Boeroer

No - and I didn't change any of my browser/cookie settings. It's weird... yesterday the session ended as soon as I closed the browser. Just now I visited the forum again (first time today I believe) and I was logged out again. But when I clicked on "sign in" I suddenly was logged in again and didn't have to do anything. Edit: this is superweird: I now tested it again and closed the browser and opened if back up, went ot the forum site: it says I'm looged in (cool). THen tried to edit this post and the edit option is not there (huh? logged out secretly?). Reload the page and I'm logged out. I'm using 2FAuth - maybe that's causing a problem? No idea... I am also blocking 3rd-party cookies and use Disconnect to block third-party tracking - but there's only 1 content request from Microsoft and a bunch from Google afaict. In the past that didn't cause any problems with the login process. I can try without those and report. Edit 2: deactivated the Disconnect addon and now I keep being logged in. OKay, I can live with that. It's just weird that this worked in the past an now it doesn't. Is the session cookie from a different source now or something?

nope

Hi @SChin - it seems I now get logged out as soon as the session ends. Have to log in (with 2FA) all the time... Am I the only one?

I don't really understand. Blinding Smok is an enchantment of Serafen's Hand Mortar. I don't see how one could combine Xefa's Blunderbuss with Blinding Smoke. Blinding Smoke has an AoE in the form of a cone. It procs from a crit from Hand Mortar rolls (AoE crits included). You can proc a lot of Blinding Smoke cones with just one mortar shot (the more enemies the better). It is indeed devastating with Avenging Storm. That's why I sometimes use it in combination with Fire in the Hole (Chain Shot) on a SC Stormspeaker (Tekehu) or SC Druid.

Good question. Blinding Smoke counts as weapon attack (for example it can trigger Avenging Storm) - but I'm not sure if it also transports the properties of the Clear Out attack (pushing and kockdown/interrupt). Chain Shot (the +1 bounce for Fire in the Hole) does def. transport those effects (its AoE, too) so I think it's the save bet to use it over Blinding Smoke... I mean if you are only looking out for max. interrupts. Chain Shot is also the better option for damage per use of Clear Out. However - Chain Shot does not cause flanked when used with Clear Out while Blinding Smoke does. I believe a SC Tactician can harvest more Discipline from triggering Brilliant + fewer interrupt chances (Blinding Smoke) than he can from not triggering Brilliant + higher interrupt chances (Chain Shot). But I may be wrong. I didn't try and compare both weapons thoroughly enough to make a def. statement. Should Blinding Smoke transport the interrupting, too then I would use Blinding Smoke/Hand Mortar I guess. Then... in a party with enough potential to cause mass flanking (see Cipher with Phantom Foes for example) Blinding Smoke might be the inferior choice anyway because the disorienting/flanking effect of Blinding Smoke isn't really needed. So, it all depends I guess - as most of times with this game. Best would be to try both options during some proper fights, compare the results and then decide.

Clear Out does a primary attack only, so it is mandatory to hold the ranged weapon in the main hand and unlock the ability use with a melee weapon in the offhand (which won't get used). Whirling Strikes is a little bit different because it is a Full Attack and I think (like 63.5% sure) it doesn't matter in which hand you hold the ranged weapon.

Yes: Acina's Tricorn and Ring of the Marksman are two very good items for ranged combat.

That is what I hate most about Battle Brothers: that the music keeps on going even if the game is in the background. If it would be an option (in the game options menu or so): sure, why not?

Oopsy, I thought that was not so arcane knowledge. I knew this a long while now and even assumed I was one of the later persons to discover that.

Hi, sorry it took so long. First I was sick in bed (had a weird one-day fever that went very high and then just vanished ) and then the forum broke down for a bit. Anyway, what @thelee said basically. SC Fighter isn't very interesting in general because multiclasses with fighters fulfill most roles better due to nice synergies. And what makes some SC of other classes interesting is often some devastating damaging effect (Meteor Shower, Maelstrom, Whispers of the Wind and so on) which the Fighter doesn't have. That's not really a problem of the fighter alone: SC Rangers, Ciphers, Chanters and Paladins also don't have many fans. For me a SC Fighter looks appealing when I look at Clear Out and then either Clean Sweep or Clear the Path. And most often it's about debugging with a weapon modal (more me mostly morning Stars or clubs with the -25 fortitude or will debuff). For example I once played a hireling Black Jacket SC with high DRX and high INT who had a morning star setup, a mace, a club and a flail - so that he could debuff fortitude, armor, will and reflex with Clean Sweep in a wide area. This is very helpful for fellow AoE casters. I mean to drop a certain defense by 25 and do what Clean Sweep does at the same time is very nice. You could also do that with a multiclass and Clear Out. But it takes forever to get there and you will be confined to the cone - while the circular AoE covers so much more area. Yet... it's still pretty boring. I didn't even play the Tactician I mentioned above in a real playthrough. I merely tried out an idea I had and stumbled over the effect I mentioned above. But if you want to go SC Fighter I would focus on Clean Sweep or Clear the Path and try to combine an AoE weapon with it. This has a devastating AoE damage potential like a very powerful spell and also does good CC. With a Tactician something like Hand Mortar+Blinding Smoke would make a lot of sense because you can distract a lot of mobs (often all of them) and then not only get 1 discipline because you maybe interrupted an action but also because all enemies are flanked from Blinding Smoke. This might grant enough discipline to fuel Clean Sweep or Clear the Path a lot more times. Note that Clear Out and upgrades hit the first target twice. So even against single foes it's a good damage tool.

