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So you will not be playing Oblivion, you will be installing mods and trying to get the load order just right so the game will not crash on startup, and when it launches try to figure out why all npcs are in t-pose.

Now even Hezbollah categorically denies cooperation with Russia.

In regards to the last message, I would retort with a question: Compared to what? The industrial revolution happened in the past 200 years. The Wright Brothers took to the skies in the past 200 years. We first went to mother****ing space in the past 200 years. Show me a more impressive 200 years. Edit: Actually the industrial revolution began closer to 250 years ago, so scratch that one.

Watched the new spider man. Bit long in the middle, but other than that I liked it.

Russian cosmonauts board ISS wearing colours of Ukraine flag.

I definitely spent more time modding Skyrim/Oblivion then playing the games.

Well BPM 2.1 sets Persistent Distraction to -5 all defenses instead of Distracted. Enabling Deathblow was too easy and it made the other Rogue Distraction causing abilities redundant. But I see your point : without set-up, backstab can cause less damages than a normal rogue attack. I'm considering letting Backstab applies 1s after Breaking invisibility so at least the second attack of a Full Attack could get both effects.

Its funny how so many people always say and their is some truth to it So typically I would spend about 24 hours researching, installing and then troubleshooting, if necessary, mods I use But I use Nexus Mod Manager and the functionality makes working with mods much easier. But I do take about 4-6 days to prepare for any Elder Scroll games which means I spend about 2-5 hours a day on the preparation But its worth it, every hour. Especially when you see all your mods working nicely

Some people react badly to vaccines (the various components in the vaccine, it's not just a saline solution) and the vaccine could kill them outright without waiting for covid to catch them Edit: That was just one example. I'm sure I remember something about cancer patients (on chemo therapy) being vulnerable to covid because the treatment and vaccines don't go well together. I.e. it would be a death sentence for such patients if the Omicron variant were to run rampant on a hospital ward. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7002e1.htm

There is. Or rather, there can be. Lockdowns are no longer a measure to stop covid (here in Australia), but to slow it down, so the healthcare system can keep up and keep casualty rates low as a result. Also, preventing people dying from other causes because the previous strain on the hospitals is lower. It doesn't "stop" covid, but adapting the degree of lockdowns to your countrys healthcare system still makes sense. Unless it's completely dysfunctional anyway, in which case, yeah, there might just be collateral monetary damage without any QoL improvement for the vulnerable part of the population. Eugenics fans may be all in favour of getting rid of lockdowns regardless of everything else.

Next up will be a time travel show in which the troupe goes back to fix social injustice throughout history. That'll keep the writers busy for years.

Fun and light eh? Monster it is.

our backyard (redwoods off to the left ain't even in the pic) is looking increasingly terrible and am having little motivation to do the work needed to improve the situation. spent most o' last summer fixing the front yard, but side and back remain eyesores which is only ok 'cause nobody sees our backyard save our infrequent guests. the foliage is overgrown so even the golfers need be right at our fence to see more than fragmented glimpses o' our yard. the dogs don't care how much o' a mess we got out back, so is nobody to guilt us into getting off our arse and working. maybe next week? HA! Good Fun! ps the odd shaped fuzzy blob mid-left is a dog. easy to mistake species as she is built more like a hyena... smallish hyena.

What I haven't mentioned yet is that I've watched two episodes of Visions of Escaflowne. I'm a little confused so far, as I haven't really done any research before trying it at all, and it's... some sort of high fantasy anime with cat people, wolf people, humans and mech combat and while it's not splatter level, it's a good deal more violent than I expected. It's not bad, but didn't draw me in either. Had a good chuckle when the fantasy prince told the lead character that he doesn't need help from a girl and she just slapped his sorry ass for it. The next episode is going to introduce a knightly character that looks an awful lot like Touga (from Revolutionary Girl Utena) with blonde hair. Yay, I guess. The subtitles on Amazon Prime are so bad that I'm actually watching the dub instead of the original. Still have the subs turned on, might as well be watching two entirely different shows. Really weird.

