Boeroer

Do you mean solo or with a party? With a party you can do almost anything and it's fine, for example going full glascannon. Solo you'd need to pay special attention to defenses. I would suggest to roughly imagine what kind of cipher you would like to play (e.g. ranged or melee, favoring mind control or other crowd control or mainly dealing damage with your spells etc. Then it's easier to recommend a general build direction. There is no universal "best" way for a class in PoE unless you know the role the class should fit into. Skills: depends as well. For example the accuracy bonus from survival can be very good. But if nobody else in the party has mechanics that would also be a very important skill.

Deflection modal of quarterstaff doesn't stack with the Wizard's deflection buffs, does it?

Wall of Draining changes the comparison considerably since it works with all benefical effects (that are attached to your character, not the enemy), including effects from consumables and items. Check out Stuff like Cape of Magnificient Escape. Its Escape-like ability gives you a very short +50 deflection buff, but with WoD it can get prolonged a LOT and since it's from an item it stacks with spells like Mirrored Images and Arcane Veil etc. (it doesn't stack with Escape itself - I guess because it's considered to be the same thing). Same with Mask of the Weyc's Arcane-Veil-like ability and so on. I personally don't use it too much because it feels a bit like god mode and takes away fun for me personally. But no doubt: it's a gamechanger. Of course - as was already said iirc - an Ascendant would profit a lot more from WoD than a Beguiler does.

"It's complicated"

After the first levels a Wizard can tank quite well (once he has sufficient spell uses at his disposal). At higher levels it's a good use of low-level spells (many defensive self buffs are low-level spells that can even be mastered) because damaging low level spells like Fireball etc. lose effectiveness against higher level enemies anyway.

Yes, from a systemic point of view all is clear. I meant I see no ingame "justification" for RES influencing Deflection and you have to be a bit creative to find an ingame explanation that somehow explains why a character with high resolve can block blows better. But it's accepted and therefore my point was that letting CON influence Deflection could also be explained somehow.

Six Chanters can do most encounters without even clicking on an enemy, just standing there. It's the highest power/micromanagement ratio I can imagine for PoE. Here's a youtube series from @Raven Darkholme with 6 Chanters:

Can't be changed, hm... But would it be possible to create a passive that "piggybacks" onto every character and adds a "healing received" modifier based on CON? Or a "damage reduction" modifier based on CON? You know, just the general idea of attaching something "dynamic" like that on everybody.

Agree

Afaik the healing one gets from converted damage (Rekvu's Scorched Cloak, Flame Nagas, Dorudugan etc.) neither benefits from MIG, healing received nor healing done bonuses. It's just the described % of damage that gets through and nothing further influences it. I think because the approach is balanced in itself there's no need to touch the base healing values. If you'd lower them that would be an even bigger motivation to raise CON - because for low-CON chars the healing would be even more ineffective. What could be tweaked is the actual percentage value per point of CON. Maybe 5% is too much, maybe it's about right... no idea. 'Twas just a number that I used because it sounded okay. But I figured since CON also raises/lowers the health pool by 5% it would only be fair that the healing scales by 5% steps as well (see @thelee's latest point).

When going solo damage output shouldn't be your primary concern - rather staying alive. Which means avoiding damage - and if you get damaged to be able to heal it. Steel Garrote imo has the best tools for that because of the good defensive passives, the strong self heal of Lay on Hands, substituted with the life drain when hitting afflicted enemies and the great armor passives. Beguiler has lots of tools for crowd control and disabling/debuffing which also avoids incoming damage. Replenishable resources are important, too. Luckily the Beguiler has two ways of getting focus: damaging enemies with weapons and - much more potent - casting Deception spells onto enemies. Paladin's Zeal is limited but you can get some back via killing foes and you don't need that much Zeal anyway (it's mostly the passives and the healing that make the Paladin a good choice). I personally would stick to a medium shield I guess because the modal is pretty good but doesn't slow down your casting (only weapon attacks). Why would Soulblade/Bloodmage be a really bad combination? I mean I don't see very convincing synergies for soloing and it lacks reliable healing - but I wouldn't say really bad. Borrowed Instincts stacks with the Wizard's deflection buffs which is cool, Spirit Lance is good for focus gain and works well with Soul Annihilation... And later Wall of Draining is just great for all self buffs you can imagine (including the max focus buff the Soul Blade gets after each kill).

Ah, you didn't say. It sounded like a party setup to me. Illusionist is cool for some spells but so limiting in a solo run imo. For example no Phantom (which can be very useful in solo runs). You said you don't care about that too much - but at the same time the benefits of the Illusionist subclass aren't outweighing the drawbacks imo. At least for a solo run. About Streefighter: I'm regularly playing Edér as Fighter/Rogue tank and it works well with a large shield + modal. The cool thing about any solo Spellblade is that you can use the large shield Cadhu Scalth + modal in combiation with Adept Evasion and high Reflex to just shower yourself and the enemies with AoE friendly-fire AoE spells that target Reflex. All grazes will get turned into misses and the rare hits will get softened a lot by the modal + shield passive. I can cast almost everything I have on an enemy group with my spellblade tank in the center - and he will hardly get scratched. You don't need a Trickster for that so I'd say Streetfighter is good enough, too. But I personally would pair it with a Bloodmage (although that's everybody's choice for solo and thus that might be a bit lame) - also because Blood Sacrifice can be a tool to actively bring you down do flanked + bloodied and profit from the On the Edge passive - even if you don't get hit at all. If you tank around you also wouldn't need Powder Burns to get flanked. You'll just get flanked the "natural way". But I guess Illusionist also works.

