Boeroer

Imo the best overall companion is the Bear. It has +2 AR which is great, especially if you pair it with Resilient Companion (another +2 AR) and at the same time is among the best damage dealers (behind Wolf and Lion only). It has a large selection circle which means it will occupy more space than a character. This can be beneficial (block enemies' paths) but also detrimental (cannot navigate well in tight spaces). Boar has the endless regeneration (tankyness comparable to Bear's +2 AR I'd say) but does pretty low damage. It has a normal selection circle (like any party member). It does not do raw DoT. That's the Spiritshift Boar form (Druid). You can get detailed info here with @thelee's Game FAQ guide (section about animal companions a bit further down): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/ranger

That shouldn't be the case. A resistance to affliction should only downgrade an affliction by one tier - as you said. Not sure what's going on in your fight. Neriscyrlas is a Rogue and will have things like Slippery Mind which can explain certain things. Also stuff like Spell Resistance could be at work here. This is a different kind of resistance. Instead of downgrading an affliction 1 tier like the "normal" Resistances, Spell Resistance gives X% chance to completely resist (like in ignore) a spell. Some classes (casters) have an ability for that, too. Mageslayers have it naturally. This also exists with damage resistance (see certain items such as Miscreant's Leather's enchantment "Lucky" or the ability Uncanny Luck). This fits the combat log, because the message "resisted x" is usually connected to such "chance"-resistances. I don't remember exactly which abilities Neriscyrlas holds, but I think some spell resistance etc. is likely.

Nature's Balm ist good. With a Lifegiver (bonus PL) and decent INT (should aim for 20 anyway for the Chanter) the duration of the Robust inspiration increases quite a bit - and you want to cast it early in most fights anyway I guess. Lover's Embrace has an enchantment that eventually gives you Frenzy on hit. It works with spell-hits and chant-hits, too. If you use a pulsing spell (Tanglefoot or whatever) or/and an offensive chant the chance is high to become frenzied at some point. This Frenzy stacks with all other speed buffs by the way (like Cat Flurry) because it's from a weapon. Obviously you cannot trigger it while shifted though (no Dagger in hand then). It has no per-encounter limit. Frenzy is Strong + Fit. It should trigger Wellspring of Life. I think I would keep the Spine of Thicket Green and stick to Nature's Balm though.

Arcane Archer's imbue shots trigger the spell effect with every projectile impact. So if a weapon has two bounces it has 3 impacts: initial hit, first bounce, second bounce. Watershaper's Focus and Fire in the Hole both can have a build-in bounce and Driving Flight adds a second one. So Imbue: Death will trigger a Death Ring with every bounce: boom, boom, boom. The Death Rings will also have bonus accuracy from Arcana (o much higer accthan a wiazrd would have when he would cast this spell). On top every bounce will also proc the AoE of the weapon. And in case of Watershaper's Focus you can also trigger Ondra's Wrath (also AoE dmg). So combined a single Imbue: Death shot with Watershaper's Focus will do: 3* single target rod dmg (bounces get a but less dmg) 3* AoE Death Ring damage 3*AoE rod's Blast damage 0-3*Ondra's Wrath damage. With Fire in the Hole is basically the same but without Ondra's Wrath but with 1*Powder Burns if you wish. Arcane Archer gets no penalties for imbue OR elemental attaks. Frosteeker carries the frost keyword and Essence Interrupter the shock keyword. I believe Dragon's Dowry has the fire keyword so that might work as well. I personally prefer Spearcaster. overall best ACC - and the modal of Arbalests is just great in general.

Imbue: Death with Watershaper's Focus (Ondra's Wrath) or Fire in the Hole (Chain Shot) + Driving Flight is pretty epic. Ultra high ACC also for the Death Rings with maxed Arcana. 3 procs of Death Ring and also the chance to proc Ondra's Wrath (WS's Focus) in combo with the weapons' own AoE. And also: everything there's foe-only which is very nice. For non-imbue shots I would switch to either Essence Interrupter or Frostseeker (no ACC penalty for Arcane Archer). Or Spearcaster (gains way more ACC from Arcana than you lose by the Arcane Archer penalty).

