Boeroer

Whoa sweet Cheesus

That's why I didn't recommend Wild Orlan above. Resistances don't only prevent wounds from tier-1 afflictions but from all tiers. It's a little quirk of the FF's wound trait - so no resistances is best. To gain more wounds use Hylea's Talons. They will put a rel. short-lived hostile effect (DoT) on you that will give you wounds when it expires. Shooting with a Blunderbuss+modal from time to time will give you wounds, too. Once you get Parted Sorrow you will get a wound from every enemy you engage and kill (because dying apparently counts as disengaging, too ). If you need more wounds and mortification you can switch to Xoti's Lantern right before killing somebody. It doesn't matter how you kill (spell or weapon or DoT or whatever): it will give you 1 wound and 1 mortification per kill. In general the main way to produce wounds is using the Forbidden Fist ability. With maxed RES and the usual -hostile effect duration gear and (Enlightened) Clarity of Agony you should be able to spam it. If not you can use heavier armor and balance the recovery in a way that it's slightly longer than the curse duration. Nomad's Brigandine is nice because it gives melee deflection (and/or ranged - see Soul Mirror in combination with Riposte) while also being a heavy armor with high recovery penalty. If that's not slow enough you can check out the Patinated Plate. If you do it right you can spam Forbidden Fist non-stop, which nets more health than the curse will cost. All other afflictions and hostile effects (see Hylea's Talons etc.) will come on top. If you have a Druid or Wizard on the party then stuff like Tanglefoot or Binding Web are good sources of friendly-fire, short-lived afflictions. You can walk into the area where the foes are struggling with those spells and get some wounds in the process.

I tend to forget about immersion that interferes with my cheese.

Really? I must have written about canceled Leap about a dozen times. Leap works out of combat, so a canceled Leap is the perfect tool for sneaking, stealing and pickpocketing.

Ohh. I use Bounding Boots like that all the time but I never thought about canceling Hunter's Pounce. I have one dude in the party who uses it atm and could really use some more movement capabilities bc. I have too many melee chara. Nice!

If you use Swift Flurry you can try Sun & Moon. One can buy it early (if there's money in the pocket ). It's also a lot more likely to give you crit chains. It all starts to really go off as soon as you get Heartbeat Drumming though. Before that there will be the occasional mini-chain from SF alone, but only the combination makes it go like "holy ****" from time to time. Swords are cool with a FF imo bc. they give you pierce and slash - and crush comes from the FF ability. Very versatile and useful against all sorts of enemies. For raising deflection (for a time) there's also Duskfall (easy to get and for free). Players often overlook the Gladiator Sword. But it can get +1 PEN (which can make a huge difference offensively), +5 deflection when worn with a shield (see Tuotilo's Palm: +15 deflection with both when at 10 wounds) and +10% dmg (not the world - but still cool). It's not the most potent offensive weapon, but for a character who already has high deflection it's really nice imo - increasing returns and so on. I did a Streetfigther/Unbroken main tank with the Gladiator Sword + Bronlar's Phalanx and that dude was the silent star of the show both in terms of defense and offense. Not flashy though.

Fingers crossed!

Mechanically I think Priest of Woedica is great. The later writs are very useful. Writ of Mending is an AoE enfeeble that targets not fortitude but will (like all writs). Combined Writ of War + Sorcery is great - there is no immunity or resistance to that unlike vs. RES afflictions.

oops, double post sorry

As a Forbidden Fist I would not use resistances - because unfortunately they can mess with the wound generation so that you don't get any wound from a downgraded affliction (like paralyzed->stuck... stuck ends - no wound ). Instead the goal should be that the durations become so short that it doesn't matter much if it's a hard CC or soft that hits you. Also if you use resistances you can't profit from the low-tier afflicton in the first place (even if resistances didn't mess up the wound generation in general). Defenses can't be high enough imo. If there's not enough hostile effects incoming (never had this problem though) you can use FF Ability, Parting Sorrow and also Mortification of the Soul and Enduring Dance.

Henlo a little quote from Josh Sawyer's tumbler site today: Link: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/697035912579891200/hello-i-just-finished-pillars-of-eternity-2-and-i

Looks good. I like that you use Iron Wheel + Enlightened Agony. It's a nice combo and yet few do it. If you pick Swift Flurry/HBD and use Mohora Taga (unique spear from Cignath Mor) you'll have a double synergy: the DoT ticks of the "Red Flag Flying" enchantment raise with Sneak Attack and even Deathblows (automatically unlocked by Persistent Distraction) - same as the ticks of Gouging Strike, Ring the Bell, Toxic Strike and Arterial Strike. Those all don't stack with themselves but with each other, melting even highest AR foes with ease. At the same time Red Flag Flying, as a weapon attack roll itself, can proc both Swift Flurry/HBD which in turn proc an additional attack of the spear with again the Red Flag Flying on it and so on. It snowballs quickly... It is one of the best weapons to induce a deadly crit chain, maybe the best. At the same time Enfeebled makes sure the DoTs stay on the target way longer. You'll have alternative dmg to crush (fists/FF ability), too and the modal's +1 engagement can be useful for a tankish char (also see Persistent Distraction and Parted Sorrow's wound generation). A bash with Tuotilo's Palm can also proc Swift Flurry/HBD - which will proc main hand attacks! Also the enchantment of Tuotilo's Palm that retaliates can proc SF/HBD, but I still fine the alternative +defense enchantment better. That way you may create a very potent boss melter, mob crit chainer and also great defender. PS: Ring the Bell works the same with dual wielding (Tuotilo's) as with a single one handed weapon. You'll get two chances of DoT appliance, indeed.

