Boeroer

**** hits the fan when Marux Amanth rolls a miss then. Happened to me recently.

True, Waterhshaper's Focus is only awesome against groups. It's Ondra's Wrath that makes it especially good - and you need enough hit rolls for that to proc often. Rod of the Deep Hunter would be way cooler if the debuff on hit wouldn't be capped at 5 stacks. Yes, there's only Fire in the Hole and Watershaper's Focus with build-in bounce. Aloth's Keybreaker Scepter had it at release but it was nerfed (why?). Fury's shifted attacks have build-in bounce but don't stack with Driving Flight (as you know). Caedebald's Blackbow has a ridiculously long (12m) and "in all directions" bounce - but it's SC Wizard only so no Driving Flight either. I'm a bit mad that it's not PL7 - seriously. What a great weapon for a Geomancer that would have been. Kitchen Stove can have 2 build-in bounces with Wild Shot - but since it's per rest not many players use that I guess.

Damage over Time effects usually prevent combat from stopping. Using Gouging Strike, Brand Enemy and/or Lover's Embrace from stealth are ways to kill any enemy as long as you can employ invisibility that doesn't break on DoT-ticks (most invisibility abilities work except Skaen's version of Shadowing Beyond and Arkemyr's Brilliat Departure iirc - use potion of invisibility when in doubt) and hide - or if the target is stationary/can't follow for other reasons just run away (like the Giant Cave Grub). Only things that can prevent you from killing the big ones this way is not being able to even graze (e.g. Gouging Strike or Lover's Embrace vs. Belranga, Brand Enemy is an Auto-hit) and if the enemy has unlimited uses of a healing ability (e.g. some Ogres like Torkar have unlimited Robust-inducing potions) - and Huani o Whe because the two splitted oozes who will be there after his initial death will just merge back again at some point - and you can't prevent that from happening with the above DoTs alone. It works if you are a Cipher though with Disintegrate (will dissolve Huani without splitting it up as long as Huani dies while Disintegrate is working on him) - but it's very hard to hit him because his fortitude is enormous. Better to kill him with DoTs first and then Disintegrate his "kids". Another thing is if there's no place to hide (Water Dragon fight - if you want to fight him in the first place). But in general you can kill everything with endless DoTs, yes. You just need a place to hide and patience.

Aha! That might be the reason why I never saw this happen with so many hours of playtime: I always turn off the (imo silly) gib option. It's mechanically disadvanteous anyway (see Druid's Garden of Life, Chanter's White Worms, Death's Maw helmet, Corpse Eater's Flesh Communion, Xoti's Sickle).

Yes, lots of fun. Also fun: Barb/Ranger, Barb/Helwalker or Barb/Rogue or even SC Barb with Watershaper's Focus. Once there is Blood Thirst to circumvent the recovery completely the fun starts. Heart of Fury with Watershaper's Focus and then it's just *blam* *blam* *blam* The only thing I don't like about rods is the low PEN.

Try SC Monk with Watershaper's Focus (best rod imo) and Whispers of the Wind. Keeper of the Flame (watch out: self damage by fire) + Fire in the Hole imo. Dual AoE*AoE - and Fire in the Hole jumps 2 times (including AoE). Fire in the Hole + St. Drogga's Skull is also nice. Scordeo's Edge + Current's Rush if it's a lot of enemies. If Current's Rush goes into a crit chain all enemies can die from one single(!) shot.

Yes, it's a known bug. Sometimes items can lose all their properties. It never happend to me in over 4K hours - but I read enough reports about it. If you use the console you won't gain any more Berath Blessing points. Here's how it works (the item will be placed in your stash) : <open console> iroll20 <enter> <open console> giveitem Head_U_Helm_Heavens_Cacophony <enter> If you do not want to mark your savegame as cheated you can load up another uncheated savegame (preferably one where you already have the helmet - or go buy it quickly) and export a "naked" char with only the helmet on. Then, in your actual savegame, go to an inn and import that exported character with items (may be a bit expensive). That's how you can get the helmet again without "official" cheating.

