L4wlight

It's nice for Skalds because it basically doubles your chance to crit per weapon swing. Edit: The weapon is part of the reason why I think Skald is far superior at casting offensive invocations than Troubadour. Troubadour-Fanboys will obviously argue against it...

I used it as weapon for my Skald/ Helwalker and it's a hell of a weapon for them, but obviously used the Night equivalent (for Seven Nights). I always thought it'd need an appropriate keyword flag to trigger and never noticed the extra attack from the frost lash of the weapon. Hard to notice anything with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming anyway.

No need for helwax mold in this case: You can achieve the very same thing by putting any melee one-handed weapon in the off-hand. At range you'll attack with Scordeo's Trophy only, while getting the same recovery reduction from two-weapon style and dual-wielding.

I guess we have different definitions of fun then. It's not balanced for melee weapons either. There are multi-projectile and cleaving melee weapons too.

Actually it’s even crazier to use scrodeo has cipher, u can reach 0.1sec/0.0sec with time parasite + 0 recovery. That spells is broken now it has no cap, u can get +800% action speed with it l.. For real? Time parasite stacks with itself?

Well, with maxed alchemy it gives +6PL... *speechless*

Another fun-killing combo: Monk (Swift Flurry)/ Ranger (best ACC package and Driving Flight) multi-class with high INT/ PET dual-wielding Fire in the Hole and Hand Mortar: Driving Flight + Stunning Blow + Swift Flurry = perma-stunning, lag-inflicting "screen-wide" cascade of doom

I just wanted to point out that the Troubadour is not globally faster/ better at casting offensive invocations. Not with a larger picture in mind (gear, multi-classing, party composition etc.). If you want to create a watcher that purely focuses on offensive invocations (that's 100% legit and viable), you might come up with a multi-class/ gear/ race/ party composition that highly favors Skald over Troubadour. Again, for maximizing the potential of offensive invocations.

Again. For non-offensive invocations? Maybe. Most likely. For offensive invocations. No. Is the Skald inflexible in this regard? Yes. It's just not true that Troubadour in general generates phrases faster when it comes to offensive invocations. At the very least, even with bad crit luck, Skald and Troubadour are equal once you factor in the Brilliant inspiration, with the Skald having the potential to generate way more. Your example: The Troubadour generates enough phrases (6; needs 6) to cast Seven Nights after 18 seconds, yes. The Skald generates only half as much phrases during that time (3; needs 4). As I said, the Skald just needs to generate 1 more phrase per crit during the 18 seconds (!!!) to catch up with the Troubadour. You can generate much more than 1 with the right race/ multi-class combination, gear, talents and party composition (Buffs, Debuffs etc.). The potential is there. There is even a multi-projectile melee weapon that basically doubles your chance to generate crits with each melee-swing. Use your imagination. Even if you ignore the phrase per crit generation of the Skald (and why would you?), the Skald catches up with the Troubadour once you get access to the Brilliant inspiration: The Troubadour now only needs 9 seconds to generate once again 6 phrases (2 phrases per 3 seconds thanks to Brilliant), while the Skald also needs 9 seconds (generates 1 phrase through chanting after 6 seconds and 3 phases per Brilliant after 9 seconds) to generate 4 phrases. Both can cast Seven Nights after 9 seconds. Skald can be faster, if he manages to generate a phrase per crit. That's all wanted to say. When it comes to non-offensive invocation it's a whole other story, yes.

I don't question the flexibility of the Troubadour subclass. It's just plain and simple wrong to say that the Troubadour is better at casting offensive invocations. It also depends a lot whether you play solo or not. A watcher that limits himself to mostly offensive invocations is very viable in a party. The Skald is the best subclass for that. Generating crits with the right party composition is no problem at all. I know that you like to play solo builds, but that's just not the way each and everybody plays this game. I'd probably favor Troubadour over Skald in solo play too.

You can't just completely ignore the phrase per crit generation. Let's take a good mid to high level offensive invocation like Her Tears Fell Like Rain (base cost of 5) for example. The Troubadour needs 18 seconds (6*3) to generate enough phrases, while the Skald is 1 phrase off (3*6) after 18 seconds (needs 4 phrases). The Skald just needs to generate 1 phrase per crit during the 18 seconds (!!!) to catch up with the Troubadour. With the right build you're able generate way more than that. And don't forget about the Brilliant inspiration: The Troubadour now needs 9 seconds to generate once again 6 phrases (to stay with this example), while the Skald also needs 9 seconds (1 phrase normally after 6 seconds and 3 phrases per Brilliant) to generate 4 phrases. Troubadour and Skald aren't equal at casting offensive invocations with a base cost of 3 either, unless you completely ignore the phrase per crit generation of the Skald by default. Also, Brilliant inspiration once again favors the Skald here: The Troubadour needs 6 seconds to cast (for example) The Killers Froze (generated phrases equals phrase-cost), while the Skald also needs 6 seconds but generated 1 spare phrase. For the next Killers Froze Stiff the Skald only needs 3 seconds. As for offensive invocations, Skald is always the better choice in my opinion. Edit: Overall the Troubadour is more flexible. Skald is king at casting offensive invocations.

Please don't forget that the Troubadour has an increased cost for ALL invocations though and needs two more phrases to cast offensive invocations compared to the Skald. For non-offensive invocations and summons the resource cost is actually the same.

The "unlimited" shock lash would also apply to Sacred Immolation. Pretty overpowered. ^^ Edit: But then you could also just type /iroll20s and /god or play the game in Story Mode (Fast Mode, full AI). Same results.

Yes. Balancing is pretty much non-existent compared to PoE1. Edit: There is also a lot underpowered and strictly useless stuff. Balancing is basically all over the place.

The stackable lash of both Grave Calling (up to 60% damage as frost) and Hel's Beckoning (up to 60% damage as acid) applies to all damage dealt (like Turning Wheel), making them a formidable (or more precisely overpowered) weapon-choice for melees, casters and caster/ melee hybrids alike. Same is true for the lash from Deltro's Cage Helm (basically ∞ shock damage). Furthermore, you can switch to other weapons or into spiritshift forms without loosing the lash. The duration of the buffs is pretty long, especially for monks (INT buff). Fighter are the best candidates for stacking the buffs up in no time. Pretty broken stuff.

Lol, so this is basically PoE 2 version of Image Project from Baldur's Gate So I assume you can abuse all per rest items or all consume items like necklace of fireball. You can.

I'm too using this "feature". For some time, the same was true for PoE1 (Wizard's Doubles, Dichotomous Soul). Another item worth a mention is Heaven's Cacophony: Avenging Storm is a GREAT melee DPS boost for the clones.

The Health bonus on Eder is actually from strengthening the Dyrwood (Galawain's choice) .

And that doesn't kill all your fun? I don't even need to test this with Swift Flurry... I know it'd break the Game.

Ranger/ Helwalker with Frostseeker bow is gamebreaking good.

Maia definitely IS a romance option for a male watcher. She initiated a flirt dialogue with my watcher.

I'll b-line for Tekehu for sure...

Subclasses will stay intact.

Penalty No, loool. Yes. Increased range basically means that she can use Blunderbusses and benefit from Marksman. Neat!

100% agree.