Boeroer

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).

edit: sorry, weird double post

Oh, nice.

I think the biggest mistake of players who try Ciphers is that they use the damaging powers first and foremost. But imo that's the worst way to spend your focus. CC, especially the disabling kind, has much more impact than dealing damage. The most impactful CC effect is mind control (in PoE: confused, charmed, dominated) because it not only "disables" an enemy but even turns it into an ally. It's like disabling an enemy and calling forth a summon at the same time. If you can have both (cc + damage with one spell) that's great, too. But simply turning focus into plain damage is not (there are exceptions such as Disintegrate). Instead of dealing damage with a weapon in order to deal further damage with a spell you might as well continue to deal damage with the weapon (and get more focus). Why switch from weapon to spell if the outcome is basically the same? I am not a big fan of the Cipher's mechanic (weapon damage fuels spells) because the action economy is pretty bad and the focus generation suffers if you fight very strong enemies (when you need the focus most). They are the opposite of per-rest casters: cannot do much in easier fights (if you don't want to rest all the time) but really shine if the tough fights (when they can spam all those impactful spells without waiting for resources to build up). When retaliation still worked for generating focus it was the perfect solution for the action economy problem. Unfortunately the devs nerfed that: retaliation doesn't generate focus anymore.

I hope I don't come across nearly half as assy as most of the eoran counterparts do...

Rotfinger Gloves are very good, because iirc the radius of that implementation of Touch of Rot on the gloves is much bigger than the actual Druid spell's (which only has 1.25m radius I believe the gloves' spell has at least twice the radius?). I suspect Touch of Rot got nerfed at some point during development, but since spells on items are just hard copies of those spells (and don't get changed when you alter the original spell) the Touch of Rot on the gloves was forgotten and stayed nice and big. Just a theory though, I don't know for sure. Concerning Combusting Wounds: Touch of Rot causes a DoT (after the initial dmg) - that doesn't trigger Combusting Wounds stacks like pulsing spells do. Wall spells are perfect because they pulse every second and stay for a fairly long time. Beams also pulse every second but have a short duration of 10 seconds which cannot be altered, so I don't consider them to be great in combination with Combusting Wounds. Chillfog however works nicely because it pulses every 3 secs and in addition does blind - which helps to hit with the wall spell more often. There are some boots which can trigger a beam by themselves (when you get crit iirc). Those could be cool if you wear them when you plan to treat a boss with Combusting Wounds. Same as multiple Retaliation items I guess. But I never tried that out tbh. You have to keep in mind that when going solo you will have to cast all those spells yourself, so timing Combusting Wounds + Wall + Chillfog optimally is a bit of a challenge. Works better with lots of DEX and Deleterious Alacrity.

Didn't try. But since it's a bug that only affects a small number of players I assume it never got much attention and thus didn't get fixed. You can use Second Wind of course, but only if your endurance is above 50%. That is not great, but can still buy you time once per encounter.

I don't have much experience as a solo Wizard, but here are some things that are generally useful: Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is excellent for the early game. It's a lot more efficient than using damaging spells, so you have to rest less often. It comes exceptional - which is already fantastic at lvl 1, but more importantly it has nearly twice the base damage of normal two handers. That means nearly +100% multiplicative(!) damage. *rogues cry* Chillfog is also one of the best spells early on. Tier 3 affliction on a AoE with pulsing rolls (rng is less of a problem), pulsing damage, long duration. Later in the game I consider Slicken to be better than Chillfog because it can make a huge difference in certain fights who disables whom first. If you can Slicken-prone Lagufaeth or Adragans before they can paralyze you the fight is won - the other way round it's lost. Chillfig will not win you this duel of hard disables. Confusion is very strong in PoE. Hence all spells which cause Confusion are excellent and can win you lots of fights alone. Get Ninagauth's Shadowflame. It is excellent bc. it combines hard CC with good dmg -> fantastic action and spell use economy. Against certain bosses, Combusitng Wounds + Wall of Flames + Chillfog is a fantastic combo. Most dragons are not immune to paralyze, so using paralyzing effects in them works very well (it also means +100% dmg received which is nice against those big dmg sponges). Dropping RES without any means to raise Concentration otherwise WILL be a problem against numerous, fast hitting foes unless you can raise your defenses a lot (may be expensive in terms of spell uses though). Defenses like dflection hae increasing returns, so I wouldn't drop RES in the first place. Medium and large shields do indeed put their acc malus onto your offensive spells You can run away and break engagement - you will eat a disengagement attack though. If you have very high deflection it's not a big deal. If you are faster than the enemy (bc. Deleterious Alacrity and/or Boots of Speed etc.) the enemies will not pursue far bc. their AI recognizes that it's pointless. The guy's name is Raedric (the Seventh) Infuse with Vital Essence can be used to restore health (no endurance but health). It works with all healing modifiers (MIG, healing done, healing received). If you still have lots of spell uses but are at low health you can use it to prevent resting. If you take it as Spell Mastery (I like that) you can use it at the end of fights and stay at +90% health all the time. It can be used to outheal your damage in tough, long encounters: usually there's a limit with how much damage to endurance you can outheal because at some point your health will be so low that you cannot heal anymore. Not if you have uses of Infuse with Vital Essence left. Using Infuse with Vital Essence also means you can lower CON. Your health pool can be smaller - since you can heal it. You cannot solo several encounters at the levels you used to with a party. You will have to come back later for the bear cave, Raedric etc. Summons are very important whe4n going solo. Interestingly Essential Phantom is a lvl-4 spell. So you can have it as spell mastery. That means a free summon in every fight. Although it's competing with Shadowflame and Confusion which makes this a really tough call. Wall of Many Colors: fantastic spell I think DEX is important. As I said above: many fights are about who disables whom first. Casting speed matters. I find it a lot more important than MIG and also more important than PER.

