Kaylon

With 2 pairs of Missile Gloves it might be possible to proc the charm from the wand. However there are abilities that look like spells (all paladins abilities and I think also invocations), but aren't considered spells (and don't get the damage bonus from Captain's Banquet for example). Vela adds a very high layer of difficulty, especially for the herald. However there's an easy method to deal with most encounters (easier if you play with Berath's Challenge activated). Basically you should learn to trigger the combat from stealth (using traps) and then use summons to kill the enemies (while you and Vela remain stealthed the entire fight and far away from the enemies). You can pull enemies into traps (and trigger combat mode) using sparkcrackers or drawing the attention from enemies by going near them (more risky). Someone even claimed it was possible to finish the entire game (megabosses included) using this tactic.

The herald can of course use summons, consumables or adopt a different style of play if needed, but 99% of the time he just needs to stand in a corner or a bottleneck and beat everyone to death. PS. And the most important thing - always use max speed mode during fights.

The strength of the herald comes from his ability to outheal the damage taken and that is achieved by maxing his healing and defenses (max might, per, res, dump dex/con). Dex is basically a dump stat because the melee dps gains are negligible and the other sources of damage (Thrice..., Brand Enemy and Damage Shield) are affected only by might. As for the loss of reflex, the shield will make up for it. The herald is not a dps machine, but someone who will outlast all his enemies.

Death Godlike is useless unless you can benefit from Barring Death Door and a human (who can also wear a helmet) is most of the time a superior choice. If not for RP purposes I would recommend a pale elf instead (his racial bonuses are the best). Shieldbearer isn't a very good choice for solo because his subclass bonuses help only in a party. The best paladin subclass for solo is the darcozzi (easy to RP too) - the dmg shield has a very long duration and keeps adding damage to all enemies that hit you in melee and the cold resistance is nice too. Summons are very weak at the beginning and take a long time to cast. Pick instead Thrice Was She Wronged... which can be used (multiple times in a row) to frontload damage against multiple enemies.

Playing solo requires good knowledge of the game not only for the build itself (stats, items, abilities), but also for the order to do the quests, which battles to avoid, what choices to make, what tactics to use in the hard encounters, how to get the best items fast, etc. Pure casters have to avoid fights until high levels (when they get their strong abilities) and also require constant buffing. If you want to enjoy the game from the beginning, I would recommend classes that are strong from the start until the end like: forbidden fist monk - tanky melee damage dealer (starts with good single target dmg and self healing ability) darcozzi paladin/troubadour - versatile tank (starts with good AoE dmg, good defense and passive health regen) troubadour/blood mage - caster (starts with summons, passive health regen and good ranged damage) steel garrote/blood mage - tank/damage dealer (starts with great defense, passive health regen and passive draining ability) tactician/assassin - sniper (attacks enemies from stealth and kills them one with an arquebuse) troubadour/arcane archer - summoner archer (can use summons from stealth and then attack from range with bow)

Any class using Mechanical Marvel with modal activated and stacked speed/recovery reduction from items can interrupt the gigantic/massive oozes. Any class can also kill the first form using Lover's Embrace and a potion of invisibility. Massive, greater and lesser oozes can be killed/interrupted using scrolls of Tornado. The difficult thing is to deal with the two massive oozes while wearing light armor.

Heralds are very strong and versatile if you build them well. For a party I would pick a darcozzi/skald because his long duration damage shield helps his damage output more than any other active abilities (also darcozzis are the most fun paladins to roleplay). The skald has a lower cost for offensive spells which allows casting more often Her Revenge... (very effective AoE even at high levels). Arcane knights are overall even stronger than heralds (especially blood mage/steel garrote) but they require a lot of buffing (however it's possible to use AI scripts to make it less tedious). Also they can use some tricks like summoning Concelhaut's Draining Touch for the entire fight or perma stealing spells up to lv3 with infinite uses (using Grimoire Imprint) which makes them even more crazy. I would say the fury druid has the least synergy with the paladin since you are mostly a melee fighter. Animists and shapeshifters are probably better choices (either for increasing melee performance or for using the shapeshift as a buff). Paladin/priest is a bit redundant if you play normally. However with Salvation of Time you can do many crazy things too.

Interesting, are you sure it's not because you're using some abilities? And it happens only to weapons or to the armors as well?

