Elric Galad

I'm pretty sure you cannot

I have done the translation myself for new modifications. I can maintain French version even if the initial effort was a bit too much. You can, but restart from this version. Yes, always the case. Already destroyed corpsea ceased to provide the bonus. That's why it is useful to turn off exploding gore effects.

Version 4.0.1 is live. Basically 4.0.0 fixes. Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

My own personal choices would be Amira's Wing or Rod of the Deep Hunt. I do find non watershaper focus rods underrated. Rod modal is crazy vs crowd, esp with Shared Nightmare (same as mortars and watershaper focus). The big difference is that non-watershaper focus rods are good enough vs single target. Nothing shiny but still way better than Watershaper focus/mortars which basically requiring weapon swapping vs single target, instead of just modal toggling. They feel super flexible and have decent enchant. Ciphers do get decent accuracy to use frostseeker, but it requires setup (Borrowed Instinct, Psychovampiric Shield, some flanking). I don't find it reactive enough for most fights. Amira's Wing also has spell like abilities which benefit from weapon quality (+60% damages for legendary, not even counting PL scaling). Sure it's 1 per rest, contrary to Kitchen Stove but Horrid Writting with +60% bonus damages and Shared Nightmare is... Horrid ? And it will most likely replenish full focus. I also love Rod the Deep Hunt. Sure you don't have all of Amira's Wing spells but the minus deflection and recovery time is exactly what you want vs bosses (and is decent vs crowd), when rod modal becomes suboptimal. Again nothing shiny but the whole party will benefit from your boss debuffing (-5 Deflection +15% recovery isn't a bad passive debuff vs a strong single target). Second slot : A few bosses are very resistant to slash AND pierce damages and REQUIRE essence interrupter. Which is also quite good vs single target because of Hunting bows modal. It's a close to necessary secondary slot. Sometimes Redhand is nice for the single target burst/focus gain.

I believe absolutely nothing interacts with DoT or any damages not applied through an attack (such as self damages). The only thing that takes them into account is Monk Wound counter. I don't even know how I could mod it. It should also be noted that some "on damaged" effect actually only take Hit and Crit into account. Not Graze. Iron Skin and Goldpact come to my mind. EDIT: pretty sure mirror image works on damaged, buy Wizard's Double I have a doubt about it requiring an actual Hit (which would be a big plus).

Why these subclasses granted that both are specially about summoning and you can't have GH pet along chanter summons. Are you hating pet that much ?

OK, I'll look into that. EDIT : here is the hotfix. I'll release a new official version soon. cl.paladin.bleak_walker_all_corrode.gamedatabundle I haven't change the text specifically, but Bleak Walker text says upgrades secondary effects would be corrode damages too. Changing the text prevents the translation (apart for English and French, managed by the mod). so it's always a trade-off

Okay, now this is technically a Balance Polishing Mod upgrade. You'll find Animal Companion, Bleak Walker, Darcozzi, Unbroken, Shred spells and Penetration Modal reworks as announced previously. (Note that for Darcozzi, the fire shield stacking didn't work... but it worked by stacking Lay on Hand fire Shield with GLoH/HoL fire shields (always has been). So I doubled the damages of the Tier 3 version and I added a note to state explicitly that it does stack) Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

I tried it (now that I'm developping a new version) but it worked fine.

Okay, this is not technically a Balance Polishing Mod update, but I have just released muy new mod which allows bypassing Dispositions while getting maximum effects for Paladins and Priests (either from the start or through level scaling). Replace Disposition Scaling at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) Of course compatible with CP and BPM, but independant.

Ahem, Arquebus is veil-piecing. It's more a Devoted issue with other weapons.

Why rogue (maybe not streefighter) isn't on the list ? For weapon DPS, there are not that much that can be the sheer DPS increase from Sneak Attack, Deathblows and Deep Wound. Chanter is great for Swift Handed but you can have one in the party, not the gunner themselves. Probably some Ranger/Rogue with Chanter support is more optimal.

Most likely not, but who can say no ?

This. It is not even 2 free talent for a talent starved class since you won't get the +15% damages for vicious. Vicious Companion would become : +15% damages, +25% Stride. Which can be useful (esp for MC without obvious access to Nimble), but not necessary for all builds. Resilient Companion would become : +6+3/lvl hp, up to +66hp (better tough). Healing and damage prevention is usually more important than max health, but max health does help, especially with Play Dead (pets get more benefit from max health than your usual goonies due to that). You gotta be good at something. Anyway getting crit as pet isn't that obvious as you only get marked prey, aware and expensive Shadowed Hunter. A triple attack Frostseeker ranger with max Per will result in a much greater havoc. Thanks !

