Boeroer

I'd prefer an Ancient because the early to mid game is so much easier with those Sporelings. Tough, long lasting and lvl1. Once you get Great Maelstrom and combine with with Effort + Avenging Storm that 1 PEN isn't such a big issue imo since you need crits to get the chain reaction going anyway - and crits get x1.5 PEN. And the added PL for pulsing plant stuff such as Wicked Briars, Venombloom and Tanglefoot etc. is also benefical because their crits trigger Avenging Storm via Effort's Hemorrhaging. And of course there's (plant based) healing. Even at PL9 with Pollen Patch: great spell if you know how it works. It rules imo if you are moving fast and are immune to engagement.

Yes, Strand of Favor (or Cabalist's Gambeson) + Soulblade will get you the biggest AoE possible (with Shared Nightmare). No Priest involved. Only hefty cheese.

Most of times when an ability says poison or disease in the description you can assume that it's keyworded accordingly. There are some exceptions but not too many. Unfortunately those keywords themselves don't get displayed in the tooltips. But when you see something that says that "Antidote" will counter it then you are safe that Righteous Soul also would. When a hostile attack is poison or disease then it won't hit you. If this attack also carries a CON affliction then you are right: resistance won't matter because the attack won't hit you in the first place. But there are a lot of attack rolls that carry a CON affliction but are not labeled poison (see Ryngrim's spells or some Concelhaut spells for example) - here Iron Gut will help. On the other hand it's rel. easy to get a CON resistance via items - and they don't stack. But then on your third hand (huh? ;)) you might want to give those items to party members who cannot get a resistance any other way...

I might add that the whole Effort+Avenging Storm thing doesn't work too well against megabosses themselves most of the time because their defenses are usually high enough to prevent frequent crits from a Druid. But it wipes ads like not much else - which is convenient - and is especially awesome once you get Great Maelstrom, too. Then it's unbelievable AoE dmg for the Druid on top of all the other nice stuff he can do. Least Unstable Coil works beautifully with Avenging Storm as well as Great Maelstrom, so such a Druid can become Brilliant on his own rel. easily with the help of an Empower point. Also an empowered Avenging Storm + contant SoT (so it won't ever stop) with repeated Maelstroms is cool as hell imo.

Effort + Avenging Storm + all sorts of pulsing spells (especially Venombloom) in combination with Hylea's Talons and Ring of Clenched Muscle is pretty deranged.

you summon a Flame Blight "by accident" a lot when using Frostseeker's multiprojectile attacks + AoE proc in combo with Driving Flight. when you carry an injury with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak you will be immune to fire damage but instead heal from it (20% iirc) Flame Blights hit you but will heal you still, every hit will unlock the 10% freezing lash from Horns of the Aurochs So basically you get some healing and a practically permanent freezing lash on your attacks - and of course the buring lash from the belt without any drawback (other than the minor injury that makes the Scorched Cloak work).

That interaction is cool. I tried several combos with Current's Rush, but not with Frostfall. A SC Ranger with Twinned Shot + Driving Flight can also proc a High Tide chain on a group of enemies pretty reliably. Also works with Whirling Strikes. Of course: smaller AoE A Monk with Enduring Dance and Razor's Edge + Duality:INT should also be a good candidate. Shooting with the scepter's modal even gives wounds. A Wizard can use both weapons' effect with their Phantom, too. So any combination of Ranger, Monk or Wizard could also be nice. Aloth's Armor provides more AoE size (+15%) and stacks with Ring of Overseeing (+10%) by the way. Also a pet like Loki (+15%) will help. There are even pets who have the party effect of embiggen AoEs a bit - something for Edér then?

Yes, if you have a melee weapon in the offhand it can trigger Swift Flurry and HBD as know. Special is that both of those abilities don't execute the additional attacks with the offhand weapon but always with the main hand weapon - it doesn't matter wether it's a ranged one or not. However, the crit chains that can normally happen with SF/HDB can't happen that way because the ranged weapon in the main hand cannot proc SF/HBD themselves. So it's: offhand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand ranged attack -> stop instead of: offhand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand melee attack -> triggers SF/HBD -> procs main hand melee attack and so on At least that's what I figured out from previous tests.

For what it's worth: -50% recovery from "Heating Up" and the +50% recovery from disoriented don't cancel each other out. You will still be faster than normal. Due to the mathematical operations done when calculating attack speed the -50% is a lot more impactful than the +50%. For more info see: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/inversions So your idea with Chill Fog is still viable, especially because the enemies will suffer the full effect of blindness (including +50% recovery) while you will be faster than normal even when disoriented.

I personally wouldn't really dump any attribute on a FF/SG (down to 3 I mean). I think it's one of those multiclasses where a rel. balanced attribute spread works well. I would always max RES with a FF though.