Troubadour is the best pick for a support Chanter. With only 20 INT you can have 100% overlap of two chants (like Ancient Memory + Mercy and Kindness) or switch to invocation mode (Brisk Recitation) if you feel you need that - or for a lot of Many Lives skeletons. Livegiver/Troubadour is a good healer, especially once you combine Mercy and Kindness with the Druid's healing spells such as Moonwell etc. +7 Power level while shifted (or +4 not shifted with Spine of Thicket Green or Xoti's Lantern) in combination with Physiker's Belt and Practiced Healer has a massive impact on the potency of healing. Normally Druid summons aren't that great, but the Ancient's Sporelings are very good. In combination with Wild Growth (Robust inspiration on the Sporelings as long as they exist, no duration) they become excellent. Their duration scales very well because it has a rather long base and it's only PL1. An Ancient/Chanter can also put Wild Growth on other summons like drakes, oozes or the bigger spores. If you have a brilliant priest in the party you can prolong the summons' duration with Salvation of Time, too. Theoretically you can create endless summons who are Robust forever. --- IF one has a summon-heavy party then also a SC Kind Wayfarer is a great spot- and AoE healer with potentially unlimited Zeal in the late game (if summons die he gets +2 Zeal from Divine Retribution). He can use White Flames + Divine Immolation endlessly. The White Flames heal his self damage easily while Divine Immolation AND White Flames heal his surroundings big time. Cherry on top: deals great damage that way, too. Perfect if your backline gets swarmed. I love this guy with dual pistols. Imo it's the best weapon pick for such a specialized Kind Wayfarer. Very fast White Flames, good range, cancelable reloading (great reactivity) great unique pieces. If you want to profit from Divine Retribution twice per summon you can kill skeletons yourself with Grave Calling (turning then into imps) or any summon with Essence Interrupter (turning into whatever). When the skeleton/first summon dies: Paladin +2 Zeal. When the imp/other summon dies: again +2 Zeal. But that usually isn't necessary if you use Many Lives and/or Ancient Brittle Bones because you'll have more Zeal that you can spend.

You can use the "findprefab" command and search in the characters bundle. You can use "findprefab characters xyz" to search for all prefabs whose name contains the string "xyz". You'll get a list in the combat log. But I tried that by guessing what name those eotens might have. Just "eoten" only brings forth eoten and eoten dweller. I tried a lot of stuff but only could find those two. With findgamedata I can also find the bestiary entry etc. for Eoten Drumheller. That supports my guess that they compase that game object use the prefab from Eoten Dwellers and cobble together a "new" enemy type by slapping on a different name and alter some stats maybe. However - that name "Eoten Troglodyte" I couldn't find anywhere so far, not as GameObject nor Bestiary entry.

Yeah, that's a standard Eoten. I guess the more fancy ones are from the DLCs.

