PLEASE NEWBIE NEED HELP!!!

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

Hey this is my first time posting anything on the thread since I've pretty much just started playing the game a few days ago, but now I got hooked on it. As such I wanted to actually be better at playing the game and have an better grasps on the combat mechanics. I've went through about like 15 characters at this point because, I wanted to get it right. As such I would greatly appreciate any feedback possible for a good Warrior/Dps build. I've been wanting to be good at using the ol sword/board method, but want to branch out into using two handed weapons.

My starting classes has always been orc warrior in either soldier or barbarian background.

 

[PalletTown]

Cleave is basically one of the best powers so I would always pick it up. Always invest your level points into three stats, don't split them up. For Warrior Classes, I would always invest into Strength and Toughness. You have a choice in what other stat to invest in. Willpower for using good weapon buff abilities such as charge weapon, Cunning for accuracy and crit, or Prescence for summons, tankiness and leadership. Don't forget the Garth sell drinks that can also give you a 24 max boost on any stat. I would definitely as a Warrior wear heavy armor. You do get a bonus to attack if you forgo heavy armor, but I think the extra survivability is worth it. The spiraled blade for "The Mistress" quest is a two handed weapon that is pretty good and you can get it early on.

Now if you are going DPS, it is better to go dual wield. Two-Handed is a middle ground. Sword and Board is Tankier. Warriors do get in my opinion the best ultimate which is unbreakable. If you really want to be pure dps then your best bet is Thief.

Honestly don't sweat it too much. Warrior is generally the easiest class to play. Also the trail rations that Leorah sells are your friends.

 

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

Cleave is basically one of the best powers so I would always pick it up. Always invest your level points into three stats, don't split them up. For Warrior Classes, I would always invest into Strength and Toughness. You have a choice in what other stat to invest in. Willpower for using good weapon buff abilities such as charge weapon, Cunning for accuracy and crit, or Prescence for summons, tankiness and leadership. Don't forget the Garth sell drinks that can also give you a 24 max boost on any stat. I would definitely as a Warrior wear heavy armor. You do get a bonus to attack if you forgo heavy armor, but I think the extra survivability is worth it. The spiraled blade for "The Mistress" quest is a two handed weapon that is pretty good and you can get it early on.

Now if you are going DPS, it is better to go dual wield. Two-Handed is a middle ground. Sword and Board is Tankier. Warriors do get in my opinion the best ultimate which is unbreakable. If you really want to be pure dps then your best bet is Thief.

Honestly don't sweat it too much. Warrior is generally the easiest class to play. Also the trail rations that Leorah sells are your friends.

Thank you so much for replying, I really needed some help since I wanted to get good at this game! Are there any companions you reccomend? Or general gear I should get as soon as possible?

 

[Boshe]

A few things you could do to optimize melee damage: start as lupine and then TF into any other race you want to get extra STR, don't use heavy armor on warrior, ignore toughness and go STR/AGI/CUN. Thief is overall better for damage, but it may not be worth being at the mercy of debuffs to do meaningful damage and it has worse baseline powers (the only good one being Deadly Shadow). Weapon balance is pretty skewed towards two-handed swords and, until the recent nerf, the best one was Galon's Griefmaker. No idea which one's the best one now, probably the Griefmaker still. Dual-wield is stronger on paper, but there are very few unique DW weapons, which caused me to see it as a generally weaker option.

 

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

A few things you could do to optimize melee damage: start as lupine and then TF into any other race you want to get extra STR, don't use heavy armor on warrior, ignore toughness and go STR/AGI/CUN. Thief is overall better for damage, but it may not be worth being at the mercy of debuffs to do meaningful damage and it has worse baseline powers (the only good one being Deadly Shadow). Weapon balance is pretty skewed towards two-handed swords and, until the recent nerf, the best one was Galon's Griefmaker. No idea which one's the best one now, probably the Griefmaker still. Dual-wield is stronger on paper, but there are very few unique DW weapons, which caused me to see it as a generally weaker option.

I see so is there is no generally good way to dual wield?

