Boeroer

By the way: other self dmg like Sacred Immolation (Paladin) and Deletrious Alacrity of Motion (Wizard) scale normally with +5% per PL. I guess they altered the Berserker's Frenzy later because it was either too punishing in the early game with a higher starting base - or too weak in the late game with the starting base of 2 - with the normal PL scaling.

Berserker self dmg numbers don't scale like normal damaging or healing abilities do (+5% base per PL). Instead it gains +2 raw base dmg per Power Level iirc. Frenzy starts at PL1 - so at PL7 (for example a multiclass Berserker/Skald at lvl 20) it gained 6 Power Levels: 2*(7-1) = 12 extra damage. It starts with 2, so 12+2 = 14 base damage. A single class Barb would even go up to PL9 and thus receive even more raw dmg. This base dmg is used to calculate the final damage - which includes universal dmg bonuses like those from Might (3% per point over 10), Infamous Captain (5%), Harley pet (10% - it is supposed to only work for ranged attacks but actually works for all sources of dmg), Baubles of the Fin (3%) and so on. Because of that the dmg can scale a lot higher than that of healing abilites that start with the same base but only get +5% per PL.

Yes, they will stack. All "passive" abilities from items (I mean stuff that does not appear as active ability in your action bar) will stack with everything. And some other those actives will do so, too (but not all). If the Paladin is using Exalted Endurance and Shining Bulwark then all party members in range will get +2 AR. The range is extremely short though! The base radius is only 2 meters. So the party members wanting to get protected by Defesive Beacon really have to cuddle with the wielder of Shining Bulwark. Another drawback is that Defensive Beacon from Shining Bulwark only gets applied to allies but NOT the wielder (unlike Exalted Endurance that also works for the Paladin himself). So sombody else will have to carry that shield so that your Paladin may profit from the additional AR - and stay very close. *cuddle-cuddle*

Tbf the first posts all voted for Scout iirc. Arquebus is an obvious choice for Maia - so I think one would settle with the Red Hand quite naturally (because Dragon's Dowry is expensive as hell - too expensive to just casually buy it before you will discover the Red Hand imo). I mean the Red Hand is not only dealing fantastic dps compared to other arquebuses, it also negates some problems arquebus users might have with certain pierce immune vessels. But after all - Scout with Red Hand is also pretty boring imo. It's just shooting 24/7 with the occasional escape or Evasive Roll. But in some cases that may be exactly what you need. It's easy to set up Maia-Scout+Red Hand with custom AI. So if you want an automated party member to cut down on party micromanagement it's an ideal companion build I would say.

Your valid point about using the animal companion while casting gets somewhat torpedoed by using Ghost Heart. First of all you need to actively (and repeatedly if you don't care for it) summon the spirit (can't cast while doing that) and then it also blocks the slot for priest summons you might want to use. Since you are a priest with decent healing and buffing capabilities it's not that hard to keep a "real" animal companion alive (although I still wouldn't use it for tanking). If things go south you can revive multiple times (which shouldn't be necessary too often though). Most of that healing and buffing you will cast anyway on your party so I guess it's not a big impact on the priest's action economy. Rangers can get a lot of accuracy bonuses, but most of those are either tied to ranged weapons (Marksman), melee weapon usage (Hunter's stuff) or Stalker's Link (most often single target unless you buff it with Champion's Boon). For better accuracy I would prefer combos like Monk/Priest (Enduring Dance) or Cipher/Priest (Borrowed Instincst). But the point about lots of casting + animal companion is a good one. Also applies to other casters I think. Psion/Ranger comes to mind. Here the combination of Stalker's Link + Borrowed Instinct for high ACC single target cc (dominate for the most part) comes to mind. Also Pain Block + Animal Companion makes losing the AC a lot less likely. Combining an Animal Companion + several dominated foes should turn most encounters into cakewalks pretty easily. Psion doesn't need a lot of Cipher abilities to rock - so there's room for all the passives that make the animal companion better. Same it true for Priest if you limit your spell portfolio a bit I guess.

