Boeroer

I found that high(ish) INT compared to low(ish) INT doesn't make a huge difference as soon as you have stacked enough hostile effect duration reduction. All you need is a short enough duration so that the curse wears off during your recovery imo. If in fat armor the wiggle room is rel. high. Not that I would go for 35 INT or so.

Yes, but with Enlightened Agony you could maybe spare the cast of Infuse with Vital Essence (I guess you don't need the Fit inspiration due to Iron Wheel anyway) and at the same time get the reduced hostile effects duration. And should you get hit by stuff like Arcane Dampener you can recast it and shave off 5 secs immediately which often removes hostile effects on the spot. Too bad Iron Wheel's AR bonus doesn't stack with Spirit Shield and Llengrath's Safeguard etc.

Keep in mind that the Unbroken gets +1 AR when wearing a shield. Paladin's Exalted Endurance (the AR part) doesn't stack with Iron Wheel's AR bonus. So in the end it's Stoic Steel + Inspired Defenses vs. Shield Mastery if I'm right. Inspired Defense is worth not much if you get attacked by different sources of dmg simultaneously (like in the Splintered Reef fight above). So in this case the AR advantage of a Paladin may not be as high as perceived initially, also because you can get Shield Mastery right from the start while Stoic Steel comes very late. But of course Stoic Steel can reach higher values if played correctly around it. Steel Garrote's life drain is pretty handy - but I suspect it doesn't work with Forbidden Fist ability in the vanilla game? I mean since it's not a weapon attack. Or does it still work because it's a melee "spell"? I'm using the Community Patch where it's tagged as melee weapon attack so I don't really remember if that worked in the vanilla game or not(?). I like Unbroken in general, but what I don't like too much about them in a solo game is the lower Reflex. Of course Tuotilo's Palm and Weapon & Shield style will balance that out - and I guess that makes it a non-issue in the end. But (only for for solo) I feel a bit bad about that. On the other hand I managed to play a solo SC Furyshaper with abysmal Will and have fun and success with it anyway, so maybe that's negligible, too (also because Reflex isn't as crucial as the other defenses in most cases it seems). It's a bit of a shame that the improved disengagement mechanics of the Unbroken/FF won't get used in a solo run (unless you use some terrify effect like from Endre's Flog of Obedience or so, but it's an inferior weapon, so that's not the best option for a solo run in the first place I guess). What the Paladin compared to the Fighter doesn't have is the build-in Power Level bonus that is Tactical Barrage. I guess that's a drawback when it comes to the scaling of Forbidden Fist/Transcendent Suffering in order to take it over a certain threshold? I wonder how a Bloodmage/FF would do when using Wall of Draining in combination with all self buffs including Enlightened Agony. The curse duration must be really short and the constant healing would benefit Blood Sacrifice a lot. But I guess somebody already did this an posted it and I simply forgot...

That is kind of weird because all sorts of healing stacks with each other and also passive item effects do stack in general. I guess being the exact same effect is the problem here (as it is with some other items/spells combo like Mask of the Weyc/Arcane Veil or Magnificent Escape/Escape). Interestingly enough stuff like two Rings of Overseeing stack just fine. But I guess that's "truly" passive or whatever, no idea.

Nope, first time I read about this. I always assumed that two Rings of Greater Regeneration would stack.

Indeed. Berserker/Helwalker is a... daring combination. On the other hand: the wound generation through the twice-boosted self damage from Frenzy is pretty fantastic, hehe... If you have really potent healing options in the party it can be quite fun to play actually. Forbidden Fist/Berserker with very high Resolve has the advantage that the confusion of the Berserker will no last long (especially not wih Clarity of Agony) and you can use Berserker Frenzy to gain wounds. And if you stack enough RES and not too much INT and also get some -x% hostile effect gear you can heal a lot from removing hostile effects like Confusion and the Forbidden Fist Curse. Nearly enough to balance out the self damage. Still a rather squishy combo though - but not nearly as squishy as Helwalker/Berserker. Shattered Pillar/Berserker is less cool imo. You will still get the self damage - but you won't get any wounds from it. That's a synergy not taken and I can't see many upsides of a Shattered Pillar to balance that out. Indeed the best combo of Monk/Berserker is the Nalpasca. Wounds from Frenzy + wounds from drugs + wounds from Enduring Dance (potentially) is a constant stream of wounds (and works well with Rooting Pain by the way) without going down too quickly (like Helwalker). I think it also fits nicely thematically - drug infused rage and so on.

