Boeroer

Right. There are some melee only attack abilies that do allow to circumvent that restriction by using a hybrid weapon setup. Clear Out (ranged main hand), Whirling Strikes (like Heart of Fury but melee only restriction), Cleaving Stance & Riposte (ranged offhand), Hunter's Claw. Some of those will use both weapons (Cleaving, Riposte, Whirling Strikes, Heart of Fury) because they are implemented differently than let's say Flames of Devotion or the Rogue's strike abilities. Clear Out is only a primary attack so naturally only the main hand gets used (but you unlock the use with a ranged weapon by putting a melee weapon into the offhand). In case of Hunter's Claw iirc you put the melee weapon in the offhand like with Clear Out to unlock the use with the ranged main hand. And only the main hand will execute the attack like with others Fill Attacks using hybrid setups. But because using Fire in the Hole/Chain Shot or Hand Mortar/Blinding Smoke with Driving Flight gives you a lot more stacks than 2 - which would be the normal melee DW outcome - it's still better (normal blunderbusses don't work that way).

Fire in the Hole with Driving Flight is not only great for Whirling Strikes (it's spectacular actually). It also gives a lot of stacks with Hunter's Claw with only one shot (jumps add stacks, too). The Full Attack of Hunter's Claw allows to use a ranged wepon in the offhand. So - melee + mortar def. works. If you use a melee weapon in the main hand you also keep engagment. Mortar in main hand + melee weapon or Tuotilo's Palm in offhand would also work, but then you'd have no engagement (bit of a bummer imo). Note that Concussive Tranquilizer does work with the AoE of mortars which is great (AoE interrupt and stripping off buffs) - but Wounding Shot does not.

Imo Maia is best as Scout with the Red Hand. Her longer range with arquebuses counters the Red Hand's shorter range and the build-in interrupts from her subclass make Stunning Shots a bit redundant. Twinned Shots with the Red Hand is great as well - but again that costs a lot of Bond. I'd prefer to use Takedown Combo more and raise the dmg with the Rogue's passives (Sneak Attack etc.) that cost no resources instead of investing Bond. I also like to be able to flee with both resource pools. Even if either Guile or Bond are empty you might still have the other one and can use either Escape or Evasive Roll. Also Escape's deflection bonus in combination with Maia's Armor (Return Fire) makes sense. Use Gunner and her armor in combination with Acina's Tricorn and she's great. Also - and that's maybe even more important for a companion - she needs rel. little micro for a Scout (also her bird cannot be engaged and is free to retreat whenever it gets damaged too much). Of course it might be that you already played her as Scout and are looking for something new...

By the way: Stunning Shots with a SC Stalker could be a cool passive I guess? Best used with fast weapon though like daggers or hatchets etc. If you cast Binding Roots on enemies and then use Vion-Ceth you can get a +30% dmg bonus. With max Religion (pretend you worship Galawain) you can also use Xoti's Sickle to great effect. It doesn't matter how you kill enemies (doesn't have to be with the sickle) to get the bonus dmg stacks. And it climbs up to +60%. So one hatchet +30% dmg, the other with up to +60% and good attack speed which might let you interrupt with Stunning Shots often. Also a bit more defense. Sounds good? Lover's Embrace + Pukestabber is even faster than hatchets and more accurate. If you hit a target from stealth you can apply True Love's Kiss which unlocks Predator's Sense. Dual Battle Axe with Bleeding Cuts is pretty great with Whirling Strikes (makes the most out of the Bond in terms of damage). Bleeding Cuts unlock Predator's Sense. A dual wielder can also receive Reaping Knives from a fellow cipher and be good with them. And of course the omnipresent Morning Star is good because the AC's "Takedown Combo" targets fortitude. Takedown Combo works best with a two handed weapon - if you want to profit from it yourself (you don't have to though). Saru Sichr's poison DoT unlocks Predator's Sense, too. Stalker with Ngati's Tusk sounds nice as well (Hunter of Hunters with max Survival is really, really good).

-10 deflection.

SC Stalker is fine by me. Whirling Strikes is very good but also expensive. Having a Cipher in the party would make an SC Stalker way better because of the source of Brilliant. I personally must use Stalker's Patience as my main weapon when using a Stalker - obviously. I played a Stalker/Monk (don't remember the subclass, probably Helwalker) because I wanted to combine the recovery skip of Stalker's Patience with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. Crit chain and high ACC lead to lots of recovery skips. With the late Instruments of Pain I could also make good use of Enduring Dance which stacks with the Ranger's passive ACC buffs (and Hunter's Claw etc.). Also the wounding of the weapon is very nice. It was fun. Didn't play an SC Stalker in a real playthrough but only did test sessions with it (mainly fiddling around with Whirling Strikes) so I can't say how much fun it is before reaching he high levels. But I learned to not underestimate how impactful and nice it can be to be able to reach higher Power Level abilities a lot sooner.

