Boeroer

Besides shock-AR buffs (Tekehu has access to Weather the Storm as Stormspeaker by the way) and spell reflection or resistance (Xoti's Lantern can give a party-wide buff) you can completely protect a party member with Deltro's Cage: Shock Shield lasts for the whole encounter (no duration) and turns all lightning damage into 50% healing which can make sure that one party member is safe (e.g. Xoti who must revive others from time to time - or whoever).

<open console> iroll20s <enter> <reopen console> giveitem ITEM_PET_BACKER_Troll_Grog

It's not bad on my machine (Linux by the way) - but compared to other contemporary games it is really not the most smoothly running game there is, especially if you are playing for too long (some cache runs full then, player log file becomes enormously big which takes a big toll on IO) or frame rates start to drop once you have a lot of VFX going on at the same time (like lots of lightning or fire effects or stuff like Mirrored Images etc.). The first problem you can reset by restarting the game every once in a while (not great but works) but the latter is not really solvable unless you skip VFX-heavy stuff. Compared to PoE the loading times are really short for me.

It works if the enemies have actual buffs on them (also can be "hidden" buffs that naturally come with the enemy - so sometimes it works even if you can't see a buff on them). Before that if just always added 5 secs of benefical durations and 15% speed no matter what the enemies had. That was the fix actually. It was a bit bugged before.

Preferably with Scordeo's Trophy (Strategic Blitz) maybe so you can stack some melee recovery bonus before closing in with Scordeo's Edge. Every once in while you could even fire a shot at distant enemies if Blade Cascade won't proc soon enough or so. By the way the recovery bonus from Strategic Blitz doesn't stack additively: you can't reach 100% with it. When I tried during the tests above I had more than 10 stacks of -10% recovery (maybe 11) but combined that resulted in "only" -68% time ((0.9^11-1)*100 I assume) .

I also think so. As long as you are not using stuff like Wall of Draining or Salvation of Time I would keep Scordeo's Edge in hand (unless slash immune/very resistant enemies that can't even be penetrated with the sabre modal). By the way Blade Cascade doesn't remove the recovery from switching - that would need a Black Jacket + Quick Switch. It only removes "real" recovery.

Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger is so fast at some point (some other speed buff, Durgan Steel, Two Weapon Style etc.) that you get to 0 recovery and on top use Vulnerable Attack (and still be at 0 recovery). Spelltongue + Drawn in Spring is also good - especially for Rangers bc. of Predator's Sense (wounding from DiS automatically unlocks Predator's Sense). You can test attack speed setups here: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/

You can use the pet named "Grog" - it instakills any party member on knockout. It also removes engagement from the game though. Maybe that's something you don't want. While the Critter Cleaver can separate the pet skills from the appearance it cannot split the single skills - else it would be optimal to separate the engamement immunity from the instakill. But I'm sure that somebody can do a mini-mod that adds Grog's insta-kill-effect to the game as a general rule or creates an item (pet, ring, trinket or whatever) which has the Grog's instakill effect.

Okay, checked those Karabörü's Bloody Momentum: self-stacking: no - it only prolngs the effect if you reapply it. That is very hard to do anyway because it only triggers on 33% of crits. So I wouldn't bother with that. stacking with Rust's Bring Low: yes - total deflection buff then -15. Rust's Poignard's Bring Low: self-stacking: nope (same as above) Sanguine Sword: Prepare the Offering: stacks with Bring Low and Bloody Momentum (-30 total) Blood Gift's self-stacking: only prolongs, no parallel stacks

