Boeroer

Sanguine Plate would result in more DR and +4 MIG and CON and therefore also +16 fortitude and more healing - it would be suiting if one likes that armor. I personally find the looks a bit over the top and too reddish, but hey: Frenzy is nice . Recovery would still be zero as far as I can say - but of course only as long as Frenzy works. After that you will lose dps. Godlikes with helmets: maybe IEMod or simply an oversight during the iteration steps of development. Also happens to me from time to time. I would say Moon Godlike is even better than Maegfolc Skull because you will have the benefits of Silver Tide right from lvl 1 on while the Skull comes very late. You can put +2 MIG onto the padded armor I guess (can't say if there's enough room left for the enchantment though). For a rogue that gets hit a bit Elryn's Jacket (also padded armor, causes blind in an AoE ervery few hits you receive) might also be a nice alternative. If you combine it with the Binding Rope (stuck on getting a crit) you can get Deathblows all by yourself - might be handy in solo or when other party memebers are out of CC or so. Another alternative might be Jack of Wide Waters (padded) because of the +2 survival. You could then put a lot less points into survival (only tier 12 instead of 14) which you could put into lore or mechanics or stealth or whatever - also not bad if you'd go solo for example.

I agree with everything you said there basically.

He will have very high fortitude and so most disables will not be a huge problem. He can always put on Fenwalkers - the grazes should then be completely removed by the -5 sec enchantment. Against prone/stun Blaidh Golan will help a lot. Very nice combination of survivability without sacrificing too much offense -as I like it. One tiny thing though: draining does *not* profit from healing bonuses. I made the same mistake once and stood corrected. But with all the other healing factors you have you will not even notice - also because the high direct damage leads to good draining numbers anyway. What does work with healing bonuses though is a potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. So even if health is low (may happen a lot when you heal endurance a lot but your defenses are not great) that's not even a problem because those potions can give you back enough health so that you don't have to rest the whole time. All in all a very nice build. It will need a few levels to develop enough survivability to get reckless but then I'm sure it's a lot of fun. Funnily enough, I think this build would also work very well with Tidefall - but of course he would be hitting slower - if you like rogues with big swords that is. Full Attack abilities are of course nicer with two weapons.

They said there's a cowboy hat in PoE2.

A proper druid would still deliver higher single target dps because of the higher base damage, inherent DR bypass and his massive lashes and also because of some spells that work nicely with melee fighting, but he's limited to short shifting time and has a bit lower DR. A barb with a two hander like BoTEP and Frenzy + Bloodlust also does more dps - but not single target dps of course. A monk also does more dps as long as he has a lot of wounds. But for persistent high single target dps without using resources that rogue would indeed be the best pick I guess. The only thing why Bittercut might be "better" for him on the long run is because of two damge types instead of one compared to Rimecutter.

He? Did I do the math wrong? Maybe, I just hacked something into my calc and didn't double check. But doesn't dual wielding + gauntlets + durgan steel + two weaoons style leave you with enough buffer to compensate ~15% armor penalty?

You mean damaging chants, right? Besides that: fighter tanks are totally useless for me. I find fighters to be better when they combine very high ACC, good damage and enough sturdyness. But that might be a matter of taste. Chanter tanks on the other hand can deal massive AoE damage just by standing around. Dragon Thrashed gets cast every 4 seconds at lvl 16, doing around 80+80 damage each time they hit (if you have the correct attributes - and more if you crit) - and it entirely stacks. You can't find any other damaging AoE ability that will cost no resources, reliably kills all mobs after a few phrases and even works when the character is withdrawn or even prone. At the same time the chanter can run around, attack with a weapon, use spell bindings or scrolls - all while not interfering with his chanting which does this enourmous damage. Even if he would be worse at tanking than a full tank fighter or paladin he would still be way more useful. There's a reason why you can rel. easily solo PoTD with such a chanter but not with a fighter tank. I mean you can, but it's a real chore and involves heavy pulling and kiting - compared to a chanter "tank". Saying that a fighter tank is more useful than a chanter tank only shows that one didn't experience the awesomeness of a chanter once he hits lvl 9. May sound harsh, but I can't really think of another reason. For me, basic chanter mechanics don't need a change - at least not if you look at it from the PoTD perspective, which is slower than the other ones. And certainly not if you look at PoTD solo. What they could do however is to start with a few phrases - like ciphers start with a bit focus - and OBS could invent better phrases and invocations besides the few really useful ones. Most of the chanters phrases and invocations are lame and seem uninspired - that's a pity. Luckily there are a few really strong ones.

Don't exactly get what you want to know, sorry. I guess you mean which armor (with durgan steel) you can wear and still have 0 recovery with no potions and buffs - while dual wielding? Then the answer is: yes, durgan reinforced Wayfarer's Hide will work. In fact, even a leather armor would work. No potion and no speed buffs needed. Cool stuff. If you use speed enchanted weapons (March Steel Dagger, Sword of Daenysis, Shatterstar, Danulya, Rimecutter and so on - there are a few more) then you can even wear durganized plate AND switch on Vulnerable Attack with no speed loss - still 0 recvery. You won't have to use any buff or potion. Or you use a bit weaker armor (leather) and also take Cautious Attack without speed loss or something. Also neat.

