Boeroer

Shared Nightmare is pretty cool with an Ascendant (or Beguiler). You'll increase your AoE by a lot (1% per 1 point of focus you hold) and your focus doesn't drop once you are ascended (or Beguiler gets focus back while casting). So you can cast a lot of cipher powers with immense AoE. I'm playing a SC Soulblade with WotEP atm (although I thought I wouldn't play Deadfire anymore and the size of the cone is pretty ridiculous with Greater Focus and Shared Nightmare. Would be even bigger as Ascendants (higher max focus than Soulblade). I guess even with a base of only 1.3 Minor Blights' AoE would also be nice. And of course all your wizard-AoEs...

Which Blights? Kalakoth's Minor Blights? They have pretty low PEN (7 base). And the AoE is "only" 1.3 base which doesn't scale as good. Spirit Lance seems better (1 more PEN, 1.5 AoE base) - also if you include Draconic Fury. It only applies to the initial his but it's still a 2*15% lash. Or what did you mean?

Inspiring Triumph was the same in PoE1. No idea why the Paladin her-/himself isn't included. But that's also the case with several (if not all?) Exhortations: can only be cast on allies, not the Paladin - while stuff like Lay on Hands can. Maybe because it would raise his defenses too high (since it's a passive and stacks with everything) while he could be skilled for total offense. This is very easy to mod though.

Yeah, I saw the job offer wasn't online anymore.

Enduring Beacon works on the Paladin as well. Inspiring Triumph does not.

I guess that's because it's a copy of the orignal Rogue ability. All those "foreign" abilites (Sunbeam on a Priest of Eothas, Arcane Veil on a Preist of Wael etc.) are just hard copies of the original ability. In this case it might be that Skean's Shadowing Beyond never got updated like the Rogue's version was. Lots of players were complaining that Rogue's DoTs were breaking Shadowing Beyond so I guess Obsidians tried to fix that ability for the Rogue - but forgot to transfer that to the Skaen version. Basically like in PoE were they forgot to change Knockdown from primary to full attack on the Girdle of the Driving Wave while it was done for the original Knockdown of the fighter.

Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure doesn't break on applying CC effects if I recall correctly. Only on dealing damage. Or it was not breaking with Walls and Seals because those are considered hazards and the game handles then as independent entity? Something like that. @Raven Darkholmeknows I think.

Or if Edér. And Strand of Favor!

Or only shoot generic mobs with it.

I would always prefer the Essential Phantom (as long as I have a choice) because the Substantial one will often NOT use the weapons you provided but instead cast several of its silly spells. They are on autopilot so you can't really control what it's doing with its spells. This also means they don't count as allies by the way. So no Pain Block or so. That only works on summons you can control.

Exactly. That's why a SC Rogue should bring lots of INT.

Afaik the version from Private Divison is just a key for the Epic Games Store. I want to repeat that I personally don't like this (semi)exclusive deal because I'm on Linux - and Steam did a really good job with Proton. It works like a charm with all non-Linux-native games I tried so far and allows me to play a ton of games without having to install Windows (which I really don't need otherwise). This is a very special case of course and not relevant when one looks at sales numbers. It just shows there might be more reasons than Stockholm Syndrome or being a fanboy. Complaining about Steam being a quasi monopoly is ok. But at the same time embracing Windows which is a quasi monopoly as a platform for PC games is a bit inconsequential. Anyway in this case it's not too bad because it will be on Steam after 1 year. At that point I guess it will run smoothly with Proton. Completely exclusive deals would disappoint me more. Just because I couldn't play the game at all then.

I once had Living Illusions who carried Spirit Lances summon some Essential Phantoms who also carried Spirit Lances...

Maybe. But after countless playthroughs of PoE and Deadfire I still find the early game of PoE cool while the early game of Deadfire is kind of a tedium.

Maybe because it's worse than Plague of Insects - and because it is a direct competitor to Insect Swarm. Insect Swarm has the much smaller potential AoE. But is foe only (Autumn's Decy has firendly fire), removes Concentration entirely, does the same dmg per tick as AD but raw (!) and lasts 30% longer. And it can be boosted by +3 PL with the Spine of Thicket Green. Too bad there are no Decay boosts in Deadfire. That makes IS better than Autum's Decay in my opinion. AD can still be your favorite of course. Depends a lot on how one plays. Sometimes cone shapes are just better.

See my second sentence. Which was ironic. Implementing D&D rules into the Deadfire "Engine" would be at least as painful and drain resources even more than implementing a whole new set of mechanics (like they did). Not only do you have to implement everything anew but you'd also make sure that the implementation doesn't deviate too much from the original (else booohooo fanboy grognards) while being somewhat balanced and playable with a CRPG (else booohooo non-grognards), talking to WotC all the time to make sure you're not producing a sacrilege (else booohooo WotC) and cutting so much stuff (else booohooo producer and director). I mean all power to Larian for trying - but it's against overwhelming odds.

There should be. I also have no idea why that isn't a pickable condition. I think you can work around it (like I said the target with the lowest health is most likely the one you attacked before) but it would be easier to have that option.