The stilleto/sabre combo is better for most of the game. Once you found Drawn in Spring you could retrain because it's worth it. You don't need to of course. How stronghold quests work: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Stronghold_random_events#Adventures Yoe need to get up your Stronghold's Prestige so that you can receive Grand Adventures. You need a free companion who's parked at the stronghold who can go on that quest. Any party member works (official companion or hired adventurer). You can have several at the stronghold. When you miss a quest (it stays there for several days) it can reappear. The specific quest for the Helwax Mold: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wax_Maker

Overall maybe a shocking lash. Although thematically a corrosive lash would be most fitting for Bleak Fang. You could spare the lash, copy the item and then give both a different lash. It's more expensive (but not that much) but you gain a bit of versatility dmg wise. You could also retrain to daggers/maces once you received Drawn in Spring (best dagger) and copy that. It's better than any stiletto. The wounding enchantment works like a lash (multiplicative dmg bonus) and ignores enemies' DR - and it can still have an elemental lash on top of that. Until then I would run with stilettos/sabres though.

You can use the Helwax Mold (an item you get from a Stronghold quest) to copy any item that is not soulbound. Vent Pick is not a soulbound item, so it can be copied. It is smart to first upgrade the weapon as much as possible - and only then copy it with the mold. Vent Pick can proc Flames of Devotion unlimited times per encounter, true - but it only has a 5% chance to proc on every hit or crit. In other words: only 5 out of 100 successful hits/crits will proc Flames of Devotion.

There's no official statement that says otherwise.

That's not too bad actually. Since Rogues get access to a lot of damage bonuses you can easily get away with only 11 MIG though and put more points into CON and RES (both 10). But I think you can also leave it as is. 8 in CON an RES should be manageable. I would start fairly thick with a brigandine (doesn't look too weird on a Rogue imo). Kana Rua (companion) has one you could use for example. Then I would try to go lighter from time to time and see how it works, if it's doable. My goal would be to go all the way down to the Deadfire Pack uniforms (I'd pick the Deackhand's Uniform), but it may be that you'll have to stop at Padded or Leather Armor or so. It depends a bit on your party (like if you have even more squishy party members who take attention awaqy from you for example) and how you play. If you want to stay with a bit heaver armor because it works well: my favorite for Rogues is the Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath. You can cast Sunbeam with it 3x per Rest. Sunbeam blinds (good for Rogues) and the Rogue's Deathblows (+100% damage against enemies who suffer from at least 2 Sneak-Attack-Afflictions) works with spells, including Sunbeam. So it can be a good damage tool, too. At the same time I would def. put on +deflection gear (bracers or cloak) and also some +RES item. If you can get higher deflection that some of your backliners (wizard etc.) the enemies might not want to attack you as desperately. You can trick enemies a bit by wearing a large shield + hatchet at the start of battle, that will give you a lot of bonus deflection. And then, when the enemies settled on their targets and you are on your way to attack some of them you switch to your actual weapons. It also works with two hatchets (if the look of a large shield feels too weird on your Rogue). Two hatchets give +10 deflection (+5 for each hatchet) and that stacks with everything.

