Boeroer

Yes. And after each invocation there will be a recovery time in which you don't sing phrases - so you want low recovery penalties from armor and also high DEX in order to keep that recovery short.

Actually it's not that hard. It's somewhere between rogue/fighter and monk/casters. Since you rest a lot in a solo run the per rest mechanics of casters are not limiting. I did finish solo runs with priest, wizard, chanter, druid and monk. I also did partial solo runs with rogue (non-pacifist) and fighter and canceled them because it was too tedious - mainly because they lack AoE. I didn't try to solo with a spell-bind-rogue (spells on Deathblows) or fighter (spells on Disiplined Barrage) though. That might be nice. You can get the Suntouched Mail and the Amulet of Summer Solstice fairly early which would give you 6 Sunbeams per rest. The barb is harder than a monk in Act II because his ACC and deflection are lower and carnage rarely hits. But once you get Blood Thirst and use spells and scrolls it becomes easier. Casting AoE damaging spells with 0 recovery (as long as you kill stuff) is really powerful. Mass-interrupts also help you to survive. Now I'm lvl 11 and I would say he's better than a monk - just because of HoF. At least in the usual fights without bosses (includes bounties because those don't have real bosses). At lvl 10 the carnage ACC is the same as my auto-attacks, so it does good AoE damage and also start to crit every now and then. BUT the ACC bonus from survival doesn't work with carnage. So it's better to go for the healing bonus in my case (except if you have to hit foes with very high defenses - like Cail in the above case). The good thing with a barb is that you don't necessarily have to kite and pull because he can hit most foes at once and can amass huge endurance and health numbers. It makes a solo run less tedious and more fun, at least for me. Act I is a bit nasty though.

Right - or he's a priest of Skaen and uses stilettos of course. I really like Firebrand on a priest of Magran. Not because it's powerful (I mean it is to a certain extend) but because of the whole fire theme. I hope in PoE2 they will allow the priest to pick his ACC bonus from a variety of weapons, not only give them two fixed ones. Priest of Magran in thick armor with a two hander would be nice to play as well - without the need of Firebrand. Or a priest of Skaen with a blunderbuss - or whatever. Don't know why they have such restrictions. You already spend a precious talent point for this.

Phew... that was close: I had to unleash 15 Crackling Bolts on him and his crew (Blood Thirst + mobs + AoE scrolls = awesome), but the fat guy I had to bring down wth an single handed exceptional hammer (+20 Acc) with freeze & beast slayer enchantment (+5 ACC, +25% dmg) + survival bonus against beast (+10 ACC). And I'm running into another problem (also in this fight). For some reason Veteran's Recovery won't trigger anymore in some fights. Encounter starts and there's no Vet. Recovery. I think this is that case when I receive a crit right at the start of combat (fear aura also triggers spell holding even if you're immune to fear from Whiteleaf or stuff) which will trigger Frenzy + Consecrated Ground - and that somehow seems to prevent Veteran's Recovery from activating. Very, very annoying because now I either have to respec (don't need a talent that doesn't work in dragon fights) or find out how to change this.

Yes, I forgot about that. Good point. "Losing" a weapon slot is ok. The Hammer is also an acceptable weapon for Blood Thirst + stuff right after HoF... I guess. I'm still not sure if I should get Arms Bearer. It can be very benefical to carry different weapons (with slayer enchantments) around for special encounters when there's more than one enemy "species". Atm I have a dual hammer set for every monster group. FOr example it was very benefical to enchant Haba's Hammer with freeze and Jarpie's Warhammer with shock and put primordial-slaying on them. The Dweller went really smooth after that. Before, when I tested it with the normal PoTD game, ist was a real chore at lvl 10 and way too risky. Funny how little changes (+5 ACC, + 25% damage and the right lashes) can have such a big impact.

