Theosupus

--Re Giftbearer's Cloak: Yeah, you certainly lose more net points in defenses if you wear the Cape of the Falling Star. But the designers, anyway, take deflection to be much more important than the other defenses. One point of comparison: The Cloak of Greater Deflection and the Cloak of Greater Resistance are supposed to be comparable, one which provides +7 deflection, the other which provides +10 to each of your other three saves (so +30). That suggests that +1 deflection is supposed to be worth about +4.3 points of one of the other defenses (refl, fort, will). So that would make the Cape of the Falling Star worth about +50.1 "generic" defense points, as compared to the Giftbearer's Cloak which is worth around +45/46 "generic" defense points, and only if you devote all of your skill points to History. Another point of comparison: a 3rd level feat available to all classes increases refl or fort or will by +10, while a 5th level feat that only fighters can take increases defl by +4. The fighter-only restriction, and higher level requirement, make it clear that the +4 deflection boost is supposed to be a considerably better deal than the +10 boost to one defense. Again, something like a +1/+4 or +1/+5 tradeoff sounds about right, which again puts the Cape of the Falling Star ahead, value-wise. But, of course, what the designers think and what's actually best in the game are two different things! And there's no denying that the Giftbearer's Cloak is very good. --Re Ring of Greater Regeneration: Yeah, the value of the ring is roughly determined by (1) what percentage of the damage you take it heals, and (2) how many other sources of healing you have to rely on. The build I tend to run with has very high AR, which slows down damage enough such that a Ring of Greater Regeneration goes a fair way toward healing me as quickly as I get damaged. And in upscaled solo PotD, I find that a lot of fights (especially in the SSS DLC) tend to take forever, meaning that consumable healing runs out too quickly to rely on. If you're finding that you get damaged much more quickly than the ring heals you, and/or you find that you can get through upscaled PotD fights relatively quickly, then the ring will probably be of less value to you. (I'm genuinely curious about the latter question, by the way -- do you find you can get through solo upscaled PotD fights in SSS pretty quickly? Cuz if so, I definitely should try this out -- my SSS fights seem to last forever!) Different defenses are optimized for different fights and strategies. If you have super high deflection and really low fortitude barbarian NPCs will tear you up (Brute Force). Deflection also doesn't help vs AoE attacks that typically target Reflex. For a tank that stands in melee, deflection will be the most important typically, but there are cases were you may want to pump other defenses. (e.g. certian encounters, or if you stack your tank's reflex so you can friendly fire spells on top of him without worry).

I ran with: Tekehu Xoti (with gear slightly modified) Eder (as a rogue w/ dual mortars) Last slot floated between Serafen and Maia (with slight gear adjusts) until the final quest when I lost Maia. So between the frenzy hit>crit and all the buffs he was a crit machine that synergized with full attack spamming and Last word rather well.

The save is deleted because he dies with the trial of iron mode active?.

Yes, this was what I was thinking about; but I thought it was Glacierbane - as they both have similar on-crit effects. But less reliable and short though. So from what you guys are saying, there is no direct "silence" spell or attack that works reliably. Instead, I have to get it as an indirect effect through a more comprehensive shutdown attacks such as stun, paralyze, frighten, etc. Last word shuts down all active abilities for 3 seconds when you crit with it. Glacierbane Suppresses buffs when you crit My fanatic dual wielded these and the hardest fights were so easy my AI could beat any encounter on POTD (total cheese) because they were auto attacking with no buffs.

Last Word Silences (technically it says can't use active abilities so it's better than silence) on crit. Last time I played it was silenced on crit... not possible to silence on crit. On a crit heavy fanatic build I fought and most bosses were stuck auto attacking only. Not sure if this has been adjusted yet.

Either 1. Take the shift out of the AI and do that part manually. or 2. Change "always true" to, self: 0 phrases (e.g. right after the summon).

Somehow I missed your second question: You could dual wield and still be pretty tanky. However, you may actually see a drop in overall dps (at least on multiple mob fights) because the main synergy of the build is pumping deflection for the 2 ripostes (skill based & the shield's crush riposte) which in turn lowers damage which hits heavy armor which mitigates damage down below the regen ring's threshold; which makes you nigh invulnerable.

Not that I know of, but I haven't delved into the SSS loot yet.

