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Oh, I forgot to write that I got my Steam Deck early April and have been trying it out since then. Battery time is as expected (not great) and the screen is only average (my phone looks sooo much better with its OLED colours and refresh rate) but other than that it's an awesome little machine. I have 557 games on my Steam account, 78 of which are "GREAT ON DECK" as they're called. 78. Out of 557. Yeah, they have some work to do, for sure. But the ones that work great really do work great! I've installed Grim Dawn, Dysmantle and Fez so far and they all run flawlessly at 60 fps. I know they're not the most demanding of games, but it's still a handheld and these are PC games after all. Very impressed with the performance. It came in this plastic packaging. Also this case which is pretty sweet. And this is the Deck itself! Ignore my pale, Swedish legs. I was working from home that day..

The Only Lottery that matters... MMMMM SMell that air.

The collapse of Russia has pretty high probability for one simple reason. Putin has raised no one as his successor (Unlike Yeltsin, who raised him), so it is likely that the siloviks, which survive the current ongoing purge, will get at each other throats after something happens (be it natural or unnatural) to Putin. Even if he manages to win this war..

Indeed, it is coded as triggering "OnScoringGrazeHitOrCriticalHit" I let you debate if it shall be corrected and how.

Blinding Smoke appears to be bugged so that it triggers without a crit

Armageddon cannot come soon enough.

A Devoted/Berserker with Amra (and Mob Stance) becomes an absolute beast as soon as you send skeletons at his side. They will get killed by Carnage + Amra's Riven Gore which will trigger Cleave + additional Carnage + Riven Gore hits. Dead skeletons also trigger Blood Thirst and Bloodlust. Do not put companions near him because if they get hit by Riven Gore and have lower than 50 HP they will get insta-killed immediately (as in: removed from the party and be really dead forever). Killing skeletons "accidentially" also triggers healing "per kill" from pets like Abraham and such and also from Triumph of the Crusaders (Priest spell) - so it's very hard to kill that Brute as long as skeletons do rush in. The best way to "feed" skeletons to him is with a Troubadour who chants "Many Lives Pass By" with Brisk Recitation. You can also build a self-contained Troubadour/Berserker and produce the skeletons yourself - but you will miss the Cleaving. The rest (Carnage, Riven Gore, Blood Thirst etc.) will still work though. Works also well with Lord Darryn's Voulge - see Kaylon's suggestion. A very hands-off and easy to play "cleaver" is a Fighter/Streetfighter. I prefer Unbroken/Streetfighter with a shield bc. of the additional armor and engagement - but stuff like Devoted/Streetfighter with a two handed weapon or dual wielding also works well. "Escape" into a bunch of enemies to get flanked and hack away - as soon as health is too low escape back out, heal a bit and work the flanks.

So this is why it's so ridiculously good/reliable! Never got to check because the combat log is usually completely insane with this weapon. Thanks @NotDumbEnough!

It is from the same writer and the writing shares some of the ups and downs, so why yes, indeed, and not without reason I would argue. I said it does not make me want to gouge my eyes out and that some of the 3D animation works relatively well instead of being a complete failure. Faint praise, all in all.

No, it is a base game bug. I managed to find another record of this: However, it is not quite complete. This bug also triggers if you kill an enemy, and then land crits, it seems. Even without Wildstrike Frenzy as in my example.

Errr, I had to look up what Last Light's story was about again... So yeah, Exodus' story is easily much better, a lot more "grounded" too, I'd say. The only thing you might miss out on with skipping Last Light is some of the relationships Artyom builds. Then again, aside from Anna and Miller I didn't particularly remember most of them (other than "name sounds familiar") and it didn't really hamper my enjoyment at all. I've now also finished the first DLC "The Two Colonels", which was a pretty interesting in itself giving some other people's perspectives on events during the main game.

I suspect this is a base game bug as it seems familiar, but with just Greater Wildstrike (not Wildstrike Frenzy) my Fury Spiritshift duration is going up with every crit. Here I have 120+ seconds duration remaining because I kept getting crits against the Eoten Not sure if it's a Fury bug or a bug with Greater Wildstrike

@BruceVC, the goal here is just understanding. I'm not trying to convince them of anything and I doubt I'll be swayed by their arguments but I don't think there should be no dialogue just because neither side can "win." Because as I just said, that's not the goal here.

