Boeroer

Save often! And then there's a few things many players complain(ed) about (besides bugs and difficulty and stuff like that) or just missed: 1. Locking yourself out of a faction: It is possible to lock yourself out of a faction (in the big citiy) you actually want to join. There are three factions and every one of them has one entry quest (it gives some good reputation with that faction and unlocks the faction's shop - this may be important to your because of the unique items they sell). This entry quest is of no consequence regarding the other factions, so you can do them all. However, as soon as you pick up the second faction quest (not completing it but just picking it up!) you will lock yourself out of the other factions' second quest. So you have to choose in advance which faction you want to align yourself with more deeply. Every faction gives you a talent, reputation, a unique items and/or money as well a a special hireling for yout stronghold as reward. The talents/items are (without spoiling too much I hope): one "knightly" faction gives you +2 DR which stacks with everything and a unique sword which can be nice for certain builds (and a fine plate armor with an alternative look to normal ones but otherwise not special) the "rogueish" faction gives you +30% dmg for all critical hits (including spells etc.) and either a big bunch of money or a unique stiletto (which is meh imo) the "mob" faction gives +5 accuracy if you attack an enemy who's also attacked by an ally and a unique war bow (which is nice) and also a unique spear whose enchantments can be picked by you, which is pretty cool imo (although this spear can also be crafted up later in the game if you choose to align with another faction, so you are not locking yoursefl out of that one, just delaying it a bit) So be careful when you pick up the second quest for a faction and think about which reward might suit your main character best. There are little warning sings in the dialogue that the other factions might be p!ssed off if you take up that second faction quest, but tbh it's easy to miss and then you might be surprised. In any case you can still buy at the factions' shops not matter how you decide (unless you turn a faction outright hostile by attacking them). 2. Jumping into a certain pit near the end of the game and there's no way back: There is a point in the game where you have to make a jump - a leap of faith so to speak - into a pit. It's not a Xaurip pit in the Endless Paths that I'm talking about... Anyway, if you take the jump you cannot go back and the (rel. short) endgame starts. So before jumping in you want to complete everything (I mean everything you want to complete, it's not mandatory of course). Side quests, DLCs, buying that one item you always wanted, retraining your characters and so on. There are warnings before jumping but you'd be amazed about how many players didn't get it. So watch out. 3. Missing Edér: Edér is one of the very first (permanent) companions you can recruit. You cannot really talk to him before you do a certain quest-related thing. Afterwards he will talk to you, but not forcefully open the dialogue screen but simply say a line in your general direction that you can hear. At that point, when you click on him, you can finally enter proper dialogue with him. A lot of players tried to speak to him first, they couldn't because that one quest wasn't advanced enough, and after the quest progression which unlocks Edér's dialogue - when he spoke his line to them - they just didn't notice or ignored that and moved on, never realizing that they could've picked him up. Please don't miss my boy Edér. ;) 4. Starting the DLCs too late: Thw DLCs White March I and II are meant to expand the main game. They are not meant to be played after the main game (which isn't possible anyway because of the pit of no return). Many players get the in-game invitation to the DLCs' area (occurs mid-game) but think it's for later and are then surprised and frustrated that the DLCs are so freaking easy. You can go to the DLC area as soon as you get the invitation. However, the initial fight is pretty tough so I wouldn't go there pre lvl 8 as a new player. But then you can go there and even go back an forth. Look at it as if the DLCs just added a bunch of new maps and sidequests to the game (which they did). There are lots of unique items in those DLCs which you might want to pick up relatively early so you can use them in the main game, too. 5. Going to Crägholt Bluffs too early: With the DLCs there comes a map that doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the DLCs' areas. It's called Crägholt Bluffs and it's just another (small) set of maps and sidequest. You will get a warning that this area - although unlocked together with the rest of the DLCs - is tough and for high levels only. But it's easy to miss that warning. Crägholt Bluffs is very hard and I wouldn't touch it (as a new player) before level 10 at least, better to wait even longer. You can always go there and try it out though and then abort and come back later if it's still too hard - just save before trying! That's it I guess.

Nope. I only tried out the TB mode for a couple of days while it was in its beta phase.

