Boeroer

Sadly that shouldn't be the case. Indeed does Energized work with all sources of crits, including spells and spell-like abilities. Carnage does work like a spell and not like a weapon attack mechanically (that's why it doesn't generate focus and why it doesn't transport any weapon effects). It's like a spell-like ability that uses 33% of your weapon's base dmg as its own base damage (which is pretty bad in the early game) - and it scales that dmg with Power Level (which is nice). So far it could work with Energized. But that "spell" has the unfortunate restriction that even attack rolls over 100 are counted as hits, never crits. Therefore it should never be able to interrupt via the Energized inspiration. But: Amra's "Carnage" is different - because it can crit. --- As a Barbarian/Cipher I personally prefer Spirit Frenzy over Blood Storm (I don't even upgrade to Spirit Tornado), because Spirit Frenzy's stagger affliction works on hits instead of crits - and it can help to land Cipher spells vs. Fortitude (since the -5 MIG from stagger leads -10 Fortitude defense, too). It also helps with weapon dmg if you picked Brute Force (I always do). Brute Force also works with Cipher spells that target deflection (see Mind Blades and Amplified Thrust). In combination with Secret Horrors (Sicken, also -10 Fortitude) you can lower enemies' Fortitude by 20 points with one single spell use, which is cool imo. That can often make a big difference for hit quality, especially if you have Brute Force. Of course I like to combine those effects with a Morning Star - modal (for another -25 Fortitude debuff on top of staggered and sickened). --- Speaking of Witches: a Berserker/Cipher can use his confusion to cast several cipher spells on enemies that usually need an ally (Amplified Thrust, Amplified Wave, Ectopsychic Echo...) or to cast spells that need an enemy on allies (like Antipathetic Field for example). In case of Amplified Thrust it makes the spell hit the target twice and push it back. Usually I consider that spell pretty meh, but with that variant you get twice the damage output and can target Fortitude via Brute Force - which is pretty good in some cases. Do not try to combine confusion with Mind Blades though. Your party members will hate you.

If you don't have the Community Patch mod installed (I guess not because iirc you play on console?) then no need to test: FF attack will not work with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. So if you plan to use the FF attack mainly: better pick Lightning Strikes instead of Swift Flurry and skip Heartbeat Drumming entirely.

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.

The FF attack doesn't really use your fists. It has its own base damage and accuracy and all the base values which match those of monks' fists - and it also scales with Transcendent Suffering and other unarmed bonuses. But mechanically fists and FF attack are two seperate things. That's why it's possible that in the vanilla game it isn't treated as weapon - and unlike your fists it won't work with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and so on (because that "weapon" keyword was forgotten in the game object's description). That's maybe splitting hairs though. For the majority of the game this fine distinction might be quite meaningless. It is a very good hint that the main weapon doesn't matter if you mostly attack with the Forbidden fist. Unless - like Shai Hulud said - that weapon gives you some universal bonus. Some uniques are really cool that way (see what Shai Hulud said). For the early game you can even use this with the most generic weapons: a Hatchet gives you more passive deflection, a Dagger+modal can give you an active melee deflection bonus of +10 (the damage malus only applies to dagger attacks so your FF attack is safe), a spear+modal would give you +1 engagement and so on - even though you wouldn't really use that weapon to strike with it, it would still help you.

That last statement is not generally true and depends on many factors (actual build, party composition, difficulty setting and so on). But yes, Serafen's Wild Mind subclass is usually considered the worst one of all the unique subclasses the official companions have, although on paper it is balanced. But it is absolutely unpredictible and that's a bad thing for any well-planned approach. Also one tends to remember the times Wild Mind bit you in the rear much better than the times it helped you.

Hehe, getting that and then trying to permanently glue it to your char with an immunity sounds like a fun little side project for the next run.

