Haplok

Well, that's perhaps true, you need to position him properly and watch out for his health.

In case of Howler, you could go Pale Elf Berserker and keep Confused when killing the first skelly you summon with Grave Calling (later you can switch to Modwyr to clear it or something). This would lead to Chillfogs that are dangerous to you as well - but they butcher your groups of skellies quickly generating many layers of deadly Chillfogs... what Metaturtle called nuclear Chillfogs... make sure you have a strong computer for that.

Well, Turning Wheel now provides 2% fire lash per Wound (20% max), was 5% (50% max). Lightning Strikes provide 15% lightning lash, was 30% Swift Strikes activation chance was nerfed also, I think. Rooting Pain used to trigger for every wound, now activation chance is nerfed. Flagellant's Path used to do a full attack vs everyone in its path. I probably missed something, but those are probably the biggest ones. That said, a dual-wielding Kind Wayfarer / Helwalker spamming White Flames with huge Might would probably still be very good. Lots of powerful healing for full party with every attack (x2).

It is not numerically possible for a Streetfighter Swashbuckler to do less damage then a Trickster Holy Slayer. Unless you were not using your Swashbuckler right and didn't trigger his specials. Swashbuckler also has much higher Crit chance, so that also can provide a benefit to on-crit effects. 40% of damage taken is possible, but it matters little with Unbending, as you can heal trough most incoming damage. Of course Paladin wins in the support department.

I disagree. I mean you don't need them for healing, but their buffs are otherwise excellent and act as force multipliers. Even Salvation of Time alone is insane when combo-ed with stuff like Blade Turning or Barring the Death's Door. Plus at high levels they can pump solid DPS with the rain of Holy Fire and Symbols.

On the bright side, you don't need to babysit him nearly as much as a Battlemage. I think that's a very decent multiclass.

You want your Priest to use Wahai Poraga and lead the charge? Well, more power to you, I guess. Regarding the ranged DPS, I'm not convinced by either the choice of classes (works, but is not optimal for DD) or of weapon (hunting bows are much stronger, but may have penetration issues; Frostseeker is probably a better Warbow choice in most scenarios for such a character with high crit potential).

If you go Devoted with two weapon damage type, then you are all set, no? Provided that it's a high Pen weapon type (like a warhammer maybe... or a pollaxe). Having mediocre dual-damage type weapon is IMO inferior to high Pen single damage type (such as estoc or stilletto). Enemies often are weak to 1 of 3 physical damage types, so there's 1/3 chance that your both damage types are in it's strong category. Meanwhile a devoted with an estoc goes trough all armor like hot knife trough butter. Only full immunity stops him.

Crippling/Arterial is your bread & butter. Cheap (1 Guile), extra Pen, good damage bonus. If it's for party play, I'm not sure it's even worth upgrading Crippling (or leave it at lower Power Level and save the ability point). I've had very little use from Pierce the Bell. It's twice as expensive, does less damage and the higher penetration only works on the primary target. It may be occasionally worth using against a boss or some golem... but frankly I'd skip it entirely. I always had better options.

That's what I'm doing. Alas the only bad thing about weapon debuff modal is only single target. That's why I was thinking of carnage aoe debuff Carnage no longer does such things. It is merely damage. However multiclass Fighters can do aoe Clear Out for group debuff. Many martial pure classes do have access to aoe attacks: Rangers get Whirling Strikes, Barbarians Heart of Fury, Monks Whispers of the Wind. Edit: Ninja'd!

I find Priests invaluable for Barring Death's Door and, at this early game, Withdraw. And Salvation of Time for stuff like Ascension, Blade Turning, Unbending, Merciless Gaze, Thunderous Blows and other mighty short-lived effects.

It's 5! Note that it seems to only work on the primary target (so won't help with mortar fire aoe for example).

Nope, my main char, the Transcendant, does

I like skellies. They swarm enemies, my wizard fires his nukes in the middle of their/enemy pac. When they are destroyed, more appears. Last but not least, my main char likes to finish them off himself with Grave Calling sabre, which causes deadly, paralyzing, party friendly Chillfogs, which even generate Focus for him.

Sure, you can do it. But if you play in the party, you can have another Chanter in your group and focus your main char on damage. For example I always multiclass Pallegina to a Chanter. That way she has huge utility. She's not a great damage dealer either way.

Not everything. Helwalker does not get +1 (safe) wound every 6 seconds when using drugs. Also Helwalker gets up to 50% more incoming damage, which is often highly risky in melee.

But Firearms have no Recovery....

Error. Error. Does not compute.