I think 20% raw lash is okay. I think for most ciphers who are not mainly into damage dealing, draining whip will always be the preferred choice - but on the other side of the spectrum: if you pick a Soulblade/Rogue or something like a Ranger/Ascendant with Frost seeker for highest acc and then pure bow damage (and don't even use the ascended stage for casting but just keep firing because your soul whip doesn't turn off but gives you extra dmg) Biting Whip is the correct choice. And then there's everything in between. 20% raw lash is a multiplicative damage bonus which works very well with all the other damage bonuses. So for a build with focus on weapon damage it seems like a must. But I don't think that making it even stronger would convince me to use it - because I personally almost never use (non-Soulblade) Ciphers as damage dealers primarily. Well, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask in the first place since I found myself first drawn to Beguilers and now Psions - subclasses for whom Biting Whip is not optimal (or not even available). So I'm clearly in favor of Draining Whip anyway - no matter how much damage Biting Whip did (exaggerating). So for me it would have to be so tempting that it would be objectively unbalanced.

I meant a fighter instead of the rogue - because you said that he's too squishy. Positioning is easier of course if you add weapons/abilities with more range - and be it only for backup, as an alternative option for these situations where you cannot reach enemies properly. For example give the Rogue a pike or quarterstaff - or a bow. Besides that there's not much you can do. You could use Escape from the Rogue to get behind enemy lines - but since he's squishy he won't survive that I guess. Fighting in the open is usually less effective than using choke points so that enemies don't reach your backline too easily. I'm afraid more range is the only viable option at the moment.

You can use the tab-key to autocomplete the commands. That helps preventing typos. Like: attri<tab> play<tab> mig<tab> 20 This should complete to: AttributeScore Player_<your player name> Might 20 You can press tab multiple times and the console will cycle through the options that match the first letters you typed. Hope that will help you.

Seems fine. If you want to retrain to 2handers later that is of course possible. Good classes for the early game to hire as adventurers are Fighters, Monks and Rangers because they have the highest starting stats. I'd say Fighter is the most solid choice. Doesn't go down easily and does good damage because of the high accuracy (doesn't miss much). At the same toime requires little micromanagement.

I did a playthrough with an offensive-minded Goldpact Knight who used the summoned flaming Great Sword "Firebrand" a lot. It's pretty good for a Paladin who invests in his "Flames of Devotion" ability. You can get two items (a pair gloves and a belt) rel. early that allow you to summon that Greats Sword which is made of flames 6 times per rest. as backup weapon you can pick any two handed weapon and also pick the fitting weapon focus for that backup weapon type. Firebrand is universal, meaning it works with any weapon focus. Another very good approach is to go Darcozzi Paladini and pick Inspiring Liberation, use Zealous Focus and Coordinated Attacks and then first use the Spectacular Spetum (early pollaxe) which has the property "marking". And later add the Blade of the Endless Paths to your arsenal (estoc, also has marking). Marking makes it so that a party member who is closest to you and attacks the same target as you gets +10 accuracy. This stacks with Coordinated Attacks which does the same - already +20 accuracy for your buddy. Add Inspiring Liberation which stacks with everything, too and your firend already has 30 bonus accuracy which is huge and extremely useful against tough enemies such as bosses (like dragons for example). Add the bonus accuracy from Zealous Focus and it will be very hard for your party member to miss at all. This is very impactful if you pair your paladin with your best damage-dealer or disabler. Your paladin himself won't be the best (but decent) damage dealer, a good offtank and amazing support.

With Berath's Blessing +2 to all attributes that's fine I think. Entonia Signet Ring (but it only works if enemies engage you, not the other way round) is a good ring for defense if you go into melee - and yeah, Boots of the Stone.

Solo Priest is a challenge in the early battles, similar to a solo Wizard but even more difficult - even though the Priest gets a little more deflection. The low level spells of a Priest are not as fitting and impactful for a solo playstyle as some of the Wizard are (thinking about Chillfog, Parasitic Staff etc.). Solo bear cave with a Priest is suicide at low levels, no matter the build idea or attributes. As @Chaospread said one should avoid battles at that stage and come back later.

