Elric Galad

Ydwin working with Vailian is a big plus. Fassina IS a Vailian, so you should consider her.

I can sympathize with your point, as I rarely find myself picking abilities from the stealthy sneaky backstabby side of Rogue ability tree. To be honest, I would tend to think that the issue is a bit deeper than the subclass, so I would try to qualify the issue before actually looking for a proprer solution. Various points below : 1 - I think the issue is also about backstab. A normal Rogue should be able to use Backstab with enough benefits. An Assassin Subclass should emphasize it, not being the only only to be able to use this. 2 - All 3 Rogue Invisibility abilities are concerned : Smoke Veil, Shadow Step (including enduring shadow) and Vanishing Strike. I'm currently pretty satisfied with their relative balance. Shadow Step costs twice, but also provide Teleport, Deflection buff and Instant recovery. I think this is a fine improvement over Smoke Veil. Make Smoke Veil instant-recovery and picking Shadow Step would be meh compared to a more flexible combo of Escape + Smoke Veil. 3 - Probably the "deepest" question : should backstabby Asassination really be about DPS ? It would be a bit redundant with Strikes then. And it won't really help the Rogue vibe. Shadow Step allows mobility to strike where it hurts. Smoke Veil allows repositioning too (moving while recovering sort of save time since you're still getting half of your recovery speed while doing something else). Then, if not, what it should be about ? Damages Spike ? Piercing AR / High Defenses ? Is it enough ? (no definitive answer to this question) 4 - Weapon vs Spells : it's nice to have Assassin bonus synergize with spells. But it sort of synergizes better than with weapon. Sure, Backstab helps a bit. One possible change I have in mind it to have Assassin passive and Backtstab applies for fixed 1s after Invisibility is broken (like I did for Lion Sprint), for better interaction with Multi-Hit attacks and Full Attacks. It might not address the whole issue, but I think it would be a rather safe step. Edit : Maybe not for Backstab. CP variant would provide dire results with Blunderbuss and it provides a fixed (so fair for all weapons) bonus anyway.

Just a little word to say that it is always nice to get some feedback from BPM users. Especially about this change which aimed to make Streetfighter more interesting to play (sometimes, more difficult means more fun...).

New BPM Version available : Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) Cheers !

I appreciate this answer. I think that Prone is okay from game mechanics. For fluff, I can see why it would feel a bit weird. I took some time trying to find something more convincing today but I haven't. My issue is that I need a small stuff for Devastating Blow because its main purpose should still be more damages. Small stuff balance wise and game mechanics wise (it should be simple). Also I tend to be biased against On Kill effects. That's why tuning the Interruption property was a solution. Prone can be seen not only as brute force impact (it won't be Prone Vs Fortitude) but also about bringing something on their knees. That's basically what Rust's Poignard does so it's not something absurd within PoE game mechanics fluff.

Prone is a 3s CC effect (3.5s with CP), only 1s (or 1.5s) more than Interruption. Using 2 Crippling Strikes has the same guile cost as Devastating Blow and provides 2s X 2 = 4s of Crowd Control. So in term of CC, these abilities would be very close, so I don't think Devastating Blow would be too powerful. In addition, using Devastating Blow in an AoE tends to be suboptimal since it is harder to have all targets at low health. Basically, Devastating Blow with Mortars is a nice "alternate" use of the ability but I won't qualify it broken.

