Boeroer

By the way - the Fire Stag had (maybe still has) some hidden gem mechanic: If you put Barring Death's Door on it you could let it explode over and over again and it wouldn't die. Don't know if tht got fixed.

Heh - of course I'm using the Community Patch.

Yes, right. You are at PL 4 at lvl 7 as a SC Priest. I forgot that BH is PL1, not 0. So +3 PL seems right (not +4 as I wrote above). Also right: 11 + Devotions (which I forgot) = 15 MIG -> 15% dmg increase. If the dmg bonuses get applied to the "base" dmg of 120 before the 100*health_percentage gets substracted then it may indeed explain the numbers. Cool - I guess this is not too far off. Hm... a graze will do the same dmg as a hit and I assume (since there's no graze malus to dmg) there's no crit bonus either. Now I haven't tested if dmg malus/bonus from under-/overpenetration will get applied. If not it would be like doing raw dmg. Needs more testing obviously.

Different enemies react to different stats. For example Barbarians prefer to attack low deflection. Rogues seek enemies with low DR and also low percentage of endurance. And so on. I made a druid tank build and posted it here. It's cool but first of all it diesn't work well until you reach a certain level and secondly the defenses are not good enough for some of the late fights. It great as a second tank but not so great as the only one imo. I mean in PoE I think one single tank doesn't really work well in the first place.

Infuse with Vital Essence and the potion of Infuse with Vital Essence are your friends. The health-healing gets influenced by MIG and other effects that boost healing, too.

Greater Maelstrom is awesome. It's cool to build around it because it can get a lot of PL bonuses from different "directions". For example +7 with Magran's Favor + Sun & Moon + Otto Starcat + Deltro's Cage. Or +6 when using Lord Darryn's Voulge or Chromoprismatic Staff. Even with Watershaper's Focus or Lace of the Midwood Stag you still can get to +5 (which is like an empowered version of the spell). And as Elric said the combined multiple PEN passives of Scion oF etc. + Fury are great as well. All that because Maestrom has so many PL-relevant keywords. But your Druid will turn into a one-trick pony once you have it. Another good spell with a Fury is Avenging Storm: if you use Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole you will trigger a TON of Lightings because Hand Mortar's Blinding Smoke cone does trigger Avenging Storm (and you can produce a bazillion attack rolls with Blinding Smoke if there are enough enemies in the cone). Fire in the Hole has a build-in jump which means Avenging Storms proc in the AoE twice (sort of). It's fun because it's a completely different approach to SC Fury than anything else. Of course you could have that even better witch another class using scrolls. But I don't like using consumables too much, so...

If you can keep the Streetfighter flanked or bloodied (or both) then the Streetfighter variant will do more melee dps. But besides shorter recovery the Streetfighter will not do much for your spellcasting. If you want to use Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time in combination with Streetfighter and Pallid Fate then Streetfighter is a good pick though. I would rather keep DEX rel. high and lower something else like MIG a bit (you already can get +15 MIG via Helwalker passive and Thunderous Blows).

Okay, but what other alternatives in terms of "keeping engagement"/"preventing enemies from rushing past you" are there? I mean with the official companions. Pallegina can have the higher passive defenses in theory but she doesn't have any tools to stop rushers. She would be better in chokepoint situations - but every withdrawn character could do that. In case of chokepoint tanking Kana would be my number one. Just withdraw him while he's chanting Dragn Thrashed. Even better if he has double preservation (e.g. Blaidh Golan + Ilfan Byrngar's Solace) so Grieving Mother can cast Definsive Midweb on him before he gets withdrawn: whole party gets +100 to all defenses and Kana is an unmovable and untouchable blocker while doing great AoE dmg. But of course that's not really "tanking" like a Fighter can potentially do it with engagement etc. Still works in the open field because +100 to all party members turns everybody into a real good tank. Maybe there should be a definition first what kind of tanking we are talking about.

