ErlKing

Right now Troubadour is better than Skald in almost everything. You just won't beat 1 extra phrase per 6 seconds because crit have CHANCE to generate phrase. So to have similar speed of phrases generation you have to deal at least 2 crits per 6 seconds. And even then it is pretty random - sometimes you get crits and each is extra phrase, sometimes rare crits and even these won't give you phrases. One more thing - you will have lots of crits only versus weak enemies and against tough opponents when you really need these extra phrases you won't have them. Additionally, as Skald you aren't generating extra phrases while you cast, recover from casting, under CC effect or moving while Troubadour gets them reliably. In my opinion Skald shouldn't be based on crits, maybe extra phrases generation based on number of enemies nearby. Also doubled casting speed on offensive invocations. Restriction - much weaker summons or no summons at all.

You just need to fix Full-Attack abilities to include recovery from main hand. It is single, most imbalanced feature of dual wielding.

Ancient memory or Vampyric song if you don't use Brisk. If you use Brisk - Courage thick as Steel is better, 10 pt shield each 3 seconds is three times more effective and isn't negated by constitution debuffs (-% to healing).

Ideas for Holy Radiance: Holy Radiance applies only once per combat, making target immune to additional ones to prevent from stacking from multiple Priests. Passives tree: 1 Tier - Effect 1: a) Heal - +30% Heal b) Shield - +3 Armor on self for 10 seconds c) Harm - -20% Heal, Interrupts enemies in range 2 Tier - Effect 2: a) Inspire - prolong active Inspirations on allies duration by 5 second b) Neutralize - shortens negative inspiration on allies duration by 5 seconds c) Interdict - prolongs negative Inflictions on enemies duration by 5 seconds 3 Tier - Shape: a) Circle - same old circle, +10% range b) Cone - 120 degree cone, +20% range, effect +10% c) Line - 3 meters wide ray, +50% range, effect +30% 4 Tier - Effect 3: a) Inspire - upgrades active Inspirations to higher grade (Strong to Tenacious and so on) or prolongs duration by 5 seconds if highest b) Neutralize - degrade negative inspiration on allies to lower grade or shortens duration by 5 seconds if lowest c) Interdict - upgrades negative Inflictions on enemies to higher grade or prolongs duration by 5 seconds if highest 5 Tier - summoned weapons effect: a) Holy strike - +20 Accuracy, +50% damage on next attack with summoned weapons. b) Last strike - +50 Accuracy and +100% damage on next attack with summoned weapons, but it also dispels Summoned weapons. c) Reaping strike - if next hit with summoned weapons kills enemy Priest gains one Faith charge for Priest spells (maybe limit by tiers). Any thoughts?

I think Priest should have few super quick spells on each level, similar to Wizard's illusion spells and sellfbuffs. Let these be very quick, but not as beneficial and not as potent as rest of the tier. For example single target inspirations, mediocre single target debuffs and some others 0.5 sec cast and 0 sec recovery. This way combat oriented priest might buff selected members of party, sacrificing utility and power of spells for being able to participate in combat. It will give some options to player - go for fast, but weaker spells or stick to slow and more powerful. Now crazy idea - let all Priest's spells to be available by default, and instead introduce various passives and skill tree for Radiance. About summoned weapons - I think these need some cool unique effects, maybe on kill they could give charge for low tier spells 1 or 2.

Carnage applies Staggered affliction from Spirit Frenzy. I'm not sure if it can apply bleed from Bleed Frenzy though. As far as I know it's the only effect that is applied through carnage. This effect actually works against my high int Marauder (berserker/streetfighter), as it disables engagement and prevents Marauder from being flanked. On other hand it makes it extremely easy to trigger Deathblows passive from Rogue.

Personally, I had this idea of melee caster instead of burning all focus in one attack without extra effects. Soul Annihilation could be modal, but without time to activate, it would limit casting range to melee range and add extra effect (raw damage) in addition to effect of the spell. Also all extra focus burned adds to spell Power Level at some ratio and spell have +20 Accuracy on it's effect. Downside is that Spellblade needs to hit opponent with attack (vs Deflect) before he could apply the spell, no effect on graze or miss. It might be overly complicated and I suspect it might be hard to implement. Overall Spellblade would have ability to supercharge his spells into melee punches with extra effects. This will keep signature surge attack, but still will be able to use their spells as base for the attack. As for other subclasses - I agree, some definitely need some tweaking (like Corpse-eater or ranger subclasses).

