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Disclaimer: This will be long. Very, very long. This is not quite a build guide but rather a more in-depth look at the Fury Druid and all its components. Most of it comes from my own personal testing and experiences playing it and the game, as well as some other sources, such as the Pillars Discord and C.LE's An Almanac for the Deadfire. As such, I'll be discussing a lot of things in more detail, so if you wanted a short concise guide, this won't be it. I'll be giving my opinion on pretty much everything about the class, from creation, to leveling, to gameplay, to itemization. Of course, my opinion isn't infallible, so if I do get something wrong, or you have any other form of suggestion or criticism, I'm always open to hear it. With that out of the way, let's get into it. First up, a bit of an introduction, I guess. I've been playing Deadfire since 1.1 when I sped through Pillars 1 so that I wasn't lost in the story of Deadfire. Since then Deadfire has been a game that I regularly come back to when I just want something comfortable to play. I'm by no means the best player there is, though I would like to think I'm at least quite decent at it by now. One more thing, which will come up in the guide quite a lot, I really dislike playing "meta" builds and using some of the, for me personally, more exploity interactions in the game. While I will mention them in the guide if they have a place in it (looking at you, Brilliant), I do not regularly use them. I also do not enjoy playing solo, so I have no clue if anything written here is solo viable. I usually play RTwP, on PotD with only the Critical Path quests upscaled and Galawain and Ondra's challenges active, which is what all the gameplay and tests were done on. This is, of course, still a very personal thing to my style of play, so I am neither encouraging people to play like I do, or chiding them if they don't. It's a your own game, after all, so you're free to play it as you see fit. So why even write this guide then? Well, first off, I really like the Fury druid. It was the first thing I picked when I started Deadfire, and then promptly abandoned since I didn't understand a thing about the game and how to play it. Since then, it's been one of those classes in the back of my mind everytime I open up the game, but just never got around to it until recently. Plus, I really wanted to write a guide, and there aren't that many on the Fury, so, hey, two birds with one lightning bolt. So, pleasantries out of the way, let's get to the actual guide. What is a Fury?: The Fury druid, from what I've seen, is an often times overlooked subclass of the Druid. Which baffles me, honestly, since I find it one of the most unique subclasses there are. In it's essence, the Fury is the full-on damage dealing subclass of the Druid, trading a lot of utility for just dealing more damage, which is clearly reflected in the bonuses it gives: Bonus 1: Elements Fury spells have +20% range and +1 penetration. From the get go, 1 penetration to some of your most damaging spells is great. The range bonus regrettably only affects cast range and not AoE, so spells centered around the caster, like the Storms, won't see a big benefit from this. Still, it lets you stay comfortably further back from the thick of the fight, which also plays into the second bonus. Bonus 2: Storm Blight. I'm going to be quite honest here, this was the sole thing that drew me to the Fury in the first place. The whole idea of just transforming into a big angry storm cloud sounded really cool (though it probably helped that I was coming in from playing a Balance druid in WoW and this was the closest to it). The Storm Blight form is quite different from all other spiritshifts. The first, immediately obvious difference is that it's a ranged form instead of melee. Which just enforces the basic idea that the Fury is supposed to stay at a safe distance and fling spells at people. Your attacks while shifted, in addition to being ranged, also bounce one time to a nearby target within 4m. This is just a nice bit of extra AoE in most cases, and actually quite thematic still, because, as we'll see in the spells section later, Fury is all about AoE damage. While at launch, the Storm Blight "claws" were a two-handed weapon, they've now been changed to two one handed ones. They also deal pure shock damage, which is something to keep in mind for certain ability interactions and enemy immunities (to my knowledge, only rain blights are shock immune, but admittedly I haven't checked every single enemy). In addition to altering your attacks, the Storm Blight form also provides a few other passive and active abilities. Any kill you make while spiritshifted will increase the duration of the spiritshift. This is quite a strong effect that other druids can only get if singleclassing from the Wildstrike Frenzy passive. It is actually stronger than Frenzy, since it adds 5 seconds to the duration instead of 4, and also triggers on any kill you make, be it by spell or attack, whereas Wildstrike Frenzy only works on kills you make with autoattacks. Oh, and if you do decide to singleclass the Fury (more on that later) the two effects stack, so a kill with an autoattack can potentially add 9 seconds to your spiritshift. The first active ability you get, Shifting Storm, is basically your own little Rogue Escape. In essence, it's a repositioning tool. You break engagement and zap to the target location. It doesn't trigger disengagement attacks, has a tiny 0.5 cast time and no recovery, so it's very handy to use to get away from enemies. It is however a once per encounter ability, so you can't freely zap around the battlefield. As you can see, the theme of staying far away from enemies continues. The second active ability, Storm's Rage, is again a once per encounter spell that damages a single target and stuns them. It deals a very respectable amount of damage early on (32-48 Shock) and the stun lasts a rather long 8 seconds. Unfortunately, it has quite a few issues accompanying it to make it a less than desirable spell to cast. First things first, it has a huge combined cast time and recovery time, 4.5 sec cast and 3.0 sec recovery, siphoning out a decent chunk of your spiritshift duration. Second, the two effects target different defenses, the damage targeting deflection, while the stun targets fortitude, so it is completely possible for one to not apply if you can't debuff both. And third, and by far the worst, it has absolutely no PL scaling whatsoever. At first I thought it was a bug on my end, but doing a completely clean install on the game confirmed it, the spell does not scale with PL at all, in fact, it has a permanent -1 PL on itself somehow, which reduces all of its PL scaling effects, permanently giving it -5% damage, -0.25 penetration, -1 accuracy and -5% duration on the stun, as you can see here (apologies for the link, I couldn't manage to get an image to attach...): Storm's Rage I honestly have zero idea why it's like that. My best guess is that since they made spiritshift not scale with PL, Storm's Rage also became non-scaling. But the actually negative one, I have no answer for. The lack of scaling hurts the spell badly, and later in the game it loses both damage and penetration to the point that it's just not worth the lost spiritshift time to even cast it. As for the maluses, well here comes the big one. A rather large reason I've seen why people dismiss Fury is the penalty it gets: you can not cast Rejuvenation spells. It's a bummer, I know, especially since Druid Rejuvenation spells are some of the best heals in the game. But it just enforces the role that the Fury has, which is to deal damage and only that. I personally do not view it as that much of an issue. Sure, you personally can't heal, but that doesn't mean that no one else in your party can't heal, or that your class is dead. It just means you're shoehorned into being a damage dealer, which, let's be honest, if you didn't want to be, you wouldn't be playing a Fury. Apart from the issues with Storm's Rage, the bonuses are pretty consistent and thematic, making the Fury a "stay at range and fling spells and attacks" character. This is exactly how I chose to play it, and how I think it's supposed to be played and function. Why is this important, you ask? Because of the next part: Creating a Fury: This will probably be the most in-depth portion of the guide, as I will go through all the steps of making a Fury druid, give my thougts on the various aspects of Character Creation and the benefits and negatives of certain picks. This will not be a "pick this thing at this level and have these exact stats or else" kind of runthrough. I will mostly be commenting on usefulness of different aspects, as well as giving a sample in the form of what I chose while making my Fury. So let's get started. Firstly, before we even get to have a nice chat with Berath while we look at cards, gameplay mode. As I said at the start, I play in RTwP. It does not mean that you can't play this in turn-based, but there is just no guarantee that things will work like they're written here. I do not find TB enjoyable myself and I don't plan on making a TB Fury guide, so sorry about that. Secondly, Magran's Fires and Berath's Blessings. God challenges are, IMO, personal preferences. I play with Galawain's and Ondra's on in all my runs since they just flawlessly integrate into the base game. As for Berath's Blessings, once again, up to personal choice. I play with them, and there's quite a few really good bonuses from them. +2 to all stats is insane, +50k starting gold, which admittedly I've never spent in any run, just makes early game economy easier, starting at level 4 with Fine weapons and armor is really damn good, Reduced enchanting costs really comes into play late game when enchanting Legendary quality on items, and Infamous Captain, even though the fear doesn't work at all if you upscale your game, still gives +3 Intimidate and +5% damage across the board. Those are all generally really good to have, though I will also mention two others. If you're planning on keeping Eder in the party for most of the game, giving him a pet slot is actually really nice, as pets can have some amazing bonuses for the party. The Mythical Adra Stone, on the other hand, is a lot less useful. As we'll see in the items and gameplay sections, we rarely want to attack with weapons or take hits, so we don't really have anything to use the stone on ourselves. Still good for putting it on other companions, like making a mythic Red Hand for Maia. It is however a lofty 30 points, so it's up to you. I personally didn't take it. Race: With those pre-creation choices out of the way, it's time to finally create our Fury Druid. The first major choice we're given is what race to pick. Honestly, the choice of race won't make or break your build, so I'd advise to just play what you want. But then again, you can say that about everything, and this guide would serve no purpose if that were the case, so let me give a few suggestions. The biggest choice in race is whether you go Godlike or not. Godlikes, Death and Nature specifically, have rather good bonuses for us, so they would be the prime picks, with Death technically giving you the most damage you can squeeze out of a race choice, not only giving you more damage against low health targets to increase the chances of you getting a killing blow and extending your spiritshift, but also giving you 3 extra PL if you yourself are low on health. While the latter effect is rather easy to abuse, I myself don't like doing so. Nature Godlike gives you a much more easily available +1 PL while you have a body inspiration active. I personally went with Nature Godlike in my run. Godlikes do suffer from being unable to equip helmets though, and one helmet is incredibly good on this build in particular: Heaven's Cacophony. The helmet is the earliest that you can get an on-demand use of Avenging Storm. While it sadly doesn't benefit from the +1 Elements PL that the class passive gets, the spell is nevertheless amazing, plus you also get a cone AoE Stun with Shout of Hosts and +2 Int and 1 Religion. Both spells are per rest, but with them being so strong, it's little