Boeroer

Yes, Knockdown and Bonus Knockdown are better with a dual wielding (or bashing shield) setup. Unfortunately the additional Knockdown ability from the belt Girdle of the Driving Wave is a Primary Attack only.

Wow... I have an SSD and I'd say the absolute max I have to wait are 10 secs. I'd even be bold and say 5 seconds but I want to have some wiggle room. By the way: I found it helps to sell stash items that you won't use regularly. A full stash means a lot more game objects have to get loaded into the scene (I guess).

Nobody's graphics card is. That's the power of Unity3D.

Iirc Berserker/Devoted with Morning Star was my first character in Deadfire (didn't finish). It was a coincidence - I knew nothing about Body Blows + Spirit Frenzy being cool with Brute Force etc. because I dove in blindly. Back then Cleaving Stance/Mob Stance was absolutely overpowered because it did a Full Attack on all enemies in melee range - and that was pretty hilarious in combination with Blood Thirst. Also iirc Disciplined Strikes/Intuitive had 50% crit conversion at release. With a Morning Star+Brute Force I also would pick Spirit Frenzy over Blood Frenzy any day. The added -10 fortitude is great then. Also you'll remove Might inspirations on enemies on the fly. I have a few questions: Why did you pick Spirit Tornado and not Blood Thirst? Because of the Terrify effect helping you survive? Without Community Patch Spirit Tornado will not apply the stagger effect to all attack rolls anymore (afaik Spirit Frenzy staggers with all attack rolls, even Carnage, AoE spells and Shouts, Spirit Tornado only with direct weapon hits). At the same time Blood Thirst works very well with Cleaving/Mob Stance...? If sturdyness was an issue - why no Savage/Stalwart Defiance? Did you consider Leap instead of Lion's Sprint? You could reach any spot with Leap (even land between enemies where you normally can't run because path is blocked) and you can even cancel it mid-air if your character circle appears at the target location: it will cost no Rage then and you won't daze anyone at arrival, but you will still land where you aimed and have no recovery. Imo its better than Lion's Sprint - but it doesn't give an inspiration of course.

Hm... maybe subclasses which would "borrow" Druid spells could also profit from the Fury's passive. For example: in theory some of Tekehu's special Stormspeaker spells could profit if he were a Fury instead of a Watershaper. From the top of my head I don't know any non-druid subclass besides Stormspeaker that uses one or more "elements" spells though. But maybe cool for a modded main character. I think Stormspeaker + Fury makes a lot of sense thematically. But that's not a sorcerer then of course.

Indeed. The +1 PEN of Furies only applies to damage dealing spells that are keyworded with "Elements" - and only certain Druid spells have that keyword.

The Lanter's refund does and her Sickle's dmg bonus also doesn't care how an enemy died - but the +3 wounds she only gets from melee weapon kills. At least that was the case. Don't think that was changed but mayb it was. I found out rel. early because I wanted to get +3 wounds from using Blessed Harvest (Priest/Monk) but it doesn't work. Also Inner Death kills didn't give Xoti wounds without CP iirc.

Huh - I didn't think about Shifter at all but you are right: his bonus spells fit best in this case. If you don't shift the class has no drawbacks. The pros/cons are in the shifting itself.

Besides the Sasha's Singing Scimitar Chanter who can empower "for free" and doesn't need empower points for resource refill I use it frequently with wizards, priests and druids. But I play wizards more so most of times wizard. I will spend some points on empower abilities, too. Mostly I will empower the PL8- or 9 stuff. If you use The Least Unstable Coil then empowering an ability such as Minoletta's Missile Barrage, Meteor Shower, Great Mealstrom, Avenging Storm, Sigil of <god> Rain of Holy Fire will give you all tier-3 inspirations, including Brilliant. That's worth an empower point imo. Also the Weyc's stuff. Another time I used a Xoti Monk with Empowered Strikes and Inner Death since that makes sure you actually land a crit. With Xoti's Inner Death isn't so inferior to Whispers of the Wind because WotW costs more Wounds - but Inner Death does not cost more Mortification. And with the Lantern you even get back +1 Mortification per kill (and +3 wounds if you are using Community Patch which turns Inner Death from a "spell" that doesn't work with Turning Wheel, Enervating Blows, Swift Flurry and Xoit's Wound mechanic into a melee weapon ability which then works with that stuff).

