Boeroer

For maximum HoF damage you want high INT (you want to reach as many enemies as possible), high MIG (maximize dmg per hit) and high PER (hit as well as possible and interrupt). DEX is not as important as for other builds because you'll be pretty fast with dual wielding, two handed style, Frenzy etc. already and Heart of Fury will take care of most of the damage (if you position yourself well). CON and RES are not that important. But note that a barbarian with dumped RES can get interrupted very easily and nothing is nore annoying as getting interrupted repeatedly while trying to execute Heart of Fury. So either have a Priest with Holy Meditation or don't drop RES too much. A somewhat balanced apporach would be I guess: MIG: 18 CON: 10 PER: 16 DEX: 08 INT: 18 RES: 08 But a few points here and there don't have a huge effect. It's just the general direction of stat distribution. You can easily shift some points here and there if it fits your character better without harming the general build idea.

I always do backstories "backwards": I'll come up with a mechanically interesting/fun concept and when it works I'll figure out a backstory that justifies the build choices I'll make. Example: I will build a SC Berserker focused on Vengeful Defeat, Effigy's Husk, Barbaric Retaliation and (cloned) Ring of Reset and then think about a backstory about a manic guy with a death wish who put on a cursed ring he got from his former wife who now is a Banshee so he can't stay dead but has to rise again and again. Like masochistic Romeo and sadistic Juliet - but without dagger, poison or family feuds...

I would do so as well. 1 Zeal and make the recovery redution an "automatic" FoD bonus for Brotherhood of the Five Suns Paladins (like White or Black Flames). It's nice if you can apply VV and Shared Flames with one attack (and let it have with the exact same duration and AoE as Shared Flames to avoid confusion). Sounds well balanced and intuitive enough. Pretty nice support Paladin that way. Wrath of the Five Suns can then be good with Eternal Devotion (will get the burning lash). I forgot: will the projectile scaling (with Power Level) also be adressed?

The highest defenses. You have to adapt your items to the encounter and wear stuff that boosts your defenses against such enemies. And use summons and if you can: mind control. Dragon fights become very easy if you can confuse/charm/dominate the dragon (and you can do that to all but one bog dragon). For me that's the reason why I hold Munacra Arret, Ring of Changing Heart and Spirit Spiral in high esteem. I find Wizard to be fairly good even in the early game due to Chillfog, early self buffs and Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff - which is kind of OP as an exceptional weapon with 25 base dmg and draining that early in the game. Barbarian with Firebrand is very cool in a party, but it's not that good against certain bosses and might struggle with late bounties. Although dual wielding Barbs with Ring of Searing Flames, optimized for max Heart of Fury damage are capable of wiping whole bounties with one use of HoF and some follow-up attacks (except Brynlod maybe).

Besides the rest of your VV-statement (which I agree with): usually you will keep the root ability if an upgrade increases the cost. Making VV an integral part of FoD (like Gilded Enmity is an integral part of Sworn Enemy for Goldpacts for example) would be my preferred solution as well. Difference is: VV's not an automatic ability (one just gets by picking the subclass) so maybe that's a problem.

You mean as isometric RPG with RTwP? Probably. But I'm pretty sure (given the success of The Outer Worlds, the work that went into the Pillars IP and what Feargus said several times) that they will use the setting for different games. Since the hours I'm sinking into Battle Brothers slowly pile up to meet the heights of Deadfire I guess my space-time continuum would simply implode would Obsidian dare to make a Battle Brothers inspired Pillars game. So... please make a Battle Brothers inspired Pillars game! It can be small no problem. "Some people just like to see the space-time continuum implode."