Hehe, yes it is. It also got fixed so it doeasn't stop after the first incovation. Ancient Memory stacks with Veteran's Recovery or Constant Recovery. It's also very benefical to have high survival and get an item with a healig bonus because this can double the healing from Veteran's/Constant Recovery + Ancient Memory. Once you get the Mercy and Kindness phrase (+100% healing) you can sing that first (there will be no enemeis in Dragon THrashed range anyways) and then add three or four Dragon Thrashed uses into the linger time of Mercy & Kindness. This way your party members will benefit from awesomest healing bonuses for ALL healing sources except draining (without MIG, with survival 14 + item + Mercy = +185% healing - also works with health gain from Wound Binding/Field Triage and also Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence) and you can still burn/slash everything (with a slight delay).

Whereas Flick of the Wrist (other than Inspired Flame) only works for "real" daggers but not for summoned weapons. The Long Pain work with WF Noble but not Flick of the Wrist:

I can confirm what I said earlier. I looked it up ingame just to be 100% sure. Check this out: Durance with Firebrand (great sword) Durance with the fully upgraded Grey Sleeper (estoc) As you can see, both WF soldier as well as Inspired Flame work with both.

Not true for Firebrand. It uses WF soldier (no surprise) als well as Inspired Flame. Tested with Durance. So I assume (?) it also works for souldbounds because they have the same "universal" property like summoned weapons have. Flick of the Wrist only works for daggers and stilettos last time I tried, not with soulblunds and also not with summoned weapons (unless they are daggers - like Unlabored Blade and Reaping Knives).

Speaking of minigun. Do you guys remember the first Dungeon Siege and the gnomes' miniguns? I loved them! So... I would not oppose a minigun. Dosen't have to include fancy-schmancy adra lasers though. And since totday we know now that there already is a minigun in the game: Look at the latest Fig update and read about Minoletta's Missile Salve! Totally awesome by the way.

You guys are awesome.

I like Berath + Tidefall. Fighter-like passive accuracy with all that MIG are great with wounding. Skaen would be nice if the weapon restrictions weren't light weapons only. Of course you can always use soulbound or summoned weapons and get all acc bonuses working.

Don't know if you meant that, but single weapon use will not improve your spell accuracy. Only your weapon accuracy. The only thing where one handed single weapon usage's acc bonus translates to another ability is a chanter's phrases and White Worms (for whatever reason). However, everything above a small shield will lower your spell accuracy (medium -4, large -.

The problems you have a normal with a solo priest. He just doesn't have good enough spells at lvl 1 like the wizard has. The priest needs some levels to bloom, but then he will be awesome. Prepare for a tough Act I. I guess you want to use a sword & shield setup? Or maybe dual swords? Because if you want to focus on melee there's only the sword, summoned weapons and soulbounds which work with Inspiring Flame (Magran's weapon talent, +10 ACC). I used Firebrand with my priest of Magran (and an arquebus with Runnner's Wounding Shot for the opening shot), because it works with Scion of Flame, WF soldier and also Inspiring Flame. I skilled for total offense and used Consecrated Ground, Triumph of the Crusaders and Veteran's Recovery for constant healing. This works well with Shod-in-Faith boots as well and also with items that give bonus healing- like Fulvano's Amulet. Firebrand works really well with crits (you should pick Doemenel) and also with very high MIG (Champion's Boon, Aggrandizing Radiance, Minor Avatar) because its base damage is huge. This approach could also work for dual wielding swords but I never tried it with a priest. If you go sword & board you don't need too much healing because your buffs and the shield will raise your defenses good enough. but your melee damage will not be significant. But honestly you won't attack with your weapon a lot at some point because your spells will be plenty and they will be more effective than auto-attacking. At that point you will be happy that you have a shield that also gives you benefits when not attacking with your weapon.

