Boeroer

It may be that if your attack has multiple hit rolls (e.g. using Crippling Strike - or whatever might add a secondary roll like Blood Frenzy) each of them might trigger the effect on crit. I don't think that Wounding/Mortal Wounds thenselves add another hit roll like Saru Sichr's "Poison Dipped" or Mohora Tanga's "Red Flag Flying" do. When used with a Barbarian who has Blood Thirst the perception might be skewed. Same with a Monk who uses Swift Flurry/HBD. Could also be that the actual value got raised without adapting the description. Mybe someone can look into the game object file. I'm on vacation at the Baltic Sea and only brought my phone.

It's the last upgrade "Spirit Tornado" which is not working as the rest (in the vanilla game). Blood Frenzy/Blood Storm and Spirit Frenzy apply their effects to all the character's crit rolls (Blood Frenzy) or hit+crit rolls (Spirit Frenzy). Only Spirit Tornado doesn't. Blood Frenzy didn't use to, too - but then when I asked the devs (when terhe was still patching going on) why Spirit Frenzy applies to all rolls and Blood Frenzy only to the initial weapon hit they changed it to match Spirit Frenzy. And maybe forgot Spirit Tornado (which I didn't notice to have the same limitation at the time)...?

It depends - as always. If you want to cast stuff then a Monk Multiclass (most likely Helwalker) is a very good pick - and SC Monks don't cast stuff. For example a Psion/Helwalker can dominate multiple enemies for a very, very long time with high ACC and gain Focus and Wounds comfortably from safety with Soul Mind + Enduring Dance of Death. A Streetfighter/Helwalker with Hand Mortar+Fire in the Hole can use Stunning Surge nearly countless times because you will nearly always land a crit with the big AoE of the mortars, stunning enemies in an AoE for a very long time while having incredible dmg bonuses and also reloading speed due to Streetfighter passive (which is triggered by Powder Burns). It's a damage/CC hybrid against mobs which is very strong very early on. With an SC Monk you have to wait longer to have such an impact. Also some builds want to rely on crits and play around with Swift Flurry/Heartbet Drumming. A Multiclass is better for this because you can combine multiple sources of accuracy and/or crit conversion. For example a Monk/Berserker with a Morning Star can add accuracy, crit conversion, Brute Force (lower enemies fortitude with a Mordnign Star, Enervating Blows and Spirit Frenzy by 45 so you will land a lot more crits by circumventing deflection). Sages (Wizard/Monk) are great in general. See stuff like Citzal's Spirit Lance + Stunning Surge for example - while being defense-buffed up to the max with Wizard's self buffs and Monk's passives and attribute boosts (+10 INT=+20 Will or +10 CON = +20 fortitude, +10 MIG=+20 fortitude as Helwalker, too). On the other hand the SC Monk' PL 8 (Resonant Touch) and 9 (Whispers of the Wind) are incredible. Truly worth the wait imo. So it's more a matter of taste... or a matter of "what should the role of the character be?" or "waht should it play like?". I tried both MCs and SC multiple times and both have their appeal. There is no universal, general better or worse imo.

DPS is the most overrated metric in this game imo. It's fun to see high damage numbers, no doubt, that's why I include at least one of those into the party (still in love with Helwalker/Berserker+Saru Sichr bc. it's such a fun Swift-Flurry crit machine) - but the most impactful characters I played so far were no damage dealers. I guess Ydwin could be really fun as a Mindstalker with the Seeker's Fang. Those are potent (raw) dmg numbers.

Keep in mind that those 24% are only an additive dmg bonus. So it's calculated only on the base dmg of your weapon. If your weapon is let's say a sabre, the base damage is 13-19 or 16 on average. 16*0.24 = ~3.8. So the investment of 8 points of MIG only gives you +~4 dmg per weapon hit. It's a bit better with ability usage because the power level scaling applies to the base damage - but still not breathtaking - also because you get many more additive dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Soul Whip and weapon quality (fine, exceptional etc.). So the 24% from MIG would not be very noticable, at least for weapon attacks. For spell damage MIG is often the only source of dmg bonus besides Pwer Level Scaling. But for example DoTs like Disintegrate profit a lot more from INT than from MIG, too. Imo INT is themore impactful stat for such a build. Just make sure you don't end up with MIG below 10 - because damage maluses really hurt in Deadfire's damage calculation system.

Spirit Tornado in the vanilla game is kind of a trap choice. Reason is: Spirit Frenzy applies the Staggered affliction to all(!) of your hit rolls (weapon attacks, shouts, spells, Carnage, you name it). With Spirit Tornado this is suddenly restricted to your initial weapon attack only (no Carnage, no spells, no shouts etc.)

Every Paladin has access to Lay on Hands and also Exalted Endurance. Jmo that's enough to counter the loss of healing from Fury. Steel Garrote is only useful if you use melee weapons and do put afflictions on your melee enemies often and reliably. For such things Nature's Terror is really good - but beware the friendly fire! The Steel Garrote passive doesn't work with ranged weapons, so a shifted Fury (Storm Blight form) doesn't profit (because its natural weapons are ranged shock bolts). If you want to use those bolts and still get additional healing then Kind Wayfarer would be my pick. AoE healing via Flames of Devotion is nice, also for party members. And you can use Scion of Flame + Heart of the Storm to gain +2 PEN for the natural weapons of the shifted Fury (+1 for the fire part of FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). If you use a Bleak Walker/Fury you can get +3 PEN for Flames of Devotion with Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm and Spirit of Decay (+1 for the fire part and +1 for the corrosion part of Bleak Walker's FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). With Ring of Focused Flame and Ring of Marksman this leads to +20ACC with FoD, double elemental lash (FoD + Wildstrike) and +4 PEN (the aforementioned+3 plus the Ring +1). The base dmg of the bolts isn't fantastic, but they so bounce once or additional enemies and with that much PEN and lashes they become fearsome. A Paladin/Druid can also use Firebrand to get persistent +10 ACC bonus with Ring of Focused Flame (all attacks of Firebrand count as fire attacks, even non-FoD) as well as +1 PEN from Scion of Flame. Also, if I remember correctly, Furies might get +1 PEN with Firebrand as well because of their passive (+1PEN with elemental spells)? Edit: nope for that last part

