Boeroer

Yes. A shield that also counts as offhand weapon (Tuotilo's Palm, Magran's Blessing etc.) will profit from both styles.

I also have the fig badge but I didn't do any investments/fig shares.

It used to be very good but its base dmg got nerfed severely. Now it's just okish. As Kaylon said it has it's own base damage and that is not weapon related. You'llget a rel. weak ranged piercing attack at the nearest enemy as a bonus on top of your roll for your ability point. Afaik it's not tagged as weapon attack so it wouldn't profit from weapon related passives and also would't generate focus. Most of the time I don't take it.

It is affected. You can look it up if you watch the tooltips of your equipped weapon during combat. The Hunting Bow modal wasn't changed by the Community Patch. It was always -50% recovery and -15 ACC. -15 ACC is pretty massive, especially in the earlyish game. You could get better results with a single pistol + modal I reckon. It's only -3 ACC and also has -50% recovery/reload.

The Long Pain is one of the best ranged (single target) weapons in the game.

Ha sorry. PoE1-induced brainfart with the retraining. Action speed modifiers work for reloading weapons as well. So with Swift Strikes you reload faster. Also with Two weapopn Style and dual wielding. Streetfighter's recovery bonus also works for reloading. What does not work is Barbarian's Blood Thirst. It only removes recovery only, not reload though. But since you don't use a Barbarian... no problem.

It doesn't matter at all for the quality of a story or the writing whether the actions of the protagonist have an impact on the world or not.

For an Ascendant/Helwalker MIG ist not a waste because one of your signature spells, Disintegration, profits a lot from him MIG AND high INT. MIG raises the dmg of the ticks and INT gives you more ticks. Together this is a huge dmg improvement for all sorts of DoT effects. Helwalker is only squishy if you have many wounds. If there are situations where you want to be less squishy: spend wounds. At the same time Turning Wheel and Iron Wheel are not mutially exclusive - you could take both and switch once you think you need additional CON. I personally would just use healing from your buddies though. I never take lesser wounds. So it's totally viable. In my opinion it's not worth the ability point. Instead I'd rather use Mortification of the Soul. But that I also don't pick a lot. If you are at 10 wounds (and started with maxed base INT in the first place) you will have plenty of ascension time. If you can raise this with SoT then even better. I know no practical way to increase that any further. Except more SoT from another priest or the same priest with the brilliant affliction - for example if you have a Tactician/Priest in the party. He could buff you up with endless SoT if the circumstances are right so that you get hours of ascension - but I'm pretty sure you don't want to experience the tedium of that in a normal party playthrough. Maxed INT + Tunrning Wheel (+10 INT) + one or two SoT is plenty, plenty ascension time. What you can do to press more castings into your ascension time is to become faster (at casting). Not only the duration of your ascension determined how many spells you can cast during that period but also how fast you can cast them. Your first try would have been better as Ascendant/Streetfighter with Blunderbusses (better hand mortars) for example. He cuts his attacking/casting recovery in half which allows to reach ascension superfast and then cast more spells during ascension. In case of Ascendant/Helwalker you want to have good DEX and raise action speed (see Lightnig Strikes - also raises DEX further and helps with the focus generation because of the lash). Then you're good to go. If you are playing a ranged Ascendant/Helwalker I would recommend to use AoE weapons for the initial attack(s). Rods with Blast, cast with high INT on a group of enemies, might already fill up your focus to max. Watershaper's Focus is a superb weapon for the initial strike. If you turn on the Blast modal it will also jump with the projectile (Watersh. Focus has a build- in jump), giving you two AoE attacks with one shot. If you can pull some enemies together with your tank or with the cast of Dazzling Lights (luring enemies from stealth) and then hit them all with that first shot you will most likely start the encounter with ascension already. Also if you utilize hand mortars (Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole). They have AoE dmg, two different dmg types and Fire in the Hole even jumps one time (including the AoE), giving you additional focus. Also Stunning Surge works wonderfully with them because all the AoE crits also count for the mortification refund. Downside is the limited range. If you dump RES and CON to 5 you can as well dump it to 3. You won't feel a difference in squishyness but gain 4 points for the other stats that really matter. Once you can pick Borrowed Instincts you can lower your PER via retraining. Exept if it's the highest PER in yopur team because then you'd need it for finding traps and stuff.

No, not really. But since you can multiclass now it should be pretty easy to combine a Monk with a Cipher in a decent way. Helwalker/Ascendant is pretty popular. Single class Cipher (again Ascendant maybe) with Monastic Unarmed Training (Deadfire's Novice's Suffering) is also viable.

Most of them come with ads (you can get focus from deceiving them), then cast a Disintegrate. Or Antipathetic Field + Death of 1000 Cuts. If not you need to either use a very cheap deception or attack with a weapon. Beguilers still can do that just fine. Besides that, Ciphers just don't shine vs. lonely bosses in general.

