Kaylon

When all it matters is life or death - cheese, cheap tricks are considered winning strategies/skills. A guy using a cheap tactic isn't necessarily unskilled, he's just using the most effective strategy.

Sorry, but what hidden power level bonus for melee classes you're talking about?

Keep in mind that the penetration bonus works only from stealth/invisibility...

It gives exactly the same bonus as Armored Grace talent.

You can find in shops everything but adra bans, sapphires and rubies.

Guess what? The last patch didn't nerfed just one item, it nerfed most items while they weren't even OP... So your example and justifications are just bad... In fact I would say that most items/abilities are now completely irrelevant because their effect is just a joke. Do you even ask yourself why your PoE2 character has weaker abilities/items than his PoE1 version? Now there are just a handful of core abilities used to differentiate the classes, while the rest is just fluff. Also I'm surprised you find OP when a fighter can 1 shot an enemy (and why everyone picks melle as examples?), while a mage who tanks like a fighter and can 1 shot all enemies at once is just fine... Why nobody calls for nerfs for casters defenses/damage? Who needs weapons now? You pick the melee class with the best suvivability, you combine it with a caster and you still have a better character than any melee class/weapon combo you had before the patch. People will start to talk now about how melee A/caster is so powerful and then a guy like you will come saying that it's obvious the melee A should be nerfed because it's simpler than to change all the casters. How do you like my example?

Hylea gives an unique food with 3 charges (start of the game), Berath gives an item with 3 charges (start of the game), Galawain weakens the dragons (they have a strong debuff called Galawain's Favor), Woedica is supposed to give +1 PL (however the conditions to activate it are unknown). Rymrgrand's and Wael's rewards are unknown.

I don't see how this build can survive encounters vs multiple ranged rogues. The hard encounters from the first island (gorecci, wyrm,even boars) should be skipped, I suppose. PS. I was expecting to see one of your secret builds...

Zahua's bonus works. The increase doesn't appear on buff's description but, when used, the buff duration is correctly increased.

I hope your soloing strategy doesn't involve sparkcrackers and barrels because these are cheesy too...

Well, the fine armors you get were chosen carefully and aren't better than the unenchanted mail you get normally. 99% of the enemies on the first island do slash/thrust damage while the fine brigandine has only 6 pierce DR and the fine breastplate has 6 slash AR < 7slash/pierce AR of the mail.

With high armor & regen/healing you're basically unkillable. After that it's just a matter to find the best ways to deal damage.

Not really, because scrolls can't be empowered...

Do you know a merchant who sells rubies? PS. I think we should make a list with limited resources locations.

Marksman works only if >4m from the target and I think Long Pain has 5m range so it should work only if you stay at max range. Wounding/Concussive Shot work with both melee/ranged and should work without problem with Long Pain. I think Long Pain is considered both melee and ranged.

If it works like the other reductions then the real coefficients are: 1/(1/0.5-1)=100%, 1/(1/0.35-1)=54% and 1/(1/0.15-1)=18% overall 172% bonus. This will be further modified by the enemy's duration bonus (depending on his intellect). Finally the negative effect will be reduced to 1/(1+1.72-%enemy bonus) of its initial duration which is probably around 40%...

The staff modal gives deflection only vs melee weapons which is different from the common deflection buffs which have no restrictions, so they stack. There are a some modals which give a lasting debuff and you can switch them on/off - they're ok. Blunderbuss modal (powder burns) can be used without penalty if you're resistant to perception afflictions. The deflection penalties (sword/estoc) don't make a big difference because there are many ways to increase deflection. The accuracy penalties for ranged weapons (hunting bow/pistols) are less harsh because you have items with ranged accuracy (Acina's Tricorn/Ring of the Marksman) to compensate, while the dps gains are huge. Great sword/ arquebus modals are ok for alpha strikes... The ones who penalize damage/recovery are bad however.

The dragons will get either Galawain's Favor/Wrath, a buff which makes them stronger/weaker depending on your PoE1 choice.

For the last boss it's cre_ukaizo_guardian

I checked more in depth the potential of all ranged weapons for single target dps and here's the top 3: 1. The Red Hand 2. Aamiina's Legacy (with Rapid Shot) 3. Spearcaster

Serafen's pistol does AoE dmg, it has nothing to do with carnage...

It's possible to have -3 reputation and still finish their quests or not?

The nerf of the WoEP makes the weapon very situational now and not using it makes the deflection stacking less important. Right now it's better to focus on armor/penetration and I will probably replace the WoEP with the Willbreaker and Gipon Prudensco with the Blackened Plate/Patinated Plate, but I need more testing before updating the build.

They can't give it the damage of a saber when it has the speed of a dagger. However they should have call it dagger instead, at least the modal wouldn't be completely useless.

Devil of Caroc's penetration bonus works only from stealth so it does nothing in your test... Also I think the highest AR in potd is 15, but for me testing against such high armor isn't very representative. In fights against such targets you have to use potions or debuffs. Even without testing I could have said that crossbows, arquebuses and arbalests were the best against such armor because the others can't fully penetrate. For me the dps analysis should be done without armor and after that you have to give yourself the ways to adapt to the high armor. A legendary hunting bow has only 10 pen but you can add the ring of the marksman and a combination between a devoted + other class having a tenacious buff - which can get you to 15 pen.