Boeroer

They are ludicrous and silly. That's my opinion.

The list is a Google spreadsheet. I don't have the link anymore but you can google it with "woke games pillars recommended" iirc. I just saw it because Josh lol'ed about it on Twitter. I believe it's from those people who did that silly "woke game detector" channel on steam.

Well, it surely wasn't me who composed that ludicrous list.

I do not. I have three daughters and want them to play games like Deadfire and PoE, having fun and feeling seen by devs - without getting the impression that those games are catering to the hegemonic masculinity of some vocal gamors™. I had no problem whatsoever with women depicted as leaders, pirate captains, thugs, even gods - in fact I didn't even notice. When there's a strong female, the strong male counterpart isn't far away and vice versa: Castrol & Alvari, Furrante/Aldeys, Hazanui/Atsura and so on. Which was fair and cool imo. Is that different from our own history and current society? Sure. Does that make me uncomfortable? Absolutely not. Do I think that sales numbers had anything to do with this (in 2018)? Come on... Btw:

I didn't even know how Soulcalibur plays... had to google that.

I love those (sometimes silly) vindications of seemingly unfitting class combos. I really do... Makes me want to play one actually.

INT has an effect on Carnage. It changes the AoE size: Konstanten about to attack Edér (with 15 INT): Konstanten with 5 INT: You can use a mod mafe by @Noqn to add an AoE indicator to Carnage so that its AoE size becomes visible: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/448 It doesn't change Carnage, it just adds the visual indicator. Sneak damage has no effect indeed. Carnage is implemented like a spell basically. Cannot crit, too (that's why Blood Frenzy doesn't work with it, only Spirit Frenzy). But it scales with Power Level.

I loaded your save game and Twin Stones is broken. When I reload it briefly works (two lines appear an can get moved around me) and then it gets stuck in a fixed angle and I cannot release the spell. When I cast seomthing else the AoE indicator adds more lines. It doesn't get fixed like it used to with my druid savegame. AI can still cast the spell normally though! I made a test AI behaviour and let it cast Twin Stones on enemy sight. It does that without problems, while it shows more and more weird/fixed indicator lines which don't correlate with the direction the two stones are actually flying (see green lines by me in the screenshot below). Sometimes the charater gets those casting hickups (see combat log - were you have to cancel the action manually and then it works):

Nope. I started the game and loaded a save: Twin Stones was buggy. I quit the game, looked for files but didn't alter anything (and didn't close Steam either). Started the game gain and the spell was fixed. Just like that. I'm currently at music school with one of my kids. Will try to download your savegame later when I'm back home.