Yes, I totally agree - that is a common "problem" of the monk in western RPGs. To be honest I also skipped monks for the first several PoE playthroughs because of that. However in PoE - if one can ignore that image - they can be a lot of fun. Now one of my most favored classes. Rangers - not so much I'm afraid. Doesn't mean they are bad - but they don't appeal to me because they are quite limited in the ways you can build them. I guess the subclasses in PoE will drastically change that.

Moon Godlikes' racial ability is very powerful - I mean if you compare it to available headger in PoE1. I don't use them a lot because I don't like the looks too much but they are powerful. I used Fire Godlikes quite often because you can do a some nice shenanigans with the burn retalition - because it scales with level and leads to insane retaliation damage if you combine it with certain class abilites. Examples: - monk: Battle Forged retaliation with Scion of Flame, Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes and Blood Testament Gloves will have +20% base damage and lashes of +60% burn, +25% shock and +20% raw. This leads to retaliation strikes which do 100-150 burn damage with Battle Forged alone. Add a Flame Shield potion and other retaliation items as well as Rooting Pain and it gets totally crazy. This monk can just stand there and do nothing and still kills everything that hits him in melee (as long as it's not immune to fire). - barbarian: One Stands Alone and Blooded work with Battle Forged. Add Scion of Flame, Firebrand and Barbaric Retaliation and he can also be a powerful retaliation tank as the above monk. Both have the advantage of very high endurance and health so that the 50% endurance is not that tricky. - cipher: used to generate focus via Battle Forged. Now it's all nerfed and doesn't work anymore - but the combo of Ring of Searing Flames (Combusting Wounds) + all the retaliation you can stack + Pain Link is still very powerful. - priest: can reach very high MIG which results in high Battle Forged damage. Plus: Fire Godlike priest of Magran fits nicely. Meh: priests' endurance and health are quite bad and you shouldn't plan to use Battle Forged a lot because you will have to rest all the time because of low health. Death Godlike I seldomly use. I like the combo of Death Godlike and chanter or priest of Berath - but to be honest the racial ability is not good enough to justify the loss of headgear. Nature Godlike: same basically. Nature Godlike Stag Druid or Nature Godlike stag ranger are nice concepts - stylistically - but the racial ability is very underwhelming. It stacks with everything though, but it would have been better if it triggered at 75%. Or if it worked like Fighting Spirit (humans). The term "Wellspring of Life" suggests that there's healing involved - which is not the case. An inherent regeneration like those of a trollhide belt that scaled a bit would also have been awesome. Bird Godlike: ok, the racial ability is totally bonkers, but Pallegina makes up for this with her awesome Wrath of the Five Suns. I like her very much.

No, the rogue with the BotEP can also wear plate if he uses a potion of Alacrity for example - giving him 0 recovery like the dual wieder has. The dual wielder could also gulp that potion, but it wouldn't do anything for him because he already has 0 recovery. Anyways - having higher DR is of course benefical, but it's not relevant when speaking about dps. So, the best melee dps option in the late game can be two hander. If it's the best option overall is debateable and also heavily depends on your class, your enemy and your and party setup and what gear is available - if you like consumables or not and so on. But the best possible melee dps option late in the game is a two hander. The big advantage of dual wielding is that before the late mid game to late game - where speedups like durgan steel become available - you will have better dps most of the time if you use a class which has no good speed ability (rogues, fighters, papadins and so on) and you don't want to drink Alacrity potions or use drugs. And of course if you use a rogue who takes all the strike abilites - then I would totally recommend dual wielding because it should always result in higher damage output (first strike blinds, secnds strike already has Sneak bonus and so on).

Right - and it's also benefical to use Blood Thirst as well if you are not already at 0 recovery with Bloodlust (for example if you use a weapon without speed enchantment - like Drake's Bell with maximum DR penetration setup). After HoF you will have no recovery because you killed at least one enemy, you can follow up with Barbaric Blow which will most likely kill another enemy - again no recovery - and then hack away with auto attacks which are sped up via Bloodlust. Blood Thirst can close the gap between weapons with and without speed enchantment(s). Of course - if you already have 0 recovery then taking Blood Thirst is nonsense in order to speed up your weapon attacks. But there might be reason you want to keep it: If you want to use attacks that are not related to your weapons - like Dragon Leap, Echoing Shout, spell binding gear or scrolls: those spell like abilites which don't use your weapons' enchantments also work with Blood Thirst. If you kill enemies with a Dragon Leap, a Jolting Touch or a Fireball or whatever you will also have 0 recovery - while the speed enchantment of your weapon will do nothing in this case. Casting some "spells" with 0 recovery in full plate is powerful.

That is a misconception. Monks are good with fists, but they are equally good or even better with weapons and especially with heavy armor in the earlier stages of the game. On-crit weapons with overbearing or stunning as well as weapons with spell chances work with the AoE cone of Torment's Reach for example. So like a barbarian you can deliver CC or other effects in an area of effect while doing a lot of damage. I guess people think they have to play a monk as you described and are repelled by the "martial arts" thang. But you can easily play him in other ways and he will be as good or better. May people found him to be too micro-intensive and it's true: the usual monk needs a lot of micromanagement to be effective - just like casters. But then he's the best melee class in my opinion.

