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I have always played Grounded solo "offline" without making xbox account, so there should be no other players in my world, why is there now suddenly "OfflineUser" in my world all of a sudden? I am not sure if this is related to some new feature after recent update, or is this a bug. I have +200 hours in this game and i never remember seeing this before, Aphid Chris from your discord told me to make a bug report. - Pc, Steam - Save file has 80 in-game days, ~200 real life hours, custom mode - Started seeing this after this new recent 1.4 Fully Yoked update - I have never played in multiplayer mode, i have never created xbox account, i have never connected my game with any xbox account - This "OfflineUser" tag was about 100 meters in front of me when i logged in to my save and saw it first time.

[CLASS BUILD] Lodefens - Wild Orlan Paladin - Shieldbearer of St. Elcga This is a standard paladin built on achieving highest deflection possible. In the beginnig there was no way to progress with MAX Resolve, so i went for an offensive build until Act II, then I put all in RES. For Llengrath I maxed MIG and CON instead, to avoid dragons abilities and wizards spells. "I won't fall!" (Lodefens motto) PoTD: YES (ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST) SOLO: YES (ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST) Race: Wild Orlan (+2 Perception, +1 Resolve, -1 Might, Defiant Resolve) Culture: Aedyr (+1 RES) Background: Laborer (+1 Mechanics, +1 Athletics) Attributes Initial (with bonus and malus): MIG 17 COS 10 DES 18 PER 18 ACU 10 RIS 5 Act 2 and after (with bonus and malus): MIG 17 COS 10 DES 10 PER 10 ACU 11 RIS 20 See battle against Llengrath for specific respec values. Skill score at 15th level: Athletics: 3 (0 +2 Paladin +1 Laborer) Survive: 2 Mechanics: 7 (6 +1 Laborer) Stealth: 9 Lore: 6 (5 +1 Paladin) At 16th level with respec put enough points to get 6 in Survive, 7 point in Lore and the rest in Athletics. Talents and abilities 1° level: Flames of Devotion 2° level: Two weapons style 3° level: Zealous Focus +6 Accuracy, +15% of Grazes converted to Hits 4° level: Weapon Focus Noble (Rapier, Dagger, Mace) Before Maerwald respec in: 1° level: Lay on Hands 2° level: Weapon and Shield Style 3° level: Zealous Endurance 4° level: Shielding Touch 5° level: Inspiring Triumph Continuing with: 6° level: Deep Faith 7° level: Liberating Exhortation 8° level: Superior Deflection 9° level: Flames of Devotion Before Cail respec in: 1° level: Lay on Hands 2° level: Weapon and Shield Style 3° level: Zealous Endurance 4° level: Shielding Touch 5° level: Sworn Enemy --> here there's only this one or Flames of Devotion 6° level: Deep Faith 7° level: Liberating Exhortation 8° level: Superior Deflection 9° level: Righteous Soul (the only defensive ability at 9th level) 10° level: Cautious Attack Continuing with: 11° level: Deprive the Unworthy (no other defensive abilities) 12° level: Greater Lay on Hands 13° level: Sacred Immolation 14° level: Graceful Retreat 15° level: Abjuration (useful against spirits, no choice for defensive abilities) 16° level: Fast Runner (+5 disengaging) While abilities are always the same choice, you can go for 2 alternatives set of talents after 10th level: First set (more balanced): Weapon and Shield Style Shielding Touch Deep Faith Superior Deflection Cautious Attack Shielding Flames (or Deep Pockets) Fast Runner Graceful Retreat Second set (full defensive): Weapon and Shield Style Shielding Touch Deep Faith Superior Deflection Cautious Attack Snake's Reflexes Bear's Fortitude Bull's Will See Leengrath fight for specific choice for that battle. End game equipement (see notes below for eq used during the run) Weapon set 1: Captain Viccilo's Anger (Legendary, Shocking lash, Durganized, Salying Vessel) + Aila Braccia (Superb, Durganized) Weapon set 2: Bittercut (Superb, Corrisive lash, Durganized, Slaying Beast) + Little Savior (Superb, Durganized) Head: Garodh's Chorus (Preservation) Neck: Cape of the Master Mystic or Mantle of the Excavator Armor: Ryona's Breastplate (full upgraded) Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy or Gauntlets of Swift Action or Siegebreaker Gauntlets Ring 1: Ring of protection Ring 2: Iron Circle or Ring of Changing Heart Waist: Looped Rope Feet: Viettro's Formal Footwear or Boots of Speed or Fenwalkers or Boots of Stability Pet: Concelhaut's Skull Note: St. Wygelt's Cudgel fits weel with this built, you can use also this weapon if you like. See videos for situational equipment. Now a diary and some consideration about the run with equipment used. Initial Equipments were: Fulvano's Equipment Breastplate or Brigadine Rapier + Dagger or Mace Raedric Loot At Raedric's Keep I looted: Gauntlets of Accuracy +5 ACC Ring of Searing Flames Bluntig belt Boot of Stealth Gloves of Manipulation Fine Rapier Fine Large Shields Fine Brigadine Fine Mail Armor Fine Breastplate Several others fine weapons (Pike, Spear, Hatchet etc.) For Maerwald I bought Outworn Buckler. This is my battle agains him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdnAYzQgSO4 At Defiance Bay I bought the Sword of Prix and enchanted it with Slaying Kith e Burning Lash, and bought Hanover's Fist of Dodm and enchanted it with Slaying Vessels and Shocking Lash. In Defiance Bay I had been wearing Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath or Äru-Brekr. I did ALL side quest of Act 2 before The Hermit of Hadret House. I did Missing Sentries with some nice bonuses from Serel, getting 19 MIG, 18 CON and 8 Athletics (without points in it). I did also Clandestine Cargo at 7th, and Cail The Silent at 10th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us4dIDH5zsA I completed WM1 at 10th level, no need for Scroll of Prayer Against Imprisonment for Lagufaeths, I used mostly Resolution with Slaying Wilders and Corrode Slash. For Galvino's workshop I used St. Ydwen Redeemer (upgraded to last stage using The Ring of Wonder for Second Chance). At level 11th I did Iklak, The Dweller and Cyrdel, to level at 12th. Done Durgan Battery with some pulling, but enough easely. Taken The Unlabored Blade and Ryona's BreastPlate, with some difficulty to kill the Bleak Walkers (some of them have 133 deflection!). Now Eyeless at Iron Flail Fort: St. Ydwen's Redeemer, 5 potions di Llengrath's Displaced Image and 5 of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion with Gauntlets of Accuracy bonus +10 against vessels from Survive and splitting them with 3 shadows: killed almost easily.. Before Kaoto I upgraded Steadfast to last stage and retrieved Rundl's Finery. Abbey: flooded Lower Tide quarters, retrieved Mantle of the Excavator and Abydon's Hammer, now I'm 14th. Atsur at Caed Nua! Done the Kraken at 14th with Bittercut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzffqMZIM0 Now I'm going to ACT 3. Kerdhed Pames e Rêghar Konnek for doing Prisons of Ice, killing mostly of Pale Elfs. Taken Blooded Hunter and leveled at 15th. Taken Berath's boon (another +1 RES and +5 against Paralyzed and Petrified). Did At the Mercy of the Tribes and gained Wild Running. Got Song of the Heavens. Oh, ok, the Sky Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op85_i6lVmQ Retrieved Looped Rope at 16th level. At late game you can achieve 185 of Deflection with potions and abilities and 33 Resolve (37 with Redeemer): I took Executioner's Hood and Siegebreaker Gauntlets, they stacks (+10 ACC), but mostly I had worn Garodh's Chorus and Gauntlets of Accuracy. Done ALL bounties except Brynlod... Now Concelhaut, Baelorin and company I had to split them, no problems with Concelhaut apprentices save for Sabel (split/pulling the Skeletons). Concelhaut was easy (tactic involved Wizard's Double, Scroll of Minoletta's Concussive Missiles, Bittercut, Godansthunyr, Aila Braccia and Outworn Buckler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9RhBlbJjNI And now Sefyra with Scale-breaker, 10 Scrolls of Missile Barrage, Infestation of Maggots from Bittercut, Confusion (5), paralysis (5), ring of +4 INT, helm of +4 MIG, coat of +4 PER, shoes of +4 DEX, Wayfare's Hide Durgan Reinforced and +2 Resolve, Steadfast, Aila Braccia and Outworn Buckler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2NrcOcma3o For fun I've done The Champion of Berath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZZFo5IVxk Last (but not least) bounty, Brynlod with 6 charmes, 2 dominates and some Maelstroms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCGTQRPve5s For Alpine Dragon I "cheated" a little, put all my fiches on high defense, took foes as a shield killing the Dragon with Persistence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tg3witmUc And in the end Llengrath (I took inspiration from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7SRHml-k4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3iFg1qZT80&t=26s ) : And, finally, Thaos. Very easy with the Redeemer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9SfCeiGUg