That's obviously not the case when pairing the Barbarian with a class that has good ranged abilities (like Ranger). The only ability that the Barb will have to pick and which he will not be able to utilize is Carnage - and unlike in PoE, Deadfire's Carnage is not very impactful anyway. Everything else will either work with a ranged weapon such as Frostseeker - or you simply don't need to pick it (like One Stands Alone or Interrupting Blows). Frenzy, Bloodlust, Bloody Slaughter, Blood Thirst, Spirit Frenzy and Blood Frenzy all work beautifully with a war bow at range. Barbaric Smash is a great finisher with Frostseeker, too (only "wasting" the Carnage part). Leap is great for a ranged character. Pair the Mage Slayer with a Ranger and you'll have a great spell disruptor. It's not what I would recommend every time - but it's an effective way to play a different Mage Slayer - and it's fun. If you use Effort/Hemorrhaging you can obviously do both: engage in melee and still apply spell disruption in an AoE (with shouts or any other class combo's abilities, for example a Troubadour's chant every 3 secs. So it's just your regular melee Mage Slayer with a little AoE twist which raises its usefulness towards mobs. If you use Instruments of Pain you can also use all your melee prowess but still be able to quickly take on casters at range - even over 10m if you decide to use a reach weapon such as Wicked Beast for example, which would also be a multihit weapon which would vastly improve your Swift Flurry procs, too; shutting down casters very quickly if not outright killing them. Deadfire can reward you for thinking outside the box. That also includes the barbarian class: a ranged Berserker/Streetfighter with Essence Interrupter is one of the strongest hirelings you can build for the early game (for helping you at the digsite for example). Of course you can play a great melee-only striker Barb (that's the assumed primary role anyway), too. But you are not forced to in terms of effectiveness. For an effective and thematically coherent strict melee Mage Slayer I would pick a Mage Slayer/Monk with Swift Flurry - and I wouldn't use Wahai Poraga but Sun & Moon + Mohora Tanga. A Full Attack from Stunning Surge would not only stun the enemy (= no casting for the foreseeable future) but also have a high chance of refund (3 attack rolls for potential crit right away), would apply three stacks of spell disruption right away (also 3* Carnage with huge AoE size due to Turning Wheel), if Mohora Tanga crits and applies Red Flag Flying it's even 4 stacks of spell disruption with the first attack. Then maximum chance for crit chains via Swift Flurry/HbD (because Sun and Moon's dual heads and Red Flag Flying potentially triggering Swift Flurry and itself(! loop over loop). Would be devastating against any foe but especially against single casters in the back rows. Drawback - can shut down your game if you get too lucky with Red Flag Flying (too many loop iterations and the game just closes itself). If I would want to totally exploit the Mage Slayer spell disruption I'd pick Effort + Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak and roll a Mage Slayer/Blood Mage with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure and then cast pulsing, non-damaging spells such as Binding Web, Slicken and/or Pull of Eora - after I used Spirit Frenzy. The invisibility will not get lifted as long as I don't deal damage, Effort's Hemorrhaging will piggyback on all crits I do (like from spell pulses), Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak's stun, Spirit Frenzy's stagger and my spell disruption would piggyback on Hemorrhaging again. I could stay invisible for the whole time A's Br. Departure lasts, casting debuffs and at the same time apply stun and spell disruption with those spells. And the stagger from frenzy as well as the stun from the cloak can trigger Hemorrhaging - which can trigger the stun ad stagger again (loop). I would immediately shut down all mobs with stuns except the ones which I cannot crit reliably (mostly bosses). Those may take a few secs longer. After the invisibility ends everybody (who's not superdefender_200) in AoE range would have 100% spell disruption, too. This loop doesn't shut the game down fortunately. The only things that suck are the thematic clash (I mean a wizard who's violently opposing arcane magic, eh...) and that the invisibility sometimes doesn't take bc. of my own friend-or-foe spell resistance. But as a Blood Male I could repeat the spell as often as I wanted (if enough health). Another minor drawback is that Blood Sacrifice lifts the invisibility, too (bc. deals damage). I wouldn't play it though because Mage Slayer/Wizard just feels so wrong. PS: nothing to do with Mage Slayer but Effort/Stalking Cloak: one can play a wizard/whatever with the great sword and the cloak, using Brilliant Departure + cc spell and have a friendly SC Druid with Entropy jn the party. Entropy only loses it's 3 "converting stacks" of 100% hit-to-crit if the converted roll deals direct damage. CC rolls don't substract from it. So the wizard could uphold an endless stun cycle on almost any enemy if the druid casts Entropy on them first. Entropy has no duration so it will stay on the enemy forever as long as you don't deal direct damage (pure DoTs like Insect Swarm or Disintegrate don't count as direct damage!). So as long a the wizard stays invisible his Hemorrhaging/stun combo will loop on the enemy because all hits will be crits. The occasional graze can be overriden with multiple attack rolls (pulses, spirit Frenzy piggybacks and so on). This can be used to stunlock an enemy for a long, long time. It doesn't lock MIG resistant/immune enemies - or ones with absurd defenses though (see Belranga right out the gates). Again: this loop doesn't shut down the game. It can create annoying sound effects though.

Whoa! Restarted the game, loaded my save game again that had the botched AoE indicator and suddenly that's fixed and works like before. What is this witchcraft?

The installation folder and its contends were not altered lately. Files that are stored outside of the Deadfire installation folder which got altered lately: .local/share/PillarsOfEternityII/ steam_autocloud.vdf (it's just a text file with an id, so nope) SavedGames/ the current save games + autosaves etc. (obviously this isn't the source) Achievements/ global.achievements - this is binary and it's global - cannot think of a reason why this should interfere with a spell and its workings, but it is global... .config/unity3d/Obsidian Entertainment/Pillars Of Eterninty II/ CurrentGame/ (well it's supposedly only for the current game run, but there's lots of stuff that got altered, too much to list it all, most of it binary. Some files' names stuck out to me though:) metadata.sav gameglobalobjects.lvl crosssceneobjects.lvl Img/ bunch of jpgs, nope... prefs (lots of configs from the game options but also a lot of options I don't recognize, AoE-UI stuff, too. I didn't see any suspicious values, like runaway numbers or so, but who knows?) Player.log (well its just a log that shouldn't influence the game itself - it's big but readable. Maybe some dev could find useable info there) NewsArchive.xml (it's just the stuff you see on the news window when you start the game. Why does it get altered every time? Noone knows...) modconfig.json (it's just the config of how you ordered and enabled/disabled your mods in the mod manager - why does it get altered every time you open the game? Nobody knows...) Lock (empty) Nothing else directly tied to the game got altered apparently. Of course lots of steam files were altered in the meantime - way too many to list them all here. Could this be an issue with Steam? I do not think so, but maybe if somebody has an installation that's not from Steam this could be properly dismissed. I could now try and delete some files in question and see if that resets the Twin Stones' AoE indicator (should the game start at all, hehe), but I'm a bit reluctant to do that while I'm still playing.

