Elric Galad

Skalds like crits... obviusly. Monks like crits too. Stunning blow, Heartbeat Drumming, swift flurry and enervating blows benefit from it. The better part is that Heartbeat Drumming and swift flurry trigger even more attack for more crits. So even without direct increased crit chance, it might work quite well. Max Per would help. It would help also the cheap AoE CC that the chanter get so it's a good synergy. 1-handed style is an option, even if it might not be optimal for DPS. Using a fast weapon adds up. Clubs and Dagger add +5 Acc. Rapier also add +5Acc and even has a modal that add +20 Acc (at the cost of attack speed, so maybe not ideal). Club modal would also help killers froze stiff. So you can get a decent Accuracy even without party bonus, maybe with a bit of party support. The number of crits also depends on attack speed, and monks have good buff in this regard. Finally turning wheel is very nice for chanter CC. I've never tried this build but I was thinking about it.

When you pick multiclass, optimizing one class is usually less important than optimizing synergies. One might go Ranger/Skald to pile up accuracy for melee crits and just ignore the ranged stuff. However, when going Single Class, it's a different story. SC Ranger worths it for Heart Piercer and Imbue Deat, so you have to go ranged. SC Rogue worths it for Vanishing Strike so you have to go melee.

The concept of a scaled megaboss feels weird. You're likely to fight him when you're 20 anyway. And upscaling AR is quite annoying...

I wish it would be included with MS Office Pro Pack. So all my colleagues would know about the great glory of attack speed mechanism.

I think the only problem of the Black Jacket is that Devoted is much more straightforward and popular for DPS build Instant swap between, for example, Wahai Poraga / Willbreaker / some arbalest / Flail & Board offers a lots of possibilities : alpha strike / debuff with modals / single target vs AoE DPS / offense vs defense. You may be using a shield and swap to 2-hander for a clear out. You may debuff all 3 secondary defenses (thanks willbreaker). You may alpha-interrupt an annoying wiz or even draw your arbalest as a basically free action while in melee just to knock the said wiz. It requires a bit more build-around but I fail to see the class as bad or limited to quickswitch gunswapping.

Including Ghost Heart pet ? Since technically it's a summon...

1) Pure Priests : As said above, a pure priest is always welcome in a party. However, Priest of Eothas isn't great because he only gets a couple of spells that other priest don't get. He is nice for multiclassing because he provides all the healing spells for free, but as a single class, you'll have enough ability points so it is not as important. On the other hand, the new priest subclasses, Priest of Woedica is really really interesting IMHO. All the Writ are really unique spells (especially the high level ones : mass enfeeble, disable spells or abilities) and feel a bit more active than healing. Dispositions don't matter much for priest, so provided you don't care about perfectly optimal stats, you may even play a Priest of Woedica exactly as a Priest of Eothas. Just pretend to play a "fallen priest". It totally makes sense lore-wise. 2) Pure Paladins : Pure Paladins are meh. Their most interesting specific ability is Divine Retribution which provide 2 zeal per downed ally. Including summons. Which means they may be able to regenerate their power pool like forever with the right support (chanter...). They also auto-rez and can basically rez allies for 1 zeal (3 zeal for reviving Exhortations - 2 zeal per downed ally). So they are kind of life-insurance. 3) Multiclass : There is are few relevant interactions between the 2 classes. They both benefit from Mig and Int, and that's about it. Minor Avatar may be nice for auto-attacking and inspirations are great to boost secondary defenses even higher than usual paladins.

By the way, maybe Berseker Hit to Crit stacks because it's a MELEE Hit to Crit (same as how Melee accuracy stacked with Accuracy in PoE1) Or coded as a passive.

Do Flanked deflection and AR debuff stack with other deflection and AR debuff ? In PoE1, Flanked stacked with everything...

I remember you told that. I trust you, but I don't 100% trust that Obsidian won't change its mind ^^. By the way, is there weapons that have "guaranteed bounce" ? (bounce even when there is a single target, strike it twice) I heard that Fury elemental claws have this ability...

The major advantage of spiritshift is indeed the armor, which is basically a Robe (0% recovery) with +5AR which is an enormous bonus. Ultimately it reaches legendary quality, so it doesn't fall off. Bears do get +2AR on top of that. No equipment comes close from this. So Spiritshift is ideal for any tanky DPS build. => That's why Goldpact/Bear is so great. However, claws on their own are overall mediocre, even with Wildstrike and endgame legendary quality, except for cat's claws, due to mediocre damages and lack of special. On the other hand, I think that Cat's claws are the highest DPS weapon of the game (with Wildstrike), even without Flurry. Claws work well with FoD. => That's why Paladin/Cat is so great.