Finishing Blow & Upgrades : Ok, again new try, base ideas since I think the previous one was a bit convoluted : - I'm still going to remove the +50% unconditional damages. It's better to add more damages based on remaining health. +50% damages translates on average to +1% damages per 1% health loss (up to +100%). - If finally think that the concept of the ability is fine (except for the not focused enough +50% damages bonus). So Finishing and Devastating blow would stay mostly about doing damages to low health targets. Finishing Blow allows high power spike vs low health targets, for a rather high cost. That's the concept and that is fine. However, the values are not high enough for the cost because : - it fully applies to targets already close from death - weapon based attacks and rogue attacks already have a freaking load of bonus damages. The multiplicative factor is not so high. A MC lvl 20 can easily get +60% from weapon, +60+% from sneak attack, +50% from deathblows, -58% from dual wield full attack. +100-150% damages bonus isn't hard to achieve. So +200-250% damages is only about x2 damages, which is the point where I think Finishing blows start to become interesting for 2 Guiles. That's why the new values are calculated to give x2 bonus damages from Blooded (50% health). Of course, that would be more vs Near Death target, but at this point, some abilities can already "destroy" the target. It leads to : Finishing Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - Interrupt on Hit - +4% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +400%) Eliminating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - 4+% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +400%) - 2.5m radius Shaken for 12s, except to main target (no change, except fixing the description that mentions frightened) Devastating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +5% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +500%) - Prone on Hit. Apart Sap (which has other utility anyway), there are no other Rogue Attack causing Prone, so I think this small bonus would help Devastating Blow versatility. If you really want to finish off a target by using most of your Guile pool, chaining Devastating Blows will be even easier (even if you will rarely need it). And the fluff goes well with a "Devastating" attack. I went with a small additional effect for Devastating Blow because it should mostly be the upgrade that is mostly about "bigger" number. But on the other hand, I didn't want the numbers to be too different so one doesn't feel too forced to go Devastating Blow to get the "full damage" effect, so I needed an "extra". PS : sorry for the reposting about this one ability, but I struggle to convince myself. This one design is quite simple, so I think it can't be too bad.

I get this, but you still have a lots of other way to activate Deathblow, especially Sap, Smoke Cloud, Blinding Strike, party members, regular, Flanking, etc... Even for such builds, PD can't even be entirely relied on anyway since some foes are Resistant to PER affliction. Anyway, it would be a deletable file of BPM Optional nerf package, so easy to remove if needed.

The point is that all mentioned abilities would be okay ones even without this effect. Circle of Death for example deals damages in a super big AoE. Destroy component is only the icing. Boil the Flesh triggers additional explosions upon kills. And all these effects work on a mere Graze. I have never add any issue with killing a boss when Near Death. Yes, Blunderbusses synergizes super well, but this is the point of Blunderbusses to synergizes with such abilities (because without that non-mortar blunderbusses deal subpar damages). "Don't do this at home" basically. I don't think you can deal more damages than the target HP. So yup, you would be fully healed when dealing the final blow vs Dorudugan.

Changing an affliction has too much impact on the whole balance. But now that I'm thinking about it, tweaking Persistent distraction to something else than distracted is very tempting : - it makes Rogue a bit more tactical to play since you can't just engage and get full bonus. - it makes Blinding Strike AND SMOKE CLOUD line much less redundant. - It makes Sap (and various strikes) much more useful as a 30s Deathblow enabler... Persistent Distraction could become -5 all defenses. This would be universally good without risk of breaking the balance.

Yeah, I agree this design isn't that good. But I don't know what could be changed because it comes from the basic principle of PER afflictions. EDIT : Unless going for something like -10 Deflection (or -5 all defenses, closer from PoE1 to avoid too good synergy with Gambit) instead of an affliction ? A nerf and a buff because as a passive, it would stack well (and stacks with Blinding Strike). But that's quite a radical change so I would only proceed if public acclamation. Finishing Blow & Upgrades : Ok, new try, base ideas : - I'm going to remove the +50% unconditional damages. It's better to add more damages based on remaining health. +50% damages translates on average to +1% damages per 1% health loss (up to +100%). It's good to make the ability more focused, since, as pointed by @NotDumbEnough, there are other Rogue abilities doing good damages. - I'm coming back to my idea of % chance of instant killing anything Near Death. But instead of using a "Destroy" component, I will add "fatal damages" (10000 raw damages) to avoid party members to be erased from existence by those skeleton archers. So, with some other minor tweaks, it leads to : Finishing Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +3% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +300%) - 25% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes Eliminating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +3% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +300%) - 25% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes - 2.5m radius Shaken for 12s, except to main target (no change, except fixing the description that mentions frightened) Devastating Blow : - 2 Guiles - +10 Accuracy - +4% damages per 1% of health loss (up to +400%) - 50% chance (per swing, bullet, etc...) of dealing fatal damages to Near Death foes Infestation of Maggots : The damages seem lowish and too conditional (5 raw/damages per tick vs blooded, it is still less than Swarm of Insects) I'm going to change this to 15 raws damages per tick x percentage of health loss. 7.5 raw damages per tick vs blooded is enough. The AoE is good even if the duration is lower than Tier 2 Swarm of Insects and it has no side effect.

