Boeroer

I wouldn't say Cloak of Death is "uber" - it's just a unique and good effect for a wizard who tends to get attacked in melee. It takes heat off of you through hard CC and deals considerable dmg at the same time. Piercing Sigil (PL8) and even Zandethus's Draconic Fury (PL7) do the same basically - they are also good. Citzal's Enchanted Armory is just unimpressive. Why would I want to summon Enchanted Armory instead of Spirit Lance? It would be okay at lower PLs but not at PL9. It's cool to have a kind of "brutish" melee spell at PL9 - but it's just not good or fun enough (at least the weapons).

I have "report", "share" and (after a horizontal separator) "edit". Funny - maybe something's messed up with your rights or something. I have no editing limit, just checked with very old posts I dug up. @Aarik D, what do you make of this?

I expect something more useful and "cool" after putting together an item puzzle. It doesn't have to be super powerful in all cases, just interesting and potentially nice for some builds. -weaksauce action speed to all around is meh in all cases, even solo. I once did a test where I stacked all action-speed debuffs from spells, weapons etc. on one char and used it in several testing sessions against several enemies. It's not worth it. It's so much easier and more impactful to just hard-CC the enemies. If the Ring would lower everybody's defenses by 5 in an AoE that would've double-edged as well - but I could work with that.

Even as a melee-focused wizard I can't see how you ever want to pick the current implementation of Citzal's Enchanted Armory over for example Cloak of Death. The armor is ok for a PL 9 spell because it has 0 recovery penalty and somewhat decent AR but the weapons, other than being one-handed two-handers, bring nothing PL-9-worthy to the table. I wouldn't want to give them AoE because then they would compete with Spirit Lance. That's why I suggested higher base dmg so that they work very well against single targets. With adding the modal without having the proficiency I basically meant "give the morning star -25 fortitude on hit and the great sword +30% dmg" as enchantment. But I forgot that this might actually stack with the real modals which would be ridiculous. So maybe giving the Morning Star a dmg bonus that would counter the dmg loss of Body Blows and giving the Great Sword an ACC bonus that counters the malus of Rending Strikes would be nice? OR - since those things seem to be somewhat etherical weapons: tune down their basic recovery from 4 to 3 secs? OR - for the same reasons: let them do raw dmg instead of their normal physical one. This would make them very useful against single very high AR foes but wouldn't do a lot against normal mobs (no overpenetration). It would also fit the whole ethereal items vibe (ethereal weapons passing through armor and flesh, damaging your very essence blah blah). I think I like the last idea best. If nothing else then at least they should get a raw lash like Woedica's Wolverine Claws.

You could edit before the new theme launch (that problem was fixed some time ago) and at least I still can with the new theme as well. The thing that might throw you off is that the edit option is hidden behind the three dots menu in the upper right (on mobile at least).

At release (or was it in the beta?) it didn't have hit-to-crit conversion but either miss-to-graze or graze-to-hit, don't remember. Only later did Obsidian change it to hit-to-crit after some player feedback.

In Deadfire only Berserker-Frenzy does conceal health, correct. All other Barbarians don't have that drawback with their Frenzy ability.

I discovered that rel. early. The internal item name (something_something_base) was a good hint. But since the upgrade was quite awful I simply forgot about it shortly after.

I mean really high.

I believe this can happen after save & reload in that area.

Oh, I didn't even know that. Never used the spell outside of testing stuff and making the weapons permanent (with the help of Form of the Fearsome Brute) in earlier patches. Which was kind of cool.

Keep in mind that Debonaire is a bit tricky in melee because of the missing engagement (so no Persistent Distraction) and his passive that makes the Debonaire weaker when no friends are around. I just tried this combo out for a bit to see if it works - I didn't do a playthrough with a whole char concept so I can't say how fun/unfun it is as a real build.

