Boeroer

Reflex defense is as high or low as with any other class. Yes, his endurance and health is pretty low. You can counter that by taking Veteran's Recovery after Weapon & Shield, then Ancient Memory, then Beloved Spirits. In the meantime push survival to 8 and take healing bonus II and put on Fulvalno's Amulett. This helps. After a few levels the lower endurance and health isn't a problem any more. In the first few levels it is. I already said that this is a late bloomer. Still I wonder which enemy downs you in two or three hits? Are you wearing plate?

Everything that deals direct damage (so, no damage over time effects, but several spells) will get a +25% burning lash. Retaliation effects that deal damage are included (Battle Forged, Retaliation, Barbaric Retaliation and so on). You Monk's stuff and paladin's FoD as well as Sacred Immolation will benefit.

I'll only say one word: "Disintegration"

Yes, you can do that. No problem at all. Your self heals and damage will be weaker - but your endurance and health pools will be way bigger. But this will not turn the build concept upside down or so. Just don't get frustrated if you can't hit a lot in the early game. With 10 PER it will take some levels until you don't miss and graze a lot with carnage. That's a normal thing with a barb and gets better with every level you gain.

Why? You don't need to take the domination powers but pick charms and other effects instead. I never found the dominations to be extremely useful anyways.

Consider the Godansthunyr or We Toki + Badgradr's Barricade road (Godansthunyr looks better with that shield). With Disciplined Barrage you will do more crits, and Knockdown + Bonus Knockdown will give you three Full Attacks with +1 ACC per level which will most likely trigger stun or prone and Thrust of Tattered Veils. It's the best "offensive" weapon & shield setup I know of that is not late late game. Then Godansthunyr + Dragon's Maw also looks great and has some nice features. Both are also cool with Charge, because at your target destination you will do a weird kind of instant Full Attack without animation and recovery. In general I really struggle with a fighter in solo playthrougs - even more than with a rogue - until I get Charge. Just lacks AoE stuff - and maybe I'm not patient enough.

I have a big fat second monitor connected to my laptop. Yeah, I'm aiming for something fast again. In 2012 my laptop was over 2000$ and was one of the fastest consumer-laptops. It also has an 18" screen and is a heavy monster. Used to be really fast. 5 years later and it's barely crawling.

Lvl 5 is a tad early though. It's not that easy to beat ogres' Warleader Darzir at lvl 5. And you have to do that in order to unlock Maneha. She's standing left of the Temple of Ondra in Stalwart.

Maegfolc Skull looks better on female characters, especially female dwarfs. It's not that bulky on them and looks more like a real skull instead of a Halloween foam mask. Like it on priestess of Berath, making her think she's a champion of Berath.

Dominate seems to be bugged atm and tends to stop prematurely. Charm is not affected. Charge is superawesome! Not only powerful but also lots of fun to use *zigg-zagg-boom*

Fun priest of Berath: max MIG, skilled for Great Sword use, get Tidefall and combine with Devotions, Champion's Boon and Minor Avatar. Since nobody else of your crew wants to use Tidefall this is the perfect place for it. It's wounding enchantments gains so much from very high MIG and a priest of Berath has great ACC with it. Also the combo of Tidefall + Cleansing Flame is awesome. Sure, melee only distracts from casting - but this was so much fun... Other approach: same skilling, but using any other priest (like Skaen) and pick Forgemaster's Gloves/Firebrand for the occasional melee session. Works with Weapon Focus and also priest's special ACC talents since it's a summoned weapon.

Exactly. That's what makes lashes so powerful compared to base damage modifiers. But it also depends on DR. But generally speaking a 50% lash is more powerful than a 50% base damage bonus. The best thing is of course when you can combine both: base damage bonus will also increase lash damage. Imagine a rogue with Sneak, Deathblows AND Flames of Devotion or Turning Wheel or 50% Wildstrike lash. You can see this synergy very well when a rogue uses Tidefall... The druid and the rogue might be on par without Avenging Storm if you only look at melee damage and put aside buffs from other party members. The druid might hit harder, but his ACC is rel. bad in comparison to the rogues'. Maybe at 0 recovery the rogue does a bit more, especially with Tidefall? Can't say... But this "strict" melee comparison is quite pointless because the druid will use spells like Relentless Storm, Calling the World's Maw or Embrace the Earth-Talon, why shouldn't he? To be honest it's a bit unfair that the druid does so much single target damage AND can use his spells. He should either be unable to cast while shifted or do less. Or the rogue should get more useful abilities - not necessarily dps tools, just something useful. Why doesn't he get some sort of AoE CC or Deathblows Trigger with Smoke Cloud or Persistent Distraction, why isn't he allowed to enter stealth again in combat with Shadow Step, why on earth is Fearsome Strike 1/rest while Heart of Fury and Charge are 1 or even 2/encounter? Why are Shadowing Beyond and Finishing Blow not 1/encounter? Why can't you cancel the prone phase of Feign Death? The druid turns into a roguelike shredding machine for 20 seconds - after he casts a Relentless Storm that turns everybody into shaky meatsacks... It's not fair. But hey! This is no campaign to nerf the druid!