wonder that they are. There are some other good helms for the build that I'll go over in the itemization section, but this is in my opinion the best one. If you do decide you want to wear a helmet, your choice of race will not have that big of an effect on your overall performance. Hearth orlans with the hit-to-crit conversion are probably the most impactful, followed by humans, and, versus certain enemies, Boreal dwarves. Class: Now we're getting to the fun part. Obviously, this being a Fury guide, we'll be picking Fury, duh. But here comes the biggest decision of character creation: to multiclass or not? I can't give a definitive answer on that, and will instead go over all possible combinations and rank them based on a few criteria. Before we get to those criteria, I'd like to do a little jump to the future of the guide and discuss the gameplay that I'm going for with the character creation and itemization choices. My intention for playing the Fury, and writing this guide, was to utilize all the bonuses that the subclass gives, meaning both the buffed up spells, and the spiritshift. Which, simply put, translated into laying down the druid's long lasting AoE spells before shifting into the Angry Cloud form and flinging lightning at them from my fingertips. With that gameplay plan in mind, this is what I'll be judging the class combinations on: Gameplay compatibility, including fitting the role of the Fury, action economy, and synergy of gameplay styles, how much it helps your spells, and how much it helps your attacks in Storm Blight. I will be ranking them from worst to best, but do keep in mind that these are my personal opinions from my experience, and it doesn't mean that the lower ranked ones are unplayable, I just wouldn't recommend them. So, let's start. Ranf F: Nahhh, just don't. Wizard, Priest, Cipher - collectively just too incompatible with the gameplay I'm going for The very bottom. Unfortunately, these three just don't fit the gameplay we're aiming for. It's my belief that Caster/Caster multiclassing is quite, ehh, bad, if for nothing else than for pure action economy alone. Adding more long casting abilities to your repertoire just means you get to spiritshift even less often, and in some cases, like the priest, it detracts from your purpose of doing damage to instead give you back the utility the Fury takes away. Wizard is in much the same boat, though when you discount the damaging options, you're left with self buffs that other classes do better, and debuffs that other party members can cover instead. And lastly, Cipher struggles due to lack of focus while casting spells, then lack of opportunities to cast while spiritshifted, since you want to be attacking more than casting in that form. There's a case for Psion, but it's rather small, since it takes a rather long time to regenerate enough focus for a big spell, and you lose the one big bonus you get to your spiritshift, Soul Whip. Rank D: Giving utility where it wasn't needed Paladin - The Best attack skill in the game, and that's it Yes, Flames of Devotion is incredible. Getting it to bounce is even more incredible. But that's really it. Everything else that the paladin provides just isn't what we're looking for. Absolutely no bonus to your spells other than Inspired Beacon, which requires you to go against your core principle of staying the **** away from enemies. The defense bonuses are also rather wasted when we're playing to not have to use them. We got rid of our utility and healing when choosing Fury, and paladin brings some of it back, along with the auras, but they can easily be handled by another party member. Chanter - If paladin auras were a class Alright, so chanter multis well with everything. it's true. It's not even that bad here either. It's just that all the bonuses the chanter gives can easily be given by another teammate who is a chanter. The only effect that is completely exclusive to it is Energized, given by Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone. Energized, however, isn't all that big of an improvement over Tenacious, and there are multiple better ways to get Tenacious. Just bring another Chanter with you if you want one so bad. Rank C: Doing one thing really damn well, but we need two Rogue - Attacks for days, single target damage for days, but what about our poor AoE spells? Here is where things start picking up. Rogue is probably the single best pick you can choose if you want to focus solely on your Storm Blight form. You have a wide variety of attacks to choose from, and a huge amount of bonus damage from passives. However, you get absolutely nothing to buff your spells up. No inspirations, no buffs, nothing. Also, their subclasses involve a lot of gimmicks to make them work, and I really don't like doing that. And some passives don't work, like Deep Wounds, since your claws deal shock damage. Ranger - Gods of single target accuracy bonuses. We do AoE. Ah, ranger. I love ranger. It's one of my absolute favorite classes. If we were any other class, it would've been a great combo, just the sheer amount of accuracy buffs you can get on a single target from effects like Marked Prey and Stalker's link. Later in the game, Survival of the Fittest does work for AoE, and it's another 10 accuracy, but it's just not enough to carry the class. Add to it that some people really dislike having to micro the pet, and it's unfortunately the epitome of C rank. Rank B: Big Angery Storm Cloud Singleclass - Higher PL, more on-demand spells, no self buffs at all Finally, the pure Fury. I originally had this as a Rank D, but further testing bumped it up quite a bit. The immediately obvious bonus you get is just more spells to cast. Unfortunately, apart from Avenging Storm, they aren't that great. The even more unfortunate part is that you can get every single PL 8 and PL 9 druid Elements spells in scroll form. That's right, Avenging Storm, Great Maelstrom and Tornado all have scroll versions, meaning that you can technically get the same spells as a multiclassed Fury. Which ****ing sucks for the exclusivity of the spells. Priest and Wizard don't get all their spells available in scroll form, but Druid gets aall of the big nukes available? Hell, with proper investment, you can actually cast them more as a non-singleclass, just from scrolls alone. Still, it's not all bad. You do get access to Wildstrike Frenzy, which is a decent amount of really good effects when it procs, despite only proccing on autoattack kills and being centered around you rather than the enemy you killed. And, when combined with Prestige, you get +3 PL to your spells, which is really nice. There's just other classes that provide more, and they can still use your strongest abilities. Rank A: Now we're talking Barbarian - Amazing self-buffs for both spellcasting and attacking, poor Attack skills FRENZY!!!!! Honestly, I could just leave it at that and it would be enough info on why this is such a good combo. Frenzy is just overall an amazing buff. Might, Constitution and Action speed for 1 rage, daaaamn. Couple with it things like Bloodlust and Blood Thirst, and even more mobility with Wild Sprint and Leap, and you have a really good package. Areas where the Barb struggles are attacks however, with Barbaric Blow really not being all that good, especially since Carnage doesn't work with ranged attacks either. Barbarian does however open up an interesting itemization option that will be discussed more in-depth later in The Slayer's Claw, allowing you to transform any Strong inspiration (like say, the one that you get from Frenzy) Into Tenacious, which gives you 2 pen to all your attacks and spells. You could also get it from choosing Berserker, but then you'd also be screwing your entire party with your spellcasts. Furyshaper, however, is a really decent pick, with the wards being really useful in all stages of the game. Plus, it even has Fury in the name! Furyshaper or no subclass if you decide to go the barbarian route. Fighter - Great selfbuffing, decent attack skills, poor passives While not as flashy as Frenzy, Dsiciplined Strikes is an absolutely amazing buff, giving you Intuitive for a decently long duration at a very cheap cost. You also get a really good and cheap attack in the form of Penetrating Strike, and, with Conqueror Stance, a sizable accuracy bonus, as well as a lot of defenses from Unbending and Vigorous Defense if you're ever in a tight spot. There's nothing really too flashy about the fighter, just solid useful things. Unfortunately, you don't have proficiency in your elemental claws, so a decent chunk of the fighter's passives are worthless to you. You do get Armored Grace though, which opens up the ability to use one of the best armors for the build without having to gimp your recovery speed too much or forcing you to use a select pet. Since we have no proficiency, Devoted is worthless, and Black Jacket doesn't really come to that much use. Unbroken is also out since we won't be tanking. Tactician is an amazing choice if you can manage it, and is probably the single iteration of Brilliant that I'm kind of okay with, though I still don't really use it. Tactician or no subclass would be go-to. Rank S: The absolute best Monk - Insane buffs to both spellcasting and attacking, covering pretty much all you could ever want. Mediocre, but situationally really powerful attack skill Well, it was the only one left, and holy ****, is the monk an amazing combo with Fury. In fact, it's so good that I'll get the bad things out of the way first, and then go to the good ones. Of which there are so damn many. Turning Wheel, Heartbeat Drumming and Swift Flurry don't work with ranged attacks. Force of Anguish and Torment's Reach do, but their range is melee. You'll be extra squishy if you go with Helwalker (which you should, more on that in a bit). That's it. That's a lot, I hear you say? Yeah, maybe. But here comes the really damn good stuff. The buffs. Oh. My. God. The buffs. I'm usually a big fan of using your wounds and not hoarding them but in this case, naaah, hoard them away. With 10 wounds, you get 10 Int from Duality of Mortal Presence, and if you're a Helwalker (You really should) 10 might too! Which stacks with the Tenacious inspiration you can get from Thunderous Blows. You don't even need to get hit, Enduring Dance has your wound generation covered, and even gives you 12 accuracy to both your attacks and spells! And did I mention Lightning Strikes as well? You get everything you could ever want, speed, damage, accuracy, penetration, a lightning lash, aoe, duration, everything. it's absolutely insane. Sure, the only attack you can cast is Stunning Surge which costs Mortification but ehh, with all them buffs you're not complaining for attacks. Plus, if either your main target or your bounce target gets crit by Stunning Surge, the cost gets repaid. And if both crit you actually gain 2 Mortification on top of that. If it wasn't obvious, I picked Helwalker monk in my run. The rest are decent-ish, but just don't come up to the sheer bonuses of 10 might to all your spells and attacks. Especially since you don't want to be spending wounds at all. This is where the guide also becomes a build of sorts. Going forth from this point, I will be discussing things from the viewpoint of making a Fury/Helwalker Ascetic. Most of the things apply to any other combo, however, and when we get to spells, I'll also discuss the PL 8 and 9 spells in case you want to singleclass instead. Starting skills for level 1 will be discussed in the Abilities portion later on, so now it's time for stats. Attributes, Culture and Background: First, and second most important choice after Class, attribute distribution. I'll be honest with you, I dislike completely minmaxing my stats. I've played the game with a 13/13/13/13/13/13 (technically one of them was 12 but it got bumped to 13 with the appropriate culture choice) stat spread, which the +2 stats Berath Good Boy Reward bumped to a 15/15/15/15/15/15. