Kaylon

I disagree... If you rely on abilities to penetrate armor then you're doing something wrong. Also if you really want to be the most efficient with your bleeds/afflictions then you should use a mortar/blunderbuss instead of melee attacks anyway. Basically you have to choose between losing the bonus on the second attack or switching weapons and for me it's very easy to pick, not just for the simplicity of use, but also for the overall dps.

I suppose you want to use the blunderbuss just to trigger the bonus from time to time and the rest of the time use your melee. It might work if you dual wield a melee weapon and a blunderbuss. At close range you will attack with your melee weapon and when you need to refresh Powder Burns you just target a distant enemy. The disadvantage is you can't hit with both weapons when using full attacks. However, with your melee weapon, you will attack just as fast as a dual wielder and will have great dps. Just make sure to dump you resolve to 3 because it will add a few seconds to your Powder Burns duration and don't wear Strand of Favor. You can play as a berserker too if you have in your party characters with strong heals over time (herald Pallegina, Serafen, Tekehu, etc) - just make sure you wear Voidward and other items with health regeneration too. PS. For armor you can also wear later the Guardian's Plate which gives better protection and some nice bonuses while afflicted. (to remove confusion you can just switch to Modwyr)

It depends who you pick and how you spec/equip them. At high level Eder (fighter/rogue), Pallegina (chanter/paladin), Maia (Ranger/Rogue) and Xoti (monk) can deal with most encounters just by themselves on AI.

There's no need to gimp your INT because with 35RES, Ring of the Solitary Wanderer and Strand of Favor the curse will last at most 2.3s (with 35INT at max level) because of the double inversion.

Hauani can be destroyed directly only under the effect of Disintegration. Marux Amanth is just the best and easiest way to do it. In other words only a paladin/cipher, rogue/cipher or a priest/cipher can finish the ooze with Worthy Sacrifice.

Playing without resting isn't some kind of exploit, it's a choice the game allows you to make - benefit from passive bonuses or instead use powerful "per rest" abilities. It was the same in PoE1 and in Tyranny too. There are a few classes able to solo in PotD in a "normal" way - like the paladin/troubadour or paladin/blood mage - but it still requires very good knowledge and optimization. Not sure about the second with your mods because I think the blood mage was nerfed pretty badly there...

I wasn't talking about tanking either. However, once you start dealing big damage, your target (at least) will switch aggro to you and 2-3 hits in a row can be more than a helwalker/rogue can handle.

Make no mistake, the trickster is not a tank and you will die just as fast as another rogue if you play recklessly. Also the helwalker is a bad choice to multi with a rogue because you become even more squishier and you will hardly feel the bonus from might as a rogue. It's better to pick a plain monk if you don't want to bother with drugs. PS. The "tankiest" damage dealer is the soulblade/trickster - you can stack defenses (Borrowed Instinct + Llengrath Displaced Image + Tuotilo's Palm + Weapon and Shield Style), while spamming Soul Annihilation with Sun and Moon just as fast as a dual wielder.

SC streetfighter or streetfighter/monk works best with dual blunderbusses because you can trigger the bonus easily with Powder Burns while being safe. With dual mortars you can apply AoE bleeds/afflictions, while dual blundebusses with Gambit and the ring of Clenched Muscle are nice for single target dps. For melee streetfighters you need a priest with BDD in the party or else it's too hard to trigger the bonuses.

Here's an old video I made to show how you can spam Gambit: To be able to spam Gambit you need very high accuracy for both weapons (to ensure you never graze/miss and all hits are converted to crits). Scordeo's Edge gives high accuracy for both weapons and Blade Cascade greatly increases your dps. For the off hand Pukestabber is fast and has a long knockdown which works vs nearly all enemies. Another great choice for the off hand is Grave Calling (Drizzt style) which can perma paralyze/freeze any enemy without immunity to dex afflictions. VS enemies with very high deflection you can also use Tarn's Respite in the off hand (it lowers deflection), it lacks CC but combined with Vanishing Strike it's deadly... For pure dps the best combo would be Magran's Favor with modal (main hand) and Scordeo's Edge (off hand).

You don't have to kill her for the weapon, you just have to complete her quest. You have to kill the heads of the families only if you want their unique armors.

