Elric Galad

If you want to consider a pure Damage ability, you should use Accurate Wounding Shot (especially the CP version that removes stacking issues). All other abilities have side-effects which makes comparison harder. That's just my 2 cents. I think I will code whatever you decide anyway (I also noted the Crushing Blow need of cleaning).

Ahhh Driving Roar Vocal Cannon The obvious solution would be to lower Barbaric blow's cost to 1 rage (and tune accordingly what's necessary). But it would be aligning barbarian on other Martials, and I don't like it too much. Feel like we would have failed to find a better idea, but as thelee says, the basic principle didn't translate well to PoE2. You don't like my idea of super high crit chance , aww, too bad. I was already thinking about all these nice weapons to use with it. It was a bit pumping numbers, I admit. Still, if one upgrade refunds and the other cancel recovery (on second blow apparently), I still feel like refund is better if they have the same trigger. I admit that if barbaric blow was 1 rage, it would feel more comparable though.

Yeah but Pathfinder is based on a known P&P game that is itself based on D&D. So I guess it attracts this crowd (not that many people, but still).

Well, I didn't notice a wide gap for the writing between Deadfire and its DLC (the gap was bigger in PoE1). The main difference was that the DLCs were more focus on Single Dungeons rather than spread between lots of Quests. I think it added to the depth of the DLC, but the main cause isn't the writing I think.

Warning, perfectly logical statement on an Internet forum. Something weird is happening here. Are you Google AI being tested or wut ? I guess this DLC wasn't perfectly fit for your tastes from its principles. It doesn't prevent you from playing it if you're a completionnist, but you were likely to get a bit less value for your bucks compared to other DLC. Experience maybe ? DLCs don't have much technical dev to do, so maybe they have more time for level design ?

PL of an ability isn't that significant IMHO (except for PL scaling), as long as it is below Tier VII (where MC starts to be limited) and it adds possibilities. I still think that it okay as an unique source of Confusion for Rogue (-5 INT on its own Worth it) Huh, Sap is melee only, doesn't even work with blast I have no plan on modding Sap for the moment (maybe clarifying that it prones though ?). My plans for Perplexing Sap is to add Shaken and Distracted (and remove current weird effect), for a total of 4 Tier 1 afflictions (which also translates to -20 reflex and -20 will). 4 afflictions at the same time for 30s would be nice, I think. Even close from OP, but you'll have to switch target to avoid redundance with Persistant Distraction (switching target is some rogue stuff though). Also, it won't work fully on resistant foes, but there would almost always be some that would go through (and enables Sneak Attack/Deathblows). That said, I think Sap would remain situationnal for MC Rogues, but would worth considering for SC. That sounds good enough for me. EDIT : That's a recurring problem with Tier VII or below abilities that have a Tier VIII or Tier IX upgrade. They have to be good enough for MC, but should not become OP when upgraded. The upgrade itself has to be significant because it costs a High Level ability point. Tricky equation. My plan for Barbaric Blow is to greatly increase the crit chance. Something like 75-80% so still benefit a bit from various passive. Almost guaranting Crit is not so frequent (Gambit is the only thing close), have some synergy with Interrupting Blows and has pretty good possibilities for Itemization. Not to mention Skald. Good point on no recovery on kill upgrade. It stacks with Blood Thirst but is indeed strictly inferior. Mmm "on kill" effects are a bit Barbarian signature, even if I don't like them. No recovery on Crit would have too good synergy with my current plan, so I have to think about it. EDIT : What would you think of : Barbaric Blows : - Crit Chance 30%->50% - Bonus Crit Damages 50%->75% (for a total of +100%) Crushing Blow : - Instant Recovery on Crit Barbaric Smash : - Refund on Kill Refund is better than instant Recovery, so the trigger has to be more complicated to get.

