Boeroer

I can only say that the Streetfighter bonus "Heating Up" is pretty insane. Not only will you attack very fast, but your Sneak Attack dmg will also be enhanced a lot. And that's not including the additional bonus you get when becoming bloodied. If you like dmg output then this will be a lot of fun. A Black Jacket can switch around weapons with no penalty. So it's easy to trigger "Heating Up" with a blunderbuss should nobody flank you in melee. Also note that with a blunderbuss you usually have 4 projectiles that trigger on hit-effects 4 times - see Confounding Blind. But... if you decide for blunderbusses (I mean that's not set in stone given that you're a Black Jacket) I would highly, highly recommend using Serafen's Hand Mortar and do his quest asap to get the second mortar of his - which is named "Fire in the Hole". Both mortars deal AoE dmg. Stuff like Blinding Strike, Crippling Strike, Toxic Strike and so on will get applied over the whole area of effect! As bonus those weapons are foe-only, have two damage types (pierce/slash) and target reflex with their AoE which can be a plus when meeting enemies with high deflection. AND Fire in the Hole has an enchantment that lets the whole AoE jump one time (like Driving Flight). And they are still "official" blunderbusses which can trigger "Heating Up" with the Powder Burn modal (which has friendly fire sadly, but it's rather weak). Best weapon set for Streetfighter there is in my opinion. You can totally do Disciplined Strikes + Vigorous Defense, deal a AoE Blinding Shot into the crowd with the mortars, then close in with stilettos - since you are already heated up and the enemies will suffer big debuffs from the blind you will be nigh untouchable and mop the floor with them, stabbing left and right with great speed. Sounds fun to me.

There are ways to convince them to join your cause. But you have to do something first (can't exactly recall what, but it has to do with Aloth's quest iirc). Because when I did this quest for the first time I accidentally stumbled upon that option. The ranga then sends you to another quest (attack the slavers on Crookspur) and afterwards the tribe's cooperating.

If you pick blunderbuss instead of pistol I would recommend Streetfighter. Just because with Powder Burns (the modal of blunderbusses that comes with the weapon proficiency) you will distract yourself. Distracted contains Flanked. And frankly the bonuses of a flanked Streetfighter are hard to beat. When using pistols a Streetfighter wouldn't be my first option because then it's rather tedious to unlock the Streetfighter's bonus. In that case a Trickster would be my choice. Also fits the c0cky aspect. Swashbucklers with the Trickster subclass can be very sturdy even when build offensively because Mirrored Image and Vigorous Defense do stack their numbers. If you want to switch weapons often (which is a smart thing to do given that underpenetration is so punishing) then Black Jacket is the perfect choice. With Quick Switch a Black Jacket has zero recovery penalty when switching which is sweet. I would go for 4 weapon sets (meaning that you'll have to pick Arms Bearer or use Fleshmender or Giftbearer's Cloak) and cover pierce, crush and slash dmg in order to be able to (nearly) always pick the perfect weapon. That can make a huge difference. So for example a set with sabre(s), a set with stiletto(s) and one with club(s). It's also beneficial to combine all the modals for such weapons. For example of you combine a club with a flail in one slot and activate both proficiency modals you can lower enemies' Will and Reflex defense by 25 each with one single Full Attack (like Crippling Strike). This can be a huge help for your teammates to land spells etc. Note that when using pistols the best auto-attack option is to single-wield the pistol and switch on its proficiency modal. That way your effective accuracy is only -3 but your reload time will be halved. This is much faster than using two pistols with negligible ACC loss. For Full Attacks like Crippling Strike it is still better to use two Pistols though.

Very nice! Thank you for this comprehensive guide.

The spear that was mentioned is named "Stalker's Patience". So I highly recommend to play a Stalker. Also because it's easy to flank an enemy if you have an Animal Comparion.

Both afaik.

Multiclass characters always have more resources in total but less per class. SC chars have a higher max pool and of course higher Power Level (= more bang for the buck). I wouldn't do anything.

It got changed. In the early version of the DLC you could pick the chests and get all the items (like you still can) and then sink the ship and get the same items again. So after looting and sinking you'd have two Slippers, two Talons etc. Nowadays I'm not sure what you get when you sink it. I didn't try for a long time. With "good" characters I usually don't sink neutral ships like merchants and the Deck.

Slippers of the Assassin for example are pretty good (for the right character). Also the Cap of the Laughingstock is quite good if you know what to do with it. Hylea's Talons are very nice for Monks. But yes: nothing breathtaking a la Carsomir +5 or so.

Yes, that's why I wrote the replenishment depends on the class:

You are right. Fire weapons always use the same (burning) shot but the UI fails to communicate this. Chanshot etc. have no menaing whern using flame/fire based cannons. For me the best ship (cost-benefit-ratio) is the starting Sloop. I can sink every ship with it (needs a few upgrades to safely tackle stuff like Deck of Many Things). The key are master cannoneers and cannons like Iron Thunderers which reload within Jibe + Hold Position. The Voyager comes next for me. Because you can equip her with two long-to-mid-range cannons on the bow and a Flamethrower on the stern, combined with palm sails. Just sail towards the enemy, then, when nearly ramming him, turn around and sail away while firing the flamethrower all the time. It works against every ship. Sometimes they have Vaillian Hullbreakers and that can end badly while you apporach though. Also against Rathûn this tactics might fail more often. But for the money it's an excellent ship. Junk obviously has the highest firepower, but it's way too expensive for what you get (in my opinion). Usually I just use the sloop and give it good upgrades (like Red Dream Hull).

