Elric Galad

Great... Does it have any use ? Does it work with Monk twins ?

No no, it's good to have feedbacks. Now I'm thinking : what about higher chances with much shorter duration ? Like 25% chances for 15s ? (these adjustments are quite easy)

The timer + guaranteed effect is a good idea, maybe closer from the original. The thing is this is quite a technical and time-consuming change to make, as it was for the current version of the ability, so I'm honestly not to fond of changing it (bar the numbers). Somehow I think it is fitting that illusions are not totally reliable. EDIT : but now, I'm thinking about adding a timer to Moon Godlike's Silver Waves Maybe not. Their bonus corrode AR was set to give them an asset vs one of the Megabosses.

Talent Name Fighter Paladin Barbarian Monk Rogue Ranger Cipher Chanter Wizard Druid Priest Tier 1 Fast Runner x x x /4 x x / / / x / Arms Bearer Every Class gets it Monastic Unarmed Training x x x /4 x x x / / / x Tier 2 One-Handed Style Every Class gets it Two Handed Style Every Class gets it Two Weapon Style Every Class gets it Weapon and Shield Style Every Class gets it Tier 3 Combat Focus Every Class gets it Bull's Will x x x x x x / 2 x x x x Bear's Fortitude Every Class gets it Snake's Reflex Every Class gets it Tier 4 Tumbling x / x x x x x / / / / Spirit of Decay / / / / / / / / x x x Scion of Flame / x / / / / / / x x x 3 Heart of the Storm / / / / / / / / x x x Secrets of Rime / / / / / / / / x x /3 Spell Shaping / / / / / / / x x x x Tier 5 Tough Every Class gets it Uncanny Luck x x x x x x x x x / / Rapid Casting / / / / / / x x x x x Far Casting / / / / / / x / x x x Practiced Healer / x / / / x / / / x x Tier 6 Improved Critical Every Class gets it Spell Resistance Every Class gets it Quick Summoning / / / / / / / x x x5 x Martial Casting / / / / / / / / x x x Tier 7 Penetrating Empower Every Class gets it1 Lasting Empower Every Class gets it1 Accurate Empower Every Class gets it1 Potent Empower Every Class gets it1 Tier 8 Great Soul Every Class gets it1 Tier 9 Prestige Every Class gets it Notes : 1 : Blood Mage can't get Empower Talents 2 : Cipher gets Iron Will at Tier 1, which is a better version of Bull's Will 3 : Priest of Rymrgand has access to Secrets of Rime instead of Scion of Flame 4 : Monk has no monastic unarmed training, but gets Transcendant Suffering for free. Monk has no fast runner but gets long strike and Graceful Retreat at Tier 2 instead. 5 : Lifegivers do get Quick Summoning.

Amira's Wing as 5% chance of prone (sounds fun on a SC Cipher) on Hit and a 10% healing received bonus (not that important for backrow, but still nice. Basically 10% more defense for long fights). This or Rod of the Deep Hunter is probably a matter of preference (debuff per hit also sounds fun with SC Cipher). Amira's Wind also has an alternate upgrade for +5 deflection instead of prone. +5 Def and +10% healing sounds even... good for a front row ? Only issue is you can't engage. But standing in front while poking every target 8m away sounds like a valid playstyle. Granted the access to spells, it feels a good choice for a Black Jacket. Also is mutually exclusive with Thunderous Report... which is great, fun, and per encounter. I would only pick Wild Shot with an Arcane Archer.

My issue with Watershaper focus is that it is suboptimal vs single target. The beauty of other rods is that you're always 1 click away from single target mode. Also AoE bounce can bounce on a suboptimal (isolated) target. Don't get me wrong, it certainly works well much of the time, but as a general rule, I like unconditional stuff the most. It's a bit my playstyle (and strand of favor abuse is definitely not ) Ranged weapons can bounce during Whirling Strikes, I just don't get exactly where the additional hits are made. Seems to be within the original 1.5m area. I think Mortar can hit stuff out of the original area, which is good because a single hit from WS cause the full bleeding effect. A minor note about Bouncing weapons : the damage reduction does not come from driving flight but is intresic to the weapon. Most weapons (which bounce only due to abilities such as driving flight). Watershaper focus has a 75% bounce value. 1st bounce is 75%, the second is 75%x75% (confirmed to be multiplicative). Not sure there are many weapons in this case. PS : And I'm planning to side with Furrante this run, so no Scordeo's Edge

Yeah, now I'm wondering about using a SC Cipher as a Rod user. Shared Nightmare + Time Parasite should be fun auto-attack.

