Boeroer

You can use Sharpshooter - but I consider it to be one of the weaker Ranger subclasses. The recovery penatly is hard to compansate with that little crit conversion. Assassin doesn't work well with Frostseeker because it is is multiprojectile weapon and as soon as the first projectile hits the invisibility is lifted and the assasinate bonus will be gone. Projectile 2 and three and the AoE on crit will get nothing from Assassin. --- One of the strongest class combos for Frostseeker is Arcane Archer/Ascendant. Or Ghost Heart/Ascendant if you don't like having the animal companion around all the time. Reason is the highest potential accuracy in the game (Ranger passives + Imbue Shots + Arcana + Borrowed Instinct + Tactical Meld) paired with the Ascendant's Soul Whip and its dmg bonus which doesn't turn off when focus is full (like it does with the other cipher subclasses) but instead does even more weapon damage. And you get all the nice Cipher spells on top of that. For example Pain Block on a bear companion with Resilient Companion makes for a pretty good offtank - contrary to most other approaches to let the animal companion tank. --- A more obsucre but also good combo is Ghost Heart/Mage Slayer. The Frostseeker Bow creates a hidden melee attack roll when its projectiles critically hit. That hidden melee attack does no damage but triggers the AoE the bow does. This hidden melee attack does work with the Mage Slayer's Spell Disruption. Since Forstseeker has multiple projectiles you can shut down a caster pretty quickly - which an be very valuable. Also works with Arcane Archer of course but it just feels so wrong thematically. Mageslayer also brings more action speed via Frenzy and Bloodlust, either stagger on hit (Spirit Frenzy) or raw DoT on crit (Blood Frenzy), Barbaric Smash as a good finisher (can be cost free if it kills) and crit conversion and high dmg against near death enemies with Bloody Slaughter. --- Another good combination is Arcane Archer/Helwalker. In the unmodded game Turning Wheel will not work with ranged weapons (Lightning Strikes does), but the increased INT of Duality of Mortal Presence will enlarge the AoE of the bow, Eternal Dance of Death will give you +12 accuracy, up to +15 MIG and +2 PEN (Helwalker passive at 10 wounds + Thunderous Blows) do help with the damage of course. You also get a good summoning option on top of the animal companion (Dichotomous Soul). --- Yet another good option is Devoted/Arcane Archer or Ghost Heart. With Penetrating Strike you get awesome +5 PEN wit your warbow shots, could even get +6 if you use a Sharpshooter and get close (I don't recommend that though). Better crit dmg and then some of the other Fighter goodies like more accuracy and so on. --- Streetfighter + Frrostseeker could be unlocked with a Chanter (most likely Trobadour) as second class. As phrases it would be Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr + Sure-Handed Ila and you would use the phrases to summon upgraded Whisps which you target at yourself. Those hits will distract you and unlock the Streetfighter's passive -50% recovery time and bonus Sneak Attack damage. It's a little cheesy but works very well. However it doesn't have the best accuracy. If you let the Whisps shoot you enough you can become bloodied which then unlocks the next stage of the Streetfighter which results in a lot more critical damage. If you take human as race this will also unlock Fighting Spirit (+ accuracy, +dmg). Another way to use a Streetfigher with Frostseeker is to pick Berserker as second class and let the self damage of Frenzy get you to the bloodied state - unlocks Streetfigher passive. This combo is shooting very fast but also doesn't have the best accuracy. Note that all combos without Ranger will lack the ability Driving Flight - which is very good in combination with Frostseeker. I'd say it is too good to pass on it.

Nope - only the Druid spells that are keyworded with "Beast". You mean with weapon attacks I presume. With the deception spells it generally isn't a problem at all with the Beguiler. Even the deception spells that are cast on unafflicted enemies will generate focus: first the deception's affliction will be put on the enemy... and only after that the game checks if the enemy is afflicted and if there should be focus generation (for casting a deception spell on an afflicted enemy). This is one reason why the Beguiler mechanic around deception spells/focus generation (outside the weapon attacks) is so strong.

For modding you'd also have to alter the progression table (which tells the game which ability comes when for a class), not only the ability itself.