And Berserker/Streetfighter will probably out-dps both. Not that it's a helpful advice though, as OP asked advice for his particular combo. Thus said, I want to give my opinion on Monks in general. Honestly, I don't know why everybody is crazy about Monks. Sure, there are some nifty abilities at higher levels, but right at start they are pretty boring - no Full attack abilities, except for Stunning punch, which becomes renewable on crit at high levels. Knockdown attack and AoE kick, which stagger (and later Stuns) enemies in cone, both Primary attack, so no synergy with dual wield. Fire lash and Int boost are good, but you either have them or use your abilities, so do. Rooting pain is interesting, but I'm not sure it's such gamechanger. I tried to start with Monk at 1.0 version, but it was a bit underwhelming due to lack of abilities, so I started trying other classes. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I expected to combo special moves or something, but auto-attacking with bare fists almost all the time and general squishiness left me unimpressed. I recently made a pure monk adventurer (14 lvl) and tried to use in my party. Kicks, stuns and buffs surelly made it more entertaining, but performance wise it was still not as good as my Marauder. No special effects from weapons, no crazy stacking speed buffs (frenzy + bloodlust), no fancy combat teleport for repositioning (though Flaggelant path is pretty nice). Extra stuff on crits and renewable full-attack with stunning fist are good, but without Berserker crazy hit-to-crit conversion it is unreliable in tough fights. Only thing that I really like about monk is renewable resource - Wounds, on other hand almost all really cool abilities work on Mortification, so you run out of it pretty fast. Oh, and extra range on melee attacks - this is somewhat unique. I probably playing Monk wrong way or something, but it wasn't that fun at earlier stages and on quick test wasn't mindblowing at midgame.

Few notes about Corpse-Eater: Special food that boost Power Level affect only Barbarian, so if you multiclass it with caster you won;t get additional Power Level. I'm sad, it was last redeemable potential feature of Corpse-eater. He doesn't actually have any barbarian powers that would benefit much from boosted Power Level. Heal on eating corpse is nice, but +1 cost of abilities makes it really hard to use any. Another thing is that crits and some spells often destroy bodies, preventing Corpse eater from actually eating. Overall I would say it is worse than default barbarian in almost everything. I had hopes that he might be good for multiclass with casters, but no, it doesn't work.

Easy solution is for these skill bonuses to be capped. Let it be +1 deflection per point of Intimidate, but only up to 5 or 10. Same with other skill scaling items.

Oh, right, I misread the question. Sorry about that. Now, to answer the question properly: 1) There are armor enchants that reduce recovery time in general, it doesn't depend on armor and works as a separate modifier when calculating total recovery time. You can easily go bellow base recovery, especially with specific buffs and passive abilities of few classes. 2) There are few things - fighter passive and specific pet, that reduce actual armor recovery penalty directly, but I know only about these two and haven't tested how these work together. Either way even cumulative effect shouldn't reduce armor recovery bellow 0. Also these modifiers reduce armor penalty by adding multiplier to it, so with fighter passive you should have 0.75*20%=15% recovery penalty, not 20%-20%=0%. For example Miscreant armor have 20% recovery penalty and enchantment that gives -10% recovery time. If you wear this armor with special pet, I think recovery penalty will be down to 8% (though I'm not sure), so with -10% recovery time you result recovery will be [ 1*1.08*0.9=0.97 ] slightly bellow 100%.

Short answer - No. Modifiers are sort of multiplicative rather than additive. Check pinned topic: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/98679-mechanics-attack-speed-recovery-time-reload-time/

