Boeroer

You can always change the portrait of the character. Character sheet --> icon/button under your portrait. If you copy fitting portrait pictures into the portraits folder they will be vailable there as well.

Blood Frenzy's DoT is not stackable (except duration) and "only" does 4 base raw damage per 3 secs. So it's not breathtakingly good - also because you need crits - and once you can produce crits a lot you're usually winning already (without further low-dmg and & short-lived DoT). So generally I consider Spirit Frenzy to be better because the Stagger helps a lot to land several good other spells that target fortitude. Especially when used with sickening/weakening spells. It becomes interesting with Blood Storm though because at some point (with the right spells) you start to kill frequently and quickly (Blood Thirst) and that frees up some points of Rage that would otherwise need to be spend for Spirit Tornado. But then on the other hand Spirit Tornado is very good, too (if you are in melee range often).

Correct

Blood Frenzy/Storm: yes, it works with spells. The DoT will get applied on crit. For example if you cast a beam like Ray of Fire on a target you will have a high chance of triggering it (since beams do hit rolls every 1 sec). All pulsing spells are great for this (Chillfog, Slicken, beams, Malignant Cloud, Freezing Pillar, etc.). Even ones that don't normally deal damage like Slicken dan be tuened into a DoT spell that way. Death by DoT triggers Blood Thirst. However, Blood Frenzy does not work with Carnage because Carnage can't crit. Spirit Frenzy/Tornado also works with spells: they will stagger on hit (Carnage as well). This can help to land spells against Fortitude. For example if you use a spell like Repulsive Visage or Enervating Terror (vs. Will defense) while under Spirit Frenzy you will cause Terrify (-10 Will), Weaken or Sicken (-10 Fortitude) and Stagger (-10 Fortitude) - which is great in order to crack some tough nuts like Trolls who die from Combusting Wounds very quickly - if you can only hit them (they have enormous Fortutide usually but very low Will). Lion's Sprint did actually work like this: activate it, cast a spell and the first hit roll after activating Lion's Sprint got +15 ACC. It was superhandy in order to land the important CC spells. But they somwhow broke it with a patch. It's not better or worse per se now, maybe more exploitable. Now it does NOT work for all direct, immediate spells like Fireball, Dazzling Lights, Combusting Wounds and so on BUT it works with all pulsing spells like Chillfog, Slicken, all beams, Freezing Pillar and so on. And not only for the next attack but as long as Lion's Sprint is active! That means all Chillfog or Slicken Pulses will gain +15 ACC (as long as Lion's Sprint is active). Also beams will hit better when they are active - it will also help to land the initial beam cast. You can see how this beautifully synergizes with Blood Frenzy/Storm. It's a lot easier to crit if you get +15 ACC for all your pulsing spells that also deal raw DoT on crit. PS: if somebody wonders when I tested this: 5 minutes ago while writing the post. I was wondering if anything has changed since I played my last Warlock. Apparently a lot changed... Barbarian with +15 ACC and raw DoT pulsing spells also works well with Druid (several pulses), Priest (some pulses) and Cipher (beams mostly).

It would be a nice build for the Ultimate - if one could somehow cut Hylea's Challenge out of it. And Abydon's, too...

Invisibility triggers Brilliant Tactician for some obscure reason.

I didn't test if those Fireballs from the necklace also can trigger Evoker's "double cast". But of course that's 8 additional Fireballs which is a lot. Warlock can be big fun. I personally wouldn't pick Evoker because the loss of Transmutation ans Conjuration is too much of a sacrifice for me. But of course the potential double cast should work well with Blood Thirst. Small tipp: if you wear Rekvu's Fractured Casque (for example to be able to use the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry - or just because you hate getting interrupted) you can cast Slicken onto yourself (e.g. while surrounded by enemies). Last time I did this it turned out that I was also immune to Slicken's effects. That's pretty handy.

Ha - clever! Very safe and laid-back solo approach. One thing though: the combo of Smoke Veil + Brilliant Tactician doesn't do anything for you if you end the fight with Smoke Veil, correct? In that case your resource pools should get a reset.

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.