Boeroer

I think I don't value the things a fighter brings to a caster that much because a lot of it is already covered by the party's Priest and they are also rel. short-lived. Armored Grace doesn't do much while shifted. The stances are somewhat comparable to the Paladin's auras but only good for the Fighter himself. Who takes Rapid Recovery? Tactical Barrage is nice though. Hm... nobody wants to touch my Nature's Terror + Sacred Immolation it seems. You don't get that from a Rogue or Fighter, just saying... Maybe I'll make a gif when I'm back home on the weekend.

The modal of sabres was meant I guess. Windmill Slash. You gain +2 PEN for +50% recovery. But since Blade Cascade is active the recovery malus doesn't matter.

I disagree - partly. It's indeed bad in PoE (where it only works against <=10% endurance left) and it doesn't do much in synergy with anything and just overkills. But in Deadfire you can combine it with Barbaric Smash to get a (significantly) higher chance that your Barbaric Smash does indeed kill a near death target and thus triggers the Rage refund - as well as it will then trigger Blood Thirst (and Bloodlust and other on-kill stuff such as Engoliero's Ghost Blades or whatever) in one go. That's why I gave the Barbarian/Ranger example with Survival of the Fittest in the first place. You can achieve lots of Barbaric Smash kills with awesome accuracy and very high crit chance if you hunt near-death enemies. Of course Bloody Slaughter is not universally great for all sorts of Barbarians - but it can def. be useful in Deadfire. And why is having more speed not useful? Speed bonuses have linear returns. More speed is always beneficial. I don't quite understand the part about Captain's Banquet and Rapid Shot. I also disagree that it's a problem if you cannot pick certain abilities of a class that are popular (Marksman, Driving Flight etc.). It's not proof for a bad combo if you don't take certain (otherwise nice) abilities. With that argument one could claim that a ranged Shadowdancer must be at a disadvantage because he cannot pick several of the Monk's melee abilities. Which isn't the case. Imo it's only important whether the things you can take work well together or not. And a Barbarian can profit from the Ranger's melee capabilities (which is mostly accuracy boosting and animal companion) without gimping himself. I noticed I haven't mentioned the synergy of Blood Storm+Predator's Sense or Spirit Frenzy (+Body Blows)+Takedown Combo.

I do not agree. Combining Paladin with a Druid makes the Druid a lot more sturdy and way easier to play. To keep yourself alive you don't need to use your precious spells. For a Fury it may even be the only early way to emergency-heal (Taste of the Hunt, Second Wind and items aside). SC offensive Druid (like all glass cannons) may be more impactful in theory and if you are good with controlling crowds, but they do zero offense as soon as they go down. If players are struggling with such kind of things, this combo is a good pick - because you don't sacrifice a lot of offense while gaining a lot of survivability and potential versatility. I value it (way) higher than Fighter/Druid. Tactician's Brilliance aside, what would that combo do better? If the paladin side had no tools to help the Druid's offense (while "only" adding a lot of sturdyness) it would maybe be a lame combo. But the fact that you can easily (and early) add +20% additive damage via Sworn Enemy (and even get that Zeal back) and +15% lash damage means you don't lose much offensive spell impact while gaining massive improvements on the survivability side. And that doesn't even take added versatility into account. And I think you guys never really tried a melee Paladin/Druid with combined Nature's Terror + Sacred Immolation (and lots of healing) who walks into enemy groups and casts Inspired Beacon (that's not mandatory, it's just fun and it works). Paladin's defenses + Moonwell + Hands of Light allowing to tank while two pulsing AoEs (plus lash) melt surrounding foes. It is great and fun, especially against mobs. Also the point about summons is not correct imo. If you wanted to focus on supporting your summons you can use Lay on Hands, Shared Flames, Exalted Endurance (or Ex. Focus). How's that not supporting your summons? If you'd made all those points against Rogue/Druid or Fighter/Druid I would understand them better.

