Boeroer

Really? On a ranger?

Since I don't shift at all the form doesn't matter.

I guess all AoE weapons will be pretty great with Hunter's Claw (and upgrades) because it stacks per hit - and AoE weapons produce a lot of hits in a short time. I also suspect that blunderbusses and Frostseeker will work nicely because they stack the ACC bonus pretty fast (multi-projectile)?

Exactly.

I told you Blade Feast is great with Sacred Immolation.

The only thing is that you usually don't have additive dmg mods for spells besides MIG and crit (and maybe Overpenetration). So the multiplicative dmg bonus of PL on spells is not that obvious as with enchanted weapons and abilities like Sneak Attack where you can stack dmg mods which then get multiplied with the higher base. If base damage gets raised but you have no additional dmg bonuses there's no difference between additive or multiplicative. So Missile Salvo or Meteor Shower or whatever spell would do the same damage with a multiplicative or an additive dmg boost from PL (with 10 MIG and no crit).

Combat log: Obsidian Animat casts Finger of Nerf

Ranger getting even more ACC is nice. Imagine you want to fight a certain endboss. like a dragon: go grab Hunter's Claw and upgrades, kill some cheapo beetles first, then some tigers, then off to the dragon with a huge pile of ACC and dmg bonuses. Also stacks with Red Hand's bonus on kill I hope? It also is a bit nostalgic: D&D rangers had some "enemy" races with special bonuses. But you couldn't change the race. This approach I like better. It's more tactical and you have to plan ahead a bit.

I think the main problem is that FoD is keyworded with fire (which is good) and that +4 Fire PL then leads to a dmg increase of the physical base dmg of the ability (no increase of the burning lash which would make sense but instead the physical base dmg - which doesn't make too much sense). Only universal PL increase should lead to an increase of physical weapon base dmg with an ability. Elemental PLs should only increase the respective elemental dmg, not the underlying pierce/crush/slash/raw dmg. If an ability somehow deals elemental base dmaage then sure: go ahead and increase its base damage with elemental PLs. For example if you use FIrebrand then +fire PLs shoul increase the base damage, since it's base damage is burn. But not in case of a normal estoc or a glowing axe that still does basic slash damage (not burn). If you'd take Bleak Walker's FoD (which is keyworded with fire and acid) and take another item that also increases corrode PL you would see the base dmg (not the lash damage) rise even more. The mechanics of what influences physical dmg and what influences the elemental (lash) dmg are a bit intermingled here.

That totally depends how you play your monk. For example it can be very good to run around and take out single threats like caster asap with Force of Anguish and Barbaric Blow. In this case fists or Eager Blade or so would be better. If you like to flank a bunch of enemies and like to Torment the heck ot of them then WotEP is unmatched I think (except when using Citzel's but that can't happen on a Monk/Berserker). But hey - nothing prevents you from using both: Giftbearer's Cloth is a nice cloak anyway and you can use fists as backup, Eager Blade as main and WotEP for the situations where you wish to do more AoE dmg/CC. Engolio is crass. Everything that kills (and is of your origin) will trigger Ghost Blades. It's a blast with Blood Thirst (only lvl 19 though). BUT: I did a quick test with some bowling pins (aka cre_dummies) and compared Engolio vs WotEP: The speed at which I can kill them all is higher with the WotEP. Of course that is because they don't move and I can always hit all of them (which is the optimal situation for the WotEP). But it shows that when it comes to AoE dmg the WotEP is great until the endgame on such a character. Maybe also because you have a double chance to apply Blood Frenzy with Torment's Reach? Didn't analyze that in depth. Also the reach is nice for cramped up spaces. But all in all Engolio is maybe better because unlike WotEP it's also a good weapon against single targets. So you spare yourself switching and all (except when meeting pierce immune foes). By the way: Ripple Sponge + Sated Ravenous Soul Hunger are a nice match - combined they give you +3 to all stats. Sadly Ripple Sponge's bonus to INT gets suppressed by Duality:INT.

This is also true for some low lvl spells vs high level spells afaik. Insect Swarm nearly does the same dmg per tick (over a longer time) as Plague of Insects (much bigger AoE though). THis usually is balanced by higer base damage of the high level stuff. So it's quite easy to balance this because every spall has its own base damage which can be tweaked rel. savely without breaking stuff. Problem with weapon based abilites is that you can't increase the base damage (of the weapon) to balance high level abilites with low level abilites that get more PL bonus. You often get an additive dmg bonus. Those usually show less impressive results - even if they go quite high. I somethimes think that some devs or designers still don't fully grasp how different those things behave once you pwergame a bit. Putting some kind of lower but multiplicative bonus like a lash would be a better solution in this case. Another thing is "double" PL scaling with Transcended Suffering: your fists' PEN, ACC and add. dmg bonus scale with PL - as well as the dmg bonus of let's say Stunning Surge.

I play with Linux and sometimes with Windows 10 (different savegames - just for testing). When synch happens I get three (?) different savegame directories on my Linux system. All named slightly different (case sensitive and stuff). Man...

Torment's Reach only procs off of the initial hit it seems. So no AoE² stuff. That works with Spirit Lance but not with WotEP. Still a nice combo since both are cones and you can pretty much deal dual AoE damage + stun with one attack. Torment's Reach cone is much bigger (more length) though.

That's why I repeatedly wonder why Obsidian didn't just take PoE's engine and make a nice, really biiig, separate,standalone expansion for it and call it Deadfire...

I agree. Not to Magic: The Gathering though because I know zilch about that weird stuff. When I play card games it's usually Canasta - and Canasta has no Roflcopter. And the only brilliant thing about it is me playing it. Like a BOSS!

Is there a difference in price?