gn.auranic_regenerate_spells.gamedatabundle.zip Just a little change so Auranic regenerates a spell slot every 12s (BPM Nerf/optional package). If your party gets Potion of Enlightenment to get a ressource every 30s, not reason for a Megaboss to run out of ability. If someone wants to try.

Sorry, but I can't find where the Blackbow is tagged melee in Gamedata. The Weapon Summon action is a melee component, but it is not a "true attack", just a component used to give Blackbow an action time. The actual ranged attack is tagged ranged. The spell you listed works with Instruments of Pain though. Sunlance range is hilarious with Instruments of Pain.

It's not so bad, I think. The assymetry between your party and foe is not as big as, for example, in JRPG. On one extremity of the spectrum, you have Kith encounters (and psuedo-Kiths, often class-based vessels or wilders) where foes are extremely dangerous and not so resistant (a bit like you), and on other extremity Megabosses. I think the main different is how much reliant you are on healing. That's why Mercy and Kindness is so much above the curve for your party (and is going to be nerfed next BPM version). For Finishing Blow itself, I have 3 options : - Buffing the 2 guiles ability (that would buff foe using it, but probably not to tremendous proportion). My issue is I have no "benchmark" for 2-ressource pure damage abilities. So the foes using it would be a bit more dangerous, but not to extreme proportion. I'm not sure about which parameter should be changed. Note that eliminating blow is a mediocre upgrade for a 2-ressources ability in this case (Eliminating Blow causes a Tier 1 Shaken Affliction - description mentions Frightened and is misleading ; I will correct it anyway). - Setting the ability to 1 guile but nerfing its effect. Something like +10 Acc, +25% damages, +1% damage per health loss, +2% damages per health loss for devastating blow (Skaen's Priest should get Devastating Blow then). This is easier to balance because Accurate Wounding Shot is my benchmark for 1-ressource damage effect. And because this would be strictly superior to Crippling Strike as a damage ability (except vs higher AR). So the foes using it could spam it more, but the spike would be lower, so more manageable for player in a certain way. Note that eliminating blow is a good upgrade in this case (Tier 1 affliction 2.5m radius AoE but not to main target is okay for a 1-ressource ability upgrade). Or adding a new effect : This idea has been discussed above. This was close from my initial idea The issue is that Near-Death destroy effect outright kills (not just knockdown) party members. That would be a big issue vs said foes. EDIT : now I have a doubt. Is it also true when "gibs" are disabled ? EDIT : instead of "destroy" vs Near Death, it could also be extreme damages vs Near Death, so foes would only knock you unconscious. Still looking for other ideas. Leaving apart Eliminating Blow, the ability would be easier to tweak if it had an effect distinct from damages. Another issue is that SC Rogue already has a super good pure damage ability with Gambit... Having a distinct effect would be better to avoid this overlap (although limited to SC and Finishing Blow-line is still useful when low on Guile... but 2 Guiles is a big cost then) Something to consider is that Dual Wield Full attacks are very good when accumulative damages modifier are stacked. The -58% from the inversed -35% damages becomes additive with +300-400ish % damages, so you're essentially getting twice single handed weapon damages as base damages.