[BUILD GUIDE] - The Soul Devourer (5.0) Class - Blood Mage / Soul Blade (Hierophant) Concept - Mass drain focus with Citzal's Spirit Lance and use soul annihilation for mass slaughter. This build has extremely high defenses thanks to equipment, various wizard defense spells, and the amazing cipher spell Borrowed Instinct. We also have spectacular accuracy and crit nearly every hit. Use Pull of Eora to group enemies so we can maximally build focus and annihilate souls. Slaughter kith, wilders, monsters, and...destructibles, to drain their souls and build max focus. This build works with any alignment but is particularly suited for EVIL playthroughs as you're rewarded for slaughtering everything for their souls and their spells. I even killed a temple full of Dawnstars. But not the younglings... POTD - YES SOLO - YES, in fact this build can handle the Ultimate challenge (link below). Companions - Not necessary but would work well in any party as a striker / off-tank. ----------- Why play this class? I was inspired towards soul blade builds after watching Sarcastic Sarcophagae's ultimate run using a soul blade / ranger, and I started thinking about whether we really needed the ranger part, and no, you don't, though ranger makes it easier to proc focus gain since you can kill the pet over and over. I wanted to create a god-like character that felt like a kensai/mage from Baldur's Gate 2. Capable of single-handedly blitzkrieging large groups of enemies. Despite being a blood mage multiclass, we use very few offensive spells. This is very much a melee build and ideal for a no-rest run. ----------- RACE: Coastal Aumaua for might resistance. Wild Orlan, wood elf, mountain dwarf, and human are also decent choices, but really you can use any race besides maybe godlikes, since the helmet we use is important. BACKGROUND: Old Vailia - Artist (mechanics/history/insight) Effigy's Resentment: Maneha (+1 MIG is not quite as good as +1 INT, but we get +5 resistance to might afflictions which is great) STATS MIG - 13 base, 19 final (+2 Auamaua, +1 Gift from Machine, +1 Maneha, +2 Alchemic Brawn, + items and +5 from tenacious/energized) CON - 9 base, 13 final (+2 Alchemic Brawn, +2 Konstanten's Boon, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Robust) DEX - 14 base, 18 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +2 Amira's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Deleterious) PER - 18 base, 22 final (+2 Alchemic Guile, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Savage Cunning, plus items and +5 from Eldritch Aim) INT - 18 base, 22 final (+1 Old Vailia, +2 Alchemic Wits, +1 Konstanten's Boon, +1 Cauldron's Shard, plus items and +5 from Infuse or Brilliant) RES - 3 base, 9 final (+2 Alchemic Wits, +2 Nature's Resolve, +2 Rikuhu's Blessing, plus items and +5 from Pyschovampiric Shield) It is easy for us to proc inspirations for everything but might (but that can be done too). In battle the stats are typically something like 26/20/24/28/29/14 --------------- To cheese or not to cheese? This build will work fine in parties and likely solo on lower difficulties without using "cheese" strategies. But the cheese is so good. Don't you want to ascend to godhood? Cabalist's Gambeson and Strand of Favor are used to extend many buffs, most important of which is the soul blade's max focus buff. For every melee kill you get +10 max focus for IDK, something like 60 seconds, but we can extend that and end up with 15000+ focus by late game, which translates to starting battles with something like 3500 focus! This lets us zerg dangerous enemies when needed, or whenever we feel like it. In addition, blood mage's minor grimoire imprint can STEAL SPELLS, permanently. This is super useful in general but especially for solo, trial of iron runs, and ESPECIALLY ultimate runs. We can steal spells like Escape, Withdraw, Nature's Balm (Robust!), Halt, and even watershaper spells like Ondra's Whip and a party friendly Chill Fog! Any spell that's level 3 or lower, and an enemy has it, we can steal it. It works like this. DO NOT memorize Minor Grimoire Imprint. Carry a grimoire with Minor Grimoire Imprint. Easiest to get is Aloth's grimoire. Cast minor grimoire imprint on the enemy. If it hits (vs fortitude), a random level 1 to 3 spell the caster knows is stolen and shows up in your quick bar. Most enemies know 2 spells per level, but a few like Eamund the Fox know more (has ten L1 to L3 spells). We can make the theft PERMANENT by swapping to another grimoire and back after we steal it. In this way you can get every level 1 to 3 wizard spell for free (wizard spells don't show up in the quick bar), provided it isn't learned already, plus any level 1 to 3 priest or druid spells you'd want, such as Barbs of Condemnation, Divine Mark, Pillar of Faith, Nature's Mark, etc. etc. But don't steal TOO MANY, not sure what happens when the quick bar extends to the edge of the screen. The spells I stole on my ultimate run were these: every wizard spell I could (because no renewable resources, and just because), withdraw, restore, nature's balm, the moon's light, chill fog (watershaper version), Ondra's whip, Escape, Barbs of Condemnation, and Halt. You can get most of these (minus the wizard spells) from two encounters: Beina, who is a priest of skaen and has other priests in her party, and the watershaper Biakara. These encounters are relatively easy even for solo, and you can watch me do them in Video 13. ------------------- FOOD: Hylea's Bounty! You can get it at the start of the game if you pledged to Hylea in POE1 (everything good import has it). So we can immediately have +2 to all skills which is SUPER helpful in the early game, and the entire game really. It's also GREAT for combat. We get +25% max health, which allows us to dump CON a bit, and even better, +10 to ALL defenses. This is by far the best food in the game for this build. If you have to rest later, I guess I'd go with Captain's Banquet or Shark's Soup for the immunities mainly, but the combat buffs are also excellent. You'll be squishier without Hylea's Bounty buffs though, and skill checks are tougher, and more important you lose your per-rest buffs like Dawnstar's Blessing, so try to avoid resting! ------------------- SKILLS: In the early game, stealth is most important active, then mechanics. Later we want some athletics. With a luminous Adra potion, Hylea's bounty, and the various unguents, plus training, your BASE for every skill should be 7 with no points in it. For passives, early we want lots of diplomacy and a little survival. Once you get the GiftBearer's Cloth, pump history as much as you can. For a solo run I wouldn't take it past 12 points invested (which with other bonuses gave me 20 history and +15 to defenses). My late-game skill investment was something like Arcana 3, Athletics 7, mechanics 9, diplomacy 5, history 12, survival 3. Diplomacy and survival can be boosted with items to around 15 which is enough to pass most checks. ------------------- ABILITIES I went through most of the game without taking a single wizard spell, because you can get almost everything you need from Llengrath's Martial Mysteries and Aloth's Grimoire, but eventually I took Pull of Eora because it is really good and I have one or two ability choices that are somewhat free. Here is my suggestion for what to take leveling up as you go. Grab pull of eora at L10 to L12 or do what I did and cast from grimoire and take it late. 1 - Eldritch Aim and Tenuous Grasp (EA is hard to find as stealable spell plus it is just great, TG is a .5s cast but take whatever cipher side) 2 - Iron Will (!)- +15 to will. Will is probably the most important defense on a solo run and iron will STACKS with bull's will! 3 - Lingering Echoes - your cipher spells lasting longer is pretty nice, but mostly we take this because there's nothing better to take 4 - Psychovampiric Shield (!) and TwoHanded - PVS effectively gives +10 accuracy vs the enemy and gives us Steadfast, and a .5s cast! 5 - Draining Whip (!) - Once you build tons of focus you might want to switch to Biting Whip, but I stuck with draining whole game. 6 - Mental Binding - this one is a bit free, Phantom Foes also a good choice but doesn't stack other flank debuffs like Chill Fog 7 - Hammering Thoughts (!) and Bear's Fortitude (!) - HT +1 weapon penetration is amazing, and our fortitude is a bit low 8 - Secret Horrors - really good debuff over huge area, especially for minor grimoire imprint, and a .5s cast 9 - Weapon and Shield Style - before summoning weapons we want a shield for the bonus deflection, so why not get reflex and more deflection? 10 - Body Attunement and Bull's Will - nothing great on cipher side, but BA is situationally useful vs enemies with high AR 11 - Secrets of Rime - for chill fog 12 - Heart of the Storm - becomes relevant when we proc Lord Darryn's Voulge and Conduit (or take pull of eora and this at 19) 13 - Borrowed Instinct (!!) and Tough - the build starts to become very powerful now we have Borrowed Instinct and Citzal's Spirit Lance 14 - Uncanny Luck - hit to crit always welcome, could also take Rapid Casting or Farcasting, we eventually take all 15 - Rapid Casting - get the buffs up faster 16 - The Empty Soul (!) and Improved Critical (!) - TES +10 ACC vs will with the cipher spells we really need to hit (PVS and BI) 17 - Martial Caster - Summon that weapon a little faster 18 - Farcasting - moderately useful, +20% range on most spells (doesn't apply to escape sadly) 19 - Echoing Horror (!) and Pull of Eora - EH is like a perma-frighten and POE means no more grimoire swapping 20 - Psychic Backlash - Kind of free, could sub Recall Agony, Phantom Foes, Ringleader, Arms Bearer, or a wizard spell MODALS Club (!), Quarterstaff (!), Medium Shield (!), Small Shield (!), Pike, Rapier, Morningstar (last two don't really matter, and pike modal not that great) None of these are super important besides maybe quarterstaff since we use summoned weapons, but the small shield and medium shield especially are nice to reduce damage before we summon the weapon. Club kinda useful early to reduce will. GOD POWER Mien of Death's Herald or Ire of Death's Herald (give Intuitive and Energized respectively). For Mien be diplomatic in god conversations and for ire be aggressive. Intuitive is the only Tier 3 we can't otherwise get, but it isn't *that* much better than aware. Energized is much better than Tenacious for the interrupts which hit your primary and secondary lance targets. But...we can get Energized through other means. In a no rest run these abilities can be used once, so you want to extend them and not lose them. Can wear Effigy's Husk to keep Energized, though you sacrifice some armor and reflex/will compared to Magnera's Chain. It is better vs enemies that use lots of might afflctions though. I took Ire of Death's Herald, and...I forgot to use it. --------------- EQUIPMENT WE WEAR Head - Cap of the Laughingstock - effectively +10 accuracy, and if we use mirror's image or essential phantom we get immunity to resolve (and -10 deflection) Neck - Protective Eothasian Charm - mostly for the proc, but if worn the healing is doubled from might and dawnstar's blessing Body - Magnera's Chain, Effigy's Husk - MC has +10 fort/will/ref, and Effigy's Husk immunity to might. Early game wear Devil of Caroc BP. Rings - Ring of Minor Protection + Entonia Signet Ring pre-escape, then ROMP + Prosperity's Fortune, then ROMPx2 (they stack!) Feet - Boots of Stealth early, then Bounding Boots or Boots of Stability (with two copies of Bounding Boots, you can use Leap 2x per ENCOUNTER, then put it back in stash between battles and swap back to get Leap back) Cape - Cloak of Greater Protection early, then Cape of the Falling Star, then The GiftBearer's Cloth. Hands - Killer's Gloves early, then Gatecrashers, then Firethrower's Gloves, then Left Hand of the Obscured or Onepahau's Strength (or Killer's Gloves again) Waist - Undying Burden then Upright Captain's Belt so we're unaffected by Pull of Eora Pet - Pes early (+10%dmg, 5% hit to crit), Bear Cub later (+8 fort, 5% hit to crit), Ooblit even later (+3s duration beneficial effects) Weapons - You don't actually use the weapons much, but their passive buffs can be useful before summoning. Squid's Grasp in slot 1 and 3 (copy), Lethandria's Devotion in slot 1, Outworn Buckler and some other weapon in Slot 2, Xoti's Lantern in slot 3 (if Skaen challenge) The important thing with the shields is if you get hit by something nasty (not likely with all the inspirations but happens occasionally), you can clear it by rapidly swapping slots 1 and 2. Can clear even faster with 2x outworn buckler, but I like Lethandria / Outworn for healing passive and because Lethandria is a better fighting shield. Every switch you're healed 2 points and clear 6% off the duration. This can be scripted so you clear an arcane dampener in a couple seconds (or no time if you can pause). On Squid's Grasp you want Broken Curse and Attempted Parley, this provides a huge action speed buff when you're threatended by 3+ enemies which happens a lot solo, and it applies to spells! On Lethandria take Sheltering Light and Captivating Crystal. On Outworn Buckler take Timeless Perseverence and Symbol of Courage. Grimoires - LLengrath's Martial Mysteries (or Katrenn's), Aloth's. These are the main two. Jernaugh's Careful Calamities is useful for the spell Jernaugh's Equalizing Burst which is a good opener, also Ninagauth's Shadowflame from Ninagauth's Teachings, but normally we open with Pull of Eora. Might want to hold onto Arkemyr's Illuminating Discoveries or Celestial Grimoire for Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, but I never needed to use it. Escape is not quite as good but a much faster cast. ----------------- EQUIPMENT FOR PROCS - this is stuff we equip only if we want to proc some effect, either temporarily or to extend indefinitely, we extend with first Cabalist's Gambeson, then Cabalist's Gambeson plus Strand of Favor. Takes 10 to 20 seconds to extend something to near infinity, depending where you are it affects how fast you can cycle armor and necklace. The sea is usually the fastest place. Thief's Putty / Ungent of Animalism / Blessed Incense / Oil of Allure / Arcanist's Balm (!!!!) - proc these right after getting Cabalist's Gambeson for +2 to all skills Antidote - permanent immunity to poison attacks Amra (!!!!) - Tempered Fury gives FRENZY without the deflection penalty! Incredible. Protective Eothasian Charm's Darkest Before Dawn (!!!!) - gives +10 health per 3s, -25% damage taken (decreases conduit effect unfortunately) Deltro's Cage Helm (!!!!) - can TRIPLE your damage output if you crit yourself wearing the right equipment at high level with Chain Lightning or even better, Scrolls of Great Maelstrom. Note the scrolls are very dangerous to Vela and yourself so not recommended for iron run, but with max Arcana they do insane damage and you can get +220% lightning damage, which applies not only to melee but spells. Ideally you'll have all of these when you proc Conduit - Chromoprismatic QS's Elemental Induction buff, Improved Critical, Heart of the Storm (make sure you overpen, kill yourself for System Shock if needed), Griffin's Blade (Hound's Courage), +2MIG gloves or Left Hand of the Obscured (arcana for scroll, strength for spells), Kuaru's Ring, Chameleon's Touch, Sash of Judgment, High Harbinger's Robes or Furrante's Breastplate or Deltro's Cage, Sandals of the Water Lily (make it easier to crit yourself). Milx for hit to crit conversion with spells. I crit myself with Chain Lightning in video 28, right before I fight Dorudugan and Huani o Whe. Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff (!!!) - Elemental Induction gives +15% damage which applies to everything including SA, Entropy Shield reduces damage by about 8% Devil of Caroc's BP (!) - 2 health per 3 seconds is okay, but it adds up. If worn this increases to 4. Grove's Kin from Nature's Embrace (!!) - gives Woodskin. We could just steal woodskin and cast it, but perma-woodskin is cool too. Less / Least Unstable Coil (!!) - +15% Action Speed. I proc this during the Maerwald fight because that's when I get it usually and he's a spirit. Lord Darryn's Voulge (!!!) - gives Lightning Strikes - quick, +15% action speed, +15% damage as shock with weapons Outworn Buckler (!!) - would have more ! as this can proc Courageous, but we are already immune to interrupts from insanely high concentration Rannig's Wrath (!!) - Redoublement gives +10 deflection, which is part of why we can dump resolve Resounding Call (!!) - Call to Arms procs Tenacious when destroying a destructible. Slayer's Claw can upgrade this to Energized by swapping weapons. Robes of the Weyc - +1 AR against your chosen type Sanguine Great Sword (!!!) - Proc Blood Gift, then Greater Blood Gift. They STACK for +20 health per 6 seconds, much more if you have the item equipped Scordeo's Trophy (!!!) - can be used early game to greatly reduce recovery with Opening Barrage Scordeo's Edge (!!!!) - can ELIMINATE recovery with Blade Cascade. Can stack accuracy +20 every time you save. Insane. Not necessary to stack accuracy this much but makes things easier. Serpent Crown (!!!) - +10 accuracy that applies to spells not just weapons! Shadow Form (!!!!) (Slipper of the Assassin) - use to steal things with ease, and to start nearly every encounter from stealth (invisible). You don't need to actually wear the boots in combat, after the first proc, switch to the boots you want to wear then extend it and you'll still be invisible. Shea's War Staff (!) - 15% hit to crit with weapons is nice, though by the time you get this you have Scordeo's Edge Slayer's Claw (!!!!) - can bump up any might inspiration to Energized simply by cycling weapons Shroud of the Phantasm (!!!!!) - proc brilliant. It is easy to proc if you have stolen something like Minoletta's Minor Missiles and Restore. Just alternate Missiles and restore. They're .2s casts with speed bonuses, so you can fire off 100 missiles in no time. Wall of Flame also good, but we can't steal it. Make sure to remove clothes when proccing this if you have Abydon's Challenge on. Unstable Soul Essence - an explosive that heals you roughly 6 health per 6 seconds. Okay. Heals much more if you have high explosives. Wahai Poroga (!!!) - At Blade's Reach reduces melee damage by 20% and counterattack returns damage as raw DOT. Combined with Blood Mage healing, we have passive healing around 10(BM) + 20(DBD) + 20(SGS) + 6(USE) + 4(DOCBP) = 60 health per 6 seconds. Add robust for 40 more, add the moon's light for 32 more. Normally my script doesn't proc The Moon's Light but Robust is usually up, so that's 100 or 132 health per 6 seconds, about 16 or 22 health per second. Plus we are hard to hit, so basically unkillable. -------- OTHER BUFFS Nature's Resolve - +10 accuracy, +2 resolve, best per-rest buff in the game Dawnstar's Blessing - +50% healing, +2 religion - I know I just said NR was the best, but THIS is the best per-rest one time buff. Or 2nd best IDK. Alchemist's Wits/Brawn/Guile - +2 to all stats, per rest Cauldon Shard - +1 to chosen stat, I took INT, permanent I think Konstanten's Boon - best prostitute boon IMO, gives +2 CON, +1 PER, +1INT Savage Cunning - +1 PER, +2 survival, permanent Rikuhu's Blessing - +2 RES, get from the shrine on Crookspur Island, takes religion 15, choose to rest you get interrupted, with high diplomacy you get the boon Amira's Blessing - +2 DEX, this is a random proc while traveling Neketaka. When you get the burning house, go in, flee the house, be nice to the old lady Ngati's Blessing - +2 CON, get from Teo Ramunga on Neketaka Island. I skipped this one since it is out of the way and it removes Rikuhu and vice versa. They also remove Amira so try to get that later (just don't do too much unnecessary map travelling in Neketaka and it should proc Amira later). Once I managed to get all three but I can't figure out how to reproduce it. ------- DRUGS SAY NO TO DRUGS But seriously, if you don't want to rest and you get hit by even one arcane dampener your drugs will cause a drug crash, even though when the dampener ends the drug effects return. You can actually stack every drug with saves and loads, and if you have every drug benefit plus the crashes, the benefits still slightly outweigh the crashes (except whiteleaf, don't take whiteleaf, the crash effects are awful). So it still may be worth it. BUT you lose mostly perception, and perception is one of the most important stats so I just didn't mess with drugs. I was only hit with one, maybe two arcane dampeners so it would have been fine if I'd used them but you don't need them and it eliminates worry about that risen mage getting lucky and rolling a 100 vs your insanely high will defense... ------- MY ULTIMATE RUN First 20 or so videos are very boring, please don't watch them. It's just me sneaking around, questing, and proccing things. Not a lot of combat. Gets more interesting after that. I tried to script as much of the fighting as possible, but the POE2 engine is pretty limited compared to say Baldur's Gate, where I once wrote a 3000+ line script capable of handling every battle solo on insane with all the mods (God I'm a nerd). This script has just 33 blocks, and basically we try to keep up inspirations at all time, start battles with defensive buffs, summon citzal's spirit lance or sometimes concelhaut's staff, then use psychovampiric shield, borrowed instinct, and secret horrors for buffs/debuffs, cast pull of eora and chill fog on groups, then move in for the slaughter, healing ourself with restore and the moon's light as necessary, and using escape to zip around the battlefield while exploding things. One relevant note about my pathing. It was not well planned. I should not have gone to Sandswept immediately for the slight XP boost, it cost me later and delayed acquistion of both Shroud of the Phantasm and Lord Darryn's Voulge. I had to get to the Sanguine Harvest island on the 16th (has to be the 16th) for several reasons. You can get the sword, which has really nice healing passives. And you can get the sword again. And again, and again. After a day of repeating that encounter I emerged quite possibly the richest adventurer in Eora, and I drained a few hundred souls for focus in the meantime, so as Korgan would say. "Sigh...a good day". https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkOCqAbkQHxwTJyCKvA_31wYyPWK_87VY

