omgFIREBALLS

I'm attempting Triple Crown, and I'm having far more success with it than ever before. However, inattention has caused me some irreparable damage. My party is fighter tank (watcher), paladin off-tank, fighty fighter, tallbarian, chanter and priest. Having slain the sky dragon, I decided I'd enchant my Tall Grass right away. Only, I accidentally used those eyeballs on my chanter's Llawran's Stick instead. I am unsure how to make the best of this situation. I think at the end of the day, the rational choice is to suck it up. TG still has reach and prone-spam. I'll have the option to give my barbarian the Tidefall later when my fighter gets the hammer (much as I am asking for minmaxer input, I'm not giving my barbarian a dagger). Then there's the staff. My chanter does not bring the pain. Even should I commit to pushing her damage, I don't expect she'll get near the fighter. Committing would mean durganizing the staff, and this party does not want for uses for that steel (I've already used it on TG too). I looked at the attack speed invocation, but eh, I don't know that more attack speed is what she needs, or that she can even utilize it all. The staff has +20% already, durganizing would mean another 15%, and then 40% from the invocation, on someone wearing light armor... I admit attack speed calculations are nothing but confusing to me, would any of this go to waste? Does the best way of improving my chanter's damage with reach/range not involve this staff at all, superb or not? And can I use the Helwax Mold on Concelhaut's eyeball? Yes, seriously

I saw them, but apart from maybe the change to single weapon style I don't see how they are particularly relevant to this. Happy for that change though. Mostly I'm cackling manically about the 1/encounter Heart of Fury. That ability is a wrecking ball.

Thanks for all the input. Haven't decided between dualing Drawn In Spring, Bittercut or Purgatory, but at least it's now a narrowed selection. As for Reckless Assault vs. Vulnerable Attacks, do you all agree with Stasis Sword? I'm thinking if I respec to get it I might drop Persistent Distraction because with Sap I have a more effective answer to enemies that decide to target my rogue.

I'm not averse to going for CC but none of those weapons feel roguelike enough to me. Level 13 Abilities: Blinding Strike, Deathblows, Deep Wounds, Dirty Fighting, Escape, Sap, Persistent Distraction Talents: Two Weapon Style, Shadowing Beyond, WF: Ruffian, Vicious Fighting, Vulnerable Attack, Backstab I excluded Watcher abilities/talents. Wearing Purgatory and Misery's End, I guess Glanfathan Sneaking Boots and Rabbit Fur Gloves should be mentioned too. Thanks.

After a number of abandoned projects I've finally taken a melee rogue far and I'm pretty happy with her damage (and more importantly my ability to keep her alive). But why settle for pretty happy when I have you guys to make it even better, eh? Conditions - I want to keep the rogue feeling, so no heavy armor, no shield and no two-handers. Single or dual wield (also no ranged weapons) - She has max dexterity because I've never had a Watcher like that and want to explore the conversation options (plus it feels roguelike), which might matter for attack speed calculations At your disposal - The Helwax Mold - Probably every weapon in the game (eventually ), including Misery's End as I sided with the Doemenels - A sky dragon eye that Concelhaut is unwittingly keeping safe for me I've read about dual Purgatory or Drawn In Spring but it seems odd to me that TUB hasn't been mentioned in the posts I've skimmed. My barbarian isn't wearing that because no matter how amazing it is my barbarians don't swing daggers And what about Nightshroud? It's always gone by unused as my priests don't melee. Another dilemma I have is Vulnerable Attack vs. Reckless Assault. The latter looks better to me but I have to spend an odd-level-point on it, where I find I always have some juicy options, whereas the even-level-points aren't very exciting anymore.

So my party is level 12 and I've barely touched the EP... This is a recurring scenario. I'm now looking at suffering through ten-or-so levels of this dungeon before it starts becoming rewarding. And you could say, well if you went there earlier there'd be some useful loot for you. Perhaps so, but I can get useful loot elsewhere and usually with much more experience and variety attached than this quest-starved trash tunnel of a dungeon has to offer. Playing melee parties with AI turned on has certainly helped, but it's still a major chore. What's your family recipe for making the EP more palatable? Anything more sophisticated than "grab quest items and unique loot and make a beeline for the stairs"? While we're at it, is it technically possible to kill the Master Below before killing Maerwald? Obviously on a low difficulty setting as you'd only have access to chapter 1 quests to power up your party. Has anyone done it, and was there any special reaction from the steward?

Thanks. Benevolent +1, but if you're a Bleak Walker I'll instead tell everyone you've been merciless. What I've read here (which might have been changed in a patch by now) is that each kill adds another stack to the buff and another 20 seconds to the duration. What I'm seeing is the first kill grants the buff and consecutive kills don't do anything until it's worn off, at which point you get a new buff upon your next kill. Based on character sheet, not combat log analysis.

I've acquired them for the first time ever. I guess I tend to "out-prestige" the adventure. So anyway, I can't decide who should be wearing them... and I also can't figure out if they work the way I've been reading they do. Currently my barbarian is wearing them, but consecutive kills neither seem to add power nor refresh/increase duration. Here are the candidates. Rogue (currently dual stilettos): Could certainly use the improved defenses, but probably has little use for the attack speed. Not sure how all that works. Second best killer. Barbarian (Tall Grass): Best killer, but doesn't always have use for the defense boost due to weapon reach. May also not need the speed in the long run due to medium armor, though it wouldn't burn my eyes to use plate. Fighter (Tidefall): Third best killer. Needs the defenses less than the rogue but I'm guessing has the most use for the attack speed. +1 Benevolent disposition to be had.