Cantor should be able to deal with Hauani the same way as a herald. You can also try to deal with the merge using Mechanical Marvel (with Sure Handed it should be easy enough to keep the oozes interrupted with modal activated) and later with scrolls of Tornado.

With the right build a FF is one of the few classes able to solo Changelling Dance 100% of the time. The secret is to keep the rogue alive because his Deep Wounds work like a healing battery. The killing order should be monk>cipher>fighter>wolf>ranger (the rogue should be already dead from Soul Mirror).

I would say the Ascendant/Arcane Archer with Frostseeker/Essence Interrupter and bear companion is easily one of the most versatile, fun and powerful builds in Deadfire. With cipher's buffs, the bear becomes very sturdy while also dealing good damage. Frostseeker is great for AoE dps, while Essence Interrupter (with modal) is the perfect backup weapon for high AR/single targets - for tougher fights you can always use scrolls of Avenging Storm and unleash mayhem. At high level you can refill your focus in 1-2 shots which means you will be ascended 90% of the time, allowing you to switch at leisure between spells and bow. The full package becomes complete once you get Pull of Eora which is the ideal CC for your AoE dmg.

If you want to go melee then Soul Blade/Stalker is the most suitable combo. For stats max INT (for buffs), keep MIG/PER/DEX high while CON/RES are very low priority. Pick bear for max AR and survivability...

Forbidden Fist/paladin is basically immortal while also doing great damage (use Tuotilo's Palm and Mohora Tanga for maximum effectiveness and gladiator style). Can also use Sacred Immolation for massive AoE damage with very little drawbacks (max resolve/Clarity of Agony).

In PoE1 the best bows were also hunting bows (Persistence and Stormcaller). In PoE2 it was also well known that hunter bows had the best ranged dps due to their modal (only the Red Hand and Frostseeker can do better). Their biggest drawback was their damage types - slash/pierce AR can be both very high (especially on PotD) - however the Essence Interrupter fixed that. Ranger/cipher and ranger/monk are very powerful combos with great synergies (with both Frostseeker/Essence Interrupter).

Like I already said I expect to always do pierce damage... Personally I think weapons shouldn't magically pick the damage for the wielder. It is the wielder who should make a conscious choice and pick the best damage type based on the situation, which in these cases is pierce. This behaviour is addressed by the game with an algorithm based just on the resistances. There could be a debate why some monster have 0 burn AR... It is to make absorption vs the element more effective or it's a conscious choice to make weapons with dual damage ineffective vs them?

Yes, an assassin using SoF to stack every buff available is invincible and can kill even Dorudugan in a few hits... The assassin in the video uses just a few buffs in order to look less outrageous.

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The armor becomes very good if fully upgraded (comparable with Magnera's Chain). The aura allows Pallegina to become basically the best tank in the game (while the ranged ones are less squishy). The easiest way to improve companions disposition (besides doing their quest in the best possible way) is to make compatible parties using people sharing the same trait - light hearted (Eder, Xoti, Serafen, Tekehu) or dutiful (Aloth, Pallegina, Maia) and adopt clever/rational attitude to get their approval.

If you allow extending buffs between fights (using SoT, WoD or SoF) or just finish the game then any class can do it. If you want to be able to finish the entire content without buff abuse, then the Changeling's Dance quest is another limiting factor besides the megabosses.

Bleakwalker/assassin is nice for big strikes from stealth/invisibility, but in a party it has limited utility. A better choice would be steel garrote/trickster which has much better versatility and survivability as a melee damage dealer.

Yes, you can't avoid cleave. But cleave is manageable if you don't have too many stacks and heal fast enough in order to avoid one hit kills. High resolve and the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer are mandatory to reduce its duration. Monks can also use Clarity of Agony. PS. Cleave does the best of slash/burn damage, but even if you make it switch to burn, the damage won't be absorbed by Rekvu's cloak.

Yes, I forgot about Wall of Draining... But if I remember well it's more tedious because you have to spawn a Fire Blight before the fight...

If we talk about MC without party support then : paladin/troubadour paladin/bloodmage paladin/forbidden fist forbidden fist (using BT) priest/anything (using BDD & SoT) With passive help from the party there are of course more... Pallegina can also tank him with a little help but she won't be able to attack since without Rekvu's helm she will be interrupted most of the time.