Boeroer

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.

Then why not use the Spiritual Greatsword that a Priest of Berath can summon? It totally fits the theme of course - and with Lightning Strikes and the Spiritual Great Sword you'd have two elemental lashes on your blade which is good (multiplicative dmg bonuses). And if you feel that it's not so hard to stay alive after all you could still use Turning Wheel (instead of Iron Wheel) which would add another lash to the weapon, leaving you at +15% shock, +20% burn (at 10 wounds) and up to 30% corrode iirc. That's +65% multiplicative dmg which is a great dmg bonus, especially when combined with +30% dmg from the higher MIG. If you feel that he's too squishy you can still use Iron Wheel. I would still use a backup weapon - Effort is good if you enchant it with Hemorrhaging. Because the sicken/hobble effect even works with ypur spells - and the wounding enchantment is good, too. Another fitting two handed weapon is Engoliero do Espirs (Berath-themed). Blade Feast also works with spells (kills from spells I mean). Voidwheel is also nice, but a bit of a suicidal tendency as Helwalker. Twin Eels fits 100% of course, but it would come a bit later. Its heal on kill also works with spells and all sorts of damage you deal.

The phrase Many Lives Pass by generates skeletons that don't scale so they are supereasy to kill. Because of that a Troubadour+Brisk Recitation (a skeleton every 3 secs) is actually better than a Beckoner for such a Chilling Grave build (once you get Many Lives Pass By that is).

Totally normal und useful to tag users imo. 👍

Most "do x on y" weapon effects do that. Since they originate from the weapon they count as attacks from that weapon. Def. less stressfull for the hardware but still OP I fear. Yes, since the Chillfog hit rolls count as weapon attacks they also not only count for the number of stacks but also paralyze enemies themselves. 😄

Berserker/Beckoner with Grave Calling is pretty bonkers. Have Modwyr in the second weapon slot. Frenzy (confused), kill a skeleton with the sabre --> procs a Chillfog which counts as weapn attack which kills the other skeletons --> they all proc Chillfogs and so on... switch to Modwyr and back to get rid of the confusion and then walz in (else you will die). Usually the fight is over in seconds. But it may fry your graphics card because of the multiple chillfogs all pusing at once...

Or you play a Berserker/Fury, bind it to the Druid class and still be able to have Static Thunder with the Barb's Carnage. That is actually a pretty fun combo if you have a good healer becaus your elemental spells can get tremendous penetration. I obtained it several times when being underleveled but I don't recall the exact level. Those fampyrs are pretty hard to beat though. It may be quite easy with a solo Assassin/Paladin using Lover's Embrace + Gouging Strike + Brand Enemy. You could just bring an Assassin/Paladin hireling for that purpose and then dump him afterwards. Once Gouging Strike and Brand Enemy can be picked it shouldn't be too hard to sneak to individual fampyrs, deliver a Gouding Strike with Lover's Embrace from stealth, follow up with Brand Enemy and use Smoke Veil to retreat out of sight and wait until one fampyr is dead. Repeat until all are dead. The Assassin's ACC bonus from stealth (+25 ACC) as well as the single handed usage of the Dagger (+17 ACC) should help to reliably hit them. You could already try at lvl 4 I guess without Gouging Strike but with Flames of Devotion + Ring of Focused FLames + Lover's Embrace. ACC should be comparable but the process will take a bit longer because lot less damage over time. And you will be having bad stealth which might make it difficult to approach the fampyrs without being seen. When it's strictly about crits maybe Necklace of the Harvest Moon or Precogntion for the neck slot. For a Berserker a Ring of Greater Regeneration isn't bad. By the way I would use a pet that heals on kill. Some do +20 health on kill for you only and some do +10 health on kill for the whole party. Abraham is such a pet for example. It can help to manage the Berserker's self damage better. For long fights against high-defense foes it's especially interesting. But even in short fights it's good because the marking effect works right after your first crit and helps to crit even more. It's mostly everything skeletal and also some spirits (flame blight). It's one of the most common immunities unfortunately. Pierce-resistant foes (ones with very high pierce armor) are usually not a problem because Devoted + Berserker + Estoc leads to pretty ridiculous penetration. There may be some foes like Steelclad constructs taht have higher AR than you have PEN - but not really that many. But against the pierce-immune targets you should either use your fists + Monastic Unarmed Training (no drawback, but you need to invest an extra ability point) or a backup weapon, preferably with crush damage (like Quarterstaff or Morning Star). You will have reduced accuracy with that weapon but it still helps... and you don't have to pick up Monastic Unarmed Training.

Eh? Against high AR enemies you'll have plenty of PEN (+4 from Tenacious and Devoted and +1 compared to normal battle axes). Against a bit of underpenetration Bleeding Cuts does help. Bleeding Cuts is also very good against tough single enemies. There aren't a lot of tough enemies that are immune to slash damage. Why would one struggle with fists (having taken Monastic Unarmed Training of course) in those rel. rare cases? Anyway: LD's Voulge is also great for this class combo. Dual dmg - with one of them being shock - is useful. If one knows where to get it then it's obtainable very early and it's even free. The upgrading process is pretty easy, too and costs no resources which is an advantage. You cannot upgrade it to the quality levels you could enchant Amra to though (or other unique weapons). But I think that's just a rel. minor drawback. I like it even better on Berserker/Monk or Devoted/Monk though because a multiple occurance of Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming often has pretty spectacular chain reaction effects. Another nice weapon for crit builds with Berserker/Devoted is the Willbreaker. With Brute Force + Body Blows you will potentially generate more crits (and also when using Clear Out and Mule Kick), it has a crit conversion, potential DoT and dual damage as well as good base PEN - and the fortitude debuff is very useful for your whole party most of times. Since it's not obtainable super early (but not too late either) one can use the nice Saru Sichr from Arkemyr's basement until one can get the Willbreaker. Saru Sichr's DoT is pretty funky and more potent than it seems (it stacks with itself like Bleeding Cuts and has the same trigger mechanic on hit which makes Bleeding Cuts so effective) - but it doesn't work against poison-immune enemies. I often use both at the same time in a party because they are so useful to me. I also like the Blade of the Endless Paths in its Deadfire iteration. The combination of raising accuracy and deflection debuff leads to a lot of crits, too. Of course pierce-only damage - although ultra high PEN - comes with a price...

I don't want to convince you to play Helwalker/Priest, Devoted/Priest is fine. I just wanted to say: one can mitigate the "glasscannon" aspect of Helwalker in two ways: a) use your wounds frequently when you think you're receiving too much dmg. Stuff like Blade Turning and Thunderous Blows etc. are good for this. Use Enlightened Agony to still get enhanced INT (and lower hostile effects, too) b) use Iron Wheel and keep the wounds. When doing it right the higher CON and the higher AR will more than offset the higher damage you receive. Get bonus INT via Enlightened Agony. This combo also gives you an absurdly high fortitude defense when at 10 wounds - which is awesome imo. Especially in combination with Enlightened Agony you will only get affected by most nasty disables shortly (if at all).