Boeroer

It's a great way to get a huge burst of focus right at the start of the encounter - if you can shoot at a "soft" target. Having a lot focus at you disposal very early in battle can be a big advantage. Blunderbusses (especially when lashes are involved) are not good against high DR foes, but in most battles there's a few weaklings. Leadspitter + Ryona's Vambraces + Penetrating Shot gives you a whole lot of DR bypass, which is good for the pierce damage, but DR bypass doesn't work for the lashes on the weapon (like a burning lash enchantment and/or Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr). And since those lashes are based on mutiple projectiles with individually low dmg numbers, they often do not get past enemies' DR in the first place. That's a shame for a Cipher because they would generate additional focus, too (if they can penetrate the enemies' DR). So it's best to target not too thick armor - even if you have a lot of DR bypass (if you can help it). Against high DR foes it's not a bad idea to bring a backup pistol (same weapon focus). Blunderbuss + Combusting Wounds is great by the way.

Level 8 is okay to start the White March. Crägholdt Bluffs is high level stuff. The mercenaries are already tough, but the vessels of Concelhaut are even tougher. I see no reason why 2 Ciphers wouldn't work. Her attributes aren't that bad. She's just not a min-maxed offensive glass cannon. I mean 10 RES and 12 CON is hardly on the high side. She's got nice DEX and INT. I personally think that CC (especially mind control such as Whisper of Treason and Puppet Master) is the best use of focus. To deal weapon damage in order to then deal spell damage seems kind of redundant - might as well continue to deal weapon damage with the help of Borrowed Instincts and Tactical Meld. Of course if it's a CC spell that also does damage (like Mind Wave or Amplified Wave): even better. But two Ciphers who dominate enemies impact every fight against non-immune foes significantly. You can make them both ranged (a blunderbuss specifically aimed at low DR targets - is a good way to gain big bursts of focus), but Grieving Mother can also be used in melee. Melee combat usually has a bit higher dps than ranged in theory, which should yield more focus. With Time Parasite, Llawran's Stick (quarterstaff with speed) and durgan steel she can reach 0 recovery. She can also stay behind the front line with such a reach weapon. Durance's staff is a nice backup weapon against crush-immune foes then.

Obsidian is not the Publisher, that's Paradox and Versus Evil. But maybe @Aarik D can help? Or @SChin or @Shyla?

No, I have a much weaker (and older) system and I had no issues with the game performance at any point. My CPU/GPU is Intel/Nvidia though - and I'm on Linux. I'll take a wild guess and say that this problem may originate in your hardware drivers. In Hasongo there's a lot of water surface animation stuff (outside). Maybe that's the part of the game which gives your system extra troubles.

That's correct and well explained.

I'm currently running a party with my MC chanter in the backline (with an Arbalest, albeit the Spike Flinger now that it's fixed bc. it reloads so much faster - but it doesn't have prone on crit) and Sure-Handed Ila + Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr AND Kana in the front line with fat armor, a single handed hatchet and the Dragon Thrashed exclusively. The single weapon gives the Dragon Thrashed +12 accuracy (offensive chants are the only thing - apart from the weapon accuracy itself - where single handed weapon usage does that). Both work fine, both are viable. Shooting requires a bit more micromanagement - which is fine for my MC. Kana in fat armor and without any meaningful way to deal weapon damage requires almost no micromanagement (which I find useful in a party of 6). Imo there is no "better" in this case. It depends on what your party needs. Both in one party has been very smooth sailing so far by the way (front line: Firebrand Edér, Dragon Thrashed Kana, dual hatchet Spiritshift Shocker Hiravias; back line: MC arbalest Chanter, Durance and CC Aloth).

Nothing shortens attack animation except DEX. Unfortunately the wording with "attack speed" in PoE is often stupid. DEX shortens everything (attack animation, recovery and reload) while all other things that talk about attack speed mean recovery only. Sure-Handed Ila shortens recovery time and reloading time. It is equally effective for all ranged weapons! If you think about it like this: "how much time do I spend waiting between shooting?" - with recovery weapons that's only recovery time (which gets reduced by x%), with reloading weapons it's recovery time plus reloading time (which both get reduced by x%, so the total sum of recovery + reload also gets reduced by x%). So there's no difference in that regard between the ranged weapons. They all get their "pause" reduced by the same percentage. If you want to experiement with different ranged weapons and the effect of Sure-Handed Ila (and other speed bonuses) try this tool: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ I don't remember the base duration (I suspect it's base phrase time + linger originally?), it rolls once per phrase (every 4 secs if you chain it). With Brisk Recitation (auto ability of chanters which reduces the phrase times every 4 lvls by 10%, up to -50% at lvl 16) the phrase will become shorter (rolls every 2 secs at lvl 16). Yeah that's not really clear. Crits do prolong tick damage and duration, so in theory it should do more dmg if implemented correctly, but sometimes it's the overall damage that gets raised and not the tick damage. I don't remember how it works in this case. You have to watch the dmg numbers over the enemies' heads to be absolutely sure, because the combat log can give misguiding info on DoTs unfortunately. Important is that Come Soft Winds (and Dragon Thrashed) does stack its DoT instances (does not prolong them when it hits again) which is great. So if you have a long crit you can stack more DoT ticks on top of each other. If it would only prolong the duration a crit would be wasted - but that's not the case. With Brisk Recitation, good acc and INT you can stack a lot of those DoTs on enemies while building up phrase points very quickly (1.5 secs at lvl 16). Not as devastating as Dragon Thrashed by a mile, but not bad.