The phrases also get shorter because of Brisk Recitation which chanters get from lvl 4 on and which improves every 4 levels to a mximum of -50% at level 16. That means that tier-1 phrases like Come Sweet Winds only needs 2 secs to complete (instead of 4) and tier-3 phrases like Dragon Thrashed only 4 secs (instead of - which makes them even more powerful. Remember that Come Sweet Winds and Dragon Thrashed stack with themselves. That means that Kana (with some MIG and INT bonuses) will deliver around 80 burn + 80 slash damage in a huge AoE every 4 seconds (and that's without crits). In my opinion there is no other phrase combination which comes close to this when we speak about damage and overall usefulness. If you're looking for CC I would go the max DEX route, skip armor and take only tier-1-phrases and try to paralyze-lock whole groups with Killers Froze Stiff. This is also nice. But since Kana has lousy DEX he is way better with Dragon Thrashed and the tank approach.

Scroll of Paralysis -> Potion of Flame Shield -> Combusting Wounds -> Dragon Leap -> Heart of Fury with Godanythunyr/Shatterstar -> Barbaric Blow -> switch to Rumbalt -> auto-attacks Bounties with Vessels will obvioulsy be done with the Redeemer. Paralysis and Combusting Wounds don't work against certain bosses, so I will have to come up with something else. Tidefall with Beast Slayer enchantmetn could work well. Maybe I will retrain to Beast Slayer talent too once only the dragons are left (in the game). I will not try them before lvl 16.

In terms of power, I think a Bastards' Bouncer would be better. Or the Bastards' Honey Badger of course. Because nasty Honey Badger don't care.

No, Battle Forged does no longer work with carnage. Retaliation items also worked like that back then. All sorts of retaliation got nerfed so it doesn't work with carnage and also doesn't generate focus. Don't know if it's optimal, Moon Godlike would also be nice, even Pale Elf could be very nice (against Alpine Dragon for example). But all in all it's decent for a barb. Even more so for a monk. Second Chance + Vengeful Defeat is a nice combo, but it only works once per rest (Second Chance got nerfed at some point from 1/encounter to 1/rest) and you have Knockout Injuries at ToI that you can't turn off. This annoys me the most. Of course second chance + Vengeful Defeat can be a life saver. Before you get up again you will deliver some nice blows that will raise the chances of your survival after you get back up. But so far, I didn't want to use this. I would rather put my points into Threatening Presence + Bloodlust and Blood Thirst which really make a strong combo with Rumbalt. Later on I will use my dual hammers only for HoF (will remove Two Weapon Style and pick Vulnerable Attack) and then switch to Rumbalt I guess. At the moment it's: the more foes the better. He goes totally berserk at some point when enemies start dropping and slows down once the last two or three tough ones still stand. Other alternative would be to stick to hammers and take Interrupting Blows + Mourning Gloves. Godansthunyr has 0.75 sec interrupts, Shatterstar has 1 sec. Maybe I don't need Rumbalt at all then. If I don't stun I will most likely interrupt for a good amount of time with each swing (and I will have 0 recovery).

Speechless?

Pope asked about high lvl Kana. Since his stats are fixed all advice around optimizing them is futile. You can use certain items like Gwyn's Band of Union and so on. The max range of Dragon Thrashed you'll get with with Kana will be with Gwyn's Band (+20%), Voice of the Mountaintop (+20%) and an overseeing item (+10%). Scythesong has a really good point: you might want to give Kana some defenses against mind control. If you don't have a paladin with Aegis or a priest then a flipped Dragon Thrashed chanter is really bad for the party.

You could still buy an add-on as slacker backer! DO IT! You know you want the gold badge! Ok, I looked it up again just to be sure - and actually with BIB and Fig combined I would be exactly at gold badge tier. I forgot about a change I made to my pledge. And I also screwed up with the mental math...

Christmas 2018

Oh, that would lift me over to gold badge. Well, I don't give a shart about badges (besides the BIB badge), so all is cool with me! Edit: Oh no, wait, I'm 4 $ short. Hahaha - nice one. The PoE2 Watcher batch looks nice an clean. Keep it, Future Capt'n Fluffle!

