Boeroer

You are disappointed that the mechanics seem to work as they are supposed to? You can still build a good dumb cipher. Several powers don't care abount INT, for example Mind Blades, Mind Lance, all Beams (fixed 10 sec duration) and some others.

Stopping me.

Uh, weird...

Don't remember if it was fixed by an official patch or if it's the Community Patch that fixed it (see my signature) - but for me Disintegrate works like any other DoT: more INT = more ticks = more overall dmg (unchanged dps).

That was only the case for a certain few DoTs. Afaik nowadays those cases all got fixed. Meaning that more INT now adds more ticks of the same height so that overall damage rises but dps stays the same. Before (in some cases) the overall damage just got spread over longer time which left the overall dmg unchanged but lowered dps. Maybe there's still one or two such weird DoTs - but I can't recall any atm.

I don't agree to that. At least not for a full party playthrough. Multiclass feels stronger in the early game - especially with front-loaded classes like Rogue, Paladin etc., and also because of two resource pools - but in general single class/multiclass is pretty balanced. One shouldn't underestimate the impact of Power Level and more importantly the faster PL progression which grants access to certain gamechanging abilites a lot sooner (quite apparent with Priests for example). And then you can gain certain awesome PL 8/9 abilities. See Monk (Resonant Touch, Whispers of the Wind), Cipher (Driving Echoes, Shared Nightmare), Wizard (Meteor Shower, Missile Salvo), Druid (Avenging Storm, Greater Maelstrom), Chanter (Eld Nary's Curse), Priest (Seal Symbol of XY spells), Barbarian (Driving Roar, Barbaric Retaliation) and many more. Multiclass is - in my opinion - more interesting though because of the "self-contained" synergies you can play with. Anyway I also think the AI system is pretty decent and you can do a lot with it. Some cases can't be implemented with it very well (decent gunslinging with quickswitch for example) but they are few.

Also Tenacious D was founded more than 20 years ago.

Yeah... that won't work. My main point when answering to your initial post was that bemusing other people's "armchair theories" (here: setting) while presenting your own theory with utter conviction - that comes with no proof either though but has even more arguments that speak against it - didn't seem to be a particularly accomodating nor sensible move. Since several forum members now answered your utteraces better than I could and because I don't want to repeat myself endlessly - and also because I think I made my rather simple points clear enough - I will not address the rest anymore. Oh really? I didn't know that. I only read about the complaints that a good amount of players would have wished for expansions that take place after the main game instead of in between (which I like much better). Like Throne of Bhaal and such. I assume those complaints come from players who don't replay such games a lot. It is a reasonable thing to wish for then - since it lets you pick up the game where you left it; even if you finished it. Instead of doing it all again to play the DLCs "the right way" - I mean during the main campaign and not after it - you can just continue.

