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Everything posted by Boeroer
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Oh - I used it on a Berserker/something (don't remember) and just lived with the occasional healing of enemies - I only lowered that a bit with Effigy's Husk. That wasn't too bad actually. I didn't think about going one step further and use a Forbidden Fist to prevent that healing completely - what a nice idea.
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Of course I mean for usefulness for the party. If the wielder can reliably crit with BotEP he himself won't need much more accuracy or deflection debuffing. But if you as a party can drive a boss' deflection down by 60 points or so, every party member (plus summons) can land good hits, making the fight a whole lot easier. If you combine that with weapons that disable on crit (Ball and Chain, Thundercrack, Grave Calling etc.) this has great synergies, too. I try do do the same with the other defenses, too. That's why I often have stuff like Pikes (Ngati's Tusk), Morning Stars (Willbreaker), Flails, Maces and Clubs in the party and combine them with other sources of stacking debuffs. Engoliero do Espirs has Blade Feast that triggers on all kills, not only weapon kills. Also works if you kill allies (like Many Lives Skeletons) and barrels and stuff. Blade Feast can proc itself (a kill from the cone procs another cone and so on as long as smth. dies). It not only damages enemies but also heals the wielder. It's essentially Ghost Blades + healing. Since it procs off of any kill it's even great for offensive casters. You just have to stand near the enemies because Blade Feast will originate from you, not the killed enemy. It also counts as weapon attack so it works with Avenging Storm and such. Avenging Storm again will trigger Blade Feast on kill. Blae Feast also profits from weapon quality and other dmg bonuses. Then, with the right apporach you can quickly get +3 to 3 attributes which isn't bad either. One examplary character who can make great use of it is Berserker/Troubadour with Many Lives Skeletons and Blood Thirst. SC Barb with Driving Roar is also nice with it. Or Evoker/Helwalker, a Skald who uses Her Revenge a lot, Fighter with Clear Out...
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Estocs are fine if you are not clinging to them in every fight. So... Devoted+Estocs might not be the best combo. But it's also not that bad imo. Leaning into massive PEN, even if only pierce, can be fun, too. You make overpenetrated shashlik from some enemies and not much from others. Of course Estocs are worthless against pierce-immune foes (enemies with high pierce AR often still receive full PEN, at least with the modal and esp. with a Devoted). But that's what the 2. weapon set is for, isn't it? A pollaxe can be a nice backup, doesn't even need to be unique imo. A Devoted can use Monastic Unarmed Training if he fears the lower ACC with a backup weapon. Engoliero do Espirs has awesome potential but also comes pretty late for my taste. The early Blade of the Endless Paths is an excellent unique weapon to me. The potential -20 deflection on (4)crits synergizes very well with the auto-accumulating ACC bonus it gets. The debuff stacks with all other deflection debuffs - such as the pike modal. It even stacks with itself if you have two or more BotEP on the field (Wizard's Phantoms, Watery Double, Living Illusions). Theoretically one can stack unlimited instances of the deflection debuffs because every newly added phantom/double adds a new stackable instance. If you prolong them all (e.g. with Dispersed Suffering) you can theoretically drive anybody's deflection into the realm of sub-zero. Not that this is practical... just saying. Had great results with it on several characters who used it to support the main weapon damage dealers. It doesn't make a big difference against most ordinary enemies but is really handy against tough ones. I combined it with the Cap of the Laughingstock and a Ranger more than once and added a buddy with a pike. Wicked Beast for example is a great partner for BotEP, especially on a Monk with Swift Flurry/HBD (Wicked Beast has multiple potential attack rolls per attack). But you absolutely need backup weapons. Places like Hanging Sepulchres are not the best environment for those. Maybe I fee like that because I prefer a more slowish style of encounter. I usually don't try to overpower the enemy with brute force but try to strengthen accuracy, then debuff and only then try to deal damage. I guess BotEP fits that approach better. --- Anyway: a weapon type I almost never use (as tools for melee dmg) are hatchets. The modal is not very useful imo. Wands are also kind of meh to me.
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I think I have an exported character with only Ngati's Tusk somewhere if you need it. You can also export a "cheated" character and then edit the file (it's just a text file basically) and set the according boolean back to non-cheated - so that said character wouldn't disable achievements when imported.
