masterty66

All good advice but I will say my personal preference is to have most of my party in at least medium armor. Light armor is rarely used unless it's awesome like the Savior's Hide. The heavy front glass cannon back line approach isn't as good in WM1/2 thanks to huge amounts of enemies and encounters which often have you being hit from multiple sides. Playing on POTD I find Durance eats dirt a little too often if I have him in light armor for example. But it does seem to depend on class too. For whatever reason Aloth rarely gets targeted no matter what armor I put him in. But Durance always seems to, so he's usually in at least med armor.

No. All classes are good and useful. Rogue is probably the weakest, but even it is playable.

True. Once you beat WM1 and start to hit level 9-11ish the game becomes easy if you know what you're doing and that's no matter what build you've got. But still looking forward to seeing that uptick in power . And this build is solid because unlike some other builds it feels strong enough even from the start. Yes your DPS will not be great early on but with carnage you will still contribute and with the high defense stats you'll still be a very respectable tank even in the early going. This is not one of those builds where you have to hold its hand until it gets its goodies. Sometimes I'll try a build that is supposed to be great at level 13 or 11 or whatever and I'm like yeah that's all nice but that's maybe 1/3rd of the game. What about the rest of it? So this build is nice in that regard and my preference is always that a build at least holds its own at low levels even if it takes a while to reach its heights. I'm about to tackle Durgan's and I think Ive been knocked out maybe twice at most with this guy so far? Pretty impressive. And that's with a rotating cast of party members. I don't always take the most optimal allies because I like to mix it up and use all the classes.

Yeah I gotta say it's giving me a new found respect for shields/high deflection. Usually I eschew those things in favor of a party that focuses on offense. This guy isn't so great on offense yet since I'm not level 11 with HOF/the right gear but he survives so well and his debuffs help team defense as well. I mean even at low levels he still contributes at least a little on offense thanks to carnage (albeit slowly) but the high defense makes him a great tank even early on with that + fear shout.

Just wanna say I've been using this and I am enjoying it a lot. My parties on POTD are usually offensive in nature. I never realized how good shield deflection can actually be though. I'm in WM1 right now and this guy just does not get hit very often. Even with the low con it's just not a concern because with the high surviv + deflection he can regen fast even when hits do get through (which are rare). I'm not even close yet to his ideal power since I don't have HOF or all of the other goodies. But with exceptional plate + thick skinned + fear shout every fight and painful interdiction every fight he just doesn't get touched much. Can only imagine how strong he'll be once I've got the ability to do real damage with him too thanks to HOF and the Maw shield. For anyone trying this he pairs really well with Kana/Durance (or hireling Chanter + Priest). I mean what doesn't, right? But the heal chant + painful interdiction is a potent combo when you've also got the fear shout going off every fight. This guy just won't get hit much even early on thanks to his high deflection once you have a good shield for him.

I know that he said that about Death's Usher (Death Godlikes' racial ability). I never saw this about Bloody Slaughter. @MaxQuest: can you check? That would be worth knowing. Death's Usher + Bloody Slaughter for the win! Bloody Slaughter is still the same in v3.05. If you attack an enemy that already has strictly less than 10% endurance, you get a bonus 20% hit-to-crit conversion, and all your crits against that target get a bonus 0.5 to their damage coefficient. P.S. Death's Usher uses 25% threshold. P.P.S. Linking another related thread. Does Death's Usher stack with Bloody Slaughter? I'd guess that it would. That would make hits with enemies at 10% pretty painful. Problem is as Boerer pointed out the best on kill items are mostly head gear. So that would hurt that synergy a bit. But I guess it still might be worth trying a Death Godlike Kindwayfarer, or do a Kindwayfarer who focuses on using Tempered Helm.

Yeah sometimes I try to lure them way north to either split the group or else fight them at that choke point up there and then AOE for all I'm worth. Feels a bit cheesy but I confess I find it irritating that there is no defense against what they do on POTD short of being high enough level to cast prayer against treachery. I mean you *can* CC them with repeated spams of slicken and the like but that only lasts a few seconds and eventually they will get up and get some charms off on your guys. And those ghouls with them while not hitting especially hard still have tons of HP. It's just tough to grind all the enemies down especially when key party members get charmed.

