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I almost always pick Thrust of Tattered Veil as mandatory Tier 1 spell pick. There will always be a day when an instant automatic interrupt is going to be useful.

Sure! You'll get wounds well enough from drugs and normal damage you receive I would think.

That depends a bit on how you operate with this build and what the rest of the party does. If you keep getting attacked frequently you need thicker armor. Your deflection is bad which leads to crits (enemy's PEN*1.5) - so you cannot have too much AR when getting attacked all the time. Even Patinated Plate would be okay then. If you're comfortable with a more "mobile" playstyle or your party (mainly your tank and disablers) is doing a fine job controlling the enemy and you can avoid getting attacked a lot then you could do with a lot less AR (obviously). I chose DoC Breastplate because it has some healing capability, counters confused and offered good enough protection for me. I was quite happy with that balance of mediocre AR and mediocre recovery penalty. So I personally would pick medium armor again. Keep in mind that once you get Blood Thirst the recovery penalty of armor - while still there - becomes less of a hinderance because Blood Thirst just skips recovery on kill. You said you don't mean specific armor, but here are some examples of unique ones I would consider (besides Devi of Caroc's Breastplate): The Bloody Links - it has nice synergies with getting bloodied - either becoming more sturdy (+2 AR) or more speedy. Fleshmender - the added AR is nice against occasional hits from enemies and the reduced crit damage is nice, too. Cool when not getting atttacked too much. Nomad's Brigandie - can make you immune to disengagement attacks which is very helpful for running from enemy to enemy unhindered by engagement. Also nice that it can get up your melee deflection by 10. This is good if you are experiencing more melee resistance since it's rel. thick (and slow). Reckless Brigandine - also nice synergies with losing health. Good AR, especially when losig health - while being faster than normal Brigandines. The look is not to everybody's taste... Magnera's Chain - the added defenses are really good and it's not too slow. Casita Samelia's Legacy - if you are using the Berath's Blessing "Infamous Captain" and want to invest in Intimidate more than my build suggests then this is a good armor to counter your bad deflection (and gain bonus Will while getting hurt, too). Patinated Plate - if you get attacked quite a lot and have problems staying alive. Bronze Juggernaut + Thick Skinned + Hardy makes for a very solid AR value Swift Hunter's Garb - if you feel not that threatened by melee foes, the crit-to-hit conversion is helpful and -15% damage while being flanked can be great in situations where you actually get surrounded (One Stands Alone makes it so that at least 3 enemies are needed to flank you). There are more suitable pieces of armor but I only mentioned the ones which one can access relatively early.

Even if only 1% of missiles hit, and that's a massive if, clearly the attack worked. Iran definitively showed that it could hit Israeli military installations and that the various missile defense Israel uses aren't ironclad. There is no question that if Israel continues to escalate that it can and will be targeted. The media has been **** on Israel for quite some time, going just by tone you'd think over the past year it was over 40k Israelis that have been killed and like 1.5k Palestinians rather than the other way around. And that was before the invasion of Lebanon and Iran's missile strike, in the coming days it's going to go back and forth between Israel being a hyper-compotent juggernaut swatting away missiles like flies to Israel being a small little baby who needs big daddy Burgerstan to come in and defend it.

@Boeroer I just started my first replay since 2019 because of this build (and the others in the video), and also to prepare for Avowed. The combination of fun and good builds are what I find most interesting. Thank you! My question is: What kind of armor do you recommend for this build in general? I don’t mean a specific armor, but I’m thinking armor rating vs. recovery speed. This build already gets some +armor from Hardy, Thick-skinned etc.

What’s your tolerance for micromanagement? because these days I basically don’t pick up any spells with a wizard, with basically the only exception being Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and (maybe) one or two others (this time I also picked up Miasma). that’s because if you have a high willingness to juggle grimoires you basically don’t need to pick up any spells. I just pick one or so spells that I think are important enough to guarantee having no matter what (Deleterious is a very very good buff). That leaves you with plenty of ability points to load up on passives, almost all of them.

