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This sounds intriguing and I've wanted a good Xoti replacement. Care to share more details? There is a good "solo" thaumaturge build here in the forum builds list from araj. I suggest using it as a blueprint and modify it slightly for party play, like taking circle of protection and maybe despondent blows instead of llengrath safe wards. Basically, it is a midline support. You use Ninigath's grimoire ideally, take all the cool and useful priest party buff spells like level 1 aoe heal, withdraw, salvation of time, circle of pretection and the fire damage spells. Skip devotions for barring death door+shining beacon imo. In wizard you take defensive boosting spells at low level but maybe also combusting wound+expose vulnerabilities, definitely scion of flame and maybe secret of rime. At mid level (5+) wizard you take terrify spell and at high level pillar of flame and holy storm from a priest. In the end you basically get a more tradition backline/midline priest who uses utility spells to buff part and debuff enemies and do damage through cold+fire spells. Ideal weapons are Sun+moon and the soulbound dagger (or Xoti's sickle with speed buff). It's not a monster damage dealer until storm of holy fire but it has a nice toolkit of buffs and debuffs which are different in their nature from cipher or chanter buffs/debuffs. Basically also you make wizard/priest if you want a dedicated buffer/debuffer of that type in your party - one that does not need other resources to buff/debuff like chanter or cipher and can unload all the spells instantly without attacking.

I think in PotD the best warlock "strat" is to get 1 injury and get the special rekvu helm, grimoire and cloak. Attack in melee while casting wall of flame on yourself and occasionally a fireball which will all heal you because of the cloak and damage enemies. Maybe not the grimoire as it's spell selection is less than ideal but definitely the cloak.

I mean you don't need custom companions ever even in a hardcore deadly deadfire run but I'd say the most useful are: 1.)Marauder (if you don't main one) - streetfighter/serker - Like a pure rogue - the essential and best enemy wizard/ priest killer but faster. 2.)Liberator (Pali/Druid) - if for some reason you feel like the existing companions don't fit perfectly a Liberator is a strong, flexible frontliner tank or off tank. You can choose Lifegiver from Druid and split it into druid defense (healing) and paladin (offense), you can do the inverse (though I think that is inferior), you can go overboard with defenses and make both Paladin side and druid side heal or the opposite and make a fire based or fire/poison (with bleakwalker) offensive juggernaut. A very flexible build. 3.)Warlock (wizard/serker) - a very strong class combo with no option from existing companions to run it and an essential party member to experience at least once if you don't main one. 4.)Thaumaturge (wizard/skaen) - a very strong "jack of all trades" that gets progressively more potent with higher levels until this class becomes self sufficient to solo the game. There are a few more but those stand out and you can't make any existing companion into the above classes without mods.

In beta 2.0 at least Adra Bans have been dropping off random mobs in Poka Kohara Ruins area (not the ruins but outside). And not just the from the giant. I collected like 3 or 4 of them. That is Huge

Yeah Citzal's is strongest if you have abilities which enhance your base penetration. Otherwise Aoe multi target we have Wohai Poraga - high base penetration and aoe damage Lord Dyrryn's Voulge aoe attack effect and good damage thanks to it having good base penetration AND also being able to do shock damage as alternative for single target I think the consensus was: Chromo Quarterstaff (with all its damage and speed upgrades) Voidwheel (if you take the raw damage upgrades)

Yes it does I don't know from which patch it is active from but currently, it works that way now you can board a ship having reduced the number of enemies you face while boarding that way.

It is true about the range I noticed that after enemy ships fired cannons and hit at me at ranges that where nor "ideal" for the guns used. Also, actually since you technically want to "hold" before firing off a cannon volley the Dhow 2 turn jibe is ideal for 8 turns double bronzer reload. At a three turn jibe you would I think be losing a turn per shot volley. here is sequence: Side A 1 Fire Volley 2 Jibe 3 Jibe complete Now on Side B 4 Hold 5 Fire Volley 6 Jibe 7 Jibe Complete (Now on side A again) 8 Hold 9 (1) repeat Anyways when I tried that on A Dhow with Double Bronzers jibing on both sides I never had a delay due to reload.

