Jojobobo

Nature Godlike needs a strong boost, rather than it just being a weaker human. I'd suggest a per encounter (or two per rest) summon with 15s duration that's strong early game but tapers off mid to late, either that or per encounter (or again, 2 per rest) charm beast - or both. There should be more interesting weapons in each class to incentivise their use - currently there's very little reason to use say a pistol (which are outclassed by an Arquebus or Blunderbuss) or quite a few of the other melee weapon options, giving one or two a strong or interesting enchantment could rectify this. I think there also needs to be a slightly more emphasis on making multiple builds for a particular class more or less equally as good as one another. For example a Twinned Arrows Stormcaller/Persistence Ranger is quite a lot better than most other Ranger builds, likewise for a shock focussed Druid. Beyond that, a big branching path in the main quest would be nice with 3-4 branches to help more strongly differentiate different playthroughs. Other than that, I think the current game is pretty solid, so there's no need to radically change the formula.

As I mentioned I managed it in 3.02 solo PotD, getting most of the way through Act 3 (I'd been told to go to Burial Isle, after completing a god quest) and well into White March part I. You just need good healing (Moon Godlike plus Veteran's Recovery if you take survival healing bonuses and a Belt of Bountiful Healing, is enough) and Retaliate and a decent bash shield to grind down mobs with Deep Wounds. It can be tough to get a Retaliate item early, but if you chain rest in Caed Nua in Act 2 you can usually get one from Azurro before completing Defiance Bay - after that you're on easy street.

Fair enough, I'm sure the extra trickle of health would be more useful going Trail by Iron. It might be a good idea to put it's both PotD and Trail by Iron in the build environment as I missed it initially, it's quite a feat.

You're doing Caed Nua wrong if you play like that solo. Either stealth it or do it so the Shadow is in between you and the Phantoms and pick them off with Rymrgand's Mantle (which, if you rest once in Valewood like a sane person when you get there because of the fatigue, will be waiting for you in the Black Hound Inn second floor when you get to Gilded Vale so long as you've reloaded at some point) equipped and a long ranged weapon (Durance's Staff works well, with a bow or something to get them in range of the staff as they can dawdle). You need to move to the left on the entrance, I find just to the left of the base of the arch of the entrance (after agro-ing the shadow and phantoms) usually leads to a nice situation. I did this second try on my latest playthrough (which was a pretty damn poor Act I build, it's in for the long game), not after 30! The stealthing, from what I've seen and heard, is even easier - but going completionist as far as I can solo didn't really fit this build. I think this build would work find solo. It's extremely strong ranged with a potential for a butt-load of monk kiting, and with Kaylon we've seen you can easily kite the Alpine Dragon for days with a kity build. I think the main downside with the build if you do need to take 6 wounds, which can kill you in the boss fights, but you can take Mortification of the Soul to make this easier if needs be.

I played a solo PotD build similar to this on 3.02, obviously without Riposte or Adept Evasion then because they sucked. In light of that build, which got pretty far into the game, I would strongly recommend taking Coat of Ill Payment over He Carries Many Scars for the Retaliation effect (even though you don't benefit from +2 Resolve if you're taking Siegebreaker Gauntlets). Retaliation gives all enemies fighting you Deep Wounds, which on tankier builds is a massive benefit. Seeing as I wanted to incorporate Riposte and Adept Evasion into my 3.03 build, the main reason I didn't play it was I've had trouble reconciling those abilities with the build I liked in 3.02. As a party build, where other people can inflict status, this is really nice.

Thanks for the clarification. I guess at least on solo, Starlit Garb is a pretty good pick - 10 spell defence is pretty decent. The main issue is, they look so dorky

If you use a Durgan ingot on clothes, does it offset the penalty of Vulnerable Strike or Penetrating Shot? Or doesn't the game allow for the idea of negative recovery? I'm not a frapsing wizard, so I can't test this ever so effectively. Seeing as I always currently play solo, and will likely pick the option for efficient ingot use, the idea of wasting them isn't so much an issue.