For Berserker/Skald it's beneficial to use Killers Frozen Stiff + fast melee attacks. The perfect weapon for a Berserker/Skald is Sun & Moon because it has two attack rolls per strike (so two chances for a crit instead of one per weapon strike). Other fast weapons with high ACC (Rapier, Dagger) are also good. The next best is heavier one handed weapons like swords and sabres etc. So Modwyr+Sasha's does work well. Sasha's + Scordeo's Edge with Blade Cascade & Adaptive in one weapon set (slash) and Modwyr + Watcher's Blade (pierce/slash) or Sun & Moon (pierce/slash & crush) would be even better imo, but that's negligible. If you like Modwyr + Sasha's as your preferred option it's okay. Other good option is a Morning Star because Spirit Frenzy + The Long Night's Drink + Morning Star modal + Brute Force provides a lot Fortitude debuff "on the fly" which grants more crits. Especially Saru Sichr is nice here because it does two hit rolls per attack (one for the physical attack, one for the poison DoT). But it's slower than a dual wielding setup of course. Killers Froze Stiff is a nice invocation for a Skald because it's cheap, very impactful because early hard CC and also provides 25% crit conversion which stacks with Berserker's crit conversion, Bloody Slaughter, Barbaric Smash and whatever crit conversion you get on top of that (Uncanny Luck or whatever). So you not only deliver great CC repeatedly but also increase your chances to get phrases from crits. As phrases go I would prefer Aefyllath (stacks nicely with Modwyr's and Sasha's lashes and lashes are always good). If you manage to extend the linger long enough (need a ton of INT) I personally would add Old Siec because it helps with the Berserker's Self damage. But of course it doesn't really matter which of your Chanters is singing which as long as they are in each other's range. Pallegina as Herald: I would concentrate on stacking passive healing and defenses with her - such as Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory (+maybe Her Courage later on). Also having the resistance phrases is great. They can remove all sorts of afflictions of you switch to them. One phrase will remove one layer of afflictions until nothing is left. As invocations I think summons are most impactful with her. I would still get a heal-per-kill pet because the Berserker's self damage will reach numbers where it can easily kill you if you don't get any healing - even if you are not attacked. Using the Voidward Ring and other damage reduction gear also helps. Abraham is a great pet because it combines attack speed (or better: less recovery penalty for armor) with healing per kill (only 10, but still good). Killers Frozen Stiff doesn't profit from Berserker's Tenacious, so from time to time it's totally worth it to use Her Revenge or so as alternative invocation. Her Tears Falling Like Rain, too. Make sure that you take a very costly invocation at some point during your level-ups - even if you don't plan to use it. Your max phrase counter is determined by the most expensive invocation. And you want to have the biggest pool size possible. If you stick to the cheap invocations only (which would be the intuitive thing to do) your phrase pool will stay small. But if you only take one expensive invocation it's suddenly way bigger. For example at max level I will retrain and pick my favorite invocations like before and then I will also pick "Ancient Instruments of Death". It's a very good summon and always useful - but for a Skald it's also very expensive - so it gives you a big phrase pool. If you crit a lot and gain phrases more quickly than you want to spend them you can now "charge up" more phrases and then unleash a barrage of up to 3 invocations - for example 3 times Her Revenge in a row - and still have a phrase left. Traps are not worth it (selling them is the best use for them imo unless you want to lure enemies with them - they make a lil' sound when set up). Explosives can be good - if you skill a lot of explosives and pick the right bombs for the right enemies. But honestly I think scrolls and potions are better than explosives overall.

Against Blob that doesn't work too well. Imo you want to use Disintegrate against him and that might not work out if you can't get focus reliably I guess. Psion is really cool for Ultimate imo if you can make sure not to get damaged too often (like with mind control, hard CC in general and going invisible/hide/become untargetable).

You can choose Berserker/Troubadour, then summon Ancient Brittle Bones (and later use Many Lives Pass By + Brisk Recitation), Frenzy and hack away at the enemy together with your skeletons. Make sure to pick a pet that does +20 health on kill. If you have Edér+ Breath Blessing "Can I pet him anyway?" then give him Abraham as pet. Go for Bloodlust, Barbaric Smash (only as finisher), Bloody Slaughter, Blood Thirst, Blood Storm and Interrupting Blows (and whatever melee Barbs can pick - like One Stands Alone, Two Weapon Style etc). Use Killers Frozen Stiff as invocation once Many Lives Pass By is running or just hold on to the phrases for Sasha's Scimitar's shocking lash. You can also use Many Lives + Aefyllath for slower skeleton generation and an additional lash, but most of the time Many Lives nonstop will be better. The trick is to kill the skeletons "accidentially" with Carnage while confused. This grants +20 health via pet (or +30 with Edér/Abraham), Bloodlust, Blood Thirst(!) and makes you superhealthy and superfast because recovery will get skipped a lot. Great mob diminisher and squishy hunter. Use Leap to get to the backline of enemies quickly. Can also Threatening Presence or Nomad's Brigandine to be immune to engagement/ disengagement attacks. You need high INT and also maybe some AoE expanders like Ring of Overseeing etc. because while confused your INT goes down and so does your Carnage AoE. You don't want to maneuver too much to get your skeletons into Carnage range, that's too fiddly and annoying. So big AoE it is. However: you can't get too near with party members for long or they will get hurt, too (unless they are really tanky). Anyway: it's a hackfest at some point - and before that it's versatile and useful, too.