Depends on what you would call fun. Among martial classes I would say Barbarian and Rogue are offensive oriented ones and get fun stuff from the start. For Barbarian Berserker sub-class is min-maxing for damage and Corpse-eater is just for style, as it's worse than default barbarian gameplay wise. Assassin or Streetfighter for Rogue give nice bonuses, first lets you play as stealthy damage spike hero and second more of skirmisher in midst of enemies. Combining these two give Marauder - pretty fun class to play with good passives and Frenzy from barbarian and mobility tools plus powerful debilitating attacks from Rogue. You have to position Marauder and combine effects properly to get max effect from Marauder, but result is great and it is satysfying when you can pull it off. Alternatively mixes with other classes are also interesting: Holy Slayer (Paladin+Rogue) is a bit more tanky and single target oriented, while also having some support capabilities. Warlock (Wizard+Barbarian) is a bit weird, but pretty interesting combo when you get few levels under your belt. Early on you spend all your casts way too quickly, but later extra speed and buffs from barbarian help to unleash spell barrage onto enemy really fast. Rogue+Wizard is another wizard combo, but focusing on damage by stacking debuffs and utilizing sneak attack (and assassinate) to boost damage from your spells. I wouldn't recommend Ciphers because while interesting, their main strength is in charming opponents. It is powerful tool, allowing you to fight opponents above your level, but it becomes boring pretty quick. Soul annihilation subclass is one-trick pony which would bore you out in no time, so don't pick it unless you want to use it whole game. Ascendant might be interesting if you combine it with powerful martial class like Barbarian or Rogue. At least you would be able to cast spells without worry about uses per encounter and such.

You can also use firecrackers (special gloves) to distract NPC, it is even hinted in tutorial.

If description is correct Arterial strike works only when enemy is moving.

Right now Corpse eaters still not viable, so unless you want to play one for RP reasons you better pick berserker or default barbarian. I would like to see Corpse eaters as Witcher-like fighter, not eating corpses on spot like a zombie, but loot special ingredients from Kith/Wilder enemies and craft special foods from it that might help with hard fights. These bonuses might be powerful, but since you can have only one active Corpse-eater will have to choose which one he needs for the fight. Something like that: Generic bonus from kith meat that applies to all special foods = + Power Level (depending on rarity of ingredients) Kith meat + drakes wings = + Burn/Freeze armor Kith meat + troll meat = Health restore per second - Burn armor penalty Kith meat + goblins(small lizardlike creatures) = + Action speed - Armor Kith meat + bones = + Armor - Recovery speed Kith meat + ogre meat = + Might and Penetration - Intellect - Will Kith meat + spirit essense = + Intellect +Accuracy with Will attacks - Constitution Additionally instead of +1 Rage cost I would change negative on Corpse eaters to 'get no bonuses from regular food' and overall -1 Power level penalty. Consume flesh instead of restoring 3 Rage points would restore 2 points and give stacking +1 Power level bonus.

Warlock (Barbarian) is an interesting choice for Speed bonuses. Frenzy and Bloodlust give +20% action speed each. Berserker also gives +2 penetration to your spells, but you have to deal with Confusion debuff, damage over time and hidden health meter. Unorthodox choice - Corpse-eater has +1/+2 Power Level boosts from certain food (kith meat and craftable specials), but you don't get enough for it to be viable. I would say Rogue-Wizard is more powerful due to Sneak attacks modifiers, mobility tools and such. You have limited number of casts anyway, so instead of casting them faster you might want them to hit as hard as possible. Also with Blunderbus/Streetfighter you can have up to +100% damage from sneak attacks and -50% recovery time on spells.

As I stated somewhere else I would prefer Pallid Fate to work differently, instead of triggering on Near Death, it could work as aura, giving + to Power Level if there are Near Dead characters in certain range (including Death godlike as well). It would still have this 'more powerful in presence of death', but more interesting gameplay wise. Also it will give some variety, making Death godlike different from other races with triggers on health loss. Personally I play as Death godlike Marauder (berserker) and only use for Pallid Fate for me was to show when I reach Near death state to start healing. I don't remember ever successfully utilizing this bonus because you either heal up with spell or consumable or die in next hit.

Why noone talks about Death, Fire and Moon godlikes, they have much worse racial bonuses than Nature one.

Just wanted to share a screenshot with lucky hit.

For me Barbarian part of Marauder is more of crazyness than being a brute. I was even considering Corpse-eater barbarian when I learned that there are stuff like: Forbidden Flesh Pie - Heavily seasoned Kith meat, ground and baked into a greasy crust. The strong spices cover up the unsavory taste, but the knowledge will stay with you forever. [-1 Int, +2 Might, +2 Power Level (only for Corpse-eater), -3 Diplomacy] Sadly, this particular approach isn't viable due to lack of ingredients, for some reason you can only loot kith meat from other cannibals, but not collect it directly from source. Also, there isn't much variety in this 'special food'. Anyway, even if it would be easily accessible it wouldn't outweigh Berserker benefits, but it would be an interesting playstyle - unique food based buffs.

