Boeroer

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.

I went with a Dwarf from the Living Lands (21). Berath Blessings for another 2 (23). Then I get bracers of Ogre Strength very soon which leaves me at 25 right away and don't even need Frenzy's bonus. Without Breath Blessings 21 is also enough of course. A human from the Living Lands would also do. Or an Aumaua from wherever. Currently I'm at 27 MIG without food and without Frenzy (just from items and story passives like from the Cauldron). With food I could hit the cap - but I'm not aiming for that. The high MIG is nice for the healing on kill which occurs all the time - which makes my Brute kind of immortal as long as there's skeletons and no hard CC (but the Brute's resistances help). Another reason to get Mountain Dwarf (resistance to Constitution afflictions which Fighter has no passive for). Getting enfeebled and even weakened is kind of bad even though it doesn't completely disable you. The rest (dazed, immobilized, frightened and so on) is not a problem because as long as you are not completely disabled you can always kill skeletons for healing. But I'm also running two chanter's - and both have all three resistance phrases. So in a pinch I can switch then to that songs and they will remove all afflictions very quickly while switching to Ancient Brittle Bones (to get skeletons out).

Chromoprismatic Staff would be another weapon to consider. It has +1 PL to each of the four elements - which is versatile and good for Great Maelstrom - and the quarterstaff modal can be useful, too. Magran's Favor + Sun & Moon (+2/+2 burn/freeze at night and +4 PL at day). Sungrazer: for me it only procs with weapon crit-kills and/or weapon hits (two separate enchantments) Watershaper's Focus can have +2 PL to Water and Frost iirc. Maybe that stack on Great Maelstrom but I don't remember. The Lance of the Midwood Stag will boost every ability by +2 PL. No stacking of individual elements. This is usually one of the best universal options because it works with everything you have. And casting Form of the Delemgan is useful in any case.

Exactly. I only need to cast Frenzy once. I used Tempered Fury. It was quite nice for the part of the game where I had no Blood Thirst yet. Because of the skeletons it triggers all the time. Edit: eh - I just realized that Temper does exactly the same but with the deflection penalty. Heh - as a Brute my deflection isn't superbad (also have Refreshing Defense) - so I guess Tempered Fury is worth the enchantment costs maybe.

The Many-Lives Skeletons have <50 health (won't scale) which means that Riven Gore one-shots them - which leads to this absurd chain of on-kill effects including Cleaving. Usually I don't put Amra on the top of my weapons' list because on-crit effects are not very effective when it really counts (against tough enemies). But since you will crit the skeletons all the time you will also trigger Riven Gore all the time - even if the actual enemy is tough as nails. Also all the killing triggers Tempered Fury very quickly - which stacks with Frenzy (yay). The funny thing is that even slash-immune enemies die pretty quickly because all the Carnage that originates from the Skeletons you kill will bring them down. I wondered why Greater Earth Blights lasted longer than the other enemies (but died eventually) - I just forgot they were immune to slash damage. I think for this "special" build it's among the best weapons. Engoliero and Sungrazer (nearly always get killed with a crit when cleaves get them, triggering the powerful AoE) are also very good though. Basically everything that has an AoE component (even St. Drogga's Skull!) will be pretty great as long as it doesn't hit you as well. Engoliero's Ghost Blades will hit you - but at the same time heal you so that's no problem. I thought Sungrazer's AoE should hit me as well but I somehow survived the tests with it... But Battle Axes are particularly useful in combination with Blood Thirst and the skeletons because Bleeding Cuts are such an enormous dmg increase while you have no downside anymore (long recovery gets skipped) - so it's not only great against mobs but also melts away bosses in no time. By the way: I'm not using Abraham anymore but a pet that does +20 health on kill instead of Abraham's +10 (forgot the name, white cat). Blood Thirst makes Abraham's primary effect (reduced armor penalty) unnecessary.

I don't pay much attention to food. Have been using fruit for the added healing until now (also works with the +20-health-on-kill pet) and it works fine.

I like Enduring Dance for ranged monks or once you get Instruments of Pain (which turns you into a ranged melee Monk sort of). For a "normal" melee Monk it's not that effective since you'll lose the effect every few hits, Mortification is limited and it costs 2 points.

Taste of the Hunt + Citzal's Spirit Lance is pretty good with high MIG/INT and Infuse with Vital Essence.

The Fury's Spiritshift has ranged weapons though, not melee. Won't work with stuff like Zandethu's Draconic Fury. Also the base dmg is quite low (because they have a build-in bounce/jump) effect. Once you get Wall of Draining you can prolong the shift until the end of combat in nearly all fights.

The behaviour is indeed kind of buggy.

If you go the spiritshift route I recommend Zandethu's Draconic Fury for the late game. It's good fun because of the Terrify effect - and the lashes stack with Wildstrike. That leads to nice melee damage. Of course the spell also works with other melee options such as summoned weapons.

Arcane Dampener is quite bad for a Nalpasca because you get the drug crash and it will not go away even once Arcane Dampener runs out. You have to take in a new drug to make it go away - or rest. The only thing that can prevent Arcane Dampener to crit/hit/graze you is your Will defense. But it is very difficult to get it so high that enemy wizards will mostly miss. You'd need high RES and INT (Duality of Mortal Presence helps of course), Bull's Will and all that. Interrupting the casters before they can complete AD also helps of course. Maybe Rooting Pain can help as long as you keep spending the wounds for interrupting stuff (like Force of Anguish) while gaining new wounds via drugs and damage. Rooting Pain should fire quite often then, interrupting your surroundings, too. Arcane Dampener becomes relatively common once you visit certain higher-level areas. Usually it's only cast by kith wizards (or kith wizard multiclasses). Iirc Elric's Balance Polishing Mod fixes this in a way that after Arcane Dampener runs out the crash will get removed, too (as one would assume). This would help.

Yes, stairs etc. really mess up the aiming. It's because there aren't really stairs. It's just a lovely flat background that gives the illusion of elevation.

Sorry, I'd rather not be involved in any challenges.

He is not.

Theurge is fine.

Yes, if you have it it's a great cannon. Getting it depends on your choices in PoE though. I also use Vaillian Hullbreakers. Very fast and lots of damage. The poor range is not a big problem with Master Cannoneers against bigger ships because the ACC penalty is countered by the defense penalty of the bigger ships and the cannoneers bonuses. Usually I go with 2 Hullbreakers and 2 Royal Bronzers. At the beginning four Iron Thunderers are also quite fine imo.

I always only use the starting Sloop. It's good because it only takes one turn to jibe so your rate of firing is perfect for Royal Bronzers (5 rounds: fire one side, jibe, hold position, fire, jibe, fire other side and so on). So no need to spend money on a new ship. Better to just upgrade stuff like cannons and hull (if you are not taking the Berath Blessings for hull + sail I would recommend to spend the money on the Red Dream hull in Dunnage ti make your Sloop really sturdy).