JerekKruger

I've found myself heading to Caed Nua fairly early and beelining the Main Keep upgrade specifically to maximise the number of random adventures I end up getting. Probably silly on my part but it has become a habit.

Well, you can have more Worth noting is that, apart from the hidden stash in the mines, all other Mechanics gated ingots (Alpine Dragon and the hard to find cache on Longwatch Falls) can be retrieved after finish Durgan's Battery.

One warning: it might feel a bit weird telling Calisca's sister that she died in a Biawac with Calisca stood next to you

Ner, it's for casting speed, although I'm not sure whether I'll keep it there.

A very simple way to implement this would be to simply have certain kith encounters "call for help", so that if you attack one it will immediately aggro several other nearby kith. Perhaps this could be combined with a timer where if you kill them before the timer runs down, they don't call for help (allowing "stealthy" approaches and perhaps giving the Rogue an extra purpose).

There are actually quite a few good one-handed weapons, although they are concentrated in a handful of weapon types - there are three good sabres, three or four good axes (I haven't used Wodewys enough to judge it), several good stilettos, and three good Warhammers. There are also a couple of very good swords, but they're available so late in the game it's best to ignore them, and and several pretty good fast one-handed weapons which won't keep up in damage terms but have other factors that make them good (the Sword of Daenysis is perhaps an exception to this since with 3 DR bypass it will usually do comparable damage to a normal one-hander). You're right though that on the whole magic weapons are a bit unexciting in PoE, particularly in vanilla PoE. There are some pretty interesting ones in the WM I'd say, though whether they really compare to the best from BG2 is debatable. Also I agree that the DR system needs an overhaul. I like it in principal, and think it makes far more sense than the weird D&D AC system - where armour doesn't protect you, it stops you getting hit - but at the moment it does tend to favour big hitting weapons (two-handers, sabres and axes) and weapons with DR bypass (estocs and stilettos) rather too much. Hopefully Obsidian can tweak it and/or rework it so that we have more choice in the sequel.

You make the mistake of assuming I haven't respeced or restarted Also that Warhammer was just the weapon my Cipher started with. As far as I could tell, none of the Cipher cultures start with a sabre and Heodan doesn't sell one, so the earliest you can get one is by stealing Edér's or buying one from the shop in GV. How does coordinating attacks and marking weapons decide who gets the buff? I had always assumed it was based on proximity, but I've never payed that much attention.

Arrested Development fan?

I imagine that would still work.

I just tried it out and it no longer seems possible (if it ever actually was). The idea was that, just before exiting Cilant Lis you'd dismiss Calisca and Heodan from your party. You'd then step outside, trigger the cutscene, then go back inside and rehire them. However it seems you can't dismiss them anymore so it doesn't work.

Definitely agreed! My biggest problem with the Rogue is not that they are under powered since, as you say, they aren't so under powered as to be a drag, it's that what they do and how they do it is just not very exciting compared to other classes. The max level Rogue ability is that ability to pretend to be dead..., the equivalent ability in WM1 was Sap, a 5s stun. Even Shadow Step*, which is at least interesting, kinda sucks since you have no control over when you teleport back. Meanwhile Paladins are wandering around on fire and Monks are flanked by their elemental simulacra. *This reminds me of the time in WoW when I convinced someone that Shadowstep was a special dance that only Rogues could learn. I expected them to realise it was a joke, but since they didn't I sent them on a wild goose chase to unlock it.

That's my head canon for it

There's nothing saying Aloth has to use the same methods as Thaos did. Assuming he believes in the goal of the Leaden Key I don't see any particular reason why he wouldn't take it over and carry on its mission.

Because when compared to other classes, and when built optimally, the Rogue will either find themselves doing lower damage or find themselves doing comparable damage whilst bringing less utility to the group. Cipher's do slightly less single target damage than Rogues, but have a whole load of spells; Rangers do slightly less single target damage than a Rogue but can take talents that make each shot hit two or four targets, and come with a handy pet; Druids do better single target damage than Rogues and also have spells; Fighters do comparable single target damage to Rogues and are durable; Barbarians do lower single target damage than Rogues, but do AoE damage and, with Heart of Fury, can one shot most easier encounters; the list goes on... It's not that Rogues can't be viable, or even that they can't be powerful, it's that when compared to other classes they simply aren't bringing as much to the party. All that said, if you're enjoying your Rogue then that's all that really matters.

