Leaderboard

My build is getting a bit out of hand, fitting it meaningfully in a screenshot has gotten rather hard. Anyway, might be interesting to see how I go about building. So I ended up finishing the palace wing of my palace (at least the structure part, need to decorate rooms etc still. From the entrance to the end I built a big throne room: Dragon heads are kinda big, but I managed to fit one in the equally ridiculously big Map Room Overview including my initial base at the bottom of the arch, for scale. The palace I built is barely visible here (it's behind the Derketo temple, which is the yellow or green(*) light beam) I'd probably have to make a video of sorts to fit everything in without it feeling too disconnected or resulting in a truly ridiculous amount of screenshots... In total there are 4300 T3 (Aquilonian) building blocks used in this (so far), of which 1181 are foundations (not counting all the Stonebrick for the ramps and the Sandstone Foundations used underneath to level out the terrain) (*) yours truly is colourblind

Oh boy. Pretty sure we don't need more YT nontroversy/he-said-she-said Twitter ballyhoo. Especially when it pertains to other games. It's bad enough that the general gaming news is already chock full of that kind of "content". Echoing them elsewhere only increases their exposition.

I reduced building costs (other option is to increase gathering yield), mostly to avoid the gathering getting overly tedious. Still this would be doable with "vanilla" settings, at least in a solo game. The location itself is really close to large amounts of Brimstone, as the croc cave and the other brimstone cave are pretty much right at the other side of the newbie river from here. There's Iron (and Coal, but barely using that anymore) there too, but not in such large amounts, so I tend to just "import" that from my tower near the Unnamed City (where iron is plentiful). Ichor is easy: just put down loads of fish traps and then keep the Fluid Presses going (gets large amounts of Oil too, so nice bonus there and the reason I barely use Coal anymore). It's even easier now that the latest patch increased how much of certain things you can stack (Iron and Steel bars stack to 1000 now, I think), so dragging it from one base to the next isn't quite as tedious anymore. Oh, and I'm a massive packrat, so unless I go somewhere for a very specific reason (read: bossfights) I run around in Light Armor, combined with the 10% carry weight bonus you can carry quite a lot so I tend to just keep going until I hit my encumbrance limit, then I either dump the heavy stuff in a chest to pick up later with a Bearer or return to a base to unload. For gathering it makes rather a large difference which quality tools you use (the upgrade is also rather helpful) higher tier ones can gather quite large quantities rather quickly. If you bring a Bearer you can just unload to the thrall and keep gathering for quite a while. EDIT: and I've been working on this for a while now, there's that as well, didn't exactly plunk this down over the weekend. Judging by my screenshot folder I started half March.

In terms of diversity, function and an intangible "coolness" factor. If memory serves, in DOS (I didn't play the second one), items mostly only add small bonus percentages and are quickly made irrelevant as you level up. In pathfinder, they follow the typical +X bonus, with little added mechanics. I find that the POE series does a much better job with items. They are more interesting (as they often provide abilities that are usually gated behind class), can be enchanted as to remain useful for the whole game and are just cooler (descriptions, lore, imagery, design, etc.) Just my opinion

Today I decided to make a trebuchet in Conan Exiles, because it was a mission or something. I've been building my little fortress on a small cliff overlooking a beach, and I found a good place for it. Once I had it all ready to go, I cranked it back and let it fly towards the beach. It didn't go very far, but it did manage to disturb the Shaleback King hanging out on the beach. It just ticked him off, so he came charging up the slope to show me what is up. I retreated a but with the use of my elevator and fired some arrows down on him, but that just seemed to make him grumpy. Then I managed to get my thralls in on the act, and jumped behind him to finish him off with a warhammer. It was my first boss battle!

So Conan Exiles is my game of the year. I mean, they just nailed so many different types of games in this thing. The world is engaging and hits the Conan vibe, the character development is well balanced, and then it is just this amazing building/survival game on top of it all. I am surprised it isn't getting more positive buzz.