SC Furyshaper is very good. The Blood Wards siphons health from ANY damage that a party member who's standing in the ward's AoE causes. That includes DoTs from Battle Axes, Gouging Strike, Plague of Insects and whatnot. Those normally don't work with health draining (like Chanter's "Old Siec" phrase). ANd it works for every party member in the AoE. So if you have somebody who's dealing a lot of damage you don't need to bother healing them. They usually heal themselves pretty easily. The Furyshaper himself can for example use Battle Axe + Heart of Fury and Barbaric Retaliation: summon a Blood Ward near the place you want to go, jump into the fray, trigger HoF and distribute Bleeding Cuts all over the place which will continue to draw health - and become pretty tanky that way although getting hit a lot. Or if you stay at a distance and summon the ward and then "shoot" enemies with Barbaric Roar you will gain a ton of health if you hit enough enemies because the shout does so much damage. If you fear the wards may get destroyed quickly: you can withdraw the wards with a Priest. They will become untouchable but will still work fine for you and your party. The Fear Ward is very good if you have somebody with a club (+modal) and maybe a Waizrd with Miasma of Dull-Mindedness in the party. The ward's ACC is pretty low - but terrify is a very strong affliction. If you can make sure enemies' will is low it will be devastating. Imo it's the best Barb subclass besides Berserker. And Corpse Eater unfortunately is the weakest because +1 Rage is devastaningly bad for the cheap 1-Rage abilities such as Frenzy, Shouts and Wild Sprint. In addition to that Barbaric Smash still only refunds 2 points on kill but costs 3: also bad. But I do not know the changes the Polishing mod does. I'm sure it makes it better. --- Mage Slayer with Effort (enchantment Hemorrhaging) can apply the Mage Slayer's spell disruption with his shouts (!). The great sword's enchantment also procs off of shout- and spell-crits and so on - and it counts as melee attack. So you can shout a Driving Roar and drop enemies and also apply Blood Frenzy's DoT or Spirit Frenzy's Stagger + Effort's Hemorrhaging (hobble or sicken) + Spell Disruption. If you stack 4 spell disruptions the enemy cannot cast anything anymore. Mage Slayer can also apply spell disruption with Frostseeker. It procs a melee helper attack then one of the projectiles crits. This melee helper procs the frost AoE. It counts as melee weapon attack and applies Mage Slayer's spell disruption, too. That way you can play a ranged Mageslayer with war bow and shouts. It's pretty cool imo.

cre_bat_fire_elder cre_naga_shaman Cannot find that one. The only Eoten prefabs that I can find in the "Characters" bundle are: cre_eoten (normal) cre_eoten_dweller (in Drowned Barrows) It may be that the game just takes the prefab of an Eoten or Eoten Dweller and gives it a unique name when spawning it. It does so with Deathwarden Latuc (in Drowned Barrows, Eoten Dweller prefab) afaik. So maybe there is no specific prefab for an Eoten Troglodyte. There's also none for Eoten Drumheller. This can also mean there's no specific bestiary entry for them. But maybe there is a prefab for this and I just cannot find it by name search. Btw.: I cannot remember where to find an Eoten Troglodyte. Do you know where it is (which map)?

That's actually a good idea since the party lacks a Priest otherwise. And I would say at least at the highest levels and with a Cipher (and Ancestor's Memory) in the party a Livegiver (Cat)/Priest of Eothas should be an awesome healer. Once you are brilliant from Ancestor's Memory you turn into Cat form (+5 PL to Rejuvenation on top of the +2 PL Livegivers get anyway for Rejuvenations) and cast Salvation of Time and then all sorts of healing spells. Rinse and repeat. Never switch back from cat form because of Salvation of Time (always +5 PL on Rejuvenation), never stop being brilliant (unless dispelled somwhow) and chuck out awesome healing spells without limits - AND healing over time effects will also stay on you. Might be able to stack an absurd amount of instances of healing over time effects on you and your party members... Or don't use Livegiver but pick up the Spine of Thicket Green and enchant it with Empowering Lifeblood: enjoy +2 PL to Rejuvenation (Druid) and Restoration (Priest) spells and don't mess around with Spiritshift at all. Maybe pick Ancient instead (there's two nice sporeling summuns who can tank pretty well if you support them with healing - and one healing spell is a plant spell (Garden of Life) so that'd get a bonus Power Level from being Ancient, too). Maybe pick a Nature Godlike for the additonal +1 PL? Thematically fitting and good performance. And as I sad: there isn't a Priest in he party yet (didn't realize before). So this multiclass could also buff at combat start and then switch to healing after that. Normally you don't need a lot of healing right at the start of battle - so a dedicated healer might just stand around and wait to be useful. Might as well cast a Blessing and Devotions otF first.