I don't think it's a meaningful choice because the price is too cheap to pass. Never ever I will advise not taking it, even on a GH without a single other pet talent. How would you not pay the price of 1 Tier 1 talent that makes your auto-attacker (with an auto-scaling weapon) into a decent attacker ? That's the reason why it feels so forced for me. I wanted to say "yes, it works !!" but I remembered a technical issue. First ability is a pet ability while the second is a ranger ability. If not, it would have been possible to intervert effect, name, etc... PEN is also PotD tax since PotD also rises AR. For other mode, it could have been a choice. Remember our disagreement is about what you get for zero talent spent. With 1 talent spent (which is pretty unsignificant price to pay), pet will be at similar level since I now only plan to add +25% stride to vicious companion instead of +2 PEN. We are quarelling over the opportunity to have a super bad pet to save 1 talent point. For higher Ceiling, I have the opinion that Predatory's Sense and Merciless Companion could stay as they are for MC, and Action Speed will enhance them for SC. Not only, it also relies on High accuracy, potential interrupt on crit. Good Edit : Finally, please try to accomodate with my proposal if you don't see glaring issues. The modding won't fit 100% your own vision. I'm absolutely willing to take comments into account (I was willing to use your suggestion to invert Stalker Link and Protective until I spotted the technical issue). But I really feel we are arguing about minor stuff. It's really not easy to find technically doable tricks that address major stuff, it would be even harder to try to comply to everyone vision.

Rogues do get sneak attack for free. Paladin get +10 all defenses for free, plus 1 active and 1 special bonus for free depending on "drawback free" subclass. Ciphers get +20% weapon damages for free. Most classes do get free cool stuff, or as I told, passive way above the curve. The idea is less to give them more raw power than to have them cost a little less in term of ability points. You can have a functional "chanter half" with 1-2 chants and 1 invocation (plus whatever you pick at creation). You can have a functional "rogue half" with Deathblow, Deep Wounds and upgraded Crippling Strike. You can have a functional Wizard without picking anything at all. (all this discounting the fact that you have to pick 1 Ability per tier) Then there is Ranger. Name me a Ranger ability that is so much above the Curve as Deathblow or Stoic Steel. Maybe Driving Flight, but that's all. Rangers have multiple little things that stack up, so aren't in a terrible position. Still they cost too much ability points and I persist that these 2 Tier 1 abilities don't bring anything in term of gameplay. There are a couple of spells for that. The Silver Knight chant is ideal for that task and synergize with its chanter own summon too. Stalker's Link requiring Protective companion is another issue. Protective companion would be a total waste if pet had already 1 engagement. It would feel even more frustrating. Remember that Stalker's Link is supposed to be one the core aspect of ranger design, but even for it you have to pay 2 ability point. I targetted the AR/PEN talents because I could. Sorry but I have to think about concrete solutions (And I have in mind technical aspects that are a bit obscure). CP added it +5 Acc. +5 Acc +5% damages is enough, although not jaw dropping for a tier 7. But that's the one situations you need to win the most ! I rarely take it either, the important thing is to be happy to take it for those who do ("Now I can graze Megabosses, youhou !") "Win more" vs "loose less" always favors "loose less" even if "Win more" shines more. And it till helps a little vs equal defense. I would argue it should be good to ensure Rogue Strike. I is very bad on a Fighter/Ranger for example. And why making them faster would fail ? Also I think 14 PEN double type is the maximum PEN you get from any summon (Lashing vine). Really I don't get your issue. You complain about the demanding ranger ability tree, then don't agree when I make it less demanding because "one should have to pay for PEN / AR". Why this assumption ? Once again, I try to save 2 ability points. I also deal with a lots of design contraints such as : - not changing ability tree - avoiding "must pick" - avoiding "never pick"... Do you have any other ideas that could spare ability points ? I'm not opposed to buffing Predatory Sense and Merciless Pet a bit (even a PL scaling - just beware that it won't address SC buffing issue), but I do prioritarize the "free PEN" over buffing acceptable passives.

