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Imo the best way to utilize the Essenial Phantom (until you get Caedebald's Blackbow like @SenSx said, that's an awesome combo) is to give it Concelhaut's Draining Touch as a single handed weapon or with Kapana Taga (reason for Kapana Taga see below). At the same time I let Aloth cast Miasma of Dull-Mindedness onto enemies who will get attacked by the phantom. Bonus points if you have somebody in the party who uses clubs + modal (for me it's often Edér with Shattered Vengeance or Kapana Taga). Club modal + Miasma results in -65(!) Will defense. Maybe Aloth follows up with a mass Confuse and somebody adds a Shaken/Frighten/Terrify effect (Xoti, Aloth) and some -10 defense to all (see Shining Beacon or Ben Fidel's Neck) and enemies' Will defense is at -95 without too much effort. Should you use some party member with maxed Survival and Ngati's Tusk (Hunter of Hunters enchantment) enemies' will is at -105. The reasons why this is a great combination (besides that fact that debuffing Will profits other party members as well) : Concelhaut's Draining Touch doesn't go away on a Phantom. It stays as long as the phantom will last. it targets Will instead of Deflection. Since Will is so easily debuffed the Phantom will land lots of crits as single weapon the phantom will get +12 ACC Draining Touch has very high base damage. It works very well with crits (likely overpenetration + crit damage bonus) It weakens the enemy (prevents proper healing and lowers max health as well as fortitude) Since it weakens on hit it works with the Helm of the White Void (+10 ACC, also works with the phantom) it drains health which makes the phantom a lot sturdier Now you can give Aloth items with +engagement (like Kapana Taga: +2 - or a small shield: +1) and terrify enemies with Aloth (Ryngrim's spells). The enemies will not only get their Will debuffed but also disengage constantly. If the phantom has engagement from items it will use disengagement attacks which have a big dmg bonus - which again works very well with the Draining Touch's high base damage. I usually also give the phantom boots of speed. That way it will close gaps to disengaged enemies very quickly again, re-engaging. It is a very potent setup rel. early in the game: a summon that is sturdy and deals tremendous damage while it also causes weakened. In addition one can wear items that trigger AoE damage on knockout or when damaged: White Witch Mask (Repulsive Visage when blooded), Effigy's Husk, Mantle of the Seven Bolts and such. They also work when the phantom gets killed (not if the duration is up and it simply vanishes though). And it the effects are limited to 1/rest it doesn't matter as long as Aloth doesn't use it up: the phantom will get a "fresh" copy of the item with 1 use/rest every time it gets summoned. You can also give Voidwheel to the phantom so it damages itself with every attack and eventually kills itself, triggering those effects deliberately. Or the Great Sword Effort: it does a Full Attack to all enemy bystanders if the phantom dies. Other nice things to do with the phantom: give it Essence Interrupter - the effect to summon a friendly creature after the enemy is dead also works with the phantom and its copy of the bow Willbreaker or Blade of the Endless Paths (or other weapon which put limited "stacks" of debuffs on enemies on hit) : Since you will have two weapons (1 original , 1 copy) you will put two separate stacks of debuffs on enemies. 2 Willbreaker for example will put 2 stacks of will debuff on enemies, lifting the max of -15 Will to 2*-15 Will = -30 Will. BotEP will be able to debiff deflection by -40 instead of -20 only and so on. Another candidate is Ball and Chain with the Action Speed debuff for example. Citzal's Spirit Lance high deflection gear (armor such as Nomad's Brigandine, bracers, cloak) and Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry - phantom will daze enemies if they miss and deal some damage with parries Cast Salvation of Time on the phantom: it prolongs its summon duration The Red Hand - pretty awesome if its enchanted with Double Tab ang you're fighting against vessels I'm sure there's more cool stuff you can do with it. That's what I remembered from the top of my head.

Sabine's assessment of the current state of physics (warning, swearing and profanity with a German accent)

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/a-few-hours-with-new-arc-line-reminded-me-that-setting-doesnt-mean-much-in-an-rpg-if-the-characters-arent-interesting Not a favourable preview, but I am curious about the setting and ambivalent about the turn-based combat. --- https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/in-pagan-party-based-rpg-banquet-for-fools-you-can-doodle-your-own-spells-in-blood The game sounds interesting, though the system requirements are rather puzzling (50GB for v.1.0) and I have not finished the developers' previous game, Serpent in the Staglands (the saves are told to be possible to import). https://steamcommunity.com/app/3172700/discussions/0/4851030238680772668/#c4851030238681356426

New version is uploading, but I can't recall who gave me the script to reduce missing NPC in Serpent Crown (please claim to get your legit credit) : Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

I just leave it on all the time. You can turn it on/off for maximum efficiency, but I didn't really bother. That's too much micromanagement for my taste and the loss of damage is negligible imo.