Before trying to download your savegame (it's behind bars) I quickly loaded up my own savegame of a current Fury run where I picked Twin Stones. As I said I used it about 5 times in the past and didn't use it for days. Just looked at the indicator and it's suddenly the two lines - which I cannot move anymore. They are fixed in direction, pointing to the bottom left coner of the screen at all times. Cannot cast either (clicking does nothing). So first piece of info: it's not Windows-related, it's also a problem on Linux. Didn't think it would be win-only but good to have confirmation. I assume we both use Steam? To be continued... Same discussion on Reddit:

PS: @thelee: your saveame isn't promptly accessible to download, I need to get access/confirmation first. Is that intentional?

Wow. What a mess. I also remember that Reddit post. I'm trying to understand how this could be happening when it's not tied to the saves' serialized data. Like what piece of data is stored where to mess with the game so badly and seemingly permanently? There is some config data in a shared folder that Deadfire will write to (not the installation folder, under Linux it's even a hidden folder iirc) and I guess that's where the (ugly) magic might happen. I could erase those files on uninstall and then reinstall and check. Only thing is: I'm doing a run right now and don't want to uninstall atm. I am using Twin Stones for the first time in my current Fury run (but only cast it about 5 times or so bc. it's just bad). I do not have explosion AoE indicators, but I think Deadfire never had those in the first place, (afair only PoE had) - because the boulders need to hit walls and only then do they explode (when other line spells would bounce back), unlike PoE's version where they just exploded at the indicators' location no matter what. I will download and check your savegame and report later today. Maybe it's not happening under Linux. If it does: also good info. I will also retrain and remove Twin Stones from my spell list forever.

Btw.: a Mage Slayer can also apply his spell disruption from range: use the great sword "Effort" with the Hemorrhaging enchantment and then use any ranged ability (spell, chant, shout) and crit with it. Hemorrhaging is a melee weapon effect. So the spell disruption will piggyback on Hemorhaging, too. In additition to that (and that' the crucial part that makes this ranged) : Hemorrhaging itself piggybacks on ALL attack rolls you do as long as you are holding the sword. Abilities that do multiple attack rolls with one action (such as Her Revenge, Storm of Holy Fire, Chillfog, Venombloom and so on) would be best to maximize the chances to apply as many spell disruptions as possible. If you add other gear that procs additional attack rolls from weapon attacks (see Hylea's Talons, Ring of Clenched Muscle...) you will add more chances to crit->apply Hemorrhaging->apply spell disruption That way you can even build an effective SC Mage Slayer who throws casters down/interrupts with Barbaric Roar/Driving Roar and also spell disrupts them in the process. use Frostseeker - the AoE explosion on projectile crit has a melee component which also triggers spell disruption. Frostseeker has 3 prijectiles. If each of them crits you will apply 3 spell distruption (or 75% disruption in other words) with one shot. Multiclass with a Ranger and using Driving Flight and Concussive Tranquilizer this is an excellent character for dealing with all sorts of casters. via Instuments of Pain - but I guess that one's very obvious Multi hitroll weapons (Sun & Moon, Saru Sichr, Wicked Beast, Mohora Tanga...) will apply a spell disruption with every hit roll (that actually hits). So those weapons are highly recommended for a Mage Slayer. Best is if they don't require crits for the multi-roll (Wicked Beast and Mohora Tanga are examples that only do multihits if the initial roll crits) but do additional rolls on graze and hit, too (Saru Sichr) or do always two hit rolls (Sun & Moon) anyway, even if the first one misses. I haven't tried Mage Slayer/Fighter who uses a mortar (ranged) in the main hand and tricks his way to using Clear Out (melee) with it. It could lead to insta-100%-spell disruption of the whole cone - but my suspicion is that it doesn't apply (bc. ranged weapon overrules melee ability so to speak).