Yes

Cool. Note that the Entonia Signet Ring will not give you defenses based on how many enemies you engage - but instead on how many enemies engage you. Against enemies that don't have engagement the ring provides nothing.

By the way: Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming work very well with weapons which do multiple hit rolls with one attack. Any attack that can proc SF/HBD will lead to rolls with your main weapon. That means that an offhand crit attack (for example with Tuotilo's Palm) that triggers SF/HBD will proc main hand attacks. This is important because it means you should put the weapon that has a higher chance of doing a crit into the main hand. Sun & Moon is especially good here for the main hand because it does two hit rolls with its two flail heads. Both of them can crit and proc SF/HBD which will proc the two flail head attacks again (!) which increases the chance for a crit chain a lot. In addition to that the enchantments that may repeat a fire or frost attack also work with the flail heads --> even more chances to proc a chain of crits. Another weapon is Saru Sichr. Its DoT enchantment does a separate roll vs. Fortitude that can crit and counts as melee weapon attack that can proc SF/HBD. It's kind of working like Sun & Moon's dual heads, only that one attack roll is the normal weapon dmg and the second is the DoT. Because you can use the Morning Star modal to lower Fortitude, the chance to land crits is significantly increased (because the DoT targets fortitude naturally), but especially if you use an initial attack that targets fortitude as well - for example Force of Anguish or Skyward Kick (or Mule Kick and so on - or use Brute Force of the Barb to always target fortitude as long as it's lower than deflection - you get the idea). This setup will not produce as many crit chains as Sun & Moon + offhand weapon, but in my experience it procs a LOT more than with other two handed weapons. Also the DoT stacks like Bleedings Cuts and adds a lot more dps than one might think. Unfortunately it doesn't work against poison-immune foes. Still, Morning Stars have pierce/crush dang which is an awesome combo - the modal is very useful and the PEN is great, too. I can see a nice Monk/Fighter or Monk/Barb build with it. I'm using it on my SC Monk Xoti atm (used Sun & Moon + Tuotilo's Palm in a run before) and it's great. But admittedly I value the Morning Star modal so highly that I might be biased when it comes to a comparison between flails and morning stars. Of course Sun & Moon + T's Palm makes you more sturdy (Balanced Shield is an awesome enchantment). I'm sure there might me other weapons that work similarly and/or are well suited for a SF/HBD build (Rännig's Wrath, Spider Fang etc.) - those two above are also accessible pretty early which is a big plus imo. Well, R's Wrath can also get picked up quite early, but I guess a Rapier isn't really a "cleaving weapon" - I mean from a "vibes" standpoint.

You can enchant Amra with Wanton Gore instead of Riven Gore to avoid killing companions, but the trick with Riven Gore is that it kills everything with less than 50HP on the spot - and Many Lives skeletons do have less than 50 HP... So Wanton Gore would be less effective - but it would still work. Another way to prevent the killing of companions is to quickly switch to Modwyr (and back to Amra) in order to remove the confusion (or use any other method to remove confusion). Then you won't do any friendly fire anymore. Will also end the skelli-kill-cycle, but better than having to reload because you lost a companion I think. --- I would bind Lord Darryn's Voulge to the Barbarian because a "passive" Disorient is cool imo (keep in mind it contains Flanked which means -10 deflection and -1 AR!) and useful for unlocking Deathblows for fellow Rogues. Combine with Spirit Frenzy for a "passive" stagger (works with Static Thunder, too) and be a CC/debuffer guy on top of being a damage dealer.

I always wondered how I get THAT many crits even with big AoE size. No wonder it's so bonkers with Avenging Storm and Resonant Touch.

A Devoted/Berserker with Amra (and Mob Stance) becomes an absolute beast as soon as you send skeletons at his side. They will get killed by Carnage + Amra's Riven Gore which will trigger Cleave + additional Carnage + Riven Gore hits. Dead skeletons also trigger Blood Thirst and Bloodlust. Do not put companions near him because if they get hit by Riven Gore and have lower than 50 HP they will get insta-killed immediately (as in: removed from the party and be really dead forever). Killing skeletons "accidentially" also triggers healing "per kill" from pets like Abraham and such and also from Triumph of the Crusaders (Priest spell) - so it's very hard to kill that Brute as long as skeletons do rush in. The best way to "feed" skeletons to him is with a Troubadour who chants "Many Lives Pass By" with Brisk Recitation. You can also build a self-contained Troubadour/Berserker and produce the skeletons yourself - but you will miss the Cleaving. The rest (Carnage, Riven Gore, Blood Thirst etc.) will still work though. Works also well with Lord Darryn's Voulge - see Kaylon's suggestion. A very hands-off and easy to play "cleaver" is a Fighter/Streetfighter. I prefer Unbroken/Streetfighter with a shield bc. of the additional armor and engagement - but stuff like Devoted/Streetfighter with a two handed weapon or dual wielding also works well. "Escape" into a bunch of enemies to get flanked and hack away - as soon as health is too low escape back out, heal a bit and work the flanks.