Sun and Moon allows for continuous usage of Soul Annihilation. Because it has two hit rolls per strike it will first dump the focus into raw damage - and the second hit will already generate new focus for the next strike. So no auto attack or rogue strike needed on between (still possible of course). Soul Annihilation needs focus to execute, it has a min threshold. If you use any other weapon than sun and moon you will have 0 focus after Soul Annihilation. You'd have to use another attack to gain focus first before you could reuse SA. Thus you cannot use it continuously. Kaylon's apporach is to use Sun & Moon in combination with Tuotilo's Palm. If you can use Soul Annihilation all the time (basically, missing and not-generating-enough-focus-with-one-roll not accounted for) you can skip attacks with the bash because SA is a primary attack. The bash is low dmg and a worse alternative than your main hand weapon. So skipping it is preferable. Yet you will have the higher attack speed of dual wielding for primary attacks and also the higher defenses from Tuotilo's Palm - which add up nicely with the Trickster's deflection and reflex buffs. An alternative is Soulblade/Monk which uses the same trick basically. In this case you also profit from the nice defense buff of Tuotilo's Palm (defense per wound) and Sun & Moon as excellent catalyst for Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. It hasn't as high deflection as Trickster and less SA raw dmg - but still a nice combo because of Tuotilo's Palm's enchantment and the general synergies of Monk and Cipher. And you won't have limited resources (besides Mortification). Also Stunning Surge with Sun&Moon + TP is great. Accuracy is also potentially very good (Enduring Dance + Instruments of Pain + Borrowed Instincts). Casting anything else profits from high INT of course. Basically any combo with Soulblade and Sun & Moon has a similar approach. Trickster combines defenses and dmg output very nicely (which also speeds up focus gain considerably and makes SA very strong due to the Sneak Attack/Deathblows). But you can basically do this continuous SA-thing with Soulblade/Fighter -/Skald, -/Paladin etc., too. If you manage to generate enough focus with the second roll to execute the next SA.

What do you mean with not running into the CON stacking problem?

Yes. +3 AR is still massive though. For further info on why AR is so important and is better than the in-game numbers suggest read @thelee's gamefaq on that matter: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/armor-and-penetration Ancient Memory will stack with Exalted Endurance's healing and any other healing effects. But it will not stack with itself (when it overlaps with a lingering Ancient Memory). You can use Brisk Recitation and remove overlap altogether and still gain the same amount of healing. If you manage 100% overlap via Linger time you can use Ancient Memory + Mercy and Kindness for better healing. Mercy and Kindness also influences the Healng from your Exalted Endurace (and Lay on Hands etc.) - as well as any other healing that is used in the party.

Golden Enmity only lasts for a few hits. Once it drops you will still have the +1 from Exalted Endurance. Also Exalted Edurace has the resource- and limitless healing going for it which complements high AR very well.

Avenging Storm doesn't do a lot of dmg on its own, and in order to produce chains of Avenging Storm from one Hobble/Sicken crit you have to have a very high chance to crit in the first place. But it would surely help.

Did a quick test: Spark the Souls counts all hit rolls as the priest's - so Effort + Avenging Storm works (absolute mayhem with multiple summons on the field I guess). Symbol of XYZ and Magran's Might etc. also work as was expected.

I don't know whether the shocks that your teammates emit will be counted as yours or your party members'. But good idea and def. worth a test to be sure.

Only attacks that count as ranged attacks (some single target spells fall into that category, too iirc - but I didn't test them against the shield) - Lagufaeth Blowdarts do paralyze and they have unlimited uses. But they are normal ranged weapon attacks, the paralyze is a separate roll if they hit. Since the shield turns all ranged grazes into misses and sends them back (and the Lagufaeth themselves are not immune and don't have high deflection or fortitude) it turns those fights from superdifficult into quite easy. The shield is useful against all sorts of ranged attackers (and complements with the Monk's Soul Mirror) - but against Lagufaeth its effects are most obvious. The conversion effect (100% graze to miss) alone is extremely good on its own.

Yes, that's def. not worth it. Also because a missed first roll vs. deflection means the hobbled part won't even get rolled in the first place.

Yeah, too bad Wounding Shot is only 2/encounter. In later fights there are so many enemies that 2/encounter isn't really doing much. But in the early game (which is suprisingly hard compared to the middle part) it's a big help.

I just fired up Pillars and loaded an old save. The wounding is executed as an auto-hit and thus displayed in the combat log as additional "hit" - but it doesn't do an actual roll: You can click on the combat log entry in order to let it unfold, showing the separate entries for the rolls. And if you then hover over those lines with the mouse it will also show you the actual dice rolls vs. defense etc. If you hover over the wounding "roll" it only shows the raw dmg and no actual roll vs. defense. It still gets labeled a hit for whatever reason (auto-hit). This UI "trick" may also help you with other questions you might have (like does MIG really influence Wounding Shot's damage twice etc. and which roll of Accurate Wounding Shot does get the +10 ACC). Your observations with MIG sound soild, so I may have been wrong. One more reason to grab a wounding weapon, too. Edit: set Sagani's MIG to 100 with the console commands and did 32 pierce dmg but over 100 raw dmg with the DoT - so you were absolutely right about this.

