Boeroer

? 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...

Mohara Tanga is funny with the self-procs. But imo Saru Sichr (and Sun and Moon) seems to be better still because the secondary attack roll doesn't require a crit from the first one (only a graze) and because of the modal making the secondary attack more likely to crit. On the other hand a spear is a one-handed weapon and could be used with an another weapon that's also nice with Swift Flurry/HBD - like Sun & Moon or Ball and Chain? 🤔

With Devine Retribution and skellies in the party you can also support like crazy. All the Exortations/Commands are instant casts with no recovery. So with a steady inflow of Zeal bc. of skellies dying you can buff up all party members with all sorts of long lasting high tier inspirations in no time. Very useful, very fast. Healing with Lay on Hands etc. comes on top of course. If you have a Ranger with Animal Companion in the party she/he will love you because you can revive the Animal as often as you want. And fast, too. Brand Enemy is an auto-hit. So you can contribute to offense a bit even with 0 accuracy basically. It is also an instant cast so you won't lose mich time casting Brand Enemy on all enemies. And it lasts for the whole fight... I found that Divine Retribution will lift the SC Paladin's worth into the stratosphere. But only if you can provide lots of (dying) summons. But they are very useful anyway, so that's not a weird thing to include into the party's portfolio.

Imagined Pain + Keeper of the Flame + Saint's War armor is the most efficient combo for wound gain while doing WotW I think. The AoE of Keeper otF is friendly fire and will try to hit your Reflex. But you will be immune bc. of the armor. So all those attacks will be turned into misses, giving you lots of wounds via Imagined Pain. Add Xoti's wounds-on-kill on top and maybe her lantern and Enduring Dance and she will be drowning in wounds basically. Also Keeper of the Flame is cool for applying a lot of Resonant Touches with WotW. Also note that Rooting Pain will add a proc chance to every of those wounds you gain. So a lot of wound generation while doing WotW will mean a lot of Rooting Pain procs. The 3-wounds-on-kill thing of Xoti can indeed proc 3 Rooting Pains all at once. However: if you don't use the armor then don't use that weapon with WotW and Resonant Touch! You will put Resonant Touch stacks on yourself bc. of KotF's AoE - and will kill yourself when triggering the Resonant Touch ability. 😄 Maybe this is all known but I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat it. By the way: Inner Death counts as melee weapon attack with the CP mod - so Xoti gets 3 wounds on kill with Inner Death. I believe in the vanilla game this isn't the case because there Inner Death is handled like a spell.

You can take both. The big thing about Vanishing Strike is that its Invisibility doesn't break on your hits like other invisibility does. But the duration is very low so you need all the INT and duration bonuses you can get - as well as keeping your action time and recovery time low to get the most out of it. So generally speaking dual wielding + two weapon style is in order. At the same time Gambit is great if you have 10+ Guile because that means near certain crit conversion (you can get 2 bonus Guile from the Devil of Caroc Breastplate and some more from resting bonuses like from the Luminous Bathhouse). Usually you also need dual wielding of you want the full refund, so that fits with Vanishing Strikes (there are weapons that hit twice with only one strike so you can also get a double refund without using dual wielding, but more about that later). I personally think the nicest weapon setup in terms of mechanics but also style is Lover's Embrace + Pukestabber. The combo is extremely fast. But there's also a weird interaction with Effort (Great Sword) which you can enchant with Hemorrhaging. It adds a secondary attack role that procs on crit and applies either hobbled or sicken. This also counts as weapon strike. If this crits it can trigger itself again (and so on). Because of this Gambit can get the full refund with this Two Hander, too. The hobble/sicken effect of that weapon also triggers on all attack rolls (not just the weapon attacks). Combined with Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak you can use Vanishing Strike + Effort to generate an endless loop of stuns + hobbled/sicken procs as long as you are invisible and get Gambit refunds. I only tested it briefly but it seems to be fun. Another two handers that can refund twice with only one strike is Saru Sichr (Morning Star). Its poison attack counts as a separate melee attack roll. Also the flail Sun&Moon will hit twice per strike. This increases the chance for refunds with Gambit, too. And you can use it with another weapon, so that's a great weapon pick as well. Anyway, for a more classic rogue approach I would pick the daggers. Lovers Embrace has the chance to put Frenzy on you (more speed) while Pukestabber makes your attacks faster as well. Stabby McStabface style... You can then start combat with full Guile doing Gambit until you think you are getting overwhelmed or lost Guile because of grazes or misses - then use Vanishing Strikes to finish off one or two enemies and then see what's left. Another great weapon setup for Vanishing Strike and Gambit are Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole by the way. It's slower, but you will apply Backstabs to all enemies in the AoE who are at -2m range, Gambit refund is almost guaranteed bc. of AoE crits - and the bonus dmg mechanic of Gambit goes haywire internally because of the many crit rolls that lead to an internal overflow of Guile (that is capped at max Guile afterwards so you don't end up with more than max). I had +200% dmg from Gambit alone easily against some mobs. This weapon setup is expecially good as a SC Streetfighter obviously because of the modal of blunderbusses triggering "Heating Up". This is also a setup that is very effective before getting to the higher Power levels 8 and 9/Gambit and Vanishing Strike. Stuff like Arterial Strike and Gouging Strike with Hand Mortar+ Fire in the Hole with enhanced Sneak Attack and superb reloading speed is always great. But of course you can also just pick one of the abilities. As an Assassin I would prefer Vanishing Strike, as Streetfigther I would prefer Gambit. But if I were to choose I would pick both most of times I think. If you have a Cipher in the party then Ancestor's Memory (Brilliant Inspiration) should go to the SC Rogues, too at some point. That can help him to use bith Gambit and Vanishing Strike together more effectively.

