Boeroer

It's not so easy to answer what is best. It also depends on your level and your progress in the game. Some combos start really strong and become boring afterwards while others start slowly and take of at higher power levels. If we look at the endgame then SC Mortar Monk. Because of the combination of Whispers of the Wind which will trigger three AoE explosions for each enemy it hits. All those AoEs will produce Resonant Touches which will end every normal enemy who has been caught in that storm of shrapnel (rel. big animated gifs behind the spoiler tags): If you are wearing Heaven's Cacophony you can add some Avenging Storms (2 per rest) for great effect: Mid game is also good because of Stunning Surge (great with mortars) and Flagellant's Path (it uses the mortars AoE effects but skips the reload - but has its own recovery which is much faster). But I think a Streetfigher or Streetfighter/Arcane Archer is maybe better in the early/mid game due to the frontloaded nature of both classes. In the late game a SC Streetfigher can pull off Vanishing Strikes + Gambit + Backstabs which is also an awesome combo, but it isn't as devastating as Whispers of the Wind (the vid is from an SC Assassin, but a SC Streetfighter would work nearly the same): SC Fury is superfun after PL8, but before that it's not really a gunslinger so maybe it's not for you (have no vid). There's also SC Barbarian with Heart of Fury (works with mortars) and SC Ranger with Whirling Strikes (requires one melee weapon though) as well as SC Fighter with Clear the Path or Clean Sweep. They all become relaly good with mortars but they are not very fun to play until they reach higher Power Levels. It's material for hirelings mostly I would say - or for companions after a retraining session. By the way: Tekehu works also very well with mortars - no matter if Druid or Chanter - both his subclasses get access to Avenging Storm...

Fists are among the strongest weapons in the game for a single class Monk. Totally viable. You still want to have some backup weapons for enemies that are very resistant or even immune to crush damage. Forbidden Fist can generate wounds with (Enduring) Dance of Death while using Whispers of the Wind. Mortification of the Soul also works. Combined with Hylea's Talons there shouldn't be too much downtime between WotE uses. Keep in mind that you are invisible when using it so you won't get attacked a lot (thus Dance of Death works well). For the same reason the "normal" Monks who gain wounds via received damage have no big advantage over the Forbidden Fist since they don't get damaged a lot either while concentrating on WotW spam. If you have a Druid in the party you can cast Tanglefoot where the Monk will use WotW. Once he catches one of the short hobble effects it will almost already be over and he will get a wound. If you are wearing Nomad's Brigandine (no DLC item) and enchant it with immunity to Disengagement Attacks you can always disengage from enemies (--> 100% miss due to immunity) which will grant you a wound from Imagined Pain.

I can't say anything about those guides since I didn't watch/read them. I can only tell you that from my exprerience the most fun non-solo dual-wielding gunslinger builds are: - Single Class Mortar Monk (Stunning Surge, Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind are awesome with dual mortars). Nalpasca or Helwalker. - Streetfighter/Arcane Archer (Pull enemies together with three Binding Web + Pull of Eora imbue shots because each jump triggers one instance, then blast the crowded group with Crippling Strikes or whatever. - Single Class Streetfighter (the goal is to unlock Vanishing Strikes and then use Gambit with Backstabs while standing in the midst of the enemies). - Single Class Fury (goal is to get Avenging Storm - every hit of the mortars produces a lightning and also Blinding Smoke, the enchantment of the Hand Mortar, produces a lightning with every hit roll). SC Monk and Streetfighter builds are fun from an early stage while the Fury needs a bit time - but can be used as normal nuker in between of course. Streetfighter needs to use the Powder Burns modal to unlock his passive which might leads to more misses in the early game. But he will get there... Monks can use Dance of Death for lots of ACC and a good stream of wounds. I'm sure other players have several different opinions about this (using Devoted or SC Ranger etc). But I guess most of them agree that SC Mortar Monk is a lot of fun to play. I absolutely advise people to pick the noble voice set when going with mortars. With most crits this voice set will laugh and the laugh sounds a bit like Barry White which I found very entertaining (combine with Konstanten for a Barry White laughter duo). And mortars can crit a lot if you are targeting a lot of enemies.

