Boeroer

Ranger: highest accuracy Skald: additional phrases from crits Convinced? Check out Beast's Claw. It's great on a Stalker/Skald. Sun & Moon (dual headed flail) is a great weapon for a Skald/Stalker because it gives you 2 stacks of Beast's Claw with only one swing and also gives you 2 chances per swing to land a crit (and gain an additional phrase).

Jorge Salgado is an Area Designer, not a Narrative Designer. Lucien Soulban was the Narrative Designer who left (he was at Obsidian for a very short time only - maybe he missed Canada too much, no idea). Kate Dollarhyde is a nice replacement. What made me frown more is that Justin Bell left. On Twitter it sounded all nice and fair and as if no feelings were hurt and so on. But it's a big loss imo.

I think they all look pretty ridiculous. But that's only my personal feeling. I assume the devs did some research on polynesian/samoan/etc. "armor" and I guess that's kind of what it looked like. Still: don't like it. Way too much frippery. The Huana brigandines I like better.

The only problem I have with hide armors in Deadfire is the looks...

Dread Howl is mutually exclusive with Nocturnal Vigor (-10% recovery at night). The hit to graze is mutually exclusive with +8 deflection while flanked.

It's def. good against freeze and burn damage (the passive DR of the belt and Woodskin's DR bonuses stack iirc) and also not bad against ranged attacks of all sorts because those tend to be pierce dmg mostly.

No, not really. I guess it uses the initial attack's PEN value - because I don't remember a full peneration crit followed by paltry ticks. But I don't have done any testing or research with this so I can't be sure.

Yes, the attack quality is determined during the initial strike - but will the following ticks all have *1.5 PEN if the initial strike crits? One can't check in the combat log (ticks don't get a log entry) so the only way would be to attack an enemy who has high corrode AR (high enough so that you underpenetrate without crit but penetrate with a crit). Also, what PEN does Toxic Strike work with? It doesn't say in the description since it's a Full Attack ability and the initial dmg will use the PEN of your weapon + PL scaling - but do the ticks just use that PEN from the initial attack (including passives and weapon quality and crit-bonus)? Or do they use their own? I really never tried to find that stuff out.

You can use Dread Howl whenever you want - whether you have focus or not. It's nice to have a long-lasting, 5m-base(!) radius frighten effect which not only prevents enemies from using their attack abilities but also lowers their Will by 10 (costs no focus). I thought is could be nice to cast a huge AoE frighten with high ACC that prepares enemies for other spells against Will. YOu will still have spend no focus after all. I guess if you're a Beguiler that isn't super interesting maybe, but for an Ascendant (who isn't ascended yet) it could be cool to have a cast that doesn't delay your ascension. Anyway I only was looking for a "great AoE + great ACC + long duration" combo and Monk/Cipher was the first that came to mind. Monk/whatever class that has no frighten effect with Willbreaker could also profit nicely from that armor I guess (bc. of Battered Mind/The Mind Makes Real).

If it's about Firebrand then def. yes. But maybe you only need the attribute bonuses and/or the Flame Shield. Then it depends. Kana with Firebrand isn't very synergistic. He has no special melee passives and no active weapon abilities either - until you reach "Their Champion" which would give him some more prowess. One side note: as all summoned and soulbound weapons Firebrand doesn't belong to a special weapon focus category. They are "universal" and thus work with any weapon focus (no matter which one you pick it will work). This also includes the Priests' special weapon talents (Inspired Flame and whatnot) which give +10 ACC. So stuff like Firebrand but also any soulbound weapon can be used by any Priest in order to get the weapon focus (+6) and the gods' special weapon talent (+10). The weapon talent makes them as accurate as fighters (which have the highest starting accuracy in the game) - so that can give your Priest some consirerable melee capability. Not gamebreakingly good since a Priest has no active weapon attack either nor does he have weapon related passives - but it still makes a big difference if you want your Priest to use a weapon (from time to time) in the first place.

It was pretty cool on a recent Berserker/Streetfigter, too. I moved on to thicker armor eventually (also because I had other sources of frighten) but it's indeed a nice feature of the armor. I guess on a Monk/Cipher with Helm of the White Void it would be very nice, too. Lots of duration, AoE size and Accuracy.

You have no Barb, but if you had I would totally recommend the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer for a Barb in order to do something like this (which is still a lot of fun imo): Firebrand is good on everything with lots of dmg bonuses and high attack speed, too. For example Cipher (Soul Whip + Biting Whip + Time Parasite).