You can do that. Depends on his role in combat and the overall composition and tactics of your party. I personally don't use Interdiction that much because usually I just don't have the points for it. But it can be very good in the early game to focus on the per-encounter abilites (Radiance + Interdiction) since you'll have so few spell uses and it feels good if your priest can contribute with something meaningful in every fight. Generally I feel like using Iconic Projection for damage purposes only is a bit of a waste. I think it's best used from the backline to spam it into the fray in quick succession so that you don't only damage foes but at the same time heal up your comrades. But maybe that's what you meant anyway. ANd of course: whatever floats your boat. I also had lots of fun with a great-sword-swinging DEX-2 Priest of Berath in plate armor. Hit like a truck, accellerate like a truck. More generally about role in party/party composition: For example in a slow yet sturdy party (like with a chanter, paladin and such) a slow and rel. sturdy priest like Durance with even a fat armor on is no problem. If he wants to deal damage with Shining Beacon for example (slow but very powerful if you look at the "dmg per spell use" ratio like nealry all DoTs) then his sluggishness is not crucial - hitting the enemy reliably with that one spell is and then outlasting them. By the way this way to play leads to fewer rests and reloads and thus doesn't really slow your progress down in real time (that's my experience anyway). But if you want to win an encounter as fast as possible (plenty of early nuking and focus on dps) then he'll feel like a drag because everybody's way ahead of him while he's still finishing his cast of Devotions. So in that case you might want to focus on fast buffing your comrade's ACC with Devotions + Inspiring Radiance before they do their debuffing and then damaging and later in the encounter do some healing and re-buffing if necessary. You need zero ACC for that so a large shield, while improving your survivability a ton, will not slow your casting down nor will it have any negative impact on your buffing or healing spells (since they don't need to hit anything). Another thing to consider is the AI: certain enemies have different priorities: for example enemy barbs will attack the party memebr withthe lowest defelction if they can reach them easily. Generally speaking: the higher your defensive stats the less likely your character will get targeted. So giving the priest a large shield and weapon & shield style (and having high RES like Durance) will put him off the list of many enemies right away and thus you won't have to deal with rushers that much. Same can be true with DR (that seems to help against ranged characters a lot who mostly seem to seek out low DR and low deflection targets), but to a lesser extend I feel. So it's not only the actual DR when you get hit or the higher deflection once you get attackes that saves you a lot of trouble but also the enemies' AI which will not try to hurt your that desperately anymore since there are more attractive targets maybe (e.g. an Animal Companion or a summon which can be a great bait and can help to control the battlefield - both don't run into health problems when struck ).

Right. One counterexample: Battle Brothers* has low achievement rates (for the achievements you can't collect on a flyby) because it's a hard game - yet it sold very well an more importantly in this case its DLCs sell well. That indicates that players who bought the base game felt good enough about it to also buy the DLCs. They even announced a new DLC that will come out this year - seems that they sell well enough to be lucrative. Same argument could be made for PoE. I don't know the sales numbers of WM I & II compared to the base game. If the DLCs sold well then I'd assume the buyers of PoE weren't too disappointed. If not then that could be a hint that the base game disappointed many that bought it. But afaik WM I & II were successes, weren't they? Could also be a hint for the disappointment rate of Deadfire: how well did the DLCs? *I know I keep mentioning Battle Brothers a lot lately. That's because I'm replaying it right now and it's better to use examples from games I actually know well...

No, not all. But usually you'll have more than you actually need.

Yes, the Phantom is much better. They stun on hit, have high health and accuracy and do Sneak Attack damage (nearly always applies because they stun on hit). Retrain because you can pick other lvl-1-invocations later that are still somewhat useful at higher levels - for example White Worms or the stun from The Thunder or the DR-reduction of Hel-Hyraf etc. While all active abilities gain +1 ACC per level they can stay useful - while the summons don't scale at all.

Yes. Chanters are pretty strong right from lvl 1 because of the Phantom summon. While it's not very useful at higher levels it packs a nasty punch in the early ones. Having two of those makes the early game a lot easier. After than you can retrain to something different.

The game is fairly well soloable with a single Chanter on Path of the Damned - so yes, very much viable to have two on normal difficulty. Or did you mean two in a party of six: even more so.

Afaik he used Blade Cascade from Scordeo's Edge (gives you 0 recovery for 5 sec base) and prolonged it nearly endlessly with the help of Brilliant + Salvation of Time. You can see the tiny sabre symbol besides his portrait - I think that's it. Once you have the buff you can switch weapons to whatever. You cannot reach 0 recovery with several stacked recovery or attack speed bonuses. The attack spped mechanics don't work like in PoE. Have a look here:

I did a quick search in the modding subforum and found this statement from @BMac: So it seems what you are looking for doesn't exist unfortunately.

True

Okay, then I get it. Thanks for your clarification.

Thank you. Indeed: PoE's flat Damage Reduction (DR) on armor had a lot less impact on you survivability than Deadfire's Armor Rating (AR) system. You are absolutely correct. Another thing that has more impact than in PoE: healing. Since there is no endurance/health anymore but only health you can't die if your healing outweighs the received damage. If you combine both (like you already started with bringing a Herald) you will profit a lot.