Keep in mind that her subclass only grants 3 wounds per kill if the kill is done with a melee weapon. In other words: killing enemies with a mortar shot won't give her wounds. Since all her wound based abilites cost +1 wound to balance out the +3 wound generation per melee-kill, you will have a Mortar Monk who pays more but doesn't get anything back for it. This isn't a big problem until PL 8 and 9 where you get Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind wich you want to use as much/often as possible. Here the added costs (without payback for kills) start to become noticable. It's still doable and still good, it's just not optimal (compared to other monk subclasses). Before that you'll most likely use Stunning Surge a lot - which isn't influenced by Xoti's subclass at all. Tl;dr: it works but is a bit suboptimal. Little workaround at PL9: once you get Whispers of the Wind you can use Keeper of the Flame and Sun & Moon and use Imagined Pain in combination with Eder's Saint's War armor (enchantment "Veteran's Maneuver"): you will be immune to reflex based attacks (as long as nobody hits you with something else) -> Keeper of the Flame's AoE will cause friendly fire (targets Reflex) while doing Whispers of the Wind, but it will miss you 100% due to the immunity from Veteran's Maneuver. Every one of those misses will grant you +1 wound from Imagined Pain. So you will execute Whispers of the Wind, gain a truckload of wounds from Imagined Pain in the process, maybe even one wound from Enduring Dance of Death - if you kill an enemy you will get +3 wounds on top from Xoti's subclass. This makes it so that you can spam Whisper of the Wind non-stop basically.

If you want to build the Rogue efficiently you cannot use dagger and stilettos, you'd have to decide which ones you like better and then pick a backup weapon set which belongs to the same weapon focus group. Weapon focus gives you +6 accuracy for a certain group of weapons. Weapon Focus Noble contains daggers (among other weapons). Weapon Focus Ruffian contains stilettos. You don't want to buy two weapon focuses if you can avoid it. Avoiding it means picking for example two stilettos as main weapon set and use two sabres or clubs as backup (since both belong to the Weapon Focus Ruffian) or pick daggers + maces or rapiers (Weapon Focus Noble). The best unique weapon of the dagger or stiletto variant is a dagger: Drawn in Spring. It comes rather late though. There's also a good speedy dagger early in the game (March Steel Dagger). But there are also two nice stilettos in the game which both proc certain spell effects on crit (once per encounter): Azureith's Stiletto (procs Jolting Touch on crit) which comes super early and Bleak Fang (procs Touch of Rot) which comes late. There are some really nice unique/spoil bound (early) clubs and sabres in the game, too. So I personally would probably concentrate on stiletto and use some nice clubs and sabres as backup (when you meet enemies who are resistant or immune to pierce damage): clubs do crush dmg, sabres slash damage. Then pick Two Weapon Style, several of the full attack strikes (Crippling, Blinding etc.), NOT Savage Attack (of doesn't stack with Reckless Assault which you should pick). If you get targeted a LOT despite Eder engaging enemies it's most likely that your Rogue is so soft that he is too much of a temptation for enemies' AI. Rangers, Barbs, Rogues etc. prefer to attack low deflection, low DR and low endurance targets. If you dumped RES and CON and put on no significant of DR you will be very attractive. So attractive that enemies will even break engagement with Eder in order to get to you. Putting on a thicker armor and giving some +deflection items can help. You will have less offensive output - but your offensive output will be zero if you get attacked and knocked out all the time. So you have to compromise a bit. Also stay stealthed until Eder really has engaged several enemies and only then in stealth and try to flank enemies - rather than approaching the middle of the front line. You can place Eder at the front of the group and then leave a gap. So that enemies discover Eder first and the rest of the party stays hidden for longer. Use Escape to... escape if things get dire. Use Boots of Speed to run away if enemies approach you. If you are a lot faster than the enemy the AI usually stops following you immediately because there's no point. Beware disengagement attacks though.