Oh my, I realized how good Rods are during this run. Having a modal that allows switching instantly from Single Target to AoE is like being playing with a Black Jacket except Rods are arguably even more convenient than any other AoE weapons due to their range. Dual types of damages make them undead proof. Running Rods on a Helwalker / Rogue is disgusting. Bonus INT for AoE area, bonus damages of all sorts, Stunning Blows and Afflictions attacks (in an AoE of course), this character is really amazing. I took Fast Runner and Long Stride : having a character with +40% movement speed all the time is crazy good. I picked Escape too, which sounded like an overkill but has proven useful on my paper-made Helwalker. I become infatuated with Amira's Wing even with its relatively mediocre enchantments (for auto-attacking), just because it is a Superb Rod and isn't that hard to get (and arguably more well rounded than Rod of the Deep Hunt). I'm still trying to find the optimal weapon pair with Whirling Strikes. Stalker's Patience + Scordeo's Trophy feels really good and pretty simple. Strategic Blitz + Driving Flight often lead to 6+ stacks with Whirling Strikes. Each stack is ~11% recovery speed, which is very nice even if it only stacks additively with DW Style. After your big whirling of the death, you'll be quite fast at auto-attacking. Having a left hand mortar could be cool too but it feels a bit suboptimal with small crowds. Kind Wayfarers' White Flame is as good as I thought (never choosen this subclass till now). For a FoD Paladin, I would recommand it over Bleak Walkers. You're basically doing everything in 1 move for 1 zeal ! This is a good thing that the most (over) powerful stuff doesn't come from my mod (even if it brings good options)

I know. I'm becoming lazy on description change

CP + BPM isn't advised for people with restartitis. That's why we are discussing with @Noqn about a mod to allow Seeker Slayer Survivor standalone runs

Yeah, and Martial Caster buff. It's basically Quickswitch for summoned weapons with BPM.

New version uploaded with all the changes discuted above (including the 4 wounds for Sisters of the Reaping Moon, applied on ANY kills, not just weapons) Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) Oh my, there were still a significant number of Ranger bugs.

BPM does not make summoned weapons scaling with PL. Several summoned weapons are buffed to keep up with enchanted weapons though. What is CM ?

This would be a great buff for her Monk / Priest build, but it won't do much for SC Monk (although I think it could help with Resonant Touch, Inner Death and the likes). The lantern is meh too with SC Monk (you usually don't use shield with SC monk, bar Tuotilio's). But you can swap after inner death. That said, setting it to any kills is certainly a good start. Or maybe +4 Wounds on any kills ? (so 5 wounds with the lantern, just below WotW cost ?, 2 kills for full refund)

Yeah, they are meant to be used together. I've only tested my mod with community patch installed.

Just don't take Unbending Trunk (unless using my mod ) It's totally an overkill because of the weird way Unbending works : Basically, regular Unbending or Unbending Shield are far enough to keep you alive and will most likely overheal damages. Especially if you stand in a Fire Wall. If you want an upgrade, go Unbending Shield.

