Boeroer

Keep in mind that all those "attack speed" effects only apply to recovery. Always. Be it armor penalty or bonuses like from Deleterious Alacrity or dual wielding etc. So a Wizard in plate armor will complete the casting action of a spell as quickly as if he were in robes - it's only the recovery afterwards that will take (significantly) longer. So in plate he has to wait longer until he can cast the next spell. Only Dexterity affects the casting speed (and the recovery as well).

I used him with his two summoned "Spiritual Battle Axes" and that was plenty good.

I wonder when/how that was changed? Because I tried it again a few weeks ago (after final patch afaik - maybe I'm wrong here) and Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot and Driving Flight (=2 AoE jumps) still gave me multiple stacks per ability use. Same as Sun & Moon (2 stacks per swing). It was a great weapon setup for Hunter's Claw. Edit: @Myrtillo - just tried it, it didn't change I think. I fired into a pack of dummies and got 14 stacks from one mortar shot... Maybe it's just "normal" blunderbusses that got "fixed"? I will investigate further... The 20 stacks come from three attack with Sun & Moon first (each still giving me 2 stacks per swing as they used to) and then 14 at once with one shot with Fire in the Hole (with Driving Flight and Chain Shot). Note that 14 was the limit since the cap is 20. Maybe I would have gotten even more out of that one shot? Edit: nope, I always get 14... strange. Now testing Kitchen Stove: Got 3 stacks from one shot (although hitting way more often) with Driving Flight. Then used Wild Barrage: got 6 per shot. It seems that blunderbusses only count the first projectile but jumps do count (somehow - why 3 and no 2? Why 6 and not 4?). Mysterious... I now removed Driving FLight and the results are much lower. I suspect the devs tried to limit the number of stacks in the initial shot but forgot jumps from Driving Flight etc.? With Hand Mortar (without Driving Flight) you also get only 2 or 3 stacks (even when hitting a lot with the AoE) - Hand Mortar's Blinding Smoke doesn't seem to trigger Hunter's Claw (unlike Avenging Storm). So you can get several stacks (but not more than just using Sun & Moon and another melee weapon) and the missing jump from Driving Light Chain Shot is obvious. Once you add Driving Flight and Chain Shot the stacks do skyrocket per shot. My conclusion would be: use Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot (and even Driving Flight although you're melee). It's also the optimal setup for Whirling Strikes...

What is it again? Universal +1 PL?

a) if your ACC is so low compared to the enemy's defense that you can't even crit with +12 ACC (or less than 12 out of 100). b) if your ACC is so high compared to Defense that +12 ACC will not lead to more crits (or less than 12 more out of 100).

Good question. I guess so but I'm not entirely sure. More like 75% sure.

For a better Backstab implementation try the Community Patch. It turns Backstab into a separate raw dmg chunk that is independent on the weapon you use (no need for great sword to get the most out of it) and it scales with Power Level. Just yesterday I thought that it would have been cool if certain light weapons had special effects from stealth/invisibility. Like clubs would have a short stun, daggers and stilettos would have bonus damage and so on. Would also have been cool to have penalties on stealth from wearing fat weapons, swirling capes and rattling armor.

Like in PoE, two handers have the same attack time and recovery as the heavy one handers like sabres. +12 ACC does not equal +12% crit chance. Since crits only do +25% additive dmg the two handers generally are better dps weapons after the early game than a single one handed. Unless you do a special build and/or use a very special weapon. Whirling Strikes are indeed very good and a sufficient reason to go for single class (if it's not the only reason because it takes so long to get there).

Does it have to be a SC Ranger? Because I can imagine that such a melee Ranger/Monk with tons of ACC and Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming might be nice? I mean Enduring Dance should stack with Hunter's Fang etc. right? With the bonus ACC of Scordeo's edge and Blade Cascade you will most likely proc additional attacks in very quick succession which then proc Blade Cascade again and so on...?

Only if you are a Berserker.

