Ouroboros226

I don't need a portrait anymore. I paid an artist on artstation 100$+ to make one for me, so I'd have the perfect portrait to 100% fit my character. I actually did want to share it here with you guys, but since the portrait was a modification of an existing portrait for another client - she wouldn't let me share it so I have to respect the artist one that one. As I said it was only for personal use. Basically the plan was to scour artstation for the portrait that looked closest to the one I wanted, then pay the artist which made it - to custom mod the changes I needed to get my perfect character portrait. I'm so tempted to just share it because she did an amazing job but I caaaan't argh

I still haven't completed the game, and I'm In a relative new one (altoholic / rerolleritis extreme). I did port Maje and went to Neketaka and did some quest, and thought I'd explore a bit. Well... big mistake... MAJOR SPOILERS I THINK - NOTE: PLEASE DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING EITHER - I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF THIS MESSES UP STUFF LIKE QUESTS ETC. I saw some black lands and tried to approach a settlement, and in the background is none other than friggin EOTHAS by an adra pillar! I did not intend to accidentally find him. I haven't even started on the main quest chain. But I walk up on the bridge and wtf - that's him... and now I managed to spoil myself if this is relevant later - that giants worshipping Magran live here. I wanted to stick my toe into the water and went a bit further. Talked myself past some giants. Then I got wiped in like 6 seconds by a bunch of dragons. This kinda sucked. I mean... I instantly quit the game and I'm considering restarting again and deleting my character. I think I might have found the endgame area by complete accident at low level. Will this mess up my quests and stuff?

Ahh such a bummer. Grimoires not swappable in combat, but grimoire spells can be cast once each per rest or something - would make grimoires relevant. At least I don't have to hoard them now, vendoring all of them.

So eh... Wizards only have 2 spells per tier. So with lvl3 spells you'll have 6 spells to cast in an encounter. I thought the whole idea with grimoires was that the spells in the grimoires could be cast in addition to your regular spells. So wizards won't end up having nothing to do in longer fights. However I just noticed that the spells in the grimoire, still requires 1 out of the 2 resources for that tier. So if I have a grimoire with fireball - I won't actually have 2 spells + 1 fireball for the encounter. It only means I can now use resources to cast a skill I haven't invested a point in obtaining. This kinda makes grimoires feel useless imo. Not only that, it makes pure wizard feel weaker too. You could just multiclass and get ALL your spells from grimoires, not investing a single skill point in wizard spells. I'm kinda dumbfounded because I thought the whole idea of grimoires was that you can cast the spells in the grimoire once per encounter or rest or something, in addition to your regular spells... but they use wizard resource points - making them pretty much completely obsolete if you have 2-3 spells you want for each tier. Have I misunderstood something about grimoires? O.o I thought it was a cool idea to gain additional spells from grimoires. But you actually don't... they use resource points too.

So you CAN actually stealth in and use noxious cloud, deathring, malignant cloud, chill cloud etc. with impunity /w smoke veil cycling? Do you think multi-classing only for the assassin bonus and stealth is bad compared to pure wizard? Seeing how you can make invis potions which covers half the point of me trying this in the first place Unless invis potions are expensive or difficult to make that is. Using 2 per encounter I'd need hundreds.

Yeah no way to know all the contributing factors and their scale. For me it was a big negative, however - it is (imo) executed so well I enjoy it immensely DESPITE having serious negative connotations to such. Which I'd say is a huge compliment to the devs in my book. I hope the world map thing wasn't ill received? One of the best and most fun features is the world travel imo. I enjoy POE2 so much I'm considering gifting a few copies to some friends of mine just to support the game. I think it's a masterpiece so far. I haven't completed it yet (rerolled like 10+ times) but they would have to really, really mess up to ruin it so I doubt I'll be disappointed by the end.

Thanks for letting me know. I didn't know a chill fog dot pulse would break your smoke cloud if it ticks. I'm still theorycrafting this, currently struggling most to decide between transmutation, conjurer, generalist or blood mage.