Didn't check lately but for the longest time Carnage would only hit, never crit. Anyway: Blood Frenzy's DoT doesn't work with Carnage but with all other AoE stuff that has hit rolls that may result in crits. That includes phrases. It used to not do that back then (only direct weapon hits seemed to work) but got changed some time after release. The whole Spirit Frenzy/Blood Frenzy "tree" is a bit weird. Spirit Frenzy works with spells, Spirit Tornado doesn't (maybe even not with Carnage), Blood Frenzy doesn't work with Carnage but spells... Feels a bit like it was implement with hot glue.

Often you don't need more than one - but in some later encounters you will face quite a lot of rushers (rogues and barbs mostly) who just zip right past your tank buddy and are quite sturdy, too. (looking at the Splintered Reef for example). Or your UB/Trickster gets hit by an Arcane Dampener (say hello to the scriveners in the Drowned Barrows) and he suddenly looses all his tankyness. In situations like that it's good to not have the 1 tank + 4 squishy guys setup.

Carnage cannot crit, so no. But the Amra-Carnage can, so yes (kind of).

Defensively Arcane Knight is more reliable for the majority of the game and is easier in the early game imo. Lay on Hands + Blood Sacrifice is a sweet combo. Even nice later with Wall of Draining (endless Lay on Hands). Paladin passives (don't forget Inspiring Triumph) + Wizard Buffs + Llengrath's Safeguard = enormous defense stacking. AR is top notch, too. Once you get Wall of Draining with a Battlemage: OP due to all active instances of Unbending getting prolonged into the sky. Unbending gives you a separate, short-timed healing over time effect every time you get hit - prolonging every one of them means you'll get hundreds, even thousands of healing points per tick at some point. With decent armor and health pool you cannot get knocked out out or killed - except by one-shots, enfeeblement or more than 3 injuries.

Yes, Blood Frenzy adds its raw DoT on spell crits also. Not on ticks of DoTs of course (because no hit roll), but on every pulse of spells such as Wicked Briars, Venombloom, Relentless Storm and so on. Blood Frenzy's raw DoT doesn't stack parallelly though iirc.

They stack. You'll have two sources of healing.

Superlow micro cipher imo: a Psion with all defensive abilities and item setup (e.g. Brigandine + Gladiator Sword + small shield) and tell AI to spam Puppet Master on everything that's still hostile. Doing it in my current playthrough with an SC Psion and I almost never have to touch her - still very effective. Most of times she dominates enemies who come too close and could potentially screw up her focus gain. And most ranged enemies don't bother attacking her (too much AR, defenses too high). If they do: dominate! My focus gain is fast enough (and the recovery long enough) that I can spam it without pause (apart from recovery of course). She has a club + modal for the really tough nuts with superhigh Will but I rarely have to use it. Helm of the White Void + Cipher's ACC bonus against Will is a great combo for me. The more I played Serafen the more often I made im a ranged SC Barb with a Hunting Bow + modal (pretty awesome attack speed), attacking low defense enemies mainly and aiming for Driving Roar + Blood Thirst + Blood Surge. I once made im SC Wild Mind and gave him items with high shock AR so he underpenetrated himself with the occasional shock burst - and used Shared Nightmare with mortars to fire around with huge AoE blasts. Also kept him away from the party... Super big AoE suicide shock nuke is no joke for party squishies. The chance to trigger one isn't high - but if you spam fast, low cost powers all the times it happens often enough.

For Trickster also Arcana makes sense. For example a Scroll of Circle of Protection works like Vigorous Defense (stacks with Mirrored Image) - can be helpful if your Discipline runs out. Scroll of Moonwell: same thing but with healing. Scroll of Avenging Storm is pretty cool with Riposte + Offensive Parry, too. And so on... Passive skills: you could maximize Intimidation and go for Casita Samelia's Legacy (instead of Nomad's Brigandine or Gipon Prudensco). I looks pretty cool imo and with maxed Intimidation (also check out the Berath Blessing that gives you Infamous Captain). I think Nomad's is best overall - but it looks like any other Brigandine so maybe the looks are important, too.

Ah - right, right. Parting Sorrow gives wounds as soon as an engagement ends - for whatever reason. Afaik anything that ends engagement works for Parting Sorrow. It even gives wounds when an enemy you engaged dies (because engagement ends then, too ). I guess it should also work if engagement ends from afflictions (hard CC of an enemy ends your engagement, too).

Nothing but actively moving out of engagement (which includes moving while terrified) will trigger disengagement attacks. There is no way to directly force them on the enemy. Not even with more sophisticated stuff like pulling enemies away from a party member with Into the Fray or whatever. I tried it all... Don't know where you got that info but this is not correct (tested in game right now to be 100% sure). Nope

I believe Triumph of the Crusaders gives Strong and +80 health on kill while Champion's Boon gives +3 engagement (and other stuff)? But yes, that would work as well.

Keep in mind that in order to get sufficient engagement you either need Guardian Stance (no Cleaving) or stuff like Hold the Line + Persistent Distraction and items (such as Reckless Brigandine and/or Blackened Plate Helmet etc). I often enough settled for the easier Guardian Stance because Cleaves are not great with WotEP in the first place (low base damage). With another Great Sword that might be different (because higher base dmg where the Cleaving becomes more interesting). One can also switch stance + weapon as soon as only few enemies remain.

