Boeroer

This build wasn't intended for solo play, but I guess trying it wouldn't hurt. Merciless Hand just gives a bit more crit damage which isn't very helpful in the really difficult fights (in which you won't crit a lot in the first place) - so I personally would go for Second Skin. At least that will give you some value in every fight.

It doesn't matter much because you'll have barely any recovery. Dagger level damage with no recovery is way better than any regular sort of weapon damage. At the same time you'll get plenty of use from all the on-kill effects and the non-offensive enchantments of Wahai Poraga. Besides that I also said:

Yes (not in the build list though). You pick Berserker/Troubadour (or Beckoner) with maxed INT (to counter confusion's -5 INT and still hgave decen friendly-fire Carnage AoE size). You use Amra with Riven Gore (procs on crit, same size as Carnage). This raises the chance to "accidentially" kill your skeletons significantly. Blood Storm (Frenzy will last forever basically), Bloodlust, Blood Thirst, Bloody Slaughter. Ancient Brittle Bones first and then Many Lives Pass By for skeletons. Use a pet that heals on kill to completely counter Frenzy's self damage. Battle Axe modal always on because the recovery malus doesn't matter with Blood Thirst. That's basically it. Alternatively you can also use a reach weapon to better place the Carnage on certain enemies in order to hit more skeletons. You can do this without Berserker's confusion: use Whahai Poraga. It has friendly fire without confusion. You can combine Corpse Eater with Beckober or Skald for example: secondary summons like Ancient Brittle Bones' second wave skeletons, second wave drakes and also Many Lives Pass By will leave corpses when they die. You can use White Worms on the skeletons corpses and eat drake the drake corpses. The Berserker variat is significantly more brutal though. If you have a Chanter in the party already then it's better to use a Brute though: Blood Thirst in combination with Cleaving Stance is even more brutal when you accidantially kill your Chanter's skeletons: each kill will proc Blood Thirst but also a Cleave which usually kills the next skeleton and so on. In any case you do NOT want to have low health party members near such a guy who is wielding Amra in confusion. Riven Gore will destroy them instantly when they are below 50 health, removing them from the party without further ado.

No, not really. All but one of the Rogue's attack abilities are Full Attacks which are more effective with two weapons instead of one.

Every class that doesn't rely on Full Attacks can make good use of a single pistol. So Cipher and Chanter are good picks for example. Monk doesn't profit much from pistol and especially not a single one. Fighter, Barbarian and Paladin: same. Babarian's Blood Thirst (no recovery after a kill) doesn't work with reloading weapons.

Exactly Also doable. Fighter was just an example with some explanation why it would work especially well with scrolls (and potions), which to me seemed to have been the main focus of the original question. Paladin is good for soloing for several reasons, but not particularly effective with scrolls (but also not bad due to okay base Acc + Zealous Focus).

Cool! My congratulations!

Didn't try this solo, but Scordeo's Trophy on a Bloodmage/Ranger is pretty cool in general imo: The enchantment "Opening Barrage" reduces recovery universally (also for spells etc.). With Driving Flight and Gunner as well as the Pistol modal "Rushed Reload" you can stack a lot of those recovery bonuses quickly - and with Wall of Draining you can keep all of them going on forever, which leads to very short recovery and reloading times. You can then spam all sorts of spells with very short recovery time, shoot with little reloading time (there's a cap on reloading time though, at some point it won't get reduced further). Combine with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and you can not only shoot and cast very quickly but also run very fast and not get engaged (immunity to engagement). Being able to kite enemies is very useful in a solo run. A Bloodmage can use Healing Hands (the gloves) in combination with Wall of Draining (the Minor Lay on Hands' healing stays forever) and Blood Sacrifice - and thus you don't have to worry about the self damage of Blood Sacrifice and Alacrity too much. All those Wall of Draining shenanigans in combination with Bloodmage make a solo run more easy anyways. There's also the Essential Phantom (summons are always nice for a solo run) which gets an exact copy of all your gear, including the pistol. The phantom stacks Opening Barrage, too - so it shoots faster and faster the longer it stays. However, it neither has Driving Flight nor the Rushed Reload modal and it cannot use Wall of Draining. But it gets the +12 accuracy for single weapon usage, so its accuracy is very good (for a summon).

