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Hi, first of all: the early game is pretty hard - noticably harder than what comes afterwards until the late game. It is most likely not your Priest build's fault that you feel that way but a combination of: Picking a class that is not very strong at the beginning of the game. Although the Priest will become your most impactful party member soon amd is considered the most powerful class overall, it starts rather slow. Classes like Fighter, Ranger or Monk start a lot stronger because they have higher base stats and don't rely on per-rest spells (which are scarce so early in the game). They will not become as powerful as a Priest (or Wizard or Druid for example) but the early game is easier with them. Not knowing the mechanics well (yet) - this will solve itself over time The early game being quite hard as I said - nothing you can do about that except: accepting that you don't have to fight every enemy in sight. Sneaking around and avoiding fights (alltogether or come back later after more level-ups) are valid options. The game doesn't give much XP rewards for fighting. Instead, exploring and quests are the main source of XP. using some sneaky tactics like: kiting/pulling/separating enemies, using chokepoints or even lure certain enemies towards other enemies (example: lure wolves to a bandit camp in Valewood, lure some trolls to a bandit camp in Black Meadow or luring the Sly Cyrdel bounty group towards the group of Gramrfel the Wayfarer in Magran's Fork a bit later in the game) Anyway, my understanding is that you want to play a melee Wizard. This is a good choice if you keep a few things in mind: The best weapon options for a melee Wizard are always his summoned weapons. They are vasty more powerful than any other weapon the wiuard can use, especially at level 1. At level 1 you pick Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. It has a lot more base damage than a normal two handed weapon (20-30), has exceptional quality (which is awesome that early in the game and balances out the bad base accuracy of the Wizard) and drains endurance for you with every successful attack. Later use Citzal's Spirit Lance which has the same high base damage but also AoE capabilites and speed. If you feel that that's not enough summoned weapons and that you burn through them to quickly you can also pick up the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster Gloves during the early(ish) game. That will give you 6 casts of Firebrand per rest, a summoned fire great sword that also has the same high base damage. Try to not be in the front line too much in the early game. The Staff and the Lance are reach weapons so you can stand in the second line and still hit enemies who attack your front line. Infuse with Vital Essence is a great spell to regain lost health. Endurance can be healed during the encounter, but health usually only gets healed during a rest. Infuse with Vital Essence however will give you "temporary" bonus health. The thing is though that it's not really temporary but just stays there as if you had healed. It works even better if you use some items that give you incresed healing, for example the early amulet of Fulvano (or Fulvano's Amulet) which increses all healing you receive by 25% and a survival/camping bonus for increased healing. High Might also increases the effect. Use the Survical skill and put it to 4 points asap. This gives you access to a neat accuracy bonus based on the kind of enemy you face. If you can bring it up to 10 asap (this takes time). This can also be done by skilling it to 8 only and then use an item that grants +2 survival (there are several) and put it on before camping/resting in the wilds. You don't need to wear it all the time. This will give you an even bigger accuracy bonus gainst certain enemies. You need to scout ahead a bit an check out the tyoes of enemies which are awaiting you (if you don't know already) but this bonus reall helps. If you will face kith enemies: there's no survival bonus for them so go for increased healing instead (tier II grants +40% healing). It stacks with the amulet's effects (25%+40% = 65% more healing received ). If you feel too squishy pick Veteran's Recovery. It heals very well if combined with the bonus healing options I mentioned above and will keep you alive without you having to cast Corrosive Siphon or a party member needing to use a healing spell on you. Use Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon to heal even more if necessary. Talents which are great for a melee Wizard: Veteran's Recovery as I said above if you feel too squishy Weapon Focus for whatever your backup weapon is. Summoned weapons can use any weapon focus, they are universal in that regard. So if you want a backup weapon (I suggest Durance's Staff) you pick Weapon Focus Peasant and this will apply to the quarterstaff and the Spirit Lance as well. Aspirant's Mark: this is a -8 delfection and reflex spel that is 1/encounter which is awesome. You can cast this in every fight right at the start - best is after the Priest hit you with an Inspiring Radiance (+10 accuracy). This doesn't have to be done by your wizard and could be used by any of your party members (it's especially good on a Fighter with Disciplied Barrage). Two Handed Style: since the summoned wepaons have high base damage, all damage bonuses you can get have a visible impact Arcane Veil: great to have in a pinch when you get damaged too much. Also great to demotivate enemy rushers to pick you as target in the first place Savage Attack: only later in the game where accuracy isn't an issue anymore (because of Priest buffs, good debuffs on enemies and so on) Apprentice's Sneak Attack: as I said: bonus dmg works well with summoned weapons Good spells to use as a melee Wizard (I mean there are tons but these ones I cast more frequently than others as a melee Wizard): Chillfog: one of the best spells and especially early on. Just don't step into its AoE yourself Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff Deleterious Alarity of Motion: raises your melee dps a ton because your recover twice as fast, especially great with the speed of the Spirit Lance all defensive self-buffs, especially Llengrath's Safeguard which stacks with all deflection-only-buffs such as Arcane Veil Infuse with Vital Essence as I described above Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon Pull of Eora: very good in combination with Spirit Lance in order to pull enemies into tight fomations where your lance AOE can hit them all Citzal's Martial Power once you are done with buffing/summoning stuff Eldritch Aim is great as Spell Mastery imo (at level 9 you can pick a spell you already know which turns from per rest into 1/encounter) Attributes: above average MIG since it boosts not only damage but also healing you do (to yourself). It's also one of the few things that boosts spell damage. But it doesn't need to be maxed or anything. I'd say ~12. mediocre CON is enough (~10) decent DEX and PER (~14) high INT (~18) mediocre RES (~10) shifting a few points here and there doesn't make a difference. Tthe attributes are not crazy impactful like in other games