Hi, this is another build of mine, he is a one-handed, Gravestep-addicted Hearth Orlan Rogue focused on hits on crits conversion. I think about a build with the greatest hits to crits conversion rate possible, I check if it is viable and in case fix some lacks, and eventually give up some conversion score for more efficiency. If you wanna know about Hits to Crits conversion reached by this build, go to the corresponding paragraph near the end of post. Hope you like it Llunrwald - Hearth Orlan Rogue, The "Handy Thief" "So do you think I can't hit you? We will see..." Name: Llunrwald PoTD: YES - ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST SOLO: YES - ver. 3.07-1318 LATEST - All TCS achievements. ULTIMATE: No, unless you choose another race* and change a little bit talents and abilities choices. Race: Orlan - +1 Res, +2 Per, -1 Mig Subrace: Hearth - Minor Threat* Class: Rogue - +2 Mechanics,+1 Stealth Culture: Old Vailia - +1 Int Background: Drifter - 1 Mechanics, 1 Stealth *PAY ATTENTION! In SOLO, Minor Threat is useless! It works only with companion, it doesn't trigger with figurines, charmed or dominated foes and/or Concelhaut Visage, SO playing solo with an Hearth Orlan it is the same to say playing without race bonus. Because of that, if you want a race bonus, choose another race for this build. Human, Boreal Dwarf and Island/Coastal Aumaua can fit well --- Attributes - final scores with passive bonus Mig: 18 - 18 base, -1 Orlan, +1 Gift from the Machine Con: 10 Dex: 18 Per: 7 - 3 base, +2 Orlan, +1 Hylea's boon, +1 Song of the Heavens Int: 19 - 18 base, +1 Old Vailia Res: 9 - 8 base, +1 Orlan --- Skills score Stealth: 9 - 13 with Rogue, Drifter, Blooded Hunter and Dungeon Delver, with equipment and bonus rest it can raise even at 17 Athletics: 2 - 4 with Angio's Gambeson Lore: 5 - 6 with Hylea's Boon, can arrive at 8 or even 10 with Aldwyn's Boon, rest and equipment Mechanics: 6 - 10 with Rogue, Drifter and Dungeon Delver, 12 with equipment and even 15 with Rite of Walking Shadows Survival: 3 - 5 with equipment After killed Concelhaut, I respeced with: Stealth: 2 - 6 with Rogue, Drifter, Blooded Hunter and Dungeon Delver Athletics: 6 - 8 with Angio's Gambeson Lore: 7 - 8 with Hylea's Boon, it can arrive at 12 with Aldwyn's Boon, rest and equipment Mechanics: 1 - 5 with Rogue, Drifter and Dungeon Delver Survival: 8 - 10 with equipment --- Talents I took talents and abilities focused on Hits to Crits conversion, so i gave priority to those ones. One-Handed Style - +15% Hits to Crits conversion Vicious Fighting - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Bloody Slaughter - +20% Hits to Crits conversion and +0.5 Crit multiplier against enemies with >10% endurance Deep Pockets - we need scrolls, figurines and potions more than other classes Shadowing Beyond - no brain talent for skipping many encounter and split many groups of monsters Weapon Focus: Knight - for +6 accuracy with We Toki Weapon Focus: Soldier - for +6 accuracy with Godansthunyr Weapon Focus: Peasant - for +6 accuracy with Cladhaliath Bloody Slaughter is an underrated talent for almost all players, I pick it for RPG reasons and for initial goal - Hits to Crits conv., but it can be useful in general with scrolls against many very damaged groups of monsters to kill them with more chances; i.e. shooting a fireball versus 5 ogres with low endurance can result in many hit bu no kill and you have another round with 5 ogres alive; with 1 more crit you have 4 alive the next round instead of 4, if you score a crit by yourself they become 3 and with the others our abilities with more hits to crits conversion, they could be 2... And beside that with boss - dragons ecc with many endurance, 10% can mean 60 or 70, and scoring a crit at that point can make the difference between winning or losing the fight - and your life. Not so bad, after all. Fun fact: if you pick Bloody Slaughter, in th combat log ALL Hits to Crits conversion are assigned to this talent; I suspect it is a log bug, that is, the conversions are made by all talents and abilities, but in the log you say only hit - Bloody Slaughter --> crit and no more other talents/abilities The three weapon focus can be much. You're right, I didn't know what to take and I increased my accuracy with my weapons. You can keep only one or two of them - I'd pick Knight focus because We Toki is our preferred weapons, Peasant can be still usefull... see Equipment session for that. And late game, with high Rogue accuracy, weapon focus is not very important. Dropping some weapon focus talents you can choose other talents as Fast Runner, Outlander's Frenzy, Envenomed Strike, Devastating Blow or what you like. If I restarted the game, maybe I'd drop all the three, I'd pick Gallant's Focus and I'd have +4 accuracy and 2 more talents choice. By the way, after killed Concelhaut I respeced with: One-Handed Style - +15% Hits to Crits conversion Vicious Fighting - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Bloody Slaughter - +20% Hits to Crits conversion and +0.5 Crit multiplier against enemies with >10% endurance Deep Pockets - we need scrolls, figurines and potions more than other classes Shadowing Beyond - no brain talent for skipping many encounter and split many groups of monsters Devastating Blow - +2% Finishing BLow damage, it seems low but it is very good in the damage calculation Fast Runner - more speed is always great for a melee rogue Beast Slayer - Alpine and Adra Dragon, Llengrath's friends and so on, you know Abilities Sneak attack - automatic Recless Assault - no-brain for every rogue I believe Dirty Fighting - no way, I have to pick this for +10% Hits to Crits conversion Deathblows - it's hard to find a rogue without it, +100% damage to enemies with 2 or more afflictions Deep wounds - 3 + MIGHT bonus every tick any time we give slash, crush or pierce damage... I like it for rogue Finishing Blow - +5 accuracy, +50% damage and high damage to low endurance enemy with a weird calculation: trust me, pick it, shoot it when a Dragon is near death and you will see damage going to the sky In my video below there are some single crit near 300 damage with a one-hand weapon. Blinding Strike Crippling Strike Fearsome Strike or Withering Strike - I prefer first one because it give 2 affliction for more time even if it is per rest instead of per encounter Other abilities are defensive or replicable with equipment most of the times, so no many words here. Maybe you can try Shadow Step for more damage or Escape/Coordinated Positioning/Smoke Cloud as panic button, but they make no real difference. Talents chosen/achieved through the run The Merciless Hand - +0.3 crit damage, better than other two and with a Rogue, can't we stay with Doemenels? Gift from the Machine - yes, we want +1 Might and more Endurance ; Hylea's Boon - only because we need +1 Per and above all +1 Lore , by the way, Llunrwald is a artist of theft and deceit, you can say that Song of the Heavens - more PER Dungeon Delver - crit bonus, stealth and mechanics ... food and air for us Flick of the Wrist Dozens Luck Blooded Hunter - more stealth Scale-Breaker --- Equipment Most used equipment Weapon set 1: We Toki - Overbearing, Legendary, Durgan-Refined, Corrode Lash, Slaying - Beast Weapon set 2: Godansthunyr - Stunning, +1 Might, Superb, Durgan-Refined, Corrode Lash Alternative weapon: Cladhaliath - Stunning, Vicious - +20% damage against stunned, prone or flanked enemies, Superb, Durgan-Refined, Slaying - Vessel Armor: Angio's Gambeson - Superb, Athletic, Of Constitution 2, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Slash-Proofed, Durgan-Reinforced Head: Munacra Arret - +12 Will, Whisper of Threason 3 per rest Neck: Cape of Master Mystic - Invisibility when hit by Crit, +12 Deflection, Minor Arcane Reflection Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action - +15% Attack Speed Finger 1: Gwyn's Band of Union - Blassing, +4 INT, Instill Doubt when endurance above 80% Finger 2: Ring of Chainging Heart - + 3 RES, Dominate 2 per rest Waist: Girdle of Mortal Protection - Reduce damage of critical hit by 27% Feet: Boots of Speed - Moving fast can make the difference Pet: Concelhaut - essential for Llengrath fight Some words about equipments - which take at the beginning, predatory weapons, etc. Predatory weapons - +10% Hits to Crits conversion Predatory weapons should fit well for this build, especially Aattuuk because it is a dagger, so +5 accuracy, one hand, and whole place for full enchantment. I try to use that weapon and the others predatory equipment, but Llunrwald can't go through the game with them. He is too squishy, he need to CC enemy and if he can achieve it via scrolls and figurines, this tattic is frustranntig and, above all, expensive to adopt every encounter, so I stuck with deabilitating weapons. You can play with Aattuuk until you get a stunning or averbearing weapon, and the best for us - one handed are the three already cited: We Toki, Godansthunyr and Cladhaliath. By the way, Aattuuk is a dagger and in my run I've already taken weapon focus for war hammer, so just arrived to Defiance Bay I went to Vincent Dwellier, buyed Haba's Hammer - a simple Exceptional war hammer and enchanted it with Corrode Slash and Slaying Kith - Act 2 is plenty of kith to kill, it got its job well in early game; maybe now I'd pick Aattuuk, but it no so decisive. Weapons selection Yet said that We Toki is the best weapon for a one-handed character because it debilitate opponent - prone via overbearing, prone status last long, almost no monster is immune to prone and We Toki can be enchanted at full 14 points with Legendary, having +15 acc/+55% damage - become +20/+80% against beast and +25% corrode damage at top of that. Very good. Godansthunyr is for the few enemies immune to prone, that's all. Cladhaliath was picked only for one reason: I needed a effective one hanb weapons against Eyeless. So I took Cladhaliathand enchanted it with stunning and Slaying Vessel, with a +5 accuracy on top because it is a spear. It did its job at the best... and from that moment I used it against Vessel, obviously, Woedica final statues especially. Armor At the beginning you have to make do with what you find, middle game I took Wayfarer's Hide but then I think that Athletic and Deleterious Alacrity of Motion of Angio's Gambeson was perfect for Llunrwald. You can keep ready armor with stealth bonus and survive bonus, for different moment and situation. Other equipments used often and not already mentioned Let go early game, I often used Rotfinger Gloves - area damage and two afflictions maker and Ring of Searing Flames, end game they become poor and I wear Gauntlets of Accuracy and as rings Bartender's Ring, Orlan's Bramble Ring, Pensiavi mes Rèi or Ring of Thorns. Gwyn's Band of Union is excellent with +4 INT - afflictions last longer and Ring of Chainging Heart is a good way to CC enemies and make allied, such as Munacra Arret. Late game I dropped Munacra Arret for Maegfolc Skull - +4 MIG for damage and Unbending for healing. For neck slot I used also Mantle of the Excavator, Glanfathan Adraswen - for +2 Lore, or Fulvano's Amulet - for Healing bonus. At waist I used the same old Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer but also Belt of the Stelgaer or Trollhide Belt but I found that late game the best is Girdle of Mortal Protection. For foot I wore Boots of Stability, Cat's Whisper - for Stealth bonus, Fenwalkers, and usual Shod-in-Faith or Viettro's Formal Footwear. Quick Slots I was plenty of figurines, apart form this I used scrolls and potion depending on the situation, you can see some "combination" of quick slots items in the videos at the end. Drugs and food I've my usual combination of food, the one that give +2 almost to every attribute, and IMPORTANT I take Gravestep before every hard encounter. It give +25% of Hits converted to Crits for 600 sec and this is far well of +15% Hits to Crits conversion of Potion of Merciless Gaze AND Gravestep can be drunk BEFORE combat, clearing a quick slot item. -20% maximum Endurance for 600 sec is not so problematic. --- Ok, but, how high this blessed Hits to Crits Conversion is? Finally, we take the stock of this Hits to Crits Conversion. We have theese bonus stacking: Dirty Fighting --> +10% Vicious Fighting --> +10% Predatory --> +10% Gravestep --> +25% Durgan-Refined --> +20% Bloody Slaughter --> +20% So, if you stack ALL and EVERY bonus, the final Hits to Crits conversion rate will be: 10 + 10 + 10 + 25 + 20 + 20 = 95% !!! But some bonus are situational, especially Bloody Slaughter, and we wear predatory weapons almost never, so end game the conversion will be 65%, and early/middle game, without Durgan-Refined and Gravestep we can reach only 30% with 2 talents and abilities and a predatory weapon, or 45% with a potion of Merciless Gaze, and this is not so bad early game, after all! My mistake, I wrote a lot of heresies! I'm going to quote the right calculation done by @Boeroer and I'm sorry about my innacuracy, please forgive me! But the effectiveness of the build is the same also with lower hits to crits conversion and what was written without Strikethrough below Boeror quote it is still valid So with all bonuses, including Minor Threat if you don't play solo, i.e another *0.9 factor to NTC rate it gives about 70% conversion rate with all bonuses together. It is very good and perhaps it could be convenient land a crit with conversion than with accuracy... Actually, Dirty Fighting and Vicious Fighting stack, but, since 0.80 is near 0.9*0.9 = 0.81, above calculations remain valid. Middle/end game you will see almost any hit converted to crits, this PG crits a lot also with low Perception. With low PER I can distribute some poin in CON and RES, better than nothing and this give more surivability to the build. But some foes are hard to hit, so you have to reach at least a "hit", not a "graze", because of that accuracy bonuses are welcome. Also, Minor Threat doesn't work SOLO, but in a game with other characters you can put another +10% bonus in front of others, so the previous rates become 105% - ROTFL!, 75% and 55%, very impressive NO, say above for actual rates. Good to hear, but, is this PG viable? Ok, if you wanna go SOLO, the best Rogue is with two weapon style - We Toki and Godansthunyr and the usual build - see for example @baldurs_gate_2 Ultimate Rogue. By the way I beat every encounter with no so high difficulty, except Llengrath: with one hand/low Perception Rogue it is very difficult and it is the only reason this PG can get Ultimate Solo achievements. If you wann go ULTIMATE with Llunrwald, for Llengrath respec in two handed or weapon and shield style and maybe take different quick slot items than my video below. Also Brynlod can be risky, but you can pull/kite easily at that location. All other encounter, with the right tattic - confusion/paralize scroll, figurines, use of shadowing beyond etc. are quite simple, also Adra and Alpine Dragon. And I have to say that many quests can be achieved with stealth/invisibility - i.e. The Rising Tide with no combat at all, skipping many battles. In "normal" game, with other PG and Minor Threat, this could be a good damage dealer and a great "priority target killer". RPG thoughts I thought about Llunrwald as an abandoned infant from Old Vailia, who grew in a circus or somenthing like learning his rogue abilities and at a certain point of his life he decided to go on his way. A day he tried Gravestep and by that moment he was addicted and he found out that his tricks could be better with it ;). He didn't receive a good education, in D&D terms, he can be a Chaotic Neutral PG. --- MEDIA For these battles, I was inspired by @baldurs_gate_2 Ultimate Rogue and also this run. Brynlod Adra Dragon Alpine Dragon Concelhaut Thaos Llengrath