Sure, why not? In most of my builds I try at least to somehow explain the attribute spread from a rp-perpective (even when it means I have to make up really weird background-stories). I also seldomly recommend the latest high end gear but rather gear that fits the style and "vibe" or the char. Else they all would wear Maegfolc Skull. I don't enjoy playing superpowerful characters if the rp-part is totally bonkers - or non-existent.

High RES for da dialogues, man!

As I said: no problem with shifting some points here and there. Tht build is not minmaxed in terms of attributes (because you can't dump anything). But since you have Durance you shouldn't have problems with afflictions at all. Just use his prayers and litanies and you don't need high fortitude. Having two marking paladins is a bit too much for my taste. But yes, the marking of both could be used to support different team members. But marking/coordinated attacks of two paladins won't stack on one single ally (just saying). However - if you have some kind of Ploi-build with the Whisper of Treason + Zealous FOcus + Sworn Enemy and another marking paladin who marks for Ploi then of course you could increase his crit rate with FoD and mind controls even further. Marking works well with casting as well. The nearest party member who is currently attacking/casting at the same target gets the bonus. Casters immediately stop attacking/casting after a spell was delivered in no-AI mode - and thus free up the ACC bonus for the next nearest party member who also attacks that enemy. If you time it right (not very hard), then all casters who target the same "marked" enemy can use the ACC bonus for their casts. Usually this works automatically if their casts don't hit the target at the exact same time. Also note that Durance's Inspiring Radiation and his Devotions will stack with all universal ACC buffs like Zealous Focus and also with Marking+Coordinated Attacks. That way you can get +30 ACC for the whole party and +60 for single allies (if you use Darcozzi, otherwise +50). Also note that dual wielding marking weapons works, too. You will give +30 ACC to a single ally with dual marking weapons + Coordinated Attacks. +40 as Darcozzi with Insp. Lib. But since you would have to use Shame or Glory and Cladhaliath on the same paladin (those are the only two one-handed marking weapons) it would look really weird. Usually I use my marking paladin to flank a dragon and then comes my Knockdown-Fighter or monk with Force of Anguish and prones the dragon. Even though dragons have tremendous fort. and also restistance to prone (+20) I never missed a Knockdown/Force of Anguish because the ACC boost from Inspiring Radiance, Marking, Coordinated Attacks and Devotions is so high that the dragon falls. You can take it to the extreme if you mark-buff a cipher who casts Tactical Meld on you. He will get +20 ACC on top (stacks) and can then hit or crit everthing in this game that's not immune.

This one has good support, great single target CC via mind control items (can crit-charm dragons) and deals decent damage with FoD arquebus alpha strikes and then does ACC marking (+20 stackable ACC for a single ally) + Outworn Bucker passive support while tanking a bit. He's a Shieldbearer, but you can also play him equally well as Darcozzi (and push the single ACC buff even further to stackable +30 for a single ally via Inspirating Liberation) or Kind Wayfarer (heals via FoD and kills). Bleak Walker and Goldpact don't fit that well with this. He good quite good feedback so far. I guess because he's kind of a Jack of all Trades without sucking at everything but does everything he's supposed to do quite effectively. I think he's a good addition to a TC run because the mind control with very high ACC helps a lot in difficult fights. If you want him to be more sturdy then just shift some points from INT/MIG/RES towards CON. He doesn't pack a punch with auto-attacks though. But I consider the Outworn Buckler to be a lot more useful than that. Its defensive buff stacks with everything, even with the same aura that Little Savior also has. If you duplicate that one you can have three of those herald-shields and get permanent +15 to all defenses for the whole party - fully stackable.

Yes, that's right. Soulbound and summoned weapons work with any weapon focus. You will get +6 ACC from WF Adventurer when using Stormcaller. And in addition to that they also work with any of the priests' weapon talents (+10 to two special weapons, like Hope Eternal: +10 ACC to flail and morning star).

