Boeroer

I guess this is a bug. Maybe retraining at an in might fix it. What also might fix it is to pick another (more expensive) invocation at lvl-up. But my first try would be retraining.

My first pick would be Trickster/Monk. Lacks healing, but if you're with a party that's not a problem. I think Forbidden Fist/Trickster is a nice combo. With enough RES and -x% to hostile durations you will even heal more from the FF curse than it hurts you. I also like Monk/Barbarian (non-Berserker). Speed, huge health pool and good AR (Thick Skinned + Iron Wheel), Swift Flurry + Blood Thirst is fun. The Bloody Links. Efficient Anguish makes Carnage also hit the initial target. With Amra you can even hit the initial target twice (Carnage + Riven/Wanton Gore). Then needs 25 MIG though. Barbarian/Streetfighter with Puke Stabber+Marux Amanth is very good, too. You can wear the fattest armor and still be fast as heck. Even has self healing at some point. In order for it to be off-tanky you might not want to take Berserker though. Nowadays I often pick Furyshaper as Barb subclass. The Fear Ward is just great. Even better with a Priest in the party (to withdraw the ward which will continue to work). Fighter can deal great melee dmg with Clear Out. But that comes quite late. Fighter/Streetfigher can be tanky as well as be very fast in thick armor.

On PotD you usually can outrun any approaching ship (mostly slavers) with the starting sloop - except Furrante. With Palm slat sails it's a lot easier and forgiving though.

[german_lesson] If you mean "Fingerfertigkeit" - that's not considered to be a clunky word (for us). It's rel. common and distinguishes the dexterity of your fingers from the dexterity of your body. There's no literal translation that I know of (Finger = finger, Fertigkeit = skill or proficiency). So you can totally include it into your German studies. Using it to translate "nimble" is wrong though. Unless it's "nimble-fingered" of course. If I had to translate general Dexterity to German I would say "Geschicklichkeit". Although that already slightly leans towards fine motor skills. The old word "Gewandtheit" would fit better but you would confuse younger people with its use I guess. Translating quick, nimble and swift into German with that a sense of escalation like quick < nimble < swift is very difficult imo because they are either synonyms or more used with to different parts of the body. It depends a lot on the context. But you could use "schnell" (= fast) for every one of them. So maybe the German mod uses "schnell" (which generally isn't a very precise translation of the world nimble) because it fit better into the ascending tiers of the dex inspirations. Usually I would translate nimble with "behände" (old), "beweglich" or "flink". Those old words like "Gewandtheit" or "behände" may sound funny to younger audiences, bit I think they work very well in fantasy and/or historical games. Last year I discovered that my youngest sister in law never heard about the old German word "Kleinod" (biju, small gem) and I was baffled. But then I realized she never read any fantasy or historical novels... German has a smaller vocabulary than English (I think a third only?). So often you end up with a lot of English words with slightly different meanings that would all be translated to the same German word. The most popular example is the word "schlagen" I think. Hitting, striking, pummeling, punching, battering, slapping, bashing, whacking and so on: it's all "schlagen". We Germans make up for that with the excessive use of composites ("Faustschlag" - punch) or funny expressions. Ohrfeige (ear + fig) = slap (in the face) [/german_lesson]

That is interesting. I never read about this (I mean that the diff. setting also will influence ships' aggressiveness) - but it makes complete sense.

I see no problem with that class combo. It's totally viable in RTwP and I see no reason why it shouldn't work in TB mode, too. I personally prefer an other subclass than Ghost Heart for a Geomancer though. Just because as non-Ghost Heart you can have the Animal Companion and the Essential Phantom on the field at the same time. As Ghost Heart you can only either use ghost companion or Essential Phantom.

Sure. But this is not the "Feedback about Deadfire" thread. You can express your feelings about a game and it's totally fine. You can theorize about why Deadfire didn't sell well. Which is also fine. But you shouldn't explain the low sales numbers of Deadfire with your feelings alone. Your feelings can be a starting point - then you could check if many other players expressed the same feelings. Or if their feelings, when assumed a lot of people share them, even can have an impact on the sales numbers in the first place (e.g. some feelings might only emerge while deep in the game - but it's already bought then). If you find something that fits then theory and feelings might align. But even this first step gets omitted so frequently that one really has to ask if people just can't distinguish between personal feelings/opinions and objective analysis/theorizing. It often sounds like "Well it is super obvious why Deadfire didn't sell well: because I didn't like it".

Solo? yes! Way too few spells for that imo. That fight is difficult for the majority of players at lvl 4 or 5 even with a full party. It's nice with solo Chanter, but Wizard... no idea. My first impulse would have been to use mutiple Chillfogs from a chokepoint and then apply Combusting Wounds. Or kiting with Deletrious Alacrity maybe. If you're lucky only few will follow a bit and the rest wil turn around - you might be able to kill the few and then maybe the encounter resets? With solo Barb I came back once I had Heart of Fury.