Uniques aside Battle Axes are totally fine for a dw Fighter. There are good unique ones, too - but as draego said they show up a bit late compared to unique sabres. However, a self-enchanted Battle Axe (exceptional + a lash) will get you a long way. You can even buy an exceptional axe (fake-unique one "Silver Crow Axe") in Defiance Bay a lot earlier than you could usually loot it. Also for a reasonable price. If you get this and put a fitting lash on it (to your liking, most likely you will have collected the required stuff for a burning lash first) then you'll have something nice. "Rimecutter" is among the best dps weapons in the game (because of the speed enchantment) but it's a random thing because it is sold by Azzuro, your travelling Stronghold merchant. Often he didn't offer it to me at all in many playthroughs - sometimes he sold it to me thrice in one playthrough... You can trick the game and Azzuro: at the entrance to Lle a Rhemen on the map Stormwall Gorge you can find a seal on the ground. This can be used to trigger a "wait" dialogue. You can trigger it as often as you want, letting time pass by in the process. Once you unlocked Azzuro you can use this to skip time between Azurro's visits and wait until he offers you Rimecutter. Or you can use the console to give it to you (losing achievements in the process).

Pragmatic and efficient approach. I'm going to do the same with your post. Bye!

Ha - then maybe don't use it.

In kill or on knockout? On kill wouldn't really matter.

If you have a caster with a corrosion spell in the party you can simply cast it onto the guy who needs a minor injury to knock him out. For example Necrotic Lance. You can even cast it onto yourself. It's only the last hit that kncoks him out which needs to originate from the spell. You will get an Acute Rash which is one of the mildest injuries there is. Alternatives would be fire damage (Serious Burn) and so on. Maybe, if you shoot your friends with Essence Interrupter (while they are wearing an armor with low shock AR) they will also get the according elemental injury. Never tested though. Anyway: using a spell is maybe the most simple and least tedious way to get a minor injury for Rekvu's gear.

That is correct. It's always the same order. For example when you summon K's Blights and then immediately summon an Essential Phantom it will always use the burn version (and will hold it until the phantom vanishes or gets killes - doesn't cycle). So if you want more shock attacks you can wait until the Blights cycled to shock version, then use Salvation of Time and an Essential Phantom to have two sources of AoE shock damage for a long time.

Mob Stance gives you higher action speed (includes attack animation time and recovery) universally - not just weapon attacks. Like Frenzy or Alacrity and Swift Strikes and so on do. Just keep in mind that a +x% bonus for action speed is less potent than a -x% bonus for action- or recovery time. Because... math. Armored Grace will also work. And, as Ophiuchus said: some pets also reduce armor penalty and stack with Armored Grace - like Cutthroat Cosmo (you'll have it right from the start of the game) or Abraham. Also there are some armors which will give you action speed bonuses: Devil of Caroc's Breastplate, Reckless Brigandine (stacks its engagement-based bonus with Mob Stance), The Bloody Links and whatnot. Taking Two Weapon Style only reduces your weapon recovery - but it may lead to a more flexible build nonetheless because you can react faster after attacking with a weapon. Don't know your subclasses, but as a Kind Wayfarer you usually want to use two weapons anyway because your FoD-healing will trigger twice then.

Concussive Tranq. does work indeed. However, I only played a solo Geomancer with Morning Star, not summoned weapons.

I never tried, but I guess Wizard/Steel Garrote could be cool with the Steel Garrote's draining passive against afflicted enemies. No idea if the AoE also drains health, but maybe... Eternal Devotion + Ring of Focused Flames + Zandethu's Draconic Fury gives your lance's AoE a pretty impressive lash combo. Before that you can use Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff in order to get combined draining from the staff itself and the Garrote's passive. That I tried and it's viable.

Keep in Mind that Mirrored Image or Arcane Veil stack their deflection with Llengrath's Safeguard or Vigorous Defense (Battlemage). Speaking of Battlemage: Citzal's + Mule Kick is pretty cool as Wizard/Tactician. And of course Citzal's + Clear Out is great as well. For Sage: Force of Anguish + Citzal's is funny, but most of the time not that practical. Stunning Surge + Citzal's is great. As is Instruments of Pain + Spirit Lance, especially if you summon a Phantom then (which uses the same Lance then for the whole summoning duration).

Actually Spirit Lance never changed (except there was a bug that prevented all AoE weapon to work properly but that was fixed). So most attack abilities apply their effects in an AoE with it. Exception: Wounding Shot. And maybe others. But afaik the Monk and Barb and Rogue stuff all works. And yes: you can use other (summoned) weapons to good effect with e.g. a Sage.

I think he's the only one right now. At least he's the only one who got mentioned by Josh on Twitter so far. Maybe somebody else did it secretly and asked Obsidian not to say anything, but I doubt it.

You can try to kill the Vithrack and take his note (and read it), too.

Same talents, different abilites...?