The game selling poorly leading to less incentive to bother change and improve stuff? A comment about it selling poorly. I think boats, oceans and pirates is a hard sell. I can't speak for everyone, but the reason I did not buy POE2 initially - was the prevalence of the pirate, boats and ocean themes. This had a MAJOR impact on me negatively. Civ, Red Alert... probably 20+ other games... boats, ocean and naval stuff is usually bad. The fear of pirates being overstereotyped is there (becoming silly and over the top). I've totally fallen in love with PoE2. Because the pirate stuff is more grounded and brutal. Not "cartoonishly" silly. The boat fights and travel - I love it. Good execution. Story and characters, I love it all. IMO POE2 failed to sell well because oceans, boats and pirates is a hard sell. The cover is also kinda dull. The cover of a game is the first impression - companions fighting in a boat is a "meh" when it comes to advertisement and a poor hook. So IMO the marketing failed when it came to the decision of the game cover, and the heavy emphasis on boats/water/pirates. They should have used a different cover for the game, and tried to sell it in other areas (the game doesn't lack there). Anyway I'm ranting again... I'd just like to say that - though I personally reject balancing mods - I have lots of respect for those of you that put so much time and effort into such mods to make it a more enjoyable experience for people that want it. Especially if you feel the devs stopped caring. My stance is a vast minority, and I'm very happy and appreciative of people like you committing so much time into making games better or more fun to people's taste. I'm just stating this incase you got the impression that I'm unhappy with modders adding balance changes. It's the other way around, I just personally don't use mods that alters balance.

Thanks for the link. But I'm a modding purist. Though I do love mods (over 100+ in Skyrim alone) - I never - ever - use mods that changes gameplay balance in any way, shape or form. The reason I've always taken this stance, is because I am heavily opposed to gameplay balance responsibility being handed/shifted to modders instead of developers. IMO it is the people making the games, that should be responsible for game balance. Because it creates a fair objective baseline experience for people, even in games without direct competition. I only share my opinions on balance when I think issues of game balance is really bad. But I always respect developer choices in such if their statement is "This is how we want it". By that I mean - I'm airing my dissatisfaction for game balance here. But if a dev responded with arguments for WHY it's this way, and why they want to keep it that way - and state they won't change it for those reasons. I respect that and concede. What is problematic for me with the subclasses I mentioned - is that it's almost like the developers don't play their own game. Many of the subclasses are just really poorly balanced to the point that it seems like they don't even care or are ignorant to the gameplay experience of those subclasses. Maybe a lack of playtesting? I don't know - I'm just speculating. PS: This may be pretty harsh criticism, but I'd rather be blunt and honest in such. I love Obsidian and their games but I just can't understand the balancing of many of the subclasses. IMO many of them are too strong even.

I'm making a fart mage build right now. Conjuration or Transmutation spellblade assassin. I can't say if it's a failure YET but it probably will be dunno. The idea is to go in invis and "fart" AOE spells (durations and/or instants). Then go invis and sneak, farting another cloud of AOE poison, then invis - repeat. The idea is basically as simple as it sounds. Sneak in, fart, sneak out and hope they blame each other for the smell. Then do it again. Assassin for extra punch and for smoke cloud invis. Don't want to be blamed for dropping them bombs.

I'm relatively new so I'm not sure if my suggestions for balancing hold any weight with you guys. But I also think there are some other really horrible subclasses. Corpse Eater for barb: Should remove +1 rage cost to abilities. It should rather grant a 2nd barbarian rage resource pool which starts at 0 and can be filled to 5 by eating corpses. This being the corpse eater's "stomach" so to speak. So that you can use up to +5 rage in a difficult encounter if you've eaten that many people. People you eat staying in your stomach until used indefinitely. Causes a constitution and ACC penalty the more empty your stomach is. This way corpse eating isn't just useful situationally, but becomes a strategic resource as you can save up corpses for harder encounters. Mage Slayer thing for barb: Why does this also affect friendly spells? It is perfectly balanced around no potions or scrolls already. 33% chance to evade any hostile spell, and not affecting positive spells and this subclass is fixed. Wizard subclasses. Why not give the specialized class +3 power level, and the unspecialized classes -1? Or select one school by choice as the magic you neglected to learn to specialize. So that you get like +2 power level and specialization bonus to one, then you choose one spell school which is disabled for you. Why is Obsidian sticking to the archaic DnD rules by mimicking them at their worst, when they make their own system with the freedom to be creative here? There's a few more but these are the worst imo. Not sure what the consensus is among you veterans here but I think these badly needs to be changed.

