Kaylon

Personally I'm not impressed at all by the AI to say the least. I have a rogue/soul blade and I made something very simple - use Soul Annihilation every time I have resources (nothing else). The result : my character is doing auto attacks most of the time with his focus bar maxed...

There's only one hat giving +2 Illusions. For all other types of spells nothing beats a nature godlike. An Evoker wizards using fire spells can have: +1 power level from subclass +2 power level from racial (use fleet feet to trigger it) +2 power levels from Firethrower's Gloves +3 power levels from Magran's Favor battle axe +1 power levels from resting bonus +1 power levels from buffs for a total of +10 power levels without even using Empower...

If you play a chanter Sasha is the best (atk spd+lash). However I consider swords>sabres overall (better enchantments and dual dmg > 10%dmg bonus)

For spells the rule is simple: +10%dmg, +5%duration and +0.3penetration per (Power Level - Spell Level). So a nature godlike starts already with 20%dmg, 10%duration and 0.6penetration advantage as a spellcaster. For martial classes the benefit of the PL is marginal at best and varies from case to case. PS. These bonuses increase the base stats of the spells (ie they are multiplied also by mig/int bonuses) - ie Empower more than doubles the initial damage and increases the duration by half (in the case of a DoT the total dmg is more than tripled with Empower).

Most classes are already weaker than they were in PoE and starting with the class nerfs is just stupid. Right now the imbalance is caused mainly by 3 things: 1. Empower - because of the huge effect it has on some spells 2. Items - some new items are too strong and can turn a weak class into a viable one or a balanced one into an OP class 3. New game mechanics - the armor doesn't count anymore with enough penetration which means you can deal full damage to the enemies all the time, while healing has become too powerful making you almost immortal - these are some of the reasons the encounters feel trivial now Once these issues are addressed then class abilities can be tuned.

Really? What abilities make the paladin so OP? Sacred immolation? How about being immune to death on LoH (unlimited with this invocation) and +gazillion to all defenses from faith and conviction. You don't need to do a lot of damage if you can't die. Btw you can spam Sacred immolation all you want if you can't die anyway . Death immunity looks good only on paper because the paladin doesn't need it to stay alive - a potion or a simple heal does the same thing. If it had 20-30s base duration maybe you could make a case... 20-30s base duration would be broken beyond belief as it easily goes into 40-60+ sec with the right build. And maybe you won't normally need it - but it's because the game is too freaking easy for the most part right now. If the character is basically unkillable it's about as OP as it gets. Btw, where's the logic about saying it's useless and then complaining about Sacred Immolation. If Sacred immolation is bad because it kills you, but you can't die, suddenly both are not useless. 5s of immunity doesn't make you unkillable, sorry. And like I said, if you have to use it only once in a while then a simple potion does the same thing. Spamming LoH to stay alive or chugging potions is the same thing really. Even if you manage to survive it doesn't mean SI becomes suddenly viable - simply because the gains are not worth the effort.

Really? What abilities make the paladin so OP? Sacred immolation? How about being immune to death on LoH (unlimited with this invocation) and +gazillion to all defenses from faith and conviction. You don't need to do a lot of damage if you can't die. Btw you can spam Sacred immolation all you want if you can't die anyway . Death immunity looks good only on paper because the paladin doesn't need it to stay alive - a potion or a simple heal does the same thing. If it had 20-30s base duration maybe you could make a case...

Really? What abilities make the paladin so OP? Sacred immolation?

You can spam Evasive fire qute alot its 0.5 sec cast and 0sec recovery, so you can shoot a slow attack arquebus with modal active without reloading 10 times in 5sec (with a reloading of maby 8-9sec). There is abilitys to regain resources aswell, have not looked that well into them myself tho. And after that you can switch to a faster attacking weapon. You can't spam Evasive Shot because you have limited resources and its damage has nothing to do with the weapon equipped.

What are the good abilities? Gunner and Marksman? I have to repeat myself: Evasive Fire is good. Apparently nobody ever used it because nobody answers when I bring it up. It's a very good mobility skill that also does decent single target damage and is very fast. But they keep saying that ranger's abilites are bad... Accurate Wounding Shot (Full Attack with +20 ACC and a bit of raw damage for only 1 Bond) is pretty good, too. Marked for the Hunt is also decent. Just because there are several pet abilites doesn't mean that the whole class is bad. As I said before: having an animal companion is a huge advantage per se. If people don't like the animal companion and feel that the rest of the ranger's abilites that don't include the pet are not exactly OP (surprise surprise!) then why not take another class for a ranged build instead of trying to play a crippled ranger? I agree that high level abilites feel pretty uninspired and not thought through. Twinned Shot is just bad. Evasive Fire is not a passive you can spam all day, it's just a situational escape tool which is nice if you're surrounded by enemies. However once you have the boots of speed and fast runner no enemy should come close to you anyway. The only decent one is Marked for the hunt because you have to cast it once and the bonus stays for the entire fight. Wounding shot has now only one purpose - to help boost the damage of your pet for a few seconds ( )... And yes, it's a shame that the only ranged specialist from PoE was reduced to his pet.

But it is op though, sure, speed runner used invisibility to cheese out of fights, but if you play normally you can stay untouchable during fights and deal massive damage multiple times with backstab and assassinate. You can't because you don't have enough resources

What are the good abilities? Gunner and Marksman?

The pet should be a part of the class, but not the major part of the class. The ranger wasn't very strong in PoE either but at least he was the best ranged class. In Deadfire the class was nerfed into oblivion - stripped of every modals, wounding shot does the same dmg as the rogue's passive ( ), stunning shots and twinned shots are big jokes, etc...

I think the ranger should have more options to empower himself than his pet - right now it's the opposite. (The damage should be greatly shifted in the favor of the ranger instead of the pet.)

@MaxQuest Can you explain how the 25% recovery reduction from Armored Grace becomes 0.1 in your formula?

Depending how it stacks I think DoC breastplate bonus + Armored Grace = no recovery penalty from it...

I don't forget the pet, however the discussion was about the ranged damage potential... And right now the ranger should be considered the pet and the animal your main.

Another thing - the raw damage you take is increased by: - might - power level - sworn enemy bonus (if used) - possibly other bonuses increasing SI damage... The base duration of the AoE is 12s and isn't affected by PL, the duration of the raw dmg it is however... Anyway, with 20int the spell pulses just 2 more times...

The paladin can cast Withdraw on himself from scrolls and yes it works...

Driving flight works in a very narrow angle behind your target, which means you can't count on it. Frostseeker shots 3 times but does very little damage. A chanter, a monk, a rogue or a cipher can deal much more ranged damage than a ranger.

Withdraw actually works and you can cast it easily on yourself using scrolls, however SI duration was nerfed greatly and you will pass more time withdrawn than doing damage...

Might>Per>Dex. Might is multiplicative with the other damage bonuses and thus suffers from less diminshing returns. Perception adds by itself more dmg (reduces misses and increases criticals) and has also a multiplicative effect because it can affect the synergies between abilities. Dex bonus is additive with the other speed buffs and can suffer very fast from diminishing returns (especially if you're using 2 weapons).

The recovery bonus from items like Devil of Caroc's breastplate are additive with the rest or they work like Armored Grace?

Let's hope the other bonuses we're supposed to get from PoE aren't affected by the same bug...

Well, that depends on character builds, doesn't it? +1 penetration I think it's good for every build.