Lampros

Yes, I am exaggerating!

Is this Paladin your main character? If so you should have at least 72 Deflection (without gear) when Faith and Conviction activates in combat (assuming you've been careful to choose the appropriate Dispositions), and 106 Fortitude, 86 Reflex and 102 Will. If it's not your main character then those values will be a little lower (I can't remember exactly how F&C scales for non-MC Paladins) but still pretty decent. Add on a bunch of bonuses from various items and buffs from spells and you should be tanky enough. Don't forget that the bonus from F&C only activates during combat. Outside of combat your Defences will appear lower than they really are. No, the Chillfog tank is my main. Also, I edited out the "mediocre Defense" part; I got confused with my Pike Chanter. I also did not realize that Faith and Conviction boosts are only shown in combat. Thanks!

Assuming you play through Pillars a few times you'll feel the same. I am nowhere near as knowledgeable of the mechanics as the likes of Boeroer and Kaylon, but I've reached the stage where most of non-solo PotD feels easy (exceptions being the early game and particularly tough fights like bounties). When I first played Hard mode seemed pretty tough. I don't think I would ever play PotD. In principle, I am against radically boosting enemy stats to increase game difficulty in an RPG. Enough of this scenario where I am supposedly a demi-god and yet the common ruffians I am fighting have x4 HPs and damage. Ridiculous, immersion-breaking, and cheap. (I am looking at you, Elder Scrolls.) I prefer to increase enemy numbers or quality. I am trying Hard after this initial playthrough, so I shall see how that goes.

If you are still on this forum: I am not quite sure about the "tanking" part. I've got 65 Deflection and relatively low HP/Endurance pool at level 14 with this build. And taking heavy hits. How did you manage to tank? I think I will have to give this guy Veteran's Recovery at least, and probably get rid of the Swaddling Clothes in favor of more Deflection/Defense item. Otherwise, I am still loving this build. The FoD burst is weaker than I hoped, but the overall DPS is still satisfactory, and the build is very fun to play.

I have this guy to level 14, and I now have almost all the same stat distribution, gear, and offensive talents - except Remember Rakhan Field (I chose Wayfarer). And I am severely disappointed by the FoD burst damage. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I am not getting those massive hits. Was something from here nerfed since this build was posted? Edit: Is Vent Pick the best off-hand choice here, if you don't have 2 Legendary Bittercuts? (As an aside, I don't understand the point of posting builds that stress Legendary weapon enchants. Isn't the game essentially over by then? My understanding is that the Kraken fight ends WM 2.)

Are Endurance potions preferable to Regeneration potions? What about Recovery potions?

I doubt this is the case for all but you professionals!

This thread is full of useful information. Thanks! In particular, what is contained in these two paragraphs is wholly new for me. That is, I never even considered hide armor for melees due to the low DR; and I didn't realize that Defender is now not so useful.

10 Accuracy is fairly big, but in the mid to late game the only fights where your pet should be dying at tougher ones, and in those you should really cast every Accuracy buff available to you (as well as Deflection debuffs on your enemies), at which point that -10, whilst still bad, becomes much less of an issue. To be honest there isn't all that much difference between the pets when it comes to durability. Antelopes and Bears have innate abilities that make them a little tankier (+7 to all defences for the Antelope and +2 Damage Reduction for the Bear) but they'll all be roughly equivalent at tanking (pretty good off-tanks, but definitely not main tank material). Antelopes being so tanky - sounds so counter-intuitive! In fact, why are they even a ranger (a sort of hunter?) pets? They are the hunted!

If I ever make an Overbearing Guard tank, what stat/attributes controls the effectiveness of Knockdowns? Accuracy (ability to hit, I guess) and Intelligence (is knockdown duration considered a "spell" duration?)? Edit: Never mind. Braven's comprehensive answer after your post addressed those points!

How do you guys fill your 4 backpack slots in terms of consumables? I didn't use these slots at all, because I was busy buying gear, but now I have a huge surplus - not to mention big boss fights coming - I want to get an idea of how these slots are best utilized. To begin with, is food ever needed expect the really difficult boss fights? And which food? I assume the highest quality Dragon food for the boss fights, but they are obviously expensive so kind of limited - even with my treasury! Next, potions. I guess I am going to use either Endurance or Regeneration potion for 1 slot for heals, but then what? I think someone mentioned that Recovery potions are needed for tough fights, but aren't you already often disabled when you get afflictions? Or do you use these potions as a preventative measure? Then the scrolls. I read Petrify (or was it Paralyze?) scrolls are useful against Dragons. What else come handy? Finally, trinkets - especially summonable trinkets. Are these ever really needed? Anyways, really look forward to hearing how to use the backpack slots. 4 slots are really not that much unfortunately - so I want to know how to best optimize here.

