Boeroer

Hm, but Stalker's Patience is a really good weapon dmg-wise and there's even a pierce/slash spear as backup. I never use it als well... Maybe this video of Kaylon doing some poignard-magic with Gambit can motivate you : I can imagine that it's also real nice with a Rogue/Monk or Ranger/Monk and Swift Flurry. Azure Blade has some quirky enchantment that always applies for me: I seem to get the +15 ACC no matter where my party members are. Pierce only is annoying but I guess you can alwaya keep daggers in the second weapons' slot? I also seldomly use maces as well. Almost never. However - Magistrate's Cudgel with a Witch is quite hilarious, not only because stun on crit is great but especially if you meet lower-level kith enemies and have Blood Thirst. Bardatto's Luxury is a nice tank weapon - but I don't really feel the dire need for its enchantments. Right. But stuff like Rännig's Wrath's Insistence + small shield modal + Riposte is just fancy-fency as hell.

Well Maia also blindly supports the RDC, even assassinates some random people and nobody said that's a problem (so far).

No, not 10 seconds. It has no duration at all because usually it is dispelled on hit. Thus the duration with the grimoire exploit is infinte in the scope of an encounter. You summon it once and that's it. It will disappear once the encounter is over, not before. If you have DT and summon a Phantom it will also have DT until it disappears or dies. Didn't even think about the Helm of the White Void. I didn't test it so I don't know how it would work with the auto-attacks from DT, but it's worth a try.

You think? As I said: D:OS2 sold 5 million copies. Witcher series sold over 40 million (Witcher 3 alone: 28 million). Skyrim alone: 30 million. That's pretty insane. Baldur's Gate sold about 5 million copies by now (including the enhanced editions). If you mean CRPGs are only party based isometric titles for you then maybe you're right. Also D&D is more popular than ever it seems. That's not a CRPG but a TTRPG - but it also takes a lot of time. If you exchange CRPG with theater, opera, church, classical concerts and so on then I would agree. But I didn't do any research whatsoever - just a feeling. No idea about "high quality" literature since that's not really a finely outlined thing. However - nowadays more people are writing books than ever. Doesn't necessarily mean that the result is a higher quality on average of course. But stuff like Atonement, Oblivion and Gilead didn't seem to be so bad. Not that I read them. Wait... Atonement I actually did read.

@dgray62: Hehe no. You'll have a club + modal in the offhand and Draining Touch in the main hand. It's a nice setup because club+modal lowers Will by 25 points - and Draining Touch targets Will, not deflection. If you combine this wirth Miasma the enemy's Will is so low that crits become a lot more likely, thus leading to more Swift Flurry/HBD procs (and chain-procs). The last part I wrote so that players don't expect to be able to use DT in main hand and monk fist in offhand. Doesn't work. You will be single-wielding DT then (what might be something you didn't plan - hence I pointed it out just in case). DT + Tuotilo's Palm works normally like any other weapon and shield combo. DT is not really a fist though (technically it's a "normal" weapon, just summoned). So it wouldn't profit from Tuotilo's enchantments (like increase ACC with unarmed attack).

Ok, then let's just do some items that do 50% lashes and exclude Soulblade... 💆‍♂️

D:OS 2 passed 1 million sold copies in November 2017. It was released in September of the same year. That was the Windows version only. After that it came out for MacOS, Linux, XBox, Playstation and Switch (last release was Mai 2019). Fortnite was already very popular then. ~5 Million seems to be absolutely plausible and correct (read it like three days ago) and so may be the statement that the popularity of Fortnite can't be the sole reason for dwindling sales numbers of any CRPG. Afaik Deadfire didn't even sell 200K on PC (that's based on the return that investors got from fig.co). I don't know the current numbers - now that it is out on consoles. Funny: in the last few weeks PoE as well as Deadfire surged a bit on Steam again (ergo PC version). Maybe because of all the lockdowns and people having more time for games. CRPGs ususally take some time to dive into.