 

[PalletTown]

In general, the Sanctified Gladius is considered one of the better offhand weapons and you get it really early on. Chrysanthemum Petal isn't bad for crit builds. Wing of Asira is good mainly for disarm immunity. After that it is kind of hit or miss.

A pure dps warrior (dual wield or two handed/non-heavy armor) in my opinion is a worse dps than a thief. Thief skill are generally garbage, and you need to mirror/train other skills.

I generally wouldn't sweat over tfing into meta. Your species only determines 1 stat point which is not entirely inconsequential but is not super important.

One thing you do need to watch out for it your threat (the gem icon next to your character portrait). Some bosses will absolutely murder you if you are the highest threat such as Queen Alissa. Which is why I generally consider Unbreakable to be the best ultimate.

 

[Boshe]

I see so is there is no generally good way to dual wield?

Most people would tell you to use a throwing star as one of the main weapons, which I find just atrocious aesthetically. Myself, I just conjure up "light" greataxes through console mojo and just use that.

 

[TheShepard256]

Don't forget that you can spend EC and time to learn the powers other classes unlock by level-up (as well as those of your own class you didn't pick when you levelled up), and/or to change your class. I think you can also reset which stat points you have allocated.

 

[TheJellyWobblesMenacingly]

To reinforce the good advice already given, it is optimal to concentrate your attribute points into 3 stat lines. You can quite literally max out a 4th stat for 24hrs at a time by getting a drink from bars. Garth sells his drinks for 100EC a pop, so it doesn't exactly break the bank,

If you are playing as an orc warrior DPS, then str/agi/cun would be better than having points in toughness. If you're playing on normal or dark difficulty, I'd highly recommend you run the trinity of tank/dps/healer... boring but there's a reason why it works so well.

Something you should be aware of, there are a lot of encounters that can be punishing to melee DPS... IF you don't know how to work around it.
Always use the sense command on new enemies so you can understand what you're up against.

Pay attention to the section of the enemy's stats that covers resistances.
Physical damage comes in two forms; Penetrating (aka Slash/Pierce) and Crushing (aka Blunt) damage.
If the enemy have 100% resist to both then they are immune to physical damage.

You'll need to find a way to incorporate magic damage to get around that.
The easiest way is to equip a lvl 4 At-Will Priest Power called [Charge Weapon] that adds Holy damage to all your weapon attacks.
Before you get that, you can buy [Naptha] or [Blood Iris] from vendors, and apply it to your/teammate's weapon to deal bonus Fire or Dark damage to weapon attacks. You can apply weapon oils before combat and it will last one encounter.

Heavily armored enemies that resist the common penetrating damage type will often be vulnerable to crushing damage instead.
That's why you should keep a separate set of weapons in your inventory to switch to depending on the situation.
You can dual wield 2x [Light Hammer]s or 2h a [Mastbreaker] for maximum Oonga Boonga,
The 1handers can be bought from the blacksmith at the start. The 2h can be bought from the vendor in the Kervus Tribe village.
Better uniques are available later on but for now let's keep it simple.

Now that you know more, it is time for you to go out there You Big, Beautiful Bastard/Bitch You and SMASH!

 

[Boshe]

Even on Dark, I wouldn't bother with a tank. My preferred setup is AoE blaster Black Mage, Hexblade Cait and Healer Ryn. Only really have issues with fighting Gytha on level 4, but it's not like I have better options on day 3.

 

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

To reinforce the good advice already given, it is optimal to concentrate your attribute points into 3 stat lines. You can quite literally max out a 4th stat for 24hrs at a time by getting a drink from bars. Garth sells his drinks for 100EC a pop, so it doesn't exactly break the bank,

If you are playing as an orc warrior DPS, then str/agi/cun would be better than having points in toughness. If you're playing on normal or dark difficulty, I'd highly recommend you run the trinity of tank/dps/healer... boring but there's a reason why it works so well.

Something you should be aware of, there are a lot of encounters that can be punishing to melee DPS... IF you don't know how to work around it.
Always use the sense command on new enemies so you can understand what you're up against.

