Boeroer

You judge quality of writing based on the amount of words - the less text you have to read the better the quality. So... Hyper Light Drifter is your candidate for best game writing of 2016?

Hi @lishuai! Thank you. I guess so - can't really confirm 100% since a significant amount of time passed since I played PoE. But since those talents work with all elemental damage (except DoTs) it should work, yes.

I really like (solo) Stalker/Bloodmage with Willbreaker. Good AR, good deflection (both even awesome once you get Ll. Safeguard), good fortitude debuff for Takedown Combo + spells like Killing Bolt and a superstrong Essential Phantom with Draining Touch (which profits enormously from Willbreaker+Miasma since DT targets Will - and it lowers target's fortitude even lower through weakaning). It's like a party of three. Also Willbreaker can deal a DoT that unlocks Predator's Sense. And with the high ACC of a Ranger But it needs some setup time at the start of every encounter and is not the fastest killer - so in a full party such a guy slows things down a bit. But can bring down stuff like Dragons solo easily. Didn't try Megabosses solo with it though.

Wavering? Anyway: which weapon did you use to test this? Reloading weapons (Crossbow, Arbalest, all guns) don't work properly because their reload phase doesn't get affected by Blood Thirst. If you used a non-reload weapon: I never heard/read about this bug but it may be that a corrupted game file causes this. Maybe a reinstall can fix this. Or maybe GOG has a function to check for file integrity (can't remember).

The "awful watcher soul reading vision text" of PoE are background stories that backers send in who got an NPC for their pledge. Naturally the quality of those texts may vary. Besides that there isn't more "soul reading" than in Deadfire. Backer NPCs have golden name plates while genuine NPCs have silver ones - so you can tell them apart. How could you determine whether the writing of Deadfire was better or worse than that of PoE?

I like Skalds. Youcan do some cool stuff like using Offensive Parry from Whispers of the Endless Paths to generate more crits in a given time (parry-crits and AoE hits can lead to phrases, too). Offensive Party lets you shift parts of the "attack to gain phrases" process into the passive realm: you don't need to actively attack to use it and can concentrate on invocations. You just need the enemy to miss. I used a Steel Garotte/Skald for this since the parrying also drains life passively then - and it was fun. Sun & Moon is cool for obvious reasons. It is also good with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drunning which might cascade a lot of crits, so Helwalker isn't a bad idea besides the +MIG and +INT. Sun & Moon is also good for Hunter's Claw (which can help enormously with the crits) - so a Ranger is also a good idea. But: note that there is a cap of 1 phrase to be gained per swing. So even if you crit with all attack rolls of a swing: max 1 phrase. But it still raises the chance of getting a phrase in the first place of course. Dragon Thrashed is boosted in CP indeed - I believe it went from slash/burn to slash AND burn, so the potential damage is doubled. Don't know if this was enough to make it worthwhile though. I did briefly test a Herald with combined Sacred Immolation and Dragon Thrashed and it was ok, but that was a Troubadour - so no idea about Skald. I reckon since a Skald needs to attack with weapons a lot something like Mith Fyr might be better suited?

Usually they hold position before firing. I don't pay much attention to their cannons and their reload cycle. I just know that when they hold position they will most likely fire on the next turn.

LMAO - that goes right into the awesome typo box besides Buttercut, Lord Rodriguez and Direballs.

Uhhh - @thelee was a .