Correct, and I consider the "occasionality" (had to look up if that words actually exists, hehe) of Defiant Resolve to be very okay. Having a +10 to all defenses buff that stacks with everything in fights with plenty of fear abilites and auras (Drakes, Dragons, Banshees etc.) and which procs off of many annoying spells from Ciphers, Priests, Chanters and Wizards is a very nice thing to have imo. Especially since defenses have increasing returns. It makes makes all dragon fights easier, the Banshee stuff in the Endless Paths, bounties, Crägholt Bluffs and so on.

My favorite party composition is: Edér Aloth Durance Kana Rua Hiravias Kana Rua is very useful on some maps in the early game because he has access to the "White Worms" invocation. As long as you don't reload a map (leaving/coming back or reloading as save) all corpses will stay on the map. Every corpse works with White Worms over and over again (they don't get consumed). So on a map like Raedric's Castly you can pile up corpse over corpse in some doorways and use Kanas White Worms invocation for massive AoE damage. Also in longer encounters the summoed Phantom is extremely good in the early game. It can win fights for you (as long as Kana doesn't go down). From level 9 on I give him "The Dragon Thrashed" as only phrase for his chant and give him a single one handed weapon (because the +12 accuracy bonus translates to offensive chants for some overlooked reason) which decimates all mobs in range automatically. It's very powerful. Hiravias as a caster is very good in general but also his Spiritshift ability is very potent. I give him Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike + Weapon FOcus Peasant + Two Weapon Style and Outlander's Frenzy. Very important to give him a Wildstrike Belt asap (can be bought for very cheap in Ondra's Gift). He then shreds through single enemies who want to mess with him in melee like no other class (not even Rogues). I give him the soulbound scepter because then he can regain his 1 spiritshift use per encounter, making it possible for him to spiritshift twice. Durance as a Priest is kind of a must if you don't want to gimp the party. Priests' buffs are just so strong. Pick Inspiring Radiance asap. It gives you +10 accuracy for the party in every encounter and stacks with everything. Makes the early game a lot easier. Aloth for CC is also my preffered way of playing him. Try Blast + Penetrating Blast + Weapon Focus + Dangerous Implements + Marksman and then summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights. It's a very good (small) AoE dmg combo and only needs one spell cast (for figts where you not necessarly need a lot of CC). Later something like the Rod of Pale Shades is very cool like that, too because Blast works with weapon procs (in this case Stunning + Disorienting) Although not in my favorite party setup, Pallegina can be very useful if you give her a Marking Weapon (there are several, my preference for her is a weapon set set of Spectacular Spetum pollaxe asap + Blade of the Endless Paths estoc later, pollaxe I keep as backup against pierce immue enemies) - and in additon pick Coordinated Attacks. This means she can give the nearest ally who's atacking the same target as her +10 stackable accuracy. This makes it a lot easier to overcome single tough foes (bosses and the like). And it's all passive so it doesn't cost resources or action time. And on top she can do all the other Paladin stuff of course.

If you don't play on the highest difficulty setting (Path of the Damned) you carry around up to 4 camping supplies. So resting is not an issue. Don't hold back your spells too much or you will end up resting because of low health but not because you used all your spells. Players tend to hold on to spells "just in case a big fight comes" - but if you save the game regularly (and it also does auto saves for you) you can reload of you got into a big fight totally unprepared and rest before that fight. Having said that: melee Wizards can contribute in many fights without casting too many spells. Their Arcane Assault (2/encounter) and a single weapon summon spell go a pretty long way.

Yes, the two handed summoned weapons are a lot better than what you can buy/find at those times and a Wizard with weapon + shield isn't a very good setup. That is: unless you just want the protection of a shield and don't care about your weapon damage - in that case hatchet + small shield is a good option because they provide decent deflection and some reflex that stacks with your self buffs. But your weapon damage will be pretty atrocious compared to the summoned weapons. Medium and large shields will negatively impact your casting accuracy (-4 for medium shields and -8 for large ones) so I wouldn't recommend them. Wizards' base accuracy is already weak enough... ;) You can also take a look at a melee Cipher: that class combines weapon damage with spellcasting. In fact you need to deal weapon damage in order to cast spells.