Huh? That's weird. Principi (being pirates) do attack the Watcher flag if you don't have good (or any) reception with them. Don't know why they would hunt you down when flying principi flag. Maybe there are other means of identifying you, no idea. I don't think it's a difficulty setting - I play PotD only and never noticed special attention. But it's possible it's even less on lower difficulties? Another way to avoid ship battles or boardings is to buy palm slat sails. They make your ship a lot faster and are not superexpensive (because they also lower sail health). You can outrun every ship that way. Or let's be more cautious: every ship that hunted me so far.

Ships shouldn't attack you more frequently on higher difficulties as long as you use the Watcher of Dyrwood flag - unless you really have bad reputation with one of the factions. Did you by any chance change the flag your ship is flying? Maybe to Vaillian? Principi will hunt Vaillian ships. If one faction's ships are giving you a hard time just fly their flag.

Never hesitate to restart.

Now I'm thinking that it would be fun to cast Pain Link on the enemies, too. Maybe that's possible when confused? I guess that's not an option when solo - but is it possible at all?

Seems more like a description of personal feelings than an attempt to analyze or explain why Deadfire was less popular. Not that this is bad or so, everybody may express their feelings of course - but in the scope of this "armchair" thread it's neither a theory nor is it very insightful imo. Take these examples: Was the skill spread something that the individual player didn't personally like? Yes. Is it plausible that the skill spread had any meaningful impact on the success of Deadfire? No. That's not a common complaint (at all). Didn't the player like any interaction with companions besides Edér? No. Does that mean the majority of players felt the same? No. That's not a common complaint. Players have different favorite companions. Does the player think that it's obvious that Deadfire lacks a lot of magic PoE1 had? Yes. Is it really that obvious to anyone else who played the game? No. The user reviews are nearly identical. It may be - but it's not obvious. Else Obsidian would know what to change (which they don't). Does the player think that it's even obvious why Deafire is lacking compared to PoE1? Yes. Does he manage to explain why? No.

Vatnir's difficult bc. of the Messenger encounter. But you can hire a SC Assassin adventurer with an arquebus + modal and put Gouging Strike on the Messenger, then use Smoke Veil and retreat out of sight. Afer doing some household chores while Deadfire runs in the background it should be dead and you can get Vatnir. Not at level 2, but as soon as the hireling can have Gouging Strike. Also possible with any other character + Potion of Invisibilty + Lover's Embrace and Bounding Boots from stealth. Target the Leapt to the Messenger - but pause right after activating it. Unpause/pause/unpause/pause in quick succession with the spacebar until your dotted green character circle appears ner the Messenger but you are still in the air. Cancel the Leap action. You will stand right beside the Messenger, still stealthed. Attack with Lover's Embrace (and hope that you at least graze, so better to use it single-handed). Drink potion an leap away out of sight asap. Then also wait. You can also combine the two apporaches - which makes the Messenger die more quickly. Also an Assassin has a lot easier time to actually land a hit from stealth. Means lesser reloads. Even quicker if you can also apply Brand Enemy (auto-hit). But it's not strictly necessary. One endless DoT is sufficient if you're willing to wait and to reload for your lucky shot. It's very anticlimactic to bring down a dragon that way though.

Yes, good interjection. At that point you can almost be a main tank instead of an offtank. And still be reasonable offensive at the same time.

Since fun is very subjective I guess the title is absolutely okay. I don't think you will use Blade Turning 100% of times anyway. Optimizing a build for it (and having fun while doing so) doesn't mean the character can do nothing else. Also doing a successful solo run can be fun in itself - even if the character appears to be a one-trick pony.

It's +20% damage on top of Soul Whip which doesn't turn off at max focus like with other ciphers. Not wild - but the only Cipher who not only retains bonus damage when at full focus but even gets an additonal one. In this special case it might be even a good idea to pick Biting Whip over Draining Whip. With Community Patch I would totally recommend it.

Today I learned that my wife will attend an audience with the Pope on Wednesday.

Maybe the +1 engagement from "Shield Engagement" might help with that?

Druid is great too. While shifted a druid with Avenging Storm can deal more single target damage than a rogue - and still has all the spells at his disposal. Even his best summoned weapon (Rot Skulls) is great. And who hasn't met some Ogre Druids and was so annoyed and decimated by Plague of Insects?

