Razorchain

I suggest you try a monk. At first I thought the idea of taking damage to dish it out was ridiculous. Now I've "refined" my monk and stopped trying to deflection stack and rather focused on getting more Con instead. Cipher who was one of my top damage dealers is gone to mid tier damage dealer in my current playthrough. The Monk is topping the chart at level 7 with the Barb and Wizard close second. My barbarians where not dishing it out properly until I started going for two handed, namely the Estoc/Pollaxe (changing depending on your target DR types). But as I was saying a good monk build is relevant through the whole game. The only 2 classess I've have hard time making proper damage builds are the Paladin and the Priest. The Priest is a no brainer, I use him to make the others do more damage or hit harder. The Paladin I've been using with Zelous Endurance/Focus as a tank to free up action economy for a priest or altogether replacing the priest.

I sell everything at the start that I am not going to use, the best prices in town. Gauns Pledge for example goes for 1575 coppers allowing me to hire a custom party from the start

That's almost what the justicars said when I was fighting the forge knights, just one period less.

I think a lot of people don't know that Barbarians and Monks actually have significantly higher health pools than Fighters and Paladins. If you spread engagements across several melee characters, you may actually end up having to rest less often than you would with a 1x tank 1x offtank 4x DPS party. That's what I'm experiencing right now. There has been a tendency for a supertank with very high Perception and Resolve. It's not needed on Potd, I played last playthrough with a Fighter with two handed weapon with maxed Might and Dex and a Barbarian as my tanks, and a Druid offtank. I didn't miss a supertank at all so deflection stacking is totally unnecessary IMO. Sure I understand if you are going solo but with a team..nah.

Indeed, I liked my ranger build, but I think I like this monk a lot more. I always play with a custom party and this time around my monk, Serenity, is ruling the damage board. Often I find it is the wizard that dominates in my games but this time around Serenity is bringing the Hurting Bombs, closely followed by Arcana, the wizard and Kull the Conquerer an Estoc wielding Barbarian.

That's why Sanguine Plate and other items that trigger on crit are best used on characters with low deflection. Sanguine Plate would be wasted on my Paladin as he has deflection around 100. Absolutely, but if you have low Deflection, you're (hopefully) not going to be dumb enough to wear Plate to begin with - why would you? It's not going to save you when you're getting critted repeatedly. Crit-for-Effect items are incredibly counter-intuitive, because those that could easily get critted shouldn't be in situations where they are getting critted to begin with, and this goes double for heavy armours. I beg to differ. This Potd run is proving to be the easiest one yet. Barbarian in Sanguine Plate and Shod in Faith. When he gets critted he proccs frenzy and healing at the same time. Pair him up with a Paladin with zealous endurance and a moon godlike monk and my meele fighters are kicking butt. Probably the playthrough where I've had minimal resting Razor, as you may have already seen, when you combine taking a lot of damage with consecrated ground (and even "worse", the moon GL's aura), you may heal your lost END quite well, but you'll also be burning through your overall Health pool and may be at risk of dying if you're not careful. The upside is that you end up with your END pool almost resembling your Health pool. The downside could be that you'll need to rest whenever you burn up that health pool since only rest can restore it. Just an observation. Yes I realize that I'm burning through my health pool, but when have Barbarian and Monk been the reason for resting, almost never. I don't dump their con and they have enormous health pool. The ones that can take no damage is my Con 3 cipher, Con 5 Ranger and Con 5 Wizard. I was pretty bored of using tanking and spanking so I've been experimenting with more offensive frontline. I made a Paladin with Might 19 and 15 dex, dumped con a bit and decided not to take cautious attacker, rather beef up his offense. So he has Oathsworn buckler and a Saber and has Zelous Endurance. With him I have very offensive built Monk and Barbarian. The backliners are Ranger with couple of Arquebuses, Cipher with a couple of Arbalests and a Wizard. The Ranged Units take out casters and that quickly, like paralyze, shoot, dead. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense and I actually find the game more fun and combat encounters easier than when I stack deflection on a couple of tanks that do minimal damage. And I have to rest less often this way as I use less spells. I'm only level 6 so spells often dictate when to rest or the health of your squishies not the health of your barbarians or monks.

That's why Sanguine Plate and other items that trigger on crit are best used on characters with low deflection. Sanguine Plate would be wasted on my Paladin as he has deflection around 100. Absolutely, but if you have low Deflection, you're (hopefully) not going to be dumb enough to wear Plate to begin with - why would you? It's not going to save you when you're getting critted repeatedly. Crit-for-Effect items are incredibly counter-intuitive, because those that could easily get critted shouldn't be in situations where they are getting critted to begin with, and this goes double for heavy armours. I beg to differ. This Potd run is proving to be the easiest one yet. Barbarian in Sanguine Plate and Shod in Faith. When he gets critted he proccs frenzy and healing at the same time. Pair him up with a Paladin with zealous endurance and a moon godlike monk and my meele fighters are kicking butt. Probably the playthrough where I've had minimal resting

I have a Might 19 Dex 19 monk in my party at lvl 6 using only fists in the Saints War armour (love it when the monk goes down only to stand up and spam TR). God damn she is a beast, with two weapon figting, swift strikes, WT Peasant, Torments Reach and Turning Wheel. I decided to skip priest this time around and with a Barbarian in shod in faith and Moon Godlike monk you barely need healing. This is probably one of the most fun Potd playthrough I've had and after my party reached level 4 nothing has been a challenge. I kinda forgot about Raedric and didn't go after him until lvl 5 and boy did he get spanked like the naughty boy he is. As for long stride, I feel I have no need for it in my current party. I have a Ranger and a Cipher as hvy artillery. The Ranger has couple of Arquebuses and the Cipher had couple of Arbalests. So when I see a squishy he gets paralyzed and shot like a rabid dog.