Just some hints tow. Debonaire: Engagement: A Debonaire cannot engage enemies (ever). Therefore abilities which rely on/work with your engagement like "Persistent Distraction" (Rogue) or "Parting Sorrow" (Monk) are trap choices: they will not get disabled during level-up, so best to watch out and not accidentially pick them. This also means you cannot stop movement of enemies by engaging them (engaging cancels movement commands of enemies and makes them stop) or deal any disengagement attacks vs. those enemies who decide to give you a pass in melee. This can lead to you missing your enemy because the moment you strike the enemy might take a step back out of the 0.8m melee range (you can see a "out of reach" message in the combat log). This will not happen too often - but if it does you will know where it came from. This is all moot if you use ranged weapons like mortarts of course - because then you cannot engage anyway and you cannot miss because of "out of range". The Debonaire herself can still get engaged by enemies who are able to engage (most beasts cannot, some kith and wilders can... and so on). --- Charm/crit conversion: Also note that only charmed enemies will give you the 100% crit conversion. Dominated enemies (for example turned via Puppet Master) will not give you that. Charmed enemies immediately flip back to hostile as soon as they get hit by you or your allies. This means you can only apply one 100%-crit-strike to a charmed enemy who will then turn hostile again. With hefty crit-punches this might not be an issue though because the enemy might die from the crit - I just want to point that out lest it is not known. --- Alternative source for charms: If you want an additional source of charm then a Chanter is a good one: the invocation doesn't last long (so hitting charmed enemies doesn't feel like a waste of CC) but can target several enemies at once with enough INT/big enough AoE size bonus. Maybe that's something to keep in mind to support the synergy with the FF/Debonaire further? Konstanten, Fassina, Pallegina, Tekehu and Vatnir could use this. Konstanten is a Skald so it's an even cheaper invocation for him to cast (only 3 phrases instead of 4), but his INT is low (10) - so the cone will be pretty small (2.5m length only) and it's difficult to hit several enemies around your main char with that microcone I reckon.

Ah, too bad for Shimmer Scale. But great that you took the time to test it again.

Very unreliable visitor indeed. I have countless hours of gametime but only saw him a couple of times. You cannot rely on anything he potentially sells.

Yes, they perfectly stack. With enough INT and Brisk Recitation you can stack more than 2 instances of the Dragon Thrashed on an enemy. It's absolutely brutal to do so - especially with multiple chanters in the party who will all stack their Dragon Thrashed DoTs on the poor enemies. You can def. put different phrases in between (for example to speed up phrase point generation with Come Soft Winds bc. it's shorter) - but you will lose damage output via chant then. Funny thing: if you use a single one-handed weapon setup (like for example a single sword) then some of the offensive chants will get +12 Accuracy - like your weapon attacks. Dragon Thrashed is one of them. It is some minor oversight that never got patched out I guess - but it can be very helpful in fights against enemies with very high reflex. +12 accuracy with chants is nothing to sneeze on and one of the few cases where single weapon usage is good. However, the single weapon talent (crit conversion) does have no effect on the chants.

Ouh... nice! It didn't cross my mind that some of her abilities are gazes. That lil' shield didn't get much love before - maybe that should change. Once again I wonder if it would work to use the enchantment "immunity to gazes" of Shimmer Scale and the Monk's Soul Mirror in combination. Then you'd have 50% relfection and be 100% safe. It would be a nice alternative shield setup for a Monk. Always Tuotilo's Palm gets kind of boring.

When combining items, abilities and the right food (Mohora Wraps for example) you can max INT and use Turning Wheel on top - and then with a bit slower recovery (if in doubt: Patinated Plate with Bronze Juggernaut ;)) you can still spam the FF attack without stacking the curse. Especially if you alternate FF attack and Soul Annihilation. I that case you can also do with a much ligher armor (see Cabalist's Gambeson for shorter hostile effects). I love high INT on almost all builds, it's so convenient to have big AoEs with big foe-only parts and long durations. But in the early game it's fiddly to get there and you might have to wait with strikes in order to not kill yourself and that's no fun. It's probably an easier entry into the subclass if you don't max INT.

That's why I like a Beguiler better for the unmodded game - a Beguiler can gain lot of focus from just casting one or two of the cheaper AoE deceptions (like Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors) on enough enemies. And also spells like Whisper of Treason etc. are considerably cheaper. Also do not pick Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming if you want to use the Forbidden Fist attack a lot (I guess everybody does ;)) and if the game has no Community Patch mod. They won't work. Lightning Strikes (+15% shocking lash) does work though. By the way: Inner Death (Monk PL9) has the same problem (also fixed with Community Patch) - but that's only an issue with single class monks of course. If you do install the Community Patch mod (not possible on consoles, otherwise it's easy - but don't know about Steam Deck) then both of my objections are moot and FF/Soulblade and also Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming are cool options.