PS: What you can also do is to play a Fighter with high INT and use Lore for scrolls (potentially very powerful) and so-called spellbinding gear. Those are items that contain per-rest spells of Wizards, Druids and Priests (and sometimes even Ciphers) and can be used by anybody. A Fighter is a good candidate because the spells work especially well with the high accuracy the Fighter class has. For examle there's Bots that contain Jolting Touch 3/rest, a sabre that contains Fireball 3/rest, an Amulet and an armor which both contain Sunburst 3/rest each (so in total 6 casts of Sunburst per rest), an Estoc that has Blizzard 3/rest and so on. You can then add some talents such as Aspirant's Mark, Prestidigitator's Missiles, Enigma's Charm... (all 1/encounter). That way you can build a very accurate Fighter who's good with weapon (because... Fighter) and has some nice spells from items, talents and scrolls, too.

Hi, first of all: the early game is pretty hard - noticably harder than what comes afterwards until the late game. It is most likely not your Priest build's fault that you feel that way but a combination of: Picking a class that is not very strong at the beginning of the game. Although the Priest will become your most impactful party member soon amd is considered the most powerful class overall, it starts rather slow. Classes like Fighter, Ranger or Monk start a lot stronger because they have higher base stats and don't rely on per-rest spells (which are scarce so early in the game). They will not become as powerful as a Priest (or Wizard or Druid for example) but the early game is easier with them. Not knowing the mechanics well (yet) - this will solve itself over time The early game being quite hard as I said - nothing you can do about that except: accepting that you don't have to fight every enemy in sight. Sneaking around and avoiding fights (alltogether or come back later after more level-ups) are valid options. The game doesn't give much XP rewards for fighting. Instead, exploring and quests are the main source of XP. using some sneaky tactics like: kiting/pulling/separating enemies, using chokepoints or even lure certain enemies towards other enemies (example: lure wolves to a bandit camp in Valewood, lure some trolls to a bandit camp in Black Meadow or luring the Sly Cyrdel bounty group towards the group of Gramrfel the Wayfarer in Magran's Fork a bit later in the game) Anyway, my understanding is that you want to play a melee Wizard. This is a good choice if you keep a few things in mind: The best weapon options for a melee Wizard are always his summoned weapons. They are vasty more powerful than any other weapon the wiuard can use, especially at level 1. At level 1 you pick Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. It has a lot more base damage than a normal two handed weapon (20-30), has exceptional quality (which is awesome that early in the game and balances out the bad base accuracy of the Wizard) and drains endurance for you with every successful attack. Later use Citzal's Spirit Lance which has the same high base damage but also AoE capabilites and speed. If you feel that that's not enough summoned weapons and that you burn through them to quickly you can also pick up the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster Gloves during the early(ish) game. That will give you 6 casts of Firebrand per rest, a summoned fire great sword that also has the same high base damage. Try to not be in the front line too much in the early game. The Staff and the Lance are reach weapons so you can stand in the second line and still hit enemies who attack your front line. Infuse with Vital Essence is a great spell to regain lost health. Endurance can be healed during the encounter, but health usually only gets healed during a rest. Infuse with Vital Essence however will give you "temporary" bonus health. The thing is though that it's not really temporary but just stays there as if you had healed. It works even better if you use some items that give you incresed healing, for example the early amulet of Fulvano (or Fulvano's Amulet) which increses all healing you receive by 25% and a survival/camping bonus for increased healing. High Might also increases the effect. Use the Survical skill and put it to 4 points asap. This gives you access to a neat accuracy bonus based on the kind of enemy you face. If you can bring it up to 10 asap (this takes time). This can also be done by skilling it to 8 only and then use an item that grants +2 survival (there are several) and put it on before camping/resting in the wilds. You don't need to wear it all the time. This will give you an even bigger accuracy bonus gainst certain enemies. You need to scout ahead a bit an check out the tyoes of enemies which are awaiting you (if you don't know already) but this bonus reall helps. If you will face kith enemies: there's no survival bonus for them so go for increased healing instead (tier II grants +40% healing). It stacks with the amulet's effects (25%+40% = 65% more healing received ). If you feel too squishy pick Veteran's Recovery. It heals very well if combined with the bonus healing options I mentioned above and will keep you alive without you having to cast Corrosive Siphon or a party member needing to use a healing spell on you. Use Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon to heal even more if necessary. Talents which are great for a melee Wizard: Veteran's Recovery as I said above if you feel too squishy Weapon Focus for whatever your backup weapon is. Summoned weapons can use any weapon focus, they are universal in that regard. So if you want a backup weapon (I suggest Durance's Staff) you pick Weapon Focus Peasant and this will apply to the quarterstaff and the Spirit Lance as well. Aspirant's Mark: this is a -8 delfection and reflex spel that is 1/encounter which is awesome. You can cast this in every fight right at the start - best is after the Priest hit you with an Inspiring Radiance (+10 accuracy). This doesn't have to be done by your wizard and could be used by any of your party members (it's especially good on a Fighter with Disciplied Barrage). Two Handed Style: since the summoned wepaons have high base damage, all damage bonuses you can get have a visible impact Arcane Veil: great to have in a pinch when you get damaged too much. Also great to demotivate enemy rushers to pick you as target in the first place Savage Attack: only later in the game where accuracy isn't an issue anymore (because of Priest buffs, good debuffs on enemies and so on) Apprentice's Sneak Attack: as I said: bonus dmg works well with summoned weapons Good spells to use as a melee Wizard (I mean there are tons but these ones I cast more frequently than others as a melee Wizard): Chillfog: one of the best spells and especially early on. Just don't step into its AoE yourself Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff Deleterious Alarity of Motion: raises your melee dps a ton because your recover twice as fast, especially great with the speed of the Spirit Lance all defensive self-buffs, especially Llengrath's Safeguard which stacks with all deflection-only-buffs such as Arcane Veil Infuse with Vital Essence as I described above Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon Pull of Eora: very good in combination with Spirit Lance in order to pull enemies into tight fomations where your lance AOE can hit them all Citzal's Martial Power once you are done with buffing/summoning stuff Eldritch Aim is great as Spell Mastery imo (at level 9 you can pick a spell you already know which turns from per rest into 1/encounter) Attributes: above average MIG since it boosts not only damage but also healing you do (to yourself). It's also one of the few things that boosts spell damage. But it doesn't need to be maxed or anything. I'd say ~12. mediocre CON is enough (~10) decent DEX and PER (~14) high INT (~18) mediocre RES (~10) shifting a few points here and there doesn't make a difference. Tthe attributes are not crazy impactful like in other games

