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This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 1 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- rancfre Ghostoo Cullywoot was born in Rauatai to human parents: a Berserker mom named Clawsine and a Helwalker Monk dad named Auamensh - who didn't really have the most healthy relationship as you can imagine... she losing her temper all the time while he enjoyed blows tis body and all that kerfuffle. But they tried for the kid's sake and somehow managed to raise Wrancfre. He learned the way of the Berserker as well as the path of the Helwalkers. Is parents drummed it into him (with swift flurries often) that one never couldn't cross those streams. At the age of 16 Wranfcfe still hadn't decided whose footsteps to follow. Everybody and their pets, animal companions and even conjured familiars told him he could not do both - because it is known that this foolishness would mean instant suicide. So he crossed the streams... "The power of pain So hard to sustain Cleaning my soul Frenzy on, very noisin' Love with spikes of pois'n Purge the soul Make wounds your gooooal!" - Wrancfre while bodyblowing some c0cky wizards - =================================== The Fountain of Woe =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Ravager - Berserker/Helwalker -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human (any subrace) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai (or any) - Laborer (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation) MIG: 10 (do not go higher - so with +2 from BB and +1 from Human pick 7 base) CON: 19 (18 + 1 Rauatai) ★★ DEX: 14 PER: 18 ★ INT: 14 RES: 04 (3 + 1 Human) -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 01. Frenzy (!) + Force of Anguish (!) | Morning Star (!) + Pollaxe 02. Swift Strikes (!) | +1 Athletics (->4), +1 Intimidate (->2) 03. Blooded | +1 Athletics (->5), +1 Survival (->3) 04. Thick Skinned + Two-Handed Style | +1 Athletics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->3) | Pike 05. Barbaric Blow (r) | +1 Athletics (->7), +1 Insight (->2) 06. Long Stride | +1 Athletics (->8), +1 Insight (->3) 07. Bloodlust + Swift Flurry (!) | +1 Athletics (->9), +1 Intimidate (->4) 08. Efficient Anguish | +1 Athletics (->10), +1 Survival (->4) | Battle Axe 09. One Stands Alone | +1 Athletics (->11 ), +1 Bluff (->1) 10. Spirit Frenzy (!) + Duality of Mortal Presence (r) | +1 Athletics (->12), +1 Bluff (->2) 11. Bloody Slaughter | +1 Athletics (->13), +1 Bluff (->3) 12. Rooting Pain | +1 Athletics (-> 14), +1 Intimidate (->5) | Rod 13. Tough + Enervating Blows (!) | +1 Athletics (->15), +1 Survival (->5) 14. Leap | +1 Athletics (->16), +1 Insight (->4) 15. Barbaric Smash (r) | +1 Athletics (->17), +1 Bluff (->4) 16. Brute Force (!) + Turning Wheel (r) | +1 Athletics (->18), +1 Intimidate (->6) | Quarterstaff 17. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics (->19), +1 Intimidate (->7) 18. Interrupting Blows | +1 Athletics (->20), +1 Survival (->6) 19. Blood Thirst (!) + Heartbeat Drumming (!) | +1 Athletics (->21), +1 Intimidate (->8) 20. Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics (->22), +1 Survival (->7) | Estoc --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Saru Sichr (! - +Paralytic, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Lord Darryn's Voulge Head: Death's Maw (r - for self-damage resistance) Back: Cloak of Greater Protection Neck: Amulet of Greater Health (r - or a +1 CON amulet like Cipher's Shackles) Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (! +Legendary (a), +Devil's Due (r) - regaining health on crit, +Mechnical Mind (!) - remove Berserker Confusion) Waist: The Undying Burden (r - for self- damage resistance and more CON->health) Hands: Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (r - helps to graze enemies with very high defenses with Body Blows) Rings: Voidward (! - greater self-damage resistance), Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (helps with crits when rich) or Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 CON & +1 DEX) Boots: Boots of the Stone Pet: Abraham (not only speed but also +10 health on kill) or Socrates (+20 health on kill - recommended if Edér uses Abraham -> +30 health on kill) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: gaining wounds incredibly fast from Frenzy‘s self damage, paired with the Helwalker‘s rising MIG bonus (+1 per Wound) and the increased damage to self (+5% per Wound). together with the self damage you're not only gaining wounds faster than you can spend them but you also profit from Blooded (+25% dmg) as well as Fighting Spirit (humans’ passive ability, +7 ACC, +15% dmg) lowering enemies‘ fortitude defense a LOT on the fly with: Morning Star‘s modal „Body Blows“: -25 Spirit Frenzy (staggers): -10 (-5 MIG) Enervating Blows (weakens): -10 (-5 CON) targeting enemies' lowered Fortitude: first with special abilites like Force of Anguish/Efficient Anguish later with Brute Force: target Fortitude with all attacks that would target deflection instead (if Fortitude is lower) because of this, extreme accuracy is not required to deliver lots of critical hits (but of course it would still help, so please send buffs ) Force of Aguish pushes enemies into your Carnage AoE. Usually the initial target of your hits doesn't get affected by Carnage. With Force of Anguish it does! You push the enemy into Carnage Area before Carnage dmg get rolled - so Carnage treats the enemy like any other who's in the AoE: raw dmg. This means