Boeroer

Afair the change of phantoms from controllable to non-controllable came shortly after they made it possible that phantoms carried clones of all items of the wizard. So if you gave the wizard a necklace of fireballs or a per-rest item like a figurine (they were not charged back then) the phantom could use all those attached abilites of the cloned item during its summoning duration, effectively removig the charged/per-rest restriction that the (uncloned) item usually has. So for example a wizard could have put on the Shroud of the Phantasm (wasn't there back then, but so you have a gamebreaking example) and summon a phantom. Phantom would then summon 6 Living Illusions every time (which themselves summoned Phantoms which...). So I think this was one big reason to change the phantoms. You can't trigger those abilites if you can't control the phantom. Was also the easiest solution I guess. I don't know why the rest of the other summons got changed though (can't recall which ones really changed or were uncontrollable right away). -5 PL is hefty, but as @thelee sad: infinite Robust from the Spiritual Ally can be pretty great to have. The summon itself is not breathtaking, but those "unlimited" stuff can often be used to great effect. You only have to know about it (description etc. don't mention it). What I don't get is the Druid's Aspect of Galawain. It's great fun with an Ancient + Wild Growth (I mean visually mostly) but still: it's way too meh. Or did it ever receive a buff I know nothing about? What is so bad about Wael's Incarnate? I never used it...

Rogues are not as squishy in Deadfire as they were in PoE by the way. Mindstalkers are pretty fun. One of my most beloved things with a Mindstalker is Debonaire/Beguiler who can charm enemies and then get a 100% crit conversion when casting Disintegrate on them without flipping them back to hostile mode. Kind of special class combo though. But the Charm/Disintegrate trick works with any Cipher - without the crit conversion then of course. Throw in an occasional Psychovampiric Shield to lower strong enemies' Resolve (prolongs Charm & Disintegrate a lot). Rogue/Soulblade with high deflection and some ACC debuffs on enemies with Whispers of the Endless Paths (for high AoE raw damage and a combo of Offensive Parry + Riposte which both generate focus) or Sun & Moon (first flail head dumps raw damage, second head already regains focus) works very well, too. And Ascendant/Streetfighter with blunderbuss (especially hand mortars) is powerful due to Powder Burns (Blunderbuss modal) triggering the Streetfighter's "Heating Up" passive all the time. I guess Assassin/Cipher could profit a lot from the enormous ACC buff from stealth/invisibility which would help to apply spells more reliably or to get more focus right at the start of combat (or both). But I never played that combo.

Several summons got changed from controllable to non-controllable. I believe Wizard's phantoms were also among them. Some didn't get changed though (see Chanter's summons).

Maybe ask @Kaylon since I think he's an absolute expert on solo PotD Paladins around here.

Yes that one always worked I think (with the well known pause when nothing worked with AoE).

Ach crap. 😄 I fixed it.

That's because Kaylon only looks at stats from a mechanical min-maxer and heavy metagaming perspective - since he mainly plays PotD solo. Besides the feeling of most RPG players that the stats should somehow reflect your own picture of the character: Higher INT is beneficial for Lay on Hands, Eternal or Shared Flames and some other abilies like the aforementioned Exhortations. Higher CON not only raises your fortitude defense (which still is the most important after deflection imo and you can't assume new players know to raise it into great heights with abilities/items/consumables/etc.) but also can prevent getting gunned down during boarding fights right away. I would argue that a sturdy Shieldbearer with low CON might feel wrong to most players who play on classic and who don't put min-maxing on top of their priority list.

Really? Since when does the DoT of Wounding Shot work with AoE weapons? That must be quite new.

All of them. The impact of a few points here and there is negligible. Especially on classic. You don't have to meticulously min-max attributes in order to play an efficient character. As long as the attribute distribution is going in to the right direction you're good. Na, it's fine. Just use one or two items that give a bonus to INT (you can buy/find some) and you're set. The early official companions all have mediocre PER. Mechanics you can decide yourself (you can deactivate companion auto-leveling in the game difficulty menu). Once you pick them up you can level their skill like mechnics yourself. But their attributes are set in stone. But as I said: just hire a mercenary in any tavern and give him high PER until you get an official companion with high PER (there are some). By the way: high PER (for detecting traps) and high mechanics (for disarming traps) don't have to be on the same character.

