Jojobobo

I will have some item based CC (Overwhelming Wave, Dominate, etc.) and the character I think should be able to tank quite well in theory (Vet's Recovery plus Silver Tide is good for 500+ Endurance with my Might). Seeing as I want Viettro's Formal Footware on the build I was thinking of having a Lore of 1 so I could hit 4 with that equipped and use Defense scrolls. I guess I'll see how it goes for these tougher battles, it does seem like high survival out-weighs the benefits of investing heavily in Lore for most instances. I guess with Deep Wounds and Retaliate so long as I can keep my character alive for long enough any melee enemy will die.

So I was watching Kaylon's handling of the Alpine Dragon on solo PotD (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83925-ranger-solo-vs-alpine-dragon-potd/) and it got me thinking what kind of Lore do people recommend on solo play? I guess it's probably 8 or nothing, do you think 8 Lore is important for those tricky battles on solo or not? Ideally, I don't want to invest in Lore on my current build (low Dex tanky Moon Godlike Rogue with Veteran's Recovery) as I'll be getting a lot of spell uses from items (Ring of Changing Heart, etc.) and Survival on the whole has a lot more to offer. With the low Dex too, I doubt I'd be able spam the spells quick enough to stack them like Kaylon did. However, if people do think it is vital to these battles I'll reconsider. I don't want to respec, which is why I wanted to know now.

I like that Paradox have trade marked the word Tyranny.

Did not see that, thank you. Had already heard about Tyranny so it's not an update I would have even looked at.

The patch is live on GOG now if anyone didn't notice. A little weird as I was expecting an "Update 3.02 is now live" thread.

I think your assessment is good. About the PotD difficulty, in the early 1.0 patches I did start on Hard and then found I was pancaking everything with a follower based party and so since have played on PotD going solo (I've still not completed the game for one reason or another, I guess after completion I'll go PotD with followers as desert to my grueling solo main course). Once you hit act two and get some decent levels under your belt, the combat to me feels tough but rewarding. Your completely right about leaving the tougher areas, which I think is a concept which is alien to most people (and was to me at the start, used to exploring every inch of a map as soon as I see it). Now for the sake of convenience I leave most areas largely unexplored (maybe doing all of Valenwood, but that's literally it) until I get to the second act - only dipping into a map to complete a quest or get a nice item to sell (Fulvano's fine crossbow, reaching Raedric but not dealing with him and looting the castle, etc.). Then I do all of the easier Defiance Bay quests, then I clear out all the old maps and fully explore them, then I do the harder Defiance Bay quests - then move onto Searing Falls and Pearlwood Bluffs. After this every other map will be pretty easy up until you reach Elmshore with the level scaling, I got down to level 13 of the Endless Paths before even doing Cliaban Rilag - had to stop as the combat never stops on that level when you get to the boss fight and tackling him and the Adragans is too damn hard without beefy defenses. I do think Expert Mode is fine even on the first run - stuff like AoE radius can be learnt intuitively after a little play. As I said, a decent guide for a new starter. I think they'll now be slightly more hardcore gamers coming Pillars who missed the original boat and now have arrived on recommendation, this guide is perfect for them.

I can confirm I got everything I wanted on day 4 at Raedric's Hold, thanks!

That's what I thought, but I deleted my save with it. I'll go with that, thank you kindly.

From the lists, seems like Day 4 at Raedric's Hold is a gold mine for solo play. Gloves of Manipulation - Desk Chest Belt of Bountiful Healing - Bed Chest Boots of Stealth - Rooftop Chest Both the gloves and the boots can save you some nice skill points (a little Stealth is normally needed to get through Caed Nua on solo PotD) and the belt is very useful early game to make heals stronger. I've now dropped any semblance of caring for not abusing these lists, I'll save that for a more casual run where I'm not bothered about optimising my character.

I seem to remember this bonus was +1 Mechanics/Stealth but the wiki says +2 - which is correct? I tried getting the console to work myself to check but for some reason it says it is "not available at this time", I'm looking to save skill points so I can pump Survival harder (as I'm solo I still want to hit 13 Mechanics which I've heard will unlock/find all worthwhile chests/secrets even in WM II so with the resting bonus, Gloves of Manipulation and Dungeon Delver I'll need 7/8 depending). Thanks in advance.

Cool thanks, guess it's still worth it regardless.

I know it's a WM part I item, but out of curiosity is it possible to enchant Badgradr's Barricade to Legendary? I still haven't got that far into WM part I to get it, and I can't find an image of it to know how many enchantment slots its enchantments occupy.

I got to level 15 using Riposte with high Deflection, and it really does suck. When you think you could be having an extra per encounter ability (really you want Hobbled, Withering Strike, Blinding Strike and Sap -> Withering Strike lowers Will which Sap targets, Sap lowers Reflex which Blinding Strike targets, letting you often crit with these abilities and stack their durations for Deathblows, with Hobbling Strike just being good as you can use it twice) or Dirty Fighting or Adept Evasion which is great on tanky rogues or Finishing Blow then you're seeing a situation here where it really is the worst out of the many many good options rogues do have.