Huh? Arcane Knight on the weaker side? I think Paladin/Caster is pretty nice, especially because you can not only combine Sworn Enemy with spells, but also Eternal Devotion's burning lash which gets attached to direct damage spells, too. There are not many things that boost spell damage so that's nice. In certain cases even Inspired Beacon (+40% dmg) can make sense. Paladin/Druid not only can use that synergy but also can do very well with Spiritshift. The DR bonuses of the Paladin buffs up the decent armor (with 0 recovery) and FoD stacks with Wildstrike. Goldpact Knight/Shifter for example is very sturdy but does decent melee damage. And last but not least: combining Nature's Terror with Sacred Immolation before going into melee is pretty good, too. Paladin/Priest I can get behind. Not because it's particularly bad - but somehow it seems particularly boring to me. The longer I think about paladin the more I'm inclined to vote for Paladin/Fighter as worst multiclass for me personally. Very solid actually and a good combo for beginners - but little room for creativity and not very versatile. But maybe somebody can convince me that that's wrong.

I still don't understand the take on Barb/Ranger, even when talking about the vanilla classes. A multiclassed Ranger hasn't that many abilities that are ranged only - but enough good ones that work in melee, too. All active abilities the multiclass ranger gets work in melee, except Evasive Fire. Together with the passives, the only things that don't make sense for a melee ranger are Evasive Fire (Evasive Roll however does make sense), Marksman, Driving Flight, Gunner and Shot on the Run. But there are more than enough nice abilities to pick from if you leave those out. You cannot pick them all and have to skip lots of abilities in a multiclass anyway. The name is "Ranger" all right, but the class is neither particularly bad in melee nor do make a sacrifice if you are not going ranged. Usually my reason to go melee ranger is the easy and early high melee accuracy - and getting an animal companion. Barbarian/Ranger isn't bad at all in my experience: very high accuracy synergizes very well with Barbaric Smash (extra crit damage) and Bloody Slaughter (extra crit damage) and if you use that to deliver killing blows with high maneuverability in melee, you also profit from a free Barbaric Smash, Survival of the Fittest, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. It's actually a very nice combination imo. I even found ranged Barbarian/Ranger not bad (if you don't use reloading weapons maybe) with the same recipe. You lose Carnage and One Stands Alone, but the high shooting speed and targeting bloodied/near death enemies works nicely with the Ranger's ranged stuff, too. Somebody already mentioned Frostseeker on a Mage Slayer/Ranger. The reaction sounded like that was only a gimmick and has no value besides the spell disruption. But that disruption is an instant on-the-fly bonus on top of an otherwise well performing single-target damage combo, not a one-trick pony imo. You can shut down a caster almost immediately, but you can at the same time do a lot of damage if you pick your targets wisely.

If you use shift + action to queue your commands you can avoid unnecessary pauses.

Nope, the parts are not there. That's just your starting gear and nothing else. You can find the parts in your captain's cabin (inside a cabinet) after you get your ship back floating from Maje Island.

I suspect Psion/Berserker would be a pretty dumb combo, too - at least in the unmodded game - because the Psion would constantly pause focus generation because of Berserker Frenzy's self damage? Tactician/Streetfighter: also stupid. Tactician doesn't want to get flanked usually (unless Confusion is desired for friend/foe shenanigans) while the Streetfighter's desire is to get flanked. Edit: argh, Elric beat me. PS: made a nice Berserker/Ghost Heart who specialized in delivering killing bows: Barbaric Smash (for free most of times bc. kill) + Marked Prey + Survival of the Fittest + Bloody Slaughter + Evasive Roll was effective and fun. Sometimes mixed in a Takedown Combo, too. PPS: @Elric Galad I would argue that Priest/Druid can get Spineof Thicket Green and enchant it to +2 PL to Rejuvenation and +2 PL to Restoration which makes for a pretty cool healer - like Priest of Eothas/Livegiver. +7(!) Power Levels of Rejuvenation while shifted (can even prolong spiritshift with Salvation of Time for longer +5 PL buff) - and afterwards only drop to -1 Power Level bc. of the staff but can continue with +2 PL Restoration spells. Pretty cool imo. And in the late game you might even use all your spell slots often enough.