[CLASS BUILD] UPDATED - The Bleeding Arcanist 2.0 Subclass: Blood Mage UPDATE: Following my initial post I did another solo playthrough, 100% completionist this time and improved on a couple of things I wanted to share. Sorry for double-posting, I couldn’t edit my original post… Added A LOT more details about no-rest bonii, more specific ability/spell picks and Megaboss strategies. Sorry for the wall of text! Hope this is interesting or useful to anyone considering a pure class Bloodmage solo playthrough. I very much recommend it with this build or any build. The Concept: Sturdy, impossible to interrupt, versatile, no rest solo Blood Mage who can win 100% of fights in the game with the most explosive and rewarding barrage of high level spells (thanks to Rekvu’s fractured casque + Vaporous Wizardry Grimoire), but can also enter easy & cheesy god mode for Mega Bosses and such (through his Blood Mage abilities + Wall of Draining + potion of final stand etc). He also has tons of skills & utility so it doesn’t feel like a very restrictive power-build, and scales really nicely throughout the game. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). POTD Solo: Yes, very much. Two playthroughs completed with a lot of flex/forgiveness on how you want to play (upscaled: untested but definitely fine with an optimized spell list & strategy at all times – less experimentation possible). Companion: Nope -----WHY PLAY THIS BUILD------ For lots of veterans this will likely be a no-brainer and sorry if I sound like Captain Obvious, but I wanted to post this build as I haven’t seen this one consolidated anywhere, and I’m having so much fun with it. Really brings back the feeling of power and adaptability that a solo Sorcerer could give in BG2, or solo Mage in Arcanum for example. It also plays a bit differently than your typical SC Wizard in POE 2 because you have a lot more spells to cast, don’t rely on Nina’s Teachings and you don’t take the Empower abilities… which is liberating. You can really approach each battle differently while keeping a nice feeling of power and very high defenses (until a random enemy transforms you into a piglet out of RNG luck). SC Blood Mage = maximum class power/ability levels, no empower, blood sacrifice hurts, bloodied enemies are a pain, but if you work around those issues you have virtually unlimited spells which is really strong. Then you need to mitigate the tradeoffs: Go for lowish Might = you will hurt yourself a bit less with Blood Sacrifice, without much impact to your damage output + you can spend the points on more relevant attributes. On the other hand, pumping CON a bit brings some nice sturdiness/peace of mind to this build, which also bolsters experimentation (you're not a glass cannon, just a cannon). Rekvu + Vaporous = 50% more spells, no interrupt, turning most fights into a total spellfest! Very little opposition can still stand after some crazy self-buffing, several Chill Fogs to blind & group everybody, Combusting Wounds, then 3x Wilting Winds (of Abi Dalzim or whomever) + 2x Meteor Shower – mix as required. Your Vaporous Grimoire comes with the answer to the Injury issue: chain-cast necrotic lance outside of combat on your toon (spell comes with the book) and you will inflict the Acute Rash which has very little impact on your combat readiness (you can use Voidward to mitigate, but it is not required). Cherry on the cake, you can exploit the different buffs available to a no-rest run for your full benefit, and end up with insane stats and permabuffs (more than making up for the Acute Rash minor injury). If any other injury comes up: pop a luminous adra potion/bath, chain-cast necrotic lance, done. More details on no-rest bonii later on. Finally when you need even more firepower, you can still rely on high-level, matured cheese strategies: wall of draining, potion of final stand, Brilliant proc from shroud of phantasm, blight proc from belt of magran’s chosen, True Lover’s Kiss from Lover’s Embrace… and other shenanigans. Immortality and chain-casting Missile Salvo until the end of times. -----STATS------ Race: Human (maximize accuracy and damage output when it really matters / when you have to cheese) Background: The White That Wends – Explorer (great mix of important stat boosts) FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 13 (7 Base + 1 Human + 2 Berath + 1 Gift from Machine + 2 Alchemic Brawn) CON 22 (13 Base + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Brawn + 2 Konstanten Boon + 3 Girlde Eoten