Boeroer

Alec Frey (producer) and Matt Hansen (art director) already stated some time ago that they would be on board. Fingers crossed!

Before doing extensive tests in game etc: If one uses the attack speed calc (derived from game code) I linked one can see the results in frames - and then maybe deduce whether the returns are linear (discarding little steps that are a result of rounding). I guess this makes it more easy to produce workable numbers compared to logging frames in the game or so. Besides that of course DEX has increasing returns in the form of a bonus to the Reflex defense. But most players, including me, think that Reflex is one of the more unimportant defenses so it's maybe not really worth taking up a bigger part of the discussion about DEX and its benefits as an attribute.

Oh, I forgot: Frostseeker's AoE that procs on crit is a melee attack (weird, but it's like that). Because of that a Mage Slayer can use that bow to apply the spell disruption via bow. A Mage Slayer/Ranger (like Sharpshooter or Ghost Heart or so) can be built into a high ACC "caster sniper" who not only does good DPS but also shuts down enemy casters reliably from a safe distance and without the need of moving towards the targets. Mage Slayer/Cipher can do similar things with a bit less accuracy and without Driving Flight of course - but it can combine frighten (see Secret Horrors for example) and the spell disruption to not only shut down casters but also the other offensive abilities of most enemies. Also Mind Control which is always very powerful. Mage Slayer/Troubadour can do similar things but has to get a bit closer and has less accuracy. But summons, high versatility and more attack speed make up for that. It's a little trick that makes the Mage Slayer worth taking. It's something different and therefore maybe more exciting that a more traditional bow build, no idea. I found it interesting.

I only use the Community Patch (with two or three minor adjustments) and the Enhanced UI mod. But I try to recommend stuff based on the vanilla game as a baseline. My favorite ranged character is an Arcane Archer/Troubadour with an Arbalest (Spearcaster). It is the most overall useful ranged character I had in any full party run by far (excluding mortar monk - but I consider that to be more of a hybrid build and not really ranged) because it can do so many things very well. But it doesn't use a bow obviously. From a DPS perspective the best bows are hunting bows (both Essence Interrupter and Amiina's Legacy are great) and Frostseeker with a more specialized build. Arcane Archer/Ascendant is very strong with Frostseeker because the Accuracy is the highest in the game. It's great even if you just keep shooting and never spend focus for spells other than self buffs (because Ascendant's Soul Whip doesn't turn off when focus is full but instead gives extra dmg). For the early game a Berserker/Streetfighter with Essence Interrupter (or later Amiina's Legacy) and the hunting bow modal is ridiculously fast (if you get bloodied from Berserker Frenzy that will trigger the Streetfighter passive). Frenzy, Bloodlust, bow modal and "Heating Up" will all stack and let you shoot incredibly fast, with very high dmg bonuses but not too good accuracy. But this is redeemed a bit with the +5 acc the hunting bows have naturally and the conversions the Barb and Streetfighter abilities can offer. Also stuff like Gauntlets of Greater Reliability do help and of course taking a human (being bloodied gives extra acc and dmg). This build can help a LOT with the erlarly struggles of Gorecci Str. and the digsite and will just gatlin-gun down most enemies. Even if you miss several shots: they do come in to fast and then with such high dmg per hit (Sneak Attack + Streetfighter Sneak Attack Bonus + Blooded + Fighting Spirit) that even higher level enemies get overwhelmed quickly. It is risky though because you will have to deal with the steeply scaling self damage of the Berserker which is used to get to the bloodied state quickly. You don't want to get attacked too much - unless you invest in higher CON, but that significantly prolongs the time it takes to become bloodied and profit from the Streetfighter passive. For the patient player there is the kind of counterintuitive way to play a single class wizard - maybe even Conjurer - who uses a hunting bow like Essence Interrupter first and uses his Phantom to help with the ranged DPS (also Phantom's crits also cause enemies to turn into summons after death) and later switches to Caedebald's Blackbow. Wizard + Phantom, optimized with items for bow use (Ring of the Marksman and so on) are devastating on the battlefield when they use the Blackbow. Its projectiles jump once up to 12m in all direction and target fortitude instead of deflection, the dmg is corrosion (Spirit of Decay does +1 PEN) and it causes terrify on every hit. This also makes the Helm of the White Void an excellent choice for headgear because every shot of the bow contains an affliction which means every shot from the Blackbow gets +10 ACC. That way the Wizard can achieve very high ACC (also see Citzals Martial Power) and the Phantom isn't far behind. A party member with a Morning Star and some fortitude debuffs (CON and/or MIG afflictions) dies also help a lot. Besides that the Wizard can cause those debuffs with spells, too (see Ryngrim's spells for example). I find this to be fun and worthwhile the wait, but of course in the beginning it's not really an optimized build for bow use. Feels rewarding later though, so maybe it's interesting.