Imo the free spellcasting is better in general. Yes, Ascension can be prolonged with Salvation of Time, Wall of Draining, INT, +x% to beneficial effects items, Ooblit and so on. Good point. I actually don't remember because it has been so long I used the sabre. I suppose it only works for weapon attacks then. Didn't test it lately so I cannot be sure. The synergy with Skald is that it grants +1 phrase point for each kill (not only with the weapon, with any kill, for example via invocation, too) and that Skald's offensive invocations often only cost 2 phrase points. It allows the Skald to spam cheap invocations more often despite not being in melee (doing melee crits). Besides that there is not much (except of course its healing proc etc. occurs more often bc. of Driving Flight). I personally wouldn't multiclass Ranger and Priest. I don't see effective or entertaining synergies (except high accuracy for offensive spells). I like SC Priests best. Summons are one of the most impactful things in the game. Even if they don't deal any damage they are still a potent CC tool that requires no attack roll and usually last a long time. Essence Interrupter lets you put summons on the field which don't count towards the summoning limit (you can have a proper summon and the ones from Essence Interrupter at the same time), cost no resources and no action time or recovery. Just summons "on the fly" on top of the positive effect to have removed an enemy permanently. It has two damage types (shock and pierce) which are different from other bows,which is always nice. Especially good against certain high AR constructs like Steelclads which have low shock DR. It has a shocking or burning lash which grows with Metaphysics -lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses. Its attacks count as elemental attacks so it can be used by the Arcane Archer with no drawback (no acc penalty). And it comes exceptional which is very good that early in the game. Hunting bows in general are good because of their modal combined with their inherent +5 accuracy. With Rapid Shots you get -50% recovery time for overall "only" -10 accuracy. -50% recovery is huge.

I would say so. But keep in mind that PER also influences your ability to detect traps and secrets and the official companions usually don't have very high PER either. Not to me, it depends on how you play them (which spell selection etc.) though. I for example would play Serafen mainly as a Will and Fortitude debuffer with Spirit Frenzy, Secret Horrors and morning star modal. The MC I would use for fast-cast powers and damage I think. I run Aloth as SC Wizard most of times. I think it's the best option. Instead of Ghost Heart I would do vanilla Ranger then. Sharpshooter isn't good for this kind of playstyle (too slow) and Arcane Archer doesn't really fit thematically imo. Stalker is not good if you move around quickly and change from ranged to melee and back a lot. Instead of Cipher you could certainly do Troubadour or maybe even better Bellower ("ARRR"). This would also be a good opportunity to use Sasha's Singing Scimitar. With Scordeo's Edge Skald is also a good option, even though you won't get anything special from the shooting first. Most invocations have short casting time but longer recovery, which is great for shortened recovery effects. Ranger/Skald is very good with Blightheart (soulbound arquebus). The Skald doesn't generate phrases from crits then (because ranged), but every kill (no matter how) grants +1 phrase with Blightheart - and Skald's offensive invocations are so cheap that it makes a big difference. With dual blunderbusses instead of a pistol there's the Streetfighter of course. With Serafen's two mortars Monk is always a strong option. Stunning Surge + AoE + INT bonus is fantastic, paired with Driving Flight. In both cases there's no casting though. I don't really see a Paladin here. Thematically I mean. Principi and Paladins kind of clash in my head. Although Goldpact always works as long there's pay ofc.

