Boeroer

Given that the Outer Worlds had an semi-exclusive Epic deal I guess it did very well financially. There are no Steam sales for it yet - that's still to come.

Check out this list in the wiki: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_enchantments#Spell_enchantments It has all spell enchantments and more spell effects. Most useful for (Wannabe-Wizard Rogues with AoE spells) are in my opinion (the green ones come fairly early or can get rushed, the orange ones mid game) : Tlauntain's Staff (3 Fireball, Act 3) The Flames of Fair Rhian (3 Fireball, Endless Paths lvl 11, need to siphon knowledge from Maerwald's soul first) White Crest Armor (1 Dancing Bolts, 1 Overwhelming Wave, WM) Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (1 Torrent of Flame, Act 1) The White Spire (3 Blizzards, mid Act 2) Ring of Searing Flames (3 Combusting Wounds, random loot) Animancer's Boots (3 Jolting Touch, end of Act 2) Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath (3 Sunbeams, beginning of Act 2) Amulet of Summer Solstice (3 Sunbeams, mid Act 2) Rotfinger Gloves (3 Touch of Rot, 3 Spreading Plague, beginning of Act 2) Bittercut (3 Vile Thorns, 1 Infestation of Maggots, WM) Those all (except Combusting Wounds and Maggots) work with Deathblows. There are many more and I would swap items out if their per-rest uses are depleted (until nex rest). That way you can build up a pretty good arsenal of spells. You can duplicate an item with the Helwax Mold (for example Flames of Fair Rhian and then dual wield it for 6 Fireballs per rest). White Crest Armor + White Spire looks very nice together. Also check out Spell Striking and Spellchance items on that wiki site. For example Azureith's Stiletto (Act 1) and Bleak Fang (Act 3).

Hehe. Actually I do use summons - just not that one. The -5 PL and the alternative spells at that tier lead me to not taking this.

Useless when solo: mostly I guess since all melee will attack you anyway. In a party it can be very important.

I can't say anything: never used it.

You mean pike I guess, but yeah: I think that's correct. Although I had the feeling (but didn't investigate) that I could engage a but further with WotEP - which has a bit longer reach than the usual melee weapon (1.2m vs. 0.8m). But I never saw enhanced engagement capabilites with the "real" reach weapons like pike and quarterstaff (which have 1.8. range). Also you def. can't engage over several meters with Instruments of Pain. That would be so devastating...

I think it's more a matter of "DLC expands the main game" vs. "DLC is like a small sequel". For players like me who tend replay RPGs a lot the first one is actually nicer. For players who only finish the game once the second variant is a lot better. I believe players who prefer the second variant are the majority but I can't say for sure. PoE did increased the level cap with its DLCs (and introduced more talents and abilities), Deadfire did not. The latter is easier to do because you don't have to design and implement a whole lot of new abilities for the additional new (power) levels.

You made a typo and put a post in here that reads as if you wanted to tell me which games I should or shouldn't like. So I guess we are even.

I simply didn't use hard-CC invocations but damaging and debuffing ones (Shield Cracks, Fen Fidel's Neck and most notably White Worms which is ridiculous if you can cast it often - like a Skald with Offensive Parry who can generate phrases while casting his invocations). That way you can dish out damage non-stop while being tanky and gaining phrases passively from parries and singing. Of course that Skald is not about crowd control then.

Afaik the reach of a weapon doesn't increase the reach of engagement. But maybe it does and I never noticed. An Tactician/Trickster can have: +1 (spear + modal or any shield) +1 (Hold the Line) +2 (Kapana Taga - also immunity to flanked which is great for Tactician) +1 (several armors like Blackened Plate or Reckless Brigandine - the latter also gives a speed bonus for every engaged enemy) +1 (several helmets like Blackened Plate Helm) +3 (Defender Stance) +1 (Persistent Distraction) +1 (Maura's Grasping Belt) +1 (Sailor's Berth in King's Coffin or similar resting bonuses) = 12 non-cirumstancial slots in theory. Maybe I forgot something. You can get more with stuff like One Dozen Stood armor (Hold the Bridge enchantment), but those are fiddly and not worth it imo. Usually I can't manage to engage more than 6 due to limited space. Most of times 5. It depends on the space the enemies take. Smaller enemies (like Xaurips and kith) are way better in this case. If you are immune to engagement yourself (e.g. Nomad's Brigandine) it might be a lot easier to position yourself better to engage as many as possible. Escape also helps of course.

