Moneo

Yeah, they are naturally soulless bodies who were animated via binding a soul to them, that's more precise definition. Nonetheless, that's nothing more than res cogitans vs res extensa logic... with minor tweaks of course (Descartes thought that animals don't have a soul and are nothing more than machines or automatons, whereas in PoE, every living creature has a soul, which is a part of res cogitans).

Actually, he's not undead - there are no "classic" fantasy undead in PoE - he's a vessel. The philosophy of PoE is a bit weird, but it's quite simple. In fact, it's a cartensianism of 80th level. In PoE, your body (Descartes' "res extensa") is just a vessel for your soul (Descartes' "res cogitans"), and souls can be easily separated from the bodies, 'cause both res cogitans and res extensa are different and mutually independent plains of reality, according to Descartes' philosophy. Moreover, in PoE lore, souls can be bound to other bodies. So, vessels are just soulless bodies and thus mere automatons, although there are some "privileged" vessels who retained certain forms of self-consciousness.

I suppose, that resurrection spells and especially according paladin's ability and chanter's invocation are obsoleted because of Resurrection scroll (BTW, I just try not to make my chars brought down). I rarely cast Priest's "Prayer against XX" spells and prefer scrolls. Also, even if you have a wizard, it's more convenient to spam Scrolls of Paralysis instead of spamming the according spells.

Boeroer has already answered to this question. I suppose, Celebrant's Gloves are the second best option for a chanter, 'cause they have an Overseeing enchant, which can spare you a ring slot. But there are some other good things, depending on your build, Bracers of all-consuming Rage, Bracers of Enduring (+stats is always good), Bracers of Deflection for some defense... BTW, I always have a pair of Gloves of Accuracy for my chanter. I usually loot 3 pairs of these gloves in Raedric's Hold (also, a pair of Gloves of Manipulation and Fenwalkers).

Yes, pally's innate abilities make him tanky. Also, he can be an okay DD-er. But a tanky pally just suits my playstyle so well. I like to run a high Res / high Int paladin as a PC, this provides me with good conversational options. Then, I like to abuse Sacred Immolation in every battle, it's an awesome thing. But the damage goes at expense of the health, so the less harm to health this char receives from the mobs, the more battles I can pass through without resting. Personally, I hate the resting system in PoE, 'cause frequent resting leads to just wasting your real time while returning for those stupid supplies and staring at those dull loading screens. Last but not least, there is Defensive Mindweb. Boosting your pally's defenses leads to making the whole your party almost invulnerable in the late game. Speaking of a good damaging tank option, I think, a monk suits this role the best.

Well, a mere paladin can be a such "supertank". It inflicts few damage until level 13, after that it starts to deliver a considerable amount with Sacred Immolation (even with low Per, I was surprised). Also, such a tank helps the party with his auras, heals and buffs. It's very useful during the whole gameplay. Also, in some fights like dealing with Maerwald, that mess on the bridge in Defiance Bay and some other - your PC moves forward during the scripted scene. So, it's handy to have a PC tank for those occasions, albeit they are quite rare.

@ Lampros Yeah, I know your antipathy to micromanaging. But look at this from a practical point of view. You can deal with most of the locks and traps without the Gloves. You need them only for several times in several places. Switching from one type of equipment to another rather seldomly is not a "micro" for my taste. And wearing the best available equipment in the battle is actually a part of "powergaming". Micromanagement IMO is such an approach which is requiered to certain builds. For example, switching between four arquebuses with an Island Aumaua in every battle is micromanagement. Running a spiritshifting druid is quite a "micro". Precise positioning of a squishy rogue in battle is micro - whereas with a monk, e.g., you can just unleash him out into the mess and don't be afraid if he would be hit, he'll become even stronger.

My Chanter is always on Mechanics duty, so he gets Gloves of Manipulation without fail. But good to know if I ever play 2 Chanters again! Yes, my chanter is a utility character too. But nothing stops you from holding Gloves of Manipulation in your inventory and putting them on when it's nescessary to pick a lock or disarm a trap, while using in battle another piece of equipment, which would benefit you more. Moreover, my chanter is actually always "she", 'cause I love that tender "Female - Mystic" voice, it's very pleasant to hear it througout the gameplay each time a trap is spotted or a lock is picked.

