Kaylon

Frankly, I wouldn't change any. BDD is unbalanced only in hard long fights if you can keep it forever, but if you can't prolong it for the entire encounter it will make little difference in the end. Dawnstar's Blessing I really don't understand why you want to change it, I don't see how it breaks the game. Avenging Storm isn't that common and I think there are other abilities/spells at least as good. As for Unbending, it's comparable to BDD - it's good but if it can be used only for limited time it won't make a big difference in the end. If I remember well it was due to other "melee" effects looping and triggering the proc from Boltcatchers. The problem with the procs from accessories/armors is their penetration at end game, especially on PotD. Melee crit builds (high accuracy/hit to crit) can trigger rather often crits from Boltcatchers too which makes them a little more viable (because it helps also their penetration), while with your change you will do 25% dmg vs almost all high level enemies. In other words a penetration increase would have been probably a better buff overall than a simple damage increase. Yes, many accessories were badly overnerfed, but that was not my point. I think there are some interactions that make the game interesting and it bothers me that in an attempt to make the game "fair", sometimes we forget the fun. Here's an example - the trick with Grave Calling looks great on paper but in practice it's very hard to use effectively - using a berserker makes the Chillfogs damage your party too, you can't control very well the number of procs and the game crashes/freezes all the time. If you don't use a berserker then you have to kill every skelly by yourself which in the long run becomes rather tedious and counter productive; in other words it hardly makes a difference in the big picture and personally I consider it very difficult to abuse - but if some people want to put the time and effort to make it work I would say let them enjoy it. Hehe... On the other hand, weapons that proc melee hits with spells is obviously not intended and it should probably be fixed, however for some people it can be fun and maybe it can be treated like a feature - just remove the loops and make the procs break stealth/invisibility.

Other ideas: devoted/helwalker crit build - dual wielding Scordeo's Edge and Grave Calling berserker/streetfighter - with Lord Darryn's Voulge steel garrote/trickster - with Voidwheel

For me a nerf to stop the SoT/WoD abuse and make buffs work only in combat is more than enough. Nerfing also the buffs on top of that alters too much the gameplay. For infinite DOTs I think a better solution is to have their duration extended as long as the afflicted enemy has a member of your party/allies in sight (something similar to Scales of Justice). I'm fine with a Resonant Touch cap, but I prefer the stack to blow itself once it reaches a certain amount instead of having to track how much an enemy has. I believe Boltcatchers crits can't trigger Heartbeat Drumming and I don't see the reason for a nerf (in fact all procs from accessoires/armors rather need a buff and be treated like spells or weapon procs)

Here are my suggestions, more in line with their actual abilities: bear - 2AR, 10% chance to terrify, +1 enemy engaged boar - 4regen/3sec, 10% raw damage over time, +1 enemy engaged cat - 15% action speed, +7 accuracy stag - 20% AoE damage, + 7 all defenses wolf - +2 base damage, 10% chance to knockdown, + 25% stride

Making spiritshifting work like a modal and removing healing is something I was also thinking about and for me it is perfectly fine. Of course keep the melee oriented specifics and prevent casting while shifted (being able to shift back and forth can alleviate some of the drawbacks anyway). In the case of the infinite spiritshift having short buffs doesn't make much sense and it would be preferable to replace them with some weaker passives maybe. Specific items would be the icing on the cake.