Hey everybody been having fun playing various melee caster builds I decided on trying a potd solo run with a liberator, and I'm stuck on which version I should go with (kind wayfarer/fury or shifter), or (steel garrote/fury or shifter) and whether or not to use magran favor+sun &moon or darryns voulge as 2h for this run, would really appreciate the advice and help thx

[CLASS BUILD] The Man of Mistery – SC Trickster Solo Upscaled PotD Class: Trickster Concept: Fun and Versatile Rogue that mixes spellcasting, ranged and melee attacks to adapt to each situation and tricks his enemies into certain death. Optimized for a No-Rest run. Game Version: RTwP. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). PotD Solo Viable: Yes. Of note, I think this is a Solo build that is particularly well compatible with party play because he can do so many things that will benefit others. Companion: Nope. -----WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THIS BUILD?------ Why go with an SC Trickster? As an SC Rogue, it’s probably not the strongest Solo option (arguably it is Assassin). As a Trickster, multiclassing is usually the way to go as it pairs so well with other classes, in particular martial ones. I wanted to try out this build nevertheless to see how much mileage I could get out of its unique access to high-level Illusion spells, notably by stacking as much Illusion Power Levels as I could while achieving a really cool, nightmarish style (see this thread) fitting well the fluff of an Arcane Rogue who vanquishes his enemies with scary illusions and deadly, freezing tricks. I was especially curious about using Kalakoth’s Freezing Rake and Wall of Many Colors as a Rogue. These are spells that I’ve loved since PoE1, particularly for their utility against certain Adra/Alpine large beasts, but in Deadfire I haven’t used them so much as a SC Wizard because 1) there is usually another certain Wall spell that I want to keep up and 2) there is a lot of competition on PL8 spells and offensive spells in general. All in all, I’ve found this SC Trickster quite surprisingly powerful and very fun to play Solo, mostly for its versatility and because it’s a Rogue archetype that doesn’t play exactly like a typical Deadfire Solo Rogue. Here are some key highlights: We reach PL14 on Illusion spells (we can even reach PL16 on Freezing Rake wielding Sun & Moon at night). That is a lot of PL, which combined with high No-Rest stats make all Illusion DMG and CC attacks hit like trucks. Huge AoE, nice ACC, long duration, large damage… We can then supplement that with powerful ranged and melee offense depending on the situation. I would usually always start with Dazzling Lights to lure/group enemies but then every combat sequence can be totally different depending on the enemies and layout. I’ll detail key abilities and strategies below. Because it has so many options, this build is the opposite of a one-trick pony and can actually stay in most fights for some time before resetting the encounter or abusing Gouging Strike, if at all. Even if in many situations on Upscaled PotD you still have to go invisible/resest before the end of the fight, I have found that you might reset less often than Assassin for instance, and can take down a lot more enemies than you thought in one go (ah, the random power of Fyonlecg's Wall of Many Colors…). Of course, it should be also be said that as a SC Rogue with non-renewable resources, completing the harder DLC fights (non-resettable, small battlefield, lots of enemies with lots of health) without cheese requires Arcana. But that’s also true for an Assassin. Or you know... abuse Strand of Favor and remove all challenge (that is not what this build/post is about, but it is a possibility). -----SPECS------ Race: I went with Pale Elf for style and +PER Background: The White that Wends – Hunter FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 22 (15 Base +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Hot Razor Skewers) CON 12 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon +3 Girdle of Eoten CON) DEX 27 (18 Base +1 Elf +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing +2 Footprints Ahu Taka) PER 30 (18 Base +1 Elf +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Ajamuut’s Cloak +1 Kuaru’s Prize) INT 26 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones +1 Kuaru’s Prize) RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Food: Hot Razor Skewers Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift Magran’s Blessing Infamous Captain, Bonus Skills, Champion Stats, Port Maje vendor, Fully discovered Map, Bonus Money… invested all 105 Berath’s Blessing Points SKILLS I just spent between Mechanics, Athletics, Stealth and Survival, Diplomacy. Max Arcana temporarily for certain end-game situations. ----- ABILITIES ------ ACTIVE Crippling/Arterial Strike, Blinding/Gouging Strike, Smoke Veil/Smoke Cloud/Pernicious Cloud, Withering/Toxic Strike, Gambit, Vanishing Strike. PASSIVES Key: Backstab, Fast Runner, Monastic Unarmed Training, Arms Bearer, Two Weapon Style, Dirty Fighting, Persistent Distraction, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Deep Wounds, Improved Critical, Deathblows, Prestige. Optional: Snake Reflex, Combat Focus, Adept Evasion, Wall of Flashing Steel. -----GEAR------ Weapon Set 1: Hand Mortar (Blinding Smoke), The Eye of Wael (The Hundred Visions, Shrouded Strike). Weapon Set 2: Kitchen Stove (Thunderous Report, Everything and Anything) single wielded. Weapon Set 3: Monastic trained Fists. Head: Whitewitch Mask. Neck: Charm of Bones. Chest: Pale Hide (Ghost in White, Dread Howl). Cape: Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak. Gloves: Gauntlets of Accuracy. Rings: Kuaru’s Prize, Ring of the Marksman. Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka. Belt: Girdle of Eoten Constitution. Pet: Harley. -----STRATEGIES------ I’ll just outline a few simple example situations but there are so many fun combos to create and you can mix depending on the situation and the resources you have left (I always start with Weapon Set 1): Melee Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, get close in stealth, combat starts, cast Repulsive Visage to Terrify everyone, Switch to Fists, Use Gambit as much as you want (you have 11 Guile ), reapply Repulsive Visage, Gambit ad nauseam and other Rogue attacks or autoattacks. Can also use Dread Howl. Works surprisingly well! Mage Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Gaze of the Adragan, 2 or 3 Freezing Rakes, mix and match with Wall of Many Colors and Thunderous Report for fun. Dread Howl can help if survivors get aggressive. (EDIT: one Freezing Rake can do about 300 DMG per target on a Crit, on average definitely in the 200s). Rogue Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Fire AoE with Vanishing Strike from stealth > combat starts, all enemies are stunned and you’re invisible. Follow up with AoE Gouging Strike (you have reloaded instantly the shot from stealth), Pernicious Cloud, Smoke Veil. From there, you can try to add an Arterial Strike + Smoke Veil or simply just retreat to a safe location and wait it out. Won't be long . Weird/Wael Style: Lure with Dazzling Lights, Gaze of the Adragan, Wall of Many Colors to hit all enemies, see what happens then and what is best to apply next. -----THE END------ That’s it. Not the strongest Solo build but really fun to play, especially if the unique features of the Trickster subclass have triggered your curiosity. I also think it would be an absolute monster in a party. Let me know if you have any comment or question!