Thanks for the link and the tips, I'll check it out.

Hi I'm still fairly new to Deadfire, though not RPGs. The way I prefer to play the game is real time with pause, Veteran, only controlling my own character and not babysitting my companions (though needed occationally). I was wondering if I could get some feedback of my current assessment of the default AI behaviors. So that I'd have some advice and can bask in the knowledge of you veterans here I don't intend to learn and use fully custom made scripts before PoTD. I do use some minor modifications to the script though. 1) Healers. I found this one best when modifying to heal at 75% and not 50% health loss. I use cautious, aggressive - list order. This way, the healer/s will always heal someone who has taken 25% damage or more. And if no healing targets, they will use CC and damage spells. CC is damage prevention, which is as valuable if not more than healing - stopping damage being dealt in the first place. So also having healer use CC seems to work excellent as a 2nd priority. 2) Tanks. For some reason, I've actually found the most efficient one to be cautious and aggressive, set to random priority. I first thought cautious then aggressive list order or power level priority would be best. Or even just cautious. But it seems this is the best one for performance. 3) Strikers and CC I just set to highest power level and aggressive. Since an encounter is easier the faster you kill or remove threats, it makes logical sense to use the most powerful stuff FIRST and not least no? 4) Melee DPS / off-tank. Aggressive, highest power level priority. 5) For all party members that are not healers, but do have a healing ability. I modify so that their first priority is always to heal someone if at 25% health or lower. This is because - if someone takes a lot of burst damage, an off-heal alleviating the main healer will help. Or if the healer is disabled, there is a second layer of healing as a defense to prevent deaths. So as you can see I'm playing with a pretty basic default set-up with just minor personal modifications. The reason I made this post, is that... I want to ask you guys who are veterans at this game what you think of the above. Incase I can optimize it further. Or if something above is really bad or wrong so I can fix it.

If you play a herald with the 1H/1s and the paladin aura for 3H/3s, how are these treated differently? Because they both average out to 1H per 1s. Is one more powerful than the other? Also in regards to the ancient memory 1H/1s. Does this mean I would need +100% healing for it to become 2H/1s? or does it get rounded up if it passes 1.5 multiplier? I'm basically just wondering how the game calculates small numbers in terms of rounding and such for the sake of healing, especially in cases where the healing is so small that decimals are important if applied in X way or form. For example, if I want a Herald character to perform a role as off-tank which doesn't need might stat. But have their secondary role be supplement healing through ancient memory, would Might then be relevant if it can push it to 2H/1s, or would you need +100% for it to go from 1-2 per sec?

Thanks for the advice I'm still paralyzed between the choice of berserker/shifter and assassin/shifter if anyone can help with that as well lol. I can't play atm due to indecision.

Just wondering if arterial strike upgrade still does some dot damage, or if it is completely useless if the opponent does not move. Not sure if this upgrade is worth it. Debilitating upgrade allows sneak attack bonus and lowers ACC, so you can riposte more when engaged 1v1 with mobs - so that just seems plain better unless the DoT of arterial strike is still somewhat decent against stationary targets.

This one ( head frame) could work in the meantime. If anyone feels like helping out I have no clue how to "portraitify" pictures. All I know is they have to end with _lg and... _sl? I think. Edit: Made them myself. Just sharing if anyone wants them. Just hope I did it right. Edit2: I couldn't figure out how to make pictures smaller without losing quality. Seems it's better to find pictures with lower res.

Nothing wrong with not liking her. A friend of everyone, is a friend of no one - as the saying goes. I personally find fish man the best healer. Passive chanter healing aura coupled with the strong heals over time is more than enough. I'm fairly new. Been rerolling a lot learning the game. But in my experience so far, is that he is the strongest healer. Only gripe is he doesn't use his invocations as a chanter for some reason. Tried messing with the AI but no avail.

