Sock

I can't post the log, and it was technically a level 5 ranger, had just gotten stalker's link. Did the whole cat and mouse quest for the level up. Fine sword, plain medium shield, fine chainmail. 16 str, 8 con, 10 dex, 15 per, 15 res, 14 int. Marked Prey, Swift Aim, Stalker's Link, Sword and Shield, Hold the Line. Wolf pet. I feel like each pet should have two characteristics that define them. Bear is tanky, wolf is fast, etc. Well, what if the bear could also cause a bleed over time DoT, wolves gave additional coordination bonuses, antelope gets an escape type function, boar gets a charge, etc. The idea being that choice of pet would impact how your ranger plays.

I tend to roll with 3 melee/3 ranged. Theoretical party: Ranger/Fighter/Paladin/Chanter/Priest/Wizard If my ranger is melee, then my chanter is using a gun or bow. If my ranger is ranged, then my chanter is using a sword and shield and has hold the line. I don't count my pet has a tank or off-tank when it's by itself. It can withstand 1v1, but that's it. Without devoting talents to it's tanking ability, it will never be able to tough it out on the front lines. When I have a melee ranger, I have to baby the pet less, since the ranger will grab up one or two, and then I can micromanage the pet and ranger to coordinate attacks.

It's countered by just how easy it is for your pet to die. Seriously. They are very fragile.

Gromir makes a good point. Paladins can spec into a spike damage build and then switch into a very effective tank. You can use a paladin to immediately drop the biggest threat on the field, which is something only the rogue can do, but can then drop into a strong defensive role. That kind of flexibility is nice, but in addition to it the paladin is also generating buffs. Increasing their damage further isn't the best route to go. Honestly, I think that the Flames of Darconi Palace should be standard with Flames of Devotion, and the paladin should be a class that deals reactive damage. Give them abilities like "spiked shield" or "counter attack", so that they deal damage by being attacked.

I just ran through the beta on PotD with a tank ranger (Weapon and Shield, Hold the Line, Cautious Attack, and Bloody Slaughter, with Stalker's Link, Marked Prey, Swift Aim, the +AoE defense ranger ability) and a 2H fighter in plate with mixed tank/dps talents: defender, wary defender, confident aim, weapon spec soldier, weapon focus soldier, weapon mastery soldier, bloody slaughter. The ranger was miles ahead of the fighter at first. In the Meredith fight, the ranger did 600 damage while the highest anyone else did was 150. The gap narrowed quickly afterwards, though, and the ranger began to balance out with everyone. The fighter, however, was starting to rise ahead towards the end. With the damage boosting abilities and relying on the DR from the plate + regen from constant recovery, the fighter was very heroic in action, although almost entirely passive. Managing the pet with the ranger was more enjoyable than watching the fighter fight. My ranger ended with around 110 deflection. while the fighter had 60. There were some cases where the fighter was worthless (wurms, who target reflexes and not deflection), but for most fights the fighter was a perfectly adequate tank for PotD, and the ranger and wolf were always there, ready to take **** out as a duo or split to provide coverage if the fighter went down. The ranger also served as a better tank in situations where the fighter didn't, such as the wurms. I have also ran a build with a boreal dwarf ranger with a rifle and a bear. I partnered her with a chanter, but her crit rate was obscene with stalker's link and the reload speed was respectable enough that I could just let her be passively. Very effective as a ranged nuker, but you needed to direct her based on what the pet was targeting. If the pet can't get to the juicy target you want to kill, then too bad. This is a downside for most traditional ranged characters who tend to benefit from free target choice. Still, the pet is an "okay" tank 1v1, but worthless in 1v2+. If the pet goes down, your DPS vanishes. Interesting note: If your pet dies, and you have a paladin use reviving exhortation, you will still have the bonded grief penalty applied. -20 accuracy is a huge penalty to damage, but if you're using stalker's link then you're really down -40. That's why you CANNOT risk your pet, you have to play it safe. Unlike a tank ranger, a ranged ranger is entirely reliant on their accuracy to function in the group. A tank ranger can still tank even with crap accuracy. A ranged ranger can do nothing with crap accuracy. Rangers are capable members of the party, they just have to be babied like the rogue, just in a very different way.