First of all - roleplay music background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEjPohtfhcc Hand of Doom Difficulty: PotD v. 5.0 with Community Patch (Forbidden Fist ability changed to weapon attack) Solo: totally viable, but untested. I played some tougher fights with team wandering somewhere, especially Eder for pet slot (Nalvi) Class: Forbidden Fist/Steel Garrote Race: Nature Godlike for better fisting with Wellspring of Life Background: Ixamitl Plains - Laborer Stats: Might - 18 (+ 2 berath blessing, 1 gift from the machine, 1 chameleon's touch, 2 alchemic brawn, 1 rabyuna's boon, 5 tunderous blows = 30) damage and healing bonus Constitution - 3 (+ 2 berath blessing, 2 alchemic brawn = 7) dumped because of incredible self healing Dexterity - 15~18 (+ 2 berath blessing, 2 footprints of ahu taka, 1 chameleon's touch, 2 alchemic guile, 1 rabyuna's boon, 1 godlike = 24~27) Perception - 15~18 (+ 2 berath blessing, 2 alchemic guile = 19~22) Intellect - 3 (+ 2 berath blessing, 2 alchemic wits, 1 godlike, 10 turning wheel = 18) dump base int, because of turning wheel. Needs max wounds for fire lash, and you don't want extend forbidden curse to much Resolve - 18 (+ 2 berath blessing, 2 alchemic wits, 2 token of faith, 2 rabyuna's boon, 1 ixamitl plains, 1 cauldron brew = 28) test it at different game stages, to keep forbidden curse effect below 3sec, with max bonus from turning wheel. Then it ticks only once, and when curse fades heals you more, than injures. You can also use shorewalker sandals, cabin boy instead of rabyuna, ring of the solitary wanderer, harmony ring, or sacrifice palegina in PoE 1. Equipment: Head: godlike head for wellspring of life. (Add potion of ascencion to reach 10 power level, and your fists will be post-mythic utensils of destruction with +80% damage, +22 accuracy and 13 penetration) Back: The Giftbearer's Cloth Neck: Token of Faith for +2 resolve or Bone Setter's Torc for additional healing, or Strand of Favour (remember to adjust equipment to forbidden curse lasts below 3sec) Armor: first Devil of Caroc Beastplate or Gipon Prudensco, then Contender's Armour (with enough athletics, that you use as emergency healing, nalvi pet and abraham pet, this armor is faster than naked and has nice armor rating), or Kahako Nihi (the tankiest, but also the slowest. Looks cool and has great enchantments that reduce enemy armor and penetration, and the most important, gives you 10% piercing lash to forbidden fist ability) Waist: Blunting Belt/Upright Captain if using pull of eora/ Ngati Girdle/Makers Own Power (for might and crush AR. Reforge the Flesh is bad for you, because of paralyze. Your healing is reduced when deal no damage. Use up its charge before fight) Hands: Hylea's Talons (about 7 self damage, healed for 300% more immediately when effect wears of, and give you wound, and 5% slash lash for weapon attacks) Rings: Chameleon's Touch and Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (or ring of the solitary wanderer, harmony ring but remember to adjust equipment to forbidden curse duration below 3sec) Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka/Shorewalker Sandals Pet: abraham (and nalvi on eder if possible) Weapon set 1: Magran's Favour with modal on (when using Forbidden fist ability the initial attack is made with your fist irrespectively of weapon in active slot, but heartbeat drumming and flurry strikes use magrans favour with modal, which apply bleeding cuts with no recovery penalty, an it's always main hand, without damage reduction even if you dual wielding) Tuotillo's Palm with modal on (you doesn't need to use auto attacks often, so no dps decrease due to tuotillo's low base dmg or modal recovery, but its enchants adds 5 accuracy to forbidden fist ability, and 1 deflection for every wound. You want to have 10 wounds all the time for turning wheel lash. Deflection is, at this time, high enough to enemies often miss you, so FF ability gets +15 accuracy from modal) Weapon set 2: Kapana Taga and Tuotillo when flanked (swaping weapon when flanked should give you wound, becouse you get rid of negative effect, but i honestly doesn't know if it works) Food - Mohora Wraps Drugs - Mouth Char Quick slots - Potion of Ascension Abilities: Steel Garrote and Forbidden Fist passive talents - The harder you hit, the more you heal. With post-mythic forbiden fist you hit like a truck, heal from draining, then after 2,9 sec curse disappears and heal you more! (possible only with Community patch, becouse original FF is not a weapon attack) Eternal Devotion - 10% burning lash for FF Exalted Endurance - 8 hp per 3 sec Deep Faith, Inspired Defences, Weapon and Shield style, Practiced Healer, Stoic Steel - for defence Virtuous Triumph - resorce regen Sworn Rival - additional damage from it is supressed by FF, but it works on SF/HBD Clarity of Agony - reduce curse duration (its upgrade doesn't stack with turning wheel) Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming - tons of instant bleeding cuts, and additional healing from Steel Garrote's passive talent (possible only with Community patch, becouse original FF is not a weapon attack) Tunderous Blows - +5 might and +2 pen Turning Wheel - +20% burning lash with 10 wounds (then also 10 deflection from tuotillo's palm) Crucible of Suferring - bonus to all defences exept deflection. Always active due to forrbiden curse fading time after time Soul Mirror - i became convinced to this talent when it reflect concelhaut beam spell against him Mortification of the Soul - gaining wounds by FF may be slow when nobody can afflict you, and the damage of mortification is almost instatntly covered by self healing. Nice to have Instruments od Pain - for stoic steel preservation if no enemies in mele range Rest is up to you. This build is realy indestructible machine, that can also deal huge damage. It doesn't uses any exploit or cheats, but many, many, many little synergies, which stacked together makes it smash enemies with 35(or 45% with kahako nihi) lash, heal itself for tremendous amounts, and regen resources. Here's console created character for tests vs some famphyrs (no specific tactic and it runs on AI ) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gDlNDayZrJPgacTqK5cCqQGQ2PLQ-XWb/view?usp=sharing