Those monsters drop the roots but only if you don't allow them to move an inch before you kill them. Kidding. A Google search suggests they do indeed drop it. Go kill some more of them.

This thread has gone on for too long without this correction. Mestre Galvino, you uncouth lout.

i like your character names

never mind - saw other thread about this. search function did not disappoint this time (but I still think it's a bit crazy )

Stop. Before you say "That's what the spell is SUPPOSED to do!" I like to wait with certain short duration buffs until the next thing on my priest's to-do list is to cast Salvation of Time. When shortly thereafter checking my party's buffs to see if perhaps another SoT was in order, I noticed self-buffs such as (Outlander's) Frenzy and Disciplined Barrage had ridiculous durations, nearing two minutes. That's after one SoT (in that particular battle). I checked the tooltips for the spells (not the buffs, the spells on their action bar) themselves on their respective characters and they actually listed durations of well over a minute. I thought, maybe these got buffed in a patch, but it seemed a bit over the top. Moreso, these tooltips remain at that duration even as combat ends. As I start a new fight, I can indeed cast them for that mad duration. So I theorized SoT was bestowing some kind of permanent effect. As luck would have it, another character gained a level soon after and she was able to take Outlander's Frenzy, with a reasonable duration listed. I then picked a fight and cast SoT before using OF. It still listed the same duration. Then I cast OF and then SoT, and the tooltip for the action bar spell seemed to nearly double its duration (might be that it adds the remaining duration to the next casting? shrug). The fight ended, and I started another, and I did indeed enjoy a still-increased OF duration for this toon. The effect is not entirely out of hand as it seems a reload will restore the abilities to their normal durations. I'm attaching the quicksave right before using that toon's level up. I've no camping supplies, but my priest still has 2 level 5 memos available, which should suffice for testing. If you want to pick a fight, all the trash mobs in Woedica's temple nearby will be happy to oblige. I've done some testing there and it seems to me I've got the mechanics of the bug isolated as per the description in this post. I went through three search queries before posting this, so if it's a repeat your forum sucks. TL;DR: Salvation of Time increases the duration of (some or all) affected buffs even for future castings in future battles, until you reload.

You speak wisely. 400+ hours played but only after reading your post could I explain why my parties always feel so much more powerful after level 7.

I don't know that resolve is so much better, or even better at all, than intelligence or perception really. Certainly might sees less use and con/dex very little, but in scripted interactions the tables turn I'd say. Since you can send whoever you want at those, however, it's not much of a counterbalance. I'm not sure how you could weave physical checks into conversations as readily as any of the mental ones. [Might 18] I'm right because big sword. [Constitution 18] I disagree with you, sir. Let's settle the matter with a drinking contest. [Dexterity 18] Those are very good points that you'll all take back if you want the contents of your pockets back.

to be srs this time then, three things 1) Debuff (and sometimes buff) stacking mechanics not requiring you to take a basic degree of quantum rocket surgery to grasp. 2) Positioning - if I tell five melee characters to attack one target, they should surround it without needing to be microd. Right now it's more like three attack it and two can't decide which way to walk around those three. Also sidestepping while maintaining engagement distance shouldn't provoke disengagement attacks. Not sure that one's still in. 3) Dispositions should not be some weird combination of personality and reputation. See http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85842-deceptive/ And I gotta mention some things I luv, just in case anyone's thinking not to bother keeping them. It's pistols at dawn, really. Fast mode and slow mode - so simple yet so useful. Instant trap/secret detection - I can't stand waiting for it in IE games after having played PoE, I just trigger the traps rather than combing the area. For a third I'll simply say story, it's nuanced and engaging without the game being so heavy on it that I don't get to gut my daily share of dragons.

AFAIK the income is not tied to the prestige/security, so that means it's certainly profitable. Either way, raising prestige means you can get cooler adventures rewarding very desirable items. Items you'd probably be happy to pay way more for than you spend pimpin' dat prestige.

Defensive Mindweb? Shrug. Considering how far into the game these still see regular use, I'd also like to mention low-level spells such as Chill Fog, Combusting Wounds and Blessing.

i just want the spell in my signature pretty much ciphers don't troll anywhere near as much as they should

Word. I open most if not all difficult battles like that. Tank runs in by themselves while the rest of the party buffs up.

What kind of hi-tech place do you live in for something like that to sound trivial?

Oh, sorry I didn't see the reply the first time. I very much believe I chose Taena. I also just now went to check with a party where I'd chosen Owynna (16 mech there too) and I can't find it, so that could very well be it.

You're going to roleplay having Minsc and Edwin in the same group? Shall we conjure up a replacement for one of them? If you're willing to use EE characters you could take Neera instead. Fits the criteria of being in both games. Or you could give up that requirement and take Nalia, and imagine her vivid approval of any [benevolent] response. Unfeasible idea, but it sprang to mind: A party of six fighters. Everyone takes the fearless talent, except the one called Khalid

Well, I could argue that while the rogue gets immediate results faster, the barbarian still reduces the risks over time. Sure, the rogue will kill one target faster. But maybe by the time the rogue has killed three the barbarian has killed seven. Now while the rogue's party got some threats immediately removed, they now still have four more to deal with than the barbarian's party. However, that is my weaker argument. My stronger is: Tall Grass, the Pronepike. Need I introduce you?

I'd say if there's an adventure you really want you should just reload until you get it - save before handing in some quest, reload if you got the wrong one. I've pretty much licked the game clean on this playthrough and there are adventures I haven't had, of both low and high prestige. I'd prefer it that the game would choose a lower prestige named adventure if I've completed all major ones and random another major, than to give a generic major one. edit: Lol, Blunderboss. Are you spoken for, my evident soulmate?