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. And it worked amazingly. Did I need all that res, especially since I played it on a Sharpshooter/Beguiler? Absolutely not, but it worked. What I'm trying to say is that absolutely perfected stat spreads aren't necessary, and if I was to give you one, you don't have to follow it exactly or the build just won't work. It will. So instead, I'll give you a guideline of important stats to get, then what I went with in my run, then the optimized stats if you do want them. Per and Int are your two most important stats. Per is a no brainer, Accuracy is king. With all the AoE, long duration spells and self buffs you have, Int is also obvious. After that, Dex and Mig are quite close to each other, with Dex maybe being slightly better since it allows you to get your casts out faster and attack more while spiritshifted. Plus you get +15 Mig from Helwalker and Thunderous Blows. Res isn't really useful, and you can dump it if you wish. Same for Con, though with it it's more keeping it at a comfortable for you level. For me that's 8, bumped to 10 with the blessing. Stat Spread I went with: 15 Mig, 7 Con (8 with Rauatai Culture), 15 Dex, 18 Per, 19 Int, 3 Res Optimal Spread: 15 Mig, 3 Con, 19 Dex, 18 Per, 19 Int (20 with Old Vailia Culture), 3 Res Both spread were done on a Godlike, so just remove 1 Int and 1 Dex when changing race. Speaking of cultures, honestly, choose whichever one you like. They are way more for RP than for basing an entire build mechanically around them, and one stat point won't completely make or break your game. I chose Rauatai for RP purposes. There is a miniscule incentive to pick a few of them which I'll cover in the next section. Background. Pretty similar to culture, really. Pick whichever one you want for your character and RP. Will not make or break the build. The miniscule incentive I mentioned comes into play here. A bit further into the guide I'll be recommending putting all your skill points into Arcana. There are only 3 backgrounds that have a bonus to Arcana, and they are faction specific. So if you really want that single extra point of Arcana, the choices are: Mystic (The White that Wends), Scholar (Ixamitl Plains, Rauatai) and Scientist (The Living Lands). And we're almost done. All we have left is weapon proficiencies, and suprising no one, they don't matter at all. You will generally never be attacking with your weapons to ever make use of them. However, the proficiencies you pick at character creation affect what weapons you're given in the locker at the start. Since you'll always be given the two weapons you selected, you could pick a flail and a morningstar. Not for you to use, but to hand them over to a squadmate that you make proficient in them. Why those two? Because their modals reduce Reflex and Fortitude respectively. And those are the two defenses your abilities target the most. This is especially good if you're using the BB to start with Fine weapons and armor. Eder early on can make great use of a flail, and Pallegina can make rather good use of a morningstar. But neither are required, and you can still pick what you wish for proficiencies. Picking those two will just save you a bit of money from having to buy them. Playing a Fury: Right, this might seem a bit strange and out of place, but we're going to discuss the gameplay before we dive into what abilities and passives to pick. This is actually rather important to mention, because I'm going to be basing my choice and recommendation of skills based on how they fit into the gameplay. Gameplay isn't hard. The core idea is to utilize both aspects of the Fury: spellcasting and spiritshifting. Which basically means, we'll be laying down long duration AoE spells before shifting into angry cloud form and attacking. Simple as that. What spells we use depends on the situation and encounter, however. I'm going to go over the options at each PL for both Fury and Monk, as well as PL 8 and 9 for Fury, giving my thoughts and ratings on the things you can get, and then at the end, I'll give an example build (might not be the exact same I went for, I don't remember exactly what i picked at every single level). PL 1: Druid: Some really good spells to start off, expect to be using them constantly. Touch of Rot: Decent damage, but low penetration, cast range and AoE, and no other effects. 2/5 Sunbeam: Solid damage, cast range, penetration, decent lasting aoe Blind. Overall really good. Tied for best spell in this PL. 5/5 Vile Thorns: Damage is on the low side. Incredibly short range, but very long-lasting Sicken. If you can make get into range to use it, it's amazing. Doesn't work on poison immune enemies. 3/5 Nature's Mark: Incredibly long-lasting and quite hefty Deflection and Reflex AoE debuff. The second candidate for best spell. 5/5 Winter Wind: Suffers from the same issues as Vile Thorns, while having less useful effects for marginally more damage. 2/5 Tanglefoot: Basically, an AoE Hobbled hazard. There's better sources of Hobbled, and better characters to apply it. 1/5 Charm Beast: Incredibly situational, plus costing you a spell slot that could be spent on a better spell. 1/5 Talon's Reach: Same issues as Touch of Rot, though with more penetration and upfront damage. 2/5 Dancing Bolts: What we get for free. Same issues as Touch of Rot and Talon's Reach, but with even less damage but more cast range. 2/5 Monk: Force of Anguish doesn't work with ranged attacks. Swift Strikes is amazing, Dex inspiration and even more Action speed on top. Passives: Neither Fast Runner or Lesser Wounds are much use. Arms Bearer has situational usefulness in very long fights where your Spiritshift ends and the fight is still going. Will be explained in itemization section. PL 2: Druid: Only one really good spell, but a few situational ones as well. Overall on par with the previous PL. Insect Swarm: Huge duration, decent AoE raw damage, the big bonus is the immunity to Concentration, great vs enemy casters. Best spell in this PL 5/5 Hold Beasts: Marginally more useful than Charm Beast, with the exact same issues. 1/5 Woodskin: Yes, it's utility. But it's really damn good utility. Especially for buffing Pierce armor vs most ranged attackers. 4/5 Taste of the Hunt: Melee. Single-target. The heal doesn't really matter. 1/5 Firebrand: Incredibly good on pretty much any other build but this one. You will never use it. 0/5 Blizzard: Good AoE, decent duration, but low Pen and can hit allies. If you can only hit enemies with it, the debuff is quite strong. 4/5 Autumn's Decay: Difficult to target since it's a short cone, no additional effects, Insect Swarm does just as much damage. 2/5 Conjure Lesser Blight: Summon one of your younger cousins. Unfortunately, they don't really know how to fight since they're so young. 0/5 Burst of Summer Flame: What we get for free. Incredibly fast cast time, but that's about it. No other effects, but it is Foe only. Still, Blizzard is just better. 2/5 Monk: Clarity of Agony is just not what you're looking for. Dance of Death is amazing, and vital to wound generation, as well as providing you with up to 12 accuracy. Mortification of the Soul is a good backup to have in case you run out of Mortification, though won't see use all that often. Also good for a starting burst of wounds before activating Dance of Death. Passives: Let's get the generic and monk ones out of the way first. Neither Graceful Retreat nor Long Stride matter for the build. Pick Two Weapon Style for faster attacks during spiritshift. Wildstrike: The thing that makes your Spiritshift attacks actually hurt. If multiclassing, the element does not really matter that much. Fire and Frost are more often immuned by enemies than Shock and Corrode are. Thematically, Shock is the obvious choice. If singleclassing, pick Corrode, specifically for its Wildstrike Frenzy effect later on. PL 3: Druid: Very similar to the previous PL, one amazing spell and one that just lags behind it, but both will see frequent usage. Returning Storm: What we get for free. Finally a good spell we get for free. One of your core spells, in fact. Makes sense, given that we're a walking storm cloud. Huge AoE and duration, like all storm spells. Good damage and stuns enemies. Biggest issue is that it targets two different defenses for its effects. Still, often one of the first spells you'll be casting. 5/5 Spreading Plague: Potentially incredibly strong. Unfortunately, does no damage on its own, and Weakened is only slightly stronger than Sickened, which you can apply with better spells. Still, can really **** over groups of enemies. 3/5 Twin Stones: Really cool to look at, but a nightmare to aim and just doesn't offer enough to see frequent use. Combine it with its low Pen and it just doesn't stack up to the other options. 1/5 Stag's Horn: Easier to aim than Twin Stones, still rather impressive visually. The debuff is quite substantial, but it is single target only, and if you miss somehow, it's a wasted spell slot. 3/5 Infestation of Maggots: The second long-lasting Raw damage AoE. Much bigger area than Insect Swarm, but only does damage without having other effects. Still, it's a sizable amount of damage, and the second spell from this PL that you're very likely to cast at the start of a fight. 4/5 Beetle Shell: It's not a bad ability per se, just wasted on this specific build. Any more supportive build would make much better use of it. 1/5 Monk: Lightning Strikes is even more damage on our spiritshift attacks. Blade Turning has no place in the build. Torment's Reach doesn't work with ranged weapons. Stunning Blow does, but you won't see much use of it until you get Stunning Surge. Still, pick it up at some point before PL 5. Passives: Soul Mirror is the only unique one this tier, and it's not something you're looking for, and neither are the defenses ones. Combat Focus, however, is something you really want. Free concentration at the start of the fight could easily mean getting a spell off that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. PL 4: Druid: This is one of your worst PLs for spells, if not the worst one. Hail Storm: What we get for free. Unfortunately, unlike the previous PL, this isn't as amazing. The damage is decent for the level, but the penetration is not. Combine with it having a huge AoE, you're almost certain to be hitting your own party members as well as the enemy. It does have two damage types, so at least it won't get immuned. 2/5 Wicked Briars: Hey, remember Tanglefoot? It's the same spell but now also deals a small amount of Pierce damage. Gets the same score, though. 1/5 Overwhelming Wave: If you can position it to only hit enemies, it isn't that bad. You have plenty of other sources of stun, but this will at least reliably hit everything in its path. Tied for best offensive spell on this PL, which unfortunately isn't worth much. 3/5 Calling the World's Maw: And the award for most epicly named spell goes to this one. As for effects, it's not bad. Prone is kind of ****, but the damage it deals is solid and has good penetration. Having less area than Hail Storm also makes it much easier to aim. Runs into the issue that it's basically just a good burst of damage, which means it gets pushed really far down on the priortity of spells to cast, to the point that you probably won't use it in most encounters. The other contender for best offensive spell on this PL. 3/5 Boiling Spray: This is basically the exact same thing as Winter Wind, except it targets Reflex and deals Fire damage. Gets the exact same score too. 2/5 Form of the Delemgan: Woodskin's bigger, stronger brother. Everything that was said about Woodskin is just as true here, plus it also gives Stride and immunity to Dex afflictions. The best spell on this PL, which really speaks ill of the offensive options. 