that Force of Anguish with Carnage does extra raw damage to single targets which is great. using a multihit weapon and pair it with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. A weapon such as the Morning Star Saru Sichr: it has 2 attack rolls, the normal physical pierce/crush roll and "Poison-Dipped", a DoT effect that rolls against Fortitude (what a nice coincidende). They both count as „proper“ melee attacks and they can both trigger Swift Flurry and HBD when they critically hit! The great thing about such multihit weapons (there are others such as the flail Sun & Moon or the Pike Wicked Beast) is: no matter which attack roll crits and triggers SF or HBD, those additional attacks roll twice again: the physical and the additonal one. Those can crit again and trigger another SF/HBD attacks and so on and so forth, creating a loop. This is a huge advantage over single hit weapons and raises the chance to cause a deadly loop of crits that can kill an enemy on the spot. Works best against low fortitude foes obviously. in addition to the Swift Flurry stuff the DoT of Saru Sichr is very powerful: the DoT stacks with itself - and every time you reapply the DoT you trigger a tick immediately which leads to a significant increase of dps (same as with Bleeding Cuts from Battle Axes or Deep Wounds). it also interrupts very reliably with not only Force of Anguish, but also Rooting Pain. Since you gain wounds so frequently you also trigger Rooting Pain frequently which interrupts bystanders (and damages them a bit) pair all that with Blood Thirst at the latest levels… essentially it is a debuffing+CC+damage-dealing build, best used for hunting down squishy but dangerous enemies. But is also very helpful against bosses due to the fast and reliable debuffing of Fortitude, which helps most party members to land spells a lot more easily etc. Issues: the self damage which gives you a lot of wounds also kills you quickly the self damage of Berserker’s Frenzy scales steeply with Power Level (unusual +2 per PL base dmg). This base damage gets boosted by MIG, the Helwalker’s increased self dmg percentage (remember +5% per wound), Blooded (+25%) and effects of items (such as Baubles of the Fin or a pet like Harley etc.). That's the main resaon to not raise your base MIG over 10. You will gain +15 MIG already from Frenzy and the Helwalker passive - you don't need more and you don't want more because it makes you go down more quickly. to avoid killing yourself you should def. raise CON, pick up items with CON and/or health bonuses. In addition pick “Tough” and wear an amulet of Greater Health. This makes the build surprisingly sturdy at the early levels bc. the self dmg is still low. also use items that give you resitance to damage (Undying Burden, Death's Maw, Voidward!) - they work very well to soften the self damage and make it manageable. This, together with the high health, balaces out the self damage at higher levels very well. unintuitively picking Iron Wheel is not a good solution. Even though it raises CON and AR and sounds lie a good idea: it doesn’t stack with Berserker’s Hardy (+5 CON and +2 AR) - so a lot of its effects would be wasted. Better to pick Turniung Wheel for more dmg and longer duration of buffs (such as Swift Flurry). get items that heal you up: Abraham (+10 health per kill) or Socrates (+20 health per kill) and the Devil of Caroc Breastplate (healing over time on crit - also useful against Confusion) This build profits a lot from a good healer in the party obviously. But raising Athletics like there's nothing else also helps. It heals you a great deal at 20+. Savage Defiance is better than going down in a pinch, too. Berserker’s Confusion is annoying and cannot be exploited with this build - so you want to get rid of it asap. You could do that with Enlightened Agony - but that’s wasting 2 ability points. Better to get Devil of Caroc Breastplate and enchant it. Or use food like Luminous Lobster. But since the Breastplate also heals on crit it’s the best pick imo. as long as you have to deal with Confusion do NOT pick Rooting Pain! It will interrupt yourself. Only pick Rooting Pain when you have enchanted the Breastplate properly (or got rid of Confusion otherwise) the DoT "Poison Dipped" of Saru-Sichr which produces that double-hit effect for SF/HBD does not work against poison-immune foes. Why is it fun? always wounds to spend and buff you up - alsmost never has to use auto-attacks right from the start. hits very well right away: Body Blows + Force of Enguish alone carry the build through early game alone - because Boy Blows is a "free" and big defense debuff/ACC buff right away. good weapon damage even without exploiting critical hits nice CC early on - especially satisfying when using it against casters an other annoying enemies later becomes even stronger with Spirit Frenzy and Enervating Blows, debuffing Fortitude even more with the introduction of SF and then Brute Force it makes another leap finalizing the fun ability collection with Heartbeat Drumming and Blood Thirst, who doesn't like crit chains + Blood Thirst, right? so it’s just works well from start to finish - which makes it enjoyable when a crit loop happens (and that's often if you focus on the right enemies) it’s just jawdropping I personally enjoy the challenge to keep it alive lots of crits, paired with the right voice (noble for me) results in lots of contagious laughter during battle - which is just so fun and is lightening my mood Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

