Boeroer

Yes, some alternative would have been nice. But you don't have to use Flames of Devotion, Sacred Immolation or Brand Enemy. You'll still have auto attacks and Lay on Hands and all the other non-fire stuff. I do like Inspired Beacon. With a SC Paladin you'll have enough Zeal at the highest levels (with the proper party) that its cost doesn't matter much and +40% dmg and blinded foes is pretty nice if you don't have to manage Zeal a lot. Combine with 20% dmg from Sworn Enemy and your dmg output isn't bad even against fire immune enemies. And at least against Vessels, Spirits and all summoned creatures the SC Paladin has an alternative. By the way: can a confused Paladin cast Exortations on himself? Edit: tested it quickly - no, the Paladin cannot.

There's no Power Level cap. Speaking of FoD... I think in my next run I want to try a SC Kind Wayfarer with a Chanter in the party (for unlimited Zeal). I could just trigger SI and then spam FoD endlessly for healing and damage - which should be really easy to setup in AI as a "hands-off" type of character. I find that I forget my fifth party members more and more often so maybe it's time for a bot. Don't know yet whether ranged or melee weapons... but dual wielding I think.

Hahaha... Don't know how to help you with that.

I actually never imported any items with a character myself. I mean for testing purposes, yes - but nor for a real playthrough.

Yes, I kinda assumed 2 as average value. All that with 0 recovery malus from armor which is often overlooked when talking about dmg output.

? Helwalker/Ascendant works well right off the shelf bc. of the +10 MIG for more damage and soon with +10 INT fpr longer Ascension. If you don't want to come too close in the beginning you can also use a ranged weapon. For example Essence Interrupter + modal. It will ascend you very quickly. But Ghost Heart/Cipher with Frostseeker is also very good. But the high(est) ACC also comes a bit later via Borrowed Instincts + Tactical Meld. By the way Helwalker/Ascendant can also be played with Frostseeker. But Instruments of Pain + melee stuff has more impact at the highest levels, it's true.

The only invisibility effects that break on DoT nowadays are Shadowing Beyond from the Priest of Skaen (not the Rogue one) and Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. Even the potion works with DoTs. I'm not 100% sure about Slippers of the Assassin but iirc that invisibility also doesn't break on DoT.

A good Shifter combo is Goldpact/Shifter imo. Bear armor (+2) + Paladin AR passives (+2) + Exalted Endurance (+1) and the "refilling" Gilded Enmity (+4 - doesn't stack with Exalted Endurance though) make him very sturdy. On top you can use Lay on Hands whenever you want. On top can come stuff like Blunting Belt etc. I would choose Bear form at the start of the fight because that's usually the part where you get attacked the most. Eternal Devotion stacks with Wildstrike and Inspired Beacon adds an additive dmg bonus that works for everything (even if it's rel. short). Eternal Devotion even works with all direct dmg/pulsing spells like Nature's Terror and Sacred Immolation. Stack Nature's Terror + Sacred Immolation (cast some proper healing spell like Moonwell or Nature's first though) and go to town. Overall damage is actually pretty good. Use Lay on Hands if you must to prevent KO by immolation. Taste of the Hunt would be superawesome for this build, but alas...

Ks ks ks, it's obviously Soul Shock, not Mind Wave. Also you guys forgot Mortar Monk™ - I mean seriously...

Actually I don't use Willbreaker on the Phantom because it can't use modals. Draining Touch on the other hand... I mean the main hand...

What I don't like about a martial Druid/Wizard (althoug it works) is the lack of any martial attack abilities besides Taste of the Hunt (which is awesome but only 2 per encounter max and doesn't even work with Shifter). Same with all combos that basically work well as a martial build but have no attack abilities. What I like most about martial Wizards in general is that you have a Phantom. I use that so much it's like an obsession. As Druid/Wizard your Phantom gets claws and armor when you summon it while shifted (doesn't work as shifter obviously). It will not look like it (both items don't actually have a model but are invisible. Your spiritshift form model is all that is needed for display. But your phantom won't have that model so its items will be non-visible) but will attack with claws/tusks etc. and have natural armor. You can check the combat log. Sadly stuff like Wildstrike or Boar DoT isn't attached to the claws/tusks themselves, so the Phantom won't have that. But for good AR the bear armor is great with 0 recovery - and for offense the cat claws are great because they have 1 sec less recovery but the same dmg as the others. Also it's kind of fun to see a naked Phantom be surprisingly sturdy and do okay damage with bare hand slaps. As a Druid/Wizard you can even get permanent claws as equippable items (looks like you use your fists since invisibe but with other animation iirc) : you go unarmed and then shift, then you cast Concelhaut's Draining Touch and then wait till combat ends. You will end up with a permanent claw or tusk or antler (or whatever your form is) in your main hand. You can use that like any other weapon. In case of Cat claws it's a good weapon, the others are okayish imo. Of course that's a glitch. But maybe somebody gets any fun ideas from this.

You can use Shifter for the collection of bonus spells and just skip shifting. There's no disadvantage - like an Animist who wouldn't shift. Shifter gets most decay spells as bonus - so if one wants to play a decay-based caster type shifter is a good pick even though you wouldn't do anything with Spiritshift (you still could though - for example once you have cast all your spells and the fight is still going on).

Cipher does have access to Monastic Unarmed Training.

"Best" - depends (as always). But I like WotEP with Offensive Parry (Vigorous Defense stacks with all of the Wizard's Deflection buff except Llengrath's Safeguard which makes parrying melee attacks rel. easy). And you can deal AoE*AoE damage with Clear Out. Citzal's Spirit Lance is also a strong contender bc. of Clear Out. I also like the Willbreaker bc. you can lower enemies' Fortitude so much for certain spells - especially with Clear Out. Oathbreaker's End and Amra are also very good. The first one with Mob Stance (chances for a chain of kills via enchantments) and the second one has a Carnage effect. If you use Clear Out you will push the enemies into their own Carnage AoE which will result in a lot more damage - combine with Riven Gore and Mob Stance. Great Swords like Voidward: also cool. Engoliero do Espirs is an awesome weapon for any damage-oriented caster. Blade Fest procs of off every kill (be it caused by weapon or spell) which can cascade into multikills. And an Estoc is also cool because as a Devoted/Wizard you can gain very good PEN/AR ratio due to high starting PEN, Devoted passive, modal and Expose Vulnerabilites (maybe combine with Blackened Plate to reduce AR even further). Against pierce-immune enemies just resort to spells or summon Draining Touch and call a Phantom. In general every weapon that gives you some kind of timed buff is great for a Battlemage bc. of Wall of Draining. That's why nothing might beat Scordeo's Edge with Blade Cascade and Wall of Draining. It's boring but that's how it is. It even benefits the casting recovery and accuracy (Adaptive).

**** 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.