Corned beef brisket:

Some months ago, I gave the first episode like ten minutes of my time before I said "maybe next year". Don't know if that one will ever work out for me, though. Weird, I'm not sure then. Maybe she's just a firebug and this is her way of harmlessly acting out.

Yeah, like the Utena movie? I'm going to show myself out.

Sweeping up fallen leaves and burning them to bake sweet potatoes is something common in Japan, they're called Yakiimo, unless it comes from street vendors/food trucks that use hot stones to bake them, in that case they're called Ishiyakiimo (stone baked sweet potato). Magic nor no, that's not nearly enough leaves for that though, so no idea what she's doing there. Ishiyakiimo is something pretty similar to what we have in winter, except people here bake regular potatoes and sweet chestnuts. I wonder if any of the street vendors survived the COVID-19 lockdowns. Guess we'll see next winter, assuming there won't be any more lockdowns, at least.

Don't drink. Besides if I wanted to hear endless ego masturbation...I'd just come here.

Dex is a good kid. He clearly gets his looks from his dad.

^ I'm guessing that's the new Syberia game, right?

Seems like it'll be decent enough from reviews so far.

You aren't making a lot of sense. Your reference to "Excessive lockdown language" is simply the variable I use to store the equation "lets not bother with lockdowns that don't work" And indeed you don't seem to be advocating Omicron lockdowns anyway. You aggressively assign disproportionate meaning to adverbs. That said, a lot of people have felt lockdowns to be excessive, now, I don't particularly care about "feelings", but we do need to take stock and consider when and how we are allowed to interfere in people's lives for the greater good. The answer is not "never," and it's not "always" either. So when does it become "excessive". Well arguably somewhere within the confines of having another choice to accept higher transmission and having emergency capacity bend, but not break, under the strain. This is the difference between the early days of people dying for lack of ventilators, and now.

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I do not have anything on paper (so to speak) - but it's not difficult. I would use high DEX, PER and INT. RES can be dumped. CON can be low, too. Rest into MIG. Max Arcana. You can also get the Firethrower's Gloves early. Later maybe even train Arcana at some teacher (don't recall which one does it). Every point of Arcana = +1 ACC with Spearcaster and +2 with an Imbue Shot with Spearcaster. And of course you get access to all the great scrolls. Pick Arcane Archer/Troubadour. Phrases which are good: Thick Grew Their Tongues, Sure Handed Ila, Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and later Many Lives Pass By. For invocations I would pick mainly summons and Their Champion. The best summons are the animated weapons, but early on the wyrms are very good, too, especially if you sing Sure Handed Ila. They don't scale well so you might want to retrain out of them at higher levels and pick something else. White Worms scales very well for example... Pick everything from the Ranger tree that gives accuracy and is suited for ranged weapons, Driving Flight, Concussive Tranquilizer and of course Gunner. The Anmal Companion is sidelined for this build because it's of not much use in the field when you are shooting imbues all around. It would only get stuck or pulled around. You can use it as your bodyguard though. I would pick a bear, give it Resilient Companion and keep it close. In theory it couls also interrupt with Takedown - but I found it's too tedious to try and keep it out of your own AoE shots. Weapon Proficiency Arbalest of course, a backup weapon for pierce-immune foes is not bad. Essence Interrupter + modal is perfect for this. But anthing that doesn't do pierce-only damage is fine (also see Eccea's Arcane Blaster or so). Maia's Sharpshooter's Garb is nice for this, especially if you pair it with a pet that reduces recovery penalties of armors - like Abraham or Cutthrouat Cosmo. A good alternative would be Miscrean't Leathers or High Harbinger's Robe. For the head it's either Acinas Tricorn or Helm of the White Void (if use this when I wear the High Harbinger's Robe because it just looks better and the helm is very nice, too). Don't forget the Ring of the Marksman. Some Boots of Speed or Bounding Boots and it's cool. You main tank (for example Edér) should get an items that makes them immune to push & pull effects (there's the rel. early Upright Captain's Belt) and also an item or passive that makes them resistant to DEX afflictions. That way Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora will have zero effect on your tank while enemies will get screwed up every few secs. After imbue shots just wait and see what casters are doing. If any of them starts to cast something you don't want them to: shoot them once with the modal active. If the enemies don't have concentration you can switch away from Thick Grew THeir Tongues and use something like Mith Fyr for more damage or Many Lives Pass By for pouring out some skeletons. But always keep Sure Handed Ila going.

