Haplok

They are the best for characters with mostly Primary attacks, who will skip the offhand attack anyway. Particularly Soulblades, but also Monks and potentially even Fighters.

4 Might on a Damage Dealer? Really? And without rogue bonuses too.

Then they missed out on all the dialogue options.I think a lot of people preferred to wreck house in combat instead. Which ppl? People like me, for example

Are there any enemies that are immune to both slash and pierce? I have been disappointed with the overall damage of a Devoted Warhammer user - though the damage is consistent. Don't think there are any that are immune to both. Some may have good armor vs both, though.

Yeah, I think a corpse has pretty low DPS.

..but can you summon from stealth? The cast/recovery times on summoning spells are painful.

Many quests can be approached and solved in multiple ways. Great factions. Decent pacing (compared to PoE1). Perhaps best itemization in a crpg to date. Multiclassing. Much improved combat and encounter design. Awesome graphics. Rewarding exploration. Yes, in many (if not all) ways it is significantly better then PoE 1. Personally I'd prefer if they kept vancian casting, health/endurance dynamics and attrition from PoE1. But you can't have everything. Still, it's one of the best cRPGs out there IMO.

As, so its the cannoneer level that causes those annoying status incidents? Been facing a lot more of those of late and though that maybe there was some kind of patch to make ship combat more varied (and difficult). Yeah, I often do this. But unless you close in to board really fast, the reserve crew tends to regenerate annoyingly swiftly.

It's fairer that way. Well, I am still a bit on the fence with the utility of the Charm and Dominate spells for the Cipher. Will a Cipher who won't run them be a drag and not a good character? Can't I just sit back and pew-pew with an arquebus and hurl debuff and nuke spells? Sure. I barely use them myself. Consider them too annoying most of the time. Ascendant is a great class even without mind control. It's good to have the option, though. On the other hand I frequently use Secret Horrors and Mental Binding for CC (but I play a Transcendant, so both the aoe and duration is greatly boosted).

1) It works I suppose. But if you run into pierce resistant/immune enemies, then half of your attacks will underpenetrate anyway... Scepters have Recovery, so after firing one you can't react to the situation quite as fast as with firearms. But dual wielding is pretty fast, so that should still be okay. 2) It's okay for characters who don't have Full attack abilities (meaning no special attacks or mainly only use Primary attacks). It's a flexible setup with the dual-wielding speed advantage. Close up, you use your melee weapon (and can use Primary Attacks), while at range you fire the pistol/bb. Also pretty good if you want to have fast autoattack speed, but always use the same weapon (for example build speed stacks with Scordeo's Trophy). I use it with my Transcendant: Grave Calling and Kitchen Stove combo. I open combat with Thunderous Report and later smack things with the scimitar with dual-wielding speed (often my own summoned skellies), occasionally fire Kitchen Stove at range (but rarely, would rather Ascend and use cipher powers or switch to dual mortars with Stunning Blow). Characters with good Full attack abilities (such as Rogues, Paladins) are generally better of using two weapons of similar type, as they double-attack with those abilities.

Long Pain has pretty long range, probably twice the BB range. Whether you should... up to you and your build really. It's solid single target damage. But by no means necessary and lacks secondary effects (though can use it with Stunning Surge or Flames of Devotion for full attacks).

Yeah, Thunderous Report does friendly damage. But you generally only need/can fire it once per encounter. Survivsl Tools.. hm.. for example... monk can activate Blade Turning when under strrong melee attack. Cipher can quickly Paralyze with Mental Binding. Secret Horrors takes the edge of many enemies. And yeah, Ascendant is pretty much best. Cases can be for Soulblade for melee or Beguiler solely for CC.

Only if you plan to actually use it...

Why do you mention sacrificed damage? Do you believe dual pistols/blunderbusses to be a lower damage option?

Well, warbows don't have a faster Recovery then pistol reload.. particularly dual pistols or pistols with modal. Then you could have a Chanter for Ila's chant to increase the pistol's speed advantage even further. Plus Acina's Tricorn reload speed bonus. And if you want to provide effective support, firearms in general are hard to beat. With a bow you have to wait for the recovery after shooting. With firearms you can skip reload anytime, immediately cast Lay on Hands or some such and resume reloading/shooting. Nice Con score btw. You sure that is a good idea with a Helwalker?

Two handed weapons are not great for White Flames. The ability is a Full Attack triggered by each hit, so duals would provide 2x more healing. Consider dual pistols maybe? And dual mortars for aoe Stunning Surge.

It's definitely a very good idea. Personally I like a Helwalker/Ascendant Transcendant (huge boosts to aoe sizes, buff/cc/debuff/effect durations, speed boost, greatly increased damage - for both attacks and spells) . Although as been mentioned, a pure Ascendant is fine as well and reaches the best powers much sooner. One great spell that's often missed is Mental Binding. Perhaps the duration is a bit short on a typical character, but at least on a Transcendant its great! Paralyze is great hard CC. And it also has a pretty large immobilize aoe.

I didn't think SA could crit?

I like Rogue/Ranger. Though I guess Rogue/Helwalker is also fun.

Don't let wounding shot not working on secondary targets discourage you. A ranger still gets Driving Flight, which is one of the best ranged abilities. Plus high accuracy and, in case of Sharpshooter, penetration and bonus crit rate.

Yes. But it is the best dispel+interrupt.

Added Couldn’t find the proper description though. It's an upgrade called SoulBlade. Guess most folks go for Blade Feast instead (healing on Ghost Blade procs). But it's very nice of you already have Unbending, strong defenses or other nice healing / death prevention.

Nice list. You're missing Engoliero de Espirs 10% Raw lash.

I rather like this build (although those stats... 3 Con, 4 Dex? Ouch!). No Secret Horrors though? Also if this wasn't a solo build, I'd consider Ectopsychic Echo almost mandatory.

Frostseeker is rather good for characters who have high crit chance (mostly ranger, berserker and fighter). For a rogue, the aoe would have a lower trigger chance. Though a rogue multiclass with one of the above would be fine, I guess. But I still prefer the dual busses on a rogue - afflictions and DoTs with double chance (or more with bounce) and in aoe! Frostseeker aoe doesn't carry those effects (as it's a separate attack).