Haplok

This seems changed in 2.1 beta patch. Engoliero Ghost Blades are no longer triggered by kills from other abilities/effects. At least it doesn't work for tested Cipher powers. Healing on kill is nice, but with Unbending and Rapid Recovery I didn't really need it, so I opted for the nice 10% raw lash instead. Ravenous Soul Hunger is pretty awesome, yes. As for flanking, it sure is nice. But in case of Ghost Blade, the cone is REALLY wide, so it even works decently well when you're surrounded. The cone shape is more noticeable on Eager Blade aoe effect. There is now a worthy aoe competitor for the estocs: Amra Axe. It admittedly IS pretty awesome. But with single damage type, lower Penetration and no PEN modal, it can run into armor Penetration issues much more often, so is not really suited for an "Armorbreaker" build. If you do decide to go for it, do max Might (plus use items/buffs/foods/bonuses) to trigger it's special at 25 Might.

Hm, I agree it's pretty nice. But I doubt it will eliminate singular targets as fast as a Rogue. Would be nice with Disintegrate later on, though.

But that Barb will suck pretty badly prior to Blood Thirst. Although I guess it's possible to reach level 13 with little fighting. In general I'm very disappointed in how shallow Barbarians feel. They have ONE active attack prior to PL VIII and it feels very weak before you can stack massive accuracy and damage bonuses. It doesn't interrupt, it doesn't knockdown, it doesn't provide an affliction. It has a CHANCE to do semi-decent damage if it crits (but then it still feels weaksauce next to rogue generic attack no. 1). It also costs TWO rage (which can maybe be later refunded IF it kills). Shouts are maybe nice, but they are kinda weak prior to their PL NINE upgrades (when they admittedly sound very cool). Level NINETEEN for gods sake. Game's almost over then. And obviously their Carnage is neutered so that it almost might as well not exist.

When you consider you can get a helm which offers +10 accuracy to all abilities which include an affliction, +1 PL seems really weak to me. Sure it's late game... but you can get some nice helmets earlier also. Particularly if you're a multiclass, you can support various character aspects. Or stuff like Ryngrim's Visage on Blooded, which can be a real lifesaver in melee.

No, I don't think Wizard is particularly good at single target ranged damage. Sometimes he can melt a squishy target with a Necrotic Lance or Death Ray, but if the enemy is not THAT squishy, he can survive much longer then you'd wish. I think rogues and particularly scouts are much better at eliminating selected targets at range (Maia works really well). Plus they interrupt much better as well. Why Assassin / Beguiler? Because my thought was to focus on the ranged aspect - eliminating selected targets. Rogue works well here. You also want to do Crowd Control Cipher duty, so Beguiler can do that cheaply and effectively. Assassin is nice for the occasional +25 Accuracy bonus from stealth - either for a shot or to have that important CC power stick (or Disintegrate). It would be worse at aoe nuking, but you've got another character for that. Ascendant is arguably more powerful, but when you Ascend you generally want to focus on your Cipher powers. And they are generally not the best at single-target elimination.

Nature Godlikes were pretty good before nerf. Now I wouldn't take them even for casters. Death for some niche builds exploiting Barring Death's Doors (not my cup of tea). Fire might be decent on a non-PotD Barbarian/Unbending aiming for high Armor, but otherwise meh. Moon - useless. Yeah, they are way too weak IMO.

Eh, you already have one nuke, so not sure I'd take a wizard. Unless you want to mostly just bombard the screen and be done with it (which should work, but is not particularly exciting for me). Cipher Rogue could be nice, as he could be a ranged DD - often you really want to eliminate annoying back row squishy enemies ASAP - and single target ranged is the best for that. Plus he could take advantage of your tank's Persistent Distraction. Perhaps an Assassin/Beguiler then? You plan for a Willbreaker Fort debuffer, but don't seem focused on exploiting that. Although I guess that would help with a number of druid (non-storm) spells. Cipher could also benefit with Soul Ignition/Amplified Wave/Disintegration. And I guess would be nice for Wizard Combusting Wounds and beam spells. When you think about this, a Chanter would be nice also in order to aoe debuff Fort even more.

Missile Salvo

For a Mindstalker I recommend a dual-wielding Trickster/Soulblade. Trickster is durable enough to offtank, can even get some ripostes. Duals will make him fast enough. With the nerf to dual Full-Attacks, SA might actually do better damage then Rogue attacks (which on the other hand should do a nice job charging SA). With a Trickster you actually mostly spend Guile on doing damage (apart from a few cheap self-buffs), which is cool. Sadly rogues are missing speed boosts, which are IMO necessary to reasonably use two-handers.

