Elric Galad

Speaking about it, here is the new version : Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) I have spent a bit too much time in recent weeks working on the mod, so I'll appreciate receiving a little less suggestion until mid october (maybe that's just me putting pressure on myself, and lacking self-discipline for priorities but still). Of course, bugs are bugs, so this one you can tell. And feel free to keep your suggestions in mind for later.

Yeah, that's the point, my interest with non watershaper focus Rod is that you can toggle the AoE when suddenly facing one dude.

I admit I didn't know that. AoE attack effect is a big gain here. Rods do "normal damages" to main target (as a normal ranged weapon), that's the big gain here. Only Rods and Spirit Lance do tolerable damages to main target.

Nope, it's good like this. It can't be removed from phantom without changing the nature of the spell. Which I don't want to do. The named problem is solved and the issue is closed. EDIT : yup, sorry if it's a bit rude, but I'll appreciate if you keep in mind the BPM objective : to be the closest possible from original game, even if it implies a few (non grambreaking) weirdness here and there. Deviating might improve some aspects, but I consider it as intresically bad (for the mod purpose of course). That's what the solution above tries to do and I'll appreciate a review about it. Now I'm going to release the new BPM version soon, so I'll appreciate a few weeks pause before your next suggestion (It doesn't mean they are useless, pointing Concelhaut Draining Touch was right). Unless they are bugs of course.

Yes I've done the following change : 1) Set recovery of initial cast to 0s 2) Lowering damages to 18-24 (clones will do x0.75 damages compared to before, which is still very good but no more gamebreaking) 3) Adding a one time +50% + 10%/PL bonus damages, that disappears with the weapon and only works for caster. 4) Solving the issue that caused the weapon to stay indefinitely when switching Grimoire.

It is a one hit use spell (except for clone) I have just splitted it into a weapon part and a bonus damages part so the later isn't transferred to clones. Clones stll do get a very good weapon, but nothing gamechanging compared to getting Kakakoth blights, which do 14-20 base damages from range in an AoE.

Works like a charm. In my testing, I gave 18-24 damages to Draining Touch weapon (PEN 7 Corrode, Acid KW) even if it is a one hander EDIT : but this is reasonable compared to Kalakoth Blights and other summoned weapon that one can give to phantom summons. That's still 25% less (multiplicative) than in the original game. And a +100%+10% per PL bonus damages EDIT : Bonus damage (not applied to summons) Tweaked down to +50% +10%/PL. 18-24 +120% (max MC) feels cose enough from the original value. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with these values. Still a bit strong for summons. Also I got rid of the bug that let you keep it indifinitely by switching grimoire Cast time 3s/0s helps a lot and BPM Martial Caster reduces it a lot. The funkiest thing is to combine it to Clear Out, but should be fun with various attacks abilities would do wonders (Accurate Wounding Shots or Bleak Walkers FoD granted they don't rely on damages bonuses). Overall I feel this version is close enough to Withering Strike level of power, a bit slower but with some combo potential (again, Martial Caster does help). A big plus is that the Weakened effect is guaranteed. You may miss your attack, but the weapon charge won't be consumed.

That won't be necessary. Draining missile is unique spell though. Anyway I don't necessary plan to change the nature of the spell, so I'll probably keep the 20% draining. (suspecting this is a weapon mod Shared with parasitic Staff, so would be less effort to keep it) Did you get what I said? Maybe wasnt very clear. I plan to give it "normal weapon" damages and a One-Time weapon damages buff (this one won't be transferred to summon). Summons will keep the draining and repeating weakening effect, which is cool but not gamebreaking. Also I'll cut the recovery time of the initial cast.

Agreed with the general issue, it shouldn't be exploit only. If tweaked this way, it would be too similar in purpose to Concelhaut parasitic Staff (except the weakened part). I think it should stay a one time "powerful" effect working at melee range. Either I could fix it so it won't last on summons. Or anything similar, such as being weaker but coming with a buff applied to only caster granting better damages - similar design as reaping knives (the focus transfer effect is a buff, not a weapon mod). It could stay moderately useful on summons, as for other summoned weapons. Once the technical part is done, I could adjust the values (damages, etc...)

I think multiplicative, because it does not affect caster but receiver.

