always seemed like a waste of money, particularly in aparty. Joe Since you mentioned the Rogue, what's your view on the viability of ranged Rogue for PotD?

Although PotD is widely touted as easy and such, the no second chance nature of this game mode still needs to be respected. And that's the point, if it was all the way smooth and easy, I personally wouldnt have done TC or ToI as I wouldnt be able to retain the necessary tension to hold my attention. Also take into account I imposed restrictions as well The beauty of TC is to also to live with the consequence of bad decision. For example, my current playthrough had me accidentally made the npcs in the Abbey hostile by lockpicking a door I shouldnt. So I was trapped in the abbey with hostiles and had to crave a way out. And the battles were brutal as it was upscaled with paladins, priests and monks. Every battle I won by the skin of my teeth, but it was also pretty darn amazing That's what my last PotD run was like (until I lost my save at level 6). I deliberately tried to avoid save scumming to prepare for TC, and I had so many instances where I was a hit away from being knocked out. But I avoided being knocked out mainly only because I took easy fights early on - which may not be possible later where there are fights I have to take to progress. So I want to get an abundant amount of practice before I try TC.

Indeed. I am planning on having my Wayfarer DPS Paladin to switch to Outworn Buckler or Little Savior for harder fights - especially boss fights. I think the Paladin's flexibility is absolutely amazing.

Imho, Adra Dragon is easier than Alpine, because she:- is very slow, iirc she has move speed of 3 and could be stopped completely via Hobble. - has much lower melee dps: damage (58-88 vs 74-101), no deathblows/finishing strike... and Alpine is "dual-wielding" and attacking faster than the "single-wielding" Adra Dragon. On the other hand, she is immune to fire, has comparable in damage Dragon Breath but of wider (!) cone, and also has the Wing Slam which can insta-kill unfortunately placed squishies. You are right the Adra Dragon is easier. I just didn't play it as carefully and it almost cost me. Wing slam insta gibbed Kana who is a dedicated tank. Still at 16 he only had 116 Fort and I have focused fort gear on him. I really like the chanter so far but the class performance in Dragon Fifghts has not been good. His Endurance is still lower then my Paladin and Fighter and he's been one shotted by the Alpine and Adra Dragon. Maybe I'm not using him right? I couldn't even turn the dragon I ran kana up and he got Wing Slammed to oblivion. Kana has every defense talent you can think of other then cautious attack which is irrelevant against Fort attacks. He's wearing the full White Crest set my Paladin has Ryonas. Still not enough I'm just going to stop tanking the dragons. A paladin can do it. I've got a 154 Fort on the Paladin maybe I should use him more as the main tank against big hitters and have kana pick up adds I just like keeping the Paladin close and not an island solo for Zealous Focus to spells. Need all the ACC you can get in those fights. What kind of stat distribution did you have on Kana? And gear besides armor? Now I am wondering if I want to tank with a Chanter against late-game bosses... Edit: And wow, 116 Fortitude is not enough?! My Paladin at 150 Fort will take grazes and those grazes HURT because of how high the base damage attacks are. He's got the 3 INT white crest helm, the necklace that makes his AOE bigger, +9 to Fort, reflex, will ring, +9 deflection ring. I forgot the boots and gloves I'm not home. A hatchet and the small shield you get from the Alpine dragon fight. Maybe I should have withdrawn him. He's got little savior now. Anyway it's best not to face tank until you have it heavily debuffed. Also 2 might chest enchant, has bears Fort also 150 Fort. My God. That's insane. So only Paladins can face-tank dragons at PotD?

Imho, Adra Dragon is easier than Alpine, because she:- is very slow, iirc she has move speed of 3 and could be stopped completely via Hobble. - has much lower melee dps: damage (58-88 vs 74-101), no deathblows/finishing strike... and Alpine is "dual-wielding" and attacking faster than the "single-wielding" Adra Dragon. On the other hand, she is immune to fire, has comparable in damage Dragon Breath but of wider (!) cone, and also has the Wing Slam which can insta-kill unfortunately placed squishies. You are right the Adra Dragon is easier. I just didn't play it as carefully and it almost cost me. Wing slam insta gibbed Kana who is a dedicated tank. Still at 16 he only had 116 Fort and I have focused fort gear on him. I really like the chanter so far but the class performance in Dragon Fifghts has not been good. His Endurance is still lower then my Paladin and Fighter and he's been one shotted by the Alpine and Adra Dragon. Maybe I'm not using him right? I couldn't even turn the dragon I ran kana up and he got Wing Slammed to oblivion. Kana has every defense talent you can think of other then cautious attack which is irrelevant against Fort attacks. He's wearing the full White Crest set my Paladin has Ryonas. Still not enough I'm just going to stop tanking the dragons. A paladin can do it. I've got a 154 Fort on the Paladin maybe I should use him more as the main tank against big hitters and have kana pick up adds I just like keeping the Paladin close and not an island solo for Zealous Focus to spells. Need all the ACC you can get in those fights. What kind of stat distribution did you have on Kana? And gear besides armor? Now I am wondering if I want to tank with a Chanter against late-game bosses... Edit: And wow, 116 Fortitude is not enough?!