I'd prefer either something tanky if it's melee. If it's ranged, perhaps a ranger/rogue but not with guns, I'd strongly prefer a bow user if it's a ranged character. Are there any specific builds in the sticked build list that you would recommend for either of these concepts? For a tanky offtank can't go wrong with Fighter. Unbending with Refreshing Defence and Rapid Recovery provides pretty much all the tankiness you need. Multi with a Streetfighter, activate Cleaving Stance, equip an aoe two hander like Eager Blade, Amra Axe, later Engoliero de Espirs, charge into a mob of enemies, profit.

It's... okay. I'd say comparable in power to a Rogue's Devastating Blow. of course, Focus is a less limited resource then Guile. And SA ignores enemy armor. Not really spectacular though.

Your aoe list is missing Eager Blade. Also you mention Engoliero, but only in connection with SI, while it's a pretty good general purpose aoe weapon as well. As for the OP, I'd also consider an addition of a Cipher Ascendant to the party. I'd probably go pure, though Helwalker, Ranger or Streetfighter multiclasses would work as well. Edit: You consider a Cipher. Ascendant is the best by far. You can use Charm, of course. But a cipher brings a lot more to the table. Pure Cipher gets access to cool powers much sooner. Engoliero is a bit special as it procs not only on weapon kills, but any kills u made. So it's very suitable for any build that wanna be engaged with enemies, and can blast with spells or spell-like abilities. Well, I've been testing Engoliero in 2.1 beta and it does not trigger Ghost Blades on Cipher spell kills at least. I tested Mind Blades, Ecto Echo, Mind Lance and Silent Scream kills. Perhaps some other spells/power still work... but those do not. I don't know about SI, maybe it could work still.

I think Ascendant also. Not only due to pretty cool T8&9 powers, but also to get earlier access to T6 powers.

Helwalker should be fine as a ranged character. Another option is a blunderbuss Streetfighter/Ascendant. You can pick only/mostly fast cast spells, so his recovery reduction makes his casts really rapid. Pure Cipher is good also. Waiting till level 16 for Amplified Wave / Disintegrate sucks.

Well, but a Streetfighter will work better with a two-hander. The main draws of dual-wielding are 1. Speed 2. Double affliction/trigger chance 3. Used to be Full Attack damage, but now it's not so clear anymore. A Streetfighter with Heating Up or On the Edge already got the first one in spades. And stacking speed has diminishing returns in PoE2.

Two-handers are way cooler Duals got a pretty hefty nerf.

And 3 Con.. owww. Wonder what's the Fort save.

I realize. But Engoliero is also a very nice weapon for a little stabbin action. My Devoted/Streetfighter is very fond of it, escaping/charging into a group of thugs, activating Unbending and smashin' skulls. The zombie encounter in the old city near Min's Fortune was beautiful. Eager Blade works very well for this also. And so would Amra, I believe (may sometimes have issues with Penetration though). LD Voulge is only great in the hands of a Barb (and Druid, due to different reasons), as Carnage propagates Static Charge and sadly I'm not a fan of Barbs in PoE sequel (a shame, Barbs and Ciphers were my favorite classes in PoE1).

Your aoe list is missing Eager Blade. Also you mention Engoliero, but only in connection with SI, while it's a pretty good general purpose aoe weapon as well. As for the OP, I'd also consider an addition of a Cipher Ascendant to the party. I'd probably go pure, though Helwalker, Ranger or Streetfighter multiclasses would work as well. Edit: You consider a Cipher. Ascendant is the best by far. You can use Charm, of course. But a cipher brings a lot more to the table. Pure Cipher gets access to cool powers much sooner.

Pretty sure it's also on crit - but 100%, rather then 33% for GS. Anyway, please have a look at the item descriptions on the first page. I've been playing with it a little bit with a Swashbuckler on Saturday and I liked what I was seeing.

You mean Amra? I don't think so.

The new Amra axe seems pretty sweet. Kinda like what Barb Carnage should have been. Feels significantly more impactfull then Carnage. Particularly the enchant that slays enemies under 50 HP. It synergizes very well with stuff like Cleaving Stance and other on-kill effects (such as Triumph of the Crusaders). No more annoying enemies with 15 HP left or kill stealing in a party! The base damage is pretty high on it and I guess it also includes damage modifiers, such as weapon quality and sneak attack (Carnage does not). Sure it's only on crits, but some characters can stack a pretty high crit chance. Seems like a really nice, early weapon, worth building for (you want to have that 25 Might and not wait for a chance to maybe trigger Frenzy). Well, only issue would be Penetration, as it's single damage type and the Pen value isn't impressive.

Meant Break the Bell of course.

Hm, I tried a lot of times yesterday with Strike the Bell on WotEP. Always affected only 1 target with Dazed. Finishing Strike, Confounding Blind and Crippling Strike worked as expected (I'm still on 2.01). A weird inconsistency. And a shame, as it could be an interesting defensive/offensive strategy for two handed rogues.

Don't take Double Tap on a Cipher. With that enchant, you wouldn't generate Focus in encounters with vessels. Two handed style is desirable if you plan to auto-attack. That's also potentially 15% faster Ascension.