Viperswhip

Well, it definitely can happen, but generally if you are picking the fight your archers should be out of range. I know the guides say to kill wizards, then ranged, then tanks, but seriously, I normally only do the wizards/clerics, and then peel back letting the archers plink at the tanks while we support the tanks. There is a war bow that stuns on crit, that's the one I use on my rogue, and she crits a lot.

Ya, but really you need two tanks, and a Paladin built in a medium way can do both and be your second tank that swaps to a two handed sword or something to damage when not needing to tank.

There is a two handed sword that knocks people prone on crit. I haven't tested a barb to see if they can do a crit build or not, but that's probably a decent weapon to aim for.

It would be really strange if, after triggering from going below X, it fired off again if you healed to above X and then got hurt to go below, since the effect of it firing is to heal you. If it did, you would be immortal when fighting against anybody whose attacks hurt you for less than the healing effect when firing healed you. So don't count on it working that way. Ya, my I don't think it would either, basically I assume you have 3 per encounter heals, one at 75%, one at 50% and one at 25%. My only question I was whether they will all fire at the same time.

I guess my point is that the villages and cities in the game feel empty enough without killing off all the yellow named characters.

So, you just want an empty world with no context and people in it? Still, it's a nice little tip.

Does it fire off 3 times per encounter, or can it fire off multiple times if you heal back above a threshold? The text only says something like "when you are reduced below XYZ", which might mean if you raise endurance above X it will trigger again once it goes below. I didn't have time to test before work, but you can probably test it with the bear.

Well, I just updated the wiki entry for Silver Tide (Mood Godlike) ability. At 10 might, it heals for 10 at level 1 and 43 at level 12. That fires off up to 3 times per fight (once each at 75, 50 and 25% Endurance). The healing is also modified by might, and since it's an aoe I am guessing it's affected by intelligence but I can't think of a good way to test that before heading off to work this morning. In any case, if it's like the paladin aura, it would be quite small (2.5 meters), so it woud likely only affect you and the other melee most of the time. In any case, I think they are a strong candidate for tanks of all sorts.

There is a warbow that stuns on crit, Ciphers can't crit very often, well, not as often as Rogues or Rangers.

I think how dots work right now is that they do a set amount of damage (ie 20 over 3 seconds (not per second)) so Int actually hurts it by increasing the time it takes to do the same amount of damage. At least, that's what's been reported for some spells in the bug forum.

Ya, it seems like his spells cap out at 50ish damage (Aloth at level 9), but in AoE, so he's basically a AoE control, damage turret. A couple of his best spells require plenty of positioning though, and he doesn't get as many foe only spells as the priest or druid. Since the cipher is kind of bugged I haven't played with Mother very much (some item that keeps her from gaining focus in combat). The higher level wizard spells are pretty good CC, like Stargazer said Call to Slumber is a battle ender, 14+ seconds prone? And that's on Aloth with his poor stats. If you're not using Fan of Flames as a blaster wizard, you're doing it wrong. Fan of Flames, a level 1 spell, deals a massive amount of damage in a sizable aoe. The only weakness of it is it's finicky with positioning but otherwise it destroys. Fireball is solid damage with easy reqs, though not as strong as Fan. In fact I'd say Wizard (fan of flames) might even be a tad overpowered if used properly. My Wizard currently is my #1 damage dealt character, and second highest single target damage. This is in a party with dps Barb Rogue and Cipher. Well, I'd like a bit more variety and I think Aloth works better as a shut down debuffer.

The only thing I've noticed so far is that to do Eder's side quest you need to have decent Defiance Bay rep, or maybe you will auto get it if you complete enough of the story. Maybe Hiravias will need good relations with Twin Elms, but that's a guess on my part, I haven't been there yet.

Well, grinding is no fun, it's why I don't play MMOs (well, Secret World is pretty good). Still, you replace grinding kills for xp (which I truly hate), with grinding side quests for xp, which I like.

I have also received loot every time I was attacked...ummm...3 times now?

I haven't taken any prisoners yet, you just use one of your companions to escort the guest, I get to loot the kills I make in the keep, and I've never lost more than 20ish percent of my taxes. What I would like is to be able to actually hire competent defenders, maybe auto resolve would work out differently, but when I manual it with my group there, my hired fighters tend to fold unless Durance blows his entire stack of healing spells (the special hires last a bit longer, taxes will never pay for all of them though, especially as at present you don't appear to actually collect taxes, no matter what it says). Still, I would like all of the OPs concerned addressed, the keep just feels incredibly empty. Oh and after spending all that money, staying the night should provide all of the bonuses.