Correct. It is actually the same ability but with a reduced dmg modifier. Same as Skaen's "Baby Sneak Attack". Both do stack by the way, making a Priest of Skaen nearly as good with Sneak Attacks as a Rogue - but of course you need to pay for that with two talent points.

Huh? It works with every melee weapon attack no matter if it's your main weapon or not. It even works with "bash" from shields like T's Palm and also with Riposte and Offensive Parry. But it doesn't repeat the whole execution of an ability (like repeating a Full Attack) - it only repeats the single hit roll it procs off of. S for example with Sun & Moon it doesn't repeat both attack rolls of both flail heads but only the one it got triggered off. Same with WotEP: it only repeats the attack roll on the initial target but not the AoE cone. Maybe I misunderstood you though. Did you mean that it would get triggered but the additional attacks would be done with the main weapon? That may be correct. Forbidden Fist + community patch worked just fine with Swift Flurry for me (I mean oit got triggered). At least last time I played a Forbidden Fist (which was right after CP was released). So I assume that Inner Death would work the same once the weapon tag got added. If only the weapon gets to do the additional attacks then even better (because less balancing problems). It already has a melee tag. It lacks a "weapon" tag. The use would be that it triggers Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming, yes. Also works with Lightning Strikes and Turning Wheel I presume (didn't check if those already work which may well be). Since Swift FLurry usually is a worse pick than Lightning Strikes against everything but non-trash mobs I find it unfair that it even gets excluded from stuff that's not properly tagged. You execute those abilites with your fists I presume which should be weapons (I mean if you picture the monk doing it). So why no weapon tag? I guess it is a mere oversight. You mean it could potentially one-shot enemies? As it already does? Jokes aside: If you want it to make a reasonable aternative to Whispers of the Wind or other empowered PL-9 stuff (look at empowered Missile Salvo or empowered Greater Maelstrom) then you should add this. Keep in mind that it would only play a role against bosses with 300+ hp pool - all others would die anyway. I doubt that you'll get a chain reaction from Empowered Strikes. Afaik the additional attacks from SF/HBD will not be empowered and thus will not get +100 PEN and ACC - and then the high defenses of bosses will prevent a massive flurry chain. And the combined chance on crit is < 50% anyways. Also you can't use it endlessly like WotW because you pay with Mortification, not wounds. Worth a try I'd say. If it's too strong then it's easy to revert.

That is correct. It's more helpful for mob fights. I don't bother with megabosses too much though. With a party they are doable without too much hassle - but they don't drop anything exiting. So why bother? And for solo they are just so tediously boring to battle that I couldn't bring myself to do it more than one or twice per megaboss. The real experts on megabosses are the guys in the forum that do the ultimate challenge or do mostly solo playthroughs, like @thelee, @Kaylon and others. However, the Engwithan Titan isn't that hard to beat with a party and should be no obstacle for you. But to give more detailed advice one would need to know what your party members are etc. In general raw damage DoTs work very well - e.g. Arterial Strike, Gouging Strike, combined with Deep Wounds and Bleeding Cuts and so on. The stacked damage over time that doesn't care for armor usually makes short work of the Titan without the need to poke him mindlessly and to expose yourself. Also you should consider switching to weapons that are better suited to deal damage to armored opponents. While Pukestabber is a nice weapon it's not very well suited for taking on huge constructs with tons of AR. Anything with crush damage works well against the Titan. So maybe use a morning star or if you want to stick to dual wielding switch to some hammers or maces - or as I said try a quarterstaff so you don't have to engage him. Makes you less likely to get hit and deals better damage against this guy. And you should debuff the AR. So a mace + modal on your tank and/or Expose Vulnerabilites (TItan's Will defense is crappy) from a Wizard should help. But generally: do raw damage DoTs if you have them. Maybe you even have Ninagauth's Death Ray or something similar, that would help, too.

