Boeroer

I would say hat while Bleak Walker can do more damage per strike and has better defenses the Priest of Skaen has way more to offer. However, if you like the supersneaky way (sneak in, kill one opponent, go invisible, retreat - repeat) then Bleak Walker is better since the number of invisibility uses per encounter doesn't matter much (since you'll leave encounter after every kill). You will have Gouging Strike AND Brand Enemy (which last forever, killing one enemy reliably) which speeds up the killing of tough ones considerably and you'll have Bleak Walker's FoD which can one-shot weaker enemies. With a gun like Dragon's Dowry you can reliably do two shots (one FoD from stealth with its 80% recovery bonus and then the other as follow-up e.g. with Finishing Blow) and then immediately use Shadowing Beyond (or Assassin's Boots) in order to retreat. Also Bleak Walker can use Ring of Focused Flames to boost his FoD Accuracy even higher (+10, +10) with can be combined with the arquebus modal (+20) and Assassinate (+25) for a lot of alpha-crits (without any casting time investment).

I only watched the last vid but it seems he uses BDD potions and Brilliant from Shroud of the Phantasm (uses self targeting with spells to trigger it) and prolongs stuff with Draining Wall. He also uses Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure a lot which doesn't break the invisibility if you cast Walls, pure DoT or CC only.

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Turn-based_mode Some basic knowledge about TB mode in Deadfire If you liked PoE's RTwP combat and have no clear preference I would suggest you also pick RTwP for Deadfire. Just because the game and its encounters were designed around RTwP and not TB (which was added later with a big patch).

Endless duration DoTs are potentially OP and so is Brand Enemy. It even is an auto-hit - no misses, grazes or crits. 100% hit death sentence (if not immune). You just have to stay alive. Soft Winds of Death doesn't do an awful lot of damage, but since it's raw you can deal damage to anyone regardless of AR (if you can overcome the fortitude). The decent part is that is also heals as long as you hit at least one enemy with it. Ancient Memory is more potent, but of course it doesn't damage anything. With a lot of Zeal for Brand Enemy and combined high defenses, AR, Soft Winds + Exalted Endurance you can outlast most enemies while grinding them down. Fast casts ok - but recovery will be bad, especially when combining low DEX with heavy armor. Doesn't matter too much if you rely on DoTs and high defensive capabilities as well as auras and passives though. Calling summons (good thing to have when going solo) will take a long time. Summons have the longest casting times...

Ah. I don't think that. PoE sold significantly more copies (like three times as many? Correct me if I'm wrong) and I guess that the number of "multiple copies" pledges wasn't that significant. And even so: if you took one of those tiers you would have pledged more money than for a single copy, wouldn't you? So I believe that the sales numbers cannot be inflated that way.

No idea, shouldn't matter for Deadfire though.

The floor and ceiling for attributes are 1 and 35. You can't go lower than 1 and not higher than 35. Everything in between is not regimented (except by stacking rules of course).

Looking nice while injured?

Whaaa - sweet. Why didn't I think about that yet?

Speaking of Defensive Strike: did somebody every try a Fighter or Fighter/something with Defensive Strike (+20) + Refreshing Defense (they should stack to +40)? Maybe even with Streetfighter (who should somewhat be able to counter the recovery malus of Defensive Strikes when flanked while staying pretty solid on the defensive end)?

Then why don't you express your very invested criticism about D:OS2 and your deep concerns about BG3 over at the Larian forums (if you haven't already). Surely a thread about what to expect from a hypothetical PoE3 is not the right place to vent your disappointment and angst about Larian games. Unless you wanted to express the opinion that PoE3 should not be like D:OS2 - but then a less vitriolic denunciation would suffice I'd say.

Mhm... but who assigned you to be the judge of "playing the legit way"?

The end of what? Your posting career? Come on, it barely started! Why did people like PoE then - which is far more dark and gritty and has a lot more text to read - and doesn't even have a lot of VO?

It was a single class Bloodmage by the way.

Something like dual hammers or sabres or battle axes (depends on the enemy), yes. Shatterstar + Godansthunyr is not bad. Wodewys + We-Toki maybe. Or dual Bittercut even (Helwax molded). 20% sharp damage + 20% from Spirit of Decay + dual dmg might be the highest one handed dmg you can get per attack roll. I guess even Drawn in Spring + Unlabored Blade could be working due to the Firebug procs. Both work with "Flick of the Wrist" and have +5 ACC - that's +9 ACC and nothing to sneeze at while the wounding with high MIG is strong, too

Hm... right. Solution 1: FoD + VV is not a free PL1 ability but instead if you pick FoD it comes with VV automatically Solution 2: Sworn Enemy isn't the free ability anymore but FoD + VV is. Solution 3: VV is a pickable upgrade to FoD just like Shared Flames and Eternal Devotion in the same PL.

She wasn't really absent. Not like Eothas or the original Abydon. Thaos wanted to use the souls to bring her back to her former glory. She was weakened but she was there all along.

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."