Boeroer

I played a dual mortar monk from start to finish on PotD in a party - as well as a mortar Shadowdancer and a SC Rogue. Dual mortar is no problem with WotW. Enduring Dance is enough to be able to trigger WotW with very little downtime. If you feel the pause is too long just use Mortification otS. In a party it's usually no problem to have a few secs of downtime. The good thing about dual mortars is that you can apply Blinding Smoke (which is ridiculous in combination with Avenging Storm since every cone attack of BS triggers a lightning on every enemy it hits - and remember that every enemoy in the mortar AoE can trigger a Blinding Smoke come - even though it doesn't cause damage itself) while the jump from Fire in the Hole's Chain Shot usually doubles the stacks of Resonant Touch that you apply with it. Most important for a dual mortar Monk is INT, not MIG. And DEX is a lot more valuable on a mortar monk for me personally. Stuff like WotW and Flagellanth's Path still have noticable recovery, even in lightish armor. And I want to keep enemies stunned as long as possible. MIG doesn't help there. 15 is def. enough. +15% addtive dmg don't make a lot of difference for me. Even with slight underpenetration and lowish base damage (which is somewhat countered by the dual damage of mortars which often prevents underpenetration in the first place) you are always applying a ton of Resonant Touches as long as you make sure that the enemies are not scattered all over the place but stand near each other. Monk/Rogue I found to be inferior after the mid game - as mortar user at least. Applying Sneak Attack, afflictions and DoTs in an AoE is really nice, but it can't hold up against Resonant Touch + WotW. If Avenging Storm gets added the Monk has the huge advantage of the AoE*AoE mechanic of WotW. One would think that the mid game is more fun than SC Monk. But is was not. I guess because Stunning Surge of the Monk is so good with mortars in the mid game (remember that you get that a lot earlier as SC than as MC) that most stuff the Rogue can do feels a bit inferior. Hard CC so early in the game with a very likely refund (hitting multiple enemies with 3 AoEs per use is very, very likely to crit at least once) is very good. A great thing though with a Shadowdancer is that Blinding Smoke immediately unlocks Deathblows. Still not as good as WotW + RT but nice high level stuff. SC Rogue (doesn't matter that much if Streetfighter or Assassin, both work fine at the highest levels) was nearly as impactful and fun in the late game with Vanishing Strikes - because you can trigger Backstabs on all surrounding enemies all the time (because the invisibility doesn't break) - but during midgame I found it a bit unfun (obvidously Streetfighter is way better here than Assassin). The biggest advantage of a Monk over a Rogue is the replenishable Wound system over the limited Guile. The way bigger AoE is also a big plus with mortars. When it comes to a gun build that was most entertaining/fun one during my time with Deadfire, nothing comes close to SC dual mortar monk. At least for me.

You can't. Thaos is the end of the game. After jumping into the pit there's no coming back. You'd need to load a savegame from before jumping into the pit. White March is a DLC that is best played at mid levels (from lvl 8 on). It's not an expansion that you play after the main game is done but rather interwoven additional content that you can play parallel to the main plot line like a big side quest.

You can't compare PoE/Deadfire with D:OS I/II when it comes to loading times. The first are 2D/3D hybrids that have huge high-res, pre-rendered handdrawn images as maps that get filled with 3D objects while the latter are a pure 3D games. Naturally loading those high-res pictures from disk takes a lot longer than rendering some 3D-objects which the maps are composed of (which doesn't include a lot of I/O). That's the reason why SSDs improve PoEs' loading times drastically. If PS5 has a SSD then it should load PoE games a lot faster. Still not as fast as lightning but it's a noticable improvement. This is already true if you buy a SSD for the PS4.

^ what he said.

Thank you. I wouldn't allow other classes to use specific trinkets. Priest trinkets would be for Priests only etc. Those trinkets should work like grimoires basically - which successfully try to allow a broader spell portfolio for wizards. I don't want to blur the lines between classes further (like multiclasses and a bunch of Priest spells that are borrowed from Wizard/Druid without even changing the name already do). It's a class-based system after all. Blur the lines too much and one could as well play a classless system (what I would prefer anyway but this game it not made for that I guess). That's why I would really like to give those "borrowed" spells/abilities unique names and even icons if possible. Even change their mechanics a bit. Just so that the average player wouldn't even notice that it's "recycled" material.

found it: And so on. Some of those were remembrances to PoE items, characters or abilities and bring back stuff from there (e.g. Skaens Baby Sneak Attack)

I made some trinkets themed around death (so Berath actually), light (Eothas) and so on. They should be here in the forum somewhere but I also still might have the original textfile. Stuff for the Berathian trinket included Touch of Death (Druid) and Cloak of Death (Wizard) iirc. But I would not use the original name and icon since these "borrowed" abilites from other classes are hard copies in most cases anyway so you can just use the mechanic and FX but give it a more unique flair by providing a unique name, icon (maybe just tinted or otherwise slightly edited in order to make it simple) and description. The ethasian trinket included a lot of chanter and paladin stuff - everything with light basically. We also discussed that there are spells that usually never get picked because they are too situational or limited and you wouldn't want to "waste" a precious ability point on them (for example Liturgies etc.). So I made some trinkets that provided those spells like a grimoire would. That way you can bring them whenever you like and also switch trinkets from the quick slots for other situations.

