Elric Galad

I know, but I'm not super convinced. Maybe because it would make the upgrade concurrent. Granted that an effect On-Kill that won't be concurrent with Blood Thirst could be a good idea. Giving the refund on kill to the base ability is also a possibility. It would make it better, and Barbaric Smash less impactful. A chore to implement though, especially because of Corpse Eater. This is not entirely true. BPM changes made it way more crit focused. It's arguably the best ability to get crits (bar Gambit), which combines well with Interrupting Blow, Blood Frenzy, Skald and a wide range of unique weapons. My favorite might be Beza's Toothed Blade. BS can be used to enforce its stacking -2 AR debuff. Also BPM gave it a much bigger Carnage area. BPM added a lots of synergy to carnage, enabling Interrupt throw Interrupting Blow and applying Blood Frenzy and Spirit Frenzy side effects. (That's why I'm thinking about giving it 75% Hit to Crit/+75% crit damages also to carnage.) Yes, it's a very bread and butter damages stuff, but it has a good amount of synergies. Of course, Crushing Blow feels more unique. Barbarian sort of needed a brainless attack ability though. That's why BS is this way. Yes. It's not even that it is weak. It is just so common. The normal part is fine, really I'm only speaking about the upgrade. I get why Killing blow stuff would fit thematically, but restricting its power to killing blow would often result in overkilling from the damage part. CON Debuff is Withering Strike stuff though. The unupgraded part feels meh enough as it is to introduce further contest. The vanilla game ability description does speak about Frightened. Maybe they tried it at some point and it felt too strong ? Frightened is a good debuff. That said, BPM Rogue gets Frightened under the Single Class restriction through Perplexing Sap. A silencing strike might feel a bit strong for MC. Or just I would prefer SC Rogue to keep its stuff.

This would work but this is kind of redundant with Blood Thirst. If you time your normal attack for the kill, you already can get a no-recovery free killing attack. Agreed. Part of the issue comes from Barbaric Blow being so lame on its own, even with BPM version which is more crit focused. I'm thinking about adding 75% Crit chance and +75% Crit damages also to Barbaric Blow carnage part (which is already increased in AoE). This would result in much better interraction with Blood Frenzy and Interrupting Blows. Crushing Blow could be given an additional Carnage bonus of some sort (or just better carnage numbers), in a way that "instresically works better with instant attacks". Maybe even bigger AoE (not sure how it would "instresically work better with instant attacks" though). I fear that buffing the single target damage part won't make the ability buildable around. Also I'm thinking about Eliminating Blow. I get the intention, but the AoE Tier 1 affliction isn't super satisfying for party building. Main target should stay unaffected to be keep the vibe though. Maybe an enormous AoE would fit ? EDIT : maybe I'm overthinkng it. The AoE (2,5 radius) is big enough, and it's still an almost free debuff that synergizes OK with new attack cycle. It's just not easy fitting among all RES Affliction debuff, but when used it's good enough. Maybe I can tweak up duration a bit.

I think it was the bug, limitating the duration to 15s on the animal companion (when ranger is downed). Granted that it is probably not the most frequent case, but still. Corrected. OK, I tried a little thing that worked with Toxic Strike : I have put the Poison KW on the corrode DoT only. (This tweak is very technical and will not work to put a Poison/Disease KW on an affliction only ; this works only when the subsequent effect has not a distinct roll. Afflictions tend to have distinct roll - Plague of Insects, Vole Thorn, etc...). Now Toxic Strike does work on Poison Immune target, but only for the attack and Weakened parts. The DoT still does not work. I think this is a good compromise because it will be identical to Withering Strike vs Poison Immune targets. You're not "loosing an ability" by picking the upgrade (you just have 1 useless upgrade for a specific battle). This won't make Toxic Strike too universally powerful. Also, about Crushing Blow : Barbaric Blow & upgrades : Removed the PR and Damages bonus to make the ability more focused. Now Barbaric Blow & Upgrades do : - 75% Hit to Crit chances - +75% Crit damages bonus (note : Crushing Blow do get this bonus, even if it does not get Crit Damages Bonus in the base game due to a bug) - +200% Carnage AoE (soroughly 2.5m radius instead of 1.5m) - Barbaric Smash : no refund, but cost reduced to 1 Rage - Crushing Blow : no recovery (not conditional anymore) I think this change was good, but Crushing blow with no recovery costs twice as much as Barbaric Smah, making it overall much more situational. I might add some simple buff to it (maybe +15 Accuracy since you really want your 2 rage ability to connect...)

