Boeroer

Crusader can be very boring but even when build offensively is always sturdy. If build defensively it's really sturdy, has tons of engagement - and is really boring, too. I showed in some post in tha past that if you build a Crusader quite agressively and with a two hander you can land pretty good blows (over 170 dmg crits) and still be quite tanky. Not main tanky but off-tanky with still enough engagement if needed. A fun defense/offense hybrid could be a Crusader with Whipers of the Endless Paths/Offensive Parry - maybe Steel Garrote/Devoted? High deflection, initial parryfest and then later switch to a single target Great Sword to clear out the remainders or so. If you have an SC Wizard then you can even get a single handed Great Sword* for that Devoted which he could with a large shield for little dps drop but vastly increased defenses in a third setup. That could be used when Whispers otEP doesn't offer enough defense or when a lot of ranged enemies are around. )* Cast Citzal's Enchanted Armory, then Concelhaut's Draining Touch, then don't hit with it but kill all enemies. You will be left with a permanent, ethereal, scaling, one handed Citzal's Great Sword

A Goldpact Herald with Sworn Enemy (+Gilded Enmity) should be fine most of times. I also really like Goldpact/Lifegiver or /Ancient(Bear) with a fat armor + large shield nowadays. At first you absorb the initial onslaught, then you shift. Once you're shifted the AR is still ridiculously high for a 0% recovery penalty armor - so you can cast fast while enjoying good AR protection. You can even add Woodskin, Form of the Delemgan or Weather the Storm and whatnot before shifting (and the specific AR bonuses stack with the universal ones), Robust and Moonwell and all the other very strong healings/buffs cn be cast while shifted, you have summons (Ancient gets the really good Sporelings - especially nice with Wild Growth) and good CC and damage options, too. Once your shift is over (pun intended) you will be a lot slower but still enjoy good AR and also the very convenient shield+modal setup. It doesn't hurt you healing and buffing abilities. Only downside is that you don't have endless resource generation like a Chanter has. That's the beauty of a Herald... Both have rel. little engagement so at the start of the game they struggle a bit to stop swarms of enemies. If you use shield+spear at least you'll have 2.

It's not a mere rain, it's a Storm of Holy Fire!

Generally speaking still fine. The added health isn't impactful even on PotD if you have sufficient healing. And if you don't have sufficient healing then a bit more health will most of times just delay the unavoidable defeat a bit. Also you can have an Amulet of Greater Health and the Tough passive if you feel you need a bit more. Sometimes having a bigger health pool is just convenient. For example if you want to get to "bloodied" with one use of Berserker Frenzy - but you don't want to get knocked out either - you may need to raise your health a bit or whatever. But as a tank that usually isn't your thing anyways. The thing that needs more attention for tanks is the fortitude defense. High(er) CON can certainly help here - but high MIG also can (and it even boosts healing/self-healing). Also immunities and reistances can somewhat substitute a (very) good fortitude defense since fortitude is mostly used to fend of nasty afflictions. If I decide to boost my fortitude with the help of CON then I usually go all-in (stuff like Monk's Iron Wheel, max starting CON etc.) because it can be fun leaning into it and not only achieve very high fortitude and a ridiculously high health pool (gives lots of leeway with timing healing abilities) - if not I will keep it low and circumvent the minor shortcomings.

You can sneak and steal the Willbreaker if you want to. Sparkcrackers for luring Ogres away is kind of mandatory for that though.

Berath Incarnate summons the Pallid Knight AND the Usher at the same time. They count as one summon. Such as a Chanter can summon three skeletons at once or a Druid can summon multiple oozes at once. Other priests' Incarnate also have multiple creatures, for example Priest of Eothas summons three Dawnstars. Wael only summons one giant eye that shoots lightnings iirc. Skaen summons one freaking Effigy and so on. I think Woedica is the only Priest subclass has no incarnate summon.