It is strong, especially with Frostseeker as main weapon. Then the best combo is Arcane Archer/Ascendant imo. Very high ACC, lots of crits and weapon damage->focus. Maybe you should give Streetfighter/Helwalker a try. Dual mortars (Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole) gives you full AoE attacks to pair with your strikes, absurd reloading speed and sneak attack bonus (the blunderbuss modal triggers the Streetfighter passive). And the absolutely best combo is AoE mortars + Stunning Surge (Monk). Also Duality of Mortal Presence (INT) is aweseome with AoE weapons and affliction durations. Dual mortar is better than rod + blast in this case because you will profit from all your Full Attacks more (two shots instead of only one). Mirke can also use this combo, she can be a Streetfighter/Monk. No Helwalker then but that's not really important. I highly recommend Psion/Troubadour. The following is a party build. Just make sure the Psion isn't the weakest party member in terms of deflection so he doesn't get attacked/shot at a lot: But any caster class + Psion is great imo. How about a Brute (Barbarian/Fighter)? This combo can have a ton of engagement slots, high health, high AR, high defenses, great self heal and at the same time attacks very quickly for a tank and does reasonable weapon damage per hit (esp. when bloodied). You can counter the deflection loss while frenzied with a large shield. Or not use frenzy as much (althoug it raises Fortitude by 20 points alone which can be very useful). Many resistances, too (Unflinching + Fighter resistances etc.) I like this as a "Mataru" Huana warrior with Kapana Taga (club), Reckless Brigandine (brigandine), Cadhu Scalth (large shield) and Death's Maw (hidden) so it looks properly like a Huana. My subclass pick would be Vanilla Barb/Unbroken (more AR with a shield) but it also works fine with both vanilla or Devoted or so. For another look I would maybe take seomething like Gladiator Sword + Bronlar's Phalanx or so. Rekke can be a Brute, so he can fulfill this role as well. A Sorcerer can be a very nice healer (and much more) if you pair Livegiver(Cat form) with Bloodmage. Healing counters Blood Sacrifice's self damage. Infuse with Vital Essence makes Spiritshift and healing last longer, Cat Flurry makes you cast very fast. Spiritshift of a Livegiver grants +5 PL for all Rejuvenation spells. If Spirithift ends it's -5 PL - but you can keep up Spiritshift for a long time with Wall of Draining. This also prolongs healing and buffs on yourself, making you very tanky, too. But ofc. this is only possible at PL7: Fassina can be a Sorcerer. She isn't a Livegiver though - but ofc. a vanilla Druid still is a great healer. A Herald (Paladin/Chanter), especially Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour can be a great healer, too. White Flames + Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory + Mercy and Kindness + Lay on Hands and so on makes for a great combo of passive and active healing. I actually like this best with dual pistols and not melee. It makes your positioning for White Flames less dependend on enemies' position, reloading weapons make it possible to immediately cast a healing after shooting (reloading can be canceled, unlike recovery), so it's more reactive. Pistols have a decent range unlike blunderbusses and not acc penalty (you cannot miss with White Flames else the healing doesn't happen) and you will get a Full Attacks (two shots) per FoD use which means 2*White Flames healing. It's also easy to create a custom AI setting for such a Herald since he doesn't need to move as much as a melee one. But of course a Herald can be tanky as heck, so with a bashing shield (see Magran's Blessing for example) he can at least be a great offtank behind the brute, if not more and still proc two White Flames. Herald with Magran's Favour (Battle Axe) and Sun & Moon (Flail) can get +4 Power Level to FLames of Devotion (also raises the healing of White Flames) which would make him better at melee dmg and healing but less tanky.