Adragans are the pest, Lagufaeth blowdarts, too. While the latter can be countered rel. easily with Aila Braccia, the Adragans have to be countered with stuff like Blaidh Golan, Orlan's Bramble Ring or Tempered Helm and a ton of fortitude (including bonuses to MIG and CON from all sorts of sources - bonuses from weapons like Abydon's Hammer or Whispers of Yenwood stack with everything). And being very careful as well as using charming and dominating (from items such as Spirit Spiral, Munacra Arret and Ring of Changing Heart) as well as summons to make the Adgragans use the petrifying gaze on something else than you. Those items also work quite well on most dragons, too. If it's just about not using scrolls you can use Potion of Major Recovery. I'd have no problem using an immunity scroll here and there though if I had the impression that i would be ruining my run otherwise. For example dragon fights are a pain witout immunity because of the terrifiying aura that roll every few secs and will get you eventually even if your defenses are top notch. Unles you are a Cipher with Psychic/Brutal Backlash of course...

I actually had 3 CON. But I had a potent healer in the party. And I used Amulet of Greater Health and Tough as well as a lot of regeneration gear, damage reduction and Voidward (helps with self damage). I would say Nalpasca is the best monk subclass for this. The self damage of Berserker gets an extra boost from the Helwalker passive - and while that leads to fantastic wound generation it can be too much to handle to be fun at higher levels. Also because you can't actually see your remaining health but have to use tricks to guess where it's roughly at. This can become a tedium and not worth the added offensive output. It might be necessary when wielding Amra though (needs 25 MIG to be good). Nalpasca wounds from drugs + Berserker self dmg + Enduring Dance is incredible wound income without the need to get hit by enemies - and also being able to stay away a bit (which means less danger of catching an Arcane Dampener which will end the drug benefits, which sucks). At first you can use a reach weapon and later use Instruments of Pain with whatever melee weapon. If you get attacked in melee a combination of 1 wound/6 sec (drugs) and 2+ wounds every 3 secs (self dmg + Enduring Dance) in tandem with Rooting Pain can be a cool "oh ****"-button if you also pick Blade Turning. Stalwart Defiance is also good - but I would still suggest you also bring a strong healer or a Priest with Barring Death's Door. Fun I guess. Barbarian offers a lot higher dps since the attack speed is higher, there's more potential crit conversion (as Berserker I mean) and a lot higher dmg bonuses. If you'd want a sturdier combo then of course Fighter is the better choice. But I was mostly adressing your statement that "Monk/Barbarian multiclass isn't that good" - which is not correct imo. Just because there's a bit of overlap doesn't mean something isn't good. Besides there is no overlap that's unavoidable. And even if you end up picking something like Swift Strikes AND Frenzy: Swift Strikes still gets the +5 DEX which stacks with Frenzy's action speed bonus so it's not entirely wasted. And you're picking it up for either Lighting Strike lashes or Swift Flurry procs anyway, not primarily for the 15% action speed in this case. I already mentioned self dmg + Monk has great potential synergy since you don't actually need to get hit to produce wounds anymore - and also the use of Rooting Pain in combination with that mechanic. Other good synergies are Enervating Blows + Spirit Frenzy + Brute Force (and a Morning Star perhaps) which makes crits even more likely against a lot of enemies which don't have 20 (or even 45 with a Morning Star) points fortitude over deflection. All non-Berserker Barbs do profit from Thunderous Blows even if it "only" upgrades Strong to Tenacious, and Berseker/Monks don't need to pick it. And the interaction between Swift Flurry/HBD, Blood Thirst, Enervating Blows, Spirit Frenzy and Brute Force with Bloody Slaughter and Barbaric Smash as finisher is just so much fun against mobs. Check out Sun & Moon in the main hand + Scordeo's Edge in the offhand with Barbaric Smash... can't do that with Devoted bc. two different weapon types *insert sad face Devoted panda* Anyways: it may depend on what aspect you exactly mean when saying it's not that good. It's not that good at staying alive (and that can be a disadvantage of course). But it's very good at being an enjoyable damage combo. Some avoidable or insignificant redundancy in ability effects don't change that imo.

