Boeroer

Yes, Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight + Keeper of the Flame with Whirling Strikes and Edér's armor (prevents hits from Keeper of the Flame which targets reflex and has friendly fire) is so nice. Another really fun build I once did was one-handed Helwalker/Stalker (because they rhyme yo!) with Stalker's Patience (because the game uninstalls itself if you don't use Stalker's Patience with a Stalker). Because Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming procs also can trigger the spear's enchantment which skips recovery (20% of crits) those funny crit chains often lead to 0 recovery. And the Ranger's awesome melee ACC bonuses, paired with the Monk stuff like Stunning Surge and Enduring Dance leads to a lot of crits.

Yes, they stack. Since one is a debuff and the other one a buff there's no interference whatsoever (like debuffing Deflection and buffing Accuracy).

150 because not only Mirrored Images gets dispelled but also Refreshing Defense. Also you will not only get hit by stuff that targets deflection - but also abilites that target other defenses, fortitude mainly. Especially in the late game.

The shield only cracks, it doesn't break. #abilityNameAnalMinMaxing

...and then you get hit by Arcane Dampener.

Looking at the highest levels probably not. Stuff like Great Maelstrom and Missile Salve etc. is so strong that it's hard to beat. But during mid game stuff like Helwalker/Caster def. has its advantages.

Acolyte's Hatchet is pretty good though. Vion C'Thingy used to be extremely good on a Ranger/something with Binding Roots but it got nerfed hard unfortunately (from +100% dmg to +30% - or even +20%? Forgot...). I actually like Gladiator's Sword. Unlike weapon modals its +5 universal deflection bonus stacks with everything and you don't even have to graze anybody. The +10% dmg is not breathtaking, but the upgrade does not only remove the -1 PEN bit turns it into +1 PEN which transforms it to a sword with 8 base PEN instead of 7 which is pretty great for a defensive weapon imo.

I think not. It's been a while but I'm very confident that it's +12 ACC max. Wound generation is not limited.

+1 AR is a very effective bonus when we talk about tanking. -25% damage isn't an additve dmg malus. It goes through double inversion and is actually a lot more impactful as you might guess. If we speak about tanking an Unbroken is way better than a Devoted if you use a large shield. Devoted's PEN bonus is +2 and that's nice, but actually it's not as impactful as long as you are willing to switch weapons according to enemies' AR values. Most of times the differences between the singular AR values of foes are 2 or higher which means that if a non-Devoted just switched weapons to meet the enemies' lowest AR value he has higher effective PEN than a Devoted who is stuck with his weapon choice (unless the Devoted chose a weapon type that has two or more damage types and hasn't low base PEN - see Morning Star or Pollaxe). At the same time the Unbroken gets +10 PEN on Disengagement Attacks which is just nuts. Combined with Overbearing Guard, Sneak Attack and Deathblows his Disengagement Attacks are really devastating. The stride malus of Unbroken/Trickster doesn't matter because he's using the large shield modal anyway and mainly moves with Escape and the Reflex malus isn't so bad because Reflex-based attacks are all AoEs which get softened a ton by the large shield modal. On the plus side Unbroken gets +1 engagement in addition to the AR which can be good for a tank. Tanks are not very useful if they can't prevent enemies from reaching the backline.

Shadowdancer does great dps. Better than SC Monk in the mid game. Later in the game there are no great improvements anymore though. Deathblows is nice but it doesn't come near to Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind.

Enduring Dance caps at +12. Rangers have the highest passive and stacking active ACC bonuses (active effects that stacks with everything are Marked Prey and Hunter's Fang) and Ciphers have the highest active bonus with Borrowed Instincts and access to a PER inspiration. Hence Cipher/Ranger should be the class with the highest possible ACC bonus that's not limited to a certain attack ability. Ciphers can have +1 PEN for weapons (without any drawbacks) as well as powers, Sharpshooter can have +1 PEN for near enemies. At the same time Ciphers have a potent AR debuff.

I forgot Cipher/Helwalker which would also be a very strong contender. +10 MIG and +10 INT as well as Stunning Surge and Lightning Strikes is very good with Watershaper's Focus, too. Add Thunderous Blows and Enduring Dance.

Swift Flurry tends to deliver very high dps on enemies where it doesn't matter much because they are dead quickly anyway.

No. Not if you look at a whole playthrough. Whispers of the Wind + Resonant Touch is very strong and maybe that's what he's referring to, especially in combination with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming, but there are so many combinations of situations, classes an abilities and items and party compositions that it's impossible to say what has the highest single target dps when it comes to the "real" playthrough. Of course you can theorize around what would be the highest dps on paper under the most preferable condition - but those discussions are moot most of times since most theory falls flat as soon as you let your theoretical super-dps-guy loose on some Risen Armsmen and such. For example a Streetfighter with blunderbuss and Vanishing Strikes has higher dps in the late game and most likely during the course of the game. But if he drops dead more often - does he really do more dps? Monk can surely be a very, very good single target dps character, among the best if you ask me. On top of that it can also be a lot of fun to play.