If you make Backlash an auto-hit it would be valuable against high defense enemies and in that regard (i mean hitting enemies which are hard to hit) better than Mind Plague and such. Also remember that it's a passive and would cost no focus and no time while casting Mind Plague would cost both. Instead of a might affliction I would also be open to any other affliction that might fit. I would even consider a flat attribute debuff. Just no hard disable like stun because chaining/upkeeping always has the potential to break balance while a upkept daze or such wouldn't. As I showed above a cooldown would not prevent upkeeping the stun if you stacked enough duration with PL and INT (and Lingering Echoes) - unless you make the cooldown so long that Backlash is again worthless against weaker enemies. Another reason to hate cooldowns: they don't automatically adapt to the situation and are not flexible at all unless you want to make them real complicated. They are just bad and always feel like a band-aid solituon, sorry. Another idea I had was giving the cipher a bit of focus with Backlash. So every time somebody attacks their Will they would gain a bit. Don't know how much would be good but this could be really great in prolong fights against Dragons and such - and it wouldn't hurt in other fights. Yet another idea would be that they get a stacking Will defense bonus for quite some time. That would make them practically immune to something like a fear aura after some time.

Tbh I hate cooldowns. They are a very unelegant mechanic and also potentially frustrating. Also you have to keep track which is annoying imo. One reason why I didn't like Tyranny's combat system was cooldowns. Also cooldowns are not that common in Deadfire - at least on the player's side. The only "cooldown" I remember from the top of my head is when you are switching modals - I mean besides recovery/reloading which is a sort of cooldown itself of course. That's why I still think a non-stacking DoT is way better than a flat dmg output with cooldown. You'd achieve the same overall dmg with mechanics known to the player, it fits thematically if you view it as a hefty retaliatory migrane (and only people who never suffered from migrane would say it's not brutal - ask Gromnir). Since one doesn't want to do seperate the timings/durations for the Psychic and Brutal Backlash effects but keep it simple I suggested to downgrade the stun. Unlimited stun obviously would break the game as soon as you meet any sort of aura that targets will (chants, drake/dragon auras and the like) and also pulsing spells that target will (Venombloom for example) would crush the user of such abilites. Even a 10-sec stun with 30 sec cooldown would be way too powerful against those enemies. With enough INT and Lingering Echoes (hello Monk/Cipher) you might be able to keep up the stun at all times. A low DoT could be kept up without turning into OPness. And downgrading the stun to (a longer?) stagger or a daze maybe (daze is plenty good) would make sure you couldn't stunlock and you could still stagger resistant enemies. Keep in mind that this also would mean that you would clear all MIG inspirations on the enemy every time Backlash fires. It would also be pretty simple to implement I guess?

Yes, I feared that might be the case. Tekehu's spells are copies of Wizard spells which got altered in name and firendly fire - so I guessed there might be no overarching effect which can do that "on the fly". But since there seems to be an effect that turns all AoE into friendly fire (Confusion) I hoped there might be a way to achieve the opposite effect.

Heyho. I didn't want to post this in one of the Balancing/Polishing threads because I feared it would bring too much chaos there since there's so many other topics to solve there already. So I made this thread to keep it tidy. Brilliant is pretty OP in combination with Wall of Draining, Salvation of Time or just Tactician. The fact that it not only gives you back resources once - but instead periodically refunds your resources makes it so vulnerable to cheese, especially for casters with their spells. So there have been efforts to mod Brilliant into a less OP version and the solutions make sense. I just had a thought though: Confusion turns all foe-only effects into friendly fire (including the extended AoE from INT that usually is foe only even if it's a friendly fire spell at its core). At the same time we know how awesome Tekehu's versions of Chillfog, Freezing Pillar etc. are. So why not turn all friendly fire effects into foe-only when being Brilliant? The resource gain can be kept but in a weaker form - especially for casters. Actually I wouldn't mind if non-spell resources would still increase like they do now - just spell use regain has to be nerfed into one-time gain or having really long intervals. The friendly-fire to foe-only effect would be an additional advantage that mostly applies to casters - the very group I would want to nerf Brilliant for in the first place. So it would give them something back for the loss. It would be neat and cool, fit well as an opposite of Confusion and will be not as "broken" in combination with prolonging effects. What do you think?

It also depends how you want to play. If you indeed want to have fun in melee AND do great casting then the Helwalker/Berath combo is def. better than an SC Priests. Helwalker is great for casters but it's also great for weapon users so imo it's the natural pick for a melee/caster hybrid. Another one would be Barbarian/Berath but I think that's so off thematically (Frenzy and Rage vs. rational and stoic) that it would be no option for me. Armor: there's a nice plate armor that's 100% Berath themed and it's called the Blackened Plate. It also has a helmet but it's not mandatory to wear it with the plate. From the top of my head I don't know any other armor that shouts "Berath"; but since you can color-tint a good amount of armors to your liking it's not a big deal - at least visually.

