Boeroer

Oh thanky you, too. You are most welcome.

Don't forget that Evokers get increased Power Levels (+2) for evocation spells. For stuff like missiles that's pretty good. I a whole party I rarely have to use Blood Sacrifice (after gettig some more spell tiers). I seldomly use all my spells up - especially with the Fractured Casque + Vaporous Wizardry combo which would give me 3 spell uses per tier. If one doesn't have a reason to circumvent Empower (like doing a no-rest run) then Empower is a pretty great mechanic for all evocation spells, too. Particularly if you also spend some ability points on those empower-related passives at PL7. The biggest annoyance is indeed the loss of some really good spells. I generally don't like that "balancing" approach on Wizards. Should have given them a PL malus for some schools of magic in exchange for +2 PL boost for one school. Completely cutting two schools takes away so much potential fun. See Transmuter + Draconic Fury and so on...

What is "bash"? "Deleterious Alacrity of Motion" will make you immune to engagement. It's a fast cast. Your movement will also be very fast then. It's a safe way to get out of trouble. Just don't forget that it damages you over time. So after casting it get some healing (Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon or a fellow party member's healing ability). You don't even need to learn it, just bring a grimoire with it and put it in the trinket slot. You can always pick somebody else for conversation. Sometimes - in encounters that follow a scripted sequence - your main character will stand in front. You can't do anything about that. The game is ignoring or messing up formations somtimes. You'll have to use an escape ability like "Alacrity" or "Dimensional Shift". Or cast some self-buffs like Spiritshield, Mirrored Images and Iron Skin to survive. A quarterstaff+modal or a large shield with dagger+modal or with a hatchet in the second weapon slot also helps a lot. As soon as you switch to that weapon slot you will enjoy the higher defenses.

I just consoled it into my game and shot it with a lvl-20 char wielding the Red Hand (with Double Tap) and it didn't explode. Tried several times. So I guess the answer is no. Either its level is too high (above 20) or it got some immunity against this effect. It is a vessel though. Yuu can hit it with vessel-only abilities like Screaming Souls or Light of Pure Zeal.

No, not at all. You can only cast the spells that are in the active grimoire you carry. If you have more grimoires in your quick slots you can have a broader portfolio of spells. Imagine you have a grimoire active with only ice spells - and suddenly you meet an ice troll: oops. But you have a second grimoire with fire spells in your quick slot: hooray! Swap your grimoires from ice to fire (there's some cooldown which can be shortened with a talent) and you are able to melt the ice troll. How many spells per rest you can cast doen't change at all. Grimoires "only" give you a bigger selection of spells to choose from during an encounter. You can write grimoires yourself. So you can taylor yourself the perfect grimoire/spell selection to be prepared for anything. That - and the retraining/learning "trick" I mentioned above which makes it possible to learn all wizard spells in the game. The whole grimoire mechanic is very powerful. No other caster class will have that big of a portfolio of effects because of it. And it only costs money (which is plenty after a while).

If you completely free him: I don't think so. But iirc if you make that compromise (dragon can go but he leaves enough essence for the Watershapers) he will not help you later and thus you should be able to fight the Guardian of Ukaizo. I did that apporach some time ago and several other (completed and non-completed) playthroughs have passed, so I may be wrong. The needed dialogue checks for achieving that compromise can be found here: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/The_Shadow_Under_Neketaka

If you retrain (before that) you can simply write all the spells you currently know into grimoires. Then retrain, but cancel the level-up process and re-learn all the spells you wrote down first. Then level up: you will only be presented spells you don't know yet. That way your spell portfolio grows like crazy. Unique spells will not be forgotten during retraining, so don't worry. Write down a nice collection of grimoires (e.g. one for fire damage, one for CC and so on) and put them into your trinket slot and quick slots. Now you are prepared for everything. Only costs money.

Ah. Too bad. What does get affected (besides poison consumables)? Stuff like Cobra Strike maybe?

I didn't test that but I guess it should work. For example Plague of Insects or Venombloom should get +1 from Mask of the Grotto Deep (or Nature Godlike), +2 from Spidersilk Robes, +3 from Spine of Thicket Green and +1 from Ancient - so +7 PL.