Yes, it used to do that. You could stack Disoriented without a hard limit (only the duration made sure that the stacks woudn't get too high). Then it got nerfed so that the "Disorienting" debuff doesn't stack anymore (not even from different weapons who apply the same effect). I suspect one of my posts where I showed how to prolong the duration of Disoriented so that you could debuff most enemies to negative defenses was the trigger for this nerf. Edit: Ha, found a screenshot that I used in that thread but couldn't find the thread anymore:

I've done a lot of playing with all classes in PoE and Rogue + Fighter are def. the weakest ones over the course of the a whole playthrough. Start really nice but fall flat on PotD. Mostly due to the lack of AoE. Rangers are also not fantastic bc- of the same problems - but better than Rogue and Fighter imo. Usually the casters will steal the show. Even on the Rogue's home court, melee single target damage - a caster may overpower him (see Shapeshifting Druid with Avenging Storm), at least for a short time. And that guy would have a great deal of spells to unleash in tough encounters on top. I have tested countless character builds in special fights over and over again and Rogue as well as Fighter always were the hardest ones. BUT: that's often without using things like Shadowing Beyond which can be of course a great tool for a solo run. I don't mean they are unplayable or anything - just less "potentially" potent on PoTD that the other classes in general. I still had very enjoyable Rogue and Fighter builds though, especially in a party where they could focus on certain special tasks where the lack of AoE didn't matter at all (like hunting enemy casters in the backline or so).

Heh - this is a case for inspector @thelee. Looks linear enough to me, especially in the range of around 10 to 25 - which is the range we should be talking about when it's about deciding how to distribute attribute points at character creation. Besides that - I also often don't raise DEX too high. But not because of limited returns but because I value the effects of some other attributes higher for most characters (not all though - my Skalds for example often come with maximized attack speed). By the way here is a an attack speed calculator (done by @MaxQuest) which makes it rel. easy to experiment with the attack speed variables, incl. DEX: https://naijaro.github.io/deadfire-speed-calculator/ Well - I did not. Berserker can lead to that no doubt, but I described the techniques with which I prevented this. As was shown the main point is automatic wound generation when it comes to Berserker/Monk. And that - together with the spared ability point for Thunderous Blows, +2 AR and crit conversion is def. worth the downsides in my book. Esp. because you can simply circumvent the Confusion part which would be the biggest downside (if you don't want to turn it into a cheesy upside). I don't think it's hard. I only think it's not the way most players tend to play the game. Hence I don't use no rest as a base for how to judge if a build might be enjoyable for other players (who didn't indicate that they are about to do a no-rest run - in that case I wouldn't recommend anything because I don't enjoy no-rest runs). Yo-rest runs tend to be lighter on the indicator space. I wasn't talking about any mods - and I also said I didn't even need Savage Defiance. Clearly your build was a lot different from the one I described. Yes - but as I described I didn't devote lots of healing resources to the Berserker/Monk. It was an amount of healing any regular party would be happy with and not excessive. That would be the case if I talked about a Berserker/Helwalker with dumped CON - did that, also was fun but was def. dying a whole lot without meticulous babysitting. They are both considered active buffs and thus don't stack. No, Turning Wheel does not stack with INT inspirations. MIG from Helwalker does stack with MIG inspirations because that special MIG bonus comes from a passive. One is always doing adjustments and resource diversion to make a build idea work. You will put lots on RES into a FF Monk, you will give high ACC to a Skald, you will put a melee weapon and high dmg bonuses on a Soulblade, you will give special healing care to the Bloodmage, you'll make sure your Psion doesn't get attacked so much and so on and so forth. It is nothing special to make certain adjustments in order to create an enjoyable (main) character. Besides that you ignored the main reason to bring it up: it was originally done to maximize the combination of Saru Sichr and Swift Flurry/HBD and I brought it up as an alternative for a single class Monk which was mentioned as a potential wielder for Saru Sichr. I think there is no easier way to generate that amount of wounds right from the start - there are more safe ways of course, but not easier. You just press Frenzy (which you would want to activate as a Barb anyway) and the wounds start acumulating very quickly. That's as easy as it gets imo. I have no problem with that.