You don't need Kapana Taga to make the Phantom work with Draining Touch - it's just one of the best items to gain engagement slots for the Phantom so it can do disengagement attacks. A small shield would also work. You can get Kapana Taga early if you do some ship fights against easy ships early - so that your cannoneers become masters (four stars). Or you hire some (with Berath Blessing point for example) who already are master cannoneers. Master cannoneers have a high chance to trigger special effects on hit: flooding, burning sails, knocking cargo loose etc. If you combine this with high firing rate (sloop has quick jibe, use Royal Bronzers or other, even faster reloading cannons), this prevents the enemy ship from firing back since it's occupied with salvage/repair etc. It's a slow process and it can go wrong (you'll have to reload sometimes) but this way you can sink almost every ship, you just need a little luck with with cannoneer's rolls. Winning a boarding fight against Firgist and his crew when you are severely underleveled is much, much harder or even impossible. When wielding a melee weapon I think it's usually the nearest enemy. It stops when getting engaged of course. It will not disengage voluntarily. I haven't really examined what it does when its immune to engagement (if it picks different targets then). It doesn't switch targets once it has decided whom to attack - unless the "duel" gets broken up by something (pushing, pulling, enemy uses Escape, Phantom gets disabled and so on). The phantom will gladly run into friendly fire spells, walls and other zones of death (like a Meteor Shower you cast or so) - it seems to have zero self preservation.

A blunderbuss or one of Serafen's mortars and a melee weapon. This trick works with any ranged weapon as long as you're also wielding a melee weapon, but blunderbusses and mortars are the best, I think.

Thanks for the mod update Elric !

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/sep/23/heaven-17-v-rockstar-are-games-being-fair-to-music-artists On music licensing in games. I have not been listening to non-gaming/non-LGBTQ+ related music, so cannot comment whether including recognisable tracks boosts sales or not.

They can and do censor anything from bureaux operating in Israel though, like the BBC* and CNN- or Fox or Sky. They outright banned roughly 300 articles per year during 'normal' times, and their powers have been strengthened over the past year taking into account them being on wartime footing now, and the infamous 'Al Jazeera Law' of April 2024. The article above has the byline of NPR's... Science correspondent. Who is considerably less likely to need to go to Israel any time soon than an international or politics one. *to illsutrate, from the Grauniad (I mean, imagine the BBC apologising to Russia for not obeying their military censor... yeah. The whole thing is supine)

actually hoped there would be some lightnovel of similar style so far not many

The conspiracy theories or just idiocy about the Helene response shows how the Internet was a mistake. Well of course Musk helps out, apparently Starlink is critical aid. Guess he played Deus Ex recently. At least MTG is crazy as usual

Lunacid So close and so far. Found a mimic. I was trying to shake off the giant skeleton. The thing clipped through the walls. A very suspicious wall. The rats won. Dustborn (demo) The combat is not good and the controls are not fully rebindable (presets for keyboard layouts available). The rest is fine.

After months off, progressed some further into The Outer Worlds. Monarch is awful. I hope I'm right with this, as the entire planet feels as if it was outsourced to a B-tier MMO developer. The entire surface is basically just asset recycling, copypaste enemy mobs, random loot and crates all over. That's when I stopped. Picked this up again with the intention of just following the main quest. So I did. And even that consisted of the most straight forward fedex jobs in the milky way. At the end of the main questline, you're given the opportunity to respond to an NPC with something along the lines of: "Lemme guess! You wanna make me fetch another three keys for ya, don't ya?" That joke, unfortunatley, is on Obsidian. This is the most mediocre thing I've ever played from this studio. Hopefully the game's going to pick up again. Because prior it was at least decent. Nothing to WhatsApp home about, but decent. Still puzzled how you can make an entire planet of low-quality filler, given that there's but a couple of planets either way -- and the game isn't even aiming to be a (space) epic to begin with. Resource allocation went smoother in both smaller scale Pillars games for sure (and Pentiment either way).

I'm pretty confident that Boeroer + Maxquest + Thelee + Constantin Lévine (the master of the obscure cheese) + me put together beat Obsidian team. I don't even think the 5 of us would be required. Probably "pick 2" would be enough. I don't blame Obsidian though. It's not the same thing to do something as a job.