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I have two different suggestions: 1. Howler (Furyshaper/Troubadour) with a Pike (aiming for Ngati's Tusk, Morning Star such as Willbreaker as backup)? At least 10 INT and max out the Survival skill. First of all it's easier to position if you are in (somewhat) confined spaces. The modal supports your own attack as well as Edérs. A Howler can be an excellent debuffer without actually having to do anything for the debuffing actively (aka wasting time better spent for poking things). You pick Spirit Frenzy (debuff enemies Fortitude by 10 on hit with Carnage and with chant hits), The Long Night's Drink (debuff Fortitude even further by another 10 points). With Ngati's Tusk you can lower enemies' defenses by more than 10 in an aura (autohit) if you enchant it with "Lord of the Hunt". With Willbreaker you can use Body Blows for -25 fortitude and -3 Will per hit. Once you can summon Fear Ward you do that, too. You use phraes for Ben Fidel's Neck (-10 to all defenses, stacks). Result is that enemies' defenses are really low, especially fortitude. That is great for Edér because his Knockdown and Clear Out target fortitude. Nice buddy synergy. Looks great as a Huana (Aumaua) with some fitting armor (Reckless Brigandine or one of the Hide armors). Also looks nice with Blackend Plate (add 1 or 2 other auto-hit auras) - almost like a Death Knight because Ngati's Tusk looks like pale bone while the armor is... well... quite black. 2. Shepherd (Paladin/Ranger - Ghost Heart is most convenient with the positioning of the AC for Stalker's Link, Stalker is the most tanky one) with Blade of the Endless Paths. It's easy to position yourself with Evasive Roll. It's a bit of a variant of my PoE1-build "Counselor Ploi" which was my best buddy for Edér in PoE1. It was focused on giving Edér (or anyother party member) the best possible accuracy boost. Here in Deadfire I use FoD + Ring of Focused Flame OR Accurate Wounding Shot (should my Zeal be low) for the sweet +20 ACC in combination with Zealous Focus (more ACC) and Marked Prey and Stalker's Link etc. in order to get really high ACC pretty early. I want to crit a lot because the Blade of the Endless Paths has an enchantment that causes -4 deflection on crit (stacks up to -20). At the same time the ACC of the Blade also goes up during the fight. Basically you "mark" the enemy with crits for your buddy Edér while you also will land a ton of crits with nice damage yourself. A bit like hammer and anvil... so maybe give Edér war hammers. Of course a Paladin can heal well - which is always nice in the front line. This char looks very nice imo with Devil of Caroc's Breastplate and Helm of the Falcon. Proper MC looks if you ask me. You'll need some backup weapon like a Pollaxe or so bc. of the Estoc's pierce-only dmg. This marking stuff also works well with a Geomancer (Wizard/Ranger), using the Essential Phantom in order to get two parallel marking stacks from the Blade otEP (then up to -40 deflection on the enemy) - but that is a lot of casting for a deflection debuff and it also gets crowded pretty quickly with an animal companion and a Phantom. It's also ACC/debuffing overkill in most cases. But you'll have the versatilty of a Wizard...
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Yeah, the PL scaling from 1 is nice (both for ACC and also damage). And I particularly like the CC effect that switches off most single foes immediately - and that it feels so affordable. And the additional Carnage trick is pretty cool, too and sort of free additional (raw) damage. But I guess the best part is that Efficient Anguish is fueld by wounds - which are potentially an inexhaustible resource. Imo there is no other martial attack ability that gives you so much impact for the (non-scarce) resource you are investing. Since I like the combo Berserker/Helwalker so much I have to say that the cost of 1 wound almost feels like nothing - because the wounds keep piling up so damn quickly from the synergy of Frenzy self damage+Wound Trait that I cannot spend them all with Efficient Anguish alone. Being able to spam Efficient Anguish with no pause is maybe a big part of why it feels so powerful against most singular foes to me (even enemies like Neriscyrlas usually go perma-prone with the help of a fellow priest for some more ACC). BUT this might not be the same for other Barb/Monk combos, so maybe it feels more expensive then and less good - I don't know. But still it's way more affordable than let's say 1 Guile for Crippling Strike, 1 Discipline for Knockdown/Piercing Strike, 1 Zeal for FoD or even 2 Rage for a Barbaric Smash (without refund) or so. Since I only use Barbaric Smash as finisher (it's total overkill but just too much fun) I seldomly pay anything for it. I find it way too expensive to use it as a regular attack.
