Boeroer

@Phenomenum: I'd say it leeds to Power (Level) creep (e.g. Illusionist/Ascendant getting bonus PL for all spells from Illusionist subclass, bonus PL from Ascension, bonuses from passives AND longer duration from Lingering Echoes etc.). Which will lead to broken combos with certain multiclass characters. And last but not least it gives every ability a reeeeeeally long list of keywords. I actually like the current CP solution: it's more systemic and makes more sense but it doesn't lead to completely broken edge cases. What I wanted to do with trinkets was giving Priests and Druids more spell choices without having to use ability points. So basically I wanted to mimic grimoires which do exactly that. Also because trinkets were originally planned to be given to all classes but were cut because of "no time and money left". So trinkets (for priest, druid, later also fighter, rogue etc.) would kind of be a "spiritual" continuation of the original development progress. Just to make them a bit distinct I wanted to give Priests less spell choice (since Wizards with their "scientific" apporach and books full of spells should have the biggest portfolio) and compensate that with other bonuses. Everythig else was just for flavour etc.

Other synergies: Debonaire/Cipher can charm + 100% crit-disintegrate. Also quite nice. No enfeebling but a nearly guarateed crit on disintegrate is great, too. Helwalker/Cipher changes enfeeblement for higher MIG. It's usually more fiddly and less overall dmg with DoTs but the higher MIG is also useful for a bunch of other powers and weapon dmg (= more focus) so this might be preferrable to some. Forbidden Fist/Assassin or Debonaire with Toxic Strike and also Deep Wounds and Ring the Bell (maybe even adding Bleeding Cuts) is also a great way to combine high dmg DoTs with prolonging mechanisms (enfeeble + high INT + crits). Since Toxic Strike can climb to enormous tick rates the longer it lasts this can be very good on bosses if you manage to lower their RES first (like with a Miasma + RES affclition for example).

Only if you look at "Into the Fray" as a dmg tool. But the main part of the ability seems to be the CC/pull effect (especially in TB mode I reckon) which will remain untouched. The change he suggested would simply shift the focus away from damage and towards that aspect of the ability. Since the ability would do less dmg but keep its pulling effect it needs to be cheaper then. Thus his "problem-creating+solving" is necessary. I have not tried to contact @MaxQuest besides tagging him like so. PS: Hey!

Arrr - yes, you are right. Symbol of Eothas and such. Sorry!

DoTs can be boosted additively with MIG (and some other obscure things) and multiplicatively with duration. That combo can be pretty strong. Duration can be prolonged via Power Level (base duration!), lowering enemies' RES (affects hostile effects on target), own INT, crits (+50%) and Enfeebled on the enemy (+50%). Maybe even Lingering Echoes (Cipher passive), didn't test it with certain DoTs. Maybe only works with proper afflictions. So for example if a max MIG Forbidden Fist/Cipher at PL 7 with Turning Wheel (+10 INT) casts Psychovampiric Shield (-10 RES) and Secret Horrors (-5 RES) and then enfeebles via Forbidden Fist ability and will then crit with Disintegrate he will do tremendous damage per focus point spent because the Disintegrate (any DoT really) will last a really, really, really long time. Also good that FF-Monks can stun as well. Together with the enfeeblement you'll lower enemies fortitude by -20 from that alone. Add a Morning Star as usual for another -25 and a crit for Disintegrate is nothing that's out of reach. That's the strongest synergy I know around DoTs. One of the strongest single target combos I know. Just not that Forbidden FIst doesn't generate focus in the unmodded game because Forbidden Fist lacks the "weapon" tag (and thus also doesn't work properly with Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming and Enervating Blows). THis was fixed in the community patch (again - see my signature) which also contains unique icons for every passive ability. It is easy to install and is no powergaming mod - just balance adjustments and some bugfixes. Oh, that and the fact that charmed enemies will not flip back if you hit them with a DoT-only (I mean if there's no additional physical hit roll involved like with Rogue's strikes or Necrotic Lance). Cipher's Disintegrate and lall other which are pure DoTs and can be targeted on allies will work: you can charm an enemy and still cast Disintegrate on them whithout them even noticing. Bye bye! Here it's also no problem that DoTs take a while to kill because the guy's fighting for you anyways. You'll get a thrall which will dispose itself once its usefulness expired.

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.