Hamhaus

ranger would better if they just make the animal companions stronger, with increased AR, damage, and health each level up.

Dumping Dex also lowers reflex defense I think, and with low RES you might get easily interrupted by AoE attacks. Just a heads up. -12% Action Speed isn't that significant for a melee character. Although if it were me, I'd just put Dex and Res at 10 and have Con at 8 but that's just personal preference for me.

Out of curiosity and urge to DEUS VULT, I created an all paladin party playthrough and invited only Pallegina. Very surprised when Pallegina She doesn't intervene much but when she does, it makes for very interesting banter because I get to see how a Bleakwalker interaction with benevolent/diplomatic paladins would play out. Normally I don't like to have Pallegina as a party member because she's too serious and duty-bound to the republics, but getting to see that contrast between her and a Bleakwalker is pretty fun. EDIT: just realized I posted this in the wrong discussion section, maybe someone can move this to the Stories Discussions?

The nerf on soul annihilation and body attunement kinda destroyed my cipher-monk idea (Soul Annihilate + Swift Flurry + debuff target's defenses), and atm I can't really think of another multiclass build that's better than a single class cipher.

Im running an evoker+kind wayfarer build so far with Sun & Moon, Evocation gloves, and Ninagauth's Teachings, and it's pretty strong AoE wise and fun to use (a bit heavy on the micro-management though). Basically using Fire and Frost spells from Ninagauth's Teachings depending on what buff is currently running on Sun and Moon. The paladin class is just there for Eternal Devotion heals and tankiness on the front lines. Pale elf as a race helps with not having to worry much about hitting yourself with Rolling Flames bouncing back into my face lol.

I heard from Wizard users that Meteor Shower is pretty broken. Although I don't really get to experience tier 8 & 9 abilities because I enjoy trying out different multi-classes a little too much.

I think the casting time is more of an issue than summon duration but I agree with the OP's statement. Is there a way to mod the casting time for summon weapons?

The way I did it in my playthrough was that I just used those characters in the White March to complete their respective quests and stuck with the base game companions for the rest of the game. I think that the White Marsh companions have most of their quality dialogues in the expansion and not much to deliver on the main story. DoC is extremely valuable for the final White Marsh mission against the Eyeless though.

I believe spear modals also increase engagement limit.

Moon Godlikes have Huana NPCs praise you when you walk pass them (maybe even a few extra comments on from them during dialogues).

There are dialogue options that require culture, race, or background so yes.

I feel like Backstab is the only reason why I should use a 2H weapon now, just for that bonus in damage.

I think Fighter is still viable as a multiclass choice, since it has useful passives and buffs (like Disciplined Strikes and the Fighter Stances). As a single class though... I think Fighter is pretty bad now.

If you wanna use a bow or crossbow, I recommend going Devoted-Fighter/rogue. The core abilities would be Disciplined Strikes, Penetrating Strike, Pierce the Bell, and any passives that improve damage/crit/hit (like Dirty Fighting and Confident Aim). When it comes to bows and maybe even crossbows, you want as much penetration as you can possibly have. So any ability that improves PEN is important.

You can do it manually by dragging the combat speed pin at the middle-bottom of the HUD. The keys for adjusting it don't work for me, so I assume that part's bugged