How do you guys would feel about removing Poison KW from Toxic Strike ? The ability text doesn't even speak about poison. Poison/Disease are annoying keywords because they don't have many positive interactions and they are often resisted. Withering Strikes and Persisting Strike don't have Poison KW. Baiscally one shoots oneslef in the foot by picking Toxic Strike, which renders even Withering Strike unusable vs a rather wide range of foes. They said, Toxic Strike is a strong ability (BPM Persisting Strike is better than in vanilla). I fear that it could become too much of an universal solution to all fights. What mitigates the issue is that it has Acid KW in BPM, so there are still a couple of foes that would be totally insensitive to it (or just Corrode resistant). Similar case for "Their Putrid Stench Waffs Across". It adds disease KW, making its unupgrade version useful against more targets. I'm pretty decided about this one to remove Disease KW, since it is already a bit situational (need a corpse, only provide benefit vs non CON resistant foes). Also the Dank Spore summons. I think both the Charm ability and the ultimate explosion are Poison/Disease KW, altough the issue is somewhat lesser since even the base ability has a drawback. I think the upgrade is rarely great (even after BPM Summon Rebalance) cause concurrence of all Chanter summons, require 2 ability points from only SC chanter. Infinite Sickened isn't bad but does nothing vs many foes. I have to think about a better On Death effect, maybe a poison raw DoT, maybe even an infinite one. Don't hesistate if you have a cool idea (but I think I should keep the exploision On Death).

I think I will go for : - Instant melee attack on any kills from the Fighter. At leats it would avoid having your kill stolen by your own DoT. On Kill effect are already a bit luck-sensitive, so avoiding this restriction would help a lot. Quite some MC potential, albeit not as much as Blood Thirst. - +10% Melee Weapon Crit damages per threatened target (count threatened targets as Mob Stance). (restriction to mele weapon because damages bonuses are more beneficial to spell and this is a melee stance after all). Crit damages are quite useful versus trash foe mobs, so I guess it would fit. This would still be inferior to uber versatile Warrior/Conquerer stances vs single target (and crit damages aren't very reliable), probably around equal vs 2 targets until the extra attack happen (if it does). The current description is wrong anyway as it is.

I don't think so but I'm not sure. Arterial strike is 0.33 tick, which is the minimum I know. I would not go lower. 1s seems satisfying. Theoritically, it should be 5/12 of the previous power when abused. I think it's enough. It's an oversight. The ability is unfortunately not working as intended. It should be corrected. It seems a display bug. Yep. A bit like BPM Stag form is a good choice for SC Druid with BPM Entropy.

Cleaving Stance may not provide enough reliable benefit compared to other stances after 1.1 nerf. It is basically a very underwhelming version of Blood thirst. Guardian Stance is a direct concurrent when facing a mob. I might change it to proc when anything is killed in melee range. Or something this style.

I have tweaked Into the frail upgrade a bit further than BPM into the frail (almost no damages but 1 Discipline). These are somewhat situational so I wanted spending 2 ability points to provide... Less situationalality. Out of the Fire range was tweaked up to 8m (already the most flexible, wanted to emphasize it) Lower their guard dazed was set to 10s (-10 AR is cute for 1 attack it won't do that much). Lower their guard should be somewhat spammable now. This is also a way to emphasize Fighter Tanking gameplay.

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).