I did one (long ago) for scrolls: It's bascially a Rogue who combines Deathblows with spell damage (+100%). Direct damage spells profit from Deathblows (bot not from Sneak Attack). Rogues can use spellbinding, spellholding and spellstriking gear to get spells - and of course scrolls. It's not a solo build though. For solo: A Fighter could use the same concept - not for the damage boost with Deathblows ofc., but scrolls in combination with his high base accuray and Disciplined Barrage (+20 Acc). Fighters are usually quite limited when it comes to AoE, especially disables and CC, which makes them meh at soloing - at least on PotD. With the right spells from spellbinding and scrolls and that high accuracy this is mendable. At the same time they have great base stats (acc, health, endurance, defenses) - which is nice for solo. High INT and PER are important I think. High INT and PER are also very nice with Clear Out. It's per rest - but your other spells are per rest (or consumables) are per rest, too, so Clear Out is not really adding restriction - it also works like a spell (no weapon involved actually) and it's very strong with high INT (big AoE and long prone). There is no need for a special build for potions imo. They don't change their workings no matter which class or build you use. Potion drinking animation is buggy (or was, maybe it got fixed with the current beta).

That is correct, Acane Dampener is an achilles heel. On the other hand there are so many drugs to find and buy (and they are cheap as well) that you can simply chuck downin another one after the dampening is over. Nalpazca has the benefit of generating wounds passively. In combination with Enduring Dance of Death and Whispers of the Wind this is extremely good because while doing WotW you are invisible - so no Dampener will hit you anyways - and you can generate enough wounds while doing it that you can spam it all the time, spending the majority of the fight invisible. At the start of the fight you stay stealthed and wait for enough wounds to start WotW from stealth and that's it for the encounter most of times. If you also use Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak that means lots of enemies will be stunned fo some time, too - which also reduces the risk of getting hit by stray dampeners. For a multiclass though I think maybe another subclass is better. Unless you use invisibility in other ways (Rogue, Wizard + Brilliant Departure) or are not involved in melee much (Psion, casters in general where you want the #ACC and INT from the Monk without doing melee much). I like Nalpazca because it motivates me to use consumables which I otherwise would just sell.

Because:

Hello! In the past (and still with the non-beta branch of the game), if you put on two items that give the same spellbind, for example the Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath (3 Sunbeams per rest) and Amulet of Summer Solstice (same), you'd get the 3 spells two times under your bag symbol in the action bar. With the beta branch it kind of bugs out a bit. You will not get the 2 instances of spellbind. You put on the mail: one spellbind appears (with 3 casts). You put on the amulet: nothing happens. You remove the mail: spellbind disappears. You remove the amulet: nothing happens. You re-equip the amulet: spellbind appears. This seems to be more than a simple suppression going on. Then the spellbind would still be there when removing the mail since the amulet's spellbind would kick in. I also noticed some other items which add special actions to the action bar don't work, for example the Helwax Mold seems to be unusable (greyed out). Maybe that's related? Cheers!