Pay attention to the section of the enemy's stats that covers resistances.
Physical damage comes in two forms; Penetrating (aka Slash/Pierce) and Crushing (aka Blunt) damage.
If the enemy have 100% resist to both then they are immune to physical damage.

You'll need to find a way to incorporate magic damage to get around that.
The easiest way is to equip a lvl 4 At-Will Priest Power called [Charge Weapon] that adds Holy damage to all your weapon attacks.
Before you get that, you can buy [Naptha] or [Blood Iris] from vendors, and apply it to your/teammate's weapon to deal bonus Fire or Dark damage to weapon attacks. You can apply weapon oils before combat and it will last one encounter.

Heavily armored enemies that resist the common penetrating damage type will often be vulnerable to crushing damage instead.
That's why you should keep a separate set of weapons in your inventory to switch to depending on the situation.
You can dual wield 2x [Light Hammer]s or 2h a [Mastbreaker] for maximum Oonga Boonga,
The 1handers can be bought from the blacksmith at the start. The 2h can be bought from the vendor in the Kervus Tribe village.
Better uniques are available later on but for now let's keep it simple.

Now that you know more, it is time for you to go out there You Big, Beautiful Bastard/Bitch You and SMASH!

I see my good friend! Any advice on good stat distribution for the all rounder build your talking about? I would also like to know any equipment you recommend as well as powers!

 

[TheJellyWobblesMenacingly]

For clarification, I'm recommending that you don't spread your stats - you always want to boost the same 3 that's best for your build.
If you're going for a DPS warrior, then that's probably going to be Strength + Agility + Cunning.

You can buy a drink from Garth the bartender in Hawkthorne to buff a 4th stat to the maximum. The buff lasts 24hrs.
You can also talk to Brother Sanders the priest, and receive a partywide blessing maxing's everyone's willpower for 24hrs as well.
Note if you are too corrupt, the blessing may not take effect on your champion.
Note the drink and the blessing buff will override each other.

Some recommended powers:

(1)[Cleave] is your standard AoE skill but if your mainhand weapon is a ranged/thrown weapon. (Equip a [Francisca] in your main hand for this)
you can also use (1)[Crowd Control] - it adds +50 atk power to your attack against a target and does a slightly weaker AoE attack to everything else.
You can learn [Crowd Control] from Leorah the green haired Cat merchant in town, once you finish her fetch quest.

In Harvest Valley, the zone south of Hawkthorne, you can find Zo the mute monk. She can teach you a skill if you train with her 3 times on that power.
The next day she'll unlock a new skill if you keep training with her. She can teach you 7 skills in total.
One of the skills she can teach you is (3)[Equilibrium] - a stance that makes you immune to Disarm and Knockdowns.

Once the gym opens up in Hawkthorne, you can go to the field and talk to Jin-Jin the monkey... err monk... monkey monk.
He can teach you (2)[Lightning Fist], an accurate attack that deals crushing damage and STUNs the target.
Applying stun will knock the target out of their stance.
This is very helpful when a low hp enemy enters their Frenzy stance.

Future hint: At some point you will face a Kitsune Assassin whose (5)[Berserkergang] stance allows her to deal critical hits 100% of the time.
Stunning her when she can't parry trivializes the boss fight.

(4)[Garrote] is a Thief encounter power. It applies very high RAW damage that completely ignores armor and silences the target for 2 turns.
Because it isn't tagged as a [weapon] power it can be used even while disarmed. The same applies to (2)[Lightning Fist]

(4)[Power Wave] and (2)[Holy Shock] are excellent low recharge magic attacks that don't suffer an accuracy penalty vs flying enemies.
They won't be available until the end of act 1/start of act 2 at the earliest and can't be learned from a normal trainer.

(1)[Rend] is vanilla as fuck, but don't dismiss it.
The bleed debuff applied for 2 turns isn't spectacular damage, but bleed damage ignores armor.
Most Importantly... Bleeding reduces healing received by 50%

Some fights will go nowhere unless you can burst down the healer or shutdown healing via bleeds/silence.