Besides the usual (+INT) you can extend the Bellower's PL bonus duration with Wall of Draining and Salvation of Time by the way, removing that downside. Eld Nary is best with an SC Bellower however, so that leaves a fellow Priest with Salvation of Time (which has to be timed adequately). But with a Wizard/Bellower you can prolong the PL bonus as long as you wish. It doesn't do anything for non-invocations though, gets overridden by a new PL boost as soon as you cast a new invocation - and all non-Eld-Nary ones don't have a problem with the short PL boost. So I don't see a big advantage there. But a Bellower's Eld Nary's curse + fellow Priest with SoT is great imo. Start the fight with an empowered Eld Nary's Curse and Salvation of Time (maybe two casts) and most encounters are already done - sort of. But other combos like Bellower/Cipher or Bellower/Helwalker with Killers Froze Stiff are also pretty awesome. Empower Killers and profit from the Cipher's or Monks prolonging effects, stacked with the PL boost and enemies will be paralyzed for a really, really long time.

I wouldn't say that Riposte is better. It's a completely different thing. Besides that Disengagement Attacks have big inherent ACC and damage bonuses that Riposte doesn't have. Those bonuses stack with everything else (Sneak Attack, Deathblows etc.). Unbroken even has absurd +10 PEN on them. With Overbearing Guard they become truly devastating (especially with a Two Hander). You can combine all three. Of course enemies who are terrified won't attack you (so no Riposte) and enemies who attack you in melee won't trigger Disengagement Attacks. But having the ability to deliver Ripostes when enemies attack you while being able to deliver disengagement attacks as soon as they flee is cool. The best imo. One of the few weapons that grants deflection. Offensive Parry and Riposte stack (both can get triggered by the same miss). Offensive Parry works with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming, it generates wounds for a Shattered Pillar (Riposte and Cleaving won't) and also focus for a Cipher (iirc Riposte and Cleaving won't). You need to lean into deflection though. +Defl.-bracers, -armor, -cloak, Entonia Signed, max RES and so on. The more the better. Defenses have increasing returns - you are lacking a shield and must compensate. Unbroken/Trickster with WotEP/Offensive Parry is one of my favorite (off)tank melee builds because it deals god damage while recovering (via Offensive Parry/Riposte), while attacking (obviously) and on Disengagement (trigger terrify as soon as you don't need to keep the mob together or once you get pressed too hard). The auto-daze of Offensive Parry helps a ton with survival. Bloodmage/Steel Garrote also great - but more as a very sturdy casting machine (Offensive Parry leeches health automatically because it dazes - which can be used for Blood Sacrifice all the time). Even Shattered Pillar/Soulblade which gains focus and wounds just by parrying which can be dumped into stuff like Raised Torment and Soul Annihilation all the time - while Offensive Parry triggers Swift Flurry Chains often enough. If you use Nomad's Brigandine (also gives deflection bonus) and enchant it with immunity to Disengagement Attacks you can break engagement deliberately and trigger a 100% miss (immunity just turns all disengagement attacks into misses) which will proc Offensive Parry (and potentially Riposte). That's why it's my preferred armor with most WotEP/Offensive Parry builds.

Disengagement Attack = primary Riposte = full Cleaving Stance = full

The three bows I mentioned above somewhat circumvent the DR problem (and Lenas Er had Rending). Warbows were also good, but saying that Hunting Bows were crap is at least hyperbole. If nothing else they were better vs. low DR targets. I also factor in that Massuk and Persistence come so early - so there's no argument along the lines of "but the hunting bows are bad until you get good unique ones" imo.

Huh? Massuk Hunting Bow: early dual damage (pierce/crush) hunting bow with only 0.5 points reduced base damage Persistence: potentially best single target ragend weapon in PoE due to the wounding lash. Stormcaller: dual damage (shock/pierce), +20% dmg from Heart of the Storm, cool enchantments. --- Essence Interrupter is very potent. It does good damage (hunting bows have the potential for very high dps anyway because of the modal - and this one has a scaling lash on top), has good dmg types (shock/pierce) and the "summon on kill" part is very useful, too. Usually summons have the biggest impact on nearly all encounters - but they add quite a lot of micromanagement. Imo Bellowers are coolest with damaging invocations because there the Power Level Scaling influences not only duration and accuracy but also penetration and damage. But some CC spells also alse very good with high PL scaling (and high INT) - for example Killers Froze Stiff.

Did you camp in the wilderness? A part of Durance's quest requires this in order to advance iirc.

I would go for higher sturdyness and also focus on stuff that lets you end combat prematurely - like Shadowing Beyond. It is very helpful for solo runs to be able to retreat once you killed a few enemies and come back a bit later to finish the job. I guess I would also use other items. This was partly a theme build ("wizard"-rogue) - so some items were picked for flavour over power. That's not helpful for solo runs of course. If going ranged I would maybe pick Persistence as main weapon.