Haplok

I thought you wanted to do aoe damage with Lord Darryn's Voulge and Carnage? If so, Might is pretty much the only thing that modifies those (and Power Level in case of Carnage at least). You don't want to dump Might if you want to rely on Voulge's Static Charge or Engoliero's Ghost Blades or Oathbreaker's DoT. And isn't something like Boltcatchers gloves better for melee damage - and style? Note that difference in Dexterity is only minor once you get the bonuses rolling. When you have trouble getting Flanked/Blooded, before you score the first kill, or in a fight vs a single strong enemy it might be good not to act slowly like moleasses.

You're spot on. It's probably one of the 3 top Ascendant multiclasses. Extended Ascension and debuff/buff effects, huge aoe sizes plus increased damage from Might is all great. And it's not as gimmicky and requires less coordination as an Ascendant Streetfighter. Also I probably prefer it to Ascendant/Ranger, who excels at single target accuracy. Although the other 2 probably build Focus even faster. But Ascendant/Monk is definately fast enough as well. And provides the best synergy IMO. Red Hand is good for single targets - bosses, eliminating nasty casters in the back. Also provides a lot of Focus (don't take the Vessel destroying upgrade - it gives no Focus). But aoe weapons like dual mortars have really good synergy with high Int and with Stunning Blow/Surge you can disable whole vulnerable groups for a long time. You generate a lot of Focus and with so many targets, you're very likely to refund the Mortification cost with Surge. Kitchen Stove blunderbuss Thunderous Report special (1 per encounter) is really nice also for a HUGE aoe cone, HUGE damage, long lasting Daze.. and instant Ascension. Note that 2 of those tools (Red Hand and Thunderous Report) would also work very well on a pure Cipher. Well, a little less damage then Helwalker and, in case of Thunderous Report, smaller aoe and Dazed duration. But on the other hand, you not only get acccess to PL VIII and IX with some VERY powefull stuff there (Time Parasite! and Death of 1000 Cuts), but also get access to all powers much sooner. Borrowed Instinct at level 9 instead of level 13, Amplified Wave and Disitegrate at level 11 rather then 16... that makes a huge difference.

Actually that's 3,7x normal - or additional 270% damage.

That's true of course. Scouts would deal a lot more damage. And yeah, Rogue can applied more varied afflictions... but a Monk can entirely disable vulnerable groups in a single attack. It'd be a nice crowd control option, with long duration due to monk Int bonus.

...or dual mortars (particularly against enemies with weak reflex, as they roll against reflex). If you can fit Stunning Blows/Surge somewhere in there, with rod aoe or dual mortars you can stunlock large enemy groups - for a long time with Duality. Also if you crit (and you should with multiple attacks vs multiple targets), you refund the skill cost.

I'd use the Deadfire Apparel hat for Perception Resistance. So that when you're hit by Blind, it becomes downgraded to Disoriented and you don't loose additional 10 Accuracy. Then you can freely cast Chill Fog on top on the monster group/Marauder and trigger Heating Up - Flanked or not. It's Fortitude based, but you'll probably fail on a pulse eventually - and the effect duration is very long. Disoriented is supposed to cost you recovery speed as well, but it seemed buggy in my tests and generally I seemed to be attacking just as fast. For that reason (or other Perception debuffs, like Blunderbuss Powder Burns, enemies casting one of the 4? blinding spells or the Rogue blinding ability), I'd not pick Slippery Mind on that character. Personally, I'd probably prioritize Devastating Blow before Tough. And not sure about Withering/Toxic Strike. If you plan to have other rogues in your party, perhaps they would be better suited to spread the DoTs with some aoe weapon (mortars, rod blast, Spirit Lance, WotEP). Marauder would probably kill rapidly and not worry about single target DoTs (with high resource cost) much... or maybe I'm mistaken.

Swift Flurry... which does not stack with Frenzy speed. Apart from the +5 Dex part. We were speaking about melee barbarian, so good luck stacking Accuracy with Enduring Dance.

At level 19 with Heartbeat Drumming? As opposed to Streetfighter right from level 1? Also compare the damage output... Ravager can compensate a bit by attacking crowds with Raised Torment but....

Yeah, with dual weapons and some other good bonuses, it's okay not to have the Streetfighter bonus for me. But two-handed or single weapon/shield are just too slow once you get used to that speed...

