Boeroer

It only works while you are shifted. You cannot have weapons when shifted. You will automatically have the natural weapons of the spiritshift form (for example Cat Claws or Boar Tusks).

Wizard: Barbarian/Bloodmage with Draining Touch trick + Kapana Taga (+Club modal) + Reckless Brigandine and Barbaric Shout can have 6 engagement slots and then use the Essential Phantom (which will have 3 engagement slots due to Kapana Taga + Reckless Brigandine): engage lots of enemies and use Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage or Enervating Terror to terrify enemies. They will break your engengagement and also the Phantom's. You will deal very high dmg with Draining Touch because Disengagement attacks get +100% dmg. Also works with Unbroken/Bloodmage (Guardian Stance istead of Barbaric Shout). Besides the engagement trick it's a nice Warlock anyway because Draining Touch has highest one handed melee base dmg and thus works very well with Carnage. If you don't want to use the Phantom you can use Furyshaper with Fear Ward for more terrify chances. Druid: Barbarian/Ancient is fun with Community Patch if you pick the Stag form: both Carnage effects will stag (pun intended). Cast raw DoTs first and then shift and go into melee. When enemies start dying from the DoTs your melee dual Carnage without Recovery because of Blood Thirst can clean up the rest of the enemies.

Yeah... this all makes determining "strongest" a bit difficult. If you ask for that you need to somehow narrow it down under what specific circumstances. Like solo, PotD, with Berath Blessing x,y or z, RTwP or TB, with cheese or without - and if with cheese: which sorts of cheese are okay and so on. Bit muddy all that. To OP (who is gone) I would say: Without any further specifics (everything allowed) I think SC Assassin with SoF is a really strong contender for the crown. I already forgot: can you prolong WotW's invisibility with SoF? Because iirc it also doesn't break like Vanishing Strokes - and I consider SC Monk to be stronger than SC Assassin if both could stay invisible for unlimited amounts of time. Mostly due to Resonant Touch. Or not?

1) Both are viable. There is not general rule or judgement which is better. It depends on the party setup, the class and so on. Some classes have less "interesting" abilities at Power Level 8 and 9 though so usually those are less popular (like for example Single Class Fighter) while other single classes have more convincing stuff to offer (for example single class Monk). 2) No, because first of all you don't need to pick every healing spell. And if you picked them all you don't necessarily need to cast them all in every encounter. Maybe you just want the flexibility to be able to cast a healing spell from every spell tier if things go south or if you used up one spell tier with other non-healing stuff. Keep in mind every spell tier only gets two spell uses per encounter. Paladin has not as many AoE heals (unless Kind Wayfarer). 3) What do you mean? Plant pount? Just don't pick a healing spell in a certain tier if you don't think you need it. 4) Druid passives at least have Wildstrike, Greater Wildstrike and Wildstrike Frenzy. Look at the passives of Wizards and Priests. What are those plant points? A Lifegiver is primarily a healer because of the auto-spells he gets and the Power Level bonus. But he can cast damaging and CC spells just as fine as any Druid. His Spiritshift is also not weaker. You should use those abilities if no healing is needed but cast healing spells if healing is needed.

With Eternal Devotion your offhand-attack will work as the main hand attack: it will only have the 20% lash, not 20% + 10%. Your following attack rolls will then have tha 10% lash. Not ethat Eternal Devotion's 10% lash lasts a lot longer than Shared Flames and works with all attack rolls of the Paladin (including spells or stuff like Sacred Immolation). Shared Flames lasts not as long and the AoE is not that big (smaller than White Flames') - but if you time it right and use it when most of your party ae in range it can be a good support ability. It stacks with other lashes, for example with the Chanter's Aefyllath Mith Fyr phrase. For a support paladin I would pick Shared Flames. In Turn Based mode Dex is a lot less important than in Real Time with Pause mode.

Iirc I learned that from @Powerotti. *Elton John voice* It's the circle of cheese

As you quoted me (see the last paragraph): In other words: The Dragon Thrashed, The Dragon Wailed is not affected by Scion of Flame at all.

