Kaylon

Btw, when you are below 50%, can you swap to Darryn's Voulge, auto-trigger the storm, and swap back to whatever weapons you had?Or you need to get below 50% while wielding that pollaxe? Never tested, but I don't think it will work.

Personally I prefer to bind it to the fighter - it triggers a storm once per encounter (when you go under 50%hp) which can also do huge AoE damage. The barbarian gets only a small debuff instead.

If you go with brute then pick berserker/devoted and use Lord Darryn's Voulge (no immunities against its dual damage) for maximum AoE destruction potential (using Clear Out). Get also Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (With Mechanical Mind/Devil's Due enchantments), Helm of the Falcon and Abraham pet for faster recovery.

I think you should try a soulblade/trickster - you will have high mobility, spells, buffs and also very high damage. However I don't know how it works in turn based combat.

A fighter using Clear Out should be able to spread it on multiple enemies.

The cipher from PoE1 is gone indeed, but the soulblade/paladin is, just like the troubadour/paladin, one of the best soloers in the game - very reliable and can deal with anything you throw at him from the start until the end (megabosses included). And he's also a great addition for a party if you want a tank with good offense and versatility. That's not a good synergy at all tho, Soulblade has that with any melee class and Paladin has that with any class, and I definitely would not compare ciphers with chanters in this game, while they were similar in poe 1(the chanter was still stronger by quite a bit, except against dragons where cipher was god tier) they are not even in the same tier in this game. Yes you can solo the game easily with both, but are there really many classes that can't kill the megabosses? (I know only of a chosen few) Maybe there's no particular synergy, but they complement each other really well and is certainly more reliable than other combos. And yes, I think that only a few well rounded classes/combos can solo the entire content. PS. With the nerf of Wall of Draining I'm curious if your bloodmage/tactician still can solo Dorudugan...

Don't know, I haven't played recently. But with Draining Whip you should get the same focus as the damage dealt by the second head. The Soul Annihilation damage is half of your total focus multiplied by your damage bonuses (and the hidden PL bonus).

The helwalker has higher might and can kill the mega bosses faster (needs less stacks of Resonant Touch). But Nalpazca is also good and probably more reliable overall.

The cipher from PoE1 is gone indeed, but the soulblade/paladin is, just like the troubadour/paladin, one of the best soloers in the game - very reliable and can deal with anything you throw at him from the start until the end (megabosses included). And he's also a great addition for a party if you want a tank with good offense and versatility.

Fighters and paladins can also get +1mig from Chameleon's Touch. There's also a pet giving +1mig.

Shield Bearer/Stalker or Kind Wayfarer/Stalker with the bear pet has great synergies and survivability: - brand enemy ensures perma predator sense - exalted endurance, inspiring triumph and lay on hands offer high survivability to the pet (you can add the blackened plate and/or Lethandria's devotion for even more healing) - you can further buff the pet using exhortations/shared flames At the same time the Stalker adds even more tankiness to the paladin.

energized will do the same thing as Interrupting Blows does (50% chance to interrupt on crit). might be hard to get easily on solo though. No, Energized gives 100% chance to interrupt on crit with no restrictions. (Interrupting Blows has 50% chance and is restricted to melee, while Stunning shots has 100% chance and is restricted to weapons).

There is a console command for that but I don't remember exactly the name. But you can use findgamedata interrupt to find the name of the ability.

Uncanny Luck, Spell Resistance and Light of the Dawnstar can cause those "misses".

It's still possible to keep all companions while siding with a faction?

He takes continuously damage from the symbiote which generates wounds in return.

I never find high AR to be a problem because there are always weaknesses+buffs+afflictions and I certainly won't count on crits to penetrate armor.

Besides the mega bosses I find the enemies defenses rather low compared to PoE1, especially the deflection. Ironically, the greatest benefit of accuracy in PoE2 is to eliminate grazes, not to do more crits.

I know it's possible with the console command, but I don't know if the unity console has that option. Not 100% sure but I think the command is SetBackground.

Simple - Bending Trunk to stay alive and kill as much as possible, then cast Smoke Veil to replenish resources and reset the fight. Come back and repeat until everyone is dead.

There's nothing special - against solo enemies without perception resistance he gets brilliance and can spam Debilitating Strike which interrupts on hit (the boar has only a small chance to interrupt and I don't know why he's using it). The only thing I don't understand (and looks like a bug to me) is the fact he gets brilliance during Smoke Veil - vs the guardian of Ukaizo he uses Bending Trunk to stay alive as much as possible, then casts Smoke Veil to trigger brilliance and replenish resources again.

I wouldn't list Essence Interrupter for a crit build because it procs only on kill... Sungrazer stuns on crit and Thundercrack paralyzes on crit. Ball and Chain knocks down on crit. Aldris Blade deals shock damage and heals on crits. For AoE damage Frostseeker remains the best.

He's the greatest thorn in Wael's side. Not to take anything from MaxQuest who did a great job digging into the code and explaining many things especially in PoE2, but in PoE1 lots of people tested the mechanics (attack speed included) and posted their discoveries before him. Giving all the merits of an entire community to a single person is rather unfair and reductive.

SA gets applied once, while the second hit restores focus. Being able to use the MH at DW speed and benefiting from PL bonus with every hit are the big advantages. A monk can do the same with Force of Anguish, but spending wounds lowers the bonus from Turning Wheel.

Soulblade/trickster using Sun and Moon + Tuotilo's Palm spamming Soul Annihilation hits fast (as a DW) and hard, while having nice defensive abilities and can benefit from riposte (shield + rogue).