Boeroer

It doesn't matter why I don't use consumables. I know I'm not the only one so it doesn't hurt to give another reasonably argued point of view... so that OP can see if he agrees - or not - and then make a well-informed decision that matches with his wishes and expectations. I'm not pushing somebody towards anything - I just give my perspective and then let OP decide whether that applies to him or not. Again: I'm not saying it's not fine. I'm saying that I - personally (stated that every time explicitly) - am not in favor of making consumables an integral part of my character. So if OP feels the same way or can somewhat relate then he can consider this - and if he doesn't agree then he can discard what I wrote. Better to read two reasonably written opinions on a matter than just one. Yes, it stacks with everything except the Rogue's Escape. Later Veiled Hood (Mask of the Weyc) is the same: it stacks with everything except Arcane Veil. You can stack both and extend them with WoD for +100 deflection, which stacks with all other deflection buffs (like Mirrored Images or so). The downside of the cape is that you have to become bloodied in order to unlock it - but I guess that's not a big problem with a Bloodmage. By the way, speaking of WoD: I also like to prolong Blightheart's healing on hit and Lesser Lay on Hands (gloves). You can switch Blightheart after shooting/receiving the heal effect. The healing will stay. Iirc it pulses and every pulse adds a healing over time and they can be individually prolonged (but maybe I remember wrong). I mean just in case one seeks some "self contained" healing options that work with Wall of Draining. Wall of Draining works best if enemies have beneficial effects which the Wall and drain from. If enemies don't have that then WoD doesn't work as well. You can makesureall enemies have a benefical effect to drain from by wearing the Cap of the Laughingstock. Its "Village Fool" enchantment gets automatically placed on enemies in range (as well as allies) and is considered a benefical effect - thus the Wall can drain duration from it, even though Village Fool has no duration (is infinite).

Yes, but only from time to time for a rel short amount of time. Doesn't make the modal (which works at all times) redundant. To the contrary: the faster you can shoot the higher the chances to trigger Bullet Time in a given time frame. Skipping reload (original idea) would also be an absolute buff which would make any speed buffs obsolete for a short amount of time. So I think when it's about coming close to the original (which doesn't work) -80% is more in the spirit than -50% imo. Doesn't matter if the 80% would be overkill often. But it would be very nice for characters with no actual speed buffs and feel powerful compared to their usual slow reloading speech. Another thing: does Bullet Time allow to get triggered while Bullet Time is active? I imagine if it worked like intended (0 reload time) it could lead to an extended duration because it gets triggered again during that rapid-fire phase.

I quickly tested the Apex Ward jut now (with CP and Enhanced UI mod) and it worked like intended: when blooded I gained +10 ACC and +10% dmg to my attacks. Healed back up - bonus is gone. Next fight, getting bloodied: again +10 ACC and +10% dmg. :shrug It's weird though that the Bood Rage effect will not get listed under benefical effects or on the char sheet at all. You have to do an attack roll and check the log in order to find it. Which other enchantments did you put on your shield? Maybe there's some interaction... Nevermind: tested it with all enchantments - didn't change the outcome.

Then maybe do -80% (like the stealth bonus) to make sure the floor is def. met with Bullet Time?

Whoopsi!