If you can wait until you get Charge you might have a lot of fun with Edér as a rusher, zipping behind enemy lines and taking out casters and so on. He will have the sturdyness but also the offensive output then to be good at it. Charge not only damages the enemies in its path and the one you are targeting with crush dmg, it also does an "invisible" full attack at the target. So using dual sabres or something heavy like that (maces, hammers and so on) is the way to go imo. If you time/position it right it can be very effective. For example if you pull a bunch of enemies with Edér so they form a nice line behind him, then charge to the last enemy in that line and then back to the head of the line. Granted: it comes pretty late. But maybe it can also be fun to just build him towards that dual weapon setup before and play him more offensively - like a sturdy rogue. Fighters are not the most impactful class at higher levels and fall behind other classes, especially casters - but Charge can bring them back a little.

I also think CON would need a little boost because it's not that important if you know what you are doing. But instead of using it for deflection I would do something else with it. Resolve raises deflection (I see no good explanation for this but it's the way it is - so one could also argue that CON might raise it some way, but I digress...) and duration of hostile effects on you - and still it's a dump stat in many builds. Mostly it gets dumped in offensive builds because it has no offensive purpose. Same as CON. The other attributes do contribute to offense and defense - and I guess that's why we see CON and RES dumped so much - offensive character seem to be more fun I guess. Atm you can build around low CON and RES relatively easily. With good healing and enough AR it's not too bad if you have lowish health and deflection. But it's difficult to make up for dumped INT or DEX most of times for example. Since I can't see a way for CON influencing offense in the Pillars system I would double down on the defensive capabilities. I mean in another system I could see CON influencing an endurance pool that lets you execute more special attacks than somebody with less endurance. Something like that. But in PoE/Deadfire we don't have that sort of endurance pool that fuels attacks but specialized ones for each class which wouldn't make sense to get influenced by CON. Instead of raising deflection to simulate "tanking" DMG my idea would have been to give CON not only +/-x% to health but also give it damage reduction. So a character with 10 CON suffers the incoming damage unchanged (besides armor and other DR effects of course), but somebody with 20 CON not only had more health but also would have a damage reduction of - I don't know - 20%? That's 2% per point. I just made up that number. A char with 3 CON would receive more damage than is actually incoming: +14% (a bit like Hekwalker or Assassin passives). Since damage reduction is quite impactful due to double inversion mechanics I wouldn't go higher than that maybe. But that would need playtesting. Another idea was to influence "healing received". At the moment a healing ability that heals 100 health will heal up a squishy completely from near death to unharmed - but only give like half of health back to a really beefy character, from near death to bloodied. Isn't that a bit unfair? What's all the max health of Mr. Meat for if your pool fills up as slowly as Mr. Glass's does? So a char with 10 CON would receive +/-0% of the applied healing, a char with 3 CON would get a -35% malus (5% per point of CON) and a char with 20 CON would receive +50% healing. Those were my two ideas I had some time ago. I also suggested the RES change (influences hostile durations). Don't know if Josh read that or cane to that conclusion by himself. But unlike the RES change CON was only boosted from 3% per point to 5%. So maybe those ideas have some flaws I don't see now . Anyway - I would implement either DR or healing factor, not both. I'd prefer the healing factor I guess. It's mathematically less complicated and makes most sense imo. But both could work. That way somebody who dumps CON will be really soft and can't counter with high armor values and/or healing that easily. It would make CON a lot more attractive I think.

So... when I'm upset about somebody else's childish ways to ask for info I can't express my emotions with an answering post? OP should be able to rant and express his emotions "honestly" - but I should suppress my urge to answer "like a flawless emotion robot"? Maybe that's just my way to communicate my valid criticism? It may be too civil though so I apologize. I have feelings too, you know, even if they are diplomatic feelings in a well-mannered shell. I hope you are not trying to cancel my feelings and opinion about childish behavior because it doesn't align with your way of communicating disagreement? That would be really oppressive and wouldn't that basically "destroy human society" in the long run?

Ancient is more beast and plant themed. I think I'd go Animist (the standard druid) since there is no subclass that's dedicated to decay spells. But I could also see a "twisted Lifegiver" being a cool concept. They usually can't summon creatures (with druid spells I mean) so this one might have found a way to give "live" to his undead creations as Beckoner or Troubadour and then cast decay on his enemies (but is able to heal his summons). The undead Animancy Cat would make a great pet.

