Boeroer

In my experience Ondra's Wrath (Watershaper's Focus) procs more often with Driving Flight (in addition to the build-in bounce). I guess you left it out because it's only a 5% proc chance? However, together with the AoE and the two bounces it procs very reliably against bigger groups - and it's an AoE, too. It was nerfed though so it doesn't seem to proc itself anymore. It used to until I posted a certain build, ehem... You can also use Avenging Storm with Ondra's Wrath of course. It was overkill when Ondra's Wrath still triggered itself - but nowadays I guess it's worth it. To my knowledge the Long Pain (and the upgrade to The Pain Persists) always was a dual wielded ranged weapon ("ranged fist") and woud not trigger Swift Flurry,HBD or Enervating Blows. Only Instruments of Pain does because it just takes the currently used melee weapon's range and alters it (*6).

Yeah, it is a nice setup indeed. With the Helm of the White Void and some ACC gear like Ring of the Marksman, gloves etc. even the phantom has respectable accuracy. The Wizard can ramp that up with Eldritch Aim + WoD and then Citzal's Martial Power ot really nice levels. I like that this is an effective setup for a high level wizard that needs very little micro after the initial phase of combat and can even be done by AI easily without making a mess. Yes, Taste of the Hunt with (melee) AoE weapons is indeed very good and fun. The healing only procs for the initial target, but the very strong DoT gets applied to all enemies on the AoE (you hit). Due to it being PL2 it has good scaling, too, but I still struggle a bit with accuracy because Martial Power ia no option. --- Also Spiritshift with a Sorcerer can be cool if you use Wall of Draining and all the self buffs + later Zandethu's Draconic Fury (spell from unique grimoire). Lots of lashes, terrify and great defense. And long lasting shifts as well. Fassina has a cat form if I'm not mistaken so the active speed buff of the shifted cat can be prolonged, too.

I don't oppose a little healing for Blood Surge though. It's thematically and mechanically fitting and I don't think it would make it too strong (unless when used with skeletons, but that's an edge case with a lil' grated cheese on top).

As I showed with the Serafen case, it is also viable without using skeletons. Keep an eye on the Rage counter. Even if Blood Surge only procs once - that means an additional Driving Roar (only costs 1 Rage unless Corpse Eater) which in turn has the chance to produce 1 or more Rage, should it kill). I found it was more important than Prestige for sure. It is beneficial of course if the Driving Roar character is the main damage dealer but if others chime in to "soften up" the enemies first (preferably something with long range AoE capabilities I think). The Barb wants to do the killing blows (or -Roars in this case) - also because of Blood Thirst. If the Barbarian is a Berserker and doesn't want a +20 health on kill pet like Cajux then somebody in the party (can be the Berserker) should run with Abraham or another pet with +10 health on kill as party-wide effect. Or have a healer stand ready. Self damage from Berserker Frenzy is no joke at the highest levels.

Yes, but I guess those still use actual weapons (your fists)? They count as equipped weapons and have base damage for auto-attacks and so on. It's just a suspection though. I also suspect that CP's Inner Death wouldn't proc Carnage (using console to add Carnage to an SC Monk of course - just for testing purposes). It's tagged as melee weapon attack but it uses no actual weapon. And Carnage might search for an actual weapon in order to find out its base damage?

SSS and FS were pretty easy for me with a SC Monk using dual mortars as main weapons. It's rel. easy to clear mobs with this and still good against bosses if you switch to weapons that are better suited against boss foes. You give the Monk AoE gear, Enduring Dance, Lightning Strikes and most importantly Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind. You enchant Hand Mortar with Blinding Smoke (it triggers Resonant Touch in addition to blunderbuss modal "Powder Burns" and the normal attack) and Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot. You wear Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, Ring of the Marksman, Acina's Tricorn or Heaven's Cacophony, Aloth's Armor, Ring of Overseeing, Charm of Bones, Loki pet. Also use Turning Wheel (with CP mod) or keep it at Duality of Mortal Presence: INT (without CP mod). In tough encounters use Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony or use a scroll of Avenging Storm (needs investment in Arcana of course). Mirke could do the job although her INT is pretty low. Or an adventurer of course. What was als very useful against the though nuts as well as mobs was an Arcane Archer/Troubadour with Sure-Handed Ila + Aefyllath, maxed Arcana and Spearcaster (+modal) as main weapon against single foes and Watershaper's Focus against big mobs. Great ACC, great reloading speed, constant interrupting with the arbalest modal. Later you can use their Champion invocation + Brisk Recitation and an offensive chant such as Thick Grew Their Tonge and your pulsing imbue shots (Web + Eora) to mass-interrupt enemies on all crits from chant and shot.

