Boeroer

1. Beguilers are powerful. They still don't need weapon damage to generate a lot of focus as long as they can target several afflicted enemies with a deception spell. 2. Since you can prolong Ascension with Salvation of Time maybe Ascendant/Priest is the more "synergistic" combo. But I would prefer Beguiler/Priest of Wael for sure for thematic reasons. And Beguilers are plenty strong as I said. 3.+4. As Beguiler I would take Whisper of Treason, Phantom Foes, Secret Horrors. Those are great for CC and generate lots of focus. Eyestrike would also work but it targets fortitude and that's often a challenge early in the game. The spiritual rod (+modal) does some great damage and generates lots of focus for the times you can't get focus from casting deception spells. I would take Blessing over Holy Power. I'd also agree that Cipher should do the debuffs part and priest the buffs, but for damage they both have awesome options. Never skip Devotions for the Faithful... 5. You can absolutely play this on PotD effectively.

I think last status is that Blood Frenzy and Spirit Frenzy both work with spells - but it may be that Blood Frenzy is more "picky"? I can't remember which spells of my last Barb/Druid I used for this but I got Blood Frenzy with some damaging spells (I guess Relentless Storm). And it triggered Blood Thirst, too. Since Carnage can't crit Blood Frenzy doesn't work with it. Afair Blood Frenzy didn't use to work with spells - but nowadays it does. Spirit Frenzy always worked as long as I can remember. I really seem to start forgetting details since I haven't played Deadfire for some time. So maybe test it first before committing.

Aw man. Sorry. Thanks for testing. Do I misremember so badly or was it a melee-only bonus at some point? Or was I confusing it with hatchets in my mind? Yet another case that shows that weapon modals should have been classified as passive, not active effects. Now after the first "damn" I just thought about using the Gladiator's Sword (+5 stackable deflection with Skrim) as a somewhat decent compromise between offense and defense when it comes to Riposte...? Skrim only works with a shield though - but maybe... maybe Skrim also works with weapons that can only be put in the shield slot? Like St. Drogga's Skull? Never tried... guess not, but worth a try? Other alternatives for the offhand are Kapana Taga and Squid's Grasp (both can grant immunity to flanked), hatchets (+3 against melee and modal reduces enemies' ACC), Duskfall (+10 stackable deflection at the start of combat for 8 seconds). Maybe something else?

There are some ice beetles in the White March maps. They are pretty tough (lots of endurance) so I'd say they will be sufficient for leveling up the staff.

I'd say a melee Cipher is more interesting as a multiclass. Subclass totally depends (on playstyle, multiclass combo and role in the party). They are all nice in their own ways. Psion is not well-suited for melee though. An often used subclass for melee is Soulblade. This is best paired with rogue in my opinion. For example Soulblade/Streetfighter. Soulblade/Assassin is also nice. If you want to stick to swords then Soulblade/Devoted or Ascendant/Devoted can also be good. Devoted's +2 PEN stacks with the Cipher's +1 PEN passive. Ascendant/Helwalker can also be a great combo. Or Berserker/Beguiler or Berserker/Ascendant. Since Modwyr makes you immune to Intellect afflictions you can counter Berserker's confusion with it. Even Paladin/Soulblade can be great. I personally like Berserker/Ascendant because while ascended you'll have higher attack speed and 0 recovery on kill (Blood Thirst) for your casts (as well as +3 PEN due to Berserker Frenzy + Cipher passive).

Bear Spiritshift/Stalker is pretty cool because you'll get quite the high AR without any recovery penalty.

Ah, ok. Reasonable change even without TB mode.

Blade Turning ending on movement is a Community Patch thing. In the original game you can move with it afair.

Once again I have to point out that Hunter Claw also works with a ranged weapon (like Blunderbuss) in the offhand. With Driving Flight you can get a lot of stacks just by firing one blunderbuss shot. So you don't have to use a melee-only setup if you don't want to get too close to enemies. Hand mortars do even work with the AoE hits - although not all of them will count (it's kind of weird). You do need to put a melee weapon in one hand though. Sun & Moon does give you 2 stacks per swing by the way. So it's a great Hunter's-Claw weapon as well (melee of course).

This. A hundred times. Also I'm sick and tired about people judging the quality of writing when they have not one single qualification to be actually able to determine what's good or bad writing. "I didn't like it, therefore it has to be bad" is so common right now. Why is that?

Reading your post I genuinely wondered: was buying PoE on Switch really the worst decision of your life?

It used to. Once had a Paladin/Wizard with that setup. I haven't played that for a looong time though so it might have changed. Am not at my desk for another week so somebody else would need to check.