This is how I break it down these days (level range by quests i typically take on): 1-4: "port maje zone" very hard, but avoidable (as @dgray62 says) 5-8: "nekataka tasks, benweth, initial sansa islands, oathbinder" can be very hard, but if you properly chain quests together, it it actually pretty smooth; there's also many non-violent quests or options to help ramp up. some of hte difficulty is simply similar to 1-4, where you just don't have a lot of options or your gear is outmatched (heavy armor on potd is still almost irrelevant at this stage because of enemy PEN scaling) 9-12: "tikawara, family pride, old city" reasonable challenge but a little bit less than the previous section, especially for an all-out violent option in family pride 13-20: rest of the game, OK challenge that can occasionally be easy. at this point you can juggle main quests and other faction quests and have tons of options so you're never forced into a super hard situation. i take Beast of Winter around 13-14 and depending on what potd challenges i have enabled it can brutal or an OK challenge (e.g. an unlucky roll with galawain's challenge can be brutal; a squishier party will get wrecked by the rogue archers in the bridge section). SSS around level 17. FS is the biggest challenge, I start at level 20 (sometimes level 19), and can be very hard depending on my party. Megabosses are always the technical puzzles that that they are at level 20. the most difficult battles are in the 1-4 range, and also FS. SSS and BoW have hard fights, but both can be over-leveled to make them easier. FS is special in that it's basically balanced at level 20, so you can spend the entire DLC at level 20 and face a decent challenge.

Creative Assembly press events in German must be awkward.

Or you could use a Mage Slayer/Troubador howler wielding Effort, as @Constentin Lévine suggested out in this post. With this set up, your rapid chanting would also interrupt but also apply Spell Interrupt stacks. When they have four, they can't cast spells, and are sitting ducks.

If I want a character that can shut down casters reliably (and kill them rel. quickly) and also be useful against bosses (and maybe shut them down, too) I build an arbalest or a crossbow shooter. The modal of both will interrupt reliably (on hit) which cancels the caster's ability and takes away the spell use. Since enemies' concentration prevents interrupts I like to use a build that contains a Troubadour. The Troubadour can run "Thick Grew Their Tongues" and "Sure-Handed Ila" simulateously which is important. The first one removes all Concentration from enemies and the second speeds up reloading weapons twice: once the recovery bonus of 20% gets applied and then also the reloading bonus of the chant will get applied. So as an arbalest user you get 20% speedup two times. This is needed because the modal of arbalests prolings the already long reloading phase. Sure-Handed Ila counters this nicely. As second class I like to use the Arcane Archer. First of all it's a Ranger - so it has a lot going for it when it comes to ranged weapons and high accurcy through passives and active abilities. It also got Gunner which stacks with Sure-Handed Ila and speeds your reloading up further. However, the Arcane Archer has two more amazing tools in his belt for messing enemies' actions up: Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora. Both proc an instance of the spell with every projectile + jump. They also get bonus accuracy with Arcana - nice synergy with Spearcaster which already gets such a bonus - they stack. So every imbue shot with Spearcaster+Driving Flight will produce two high accuracy instances of the spell (here Binding Web or/and Pull or Eora). Pull of Eora alone is devastating for enemy casters because it cancels their actions and whirls them around periodically every 3 secs. Binding Web also pulses every 3 secs but it "only" stucks enemies. Well, that changes as soon as you get access to the invocation "Their Champion" which turns every crit roll (including those from Binding Web or Pull or Eora) into an interrupt. Remember that you remove concentration with Thick Grew Their Tongues so every crit from you, no matter the source, will interrupt. This will not only shut down one single caster but everyone in the AoE who gets crit every few seconds. The attack rolls of "Thick Grew Their Tongues" count, too. Then you will have access to summons - later game the Animated Weapons will be very good at shutting down casters, too. One of the weapons does kockdown attacks which work like interrupts - so you'll have a summon that can interrupt casters by themselves. The other two weapons will help to kill off that caster. And you also have access to invocations that can shut down casters on their own, for example the stunning wave or Ben Fidel (frighten prevents offensive spellcasting). Imo this build has it all besides healing: sufficient survivability (just pick a Bear companion to guard you), unlimited access to interrupts, crowd control, single target and AoE damage and fantastic accuracy. It also works well with crossbows. Scourge of Bezello is an excellent weapon for interrupting casters because it has three bolts which will each interrupt - but it somes superlate while Spearcaster cames very early. So for me it's Spearcaster. --- There are other altenatives of course - for example a Mage Slayer Barbarian with fast weapons. Or anything that can reliably hard-CC enemy casters (stun, paralyze, charm/dominate, terrify). I perfer the ranged approach though because you don't have to move a lot which spares time and doesn't put you in harm's way.

