Takkik

HAve a weird UI bug since DLC release. The modal options don't updates. I have 3 weapons set with different proficients. Dual pistols in set 1 show my pistol modal, I switch to a hatchet + dagger (proficient), it show the pistol modal + dagger modal, switch to 1 blunderbuss in main hand (proficient), show only the pistol modal. Look like modals from proficient in first set overlap the ones in other sets depending of main hand/off hand.

More items is always great. Can we hope to see a cosmetic slot option(s) ? If we still want to use the bonus of a previous armor/head but prefer new item style, or use some cool non magical items.

Just this. Really. 2 cosmetic slots, for head & armor. And immedialty all clothing get a new use! We can already hide helmet, so why they didn't though about cosmetic slots?

Grimoires are trinkets. It refer to think like the mask that give you illusion spells I think. Perhaps scrolls too?

Considering that most Cipher spells, including large aoe debuffs like Secret Horrors, Eyestrike or some hard disables, like Mental Binding, take only 0,5 second to cast... this is simply wrong. There's still the recovery, but that's more like 3 seconds, not 6 (and can be further reduced with buffs/special abilities). I think for a MC martial/caster, a short recovery vs a longer casting could be better for benefit longer from effect like paralyse. Short casting is great for interrupt but the recovery limit the time you have to attack the target after. More options for the player could be great, like a modal that allow you to switch the recovery/casting time. Some metamagic abilities that allow you to make some spells instant cast/recovery. Give it a limited per encounter use, a special resource (we already have dual resources classes) or increase the spell level (and use a highter spell slot) or make it use 2 spell uses instead of one. As an hybrid MC, less casting but with instant casting or more powerfull casting could be usefull.

problem of combat prep is that it's not always applicable (or you already need to know the game). Some combats are scripted (like naval combats). In this game, stealth, pickpocket, traps... feel like abusing the system. It's really one thing I hate with deadfire rogue. Backstab, invisibility etc... mostly used to kill one enemy, reset combat, kill another etc... Instead of tactics you can use during a normal party fight. Since they introduced bombes, they could have included traps as a new combat consumables using the same skill. More variety for the bombes. Stealth : Like I proposed in first post, You should be able to restealth in combat. A 1 per encounter use like for athletic. That would make stealth usefull in all combat situation. Pickpoket : why a separate skill? You must use stealth to steal... just merge it with stealth, like explosive & mechanic. Backstab: I really dislike the weapon dmg bonus... because the rogue already have sneak attack & deathblow. Why not make it a passive that boost any martial ability used from stealth? I'm unsure power level affect martial abilities (I think someone reported it boost base weapon dmg?), but I would love if using a toxic strike from stealth with backstab actualy make the poison more potent. Same for crippling strike bleeding, or boost the bonus of a finishing blow etc... Boost the PL of the next attack ability. That would allow it to work with dual weilding too. Assuming PL change something with weapon abilities. In my opinion, the skill system is a mistake. When you don't know the system, it's really obscure what the value represent. I really miss the generic abilities from POE1, and the ones introduced in deadfire are uninspired. They could have introduced a general ability tree linked to character level and not PL (so doesn't mater if your solo or MC). Like in poe1 it work like the feat system of POE1. Instead of abstract values of the skill, introduce passives like a boost in alchemy duration (+x% duration), more potent alchemy etc... Bluff, diplomatie etc... could be passive that when you unlock just give you the options in dialogue. And more important, reintroduce the active abilities, like viper strike, stealth could be a new invisibility ability (with a cooldown when out of combat?), same with pickpoket. Add some new 'general' martial and spell abilities (like arcane assault)... That would allow a wizard that use conjure weapon have easier acces to some martial abilities. The power level system is a great idea, just completly underused. Why not every abilities have keywords? Exemple, why Toxic strike don't have the poison keyword? With more gear and passives that boost power level of different keyword, more build options. Cipher spells have keywords but you don't have any gear that boost them. Instead of skills points, you boost your social abilities through power level. The advantage, is that you can make social abilities and combat abilities share some keywords, so you boost both. Exemple : charm & persuasion : make them share a keyword, a cipher or chanter with strong combat charming should be able to persuade more easly in dialogues. Steath, smoke veil( invisibility), escape, pickpocket etc... give them illusion keyword, and perhaps some new rogue only keyword. Someone that master illusion should be more potent with these abilities. Keywords should work as some sort of sub specialisations that can apply to any class.