You don't need to fight the lurkers or lions in Woodend Plains (except if you want to get Hearth Harvest early) and nothing leads you to Stormwall Gorge before wanting to go to Twin Elms or following the Dozen's quest line (but then you won't be lvl 5 anymore usually). Making a beeline for Hiravias might be a reason, but then you're not following a path the game suggests. Back to Woodend Plains: the road and the crossroads where you find Sagani are pretty safe - the near Xaurips are easy to deal with. I find it kind of refreshing that you can meet hefty foes if you leave the road. Dangerous wilds and so on.... But you can always come back later because those fights aren't madatory to be able to progress. Like with the nearly impossible bear cave right at the start of the game (after leaving Cilant Lîs) PoE shows you that you shouldn't expect to win every optional fight right away, even if it's located on a map that otherwise has pretty doable encounters. I like that but it may be frustrating for players who insist to "clear" a map right away I guess.

Adragans and elder lions at lvl 5 is a no-go imo. Way too powerful for most lvl-5 groups. You have two Rangers (which isn't a great source of power in the early game - although the two ACs help) but it shouldn't make fights impossible - Kana doesn't have a big impact at such low levels either but still: shouldn't be a big problem. Edér can tank a bit but at that level he also won't last long against such foes. You could try Inspiring Radiance + Whisper of Treason on some of the enemies. But an Adragan will petrifiy you no matter what on those low levels while you will be having a hard time to prevent that. Your defenses compared to an Adragan's offensive stats are just too low to prevent this and your Priest will not have any tool against that (e.g. no prayer at that level that would help). You can level a LOT in Defiance Bay with very doable quests before venturing out into the wilds. Woodend Plains and esp. Stormwall Gorge are for higher levels - especially Stormwall Gorge because it's supposed to be the last waypoint on the road to Act III. So tl;dr: you are underleveled. Basically you can "win" all the game's encounters with any party composition. So if you can't it's most likely being underleveled or lack of knowledge (about game mechanics etc.). PS.: Wizard with (multiple) Chillfogs makes it much easier to take on overleveled eemies. Not that you have to take them on - but if you want to a Chillfog is immensely helpful. Also Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff (since it comes exceptional and has huge base damage yet can spare you a lot of spell uses).

Haha, I was about to make a similar joke with Assassin's Nannasin's Sigmatism Strike - but I was disturbed by my youngest daughter (who actually lisps like hell so that was a great inspiration to begin with) who wanted to put on her arm floats and stuff... and then totally forgot about that silly joke.

Indeed, that's the reason.

Real Rotghasts are. However, cre_dummy (which is a vessel and looks like a Rotghast) is not.

Using both on a Ranger/Wizard with Wall of Draining maybe. First you fire shots into the crowds to gain the pistol's recovery bonus (which will stack without limits then) and at some point then go into high-speed melee with the sabre in the hope of triggering Blade Cascade asap (which will also never end then).

Don't actually know about the PEN of the ticks (does it stay at *1.5...?) - but at least you'll get bonus duration from a crit - so that's always great on a DoT. By the way: the PL scaling of the attack you use (e.g. Arterial Strike) will not only scale up the DoT from the ability itself but also scale up the poison damage of Cobra Strike. So with an auto-attack you will deal lesser dmg ticks than with an ability attack that has some PL scaling.

I personally would pick Streetfighter if there's a reliable and convenient way to trigger Heating Up (for example a Chanter with upgraded Whisps). The high base dmg of Cobra Strike goes so well with the increased Sneak Attack-, crit- and speed bonuses. Heck, with all the wizard buffs you might as well just Escape right into a mob and get flanked, cobrastrike everybody around with Arterial Stikes and escape elsewhere. Cobra Strike's poison doesn't stack with itself - so it's best to shoot at a lot of different enemies and not focus on a single one (just generally speaking). It's a ranged weapon - so it would work with Driving Flight... (just saying ). You also can't use Persistent Distraction (bit Chillfog etc. is good enough to trigger Deathblows). High INT with Cobra Strike + Toxic Strike is a death sentence if the target is not immune to poison.