CON) DEX 20 (13 Base + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Guile + 2 Firethrower Gloves + 1 Boots of Stone) PER 28 (18 Base + 1 White that Wends + 2 Berath + 1 Konstanten Boon + 1 Effigy: Sagani + 2 Alchemic Guile + 1 Savage Cunning + 1 Cauldron Brew + 1 Kuaru’s Prize) INT 25 (17 Base + 2 Berath + 1 Konstanten Boon + 2 Alchemic Wits + 2 Charm of Bones + 1 Kuaru’s Prize) RES 19 (7 Base + 1 Human + 2 Berath + 2 Alchemic Wits + 2 Nature’s Resolve + 2 Rikuhu’s Blessing + 2 Eviee Pet + 1 Boots of Stone) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Hylea’s Bounty (best food for this build) Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift x3 (Acc. against beasts) BERATH BLESSINGS: I like everything that reduces Port Maje tedium and provides long term power (Infamous Captain etc). I am not ashamed of investing all 105 points. BUT none is required to win with this build. SKILLS: If you exploit the no-rest bonuses to their fullness you will have free extra points everywhere, plus the free Berath ones if you enabled them. It will be BOTH a spellfest and a skillfest! I typically spread around a bit for skill checks, with a focus on Mechanics, Athletics, Diplomacy, History is the highest at 20 (giftbearer cloth) and Survival. Mix of story stuff and power play. -----PASSIVE ABILITIES BY PL------ 1 None 2 Weapon & Shield 3 Bear’sFortitude, Bull’s Will 4 Scion of Flame, Secrets of Rime 5 Farcasting, Rapid Casting, Uncanny Luck, Tough 6 Improved Critical 7 None 8 None 9 Prestige -----SPELLS BY PL (TO COMPLEMENT VAPOROUS GRIMOIRE)------ 1 Chill Fog, Eldricht Aim 2 Combusting Wounds, Infuse With Vital Essence, Arcane Veil 3 Displaced Image, Deleterious Alacrity 4 Wall of Flame, Iron Skin 5 Torrent of Flame, Safeguard 6 Precisely Piercing Burst, Arcane Reflection, Freezing Pillar 7 Killing Bolt 8 Wall of Many Colors 9 Missile Salvo -----GEAR------ Griffin’s Blade + Lethandria’s devotion: my go-to set for versatility + power + survivability, but Magran’s Favor and Sun & Moon are of course really good (only for specific keywords/situations though). Lethandria’s Devotion is much better than any other offhand item. Griffin has really a lot to bring to the build. Also keep close the Lover’s Embrace dagger to cut some cheese... Rekvu’s Fractured Casque: crucial with Vaporous! Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardy: crucial, +50% spells per encounter! Keep Illuminating Discoveries, Iron Clasped, and Nina’s Teachings grimoires close. Especially Illuminating Discoveries for Brilliant Departure (few other grimoires have this spell too). Miscreant’s Leather: great action speed which drives DPS and perfect style with Rekvu’s casque. Contributes to making you eventually invulnerable to Reflex attacks (even your own). The Giftbearer Cloth: perfect (caution: buggy can make items/weapons in 4th slot disappear) Firethrower’s Gloves: perfect Necklace of Charm of Bones: perfect Kuaru’s prize: perfect Ring of Minor Protection: great to elevate defenses (increasing returns) Boots of Stone Belt of Eoten CON or any belt with +CON and other bonii Eviee Pet is nice as base, swap as needed Potions: Major Healing, Final Stand, Ascension, Perfect Aim, Deftness… Always keep somewhere Sandals of Waterlily, Burglar’s Gloves, Ajamuut Cloak + Lover’s Embrace + Rakhan Field Boots especially f you run out of ideas in a ****ty fight… Just keep the uniques to have options, especially if you haven’t played PotD a lot. If you come across items with immunities/resistance, hold on to them. -----GENERAL STRATEGIES------ Early on: any combo of buffing with whatever is available and then chillfog + combusting wounds and then later adding wall of flames and concussive missiles will win the day 90% of times. Add new spells as they come, especially freezing pillar. Don’t be afraid to get in close quarters, you can buff defenses severely and you’re not a glass canon (but don’t get overconfident). Remember that you can regenerate spells with moderation. Combusting Wounds is a force multiplier with anything that has multiple projectiles or hits over time. And of course, always hug a wall to limit engagement! Always walk close to the wall, and favor doorways as well as narrow corridors to engage/break stealth. Later on: Just go ballistic with higher end, hard hitting spells after you’ve done a full or near full cycle of buffing depending on the fight. There is so much you can do and so many ways to win with the tools at your disposal. If you’re hitting a wall (so to speak) then