Ensign

Monk makes one of the strongest single classes in the game. It has some disgusting PL 8 and 9 powers and there are a variety of builds to take advantage. Vanilla monk is perfectly good, the specializations are very powerful but also limited side grades that you can skip without regrets.

Most of the Paladin's important abilities are in the early power levels, making it multiclass well with just about everything. The only ones I am skeptical of at this point are paladin/druid and paladin/priest; I haven't seen how to get enough synergy in those combos to make them powerful instead of middling, if flexible, supports. So it really is a question of what you want to play. Paladin/Chanter has very strong synergy as a support tank with a lot of good options. If that is the style you are after I would recommend it strongly.

The math is more or less correct, though the main benefit of a critical hit in this game is the bonus penetration so I would hesitate to neglect it in your analysis of the skill.

I don't think they need to buff the passive focus gain TBH. The subclass exists to combo with classes that can't generate a bunch of focus via Soul Whip; given there isn't a cost (one you build around, granted) a modest benefit is fine. Turning off when you take damage is totally unacceptable though. It makes it worthless on a melee character, and in genuinely hard fights it is often nigh impossible to keep you backline from taking stray hits - making your character not work at all under those circumstances is killer. If it were reliable though I would happily spam Secret Horrors and Silent Scream on a tanky character.

It would be one of the few truly poor choices you could make in character creation. All other flavors of Cipher generate enormous amounts of focus as a Mindstalker from - you would be trading that in for a small trickle of focus that turns off as soon as you take a hit. Do it if you want to troll yourself.

Single class Cipher is generally best as an Ascendant with Kitchen Stove and Thundercrack Pistol in one set. You can use Thunderous Report from Kitchen Stove per encounter to nearly fill your focus; if not Overcharged Shot from Thundercrack Pistol (per rest) will do the job. Use Time Parasite first for crazy action speed, then spam spam spam. For long hard fights combine with a Salvation of Time Priest. You can cast SoT on the ascended Cipher to extend the duration of ascension, and the Cipher can use the (free) Ancestor's Memory to restore the Priest's SoT, giving an engine of permanent ascension on top of all over buffs. Single class Ascendant gets additional fun with this combo, since you can take driving echoes and extend thst with Salvation of Time as well - giving everyone else in the party permanent +8 PEN for that fight. This takes way too long to set up for many fights, but for megabosses taking that time to make your group insane can be well worth it.

Hasn't been the case since the -35% reduction on dual wield full attacks and the addition of +1 pen on two handed melee weapons. Dual wield full attacks are only a big benefit to rogues spamming crippling strike, or characters exploiting other synergies (like Kind Wayfarers). It's very close to par for most everyone else. The main advantages of dual wield now are better responsiveness, and that two handed melee weapons have very few quality uniques (and even fewer available early in the game).

Yes, the expansions do not mess around with combat difficulty. You can goof off with party compositions in the core game and succeed without too much difficulty (yes, even on PotD) but the expansions are a gut check to tighten up your comp, builds and tactics.

Chronoprismatic Quarterstaff is the best melee two hander in the game by a mile, definitely a good choice. I like upgrading the Red Hand. Really it's a question of what you're going to use on the remaining megabosses. I like the Last Word, Sungrazer, and Tarn's Respite for my other melees.

Lots of things mix well with a Chanter - priest, druid, and paladin come immediately to mind since it doesn't limit those too much, but honestly you could talk me into any Chanter multiclass for the right comp. It is pretty boring as a single class, but mixed it just offers a whole lot very early on - a 15% lash from Aefyllath on everyone, moderate sustain from Ancient Memory, Thick Tongues for the expansions, the best armor reducer available at level 1, repeatable revives, hard cc, and summons of choice. At the simplest, take Hel-Hyraf, Thick Tongues, Shield Cracks, Aefyllath, Rise Scions, and Ancient Instruments of Death with a couple other points to flesh it out; put your other 20 skill selections into any other class and play as though you were that class. The big summon at the start of every fight (take a big one at every new power level then respec) and passive auras with shield cracks on demand is a big power spike. Brilliant doesn't have a ton of sources - the new Tactician can put it on itself, and Cipher has a party targeted one at PL7, otherwise you are relying on some very niche and unreliable applications. Cipher with the repeatable brilliant is really valuable for endurance or megaboss fights since it refreshes your casters; with judicious spell use you can cast Minoletta's Missile Barrage, Salvation of Time, and other very high value spells over and over. It's a combo engine. Mix with any martial class to power the focus engine, though I have been happiest with fighter paladin ranger and rogue. Whispers of Treason on the starter isle, dominate after; Borrowed Instinct / Disintegrate / Ancient Memory at high level, Mind Lance or Silent Scream for interrupt happy fights.