4/5 Conjure Blight: Summons another cousin of yours, this time a bit more adept in combat. Unfortunately, still not enough to warrant casting it, even with how bad the other spells are. 0/5 Monk: While the druid spells on this PL are less than ideal, the monk abilities you get are absolutely stellar. With the exception of Enlightened Agony, since we don't make any use of Clarity of Agony to begin with, you want all the rest. Duality of Mortal Presence, Thunderous Blows and Enduring Dance. Hell, you'll be pressed for which one to get first. Passives: None of the monk side passives matter. The druid ones, however, do. Greater Wildstrike is your priority, get it immediately. Heart of the Storm does wonders for your Storm spells, same with Scion of Flame for Firebug and Sunlance (more on that later), though if you have party members like chanters that can reliably reduce enemy armor, they become less important, as you'll be able to easily reach up to 14 Pen on your storm spells without it, and with a chanter reducing enemy armor by 2, you'll very rarely find yourself underpening. Heart of the Storm does increase the Pen of your Storm Blight attacks, however, so it's still a good investment on that front. As for Spell Shaping, ehhhh, it's not really a priority. If you have a point later on that you can spend, get it. As a rule of thumb, you'll never be using it to increase the AoE of spells since that reduces PL by 5. You can use it to lower the AoE, on boss fights for example, but even then, that will only increase PL by 1. PL 5: Druid: This is, by far, your best PL for spells, which is a welcome change after the last one. In fact, you have so many good spells to choose from, it actually makes the overall PL worse since you're strapped for choice and how many of them you can cast. Plague of Insects: The third, and strongest long duration huge area Raw damage spell. Deals slightly less damage per tick than Infestation of Maggots, but also sickens all targets hit and lasts longer. And it has the effect of Insect Swarm that makes targets hit unable to gain Concentration. The only downside to it is that it's countered by Antidotes, which means that poison immune enemies are unaffected by it. It's a weird interaction but eh, what can you do. 5/5 Relentless Storm: What we get for free. Hey, remember Returning Storm? This is it but even better. Sure, less damage per strike, but more frequent strikes. Just like the other storm spell, a mainstay in your spell priority, to the point it will often be the very first spell you cast. 5/5 Wall of Thorns: If you can aim it so that it won't hit your allies, it's a long line that weakens things. Unfortunately, as was the case with Spreading Plague, Weakened isn't that huge of an upgrade over Sicken, and you have ways to apply SIcken much easier. 2/5 Nature's Terror: On any other build, this would've been really good. Unfortunately, you want to be as far away from enemies to make any use of it. 0/5 Embrace of the Earth Talon: Damn, druid earth spells really go all out with the names, eh? After a few less impressive spells, we're back to the big dogs. This thing is ****ing amazing. It pains me to even admit that I completely ignored it in my run and only realized how great it was when I went back for additional testing. Great range, great Pen, decent AoE that's easy to aim, damage is a bit on the low side for the level, but that Petrify effect is just so damn good, that you can remove all the others and I'd still consider it a contender for best druid spell. Paralysis and Petrify are very rare, and very potent effects, and especially on this build, with the +10 Int from Duality of Mortal Presence, this can easily double its base duration. That's 16 seconds of AoE petrification. The only downside is that it's a ground effect, so it can't affect flying enemies. 5/5 Firebug: So, what are you supposed to do if you run into a group of, say, Rain Blights, that are all immune to Shock damage? Simple. Throw a Firebug at them. Hell, throw two. Great backup damage spell, or if you want to change things up in a fight. Pen is a bit low, which, this late into the skill tree, regrettably means that it can only really be fixed with Scion of Flame or directly reducing enemy armor. 4/5 Monk: Ah, how the tables have turned. Last PL, druid had barely anything to offer, while monk was packed with things we wanted. This PL it's the opposite. Stunning Surge is the only thing that you want to take, and since the passives are also not that vital, it should be the only thing from the monk side that you'll take until the next PL. Passives: Speaking of passives, the only unique monk one, Enervating Blows, doesn't work with ranged weapons. Uncanny Luck also isn't really all that useful, as the chance for it to proc is incredibly low, but it's still better than nothing if you really have nothing else to pick. On the druid side, however, we get Rapid Casting. It should be self-explanatory why you want this. Farcasting is honestly not needed, as we already get a range boost on our elements spells, which are our most used ones. Tough is a safety pick, if you feel you're a bit too squishy, by all means, take it when you have free points. It will generally help you survive at least one additional hit, which can make all the difference. PL 6: Druid: Unfortunately, not as good as the previous PL, though nothing really is. You still get some good picks, so it's not as bad as PL 4. Rot Skulls: Same issue as Firebrand. A really good summoned weapon that you will never use. 0/5 Conjure Greater Blight: Heeey, they grow up so fast! And you're still not going to ever use them! 0/5 Venombloom: If you can get this behind the enemy's lines and plop it down so that it only hits the enemy, it's absolutely insane. Unfortunately, the cast range is abysmal. Use at your own risk. 2/5 Sunlance: Massive ****ing spear made of pure sunlight. Big damage, check. Great penetration, check. Insane cast range, check. Dual damage type, check. Is an Elements spell, check. Oh, and we get it for free when we reach PL 6. 5/5 Monk: Unfortunately, nothing you can make use of. Turning Wheel does not work with ranged attacks, and Flagellant's Path will usually leave you in a worse position after the cast than before. Plus it costs Mortification, for which you have a better use. Passives: Rather bad as well, the only one you should ever consider is Improved Criticals. This is the PL to go back and take things from earlier levels that you still haven't got. PL 7: Druid: Nothing too groundbreaking, but some situationally very powerful spells. Rusted Armor: Really good when fighting bosses and tough enemies to strip them of their armor. That's about it, it does exactly what it says in the description and does it really well. Since it isn't competing with any big damage spells, it'll probably be your most used spell of this PL. 3/5 Lashing Vine: It's a good summon, but you only get one spellcast as a multiclass, and the alternatives are better. On singleclass it's much better and you can afford to cast it. 2/5 Call to the Primordials: This on the other hand, isn't that good, both in multiclassing and singleclassing. 0/5 Weather the Storm: What we get for free. Situationally can turn the tide when faced with really high elemental damage. It's incredibly likely that this will raise your team's elemental armors until enemies start underpening them. Still, it's only situational, and won't see use every fight. 3/5 Monk: Again, nothing that you really need. The Dichotomous Souls is a good option to have, and it's the best summon you can get, but using it will cost you 4 wounds, which, if you want your spells and attacks to be at max effectiveness, will mean you need to wait 12 seconds before casting anything else. Passives: Absolutely nothing of note. Heartbeat Drumming doesn't work with ranged attacks, and you'd be much better off empowering for spell slots rather than single spells. Pick up some things you still haven't instead. PL 8: Druid: This is the PL that makes it worth playing singleclassed. Entropy: Too much setup and management to be effective. It only affects the next three attacks, from any target, so it's easy for them to get used up by mistake. 1/5 Avenging Storm: What we get for free. The granddaddy of all storm spells, and it lives up to all the expectations. Use it right before spiritshifting and become a lightning bolt machinegun. Unfortunately, it's also available from a helmet and scrolls, so not exclusive enough to make singleclass the prime choice. 5/5 Fire Stag: Honestly, I've never found a use for the spell. Enemies don't really focus it enough to make it worth it, and there are just better summons and better summoners than you. 0/5 Passives: Wildstrike Frenzy, the other thing in this PL that makes it worth singleclassing. Regrettably, only triggers on autoattack kills, and is centered around you, so you'll need to get in closer. Corrode is the best one bar none, while shock is the weakest. PL 9: Druid: Big damage that anyone that invests in Arcana can also get. Aspect of Galawain: Cool name, horrible summon. 0/5 Great Maelstrom: Massive AoE and damage. Terribly low Pen for the level, and an extremely long cast time. Did I mention anyone can get it from a scroll? 2/5 Touch of Death: You finally get an execute. Since you only get one PL 9 cast, you better make damn sure it doesn't miss. But if it connects, nothing can resist it. They just go poof. 3/5 Tornado: Massive AoE and damage. Terribly low Pen for the level, and an extremely long ca... this sounds familiar. Hell, it's available on a scroll, too! 2/5 Passives: I singleclassed a Fury and all I got was 1 additional PL from Prestige. Not bad, actually. Well, we got to the end. As promised, here's an example build for Fury/Helwalker: Level 1/Char Creation: Sunbeam/Swift Strikes Level 2: Nature's Mark Level 3: Arms Bearer (will get explained in itemization) Level 4/PL 2 unlock: Wildstrike Shock/Dance of Death Level 5: Insect Swarm Level 6: Two Weapon Style Level 7/PL 3 unlock: Infestation of Maggots/Lightning Strikes Level 8: Combat Focus Level 9: Stunning Blow Level 10/PL 4 unlock: Greater Wildstrike: Shock/Duality of Mortal Presence Level 11: Enduring Dance Level 12: Thunderous Blows Level 13/PL 5 unlock: Embrace of the Earth Talon/Stunning Surge Level 14: Rapid Casting Level 15: Plague of Insects Level 16/PL 6 unlock: Firebug/Improved Critical Level 17: Form of the Delemgan Level 18: Tough Level 19/PL 7 unlock: Rusted Armor/The Dichotomous Soul Level 20: Spell Shaping Before we close this part of the guide (yes, there's more), a brief word on what skills to pick when leveling up. In general, I find Arcana to work best on most offense focused characters, and this one is no exception. I'd say get it to at least 13 to be able to use Avenging Storm scrolls, but you can take it even higher to buff your scrolls even more. As for conversation skills, do whatever you wish, those are RP based 99% of the time. Plus we don't use any gear that scales with them. What to wear as a Fury?: Finally itemization. I do mean finally, this is the last big part of the guide. There will be a bit about spell priority after it, but that won't be as long. I'm also not going to cover fights and encounters as this is more of a guideline how to build a Fury rather than completely hold your hand through an entire run. So with that out of the way, items! Itemization will be explained in a very similar way to skills. I could just tell you wear this this and this, but what are you supposed to do until you get those items? Pretend the game doesn't exist? Instead, I'll go over slot by slot, give some notable mentions and the item I went with in my run. Won't cover all available options like with spells as that would take forever. Let's get the big ones out of the way first: Weapons: In general, you don't want to be using your equipped weapons to attack, but rather to buff your spells while you're casting them. In essence, they're just stat sticks. Until you get the recommended items, use whatever, as it won't have an impact really. The obvious choice, and for all the right reasons, is Lord Darryn's Voulge. 