Geomancers can be awesome with blunderbusses (in combo with Combusting Wounds), but not with bows in my opinion. I suggested Barbarian/Ranger in this case because not only are the speed buffs great for everything, but also Blood Thirst synergizes very well with the St. Omaku's Mercy/Veilpiercer enchantments that set recovery to 0 on crit (50% of times). This happens a lot with Driving Flight and high ACC already and you kill quickly - and then get another 0 recovery instance. Also Intimidating Presence can be very cool later in the game in addition to Wild Sprint and Leap for mobility. I tried it with Berserker/Sharpshooter once and it was powerful und more importantly fun. No idea about turn based though where speed/recovery buffs don't matter as much.

Patinated Plate still has the highest potential persistent AR, yes. Also the rebound enchantments raises you survivability a lot. Monks can block melee attacks entirely and also have Rooting Pain. Besides that you could also pick Iron Wheel. So there are several things that can make up for a lack of AR from armor.

I don't play him purely ranged though. The range of blunderbusses makes it nearly impossible to not get engaged on a regular basis. And Aloth's armor really isn't very good in terms of AR - but totally sufficient if you don't plan to tank all the time.

For Hunter's Fang etc. you can also use a melee weapon in the main hand and Blunderbuss in offhand and gain a lot of stacks with one single shot. So no need to go melee. Hunter's Fang stacks are very nice to have for St. Omaku's Mercy/Veilpiercer.

Scout with St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer is maybe one of the best in terms of dps. You want very high ACC and some crit conversion + Driving Flight in order to trigger the 0 recovery enchantments as often as possible. Barbarian/Ranger with Frenzy/Bloodlust/Bloodthirst or single class Ranger are also not bad with both of those bows. Paladin/Ranger or Paladin/Rogue can also be great: good mix of sturdyness yet good damage. But I think overall what you're looking for is a Scout. Essence Interrupter and Aamina's Legacy are also very good bows by the way. They are better against enemies with high defenses or pierce/slash resistances (without the modal) while the first two I mentioned shine against low defense mobs. The modal of Hunting Bows can be pretty great against low defense mobs as well though.

They provide you the spells that are in them without learning. The more grimoires you have in the trinket + quick slots the bigger your selection of spells you can cast. You just have to switch to the grimoire the spell is in. With this mechanic you could pick only passive abilities at lvl-up as a wizard and still cast all sorts of spells from the grimoires.

Why is it terrible? Or do you mean terrific?

Yeah, everything was powerful with the old "Set to their Purpose". Strong healing + Blood Sacrifice is good though. What I didn't check: do the -2-AR debuffs of Expose Vulnerability and Hel-Hyraf/Shield Cracks stack? I guess not... but if that would be a great combo for a Loremaster to cast I guess.

Actually Pallegina is a potentially sturdier companion as a Herald - as long as you pick the right abilites (as is always the case).

Hmmm - I don't see particularly great synergy effects with Loremasters in general... Well - maybe Alacrity + Sure-Handed Ila + Mith Fyr + Kalakoth's Minor Blights is nice. It's easy to maintain both chants with a Troubadour. Or using the Bloodmage for endless fast-buffing and the Troubadour's Brisk Recitation with Ancient Memory for dishing out invocations non-stop while healing the Blood Sacrifice? No idea if that's cool - I didn't really play Loremasters much... But at least you'll have plenty of refillable resources.

Of course it is a matter of taste and/or perspective. I was speaking about what I think the average player feels. And my assumption is that winning faster feels more powerful to most players than winning more slowly (but more reliably) once you lose only occasionally. This can get shifted a lot by certain circumstances - for example playing Trial of Iron.

Of course the +20% dmg bonus from sharp is an advantage - it's just not higher base damage. Keep in mind that you have to hit several times to build up the 20-30% lash of Grave Calling while a weapon like Modwyr will have its lash from the first hit on. If you have long fights with a lot of hits then Grave Calling will have the higher average lash - in shorter fights the average lash will be lower. With Stalker's Link we shouldn't forget the +5 ACC. Magran's Favor has Bleeding Cuts and a 15% burning lash and good burn DoT on crit. Against non-slash resistant foes it may be the weapon with the highest dmg per hit? Bleeding Cuts stacking and all... Can it beat Stalker's Patience, @Kaylon? The raw lash DoT of Stalker's Patience it pretty strong... All in all I guess the differences in Riposte dmg output are marginal on average (considering resistances/immunities). Also keep in mind which weapon can be obtained when. And one can use all of those and pick the right one based on the enemy you are facing. I value Cadhu Scalth over Wintertide Bulwark because the DR - like underpenetration or grazes - is a very potent factor for survival (since damage reduction effects go through double inversion most of times) and the Deflection bonus can be higher than the Bulwark's (not only on average - Bulwark has to build up it's bonus in every fight - but absolutely, too). But mostly the setup I described above (Reckless Brigandine etc.) looks nice with Cadhu Scalth but horrible with the Bulwark. Bulwark kind of forces you to use the other frost items - optically I mean.

I still don't know why.