Wizard duplicates got the exact same problem and hopefully they were fixed. Look like even Dev never use the ability and forgotten about it.

Before 1.1 I don't think withering strike was an op ability, but when they added +25dmg to all rogue abilities, the gap between withering strike and other abilities got smaller (and cost is still the same). A just think the ability could get a little buff (dmg or ACC). I'll be happy to heard about shadow step uses. Like they are I find the 2 first upgrades to costly too, 2 guiles could be better. Shadowing beyond could get a short invisibility (3 sec only, it's really teleport and strike immedialty) and veil a 8-10 sec invisibility (the two could have the same cost). smoke cloud, could be a veil upgrade like the tree suggest it, you become invisible and leave a smoke cloud behind you.

For ring of the bell it was more a question (I didn't offered any alternative). I haven't used it much because it don't appeal to me, crippling strike + toxic strike isn't enough? (+deep wound, + any weapon that add dot + any other dot effect like a poison consumable, combusting wound etc...). It feel like just another dot ability but without an identity (and perhaps don't fit "Ring the Bell" theme). It don't stand out from all rogue attacks. I think I would just prefere if it was Pierce the ring for all weapons, the armor piercing & high DMG ability. But it's just my personnal opinion, if other people use it it's fine. Edit : or make the ability a modal that allow you to switch between applying a raw dot, a bonus on PEN & DMG or applying a debuff. EDIT: for Traps, they could fit with bombes as combat consumable, but with a 'long' casting time and short throw range. But with ability to place them while stealthed or invisible. A character with stealth and the new hidding ability, could restealth in battle, place a trap and then attack from behing it to lure an enemy in the trap.

There is a few abilities that bother me in the rogue tree and I would like to know if some people find them some uses : Smoke cloud & upgrades, Positioning, Ring the bell, Shadow Step & Flurry of blades. Smoke cloud feel costy for applying Distracted when you can get persitant distraction. If you need a panic button, just better to use invisibility (that you must take). Applying Blind could be more interesting (alternative to blinding strike and in AOE). Smoke grenade upgrade make the ability a persistant AOE. Another option, make smoke cloud a persistant AOE that distract & Hobble. People stuck inside the cloud have hard time to get out of it. Give you more CC. The dot upgrade add a DMG effect to the AOE. Positioning : An inferior version of Escape that you unlock at PL7... As far I love my rogue to have more low cost abilities, I find this ability just uninteresting. You could add a self buff to it (Rogue have none outside of PL 8 and it's a PL 7 ability!), if you switch with an ally you buff him too, with an enemy you debuff it. Ring the bell : I find Pierce the bell fine (2 guiles for +45% dmg & +5PEN with ranged weapons), but the one handed melee lack luster. It's stuck between crippling strike (1guile) and Toxic strike (3guiles) that apply a more potent DOT. Just better to spam 2 crippling strikes or use one more guile and do more dmg? Withering Strike : for a 3 guiles cost, I would boost the DMG to 40-50% or make the ACC bonus +20. The description say you strike a vital point, you could expect more chance to critic or more dmg. BEfore the up of all other rogue attacks, withering strike was the only ability with a dmg boost. Shadow step : I don't see lot of people talking about it (or using it?). 3 cost to paralyse a target for 6sec? It's very situationnal. And flurry of blades is the ability that do lot of things (teleportation, buff, paralyse, aoe dmg) but nothing well? I would just kill to get a separate flurry of blades ability that work like a buffed ghost blades at PL 7. Or make flurry of blades the first upgrade (you unleash an AOE ring of dagger before teleporting, with the hobbled effect) and the last upgrade (at PL8) Paralyse enemies hit by the daggers. For a PL8 ability at least you do an AOE paralyse. About the bombes, I just wonder why obsidian created a specific skill. Compared to alchemy & arcana bombes offer less options. thematic wise the bombes feel at home with the rogue, I just wonder why they didn't use mechanic or sleight of hand to handle the bombe. The thief archetype is taxed with 3 out of combat skills, why not give them some combat use? Same with stealth, only usefull at the start of the combat and some scripted events just block you from using this skill. Why not, like athletic, give a 1 per encounter hidding ability that allow you to restealth in middle of the combat?

