Boeroer

Even in this case where a paladin order is connected to a god (Woedica) I would say that "hands of light" and "Sacred Immolation" don't fit. It's Woedica...

You can't go to WM after you jump into the pit to get Thaos. WM is meant to be tackled at lvl 6-8, WM II would be ok at lvl 12+. Those are not expansions you play after the main game, but in between. They are woven into the main game.

If you do Gilded Vale (pick up Aloth+Edér) -> Mangrans Fork (pick up Durance) -> Caed Nua Entrance (pick up Kana) -> Valewood -> Analög's Compass -> Madhmr Bridge -> Temple of Eothas -> Esternwood -> Raedric's Hold and finally Caed Nua/Maerwald the phantoms are whimpy sausages and not hard at all.

Thing is: he isn't.

They 4m are fixed and don't get altered by anything. But 4m is not very far. Wood Elf is a solid choice. His accuracy bonus also works with enemies that are >= 4m away from you and get hit by invocations like Killers Froze Stiff. The cone of invocations does get influenced by Overseeing. Yes, if you want to chain-paralyze enemies then lvl 1 phrases only would be best. But since Sure-handed Ila is very good you can also do that + a level 1 phrase like Wengrith. Note that crits will prolong the duration of Killers by 50%. It targets will defense which can be lowered a lot by weakening for example (Painful Interdiction...) and stuff like Miasma of Dull-Mindedness. Also buff the chanter's accuracy (Inspiring Radiance, Devotions...) to generate a lot of crits. Note that invocations have recovery that stops chanting and is influenced by armor penalty. So if you want to dish out Killers faster you need light to no armor. Everything that lowers recovery helps (Gauntlets of Swift Action, Outlander's Frenzy...).

Actually you don't know a whole lot of things about the mechanics for a solo player. But that might be even more fun and result in a more intense feeling of accomplishment. Just keep asking! By the way: you need at least 10 mechanics to discover certain items and disarm most traps. Don't put everything in to stealth. For a solo player items with +2 to a skill are very useful. Using a single one handed weapon will not raise spell accuracy.

Active abilities like spells get +1 ACC per level. Most spells get a flat ACC bonus like +10 or sometimes even +15 as well. At spell level 3 you might want to have a look at Kalakoth's Minor Blights. It's a summoned wand that does high AoE damage and has an ACC bonus of +20. It also works with Blast. Minor Blights will trigger a Blast for every AoE hit. So it's a Blast-fest. Hitting 5 enemies will generate 5 Blasts, so every enemy will get hit 6 times from only one shot. If you combine Binding Web, Pull of Eora and Combusting Wounds with Minor Blights + Blast you can annihilate whole groups with less risk. Combusting Wounds is also good with Chill Fog and Wall of Flame as well as Ray of Fire - everything that generates a lot of hits really quickly.

Which they are...

99% of the Players probably didn't play on Story Mode // Relaxed, where you could have x99 Camping Supplies.Others had to manage their ressources with Two Camping Supplies only on PoTD. Rest-Spamming... lol Oh Yeah ! Now it's Deadfire that has indeed bacome a Rest Spamming Festival. Since there are no Ressources to manage anymore, & all of that, regarding the Difficulty on top of that. Great Improvement ! [Get yourself two stacks of x99 Hardtacks & you're good for an entire Playthrough, on any difficulty ! xD] My dear Dex, you don't even make much sense. What exactly is the benefit of sleeping in Deadifre and feeding your party with Hardtacks (except loosing resoures on your team and time, which in Deadfire is money, as while you party after every combat stuffing your face with hardtacks your crew eats as well... preferably not hardtacks). Considering Obs changes in WM1&2 and Deadfire my guess would be that the issue PoE had was people not using spells enough. Frankly, PoE1 gives resting supplies like candybars. I fail to see what great depth PoE1 has what Deadfire doesn't offer right now, except spells being an "I win" button with marity of the game being balanced around not using them. The benefit is that you can remove injuries at will without a real restriction. So they are not a good substitute to the health system of PoE. You also get the benefit of refreshed Empower uses - which in case of casters can be very powerful. It's per rest casting in the disguise of a per encounter casting system. At PotD PoE gave you a limit of 2 camping supplies which could get you into trouble in some places like example Endless Paths. 99 hardtack will get you out of everything. Just use empowered Bounding Missiles every fight.