Unfortunately there's no rule that is obvious to the player (maybe to the devs though). Usually an effect that comes from items does stack with everything (except active abilities/spells that an item adds to the action bar). But sometimes it does not. For example the +50 deflection bonus of Veiled Hood (Mask of the Weyc) does not stack with the +50 bonus of Escape but with several other deflection buffs iirc. Maybe because it's the same underlying effect - I don't know. Wheter an effect stacks with itself or not is also often a mystery until you test it. For example while Bleeding Cuts (Battle Axes' modal) DoT stacks (so that you get a lot of parallel instances) the DoTs of Stalker's Patience, Effort and Boar Tusks do not stack (only the duration gets prolonged with each renewed appliance). Iirc Bloody Momentum has no stacking limit (because it has a rel. short base duration this shouldn't make it incredibly exploitable). Edit: this was false, see below. Bring Low does not stack afair. Edit: correct, see post below. Blood Gift's healing should stack with other healing but I didn't use that weapon in a really long time. Edit: Stacking with other healing: yes, with itself it only prolongs, see post below. If you meant any deflection debuff that's Prepare the Offering - but it's per rest so maybe not. Edit: it's 1 per rest so you can't stack it with itself anyway, see post below. Scordeo's Trophy does indeed stack its recovery bonuses without limit. If you use Wall of Draining you can reach an absurd number of stacks but at some point it's not working anymore because there's some hard cap because of the reloading animation I think. I will just fire up Deadfire and test Karabörü, Rust's P. and Sanguine Sword, then we'll know for sure.

You should watch Josh Sawyer's Deadfire post mortem talk maybe. He explains why they thought Deadfire would sell well and why expensive stuff like Full VO was added. The game runs totally fine with me and I don't have that impressive hardware. I use an SSD though. Loading screens are like 10 secs. The budget had no impact on the underlying framework which is Unity3D. It's not known for its stellar performance in the first place. So I guess there wasn't that much to be done. Creating a massive game with a framework that's best for small titles and prototyping may have revealed the limitations of said framework too well.

Salvation of Time spoiled you.

Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger: both have speed, giving you great attack speed in combination with Two Weapon Style, both are accurate, both work with the same weapon focus. And you get pierce + slash dmg so you're not completly screwed against pierce or slash immune foes. Cladhaliath + Shame or Glory (both enchanted with Marking) - especially if you are a Paladin with Coordinated Attacks (preferrably a Darcozzi Paladin): the marking enchantment of both do stack when dual wielded which means +20 ACC (+30 as Paladin with Coordinated Atacks, +40 as Darcozzi if you also apply Inspiring Liberation) for the nearest ally who attacks the same target as you (it's sufficient to click for an attack on the enemy, don't need to hit, the intention is enough). This is extremely good gainst tough foes like dragons and so on. The nearest ally gets even more ACC and dmg if he uses a coordinating weapon (like Ravenwing for example). The weapon focus of both is not the same but this is a great support setup and not for dps so it's not an issue. Godansthunyr + Badgrad's Barricade: the hammer stuns on crit which makes a crit with the shield bash more likely which triggers Trhust of Tattered Veils (no limt per encounter). Especially nice on a shield-rogue since ToTV works with Deathblows. Since one is a (bashing) shield you oly need the weapon focus for the hammer. Rimecutter + Last Blade of the White Forge: both have speed and use the same weapon focus. Any vicious weapon (e.g. Dîal Ewn Dibita) with a stunning (Godansthunyr) or proning (We Toki) weapon. The Vile Loner's Lance (has longer interrupts than other spears - kind of a hidden enchantment) with St. Wygelt's Cudgel (-5 Resolve on hit) : more (and longer) interrupts.

Ah, but if you keep Scordeo's Edge there's the chance that Blade Cascade will proc again while you have 0 recovery, isn't it?

Did you maybe have the pet "Grog" equipped? Chances are extremely small but maybe...?

It really is. After all those hours of playtime still.

