Boeroer

Fireball has a rel. big base AoE and even more important: it's a fast cast. You can spam it in very quick succession and that's what can make the use of Fireballs powerful - not one single Fireball. Besides that it's obvious that OP has no clue about the mechanics of PoE. I mean who has when he plays the game as a beginner? But at that time I simply enjoyed the story. It's good enough that you can like the game despite not knowing what's going on "under the hood". Can - not must. No idea why one has to force himself to like a game. That seems to be a waste of precious free time. Just play something else that's more fun to you. Also, the opening post sounds a little bit trollish (no offense, just my impression - maybe it's just the frustration that shows through), so I'm not sure if it's worth the time to answer in length and detail. If I'm wrong, please correct me...

This could be easily done with unique enchantments. This way a wizard could have his bonus to casting while the whole weapon group wouldn't get tied to casters. Like Spelltongue's Time Siphon speeds up your casting recovery. A weapon could have the same enchantment as the Braces of Spiritual power have (10% dmg bonus to spells), or the overseeing enchantment or such.

Do you see more or less damage than expected?

Maybe that fatigue can be the result of a knockout injury (see game options). I always turn those off since they annoy me, so I can't say for sure.

Just double checked: Scion of Flame/Secrets of Rime and so on still seem to be simple additive bonuses: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94124-rogue-theory-crafting/?do=findComment&comment=1944519

Scion of Flame and such are not multiplicative. I just double checked with a 1009-MIG-Aloth + Scion of FLame (in combat, not tavern). His Fireballs' hits all do damage that you would expect with an additive calculation (780 - 1092), not a multiplicative one (930 - 1302). Aloths hits: 1038,2 867,9 847,6 1062,4 794 The red numbers were enough to prove it, so I stopped. This gets supported when you look at his crits & grazes: crits: 936,9 987,1 880,1 983,1 827,2 927,9 grazes: 1004,5 803,1 1001 866,1 (sorry for using commas instead of dots, I copy & pasted from my notes an calculations which are in europ. notation). You can see that not only the MIG bonus is not multiplied with SoF, but also grazes and crit bonuses are not. So SoF seems to be a plain simple additive bonus of 20% - like all the others. However, before writing stuff down I also got some numbers that were very slightly above the upper border (1093 or 1095) - but nothing near 1302. I guess internal rounding was the cause of that. We would have to ask MaxQuest how exactly this is calculated internally.

PoE Attack Speed Calculator: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ Explained: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86684-mechanics-the-big-attack-speed-conundrum

Wow, this is a bummer. I can't remember that this happened when I used it. What about Greenstained Boots?

As far as I know fists will cause interrupts that last 0.35 seconds. Even if you hit faster than 1 time per second and cause an interruot every time you can't constantly lock a powerful foe. And if you can attack that fast the enemy will be dead very quickly anyways. I would not focus on this.

I wouldn't put too much PER, because the whole point with Novice's Suffering is that it does nearly equal damage with grazes, hits or crits - and thus you can get away with lowish PER. Single target interrupts wit fists are a bit overrated I think.

Is Deathblows better though? Turning Wheel's + Lighning Strike's + Blood Testament's lashes are 60% burn + 25% shock + 20% raw - multiplicative damage. That means that a crit (eventually with Merciless Hand + Dungeon Delver), MIG bonus and Scion of Flame go into the lashes' damage calculation. Deathblows adds +100% of base damage. There have to be two afflictions of course. Monks at 50% endurance always have 10 wounds... I think monk is the winner here - at least with Battle Forged. With max CON the rogue should do well enough though.

Hi - no, unfortunately I didn't. Maybe I could retrain my priest of Eothas whom I use as a buffing turtle at the moment.

Only if you face very high DR foes an arquebus is better. For the usual enemy dual sabre with with burning lash (doesn't need to be dual Bittercut) is better. Basically any dual setup with heavy one handers is better. Since you can land crits with FoD quite easily I would look for annihilating enchantments as on Battle Axes, the two sabres and a war hammer. Bittercut is cool because of its additional +20% damage via Spirit of Decay that also works with Bleak Walker's Remember Rhakan Field. Just remember that every lash you add is a seperate one and has to overcome DR seperately. So it's not one 120% burning lash + 30% corrosive lash (or 90% burning and 60% corrosive - depends what you put onto your weapon), instead it's 60% + 30% + 30% +30% lashes that all have to deal with 1/4th of burn or corrode DR. It doesn't matter which lash you put onto your weapon if you take both Spirit of Decay and Scion of Flame. If you don't use Bittercut then I'd say Scion of Flame is enough and you don't need to take Spirit of Decay just for the Bleak Walker's talent.

I don't know how, but I once managed to deal 800+ freeze damage to an ogre with Seven Nights. I guess I hit him with 3 bolts (is it even possible to hit with 4 if you stand really close? Maybe... With dragons this might work more easily). It can be a great AoE spell as well as a great spell to crunch tough single targets. It also works with Bartender's Ring and the hater talents by the way. You could check if it also works with the Cloak of the Frozen Hunt. Because it also works with Penetrating Shot. And the +6 ACC against beasts may be nice as well. Do you know if Marksman works with Seven Nights on the targets that are not too close? Does a Chanter chant while invisible (Cape of the Master Mystic)?