That much is obvious. That completely ignores that inflow of money is not an automatic, endless stream. Smaller studios without recent world success titles under their belt have to ship or perish. Especially studios who only kept their head over water because of a rel. small (in terms of budget and revenue) crowdfunding title. Just calculate 100 studio devs getting full pay for 9 months (without any inflow of money in the meantime). If every one of them costs 2000$ a month you would have to spend 1.8 Million which you maybe don't have. It may be the difference between closed studio and buggy release. Also publishers are usually the ones more concerned with shipping while devs would really like to spend more time on bugfixing. It would be absolutely unreasonable to throw money at a game that nobody plays anymore and/or a game that was'nt successful right from the start. It may be nice for the players - but in the long run it wouldn't benefit them because their beloved studio is broke. The examples you name were huge successes which started strong (so there's a lot of money in the bank to use to keep interest high). Note how PoE (good sales given the niche genre) was supported a lot longer than Deadfire (poor sales). As the owner of a company with employees you have to pay you can't make decisions solely on what you like or what your customers might like. Especially if you're on the brink of bankruptcy. Technically TOW and PoE/Deadfire are VASTLY different games. TOW was done as a pure 3D game with the Unreal engine (which costs a lot lot more than Unity3D which was used to make PoE and Deadfire) while the latter was a 2D/3D hybrid with bre-rendered maps etc. which was never done before like that. Also often he majority of high-priority bugfixing (the bugs that let the game crash, not the gameplay bugs) stems from framework/middleware. I guess Unreal is more mature and thus more robust than Unity3D. *experiencing pure second-hand embarrassment*

I played a Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer once and it was pretty good. But a Rogue/Ranger of any kind would also do great ranged damage.

There were plans and I pitched some ideas for trinkets (covering the basic premise that Priests and Druids need more flexibility when it comes to ability choice - like Wizards have with their grimoires) in order to discuss and find a good consensus. Unfortunately not everybody in the "mod group" (so to speak) was sharing my opinions on how those trinkets should work. I mean I wasn't expecting that everybody would be like "wow cool ok let's do that" - I just wanted to say that sorting those things out takes a bit of time (and a lot of posts ). Before we could make a real job of it @MaxQuest and @Phenomenum who did the actual implementations pretty much vanished from these forums and thus the trinkets mod couldn't get finished, sorry.

Nothing basically - besides playing solo and/or on PotD difficulty where fights last a lot longer so that your Chanter will have the chance to perform 3 phrases more often. Or you have a party that drags fights more (like a higher focus on defense and less offense). Kiting or pulling is also a good way to make your chanter's summoning more effective. For example you can scout ahead with your tank and then pull the enemies back to your other party members - where the chanter started chanting as soon as the tank triggered the fight far away (note: if your Chanter is stealthed he won't chant, so make sure to unstealth him). That way he will be able to send out summons as soon as the enemies reach the group (or even before). Brisk Recitation starts to take effect from lvl 4 on and gets stronger with level-ups. There's a reason why the impression that chanters make to players is so devided: most players who play PotD and/or solo find them very good while players who play lower difficulties with a party think they are way too slow. At least when it comes to summoning. You can substitute your chanter summons with figurines and drop a summon right at the start of the encounter - then follow up with your own ones later.

Here are some more: Squid's Grasp (unique Rapier): it has an enchatment called "Unseen Demise" which revives you after knockout (1/rest). Then there's Twin Eels (Great Sword) which can also revive you. I guess you could just have one of them in the second weapon slot and then switch shortly before going down. You can also use hostile traps deliberately in order to receive an injury out of combat by the way. Survivor's Tusks would be also reviving, but a SC Barb can't soulbind it.

If I remember correctly then Edér's Armor is the only item in Deadfire with Second Chance. There's the Ring of Reset, but it revives without injury (not wanted in this case I guess but great for Vengeful Defeat). If you have two of them you can keep one in the stash and one you can wear. If the charges are depleted you stack them in the stash and both will be recharged again. You can get two of them via character export (with items). Maybe there's another reviving item but I can't remember now. Maybe I can check that later. In order to receive an injury you don't have to be in combat though. You can cast spells on your barb out of combat to know him out. Best is to aim for a light injury like Serious Burn or Acute Rash since their debuffs are so minor. Injuries from knockout like you are aiming for are usually more punishing. For Rekvu's Scorched Cloak a Serious Burn is the best choice since the lower burn AR doesn't matter at all.

With Blightheart it can be pretty good to fire some shots here and there. Especially once you have Wall of Draining. I don't see the appeal of Dragon's Dowry on a SC Bloodmage. With Ranger/Bloodmage that may be different.