Emerald Vale is the starting area of The Outer Worlds, introducing the player to the systems and the setting. The planet belongs to the Spacer’s Choice corporation, whose colony is on the brink of collapse. After discovering the body of their expected companion and going through a basic tutorial (how to hide, talk, and shoot), the player is free to explore a large map, while the main quest gently guides the story. From the local enforcement officers to the talkative and surprisingly cooperative ship AI, to the town, and beyond. Below are some observations on combat. Obsidian games are known for their engaging writing, interactive and thought-provoking stories, and intricate and well-balanced gameplay systems (that are not based on the player’s reaction time). There are quite a few essays dedicated to these aspects. Overall, the foes always fight to the death, but retreat to their area and instantly regain health if the player moves too far. The ranged human foes take cover. The melee opponents, be it animals or humans, just charge head on. When I killed two armed and armoured guards at the town entrance, the Junior Inhumer, an unarmoured civilian working nearby, whose only weapon was his shovel, continued attacking. A tutorial note helpfully informed me that the locals would forget about me shortly unless the faction reputation was “Kill on Sight.” When a non-playable character (NPC) discovers a player-made corpse, it takes them less than a minute to stop pacing and looking for the perpetrator and return to their routine. As the saying goes, “must have been the wind.” On a positive note, if the player’s character is discovered by a hostile NPC (or if the player made an NPC hostile to them), it alerts only the NPCs in the immediate area around, who could hear or see the fighting, instead of everyone on the map. It is worth mentioning that the shortcomings can be explained by the history of video games (in particular, first person shooters (FPS), action and role-playing games) and the designers’ assumptions about the players’ convenience - if the enemies tried to get reinforcements or flee and the player was interested in the experience points and loot from their bodies, chasing them would have been inconvenient, while the NPCs begging the player to spare their lives might cause the latter to think about their in-character motivation, and limiting NPCs’ attention span makes it harder for the player to lock themselves into combat-only scenarios. While there are 2 combat-related abilities, Cower (causes the foe to cover in fear for a few seconds) and Terrify (causes the foes to run away for a few seconds), that provide some variety of behaviour, they do not show the hostile NPCs as sentient beings with the self-preservation instinct or any social ties. With the in-game lore, it could be said that the NPCs are just very loyal to their corporations or fear the repercussions of the disobedience more than the protagonist, while on the higher difficulties, the combat might provide a significant challenge. Additionally, the lack of self-preservation fits perfectly well for the robotic foes, though they do not react strongly to corpses either. The region offers some variety of non-human living opponents, though they are like actual animals visually and narratively, while, as mentioned, the behaviour strongly differs. An animal would try to avoid contact with an armed and armoured human if they could, or, otherwise, to intimidate into the human into leaving, due to the likelihood of suffering injuries and being unable to provide for themselves in the event of combat, with very few exceptions (mating season, being unable to run, seeing the human as a threat to their children). In particular, canids might not look like regular fluffy dogs, but, despite the colourful scales and fins, they do resemble them, including the small ones (the teacup canids seen in the late-game areas). Many people have issues with hurting dogs in games, so it is understandable why