No, I think it is really an issue. Ranger is supposed to be the pet class, so having it decent without too much investment should work. Compare it to summoners (pet is basically a passive summon - except GH) : summons are very strong with only 1-2 ability points invested. Also you complained that Rangers are ability point starved, I agreed this was true and came with a solution. More often than not I discard cool and fun abilities I have taken time to tweak with BPM just because the mandatory ones take all the room. That does not mean there can't be another issue as you think SC Ranger Pet lack "special sauce" that it should get as SC. Good point for them. No, I think +8 damages per hit for 2 passive is decent compared to what other classes get as passive bar special passive*. *One of my design assumption is that Active shall be balanced, while Passive are less critical. They become must-pick passive, which isn't a major issue. Deathblow is one of the better example. Now compare pet passive with stuff like Confident Aim, Weapon Masteries, Marksman on Gunner... all these are "balanced passive" in my design assumption. Merciless Pet and Predator's Sense are fine. They could be improved a bit , but PL Scaling doesn't work to distinguish MC Pet from SC because (see below) See last part Pet own ability doesn't scale with Ranger PL (and changing this would be technically ultra tedious such as coding it as an aura from ranger...). That includes Pet passive and Pet active directly activable by pet (Takedown and Play Dead - esp BPM upgrade). Pet PL table is one of a Single Class. It scales up to 9. It doesn't depend on Ranger being SC or MC. AFAIK, the only way to sadd PL is Acute/Brilliant, but you're unlikely to have it on a pet apart Bonded Fury (Ancestor's Memory on a pet ahahahahah). Unless you have a BPM SC Fighter with Inspired Strike. In a nutshell SC Pet will have +1 PL over MV Pet. Currently, SC Pet main gamechanging aspect is not damages but Bond regen to its master. That's really something, maybe not what you are looking for, but it's still very relevant as it turns SC Ranger into a more long term (boss) hunter. I have thought for long about how to make SC Pet better than MC Pet. And the only possible answer has always been Bonded Fury. Why ? Because BPM doesn't add abilities, so only Distraction Training and Bonded Fury are candidate. Distraction Training is a Tier 9 and I have a rule against turning Tier 9 into "must pick" (you only have 3 points for that, so it restricts the build a lot). Tier 8 are less a concern as "must pick". About Bonded Fury : - Energized is great - Nimble is great (no easy way to get it for so long, BPM Paladin can technically do it , but it would cost them 1 Zeal - AoE DEX Inspiration are rare, AoE Nimble non-existant) - Acute has few uses, especially if you apssed play dead because of not enough ability point. But at least you're unlikely to get it from another source. - Resolve isn't great, a party can provide it. But if party doesn't, it's still there. - Hardy and Aware... well, at least they enable delaying Ranger ability granting them. - Having the six of them guarantees to provide +20 against all secondary defenses and 1 Joker/Removal vs all Afflictions Anyway, I already thought about adding an Action Speed boost to Bonded Fury (33%, as for Vengeful Grief ??). This makes sense fluff wise, so if you want to discuss about buffing SC, this is probably the easiest way. Action Speed is a multiplicative factor locked for SC, so it would make sense. It would multiply any bonus added to the early damages passive. As a summary, possible design directions : - Pet gets +2 AR and +2 PEN by default - Vicious and Resilient Pet reworked to be useful for certain builds, not "must pick" - Predator's Sense and Merciless Pet rised a bit (maybe) - Bonded Fury may (to be discussed) grant an action speed boost sor SC Pet get a multiplicative damage boost (% of regerated bonded lowered accordingly).

Just checked Blackened Plate with Rusted Armor and AR malus was -5 AR. Usher's Visage aura is small though. Ok, I think I found the main conceptual culprits for Ranger demanding ability tree. These are Vicious and Resilient companions talents ! These 2 are pure stat buff with no gamplay interaction. Yet, missing PEN is too critical to be missed. Missing AR is slightly more tolerable (esp for Ghostheart) but also feels a must-pick if you want to benefit from these juicy Hardy abilities. What if I gave pet +2 AR and + 2 PEN per default ? Vicious companion could become a pure unconditional damage talent, but with a lower value compared to conditional ones. +15% damages might be a bit too little if the +2 PEN is removed so I would consider rising its values, but also Merciless Companion and Predator's Sense values for a better Companion package. The idea is that Vicious Companion shouldn't feel necessary but not bad enough to never be picked, and the other two shall only be picked if you have reliable sources of debuff. Or I can give Vicious Companion another new effect so it synergizes more with certain builds. Resilient companion should become something else. I'm leaning toward increased health pool (it work well with Play Dead)

Mwahahahaha Just remembered the Cleansing Flame doubling tick rate forgotten in the base game but re-added by Community Patch. Tested it and it basically multiplies by 2 the number of ticks, basically doubling any DoT damages (including itself) bar initial tick. It doubles tick but does not halve duration. Basically I can add a similar effect (multiply factor only 1.3) to Recall Agony to buff all DoT damages with the same magnitude as other damages. Won't stack with Cleasing Flame but will stack with everything else. Also CP Cleansing Flame might be a bit too powerful after CP change. This thing is a much faster disintigrate (208 base damages) that also bounces, target deflection, double other DoT damages (well it doubles itself, but I already counted it) and reduces beneficial effects.