Ability still bugged and useless. Before balance stuff, fixing non working abilities should be a priority. Right now they should just remove the ability, it's a trap and don't worth at all a pl7 ability (not even a PL 1).

I find their DLC plan a bit weird. I mean we aren't in a MMO were you have month of leveling. People who already bought the game have finished it (multiple time possible) or have put it aside waiting for bug fix and balance. The second categorie like futur buyer will certainly wait now full release of all DLC to enjoy a 'full' game experience. When we consider overall difficulty problem, why release new content that isn't destined to 20+ characters? In white march, if you're going to new content too early game become really easy because of the new loot, i'm afraid BoW will have same problem. I think creating high end difficult new content perhaps more interesting to keep the player base interested? People who want more story content... will certainly wait for all content to be released to experience full story. Level scaling? it fail to create interesting challenge. You need more tailored challenge/encounters, not just raw power. It's really where I find open world & power leveling don't work well together. Auto leveling & leveling 'cancel' each other. Why not just design a game around abilities & gears where the raw power increase is 'tamed' and it's the new tactical options of abilities that help you to win challenges. Now, perhaps like for white march the dlc will have some new high level encounters/area included.

Still bugged? haven't tested but since wizard duplicates were fixed I was hoping it was the same for monk.

Outside of bugfixes nothing exciting. I would love if they could extend the keyword tags to all abilities (even martial ones) and add more items that boost them for builds. Waiting for more infos on trinkets and if they really change anything. None of the new challenges appeal to me, not my playstyle. Was hoping for some rest stuff ext... but realtime only or the 6sec dead stuff not for me.

Problem of soulbound is the lack of customisation compared to uniques that have now unique enchantments. Each soulbound item could get a generic upgrade aviable to all classes and a specific class upgrade. When upgrading you can choose between the generic or class specific. Another problem with multiclassing is that the game ask you to choose the class you want to bind... If you don't go on a wiki it's a blind choice. Overall all soulbound items are a bling choice if you don't 'cheat' with a wiki (who will benefit the most of the weapon?). For MC, player could get the choice between each class choice he have. You could get more soulbound type, like armor, helm etc... Like in poe1 3.0.

Resting never worked properly in baldur's gate like rpg (as far I remember)., but I find that Obsidian made the same mistake than in Dragon age: origins. With automatic restauration of resources, you can just spam all your best abilities (even without counting per rest ones). In DAO, you enter a room full of NPC, you could just cast all your AOE abilities (even if on paper they got malus when combined) and watch every one die. Mana is restaured and you could proceed to next room. Discarding resting, one thing that could work it's not restauring resources (& per encounter & per rest & emporer pt) or Life when the battle end, forcing you to use consumables. Food restaure some resources (+ giving bonus), medkit you can use out of combat and some special potions/food/alchool that restaure resources when out of combat. That give player some money sink & resource management. Hardcore mode : You have to repair your equipment, injuries only heal over time, encouraging you to change your party roster (like in a xcom game) etc... Another option : build all classes around resource building like chanter, cipher & monk. You can't use your best abilities right from the start and have to gather resources to use them, or just rely on low cost abilities spamming. Right now I find the game is stuck between 2 system and is too afraid to fully switch to a per encounter system.

