Boeroer

Bloodmage/Stalker (Bear companion) was a great solo run for me. Besides the usual benefits of wizards I used the Willbreaker + modal to lower Fortitude for spells and Takedown Combo. The auto will reduction of Willbreaker worked beautifully for my Essential Phantom who used Draining Touch (which targets will instead of deflection). Saru Sichr is good against non-poison immune tough enemies. Its DoT stacks like Bleeding Cuts - but it has no PEN issues since it's not based on the weapon damage you score. The DoT ticks slowly but with enough stacks foes will melt. Beast's Claw is great in combination with Wizard spells in general. I used Gloves of Greater Reliability + Make them Flinch (enchantment on Willbreaker). I think miss to graze conversion is very, very underrated by most players. Especially because Body Blows and other on-hit effects already work with grazes. It lets you graze enemies with stellar deflection often which you otherwise would miss all the time.

Lagufaeth Mages are not "real" wizards, priests or druids. I guess they just have some copied wizard abilities but are not actually of the wizard class. The Imprint spells only work on proper wizards, druids or priests. Unfortunately it's not always easy to determine who is what. I also guess enemies like Rathûn Flamecallers won't work. Xaurip Priests do.

Depends on the difficulty. At lower difficulties Rogues are great - but the more enemies the less impactful a Rogue becomes imo. Fighter is sturdy but boring most of times in my experience, but Charge - although late game stuff - can turn a boring Fighter into fun. A Rogue variant I liked to play a lot was Godansthunyr (hammer) + Badgradr's Barricade (bashing shield). Both sturdy (enough) and good damage output as well as decent single target CC. Before getting those items you can use any other hammer (there are some good early ones - or you can simply chose another main weapon) + bashing shield (the first one is Larder Door). The thing with Badgradr's Barricade is that it procs Thrust of Tattered Veils without limit per encounter. So every crit will proc it. And since spells work with Deathblows (not Sneak Attack) it will get +100% DMG if the target has two afflictions. Godansthunyr has two DMG types and stuns on crit which is also nice. They also look great together imo. Both Fighter as well as Rogue make good spell binding users. You know: using items that hold some spells per rest. Rogue has Deathblows which works with spells and Fighter has enormous accuracy due to starting values and Disciplined Barrage. It can spice both classes up to be able to sling some spells. For Rogue I would prefer damaging ones while the Fighter is better with CC components imo. Also stuff like Prestidigitator's Missiles (for Rogue) and Aspirant's Mark (Fighter) are not bad. It's like a mini spell mastery since 1/encounter.

Sounds like Whowzapoopoop.

Thrice was She Wronged + Upgrade is a great damage tool in general and always nice to have (especially with the Least Unstable Coil because every lightning bolt counts as separate empowered spell which makes it very easy to gain all top-3 inspirations with a single empowered spell). The Thunder is special because although it causes a Might affliction (stun) it targets Reflex and not Fortitude. So it's one of the rel. rare abilities which can lower a certain defense without having to overcome that defense first. The Push effect is kind of annoying for my playstyle but there's also damage on top of the stun which his cool. The upgrade (+10 ACC) makes it a really nice CC tool then. You can stun high fort. enemies (who often have poor Reflex) like nobody else. Combine with the Helm of the White Void and it's even +20 ACC. Cool indeed... If I can afford it I will take both.

Well, Sacred Immolation is quite good... the self damage is very high but with enough healing you can survive rel. easily (esp. if not tanking at the same time). Also it can run while you are casting an invocation at the same time which is cool action economy. Can't do that with more invocations. Maybe check out "Their Champion Braved the Horde alone". It gives you "energized" which will let you interrupt all enemies you land a crit against. This includes the pulses of Sacred Immolation which might crit enemies, offensive chants that may crit the enemy with every cycle and of course also your weapon attacks. It can be very good if you combine those things and disable enemies by simply landing crits/interrupts "on the fly" as secondary effect.

