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is it just me or does almost no one like the fist of stone? i think its a very good class for solo or partys. i dont see whast not to love. good melee ability check. buff ability check. healing w/out potions check. defense checkity check. where is the love???

dunno, i haven't really tried making one yet.... guess i just don't like
multi-class characters or something

i love fist of stone! After all, their passive skill is invaluable to the combat mage, like me ^^...does that not count?

As a class in itself Fist of Stone is too light as Melee, and too light as Nature Mage. I've have got better mileage out of my parties by :

1) ensuring they work up nature magic skill until they are able, at a decent level (57 in Elite) to
- healing
- ressurection
- convoke ketril etc to deal out more damage

Even my combat mage is at level 38 which goes beyon basic healing and ressurection

2) Having given them nature magic levels, open up the Fist of Stone skills giving faster recovery when unconscious and better healing for unconscious pary members

That's not to say their powers/skills aren't interesting to watch, but they do less damage than pure melee and heal less well than nature mages.

Thing wrote:As a class in itself Fist of Stone is too light as Melee, and too light as Nature Mage. I've have got better mileage out of my parties by :

1) ensuring they work up nature magic skill until they are able, at a decent level (57 in Elite) to
- healing
- ressurection
- convoke ketril etc to deal out more damage

Even my combat mage is at level 38 which goes beyon basic healing and ressurection

2) Having given them nature magic levels, open up the Fist of Stone skills giving faster recovery when unconscious and better healing for unconscious pary members

That's not to say their powers/skills aren't interesting to watch, but they do less damage than pure melee and heal less well than nature mages.

Of course, but that's what it's all about: we are talking about a multiple class character, so necesary it won't be as good as it's single class counter parts, but the beauty of the class is exactly that: I'm currently playing a new game in normal with:

Me - Blood Assassin (this class rocks by the way....)
Finala - CM
Sartan - F
Taar - I made her a Fist of Stone! i'm experiencing for the first time the expansion classes (i've jsut bought it) and, although i definitly love the most my BA, I also like very much the Fist of Stone.

The blood assassin has very little in common with the ranger or combat mage, thats why they are good. The fist of stone is just a warrior and a nature mage... the blood assassin... is a blood assassin, hardly a mix, its a class of its own, with lots of things to spend points on. The fist of stone just doesnt have good stuff, a FoS is probably 80% fighter, FoS earthquake effects just suck in my experience.

"As a class in itself Fist of Stone is too light as Melee"

I actually think the Fist of Stone is the best tank in the game. Sure, his damage is the lowest of any member of my party, but by combining the fist of stone + melee skills you can get massive hit points and defense, much better than a pure melee barricade/fortitude build. My fist of stone dwarf is the only character who NEVER falls unconscious, even in the most vicious of battles.

As a healer, he would be kind of a joke if he was the only one, but he makes a great backup for my nature mage.

The FoS skills and powers are kind of uninteresting compared the Blood Assassin I suppose, but useful all the same.

When you say that, do you mean that FoS, pure FoS, without the warrior fortitude and barricades and reinforced armor and endurance? Or are you comparing it to a Warrior that has all of that and uses chant of stone ? I think just about every class takes something from FoS if their smart, but they really arnt FoS, i mean, anyone ever TRY an earthquake build? lol

I meant a fist of stone 'class' (split xp between melee and nature mage) but with skill points in all three areas: melee, nature, and FoS.

I didn't play the original campaign with the expansion installed, so none of my warriors had the FoS skills to dabble in, but I guess you could just be a straight melee warrior while multiclassing with a few FoS skills. The point is, FoS adds tons of hit points/defense/resistance to any melee character that is already using barricade/toughness/fortitude.

Multiclassing at higher levels is of course a wise move.

I have a newbie question about the fist of stone:

Does its habilities like the chance to earthquake on hit works only with cestus like weapons or does it work with any melee weapon?

Any melee weapon.

So, I'm creating another FoS. Which weapon style would you suggest? Two weapons, twohanded weapon, or shield? Why? I'm planning on taking the Morden Hound mod to have a (second) provoker.

Thanks in advance.

P.S.: No intention of hi-jacking the thread. Just didn't want to start another FoS thread.

Weapon + shield. If you're going to make a tank, might as well go all the way and increase his defense as much as possible.

Ok. I thought that with the +damage enhancements from Nature Magic (Mana Strike, I believe) a dualwielder might be better.
I think I'll replace my Warhound pet with an Ice Elemental then. Yay for Mana Regen!

Well, it's just as viable I guess. I didn't realize that the hound was a pet in DSII.

I'm using a Mod to get that hound. I think shield is better for the party, but its damage output is so pathetic. Oh, well, there's Combat Magic, Ranged & Nature Magic for a reason...

FoS is a sick class. There is no reason not to take it with a tank. Benefits for zero cost.

I couldn't resist posting.

The thing that determines how well a FoS will do in a party is the build u do. Tank is the most basic one and probably the one that gives less headaches.

Berserkers (dual wielders) and Barbarians (two handers) will give u plenty of work. They have even less defense than their "pure" versions and at low/mid lvls, lower damage. They also take longer to start "shining" above their pure versions, unlike the tank.

A thing that's working well for me is to wait untill my char reach higher lvl to start spending points on FoS skill tree (but I'm lvling her/him as a normal FoS, using the exp splitting buff). I'm spending all points on Melee and some in dodge and survival (later on).

When my FoS Tank was still at lvl 8x I reseted him and made him a Berserker. It was unstopable! FaultLine is probably the perfect power to control crowds and with +96% power recovery rate i keep spamming it like there's no tomorrow + Earthquake Aura + Elemental Rage (I use Faultline with him as a tank too). Kinda scary! WOOH! *.*

Well I just made a barbarian dual-wielder FoS and it does shine. It's damage output is bigger than a "normal" warrior with a very big sword.

To build my FoS I simply took the best of both worlds - the hitting power of Melee and Nature's Invulnerability power.

I mostly use my melee/FoS powers for clearing out enemy mobs and killing ???. Against boss fights and other difficult battles I use Invulnerability. Thanks to Invulnerability I don't need to stop attacking to dodge special attacks/raise dead/heal unconscious, so it's DPS all the way. Think Invulnerability + Flurry/Rune of Sacrifice/etc. FoS skills and weapon enhancements also help boost normal melee attacks so my FoS's do not lag behind damage-wise. I actually don't make shielder FoS's, the class gets better mileage by going pure offensive. My FoS's autocast non-spammable healing, that's it.

BA's are pretty powerful. I mean seriously, +90% power or normal attack damage via Rune of Sacrifice? Like the FoS, though, BA's are also more powerful in pairs (one Execute activates all marks, regardless of who made it). Mark of Fire's explosion can do insane damage to clustered enemy monsters this way. BA's also get Energy Orb which is perfectly spammable and can render early game trivial, as compared to a true ranger who has to struggle all the way into mid-game.