Kaylon

You're right, even if it has no logical explanation. Because Borrowed Instinct or Judge don't stack with Hunter's Claw or Marked Prey, I assumed they all suppress each other.

Bows benefit a lot from very high accuracy, either to compensate Swift Shots penalty (hunting bows) or to trigger procs (war bows). The combo with the highest accuracy in the game is the cipher/ranger. The cipher provides the best accuracy in the game (Borrowed Instincts + Tactical Meld) as well as debuffs (Eyestrike/Phantom Foes + Psychovampiric Shield) and as an ascendant you can benefit almost all the time from 40% dmg bonus (Ascended + Biting Whip). Last but not least, the cipher has very good synergy with the pet which can become a much better tank/damage dealer, without mentioning CCs and Disintegration . VS multiple enemies the best bow is clearly Frostseeker which can proc the AoE up to 6 times/shot with Driving Flight for incredible AoE dps (you can use the Ring of Clenched Muscle to apply for multiple easy debuffs). VS single targets the best dps bow overall is the Essence Interrupter because of its shock damage (which ensures easy penetration almost always) coupled with Swift Shots. Also as an archer you should absolutely invest in Arcana and use scrolls of Avenging Storm for mass destruction.

Ascendant/barbarian is also my choice and you can pair Modwyr with Watcher's Blade for very fast focus generation/kills. However the berserker is hard to keep alive because the cipher doesn't provide any self healing and I don't recommend it. The ascendant will benefit from all the speed bonuses (Eager Lover + Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst) to cast lots of spells very fast while ascended. Make sure to max Athletics and get the Undying Burden belt for 2 free insta heals per fight and Abraham pet for Health on kill and armor recovery reduction. For attributes max might (it helps with damage and healing), constitution at 10 (a few points to survive one more hit is not worth it), dex at 10 (a few points will make very little difference with all your speed buffs), resolve can be left at 10 or lower and the rest of points can be spread between perception and intellect.

In PotD high level enemies have over 100ACC and it's really difficult to maintain your defenses over 150 for very long. The riposte is just some free damage from time to time, it helps mostly vs trash mobs and in the end it will represent maybe 10% of your own damage. If you want to tank in Deadfire you need to have good defenses and passive healing, while your armor should be always higher than enemies penetration.

Hunter's Claw doesn't stack with Marked Prey. For that reason Nature's Resolve + Marked Prey/Devotions for the Faithful is always the better option because you can have the same accuracy without restrictions. I usually pick Hunter's Claw just to get the bonus accuracy/dmg vs vessels ( always good to have against skeletons, animats, vampires) and then respec out of it.

The weapon with the highest damage per hit is Stalker's Patience. Upgraded it does 15% dmg per tick (3 times with 10int). The dot doesn't stack with itself, but for riposte it doesn't matter.

Even if all faction have flaws, I consider siding with Huana the most satisfying ending because it solves most of the problems (Neketaka/Gullet improved, huana's life&traditions preserved, VTC continues research in a reasonable manner, trading continues with RDC and pirates become a transit company). Not the best ending for Tikawara, but not the worst either...

I think you're definitely missing something

The rogue has Gambit which allows to recover the spent Guile and spam it multiple times. The ranger has nothing comparable. Another possibility would be to change Twinned Shot to get back the resources on crit, like the rogue...

The encounter ends when Auranic AND all the sigils are destroyed. If you kill Auranic and some sigils remain closed the encounter wouldn't end.

For rangers I consider Distraction Training complete garbage (only weak enemies miss the pet and you don't need more accuracy against them). My idea was to change it to restore 1bond when the AC is missed by an enemy.

He asked what are the most beneficial stats... Constitution won't save you from gunners, defense and armor do. Instead of spreading stats between mig and con it's better to max might - same fortitude but more dmg and healing, as you level up you'll have more than enough hp. Shared Flames/Lay on Hands have very short duration and investing 5int just for 1-2 more sec isn't worth it.

I wouldn't put more than 10con on any character and I'm very generous... Also if you don't plan using exhortations I wouldn't recommend more than 10int either (with auras/Brand Enemy/Flames of Devotion you don't need int). Personally I would recommend to start with 18mig/res and the rest at 10, but in the end stats don't matter very much and your character won't be ruined either way.

Not really... The duration/damage/number of projectiles doesn't scale either. The less affected by all this is Pull of Eora, but it comes late and is pretty expensive. The only thing that makes all these drawbacks feel less painful is the ability to trigger a spell 2-3 times using Driving Flight or/and weapons with bouncing attacks. But, if I remember well, every bounce reduces the damage not only for the arrow, but also for the spell... PS. I'm not sure if the Imbues get the hidden accuracy bonus/lvl like casters spells, because if it's not the case then you're forced to invest in Arcana just to keep their accuracy viable at higher levels...

The best class is obviously the bloodmage who can achieve higher PL and can cast unlimited fireballs (or any spells) compared to someone using a necklace. You just multiclass him with a paladin (Exalted Endurance + Lay on Hands), a chanter (Ancient Memory + Old Siec) or a priest (Barring Death Door + Salvation of Time) to be able to sustain the damage from Blood Sacrifice...

Semi-permanent bonuses: - Nature's Bounty - 10acc - Alchemic Guile - 2per - prostitutes - 1per - resting - 3per Permanent effects: - Savage Cunning - 1per - Cauldron Brew - 1per - Berath's Blessings - 2per - Effigy - 1per - Racial - 1per - Background - 1per Items: - gloves - 3acc - necklace - 2per - ring - 1per - helmet - 1per - cloak - 1per - pet - 3acc Depending on the weapons it's possible to reach even 140acc...

I haven't found a method to stack them reliably either. Sometimes it just works and sometimes you can do whatever you want and it gets suppressed. There is some glitch that happens during the play that allows them to stack, because normally they don't stack...

There's Magran's Blessing - the shield and Magran's blessing - the buff (but I'm not sure it's implemented). Irwena gives +1 to all skills, maybe they changed the name...

Sun and Moon gives +2 fire/cold PL... However I don't think it affects all the damage, despite the tooltip. Just like using the Ring of Focused Flame with Sun and Moon, only the fire part is affected, despite your displayed accuracy.

Wounding Shot was fixed (with the other dots) and does 20% dmg per tick and with high int it can add more than 100% dmg overall...

You can always use Wit of Death's Herald to get brilliant (but of course you need to rest).

Bear with Pain Block from cipher has already very good survivability. And if you add Exalted Endurance, Ancient Memory, Her Courage... (from a herald) he becomes nearly immortal.

Chanter/ranger with the Red Hand can deal decent single target dps and also increase pet's survivability with buffs/chants. But IMO the most fun build for a ranger is the arcane archer/cipher with Frostseeker - crazy accuracy and AoE damage (and also great buffs for the pet).

Troubadour/priest is great since you can extend all these buffs and benefit also from Muse of Mystery+Brisk Recitation+Brilliant stacking to spam invocations. (Not sure if Attuned Channel from The Weyc's Wand stacks with the other PL buffs). And Her Revenge Swept Across the Land is a very efficient invocation - low cost with high damage potential against single/multi targets.

My personal opinion is the first PoE sold well because it was advertised as the spiritual successor of BG and many people had great expectations. Since PoE2 wasn't a big improvement over the first, mostly players who enjoyed the first bought it. And for me, the fact that most people don't even finish their game should be the main indicator for developers, not the sales...