Hi, take gear that enhances MIG, INT and PER and Accuracy (like Gauntlets of Accuracy). Use an item that has the Overseeing enchantment (ring, Aloth's Armor or Celebrant's Gloves for example). Pick up the Voice of the Mountaintop amulet (see wiki where to buy it). Use only Dragon Thrashed. Nothing else. The invocations can be Killers Froze Stiff, Seven Nights and The rivive invocation, rest doesn't matter much. Then go the tanky route with a small shield + hatchet (like Little Savior) and thick armor. Only take defensive talents like Superior Deflection, Cautious Attack (if you don't use other deflection buffs via spells a lot) Weapon & Shield, Bear's Fortitude, Body Control and so on as well as Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits. This will result in a great frontline tank who also heals his fellow frontliners a bit. Put a single hatchet into your second weapon slot and switch to that if you don't get attacked a lot. This will boost your Dragon Thrashed ACC by +12. Switch back to shield set if you get attacked. This will decimate most enemies in very short time. If fighting dragons sing Slay the Beast chant and add two or three Dragon Thrashed in the linger time of Slay the Beast. This will make it a lot easier to hit a dragon with the chant. Make sure to debuff enemies reflexes with a wizard or druid. This can be done with Binding Web for example. If you give Kana a Stag Helmet or the Wyrwood Ring he will be immune to stuck and can move freely where enemies get stuck and receive hefty reflex debuffs. He will crit a lot with the Dragon Chant then.

Steamrolling the Dyrford area atm at lvl 9. Still no Cail... I'm a chicken. I don't really need Tidefall, maybe that's why I don't feel a deep desire to go there. The other thing that repells me is the fps breakdown in that cave. I can confirm that Belt of the Berserker works with Sanguine Plate's Frenzy (Greater Frenzy does not). So all in all I could have three Frenzy uses per encounter for 18.3 each (= nearly a minute of Frenzy). Sadly, the two uses of the Sanguine Plate will overlap all the time because the first one will reduce deflection even further which will lead to another crit pretty soon. Still figuring out how to prevent the second one from triggering. Maybe switching to hammer + shield and drinking a potion of Mirrored Image after the first one triggers? One approach that works amazingly well is to use two hammers in order to reduce enemies to a state where the next hit will most likely kill a foe in carnage range, then switch to Rumbalt or Tall Grass (have boh with dfferent lashes, preferably Rumbalt) or Firebrand. This will result in a lot of 0-recovery attacks with the heavier weapons because every hit usually means a kill (Blood Thirst + Bloodlust). This speeds up fights a lot while some foes already start to fall onto their bottoms because carnage is now nearly even with auto attack accuracy (without Accurate Carnage). Death Godlike would be a good addition to this, but Battle Forged saved my a$$ so many times by now I don't regret picking it. At lvl 9 it already does 18 burn damage on normal hit (base). With Frenzy and stuff (no Scion of Flame yet) it does 25. A crit will do additional 14 damage, resulting in 25/39 burn damage on hit/crit. Maybe I will get a third weapon slot for Sura's Supper Plate and switch to it when I get disabled. Or I will completely switch to that setup. Two retaliations + Flame Shield + Battle Forged + Barbaric Retaliation in the late game should do good damage even when I'm sitting or snoring around. Retaliation also triggers Blood Thirst. My tactics will be the follwing one I get Godansthunyr: Cast Combusting Wounds on the enemies, jump into the fray with Dragon Leap, Frenzy will get triggered because I will receive a crit at once. Then I will trigger Heart of Fury with Godansthunyr in the offhand and Shatterstar in the right. This will most likely stun most enemies in HoF range (with 5 enemies I will have 5 chances on each foe to stun), then with the second strike I will cause crits with Shatterstar (annihilating + Doemenel), doing great damage. After this I will most likely have killed at least two foes. I will switch to Rumbalt and have Frenzy + Bloodlust (speeding my swings up) and most likely every swing will kill the last remaining foes, reducing recovery to zero. Even if not Frenzy + Bloodlust will help with hitting fast. If frenzy wears off before the encounter is done I will switch back to dual hammers. I think I will retrain and remove Two Weapon Style soon...