Raven Darkholme

Not sugarcoating everything doesn't make me aggressive. Sounds more like you don't know how to express yourself without insulting others, a common predicament of people with low self esteem. @topic In PoE 1 Soul Whip damage was multiplicative, Might only additive, how is that resolved in PoE2? If Strength is only additive the cipher wouldn't need it as much and could split their stats between ST/RE/IN (I would imagine IN works similar to PoE1 and is actually the most potent stat out of the three?)

Alternatively use Searing Flames + HoF.

I've been saying the same thing over and over, this might have been an unintentional change, but without it the talent is utter crap. I'd rather have an op talent than a completely useless one. I'm a big fan of balancing but we need to keep in mind there's no pvp in this game.

Sounds good! I'm playing that tanky WIzard currently so I won't be able to solo something like this concurrently, but if anyone else wanted to run with the idea have at it! Speaking of the items, one weird interaction I've noticed is that the bug that allows the Company Captain's Cap to target the player with Confuse (even which the hat itself makes the player immune to Confuse) will trigger a Wild Orlan's Defiant Resolve. Not really overpowered or ridiculous in anyway (and likely something Obsidian will patch out sooner or later) but for the time being it's pretty neat when it occasionally does happen. Ha this is much better than the ciphers psychic backlash, which keeps firing on myself and stunning me. :D

That's why I love me some Coastal Aumaua, cause some of these secondary roll causing deflection attacks actually get defended by the +20 on the first, DEFLECTION roll, which makes Wizard Double quite good against those attacks early game, not only do you have +40 from WD but +20 from Aumaua.

Prone's and the like don't dispel it, I just recently found that out myself, but as you say it's a secondary roll.

Just out of curiosity, did you fight upscaled Magran's Faithful? But, yeah chanter is the best class against them either way, even with a small shield and fists (lol) you would eventually take them down as long as you keep healing. The wizard definitely has a slightly harder time, but it being one of the strongest classes in the game, shouldn't prove too much of a problem, I think the main point was, wizard's double not holding up, but as you say it's only 15 def.

Wizard's dounble is completely useless vs. magran's, at least the upscaled version, since they attack both deflection and reflex at very high accuracy (there are even some will attacks I think, but no fortitude at all, fortitude being the easiest defense to push, since both Mi and Con are super beneficial), maybe with the new deadfire armor reflex variant... Then again with 200 reflex i guess they might not do more than graze.

Yeah sadly never saw your build and when i searched for long Pain mainly looked for it in title. 10 Dex works super well, no reason to dump it because you have massive hp as monk you can go 10 con, too (ofc combined with Veteran's Recovery). I had max Mi and Int for my build (9 res I beliieve for Concentration), but as I said i only tested level 16, ofc you might need more Res and Con at low level.(especially before you have long pain)

I haven't played a monk since before WM1, remembering how insanely good they were in Act 1 (possibly better than chanters), but I was kinda disappointed in their level scaling. Today I wanted to try out a high level monk via console, mainly because of the new deadfire armor, so I gave him max xp and leveled him up. More by curiosity than actual intention of using it, I selected Long Pain fists, since the other abilities left over didn't really interest me. Now the weapon description is very misleading, stating the weapon has a base dmg of 12-18, while regular fists have 10-15, which is good, don't get me wrong, but when I actually went into combat and my damage output all of a sudden DOUBLED, I checked the description and the base damage was an insane 24-36 (Firebrand has 20-30). Without any Mi bonuses (21 Mi) The highest single hit of Torment's Reach i saw, was 120!!! (with swift strikes bonus shock damage talent). Now not only does Torment's hit twice for potentially the same damage since it is a full attack, but also do you not have any recovery with the long pain fists (they are also 2 frames faster than regular ones), 10 Dex, Swift Action gauntlets, Swift Strike and NO durgan enchantment on the Deadfire armor, also for some strange reason vulnerable attack doesn't increase Long Pain Fists recovery. In short the fists do more damage per strike than firebrand (as long as you have swift strike and can spam torments reach, but let's be honest that is always) but they do it twice instantly and if you happen to not have wounds but swift strike active you still do almost the same damage (around 20-30 less than with torments reach) as Firebrand, but you have 0 recovery and 20 frames for the attack animation instead of the 30 of firebrand (at only 10 dex) which has also 24 frames recovery. Ofc it is more recommended to have 18 dex with firebrand, going down to 10 frames of recovery and 24 frames attack, but at this dex long pain fists go down to 16 frames attack animation and ofc still 0 recovery. I'm gonna see for what the fists will hit with 30 Mi and better equip and edit it here, but since 120 is already more than I have seen from firebrand I felt the need to post here, since the weapon description of the fists is very misleading and mostly suggest them having range and not this massive damage increase.

Firebrand.

Still works.

The last time I retested it was 3.06, but I can't imagine it got fixed in 3.07, will test a bit later.

A while ago I started an ultimate chanter using the invocation exploit (but got bored of it ) I have video footage for Act 1, mybe that's interesting for you, here's the first vid:

Always the same. A weapon has a base damage and enchantment. Your stats is what make it scale better on levelup, especially the 3 acc you get EVERY level.