Staggered and Distracted would count for Deathblows and you apply Staggered through Carnage with Spirit Frenzy on. Before 1.1 I think Staggered was guaranteed, not it's Will attack. It triggers fairly often unless you play PoTD, so it would be easy to trigger Deathblows. Actually engagement shout might be good with decent Int as it becomes radius instead of cone. Not the best debuff, but it costs 1 Rage and with Streetfighter recovery boost it's fairly quick. On other hand Wizards, Ciphers and Priests have better debuffs and Marauder's time better spent on killing things.

I'm a bit weird, so don't take it as a optimal build or something. I went with Death Godlike just for style, so that's just my way of playing. 10 Might 10 Con 18 Perception 10 Dexterity 19 Intellect 9 Resolve I get crazy damage boosts from crits, sneak attack and streetfighter bonus, so might can be left small. It would be probably better to boost dextery instead of Int, but I prefer my buffs and debuffs to last longer and area effects to have wider range, so that's why Int. Level 1 - Frenzy + Crippling Strike Level 2 - Escape Level 3 - Blooded Level 4 - Two-Handed Style (or Dual wield) + Barbaric Smash Level 5 - Thick Skin Level 6 - Dirty Fighting Level 7 - Finishing Blow + Bloodlust Level 8 - Combat Focus (extra concentration is actually pretty useful) Level 9 - Arterial strike (You don't really need blinding strike and this quick raw bleed is good in some cases) Level 10 - Persistent Distraction + Spirit Frenzy Level 11 - Riposite (might be good with Escape) Level 12 - Level 13 - Barbaric Smash + Deep Wounds Level 14 - Devastating Blow Level 15 - Unflinching (you won't be always bloodied and three resistances in one passive is great) Level 16 - Interrupting blows + Improved Critical Level 17 - Brute Force Level 18 - Sap/Slippery Mind (??? haven't planned for this yet) Level 19 - Deathblows and Spirit Tornado Level 20 - Blood Thirst Arterial strike - sometimes you can hit one or two enemies with it and then jump away with Escape, letting them to die from bleed as they walk (hobbled they can't even run). I mostly used Arterial strike instead of Finishing Blow, especially with high number of enemies because with dual wield any Full attack ability is much better than auto-attack. I don't think you need roar for extra engagement, you already have +1 from Thick skinned and +1 from Persistent distraction. Interrupt roar is interesting, but it is usually better to stab stuff instead of screaming on it. Might be good for interrupting casters, but they usually have concentration anyway.

I was a bit disappointed with some of sub-classes, so I want to know your opinion and maybe ideas. 1) Darcozzi paladin - Fire shield is just way too situational in comparison to other paladin sub-classes. I would like it to be replaced by Sworn enemy additional debuff -15 accuracy vs everyone else besides Darcozzi paladin. Sort of mocking or taunt that makes enemy harder to focus on his target. This will make it easy to use defensive boost, which aligns with snarking Darcozzi paladin style. 2) Corpse eater - ability is underwhelming and also situational. I find it's interesting that Corpse eater have unique effects with specific food and I think it could be best feature of sub-class, but it is strangely underused. Corpse eater should be able to loot kith meat from killed humans, to use it for further fights. It would have interesting aspect of brawler-alchemist - spend time to prepare special food from harvesting various bodies to empower himself instead of instant boost on spot like berserker. This would make sub-class more appealing for caster multiclass, like Witch or Warlock - boost general Power Level though questionable dietary solutions and use it to cast stronger spells. Right now it's kinda weird - Corpse eater can eat fresh corpses of enemies to replenish health, but can't eat zombies, though he loots kith meat from zombies, which he can eat on rest. Are zombies too tough to eat raw and should be cooked beforehand? 3) Death godlike - racial boosts are really hard to use, but maybe it's intentional. I don't want racial abilities to play large role in choosing race, but there could be some tweaks to make it more usable. Personally I would prefer if Power Level boost worked as aura - as long as there are Near Dead enemies near Death Godlike (7 meters range?) he gets Power Level boost. Maybe 1 point per low health enemy up to some max amount. It wouldn't be reliable, like Nature godlike, but potentially much cooler than 'boost which usually lasts few seconds before you die'.

You can just cast Chill Fog over your team - blind party cannot be gazed into serving 'sparkling' fampyrs.