Has anyone ever done builds with bloody slaughter to try to take advantage of on kill items/abilities? Off the top of my head classes that could benefit: Kind Wayfarer: Get lots of finishing blows to use strange mercy Barbarian with Blood Thirst Rogue/Monk/Cipher using Steadfast? Twin Sting also an option. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of weapons that do on kill effects and none with particularly strong on kill effects. So I guess the better option might be to focus on crit heavy builds using weapons like Tall Grass etc to use strong crit effects and give yourself a high chance to finish enemies. Also you'd want to use a Death Godlike of course . I might have to build something with this in mind.

The irritating thing about charm is you don't get immunity to it til Priests have level 6 spells. That's a long time, and you will deal with enemies that Charm before you get access to that spell. I typically do Wm1 around level 7, and dealing with that group of Fampyrs in Russetwood is a nightmare. It requires excessive CC/aoe spam along with scrolls of defense and every other trick I can muster. Even with all that I wipe a lot.

I've messed around with Bilestomper and that doesn't seem to need to rest every fight thanks to its high con/fort defense. It is a bit annoying how slow it casts though. How about a good ole fashioned Fighter? I've never built one as a MC but Eder always does well defensively no matter how I build him. Even if I build him for offense he's hard to kill and does plenty of damage. Fighter isn't the sexiest class on paper but it's very strong.

Interesting. I didn't realize it worked that way. Thanks for that.

Is this quest hard to get or am I just unlucky? In my current run I got it as my second random generated stronghold quest, so I'm happy about that. Trying out Boerer's Bilestomper and I got the Diving Helmet on my first random quest, and the Wax mold on the second . But the other runs I've done (three or so I guess?) I either didn't get it at all or got it extremely late in my game.

I'm trying this build so far (in a group) and it's holding its own. Like all rogues he will still go down unfortunately quick if focus fired but like Boeroer said if you keep it to just a few enemies at a time on him he can hold his own thanks to the heal bonuses.

It does but with padded armor or robes you're still gonna take some big hits which will drain that pool quickly I'd think. You won't die during fights but you will still take big health damage. But I guess pots of infuse health will take care of that a bit, or you can just give a companion or two triage which with all of the insane + heal bonuses on this build will bring your health pool to max. And yeah ideally as with all rogue builds you still have teh enemy on your tanks first anyways.

So how are you avoiding running out of health and having to rest a lot with this build? You won't die a lot in fights given the heal bonus but I'd imagine the health pool will drain quickly given your low armor. Do infusion potions work the same way the Wizard spell does (ie, if you use them just before the fight ends, you get a health bonus)?

Feel like you might want to consider the Sanguine Plate. Lose a little bit from the lack of sneak attack bonus but you get a little more protection and will still attack quite fast thanks to Frenzy. But I just love that armor so maybe I'm biased .

Yeah I usually grab everyone and just cycle them around to keep it fresh. I'll definitely try Tidefall on Maneha then. I haven't done that before - I usually have her dual wield for more carnage hits. Trying to spice up my normal way of building the npcs this run so that should be a fresh change. One of these days I'll try to solo as well but I usually get bored doing that in other rpgs so haven't yet.

You are right. That part is indeed very tricky since Runner's duration and also that of wounding is rather short. That's why I casted Shining Beacon, then CF (also not too long) and followed up with a Runner's Wounding Shot (or Envenomed Strike) with Tidefall. Still tricky. That way you have decent runner's damage (not the max, but good) or posion DoT and wounding applied with one strike. But that was because of my solo run. It would indeed be way less fuzz to apply DoTs with other party members. So you might as well skip Runner's altogether and give Tidefall to a party member while you use another great sword (as I said - Firebrand with high MIG and Scion of Flame is also very nice. Or try Rumbalt - with Inspiring Radiance + Devotions you can crit a lot). Yeah, if you want a vessel slayer I would also say Berath fits best. Yeah I guess given I'm going with a party it might make more sense to drop Runners/Quick switch and use Savage Attack/Inspiring Radiance instead to squeeze out even more dps. Firebrand is interesting, as is Rumbalt. I've never really used Rumbalt much. The accurate 3 it comes with would be nice too on a Priest. I guess if I went that route I'd probably give Tidefall to Pallegina or Maneha.