Hi! The nerfing of weapons with additonal melee attacks that can crit (like Saru Sichr) to "cannot crit" will significantly impact the performance of the Fountain of Woe: -- Nerfing of Blood Thirst will impact the Fountain of Woe as well: - The nerf of Blood Sacrifice (6s no healing after using Blood Sacrifice) will impact the Bloody Parry (cannot say how much, depends on how often/frequently you use Blood Sacrifice). Steel Garrote Passive will not be able to heal you for 6 secs after using Blood Sacrifice: - Wall of Draining Nerf will impact the Bloody Parry, too: -- Troubadour's Brisk Recitation nerf (3 secs to 4 secs) will make the Ceaseless Siren weaker (not much though, but still): -

Yes, it's an interesting experiment, but I don't think that it's feasible in the actual game. Unless you fight singular tough enemies - then the stone, rod and chain could actually be useful, especially on Essential Phantoms/Dichotomous Soul or even Living Illusions (from cloak). The spell effects (and also the rod with Blast) are easy to apply. The Ring, too - but it comes pretty late if you don't tackle BoW early. A Sorcerer can do Chillfog/Curse of Blackened Sight + Tanglefoot/Binding Web + Blizzard + Arduous Delay pretty early all on their own. And with Cat Flurry also cast those very quickly. That's already a very cool combination for a multiclass that already has much other things to offer. I mean just paralyzing/stunning enemies is obviously more impactful - but those effects usually don't last that long and sometimes there's immunity/resistance.

I think not - because DS cannot use the rod. Phantom would have rod, stone and chain while DS could have 2*stone and 2*chain - but they would need to get hit or even crit to apply the effect. rod is easier: just shoot. By the way: I forgot that Greater Wildstrike Freeze does -20% Action Speed to enemies, too. If this stacks with Blizzard etc. a Wizard/Druid who casts Chillfog+Blizzard+Arduous Delay and also uses Phantom with rod, stone and chain could slow down single enemies (bosses) a lot and multiple enemies considerably. I will try this a bit Edit: oops, that was Wildstrike Frenzy, not Greater Wildstrike - nevermind. Edit2: tried a bit, I think the items are not worth it compared to the spells. The combo of Chillfog, Blizzard and Arduous Delay alone is already having a significant impact on mobs' action speed and recovery. You can of course use the rod + modal afterwards to add more sluggishness if you don't want to use Wildstrike (Cat Flurry) or when it's over, but using a Phantom and getting hit feels too gimmicky imo. Very good thing about this spell combo is that all those spells are rel. low tier. Edit3: Finality's Claim with Time Dilation III (-7% Action speed to all around when engaged) could be worth a Phantom in combo with the stone and the chain maybe. While oneself is using Spiritshift (you'd have to summon the Phantom before shifting though - esle it has a hide, not a chain ;)).

You could use Essential Phantom (Wizard) or Dichotomous Soul summons (Monk). When they get hit they will apply the debuffs of Sisyfo's Stone and Magnera's Chain (because they get copies of your items, the monk ones wihtout the weapon though). The Phantom can even apply the debuff from the rod (not in an AoE unfortunately since it cannot use modals). If I am not mistaken using Phantom/Dichotomous Soul even lets you stack the debuffs higher than normal - because every summon has its own copy of the item which builds an individual debuffing stack on the enemy. So you can circumvent the "max stack" of the item (if there's any). The enemy will have two seperate stacks from the rod for example if you and the phantom both attack the same enemy, doubling the max amount of the debuff.

It's correct for INT - if you use an INT inspiration then Duality of Mortal Presence (INT) - which is an active buff - will only give you +5 INT on top of the inspiration. +5 INT is still great - and you can spare the INT inspiration. For MIG it's different though. Since the Helwalker's MIG bonus is a passive effect it stacks with everything. With a MIG inspiration (such as Tenacious from Thunderous Blows) you'll get +15 MIG. Which is awesome for both healing and dealing damage (and fortitude defense, too: +30). The +2 PEN for spells is also very nice to have. Unfortunately a Helwalker/Druid as example will lose access to Avenging Storm and Maelstrom (argh) - but +2 PEN, +45% dmg, +12 ACC and a massively increased AoE size and very long durations combined with faster casting speed (+5 DEX from Swift Strikes) for (elemental) spells is pretty cool, too. It's pretty impressive, here's a build with video that showcases such a multiclass: I appreciate you appreciating us. Yeah, a lot of action speed buffs but also debuffs seem to stack despite being actives - but you never know so testing and talking about it is great. I don't think this particular combo was common knowlede. Even if it was: it never hurts to read about it again. I once tried to build a char who combined all the action speed/recovery debuffs into one (there are also some items that apply those effects) but didn't finish it (don't remember why). Maybe it's time to pick it up again. There are no immunities to those slowdown effects (except blind ofc) which can be very nice. Also interrupts add recovery so maybe those should be added, too.