SF/HDB procs: shouldn't make a difference whether you use TP or dual weapons. As soon as you trigger one of them the next additional attacks will be done with the main hand weapon. And since Tuotilo's Palm can use the modal, +5 ACC and the usually higher than normal ACC scaling of Transcendent Suffering it should proc SF/HBD well enough. And if you really want to focus on SF/HBD procs as a tanky Shadowdancer you should use Riposte (Full Attack, both of them can proc SF/HBD) and Outward Spikes of Tuotilo's Palm. Its PEN doesn't scale and it does ridiculously low damage - but it will proc SF/HBD and since this will trigger main hand attacks this increases your chance to proc crit chains a lot when getting attacked - especially by several enemies at once. Besides that: if the goal is to trigger SW/HBD as much as possible (which wouldn't be my focus sice it's great against squishy targets but rather ineffective against difficult foes - but depends on the difficulty) one should equip Sun & Moon in the main hand. No other weapon allows a higher frequency of crit chains because both heads will get rolled again with every proc. It works a bit like a nuclear chain reaction where one hit has the potential to trigger two additonal hits which then each have the chance... and so on. Here I made a quick vid with a Shadowdancer who uses SF/HBD with Tuotilo's Palm with Outward Spikes and Ripste + Sun & Moon to showcase how they proc crit chains. I'm not attacking actively, it's just the enemies' misses which trigger those chains (attention upon opening he spoiler tags: 30MB animated gif): Sorry for the nested spoiler tags - no idea how to remove that.

Generally speaking Psion is excellent because it doesn't rely on anything else than time to gain focus (like a Chanter) - which can be a big advantage against enemies that are tough to hit and/or if there aren't a lot of enemies to begin with. A Beguiler only can generate focus via Deception spells if there's enough enemies to hit. But in this "ranged auto-attacker" case I agree that a Psion will def. fall behind a Beguiler or Ascendant in most encounters. Mainly because a ranged auto-attacker's main purpose it to deal weapon damage and a Psion doesn't profit from that nor does he contribute to that. Beguiler as well as Ascendant are better suited to synergize with a ranged weapon attacker because they gain focus from that weapon damage (which you wanna deal in the first place) and do additional damage via Soul Whip. Beguiler can get additional focus from Deceptions (but also has to cast stuff or else: why bring a Beguiler?), but this takes away time for shooting your weapon (which was supposed to be your priority). Ascendant gains more focus from weapon damage so can ascend more quickyl - and when ascended has increased Soul Whip damage. So an Ascendat can actually contribute to ranged damage even without casting a single spell. Of course you want cast some spells (like Borrowed Instincts and Tactical Meld) - but even if you don't it's not a moot class combo. That's why I personally think that if you go for Ranger/Cipher in order to build a ranged (auto) attacker you should pick Ascendant. Psion is awesome for certain builds (mostly Psion/Caster of any kind) but in this case it wouldn't be my pick.

If you have Blade Turning active you can also use Enduring Dance. With lots of INT and some Power Levels it's enough to sustain Blade Turning. It takes 7 hits to end it so that's usually plenty of time. But with a Nalpasca it's surely much easier to uphold. You can also generate wounds with Parting Sorrow if you engage enemies and then kill them (with Blade Turning) which will be counted as "broke engagement because dead" - but that's less reliable of course. Other ways of generating wounds while using Blade Turning is to use self damaging abilites. Berserker/Monk (Frenzy) and Wizard/Monk (Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) come to mind. DAoM deals enough damage to sustain Blade Turning but of course you need to make sure you get some healing in between. By the way: self damage doesn't interfere with Enduring Dance. Monk/Wizard is also a great choice because it leads to Wall of Draining. With that you can prolong Blade Turning endlessly. So you don't even have to generate wounds anymore to have it for a very, very long time (as long as there are more than 1 enemies in your Wall and then some). WoD also prolongs all other benefical effects - like Minor Lay on Hands from those early gloves. Which means you can prolong DAoM to gain wounds while healing up again at the same time AND have Blade Turning active. Against ranged characters you can just use a Large Shield (Blade Turning doesn't care about your ACC malus), Weapon & Shield Style, use the modal and cast WoD + deflection buffs like Mirrored Images, Llengrath's Safeguard and Soul Mirror. They will miss a ton and if they hit they will do whimpy dmg. Eventually they will shoot themselves to death. Also this helps a ton against AoE spells thrown at you (the shield + modal, not Soul Mirror).

Right. Dual daggers don't do anything for you defensively compared to a single dagger. Dagger's modal does stack with Borrowed Instincts though. So a Beguiler with small shield, dagger and Borrowed Instincts could reach repectable deflection and good overall defenses. Cast Psychovampiric Shield, too. Since Beguiler gets focus from casting Deceptions most of times (and those also help to tank better) that could be a viable strategy. Dagger's reduced dmg wouldn't matter. Or use a hatchet... Cast Phantom Foes to gain a lot of focus and follow up with Secret Horrors to seriously impede enemies' offense. Then check out how the fight is going. Also Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master and Ring Leader can be string tools for tanking: you just let the enemies tank for you. All things the Beguiler is good at. I would also consider medium shields. The -4 ACC isn't that bad - and you can activate the block modal which is nice and only slows down your weapon attacks, not your casting. Nerian's Ward is a great medium shield for a tankisjh character. The conversion upgrade is sweet. By the way: the (Greater) Fire Shield of Magran's Blessing does generate focus... so that's also an option.