Shorter casting time is IMHO the best solution to keep low level spells relevant. Usually you don't want to cast them because you have better things to do. Even a weak spell is worth casting if nearly instant. You won't use the low level ressources for something else anyway. Other than that, PEN is the usual issue for low level damages spells. +0.25 PEN / PL isn't enough to keep up. Higher level spell get +0.5 PEN / Availability Tier beyond 1 : for example, a Tier 5 spell with 7 PEN cast with PL9 will have : 7 PEN + (5-1)x0.5 PEN because it is a Tier 5 level spell + (9-5)x0.25 PEN because of PL level = 10 PEN. It is easy to implement an effect triggered after Empowering a spell. But altering the Empower command itself is probably much more tricky (and I'm pretty sure isn't moddable through Gamedata files. I don't know how to implement an effect working only on low level spells. Unless adding a Keyword for each Tier ? This would conflict with any mod adding Keyword. Note that Balance Polishing Mod has implemented an effect lasting until end of combat after Empowering a spell with one of the Empower Talents : Accurate Empower : +10 Accuracy to Empowered ability, +5 Accuracy until combat endsPotent Empower : +24% damages to empowered spell, +12% until combat ends.Penetrating Empower : + 2 PEN to Empowered ability, +1 PEN until combat ends Lasting Empower : +30% duration of Inspiration and Affliction to Empowered ability, +15% until combat ends Chopping Wood : 100% Hit to Crit to Empowered ability, 20% Hit to Crit until combat ends Murderous Intent : (100% Hit to Crit /+100% Crit damages) against foes under 50% health for Empowered ability, (20% Hit to Crit /+20% Crit damages) against foes under 50% health until combat ends

Most likely this saturday. Sunday at most. Probably not for Xoti. It isn't the most optimal subclass, but as a Companion, Xoti benefits from +2 total attributes from BPM 1.4.5 which is probably enough to vaguely counterbalance suboptimal aspects of her build. (Serafen subclass has already been tweaked). I could give her +3->+5 wounds on kill though. Would be more fun but I don't want to alter her too much. One could repeat WotW for a while as long as one gets at least 1 kill.

Funny thing isthat in PoE1, they could add Deathblow to spells (+100% damages vs at least 2 afflictions). They didn't have spell, but using scrolls and items, the could become temporary casters.

Gambit does not allow to gain ressources, though. It is at best a potentially free attack (which is great). I can imagine that Gambit + Dual Mortars is pretty much guaranteed to get 2 crits every time. All you have to do is to switch to single target weapon set and spam Vanishing Strikes when necessary. And Blood Surge is... her... a bit meh for a Tier 9 (especially vs boss). Sounds too much like a win more for me, and kills are limited. The biggest advantage of SC Barbarian for me is what they can do for 1 freaking rage point. Driving Roar and to a lesser extent Dazing Shout are just that good, everything else is icing (barbaric retaliation is arguably a bit more that just icing). Now, I would say Chanters, Rangers and Fighters are arguably the hardest to make work as single classes. For chanters, I got the strange feeling that every crowd was able to reflect Eld Nary's bounce to my own party, and MC chanters can have most of chants and 3 Animated Weapons are good enough to spend your phrases anyway.

That's true. Barbarian relies on picking one of the Shout upgrade (preferrably Driving Roar). Cipher is borderline with the casters because PL is really good, but still favors heavily some subclasses, picking Shared Nightmare, etc... If not, it won't be that much better than your usual Ancestor's Memory + Disintigrate spamming MC Cipher.

Ishiza, best pet at fleeing.

I would say teleporting is probably not necessary. Skipping first cavern and Dig Site is the most critical part, also Port Maje town would be appreciated (+ whatever trigger the access to DLC). Basically, as long as you can directly sail to the island, it's good.

Yup, but : - You have to pick assassin - You have to put a lot of points in INT for vanishing strikes, or PER for Gambit etc... - Many MC (Mindstalker, Swashbuckler) can have more impressive auto-attack due to stacking passives from 2 classes. Upgraded Clear Out + WotEP or Sundering Blow vs bosses are really quite convenient. Fighter has his own god mode through Unbending. SC Chanters have Eld Nary's and Animated weapons upgrades. SC Ranger has... Melee + Mortar Whirling Strikes ? SC Paladin has to rely on dying friendly summons, but has access to INFINITE ZEAL. Being niche doesn't mean being inferior, it is just saying that there are a smaller number of builds that can be considered top tier. That's exactly what I meant when saying you have to know what you are doing (therefore the definition is a bit subjective)

Druid, Priest, Wizard, Monks : SC is very good, MC still worth it. Cipher, Barbarian : MC is usually better, but SC can be very good without too much effort. Fighter, Paladins, Rogues, Rangers, Chanters : MC is much much easier, SC still has niche builds but you really need to know what you're doing.