use the Wall (of Draining) strategy. Find enemies you can drain (low-ish Will), buff like crazy, drink a potion of Final Stand (+ other potions) and use your WoD to become invulnerable. Works a bit too well, but can be sometimes tricky against high level casters with access to Arcane Dampener with high accuracy and especially Arcane Cleanse. Disable them first if you can. Remember that chillfog is a cheap -15 accuracy when it lands (so +15 all defenses). Anyway the build and its gear provide really good defenses so there is room for human error, bear in mind that the weaker point is fortitude. Fully buffed you get something like 195 DEF, 162 FORT, 250 REF (!!!) and 215 WILL. Not impenetrable by highest level foes, but pretty good. A nice by-product is that you can drop any reflex targeting spell on your face without any worry that it will hit you. So go bathe yourself in your own meteors. -----MEGABOSS STRATEGIES------ Dorudugan: Sorry for the purists of Megaboss engagement but I just True Lover Kissed him, lured him to the North, then used Brilliant Departure, retreated to the South, and went on to have a few beers while he slowly met Rymrgand’s inevitability. Came back 3h later, saw the dawnfall of the hellfire colossus and upgraded my shield with his stone. It’s cheesy and lazy, but so is the boss in my opinion. Belranga: I did a full WoD buffing-to-oblivion cycle, wearing the sandals of water lilly, then I killed so many spiders that Belranga was at like 350 accuracy and came in close quarters. Then I tried to use the Cloak of Death spell and I was so happy to use it to full effect for the first time! Combined with Combusting Wounds, it really did a number on the Empress while I was just keeping my WoD up and occasionally throwing some spells around. Needless to say, WoD extends the duration of the Cloak, which makes it the cheapest, most effective PL9 spell against high accuracy melee attackers. Hit, Disappear, Suffer, Hit, Disappear, Suffer…. Hauani O Whe: First I True Lover Kissed it and retreated to the south with Brilliant Departure, because its initial form has too high defenses, too much accuracy and the solvent ability for my usual strategies to work. When I came up some time later, it had nicely split into the two lesser forms, much more manageable with conventional means. I engaged them in a typical WoD + Full Buffing + Final Stand cycle, and once I was really unkillable I eradicated one of the blobs with the following sequence: Combusting Wounds + 2x Meteor Shower + Wait until they split + Gaze of the Adragan + 2x Freezing Pillar + maybe a finisher fireball. In one sequence I destroyed all the splits of the first blob to naught. Then I just repeated with the other blob. Done without stress or intricate Interrupt tactics (save the one Adragan spell cast). Auranic: Yikes. I know she’s supposed to be the easiest Megaboss but this fight is the one that made me reload a few times before I got it right. Here is my final strategy: First, I used Rakhan Field Boots in stealth to… True Lover Kiss her. Then, I went out of her sight to buff and withstand the assault of her bodyguard + sigils (without attacking them) until she opened up the cleansing sigil (keeping my health up). At this point I destroyed it in one go with combusting wounds + 2x missile salvo (works from a very long distance). Then I retreated to the entrance with the 2 goons in tail, and proceeded to use them to power up my WoD + Buff + Final Stand cycle. Once I got like 600sec of buffs, I killed the bodyguards and destroyed the 2 remaining sigils south of Auranic (remaining out of her range). Then I gulped a potion of invisibility and went to the northeastern most corner by the sigil (out of range for Auranic). I destroyed this sigil and the other, keeping out of her range. Then I gulped another invisibility potion and retreated to the entrance. Auranic was about half health by then, enjoying the Kiss and unable to do anything to me. I went on to have a beer and waited until her death shield animation triggered, then I came up to trigger her death. Done. -----THE END------ Of course let me know if you have any question or feedback! This is all probably old news to a lot of readers. I’m just a very casual POTD solo practicioner of PoE 1 and 2, other people on this forum are a lot more cunning and knowledgeable. Still this toon did 100% of the game without any issue at all and playing really well/fun, so I hope you can get a similar experience. And congratulations if you read this far.