Hi, cool. Yes indeed, for a Helwalker the Potion Belt doesn't make as much sense. Sadly there is no belt that increses Intellect. Instead you could pick one of these: Belt of Magran's Chosen Sash of Judgement The Maker's Own Power The Belt of Magran's Chosen has a pretty high chance of summoning a hostile flame blight because if the many mortar hits. But that's not even a bad thing because it leads to more jump targets that can be used for Whispers of the Wind. This is nice if only one enemy is left (beides the blights). The blights themselves are pretty weak and not a big threat. They can also be used as "fuel" for party members such as Barbarian (Blood Thirst, Bloodlust), Xoti (+3 wounds on melee kill), Cipher (easy focus gain), Paladin (Inspiring/Vortuous Triumph), a Chanter with Blightheart, any wielder of Xoti's Sickle, Twin Eels, Sungrazer, Engoliero do Espirs and so on. So basically any party member who profits from hitting/killing weak targets.

It is so. While shifted you are dual-wielding your natural weapon and thus Two-Weapon Style applies. There used to be an issue with the Stormblight form: the natural ranged weapon it has was considered a two-hander for some quirky reasons. But that got fixed with a patch at some point and now all spiritshift forms are dual wielding.

It's no problem. You can "park" currently not used party members in your Stronghold and let them do stronghold quests so they don't fall behind on XP too much. New companions you pick up will have the same XP as you. So you are very flexible with your party composition.