That's your preference. As I made clear not using them is just mine. OP might tend towards your preference or mine. No. As I explicitly wrote above I simply don't use consumables as part of a little personal challenge. I find using them cumbersome (and I especially don't like that scrolls take away the uniqueness of class abilities). Instead of hording them I just sell all consumables (except food bc. you are kind of forced to use food/drink while resting). But I guess there are enough players who don't use consumables because they hoard them. The reason for not making them an integral part of a character build doesn't matter though: if you don't like to use consumables then you shouldn't rely on them when planning a character concept. If you have no problem with using them on a regular basis then that's not a problem of course. That is why I explicitly wrote that Wellspring of Life is worth it - in my opinion - if it helps you to get over that threshold (+3 PL for 1 additional for us per sec) and otherwise... not. For a multiclass character (like Bloodmage/Psion) it's accessible at level 19 out of 20. It comes very late in terms of character progression and still late enough in terms of game content. It's nice no doubt and often it is fun to use. I will absolutely use it myself with all sorts of buffs (see stuff like +50 deflection from the Magnificent Escape Cape) - I just wouldn't plan a build around it because the majority of time you play the game you will not be able to use it. I doesn't matter whether I am the only one who thinks godlikes are good or not (I don't think they are generally a good pick). If one can make a good argument against Wellspring of Life in the scope of this thread then that's fine - as it is fine if somebody makes a good argument in favor of it. In this case - as I said: it's worth it imo if it helps you to easily/conveniently get the +1 focus per second. In addition to that picking Nature Godlike is also worth it imo because of thematic reasons if you also want to use the Lance. That's my two points pro Nature Godlike. There are surely other points for another player race. If all those points are presented the OP can make an informed decision for himself.

By the way: If you switch away from the Lance while having woodskin, form of the delemgan or any plant effect (also see tanglefoot or thorny roots) you will immediately lose the +2 Power Levels from Lord of the Forest. If you switch back to the Lance the PL bonus will also be back. It is worth going Nature Godlike if the 1 additional PL brings your Soul Mind focus generation over the edge to generate 1 more focus per second - which is a huge improvement. If it doesn't then maybe not, although +1 PL does a lot more for you than simply add a bit of additional focus - see +1 ACC, +5% base dmg, +5% duration, +0.25 PEN and all that. Iirc Wellspring of Life + Lord of the Forest are exactly worth +1 more focus per second for the Psion. Since the Psion generates Focus at all times, even while casting and recovering and even while CC'd in most cases (as long as not critically Hit), this is a very good bonus imo. If you don't want Nature Godlike then Stone of Power can substitute it, you keep the +1 focus and can enjoy the benefits of a helmet. It may also depend on party vs solo - and on what you are willing to invest on a regular basis in fights. I personally wouldn't want to chuck a potion for getting to a decent PL threshold, but instead I would want to achieve a better focus generation with abilities and gear that I can use in every fight (in case of Stone of Power you'd need two of those then) and which I can get access to relatively early (see Nature God-like and Lance of the Midwood Stag). So with recommendations I personally will not take into account stuff like potions, Wall of Draining and Wand of the Weyc etc. The first I would be reluctant to use all the time (actually I'd never use it, that's my own lil' challenge) and the second come pretty late so that the game is too far advanced in terms of "time played vs. time left to play". Hence I recommended Lance otMS if you have a Druid in the party who can cast Woodskin and Form of the Delemgan. That's easy, reliable and early access to the +2 PL of the Lance. Reling on becoming blooded for that one cast of woodskin would be too fiddly for my personal taste as the only source for the PL boost, but of course it's a source that's accessible as soon as you get that enchantment on the Lance, especially with a Bloodmage. A Death Godlike can also be a good source of PL for a Psion. Being near death raises your focus by 1/sec right away. But of course it's also super risky if you don't go the Barring Death's Door + WoD/SoT route. For me personally not worth the hassle. Nature Godlike or Stone of Power is easier and I like the thematic fit of Nature Godlike + Lance of the Midwood Stag/Lord of the Forest. For me the thematic fit is an important part of whether I enjoy playing a build or not. I guess that's different for everybody though.

This is interesting. That is usually one of the easier fights for me personally (other that the Changeling's Dance for example, grmblfx...). I'm using official companions most of the time. I don't know why - I guess it has something to to with the general tactics I like to use (like for example "assembling" as many enemies as possible in one spot before really opening the fight) that make some other fights (especially with lots of very mobile + tough enemies) pretty hard but others pretty easy - contrary to what other players describe.