Yup, it's a live saver into long term mitigation. It wont save your pet for long on its own (but party member can) Rangers in general are. Those 3+predator's sense initial pet passive + protector pet + stalker link are annoying to get all. I can't think about an easy solution that would fix this, granted BPM don't alter ability tree. Maybe Predator's sense and Sneak attack one should scale with pet PL (which scale to 9, +1 for a cute) ? That won't address that one feels a bit forced to pick them all. Basically I agree that you have named an issue. Other martial classes tend to have their strengths more concentrated in a couple of active, except monks maybe who are also quite starved. Wounding shots are passable for SC Ranger. If you go ranged, get twin shot, if you go melee, hunter claw will be enough. On a general note, SC Ranger may have an easier time than MC for ability point because their Tier 8 - 9 Active don't have upgrades. 1 point = 1 great ability. Blackened plate does stack with everything. So is Beza's toothed blade (with propre upgrade -2AR on crit). That's not the main topic but worths mentionning. Monk won't do it in an AoE and crits aren't that reliable. Chanter will eat up one previous phrase. What do you want more than an autohit permanent enfeebled in a line ? Vs crowd, the autohit hostile extension duration is crazy (few non boss foes are con resistant) . Vs bosse, that's the perma guaranteed affliction that matters (buddy rogue will appreciate). And if somehow it does not synergize well with your party, you can have Interrupt on crit, deflection debuff+bond regen and shadowed hunters on tier 9. Yup. But you're almost guaranteed to hit and tranquilizing shot is instant to apply and cost 1 bond (1 Ancestor Memory from buddy Cipher for a complete Obelisk carrousel) . Vs Auranic, allow me to consider this the greatest boon.

I should check properly, but as far as I get, only attack damages benefit from it. SA damages actually come from a status, like DoT. Not stronger but less unique, that's the main concern. +30-40% weapon damages is significantly less than 30% raw lash. Current version is optimal want you wanna weapon gang against 1 hardy foe (and work also with instant and even pulsating spell) No. Same debuff don't stack. That also a reason not to tweak it. But it is also a reason why a tweak won't be gamebreaking, as it only does an existing debuff.

They are not so far from penetrating bosses. PotD megaooze is 16 AR, Belranga is 17 and Doru 18. With the -2, and a little something such as Blackened Plate, it should work. That's the deal, yes. Vengeful grief if nothing else works. Probably optimal only vs Doru. Most of builds will have a noticeable number of somewhat useless ability vs Megabosses, especially vs Dorudugan. Yup, debuffs and interrupt feel bad for this fight. I feel the issues you describe is really specific to megaboss fight. And for these ones, rangers especially SC have a strong monster hunter identity. Heartseeker will reduce their HP for the whole fight, hunter's claw will give you super stats... I also consider tranquilizing shot to be Auranic kryptonite. Use is with a multihit blunderbuss or Frost Seeker and are guaranteed to shut down any obelisk showing some sign of arrogance. Pets should be somewhat tanky, with a full heal for 2 bonds and a 1 bond better Lay on Hand (upgrade also reduce damages by 25% in additional to +2AR.). They won't be pure tank level of tankiness, but still decent hp pool. Shadowed hunter should help too, with some offensive buff wrapped in. It was worse before modding. Some were displayed shared, but were not. Hunter claw line is already one of the most complex ability of the game. High dev cost to change and potentiel bugs. It is also quite strong. Stalker's link : how would work with a ranged ranger? I'm not against new ideas, just these 2 are too tedious. And I'm not super convinced pet needs more support.

Nice to have the option, in case you need to mitigate a Subclass penalty, build for Mindweb, or use your character as a decoy for a specific non friendly AoE spell (there are better way to do that but still). Also specific case such as Nalzpaca really hating Arcane Dampener, etc... Never wasted, rarely important.

Yup, and it also has stacking with everything. At least a decent spell to spam with Soulblade (cheaper) or Psion (cheap cost matters, might be one of most impactful cheap spamming spell when Whispers can'be used) I'll pass on modding this one. Really the only frustrating thing is the DoT and Soul Annhilation not benefitting, but this can't be easily corrected.

OP, not that much,but most likely technically difficult to doand not super necessary.