That is a totally viable party composition. But to be honest every party composition works because the classes are well balanced. If I would have to make a list of "most potential power" of classes in a party I would maybe go like (1. = best ) : Priest Wizard Druid Chanter Cipher Monk Barbarian Paladin Ranger Fighter Rogue Although that highly depends on personal opinion and experience, special build, party composition, item setup etc. - and the classes are quite close in terms of power in general. PoE tends to be (or at least feels) more difficult for Wizard, Priest, Druid, Chanter and Barbarian in the beginning - while they tend to be pretty great later on (but high learining curve). Monk, Paladin and Cipher always work well and Ranger, Fighter and Rogue start great as well but tend to drop off later in the game. This is my personal judgement for Path of the Damed though where there are more enemies. And the more enemies the more valuable AoE becomes and the less impactful single target damage (see Rogue) becomes. On lower difficulties Ranger, Rogue and Fighter don't have that dropoff - or at least you don't really feel it. There are ways to overcome this but you need more knowledge about the game mechanics for that. Official companions in order of appearence (not fix though - but how most people pick them up) are: Wizard (Aloth, +++) Fighter (Edér, +++ ) Priest (Durance, ++) Chanter (Kana, ++) Ranger (Sagani, +) Paladin (Pallegina, +) Cipher (Grieving Mother, -) Druid (Hiravias, +++) Barbarian (Expansion, Maneha, +) Monk (Expansion, Zahua, +++) Rogue (Expansion, Devil of Caroc, ++) The +/- indicate my personal preference (of the character and their banter/quests and fun, not his/her power). Most of times you can rush to a place and pick up your favorite companion though. The order is not fixed. You just have to know where to go and get them. The expansion characters are an exception because you can't just rush there. I know no up-to-date guide (never used one). You can ask me anything though.

Party composition: it's okay to go with the companions you like. Cipher profits from a high-defense Paladin in the late game as soon as the cipher can cast Defensive Mindweb. Priest makes every party better in general. But I also pick companions based on whom I like - even on Path of the Damned difficulty. Companions, classes and the game are pretty ballabced so there is no trap choice when it comes to party composition. Armor/weapons/items: no class ist restricted from wearing anything in PoE. You can wear plate or great swords etc. as a cipher or as a wizard or druid. The drawbacks (being slow) are the same for every class. Some classes have special talents/abilites for certain item groups though (e.g. Fighters have Armored Grace which reduces the slowdown from armor a bit and so on). Dual wielding lets you attack really fast (ot to be more precise: to shorten your recovery a lot) and thus it's actually rel. easy to reach zero recovery (aka attack like a sewing machine) in fat plate armor. For attack speed testing check this out: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ Ciphers have Time Parasite which is very powerful and it's easy to reach 0 recovery with it and dual wielding in thick armor. Stats can't be raised on level up. They are kind of fixed (except you can get some minor improvements from story talents). Items and buffs will raise them for you. I think for a first-time player I would do a rel., balanced apporach like so: MIG: 15 CON: 10 DEX: 15 PER: 15 INT: 15 RES: 08 This is with race and background points. You can easily shift some points up and down without braking anything. Attributes don't have tremendous impact on your performance like they have in some other systems. Talents and abilites (includes spells) are a lot more important. In PoE CC effects are very strong and accuracy is very important. If you can hit with a CC effect like Blind or even Charm the fights will be a lot easier. In order to do that you need to hit and for that you need accuracy. So take every opportunity to get more ACC and pick some strong CC abilites like Whisper of Treason, Mental Binding. One of the strongest cipher spells in a party is Amplified Wave in my opinion.

That analogy is not correct. Better: Obsidian subcontracted a translation bureau for the localisation and of course if the localisation in the game is bad you'll address Obsidian. But the console ports were taken out of Obsidian's hands and done by Versus Evil independently. Obsidian even closed support for Deadfire before the console ports came out. It's like if you made a successful website "Rofl.org" and now it's kinda old but then somebody else comes along and wants to take your website and port it to "Lol.com" (advertising it with "from the foundations of Rofl.org") and pays you for the stuff they are using. Would you feel responsible even if they advertised with your name and that you were the one who did the original stuff? Do you address the original developers of Baldur's Gate if the Enhanced Edition from Beamdog doesn't work? In Deadfire's case it is a bit more convoluted though because it isn't communicated properly whom the players should report to in case of bugs and other problems. Naturally they go to Obsidian. You can totally post here and report issues - I just don't know if it's going to help a lot. Not that it isn't reasonable to expect Obsdidian to take interest in this. But they have limited resources and won't pay too much attention and spend too much effort on something they closed down several months ago. I understand your frustration - I'm just pragmatic.