one would want to create a dog-like hostile NPC without the negative feelings attached. Then there are sprats - cute little reptile space rats with large eyes and large ear-like appendages. I saw them escape the quarantine house in Edgewater and the guard shot them. There also were some aggressive “rabid” sprats in a house outside the town’s walls. Finally, the primals look like gorillas with fangs, but they also throw rocks (because The Outer Worlds has quite a lot of ranged weaponry for the player, every second hostile NPC must be able to shoot as well) and can dig underground tunnels. There are several areas with groups of them, but no quests attached. There are also chickens, but they are completely non-hostile. Some other animals are mentioned, but not shown in Emerald Vale - mantiqueens (giant mantis-like insects) and saltune, which is related to the one instance where Spacer’s Choice is described positively (granted, I assume the writers had thought of it as negative) - the company collects the already dead fish instead of torturing and killing living fish. As mentioned by Animal Equality UK, “wild fish often live in complex social groups, they use tools, and exhibit signs of anxiety and pain. However, fish are treated like commodities by the fishing industry.” So, the fictional evil corp managed to be more sympathetic than many real ones. Then again, piles of dead sprats could be seen at the Edgewater Cannery. As for human enemies, there are marauders, who are the guilt-free source of diverse combat encounters fitting for any player’s character since the marauders attack on sight. The Peril on Gorgon DLC sheds light on their origins, though in Emerald Vale, their behaviour does not quite match the narrative. They seem to form social bonds and hierarchies between each other and are able to tame and take care of their canids, who stay close to their handlers and show aggression only towards the player. In a side quest, a former worker NPC attempts to join the marauders’ ranks and she is not harmed by the ones around her. The marauders also are capable of planning - they laid mines around their encampment and near the back entrance to the abandoned Community Centre. Though, when the combat started, they charged right on their own mines with predictable results, then retreated when I moved slightly farther away from their camp. In terms of locations, the foes around story-significant structures are usually distributed thoughtfully and account for the more stealthy and less murderous players’ characters, while also interacting with the environment (e.g. the marauders looking at desks or sitting on chairs). On the other hand, most of the other enemies look as intentionally placed as the randomly generated camps in Dragon Age: Inquisition. In conclusion, I believe that making the NPC combat-related behaviour more realistic and diverse, while also considering the location, would increase the players’ immersion and engagement. Let the animals flee and the civilians alert the guards or just run for cover or try to surrender. The next Obsidian game, Avowed, takes place in the same universe as the Pillars of Eternity duology and has the first-person camera view like The Outer Worlds. I have heard that combat there will be unavoidable, but I hope for more complex and intelligent NPC actions. But there is another crucial technical quality of The Outer Worlds, which I would love to see in Avowed - the edition with the higher system requirements, Spacer’s Choice Edition, was cleanly separated from the base one and I was able to keep the better performing and more accessible version of the game. I would not be able to notice the 4K textures and Global Illumination nor to run the game with them on, so saving the storage space, bandwidth, and power, while enjoying the game, was most welcome. It would be great if Avowed had the VA and the 4K textures in an optional free DLC, available for the players who want it and not forced upon those who cannot use it.