Lashes have to overcome AR seperately (what PEN do those lashes have?) so it can mena they are quity weak - but in general lashes are multiplicative and have the potential to be more powerful than additive dmg bonuses. Anyway: +20% lashes AND 10% additive dmg bonus on a ring does seem like a bit much (unless late game or really expensive to enchant). If it were something like "Pitfighter Gloves" or somethig that wouldn't feel as overpowered (because you can't equip two gloves like two rings and also because there already are good gloves for monks which would compete for the glove slot).

It is confirmed by the gods themselves that godlikes are mere batteries for them in times of need. They will put some of their essence into godlikes and if they need it back they will just drain them and they will die (body and soul). That is a very shortsighted assessment and also lacks empathy. Most children that were victims of abuse, neglect (Pallegina) or extensive mobbing (Pallegina) don't have physical problems when they grow up. Nearly all of them will be able to wear a helmet (yeah, that cheers them up no doubt, I mean imagine they couldn't wear party hats...). Yet most of them will deal with massive psychological problems. Pallegina now was even a lot more "deformed" than nowadays and her society and surroundings didn't make it easy for her. She had a beak and all around a more "birdish" apprearance. Only Giacolo could revert those features to the form she now has. Imagine a child with a bird face growing up nowadys, hurt her mother at birth, father like "Eh, begone ugly harpy!". On top of that she never can bear children. Would such a person have issues as a grown up? I mean the fact alone that some people can't conceive can break up marriages and make people extremely bitter. How on Eora can anyone cast a stone at her? At least she's not hurting other people (which would be common behavior - most of those children end up in "facilities" or even in jail - or end up like Durance). Being sarcastic and hating the ones who did this to her: absolutely understandable. Hating her own appearance: understandable. That doesn't help. Like telling sombody who lost his leg: "Now look, you could have met it even worse - like you could have lost BOTH legs. So cheer up!". When I was young my grandma always told me: "What do you complain? The poor kids in Africa have it so much worse!". Yeah sure, they do no doubt, but it still never works... Everybody copes differently. Besides that, Vatnir was said to have been seen as a messenger and phrophet of sorts ("To make things worse, Vatnir was considered a messenger from the gods, due to his appearance, and many looked to him for guidance and wisdom."). So maybe his childhood wasn't as bad as Palleginas. No neglect, no rejection it seems. A deeply hurt soul - especially in childhood - is much more likely to cause you troubles than a hurt body. Vatnir also hates that he is an Endings Godlike. When he talks to Rymrgand about "why all this suffering?" he's really, really pissed. Much more than Pallegina ever showed. The style of a filthy, lewd, pyromaniac and misantrophic hobo. He takes all his insecurity, grudge and anger and projects it outside, hurting people (at first not even really questioning his goddess) - while Pallegina mostly projects her anger on herself and the gods while finding purpuse with her order and most importantly the Republics. What has more style now? To that I agree. It's a stretch and not really understandable. As if I had foced her to do so (which I did not). It's confusing and scathing and a big reason to not like (and dismiss) her her right from the start. That should have been introduced and explained better (if she even had to be mad at you in the first place). Anyway - I really like Durance as a companion (would not in real life though) and am not overly invested in Pallegina in general, just playing advocatus palleginae (and also advocatus sawyeri ;)) here.

Fortnite can't be the reason for Deadfire to sell badly - because D:OS II (which was released after Fortnite) sold over 5 million copies right before Deadfire came out. Granted: it has an online multiplayer mode as well, so...

It reduces the duration of the self damage of SI significantly, yes. Last time I tried this with Berserker Frenzy and also Alacrity it didn't work at all. It seems that Sacred Immolation's self damage is not tied to the duration of the burn damage - while Berserker Frenzy's and Alacrity's self damage are both tied directly to the buff duration (tnd that doesn't get reduced by RES or Clarity of Agony of course). Maybe because Sacred Immolation isn't implemented like a buff on the character it can't get tied to the self damage directly. Just a guess. And it was right after release when I tried, so things may have changed. But I believe it's still like that.