Ah, so "tp" means "teleported" I guess? That's very annoying. I did not experience that problem - but if you encounter it during an Ironman run I imagine that's pretty rage-inducing. I had a case where the duration of my wizard's Caedebald's Blackbow was over, the weapon disappeared and the normal melee weapon appeared again - and the wizard immediately went from ranged attack to melee and ran into such a trap to hit a naga he was shooting at before. I didn't really notice and he died. Luckily no iron man run.

What does "he got tp" mean?

Hi! The idea sounds solid. The Sporelings stay viable throughout the game. With Wild Growth you can already make two of them really tanky (they will get Robust for their whole summoning durarion - which becomes very long at higher levels). A Liberator can deal quite a lot of melee-ranged AoE damage with the combination of Sacred Immolation + Nature's Terror. Unfortunately Nature's Terror does friendly fire so I guess the combo Nature's Terror with Sporelings isn't that great in this case. What is great is stuff like Moonwell + Enduring Beacon + Inspiring Triumph on the Sporelings and other allies (+37 deflection, +22 to all other defenses). Another nice little synergy is that a Liberator can generate Zeal when killing with non-zeal abilities (Druid spells). Casting a combo of Insect Swarm + Plague of Insects + Infestation of Maggots can kill a lot of foes over time, giving you the chance to gain Zeal via Virtuous Triumph. Which in turn means one more FoD use I guess. And also means Inspiring Triumph procs (+12 to all defenses for allies). If this was my "tank" I would use a bashing shield I think (combine tankyness + full attacks for two healing procs) and stay in the front line with the Sporelings. I would maybe use Lover's Embrace as my main weapon because its Frenzy enchantment also procs off of spells etc.. It comes early and it's pretty fast and accurate. Its modal can help you tank even more and it stacks with Moonwell's defense bonus - yet its downside (less dagger dmg) doesn't impact your casting and support). I think Shattered Vengeance would be my backup weapon. Or I would use dual pistols and stay behind the Sporelings. The advantage of dual pistols is that they a) are pretty fast b) deal decent enough base damage to warrant the use of 1 Zeal c) have great unique pieces d) use reloading and not recovery so you can immediately cast (or do something else such as Lay on Hands) after shooting by canceling the reloading. This adds a lot of reactivity. e) don't have a deflection malus like some other reloading weapons have f) have decent range The biggest disadvantage is that you cannot engage enemies. But I think two Sporelings already do a fairly good job of holding the line. But offtanking is still needed I think. But that's just what I came up with spontaneously. Doesn't mean it's the way to do it. I also can see a melee "occasional AoE" setup being fun with Marux Amanth + St. Drogga's Skull or something. I think your general idea works well with a lot of different setups. ---- Concerning attributes: Depending on what I wrote above I would pick the attributes a bit differently (front line = more RES). But generally: In order to keep your summons for a long time and the overall benefit for spells and auras I would try to have very high INT: ++ I would also try to have decent MIG because it helps with healing and damage, especially healing over time and damage over time in combination with high INT. MIG: + Since you can heal so well I wouldn't put a lot of points into CON either way: ∅ DEX is important for reactivity and quick casting: + PER is important so you hit things (misses won't proc White Flame's healing): + RES is good when going for a melee approach because deflection (as all defenses) has increasing returns. It also helps with hostile effects (more than most players realize). Front line dude: + or ++, pistol dude: ∅ Unfortunately this kind of character can use all attributes well, especially in the front line. You'll have to balance around a bit. My most important attribute would be INT and my dump stat (not really dumping, but not investing in it in any case) would be CON.