A pure DoT (with no direct damage component - for example Disintegrate) will profit from Takedown Combo without removing it! It is actually the best combo. Or if the direct damage attack roll has already happened and a DoT remains (Touch of Rot, Necrotic Lance, Barrel Axes Bleeding Cuts, Gouging Strike etc.). I believe stuff like Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects and Infestation of Maggots also work like Disintegrate in that regard. So... if an enemy has a lot of DoTs on them already, Takedown Combo will boost all their damage per tick by 100%. Pulsing spells would only profit from Takedown Combo with their first pulse (first attack roll) and then immediately remove the Takedowns Combo effect, making them the worst choice.

I didn't test it but that should profit from Ring of Focused Flames.

Nice! But won't you run out of space in the action bar pretty quickly as the levels progress and you gain more active abilities?

There is a big difference between Monk's and Cipher's resource mechanic: the Monk doesn't have to use any action time in order to gain wounds - he just turns the (inevitable) damage he receives into wounds. So he doesn't have to pause what he's doing in order to gain wounds, it happens at the same time he is active with other stuff. The Cipher has to stop casting spells in order to deal weapon damage. Here the action economy is way worse. You cannot harvest your resorce on the fly, you must either spend action time harvesting resources xor use action time spending them. Op top of that the Cipher's resource harvesting is extremely reliant on the defenses and DR of the enemy: weak enemies = easy focus gain. Tough enemies = hard focus gain. And in which fights do you actually want to have a lot of focus because they are harder? Right, the fights against tough foes. This is why Ciphers - to me - feel phenomenal againt weak mobs (or in general at lower difficulty settings where good hit quality is easier to achieve) and pretty much suck (imo) against tough foes (especially on PotD difficulty). There are ways around it: Reaping Knives for example shifts the necessity to deal weapon damage to another party member (who wants to use melee attacks most of times anyways) so you can cast non-stop basically. But it's a late game ability. There used to be a very potent way to harvest focus "passively" like a Monk basically: using Retaliation items/abilities. They made it so that you could automatically relatiate with a bit of pierce and/or burn damage which in turn generated focus for you. This decoupled the harvesting of focus from your own weapon attacks and allowed you to gain focus while castig and basically tanking attacks. I made a build anout this, called the Backlash Beldam. It was very powerful and so Obsidian nerfed the mechanic so that Retaltion effects no longer generated focus. Because I play on PoTD this is a constant bother for me with Ciphers in PoE1. I don't need their bombastic performances during easy filler fights - and I'm frustrated with their lackluster performance in difficult fights. With Deadfire it's a bit different because there's the Beguiler and the Psion subclasses who both don't need to deal weapon damage in order to gain focus. But many players don't play on PotD so they will have a lot of fun with Ciphers in all fights and that's cool.

Nope, it does not. Wikdstrike Burn doesn't add a fire/burn tag to your melee attacks. If you were a Druid/Paladin and used Flames of Devotion + Wildstrike Burn it would be beneficial to use the Ring of Focused Flames bc. Flames of Devotion is tagged as fire attack which would profit from the Ring and Scion of Flame. As a Boar Druid/Stalker you can pick Wildstrike Shock and Heart of the Storm (for the lash PEN and also the several shocking storm spells). As a Stalker I would assume that Stalker's Patience is a must-have weapon? ;) Takedown Combo + Sunlance is very good against single enemies with a lot of health btw. Shifter Boar form has an extremely long woundig DoT (same as the whole Spiritshift duration) and thus deals very high woundig damage. It also unlocks Predator's Sense. It stacks with Taste of the Hunt for a quite impressive multi-DoT attack. So I wouldn't sleep on Taste of the Hunt. When not shifted: it also stacks with Stalker's Patience's DoT (which unlike the Boar woundig doesn't stack with itself though). If you tend to be away from allies a bit then Nature's Terror is a good spell as well. I don't see any glaring action economy issues.

