Boeroer

Game's patching cycle has been finished for a looong time now. There's nothing coming.

I guess it was meant to be "Strider" and "Deadfire" - typed into a smartphone and fell victim to autocorrection.

Jeez - please pitch that to Josh.

Accuracy pentalies hurt a lot in the early game. Not so much later on. Also because you will debuff enemies defenses (and in case of mortars you only need to debuff reflex). A Blunderbuss has 4 chances to apply an affliction that might lower enemies defenses so the -10 ACC shouldn't be too bad. But I understand if the ACC maluses feel too annoying in the first levels to encourage a whole playthrough. I didn't recommend Streetfighter/Barbarian with blunderbusses though (at least I hope so). It may seem tempting because the recovery/reload bonus from Streetfighter and the action speed bonuses from Barb (Frenzy, Bloodlust) do stack - but Blood Thirst doesn't work with reloading weapons so that would be a no-go for me personally. Blood Thirst is one of the strongest arguments to bring a Barbarian as a second class imo. However, I like a Barbarian as second class if I focus on a St. Omaku's Mercy/Veilpiercer build. Usually with Ranger as first class (order of classes doesn't matter of course). What works very well in terms of accuracy in the early game: Ranger/Paladin. I did a Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster as main weapon. With Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotions + Marked Prey + Arcana bonus *2 (Arcane Archer + Spearcaster) + Zealous Focus you already get 40+ bonus ACC pretty early in the game. +20 right from the start. By the way: all classes start with the same base ACC.

The oozes have weaknesses to fire, frost and shock afair.

Nope, they are not. Mortars' AoE is the standard attack and transports all attack effects - such as blind from Blinding Strike, stun from Stunning Surge etc. Even damage over time like from Arterial Strike or Gouging Strike. Only exception: wouding shot (Ranger) does only work for the initial target for some odd reason. Frostseekers crit AoE is a secondary crit which doesn't do that. The effects of a special attack will only apply to the initial target. It has higher base dmg though iirc. I don't remember if their base AoE sizes are similar or not. However, Frostseeker has a much higher range than mortars/bluderbusses. As mortar/bluderbuss user you have to be prepared to get attacked by melee guys every now and then. But some classes have very helpful mobility abilites like Escape, Evasive Roll etc. By the way: a Fighter can use Clear Out with mortars in the main hand if he also wears a melee weapon the the offhand. The result is quite hilarious since it's an AoE*AoE attack then (every AoE hit of Clear Out triggers an AoE attack of the mortar). If you have a Ranger/Fighter with Fire in the Hole you can trigger [AoEClear Out * (AoEFitH + AoEChain Shot + AoEDriving Flight)] hits rolls - which is bonkers.

Small correction - or rather addition: there's only a penalty (-35% dmg) if you are executing a Full Attack. Primary- and auto-attacks don't get any penalty.

It might seem so at the beginning. But those crit damage bonuses are only additive and they don't scale. With every step of weapon quality (fine, exceptional, superb etc.) and with every Power-Level for Sneak Attack and later with Deathblows those crit bonuses play a smaller and smaller role. The PEN bonus and the ACC of Assassinate always stay viable though, as does the PEN bonus of Devoted (although it's often better to just switch a weapon with a dmg type the enemy is most vulnerable to). Lashes on the other hand (like Paladin's Flames of Devotion or Monk's Lightning Strikes) are multiplicative dmg bonuses which retain their part of contributing to the dmg output. They don't diminish and work especially well with dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack. If you want "sustained" dps as you mentioned in the title then Assassin is not the best pick since he can only pull off Assassinate from stealth and invisibility which both are very limited per encounter. A really impressive dmg output can be done by Streetfighter with blunderbusses (and mortars). Also works well as Devoted/Streetfighter or Sharpshooter/Streetfighter. The trick is that the modal of blunderbusses (Powder Burns) always triggers the passive "Heating up" of Streetfighters which leads to an insane reload speedup and also boosts Sneak Attack dmg. The Devoted or Sharpshooter will help with more PEN, Devoted will add crit dmg, Sharpshooter can add Driving Flight and more ACC. Also works very well as Single Class to pick um Gambit later. It is sustained because you don't need any resources to trigger the passive. With Hand Mortar from Serafen (pick Blinding Smoke by all means) you can unlock Sneak Attack + Deathblows with a crit without using any ability. Fire in the Hole will jump automatically with Chain Shot and nearly double the dmg.

Arcane Knight (Paladin/Wizard) can be extremely tanky and is able to cast from the from line.

Nalpasca really reeks once you meet guys with Arcane Dampener.

Same here with D:OS and D:OS II. Own both of them but don't like them at all.

I got it the first time...

Got nerfed compared to what? PoE? Several classes that were quite strong were nerfed from PoE to Deadfire (see Priest, Cipher, Barbarian etc.). Because I don't remember a lot of nerfs to Deadfire Monks since release. Fighters, Chanters etc. got hit way harder. Monk is most possibly the best martial single class in the game and is awesome multiclass material, too. Some people don't like the wound mechanic of "get hurt in order to fuel abilities", which is fair, but there are even subclasses (Nalpasca, Forbidden Fist and Shattered Pillar) that use a different mechanic to generate wounds.