Alright this has turned into another wall of text.
I can't help myself.

I'll write down some equipment recommendations tomorrow,
but in the meantime, go buy two [Light Hammers] from Ogrish the blacksmith.
Dual wield them, and BONK ALL THE THINGS

(except Slimegirls... no relation...
crushing damage just won't do much against them)

 

[TheJellyWobblesMenacingly]

Some recommended equipment: For melee DPS.

A smiting paladin/spellblade might want to include spell power/spell penetration



If you aren't going to use tease attacks, go to Nelia the Goblin clothes merchant.

Buy a [Linen Tunic] and [Silk Underpants]. Gives you +7 Focus (aka armor vs lust attacks)

Something to note, the warrior class perk: Veteran.
If you're not wearing heavy armor or using a shield (heavy weapons are fine) you'll gain +25 Attack Power.

For reference, critical hits add +50 AP/SP to your attacks or spells so +25 isn't a negligible amount.

The [Hornet Ring] gives you +15% crit but be aware that every time you crit, your champion's boobs will grow bigger.

[Mare's Ring] +25 max hp and regen 5% total hp every turn. Great no matter what class.
[Everblossom Hood] - when you take damage, your champ regens 15% max hp over 3 turns and loses some threat.

[Golden Carrot] +3% Crit & +5 Accuracy. When HP is greater than 75%, your critical hits gain +25 AP..... so Crits go from +50 to + 75 AP to the attack.

[Trident] and [Kunai] both apply 2 turns of bleed with auto attacks and weapon skills.
[Bleed] reduces healing received by -50%

Both can be used for melee/ranged attack skills.
Offhand weapons receive a damage penalty. The [Kunai] deals pretty low damage in the first place, so better to stick it in the offhand.
[Trident] is main hand only.

[Frost Hammer] on crit applies 3 turns of [Sundered armor] debuffing armor by -50%.
The debuff stacks in duration.

Combo:

(2)[Cleave] with the Frost hammer, and sunder the armor of the enemy party (you'll want a high crit chance for this).

Switch weapons to [C. Petal] and [Kunai].

Get a party member to buff with (2)[Blessing and use (1)[Crowd Control].

Chef's Kiss

 

[PalletTown]

The lucky strike ring from the kitsune store is really good ring choice as well and you can double stack them.

Golden Carrot isn’t bad. Alternatively you could go for royal gloves or gloves of giant strength for armor pen but those are post act 1.

Jello’s power list is fairly sensible.

 

[Boshe]

Titanic Hat could be replaced by Patrician's Mask/Helm of Heroes, if you care about Leadership. Another good early option is Wide-brimmed Hat.

Amulet of Union is the only damage-boosting neck slot, but it only boosts spells and you'd have to trade Senninbari for it. Fluffy Scarf is the best option overall.

Cloak of Winter is a good early alternative to Cloak of the Deeps, possibly even better.

Conqueror's Breastplate is the only damage-boosting heavy armor. If you're a Warrior, not wearing heavy armor in any slot gives you a +25 Attack Power. Panoply of the Holy City is a decent defensive armor without the heavy tag and has a +10 to Initiative. Heavy Coat is lacking in defensives, but has a +5 to Leadership and is the earliest available damage-boosting armor. Alternatively, you can do Kimono/Tiran Vestments/Izkanti Dress for Spellpower.

Everything about the hands slot was said already, but mind that all of those three are all level 5+. You can get Arm Guards for 30 coins before that.

Two other rings that boost damage are Guldring, which boosts spells, and Ring of Fortune, which is probably worse than Lucky Strike.

Senninbari is probably the only worthwhile defensive item in the game, I'd wear it over Champ Belt.

If you care about spell stuff, Weedwalkers are the only boots in the game that boost damage. They are pretty endgame though.

 

[TheJellyWobblesMenacingly]

^
Definitely some good additions to the conversation.

OP (Lawfulgoodpaladin) seemed to be looking for a Orc DPS warrior, so I've omitted spellblade gear for the moment.