I'm apparently voting for the same people that former vice president Dick Cheney will be voting for this upcoming election. I really want off this timeline.

Download Balance Polishing Mod, install it normally, then delete all "gamedata" files except "cl.barbarian.spirit_tornado_non_weapon_bugfix" (the instruction on the mod page explain how to install and what to delete) Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

B-b-b-but easy terrify ? No seriously, is it so hard to dabble in the game files to fix it ? Or at least, is there any community patch that let you choose what want to modify (and no "basic patch" version doesn't count) ?

Boots of Speed gives +25% Stride and Deleterious Alacrity of Motion gives +100% Stride. If you cast Deleterious Alacrity of Motion on yourself while having Boots of Speed equipped, would you then have +125% stride? Update My test shows it does. I'm going to add this note to the wiki.

Add the Long Stride.

Bonus from items should stack with others effectively : as rogue with Seeker's Fang, you can add another +50% stride. In other hand (or other foot actually) this weapon on a wizard (After applying a Dexterity Affliction, become Immune to Engagement for 3.0 sec) work very well with the Footsteps of the Beast.

Sekiro Went as expected. I am surprised that there was no option to kill him after he admitted to setting the MC's home and master on fire. It took some time, but the Chained Ogre was defeated. Ironic. The shield bearer was still alive at the end of the battle - the boss' sight and aggro range were much farther than the others'. And at this point I turned around and decided to go and meet a giant snake rather than this elderly lady.

The later games are much more demanding in terms of reaction time. The aspects that appeal to me are the level and boss design and the variety of builds (even if I end up playing a sword&board who occasionally grabs the sword with both hands or uses a bow). The former is much rarer in other genres, except immersive sims. --- Sekiro I started a new playthrough, promptly got defeated by the archer-samurai boss (Ginichiro?), and proceeded with the main story. For some reason the game tried to overheat my "new" GPU (got some time ago, but started using actively only now). After playing with the settings, I limited the FPS to 40 in the NVidia control panel and the hot spot temperature remained under 70C. As mentioned above, I like the level design - Sekiro is as close as it can be to a 3D Metroidvania. I tried to go and meet a headless mini-boss early and discovered a path to the Devil's Bell, but got burnt before reaching it and reloaded. I also got through most of the Hirata Estate, except the final battle - I could not defeat the ninja boss without upgrades. The bandit leader took several attempts, including clearing the area around and splitting the aggro with the samurai ally. Though, I still detest the open combat and the controls (the MC flinches easily and cannot look straight even when target-locked). I hope to be patient enough to get to the final boss/younger Owl battle without decreasing the difficulty. Still, this mod looks most delightful: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1713602236

After replaying The Outer Worlds fully, I discovered* that the civilians in Byzantium do try to run away, though not quite far. *It was after I chose the Attack option while looting a certain companion's parents' house. So, there was not much space to run and definitely nowhere to hide (the NPC survived the encounter, but it was interesting to watch).

That's fine, but you should play Dark Souls1 once you are done with BG3. It's really, really good. Outside DS2 and some of the EldenRing Dark Souls diffculty is greatly exadurrated. It has a learning curve, but not an unpleasant one. That's all.

Well that is certainly a list of games, what kind of a list I have no clue.