Min-maxing also isn't necessary on Path of the Damned. Often it's even detrimental to your overall performance. I personally - for a damage oriented Paladin who's also a good person and leader - would pick Kind Wayfarer and then: Abilities: - Lvl 1: Flames of Devotion - Lvl 3: Zealous Focus - Lvl 5: Sworn Enemy - Lvl 7: Inspiring Triumph - Lvl 9: Lay on Hands - Lvl 11: Healing Chain - Lvl 13: Sacred Immolation - Lvl 15: Behold the Martyr or Abjuration Talents: - Lvl 2: Weapon Focus Soldier (+6 accuracy with great swords) - Lvl 4: The Sword and the Shepherd - Lvl 6: Intense Flames - Lvl 8: Strange Mercy - Lvl 10: Scion of Flame - Lvl 12: Two Handed Style - Lvl 14: Savage Attack - Lvl 16: Apprentice's Sneak Attack or Runner's Wounding Shot That way you combine your offensive output and killing capabilities with defensive support and healing power "on the fly" (which is better than just pure offense, especitwheb it doesn't take any more action time). Also you can invest in your Might and profit twice: your damage output will go up - but also your healing power. You will need some healing for yourself anyway (like from Lay on Hands), at least from lvl. 13 on, because Sacred Immolation, while doing high AoE damage to foes, also damages you quite a lot. You want to counter that with healing from time to time. Then you'd have a likeable, benevolent main character who can dish out some serious damage and do some buffing and healing in the process, too. All while swinging a huge flaming great sword. Plate looks great. It will make you slow, but also improve your sturdyness a lot, especially on the early game. You could also use something lighter such as the "Sun-Touched Mail" - imo it's one of the best looking armors in the game. And it comes with 3 casts of Sunbeam per rest which your fire-themed Paladin could also use to nice effect (kills with it will proc Strange Mercy and Inspiring Triumph). You'd have to enchant the mail to better DR quality yourself though, it doesn't come with exceptional quality.

Hi, I don't think you need a detailed guide. On normal you can try things out and you an also retrain your character for a little money if you don't like what you picked. A few pointers might help though: Frst, for your offense, just pick up a great sword in a shop for example. Then, at level-ups, pick abilities and talents such as Flames of Devotion, Weapon Focus Soldier, Zealous Focus, Intense Flames, Two Handed Style, Scion of Flame, Savage Attack, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, later Sacred Immolation. Get the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer as soon as possible. Also get Forgemaster Gloves. Both give you spallcasts for the summoning spell "Firebrand" which is a giant flaming great sword which does very high damage - perfect for your Flames of Devotion. Your attributes should be rel. balanced. You cannot dump any. Decent MIG, DEX and PER are good for your offense, MIG also for healing, decent INT is good for your support abilities (like aura size) and durations of effects (like the duration for Firebrand). It's also useful for many dialogue options. CON doesn't need to be high, okay RES is nice for solid concentration and deflection and also helps with many dialogue options. Maybe something like MIG 14 CON 10 PER 13 DEX 13 INT 14 RES 14 Pick up Shod-in-Faith Boots at some point. If you feel you are too squishy: use thicker armor. If you survive easily enough you can try thinner armor. The subclass doesn't matter too much. Shieldbearers don't fit too well imo. Bleak Walkers have nice burst dmg but are cruel and aggressive (maybe not your taste). Goldpact Knights also get some nice additional damage and are pretty neutral/rational. Kind Wayfarers are benevolent, but they don't have improved offense. However, their Flames of Devotion strikes heal allies (and themselves) and they can also heal in an AoE each time they kill an enemy. Darcozzi Paladini can give accuracy support and get a Flame shield when they use Flames of Devotion - which is nice, too. Imporant skills: Survival at 4 at least allows you to pick an accuracy bonus against certain enemy types. If you scout ahead and find out what awaits you (and then you rest and pick your survival bonus for bonus accuracy against the enemy type that waits for you) you can make the early game a lot easier.

Who most definitely is the love child of Durance and Furrante...

If you have picked Weapon Focus already I would use Justice (Raedric's great sword). It has a "hidden" 10% crushing lash on top of its 25% crushing lash, both generate extra focus. But since lashes have to overcome 1/4 of (in this case crush) DR, the 10% lash can have a hard time penetrating. Against low DR foes it works well though and gives a bit of extra damage and extra focus, which is cool.