@ OP I would make the argument, a Smiting Paladin is a better DPS build than pure Melee/Range.
Holy damage is by far the strongest damage type in game.
There's a reason why [Hexblade Leather] Cait and [Spirit Totem] Arona are the two best single target DPS party members.

Senninbari is probably the only worthwhile defensive item in the game, I'd wear it over Champ Belt.

I'd like to clear up the misconception that the Champion's Belt is a purely DPS item.

It is in fact one of the strongest tanking pieces.

[Champion's Belt] stats: +10 Atk Pwr, +10% Penetrating Resist, +10% Crushing Resist

Damage seems to be reduced against armor (armor/ward/focus) first then it is further reduced by a percentage of your elemental resistances.
(Evasion/Physical Resist/Magic Resist/Mental Resist are actually dodge chances)

Ghosts, including the (1)[Spirit Wolf summon] taught by Viviane, have 100% resist to Penetrating/Crushing making them immune to physical damage.

Back to the [Champion's Belt] though...

The most heavy duty chest armors [Tiran Paladin Chestplate/Dragonscale/Mail Cuirass/Breastplate/Scale Armor],
all have +25 Pen Resist and -10% Crush Resist to reflect that they're good vs bladed wpns while being shite vs clubs/maces.

Combining say the [Mail Cuirass] + [Champion's Belt] equals +35% Penetrating Resist.
That means physical damage, the most common damage type, will be reduced by more than 1/3rd even after armor has been factored in.

Other sources that can add to your Penetrating/Crushing Resist:

[Helm Of Heroes] +5% Pen resist
[Hoplon Shield] + 5% Crush resist
[Fire Jade] +15% Crush resist, +10 Pen resist

Arona's class perk: Warpaint +5% Resist All
Warrior class perk: Tough Skin +20% Resist All

 

[Boshe]

It isn't a purely DPS item, but a cheat death effect in a game with such frequent one-shots and where the losing condition is PC's hp bar hitting the floor is hard to beat.

 

[valkyr42]

It isn't a purely DPS item, but a cheat death effect in a game with such frequent one-shots and where the losing condition is PC's hp bar hitting the floor is hard to beat.

honestly it's why i force myself to fuck kiyoko every playthrough and i KNOW that's metagaming but dude

 

[Boshe]

 

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

Some recommended equipment: For melee DPS.

A smiting paladin/spellblade might want to include spell power/spell penetration

View attachment 31622

If you aren't going to use tease attacks, go to Nelia the Goblin clothes merchant.

Buy a [Linen Tunic] and [Silk Underpants]. Gives you +7 Focus (aka armor vs lust attacks)

Something to note, the warrior class perk: Veteran.
If you're not wearing heavy armor or using a shield (heavy weapons are fine) you'll gain +25 Attack Power.

For reference, critical hits add +50 AP/SP to your attacks or spells so +25 isn't a negligible amount.

The [Hornet Ring] gives you +15% crit but be aware that every time you crit, your champion's boobs will grow bigger.

[Mare's Ring] +25 max hp and regen 5% total hp every turn. Great no matter what class.
[Everblossom Hood] - when you take damage, your champ regens 15% max hp over 3 turns and loses some threat.

[Golden Carrot] +3% Crit & +5 Accuracy. When HP is greater than 75%, your critical hits gain +25 AP..... so Crits go from +50 to + 75 AP to the attack.

[Trident] and [Kunai] both apply 2 turns of bleed with auto attacks and weapon skills.
[Bleed] reduces healing received by -50%

Both can be used for melee/ranged attack skills.
Offhand weapons receive a damage penalty. The [Kunai] deals pretty low damage in the first place, so better to stick it in the offhand.
[Trident] is main hand only.

[Frost Hammer] on crit applies 3 turns of [Sundered armor] debuffing armor by -50%.
The debuff stacks in duration.

Combo:

(2)[Cleave] with the Frost hammer, and sunder the armor of the enemy party (you'll want a high crit chance for this).

Switch weapons to [C. Petal] and [Kunai].

Get a party member to buff with (2)[Blessing and use (1)[Crowd Control].