It is. Too bad, thanks for testing. No it also works with abilities - that ability just needs to be executed with a melee weapon (and at least hit and have base damage I presume, else Carnage can't calculate its own fraction of dmg based on that weapon base dmg). Maybe FF doesn't work because it's not done with an equipped weapon or so?

Speaking of potentially good SF/HBD weapons: I'm not at my desk right now - shouldn't Concelhaut's Draining Touch be a good one? It also weakens on touch and I guess that's a separate roll? But does it count as weapon attack roll, too? Besides that it targets Will instead of Deflection so it's extremely easy to debuff for a Wizard with Miasma + somebody with a club and a Wizard has access to a little crit conversion with Merciless Gaze and later also accuracy with Martial Power. I guess it stands or falls with the nature of the weaken roll (if there is any in the first place). --- Also: Llengrath's Warding Staff. It hobbles vs. Fortitude and also pushes back (don't know if that's another roll, guess it's autohit though).

You can do both of course. But as I said : when I build around Driving Roar the Barb becomes a ranged character mostly and then Retaliation doesn't add a lot of value.

? Sharpshooter's passive should only work for ranged attack rolls. Do the enchantments like Red Flag Fyling count as such?

My first Impulse would also be Stalker. But on the other hand I would build a pretty offensive character and might not need the AR and deflection bonus a lot. And Stalker somewhat does hinder mobility: using Evasive Roll will most likely give you Grief bc. >4m away from your animal companion - unless you are willing to pay for Master's Call (both at level up and in Bond). But mobility is important if you are often one-shooting weaker enemies who might be scattered across the battlefield. If you want to shock the enemies' backline with such a Monk/Ranger it's difficult to bring your AC to the backline as well, especially if it's a big one like the Bear (unless you use Master's/Furious Call at some point where it might be a cool combo to evade behind enemy lines and then play homing bowling ball with the AC). So this makes me reconsider Ghost Heart again. You can summon the ac right behind the enemies you want to attack and losing the ac is no big deal. But I really, really don't like that you can't combine summons + AC. I guess Sharpshooter's passive doesn't work with the important weapon enchantments. If not then vanilla Ranger seems like a reasonable option this time?

I think it has something to do with the forum. I didn't put that many hours into any game before as I did with PoE and Deadfire - and I played more when I was young, you know, Pools of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder, Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale and also Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Day of the Tentacle, Roger Wilco and all that stuff. Many, many hours, too - just not that focused on one or two games alone. And always together with at least one friend, sitting on front of one computer. Almost never alone. Then I had a sick Diablo II phase during my time at the university (again with friends and cousins and stuff, doing LAN parties and whatnot) and years after that I (this time alone) played the heck out of FTL while I enjoyed parental leave and the child turned out to be some hibernating species (at least during the first months) - but the hours I put into those and the timespan over which I would return to the games over and over again weren't even close to the Pillars games. I think if you're a bit more involved in this forum and users constentinely (höhö) come up with new tricks and cool findings - or even cool themes and character concepts - or if you just get inspired by some stories or brainstorms - that brings you back to the game all the time - I mean if you like it in general. Without talking about the two game so much (here) I seriously doubt that I would have put so many hours in. A bit like what's going on with multiplayer games I suppose, just more decoupled. Since I don't like multiplayer games much (or better: the interaction between players in multiplayer games) this seems to be the best (or worst?) amalgamation of playing and interacting with other players for my dinosaur brain.

When you are fighting numerous enemies and have Blood Thirst you will run out of Rage pretty quickly. And precisely because Driving Roar is so cheap Blood Surge is good with it. Because 1 refund means 1 additional roar. And you can get more than 1 refund from one roar (if you kill numerous weakling with it for example). Getting a Rage point every now and then is nice. When building around Driving Roar I don't pick Retaliation because it becomes a ranged char basically. It's different with Dazing Shout though. But to be honestly I find it mandatory because I mostly use Driving Roar with a Berserker in combination with skellies - and their death counts for Blood Surge, too (not only Bloodlust and Blood Thirst). That combo gives you unlimited Rage because plenty of reliable kills. But even without that stuff it's good. Like on Serafen. Look at this test I did with him (especially the rage counter):

I personally would not combine Monk with Ghost Heart because then you cannot use Dichotomous Soul and Animal Companion at the same time.

Since you cannot stack conversion to 100% but can stack accuracy so that 100% of rolls become crits I think bonus ACC is preferrable to bonus conversion. Mob cleaning is easy if you only need one strike to kill each mob member... Also: Raised Torment?