The confusion is so convenient and powerful in order to kill all your selektons at once with Chilling Grave itself (which procs new Chilling Graves at once and so on) that all the dmg of the Streetfighter can't keep up with that immediate chain reaction imo.

Yes, had the same with Berserker/Beckoner + Grave Calling. It's like 1 fps once the chillfogs start exploding. Try to fry your machine and use Avenging Storm on top (procs from Chilling Grave), haha.

I would put INT, DEX and PER over MIG. How about a Druid as second class? There are some Decay spells that would fit nicely. You can use the Lance of the Midwood Stag as weapon. As soon as you cast Woodskin or Form of the Delemgan on yourself you'll have +2 Power Level for all your spells, Chanter or Druid one. It also looks a bit like it could be a Necromancer's item imo. Berath is also fine.

Afaik Chilling Grave is considered a weapon attack, but not a melee attack. But I might be wrong. As soon as I got Many Lives Pass By I found Troubadour also cool (in combination with Chilling Grave I mean) - but before that the 6 + 12 skeletons from Ancient Brittle Bones are unmatched because they give you 18 Chillfogs immediately (compared to 9 from the Troubadour. The Beckoner has slower Many Lives skeletons but the initial burst is better. Maybe in very long fights the Troubadour is better because he can also recast the summons earlier, but I believe unleasing 18 Chillfogs right at the start compared to 9 is advantageous, too.

Why not go with a shield and some defensive capabilities (weapon and shield style, Psychovampiric Shield, Borrowed Instincts and such) and lean into it by maxing Resolve? Increasing returns and all. You won't be the cipher with the best focus generation but you might be the one who doesn't go down. With a small shield your casting accuracy wouldn't even suffer.

I don't remember, sorry. I never payed too much attention to those dialogue-unlocking things in the first place (since you don't gain any mechanical advantages besides maybe being able to avoid combat from time to time - so after the first playthrough right after release I didn't bother much) - and then the last time I played PoE1 was years ago.

'twas just a joke, because "boar". Ofcourse a Cipher can go sword & board. It's totally viable - what dmaage potential you lose you'll make up with staying power. It depends a bit on the party what is better. For example if you also have a Chanter (who have powerful but somewhat slow mechanics) it's not bad to go more defensive. Sabres are nice. The best one is (imo) Bittercut because it has two damage types and also because it gets a 20% dmg bonus from Spirit of Decay because it deals corrode damage (and slash dmg as secondary dmg type). Also Sabres of the Sea + Resolution (also obtainable pretty early) is a good combo. Just note that some enemies have really high slash DR - or are even immune. So make sure you have some backup weapons in the second weapon set that deal non-slash damage (like stilettos or clubs - which shares the same weapon focus as sabres). Hammers are also one of my preferred weapon choices because there's good unique ones that don't kone late and because they deal pierce/crush dmg (choosing the more effective dmg type automatically like all dual dmg type weapons).

Sword an Boar is only for Rangers. You can drop RES to 3 if you're not the one who's engaging first but play your cipher more like a flanker. Or if you have a Priest who can cast Holy Meditation. And if you're dropping to 3 RES you might as well go with a no-shield setup. I personally like dual wielding more with a cipher because your weapon recovery will be much faster and that leads to better responsiveness - because as a cipher you are always alternating between attacking and casting and it's beneficial to not have such long weapon recovery times. The dps between dual wielding and two hander is comparable so the higher responsiveness due to shorter recovery is nice. Also later you can gain 0 weapon recovery time with Time Parasite while still wearing fat armor and using Vulnerable Attack (because dual wielding + several item and ability speed bonuses + Time Parasite leads to such a big overhead of recovery bonus that you can fit in fat armor + Vulnerable Attack without adding recovery). 0 weapon recovery time as a weapon/caster hybrid is a very nice thing. Bit if you like Firebrand too much that's also okay. What it lacks in speed it makes up with high numbers per hit. It's one of the best mid-game weapons for a melee cipher for sure and only falls behind a bit after you gain access to Durgan Steel.