The whitewitch mask is normally on my berserker as a "oh sh!t" protection and a visible notification of low HPs. I don't think you'll get good use out of the passives on a tank that shouldn't ever hit low hit points in most cases, but you will get good use out of the bonus illusion PLs on a Trickster subclass. Another thing you're giving up is an engagement slot (the Blackened helm has +1 engagement).

I haven't gotten SSS yet. I'm taking a burn out break until the next major change/x-pac. Then I'll update everything. The idea for the shield is the second chance at the riposte so you get a lot more dps with it than without; but if dps isn't your main concern then changing the shield is fine.

If you dont want to mouseover before you engage or manually pause in combat you can have it autopause on extreme defense.. basically you will auto pause if you get a combat log entry of damage immunity.

There are certain enemies that are immune to certain damage types. I can't speak for online beastiaries or the in game cyclopedia.

-I would keep in mind that testing builds at level 5 will skew your results. -Different builds have different break points where they become "full power". -Builds that are "amazeballs" at 5 won't necessarily scale, while others that have a rougher go at 5 become amazing at 10 or 15. -Other builds are gear dependent and don't really work until you get certain gear then take off. -Very rare are the builds that hit their power state by 5 (are there any?) In conclusion, all your 1st isle testing may still net you a build that you get bored with, or are disappointed in, later on. I would seriously just go by which play-style is the most fun. The "best" builds typically end up being the boring ones since they are neigh invulnerable and have unlimited resources.

I always max perception on every character that will target enemy mobs. I hate missing. I think the only time I would ever take a lower than max perception would be if I was making a buff/heal-bot type character. Others' mileage may vary.

I personally like dual wield unless I'm building for a specific purpose. Two weapons, two different enchantments, and two different effects. For example Last word + Glacierbane = 3 sec silence and 6 sec suppress beneficials on a crit. Or Scordeo's + sasha's etc.

I don't buy into BIS attributions for Deadfire weapons (unless something is broken/cheese). Can it be "the most dps" with certain setups in certain fights? Sure. But that same weapon with the same build might suck for another fight. Oathbreaker is amazing for a Raw damage stacking build you can do on a barb, or barb multi-class, w/ bloody slaughter [or a melee ranger (snicker) spamming whirling strikes]. Amra reall nice for the extra AoE damage it does BUT... that damage is not raw so it doesn't bypass armor like Oathbreaker does. Note: I haven't set up a build specifically for this weapon yet and only did some preliminary testing. Lord Darryn is amazing for the electric stacks, procs, and non-physical damage type option; there are builds specific to using this weapon to maximize its specially abilities. I haven't tested the eager blade so I can't speak to it. IMO Oathbreaker is going to edge out dps on bleed builds due to the raw v slash damage types but I haven't done extensive testing yet. I'll probably do a new character and new runs after the next x-pac. I don't want to burn myself out replaying the same encounters over and over.

it depends on the fight. on some you could draw aggro turtle up and buff/heal summons and last forever. On others go dps w an offhand or staff. even switch back and forth on different phases as required.

CS is a large shield that +def per athletics and -% all incoming damage per metaphysics. combine with cloak greater deflection and your def goes through the roof on a pally. and metaphysics add extra damage w/ the chromo staff

id personally go wayfarer/troub then equip sasha scimitar and CS. Stack athletics and metaphysics and youre neigh invulnerable. use Chromo staff as backup weapon for finishing things off.

posted in wrong thread. stupid mobile version

I assume you are being sarcastic but have yet to show any evidence that carnage and wanton gore suppresses one another. I have seen the opposite in the few tests I've run.

Herald seems like it will always be the easiest to solo with. Combining the defenses, and healing, from a pally with the summons, & unlimited resources, from the chanter is hard to top for soloing.

You need to check damage roll with shift button, as I wrote they both proc but one of them will be suppressed Neither say suppressed in the shift window where would that show? I did the 19 and the 14; I saw the damage text rise too (didn't SS in time though).

I have carnage and Wanton Gore hitting; just not chaining off of each other.

With amra equiped: Your normal hits/crits proc carnage Crits from the main attack also proc amra amra proc doesn't proc carnage carnage crits do not proc amra So it works fine together Side note: If you are confused amra procs hit you too.