Boeroer

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!):

I guess it's the oomphteen's time I come up with this (and forum members might want to crucify this orlan), but Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Whispers of the Endless Paths and maxed out deflection (bracers, cloak, armor etc. all with deflection buffs) is a lot of fun. Key trick is that Offensive Parry causes dazed on enemies and that automatically unlocks the Steel Garrote's draining with further Offensive Parries. While Offensive Parry is triggering, dazing enemies, doing a bit of dmg and healing you at the same time, you can cast your spells and use Blood Sacrifice. Arcane Knights are tanky as heck anyways, but this one can tank, heal the damage from Blood Sacrifice and deal melee dmg at the same time. Besides that the usual Paladin/Caster synergies apply: Eternal Devotion works with spells, Paladin's AR passive bonuses stack with Wizard's active ones, passive defense buffs stack with Wizard's active ones and so on.

Iirc it has its own scaling which is pretty potent. But maybe better test it - I used it a looong time ago and only as backup weapon for my Mortar Monk.

As I said I have no idea how it works in TB mode, but if you spam it 10 times you also get damaged 10 times. At higher levels that may work, at lower levels if may mean you knock yourself out.

For Hylea's Talons you have to hit the enemies, not the other way round. They also add a 5% slashing lash to your melee attacks which is awesome to have anyway. As a Fighter/Monk you only can gain Mortification via Stunning Surge (as a refund) and the Brilliant Inspiration (see Cipher's Ancestor's Memory for example). You can get +2 Mortification from Mortification Bindings (gloves) and +2 from Devil of Caroc Breastplate. Mortification of the Soul only costs health, nothing else (its costs are listed as 0 Mortification).

I think every Monk subclass is better than vanilla except Xoti's, but you do you. The most consistent wound flow you would have with a Nalpasca by the way. You can use the following stuff to gain wounds as a Fighter/Monk: Mortification of the Soul (don't know if it's a free action in TB) Dance of Death/Enduring Dance: 1 wound every 3 secs as long as you don't get hit (several times). Hylea's Talons: puts a mild DoT on you which will generate wounds. They do not end Dance of Death (no self dmg does). Parting Sorrow: if you engage an enemy and he breaks engagement you gain a wound. This can also be forced with terrify effects. Terrified enemies will crawl around like headless chicken, disengaging in the process Usually Hylea's Talon's and the hits from enemies are enough to let you not starve.

Good question, I don't remember. I think it has no proficiency, but I'm not sure.

If you want to stick to Great Sword at all times pick Devoted. Then Disciplined Strikes, Swift Flurry, Raised Torment, Mob Stance, Turning Wheel, Thunderous Blows, Enervating Blows, Enduring Dance*, Armored Grace, Clear Out, Instruments of Pain*, Heartbeat Drumming. Rest what you like. Enduring Dance is great once you get Instruments of Pain: you can use melee attack from range and thus won't get hit a lot. The added ACC and wounds from End. Dance come in handy, especially with a Swift-Flurry build. Clear Out targets fortitude, so you should use Raised Torment and Enervating Blows in order to debuff fortitude by 20 to raise the chance of crits.

And then we'll have to keep in mind that those spells gain less PL scaling - or was that already included in your analysis?

Again: Cobra Strike is a ranged weapon. So WP: Stiletto sounds rather funny. Scepter or Wand would be better imo.

Forbidden Fist with max RES (+ items and food that reduces hostile effect duration) is great. Tanky and offensively capable. Note that the enfeebled effect (which gets applied by the Forbidden Fists titular ability "Forbidden Fist" (who would have thought? Not me...) will not only lower Fortitude by 10 points and prevents healing completely it also prolongs all hostile effects on the enemy which is great for all CC and DoT stuff. I don't know how that works in TB mode but on RTwP it's really great.