In a party I usually value single class wizards, priests and druids more than their multiclasses. Ciphers and chanters I prefer to multiclass. The main reason is that Cipher's and Chanter's PL 8 and 9 spells aren't very exciting to me. Speaking of Cipher and Chanter: Psion/Troubadour has nice synergy for a caster multiclass imo. Not that one side boosts the spells of the other - but in terms of resouce generation and action economy it's a great fit. Also you can combine two of the most impactful things in one character: summons and mind control. Also works with Beguiler if you concentrate on the cheaper AoE deception spells (mostly Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors). Since you spend resources (and not spell slots) with those two classes you don't have the same situation as with wizards/priests/druids: you'd need to wait for new resources to fill up anyway. Instead of waiting or doing something suboptimal like attacking with a weapon, you just cast with the resource of the second class. Some caster multiclasses (which focus on casting) where I see synergies that can be worth multiclassing: Psion/Troubadour (or Beckoner or Bellower) Tactician/Wizard, -/Priest or -/Druid because of Brilliant I still like Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Whispers of the Endless Paths because Blood Sacrifice gets automatically fueled by Offensive Parry. The weapon is basically a tool for more casting, not for melee attacks. You trade PL 8 and 9 for more tankyness and an action-economy-friendly spell refill. Helwalker with any caster because of the increased MIG (+15), INT(+10) and PEN (+2) as well as accuracy (+12). The summons are also good to have. But imo best with Cipher or Chanter because losing PL 8 and 9 doesn't hurt as much. Assassin/Wizard with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure as you said Berserker/Priest just because of confused Withdraw (it's an autohit on enemies, too) which is really useful and is accessible so early. Cat Livegiver/Bloodmage because Wall of Draining prolongs Spiritshift + Cat Flurry (and the +5PL powerful healings) - the combo makes casting superfast and lets you use Blood Sacrifice without risk Troubadour/Druid where you use Brisk Recitation with the "Thick Grew their Tongues" chant anf Their Champion invocation as well as all pulsing spells (especially the ones with multiple rolls such as Venombloom) in combination with the Great Sword Effort and its enchantment Hemorrhaging as well as Hylea's Talos in order to generate countless crits with your spells and chant which will all interrupt. A walking interrupt machine.

I personally don't like Seven Nights a lot because I feel that the phrase/damage ratio is worse than Her Revenge in most cases. Eld Nary is great when you have more spread out enemies. I generally like White Worms. Its casting range, base damage and AoE size are decent, it's foe only. The drawbacks are long casting time (compared to Her Revenge for example) and that you need a corpse to cast it on (which gets consumed, so you need another one for the next cast). That makes it not viable against spirits for examples and makes it harder to use with other enemies that don't leave bodies (like disintegrated ones - or ones that explode from crits if you don't turn off the gib option). It also makes it harder to position. That's why I often skip it, even if I don't think it's bad. But with a character who doesn't want to get too close it could be a good alternative to stuff like Her Revenge and Seven Nights which require you to get somewhat near the enemies. But Eld Nary is also good with that - it just comes a lot later than White Worms. I almost never use And Evil turned away. The AoE is just too quirky and the effects are not really impressive for the cost.