Armor is the most important defensive value in Deadfire. Even one point can make a difference. If you can bring the enemy to multiple points of underpenetration (-2 or even -3) you'll see a massive increase of survivability. With a pet that reduces armor recovery penatly (Abraham for example) and Armored Graze a heavier armor won't slow you down terribly - and also your passives as a Streetfighter should help a lot with your overall attack speed. The reason is that damage maluses (like from underpenetration) go through a series of obscured mathematical operations (search for "double inversion" in the forum) which finally leads to a situation where the actual damage loss is way higher than the 25%/50%75% description suggest. WAY higher. You could immediately feel it IF you manage to let the enemy underpenetrate. A problem with the streetfighter is that he wants to get flanked but flanking implies a -1 AR debuff. So thicker armor indeed. Shield is not needed if your Herald can give you enough passive healing via his two auras (Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance) and has some Lay on Hands for you. Greater Lay on Hands will even give you +2 AR but has double cost - don't know if that's worth it since it won't stack with Exalted Endurance. Deflection is nice but you don't need to bring it to stellar highst in this case. Just enough so that you don't catch a hell lot of crits - because crits have 1.5 times the PEN of a normal attack which will hurt you (not the additional dmg bonus but the removal of underpenetration). Once you get Refeshing Defense and Unbending your survivabilty problems should come to a full stop. Also Unbreakable is a good passive in your case because it gives you +2 stackable AR which is a big bonus. And the base duration is 30 secs. Sure, you will have to go down to get this bonus but I find that once you free yourself from the irrational fear of a knockout this is no problem since you can rest nearly everywhere and always. If brought to legendary then better armors than the Garari Cuirass (which is a good armor in itself, just too thin for your task) could be: Devil of Caroc Breastplate: 7 (base) +4(comes ledendary) +2 (Self Mending, if under 50% health) = 13 AR when bloodied --> great mix of AR and offense, also gets you +2 Discipline and +2 Guile The Bloody Links: 7 (base) +4 (legendary, have to enchant yourself) +2 (Crimson Steel, if under 50% health) = 13 AR when bloodied --> as DoC Breastplate, but less offensive capabilities Patinated Plate: 9 (base) +4 (comes legendary) +2 (Bronze Juggernaut, against melee only) = 15 AR in melee --> this is the armor with the highest AR against melee weapon attacks. Also its stunning retaliation helps a ton with survival. This will slow you down a lot but make you a lot more sturdy. Also get a Blunting Belt (+1 pierce/slash AR, stacks with everything). Depending on the enemy (which damage type he enemy delivers) you can exchange that with a belt that does +1 crush AR instead (like Maker's Own Power or Ngati's Girdle). You can also use a Dragon Pendant since it gives you +1 burn/slash AR. So with Exalted Endurance + Blunting Belt/Ngati's Girdle + Dragon Pendant you'd have +2 pierce/crush AR and +3 slash AR on top of the armor. Alco check consumables for AR bonuses. I don't remember if food stacks with Exalted Endurance or Robust from Greater Lay on Hands (then Aedyrean Mead would be your best friend) but others here will def. know. But there are other consumables which give even more bonus than +1 or +2 ---> like Potion of Spirit Shield (+3) which you should really consider taking in tough fights. I guess I would try the Breastplate (with the Helm of the Falcon - they look great together and the helm is good for a Great Sword user). This is a very good offensive setup due to the speed bonuses both items give you - while being reasonably thick for somebody who gets surrounded often. And only if the problems contuinue I'd try the Patinated Plate.

Isn't the 2 million copies of PoE including console sales? If yes then we should compare that number to the sales of Deadfire once it comes to consoles (release shouldn't be too far away). Besides that: exactly (one of) my point(s) but phrased way better.

You could add the "weapon" tag to Inner Death like it was added to Forbidden Fist.