But it is - because lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses instead of the additive ones (for example the forbidden curse bonus - which is pretty high but still only additive). A lash takes all the damage that gets rolled into consideration (all additonal dmg bonuses, crits, overpenetration, forbidden fist curse etc.) and calculates the 15% based on that. While the additional damage bonuses only use the base dmg of the weapon (or ability, PL scaling counts as base dmg). A persistent 15% lash for rel. little investment is actually pretty awesome to have. If you can't use the Lightning Lash of Lightning Strikes then you should stick to Swift Strikes - but I assume that's what you meant in the first place. And yes, +5 DEX and an additional action speed bonus is a very good thing to have for only 1 point of Mortification. --- I would absolutely recommend the Community Patch. It's free and easy to "install" (aka copy a folder into the game folder). It's a mod that doesn't go crazy with wild and fantastical "improvements" but focuses to address some hickups and oversights of the original game and does that well imo. See the Forbidden FIst punch which doesn't generate focus in the original game and also doesn't work with some of the Monk's own abilities (clearly an oversight by the devs). The mod also has unique icons for every passive ability - which the vanilla game doesn't have due to time restrictions during development. The original game uses the same icons for a lot of totally different passive abilites. That can be confusing if you ask me. Me advertising that stuff has obviously nothing to do with the fact that I created those CP icons, ehehe... You can also individually trigger every change the CP does to the vanilla game by deleting or renaming some files in the mod folder. They are named in a way that it's easy to guess which file contains which individual modification. In addition to that the mod is even split in two parts (basic and extended). Edit: now I read the part with the PS5 - rofl sorry. :super-embarrased-emoji

I always liked FF/Beguiler in order to extend the duration of Mind Control via DualityOMP(INT), Enfeebled and Lingering Echoes. You can charm or dominate an enemy for a really long time with that combination. Also I think Beguiler and Old Vaillian fits somehow - also with the portrait options. Also nice that you can hit a charmed enemy with Soul Ignition and/or Disintegrate and that enemy won't flip back to hostile but will keep fighting for you while dying. --- Not on your list, but FF/Berserker has its appeal with the Confusion/Clarity of Agony & Crucible of Suffering combo. Don't pick Rooting Pain because you will interrupt yourself (while confused). With the shouts and Spirit Tornado there's als some afflictions to prolong, but mainly it's about using the self-inflicted confusion to your advantage. --- Also not on your list, but ever thought about FF/Druid? Like FF/Ancient for example? Touch of Rot and Taste of the Hunt are brutal with enfeeble + INT bonus. And stuff like Insect Swarm and Plague of Insects profit a lot from +10 INT. But the shock spells such as Relentless Storm and Nature's Terror, too (maybe better with pick Fury then). Embrace of the Earth Talon is also a good spell candidate. And if you would pick Hold Beasts you can paralyze beasts (except immune/resistant ones) for a really, really long time because the base duration is a whopping 20secs. With Tanglefoot you can create your own source of short-lived and rel. harmless afflictions (hobbled) that can give you wounds and healing all the time (because it does friendly fire). Also, one of the most hilarious findings in my Deadfire time so far was that some spells work with Instruments of Pain (because they are labeled "melee" internally) - among them is Sunlance. It already has very long range (20m) and goes to 120m range via Instruments of Pain. You can stay at the other side of the map and throw a Sunlance towards an enemy (as long as you have a party member in place to actually see them - can be invisible or in stealth mode). Just a tidbit but it's fun. --- FF/Wizard can be nice too. I mean Sage in general is a nice multiclass and with FF there's no exception. May I lead your attention to the spell Fetid Caress? It is often overlooked because its paralyze is single target only (as is your FF attack with the Enfeeble though) - but it delivers a pretty long paralyze effect for such a low level spell (PL or tier 2). Combined with +10INT from DualityOMP(INT) and +50% from Enfeeblement - and also the generous Power Level scaling (because it is of low starting Power Level) - you can get a very long paralyze time out of it. Also targets fortitude which should be a fair bit lower after you struck an enemy with enfeeblement. It has a range of 5m which is roughly in line with your melee range+Instruments of Pain (4.8m). Even an Illusionist can cast it. The most interesting spells might be Ryngrim's I think. --- FF/Chanter is also appealing. The cone shaped invocations gain the most impressive AoE increase from all the INT the Monk has to offer. And stuff like Killers Froze Stiff turns into a very good tool with that much size and also additional duration from the INT bonus alone. Picking out some individuals and giving them even longer downtime is fun, too. Also check out "Ben Fidel's neck was exposed" - because its "-10 to all defenses" debuff stacks with all debuffs from afflictions and also other debuffs of individual defenses (like with a Miasma for example). And it causes frighten, too (helpful to cast it before Killers Froze stiff for example). So - it can be a nice addition to the debuff cycle - or just an alternative if enemies are resistant or even immune to DEX afflictions (see Killers FS). There is no immunity to Ben Fidel's defense debuff (only the frighten part). --- I personally think the first and the last options would be the most enjoyable (at least they would be for me, for now) because resources would be limitless and the abilities are still impactful and fun to use.