Hmm forgot about envenomed strike. That would definitely play well with this too. I had forgotten that Scion doesn't work with Beacon/Radiance but like you said it's still nice for the other direct burn spells. Savage Attack could definitely be nice and might be worth it. With high might + two hander that +20% damage could be huge. I'll have to think on if I can fit that or not. I hadn't considered the high damage approach with runner's wounding shot. So you were using an Arquebus then or something similar? My worry there is I'd fire the shot off but not have enough time to apply Cleansing Flame before the dot ran its course due to the long delay. But if you tried it and it worked, then it could definitely be nice. The only reason I thought about the scepter was for being able to get the shot off plus then be able to quickly cast CF. I'm going to be trying this in a party so I should definitely bring Sagani and Devil along a lot I would think. Sanctifier/Scion plus the Bartender Ring are totally a matter of taste. I thought it fit the theme well to melt vessels since Berath seems to dislike undead (although in some cases like Raedric etc he approves of it so it's weird?). It's totally viable to do what you did and drop those in favor of Savage Attack, Inspired Radiance, etc. In truth I just love the Priest nuking spells too much and I love wrecking Vessels (plus fits the theme) so that's the route I took. Thanks for tips

Noticed Boerer talking about the joys of a Berathian priest in another thread here so thought I'd give it a stab. This is what I went with: Race: Death Godlike (fits the theme). If you just want to focus on power I guess a Boreal Dwarf or Coastal Aumua could be nice for the +accuracy or extra stun resistance respectively. Str: 19 Con: 8 Dex: 19 Per: 10 Int: 19 Res: 3 Talents: Aggrandizing Radiance The Pallid Hand(!) Two Handed Style Runner's Wounding Shot Veteran's Recovery Scion of Flame Quick Switch Sanctifier Equipment: Head: N/A Neck: Swaddling Sheet Chest: Sanguine Plate or Wayfayer's Hide Belt: Girdle of Mortal Protection Boots: Shod in Faith Boots Gloves: Celebrant's Gloves/Gauntlets Of Swift Action Ring 1: Bartender's Ring Ring 2: Ring of Overseeing/Gathbin's Signet Weapon: Tidefall / Ydwen's Redeemer Weapon: Engwithan Scepter So the point of this build is to buff up and swing Tidefall at your enemies. Once your enemies are dotted up from Tidefall you can then cast a cleansing flame to really ruin their day. You also have the option to open with the Engwithan Scepter with a Runner's Wouding shot followed by a Cleansing Flame to do the same thing. I chose the Scepter because it's a fast weapon and you'll want to be able to quickly get off a cleansing flame and/or switch to Tidefall after firing that first shot. Because you're swinging a big two hander you want high dex for both faster recovery and so you can still cast spells as needed. This build also figures to have poor deflection most of the time unless you focus on it with buffing and so you'll be hit and crit a lot which means you want items which will help you with that. Shod in Faith will give you the healing to survive the hits while you buff up, and Celebrants will help your poor concentration score (you can also open with a quick holy meditation when needed as well if you really need to not be interrupted). Sanguine Plate will keep you attacking fast and give you a bit of a bonus there and then you can also pop Aggrandizing Radiance which from what I understand stacks meaning you'll get a nice bonus to physical stats when you've got both up. The Bartender's Ring and Sanctifier plus your ridiculous might score means you can also ruin the day of vessels. Doubly so once you've got Ydwen's Redeemer and you'll be able to use that as well vs Vessels. I don't think you want this character in the very front row due to his poor concentration score. I figure put him in the second row and let your front line get the enemies' attention while you pop a quick buff or three, and then wade in and conquer. Because you're in the thick of things and have high might you'll be able to drop AOE bombs on the enemy as well if you need to. So you can function well as both a melee hard hitter and an excellent nuker. For single targets if you get dots on them your cleansing flame will wreck faces. Haven't tested now and am going to give it a shot but I think it should be great fun. Boerer I used you as inspiration so I'm sure you've tried this already and have your own spin on it .

Been using this build and liking it so far. What's the best off hand to use before the Vent Pick? I'm using Spelltongue right now and that seems pretty solid. The attack speed bonus is nice. I lucked out and found some +15% speed gauntlets recently and also got the +wave cloak so I'm in business. My only annoyance with using Spelltongue is it attacks so fast that a lot of times it will hit with the Flames of Devotion rather than Bittercut, so that might be the downside to using a fast weapon in the off hand.