Boeroer

With a ranged/melee setup also Blood Thirst and other melee-only stuff like One Stands Alone etc. would become usable. Unfortunately Barbaric Smash only refunds on kill and it's more tricky to kill reliably with a single weapon attack compared to a Full Attack. But that would be the only downside (besides the Rogue's other Full Attacks being limited to single strikes then).

I guess by Berserker you mean Barbarian. Because there's no Berserker in PoE1 - but there is one in Deadfire as a Barbarian subclass. Streetfighter with blunderbuss is very straightforward. If you want to use Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole (which I would recommend unless you want to build a Mortar Monk in the same party as well) then you want max INT because of the AoE of both weapons. If you want to use "regular" blunderbusses you don't need that much INT. With regular blunderbusses there's a small problem: you need backup weapons with non-pierce dmg because there's quite some pierce-resistant or even -immune enemies. But that's all basically. For a damage dealer you want high PER and DEX and also usually MIG - a Streetfigter can do with less MIG though because he already gets a ton of dmg bonuses so that a little chunk from MIG isn't really noticable. DEX (being a multiplicative dps influence rather than MIG which is additive only) is more important. PER, too because not only do blunderbusses have an ACC malus but also Powder Burns will cost you 5 PER because of the distraction it will put on you. As second class: you can use Barbarian or even Berserker. Berserker is nice because of the added PEN, but besides that it's also very dangerous because the self damage is high and you can't see you health. On the other hand you can get yourself to bloodied (50% health) in no time and then you're not only "On the Edge" (where your Streetfigter gets a lot of bonus crit damage) but also profit from Blooded of the Barbarian. Combined with Bloody Slaughter and Barbaric Smash you can do a lot of damage in a very short time and even get a Rage refund if you use it as killing blow (way better then Finishing Blow imo). Some additional cool stuff with Berserker + mortar blunderbusses: you can either apply Spirit Frenzy's staggered in an AoE with every shot or Blood Frenzy's raw DoT which stacks with Deep Wounds etc. With Blood Storm + mortars you will land crits so frequently that your Frenzy will stay on forever without recast, too. But so will the self damage (so beware). There's one other problem with Berserker Frenzy. It confuses you. That means with mortars the AoE will get smaller and you will hit your friends with the AoE. That last part may not be as bad as it sounds because you will hit friends with Powder Burns already so you want to make sure nobody friendly is where you are aiming your blunderbusses. You can get rid of confusion by using Svef, eating special food at rest (like Luminous Lobster) or using items (like the Devil of Caroc Breastplate which can be enchanted with a resistance which makes you basically immune to Confusion. It's a great armor for a Rogue/Barb anyway so I would aim for that). There are other problems with Barb/Berserker: Blood Thirst doesn't work with reloading weapons - you will still have the reloading time. It's one of the best passives of a Barbarian so that's a shame. Berserker Frenzy has a really good crit conversion. But it only works in melee. There are other passives that don't work with ranged weapons, like Interrupting Blows. So... it's fun but it's tricky. Since it's a bit difficult to monitor your health you will def. go down in combat from time to time. High CON and a fat health pool with passives like "Tough" and at the beginning an Amulet of (Greater) Health can help. A healer, too of course. So with a Berserker high(ish) CON isn't the worst idea. Like... don't dump it. Stalwart Defiance and the Voidward Ring are two things (among others) that may save you a lot of headache. If you have a Priest in the party you can use Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time on your Streetfighter/Berserker which gives him god mode basically. Besides Barbarian/Berserker there are other classes that fit nicely: Ranger has high accuracy and the other obvious ranged abilities like Gunner and so on but also Driving Flight (especially awesome with mortars since the AoE also jumps). If you don't like animal companions there's the Ghost Heart subclass. With mortars and Driving Flights there will be mayhem. If you use stuff like Blinding Strike with that setup it's like a guarantee that you will always hit all enemies because there's so many attack rolls. Fire in the Hole has a build-in jump. It stacks with Driving Flights. If you pick an Arcane Archer: his Imbue shots release their effect with every jump. Fire in the Hole in the main hand with Driving Flight and Imbue:Eora will drop three(!) Pulls of Eora with enormous accuracy which will pull everything together. Now hitting with AoE stuff becomes so easy - while it's also a great CC effect obviously. If you combine it with Imbue:Web you will have locked those clumped enemies in place, too (3 parallel instances of binding web stop anything that isn't resistant/immune). Monk is very good as second class, too. Especially with mortars. Monks have Duality of Mortal Presence which can give you +10 INT. It leads to very big AoE sizes for your mortars. Also Monks have Stunning Surge which is excellent with mortars, too. Basically it's a free AoE stun without costs most of times in this combo. The Helwalker subclass even adds up to +10 MIG which is cool - but it also makes you more squishy (but nowhere as bad as Berserker). And also Monks can use Thunderous Blows ti get that sweet +2 PEN that the Berserker comes with, only later. Enduring Dance adds not only wounds to fuel your abilites but also let you gain up to 12 ACC which is good. Finally Lightning Strikes make you even faster and add a sweet shocking lash. Also with the Long Pain the Monk later gets an excellent backup for blunderbusses should you need crush dmg at range or simply want to finish off single enemies with good single target damage (mortars are not that good then). Chanter is also a good second class, especially Troubadour because he has an easy time to keep up two parallel phrases at once. When you combine Mith Fyr + Sure Handed Ila you (and the party) will be having a nice burning lash and incredibly fast shooting speed (because Sure Handed Ila has this effect with reloading weapons that it applies both the recovery bonus AND the reloading bonus to your blunderbusses - stacked with your Streetfighter recovery bonus from "Heating Up"). And besides the shooting you'd also have plenty of cool invocations to choose from. For example summons that will help to keep enemies away from you. Black Jacket Fighter would allow you to switch weapon sets without any recovery. You could basically fire blunderbusses as soon as you want to heat up, then switch to something else and use the lightning speed with those weapons instead. Plenty of options. I personally consider Streetfigter/Arcane Archer and Streetfigter/Helwalker with dual mortars (Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole) to be most fun - but that's my subjective opinion. I like strong "on the fly" CC in combination with damage and both have plenty. Berserker/Streetfighter is brute force. Lots of dmg and speed but little CC. And risky - but that can be fun, too. Troubadour/Streetfighter is strong and very versatile - but it requires to do more diverse stuff, not just shooting. Which might not be what you're looking for (?).