If you read my post again until the end you will see that I said basically the same: that it's good to share such info - even if oneself doesn't use it. Again: my point was about how you seem to perceive it as a personal attack when people say they don't like to use exploits. Which it is not. I just want you to understand that there's zero criticism towards you or whether you use exploits or not. It's just players' preferences and neither criticism about the info you shared nor your way of playing the game. I wouldn't have said anything if you wouldn't have included that the Strand of Favor trick was "frowned upon" by some players. I mean even if that was the case: who cares what other players frown upon? It's your game and it's nice to share any info about it, even if some players won't use it. But if you are actually not feeling attacked and all is fine: even better. It sounded differently but I might have misinterpreted that. There will be debate lots of times I guess. Just because so few people know what it actually is - and therefore there will have to be further explanation. And then again some people will say "no thanks that is too cheesy for my taste" and so on and so forth. But why bother? I keep telling people how you can cheese charged items or how to export unique items to a new game or how Concelhaut's Draining Touch can be kept for the whole encounter - and nobody so far said "wow cool, I will use that". But I'll share it nevertheless. Maybe some day one player has fun with it - and it will be all worth it.

Hm okay - I never saw that on the PC or Linux version. For me White Flames always triggered unless I a) missed or b) everybody on range was at full health already. Then the White Flames animation will show but no healing will take place (because not needed). If your observations are not caused by one of those two reasons it might be a bug. Maybe it's specific to the console version you are playing - but I can't say for sure.

"Spruce of Regeneration" was my first album obviously.

"Casting summons in a loop from Austria" actually was the name of my second album when I was performing as counter tenor from Vienna. You cannot tank very well with a single class chanter imo. Health regeneration is not worth much if you get hit with full penetration. A Herald can have higher AR and defenses so he often only suffers from severely underpenetrating grazes which are easy to recover from with Ancient Memory etc. A Chanter neither has enormous defense buffs nor universal AR bonuses. You need summons do keep enemies busy and not tank yourself imo. Skeletons from Ancient Brittle Bones are crappy but they have engagement and thus stop attackers on the spot (if you didn't choose to remove "stop on engagement" in the game options). While they are dying you should have enough time to summon other stuff. And then also get some other invocations off in between. You can even kill your own skeletons (Ancient Brittle Bones or Many Lives Pass By) with Grave Calling/Chilling Grave in order to produce a foe-only Chillfog which not only helps with its blinding but also procs the other weapon effects like the paralyze which is very potent. I personally like Troubadour pretty much just because Many Lives Pass By will produce a skeleton every 3 secs which is great against tough single foes and because you can crit-interrupt every 3 secs with the Champion invocation + offensive chant which is good against lots of weaker enemies. I don't use Ancient Memory much. It's nice in a party and when you can stack more spruces of regeneration - but not really great for a solo SC Chanter imo. Here it's more about preventing damage then healing it (for me). You carried this over from another thread and your choice of words suggests that there are hurt feelings. There was and is not need for that. As was stated several times "frowing upon" was not the goal of that discussion - some players were simply saying (I'll paraphrase): "It's not for me personally because it feels like cheating to me - but you should play how you like and have fun while doing so". If using the Strand of Favor trick gives you fun then by all means "go forth now Watcher". I would also mention it even if I won't use it myself - because that info is useful and the people asking for info can decide whether they want to use cheesy tactics or not themselves. Another cheesy tactic for a solo character (if you can't outheal the damage you're receiving): equip Lethandria's Devotion in both weapon setups (use the copy function), pause the game and then switch from weapon set 1 to 2 and back to 1 and so on. You will get a healing tick every time you switch even during pause. Continue playing with full health. Repeat when necessary. I personally wouldn't build my char around that - but if it helps me mastering a few particularly frustrating encounters: why not?

Did you use summons? Those make a huge difference in solo fights. Even as a Bellower they are not bad because their duration will be so much longer with the PL boosts. The upgraded Ancient Weapons and also the Dragon summon are very good. The Dragon has so much HP it can tank most stuff for its whole summoning duration. Its abilites are also very good. Only its autoattacks suck. On top of this you can chant Many Lives Pass By which will pop out a skeleton that doesn't count towards the summoning limit. As Troubadour you can call one every 3 secs and create a small horde. They die quickly but are excellent distractions from the "real" summons and yourself. Imo you can't solo a SC Chanter well with only offensive invocations. Summons make it much easier.

