Boeroer

Bosses (like Dragons and stuff) will be doable. Megabosses: I don't think so. The initial cave is not repersentative because a lot of builds unfold only later while some start already strong. I don't find it to be very difficult though. Peaks are Gorecci Street and the Engwithan Digsite (that early in the game).

Instead of removing an ability: can one just "hide" an ability from the tree?

Persistence's wounding is a DoT effect. DoT effects don't count towards "damage done" in the char sheet. Animal Companion's damage has the same problem by the way (I mean it doesn't count - not that it's a DoT). Since the wounding is a big part of Persistence's damage advantage (the other one is unlocking Predator's Sense all the time which also doesn't count) it's no wonder the Ranger using it has less damage on his sheet. PoE is sloppy in that regard unfortunately.

Yes, correct. But you'll get more damage, ACC and PEN out of Great Maelstrom and your other shock spells - and you'll only have very limit casts of that. And besides that you'll have good protection. Doesn't make much sense if you are always in the back row and don't use shock spell much of course.

Why is Stormcaller's damage damn high? It has 10-15 base damage like any other hunting bow and it lacks a lash. What's good about it is its -6 shock DR on hit and the fact that it itself causes shock damage - nice synergy. Also dual damage: cool. Returning Storm triggers on 10% of hits. So not really nonstop. But of course with Twinned Shots and Driving Flight it triggers every third shot (if there are enough enemies to receive the Driving Flight hits). But yes: if you are asking whether you should go for Hunting Bows or Crossbows I would alsways say Hunting Bows. Persistence comes so early and has the potential best single target dps of all ranged weapons due to wounding, Stormcaller is awesome, too and comes earlier than Twing Sting. But if you ask me if Twin Sting is good: it is very good. 18-26 base damage with twice the attack rate as a normal crossbow, chance to trigger a big raw damage spell, some raw dmg per hit, frighten on kill... It's really good. I wouldn't want to build around it thoug because it comes way too late to be a lot of fun. And the crossbows or arbalests before that are not too exiting. Not bad, but nothing I get excited about.

It is good against low defense targets and bad against high defense ones. Whether it's the better pick for a certain chartacter on PotD is difficult to determine and it evenchanges from enemy to enemy. It surely is big fun when it triggers (and you know I favor fun over number crunching) - but I still would say that overall Lightning Strikes is the better pick if you're not dedicated to raise ACC and crit conversion and don't want to take on low defense enemies primarily. If you want to do that AND wear Sun & Moon then I would say Swift Flurry is the better pick. By the way: non-main-hand attacks that trigger Swift Flurry and/or Heartbeat Drumming will always trigger main-hand-attacks. That means you should always wear Sun & Moon in the main hand to maximize the chance for crit chances. Funnily enough the bash AND the Fire Shield attacks of Magran's Blessing will trigger main hand attacks then. That means if some enemy hits you and our Fire Shield crits them (and trigger Swift FLurry or HBD) you will instantly attack with Sun & Moon, probably setting off a crit chain. It's not really for OP's Monk/Streetfighter - but it is a cool way to combine damage with tankyness on a Monk or Monk multiclass. It may be that the retaliation attacks from Tuotilo's Palm do the same - didn't test those.

Druids are good healers and Tekehu is not an exception - but more importantly: the bonus spells he gets as Watershaper are always foe-only. That means foe-only Chillfog etc. - which is very good. At high levels not much beats Great Maelstrom - especially if you pimp your Power Levels with stuff like Deltro's Cage (+2), Lord Darryn's Voulge (+3) or Sun & Moon + Magran's Favor (+4) or Chromoprismatic Staff (+3) or Watershaper's Focus (+2), Otto Starcat (+1), Prestige (+1) and so on and so forth. If you use Fassina you will not have access to Missile Salvo, Meteor Shower, Freezng Rake or Wilting Wind. So at PL 8/9 you won't have a good AoE nuke. Tekehu can fill that gap easily. You can also go and use dual mortars with him an then cast Avenging Storm at PL8 which is great fun (zap-zap-zap). This route works even better if you make him a SC Stormspeaker (because he gets Avenging Storm then as well but also Sure handed Ila which is nice with mortars since all reloading weapons profit twice from the -20% recovery time bonus). One thing though: Mith Fyr gets quenched on Tekehu because of his racial ability (all fire effects get removed). It will work on all party members but not on him. Found out the hard - or moist - way. I like Druids because of their great versatility. They can heal, buff, debuff, CC, summon and deal damage. Often two of those (CC+dmg or healing+buff) with one and the same spell.

