Boeroer

Yeah, when people with no clue use AI for gathering "knowledge" about specialized and/or obscure stuff it can lead to absolutely bizarre outcomes. I guess arcane video game details, scattered all over forums etc. are pretty difficult to compose into something that's remotely decent info - and language barriers add another layer of potential weirdness. I like to use AI for generating graphs and diagrams from data - for publications and presentations and such. It's pretty good at that and spares me a LOT of time. But it's easy to spot when it screws up (which happens occasionally) because I know what it's supposed to do (because I could do it myself if I took the time). I also used AI to collect certain posts on social media which could contain disinformation from malign actors - because that's much faster and cheaper than letting a bunch of people do it (who also hate it). But it's just giving you alerts and the link to the content in question so that an expert can have a look and maybe act on it (which they like much better). I would never trust AI to do something I couldn't assess myself.

That's wild. Did they maybe mean advice for Pallegina as a shield user? Could also be they just mixed up the sublcasses. I cannot find any statements (AI or not) about an official Shieldbearer (of St. Elcga) companion either. Surprisingly, Gemini and ChatGPT even tell me that there's only an official companion from the Frermàs mes Canc Suolias when I ask them about an official companion of the Shieldbearer order. 🤷‍♂️

Hi, single class Shifter isn't super appealing imo because the PL 8 and 9 abilities for Spiritshift aren't that great. In my experience the Shifter is more enjoyable when multiclassed. Here there a a lot of options which all work well and are fun to play, usually it's a combo of Shifter+martial class because of the spellcasting restriction when shifted: Shifter/Goldpact Knight - great AR with zero recovery penalty because of Paladin passives + Gilded Enmity (which is kind of free if you combine with Sworn Rival) + natural armor (especially Bear form). Eternal Flames stacks with Wildstrike lashes, Ring of Focused Flames gives extra +10 acc, Sacred Immolation + Nature's Terror is fantastic late game AoE dmg while in melee. Also nice with Steel Garotte but needs afflictions on enemies then to unlock life drain. So cast some affliction stuff before going in (Relentless Storm or Tanglefoot etc.). Shifter/Helwalker - higher speed and shocking lash from Lightning Strikes, burning lash from Turning Wheel, both stack with Wildstrike, +10 INT prolongs Spiritshift, +15 MIG (Helwalker's passive + Thunderous Blows) boost dmg and self-heal (pets, inter-shift), +10 INT/+15 MIG are fantastic for the Boar form because the shifter variant of the board form has a Wounding DoT lash that has the base duration of the spiritshift, not the usual one. Also great for any spellcasting between/before shifts (Relentless Storm or Plague of Insects and especially Moonwell - or whatever). Stunning Surge is a great attack ability and so are Efficient Anguish or Torment's Reach. Shifter/Trickster or Streetfighter - simple synergies due to high dmg bonuses from Sneak Attack etc. combined with Wildstrike lashes, no e Full Attack strikes sich as Crippling Strike and so on and nice mobility bc. of Escape. Streetfighter has a lot of potential with dmg (but has to be flanked AND blooded to unlock fully, pick human race to profit even more), Trickster with defense. Shifter/Furyshaper or Berserker - fast attack speed, some melee dmg bonuses (Blooded, One Stands Alone), added engagement via Barbaric Shout, added DoT with Blood Frenzy or terrify with Spirit Tornado, AR bonus (Thick Skinned), nice finisher Full Attack (Barbaric Smash), awesome mobility with Wild Sprint and especially when Leap becomes available. Berserker has higher dmg potential but also self dmg (use human race and Blooded to profit) and Furyshaper has nasty CC (Fear Ward). Shifter/Stalker - very high accuracy, added defense and AR, Boar form unlocks Predator's Sense of the Animal Companion automatically, nice Full Attack abilities (Wounding Shot but also the Hunter's Claw stuff) and of course an additional body on the battlefield which you can use to always flank enemies and thus apply -10 deflection and -1 AR to them (as well as Stalker's Link). During or before shifts you can use the awesome single target dmg combo Takedown Combo (+100% dmg for the next attack) + Sunlance. Shifter/Bloodmage - despite the spell casting restriction this works nicely in the early and mid game where you cast lots of the fast self-buffs with the Wizard, then shift and do melee. Late in the game it's extremely good because you can combine Wall of Draining (prolongs Spiritshift and all buffs and benefical effects, including healing over time and stuff like damaging aura spells - so you don't have to pause shift ever) with Zandethu's Draconic Fury (use Blood Sacrifice to get back the highest tier spell uses) and Citzal's Martial Power at last (cannot cast while shifted anyway). For lulz you can also use the Transmuter subclass and trade a bit of power for an additional shift form: into an Ogre. :)

These days it might take some time I assume. Maybe we tag @SChin (hi Sam) for a quick nudge to know if the submission was received. Cheers!

Heartbeat Drumming used to work like Swift Flurry in the early days of the game. As soon as the community found out how easy it was to produce crit chains with both Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming the devs patched it. I never bothered to look into the code, but it was noticeably harder to proc crazy chains afterwards, but still possible. Your post makes it clear why that is, thank you! 😃

Not if you use (Enduring) Dance of Death. But if you want your Priest to mainly buff and only occasionally fight then I'd pick single class Priest.