For anyone else reading and attempting this, the 2nd PL chant Thick Tongues is a very important tool for this fight and several of the hardest fights in the expansions. It will attack concentration over and over, and when it hits it strips all concentration stacks. Very important for keeping targets vulnerable to interrupts. Herald Pallegina is an ideal carrier for getting into the fray and stripping concentration from enemies in this way.

Party assist helps and is sufficient for many checks, but due to diminishing returns can only be pushed so high. If you are interested in non-violent resolutions to quests and events it is best invest your main character's skills in two of the predominant persuasion conversation options - bluff, diplomacy, insight, intimidate, streetwise. History, religion, and especially survival have valuable non-watcher checks that party members can assist with. Metaphysics is kind of the odd child, with some interesting flavor options in conversations but as best I know nothing that will change any outcomes.

That is a rough comp to do the messenger on. Messenger is really a crash course in controlling concentration and interrupting big spells, and...you don't have access to a lot of that natively. So you are looking for scrolls of insect swarm and scrolls of plague of insects to strip off concentration, and scrolls of thrust of tattered veils to interrupt his siphon. Ydwin can also contribute to interrupts with Mind Lance or Silent Scream; Konstanten should have interrupting blows but that will not be reliable. Tekehu should have Rusted Armor; use that to penetrate and burst once the messenger is below half. You can find that on a scroll as well.

Ah, so that is how that is priced in. So the right question isn't why they are missing 1 pen, but why they are missing a second bonus. I.E., I understand the trade-off between mace and war hammer (1 additional pen vs dual damage type), but I do not understand the trade-off between a spear (1 additional pen and 5 accuracy) or sabre (1 additional pen and 10% damage) and sword (dual damage type and ???). That...is a lot to give up for a dual damage type, especially a non-crush dual damage type.

Serious reply and quick thoughts: Lots of strong individual characters but perhaps not a great combination. Very front loaded, glass cannon style comp. Very little staying power and support. I suspect you will find some of your dps/support hybrids will get pressed into full time support duty in the harder content, for which they are under-specialized. For the core game and critical path though this should roll over everything without trying too hard. Very melee heavy composition. Going to be stepping on each other a lot in dungeons. You're worshipping the unique equipment too much. Capes, rings, boots and belts have only a few really standout unique pieces; generics like cloaks or rings of protection are often stronger. But main impression is the lack of staying power (no chanters, no ciphers/brilliant); will roll over most of the game but I suspect this gets ground down by attrition in megaboss fights.

I wasn't around much during the betas so I apologize if I missed an important discussion - why are one handed swords and greatswords -1 PEN under budget compared to comparable weapons? The increased difficulty of the DLCs and megabosses has prompted me to math out the different options, and it is pretty stark how terrible those two weapon types are due to their reduced penetration. It's a big enough difference that many unique swords and greatswords aren't appreciably better than vanilla weapons of other types of the same tier. That seems like a pretty big problem, given the number of uniques of those two types and the general thematic popularity of those weapons - is it really good for them to be noob traps? What gives? What am I missing?

This. In evaluating power you mostly care about 3 points: Level 3-4, when taking on the thugs or digsite; Level 9-10, when the dialogue quests in Neketaka start to run out and you start fighting more; Level 20, if you are going after megabosses. If you aren't going after megabosses (and to some extent SSS challenges) the rest of the game is easy at 20. You'd need to have a pretty fail build to struggle there. The main character is of course most relevant because you can't swap him/her out. You want something that is solid at all stages.

Priest of Gaun is pretty terrible though. Peaks at level 1 and is all downhill from there.

If you suffer through single class Eothas priest long enough you get a pretty sweet buff + damage spell too!