Hello again. If you want to play with the official companions then the Druid (Hiravias) will be a Cat build. But that's okay since it's also a great spiritshift form. If you want to use Spiritshift more than once per encounter,out should give him the soulbound scepter Gyrd Háewanes Sténes because it allows the Druid to regain one use of Spiritshift per encounter. Wildstrike Shock, Greater Wildstrike Shock, Weapon Focus Peasant, Two Weapon Style, Outlander's Frenzy (activate shortly before shifting), Heart of the Storm, Savage Attack, Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Will rip through everything while shifted... Get the Wildstrike Belt asap, it's extremely good. A main character like the Monksterlasher would profit from a Chanter build for Kana Rua that eventually uses Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr as main phrase in a chant (and a short one like the +1 Movement/+10 reflex phrase from level 1 that Kana Rua automatically has). The +25% burning lash from it stacks with the rest of the Monksterlasher's lashes and also gets boosted by Scion of Flame. In the early game you should only run short phrases in order to be able to summon the Phantom (pick that invocation up despite Kana already having skeletons - the phantom is way better and can save whole fights that somehow went downhill in the early game - it's that strong). Also pick up Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits asap. Since a support Chanter like that doesn't need attack speed you can give him a shield (a small one will do so your accuracy won't suffer) and thick armor and use him as offtank. If you don't have a Paladin then giving him Gallant's Focus is a good idea to boost your whole party's accuracy on the fly. The Wizard Aloth is good as a Blaster Wizard because he's a Wood Elf (and gets distant advante as racial ability). Use implements and pick up Blast + Penetrating Blast and fitting talents (fitting Weapon Focus, Marksman, Dangerous Implements) and summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights in tougher fights (it's an AoE weapon and all AoE hits will proc AoE Blasts, leading to absurd dmg if enemies stand near to each other). Late in the game try to pick up Llengrath's Blunt Wisdom (unique weapon summon spell) because it's extremely good. For filler fights it's nice to get a wand/scepter/rod that does something on hit/crit. Because those effects also proc off the Blast AoE. Something like Golden Gaze, Curoc's Brand and the Rod of Pale Shades (my favorite) are nice. In tougher fights it's best to summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights and later Llengrath's Blunt Wisdom. For the Priest (Durance) I almost always give him Inspiring Radiance first, then Inspired Flame (a talent that gives him +10 accuracy with arquebus and sword) because you will get a very early arquebus from Kana Rua and a well aimed arquebus **** here and there can make some difference in the early game. Then I pick Interdiction and Painful Interdiction because it's awesome to have some castings that you can use in very encounter. Then Weapons Focus Soldier (arquebus +6 accuracy) and then Marksman and Gunner. The main focus is still to support and buff the party, but sometimes you want to spare spells and then it's cool to be able to shoot around with some proper impact. For melee you can use Forgemaster Gloves or the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and then summon Firebrand if melee enemies bother you. It does lots of damage per hit and it works with Inspired Flame (+10 accuracy) and Weapon Focus Soldier (+6 accuracy) so you will be pretty good with it. And it's a flaming great sword which fits a priest of Magran very well. You don't need additional talents for it. For Eder I like dual sabres (Sabre of the Seas asap, it's awesome) and Plate Armor, Knockdown, Bonus Knockdown, Weapon Focus Ruffian, Two Weapon Style, Disciplined Barrage, Armored Grace and later Charge. It much more fun than building him into a sword & board tank and the Knockdowns are very impactful in the early to mid game (and still good later on but then there will be a lot more options for disabling enemies so it doesn't stand out anymore). I usually end up giving him Sanguine Plate (because Frenzy + Armored Grace + dual wielding + two weapon style makes him pretty damn fast while being sturdy). I add a Blunting Belt and Shod-in-Faith boots for plenty of DR and healing. I don't fancy Ciphers much so I don't have any glaring recommendations. Usually a war bow Cipher is a very solid approach though. Make sure to give the following (relatively) early items to your party (whom they fit best) because they have a big impact early in the game: Shod in Faith Boots: proc 2/encounter if you get crit and grant great passive healing and that spares you a lot of healing spells. Give it to a front liner who gets attacked a lot. Rotfinger Gloves: the Touch of Rot spell on them is vastly(!) better than the spell from the Druid that has the same name. It is foe only and has a huge(!) AoE size. Can turn fights easily. Doesn't work against poison/disease immune enemies like vessels and spirits. I like to give it to Kana Rua because he has decent Might and Intellect which both boost the spell effect. Also chanters don't have much to do until their invocations are ready so your casting of Tough of Rot won't interfere with other actions much. Azureith's Stiletto: I give it to Edér early on together with the Sabre ofcthe seas. He has enormous accuracy with Disciplined Barrage and the help of Durance's Inspiring Radiance. The Jolting Touch this stiletto procs on crit does very high damage for the early game and makes many fights much easier because usually enemies hit by it die (if not right away then soon) Wildstrike Belt: it lifts the Druid's spiritshift damage a lot because it adds 10 points to both(!) Wildstrike lashes: Wildstrike goes up from 30% to 40% and Greater Wildstrike goes up from 15% to 25%. Combine with Heart of the Storm and they go up even further to 48% and 30% which is great. One talent I find extremely useful in the early game (and which stays useful later) is Aspirant's Mark. It gives you a weaker for of Nature's Mark, but in every encounter. In combination with Inspiring Radiance from the Priest you can shift the ratio of your accuracy vs. enemies' defenses a lot in every encounter. Cast Radiance first and then Aspirant's Mark and you party's accuracy is raised by 10 while the enemies deflection and reflex is lowered by 8. That's an 18 point swing in a matter of seconds. 18 points is the accuracy-equivalent of 6 character levels(!) and you can do it in every fight. Again: I like to give it to the Chanter most of times because chanters don't have mich to do otherwise until their phrase points accumulate for an invocation. Cheers!