Sounds like those countries just need to instituted a UBI and their problems will vanish overnight. 🤔

PS: What you can also do is to play a Fighter with high INT and use Lore for scrolls (potentially very powerful) and so-called spellbinding gear. Those are items that contain per-rest spells of Wizards, Druids and Priests (and sometimes even Ciphers) and can be used by anybody. A Fighter is a good candidate because the spells work especially well with the high accuracy the Fighter class has. For examle there's Bots that contain Jolting Touch 3/rest, a sabre that contains Fireball 3/rest, an Amulet and an armor which both contain Sunburst 3/rest each (so in total 6 casts of Sunburst per rest), an Estoc that has Blizzard 3/rest and so on. You can then add some talents such as Aspirant's Mark, Prestidigitator's Missiles, Enigma's Charm... (all 1/encounter). That way you can build a very accurate Fighter who's good with weapon (because... Fighter) and has some nice spells from items, talents and scrolls, too.

Yes its a legitimate point you making. Its similar to the argument " we see so much crime from community x or y because of inequality\poverty " ( or something similar ) Its not convincing because the majority of people living in poverty don't commit crime But as far as these insurgencies are concerned there are 2 main groups involved. Separatists aren't considered radicalized, they just want their own region The AQ\ISIS linked groups are more radicalized and they only exist in certain African countries and there Islamic extremist ideology only resonates with some people The vast majority of people in these indigent regions dont join them but they suffer the worst consequence of there ideology and they largely Muslim themselves Whats also making recruitment much easier is the brutality and military response from the Juntas and Russians in trying to crush these insurrections. Not a surprise of course to see the Russians fight war like this This has been going on for years in these 3 countries https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmx7x3yjyko "A shopkeeper has told the BBC how Russian mercenaries fighting jihadists in Mali carried out the cold-blooded murder of two men in front of him and then threatened to chop off his fingers and kill him too. This is one of several similar testimonies collected by the BBC showing the tactics used by the Russian fighters as they waged a brutal counter-insurgency operation against Islamist militants in the West African nation - methods widely condemned by human rights groups." https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/28/mali-army-wagner-group-atrocities-against-civilians "Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. Military drone strikes on a wedding celebration on February 16, 2024, and during a burial on February 17, 2024, killed at least 14 civilians, including 4 children."

According to Google, ~817 MILLION people live below the poverty level (<$3 / day / person / PPP), yet somehow the vast majority manage to live their lives without becoming radicalized.