Hi, for a dual wielding cipher I would recommend either sabres (with clubs as backup weapons) or war hammers (no need for backup). There are some nice unique sabres in the game, war hammers as well. Sabres have the advantage of the highest dmg per hit (of a one-handed weapon) but they only deal slash damage which can be a little tedious against enemies who are resistant (or even immune) to slash damage. Hence the backup weapons (here: clubs). War hammers also have nice uniques. They deal a little less dmg per hit compared to sabres, but they can deal pierce or crush damage (the better will get picked automatically for every attack) which can be a decent dps advantage if you don't like to switch your weapon sets. Light weapons like daggers, flails etc. can in theory yield even higher dps than sabres and war hammers etc., but they struggle to penetrate thick armor especially in the early game. That takes out the fun for most players who don't want to wait forever until their build idea works out well. Battle axes (swords as backup) would also be a viable alternative. I would even consider spears nd maces but it just looks too silly to wield two of them... In terms of "style" I'd say sabre is the most pleasing choice, followed by battle axes. Two war hammers can already look a bit clunky. A dual wielding cipher will be a bit squishy in the early game - so make sure to stay in stealth and first let all enemies engage your tank (or other more sturdy frontliners) and only then attack from the flanks. Don't run into the crowd and don't engage first. Another way to be safe is to use hard disables (like Mental Binding for example) and then attack. Or do both of course. Don't go without any armor and don't drop Constitution and Resolve too far as beginner. Enemies' AI looks out for weak targets (like low DR values, low deflection and low endurance/health), depending on the enemy. So if you present your melee cipher as soft target he will get attacked a lot more as if he's a bit more sturdy. You buy this increased sturdyness (which not only lets you last longer if attacked but also demotivated attackers from picking you) with a bit less damage output - but remember that a dead characters' dps output is always 0.

Yes, it grants an invisibility that does not break. The base duration is rather short so you need short recovery and lots of INT and other prolonging effects to make it really shine. A SC Streetfighter with Blunderbusses for example is also very well suited for Vanishing Strikes. He doesn't get Assassinate but will have very short recovery/reload and higher Sneak Attack dmg - which leads to even better results than with an Assassin. But only with Blunderbusses... Assassins are not about dps (unless you unlock Vanishing Strikes) but sneaky alpha strikes, then retreat. If you can't one- or two-shot enemies you should use Gouging Strike, Shadowing Beyond and retreat for de-aggro'ing and wait. One-shotting (weaker enemies) reliably usually takes an arquebus. It's very difficult to reliably one-shot enemies on PotD with a melee weapon. With an Assassin/Skaen you can try more strikes from invisibility until your victim's finally dead. Or an Assassin/Bloodmage with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. By the way a kind of funny "Assassin" is a Wizard/Cipher with Brilliant Departure + Disintegrate or SC Wizard with Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin. Last time I checked (some time ago though) pure DoTs with no initial direct damage didn't break the invisivbility from Brilliant Departure. Also Wall of Draining doesn't break it. You can stay invisible all the time while killing enemies with DoTs.

Are you addressing me? 'Cause I have no publisher to push...

- Mortar Monk (Helwalker): boomboomboomboom! - Rod Scout (Sharpshooter/Trickster): boooooom! - Morning Star Witch (Beguiler/Furyshaper): "Booo!" - Morning Star Howler (Konstanten): "Huhaha theheehehe!" - Mortar Chanter or Druid (Tekehu): *zapzapzapzapfizzle* - Arbalest Shepherd (Arcane Archer/Bleak Walker): "Please let me interrupt you there - while I shoot you in the eye." - WotEP Transcendent (Shattered Pillar/Soulblade): Error: wound and focus overflow

@Kaylon, @Waski: The stupid mistake I made was that I somehow took Voidwheel as an estoc and not a great sword (which it is). Somehow I mixed up Voidwheel and Engoliero in my mind. Sorry, it was very late... It's always late... Great Sword has the additional advantage of dual dmg (slash/pierce). As I said the 25% proc I do not consider because it's not reliable enough for an Assassin. On the plus side (sort of): the self dmg doesn't matter much if you hit and vanish - not even with the +15% self dmg from Assassin passive. Soulblade is nice as Backstabber (no matter the weapon - I especially like high ACC weapons in the early game). I didn't mention anything besides Bleak Walker and Skaen though because the OP specifically asked for it. Dragon's Dowry for the win!