That's the point, sacrificing Marksman, Driving Flight, Gunner and Shot on the Run is more than other class combos have to sacrifice. Also you make it sound like losing access to Carnage, Accurate Carnage, One Stands Alone and Interrupting Blows - some of the specific traits of the barbarian - is not a big deal either. The idea is other combos can put arguably more on the table while sacrificing less. Bloody Slaughter is one of the worst passives in both PoE1/Poe2, I wouldn't call it nice. Speed is good, but you can already have Captain's Banquet + Rapid Shot. Also the fact that it can work "well" is beyond the point, you can make even a melee caster work very "well", but that doesn't mean it will be as good as the other options. You keep reminding about the particular case of the Mage Slayer. Yes, it can have an interesting interaction with the ranger, but that's a gimmick indeed - first, to be able to crit reliably with Frostseeker you need very high accuracy (which isn't the case here) and secondly there are better ways to disable mages - CC, interrupt or simply kill (and that's the reason the mage slayer doesn't justify his drawbacks and was never a top pick). Maybe on paper... Hunter's Claw is really useful only against some bosses where you can prepare in advance and, personally, I would never sacrifice Nature's Resolve for a bonus that works only against some enemies. Sure you can keep the same bonus through the entire game, but then it makes little difference compared to someone who doesn't have the buff. Without mentioning you will be under Bonded Grief more often than not. In fact I would even argue that Stalkers work better at range with the pet always near them as a bodyguard who can intercept attackers and also make the ranger sturdier. Fighter/rogue has already great synergy and the fact that you can't engage isn't a big deal - enemies rarely disengage anyway. Sure it's a bad subclass combo, but not the worst for me - it still tanks very well and can also dish lots of damage.

Priest/druid is great for healing, support and also damage, I don't see any bad synergy here. Same with druid/wizard or priest/wizard - all perfectly viable combos. Of course you can make a melee ranger/barbarian - the point is you will waste all ranged abilities, thus no synergy. Also having some gimmicky uses doesn't mean it's great or something, when any other choice can be better. Personally I don't see other combos that have to sacrifice so many core abilities in order to "work". If we talk about subclasses then sharpshooter/berserker would be the one with the worst synergy. A tactician/streetfighter (even if the post wasn't about subclasses) can also work. Shaken and confused can be easily solved with items/food/abilities. The only drawback of being flanked is you can't trigger Brilliant, but it's not such a big deal because fighter/rogue is already a great combo and doesn't require Brilliant to perform well. And Brilliant Tactician can still be triggered while invisible or other situations if you need to replenish resources - not a bad combo at all.

You don't need 100% hit to crit from Gambit. You can also use items/abilities to achieve over 90% which is reliable enough. VS multiple enemies you have to use Vanishing Strike and kill them one by one, resetting combat after each kill. VS single tough enemies you can't stay invisible long enough and you will need either some form of hard CC that disables them or Gouging Strike+Lover Embrace method. Anyway, high accuracy is crucial to make gambit work and the assassin with +20acc, +4pen and 50% crit damage while invisible beats a streetfighter with blunderbusses (because low acc/pen/base dmg). Scordeo's Edge with its 20acc buff and Blade Cascade is great and pairs well with Grave Calling and its Grave Bound (which freezes on crit anything that's not immune to dex afflictions while adding also 25% hit to crit). VS tough enemies you can "charge" them before the fight (target yourself with No Quarter from Rakhan Field Boots) or use Strand of Favor to make their buffs infinite. Obviously vs enemies with high resolve any CC is not an option. I haven't tried if the aura from Keeper of the Flame can hit you while invisible, but if it does you could in theory use the Shroud of the Phantasms to gain Brilliant and restore some guile.

Like I said, you can make anything work to some extent or find a niche. However, for me, even Spell Disruption isn't enough to justify a build, since there are multiple ways to deal with casters and you don't need a specialist just for that. The idea is a ranger has many core abilities that work only with ranged weapons, while the barbarian only within melee range, thus no good synergy.

You can make anything work to some degree, especially with a full party behind. But based on their main roles/abilities I would say barbarian/ranger.

Yeah, I think you're right, I wasn't aware you can't empower abilities added using the console and I added Inner Death to one of my old saves. When empower didn't work I remembered a patch with a nerf related to monks, empower and Skullcrusher and I thought it had something to do with that.

Ah, I see... In vanilla you can't empower Inner Death, either.

What damage bonuses do you had? Even when you backstab with soul annihilation it's difficult to deal over 700dmg.

Yes, but only with CP...

It was the first thing I suspected too, but it has the keyword Fire. I was also thinking it's because it does slash as the main damage, but I tested with other attacks with fire secondary and it works as expected. Another strange thing, when you're using the console command "god", the damage is displayed in the logs but actually you never take damage, however Brutal Cleave still does damage and Dorudugan might even kill you (if he would spam it). What makes this attack a "god" killer?