Ascendant/Helwalker is indeed a very good combo. Berserker/Ascendant: also very good but comes together a bit later than Helwalker imo. Especially Frenzy+Bloodlust+Blood Thirst with Ascendant (focusing on shortish casting but long recovery dmg spells - such as Antipathetic Field, Mind Blades and Mind Lance). Same with Ascendant/Streetfighter with blunderbusses/mortars. Ascendant/Bloodmage is also pretty great bc. of Wall of Draining (endless ascension). For Ascendant it's all about squeezing a lot of spells into the ascended time. I also like Furyshaper/Beguiler. The Fear Ward and the rest of the will-targeting deception spells go well together. MC Cipher has no terrify effect For a Mystic I would go with Ascendant (bc. Salvation of Time) or Psion (no need to rely on weapon dmg). Ranger/Cipher = highest "sustainable" accuracy in the game afaik. Very good with Frostseeker because it will crit so much. Iirc the freeze AoE on crit also generates focus. Another good combo is Soulblade/Beckoner with Grave Calling (+ Chilling Grave). Killing your skeletons won't give you focus - the resulting Chillfog however will generate focus for you and will paralyze (freeze-paralyze = tier 4 affliction) all non-DEX-affliction immune(! not resistant) enemies. The rest of the skeletons will distract enemies. If you need more chillfogs just kill another one. Single class Ascendant also cool because of Shared Nightmare. Ascended cipher's focus is treated as max filled, so while being ascended Shared Nightmar will give you the maximum AoE size. Also Shared Nightmare is cool with AoE weapons (mortars, rods, WotEP, Kepper of the Flame and so on). Casting while ascended can be superfast due to Time Siphon (cast into a group of enemies to gain lots of stacks).

Firebrand does NOT get the bonus PEN from Fury. The Firebrand summoning spell itself is tagged with "Elements" - so it would get a PEN and range bonus if it had any damaging or ranged part (which of course it has not). The actual Firebrand weapon is not affected. I guess it has no "Elements" tag but only the "Fire" tag - since it works with the Ring of Focused Flames and doesn't damage fire-immune foes. I don't know if it would get the PEN bonus from Fury if one attached the "Elements" keyword to it. Might be worth a try for a mod (cause it makes sense imo). I wonder it that also would increase the weapon's reach by 20% via passive though... : But as for now it does not profit from the Fury passive. So if you want to mainly use the Druid part for summoning Firebrand then Fury isn't worth it imo. It still is good for complementing your melee dmg with stuff like Nature's Terror and Relentless Storm and such though. It does get bonus PEN from Scion of Flame.

A bit. But Firebrand has a fixed lash and longer duration. The spiritual weapons of priests have a scaling lash (it scales with your divine dispositions) that can be higher than Firebrand's - and the summoning duration is shorter. Woedica's spiritual fists or claws are a bit special because they have a raw dmg lash instead of an elemental one. High lashes up to 30% are rare even among unique weapons. For damage dealing that is a very good property.

Maybe, depends on the party. I played a Soulblade/Shattered Pillar (with Community Patch tough to raise the max wound counter back to 10) and I really liked that you will both get wounds and focus with auto-attacks. But I used Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry (and high deflection - as well as Nomad's Brigandine for the guaranteed misses on Disengagement Attacks against me). Hits from Offensive Parry both generate wounds/focus as well as trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming procs. I could spam Soul Annihilation a lot because enemy misses against me (in melee) would give me focus and wounds. But I guess the combo could also be fun with Rapiers or whatever. I also guess that Forbidden Fist/Soulblade could be good (only with Community Patch again because else Forbidden Fist attacks won't generate focus). The Seeker's Fang DoT would not only be prolonged by +10 INT/+50% (at max wounds) but also by Enfeelbled (+50%) - also no healing for enemies then. Generally speaking a great weapon for Soulblade is Sun & Moon (dual heads = two chances to hit with SA and if both hit the second one already generates focus again). And it's also the best weapon choice for a Monk with Swift Flurry (way easier to proc crit-chains). So the Monk/Soulblade combo kind of yearns for that weapon - at least as backup weapon... or maybe on the main hand while Seeker's Fang goes into the offhand (because Swift Fkurry procs from the offhand get executed with the main hand weapon and SA also gets executed with the main hand weapon. Also Stunning Surge is great with Sun & Moon and another accurate offhand weapon. Weapon Set 1: Seeker's Fang + Tuotilo's Palm / WS2: Sun & Moon + Tuotilo's Palm That would be my pick with a Forbidden Fist I think (only with Community Patch). I would go with Sun & Moon + Seeker's Fang dual wielding setup on a Shattered Pillar (only with Community Patch). Nalpasca is always an option imo. Unless you get hit by Arcane Dampener the added wound generation is very nice. With Helwalker I might try to use a reach weapon first and later use Instruments of Pain with Seeker's Fang in order to not get hit too much in melee. I think Soul Storm from Chromoprismatic Staff generates focus if I'm not mistaken. And Swift Flurry could lead to 5 consecutive crits (which trigger Soul Storm) quite quickly...? A fantastic ranged opener for gaining massive amounts of focus is Kitchen Stove with Thunderous Report by the way. A Stunning Surge with Mortars into a group of enemies is also a fantastic opener imo. Same is a shot from Watershaper's Focus + Blast from stealth (longer range than mortars or blunderbusses - although the cone of Thunderous Report can get ridiculously big/long with some bonus INT).