Just don't pick Crippling Strike (or respec) if you don't want it to compete. Indeed, you don't need both. Sap + WotEP/Citzal is nice. AoE Prone on Graze + Confusion/Hobbled for 30s for 1 Guile ? The duration of afflictions is much higher than Crippling (even if PL mitigate it). It may be good to enable Deathblows on Perception resistant foes. Toxic Strike is mehish anyway. You know it, even if it can be impressive sometimes. If not, why did CP buffed it to 2 Guiles Again, I don't say it's a great ability, just that it can work fine for some builds. There are much much much bigger offenders. https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/His+Laughter+Rang+Through+the+Halls Or even simply overrated stuff : https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Barbaric+Blow

I'm a Bold Gamer though.

Taking notes for my Balance mod (that was my opinion, but it's good to get some confirmation). I would say that Sap isn't so bad IMHO (upgrade is stupid though) due to its cheap cost, long duration double debuff (even if said debuffs are meh) and interrupt on Graze, but it is melee only anyway, so it has nothing to do in a ranged build.

I see you are a man of culture.

And people still prefer Devoted to Black Jacket tss tss...

I found SSS rather well integrated with the main campaign, for an arena game. It felt "reasonnably forced". But as a part of it, it is obviously inferior to a normal DLC. SSS should have been playable as a stand-alone run. This is especially sad because party making in Deadfire is IMHO like x5 better than in the old IE games, and testing combination for short run would have been great. The option to play it as a part of Main Campaign would have only been icing on the cake then.

That makes Mortification of the Soul extremely convienent for FF, especially if you mostly plan to stack wounds for Duality and its upgrades, Razor's edge or Tuotilo's Palm !

9) Surprisingly, Shattered Pillars can use Mortification of the Soul to get wounds as other subclass. But they receive damages according to their own Wound Threshold (usually for damages inflicted) that is 3x higher (30 raw damages or 24 with lesser wounds). I think this is an interesting back-up plan for shattered pillar, even if it costs more. I've found a Boeroer post stating that Mortification of the Soul can be used by Forbidden Fist too, I suppose with normal value since they don't have specific wound threshold ??

It was just before 5.0 that afflictions weren't applied by WotEP... so there might be hope. Does Assassinate work with Citzal Lance (since you're the world best specialist for Citzal lance among other things) ?

(I referred JSON Visual Studio Code displayed lines number in case it helps, not sure it is displayed the same with your editor...) Don't hesitate if you have any questions. 1) Toughened fury : This one is just that the in-game value (20%) wasn't in line with Community Patch Note that states 25% : https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/335 This file sets it to 25% (basically identical to the CP file except for this value) : cl.fighter.toughened_fury.gamedatabundle 2) Deep Wounds : I realized that CP intended to set 4 ticks with 2 seconds interval, so the total duration of 6s was normal. The 2s interval was defined in the beginning of the file (L4-11) However, the raw damages IntervalRateID (L347) didn't link to the 2s interval ID of L6, but to the 3s interval ID of the original ability. That causes a 3s interval that leads to only 3 ticks. The file below only changes the IntervalRateID (L347) so it is now 4 ticks with 2 seconds interval : cl.rogue.deep_wounds.gamedatabundle 3) Shattered Pillars with lesser wounds : Shattered Pillar uses its own version of lesser wounds in the abilities.gamebundle file called "Lesser_Wounds_ShatteredPillar". I added this ability at the end of the CP file (L208-216), only to set up the WoundMaxNumber parameter to 10 (L215) : cl.monk.shattered_pillar_wounds_limit.gamedatabundle

Assassinate + Power Strike + Whispers of the Endless Path should cause damages and stun with high Accuracy Bonus in an AoE. Feels like the best way to use Power Strike for this build. But I agree with thelee that if your into Assassinate and backstab, Single Class Assassin + High INT (Acute/Brillant inspiration from another team member helps) + Vanishing Strike is the way to go. This is basically God Mode. If this is your Main Character, using Ooblit as a pet provide +3s of "god mode" for each use of Vanishing Strikes.

By the way, if you want to correct these 3 items, I've already made the modifications and tested them on my local version. I've only need to "clean" the modded gamebundle files from unnecessary code (to avoid overriding issues) and I can send you the files.