Yeah, Hunter of Hunters with maxed Survival (Ngati's Tusk), MIG + CON affliction + Body Blows in the party somewhere and it should be good. Or bad - how you look at it.

If build around, Driving Roar is way better than Retaliation imo. First of all you can use the Harley pet to boost the damage a little bit (it works with spells and spell-like effects like Driving Roar, too). Also Acina's Tricorn works with it (not the reloading part of course, but the accuracy). Spirit Frenzy (NOT Spirit Tornado) will apply Staggered to the hits you do with Driving Roar. That means -10 fortitude for the enemy - and that's the defense that Driving Ropar is targeting. Blood Thirst and Blood Surge are kind of mandatory. There are weapons that help with Driving Roar or apply some of their weapon effects to Driving Roar, most useful/least fiddly/most practical imo: Lance of the Midwood Stag/Lord of the Forest: let somebody cast Woodskin on you and you will get +2 Power Level for your Driving Roar any Crossbow: funnily enough the hit-to-crit conversion of crossbows also applies to spell-like abilities. Effort -> Hemorrhaging: the Sicken and Hobble effects also piggyback on spell-like abilities. So your Driving Roar can sicken and hobble on crit if you are holding Effort with the Hemorrhaging enchantment. Sicken is cool in this case because it lowers fortitude by 10 again. Since both effects count as weapon attacks (even if they where triggered by a spell-like ability) you can then use Hylea's Talons to put a damage over time effect on the enemies via Driving Roar, too. This can proc hobble/sicke again (possible loop). This also means that if you use Avenging Storm (helmet or scroll) it will proc on hobble or sicken - and that can itself hobble and sicken again and so on - it can cause a hobble/sicken-lightning loop that kills enemies on the spot. Sungrazer: the enchantment Blunt Rock also lowers crush AR with spells and the like. So your Driving Roar will lower crush AR by 1 in an AoE. And Driving Roar deals crush damage - convenient. Engoliero do Espirs: the Blade Feast/Ghost Blades stuff also procs on kills you do with Driving Roar The Twin Eels: the haling on kill also procs with kills done by Driving Roar

And it doesn't take that long to get that. I didn't use any late game gear and nothing special besides the spear. With a party member using Cap of the Laughingstock, Ngati's Tusk + pike modal and some others boosting ACC (Devotions, Blessing) and debuffing enemies further (Miasma etc.): who knows what's death-crittable with that spear? Guess now I have to take a Monk/Berserker with Saru Sichr and a Monk/Ranger with Mohora Taga into the party...

PPS: death-critted Nemnok lol

PS: death-critted Neriscyrlas with a Monk/Ranger + Mohara Tanga with a 176-ACC Accurate Wounding Shot ahahahahaha. It takes some attempts because the Dragon's scales give him good crit-to-hit conversion that can get into the way.

It's still a niche thing and generally speaking worse that dual wielding. But with the right weapon it can make sense. Did a whole solo playthrough with an Assassin/Bleak Walker with a single-handed Lover's Embrace. Against a bit better foes like Rathun Fanatics or so the morning star feels better because crits become less likely and the DoT really helps - at least with my Monk/Berserker test char. But I guess if you pump ACC and debuffs high enough it would be great again even against tougher foes. Thinking about a huana style Monk/Ranger with (hidden) Cap of the Laughingstock or Thaos' Headdress and stuff and using Enduring Dance, Hunter's Claw, Makred Prey, Stalker's Link and Accurate Wounding Shot. Red Flag Flying also triggers Predator's Sense, another nice synergy. SC Monk with WotW and Razor's Edge + Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak may be cool, too?

Damn I gotta say that spear really works well with SF/HBD... phew! Edit: but the "Red Flag Flying procs itself" effect has a serious drawback: if you meet really weak foes you might create an infinite loop that crashes your game. I just got kicked out while testing the spear against one of the skeletons in the starting cave on Maje Island.

It wasn't changed to only proc on weapon hits (it does that in the vanilla game) but to only proc on weapon hits that deal damage. Reason was that Hand Mortar's Blinding Smoke (a cone CC attack) that can trigger from every one of the mortar's AoR hits also counts as weapon attack but does not deal damage. It was overkill with Avenging Storm because there can be hundrets of procs if enough enemies are there. I have no idea why Hemorrhaging and so on work though - it doesn't deal damage either. I mean I know why it works in my game despite CP: I deactivated that one "fix" in my mod installation because I like Hand Mortar + Avenging Storm.

I seriously have lost count. I can only look up the "hours played" number on steam - and feel weird about it...