Boeroer

If this works well for you then go for it! Circle of Protection is quite cool because it stacks with deflection buffs like Shields for the Faithful. Too bad its duration is rather short. But with high INT it's nice. Shod-in-Faith boots can come in handy. Sometimes your one Consecrated Ground isn't enough. Also you might want to spare some spell uses every now and then. Getting a crit happens quite a lot as a melee Priest (low startig deflection, no shield) so the boots trigger quite often. For the health loss (Priests do have rather abysmal health for a melee setup) I would always keep some potions of Infuse with Vital Essence. To bring health back up by 50. I also used Vetaran's Recovery and stacked healing bonus gear. This helps a lot against knockouts but it won't do anything for your health. Except that those healing bonuses (Fulvano's Amulet for example) also work for the health healing of Infuse wVE (and also Wound Binding etc. - if that's an option for you).

That anecdote - if anything - is only suited to show that you didn't know how to play that particular character (which we know nothing specific about). Of course you can't storm into the enemies first with a glasscannonish Transcendant build. You picked a Helwalker which is the most squishy monk class in the first place! But that your Helwalker/Ascendant was made from wet tissue paper doesn't mean that all "ciphers are very very squishy in the front lines" in general. My anecdotal evidence clearly says that Ciphers and Transcendants can be more than sturdy enough to be played in melee and even in the front line (which is not the same). You can even build them a bit squishy - if you don't make the mistake and go in with them first (which is a suboptimal thing to do with any character who's not a real tank). You also don't throw an egg at the wall and then say "Here's my experience with round objects: they all do shatter if you throw them at walls!". Well at least I hope so... I made my arguments that show how Transcendants can be sturdy enough to be played in melee if you wish so - which you didn't comment on. I played a Shattered Pillar/Soulblade recently with Whispers of the Endless Paths and its Offensive Parry. That's all tankyness and high deflection and it's very well suited for the front line. High deflection through Borrowed Instincts and crazily stacked defense against disengagement attack makes this Transcendent build quite sturdy AND gives him a crazy high focus and wound generation due to the Offensive Parry (which generates wounds for Shattered Pillar and focus for the Soulblade and also works with Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming and Turning Wheel). He can go solo against 6 CRE_Tigers and destroy them in seconds. A squishy character would just die in seconds. Transcendants don't have to be squishy. Of course it matters if you want to compare the focus generation of melee vs. ranged setup. I mean you are saying it's always better for a Transcendant to go ranged. But you don't back it up with the "why" - besides the "very, very squishy" argument which is not generally true. It's only true for your once tried cipher... So we have to compare the pros and cons of melee vs. ranged. When going ranged you will not get the burning lash of Turning Wheel which will result in lesser focus generation. So, besides the fact that melee weapons have higher dps in general you also can't generate focus as quickly with a ranged weapon as you an with a melee one (hand mortars aside) because you lack a lash. On top of that you can't even use a lot of the Monk's special abilites because most of them are melee only (see Heartbeat Drumming, Swift Flurry and more). Also Enduring Dance's ACC bonus (+12) doesn't stack with Borrowed Instinct's (+20). You can take it for the wound generation at range then, but the nice ACC part is doing nothing unless you forego Borrowed Instincts. Those are some things that have to be mentioned in order to make an informed choice. Yes - but you can have it all: Turning Wheel's lash + high MIG and INT + Ascension. And since Turning Wheel is a multiplicative dmg bonus you will profit from your MIG even more. So if you compare for example Monk's fists + Turning Wheel using Stunning Surge with Essence Interrupter + Stunning Surge (because there is no other attack ability you could use with a bow) then you can see that fists do more damage and thus produce more focus in a given time, Ascending you faster. The pro of a ranged weapon is that you don't have to move to targets which can raise the dps compared to a melee setup. If enemies are standing in a crowd the melee will do considerably more dps/focus while against enemies that stand far apart the ranged weapon might be better. The only tricks are to not build him with 3 RES and 3 CON and let the tank engage first before you go in. This is really simple. It's always good to keep real squishies in the back if you don't know how to keep them alive. However - as I showed above: a Transcendant doesn't have to be a