The monk is exactly that: a powerful, active melee character with a lot of (AoE) ability uses and very strong CC options per encounter. Yet this also didn't please a lot of people because they couldn't find out how to use him properly. Guess you can't please them all. There were no dedicated talents for melee rangers in PoE1, it's true. Only ones which worked ranged as well as melee at best. Something around spears or pikes would have been cool - like a boar hunter or generally a big game hunter.

The attack animations of two handers and larger one handers have the exact same length - with or without potion. The speed of attack animations only changes with DEX. Potions and other buffs only influence recovery time. Recovery is also the same with two handers or single larger one handers. Dual Wielding will reduce recovery only. Attack animations remain unchanged. So if you can tell those things by watching the attack animations you may be victim of an optical illusion. Which is understandable because the two handers are longer and seem to be slower. But counting frames shows that they are not. Once the recovery of two hander and dual wielding is the same, both variants attack with the exact same speed.

If you have a rogue or fighter with decent MIG and lowish INT (like Edér for example): those are also good with Tidefall. Pallegina - due to her lame MIG score and the fact that she has no big damage bonuses other than lashes (which don't help the wounding damage) - might not be the best character to give. Tidefall for Maneha would def. be a better pick. She can have high attack speed even with two handers (Frenzy, Bloodlust und Blood Thirst stack) and she has high MIG and not too high INT and she can stack some nice damage bonuses like Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and Blooded (altogether 60%). Plus: the wounding via carnage makes up for the fact that quite a bit of physical damage gets eaten up by enemies' DR because carnage suffers from a damage malus. Aaand she would do wounding in an AoE (Cleansing Flame jumps!) and also drain a lot of endurance via carnage - which is cool.

That - and that they don't know themselves how the stuff works. Neat project MaxQuest. Also pleases the eye. Can't wait to see it finished!

I guess - because otherwise you can't skip the recovery of WotFS. Shot and the fiery balls have to hit at roughly the same time. So it's also impossible to time if you're too near. At max range it's doable though. But although it's a neat effect it's way to much fuzz to be exploitable.

Does something magical happen once you have 6 party members?

You are right. That part is indeed very tricky since Runner's duration and also that of wounding is rather short. That's why I casted Shining Beacon, then CF (also not too long) and followed up with a Runner's Wounding Shot (or Envenomed Strike) with Tidefall. Still tricky. That way you have decent runner's damage (not the max, but good) or posion DoT and wounding applied with one strike. But that was because of my solo run. It would indeed be way less fuzz to apply DoTs with other party members. So you might as well skip Runner's altogether and give Tidefall to a party member while you use another great sword (as I said - Firebrand with high MIG and Scion of Flame is also very nice. Or try Rumbalt - with Inspiring Radiance + Devotions you can crit a lot). Yeah, if you want a vessel slayer I would also say Berath fits best.

Ok, you can reproduce it with Wrath otFS - but timing is critical. So far no luck with missiles... Also should work with all other arbalests since all of them are overbearing (prone only though).

It's an integral part of the PoE1 ranger, yes. Why are you linking to a D&D page? PoE is not D&D and I'm happy about that. Not that I dislike D&D, it's just another game. I'm totally fine with the Ghost Heart Lodge ranger. A lot of people complained in the PoE char build forum that they don't really want to use an animal companion but focus more on the ranger. The Ghostheart is a good approach in my opinion. You can have your pet running around if you summon it, but you can also completely skip that. And since it's a subclass and we'll have three of them - plus the base class - there's anough room for other fancy experiments around "rangering".

...well that rhymes quite nicely doesn't it? Hi! I just discovered a weird albeit funny bug: when you use Pallegina's Wrath of the Five Suns and quickly switch to Aedrin's Wrecker and command an FoD-shot on the same target BEFORE the five suns crash into the target - then every ball of fire will cause prone and stun when it crits. It seems that the balls of fire inherit the properties of Aedrin's Wrecker in some way. Most likely the same problem we had with offensive auras from items (fear aura from Executioner's Hood, Harbinger aura from Redfield) that would cause prone if you used Knockdown the same time when the effect pulsed. Maybe you remember. This was fixed some time ago though. So now you have six chances in total to cause a crit (5 balls, one shot) and then two chances (=two rolls: prone AND stun) to disable an opponent after that crit happens. These are 18 hit rolls altogether which also get displayed in the combat log. At the moment it looks like that it's a guaranteed disable. Sworn Enemy + FoD + Zealous Focus lets you crit anything if you have that many chances. Now I have to see if this also works with Minor Missiles from Spell Binding, missile spells from scrolls and Prestidigitator's Missiles - plus Aedrin's Wrecker.

ROFL - now I spilled my cucumber sandwich all over the keyboard.

Sure sure - I know. All good. The "Yes, thanks" was not ironical or something. I just wanted to differentiate a bit and show that the answer is not easy and also depends where you are in the game (besides other factors you mentioned).