The Magnificient Escape Cape is a true gem for every Wizard who has access to Wall of Draining (or a brilliant Priest with Salvation of Time - I like Priest of Wael for that). Its Escape ability also grants +50 deflection which stacks with all other deflection bonuses. It does only NOT stack with Escape of the Rogue (so a Wiz/Rogue or Priest/Rogue doesn't really need it unless he wants to spare Guile). Its duration gets prolonged by Wall of Draining/Salvation of Time... That way you can get an additional +50 deflection on top of let's say Arcane Veil (or Mirrored Images etc.) and Llengrath's Safeguard which makes you virtually untouchable for anything that targets deflection. If you later (like... a LOT later) also get The Mask of the Weyc - which gives a quasi-Arcane Veil - you can stack cape + mask a whopping +100 deflection.

Sure-Handed Ila is better (for all reloading weapons) as one might guess because BOTH bonuses - the 20% recovery AND the 20% reload - get applied to reloading weapons. It's most likely an oversight, but as is all reloading weapons profit twice from Sure-Handed Ila which makes Chanter and esp. Troubadour (bc. 100% uptime of Sure-Handed Ila + Mith Fyr) an excellent choice for a firearm user. And as I posted in another thread yesterday or the day before: A Troubadour/Streetfigher can make even better use of the Chanter side by summoning upgraded Whisps and let them shoot at you (they do very little shock dmg - you can use Deltro's Cage helmet to profit from that a bit - but also distract you, unlocking the Streetfighter's passive 50% recovery/reloading bonus) you will become the fastest shooter with one of the highest dmg per hit and the highest sustained (firearm) dps. Best weapon pick imo is the Red Hand then. The Whisps can also be useful to unlock Deathblows on enemies - because Distracted counts as two afflictions (bc. contains flanked). So you don't need to pick Debilitating or Blinding Strike if you don't want to. The only downside is the act of targeting yourself with your own summons. It can't be scripted with AI and I understand that for some players it feels too weird to be fun. However, it is very effective without breaking the game. The combination of high dmg per shot and insane reloading speed is a lot of fun imo. And if you can somehow rationalize why your own summons attack you then that becomes a non-issue, too. For example for me my shooter also was some sort of animancer or tinkerer who uses the whisps as his own "essence batteries" to power up some tech that lets him shoot a lot faster and with more dmg - and the price is getting fried a little bit in the process by electricity. Eccea's Arcane Blaster would be an even better fit than Red Hand - I mean thematically - but unfortunatly Rushed Reload (-50% reloading time, pistol modal) doesn't stack with the 20% reloading bonus of Sure-Handed Ila which is a bit meh. But you can simply not use Rushed Reload and for example get a second pistol (like Scordeo's Trophy with its additional recovery bonus stacking like crazy on top). At some point you will hit the floor of reloading time though. There is some limit due to the reloading animation which you can't get under. For the same reason there is no use to pick Eccea's AB's enchantment which skips reloading - because it doesn't work. If you feel your shooting doesn't get any faster you can balance out with thicker armor for example. But the best weapon in terms of pure dps would be Red Hand I think. Even leaving on the the arquebus modal (+20 ACC) is barely noticable once you stacked all your speed bonuses (including gear like Maia's Armor + Cutthroat Cosmo, Acina's Tricorn, Necklace of the Harvest Moon and so on).

INT def. prolongs the summon's time on the field.