As a generic rule, I tend to be very suspicious with the Ressource Cost scaling of most martial abilities of the game. Most (if not all) 1 ressource abilities feel pretty good for their cost, while many 2+ feels a bit meh . MC/SC martial ends up with 9 to 11 total ressources (+items), which means 2+ ressources abilities take a big part of your pool. This could be critical during mid to long fights. One always has to think twice when using them, and one should expect Something cost-effective when used. Think about Barbaric Blows, Strike the Bell, the various Paladin Commands, etc... They are 2+ cost abilities that feel totally right IMHO (Unbending, Clear Out, Blinding Strikes, Vanishing Strikes, Reviving Exhortation...) For Tier VIII-IX, the problem is even bigger since these abilities are supposed to be a reward for going SC, but low cost abilities are still better in many cases. For example, Driving Roar (which is a mere upgrade) is arguably the best Barbarian ability simply because it costs 1 and isn't that worse compared to HoF or Instruments of Boundless Rage. In the specific case of Into the Fray, I feel this is a tactital tool that should cost about the same as basic mobility ability such as Escape or Evasive Roll. I know but here I'm speaking about things I plan to mod myself I want to start from what CP has already done, so I feel concerned about overlapping, but I will create my own thread about my mod.

Stupid question : how do you choose new Hexa ID when creating new GameDataObjects ? How to avoid conflicts ? If UUID generator is used, I suppose it means you don't ensure, but I suppose they are highly unlikey due to sheer probabilities.. Edit : OK, UUID is universal this answers my own question.

Yeah, I know, it was a sort of (bad ?) joke. Your idea is legit though (same problem with MIG for self-inflicted damages)

Anyway I should stop hijacking your thread with my own modding stuff. As for Community Patch itself, here is the list of minor issues I have in mind : 1) Toughened Fury is stated 25% Discipline on Crit in the patch note but is 20% in game (might be intended ?). 2) Deep Wounds is stated 4 ticks at 5% damages of the original Attack but is 3 ticks in game (checked the file : this is because the duration is still 6s, while it should be 9s to get the 4 ticks) 3) Lesser Wounds for Shattered Pillars cause the wound limit to be back to 5. This is because Shattered Pillars use their own version of Lesser Wounds in the abilities file, and the max number of Wounds is among the attributes of the ability. 4) I think (based on the files, not tested in game) that sacred immolation increased radius has only be changed for the base ability, but not for its upgrades (Sacred Sacrifice and Divine Immolation)

I tried this evening, HBD, andWeakening Strikes applied, but the result are weird for HBD. Sometimes, HBD triggered an attack, sometimes another Inner Death. The normal attack even got the +300% damages bonus from Inner Death on a Crit. Honnestly, this seems too umpredictable to include. I kept the mod file just in case though.

Can we speak about BG3 ? A friend of mine told me : "hey you know they are going to release BG3 ? I know you loved this game" I answered : "I expect to be disappointed bacause I think it will be worse than PoE2." (mostly because I expect an outdated character system in a less interesting world - that I liked years ago - unless they go planeshifting)

The character system in PoE is heavily focused on Combat. Sacrifying Combat for skills is not possible for this reason. PoE2 heavily favors concentrating on a few skills, contrary to PoE1, and items with bonus related to (potentially maxed) skills makes it even worse. Still, as a team of 5, you'll get enough points to cover most options, so I didn't really feel missng skill points in my runs, but it is neither a build choice nor feeling much RP. I don't remember a single game with a convincing skill system (indeed dispersion is a problem), nor I remember a game with a good balance between Combat and Out-of-Combat skills (well PoEs are sort of balanced, but the skill system is underdevelopped). I also don't remember a game who made ou-of-combat skills interesting (Skyrim Lockpicking is what I mean for a not-too-bad implementation for an individual skill). Skills always tend to be the poor part of CRPG developpment. I guess most players (including myself) concentrae on combat, but still.