Or... wild idea: don't pick it. That's easy imo. The bad part is when you are a Barb, picked THreatening Presence and then meet an enemy Cipher... 😄

Solo SC Ranger is difficult compared to some other choices imo. I played a solo Geomancer (Stalker/Bloodmage) on PotD (not upscaled) and that went pretty well (no megabosses because so tedious - but all "normal" bosses without any exploits, not even consumables or any resting bonuses). However, SC Ranger can pull off some amazing stuff later in the game (stuff like Hand Mortar with Blinding Strikes + Driving Flight + Twinned Shot + Avenging Storm scroll... or Whirling Strikes with Scordeo's Edge + Hand Mortar + Driving Flight + Avenging Storm). I have to say I never tried that solo though. In a party it can be jawdroppingly good. Maybe somebody else tried SC Ranger solo on PotD. I think Shadowed Hunter could be good later on to flee fights after you killed an enemy - grind them down foe after foe. But that's just me brainstorming... 🤷‍♂️

This must be a bug. I never had this with a Skald and I played a lot of those (often with Barbarian or Monk as second class). But I also never picked Two Fingers of Daylight so maybe that's the problem? No idea though.

As much as I like the general idea and realisation of this build here (because the synergies are neat und fun and it looks awesome in action) I don't think it's that easy in the early game. At least without Berath's Blessings (start at lvl. 4). Imo if you want to play solo like you would play with a party (and are not superexperienced and also don't have a lot of metaknowledge): pick an Arcane Knight (with Bloodmage). The Paladin subclass doesn't matter that much I'd say. I like Steel Garrote because you can drain a lot of health with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff (stacks with the Steel Garrote's passive) which is nice for Blood Sacrifice and spares you Zeal (no need to use Lay on Hands). You can later even use the Concelhaut's Draining Touch trick* to have an awesome draining weapon with build-in affliction + shield (but that's a bit exploit-ish so maybe not your cup of tea). Shieldbearer and Bleak Walker don't add much though for a solo run imo so maybe don't pick those. The Arcane Knight can have high defenses right from the start (Faith and Conviction + Mirrored Images and also Quarterstaff modal, later Mirrored Images, Arcan Veil and so on), high AR (Spirit Shield + passives), good healing (Lay on Hands) and tons of tools for any situation really, so very versatile. On top of that you'll have a cool summon at some point, too (Essential Phantom). And as soon as you get Wall of Draining you'll be a demigod because stuff like Lay on Hands and all buffs won't run out. The only Achilles' heel is hostile Arcane Dampeners. Some enemies like to cast this as soon as they see you. You can prevent getting hit with it with a very high Will defense (usually the case bc. you want high INT and RES anyway) but also by using Arkemy's Brilliant Departure at the right time and so on. Herald is also a very solid pick and can be played in several ways. More on the summoning side which is always powerful and at the same time sturdy as heck as well. Very versatile, too.

Which bug? That it procs unlimited times? That's intended and was done in one of the last patches because players complained that it's so bad if it's only 1/encounter. Obviously they didn't think about any auras that target Will (dragons, Threatening Presence, Redfield's Harbinger and so on) and which you can't turn off.