I agree with the sentiment that rangers make excellent tanks. Take Weapon and Shield + Hold the Line, have a Fighter companion with a 2H weapon and the defender modal. You then have 7 engagement slots, and can lock down a battle field. 2 engagement slots are the pet, and it's not great for withstanding two things at once, so you have 5 reliable slots. With the pet granting a massive +20 bonus to accuracy, they have the ability to really maximize on crits. It's also worth mentioning that the pets (wolf at least) can easily manage 20-30 damage hits, and I have seen crits up to 42. The pets are capable of significant damage in their own right, which really benefits using them for flanking/dps while the ranger itself tanks. Are they the most effective single tank for the entire party? No, but pair them with any other strong off-tank, and they really shine as the perfect hybrid of offense and defense, so long as you can keep your pet alive.

This is actually a pretty fantastic idea. I've always felt like rogues were missing something very "roguey". Why not let them be able to see alarm areas around NPCs so that they can better avoid detection when in scout mode? That would be perfect.

And Ila Knocked, for an additioanl 2x reload time.

Quite frankly, it depends on your play style. If you're going to fire off one shot and then engage in melee, then you probably wouldn't even gain enough to devote talents to improving your ranged ability. If you want to be primarily ranged with melee for backup, even then that's questionable with there being no penalties for using ranged weapons in melee. If you're going to spend any talents improving ranged, it really should be to lock you into that role. Talents are rare and some are very potent. To get the most impact from your choices, you'll want to focus on abilities that are always valuable, not just situationally. If you're going to mix weapon classes (pistol/greatsword), just focus on improving what you'll be doing primarily. I wouldn't take Ruffian over Soldier if you're planning for heavy use for the greatsword, though. My flexible characters tend to focus more on developing the melee side of things, using ranged only when tactically viable. As a result, I don't spend any talents improving what is meant to be a back up weapon.

Just a note: Pistols are 2 handed, so unless you were switching between them to get the shots off, I wouldn't bother with pistols. Go with the greatsword and the arbequs, they are both in the same weapon class, and the arbequs has the highest single target damage, which would allow you to get the maximum benefit from Flames of Devotion. This would be an effective build for a paladin. I've considered it myself, but I prefer a more active character for my main character. As it stands, paladins have one active ability and then an option for up to 3 more reactive abilities.

Pickpocketing in DA:O, BG, IWD, whatever... it was all the same. It was another way to get loot. Like lockpicking is used to open chests (though everyone agrees that bashing should be an option too), pickpocking it used to open pockets. It serves the exact same function as open locks, but it doesn't do anything else. There could be a few quests where you might want to pickpocket something from someone. Sure, that's interesting. But the same result can be achieved by putting the item needed behind a lock. Pickpocketing doesn't add anything unique to the gameplay. It doesn't introduce a new dynamic, nor does it present new challenges to overcome. This isn't a triple A funded game, it doesn't have the budget to put in every single thing immediately. But it does seem pretty modable with core rules, so who knows what the future holds for it. Remember how big the modding community is around these types of games. It's from Obsidian, and it's linked to IE games, both of which have significant modder followings.

Use "P" in the inn.

No.

I can confirm that reputations do not matter to Adventure Hall Paladins, they are always at the base of 5/10s. I am inclined to think that party reputation will not impact Pallegina's Faith and Conviction.

Really did. Maybe it would have been okay if the range had remained unchanged, but reduced range and drastically lowered damage... not worth taking anymore.

Why isn't it the 26th already? As far as my impression goes: Balance issues are rampant, but they aren't as big as they were initially and most of the "god" tier abilities are weaker now. Most bugs are minor. There are still a ton of consitency issues with ability and talent descriptions, and it is very opaque in what stacks and what doesn't (ie: can't use cautious attack with the defender modal fighters have, but you can use it with any of the aura modals a paladin has, and it is not clear why these two modals have different rules). Gameplay-wise, I like it a lot. I am not the kind of person who enjoys setting up and taking advantage of every tactic I can to get a win in most fights. I set up a traveling formation and then just move forward constantly. If you are the tactical type, who positions your party in stealth and then trigger a fight with an attack spell... you might find it underwhelming since that combo allows you to tailor the battlefield. But I have lots of tense moments and skin of the teeth encounters that make it really enjoyable to just barely snag a win, and if I come across a hard fight then I would actually have to utilize those tactics. I've only put in 100 hours into the beta, but after those 100 I am still excited for the launch of the game, and anticipate playing it at the highest difficulty level.