--- pistol --- For pistols I would include a Ranger. A Ranger has the ability "Gunner" and "Driving Flight" which are both quite nice for a pistol user, especially if he/she uses Scordeo's Trophy or Eccea's Arcane Blaster. I personally like a single handed pistol best because its modal, in combination with one-handed usage, is both fast and accurate and awesome with autoattacks. A good second class would be Cipher, Rogue or Chanter. If you use a Chanter with Sure Handed Ila then dual wielding pistols without using the modal becomes a nice option. Sure-Handed Ila and the pistol modal won't stack their reloading speed bonuses - so going dual wielding + Two Weapon Style + Sure-Handed Ila will be faster than single-handed usage and will have a bit better accuracy (but no added crit conversion). --- arquebus --- For an arquebus I prefer Ranger/Chanter with Sure-Handed-Ila because of the speed, but Ranger/Rogue or Chanter/Rogue are also good. A very potent combination is Troubadour/Streetfighter. Mainly because you can use the upgraded Whisp summons of the Chanter to distract/flank yourself (unlocking the passive of the Streetfighter) which stacks his 50% reloading bonus with Sure Handed Ila's, giving you the highest reloading speed possible while also giving you great per-shot damage via Sneak Attack + Myth Fir chant (burning lash). But it takes a while to get access to both Sure-Handed Ila and the Whisps. Until then it's still a Rogue shooting an arquebus - so it's not bad at all. It's just so that once you unlock Whisps and Sure-Handed-Ila the build totally takes off. Especially with the Red Hand arquebus. Generally speaking Ranger/Rogue is always a solid option no matter the details. --- blunderbuss --- The best "gunslinger" option in my opinion is a single class Monk with Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole - but that's bunderbusses, not pistols or arquebuses. Anything Streetfighter with blunderbuss(es) is also very good because the modal of blunderbusses unlocks the Streetfighter passive all the time. Very good in combination with Monk, too - in order to spam "Stunning Surge" with very high speed and dmg per hit. Ranger/Monk is also very nice because Stunning Surge hobs with Driving Flights, including all the AoE from the mortars. But a SC Monk gets Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind in the end which are just pure devastation with dual mortar blunderbusses. Funnily enough a SC Druid with Avenging Storm is also very good with mortars (especially Hand Mortar) because Blinding Smoke and the jumping AoEs all trigger Avengimg Storm's lightning strikes. But it's a long way to PL 8 in order to get Avenging Storm so I wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough.

A Black Jacket/Streetfighter can become a really fast hitting melee sturdypants when he uses a thicker armor and the ability Armored Grace, a pet like Abraham and then gets flanked. Even with the otherwise "low-dps" option weapon & shield the attack speed and DPS are great while the staying power is great, too. The early game, which usually is a bit difficult in certain encounters was noticably easier because offense and defense were so well balanced.

Devoted seems diametrically opposite to what OP suggests, given that he wants to Key is understanding that weapons skills (or better: proficiencies) are not needed to use any weapon properly. You can always take whatever weapon type you find and use it without any penalty (just not being able to use the modal if you don't have the fitting proficiency). Several weapon types have modals that aren't worth considering if you plan to switch weapons frequently anyway, so no loss really. Also weapon proficiencies are completely decoupled from the rest of the class abilities: you get proficiency points "for free" at every few level-ups and have to invest them anyway. So I would focus on the proficiencies that give you useful modals. The rest of the weapon types you can use without proficiency/modal (and without drawback). Proficiencies that I find useful are large shield, medium shield, club, flail, morning star, pike, mace, arbalest, crossbow, hunting bow, pistol, blunderbuss (if one of your classes is Streetfighter), arquebus, rod, battle axe. As I said: not mandatory - but useful. So if I had to pick a proficiency I would use some of these. If one likes to focus on melee then of course a lot of them aren't worth considering. A Devoted however is the only (sub)class that puts a penalty on using weapons you are not proficient with - and he only gets two proficiencies at the start of the game and none later, thus locking him out from any other weapons besides fists and the other weapno type he picked at the start. So "use what I find" becomes more difficult with a Devoted, not easier. Because of that I wouldn't suggest Devoted when I look at what OP wrote. A Black Jacket on the other hand is something that fits the description of OP pretty well: not only does a Black Jacket get more weapon proficiencies from the get-go but he also gets an additional weapon set where you can put alternative weapons in AND he can switch to those alternative weapon sets more quickly. If a Black Jacket takes the ability Quick Switch he can even switch to whatever weapon set he has without loosing any time at all: maximum flexibility of all classes when it comes to "use what I find". The additional weapon proficiencies a Black Jacket gets for free can be used to pick more of the useful modals/proficiencies I wrote above. So, imo the trick isn't to pick no weapon proficiency (because you have to pick some anyway and they only unlock the modals which are not strictly improvements but more like pro/con things that give more options) but to be able to pick as many proficiencies as possible for free AND not having drawbacks if you don't pick a certain proficiency (which rules out Devoted). Because that allows you to play as OP wants: picking up whatver good weapon you find and use it effectively. And as an added benefit you're able to switch to a fitting weapon against a certain foe - as soon as you realize what said foe is vulnerable to you can pick the optimal weapon set. Not focusing on a single weapon but using what is best in a given situation. I think the no.1 wish of OP isn't to not be able to pick a proficiency but being able to use whatever weapon comes along. At least that's how I interpret OP's post (?). The second class can be whatever (if multiclass is an option I mean). I personally would maybe pick Streetfighter if I wanted more melee damage - it's also a nice pick to make use of several different weapon setups depending of the situation you are in. For example you can start with a dual wielding setup and once you feel you get overwhelmed and bloodied switch to a shield setup to be more safe. I also think that Black Jacket/Streetfighter is a thematically fitting combination.