Pure Berserk also gains access to Rage recovery on kill (which he should be doing a lot of). Pick 2 awesome PL IX abilities out of 3. And regarding Streetfighter... well particularly for two-handed combat... once you taste Streetfighter speed its damn hard to go back to moving like molasses. Sure there's Blood Thirst... but you need to be pretty high level (unless pure) and score the first kill.

Sure, Devoted is a good pick. But personally what is off-turning for me is that with other classes I can use any weapon well. With Devoted I would be locked to Voulge and maybe Wahai Poraga. While otherwise late game I could play with the likes of Engoliero de Espirs, Voidwheel or the new Oathbreaker's End.

My issue with that is having to remain bloodied and/or flanked to proc the Streetfighter's bonuses. And I really don't like relying on Blunderbusses to achieve that, if at all possible. Well, one solution is to have your party wizard cast Chill Fog within combat area. You'll probably fail the save... eventually. Even better if you have the Defiant Apparel hat, as it will downgrade the Blindness and remove the 50% speed and 10 Accuracy malus. Of course sometimes you can afford to get Flanked. My understanding is that Shattered Pillar is not so good nowadays. Needs to use lots of basic attacks to gain Wounds. And better forget about Blade Turning.

That IS pretty cool. Although I'm still not sure if it's enough to make a pure Pally. Particularly considering its PL IX...

Power Level III, so that's level 7. Cost is 1 Guile, so he can potentially cast it many more times then a Wizard.

Barbarian can terrify by itself with Spirit Tornado, which also does damage and only costs 1 rage. Good point. At Power Level VII though. I generally don't think about such late abilities much. I want to have usefull skills when I play the game, not when I finish it. Although that's still reasonable on a pure Barb I guess. But Trickster would add his own bag of tricks: be more tanky and able to cause significantly more damage (with sneak, abilities like Devastating Blow and eventually Deathblows). Eh, well, better not to think too much. Focus... My current Streetfighter / Sharpshooter finally reached level 13. That's the furthest I got so far...

Hmm, I'm currently using a streetfighter. most OP class ever. But now I'm using dual Blunderbusses, don't feel like switching all the time with melee weapons. There are other ways (including getting blooded, which should be easy), but maybe something else. Hmm, maybe Berserk/Trickster would work? Far less damage and speed, but still some nice damage boosts, awesome abilities like Finishing/Devastating Blow and Repulsive Visage to have everyone around tremble with fear would be pretty cool.

Yeah, thank you for confirming. I'm always tempted to go back to my initial Berserker Voulge builds. Always uncertain which build to go with though. Berserk/Helwalker? - nah, too squishy. Berserk/Streetfighter? - maybe, but can't always end up with the Streetfighter, right? Maybe Brute? Or maybe pure? That'd be a novelty that could actually work.

Ascension doesn't change the action speed on it's own, though. And that was Teclis' question. Yeah, you can use some methods for speed stacking, like Scordeo's, maybe even the special foods but those are not connected with Ascension.

They are not faster, unless you use TimeParasite (not available to multiclasses) or stack speed otherwise.

On the other hand, a properly geared Ascendant shouldn't take much longer to reach Ascension again then it takes to cast SoT and recover... Even less if he's a strong multiclass with something other then a Priest...

Disregarding rogue abilities, which he can spam almost from the start, is frankly crazy. Already Crippling Strike is excellent for its cost. Then you get stuff like Finishing / Devastating Blow with sick damage modifiers against damaged enemies. I don't have Devastating yet, but already enjoy up to 200% extra damage (plus 90% sneak). Frankly nothing on the Barbarian side compares to this damage potential (except HoF I guess but that's for pure barbs) .

Well, best rogue is still undisputably Streetfighter. At least for characters who care abour DPS and are not above using some gimmicks.

An interesting idea. But there is one issue with that. Firearms have the huge, often overlooked advantage of having no recovery. They do have reload but you can immediately interrupt it if you want to cast spells or use items. In case of double rod modal attack, you'd be stuck in a long recovery (or weapon switch) animation after the second shot. This is particularly bad for an Ascendant who wants to spam spells ASAP when ascended. This is another reason I prefer Red Hand, pistols or mortars to hunting bows or Frostseeker.

As above. Plus probably Red Hand as the main weapon (avoid vessel destroying upgrade, as it provides no focus).

Twinned Shot is only for bows. So a multiclass would be better. Rogues probably prefer 2 weapons to better life the full attacks though (pistols or blunderbusses). I guess Big Game Hunter would work well.