"Islamist radicals joined forces with northern separatists to orchestrate the biggest rebel offensive in the West African country in 14 years, with attacks on towns, cities, military bases, airports and homes of senior politicians." Slava Ukrianaiji

If you don't play on the highest difficulty setting (Path of the Damned) you carry around up to 4 camping supplies. So resting is not an issue. Don't hold back your spells too much or you will end up resting because of low health but not because you used all your spells. Players tend to hold on to spells "just in case a big fight comes" - but if you save the game regularly (and it also does auto saves for you) you can reload of you got into a big fight totally unprepared and rest before that fight. Having said that: melee Wizards can contribute in many fights without casting too many spells. Their Arcane Assault (2/encounter) and a single weapon summon spell go a pretty long way.

Thanks for your patience and for the helpful comments! I think I’ll go for the weapon and shield. Is there anything else I should be mindful of when playing as a melee wizard?

Yes, the two handed summoned weapons are a lot better than what you can buy/find at those times and a Wizard with weapon + shield isn't a very good setup. That is: unless you just want the protection of a shield and don't care about your weapon damage - in that case hatchet + small shield is a good option because they provide decent deflection and some reflex that stacks with your self buffs. But your weapon damage will be pretty atrocious compared to the summoned weapons. Medium and large shields will negatively impact your casting accuracy (-4 for medium shields and -8 for large ones) so I wouldn't recommend them. Wizards' base accuracy is already weak enough... ;) You can also take a look at a melee Cipher: that class combines weapon damage with spellcasting. In fact you need to deal weapon damage in order to cast spells.

Thanks @Mamoulian War for the understanding and @Boeroer for the complete posts! The fighter with high INT sounds interesting 🙂 So, if I have understood correctly, it would be better to create a two-handed melee wizard rather than using a sword and shield, especially as the summoned weapons are two-handed? 🧙

Yeah, it was not the best place to post, but I have moved it to correct one. Just in case, I am replying to you to, so the notification pops up, and it will be easier for you to find your thread again. 🙂

Isn't the whole fight insurgents with military force such a 20th century way of thinking? You want to get rid of insurgents, take away their reason to exist. It varies of course from case to case, but as far as I know, most insurgencies are the result of large disenfranchised groups with no future and nothing to lose. As far as I have been able to follow, most insurgencies in Africa and South/Latin America (and The Levant) are the results of a combination of isolation (information control), poverty (inequality) and rampant corruption in the "democratically elected" governments, meaning they are just totalitarian regimes with a better PR apparatus. If people have a job, a future, get exposed to other ideas, prospects instead of projects and something worth keeping, like a home, they tend to be too busy to worry about risking it on doing insurgency. But you can't fight income inequality, poverty, ignorance and homelessness with military forces. At best, you keep insurgents around because it helps those in power to tighten their grip on said power. Edit: Don't get me started on genuine democratically elected governments toppled by western powers because they were inconvenient

It is so. While shifted you are dual-wielding your natural weapon and thus Two-Weapon Style applies. There used to be an issue with the Stormblight form: the natural ranged weapon it has was considered a two-hander for some quirky reasons. But that got fixed with a patch at some point and now all spiritshift forms are dual wielding.

Still the superior city builder game. Skylines never quite scratched that itch.

more gun than any other nation yet no one can hit one big slow orange target pathetic

Yes, but being occasional isn't a disadvantage per se. It depends on what the occasion is. If it doesn't work in normal fights where you don't really need the added defenses but makes the really tough fights easier it's just a good passive. It's like Brutal Backlash: it doesn't do much in most fights but makes the hardest ones ridiculously easy. Very occasional but yet very good. Now I don't consider Silver Tide to be a great racial ability - because you can make the argument that if you constantly get beaten down so it procs you might be doing something wrong in the first place. And if you don't need it much but only in tough fights it's... tadaa: occasional. ;)

We've had no luck at all. Tried signing out of Steam, signing out of XBox, uninstalling and reinstalling, nothing is working. If we go back into Grounded the multiplayer is working fine. It would be great to get a solution to this.

The Slava Ukraini crowd don't care about dead Blacks, so no issue.