I implemented the bonus damages from time spent invisible as auto-hit attacks triggered by stacking charges. But they were attacks from the Ranger, so the pet triggered bonus damages broke ranger's invisibility. There might be some other way to do, such as implentation as Bonus damages on attack but not actual attacks. I think this is the way CP Backstab and Captain Crow sabre work. That being said, I wanted to keep the initial effect of Shadowed Hunters (just adding the bonus damages), and this would have led the ability to have too many and too complicated effects, something that I'm reluctant to do. Also it was very slow and conditional for a precious Tier 9 ability slot. I'm quite satisfied with my current version of Shadowed Hunter (Modular Healing + Hostile Effect defense + Invisibility / Hostile Effect defense + Healing + Intuitive). BPM Ranger Tier 9 is very competitive with all my reworks and only 3 possible picks, so Shadowed Hunters need some raw power to compete. That's why the idea came back for backstab : Backstab is only about damages, so having "complex" rule about this is OK. And it's a Tier 1, so it can be about situational spicing.

Yes, BPM Lion's Sprint duration is fixed 1s, not extendable by any mean. I'm paranoid about Wall of Draining. I think the change above is enough for the Assassin subclass. I'm not set on other abilities + backstab for regular rogue. This should work pretty well as well, even though they are less specialized. Currently, I haven't set up my mind. I'm not even set about whether it requires a change. CP Backtstab variant has a big advantage : it is equally as good with 2HS, Fast DW, normal DW, 1HS/S&Bor whatever... Somehow Backstab should be good with 1HS Stiletto, so it makes sense. Current Asassin bonus is better with 2HS than with DW. 1s lasting Assassin bonus would be about equal with 2HS and DW (normal DW would be disfavored, but Full Attacks would be favored). Rogues do favor DW, but I don't want to overly force them into it. That's why the change for these 2 abilities should probably not be symmetric. Also I'm reluctant to tweak CP Backstab because the code isn't mine, and it would intertwine both mods even more. I admit I could also go with an entirely original design... Good to know ! That's indeed the point. Lion's Sprint had the same Jankiness issue. One-shot isn't strictly necessary but dealing significant damages from stealth is the point. CP Variant adds 20 raw damages from stealth +1/PL +% MIG modifier. That's fairly significant early on, but not really later on. Maybe it should scale more ? Brainstorming idea : Backstab could add damages for each second spent invisible (with some cap). Fun with initial strike from stealth ? BG Thief Vibe ? Using Smoke Veil before combat could allow keeping built up charges when getting close to foes from stealth is too difficult. I tried this for Shadowed Hunters but I had a Pet issue with implementation. Could work with Rogue who hasn't the same issue (or could work with my improved modding skills from then ). This is an idea to avoid Backstab being "only about DPS" : the build-up damages should be inferior to "expected DPS", but allow Spike damages, encourage maneuver time, etc... Assassin subclass would make the strike much more reliable. I could keep good base damages for 0s spent invisible so Vanishing Strike remains interesting.