Does it have to be pistols or would hand mortars or blunderbusses also work? Pistol is often better when used with one-handed style + modal (in most cases). Since it only loses 3 ACC then bit is much faster than dual-wielded.

Enfeebled. When using Forbidden Fist a lot Enervating Blows seems to be a bit redundant, yes.

Ha - no, I meant Enervating Blows. Yes, as I said most monks players wouldn't want to give up WotW and stuff just for Inner Death which has several shortcomings. Thinking more about it I also suspect it will not even trigger Enervating Blows because it's implemented like a spell and not a proper melee attack. Like Forbidden Fist - which has the same problem in an unmodded game.

Empowered Strikes didn't work with WotW when I last tested (but that was not too long after release, so maybe somebody check again). I reported that but got no answer if it ever got fixed (just something along the lines of "Oh really? That's not cool" ;)). I tested it with Inner Death an there it works (which leads to a reliable crit --> great dmg). Of course most Monks (especially solo) prefer WotW over Inner Death. Too bad that the endgame has too many enemies that are hp sponges so that even a 400 dmg crit with Inner Death doesn't mean much if you can't repeat it several times... If you combine it with Swift Flurry it can trigger some more main-hand attack rolls iirc - but that's it. With Envenomed Strikes you will cause Weakened and if you used the Weyc's Wand in the offhand you can immediately follow up with a second Inner Death (if you have the Mortification left). It would be a good alternative to WotW if it wouldn't use Mortification but Wounds instead.

If you feel that a Helwalker is too squishy at the beginning you can take another subclass. The only noticable things the Helwalker does is giving you up to +10 MIG (which is up to +30% additive dmg which isn't that impactful for a weapon user in the first place). The higher starting wound count doesn't matter that much later on as well. Helwalker is superb when combined with casters or anything else that uses damaging abilities that don't rely on weapons - or healing abilites as well. Because there are not many other ways to boost spell damage/healing power besides MIG. But for a SC melee Monk it actually doesn't make a ton of difference in terms of dmg output if you take a Helwalker or something else. The only SC Monk variant where I would recommend Helwalker is a Mortar Monk (or any other ranged monk really). Because you'll get attacked rel. rarely Enduring Dance helps a lot with wounds and then the added MIG is nice (because you won't feel the incresed dmg received a lot). A Nalpasca is better suited for the early game as a melee monk (if you buy a decent amount of drugs at the Kraken's Eye first and search all surroundings for more you won't run out of drugs ever). Because the early game makes it hard to gain a ton of wouds via received damage - since the ratio of "overall health":"dmg needed for one wound" is very high (it drops with every level because you gain more health but the wound threshold stays the same). So in the early game the Nalpasca's drug-infused wound stream is highly useful. It never ceases to be somwhat useful because you'll find better drugs and they will last longer with every point of Alchemy you take. Only problem is if you get hit by Arcane Dampener which might happen several times later in the game... Forbidden Fist is an excellent subclass that can be quite good in the early game because of the way the Forbidden Fist is played best: melee with tons of RES and tanky. Also the Forbidden Fist ability is quite impactful with its tier-3-CON affliction so early in the game. Shattered Pillar can be nice in the early game as well (especially when using the Community Patch since that removes the superfluous max wound cap of 5 and sets it to 10 like all other monks'). No need to get damaged for wounds means it's a lot easier to use abilities like Force of Anguish every now and then without having to take damage at all. For any SC melee Monk I recommend* taking Parting Sorrow (it not only gives wounds on enemies' disengagement but also gives a wound on kill - because the killed enemy somehow counts as disengaged) and also Imagined Pain - and then use Nomad's Brigandine with the immunity to disengamgent attacks enchantment: every disengagement attack you cause is counted as a miss (100%) which will give you a wound. If you are a Shattered Pillar you can even combine this with Whispers of the Endless Paths (Offensive Parry) and trigger a riposte attacks that gives you even more wounds AND adds Resonant Touches. I mean you can use that as any monk but the SP gets additional wounds from this. *I mean besides Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind which are must-haves. Once you get Whispers of the Wind you won't get attacked a lot anymore (because you are invisible). So I also recommend Dance of Death / Enduring Dance - even if you don't use it before PL9(!). Else you won't get any wounds between WotW executions. You'd either have to gain wounds the usual way or use Mortification of the Soul - which will slow you down. Nalpascas can still gain wounds from drugs passively in addition to Enduring Dance (almost no downtime between WotW uses) and Forbidden Fists can use short-lived hostile effects (see Hylea's Talons for example) which shortens the downtime. I don't know if Parting Sorrow triggers on kill if the enemy wasn't engaged at all (see Whispers of the Wind's invisibility)??? They all can use Edér's armor (with the reflex-immunity enchnatment) + Keeper of the Flame + Imagined Pain to generate a ton of wounds during WotW (because the AoE of the flail has friendly fire and targets reflex which will miss 100% on Edér's armor - which will trigger Imagined Pain).