@Panda Baby https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/335 on the Description page scroll a little bit down to 3). Detailed list of changes (as of v2.0.5)

I think you don't need +2 PEN for Hunting Bows because you get Essence Interrupter (shock/pierce) and Aamiina's Legacy (pierce/slash) which helps enormously to overcome almost all PEN issues. I played SC Wizard, Streetfighter/Bloodmage and Streetfighter/Berserker with Hunting Bow + modal and the bonus PEN from Berserker didn't really lift it up. Streetfighter/Bloodmage was pretty cool because you buff up and call a Phantom, then trigger the right amount of Blood Sacrifice until bloodied and start shooting at incredible speed (50% & 50% recovery + Alacrity). Also pretty nice with one-handed pistol once you get Eccea's to circumvent the pierce-only limitation. The SC Wizard was Aloth and was meant to use Caedebald's BB eventually (which he did and which is awesome) - but I wanted to stay true to the bow theme for the whole run. Worked well, too. When you give him all the relevant gear a Wizard isn't that bad of a bow user - also because with a phantom + Essence Interrupter you will put additional summons on the field quite frequently. A SC human Bloodmage with Caedebald's and Helm of the White Void has pretty great accuracy with the Blackbow (+7 Fighting Spirit,+10 Rymrgand's Influence,+20 from Citzal's MP). The Helm eve works for the Phantom (which has good base ACC, too). So plenty of teffified enemies at all times. Streetfighter/Berserker has insane attack speed once bloodied (and even before quite great bc. of Frenzy + modal) but getting to bloodied takes more time and then you don't want to trigger Frenzy anymore - or the balancing between healing/heating up becomes a tedium. But when it works it really works. Barbaric Smash finishing enemies with 140+ crits, followed by 0-recovery shots and then shooting further with insane speed is fun. But it's also quite one-dimensional. Good AI-toon though. Easy to setup, fire and forget. In all cases the lowish ACC because of the modal is countered by the awesome attack speed. It's not hat bad to miss a shot if you're putting out 3 while others put out 1. For crits galore with Frostseeker I think Monk/Ranger or Cipher/Ranger are best. Both also get some bonus PEN (+2/+1) but they alse get bonus ACC (+12/+20) as well as speed, bonus dmg and even bigger AoE in case of Monk (as well als Stunning Surge which is awesome with three projectiles + Driving Flight). And the Cipher version also is a lot more versatile than a "dumb" pew-pew character imo.

I guess they could. If so then HC's Avenging Storm would trigger from LDV's Avenging Storm.

Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony would not behave like the version of Lord Darryn's Voulge - because it wouldn't originate from a weapon but a helmet.

They all get the +2 PEN (also the bonus crit dmg). Including Ball Lightning which is an active "spell" you must trigger yourself from the action bar. Streetfighter with Sneak Attack crit while On the Edge should be truly devastating.

Okay, tried again with a phantom and got it to work. It's indeed Avenging Storm. And it will loop as long as it doesn't miss (which obviously breaks the cycle). As soon as it's going you should use Clear Out or even better Clean Sweep (or use a Brute to have Carnage going for you) to trigger shocking loops on all enemies in AoE range. As expected Avenging Storm not only procs itself which is already hefty enough but also Static Charge gets applied with Avenging Storm and as soon as AS crits the resulting procs of shock damage will also proc Avenging Storm again which lets this stuff snoball like crazy if you're lucky and no miss is interrupting it. Pretty cool. But as I said there seem to be other spells that are more commonly triggered. Some pretty lame (Blizzard or Returning Storm for example) - but all of them apply Static Charge. If you're patient Fighter Bloodmage with decent regeneration gear you can use Blood Sacrifice to stay hidden and send one Gathering Storm Phantom after the other. As slong as you personally don't proc Gathering Storm your fresh phantoms will always be able to proc it anew. Edit: by the way Ball Lightning is only 1/rest but it's very good (especially on Fighter/Rogue due to the Sneak Attack/Deathblows bonus). Another reason for going Fighter with LDV imo. I combined it with the Mantle of the Seven Bolts and you'll have 2 really impactful abilities per rest that can help you turn the tides real quick.

It's funny though because I used it with a Fighter/Wizard because I was testing different options for my phantoms. Soulbound weapons keep their soulbound enchantments even on phantoms - doesn't matter that the phantom doesn't have your class. So I was planning to proc Gatherig Storm several times per combat because new phantom - new proc (at blooded). But I never got Avenging Storm. Mostly it was Relentless Storm. Guess I was super unlucky or Avenging Storm has a very low chance to appear.