Yes. Especially stuff like Power Level and Accuracy and PEN damage based on MIG will chance while the spell is still ticking/pulsing.

How come? Her Animal Companion is even immune to engagement. You can retreat the bird at any time. As I asked: wouldn't Vengeful Grief + Revive Companion be a good thing? The bonus might last ('cause it has a 15 sec base duration) even though the malus is gone because the AC is back up again? If you have a SC Paladin in the party: even more so... Edit: nope... Vengeful Grief gets removed as soon as you revive your companion.

@fuzelogic?

All this talk about DoT effects. Now I want to play a Rogue/Ancient with Arterial Strike, Gouging Strike, all the DoTs and Whispers of the Endless Paths (+ Taste of the Hunt).

@thelee: You can double-check as well. I already did with Ironclads. Ironclads are both immune to disease and poison and they get affected by Insect Swarm and Maggots just fine while they are immune to Plague of Insects. BUT I have the Community Patch installed. I don't think that it changed Insect Swarm - but just to be save it would be cool if you also ran a test. You won't see a poison keyword in the ability description that often. If there's any hint then it's the "Antidote" after the "Counters" caption. But even if that is not there it might be an ability that is secretly tagged as poison or disease. Sometimes the description gives a hint as well (see Wall of Thorns: its description mentions poison). Unfortunately it's a bit of a (UI) mess. Maybe even all damaging "plant" spells also have a secret poison keyword? I will test now all abilites of the Druid (skull if it's poison and vomit for disease) against an Ironclad... Touch of Rot: nope Vile Thorns: (Antidote tag, not in description) Insect Swarm: nope Taste of the Hunt: nope (by the way totally great with Whispers of the Endless Paths' cone AoE) Autumn's Decay: nope Spreading Plague: (no visible tags, "Disease" in description) Infestation of Maggots: nope Wicked Briars: nope (Plant keyword) Wall of Thorns: (no tags, but description mentions "Poison") Rot Skulls: (no tags, description mentions "Disease") Venombloom: (obviously - Antidote tag and mentions poison in description) Rusted Armor: nope (didn't think so, but just to be sure) Lashing Vine: nope (the Vine does its pierce dmg just fine) Call to the Primordials: depends - some of the secondary effects of the oozes are disease based. The direct attacks work though. One of the best summoning spells by the way. Entropy: nope Touch of Death: nope So,,, not all plant spells are poinon or disease (see Wicked Briars). So there doesn't seem to be a pattern and you'd have to test every ability seperately. Well now I did taht so you guys don't have to I guess. Maybe we can put in those keyword in a coming version of the Community Patch (if that comes in the first place). Keep in mind that this is done wit the latest CP. Still: I can see a lot of options here with a DoT basewd Druid. Plenty plenty to be honest.

Maybe if you play a lot solo you can get the impression that the AC is dying often. Not the case with a party though. At least not generally.

Same for me. Still get logged out quickly - like if nothing was changed.

Did you guys know that Hunter's Claw can be used with ranged weapons as well? Just put a bashing shield in the offhand (or any 1h melee weapon). The trick is to use an AoE weapon like Fire in the Hole or a Blunderbuss to generate a lot more hits than you could do with a melee weapon (even Sun & Moon). Driving Flight does work as well. I knew this for long but didn't actually use it in a playthrough. Now I just managed to get 11 stacks from one shot with Fire in the Hole. Haha. @Elric Galad: I always wanted to try if Vengeful Grief + Revive Companion is a good combo. Vengeful Grief has 15 sec base duration which isn't too bad. And if you AC goes down anyway you can at least prifit from that - and get it back up. Luckily enough ACs don't get injuries. And somthing I just remembered: they nerfed Evasive Fire which was a really good ability. Now it's just meh. Binding Roots, even Thorny Roots is quite cool. Very long lasting CC. You can use it together with Vion-ceth hatchet to always unlock its 30% dmg bonus. Which is cool. Hatchet Gang Ranger...

No. It is a pulsing spell like Chillfog or Wicked Briars or Nature's Terror. Main difference is that a DoT does one initial attack roll and then applies its damage over time while a pulding spell does an attack roll on every pulse and applies all its effects anew. I mean... it also is "damage over time" of course. But I guess that doesn't count as DoT the way most people mean it. But valid question: would the OP also consoder those "pulsing" spells? As a kind-of DoT? Then he'd have many more spells to choose from.