I would give both higher base dmg if that's possible. I liked the summoned weapons in PoE a lot because they had such high base dmg. Also give them both their respecitve modal effect (Rending Cuts = +30% dmg and Body Blows = -25 Fortitude) without the need for the proficiency and without drawback (no ACC loss and no reduced dmg). Maybe?

Those characters are guarding something. They are not hostile but can turn hostile if you come too close or don't leave soon. I believe it's also more difficult to sneak up on them but I'm not 100% sure.

Soul Annihilation is a primary attack that does normal physical damage but also dumps all focus you have into additional raw damage. The raw dmg part also profits from Sneak Attack, Deathblows, crit etc. and can reach very high numbers. The higher your focus the better of course. Extinction Event will trigger every time you kill a foe with a crit from Sungrazer (the ability you use doesn't matter).

No, because Extinction Event is foe-only. And if it had firendly fire I would get no focus because you don't get focus from hitting/critting allies. I charm the enemy with Whisper of Treason and then use Soul Annihilation (which not only gets the bonus from Sneak Attack and Deathblows but also the crit) which will often kill an enemy right away. Since you don't get focus from hitting charmed enemies but Soul Annihilaion doesn't generate focus anyway but instead dumps it this is no loss. As alternative you can of course use stuff like Devastatig Blow and such to end foes with a crit. If the foe is surrounded by other enemies and Extinction Event triggers you'll get pretty good focus from it.

30% would be quite wild. Since PEN is paramount and this whe style seems to scream "I can strike more precisely with thrusts and stuff" this also means you should be able to pierce into the gaps and weak spots of armor. Thus it could be fitting to give the style +1 PEN (I mean on to of the existing crit conversion. This would make it more valuable and attractive for everybody, even for non-crit builds. Another option would be to add 15% miss-to-graze and 15% graze-to-hit conversion maybe? This is stronger than it may sound.

By the way: Debonaire/Soulblade is a char that can almost guarantee a crit-kill with Sungrazer, triggering Extinction Event reliably which is very potent and will fill the focus up right after.

The good thing is that Takedown Combo and Disintegrate can be cast nearly simultaneously because they don't come from the same caster. Else I would recommend using a Ranger for TDC and another Cipher for Disintegrate - but since TDC is done by the Animal Companion there is no problem with action economy. Speaking of Disintegrate: Debonaire/Wizard is cool if you have somebody else to charm crowds for AoE-crits - but he can't charm himself besides kith. If the char should be more self-contained (the char himself can charm) then Debonaire/Cipher also works very well: you charm an enemy and then cast Disintegrate. 100% crit conversion for Disintegrate is also very good because of the +50% duration. Basically the same outcome as Forbidden Fist/Cipher with Enfeeble+Disintegrate. Very devastating combo and total overkill in most cases: Forbidden Fist enfeebles, AC does Takedown Combo, Cipher casts Whisper of Treason (or some Chanter uses the charming invocation), another Debonaire/Cipher casts Disintegrate. All timed to hit nearly simultaneously. You'll get a Disintegrate with +100% duration and +100% dmg. Not worth the hassle imo but quite hilarious. I didn't try but I suspect that a Debonaire/Druid could cast a Plague of Insects or Insect Swarm on a bunch of charmed enemies without flipping them back to hostile but getting +50% duration from the crits.

