Moneo

I used both Lead Spitter and the Rain with my ciphers. Well, LS provides you a ****load of burst dmg. The damage from LS varies a lot depending on target's DR, and it seems that against low-DR foes LS can outdamage everything. In particular, it can one-shot hostile wizards. But against mid-DR enemies its damage is much worse, and against high-DR, it's miserable. So I went with the Rain for my ranged cipher. It provides high DPS and very fast and reliable focus flow. Perhaps, durganized Sabra Marie would be even better (considering you crit a lot), but you get it too late in game, whereas the Rain is obtainable during mid-game. You can enter White Marsh armed with it. And don't forget, with the Rain (or other bow), you don't need to spend a talent point for the Gunner talent. But for the most efficience with the bows, you need to reach 0 recovery. DAoM potion, durganized light armor, Gloves of Swift Action etc.

If you can bear the video guides, look for Nerd Commando guy on Youtube. He made some guides on PoE, and the one about companion leveling, too.

By the way, is Twin Sting so good for a ranged cipher? I prefer durganized Rain of Godagh Fields, the cipher becomes a beast with this weapon, and the focus flows quite quickly. But this approach requires spending 2 durgan ingots, of course... I didn't compare Twin Sting to Rain on a long run.

Although retaliation damage is a good and handy addition to barb's offensive power, I wouldn't rely on it that much. A barb deals the most damage and number of kills with his weapons, so it's better to improve his active offensive capabilities. Of course, there is nothing bad with stacking different sources of retaliation damage, but that's secondary IMO.

I think, that's not about "sucking", 'cause a pally can be a tankadin in the first place. But in PoE1, Kind Wayfarers are rather damage dealers than tanks, so it's strange to have such an impediment with them. This will not work well together with KW's PoE1-like on-kill triggers. That's not a synergy in any sense, it's an impediment and mere contradiction. Such a restriction suits more defensive-oriented Shieldbearers of Eldga, not offensive-oriented Wayfahrers. IMO, it's better to hinder Wayfahrers in their defensive abilities (if they are to have some downsides or restrictions), not in their offensive power.

Not only by rogues, there are Apprentice/Baby sneak attacks. BTW, "vulnerability to sneak attack" is just an attribute applied to a creature when it acquires certain debuffs. It's not about rogues, but creatures themselves. I take it that Kind Wayfarers would inflict not more, but less damage to such creatures.

I'm curious about the interpretation of this Kind Wayfarers' restriction. Does it apply to every creature that is not immune to sneak attack? Or are there particular creatures that are especially vulnerable to a sneak attack? I suppose that means debuffed creatures which are vulnerable to sneak attack (e.g. flanked/blinded/weakened etc.). AFAIK there is no particular immunity to sneak attack. I think, that Kind Wayfarers are supposed to be fair combatants who don't exploit enemy's weaknesses and rush into the battle boldly, with opened visor. But this restriction would make KW's on-kill triggers less effective, of course.

Speaking about disappointments, I find that Goldpact order restrictions in PoE2 as they are announced are quite disappointing. Unability to use paladin's auras is rather frustrating. This leaves very narrow usage of such paladins...

I love Goldpact pallies as a PC because of their reputation options. I'm also disappointed how are Goldpact pallies introduced in PoE2, but that's not the final decision, everything may be changed. Personally, I think that a paladin without auras is near to worthless, especially in (full-)party gameplay.

Yes, losing concentration is the worst downside of dumping Res on a melee warrior in PoE. IMO, barbs in PoE don't get much benefits from min-maxing (comparing to other classes like wizards, ciphers and even fighters). A balanced barbarian works pretty effectively. A min-maxed barb is viable too, although this approach requires a bit more micro, as far as I can see. But everyone plays the style he likes.

Yeah, speaking on importance of ZF, I meant those hard boss fights. But this also depends on your playstyle. If your pally is tanking bosses, and your party is standing in some distance, ZF is useless for your damage dealers/CC-ers, whereas ZE is always useful even for your paladin alone. But I usually take ZF in the beginning of the game, 'cause early on, a low accuracy is a serious issue. Later on, low acc is an issue mostly in boss fights, but by that time, you have different ways to boost it. BTW, a chanter can buff your party's accuracy against the dragons by whopping +20.