There are several nice combos with Ciphers, Priests and Chanters. But I will concentrate on Wizard and Druid mostly: Goldpact Knight + Bear Form = superhigh AR and thus very sturdy while stacking lashes with FoD + Wildstrike. Use Ring of Focused Flame and Scion of Flame. Kind Wayfarer + Wizard + Sun and Moon + Magran's Favor + Fire PL pet (like Otto Starcat) + FoD. +5 PL for all your fire abilities including FoD. I suspect the White Flames healing scales with the increased PL as well...? Also works with Priest (of Magran) and Druid (if you stick to fire spells mostly). Rogue/Druid + Firebrand + Ring of Focused Flame + Scion of Flame does great melee dmg due to +10 ACC and +1 PEN while the many additive dmg bonuses multiply with the lash of Firebrand. Devoted with the same setup has +3 PEN with Firebrand and +10 ACC as well of course. Bleak Walker + Fury + Scion of Flame + Spirit of Decay + Heart of the Storm + Ring of Focused Flame = +3 PEN and +10 ACC with natural weapons. Eternal Devotion applies to spells as well. Paladin/Wizard + Blightheart + Eternal Flame = +10% corrosive lash and 10% burning lash for all your spells. Not really melee but worth noting since it's a big dmg increase for a spellcaster. If you use The Beacon for +40% dmg and then do something like Torrent of Flame or Death Ring you can see impressive dmg numbers. Tactician/Wizard + Dazzling Lights + Pull of Eora + Chillfog = Brilliant. Tactician/Cipher + Phantom Foes = Brilliant Clear Out with Spirit Lance alone is great. Same with Spirit Lance + Rogue's strikes. Steel Garrote/Blood Mage with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff drains health like a champ. Whispers of the Endless Paths + Taste of the Hunt applies its DoT over the whole cone Area. It's strong. You need lots of INT though. With a Rogue you can stack several DoTs in an AoE then: Toxic Strike + Taste of the Hunt + Deep Wounds makes shirt work of most mobs. The low base dmg of the cone doesn't even matter. My favorite is: Stalker/Wizard + Willbreaker + Wolf + Takedown Combo + Concelhaut's Draining Touch + Essential Phantom. The setup-casting is a bit lengthy (I tend to start combat with a tank and keep the rest of the party in stealth mode to buff up secretly) but then you suddenly have a high AR melee Geomancer with two buddies who lowers fortitude by 25 with Body Blows and Will (with enchantment) so that his Wolf can apply Takedown Combo easily and then the Phantom does its *booom* with its non-dissipating Draining Touch which targets Will and weakens (lowers Fortitude even more) - and does +100% damage. Note that Draining Touch has the highest base dmg of all weapons so the hit from the Phantom can reach high dmg numbers. All the while the Geomancer casts some other single target spell (Necrotic Lance or Killing Bolt for example) that targets fortitude (by now fortitude is down by 35 points) and times it with Takedown Combo for the sweet +100% dmg. Or he casts Combusting Wounds. This combo is sturdy (high AR and three bodies), does tremendous single target damage and has a lot of options. You can also fall back a bit and use Blightheart for the +10% lash on spells (great with Takedown Combo since lashes are multiplicative). It's micro-intense but very strong. I guess it would be even better in Turn Based (since then the micro part and timing isn't so messy). I would use Bloodmage but I find I don't need that many spells with a party - and I like Empowered spells + Takedown Combo too much... I can solo the Beast of Winter and Dracolich with this - with zero consumables, food or resting bonuses - although it's not meant to be a solo build. I mean that's my favorite besides all kinds of Warlocks, Sages, Tempests and Ascetics which are the most fun due to the most useful synergies. Too bad you don't like Barbs and Monks. I never tried an Evoker/Priest who focuses on fire spells with Sun & Moon + Marux Amanth. It would be all about the somewhat stacked spell repeating effects and not about melee combat obviously, but still a melee weapon setup. I wonder if this would be fun or not... Honorable mention: Vatnir as Rogue/Priest with his summoned Battle Axes, stacking DoTs like crazy with his strikes. I found him to be a very good melee damage dealer (while still keeping all the advantages of being a priest). There's so much more but that's what just came to my mind while typing

The loot is just gone. It doesn't happen always. I suspect it happens when the summoned creature has its own loot that overwrites the original one. But I didn't look into it too much. I only tested it several times. Last time after the final patch came out. You can try it yourself: for example spawn Nomu the Marauder (drops Charmeleon's Ring) and kill him with Essence Interrupter. Often he will not drop the ring when he got transformed.

Also one of the "coolest" abilites: Chillfog. No really: lvl1 spell that contains a pulse effect that applies a tier-3 affliction on hit for 15 seconds every 3 secs. AND does pulsing damage.

I agree that Secret Horrors is really good.

Thanks! Body Blows is so useful because a lot of great and powerful abilities target Fortitude. And usually that's a high defense with most enemies. But Body Blows lowers fortitude by 25 points. And you can have it at lvl 1. -25 defense that early in the game is huge. And it keeps being useful because it stacks with MIG and CON debuffs (further reducing fortitude). Oh I forgot one: - Misama of Dull-Mindedness. Great debuff. Is no affliction and thus stacks with those. Tremendous loss of Will and Reflex and also Deflection. Low level, too. Stacks with flail and club modals.

It's a pity that the Blackbow is PL 8 and not 7. The SC Wizard is not cool enough with it. I would build a Ranger/Druid with Driving Flight, Avenging Storm + Twinned Shot who shoots dual hand mortars.

- Body Blows (not really an ability but a modal - but one of the most useful effects in the game) - Driving Roar (just sooo powerful and also so cheap). Best with Blood Thirst + Blood Surge. - Whispers of the Wind (especially with dual mortars). Combine with Resonant Touch. - Vanishing Strikes (with high INT and attack speed- because 100% Backstabs and Assassination is cool) - Pull of Eora (the best spell if you like AoE abilities). Especially effective when used with an Imbue **** by an Arcane Archer whose shot has 2 jumps (Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight): 3 Pulls with tremendous ACC = nobody escapes. - Concelhaut's Draining Touch + Essential Phantom (the combo is just fun and powerful)

I asked Josh on Twitter while commenting on @Decadency's "Thank you" tweet. Decadency then told me that he spoke to @Tenray : his run was finally validated.