Instead of the console you can also use an exported character whom you use as a hired adventurer (with items).

Don't have much time atm, but often damage-over-time (Persistence's wounding, Kana's Comes Soft Winds etc.) is also not recorded. That makes it really hard to truly know who does good damage and who's not. Something like Come Soft Winds doesn't do much damage to individual enemies, but the huge AoE usually means he will hit a lot of foes simultaneously. Wounding with some Might bonus can also do around 30% more dmg - that would bring Sagani up to your Cipher - plus Animal Companion. Searing Falls is hard. You shouldn't go there until you have 10 mechanics. Because that's what you need to find Tidefall (in scouting modus) anyway.

Hi! Sounds like a Herald (Paladin/Chanter). Most popular Heralds use the Troubadour subclass because it can easily hold up two phrases without a gap. This is nice when you use Ancient Memory for passive healing and support it with Mercy and Kindness (+50% healing). You'll also want to use Exalted Endurance because it's another "passive" healing aura. Often Heralds also use the shield Lathandria's Devotion in order to add another passive healing aura. All that passive healing combined with the Paladin's defenses makes a very sturdy tank. Chanter invocations can be used to buff party members in many ways. The Paladin subclass usually isn't that important, but since you want to heal a lot: Kind Wayfarer. On the other hand you want more engagement - in that case a Shieldbearer would be better. You decide what's more important to you: healing or engagement. You can also gain bonus engagement from some items (Kapana Taga +2, Reckless Brigandine +1, Blackened Plate Helm +1 for example). The Blackened Plate and its helmet come rel. late but that armor also fits the theme very well because it can also emit a passive healing aura. If you want to use Lethandria's Devotion then I would pick Shieldbearer as subclass. Mountain Dwarf is no problem. Low Dex is always a problem for casting time. Luckily most Chanter invocations don't have long casting times. There should be several herald builds in this forum. Here is one:

Shields (medium and large ones) lower your accuracy universally. Spells, chants, weapon attacks etc.: it all suffers from the shield malus. Usually nothing besides your weapon attacks profit from single weapon usage (+12 accuracy). Offensive chants are an exception (and most likely that's an oversight and not intended). Weapon quality etc. does not influence chants' accuracy. Also one handed style (crot conversion) doesn't work. Only the single one handed weapon usage that gives +12 ACC works. I don't remember if all offensive chants without exception profit from the +12 accuracy. Dragon Thrashed certainly does profit. Iirc "Come Soft Winds" also does - so I assume the frightening "Lo" chant also works like that. But that's easy to check in the combat log.

Hi and welcome! First time I read about that quirk. I suspect it will be very hard to reproduce.

Yeah, that's a good tip: creating some anti-kith, -wilder, -vessel weapons from regular fine, exceptional or even superb ones is not a bad idea. Sometimes you find some exceptional stuff early (for example if you take on Crägholt Bluffs way too early but manage to kill two or three enemies there before having to retreat) but don't want to replace your dear unique weapon. Then it's nice to turn it into an exceptional special weapon against <insert enemy type> for relatively cheap and combine it with the testing bonus from survival to great effect against certain encounters. One example: the Dweller bounty is pretty tough, but with a survival bonus vs. primordial and fitting weapons it becomes def. easier.

Yeah, that's a good tip: creating some anti-kith, -wilder, -vessel weapons from regular fine, exceptional or even superb ones is not a bad idea. Sometimes you find some exceptional stuff early (for example if you take on Crägholt Bluffs way too early but manage to kill two or three enemies there before having to retreat) but don't want to replace your dear unique weapon. Then it's nice to turn it into an exceptional special weapon against <insert enemy type> for relatively cheap and combine it with the testing bonus from survival to great effect against certain encounters. One example: the Dweller bounty is pretty tough, but with a survival bonus vs. primordial and fitting weapons it becomes def. easier.