Fighters do single target melee damage better than anyone else too. Barbarians are AOE specialized. Uhm. Rogues? Rogues have trouble doing damage when they're dead. Melee rogues are kind of silly, they don't have the endurance or deflection to survive there, and they don't have access to the Fighter talents that do absurd things to your base damage. (I had a dual wielding fighter, each of whose weapons did more listed damage than a 2h-weidling barbarian's). Honestly, Rogues are a ranged class. Their implementation is closest to the "ranger" archetype, and the ranger is a pet class. There is a war bow you can buy that stuns on crit (most of the time as far as I can tell), and with Hearth Orlan, and skills, you crit a lot, you can really shut down a battlefield. There's a two handed sword that knocks guys prone on crit, so a paladin with Soldier Focus can have a war hammer and shield on for tanking (pierce/crush), or a two handed sword for doing mega damage/disable (slash/pierce), it's way better than an Esotic in my mind, because the better of two damage types is better than 5 DR. A Moon Godlike Paladin though...ya, I have one going on Hard (only level 5, cleared Raedric's) and she is doing quite well, maybe a Moon God fighter would never get close to dying but I think I'd rather get a bit more damage by going Hearth Orlan on a fighter.

The only thing I think could help combat is some tweaking and fixes related to abilities, and tactics or scripts. Even in BG you could script you companions to be ranged or whatever, way, way less micro management, thank goodness for auto attack, if you remember to tell them to attack something.

Given that I haven't suffered any of those bugs, and I am finished Act 2 and every single side quest available, (I only reload on death, and I didn't know you could double click equip, until I read about the bug on the forums)...I would hate to be a developer, because obviously its something related to your drivers, your settings, your pc (Windows 7 64, 24 gig of ram). Now, given that some of these bugs are pretty crappy for some people, yes, I would have to be a dev. I haven't run into a single problem in game, I'd like some balancing and some tweaks, what I have to worry about is the patch screwing up my perfect experience trying to fix issues for people that are experiencing them in the first place. I know some abilities don't work right now, some items don't work at all, or kill characters abilities (some horn for ciphers) there is a patch necessary for sure. I just can't wrap my mind around the array of possibilites they have to account for, maybe this is why devs inevitably head towards consoles. So, I have sympathy for the people experiencing such bugs, and I almost have a sympathetic migraine for the devs that have to deal with this kind of thing. I've been through Raedric's keep 3 times already and no issue at all (well, it's pretty hard on hard), no AA problems at all, just lucky I guess, but this PC only has games, browsers and security/maintenance tools on it, oh and open office for reading manuals and stuff.

Boots of Zealous Focus supposedly add 20% to the AoE of Zealous Focus Pallegina has Int 15, 30% to AoE radius Zealous Focus has a base of 2.5 meters In game the end result is 3.6 meters Which means we are losing about 10% somewhere 1) 2.5 x 1.3 x 1.2 = 3.9 2) 2.5 x (1 + .3 + .2) = 3.75, which the game game rounds up to 3.8 (based on other .5 examples in game) So, something is wrong or the calculations are odd.

Ya, it seems like his spells cap out at 50ish damage (Aloth at level 9), but in AoE, so he's basically a AoE control, damage turret. A couple of his best spells require plenty of positioning though, and he doesn't get as many foe only spells as the priest or druid. Since the cipher is kind of bugged I haven't played with Mother very much (some item that keeps her from gaining focus in combat). The higher level wizard spells are pretty good CC, like Stargazer said Call to Slumber is a battle ender, 14+ seconds prone? And that's on Aloth with his poor stats.

1) The stronghold, doesn't have enough staff, who is keeping the place clean? My off duty companions? I'd really like to see some more people there. 2) On that same topic, the cities feel a little empty.

How do you stop Spirits laughing at Rules of Engagement? Its not always possible to plonk your fighters in a choke point (though it often is). I'm currently rolling with 2 tanks and a chantie in plate and everyone else bathrobes, but man it really hurts if something manages to sneak into the back line o.O Just like MMOs any decent tank should be able to peel, or you can try to kite. I use two tanks and 4 behind, but my Rogue can peel to a degree, and then escape while I micro manage kiting and my 4 guys plink the mob to death. Depending on the engagement I will send one tank forward and keep the other one back to get any that come around. That strategy heavily reduces the usability of aoe attacks though.

Well, it depends, I don't have anyone in robes in my party I think, because I've not found any great wizard robes. Even Aloth starts with his own medium (?) armor. I would think that if the person has an escape skill, like a knockdown, or paralyze...etc, then you can put them in a ligher/no armor, but there are plenty of mobs that will one shot them or come close to it.

It must be a class skill, but warriors get a talent that reduces the armor penalty by 16 (so -25% becomes -9). There are plenty of different armors though, and I'd be most concerned with picking the appropriate armor for the engagement, even if it ups my reaction time a bit.

Well, you only get backstab on rogues as far as I know, and a rogue getting stuck means game over, I mean, you can go invis, but if you are surrounded, well, enjoy your 2 seconds of dread. So, ranged plink, I refuse to use guns, but a mighty crossbow bolt from stealth will gank plenty of folks and give you room to move. Edit, oh and stealth is aweome, for stealing and scouting, which is very important to plan combat.