Infares

Miasma of Dull-Mindedness does the following: -30 Interrupt -30 Concentration -20 Deflection -20 Reflex -40 Will -60% AoE -50% Skill Duration

IIRC Deep Wounds does do a bit of damage on application so you'd actually bump the per-projectile damage by 4 for each projectile, that's significant by itself, let alone the stacked DOT damage. Edit: Not sure how Sneak Attack stacks with Backstab, but if you do it from stealth within 2 meters, you'd potentially multiply the damage done by the projectiles and possibly even the dots by 2.25.

So the damage an ability shows is the full damage it will cause over the duration rather than the damage it will cause per tick? As far as I know, yeah.

My current playthrough (hard mode, haven't been past level 5 yet lmao) I have Fire Barb and Wild Orlan Chanter tanks, a priest, and the Wizard/Druid/Cipher wrecking crew, all in a sort of curved V shape so that the Druid and Wizard can cone AoE the piss out of things on the pull during hard fights. Have auto-attack disabled so I don't end up accidentally instagibbing my own guys, lol.

Not sure on tick intervals, but it would seem that the total damage has the DR deducted from it on resolution rather than on a per-tick basis. Like, if it's 30 dmg over 10 seconds, and the enemy has 5 dr against that damage type, it'll be 25 over 10 seconds, or 2.5 DPS overall (regardless of the actual tick interval).

What I do is at least balance my stats in such a way that all my saves still total +12. For instance, an offensive spread like 21/5/19/7/18/8 will result in even defenses across the board (except Deflection, obv) and you can flip them around for tanks in a similar way by lowering the offensive stats instead. Thing is, tanks are going to get a bunch of free reflex but be susceptible to stuns and the like so you will likely want to overvalue Fort, and also Will if you're a Wild Orlan.

Using either instant or fast spells and having really good resolve all adds up to dex being a harmless dump stat. I'm torn on the build itself though. Thing is, you can absolutely have a whole grimoire loaded with aoe nukes and just default back to this one on fights against ranged enemies, spellcasters, or incorporeals.

Shields do affect your base accuracy with all sources, so yeah, a shield will kill your spellcasting unless it's a buckler. You could go buckler + hatchet for spellcasting and then switch to just a spear when moving in to actually melee, or better yet, a ranged weapon, if you wish.

I don't think the game has threat mechanics, which is why there's engagement. Having more than one melee capable of rudimentary tanking and giving Aloth talents and abilities that allow him to escape engagement himself are all good ideas.

Nah, spells are based on your base accuracy. Thing is, spells generally have accuracy bonuses, so casters have notoriously bad base accuracy, so single-wielding helps compensate for that by quite a bit.

AI Scripting can be pretty exploitable. Games like DA:O or Final Fantasy XII, you can basically autopilot most trivial encounters. [Edit: Pathing is apparently much improved now compared to Backer's Beta, but there are sometimes still some issues with it, so even if you could script a priority system for your characters, chances are you'll still have to go hands-on most of the time, anyways.]

I just like the idea of point blank blunderbussing people in their gastrointestinal cavities.

Did the Ancient Memories nerf hit this build very hard, or have you yet to upgrade to 1.03?

Basically, that's why you get multiple chants. If you really need to stack chants quickly just to go for a fast invocation you can use a quick string of 5 level one chants and then hit up your summon, and then switch to your higher level chants.

How is xp broken? You mean the xp differential you're supposed to get for having fewer than 6 party members? No i mean the fact that when you get to defiance bay the game quickly nose dives in difficulty because you out level everything. I'd like to see them bump the level cap and jack up the difficulty at that point.

Survival is extremely good for tanks, as is Athletics. The first two points into Athletics are worth 80% reduced combat fatigue, the 3rd point only bumps it by 10% rather than the 40% per point of the first two, so I'd say your Lore/Mechanics characters can stop there safely until they start hitting diminishing returns on their point costs. Runoff points should go into Survival, Athletics, or Stealth (IMO, in that order). High Stealth can be very useful for a Rogue if you get Backstab and the Invisibility ability. You can sneak around a fight, blunderbuss one enemy to death instantly, invis up, run up on a second, blunderbuss him too once you're reloaded, then use your Escape move to bounce behind your tank after he runs up, basically instagib two priority targets before the fight even starts, 3 if you do it with a high-stealth Blunderbuss Cipher as well, giving him a huge chunk of Focus to burn in the fight.

Gear, abilities, and talents are the core of your character, actual stat spreads, while significant low-level, become less so later on.

I'm not seeing "Tidefall" on the wiki. You talking about the Moon passive?

Just chiming in to ask wtf this has to do with the op's topic?? The guy above me was mentioning that he felt Ranger and Barb were the weakest classes currently.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/74074-my-fire-barbarian-tankish-build/

If you equip a weapon in your off hand and leave the main hand empty, you get a massive boost to your accuracy at the expense of only auto-attacking with your offhand weapon, but Torment's Reach does hit with both your fist and your offhand weapon. Taking Weapon Focus: Peasant and equipping a spear in your offhand gets you a ton of crits.

The mental image of the carnage that would unfold with a Fire Godlike Cipher Tank is hilarious. His dps would still be phenomenal compared to most tanks.

The red part of the AoE allows friendly fire, the yellow part doesn't. You can configure your formation so that you can keep friendlies from harm. Otherwise, you can have a V shaped formation and position your aoe characters at the back of it and use them to pull groups with their aoe spells and then clean up whatever's left. Jacking up the Int of your Aoe characters will also enlarge the yellow non-friendly-fire zone in your aoes and make it easier to avoid friendly fire.

You don't want the priest too far away from the front line, though. Just far enough that the leading edge of their per-encounter AoE can hit the enemies from where they're standing (if you're in a situation where it works on the enemies).

Indeed. Everything meaningful you do as a priest has a radius, a duration, or usually both. I like putting them in clothing and giving them ranged weapons (Magara + Arquebus) and maxing Might, Dex, and Int and having the others at 6-8 depending on which stats are higher to balance out fort/ref/will saves.