You need two master cannoneers (on the sloop) and then you're set. you can hire one at the Kraken's Eye with BErath Blessing Points or just train some guys who only have a star with cannons (and nothing else). Those can become master cannoneers as well if you don't use them for something else. I start with Iron Thunderer cannons - but Royal Bronzers or Vaillian Hullbreakers are better. Ship combat usually starts at a about 300 meters so the short range of the Hullbreaker isn't a problem most of times. With the Sloop you can use cannons with up to 6 turn of reload because: Fire Jibe Hold Position (gives extra ACC) Fire Jibe Hold Position Fire Royal Bronzers have 6 turns reload speed and that's why they are especially good (because they can fire as often as Iron Thunderers but do way more dmg). Hullbreakers only need 4 turns to reload but only have 250 range (farther away: you will get some ACC malus). They do trememdous damage. Since you can't buy Royal Bronzers nor Hullbreakers everywhere I ususally end up with a mix of both. If you have Haeferic's Nose from an event: very good cannon as well. Keep it. Cannons with under 6 turns reload are best for ships who don't jibe after shooting (because they are slow). Which I never use because it's a waste of money. Exception for me is the Hullbreaker. Obviously more cannoneers and more cannon ports would increase the chance of tiggering a special event per salvo - but on the other hand you will jibe so slowly that your rate of fire will be very low - so actually your are not causing more special events during a fight (only per salvo). Faster cannons without jibe will result in more special events - but the dmg is so low that it takes too long to take out the enemy ship (for my taste). Master cannoneers have a high chance of causing some special effect on hit (man over board, knocking cargo loose, start fires, hull leaking and so on). As soon as such things happen the enemy captain will send crew to fix the problem instead of fighting you, loosing a turn. Often ships get into a stupid "turn left-turn-right-uhhhm, what to do?" modus because you shower them with special on-hit effects. Sometimes (very seldomly) I die when taking on the really hefty ships because my cannoneers screw up the first shots - but most of the time my sloop just sinks them because they can't do a lot of stuff while they have to send crew here and there to fix stuff. At some point I will buy the Red Dream hull in Dunnage because it makes you sturdy as heck - you can then affort to screw up a little because you are sturdy like a galleon but with a tiny hull (fast jibes and turns, low chance to get hit). Then later some better sails (like Stormwind or even Goulskin or whatever). If you can't buy a master cannoneer right away you can train your cannoneers in easy fights against such wussies like Beggar Winfrut and such. They are exceptionally weak - and all what your guys need is some practice in order to increase their skill. Nowadays I don't use any other ship than the sloop. I used to buy a Voyager in the past because it's fun with Flamethrowers on the stern - but the sloop is very good as well (because of the low chance to get hit and the fast turning) and costs nothing, so... Ah - if you jibe and the enemy is about to fire: don't hold position! You will be easier to hit then. Instead go full speed (parallel to the enemy ship). Often the enemy will not fire then but hold position and wait until you stop going full speed. You can do so until your cannons reloaded and then just fire "from the hip" without holding your position first. The chance will be lower but the enemy ship was holding its position which should give you some accuracy. If you ar lucky your cannoneers will trigger a special event and the enemy ship won't want to fire at you anymore but send crew. Time to jibe, hold and fire.

Yeas - some form of PL-scaling would be nice.

The constructs will occasionally hit bystanders with one of their fire bursts - then the town guards and other bystanders will turn hostile towards Katrenn et al. instead of you. But this can also lead to a questgiver's or merchant's death so I would try to avoid the involvement of third parties entirely.

Since Wall of Many Colors is a hazard I guess it wouldn't even register as your characters' crits. But I didn't test it. Gambit is very good if you use it with full Guile and crit reliably (like with multihit-attacks). As I showed before it calculates guile refund without cap during the execution which can lead to very high dmg bonuses before the refun gets cut back after the execution - because Gambit's attack rolls get a dmg bonus based on the current amount of guile.

Keep in Mind that both (Greater Focus and Keen Mind) let you cast powers at the start of combat that would otherwise be too costly for you. Which is - in my opinion - the main reason to take them. Also some passives use max focus (or current focus) variable in their mechanics (Shared Nightmare, Soul Annihilation etc.). Giving both Greater Focus +20 instead of +10 might destroy the balancing of those.

Not really redundant - Sickened and Weakened not only mean reduced healing, but also -5 CON. I personally don't really care if a Priest of Woedica might want to take a Skaen spell or not. What I would care about when looking at Skaen spells is how a SC Priest of Skaen can cast a cool spell (which does more than just blinding at such high PL). And if the -50%/-75 healing aura of Effigy's Husk stacks with sickened (or weakened) that would be awesome - since enemy healing effects would almost get nullified IF you wear Effigy's Husk which could be really useful.

Yeah what is?

I guess Kalakoth's Freezing Rake works with Murderous Intent - but Wall of Many Colors doesn't (since it's a hazard)? If it does work then I would totally pick Murderous Intent. Maybe an empowered Pernicious Cloud with Murderous Intent is good (never tried)? Toxic Strike with dual mortars and max INT + Murderous Intent IS pretty good though (not really casting but still). Trickster could also make some use of Wall of Flashing Steel. It's a passive and stacks with every other deflection bonus (not with itself though). Maybe could even make good use of WotEP + all deflection bonus one can get in order to use Offensive Parry + Riposte?