Also you can say "I'm totally a-wowed!" if you totally like the game. I also hope there's an animal companion dog who's name is "A-Bow-Wow".

Outer Worlds is a completely different game. Fantasy vs. Science Fiction, 2.5 D isometric RTwP vs. 3D FPS, PC only vs. multiplatform. That's a bit like saying Deadfire sold poorly because it didn't have the same release model as Fortnite. If you want to draw comparisons then you have to compare games of the same gerne which cater to the same audience: isometric, party based fantasy RPGs. Those that sold a lot better than Deadfire (PoE, Pathfinder:KM, D:OS I and II) all kind of had the same release practices as Deadfire with later DLCs- which apparently had no big effect on the sales numbers. Some of them were much worse in terms of bugs at release (PF:KM for example, D:OS also was a bit borked at release). Even old games like those of the Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale series had expansions which were released a lot later. Much later than Deadfire's DLCs in fact. And all those games had their fair share of bugs. One could argue that the decision to integrate the DLCs into the main game leads to more players waiting for those expansions before buying/playing the game - but then they would buy/play it at some point later which wouldn't hurt overall sales numbers - it would only spread them. Why would a majority of potential players be so put off that they skip the game entirely - just because there are expansions coming later? Doesn't make much sense I think - on an individual basis: yes - but is this an explanation why the sales numbers dropped to 1/5th of PoE's (which had the same release model and was successful with it)? I don't think so. If that would be true then all games that put out DLCs over the course of several months or years would get hurt badly. But they don't. Ask Battle Brothers and their plethora of awesome DLCs that all came out months and even years after the release of the main game. The last one came out last week (over 5 years after release) and it seems it's a big success. Battle Bothers also still gets patches that fix issues and balance stuff. Imagine players waiting 5 years to finally play a "finished" Battle Brothers game... Also publishes ususally know from experience and market research which release practices work and which don't. If the release model of PoE, Deadfire, Pathfinder:Kingmaker, Battle Brothers and so on would be so disadvantageous they wouldn't do it anymore. Explaining why Deadfire sold badly is def. not easy. Not even the experts and people with deep insight know - so saying "it's no rocket science" sounds a bit presumptuous. It surely is no rocket science to you to explain what you personally didn't like - but that doesn't mean it's indeed the reason for the massive sales drop. After all you did buy Deadfire despite your release-related concerns - so your anecdotal reference doesn't even work for your own argument.

Essence Interrupter can be bought very early in the game. So I would focus on that. Classes that are front loaded in terms of ranged offense and work well in the early game (at least if paired with a fitting second class): Ranger (Marked Prey, Wounding Shot), all Rogues (Sneak Attack, Crippling Strike), Bleak Walker (Black Flames of Devotion), Helwalker (Helscar, MIG bonus, Mortification of the Soul). A Devoted/Bleak Walker is more suited for melee since both classes gain a lot of defensive capability (which would be kind of wasted) and most of their good offensive abilites work at close range/melee. Also the Fighter only has one active attack ability for ranged weapons (Penetrating Strike) as well as the Paladin (Flames of Devotion). I mean it will surely work and it would be a quite sturdy ranged char (so only few knockouts which can be very nice as well) but it's a bit limited (dare I say boring?) in terms of offense.

Single class? Little info: the imbued shots trigger their effect with every projectile jump (like from Driving Flight). So for example you shoot Imbue:Fireball and then you'll get a Fireball at the initial target and another Fireball at the enemy who's behind the first and gets hit by the Driving Flight arrow. If you use weapns that have a jump "build in" like Fire in the Hole or Watershaper's Focus you could trigger three Fireballs per shot (initial hit + Driving Flight + build in jump). Those are no bows - just for your information. Great bows for Arcane Archers are Frostseeker and Essence Interrupter - because they give no Accuracy penalty even if you don't use imbued shots. I would recommend Essence Interrupter. After the early game (with some Accuracy under the belt) you can use the modal of the Weapon Proficiency and fire the bow very rapidly (with less accuracy though). It's a great modal. Another nice weapon for an Arcane Archer is Spearcaster (its bonus from Arcana stacks with the imbue-bonus from Arcana) - but that's and Arbalest and not a bow. You should focus on DEX, PER and MIG, not too low INT and can have low RES and CON. Pick everything that gives Accuracy. Focus on only a few attack abilities. Imbue:missiles and Imbue:fireball sound tempting, but actually Imbue:web and Imbue:Eora are a lot better later in the game, especially with Driving Flight. With that combo you can immobilize and pull together a whole group of enemies for a long time and then shoot them undisturbed.