Yes, exactly. Against low defense (for whatever reason) single targets, even if they have a lot of health, it's so powerful that I often only need one strike and it triggers an endless SF/HBD cascade which kills the foe, triggers Blood Thirst... off to the next! And as you said the cherry in top is the interplay between Body Blows modal + MIG affliction (Spirit Frenzy or Stunning Surge) + CON affliction (Enervating Blows or FF ability) + Brute Force which makes it all the more likely that initial attack and Poison-Dipped (targets fort.) will crit. One time, when testing against 7 cre_tigers I needed 7 strikes (all Stunning Surge), all without any recovery. The other times it's at least one or two of them who go down at once. That's really fun. Bonus cheese if you have a Troubadour with Many Lives in the party, lots of INT for your Carnage AoE size and are a Berserker... Those poison Dots will stack up against tough nuts in no time thanks to skeleton-fueled Blood Thirst, a healing pet like Cajux makes sure you are always healthy while you gain wounds from Berserker self dmg - and Blood Storm will never end. Really fun indeed. Against tough nuts it's still useful (even without skellies) bc. of the dual dmg, good base PEN and the DoT (only if not poison immune). And against high defense enemies you even have trouble grazing at first you can always switch to Willbreaker (poor thing is benched) with the Make Them Flinch enchantment, combined with Gauntlets of Greater Reliability. Great miss to graze conversion which can make sure that you apply Body Blows which often cracks the defensive nut. So you have a setup for crit chaining with Saru Sichr and a setup for preventing misses, too.

Nope

Yes, I tried it just now: doesn't work.

Hm, tried Avenging Storm with Saru Sichr on a Druid - but it only procs twice every time: once for the physical hit and once for the roll+hit of poison dipped. Not for every triggered stack...? Additional procs only come from SF/HBD hit rolls (if you have that). Also Talons and Ring don't add lightnings. Ah, okay!

That is also the reason why it's absolutely devastating with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming by the way. While Effort's Hemmorhaging doesn't trigger Swift FLurry, Poison-Dipped does! It' seems to be a self-reinforcing effect because SF/HBD will add more stacks which in turn might make it a lot more likely to trigger SF/HBD? Can't imagine the interplay with Avenging Storm (funnily enough I didn't test that 🤷‍♂️). What I can confirm is that the second attack roll from poison dipped will trigger SF/HBD. I don't know if the triggering of the additional DoT stacks does trigger it, too. SF/HBD triggers a ton with the weapon though. You can add Hylea's Talons and the Ring of Molded Flesh for more melee effects - but they don't trigger SF/HBD - at least that was my impression after some hours of running tests with Saru Sichr in the last week in preparation for a new run. Also the DoT lasts a really long time which is cool. It superseded Willbreaker as my favorite Monk/Berserker weapon. What I haven't tried is if an Essential Phantom's stacks with Saru Sichr will get triggered by a hit from my Wizard who's also using Saru Sichr. Guess not, but not sure. If so then Sage with Saru Sichr would be great, too. PS: Poison-Dipped also triggers a Resonant Touch. 👍