AndreaColombo

It's a known issue with item proc's. It should be fixed in 3.02.

Very good ideas! I'm editing the OP to include them Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: This build is based on some equipment that is currently bugged, and it is not certain whether a fix will make it to patch 3.02. I will mark those in yellow and provide temporary alternatives until a fix for the bugs is released. I originally conceived the build around Zahua; however, I will provide (albeit loose) guidelines for those who may want to play it as their main. Concept & Premises Race, Class, Background In an ideal world where none of the equipment I've chosen for this build is faulty, you would bestow Sickened, Stuck, Blinded, and Dazed on foes who hit you (plus Crush damage from Rooting Pain); Dazed, Prone, Weakened, Stunned, and Hobbled to foes you hit. Brute-forcing them afterward should be easy peasy lemon squeezy

I feel the exact opposite way It is true that Pillars can at times be a tad too verbose (not all the time, though; some dialog and descriptions are excellent imo) but I find it generally well written and pleasant.

When your enemy's DR is so high it would cancel out your damage entirely, you deal minimum damage instead (shown in the combat log as "MIN.") That is NOT what Confident Aim applies to—that's what I meant with "it applies before DR." The wording can be confusing for when you read it boosts minimum damage, you could think it boosts the "MIN." you deal when your foe's DR is too high, but that is not the case. It does indeed help the range as you say (I asked Josh on Twitter a while ago and he confirmed.) I do not know whether it boosts all damage bonuses too, though; I've always thought it would be additive (on a two-hander, your base damage would become 16.8–20 instead of 14–20.)

Very minor bug When you take the Resonant Touch ability for your Monk, it ends up under "Talents" in your Character Record even though it should be under "Abilities":

Because I never use the Radiance ability anyway, and because it doesn't stack with Scroll of Valor which I use all the time. A matter of play style, really; definitely a viable talent for this build if you use Radiance and don't (ab)use Scroll of Valor like I do. I went with clothing to save on Durgan Steel but Angio's Gambeson is definitely a good alternative

That I know of, "trash mob" is a commonly used term to describe non-boss, non-set-piece fights in cRPGs. It is not necessarily derogatory. That said, we get you disagree with the reduction of said mobs in PoE. Personally, when I hit the level cap I don't want to waste my time auto-attacking the umpteenth unchallenging group of beetles, but YMMV.

It applies before DR, but to my understanding it only applies when your damage roll turns up the minimum amount (e.g. You roll 14 for damage with a two-hander.)

^ with firearms recovery is less important because, in the grand scheme of things, it's the reload animation that slows you down the most. If you have Gunner a good DEX score to ameliorate it, the difference is certainly felt; I too never felt the Penetrating Shot penalty too much on reload weapons.

It should if you are purposefully attacking him The bug was for the proc hitting the wielder, which appears to no longer be the case. If it goes off twice at once, though, that's definitely a bug.

In my case, Durance had a relatively low DR in the team but his DPS was so close to zero as it made no difference (he spent 90% of the time buffing and debuffing.) Not sure what gives; he's just an overall unlikable fellow.

It was the same in my last play through: Durance would get targeted a lot. IIRC there was a user who tested A.I. attack clauses and posted their findings over here some time ago. Damage Reduction and damage dealt turned out to be among the main factors A.I. considered in its target prioritization.