See I think they are easily a lot more boring than a Wizard. A lot of that is baked into the flexibility of a Wizard - more free spells via the grimoire mechanic, a much wider selection of spells to choose from, differing play styles...there are a lot of ways to build a Wizard. Core priest on the other hand is both thin and niche. While a Wizard is a swiss army knife that you can build to fit your party, a Priest takes the good spells and you orient your party around maximizing those spells. The good Priest specs offer a good variety of unique spell offerings - Wael, Skaen, Woedica, Rymrgand - that you can use the (thin) core list to supplement with and make a reasonable 'multiclass' caster.

Core priest is still pretty niche. It's not just a Devotion bot; there was a realization that Barring Death's Door prevents knockout now, leaving the target invulnerable at 1 HP, and Salvation of Time extending a wide variety of buffs makes it a nutty combo piece for setting up hyper buffed groups. Brilliant (from a Cipher in the party) plus Salvation of Time can let you maintain all your high value buffs indefinitely, including Barring Death's Door. Also their level 8 spells are very, very good and a reasonable case to single class a priest (even if the level 9 spells are pretty pathetic). That is most of what it can do though. It is not a deep class, and most priest builds take Skaen or Wael for the bonus spells, as those unlock a more varied play pattern.

I can talk intelligently about the cipher hybrids, having gone through my own restartitis there. Inquisitor is very strong and lots of fun. Paladin makes you sturdy on the front line without trying to hard, and the exhortations are great as they are fast cast with no recovery. Spamming flames of devotion on a kind wayfarer gives you lots of full attacks for a dual wielder and triggers the heal twice, or a bleak walker piles on the damage. Main weakness is positioning - it wants to be in the middle of the fight for aura and to stay in range for exhortations, and it lacks blinks to rapidly reposition. Psyblade is more your speed if you don't want the support elements. Still sturdy, can charge around to reposition and has a spammable interrupt. Very flexible frontline cipher, can take a hit or flank. Mindstalker certainly wants to be a flanker. Great burst and assassination potential. Also can be more control focused as a trickster hybrid. Concerns about it being pretty linear are founded. If you can't flank or find an isolated target you are going to be in for a rough time or need to sit back and range. Trickster is nice there as you can burn your guile on control spells instead until you have an opening, though at cost to burst potential. Soul Annihilation Backstabs from an Assassin are unparalleled though. Seer is very strong but isn't natively a melee class. Lots of great utility and the accuracy buffs make you a better caster cipher, but your melee and raw dps potential is a lot more limited.

Hey now, Wild Mind may be a totally inadequate sidegrade to an inadequate core class, but you need a lot of room on the bottom to distinguish it from the truly bad (Brotherhood of the Five Suns) and figurative tire fires (Sister of the Reaping Moon). ...yeah they really need to do a companion unique subclass balance pass at some point.

While the differences are minor, the pets have different base stats which makes a difference - Lion has 3 might and 3 con over the wolf, while the wolf has 1 dex, 4 per, and 1 resolve over the lion. Rolling those in, wolf has another 5% damage on the lion from the extra offensive stats, but the lion has an extra 15% health. I personally prefer the lion - faster reactivity matters, and the extra 15% health matters when you are 'tanking' (casting it over the enemy's front line to soak up arrow fire) - Ghost Heart pets aren't going to and shouldn't hold the line, but they sure can soak up damage and after the first couple deaths a lot of the enemy's initial resource barrage has been blown. However the difference really is small, you're not going to feel a big difference between the two.

Paladin multi-classes really well, and can mix effectively with nearly anything depending on what you'd like it to do. +Chanter is very popular to make a super supportive tank; +Rogue is great to make a strong tanky DPS character; +Wizard or +Cipher make for powerful frontline spellcasters. Weapon proficiencies you shouldn't overthink the first playthrough. A lot of posted builds are made around a specific unique weapon and I think you miss out on a lot if you make that decision in advance instead of playing the game and figuring it out. You get 8 proficiencies total, and they only grant the modal abilities, no accuracy or damage, so you can use weapons without proficiency just fine. Sabres and swords are good choices as there are a lot of them and their modals are solid penetration boosts. Shields also have strong abilities if you want one (not super necessary on a paladin since they are so tanky naturally). Blunderbuss can be toggled to be AoE with its modal.