Yes, it wasn't a crit build by any means. It was more about fast shooting speeds/short reloading time while still delivering hits reliably - so that White Flames do actually trigger (won't on misses). That way I could dish out the AoE healing while doing ranged damage on top. And with ranged weapons it's a lot easier to target the enemies with the lowest deflection - if you want to make sure to get the healing procs.

Counterintuitively my most useful pistolero was a single class Kind Wayfarer. The main reason is that you can achieve inexhaustible Zeal which you can spend at very high speeds for damage and party support and healing. In detail: Reasons: If it's not the main character it requires almost no micromanagement and can function vey well with simple AI settings. As main char you can use nice decision making to pick certain enemies apart and which party member to support mist effectively. With pistols you can stay near the rest of the party all times to make the best use of White Flames (AoE healing) and Shared Flames (AoE burning lash buff). With Ring of Focused Flame you will have +20 ACC for your FoD pistol shots which outbalances rushed reload (pistol modal) should you want to use it. In combination with Scordeo's Trophy (its stacking recovery bonus) and two weapon style+dual wielding you will be reloading incredibly fast - while your accuracy is still okay. Against tough enemies you can turn off the modal to hit more reliably. In a second weapon slot you can carry a single pistol for even more accuracy against really tough nuts. Add Acina's Tricorn for even shorter reloading time and more accuracy. Also add the Ring of the Marksman for even more ACC (and +1 PEN which is useless for Eccea's main attack but nice for the elemental additions and of course for Scordeo's Trophy). Staying in the back line makes most of the self-defensive passives of the Paladin class rather pointless - so you can skip those which frees up a lot of points for the support- and offensive abilities. Even without most of the defensive passives a Paladin is still most likely not the weakest link in the backline, so you don't have to worry too much about getting targeted by shock troops/skirmishers and that sort of ranged- or high mobility enemies that try to disrupt your backline. It is possible to take almost all exhortations (they have instant casting time und no recovery) to cover tier-2 inspirations for all attributes. Normally spreading your actiuve abilites like that would also spread your Zeal thin and I wouldn't recommend it - but your high level goal is to get infinite Zeal. So it's useful to have a big portfolio of active abilites in order to be very versatile. The trick to gain unlimited Zeal is to have a Chanter buddy in the party and to take "Devine Retribution" at PL9. Devine Retribution gives you 2 Zeal once an ally goes down. This includes party summons(!). Which means that when the party chanter sings "Many Lives Pass By" and also summons "Ancient Brittle Bones" there will be a ton of potential Zeal on the field - especially because all of those summons, while being great bait and distraction, die pretty fast if enemies even look at them sharply. Before that you can gain a bi Zeal back if you constantly snipe enemies near death and trigger Virtuous Triumph. Doing that also triggers Inspiring Triumph for your party members so it's a nice strategy anyway. Having so much (endless) Zeal lets you shoot FoD with While Flame and Shared Flames (or Eternal Devotion if you prefer the damage for yourself) at all times at very high speed and good ACC. This means good dps - and more importantly constant AoE healing for your party. It's pretty difficult to go down if your Pal is shooting healing into the air every few secs. Once you get to the "unlimited Zeal" part you can cast exhortations on all party members in no time (remember: instant casts, no recovery) and become a super-supporter. You an also put Brand Enemy on every enemy in no time. "Burn in hell y'all!" If you have a Ranger in the party you will be his best friend - because you can revive his pet instantly and without limits. You can also use a different sublcass of course. Bleak Walker would be more about damage, Steel Garrote can paralyze lots of foes with the Garrote ability, Shieldbearer can use Lay on Hands to barr Death's Door all the time and so on... I found Kind Wayfarer to make the most use of this pistol/FoD combo. I played this as an hired adventurer from start to finish. Originally only hired that guy in Port Maje just to test out the concept, but it went so well I stuck to it until the credits rolled.