It is stated that it gives back class ressources, but how many ? Does it works for both classes for multiclass characters ? Even the ones that can't soulbound with the dagger ?

If FF is debugged, it will ultimately be able to generate 1wd/per 5s or something like this by using his ability with high resolve and items, except in specific situation (arugably the most dangerous ones) where Hostile Effects rain from the sky. The class will probably never be able to keep up with other subclasses about wound generation. But it will probably be OKayish to store up wounds for the monk modals, and it provides a guaranteed way to trigger Crucible of Suffering which is nice. However, FF abiliy is a huge advantage because Enfeeble is an incredibly rare and convenient status to inflict. Only Rogue (through the very mediocre perishing stike), Single Class Ranger and Single Class Woedica Priest are able to inflict it. I think this is a huge utility. Mutliclass Monks don't get uber-awesome wounds spenders such as WotW or Resonant Touch, so it will probably be ok for them to trade wound spenders for ability to inflict enfeeble. I imagine FF as a good multiclass with a High Res tanky support such as Paladin, Priest or Troubadour. Paladin also has the benefit of good synergy between Faith&Conviction and guaranteed Crucible of Suffering.

I think the ultimate power of the ranger as a single class is tied to the number of deathrings they will be able to trigger with a single Imbued shot after all balance is accomplished in the end of patch time. Maybe mutli-shots will trigger multi death ring. Maybe bounce will not trigger death ring anymore (I hope no). I don't think it is currently more OP than the infamous Heart of Blunderbuss from Single Class barbarian or Whispers of Blunderbuss from Single Class Monk, so I hope it would still be ultimately be possible to trigger at least 3 death rings.

All that druid needs is a patch. A pollen patch.

Not to mention the utility of Heartseeker AoE Enfleeble (not even counting the Attack damages). This is a pretty rare afflction since only Forbidden Fist and Woedica Priest subclass can inflict conveniently, and Ranger gets the one with the longest duration. Any Crowd Controller in your party will like it !

I've read this topic several times in the past, but the only information I've found about this was the following. ​It is not clear for me the effects of PL lower than native PL of spell.

What happen when you have a PL inferior to the spell one ? Does it get malus ?

Same as berseker.

It seems that it adds a net unmodified +10s on the first cast. Intended or not ?

If you read the description, it is not stated to be a weapon Attack. So I think it's intended, maybe to prevent Enfeeble spamming with AoE weapon. Enfeeble is an extremely powerful debuff, that you can otherwise apply conveniently only with Tier 9 abilities (Writ of Mending and Heart Seeker) and FF can apply it basically for free. It's pretty normal that Forbidden Fist gain far less wounds. Still too low for the moment.

I think this depends on personal opinion. There is nothing I feel more epic than having a party with complementary talents. Same for action movies (that's why I enjoyed so much Seven Samuraïs or Rogue One ) ) If a couple of builds steal the spotlight from everyone else, I feel sad. Also, in a tactical game, I like feeling a bit of challenge, while not being constrained to use a couple of semi-obscure builds (IWD2 was even worse in this aspect). That's the reason why I was playing exclusively with companions in BG2. Their builds were not so OP and rather balanced between them, which adressed a bit the problem of OPness. (It's OK if MC is a bit above the pack.) That's the reason why PoE series finally feel like "my favorite system". I had tons of fun with BG2, but I cant' prevent myself from finding the system "old". The whole game, of course, is as ageless as a high level druid.

The only thing that you sometimes regret from BG2 combat system was the depth of the spell system (especially for wizzards). Unfortunately, it was this system which threw the balance out of the dungeon.

Such a good Barbarian Multiclass, second only to Single Class Monk or Herald !

Berzeker/ Druid (any) is IMHO a good spellsword build for a barbarian : - Frenzy for increased spellcasting speed - Bloodlust/Bloodthrist for even more spellcasting speed on kills. And Druids tend to get a lots of damage spells, so you're likely to get some kills. - Tenacious for extra Penetration - Lion's Sprint for instant +15 Acc for next spell and even more spellcasting speed for a short time - Spiritshift's high AR without recovery penalty is nice to stack AR with Hardy and Thick Skin even if you don't use it for attacking - Auto-attack comes mostly from Barbarian side, but Spiritshift claw can help a bit, especially cat's