I know I'm a little late guys, but I really need a hand on this. It turns out that after playing and ending the adventure on the path of the damned / expert, I immediately wanted to start my solo adventure, with my declaimer we are having a great time. I have passed Raedric and Caed Nua. Now, how do I do the missions once they arrive? it would be impossible? (since I can't send allies to do those missions)

Hello, I try find best race for solo melee wizard. Maybe you have some experience with solo play and You can share with me. Thank You.

Here is a link to a google doc that lists (almost) every build after 09 May 2019. Builds listed follow two criteria: 1. It had commentary after 09 May 2019. 2. It is mostly plug and play. These boards are a veritable treasure trove of Deadfire knowledge, but most people won't bother reading any of it. Builds listed must be mostly playable after less a minute of reading. If it follows these two rules, the build is listed. Little to no curation has been done on my part. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10yKVvE3jHyu9uHso-dAtwV7jrL7K3jdBP3pxVgH1gpM/edit?usp=sharing I've been a lurker here for many years. Thanks to everyone asking questions and answering!

Hello Can You guys share with me good build for solo PotD Paladin? I only know I can dump int but I don’t know which class I should chose (I prefer human) and what talents are “must have”. Thanks

Hi all, I've looked everywhere I could think of and couldn't find any PotD solo turn based build so I've decided to ask for one here. I've already finished the game on PotD solo RTwP with a Devoted/Streetfighter and it was a lot of fun. However, this build obviously won't work on TB. I'm really interested in FINALLY trying the new turn based system but I only play solo PotD so here's that. A few points for this potential build: 1. I'm using Berath's Blessings so builds that are very weak at the beginning are still fine (I hope). 2. This build should be able to win against every boss (including expansions), including optionals such as the annoying Fampyr's Crypt. 3. I would very like for the build to be able to win against one of the Mega Bosses (I don't care which one), but I don't really expect to find one which does. :(( 4. Tested builds are preferred. Thanks in advance for anyone who tries to help.

Hello. Can You guys tell me how should look good build for solo chanter on potd (ver 3.07)? How should look attributes? Thanks.

Hello everyone, I could use some help on a build I'm putting together. As some of you know I've been testing out the combination of DPS and overall damage resistance by creating several Paladin/X combinations. Anyways I always test the same way. I spawn Ukaizo and see how I do. So far Arcane Knight is right behind my Devoted/Goldpact build in terms of DPS and her ability to tank any damage that come her way. Success wise she got Ukaizo to 50% facetanking everything he had. So I would like some advice on what I'm doing wrong here. I've written out everything I can think of for this build to work. Currently it requires consumables in order to deal out some nasty DPS. What I'm hoping is that I can cut the consumable use down to just the occasional nuke if I absolutely have to. I would like the melee DPS to be increased if possible, I'm also open to using ranged weapons if it makes the DPS increase. I would also like to increase the overall tankiness of the build. Lastly, I had this idea (which I"m certain I read in another post) that I could get heals through flames, is this a good idea? I did give it a go, and it seemed to be working fairly well. Can this healing be increased too? Class: Arcane Knight - Goldpact Knights/Evoker Race: Wild Orlen Attributes: MIG: 15 >> 18 (BB, GoTM) CON: 6 >> 10 (BB, Gear) DEX: 15 >> 20 (BB) >> XX (Gear) PER: 19 >> 22 (BB, Effigy, Cauldron Brew) INT: 18 >> 23 (BB, Gear) RES: 6 >> 10 (BB, Gear) Abilities (Goldpact): Sworn Enemy Sworn Rival Flames of Devotion Eternal Devotion Lay on Hands Zealous Aura Exalted Endurance Deep Faith Retribution Inspired Defenses Divine Purpose Combat Focus Scion of Flame Mental Fortress Uncanny Luck Practiced Healer Improved Critical Virtuous Triumph Stoic Steel Abilities (Evoker): Fleet Feet Wizards Double Mirrored Image Infuse With Vital Essence Llengrath’s Displaced Image Iron Skin Ryngrim’s Enervating Terror Heart of the Storm Rapid Casting Skills: Arcana: 12 >> 15 (Paladin, Wizard, Gear) Mechanics 7 >> 8 (Hunter)* Gears: Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate Weapons (MH): Magran’s Favor (Blazing Core, Enduring Flame) Weapons (OH): Kapana Taga (Lone Champion, All Comers) Grimoire: Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry Neck: Stone of Power (+1 INT) Belt: The Undying Burden (+2 CON) Ring 1: Voidward Ring 2: Solitary Wanderer (+1 RES) Hands: Flamethrower’s Gloves (+2 DEX) Cloak: Cape of the Falling Star Head: Heaven’s Cacophony (+2 INT) Boots: Boots of the Stone (+1 DEX, +1 RES) Pet: Undecided Consumables: Healing Pots x10 Scroll of Great Maelstorm Scrol of Meteor Shower *should be able to get that to 12 or 14ish with gear I believe?

When back in 2017 I heard of multiclassing in the then upcoming PoE2, I wanted to combine my two favorite classes in the game: Cipher and Paladin. I thought the synergy between the two would be monstrous: Faith and Conviction and the defensive arsenal of the Paladin would make a squishy Cipher more than capable to dish out all the damage possible without dying. At the same time, Cipher has renewable resources, so, yay, great for solo. You never wanna run out of fire. In my first playthrough, I didn't go solo, and because of the tooltip warning against multiclass, I opted for pure Cipher. By the time I did multiple playthroughs to know the game better, Paladin got nerfed to death: - increased cost to Greater Lay on Hands - 100% to 25% Virtous Triumph proc chance - FoD nerfs left and right In light of these changes, I deemed any Paladin tank build inferior to any Fighter multiclass, having Unbending become better compared to GLoH, and not having "infinite resources" by killing enemies anymore. Boy, was I wrong. Cipher, that to many is considered one of the most boring and underpowered classes - and the rationale behind their opinion escapes me, having this class access to all types of affliction and a whopping 300+ raw damage nuke - got nerfed, most notably with: - Body Attunement from -4/+4 to -2/+2 armor - Borrowed Instinct (literally single best spell in the game) from 30s base duration to 20s. - Time Parasite from -50% to -25% (note: this is one of the few way that allowed to achieve ~0s recovery at lvl 20) I recently decided to prove myself wrong, and tried an Inquisitor. I've always been a great fan of the Ascended, which for many (party, mostly) builds is insanely good, thanks to its ability to get max focus and then spam the best single target nuke in the game on literally everyone. Alas, Ascend got nerfed, too (from 20s to 12s base duration). What was I left with? Base class, meh. Beguiler, definitely not good for non-Rogue multiclass. And Soulblade. The latter can be surprisingly good when combined with Whispers of the Endless Path, as one can Soul Strike on multiple targets, recover focus at the same time by hitting the secondary ones, thus never actually being starved of focus. The counterattack on top, allows you to keep focus high. I would like to say that this is the best weapon for this build, but what I discovered by going through all the SSS challenges, is that it is not. The best weapon for a character with all the afflictions, with high defenses but excelling in none of them (compared to Tricksters, Skaen Priest, Wizards) is versatility. This build will not point out (except for a few slots) a fixed equipment. What we aim to achieve is the best Armor against every encounter. Therefore, we will focus on boosting Armor. Similarly, the other side of the coin is having good Penetration alongside with it. We plan to have a versatile arsenal. And since we decided that versatility is the name of the game, we will save all the unnecessary ability points from the Paladin tree, and invest them to get the Cipher spells that really matter. THE RACE THE BACKGROUND THE STATS THE SUBCLASSES THE ABILITIES THE EQUIPMENT To be continued... https://goo.gl/Eq12FG (soon)