I used it with a Chanter and Furyshaper with Bloodward. It seems Blood Ward doesn't have this limitation that Old Siec seems to have (which I didn't even notice in the first place). With both you can def. heal it out (I used it in combo with Inspiring Beacon, that might help as well). Yes, all the "normal" passive stuff is not enough to outheal it. At some point you have to use Lay on Hands, especially because you also receive damage from other sources as well. However, if you pile up a lot of RES and +x% hostile effects the self damage is rather short (if your INT is not superhigh). And of course you can use Barring Death's Door from a fellow Priest. All in all it's a missed opportunity that the devs didn't introduce a PL8 or 9 ability that removes the self damage or turns it into burn damage rather than raw (which would roll against DR and also could be used with the Scorched Cloak).

Ah yes, sorry, I misunderstood. Pollen Patch does trigger Lord of the Forest. Everything with the plant keyword does. Even "hostile" effects from enemies or friendly fire will trigger it (like Binding Roots, Tanglefoot, Venombloom, Wicked Briars etc.). I didn't test if a resistance to dexterity affliction (e.g. Wood Elf) + Tanglefoot would still apply the plant keyword that would trigger Lord of the Forest. Maybe not since Tanglefoot's affliction gets canceled by resistance - but may be worth a try. I didn't necessarily mean that the weapon types I listed are bad - just that I don't see them used a lot (when reading about builds and ideas and stuff). I think it's a problem with underwhelming (or very late) uniques indeed. The weapon types you see mentioned a lot either have very good or very cool uniques and/or come with very early uniques. Arbalest is a bit of an outlier because there's is Spearcaster which is great in my opinion, comes early and has a good modal. But as I said it has to compete with stuff like the Red Hand. I mean... yeah... that's hard.

Yes, it does stack with everything because it's coming from a weapon. Yes, it does work with Pollen Patch. However, Spine of Thicket Green would be even better for that. For a Druid it's easy to unlock Lord of the Forest because Form of the Delemgan and Woodskin will both trigger it. Form of the Delemgan lasts a really long time. For me Lance of the Midwood Stag is the only good option when going for a dedicated Decay Druid. But then it doesn't really fit thematically. Oh well... But still: I almost never see people talk about pikes here. I mean except Spirit Lance.