The AoE: yes. Also Swift Flurry/HBD does nothing as I had to find out with a Shattered Pillar/Skald (although was still good). But with Offensive Parry you are "riposting" enemies attacks. You can get phrases if you crit with parries even while not attacking (like for example while casting an invocation).

Right. I still think it's not a bad game at all. I am very special in my taste of computer games. It can't be classified. Although I might buy several games during a year I tend to only pick a few and play them for a very long time. Thus, my experience with games is rather deep than broad. I can't recommend any other "classical" CRPG titles atm. Games I played not too long ago and that I like a lot: Faster than Light PoE Deadfire Battle Brothers Slay the Spire Legend of Grimrock Skyrim As you can see it's pretty mixed. I'm really looking forward to Death Trash though! I also wanted to play Eitr (for several years now), but those devs dropped the ball so hard I really don't think this game will come out any time soon (with decent quality). Death Trash is done by a single dev from Berlin and he's putting out info via Twitter on a (nearly) daily basis - so that's going to happen soon I think.

"humble" 81% lash.

War Caller does very well with Whispers of the Endless Paths and Offensive Parry. Offensive Parries can crit and those crits can generate phrases. You just have to make sure that your deflection is very high and that enemies ACC gets debuffed. If you then "tank" a bit with Disciplined Strikes and Refreshing Defense (and the Knights Shield phrase for example) you'll get some phrases pretty quickly via parries. If you use an Unbroken and stack some engagement slots you can also play with Terrify + Disengagement Attacks. E.g. when using White Witch Mask. Disengagement Attacks have a high crit chance and also do create phrases. The standard melee weapon for a Skald is indeed Sun & Moon because you'll get 2 chances for a crit with each strike. Keeper of the Flame: don't think the AoE creates phrases (would be cool) - they are considered ranged attacks and thus don't work for a Skald. One could check of Chilling Grave from Grave Calling counts as melee attack rolls. Togehter with Ancient Brittle Bones that could lead to a ton of crits. Never tried that though. Scordeo's Trophy sounds like a good idea if you want to attack with Sun & Moon only. Usually it takes some time until all enemies reach you and you can get of a few shots, only then cast your first invocation. Scordeo's Edge is also very good for the +20 ACC from adaptive (and the occasional Blade Cascade). I never managed to proc the spell effects that should come with a Whale of a Wand.

I personally would remove the "flanked" effect from all PER afflictions. It's the only affliction-stack that includes two afflictions in one and thus immediately unlocks Deathblows. This would solve several problems. Not only the Persistent Distraction problem but also Streetfighter/Blunderbuss cheese, insta-unlock of Deathblows and so on. Flanked should be reserved for actual flanking and spells like Phantom Foes (where enemies indeed think they are flanked). If the PER-afflictions feel too weak after that simply raise their numbers.

It was okay. I played it twice but then had no motivation to play it further. I liked the spell system - I mean ability to "craft" spells from indivicual effects. It was a bit rudimetary but I liked it nonetheless. I also liked some of the characters and that the game is (kind-of) classless. The story felt superrushed at the end. I really (really really) don't like cooldown systems since they encourage you to pick as many actives as possible and spam them mindlessly to avoid ability-downtime. That spoils the whole game for me. Also there were some very powerful builds while the rest was okay. So the balance of abilities/spells and ability trees was pretty bad. That also reduces the replayability for me.

I just tested it and suppression via Slayer's Claw doesn't give wounds.