you should be able to rest at will in your ship. It's like your base. That don't fix all problems. Without enemies respawn/random encounter, that just make it more annoying to rest without drawback. When in a city or around, it's just like before unlimited resting. Overall it's pretty similar to the 2 supply limit of poe1. The game wasn't built around resting so it's asking lot more changes to make it interesting. But overall the biggest issue is per rest abilities & injuries. Unlimited resting make traps annoying but not deadly. Per rest abilities are just annoying too, they promoted a per encounter system, but you still have to rest after every fight just to get back all your activations. Every resting limitation you'll add will just return to poe1 situation without more interesting change under the hood. The problem with JRPG random encounter is it they were too much (for today taste). But the games got a more interesting economy/challenge. Fallout & Baldur's gate have random encounters on world map and it was nice (not always combat). In 'dungeons', you could have random encounter at specific zones, like a respawn (but not always the samething). Overall less random encounter than in a old school JRPG, and since you see enemies in game you can always stealth, use another passage etc... You don't have the annoying random encounter that pop from nowhere.

That'd be fine by me That said, you could keep it in and simply have new food buffs overwrite existing ones, so only one can be active at any time. Only one food bonus at same time & out of combat consummable. That'll work excatly the same but without the need of resting.

It's just impossible to design a rest system that don't constrain the player. The point of a resting system is to add some limitation/challenge. You need to build your game around or it's just pointless, that why I would prefer they completly drop the rest mechanic. In real life you just can't rest multiple time 8h in a day (outside be ill/injuried, and even when you're ill you can be bored to stay in bed). You have concept of short rest (1h) that feel more realistic and allow you to regain your breath after some difficult situations. You should not be able to rest in dungeons or even city streets, only in Inn/ship, and on world map with a risk of random encounter. That would give more weight to injuries & empower points or any curse/afflictions that you can only remove by resting. When time pass, enemies should respawn (random or not) in dangerous places. You only gain limited xp from fight so should not be a problem and that would prevent rest spamming. It's something old school JRPG do better than baldur's gate & co. Random encounter + rest only in Inn force you to be more cautious when exploring and be ready/able to finish a dungeon up to the boss in one go. They manage better resting (SP) and consummable managing (at least early on). But if they don't want to put more interesting weight in the rest system, they're just better to remove it and design encounters as self contained challenge (attrition become trivia). The only attrition/limit you have are consumables forcing you to return to city to restock.

I don't understand too why there is still per rest stuff in the game. You can activate a trap, rest, activate a trap immediatly after and rest again... what the point of resting & injuries? Food could be a consumable like in poe1. I was hoping trinkets would work like a subclass/prestige specialisation and modify each class. How new trinkets will work with wizards? They don't have any since they already have grimoires? You have to don't use grimoires? or grimoires will get a revamp and they will all have some bonus ?

lololololo A+ balance indeed Like every d&d based stuff : Casters can do everything. But a pen & paper and a video game are different beasts, you don't have a DM and same liberty to use your spell to solve every encounters (combat or not). Still waiting a fantasy game that allow you to cast your spells (charm etc...) to actualy solve social encounters.

Martial classes are more front loaded because of their resource system and high level abilities cost. They are more situationnals. Monk & Chanters are more balanced because phrases and wounds can be earned while fighting. Casters (outside of ciphers) got per encounter high power spells uses, so it feel more rewarding to unlock them (they are 'free'). I really think they should have built all the classes around generating resources like chanter, monk & cipher. That fit a per encounter system far better. Even caster are 'broken', be able to cast a meteor storm in each encounter right from the star is too much I think, if there was a trade of like building mana/arcana and not casting spells for some time to be able to unleash your high level spells the system would be more balanced I think. About cipher, the problem is that time parasite give a big bonus that affect all ciphers spells. The speed bonus even stack so you 're near instant cast at some point. With ascendant it's even more broken. Another problem is that you can't build up + x PL as a cipher compared to other casters, you don't have items with mind, echo, shred... keyword. If at least cipher spells got the elemental keyword. That mean the ascendant bonus & PL 8-9-10(passive) are more important than for other casters that can stack more easly power levels. That make time parasite and ability to spam your spells more effective than caster high powered spells.