As I like ship boarding and find just blasting the other ship to smithereens boring I generally like a mix of speed and fire power so the Dhow is my go to ship. Plus that saves me some money mid game to upgrade weapons and armor I use. Now when I have some cash I upgrade the hull with "The Red Dream" to get over 100 hull health on the Dhow and keep the Sails as "Stormwind Sails" which I can get through Berath Blessings. Bis Sails are "Dragonweave Sails" though. But the Stormwinds provide excellent speed. Now as for cannons yes I use grapeshot since I board but also I want firepower in case I want to sink them. So on one side I run 3x double-bronzer on the dhow and instead of reloading them you do a 2 turn jibe and fire some other guns. If I was trying to do a boring destroy enemy ship tactic I would run double bronzers on both sides or get a junk but that is not what I am after. So on the other side I load 1x Haefric Nose because it is a fast powerful gun with good range, and 2x Iron Thunderers - basically to align 4 turn reload speed and good range. For flexibility. Usually works. I think The absolute best weapon for grapeshotting an opposing crew to 0 fast though is the new Magrite Flamethrower. Yes it has no range (0-75m) but you don't need range if you want to reduce enemy crew as much as possible and board. And it is at 2 turns reload - so it is definitely worth a try in this type of strategy. So I might do something like 3x double bronzers in one side and 1x haefric and 2x magrites on the other. Usual start is to get into approximate 300-400 meter range at first, and start grape shotting. If they come closer as I jibe even better because my cannons cover the close range. And their crew is quickly reduced to 0 before I board. If it is a rathun long ship I start with longer guns from 500+ meter range and jibe into the double bronzers as they get closer.

Patinated is good but is a "slow" heavy armor = don't expect your tank to do much damage in it. I think best are Casita Samelia's Legacy if you run a high deflection build that tries to riposte in case of rogue or "blade turn" attacks in case of monk. Reckless Brigandine is my other favorite if you are building a high engagement tank because I think it gives like -5% recovery per engaged target and is still a heavy armor. Yeah Hearth Defender is also nice but very late game I think and requires certain conditions for it's bonus.

Did a minor fine tuning in red in the original post.

I was looking into barb also. Does blood lust (action speed on kill) and blood thirst (zero recovery on kill) both work with spells? If so that's huge benefit. yeah thry are "on kill" does not matter how you kill the target.

The only classes worth it to multiclass if you are powergaming is either rogue streetfighter for the recovery speed bonus after hitting with a target with powder burns from your blunderbuss or berserker for constant attack speed and penetration boost from frenzy. They are better than the monk build imo, which comes out slower, and especially with the rogue you will feel more powerful before level 12 but after level 12 single class gets level 6 cipher powers early so at that point it is the same. At level cap though I think a witch serker/ascendant would be very great because you use frenzy instead of time parasite for your attack speed buff, and thanks to barbarian blood thirst you negate recovery completely after a kill, and with aoe spells like amp wave that is easy to do, and as a bonus under spirit frenzy all your spammable aoe spells also stagger the foes in addition to their normal effects. Note: this is if your making a ranged class cannon, in melee definitely barbarian and paladin are good multi class options.

How is it possible to max Per, Int, and Res while leaving Might, Con, and Dex, at 10? The game doesn't provide that many attribute points. with barath blessing you can. if you are not using them go 10 might, 10 dex, 12 con, 15 perc, 16 int (with vaillain background) , rest into resolve

Single class Ascendant downside #1 is that you are slow to get to full focus without full-attacks from other martial classes. You mitigate that con by using Thunderous Report from Kitchen Stove blunderbuss or The Red Hand Arquebus which fires two shots per attack. Still though with a rogue or a monk you could and would hit max focus fast more consistently. Definitely pump your perception as high as you can (like 22-24 lol) if you go single class as also having no full attacks (which usually come with bonus accuracy and damage) means perception and accuracy is even more important. Otherwise there are no noticeable cons to pure ascendant except as a single class it may feel a bit boring to play.