Zandethu's Draconic Fury is a nice spell but not mandatory at all. Other nice unique grimoires with special spells are Ninagauth's Teachings or Concelhaut's Ironclasped for example. Instead of Daconic Fury you can also cast Citzal's Martial Power - but only after you cast Wall of Draining + all the buffs you want.

I mean if you find some cool mechanics for TB mode you can post them right away if you don't want to do a full build writeup. I'm always happy to read about fun, cheesy and effective stuff, TB mode or RTwP. Or post a build that worked well for you in TB mode. Imo it's always interesting to read that stuff - even if I won't play in that mode.

Yes, but being occasional isn't a disadvantage per se. It depends on what the occasion is. If it doesn't work in normal fights where you don't really need the added defenses but makes the really tough fights easier it's just a good passive. It's like Brutal Backlash: it doesn't do much in most fights but makes the hardest ones ridiculously easy. Very occasional but yet very good. Now I don't consider Silver Tide to be a great racial ability - because you can make the argument that if you constantly get beaten down so it procs you might be doing something wrong in the first place. And if you don't need it much but only in tough fights it's... tadaa: occasional. ;)

Battle axes are fine but there aren't many unique ones and they come rather late. However Magran's Favor + Slayer's Claw is an excellent combo once you get them. The Battle Axe modal "Bleeding Cuts" is very good - so good acually that it's usually worth keeping it activated at all times even though it slows you down. But the raw damage over time stacks and every time you hit again the current stacks tick immediately for raw damage. It gets even better once you pick Blood Thirst.

