Boeroer

Dang! That's rulebreaking though. A resistance should downgrade an affliction no matter what. If you don't want that as a Dev you should rename the Berserker Confusion so something else (madness or whatever) and don't make it an INT afflicton.

Eh. Staves aren't really my thing. I'll consider Willbreaker. What's your opinion about the two-handed axes? They look pretty cool too.Bleeding Cuts is very good with Blood Thirst. And both axes are nice. But they have the same problem: single damage type (slash) which is bad for a Devoted. If you are no Devoted then they are a good pick. And Amra you can get very early. Amra also allows to put Blood Frenzy onto enemies in an AoE since its Carnage-like ability can crit. You need 25 MIG though. In a testing setup with a single class Barb + Retaliation (which omits recovery and thus favors battle axes with bleeding cuts) the Willbreaker was still equally good because you will hit/crit more often. Seriously: I think there is no better weapon option (if you look at the whole playthrough from beginning to end) than Morning Star for a Brute - if you don't want to switch weapons. If you want to switch then of course there's always an optimal weapon for every encounter. And Chromoprismatic Staff is very potent. If you have a Beckoner in the party and you are a Berserker then Grave Calling is also top notch. Of course it's not two handed. Just as an example for a weapon that is very good with the right "conditions". Morning Star is always good and never bad for a Brute - that's why I think it's he best pick overall.

There is only "instant" stuff like Watchful Presence that triggers as soon as you drop below a certain threshold. Besides that it's way better to either anticipate who will get hit a lot and cast a healing over time in advance (Lay on Hands, Moonwell and so on) or to use passive healing that doesn't need to be triggered at all (Ancient Memory, Exalted Endurance etc.).

It should have. Both things give you resistance against INT afflictions which did remove Berserker's Confusion in previous game versions. So either it got patched out or you are encountering a bug.

Yes, def. overthinking. There is no optimal build. Most fun build for me is Firebrand-Barb (see Cauterizer build in the build list) - but maybe that's just me. Official companions are actually better than custom made adventurers (unless you are following a very special build) because they are one level above adventurers when it matters most (early to mid game). PoE's stats don't have as much impact as stats have in other games. So the non-optimal stat distribution doesn't hurt as much as you might think. The builds of your official companions you will do yourself (if you opt out of auto-leveling). If the build is ****ty it's your fault then. Also some of them do have unique abilities (Maneha, Zahua, Devil of Caroc, Hiravias, Sagani, Pallegina...).

Sure, but it's permanent defenses without any buffing. And no, regenerating is NOT very high health pool. Potentially, it's INFINITE health pool. Dude, that's what the weaking is for. Then you'll definitely do more damage than he can regenerate and then it's quite finite. You can try the stuff or not. But don't abuse a (or multiple) "help" thread to praise the awesomeness of heralds. It slowly gets boring. Your stats are nothing op and can be overcome quite easily - depends on your party comp. and if you are willing to change it. Or go the easy route and strip or even retrain before entering the arena.

I posted this like ten times already but here you go: Bonus points if you use the Stalking Cloak because it stuns when you are invisible - and you are indeed invisible during the duration of WotWind. And if you combine it with Resonant Touch. No need for the lately omnipresent Herald.

Whispers of the Wind (and Heart of Fury and Whirling Strikes) skip recovery. With reloading weapons: no reload animaton. You will fire multiple times without any reload. Same with Flagellant's Path by the way. With AoE weapons: depends. Three Bells Through, Wahaī Pōraga and Whispers of the Wind will NOT apply the AoE with AoE abilities like HoFury or WotWind. Citzal's Sprit Lance, Minor Blights, Blast from rods do work.

Single class Monk and single class Barbarian are actually the best options for both classes in my experience. At least for the higher levels (which you reach quickly). Because the abilities from Power Level 8 and 9 are very, very good. In addition to that you get access to some key abilities a lot earlier which also makes them more powerful. Look at Stunning Surge or Enduring Dance or Turning Wheel etc. Let me post the gif of my single class Monk once more: There's a similar one with Serafen as a single class Barb using Barbaric Retaliation with dual battle axes + Bleeding Cuts + Blood Storm + Patinated Plate (Juggernaut). Gets attacked by 20 tigers and retaliates them to death in 30 seconds or so. I somehow can't find it.

Not really in my opinion. With a rogue, you can get it pretty early, if you buy two death wardstones at the orlan peddler in neketaka. You can lure the mobs away with sparkcrackers and to be safe, get the leap boots. You can always use smoke veil to get out, if they see you. With 8 diplomatic you can be friends with nemnok. The downside is, you miss out the blue items, because the enemies vanish i believe. No matter what you do, you still can get the Willbreaker earlier - and it's still the superior weapon. I mean sure: if you don't go Devoted then nothing is stopping you from using weapon A first and change to the staff later once you get it. For Devoted running around with a meh quarterstaff until you get Chromoprismatic Staff is suboptimal.

The PL 8 and 9 stuff of monks and barbarians just scream "single class me!"

Crush only = inferior once Devoted is involved. Also inferior modal. And comes pretty late.

Yes, solo punishes fixed resources. Like PotD punishes everything that doesn't raise PEN...

See?

Dude no! Too easy!

I think building around 5 engagement slots is realistic. That way you can use Cleaving Stance/Mob Stance instead of Defender and still have plenty engagement slots. Seldomly you will be able to reach 5 enemies in melee.

Doesn't really help to hit stuff though.

As I said: if you can't kill a boss with a whole party with 10+ casts of your caster(s, each) you are doing something horribly wrong. I can't even use all spells until the fight ends (most of the time). Against any enemy. Not talking about solo. Obviously classes with refreshing resources have a big advantage when going solo.

For what?

Then use the other enemies to gain focus and then cast Disintegrate on the herald? 160 deflection and 120 else is not really stellar defenses. Also 16 AR is not crazy high. Regenerating is the same as very high health pool. If you could kill the Dracolich for example you should def. be able to kill that herald. Cast Blessing, Devotions and all your peeps will have +15 ACC, attack him with Body Blows, land a weakening ability and then cast Disintegrate and use attacks that target fortitude. That should be it.

It's Christmas - people are busy getting fat and drunk.

30% dmg bonus from Overpenetration is additive, not multiplicative. Damage bonus from Power Level is multiplicative.

Why double thread?

? You must have abysmal accuracy. No priest?

That was your own character you had to balle. Not a boss. Maybe he tanks like a boss though.