Working on a mod to overhaul the Priest subclasses to be more interesting. I know there's already Stardusk's Dynamic Priests mod, which is very cool, but I wanted to make something less extensive that preserved more of the vanilla balance. The goals for this are a) provide some active gameplay bonus from the Priest subclass, b) allow for some multiclass synergies and c) use the underused Priest keywords more. I've developed a proof of concept with the Magran subclass, using the Wizard subclass model of keyword Power Level bonuses, a unique passive effect and a recovery penalty for opposing schools. Priest of Magran now provides: Bonuses: +1 Fire and Punishment Power Levels +3 Armour Rating and Concentration for 10 seconds on scoring Hit or Crit with a Punishment or Fire attack (still toying with this duration) Penalty: +15% Recovery with Restoration and Frost abilities (dunno why the Fire/Punishment condition isn't showing on this, but it does work in gameplay) This, hopefully, encourages Magranic priests to get up in the action and cast spells in melee and allows some multiclass synergies with melee classes, other casters or classes with Fire attacks, like Paladins. Attached the gamedatabundle if you want to play around with it. Still thinking of ideas for the other deities, ideas and feedback welcome! magran proof of concept.gamedatabundle

All this soap opera stuff is par for the course these days isn't it.

Photos from history we don't always see.

While I like a Warlock nowadays I think Druid/Barb is even nicer. TryBerserker/Ancient. In my opinion that's even better. Berserker/Fury is nice, too. Although I like the DoTs more. Ancient/Helwalker is also very nice. +10 MIG/+10 INT with AoE DoTs is great. For a Debonaire/Wizard you just want to play it as a ranged caster. Since Debonaire can't engage (so no Persistent Distraction) he wants to stay at range anyways. Makes it also easier to keep party members around to prevent "Cowardice" from happening. Stuff like Kalakoth's Minor Blights with Toxic Strike is still very nice.

As a Contra fan, I must admit, I am blown away by this trailer:

Was going to start that next week. Good to know I've wasted my money, now, though!

God those Resident Evil movies are terrible. Besides, there is no Gullermo del Torro and no Ron Pearlman. Ron Pearlman, now that's a B movie queen worth your time.

That is the darkest thing I've seen in awhile.

Entering the thread I assumed it will be about realistic scope of the game, and was about to make a joke about realistic weapons scopes, only to find that the thread is about weapons scopes.