DEX has linear returns by the way, not limited. Comparing Tenacious from Berserker with the effects of Slayer's Claw is pretty... wild. The Berserker's Tenacious via Frenzy comes at lvl 1 - while Slayers Claw is late game material. Then Slayer's Claw will upgrade your Tenacious inspiration to Energized like it would upgrade Strong to Tenacious, so it isn't really a substitute but an addition even for Berserkers (if one wishes). Imo the best argument against Berserker/Monk would have been that Monks can get Tenacious via Thunderous Blows - which will come way earlier that Slayer's Claw normally. Of course I skip Thunderous Blow's when using a Berserker, spares an ability point... My Berserker was meant as an example for a Saru-Sichr/Swift Flurry option instead of SC Monk, not a general recommendation for Berserker. Berserker's self dmg combined with concealed health is indeed a dangerous combo most of times. Anyway, here the strong synergy of Berserker/Helwalker (or any monk besides Forbidden Fist and Shatters Pillar) comes from the fact that Berserker's self damage fuels wound generation... a lot. Forbidden Fist could also work bc. the confusion from Frenzy is separate from the beneficial effects and gets shortened by RES and Clarity of Agony, so you only become confused for a short time and then get healing + wound. This also works... but back to the Helwalker variant. So as I said the self damage of Berserker fuels the wounds of the Helwalker. It already works well at low levels, but since the self damage scales so steeply while the wound threshold doesn't change, you will figuratively drown in wounds at some point. Now high accuracy is better than crit conversion most of times, but with a build I described that is about Saru Sichr and Swift Flurry/HBD the added conversion also helps. You want to create as many crit chains as you can after all. If one doesn't play juiced up with potions and special food and multiple resting bonuses in a "no rest" run but rather normally and with a party, it's not that easy to crit all the tough enemies all the time. Then a good base of conversion is not lost. Berserker's conversion does not additively stack with Bloody Slaughter, Willbreaker and Barbaric Blow - but it will stack. So in cases where a crit chain could end prematurely because you rolled low it still has a chance to go on bc. the roll gets converted up. It will not make a ton of difference but I take it. Of course the combination of Berserker and Helwalker, even with maxed CON and damage reduction, is a dance on the edge, but that's also part of the fun for me. Of course more MIG via high wound count and up to +50% received dmg will raise the self damage of Frenzy even more - and that can hurt a lot while it also leads to a violent eruption of wounds. To mitigate frustration I described the variant of maxed CON and using some sources of damage reduction (helm, ring, maybe food) which works very well. If one adds some form of healing on the fly (like a pet with +20 healing per kill, maybe supported by an Edér pet that adds +10 per kill party-wide and then Devil of Caroc Breastplate for example, best armor for Berserkers in most cases anyway). Lastly taking Blooded makes sure you have an easy indicator for when your health drops below 50% - and you get +25% dmg (again good for wounds and bad for your health). I like to take humans for such a build because there are added bonuses when going blooded. To get a further indicator you can also use an item that triggers if you are near death. I didn't need it but they are there in case one needs more info about the health status. Since Barbs have such high base health and Barb/Monks are not far behind the maxing of CON adds a ton of absolute health. While I tend to drop CON in most builds in this case its a staple. A huge health pool means a huge wound resource in this case. And with the right approach (as I said I also added Amulet of Greater Health and the ability Tough to the mix) you'll have more health while Bloodied than Edér has when unharmed. Now, it's still absolutely beneficial (I'd say mandatory) to have a good source of additional healing in the party. In my run Tekehu, who just cast Nature's Balm at the start of battle, was enough to substitute the Berserker/Helwalker with his additional self-healing properties via pet and stuff in most fights. Sometimes he had to get out the Moon well, too. Xoti dropped some additional healing as well. But I didn't even have to take Savage/Stalwart Defiance with the Berserker/Helwalker, which spared me some precious ability points again. Especially at the higher Power Levels there's just too much good stuff to pick. I didn't use Iron Wheel by the way - because neither the CON- nor the AR-bonus of it stacks with Frenzy's +5 CON and +2 AR. Turning Wheel doesn't have that problem. Since wounds are so plenty the wound counter is a 10 a lot of times. So you can get away with mediocre base INT - something that I normally don't do - but so is maxing CON. Another upside of such a Berserker/Helwalker is the comically high fortitude defense. The MIG bonuses of Frenzy and Helwalker passive do stack and maxed CON + Frenzy and some items add on top. Fortitude is a nice defense to have. It works against most effects that mess with your health pool, like weaken. You don't want to get your healing restricted when relying so much on it and stellar fortitude is a nice way of not getting struck with such afflictions in the first place. Can still be a thrilling experience of course - but I liked that for a main character. I have played many Berserker variants in the past though (also Berserker/Helwalker before) and this was one of the most easy-going ones when it comes to dying from self damage. Still this isn't supposed to be a glowing recommendation. I found it enjoyable but it maybe isn't for everyone.