I agree that this would be confusing, and it's not exactly difficult to cmd/ctrl + F "solo: yes". Thanks for your hard work Andrea. Something I might prefer slightly is if you credit the builds, mainly so that if there's a person who's builds you particularly like then it's easier to see more builds they've done without digging into each individual thread. Also, if a mod could sticky this so it doesn't get buried in the pile, that would be great.

I think as others have said, attributes are empowered by your soul and hence are more thematic attributing to both physical and mental manifestations of prowess. Therefore Might contributes not only to physical strength, but also to force of will given that it boosts the power of spells as well. As such, I think it's perfectly fine that Resolve contributes to Deflection. If your talking about your determination to outlast and outmatch your foes, then thematically I think that fits quite nicely with Deflection - your steely determination empowers you to be able to take hits for lesser damage. For Dexterity, I don't agree it should benefit Deflection. It already benefits Reflex, which is the ability to dodge incoming attacks that are dodge-able (e.g. a ranged attack you can see coming). Dodging in melee is much more difficult than dodging an AoE attack you can see flying throw the sky towards you, it makes much more sense that the attribute governing your determination would allow you to take these hits. Personally, I really like how PoE took normal attributes and made them apply to much more than what they normally would (Might contributing not only to physical strength but overall forcefulness in a general sense). For me it's one of the things that really sets it apart as a combat-based RPG, as there really isn't a dump stat to be found and it gave things like caster classes reasons to take attributes that were normally the purview of fighter classes - both in a practical and thematic sense.

I think this a little redundant, relative comparisons to the other classes is the only reasonable metric you can go by. And I don't think rogues are crazily underpowered, just the ease of use with monks because on their bulk while retaining DPS and AoE is pretty tasty. People have said this is only relevant on solo play, but in party play you can get them into situations where they take more wounds (let people flank them, etc.) so I think they are a low risk high reward kind of class. I'd say you're right, Armored Grace gives nice DPS and fighters have plenty of ways to boost base damage. Maybe the tankiness of a fighter compared to the monk when you focus on DPS is better, it's a tough call. The AoE of monks, as it is level 1, is pretty good however.

What I'm telling you is the accuracy is the same for the damage component of something like Crippling Strike and for the added effect component. If you're using perks like a Weapon Focus it also applies to the added effect. There's no spell bonus listed in the tooltip. Oddly, if you're using a weapon one-handed the +12 ACC applies to your damage but not to your added effect - you'll notice a 12 difference between these two values.

Yes I tried it with different weapons (spear and unarmed) and the bonuses are the same, so it's not a +10 ACC spell bonus or anything like that.

Didn't realise you could mouse over (hence, "stupid question"). Seems like it does benefit from the weapon accuracy bonuses, so I needn't worry and should just stay the course. Thanks.

Anyone got an answer on this before it rolls onto the second page and never gets looked at again? Reason being, I'm re-rolling as a Rogue (I don't really want to be respecing on my first playthrough, which this still will be unfortunately) and before when I've gone PotD solo 10 PER has been enough (getting to level 14 and most of the way through the game - obviously in conjunction with the Rogue's high natural accuracy and Reckless Assault). However this time I wanted to dump PER (!) and just take a weapon focus to get it back to that around that 10 PER accuracy level which I found suitable before - focussing on the more tanky attributes. But, if the per encounter status ailment abilities go off base accuracy rather than weapon accuracy, obviously running base PER is the way to go. I have tried looking at it in game with my new character, but early game it's pretty hard to tell.

Are the extra effects of Rogue's per encounter abilities also running off your weapon accuracy, or just base accuracy? As in, I know the damaging bit targeting Deflection will be running off your weapon accuracy - but I was sure about the bits targeting Fortitude/Will/Reflex.

It's a bug, it's been posted elsewhere and been sorted 3.02. Suffice to say, him visiting as a "visitor" is different to him visiting as a trader. He will still come and trade after his dilemma has been solved (and frequently from what I've found) but not so long as he's in the visitor capacity. I'm not sure what the fix will be, maybe just removing his visitor capacity entirely. You also need to wait for that initial visitor period to elapse before he will trade with you or, pointlessly, visit you.

In terms of the whole armoured thing, Iron Wheel now really gives you a lot of DR to play with even without armour. I guess it's a level 11 ability, but still I wouldn't say it's that hard getting to level 11 going solo.

The point I was trying to hone in on though is that even in party play, it seems like monks still have the advantage. To get higher damage for a rogue, you need your other characters to be dishing out cc and regularly in a prolonged battle. Monks don't need that, and you can inflict 4 or more Torment's Reach with Swift Strikes (more or less 4 sneak attacks within 10 seconds) with AoE at level 3. It's tricky for rogues to reach that rate and not go completely glass cannon. I get that rogues can deal more damage, but monks are so much more of an easy pick either solo or on a team it's pretty crazy. If I were running even a level 3 monk on a PotD party, due to the AoE of Torment's Reach, things would be absurdly easy. I can't say the same for running a rogue on the same party.

A mod said it hadn't been placed in the game by accident, but would be by 3.02.