One problem: Blunderbuss + Estoc means you'll only have pierce weapon damage. Unless you plan to unlock another weapon set (like with Fleshmender or Arms Bearer where you could then put a Pollaxe or Morning Star for example) I'd recommend to use another setup that allows to switch between pierce and non-pierce damage. Else you would have to unequip/equip weapons before encounters - and you'd need metaknowledge in order to predict which foes will be pierce immune/highly resistant and which not. Mortars could be an alternative to "normal" blunderbusses because they do pierce/slash. Eccea's Arcane Blaster (pistol though) could be good. Or instead of Estocs pick Pollaxe, Great Sword or Morning Star. Estocs have awesome PEN (and nice uniques) and you can circumvent their weakness with knowledge about upcoming enemies - but if you haven't that knowledge and then meet a bunch of Skeletal or even Risen dudes and can't do anything with your weapons it feels quite frustrating. Better be prepared for that. If you want to be a debuffer also look at the Invocation "Ben Fidel's Neck was Exposed". The -10 defenses that comes with the frighten affliction (which is a lot more useful than in PoE1) stacks with other debuffs. Also there's no immunity to it which can be very good against some very affliction-resistant foes.

1) Which situation? Which difficulty? I know of no situation on the low levels on normal difficulty where you get "bombarded" with enemies. 2) No one goes into combat training "in real life" except soldiers. If I embark to a tour into the Kirghiz mountains to have a little adventure I don't attend combat training before. You can play PoE in a mostly pacifistic way, you can avoid almost all fights by dialogue and/or sneaking. Also there' not much XP to be gained from killing enemies. Fulfilling quests is the most potent source of XP. So why would a Scientist Wizard from the Vaillian Republics go into combat training before travelling to the Dyrwood for exmple? Not very realistic... if realism is what's important in a fantady game in the first place... Anyway there's the tutorial map right at the beginning with some easy enemies in Cilant Lis where you get to learn some basic rules, even with tutorial popups if you didn't tun them off in the game options - so where's the problem? 3) You will get a warning as soon as enemies are planning an attack on your stronghold. Somehing like "your scouts report that a group of <xyz> is advancing..." and so on. Usually there's plenty of time to travel back to your stronghold and help with the fighting. Maybe you missed the message(s)? If you don't want attacks to happen at all you should lower your Prestige (e.g. by enlisting henchmen with the barracks for protection that have bad reputation - and not building stuff that raises Prestige) and at the same time raise your Security (enlisting henchmen with high sec. values and building stuff that raises Security). That prevents most of those attacks. Prestige attracts the good as well as the bad visitors, including attackers. Security prevents attacks. All in all it sounds as if you chose a difficulty setting that is too harsh for you (yet). You can chance that at any time in the game options - unless you chose the highest one named "Path of the Damned". PS: Why not put your criticism into a fitting thread - instead of using a random one which is about something competely different? It will not get seen much here.

Go with Herald, Lay on Hands, Ancient Memory, Mercy and Kindness and Exalteded Endurance, Lethandria's Devotion, Sasha's Singing Scimitar, Physiker's Belt, Practiced Healer.