Of course the dual mortars are best against groups of enemies. But even as solo Assassin you can group together enemies by simply using a lure from stealth (Sparkcrackers, setting a trap etc.). Then jump into the group with Bounding Boots (cancel the jump before landing, doesn't use the per-rest resource and won't hit enemies and works out of combat) and use Vanishing Strike right away, followed by Gambit until invisibility runs out. Enemies will be standing tight enough together and will be stunned all the time. It's a great setup against all kinds of encounters with lots of pesky mobs. You can't get rid of them faster than with this setup. And you don't even need any optimization for it so it's good as "alternative" weapon setup. Obviously it's not that good against single tough targets. I guess against single tough targets I would always use Scordeo's Edge + Battle Axe (+modal once Blade Cascade kicks in) as long as the enemies are not resistant to slash. With dual mortars you don't need Persistent Distraction - because Blinding Smoke from Hand Mortar distracts (in a cone) on crit. It usually triggers multiple times with every hand mortar shot against several enemies (because every of the initial AoE attack roll will trigger the cone if it crits). Usually all enemies are distracted then (if not immune of course). Also with Gambit they used to be extremely nice because the bonus dmg and crit conversion of Gambit (more dmg and conversion the more remaining Guile) got calculated with "internal" Guile during the execution. So if you did crit a lot with the AoEs during gambit's execution the bonus dmg climbed with every crit roll because internally it seems Guile climbed extremely high before it was cut back to +4. Don't know if that's still the case. But when I did that video I had Gambit rolls with +200% and more bonus dmg attached to them (on top of the other dmg bonuses). As you can see in the animated gif above you can kill a lot of cre_dummies with just three full attacks (and those were only Vanishing Strikes for demonstration, obviously you don't want to spam VS but use Gambit in between). Those dummies have a ton of HP (but low defenses). That's mostly because Backstabs with CP don't care about the base damage but simply add galt raw dmg (based on PL) to every tiny weapon hit that is <=2m away. While Ball and Chain is a great weapon it hasn't very good enchantments for the use under extended invisibility - as OP requested. No need to prone if enemies are stunned anyway. It's very nice if you are not invisible and/or if enemies are resistant/immune to might afflictions though. 100% crit conversion because you have 10 Guile is nice and all - but I don't think it's what the OP wanted since you can't use Vanishing Strike at all then. And I also don't think it's significantly better than having constant Backstabs and +25 ACC, +4 PEN as well as +50% crit dmg and auto-stun on crit. Because with lower Guile you won't have 100% conversion - but you won't fall flat to 0% either (and you also have other sources of conversion like Dirty Fighting and Uncanny Luck which is better with Cap installed) and get the additional PEN and ACC. BUT: in longer fights, when you would run out of Guile eventually with Vanishing Strikes, the almost guaranteed refunding via 100% conversion + Gambit is very good. Unless you just skip out of it with Smoke Veil or with the last Vanishing Strike and reset combat. I also forgot one won't want to wear Miscreant's Leathers because the Cabalist's Gambeson will give you longer beneficial durations and I guess that's what OP's would want to use then.

Right! Aspirant's Mark is very good in the early game indeed. Still useful later but especially good early on.