Where do you get it from so easily ? I mean, sure you have a couple of spells that provide it (Schackle spell is better in BPM), plus the Menzaggo robe (that you can give to someone else), but I think it's still very good to get. For me, it basically a guarantee that your Swift and Nimble Inspiration won't ever be cancelled. I had a SC Enchanter once. Basically used Missile Salvo for spike damages and Blackbow for most of the rest of the fight. The +10% beneficial effect is a decent bonus on its own. This is the only Wiz subclas that gets 2 passive, mostly because enchanting is so meh. Many melee with short self-buff will like it. Arcane Veil somewhat replaces mirror image, and most other stuff can be replicated by the rest of your party. Specialized characters tend to work better in party causes they reduce a bit overlapping while being better at what they do. If you have elsewhere a source Res affliction (or Blackbow, however for SC) and dispell, you won't loose that much by getting Enchanter.

I don't think so, it is active AFAIK. It doesn't stack with Acute/Brilliant and Potion of Ascension. It stacks with Nature Godlike and the few other stackable PL (such as Pike of the woodlord or whatever it's called).

Sometimes yes Sometimes no That's how unconsistent the save/reload bug is. By defaut it does not stack and no one has exactly figure how to obtain the stacking. BPM Soul Mond is on Hit, which excludes Grazes but allow non damages hit to stop Soul Mind. Just a little bit more for giving than vanilla.

Download Balance Polishing Mod, install it normally, then delete all "gamedata" files except "cl.barbarian.spirit_tornado_non_weapon_bugfix" (the instruction on the mod page explain how to install and what to delete) Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)

Also small buff +10 Acc to Penetrating Strike since it is a bit low on the curve since PEN bonus was downgraded to +3. The +20% damages is basically a compensation for being Tier 3 (and getting +2 PL scaling less than Tier 1 FoD or Wounding Shots).

Nope, since it increases ticks, not damages per tick. Same for Soul Annhilation. I did what I could. Well, sure, until you miss your attack due to the malus. I think because SA doesn't apply weapon quality, the damages increase will be relatively better. About all other special attacks are bad with the new modal, because you need to graze to apply any effect. Barbaric Blow : FYI, my plan for Barbaric Blow line is now simply to add +50% damages compared to current version. I compared BB to other pure damage ability (such as BPM Accurate Wounding Shot) and realized it was lacking a bit (even if the carnage AoE extension add a bit of utility). BB damages should be around AWS. AWS is an upgraded ability (2 ability points) but only cost 1. (When BB is upgraded to BS, it also becomes an upgraded ability for 1 ressource, which make them more comparable) Vs equal Def and at PL 7, AWS does 248% damages of a normal attack (with a DoT component). BB will do 200%* damages of a normal attack, but it is instant and has carnage component. Also it scales much better vs lower Def. BB is initially quite bad, but +% damages are way better in the early game because weapon quality is still low. So the new +50% damages mitigates a bit this until you get the upgrades. "CB + 1 normal attack" also compares compare quite well with Finishing Blow line in term of DPS (FB also interrupts, CB can be chained). Of course, the only thing that can compare chaining CB in DPS is chaining Spirit Tornado. The former is better vs Single Target, the later vs melee crowd.

BPM made Carnage able to Crit. But I've just discovered Carnage Crits have no effect (apart being considered as Crits for the purpose of Blood Frenzy, Interrupting Blows, etc...) Because they are basically instant DoT, the roll has no influence over their damages and Crit bonus damages (both default +25% and bonus ones) don't apply. Graze malus doesn't apply either. Other damages modifiers do work. So it would feel weird to add a Carnage-specific Hit to Crit bonus to Barbaric Blow line, and Carnage-specific bonus Crit damages won't apply.

I fixed it yet, but thank you

So I did what any sane person would have done and I opened an Excel sheet with parameters. I tried various combinations of Damages bonus, crit damages bonus and accuracy malus (I had the intuition that a bigger acc malus would make the modal more defined) And I found -15 Acc +66% bonus damages to be quite interesting balance (no crit bonus damages, this only works for very high acc and could lead to degenerate builds with high Hit to Crit chances). Hypothesis similar to yours, except crit damages only regular +25% vs def +25 : x0.91 damages vs equal def : x1.08 damages (but you get less hit, which is detrimental to various hit based effects, worth a +15% damages talent) vs -25 def : x1.12 damages (worth a +25% damages talent) vs -50 def : x1.22 damages (not that impressive but Proficiencies come for free) Basically you deal ~10% multiplicative damages if you acc is slightly better than foe defense, the bigger the difference, the bigger the benefit. Turn off when you want to hit something with an affliction applying attack, vs high defense target (+10+ higher def, you still do same damages vs a couple of def points), and if underPEN. Turn on if blinded of course. Hit to Crit and Miss to Graze will help you immensely (BPM Citzal Tier IX Greatsword has Unstoppable Force mod granting 100% Miss to Graze ) I think it is perfectly understandable and usable this way. Funnily enough BPM Pistol and Hunting Bow modal do -15 Acc +66% recovery speed, although not perfectly comparable since +100% speed bonus is rare, I think it worth mentionning.