Did you check in actual combat? Because Sneak Attack/Apprentice's Sneak Attack is also applied in the first 2 secs of combat no matter the afflictions. Kind of a "surprise-surprise-ambush!" thing. So might be that in a tavern test this 2-seconds rule always applies.

Yes, you can alternate Dragon Thr. and Mith Fyr. Stacking Mith Fyr doesn't do anything, so it's good to use something else as second phrase that fits into the linger time - something like Dragon Thrashed works. With 10 INT the linger time of both is 4 seconds. So at lvl 16 (=Brisk Recitation shortens the chanting time of both to 4 secs) you can alternate between them without a gap. With more INT (expands linger time) you can do it earlier than lvl 16 of course. Mith Fyr also adds a lash to damaging (non-DoT) spells! Actually you don't need weapon damage dealers for it to be good. It's also good for ciphers because lashes on their weapon produce focus as well. I personally like Dragon Thrashed better though. But that's just my personal taste. I never did any tests or calculations like "which one is better in certain situations" or so. I think that MaxQuest for example likes Mith Fyr a lot.

Oh yeah right. I forgot that Avenging Storm will also get the burning lash. Neat.

Charming a dragon also heals him a bit (don't ask me why). So I only use it to have time for excessive buffing and for removing the ads. Edit: one of the two bog dragons can't be charmed - but that's ok because the other can be charmed and all the attention switches to him.

Oh, thanks. Funny to read this again. Nowadays Avanging Storm doesn't profit from Wildstrike anymore (that was a bug) but it is still a great addition to melee damage. I totally forgot that it stuns by the way. Because of this the druid's low ACC isn't much of a problem. One thing that is a bit annoying: the duration of the Wildstrike Belt has the same base duration as spiritshift but it doesn't scale with INT. So if you shift and have high INT, the bonus from the belt will wear out before you shift back.

Hrm... I still need to buy a new PC before the beta comes out. Still playing PoE on my 2012 laptop with Linux. Deadfire beta is Windows only...

I just like Sworn Enemy because it also works with spell bindings - like Whisper of Treason. Crit-charming Dragons in order to get rid of the ads is so much fun. And of course it's a great "kill that guy quickly" ability. That being said I never was a big fan of superdefensive paladins - just not my playstyle - so I'm biased towards the offensive stuff.

Of course the druid as a caster has a higher damage potential than the rogue - simply because in theory he could just nuke everything around him and then rest. If this is a fun approach is debateable. Here Dr <3 meant single target dps when shifted (I presume?). And that's true. Once upon a time I was pretty sure that a rogue was capable of dealing more single target dps in melee than a shifted druid (I played both, but before WMI/II came out, where some things got changed). I then was asked to test a very high dps rogue (we agreed on a certain build that was known to deal great dps) and compare it to a wildstrike-optimized druid in a certain encounter (Elmshore Ogres). My jaw literally dropped and I was convinced. The high level druid can do more melee dps than the rogue as long as he's shifted. But of course only when he's shifted, so that's for a limited amount of time. Reasons are the high (scaling) base damage of the druid's natural weapons, his innate DR bypass without speed loss and his big wildstrike lashes, which are very powerful (lashes apply multiplicative damage bonuses which have to overcome DR - while rogue's bonuses affect weapon base damage). Cat form has superior speed, boar form has wounding. Both do equally well - cat vs. lower DR enemies, boar vs. higher DR. But another important reason why his dps is higher is Avenging Storm (spell). This will add quite an amount of shock damage to every strike and also retaliatiates when you get hit(!). But in tougher encounters like bounties and such the druid can't sustain this form for the whole fight. The rogue will eventualy overtake again. But yes, the single target melee damage of Spiritshift/Wildstrike is really jawdropping and the highest in the game as far as I know, especially with crits (high base damage = great for crits). Maybe the monk can reach same hights with Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes and Blood Testament Gloves, but I never really tested if he comes near the rogue or the druid. Also because Turning Wheel/Blood Testamant isn't a bonus you always have at max. The spike damage may be equal though (60% burning lash + 25% shocking + 20% raw lash are quite crazy). But that doesn't mean a lot... I mean single target damage here by the way, not Torment's Reach. The druid has low ACC though, that's why it was suggested to buff him with a paladin/priest. A druid on his own tends to graze a lot if he doesn't use CC like Relentless Storm before shifting. Edit: the discussion between me and the druid-fan (don't remember who was it) is burried somewhere deep in the forum.