3 PL to all your storm spells is an amazing bonus. However, it only benefits Storm keyworded spells, and you won't be casting just those. My recommendation is to have a second set with Griffin's Blade, enchanted with Hound's Courage for extra damage with spells. Do note that it is only 10% damage, which is less than what Lord Darryn's Voulge gives to Storm spells, so always swap to it when casting those. If multiclassing with a paladin, fighter or barbarian, you can also dual wield Griffin's Blade with Slayer's Claw, which would make all Might inspirations you receive upgraded by one tier, essentially always giving you at least Tenacious. As for that Arms Bearer in my example build, here's the deal. There will be fights where spiritshift just runs out. Nothing you can do about it. In those cases, you still want something to attack with, but you don't really want to be in melee if you're using the recommended stat sticks. Having a third weapon set with a ranged weapon for those cases is quite handy. My personal pick would be a pistol, any of the three unique ones will do the job. The reason being that you can interrupt your reload with firearms and crossbows/arbalests to cast a spell if you need to. Body Armor: Again, this is a big stat item for you. While spiritshifted, none of the effects of the body armor will carry over, so we want armor that buffs the spells we cast before shifting. As an additional note, I absolutely hate armor variety, or rather the sheer lack of it, in this game, to the point that I consciously avoid using Miscreant's Leathers and DoC armor. I'm just so tired of seeing them every single run and knowing that there isn't really that much better options. Straight away, Aloth's armor can give you a decent boost to your area of effect, though with your huge intelligence, it's already massive for most spells. To my distaste, DoC is readily available, and gives you +2 mortification, which gives you a lot more freedom in how you spend it. Another option, and the one I personally went with, is the Cabalist's Gambeson, enchanted for beneficial effects duration, to increase the duration of all your self buffs and spiritshift as well. If you, however, want direct damage increases, there's only really two armors. One is Deltro's Cage, giving you an additional 2 PL to your storm spells. The downside is that it's a plate armor, and will **** your recovery, unless you multi with a fighter, or use one of a few select pets to somewhat combat that. Oh, and you need to kill Ezzali Bardatto to get it, and i really like making the two families get along. The other option is High Harbinger's Robes. Taking more damage really doesn't matter that much, considering you're already taking 50% more from being a Helwalker. The downsides are that they're quite late game, unless you rush BoW, and that they probably really smell of decaying flesh. Vatnir wears them, after all. With those out of the way, it's time for accessories. We have a bit more wiggle room here, since accessories still give you bonuses while spiritshifted, though in general items that buff your spells are still better than those that buff your attacks. Helmets: Only used if you didn't pick a Godlike. Honestly, as previously discussed, there isn't much that can beat Heaven's Cacophony here. And it's available incredibly early, just got to get to Neketaka to buy it. If, for some reason, you don't want to use it, the only really good alternatives I can recommend are Contender's Helm for another Concentration on combat start or Thaos' Headdress. The conditions on it are incredibly easy to meet as long as you have a cipher in your party to cast Phantom Foes. It does require a specific choice in Pillars 1, however, and not everyone wants to make it. Amulets: There's only two really standout options here. The first is Strand of Favor, giving you +1 Int and +10% beneficial effects duration, making everything you do last even longer than before. It's available quite early as well, at Hasongo. The second, available much later, is The Third Eye, with its 10% hit-to-crit for spells. Honestly, I'd still pick the Strand of Favor over it. Other alternatives include Charm of Bones and Stone of Power. Cloaks: There's unfortunately only one big option here, and I really hate it. Shroud of the Phantasm. I really dislike Brilliant in any of its forms, and this is by far the worst. But the cloak, even without the Brilliant inspiration, is still really damn good. One thing to note is that you don't have access to a mind inspiration as an Ascetic, so you will need allies to provide one (more on that at the end). There really isn't any alternatives to it either, and nothing to really wear before it. Handwear: A few decent options that won't make or break your build, nothing too flashy here really. If you don't plan on having an evocation focused wizard in your party, Firethrower's Gloves with their 2 Dex and 1 Arcana are a great option that you can get incredibly early with the Well-supplied merchant Berath's Blessing. You'll probably want to aim for Woedica's Strangling Grasp, which is what I wound up using, but in all honesty it is only marginally better than the basic Gauntlets of Ogre Might. This is one of the slots where the non-unique items are really good, and you can get a lot of mileage out of the aforementioned ones, or things like Mortification Bracers. If you want a large bonus to your Arcana, The Left Hand of the Obscured gives +3, but the other effect it has only works with melee weapons. Rings: Surprisingly, not that much choice, despite being the slot that you're going to need to fill the most of in your party. There's really only one standout ring that you definitely want to aim for, Kuaru's Prize. Absolutely no reason to not use it. For the other slot you have a few choices. If you find yourself using Firebug and Sunlance often, Ring of Focused Flame gives both +10 accuracy. later into the game, Whispers from the Depths can also work really well. Unfortunately, my favorite ring, Chameleon's Touch, isn't that useful, since you get Res from being a druid. If none of those sound too appealing, you can just go for a basic Ring of Overseeing. Boots: Unfortunately, not that many options at all. There are Vithrack Silk Slippers, but those are all the way from FS. Before that, honestly, just wear what you have available, there really isn't a lot of variety. Pathfinder's Boots and Boots of the Stone both grant +1 Dex so at least it's better than nothing, I guess. Belts: Unfortunately, much the same as with boots, though at least you have marginally better options. Sash of Judgment is an interesting option to get a bit more damage out early. i personally went with the Upright Captain's Belt, for one more concentration at the start of combat. Trinkets: I'll be honest, I routinely forget that trinkets are even a thing. No clue really which ones to suggest here as I just haven't used them, and since I came out just fine, I don't think they'll make that big of an impact. Pets: Yup, pets. Pets often get overlooked but they can provide you with some great bonuses to round out your build. Unfortunately, you're a bit screwed when it comes to pets, as there is a pet that boosts every other element except shock. There's still some great options however. Peter is a cat you can get incredibly early that boosts both your area of effect and area of effect damage, and it can easily last you the entire game. You can buy Milx in Neketaka, which gives +1 Int and 5% hit-to-crit with spells. Later on, you have Nemnok, who gives you an additional cast with PL 1 spells, and Boras from FS, giving 5 accuracy with spells. And then there's Ooblit. Ooblit gives a flat 3 seconds increase to all beneficial effects. This includes all self buffs and spiritshift. If you want to wear Deltro's Cage, I'd recommend using a pet that reduces armor recovery penalty. There are a few options, though the best is probably Nalvi from Junvik Village, only because the recovery penalty reduction is the party wide effect, which means you can put it in Eder's pet slot and still benefit from it. Consumables: Honestly, these are not required at all, they're just optional things you can use to give your character another bit of oomph. Potion-wise, you have two big options: Potion of Ascension for +2 PL, which lasts for the whole fight too, and Potion of Perfect Aim for the hit-to-crit conversion. If you choose to only go up to 13 Arcana, you can use the leftover points in Alchemy to increase the duration of Perfect Aim potions. Drugs on the other hand, aren't quite as useful, especially since we're not a Nalpazca. As for scrolls, have I mentioned Avenging Storm scrolls anywhere in the guide? I can't quite remember... Food: Last but not least, food. Damn, how I hate that food counts as an active bonus and therefore doesn't stack with a lot of things. It really should have been a passive bonus instead. Anyways, food is less of a necessity and more of a useful bonus to have. The end all food you'll probably want is Captain's Banquet, but quite honestly, it's time consuming and expensive to craft, so I'd just reserve that for facing fampyr and Sigilmaster Auranic. In the meantime, you can do perfectly fine with just eating Oysters for that sweet 10% damage with spells. Fury tips: Just a few closing points on the Fury druid. First up, to finish up on gameplay. You'll be starting fights by activating your 3 big buffs from monk: Enduring Dance, Thunderous Blows and Lightning Strikes, after which you'll start laying down your spells. Depending on the length of the encounter, you might not need to use all spells at your disposal. Good spells to consider opening with are Embrace of the Earth Talon, Plague of Insects and your Storm spells. Do keep an eye on what enemies you're facing. If they're flying, or immune to Dex afflictions, there's no point in casting Embrace of the Earth Talon. If they're immune to poison, ditch Plague of Insects in favor of Insect Swarm and/or Infestation of Maggots. If they're immune to shock, cry silently as your bread and butter gets taken away from you. All other spells, you can cast depending on the situation: if you need single target burst, Sunlance to the face, really dangerous damage dealers can eat a Sunbeam, fighting a big, tough boss, throw down all your Raw DoTs and Storms, Rust their armor and get ready to shift. When to spiritshift and what to do during it: In general, you wan to spiritshift after you're done casting your initial spells. Once you have the storms and at least one of your Raw DoTs, you should look to refresh Lightning Strikes and Thunderous Blows, read an Avenging Storm scroll if you have any and spiritshift. During the shift, you want to mostly focus on autoattacking, though at times you may need to emergency cast something, most often Shifting Storm, Sunbeam, Form of the Delemgan or Weather the Storm. There are also times when you should completely ignore spiritshifting, namely when facing shock immune enemies, as your attacks deal pure shock damage while in the Angry Cloud form. Your best friends: AKA party composition. I personally don't stick with the same party all game long and regularly swap companions out, so, just like the rest of the guide, I can't exactly give you the optimal party comp. I can, however, recommend some options: A cipher. Yes, I hate it. Yes, Brilliant is amazing. Yes, ciphers are the only class that can spam out Brilliant. You get the idea. A priest. Dire Blessing is an amazing buff to your overall performance. Later on, you can use Salvation of Time to extend a lot of your buffs, including your spiritshift. A paladin and/or a chanter. Best if both at the same time, the almighty Harold. Auras for days. A buddy with a morningstar. The morningstar modal reduces fortitude by an absurd 25. A lot of your abilities target fortitude, so such a huge debuff is a massive help. Unfortunately, since morningstars aren't sabres or swords, and therefore are just not pirate-y enough, the selection of unique ones is rather poor, only two unique ones, in fact. Of the two, The Willbreaker is flat out better, though Saru-Sichr is available earlier. Works best on a tanky frontline support like a paladin. Of the base companions, Pallegina, in any of her three class options, makes a good morningstar wielder. Another buddy with a flail. Much like the morningstar, but it debuffs reflex. Your storm spells, except Avenging Storm, target Reflex for their damaging component. Unlike morningstars, flails were apparently a symbol of the pirate world, as there are 5 total unique ones, which is tied third for most unique one handed weapons of a type, and tied fourth for most unique weapons of any type. None of the unique flails are really standout in their stats so just use whichever one you like. Keeper of the Flame can be enchanted to reduce will, which can be useful for the rest of the party. Straight off the bat, Eder can make great use out of a flail, and in general so can anyone that ends up tanking. Closing statement: If anyone actually made it all the way to here, I salute you for your dedication, and probable insanity. Any feedback is welcome. Now go play a Fury, nerds.

