Boeroer

Yes, the guys that dig into the code and explain all the math or do a lot of testing around numbers are very helpful. I can't force myself to uncompile the code and search through it. I do programming all day long and am happy if I don't have to look through code in my freetime. Not that I don't like my job - it's awesome - but enough is enough. That's also the reason I don't mod despite being a Software Engineer. I just have fun testing out combos I think may be cool. Of course knowing the inner workings helps a lot. That way I can find stuff that you can't find by looking at the code. For example that you can use Clear Out or Whirling Strikes with a ranged weapon (mortars! ) if you only put a melee weapon into your offhand. Try Clear the Path with Fire in the Hole + Scordeo's Edge with Blade Cascade... Enjoy!

I always undress them competely once I swap them out. The build with Driving Roar needs no INT. So it's good for Konstanten. The retaliation one also works with lowish INT. For both you need to be lvl 19. Else you can't have Driving Roar or Bariaric Retaliation. The debuffing one works well as soon as you get to PL 8. What is that? Lvl 16?

Yes, it's not that easy. Shadow Form is only 1/encounter. Even with a lot of Salvations it doesn't last very long. And as soon as you don't kill it's gone. Better to use Shadow Form & Shadowing Beyond: Go in with stealth, shoot, use Shadowing, shoot (repeat until kill), Shadow Form triggers, leave combat and reset. THis way you can kill one foe by one. Powerful but takes some time. Or you wait until Vanishing Strikes: its invisibility doesn't break at all.

I think you confused that with the DLC "The Forbidden Rectum".

Did you kill on that crit? Or do you get a wound refund on every crit? Because Sisters of the Reaping Moon gains wounds on kill.

So... overwhelmed by the awesomeness of Barbarians, eh?

They can make invocations stronger through Zealous Focus. Eternal Devotion puts a lash on your own Invocations (if you're a Herald).

Did you try to increase its duration with Wall of Draining or Salvation of Time and then check if the PL boost stacks with the of a following invocation? Because if that works... please hush!

I confirm.

Looks more and more like a bug. It's bad though because I wanted to start a new playthrough with a rogue (this time) with mortars (again of course) but I don't want to unless I have clarification if my plans will work out (after a bugfix) or not (because it's a legit nerf).

Yes, it stacks with everything since it's a passive. Like Adaptive, too since it's from a weapon. Both stack with Dance of Death. So with 10 wounds and maxed Dance of Death you already get +22 ACC + Adaptive on top.

No, some stuff like Flames of Devotion or FInishing Blow work as before. Stunning Surge is not supposed togive you wounds. But it may be that you have Dance of Death active and are Nalpasca? Else it's a bug. The refund also happens on a crit from a bounce. Fire in the Hole has a bouncing ecnchantment - maybe that's it?

Try Goldpact Knight/Trickster or Steel Garrote/Trickster with Battle Axe (+ Bleeding Cuts modal switched on) in the main hand (goal is to get Magran's Favor) and Sun and Moon in the offhand. Use as many Full Attacks as you can. Because the looong recovery of Bleeding Cuts does not matter once you use Full Attacks. Sun and Moon is a fast weapon and thus has faster recovery - and it's the offhand recovery that counts when doing Full Attacks (like Crippling Strike, Flames of Devotions and so on). Wear the Ring of Focused Flames. With Eternal Flames (Flames of Devotion Upgrade) your Trickster will get +4 Power Level from Sun and Moon + Magran's Favor and +10 ACC because of the Ring and your following Rogue Strikes (Crippling Strike for example) will get an additional burning lash. This is plenty dmg. At the same time you are quite tanky because of the Trickster's spells and either the Goldpact's +AR or the Steel Garrote's draining which will heal you. With Persistent Distraction you will always cause Distracted which means a Stell Garrote with Persistant Distraction always drains life from its targets. Steel Garrote's draining stacks with Old Siec (chanter phrase) and also Furyshaper's Blood Ward by the way. You can also use dual mortars with the sme setup. Instead of Persistent Distraction you have to enchant the Hand Mortar with Blinding Smoke. Powder Burns modal from mortars will also profit from the Ring and FoD as well. Now you are doing AoE damage instead of single target dmg. Wear the Defiant Apparel to be immune toi Powerder Burn's Distraction. Or you do both and switch to axe+flail against single targets and to mortars in order to deal AoE dmg. Watch out with Tricksters Repulsive Visage: terrified enemies can't be engaged so you'll lose Persistent Distraction. So use it wisely - e.g. if the target is already afflicted by other stuff or you get really pummeled. When using mortars this isn't a problem since you can't engage anyway.

