Boeroer

If you pick a Wizard (with the Phantom) you can also equip it with Effort (Great Sword) which has an enchantment that does an AoE weapon attack on Knockout. Since the weapon also has a 15% raw DoT this is quite nice. Besides the Mantle of the Seven Bolts there's also armor (Effigy's Husk for example) that causes dmg on knockout. And a few other items iirc. You can build a nice "bomb voyage" Phantom that way. Monk summons have the drawback (in this case) that they don't get your weapons - so no Effort. But but there are two of them so I guess that evens out.

Yes, with a different weapon setup it will be no problem I think. A simple non-unique battle axe would have been enough. But I wanted to do the Bronlar's Phalanx + Gladiator's Sword setup because of the looks and throw different enemies at it. It's not bad at all (one use of Gilded Enmity lasted for over 15 minutes because I got barely hit - and when I was hit it was 2 dmg or something, haha) - it's just not good enough offensively when soloing healing enemies.

Ouf... it becomes really tedious with this one once you face enemies who can heal each other without limit (e.g. Rathun Fanatics). Battle Unending indeed. 😄

I did some testing with the console and such a MuT-Tuotilo's Palm Unbroken/Goldpact (max RES, Ring of Solitary Wanderer, Patinated Plate, Blunting Belt, Dragon Pendant and so on) and it's rel. easy to stay at 20+ AR for most of the fight (in this case Sworn Enemy and not Brand Enemy). The dmg output isn't too bad actually. I opted for Guarding Stance bc. of the damage reduction (stacks with the one from underpenetration) and added the Death's Maw as helmet to stack even more dmg reduction eventually. I did not use Pale Elf but I guess that could be nice to complement the AR coverage without having to juggle items around too much. Everything I threw at him was no problem. DMG output wasn't that bad actually. Two Weapon Style + Armored Grace + Abraham made Patinated Plate bearable. Against foes with mostly crush dmg I would switch to Nomad's Brigandine or Magnera's Chain + Ngati's Girdle or something I guess. Leap does not end Stoic Steel. I think none of those mobility abilities does. Everthing that lets you move with The Wall will also not end Stoic Steel (I didn't use the Wall in this case of course). Speaking of The Wall: I would like to try a verision with Bronlar's Phalanx and the Gladiator's Sword. I will be a lot slower offensively and better defensively - but maybe I can then get away with an optically more fitting, lighter armor. I like the vibe of those items a lot.

Maybe Brand Enemy instead of Sworn Rival would be good to give an additional offensive tool.

Yes, the self damage of Berserker Frenzy and Deleterius Alacrity cannot be shortened by RES since hostile and benefical effect are not separated it seems. Looks like one effect that has pros and cons. Iirc you also don't get a dedicated "hostile effect" entry in your list of active effects. With Sacred Immolation you do - and you can shorten it with RES without shortening your "benefical" burn dmg output. I never noticed though that Sacred Sacrifice is different (I honestly never took it). Good to know.

Yes, Torment's Reach - it has to be said - is too good.

I'm actually too lazy to create an account anyway. 😄

I guess I will create a reddit account and downvote you because it's totally possible to apply Body Blows in an AoE: with Whispers of the Wind, Whirling Strikes, Clear Out, Clean Sweep, Clear the Path and Heart of Fury.

Just checked in game to be sure: doesn't work - as expected. Not with Gouging Strike anyway and of course not with Body Blows. I guess he used some weapon with Gouging Strike that could have applied it in an AoE. Maybe Amra's Wanton/Riven Gore does this. Checked: nope. And Body Blows just seems to have been speculation. Or... I didn' check Accurate Carnage... wait a sec... Checked: nope. Maybe a mod?

Maybe he used WotEP...?

Unlike PoE1 Carnage in Deadfire did never apply any on-hit effects. If that's different now it must be a recent change or it's just some rare exception with Gouging Strike (or Rogue Strokes in general?).

I'd say Casita Samelia's Legacy with maxed Intimidation.