If you want to maximize tha damage of Heart of Fury you'll need higher INT. You'll also need a Ring of Searing Flames (or a wizard buddy). Accurate Carnage it's good enough. Carnage gains +1 accuracya per character level and thus can reach better accuracy as your initial attack. Accurate Carnage shifts this break-even point 5 char levels down. WF: Soldier Ruffian is the WF for sabres. Sabres are a good pick - especially Bittercut because it ahs dual damage (corrode/slash) and gets +20% damage from Spirit of Decay. Other good ones for a dw setup: War Hammers. It's mostly about maximizing Heart of Fury damage because that has the biggest impact. Savage/Stalwart Defiance Savage Defiance is only needed if party is limited healing options. Stalwart Defiance oly if you want to tank a lot. TWS yes Frenzy/Greater Frenzy Unless you are using fists (Novice's Suffering) I wouldn't pick Greater Frenzy. Frenzy itself is a no-brainer. Vulnerable Attack Very good for Heart of Fury - turn it off once HoF was executed Heart of Fury must-have Brute Force ? most of the time not worth the cost - unless you have hefty fortitude debuffing options in your party (wizard, druid etc.) Threatening Presence can be a death trap against enemy ciphers who have psychic backlash - you will get perma-stunned. So: watch out with that. You can't turn it off since it's a passive ability. Savage Attack I'd pick it at higher levels Eye of the Storm nope Barbaric Shout nope Veteran's Recovery good if picked early - not necessary with good healing options in party Things that can be good for dw barbs: Bloodlust (stacks with Frenzy etc. and often triggers after 1 kill already) Blood Thirst: one of the best abilites of a Barb. Less impact for a dual wielder than for a two hander barb, but still great. One Stands Alone: great to have - especially for Heart of Fury Blooded: good option at higher levels (when half of your endurance pool is still enough to be safe) Thick Skinned: combine with Blunting Belt als thick armor: makes you a lot more sturdy Dragon Leap: very good for landing in the midst of a mob and triggering Heart of Fury right away. Apprentices Sneak Attack: if you use a weapon that causes prone or stun on crit or if you use Threatening Presence or have a wizard/cipher/druid in th party then it's a nice dmg addition Aspirant's Mark: if you have not many debuffing option in the party this is nice for a barb Interruptiong Blows: also works with Carnage and can be nice to perma-lock enemies if your PER is already high and you have a good interrupting weapon (e.g. The Vile Loner's Lance) and high attack speed and maybe even Mourning Gloves later on.

It's a poison. I think it's the only one in PoE.

But that's nearly a 10% chance to do a free Full Attack just like so. It's still a passive after all. ACC == Deflection is an extremely conservative approach. Riposte is best against numerous weak mobs. When is enemies' ACC as high as your deflection if you are using stuff like Mirrored Image and accuracy debuffs (which I presupposed when recommending Riposte)? I mean sure: you have to build accordingly. But if a subclass is suited for Riposte then it's Trickster. Community Patch buff of Riposte is nice because it also allows non-deflection maxers to make somewhat decent use of Riposte.

It's practically useless with Turn Based mode because the miss range is basically non-existent. In RTwP it's a good passive for a Trickster/something if you use his deflection buffs and pair it with accuracy-lowering debuffs on enemies - even if it only procs occasionally: it's still a completely free Full Attack (without the -35% dmg malus by the way I think) and without any investment of Guile and action/recovery time. For example if you have a Priest with Desponent Blows and a Wizard with Miasma I would recommend taking Riposte.

I also had no problem with Miscasts. I even tried to use them as offensive tool when playing him as a melee witch - but it happens so seldomly that I just ignored it and didn't put him too close to any low-shock-AR party members - just to be on the safe side. But nothing too spectacular ever happened.

If you can pile up some other damage bonuses (like weapon quality for example) then MIG doesn't have that much of an impact after a while. Stats do make sense. But they don't have such an enormous impact anyway, so you're good. The early game feels easier with high PER because you will not miss/graze that often and you will be able to find all secrets and traps (early official companions don't have high PER). Since you chose Beguiler you already took the powergamer route, so don't worry. Also Ghost Heart + Cipher can be nice because you can drop the Animal companion right behind an enemy and then cast Ectopsychic Echo. By the way: Takedown Combo will apply its 100% dmg bonus to damage over time spells and not go away if the spell does no initial direct attack. So you can use Takedown Combo + Disintegrate and get +100% damage for every tick of raw damage. Which is already high. Very nice also: charmed enemies (Whisper of Treason/Ring Leader) don't become hostile again when you cast Disintegrate (or Soul Ignition) on them. So all in all: good combo.

I basically agree. But I think it's not as big of a problem for most players as you made it sound ("so much hidden crap").

What is normal PotD upscaled? By the way I don't use any rest bonuses and no consumables besides the most basic food on PotD at all - and I don't feel forced to do anything. But it sure is a bit annoying that there are "secret" buff wipes without any indication.

Yes .

Haha - no worries!