Nope, I played some. That combo can be pretty cool. Priest/Berserker for example can remove any enemy for a long time from combat without any hit roll: just get confused from Frenzy and Withdraw an enemy. That little gimmick alone is a pretty powerful thing. I think it's hard to name a class combo that's universally bad, especially when not defining subclasses. Would be even more helpful to narrow down the role. For example a Debonaire/Psion tank would be pretty bad. No engagement, debuff when no allies are near, stops focus generation on getting damaged... ew. But a Debonaire/Psion ranged caster wouldn't be so bad: charm enemies, cast a Disintegrate with 100% crit conversion on them... cool. I could name my least favorite (vanilla) class combos, but that hasn't something to do with them being particularly bad. For example I don't like Rogue/Priest, but I'm sure there are lots of good arguments why they aren't bad. With the introduction of subclasses I think any general class combo has something going for it. I haven't encountered even one during my numerous hours that wouldn't be good in one way or another. And even if you try to combine subclasses in weird ways you can often still find a viable approach. For example: many players believe Berserker/Helwalker must be unplayable because you will kill yourself. It is a challenge obviously, but it can also be very powerful and rewarding. One of my most beloved combos. --- Anyways, my pick would be: Debonaire/Unbroken: taking away the core feature of the Unbroken (engagement/disengagement)

If I didn't want to deal with either Serafen's departure or picking up one benevolent point then I'd just leave. Btw: one benevolent decision doesn't influence your stats yet if that's for first time - unless it's a major one. Don't remember in this case, but it could well be that your disposition counter won't change yet. You could check on you character sheet under the right tab before and after. Then you can see it as "what do I care if people interpret this as benevolent?" You could also argue that you do Berath a service (saving a Death Godlike) - she's your ultimate task giver in this game.

Yeah, but... it's way better than not having the opportunity to cause prone in the first place.

Due to the increasing return of (most) speed bonuses in PoE, ranged recovery while running with Shot on the Run used to be faster than regular standing recovery. 😆 Don't know if that was ever patched. Iirc it's the same even in Deadfire (with linear speed bonus returns). It's only nuances, but it's faster than standing still I believe.

Yes, why is that sad?

You can skip that because Two Handed Style only works for melee weapons in PoE. This can become obsolete with Time Parasite since it doesn't stack and is vastly inferior to Time Parasite. But before that it can be useful. Maybe just retrain after getting to the Time Parasite level. Or use it at the start of battle and only use Time Parasite after it runs out - that also works well. --- In general: Having to attack with a weapon in order to gain focus is not really the way of the siren (Troubadour/Psion). A Chanter build with Enigma's Charm and some chamring/dominating items would be better suited to catch the siren vibe imo. But besides the Two-Handed Style I'd say your build idea will work. Imo the best bow for Ciphers is The Rain of Godagh Field - which is a war bow. It comes pretty late though but fortunately there's another early and nice war bow: Borresaine in Defiance Bay. In combination with Time Parasite the dps will be great and you don't have to worry about foes with high damage reduction (animats, beetles, dragons and so on). Also Borresaine has stun on crit and drains health: very cool. Speaking about foes with high DR (armor): Against those a hunting bow is not so great. Also the best dps hunting bow, Persistence, has wounding. Wounding makes it so strong at dps, but wounding damage doesn't generate focus - so it's a bit of a waste for a Cipher. The Rain of Godagh Field has speed which is the other great dps enchantment. And speed leads to more focus directly. Rain of Godagh Field+Durgan Steel+Time Parasite leads to 0 recovery. You become a gatling gun - just with arrows. So for me it would be war bows. Maybe you could throw in Rhymer's Summons as cross-class talent for more siren vibes. They are not strong but 1/encounter and can be a nice distraction.

