Haplok

As I wrote, I didn't test pure classes ... except for Barb, I think. Yeah, the twins would be a nice perk. But for my builds they come at level 19 Blade Turning is also good... but there are also pretty nasty rangers there (plus 2 casters), so that might not be enough.

It's a good idea, to make SoT a duration multiplier (x2?) rather then a static additive.

Well, sure, but: 1. I don't really play single classes, as I feel I would be missing out on MC options 2. I care about gameplay from level 1 trough level 20 (well, actually 10-20, I'm willing to go with13-20, but not at levels 16(19)-20 only). I generally test characters at level 13, pitting them against Xaurip encounter on Neketaka island. Most fail that test, though I'm willing to provide some handicaps for "party" characters.

Remove Brilliant? Come on, why remove options? Don't you like your games to be fun? I would consider blocking Ascension from being extended though, since it probably wasn't intended to be extra long.

About BotEP, which is a good single-target, yes, but also about Eager Blade. As for 1h choices: Grave Calling? That's on vessel kill only, right? A cool trick with a Chanter is possible, but Can the ChillFog penetrate most enemies on PotD? Hel Beckoning? Come on, Fort save? Sounds weak. Sungrazer I haven't used, so don't know the magnitude of the effect, but it needs BOTH a kill AND critical hit to trigger? Typically two-handers require EITHER kill (Engoliero, Oathbreaker) or crit (Amra, LDV) or some other effect (hitting near dead enemies for Eager Blade). Requiring both, it'd seem not very likely to trigger very often. Or did you mean the 5% chance effect?

One handed weapons have some nice enchantments, but in principle are missing out in the aoe damage area (except some weak elemental bursts). Meanwhile some 2h weapons have nice aoe effects. Eager Blade is one of those.

Are you playing on 2.1? Full Attack playing field is now significantly more balanced, at least damage-wise. I don't feel I'm doing inferior damage with a two-hander anymore. Less chances to land afflictions, slower reactions, sure.

It's convenient either way IMO. AND together with a high crit rate, it can often lead to Overpenetration bonus +30% damage. So I would definitely not discount it.

BUT on the other hand, estocs have high Penetration AND a modal which trades Deflection (which isn't important for many characters) for even more Penetration. So they are the kings of Penetration.

There are unique pets? LOL! Too bad I don't play either Monks or Barbarians. I really don't like classes that revolve around getting bonuses by taking maluses - especially health damage. P.S. I asked this during PoE 1, but I am wondering if the answer is different in PoE 2: Can you play Barbarian without using any of those skills that give maluses - such as Frenzy? I just don't want to lose health or take other maluses to get something. Cutthroat Cosmo is a bit unique, but Abraham dog is fine (actually better for melee) and can be found in the first district of the main city hub. So not really unique. If you don't want to use Barbarian's special, you should play a Fighter instead. Or even a ranger or paladin. A fighter is a VERY good multiclass melee character material. Whoah, I didn't know. Thanks. I will take a look. I also heard that Rangers now have a sub-class that doesn't use pets; but then isn't that no better than a Rogue or a Fighter shooting, since the Ranger's power comes from the additional damage that the pet provides? So I am still not sold on Rangers. And yes, I will check the Lady of the Pain. Ghost Heart ranger. It's not that he doesn't use pets - he doesn't have to. He needs to actively summon them and doesn't suffer if they die. And each class has its advantages. Fighter is very tanky and has nice stances, which can help with engagement and provide free attacks on kill, great hit-to-crit and graze-to-hit conversions for dependency also has nice knockdown interrupts and at higher levels, nice aoe attack. Not the best ranged material, as you don't usually need to be very tanky then and the cleaving stance, knockdown don't work with ranged. Rogue sure, is an excellent ranged DD with heavy sneak attack and ability damage bonuses plus afflictions. Ranger on the other hand is the master of stacking accuracy (so it also crits a lot) and his ranged attacks can bounce to additional targets. But nothing's stopping you from multiclassing say a ranger and a rogue.

I would not try to solo with a Berserker/Streetfighter. I'm sure Devoted/Streetfighter can do it.

