Boeroer

Right, forgot about that as well. Arcane Archer with necklaces might be a fun Fireball slinger, too. Maybe even Bloodmage/Arcane Archer for maximum Fireball casts or flame casts in general. The problem with Arcane Archer is that the imbued Fireballs don't scale properly with Power Level. Most notably the PEN will not rise. While this seems to be no big deal at first it becomes one later in the game. Of course it's still nice to combine a triple rod- or mortar-blast with triple Fireball with only one shot. But it's just so frustrating if you find out late i the game that your good idea doesn't work out because of this bug(? I don't even know if it's a bug or intended). I mean for people who don't want or can't install mods like the Community Patch (which lets the imbues' PEN rise with your Arcana skill).

Most people participate in surveys. And yet surveys can be representative. It's safe to say that if a game gets good reviews from both users and critics the disappointment can't be big enough to explain such a massive sales drop. What you describe can be the source of disappontmet for sure. But in this case: not on such a large scale. Because if the buggyness of PoE or especially the free Deadfire DLC was one of the core reasons why people didn't buy Deadfire then it would have found its way into reviews and criticism. This is not the standard phrase around here. You can read a lot about bugs here in the forums and long time players complaining about them. But on the other hand we also did a lot of testing and bug reporting over the years (even with useful hints and theories why this or that bug might occur). So instead of just grouching around we helped to find and fix those. So when somebody of those people says a bug isn't game breaking it means exactly that. Nothing more and nothing less. A game breaking bug is the source of much bigger disappointment than an item that's bugged. Sure it can be annoying if an item doesn't work properly (ask me about my feelings about Essence Interrupter destroying loot) - but it's surely less annoying as if your game crashed all the time or your playthrough gets bricked by some faulty quest or something along those lines. Nobody said that a bug is not a problem. So be sincere and don't imply anybody did. It's a difference to say "Those bugs aren't game breaking and thus don't have that much impact on the overall reception of the game" or to say "Those bugs aren't game breaking and thus: no problem!". Of course it matters. The difference is that game breaking bugs that don't get fixed indeed tend to influence reviews and critics and thus show a huge disappointment in the game and teh developer as you describe it. So big that players might not want to touch the sequel. A counterexample to your theory: Pathfinder Kingmaker was way more buggy than Deadfire at release and had some nasty, game breaking bugs. The reviews were full of rants about those. Steam user reviews were not good at that time. As soon as Owlcat fixed those game breaking bugs the reviews got up very quickly - and the game was a success despite bad and then mediocre reviews due to bugs. The many small bugs that remained in that game didn't seem to bother players that much then. At least not enough to let the game - and yet you could see the impact of game breaking bugs in the reviews. Those things surely aren't a great advertisement. But do they have such a big impact that they put nearly a million players off of buying Deadfire? If so - I repeat - you would see some sign of it in media, reviews, critics (like with Pathfinder). There's no discussion that those things can put some players off, but we are looking at a large, large scale: Can those things disappoint hundrets of thousands of players so that the sequal sells less than half the copies of the original game? Without anybody (not even Obsidian themselves who surely receive and monitor those things more closely than we are) seeing any indication in revews, refunds, compaints, critis etc. before? I seriously doubt it. I was trying to make the point that most players won't get exceptionally angry about something buggy they got for free as if they had paid for it. At least if they are not suffering from permanent entitlement. Of course it matters. It matters for those who would like to see a PoE 3. If Obsidian can't show Microsoft why Deadfire tanked and how they want to prevent that for a future installment then Microsoft will not throw any money at it. Even Josh Sawyer said that they can't make a third part (in Infinity-Engine fashion at least) as long as they can't explain the sales drop of Deadfire. Too risky. Microsoft has money, but they don't want to burn it I'm sure.

Why didn't those players (must have been more than 500K to explain the sales drop) voice their disappointment with PoE's bugs but instead PoE had good reviews, hm? Concerning the free Deadfire Pack: ever heard the phrase "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"? I mean it would be nice if some of the remaining bugs were fixed, but the whole pack was for free and none of the bugs are game breaking. Also not all items are bugged. Only some of them (Spike Flinger, Cap, Fulvano's Blunderbuss). Hard to believe that those issues lead to such a sales drop without any hint in reviews.