I tried that with Vanishing Strike on a single class Assassin, and I think the raw damage bonus only applies to the first projectile. It does not give extra damage for all 4 pellets. I think a 1 second grace period would be very nice as spells are very janky with the Assassin bonus right now, and it is strange to have full attacks be disfavored on rogues. The other problem, I think, with Assassins is that on PotD enemies are much harder to just one-shot from invisibility. Maybe tone down their offensive bonus and instead give them some sort of healing while in invisibility so that they're also more useful in longer fights?

I agree with your points. I think that with the changes you made a stealthy rogue is totally viable. The stealth abilities are not only about dealing extra damage but also providing survivability and positioning. Hence, its ok that a direct crippling strike (or devastating blow etc..) results in a bit more damage output. Your proposed change to backstab sounds actually pretty interesting. Personally, I don't use the CP variant of backstab since I find it underwhelming when you accumulate high lashes (e.g. flames of devotion) or it won't benefit soul annihilation anymore. Providing an additive damage bonus for 1s could combine the best of both approaches.

Personally if you did not plan to be a wizard, I'd focus on Lord Darryn's Voulge, Amra (particularly as Frienzied berserker killing his own skellies, like Boeroer described) or maybe Karaboru as AOE weapons. IMO WotEP is kinda underwhelming damage-wise.

Hey @Elric Galad, any interest in a tweak for the Assassin subclass? As is, the straightforward way of playing a weapon-based Assassin (attack, stealth, repeat) isn't really worthwhile in most cases. You burn through guile and you spend a lot of time waiting to recover from using Smoke Veil. If you were to, instead, just keep using your guile on Rogue attacks (Crippling, Withering, etc) you would often do just as much damage in the same amount of time. From my testing, it seemed like the only cases where the Assassin bonuses were worth the time and guile opportunity costs were usually only if the bonus penetration got you out of underpenetration. You end up attacking far slower but hitting harder enough to make it just worth it. But just worth it in some cases isn't a great advertisement for a subclass DPS-Caster/Assassin multiclass builds (Evoker+Assassin for instance) suffer from similar issues but also have to justify the lost power level and access to higher level spells faster (or at all for pl8/9) compared to just sticking with single class caster. I've run a pure melee Assassin, pure ranged Assassin, and Evoker+Assassin and all 3 were similarly disappointing. One build that does seem to work is using Brilliant Departure for stealth because it does not break when using non-damage CC. In that build there are no issues with wasted guile or time spent casting Smoke Veil. So a Wizard+Assassin can CC to their heart's content with a nice +25 accuracy (buy gains nothing from the pen or bonus crit damage, of course). I would propose maybe reducing Smoke Veil's recovery by half or something similar, at least for the Assassin subclass if not in general. The change to 1 guile certainly benefitted Assassin but faster recovery might make it more viable for a pure weapon Assassin or DPS caster multiclass combo. You would still be burning through guile fast but the damage output would always be greater (at least in the short term before you burn through all your guile). It would be a "live fast and die young" subclass where you do a lot of damage quickly and then slow down and die when you're out of your main survivability mechanic (stealth). And it doesn't affect the Brilliant Departure build. Or maybe there's some other tweak to make it work better? Play around with the accuracy/pen/crit damage bonus?