As @omgFIREBALLS already said: the fight is winnable without any DLC content. If you wait too long it might even feel too easy. Single target damage dealers like Rogues, Fighters, Paladins (unless they already have Sacred Immolation), Rangers etc. are not as useful in this battle because there will be so many enemies and targeting single enemies isn't as effective as targeting many. Although they can use spellbinding gear and scrolls of course. A high accuracy Fighter with good INT and MIG, equipped with Rotfinger Gloves for example is nice. Should you have a Rogue with Deathblows and high Lore then make sure a bunch of enemies suffers two afflictions that unlock Deathblows and then use a damaging AoE scroll (non-DoT) or spellbinding (Taluntain's Staff for Fireballs for example) with him: Deathblows will grant +100% dmg to those spells. AoE is king here, so bringing Wizard (Chillfog, Walls, Combusting Wounds, Kalakoth's Minor Blights + Blast/Citzal's Spirit Lance), Priest (Shining Beacon), Chanter (Dragon Thrashed), Druid (Relentless Storm, Overbearing Wave) and Cipher (see below) are good. Especially Ciphers can shine here because there's so many weak enemies to farm focus from - and then turning it into AoE CC and damage. Ring Leader or Amplified Wave are excellent tools in this fight (if you already have access to them). Monks with Torment's Reach and high INT as well as an Overseeing item are also very effective since it's easy to hit a lot of enemies at once. And it's also easy to get wounds... Barbarians can have good effect with an overbearing or stunning weapon and high INT - and if they already have Blood Thirst it should be a field day for them due to the many weaker enemies which will allow to proc Bloodlust and Blood Thirst often. If you have Heart of Fury already then combine it with a Wizard's Combusting Wounds and a dual weapon setup.

Disengagement triggering from repositioning inside enemies' threat range is also a problem in RTwP. It's a coin toss whether you get hit by a disengagement attack when you just circle the enemy or not (while basically touching them all the time). Like when you only want to get into flanking position. Currently it seems to be implemeted in a way that the distance of movement away from the enemy is significantly less than standard melee range. And this is (I guess) due to some problems that would occur if it was done in a different way: 1. It would require Disengagement Attacks to have a higher reach than normal melee distance. Maybe this would introduce additional problems (can't say). 2. You could move very freely inside enemies' melee range if they had a reach weapon. 3. When using melee ranges instead of some fixed "disengagement distance" you might also open Pandora's Box with reach weapons vs. disengagement again (which we had in the first beta over 10 years ago) where enemies just passing guys with reach weapons (within a distance between normal melee range and reach weapon range) got obliterated by Disengagement Attacks. But this would also mean that engagement itself is connected to melee range (which it currently is not - you'll notice that reach weapon also only engage at close distance, not at their reach distance). So using a fixed distance (not standard melee range) to determine whether a disengagement happend or not is good imo. But maybe that distance needs to be extended a little bit: still slightly less than standard melee range (in order to allow disengagement attacks to actually connect) but not so close that they get triggered while basically brushing the enemy. It also seems that the calculations which determine whether a disengagement happend or not are done with the center of characters' hit boxes/sprites/circles instead of with the edges. But that's just my assumption. Maybe a change there could help as well. That's a lot of "maybes" from me, heh... I think figuring out the perfect sweet spot was - and still is - very tricky. That's what you get when you use free motion/movement with high granularity instead of hexagonal or square tiles for movement.

No, that's only the second option I described with Force of Anguish. That one is def. about disabling. But the first one with Torment's Reach is one of the best melee damage dealers in the game. Torment's Reach is devastating against singular foes (the one for you target) because it has a 50% crushing lash (lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses, mich more potent than a 50% additive bonus such as Sneak Attack) AND it damages the enemies behind the initial one in a cone. It's also a Full Attack, meaning it gets executed with both weapons, one after the other. The cone procs twice then, too. Combine the lash of Torment's Reach with more lashes (Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes, elemental lash in both weapons) and some additive damage bonuses (Might, weapon quality, Savage Attack, Apprentice's Sneak Attack for example) and you have one the most damaging, repeatable single target weapon attacks in the game. And on top it also wrecks more enemies in a cone. I like to use high INT because then it is way easier to catch additional enemies in the cone. That way I get most out of the 1 wound I spend. --- You can also build a strong ranged damage dealer with the Long Pain fists. At some point you will deal the damage of an arquebus per hit - but with very short recovery. --- A third way is to use a Fire Godlike and stack as many lashes that work with the burn retaliation of Fire God likes as you can (Turning Wheel, Blood Testament gloves etc.). It can reach over 100dmg with the lashes every time you get hit (if under 50% endurance). This goes on top of the usual melee damage with Torment's Reach then. I made a build around that idea: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87846-class-build-monksterlasher-elemental-lashing-retaliating-offensive-tank/