Oh, you are right. So also casting speed buffs wouldn't be as effective. Hm... anyway - I was just giving some food for thought so that one could do a Fireball slinger without even using a wizard. @Kaylon: if we are talking about Fireballs only that's highly debateable (as long as you play with a complete party). Most Bloodmages wouldn't even manage to get off 8 Fireballs in one single encounter because it's over before that. Might be different in TB mode though. Never played that more than a few minutes so...

By the way you can kill-steal pretty nicely with WotEP's "Run Through" until you get Twin Eels. It's only 1/encounter but still.

Yeah, and massive shame on you for that!

I think Stell Garrote would be fun. The health drain from enemies will synergize very well with enfeebling/weakening or stunning from the Monk's attacks and it would counter the health loss from FFcurse or just health loss in general. I also like the thematical combo of a "Forbidden Fist" using a "Steel Garrotte". Also Goldpact. Gilded Enmity is a great tool to prevent damage and with Sworn Rival it's nearly for free. Note that Eternal Devotion puts an additional 10% burning lash on everything for quite some time - even on spell-like damaging stuff such as Rooting Pain, Torment's Reach and Sacred Immolation.

What's your base PER? +2 PER will only result in +2 ACC which is negligible. It also depends if you use abilities or auto-attacks. Some abilites get bonus ACC. ALso, in PoE every attack ability got +1 ACC per character level. In Deadfire those abilites scale with Power Level which not only raises ACC (but less as in PoE) but also damage and PEN (which wasn't the case in PoE). Pics of other Marauders you saw might include the use of consumables and other buffs like resting buffs like Kaylon listed. Maybe they also had higher starting PER. Frankly +5 or even +10 ACC at level 20 shouldn't matter that much for your dps. Except when going solo maybe. Use ACC buffs and apply debuffs on enemies and +/-5 ACC doesn't matter at all at lvl 20 - not even on PotD difficulty. Also keep in mind that crits only do +25% additive dmg in Deafire compared to +50% in PoE. While they can lead to overpenetration (another +30%) they are generally not that "critical"(heh) as in PoE as long as you don't use a special setup or take certain abilites/items.

I think when I lastly checked Firethrower Gloves they didn't do anything for Necklace of Fireballs. Never tried Kuaru's Prize though. @Dance of Death: totally! How could I forget? SC Monk would also be able to use Razor's Edge which is pretty good with Fireballs as well. For Barbarian I forgot Lion's Sprint which would give you +15 ACC for a single Fireball. Could maybe stack with Monk's several +ACC bonuses... I think Furyshaper/Helwalker would be a hell of a combo with Fireballs. Speed galore, INT, MIG, PEN. SC Berserker could be cool with Blood Storm (DoT on crit works with spells) and later Instrument of Boundless Rage which basically also is a (much more potent) Fireball. It also works with Ring of Focused Flame and the other stuff. Also all the Fireballs would trigger Blood Surge every once in a while. What I could also see is Streetfighter with blunderbuss + modal (Powder Burns). First of all it's also a fire-based attack and fits the theme and while the higher Sneak Attack/crit damage won't work with Fireballs the -50% recovery all the time would be a really good thing. Add Dirty Fighting. Fire a Debilitating Strike with dual mortars which lowers Reflex by -10 points already and then start blasting with Fireballs at high speed. What's also not bad is a Wizard with Blightheart + Paladin with Eternal Devotion. Both give you a +10% lash on your spells which is pretty neat while the paladin makes your multiclass a lot sturdier. Also: Brand Enemy + Sacred Immolation + Delayed Fireball + Torrent of Flame + Fireballs! As I said: endless possibilities.