I was excited to get stronger armor, but before you upgrade its practically worthless. The upgrades are heinously expensive and farming grubs (and secondary ingredients to a lesser extent) is slow, tedious, and unplentiful. Then, when you upgrade, it feels barely stronger than it was before .13 at the cost of many hours of effort. Additionally, the sleek upgrade for the broodmother helm poisons your teammates fighting with you, AS WELL AS YOURSELF. A waste of a lot of effort to upgrade it. And the druability (or repair cost) for the charcoal canteen makes it not worth keeping/using in for our party. I wanted to get beefier with armor upgrades, not feel like I worked my a** off for nothing of worth. Antlions, Black Ox Beatles, and other bugs still take huge chunks off health bars if you take a hit. I am disappointed.

Hello guyz, I almost finished my 2nd Deadfire playthrough (the 1st one beeing 4 years ago not long after the game released), this time with DLCs and exp-packs. I'm currently going through the DLCs. During this run, I learned a lot about the game and its mecanics (mostly thanks to you guyz ) but I feel like I have a lot more to learn so I aldready want to plan a 3rd playthrough. I already have some ideas about what I want to play but also a lot of questions. I apologize in advance for the length of this thread and the modest quality of my english. First of all, my run setup : PotD, RTwP, Community Patch +, All Berath's Blessings, PoE 1 Histories that allow me to get all the good stuff in Deadfire (Gifts, Effigy's Resentment, Legacy items etc.) In my current playthrought, I chose to play a Berathian Priest/Helwalker as my MC and enjoyed it a lot. I play with Eder as a swashbuckler Tank, Xoti as buffing Priest, Aloth/Tekehu as ranged nukers, and I also have a Psion/Troubadour CC/buff/debuff bot custom character I bring everywhere cause it's really strong and a lot of fun to play with. My MC kinda play the role of the single target assassin of the group, and use mainly Spiritual Weapon with all the Monk's goodies (and also single target spells with high Might thanks to Helwalker) to do a lot of single target damage. I loved this hybrid build a lot but it my next playthrough, I want to go for a more melee/weapon/brawler focused build (even though I liked the hybrid part of my previous build...). Here are some ideas illustrating what I want/like : - A reliable hitter : Not especially a heavy hitter but a MC that can reliably land things into a brawl. I hate when I spend ressource (and talents points) on a skill that often misses of doesn't do much in a fight (I have the feeling that I better use my points into passives that do better than active skills that often under-penetrate or miss... if you understand the feeling..) I know I have a lot yet to learn about numbers in this game but sometime I feel like some abilities (or even subclasses) are just not worth the investment.. - A kinda fast hitter: I liked Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming combo a lot, but I found recovery time a bit too long with my build, I'm thinking about more instant recovery/faster recovery/action speed mechanics like the Barbarian ones maybe ? Chromoprismatic staff maybe ? Maybe Mobstance could fix that ? - A Brawler: It means I want: ---> Extensive cleave capabilities. Things I like: Mob Stance, strong On Kill effects (Barbarian again ?), effective AoE abilities (Heart of Fury but requires SC and comes late), Carnage ? is it good though ? ---> Acceptable survivability: I dont want to take Eder's Tank role (I like Eder an definitely want Eder in my group) but I need to be able to sustain a bit, tough I'm ok with BDD/Salvation of Time strategy so.. I could be a bit squishy... - Still a reliable single target hitter: I dont wont to be useless on bosses or priority targets even if I'm kinda AoE/cleave effective. - TLDR: I want to trade the caster part of my Berathian Monk for 1) melee AoE capabilities, 2) a little more action speed, 3) maybe a little bit of tankiness I know the character i'm looking for is somewher between a Fighter, a Barbarian and a Monk but I dont know the good combos with these classes. Maybe a Wizard could fit too (enchanter ?) (martial enchantments seem really strong, also Draconic Fury Book...). Also Streetfighter seems really strong too, for action speed (and damage). But I can't fit all of these into one caracter. I need help Explicit Questions : - Could I be Devoted with Chromoprismatic Staff ? Is it a good endgame weapon to achieve what i'm looking for ? - Is Devoted worth the subclass ? (I understand how the crit damage could synergies with Berserker but.. is it good ?) is +2 PEN a good buff ? - I read that dual wielding Battle Axes would be good too (maybe because of full attacks and modal), what do you guyz think ? I dont know a lot of Battle Axes in the game (except Magran's Favor obviously) - Playing Priest taught me the power of Spiritual Weapons an lashes in this game so, I was wondering, could Devoted/Priest of Woedica be good regarding the fact that you have proficiency with fists automatically ? Does it work ? Are Woedica Fists actually fists ? - More open question : what kind of MC would you guyz suggest to achieve what i'm looking for ? Also, even though I like playing with companions a lot (I kinda need this in a cRPG), i'm now ok with the idea of bringing a custom sidekick with me as I did in my current playthrough, especially if it synergies well with my MC. (I loved having my Psion/Troubadour around during this run, was also a lot of fun to discover Cipher and Chanter, two classes that I had never played before.) (Psion is really good btw, for me : one of the best addition to the game so far) Thanks a lot for reading Read ya