Psion has the advantage of not screwing up the action enonomy of a caster and not needing to invest into anything martial (abilities, items etc.) in order to gain focus. This makes it a lot better against tough foes which are hard to deal weapon damage to than a regular cipher. Those ciphers are usually more potent against weaker (and more numerous) foes. But why would a Psion only use low level dps spells (I mean why use dps spells in the first place - but that's another discussion)? There's no real reason to limit yourself to low level spells unless you cannot bear to wait for a few seconds. Sure, it takes longer to collect the focus for the higher tier spells - but that's the case for all ciphers, they have to deal more weapon damage while they cannot cast. The difference with a Psion multiclass is that you don't need to attack (in a non-optimized way in this particular case) with a weapon to collect focus - but they can instead cast spells with the other class' resource in the meantime. Also I think many players forget that Soul Mind scales with Power Level and it doesn't actually take that long to fill up focus - especially if the other class spells that you like to use have longer casting time/recovery. Soul Mind doesn't stop to generate focus even when the Psion is doing a lengthy action, recovering, prone, disabled, debuffed etc. I think it's one of those things a player has to experience to really value its advantages (and also disadvantages if you play it in a "wrong" way). If a player now wants to concentrate on shred spells AND provide focus without actively investing time by attacking with a weapon (instead using the Chilling Grave trick) - and thus circumvent the action economy problems that Soublade/Caster combo normally would have - I can at least see the possibility that this might work. Tough enemies with high defenses will keep a Soulblade from gaining more focus with weapons. This includes Chilling Grave. I think it's really frustrating to play a cipher who cannot gain enough focus in certain fights. The Psion removes that problem and makes focus gain relatively predictable without investing into anything. As I said the need to attack with a weapon messes up the action economy and overall optimizing towards either spellcasting xor weapon usage. I think it's not a coincidence that the most liked Soulblade combos are made with martial classes and then focus on weapon usage + Soul Annihilation (and see the spells as an addon) and the most liked caster/Cipher combos usually gravitate towards Beguiler or Psion. But... if somebody tries to use the other advatages of the Soulblade (like cheaper shred spells) for a change and wants to see Soul Annihilation as the optional add-on and not main part of the build: I'm all for it. I just cannot predict if it will work well.

Depends. Soulblades also have cheaper shred spells and gain more max focus on kill. You can def. build around that and only view Soul Annihilation as a nice-to-have occasional ability. Also I think many players underestimate the potency of Aefyllath Mith Fyr + Soul Whip in general. But I agree that Bellower/Soulblade feels/reads like an odd combination. Skald/Soulblade would be the obvious choice (if you want to go melee Chanter/Cipher in the first place I mean). But... maybe if you want to really concentrate on casting damaging invocations and shred spells it might make some sense (although I'd still prefer Psion for that). Maybe the added versatility of having the occasional strong raw dmg melee attack - especially when you can exploit Chilling Grave + skeletons - is worth it. I can't really say, I haven't tried it. And what countless runs with a lot of odd combos have taught me: you can never be 100% sure how a build idea really works out (for you) unless you try it. On the other hand you don't want to waste precious playing time with things that don't work out for you. That's why I like the console. I simply load up any savegame, alter a character to the combo I want to try, spawn some enemies and try it out for a bit. This still isn't a guarantee that it works well throughout the game but imo it gives you a better sense for it. And sometimes you immediately notice "nope, doesn't work for me" - which is also very useful imo. You'll have three potential enjoyable things going for this combo: a) bombastic invocations, b) cheap shreds and c) a strong melee punch. Or four, if you count in the fact that you have d) two potentially bottomless resource pools. My gut felling says it wouldn't be a nice choice for me personally, but everybody's different so maybe this could really work for you. Sorry for the vagueness...

When Hauani o Whe is about to die (very little health left) you cast Disintegration on it. When it finally dies (health = 0, doesn't matter from what damage it dies) Disintegration must still be active as hostile effect. If that's the case it won't split into lesser oozes and the fight's done. When interrupts don't work then Hauani o Whe (or its child ooze) probably has Concentration stacks left. You have to remove those with (more) interrupts until they start to really interrupt the ooze and prevent merging. Iterrupts will cancel the merging action but not totally prevent the oozes from moving towards each other. Crossbow+modal or Arbalest+modal should work fine (once Concentration is removed).