Debonaire + Cipher (especially Beguiler) is a good combo. You can almost guarantee a crit with Soul Ignition or Disintegrate on a charmed target. Best thing is that charmed targets don't flip back if you hit them with Disintegrate (or Soul Ignition). And should you run out of focus for whatever reason (like only few enemies left to hit with Deceptions): a Debonaire can still dish out high dmg Sneak Attacks like every other Rogue. Cipher combos I like: Furyshaper/Beguiler (the Horror): White Witch Make, Willbreaker Morning Star (modal always on), Fear Ward, Phantom Foes, Secret Horrors, Spirit Frenzy, Brute Force, Blood Thirst (among others). Lowers Fortitude and Will on single targets and in an AoE, builds up focus real fast due to Beguiler mechanics, disables lots of foes completely with the Fear Ward (Will debuff of Furyshaper gets balances out by Cipher's high Will). Morning Star and other debuffs make landing stuff like Disintegrate really easy - and once the Blood Thirst gets rolling... Also works well with Ascendant - especially Blood Thirst during Ascension. I just like Beguiler better - also because of thematical reasons. Main focus is debuffing Focus and Will. Forbidden Fist/Beguiler (the Dissolver): Forbidden Fist ability doesn't generate focus, so you need another source, hence Beguiler. With Community Patch (which "fixes" the ability so it generates focus) Forbidden Fist/Ascendant may be even better. Anyway: Forbidden Fist applies Enfeebled which not only lowers Fortitude by 10 (combine with Stunning Surge for another debuff of 10) but also prolongs hostile effects by 50%. Disintegrate is such a hostile effect. If you also crit your Disintegration will have a +100% duration. Ouch. You can make crits with Disintegrate more likely with a Morning Star + modal. But I like fists better in this case. Works with all other afflcitions, too. So if you hit a guy and then cast Whispers of Treason he's charmed for +50% time. Combine with Lingering Echoes and high INT (Turning Wheel) for absolutely absurd durations. Dominated Enemies will fight for you forever (kind of). Also dominating enemies doesn't cost much because Beguiler. I play it with highest RES possible, Tuotilo's Palm and add food and items that shorten hostile durations. Stalker/Soulblade: Takedown Combo + Soul Annihilation or Soul Ignition and Disintegrate. Unlike with direct damage, Disintegrate and Soul Ignition apply "pure" DoTs that don't cancel Takedown Combo. Still Takedown Combo applies its dmg boost to all the ticks of the DoTs, meaning those spells get +100% damage. Which is very good. Disintegrate and also Takedown Combo do target fortitude, so it's good to debuff that first (by party or yourself). I used a Morning Star myself again. Soul Annihilation + Takedown Combo is Overkill in most cases but really packs a punch against the big ones. This should also work very well with a Rapier since you can use it single handed + modal in the early game wich makes not missing with Soul Annihilation really easy. Later maybe add a Dagger or Stiletto for faster focus gain. You can get the Spider's Fang Rapier that is very good with Ciphers. I hear it's also very good on Monk/Ciohers. Hunter's Claw gives you plenty of ACC and more deflection, it's great. Helwalker/Ascendant: self explanatory it seems. Huge AoE, big damage, long Ascension, increased PEN through Thunderous Blows etc. Works brilliantly with mortars as well. Soulblade/Trickster: Offensive Parry from Whispers of the Endless Paths, Riposte Mirrored Images + Borrowed Instincts, max RES, pile up deflection via items and buffs. Blind enemies for reduced Accuracy and to unlock Deathblows. Offensive Parry and Riposte will fill up your focus quickly while you can strike normally, building up focus really fast. Then dump all the focus into a cone with WotEP+Soul Annihilation - Sneak Attack, Deathblows all apply. Rinse and repeat. You can spam Soul Annihilation all the time when fighting lots of weaker enemies who miss you in melee. Against single foes you can always switch to something with better single target damage - like Voidwheel or so. That class combo is also nice with Sun and Moon + shield instead of WotEP. Less parrying, bit the dual heads work very well with Soul Annihilation: first of all you get two chances to hit - and if both hit the first one applies the raw damage while the second already refills focus. Recently I have come to like the Psion more. A Troubadour/Psion for example can cast invocations/cipher spells nonstop. While phrase counter is refilling you can cast from focus and vice versa. Also Wizard/Psion ist pretty hilarious at some point: you make yourself invisible with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure and prolong it with Wall of Draining, then cast Cipher-CC powers from invisibility which don't break it (as long as no damage). A Priest/Psion can even cast Withdraw on himself; he can then emerge with full focus and health from the Withdraw. Not always useful, but a nice little synergy. Tactician/Psion could be nice because Phantom Foes will flank all enemies and the Psion's interrupt ability will restore Discipline if used wisely. Not so good in melee though since that will stop the focus generation. Go ranged with Penetrating Strikes I guess. Haven tried that one out yet though.

Crossbows indeed. Due to the the lack of them. I also think Arbalests don't get much love - although they are pretty cool in general and have nice unique. Well one nice unique anyway. I guess most players still don't fathom the power of interrupts (on highest difficulties). That being said: Arquebus is kind of the competitor to Arbalest - and there are so many ones (and the+29 ACC modal is also great) that it is kind of hard to pick an Arbalest over them. Especially if you are a Rogue or Ranger who can interrupt with abilities anyway. Pikes are also underused I think. Lance of the Midwood Stag is good but very... special - and Ngati's Tusk comes so late. Well if you count Spirit Lance in then maybe they are not underused at all. Most implements (Wand, Scepter, Rod) don't seem to get much love since Aloth's was nerfed (why???). Watershaper's Focus is great (really good - even after the nerf of Ondra's Wave) - but they still don't seem to appeal to that many players. Small Shields (besides Tuotilo's Palm) I almost never see used.

