Boeroer

Yes, I like it as well. Also throwing an explosive, using any non-weapon-related ability (Lay on Hands for example) should be faster (animation time, not necessarily recovery time).

It's a scaling, quite powerful summon which you can boost with talents and that costs 1 bond and can be resummoned as long as you have bond. It's basically like a chanter's summons but with more customisation. Summons in general are powerful - just because they can be used as blockers, bait/cannon fodder and so on. One thin I didn't test: I guess you can't summon your animal companion AND other summons as a Ghost Heart/Wizard or /Chanter. Usually you only can have one active summon per char on the field. a ranger with a "normal" animal companion can combine summons + pet for even more body blocking.

Instead it sucked?

RES at 10 would be my approach. High DEX - depends how often one uses Torment's Reach. Since it's a Full Attack you can do with less DEX if you use it a lot. Also DEX isn't benefical for retaliation. I think I would leave it at 10 or so as well - your Reflex will be good because of Weapon & Shield Style. I'd focus more on MIG, CON, PER and INT.

But if you import into Deadfire: wouldn't you want to have Edér & Aloth in the party as well? I mean they are the ones that will make a reappearence as companion in Deadfire after all, together with Pallegina. Or just doing their quests and then park them in the stronghold? Tidefall on a barbarian is pretty good. AoE draining + wounding = lots of fun. For a fighter I like dual wielding better because of Knockdown (Full Attack) and later Charge (finishes with a Full Attack - without animation - at the target).

Backstab is also very good in the early game - but not with stiletto but pike or quarterstaff. I would try Azureith's Stiletto + Oidreacht and hope that the draining helps with surviving and that Jolting Touch helps with the Paladins (plate is weak against shock damage). But you'd have to rush to Maerwald before going to Raedric... hmm... Survival for a dw rogue is tricky in the early game. Veteran's Recovery could help but there will still be health issues. And maybe you don't want to use it at all on a stiletto guy (doesn't fit?). I guess a bigger front line (3 chars) + CC + staying behind and attack when it's save will do the trick most of the time. Also Paladins: they have plate and thus 12 DR. With Vulnerable Attack your stilettos will have 8 bypass which makes a huge difference. So I would try to take Vulnerable Attack asap and combine it with Crippling + Blinding Strike.

Priest is more fun and more powerful I'd say. You can simply pick up the companions in the order you meet them (Aloth-Edér-Durance-Kana-Sagani) and stay with them. Except that I'd swap out Sagani and take in Pallegina in Defiance Bay. You could also drop Durance because you are the priest. But honestly two priests are better than one. It's great if you can cut buffing time in half because first priest can cast one buff while the second priest casts the other. Also, priests can be awesome damage dealers. Other way round: Bleak Walker with pistol or arquebus for FoD is quite nice. Second slot could be sword + Outworn Buckler. I know I repeat myself, but Firebrand is awesome for FoD with a Bleak Walker. Also fits the magran theme - fire and all. You can easily change companions during a playthrough. If you let them do adventures and then pick them up from time to time (to do their quests for example) they won't fall behind in terms of XP.

It's good. You would land exactly at 0 recovery. Spelltongue's Speed bonus doesn't stack with other speed bonuses like Frenzy, DAoM and so on - but since rogues don't have such speed boosts anyways (except potions & drugs) it doesn't matter.

I would leave Witch Doctor/Long Pain out. Doesn't work with shield at all.

Eh, I meant Scion of Flame, sorry. Lightning Strikes is also in the build but not because of Battle Forged. Scion of Flame will boost the Battle Forged damage by 20% and also will boost Turning Wheel's 50% burning lash to 60%. Since the later is based on the first you profit kind of threefold. Lightning Strikes only works with weapon attacks. Still great though.

You actually didn't play Beckoner and Skald, did you?

Yes - especially because the animation of the Long Pain is a bit lengthy. So if you have to resummon it all the time you will lose precious dps. Better drop DEX a bit. Long Pain is dual wielding and works with Two Weapon Style. Lots of speed.

There's nothing better when it comes to monk + retaliation. But only if you use Turning Wheel + Lightning Strikes (and later Blood Testament Gloves).

