Boeroer

The Assassin/Tactician doesn't need to hide and wait. Invisibility leads to brilliant (for some dubious reasons). At the same time you can prevent combat to end when you are invisible with Gouging Strike. That means the Assassin/Tactician can attack (for example shoot with an arquebus), turn invisible which makes you brilliant and returns Guile, shoot (makes you visible), turn invisible and so on.

Yes, they both apply.

It's really good for some builds - but despite that I never used it for long either.

Well... if you are a SC Berserker and only use Withdraw scrolls you can get back Rage via Blood Surge... should be good with all them little spiders? Use Abraham and Twin Eels to stay alive during the squatting of the brood?

You can place a DoT on the enemy (e.g. Gouging Strike) and then turn invisible. The combat will not end but you will still be brilliant (b.c. the invisibility get interpreted in a way that all enemies are flanked and you are not - for some reason I forgot). So you will get back Guile for further invisibility... Assassin/Tactician makes the most sense here I guess.

What about Spell Shaping? I didn't try but I assume it's not working here, right?

Cipher - because of Disintegration vs. Huani which otherwise is such an infuriating encounter (unless using confused Withdraw like @Not So Clever Houndsaid). The rest can be done with any Rogue combo who uses endless DoTs (Lover's Embrace + Gouging trike for example). I did it with Assassin/Goldpact for example (Lover's Embrace + Gouging Strike + Brand Enemy). You could theoretically also do Huani with it I guess (using Ball and Chain + Crippling Strike maybe or Crossbow or Arbalest with modal and scrolls to prevent the merges) but I wouldn't want to try it.

Yes, that's normal. Those additional skeletons don't count towards your usual summoning limit and they run on AI only. The same is true for the skeletons you will get when chanting the phrase "Many Lives Pass By" - they also will not count towards the summoning limit (also not controllable).

Here's a short vid of a Berserker/Streetfighter who's currently frenzied, has Bloodlust, is Heated up, using the hunting bow modal and only attacks with auto-attacks (no sneak attack or Deathblows unlocked). DEX is 18. The initial 0-recovery is from a kill before (Blood Thirst). This attack speed is nearly the same as a lvl-1 Berserker/Streetfighter because Frenzy + Heating Up and Hunting Bow modal is all lvl1-material. THe rest adds a bit additional attack speed but the main bulk comes from those initial abilities. Auto-attacks' PEN is 13 with a Legendary weapon and Ring of the Marksman. Would be 11 with the initial exceptional Essence Interrupter. You can have three different dmg types with Hunting Bows: pierce/slash/shock. So most of times you'll penetrate well enough. For those encounter where that's not the case use Arteial Strike and Gouging Strike (and Deep Wounds and Blood Storm).

Thare are some that are even worse than XClads. Also some already high AR foes do drop Llengrath's Safeguard which pisses off new players regularly who then come here an complain about it, haha. The solution to that can either be to lower the AR/PEN ratio* or raw damage. For example there are two weapons that have raw base dmg (one pistol and one sabre). Or use raw DoTs. )* meaning: lower AR and/or raise PEN