Easy: grab two Necklaces of Fireball and put one on and the other into the stash (NOT character inventory). In each encounter you can then spam 8 Fireballs. After the encounter you put the empty necklace back into the stash were it will form a stack with the full one. If you seperate them again both will be full again! Yay! 8 Fireballs in every encounter without any costs. Use Magran's Blessing Favour and Sun & Moon and grab Ring of Focused Flames and Otto Starcat as pet. This will give you +10 accuracy and +5 Power Levels with fire attacks. Then go and get Rekvu's Fractured Casque and Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and cast fireballs on yourself until you get knocked out. Rise up again with the minor injury "Serious Burn". This will make sure you can never get interrupted while casting and it also makes you heal from fire instead of getting damage. Nuke yourself with your own Fireballs: no problem, it even heals you. Then pick any class that gives you bonuses for spellcasting. This could be: Barbarian: higher casting speed from Frenzy higher casting speed from Bloodlust no recovery on fireball-kills from Bloodthirst Berserker: +2 PEN from Berserker Frenzy Furyshaper: +10% casting speed from ward Monk: bigger AoE from Duality of Mortal Presence (INT) +2 PEN from Thunderous Blows Helwalker: +30% additive damage because +10 MIG from wounds Paladin: +10% multiplicative dmg because Eternal Devotion adds a lash to your fireballs +5 ACC and +5% hit to crit from Exalted Focus +1 PEN from Scion of Flame +20% additive dmg from Sworn Rival (can be cast on every enemy in AoE quickly since instant cast with 0 recovery) Fighter: +5 ACC, 1 Power Level and bigger AoE (+5 INT) from Tactical Barrage or +5 ACC and +25% hit to crit conversion from Disciplined Strikes +5 ACC from Warrior Stance Ranger: in general just a crapload of Accuracy... Beguiler/Debonaire: Charm groups of enemies with Ringleader and then drop a 100% critting Fireball on them. Rinse and repeat... And so on... I'm sure you can find something in every class that would give a nice bonus to casting Fireballs but those come to my mind first. Of course you can also make a multiclass to combine many of those advantages. e.g. Berserker/Helwalker or Paladin/Helwalker or such. Or the Beguiler/Debonaire combo I mentioned. YOu can be very creative... Of yourse you could also pick an Evoker or aBloodmage Wizard and cast Fireballs the usual way - but why if the possibilities with the necklaces are nearly endless? You can also add two Missile Gloves and do the same, giving you a bit more option - for example if the enemies are immune to fire.

Recovery reduction always stacks afaik. Just not additively. But 75% is close to 80% and you know how fast 80% is if you look at an attack made from stealth. I only didn't say 0 recovery for x secs because I wanted it to stack at least a bit with Blood Thirst (if you kill with CB). Salvation of Time is a problem though, touché.

With Thunderous Blows, Stunning Surge + Lightning Strikes I bet...

I'd say give CB -50% or -75% recovery for x seconds (3 base maybe?) and give BS refund on crit like Stunning Surge or make it 1 Rage instead of 2.

Carnage rolls are executed with a small delay after the initial hit roll. Carnahe kills also trigger Blood Thirst by the way. Afaik multiple "0 recovery for next attack" events don't stack up. It's just your next recoery that's 0 and that's it, isn't it? At least I tried Crushing Blow + Blood Thirst some time ago and that was the result.

Ahhhhha! Now that makes sense. I'm all for visible Carnage AoE.

Afaik the current Carnage is a spell-like effect that's neither melee nor weapon. Else it would work with stuff like Lightning Strikes, Sneak Attack or Turning Wheel etc. So I don't think that Slayer's Claw would have no effect (unless it also procs on spell-hits or -crits like Blood Frenzy or Spirit Frenzy do).

It would most likely break combos with WotEP, Karabörü, Sungrazer and Keeper of the Flame and all those weapons that proc some form of AoE on hit or crit. Not to speak of Heart of Fury and Clear Out with those weapons then. Also Barbaric Retaliation would be way too good with the PoE mechanic in use. Also I think Carnage was way too good in PoE - especially because of its interaction with weapon effects (St. Ydwen's Redeemer ftw) and then also Heart of Fury. The current solution is good. The only things that I don't like is that the raw damage is a bit low and that it can't crit - which is not a big problem for Spirit Frenzy (Carnage will stagger on hit) but Blood Frenzy (Carnage can never apply the DoT because it can't crit).

Exactly. At least if you don't use the Community Patch. Basically because I said "besides the items which are generally good" - because then I'd have to list way too much stuff that are equally good for all monks, not just Forbidden Fist. I wanted to concentrate on the stuff that is good for Forbidden Fist but maybe not so much for other monks. Same with the abilites.