You can put it on Durance if you want. Priests ca get to very high MIG with Aggrandizing Radiance (+2, stacks with everything) + Minor Avatar (+8) or Champion's Boon (+10), Maegfolc Skull (+4) and Abydon's Hammer (+4). That's +18 (+20) MIG which is pretty cool to cast some damaging spells imo. You don't even need to bind it to him in order to test this out - because the +4 MIG also works without binding it. Combine with high INT gear (+ Aggrandizing Radiance + Minor Avatar) and then try something like Shining Beacon + Cleansing Flame. The boosted MIG and INT both add damage per tick and also more ticks so overall the dmg increases a lot. Also works with Holy Radiance against vessels. I could one-shot all but the strongest vessels with Holy radiance alone when I did a maxMIG/maxINT MC Priest with perfect dispositions. Storm of Holy Fire is also nicer with a lot of MIG bonus. This can also work if you give it to Aloth, max his MIG with gear and cast Champion's Boon on him and let hm cast damaging spells - or on Grieving Mother with something like Disintegration. I prefer the Priest though bc. of Minor Avatar (bonus to MIG and INT at also DEX and PER at the same time). You can also attack with it, but that hasn't a particularly spectacular effect imo. If you want to use it in melee then Zahua (especially with Anitlei passive from his quest + Swift Strikes + Gautlets of Swift Action) is a good pick. The high base dmg of the weapon helps all the little lashes with overcoming enemies' DR better and the slow speed (you can't durganize the hammer and it hasn't a speed enchantment) can be countered with Anitlei which otherwise often is overkill with a dual-wielding setup (already at 0 recovery without Anitlei).

Um... he wrote that 5 years ago.

One downside of Double Tap: It's really annoying if you want to test out reloading speed with the Red Hand on some CRE_dummies.

It needs to be a melee weapon attack - therefore it won't work unfortunately. Those weapon "spells", even when tagged as weapon attacks, seldomly are tagged as melee. Offensive Parry from WotEP is one of the weapon enchantments that gets treated as a (non-ability) melee weapon attack (and thus works). From the top of my head I don't recall any weapon enchantment other than Offensive Parry that works with Skald's phrase-on-crit. A Skald/Monk with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming can maximize the gathering of phrases because Offensive Parry triggers Swift Flurry/HBD and that also counts for Skald crit-phrases. A Skald cannot get more than +1 phrase from one "attack phase", no matter how many crits rolls they produce from one attack action - so even if you proc a whole crit chain you will only ever get +1 phrase max - but this makes it a lot more likely to get a phrase in the first place because the 50% chance isn't that meaningful anymore if you can produce whole chains of crits per swing (or parry) instead of only one.

I think it's pretty cool. Also because there aren't that many CC/debuff alternatives on PL6 (besides Arkemyr's Capricious Hex).

They would indeed die - and the weapon was used in a Youtube video by a user to one-shoot Neriscyrlas with an empowered Whispers of the Wind. Afterwards it was nerfed by the devs so that it only would apply injuries to uninjured targets. So the injury mechanic works on enemies, too - in general. Skullcrusher with WotW should still apply an injury to all enemies it hits - but only once. But since the injuries aren't too bad (as pointed out by my fellow forum users) it's not too exciting. The alternative enchantment (+10 max health until the end of combat) also isn't fantastic - but it works with killing summons (directly with the weapon) so it's at least abusable (tried some SC Berserker with HoF and such and it's fun but not too impactful).

Huh? I tried that several times in the past and it didn't work. Only the initial attack would proc the raw dmg cone (which would only add to the weapon dmg cone of WotEP).