The new hunting bow in patch 2.0 also does lightning. It would be nice on a class that does lots of auto-attacks with high dex and speed as it is a two handed weapon. Maybe Barbarian/Ranger or Barbarian Cipher could utilize that bow well. Pretty much anything on a ranged barb like a chanter too. But Ranger/Barb is probably the best and most fitting - get high penetration thanks to frenzy and you have enough shock ar penetration to all except shock immune enemies. And you get lots of accuracy from ranger and items so you can use the bow in fast modal all the time, use driving flight to apply more crits (through barbarian) more often and get more minions.

That is the most inapplicable statement I read in this forum for a long time. For example: against single targets Barbaric Retaliation is great. Againt mobs Heart of Fury is great. Instrument of Boundless Rage is powerful and adds a nice ranged alternative... and so on. A single class Barbarian will reach very powerful abilities a lot earlier than a multiclass one. E.g. Blood Thirst. He will also deal more damage with his Barbaric Blow because he will have a higher Power Level which adds base damage to its attack. Combined with MIG, Superb or even Legendary, Obe Stands Alone, maybe Blooded the difference is noticable. I personally find multiclass Barbs more interesting (I'm also playing a Warlock atm and it's great), but a single class one surely is powerful because of his great high level abilites, his faster progression and his higher PL. On the othr hand an advantage of a multiclass (besides the obvious reasons like synbergy effects) like Barb/Fighter, -/Rogue, -/Paladin, -/Monk or -/Ranger is that they can get +4 resource points from the Devil of Caroc Breastplate (Fighters even +2 additional from bracers) and +2 attribute points and skill points from the Chamaeleon Ring - while a single class Barb "only" gets +2/+1. If you don't plan to use those items it doesn't matter at all of course. See, that's the problem - it's like with my ranged Cipher character, there's so many good choices that I could make, it's hard to pick one. I've narrowed it down somewhat though... 1. Barbarian (Pure): No multi, for higher PL and earlier access to really good abilities. Less powerful, but I get stuff like Heart of Fury and Instrument of Boundless Rage (Which just has a really fun name, honestly). Plus loads more hit points. 2. Brute (Barbarian/Fighter): Lots of really good passive abilities, and some excellent active abilities as well (Tactical Barrage to remove Confusion, Unbending, etc). 3. Marauder (Barbarian/Rogue): Crazy fast, lots of bonus damage from the Streetfighter. 4. Warlock: Lots of really good defensive spells, and some excellent offensive buffs too (Like Merciless Gaze). How fun are things like Heart of Rage and Instrument of Boundless Rage to use? Also, how significant is the Barbaric Blow/Smash bonus damage per PL? That will at least allow me to disqualify pure Barbarian. As it stands, I'm leaning toward Marauder, followed by Brute, followed by Warlock. this pretty much sums it up. I am playing on deadly deadfire hardcore (when I use a full party) for extra enemy health and defenses. Currently I am running my main toon as a mindstalker streetfighter ascendant with kitchen stove+scordeo's. that isa build that does very good dps as long as I am controlling the toon for the right timing of debuffs and damge abilities. now a second damage dealer I made into Priest (Woedica) + Berserker. And Ydwin I customized to be a Warlock at first for comparison. I also tweak the stats of companions slightly to match their roles so as dump unnecessary resolve and con on damage dealers and pump might, dex, and perception and int a bit higher. The Priest/Berserker with unamered fist talent is holding up decently although the rogue classes have do more damage and I expect that to be the case until storm of holy fire. But he seems strong enough as a damage dealer. Now getting to the main point of this post relevant to this thread: the warlock was lagging a bit behind the mindstalker and the zerker/priest. I think that has to do with having to buff up at the start of the fight (clunky and slow) and a lack of full attack abilities beyond barbaric blow. Maybe at later levels it would be great but I feel I would need to get to level 14/15 for it to be a dps monster and by that time the mindstalker would get amp wave and the priest/zerker would get holy fire+other goodies. Long story short I respecced Ydwin to a build I use as reference - that is marauder streetfighter/zerker, which is pretty much a consistent dps machine. At level 11/12 currently depending on fight the marauder is basically even in dps output as my mindstalker but mainly on ai control where as I control the mindstalker - so the ai can handle marauder really well unlike say a warlock or a mindstalker. You basically give the marauder two good weapons (like Gravecalling+Rust's dagger) or even better Magran's Favor+Rusts, Devil of C, set rogue and zerker ai to aggressive and it takes care of itself and will be doing top damage. Marauder is pure melee - basically a faster more brutal rogue. Warlock and Mindstalker I think are spellcasters that use martial abilities to set up more efficient spellcasting, either through streetfighter recovery and full attacks to generate focus quick or through frenzy.