A further update: this is very real now. I figured out the last real issue, which was how to beat Dorudugan with my ranger/chanter. Previously I beat him, but probably would have broken my weapons from the Abydon challenge (which I have turned off in this test game, but Dorudugan is the only time throughout the game it would have mattered). Ultimately, the secret to ultimate is to find the right cheese for each moment. lol. Fight cheese (the difficulty and design-laziness of Ultimate) with cheese! I say to Josh Sawyer, "My cheese is greater than your cheese!" Just some cleanup testing is left, but that was likely the only real challenge left to figure out, and it was a big one. However, I can definitely win that fight now, in Ultimate. Until tonight, I was still somewhat skeptical of my build, but now I am very confident. There may be about 4 fights that are not quite 100% assured (but each of those fights I won the first time I tried them after I figured them out), and the rest of the game should be close enough to 100%. Of course, anything can go wrong in Trial of Iron. I can say with a lot of certainty that it is possible to do Ultimate with this build, possibly after a few (or maybe several) tries. Possibly a particularly bad Galawain buff might cause a problem somewhere, like maybe on the Water Dragon. However, with enough mirror-practice, I think that it is realistic to succeed the first time (assuming practicing hard situations in a mirror right before doing it for real). The 4-ish hard fights can probably get to about a 90% probability of success or so, maybe higher. On the other hand, with the help of a friend, I realized that the upgraded armor breaking (-2 AR) invocation is really good when appropriate. It stays on an enemy for the entire fight after just 1 cast, if you have summons hitting. Very good for dragon fights and for killing various bosses, and even some non-bosses that are slow to kill, like fire nagas. I didn't realize that on my first playthrough, and it should make the next playthrough easier and faster. One man's cheese is another man's strategy!

All survival games sound like work.

I think the game was a victim of timing. It came out just as the survival game craze had ended and I think people were just really burned out on survival games because about a billion of them were "released" in the span of a couple years, and by "released" I mean put out in perpetual early access. It doesn't help that 99% of these survival games were, quite frankly, not very good. They'd come out in early access and people would say "well, it's missing a lot, but there's potential" then 2 years later the games would be barely closer to reaching said potential. I think that left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Then Conan Exiles came out and it got overlooked by a lot of people who just assumed it was "yet another survival game" (I include myself in that group) and they were just done with those games. Turns out Conan Exiles is more than yet another survival game and it's also quite good.

The writing is very similar to what you would commonly get in DnD books and games, its very true to the genre in that regard. The dialogue choice may be basic, but you very often get choices that align with any alignment you'd wish to play. Its one of the few games where I've felt that playing a evil character did not outright punish you through dialogues. And I do agree with you on 2. I see this as one of the things that I really enjoy with the game, but it is not for everyone. At least the game came with a easy mode!

A shame nobody had any feedback for you on Surviving Mars (not familiar with the game), but I recognize the use of Steam sales as a way to try out games I wouldn't normally buy

I hate that animation style.

The Pallid Knights? Too obvious? I'm guessing they would be devoted to seek out those that try to escape the cycle and return them to it. Some kind of ability against undead probably. Dispositions: Stoic and rational.

Debonaire/Wizard if you use your Cipher for mass charming. Debonaire gets 100% crit conversion on any charmed enemy. And Wizard has many friendly-fire spells. This can completely remove the PEN issues of most damaging wizard spells on PotD. Use items and abilities which increase crit damage.

I have to agree with those saying that FS should not be skipped, it is IMO the best part of Deadfire (with the notable exception of the Bridge Ablaze). I'm currently finishing my second full playthrough and I'm loving going back to the Black Isle. I also strongly agree with @Wormerine about itemization, it is one of the game's major strengths. Comparatively, Pathfinder and Divinity are miles behind in this department (well, in almost every department IMO, but that is more arguable I guess).

New WoW patch, basically just doing dailies over and over - though complaints that all we do is grind this patch have me puzzled as to what genre people have been playing for 15 years. Nazjatar has some the best music WoW has ever had though, and is a cool zone. Sort of shame it's not a fully fleshed out zone though, given it's importance to lore events.

