Boeroer

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.

DId you know that Inspiring Radiance completely stacks with itself (if you have two or more Priests)? Very funny if you do a 6 Priests run. +60 ACC for the party that early in the game is... potent - even if it doesn't last that long.

That is correct.

Erm... both at the same time. I use him as main tank swashbuckler with a large shield and lots of engagement items (Hold the Line, Reckless Brigandine, Kapana Taga, Cadhu Scalth), Riposte, Mob Stance and a pet like Abraham for example. It makes him rel. fast when he's engaging a lot of enemies which makes him more reactive while still being able to engage 5 enemies - more is not practical imo. With Persistent Distraction he will passively debuff and afflict those 5 enemies automatically which is nice. With Kapana Taga and his attacks and Ripostes he will debuff enemies' Will for my party. I also pick Adept Evasion - because in combination with the modal of the large shield and the enchantments of Cadhu Scalth you cannot really harm him when you cast friendly-fire spells on him + the enemies he's holding - if those spells target reflex. I also give him an item that makes him immune to push/pull effects (usually the Upright Captain's Belt) because I like to make heavy use of Pull of Eora in the area where he is holding most enemies. He will skill Athletics and Metaphysics bc. of Cadhu Scalth. He will not do great amounts of weapon damage nor will he be the tankiest of tanks - but he's really useful for me that way. He is and was totally fine for lots of my party runs as the only tank. It takes some levels until he can withstand all sorts of enemies alone - but at some point it just works. Maybe because I usually don't use glass cannons so there is always a bit of support at the front line. And lots of debuffs and CC from the second row which of course helps with survivability of the front line. The biggest gripe I have with him is his lowish INT. It's not so bad when taking Tactical Barrage - but I would still like my tank to have more INT. I would also have liked him to be an Unbroken instead of a no-subclass Fighter. But it still works.

I don't mind a Wiedergänger thread. I just wouldn't expect the addressed users to actually respond if their quoted post is like four years old.

While Xoti's passive (+3 wounds on kill) only works for melee weapon kills(!) her lantern restores +1 wound an 1 motification for any kill, no matter how. This can be important for Contemplative (e.g. Blessed Harvest kills will not trigger the passive, but the lantern's refund) and if you want to use Inner Death and Resonant Touch. Kills by those will not trigger Xotis "+3 wounds on kill" passive. I know, Inner Death: unpopular choice... but it's actually pretty fun if one builds around it, has the lantern and adds Empowered Strikes, too. Like... if you grow tired af spamming WotW with Monks. Since Inner Death costs Mortification it isn't affected by Xoti's increased wound cost. And with the lantern you can reuse it for every 3 kills you do. Be a little backline hunter, palm casters to death and so on. I liked to combine it with Skyward Kick. With Community Patch Inner Death is properly tagged as melee weapon attack, so you even get the +3 wounds on kill for Xoti. Made alternating between Skyward Kick and Inner Death easy. That's a pretty amusing combo against weak but dangerous enemies you want to get rid of asap. Of course not as overwhelmingly potent as WotW is.

Perhaps, perhaps not - I liked Durance, too. What's really off though is your timing. ...

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