Enlightened Agony doesn't stack with Turning Wheel. However, it can make sure you won't drop below +5 INT (when under 5 wounds). But I wouldn't use an Ability Point for that given how easily a Nalpasca gains wounds. Melee Monk with Enduring Dance would only make sense if you could make sure you wouldn't get hit much. Like if you were playing a ranged Monk - or if you were playing one with very high defenses but no tanking responsibilities or something like that. Or if you focused your build on Blade Turning. Soul Mirror makes most sense with high deflection. Imo it's pretty useful in solo runs but not that much in party runs (because in a party often it's not the Monk who attracts ranged fire in the first place). Brand Enemy is a neverending DoT ability which is cheap, very fast and most importantly an auto-hit(!). That makes it very useful in certain encounters. Sworn Rival is nice as well (especially for a Goldpact Knight who can get a refund for his +4 AR) but in parties limited Zeal isn't that big of a deal. It can be very powerful to inflict neverending burn damage to a whole bunch of enemies in a few seconds with 100% success. It can help you to ein encounters where you'd normally have a hard time hitting enemies and so on. Note that Brand Enemy is useless against Ironclads/Steelclads and other fire immune enemies and really counterproductive against certain enemies like Flame Nagas and Dorudugan (who heal from fire DMG). Against fire vulnerable enemies (hello Beast of Winter) it's great most of times. Reaching good PEN can make the difference between "meh" and "great" though. Sworn Rival is more like a no-fuzz "everyday usage" upgrade while Brand Enemy is more situational but can make a big difference in hard fights. Mortification otS: yes, overkill. I'd even say Lesser Wounds is overkill (if you use Hylea's Talons for gloves and later Sacred Immolation it's def. overkill at that point imo). Resolve you go all-in (increasing defensive returns) or nothing imo. But it can really help with Sacred Immolation's self damage. On the other hand Monk has other tools to shorten the duration of hostile effects - like Clarity of Agony - and there are some items that help. So maybe I'd still tank RES to 3 if I wasn't to max it in the first place. I value Clarity oA over Righteous Soul since the first one always works while the second is situational - but on the other hand it's wound-driven active vs. passive so I would be torn. Also because RS completey nullifies all attacks that are tagged as poison/disease. So for example stuff like Plague of Insects or even direct damage like Noxious Burst wouldn't affect you at all iirc. I guess I would like to have both?

To me: yes.

Since you wanted to build a good Rapier user in the first place I wouldn't spend many points on spells. Instead I would make a collection of useful grimoires so that I can cast most spells I want from those books and only pick a few spells that aren't covered by the grimoires - or which I want to always have access to. Then I'd put most points into passives and some fighter actives. If you wanted to stack crit chances you missed Disciplined Strikes' 25% hit to crit conversion (you took Tactical Barrage). DS would stack with Merciless Gaze and One-Handed Style (not additively but still very nice) and you can get Smart by using Infuse with Vital Essence instead (no +1 PL from Acute though). I personally would def. go with a small shield and pick weapon & shield style. The good thing about Battlemage is the ability to stack very high deflection numbers and since deflection has increasing returns you should substitute that with a shield. Also kind of stacks with the "no flanking malus" from Squid's Grasp. The +12 ACC from one handed usage and -style are nice - but later in the game not as impactful as the added deflection. And you'll have plenty of conversion from Disciplined Strikes and Merciless Gaze anyway. Good fighter abilites that I would never skip as a Battlemage are Armored Grace (with Devil of Caroc Breastplate and a pet like Abraham you'll kind of have no recovery penalty but good AR and also +2 Discipline. Also looks rad on a fencer imo), Unbending, Refreshing Defense (it stacks with most of the Wizard's deflection buffs except Llengrath's Safeguard), Superior Deflection (if going for high deflection to start with) and such. Especially with Wall of Draining having Refreshing Defense and Unbending makes you almost unkillable (except one-shots) which is very powerful.

What -10ACC malus from Berserker? I guess you meant Devoted?

The unique Rapier Squid's Grasp has a nice enchantment that prevents getting flanked. Combined with Vigorous Defense and Wizard's buffs you can become very tanky. Becoming very tanky allows you to get threatened by multiple enemies without folding over which makes the other enchantment of Squid's Grasp accessible a lot more often: the 20% speed bonus (which stacks with stuff like Deleterious Alacrity etc.). Combined with Armored Grace and a pet like Abraham you can achieve good Rapier dps while being very sturdy. But you'll need some alternative weapon (or use spells) against pierce resistant/immune foes. So Battlemage would be my way to go - with Squid's Grasp at least. If you are aiming for Rännig's Wrath it depends on the enchantments. For a Spellblade I would prefer the flanking DMG bonus + the PEN bonus on crit while for a Battlemage I would pick the 10% chance to skip recovery after getting missed (which works well with the small shield modal by the way). For late(ish) game the Battlemage has better synergy since stuff like Vigorous Defense and Unbending can be prologed with Wall of Draining which will make you unkillable for a long time.