squishy. He can have higher defenses than a single class monk and thus he can be more tanky than a single class Monk if you build him right. So you don't have to keep him in the back if you don't want to. You also wouldn't want to keep all SC Monks in the back row... You forgot that this "noob" explicitly asked for advice on a melee Transcendent. What's best then is to tell him how that can work (if it can - and it can indeed). It's ok to suggest another approach, but at the same time telling him (non-veridically) that his preferred combat style won't work just because you are searching for yet another opportunity to place your overly precious "Helwalker/Ascendant with Essence Interrupter" (let's call it "HAwEI" from now on) build is not best. It's just pushing. *** Whatever - just to give two quick examples what can be fun melee Transcendants (don't know if that's the vibe the "noob" was searching for - and most likely it's too late for that anyway since the post was already ten feet under before it got necroed by a random HAwEI): Nalpasca/Beguiler use a Morning Star + modal with Stunnig Surge --> -35 Fortitude use Secret Horrors on a group --> -45 Fortitude, most likely a lot of focus because Beguiler-refund. If focus is too low cast Phantom Foes. use Borrowed Instincts --> +20 ACC either use Force of Anguish with Swift Flurry --> targets fortitude. You now have the equivalent of +65 accuracy which leads to a crapload of crits usually. Especially on non-PotD difficulty settings. This can one-shot enemies which have lowish fortitude to start with. THen you will also gain a ton of focus because the additional attacks from Swift Flurry etc. do generate focus. Against touch ones is nice to bring down their Fortitude immensely in order to apply: Disintegrate. It targets Fortitude which usually makes it hard to use it on the big ones since those tned to have lots of it. Not if you brought it down by 45 first... If you want to specialize on Disintegrate it can make sense to use a Helwalker instead since the higher MIG works well with the DoT ticks. But of course this is more squishy. You also might want to cast Psychovampiric Shield first because its RES debuff will make the Disintegrate last a lot longer (RES influences the duration of hostile effects) To help with the Swift Flurry multiprocs you can also utilize Mental Binding. With Lingering Echoes + Monk INT bonus (eithr from Enlightened Agony or Turning Wheel) it will paralyze for a really long time and give you a 25% crit conversion against that enemy. Play this like a flanker since it's not too sturdy. You don't want to rush in first but come from the sides when the tank already engaged. Another one (very sturdy) Forbidden Fist/Beguiler max RES, high MIG and INT, generally stack all stuff that has bonus RES and -% fo hostile effects to shorten Forbidden Curse as much as possible - use Enlighened Agony (-50% duration hostile effects, -5 sec hostile effects, +5 INT). stack deflection with stuff like weapon & shield style, cape an whatnot. use a thickish armor - Devil of Caroc is sufficient though. Other nice ones are Casita Samelia's with high Intimidate skill. Aim for the Kāhako Nihi in SSS. use Iron Wheel Tuotilo's Palm + fist. Hylea's Talons. Will give you a wound once it expires on you (very short duration because of your high RES and Enlightened Agony), will put a lash on your melee attacks which increases focus gain. Lingering Echoes use Forbidden Fist ability: target is enfeebled --> -10 Fortitude and +50% duration of all hostile effects on the tartget. Stacks multiplicatively with Lingerung Echoes and high INT in the Transcendant use Stunning Surge: --> now -20 Fortitude, stun lasts a really long time because of high INT, enfeebled and Lingering Echoes use Psychovampiric Shield if the target probably has high RES (if you are a Beguiler it costs only 5 focus if you hit). This will prolong hostile effects on the nemy even further. cast Disintegrate: if you hit the Disintegrate will have a very long duration due to enfeeblement and Lingering Echoes, INT and eventually -10 RES. Go to another victm because this one will most likely die... Forbidden Fist does not generate focus in the unmodded game. Hence Beguiler. If you use the Community Patch mod it will generate focus. Forbidden Fist's Enfeeblement is a very strong tool for Transcendants because of the synergy of Lingering Echoes with high INT and the +50% duration effect. All afflictions will last a crazy long time. Like Mental Binding, Stunning Surge, Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master - you name it. You can also first charm or dominate the enemy and then cast Disintegrate. In both cases the mind control will last a very long time and DoTs don't make chamed enemies flip back alliance. So you can turn them against your foes while they are dying from the DoT. It's very effective. You can play this a bit less sturdy and reactive with a Morning Star. Fortitude debuffing will me much better but attack speed and survivability will be lower.