Iirc it has an enchantment upgrade that takes away the reflection but makes you completely immune to gazes (100% miss). Would a Monk's Soul Mirror reflect those rays then? Never tried...

After the ACC-buffing via Priest and the usual starting routine (casting Frenzy for example) I will start the fight with Phantom Foes + Secret Horrors. This will give you a lot of focus that you can use later and it drops the Will and Fortitude of the enemies already - while preventing them from using offensive abilities which in turn makes the whole party more safe. Note that a Wizard with Miasma of Dull-Mimdedness does help immensely with this Witch because that spell debuffs Will into the ground like nothing else. Ideally you can use the Wizard's Phantom with Concelhaut's Draining Touch as weapon. It targets Will and causes Weakened (also Fortitude debuff). It's a nice party synergy. Then my Witch will summon the fear ward somewhere into the bulk of the enemies and let my Priest withdraw it immediately (not only when it's under attack - just always; one less thing to worry about). I want my Priest to have more than two spell uses (via items and resting bonuses of possible). Then I will jump into said bulk (first with the Bounding Boots trick which doesn't use up the per-rest resource of the boots, then later with Leap), do a Barbaric Shout to maybe shake those enemies up which I missed before, but mainly to get +3 engagement. Then I start swinging. When I manage to body-blow an opponent I can use Disintegrate easily. Or I just keep swinging. That's why I prefer the miss-to-graze enchantment on the Willbreaker, combined with Greater Gauntlets of Reliability. That way I can even graze the most defensive enemies with Body Blows. Because Will is profoundly debuffed already the enemies will get affected by the Fear Ward often - which lets then disengage from me (remember the:+3 engagement from the shout). This will trigger disengagement attacks eventually which adds significant numbers to my dmg output. If things go sideways I have plenty of options with Charm, Dominate (cheap because Beguiler) and other spells to my liking. Once Blood Thirst is available the terrify/disengagement combination becomes pretty devastating and allows for either very fast weapon strikes - or very fast casting (focus on the damaging spells that have short casting time but longer recovery). I think it's versatile and very fun - also because the whole "walking terror" theme is so coherent. Imo it's best to use a different char for the club+modal. For me it's almost always Edér as Swashbuckler main tank. That way he not only contributes with tanking but also debuffing (in combination to Persistent Distraction for up to 6 engaged enemies later on). But yes, early on it's a good alternative to a Morning Star. I think using another char for the club+modal action frees up considerable action time for the Witch and improves the action economy overall. In a party it's often better to use division of work because of better action economy. Speaking of Priest + Withdraw earlier: When looking for a fitting Priest for a Witch one might be interested in a Berserker/Priest (I used Wael to counter the low deflection bc of Frenzy - and because crazy Priest of Wael somehow fits). The reason is that a confused Berserker/Priest can cast Withdraw on anything and anyone, giving you the opportunity to take several (remember empower points for additional casts) of the enemies out of the battle without any "saving throw". Withdraw is an auto-hit (because usually a beneficial spell for friends). When confused you can simply cast it on one or more dangerous enemies who get sidelined for a minute or so, deal with the rest and when they come back into the fight their comrades are already gone. Just an idea though. I played Witch + Berserker/Priest as if they were brothers Of course Xoti or Vatnir are perfectly fine Priest picks as well.

My advice would be to use survival for the accuracy bonus (if you know which enemies you will face). It's the biggest impact a skill can have in PoE by far. Like... fighting a dragon with +8 or even +12 accuracy makes a huge difference, especially of you want to CC the beast (see Charm/Dominate). In case you will be facing kith or you just don't know what's going to happen then the healing bonus is an okay alternative imo.

Hi, sorry - given that this build was written in 2016 I don't remember the details anymore. Usually I wrote down the values from the in-game character sheet after finishing the playthrough and I tried to exclude per-rest and item bonuses and such in order to get the "base" value, but maybe I missed something here. Or it may be because I copy-and-pasted the formatting template from another build and forgot to alter all values (like Lore for example). Survival 14 is very high. Nowadays i personally would try to get to 8 (iirc this is a threshold that allows for the next tier of ACC bonus when resting) and then let it be. 14 may be overkill - unless you are like me an don't ever use consumables, then you can skip all Lore entirely and put everything into Survival. Athletics is unnecessary imo bc. of Lay on Hands.