For a sustained Frostseeker build (which does awesome damage as long as you crit a lot) I would pick Helwalker/Sharpshooter (because you want Sharpshooter) but even better Helwalker/Arcane Archer. Ranger because high ACC and Driving Flight which gives you a lot more chances to trigger a crit. With an Arcane Archer you have no ACC penalty when using Frostseeker no matter the ability you use. And later you can use Imbue:Web + Imbue:Eora to pull enemies very tightly together whilw shooting at them and triggering as many frost AoEs as possible. But Sharpshooter is ok as well. Helwalker gives you more dmg via MIG, more speed and a shocking lash (Lightning Strikes) and a bigger AoE size via Duality:INT. Most importantly the Monk can use Stunning Surge nearly endlessly because the cost gets refunded on crit. And if you do a shot with Frostseeker+Driving Flight it means that you have 6 chances to crit with every shot you do. Besides that Monks get Enduring Dance which is awesome for a ranged char and also Thunderous Blows which helps with higher AR of enemies. If you are looking for another crit based bow: look at St. Omaku's Mercy or Veilpiercer. They have a 50% chance to set recovery to 0 on crit which works with Driving Flight. If you pick something like Devoted/Sharpshooter you can achieve a lot of shots without recovery which is very nice.

There is no general rule for that. It depends what your Arcane Archer wants to do. Which weapon(s) does he want to use for example? With AoE weapon like mortars you want high INT so that the AoE is big(ger). Will he focus on dealing damage (might want high MIG) or doing crowd control (no MIG needed, but high INT) and so on. A little more info is needed.

It's not that the savegame is corrupt or something. It just seems that sometimes the game doesn't get the activation of Turning Wheel right and the save/reload cycle just helps to somehow set the game object state correctly. No idea how or why honestly.

I'm pretty surprised that native speakers don't know what "Avowed" means. I mean didn't we have that Madonna hit "Take a Vow" in 1994?

It adds a burning lash to all your weapon attacks (fists also count as weapons). The lash is 5% per wound you carry. That means it's 0% (no wounds) to 50% (10 wounds). Most likely the reason you don't see it on the animat is the mechanic of lashes: Lashes are multiplicative dmg bonuses which are based on your weapon damage roll (which is great) but there is a hurdle: any (non-raw) lash has to overcome the respective armor's damage reduction - or DR - of the target separately. Here it's the burn DR of the animat. Not the whole DR though but only 25% (or 1/4th). Again: all lashes (except raw) must overcome 1/4 of the enemy's DR. Animats usually have very high DR. If you roll 20 crush dmg to the animat and you have 5 wounds: the burning lash of Turning Wheel would be 25% (5*5%) of 20 which is 5 burn damage. That 5 burn damage has to overcome 1/4th of the animat's burn DR. If the animat's burn DR is 20 or higher... Unlike direct damage which has a MIN value (some damage always gets through even if DR is higher than the dmg roll) lashes work not that way: they can get completely eliminated by DR. So if 1/4th of the animat's burn DR is roughly about the same as the burn damage you would cause with your lash... it will get eaten up completely - gone. In the example above: if the burn DR of the ainmat is 20 or higher you get nothing from the lash. This is less likely to happen with Lightning Strikes (same mechanics) because animats are usually more vulnerable to shock damage (have low shock DR). Of course this is even more likely to happen if you have less wounds (smaller lash) and less likely if you have more wounds (lash is bigger). Also the direct crush damage you do can help: if you deal more crush damage then the lash dmg is higher (because it's based on the weapon dmg roll). The higher the dmg you roll with the weapon the easier it is for the lash to be higher than enemies' 1/4DR. You can also pick Scion of Flame (talent): it gives your Turning Wheel lash a 25% bonus. Meaning it would rise from 5% per wound to 6.25% per wound. So at 10 wounds instead of a 50% lash you would have a 75% one - which is very good. BUT! There's also a small glitch that sometimes happens when you activate Turning Wheel during a session: it doesn't really apply. Best is to save with Turning Wheel active and then reload. That should fix it. Same with Blood Testament gloves (2% raw dmg lash per wound) by the way. They are very good but suffer from the same occasional glitch. To;dr: most likely your lash was too small for the animat's high burn DR. To be safe try another target and save/reload with Turning Wheel activated.

I guess you could make the case that enchanting and upgrading are crafting mechanics.

Avowed is an awesome name. It's short, phonetically pleasing and hints what the game's storyline is about (Woedica stuff) but is still mysterious. And it starts with an "A" which makes sure it always is among the first in the list - once that's sorted alphabetically. For example when people look up "list of Skyrim clones" on Wikipedia. Having no "Pillars" in it also makes sure there's not too much confusion whether the game is connected to PoE & Deadfire with more than the IP. "Pillars of Creation" on the other hand sounds like the name of a homebrew D&D campaign or a self-pulished novel on Kindle. But it's not corny enough... yet. "Pillars of Creation: Oathbinder" - now that would give the perfect would-be huckster vibes. Nothing beats the pregnant colon.

I like to use the Mask of the Grotto Deep and Garari Cuirass with Cobra Strike - full reptile mode.