Kaylon

If you solo on potd, picking the best weapon vs an enemy means faster killing -> less damage taken. Personally I always do it until I get my hands on my endgame weapon.

Sorry, on what difficulty have you tested your build? Because having played extensively solo paladins, I have serious doubts your build can survive solo against a dragon...

The INT isn't really a problem for wounding since the damage remains the same - if you do it in 2 or 3 ticks it doesn't make a big difference in the end. Also you need high INT once you get stunning shots if you want to be able to stunlock effectively. The pet (especially the wolf) can do some serious damage, but doesn't tank very well. Personally I use it more like a distraction or as another layer of defense for my ranger. Once you have stunning shots the pet becomes very effective when you want to eliminate isolated targets (casters, ranged attackers). A very effective way to play your ranger is to open with 2 arquebuses/arbalests using Wounding Shot (the wounding depends on the damage done by your shot) and Vicious Aim, then switch to bow. The best races for ranger are the Woodland Elf (for the best ranged accuracy), the Island Aumaua (for the best damage and the 3rd weapon slot) or the Boreal Dwarf (for the best damage and bonus accuracy vs Wilder/Primordial)

I use them when I solo and I need some extra damage, but they lose their effectiveness at high level if you don't invest in mechanics. I always open with a ranged weapon and when the enemy closes in he walks into the trap - it's free damage; sometimes I use them to trigger sneak attack/deathblows. They're also an important tool in the arsenal of a sniper build which can be very fun and effective.

Opening with Runner's Wounding Shot and an arbalest/arquebus can one shot many enemies, then you can switch to Persistence. The ranger can do the same with Wounding Shot and Apprentice's Sneak attack (x2) and then switch to melee. PS. If your ranger dies too often you can replace Tidefall with Drawn in Spring + Little Savior.

Yes, a little bit here and there will end by making a big difference - when you solo optimization matters a lot and helps you push your character to the limit.

Good to know the priests can benefit from all soulbound/summoned weapons. Then Flick of the Wrist is the exception to the rule, but a priest should be able stack all bonuses if he's using the Unlabored Blade/Reaping Knives...

You can replace paralysis scrolls with Abydon's Hammer once you get it, but of course it takes a weapon slot.

I think only the weapon focus talent works with all the soulbound weapons. The other talents (flick of the wrist, priest's talents) have to match the one of the soulbound weapon used. For a melee priest: Magran - can use WF soldier + Steadfast and have +16acc for arquebus/1h Berath - can use WF noble and get +16acc with Firebrand/Redeemer Skaen - can use WF rufian and get +20acc with stilettos (+4 from flick of the wrist)

1) I've tried to use Shadowing Beyond trick for all bounties, but some of them just seem to be harder than others, I think that is because of the following reasons : Sometimes you just don't have enough space to move around. Also if the enemy you try to pull out is a caster, his aggro check range depends on the attack he tries to trigger, which makes him lose aggro far away from you. So it really depends on what spells is being triggered when you get into combat. But you can try to do it on the ones I could not pull out properly, maybe you find a consistent way to do it. 2) I've just added timestamps for all the low level fights and bounties. Nice. Could you explain your equipment choices? Why are you keeping the Unlabored Blade?

Impressive! Do you know if it's possible to do all bounties using your Shadowing Beyond trick? PS. It would be nice if you could add more timestamps links to your video (for bounties and maybe some tough low level fights)

The AI is very limited and uses only basic abilities to facilitate the gameplay. I think it uses only pre-WM spells/abilities and if they don't appear in the script description then they probably will never be used. It's better to focus on auto attacks and passive abilities instead...

If the AI is set on aggresive they will use their offensive abilities ASAP if available. For the other abilities (buffs, heals, protections) the AI decides if/when they're needed based on your party afflictions, health, etc... You should count 90% of the time on autoattacks and passives... PS. The AI seems to never use Sacred Immolation (and I don't know if something can trigger it)

No micro at all, just autoattack at the beginning of the fight... Only the AI can use abilities/spells...

MC should be a chanter too I suppose

Considering a lazy management approach (autoattack using AI) what party composition/builds (using official companions) do you think would be the most effective (beat the toughest encounters)?

Silver Flash has 47% to proc if all pellets hit/crit and then the proc should not be resisted either... Also DR penetration doesn't work with lashes which means Intense Flames & weapon lash will be basically useless against 12+DR in the case of a blunderbuss. Another option is to have multiple exceptional arquebuses with slayer enchantement and switch them depending on the creature type.

From your explanation it seems the way accuracy is affecting your damage is only an approximation. Example: 15<your accuracy-enemy's defense<50 means you can never miss and every points of accuracy will decrease your number of grazes by 1, while increasing the number of criticals by 1. ie over 100 attacks you will gain the difference in damage between a critical and a graze. This difference is 100% (which translates to an average 1% dmg increase) if you don't have any critical dmg bonus. If you have the Doemenel bonus, a durganized weapon and possibly the annihilation enchantment the difference between a critical and a graze becomes 210%, which means each point in accuracy will increase your average dmg by 2.1%...

If I remember well you get the Vambraces only if you help the dragon.

Yes, it seems there's a bug in the calculator with Sure Handed Ila - it doesn't apply the 20% recovery reduction, just the reload reduction...

Fists are fast weapons (in theory you could use only 2 weapon types for the calculator). For the recovery it depends what dexterity you have - with less than 6dex you should always see it, while with higher dexterity it will start being skipped (and it should be 0.7frames, not 7frames ).

And no Iron Circle...

That's not what I said... With normal durganized weapons, gauntlets of swift action and two weapon talent you can't have any recovery penalty - thus the best you can wear are durganized robes/monks outfits. Also the Iron Circle adds another 5% recovery penalty in your case which makes you even slower. If you're using instead durganized weapons with speed enchantment (Strike Hard, Last Blade of the Forge, Rimecutter, Danulya) then you can wear up to durganized breastplate. If you want to reach 0% recovery while using also Vulnerable Attack, then you're limited to durganized padded...

Just with durganized weapons, gauntlets of swift action and two weapons style you can't have any recovery penalty from armor if you want 0% attack recovery. If you have weapons with speed then you can use up to durganized breastplate and still have 0% recovery. If you want also to use vulnerable attack then you have to limit yourself to padded.