Ah, I see. Unfortunately Damage over Time spells (apply once, does ticks of small damage afterwards without additional hit rolls) like Shining Beacon don't profit from Scion of Flame and its siblings (see Spirit of Decay with DoT corrosion spells for example). In all other cases of direct fire damage* it will work, even with weapons (see the Firebrand summoned great sword) and non-spell abilities (see Flames of Devotion). It also works with lashes like Turning Wheel and as I said Flames of Devotion - also with the Wildstrike Burn of Druids or generally with all burning lashes on a weapon. It will raise the lash damage by 20%. So if the lash was doing 25% additional dmg. Scion of Flame would increase that from 25% to (0.25*1.2=0.3) 30% lash. And yes, that sucks and you couldn't know that. It's one of the little oversights that never got fixed and that you can only know about if you skim this forum, directly ask here or do extensive testing yourself. So it can be frustrating. *See Divine Mark and also Storm of Holy Fire: this one does multiple hit rolls which all do direct burn damage, it's not a DoT spell like Shining Beacon that only hits once and then ticks away like a poison. Both will work with Scion of Flame. --- Good finding with the mod option/Turning Wheel.

It's only crit dmg bonus. I find it hard to justify to get flanked with a low health ranged char and deal with melee attacks that potentially one-shoot me for more crit damage. If you can get flanked reliably but without taking dmg otherwise though (like by a party member's spell or whatever) it would be def. an option. Switching from an initial blunderbuss shot to bow would also work, but it lowers accuracy further and in a party that's way too much micro for my taste. And I tend to play without AI on - although this build is very nice for AI scripting.

If you need a great damage dealer in the early game not much beats Berserker/Streetfighter with Hunting Bow, preferably Essence Interrupter imo. Right out of the gates it gets Frenzy with higher action speed, Streetfighter passive with -50% recovery and 50% recovery from the bow modal. The self dmg of Frenzy leads to blooded which triggers the Streetfighter's Heating up. If you go with 3 CON this happens very quickly, but later in the game you would need to counter the self dmg more - bc. it scales more steeply than your health. First Frenzy + bow modal will speed you up, then Frenzy + Heating Up + modal will give you insane shooting speed and when Frenzy wears out you'll still have 2x -50% recovery. Of course the +2 PEN helps, too. Hunting bows get +5 acc naturally, so the malus of the modal is not that bad. And if you pick human as your race you will always unlock Fighting Spirit which counters the malus, too. Then buying the exceptional Essence Interrupter that early on the game does its part for your acc, too. This build can plow through Gorecci Str and the Digsite with ease - if you have somebody to keep enemies away from it. Luckily Hunting Bows have a great range. Blooded will already add 25% dmg to the high Sneak Attack of the bloodied Streetfighter. Later add Bloodlust even more speed), Bloody Slaughter and Blood Thirst and go the Blood Storm route of Frenzy - because the raw dmg is nice and bc. one kills so quickly the duration will be extended quite a bit. But then you have to counter with healing over time at some point. A pet with "heal on kill" can help. Devil of Caroc Breastplate + Abraham is a solid choice, also gets rid of the confusion. Later Savage Defiance. You can also go the Spirit Frenzy route and unlock Sneak Attack automatically with the stagger. The you can unlock deathblows right away with on Crippling Strike for example. Then also Brute Force can come into play in combination with Withering Strike (or some other source of sicken or weaken from the party) so that you can target a lower fortitude instead. I'm undecided on which is better. Spirit Frenzy is probably easier to control because the frenzy duration is finite. Ofc. Deathblows... I really liked Crippling Strike as my no.1 "affliction" attack. Upgraded to Arterial Strike when I went the Spirit Frenzy route and as Debilitating Strike if I chose Blood Storm (fast Deathblow unlock). It is cheap, scales its base dmg lovely via Power Level - esp. in combination with all the additive dmg bonuses - and has +2 bonus pen right away which stacks with the Berserker's +2 PEN. Once a target is afflicted you can just auto-attack (aka let the gatlin-gun do its work). As finisher I would use Barbaric Smash instead of Finishing Blow because often if will get refunded and it does comparable dmg (at least on crit). With Deep Wounds you might want to switch weapons to A's Legacy - because shock dmg wouldn't trigger Deep Wounds. But the summons from the EE's crits and then kills are still very nice to have, so maybe that's a matter of preference or party composition and also which enemy you are facing. It is not a build that improves like crazy after several levels but instead starts as very impactful and just keeps being good on a more flat "power curve". With Essence Interrupter this guy also rips Steelclads apart even if you are underleveled - an enemy who can otherwise be a problem if taken on too early. You can do the same with blunderbuss and combine the flanked with the bloodied for high crit dmg - but the shooting will be significantly slower and the acc not much better. Also the low range is really hurting this setup because you will get attacked a lot more. Purely single target damage though ( no problem with the initial confusion) - so I prefer him to take on dangerous but more squishy backliners like casters. Hes very good at killing them very quickly. As you can see the Berserker is mostly there to unlock bloodied/Heating up very quickly without the need to get flanked or get actually attacked by enemies - and the +2 PEN. This build profits a lot from party summons and/or mind control because it draws enemies attention (especially ranged enemies) away from him.

