Boeroer

1. Instruments of Pain does not work with ranged weapons. It takes your melee weapon's range (usually 1 - but 1.8 for the reach weapons pike and staff) and does multiply it by 6 (or +500% in other words). I can't remember if the ability button simply greys out when a ranged weapon is equipped or if it's just does nothing. I think the first. 2. No, because of 1. But it works with melee weapons which have a similar enchantment.

You mean "weapon attacks" I presume?

Why? Lord Darryn's Voulge also has two damage types and works very well with Barb/Devoted.

Don't take away the only thing he talks about...

By the way: Victor Creed (YouTube) = Raven Darkholme (Obsidian forums)

If you stand very close he will hit himself with fire - which will heal him. Only a fraction of the damage though (like Rekvu's Scorched Cloak or Flame Naga's passive). The fire damage will get turned into 10% healing if I'm not mistaken.

It's been like that since release. I don't think it will get "fixed". Still playing a ranged monk for over a month now... I assume if something gets fixed it's the description. Because for a ranged monk neither Iron not Turning Wheel would be useful if they made Turn. Wheel melee only.

Brand enemy heals him.

DEX affects action time (animation time) and recovery time. It's the only thing in PoE that influences action time. All other speed buffs in the game "only" affect recovery time.

Ah sorry, I forgot you're soloing. You could maybe use the Giftbearer's Cloth for an additional weapon set though.

Haha, no. But I don't know the exact numbers without checking in game. Tooltip will tell you. Power Level scaling is (+5% base damage per additional PL point) * bonus/malus from MIG.

Sure it does. Scales with Power Level (multiplicatively) and MIG (additively).

Yes. It gets the +12 ACC from single handed usage and the conversion from single weapon style. If you take a weapon into your offhand before summoning it benefits from dual wieldig + Two Weapon Style.

Besides Citzal's it's also good because of either Disciplined Strikes (more crits) or Tactical Barrage (+5 INT,+1Power Level) with spells and the combined defenses (Refreshing Defense + self buffs from Wiz). Removes the squishyness without gimping the spellpower too much.

I ruled. The game is much easier on your second playthrough due to meta-knowledge and a better grasp of mechanics. So that's a good time to start some fun experiments.

The downside of the Devoted compared to Berserker is that his bonuses only work with weapons while Tenacious will rise your PEN universally. But yes, Battlemage is nice, too. Just keep in mind that Alacrity causes self dmg as well.

Sure it's good. Especially Battlemage with Citzal's Spirit Lance - aside from subclasses. The AoE works with Mule Kick and even better: Clear Out. That's basically AoE*AoE (exponential dmg growth the more enemies you hit). Try to summon Lance, lure enemies to a spot with Dazzling Lights and open fight with Clear Out. If you manage to hit 5 enemies it's generating 5*5 = 25 attack rolls. And if you have Cleaving Stance active and kill an enemy... Refreshing Defense + Wizards self buffs make you extremely tanky for some time. Just note that Refreshing Defense stacks with Veil or Mirrored Image, but not Llengrath's Safeguard (the raised defense part).

The self damage is massive. But if you counter it with Savage Defiance it's manageable.

Yes, it works with Blast. Using Watershaper's Focus instead of dual mortars is equally effective. A bit less dmg (because of longer recovery of the rod+Blast and also because mortars target reflex and that's debuffed so easily) but much higher range (safer to use).

Xoti's Monk Subclass is quite bad compared to the other monk options. I would change it to vanilla. Or simply remove the passives with the console but keep the name. Because that's kind of cool. Took Xoti along several times now and always had the impression that she's far more useful as a single class Priest than as Monk or Monk/Priest (for the biggest part of the game). Her increased wound costs are so annoying at the lower levels - even though it's not half as bad as with the Corpse Eater.

Happy New Year it is! PS.: it only was a silly joke.

1. It got nerfed. Ondra's Wave is not considered a ranged attack anymore and thus doesn't jump with Driving Flight and WS' Focus' own jump anymore. Result is: less triggering of Ondra's Wave. The combo is still good but not as broken as before. Since I don't think that Ondra's Wave generates focus (?) it might not matter at all in this case. But I never tested that. You'll need something to pack enemies into tight groups - like Sparkcrackers/Dazzling Lights/Pull of Eora or so. That way you'll make sure you generate maximum focus with every shot. 2. Nice to have. Good thing about your plan: the first attack from stealth (with Blast it might generates enough focus to ascent) will skip the very long recovery from Blast - because the first attack from stealth gets a 85% recovery bonus (which nearly nullifies the first recovery). So if it's enough you can immediately start to cast your cipher powers while ascended. 3. Put something like Red Hand or Dragon's Dowry into your second weapon slot. 4. Get Ring of the Marksman, too. 5. No idea.

Sure, because single class Monk with Whispers of the Wind is the most effective Chanter you can use to build the best Blood Mage. That build tastes best if you replace it with a Herald right before serving...

Funny though: Batsh!t Crazy is a non-shifting build. The worst "anti-synergy" of Unbroken/Shifter is that you won't be able to use the "+1 AR when wearing a shield" passive of the Unbroken while shifted. If that's not a problem for you: why not? Weapons and armor won't matter since they get replaced with shifted stuff anyways. The rest... I presume protection/deflection and regeneration items would be nice. Nothing too fancy comes into my mind.

What is Chill Cloud? Chillfog I presume? Spirit Frenzy staggers with all direct damage spells. I think Chillfog is no exception. Also with Carnage by the way. So it's fairly easy to perma-stagger.