The hand in process hasn't formally started yet- and there won't be 1.5M eligible guns anyway, there will be a lot less than that. But, those quibbles aren't that significant, practically it will be a disaster as there are mutually contradictory aims and a bunch of ideological hand waving/ wringing. Having rushed the legislation through parliament without thinking it through they now have to actually implement it and they plain cannot do it the way they've promised. Everyone knows it will cost a billion dollars- minimum- to do properly, but they cannot justify that when teachers and nurses etc want pay rises so instead they've budgeted $200 million- and topped it up, ludicrously, from the state 'insurance' fund (ACC) as there will be less accidents to pay out (there are very few firearm related accidents in NZ anyway). As such they either expect max 20% of the weapons to be handed in, are going to offer 20% of the value or are lying about the expected cost. Probably a bit of all three. Plus they decided to change the definitions again just before passing the legislation with no notification, which did not fill anyone effected with confidence. So they've lost a significant number of people who they want handing in guns already as they know they're being outright lied to. I have to admit I've found the reaction to the backlash kind of hilarious though. I'm not directly effected since I don't own a semi auto but I have had a lot of fun needling anti gun zealots with the unworkability of it and their own logical contradictions- laughably, illegally owned firearms are excluded from the amnesty for example, so literal criminals have no incentive to hand their weapons in. Amazingly, none of the people who thought buying a gun back for 70% of its value was a great offer would accept my equally great offer to buy their cars for 70% of their value, though to be fair most also accepted that the offer only sounded good if you didn't think about it for more than 5 seconds.

These: Now, to read through this entire thing: https://lparchive.org/Ryuu-ga-Gotoku-Kenzan/

I agree, the Burning Bridge section was one of the highlights of the entire game. It was just extremely well done, and I absolutely loved the way you could explore the bridge from three different points in time. I also think the Inquisitor storyline in BoW was really well done, too, and in fact it was one of those that might be worth a replay: I played a monk with a philosopher background and made my choices on that basis, and obviously a different character would make different choices. One of the things that made me carry on with SSS was Konstanten: I think his voice acting is superb. He sounds like a very likeable strongman with plenty of experience and a fairly simple but joyous (i.e. not nasty) sense of humour, and he was just a pleasure to have around. In fact, this sidekick thing may well have been one of the factors that contributed to me not pressing further with the FS: Fassina did not seem pleasant. Like, at all. I understand that she's very frustrated, and there's nothing wrong with that, but would anyone agree that when she talks, she sounds like a complainer? And that's just something I don't want in my group. (Ydwin was very good in BoW and made the story feel more substantial. I never had Vatnir in my group, so no comments on him.)

"She/her, pan."

I am more a Pathfinder guy And so far for me was the most interesting Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, because of very mature setting. Thankfully it was released, before the outrage culture overtook the internet.

Considering the cosmic mess in which Eora finds itself, and that possibility of fast traveling has been introduced (Valian's experiments with adra): I would like for the series to move into top down 3d engine (I mean preferably still isometric as it's less fiddly, ala. Starcraft2, I don't know how practical it would be), and explore multiple places - Rauatai and Yehuza come to mind as potential must see (first due to the storms and its connection to the Wheel, and Yehuza because how heavily it was teased in Deadfire, plus they must have been seperated for a while. Aside from those two... Aedyr would be nice, or the Living Lands. After having a taste of White that Wends in BoW, I am less interested in it, then I was before (not because I didn't like it! I just want to see other cultures now!). Naturally, tackling multiple cutures at once, does create a certain danger, but it might lead to: 1) more focus on story, and less of showing how cool the lore is (which while cool, makes for a better Political Sociology class, then an adventure/story) 2) with all the Microsoft backing, PoE3 might aim to reach ambition and budget Divinities (or Baldur's Gate3!). Though to be honest, at this point, I am game for anything they want to throw at me, as long as it is an RPG. Preferably top down or isometric.