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But I wasn't talking about Brute Force. As I explicitly wrote the combo Barb/Monk with Efficient Anguish lets you deliberately target Fortitude or Deflection based on what's (potentially) lower even without Brute Force: Simply because Efficient Anguish targets Fortitude (and stuff like Stunning Surge or Barbaric Smash do not). But that wasn't the main point why this combo is good against single targets. It just adds virtual accuracy in most fights which is good. Main point: since Efficient Anguish adds Carnage damage to the main target (and that adds viability against single targets) and because its one of the best martial attacks against single targets in the first place (PL1 scaling, CC/interrupt on the fly) you want to use it against single foes. But it targets Fortitude and thus using a Morning Star, Spirit Frenzy and Enervating Blows is the smartest approach for exploiting this additional damage potential against single foes. Additional benefits of the Morning Star: in combination with Saru Sichr and Swift Flurry/HbD it also helps to make the DoT of the weapon land crits (because it always targets fortitude). Making it more likely for the DoT to crit greatly increases the chance to trigger crit chains with SF/HBD which significantly improves the performance against (weaker) singular foes (for example casters). Yet another advantage is the stacking DoT which is powerful (if not immune). I don't use BPM so I don't know what details may work there or not. Wasn't aware that Saru Sichr works differently there.
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You can pick human as race and Monk as second class, pick a Morning Star (preferably Saru Sichr) and primarily use its modal Body Blows in combination with Efficient Anguish, Enervating Blows and Spirit Frenzy as well as Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming. The advantages are that the enemies' fortitude gets lowered by up to 45 points on the fly which usually means a virtual accuracy increase. There are few enemies that have 45 points of fort. over deflection. And those who have usually have crappy deflection in the first place (then use Stunning Surge or Barbaric Smash). Being able to pick between two defenses for your melee attacks (even without Brute Force) is very advantageous imo. Then Efficient Anguish (besides it being a PL1-ability that is cheap and scales very well) has a nice synergy with Carnage: it pushes the enemy into the Carnage AoE before it gets rolled. This means the initial target not only gets knocked down and pushed but also suffers the normal weapon damage PLUS the Carnage raw damage. Saru Sichr has a second weapon attack roll attached (vs. fortitude) which can trigger Swift Flurry/HBD as well as Enervating Blows and Stunning Surge refunds. It is substantially easier to trigger Swift Flurry chains with Sari Sichr than with weapons that only hit once. Also because both single attack rolls will proc two rolls again. In addition to that the DoT of Saru Sichr does stack with itself which is very strong against singular foes. It is poison however - so against some enemies it doesn't do damage (but still procs crits iirc). Thunderous Blows does also help if you aren't a Berserker. Hylea's Talons will help to gain woundsas well as add damage. Their DoT gets triggered by both attack rolls of Saru Sichr. All this makes the Barbarian/Monk excellent against singular foes. Against bosses with stellar defenses one might want to pick Instruments of Pain and Enduring Dance of Death in order to gain and keep a decent accuracy bonus on top. Barbarian/Monk with Morning Star is one of my favorite multiclasses. I personally like the razor's edge that is playing a Berserker/Helwalker, but it works well with any subclass combo. Another way to make a great single target Barb, especially against single casters, is to pick Ranger and pile up accuracy bonuses and crit chance (Marked Prey, Stalker's Link, Survival of the Fittest, Bloody Slaughter and so on) and use Wounding Shot with dual battle axes plus Bleeding Cuts + Barbaric Smash as finisher. Barbaric Smash does tremendous damage once it crits - especialy in combination with Bloody Slaughter. With Evasive Roll the Barb/Ranger is super mobile even before getting Leap and can reach enemies very quickly. In this case the ability "Master's Call" isn't bad if you are a Stalker because it ends Bonded Grief very quickly and also is a useful CC tool. Of course Bleeding Cuts unlock Predator's Sense which also help with single target damage. Your AC is a part of your character after all... I found that Barb/Rogue, while doing great weapon dmg on paper, is usually not as effective as those two options. I can see a Barb/Paladin doing well against single targets, too. Using Eternal Flame + Ring of focused Flames as the main source of weapon damage and finishing with Barbaric Smash while using Brand Enemy, Blood Storm and Bleeding Cuts (or other weapon DoTs) to bring down tough nuts. SC Barb and especially SC Furyshaper is great against mobs but imo lacks the tools that would make him good against single (tough) targets.