It's rel. esy to perma-CC dragons if you have a Priest, a Paladin (preferably Darcozzi) with a marking weapon (or even two, dual wielded) and Coordinated Attacks and a Cipher in the party. Priest casts Prayer against fear and Devotions of course and Champion's Boon on the Cipher (can also add Inspiring Radiance), Paladin casts Inspiring Liberation on Cipher and attacks the dragon with one (or dual wielded) marking weapons. The Cipher has to be nearest to the Paladin and cast Tactical Meld on the Paladin. The Cipher will get +20 ACC from Devotions (+10 from Inspiring Radiance as a spike), +10 from Coordinated Attacks, +10 from Inspiring Liberation and +10 from the marking weapon (+20 if dual wieding) from the Paladin - and +20 from Tactical Meld. That's up to +100 accuracy (80 long-term I'd say). He can then use a weapon with prone on crit against the dragon (e.g. We Toki, Hours of St. Rumbalt, Tall Grass etc.) to generate focus an have a chance of causing prone (iirc no dragon is immune to prone) and cast Whisper of Treason or whatever CC works on the dragon (all but one can be charmed). The rest of the crew just takes their chances. A Monk can also be used instead of a Cipher in this setup with Force of Anguish - that already causes prone on a graze and when paired with a proning weapon you can make double sure the dragon stays down. A Fighter also works but unfortunately his uses of prone are quite limited per encounter - yet if you only use Knockdown as a failsafe when the crits won't fall often enough it can work well. Combined with the Chanter/Priest/Cipher trick above (+100 defenses with Defensive Mindweb etc.) it's pretty easy to win all dragon fights. The key is having enough time to set stuff up at the beginning of the fight. This can be done with summons and charming - to keep the enemies occupied with themselves. Or by kiting and pulling with a suitable character while the others perpare.

Yes. Like the elemental talents (Scion of Flame etc.) those "hater" talents also work with spells. I made use of them in that "Witch Doctor" ranged Monk build. In that case there weren't many other dmg bonus talents that worked.

Yes. Unlike Berserker Frenzy (or Del. Alacrity) Sacred Immolation produces a separate "hostile effect" entry which manages the self damage. This gets shortened by RES (and similar stuff) while the benefical burn damage part is left untouched.

I tried to use it several times and it never triggered even once for me. I guess it's just broken. Reloading time has a bottom cap and maybe that prevents this echantment to work properly, no idea. 🤷‍♂️

Savage Attack is so/so. If your accuracy is way above enemies defenses it's good. If you have trouble properly hitting enemies it's bad. Good thing that you can turn it on/off as you like. Vulnerable Attack is the same basically. It's not universally useful. But in certain circumstances it can be valuabe. If you can reach 0 recovery with Vulnerable Attacks activcated then it becomes universally useful of course. This is often the case with dual wielding setups. Not that DR bypass does nothing for lashes - so for certain classes/abilities it's not even that useful. Blunderbusses need Penetrating Shot. Vulnerable Attacks only works for melee weapons. Everything that does multiple attack rolls with one strike profits from Vulnerable Attacks a lot more than single attacks (see Heart of Fury). Apprentice's Sneak Attack is nice imo. It's not high but it has no drawbacks. It's easy to afflict enemies - if nothing else works you can always flank. While Bloody Slaughter is nice in Deadfire it's really bad in PoE imo. It only triggers at 10% remaining endurance. Who needs some crit conversion and a bit extra crit damage against enemies that only have 10% endurance left? I can see it making a little sense with a character who does fast but low dmg rolls. Like with a stiletto or something. But even then I still wouldn't spend a talent point for it. There's also Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm, Secret of Rime and Spirit of Decay. Those not only work on fire/ice/etc spell but also on lashes. This means a Paladin who wants to max his Flames of Devotion damage should take Scion of Flame. It also raises the dmg of Sacred Immolation. If you wield Bittercut (with a corrosive lash) it makes a lot of sense to pick Spirit of Decay because it not only rases the lash from 25% to 30% but also grants a 20% dmg bonus to the physical dmg of Biuttercut because it's a weapon which primary dmg type is corrode. Same is true for Stormcaller + Heart of the Storm and Firebrand + Scion of Flame. If you want to use those weapons I would recommend picking those talents since they are like Savage Attack then without the drawback.

Iirc I posted that I did 170+ dmg crits with a great sword as Crusader (using Inspired Beacon etc.) - while being sturdy as an ox (for a two-handed guy anyway). But I think a Steel Garrote, Darcozzi or Goldpact would have suited you better maybe? For a solo run I think I would have tried Unbroken/Goldpact with Monastic uT and Tuotilo's Palm. Sworn Rival with Gilded Enmity is very cheap and it would stack with the Unbroken's +1 AR. +6 AR + Paladin's AR passives is awesome imo. With high RES, Ring of the Solitary Wanderer and Strand of Favor Sacred Immolation's self damage part becomes really short. I could get it down to two ticks often enough - which was no big deal. That makes Sacred Immolation much more useful imo but of course you have to pay for the high RES in other places.

