Kaylon

Obsidian won't implement probably anything from this thread... But it would be nice to have at least a mod adding PL and keywords to the chants.

Adding PL scaling to phrases looks perfectly fine for me. Most of them are buffs/debuffs and get just a duration bonus while the damage chants need desperately a boost. Ancient Memory will benefit probably the most but I wouldn't call it OP. As for Brisk Recitation I really don't see what is exploitable.

That is a really late game sniper though. Yes, until then you have to use a ranged weapon.

Helwalker/Streetfighter with Instruments of Pain and Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff has probably the highest single target ranged DPS. You can easily become bloodied using Mortification of the Soul and the quarterstaff allows the monk to benefit from the melee bonuses while at distance (9m range). And if I remember well you can benefit also from the Helm of the Falcon bonus. However I never tested it in TB.

I could agree with fixes/buffs of some weak/unused abilities or quality of life changes, but I strongly disagree with nerfs or drastic alterations in behaviors.

With your actual party I doubt it's possible to beat him because it's a very long fight and you will run out of resources pretty fast. Replace Aloth with a cipher and cast Ancestor Memory on everyone. With Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time you should be able to keep your party alive.

Is it me, or does a fighter/mage (buffed with Eldrich Aim, Arcane V, Deleterious, Iron Skin, Citzals Martial... and Llengraths and Arcane Reflect if needing more defense) using Citzals Lance hit harder with ClearOut/Mob Stance (compared to zerker/brute) and have 3x the survivability? The lance hits harder and the wizard has better defenses, however he needs time to prepare and it can become tedious in the long run. On the other hand the voulge does dual damage and the barbarian has better attack speed. Overall I don't think there's a clear winner in terms of dps.

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.