Mortars: If you are a Streetfighter then dual Mortars will be great. They are also great with an Assassin but the way to Vanishing Strikes is more fun with a Streetfigher since he can use mortars/blunderbusses to great effect even before he gets to Power Level 9. The AoEs get backstab bonus dmg as long as the targets are not further away than 2m. Since CP Backstab is not related to the base dmg of the weapon but is an additional fixed raw dmg per attack roll, you can stand in the midst of enemies and AoE-Backstab a lot of them with the mortar shots. Powder Burns makes shure you also trigger "Heating Up" in order to get higher Sneak Attack and very short reloading times for the mortars. If you use Vanishing Strike as soon as you are bloodied you'll get even more out of it (because then you'll also have a lot higher crit damage). Since your INT is already very high the mortar's AoE size will also be very big which is a good synergy. Here's what it looks like if you don't even use Gambit (which would be even better) but only Vanishing Strikes with dual mortars + Backstab + Community Patch as an Assassin: Melee: Sun & Moon: it's dual heads should grant two Backstabs per swing I reckon. It's also fast like all flails. It's great with Gambit because you'll have two chances to crit with only one swing (because dual head). Sungrazer can be used with an Assassin + Vanishing Strikes to great effect. Extinction Event can trigger often because the Assassin gets +25 ACC for all his attacks under Vanishing Strike which leads to a lot of crits which naturally will kill some enemies. This will trigger Extinction Event which will profit from all the dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack, Assassinante and Deathblows, Legendary etc., too. It does enormous AoE damage then. A setup with Sun & Moon + Sungrazer can work nicely with Full Attacks: Sun & Moon brings the enemy down and Sungrazer can already crit-kill. Also very good with Finishing Blow (it takes som time to get to Gambit after all). Stalker's Patience will be good, Rust's Poignard is also good since both are accurate weapons and come Legendary. Stalker's Patience should be worn in the offhand because the recovery-skipping enchantment is of no use if you do Full Attacks like Gambit as long as the spear in in the main hand. Because the main hand's recovery get skipped anyway with Full Attacks like Gambit. This is a bit counterintuitive though because normally you would want the faster weapon (here: Poignard) in the offhand. Like the flails both would not be my only pick though - because they only have one damage type (pierce). Actually a setup of Sun & Moon + Sungrazer in one weapon slot and Poignard + Stalker's Patience in the other would be good. Scordeo's Edge is absolutely great because of Adaptive (ACC for gambit) and Blade Cascade (high benefical effect duration is also great here). You can't guarantee Blade Cascade though and often I find it to micromanagement-intense to look at my guy all the time if Blade Cascade already triggered or not and how long it's gonna last and so on. But of course it's supergood when under the effect of Vanishing Strikes. I would combine it with a Battle Axe + Bleeding Cuts because that's just top of the pops if you can skip recovery altogether. Then you would have a good crushing setup (2 flails), piercing setup (stiletto + spear) and slashing setup (sabre + battle axe). You can also do something like 1. setup with Scordeo's Edge + Sun & Moon, 2. setup with Scordeo's Edge + Rust's or so. Other good weapon setups when using Vanishing Strike (+ Gambit) with CP Backstab: Pukestabber: fast weapon, accurate, higher dmg, 20% higher action speed with all dagger attacks + Marux Amanth: fast weapon, accurate, +2 PEN at the start of combat for 20 sec base, chance of AoE attack. Use with Blackblade's Hood. Rust's + Azure Blade: fast, good enchantments, Mob Rule grants +15 ACC with Azure Blade which is great and leads to more crits - but you have to be quite near to 3 allies! But summons/animal companions count afair. Also use Blackblade's Hood. Keeper of the Flame + Xoti's Sickle with maxed Religion: the dmg bonus of the sickle can climb up to +60% iirc with high Religion - the speed bonus when standing near killed enemies is also great with high Religion. Keeper of the Flame does neat AoE damage with maxed Religion and you can get a small ACC boost - so why not? There is no "best" weapon setup in general because it often depends on the enemies you are facing. For example gainst risen undead, skeletal warriors or flame blights Rust's would be useless while Sun & Moon would be great. Having all three damage types at your disposal is a good way to use the optimal tool against any given enemy. In some instances it may be even best to use Animancer's Blade or Eccea's Arcane Blaster (since raw damage). Underpenetration is such a severe malus to your dps that it's nearly always batter to switch ot another dmg type that can penetrate instead of clinging to on weapon with a supposedly op enchantment. Against vessels you should use Grave Calling with Chilling Grave since it's the best against them. The Chillfogs it produces are foe-only and will get all the damage bonuses, too. THey will produce furhter Chillfogs on kill and get Backstabs. And so on. You see there's no clear "best" in general. Full Attacks with a ranged/melee mixed setup tend to be rather bad with Full Attacks because only the appropriate weapon for the current range will be used and not both weapons. Better have one melee and one ranged setup and switch if need be. By the way: If you want to be even faster than naked you should wear an armor like Miscreant's Leather + a pet like Abraham or Cutthroat Cosmo. That combo of recovery reduction and armor penalty reduction leads to a net attack speed gain compared to being naked. Which means you get more attacks out in a given time. Also make sure to wear Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak because Vanishing Strike allows to stun all enemies then with every attack which reduces deflection by 10 (more crits) and is great anyway. I believe that the Helm of the White Void will also give your attacks +10 ACC in this case because a stun effect is attached. It's a great headpiece to have as a rogue anyway (if you're not using it for a dedicated CC guy already).