If "ranged" not only means ranged weapons but also (or mainly) spells then I would dearly recommend the Psion, especially with the Community Patch which is more generous with the "stops generating focus when being damaged" drawback the unmodded Psion has. Psion's focus generation almost never stops, not even when you are recovering or doing other things - like casting a non-cipher-spell. When receiving a crit it will stop briefly and also some hard CC like a stun might pause it, but in most other cases it just keeps on piling up. It also scales with Power Level, so obtaining some PL buffs also makes a noticable difference. Players often read about the focus generation mechanics of the Psion and think "that's not much, is it?" - but most fail to understand that a regular cipher will only generate focus between recovery phases - and if he has to move or do anything else than attack with a weapon he won't generate focus at all. And this also hampers the ability to cast spells more than most players initially realize. Not a problem per se - because with the right setup/combo a Cipher can also do great weapon damage so it's not a loss that he can't cast so much - but in some fights regular ciphers can really struggel to build focus because they can't damage the enemy properly (not enough ACC, enemies AR too high etc.). The Psion is not bothered by this. He just gets focus trickling in all the time. Usually I would pair a Psion with another caster class. That way you can cast from one class while focus i building up - then cast something with focus, then back to the other spells and so on. All caster/Psion combos work well, but imo the most versatile and fun combo is Psion/Troubadour or Psion/Bellower. Weapons don't matter for their damage but can be nice "stat sticks" - see Lance of the Mdwood Stag, Sasha's Singing Scimitar or Blightheart for example. The best endgame setup is most likely Sasha's SC + The Weycs Wand. While the scimitar can be obtained very early (which is always nice for a build idea imo) the wand comes very, very late, so I personally prefer a scimitar+small shield setup. It not only makes it less likely you recevie a crit (which would stop focus generation) but also lets most enemies target somebody else with less of a defensive setup. At the same time you can basically cast no-stop with a Psion/Troubadour (focus and phrase resources never run out) - which I find to be very satisfying. Almost no idle time between spells. I personally loved with combo of KIllers Froze Stiff + Soul Shock early(ish) in the game and later combined summons with mind control in order to turn a whole army against the enemy. But you don't have to do that. As I said the combo is very versatile and can do almost anything: damage, CC - even support and a bit of healing. But it all achieves this with spells, not weapon usage. Psion/Troubadour is also one of the verified builds that beat the Ultimate Challenge. This alone doesn't say too much about it's overall usefulness for a whole party - but in this case I can ssure you it also does that very nicely. Psion/Wizard is also a nice combination, also with Bloodmage althoug you can't use empower with Sasha's Singing Scimitar then. With Community Patch the self damage of Blood Sacrifice doesn't stop focus generation (don't know if that's the case with the vanilla game but it might be a concern). But of course any other Wizard will work, too. Conjurers have this funny quirk that their familiar bonuses will persist until the end of battle even if the familiar is gone. So you could cast two or three familiars and stack all the bonuses from them. It's not worth it in shorter fights but in the longer ones it's nice to have several bonuses going without a timed duration. Just an idea though... But: if a nice ranged weapon setup is a must for the ranged cipher then this is probably not a good recommendation for you. --- A very strong ranged Cipher combination is Arcane Archer/Ascendant or /Beguiler with Frostseeker (the on-crit AoE of Frostseeker generates focus, too). If it's more about CC then Beguiler (who gets a lot of focus from hitting numerous enemies with cheap Deception spells auch as Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors) - if it's more about weapon damage then Ascendant (because soul whips's dmg bonus doesn't turn off when focus is full). Ranger/Cipher can have amazing accuracy which leads to a lot of crits. And a lot of crits with Frostseeker leads to a lot of AoE procs which generate focus and deal great damage. Also against hard-to-hit enemies usually this build fares pretty well compared to other cipher combos that usually struggle building focus against tough enemies.