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Sorry - I stay logged in (no need to log in all the time anymore).
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Now that I let third parties track me (on this site) I stay logged in.
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After more testing I can confirm that blocking tracking sites (Google and Microsoft, see below) I will get logged out as soon as I close the browser. If I let them do their thing I won't get logged out. That wasn't the case in the past. --- (Formerly) blocked tracking sites: microsoft.com googletagmanager.com google-analytics.com google.de
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No - and I didn't change any of my browser/cookie settings. It's weird... yesterday the session ended as soon as I closed the browser. Just now I visited the forum again (first time today I believe) and I was logged out again. But when I clicked on "sign in" I suddenly was logged in again and didn't have to do anything. Edit: this is superweird: I now tested it again and closed the browser and opened if back up, went ot the forum site: it says I'm looged in (cool). THen tried to edit this post and the edit option is not there (huh? logged out secretly?). Reload the page and I'm logged out. I'm using 2FAuth - maybe that's causing a problem? No idea... I am also blocking 3rd-party cookies and use Disconnect to block third-party tracking - but there's only 1 content request from Microsoft and a bunch from Google afaict. In the past that didn't cause any problems with the login process. I can try without those and report. Edit 2: deactivated the Disconnect addon and now I keep being logged in. OKay, I can live with that. It's just weird that this worked in the past an now it doesn't. Is the session cookie from a different source now or something?
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Hi @SChin - it seems I now get logged out as soon as the session ends. Have to log in (with 2FA) all the time... Am I the only one?
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I don't really understand. Blinding Smok is an enchantment of Serafen's Hand Mortar. I don't see how one could combine Xefa's Blunderbuss with Blinding Smoke. Blinding Smoke has an AoE in the form of a cone. It procs from a crit from Hand Mortar rolls (AoE crits included). You can proc a lot of Blinding Smoke cones with just one mortar shot (the more enemies the better). It is indeed devastating with Avenging Storm. That's why I sometimes use it in combination with Fire in the Hole (Chain Shot) on a SC Stormspeaker (Tekehu) or SC Druid.
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Good question. Blinding Smoke counts as weapon attack (for example it can trigger Avenging Storm) - but I'm not sure if it also transports the properties of the Clear Out attack (pushing and kockdown/interrupt). Chain Shot (the +1 bounce for Fire in the Hole) does def. transport those effects (its AoE, too) so I think it's the save bet to use it over Blinding Smoke... I mean if you are only looking out for max. interrupts. Chain Shot is also the better option for damage per use of Clear Out. However - Chain Shot does not cause flanked when used with Clear Out while Blinding Smoke does. I believe a SC Tactician can harvest more Discipline from triggering Brilliant + fewer interrupt chances (Blinding Smoke) than he can from not triggering Brilliant + higher interrupt chances (Chain Shot). But I may be wrong. I didn't try and compare both weapons thoroughly enough to make a def. statement. Should Blinding Smoke transport the interrupting, too then I would use Blinding Smoke/Hand Mortar I guess. Then... in a party with enough potential to cause mass flanking (see Cipher with Phantom Foes for example) Blinding Smoke might be the inferior choice anyway because the disorienting/flanking effect of Blinding Smoke isn't really needed. So, it all depends I guess - as most of times with this game. Best would be to try both options during some proper fights, compare the results and then decide.
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Clear Out does a primary attack only, so it is mandatory to hold the ranged weapon in the main hand and unlock the ability use with a melee weapon in the offhand (which won't get used). Whirling Strikes is a little bit different because it is a Full Attack and I think (like 63.5% sure) it doesn't matter in which hand you hold the ranged weapon.