Nope, it's impossible to "single-wield" fists. You have the following options for the offhand (weapon-->bonus-->fitting passive): nothing (but in case of fist in main hand it always counts as fist, too) --> dual wielding (30% speed bonus) --> two weapon style (15%) melee weapon --> dual wielding --> two weapon style ranged weapon --> dual wielding --> two weapon style shield --> weapon & shield (nothing special besides shield bonuses) --> weapon & shield style (bonus deflection & reflex) bashing shield --> dual wielding & weapo & shield --> two weapon style + weapon & shield style The only "fist" that can profit from one handed usage (+12 ACC) and One Weapon Style (15% crit conversion) is Concelhaut's Draining Touch. I'm only half joking because you can use it as a Sage to great effect (especially with Swift Flurry since it targets Will instead of deflection and Will can be lowered easily via Miasma and Dazzling Lights - and you can stack crit chance with Merciless Gaze). If you don't learn the spell at level-up but instead cast in from a grimoire, then switch to a grimoure that doesn't have the spell before hitting somebody... then the Draining Touch will stay with you for the whole fight. If you summon an Essential Phantom it will also have that weapon and it will stay forever (I mean until the phantom disappears).

You got mixed up some stuff. Raedric is the lord of Gilded Vale and surroundings and has nothing to do with Readceras. Readceras was the nation the Dyrwood was at war with during the Saints War (the war Edér fought in - where Eothas marched as Waidwen against the Dyrwood, leading the Readceran army). In order to get the support of the Readceran Pathfinders you must resolve the Iron Flail quest in the White March II expansion in a certain peaceful way.

Well... "keeping your oath" applies to nobles as well as peasants. If a nobleman breaks his oath to protect his peasants: "Nobody expected the woedican inquisition - with a few skaenite henchmen!"

I don't think that Frenzy gives wounds (because of the -10 deflection?). Maybe Berserker Frenzy, but I never tried because Frenzy's self damage + Forbidden Fist Curse self damage sounds too masochistic to me. Also a Berserker Frenzy is a way better wound generator for monks with normal wound generation (Nalpasca, Helwalker, vanilla). A Druid/Forbidden Fist can step into his own Tanglefoot and get short-lived hobbled. Later Wall of Thorns maybe. A Wood Elf Wizard/Forbidden Fist could use Binding Web to immobilize enemies but only get hobbled himself - stuff like that (see Chillfog etc.). A blunderbuss with Powder Burns can be used distract yourself. With high RES the distraction is quite short.