What's the best 2H weapon? Melee: 1A. Citzal's Spirit Lance Most consistent high dps if you can have it being a wizard or a wizard/x. Probably best with wizard/monk but wizard/zerker its really good too 1B. Amra and Lord Darryn's Voulge* LDV is at this tier on a barbarian only because carnage does apply the static charge on multiple enemies. Both weapons are easy to get and LDV can be upgraded very fast - but only to superior but on a barb it is still does excellent damage even as superior. Late game when you can upgrade AMRA to legendary that one may have a slight edge. 1C. Oathbreaker and Espirs as well as Wohai Poraga* The first two are Late game weapons I guess. In terms of damage, they do "bigger" bursts of damage than the above but are less consistent in overall dps. Wohai is a special case and is only at this tier on special riposte rogue/tank builds that want to become surrounded by enemies and then attack back when enemies miss you. But in such a build Citzals is still probably better on a Rogue/Wizard 2A. Voidwheel best single target 2h edging out amra late game in single target dps at the cost of aoe splash 2B. Effort - on certain suicide retaliation builds but Oathbreaker is I think better on those The rest are stopgaps Ranged: 1A Minor Blights* on a riposte wizard/rogue you can dual wield these with Tuotilio's Palm shield for great damage, oops this is not a two handed weapon though OK traditional 2 handed ranged weapons: 1A. option 1 Aamina's Legacy doesn't look spectacular but it is the most efficient at getting the job done as long as you can have the hunting bow fast modal active and hit (stack/increase accuracy) and have enough penetration (stack and increase penetration) 1A option 2 The Red Hand It's more bursty than the Hunting bow obviously - with +20% damage done it is equal to Aamina's Legacy in overall dps though minus rng. Also does not run into the penetration problems but may run into pierce immune problem. If you can stack the other enchantment on it - the +40% damage done/ damage taken one and not rest then yes it is the highest ranged dps weapon out there and will do 15-25% more dps than Aamina's depending on rng. A note on Frostseeker - yeah the best "aoe" two handed ranged weapon, but results of dps will be very much less spectacular than the above weapons unless you deliberately stack enemies all the time for the aoe splash damage. that said it depends on party setup and tactics, if you have a tank that locks down all the mobs around them like a swashbuckler this weapon is naturally a good idea to use if you are not going with the mortars. Nice list. But IMO it's not complete without Eager Blade. This estoc is also end-game worthy IMO, although Engoliero de Espirs is probably slightly better overall. But nothing to sneeze at with extra cone aoe damage when hitting Near Death targets, 10% to void recovery, stacking bonus speed & accuracy on crit plus a random boost every encounter, like extra 10% Damage/ +1 Armor/ +4 Deflection. BotEP is a nice single target estoc too with high stacking Accuracy bonuses, 15% speed bonus and crit damage bonus, like AndreaColombo mentioned. Also Whispers of the Endless Paths is a very interesting, if niche, weapon. But you did include Wahai Poraga, which is arguably even more niche, Effort, which is definitely more niche and LDV, which is cool, but again, really great only for Barbarians and Druids. WotEP deals low damage (like Wahai Poraga), but works in an aoe cone attack. Which also can deliver special attacks (stun, blind, hobble and so on)/DoTs to multiple targets at once. Plus it has Crush lash, extra attack range, nice Retaliation/Attack speed enchants and nice special attacks (aoe 360 deg. attack/high damage single target impale).

Yeah, some weapons have a speed bonus. Like Blade of the Endless Paths has 15% Recovery Reduction and Eager Blade has an enchant that lowers recovery each time you score a crit - up to 4 stacks, I think (and has 10% to void recovery for next attack).

Nowadays nature godlike is only +1 PL.

Fun fact: Probably not intended, but Amra's Temper Frenzy-like speed effect stacks with Spirit Frenzy.

Helwalker with two-hander for solo? Oww. Though on Veteran maybe that will pass. Should have went Swashbuckler IMO

Pierce is the only really tricky type, crush almost always works as well as slash. Basically, if you can get slash pen on around 16 you are set. That is why devoted type saber is still the way to go for damage. I don't really agree that pierce is tricky. Well sure, skellies. And once in a blue moon lurkers. Apart from those 2, high Pen pierce weapons beat all armor. IMO high Pen single type weapons are better then low/medium Pen dual damage types. Some enemies have pretty high armor vs many damage types.

If you really care about CC (mass, as opposed to single target, like Rust's or Ball and Chain), your best bet is a monk using stunning blow with dual aoe mortars IMO. Combine it with Rogue Streetfighter for solid damage as well.

Well, knockdown has been nerfed as an effect and it is little more then an interrupt now. There are some weapons which trigger it. Ball and Chain and Rust's Poignard come to mind. The latter even has a special, 10 second, version. In general those effects are quite rare. On the other hand, there are weapons with aoe effects (blunderbuss mortars, Whispers of the Endless Paths greatsword, Wahai Poraga pollaxe, rods with modal), which can deliver special attacks, such as monk's Stunning Blow, Rogue's Blinding and Crippling Strike, Fighter's Knockdown (not on ranged), various DoTs, to multiple enemies.

Yeah, I also don't pick those evil options. But I wonder about Llengrath's boon. I believe I picked that option in the history generator, but I don't think I have it.

The possibilities include sacrificing on of your party members to Skaen's Blood Pool and absorbing the souls from Heritage Hill to increase your power. I played a good character, so I don't pick those evil options.

Of course there are also normal crit rolls, without conversion. But they are not a given when facing challenging enemies. Vs trash you crit a lot of course. Plus with maxed ring that's more like 31% conversion I guess.

Hm, that's like ~28% conversion? Not bad. But before you get the ring and over 200.000 GP that's closer to 19%. And that's pretty far off. I tend to consider all non-fighter, non-berserker, non-ranger builds as low-crit. Perhaps wrongly. Still for most of the game, 19% to do 25% more damage (for an undefined number of crits) is 4,75% more damage on average. 28% to do 25% more damage on crits leads to 7% more damage on average. I think I'll take +10% melee damage always. Even though you also TAKE 10% more melee damage.. but I don't think this build is particularly squishy and it has got access to strong defensive powers (why I also don't care that much about the other Precognition effect, which takes the edge of undefined number of enemy crits). Plus if it gets hot you can switch to "Refusal" mode for -10% damage.

Well, either you configure a PoE1 history at the start, pick one of the pre-generated ones or import an end-game save from PoE1. For me there are 2 important points: reforging Blade of the Endless Paths (which will end up in pieces anyway... but at least you'll have them) and fate of Devil of Caroc. If you want arguably the best armor in the game, then make her spare Harmke/die/sacrifice her.

Which is a pity actually.