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Patch v1.3.7.1.1411 is Live
Boeroer replied to cstanick's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Announcements & News
That is what I hate most about Battle Brothers: that the music keeps on going even if the game is in the background. If it would be an option (in the game options menu or so): sure, why not? -
Hi, sorry it took so long. First I was sick in bed (had a weird one-day fever that went very high and then just vanished ) and then the forum broke down for a bit. Anyway, what @thelee said basically. SC Fighter isn't very interesting in general because multiclasses with fighters fulfill most roles better due to nice synergies. And what makes some SC of other classes interesting is often some devastating damaging effect (Meteor Shower, Maelstrom, Whispers of the Wind and so on) which the Fighter doesn't have. That's not really a problem of the fighter alone: SC Rangers, Ciphers, Chanters and Paladins also don't have many fans. For me a SC Fighter looks appealing when I look at Clear Out and then either Clean Sweep or Clear the Path. And most often it's about debugging with a weapon modal (more me mostly morning Stars or clubs with the -25 fortitude or will debuff). For example I once played a hireling Black Jacket SC with high DRX and high INT who had a morning star setup, a mace, a club and a flail - so that he could debuff fortitude, armor, will and reflex with Clean Sweep in a wide area. This is very helpful for fellow AoE casters. I mean to drop a certain defense by 25 and do what Clean Sweep does at the same time is very nice. You could also do that with a multiclass and Clear Out. But it takes forever to get there and you will be confined to the cone - while the circular AoE covers so much more area. Yet... it's still pretty boring. I didn't even play the Tactician I mentioned above in a real playthrough. I merely tried out an idea I had and stumbled over the effect I mentioned above. But if you want to go SC Fighter I would focus on Clean Sweep or Clear the Path and try to combine an AoE weapon with it. This has a devastating AoE damage potential like a very powerful spell and also does good CC. With a Tactician something like Hand Mortar+Blinding Smoke would make a lot of sense because you can distract a lot of mobs (often all of them) and then not only get 1 discipline because you maybe interrupted an action but also because all enemies are flanked from Blinding Smoke. This might grant enough discipline to fuel Clean Sweep or Clear the Path a lot more times. Note that Clear Out and upgrades hit the first target twice. So even against single foes it's a good damage tool.
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I think 20% raw lash is okay. I think for most ciphers who are not mainly into damage dealing, draining whip will always be the preferred choice - but on the other side of the spectrum: if you pick a Soulblade/Rogue or something like a Ranger/Ascendant with Frost seeker for highest acc and then pure bow damage (and don't even use the ascended stage for casting but just keep firing because your soul whip doesn't turn off but gives you extra dmg) Biting Whip is the correct choice. And then there's everything in between. 20% raw lash is a multiplicative damage bonus which works very well with all the other damage bonuses. So for a build with focus on weapon damage it seems like a must. But I don't think that making it even stronger would convince me to use it - because I personally almost never use (non-Soulblade) Ciphers as damage dealers primarily. Well, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask in the first place since I found myself first drawn to Beguilers and now Psions - subclasses for whom Biting Whip is not optimal (or not even available). So I'm clearly in favor of Draining Whip anyway - no matter how much damage Biting Whip did (exaggerating). So for me it would have to be so tempting that it would be objectively unbalanced.
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I meant a fighter instead of the rogue - because you said that he's too squishy. Positioning is easier of course if you add weapons/abilities with more range - and be it only for backup, as an alternative option for these situations where you cannot reach enemies properly. For example give the Rogue a pike or quarterstaff - or a bow. Besides that there's not much you can do. You could use Escape from the Rogue to get behind enemy lines - but since he's squishy he won't survive that I guess. Fighting in the open is usually less effective than using choke points so that enemies don't reach your backline too easily. I'm afraid more range is the only viable option at the moment.
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You can use the tab-key to autocomplete the commands. That helps preventing typos. Like: attri<tab> play<tab> mig<tab> 20 This should complete to: AttributeScore Player_<your player name> Might 20 You can press tab multiple times and the console will cycle through the options that match the first letters you typed. Hope that will help you.