It can be not so obvious, but in PoE it's more profitable to boost high defenses than to improve weak ones. That's because of saving throw mechanics which is based on difference between Acc and Def values. For example, if an enemy has a 20% chance to hit you, and you boost your defense by 10, then the enemy will have a 10% chance, which means 50% improvement. But if he has a 80% chance to hit you, then the same boost will lead to 70% hit chance, which is only 12.5% improvement. So the best way to exploit Defiant Resolve is to roll a tankadin, who has overall the highest defenses in the party (except for Reflex, maybe) - yes, Defensive Mindweb, that's you who I'm looking at. At least, it's reasonable to take Bull's Will talent to every Wild Orlan no matter what class. And yeah, the aforementioned tactics is definitely funny. "I've beaten the game several times, I'm bored and I has nothing to do, so why not to try a new thing..."

Yeah, if you are on ToI, then Constant Recovery is a good choice. Also, speaking of talents, Outlander's Frenzy is a good choice for a cipher when other important talents are already taken. It can help replenish focus quickly in the beginning of the battle. Beware, OF's speed bonus doesn't stack with cipher's Time Parasite. BTW, I've never player a melee cipher, and they say, that after mid-game such a build doesn't have problems with focus, it flows in abundance. But for a ranged one, OF is a decent choice, according to my experiece.

@Samguol Combat Recovery is not so important for a cipher. Let him damage and debuff the enemies, and let your healers and buffers take care of him. Also, it's better IMO to take Weapon Focus earlier. And take Weapon Style before Apprentice Sneak. Weapon Style bonus applies to every your attack, not only for those which you deal against debuffed enemies, so it's handy to take it ASAP. That's true especially for 2H style. With my melee warriors, I usually stick to such a progression: Weapon Focus - Weapon Style - Apprentice Sneak Attack.

BTW, the best way to trigger (Apprentice) Sneak Attack using a cipher, is to cast Phantom Foes when the battle begins. Also, this will apply damage boni against Flanked from Survival and Glanfathan Stalking Boots. That's one of the greatest and my favourite debuff.

Actually, that's not a bonus, but a penalty, which Savage Attack applies to char's Accuracy. But that's a good thing for a melee cipher, that's one more reason why melee build obtains focus faster than the ranged one.

Also, there is Hermit's Hat which grants immunity to Confusion. But again, its a weird tactics IMO.

Wow, a complicated tactics of self-buffing via self-debuffing, yeah. But the best thing about Defiant Resolve is that it triggers even if an attack vs Will misses, even if your character is immune to that effect, as Boeroer mentioned. In practice, the nastiest high-level foes in the late game use frightening/terrifying auras, so in toughest battles Defiant Resolve will be constantly up. It's a great thing, it's probably the best racial ability, and I always play the game with a Wild Orlan tankadin in my party, but I don't bother myself in triggering it manually. When the things turn badly, it triggers automatically.

IMO it's better to use Gauntlets of Accuracy on a chanter. With higher accuracy you'll be doing a bit more damage on average.

I've done a test, so yeah, Iconic Projection takes into account only 1/4 of DR. That's cool. I've never paid attention to such a nuance.

I re-read your original message and only after that I paid attention to this detail. Do you mean, that Iconic Projection has to overcome only 1/4 of enemy's Freeze DR?

Yeah, that nice umlaut in the header I kinda like it and imagine how it's pronounced. BTW, how complicated PoE mechanics is. So many nuances, hidden and unobvious details.

I agree with Boeroer that rogues have great synergy with light fast-hitting one-handed weapons. Rogues' damage boni can mitigate low base damage of these weapons. But the best way to exploit this is to go dual-wield. When you go one-handed, you aim to land heaviest crits upon the toughest of your foes. That's why I recommended an annihillating weapon. Armed with this weapon, your rogue can bring down those cans of preservatives quite quickly. All and all, enemies with low DR are not a serious problem for a full-party. BTW, I forgot about the axes. I've just never used them. Rimecutter is a decent thing, if you manage to obtain it, it's a bit random, whereas you can buy Shatterstar quite early in the game.