The problem of cipher is that you have some stagnation at mid level that only spike if you're solo at PL8. Unlocking Time parasite is like transforming into Super Saiyan or Golden form. You can get something like +120% action speed, all your spells are close to instant cast. Add reaping knives for more easy focus & 1000 cuts that just magnify all your dmg spells. Ascendant + time parasite is the Ultra Instinct of Deadfire. In a few seconds you can cast brilliant on all your teammates. If you have to rate solo classes, Cipher is on top and Ranger the worst. Perhaps Monk feel the more balanced, with some cool powerfull abilities but the class can still work without them. I don't think there is any class that have a so big boost at PL 8. They need to smooth the power curve.

yes and no. Ciphers lack of highter level spells, in particular 6-7 for a MC. Pretty much no braimer selection here. That mean as a MC cipher your choice of spells drop really fast as you level. And for a solo cipher that mean you don't get more interesting spells (outside some at pl 8-9) to spend your points. Cipher is the only class that have some ally only buff, and that punish multiclassing a lot. MC allow you to get more diversity with your party, but a MC cipher can't fully buff his second class. Brilliant make it even more apparent. So a mindstalker can't regain guile with brilliant. You still need another cipher. Why the limitation? Brilliant to OP on the cipher because he can gain back focus? but what about 2 ciphers that cast brilliant on each other? They could make brilliant not generating focus (or really low focus). Cipher is the only class that loose some functionability when you MC it outside of PL 8-9. Priest, druid and chanter don't have such limitations that force some of their spells to only support others. I have the feeling that cipher is the class you want in your party, but not necessary play it. When you MC a cipher, the second class is more about buffing focus generation/spellcasting, you have less synergy in the other way (only a few spells & passives can buff the second class).

My problems with ciphers are with their design and how they work in new deadfire system and multiclassing. Previous concerns I stated : too small spell selection, no free spells like other casters ( a minor problem, chanter don't have free spells too, but that hurt your spell selection), buffs that are ally only. Replaying with new potd as a mindstalker, there is something I just dislike about cipher. I want to play them but their is something that prevent it for me. - I find early they really lack of accuracy. All their accuracy buff come later (pl 5). If valorous echo could be casted on you you could get a +5 PER, but early it's really hard to land an affliction. - They lack specific gear. Perhaps i've missed them, but even if they have a few elemental dmg I don't think they benefit from +PL for fire & lightning. I don't think there is anything that boost the PL of mind, deception, echo or shred spells. - Cipher are hybrid caster, because they need to use weapon attack to generate focus, they have passive bonus to weapon attack... but you have too few spells that promote martial fighting. The afflictions? if you consider the cast time + recovering, you just better to have a full cipher in your group that will support you. He can debuff enemies all the time and your other character can benefit from the buff spells that are ally only (brilliant!). Outside of unlimited focus advantage, rogue is better to apply affliction as a martial class because he do it as weapon attack (no cast time & dmg + affliction in one attack). I find wizard do better for supporting a martial class, because they have instant selfbuffs (like a martial class), summon weapons, a few summons, debuffs. I find soulblade show a really interesting thing that dev should use to expand cipher : spell delivered through weapon attack (soul annihilation). Since cipher are dependant from weapon attack, why not expanding their spell arsenal with some spells that use weapon attacks? That will make cipher really different from other casters. Ciphers need a few more selfbuff spells, specialy early on.