Potentially early encountered Iron- and Steelclads are quickly dispatched by either raw dmg DoTs (e.g. Arterial + Gouging Strike + Strike/Ring the Bell) and/or by using Essence Interrupter (shock dmg which Iron-/Steelclads are vulnerable to). A ranged Berserker is rel. easy to keep alive since the most common source of dmg will be his own. In combination with Blooded it's actually a nice thing to have. In combination with a Devoted and Penetrating Strike you'll have less risk of dying (Constant Recovery) but you will have amazing +9 PEN without any consumables (+4 Penetrating Strike, +2 Devoted, +2 Tenacious, +1 Ring of the Marksman) and also good attack speed with good accuracy - or even great attack speed with reasonable ACC (Hunting Bow + modal - e.g. Essence Interrupter). The Berserker's crit conversion and Carnage will not work, but imo that's a small price to pay. Later Blood Thirst will be amazing. I didn't play this though. Besodes a few tests it's theorycrafting. You can also combine Berserker with Streetfighter (combins solid PEN and raw DoTs) and use the self damage to reach bloodied (Blooded + Heating Up will kick in). This combo has less PEN (although plenty with Tenacious and Crippling Strike) but insane attack speed with a hunting bow + modal (and isn't devoted to a single weapon proficiency) and incredible dps. It has no build-in healing besides Savage Defiance though. I played it and it's a lot of fun especially in the very early game - despite combining two subclasses that seem to be made for something else. The attack speed is just so high that you can shoot down the entire Gorecci Street in no time - and it doesn't matter much that you will miss a couple of shots due to lowish ACC (from the Hunting Bow modal). It's literally *twang-twang-twang* because you will barely see the recovery bar. Kind of in between: Berseker/Sharpshooter. With Driving Flight though you can bring St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer to their full potential: the 50% recovery skip on crit also works with Driving Flight. And Blood Thirst will add to this skipping later on. I played this for some time. It's very good against mobs and especially low defense enemy casters. Against high defense single targets I then preferred to use a Hunting Bow (speed) or Arbalest (interrupts/prone). I guess the most hands-off would be Devoted/Berserker. And its PEN comes online very early so it's suited to take on Whateverclads very early, too. The most jawdropping is Berserker/Streetfighter I guess. At least in the early game.

The self damage doesn't scale with character level but power level. If you increase your power level (level-ups but also buffs from items, abilities and/or food) you increase your self damage. It also gets influenced by your MIG. More MIG = higher dmg. If you pick an Assassin or Helwalkers it gets boosted by those passives, too. You will die from the self damage if you don't heal. Maybe it's possible to not die If you boost your CON (never tried) but with a high MIG score and only mediocre CON you will die from it. Savage Defiance does help if nobody else can heal you. Also heal-on-kill stuff like Abraham pet (health on kill). Weapons/items that heal (regeneration gear) or heal on crit (see Devil of Caroc Breastplate for example). The healing on kill or crit also works on friendly targets - for example skeletons from a Chanter. Countermeasures besides healing is stuff that reduces incoming dmg. For example the Voidward Ring (helps a lot). There's also food etc. You can manage that - but it takes some time to fine-tune it. In the early game encounters are short and the self damage is lower - so it's manageable until you find your right setup. Bit it def. needs more attention than with other barbs. The shouts are extremely good at power level 9 (single class). Both of them. The Roar is doing tremendous dmg and had a CC component while the Shout has a huge AoE. For multiclass Barbs one must decide if they are worth it: besides the shaken affliction the one interrupts and throws down in a line (can be useful if you are playing a disrupter) and the other gives you +3 engagement (can be useful for a frontliner). If you are a damage dealing, multiclassed quarterstaff user for example they might not be worth it.

A mod could change that maybe? Don't know how it would handle the class specific enchantments but I guess it's doable. One could also do a non-soulbound version and just take the model of the Ch. Mantle. What I really don't understand is why those awesome pangolin gladiator armors from SSS (arena staff mostly but also at least one to pick up) don't have a unique version: https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Light_Ceremonial_Garb

Yes, TP would be a good pick imo.

Sun & Moon has two flail heads. So first of all it has two chances to give the Skald a crit-based phrase per 1 attack. Then it is by far the best weapon to proc crit-chains with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming for the same reason: every crit of the flail heads has a chance to proc two new crits - and so on. Crits from Swift FLurry/HBD also count towards the Skald phrase generation. A Skald can only get 1 phrase per attack execution - so that prevents filling up your phrase counter with a crit-chain. But it makes a refund per attacks much more likely than with the other weapons.

Rofl I like where this is going! I also like that an enemy will be dominated by a totally demented character.

Afaik this can only be done with a mod (if at all).

