Boeroer

You can just sneak past the looters with one companion and then go to Ilari and initiate dialogue. For only 40 copper the quest is resolved and the looters are friendly. There is no need to fight them because a) they are superhard and b) they don't give you anything special when you kill them. It may be cool to try as a challenge but I wouldn't come back to them just because of that.

Gallant's Focus gets suppressed by most other active accuracy boosts. It's not worth it in my opinion (unless you have no other source of ACC boost at all). You can charm one of the dragons with Munacra Arret and/or Spirit Spiral (the other one is immune iirc). Both give +10 ACC on Whisper of Treason. Ring of Changing Heart can dominate, but is has no ACC bonus. Charming one of two dragon helps immensely because most enemies will usually fight that dragon over you and you have a lot more time to do you stuff calmly while the charmed dragon gets butchered. Charmed dragon is the best summon.

Speaking about direction: Don't know if it helps other players, but I feel a lot more motivated if I not only discovered a cool synergy/build recipe but am also able to put it into some thematical perspective and have some sort of idea who this character really is (and was). Just steering a min-maxed robot through the game is not that much fun for me. So for example when I played my first Warlock (Berserker/Wizard) whom I wanted to equip with all the Rekvu gear and Grimore of Vaporous Wizardry (nuking myself with Combusting Wounds and all the other fire spells and also Slicken while tanking foes) I thought about "Why is this guy always injured with a Severe Burn and burns himself willingly all the time?". And when I had some sort of a coherent id and "story" it was a lot easier to pull through - even if the early game is often particularly bad if you are following some weird mechnical synergy that only comes online later in the game. I once even could finish a playthrough just because I saw that a certain gear/race/skin combination looked like a Draugr from Skyrim. So I decided to play a guy who believes that he's an undead vessel. It worked even though it was silly initially. I don't say that you should play that - just that some idea of "who is he?" does immensely help with direction so that you don't get lost in all the possibilities like "is this weapon better or that one?". Usually the generel idea about the char dictates which weapon is better - and I don't mean mechanically. Like that Draugr would have looked stupid with some pristine weapon like the Voulge. It had to be something more shabby or ancient looking. Like Dire Talon or Gladiator Sword + Bronlar's Phalanx or so. I once played a Huana Mataru (Unbroken/Trickster). He wore the Reckless Brigandine, Cadhu Sclath, Kapana Taga and White Witch Mask (looks super-hauana-ish). It was no question which items and abilites he needed. It was also no question which faction I followed and so on. Did the same with a female Mataru but SC Devoted with the same armor but "deserted" and sided with the RCD, killing the queen, taking her headgear, using Toughened Fury and Mob Stance and such. It just helps to not get lost in all the possibilities. It's like restricting yourself but for a good reason. Other ideas for another playthrough then (or a companion, sidekick or hireling). It is a Role Playing Game after all.

Nice 👍

I tested them all yesterday night. The one Dawnstar is indeed hanging at 100% recovery all the time. I read before that Wael's Incarnate is bad (maybe because it's squishy and can't tank?) - but it has a high rate of fire with those shocking bolts. It's like a turret with popping eyes. But yeah: maybe less effective than a properly setup Essential Phantom (which doesn't drain you 5 PL and is PL4).

Konstanten and Fassina can hook up and it's pretty sweet (coming from somebody who usually groans and yawns when romances in games come up).

As I said I didn't dive into it. We can never know the figures unless somebody confirms them. In the end it doesn't really matter how many copies were sold. You could give away 500k copies for free and gain nothing. The game has to make money. And I think there's no doubt that it didn't perform well since that was indeed confirmed several times. As to the question "why?": even Josh and Obsidian are unsure why - with all the telemetry and tools they have. They can only speculate as we do. But maybe the console sales will lift it into realms where another sequel would make sense. Also because of game pass etc. Let's hope so.

We had reach weapons with higher engagement radius in the PoE beta. It was very messy. Enemies that walked up to your front line got engaged by the backline and suffered tons of disengagement attacks while trying to reach somebody in the frontline. Deadfire's Disengagement Attacks fire a bit more conservatively (e.g. not if you run parallel/closely around or towards the engager) so maybe it could work if the engagement radius is not significantly higher (like 2m or so would be too much already I assume).

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.