I almost never use potions, but this is cool.

Unbroken/Wizard can profit from Body Blows with Knockdown early - and also from nasty disengagement attacks once you start terrifying enemies (they crouch around, you can engage and when they crouch out of engagement: boom). It can be a lot of fun but doesn't always work 100% reliably. Still it's a nice "free" source of additional damage output. If he Phantom has engagement (it has with some items like Reckless Brigandine for example) it works with the Phantom as well: It will follow crouching enemies, reangage and profit from disengagment attacks, too. Of course an Unbroken/Wizard will have more engagement slots than the phantom so the chance of triggeriung disengagement attacks its higher if multiple enemies are involved. Reckless Brigandine + White Witch Mask + Willbreaker is my preffered item setup for this. Also pretty tanky that one. But: using the phantom for such things can become a bit tiresome - because a rather elaborate summoning/casting-setup is involved. It might be that you don't want to go through that process in every encounter and soon would prefer a more straightforward approach. For solo I find this totally okay - for a party game it might be too much preperation at the start of battle for some players. Depends on the level of micromanagement you can tolerate - or if you are willing to script this behavior with the AI tool which can really help to mitigate the micromanagement-fatigue. --- I personally like to enchant Willbreaker with "Make them Flinch" (25% miss to graze) and combine that with Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (also 25% miss to graze). That way you can even graze (and apply Body Blows) enemies who have absurd defenses often enough. This can help to more easily crack very tough nuts. I value that over Battered Mind - although interrupt chance on hit is good, too. --- An even more potent "Swift Flurry machine" than Saru Sichr for MC or SC Monk is the spear Mohora Tanga. It has no fortitude debuff of course, but It also has a DoT that counts as separate weapon attack like Saru Sichr, but this one (named "Red Flag Flying") has the way more potent feature to trigger itself(!) on a crit. So it works like this: Mohora Tanga lands a crit -> this triggers Red Flag Fyling DoT getting applied, but it has to do a separate roll (which counts as a proper weapon attack of Mohora Tanga for the game logic) against Fortitude. If this roll crits it will trigger Red Flag Flying again - if this crits it triggers again... and again.. and again... as long as you crit. This is all without even Swift Flurry/HBD involved. Now - triggering Red Flag Flying on its own does not do much - because the DoT doesn't stack with itself. So one might ask "what's this good for"? Since all those rolls are considered proper weapon attack rolls they can trigger anything that gets triggeed by weapon rolls. Look at Boltcatcher Gloves, Gatecrasher Gloves or Hylea's Talons. Also look at Avenging Storm(!). And finally look at Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. They will have the chance to trigger from Red Flag Flying every time it appliies (itself). This makes crit chains incredibly easy to unlock - and if you combine with Boltcatchers for example it's just a very devastating combination. In fact it it can be so devastating that all the rolls will lets your computer decide that it's best to shut down the game without further notice. This happened to my latest Ranger/Monk so many times against not-so-tough enemies that I decided to stop that build. Crashing game every second encounter wasn't fun anymore. But that was also due to the fact that the Ranger/Monk had incredible accuracy. Once it is nearly impossible to not crit it becomes a problem with this spear. But if you go with lower accuracy it's a great weapon to still have superb Swift FLurry experience without breaking the game too often I guess. Another great Swift-Flurry weapon (without crashing the game) is Sun & Moon. It has basically the same feature as Saru-Sichr because it has two separate weapon rolls (both target deflection) which can trigger a full Swift FLurry/HBD attack roll - and so on. --- My last Saru-Sichr build which wa s really fun was Berserker/Helwalker with maxed CON. Because the dps came from crit chains mostly I didn't need much starting MIG (helped with the self damage of Frenzy+Helwelker passive) and with maxed CON + Tough + Amulet of Greater Health, Death's Maw and Voidward it was a surprisingly sturdy build with lots of crit chains and decent debuffing and CC "on the fly".