Instrument of Boundless Rage is just too expensive for what it does. Driving Roar/Dazing Shout deal great damage in big AoEs and either knock down/back+interrupt or cause daze+engagement+3 for only 1 Rage. I haven't tried BPM's version of it.

It can deal great damage when used as finisher as Barbaric Smash in combo with Bloody Slaughter - and then it also is for free (I mean costs no Rage). Best to use with a dual wielding setup with high dmg per hit (love it on Barb/Rogues instead of Finishing Blow and Barb/Wizards with Draining Touch). Because of the first strike doesn't kill there's always the second one. Also as single class Barb you may pay 0 Rage for Barbaric Smash while getting +1 Rage from Blood Surge from time to time. Which is cool imo. I really like SC Barb... Recently really come to appreciate "+20 health on kill"-pets (even mix it up with +10 per kill pet for party when Edér is around) in combo with a SC Berserker. Concentrate on hunting squishies with a Driving Roar, upgraded Leap and Babaric Smashes while not going down from your own Frenzy so easily.

I guess you could also just charm/dominate enemies to cancel cowardice. It wouldn't be a huge problem to circumvent it in normal encounters, but I fear in prolonged fights, especially against solo bosses (see Megabosses) it might be difficult to do so (how many Withdraw scrolls can one carry? You may struggle to dominate bosses reliably). Also, as most other Ciphers, Beguilers don't get focus from hitting (with weapon or deception spell) charmed/dominated enemies which makes the Debonaire/Beguiler combo anti-synergistic against single, tough foes. On those cases Psion would be a better pick. In theory he could keep enemies charmed or dominated and cast (critical) Disintegrate on them while still getting focus. Beguiler will become focus-starved quickly. I think there's a reason why the only x/Cipher Ultimate run I recall was with a Psion (but maybe I just forgot the others, can't rule that out).

That depends. The upside of high INT is more potent healing via Lay on Hands and longer duration on Clarity of Agony, enfeebled, Eternal or Shared Devotion, bigger Aura AoE etc. With maxed RES, Clarity and some -x% hostile effect duration gear the duration of the curse with high INT or with low INT isn't that much of a difference due to the double inversion math that's going on with reductions (malus). You can get to under 2 secs curse duration even with maxed INT. And with 2 MIG the curse won't do a lot of damage so before getting to max "-x% hostile effect duration" you might be able to stack two of them without too much hassle, too. I played several FF combos with maxed INT (and RES) and the curse duration wasn't much of an issue after some levels. Dropping DEX a bit and/or putting on fat armor and/or not using dual wielding but shield instead so that your recovery isn't shorter than the curse can help to not accidentially kill yourself while spamming FF ability. However, dumped MIG and CON is a bit weird. Since Fortitude is the most important defense against later game afflictions this might bite you in the rear at some point. But you can always switch to Duality of Mortal Presence: CON to ramp up the Fortitude I guess and combine it with Crucible of Suffering. Might suffice in a party, even as fronliner.

Right. Barbaric Blow executes a Full Attack - and those mentioned bonuses are for that Full Attack and nothing else. Iirc in PoE1 the ability Heart of Fury gave a short-lived 20% damage bonus for following attacks, too. But there's nothing like that for Barbs in Deadfire.

I guess one can make it work, but imo it's not a super good solo combo because of the shortcomings of a solo Debonaire (see cowardice etc.) which you'd have to circumvent.

Don't know the last two - but the first two are still viable.

I guess one of the main reasons why people don't mix Bloodmage with Forbidden Fist too much is that vanilla, Helwalker or Nalpasca Monks would gain wounds from Blood Sacrifice (which is a nice synergy) while Forbidden Fist (and Shattered Pillar) do not. Besides that it should work well - as most Sages do. Enfeebled + any afflictions should be a nice combo.

Okay. Players often enough accidentally post a Deadfire question in PoE's subforum and then wonder why nobody answers. You mentioned Deadfire in your post so I just wanted to make sure. The majority of builds that were used in PoE's Ultimate challenge in the past are not outdated because the game didn't change since they were used. If you have a specific build in mind we can check if seems viable or if it has some major flaws. But compared to Deadfire, PoE's Ultimate is rel. forgiving. One can do it with non-perfect builds als well. For example I tried one with an all-offense Barbarian and only was stopped by a bug shortly before the end of the game. Afaik all the Wizard builds here are still perfectly fine. Paladins should be, too. There's also a cipher run if I remember correctly which should also still be good.

Do you want to try the Ultimate for Pillars of Eternity or Deadfire?

"Burping Pain"

Ach, you are right. I briefly forgot that it's not accessible to MC fighters. It only came to me because I played several Berserker/Monks and you can't really use Rooting Pain unless you can cancel the confusion reliably.