Aoe hard CC Barbarian is dead. Though Barb, particularly pure, does get some soft aoe options: Shout, eventually Frightening Spirit Tornado. There are items with solid trigger chances. Ball and Chain can be enchanted to trigger Prone on crit, I think. Rust's Poignard has 30% but for a long-lasting Prone, with additional damage effects built in against downed enemies. The itemization is great in general. Trouble is, those are single target. Carnage has been nerfed badly and no longer transports weapon effects (except Lord Darryn's Voulge Static Thunder, which in Barbarian's hand causes aoe Disorient on crit and explodes accumulated Static Thunder stacks). But there are new options. Best of them are ranged, I'm afraid. Blunderbuss mortar weapons, which target Reflex, deal slash/pierce damage in aoe... and deliver special attacks in aoe, such as Monk Stunning Blow, but also Rogue Blinding/Confounding/Gouging Strike, Crippling/Arterial Strike, Toxic Strike DoTs and such. Even better that you can dual wield them (so 2x affliction chance, 2x crit chance, 2x resource refund chance in case of Stunning Surge)! Rod Blast modal does this as well (but is slow). Plus the summoned weapons that were already present in PoE1: wizard Blights, Citzal's Spirit Lance, probably also Rotskulls, but I'm not sure. With multiclassing you can combine the ability to summon such weapons with CC abilities from another class. There are also some melee aoe weapons: Whispers of the Endless Paths GS (attacks in a cone), Wahai Poraga pollaxe (attacks up to 4 targets around, friend or foe). And for what its worth, I think the gameplay, pacing, exploration, itemization, combat is much better in PoE2. Character building is much more involved (although classes have lost a bit of their uniqueness). Also the main town hub is incomparably better.

Indeed.

Get Acina's Tricorn for even faster reload. And Maia's Shootist Garb if you're set on arquebuses.

If you want fast Ascension, you should look out for powerful active weapon abilities. The best is Kitchen Stove blunderbuss Thunderous Report. If you manage to get a few enemies in it's (huge) cone, it's almost guaranteed one-click Ascension. It's 1/encounter too. Another good option is Amira's Wing Rod Wilting Wind ability. Even easier to aim due to huge circular aoe. But it's 1/rest. So those are 2x 1-click Ascensions. At early-to-mid levels also 1 salvo from the Red Hand Arquebus should make you Ascend. Later more will be needed, but Red Hand remains my favorite caster ranged weapon (once you Ascend, you don't have to wait for Recovery but can cast immediately). Also great damage output and modal ability. I'd not trade arquebuses for arbalests. The +20 Accuracy modal is too good, particularly for Alpha strikes (when shooting from stealth, your next action is 80% quicker, so the long reload with the modal doesn't hurt much). Plus Red Hand is just sick , nothing on arbalest side compares to that baby. Keep the CC for the Cipher side, it's much better at it (Secret Horrors, Mental Binding, even Tenuous Grasp, Whispers/Puppetmaster/Ringleader, Mindlance/Amplified Wave to interrupt; maybe even Eyestrike or Phantom Foes - if you don't have an even better way to apply Blind/Flanked), don't gimp your damage - and your Focus generation. Although this is a ranger, with Driving Flight, Accurate Wounding Shot, Marked Prey and (I hope) Stalker's Link. Plus eventually Borrowed Instinct. So Accuracy will be trough the roof and single target crit rate should be pretty sick too. Another excellent option is the Frostseeker warbow then. It launches 3 projectiles per shot and causes nice aoe damage on crit... which should be plenty with high accuracy and extra driving flight projectiles. Of course, the aoe generates focus as well.

For an arquebus you don't need extra high Perception, just the modal proficiency ability. It provides.. +20 Accuracy, I think? Way more then a few points of perception. Sure it's slow... but arquebus is slow anyways.. and that way at least the hits/crits do land. Plus if you alpha strike from stealth, the first reload is almost free (80% reduced time). And level 3 is kinda low for Gorecci. I usually do it at level 4, once I did all the other "fedex" quests. Ruins are also doable at that level, but the boar/drake encounter is pretty much the toughest fight in the game for me. You definitely want consumables: bombs, healing potions. Many people also recruit custom adventurers for help: max Perception Cipher for Whispers of Treason charm or maybe Druid to charm beasts. Alternatively you can simply sneak and evade the toughest fight. But once you do beat it, you'll have an opportunity to recruit an extra character, which will strengthen your team. Also there is solid challenge later on, but rarely as much as on the first island.

Or, you know, play an Ascendant, who actually has infinite Focus starting at level 1 (for a limited time, initially, but still...). There are nice weapons in the game that can instantly max your Focus and make you Ascend (Kitchen Stove Thunderous Report, Amira's Wing Wilting Wind). Also Ascension time depends on Int score (Hint: Monk: Duality of Mortal Presence) and can be greatly extended with Cleric Salvation of Time.

Driving Flight is nice, but it won't suddenly make a bad weapon into a good one. If you used a good one instead, it would be better with Driving Flight.