A Morning Star cries for anything that targets fortitude. For Barbs that can be anything that would target deflection (see Brute Force), for FIghters it's Knock Down and Clear Out, Monks have Force of Anguish and Skyward Kick which can all profit a lot from the fortitude debuff. Casters as Druids, Wizards and Ciphers ahve lots of spells that target fortitud as well. Barbarians as wielders of Morning Stars have the added benefit of Spirit Frenzy which staggers on any hit roll (-10 foritude) - this stacks with the Morning Star's Body Blows. Monks are also cool because they can use Enervating Blows and Stunning Blows to stun + weaken which is -20 fortitude. Because of that I often play Barb/Monk or Barb/Cipher with a Morning Star. But I also did a Stalker/Bloodmage solo because Willbreaker lowers fortitude for my Animal Companion's Takedown Combo and the lowered Will is perfect for my Essential Phantom which wields Concelhaut's Draining Touch (it targets Will and weakens for the Animal Comapnion - circle of synergy ;)) Furyshaper/Beguiler is maybe my favorite Witch combo with Willbreaker. That's a great debuffer and Crowd Controller. Since those are more valuable to me than dealing weapon damage I don't like using Soulblade in this case. There's simply no time and motivation to use my focus for dealing weapon damage but I prefer to spend the focus on CC/debuffing for my party. Casting Phantom Foes + Secret Horrors fills focus up for some mind control, debuffs with Stagger, Sicken and Frighten (-10 Will, -20 Fortitude already) before summoning the Fear Ward and then going in and dishing out Body Blows. Also it is a thematically nice roleplaying approach imo. Lil' terror dude. When Wizard is involved there is a nice little trick with Willbreaker: You can summon the Essential or Substancial Phantom and attack the same target together. The WIll debuff of Willbreaker normally cannot go higher than 5 stacks (-15 Will). But since your Phantom uses a copy of Willbreaker it creates it's own stack (also up to 5). That way you can lower the Will by 30 instead of 15 max. And of course it it way faster to down the Will of a single opponent that way. If you have a Black Jacket/Wizard you can also use both Willbreaker and a Club with modals and lower enemies' Will by 25 with the club modal, 30 with Willbreaker (+Willbreaker copy on the Phantom) and on top use a little Miasma of Dull-Mindedness for -40 Will. There are no immunities against this, so even most bosses will suffer greatly from -95 Will. Against most enemies the double Willbreaker approach isn't necessary I guess. You can always give your Phantom Draining TOuch as weapn instead which profits greatly from reduced Will. --- As soon as a Monk is involved I would however not pick Willbreaker but Saru Sichr instead. The reason is that Saru Sichr has an additional hit roll with its poison DoT (Poison Dipped) which can trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming all by itself. And it targets fortitude. So with every strike of the Morning Star you get two chances to crit (one against deflection, one against fortitude) and thus two chances to trigger Swift Flurry and/or Heartbeat Drumming. Both then lead to an additonal attack which itself again has two chances of triggering and so on. Result is that it is much, much easier to create deadly chain of crits with Saru Sichr than it is with Willbreaker.

The easiest (and I guess mostly overlooked) solution is the pair of Healing Hands gloves. My Aloth almost always uses then at higher levels with WoD. Also Blightheart's Heartbeat can be a nice healing source to prolong with WoD because it doesn't rely on crits. It's a nice weapon for a Wizard to have anyway (bc. 10% corrosive lash for spells).

It may be that if your attack has multiple hit rolls (e.g. using Crippling Strike - or whatever might add a secondary roll like Blood Frenzy) each of them might trigger the effect on crit. I don't think that Wounding/Mortal Wounds thenselves add another hit roll like Saru Sichr's "Poison Dipped" or Mohora Tanga's "Red Flag Flying" do. When used with a Barbarian who has Blood Thirst the perception might be skewed. Same with a Monk who uses Swift Flurry/HBD. Could also be that the actual value got raised without adapting the description. Mybe someone can look into the game object file. I'm on vacation at the Baltic Sea and only brought my phone.