You forgot about the Steel Garotte... No, I didn't forget them. I actually didn't know about them, tehehe.

The only paladin order in Eora that I know of which has a direct connection to a god are the Fellows of St. Waidwen Martyr. Those are not even playable. All playable paladin orders are pretty mundane. I don't have any problems with the names of the abilities - but I think Obsidian could have gone the whole way and name them accordingly instead of doing a balancing act with new lore/background/motivation of paladins and D&Dish ability names.

But you will get Constant Recovery when being a Battlemage. So it indeed does grant you more survivability automatically.

No. It is just very inexpensive and doesn't give you any resting bonus. Other food (which you can find and buy for a bit more copper) does give you bonuses.

Yes, but you can rest all the time because camping supplies are gone. Now you use food. Hardtack is food and you can carry 99 with you.

Hi, 1) if you are not looking for damage then Penetrating Shot is not needed in any case. Stormcaller does -6 shock DR on hit and does shock damage. So you can totally do without Penetrating Shot. 2) Yes, they stack. Only for ranged weapons though, but I guess that's what you're only after anyway. 3) Brisk Recitation is a talent that you get automatically. You don't need to pick it at level up. You can take any Weapon Focus. Stormcaller works with every one of them (because soulbound). Heart of the Storm raises the damage of Stormcaller by 20% without drawbacks. Usually it is a no-brainer with Stormcaller. If you want a CC build then Aspirant's Mark is good. Outlander's Frenzy is ok. Even in the late game you can use it to bridge the time it takes to build up phrases for The Champion braved the Horde. Interrupting Blows is kind of meh, but you could take it. Ever thought about Enigma's Charm? Free mind control 1/encounter is a strong CC effect. I would also recommend to buy Munacra Arret and Spirit Spiral (headgear & bracers) for another 6 charms per rest.

"Bleak" Walker - Hands of "Light". Erm...

Depends. Larder Door is a bad shield if you have no Full Attacks. Scath Gwannek is only good because of the spell bindings, not because of bash. Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw are good because of their special procs on bash. As far as I remember that's all the bashing shields in PoE.

A shield with accuracy malus (medium & large) will lower your spells' accuracy, too.

Definitely Brynlod for me. It's all not too hard with a full party, but still: Brynlod & Friends are some really tough nuts compared to others.

With classes that are really weak in the early levels you have to cheese a lot. Kiting, split-pulling, sneaking past enemies, resting a lot etc. A wizard is one of the trickiest classes in the early game because his starting values are really low while he hasn't all the tools yet to compensate. Classes like monk for example are a lot easier in thetm early game because they start with a lot higher values and with very useful abilities right from the start. For a wizard there are some things that make the early game easier: Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is great for example and so is Fleet Feet (good for kiting and split-pulling). Weapon and shield have no big effect in the early game because the starting deflection of a wizard is so low that he still gets hit a lot - while the shield's accuracy penalty may prevent you from hitting properly. Later on you can combine a shield with all those deflection self buffs and then it really makes a difference. But until then something like the Parasitic Staff is better. But still: cheesy tactics are necessary in the early game. It's the same with every class by the way, even if some are easier than others.

Depends. If you have Full Attack abilities like Knockdown, Blinding Strike etc. then a bashing shield is ok and better than a normal one. If you only have auto-attacks (like cipher for example) they are bad. Also depends if the bash can proc special effects: Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw are great because of that.

Who's that candle-cranium dude?

Did you try upscaled Brynlod?