So far it has been working really well. (lvl 13 now), and with a bit of effort in setting the ai the micromanagement is negligible. How the character plays out: - Cast Marked for the Hunt twice (I have it on ai tactics to target lowest and highest deflection). - Run into melee - again on tactics: if ennemy in melee range not >0, basic attack, prioritize by attacked by my animal companion. This causes the watcher to run into melee distance and engage, but not to do the actual attack (thus not wasting casting time) since the condition is not fulfilled anymore when you arrive in melee range. - Casts of Insect swarm and infestation of maggots (if target is hurt or below), prioritize by most ennemies affected. I am getting plague of insects at the next level. The character still has the option to cast Charm Beasts when needed (made Engwithan digsite fight trivial), and mark of nature is always nice to have. Other than that, the remaining bonds are mostly well placed takedown combos or concussive shot (handy cheap interrupts on graze). The bear has gone down 3-4 times tops. The watcher never. (wearing garari cuirass, and using lethandra's devotion and Griffin's blade for spell damage). Overall the dot's damage really adds up, he is tied in the party for highest damage inflicted, and I think that does not factor in the bear damage which is significant. And this is while being the main tank. Watcher+ bear together have high defenses, a lot of engagement and a giant cumulated health pool. Feel free to shift for fun when tanking is less needed at the end of the fight (and your casts are depleted) PS: Anyone has answers to my initial questions ? Especially the ones on animal companion ai tactics.