PER is more impactful at the start of the game because you have no means (or let's say only few means) to raise your accuracy otherwise and at the same time lower enemies' defenses - but DEX is the only way to speed up attack and casting animations. All other speed bonuses only shorten the recovery time or reloading time. DEX lowers recovery/reloading time as well as animation time and is always good to have (it has no diminishing returns like PER can have: once the accuracy/defense ratio reaches a certain value - via debuffs and buffs). Certain enemies have preferred targets. For example Barbarians love to target low deflection, Rogues like low DR and endurance (and also casters) and so on. Generally speaking: if you have better defenses and DR you will not only go down less easily because of those increased stats themselves (receiving less damage fron attacks) - but also because enemies will not target you that much but focus on more squishy companions. A heavy armor can already make quite the difference in "felt sturdyness" at the beginning of the game. You will be slower, sure, but knocked out characters are even slower, so... All defenses have increasing returns by the way. So every additional point of deflection for example has more impact than the one before. This means that if you deflection is already okay (for example because you are wearing a shield and/or use stuff like Borrowed Instinct) it's not the worst idea to also get high Resolve. If your deflection is bad anyway you can safely dump Resolved because it wouldn't make a lot of difference anyway (but watch out: resolve also influences interrupts/Concentration and that can be really annoying if you get attacked a lot). Melee dps output is usually higher than ranged, but you'll have the problems you mentioned. You need to compensate for the fact that you will get hit more often. I personally just go with a heavy armor at the start and gradually reduce it with levels I gain. At some point you CC and debuffing capabilities will be enough to prevent too many attacks against you. Also stuff like mind control (charm, dominate) can lead to a lot less attacks on you because mind controlled enemies often present themselves as way softer targets than yourself AND you took away a potential attacker at the same time. Generally speaking the squishyness gets a lot better after the early game. That's true for all classes that feel a bit soft at the beginning.

I don't remember if the interrupt time gets added to the recovery time after the enemy gets back up, but I believe it is not so. I think they don't stack and the interrupt does nothing while the enemy is disabled.

I'm a bit sad that not all OCs have their unique "good" subclass. That would be enough motivation for me to play them instead of "minmaxed" adventurers. Maia's and Thekehu's subclasses are already great and therefore they don't need any boosts imo. Some of the other unique subclasses are only so/so, like Xoti's and esp. Serafen's. If I would buff something then those subclasses (not a blanket stat boost - although that's way less complicated of course ;)). For example shift Serafen's odds more towards the beneficial outcomes of his Wild Mind and let Xoti not only gain wounds per melee kill but with all kills - or something like that. Edér would have been great with a fighter subclass like "Saint's War Veteran" or "Dyrwood Militia" or so. A passive that is somehow in line with the workings of his armor for example. The pet slot is a Berath Blessings bonus so it could still come on top as reward for collecting BB points. Aloth would have been nice with a Aedyran-specific wizard subclass. Like a Court Wizard or Court Mage or something (think that would fit Aedyran customs). I know that breaks the mold of the wizard subclasses being devided by "schools" like Transmutation etc. - but Bloodmage already does this, so where's the loss? Pallegina's Brotherhood otFS subclass needs better implementation of the Wrath otFS ability at least. +2 to stats is also okay though. I would'nt do +2 to a single stat though but +1/+1 I guess. But then... does that have any noticable impact?

Concentration vs Interrupt is rel. simple: you have an interrupt value that gets rolled against the concentration value of your enemy if you hit (and vice versa). If the roll is a success the interrupt strength (something from 0.3 secs to 1 sec depending on the weapon) gets added to the enemy's recovery. You can see that when you look at the enemies' recovery bar (or your own when you are getting hit). It's not that noticable unless the hits come very quickly (for example if somebody get attacked by several enemies at once or if the attacker is very fast) and/or if the weapon has a high interrupt strength. Fast, light weapons like daggers and such have lower interrupt strength - the heavier ones like hammers and so on have higher interrupt strength. The interrupt strength is listed among the other weapon stats. There are some weapons that have higher interrupt strength than usual. For example there is a unique Rapier that causes longer interrupts than all other rapiers and there's also a hammer and a spear iirc. That stronger interrupt is not listed under enchantments with its own name so it's kind of a "hidden" bonus. You have to look at the interrupt strength directly. Interrupt also works with Barbarian's Carnage. So if you have a Barb with very high attack speed and a high interrupt chance (high Perception and so on) and a strong interrupting weapon (e.g. the Vile Loner's Lance) you can "lock" several enemies so that they have superlong recovery times or even can't attack at all anymore.