Hi, for a Berserker I would pick Human: Fighting Spirit: you will drop bellow 50% health often which would trigger bonus accuracy and damage. It's not limited like in PoE1 but procs every time you drop below 50% and stays on as long as you are below 50% Fighting Spirit stacks with Blooded (Barbarian passive ability) you retain the headgear slot most portrait options available Weapon choice: Since you want to use the Devoted (and not use Monastic Unarmed Training I assume) swords are - generally speaking - the better pick because they have two damage types: slash and pierce. With sabres you would be limited to slash damage. If you meet enemies with high AR against slash damage and even slash-immune enemies, you would be forced to either pick Monastic Unarmed Training and use your fists or switch to backup weapons and suffer a pretty nasty accuracy debuff because they are not the weapon type you are devoted to. However, sabres arguably have the better uniques. Scordeo's Edge is especially good for critical hits (up to +20 accuracy due to "Adaptive") and the enchantment "Blade Cascade" is very nice, especially in combination with Blood Thirst and Cleaving/Mob Stance. Another awesome sabre is Grave Calling with the enchantment "Grave Bound" which is also amazing at generating crits (paralyzed enemies get a 25% hit to crit conversion against them). You can steal iw very early if you wish. It also comes in legendary quality - which is pretty bonkers tbh. Spares you expensive/rare resources since you don't have to upgrade it yourself. And there's several other cool unique sabres on the way. Sabres have the most (and most impactful imo) uniques in the game. One of them, the Animancer's Energy Blade, even deals less dmg but is faster than normal sabres and does raw damage that bypasses all armor. This would be a great backup weapon for you btw. Swords also have nice uniques - Modwyr is great - but not as good as sabres imo. My recommendation would be to go for sabres and either live with the accuracy malus in the few cases where slash damage would suck (maybe use spears, rapiers, daggers or clubs since they have an innate +5 accuracy bonus) or pick Monastic Unarmed Training to have good fists without accuracy malus as backup. Those also scale automatically and spare enchantment-related resources. Devil of Caroc's Breastplate is perfect for you. You can steal it very early. The enchantment that makes you immune to confusion needs Vithrack brains. You can buy those in several shops occasionally, so watch out for Vithrack brains in shops all the time and buy some asap. You can even "wait" in shops: every new day the shop's "random" stock of enchantment resources gets reshuffled. Attributes (you only gave 77 points and thus lack 1 point btw. - I guess you didn't include the culture's bonus point): Berserker's self damages scales steeply with levels AND with Might and all other universal damage bonuses (Blooded for example). Because of that it's not a bad idea to NOT raise MIG too high since you also will get +5 while frenzied. You can safely lower it to 10 if you wish and not gimp your performance. You can also add some MIG back with items (all item effects stack in Deadfire unlike PoE1) and food+camping or resting bonuses from taverns. CON at 15+ is a good thing for a Berserker to give you a bit more leeway with the self damage. At the same time DEX is more impactful for DPS than MIG. So I wouldn't drop it too much. I would put 10 at least - but would be comfortable with 15+. PER 16 is solid. In Deadfire all secrets and traps will be discovered by Perception (not mechanics like in PoE1). Most official companions don't have high PER so it's on the main character to provide solid PER (if you want to find all sorts of secrets and traps). Of course PER also promotes crits. INT 14 is good. Carnage grows with INT - but Carnage isn't as good as it was in PoE1 so you don't need to push it too much. It's nice for longer durations of course (Frenzy, Disciplined Strikes and so on). Unbending is much(!) more powerful with high INT. So you could go higher and would still get benefits. But there are also several +INT items - should you want more. RES not only influenced deflection (which is already low due to Barb + Frenzy and thus you can forget about it in the first place) but also influences how long hostile effects stay on you (including your confusion btw.). Because of that I would like to put it at 10 in order to not get a malus (increased duration of enemies' hostile effects they put on you) - but 8 is okay since there will be items/food, inspirations etc. which can lift you over 10. So altogether my attributes would be (I guess): MIG 10 CON 15 DEX 15 PER 16 INT 14 RES 08 Of course a few points here and there (for example taking away points from DEX and giving them to MIG like so: DEX 12, MIG 13) does also work well. It doesn't matter too much compared to the impact of abilities and gear selection. Since your character will be good at offense but will need constant healing, I would recommend to use a pet that grants healing on kill. Abraham for example has such a property and also makes you attack faster in armor. Devil of Caroc's Breastplate also has some healing capabilities (on crit). Also some gear that grants resistance to damage works nicely against Berserker's self damage: Death's Maw helmet, Voidward Ring... Cheers!

Yes, if Heodan doesn't get injured during the fight and the following scripted interaction then he doesn't need to rest - which avoids the whole situation. But minor spoiler: Next minor spoiler:

Very nice. 👍🏻 I assume this mod only works for the Windows version, is that correct?

You have to actively attack an enemy in order to engagement to "snap" and activate. At that point it will also not only engage the enemy you targeted but other enemies in 0.8m range (if you have enough engagement slots). It is easier to engage enemies if your tank scouts ahead and the rest stays stealthed with a gap (of at least one character circle's width) behind the tank. That way the Tank will initiate combat and will briefly be the only one visible to the enemies - and all enemies will attack him. This allows the tank to easily engage multiple enemies before the rest of the party becomes visible. Once enemies have picked a target they rarely try to switch and leave. If you open the fight with the backline however, the enemies (especially those who got hit by the backline characters) will do anything to reach that party member, tank in the way or not. Then your tank can only stop them if a) you didn't deactivate the "stop on engagement" option in the game options menu and b) you attack them with the tank and enough engagement slots as I said above.