Maybe. I would be more confident if I knew who's working with (or "for") him. Like for example Nick Carver (who designed most of the later additional subclasses of Deadfire such as Forbidden Fist, Furyshaper, Ancient etc.).

Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst work well enough to speed the shooting up though. Bloody Slaughter, Blooded etc. also work well enough. And for a ranged character the self damage might be more manageable. If the preferred war bow is Frostseeker I would pick a Helwalker instead of a Berserker though: Thunderous Blows will give you Tenacious/+2 PEN as well, dmg bonus from higher Might, you'll get a bigger AoE from Turning Wheel, higher Accuracy from Enduring Dance and also a good speedup (Lightning Strikes).

Avenging Storm as well iirc. It's a mess.

There are several effects that work in your favor and are not "borrowed" but still won't get listed on your character sheet/character tooltip - like Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage for example. Those can't be prolonged afaik (I mean with SoT/WoD/SoF etc. - of course PL and INT have an effect when casting the spell).

They start as mid game challenges (you can also do some at quite low levels with some decent tactics) and slowly become more difficult. With the expansions there are other places to get bounties which are really difficult. If you manage to do the early ones at low levels it's quite a boost in XP and item quality.

No, not really. But I would say that the Warden's Lodge is most desirable because the bounties he gives lead to lots of XP and also cool items.

Unfortunately Brilliant Radiance is pretty bad.

Dunnage was designed with some more character levels in mind. Usually you'd go to Neketaka, grab some small quests which lead you into the rough direction of Fort Deadlight anyway and when you'd arrive in Dunnage afterwards it wouldn't be so hard. But since it's an open world game... But as long as you don't give Harker the coin you will be safe in Dunnage. The design decision to place that hard encounter there is a bit unlucky because there's no hint before that encounters in Dunnage may be above your level. No introductory fight that shows you the kind of difficulty you have to expect and which would be solvable peacefully once you realize this island's too hard for you (for now). Just throwing you into an ambush you can't talk yourself out of is not great. But situations like this are very uncommon in the rest of the game - if that's any consolation. Also keep on mind that the game was not designed for solo play but for a whole party. Usually you need a fair bit of meta-knowledge to solo this game. It's unlikely but... if you have a potion of invisibility (and maybe bounding boots from Benweth's study or boots of speed) you can skip this fight if you retreat to the top right corner of the map into that alley while you are invisible. When I did the encounter last time solo with an Assassin the enemies wouldn't follow there and the encounter stopped at some point. Don't know if it's reliable. PS: don't try to do the Torkar bounty in Dunnage that early. It's brutal, too.

Potions usually don't last until resting though. Luminous Adra Potion does - so maybe the naming was just causing confusion.

I guess he went to Fort Deadlight and then to Dunnage to report his success with Benweth. The encounter with "Eamund(?) the Fox" that takes place after you free the female wizard from Harker (so she can take part in the silly play at Lifter's Refuge) is very hard if you are of low level and it can't be avoided.

Yes, in PoE1 item bonuses don't stack at all - unless one item is a weapon or shield (then it stacks with everything). That's the reason why a shield with Preservation (+50 to all defenses when prone or stunned) stacks with an armor with the same enchantment. But the armor won't stack with a similarly enchanted helmet. Same with retaliation enchantments: they will only stack if one is a weapon/shield (Aura's Supper Plate) and then the other is something else (Hiro's Mantle). And so on. If you want to stack the same attribute bonuses from more than one item you need a weapon with that bonus (e.g. Abydon's Hammer, +4 MIG) and whatever other item with bonus MIG (for example Meagfolc Skull, +4 MIG, together +8 MIG).