Barbarians aren't the easiest class to play, so don't worry if you're finding yours a little tricky. To answer your questions: 1. Perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively, the typical recommendation for a Barbarian is Constitution 10. You have the highest natural Health and Endurance, so you don't particularly need to raise Constitution higher, but lowering it is also a bad idea since the reductions affect you disproportionately (-X% of a large number is more than -X% of a small number). There are Barbarian Builds that make use of both very high and very low Constitution, but they are always trying to do something unusual. As for Might, high is absolutely fine. I think if I were going to build a typical, AoE damage dealing Barbarian, I'd go for something like Mig 17 Con 10 Dex 10 Per 15 Int 18 Res 8 High Might to increase damage, high Intellect to increase the area of effect of Carnage, and reasonably high Perception to offset the Barbarian's lowish Accuracy and the even lower accuracy of Carnage attacks. Having such a low Dexterity might be a bit painful, but with Dual Wielding, Two Weapon Style and Frenzy (along with some other attack speed boosts) it should be possible to attack very quickly even when wearing decent armour. 2. In PoE you don't get any more Attribute points after character creation. There are a few one off opportunities to raise your attributes through quests, and plenty of items raise them too, but other than that what you start with is what you get. 3. The basic rule is this: you can only ever have one bonus of a given type from gear, and if you are wearing multiple items that give the same type of bonus you'll get the best one (for example, if you're wearing a Breastplate that gives you +1 Might, and a Helm that gives you +2 Might, then you will only get the bonus from the Helm). The exception to this rule are Weapons and Shields: these can stack on top of other bonuses of the same type. Roughly the same rule works for buffs provided by spells too, although that's a lot more complicated and has more exceptions. But generally speaking if two different spells raise the same attribute then you'll only get the highest of the two etc. 4. If you feel like you're doing enough damage then sure, why not. Later on into the game you'll probably be able to do so AND still attack with 0 recovery (the fastest possible). 5. 16. 6. Yeah, there's relatively little benefit from dispositions like stoic etc., there are a few pieces of unique dialogue but generally I think it's something Obsidian thought up early on, but then ran out of time to properly flesh out. Fingers crossed they'll do something better with it in PoE2.

I was toying with raising Might a bit, not so much for the extra damage but for the extra Fortitude defence. It's also the reason I didn't reduce Constitution, and I'll probably take Bear's Fortitude at some point. I realised something about Antipathetic Field. Even if you simply cast it at your direct melee target and no one else gets hit by the beam, it's still pretty good damage compared to the other level one powers.

You didn't do anything wrong. Both Calisca and Heodan are scripted to die. There used to be (and perhaps still is) a way to keep them alive, but since they have no banter or quests or anything it seems a little pointless to do so.

So I rolled up a Boreal Dwarf Cipher with 10/10/18/16/16/8 for Attributes. Using a small shield and his starting Warhammer he does builds focus incredibly slowly (a lot of hits don't even build 1 point). Obviously a Sabre and Biting Whip will help, but I think I might have to go with a two-hander or dual wielding in the early game, or not take such low Might. I also took Soul Shock for a spin. It's really hurt compared to Mind Wave by its Average casting time. It seems to me that the optimal level one Powers are Antipathetic Field, Mind Wave and Whisper of Treason. Eye Strike is good an all, but there are lots of other good sources of AoE blind (chillfog) out there, not really sure about Tenuous Grasp.

Brilliant Radiance will make Holy Radiance do a 20 damage (modified by Might etc.) DoT to non-vessels, which is pretty bad. I am fairly certain the main damage of Holy Radiance remains vessel-only.

I don't think the Fine Greatsword at Magran's Fork is guaranteed to be a Greatsword. I am fairly certain it's a "random" loot cache and will generate a "random" Fine weapon (possibly always a melee weapon). You can get Raedric's Greatsword fairly early on, which is a good starting point for a Greatsword wielder, then if you get lucky (or cheese the random loot tables) with Gloves of Manipulation you get get Tidefall very early on, and if not you can go with The Hours of St. Rumbalt instead. That's what I love about Greatswords: they are available early and you can get the top tier ones quickly. I wouldn't recommend bothering with Brilliant Radiance. Holy Radiance, when fully upgraded, does something like 150 Burn damage over 3s (plus any other modifiers like Might etc.). Brilliant Radiance adds 20 to that, so about 13.5% extra. Remember that Holy Radiance is once per encounter, so you're spending an entire Talent point on a 13.5% damage increase on a once per encounter power. I don't think that's worth it (if Boeroer disagrees with me then follow his advice though since, you know, he's Boeroer).

You... liquefied your belongings before transporting them I hope the move goes well anyway. In about an hour or so I'll finally start this Cipher run. I'll keep this thread posted as it goes then make a new thread for the final build once I've beaten everything which can then go in the build list.

My (completely uneducated guess) would be that only the base damage of Holy Radiance increases with disposition. By the way, I don't know whether you knew it already, but the negative to healing with Aggrandizing Radiance only applies to the Priest. All allies in the radius still get healed for full. I mention this because the wording always seemed ambiguous to me, and it makes Aggrandizing Radiance a lot more appealing.

Whiffing? Do you mean missing? If so, that's unlikely given that you are a priest and have access to the full suite of ridiculous Priestly Accuracy buffs.

That's a point, I've never really understood what that 20% beam damage bit in AF means.

Well my idea was simply this: Berath is the god of death or, more precisely, the god in charge of the cycle that souls go through, hence it seemed natural that Vessels would be anathema to him. My build idea was a Berathian Priest who specialised in killing Vessels: take the talents that improve Holy Radiance (which already does pretty good damage against Vessels), take high Might and Intellect to further improve its damage and area of effect, and take the talent that improves damage against Vessels (Sanctifier I think). The Greatsword aspect simply came from the fact that the Berathian Priest's unique talent gives +10 to accuracy with Greatswords (and something else, I forget what), and Tidefall specifically since it's by far the best Greatsword in the game. That's as far as I got with the idea. In my head I had named him "Berath's Reaper", since I envisaged him as a Priest who made it his personal mission to reap those souls wrong imprisoned in vessels. I can't speak for exactly what Boeroer had in mind. Perhaps we can poke him until he writes us a full class build for it