I don't know if the US will directly attack Iran, but I'd say it's a lot more likely now. Whatever the case, it's almost certain that US bombs will hit Iran via Israel, and given Israel's actions over the last year I'd be surprised if they didn't target civilians. And not to lionize Iran or anything, but this "unprecedented" missile barage hit all military targets, which is a pretty notable difference than Israel's massacre in Gaza or invasion of Lebanon. Iirc, Iran said it would light every oil field in the region on fire if its oil was targeted.

Druid with Cat Form + Wizard with Wall of Draining is a nice speedy casting setup. Blood Mage aside you gain great casting speed - and a lot of spell uses (4/encounter per 7 tiers = 28 casts vs. 2/encounter per 9 tiers = 18 casts) and a nice spell collection. Here's a cool Livegiver/Blood Mage combo (with video from a fight at Splintered Reef): The downsides: later access to some great spells and zero access to great PL8+9 spells such as Missile Salvo and Great Maelstrom. I think both are great. I don't think there's a definitive answer to the question "which is [considered] stronger?".

Hey folks! @Boeroer and I recorded this discussion on 5 builds he made for Deadfire. I thought y'all might be interested! https://youtu.be/nEdI3x8qxGM

Yeah Kazuo Umezz = Kazuo Umezu. Not sure why he gets credited both ways. I haven't read Orochi yet it's on my to read pile (with a couple of Ito books).

Are you by any chance one of the 20 people who bought Concord?

i want more keyword-interacting stuff. especially for priest and druid - afaict "cleansing" and non-damage "decay" (which is most of 'em) have no mechanical support either from class or from items, and most of the other ones that have support (especially for priest) are extremely niche and focused on defense (+bonus against like condemntation-keyword spells, like sorry i'm not worried about an enemy priest hitting my character with barbs of condemnation).* preferably something more interesting than just +1 PL or something. like 20% chance to echo a condemnation spell. 10% chance to summon a skeleton when casting a decay spell. if those are possible with modding. * history lesson, this is a side effect of priest subclasses originally being like wizard subclasses and the various deities supported certain keywords and banned other keywords. after the switch to the current system of deities providing bonus spells, the keywords basically fell into disuse.

They accomplish very different things. But if you just care about clicking enemy = dead, then a single class wizard gets extremely powerful late game spells at ability tiers 8 and 9.