Gave me goosebumps!

Thank you, too. PS: Next in line: making a build with the name "the Redacted".

No. It applies only to your weapon attacks (which are done with a single one handed weapon in the right hand).

Aha - I like to do that BotEP trick with a Geomancer or Arcane Knight.

I don't really know. I see the value in stripping Concentration or making really really sure you interrupt.

Yeah that can be true. I put a disclaimer on top of all builds so that it's clear that I mean it as an inspiration - and I left a lot of abilities without recommendation (which aren't necessary for the basic "gist" of the build) so that readers can adapt it to their liking. I hope nobody feels they have to stick to everything I did beause that's not what I want or suggest. I personally love Force of Anguish in this case - but I can see that other players might like stuff such as Torment's Reach more. I mean it is very good if you can generate lots of wounds like with this guy. And if you want to take this to a slightly different role where you engage mobs more than singular enemies (which was what I did) it could be the better ability in the first place. I also tried to spend some more wounds with Instruments of Pain (could for example skip Interrupting Blows and Rooting Pain easily for it) and then do Body Blows and Swift Flurries etc. from afar - but I didn't really use it then because it takes some time to cast+recover and that felt less fun to me in this case. Usually you'd also spend wounds for Thunderous Blows - but that's redundant bc. of Berserker Frenzy. Dichotomous Soul is never a waste - but again in this case it also didn't feel right to me. What felt right was going in hot, seeing out single casters and healers and then using FoA all the time (also playing with the direction where to push the enemies) and finishing with Hulk Barbaric Smash (often for free - amazing finisher imo). And I really, really do like my interrupts, so...

Yes, imo it's the best armor overall for him (deflection and relfex buff in combination with the Flanking immunity) - but if it clashes with one's approach towards the Principi something like Casita Samelia's Legacy (with maxed Intimidate - that skill also fits thematically) works well, too. Nomad's Briandine would be best if you want both high deflection and high AR. I would then take the AR passives as well - which I skipped with Gipon Prudensco.

@yorname I know, but I found myself not using it much. Same with Skyward Kick. I just feel that FoA is the best use of wounds with this build, interrupt, CC and good PL-scaling plus a little nice extra damage (see below). And since this build is short on ability points (bc. so many good ones to pick) I ended up not picking them up at all during my final run with this. And of course I need it because it targets fortitude instead of deflection. Skyward Kick does this, too - but the knockup effect annoys me so much because it makes the enemy untargetable for a short time which makes allies lose their "target lock" and sometimes waste their attack (esp. ranged allies). Force of Anguish doesn't have that problem. The pushing is cool imo - and I even forgot to mention the best part about FoA + Carnage: FoA pushes the enemy into the Carnage AoE before (!) Carnage gets rolled. That means that the enemy sufferns the normal weapon damage PLUS the Carnage damage on top. Carnage usually doesn't hurt the initial target, only the bystaders. And this is the only combo (besides Llengrath's Warding Staff + Carnage on a Warlock) which does this. So it's like a free raw dmg bonus on top which makes its single-target dps go up considerably. At the higher levels, epecially after getting Blood Thirst, you can spend wounds with Force of Anguish rel. quickly. If you mainly focus on taking out casters, rogues and other rel. weak foes you can kill pretty quickly and reset recovery, sprinting to the next one, repeat and so on. But of course: if you like Torment's Reach better it's def. a viable alternative. But I'd still keep Efficient Anguish at least until Brute Force is available - because you want to be able to pick your ability based on which defense is lower (deflection or fortitude).

Howler is usually not really about weapon DPS. On PotD difficulty I find it a lot more valuable that a Howler can debuff defenses "on the fly" with a weapon that has a great debuffing modal, Spirit Frenzy, Ben Fidel's Neck and Chants - and then combine that with great CC such as Killers Froze Stiff etc. The action economy is pretty great that way. And it deals reasonably good weapon damage, too. If you are searching for a Howler that deals potentially very high weapon DPS you could try Berserker/Beckoner or -Troubadour with Amra and max MIG and INT. He will kill his own skeletons with Carnage - which will trigger all on-kill effects for him. Else something like Berserker/Streetfighter with Pukestabber/Lover's Embrace or Stalker's Patience/Mohora Tanga is more destined for great weapon dps.