If you are using offensive chants with Kana, a large shield is not such a good idea bc. the -8 accuracy hurts the already not very high base accuracy of offensive chants. Interestingly enough (only with offensive chants) you can use a one handed single weapon which grants +12 accuracy for weapon attacks but also for offensive chants. I give Kana plate armor and a single hatchet and only switch to hatchet + small shield when he's under duress. Your Kind Wayfarer should focus on heavy hitting one handers to maximize the potential of his FoD strikes. You only have 2 per encounter, so it's best to squeeze the most dmg out of that - also in regards to Strange Mercy (heal on kill). The mechanic of lashes (have to overcome 1/4th DR separately, no MIN damage, DR bypass does not apply) makes it so that higher base damage (heavier one handers) are much better with FoD than the light ones. Not so great: flails, daggers, fists, stilettos, hatchets, clubs, rapiers Better: sabres, spears, hammers, maces, swords, battle axes But of course it's best to use the weapons with the highest quality and with the fitting weapon focus first of all. Because if you miss your lashes will miss, too. And if you graze the lashes will have less physical dmg to be based on. Unique enchantments don't make a big difference that early in the game (see Gaun's Share). War bow on Cipher is great. There's a unique war bow in Copperlane (merchant) named Borresaine which is good. I would only switch to a gun (arquebus) for alpha strikes against weak enemies at the start of battle if that's what you want. Too much hassle for my taste, but it can give you an edge. For Ranger the best two weapons are Persistence (get it asap, it's rel. early in the Endless Paths, use MIG gear and buffs because wounding scales with MIG) and Stormcaller (White March). Before that Sagani's Massuk Hunting Bow is good because it has dual damage - unlike normal bows. So usually, on average, it will roll better dmg numbers than anything you can get before Persistence because it picks the lower DR to overcome (pierce or crush). You will get the same with Stormcaller (shock/pierce) but way better. A nice thing about Persistance is that it automatically unlocks Predator's Sense of the Animal Companion. And in PoE the Animal Companion's base(!) damage scales with level. This means the bites of the fox will reach pretty high dmg per attack (albeit slow) which works very well with the +50% dmg bonus of Predator's Sense. Never forget the Animal Companion. I personally love to give Durance the best arquebus I can find, Weapon Focus Soldier, Gunner, Marksman and Magran's weapon talent that grants him +10 acc with sword and arquebus. That talent lifts him to the accuracy of fighters alone and makes him a pretty good shot, especially if he opens combat with Inspiring Radiance. Later I even give him Runner's Wounding Shot and Interdiction. The reason is that this lets him contribute really well to fights even without casting one per-rest spell. His RES is already high so his deflection usually isn't the lowest one in the party, meaning he usually doesn't get bothered by enemy rogues/barbs/rangers a lot. So I can afford to give him no shield etc. As backup I use a sword + shield setup (sword also has +10 acc) or Firebrand from Forgemaster Gloves (3/rest,works with any weapon focus and with the magran talent's +10 acc, too). Best enchants on weapons is lashes and quality. If you can get a speed weapon that fits your weapon focus etc.: great. Wounding, too. Marking weapon on a Paladin is great, pick Coordinated Attacks then, too. For example your Kind Wayfarer can wield Shame or Glory + another sword. Most other unique enchantments aren't that important quite frankly. If you plan to pick an elemental booster talent (Scion of Flame etc.) you should put the fitting lash on a weapon. Scion of Flame -> burning lash. The lash on the weapon then gets boosted from 25% to 30% (*1.2). Lashes are a multiplicative dmg bonus, so this is good. For example a Paladin with FoD and Intense Flames (50% burning lash and 25% burning lash) should also pick a 25% burning lash for the weapon itself if he plans to pick Scion of Flame. This would boost his lashes to +60%/+30%/+30% which is great. If you don't want to pick one of those talents you can put whatever lash on the weapon. Sometimes it's good to have some alternative damage and not put everything into one element - just because you might meet resistant foes. --- Btw: a Kind Wayfarer's best setup usually is dual wielding because of White Flames' healing procs. BUT with Strange Mercy (heal on kill) it can be better to use Firebrand (from Forgemaster Gloves and/or Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer). It's does enormous base damage and gets boosted by Scion of Flame (because it deals burn damage). With FoD and Intense Flames it deals enormous(!) damagee per hit (but only proves one healing with White Flames). You can kill enemies very quickly with Firebrand - and while White Flames' will only proc half as much (2 instead of 4 times) you will have a lot more procs of Strange Mercy.