The self damage is pretty bad. From the top of my head is 35 (or was it 32?) raw dmg per 3 secs - which scales with Power Level and MIG. If unmanaged it will knock you out. Except maybe if you had high CON and low MIG and INT - but then the damage to enemies would also be bad and you would still be on the brink of K.O. Things that you can do: Exalted Endurance, Lay on Hands (on yourself), Voidward Ring, raise RES into the sky (shortens the duration of the self damage), use items and food with -x% to hostile effects duration. I believe even damage reduction from Cadhu Scalth and Death's Maw and such will help. You can pair that then with regenerating effects like Ring of Regeneration, Three Trolls Stiched or whatever. That way you can make it work. What also works beautifully (you won't need much else then) is if you have a Furyshaper with Blood Ward and/or a Chanter with Old Siec in the party. Every pulse of SI will then drain life from the enemies. If there's enough enemies SI will net-heal you even.

Rofl, you are really something else...

Entropy: It's 100% hit to crit which is cool and abusable - but 3 hits on a single trget in combination with the rather long casting and recovery time make it meh. I agree it's too weak for a PL8 spell which means you can't even achieve some sort of self-contained multiclass synergy with it (e.g. with Skald or with Swift Flurry, Stunning Surge etc). Wicked Briars? It's strong if you ask me. It's basically a piercing Chillfog with hobbling instead of blinding. About the same base damage (considering PL scaling) but more PEN (also considerung PL scaling) and it lasts longer. The Hobbled effect is weaker than Chillfog's Blind - but honestly I think that Chillfog is too good anyways. Can gain +3 PLs from Spine of Thicket Green, +4 if you're an Ancient. I also "stacks" with spells like Plague of Insects + Insect Swarm + Infestation of Maggots + Venombloom and it also works well with Combusting Wounds. Wall of Thorns: better than Wall of Flame imo? Blights and Aspect of Galawain: true. Especially Aspect of Galawain is ridiculously bad compared to some other summons. Fire Stag: you can abuse it with Darring Death's Door (or Lay on Hands of Shieldbearer), giving it unlimited uses of its pretty potent self-destruct. Maybe there is a solution to that where one could buff it while taking away that cheese. Nature's Bounty: potential party-wide buff of +2 MIG, +2 PER and +20% action speed for 30 secs (Alchemy works) - multiple times if multiple quick slots - is very good. But you are right that it's weird. I actually never use it because I simply don't like and use consumables. Maybe just giving every party member in the AoE the buff directly (but longer) would have been better. Bypassing that additional hassle of having to drink a potion. Sun Lance has dual damage which is quite unique. A tad more damage would be cool or more PEN (I mean it's a "lance"). Its range of 20 meter is rather ridiculous. Last time I checked it worked with Instruments of Pain, giving it an absurd range of 120 meters. So I suspect it's somehow tagged as melee which might lead to some obcure synergy effects. Maybe one could hint that in the tooltip or so if one doesn't want to remove that weirdness. While I'm against blanket buffs for druid spells I have other "problems" with certain ones: Taste of the Hunt: should be allowed for Shifters while shifted. It's a weapon-attack and not a classical spell. It also fits thematically with Shifter. No idea if that's possible but I guess you just have to remove the "spell" tagging. Wildstrike Frenzy: not enough reason to go single class when using Spiritshift. Would add higher lash or additive passive dmg bonus to be able to compete with multiclass synergies. Nature's Terror: the effect is cool, but the overall effect is weaker than Relentless Storm (mainly due to the rel. small AoE) - it is a tool for melee druids. Still it has the same casting time and recovery. If I had to choose if I cast a big Relentless Storm that stuns (even though it doesn't last as long) or a small Nature's Terror with frighten effect (which both take the same time to cast) I personally would always pick the Storm. It needs to be cast faster (have shorter recovery) to be a real competition to Relentless Storm. Touch of Death: the idea is nice but very narrow use case for PL 9. I would add raw damage if the target is not near death. Basically like Abjuration (if enemy has higher level: gets raw damage, else: destroyed). Would be ok for me if the raw damage is high enough to outright kill weaker enemies that are not near death. It's PL9 single target spell. It should be good to justify to give up Maelstrom which is effing ridiculous (-ly good) compared to Finger of Death. That way you could kill weaker targets that are not near death while it's still a great spell against bosses. I personally would also make it melee range (0.8 meters) and not 1.5. It's a "touch" spell for me, not a really long finger. I would also reduce casting time to instant like a fist attack. I would also add the auto-hit-feature like for Minor Missiles or Thurst of Tattered Veils. It's really hard to miss when simply trying to touch an enemy. Maybe somebody now says that's too strong, but you have to go into melee against a boss a single class Druid and you already whittled him down to near death. You could have cast a Maelstrom instead which is more useful in 90% of cases anyway. Tornado: compared to Maelstrom this is way too weak. Why ever take it? It needs something additional, something more unique that fits the Tornado theme that sets it apart from Maelstrom which is simply about dealing (massive) damage. Knock Up is not enough. Maybe pulling the enemies tightly together lilke Pull of Eora or something - or throwing them all over the place like an AoE-Force-of-Anguish or a Clean Sweep. Messing up their movements patterns pretty nicely. And shorter casting time! 6 seconds is ok for Maelstrom given the huge effects, but Tornado: should be faster. Sounds like power creep, but I think (SC) Druids deserve it.