I think you got Avenging Storm. And because Gathering Storm is considered a weapon attack it will proc off itself endlessly in a loop until the duration is over or all enemies dead. It might proc off itself because it originates from a weapon - nearly all spells on weapons work with weapon quality/enchantments and trigger Avenging Storm, see Chilling Grave on Grave Calling for example). This doesn't explain why it hit directly in an AoE though. Maybe Relentless Storm and Avenging Storm got triggered both (both will proc Avenging Storm because weapon enchantment). Edit: or Avenging Storm/Gathering Storm also applies and gets applied by Static Thunder - which might proc Avengimg Storm again which might explain the initial AoE.

You could use food that way in PoE, but in Deadfire food is only usable as camping bonus (effects will last until next rest). Maybe be you are confusing it with drugs, potions or unguents. Those can be used via quickslots. Drugs and unguents even out of combat.

That's even more confusing - because the mace modal does -1 AR.

But... Sungrazer doesn't lower the Will defense. The modals of flails lowers Reflex. You'd need a club + modal to lower Will.

The -5 secs will only get applied to existing hostile effects that are currently on you when you cast Clarity of Agony. For the rest of the duration of CoA newly applied hostile effects will get the -50% duration, but not the -5 secs. So it has an immediate effect (-5 secs from all current hostile effects) as well as an ongoing effect (-50%).

Its enchantments used to be 1/encounter each - at those times almost every build that was discussed here used it. So maybe it was nerfed for being too strong.

Isn't that 1/rest?

I think Hand Mortar is still the better pick for Whispers of the Wind/Resonant Touch because Blinding Smoke (every crit of the shot, including AoE hits, proc a cone attack that disorients) also triggers Resonant Touch as well as Avenging Storm despite not dealing any damage itself (this was nerfed in Community Patch). If you attack like 5 enemies with Whispers of the Wind with high ACC you usually generate so many Resonant Touches that most enemies die after the first WotW+Resonant Touch. This also works with Whirling Strikes and Heart of Fury, but obviuosly they come without Resonant Touch. Also refund for Gambit etc. But yes, the Weyc's Wand is very good because of the awesome Seal. If it wouldn't come so late it would be one of my preferred weapons, too. Barb's Heart of Fury works with two ranged weapons, Barbaric Retaliation, too. In that it's a bit different from Whirling Strikes.

Nope. It has no combat and so I assume not that many interesting mechanics. I like combat mechanics. Also the setting isn't something that speaks to me. So... it isn't very high on my list of games I want to play despite all the praise. I can enjoy games that have mediocre writing - or no writing at all (or very little - whatever). But if my toenails roll up while reading it's goodbye for me.

The writing in P:K was so bad that I stopped pretty quickly. I can't get over such things. The bonbon-ish graphics didn't help either. So I don't think I will give WotR a try. Not that the PoE games are perfect. I don't care about RTwP or Turn Based even. But pretty much every CRPG I tried after the PoE games left me disappointed. I guess I'm spoiled somehow... cute Only Orlans please! Yeah that would have been great. I also would have liked to see Xaurip Beastmasters riding Grubs (hello Dune) and Drakes and such. I mean look at Llengrath! Druids have Charm Beasts. Ciphers charm/dominate everything... So there's explanation why it could be more common. --- Has not much to do with the main point of your post, but about the Watcher abilities: I think I would have preferred a separate (small?) Watcher "class tree" - similar to the other class trees where you could have spend points you gained during those main quest lines. And not make then all per-rest but also include some passives and per-encounter stuff. For example that conjuring of spirits in the docks when you reach Neketaka: why isn't that an ability you can use more often/at will? Bunch of spirits that follow you become visible and distract the enemies or whatever. Everything's there: the models, animations, sound effects and so on. That would have been plausible and cool I think. As is: I never even use the Watcher abilities unless I'm in a situation most dire and I have nothing else left. And that's almost never the case.

Yes, it's cool. But because it comes so very late it doesn't play a role in any of my build ideas. Maybe if I wanted to do a crossbow char - but then crossbows don't have exciting uniques or they are gated behind certain decisions regarding factions. I had the same problem with Acuan Giamas in PoE. A morning star with wounding and basically Grimoire Imprint on hit - supercool really. But it's in Llengrath's bog which is one of the last maps of the game. Meh... Maybe exporting/importing is a solution (if it doesn't make you feel cheaty).