Grave Bound (the freezing effect of Grave Calling) isn't only applied with Chilling Grave (the Chillfog) but also with normal weapon crits. But iirc Scyorielaphas is immune to freeze attacks? Or does it work anyway?

I also didn't experience those bugs with Scion of Flame. I mean there are still some, but hardly noticable most of times. For example the Blood Testament Gloves have the same occasional quick as Turning Wheel. Unequip/re-equip will help. That's not great, but not a big hassle like removing/adding abilities every time, jeez - that's super annoying. I don't use any mods with PoE though.

True. If it's a party that's a non-issue in my experience though. Berserker/Beguiler is also a good choice imo. I don't have a ton of exp. with Berserker/Rogue - only two builds I played for an extended amount of time. Both Streetfighters: one ranged with hunting bow, one with Pukestabber + Lover's Embrace. Ridiculous attacks speeds with both, so good fun. But more of a challenge to keep alive.

The first bug occurs from time to time. Maybe it's tied to the specific invocation. You will usually still be able to gain the extended phrase number during battle and it's "only" the start of combat. Still sucks ofc. The second I never experienced myself. And I - funnily enough - also played and tested a Skald with Blightheart for quite some time. With Berserker as a second class though, not Psion. No idea where this could come from...

Paladin has Eternal Devotion which not only adds a burning lash but also +10 ACC. If you wear the Ring of Focused Flame you can add another +10ACC on top. Pretty good for landing crits. Then you can also use Zealous Focus for +5 additional ACC. It stacks with both FoD and Ring's bonus. Exalted Endurance's AR bonus doesn't stack with the Hardy inspiration of the Berserker anyway. Of you use a Kind Wayfarer and dual wield, your FoD attacks not only crit a lot but they also will heal you on the fly, making the use of Lay on Hands less frequent (better action economy). Also Paladin has on-kill effects (+defense, +Zeal) which synergizes with the Berserker (Bloodlust, Blood Thirst etc.). Barbaric Smash as finisher only. Add a pet that heals you on kill (+20) and maybe put a pet on Edér which heals +10 on kill party-wide. Results in pretty sturdy damage dealer imo.

I didn't have those kind of problems. Sometimes Turning Wheel not activating, but not frequently. Quicksave/-reload fixed it. I put a lot of hours into playing Monks.

It is viable. Less on PotD than on the lower difficulties, but with some effort and good item selection it's still viable and fun on PotD. Just don't expect to be able to facetank everything. While melee attackers will have a hard time the ranged ones will still be hitting you often enough which might get you in trouble if you are too ****y. The Offensive Parry does indeed generate phrases for you should it crit. So stacking melee deflection is a high priority. But you can also use deliberate disengagement as a source for Offensiove Parries. The armors Gipon Prudensco and Nmad's Brigandine both offer an enchantment that makes you immune to disengagement attacks. That doesn't mean that those attacks won't occur if you break engagement but nstead those attacks will all be converted to misses (100%) - and Offensive Parry will trigger. Fortunately both armors also offer an enchantment that rases deflection - which is nice. Te main difference is that Nomad's Brigandine offers a lot more AR with the know downsides (slower recovery). So you can try to tank a lot of enemies in order to trigger a lot of Offensive Parries from their misses - and if it's getting too hot you can just run away and trigger some more Offensive Parries in the process - hopefull gaining some more additional phrases. On top of that you might want to max out RES, get refreshing defense (it stacks with all deflection-only buffs like The Silver Knight's Shields or Warrior Stance - so that's great), Entonia Signet Ring, Superior Deflection, Cape and Bracers of Greater Deflection and Offensive Parry itself. Casità Samelia's Legacy is also a viable armor, but you'll have to raise the Intimidate skill in order to make it worthwhile. This can be good if you also take the Berath's Blessing "Infamous Past". But it lacks the disengagment trick. Of course it is benefical to debuff enemies' accuracy with the whole party. See Priest's Devotions for the Faithful and Desponent Blows, all sources of Blindness (Chillfog for example), PER debuffs (Miasma of Dull Mindedness) and so on. On top of all the Offensive Parry stuff you will also have the very good combo of the WotEP's cone attack with Clear Out later on. This will also be able to give you a very high chance of gaining a phrase because not only does Clear Out roll twice against the initial target but also every target in the cone of Clear Out will proc a new cone of WotEP which leads to a ton of individual hit rolls which not only send enemies sprawling in all sorty of direction but also makes it very likely to deal a critical hit that produces a phrase for you. For that combo to be good you also need high INT (=bigger AoE cones).