By the way: iirc the DoT of Lover's Embrace (True Love's Kiss) also works like this? At least I remember fluctuation of tick dmg based on invisibility etc. from my Assassin/Bleak Walker solo run a while back (also Gouging Strike as you already noted).

Hmmm... since the DoTs that profit from weapon quality and dmg mods seem to be the same that trigger Swift Flurry I guess Taste of the Hunt's DoT would also be able to trigger Swift Flurry, adding an initial third chance to enter a crit chain? It wouldn't get repeated on Swift Flurry procs like the weapon DoTs would, but would still increase the chance...

Yes, the recovery was what I was thinking about.

It seems so. Takedown Combo was to be expected: it boosts all DoTs during its duration (unless you don't hit the target with a damaging attack roll again which would remove it). It's great with all spells that apply a DoT status effect only like Disintegrate for example). And with Xoti's Sickle and Vion-Ceth both did more DoT damage as with a normal mythtic hatchet (as long as I made sure the dmg bonuses were unlocked when I hit the enemy with TotH).

tested: yep

Hmmm - if you'd apply Takedown Combo after TotH got applied the ticks would get +100% dmg on top I guess. Ranger/Druid with Firebrand+Ring of Focused Flame for high ACC and high DoT ticks against strong single enemies? Or Xoti's Sickle? Xoti's Sickle can get up to +60% dmg mod with ~20 Religion and a few kills. I guess this would also influence TotH, right? Respectively Vion-ceth: cast Tanglefoot or Binding Roots on the enemy and then TotH: target should suffer +30% extra damage, correct?

Iirc it's like your wizard took those spells as ability at level-up. The grimoires don't get changed. That would require the saving process to meddle with the contents of the grimoire rather than meddling with the character object. That's worse than having them as unlimited-use ability in the action bar - but still better than loosing them altogether.

Those effects are only per rest though. They used to be per encounter - but it was nerfed.

How does that work? For example Ball Lightning is cast a bit like Crackling Bolt or Chain Ligning iirc. How does it profit from Wildstrike? Is the ability still accessible although you are shifted (which in theory should remove the ability from the action bar since the weapon is replaced by your natural claws/tusks/horns/whatever)?

Imo with an SC Paladin you need a Chanter with Many Lives Pass Bye in the party - or at least some other summons. Divine Retribution then turns the paladin into the class with the best resource restoration and all Exortations can be given to everybody with almost no casting time, you can use Brand Enemy on all enemies and you can also spam Flames of Devotion. For example I am using a SC Kind Wayfarer atm with dual pistols with all the good ranged ACC/reload gear. She just stands in the midst of my backline and spams (Shared) White Flames endlessly which allows her to use the healing version of Sacred Immolation (without loosing net health), too. She's at the same time healing everybody around her as well as dealing great single target dps with pistols and good AoE dmg around her with Immolation. It's like a trap for rushers. They can't win unless they disable her or take her out - which his not easy because she's a freakin Paladin with good defenses and resistances and all... Also Pallegina with Vielo Vodorio is very good with Divine Retribution. The AoE of VV is much bigger than that of Shared Flames and White Flames. The -20% recovery time buff is short, but you can spam it all the time when summons die (if she has Divine Retribution). That can keep your whole party at -20% recovery while dishing out good damage. Also nice: if you have 2 SC paladins they both get +2 Zeal from the same dead summon. Raising an Animal Companions over and over again if you have enough Zeal is easy. The AC pays for itself basically.

The quarterstaff is pretty neat. It's basically a +4 PEN weapon as long as the enemy doesn't have high burn AR and also does dual damage which is nice. I wonder if it's fire-tagged so that all attacks would work with Scion of Flame and Ring of Focused Flame.

Also an SC Monk with Resonant Touch (=raw dmg) in combination with blunderbuss is very useful. The easiest way surely is to use Lover's Embrace with Gouging Strike from stealth or invisibility and Brand Enemy - and then just wait.

Not the Oracle? Also when going to Ukaizo after killing Megabosses and with upscaling the Guardian is a lot worse imo. With some fire stuff, especially Combusting Wounds and reliable interrupts, for example Spear caster + modal or Thrust of Tattered Veils, I find her pretty manageable. Preventing her from casting Llengrath's Safeguard is a key to an easier fight. I usually don't even use the support from the King, Inquisitor etc.