The White March pt. II update. The time has come for a brief update to this build, even though it won't undergo any major changes in the aftermath of PX2's release. Attributes No major change is required for attributes, although I find that starting with 18 INT and 12 RES is generally better than 16 INT and 14 RES (the extra AoE and duration are a boon, and enemies in PX2 are going to target your Priest even if he has the highest Deflection anyway.) After a full play through with Durance, whose DEX I could buff up to 15 (I'm no longer using the +3 DEX resting bonus from Caed Nua), I have come to really appreciate the difference a high-DEX build makes when it comes to casting times. Durance really is as slow as a sloth. Skills Lore remains the main skill for this build, as I want my Priest to be able to cast scrolls of any level. This means, after the release of PX2, having a total Lore score of 12 to be able to cast Prayer Against Treachery from scrolls. If you select a background that grants a +2 bonus to Lore, you'll start out with a score of 4 and reaching 12 will be fairly easy. Survival is the second skill I suggest putting ranks in, up to a minimum of 7, in order to get the 2nd-tier Damage Reduction resting bonus. Whether other 2nd-tier bonuses are worth the extra investment is up to you and your habitual play style. Remaining points can be allocated as best suits your preferences or party-dynamics needs. Talents The new level cap means you get to pick an additional talent beside those listed in the OP. My suggestion (not necessarily as your very last pick; I never list talents and abilities in a prescriptive order in my builds) is Outlander's Frenzy. Since you're not likely to buff this build with spells that increase MIG and CON (those are for your DPS characters), a +3 bonus for each is definitely welcome; however, what we really are after is the +25% attack speed bonus for it applies to spell casting as well. As mentioned in the OP, one of the main goals of this build is to dish out buffs as fast as possible at the beginning of the fight and a 25% reduction to your recovery is going to make a noticeable difference. As a bonus, the ability is faster to use than drinking a potion of DAOM. Addendum: After realizing that the +10 Accuracy bonus from Inspiring Radiance stacks with pretty much every other Accuracy bonus out there, I strongly advise you take it instead of Empowered Interdiction. Thanks limaxophobiacq and Elric Galad for the tip! Spell Mastery Patch 3.0 introduced Spell Mastery instead of per-encounter spell levels, and which spells you choose to master for each level is entirely dependent on your preferences and play style. My picks are usually like this: 1st Level: Blessing OR Armor of Faith 2nd Level: Suppress Affliction 3rd Level: Dire Blessing 4th Level: Devotions for the Faithful Equipment Patch 3.0 and PX2 introduced a number of items that are potentially very interesting for this build. However, as a pure-support build, this Priest shouldn't take priority over your DPS or CC party members when it comes to calling dibs on equipment; hence, I will suggest multiple items that I think would work well provided no other party members have a use for them. Head: Maegfolc Skull, White Crest's Helm Neck: Swaddling Sheet, Lilith's Shawl Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy, Gauntlets of Minor Accuracy, Celebrant's Gloves, Siegebreaker Gauntlets Rings: Ring of Overseeing, Gathbin Family Signet, Pensiavi mès Rei* Feet: Viettro's Formal Footwear, Fenwalkers, Greenstained Boots, Shod-in-Faith * I purposefully left out Seal of Faith as I believe it costs a tremendous amount of gold (not that gold would be a problem in this game) for very little beneft. At higher levels Priest can cast more than enough spells, and to be honest, I never felt the need for more spells of levels 1st–4th once I got Spell Mastery. If you beg to differ, by all means equip Seal of Faith

The only one I know for sure is on the Endless Paths level where you find Gabrannos's experiments; the fight right before you can reach the staircase to go down a level has been made quite a bit tougher. I'm not sure about the rest and I honestly couldn't remember most Act III and Act IV fights well enough to be able to spot differences.

What game version are you on? If you're on Steam, have you tried verifying your game's cache? You're clicking on the adra pillar, right? (dumb question, but I had to ask.) If all else fails, I can reforge the hammer for you and re-upload your save. However, I believe an important dialog ensues immediately thereafter and you cannot save before it.

It depends on the build. If you have sufficient Accuracy to crit, an extra +12 isn't going to make a difference—once you crit, it doesn't matter if you breached the threshold by 1 or by 100. This build in particular, once fully buffed, has an Accuracy score of 103–148 (30 base, +0–+45 level, +6 Weapon Focus, +12 Superb weapon, +20 Perception, +20 Devotions for the Faithful, +20 Disciplined Barrage, -5 Savage Attack), which is enough to crit most creatures all the time. For creatures with higher defenses, she's got 40% hit-to-crit conversion (20% from Durgan Steel, 20% from Dire Blessing), and all that without taking debuff into account (e.g. -10 Deflection when enemies are knocked Prone, or -8 Deflection when enemies are hit by another party member's Aspirant's Mark.) In this context, +12 Accuracy from wielding a one-hander isn't as attractive considering that you miss out on a higher base damage which gets the most out of the percentage increases. On a mildly related note, in order to reach 0 recovery with a two-hander while wearing plate and using Vulnerable Attack, you must use a weapon with Speed; the game offers two two-handers with said enchantment: Blade of the Endless Paths (estoc), and Llawran's Stick (quarterstaff). The latter isn't very special at all.

I guess it will only be there if you enter the area for the first time after installing the patch. If the area has already been loaded, the ring won't be there. Just a wild guess, though, as I don't have access to the beta patch.

Could be that the fix's retroactivity takes deactivating and re-activating the ability to take effect.

Patch 3.0. They reduced the number of thrash mobs and reworked some encounters to be more challenging. I personally like the change, although the ante in Act III and IV could have been upped more.

Btw, I didn't call that variant "Glass of Pain" because it's a glass cannon (which it isn't); I did because Pain is the only drink she serves

^ Indeed, I forgot to mention that but yes, when I play that build with Durance I use a sword.

Patch notes seemed to imply it was fixed? Edit: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85424-bug-savage-attack/?do=findComment&comment=1790815

I usually spec Durance as a pure-support Priest; search this forum for "How I Buffed The Others" to find it. Durance is noticeably slower, but also sturdier.

You can't exactly get 0 recovery with Hours of St Rumbalt, but you can get very close (1.7% before DEX) if you disable Vulnerable Attack and wear Scale armor instead of plate. With Armored Grace and Durgan Steel, penalty from the armor is erased; then you have 1.5 * 1.15 * 1.15 = 98.3% reduction on your recovery time from DAOM, Durgan Steel, and Gauntlets of Swift Action. IMHO, the extra damage isn't worth the loss in DR; besides, you'd lose Vulnerable Attack too, so that's no DR bypass versus 10 with the BotEP.