Boeroer

Yes. Yes.

In PoE stacking rules are different to Deadfire's. Item bonuses do not stack unless it's from a weapon.

I know that Spirit Frenzy/Spirit Tornado's Stagger effect works with spells, yes (which is quite nice). I think Blood Storm doesn't but I didn't test lately. Brute Force also works with spells.

Yes, that is correct. Don't 'minmax' everything towards retaliation right from the start. Else it will get supertedious before reaching the higher levels.

What lash? Turning Wheel doesn't get applied to spells anymore (patch). Lightning Strikes never did afaik (?). I mean when we talk about casting only. Sage with Citzal's Spirit Lance is still great and works with Turning Wheel etc. And Helwalker is always great for a caster anyway because of the +10 INT and +10 MIG. A Berserker (remove Confusion with Devil's Breastplate, Svef, Captain's Banquet or Modwyr) also gets +2 PEN for his spells. Besides that you get high casting speed through Frenzy, Bloodlust and most notably Blood Thirst. Blooded can boost spells' damage as well. An alternative can be Furyshaper with the Frenzy Ward which adds even more speed.

Question on the Morningstar. I’m assuming you used Willbreaker? Do you have to avoid the DOT upgrade because it can interfere with the 100% damage on next attack? I am not familiar if DOTs can take precedence and consume the buff. Yes, Willbreaker (lowers Will besides Fortitude). Also because I used Essential Phantom with Draining Touch (targets Will) a lot alongside my animal companion. DoT-ticks don't interfere with Takedown Combo. Only attacks that go through attack resolution will count.

Hey!

Also have it

I also don't know. Not piratey enough I guess.

You wouldn't believe but there is a thread already that answers your questions (I guess): https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/108495-need-help-with-weapon-choice-blunderbluss/

I used Serafen, so vanilla. Berserker with Savage Defiance can still be good. He gets +2 AR from his Frenzy which can be very important. You will get crit a lot so you need all the AR you can get. Maybe don't push MIG so high. Furyshaper could also be good. With Blood Ward you would at least get back some good health with every Retaliation + Carnage. By the way: Retaliation also works with ranged weapon (no reload) e.g. Hand Mortars or so. When fighting against Kith/Wilder Corpse Eater is nice. You can retaliate while doing Flesh Communion. But against all others...

Eternal Devotion is only 10% - and I think yes. At least it works for Imbue shots of the Arcane Archer. Yes, you can do Ripostes while casting. It is a non-animated "passive" attack.

Thanks for this Boeroer. What do you think is the best weapon for a monk DPS wise if I'm looking to go swift flurry and heartbeat drumming route? On the other thread, someone told me fist + scordeo's edge will offer the highest dps if you can crit most the time. Or is there anything better? ^^ for single target damage by the way. I would guess Grave Calling (with Grave Bound --> paralyze --> 25% conversion) + Scordeo's Edge (Blade Cascade + Adaptive). There may be other weapons that give you a bit more additional ACC than Grave Calling - but it comes legendary, has a lash and you can get it early. And Grave Bound is an easy enhantment and with Torment's Reach the 10 stacks are done in a breeze. And you also want to deal good damage when Swift Flurry doesn't trigger. I also like that you'll have two sabres for all slash damage and two fists for crush as alternative. Another alternative (I can imagine) is Rapier + modal (+25 ACC) & Scordeo's or Scordeo's + Azure Blade (+15 ACC). But I like that Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming are more satisfying with the high dmg per proc. And that the paralyze works for Scordeo's Edge and Adaptive works for Grave Calling as well. By the way I tried a Debonaire/Helwalker Shadowdancer because of the 100% crit conversion when you attack a charmed enemy and with Swift Flurry + Heartbeat you have a 50% chance on your first attack that one of both or both proc. Sometimes you get a long chain of crits this way.

Just keep in mind that attributes are capped at 35.

I tried to build a Forbidden Fist/Druid and run through my own Tanglefoot. It works somehow but is still fiddly and meh. THe only thing that works allright atm. is building a Sage "tank" and step into your own Pull of Eora all the time. That gives you plenty of wounds. Don't know exactly on what to spend them though... Don't want to self dmaage myself to death with Forbidden Fists and also I get pulled around a bit often... It also works if you go with 1 INT and maxed RES and use Forbidden Fist all the time. Buffs don't work that well and the Enfeebling also only stays for a short time but at least you don't kill yourself while doing some damage and build wounds from short curses (2.5 secs). All in all it's screwed up still.