That's if you constantly igonore the Animal Companion of course. Players tend to forget that you get two bodies for the price of one. And that additional body doesn't even have a health pool, only endurance - so it will never force you to rest even if it goes down a lot. Nobody would call a class weak if it had a summon that costs nothing to call forth and even can be revived as often as you wish (with the right party member(s)). I value Rangers a lot higher than Rogues - at least on PotD difficulty and when you look at a whole playthrough. Stunning Shots + Driving Flight + Twinned Arrows (multiplicative +100% dmg) is better in the late game than most stuff a Rogue has to offer (also because the ACC can be higher) - and the Animal Companion comes on top of that. It can do tremendous damage per attack for a "permanent summon". And even if it attacks slowly it's useful against highly armored enemies. I attempted a very early PotD playthrough (didn't finish) with 6 Rangers and it made at least the early game a whole lot easier (just because of the 6 additional bodies). I also did 6 Rogues and it was pretty bad from beginning to the near end (where I also abandoned that run). Granted: Rogues are not a top tier class either in my book. And the impact of a class strongly depends on the party composion, role, build etc. - but if you'd force me to rank Rangers in general I'd say they are above Fighters and Rogues. Anyway: since all classes are fairly balanced compared to other games (that is if you don't rest after every fight to refill spell uses) it doesn't matter that much anyway. Stalker's Torc is a cool item for a Ranger, I agree. other random loot I personally find interesting/useful: - Belt of Bountiful Healing (great in combination with high survival and the resulting healing bonus + Veteran's Recovery and other "passive" healing) - Blunting Belt (very good in the early and mid game) - Bracers of Spiritual Power (since there's not much you can do to boost your spell dmg besides MIG, +10% is nice to have) - Rugged Wilderness Hat (just equip before camping to get access to better survival bonuses without skilling survival that high) - Rymrgand's Mantle (superb in the early game for the temple of Eothas: shadows/shades deal freeze dmg - makes fighting them a lot easier) - Stag Helm (great if you are using a lot of "stuck" abilities, for example Binding Web - of always against spiders etc.) - Boots of Speed (for obvious reasons)

Gauntlets of Swift Action. Best random loot item imo because its speed bonus stacks with everything. Makes it way easier to reach 0 recovery because speed bonuses that stack often do so with increasing returns.

There are two files named accordingly (something with Avenging Storm and something with Resonant Touch) in the mod folder which you can delete or rename (you have to rename the file extension behind the dot, too). That will remove those changes from the mod. I prefer renaming because it's reversible. If you need more info just say so - I can give you spefifics when I'm home (which might be in 2 hours or so). But even with the Community Patch's cap on Resonant Touch stacks: dual mortars are the best option for Resonant Touch imo. You then just have to trigger it in between Whispers of the Wind to set the stack back to 0. Key is to get enemies form tight groups. I do this by luring them with traps or a spell from stealth or unstealthing the tank first - also I like to combine a Mortar Monk with an Arcane Archer with Watershaper's Focus who can pull enemies together like crazy with Imbue:Eora and keep them there with Imbue:Web. With the Community Patch nerfs removed the stacks of Resonant Touch know no limit. So even if enemies are still standing after Whispers of the Wind usually you can just finish them off with Resonant Touch. It's not necessarily more devastating than let's say a Great Maelstrom - bit it's mostly foe-only, does enormous DMG right away, stuns all enemies and it's limitless as long as you can collect wounds. With Blinding Smoke triggering Avenging Storm it's def. more devastating than the usual PL 9 powerhouse spell. As I said: key is enemies standing near each other. If they are standing further apart then the mortars aren't that effective of course because each Blinding Smoke cone and each blast AoE will hit fewer enemies. Same is true if you want to use melee AoE weapons like Keeper of the Flame + St. Drogga's Skull or something: pull'em tight!

Sure. Silver Flash is a good late game gun for a Ranger for example.

Like baldurs_gate_2 said, Guns are indeed inferior to bows on a Ranger in PoE - for different reasons (mostly Twinned Arrows being better than Powder Burns). The best single target ranged weapon is the hunting bow Persistence (especially with high MIG because the wounding lash scales with it). Other bows like Stormcaller and The Rain of Godagh Field are also very good. Persistence is also great because you can get it very early (and don't even have to make a beeline for it, it's the one baldurs_gate_2 meant in the Endless Paths of Od Nua lvl4). Its wounding DoT unlocks your Animal Companion's Predator's Sense at all times (if you both attack the same enemy) which can be very convenient. Brutal Takedown only has to overcome 1/4th of enemies' DR (most fixed dmg abilities have than - like Iconic Projection, too) which makes it a good additional dmg tool for your wolf. Since the Animal Companions' base (!) dmg scales with level all dmg bonuses (like Predator's Sense) work very well with it. Adding DR-bypassing dmg on top of it via Brutal Takedown lets you crack open tough nuts like Animats etc. like they don't even wear armor (kind of).