No, please re-read what I wrote and then maybe check the combat log. Every hit roll gets varied damage bonuses from Gambit because Guile gets refunded under the hood but then capped back to 2 (per hand). As I said: "Gambit refund is capped at 2 per hand". It doesn't matter how many of those multiple rolls you crit, you will only get back 2 Guile per strike at the end - so max 4 with dual wielding. BUT only one of those multiple attack rolls has to crit -> you get back the 2 Guile. So the chance to NOT crit per hand is minimized a lot. Compare with a single hit roll from Rapiers etc. ON TOP of that: Guile gets refunded "under the hood" while Gambit is executed, giving the mulitple attack rolls varius high dmg bonuses if they crit. Again: Check the combat log and hover over the individual crit rolls and press shift. A detailed list of damage bonuses will appear where you can see that Gambit causes a bonus dmage, somtimes higher than your remaining Guile suggests. This is caused by the "virtual" refunded Guile that piled up from multiple crits. But afterwards the Guile refund gets capped to 2 (per hand). The more crit rolls the higher the bonus damage. Mortar + Fire in the Hole on multiple enemies can grant dmg bonuses over 300% if you manage to hit a lot of enemies (for example if you lured them to a spot with Sparkcrackers, laying a trap or whatever). It is correct that you might drop your crit conversion from over 100% to under. BUT: the many more attack rolls (against multiple enemies) means it's much harder to only do grazes or misses. With only one attack roll (Rapier or whatever) the chance for one single bad roll that drops your Guile is higher than having "only" 80% crit conversion but more chances to crit. In case of non-conversion you can have same backup-conversion as well (Dirty Fighting, Power of Money etc.). In addition to that you get several backstabs + Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak stuns (in an AoE with mortar etc.) and +25 ACC which limits the danger of graze/miss even further. Against many enemies I consider 1 Vanishing Strike + Gambit with Hand Mortar+Fire in the Hole stronger than a Rapier setup or similar - also bc. of the AoE stun of the Stalking Cloak which is very helpful imo. Against single foes I prefer your approach with Rapiers (or Scordeo's Edge or whatever good, high ACC one handed weapon you got). I especially would look not only for weapons with higher acc, but also ones that do stuff on crit. Since you will crit all the time weapons such as Rust's Poignard (Bring Low) and Ball and Chain (Subjugation) in combination with Scordeo's Edge's Adaptive are very nice because you can perma-lock nasty, strong enemies that way. Scordeo's Edge and Grave Calling (Grave Bound) is also a nasty combo because of the paralyze effect of Crave Calling in combination with Blade Cascade from Scordeo's Edge.

PPS: Here's a showcase from years back of an Assassin with Vanishing Strike like I talked about above. The combo 1* Vanishing Strike,followed by Gambits is better, but I didn't take a capture of that, sorry.

PS: here's a Gambit build by @Kaylon for further inspiration:

Rapiers work but are limited to pierce damage so you need a bsckup. Something like Scordeo's Edge with Adaptive + Sun & Moon is a good alternative. Instead of using Rapiers + modal (it doesn't stack with other active acc buffs) you can use multihit-weapon such as Sun & Moon, blunderbusses - or against multiple opponents - Fire in the Hole (Chain Shot) + Hand Mortar (Blinding Smoke). That also minimizes the chance of grazes and misses, especially if there are many enemies in one place (which is the norm when going solo). Only one of the many hit rolls has to crit for the refund zu happen. Guile refund is capped at 4 max (2 per hand) - but internally, while Guile is executed, the Guile refund of multiple crits gets registered and leads to very high damage bonuses* - before it is cut back to 4 at the end. An Assassin with Vanishing Strikes and Gambit as well as Backstab can do tremendous damage with Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole by just using Vanishing Strike and Gambit in the middle of an enemy pack. Vanishing Strike's invisibility never breaks. Assassinate adds +25 acc which ensures even less grazes. Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak adds accuracy and stuns all enemies. Streetfighter is also excellent if you use Powder Burns bc. of the reduced reloading speed. Maxed INT is recommended. Against single tough targets obviously mortars are not great. Also check out Rust's Poignard. * Gambit grants 10% bonus crit dmg per point of Guile.

I worded that not too well. I had 7 Guile when I activated Gambit. It costs 4 Guile, the crit conversion and bonus dmg are calculated with the remaining 3 Guile.

Hm, I get funky results. The Boltcatcher Gloves get higher dmg bonuses (+180%) than my Guile (7) implies, but then the Gambit roll itself at the end doesn't get extra dmg bonus. It's different than with mortars. And of course shortly after that try I did another one and the game crashed.

