fiddlesticks

I suppose there is no way of verifying that someone pulled it off legitimately without them streaming the entire playthrough, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not like there's a special kind of reward attached to the achievement, so you're only cheating yourself in the end.

It's difficult in the sense that failing to get your buffs up or missing a critical spell can very easily lead to your doom, whereas Paladin or Chanter are much more forgiving classes in long fights due to their natural defensive capabilities. I don't think anyone would deny that Wizards are very powerful, but beating every tough encounter without a single death as a spellcaster is still an impressive feat. Kudos to the guy/gal. Edit: Also kudos for having the patience to put up with resting all the damn time.

From experimenting with the Aila Braccia, it seems like a surprising number of attacks in the game fall under the Ranged Attack umbrella, including the missile spells, Cleansing Flame, and the Lagufaeths' blowgun. I'd go as far as calling it one of the better unique bonuses for armour.

If I understand the chart correctly, slower weapons tend to benefit slightly more from all attack speed modifiers than fast ones because the irreducible Delay is a comparatively smaller part of their overall attack animation. So a Warbow/Rod will get the biggest relative DPS boost from additional attack speed. Granted, the difference is vanishingly small and probably unnoticeable when playing the actual game, but it's still kind of interesting on a theoretical level.

I tried a Rogue with Spelltongue once to see if she could get indefinite invisibility from Feign Death. It works on some fights (you can easily solo Thaos with that combo), but for most of them, it just doesn't last long enough. Though now I'm wondering if you could intentionally put a weak buff on an enemy to benefit from the effect. Offhand, I can't remember any buffs that work on foes, though.

Can't wait for Alpha Protocol 2!

IIRC, the +10 Ranged Accuracy from Vicious Aim works on most spells, but I don't have the exact numbers. Loren Tyr would know for sure since he did a lot of testing in that regard.

Are we including scrolls/spellcasting items in the comparison? Those would have an impact on relative class balance thanks to their interaction with certain abilities like Driving Flight or Deathblows.

I don't consider Time Parasite to be all that great. By the time you get it, you'll also have the resources to chug DAoM potions all day, and you need to actually build up Focus before you're able to use it. Tactical Meld is nice but once again requires Focus and somewhat limits your flexibility. Body Attunement is very solid but benefits the Rogue in your team just as much as the Cipher. I'm also not sure comparing endgame values is all that meaningful. Any decently built party will stomp all over the higher levels because you get access to so many powerful abilities. Whether you want to win a fight with Avenging Storm + Shapeshift, a dual-wielding Rogue, or something entirely different like a Wizard spamming Freezing Rake is more of a personal preference thing. The hardest fights usually come when you enter an area at a lower level and with weaker equipment than you're supposed to, but that's not something you can easily account for in a theoretical test. Edit: Just to be clear, I do consider the Rogue to be a bit weaker than other classes, but that's not because his single-target damage is disapointing so much as that all other damage dealers offer more flexibility. Fighters and Monks are more durable, Rangers have a surprising number of decent CC abilities, and Ciphers get all of their powers on top of the solid physical attacks. As such, I'm also not sure simply buffing the Rogue's damage output will fix the issue. I'd rather see his role expanded a bit, perhaps with a greater focus on fighting dirty and fooling opponents.

You can simply choose not to level up, letting you get to the bear cave at level 1. A Wizard could probably do it with Slicken + Fan of Flames, though you'd have to get some lucky rolls. Maybe a Cipher with Whisper of Treason? Let the Bear kill her young and then finish her off once she's weakened. Neither approach is particularly "manly", though.

Are we including consumables as well? Because early on, a Fighter using Fan of Flames scrolls is a strong contender, and in the mid- to late-game Deathblows + damaging spells works like a charm. Both of those are more limited than standard spellcasters though.

While trying out a new Wizard build, I noticed that the AoE effect from the Wizard's Blast talent no longer seems to trigger Envenomed Strike. I remember the two abilities synergising when I tried it previously, so I'm wondering if that's a recent change. Not that I necessarily mind since it was a tad overpowered. It's just weird that I couldn't find anything about it in the patch notes.

That's a very detailed breakdown. Thanks for doing all the legwork.

I thought Devotions didn't stack with generic Accuracy buffs (barring the ones that stack with everything, of course). Did they change that at some point?

I don't really see the issue. Clear Out, Knockdown, and Charge are all great abilities so long as you have decent Intellect. Into the Fray would be pretty good, too, if it wasn't so finicky. That build should do just fine on PotD.