As soon as you enter SSS and FS the "kill fast" approach falls flat imo if you haven't any means of staying power or means of avoiding damage.

Ah right. Sorry, I mixed that up. I was able to finish Hauani O Whe with such an Assassin/Paladin and was using Marux Amanth. I don't recall every detail but at lvl 20 you can be rel. sturdy with this (if you want) and Marux Amanth helped to quicken the process and gave me back a bit of resources I guess. The first stage (killing the mountainous ooze) is easy because it doesn't move around and just dies from the DoTs. But I remember that the gigantic oozes wandered around a lot (patrolling) when I was invisible so it wasn't easy to wait out until their health was lowish enough to rush in and prevent the merging. I used Bounding Boots to move around and kite but being able to come back very quickly for an interrupt if needed. I used a ton of scrolls of Thrust of Tattered Veils (auto-hit, always interrupt, cheap, only 1 Arcana needed) and abused Lethandria's Devotion (switch weapon sets to heal up) to spare Zeal. The tons of smaller oozes provided enough Zeal via Virtuous Triumph to be able to use Brand Enemy lots of times. It was very tedious though. Using Sacred Immolation for killing smaller oozes is no problem though if you are willing to abuse Lethandria's Devotion. Obviously that's not exploit-free anymore. I personally would just skip megabosses with a "normal" or exploit-free solo playthrough.

You can solo the game quite easily (compared to many other classes) with an Assassin - or any Rogue, but Assassin is the easiest imo - without taking an "abnormal" route. Even better in my opinion is Assassin/Paladin. I personally like Assassin/Goldpact Knight best. One key are "neverending" damage over time effects: Gouging Strike (Rogue), True Love's Kiss (from the Dagger Lover's Embraced) and Brand Enemy (Paladin). The other is Smoke Veil (Rogue). You can apply True Love's Kiss + Gouging Strike with one single handed, highly accurate attack from stealth. You will then have a very short recovery (attacks from stealth have a -85% recovery time) and can then use Brand Enemy (which is an auto-hit and has 0.5 secs casting time and 0 recovery), then use Smoke Veil and retreat out of sight. The combat will not end until the enemy is dead. You can win any encounter this way except those where you can't retreat out of sight.* Thus boarding fights must be avoided and the Water Dragon must also be solved peacefully. And of course you can use stealth to avoid fights altogether if you feel like it - because the method I described above is time consuming. Then some fights are not even in a normal path but totally optional - like Megabosses. )* there are few others where you need to use Marux Amanth in order to destroy a near death target, most notable the Ooze Megaboss. If you're not using Berath's Blessing points to reach lvl 4 right away (and start with Smoke Veil) you need to play the first levels carefully and not pick unnecessary fights. Luckily Goldpact's Gilded Enmity is there from lvl 1 on to help with survivability if you must fight. As soon as you reach Smoke Veil you can use an arquebus + modal to one-shot most enemies from stealth with Flames of Devotion until you get Gouging Strike or Lover's Embrace or Brand Enemy (first you only need one of these). If they can't be one-shotted you can turn invisible which will end combat and quickly (after regaining guile for more Smoke Veils) fire again from stealth before the enemy has healed up. If you don't roleplay your Assassin/Paladin or incorporate stealthy parts etc. to have some variety in gameplay it can become a bit dull though. Because it's a lot of waiting until some enemies are dead. Especially those who heal themselves or get healed. So kill priests etc. first.

You can use all weapon types without modal. In some cases the model isn't even that useful (e.g. Great Swords). Large Shield modal on the other hand can be very useful in certain situations, even if only used seldomly.

? That is Oathbreaker's End

Does Windows 7 have DirectX 11 support? Sorry, I have no idea - I'm on Linux since Windows Vista came out.

Hi, let me tag the community/social media managers for you because otherwise I guess this will not get noticed. This error might affect more players. Oh mighty @Aarik D and grand@Shyla, I summon thee to cast a glance on this poor fella's problem!

Yes, it's also annoying that you'll only have 1 cast of that 7th spell tier without using Grimoire oVW - which then requires you to use Blood Sacrifice more often (because Zandethu's Draconic Fury is on the same tier as Wall of Draining for example). It may be cool with a dedicated melee Druid/Wizard Spiritshift build for a party (where you might not need WoD that often) but I guess not great for solo.

You understood correctly. Wearing a medium shield will reduce your accuracy by 4 points. For weapon attacks but also for spells. With a large shield it's -8. Small shields do nothing to your accuracy - so those have no drawback for spellcasting. Somebody coded it that way. --- Since you asked for weapon affects that also affect spellcasting: weapons that give you an attribute bonus (e.g. Godasthunyr +1 MIG or Abydon's Hammer +4 MIG) will also affect your spellcasting of course (more MIG = more spell damage). Another weapon that somewhat has an effect on spells is Spelltongue: the action speed it drains from enemies works with everything, also spellcasting. But it doesn't stack with stuff like Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. I don't recall any other weapons in PoE that did something good for spellcasting.