If you are in a party, you can use a Berserker/Wizard to cast Confusion on everybody and build around a completely bewildered party. And then you can cast Pain Link on enemies (who get attacked by enemies you charmed - or on charmed enemies who get attacked by other enemies), attach Antipathetic Field to party members, Ectopsychic Echo to enemies, Amplified Wave on enemies, Withdraw and Dimensional Shift on enemies, Grimoire Imprints on party members, Combusting Wounds and Brand Enemy on the guy with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and so on... Edit: what happens if a confused Priest casts Hand of Weal and Woe on a guy who has Rekvu's Scorched Cloak? Does that guy get the healing and 20% of fire dmg as healing, too? Same with Divine Immolation...

WhooooAAAAa! I used Withdraw in so many different situations (also unintended ones) and did the same with Berserker Confusion - why the F did I never think of this and combine both? It doesn't even require a hit roll when cast on enemies then... Really nice thought, thanks!

Yeah, that seems to have been a nice idea initially - but they either didn't manage to implement it or took it out at some point and didn't change the description. At least that's my impression. I always only see the dmg from the initial cast, no additional procs off of other vessels. Even when I'm test-fighting a ton of cre_dummy which are vessels, too.

Yeah, it's tricky. Also Belranga is difficult to do that way because her initial defenses are so high that it's hard to even graze her without killing some spiderlings first. But you can only apply Lover's Embrace's DoT "True Love's Kiss" from stealth. So what I did was to use miss-to-graze food and Gloves of Greater Reliability and did a lot of reloads until I grazed her directly after the Leap, hehe. Dorudugan is the easiest imo. Takes forever but requires no attention. Just start the fight, apply True Love's Kiss, vanish/retreat/hide and then do some chores (I mean you as player).

Barbarian is one of the fastest attackers even without Blood Thirst - just because of Frenzy. And he gets certain dmg bonuses (besides higher MIG), too. But against megabosses? Meh... not good imo. No class without refreshing resources is good against megabosses is my experience. SC Barb can get back resources via kill (Blood Surge) but in most megaboss fights that's not an option as you already said (against Belranga it works well enough though). I did a solo Furyshaper run - and while most encounters were cool because of the amazing Blood Ward the megabosses didn't work out at all for me (but I admit I din't try very hard because I hate those endless encounters). What you can do is use Lover's Embrace from stealth (Leap works very well here if you cancel it mid air to maintain stealth while landing near the target) to kill most of the megabosses and then use a potion of invisibility and retreat+hide. It's impossible to really kill Huani that way but for the rest it can be an option (didn't try with the Sigilmaster though).

It should.

Not really needed.

Monks can heal via items and consumables (which are kind of mandatory for a solo run anyways). An item which might help is the Abraham pet (healing in kill) which is good anyway. Monks can increase their defenses quite a lot. they get Duality of Mortal Presence which raises either CON or INT (you can even change that mid fight) which means up to +20 fortitude or will Defense. Crucible of Suffering is an all-stacking +10 to all defenses. Swift Strike raises DEX by 10 points. Players often forget that every inspiration raises a defense by at least 10 points. I would also try a Forbidden Fist with high (maxed) Resolve and Tuotilo's Palm and a non-crushing backup weapon (e.g. Battle Axe). They are quite sturdy and have build-in healing (whenever a hostile effect expires). You want max RES and all other gear that reduces hostile effect duration (e.g. Ring of the Solitary Wanderer). That way your curse and all other hostile effects will expire very quickly, doing less damage (if they do in the first place) than they heal you. A nice synergy with a high RES forbidden fist is Imagined Paint where you get wounds if enemies miss you. This also works if you simply disengage or leave their melee range and they miss. Here the armor Nomad's Brigandine is very useful but it's by no means mandatory. But it also raises deflection against melee a bit so it's a good pick imo. A Forbidden Fist has slower would buildup in the early game but it's very reliable later on.