Takedown Combo puts a "hostile" effect with a duration on the enemy. The next damaging attack roll that hits the enemy then gets +100% dmg. The effect gets removed immediately after. BUT: it only gets removed by direct dmg attacks (including pulsing stuff like Chillfog or Venombloom), NOT pure DoTs That means that while Takedown Combo is active you can hit the enemy with any pure DoT that does no initial direct dmg (so stuff like Touch of Rot or Necrotic Lance are out - Soul Ignition, Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin and Disintegration or even Plague of Insects etc. are in) the DoT-ticks will all get +100% dmg because Takedown Combo will NOT get removed by them. Disintegrate-ticks with +100% dmg are impressive. You can stack multiple DoTs like Disintegrate + Soul Ingnition, they all get +100% per tick. You DON'T want to hit the enemy with any direct dmg after you applied the DoT because that would remove Takedown Combo at once. You certainly don't need that. Once the duration of Takedown Combo runs out the effect vanishes and leaves the DoT ticks with the usual dmg. You can also cast Disintegrate first and then use Takedown Combo. The remaining ticks will profit. This also means you could use Necrotic Lance if you apply Takedown Combo AFTER the initial direct dmg was rolled and only the DoT part remains. Hard to time but possible. On top of that: Charmed enemies usually flip back if you damage them. But if you hit them with a pure DoT like Disintegration they will not flip back. And you can cast Disintegr. on a friendly (Charmed) target. So my Stalker/Beguiler routine was: 1. cast Secret Horrors on lots of enemies to gain focus for Disintegration and to lower fortitude and will. 2. hit with Morning Star to lower fortitude. 3. hit with Takedown Combo (targets fortitude), 4. hit with Disintegrate (often crits because low fort. and high ACC) 5. hit with Whisper of Treason oreven Ring Leader. It was then a Charmed enemy that had a build-in self destruct. You can totally leave out 1, 2 and 5 and you can flip 3 and 4. Sometimes it's better to leave out Whisper of Treason or Ring Leader because hits from the enemies on the charmed dude result in Takedown Combo's removal. Meh. However, I still used WoT frequently because I also had a Debonaire/Wizard in the party (100% hit to crit with spells on a "Ring" yo! )

Erm... I don't quite understand the causal inference - but I just wondered if it's possible to attack with something else than the natural spiritshift weapons (besides FF). Afaik all summoned weapon spells get deactivated while shifted. Meaning you can't cast them while shifted. Inner Death is not accessible to Druids. What if a Cipher casts Reaping Knives on a shifted Druid though? Never tried... Also: what happens when you are shifted and then summon an Essential Phantom? Does it get the fur armor and the claws? What happens with Living Illusions from dat cape when you are shifted? I did try that stuff but completely forgot what happened. Was a long time ago...

Right. The descriptions are again misleading. I understand why there are base values for every ability (internally they all start at lvl 1 basically I guess) but it's absolutely not understandable why the base data gets displayed in the ability description at lvl x and not the actual scaled values. I mean both the level scaling @thelee mentioned and the character's basic Power Level scaling, too. Forget temporary PLs and such - but when looking at the character sheet and the abilities the descriptions should list the values they actually have at your current level. When leveling up the abilities should display which values everything would have at +1 char level so you could make an informed decision. Anyway: Priests and Druids have great nuking spells and the PEN is not an issue compared to wizards. What might be an issue for nuking priests are fire-immune or -resistant.

Keep in mind that Power Level scaling will add more PEN. Priests can cast Champion's Boon on themselves for +2 PEN. Use stuff like Expose Vulnerabilities (-2 AR) or Hel-Hyraf (-2 AR) (they don't stack) in oder to soften up enemies' AR. If you hit critically you'll have +50% (multiplicative) PEN, too.

Another advantage of not using a Shifter is that you can use Taste of the Hunt while shifted - which I completely fell in love with now. I mean you don't need to cast it while shifted, it does the same whether you are shifted or not - but it's a bit annoying that you have to wait for the shift to end in order to be able to cast it. Looking at Taste of the Hunt I also wonder if Forbidden Fist/Boar would be cool? The enfeeblement would not only prolong Taste of the Hunt but also Boar's DoT lash by 50%. Which is more dmg (though not dps) than Helwalker's 30%. I don't recall how enfeebled's 50% and the duration bonus from INT and crits do stack. Is enfeeblement maybe multiplicative with those? That would be very potent.

It stacks with everything afaik. It's very useful against hordes of engaging enemies but pretty useless against single tough foes.