@Wotcha: That is correct. I was mostly answering to the statement that it's a problem of DoT builds in general. What I don't think is true. It's a problem of some DoT abilite

Hm, I used Insect Swarm on Ironclads and Steelclads in Arkemyr's manor a few minutes ago. Seemed to work fine. Edit: just checked again with a consoled Ironclad: works just fine. Plague of Insect actually has the poison keyword. It's also noted in its description that it uses venomous insects.

It already is. You can do that - only with Twinned Shots as an active. The real spank is Hand Mortar with BLinding Smoke though: the cone counts as weapon attack and thus triggers Avenging Storm... By the way: since when is the Stalking Cloak no longer working from invisibility? It only works from stealth now. RIP Shadowed Hunter's last resort.

A lot of Druid DoTs are not poison or disease. Touch of Rot Taste of the Hunt Autum's Decay Insect Swarm Infestation of Maggots So - you have plenty of alternatives.

It's this guy: https://twitter.com/Ionfujur He knew me - so I guess he's either using a different username here or a long-time lurker.

I would always say that accuracy is king. Not PER and certainly not DEX or even INT (although I value INT over DEX a lot). But accuracy itself. Or let's be more clear: your chance to hit. This also includes enemies' defenses (and the debuffing of those). If your chance to hit is low then all the DEX and INT in the world will not help you much. Try to play a Soulblade with low accuracy (3 PER + Large Shield) with 20 DEX and 20 MIG, miss 80% or soue Aoul Annihilation attempts and you'll see what I mean. On the other hand: one problem with the Ranger - as damage dealer - is his lack of good AoE. Even his accuracy bonuses often only work on one single target. Marked Prey: one single target (I mean you could apply it to all enemies in range seperately, but who does this?) Stalker's Link: one single target. Wounding Shot: one single target (doesn't work with AoE weapons and not woirh Driving Flight!) On PotD this is a problem. Not so much if you want your Ranger to be your single target specialist, but a big problem if you need an AoE damage dealer. This narrows his role down quite a bit: Single Target Damage Dealer(TM). Meh... I agree that most players don't seem to be able to process and acknowledge the contribution of the AC correctly. I also don't find it hard to keep the AC alive. I currently have two of them in the party (wolf with melee Stalker/Bloodmage with Willbreaker and boar with Trickster/Sharpshooter with Watershaper's Focus). This is my first boar AC and I'm actually pretty suprised by its tankyness (it basically has endless health). Of course you can't send the ACs into the fray where they get pummeled relentlessly. That doesn't work. But they are easy enough to handle on PotD. It's true though that they can get into the way. Especially the bigger ones (Lion, Boar, Bear) tend to block my way because they don't fit into gaps where kith could pass. My biggest gripe with the Ranger isn't his power - it's his lack of intereresting abilites. Somebody at Obsidian really loves Monks. Ciphers and Rogues, too. You can tell by the awesome abilites and subclasses they have. Rangers have rather boring subclasses (Arcane Archer could be an exception if it would scale properly). They have an overnerfed Wounding Shot (it was totally OP in the beta but the current state is bad) and the have several unexiting passives. And PL 8 and 9 are truly a disappointment. Who decided to turn Twinned Shot from a modal into an active ability deserves a spanking. Shadowed Hunter - huh! Turning invisible without any other means of profiting from invisibility - weird. And of course the enemy gets -10 Deflection if same enemy misses my AC. Which has a lot of ways to stack up defenses. Not... Only two exceptions: Takedown Combo and Driving Flight. Now those are cool. I would say if they made Stunning Shots doing actual stuns again (if you hit the enemy which is also attacked by your AC like in PoE) and Twinned Shots a modal we wouldn't have this discussion - at least not for SC Rangers. I personally find Hunter's Claw etc. rather boring. More of the same (+ACC). Also depends heavily on meta-knowledge. Again: if it would be a passive or modal (woth pro/cons) it would be fine. But the current mechanics of it are not to my liking.