That's why Sanguine Plate and other items that trigger on crit are best used on characters with low deflection. Sanguine Plate would be wasted on my Paladin as he has deflection around 100.

Nah don't add rain or bad weather....then my characters will huddle up inside some cozy inn and I can't go outside adventuring because of roleplaying reasons.

I know that some people are miffed that Sanguine Plate doesn't have retaliation anymore, but I like it with frenzy. Really good for Monks and Barbarians. Put them in Shod in Faith or whatever it is called and you will proc Frenzy and Consecrated ground at the same time. At the moment I have my Aumaua Might 21 (23), Dex 16 (18) Barb using it wielding an Estoc and I regret that I called him Kull the Conqueror, I should have named him Wrecking Ball. When the Frenzy cools down I can use Frenzy again. Great on Potd where my lvl 6 Deflection 38 Barb gets critted all the time.

You get the quest for it after you pick up Pellegina, talk to the ambassador and he will give you the quest The Forgotten or somesuch.

I remember someone had tested that during auto attacks you only attack with the offhand weapon. Not sure myself but I used it myself abit but I got the feeling I could spam TR faster without an offhand weapon. Could be that we lose the dual weapon speed bonus

It's because they have tendencies to trip in their robes, put them in pants and they should do just fine

I killed him on hard at level 4, cant be too much worse on PotD. Like you said you are in a bad spot talking to him. So don't talk to him. Position your characters at the door which leads to his study or which goes up to the room for which you get Nedmar's key. Send your tank with a ranged weapon and attack one of them and run back to the door. gg easy. What can i say....before I played potd I played hard, then I found out hard is only for girly men. Seriously though, Path of the Damned is much more difficult than hard, at least until you adjust.

I agree, at level four it is usually Paralyze and shoot to build more focus. Mindblades are something I might throw after my wizard has successfully cast a curse of the blackened sight to reduce the enemy deflection.

Use spells, like Curse of the Blackened sight 2nd level wizard spell, follow up with Combusting wounds, Arcane assaults and Ghost blades. If you are level 5 then Noxius Burst is excellent damage spell as well. Slicken a 1st level spell might buy you a breather as well and if you have a battle line a Chill Fog is also great DOT. Have Durance cast Armour of Faith (+4DR), Blessing (+5 Acc and +10%dmg) and Holy Power (increases might and resolve for more damage and deflection)- And then you have him running consecrated ground and spamming heals. Kana's job should be staying alive until he can summon a shade or skeletons. Hiravious should be casting Nature's mark and following up with sunbeam for blind and damage and dancing bolts. Conjure lesser blight is good to distract your enemies and if you manage in a cone of Autum's Decay then that would be nice as well. The Ranger should be shooting the enemy wizards, trying to drop them as fast as he cans. Just a few tips, I have done this fight probably 3 times on potd and sometimes it can be tricky, especially as you don't have good positioning if you talk to Raedric. I always approach him with my tank, keep the others on the steps and then run as fast as I can back with my tank to make a battle line.

It is excellent on my Barbarian on Potd difficulty. Barbarians have inherently low defenses and therefore more chance to get critted, and on Potd this happens almost every fight. Next time around I'm going to put it on my monk!!!

Well you might argue that you have more need for the monies on potd

Kurgan, Aumaua from Rauitai. After being disinherited by his father and exiled Kurgan decided that raping and plundering your neighbours was not the greatest of ideas. So Kurgan grabbed his estoc which he had named Stabby and his pollaxe named Polly and headed in a search for adventure. Naming your weapons on a drunken binge does not make up for cool, terrifying names. Kurgan heard about some Lord who was doling out land at a place called Gilded Vale. Kurgan had plans, he was going to build himself a log cabin and ferment some moonshine and spend the rest of his life in drunken stupour peddling cheap alchohol. But Fate was no so kind, on his way the caravan master told Kurgan to pick berries for his unusually bad hangovers. Kurgan was sent off with a blond warrior bimbo, she gave him a cold stare when he asked her about her chainmail bikini. She probably played for the other team anyway, told him that she was going to meet her "sister" yeah right. After picking some berries and slaughtering some poor wolves that didn't manage to run away Kurgan was happily suprised when he and the warrior bimbo, whose name he didnt recall, got ambushed when doing more menial chores. A couple of savages came running out of the forest shouting something. Kurgan quickly drew Stabby and charged point first driving his 6 foot estoc through the first savage and still continuing his charge using his tremendous strenght impaled the second savage onto his estoc. Kurgan grinned stupedly while he exclaimed "Two for one". To be continued at later date

I usually kill them so I dont have to pay them. Ok I had the bug where my followers attacked me on sight. Think it got fixed in 1.05

I was using a similar build and it was fun, though I used a custom party and had a paladin with an endurance aura as the second tank and that allowed me to havd my monk wear Eders armour which is lesser speed penalty which means faster attacks = MORE PUNCHING BOMBS. Then when you find the Sanguine armour the real fun begings as now it has frenzy. Then you get a berserker monk with +4 in might and con and 33% more speed= MORE PUNCHING BOMBS

Could be just luck as you get random items. Sometimes I get a extra blunting belt, I was lucky this time around and found Gauntlets of Accuracty +5 in Raedrics Hold. It just depends..I sell most of my finds and gear up in Defiance bay. If you kill everything in Raedrics Hold that should net you about 20.000 coppers so you can go on a shopping spree

Of course not....I'm not going to give you a guilty conciense about all the people you didn't have to kill

Well I guess now that I cleared it that the keeps netto worth after selling everything that I couldn't use is around 20.000 copper. Now I can shop around in Defiance bay for the items that I need. Sometimes I just love playing a greedy bastard, at least it is different from when I was playing a Paladin.