Boeroer

Yeas - some form of PL-scaling would be nice.

The constructs will occasionally hit bystanders with one of their fire bursts - then the town guards and other bystanders will turn hostile towards Katrenn et al. instead of you. But this can also lead to a questgiver's or merchant's death so I would try to avoid the involvement of third parties entirely.

Since Wall of Many Colors is a hazard I guess it wouldn't even register as your characters' crits. But I didn't test it. Gambit is very good if you use it with full Guile and crit reliably (like with multihit-attacks). As I showed before it calculates guile refund without cap during the execution which can lead to very high dmg bonuses before the refun gets cut back after the execution - because Gambit's attack rolls get a dmg bonus based on the current amount of guile.

Keep in Mind that both (Greater Focus and Keen Mind) let you cast powers at the start of combat that would otherwise be too costly for you. Which is - in my opinion - the main reason to take them. Also some passives use max focus (or current focus) variable in their mechanics (Shared Nightmare, Soul Annihilation etc.). Giving both Greater Focus +20 instead of +10 might destroy the balancing of those.

Not really redundant - Sickened and Weakened not only mean reduced healing, but also -5 CON. I personally don't really care if a Priest of Woedica might want to take a Skaen spell or not. What I would care about when looking at Skaen spells is how a SC Priest of Skaen can cast a cool spell (which does more than just blinding at such high PL). And if the -50%/-75 healing aura of Effigy's Husk stacks with sickened (or weakened) that would be awesome - since enemy healing effects would almost get nullified IF you wear Effigy's Husk which could be really useful.

Yeah what is?

I guess Kalakoth's Freezing Rake works with Murderous Intent - but Wall of Many Colors doesn't (since it's a hazard)? If it does work then I would totally pick Murderous Intent. Maybe an empowered Pernicious Cloud with Murderous Intent is good (never tried)? Toxic Strike with dual mortars and max INT + Murderous Intent IS pretty good though (not really casting but still). Trickster could also make some use of Wall of Flashing Steel. It's a passive and stacks with every other deflection bonus (not with itself though). Maybe could even make good use of WotEP + all deflection bonus one can get in order to use Offensive Parry + Riposte?

Afaik Skaen is an unforgiving patron and generally cruel and deceptive - but not treacherous when it comes to his followers (the underdogs) but towards high-status targets. So that "either blind or dazed" thing wouldn't make much sense for me in this particular case. That certain Skaen items entirely protect the priest from his own spell is kind of cool. I wouldn't take it away with the daze. Maybe Staggered since one could avoid that with a resistance like from boots or something. If the reduced healing effct of Effigy's Husk stacks with Sickened (or Weakened) I would consider that. You could nearly shut down any hostile healing around you then - and stay immune with a Resistance (or in case of Weakened become immune with Rekvu's Stained Grasp + an injury).

Can't say a lot about Death Godlike because I only used that once or twice for thematic reasons and it didn't feel very impactful - I didn't use BDD shenanigans to unlock he really good part often though (Pallid Fate's +3 PL). If you do then it's certainly great. Maybe some ranged build which lowers its health to near death and stays there would also be ok, no idea. The +20% against enemies who are near death (Death's Usher): meeeeh. Nature Godlike's Wellsprig of Life is fine. The +1 PL is very easy to trigger and it's as good as any headgear in my opinion.

Can't say, never took one either.

If you like Ranger check out Ranger/Cipher: Takedown Combo does not get removed from the target if you apply "pure" raw damage like Disintegrate. Every tick of Disintegrate will get the +100% dmg boost from Takedown Combo as long as it lasts (and as long as you don't hit the target with direct damage which would remove TDC prematurely). Also Soul Annihilation (Soul Blade) + Takedown Combo is pretty cool.

I never take it. The +1 AR is not bad though. The retaliation is nothing to write home about.

So, Battle Forged (Fire Godlike) stacks with all of them but doesn't seem to trigger Swift Flurry - at least I couldn't see it while trying. During the same test Fire Shield triggered it several times. Still: Battle-Forged + Lay on Hands (Darcozzi) + Magran's Blessing + Flame Shield is pretty cool in combination with Combusting Wounds. You get hit and create 4 instances of CW on the enemy right away. Sacred Immolation helps to get to Blooded pretty quickly.

Oh, didn't check, haha.

Without wizard, hm... I wanted to say Monk/Wizard but it's out. Helwalker/Caster of any kind is always great. The +10 MIG and +10 INT (from duality of mortal presence) is very good for all casters. And Monks of all sorts are great martial artists, so... I also like Barbarian/Caster a lot because both Spirit Frenzy and Blood Frenzy not only speed up casting but also apply Staggered/raw DoT with spells. Add Bloodlust for even more speed and Blood Thirst for recovery removal after any kill (doesn't matter if DoT or direct damage). I did a Nature Godlike Berserker/Ancient with Lance of the Midwood Stag and Spine of Thicket Green and it was great. Especially once Blood Thirst gets unlocked: you can cast Frenzy (+1 PL through Wellspring of Life) and then Woodskin to unlock the "Lord of the Forest" (+2 PL to everything), apply some raw DoTs (like Insect Swarm + Plague of Insects), then walk in and hit stuff with the lance. Carnage scales with PLs, too. Once the DoTs start killing the weaker enemies you will have a lot of Blood Thirst going which lets you attack the tougher foes with no recovery. I also love Furyshaper/Beguiler. The terrifying ward is very strong and usually makes sure you don't get attacked to much. Use clubs + modal to hit enemies which come too near and they will certainly get terrified by the ward (because -25 Will). Meanwhile cast Deceptions and gain massive focus, then do Disintegrate and such which can trigger Blood Thirst... Furyshaper/Wizard is also good because Fear Ward + Miasma + Dazzling Light is gold. Terrifiying everything... Assassin/Wizard (I know, but no summoned weapons involved) : If you like the sneaky ways this is great. Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure (unique spell from Arkemyr's Grimoire(s)) will not break its invisibility if you only cast non-damaging CC and also any wall spells (Wall of Flame etc. - because they count as hazards which are not directly coupled to you as character). So you can vanish, apply all CC spells you like with +25 ACC from Assassinate. If you use Wall of Draining you can prolong the invisibility endlessly. If enemies are disabled for good you can attack "for real" or just let the party do it. I made an Assassin/Bloodmage with the Cap of the Laughingstock (its buff/debuff also applies when invisible and makes if possible to leach from every enemy via Wall of Draining) as the party's main debuffer/cc guy and the +25 ACC on cc spells is just awesome. And he can still dish out rogue-like damage with weapons if he wishes so. Trickster/Soulblade is also pretty fun.

