Boeroer

This also works with Caedebald's Blackbow (auto-terrify on the weapon attack which unlocks the +10 ACC). You can build a really good Warbow-Wizard double team (with the Phantom) with this.

I usually don't take any uprade for Lay on Hands because the higher cost of 2 Zeal isn't worth the upgrade (and the precious ability point) imo.

Offensive Parry is a single target attack that dazes and has another base damage than the cone attack (but also lower dmg than a standard Great Sword attack). Riposte does do a cone attack iirc (but impossible to aim), Mob Stance: don't remember, Swift Flurry: no cone, Barbaric Retaliation: cone (I think). Barbarian + Offensive Parry is a bit anti-synergistic because of Frenzy's -10 deflecion. With a Barb/Wizard this is not a big deal though. I'm not 100% sure but I think Offensive Parry doesn't trigger Carnage. If it does the damage should be quite low because of the low base dmg of Offensiv Parry. You can use Nomad's Brigandine and its immunity to disengagement attacks to force enemy misses and produce Offensive Parries from them - regardless your deflection.

Nope

I would think that would be great and the most clean solution. Bit indifferent... it looks like a blade made from pure flame though (unlike in PoE where it looked like a solid blade with fire around - but did only fire dmg, heh...) so I would be fine with "fire only" - if that made things easier. One just has to keep in mind that Great Swords have low base PEN because they have dual dmg. If Firebrand would have only single fire dmaage I would raise its PEN or give it more base dmg to balance that out a bit. It should be a viable weapon even without Rings an Scion of Flame. But if it's no problem I would just keep it as it is? Since that's only relevant for the duration I don't care that much. It would be very consistent and a cool detail if elemental Power Levels would indeed extend the fitting weapon summonings (like Otto Starcat could prolong Firebrand's duration a bit and such) - but I wouldn't be on the fence about it.

Yes, you can do that with most (all?) of the companions. If you don't take them the first time they will wait in a fitting spot for you to pick up later (see Pallegina at VTC headquarters etc.). Very nice testing that shines some new light on the XP distribution!

Yeah, exactly my point.

If I remember correctly Swift Flurry/HBD don't generate wounds nor focus (some time ago I played a Shattered Pillar/Soul Blade, but maybe my memory is failing me, maybe they generate focus but no wounds only). However, Offensive Parry does generate focus AND wounds which makes Shattered Pillar/Soulblade an intesting combo. Offensive Parry also triggers Swift Flurry/HBD attacks which makes this even more interesting. Against weaker melee foes you will be drowning in wounds while killing stuff quickly. You will gain focus for Soul Annihilation with the parries and can spam it. What's even cooler imo is that with Nomad's Brigandine's immunity vs. disengagement attacks you can disengage at any time which will lead to all disengagement attacks against you missing which in turn leads to Offensive Parries. In combination with the Long Stride this can be a big tactical advantage' moving away from harm while at the same time creating wounds and focus, dazing the enemies AND potentially causing Swift Flurry/HBD cascades, too. Imagine you are faced with a lot of melee enemies and they start to surround you, you feel uncomfortable so you take a few steps away so that the enemies are in front of you again, collect all the disengagement attacks and parry them, gain focus and wounds, hurt some enemies in the process and then have them in the perfect position for a Soul Annihilation cone attack. You kind of also need this trick from time to time because deflection of Monk/Soulblade won't be superhigh - compared for the usual Offensive-Parry-mix made of Paladins, Tricksters, Fighters, Priest of Wael or Wizards. At least on PotD. On lower difficulties you can do a lot more parries with a little less deflection. You also need max RES and all the melee deflection+ gear you can get. This also means Port Maje's Well Travelled Supplier paid with Berath Blessing points is good for you (because then you'll get a cheap Cloak of Greater Deflection superearly). I never tried Berserker/Soulblade with WotEP because I can't see particulary nice synergies there except the stacked weapon PEN (+1 WotEP, +1 Hammering Thoughts, +2 Tenacious). Could work well with a healing-on-kill pet though in combination with SA+Blood Thirst.