I guess I was thinking specifically for my Paladin, because they have Zealous Endurance and Second Skin already plus I'm aiming for Survival DR bonuses - which means they can have high DR without compromising overly much on DPS. I didn't know if there was some gameplay tweak (e.g. durganisizing clothing, or something insane) that made clothing a preferential option when you could have a little DR with robes or padded (which when combined with previously sources of DR, at least on a Paladin, equates to something much more substantial). Good to know it isn't, so I can keep DPSing my socks off without hindering my DR - in someways Zealous Endurance is like a mini Armored Grace if you pick lower DR armors.

So I've seen a lot of DPS builds use clothing, what I'm wondering is how come clothing is used instead of Durgan refined robes? I know, this is a very exciting thread.

I played a tank Rogue to level 13 or so solo until my laptop got fried, this was before the buffs in 3.03. Though it sounds like you're not actually playing solo anyway with the talk of a Paladin? I dumped Dex and took high Int (16, to hit 20 with Gwyn's Band) plus Con (18 with Rymyrgand's Boon) and Might (so that it'd hit 21 naturally, with 4 damage Deep Wounds), used Larder Door (would have used Badgradr's Barricade when I got it) and Drawn in Spring (with I managed to get before Act 3), with White Crest Armor for Overwhelming Wave for AoE Deep Wounds and Hiro's Mantle for Retaliation. The idea, being Moon Godlike and with Veteran's Recovery plus using Belt of Bountiful Healing and the x1.6 Survival Bonus, was if you stay alive for long enough the enemies die because Retaliation is doing raw damage all the time (the main reason as to why I dumped Dex, as my source of damage was coming from Retaliation - it was pretty funny killing Vithrack's who'd paralysed locked me this way). The 20 Int, 21 Mig, 18 Con gives you 1200 health approx (from what I remember) and the healing to match and make use of that whole pool. When you add in things like Combusting Wounds from the Ring of Searing Flames and Envenomed Strikes (in a similar way to Boeroer's Mad Hornet build but going for tanking instead of DPS) you can easy drain the enemies health without much difficulty. Shadowing Beyond also is a great help solo, allowing you to half finish mobs and come back to them after a rest or always secure perfect positioning. The main reason why I haven't picked the build back up (my hard drive was wiped, so the save was lost) is that with the improvements to Retaliation and Adept Evasion I was actually having a hard time working out where to squeeze them onto the build - as they weren't good enough to take in 3.02 so I didn't bother. Now that they are good enough, I had concerns that is I took too many of my per encounter attack abilities away I would never be able to stack them and get Deathblows (before I was taking Blinding Strike, Sap, Crippling Strike and Withering Strike - axing a couple of these or other nice abilities, like Dirty Fighting, is easier said than done). So I can confirm those builds work (I was well into Act 3 and a bit into WM part I) - I doubt you would be able to tank boss monsters but with Persistence and Deep Wounds I would say kiting them isn't out of the question. I wouldn't use Escape personally as Shadowing Beyond does the same thing but better. If you were buddying up with a Paladin, you'll do even better.

That does sound ideal for the . EDIT: So I just tried Whispers of Treason against the Forgotten with Sworn Enemy solo PotD, and completely annihilated them level 8. Used +1 movement from survival so I wasn't straight out murdered on their first hit, then used Sworn Enemy on Hassan and let him do my dirty work (scored one crit on him for a 20s duration and two hits for two 12s). Between Hassan, three Envenomed Strikes, two FoDs, the Adra Beetle and the Shades they didn't stand a chance. While this sounds like a lot of per rest resources, considering I didn't need to crack into all my per rest figurines I'd say it wasn't actually that bad.