Soul Blade will increase his max focus on kill though. With Seeker's Fang in mind I think I would go Monk/Soulblade.

Heh, besides Wizards there aren't that many summoned weapons. Priest of Woedica has nice summoned claws with a raw lash. But you'll have to roleplay according to Woedica's dispositions to make the lash strong (as is the case with all "Spiritual Weapons" of Priests). I can imagine a "Wolverine" like build in combination with a Berserker maybe? Or a Streetfighter? Using Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time to stay flanked and bloodied etc. I haven't checked if Wael's Spiritual Rod also applies its lash to the blast (should be). That could be nice with Berserker's Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter + Blood Thirst (circumventing the long recovery of Blast). Still mad that Priest of Eothas gets flails and not a Morning Star. Rot Skulls is not bad either. Should be cool with a Ranger because of Driving Flight and the accuracy. Firebrand can be used with Ring of Focused Flames. It profits from the +10 Accuracy at all times. I did a Bleak Walker/Druid once (don't remember the subclass) with Scion of Flame and Spirit of Decay for +2 PEN (and +20 ACC) on Flames of Devotion. You could use Firebrand with the Great Sword modal then and still hit reliably or without the modal to hit high defenses enemies. Reaping Knives are cool. But they are a bit special because you can't give them to yourself and you have to be a SC Cipher. I tried an SC Psion who would cast Reaping Knives onto several party members from stealth before going into battle and the focus flow was pretty incredible then. Combined with Time Siphon I could spam CC spells non-stop. Would also work with other cipher subclasses of course. Imagine a Soulblade who gets fueled up by several Reaping Knives and constantly dumps his focus into Soul Annihilation. Unfortunately no summoned weapon for him then. But one can also build the other party members around Reaping Knives use then (e.g. make them all speedy dual wielders or something). Reaping Knives always transfers +5 focus per hit. The damage is not important. But they do raw damage which is awesome for damage dealing, too.

What do you mean? You cannot obtain Hardy and Tenacious with a Nature Godlike. Berserker gets Hardy + Tenacious while other Barbs get Fit + Strong. Wellspring of Life (from Nature Godlike) does not change that. You can become Energized (which is one tier better than Tenacious) with "The Champion Braved the Horde Alone" invocation later. Or you equip Slayer's Claw (Battle Axe) before casting Frenzy. It upgrades all Might inspirations by one tier when they get applied. But that's a late game item. Berserker is tricky at first because your chants will affect enemies and friendly alike once you are confused (meaning once you use Frenzy). You want to get rid of confusion as soon as possible (e.g. with a Priest who casts Prayer for the Spirit, Svef, Luminous Lobster, Devil of Caroc Breastplate etc.). Besides that Berserker/Skald is a great combo for more crits = more phrases. Furyshaper leans more into the debuffing/CC aspect. The Fear Ward is really strong when used right. But you need some levels until you get it. Berserker's bonuses will be there right from the start. I'd use the following abilities with such a character: Spirit Frenzy (don't upgrade to Spirit Tornado*), The Long Night's Drink, Ben Fidel's Neck, Brute Force, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst, Bloody Slaughter, Her Revenge, Weapon Proficiency Morning Star (Body Blows). I would use Barbaric Smash a certain finisher because it would cost no Rage then and the chance for a crit will be higher (= higher chance for a phrase). I would wield the Willbreaker Morning Star, wear the Devil of Caroc's Breastplate and the Helm of the Falcon. Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (combined with Willbreaker's "Make them Flinch" enchantment and Miss-to-Graze food most of times), Ring of Prosperity once you have lots of gold. Don't forget to pick an "expensive" invocation at some point. Your max phrase pool/counter is determined by your most expensive invocation. If you only pick invocation that cost 2 phrases your max phrase counter will be 2. If you pick a non-offensive invocation that would normally cost 4 (5 for Skalds) your max phrase counter will be 5. It can make sense to pick one very expensive invocation because of that even if you don't plan to use it much (although stuff like Animated Weapons is always great to have). * Spirit Frenzy staggers with every hit, including offensive phrases like The Long Night's Drink or stuff like Barbaric Shout, Her Revenge, even Carnage etc. Once you upgrade to Spirit Tornado it will lose that property and only stagger with weapon attacks. So keep Spirit Frenzy. Then there's an extremely potent Howler we haven't talked about yet: Berserker/Beckoner with Grave Calling (sabre). Killing your own skeletons for many, many Chillfog procs, paralyzing and killing enemies "on the fly". This is a different beast though and it can really crash your game because of too many visual effects. I have not found an easy way to let the game run smoothly with this. Maybe a mod that takes away the VFX from Chilling Grave could do this.