Lvl 20? Variant 1: The Pulverizer Put on the Tricorn. Pick Blood Storm, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst, Blood Surge and Driving Roar. Try to target groups of foes. Once fight starts just roar enemies to pieces. Bonus points if they stand near a wall. It's foe-only and doesn't care for INT (Konstanten has only 10). Proof: We those dmg numbers? Yeah... that's a totally unoptimized Serafen doing it. Konstanten would do equally well. Variant 2: Knocks Fort Willbreaker, Body Blows, Ring of Ov + Ring of Ov., +INT gear, Aloth's armor, Spirit Tornado, Bloodlust, Blood Storm Thirst, Blood Surge, Heart of Fury, Panther's Leap. Leap into crowd, do Spirit Tornado, do HoF with Body Blows, leave for your nuker to target crowd with whatever fort spell suits you. Enemies will be Dazed, Terrified, then Staggered and under the effect of Body Blows which results in -45 -35 Fortitude and -20 -10 Will (and more because Willbreaker does lower Will as well per hit). Very good at debuffing while dealing damage. You can also use Blood Storm and Barbaric Shout instead of Spirit Tornado. But the latter is safer. Variant 3: Heart of Lightning Dual mortars and same procedure as Knocks Fort. But Blood Storm. Put on Heaven's Cacophony, cast Avenging Storm. Cast Blood Storm. Jump in and do HoF with Mortars (Powder Burns). Bonus points if somebody did cast Combusting Wounds first. Variant 4: Bloody Backlash Patinated Plate (Juggernaut), Thick Skinned, Blunting Belt, Blood Storm, Blood Thirst, HoF, Bloodlust,Blood Surge, Barbaric Retaliation, Panther's Leap. Dual Battle Axes (Oathbreakers also works) or Willbreaker or Saru-Sichr, Sanguine Sword. Cast Blood Storm, jump in and let them hit you while you hit them. Dual Battle Axes are best. Recovery will not matter with retaliation. Will not matter with HoF. If somebody dies: Blood Thirst. And so on. Whirlwind of Bleeding Cuts. Nice Variant: Grave Calling + Scordeo's Edge with Blade Cascade. The Pulverizer works like a super easy AI bot, too. Needs no special gear. Not much works with Driving Roar. But the hat is nice since it gives +5 ACC.

The zeal cost of Gilded Enmity (Goldpact)is refunded once you kill the enemy. Bleak Walker is good for any offensive paladin build.

Try Steel Garrote. Old Siec and Steel Garrote do stack (also with the Blood Ward from Furyshaper by the way). Give your Steel Garrote/Troubadour dual mortars (main hand Mnad Mortar with Blinding Smoke, offhand Fire in the Hole) and let him chant Mith Fyr + Old Siec an behold how he heals a lot when he shoots at mobs with FoD. Don't know if it's best, but it sure is fun as Hel.

This one or in general?

Hmmm. If you are under the effect of Suppress Affliction you count as not afflicted I guess?

Yes. Draining Whip now gives you +100% focus gain with Deception spells on afflicted enemies. Casting from stealth counts as if everyone you hit was afflicted. So cast one big AoE Deception spell from stealth (like Phantom Foes) and every enemy is afflicted for a looong time and also your focus is at max. You can then use whatever you want and lose focus - if you need more just repeat Phantom Foes and you're back at max. Pretty hilarious. Single class Beguiler as well. I wouldn't pick Biting Whip with a Beguiler at all. In my opinion now better than Ascended. Will now start a new playthrough with a Tactician/Beguiler (or single class Beguiler), a Debonaire/Wizard and a Steel Garrotte/Arcane Archer. Still thinking about the rest. Furyshaper/Ancient maybe? Maybe Tactician/Bloodmage + SC Beguiler. Forbidden Fist I tried as MC in my run before and had to scrap it. It's just too bad. Really bad.

Bump for the win!

I wonder if being an Assassin/Forbidden Fist is the ultimate path to anal minmaxing. I mean "Assassinate", "Backstab", "Dirty Fighting", "Deep Pockets" and "Slippery Mind" send a clear signal, don't they? Or maybe single class Forbidden Fist with "Whispers of the Wind"?

I don't use AI either. That's the reason why the game is so easy for me.

I just made a Debonaire/Beguiler (new focus generation fix with Deception spells). I use Essence Interrupter. With Debonaire I can get 100% crit on a charmed target, making it a summon on death. Phantom Foes from stealth fills my focus to 100% right away (even at lvl with 235 max focus). My Ringleader also costs near nothing when I cast it on the flanked enemies. Then I tickle each charmed enemy with Essence Interrupter and then kill everything with Shreds. If I need more focus I will just cast another Phantom Foes. It hits so many enemies (huuuge AoE) that it always fills me up to max. Debonaire's crit conversion is also super good if you have a fellow cipher and you are a Debonaire/Wizard. Just nuke the charmed enemies with a Fireball or so an watch 100% crits. Whoohooo! Beguiler is the natural friend of the Tactician now. You can just spam Phantom Foes all day long until everybody and their butts are flanked.

Almost never. That doesn't mean it's not good. It's just pretty circumstancial so I simply forget about it.

Club's base damage is 10 to 14. So your dmg rolls should be between 10 and 14 with auto-attacks. BUT: 1 additional Power Level adds +5% base damage once you use any ability with the weapon. Let's say you use a Crippling Strike (PL 1 ability) and you have 10 Power Levels: 10-1 = 9 PLs above Crippling Strike which means 9*5 = 45% increased base damage. 10 to 14 times 1.45 means the base damage with Kapana Taga is 14.5 to 20.3. That bonus is obscured. It's included in the dmg "roll" you see in the tooltip right at the top. The rest (the list) are the additive dmg modifiers and the wicked maluses. Your damage rolls with Kapana Taga for base damage should be between 14.5 to 20.3 when using Crippling Strike. If you use higher level abilities you'll have lower PL bonus. But often those abilities have additive dmg bonuses instead. But that explains how a Crippling Strike can sometimes do more damage than a Finishing Blow: higher PL bonus. Base damage is multiplicative with all dmg mods. If you also have Sneak Attack and so on this really pays off. That's why low level abilities keep being useful even in the late game. And the more PL you can get the better. Fists scale with Power Level twice (sort of): first they scale with PL (and get +ACC and additive dmg mods like if they got enchanted with Fine, Exceptional etc.) and then the abilities you use with them also scale with power level. So as a Monk it's esp. beneficial to gain a lot of Power Levels.