Kaylon

My personal opinion is the first PoE sold well because it was advertised as the spiritual successor of BG and many people had great expectations. Since PoE2 wasn't a big improvement over the first, mostly players who enjoyed the first bought it. And for me, the fact that most people don't even finish their game should be the main indicator for developers, not the sales...

You can give WotEP to Rekke (fighter/barbarian).

I will give an example of arbitrary - there's no way to predict if a dot will stack with itself without testing. Some stack, some just refresh their duration while others can't be applied until the first expires.

I didn't play P:K yet, but I can understand why Deadfire wasn't a big success, because I had a very hard time myself getting into it. Overall the story is pretty weak (I was never hooked by it), the hero lacks the epicness of this kind of games (being a watcher isn't a big deal overall/doesn't make you feel very special) and the game system is very obscure and unintuitive (many rules feel completely arbitrary/are hard to understand).

You can compare games to movies... The movies considered "best" by the critics are rarely the ones with the most entries. Which one is "better" is debatable because the "elite" (critics) look for something else in movies compared to "common" (most) people. When both parts are pleased then you really have a jewel...

Have you identified the shrine first? Maybe try also other shrines... If it doesn't work then it was probably patched.

Arcane Archer/cipher (no subclass) with Frostseeker (and Essence Interrupter with modal) is really great. The cipher will add more damage/accuracy/defenses/penetration, as well as plenty of buffs for your pet. With your accuracy (+ ability to debuff enemies deflection) Frostseeker will proc like crazy and the AOE also contributes to your focus generation (allowing you to cast spells at leisure).

Use the explosive barrels and find a spot where the enemies can attack one at a time (in melee).

How? Also, how do you expect to trigger Blade Cascade? Anyway, you can't expect to beat the mega bosses with Vanishing Strike - you have to use Gouging Strike and wait...

The buff should be modded to work like Empower...

Paladin/Bloodmage and Paladin/Troubadour are the strongest for solo/party, right from the beginning. However, like for PoE1, you need good knowledge of the game to use them at their full potential. Paladin/Troubadour is probably easier to play when you start for the first time.

These combos have many special interactions and are easy to roleplay - one is close to the nature (draws his power from it), one to the gods (draws his power from them) and one to the real world (draws his power from himself). They are also representative of some of the most important traits of the Deadfire Archipelago. For the third option I think Soul Blade/Blood Mage is a more interesting combo.

Here are a few suggestions: Race: 1. Island Aumaua 2. Fire Godlike 3. Moon Godlike Culture: Deadfire Archipelago Background: 1. Aristocrat 2. Clergy 3. Mercenary Class: 1. Ghostheart/Fury 2. Magran's Priest/ Bleakwalker 3. Soul Blade/Blood Mage

If I remember well it's 10% with 20 metaphysics.

The hunting bow modal isn't viable on the first island, but later is just as reliable as melee attacks. Hunting bows come with +5acc, add the Ring of the Marksman and Acina's Tricorn and you have the same accuracy as melee weapons. The Essence Interrupter is nice for the shock damage, but Aamina's Legacy and the Red Hand have better dps overall If you don't have penetration issues.

Yes, other abilities can work too, but are less reliable. Force of Anguish targets fortitude, Torment's Reach isn't sustainable and Forbidden Fist can't be easily spammed.

The most offensive shield builds are soulblade/trickster or soulblade/monk using Sun and Moon & Tuotilo's Palm. They allow you to spam Soul Annihilation with the speed of a dual wielder.

Of course you can play a melee cipher, but you won't be a very good caster. To be tanky you need good armor and defensive attributes/items which will make you a mediocre caster. If you want to be a good caster it's better to play as a ranged character because you can focus more on casting and less on defense. The best multi-class for a caster is obviously the helwalker which adds mig, int, speed, penetration, accuracy and summons, but makes him even more squishy (which forces you to become even more defensive or to play in the back to avoid damage). PS. If you stack reflecting items on yourself (head, neck, chest, back) the Dichotomous Soul can be used to reflect back to you spells that work only on allies (Pain Block, Ancestor's Memory)

The unity console hasn't be officially updated and doesn't work with the actual version of the game. You need some modified files to make it work - you have to look for them in the posts about the mod (on the Unity Console page on the Nexus site).

Since there's no complete list of unique spells I thought about actualizing this thread: Weathered Grimoire lvl 1 - Arcane Assault Jernaugh's Careful Calamities lvl 6 - Jernaugh's Equalizing Burst Zandethus' Dragon-Scaled Grimoire lvl 7 - Zandethus' Draconic Fury Bekarna's Celestial Grimoire lvl 6 - Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure lvl 7 - Bekarna's Midnight Daydream

Yes, for some encounters Gouging Strike might cause such problems, but you're not forced to use it. Sometimes enemies also get stuck and can't reach their destination which keeps them in combat forever, preventing Brilliant from triggering - then you have to aggro them and become invisible again to reset their state... Sometimes it takes a little testing to find the best approach because strange AI behavior can cause some quirks.

No, only Hauany is resistant to might afflictions. That's why a monk spamming WotW has no problems dealing with the merge - the oozes are perma stunned. (You never watched the videos of monks soloing Hauani?). The hardest mega boss for a monk is Auranic (but a monk can also stay stealthed and send unlimited Dichotomus Souls do the job for him).

If there was a reliable way to prevent the splitting of the big ooze then we would have a strong candidate here. A thing I don't understand however, is how the monk can stun with every hit of the WotW, while the rogue can't do it from invisibility.

Using other abilities will leave you visible and exposed to attacks - you might kill faster, but you can also be killed... The Trollhide belt is indeed very useful in long fights (or if you play with Woedica's challenge) to heal the self damage from Dragon's Dowry, but you can have also Lethandria's Devotion in another slot and switch to it when needed.

Another surprisingly good weapon is St.Droga's Skull - it comes with 20% burn lash and also 20% chance to proc burn dmg (50% dmg of the sabre) in a large AoE. Overall it's like a 20% lash weapon with 10% AoE dmg.