Don't think that explains it. She doesn't wear/use any of that and did land 160+ Harvests against all kinds of enemies before the troll. Even in Gorecci Str. at lvl 4 she did more than 120 dmg Harvests on near death enemies. Troll doesn't take increased slash dmg afaik. It's a mystery... I'm really tempted now to give her the Willbreaker with its 25% miss-to-graze enchantment and Gauntlets of Reliability (15% miss to graze), making it easy for her to land a Body Blow against any enemy and then at least graze with Blessed Harvest. Go to the Wild Mare, grab Nemnok and have 4 Blessed Harvests per fight. Edit: maybe it scales with Religion somehow and nobody cared to inform us?

What about Psychic Backlash causing only Staggered instead of Stun - but unlimited times per encounter? I mean we have stuff like Spirit Frenzy staggering everything left and right, even with Chanter phrases... Brutal Backlash could put a (small) raw DoT that doesn't stack (but would get prolonged when reapplied). Like a nasty headache. Unlimited procs per encounter (but doesn't stack as I said). It would be better in general - and quite good against anything with fear aura (but not too crazy if the DoT ticks are small enough).

Cool, thanks. Now... since I can't see the dmg calculation in the combat log: how do I land a 160+ dmg graze with Xoti at lvl 7 when I hit an enemy who's near death? The formula above would result in 120-100*0.25 = 95 slash. PL (4*5% = 20%) and MIG (11, so only +3%) alone do not explain that raise...? What am I missing?

Thanks! But... that cannot be right. Because then a target with 1.2 health or more would receive 0 damage? Usually (when used at bloodied or neart death enemies) Xoti does around 150 -160 dmg. The formula above can't really explain this. Or I'm interpreting that wrong maybe.

Wicked Briars is an awesome spell imo. But maybe a matter of taste. I personally like Furies a lot but I won't use Spiritshift. The base dmg is rather low. The jump doesn't stack with Driving Flight. And a Fury gets its best bonus (+1 PEN on elemental spells) whether you are shifted or not. But if you shift you lose access to bonuses you might get from armor (e.g. Deltro's Cage) and weapon (e.g. PL buffers like Chromoprismatic Staff, Lance of the Midwood Stag, Sun & Moon, Magran's Favior or Lord Darryn's Voulge and so on). So - for your casting capabilities the Spiritshift form does nothing. The basic idea that kills can extend the duration might be nice - I just don't have the wish to shift in the first place. I agree that Helwalker is awesome. Especially if you really do want to stay away from foes. By the way: some spells work with Instruments of Pain - for example Sunbeam which already has a range of 12. It gets a 500% range increase with is... hilarious. But honestly the Barb/Fury is more appealing to me (especially when going for Lord Darryn's Voulge). Especially Berserker/Fury is really good early on bc. of the +3 PEN right away - but you MUST keep an eye on health. Blood Thirst with Storm Spells and/or Nature's Terror is just so much fun. And Lord Darryn's Voulge is like it's made for a Barb/Fury. On one hand you can use the Static Thunder with Carnage even if you bind it to the Druid class and on the other the PL to storm spells is cool and thematically fitting. I think often it's not the sheer power of a character that keeps me playing but the overall fitting "package" - and that includes thematic coherence. And I mean Fury + Frenzy... come on. Also Slayer's Claw + Berserker Frenzy will give you Energized. And that will interrupt foes with any kind of crit roll. Suddenly pulsing spells like Wicked Briars and whatnot become awesome tools for interruptin in an AoE. If you cast several of those enemies won't do a lot. AND you can combine Blood Storm or Spirit Frenzy with spellcasting, either applying a raw DoT with every spell crit or cause staggered with every spell hit. Last not least you can trigger Blooded with your own Berserker Frenzy self damage. Sure, it's tricky - but can also be fun to play around with. I just love Berserker/casters in general.

That's the Deadfire curse.