Chef's Kiss

What if you were going for the strength + Agility + Cunning route to maximize damage what gear would you recommend then? If so how would I go about reworking the build to implement the spellblade strategy?

 

[PalletTown]

Spellblade is generally one of the trickier builds to pull off. Personally, I would focus on a Warrior Build for now. Remember, no build is going to dominate every fight. Some fights are trivial for some builds but very difficult for others.

However, If you want to go spellblade then you have about 2 options.

Option 1 is a Standard Spellblade which you can do with either a Warrior, White Mage, or perhaps Black Mage.
Focus Strength, Agility, Willpower
At-Will: Charge Weapon
The rest can follow the general advice the Boshe and Jelly has already given. Most of the really good spellpower boosting gear is in Act 2.

Option 2 is a Crit Spellblade which you should be a Thief
Focus Agility, Cunning, Willpower (I know I'm going to be declared a heretic for dumping strength.)
Race: Kitsune (For blue flame blade)
At Will: Blue Flame Blade


Comparing BFB with Charge Weapon. BFB has a higher dmg and a status effect, but Charge weapon has a better dmg type and starting dmg.

 

[Baggrin]

He can teach you (2)[Lightning Fist], an accurate attack that deals crushing damage and STUNs the target.

I would say that the main advantage of this Power is that it is an unarmed attack that can be used when you are disarmed. Not that it means much when you have an Equilibrium. So for the stun, I would rather go for Dastardly Trick, which has more damage and accuracy.

Future hint: At some point you will face a Kitsune Assassin whose (5)[Berserkergang] stance allows her to deal critical hits 100% of the time.

I would note that guaranteed crits don't mean very much when your whole party has shields (Crit Immunity!), especially since the Faceless Blade only has 2 AoE attacks per fight, after which Calise attacks all the time.
But the fact that Berserkergang gives +40 to all resistances is a very unpleasant thing.
Thus, in this fight, the stun is actually even more useful than it might seem at first glance. Hehe, I think I was the first person to mention the usefulness of the stun in this fight, at least I haven't come across any earlier references.

RAW damage that completely ignores armor

Unless I'm confusing anything, Raw damage is mitigated by armor, only resists are ignored. Bleeding (which is also Raw damage), however, does ignore armor.

For reference, critical hits add +50 AP

If nothing has changed in the time that I have not played, then crit gives +(50 + your double Cunning) AP to your attack.

What if you were going for the strength + Agility + Cunning route to maximize damage what gear would you recommend then? If so how would I go about reworking the build to implement the spellblade strategy?

It's not necessary, you can use Attribute Distribution Strength+Agility+Cunning, just use a willpower boosting boon (Blessing from Sanders or Monastery Ale from Garth).
However, if you want to be independent from booons, then the distribution of Strength + Agility + Willpower will not hurt (in this case, use a boon with a plus to Cunning or Presence).

 

[Boshe]

Mind that Cunning is a pretty common stat check thing, which is minor, but Kinu won't beat herself at weeb checkers. Also, you can get a portable Willpower boon source, for those times where you can't justify to yourself pulling out a Garth out of the aether through console commands.

 

[Lawfulgoodpaladin]

Some recommended equipment: For melee DPS.

A smiting paladin/spellblade might want to include spell power/spell penetration

View attachment 31622

If you aren't going to use tease attacks, go to Nelia the Goblin clothes merchant.

Buy a [Linen Tunic] and [Silk Underpants]. Gives you +7 Focus (aka armor vs lust attacks)

Something to note, the warrior class perk: Veteran.
If you're not wearing heavy armor or using a shield (heavy weapons are fine) you'll gain +25 Attack Power.

For reference, critical hits add +50 AP/SP to your attacks or spells so +25 isn't a negligible amount.

The [Hornet Ring] gives you +15% crit but be aware that every time you crit, your champion's boobs will grow bigger.

[Mare's Ring] +25 max hp and regen 5% total hp every turn. Great no matter what class.
[Everblossom Hood] - when you take damage, your champ regens 15% max hp over 3 turns and loses some threat.