Any artists here that takes commissions? I'd really like a shifter death godlike while shape changed. So a werewolf with black fur, and with deathlike features like the first default female death godlike (the one with horns and a "split" face). I've looked everywhere and can't find death godlike werewolf portraits. If anyone is willing to make one looking really menacing and sinister fused with death godlike features, I'm willing to pay up to 75$ for it. I'd be happy to share it with the community also Edit: Also. I don't know if this is possible. But I'd pay big bucks if a developer or a modder could make versions of the ingame shapeshift forms with death godlike features. Just incase this is actually doable.

And now I noticed that inspiring triumph as a fanatic would mean 2x on kill effects, + paladin removing confuse at PL4. So now I want to play that... I'll never complete this game. I think I've played 10 characters to Neketaka so far. I just can't stick with one character... heeeeeeeeeeeelp

Thanks for sharing Exanos. Shadow wolf or blood wolf - aaah! I can't decide I feel like no matter which I pick I'd want to play the other. Edit: And to you Boeroer. Hmm... it's so haaard. Both picks are so cool thematically.

Not as a tank but as an off-tank and damage melee dps, I wanted to play a berserker shifter for RP purposes. However I'm having a hard time deciding because the theorycrafter and min-maxer in me can't see assassin/shifter as anything other than a straight up upgrade. Against bosses as assassin/shifter, you can immediately land a dot that will last the entire fight. So that the boss is on a doom clock if you survive long enough. Against encounters, an assassin/shifter can straight up delete the highest threat target immediately with double damage assassinate, then you can smoke and basically insta-gib 1-3 more targets. Giving you a rather immediate advantage in every fight. Even when out of guile to assassinate targets, deep wounds with say - boar form for even more dots - can deal tremendous sustained damage against bosses or single targets. Can riposte and gain huge bonuses from sneak attack. So berserker/shifter - the class I actually WANT to play... you get powerful stat bonuses (damage, speed, pen, crit, armor) so it has way better "core" stats. However due to the passive to get action speed on kill, you are actually encouraged to go for the WEAKEST targets first for the power boost, then you become even more of a murder machine. The overall passive bonuses to berserker is also great. However the berserker don't have +acc on their main damage attack, the brutal attack. I feel like you are forced to max PER on barb to counter this weakness. So assassin shifter you can go 10/10/medium/medium/max/10. But as a berserker shifter I think you'd need to go more like 10/12+/13-16/max/max/10. Berserker is more dependent on stats. I really wanted to play a bloodthirsty shapeshifter. A death godlike w/o weapons that shifts into an unstoppable monster that rips limbs off and charges in like an unstoppable killing machine. However... it seems to me that assassin is better for high health / strong single targets, bosses, prolonged fights. The berserker is only better against encounters with many medium/weaker mobs and adds. In other words, berserker/shifter is good where it matters least. Assassin/shifter is good where it matters most. Can you veterans here give me some feedback on my analysis of these two? Can you convince me / sell me, on a shifter/berserker which is the class I actually WANT to play? I just can't seem to justify the pick, because I'm also a min/maxing theorycrafting enthusiast, not just a roleplayer So both have to make the fit.

Thanks for clearing that up I read that things like brutal strike and eye gouge hits ALL targets with these, is this also still the case? Since eye gouge deals damage for the entire fight, I imagine having that as AOE is very strong?

Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiit - dude! When was the last time you discovered something new?

I was wondering if anyone has a ranger+wizard that could test something. This spell counts as a ranged weapon, that deals AOE. Ranger has a talent that makes every ranged weapon attack bounce once. In theory, both rot skulls and the elemental blob in hand thinggy - if they hit several targets with one attack - should proliferate/richochet out 1 new version of itself times number of targets hit. So if it hits 3 enemies, 3 new elemental or rotskulls should in theory be fired out. Since rotskulls leave poison ground effect, I was also wondering if this stacks with multiple versions of itself or if they override each other.