Imo a main tank (und thus the party) profits a lot from engagement slots. Neither Paladin nor Chanter help you gain those, so it's mostly up to gear. A shield already gives you +1 engagement (besides the nice defensive features). Usually Herald tanks use Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance (and later Mercy and Kindness) to passively heal themselves and the party members near them. A fitting item that adds even more passive "aura" healing is Lethandria's Devotion. For the standard passive healing Herald tank that would be my pick. Then a weapon with additional engagement (spear + modal, Kapana Taga or Shattered Vengeance) maybe. If you were using a Steel Garrote/Troubadour with Ancient Memory+Old Siec then WotEP with Offensive Parry could make sense because the Steel Garrote passive and Old Siec do stack. So Offensive Parries would heal you up. But tanking spells and ranged attacks is still hard that way. Maybe if your Battlemage offtank will support with the tanking a lot it can work. A thematically nice Herald with a good coherent item collection is imo: Huana (Island Aumaua), Mataru-style Shieldbearer/Troubadour with Reckless Brigandine (+1 bonus engagement, up to +2 bonus AR, bonus speed per engaged target), Kapana Taga (+2 bonus engagement, immunity to flanked) and Cadhu Scalth (+2 engagement due to Shieldbearer, damage resistance, deflection bonus, needs investment in athletics and metaphysics). This looks like a proper Huana Warrior and it's a strong tanking setup with 5 engagement slots just from gear. For a helmet it's difficult to find something visually fitting but imo Horns of the Break Mother looks cool with it (also provides resistance to RES affliction). Or you can pick any helmet like Death's Maw or so and then just hide its visuals (eye symbol button in the inventory UI). But that's just what I like because it provides plenty engagement slots while also looking cool and coherent imo. Also chance to play a Huana. Another cool shield for a Herald is the tower shield from Crookspur imo. It allows for a totally different visual/thematical approach. The Assassin gets +25 accuracy from stealth and invisibility. This an universal acc buff, so it also works for spells. Opening the fight with a +25 acc disable can be immensely impactful. Never mind the bonus crit damage etc., that's not important. It's the +25 accuracy. It stacks with every other accuracy buff. You can pretty easily turn a whole encounter sleeping with Call to Slumber and buy your party plenty of preparing time that way. If you want to use this synergy in mid fight just use either Shadowing Beyond or Smoke Veil. Can also make nice use of the Assassin Slippers. And of course the Assassin/Wizard combo is also able to deal good damage via spells. Ninagauth's Shadowflame is a great opening spell for an Assassin/Wizard. This alone makes the Assassin/Wizard a great at debuffing/cc. What makes him even better later on: once you get Arkemyr's Grimoire you'll have access to the spell Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. It turns you invisible for a long time. And the best thing about this invisibility is that it doesn't break as long as you don't deal damage (also no self damage). But almost all disabling spells don't deal damage. So you can stay invisible and save and cast devastating debuffing/cc/disable spells with 25 bonus acc all the time. And if it runs out you can cast a final high damage spell, then maybe regain some spells with Blood Sacrifice and turn invisible again with Brilliant Departure. If you get hurt from Blood Sacrifice and are wearing Effigy's Husk you can spread Skaen's Resentment (prevent healing aura) while standing near enemies while invisible. It still works. If want to go total disabling overkill you pick up the great sword Effort, enchant it with Hemorrhaging and start wearing Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak. It stuns enemies with weapon attack made from invisibility or stealth. Hemorrhaging procs its sicken/hobble effects on spells also(!) and that effect counts as weapon attack - but does no damage. So it doesn't lift the invisibility of Brilliant Departure. But it triggers the stun from Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak. This stun can again trigger Hemorrhaging - and a loop of stun-sicken/hobble-stun-etc. can occur that takes enemies completely out of the action. Works best with pulsing cc spells like Slicken, Binding Web and Pull of Eora. Efort is also a nice pick for the Essential Phantom of a wizard (together with Effigy's Husk) because it can do a Full Attack to all enemies in range when the phantom dies. Which is a nice side effect of the sword (and the robe) in the hands of a wizard. I'd lean towards a Livegiver or Ancient Druid I think. But anything goes really. Some high-priority single target hunter (ranged Scout, Monk, Soulblade etc.) would work, too. Or an Ascendant/Arcane Archer with Frostseeker? Great against single targets but mobs, too.

Steam keys (from HumbleBundle): Dark Deity Blood And Zombies

The offer in the video still stands @Elric Galad I think a video discussing the community and balance patches would be fun! DM me if you are interested!

Moonscars The screenshots cover the full game. It is gorgeous. I will add spoiler tags. I guess, it reminded me of Soma. The lore NPC. As it is the only member of the Moon Clergy I came across, I cannot tell whether it is her personal opinion or of the Churn of the Moon. Well, he asked for it. The reasonable response in this situation would be to attack first and ask questions later. What could possibly go wrong. Sympathy is the right word. I don't think it will help them. A major spoiler. Side quests' endings. Final battle and the ending.