It's the last upgrade "Spirit Tornado" which is not working as the rest (in the vanilla game). Blood Frenzy/Blood Storm and Spirit Frenzy apply their effects to all the character's crit rolls (Blood Frenzy) or hit+crit rolls (Spirit Frenzy). Only Spirit Tornado doesn't. Blood Frenzy didn't use to, too - but then when I asked the devs (when terhe was still patching going on) why Spirit Frenzy applies to all rolls and Blood Frenzy only to the initial weapon hit they changed it to match Spirit Frenzy. And maybe forgot Spirit Tornado (which I didn't notice to have the same limitation at the time)...?

It depends - as always. If you want to cast stuff then a Monk Multiclass (most likely Helwalker) is a very good pick - and SC Monks don't cast stuff. For example a Psion/Helwalker can dominate multiple enemies for a very, very long time with high ACC and gain Focus and Wounds comfortably from safety with Soul Mind + Enduring Dance of Death. A Streetfighter/Helwalker with Hand Mortar+Fire in the Hole can use Stunning Surge nearly countless times because you will nearly always land a crit with the big AoE of the mortars, stunning enemies in an AoE for a very long time while having incredible dmg bonuses and also reloading speed due to Streetfighter passive (which is triggered by Powder Burns). It's a damage/CC hybrid against mobs which is very strong very early on. With an SC Monk you have to wait longer to have such an impact. Also some builds want to rely on crits and play around with Swift Flurry/Heartbet Drumming. A Multiclass is better for this because you can combine multiple sources of accuracy and/or crit conversion. For example a Monk/Berserker with a Morning Star can add accuracy, crit conversion, Brute Force (lower enemies fortitude with a Mordnign Star, Enervating Blows and Spirit Frenzy by 45 so you will land a lot more crits by circumventing deflection). Sages (Wizard/Monk) are great in general. See stuff like Citzal's Spirit Lance + Stunning Surge for example - while being defense-buffed up to the max with Wizard's self buffs and Monk's passives and attribute boosts (+10 INT=+20 Will or +10 CON = +20 fortitude, +10 MIG=+20 fortitude as Helwalker, too). On the other hand the SC Monk' PL 8 (Resonant Touch) and 9 (Whispers of the Wind) are incredible. Truly worth the wait imo. So it's more a matter of taste... or a matter of "what should the role of the character be?" or "waht should it play like?". I tried both MCs and SC multiple times and both have their appeal. There is no universal, general better or worse imo.

DPS is the most overrated metric in this game imo. It's fun to see high damage numbers, no doubt, that's why I include at least one of those into the party (still in love with Helwalker/Berserker+Saru Sichr bc. it's such a fun Swift-Flurry crit machine) - but the most impactful characters I played so far were no damage dealers. I guess Ydwin could be really fun as a Mindstalker with the Seeker's Fang. Those are potent (raw) dmg numbers.

Keep in mind that those 24% are only an additive dmg bonus. So it's calculated only on the base dmg of your weapon. If your weapon is let's say a sabre, the base damage is 13-19 or 16 on average. 16*0.24 = ~3.8. So the investment of 8 points of MIG only gives you +~4 dmg per weapon hit. It's a bit better with ability usage because the power level scaling applies to the base damage - but still not breathtaking - also because you get many more additive dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Soul Whip and weapon quality (fine, exceptional etc.). So the 24% from MIG would not be very noticable, at least for weapon attacks. For spell damage MIG is often the only source of dmg bonus besides Pwer Level Scaling. But for example DoTs like Disintegrate profit a lot more from INT than from MIG, too. Imo INT is themore impactful stat for such a build. Just make sure you don't end up with MIG below 10 - because damage maluses really hurt in Deadfire's damage calculation system.

Spirit Tornado in the vanilla game is kind of a trap choice. Reason is: Spirit Frenzy applies the Staggered affliction to all(!) of your hit rolls (weapon attacks, shouts, spells, Carnage, you name it). With Spirit Tornado this is suddenly restricted to your initial weapon attack only (no Carnage, no spells, no shouts etc.)