It's mostly about experience of the player and meta-knowledge. No bad build is not 100% real, you can make pretty lame chars - but it's rel. hard. But there are some builds that - especially in a good partY combination - are def. way better than others. Most likely you just need a bit more practice. It's called "Path of the Damned" for a reason. And be assured: the difficulty drops a lot once you completed Act I. Funnily enough Act I is the hardest part of the game for most.

Really? Weird... I tested the blade again yesterday evening after posting the above - because I also thought that maybe a new combat would trigger the malus to reappear. I was in the Old City under the Gullet. I spawned several tiger and dummy encounters (which will trigger combat obvioisly) and every time the bonus didn't reset. Maybe "real" encounters have an additional trigger of some sorts? Anyway: even if it resets on new encounters: the bonus is very handy for scripted interactions it would seem. Also: you should be able to open combat from stealth with the bonus, right?

Divinities are not isometric (rotating 3D camera), has turn based combat and full multiplayer support. Sven Vince himself pointed out that after looking at telemetrics the overlap of Divinity and PoE players is rather small. Thus the conclusion "Divinity did well and Deadfire did poorly - therefore Deadfire did something wrong" is somewhat flawed. I mean it can still turn out to be true that Deadfire did something wrong obviously - but the aforementioned causal connection is not very strong.

Nerd Commando is covering a bigger amount of games which naturally leads to a somewhat superficial understanding of the mechanics of each game (one only has so much time at hand to deep dive into every game). So just forget what he was recommending. You can totally dump RES and go with no armor on PotD if you know what you are doing. High RES is very good if you are going for max deflection or if you expect to get hit frquently and fear the interrupts. Besides that it's of not much use. High DR is good in the early game but not really important later on. The DR values of armor doesn't climb nerly as fast as the damage enemies dish out and your own health pool - so the more you advance the less important it becomes. And yes, you are being impatient. Key to an easy early game is accuracy on PotD. Enemies' defenses are higher and since your starting ACC is low in comparison to the later game every point has high impact. the right class (Fighter, Monk, Rogue, Ranger who all start with 30), good starting PER but also one-handed weapon usage (+12 ACC), accurate weapon like spear (+5), Priest's Inspiring Radiance (+10), Blessing or Zealous Focus (+5), Weapon Proficiency (+6) etc. are very good in the early game, especially in combination they make a big difference. Combine that with good debuffs that make it even easier to hit the enemies, for example Chillfog (lowers deflection)! That one of the best early spells - I'd say the best. Also always use flanking (-10 deflection). Meaning attack from opposite sides. Makes a big difference at first. Then it's not hard anymore. Pike Bleak Walker is not a crap build by the way. It's nothing superspecial but not crap either.

Don't know why she isn't there. But you don't need to meet her. You can carrry on with the quest and find the "real" temple in the Old City and use the conches there. Then go back to Dereo. The quest would even resolve if you never talked to Dereo before.

It works on party members and summons alike. It's also worth noting that the bonus (from Sated and Sated Ravenous Hunger) doesn't expire when the fight is over but seems to be active until next rest. At least when I tested it lately (a few days ago only) it wouldn't go away after fights but only after I rested. If you switch the weapon it will go to no bonus/malus - but if you switch back it's still Sated (+2 or +3 to the 3 stats). Even if you put it into the stash and then get it back the bonus still gets applied. BUT if you give it to another party member they will suffer from the Hunger malus instead. So - totally worth it if you don't hand it around all the time.