The easy strategy for the main hall fight is buying the figurine from Gilded Vale and using it to distract the Phantoms. Then run close to the stairs, and wait until they de-aggro. You'll need about 5 Stealth for that, IIRC, which is why taking the Boots of Stealth from Raeedric's Hold beforehand is a smart idea.

You also only have to fight three Eyeless before you get Abydon's Hammer, which can instantly kill them on a critical hit. Though Chanters can't boost Accuracy to the same extent as Paladins, so I don't know how useful that strategy is for them.

Oh nice, I didn't know that weapon-based abilities also got the ACC/level bonus. Does this make Sap the most reliable way of inflicting Stun on an enemy?

Congrats. Going for The Ultimate is extremely annoying in parts, but the satisfying feeling you get when you finally pull it off makes it all worth it. The Achievement Showcase in your profile will show the five rarest achievements you've gotten. Hover over the picture of The Ultimate, and you'll see that 0.04% of all players have obtained it. For comparison, 0.16% have gotten Triple Crown Solo and 0.05% have Frozen Crown. IIRC, Overmind did it with a Chanter, so Paladins aren't the only class that can pull it off, though I personally agree that they're the most reliable one.

I've always been a fan of CC melee builds, and yours seems very well researched. Is optimising attack speed to such a high degree really worth it, though? It seems like the main restriction of this setup is the amount of Wounds you gain, rather than the speed at which you use them. Maximising Accuracy to ensure that every Force of Anguish you throw out hits as reliably as possible thus seems like a better approach. Though you'd admittedly lose out on the DPS if you go in that direction.

Yes, the Wounding effect on weapons stacks with itself. It's why Drawn in Spring is possibly the best weapon in terms of pure DPS. I don't think there's a specific topic for questions which are too simple to warrant their own thread. Might not be a bad idea to create one, actually.

You're welcome. It really wasn't that much work with the console since I could easily just warp to all relevant areas. Though one thing that occured to me in hindsight is that almost all of the listed attacks first roll to hit versus Deflection before the Poison/Disease effect is applied. So with very high Deflection, resistance to these effects becomes less important.

The Death Guards in Crägholdt Bluffs are technically Ancient Death Guards, but I doubt there's much difference between the two aside from stats. I don't think I've ever seen them cast Finger of Death, though. Either they only use it in very specific circumstances or it's one of those abilities that's listed in the Bestiary, but not actually in the game.

I did a bit of testing in order to solve the mystery. Here's what I found so far. Monsters whose normal attacks have an additional effect that counts as Poison/Disease Crystal Eater Crystal Eater Spiderling Disease Pudding Gul Ice Troll Ivory Spiderling Ivory Spinner Menpwgra Pwgra Skuldr Spider Queen Troll Vithrack Vithrack Exarch Wicht Widowmaker Spiderling Widowmaker Wood Beetle Monsters who have a special ability that counts as Poison/Disease (ability name listed in brackets) Corrupted Druids (Touch of Rot) Dank Spore / Giant Dank Spore / Swamp Spore (Spore Disease) Dargul (Weakening Rend) Lagufaeth (Blowgun) Menpwgra (Spreading Plague) Spider Queen (Binding Web; her Binding Web differs from the normal one in that it adds a Raw DoT effect) Monsters I didn't test yet Anything from WM Part 2 (because I don't have a nearby save, and I don't know the area names for warping there with the console) The constructs in Galvino's Workshop Battery Sirens and Wraiths (though since none of the other Spirits have any Poison/Disease attacks, I'm assuming neither do they) Death Guards (because I can't actually remember where you fight any) Overall, it seems like the Mountain Dwarf racial ability is fairly decent for a sturdy melee character, especially if you venture deep into the Nameless Paths. It's probably still not quite as good as the Coastal Aumaua bonus, but nowhere near as horrible as it's often made out to be. If you've found any additional monsters or abilities with the Poison/Disease property, feel free to point them out. I tried to be thorough, but it's quite likely I've missed some.

The thread title pretty much says it all. During my solo runs, I noticed that a lot more attacks seem to fall under the Poison/Disease umbrella than you might assume at first, particularly afflictions caused by melee attacks (stuff like the Crystal Eater's Petrify on hit or the Dargul's Paralyzing Touch). With that in mind, I was wondering if someone actually bothered to look through the game files and catalogue which attacks are classified as either Poison or Disease. Or is there a general rule-of-thumb that one can follow in this regard?