I didn't try it out but it could. I don't know if there's an internal cap somewhere, but with a mortar I had often numbers around +300% in the combat log iirc. It isn't that obvious then because the individual hits of a mortar have low base damage. But how would you stop the crit chain so that the game doesn't crash? With 100% hit-to-crit conversion that seems hard to do. Maybe only use it when Guile is low... PS: tried to test it, only had 3 Guile at the moment I used Gambit - game crashed. Lol.

Arcane Archer/Ascendant is a good pick if you want to concentrate more on the shooting and less on casting spells: the soul whip damage is 10% less while not ascended, but increased while Ascended and soul whip doesn't turn off. This combo can use Spearcaster (+modal) to great effect vs. single tough targets for perma-prone. It profits from Arcana directly (which Arcane Archer wants to raise anyway) and gains great accuracy that way - and it proftis twice from Arcana if you use the Arcane Archer's imbued shots with it. And then this multiclass can use Frostseeker against mobs. Frostseeker has the added benefit that it counts as elemental attack (no acc malus for Arcane Archer with auto-attacks) and generates focus superquickly against mobs (because the AoE that procs on crits also generates focus). I played an SC Psion with a special attention to Puppet Master some time ago - and she was very impactful (SC leads to 2 more focus per second due to higher Power Levels). I'm sure Ydwin can also be nice as SC with a good setup even though she has to harvest focus the conventional way. SC Ciphers can use Shared Nightmare which is pretty bonkers with any AoE weapons (except Wahai Poraga which doesn't scale its AoE size with and Keeper of the Flame bc. the AoE doesn't generate focus) and in combination with Reaping Knives on a party member. You'll have lots of focus quickly and then a huge AoE for your spells. Ydwin as Cipher/Rogue can generate focus more quickly, but then advances more slowly through the Power Levels (later access to abilities) and misses out on Time Parasite, Reaping Knives and Shared Nightmare of course. But as a ranged "low maintenance" party member the Cipher/Rogue works better I guess.

Wizard/Chanter is always interesting because you can prolong all benefical effects with Wall of Draining, including effects from chants (including Ancient Memory and Mercy and Kindness) even though you don't sing them anymore. That is correct. It scales with character level but has no weapon proficiency (modal). Thus it is not great for Devoted. Since it already scales with character level it does not scale with Transcendent Suffering or Monastic Unarmed Training. Sure. It's also good to have a setup of fist + Tuotilo's Palm for backup. There might be enemies who are quite resistant or even immune to corrode damage (which is the damage type of Draining Touch). I personally value +5ACC over +10% damage. It's only additive damage and the bash (which counts as unarmed) as well as the fists base damage isn't so high that +10% means a lot. The bash does 8-10 or 9 base damage on average. +10% means +1 dmg per bash. Fists are 14-19, so 16.5 on average base dmg. +10% means additional 1.7 crush damage per strike. It's more if you use abilites because they scale up the base damage with Power Level a bit. But still... not my favorite enchantment. +5 ACC is more useful imo. Ah, by the way: Draining Touch does not cause Deep Wounds (Rogue) because it does not deal pierce, slash or crush damage. depends on what you plan to use. the Pike modal works for Spirit Lance - but only the initial target, not the AoE. It redices enemies deflection by 10. This can be helpful against high deflection enemies. You only need to graze and their deflection drops by 10. It's nice imo. As most modals you must decide when it's worth turning on and when not. Seems good to me. Human would be my pick, too. Fighting Spirit is so easy to trigger with a Bloodmage. Puh... so many options... I really like quick reloading, high ACC arbalest shooters as low-maintenance party members most of the time - but they can be extrmely valuable when they pin down difficult enemies with their modal. Something like Ranger/Paladin, Ranger/Chanter, Ranger/Cipher, Ranger/Rogue and so on. Another nice, low maintenance party member with big moments I like is dual pistol SC Kind Wayfarer. But you need a Chanter in the party then, too (for limitless summons which can be turned into free Zeal via Divine Retribution). That is the most effective approach. But the juggling of Grimoires can be a bit inconvenient at times. Which spells you use all the time depends on you. I think self-buffs you almost always want to cast at the start of battle are good candidates. Devil of Caroc's Breastplate heals per crit. I may be nice in combination with Blood Sacrifice. With AoE stuff like Spirit Lance I try to hit the 35 INT cap, so items such as Charm of Bones (+2) and Heaven's Cacophony (+2) are favorites of mine. Also Aloth's Armor (+15% AoE size) as well as the pet Loki (also +15% AoE size). But it's all not super important imo.

