Kaylon

Yeah, I think you're right, I wasn't aware you can't empower abilities added using the console and I added Inner Death to one of my old saves. When empower didn't work I remembered a patch with a nerf related to monks, empower and Skullcrusher and I thought it had something to do with that.

Ah, I see... In vanilla you can't empower Inner Death, either.

What damage bonuses do you had? Even when you backstab with soul annihilation it's difficult to deal over 700dmg.

Yes, but only with CP...

It was the first thing I suspected too, but it has the keyword Fire. I was also thinking it's because it does slash as the main damage, but I tested with other attacks with fire secondary and it works as expected. Another strange thing, when you're using the console command "god", the damage is displayed in the logs but actually you never take damage, however Brutal Cleave still does damage and Dorudugan might even kill you (if he would spam it). What makes this attack a "god" killer?

There's something strange about the dreaded Brutal Cleave of Dorudugan - it does slash/burn damage however (if you have higher slash resistance) you still take fire damage when you wear Rekvu's cloak. There's a reason to this or it's another bug?

The blood mage benefits less than the cipher, but the Chill Fog from Grave Calling is still interesting because it is affected by the weapon's bonuses, is "foe only" and can also freeze. Unfortunately you still have to do the kills with Grave Calling. To make things smoother you can damage first your skeletons with a spell. A possibility is to cast yourself Chill Fog which will do damage to everyone in the AoE and then kill them. Later you can also use the Essential Phantom to assist you. To optimize even more it might be a good idea to wear the Charm of Bones and equip Amaliorra in the offhand (it helps to attack faster with the main hand and also gives accuracy against vessels to all your attacks).

Your weapon set is good for tanking mega bosses on potd, but for normal difficulty and common enemies you should focus more on offense. Summons are meat shields, you shouldn't use them for damage - use invocations instead (Her Revenge...). You should ideally have 3 weapon sets: Sasha's Scimitar + Kitchen Stove / Modwyr + Lethandria's Shield / Dragon's Dowry. Two Necklaces of Fireballs (for 8 fireballs available every fight) + Ring of Focused Flame can help a lot (make sure you also pick Scion of Flame passive for increased penetration on fire abilities). Other nice items to have are Belt of Magran's Chosen, Horns of the Aurochs, Rakhan Field Boots, Abraham pet. If you cycle through all abilities you can finish fights very fast. Here's an example: Start at max range from stealth with Dragon's Dowry equipped (and modal activated) and cast Eternal Devotion on the nearest target -> cast Brand Enemy starting with tanky enemies until your zeal is depleted -> switch to Sasha+Kitchen and cast Thunderous Report -> empower and cast Her Revenge... -> use No Quarter (make sure you have Clear Head passive and Powder Burns activated) -> switch to Modwyr and cast again Her Revenge... until you deplete all phrases -> cast Fireballs -> Bottom's Up -> finish enemies left Make sure you pick also Retribution and Inspired Path (helps casting more Brand Enemy at the start) besides the passives already mentioned. Other dps combos you could try: Rust's Poignard + Blackblade's Hood Aldris Blade of Captain Crow + Fair Favor + Ring of Prosperity's Fortune Essence Interrupter + Deltro's Cage Helm (before any fight you can use No Quarter on yourself to obtain the buff) PS. And always play at max speed when using a herald.

While WotEP has the potential to passively restore your focus (using Offensive Parry), its main advantage is the ability to spread SA in AoE (which can become huge with all the rogue bonuses); its Run Through is also great for backstabs and refilling your focus instantly. Basically vs single enemies you should use Sun & Moon + Tuotilo's Palm, while vs multiple enemies you switch to WotEP. Later you can use replace Tuotilo's Palm with The Best Defense, add The Left Hand of the Obscured and have three sources of Terrify (which is just as good as Stun/Paralyze while also triggering occasional disengagement attacks). Other weapons worth using, depending on the situation, are Grave Calling (Chill Fog proc will replenish your focus continuously), Voidwheel (can instantly refill your focus when it procs and is great for backstabing enemies at the start of the fight using No Quarter from Rakhan Field Boots), Engoliero do Espirs can also heal and replenish your focus with its proc.

Ondra's challenge doesn't change their combat speed and with the best ship upgrades you can be at least as fast as them with any type of ship. If you do over 50% damage to their sails then their speed is cut in half and you can outmaneuver them.

Another possibility is streetfighter/monk - you can stay bloodied using Mortification/Volatile Runelock and the monk also adds accuracy, speed, damage, penetration, lash, summons. With Shark Soup and Slippery Mind you are immune to all afflictions, you can also use items with various effects on your summons...

They're mostly useless unless you play a tank with optimized stats who can stack defenses. But fortitude is the most important of them.

EAB's dps is greatly affected by its proc. If the proc doesn't trigger then its dps is just average, but if you take in account the proc then it should be above the other pistols. I don't know exactly what's the PL/CL bonus applied to Imbued Ammunition, but I'm curious how it works in the case of MC and if it can be improved with some buffs.

Oh? Indeed I wasn't aware (or maybe I forgot ) that IA gets the PL bonus. That will increase the dps by quite a bit indeed and put it above the others.

I don't know how you did your calculations, but if you compare EAC with Thundercrack it's very easy to see which one has the better dps (they can use the same setup and it's easy to spot the differences). Thundercrack's average base dmg is 17 with 15% lash dmg (ie 19.55 base average dmg), while ECA average base dmg is 6+10 (with Imbued Ammunition) with its 25% dmg proc (ie 20 base average dmg). However ECA has 35% slower recovery because of Imbued Ammunition which will lower its dps under Thundercrack (2.7s vs 2.5s action speed with 20dex). PS. Anyway, this topic has been already discussed pretty extensively in the past and I thought it was common knowledge...