Flanked causes "only" -10 deflection, -1 AR

I you plan to use a Berserker/Streetfighter at range then of course a more squishy build is easier to maintain because it doesn't get attacked so much. I was thinking about melee. I must say that while a Berserker/Streefighter with Essence Interrupter is very good in the early game it tends to become a bit boring later on. Melee is more interesting in this case (imo). SO I think retraining would be good later. But you cannot retrain attributes so I personally would still invest in CON - although you won't need that with a ranged early game and it will actually prevent you from becoming blooded from one Frenzy cast (because in the early game the self damage is low but the health would be quite high). Once you pick "Blooded" on the Berserker you can always see once you hit <50% health which is a rel. convenient indicator. Also your Streetfighter passive will change from "Looking for a Fight" to "Heating Up" as soon as you get bloodied. And then later there are items that activate when you get near death which would add another indicator for your health even though it's concealed. So while it's not possible to see the actual health number it's still possible to (roughly) know how much health there's left. Sure - I recommend Morning Stars: great synergy with the Morning Star modal "Body Blows" and the Berserker's Brute Force, also the 2 (cood) unique morning stars in the game don't come late. Pollaxe would also be cool. There's a nice soulbound pollaxe with a lightning/storm theme that's obtainable early and works well with Barbarians. Both Morning Star and Pollaxe have the advantage of dual damage types and good penetration.

Berath/Rogue with Spiritual Great Sword is cool imo. Also I once made a PoE Priest build with Tidefall - so for me that's a nice fusion with a dash of nostalgia. Spiritual Great Sword - fully buffed through peak disposition scaling (= picking the right dialogue options to boost stoic and rational) gains a potent lash (multiplicative damage bonus) which works very well with the Rogue's additive damage bonuses (sneak attack and so on). For a melee Rogue Streetfighter is always nice. But if you want to initially cast and then go into melee you have to keep in mind that the Streetfighter is slower (=has longer recovery) than a regular Rogue as long as he's not flanked or blooded. Both is usually not the case at the beginning of a fight. So your recovery time will be longer which will make your casting slower. Assassin sneaky dude + Berath doesn't really fit thematically imo. Although mechanically the +25 accuracy from stealth and invisibility works pretty well with some offensive Priest spells. Trickster also doesn't seem to be a great fit thematically because Berath being stoic and rational while being a "Trickster" implies all sorts of non-seriousness. But mechanically it's a good combo. The illusion spells of the Trickster help a lot with being more sturdy, the Ryngrim spell fits Berath imo - and the downside (slightly lower Sneak Attack damage) is barely noticable, especially after a few (Power) levels. Debonaire: eh no vanilla Rogue: why not? No upside but also no downside. And the nearest to a PoE1 Rogue. I personally would pick the Trickster I think - and then "justify" the weird subclass combo with some internal explanation as to why this Trickster is a rational and stoic one.

Cool, I downloaded and installed it.

Hm, I can't think of anything at the moment. Maybe: if you dump CON because you don't plan to get attacked lot you might as well completely commit to the way of the glascannon and dump RES, too.

Cool, I downloaded and installed it.

I think a crazy minmaxing approach would not be fitting when it comes to attributes. What's really frustrating with Soul Annihilation is that if you miss the attack all your focus will be consumed anyway. That's not a problem later in the game with all the buffs and gear improvement etc. - but at the begining it can hamper your experience with a Soulblade. So I suggest not to drop PER too much - or use a single weapon for the first levels. I also wouldn't drop DEX too low as you said. Being super sluggish (especially with thicker armor and no class abilities to really speed you up) isn't much fun as well. MIG doesn't need to be superhigh imo. RES gives increasing returns for your deflection (and of course also shortens hostile effects' duration on you) - and if you want to emphasize the Offensive Parry and make it a central part of the build you need every point of melee deflection you can get. That includes RES and abilities but also items such as Cape, Bracers, rings and also armor. There are some armors that grand deflection bonuses, like Casita Samelia's Legacy (requires to max the Intimidate skill which fits a Steel Garrote imo), Gipon Prudensco (also can add an immunity to getting flanked iirc which is like a +10 deflection /+1 AR advantage against mobs) and Nomad's Brigandine (like Gipon Prudensco can also have an immunity vs. disengagement attacks which can be used to force melee misses when disengaging which leads to Offensive Parties). I wouldn't drop CON because you will still be hit by ranged attacks, spells and the occasional lucky roll - and also your fortitude defense shouldn't be too low. But it doesn't need to be high either. INT is of course important for aura range, durations and cipher powers. Also for the size of the WotEP cone. If it's too small it's not as much fun in combination with Soul Annihilation. So all in all a quite balanced distribution of attribute points I would say.

See above. If you go for high CON and have a decent healer it is manageable. Do not drop CON and max MIG though. This will make you extremely squishy at higher levels. the Berserker's self dmaage scales rather steeply and it also gets influenced by your own MIG. Streetfighter/Berserker gets lots of damage bonuses, high MIG isn't even noticable with weapon damage - so you might es well leave it at 10 (will get +5 from Frenzy anyway). High CON sounds suboptimal - but it really helps in this case. Barbs have a bigger health pool from the beginning so that works well with the bonus from CON. Last time I ideed maxed CON on a Berserker/Helwalker (same problems as Berserker/Streetfighter, maybe even more so) and also used Tough (the passive ability) and a Greater Amulet of Health. It made a hell of a difference (related to babysitting) compared to low CON/high MIG. I know raising CON isn't popular (I also usually don't) but in this case I recommend it. Of course Barring Death's Door and lots of constant healing also works. Then you can make that guy a complete glascannon. But that's a lot more micromanagement.