A few attribute points don't matter much in Deadfire, especially when not playing on highest difficulty. Pick what fits your pictures character. To give a suggestion: MIG: 15 CON: 15 RES: 18 INT: 15 Something like that but as I said it doesn't matter much if you shift some points here and there. Note that you need Perception for finding secrets and traps. Nine None of the early official companions has high PER, so it's often a good idea to give your main character high PER - or hire a custom adventurer in the next inn whom you give high PER and maybe also mechanics (like a Rogue hireling or so).

Cool. Just keep in mind that Nalpascas get especially screwed by Arcane Dampener (suppresses drug effect and leads to immediate drug crash). So keep an eye on those nasty wizards and interrupt a lot.

On Linux you can right-click on the icon in the tray and there it is.

@xzar_monty: Settings-->In-Game-->[ ] Enable Steam Overlay while in-game Not super difficult.

You can deactivate Steam overlays afaik.

I mean I get why Carnage and Dragon Thrashed etc. were altered (Twinned Arrows not so much) but Wrath of the Five Suns wasn't OP. It was an 1/encounter "missile" attack that could insta-fry one weak enemy but nothing that would be considered too good. Also it is official companion only. It's good if official companions have one thing that's a little bit better (although it's hard to top Gilded Enmity). Makes up for the suboptimal stat distribution (for most build ideas you'll have in mind).

Wonder why they turned Wrath of the Five Suns (which was pretty great in PoE) into mehsoup for Deadfire...

There are no Steam achievements for Deadfire. However, you'll get "Berath's Blessing" points which you can use to get some goodies for a new playthrough.

Not to forget Lord Rodriguez!

To be honest: not much balances out the loss of Resonant Touch + Whispers of the Wind (and also Razor's Edge in this case). But as you said that comes pretty late and it's reasonable to trade some late game "oomph" for a more interesting early to mid game (build-wise). What you said still works very well. Swift Flurry/Heartbeat drumming doesn't work well on high defense foes, but like Mob Stance it's great against... well... mobs. I once again recommend Morning Star + modal since you can turn Force of Anguish and Clear Out (both target Fortitude) into beastly crit generators against certain enemies (everything that hasn't stellar fortitude) - and against the others it helps your teammate land their fort-targeting spells. Use Enervating Blows + Stunning Surge or Charge or Raised Torment for even more fortitude debuffing --> leading to Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming cascades. But other weapon types also work of course. I'd only make sure they are not crush-only - because you'll always have your fists as crushing backup. Something to consider: Whispers of the Endless Path's Offensive Parry triggers both Heartbeat Drumming/Swift Flurry and Cleaving Stance (if it kills of course). In this special case I would also consider Shattered Pillar instead of Nalpasca (which is a nice subclass) because Offensive Parry also generates wounds for Shattered Pillars... Rooting Pain is good for a melee Monk who spends/gains wounds often, Flagellant's Path is ok-ish with normal melee weapons but great with mortars and rods + blast or Spirit Lance (which you all won't use I reckon).