Shattered Pillar is good if you install the Community Patch (it simply removes the max wound counter of 5 and sets it back up to 10 - like all other Monk subclasses). If you don't do that it's the weakest monk subclass imo.

Hah - never experienced that with a trap. That's indeed funny.

Imo Mindstalker is more fun than SC Rogue or SC Cipher*. If you have the Community Patch then Sneak Attack, Deathblows and Biting Whip are a great damaging combo (Draining Whip is still good). And if you haven't the CP (Biting Whip is rather meh then) then Sneak Attack, Deathblows and Draining Whip leads to very fast focus gain. )* Unless you give her some AoE weapon - those work with Shared Nightmare and you can get a really big AoE once your focus nears its maximum - and in combination with Time Siphon that can lead to good AoE dps with those weapons and is fun. Another reason for me to go SC CIpher is when I have a damaging caster in the party. Those can struggle with PEN on PotD difficulty and Driving Echoes is a real blessing for them. SC Rogue is only cool imo if you want to build around Gambit and/or Vanishing Strikes. But I prefer certain subclasses for that and not vanilla Rogues.

You don't need that much RES (unless you want it for scripted scenes/attribute checks in dialogue). You can leave MIG at 10 - Rogues already get high damage bonuses and don't really need much Might. Intellect 4 would be way too low for my taste. Swift Flurry or Lightning Strikes will be over very soon even with Tuning Wheel activated. Also stuff like Arterial Strike, Ring the Bell (it's good!) and Toxic Strike as well as Stunning Surge will be very short-lived which is not great imo. You also won't need CON 18. Instead make sure you get healing from party members a lot. With sufficient healing you can lower CON a lot. Whether you want to pick Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry depends on the difficulty (on PotD enemies' defenses are higher -> less crits), the weapon (best pick: Sun & Moon), your accuracy (the higher the better) any hit/crit conversion (dito). Once you get Heartbeat Drumming Swift FLurry can be really good because each of those can proc the other - which leads to crit-chains a lot more often than with Swift Flurry alone. Before getting Heartbeat Drumming I would say that Lightning Strikes is strictly better with most builds. You can retrain once you get Heartbet Drumming and swtich to Swift Flurry if you want.

The Returning Storm on Stormcaller only hits a single enemy once. It's not as impactful as Twin Sting's Plague of Insects which covers a big AoE.

You will have problems in the early game - but later on it will not be that bad anymore. But it also depends on the weapons. If you use blunderbusses + Powder Burns it will be a lot worse than if you use Daggers (e.g. Pukestabber which is very fast - with the use of alcohol). Because blunderbusses have an inherent ACC malus AND Powder Burns will distract you - which will cause -5 PER on top. Daggers however come with +5 ACC.

I never had problems with Konstanten. Was fun with SSS. I ran him as Barbarian/Skald with a Morning Star and focused on fortitude debuffing - he was very useful. Also he and Fassina can have a romance if you have both in the party - which is the only romance I find bearable to watching unfold in this game.