Arcane Knight is a good solo combination. But I would strongly advise to pick Bloodmage (wasn't a thing in 2018, it's a rel. new subclass) - because as solo char you will be always short of spell uses, especially in the early game. Bloodmage solves this with Blood Sacrifice. Paladins can get back Zeal by killing foes (Virtuous Triumph). I would also not recommend Bleak Walker because a bit more spike damage from FoD doesn't make a lot of difference when going solo. Something like Steel Garrote (draining health via melee weapon damage) or Goldpact (high AR) is much more effective for a solo Arcane Knight. I agree that it's best to sneak around Gorecci Str. and the central digsite. You can do the skeletal warriors in the catacombs of the arena but it's also quite tough. Once reaching Neketaka - as AeonsLegend suggests - it all becomes much more relaxed (if you don't force yourself into fights with overleveled enemies). The only thing that really screws an Arcane Knight is Arcane Dampener. So watch out for enemy casters trying to cast that. Interrupt (e.g. FoD + Arbalest/Crossbow + modal or cast Thrust of Tattered Veil) or kill them before they can finish the cast. Else all your selfbuffs and healing will be gone for a long time - you will not be able to refresh them as long as Arcane Dampener is active.

Isn't the raw lash from the fighter branch (and only when he's alone)? Paladins get hostile effects suspension on kill from Slayer's Claw afaik. But for a Forbidden Fist that might actually be even better? I mean if suspension of hostile effects gives you wounds (does it?).

Persistent Distraction is indeed a passive so that might explain why its deflection malus stacks with any other deflection malus in the first place (which normally - when looking at active effects that should not be the case). Persistent Distraction is one of the few passives that use afflictions - maybe it just slipped through the net. With other passives (for example Reflexive Mirror) they made sure it wouldn't stack with the same effect from actives (in case of Reflexive Mirror: it doesn't stack with Mirrored Images or other active deflection bonuses). Also Confounding Blind's deflection malus doesn't stack with the deflection malus from the Blind/Flanked effects since usually both are active affects (applied by actuve abilites). Bring Low is a "passive" weapon effect (you don't trigger an ability from the action bar yourself) and those should stack with everything afaik. Another example for obscure stacking rules. It's a lot better than in PoE but still not very clear.

That's a good idea I think.

It's a nice game and I'm happy that it did well. But I have to say it's not a game that I personally enjoy very much. Sometimes I back or buy games although I know I'll most likely never play them (or only look into them for a few hours). Just because I like the approach or the idea.

That would be my apporach as well: make less "bombastic" games (Full VO, ridiculously elaborate VFX, localisation for xyz and whatnot) with a small but dedicated team, concentrate on the worldbuilding, the story, the companions (less the relations and reaction systems and all that difficult stuff but rather their character development) and nice abilities. Keep the engine and the underlying mechanics (they are nice, maybe cut down the exceptions), graphics are absolutely fine as they are. I'd even like simpler ones (not that D:OS comicy-style though). Indeed Josh is currently working on a small project with 4-5 team members. It's some non-violent game so I presume it's not a classic CRPG but maybe something more along the lines of Disco Elysium or such, but who knows. Josh said that it's a good time for smaller projects now because Microsoft wants to have a broad and diverse portfolio for the Game Pass. They found out that lots of people try out much more games outside their "niche" when they can try them for free (not really, but basically). So Microsoft encourages smaller projects as well. This may be a chance for a PoE3 with a smaller team. At least I hope so. This niche may be small, but the players in it are also quite loyal and invested once they like something. They need to do better ports for consoles though. I won't ever play such games on any console, but the bigger sales market makes it easier to justify producing such games in the future. Josh also said he'd love to make a Pillars of Eternity Tactics game. Feargus wants to make Skyrim on Eora. So I'd would be very surprised if we won't see more of that IP in the future. Heck, I'd even buy Slay the Spire on Eora. Card Deck builders are rel. easy to make, can be released on all platforms and usually sell very well.

The number was deduced by people who took the returns, researched the fig terms and finally said it's not exact but gives a fair approximation. As I said that was some time ago. I didn't dive into the details. It was confirmed by several Obsidian devs, most notably Josh Sawyer, that Deadfire sold way worse than PoE. And PoE sold somewhere around 1 million copies at that time iirc. That doesn't sound like 700k at all. It was also said that Deadfire wasn't a financial desaster but very disappointing. If you assume a certain budget (let's say double the fig campaign's amount) and assume 200K copies then it may have covered the expenses. But of course then you have gained nothing for budgeting your next game. Tyranny was a similar story. It hurts. Both are not bad games in the slightest. It just seems the niches were too small. Which is unfortunate because it's exactly my niche.

Of course raw dmg. Then you can hit yourself with Killing Bolt first.