Rygmrand's "Artist" Class: Spiritualist ( Soulblade/Chanter ) Difficulty: PotD+ Version: 2.1 Solo: Hel Yes DESCRIPTION: A powerful build that snowballs early into a biawac of destruction and test the power of your gaming contraption! Kill your enemies with ice and decay. If you thought Grave Calling/Hel Beckoning's imp route was neat, you're in for a real big treat. Soul annihilating summons all day! RP: A character I imagined who would rise up to be Rymgrand's top agent. (EDIT) Patch 2.1 - Soul Annihilation's killing blow now has been fixed, but the skeleton and chillfog synergy is still going strong. Difference is now you can either dump SA on enemies or spam cipher spells during chillfog bursts kind of like a semi-ascendant that has Soul Annihilation. I also recommend trying out a Berserker Howler (skeleton nukes) or Harbinger multiclass (deathblow passives) for damage output if you can make do without the cipher utility to increase accuracy or weaken enemy fortitude defenses. There are 2 things that make this build work: 1. Soulblade's Soul Annihilation (SA) despite saying "Primary Attack", will trigger any weapon "on kill" effects if the target dies from the raw damage portion of the attack even if the weapon with the effect is equipped on the offhand. Apparently it also ignores the type of creature it is when it is killed, which will fulfill any "on kill" effect that requires a certain monster type (kith, etc). CAUTION: I am sure this is unintended so enjoy it while it lasts. D: 2. Most abilities that are activated or procced from a weapon will usually calculate damage and special effects using the weapon and any passive abilities the character has. In the case of the cipher, it will generate focus for them. There are some exceptions, but it is usually the case. Technically you could use SA's agnostic killing blow on any soulblade multiclass, which would probably make soulblade/rogue into an insane force of destruction on trash, but the chanter multiclass was the safer choice in order to supply your own "easy fuel" for SA kills and to default back to a chanter summon line on harder fights. Using the raw damage hit of the Soulblade's Soul Annihilation, I am able to 1-2 shot my low HP summons and able to proc the on kill effects of Grave Calling and Hel Beckoning regardless if they are a vessel or spirit. For Grave Calling I have enchanted it to cast chill fog on a vessel kill which will be my skellies. This will result in a free AoE non-hazardous chillfog spell when I kill my summon that blinds and pulses damage to enemies that ALSO contribute to my focus gain, which means I can then use soul annihilation immediately again on an enemy or spam cipher spells. This also stacks my ice lash buff and with the paralyzation on crit enchant, many of the enemies caught in the chillfog spam become blinded and paralyzed as they get torn apart. The afflictions will still persist even if they are immune to freeze damage. The even nastier thing is that if a vessel dies from chillfog it will spawn another chillfog because it is still benefiting from Grave Calling's passives. You will want to cull near-death non-vessels with SA to take advantage of their deaths. POST 2.1 - While this still can work when fighting spirits, it now requires a bit more micro of what blade does killing blows. The other styles seem a lot more viable now and even weapon/ranged can work since the build has no full attacks. In the case for Hel Beckoning, which has procs on a spirit kill and behaves similar to Grave Calling, the two options are a corrode AoE or a corrode imp summon. Although the AoE option is definitely the higher damage option on normal fights, the single aoe cast can miss since it is after all going against fortitude defense, can be resisted by poison immunes, and it doesn't pulse like chillfog does. So for this weapon in solo mode I opted to turn it into a imp summoning tool though in a party you can opt for the AoE instead since you won't have to worry about resistances and survivability as much. The main benefit is to gain ranged cannon fodder separate from the chanter's summons that will also leave usable bodies for "The White Worms AKA Corpse Explosion," which will give a crush damage vs reflex option. Note: The bodies still have the summoning timer and will disappear when it expires. Also of course, the white worms can be used aggressively to unload even more damage on top of the chillfog deathzone to end encounters even quicker without needing focus to spam amplified wave. Hel Beckoning may not always be your main offhand since there are options like Resounding Hammer that gives a free Might+PEN inspiration when killing your summons. Now the obvious weaknesses of the 2 weapons is that the major damage abilties go against fortitude, chillfog is only freeze damage, and maintaining an imp army can only go so far with their pitiful corrode damage PEN. In these specific situations, we can then fallback to the summon meatshield wall of chanters while we pick off targets to gain focus and grind them down via cipher spells or switch to another weapon with another kill effect (although not as strong as Grave Calling but they are "good enough"). We also still have the options from chanter and cipher abilties to lower defenses for the weapon's abilities to land. Some freeze immunes like rime constructs still are vulnerable to the paralyzing effects of chillfog so even if you do no damage, the enemy is prepped to be killed via other means. POST 2.1 - Auto skellies instead and dump SA on enemies while chillfog taps them for focus. While the fire lash chant is great for focus gain, the build does not use it because SA gets countered if your summon is benefitting from the fire lash chant for some reason. In this build, I've opted to use 2 chants: 1. Life Leech Chant: Since you will be doing a lot of damage on trash and hitting your weak defense summons, this chant works great as a healing option. In times of desperation you can back away and "tap" your minions to recover. 2. Skelly Summon Chant: This frees up phrases that would have been used to initiate battles with summons to allow different invocations to be used. Unlike the invocation skellies, the bodies of these skellies can be used for corpse explosion if you are fast enough to trigger it before the body disappears. OTHER NOTES: You do not gain focus from hitting your own summons even with confuse just to be clear with it. There is also a bit of mental micro of needing to know, which blade is being used when auto-attacking your summons. This build also makes use of the Magran belt. While the additional burn damage is nice for minor focus gain, the primary reason is to gain a chance to summon a fire elemental whenever you hit, which is a lot when you have several weapon aoes hitting mobs. The elemental will then serve as easy focus fuel in the midst of tougher or dwindling enemies. There is one really interesting caveat you need watch out for and that is the confused affliction. With the affliction, your aoe zones will damage you which will result in death if you don't have the defenses to get out or survive it if you happen to be in the thick of it. For this reason, INT and DEX resistances are recommended to have. It also serves as an amazing mechanic since now you can just summon your skeletons directly into the chillfog and have them blow up into a nuclear chillfog, which is pretty amazing to watch honestly if your computer can handle it. In a party, have some berserker caster or rogue put a controlled confusion on you for skelly chillfog bombs that would violate the Geneva Convention so hard. Having said that, a howler (berserker/chanter) can do this all by himself using Grave Calling normally. With the SA trick, you could also go double imp enchants for 2 imps for the price of one body. Keep killing your imps to generate more imps as long as you alternate hitting an enemy in between since hitting your own summons does not generate any focus for you. Using this trick, even a non-chanter can build up a ton of imps really quick that can fuel other types of mob builds, but chillfog is too good to give up for an imp. SUBCLASSES: Each chanter subclass has its perks in the build. Skald - Skeletons and wisps have really low defenses so hitting them will generate phrases really quickly, which then can be spent on discounted offensive invocations. Unfortunately it does not generate any phrases from chillfog or noxious blast. Troubadour - Not as bursty as skald's phrase generation, but a lot more consistent than beckoner for rapid phrase generation and helpful when retreating after enemies ripped apart your summons really fast. A skelly every 3 seconds from the skelly chant is also amazing for lazy summon fuel. Beckoner - The lowered HP of the summons helps for initial kills with SA. Even with the lowered duration of summons, a high INT build is still sufficient to be able to have summons constantly up and there is usually enough time to kill a few. It is however, tighter on resources on tough fights until level 19 where the skelly chant will free up some room to use phrases on non-summoning invocations and a bit difficult to use on lower INT builds. It also is the strongest nuclear chillfog subclass when using confuse affliction. Ascended - If you prefer autoattacking summons with just Grave Calling, Ascended works just as well, but this guide will be about Soul Blades since ascended builds perform similar to each other once hitting the ascended buff. RACES: Pale Elf - I chose pale elf to be more in line with the lore of being Rymgrand's BFF, but the real benefit of it is that the fire and freeze AR is extremely helpful when finding several summoned fire elementals chasing your character around or a sudden intellect affliction has the character in the middle of a chillfog deathzone. Wood Elf - Same stats as Pale Elf, but gives a free dexterity resistance. Human - Can be useful in a party since the accuracy boost and damage boost from being bloodied is easier to maintain and control, but you will have to forgo using the life leech aura. CULTURE & BACKGROUND: The White that Wends for perception since accuracy is the highest priority in the build. Matches with the whole RP thing too. You're free to choose whatever though. ATTRIBUTES: SKILLS: WEAPONS & MODALS: ABILITIES: +Good / ?Notable / -Bad EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

Some of you might remember me from the good old Level-1-Noober-Challenge or the Naked-Challenge in PoE 1 so a warm "hello again" to all stumbling into this post! First i must admit that i love PoE 2 after starting it two weeks ago but - on the same hand - it starts to bore me again and again so i did not completed a single run even though i have created dozens of characters now - mostly using TCS settings. I started the game completly blind using Monks and Druids as i played them the most in PoE 1. The problem was: They lacked the easy escape buttons and died many times due to ambushes or bad luck (yeah, lack of metagame knowledge here!). I then started switching to priest and rogue multiclass. Hellwalker/Priest of Skaen was fun, my current Shifter/Trickster even more. Concepts of a Paladin/Trickster also sound very promising. However. My question to the community is: What do you think is the most capable class to beat PoE 2 (plus DLC) using the following rules: 1. Complete the game without wearing any armor, boots, gloves, helmets, or accessories in combat. 2. Path of the Damned or Triple Crown Solo. 3. No Berath Blessings. 4. No retraining. 5. Upscaling for all enemies. 6. Collect all bounties. 7. Finish the main game plus the DLC´s. 8. Chanters are banned. 9. No AI scripts. 10. Difficulty increasing Mods like Deadly Deadfire are optional but highly welcome - your choice! There are only a couple of execptions to play through the game: 1. You may use things like Camping Supply, Lock Pick, Hook, Prybar, Hammer and Chisel, Rope and Grapling Hook. 2. You may use plot/quest items for their plot/quest purposes. 3. You may use gold for quests, resting or visiting brothels. 4. You may use gold to build up your ship. As i personally play only using Triple Crown settings i have died many times running into unknown territory AND lacking the easy escape options (Withdraw, Smoke Veil, Shadowing Beyond...). Splittpulling still works but seems to be much harder than in PoE 1 as enemies tend to follow forever if you cant outrun them. Is there a way around? Another major concern is the fight against the Guardian of Ukaizo. Will any naked character stand a chance here? I know that the battle can be skipped using invisibility but somehow that feels lame. Is there a way to "talk him down"? However: Before tiping too much nonsense i am eager to read about your ideas. Thanks! P.S. Maybe @Reent will wake up again playing another Chanter?

I can't seem to find any info on xp bonus for having less than 5 people in party. It this still a thing? I recall it being a thing in PoE 1.

Hi all, I am a returning player and finally decided to tackle the hardest achievements this game has to offer before moving to Deadfire. I have seen Wodjee's Ultimate run with a rogue and found genuinely cool although I am more inclined of doing it with a cipher. The builds I've found seem to be somewhat out-dated or not suitable for soloing let alone The Ultimate Achievement. So my questions as of now are the following: 1) At the current actual state of the game is it easier to achieve Ultimate with a rogue or a cipher? 2) It'd be very interested in corresponding SOLO(!) TCS/Ultimate build guides. post scriptum: I know there are maybe stronger classes (chanter, druid bla bla) but I want to have consistency with the char I am playing in Deadfire and a rogue or beguiler just seems way more piratey. Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and any offered advice

The "Stop-N-Go" or "The Jumping Fortress"* (Holy Slayer) [*Thanks to Dr <3 for this more evocative name.] Introduction: The idea behind this build is take advantage of several defense-boosting abilities that require you stand still (the large shield modal, Bronlar's Phalanx, Stoic Steel), combined with the fact that you count as "standing still" when you use Escape to teleport somewhere. In practice, this build has two modes. In the first mode we rush into the middle of your enemies with two weapons or a two-handed weapon and get ourself Flanked and Bloodied as quickly as possible. In the second "Stop-N-Go" mode, we shift to a heavy shield/weapon set-up, activate our stand-still abilities and spam Sworn Rival. This allows us to comfortably sit in the Bloodied/Near Death zone while enjoying a number of abilities that are conditional on being low health. And when we need to re-position to get flanked again, or need to move to take out potential threats, we use Escape to teleport there. In the latter mode, we're extremely tanky -- we have a high deflection, substantial damage reduction (especially against ranged and reflex-based attacks), multiple sources of regeneration, and a 20+ armor rating -- and we can pull out Lay on Hands in emergencies. And we also have an impressive array of offensive boosts that allows us to quickly obliterate targets around us. Difficulty: Solo PotD v.2.1 (with Berth's Blessing and level scaling) I completed my Solo PotD run using Berath's Blessings and level scaling. Berath's Blessings aren't necessary, but the 50k bonus blessing is recommended, as it will help you get some key equipment much sooner.Classes: Holy Slayer (Streetfighter Rogue/Goldpact Paladin) Rogue gives us a number of great offensive boosts (e.g., Deathblows) and Escape, which is crucial for this build. The Streetfighter specialty adds some fantastic offensive boosts while Bloodied and/or Flanked, which is most of the time. Paladin gives us a number of abilities that allow us to be very tanky, including Stoic Steel, one of the best "stand still" abilities. The Goldpact specialty allows our Sworn Rival ability to provide a temporary stacking armor boost whose cost is refunded when the target dies. And since we kill things very quickly, we can keep that armor bonus up pretty much all of the time. Race: Human The Human bonuses to accuracy and damage when Bloodied are great for this build, since it's built around being Bloodied or Near Death.Background: The White that Wends (Hunter, or anything else you like) The White that Wends gives a bonus for our most important stat, Perception. There are a number of reasonable choices for background, but Hunter probably provides the most generally useful skill bumps (Mechanics).Stats: Might: Very High Constitution: High Dexterity: Very High Perception: Max Intellect: Min Resolve: Medium Perception is our most important stat: since we'll frequently be seeing the massive Streetfighter bonus to critical damage kick in, we'll want to crit as much as possible. And we'll generally have a large shield accuracy penalty to overcome. Dexterity is our second most important stat; it's always nice to be able to do more, and do it quicker. Boosts to Perception, Dexterity and Might are DPS increases that are multiplicative with respect to each other, so in order to be a DPS machine we want to boost all three. Might is our third most important stat. It's nice -- it boosts our damage and our healing abilities. But the damage bonuses from the Rogue and Streetfighter abilities will quickly dwarf any bonuses Might provides, making this a lower priority than Perception and Dexterity. We want a reasonable amount of Constitution, to allow us to comfortabley stay Bloodied or Near Death most of the time. But this build gets so tanky that after the first third of the game, that a small boost to Constitution suffices. We want our Resolve to be flat. We don't want it to be too high, because we still want to be hit in our warm-up mode, and we don't want it to be too low, because we don't want to be hit in our stop-n-go mode. Intellect is the least important stat, since little hangs on it -- in a solo run we don't care about how big our aura is, we don't have any other interesting AoE abilities, and the only class ability with a duration we care about is Lay on Hands -- and that's partially a good thing, since it gives us more fine-grained control of how much health we have, making it easier to say in the Bloodied zone. For reference, in my run my starting stats were M16, C13, D20, P21, I10, R10. In hindsight this was a mistake -- M21, C13, D20, P21, I5, R10 would have been better. Skills: For the early game, this can be whatever makes things easiest -- I'd recommend starting with a point or two in Explosive and Arcana to provides some AoE options on the first island, and then some points in Stealth and Mechanics. After that you can retrain to take whatever you like. In my run I invested heavily in Explosives, but after level 10 I never bothered using them -- it was easier to just kill things the old fashioned way. Class Abilities: (Highly recommended abilities underlined.) Escape and Lay on Hands (You won't use Lay on Hands in 95% of your fights. But it's nice to have for the toughest fights.) Deep Faith Retribution Zealous Aura and Weapon and Shield Dirty Fighting Any (Crippling Strike, Flames of Devotion, Divine Purpose and Inspired Defenses are all reasonable choices.) Sworn Rival and Riposte Any (Snake's Reflexes, Bull's Will, Bear's Fortitude, and any leftover options from above are all reasonable choices.) Any (Ditto) Exalted Endurance and Persistent Distraction (Exalted Endurance is a little funny -- in a lot of fights you'll never even use it. But it's great in tougher fights, since you can turn it on and off as needed to keep you comfortably in the Bloodied zone.) Any (Any of the leftovers from above or Adept Evasion are decent choices) Any (Ditto) Any (Any of the leftovers from above or Uncanny Luck are decent choices) and Deep Wounds Any Any Improved Critical + Slippery Mind Any Any Stoic Steel and Deathblows Any Gear: (Highly recommended gear is underlined.) Armor: Bloody Links (early), Reckless Brigadine (later). You'll also want a set of legendary plate armor for fights against enemies with strong piercing or corrode attacks. Shield: Bronlar's Phalanx Weapons: ​(Initial Mode): Any nice 2-hander or pair of weapons will do nicely.A couple nice 2-handed choices: Lance of Midwood Stag (you can start wailing away, and when you get Blooded Woodskin kicks in and you can shift to Stop-N-Go mode, keeping the Woodskin armor boost for a while); Voidwheel (the self-damaging aspect of this sword is actually a perk, since it helps you become Bloodied more quickly); Wahai Poraga (you're often swarmed with enemies, so hitting several of them at a time is nice). If you go with two weapons, I'd recommend Rust's Poignard (with persistent distraction, enemies are usually flanked and you'll get the flanking bonuses) and Stalker's Patience (ditto). (Stop-N-Go mode): Kapana Taga (The Lone Champion enchantment gives you a stacking +4 deflection and +1 armor bonus whenever there are no nearby allies (i.e., always); and the Champion's Relic enchantment increases damage with # of people engaged and increases engagement limit, which is great when you're used to being swarmed.) You'll also want to have the Animancer's Energy Blade as a back-up weapon against high AR targets (which is about half of the fights in the BoW DLC). Neck: Protective Eothasian Charm (early): +1 to most important stat (perception) and hefty damage reduction and healing when Near Death? Perfect fit for this build. It's a decent choice for the entire game, or you can replace it with something like Bone Setter's Torc (+ crit chance and + healing for emergencies are both nice) or Claim and Refusal. Belt: The Undying Burden Rings: The Ring of Mule's Wit is fantastic with this build -- it drops our Int to 1, but we won't notice, and it gives us resistance to all Mind Afflictions(!). The Entonia Signet Ring and Ring of the Solitary Wanderer are also nice options. Hands: Firethrower's Gloves, Gatecrashers, Woedica's Strangling Grasp are all decent. Cloak: The Cloak of the Falling Star is great for solo play, and thus great for this build. (Violet Redemption would be perfect for this build, fitting nicely with the stand-still effects theme. Sadly, we can't get it until the very end of the game. ) Head: The Cap of the Laughingstock looks silly, but it's amazing for solo martial builds, effectively increasing our accuracy by +10. And since this build wants to get as many criticals as possible, to take advantage of the Streetfighter bonuses, it's especially good for this build. (It does make our enemies immune to resolve afflictions, but we don't care about that.) Feet: The Rakhan Field Boots are a nice choice, as they effectively give you an additional 1/encounter teleportation option, which also inflicts a full attack on anyone in the way. The Boots of the Stone and Footprints of Ahu Taka are also decent. Pet: Jules (+perception, and bonus to healing is nice for the toughest fights) and Nalvi (+resolve and reduced recovery) are nice options after you get to Neketaka. Avoid pets that give you healing after killing things, though, since you don't want them to force you out of the Bloodied zone! PROs of this build: It's great against single tanky enemies, since it can last forever and wear them down. Once you get the key equipment and your level 10 class abilities, the build really starts to take off, so we have a fun build to play for most of the game. It's really, really tough -- once everything comes together, we can beat every fight on upscaled PotD without having to pull mobs or use consumables. CONs of this build: Certain kinds of enemies can be a pain (e.g., spellcasters); in these cases we'll want to use Escape to teleport next to the most threatening opponents and take them down quickly. Since you lack AoE attacks, swarms can take a while to get through. You can compensate by investing in Explosives or Arcana, but I usually just hacked my way through them. You won't get everything online until fairly late (level 19). But most pieces of the build will be in place (and the build is fun to play) long before then.