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Here's my input: (these are not all inclusive just what i thought up off the top of my head) Bloodmage/helwalker -Pros: 1. Will help you maximize aoe size. If you can get your int maxed out you can have a hell of AOE fun with spells and the cone on WOTEP (If you're still wanting to melee with it). 2. Summoned weapons (Lance) could do even more in the hands of this class too. 3. both halves have infinite resources -Con: 1. Squishy with xtra dps incoming. (can mitigate with gear or other party members). 2. Extra might will make your sacrifice hurt more (can mitigate with gear or other party members). Bloodmage/Rogue or Wizard/Assassin -Pros: 1. Can apply VERY good rogue afflictions in AOE (if using aoe weapon like wotep or summoned lance) 2. Can alpha strike the hell out of hard encounters making them much easier 3. Can invis out and reset when things go bad (without potions) -Cons: 1. Only the BM half will have infinite resources (mitigation through gear and other party members) Barbarian -Pros: 1. Decent melee dps, synergizes well with "on crit" items 2. Can be a great interrupter to lock things down -Cons: 1. No resource regen 2. can be a bit squishy compared to other melee options with lack of defense buffs (mitigated through party members) 3. not a berserker ( put a DoC BP on a beserker and there is almost no downside anymore)

Yes, Citzal's Spirit Lance is also a good way to build a nice melee damage dealer. By the way: if you use a Berserker/Wizard with Citzal's Spirit Lance and have a Troubadour in the party who uses "Many Lives Pass By" with Brisk Recitation you basically have a Warlock without recovery (most of times) as soon as you pick up Blood Thirst. The skeletons will pop up every 3 secs and are extremely weak (don't scale at all) so that an AoE hit from the Lance + Carnage kills them, triggering Blood Thirst, Bloodlust and Blood Storm's prolonging effect - as well as heals from a pet (+x heal on kill) or stuff like Triumph of the Crusaders, making it easy to survive battles as Berserker. The Blood Thirst combo is late(ish) game stuff of course but heal on kill can start very early when using the usual skeleton summons and Carnage. You have to stay confused though and party members shouldn't come too close. Remember that a Wiazrd can use Essential Phantom to deploy a summons which has the same items, including unique weaoon with all enchantments on them (soulbound upgrades, too) and summoned weapons - which will not run out as long as the Phantom exists. So you can have two people wielding AoE weapons for the price of one. Another way to "abuse" those skeletons summons with a Berserker is to use a Berserker/Devoted with Amra and Riven Gore, using Cleaving Stance. Once you kill an enemy or a skeleton the cleaving will most likely crit a bystanding skeleton which will die instantly because of Riven Gore (destroy everything that has <50 health), triggering another Cleave and so on - all the cleaving causes Carnage and Amra's Riven Gore which will eventually destroy normal enemies on the spot, too. It will also destroy party members with low health (meaning instakill + removed from party), so watch out! This Brute would also work with LD's Voulge. The funky mechanics of AoE+Soul Annihilation also apply to Citzal's Spirit Lance - so Soulblade/Wizard is also an option. It does less dps as a Soulblade/Rogue on the individual targets but has the better AoE weapon and tons of buffs for survival. Also Essential Phantom... --- About WotEP not being only good against 3+ targets: I disagree. It comes with +1 PEN compared to other Great Swords and a 15% crushing lash. It's not the best tool against single targets of course, but I think as soon as you can hit 2 enemies with it it's a solid choice. It also has reach wich makes it possible to attack from the second line. Offensive Parry isn't an AoE - but it procs on 100% of misses which is awesome. You can combine it with Nomad's Brigandine or Gipon Prudensco for parry on disengagment - so you can hurt enemies while you disengage on purpose. Offensive also generates focus for non-Psion Ciphers and wounds for a Shatttered Pillar Monk. With very high deflection this can make WotEP even good against single melee enemies because they will kill themselves. Offensive Parry has no attack animation and no recovery. A Soulblade/Wizard with Wall of Draining can uphold all buffs for a whole encoutner - including buffs from the Weyc's Mask (doesn't stack with Arcane Veil but all other deflection buffs) and the Magnificient Escape Cape (stacks with everything except Escape itself). This can let you reach absurd deflection numbers of 200+ which makes sure nearly all melee attacks that target deflection will miss you, giving the enemy an Offensive Parry. Besides that Offensive Parry dazes enemies - which is very helpful for lifting your AR over enemies PEN, making you a lot sturdier. When not using Offensve Parry the speed enchantment als isn't bad. Against a last standing enemy one can use Run Through which has very high base damage. Still, when facing a single enemy I would also switch to another weapon.