I once attempted a non-consumable Ultimate run with a Barbarian and it worked quite well until I ran into a bug (using Second Wind while Battle Forged is active will make you hit yourself with Battle Forged retaliation dmg - which is very high at higher levels) which cost me my life. Basically you'll need exquisite meta knowledge about the fights ahead. You must also prepare to "divide and conquer" and kite and lure single enemies away from groups. Also you need good knowledge of stacking rules/mechanics and maybe use items with spellbindings. It's possible with any class I guess - Rogue, while not being a very strong class in general, has an advantage here because you can always flee and thus end fights (for example after killing a single enemy) with the use of invisibility (Shadowing Beyond). This works in most fights as long as there's enough space - so not againat the alpine dragon... I suspect Fighter to be the hardest class - but it should be possible nontheless. But not using scrolls will certainly make it a lot harder. PS: that wasn't me It's @Kaylon's videa who also did more solo runs than most people and might have more useful, more in-depth tipps.

I don't remember all too well but afaik there should be two rolls only: one vs. deflection (that's the physical dmg roll) and one vs. fortitude (the hobbling part). The wounding doesn't do a seperate attack roll since it should get applied automatically. Lashes and lash-like bonuses never need a seperate attack roll (but might have to overcome seperate DR values - obviously not raw lashes though). It may be that you have a passive, an item or a weapon that does a seperate attack roll on weapon hit. For example you could have used the Great Sword "Hours of St. Rumbalt" that does prone on crit. Could that be? Afaik it's the other way round: your physical attack vs. deflection gtets +10 ACC but not the hobbling roll against fortitude. But maybe I'm wrong here. My last PoE game lies years in the past and although I put a ton of hours into it, some details start to fade... Anyway: yes, it's not implemented all the way through - which is an oversight that never got fixed unfortunately. Priest's Intderdiction/Painful Interdiction/Powerful Interdiction has the same problem. Hm, iirc wounding shot's DoT is NOT increased by MIG and is truly fixed at 100% of weapon damage (also high INT doesn't increase the overall dmg but just stretches it out). On the other hand the Wounding enchantment on weapons will indeed scale with MIG and thus this DoT will proft twice frm MIG. Wouding Shot does not (but again, mayne memory fails me). But if you take Tidefall as your Great Sword then it shouldn't matter since you will have two sources of wounding and at least one of them will profit twice. By the way: wounding weapons like Tidefall, Drawn in Spring, Persistence and Acuan Giamas are ideal for unlocking Predator's Sense. I even made a melee Ranger build that uses this synergy as one of its cornerstones:

either/or, based on the lower armor value of the enemy.

I actually never played FF/Berserker - but I would assume that the bonus AR of Berserker Frenzy (Hardy) won't stack with Iron Wheel's. Both are active. FF/Berserker is an odd choice because of the two sources of self damage and because Berserker's self damage doesn't even generate you wounds (like it would with vanilla, Nalpasca or Helwalker). Monk/Berserker can be a great combo because you gain lots of wounds from Frenzy, the crit conversion of the Berserker (+Bloody Slaughter) leads to more frequent Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming procs which in turn procs Blood Thirst more often. A little overlapping speed bonus doesn't really hurt (at least you get the +5 DEX on top of Frenzy which leads to more speed, too) and you don't need to pick Thunderous Blows (which is one ability point spared). Once you get Instruments of Pain you can even use Enduring Dance of Death and stay out of the fray which is helpful for not dying all the time. I played a Helwalker/Berserker and of course he died frequently if I didn't pay close attention - but he also had a tremendous damage output. Also Rooting Pain is pretty great with such an abundance of wound generation, combined with Interrupting Blows.

I didn't look that up for a very long time but now did. You can check stuff like that here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topmembers/?filter=member_posts or under the menu point "Leaderboard" in the top bar of the forum under the Obsidian logo.

Looking at my post count I haven't reached that point yet, hehe

When in armor (I would aim for plate, even the Blackened Plate, because you know: Breath ;)) you want high DEX. Else your reactivity is too bad. MIG can be mediocre bc. Helwalker, PER doesn't need to be super high (bc. Blessings and Devotions). From a roleplaying perspective I would have highish RES. It also helps with shrugging off afflictions and other hostile effects faster. As a Helwalker too low CON isn't great. If you pick the Iron Wheel path you can go lower. As a Helwalker I almost always pick the "Tough" ability no matter the route I take with Duality of Mortal Presence. Also if you start with Breath Blessing points and the merchant you can have a Greater Amulet of Health which helps a lot in the early game with a Helwalker (and not stellar CON). All in all I wouldn't minmax this guy much in terms of attributes. Something like 14 to 16 as higher values and 8 to 10 as lowest ones. With Berath Blessing points it's of course a lot easier to achieve a good balanced attribute spread (I mean not going below 10 but still having some high numbers) bc. of the +2 to all attributes. PS: don't feel like you are bothering anybody with your questions. If we wouldn't want to answer questions we would either just not reply - or not be active in these forums in the first place.