Fimconte

Dex affects attack speed and recovery time, both of which benefit ranged weapons. Blunderbuss doesn't have spread. Play as Wood Elf and carry a pet chanter + pick up gunner at level 4/6/8. Dex is great, especially on high damage weapons that easily punch through DR.

Gunner, Penetrating, Marksman, Weapon Focus: x ? Because more dakka > mediocre dps or mediocre tank as shapeshifted druid.

Playing a godlike, it does seem that they were a bit of an afterthought.

There is no hard-cap on skill levels. Highest Mechanics I've seen is like 8-9 though and stealth 5-6 (I get this on entire party) lets you walk very close to almost all enemies. Might improves all damage, melee, ranged, ability, spell. MIG vs Dex isn't actually that clear cut. Because Dex affects both attack speed and recovery speed and also ability casting speed (spells/physical abilities). OTOH, High Mig may let you punch through DR, but if you roll with estoc/stilettos, then you shouldn't really have issues. Personally, for melee with high perception, I'd go for Dex, because faster attacks = more interrupts as well. Max level is easily doable with 6 player party. Going solo is faster, but considerably harder.

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Wildstrike_Shock The Belt adds the effect of the Wildstrike talents. Not sure if the 30% on wiki is outdated or not.

This doesn't take into account misses. That is one of the reasons why Dex > Mig. Another aspect is that Dex also reduces all animation time and more crucially, recovery time. DR also doesn't reduce 100% dmg if you do less dmg than DR value.

You are limited by 'per rest' as a spellcaster. Scrolls let you bypass this.

If you have dev commentary on, one of the devs talks about exactly this in the basement of the Stronghold.

Pro-tip #751: Turn on Dev-Commentary. Might save you from climbing down a pit to your death.

Chanter is only really good for Gunpowder spam with Ila's. If you go with like Chanter + 3 ranged Gunpowder, it's worth it for the increased ASPD and much faster reload. Beyond that, chanter is not that great.

You should really go Wood Elf or Orlin, especially if you want to pick up Perception and Resolve. 'Minor Threat' is probably the best racial in the game (although, you're forced to take a -1 MIG hit), while Wood Elf brings +1 Dex and +5 Accuracy. I'd also point out that Perception is not worthless for ranged. You gain +interrupt chance. Resolve unfortunately, largely is worthless. As a ranged rogue, I think maximum Dex is the main priority. After that, you can go for Might. Beyond these two, you can pick whatever you want. Con is primary dump stat, Int secondary (you lose a bit of duration on your per encounter abilities, but in a full party it's not an issue to have some per encounters that can allow you to trigger sneak attack).

In PotD, with regards to survivability, ranged cipher. Barbarian may be viable, if survivability is managed with micro/build.

I think this is highly dependant on what support you have. Inspiring Radiance alone can counter (or even over-counter if you abuse it pre-combat and stack it 5+ times for 25+ accuracy) the accuracy hit on savage attack. Personally, I'd skip Bloody Slaughter, from what I've read, it only triggers at 10% enemy hp, making its usefulness very limited (even if it did activate on 25%, it'd still be somewhat 'eh for a talent). I'd also recommend OP go dual-wield instead, because Vulnerable Attacks -20% aspd +5DT bypass combines well with Two-Weapon Style's +20% aspd. Carnage also benefits more from two weapons, since all attacks get carnage'd.

You can actually cast it multiple times before combat and they stack for some reason. With enough int, you can start the fight with like 20sec+ of 25+ accuracy for the whole party.

Fighters aren't great tanks thanks to defender, they're great tanks thanks to Wary Defender and other sources of high deflect. 120+ deflect at level 5 = you almost never take damage if properly positioned.

Tanking in PoE = Stack Deflection. 120 deflect level 5 warrior, no problems with ogres.

Are you? If you want to play Ironman, you're going to want to load up on 'metagame' knowledge or play the game on easier difficulties to "learn" everything on your own. There's even a NPC on the same map as the bear cave entrance, that tells you his friend got murdered by the bear and you'd be insane to go to the cave alone.

Disappointer becomes pretty beast after you overwrite the negative enchant on it though.

Use terrain to your advantage. Almost every fight that can be difficult in it's normal room, becomes much easier when you pull the enemies back to a good defensive position. Corners and doorways are especially nice as the AI will bunch up near them and you can spam AOE into them without much trouble.

*snip*

This. If you want to keep it 'fair' just limit yourself with your edits to be in line with what a custom character can get and remove the copper they'd cost. Since you can change companion class with IE-mod, there's no reason to deny yourself the immersive little banter segments and storylines tied to pre-made NPCs.

You won't really compete with a fighter for main tank spot, so as off-tank Barb I'd skimp on Con and Res a bit to get either Int or Dex higher.

I think dumping con a bit is also ok, since you have such a huge HP pool anyway. Ie. I'd rather have 5 deflect than 15% more hp as Barb. Also, Orlin best racial for melee.

It's not that huge if you stack Deflect. Granted, hitting 120+ Deflect is a bit hard, but 80-100 is doable by level 5-6. Also, I haven't noticed AI immediately switching, as long as the enemies are properly engaged by the fighter/ot.

I just assumed that they were the lingering spirits that only the main character can see thanks to the Power. This explains a bit.