I just took Great Swords to get the highest melee dmg numbers per hit. Any melee weapon setup might work well. Great Sword is not a bad pick for Devoted though because it has two damage types and good uniques and the +2 PEN helps with the Great Sword's rather lousy base PEN. Morning Star and Pollaxe would be good, too. I personally love Morning Stars - especially with Mule Kick and Clear Out. Both target Fortitude and the Morning Star lowers that defense considerably. But a dual weapon setup might also be nice. Didn't try though.

You could tag some devs with the help of the "@". Then they'll get notified and may see your post. This is a community forum mostly. Devs don't read every post.

I also thought Xoti's Monk subclass is meh in the past - but if you really lean into it and use a good melee build who does the bulk of your party's killing and combine it with Rooting Pain it becomes pretty good. Also Xoti's Lantern (+1 Wound, +1 Mortification per any kill) makes Inner Death worthwhile imo. What I would improve is to give her wounds with any kill (as the Landern does), not only melee weapon kills. Then it would be a great subclass.

Such abilites are especially useful when you use a reloading weapon - you don't need to wait for reloading to finish in order to move away. You just cancel the reload and go. With other weapons you'd have to wait for recovery to end and than can already be too late. With those weapons I prefer immunity to engagement (or immunity to disengagement attacks) and Boots of Speed because you can always walk away at any time.

I wrote in some other thread that you can also build a damage-oriented Crusader who does good damage (iirc I did some 170+ dmg hits with a Devoted/Bleak Walker with great sword bc. of the combination of lashes and Inspired Beacon - not to mention Sacred Immolation) and is still very sturdy (not main tank level of sturdy but very sturdy for a damage dealer). That's not boring at all imo. Sure, if you put everything into defenses it becomes a very passive character - but still very useful imo.

Yeah, good point. Maybe next time combine with Blightheart (+Sure Handed Ila +Mith Fyr)? Single target damage will be good then (-20% reloading speed twice and a lash) and you'll get +1 phrases for any kill (weapon or spell). Sure, the Skald's "phrase-on-50%crit" passive won't trigger, but I think it doesn't need to. Tried this weapon setup with a Berserker/Skald and it's fun. Brilliant + phrase on kill might be really nice for spamming stuff like Her Revenge...?

Bit unusual, but why not. Mirrored Images/Displaced Image could counter Frenzy's -10 deflection. You'd still need some external healing source bc of Frenzy - at least until you get Savage Defiance. Or use potions.

Bellower can do that on their own. The additional Power Level from Brilliant is negligible and the phrase generation from Brilliant isn't that good - at least that's what I "theorize". Imo Brilliant isn't very attractive for Chanters because they regain resources anyway. I think the best synergy with Tacticians are classes that normally wouldn't regain resources. But on the other hand I never tried a Tactician/Bellower, so maybe my thinking is wrong and it is good synergy. Maybe the Tactician can not only deliver phrases and Power Level but also fill the gap between invocations with useful actions from his refilling Discipline (like Clear Out or something). Whispers of the Endless Paths with Mule Kick could be a good tool, too. It causes flanked and interrupts which might regain you Discipline and also might trigger Brilliant. And it's cone-shaped like your invocations, to targeting is the same with both classes' actions sort of. But what first comes to (my) mind when thinking about a powerful Bellower combo is Helwalker/Bellower. High MIG for more invocation damage, high Accuracy from Enduring Dance, high INT for better linger time, bigger AoEs and longer durations. And refilling Wounds. For Tactician imo the best multiclass partner is Wizard. Can flank a lot of enemies on its own from level 1 on (Chillfog) and the regaining spell uses are very valuable.

I guess it depends how you like to play. Some players like slow encounters and some like it fast. Crusader tanks cater to the first group.

Rangers also have an Escape-like ability named Evasive Roll. It comes a bit later though. It not only lets you move over the battlefield but also makes you quick (+5 DEX) which directly translates to attack and reloading speed. So a Ranger/Chanter can shoot even faster (not only because of Evasive Roll's DEX bonus but also due to the "Gunner" passive Rangers can access) and the accuracy will be higher, but the dmg per shot will be lower than Rogue's. With Driving Flight you can hit two enemies instead of just one with one shot. Actually I'm playing a Ranger/Chanter right now (Arcane Archer/Troubadour).