How could anyone actually think the Ghost of Kyiv was real. Right on first day there were screenshots of how he was created on facebook or something. It was just a guy who wanted to sell t-shirts if I remember right. /Edit: It was also the time where many people on the social media sites were like "we're just going to make **** up, because positive propaganda is good and helps the cause!" ... people who spoke against it got downvoted to hell. Of course a lot of this stuff was later used by the russian side as proof for western lies, etc. etc.

Or you can switch over to essence interrupter to deal with them.

I always wondered how I get THAT many crits even with big AoE size. No wonder it's so bonkers with Avenging Storm and Resonant Touch.

Devoted/Monk with the Staff is pretty cool! You lack non Crush dmg since your backup are fists but it's ok except for some oozes IIRC. It is worth it if you have a specific weapon build in mind / can use fists/Monastic training as backup Crush DMG / Play on PotD where PEN matters a lot Battles axes are awesome because the Modal + multihitting with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming with high INT/MIG builds insane DOTs. Besides Magran Favor, the two really cool axes are 2 Handers - very cool weapons, worth building around especially Amra - or Vatnir spiritual weapons are insane but that wont help you for main char except if you mod. That's a good one - I'm not sure, I think the Woedica summoned fists are universal proficiency so Devoted wouldn't synergize. Woedica's fists are great with that being said. Besides what Kaylon's proposed and what you already have in mind, a Forbidden Fist / Fighter might be a great idea for you... I'm soloing one right now and might write up a little something on the build if it ends up really where I want it to be. Also, know that a Devoted/Berserker Nature Godlike with a +PL Food can get Monastic Unarmed Training easily to post-Mythic all the time and that gets very, very nice melee craziness.

You're just afraid of a repeat of Madoka, aren't ya?

The trickster has access to Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage which is great because enemies affected by it stop attacking or run away (triggering potential disengagement attacks). You have also other defensive spells to help your survivability. You can also try fighter/rogue, but you already have Eder. The rogue is pretty much mandatory if you want great single target damage. If you want more AoE damage you can also try the classical berserker/devoted with Lord Darryn's Voulge - great AoE dps and solid single target dps. This build gives you Cleave, lots of crits and also Clear Out which works a bit like Heart of Fury.

It comes pretty close, those sites are heavily used, but whatever. And didn't say you should read them, but their existence doesn't depend on it. In other news, UN and ICRC are managing an evacuation of Mariupol, so that's good news.

Yes, I agree. Putin is very much the dictator now -- there is no politburo or anything like that that they used to have in bygone days. The idea of Russia turning into a group or warring factions doesn't sound good, either, by the way. So the future looks fairly bleak over there (and elsewhere).