Wrong. *laughs in Demon's Souls* Never mind all the "must obtain every spell, weapon, armor, and ring" achievements, it sure would suck if one of the weapon materials necessary to get the "Obtained Best Weapon by [Upgrade Material]" only has a sub-1% chance of spawning on exactly one type of enemy. I have a friend that farmed this enemy for about eight hours and never got one...their Demon's Souls achievements are still not 100% to this day. Not just for being able to move/roll: do a light attack in DS2 and try to follow it up with a heavy attack (or reverse the order, or try to cast a spell instead, or use an item, or...), then try the same in DS1. It's atrocious in DS2. In theory, DS1 has the slower, weightier, and more limited movement between the two games, but it didn't actually feel like it at all to me in practice because of all the inexplicable delays they added in between different types of actions for DS2 (not to mention the harsher directional limitations to prevent you from turning between attacks too quickly, which feel like they were designed specifically to help the noobs who never learned to turn off camera targeting while kneecapping those of us who did). You can either chain light attacks or chain heavy attacks, but not one off of the other, and don't try to do anything else because **** you. As I said before, I could forgive most everything that was wrong with Dark Souls 2 (and boy was there a lot that was wrong) except for the fact that the controls made me want to strangle someone. Dark Souls 3 mercifully reverts back to being a bit more like Dark Souls 1, thankfully. Yeah, it sure would suck if you were a player where you generally try to stay out of reach of a boss until you have some time to look at and comprehend a boss' move set before you try to take them on and tried to fight Gwyn that way...yep, it sure would suck. It would suck even more if you had defeated most bosses on your first try due to that strategy having successfully worked up until that point and then being unprepared on what to do when a boss just won't give you the opportunity to stay back and figure out how they work. I remember my first time with Gwyn not being very fun because of his sword being too long and his move set being too erratic - not to mention his inclination to suddenly fly at you when you're out of range. It wasn't until I actually tried to take him on properly - after dying a bunch of times while not really trying to fight him - that I realized that his bark was a lot worse than his bite, and that trying to not die to him was having the opposite effect intended. And then as soon as you learn you can parry him, it's basically impossible to lose. The infamous "we ran out of time and money" half of Dark Souls 1. Truly gaming at its finest. I kind of wonder if the love for Dark Souls' passive/environmental storytelling seemed a breath of fresh air compared to the long cutscenes, bloated exposition dumps, and "standing around" sequences of yesteryear. You don't have to engage with Dark Souls' world or storytelling at all...if you don't want to. Clearly, you didn't want to, so you did not, and that's fine...but a lot of people did, and they seemed to get a lot out of Dark Souls in that way specifically. I especially think of it in comparison to Half-Life 2, which was hailed for moving the medium forward in terms of characters having dialogue and the game telling a story while not jamming the player into unskippable cutscenes...contrasted with the fact that I personally much prefer to replay Half-Life 1 (or even better, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.!) precisely because I find Half-Life 2's style of telling its story to you (or maybe more accurately, around you) while you have to just impatiently stand around waiting for conversations that don't really involve you to end before you can get back to playing the game. I think Dark Souls is similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in the sense that it's kind of what you make of it, and some people will make nothing of it because they're not interested and some people will make a great deal of it because they are, but at the end of the day, if you're one of the people that don't want to make anything of it, at least it's not being constantly shoved down your throat at the expense of everything else: I maintain that there is nothing worse than a game/movie/book/show that has a terrible story that just won't get out of the way of whatever you do like that is making you keep engaging with it, whether it's characters, atmosphere, music, or gameplay.

This is quite legit given the amount of time you selflessly took to answer all of us, on PoE1&2.

I never engaged past the introductory battle with them in my relatively brief time playing FO4. There was no narrative reason for me to go follow them anywhere, and I proceeded to Diamond City with no hesitation. That's the last I ever saw of them. But yeah, the Boston setting in general may be another reason non-Americans might not engage with the game so well. I don't know anything about the place other than that the water may taste slightly of tea. I may not know much about the real Vegas but put up a few gigantic neon signs and it's pretty instant recognition. Washington has the White House and the obelisk, which is something I guess. The broader issue though is that if you design in-game locations that make sense as self-sustaining communities, it doesn't matter if they don't correspond to actual real-world locations. Is Shady Sands a real place? Hell if I know, but it's a place that makes sense and I don't question its existence in the game. If instead a location's entire raison d'etre is "hey it's this famous real world location, but ruined" with no thought put into it beyond that, then those locations better be notable and relevant to the potential audience.

The looking for jr thing works for me. Or I can pretend it does. I can make the logical choice. But typical Bethesda gives you a drive then forces you to ignore it. "They stole your baby! Now ignore it because NPC X can't put down a mattress on his own."