You make a good point. Path of the Damned is probably the best way to play PoE. At least it is for me, someone who's already "familiar" with the mechanics. This is a new area for me. I usually play games in normal mode, then bump up the difficulty when I get familiar with the mechanics. I've never played a game from the start already familiar enough with it's game play to consider experiencing the story for the first time while the combat is also challenging. Hmm... this is going to be fun.

Like everyone has already said, chanters are like bards... mixed with Dovakin. Get the "Waves Crashed" invocation and tell me that isn't Unrelenting Force. They are capable of survivng in an off-tank fashion in melee (which is valuable for building up to invocations), and when at range they have an excellent chant that boosts ranged attack speed significantly. They are the most flexible class no matter how you build them, and their summons are always useful. The phantom, for example, deals cold damage and stuns on hit. There is no weapon with that ability, no character you create will be able to stun on every hit. Unfortunately, since Thrice She Was Wronged was nerfed, their damage dealing capabilities are laughable. At this point, their summons contribute more damage than any of their offensive invocations, and they do have several buffs and debuffs within their invocation pool, but due to limited applicability they will still be best served as a summoner class.

Really one handed should be represented like your character is a duelist essentially. So like added accuracy and penetration to represent a person trained in fencing as an example, someone who uses one weapon with an emphasis on percision. A duelist is certainly one way to look at it. I see it more as a "scrapper". Someone who goes into a rough tavern, starts some ****, and then steel comes out. They use their free hand to tip chairs in the way, to grab and throw things, or to manipulate their environment while still being able to wield a weapon. Fighting with a free hand opens up tactics involving having a freaking free hand. It's fighting, not dueling. It's using everything around you to your advantage to win. Dueling is an art, and it has rules and "honor". Fighting is dangerous and chaotic, and every advantage has to be used to stay alive.

What if 1H style was some kind of random proc style? Say, on Hit: 15% chance to apply one of: hobbled/dazed/frightened and on Crit: 5% chance to apply one of: crippled/stunned/terrified. With it's natural bonus to accuracy, you'd hit frequently, and higher accuracy would turn more hits into crits. Orlan's would crit very frequently. I was always a fan of wild mages and random chance. We already have a weapon style that boosts damage, one that boosts speed, and one that boosts defense. What else is there to boost that would make 1H style significantly different from the others, giving it a niche function within a party? Outlandish ideas are the way to go. Introduce something different in how we utilize the soul when fighting.

I'm sure it's a balance issue. Invocations are very powerful depending on the situation. If they are able to build up a huge chant pool and then unleash rapid fire invocations, they become god-like.

Set timer also means that they can chant regardless of recovery time, and thus can wear heavy armors and shields with minimal penalty to their primary function.

Not to get nitpicky with words here, but I'm genuinely curious: If the "specific number" varies from invocation to invocation, then that means you can have your phrase counter reach, say, 5, and have Invocation A require that 5, while Invocation B only requires 3 (for example). So, when you say casting an Invocation "zeroes out" the phrase counter, does it actually set "Phrase_Counter = 0"? Or does it "spend" X number of phrase counter points? In other words, if you're phrase counter is 5, and you cast an Invocation that requires 3PP (phrase points, we'll call them), then do you have 2 left over, and after one more phrase round, are able to cast another 3PP Invocation? Zero.

I tried it in 385, but Riposte wasn't working as it was supposed to so I couldn't -really- test it. Also, you can raise engagement limit by 1 with "hold the line". It really should be +2 in order to be worth a talent.

Do you mean numerically one level higher, or more like "a unique talent learned through a quest" being more than just level 12? Cause personally, I'd love little things like that more. Like in BG1, you'd get those special abilities based on alignment from going through the main quest.