1. only unstealth the tank if possible --> buff ACC -->debuff enemies' defenses/buff your party's defenses --> deal damage. Use interrupts! The fight at the digsitre is a lot easier if you bought the Essence Interrupter. 2. Heralds have great utility, support and can soak a ton of damage - but I find them lacking as main tanks because they can't hold enemies very well*. Wizards or Arcane Knights (Paladin/Wizard): same. I personally prefer something with Fighter, preferably Unbroken. I like Unbroken/Trickster a lot, but stuff like Unbroken/Shieldbearer also works well. I also like Barbarian/Paladin variants as main tanks (+3 engagement via shout). 3. Still not important in general (depends a bit on the class - see Nalpasca/Alchemy) - stealth can be very useful for solo runs though. 4. All companions and sidekicks are viable for PotD. Fassina isn't bad per se. It's just so that many players don't like the Conjurer subclass. It is a bit underpowered because summons don't scale with Power Level but with character level and the conjured familiar uses up the slot for a summon - meaning you can either have the familiar or another summon öike the Essential Phantom. Not both at the same time. Besides that there are some other conjuring spells like Necrotic Lance etc. that do scale well with Power Level. A Wizard/Chanter like Fassina can turn into an interrupt-monster at higher levels: the "Champion" invocation gives you energized which interrupts enemies with every crit (no matter if from spells etc.). And with Wall of Draining you can have that inspiration for a really long time. Every pulsing spell you cast (Chillfog, Wall of Draining itself, Freezing Pillar, Malignant Cloud etc) as well as your offensive chants (those which do am attack roll vs. enemies) has a chance to interrupt all enemies in the AoE. That can be very good. )*Heralds can tank very well if they use summons to hold the enemies back.

Aedrin's Wrecker's stun effect is quite cool although its redundant with all arbalests' prone on crit. The speed enchantment on Hold-Wall is a bit wasted since it doesn' reduce the reloading time - but it still gives you a few frames of speedup so not so bad. Same with Wendgär. One-Eyed Molina's could be great if the reloading enchantment wasn't implemented backwards (and never got fixed). Twin Sting is pretty awesome imo and I wouldn't switch after triggering Plague of insects. The double shot makes it a good weapon. Pierce immunity is a problem for most ranged characters. That's why Stormcaller or th Massuk Hunting Bow can be so good to have - or maybe just carry an implemement like the Engwithan Scepter with you as a backup weapon.

Flamethrower is very nice if you have a Voyager: sail really close to the enemy, then jibe and present your lecker Achterwerk (aka stern) while you spit fire. If the enemy wants to close to boarding you can quickly sail farther away without any turn. Then stop and repeat. If the enemy hasn't cannons for very short range he's done. In one playthrough I used this technique to sink all ships with no other upgrade than Palm Wind Sails and two long range cannons in the bow (for those enemies with short range weapons).

Pathing still has issues. Try to go around any character that crosses your way and bumps into you: you two might end up walking side by side like a couple holding hands until eternity. But the shoving motions alone made it so much better than before. Also that the attack roll actually checks if you are still in range is way better. In PoE you could hit anybody who WAS in melee range at the time you initiated attack but then moved away. It was weird. I would have the Long Stride + Boots of Speed and run half a screen away from a Lurker only to get hit by a its slap it started to execute what felt like an hour ago.

Usually it's best to play in a melee/ranged hybrid way. If you are facing a lot of ranged enemies you'll get shot at often enough though. You can also shoot at your own monk but I find that weird.

Yeah, but if you build a Gunner towards Powder Burns you can have certain goodies on the way, like Swift Aim for example. So it's not like "bam, now once you get Powder Burns this build finally takes off" but Power Burns is just a last stepping stone (and you lose Swift Aim which is not a very good trade-off imo). With building towards Rot Skulls you'd need to play a ranged Druid which has no real useful stuff for that role until lvl 11. It's quite bland until that point. I have the same problem with building towards a Fury with dual mortars + Avenging Storm: once you reach PL8 it's truly awesome - but before that it's just meh.

It came so late (lvl 11). Not that much fun to build around something that comes so late in the game when you can have really good stuff like Spiritshift and storm spells etc. a lot earlier imo.

The problem with modding progression tables (which is what you need to do when moving an ability up or down in Power Levels afaik) is that they are very likely to clash with other mods (that also alter progression tables). I think. So while it is absolutely doable it's maybe not as straightforward as it sounds...?

Rot Skulls of PoE was way better than Rot Skulls of Deadfire though.

Luckily you can rest in the local inn for +2 RES.

For higher RES (15 maybe) I would lower MIG and CON to 16 and INT to 15. The rest would be the same basically. A not so small part of the Monksterlasher is the burn retaliation from Battle Forged. This will take away from the basic idea of the build. It will still work, but Wellsprng of Life def. isn't as effective as Battle Forged here.