Well... the minutemen thing kind of makes sense from a role playing/ character pov along with the settlements in terms of you 'refounding the US' amid the Fallout theme of hyper nationalism, especially for someone who has been frozen from pre apocalypse rather than brought up post so might realistically have bought into that hypernationalism. Same for looking for jr too really, you are told you care rather than being made to; but logically you would. I won't defend it any more than that since pretty much only the base idea is fine, the implementation is definitely typical Bethesda.

Im 60 hours into Kenshi and its time for my first detailed " newbie Kenshi review " Firslty Im loving the game and its highly recommended. You just need to learn mechanics and what the game is and what it isnt I was considering quitting after 2-3 hours because I didnt really understand the design, mechanics and point. When people say its " open-world and sandbox " I misunderstood what that really means and how effectively that is a part of the game But you can choose a myriad of different roles, professions and activities and this applies to the decisions you make. So you can decide to be a slaver, bounty hunter, trader or get involved in factional wars. You dont have classes and whatever you decide to do there are several things you have to do and always be aware of and the 2 most important considerations are raising your combat skills and finding ways to generate money because everything costs money Combat for me is the best and most rewarding part of the game, especially as you become more skilled and you can defeat powerful enemies I am focusing on exploration and bounty hunting. I have a 12 man party and I have dedicated teams of 2 people to skills like lockpicking, crafting and healing. Everyone in my party can fight but not everyone is an effective healer I have bought a property in Worlds Edge, I like the ethos and views of the Tech Hunters and they control this city. I also use this property for research, training and crafting, I havent really got into crafting in a detailed way but I imagine I will My focus is finding ruins and looting them and then completing bounties. The exploration part of the game often yields random, interesting and rewarding places to discover . I came across the hidden HQ of the Flotsam Ninjas, the creatures and forgotten ruins of the Leviathan Coast and other sites that make exploration worthwhile In one ruin in one building behind a locked door I came across a high level NPC who I could have extorted for money but instead he joined my party and he has become an invaluable combat addition because his melee attack is 60 and my party was around 35-45. This is just another example of how exploring gives you Easter Eggs and outcomes that are very beneficial to your party Im not sure if I will try to build a city, maybe I will. But right now Im really enjoying my current activities

"Dicksite"

I feel like a relapsed alcoholic. My brain is on fire trying to optimize the best builds, party composition, skill synergies, ship crew and equipment, and consumables, and quests order, and stuff. I am nauseated by the starting Island and the Engwithan Dicksite after a bazilion restarts. I'm doing 3 playthroughs simultaneously. A blast, I say! X)

Solasta: Palace Of Ice (DLC). Bit easy again, will ramp up difficulty. Still reminds me of oldschool D&D romps. No bull****, just a simple scenario, off ya go. Also maybe this time I'm pulling it through: Baldur's Gate (Enhanced). Never finished the Enhanced so far. The original is of course a classic from ye olde Interplay catalogue.

Spot the zombie. Non-zombie animals don't like zombies. You'll see them duking it out here and there. When in stealth/crouched, you get to see where zombies spawn in to prep for dropping down on your head. Stealth foils that. Hah. Funny clipping. They spawned that way (they are "alive"/would stand up if I'm detected - but looks like the bricks fell on their heads.

Don't worry. She's a human. They added a "helmet" that gives your character elf ears (using the characters skin tone for colour). Can be used by all 5 races (looks a bit funny on the Charr) My "dark elf" is just a bit of creative use of the colour palettes and dyes as well as the pointy ear head gear.

Pistols are the first easily available firearm, and they share a Weapon Focus with Blunderbusses. The unique Pistol Dulcanale is the best ranged weapon in the game against high DR targets, while Lead Splitter is the best ranged weapon in the game against low DR targets. Meanwhile, the best Arquebus is a support gun that's no better for the person wielding it than a bog standard Exceptional Arquebus.

John Amos, a very good actor