It's okay if stated by an Orlan.

Jeez. He said he liked her accent. You responded to something nobody said or even indicated. Besides that: you are entiteld to your own opinion about Pallegina, but your characterisation is shallow and lacks empathy. Pallegina is like an exemplary mobbing victim. Abused by society, not wanted by her father, injured her mother at birth so she can't bear more children, can't have children herself. Of course she carries some loathing and has problems. I worked in a children's home for abused kids for 13 months when I was young. Couldn't sleep well until I became inured enough to not constantly think about their fate and what they went through. If those kiddos all turned out to be like Pallegina then that would be a great thing.

Huh? Stacking in Deadfire is even more unregulated than it was in PoE. In PoE you could only stack passives with actives and one item (except weapon). In Deadfire you can stack all item effects - like Bracers + Cloak of Greater Protection with Casita Samelia's Legacy, +2 RES pet and Entonia Signet Ring and whatnot. For the common player it's way easier to achieve high defenses values in Deadfire. On the other hand the afflictions are a lot milder in Deadfire, also due to resistances and inspirations countering them. As Elric said: with a Priest's Prayers it's a cakewalk in PoE, but for parties without priests (and scrolls) even a graze of an Adragan's gaze, a Xaurip Skirmisher's spear or a Lagufaeth Blowdart could mean the end. In every stage of the game. I mean holy moly did we get rants about Xaurip Skirmishers here... 😄

I think wood elf is totally fine. Resistance against DEX afflictions means hobbled is out, immobilized turns to hobbled and paralyzed to immobilized. Those are afflictions that annoy a mobile monk the most (besides other hard CC). Wild Orlan is also good because becoming frightened or even terrified is annoying as well. But the look is not everyone's taste. Human is also good because you will get bloodied no question. It doesn't really matter that much though.

Oops! I didn't even notice. 😄

I agree that I mostly use it in combination with Offensive Parry (not only does it increase dmg but it also unlocks Deathblows - if Paladin/Rogue - and lowers enemies' ACC). It has indeed long casting time and also longish recovery for such a short effect. Maybe that should have been addressed in the Community Patch (make it cast faster or give it longer duration). Exhortations as well.