Your focus is depleted only when you hit single targets. When you hit multiple targets the focus can replenish at the same time and it always worked like that.Ah, ok. I didn't even notice. I don't know if SA+AoE always worked like that though. In backer beta SA + Spirit Lance didn't refill focus (and had different more "chaotic" AoE raw dmg mechanics than today). But there was no WotEP of course.

Yeah. I'm not sure if you can spam SA at all - because you need min 5 focus for the execution. Usually you will have 0 after SA. Or so I believe? Or was that changed lately? I actually never tried to spam it. I always did alternate. Very understanding post by the way, thank you for that!

Well - just because you use your Soulblade differently does say nothing about the general usefulness of WotEP as dps tool, does it? I read several of those "I don't like to use x in this or that way, hence x is not good" statements from you lately. That's fair enough and may fit in your case - but you shouldn't use you special playstyle/case as a base for general judgement. That's like discussing javelin and pole as sport utilities: complaining that you (as a pole vaulter) can't jump with the javelin and thus it's a inferior tool compared to the pole. Edit: As I said above, even low focus driven SAs do plenty of raw damage when boosted by Sneak Attack/Deathblows. But I would also alternate between rogue strikes and SA, not spam SA. But that's not different from the usage of SA with anohter weapon. The bonus of WotEP is that iut adds additional raw damage in an AoE, it has reach, Blade Form (increased speed compared to other two handers) and a lash. That makes it a great pick for a Rogue/Soulblade as long as you don't fight a single target.

In this case I don't get hit too often (Force of Anguish or Stunning Sruge + cone is great) but the problem is the raw self damage. +2 AR does nothing against it (in my special case). THat's why I chose the regeneration on this guy.

1. Yes 2. Nope. Everything works basically. Fists are always a nice backup option though because they don't need to be enchanted and they bring their own proficiency. Whispers of the ENdless Paths can still be great since it applies Flames of Devotion to all targets and also Stunning Surge will stun all enemies if it hits with its AoE cone. Plenty of choices. Even a Morning Star + Body Blows (modal) + Force of/Efficient Anguish as no. 1 attack option is neat. 3. Yes - especially when dual wielding (White Flames will proc twice - if you hit twice) 4. Totally depends. But in general I would pick Devil of Caroc Breastplate. It will give you +2 Mortification and +2 Zeal as well as some attack speed, a resistance to an affliction group as well as health regeneration.

Yes, at the beginning he drops all the time. You need to provide healing. But once you get Savage Defiance it gets a lot better (also because it lasts a looong time because of Duality:INT). And you can stack some regeneration like rings and Whiteleaf (quite good with high alchemy and MIG). Whiteleaf can be emulated with the Sopul Void amulet (gives you a Whiteleaf trip after rest) if you want to spare drugs. At some point I had so many drugs that I used another amulet though. In this case the Berserker's self damage is a feature: it generates tons of wounds but doesn't break Dance of Death (later Enduring Dance). And the Confusion I quickly circumvent with the Devil's Breastplate. This is also great because you'll get +2 Mortification and +2 Rage.And another source of regeneration...

Citzal's Spirit Lance + Soul Annihilation is pretty great. But that combo comes rather late (hey, that rhymes...). You can get the WotEP very early and over the course of a whole game I think it's better (in terms of dps) to use a Rogue/Soulblade with WotEP instead of taking a Monk/Wizard with the WotEP and wait for Spirit Lance. Wahai Poraga is unimpressive since the lastest nerfs to it in my opinion. The base damage is also low but it only hits up to 3 additional targets - and those can be party members because it has friendly fire. For a Rogue/Soulblade I would always use WotEP with high INT. Best to get smart somehow as well. In a full party I'd even consider wearing Aloth's Armor + two rings of Overseeing. This not only extends the cone but also most spells' AoE. Catching two more foes can mean a lot more dps. Cast Phantom Foes or Secret Horrors at the start of battle and then tickle groups of enemies with Arterial/SA/Arterial/SA and so on. Focus generation is awesome and the "min" raw damage of SA to the AoE targets is still impressive because it gets boosted by Sneak Attack and Deathblows. Usually it's above 30 extra raw damage. That is pretty great dps compared to a single target weapon. I even used Assassin + Backstab with the WotEP because "Run Through" has high base damage and is a great opener for high single target burst and high focus gain right at the start of the battle.

That also depends. On multiclass synergies for example. I'm playing a Nalpasca/Berserker at the moment (hireling) and am pretty amazed by the overall usefulness but also by the damage output. The combination of high INT and Berserker-Frenzy + Stalwart Defiance = powerful Wound Generation (aided by Enduring Dance and drugs) is giving wound so fast that I can't spent them quickly enough. Rooting Pain is triggering all the time but I'm still at 9-10 wounds all the time. In addition I have some Barbaric Smashes as nice finisher (combined with Bloody Slaughter and Death Godlike - good for fists!). The crit rate is nice for Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming (which works with the AoE cone). The damage is pretty damn awesome. I'm using WotEP as main weapon because the cone is very big with Duality:INT and a big cone hits many enemies which help trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. Then melee usefulness is not always = dps. I'm also playing an Assassin/Priest of Skaen with Oathbreaker's End and Assassin's Boots. Man this is fun! You get plenty of invisibility uses which lets you deal awesome bursts (especially with Assassinate + Backstab + Devastating Blow). The dps is not high because you alternate between attacking and being invisible, positioning for the perfect strike - but the enemies can't fight back so who cares. I'm clearing whole groups with that guy alone: sneak in, Arterial Strike, Devastating Blow: kill *pouf* invisible, Arterial Strike, Devastating Blow : kill *Shadowing Beyond*, Arterial Strike... and so on until I have only 1 Shadowing Beyond left which I use to retreat and end encounter. Rinse and repeat. Plays like a different game. And on top you are a full blown priest with Devotions and stuff!