@timidobserver: They don't increase your accuracy. What @thelee meant was that they are not lowering your ACC like medium and large shields do (-4/-8). High MIG on Forbidden Fist not only means +15% dmg for your attacks but also +15% dmg for the self damag of the Forbidden Fist curse. If you stack hich RES with some other items and food that redices hostile effect duration and maybe even Voidward then you can pump up MIG and you won't really feel it since the curse will last under 2 secs. If you use Clarity of Agony: even less significant. The very early game can be a bit more challenging with high MIG compared to 10 MIG though. But totally doable. You just can't spam Forbidden Fist then because a stack of 2 or more will kill you quickly. 1 is no problem. good race and items/food for a Forbidden Fist (besides the items which are genereally good, bold are my favorite) : Race: Wild Orlan --> you don't want to suffer -5 RES from Shaken. Gloves: Hylea's Talons --> besides the awesome lashes they will also put a DoT on you. You won't get wounds from the damage but once the DoT effect espires you'll get one. With lots of RES, some -hostile effect items and Voidward you won't feel the damage but get wounds. Bracers of Greater Deflection --> +7 Deflection Mortification Bindings --> +2 Mortification Neck: Strand of Favor --> -10% hostile effect duration Token of Faith --> +2 RES Rings: Ring of the Solitary Wanderer --> +1 to RES and -35% hostile effect duration (only when solo though) Voidward --> -25% raw damage taken Ring of (Greater) Regeneration --> +1/+3 health per 6 secs Back: Cloak of Poverty --> up to +5 RES if the party's poor Cloak of the Theocrat --> +1 INT/+1 RES Cloak of Greater Deflection --> +7 deflection Head: Death's Maw --> afaik its -15% dmg also works with self damage Horns of the Bleak Mother --> resistence to Resolve Afflictions: you don't want to suffer -5 RES Cap of the Laughingstock --> the -10 deflection hurts a bit, but so does it hurt your enemies and the immunity to RES afflictions is great if you want to prevent -5 RES altogether White Witch Mask --> nice synergy with Parting Sorrow (monk passive, see below terrified enemies may break engagement and thus not only get a disengagement attack but also give the monk +1 wound Boots: Boots of the Stone --> +1 DEX/+1 RES and Resistance to MIG afflictions Shorewalker Sandals --> +10% move speed, +1 RES Waist: Trollhide Belt --> +1 health every 6 secs Armor: Fleshmender --> +5 health per 12 secs Devil of Caroc Breastplate --> +2 health per 3 secs on crit, +2 Mortification Cabalist's Gambeson --> Arcane Containment (-10% hostile effect duration) Gipon Prudensco --> +5 RES via Steadfast at the start of the combat for 15 secs Weapon: dagger + modal --> +10 deflection; as long as you are only using FFability you won't suffer the dmg loss while benefiting from the increased deflection Shield: Tuotilo's Palm --> Inward Spikes (10% chance of +1 wound on getting hit; works with Forbidden Fist), Balanced Shield (+1 defl. and reflex per wound), Pugilist or Precision Striker (+10% unarmed damage or +5 unarmed ACC) the last two also work with FFability Cadhu Scalth --> Luminous Harmony (+5% dmg taken, afaik includes self damage; increases with Metaphysics) The Best Defense --> the enchantment that terrifies enemies can be used in combo with Parting Sorrow (see below) Food: Rice Wine --> +2 RES, -1 DEX Khapa Leaf --> -15% hostile effect duration Khapa Tea --> -25% hostile effect duration Mohorā Wraps --> -30% hostile effect duration (!), -20% recovery(!), +4 MIG The nice thing about Forbidden Fist is that you can combine tankyness (=not getting hit) with a Monk and still get wounds while you have a very potent attack ability right away (it's really good). The bad thing is that in the early game you can feel a bit starved for wounds (because you can't spam the FFability and other afflictions will not hit you often since the enemies don't really apply them) and you have to manage the use of FFability a bit more. The more levels the better it gets. Note that Mortification of the Soul and also (Enduring) Dance of Death work normally. They can give you wounds like they do for every other monk. Abiliites that are especially nice (besides the ones that are always nice anyway) or expecially bad with Forbidden Fist: Lesser Wounds doesn't work (can you even pick it nowadays?) Clarity of Agony-->Enlightened Agony: obviously Lightning Strikes --> Swift Flurry doesn't work with FFability, Lightning Strikes does Enervating Blows can't stack with FFability#s enfeebled and therefore isn't worth it. Duality of Mortal Presence-->Iron Wheel: the higher CON is nice for raising fortitude and the AR is good for a tanky char anyways. And raising INT by 10 points would prolong the curse's damage a lot. Iirc Turning Wheel didn't work with FFability but I'm not 100% sure anymore. Crucible of Suffering --> obviously Parting Sorrow --> in combo with any terrify effect this is nice Rooting Pain --> generating wounds via FFability, Enduring Dance, Parting Sorrow, Inward Spikes etc. leads to a lot of interrupts Imagined Pain --> get +1 wounds when missed in melee: superb with Forbidden Fist, just superb - also in combo with Rooting Pain Very nice combo with a Forbidden Fist: a Wizard with Pull of Eora and giving the Monk an item that makes him immune to push/pull effects like Upright Captain's Belt. He can then roam in the Pull's AoE, getting lots of wounds from the short-lived pulls - but they don't really mess him up like they mess up the enemies. Also works with an Elf or an items with resistance to Dexterity afflictions and Binding Web: Monk will only get hobbled for a very short amount of time, enemies will be stuck. Whenever the short hobble expires you get a wound. Those can give you lots of wounds - but honestly with enough RES and items you can sam FFability all the time and get wounds nonstop anyway. What someone else reported and what's pretty nice: a confused Berserker/Forbidden Fist can use the Footsteps of the Beast to give himself very short-lived hobbles which when they expire give you wounds. Edit: by the way: all the hostile reffect duration and RES stuff and Voidward etc. work perfectly well for Sacred Immolation, too if I remember a post of some forum colleague correctly. So a Forbidden Fist/Paladin with Sacred Immolation should work well. Very little self damage from SI - but also no massive extra wounds like with normal monks of course.