Are you sure that MIG and Secrets of Rime work like multiplicative damage modifiers with Seven Nights? When it comes to Deadfire's Skald: wouldn't a one handed approach make more sense in order to generate more crits (I know it's better in PoE1 to use a shield )? I mean it would be a good justification to go this way this time. I also thought about a Skald with one-handed style and Stunning/Coordinating Cladhaliath who flanks a lot (or Rime Cutter as well because it fits so nicely). Too bad chanter's have no means of raising crit conversion on their own... What about Scath Gwannek? Winter Wind could be a good addition and as far as I know the chanting will not stop when using item bound spells, will it?

Yes. It's really neat if you focus on this. In my current run I use Sagani + fox again and they are a great team when it comes to taking out casters. The range of Binding Roots is very high so I can stuck/hurt them from a long distance where they can't use their spells yet (ahahaha pesky Adragans!) and follow with Persistence's wounding shots while the fox runs towards them and most of the time one-shots with a Brutal Takedown. Tougher foes are also done pretty quickly because of stuck, usually followed by a crit from the fox & the following prone and then crits all along. And when things go south and I really want to take some enemy down as soon as possible I can chain those 5 thorny roots and usually get rid of them (if they don't have superhigh DR like Adra Animats or so). By the way: I guess nobody knows how (Brutal) Takedown works with the stag's Carnage...?

With direct damage spells it should. Now that I think about it, I never really tested this. It should also work with Bracers of Spiritual Power. Could be quite nice to stack +30% damage with bracers + Secret of Rime and then add +100% damage on crit via Azalin's Helmet, Dungeon Delver and Merciless Hand. Which tier-1-phrase do you use?

Without recovery you should be able to dish out Seven Nights every (10 seconds + average animation time influenced by DEX) on lvl 16. I did the same with a chanter + Killers Froze Stiff. You can paralyze-lock whole mobs with this (casting it every 8 seconds+animation time for a duration of 8 seconds base + 4 on crit + INT bonus).

Every damaging spell works with Deathblows, but not with Sneak Attack (except DoT spells - they don't work with anything ). Touch of Rot itself works with Deathblows, too - at least the first part that deals immediate damage. Deep Wounds works with all spells that do pierce or crush or slash damage - also AoE ones. Think of Overbearing Wave, Concussive Missiles, Twin Stones, Vile Thorns and so on. I wrote about a rogue specialized on spell binding gear several times (but didn't write a build). Includes Flames of Faîr Rhian, Taluntain's Staff, Amulet of Summer Solstice, Sun Touched Mail, Bittercut, Animancer's Boots and so on. If you duplicate Flames of Faîr Rhian and use Taluntain's Staff + Curoc's Brand you'll have 10 Fireballs per rest, yes. With the amulet + mail you'll have 6 Sunbeams per rest, too - which is neat because besides the damage it's a nice AoE blinding spell. An Swaddling Sheet + Deathblows + Depp Wounds is especially nice... More info about rogue + spells can be found in my build "Sorcerer's Apprentice" in the build list.

Yes, this would come in handy.

They weren't so bad in German either.

I did a Tall Grass rogue and a Tidefall rogue with Backstab and it's pretty awesome if you don't mind the increased micro. Getting two initial attacks per encounter with +200% damage (Backstab always comes with Sneak - sometimes even +300% if the party manages to apply 2 afflictions before I unstealth) is great and certainly better than stupid Finishing Blow. It's not that great with guns though (as one might think it is when you see it on paper).

You can use Escape to warp to the squishies and attack them in melee. With Godansthunyr + Barricade you can achieve Deathblows after the first strike (Blinding Strike and so on): offhand does blind, Godansthunyr stuns - the following auto-attacks are nearly always crits with Deathblows. Thrust oTV works with Deathblows, Merciless Hand and stuff, too.

Thrust of Tattered Veils works with Penetrating Shot and also Ryona's Vambraces and Effigy's Resentment: Devil of Caroc. You should think about Cape of the Master Mystic and Nightshroud, too - in order to get more invisibility uses. With a ranged weapon you need a lot more stealth than with a melee one to trigger Backstabs. The reason is that Backstabs will occur if you commanded the attack from stealth. It doesn't matter if you unstealth on the way. With a ranged weapon this is not possible because you have to get into the 2m range and then attack the target. For this you need a lot more stealth. Then, with a melee weapon you will get two consecutive Backstabs when using auto-attacks (no matter if dual wielding or two hander or single handed). If you switch guns after the first shot you only get one Backstab shot (the first) - this maybe enough when using blunderbuss thought (especially with Silver Flash + Devine Mark on Deathblows). If you reload for a second one that works - but of course your dps drops like crazy.