With Enduring Dance (the upgrade of Dance of Death), you can take 3 hits before it cancels. Also by the time you get hit you will prob be at max wounds already so you will lose the accuracy bonus but still benefit from your Helwalker/Duality of Mortal presence - Mind passives (+1 MIG&INT / wound) so it wont matter that much. Anyway, if I understand the goal of your build correctly, yes : you better not geting hit at all, you're an assassin after all, you cant have assassin/sniper-like big shots from stealth + being able to endure sustained damage When I returned to Deadfire, I also found that this particular part was a little bit harsh for a "begginer", especially in PotD difficulty. I figured that (because at this point of the game you only have Eder and Xoti) recruting a Druid (Ancient) and maybe a Cipher or a Chanter (or both, in my case it was a Psion/Troubadour which I kept all the game cuz it was an insane support for my grp btw) for those fights solved a part of the problem. Druids have very strong spells to deal with beasts early on (Charm Beasts / Hold Beasts), and Ancient subclass has strong summons (also Chanter can summon skeletons as "meat shield" for those tricky fights). Lots of reloading but clearly easier with a full party Hope you'll find the build that suits you

The Japanese have some serious brutality in their history, this is so true. Reading about the Nanjing Massacre, for instance, isn't likely to increase your appetite. I have little doubt that the potential for extreme brutality lies in nearly all of us. Christopher R. Browning's famous (?) book Ordinary Men gives a chilling description of how the people committing the most awful deeds were, indeed, ordinary men. Also, war, as a phenomenon, brutalizes people. Having said that, Russia still remains an exceptionally brutal and untrustworthy country, and the evidence for that is almost overwhelming. I have recently read from various sources that the collapse of Russia appears more likely than any real change towards a more "western-style" democracy. That remains to be seen. I certainly don't have much hope that Russia changes -- or that it even has any interest in considering change. We have seen that even if ordinary people in Russia suffer and die (from poverty, malnutrition, whatever), that won't affect the thinking of the ones in power. Clearly, at the moment, there is no regard for the Russian soldiers dying on the Ukrainian front, they are cannon-fodder.

Speaking of barbarians, it is astonishing to read the reports of Russian soldiers having defecated all over the floors in the areas they occupied -- or how "on their way out, Russian soldiers scrawled profane messages on the walls — in human excrement" (The New York Times). This is a mirror image of what they did in one of the monasteries they famously occupied way way back. They used the altar and the area around the altar as the place do to their big business. The altar was valuable for the owners, so precisely that was the place to be tarnished and soiled as thoroughly as possible. @Zoraptor: I wholeheartedly agree with what you say of the various misdeeds of the British. And looking at the Middle-East, for instance, both Britain and the US have made some awful decisions in just the past one hundred years -- awful both in their cynicism and their violent results (which took some time to emerge). However, I still think that when we consider "all of history", to the extent that we know it, Russia ranks among the most violent, brutal, cynical and untrustworthy entities we have ever seen, both internally and internationally -- i.e. both in how it treats its own and how it treats others. We don't have to agree on this.

Dance of Death adds +3acc every 3s for a max of +12acc.

The good thing is that the new BPM +10% damages on Kill seems to be only triggered by actual kills from your picture. It is important because the issue looks like an hardcode bug to a Status effect property. The +10% damages isn't implemented this way, so changing the code to implement the duration prolongement the same way as the damage bonus will likely correct the bug. It would be nice to find all concerned abilities. Fury, Chanter's Might/Res/Con invocation, others ?

Here are a some speedy dps builds: trickster/monk using Scordeo's Edge+Grave Calling+Fair Favor -> crit build with lots of free attacks from flurry -> high chance of Blade Cascade with long duration trickster/barbarian using Modwyr+Watcher's Blade -> reliable high speed + AoE dmg + free attacks from disengagement (use Barbaric Shout to increase the number of targets engaged and Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage) Devil of Caroc's breastplate and Abraham pet can help your survivability while keeping your attack speed high. The rogue ensures high steady dps even if you crit less often or when you fight single targets.

My cynical side makes me wonder if we should be supplying RU-486 for the rape victims. I know it's a horrible thought.

The first round had the lowest TV viewership rating since 2016. The main reason being that eight teams had traded away their first round picks, and most of those were in large markets. I only glanced at a team fan web site a few times and didn't bother watching the TV show.