Or a conveyor belt full of french fries...

No, unfortunately the cone of WotEP will stay in melee (originates from player) while the initial attack will have the increased range. It can have it's merits but in general that's not the best combo. If you are using Community Patch then Shattered Pillar is fine. Just save before you consider Lesser Wounds: afaik it resets the wound limit to 5 again. Maybe it got fixed in between. Can't say. Unfortunately @MaxQuest and @Phenomenum seem to have abandoned this forum. with Community Patch Forbidden Fist is also a proper weapon attack and thus works with Swift Flurry.

Err? He didn't say anything about multiplayer. Did you misread "multiple options [for combat system]" as "multiplayer options"?

Until you get WotEP you can dual wield if you wish, sure. In the early game St. Drogga's Skull ist a very good pick for a cipher (you'll have it right from the start). Just don't take two weapon style. Whispers of the Endless Paths is a great sword (you have the parts in your ship's drawer right at the start of the game but you need to assemble it in Neketaka - you can get it quite soon) - so I would recommend Two Handed Style. The focus will come in "on the fly" and passively because you will do an immediate retaliation attack (or even two with Riposte) that generates focus if an enemy misses you in melee. Since Mirrored Image and Borrowed Instincts stack you will be missed lot. Against the usual bunch of enemies focus generation is so fast that you can use Soul Annihilation all the time. I would always use Draining Whip because Biting Whip is just awful (unless you use the Community Patch mod).

A proven and fun concept is using a Trickster/Soulblade, go for max deflection (high RES and INT are benefical, Mirrored Image, Borrowed Instincts, Psychovampiric Shield and ACC debuffs on enemies) and use Whispers of the Endless Paths with the enchantment "Offensive Parry". It will generate focus for you when enemies miss. Add in Riposte (stacks with Offensive Parry) and the fact that Soul Annihilation applies raw damage over the whole AoE cone of WotEP and you have an rather tankish yet offensively very performant build. DoTs don't break stealth or invisibility anymore by the way.

May I ask why you start the battle with Interdiction and not Inspiring (+eventually Aggrandizing) Radiance? Or even better: cast Devotions and then Radiance (since Devotions lasts a lot longer)? They do stack and in my book +10 additional party wide ACC is way better for the first CC spells etc. than a short-lived Daze effect (which might graze or even miss).

"moment of incredible cleverness" goes into my bag of funny phrases.

I just recently wondered if Arcane Assault was there all along - or if it's a new addition to the game. Because I never noticed it in the Weathered Grimoire before.

Yes, the synergy of Debonaire/Beguiler I also experienced myself. Did you know that you can cast Disintegrate on a charmed enemy and it will not flip back? That's rather awesome. +50% duration almost guaranteed and no backlash. Another nice combo (especially with Community Patch which turns Forbidden Fist into a proper weapon attack) is Forbidden Fist/Cipher with Stunning Surge and a Morning Star. Enfeeble (+50% duration of hostile effects) + Stun + Body Blows + Turning Wheel's INT bonus + a potential crit with Disintegrate (-45 fortitude after all) means a really long disintegration duration. And against high RES enemies (who usually laugh about DoTs) you have Psychovampiric Shield which removes 10 RES and further prolongs Disintegration. It's a fun combo. You just "infect" enemies with that combo and go to the next.