Yes, that's why I wrote "some". Against Neriscyrlas interrupts can be a key to prevent her from casting Llengrath's Safeguard - which annoys und frustrates most many players a lot once it's up. You can beat her without well-timed interrupts of course, but it's a lot harder once Safeguard is up. So I would argue that one should indeed "go out of one's way" - at least a bit - in order to learn more about interrupts and how to use them effecively. Otherwise you'll have to go out of your way in a different and most likely more unpleasant way to be able to beat her and certain other enemies. The power of interrupts (which again can be put out for free with numerous weapons and/or abilities) can be showcased with the aforementioned Arcane Archer/Troubadour: he can fire an arbalest+modal so quickly and with such high ACC (esp. when using Spearcaster+Arcana skill) that Neriscyrlas will not get anything done anymore but will be prone and interrupt-locked for the whole fight (as long as you don't let the ads come near the AA/Troub). That's one char alone who is of course optimized for interrupts - so it's most likely not a solution for players who just now encountered problems with the dracolich. But in a whole party it's often easy enough to reach similar results if one spreads out the ability to interrupt and add some hard CC over several chars to prevent certain actions of the enemy to happen. It's an efficient way to beat tough enemies without going into cheese mode. You don't have to do it, I'm just showing a rel. easy way out of a dilemma some players might have - with a tool they might already have at hand but didn't employ until now - because they didn't realize the potential. Alternative might be to go back, get other gear and stuff and then try again later.

Hello, it depends on your difficulty setting. On PotD I would go for higher PER - or put more focus on accuracy. On lower difficulties lowish PER is not a problem. For my answer I assume it's PotD: Barbs have rel. bad base accuracy, especially early on with Carnage. Since Carnage has so much potential with "special sauce on hit/crit- weapons I would give Barbs higher PER in general. Carnage's accuracy will scale with char level - and at some points its ACC will outmatch your accuracy of the normal auto-attack, but until then it's nice to not miss all the time which is frustrating. Fighters are fine with a bit lower PER imo because they get sufficient boosts out of their class and abilities. A spiritshifting Druid usually needs several high attributes - so while I would say Spiritshift benefits from high PER (because Druids don't have good accuracy by themselves) maybe 12 base is sufficient if buffed by the Priest properly (Blessing + Devotions). Ciphers have access to Borrowed Instincts which is a great ACC boost. Takes some time though. But I think with support from Priest it's okay until yaou get there. Same with the Wizard. Instead of Fighter tank/dps I would use a Monk. It already is tank/dps/cc all in one class. Fighters are good in the early game but fall off at some point imo. I firmly believe Monks are the best martial class in PoE. But of course that's also a matter of taste. An good alternative tank for CC/dps can be a Darcozzi Paladin who uses Inspiring Liberation, a marking weapon and Coordinated Attacks. Such a Paladin is very sturdy and doesn't do a lot of dmg himself, but he can buff a party member's accuracy by a stackable +30ACC which leads to an easy time against boss enemies and other tough nuts. At the same time a Paladin can provide additional healing with Lay on Hands and can substitute Priest's Blessing with Zealous Focus which spares a Priest cast. Both Monk and Darcozzi Paladin lack multiple engagement slots though. So if your tanking idea is developed on engagement in order to stop and bind enemies then the fighter is best. Priests are excellent buffers and later good damage dealers via spells, but they are not the best healers - Druids are imo. So I wouldn't use my Druid for shapeshifting alone but also provide healing to the party to give the Priest more action time for buffing. Spiritshift is pretty short anyway, so there's time for alternative actions like casting a healing-over-time spell like Moonwell before rushing into melee combat for example. When looking at "heavy CC oriented and damage output" my first instinct would be to dump RES (except on tank) and CON (except on Barb and maybe Druid a lot melee) max DEX, PER, INT and put the rest into MIG.

On the damage-dealing side: Combusting Wounds + Wall spells (multiple if you have different chars with wall spells, like Wizard + Druid for example), beam spells and pulsing spells of all sorts (Chillfog - yes it works with CW, Venombloom, Wicked Briars and all that stuff that does damage rolls every few secs) make short work of the Messenger's health pool. It's easier to land Combusting Wounds if you have a character with a Morning Star + modal who debuffs the dragon's fortitude a bit first. In general: use interrupts. Interrupts, wisely applied, make a huge difference with boss enemies. For example you can have one char with an Arbalest or Crossbow + modal who doesn't mindlessly fire and reload but waits for the dragon to execute an ability and only then fire a bolt to interrupt that. My most cherished character for that is a Arcane Archer/Troubadour because it not only fires very quickly with high accuracy but also becaue it can remoive all layers of concentration right away with a chant - but it works with all sorts of chars who have decent accuracy and some form of speedup. Without interrupts (or hard CC which is usually resource-restricted while interrupts are not ) you cannot beat some Megabosses - so it's better to getting used to employ them early imo. I usually beat the Messenger around lvl 14 or so. I mostly use story companions, maybe one hireling now and then.