Spider Silk Robe - +2 poison Mask of the Grotto Deep - +1 poison Whitewitch Mask - +1 illusion

With a paladin tank you should be able to lower his health until he's near death and then quickly finish him with Marux Amanth before he heals back from his explosions.

Ah I missed it was about TB mode... In TB I would dump RES/DEX to 3, have 15CON and wear heavy armor as a blood mage.

The Red Hand never attacked twice per round, it does a normal attack and the next has just 0 initiative. No recovery is not free action.

If you play a blood mage the important thing is to be able to heal back fast, not to have tons of hp. If you have in your party Pallegina you will have already 3 sources of health regen (Exalted Endurance, Ancient Memory and your passive regen) and with Old Siec... you will get your health back very fast. If that's not enough, Serafen or another cipher can also cast Pain Block on you. At high level you can also extend Lay on Hands on you with Draining Wall, etc... My advice is to put in CON just enough to reach 10 with bonuses (items, resting) just to avoid health penalties. At the beginning just use the Amulet of Greater Health instead of wasting points in CON for a few hp. Also don't forget to buy Voidward to reduce the self damage taken. Later you can pick Tough which adds the same health as ~4CON (at max lvl you'll have 240hp which is more than enough). Personally I don't put more than 3 in CON with any class and I always max MIG/INT/PER. I also dump DEX for tanks (they get reflex from shield) and RES for damage dealers. Steady healing with high MIG will keep you alive much longer than high CON.

In TB, for single target damage, the best weapon is Dragon's Dowry which delivers solid steady damage with great penetration and accuracy (modal activated, Ring of Focused Flame, etc). A rogue can do huge damage if he can apply the bonuses from Sneak Attack/Death Blows. For the second class things are less obvious - the ranger can damage a second target, while a chanter has buffs, lashes, etc which improve your single target damage even further, beside other things. A rogue/helwalker with the Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff and instruments of Pain can deal probably the highest single target damage from long range but it's available very late. For rangers specifically the best weapon is Frostseeker which deals great damage if you have high accuracy. Like Boeroer explained, the best are the ranger/ascendant and the ranger/helwalker which can achieve very high accuracy.

Lethandria's Devotion, Bronlar's Phalanx, Shining Bulwark

There are missing shields too...

The ranger/beckoner aka "the pet master" is a very fun build (ideally a nature godlike with 35int and max stealth to maintain the Animated Weapons without downtime). You remain stealthed the entire fight summoning pets, while the animal companion is used to keep you in combat. Chants and auras from Sasha's Singing Scimitar (with Companion's Prelude), Changeling's Mantle, as well as the Animancy Cat will help your summons in combat. It should be possible to play also as a SC beckoner and use traps to trigger the combat.

The self raw damage can be negated using Voidward coupled with self regen (Rapid Recovery, Devil's Due (armor), Ring of Greater Regeneration, Three Trolls Stitched cape) and some healing bonus (the Footprints of Ahu Taka boots fit very well). And of course you have also the heal on kill and Second Wind as back up. To sustain the damage from enemies nothing beats Unbending Trunk which scales with the damage received and with enough intellect can even out heal it. PS. Pick Tactical Barrage to extend the duration of your buffs/debuffs and the AoE of carnage and Spirit Tornado.

Max might, intellect and perception. Might means more damage, faster kills and more healing. Intellect means larger carnage AoE, longer buffs/debuffs. Perception means more hits and crits ie faster killing and healing. Resolve is useless for this build and should be left to 3. You'll have plenty of speed buffs (frenzy, bloodlust, bolting strikes) and a few points in dex will barely make any difference - I wouldn't go beyond 8 (and with item bonuses you can reach 10 to avoid penalties). You're left with 10 con which should be more than enough with the constitution bonuses from items & frenzy. PS. Abraham pet is also an important part of the build for the heal on kill and the reduction to armor recovery.

Devil of Caroc's Breastplate is an essential part of the build for three reasons: resistance to intellect afflictions (which negates berserker's confusion) health regeneration when you land crit hits (ie all the time) increased resources

kind wayfarer/stalker (bear companion) using Stalker's Patience - great tank with strong pet ghost heart/trickster using Scordeo's Edge and Grave Calling/Rust's Poignard - great damage dealer and disabler

A better fix would be to give it normal pollaxe damage and let the second hit unchanged. That way it becomes viable vs single targets and has a little bonus vs multiple enemies.