I do find lots of misses very annoying. First of all it gives the impression that your character can't even hit the broad side of the barn - which is a bit frustrating at times. But mainly because it just prolongs fights unneccessarily. By that I mean that if enemies and player characters both play by the same rules of misses/hits/crits then the outcome of the battle (on average) doesn't change if everybody misses more - it just takes longer. I don't mind misses every now and then, but with D&D they are way to frequent for my taste. It's not that bad with a RTwP game since it's faster paced than turn based combat and thus the time you lose isn't that apparent - but jeez is it annoying when you play turn based D&D games or even tabletop P&P and you miss all the time. I mean that's my free time that I spend with hitting the air... Hence I appreciated the graze mechanic of PoE a lot. I would have liked it even more if there would have been an "quality of hit" system that is more fine-grained - where you gradually do more or less damage based on the quality of your hits - but miss/graze/hit/crit is quite easy to grasp and also suitable for tabletop games. Obsidian even decided to lower the miss chance for TB mode even more - because as I said it it's even more tedious when playing turn based. So - if Larian decides to deviate from the (for my taste) awful miss mechanics of D&D they have my support. Even if they do a RTwP game. On the other hand I didn't look at D&D 5 yet so maybe it's not as bad (in my book) as it used to be?

Are you sure it didn't destroy loot? Because often players don't exactly know which loot is supposed to drop. And you don't miss stuff that you know nothing about in the first place. It is not a bug that occurs 100% of times. But it does still occur. After patch 4 or so I tested it and it seemed to be fixed. But then later I tried it again (just recently) with Nomu the Marauder who drops Chamaeleon's Ring. I shot him dead with Essence Interrupter (including crit and then death) several times and several times the Ring didn't drop. Killing him without the bow gave me the ring 100% of times (it's not a random drop). So even if it doesn't occur all the time it's still there. And I guess it will stay. Community Patch didn't touch Essence Interrupter. I also guess the bug is too deep in the code for a mod to fix it. Edit: I just now tried it again and killed Nomu several times with EI. This time the loot dropped. It may be that this bug does not occur in every playthrough - like the stuttering bug (the one where you command your party member to execute an ability but instead the ability keeps getting abandoned and reexecuted in an infinite stuttering loop until you cancel). In some playthroughs you might have it, in others it will not occur once. So it may totally be the case that you can play with EI and not lose loot. I would still be careful though and try it out on bounties and bosses before fully committing myself to the bow. I mean you can also reload and try again should you experience loot destruction. But maybe that can become a bit tedious. And the uncertainty is unnervig as well. Another possibility is that it got secretly fixed recently without any patch notes. Don't think so because patching's supposed to be over, but silent fixes like that did happen in the past.

With Tidefall very high MIG is benefical because the wounding lash itself scales with MIG. Priests can have the highest MIG score in the game due to their buffs (Holy Power early on, then Minor Avatar or Champion's Boon + Aggrandizing Radiance which stacks with everything) so their scaling of wounding is the (potentially) highest. The dps of wouding goes up once INT goes down (overall dmaage stays the same but the same dmg gets applied over shorter time). But low INT is not preferable on a Priest. You can take advantage of the "longer" wounding if you cast Cleansing Flame - it also doubles wounding ticks. Melee great sword priest is quite squishy in the beginning due to low deflection and endurance. You can get a lot of enemies off your back if you wear a thick armor and use Armor of Faith. Lots of enemies perfer "softer". I think only barbarians will go right after low deflection - and they are not so difficult to deal with once you wield that high-ACC Tidefall with a fat wounding lash. Also the healing and dmg of Holy Radiance gets pretty crazy once you reach the ~40 Might stratosphere. Especially if paird with the upscaled base damage due to correct reputation.

I don't remember that anyone objected to the statement that Heralds are very useful characters. So what needed to be validated? What got objected is not your obvious love of Heralds but that you constantly bring them up as suggestion - even if sombody just wanted to order french fries.

Yes, during my solo playtesting it became obvious that while the whole interaction can be very effective it can also be a bit fiddly from time to time. However - it was one of the easiest solo early-mid game I had so far.