AA's Imbue spells only have a PEN issue. The rest is fine afair. I see no buggyness in the latest version (besides with multiprojectiles: the frost one triggers imbue effects and the following just get ignored). When using an AA I wouldn't use the damaging ones so much but instead focus on Binding Web and Pull of Eora. Both are awesome when used with the AA's bonus ACC and also with Driving Flight (and possibly an auto-jump from the weapon). Mostly because with every jump the spell triggers and up to three parallel Webs with one shot + three parallel Pulls with the next - with highest ACC - are insane CC options and can pull a dozen enemies so tightly together that there's no air between them basically. A really nice ability of the Ranger in combination with a Wizard is Takedown Combo. +100% dmg from a spell is something one should consider. Bloodmages can regain spells so it's not that crucial to make the most out of the casts you have - but still.

Nearly all fights are manageable on solo (even PotD) if you are playing an SC Assassin or Assassin/Paladin. All you need is high INT and MIG and PER, Smoke Veil and Gouging Strike (and Brand Enemy as Assassin/Paladin is very good). Lover's Embrace if you want to speed things up. I like to use it as a single weapon. Boots of Speed and/or Zealous Charge You just go in stealthed, hit with a Gouging Strike with Lover's Embrace (follow up with Brand Enemy at once because hits from stealth have a 80% recovery bonus, BE has no recovery), activate Smoke Veil (doesn't break on DoTs) and quickly retreat where you can't be seen. Wait until enemy dies and repeat. Some players might call that cheese but I don't. All three effects work as intended and it can be a lot of fun because IF you mess up your timing or your positioning you are dead. The challenge is to figure out positioning and timing and observing the enemy and not applying brute force or stacking ultrahigh defenses. It plays as a stealth game then. There are fights where you can't retreat (mostly Water Dragon). But I'm able to kill him very quickly with dual daggers and Toxic Strike + Gouging Strike + Ring the Bell + Arterial Strike and then Escape and run around a bit. Then Marux Amanth's Worthy Sacrifice. One class that can fight digsite etc. heads-on is Arcane Knight. I especially like Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Offensive Parry from Whispers of the Endless Paths (obvisouly not available at digsite) but all Arcane Knights are great in the early levels (and later) because they come with passive defense buffs which stack with the wizard's active defense buffs which some of are also accessible very early. A Stell Garrote/Bloodmage with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is great in the early game. But Goldpact is also very nice due to Gilded Enmity which helps a lot.

I'm not a superfan of ranged Bloodmage/Ranger. Not much which I consider interesting, powerful or fun. I very much like a melee Bloodmage/Stalker with a Morning Star - but I guess you are not looking for that.

The blessing you can get when picking up Xoti. It does "+50% healing done" and +2 Religion and lasts until the next rest.

I wouldn't pick Fury Shaper if I wanted to use a gun. I would stick to SC Bloodmage then. With a weapon like Watershaper's Focus I would pick Fury Shaper I guess.

It only says +5 ranged accuracy and as I said it works with stuff like Driving Roar. So I'm pretty sure it works with "ranged" spells.

Frenzy and Bloodlust (and Frenzy Ward) do speedup the reload of weapons. However, Blood Thirst does NOT set reload to 0. This only works with recovery weapons. And other stuff that has recovery (like spells). I know you said you're not interested in other classes - but I think Bloodmage/Paladin is a very good, well-rounded package. With Blightheart you'll get a +10% corrosive lash for your spells which stacks with Eternal Devotion (its lash also works with spells!) so the spell damage is good. And then Lay on Hands and Exalted Endurance are just great for a Bloodmage because of the self dmg of Blood Sacrifice. A Bloodmage/Bleak Walker can get +2 PEN on Flames of Devotion (Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay) and the abilities also work with his fire/corrode spells obviously. And FoD gets corrosive/burn lash on the shot which is nice. This corrosive/burn lash on the spells lines up with that which is kind of cool.

Yes, all burn damage. I don't know of any exception. Traps that deal burn damage will not damage you either, but the injury still happens though (which is a bit weird).

less. But you can check the weapon tooltip in combat to see the exact effects.

Tricorn: It applies to Driving Roar so I'm pretty confident it will also work with certain spells. Like some spells work with melee bonuses (see Instruments of Pain working with Sunbeam ansd such). What does work 100% with spells are the pets that do +10% bonus damage to ranged attacks (see Harley for example).

Don't know if that was already mentioned: when going solo (and it's totally possible with this build) you might check out the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer (from the early Drake bounty who's name eludes me... Pukuhatakatemate or something). It has -35% hostile effect duration with no allies nearby. That's the equivalent of nearly 12 points of Resolve, even if Resolve would be maxed out at 35 (which I'm not sure how to achieve, but theoretically). I never tested how Resolve and other hostile effect reductions stack. Are they additive or would they combine more like recovery reductions for example?