Indeed, you are most likely missing something: your FoD attacks. If you are in the early game then misses are common. Unfortunately you have to hit with the FoD attack rolls in order to trigger the healing. If you miss: no proc. You can use the Ring of Focused Flame to increase your accuracy by 10 for your FoD attacks - which will help. Also Gauntlets of Greater Reliability and other stuff that prevents misses will help. You will see less and less misses the more you level up. If you want to hit more reliably in the early game you can use a single one handed weapon, but I don't think this will increase your proc chance compared to dual wielding where you'll have two chances of hitting. What might help is to use accurate weapons (dagger, rapier, spear, club) and/or some with accuracy modals (e.g. rapier) until you hit more reliably. Another "trick" is to use Sun & Moon in your dual wielding setup: it has two flail heads and thus has two chances to not miss with that weapon. It will only proc White Flames once though - even if both flail heads connect. Still an advantage.

Which language are you playing on? It seems that files are missing.

Was it determined if Single or Multiclass (or doesn't matter)? Maybe I missed it. Helwalker + Lifegiver is an awesome combo imo. +MIG for more healing/damage per tick, +INT for longer healing/dmg over time and big AoEs, +accuracy, some mobility bonuses, some defensive stuff, summons although Lifegivwmer is not supposed to have summons (Dichotomous Soul) and the increased received dmg can be countered with the stronger healing capabilities. Single Class eventually gets Great Maelstrom *boom*

I guess he meant a guide for Lifegiver specifically?

The good thing about Insect Swarm and Plague of Insects, Infestatio of Maggots etc. is that they deal raw damage so you don't need to worry about penetration. But as I said they target fortitude which is often very high and some of them are tagged as poison which means that immune enemies (undead, constructs etc.) will not be affected at all. You could also go for some shock spells. What you like better. I prefer the Plague stuff most of times.

It is a really good sabre and worth keeping - if you want to spend the resources to upgrade it. Besides the normal sabre stats it is accurate (+5) which is great. And the best thing is not even listed under the list of echantments (or "Additional Effects") : This is a 20% burning lash. Lashes are mutiplicative dmg bonuses and therefore pretty good. This sabre works as if you'd have a "passive" Baby-Flames of Devotion: +ACC and a burning lash. It doesn't have the usual sabre "sharpness" which is +10% dmg. But that's only an additive dmg modifier and a lot weaker than the +20% burning lash. On top comes the 20% chance to deal some additional burn damage that is not connected to the initial weapon hit (has its own base dmg) and which you can upgrade to an AoE. This makes it one of the rel. few melee weapons with an AoE effect. This effect can happen on any hit roll. So for example if you use Heart of Fury, Whirling Strikes or Whispers of the Wind it can proc multiple times. And it emits light! Yay! Edit: I forgot - the burn AoE which can happen 20% of times targets Reflex instead of Deflection, also has its own base dmg (something around 8 or so I think?) but gets all the bonuses a normal weapon attack would get: weapon quality (fine, exceptional etc.), Might, Sneak Attack, Accuracy buffs (even the +5 from the sabre itself) and so on.

Ah yes , sorry - I forgot that +2 to Rejuvenation and +3 to Beast are mutually exclusive enchantments. I'd pick Emp. Lifeblood as Lifegiver.

If you use Spine of Thicket Green you can use some of the beast spells that deliver damage over time (Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects etc.) to do good damage. But hitting will be hard because you seem to be inclined to drop PER and those spells go against fortitude.

Cipher beams have a fixed duration, INT doesn't change it. I know for sure because I once played around with potential 1-INT-builds (using Ring of Mule's Wit). I didn't check and don't remember my ingame experience because I don't use beams much but I believe all beams work like this - but maybe the non-cipher ones are different. There are some other things that don't work with INT like one would assume - like the weird AoEs of Missile Salvo or Storm of Holy Fire. Also those "straight line" AoEs like Iconic Projection or Mind Lance etc. are unaffected by INT as well.