Forbidden Fist is my preferred Monk class. To me it's absolutely awesome. However, it kind of forces you to play with high RES (if you want to be effective). The higher the better. Combined with items/food etc. that shorten hostile effects. Because besides Dance of Death, Mortification of the Soul and the late passives like Parting Sorrow and Imagined Pain you only gain wounds when hostile effects expire. And the shorter those effects the better. Hence high RES etc. With high RES and stacked buffs that reduce hostile effect duration your Forbidden Fist curse usually lasts < 3 secs no matter your INT. Also you can use Clarity of Agony to end hostile effects and shorten incoming ones tremendously. The Forbidden Fist ability is just great because of the Enfeeblement it causes and the damage it does. I usually don't use any other offensive stuff until Whispers of the Wind. Since it's implemented like a spell (it still uses your unarmed stats and scaling) you can even use it when you are using another weapon. So you alsways have a crush damage backup without using a second weapon slot. Everything that puts an hostile effect on you can be turned into a wound generator. Look at Hylea's Talons. The duration of the DoT it applies to you becomes extremely short and when it expires you get a wound. The mechanic enables you to play a very tanky monk without starving for wounds. There are even tricks like stepping into Tanglefoot to get wounds. One guy made a Berserker/Forbidden Fist and wore the Footsteps of the Beast so he could hobble himself all the time with lots and lots of short-lived drop traps of frost --> tons of wounds. For focus on the early game you shouldn't raise MIG too high because the self damage of the curse can be very punishing without the right gear. So better keep the self damage down a little by not adding too much MIG. High PER (helps best in the early game) and max RES, normal DEX (don't be too fast with the cursed punches or else you kill yourself) and INT. Not too low CON because of the curse. I would pick a small shield in the early game. Later Tuotilo's Palm is great. Also pick Mortification of the Soul because in the early game you can experience a shortage of wounds. Good combos are anything where you can exploit the Enfeeblement of the Forbidden Fist: for example Cipher/Forbidden Fist with a Morning Star (note that Forbidden Fist ability doesn't generate focus without the Community Patch mod): apply enfeebled and Body Blows and then cast Disintegrate --> Disintegrate is most likely to hit or even crit and lasts 50% longer (100% on crit). Also Charm and Dominate will last a lot longer. It pairs very well with Trickster as Shadowdancer. Use Mirrored Images + Riposte and also Repulsive Visage etc. 50% longer Toxic Strikes are devastating - same as 50% longer Arterial Strikes. Forbidden Fist/Bloodmage can also be very good, but maybe only after a few levels. I think for the early game a Forbidden Fist/Trickster, a Forbidden Fist/Beguiler (no need to cause dmg to gain focus) or Forbidden Fist/Steel Garotte (superprolonged Garotte ability) may be most fun. Everything that's front loaded with good abilities right from the start.

ROFL. There are plenty of patches left. No worries. There are even some (3 iirc?) slots left for a plaque on the Wall of Honor at Obsidian's office (12 max).

No, resistances don't stack. You either have it or not, but there are no tiers. Would have been cool, but it ain't so. I guess it was done on purpose so that you can't "emulate" immunities by stacking resistances. Or to not diminish the value of high defenses (which prevent catching a hostile effect in the first place). That's why certain effects (on items or abilities) that grant immunities to afflictions or other hostile effects like interrupts can be very good. I mean resistances are also good, just not as good.

Game's patching cycle has been finished for a looong time now. There's nothing coming.

I guess it was meant to be "Strider" and "Deadfire" - typed into a smartphone and fell victim to autocorrection.

Jeez - please pitch that to Josh.