You can always use Sworn Enemy against different targets anyway, so it's not a big deal. It be intentional, as to stop say 4 Paladins with 2 arquebuses a piece straight up annihilating any enemy in the game. Something I've been having fun with on my Paladin, though not relevant to Shieldbearers, is the Black Path talent for the Bleak Walkers - which I've not really heard anyone talk about before. If you're playing with a standard Sacred Immolation setup with high Int, than the radius is pretty large. As it's -10 accuracy, you can see it as a +10 defense buff to all your defenses (and your party's) which I think is pretty decent if you're trying to tank in the first place. Beyond that, with FoD you're bound to get some kills, and the Black Path also works with kills from Envenomed Strike poisoning (which I wasn't sure it would do, given that's not a direct hit - it this way you can get a steady stream of kills on the go). I'm recommend people giving it a try, you know for the 5% of you wanting to play a Bleak Walker who doesn't just pick up Bittercut and horribly murderate everything.

I think they're about on par. I'm playing a Hearth Orlan currently, and the Defiant Resolve racial is pretty lack lustre (considering it's supposed to be one of the better ones), but the addition of a helmet slot is nice. On the flip side, Moon Godlikes get rather enormous heals (195 at level 16, without factoring in Might scaling or Survival/item bonuses) and Fire Godlikes do pretty hefty retaliation damage. Boreal Dwarves and Island Aumaua also have nice racials. If you're going for a kiter, this all becomes irrelevant as you may as well always take a Wood Elf.

See title, while far from game-breaking bug it's a little disappointing playing a Hearth Orlan with high Intellect only for it to not factor in that Intellect. It is a duration based ability, so I'm not seeing any reason why it shouldn't be affected.

You can use to console to unlock all entries, if you want to keep your main character free of cheating just do it on a level one character and use it for reference. I would normally just refer to the wiki in these instances, but it's not fleshed out enough by half. Gamebanshee does have a bestiary, but there's no PotD adjusted stats.

Though there aren't any items that give you +6 in a stat, there are +4 items and when you combine that with prostitute bonuses and resting bonuses you're looking at +9 to any stat (more with food) - which is quite a lot. There also are some skill dialog checks, they're just a bit thin of the ground. Instead of just respecing when I first start and don't have as good a grasp on the mechanics, I'd rather just restart - respecing is a bit much an easy button for my liking and takes a lot of consequence out of picking advantages for your character (which is why I think the Fallout 4 system sucks - literally level up high enough and you can have every perk, no need to roleplay or choose wisely at all). I do understand that Skyrim can be streamlined, but to me that streamlining suited the high fantasy adventure romp you have in the game. Pillars is altogether darker in tone, and so I think a more punishing "adult" attribute system suits the game to a greater extent rather than one that lets you off lightly by letting you respec all the time. I do appreciate that it's in a gaming company's best interest to make a game as broad as possible however, so respecing is good for people who want an easier experience, though it should be considered just an option for the rest. In regards to tanking the dragon, it's much easier to kite with Persistence from what I've seen, so don't be put off the idea of soloing it entirely

Well combat becomes easy if you take the +accuracy +dam talent to fit the enemy type, plus respec all your attributes for a nicer fit on your most targeted defences compared to that enemy. I think respecing worked better in Skyrim, (a) because it had more cost and (b) because there wasn't an attribute system in Skyrim - so the amount of radical changes you could make to your character were fewer. I don't get why people really clamoured for hard IE game and yet also wanted an easy respec to make up for their mistakes - it doesn't make any sense.

It sure would be a nice addition, I suppose it depends on whether you want to dedicate the Paladin more towards that end or not - it's a definite nice forerunner to Sacred Immolation while the enemy is distracted (plus the fact you can use Sworn Enemy more or less as a pre-buff, it's instant cast and you can lead with it from stealth - and Whispers of Treason is now fast cast). You can make your Paladin a mesmerising machine, but on the flip side it's just as easy to have a regular Paladin use these items without any talent cost. Having said that I have been thinking of a mesmerising build for a while, quite possibly a Paladin is the way to go rather than the obvious choice of Cipher. Maybe I'll have a look into it in the future, but as I'm currently playing a different kind of Paladin I'm not bothered about getting into it for the time being - if anyone else wants to give it a go by all means go ahead