Yes, it ignores DR. But I wrote about the damage from mobs. A paladin not only damages himself, he receives some punches from the foes. And the more tanky he is, the more effectively he can abuse SI. +2 DR means roughly +20 health spare from 10 enemy's hits and +200 health spare from 100 enemy's hits. About auras. Yes, they all are very good. I had a hard time thinking, which is better, ZF or ZE. After some time and having some experience, I decided that Zealous Endurance is slightly better than Zealous Focus on the long run, although there are encounters where ZF would be very handy.

Yeap, that's the main reason I don't auto-pick Goldpact paladin.But still,.. Sacred Immolation comes only at lvl 13. And before that undominating distant allies via Aegis can be tricky. Redfield/Executioner helm range is quite limited, and it's not like Paladin will be switching to hunting bow. You mean, a tanky pally is rather useless unitl level 13? Yes, he deals quite little amount of damage, that's true. After getting Sacred Immolation and Scion of Flame, he becomes an okay damage dealer. Of course, Aegis of Loyalty is not a panacea. But it's quite helpful as an addition to Liberating Exhortation and priest's Suppress Affliction. It's just not intended to be used in every case, just on occasion. I use a tanky pally as a scroll caster too. Taking Aristocrat background, you can easily get 7-8 Survival and 12 Lore with your paladin. Actually, in my party, it's the only character besides a priest, who can get 12 lore and cast Protection against Treachery from scrolls, thus he frees my priest from spending time and spell slots casting this spell. Of course, this comes later than level 11 (at level 14, if I remember correctly). Also, I found, that for a pally who abuses Sacred Immolation, it's handy to take a +2 DR Survival bonus over +40% healing. In my party, I have enough sources of healing to keep such an unkillable character standing straight, but the harm to the health from SI may become an important hinder which makes you rest more often. So, the less harm this guy takes from the mobs, the better. Wearing an Exceptional plate armor, having +2 DR resting bonus, Second Skin talent and buffed with Zealous Endurance, this character will have 23 base DR, that's not bad. Also, I feel that Zealous Endurance on PotD is quite handy and it boosts your party's survivability. It's not about keeping your buddies alive during the battle, but it diminishes harm to health, and you can move from one battle to another without resting (and this strategy fits my playstyle pretty well). So, a tankadin may be a bit passive and boring character. It just boosts your party and helps his mates to do the job. Also, I prefer an arbalest, not a war bow as a ranged backup for my pally. I usually use Hold Wall (+Slaying Primordials against those Spores, I prefer to shoot them from distance).

A Goldpact pally is quite good as a PC, 'cause he can be Cruel and Benevolent simultaneously and is not penalized in his theocracy. BTW, I didn't use Bond of Duty or any other order-specific talents. Aegis of loyalty can give you infinite anti-CC stuff on top of Liberating Exhortation (of course, this requires some micromanagement and party positioning), and you can take it as soon as at level 7.

I used the same method above to test damage over time effects. This time I used the Ranger with Wounding Shot. According to the combat log the damage over time component only shows up once and is based on the initial hit. When Minor Threat activated for Wounding Shot it did increase the overall damage of the DoT left on the target. From this I can assume as long as the skill you are using meets the criteria above and triggers Minor Threat it will increase the damage of the initial hit and the damage of the DoT, but will not proc a Minor Threat crit on individual DoT ticks. Well thanks! AFAIK, that's how DoT crits work in PoE: the overall damage of effect (which is displayed in combat log) is increased by prolonged duration. Damage of individual ticks is not increased. The damage of individual ticks depends on Might, and duration depends on Int, crits/grazes affect the duration of DoT. But this is not applied to Wounding Shot, though, 'cause it has fixed damage which is not increased by increasing DoT duration (i.e. higher Int reduces DPS of Wounding Shot).