Priest of Woedica is really nice with any build around monastic unarmed training or with monk.

I think if you buff your frontline pierce damage ar with druid and or chanter spells (Takehu works well for that) you can probably spam Mind Lance all you want and not worry about killing your allies. I think Wookskin+CHanter's slash and whatever phrase will do the trick.

Is Moonwell a good healing spell? The description says only +8 Health? You really think the Priest is better on offense, do you mean specifically wrt generic damage? Because the druid has spells like Touch of Rot, the various XYZ Storm, Insect Swarm/Plague, Infestation of maggots and Crushing Wave. I am looking it from a pure health/per sec perspective. Moonwell scales with int and might by the way and also provides +10 defenses. I am just sayingDruid especially lifegiver will have more healing spells to use - specifically strong aoe heals. If I was making a healer it would probably be a druid/chanter. As for nuking druid is a wannabe wizard anyways so you may as well leave the nuking to the wizard. Also Druid has that aoe robust spell at level 3 which is very strong.

The Priest of Woedica subclass for priest is really good, maybe better than wael or skaen, but too bad it is only accessible through the console.

Priest is better on offense with all the fire spells anyways. Levels 1+2 you usually take heal+withdraw but from level 3 onwards you take fire and buff/debuff utility spells. Druid has the better "traditional" healing spells in moonwell etc anyways.

basically you should "split" elements to utilize items as consistently as possible to boost your characters because there are nice +fire and +shock items in game. -for tank I would use Monk/chanter as you said or monk/cipher with the cipher part of the tank to there to "cc" and "buff" so use only those cipher spells. use magistrate cudgel+tuitilo's palm on this toon dual wield+sword and shield style. very good "offensive / cc" tank. for monk I like shattered pillar or vanilla here and cipher I still like ascendant because of the extra focus you get. in general I do not like my tank to be the summoner because I'd rather have them cc with chanter or cipher spells in between attacks. -for healer best healer in game is a lifegiver druid. druid heals synergizes well with a more passive class like chanter because healing will generally be cast intensive. but in this case troubadour is still very powerful because it is so good as a chanter. Get lightning spells from both druid and chanter here for doing damage in between healing. or summon stuff. -wizard/priest (skaen) makes for a very good fire offensive caster/debuffer -get a pure ascendant cipher for damage -pure evoker wizard pure more damage I think that is a good party composition.

In Poe 1 Wild Leech did not stack, if it stacks in Deadfire it's not that bad tbh. It definitely stacks in PoE2 because in the cipher mod I made I changed wild leech to fire 1 projectile base + 1 projectile/cipher power level - that would be balanced as at high levels it averages to about 3 projectiles per cast four I think if you are ascended.

Alright. So would you recommend Soulblade (And just ignore spells) or Ascendant (And take some CC/Direct Damage spells?) Endgame because of norecovery+ascendant aoe nukes ascendant barb will deal more damage. Soul annihilation can't compete with machine gun aoe amplified waves.

Any Zerker/spellcaster build becomes really amazing once you get to level 18 or so and get Blood Thirst to eliminate recovery between nukes. I mean before it is still very good with Frenzy and all but getting that passive is a game changer. Before that passive rogue passives like streetfighter recovery/sneak attack own for damage dealers, but getting blood thirst put barbs on a different plain potentially when you can start to just ignore recovery.