Usually that's not the case. Weapon effects usually only affect attacks with that weapon, not spells*. On the (bad) flipside a shield that has an accuracy malus will also lower your spells' accuracy. There's one exception that comes to my mind: Single one handed weapon usage (gives +12 accuracy with that weapon) will also give +12 ACC with offensive chants (e.g. The Dragon Thrashed). I guess it's a little error that never got fixed.

Usually it's like that: if the items in the container have a red background the theft will get noticed. If the background is not read it's cool.

If you need a tank or blocker the Dragon is cool. Especially if you have an Ancient in the party whic can cast Wild Growth on the dragon (it has no duration and will last until the dragon's summoning duration is over). It will have a ton of health and good AR then. And while its auto-attacks are rubbish its abilities are very good because of Power Level scaling. But I would also say that Ancient Weapons are more universally useful. Still... summoning a dragon... it's just very cool.

I actually never thought about prolonging Lifegiver's Spiritshift with WoD so that you wouldn't have the PL drop. Neat! The casting speed is indeed great.

I don't think that it implies that. But anyway: I didn't say that nor did I mean that. "Immature" has a negative connotation but boing young is just... being young. Being young is cool. But I guess we can agree that younger people - generally speaking - like different things than older ones. Just generally speaking. I really liked Throne of Bhaal etc. a lot. Didn't say you did. I just wanted to make it clear that I wouldn't be against it if it were an option - but wouldn't want it as a default ending. No. I didn't say nor meant that you specifically did that. I just speculated - based on personal experience - that age or nostalgia may be a reason some people like those endings better. And why I personally don't long for such endings anymore (because older now). You must not take what I wrote as offense. I wasn't meant that way. I was just engaging in armchair reasoning. If you don't agree with what I speculated that's no problem.

I like Vanishing Strikes, but imo Gambit with 100% crit conversion is better suited for party setup. Pure "Assassin stuff" where you backstab and assassinate from stealth and invisibility often requires too much work and attention to be effective for me in a party. It profits a lot from good setup and stealthy gameplay and is more "tactical" - which often leads to a situation where you park your party somewhere and do invisible stuff with the Assassin alone because the other party members will only mess things up. At least that's my experience when I don't use the Assassin with a caster combo but as "original" roguish weapon hitter. I remember my finished playthrough with an Assassin/Priest of Skaen: at some point it accidentally turned into a 95% solo run. Streetfighter with Gambit can just run along with the others since it's not really complicated. Solo it can be great, too - especially once you also include weapons with on-crit effects like Rust's Poignard, Ball and Chain and such. Even bosses like Dragons and the Beast of Winter will be perma-prone and you can uphold this way longer than Vanishing Strikes because of the almost guaranteed refund. But I like it better with a party because it makes it much easier to debuff enemies' defenses so you can't really graze or miss. As I said I really like Vanishing Strikes and the whole invisibility shebang - but it requires some "special" gameplay to be fun in my case. I mean you can also combine both and do Gambit while invisible from Vanishing Strikes of course as an Assassin (for a Streetfighter that doesn't make a lot of sense bc. he'll lose the flanking - unless he's bloodied). But the use of Vanishing Strikes already takes you under 100% conversion if you didn't get up to a lot of max Guile. One has to say that a Rogue with Gambit turns into a total One-Trick Pony. You can retrain then and only pick passives + Gambit - because you won't use your Guile for anything else anymore except maybe Gouging Strike and Smoke Veil in some special cases. Edit: ninja'd by Kaylon.

Mostly correct I believe. I think it works on some neutral NPCs that are on guard as well. At least I remember that (not yet hostile) guards in Fort Deadlight reacted...? But shop-dudes and such: nope, they won't move. Rokowa's Fingers will work though.

Yes, Beguiler's mechanic is pretty broken because it applies the deception's affliction first and only then checks whether you'll get focus back or not (which will always be the case if you don't miss). What is pretty cool about Beguiler/Beckoner is that you can use summons AND mind control to turn a whole army against one remaining enemy (or a few). But as I said above: that works even better if you have one Beckoner and one Beguiler, not necessarily a Beguiler/Beckoner. Because you can cast that stuff at the same time and don't have to cast everything one after another. Still fun build of course.

No, the only thing that unlocks the Assassin's passive are attack rolls from stealth or invisibility. Beguiler does nothing special for an Assassin. Actually I find it's a suboptimal combination. Maybe. Just know that SC Rogue may feel a bit less interesting at first - because you have less options. But on the other hand you'll unlock new abilites a lot faster - and spamming Gambit can be a lot of fun.