Oh, weird... that is something I never experienced. Is the combat mode over though? If so that sounds like a veritable bug. I wonder what might trigger it. I did that fight so many times... there has to be one sort of behavior or prerequisite that breaks the quest that I didn't use (much) or have. Did you by any chance use some sort of destroy effect - for example Disintegration, Marux Amanth, Saru Sichr's Death Sentence (Neriscyrlas should be immune to that though), Amra's Riven Gore, Death Ring or something like that?

Yes, it does. Stacking universal Power Levels is great for boosting the Psion's focus generation. So stuff like the Lance of the Midwood Stag (+2 PL) is a nice "stat stick" for a Psion (if you have a Druid with Woodskin and/or Form of the Delemgan). Also Stone of Power...

Also the most impressive looking imo.

It's still good - but a bit less potent as in PoE. The range is shorter, its casting time is longer (3 secs casting + 4 secs recovery), the prone effect is shorter (+INT has no effect on prone duration) and it has relatively low base Penetration in Deadfire. The base AoE is a bit bigger - but in Deadfire AoE size doesn't increase as steeply as it did in PoE with INT etc. (because in PoE the radius was increased so the AoE grew quadratically while in Deadfire the area size is increased directly so it grows "only" linearly with INT etc.).

As a Wizard I would pick the spells at level up that I really and def. want to cast on every fight - and not one more. The rest you can cast from Grimoires. Spare the ability points for the Psion's powers and passives in general. The Psion (as all Ciphers) has access to one of the most impactful mechanics there is in Deadfire combat: mind control (Charmed or Dominated). So usually that's what I put most emphasis on when playing a Psion. A Bloodmage (as all Wizards) has plenty of spells that cause friendly fire. You can see that as disadvantage when it comes to charmed enemies (cannot hurt charmed enemies because they will flip back to hostile) or advantage (can even hurt charmed enemies with spells). In case of dominated enemies it can be very good because you can occupy enemies with their dominated formes allies and still torch the whole place with spells without regret. There's a superb wizard spell, also accessible by Bloodmage of course, that works extremely well in combination with all mind control spells of the Psion - and all other powers and spells that target the Will defense (Phantom Foes, Secret Horrors, Exposed Vulnerabilities, Ryngrim's spells etc.). That spell is Miasma of Dull-Mindedness. It drops the Will defense by 40 points and also makes your effects last a lot longer on the enemy. I'd say there is not much better individual synergy effect between Wizard and Cipher than this single spell. Also in combination with the cipher passives that circle around spells against will and also critical hits with spells. If you also have a party member who can wield a club + modal: even better. Other spells that are very useful: All the self-buffs of the Wizard, most notably the defensive ones. They will help a lot to prevent focus generation stops: if your defenses are high you are less likely to receive a critical hit. Chillfog - ist just a very good spell. Concelhaut's Draining Touch in combination with an Essential Phantom. It adds a summon to your "army" of mind controlled enemies that hits real hard because Draining Touch targets Will instead of deflection. It also drains health so the phantom will be tanker. On the phantom it will not vanish after one hit + if you summon it first and then the phantom it will stay there for the rest of the phantom's duration. Expose Vulnerabilities in combo with Phantom Foes. This will reduce enemies AR by 3 points. Start with Phantom Foes, then Exp. Vulnerability. By the time you finish the wizard spell the focus spend for Phantom Foes has already "grown" back. Secret Horrors is a good spell to shut down most enemies' offensive abilities quickly. It also lowers Will so it can be a good opener to soften enemies up for Miasma and then the individual mind controll uses such as Whisper of Treason or later Puppet Master. It's also cheap enough to regain that focus very quickly as Psion. Borrowed Instincts and Tactical Meld. The latter only if you don't use a Priest with PER inspiration buffs. Disintegrate is very good in this case, too because it doesn't flip back charmed enemies. You can charm a tough enemy and then disintegrate it without any stress. Soul Ignition, too. But Disintegrate is a lot more potent.

Did you go back to find Vatnir in his secret chamber?

Yes, it's a serious drawback.

Nature's Terror is friendly fire in Deadfire, too.