No. https://www.eia.gov/beta/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/regional/REG-TEX http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/225369 "As of 9 a.m., approximately 46,000 MW of generation has been forced off the system during this extreme winter weather event. Of that, 28,000 MW is thermal and 18,000 MW is wind and solar." It wasn't "wind farms failing" because wind provides a small fraction of Texas power (under 10% compared to about 65% for gas in total dependable capacity). It was, in fact, mostly natural gas pumping systems freezing because Texas NG is wet and kept under pressure to run vertical separators at or near the wells. When the valves at the separators freeze, gas simply no longer reaches the compressors (which may or may not be offline themselves) down the line and power plants run out of gas, literally. Stop lying.

When you're 16, summer can't come fast enough and lasts forever! When you're 30, summer boils down to a couple weeks of vacation that's fun but over in an eyeblink. When you're 50, by the time you notice it was summer, it's already winter.

episode woulda been very different with the sisko as commanding officer. HA! Good Fun!

I turned 28 last year and 50 this year.

You're not saying the same thing. 1) 'Strain' on natgas supply was not the problem, it physically freezing and reducing supply was. Even if wind power had been at 100% nominal power- which no one should be relying on- it would not and could not make up that difference. Wind power only reduced first, it had no influence on natgas power dropping. They wouldn't have had Scotty shouting down the lines about not being able to give it more or his natgas plant'll blow cap'n, they'd know it can produce x MW of power- and you cannot run the turbines out of spec. 2) a,b are conflation, at best. You can make the exact reverse argument- renewables only 'failed' because the natgas electricity that was meant to balance loads failed to materialise- to blame natgas instead. Indeed, since it's well known that supply from wind and solar especially are intermittent natgas and other spot energies are fundamentally intended to smooth out and increase/ decrease (maintain) supply as renewables come on/offline; ie such an argument actually shows that it was natgas that failed. (c) is the ultimate reason for natgas electricity failing. They aren't grid infrastructure technically, the grid infrastructure isn't energy production but the lines and transformers that move the energy*. I'd suspect rather a lot of that failed too due to ice on lines and possibly even transformers freezing**. But that had nothing to do with renewables, since natgas was also effected, and it was the one that was meant to be able to step up output for balancing purposes. If natgas power had been maintained or risen the shortage could probably have been largely mitigated to relatively short lived rolling black outs, in general, and probably more general blackouts in rural areas as lines physically failed. *eg we have a ~600MW hydro power plant here that is unconnected to the grid as it produces power exclusively for an aluminium smelter. Which is great, since Comalco loves to threaten to shut down that smelter immediately before elections as an attempt to gouge better prices from its supplier. **which shouldn't happen if they have current since transforming generates a decent amount of heat (indeed, failure to remove the heat is a frequent cause of failure), but does happen if they're not supplied with power.

But guys, there was a picture of a frozen windmill, so clearly DP is correct.

I think this is definitely worth it. Because it is weird that a lash from regular attack can penetrate, while lash from an attack that penetrates everything doesn't. And regarding Pen value, I think it should compare with high-pen spells. So around 8 or 9. My opinion on Brutal Backlash is that it is not worth a talent point at all. And regarding unupgraded Backlash that it is a bit weird: it's good in fast fights (but then you could win without it) and worthless in long fights At the same time I actually like that it triggers immediately; otherwise there will be even more fights when it won't be triggering at all. --- Also I remember when in PoE1 Backlash was set to trigger with no limit, I could keep enemies with terrifying/frightening/fear auras (including some dragons) perma-stunned with just 2 ciphers. Thus need to think more about it. I like having a quick weapon in offhand for full attacks. With the possible exceptions of Heart of Fury, Barbaric Blow, Whirling Strikes. But then again, a character that specializes on rare but heavy hitting full attacks won't be tacking a low-damage bashing shield. If The Best Defense had 0.5 + 3.0 speed I see good synergy for a Kind Wayfarer FoD spamming healbot. But need to compare [Magran's Favor + Sun&Moon] vs [Magran's Favor + Keeper of the Flame] vs [Magran's Favor + quicker The Best Defense]. Ideally we would need to compare auto-attack dps, full-attack spamming dps. Think about using bashing shield with a ranged weapon. And for primary attack spam. Hmm. If will find the time, will do. Otherwise will go with gut feeling

Apparently this mother hen was found taking care of two small kittens in a snow storm...

Without going into detail about the linked to stuff, I wonder how many people here realize how close the world was to a major financial crisis when when covid hit? It sort of obfuscated that the inverse yield curve had popped all the safety valves and was screaming 'red alert!' a year and a half ago, major financial crisis, probably hitting harder than the 2008-9 bubble crash, within the next year (that was in 2018). Sadly covid may now prevent people from dealing with the underlying structural issues in the economy, because covid will get all the blame for the current situation. Just saying, without covid, the situation would likely very much be the same as it is now. Just without face masks and social distancing. This happened in 2018... (the last time it happened was in 2007 and I think most people remember the years following the GFC) https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2018/12/04/the-yield-curve-just-inverted-sort-of-and-that-is-a-sell-signal-for-stocks/?sh=111427a83eaa

Giving away Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer: it is a soulbound item. You have to bind it to a specific character and then level it up through certain actions. If you want to use it with another character you have to unbind it, it will then fall back to its basic level and you'd have to level it up again with the new character. Firebrand is only the first level. The belt has some more useful levels of enchantments. I would keep it and use Firebrand as backup against enemies who have a weakness against fire dmg.

Bugs: On Xbox there seems to be an audio problem where everything sounds distorted. Improvements: Combat - The combat becomes a bit repetitive after a while and I dont think this is fixed by just adding more insect types. I'd like to see insect strengths and weaknesses introduced which forces the player to use different weapon types to overcome the garden. For example, certain insects with hard shells (ladybug/stink bug) immune to arrows/spears and only taking smash damage until significant damage is done as to break/crack the shell when then other weapons can be utilised for maximum damage to the enemy health. This could be shown by an armour bar above the enemies health bar where the armour has to be depleted before damage to the enemy health can be inflicted. Other examples could be arrows make flying insects drop to the ground so you dont have to keep on jumping to hit the bee/mosquito/firefly, axes cut off spider legs etc. I think it'd add more of a dynamic if some of the insects could burrow underground and ambush the player also. Weapons - I'd like to see some science weapons/tools being introduced considering the number of labs and robots around it's a bit disappointing we're only limited to primitive weapons and tools. These could be an electric saw which can double as a tool to quickly cut down grass and as a weapon. Other suggestions are a spider web net gun to trap/slow down enemies, shock baton, pebble-shooter etc. These could be made after finding schematics scattered around the labs in the garden making exploration more rewarding. You should also be able to upgrade existing weapons/arrows to add fire/shock/cryo damage. Armour - The armour is a bit basic and disappointing after spending time bringing all the resources together for it just to turn out to be a helmet, shoulder pad and some shin pads. I'd like to see a layered armour system like that of Fallout 4 with an under and over armour. Exploration - This is the best part of the game as the possibilities are endless. I'd just like to see more rewards for exploring like hidden bosses, weapon/armour blue prints, new base building blueprints etc. Customisation - Should really be able to create your own character Suggestions: - New creatures: Frog that jumps between the lillypads, centipede that raids ant hills, woodlouse that curl into impenetrable balls when attacked so you have to sneak up on them and kill them quickly, queen ant and queen bee. - Mountable magnifying glass to protect your base - Tameable creatures which can then be mounted to reach unexplorable parts of the map. Such as taming an ant getting them to burrow to new tunnels, flying on bees to reach the branches of the oak tree etc. Overall love the game, it is obvious this is a work in progress however. The campaign is very thread bare but what I have seen so far has intrigued me. The best part is the world you've created is really fascinated and make you want to explore more and more.