You can use wand/rod/scepter and one of the best already comes rel. early in Defiance Bay (Engwithan Scepter). Gyrd Háewanes Sténes comes even earlier and without any fight. I would use those as backup though because as I said, Blast + Penetrating Blast are most powerful with Kalakoth's Minor Blights. It it correct that using Minor Blights will spare you a lot of other damaging spells. You invest 1 spell use for the whole fight (maybe 2 or 3 because Chillfog and Combusting Wounds are just too good) but usually one shot of Blights + Blast does the same damage as a damaging spell cast at lower levels. Later on the combination woth Pull of Eora is also very powerful. ALso note that Klakoth's Minor Blights have a pretty insane inherent accuracy bonus which is extremely benefical in the early(ish) game. Weapon Focus is one of the most effective talents you can take early in the game if you plan to use weapons more than occasionally. Having to overcome a different defense than the one that gets lowered is the biggest advantage. Aspirant's Mark is also good because it is accessible very early on and it's 1/enounter which means that Wizards can contribute to a fight without spending spell uses (besides Arcane Assault which is decent). Of curse you could rest after each fight and then it doesn't matter, but I find that to be a rather boring approach. That's for you do decide. It will give you +20% implement damage which is great for Kalakoth's Minor Blights - since all the AoE hits of it will profit (additional cascade of Blast hits will NOT) while it will give you some self damage with every shot (watch out if combining with Alacrity spell which also does harm you). It would stack with Apprentice's Sneak Attack (+15%). You can turn it on and off at will (modal). You confused Penetrating Shot and Penetrating Blast. Penetrating Shot will give you 5 DR bypass on ranged weapon attacks (and some spells like missiles for example) and will slow your ranged weapon recovery down by 20% (not spell recovery) - and doesn't work with Blasts. Penetrating Blast only works for the Blasts (DR bypass) and has no downsides. Reason why I recommend it is because the Cascade of Minor Blights + Blast generates so many Blast hits that the accumulated damage by DR bypass is often enormous. Let's assume you manage to hit 5 enemies in front of your tank who's guarding a doorway with Minor Blights: 5 hit rolls with Minor Blights, each dealing their normal elemental damage, then each of those hit rolls generates a Blast which hits all 5 enemies --> 25 Blast hit rolls. Lets assume the enemies' crush DR is 5 and Blast does 10 crush damage. Without Penetrating Blast you would deal 125 crush damage and with Penetrating Shot you would have dealt 250. That's quite substancial. Add to this that you can do such a shot every few seconds... Penetrating Shot can be good - but it depends on the situation. With Minor Blights and if you use Alacrity (50% speedup) it's usually a win if you can manage to hit several enemies at once with the Blight's AoE. When hitting 5 enemies you'll do 25 additional damage. You would have to do some math in order to determine once the slower attack speed would result in less damage then... With implements that apply an effect on hit you usually want to fire as fast as possible though - so Penetrating Shot wouldn't be the best pick then. To estimate your attack speed with several weapons, modals, items and setups in general you can use this: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ For simulating the Alacrity spell you can use the option "DAoM potion" (same thing basically). Note that only DEX affects the actual attack animation speed. All other speed modifiers only affect the recovery phase. The more speed effects you can stack the more impact (increasing returns), but not all do stack. Usually for melee wizard (which can be great) Citzal's Spirit Lance is the holy grail. So no sword & board (althoug that would work as well, for example with this build here: Bilestomper). Spirit Lance is one of the best weapons in the game (reach, highest base damage + AoE damage) - but Apprentice's Sneak Attack only works with the initial hit, not the splash damage (still a good pick imo, also Savage Attack once you have some ACC buffs in the party).

Blast + Penetrating Blast is very powerful once you use the summoning spell "Kalakoth's Minor Blights". That spell summons a wand which fires projectiles which do area of effect damage. Each hit in the area triggers a Blast (a second area of effect attack) which results in a ton of hit rolls. Combine with Combusting Wounds spell for max effect. Other potentially good talents for a Wizard: Weapon Focus, Marksman (with said Blast), Aspirant's Mark, Dangerous Implement (with said Minor Blights)... Also depends on what the Wizard's role is (like melee damage dealer, spell damage dealer, spell crowd control and so on). For example a melee Wizard also profits from Veteran's Recovery and Arcane Veil (which you took).

Correct. Blunderbuss has 6 projectiles and each will do an attack roll. As you said this is very nice with abilities like Rogue's strikes which apply an affliction - like Blind.

Who are Palledina and Vladimir? Friends of Cindy & Bert?

Correct

You mean on consoles. Afaik @Madscientist plays on PC...?