Herald: If you don't concentrate on weapon dmg but dmg with invocation (mainly Her Revenge) with Eternal Deviation (burning lash applies to invocation) and Sasha's Singing Scimitar (shocking lash applies to invocation, too - also 1* empower per encounter) she will do well as damage dealer. With Beta's Toothed Blade in the other hand and decent ACC with the help of Eternal Devotion and Ring of Focused Flame you can apply -2 AR to the targets with hells with dos, too. Eternal Devotion's lash lasts pretty long as some point, so you can substitute your dps by casting Brand Enemy on a lot of enemies right at the start of battle. It's an instant cast and has no recovery, only short animation time. So dropping it on 5+ enemies doesn't take long. I guess 2 or 2.5 secs. --- SC Paladin: Other alternative for the later game is to use her as SC Paladin and have a party member with the Many Lives Pass By chant. Pick Devine Retribution, get +2 Zeal for every dead skeleton and spam FoD endlessly. If you can lower DR and/or raise PEN in the party (for example via Cipher, +8 PEN) you could also spam Wrath of the Five Suns endlessly. If you have a Priest with Triumph of the Crusaders and a "on-kill" pet as well as self-damage reducing items like Voidward and +RES bonus you can also use Sacred Immolation a lot. --- Crusader: As Crusader you can not reach superhigh dps normally - but you can build a very sturdy, reliable dmg dealer with pretty impressive dmg per hit which is usually a menace for backline enemies. With a Great Sword+modal and Ring of Focused Flame, Sworn Enemy, Inspired Beacon and the other offensive stuff from Fighter and Paladin you can land high dmg strikes reliably because the acc malis of the modal gets countered by FoD and the Ring. You can get away with light armor bc. of Constant Recovery and Lay on Hands and also decent enough defenses (Refreshing Defense + Paladin passive for example). Benweth's Armor + Armored Grace + Abraham pet makes you faster than wearing no armor. Devil of Caroc Breastplate + Armored Grace + Abraham also makes a great combo.

One-Handed Style doesn't get applied to chants, only the generic +12 ACC bonus. I actually never tested predatory items but I suspect they alo don't work with chants.

Yeah... unfortunately lashes don't add or alter the type of "keyword" the original weapon attack carries. If it's not an elemental attack in the first place a lash will not change that. Only attack-abilities like Flames of Devotion can do that. But as you said: the little AC malus gets more than compensated by the bonus from Arcana.

Nope - I don't know about any place on he internet where you could find that. His website k4zz.com is also down.

Yes, that's how importing works. It becomes very expensive to hire an exported char as adventurer if there's multiple unique items in the inventory though. Ridiculously expensive. Best to export the char almost naked with only that one unique item you really want/need.

You usually also can reach Sam here in the forum when tagging him: @SChin (hello Sam ).

Cool, I'm happy that it works for you. Yes, the Knockback can indeed be annoying. Frostseeker's AoE does work with Energized (interrupts on crit). All rolls (weapon attacks, spells, chants etc.) that can critically hit will work.