My knowledge of zodiac signs is strictly limited to what I learned about them in The Binding of Isaac years back, which is almost nothing except that they exist, so... @Mamoru:

Nice. I got him with the Lightning Negoori set as well. Though I haven't given his build too much thought. Just tried to complete mastery sets. Will need to have another look. Before that I want to get a viable Alisa Lunacy build though.

I don't have specifics, no. But I do know this, most of our major windparks are in the far north of Sweden, and temperatures average -10C or thereabout, and the only failed windturbine that I've heard of was one that collapsed due to construction errors. You do get a loss of efficiency, but they've all been working. Yes, but to be fair, that is also because almost all of our major green energy, dams and windfarms are in the north of Sweden, and we can't get that power down south. Moving power 1000 miles it's like getting hydro and windpower from North Dakota down to texas. It has little to do with temperatures itself, it's not like the windturbines failed because it was cold. They did fail a bit in that, down south, there weren't much wind to speak of at all. What is going to be a real problem though is that industries like LKAB and SSAB want to move away from processes with loads of CO2 releases to more environmentally friendly alternatives based on electricity, and they are going to need about 30% of what is right now the total output of Sweden if I remember the article correctly. Since I can't read the article because it's paywalled, I don't know what they really said there.

Troublshooter character build - Sion the One-Shot, Glass Canon Lightning Mage:

I finished the Troubleshooter game, completed all missions on hard, with some of them on challenging :) Got 145/198 steam achievements with the most rare one being: We are the one In the mission [Astonishing Reunion], win as the team of Irene, Anne and Ray with 'Pick lotteries.' choice on 'Hard' or higher difficulty. Pretty fun and obsessive game, thanks @melkathi for all the screenshots and making me want to buy it!!! The story and role playing elements, humor and strategy are all pretty fun. I mean the game only got grindy for me when I started obsessing over crafting and needed money and material, otherwise fast paced and right on time.

DoT damages does not feel very "brutal" to me. And feels a bit unnecessary if the 30s delay prevents infinite reapplication. My version of Brutal Backlash has 40 base damages + scaling. For the damages part, I think it's enough. Not sure something else is needed. The main issue for me is uselessness Vs non will attacking battles. But I guess it will be useful often enough. And probably challenging to play against.

It's also the difference of giving someone the means to kill themselves versus actually killing them with your own hands. Interestingly, both episodes are by the same person, Ron Moore.

That is karma for not putting the Sharks in the Lake Tahoe game. Also, it did look beautiful, at least.

Up to episode 17 now. How old is Mamoru? 18? 20? And Rei? He is in college and had a date with Rei. If it was Usagi it would be inappropriate, right? She is 14. Also, can he transform like the girls? Or did he change into the Tuxedo in the park, after falling in the water? Probably irrelevant lol

Definitely don't like putting Stagger. Cipher will be like: ok I can conditionally Stagger sometimes, now what? But really dig your DoT idea. How about: Backlash: stuns the target for 10s. Has a refresh delay of 30s Brutal Backlash: afflicts the target with a DoT that deals 30 dmg over 15s; While afflicted by this DoT the target takes +10% more base damage from all sources. ?

The best captain.

I was thinking about delay for Backlash too And regarding Brutal Backlash: unless the damage is 60+, I see little use in it. Also need to check that it doesn't proc during Withdraw or Invisibility. How about Brutal Backlash: v1. inflicting some heavy defense malus v2. giving to cipher a hefty accuracy bonus vs that target; v3. terrifying and disabling spellcasting for 7s on target ? Re Echanter: yes, in it's current state it's lackluster. And partially because they lack access to Illusion spells. At the same time I don't really like giving permanent immunities. It can feel cheesy in some situations. +15%/+25% beneficial effect duration seems nice; but first would need to implement the change to Unbending Trunk. And think of other possible interactions.

What about Psychic Backlash causing only Staggered instead of Stun - but unlimited times per encounter? I mean we have stuff like Spirit Frenzy staggering everything left and right, even with Chanter phrases... Brutal Backlash could put a (small) raw DoT that doesn't stack (but would get prolonged when reapplied). Like a nasty headache. Unlimited procs per encounter (but doesn't stack as I said). It would be better in general - and quite good against anything with fear aura (but not too crazy if the DoT ticks are small enough).

Backlash could also be coded in a similar fashion to Tekehu defense vs Fire spell : 100% chance, but has to refresh with a delay (~30s ?). Both Backlash & Brutal Backlash are situational talents. Spending 2 points for something situational is the major problem with brutal backlash, even with a better damage value. But with a good value, it would at least be useful in the right situation, Ney ? If not, what could be your suggestion ? For Enchanter I wonder about giving them permanent Dex Aff Immunity... or maybe a +15/+25% beneficial effect duration ?

Yeah, but I still wouldn't want to sit through it. Within just anime there's better stuff you can spend your time on than excessively long 90's tournament arcs or Tuxedo Stalker and the long arms you are experiencing in Crystal.

"BaseValue": 120, "DynamicValue": { "Stat": "Health", "SkillDataID": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "ClassID": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "MultiplyBy": -100, "Operator": "Add" }, Sorry for misguiding you guys. I didn't initially check what exactly "Health" is, and got carried away by it's name Health Current target health percentage from 0.0-1.0 It is actually a percentage. So dmg = 120 - 100 * current_hp/max_hp Edit: Noqn you ninja

- IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Videos Below and Damage Logs are from solo PotD, All Scalling option on, Only Upscalling on + Difficulty mod which HIGHLY increase enemy levels in PotD: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43 . As you can see mod does its work. Fampyr can tank few 150+ hits before it dies. So just know that normal unmodded game will be MUCH EASIER with this build. - Also this build is not as OP as anything with Fighter Cleave ez mode but it has it's own OPness but need much more micro than just killing one enemy and let the passive do the work. Also this build is very very hard to play with Sacred Immolation, you have to constantly make sure you are "on" Lay On Hands and you control your HP with Second Winds and you control Immolation duration. It's not easy, but dem, they burn nicely :D :D EDIT: Ok, with Sungrazer and this build you can do even better/more OP Nuking Machine than with Cleave, though it's not as consistant :D. Check below New Video with Sunbrazer in Action. THIS BUILD GIVES PALADIN BOTH SUPERB SINGLE TARGET BURST AND FINALLY A SUPER AOE NUKING OPTION: each one with different Flail in Offhand (Battleaxe is must ALWAYS!) Videos: 1st Video Showing Full Power of Flames (Sacred Immolation in Action) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtGvneLSyoM&feature=youtu.be 2nd Video Showing what you can do without Sacred Immolation with Sun And Moon single Target Damage boost (due to flail chance to proc burn effect twice): 3rd Video Showing The Power of SunGrazer Flail on this build :D :D (it launches burn AOE nukes!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_fWjQdYKPM&feature=youtu.be This girl is heretics burning Votary, who pledged herself to Magran to burn all mother******s who doesn't seem to understand that YOU DO NOT PLAY WITH FIRE!!!! Samples of Burn Damage done with weapons and abilities: Build: - Paladin Shieldbrearer of St.Elcga/Helwalker Monk. Shieldbarer is a must only if you want to use to fully this build in end-game and run with Sacred Immolation on yourself. The 10 seconds of being unkillable is currently a must till Obsidian fix the self damage of Sacred immolation. Helwalker for that extra damage and healing from everything and that Turning Wheel full power. Burn Baby Burn! If you want to just nuke everything with Sungrazer AOE attacks and skip Sacred Immolation= take Bleak Walker for more damage :D. What does this build do: - Super high Burning damage from burning weapons. We utilize here a great heretics burning combo: Magran Battleaxe (+5 Fire Power Levels and Action Speed bonuses) and Sun and Moon flail or Sungrazer Flail + Flames of Devotion, Burning Wheel + Helwalker damage bonuses with wounds and Blazing Fury to make sure that EVERY SINGLE HERETIC IS TURNED TO ASH! - High Defences and self heals from Paladin + High Damage bonuses from Helwalker. - Dual Wielding for maximum damage. - SUPER DUPER AOE BURN DAMAGE WITH SUNGRAZER FLAIL (check video above)- you can nuke whole screen with one attack or have mini-nukes dropping on enemies. - Super High AOE dmg late game from Sacred Immolation - Tanky, yet squishy if you want to use Immolation Is this build solo viable?: LIKE HELL IT IS! I don't make any others :D. I hate managing party members STATS: Might 18 and Int 18. Rest what you want. I recommend high Perception for early-mid game when your accuracy is low. RACE: You should take Natural Godlike here for that extra +2 Power Levels as you take Monk here so you always have it. Or anything for roleplay reasons if you want. SKILLS: Definitely Athletics if you want to Run self immolation. No other Choice. And History for Giftbearers defense boosts (yes, you can still be charmed/dominated by farmpyr on modded difficulty even with 140 Will defense). EQUIPMENT: For Single Target Damage we Combine Magran Favor + Sun And Moon, as Soon and Moon has 33% Chance to Apply burn effect twice. We also use Dragon Dowyr at the beginning of fight to cast on us Blazing Furry for Recovery and self damage and then switch to melee weapons. For AOE NUKING (It really is a Nuke :D) We will Combine Magran Favor with Sungrazer which is absolutely OP on this build- because it has 10% chance to cast AOE (and 100% on killing with crit) and it can be triggered but both Rooting Pain and Heartbear Drumming and Swift Flurry :D - With Below Equipment and Passive Sion Flame + Passive from Nature Godlike we achieve: +7 Power Levels to Fire-Attacks and +2 Power Levels to everything. What does it mean? That our Fire damage will overpen almost always. Your SUPER AOE NUKE option! (which finally gives Paladin AOE NUKING :D :D- behold, a Sungrazer instead of Sun and Moon, Sungrazer has chance to lunch AOE burn explosions that can deal very high damage with this build (one on hit and one on killing with critical hit). It's fire AOE ofc gets boost from Axe, Sion of Flame and Pet FIre-Power Increase. GEAR: - Devil of Caroc breastplate - None if you are Nature Godlike. Serpent Crown, anything really that works for you if you took different race. There is helmet that gives you chance to do AOE burn attack but I can't find it now. I will check and update list. - Amulet - anything you like. There is one that gives Fireballs for more burning. Or +2 INT one for more durations. - Boots- whatever. - Ring VERY IMPORTANT: Voidward Ring give -35% Raw Damage which is good if you want to us Sacred Immolation. Any reduction is good. If you do not plan to use Sacred Immolation- Lone Wolf Ring is always good + any other you like. - Belt - The Undying Burder for that extra Second Wind (super useful for Sacred Immolation) - Cloak- Giftbearer for extra defenses when not using Sacred Immolation and I highly Recommend using Nemnok's Cloak if you want to run Sacred Immolation as it grant Barring Death Door for 14 seconds which will help you a lot when using Sacred. ABILITIES (Core): Paladin: - Sworn Enemy -> Sworn Rival - Flames of Devotion -> Eternal Devotion - Lay On Hands - Deep Faith of course - Two Weapon Style - Zealous Aura -> Endurance - Scion of Flame - Inspired Beacon - Virtuos Triumph - Sacred Immolation Monk: - Swift Strikes - Lesser Wounds - Swift Flurry - Duality of M.P - Thunderous Blows - Turning Wheel - Flagelants Path - Rooting Pain - Hearbeat Drumming. PET: PET IMPORTANT FOR BURNING: How to Play: Buff yourself, use Blazing Furry and go Burn heretics :D. Sun And Moon can trigger twice burn damage which + FoD is huge dmg vs one target. And Sungrazer can nuke whole screen and proc with Melee, Rooting Pain and Heartbeat Drummings :D. Burn Baby Burn! If you use Sacred Immolation: I recommend using Nemnok's Cloak as it grant Barring Death Door for 14 seconds. Use Beacon to make enemies take 40% more dmg, Use Sacred Immolation, get yourself to 0 HP (you have 14 seconds with 20 INT to not die), burn your enemies. Once you get close to end of effect cast on yourself Lay On Hands or Greater Lay On Hand to heal and get another 10 second unkillable effect. You have to do it BEFORE cloak effect wears off as you will have tiny HP and one tick of Immolation can kill you. Can't wait till they fix Sacred Immolation and this build will be much more fun. Right now it's super hard to play due to keeping yourself alive.

