Boeroer

Monk seems to be the answer: basically unlimited resource pool and great dmg potential. Also needs some micro to get the most out of his abilities. For real good dmg really on multiclass with Rogue and become a melee Shadowdancer. Use Sun&Moon for the main hand and Scordeo's Edge for the offhand and pick Swift Flurry and later Heartbeat Drumming. Sun & Moon hits twice per swing to the chance to crit and trigger an additional crit is higher. Scordeo's Edge gives you lots of ACC via Adaptive. I mainly use Stunning Surge as active ability (nearly always no Mortificaton loss due to lots of crits) you can of course have a lot more. Pick items and abilities around crits (Enervating Blows, Improved Critical, Precognition amulet) and add some lashes (Hylea's Gloves for example). Target low defense enemies as priority. Like casters and such. Use Escape and Flagellant's Path to zip around the battlefield and take those out very quickly. Persistent Distraction unlocks Deathblows right on engagement. The dmg bonus of Rogue paired with the lash of Turning Wheel is good. Or single class Monk. Not as strong dps-wise as Shadowdancer - until the late game where it totally takes off (Resonant Touch + Whispers of the Wind + Stalking Cloak = bonkers). Something like that. Subclasses not that important for the base concept. I'm doing a Debonaire/Helwalker test at the moment and it's pretty great (first charm a squishy for the sweet 100% crit chance and then one-shot it ).

You have a "won't fix" option? How unruly! Jira?

They also go hostile if an enemy hits them. This could get fixed. Also that bystanders flee and don't run into the fights as if it's a dinner party.

Tyranny did it first. Boy that was a surprising learning curve coming in from PoE1 and seeing my attacks miss because the enemy moved a bit. Oh no! You reminded me of Tyranny! *shakes fist*

Yes, you need to multiclass with Ranger to make that happen. They should really make a passive that lets you cast such things on either mind controlled enemies or directly on enemies. By the way: can you cast such powers directly on enemies if you are confused? And speaking of Ranger and Ciphers: can you cast Reaping Knives on a fellow's animal companion?

But Wizard/Druid with Deltro's Cage and Lord Darryn's Voulge + Chromoprismatic Staff would work. Switch to staff when casting Wizard's spells (+3 PL with shock spells, +1 with others) and to the Voulge when casting Druid spells (+2 to all electricity spells that are not of storm - like Nature's Terror, +3 to all Storm spells that are not of electricity - like Blizzard, and even +5 to all storm spells that also have electricity - like Returning/Relentless Storm).

Fun fact: in PoE it didn't matter if you walked out of range after an attack had been initiated. You'd get hit anyway (if the roll was successful). In Deafire they implemented the described "out of reach" feature - which was a good thing in my opinion. Grog lets you do the stuff that a rogue can do when his Defensive Roll kicks in - or what a Barb can do after activating Wild Sprint. And you can always move - recovery will not stop you like it might prevent Escape or Evasive Roll.

Computer Scientist (mostly Software Architecture and -Engineering).

D&D grognards saw PoE in beta and hated the engagement mechanics. Infinity Games have no engagement. You can rund around like headless chicken to the music of the Benny Hill Show and won't get punished. And because that's the superior thing they hated the new thing. Had nothing to do with nostalgia or being retrogressive or so... Engagement enables you to do disengament attack, yes. It also stops your movement for a short time. If you point your char to point X and he will get engaged on the way he will stop. You have to actively move him away (and eat a diseng. attack).

Ah. Unfortunately Wizards have no spells that are keyworded with "storm". Only the Druid spells Dancing Bolts, Blizzard, Hailstorm, Returning Storm, Relentless Storm, Maelstrom and Avenging Storm have that keyword (maybe I missed one). Tekehu's Chanter Invocations that are copied from Druid also count.

I binds to Barbarian, Druid or Fighter. Since you can't bind it to Wizard it can do nothing for your shock spells. Maybe you are looking for Deltro's Cage? It will give a Wizard +2 PL to all shock spells. With Deltro's Helm you can even get a lash for your spells if you shock yourself a bit. You can add Chromoprismatic Staff for another Power Level. With that plate you will look more like Emperor Tummypatine though.

No it is not. You confuse damage per second (DPS) with damage pet hit. Disintegrate has not very high dps. Amplified Wave is nice but pales if compared to some other abilites that do more dps (damage per second). Luckily it also has a CC component that is nice. I find Ectopsychic Echo pretty mediocre because it's a fiddly thing. I usually waste too much attention and time on managing it which could be used better with other stuff. The dmg is ok. The fast ticking is better (Death of Thousand Cuts, Combusting Wounds). But since when does INT prolong its duration?

Yes, Wild Mind is pretty objectionable. Even if the Forbidden Curse stuff was fixed: the wound generation of the Forbidden Fist is so inferior. I don't know how they are going to fix that. Maybe give 2 wounds on affl. expiration and make the curse real short or so...

Erm... you wrote that already. On the first page. It's def. not one of the top dps builds in the game. Where exactly comes the dps from? Disintegration has not very high dps nor has a hunting bow + lash in the hands of a Trascendent top dps potential. Last time I checked Ectopsychic Echo's duration was fixed and not influenced by INT. Did that change?