The Fire Shield retaliation seems to be not only a "weapon" but a "melee weapon" attack I guess (inherited from the bash or the shield as melee weapon itself?) - since Swift Flurry usually only gets triggered by those? Other retaliation effects I tested (Ragged Cloak, Flame Shield, Darcozzi's Lay on Hands etc.) don't want to proc SF/HBD as far as I can tell. Speaking of Darcozzi/Flame Shield: made a Darcozzi/Bloodmage with Magran's Blessing and all Fire/Flame Shields will stack (as a side note).

Hello, another little discovery I wanted to share: Fire Shield (the enchantment on Magran's Blessing, NOT the wizard's Flame Shield) can trigger Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. Those will not proc further fire shield attacks but instead proc main hand attack rolls. So for example if you have a Battle Axe with Bleeding Cuts in the main hand (probably Magran's Favor) and Magran's Blessing as shield, then crits from Fire Shield can proc additional attacks from the Battle Axe with Bleeding Cuts. So this shield might increase your damage output even though the Fire Shield itself is pretty whimpy itself. For a Monk that is... Don't know if that's already common knowledge - but I didn't read about it. Have fun!

The power is that even tiny damaging attack rolls lead to the same raw dmg stacks. So a blunderbuss for example adds 4 stacks while an arquebus only adds 1 per shot. That's why I loke mortars with Whisper of the Winds so much. Against a group of enemies you will apply so many small dmg hits that in itself might be enough to kill enemies - but the cumulated stacks of RT are superdevastating then. Also works well with Swift-Flurry/Heartbeat-Drumming chains and Sun & Moon for example.

I agree. By now we should be cautious with "it's simple" - but this seams to be the most simple (yet practicable) solution without making Brilliant too boring (like +3 PL might be). I also get some "PoE Spell Mastery" vibes. Which is nice.

Yes. It was the other way round in PoE.

It also works with Avenging Storm (every lightning during the empowered duration will trigger the Least Unstable Coil). I use it with dual mortars + Avenging Storm from time to time because one volley with Blinding Smoke is enough to trigger Brilliant if you hit enough enemies. I suspect Relentless Storm would also do this and maybe even Nature's Terror but I didn't test them.

True. By the way: with enough stealth and a reach weapon you can wait behind your buddies until the enemies make contact with your frontline. You will still be stealthed and can do a Backstab (+Sneak Attack). That way you remove the need to steer your "stealthy" rogue towards enemies and then (after Backstabbing) have to flee in panic because they all want to pierce your squishy guts. Also works with ranged weapons (as long as you don't fire too early but wait until enemies are <= 2m near). Also note that when using melee weapons + Backstab: it's the command of attack that counts, not the actual time when the attack hits (dirrerent from Deadfire!). As long as you were stealthed while commanding the attack (clicking on the enemy) your attack will be a Backstab - even if you unstealth accidentally on the way to your target. So you don't even need a stellar stealth skill to pull off Backstabs (with a melee weapon). With ranged weapons it's not the case because if you command the attack from far away your char will simply stop and shoot from afar - and get no backstab bonus. Best weapons for Backstabs are heavy hitters - like an arquebus (from 2m range or lower) for example or even a blunderbuss (if enemies' DR is not too high). But also Firebrand (see Forgemaster Gloves or Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer) and Tidefall are very good backstabbing weapons (only that FIrebrand has to be used from invisibility because summoning it breaks stealth so it's not a good alpha-striker from stealth but devastating from invisibility). In general two handed weapons are better than one handed ones. Sadly daggers and all other light weapons are not. The implementation of Backstab (which is an additive damage bonus calculated on the weapon's base damage) prevents this.

Not really an immunity afaik. He has a passive that clears fire effects on him periodically - I guess every 3 secs(?). Unfortunately it removes benefical effects, too. I mean it makes total sense so Im not complaining. I was just a bit bummed that I had to find out about that after trying to use Mith Fyr for quite a while and wondered why the f he wouldn't get any burning lash on his attacks althoug he was singing Mith Fyr all the time. Is suspect he also clears stuff like Flame Shield - but I didn't try.

@Rooksx: Yes, that is correct. But to be fair this wasn't widely known until someone tried it (kind of by accident) and posted it here not too long ago. Before that I guess most players just assumed that "immunity vs. disengagement attacks" just meant "immunity to engagement" or that it wouldn't be counted as a real miss.

Attack destructibles (barrels mostly) as @dgray62 suggested. You'll crit them all the time.