A lot of information! Seems the consensus is about using troubador as the second class and I can see the reasons for it, just not sure if I like the idea of a sneaky rogue that spends his time singing ballads while shooting people in the head Although looking at the benefits it does seem like a very strong contender. An update to my previous statement regarding the Devoted multiclass, I initially thought I could pick 2 weapon proficiencies Being stuck with just one seems a bit too restrictive as I wanted the pistol/dualPistols for after the initial volley. Or do you guys feel that sticking to the rifle alone is viable during fights without needing to swap to the faster pistols? ^ Does Lightning Strikes stack with other lashes I might have in my weapon? I like this combination actually, just a bit afraid of it being too brittle. Not only would I take tons of damage if anything comes my way but also as soon as I take damage the dance gets cancelled and then it all kind of falls apart no? ^ This sounds pretty amazing not gonna lie. By your suggestions it also seems nobody is particularly partial to the Assassin single class or at least the general consensus is that multi classes are just a better fit for rogue? Tough decisions to make... So far, here is my take from these builds: Assassin/Helwalker - Very high damage potential, good for consistent damage, Very fragile and the whole plan can go down the drain if I take a single point of damage and lose my dance (does lesser wounds interact with the dance?). How so? Looking at the ability tree it looks I would be mostly benefiting from Lightning strikes and the wounds passive. I don't see anything to increase accuracy. Assassin/Fighter - Seems to have some nice burst potential with disciplined strikes and penetrating strike + either quickly swapping weapons for more shots from black jacket or more passive damage from devoted (unsure on how viable playing solely with arquebus is as I remember it being a very slow weapon), but doesn't have a lot going for it in terms of better consistent damage. Assassin/Troubador - A crowd favourite, looks like it is capable of very nice consistent damage and some extra utility with the spells. No burst. Single class Assassin - underdog? Assassin/Ghost Heart - I like the passives and there is some burst with wounding shot.

Yes he did he won the Lott-er-ry! The rest of his friends were not so lucky!

Looks like scientists are learning from game dev companies, making announcements of announcements - whats next? Are they going to do trailers? xD

Astronomers Are About to Make a Massive Announcement About Something in The Milky Way (sciencealert.com)

Enjoyed the first one, but the characters and story in Last Light made me quit because of how stupid and annoying everyone was. How does Exodus compare? I played through Everhood, a game that takes a number of major stylistic cues from Undertale while also doing its own thing in terms of gameplay. Very good game, but I didn't quite connect with the story or themes, not like I did with Undertale.

I've been playing a bit of Elden Ring here and there. There are many fun parts, but I feel like the world is a bit too big for its own good. Dungeons are mostly fun, though.

I started playing The Outer Worlds, having picked it up on sale. It's been decent fun thus far; the commercialism message is completely over the top though, much as 50's-style conservatism was in the Fallout series. It's not a setting I can take seriously, which is a drawback for me. Still, it has its moments.

elden ring new game plus get beat by the first crucible knight 4 times before switch to river of blood some of these miniboss are far too powerful

If you play Mars: War Logs remember to...

Looks like TA, one of the units is a dead ringer for the Intimidator from TA. Music sounds like someone was a big fan of Klepacki. Not a bad thing to copy in either way, though.

I recently discovered that WF is kinda buggy somehow. I end up getting way more than +4 secs per kill. I think I pinged @Elric Galad if he could look into it as part of his mechanics deep dives/modding, don't know if he ever got around to it. It was remarkable enough that I changed my recommendation about it in my guide, for single-class it's a great way to extend your duration since it's pretty hard to do so otherwise (versus a multi-class). The extra aoe becomes a nice cherry on the top at that point. edit: quoting an excerpt from my guide "Despite the wording, kills only extend the spirishift duration, not any beneficial effect. However, this duration extension is quite buggy in your favor: while the first kill only gets you the 4s as expected, the duration extension dramatically increases the more kills you get. In a simple test, I was getting up to an additional minute from a kill. This can be obviously extremely powerful effect for spiritshift-heavy builds, since even for a shifter it is otherwise quite hard to get a long spiritshift duration." this same bug might affect similar other abilities (like the chanter might/con/resolve buff invocation upgrade)

Wife's family is more split than ever now. The ones that support Russia don't want to hear anything contrary to their beliefs and get really angry when you ask them to explain their position after complaining that no one is taking their view into account. The only bright spot is my wife's aunt in St Petersburg, she says there's nothing she can do about so why discuss it. That's not great but better than the indignation you get from everyone else. Cousin in Ukraine was nearly killed the other day when Russia struck Kiev during the UN visit.