This is, quite frankly, nonsense. Ciphers start with the same deflection as all classes (20) but have some powers that raise their deflection further (Psychovampiric Shield +5, Borrowed Instinct +20 - stack) and also gain more Armor (which is very important for survivability - Body Attunement) while at the same time they have lots of powers which drop enemies' accuracy (Eyestrike, Secret Horrors etc.). So by no means is a melee cipher squishy if you don't want him to be. The health gain of a singel class cipher is not great (38/8), but since they can have pretty high defenses and drop debuffs it doesn't matter that much after a few levels. Also the health gain per level of a multiclass is an average vaule. Monks gain 42/12 - so on average a Transcendent gains 40/10 which is standard. Since Borrowed Instincts stacks with all direct deflection buffs it can acutally be a quite tanky (multi)class if one wishes. Then - besides the quite tiring fact this is the build you suggest all the time no matter if it fits (after the omnipresent "Herald!" suggestion seemed to have lost its appeal) there are several problems that a new player might not be aware of (ranking from minor to major): Turning Wheel doesn't work with ranged weapons (which is a bit of a shame given that you want to use the +10 INT from Duality:Mind) - not a big deal though - just don't take Turning Wheel then. But you won't have the burning lash for faster focus generation (up to 20% multiplicative dmg which is considerable). +10 MIG from Helwalker wounds means +30% damage, not +50%. You can gain wounds for ascenson a lot faster with other weapons (melee or ranged, but especially melee) if that's the main goal of your build. There are several items which will give you additional lashes for melee weapons (Hylea's Talons - also give you wounds by the way, Belt of Magran's Chosen) which directly translates to more focus gain (remember: lashes are multiplicative dmg boosts and they do generate focus). You can't use those with a hunting bow. While Essence Interrupter (aka "the unique bow you can buy @ Port Maje") without doubt has its merits (e.g. against certain enemies due to the unusual dmg types, the lash of the bow and the stacking summons) it doesn't excel at helping you to melt anything - except unique items because: Essence Interrupter still destroys loot when it turns enemies into summons on crit-->kill. This bug wasn't fixed. I answered that or something similar to all of your reoccuring suggestions for this build in the past. So either you don't really read what people reply to your suggestion - or you forget - or you intentionally recommend a loot destroying item to new players repeatingly...?

Yes, it's difficult to tell because the spell effects themselves are not displayed in the tooltip of the imbue abilites. As far as my ingame tests show they do not profit. Example: I made an Arcane Archer at Power Level 19: his missile imbue will have 7 projectiles. If I bring his PL down to 18 he only has 6 projectiles. Now - by logic it should be so that if I bring the PL back up to 19 he should have 7 projectiles again. Which he does if I simply add a "normal" Power Level. However the projectile count stays at 6 if I try to raise his PL (for the imbue) with Firethrower Gloves. That tells me that the +1 Evocation PL does nothing. I also didn't see any raise in PEN and ACC for imbued Missiles or Fireball when putting on the gloves. The ACC bonus from the bonus to Arcana is applied of course. Maybe modders with insight into the code will have more detailed info. Somewhat related: I noticed that Necklace of Fireballs does seem to scale its Fireball with the gloves. I tested on an actual Evoker however - maybe that's also a factor (that you actually need to have any Evocation PL in the first place, no idea). Also the Evoker passive (double cast) does not work for imbued Fireball and Missiles not for the Necklace of Fireballs or Missile Gloves. In case somebody wondered...