You mean the "Restore Minor/Major/Critical Endurance" spells from PoE? They were needed because spells didn't scale at all in PoE. That means that there had to be new ones every few tiers to replace the obsolete "weaker" versions from lower levels. In Deadfire spells scale with Power Level. So instead of having "Restore Minor Endurance" which doesn't do much as soon as you gathered some more max health you now have a basic "Restore" spell that scales its healing with Power Level. That's the reason. Multiple Restore spells became obsolete. A Priest can also get some more low-tier spell uses from items so he can cast Restore more often than 2 times. No idea why there are multiple version for the scrolls though. Maybe the scaling from Arcana wasn't strong enough for just one basic healing scroll. Also - like in PoE - Priests mainly fulfill the main buffing role, not the main healing role. That is done by Druids, especially Lifegiver (and not Fury obviously). Still Priests have some healing spells.

Right. Although I find SC Wizard pretty enjoyable even without any special gear I must say.

Yes, basically the same mechanics. If you are a Bleak Walker you can also get Spirit of Decay and get +1 PEN from Scion of Flame AND +1 PEN from Spirit of Decay for every FoD-execution. THey stack becauser FoD has fire and corrode keywords for Bleak Walkers. Don't know if it's worth the ability point just for FoD though because Druids have some "decay" spells but not really "corrode" spells. Also Ring of Focused Flames will still work when shifted and give your FoD attacks (and also Firebrand attacks should you use it and of course all fire-keyworded spells) +10 accuracy. That's a +10 ACC bonus for the FoD execution. Unfortunately it doesn't apply to auto-attacks or spells that merely get the burning lash from Eternal Devotion. I don't know if Wildstrike Burn is also affected nowadays..? Guess not. Usually a lash is not enough to make the Ring apply its bonus - attacks or weapons have to be keyworded with "fire". But I'm not sure. I saw a video of a Goldpact Knight/Bear Druid and the stacked AR (bear has +2 bonus, Paladin gets some great passives/auras and Gilded Enmity basiocalölöy for free once he has Sworn Rival) with 0 recovery is a great mix of sturdyness and offensive melee power. Totally smart question. Yes: they work when shifted. Corpse Eater/Shifter makes a lot of sense thematically. Blood Thirst + DoT spells like Plague of Insects and Insect Swarm (cast before shifting) is brutal. I would focus on the Corpse Eater's passives and Frenzy and maybe utilize Barbaric Smash as finisher with Bloody Slaughter. You will only regain 2 Rage (will cost 3) but that's better than no Full Attack ability I guess. Furyshaper/Shifter is a more potent choice. Terrifying ward is very powerful... Shifter/Streetfighter is nice, but you have to get flanked to make the most of Streetfighter. It can work but you have to watch out. I consider Trickster the better subclass for Shifter as long as you don't utilize blunderbusses/mortars as a Streetfighter (then it's outright overpowered). Of course Trickster/Shifter is thematically... special... Why do you think I'm still around?

Easiest way is solo Tactician/Rogue if you ask me. But wait... nobody's asking me, right?

As a Sage it's maybe the totally legit Flagellant's Path.

You are not dying. You are knocking yourself out. You are only dying if you receive 4 injuries. You can also get injuries via traps (not your own of course) which doesn't require a knockout. For example in the Sandswept ruins there are flames shooting out of the ground. If you touch them you'll get a "Serious Burn". Also Sigils of Death will give you an injury when they pulse. The kind of injury is determined by the kind of damage you receive with the last attack that knocks you out. If it is corrode damage (like with Necrotic Lance) you'll get an Acute Rash. If it's burn damage you'll get a Serious Burn and so on. Casting Necrotic Lance on yourself is one of the most convenient ways to get an injury whenever you want - without much fuzz. You can also hit your wizard with weapons and only finish the knockout with corrode damage: that's even faster. It's not very in-role behaviour obviously - unless you play a masochistic character or one with a death wish.

Maybe you didn't notice that as long as you haven't been to a place you have to access it via the "correct" route? That means if you want to go from Copperlane (first map you enter in Defiance Bay) to First Fires (map in which the Crucible Keep is) you have to take the western exit of Copperlane and the First Fire map unlocks. It's the same with all maps in PoE (and Deadfire). You can't just take the southern exit of a map and access the western map then - unless you have been there before, then it works. So maybe that's the issue?

Huh? But... I just told you the way...?