For single target dmg I would suggest either Boar form (wounding DoT is strong and stacks) or Cat Form (fastest attacks) with Wildstrike Belt (it's a lot better than it seems) and Avenging Storm. --- When going Boar: the higher the MIG the better because the wounding lash scales with MIG. The higher the MIG the bigger the percentage of the wounding lash of the tusks. With high MIG you can then also pick Novice's Suffering and wear the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar because both boosts the bonus damage of Novice's Sufferung while nothing else does. That way you get good melee dps and fast hits (important for Avenging Storm) even if you are not shifted, while sparing resources that you would otherwise need for enchanting backup weapons. The Boar Form also has passive healing that stacks with Veteran's Recovery. In combination with high MIG you can make the Boar Druid pretty sturdy while shifted which makes it less likely to go down (aka dealing 0 damage ;)). --- For a melee Cat Form I would maybe prioritize DEX over MIG. Also helps to cast buffs etc. faster. --- For a casting setup with Relentless Storm and so on I would probably focus on the Cat form (just because of the faster casting).

Konstanten has low int and that means his cheap offensive invocation cones (such as Her Revenge) will be too short to be of good use if he fights at range. Imo he has to get close to the enemies in order to make optimal use of those cone-shaped invocations. You could try to boost his INT with various items + food - and that might work at some point. But tbh I would just make him a melee char (and still increase his INT because it sucks ;)). Konstanten as Howler with a Morning Star and Brute Force, Spirit Frenzy and the chant "The Long Night's Drink" worked very well for me.

It is supposed to skip reloading for a certain duration. But it does nothing. I guess since the normal reloading cycle has a minimum animation time (you cannot shorten the reloading time more than down to a certain floor value) the reload time cannot be reduced to zero in a conventional way by just setting it to 0.0 secs or something like that. I suspect the devs just went "ok, let's set reloading time to 0.0 secs for the base duration of x secs" but eventually forgot that even with 0.0 "official" reloading time the reload still takes that minimum amount of animation time. Instead I would look at how the Red Hand achieves its two shots with not reload in between and copy that behavior but give it that 10% chance and do like 3 or 4 shots without reload or whatever seems balanced - and scrap the "for x seconds". Just allow x shots with no reload in a row, no duration involved. But of course getting "x shots without reloading" isn't the same as getting "shoot with a reloading time of 0 for x secs". Because you won't be able to influence the first one with INT and so on I guess. And naturally players would salivate over the possibility to extend that buff with Wall of Draining and so on. Not possible with a fixed amount of no-reload shots. So maybe the red hand method would be ven cleaner and more cheese-avoiding.

Sure They do No, they do raw damage which bypasses armor completely. What would they need penetration for? This means they can never underpenetrate (which is a serious damage malus) but they also cannot overpeneterate (which is "only" a 30% additive dmg bonus - underpenetration is much more severe since it's multiplicative). Nothing in regard to the damage type. Animancer's Blade can only be enchanted with quality though (no special enchantments besides the starting ones). Eccea's Arcane Blaster can get additonal elemental damage - but it doesn't change the raw dmg type of the iitial shot - it's just an addon of elemental dmg on top of that raw dmg. The other enchantments also don't do anything to the damage type. Classes or class combos with bad to mediocre weapon penetration - if you play Path of the Damned. On the lower difficulties it doesn't matter that much because the armor of enemies is weaker. Besides that they are not most suitable for a special class but rather great against special enemies with very high armor. Animancer's Blade has lower base damage than a regular sabre but is faster so the overall dps is comparable to a normal sabre - but the lack of further enchantments make it an inferior pick against enemies with normal to low armor - I mean compared to other unique sabres. Eccea's Arcane Blaster is a great pistol for any pistolero build because its enchantments are great (except "Bullet Time" which doesn't work properly, so don't pick that). I used it with good success on several characters, among them a single class Kind Wayfarer (together with Scrodeo's Trophy), a Wizard/Ranger (also together with Scordeo's Trophy), a Beguiler/Sharpshooter (single handed with the modal and One handed style), SC Priest (Xoti, more than once) and more (I cannot remember all of them). Watch out - if you use a Rogue then know that there's a problem with Deep Wounds: it requires a weapon with pierce, slash or crush damage to get triggered. Both weapons don't deal that type of damage but raw damage. Deep Wounds doesn't recognize raw damage so would be completely wasted if you mainly used on one of those weapons. So I'd say just spare that ability point and take something else. Instead of or in addition to using those weapons you can also use abiities that deal raw damage. Like the Rogue's Arterial Strike, Gouging Strike and Ring the Bell. If you combine all three of those on a Steelclad construct for example it will die very quickly. Or you can use a Druid with Swarm of Insects + Infestation of Maggots and stuff like that. But something like Eccea's Arcane Blaster is indeed great against that sort of enemies. Animancer's Blade comes pretty late so I wouldn't plan a whole character build around it. But one can make a beeline for the Blaster and the fight where you cn loot it from also isn't difficult because it's just one mid-level wizard you have to take out (and you can start the fight from stealth).