Every class has it's own advantage for solo (even rogue, lol). Do you want an easy early, pick wizard or chanter. Do you want the easiest dragons, pick cipher or ranger. Do you want the easiest bounties, pick barb or chanter. Every class I didn't mention? DW they have something op in their regard. Easiest for a beginner are probably Fighter, Monk and Paladin. Best class for a micromanagement madman, probably priest. The list could go on and on.

After only having relatively short time to test with my high level cipher in the past, since I am actually raising a new cipher (level 10 and in Act 3 atm), today I had time for a more indepth look at comparing dual bittercuts with Firebrand. Before I get started on the firebrand belt in High level, I want to talk about avery unique cipher specific interaction I noticed on my new char with the Captain's hat, namely the confuse, which can sometimes apply to self (bug, intended?) which for most chars doesn't matter since the next soulbound upgrade after the confuse upgrade makes you immune to confuse (and dazed), but for the cipher there is a very weird and unlucky interaction with psychic backlash, namely it applying to self (like before the bugfix ), because the cipher targets themselves with a will attack and even tho immune, this triggers backlash on self. (This isn't too big a deal since the confuse only has a 10% chance and doesn't always apply to self). Also I can note that for solo play the cipher is too squishy without a shield before you get max level, but this obviously concerns dual sabres as much as firebrand. At max level you can get 130 deflection without too much trouble, while using firebrand/dual bittercut only having Superior Deflection talent, since Cautious Attack does not stack with Borrowed Instinct, but you can use Moonwell scrolls in every harder fight and with 9 base resolve you will have at least 12 res in a fight. Your fortitude will be massive with 10 base con and max might on an Aumaua it is 180 with only regular food and reflex is around 130 will around 120. The damage difference between bittercuts and firebrand is insane, while the recovery with firebrand is really low (10 frames with 10 base dex, 18 with buffs (regular +2 food) but the attack animation is really slow with 24 frames, since you can't durganize firebrand. With bittercuts and the same stats you have 0 recovery (but even with a shield you do), but bittercuts literally do half the damage at best for graces I have seen 60s on firebrand at maximum and 25 for bittercut, on crits it is more "balanced" 100s for firebrand and 50s for Bittercut. Since enemies have DR most of the times and focus build is not completely unimportant on a cipher the actual gameplay difference is massive, if you thought dual bittercuts did a lot of damage firebrand will amaze you. With bittercuts you might have had too much focus to spend on trash fights, with firebrand you don't even bother to spend focus for anything but Borrowed Instinct, Time parasite, Phantom Foes (ofc I picked Apprentices Sneak) and maybe if you fight the Adra Dragon (or Flame Blights ) Disintegrate. (I killed the Adra Dragon with one single crit of Disintegrate while tanking all xaurips and some Adragans and maybe accidentally hitting it with Silent Scream Aoe cuz I got bored of autoattacking. If you're trying never to pause the game and want to do speed records on mobs it isn't even worth casting Silent scream, you're probably faster by just attacking unless maybe you just cast Scream without pausing. I will do a video pretty soon where I attack a tanky enemy and do a speed comparison between both weapons.

Just don't forget that dual wielding is far superior once you have HoF and dex stops to matter, once you have HoF.

Definitely Bittercut. Just make sure to have it superb before you duplicate.

But you have to go into the cellar anyway for the 2 random loot stacks and freeing Giacco is super easy, if you sneak around back where the ladder and slimes are, open the south door and splitpull the skellies one by one. Killing Nedmar neither saves you time nor makes it reloading less likely unless you plan to go for the basement items super late, but then again there is a couple of traps in the basement, too for nice and easy xp.

I dont think i can get 4 stealth and 4 mechanics on lvl 3 with a Barb. Even with Drifter. I need 5 mechanics to be able to free Giacco because i am pretty sure i cannot defeat the witch Edit: Hmm 4 mechanics might be enough (3+rest bonus). This might be possible! I always use the resting bonus for mechanics, just be sure to also disarm the trap next to Radric's room, while you still have the bonus. (don't open the chest yet unless you actually want the item.)

Frightenend and Terriefied is not a sneak attack affliction. You don't need to kill the tanky guard you need like 4 stealth I think to sneak by him (just keep close to the right side and don't try to sneak in while the archer is rotating) Accurate Carnage is really good with Firebrand, but you might want to take Focus first.

I like me some Aumaua but honestly almost everything works. Firebrand is really awesome on a barbarian, especially the new belt from Deadfire merchant. Brute Force is not that good, you might have room for it at some point (it's not bad either), but pls don't take it over OSA, which is far superior. Thick skinned is not that good and Threatening presence only works with Brute Force, but beware, enemy ciphers will perma stun you with it, so kill them before you pick it, I'd rather go for Blood Thirst. After HoF (and dual wielding from then on) it does not matter too much how you build, just beware that with firebrand before HoF you need higher Dex (I personally would max it) and once you get HoF you don't need any dex. edit: here:s some old footage of my firebrand barb, would have looked a lot better if I wasn't to cheap for fear immunity scrolls and can be done at quite earlier level

Not if you're soloing most enemies come to you. I guess it depends how you define single target dps, I wouldn't use boots of speed on a fighter.

I don't think the complaints are about the "weakness" of the weapon, everyone is just wondering if it was intentional to make the weapon get negative bons after upgrading.