Sure, that will also work. I combined Ranger with Troubadour because it does good autoattack dps with a single pistol and is very versatile. If there's already Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr on the field then that's even better of course. Berserker's crit conversion when frenzied doesn't work with ranged weapons. So you might as well take another Barbarian subclass (e.g. Furyshaper). PEN issues won't matter much as soon as you get Eccea's Arcane Blaster - and as non-Berserker you don't need to manage the self damage (although it can be useful to trigger Blooded - but still a pain in the butt imo). Barbaric Smash's and Bloody Slaughter's crit conversion will work though. I personally don't like to use single handed pistol with Barbaric Smash though because often you either lack a tiny bit of dmg to kill the enemy (not getting the refund which is annoying af) or you wait too long and then do a massive overkill with Barbaric Smash (which is also annoying). Imo a dual weapon setup is much better here because a kill with a decent reamining amount of health is a lot more likely with a Full Attack. Or at least an attack with more overall damage output than a single pistol shot. Also I don't like to not be able to utilize Blood Thirst - reloading weapons don't work with it. So if I decide to run a ranged Barb I usually pick a weapon with recovery - for example Watershaper's Focus, Essence Interrupter or St. Omaku's Mercy or something like that. My favorite with a Barb is Watershaper's Focus. The abysmal recovery penalty of Blast doesn't matter that much if manage to land the killing blows with up to three Blasts + Ondra's Wrath. I even sometimes use it on an SC Barb whom I want to build towards Driving Roar. If there's already a chanter in the party then my pistol guy would be a Ranger/Cipher I think. Ranger/Rogue would be too one-dimensional for my taste.

There certainly is a threshold with every defense where nothing can hit you anymore (except autohits like Minor Missiles or so). But I don't know them.

A Troubadour with Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr adds quite some dps. But not only to himself but the whole party. Also for a crit build crit conversion is great. And Killers Froze Stiff paralyzes enemies. Attack rolls against paralyzed enemies have an additional 25% hit-to-crit conversion (often forgotten). One Handed Style: 20%, Sharpshooter: 15%, Paralyzed: 25%. And that's not all conversions you can get of course. Overall crit conversion just from those three: 49% of hits get converted to crits. That's not bad at all.

Since pistol is best used with One Handed Style and thus Full Attacks would be a waste I would focus more on auto-attacks. A pistol build with auto-attacks will do good conistent dps but not great spike damage. Thus it's great to have some other tools in the belt - like spells for example. Being able to combine the good (but not jawdropping) consistent dmg output with some otehr versatile useful stuff is key imo. So I would go for Sharpshooter/Troubadour (great speed, very versatile) or some Ranger/Cipher combo (tons of ACC and also versatile): no need no mircomanage auto-attacks. All the micro can go into using your spells in a clever way.

Flames of Devotion is good with arquebus, not so much with blunderbuss (except against targets with low DR, then it's great). Main reason is that lashes (like the burning one from Flames of Devotion) don't profit from DR bypass at all and also don't deal a MIN damage value like your physical dmg does (normally 20% of damage rolled will get applied - even if the DR would have prevented more dmg - not with lashed though) - so most of that additional burn damage gets eaten up by DR when used with a blunderbuss. You can work around a bit with DR-reducing stuff (Chanter invocation Hel Hyraf or Wizard's Expose Vulnerabilities etc.) but it's quite limited what you can achieve. Arquebuses deal the highest dmg per shot of all weapons - so generally speaking it's the best ranged weapon for Flames of Devotion. --- Chanter in early levels: the invocation "White Worms" can be used on the same corpses over an over again. They won't get consumed. But there has to be corpses in the first place. So best to disable the "gib" option in the game menu because gibbed enemies (killed with a critical hit) don't leave corpses behind. Then you can lure enemies to an existing pile of corpses and then use White Worms. All corpses will trigger an explosion, killing enemies. The pile will grow, you lure more enemies there and repeat. At some point the pile of corpses will kill everything with one cast, even Raedric and his gang. You can clear the entirety of the Castle very easily that way (because lots of kith and kith leave corpses). Tons of loot will be the consequence. Only reloading the map will remove the corpses (loading a savegame or leaving the map/floor and coming back). This approach can be used even in the later game with big maps and lots of enemies (White March's Russetwood for example or Longwatch Falls and so on. And excellent late game strategy with a Chanter, Priest and Cipher is to give the Chanter a shield with Preservation (Ilfan Byrngar's Solace for example) and another item with Preservation (e.g. Blaidh Golan armor or some helmet). Those will stack (because weapon/shield effects stack with everything). This means if you get stunned you will get +100 (!) to all defenses. Now cast Defensive Mindweb (Cipher) and then Withdraw on the Chanter (Priest). Withdraw is a stun effect. The Chanter gets +100 to all defenses. Defensive Mindweb will give those absurd defenses to all other part members. And the best part: Chanters keep singing their phrase when withdrawn. So your Dragon Thrashed chant will still deal damage all the time while you're untouchable. It's a killer combo...