When you are building a Priest for Damage, Berath is one of the best picks imo. I would absolutely support Kaylon's suggestion that Helwalker/Berath would be a good pick - maybe the best - if you are looking for both good melee dmg AND good casting damage at the same time. Helwalker gets +10 MIG at 10 wounds (absurdly high MIG was a key feature of the St. Gangrene build you played); gets +10 INT, too which is great with nearly all spells (AoE and durations) and both high MIG and INT are especially good with DoT spells like Touch of Rot etc. Also thematically Helwalker and Berath will fit beautifully: Death rites + Berath - what more do you want? Monks also get Thunderous Blows which will grant them universal +2 PEN for weapon AND spell dmg. That's better than Devoted who can only use the PEN for his weapon of choice. The St. Gangrene build of PoE used Tidefall's wounding and beefed it up with absurd MIG (because wounding scaled with it). Unfortunately an identical scaling wounding mechanic is not present in Deadfire, but there are some cool Great Swords and Estocs in the game. One even has a wounding enchantment again (Effort). There's also the Spiritual Great Sword that a Priest of Berath can summon - and it's really good if you get your dispositions right because then its corrosive lash scales up. There are three unique weapons that fit very well thematically imo: Voidwheel: This is great fun if you crit a lot. A Monk can also use Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming to proc crit chains - so the special Necrotic Lance enchantment of Voidwheel might proc more often as one might anticipate. It's one of the most damaging weapons against single targets. The Twin Eels: It's a Berath themed weapon so it fits beautifully. It's not the all-time-best for damage (but still solid) - but it can be a nice support weapon if you kill frenquently because it has an AOE heal on kill. For inspiration how to use this weapon you can have a look here: Valkyrie of Gaun Engoliero do Espirs: It's an estoc and no a great sword but it fits lovely. There's a whole Berath-related quest in order to get this. It's supergood for casting as well because the enchantment "Blade Harvest" procs off of all kills you do, spells or melee. And it can proc itself when it kills, leading to a wild cascade of Ghost Blades killing everything. Imo it's the best pick here - but you have to work for it (quest). They all don't come early though. I would propose that you use the summoned Great Sword most of times until you can get your hands on one of the above (or whatever you like best). I personally would aim for Engoliero do Espirs and then use the summoned GS as backup weapon. The summoned GS stacks its lash with the ones from Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes (only if you don't use Swift Flurry istead of LS of course) so you will do plenty of single target dmg with that, too.

I don't see a mchanical problem with that - but that doesn't mean it's not there, lurking in the shadows. Would it allow raw damage abilites to overpenetrate then (for example on crit)? I don't think so but I haven't looked at the implementation of raw dmg attacks and how they handle AR (or if they do handle it at all). So far the only "problem" I see that this may cause: it might be confusing to players who see a PEN value on raw dmg ability and think "Wait - why is there a PEN value if it bypasses AR anyway?" Is it possible to give a PEN value (like 6 or 7) and hide it from the ability description?

Jeez you are right. Thanks! How embarrassing. @Amentepcould you please move this to the Deadfire Character Builds forum? Mighty thanks in advance!

Dude... Again: Eternal Devotion gives you a burning lash for everything for some time. That means you'll have a lash on all attacks you will do during that time. That includes spells. --- Scenario: Paladin/Cipher Klaus uses Eternal Devotion with his arquebus. It does some damage and gives him a 10% burning lash for the next 30 seconds. This lash will work with everything that does damage. Now Klaus decided to cast Silent Scream. It has 0 PEN. He hits a Rotghast (named Steve) who has the whimpy burn AR of 4. Silent Scream doesn't care because it's raw, but the attached burning lash will severely underpenetrate because it inherits 0 PEN, too. Peter the Chanter/Cipher noticed the same when he wanted to cast Silent Scream with a shocking lash from Champion's Prelude (Sasha's Singing Scimitar). --- So: of course it seems to make sense that raw dmg abilities have 0 PEN because they don't need any PEN. BUT as soon as you attach a lash to them that lash will inherit the PEN of the ability. If that's 0 it makes the lash nearly useless because it will nearly always severely underpenetrate and suffer the -75% dmg malus. I hope I could penetrate the brick wall with this devoted post.

Giving away Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer: it is a soulbound item. You have to bind it to a specific character and then level it up through certain actions. If you want to use it with another character you have to unbind it, it will then fall back to its basic level and you'd have to level it up again with the new character. Firebrand is only the first level. The belt has some more useful levels of enchantments. I would keep it and use Firebrand as backup against enemies who have a weakness against fire dmg.