You are right. It was as I said some time ago but it already got nerfed. I simply forgot. Still I find the onetime replenishment with higher PL a good solution. Capping duration etc. is kind of counterintuitive since it would be the only inspiration which would have such a cap. So basically: --------------------- INT Inspirations --------------------- Smart: +5 INT Acute: +5 INT, +1 PL Brilliant: +5 INT, +x Resources (depends on class, can be higher than original Brilliant for all I care) onetime, +3 PL (or +2 - I'm not set on this). --------------------- Classes like Tactician and Cipher's Ancestor's Memory can still be cool with this if the onetime replenishment is good/high enough. E.g. spending lots of focus for Ancestor's Memory and then giving your fellow Barb 2 Rage back (+5 INT + 3 PL) is obviously meh. Since the Tactician is designed/balanced around Brilliant (not around the abuse) one has to make sure that class doesn't tip over the edge. A poll would be my favorite method. Don't want to press anything onto the community. I'm just trying to make my position clear on this and why I think it's not good in its current state. This doesn't affect the Ultimate because you can't use mods anyway if you're doing that challenge.

Like he said. Since Brilliant is applied per class and multiclass characters have two classes they'd each gain their resources respectively. I mean I guess... That solution is also fine with me. The baf thing about (prolonged) Brilliant atm is not replenishing Discipline, Zeal or Guile - but endless spells. Some spells are a LOT more powerful than other abilities - but more scarce (uses) which balances spells vs. other abilities. Brilliant removes this balance and even turns it upside down because you gain 1 spell per tier per tick while the other classes gain some meager points for their pool. Nomatter how many levels you've got: a Fighter always profits the same from Brilliant while a caster gains more and more spells the more unlocked spell tiers he has. The whole reason why I think Brilliant is broken is because of this single mechanic. If it would work like Blood Sacrifice (restoring one single random spell use per tick) it wouldn't be so broken and comparable to the other classes' gains. Or make the ticks for casters a lot slower like @Phenomenum said. Also helps - and if that's easy to do then be it. The gap should be longer than 10 secs so that you can't prolong Brilliant endlessly with SoT. Wall of Draining also has to be considered. That'swhy I liked @ocelotter's idea better: if you get a higher (but one-time) replenishment at the start and a higher PL bonus (+3 instead of +1) then SoT and Wall of Draining etc. are no problem anymore. Still a very useful inspiration and powerful (+3 PL is big), but not as abusable when getting endless duration.

Magran's Favor + Sun & Moon + Otto Starcat + Ring of Focused Flame = also nice with SI and FoD (e.g. Kind Wayfarer). Heal while dishing out Divine Immolation fire dmg and FoD dmg. I didn't test it lately but several abilities profit from Eternal Devotion's burning lash - maybe SI also does. Doubt it, but worth testing. Arcane Archer's imbue spells do profit for example. But I guess they are tagged as weapon attacks.

Just fill up all the left plaques with multiple runs.

Where did you send it? I guess you would get an answer if you poked Josh on Twitter. Maybe...

Damage might come from the Sacred Immolation while you bind the enemies to you. Blackened Plate also has a healing aura. Togehter with Lay on Hands, Exalted Endurance and Voidward (and high RES) the self damage of SI should be manageable.

You can get more engagement slots with armor and weapons. E.g. spears can give you +1, Kapana Taga +2, Blackend Plate +1, Blackened Plate Helmet +1, Reckless Brigandine +1 and so on. For example a Shieldbearer (+1) with Bronlars' Phalanx (+1) with Blackened set (+2) and with a spear (+1) or with Kapana Taga (+2). So... there are options.

How do shields break in combat? Is the mechanic known?

That's right. But with Troubadour and Many Lives Pass By you can maybe spam so many skeletons that you don't even have to withdraw her..?

Thinking about Black Jacket/Troubadour with Soft Winds of Death - just grinding everything down.

Hey ulti-mates! Remember the discussion about Lethandria's Devotion? Andthat it gives the wearer (not party members) 1 HP immediately when you switch to it? Check this out: I mean: Josh said bugs are fair game, right?

You mean with a pet? Or which other ability should give you +20 health on kill? It may be that damage of/death by Resonant Touch isn't connected to your character properly. Does it increase your "overall damage done" statistic when applied?

You can't go over max zeal afsik (the number you start with). But if you spam SI and stuff all the time (e.g. giving every party member an exhortation and so on) you can spend your Zeal pretty quickly. Only thing with dual wielding Dire Talon is that it will then proc wurms less often. If you want to proc White Flames twice and still keep up good defenses then you can use a bashing shield (like Magran's Blessing).

I think that (optional) megabosses shouldn't be a reason for keeping a broken and overpowered inspiration. Especially if that problem mostly occurs when playing solo (which is not the intended way to play Deadfire and not how megabosses are balanced anyway). Better: adjust Brilliant (I like @ocelotter's idea of giving back a fixed amount of resources once - can be more for replenishable resources like wounds and focus, a bit less for fixed pools like discipline and zeal and 1 spells use per tier for casters) AND adjust values of megabosses. For example make them harder to hit but take away the absurd amount of hitpoints. You can work around high defenses but you can't work around a stellar HP pool.