The Debonaire gets 100% crit conversion on charmed enemies. Beguiler casts Ring Leader, Debonaire then casts whatever friendly fire spell (direct damage like Fireball etc mostly, since targets flip after getting damaged). All his hits get converted to crits which takes away the PEN issue completely and gives yome nice bonus damage (with Precognition and Improved Crits is a +60% damage, sometimes even overpenetration). DoTs like Pernicious Cloud are also good since they get +50% duration. You need something that does friendly fire - or you choose single target spells. Most of them can be targeted on allies (Necrotic Lance etc.).

Yes. Players often forget to add AC's damage to the calculation when comparing Ranger with other classes. It's a bit more micro though.

I have seen plenty mention of this pet - by me in the bug forum. Because several players did file bug reports: they suddenly died on K.O. and that must be a bug, right? Some of them attached savegames. An what could one find in those? It's quite the fun pet. Also because it points at the D&D grognards that complained so hard about the engagement and endurance/health mechanics when PoE's beta came out.

5% chance to interrupt. LMAO Now I know why it's not a super pet. It's not even a so-so pet..

Ehhhh...

Two "secret" tips: Hunter's Claw works with ranged weapons, most importantly blunderbusses + Driving Flight. Just put a melee weapon into your offhand and enjoy superfast buildup of the bonus with up to 8 hits per use. Whirling Strikes is the same: try Fire in the Hole with Driving Flight + Scordeo's Edge in the offhand. You will do insane AoE dmg (because every AoE hit from WHirling Strikes will trigger an AoE hit from mortar + Powder Burns). Wear Defiant Apparel to be immune to your own distraction. With this trick Sharpshooter is best. Max INT. Besides that: try Heaven's Cacophony with Avenging Storm (or Avenging Storm scrolls). Use either Frostseeker + Driving Flight or dual mortars with Blinding Smoke(! triggers Avenging Storm) and Chain Shot + Driving Flight. Use Twinned Shot for total obliteration of everything around you (mortars) or far away (Frostseeker). Mortars is way more powerful but also more risky. For mortars I'd use Sharpshooter and for Frostseeker I would use Arcane Archer. Also Arcane Archer with Essence Interrupter as general "basic" weapon is great (great weaopon per se, no ACC malus with Arcane Archer's auto-attacks). Switch to Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot or Kitchen Stove with Wild Barrage + Driving Flight + Fireballs and later Death Ring. Jumps (Watershaper's Focus/Fire itH + Driving Flight = 2 jumps, Kitchen Stove + Wild Barrage + Driving Flight = 3 jumps) trigger imbue spells! That means 3 or 4 Fireballs/Death Rings per imbue shot which is a ton.

I think Rogue/Shifter would be even better ((Sneak + Deathblows) * lashes * PL bonus) - but Beastmaster is also cool. There's a nice little synergy between Boar form (wounding dmg) and Predator's Sense.

The best class is the Hand Mortar. Subclasses like Rogue, Wizard etc. don't matter much. Actually I don't think there are top whatever classes. As others said: it depends a lot on what you are trying to do and what the rest of the party looks like. Not a bad job on balancing. A lot of people might say Troubadour as well, wouldn't they? At the moment I'm doing a party build around a Beguiler (single class). Means Debonaire/Wizard, Tactician and so on. If I had to vote now and based on this playthrough I would say Beguiler is best. The new focus regeneration with Deception spells has to be broken: I refill my complete (lvl-20) focus with one cast of Phantom Foes. It's like being always ascended (in terms of power spam). I mean in terms of OPness the single class Monk is maybe still unmatched in a party setup when it comes to "kill everything with one ability use (or two if you count Resonant Touch to clean up)". But this new Beguiler just rules right from the start. Everything that can be fooled gets fooled. All the time... In general I like Barbs. Their active abilities suck a bit unless you play single class (PL 9 is great). But they have some of the nicest passives. It's fun to combine those with other classes. Too bad Carnage got screwed over so profoundly... And Monks obviously. +10 INT jeez! For me INT is the most important stat so no wonder I like them. But that's what I like. It doesn't mean it's the best in general. Fighter's Clear Out (and upgrades) has a lot of game breaking potential. But for some reasons I never liked Fighters too much. Priest are not bottom if it comes to buffing your party. There is no better class to do this.

It doesn't really stack it seems - but the AoE * AoE + Driving Flight + Powder Burns + DoT is plenty strong. If you also use Heaven's Cacophony the enemies (and your graphics card) will melt. If you combine it with Scordeo's Edge + Blade Cascade you often get a proc - and Whirling Strikes is "only" 3 Bond.

Yes, I got it once "by accident" and can't really recall the details. But I think you have to have certain skills to get it.

You can use Smoke Cloud and/or Hand Mortar to flank a lot of enemies. I also thought about Tactician + Baby Boar the other day when I was looking at the pets' wiki page. You have to resolve the scripted event/encounter with Chief Echoing-Strike in a certain way I believe? Or is it always there? Honestly the Baby Boar is one of the best pets even though it's not even a Superpeter - or is it? Against AoE I would use Smoke Cloud + Clear Out I guess. That would be AoE Flanked + AoE interrupt (even without Boar).