Yes, Beguiler usually is all about casting these days. No need for lots of weapon attacks. Melee with Soulblade + Sun and Moon is quite nice. Apply raw damage and regain some focus with the second flail head. Rapier can be nice early on to make sure your SA does connect. +37 ACC in the early game (+12 single handed use, +5 rapier, +20 modal) is golden! Also against hard to hit enemies. But all in all I would prefer the dual-headed flail I thinkand use a rapier as backup option. By the way: Ring of Focused Flames improves the auto-attacks of the Eothas-head of Sun and Moon. So it's rel. easy to connect with the firt attack roll (+10 ACC) and then potentially regain some focus right away with the second Ondra-head (which iesn't get the +10 ACC).

Here's a short animated gif about my talks above (notice how many lightnings get produced by Blinding Smoke - Powder Burns doesn't proc Avenging Storm by the way):

WotW: Surge: Beware: BIIIG non-optimized gifs behind the spoiler tags. Also that setup melts your graphics card because Unity/Deadfire doesn't handle multithreading properly. I have a gtx1080 but still get a full freeze for a second or two... PS: Blinding Smoke, the BEST enchantment!

you literally just equip two hand mortars and use stunning surge. you gain + 10 int with turning wheel so your hand mortar aoe becomes bigger. so when you use stunning surge it hits in a big aoe, stunning mobs for a loooong time. and since you will be aiming a bunch of mobs, you are bound to crit hence you can keep spamming stunning surge. i would actually say double hand mortar stunning surge combo will deal with mobs better than double hand mortar whispers of the wind. By the way: Turning Wheel's lash doesn't apply to ranged weapons anymore. So you can spare a point and not pick it. Or pick Iron Wheel and pick Enlighened clarity for a constant +5 INT without fluctuation from wound usage. And def. Stunning Surge will not deal better with mobs than Whispers of the Wind. With Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak you do stun without attack resolution (WotW makes you invisible) and you skip reload entirely(!). Which you don't with Stunning Surge where you reload after each Full Attack. The dps is a lot higher than with Stunning Surge (even though the casting time is significantly higher) and it builds up Resonant Touches a lot faster. It also scales better with Power Level (adds jumps which means adds another five AoE attacks - Mortar + Fire in the Hole + jump + 2 Powder Burns - plus tons of Blinding Smoke attcak rolls that count for Avenging Storm). Once you have WotW you should only use Stunning Surge or Flagellanth's Path in those moments where your wound count is below 5 - to brigde the wound gap.

With this one you certainly do:

What do you mean? Kitchen Stove and Xefa's Empirical Expication don't have multiple "targets". Unless you mean through Powder Burns which suffers from very low PEN and usually doesn't penetrate. Or Thunderous Report or Wild Barrage. The one is 1/encounter and the second per rest. What they have is multiple projectiles which all hit the same target. So they are not that good against mobs except for Thunderous Report which is nice to have as opener, but not that important for a Streetfighter/Helwalker. Since Helwalkers have access to +10 INT which affects all your AoE effects significantly I would use Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole mostly. Currently the AoE is bugged so that it doesn't apply afflictions like Arterial Strike or Toxic Strike or Stunning Surge - but shouold get fixed pretty soon. Mortars also have the advantage that they target reflex and have two damage types (while Kitchen Stove and Xefa's only have pierce - except the lash). You can switch to the "normal" blunderbusses as soon as only few enemies are left over. So basically do this: keep mortars in one weapon slot and use them against mobs and use the other two against single targets. Enchantment tipps: Hand Mortar should be enchanted with Blinding Smoke(! NOT Point Blank). First of all that unlocks Deathblows directly and secondly it counts as hit for Avenging Storm(! and maybe even Confounding Blind, Combusting Wounds and Death of Thousand Cuts, but didn't test those three). That means with Heaven's Cacophony(!) + Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole you will produce a TON of lightnings that rain on your enemies. That's because every AoE hit has the chance to lauch a Blinding Smoke which it self is an AoE cone. You will produce hundrets of attack rolls per shot which will all trigger Avenging Storm (I know why I play a single class Fury with mortars atm ). Put it into the main hand so that it shoots forst with Full Attacks, applying Distraction so that the following attack rolls will all have Deathblows. Fire in the Hole should be enchanted with Chain Shot. This will produce two AoE attacks instead of one. He second one will have weaker dmg, but it triggers Avenging Storm and other effects like Toxic Strike, FInishing Blow (once AoE gets fixed - Finishing Blow still works in AoE though). Put it into your offhand. Kitchen Stove you can enchant with Wild Barrage or Thunderous report (what you like better) and Frantic Reload. Anything and Everything is also nice, but here comes the trick: put it into your offhand, NOT the main hand(!). Then see down below why. Xefa's you can enchant with Inexpicable Mass or Jagged Load (I like Jagged Load better but ut depends, the first one is also nice but Rogues do interrut on hit with most abilites anyway). Then enchant it with Full Choke. The ACC malus is a bit stupid but you gain longer range which can be important for such a squishy char as Streetfighter/Helwalker. Put it into the main hand(!). Now what this setup does with Full Attacks: It gives you a longer range because the range of your Full Attack is determined by your man hand weapon. The second weapon will simply use the linger range as well when doing a Full Attack. It also gives you a shorter reload because the reload time is only taken from the offhand weapon (and here we have Frantic Reload). So all in all you have +50% longer range and -25% reload speed with Ful Attacks just because we put the weapons into the right hands. Another tip: Use Flagellant's Path. It skips reload entirely and uses its own recovery which is shorter than reload. With Streetfighter's passive it usually means it's superfast. You can spam AoE shots without reload like crazy. Use Stunning Surge: Which that many hits (mortars=AoE hits + jumps or blunderbusses = multiple hits) a refund is very likely. THat way you can do a lot of Full Attacks without running out of Mortification. Use Dance of Death: it immediately gives you +1 Wound and +3 ACC. After 9 secs you are already at +12 ACC(!) You can think about NOT using Turning Wheel (because the lash doesn't apply to ranged weapons anymore) and use Iron Wheel. The higher CON and AR are useful as well because you have to get close with blunderbusses in general and you will be disoriented all the time and get amplified damage from Helwalker's passive. At the same time pick Enlightened Clarity to get the smart inspiration. This will give you +5 INT (compared to +10 from Turning Wheel with 10 Wounds) but it's independent from Wounds. YOu gain up to +10 CON and +2.5 AR and +5 INT. Or you don't pick Turning Wheel and Iron Wheel, spare the ability point and use it for something else and use the +10 INT mostly. Also good.

Dual wielding and Two weapon style don't affect casting speed either. But the increased defection and reflex without losing anything (but an ability point for weapon & shield) is nice. However - if you want to cast all the time a non-bashing small shield will do the trick equally well.

I tried it again and it works like it used to. Must have tried it in char-inventory (not stash) without really noticing.

Grave Calling. With Grave Bound you paralyze enemies with every hit (once you have 10 stacks). I believe (iirc) that Toment's Reach's AoE hits count as stacks. Chilling Grave hits (Chillfog) def. count. You you can combine paralyze + Adaptive which lets you crit a lot (Swift Flurry). And also the lash on Grave Calling is good.

That Geomancer was melee. And unfortunately the Phantoms don't scale properly at the moment (bug). Though I don't know if OP means "range" build or "ranger" build and only forgot the "r". A good dps/support buiild at the moment is Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer. Skill Arcana and grab Spearcaster. Maia's armor, AcinaÄs Tricorn, Ring of Focused Flames. You can shoot FoDs without accuracy penalty but instead get +10 from the Ring. Als Eternal Flames puts a lash on your Imbue shots which will have tremendous ACC (double scaling from Arcana). Imbue Fireball will get +5ACC from Zealous Focus, +10ACC from Ring, +10% lash from Eternal Endurance, 2*ACC bonus from Arcana and jump with Driving Flight and +1 PEN from Scion of Flame. Besides that crazy high ACC and great damage with FoD/Imbue you can heal with Lay on Hands and do other stuff Paladins can do. Best "range" builds are SC Streetfighter or SC Helwalker in my opinion. SC Fury also very nice. But that's rel. short ranged damage (blunderbusses).