Yes, absolutely. For example: just because of better action economy I sometimes think really hard about bringing two priests - so that I can get out a party-wide PER inspiration and Devotions for the Faithful (or any buff really) in less than half the time. Also why I like to have Priest and Druid in the same party and not use a Priest/Druid. Casting Devotions at the same time as Moonwell at the start of battle is way better than doing it one after the other. Class builds are often "self contained" so they can do some synergistic things one their own, which is cool - but in terms of action economy it's almost always better to achieve that synergy with different party members. That's also why good solo chars aren't necessarily very good in parties compared to a well composed party - an vice versa.

That last part doesn't work, as Okkes already pointed out. But your idea goes into the right direction. You just need another weapon that (re)generates focus while executing Soul Annihilation. That weapon is Sun & Moon. Since it has two separate attack rolls with its two flail heads: Soul Annihilation will spend the focus for raw damage on the first attack roll - the second attack roll will already generate focus again. You will not have a ton - but usually enough to use Soul Annihilation again. That way you can spam Soul Annihilation all the time (primary attack) and skip the low dmg shield bash - but have dual wielding speed. However - it is best to use a Soulblade/Rogue to make sure that the second flail head does enough dmg per hit to get enough focus for Soul Annihilation again. But Monk with Tuning Wheel could be good enough, too - I didn't try that. But Sun & Moon is also an excellent weapon for Swift Flurry because of the double attack roll which increases the chance to proc Swift Flurry significantly.

Primary attack only means only the spear is used. Yet you keep the bonus of dual wielding for the times Mercy Strike doesn't proc. If you use auto attacks or Full Attacks you would be right though. If you look at the combat log you will see that Swift Flurry/HBD attacks will get executed BEFORE the initial attack that triggered them in the first place. It seems that internally the initial attack is resolved and it get determined whether Swift Flurry and HBD will proc (recursively if they proc themselves) and after everthing's calculated the bonus attacks get executed first and the initial attack last. Last comes Carnage (if you have that). That way push effects (or knockup-effects) cause zero problems with Swift Flurry/HBD but will push enemies into the Carnage area. One reason why I love to use Efficient Anguish with a Barbarian/Monk. The "Red FLag Flying" DoT enchantment on Mohara Tanga (that can proc itself on crit and can cause attack roll chains even without Swift Flurry/HBD) works the same by the way: additional attacks execute first, initial attack last. That is correct. Unless you run into crowds and push them all away one after the other (doable an fun, but then Enduring Dance is less of a reliable option). You'll need Instruments of Pain to pick off singular foes and still be able to profit from the recovery skip with Force of Anguish. An alternative is to use Evasive Roll to follow the pushed enemy instantly. It has no recovery so you can do push-roll-push in very quick succession if Mercy Strike triggers. But it will cost some Bond (1 per Evasive Roll). But it can be a good way to separate an enemy from the crowd very quickly A Nalpasca with Enduring Dance has very good passive wound generation so it's easier to use Instruments of Pain + Efficient Anguish non-stop later on. You can use Hylea's Talons to generate more wounds through self damage (or hostile effect if FF)). The self damage doesn't harm Enduring Dance - it doesn't count. If you don't want that sort of micromanagement and frequently use auto-attacks then one-handed style (or a normal, non-bashing shield) would be better. Or... you could use a ranged weapon in the offhand for dual wielding speed but only spear usage (in melee). In this case a Monk/Streetfigher or Ranger/Streetfighter could be fun with a blunderbuss in the offhand and the spear in the main hand. Fire the blunderbuss towards some enemy at range, get -50% recovery time and +50% sneak attack for the spear against a melee enemy. I didn't try this but it could be fun. Easiest solution is to go one-handed I guess. I did that for a whole playthrough with a Ranger/Monk with Mohara Tanga and it works absolutlely well for crits - actually too well because the game kept crashing against normal enemies (endless crit chains will result in some overflow and shut down the game).