A howling immortal one-man-army that smashes everything in its path with high Hit-to-Crit conversion. "Sir! The third cohort has been repeled, they suffered heavy casualties! Should we send the cavalry?" "Send the cavalry, the fourth, the fifth, the bloody reserves too! The enemy has us clearly outnumbered!" "...Sir, it's just one man." "what." "With a Morningstar, Sir." https://imgur.com/a/bi7qvIL Until now, Barbarian has been a luckluster class to me, lacking the other martial classes high accuracy, and with not enough sustain to fulfill its role like it did in PoE1. Not to mention lack of any obvious CC. However, the Morningstar modal completely changed my mind: in combination with Brute Force and Might afflictions, one can effectively increase their Accuracy by +35, by lowering the enemies Fortitude of that much. Note that the modal, while having a -25% damage penalty, can be turned off after scoring the first hit, as it persists for ~12s, and then on again. Morningstars are underrepresented - the only two unique ones are Saru-Sichr and The Willbreaker. While the fomer is quite unimpressive, The Willbreaker has the following perks: - 10% attack speed - 10% Hit to Crit - High raw damage over time on Resolve affliction ridden enemies (in this build, we will reach about 90 raw damage over 20s, by just hitting things. RIP deep wounds) - 10% Chance to Shaken on Hit Combine the former with the 30% Hit-to-Crit from Berserker, and another 25% from Intuitive, and we get to a nice ~53% Hit-to-Crit. And that's why we turn at the Devoted subclass, which adds more penetration on top of Tenacious, and additional Crit damage, all the same without losing in versatility, as Morningstars have good damage combination (Pierce/Crush). The issue of self inflicted damage during Frenzy is addressed through spamming of Unbending Shield, Ring of Greater Regeneration, and last but not least, Devil's Due upgrade from The Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (incidentally coming with the Intellect Affliction Resistance we need), which provides healing on scoring Crits. Top this with a Voidward (-25% Raw damage, necessary because at high level and Might Frenzy ends up dealing about 30raw/3s), and you obtain a self-sustaining unstoppable killer. I've tested this character in successfully clearing the Drowned Barrows, Nemnok included. I strongly believe this build is suitable for solo'ing PotD, even though it will suffer A LOT before getting its core ability, i.e. Brute Force, i.e. lvl 16. But again, in this game one can reach that level without much fighting. Here's the build. Race Class Culture and Background Attributes Skills Abilities Equipment

POTD difficulty, trial of iron, solo playtrough. This guy started to talk to me as i stepped in the range of his totems in stealth. Didn't notice them before Conselhaut caught me in his best trap ever, made of a deadly totem and a lack of pause during the dialogues. During the dialogue, my character seems to have died from the totem effect, continiously doing whatever it does. After dialogue ended, i have a map full of fog of war, no characters and no game over message. I can save and load this state of the game, and I have a dead save file. I don't think that supposed to happen. To repeat the bug you just need to go to this encounter, get in range of totems while in stealth and talk to Concelhaut. Your character will die while in dialogue and you will get the result. Here is my save file - https://www.dropbox.com/s/9e3nglttwokxvun/Zerral%20%28c70d0256-241e-444b-9489-9879381787d6%29%20trialofiron.savegame?dl=0

A seemingly fragile glass cannon that can attacks fast, dodge everything, deal with mobs, and get out of the stickiest situations alive. Alright, this is my first post after years of lurking. (Sorry about my poor formatting skills and no pics) This build is for you if you like: - versatile characters - playing around your afflictions - outmaneuvering enemies with risky plays This build is NOT for you if you: - hate micro - don't like very squishy characters - feel uneasy because you don't have heals (ya goddamn chicken, **cluck-cluck...!**) When Trickster was the only class to get buffed in the last two patches, I thought I'd try a solo run on a character I had in mind originally as a Streetfighter/Nalpzaca, which proved to be too squishy and unreliable in some fights. What does this build do: goes into fight and builds up asap maximum Wounds, either by deliberately getting yourself hit a couple of times (but who wants that, really), or by using the titular ability of this build, i.e. Dance of Death. Then, as you have a +10 Int +15 Might bonus, you can start casting all the defensive buffs that allow you to not get hit, and keep stacking bonuses while attacking very fast thanks to Lightning Strikes. All of this spiced up by the mystique of the Trickster, which provides all the afflictions and the CC that base Rogue is missing. THE PREMISE: BUILD BERATH'S BLESSINGS: RACE: REGION: STATS: ABILITIES BY LEVEL: SKILLS: EQUIPMENT: STRATEGY Thanks to Stealthmandem for some useful suggestions!

A frigid soul in a cold barren land. She wanders around aimlessly, unknowingly guided by the Cosmo. Always alone but determined, she gazes towards the coal-black unflinching sky, her treasured flute by her side. At a distance spanning mountains wide, there is fire and warmth. A caravan can be seen, perched upon the snow capped mountains, the smell of barley and ale, the jovial atmosphere and the loud chattering of kith resting after a long day's travel. Unmistakably, the group of kith starts hearing a faint but sonorous melody. Not a second too long, a thunderous parade of jagged streaks can be seen painting blue the once austere sky. They jolt gently like falling Sakura leaves, chaotic but peaceful. The once loud chattering of the kith folk stops abruptly as if time itself has stopped. Even the previously biting gale lays still, replaced by the thunderous echoes of a forgotten past yearning for a distant future. As abrupt as it came, the spectacle ceases to exist. The void replaced by stars, slowly forming in the sky. And just like that, this band of weary travelers have bared witness to a famous bard's tale only thought to have been a legend. 1. Watch these Gameplay Videos first before you read on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSX6l2QgP2o 2. Required Mods Mod: Level Scaling Mod Why? We want the game to be harder so it will be more satisfying to beat. We want to DL the file called, "Level Scaling Mod" under the old files section. This is because the new mod file got tuned down as a response to the 1.1 patch which increased the game difficulty. We want the original file. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/24?tab=files Mod: Afflictions and Inspirations Mod Why? This is just an optional mod but it really improves the UI of the game. It's much cleaner to look at and much more informative than the standard base UI the game comes with. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/32 3. Character Creation Race: Pale Elf Why? I just like the way they look. Also, *whispers* Class Selection: Devoted Fighter + Nalpazca Monk Why Devoted? This build has a 46% chance to crit so having that +25% crit damage would prove useful. That's not even the best part. Why we pick Devoted is because of the +2 penetration we get. Since we will be playing on POTD and since we will be using a Blunderbuss (low base pen), we will need as much armor pen as we can get. Why Nalpazca? It's miles ahead in comparison to any other monk subclass. This is because Helwalker makes us too squishy, Shattered is a no go because we need max wounds to take advantage of Turning Wheel and No Subclass gives us no benefit. Nalpazca on the other hand offers us a substantial benefit (+10 pl to drugs) with an easily fixed penalty (we need to take drugs). Also, Drugs are ridiculously good! Attributes: Without/With Berath's Blessing Mig 8 -> 10 Con 8 -> 10 Dex 18 -> 20 Per 18 -> 20 Int 18 -> 20 Res 8 -> 10 Why we only need few of might, constitution or resolve? Our weapon (Blunderbuss) has a low base damage so +% damage from might is not that attractive, the +% healing we get is ok but we have enough ways to keep ourselves healthy. We will have enough defense rating (deflection, fortitude, reflex, will) to offset our non-investment in constitution. Resolve gives us an ok amount of deflection. We also have sufficient tools to lower hostile effect duration through Ring of Solitary Wanderer (-35% hostile effect duration) and Clarity of Agony (-5 sec Duration of hostile effects, -50% Hostile effect duration for 20.0 sec). Why we need a lot of dexterity, perception and intellect? We need dex to attack fast so we can keep procing Avenging Storm which is the reason for this build. Perception is the king of stats, especially in POTD. We want to hit enemies. As a side benefit, both dexterity and perception increases our reflex defense. With sky-high reflex, plenty of the heavy hitting enemy ranged aoe damage will miss us leaving enemies to rely on their puny basic attacks to do damage on us. Enemy spells shouldn't be an issue either as we have enough will to resist it. The reason why we max intellect is for the increased duration in our abilities, scrolls, and drugs. This is more valuable than it sounds! Culture: The White that Wends Mystic Why? Mainly for the Lore. Also, Mystic gives us +1 to Arcana (the active skill we are going to max). Weapon Proficiency: Blunderbuss Why? We will be using Kitchen Stove which is a Blunderbuss. Active Skill: Max Arcana Why? Arcana along with Alchemy are straight-up bonkers as of patch 1.1. +1 Arcana is equivalent to +1 to power level of scrolls. We will be taking advantage of all the scrolls we can find/craft to unleash hell towards our enemies. Avenging Storm is our bread and butter. Passive Skill: Max History Why? We will be using the The Giftbearer's Cloth (+5 all defenses except deflection, increases with the History skill). 4. Equipment and Consumables Equipment: Helmet- Pearlescent Helm or Death's Maw (you can use whatever for this) Necklace - Bonesetter's Torc (for the +5% crit, +10% healing done and injury removal) Armor - Devil of Caroc Breastplate (still the best armor in-game despite the nerf imho) Ring Slot 1 - Ring of Solitary Wanderer (for the -35% harmful duration) Boots - Footprints of Ahu Taka (for the +2 dex and +10% healing done) Cape - The Giftbearer's Cloth (still gives a lot of defenses despite the nerf, +15 at 20 History) Gloves - Firethrower's Gloves (has everything we need for this build, +2 dex and +1 Arcana) Ring Slot 2 - Entonia Signet Ring (you can use whatever for this) Belt - Upright Captain's Belt (for the immunity to push/pull effects) Pet - Abraham (reduces recovery speed by a lot, best pet in-game imho) Weapon: Kitchen Stove - We want to use a Blunderbuss for its multi-shot passive. Kitchen Stove just happens to be the best Blunderbuss. Note# We want the modal on as it does crazy AOE damage. Its negative effect is offset by Intuitive from Disciplined Strikes. Note# The optimal enchantments are Frantic Reload and Wild Barrage. Food: Hot Razor Skewers is really good as it gives us +2 might, +2 pen and +1 to power level. Any other food should be fine as well. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% dmg with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Note# Crusted Swordfish +2 pen with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Drugs: Deadeye is excellent for this build as it gives us accuracy as well as the % interrupt that gets pretty crazy due to multi-shot (Blunderbuss passive). Note# Coral Snuff is not good because its action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# For hard encounters, use Deadeye. For general encounters, use any other drugs or even no drugs at all. Scrolls: Scroll of Avenging Storm - Our bread and butter. This is the reason why this build exists. Nuff Said. Scroll of Circle of Protection - Increases our defenses by 15 until combat ends. This is pretty crazy huh? Scroll of Moonwell - Increases our defenses by 10 and gives us a huge amount of constant healing (26.2hp per 3 seconds) for a long duration (40.5s). Scroll of Withdraw - We will only use this as a last resort. It makes us untargetable while healing us but we are stunned for the duration. Note# I only use these set of scrolls for hard encounters. For general encounters, use any other scrolls or even no scrolls at all. Note# No matter how much fun it is to always use Avenging Storm, I only use it when I actually need it. Use it sparingly as it's hard to craft. Note# I'm not using Scroll of Meteor Shower and Scroll of Great Maelstrom because they just one shot everything with maxed out Arcana. 5. Abilities Abilities by level guide: 2. Lesser Wounds 3. Fast Runner 4. Fighter Stances + 1H Style (+20% critical chance is crazy good) 5. Determination (amazing tanking passive) 6. Confident Aim 7. Disciplined Strikes + Lightning Strikes (core abilities of this build) 8. Rapid Recovery 9. Clarity of Agony (really good against strong damage over time) 10. Vigorous Defense + Thunderous Blows (+2 pen applies to Avenging Storm) 11. Duality of Mortal Presence 12. Crucible of Suffering (amazing tanking passive) 13. Conqueror Stance (+10 to accuracy/deflection is nuts) + Enlightened Agony (we love intellect) 14. Armored Grace 15. Enervating Blows (super useful against enemies that heal) 16. Refreshing Defense + Turning Wheel (we love intellect) 17. Body Control (resistance to might affliction) 18. Unstoppable (resistance to dex affliction) 19. Snake's Reflex + Bear's Fortitude (more defenses) 20. Uncanny Luck AI Behavior Script:

Glanfathan Soul Hunter Game Version - 1.2 Difficulty - PoTD up-scaled / Solo / Deadly Deadfire Race: Wooden Elf Class - (Ranger) Ghost Heart / (Cipher) Ascendant Alignment - Neutral (The strongest survives) Culture: Aedyr God - Galawain Companion - Bear Increase difficulty mod: Deadly Deadfire Hardcore (https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43) Videos: Showcases L20 - Equipment (On this video I didnt have Bracers of Greater Deflection) L20 - Abilities, Attributes (On this video, I used my old setup, check new version in abilities section) L20 - Queen L20 - Ukaizo L19 - Fampyr L15 - Adra lighthouse L13 - Ondra Temple Attributes Might - 10 Constitution - 10 Dexterity - 19 Perception - 10 Intellect - 18 Resolve - 11 Skills Alchemy 19 History 19 Abilities Whispers of Treason (CL1) + Marked Prey (HL1) Resilient Companion (HL2) Penetrating Visions (CL3) Draining Whip (CL4) + Gunnery (HL4) Marksman (HL5) Weapon and Shield Style (CL6) Ectopsychic Echo (CL7) + Evasive Roll (HL7) Protective Companion (HL8) Hammering Thoughts (CL9) Body Attunement (CL10) + Stalker's Link (HL10) Recall Agony (CL11) Bear's Fortitude (HL12) Ring Leader (CL13) + Driving Flight (HL13) Borrowed Instinct (CL14) Tactical Meld (CL15) Disintegration (CL16) + Survival of the Fittest (HL16) The Empty Soul (CL17) Defensive Bond (HL18) The Complete Self (CL19) + Superior Camouflage (HL19) Snake's Reflexes (HL20) Equipement Pet: Abracham (https://pillarsofete...dia.com/Abraham Weapon 1: Bronlar's Phalanx (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy) + Scordeo's Trophy (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy Weapon 2: Hand Mortal(https://pillarsofete...com/Hand_Mortar) + Cadhu Scalth (https://pillarsofete...om/Cadhu_Scalth) Weapon 3: Dragon's Dowry (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Armor: Patinated Plate (https://pillarsofete...Patinated_Plate) Head: Heaven's Cacophony (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Belt: Girdle of Eoten Constitution (https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Girdle_of_Eoten_Constitution_(Deadfire)) Ring: Ring of the Marksman (https://pillarsofete...of_the_Marksman) + Small Ring of Protection Footprints: Boots of the Stone (https://pillarsofete...ts_of_the_Stone) Gloves:Bracers of Greater Deflection (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Belt: Captain Belt (https://pillarsofete..._Captain's_Belt) Amulet: Strand of Favor(https://pillarsofete...Strand_of_Favor) Modals: * Large Shield * Pistol * Blunderbuss Food: Captain Banquette Gameplay: Charm enemies Put Ectopsychic Echo on Companion Generate Focus and RS with Scordeo If enemies surround switch on Hand Mortal and use Heaven's Cacophony active skills When you Ascended put Disintegration on each enemy around you Tips: Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Rogue distraction and stop enemies sneak attack Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Fear, Terrified Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Domination Alchemy: Potion of Piercing Strikes with Body Attunement helps penetrate Golems and Ukaizo armor Alchemy: Potion of Ascension increase Disintegration damage

The answer to the question in the title is, you dodge every deflection targeting attack in the game, including ones from the final boss. I have always been a fan of wizard in rpg games, I initially started with a pure wizard but got stuck on the final boss due to the fact that I invested heavily in defense but ended up defense and damage both being mediocre, 3 meteor showers wasn't enough to carry me through the boss's phases despite meteor shower being crazy op, and I didn't want to use arcana scrolls, so I decided to reroll arcane knight for the 21 bonus defenses as well as passive/active healing. The core idea of this build is to build around the tier 1 wizard spell, wizard's double, it offers 40 deflection, highest among all the deflection buffs in the game, with a huge downside, it's gone if you are hit, even just a graze, but that downside is nonexistent if you never get hit, which is possible in this game by achieving 75 points higher defense score than enemie's accuracy score. A build using the same items and stats but as paladin/chanter probably works also, trading some deflection for 2 healing auras. Or a riposite build with trickster rogue and paladin, would do more damage and dodge all reflex attacks but won't have the spell reflect, I actually want to do a trickster/paladin build now hmm. Final boss video for those that want to see the build in action first: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXj6xAVOoNs&feature=youtu.be (anyone knows how to do the spoiler thing in text?) Character creation stats: Wizard: No subclass Paladin: Goldpact Race: Wild Orlan MIG: 2 CON: 3 DEX: 18 PER: 20 INT: 15 RES: 20 Low might: might in pillars 2 is nowhere as useful compare to previous game, due to the armor mechanics changes, and the fact that the damage bonus is additive with legendary weapon enchant and other damage+ modfiers. Low con: high life pool is useless if you never get hit. High resolve: it gives deflection, will, and reduces dot duration, every point of deflection that brings me closer to the untouchable line is worth it. High perception: accuracy is a very useful stat, but lot harder to get in this game compare to previous game, I really value accuracy, reflex is also very important. High dex: mostly for the reflex, but action speed is good dps boost. Rest into int: the duration will increase the duration of buffs and total damage of spells like chill dog and ninagauth's freezing pillar, and meteor shower if you feel like using scrolls, can trade this stat for might but I personally wanted high will ontop of everything I already have, since my fortitude stat is beyond saving. Blood pool: Eder Talents: I mostly focus on buffs on wizard side because the amount of the accuracy you can get is pretty low in this game. tier 1: wizard's double, chill dog tier 2: infused life essence tier 3: llengrath's displaced image tier 4: minor arcane reflection tier 5: llengrath's safeguard tier 6: ninagauth's freezing pillar tier 7: citzal's martial power paladin side: deep faith brand enemy weapon and shield style exalted endurance greater lay on hand clear head snake's reflex righteous soul practiced healer improved critical bull's will bear's fortitude stoic steel divine purpose Items: weapon: I used gladiator sword for the majority of my game, only switched to acolyte's frostbite hatchet for final boss for the weapon mastery skill. shield: cadhu scalth, very powerful shield that gives a lot of deflection and damage reduction, the interaction when retreiving the second quest item for this shield is currently bugged, you need a second member in your team to trigger it. armor: I wanted to use Gipon Prudensco because of it's crazy good enchant and it's interaction with miloletta's minor missles, sadly, after testing it with console I noticed that the enchant is completely broken and the item is probably not in the game atm, so I ended up using devil's caroc armor, there may be better choices out there. another option is the intimidate chest that gives deflection grimoire: grimoire of vaporous wizardry, none of the unique spells stood out too much for this build, so going for extra casts is not a bad idea. helm: rekvu's fractured casque, to counter grimoire's downsides and fighter knock downs in general, since we always get hit due to low fortitude. rings: entonia signet ring, very good ring that gives all defenses including deflection, the other ring I used ring of minor deflection but can be replaced. amulet: + 2 resolve from early drake bounty gloves: 1 dex 1 athletics / 10% mêlée action speed 1dex / 2 might 2 intimidate pet: I added Lil'babes from console for +1 dex and + 3 melee deflection for the final boss, I personally don't know where to get this cat, the pet seller in nekataka sells a dog that gives 20 life on kill and 3 melee deflection that worked really well for me early to mid game. Spoilers below Early game: If you started at level 4 then everything will be a breeze, gold pact sworn enemy adds 4 armor which is huge ontop of medium armor, which often reduces damage by 75%, the hardest fight for most solo builds should be the 3 wraith before oderisi, but with gladiator sword and large shield and proper talents the wraiths have 0 chance to hit, after that you can do a lot of easy quests in nekataka for exp. Mid game: At level 10 you can board beggar's ship and get a principi flag to do the fort deadlight quest chain, arkamyr's manor is also good source of exp. At lvl 11-12 you should have no trouble boarding 1 star ships, since they won't hit you much with llengrath's displaced image and large shield mastery ability on, go in a corner activate large shield active then just cast chill fog and auto, and because solo player exp bonus you'll quickly outscale your opponents, some fights will take longer than usual, like the giant bounty that has self regen, but they should still die in the end. Late game: Most fights should be really easy, Ninagauth pillars clear trash pretty quickly, probably want a gaze immune shield for the famyr cave though, the only fight that almost got me was the ancient lich, because of the reduced healing debuff, but he died anyway. Video for final boss. That should be it for now, might update later, overall I think the game's balance needs a lot of work, I really wish game's path of the damned difficulty got to the point where you need at least 3 members to beat. so I can actually think about class interactions, roles of tank, dps and healer and all that, or bring story companions and actually enjoy the story, as a hardcore gamer I really can't play with multiple characters knowing others have beaten the game with one, my pride disallows it. A game I played earlier called Tower of Time got the difficulty part somewhat right in comparison, if you ignore the crafting.