Sworn Enemy can be really good. Especially the +15 ACC can be great. Look at this build in order to understand why it can be great: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/89995-class-build-counselor-ploi-charming-paladin-supporter-tank/ It's also great against tough bosses. But in terms of overall damage potential it doesn't have a lot of impact. Strange Mercy triggers on kill - so I'd max out my Flames of Devotion (Intense Flames + burning lash on the weapon + Scion of Flame). Later you will trigger it all the time with Sacred Immolation of course - but beore that FoD (and auto-attacks) seems to be your best choice. Also try to focus on squishies. Another way to trigger more kills is via Runner's Wounding Shot which is very powerful (80% raw damage - most of the time the same damage as FoD). Setups that deal a lot of FoD damage are: - Dual wielding sabres (starts weak but becomes the best option the more damge bonuses you get - like Savage Attack and better quality of weapon). Dual sabres is also a good option for auto-attacks. Runner's Wounding Shot is only a primary attack - so if you want to use it then dual sabres is not the best option. But for FoD damage it is the best option after a while (ifenemies DR is not too high). It doesn't matter that much if you take Bittercut or the other unique sabres. You could even think about using FLames of Fair Rhian and trigger Strange Mercy with a Fireball. - Arquebus will give you a lot of spike damage but obviously your dps will drop a lot once FoD is over. But in order to deliver FoD (and maybe Runner's WS) quickly you'll need Quick Switch or the Coil of Resourcefulness - Blunderbuss against low DR enemies. There's nothing better against squishies and nothing worse against enemies with mig to high DR. - Firebrand: grab the Royal Belt of the Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster's Gloves. This is the best option until the late game in my opinion. Try to pile as many dmg bonuses as possible (Savage A, Apprentice's SA, high MIG and so on). This is also a great option for Runner's Wounding Shot. Firebrand works with Scion of Flame. SInce you want to take that anyways Firebrand is a good pick. - Tidefall: wounding with high MIG leads to great damage per hit - also good with FoD. Runner's Wounding Shot and Tidefall's Wounding stack. - St. Ydwen's Redeemer - when fighting vessels. Destroy vessel also triggers Strange Mercy. I guess also Abjuration will trigger it. Generally spell bindings with offensive spells are a good idea to trigger Strange Mercy more often. I personally would use Firebrand. I did it twice already with a paladin (Bleak Walker and Pallegina) and it's a lot of fun and powerful. You can switch to Tidefall or Hours of St. Rumbalt after you get access to Durgan Steel - at that point they will be better than FIrebrand. Or you just stick to it and use the Durgan Steel for somebody else. FIrebrand will be viable till the end.

It's slower with auto- and primary attacks because you won't have dual wielding and Two Weapon Style. But for Torment's Reach (Full Attack) it's not that bad. For retaliation it doesn't matter at all.

Just checked ingame: it's 50%. So not as bad as I remembered. My bad! So... that's good news for your build idea!

Huh? That would be great. Maybe I remember incorrectly or they buffed this a bit. I didn't use it for a longy long time.

What speed? You can but a lash on any non-soulbound weapon. You don't need to use a special weapon. If you don't use Bittercut you can also spare yourself Spirit of Decay and just put a shocking lash or burning lash on a weapon of your choice.

Sure you can raise RES if you want. You'd have to take away some points from other stats obviously. I didn't look into the reflecting monk. If I wanted to do a really good reflecting monk I would use Aila Braccia and combine it with Soul Mirror. If I wanted to do a retaliation monk I would use the Monksterlasher. But - it's not breaking the build if one uses Badgradr's Barricade instead of dual wielding sabres. So with Soul Mirror + Golden Scales + Barricade you would indeed have a kind of hybrid of reflecting some ranged attacks that miss (you'll need high deflection) as well as using all advantages of the Monksterlasher retaliation. Might actually work quite well.