[Golden Carrot] +3% Crit & +5 Accuracy. When HP is greater than 75%, your critical hits gain +25 AP..... so Crits go from +50 to + 75 AP to the attack.

[Trident] and [Kunai] both apply 2 turns of bleed with auto attacks and weapon skills.
[Bleed] reduces healing received by -50%

Both can be used for melee/ranged attack skills.
Offhand weapons receive a damage penalty. The [Kunai] deals pretty low damage in the first place, so better to stick it in the offhand.
[Trident] is main hand only.

[Frost Hammer] on crit applies 3 turns of [Sundered armor] debuffing armor by -50%.
The debuff stacks in duration.

Combo:

(2)[Cleave] with the Frost hammer, and sunder the armor of the enemy party (you'll want a high crit chance for this).

Switch weapons to [C. Petal] and [Kunai].

Get a party member to buff with (2)[Blessing and use (1)[Crowd Control].

Chef's Kiss

So in a way this is to ensure a lot of survivabilty since there's so many items that resist damage and add magical damage to attacks? Does this build also include the use of charge weapon and a stat allocation of strength + toughness + willpower?

 

[Baggrin]

strength + toughness + willpower

It seems that many players will not see anything wrong with this ... but I would say that this distribution of attributes is a mistake!
After all, Agility affects your base accuracy, with low accuracy you will often can't hit the broad side of a barn, let alone strike anyone out. Yes, you can still make up for your poor base accuracy by using Powers, which have a bonus to accuracy, but I personally would avoid this distribution of attributes.

Spoiler: Chance to hit formula

Your Accuracy + random number [1..100] - Enemy Evasion.
Number 15 and below is a miss.
From 16 to 99 is a normal hit.
The number 100+ gives a critical hit regardless of your Crit stat (this stat gives an additional chance to crit, but only for hits that have already landed).
So if your Accuracy is equal to the enemy Evasion you have 15% miss chance, 1% "autocrit" chance and 84% regular hit.
With Accuracy 15 higher than the enemy Evasion you never miss... in theory, in practice I noticed that with Accuracy 39 I was able to miss a Minotaur Miner (which has Evasion 7), there must be some mistake in the formula, as with the Smite Evil (according to the description it gives +50 Accuracy, but until recently this was a lie).

 

[Bobonga]

The most heavy duty chest armors [Tiran Paladin Chestplate/Dragonscale/Mail Cuirass/Breastplate/Scale Armor],
all have +25 Pen Resist and -10% Crush Resist

The giants breastplate from the siorcanna cave is even better. It gives +30 penetration resist and +30 Crushing resist. For balance it has -30 avoid, but who cares if you can tank anything. In another thread I posted my tank set up. It still can be tweaked a bit for more elemental resistances. Like replacing a ring with the "charm" ring for more blight resist.

The example below does not have any sleep buffs. So you can add +5% to everything from Warpaint.

I usually prioritize tankiness above all else and tough skin is super awesome for that.

Spoiler: Tank Stats + Equip

Stats

Equip

 

[Boshe]

Agility is a god stat for damage, toughness is a meme stat even for tanks, willpower is less important than strength overall to anyone using weapons and can be maxed out with a boon. Strength/Willpower + Agility + Cunning is the optimal spread for pretty much every build, tanks included.

 

[Bobonga]

toughness is a meme stat even for tanks

Agreed. Toughness was never necessary, but presence makes it completely obsolete. Presence gives health, buffs your entire team and boosts tease attacks, which are unaffected by disarm and ingore flight. Not to mention that some enemies are designed to be defeated by teasing.

 

[Boshe]

It gives more (almost double) health than Presence, stacks with Presence and has the only reliable portable boon source, let alone a party-wide one. The issue with Toughness is that max health bonuses are not very useful in a game with healing as potent as it is, even after two combat patches.

 

[Bobonga]

The issue with Toughness is that health is not very useful in a game with healing as potent as it is.

Indeed. The other stats do way more to improve you or your party. Toughness also increases physical resist, but in my experience it never made a notable difference in resisting debuffs such as disarmed or being knocked prone.