Yeah okay. For solo one could also argue that Priest can have higher acc.

Yes, the accuracy of Ranger/Monk is only second to Ranger/Cipher. Enduring Dance can already be very useful if you don't try to tank several enemies and if you can reliably disable opponents so you don't get hit a lot (see Force of Anguish and Stunning Surge). Once you use Instruments of Pain it's a non-issue and the second best individual active accuracy buff any class has after Cipher's Borrowed Instincts. Besides that the main point was that Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming offer multiple additional chances to proc the recovery skip of Mercy Strike which significantly improves the odds over any other class combo. I tried a lot of combinations with Mercy Strike and this was simply the best. Ofc. the skipped recovery also leads to a faster repetition of Swift Flurry/HBD procs which in turn triggers Mercy Strike more often in a given time and so on... --- By the way: the best way for me to utilize this was to use Stalker's Patience not one-handed with One Handed Style (although that's def. a viable option) but instead to mainly use Efficient Anguish with Stalker's Patience and Tuotilo's Palm as the primary weapon setup. That way you'll get the speed bonus for dual wielding and Two-Weapon Style (and all the defensive benefits ofc.) but will only do attack rolls with the spear - to maximize the chances for Mercy Strike. For Stunnig Surge you'll still have a proper Full Attack with two weapons - which is helpful for the Mortification refund. With Enervating Blows and Stunning Surge you can drop enemies fortitude so the hit quality of Efficient Anguish will improve. You will not have the +12 ACC of course. At the beginning of the game one-handed usage has more impact - but at some point and against the usual non-boss enemies I found the raises attack speed and defenses to be more useful than the added accuracy (which is plenty after a while). Ofc. Tutilo's Palm becomes even more interesting if you pick a Forbidden Fist as Monk subclass - because your FF attack will profit from the shield's ACC/dmg enchantments for unarmed attacks even if you carry the spear in the main hand. --- Stalker/Fighter will also have its benefits, no doubt. I also tried Berserker/Helwalker, Stalker/Berserker, Stalker/Streetfighter, Stalker/Assassin, Assassin/FF, Stalker/Bleak Walker, Stalker/Soulblade and even Bleak Walker/Devoted - maybe some others I don't remember. I think besides Ranger/Monk I enjoyed Stalker/Assassin quite a bit - more bc. of thematic reasons though. Assassin/FF was planned for something else entirely - but I started to have a lot of fun with an Arterial Strike from stealth and a follow-up Efficient Anguish: enemies would get up again and try to chase me but quickly die from the DoT of Arterial Strike and the DoT of Stalker's Patience. I didn't carry on with this though. Also Mercy Strike is kind of wasteed here until you get Instruments of Pain - because the enemies are pushed away all the time so the skipped recovery doesn't help you as much (unless you have Instruments of Pain). I later tried to evolve that lil' synergy with Llengrath's Warding Staff + Arterial Strike + Phantom and play Arterial-Strike-Tennis - but the staff comes too late for my liking. Force of Anguish is the better tool imo.