Afaik ranged Ranger/Cipher has the highest ACC potential. Especially Arcane Archer with high Arcana and Imbue Shots. The highest ACC iirc is a Cipher/Arcane Archer with max Arcana, an imbue shot and Spearcaster as weapon. Paladin/Arcane Archer might be on par with Flames of Devotion (no penalty with Arcane Archer) + Ring of Focused Flames with Spearcaster. But Ciphers can also lower deflection easily with Secret Horrors, Phantom Foes and Eyestrike, giving them more "effective" ACC.

I still didn't play TB mode, but since recovery and action speed don't seem to matter much, I would guess that Watershaper's Focus with Blast and Ondra's Wrath should be one of the top-notch weapons for a ranged Cipher since Ondra's Wrath not only does very high dmg but also generates focus. The biggest downside of Blast in RTwP (the slow attack speed) shouldn't matter in TB, right? I assume that a Cipher/Arcane Archer would be a devastating dmg/CC combination then, because the Arcane Archer procs his imbue effects with every jump(!) of a projectile. Meaning Binding Web and Pull of Eora each proc thrice with Watershaper's Focus with Driving Flight, creating hefty zones of CC (immobilized + pull together, three instances in parallel each, absolute black hole that combo) while also having three jumping AoEs which deal damage with the same attacks, each of the hit rolls have the potential to trigger Ondra's Wrath. After Binding Web + Pull oE it's very easy to hit a lot of enemies at the same time with the Blast. Also Cipher/Ranger can have tremendous ranged ACC with Borrowed Instincts and the Rangers's known ACC buffs. But I can also see Cipher/Rogue as being effective since Ondra's Wrath benefits from Sneak Attack, Deathblows etc. A SC Cipher with Shared Nightmares will scale the size of Ondra's Wrath and the Blast AoE up. At 200 focus the blast and Ondra's Wrath will have +200% AoE size. Don't know if SC Cipher is cool in TB mode since the best high lvl ability (Time Parasite) seems to be meh on TB mode. I personally would pick a multiclass with Arcane Archer.

To be honest: if an upgrade makes it so that I can use the ability against less foes than before (there are a lot of creatures that are immune to disease) I wouldn't pick it.

I never noticed. That's indeed great. Especially good for Xoti as Monk I would say since I really hate her increased wound costs.

max RES, max INT, mediocre MIG (you don't want to hurt yourself too much with Blood Sacrifice), high PER (always good as MC because of traps, secrets etc.), mediocre CON, low DEX.

Yes, it will apply raw damage in an AoE - but not equally- I mean not the the same raw dmg to all enemies. It seems like the first hit gets all the raw dmg, the next not so much (if any) and then it rises again with every enemy. It's erratic but it seems like you gain focus internally via the AoE which immediately gets dumped onto the next enemy again as raw dmg. It's kind of funky but it works. Best thing about WotEP though is Offensive Parry which loads you up with focus when enemies miss you (which is easy to do because Paladin's defensive passives stack with Borrowed Instincs and Psychovampiric Shield). That means that if you "parry" enough melee enemies you can spam Soul Annihilation because you get focus between you actions while you recover. Offensive Parry works best on sub-PotD difficulty settings because enemies' accuracy is lower. But it also works well enough on PotD - especially if you debuff enemies ACC (Blind etc.).

Long after this thread emerged I did a playthrough with a SC Stormspeaker Tekehu with dual mortars, aiming for Avenging Storm + Sure-Handed Ila. Since Blinding Smoke from Hand Mortar will trigger Avenging Storm (although not doing damage by itself, it just disorients enemies) and Fire in the Hole has an innate jump with Chain Shot, once you get Avenging Storm hell breaks loose. You can empower with Sasha's Singing Scimitar and then switch to dual mortars or just use Hand Mortar and keep Sasha's in the offhand (same shooting speed basically and you don't have Full Attacks anyway). I used Deltro's Cage to boost the PLs even further. It's a lot of fun - even though a SC Chanter isn't THE most awesome gun user. Unfortunately you can't use Mith Fyr with Tekehu (I mean you can but it will get quenched by his racial passive all the time). But Sure-Handed Ila is also okay. SC Druid would also be able to do this but he would lack the chant and he's only have 2 Avenging Storms per encounter and couldn't empower it in every encounter without lots of resting.

Yeah it's funny. I wonder why no disengagement attack is triggered then. Clearly the dying dude is disengaging and needs a last slap.

Yes, as long as you are not picking the benevolent/diplomatic stuff you're safe. You want to pick cruel or rational from time to time to get Faith & Devotion/Deep Faith to the max. Rational is easy enough. Cruel sometimes hurts - but there are enough situations where you can be cruel to some douchebags like Benweth and such - so that's ok I guess. Maxing RES is a good idea. Every additonal point of deflection has increasing returns, so the more the better. He can be the tank most of times (i played him solo long enough) - but I would not let him tank all alone all the time. He's great against most melee enemies, especially the numerous but weaker ones - but obviously he's nothing special against ranged enemies or spellcasters. Additional frontliners might be helpful.

found some pictures of it: Animated gif (50MB!):