By the way: the chants that give resistance to whatever can be used to make your party quasi-immune against those afflictions if you use a Troubadour with Brisk Recitation. Every time the chant "hits" your party it will remove 1 tier of affliction that's on your party. So let's say your whole party is enfeebled and the chanter sings "One Dozen Stood" with Brisk Recitation. He will then reduce the enfeeblement to weakened, then after 3 secs that will get reduced to sickened and 3 secs later reduction to nothing. So I like to have those three resistance chants up my sleeve. Not if ability points become scarce, but if there's room I will consider them.

I focused on interrupts and CC. My goal with this character is to shoot the arbalest + modal really fast. Sure-Handed Ila (2* -20% reloading time for reloading weapons) and Gunner do help of course - and so are item that reduce reloading/recovery time and buff action speed (Acina's Tricorn and whatnot). Since Spearcaster with high Arcana (goal to max it with Arcane Archer anyway) has incredible accuracy you can interrupt-prone everything with your shot. For example I managed to prone-lock Neriscyrlas for the whole fight: she had no chance. Myth Fir is good. But against bosses I value stuff like "Stumbling over words" more because it removes all concentration which can be crucial when trying to interrupt a lot. Invocation-wise I liked Killers Froze Stiff and Ben Fidel's Neck best. Both have a pretty big cone - so you don't have to be so near to the action as with other, shorter cones. Later I also use the Champion invocatiuon a lot because as you said: you can interrupt via Binding Web or other imbue shots but also with yout chants (see Stumbling over words - it can crit and thus interrupt it self while energized). I didn't actually use a lot of summons because I was so busy shooting all the time and use Killers/Ben Fidel. Also the animal companion got a bit neglected - because I don't want it to run into my imbue areas I mostly used it as a bodyguard who could intercept enemy rushers. I think it only had resilent companion and Stalker's Link. I like Takedown Combo - but with this char I didn't bother because the AC was only used in emergencies as I said. That freed up more abilities. Also since I used the arbalest modal I didn't use stuff like Concussive Tranquilizer a lot. I first took it but later retrained becaue I realized I almost never used it (because arbalest + modal is sufficient and doesn't cost anything). So nearly all my Bond could be used for Imbue:Pull of Eora and Binding Web. Other abilities from the Ranger side: Marksman, Gunner, Driving Flight(!) and so on.

I also use that.

Ah, good point, good point!

Right. It only wanted to spell out that he can be a viable main tank. Hm, usually I don't need strong healing to support him (although I prefer to have it) - and I don't even pick Unbending because I don't need it for him either. I picked it a few times at the beginning but at some point realized that I rarely activate it in the first place. That made it feel like a waste of an ability point. It also competes with Edérs other active abilities for Discipline... and I have to say Discipline is pretty scarce at most times for my Edér. I make use of Gouging Strike because it is great in the earlier game against overleveled high AR enemies (Steelclads for example) and I also use quite some Discipline for Into the Fray. It can be pretty fun bc. it has instant casting time and 0 recovery, so you can draw in a lot of enemies into engagement in no time - with a little bit of damage. Sometimes I even spam Into the Fray just to kill a particular enemy asap (like those a**holes who try to abduct party members - which to me is just a huge annoyance). So everything that also needs Discipline and isn't needed too often is a bit unattractive for me (even if it's a good ability when you need it). I also don't feel forced to take Tekehu. I like him over Maia and Pallegina, but I don't pick him because I feel that Edér cannot survive without him. Since my Edér is maxing Athletics bc. of Cadhu Scalth he has a potent second wind for emergency situations. And then Xoti's few healing spells (I like to use Iconic Projection) would usually be enough to help him stay alive after he gained some more levels. I don't even use consumables like healing potions (besides food for resting). I do make use of strong CC though and that of course helps a lot. But it seems that with Cadhu Scalth's and Death's Maw's damage reduction is enough to reduce the incoming damage enough so that his Constant Recovery + Second Wind is sufficient in most fights. If I also have Lay on Hands in the party then I often don't even need Xoti for healing. As I said I use Riposte with a large shield + club setup - not with dual wielding or two handers or so - mainly as a tool for distributing Bewildering Blows (club modal) around him. Basically as a nice-to-have addition to the Persistent Distraction, not as dps improvement (although it does improve dps of course, but that's not really what I'm looking for). That being said: that is true for all content except the Megabosses. I usually skip them because I find the fights against them pretty annoying nowadays. For those few fights my Edér is def. not tanky enough and cannot withstand them for a very long time without hefty support.