A Livegiver has +2 Power Level for Rejuvenation spells and gets another +5 when he is shifted. But there's a malus of -5 after the shift. Note that those PL changes immediately affect the potentcy of spells that are currently at work - for example the healing ticks of healing over time spells will get influenced. The durations however will not change. The Spine of THicket Green is en excellent stat stick for a Livegiver - however: its bonses don't apply when shifted.

Exactly. Whatever floats your boat. It's just tricky and worth a discussion as soon as you start "competing" with other players I guess. That's why multiplayer games or any competitive game (and even if it's only comparing highscores) has some sort of (constantly improving) ruleset or ode of conduct. I don't mean that Deadfire needs one - not even the ultimate challenge (there's few enough players trying it anyway so just go for it however I'd say) - just saying.

Before Josh made his statements about "spirit of the game" and "bugs are ok because we weren't able to remove them so it's our fault" there already were plenty of known chssesy options like Brilliant + SoT or WoD etc. So abusing bugs and using cheesy tactics were obviously ok for the ultimate challenge. But I didn't hear anything official about the really impactful Strand of Favor trick which not only is very powerful but also requires no planning/skill/metakowledge etc. at all - so I wasn't sure if that also got sanctioned/allowed or not. In this thread it boils down to "what is the current strongest PotD solo build" - and you could discuss if that means with or without cheesy tactics - and where OP likes to draw the line. Besides that every discussion is fine if there's some knowledge gained and info - and opinions - shared. Everybody has to draw that line for himself - mainly based on what feels good for the individual player. I personally don't use consumables besides food and sometimes unguents and also almost never use resting bonuses or any kind as well as SoT, WoD and sources of Brillant (not even Tactician). I will use Gouging Strike and Lover's Embrace and also Brand Enemy - but only with a dedicated character where it fits. And only for one playthrough where it was fun. It loses its appeal very quickly though because it's too easy - which is the problem with all too powerful approaches. Yet I don't blame anybody for using any of this. Even Strand of Favor. If it's fun then do it. It's not for me so I don't do it but that's it. I neither did bash an exploit nor did I advertise any. I merey wanted to know what "allowed" meant in that context. Putting words into people's mouth doesn't look very serious either. The post afterwards was only explaining how I personally feel about the difference between lowering the challenge to the same levels with either official/intentional cheats (like the console) vs. using unofficial/accidental cheats (like Strand of Favor) - and how some people might think the latter is somehow "better" than the first. Imo there is none: you are just breaking the game all the same. But I also said that's okay with me as long as it's fun for you. I merely think as soon as others are involved - for example when you compete with other players for a patch or a plate on a wall of honor (where places are limited) there should be more strict rules or at least more sincere discussion about what is okay and what not. Imagine there's only one plate left, you did a "clean" run but got beaten by a guy who quickly ran through his attempt with Strand of Favor + Vanishing Strikes - how would you feel about that. Maybe something like "well I could have known about it, silly me" or maybe "well that's a bit unfair". Well it's now too late to redeem that "bugs are fair game" statement of course (I doubt that anybody truly believes that running through the challenge 100% invisible is "in the spirit of the challenge") - and maybe it also would have been too difficult to draw a line in the first place without giving the impression of pure arbitrariness. Imagine you think a bug is fair game but then get your run disqualified afterwards: major bummer. Difficult. I think I personally would have restricted the challenge to "only using effects that work as intended" which would include endless DOTs, WoD & SoT with Brilliant etc. But that would have required constant updates and monitoring so maybe that wouldn't have been feasible either. But of course that has not much to do with OP's original question. Since he's not here anymore I gues we will never know what he consideres "strongest" but not too cheesy and where to draw the line.

If one wants to aquire Engoliero do Espirs earlier: It's possible to export a character who already has the estoc. Then import that character as a hired adventurer in your new game. It will be quite expensive, so it's not really blatant cheating - you can't afford it without Berath's Blessing money. You cannot use console commands to get the weapon for the "mule" char because he will be marked as cheated as well. It's a good way to play a character idea without waiting too long for it to become available. Players can share such exported characters.