Climhazzard

It's a lot worse, it's not even worth considering unless you're a shapeshifter, since it seems to stack with your claws.

Yes, and we exploited everything we could find. Here's one of me taking advantage of the fact that swift flurry procs off itself. A dev commented on this screenshot even, swift flurry can still proc off itself (so can cleave, lol)... so yeah. It may have lead to the nerf of tier 2 and 3 perception inspirations, but it's clearly still far from balanced.

I don't think Paladins have significantly more active abilities, Penetrating strike will be similar to FoD once you get it. Perhaps you need to use brisk recitation (troubadour) so you can use more invocations? Or alternatively try dual wielding accurate weapons (like rapiers) with skald.

I think it would be alright if these were tier 2 inspirations instead of tier 1, but as they are these spells get an automatic pass from me, they can only be used proactively and on one party member at a time. If I want a spell that can counter afflictions I'd rather be able to use it re-actively, like with suppress affliction, if I'm going to be taking 6 seconds to cast a single target buff it better be a good one, but these really aren't.

If you'd taken a day longer to post this I would have accidentally taken the name for a transcendent build I'm working on, lol. Lucky, since you had it in PoE it should be yours. But now I have to think of something not derivative for my transcendent build, lol. How do you do the spoiler tabs? For my next post I want to add the AI scripts I use for each ability.. but I don't want it to be TLDR.

How far does it shoot? That actually sounds pretty cool tbh...

Drugs give crazy high stats on a high alchemy Nalpazca, and there's an amulet you can get from the bounty to kill Lady Espero that will give you the whiteleaf effect every time you rest, which somewhat negates the downside of Nalpazca. If you don't mind managing your drug supply then Nalpazca is probably the best monk so go for it, just put a few points into athletics then stack alchemy like crazy. Oh just so you know, arcane dampener is a critical weakness for Nalpazca because it suppresses your drug effect and automatically puts you into the -100% healing debuff. It's really only an issue against a few groups of fampyr though.

I've read assassin/ascendant has some nice tricks for quickly maxing out focus, though I haven't tried it out myself. I am currently playing a Nalpazca/Soulblade though which is pretty cool because you can offhand the keybreak scepter to smoothly transition between fighting in melee or range. It works well since most monk abilities are primary attacks (and therefore won't suffer from off handing a scepter) and the scepter modal lets you generate more wounds from range where you can easily cast your cipher abilities.

My solution was basically to not take takedown...

I get the feeling the +action speed to firearms helm doesn't work with Transcendent suffering. Not easy to check anyways since you can't get details on what effects the recovery on fists.

I've been using leather or mail on my melee hybrids supported by a Paladin/chanter tank and Xoti who I also spec melee hybrid, seems to work fine with proper support. Usually just 10/10 for Con/resolve. Piercing seems like the armor you want to prioritize, lot of firing squads in this game, so I avoid the armors that are weak to it, with the exception of the reckless brigandine.

There is a grimoire sold in Devler's row that buffs stats somehow, I don't recall exactly how atm though.

I have been testing out everything monk. Nature godlike + shattered pillar Devoted/Shattered Pillar Devoted/Nalpazca Shatter Pillar/Soul Blade The Devoted Pillar is functionally very similar to the pure pillar but with better survival. It'd be one of my first choices for steady dps/disruption. Next I'm planning on trying a different monk subclass with cipher. I think off handing a scepter would synergize pretty well with any non Pillar monk builds because it would let you build wounds from range if you choose while still using all your monk abilities which are primary attacks anyways, and should work especially well with cipher. It should be a more flexible transcendent than with a pillar monk anyways, and be able to take better advantage of the enduring dance buff. I stopped using Nature godlike, because green, and instead I've been using the +1 intelligence amulet with the surging power buff.

Unbroken + Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage or an item with a similar effect is probably a good combo too. To be honest the subclasses are flavor for specializing, they aren't supposed to be better than the base class. Some of them just happen to be pretty good across the board. I think a few are a bit weak or questionable, but I expect they'll get their share of love eventually.