Cipher required too much micro though. Hmm, what about a ranged Chanter? This was my initial choice, but I think Dragon Thrashed won't apply much on the enemy back-line?

Hmmm, but Persistence is slightly later (e.g. I can buy Borresaine at level 5, but I had trouble even at Od Nua level 2 at level 5 and decided to come back later). I am also not planning on micro-ing the animal much. He will just be a sacrificial lamb

Okay, I have made my decision. I will re-start with a few more pre-cautions to prevent lost saves. I will only play off-line, back up before exiting the game in a separate file, and see what happens. If the game still continues to lose saves, then I do not know what I will do. I guess a full re-install of everything? Anyways, a change in party composition: The tall Grass Barbarian is getting dropped; he's getting replaced by a Ranger who will use Borresaine and likely switch to Stormcaller later (unless people tell me that Borresaine is better). 4 melees was simply too difficult to manage. More important, I needed a ranged auto-attacker to take out or disable enemy casters fast. Finally, I am assuming the Ranger can wholly replace the Barbarian's AoE damage and CC role in addition to getting to the enemy ranged more quickly. Also, the Chanter tank is getting moved to the Tall Grass role. I do not want 3 melees on the first-line. So this is how it now looks: 1st line: Aragorn the Tidefall Paladin (will go Outworn Buckler/Shatterstar for more difficult fights); Gimli the dual war hammer Fighter 2nd line: Elrond the Tall Grass Chanter; the Ranger pet (technically, he makes it 4th melee as well, but I don't care if he lives or not, so I am not really going to micro-manage him) 3rd line: Legolas the Ranger (should he go on the 2nd line, too?); Galadriel the Wizard (Gandalf gets dropped, because we need more females to satisfy the men in the crew); Arwen the Priest. Edit: Legolas has been changed to a ranged Rogue.

K, thanks!

Yeah, I wanted to use Borresaine until Stormcaller, because I thought that was the best bow for the CC Ranger? Also, is Stormcaller really better than Borresaine, if your primary purpose is CC?

May I ask why Peasant Focus is needed, since Stormcaller is a Soulbound and does not need a specific Weapon Focus?

Jesus, if you veterans have trouble v. the dragons on TC, what will I do?

One more question: If I take a Ranger (egad!) to relieve the front-line congestion - instead of a 2nd pike guy - what weapon is better? Borresaine or Stormcaller?

If I go with 2 pike/quarterstaff users to prevent the idle melee problem I had the last game, then what would you suggest as a 2nd reach weapon? Other than Tall Grass, I see nothing really appealing on the Wiki. Perhaps duplicate Tall Grass?

Yes. And Devotions + Zealous Focus stack with Inspiring Radiance. You can also cast Dire Blessing (+20% hit to crit rate). So it's possible to get a great crit rate even on a paladin on PotD. Also, if you use FoD (+20 +1 ACC per level) and then Sworn Enemy (+15 ACC) you should be able to generate some crits without the help of others in every encounter. I actually had no idea all those things stacked. Thanks so much!

By the way, if I am arsed to start yet again today, I think I am definitely going to go with either only 3 melees or 4 melees but 2 pikes. The issue with idle melees were driving me nuts the last playthrough.

You should train for TC by using friendly fire AoEs as much as possible in order to get used to their templates and hence become able to use them safely without seeing them. But do I need them mid-/end-game? It seems like the top end-game spells are foe-only anyways - for instance, the Wizard's AoE petrify.