Afaik Skaen is an unforgiving patron and generally cruel and deceptive - but not treacherous when it comes to his followers (the underdogs) but towards high-status targets. So that "either blind or dazed" thing wouldn't make much sense for me in this particular case. That certain Skaen items entirely protect the priest from his own spell is kind of cool. I wouldn't take it away with the daze. Maybe Staggered since one could avoid that with a resistance like from boots or something. If the reduced healing effct of Effigy's Husk stacks with Sickened (or Weakened) I would consider that. You could nearly shut down any hostile healing around you then - and stay immune with a Resistance (or in case of Weakened become immune with Rekvu's Stained Grasp + an injury).

Can't say a lot about Death Godlike because I only used that once or twice for thematic reasons and it didn't feel very impactful - I didn't use BDD shenanigans to unlock he really good part often though (Pallid Fate's +3 PL). If you do then it's certainly great. Maybe some ranged build which lowers its health to near death and stays there would also be ok, no idea. The +20% against enemies who are near death (Death's Usher): meeeeh. Nature Godlike's Wellsprig of Life is fine. The +1 PL is very easy to trigger and it's as good as any headgear in my opinion.

Can't say, never took one either.

If you like Ranger check out Ranger/Cipher: Takedown Combo does not get removed from the target if you apply "pure" raw damage like Disintegrate. Every tick of Disintegrate will get the +100% dmg boost from Takedown Combo as long as it lasts (and as long as you don't hit the target with direct damage which would remove TDC prematurely). Also Soul Annihilation (Soul Blade) + Takedown Combo is pretty cool.

I never take it. The +1 AR is not bad though. The retaliation is nothing to write home about.

So, Battle Forged (Fire Godlike) stacks with all of them but doesn't seem to trigger Swift Flurry - at least I couldn't see it while trying. During the same test Fire Shield triggered it several times. Still: Battle-Forged + Lay on Hands (Darcozzi) + Magran's Blessing + Flame Shield is pretty cool in combination with Combusting Wounds. You get hit and create 4 instances of CW on the enemy right away. Sacred Immolation helps to get to Blooded pretty quickly.

Oh, didn't check, haha.

Without wizard, hm... I wanted to say Monk/Wizard but it's out. Helwalker/Caster of any kind is always great. The +10 MIG and +10 INT (from duality of mortal presence) is very good for all casters. And Monks of all sorts are great martial artists, so... I also like Barbarian/Caster a lot because both Spirit Frenzy and Blood Frenzy not only speed up casting but also apply Staggered/raw DoT with spells. Add Bloodlust for even more speed and Blood Thirst for recovery removal after any kill (doesn't matter if DoT or direct damage). I did a Nature Godlike Berserker/Ancient with Lance of the Midwood Stag and Spine of Thicket Green and it was great. Especially once Blood Thirst gets unlocked: you can cast Frenzy (+1 PL through Wellspring of Life) and then Woodskin to unlock the "Lord of the Forest" (+2 PL to everything), apply some raw DoTs (like Insect Swarm + Plague of Insects), then walk in and hit stuff with the lance. Carnage scales with PLs, too. Once the DoTs start killing the weaker enemies you will have a lot of Blood Thirst going which lets you attack the tougher foes with no recovery. I also love Furyshaper/Beguiler. The terrifying ward is very strong and usually makes sure you don't get attacked to much. Use clubs + modal to hit enemies which come too near and they will certainly get terrified by the ward (because -25 Will). Meanwhile cast Deceptions and gain massive focus, then do Disintegrate and such which can trigger Blood Thirst... Furyshaper/Wizard is also good because Fear Ward + Miasma + Dazzling Light is gold. Terrifiying everything... Assassin/Wizard (I know, but no summoned weapons involved) : If you like the sneaky ways this is great. Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure (unique spell from Arkemyr's Grimoire(s)) will not break its invisibility if you only cast non-damaging CC and also any wall spells (Wall of Flame etc. - because they count as hazards which are not directly coupled to you as character). So you can vanish, apply all CC spells you like with +25 ACC from Assassinate. If you use Wall of Draining you can prolong the invisibility endlessly. If enemies are disabled for good you can attack "for real" or just let the party do it. I made an Assassin/Bloodmage with the Cap of the Laughingstock (its buff/debuff also applies when invisible and makes if possible to leach from every enemy via Wall of Draining) as the party's main debuffer/cc guy and the +25 ACC on cc spells is just awesome. And he can still dish out rogue-like damage with weapons if he wishes so. Trickster/Soulblade is also pretty fun.