Well, I equip Aloth with the +accuracy gloves, and any perception items I find. I consider 40% chance to hit alright, I'm pretty sure most debuffs can graze, I would have to check to make sure though. If they can't, try using Dire blessing first. I can't remember what tier perception inspiration Eldritch aim gives you, but if it's higher than first tier then use that first as well. You also want to have a selection of spells that target various defenses, some enemies will for example have really high fortitude but low reflex or will. Sometimes you want to use a low level debuff in preparation for using a more powerful spell. Like on druid I will usually use nature's mark (debuffs reflex) before using returning storm (targets reflex).

One thing I know is "best threat" doesn't target the biggest baddy, not really sure what it does tbh.

I also use nature's mark or whatever it's called to debuff reflex when I have the druid in my team. But sometimes it can be hard to get the debuffs to hit too, plus a lot of spells target fortitude and will as well.

If you're going for PoTD then your party is probably lacking healing. I would swap out someone for the druid, probably Serafen. With Contemplative (XotI) you have a character that when dual wielding fists can react very fast with priest spells like withdraw, but multi class priest healing is a bit lackluster imo. It's still a good combination though, devotions for the faithful and later minor avatar really buff the monk class nicely, and you need the former for your team. Swashbuckler can tank, Palegina isn't a shieldbearer so she'll be low on engagement slots until you can buff them with items, then she could tank as well. I suppose Aloth might also be a tanking option but I don't recall what his stats look like for that. For main healer druid is the most powerful, priest is alright, and paladin can offheal a bit. There are exceptions if you make your own characters though, like my healing wall build https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/98968-class-build-the-healing-wall/ which might even be better as a Kind wayfarer dual wielding offtank. That is to say, Paladin/chanter. For dps options, Serafen can be ranged dps/debuffs, melee dps/debuffs, melee dps. Maia is pure ranged dps. Party composition will vary based on preference. I use something like 1 tank, 2 melee hybrids, 1 ranged dps, 1 pure caster. So for example. My healing wall build as tank. My MC, usually melee dps Xoti, contemplative Maia, scout Aloth, pure wizard If I used Eder or Palegina to tank I would take the druid as my pure caster because I would need more healing in that case. Aloth has a lot of good spells but none of them heal.

Yeah I'm pretty sure most spells don't receive the accuracy bonus from your equipped weapon, which makes their accuracy abysmal on PoTD. I'm pretty sure in PoE a lot of spells had bonus accuracy, but in this game I'm not seeing that. I stopped using offensive invocations on my Herald because they often had a 0-10% chance to hit, and instead started using the armor invocation. Once you get past level 10 or so, and get devotions for the faithful, it's not really an issue anymore. But before that buffs tend to work better than debuffs or damage spells. You'll want to max perception if you really want to use offensive spells, and leveling up alchemy to get bonus accuracy from drugs would help too.

Here's a little list of swords, https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Category:Pillars_of_Eternity_II:_Deadfire_swords It doesn't show the possible upgrades though. I think Duskfall would be a pretty good choice to use with Modwyr if you went Devoted/Berserker.

If only there was a way to automatically feed my crew 1 rice + x hardtack, the minimum amount to prevent morale from dropping. Then that along with the 1,1,1,1,1,1,2 ship combat system would be good enough that I didn't have to care about any of it anymore.

It gives immunity to intellect afflictions correct? I think my first choice would be a Devoted/Berserker since it would counter the confusion debuff. Probably dual wield, you could start with the Watcher's sword in your other hand then transition to anything better that you find along the way.

Pretty much all skill scaling items, armor, and weapons, are completely out of whack.

Set your intellect buffs to activate first, then account for them in the duration. If it's something that changes like turning wheel then I try to use an average instead, I would account for 5 out of 10 possible bonus intelligence, possibly more depending on how I play the character.

Go into your inventory and check the details on the equipped weapon. The reload speed should be highlighted in green. If you mouse over that it will tell you all the effects that are modifying it.