1. I wouldn't recommend dumping Per on such a rogue, at least take average 10. Per is not only Accuracy, but also Interrupt, it's important too. Consider that you interrupt your foes just by hitting them, and no one has immunity to interrupt. Moreover, on PotD you can't have too high Accuracy 2. Just don't bother yourself with those on-hit/on-crit effects, they are rather underwhelming, especially with such a rogue, where you can calmly dump Int. A rogue can do two things with his weapon: first, high damage (which leads to mere death of enemy, I'd say, that's the best debuff ever), second, interrupt (when you crit, you have higher interrupt dices). So, I'd recommend you Shatterstar for such a rogue, IMO that would be the best weapon here. Two damage types, +0.5 crit multiplier on top of all rogue's boni to damage, higher interrupt values (1 sec!). All this means that nothing can escape your rogue's avenge. Also, two sabres with same Annihilation enchant would go (Resolution and Purgatory), they'll provide somewhat higher damage in comparison to the war hammer, but realize that slash DR is the highest DR of your enemies in average throughout the gameplay, and some foes are just immune to slash. On the other hand, in practice crush/pierce pair is the least resisted by DR combination of damage types.

Thanks for the analysis. I've been looking for such a survey for some time. I wonder, does Minor Threat work with cipher's damaging powers like Soul Ignition, Detonate, Desintegration? That's assuming would a Hearth Orlan be a good ranged cipher or not.

Speaking about the priests, I want to stress out that on top of all, this class has some reputation rewards and restrictions. For example, a Skaen priest must be Cruel and Deceptive and mustn't be Aggressive and Benevolent. Being Cruel and Deceptive is rather important in this game, 'cause this gives you a couple of some nice talents. But so is the Benevolent reputation. It's crucial to be Benevolent in some cases (being Benevolent, you can get +3 Fame - or how it is called - to you stronghold not to mention a couple of artifacts). Being Aggressive is handy in couple of times, but it's avoidable. You can choose one Aggressive response in order to gain more money and reputation and not pump up the according disposition. Of course, there is one quest, where a priest of Skaen can take a unique decision, but that's minor IMO. I like to play priests and pallys as PC, 'cause they are the only classes which get stronger just because of roleplaying. But I don't like to restrict myself and gimp my character for only roleplay reasons, so I usually pick up a priest of Magran or a paladin of Goldpact. They both can be Cruel and Deceptive and also Honest and Benevolent, so they have no penalties in game mechanics because of roleplaying. Moreover, a priest of Magran is quite strong, it has arguably the best Symbol of Deity (a 8th level spell) and also can carry an arquebus (it's not so handy as Wael's rod, but is also viable, there is one good unique arquebus).

Nope, I haven't. Personally, I don't like approaches which require a lot of micro. I've only tried Firebrand a couple of times with my barb, but even this is too much fuss for my lazy butt))) Everything dies even without Firebrand, moreover, there are a bit more interesting gloves, like those of Accuracy or of Swift Action. So... perhaps, it's an interesting idea, but not for my playstyle... The thing I like the most about PoE-like games is powergaming, so I'm interested not only in sophisticated builds, but in designing power parties with strong innate synergies. It's not so obvious, but simplicity may be a strong approach too

This could be powerful, but to use Firebrand effectively you need to have high Int, not to mention other stats. I've only played with low-to-mid-Int monks. This class relies on many stats, and not so many stat-points go in Int. The build you described performs a strong but IMO too narrow approach. It requires definitely a lot of micro and, perhaps, resting. On the other side, a monk with fists and "Offensive" AI option is quite easy in managing. I had a great experience playing with such a build, it's a powerhouse, and the only reason I fired him is that he doesn't perform well enough with Reaping Knives.