I doubt so. I've never changed the files and I presume it worked. I'm not the author of this specific part though.

Turning my attention to Greatsword modal. This is arguably the worst designed modal from PoE2. You gain damages per attack by sacrifying... damages per attack, since accuracy has a huge impact on damages per swing. The gain is marginal and involves complicated computation just to be sure you're actually getting some benefit. Sure, the better your accuracy the higher the gain, but what is the threshold ? The +2 PEN +50% recovery modals are not super good, but at least it is rather easy to know when to activate them (when at -4, -3, 2 PEN). You're also shooting in the foot for anything you could want to do with a melee attack (such as applying an unique weapon effect or an affliction). Early game, it's probably not too bad, but when you start piling up damages buff (from weapon qualitu especially), it becomes even worse. Not sure how to make it better (without twisting it completely) EDIT : maybe simply adding +30% Crit damages ? So it becomes clear that if you still manage to get some crits even with -10 acc, you win.

Oh, I should have paid attention to this topic, so I could have warned you. BPM nerfed pistol and hunting bow modals to -40% recovery (x1.66 recovery speed instead of x2). Also redhand was nerfed so reload is longer than in vanlla (9s instead of 6.8).

The thing is... I don't like On Kill effects too much (they rely too much on encounter design) and they are quite tedious to implement (even to implement back). But the specific reason here is that I don't like On Kill effects that have an additional condition. I don't like double conditional stuff. Bood lust and Blood Thirst don't have this issue, but having to kill with a specific ability, or even with a weapon add a tedious luck factor. As I declared sooner, you may have your kill "stolen" by your own DoT (Deep Wounds, Bleeding Cuts, various weapon effects...). BPM Barbarian design emphasizes a lot Carnage synergies, since Carnage has been the big looser from PoE1 design. I haven't completely forgotten On Kill strategies though, Bloody Slaughter adding +100% carnage damages vs Near death targets is basically about farming low health targets into kills.

Energized of course, but this is basically Interrupting Blows on steroids. I guess crit damages talent does help a bit for the damages part. Lord Dalryn Voulge would trigger its electric damages earlier. With addition of 75% hit to crit for carnage, you will have access to reliable Disoriented. Ultimately not much better. Related to carnage but not crit, Combusting Wounds and Crushing Blows is a fun combo. BB, BS and CB will get 75% hit to crit and +75% crit damages also with carnage according to my plan. I've reduced BB and BS carnage AoE buff to +100% to avoid too much power creeping. I've increased CB carnage AoE to +300% (X2 RADIUS). CB will be the one to spread Blood and spirit frenzy the best. Also CB could be used to proc interrupt quickly in an AoE. It's not reliable but repeatable until it works. Barbarian vibe here, "smash until they stop whispering their foul magic words"

Yeah, Hit to Crit only applies to Hit. Still, other abilities give their effect only 75% of time since miss does not count. BB line gives a Crit 50% of non-miss. And this is a rather defavorable scenario. Of course, it is expected to pick the right multiclassing if specifically building for it. Also dual wielding gives you 2 chances to connect. That said, I agree, it is mainly a damage focused ability. On an equal acc/def footing, Hits represents 80% of the damages. So boosting only this part of the roll should work. Also, do not forget Carnage AoE extension. Let's say it is a damages focused ability with benefits. Well, the idea is that it attacks the brain, and the upgrade has a silencing effect (plus loosing concentration). Nope EDIT : I thought you were speaking about Sap. If not, yeah, only eliminating blow should be changed. Sure, sure, I will think about it. But Frightened and Shaken are a bit out of the picture. Maybe a simple AoE Interrupt vs Will could work. Like allies shocked. Conditional or not, that's the question. Or a hard Will debuff. But this one does not have big synergies with Rogue. EDIT : OR maybe a 6s Frightened would be better than a 12s Shaken. This solution has the advantage of being extremely easy to implement It's rather complementary with the single target long duration 30s Frightened from BPM Perplexing Sap.