Well Outworn Buckler and Little Saviour stack for +10 to all Defences, and if you use the Helwax Mold on one of them (Little Saviour obviously) they'd all stack for +15 to all Defences. A bit of both, although he'll never hit the crit rate that some melee characters can. Yeah, 25 percent on the Fighter already without even Weapon Focus or good gear! As for the Defense stacking with Little Savior/Outworn Buckler, I don't ever foresee myself using more than 1 shield user - unless you suggest I go for a shield/1H set-up on a Priest. Does that work? I am afraid that the Priest will just rush forward and get herself killed if I take my eyes off on her

RP aside, once you have durganized weapons the +0.3 crit dmg is always the best choice. Also the paladin is not that bad either because Sworn Enemy/FoD allow him to land quite a few criticals during each fight. Ah, I forgot about Sworn Enemy, as I hadn't gotten it yet in my recent (now lost) playthrough. How does FoD compare in terms of Tidefall v. dual Bittercuts?

Hmm, I like the Slicken idea, but I guess I have to give up on Chillfog. I don't want a Rogue front-liner. Maybe a Tall Grass Rogue. But wouldn't a Tall Grass Barbarian be superior?

Yes, I used the Outworn Buckler for the first time yesterday, and I can see the huge advantage it gives my front-line. Still, I prefer the DPS Paladin, so I will give it up later at some point. My Chanter tank will have the Little Savior later - which duplicates the same buff - albeit at a much later time. I will likely use St. Rumbalt or Justice - until I get my hand on Tidefall. As for Tall Grass, I was giving it to my Barbarian. I think Paladins should be in the first-line, given their ridiculous defenses. May I ask why? Because he does good sustained damage without crits? Or will his crits increase a lot later? Does Devotions stack with Zealous Focus?

Yeah dual stiletto would be pretty lame for pally FoD. Honestly try using dual bittercut both with corrosive lash on a bleak walker paladin then take scion of flame and spirit of decay. If you want to do really stupid damage make an aumaua or dwarf bleak walker with living lands and maxed might. Take effigy's resentment eder or maneha for +1 might, gift from the machine and galawain's boon (+1 str each). Merciless hand and dungeon delver. Get bittercut, make it superb and duplicate it with helwax mold. Take all FoD buffs for bleak walker then scion of flame and spirit of decay like i mentioned before. Get Maegfolc skull for +4 might and ryona's vambraces for +3 dr bypass and spec vulnerable attack. Then with your OP dual bittercuts go and FoD a random mob and watch it explode into little giblets. Btw dual hammer is really cool also, shatterstar has annihilating and then there is godansthunyr which is amazing dual wielded with a barb. Imo the best weapons for FoD is pretty much what has already been stated in this thread. Firebrand, hours of st rumbalt, bittercut, an arquebus, dulcanale etc. Hey, thanks for the oodles of advice. The problem with a lot of your suggestions is that I try to balance between gameplay efficiency and role-play, and I really do not like to play "evil" or "monstrous' characters. So stuff like Aumaua (which seems a lot like PoE's stand-in for Orcs) or Bleak Walkers are out of my role-play comfort. I also think Wayfarers are more effective for my game-play style, too, as I heavily rely on the on-kill heals. I did use Bittercut and Purgatory for my Wayfarer Paladin the last playthrough, and I was fairly satisfied. But I want to try something else this time - either a Tidefall version or a dual hammer version. I am actually planning on annihilating the Doemenels for extra cash and role-play. It seems like 0.3 crit multiplier isn't all that great on Paladin, because Paladins have low crit on PotD. Also, they seem to be the most "evil" faction among the three choosable ones. Yes, I was considering using Strike Hard on a dual hammer wielder - main hand will be Godansthuynr and the off-hand will be either Shatterstar or Strike Hard. And if I have 2 dual wield hammers, then perhaps I will duplicate Godansthuynr and use Shatterstar for one and Strike Hard on the other.

I am experiencing a bug that is sapping my will to continue to play or buy future Obsidian products frankly. Basically what is occurring is that saves are regularly disappearing, and I can neither see them in game or save folder. At times, I can see very old saves again for some odd reason, but they also disappear when I re-launch the game. Apparently this is a relatively common problem, and I tried every work-around suggested in Obsidian and Steam forums, and none of them have worked. I tried to desynch from Steam Cloud, playing as Administrator-only, un-checking read-only from save file (you can't do this in Windows 10), deleted the Appdata files, disabling my antivirus - literally everything suggested. I have not tinkered with the game in any fashion other than install the IE Mod, disable auto-saves from there, and install MaxQuest's UPMod. That's all. I am on Windows 10, as noted above.