Huh? I don't think so. Despite the higher lashes it shouldn't do more damage per hit because of its lower base damage (18) compared to that of a quarterstaff (21) and the dmg bonus of the Chromoprismatic Staff with Metaphysics (not that big but still). My quickly scrawled calculation: Voidwheel with FoD: base dmg of 18 * PL 7 scaling of 1.35 = 24.3 legendary weapon: +60% Might 20: +30% Sneak Attack at PL7: 60% Crit: 25% Overpenetration: +30% Assassinate (crit): +50% Backstab: +100% Deathblows: +50% and 20% lash (disregarding PEN of lashes because of Assassinate- crit with overpenetration) = 24.3 * (1+0.6+0.3+0.6+0.25+0.3+0.5+1+0.5) * 1.2 = 147.26 Chromoprismatic Staff with FoD: base dmg of 21 * PL 7 scaling of 1.35 = 28.35 legendary weapon: +60% Might 20: +30% Soul Charge at Metaphysics 20: +15% Sneak Attack: 60% Crit: 25% Overpenetration: +30% Assassinate (crit): +50% Backstab: +100% Deathblows: +50% and 12% lash = 28.35 * (1+0.6+0.3+0.15+0.6+0.25+0.3+0.5+1+0.5) * 1.2 = 165.11 I didn't include PL scaling above PL7 from items or abilities such as Otto Starcat and so on. Maybe I made a mistake but I can't see it right now. My tests with an Assassin/Bleak Walker some while ago also back these numbers to some extend ( I tried all sorts of weapons that looked promising and made countless attacks from stealth). Chromoprismatic Staff came out on top for dmg per hit (melee). And of course Dragon's Dowry (ranged).

Assassin/Bloodmage can basically turn invisible unlimited times per encounter (if using some for of healing like Corrosive Siphon or whatever) due to Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure. But even better: this combo can cast CCs with +25 Accuracy and not become visible. Even Wall spells will not break the invisibility. Direct damage spells and attacks will break it. Pure DoTs will not (maybe the DoT corrode upgrade of Smoke Veil might work?). ABD comes online pretty late though.

Sorry - that wasn't you but a different poster in one of the threads about assassin down below.

Your arguments are a bit vague so it's difficult to address them. What exactly costs Guile? Backstab and Assassinate are passives and thus cost nothing. Which invisibility has recovery but is expensive? Shadowing Beyond is rather expensive but has no recovery. Smoke Veil is not expensive but has recovery. Assassin has high PEN from stealth and invisibility, but the even more important part is the +25 Accuracy. This means Assassin can have very impactful strikes from stealth/invisibility - not only with weapons but more importantly with AoE CC or -damaging attacks. All the recovery and positioning issues could be avoided with an arquebus as I remember have told you about. It's not intuitive and weird but the arquebus is the best single target Assassination weapon by far. If you want to go the single target route it's best to use an Assassin without the party in tow and kill enemies one by one. The party can be parked aside in case of emergency. That way you can solve nearly all encounters. For example the Concelhaut fight is very difficult for an underleveled party but easy for an underleveled lonely Assassin. Assassin is not the best team player but very effective when acting alone (not necessarily solo game - but scouting ahead and thinning out difficult encounters before the whole party comes in). You can do fun stuff with an Assassin: like stacking Assassinate and Lion's Sprint for +40 alpha strike accuracy and such things.

No - as pointed out: Obsidian didn't do the console ports, it was the publisher Versus Evil with an unknown development studio.

Melee weapons have the great disadvantage of recovery time. So after your strike from stealth you can either follow up with a second one but then have to wait for recovery to end before going invisible (might kill you) - or use invisibility right after the stealth attack (but then maybe the enemy isn't dead yet). Arquebus (unfortunately) is the best Assassination weapon. Supersneaky users with 2H weapons might want one of the two big Battle Axes (Bleeding Cuts DoT lasts a really long time and the two handed axes' base damage is good). Max alpha strikers should use Chromoprismatic Staff I think. At least when I was testing Assassin/Bleak Walker that was the best two handed weapon for it (if skills were allocated properly). It also has the reach advantage which is kind of handy. You don't have to step on enemies' toes... A great 1/encounter-assassination weapon is Whispers of the Endless Paths with its "Run Through" ability from enchantment. It has very high base damage and works very well from stealth/invisibility for an Assassin. Maybe the highest melee dmg per strike I know about. But only 1/encounter.

Thank you. I didn't chime in because I have near to 0 experience with the Turn Based Mode. @FleetFeet's statements and your plan sound pretty convincing so I approve your messages.