Every Paladin has access to Lay on Hands and also Exalted Endurance. Jmo that's enough to counter the loss of healing from Fury. Steel Garrote is only useful if you use melee weapons and do put afflictions on your melee enemies often and reliably. For such things Nature's Terror is really good - but beware the friendly fire! The Steel Garrote passive doesn't work with ranged weapons, so a shifted Fury (Storm Blight form) doesn't profit (because its natural weapons are ranged shock bolts). If you want to use those bolts and still get additional healing then Kind Wayfarer would be my pick. AoE healing via Flames of Devotion is nice, also for party members. And you can use Scion of Flame + Heart of the Storm to gain +2 PEN for the natural weapons of the shifted Fury (+1 for the fire part of FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). If you use a Bleak Walker/Fury you can get +3 PEN for Flames of Devotion with Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm and Spirit of Decay (+1 for the fire part and +1 for the corrosion part of Bleak Walker's FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). With Ring of Focused Flame and Ring of Marksman this leads to +20ACC with FoD, double elemental lash (FoD + Wildstrike) and +4 PEN (the aforementioned+3 plus the Ring +1). The base dmg of the bolts isn't fantastic, but they so bounce once or additional enemies and with that much PEN and lashes they become fearsome. A Paladin/Druid can also use Firebrand to get persistent +10 ACC bonus with Ring of Focused Flame (all attacks of Firebrand count as fire attacks, even non-FoD) as well as +1 PEN from Scion of Flame. Also, if I remember correctly, Furies might get +1 PEN with Firebrand as well because of their passive (+1PEN with elemental spells)? Edit: nope for that last part

I am here. The other ones you mentioned: not so much. At least not in these PoE/Deadfire parts of the form.

Hi, Heralds are not supercrazy OP, but they are pretty good and hard to mess up. Most of the time players of Heralds combine Exalted Endurance (Paladin aura) with Ancient Memory (chant) and thus give their party (and themselves) constant passive healing which is quite potent. One reason why they are popular. They can also be very tanky and also versatile. Anyway, Paladin/Fury is not bad because the Fury cannot heal, but the Paladin can. So combining both makes some sense. Also the Paladin's Eternal Devotion (gaining a burning lash for some time) also applies to spells, which is nice. Put on Deltro's Cage + Helmet, grab Lord Darryn's Voulge and you have a cool and shocking Liberator. Race doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't use a godlike - because then no Deltro's helmet. I guess Coastal Aumaua can be nice because you can color the skin blueish with zickzacks - Lightning in your face... literally. I personally really like Arcane Knights (Paladin/Wizards). They can buff themselves to be very sturdy, they are versatile and fun to play imo. One of my most liked combos is Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with the weapon "Whispers of the Endless Paths", using its echantment "Offensive Parry". It allows you to counterattack on enemies' melee misses, dazes the enemy then which unlocks the Steel Garrote's live stealing passive which stacks with your Exalted Endurance, making it easy to pay for Bloodmage's "Blood Sacrifice" with your own health.

Nope.

In general the FF attack is its own weapon and doesn't care what you wear in your hand. It's like using a third arm with the FF-"fist". If the effect the weapon has only gets applied when that weapon is actually used, then the FF-attack will not profit from it. However, there are some weapons who have effects that apply to all your attacks, no matter if you used that weapon or something else (like FF or a spell or so). An example is Ball and Chain (a unique flail). Its enchantment that lowers enemies' crush AR ("Blunt Rock") would also work with your FF attack (and also spells and whatnot). Those effects are often called "universal" because they apply to all your attacks universaly. Here ist a list of weapons that behave like so and could be useful even if you mainly use your FF attack: As I said before (I believe it was in this thread, but I may misremember) something like a simple Dagger + modal would give you +10 melee deflection while it would not harm your FF attack's damage. Lover's Embrace could be a nice choice because not only does its modal benefit you but also its enchantment that gives you Frenzy would trigger on FF attacks.

Fortitude doesn't have to be lower from the start. For me, the difference of Fortitude - Deflection only has to be lower than 45 in order for Brute Force to be useful. And there are very few enemies with Deflection+45 <= Fortitude. Brute Force in PoE1 was less useful than in Deadfire imo because there was no Body Blows and the afflictions weren't as systemically ordered and based on attribute malus. In Deadfire, the synergy between Body Blows, MIG and CON affliction and Brute Force is the main reason I almost always use a Morning Star on a Barbarian. Hehe, most definitely I guess so - but I didn't try that out myself so I can't say for sure. Vela is an ally but not a party member iirc? Sometimes that's a tricky destinction. I tried it just now on an Essential Phantom and also on a Many-Lives Skeleton (also allies but not party members) and it indeed works on them - so the chances are high that it works with Vela, too I would say. *fingers crossed*

That would be unfortunate - but it is possible. I'm playing with the Community Patch for so long that I may have misremembered. In that case Swift Strikes will suffice I guess.