Speaking of Ranger + AoE: Am playing an Arcane Archer/Troubadour as hireling atm and I love her. Plenty of AoE - and the synergy between Sure-Handed Ila (which applies both its recovery and reload bonuses to reloading weapons) and weapons such as Spearcaster (+modal = great) or the Red Hand is great. But then... anybody tried Imbue:Web + Imbue:Eora with high INT, Driving Flight and Waterhaper's Focus and combined it with being energized (Their Champion)? If you shoot from stealth you'll apply 6 pulsing AoEs (3 webs + 3 pulls) with insane accuracy in a heartbeat. And all pulses will interrupt enemies if they crit. At the same time they can't move and get pulled together. It's just not fair. Also, with high Arcana very useful against hard to hit enemies because Imbue Shots get Arcana as accuracy bonus - and Spearcaster does that, too. I just leave the modal on . With SH Ila I'm still fast enough to prone-lock those enemies.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant.

For solo I'd suggest Tactician and Steel Garrote from your list. Steel Garrote would be my preference. The rest is cool in a party but not as reliable in a solo run (if you don't like to use Smoke Veil) imo.

They give a lot of XP if you are of low level. At higher levels that's not that much anymore. I mean the amount stays the same, but relative to the amount of XP you need to advance through higher levels it's not that much anymore. If you reach lvl 11 you can still upscale WM. The game will recognize that you're too high of level and will suggest upscaling then.

For the first time I think lvl 10 is good for non-scaled WM. The first fight can be tough because it's very long and stretched over the whole map. After that it gets easier but then the difficulty surges again at some point (in a certain map with certain annoying enemies who use paralyzing blow darts... ;).

White March is designed to be tackled from lvl 8 on. It can be started earlier but the initial fight is too difficult for most partys < lvl 8. So it is def. easier than doing upscaled Act 3 and I would totally recommend going there (I mean WM) first. Just don't try to do Crägholt Bluffs "on the fly" while traveling to the WM. CBluffs is very high level content and will mop the floor with lvl-8 parties.

The bestest weapon! By the way, speaking of Willbreaker: in earlier runs I never enchanted it with "Make them Flinch" (25% miss to graze conversion) because I thought the alternative has more impact. But I came to realize that when it really matters (meaning taking on the tough nuts and not "winning more" against the trash mobs) it's a great enchantment. Especially if you combine it with Gloves of Greater Reliablity (also 25% iirc). Grazes are sooo much better than Misses. Even if the enemies' deflection (or fortitude, what is lower - hello Brute Force) is so high you would only miss otherwise you will graze quite often and apply effects that will make it more easy to hit properly.

I just used the console to give a Stormspeaker/Watershaper (Tekehu) the Fury subclass - inkluding the Fury's +1 PEN passive: unfortunately the "elements" keyword were stripped form those invocations and thus the +1 PEN of the Fury does not apply. Still a nice concept thematically though.

Yes, Knockdown and Bonus Knockdown are better with a dual wielding (or bashing shield) setup. Unfortunately the additional Knockdown ability from the belt Girdle of the Driving Wave is a Primary Attack only.

Wow... I have an SSD and I'd say the absolute max I have to wait are 10 secs. I'd even be bold and say 5 seconds but I want to have some wiggle room. By the way: I found it helps to sell stash items that you won't use regularly. A full stash means a lot more game objects have to get loaded into the scene (I guess).

Nobody's graphics card is. That's the power of Unity3D.

Iirc Berserker/Devoted with Morning Star was my first character in Deadfire (didn't finish). It was a coincidence - I knew nothing about Body Blows + Spirit Frenzy being cool with Brute Force etc. because I dove in blindly. Back then Cleaving Stance/Mob Stance was absolutely overpowered because it did a Full Attack on all enemies in melee range - and that was pretty hilarious in combination with Blood Thirst. Also iirc Disciplined Strikes/Intuitive had 50% crit conversion at release. With a Morning Star+Brute Force I also would pick Spirit Frenzy over Blood Frenzy any day. The added -10 fortitude is great then. Also you'll remove Might inspirations on enemies on the fly. I have a few questions: Why did you pick Spirit Tornado and not Blood Thirst? Because of the Terrify effect helping you survive? Without Community Patch Spirit Tornado will not apply the stagger effect to all attack rolls anymore (afaik Spirit Frenzy staggers with all attack rolls, even Carnage, AoE spells and Shouts, Spirit Tornado only with direct weapon hits). At the same time Blood Thirst works very well with Cleaving/Mob Stance...? If sturdyness was an issue - why no Savage/Stalwart Defiance? Did you consider Leap instead of Lion's Sprint? You could reach any spot with Leap (even land between enemies where you normally can't run because path is blocked) and you can even cancel it mid-air if your character circle appears at the target location: it will cost no Rage then and you won't daze anyone at arrival, but you will still land where you aimed and have no recovery. Imo its better than Lion's Sprint - but it doesn't give an inspiration of course.

Hm... maybe subclasses which would "borrow" Druid spells could also profit from the Fury's passive. For example: in theory some of Tekehu's special Stormspeaker spells could profit if he were a Fury instead of a Watershaper. From the top of my head I don't know any non-druid subclass besides Stormspeaker that uses one or more "elements" spells though. But maybe cool for a modded main character. I think Stormspeaker + Fury makes a lot of sense thematically. But that's not a sorcerer then of course.