The normal values of the axes will scale with level no problem. But I guess the lash will stay low because it only scales with the Priest's dispositions - if those are in line with their god's dispositions. I suspect that wouldn't work with a non-priest. But I haven't tried. Maybe it works if you character adheres to Rymrgand's dispositions - I mean you can accumulate disposition points as non-priest as well. Just don't know if that gets translated to the axes then. 🤷‍♂️ Worth a try I guess. Draining Touch is the most powerful one handed weapon in the game (besides stuff like Scordeo's Edge+Salvation of Time or Wall of Draining or Grave Calling with skeletons and such things)... if you can keep it with the Grimoire switching trick. Not much comes close imo. The very high base damage, combined with some damage bonuses, leads to hefty dmg per hit, the health draining and the weakening as well as the targeting of Will make it more powerful. There's a reason why you are supposed to only get one proper hit or crit with it. In combo with a club+modal it's even better. It's also very good on a Wizard/Monk. You don't need Enervating Blows anymore, the draining is nice to stay healthy (even makes Helwalker less scary) and Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming in combination with Merciless Gaze and the ultra low Will of the enemy from club strikes and spells means that additional attacks will proc frequently. Or improve the dmg per hit with Lightning Strikes, both options are great. Turning Wheel is also nice in combination with that high dmg per hit. Hylea's Talons add a lash, Baby Boar does so, too. Wizard can pick Spirit of Decay which grants +1 PEN with the Draining Touch weapon. Add Monk's Thunderous Blows and you are at +3. --- Another nice combo with Wizard and Draining Touch is Steel Garrote. Steel Garrote drains health if you attack afflicted enemies. Draining Touch put weakened on enemies: nice synergy. You drain twice from the same attack which is great for using Blood Sacrifices, you can achieve enormous defense and AR numbers. You will have nice synergy between Eternal Devotion and your spells, too (+15% burning lash to spells, Eternal Devotion works like that). Eternal Devotion's accuracy can get buffed by 10 points with the Ring of Focused Flames. That means that not only do you drop enemies' Will via club and spells but also raise your accuracy by +20 (FoD+10, Ring +10). If you don't like Steel Garrote then Kind Wayfarer also works nicely. Instead of draining twice you will heal in an AoE with white flames and drain health with Draining Touch. Also nice for Blood Sacrifice. Rest is the same as Steel Garrote or any other Paladin/Bloodmage: Lay on Hands with Wall of Draining etc. --- A brutal combo can be Soulblade/Bloodmage. Citzal's Spirit Lance is awesome with focus gain and Soul Annihilation. --- Bloodmage/Unbroken is also very good: Mob Stance, Kapana Tanga club with +2 engagement, Hold the Line, Draining Touch and Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage as well as an Essential Phantom. Enemies will get terrified and disengage, you and the phantom will deal incredible disengagement attacks with Draining Touch (remember: diseng. attacks get +100% dmg). Mob Stance cleaves are likely to kill enemies on the spot, leading to potential chain-cleaving and so on. --- Bloodmage/Furyshaper: combine Draining Touch with Barbaric Smash, Bloodlust, Bloody Slaughter and most importantly Blood Thirst. Also Carnage profits from the high base damage. Summon a Fear Ward so you don't need to cast Ryngrim's spells. Do similar things like with the Unbroken but at higher speeds but less potent disengagement attacks. Instead of cleaving you will have higher speed and 0 recovery after a kill. Barbaric Smash + Bloody Slaughter does enormous damage if you use it as finisher against near death enemies - and costs nothing if it kills. Bloodmage/Berserker also works but is very tricky.