Frostfall is most likely because it has double type of damages. Kapana Taga has the same property.

Did anyone try Heart of Fury ? It could be 1+1/target

He is speaking about BPM Hunter's Claw. I changed it because Hunter's Claw is very broken by the Save/Reload bug. BPM Hunter's Claw provides +2 Acc per strike up to +20, costs only 1 bond but lasts only until the end of battle. I don't know. I spammed it a lot in my latest run. It worked fine, but of course was better for longer battle. Upgrades are very good too since they basically doubles the effect. It is a very grindy ability. I would say 1 bond for a full attack (so slight DPS increase due to PL bonus) that provides +4 Acc /+ 4 all Def should be ok. Marked prey is 1 Bond for 10 Accuracy against 1 foe at a time and no one complains. Probably not good for all fights (that's why Accurate Wounding Shot is for as the ultimate 1 ressource damages attack), but making Ranger into slowish boss fighter makes sense for "Hunter". Edit : I might consider some minor buff to the attack such as adding +10 Acc. So a bit more DPS and misses less ?

LUC multi proc isn't tied to the number of targets but to the number of attacks. Driving Roar and Dazing Shout are each 1 AoE single attack. It's not always obvious. Instruments of Boundless Rage should be 2 Separate attacks.

No, Watershaper Focus has a similar property and works with bounce.

For the same reasons I removed it for Barbarian : - when you would use it for the refund, it's bonus would likely end up in overkilling - uselessness Vs Bosses - would be useful mostly Vs near Death, and you have much better way of dealing Vs Near Death foes (circle of death, sip from the marrow, etc...) And also : - would not work for Skaen Priest

Ok, so finishing blow again. Now I start to think that the cost might be the root of the problem. Finishing blow is a damages only ability (bar the Interruption on Hit) and you pay 2 Guiles for just damages, mostly conditional. So the conditional damages have to be very strong to justify picking this and spending 2, while spamming Arterial Strikes would provide more obvious benefits while doing most of the job done. To worth the 2 Guiles, these damages would have to be so high when the conditions are met... That it would become a nightmare playing against* By setting this ability to 1 Guile, I would provide Rogue a spammy tool to finish targets. Rogue doesn't have any other pure damages ability (which is good design since the whole class is about this) so it would be much easier to find room for it in a build. It may involve tweaking down the values a bit (and upgrade, and Skaen's) but probably not that much when I compare to my own pure damages ability benchmark, accurate wounding shot. * Funny consideration : You and your foes are not playing the same game. You are a very dangerous target doing extreme damages with relatively low health so spike damages work Vs your party. Your targets are often less dangerous but tend to have tons of hp. Less so when fighting Kiths, but even them are often more numerous but less dangerous than you. Spike damages tend to be a bit less good for the player party in my experience. I would tend to think that it is only partially related to my own prudent playstyle.

Ok, this worths taking into account then. Is this the time that gets actually applied (I guess yes) ? I'll correct this.

Lay on Hand isn't a spell.

Indeed, but BPM also intends to buff foes. I should have said Destroy on Near Death, like Circle of Death, Detonation, etc... These effect don't cause Permakill. I think only Disintegration means Permakill. I don't think there is another ability that prevents Hauni O Whe from dividing for example. Foes with Finishing Blows hit super hard anyway (those skeleton archers mostly). If they target you when you're under 25% health, you're already pretty likely to get knockdown due to the bonus damages. It is already +10 by the way.

I won't go Corpse Eater. +1 rage is an extremely bad malus when your very best abilities cost 1 rage. +2PL from food is barely cute when you can get the same from potion of ascension (which does not stack unless abusing the save/load bug that allows food to stack with everything). And it is not even the best food bonus anyway. Consume Corpse isn't reliable cause it doesn't work on half of foes.