It might be that most people here would say that most wizard subclasses are less nice than Bloodmage or vanilla Wizard in general (?) because you will lose access to quite some useful spells. Spells have 2 uses per Power Level per encounter - so the automatic Mirrored Image isn't as impactful as it would have been in a per-rest scenario like with PoE. Also the increased Power Level has not so much impact on illusions as it has on most damaging spells (except Wall of Many Colors and Kalakoth's Freezing Rake). The passive is nice in general though (compared to some other wiz subclasses) and I would say "yes" if the basic subclass mechanic of wizards wasn't blocking you from certain spells. But that's only my general view. There will be some special builds where it's the best pick I'm sure.

In the ship menu (where you also can place your crew and cannons) you put food and drink from your stash into the slots on top (where hardtack and water should already be). It gets used automatically from left to right. E.g. when hardtack is empty and right of it sits fruit then they will consume the fruit then. If everything is empty they will get very angry... Shipfights: Basically as soon as you are in cannon range you turn your side to the enemy, then do "halt" --> "fire cannons" --> "jibe" --> "halt" --> "fire cannons". Halt will increase your accuracy (see the percentage values besides the cannons). Being in the optimal range of your cannons as well. Good option for the Sloop are 4 Iron Thunderers because then you can do the cycle I mentioned without pausing. If something happens (symbol under your ship down below) - e.g. severe hull dmg, man over board etc. you must send in or "assign" crew to deal with it. You drag and drop your crew members into the little window in the top left then. Here's a guide that is sufficient I guess:

I totally understand. But for example Bleak Walker Paladins and Priests of Skaen are exactly that. Well, Priests of Skaen might not reveal themselves often but Bleak Walkers are very forthcoming in that regard. Anyway I just wanted to point out that there are quite some (sub)classes in PoE and Deadfire that don't have a Goody-McTwoshoes reputation. If you want more that's totally fine. Necromancer as a Wizard subclass could be nice (see Helig of Thein and Concelhaut etc.). It's quite cliche but at least there's lore supporting it is separated from animancy (although it seems both can be intermingled - see Osrya).

Not to me at least.

Maybe partly because the man was 93 years old.

It's his account on Nexus.