I didn't read all the posts leading up to this now, so forgive me if I say something that was already dismissed as not working or stupid. I like that you can play around with Firebrand - which isn't a superpowerful weapons to begin with (and you need to be a Druid who isn't the most awesome two-hander user) - and make it cool with an additional item. On the other side I don't like that certain attacks which don't do direct elemental damage get an elemental keyword and then work with Ring and Scion of Flame et al. And then also get those immunity issues despite not actually dealing the kind of damage the enemy is immune to. Example: Dragon's Dowry. It only deals pierce damage but has a burning lash and fire themed fluff and enchantments. Why do its attacks have to have the fire keyword though? I get it with weapons like Essence Interrupter, Draining Touch, Firebrand etc. because they deal elemental damage directly, not via lash only. I mean if I slap Mith Fyr or Turning Wheel on attacks they also don't become fire-keyworded attacks, so... just keep it consistent with the direct damage/lashes lending keywords. So I guess I'm in favor of 3: make Ring of Focused Flames work with attacks that deal direct fire damage (of course Firebrand... but also see Keeper of the Flame's AoE? St. Drogga's Skull's additional burn dmg which is not a lash? Is there another weapon attack that deals direct fire damage? For example Sungrazer's AoEs?) and remove fire keywords from attacks which don't do direct fire dmg. Don't know if that distiction between original attack and additional fire attack (see Keeper of the Flame etc.) is even possible though. Maybe that's too complicated (also see Magran's Favor which deals slash damage but has an enchantment that applies elemetal fire DoT: no keyword for the slash but keyword for the DoT? Possible? Reasonable? Don't know...). That would be consistent and systemic imo - also for enemies(!): attacks that deal direct fire damage get the keyword, others don't (lash is not enough). If that's too wild to implement then I'd go for 3 as suggested I believe. 2 would also be cool with me if the immunity issues can be avoided.

If it's about damage output then def. stick to the Streetfighter. By the way: a Troubadour/Streetfighter can also deal awesome damage with an arquebus once you get the upgraded Wisp summons. You can let them target yourself, their attack does little damage but distracts, unlocking the Streetfigther passive. This stacks with Sure-Handed Ila (which grants 2*-20% reload time for reloading weapons, so it's a must-have for a reloading dps chanter, blunderbuss or arquebus). With the Red Hand this combo deals incredible single target DPS. You can combine with Deltro's Cage Helmet for some easy shocking lash (the Wisps deal shock dmg). Blunderbusses also work of course, right from lvl 1. The arquebus only has the advantage of longer range and higher PEN as well as the excellent modal should you need it (Harbinger doesn't come with particularly high Accuracy). Disadvantage would be that you cannot summon other creatures than Wisps if you want to keep triggering the Streetfighter passive. Blunderbusses have the advantage of multihit or even AoE (both nice for CC purposes), but the Powder Burns modal (which unlocks your Streetfigther passive) also hurts your friends and summons. And Range/PEN are pretty low. Anyway, for best weapon dps pick Troubadour and use Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr + Sure Handed Ila and turn off Brisk Recitation. This will slow down your summoning but allow you to keep the burning lash and the dual reloading bonus up at all times which both contribute to your and your party's weapon dmg output (best if someone else also uses reloading weapons, too - for example an Arbalest or so which then becomes a great tool for interrupts).

I usually go with only mediocre MIG, DEX and CON. Most important to me in this case are RES and then INT.

Oops - forgot the "melee" part of the question.

Troubadour/Berserker with Amra: min RES, max INT and 25 MIG, add AoE size gear and a pet that adds 20 health per kill. You will kill Ancient Brittle Bones and Many Lives Pass By skeletons "accidentially" via Carnage and Amra's Riven Gore which gives 20 health, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst and so on. Do not remove Confusion! Once you get Blood Thirst never turn off Battle Axe modal and just melt everything. Streetfighter/Berserker with Amiina's Legacy (great if you are a Dwarf): Unse Hunting Bow modal to fire at high speed. Use Berserker Frenzy to get to Blooded quickly which triggers Streetfighter's "Heating Up". Now shoot with awesome speed and pile up Blood Frenzy DoT, Deep Wounds, Arterial Strike and whatnot. Finish with Barbaric Smash. Use all the shooting gear. Pro: insane attack speed, great dmg modifiers (high Sneak Attack + Deathblows + Blooded) + good PEN (Tenacious + Crippling Strike). Con: accuracy could be better. But great at taking out high prio targets such as enemy casters. Makes the early game pretty easy because all the main components for insane speed are there from lvl 1. Berserker/Skald with Blightheart. Summon Ancient Brittle Bones and later Many Lives Pass By and then use Berserker Frenzy for confusion and cast Her Revenge onto enemies while skeletons get in the way. Every kill (skeletons included) will give you 1 phrase (see Blightheart's Hymn of Decay). Since Skald's Her Revenge only costs 2 phrases you will be able to cast it in very quick succession. Skald or Troubadour/Furyshaper with Willbreaker. Kind of self explanatory. Use Willbreaker + modal + Spirit Frenzy (NOT Spirit Tornado) + Ben Fidel's Neck + The Long Night's Drink to lower enemies' Will and Fortitude into the ground. Use Brute Force to gain significant virtual ACC by attacking the superlow Fortitude instead of deflection. Great for the rest of the party while crushing bones. Also works very well with Ngati's Tusk instead of Willbreaker, but you need maxed Survival + the enchantment "Lord of the Hunt". Berserker/Monk (better not Shattered Pillar or Forbidden Fist): use Saru Sichr + Swift Flurry. It does multiple attack rolls because its DoT does a hit roll which seems to trigger Swift Flurry (and Heartbeat Drumming). Use modal and Enervating Blows + Spirit Frenzy + Stunning Surge + Brute Force and attack enemies with low starting fortitude. The chance to crit will be very high and the multiple hit rolls of Saru Sichr will lead to a lot of crit chains (both target fortitude). Also the DoT works like Bleeding Cuts: they stack and pile up. PRO: Saru Sichr is early stuff. CON: doesn't work as well against poison-immune foes.