Dammit; I went all over the maps to recover that damn girdle! Good thing I kept the alternative belts. Oh well. Anyways, I'd better hear Boerer's clarification, too.

Uselessness is going a bit far: it's -10 Accuracy (bad), -2 Might (bad, but not that bad) and -2 Resolve (usually irrelevant) which goes away if the pet is brought back to consciousness. If the Ranger takes the Vengeful Grief ability then as well as those penalties, they get the following buffs for a short while (I can't remember the duration): +20% Damage (outweighs the -2 Might by far), +1.3 Move Speed (situationally useful) and +20% Attack Speed (very good unless your recovery is already zero). All in all I'd say that, even without Vengeful Grief, the penalty for a pet being knocked unconscious isn't a big deal so long as you're already on top of your Accuracy buffing game. On top of that, in fights where it matters you could always resurrect the pet to remove the debuff. Ah, ok. That's a pretty huge Accuracy debuff though. And can Rangers do decent damage without the pet - relative to other bowmen I can use instead (e.g. Chanter, Cipher, or even Rogue)? My understanding was that a significant portion of the Ranger's DPS come from the pet. And which pet is the most durable and the least micro-management-intensive?

You should just not sell any unique gear at all , it's not like there's much to spend money on in Pillars, or any shortage of money. The constructs in Galvino's lab? You're supposed to run away from them when they go into suicide mode and/or use disposable summons to tank them (I used Sagani's pet Ituumak and Essential Phantoms for this purpose). Duh, I didn't realize. So it's not my melees' fault if they die in 2 explosions? I thought I did not give them enough Endurance or Defense...

I'd keep scale armor on the table solely for fighters, because the -20% armor speed penalty plus -15% from durganizing push it down to zero recovery penalty. For any other class it's a pretty underwhelming combo of defense and speed. Why not breastplate? Ditto. There are several good breastplates to be had. I Durganized Dragon Scale armor, and I am wondering if I made a mistake. I wanted to give my dual wielding Paladin as little an armor penalty as possible, but 10 Pierce resist isn't much...

But don't Rangers get debuffed to uselessness when pets get knocked out? That was my understanding...

But then I have to make sure the pet doesn't die I think I will just run 3 Chanters or 4 Chanters. I suppose I will need a Priest for heals and buffs and a Wizard for AoE and CC.

Yes, that's the troubling trade-off. I initially tried ranged Rogue precisely to prevent micro-management, but I realized that the Rogue's DPS will be under-utilized as a pure ranged DPS, and that a Cipher or even a Chanter might bring more utility as a ranged DPS - since they can do so many other things at the same time. So I am trying to see if I can have micro-free Rogue, and hence this idea of full Drain and high avoidance/healing Rogue! Maybe I should just run 4 Chanters and 2 Paladins for no micro!

Holy fug! That's a lot of crit damage saved. And I guess there are mobs that hit that hard? Too bad I sold the Mortal Protection belt! I am going to go look by various merchants to see where I sold it. (I should only sell magical items to my merchant in Caed Nua so I can find stuff easier.) So far the spike damage that's messed me up are the exploding Constructs (especially if 2 go off at the same time and location) and traps (they knock me out even if they Graze me sometimes). I try to disable them earlier, but sometimes they are located in the middle of enemies, and I miss them until I walk into them in the middle of a battle...

Sever the Soul is actually a useful skill? Wow...

What's a better belt for surviving spike damage? Blunting Belt or +3 Constitution? Or something else? I have been putting the Blunting Belt on everyone, because an online guide said it's "OP," but I wonder if it's time to change when end-game rolls around. In particular, I seem to be getting a lot more spike damages from different sources now than Piercing or Slashing. So any suggestions? Level 14, and I have yet to do Act III, White March II, Concelhaut, or the Adra Dragon.

The whole point for this build for me at least is not only survival but less micro-management!

I'd keep scale armor on the table solely for fighters, because the -20% armor speed penalty plus -15% from durganizing push it down to zero recovery penalty. For any other class it's a pretty underwhelming combo of defense and speed. Why not breastplate?

Well, alternatives to Boots of Stability? So far items are beginning to get plentiful, but helmet and shoe slots do not look all that impressive. Maybe it will stay that way.

Ok, so they should be done last! Who else? Edit: Wait, but one of the WM II bounties have the helm I want!