The Principi choice and what I sense about the "vibes" of this character seem to cry for one handed Scordeo's Trophy and one handed Scordeo's Edge. Could also do both in a dual wielding setup but: - both weapons' special enchantments profit from going one handed - it's likely a weapon style you've never tried before - pistols are usually better one handed + modal compared to dual wielding (except with full attacks) - very piratey vibes imo. You need one free hand to swing on ropes and stuff like that. Scordeo's Trophy can add stacks of either pure melee only recovery buffs (bigger effect per stack) or half of that as universal recovery buff. I personally would go with universal. It profits the shooting/reloading, too as well as the casting. Scordeo's Trophy has Blade Cascade obviously (skip recovery for 5 secs base). As well as the fantastic "Adaptive" (up to +20 universal accuracy, stacks with everything). As a Ranger you can get Gunner and Driving Flight, which in combination with Scordeo's Trophy and the modal (-50% reloading time) allows to build up universal recovery stacks pretty quickly from range, then use that for fast casting or going into melee with fast recovery already, allowing to proc Blade Cascade and Adaptive quickly, granting 0 recovery speed and high accuracy which in turn can again be used for casting. One handed is (in this case) a nice thing because you will attack with the weapon that procs the desired effect more often, build up the stacks more quickly. It is a little drawback for wounding shots and other full attacks, I think it's worth it. As second class I would use a Cipher. The Ciphers has several spells with fast casting time but normal or long recovery. Those profit a lot from reduced or even removed universal recovery time. The best choice would be Ascendant, because once ascended with little or no recovery you can spam a truckload of those fast cast spells with high accuracy. Ranger/Ciphers has the highest potential accuracy to begin with. Adding "Adaptive" (and one handed use in melee) leads to extreme accuracy. This also counters the main problem (for me) with Ciphers: they usually drop the ball a bit in boss fights because they cannot generate enough focus due to higher defenses/AR of the enemies. Very high accuracy can prevent that problem. Beguiler would also be good imo. Alternative would be Black Jacket to skip switching recovery entirely. But - as you said - for me personally that would be too boring of a playstyle for my MC. It limits the options to shooting and slashing which is fine for a companion imo but gets a bit repetitive for my main character. I'm willing to have a bit switching recovery but get spells and potentially limitless resources (focus) in return. For the Ranger subclass I think Ghost Heart (doesn't clash with summons because Cipher has none and is good for a very mobile playstyle). It's pretty cool to use Evasive Roll to go into melee distance, drop the animal companion right behind the target and get instant flanking and the accuracy bonus from Stalker's Link. With other subclasses the animal companion has to run across the battle field a lot in order to attack/flank enemies for you - and that usually takes longer than summoning it or is sometimes impossible. There's plenty of nice pistols and sabres on the way, so the feeling of (gear) progression should be there. Scordeo's Trophy can be picked up fairly early, Scordeo's Edge takes longer. Thundercrack Pistol with high accuracy and speed is also excellent. You might be able to paralyze-lock single (or two) enemies with it. Eccea's Arcane Blaster for everything that has crazy AR (hello Steelclads and friends). For armor I would maybe use Miscreant's Leathers (it just fits). Acina's Tricorn also fits theme and build beautifully imo, even Serafen's gifted hat (Fair Favor) works. And that would be my approach I think.

Wood Elf would be totally fine, too though. The added accuracy is nice. Nature Godlike isn't particularly good in general in PoE1, but since this build has low endurance to begin with and uses Deleterious Alacrity of Motion+ Dangerous Implement (both doing self damage), you will drop below 50% endurance often anyway. Might as well use that for Wellspring of Life (+3 to MIG, CON and DEX) for extra dmg per hit and a bit faster attack/recovery and casting speeds. I don't remember if I already recommended it, but using Infuse with Vital Essence can help you to "spend" some endurance (which also drains health) and then heal up the health back up so that you don't have to rest so often (because of low health).

If you want to compare two daggers vs. two stilettos then I'd say two daggers are better. Mainly because Pukestabber + Lover's Embrace is a very good combo when it's about attack speed. Both weapons' effects apply to both weapons which makes you very fast. But Rust's Poignard (stiletto) is also very good, especially if you critically hit a lot (Bring Down is good), also because it comes in legendary quality which is very nice. With Azure Blade in the offhand you can also have a nice stiletto setup: if you fight near your party members it gains a lot of accuracy (Cloak and Dagger: +15 accuracy if near 2+ allies, but only for the Azure Blade). I would simply do a weapon set of dual daggers and one with dual stilettos. You want a backup weapon set with alternative damage anyway: should you meet enemeis who are very resitant or even immune to slash damage (daggers) you will be happe that you can switch to the pierce damage of stilettos.

Also the special thing about PoE1 and INT influencing AoE is that it has increasing returns, because INT does not actually increase the area size by 6% per point of INT but the radius(!) of the AoE. Because the area of a circle is Pi * radius², this leads to pretty nice effects once you put a lot of points into your INT. In Deadfire this was changed (because it was too good obviously) - there every point of INT does indeed increase the area by 6% per point, not the radius.

Because INT not only prolongs hostile effects on enemies and beneficial effects on you, but it also influences the size of all AoE. Pretty important for a caster in general and especially when he's also using AoE weapons (implement + Blast). If you are using Kalakoth's Minor Blights: they have an AoE (bigger with more INT) and every hit in that AoE creates a Blast (bigger with more INT). So INT is much more important than PER in this case. The impact of PER on accuracy is pretty noticable in the early game by the way - but the further you progress the less significant it becomes because the accuracy bonus from PER is just a flat one and there are so many other influences on accuracy or hit quality (stacking acc buffs, weapon quality, stacking defense debuffs etc.) that the flat bonus from PER doesn't hold as much impact as in the early game (where it's very useful).

Nope. It has to be a Priest of Berath with maxed starting Might. For Durance I'd recommend an arquebus build.

https://x.com/Obsidian/status/1974215697845923976?t=VZRa8zAPXPL4QpGyQ-ZLnQ&s=19