Accuracy pentalies hurt a lot in the early game. Not so much later on. Also because you will debuff enemies defenses (and in case of mortars you only need to debuff reflex). A Blunderbuss has 4 chances to apply an affliction that might lower enemies defenses so the -10 ACC shouldn't be too bad. But I understand if the ACC maluses feel too annoying in the first levels to encourage a whole playthrough. I didn't recommend Streetfighter/Barbarian with blunderbusses though (at least I hope so). It may seem tempting because the recovery/reload bonus from Streetfighter and the action speed bonuses from Barb (Frenzy, Bloodlust) do stack - but Blood Thirst doesn't work with reloading weapons so that would be a no-go for me personally. Blood Thirst is one of the strongest arguments to bring a Barbarian as a second class imo. However, I like a Barbarian as second class if I focus on a St. Omaku's Mercy/Veilpiercer build. Usually with Ranger as first class (order of classes doesn't matter of course). What works very well in terms of accuracy in the early game: Ranger/Paladin. I did a Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster as main weapon. With Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotions + Marked Prey + Arcana bonus *2 (Arcane Archer + Spearcaster) + Zealous Focus you already get 40+ bonus ACC pretty early in the game. +20 right from the start. By the way: all classes start with the same base ACC.

The oozes have weaknesses to fire, frost and shock afair.

Nope, they are not. Mortars' AoE is the standard attack and transports all attack effects - such as blind from Blinding Strike, stun from Stunning Surge etc. Even damage over time like from Arterial Strike or Gouging Strike. Only exception: wouding shot (Ranger) does only work for the initial target for some odd reason. Frostseekers crit AoE is a secondary crit which doesn't do that. The effects of a special attack will only apply to the initial target. It has higher base dmg though iirc. I don't remember if their base AoE sizes are similar or not. However, Frostseeker has a much higher range than mortars/bluderbusses. As mortar/bluderbuss user you have to be prepared to get attacked by melee guys every now and then. But some classes have very helpful mobility abilites like Escape, Evasive Roll etc. By the way: a Fighter can use Clear Out with mortars in the main hand if he also wears a melee weapon the the offhand. The result is quite hilarious since it's an AoE*AoE attack then (every AoE hit of Clear Out triggers an AoE attack of the mortar). If you have a Ranger/Fighter with Fire in the Hole you can trigger [AoEClear Out * (AoEFitH + AoEChain Shot + AoEDriving Flight)] hits rolls - which is bonkers.

Small correction - or rather addition: there's only a penalty (-35% dmg) if you are executing a Full Attack. Primary- and auto-attacks don't get any penalty.

It might seem so at the beginning. But those crit damage bonuses are only additive and they don't scale. With every step of weapon quality (fine, exceptional, superb etc.) and with every Power-Level for Sneak Attack and later with Deathblows those crit bonuses play a smaller and smaller role. The PEN bonus and the ACC of Assassinate always stay viable though, as does the PEN bonus of Devoted (although it's often better to just switch a weapon with a dmg type the enemy is most vulnerable to). Lashes on the other hand (like Paladin's Flames of Devotion or Monk's Lightning Strikes) are multiplicative dmg bonuses which retain their part of contributing to the dmg output. They don't diminish and work especially well with dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack. If you want "sustained" dps as you mentioned in the title then Assassin is not the best pick since he can only pull off Assassinate from stealth and invisibility which both are very limited per encounter. A really impressive dmg output can be done by Streetfighter with blunderbusses (and mortars). Also works well as Devoted/Streetfighter or Sharpshooter/Streetfighter. The trick is that the modal of blunderbusses (Powder Burns) always triggers the passive "Heating up" of Streetfighters which leads to an insane reload speedup and also boosts Sneak Attack dmg. The Devoted or Sharpshooter will help with more PEN, Devoted will add crit dmg, Sharpshooter can add Driving Flight and more ACC. Also works very well as Single Class to pick um Gambit later. It is sustained because you don't need any resources to trigger the passive. With Hand Mortar from Serafen (pick Blinding Smoke by all means) you can unlock Sneak Attack + Deathblows with a crit without using any ability. Fire in the Hole will jump automatically with Chain Shot and nearly double the dmg.

Arcane Knight (Paladin/Wizard) can be extremely tanky and is able to cast from the from line.

Nalpasca really reeks once you meet guys with Arcane Dampener.