In PoE1 I generally like to optimize them for Torment's Reach (lots of INT and a dual weapon setup). It is very cheap and causes a truckload of damage. I like sabres with this but any heavy one hander setup is nice. But a focus on Force of Anguish is also nice (also high INT to prolong the already long-lasting prone). A single War Club of the Mataru can be very good because it's fast and has extremely high accuracy (+38 if fully leveled and used as single weapon). If you cause a crit, the prone effect of Force of Anguish will last even longer (+50%). Combined with high INT this becomes a very powerful CC tool. You just need to make sure that you gain enough wounds since FoA is pretty expensive in PoE1. You can also use a two handed weapon instead. Less accuracy but more dmg per hit. Llawran's Stick (quarterstaff) is nice bc. of reach and speed. Tidefall is very nice because while the enemy flies away and lays prone it still gets damaged from the DoT.

For the main character my favorite class is probably Monk. But I also like Barbarian and Druid a lot. Wizard is also cool... My personal ranking (not in terms of power but of enjoyment) for main character class might be: 1. Monk 2. Barbarian, Druid 3. Wizard 4. Priest, Chanter 5. Ranger, Paladin 6. Fighter, Rogue, Cipher I started a new turn based run with a melee Ranger (+Wolf) a few days ago.

I don't know. Nobody as far as I can tell.

Due to the way Deadfire processes damage maluses, in order to balance out a -75% dmg malus you'd need about +300% damage bonuses. I'm pretty sure you can't cobble that together consistently even as a Streetfighter. So I'd say it does somewhat matter. Though not enough to not be able to beat Dorudugan apparently.

I usually don't give wounding weapons to ciphers: the Wounding doesn't generate focus and for some reason that feels like a waste to me then (which is a bit silly because it still deals a lot of damage anyway). For the sake of efficiency I guess (and peace of mind) I prefer to give speed weapons to Ciphers - since that is nearly equally as good as Wounding (dps-wise) but it also generates more focus. This is especially important to me before casting Time Parasite (doesn't take as long to collect the needed focus I mean). For example I really like to use Blade of the Endless Paths with a Cipher on Time Parasite (I also like Marking as an enchantment in general, I think it's awesome). Or just the good old Llawran's Stick which you can get so early. With Durance's staff as backup (with the alternative burn dmg for when you encounter crush-immune foes) I think this is a pretty nice weapon setup for a melee Cipher. Reach allows for a bit more safety, too. A bit of Durgan Steel, a cast of Time Parasite: 0 recovery with dat smacky staff. The only gripe I have with that setup is the somewhat silly attack animation of quarterstaffs (sometimes looks like the char is swinging a sledgehammer onto an imaginary post in the ground or something). --- Btw. speaking of Marking: a Darcozzi Paladin with Shame or Glory + Cladhaliath + Coordinated Attacks + Inspiring Exhortation can be a really good wingman for a melee Cipher - one who can remove the struggles in boss fights: Inspiring Liberation (+10 acc), dual weapon Marking (+20 acc), Coordinated Attacks (+10 acc) and Zealous Focus (+6 acc) combined with Tactical Meld on the Cipher's side (+20 acc) lead to a whooping +66 accuracy boost for the Cipher. This lets him get decent focus against even the most defensive enemies... This can also work at range with a Darcozzi with St. Garam's Spark or Pliambo per Casitas and a ranged Cipher. You just put them close to each other to ensure the Paladin buffs the Cipher (and not some other party member standing near to the Paladin, attacking the same target). Then ofc. only one marking weapon applies (+56 acc). Dual wielding Shame or Glory + Cladhaliath is the only way to get two Marking stacks. Marking from two separate party members on a third one won't stack (although Marking stacks with anything else).

One of the best Cipher spells in fights with lots of enemies is def. Amplified Wave. It's a fast cast, causes 8 sec prone (base) and deals good damage (38.5 base) at the same time in a pretty big AoE (4m base radius from the ally you cast it on, usually the tank).