Not forgetting that Whisper of Treason has +10 accuracy to begin with, giving you +30 accuracy. It's an extremely strong combo, and not one I've seen people mention (I did do a quick search and brought up nothing - though it was a google search rather than a forum search so correct me if I'm wrong). Not one I'm centring my build around for sure, but it's sure nice tidbit to abuse on the way to what I'm looking to do. Further that +12 Will synergises great with Defiant Resolve, Hearth Orlan being the most common race for Paladins as far as I'm aware. As a huge bonus, Arret Murnarca was designed by the great people at Terra Arcanum - the main place I suggest anyone goes to if they're looking to play Arcanum

Something I've noticed currently playing a Paladin myself is that Sworn Enemy works great with Confused, Charmed and Dominate effects. Obviously the extra damage of Sworn Enemy is good, but if they really are a beefy mofo then sometimes it pays to Charm (Spirit Spiral or Arret Murnarca - Terra Arcanum for life), Confuse (scrolls) or Dominate (Ring of Changing Heart) them instead - often providing you with a crit due to added accuracy and giving you an extra buddy for 20 seconds or so with the kind of Intellect you're running. Give it a shot, and you won't be disappointed - besides Shieldbearers are supposed to be diplomatic so it kind of fits the premise too.

I won't be respecing, out of personal preference - I intend not to for any solo build I play (it was never in the base game, the cost to do so is extremely low and does minimise the aspect of playing a role too in some respects if you can just up and change personality traits all the time). In any case, I found a way to make things slightly more optimal so I shouldn't need the Bear's Fortitude after all - again it's slightly build specific so I'll keep in under wraps for now. Using console commands to look at PotD stats, it seems like Envenomed Strike is kind of a big deal even at the level I'll be having it at.

So related to this paladin, end game I'm going to have 14 Might and 20 Int, as I said the build is going to be quite different to the norm so I don't want to go into why those numbers are as they are (thought part of the reason is just the standard increasing damage and AoE on Sacred Immolation a bit). With that in mind, would it be better to go for Envenomed Strike or Bear's Fortitude for one of my late talent slots? My at 14 Might and 20 Int Envenomed Strike does 73.9 raw damage over 13.5 secs, which is nice (and obviously will be higher as I food/prostitute buff - Maegfolc Skull already being equipped) but do people think those kind of numbers are worth the talent slot? I guess in terms of my fortitude defence against the prone attacks I'll have 20 (base) + 20 (improved Faith and Conviction) + 45 (level) + 30 (Heldrik's Coat) + 8 (Maegfolc Skull) + 6 (Girdle of Eotun Constitution) + 10 (food) + 8 (Celestial Suite) + 8 (Lyrinia) + 9 (Ring of Protection) + 10 (Defiant Resolve) = 174 Is that "enough" against the 155 accuracy or should I really be taking Bear's Fortitude too (it's 34 chances of a miss compared to 44 with the talent)? I'll probably have Iflan Byrngar's Solice in my off hand (and something like the Orlan's Bramble Ring) in case I do get proned in the first place. I'm really on the fence as to what the better play would be.

I keep wondering who voiced him, it's a pretty mighty laugh.

A talent for this would really be a great idea, incurring some cost but giving access to a whole lot of goodies too. I'd love it if they'd consider patching something like that in, but I can't really see that happening.

I don't think a bit of hassle to encourage them to release their patch sooner really would have effected their ability to not factor in new bugs into the game or fix some during the beta, especially when as Loren Tyr pointed out the Fighter bug is one line of code. I think this point would have been more valid if the gap between 3.02 and 3.03 hadn't been so long (I could get that the player base coming off as douchey if they were whining after say a single month) but it had four months almost to the day that they took between those patches. When you wait that long, and then the patch they release isn't to standard and they were pre-warned in the beta it wasn't to standard, it is a little rich. I'm mostly okay with waiting again for the next patch, but really if they'd sorted the Fighter bug in the last patch when they were told about it there wouldn't have even needed to be another patch - the other bugs, while a little irritating, aren't of much consequence (the Carnage bash bug for example, though that doesn't mean it still shouldn't be fixed). They really shot themselves in the foot by ignoring the feedback they asked for, as now they're having to put in even more work into a game they seemingly wanted to be done with by now.