Swift Flurry doesn't work with the Forbidden Fist Ability - so maybe you shouldn't pick that when using Forbidden Fist but take Lightning Strikes instead. Draining Touch doesn't profit from any "unarmed" passives like Transcendent Sufferig etc. But Miasma + Dazzling Lights (-50 Will) are your friends when using Draining Touch (targets Will instead of Deflection). Shattered Pillar only has 5 wounds max which limits the INT-boost from Turning Wheel to 5. Which is a pity when using Citzal's SL - since its AoE would grow with more INT. However, Shattered Pillar with WotEP and Wizard's defensive buffs can be great if you pick Offensive Parry (NOT Blade Form) as enchantment: every miss of an enemy triggers Offensive Parry which generates wounds for the Shattered Pillar(!). It also works with Swift Flurry by the way. You can even stack tons of bonuses against disengagement attacks (Graceful Retreat + Tumbling + Fleet Feet + Boots of Speed + Gipon Pridensco and so on) and then disengage intentionally - you will be unhittable and trigger lots of Offensive Parries, giving you wounds (and dealing damage). Also nice in combo with Combusting Wounds. Also all kinds of spells that reduce enemies' accuracy help enormously (Chillfog, Miasma etc.). I played a Shattered Pillar/Soulblade recently (for double resource generation on every Offensive Parry) and the wound generation was great and happens "on the fly".

You are nearly right. However, Kaylon already reported that DoTs still let you trigger Brilliant. I played this build for some hours and it's true that most of the time you don't need Brilliant because the fight resets anyway. Bit as Kaylon said, it's the fights that don't reset that matter here. About Gouging Strike: if you use Gouging Strike or Bleeding Cuts or whatever DoT with 3 sec ticks or longer you can still trigger Brilliant. The thing is that between those ticks is enough time for the game to think "ok that's is, encounter's over soon", enemies relax and you will gain Brilliant (gaining resources right away - then the DoT ticks again right after that, you will lose Brilliant, enemies start running around again... the relax, Brilliant pops up, resources, tick, loss of Brilliant and so on. Works even better with longer tick intervals such as True Love's Kiss (6sec) or Poison Dipped (12sec). Doesn't work with shorter intervals I guess (Whirlig Strikes and Corrosive Skin etc. - but doesn't matter in this case).

Turn Based mode was introduced with one of the latest patches of the lifecycle. It didn't influence the "RTwP experience" in the slightest.

As: it canceled the ability for good (so he had to recast it completely and lost the cast) or was is just delayed?

Good question. I think it does not - because it causes an interrupt once the spell wants to go off - but if you're immune... Logic dictates that it does nothing against the Oracle then. But... you know... I don't want to put my head above the parapet.

Unlike Deadfire in PoE there are no Power Levels and items which boost specific ones (for example for Evocation and Fire attacks). In general there's no merit in specializing on fire spells - for for thematc reasons it might be fun of course. There are several items that give you Fireballs per rest - which you can use to expand your fire spell arsenal quite a bit. For example there is The Flames of Fair Rhîan (sabre) which holds 3 Fireballs per Rest. You can clone it with the Helwax Mold and then have 6 Fireballs per rest. On top of that you can put Curoc's Brand (wand) in another weapon slot and get another Fireball use per rest. Then grab Taluntain's Staff and get another 3 per rest. You are at +10 Fireballs per rest then. Then you can pick some fiery spell masteries (Fan of Flames, Combusting Wounds, Fireball for example) and all the other fire spells. This will give you an enormous arsenal of fire spells per rest. Pick Scion of Flame and that's it. If you also pick all the "hater" talents (+25% dmg against vessels, primordial and such - what else would you want to pick as pure fire caster?) you almost have Sneak Attack level (+45% dmg) for fire spell. High MIG, Merciless Hand (+30% crit damage) and Dungeon Delver (+10% crit damage) round the picture. Another approach to "Fire Mage": What also works really well is having 4 weapon sets (Island Aumaua, Arms Bearer) of blunderbusses, Quick Switch and the Coil of Resourcefulness (=switching costs no time). Cast Combusting Wounds and then empty your blunderbusses on one foe who got affected by Combusting Wounds (best is to pick the most meatiest one). You will apply tons of burning DoT instances and the target will die very soon. The remaining guys (which still suffer from Combusting Wounds) should be treated with Wall of Flame. WoF + Combusting Wouds is also devastating. Add lots of other fire spells and there you go. Kind of a Fire(arm) Mage. Sounds like a Wizard who really likes Magran...

Maybe. They are only dummies after all.