Yeah right... I thought it could be that this part of the wiki might be not correct (anymore? there were quite some patches - and some of them went pretty silently) and maybe nowadays traps could give you less and less XP the more you disarmed that kind of trap? I mean instead of full/nothing which is a bit "unrealistic"™. Doesn't sound too stupid... but it's just a short in the dark. Hi there! We are about to do a trip to Leipzig (and Dresden, too) during the summer holidays.

I think all enemies who don't have a proper "getting pushed or pulled" animation* don't suffer from the effect like kith etc. do. )* which looks a bit like they were about to jump headfirst into a pool and are geting held back by somebody who grabbed them at the waist - which is quite hilarius if enough Pulls of Eora are lined up

No idea if this explains the trap xp thing - but maybe this page explains why? https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Experience_and_advancement#experience_modifiers See the point "experience modifiers" and "Quest experience" as well as "Mechanics experience" I guess. For example the last passage of the Mechanics experience section (under "Deadfire" of course) sounds as if it might explain things.

Arcane Archer's Imbue: Pull of Eora with a bouncing weapon + Driving Flight can be handled like a hard CC effect. In theory the enemies could still attack - but it happens so seldomly that one might as well call it hard CC. Good thing is that there are very, very few enemies with immunity to push/pull effects.

Yeah nice. Unfortunately kills from Darcozzi fire shields are quite rare because the damage is so paltry.

So an empowered Darcozzi's Lay on Hands + Least Unstable Coil will grant several inspirations to the Paladin because each proc of the fire shield counts as a separate empowered action of said Paladin - no matter onto whom he cast Lay on Hands? Cool - also because it isn't a high PL ability so it's more open to multiclassing shenanigans.

Yes - the Skald can only gain 1 phrase from any melee offensive action - no matter how often you actually crit within it. So 10 crits in a row with the help of Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming will not give you up to 10 phrases but only 1. But of course the chance to get that 1 is a lot higher than 50% then. Skald/Trickster also works well if you use the Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry. The parry counts as separate melee attack which can give you 1 phrase if it crits. Iirc Riposte does not provide crits for whatever reason, but it doesn't get supressed by Offensive Parry either - so you can deliver two "Ripostes" every time the enemy misses you in melee. You need high melee deflection in order to pull this off - luckily the Trickster has some tools for that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are attacks from StSotR not counted as attacks from the character who benefits from it (who emits the sparks)? That would mean Shadowed Hunters would get canceled with the first spark - and Blood Frenzy on the Priest wouldn't actually do anything? Or does StSotR not work like that in Deadfire (it did in PoE and although I used it in Deadfire I never did test its behaviour a lot).

Ha! He's back at it again!

That should work well enough. I see no problem with that combination. Trickster isn't a tank class by any means, but it's way sturdier than a regular rogue. It is worth to take a shield imo. Defenses have increasing returns - and if you use defensive buffs like Mirrored Images etc. in oder to be more sturdy you might as well double down on the defense and pick up a shield. Works also in favor for Riposte. A nice weapon for a Skald/Trickster is Sun & Moon - mainly because it has two chances to crit per attack (two flail heads which each do a separate attack roll per swing) which gives a lot higher chance to get a phrase. Also you get two chances to apply Rogue's Strike afflictions. I personally would pair it with Tuotilo's Palm - because the bash would be another chance to land a crit and it works with Rogues' Full Attacks, meaning that Crippling Strike etc. will do three attack rolls (2 flail heads + 1 shield bash). But stuff like Rapier (see Rännig's Wrath) or so would also work.

Yes, generally I like Port Maje, too. But just doing the initial cave over and over again makes you appreciate +16 ACC (and the rest that comes with +4 lvl and fine gear) a lot more. I could skip a lot - but I'm just not the person for that. I always do everything... I have a ton of Berath Blessing points though - so the "competition" of the individual blessings is a lot less that it used to be (when those points were more scarce). lvl 4 costs 12 points which is expensive. Fine gear only costs 5 points though - and you can sell it for good money afterwards. If I had to pick my top 5 blessings I'd say bonus attributes, 50K, "Can I pet him anyway?", Unique Item Vendor and Legendary Crew/Start at Level 4. Depending on the build sometimes Bonus Skill is important to me, too.

Some of the ones you deem pointless are very useful for me, because they speed the early game up considerably. +4 lvl means +12 ACC. Combined with fine weapons you will have +16 ACC which lets me breeze over Maje Island. Which is cool if you start a lot of new runs...