INTRODUCTION An escaped slave from a Rautai saltpeter mine, The Effigy draws from a reservoir of pure hate for those that have harmed them. Tormented by the ghosts of their past, deaths they witnessed and those they caused, they lack the will to confront foes directly. Instead, they wait in silence, crafting bizarre and unnerving totems that resonate with power. When threatened they unleash a blood rage, surviving vicious wounds and lashing out in unbelievable speed against those who strike them. They reserve their most vicious attacks for those from the spirit world that have manifested among us. Their weak will makes them susceptible to all forms of mental manipulation and frequent changing alliances, though they resist the weakest forms of fear. When wounded, they become even more powerful - an unstoppable terror that shrugs off any assaults on their body and is fueled by torch and flame. When drunk they become immune to any attempts to stop them, short of pure physical violence. Truly a horrific creature to behold. Crowned in pure disdain Barely able to contain Now this will all end in blood Cleansing, lasting, murderous THE BUILD =================================== =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 5.0 -------------------------------------------------------------- Game Mode: RTwP (Not ideal for Turn-based, given the reduced number of auto-attacks and the reduced value of recovery reduction/elimination) -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: No -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian (Fury Shaper) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai (CON) - Slave (Survival, Athletics, Streetwise) -------------------------------------------------------------- Attributes: MIG 10 CON 19 (+1 Rauatai) DEX 10 PER 20 (+2 Orlan) - Divine Power: Skean sees all mistreatment and abuse INT 15 RES 4 (+1 Orlan) - Divine Flaw: Skaen is haunted and a coward and is easily manipulated by the strong willed -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies (a=automatic) (I) 01. Frenzy + Shape Ward: Frenzy (a) + Carnage (a) + Furyshaper (a) | Flail, Sword 02. Barbaric Yell | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (II) 03. Thick Skinned + Barbaric Blow | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 04. Accurate Carnage| +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise | Battle Axe (III) 05. One Stands Alone + Two Weapon Style| +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 06. Bloodlust | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (IV) 07. Barbaric Shout + Blood Frenzy + Shape Ward: Fear (a) | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 08. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise | Greatsword (V) 09. Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter (III) | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise 10. Tough | +1 Athletics, +1 Streetwise (VI) 11. Brute Force + Bear’s Fortitude (III) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 12. Blooded (I) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Stiletto (VII) 13. Blood Storm + Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 14. Blood Thirst | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 15. Two-Handed Style (II) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff (VIII) 16. Heart of Fury + Vengeful Defeat + Shape Ward: Blood (a) | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Club 17. Improved Critical | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 18. Threatening Presence or Uncanny Luck | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff (IX) 19. Barbaric Retaliation + Blood Surge| +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff 20. Dazing Shout | +1 Athletics, +1 Bluff | Dagger -------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!)=important, (r)=recommended Weapon Set 1: (!) Whispers of Yenwood (Whetted, Unfaltering), (!) Ball and Chain (Indomitable, Subjugation) Extra DMG against Spirits is on brand here, along with the boost in Crit DMG and CON. Our WILL is already so low, that we don’t care if it drops even farther. The CON buff stays for the whole fight, even if we switch weapons. One we have Barbaric Retaliation, we will switch on the Sword Modal and leave it for increasing our chance to be crit by enemies. Ball and Chain is on brand as a weapon of liberation and violent revenge. 10% chance to recover immediately on Crit feeds our DMG engine nicely. Reduced Action speed and Knock Down when we Crit them is also helpful to slow down the incoming DMG a little bit. It also means we can shut down single targets if given a chance to focus them. Flail Modal plus Heart of Fury means we have softened the group for AoE fire spells. Weapon Set 2: ® Sanguine Greatsword (Prepare the Offering, Greater Blood Gift) Mostly a fun item with a cool path to acquire it. Fits our blood theme, and adds some healing to the mix. Greatsword Modal is a waste here, as we really want to Crit with this weapon. Consider swapping over for a Heart of Fury. Head: (!) Rekvu’s Fractured Casque (This way we can replace wards while being wailed on by enemies) Back: (!) Rekvu’s Scorched Cloak (For pairing with a fire DMG party member(s), ideally a priest), Ragged Cloak (more retaliation DMG on crit) Neck: Precognition (fits both sides for us - we are gonna be Crit and we are gonna Crit enemies), Claim and Refusal (extra DMG reduction) Armor: (!) Effigy’s Husk (Armor of Flesh, Skaen’s Hatred) and The Bloody Links (Crimson Steel) or Magnera’s Chain (Staunch, Padded Underlayer) or Crimson Panoply Effigy’s Husk gives us MIG immunity, which paired with our boots and gloves & Wael’s Wind or Captain’s Banquet makes us immune to all afflictions, as well as a nasty healing reduction aura that should affect CON immune enemies, and a nice burst of DMG when paired with Vengeful Defeat. You can switch to one of the heavier armors for fights where you need more survivability. Waist: (!) The Undying Burden (extra heal, CON, and much needed DMG reduction - flavor text fits) Hands: (!) Rekvu’s Stained Grips (CON Immunity - keeps us alive in the midst of the fray) Rings: Ring of Overseeing, Greater Ring of Regeneration, Whispers from the Depths, Drunkard’s Regret Boots: (!) Sandals of the Water Lily (we want that -10 to DEF, and with Affliction Immunity, we don’t care too much about the other defenses) Trinket: Betrayal (On brand, plus a way to buy a few seconds of time for healing) BUILD OVERVIEW This build takes big hits and dishes them right back out. You will lose health quickly, and can either stay alive with focused healing or death denying effects, or let things run their course and explode with two AoE explosions of DMG. The risk is highest at the start of a fight when there are the greatest number of enemies smashing you. Even at Near Death you will have around 200 HP, which is plenty to take a few hits. With Robust, Shape Ward: Blood, and Second Wind, you can stay alive long enough to take quite a few enemies with you. Any other sources of healing are needed (Old Siec, Lay on Hands, Healing Aura’s, etc.). A priest makes an ideal pair with The Effigy. Resurrection, Barring Death’s Door and Salvation of Time can keep the Effigy alive long enough to decimate the enemy. Additionally, once injured, they can unleash fire spells on top of The Effigy, healing it and maximizing foe damage. Storm of Holy Fire and Pillar of Holy Fire are great for this. Divine Mark is a great spell here. It targets WILL (which is crazy low for us). It’s another option for a heal post injury, and a great way to pick up the best injury for The Effigy, serious burn. It also fits our theme, as it’s one of a Skaen Priests’ auto learned spells. For Drugs, use Mouth Char or Deadeye. For Food use Wael’s Wind or Captain’s Banquet. Alternatively, use Forgetful Night, Arrack, or Daibō o Osa.

some weeb ****

Maybe you should wait until we have info on the game's mechanics before getting depressed about them not being faithful to the PnP mechanics, especially when they're collaborating directly with the man who invented the game?