Soul Mirror only reflects a small percentage of all ranged misses (20% if I remember correctly) while Aila Braccia reflects 100% of grazes (and turns them to misses). Those two are no comparable in power. The shield is just bananas when it comes to reflection of ranged attacks. However, with Soul Mirror and Golden Scales (also bonus reflection) and a priest who uses Crowns and Shields for +50 deflection (Champion's Boon doesn't do anything for deflection - although it's very good for the Long Pain's damage) you could at least make sure that most ranged attacks miss and unlock the full potential of Soul Mirror's + Golden Scales' reflection. The Wood Elf's racial comes on top of course. The idea to use the Long Pain is good because if you are attacking from afar enemies are forced to attack you with ranged weapons/spells as well. It would be really cool if one could only summon one Long Pain fist for the main hand and put Aila Braccia into the offhand. By the way: duration of Long Pain will be really short with 3 INT.

It still does. Jojobobo may not be around the forums anymore by the way.

This changes the build into an "almost" ranged, right? I didn't see anything like this on the build board, but maybe I overlooked.. You def. overlooked. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87160-class-build-the-witch-doctor-mid-ranged-dps-monk-disabler/ This is not so straightforward. Using the Long Pain makes you a melee/ranged hybrid. You can still fight at melee range. All the monk's melee abilites except Turning Wheel also work with the Long Pain. It's very powerful.

Sworn Enemy is on the left side of the tree. Gilded Enmity is linked to Sworn Enemy. Is it a passive or an active effect, hmm?

lashes work like so: Example 25% burning lash: Your physical damage roll pre DR * 0.25 - enemy's burn DR * 0.25 = burn damage. Imagine an enemy with 5 crush DR and 4 burn DR and you rolled 12 crush damage per DR. Your overall damage would be: (12 crush - 5 DR) physical damage + (12 * 0.25 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) lash damage --> 7 crush + 3 - 1 burn = 9 damage (7 crush, 2 burn). DR bypass like Vulnerable Attack does not work with lashes, only the initial direct damage (in this case crush). This makes fast weapons with low damage (and blunderbusses) worse for lashes and favors hard hitting weapons when you meet foes with decent DR. Lashes also don't use MIN damage like the initial crush damage would do. If crush DR is higher than crush damage you will still deal a bit on MIN damage. If burn DR * 0.25 is equal or higher than your lash then you do zwero damage. Multiple lashes on a weapon (from whatever source) do not get added like so: 25% + 10% = 30% lash. Nope, they will get rolled seperately and both have to overcome DR*0.25. That makes lashes that are lower than 25% very weak because they often get nullifies by enemies' DR. Especially with fast, low damage weapons like flails. In the case of Starcaller (same example): (12 crush - 5 DR) physical damage + (12 * 0.25 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) first lash + (12 * 0.1 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) second lash --> 7 crush + 3-1 burn + 1.2-1 burn = 9 damage (7 crush, 2 burn, 0.2 gets rounded down to 0). Note that with Scion of Flame you could raise all your burning lashes by *1.20. So in this example with Starcaller you'd have 25% * 1.2 + 10% * 1.2 = 30% + 12% burning lash. The only exception where lashes get added is the Wildstrike Belt: it simply adds 10% to your Wildstrike lash. Let's say you have 30% shocking lash from Wildstrike Shock and 15% from Greater Wildstrike Shock. The Wildstrike Belt will NOT add a seperate 10% lash but instead give both lashes +10% so they end up like: 40% Wildstrike Shock + 25% Wildstrike Shock. Because of this, the Wildstrike Belt is a MUST for every melee oriented, shifting druid. If you's add Heart of the Storm you'd have 48% + 30% shocking lashes. All other lashes get rolled seperately against DR. A weapon with burning lash + Flames of Devotion + Intense Flames is NOT one single 100% burning lash, but instead you will have 25% burn + 50% burn + 25% burn. With Scion of Flame: 30% + 60% + 30%. One reason why a paladin should take Scion of Flame... In case of a Bleak Walker you could have 25% burn + 50% burn + 25% burn + 25% corrode and so on. Lashes like it a lot if you can lower enemies' DR via spells and abilites like Expose Vulnerabilites, Hel Hyraf, Sundering Blow, Body Attunement and so on. Raw lashes (wounding for example or the damage from the Blood Testament Gloves) don't care about DR, so they are great against foes with high DR. Sometimes the raw damage (that is based on damage roll PRE DR) is even higher than the actual physical damage. Example: Drawn in Spring vs. a dragon. Hope that makes it clear.