Devoted/berserker with LDV is very solid, has great AoE dps (very fast attacker, cleave attack and of course Clear Out) and doesn't require much micro. Because of the high crit chance, Amra is another good weapon choice. WotEP works well only with a soul blade/rogue for the big AoE bonuses you get with Soul Annihilation. However vs less than 3 targets the damage is bad. The Offensive Parry is nice, but it's not worth building around it because it does little damage and isn't an AoE attack. A much better AoE weapon than WotEP is Citzal's Spirit Lance (you can use LDV/WotEP until you obtain it), but of course you have to pick a wizard. The wizard has some great melee buffs and you can pair him with barbarian, rogue or monk for great results. Barbarian/wizard lacks Clear Out and cleave attack, but the regular AoE dps outperforms LDV. The rogue/wizard can add Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Deep Wounds, Gouging Strike to his AoE attacks. The monk/wizards with Merciless Gaze and Citzal's Martial Spirit can generate many crits and thus perform many free AoE attacks. PS. The AoE attacks of the weapons are considered ranged and are affected by the Ring of the Marksman and the Harley pet.

Berserker: The White witch mask is what I used for my helwalker:Berserker it pops a terror effect when he gets bloodied. Yes scripts know health level AND the pause setting works as well; e.g. you can set pause on near death. Streetfighter/Napasca Monk: Not only was this the fastest attack speed I've ever gotten, but making everyone drop and puke with Pukestabber was hilarious (not much use with the sword though). You just need to micro very good on fights with arcane dampener. Newer gear might even make it better with some tweaks (e.g. contender's armor) but I haven't tested anything recently I've found "the best" use of WOTEP is the offensive parry on a high deflection character. I think a fighter MC would make the best use of the weapon. I'd at least think about a Devoted:Helwalker so you can pump intel and might high w/ the wounds. Devoted lets you take armored grace and you will have flagent's and charge for movement. Fanatics are probably my favorite melee class still though. Berserker Pally with DOC chest and you can lay down the hurt while staying alive. If you go howler make sure you either stay away from berserker or you have a way to keep from being confused (Like DOC BP)

Regarding SC barbarian, you might want to check out this thread, which explores the Mage Killer subclass (SC or MC) wielding the great sword Effort as a remarkable way to take care of all foes, and mages especially. As for the other options, I am personally not a huge fan of street fighter simply because I do not like (ab)using the blunderbuss modal to get flanked. If you're not going to use the modal, I'd recommend streetfighter/steel garrote, as you'd have amazing healing to keep you alive when you are flanked by enemies. This is nice because of the high defenses and the offensive parry enchantment on WotEP. But you're better off with the trickster subclass for this build IMO. My favorite combo among those you list is forbidden fist/soulblade. There's amazing synergy between FF monks and ciphers. With high RES you can pretty much alternate between the devastating FF attack and soul annihilation. I'd recommend going with Nature Godlike to boost your FF attack. As for weapons, Magran's Favor and Tuotillo's Palm, with the axe and small shield modals on, in the main and off hands, are great. The modals will slow you down with auto attacks, but the beauty of the build is that you will almost never auto attack, since you'll largely be alternating between FF and SA, as well as occasionally casting cipher powers. However, when you crit, heart beat drumming and swift flurry with give you a good chance to instantly hit with MF, adding a stack of the raw damage from the modal. Meanwhile, when foes miss you, which they'll often do, you'll get +15 ACC on the next attack due to the shield modal. If you go this route, be sure to turn gibs off, and enfeeble foes with FF before casting buffs like borrowed instincts which simultaneously debuff foes. If you do this, enfeeblement will dramatically increase the duration of the debuff as well as your corresponding buff. Other weapons great for this build include Seeker's Fang, Grave Calling (esp. when fighting vessels) and Sun & Moon, which is always a great weapon for any soul blade.

Hurlsnot: "I was in love with Monica Seles." Gorth: "She was *the* grunter!"