Haha. So "data" from market watch and financial types to counter official data from ERCOT (you know, the bunch ****ing running Texas' power grid) and the US Energy Information Administration? Much financial. Such informational, wow. I mean, it's not just that some random financial douchebags are being misleading with those charts -- the ~50% wind drop figure is from feb 9, before the storm even started. You can clearly (to the extent the pictures allow) see that there are similar decreases before, storm or no storm -- this is why the nominal reliable capacity for wind is rated by ERCOT at less than 40%, while gas is supposed to be 100% reliable. Or at least I'm guessing those are the dates in the charts because they are so tiny that it's hard to tell. I'm sure that's not at all on purpose in an effort to obfuscate and mislead, no. It's just an unfortunate side effect from financial types these days not being able to afford more than 56k dial-up so clearer images are out of the question. http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/lists/197379/CapacityDemandandReservesReport_Dec2020.pdf No, "wind power failed to deliver it’s expected power – almost 40% of expected power" is ~false~ because a) only coastal wind energy production was rated at ~40% (with wind from the Panhandle and Other regions being rated substantially lower than that), and b) that figure is not a fraction of the total production but rather a fraction of the nominal total wind power generation in Texas. ERCOT has wind and solar classified as "intermittent renewable", because they are aware of the fact that they are not fully dependable. Which is why, on the other hand, gas is 100% -- not because Texas gets 100% of its power from gas, but because it's supposed to be 100% dependable and not fail when it's cold, cloudy, or not windy enough. So no, Texas' problems weren't related to wind farms failing in any way any non-financial type with excessive positions in fossils could possibly conceive. Sean Hannity was lying, Greg Abbott was lying, and you -- you are very much lying. What's funny is that Abbot at least attempted to clarify his comments to Hannity. But here you are, doubling down on the lies.

To meet the China challenge, the US and Europe must look beyond the WTO (msn.com) The Hill is now a terrible website that's conservative and neoliberal AS F**********. @BruceVC and @Gorth should love it.

@BruceVC even in Sweden they had to switch to non-green energy... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-19/why-even-pristine-sweden-struggles-with-green-energy-quicktake

I have briefly checked related StatusEffectGameData. It looks that: as long the ability Grazes, Hits or Crits the attack applies a StatusEffect that deals (120 - 100 * target_health target_health_percentage) damage. So the "If the enemy is Bloodied or Near Death, they will receive significantly more damage from Blessed Harvest." part of description is technically incorrect against high-hp enemies.

If I'm not mistaken wind power was actually generating more than expected before the freeze. Most projections reduce wind power because the cold weather typically interferes with them here. But I guess tilting at windturbines is going to happen regardless because of sexual frustration towards AOC or something. Really the issue is that Texas has an oversupply of energy (artificially cheap thanks to the government) and isn't particularly efficient. This means power is going to be plentiful in optimal conditions, but when we see a steep drop in supply coupled with a rise in demand **** is going to break down. That set of conditions fits extreme weather, and I'd say that is when you most need power to be reliable. This is exacerbated by the Texas electric grid being separate from other US grids which means you can't borrow power as easily. What all this means is that any solution that just tries to build more energy production without looking at efficiency is not going to work and we're going to be ****ed the next time we get hit with a storm. It's not as sexy as slamming down nuclear plants or whatever though so I doubt it's going to happen and most of the people in charge will still be there.

Ice ice everywhere except where you want it! https://nypost.com/2021/02/20/outdoor-nhl-game-turns-into-a-nightmare-for-players/

At least they had. Not sure if it still applies at the time of writing though. @BruceVCNo single country has a monopoly on morons. You'll find plenty in Australia too... remember, you get the government you deserve? Says a lot about Australians

Other changes I'm thinking about : Cipher Backlash (and brutal one) : what about making it 25% chance on Will attacks rather than once per encounter ? Illusionist : the unique ability is basically 1 extra cast of tier 2 spell. What about making it 10% chance on being Hit or Crit ? (Not Graze or it would be too easy to keep mirror image 100% of the time). This would be less reliable but much more handy for long fights (and a bit more unique). Enchanter : after dealing with Conjurer and Transmuter, this one strikes me as the subclass with the less purpose (which is even worse than simply being weak). Many of their high level abilities are very situational. Their spells also don't benefit much from +2PL. I think they would have needed an unique ability to be the corner stone of the subclass. Granted their current one is convenient but not much more. I have no precise plan for this one, so any suggestion would be welcomed. @MaxQuest I don't have an opinion about reducing Best Defence attack speed. Maybe it would fit fluff wise as a small shield. What matters is overall DPS so I'm waiting for your own analysis !

When you are building a Priest for Damage, Berath is one of the best picks imo. I would absolutely support Kaylon's suggestion that Helwalker/Berath would be a good pick - maybe the best - if you are looking for both good melee dmg AND good casting damage at the same time. Helwalker gets +10 MIG at 10 wounds (absurdly high MIG was a key feature of the St. Gangrene build you played); gets +10 INT, too which is great with nearly all spells (AoE and durations) and both high MIG and INT are especially good with DoT spells like Touch of Rot etc. Also thematically Helwalker and Berath will fit beautifully: Death rites + Berath - what more do you want? Monks also get Thunderous Blows which will grant them universal +2 PEN for weapon AND spell dmg. That's better than Devoted who can only use the PEN for his weapon of choice. The St. Gangrene build of PoE used Tidefall's wounding and beefed it up with absurd MIG (because wounding scaled with it). Unfortunately an identical scaling wounding mechanic is not present in Deadfire, but there are some cool Great Swords and Estocs in the game. One even has a wounding enchantment again (Effort). There's also the Spiritual Great Sword that a Priest of Berath can summon - and it's really good if you get your dispositions right because then its corrosive lash scales up. There are three unique weapons that fit very well thematically imo: Voidwheel: This is great fun if you crit a lot. A Monk can also use Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming to proc crit chains - so the special Necrotic Lance enchantment of Voidwheel might proc more often as one might anticipate. It's one of the most damaging weapons against single targets. The Twin Eels: It's a Berath themed weapon so it fits beautifully. It's not the all-time-best for damage (but still solid) - but it can be a nice support weapon if you kill frenquently because it has an AOE heal on kill. For inspiration how to use this weapon you can have a look here: Valkyrie of Gaun Engoliero do Espirs: It's an estoc and no a great sword but it fits lovely. There's a whole Berath-related quest in order to get this. It's supergood for casting as well because the enchantment "Blade Harvest" procs off of all kills you do, spells or melee. And it can proc itself when it kills, leading to a wild cascade of Ghost Blades killing everything. Imo it's the best pick here - but you have to work for it (quest). They all don't come early though. I would propose that you use the summoned Great Sword most of times until you can get your hands on one of the above (or whatever you like best). I personally would aim for Engoliero do Espirs and then use the summoned GS as backup weapon. The summoned GS stacks its lash with the ones from Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes (only if you don't use Swift Flurry istead of LS of course) so you will do plenty of single target dmg with that, too.

Helwalker/priest of Berath is probably the best choice if you want a hybrid melee/caster.

Free DLC in Troubleshooter turned out to be: 2 recruitable characters. 3 Missions (including a new map) 1 New enemy faction with 3 new enemies (2 models) + bosses. New masteries (skill sets) for and dropped by the new enemies. Which kinda is still more than some AAA titles include for a DLC in their season pass...