A single class Priest can absolutely fight in melee. It's just so that his damage output with a weapon would be better if he multiclassed with a class which added some melee prowess. But in general you can stand in the front line and swing a great sword. I place Xoit as SC Priest at the front line all the time - often with a Morning Star - and it works fine. Will she be tanking many enemies? No - but that's not her role. But she can stand her ground against an enemy or two for long enough. In Deadfire, a Priest of Berath can summon a spiritual great sword for himself which has a nice corrosive lash that grows if your reputation matches your god's dispositions. It can become quite powerful. That way even a single class Priest can contribute with weapon damage. If you are okay with giving up the highest tier spells you can multiclass with not much regret. I personally love to multiclass a Priest with the Helwalker Monk because this has two main kinds of synergies: better melee output: with stuff such as Lightning Strikes + Turning Wheel and some attack abilities such as Force of Anguish or Torment's Reach you can do some serious damage, especially when paired with the spiritual great sword (resulting in a shocking lash, a burning lash and a corrosive lash on the sword). Also the high MIG of the Helwalker leads to more weapon damage. the Helwalker can offer +15 MIG (+1 MIG per wound and +5 from Thunderous Blows) and +10 INT (Turning Wheel) which are both fantastic buffs for casting: INT enlargens the AoEs and prolongs all durations, MIG raises damage and healing power(!). Spells like Shining Beacon profit a lot from +15 MIG (higher dmg per tick) and +10 INT (a lot more ticks) and so does healing over time such as Consecrated Ground. Aso you can be a bit faster (Lightning Strikes add +5 DEX and +15% action speed) and get some other goodies. The Monk is a great multiclass choice for a lot of classes, Priest is no exception.

Enduring Dance gives you wounds per second and accuracy, too. If you stay hidden and only use Dichotomous Soul to send summons out from hiding it can last forever.

No, you'd have to kill him unfortunately.

Hello, welcome and thank you! 🤗 Same 😉

Offensive Parry from the Whispers of the Endless Paths does drain health with a Steel Garrote. Iirc Riposte does, too.

Against Belranga it's good to have summons (like Dichotomous Soul) so she can destroy them instead of you. For Huani you need interrupts such as Force of Anguish in order to prevent the merging process. If you use Edér's armor with "Veteran's Maneuver" and also use Keeper of the Flame as weapon and have picked "Imagined Pain" you can farm wounds while doing Whispers of the Wind and thus spam it endlessly. You will gain wounds because Keeper of the Flame's AoE does friendly fire and targets reflex. Because you will be immune to reflex based attacks (Veteran's Maneuver) every AoE roll against you will miss, granting a wound via Imagined Pain. If you can spam Whispers of the Wind you can mostly stay invisible. If you use Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak then all attacks made during Whispers of the Wind will stun enemies. This is very good in the Belranga fight to kill a lot of little spiders fast in order to drop the defenses of Belranga quickly. If you put Keeper of the Flame in the main hand and Mohora Tanga in the offhand like we described above you can do a lot of single target and AoE dmg + CC with Whispers of the Wind. Not necessarily against the mega bosses themselves (unless you brought Belranga's defenses down a lot) but the weaker spiderlings and the smaller split oozes. Against Belranga you can also just hide behind some rocks, use Enduring Dance and send Dichotomous Soul summons to Belranga & friends from hiding - over and over again. You can also resort to that tactic in the middle of the fight if you have a potion of invisibility.

Then I assume Lightning Strikes is better in that case. Lashes do generate Focus.

PS: Swift Flurry/HBD procs do not generate wounds for a Shattered Pillar. I always forget if they generate focus for a Cipher. I believe not, but I'm again not sure anymore. Blame my reluctance to play Soul Whip Ciphers I guess.

Steel Garrote only drains health from direct damage attacks, not DoTs. Red Flag Flying does no direct damage so no draining. I would have thought that the Swift Flurry attacks however would drain health. If they do not: I learned something new. The order in which attacks appear in the combat log is not necessarily the order in which the attacks are processed internally. Not really. The phrase generation of a Skald is +1 phrase max(!) per attack action or "swing" - no matter how many attack rolls happen during that action. So even if you do 25 crits with Red Flag Flying + Swift Flurry/HBD you will only get +1 phrase point. However: since the Skald only gets a phrase point in 50% of crits, this setup makes pretty sure you get a phrase point every time you crit (and a crit chain follows). That's cool - but not insane. The good thing about the Skald is though: with Killers Froze Stiff you get a really nice paralyze effect (enhanced by the Monk's INT) which causes 25% hit to crit conversion on the enemy (not on you). This not only helps to generate more weapons crits in general but also is one of the few ways to convert a graze to a crit: If your character has graze to hit conversion there's a chance to convert a graze to a hit, but even if that character also has hit to crit: that won't get checked during the same roll where you initially grazed - because only one conversion type of your character is ever checked within one attack resolution. But if the hit to crit conversion is on the enemy this will get checked even if your char already had a conversion check. So the attack can go from char[graze->hit]->enemy[hit->crit] -> ouch! Not game breaking but a nice little detail. Killers Froze Stiff + Ben Fidel's Neck is a pretty good debuffing cycle for Swift Flurry procs if you can generate phrases quickly enough. Note that the most costly invocation determines your max phrase point counter. It makes sense to pick one very costly invocation even if you don't want to ever use it. Just to expand your phrase point maximum.