I am here. The other ones you mentioned: not so much. At least not in these PoE/Deadfire parts of the form.

Hi, Heralds are not supercrazy OP, but they are pretty good and hard to mess up. Most of the time players of Heralds combine Exalted Endurance (Paladin aura) with Ancient Memory (chant) and thus give their party (and themselves) constant passive healing which is quite potent. One reason why they are popular. They can also be very tanky and also versatile. Anyway, Paladin/Fury is not bad because the Fury cannot heal, but the Paladin can. So combining both makes some sense. Also the Paladin's Eternal Devotion (gaining a burning lash for some time) also applies to spells, which is nice. Put on Deltro's Cage + Helmet, grab Lord Darryn's Voulge and you have a cool and shocking Liberator. Race doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't use a godlike - because then no Deltro's helmet. I guess Coastal Aumaua can be nice because you can color the skin blueish with zickzacks - Lightning in your face... literally. I personally really like Arcane Knights (Paladin/Wizards). They can buff themselves to be very sturdy, they are versatile and fun to play imo. One of my most liked combos is Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with the weapon "Whispers of the Endless Paths", using its echantment "Offensive Parry". It allows you to counterattack on enemies' melee misses, dazes the enemy then which unlocks the Steel Garrote's live stealing passive which stacks with your Exalted Endurance, making it easy to pay for Bloodmage's "Blood Sacrifice" with your own health.

Nope.

In general the FF attack is its own weapon and doesn't care what you wear in your hand. It's like using a third arm with the FF-"fist". If the effect the weapon has only gets applied when that weapon is actually used, then the FF-attack will not profit from it. However, there are some weapons who have effects that apply to all your attacks, no matter if you used that weapon or something else (like FF or a spell or so). An example is Ball and Chain (a unique flail). Its enchantment that lowers enemies' crush AR ("Blunt Rock") would also work with your FF attack (and also spells and whatnot). Those effects are often called "universal" because they apply to all your attacks universaly. Here ist a list of weapons that behave like so and could be useful even if you mainly use your FF attack: As I said before (I believe it was in this thread, but I may misremember) something like a simple Dagger + modal would give you +10 melee deflection while it would not harm your FF attack's damage. Lover's Embrace could be a nice choice because not only does its modal benefit you but also its enchantment that gives you Frenzy would trigger on FF attacks.

Fortitude doesn't have to be lower from the start. For me, the difference of Fortitude - Deflection only has to be lower than 45 in order for Brute Force to be useful. And there are very few enemies with Deflection+45 <= Fortitude. Brute Force in PoE1 was less useful than in Deadfire imo because there was no Body Blows and the afflictions weren't as systemically ordered and based on attribute malus. In Deadfire, the synergy between Body Blows, MIG and CON affliction and Brute Force is the main reason I almost always use a Morning Star on a Barbarian. Hehe, most definitely I guess so - but I didn't try that out myself so I can't say for sure. Vela is an ally but not a party member iirc? Sometimes that's a tricky destinction. I tried it just now on an Essential Phantom and also on a Many-Lives Skeleton (also allies but not party members) and it indeed works on them - so the chances are high that it works with Vela, too I would say. *fingers crossed*

That would be unfortunate - but it is possible. I'm playing with the Community Patch for so long that I may have misremembered. In that case Swift Strikes will suffice I guess.

Sadly that shouldn't be the case. Indeed does Energized work with all sources of crits, including spells and spell-like abilities. Carnage does work like a spell and not like a weapon attack mechanically (that's why it doesn't generate focus and why it doesn't transport any weapon effects). It's like a spell-like ability that uses 33% of your weapon's base dmg as its own base damage (which is pretty bad in the early game) - and it scales that dmg with Power Level (which is nice). So far it could work with Energized. But that "spell" has the unfortunate restriction that even attack rolls over 100 are counted as hits, never crits. Therefore it should never be able to interrupt via the Energized inspiration. But: Amra's "Carnage" is different - because it can crit. --- As a Barbarian/Cipher I personally prefer Spirit Frenzy over Blood Storm (I don't even upgrade to Spirit Tornado), because Spirit Frenzy's stagger affliction works on hits instead of crits - and it can help to land Cipher spells vs. Fortitude (since the -5 MIG from stagger leads -10 Fortitude defense, too). It also helps with weapon dmg if you picked Brute Force (I always do). Brute Force also works with Cipher spells that target deflection (see Mind Blades and Amplified Thrust). In combination with Secret Horrors (Sicken, also -10 Fortitude) you can lower enemies' Fortitude by 20 points with one single spell use, which is cool imo. That can often make a big difference for hit quality, especially if you have Brute Force. Of course I like to combine those effects with a Morning Star - modal (for another -25 Fortitude debuff on top of staggered and sickened). --- Speaking of Witches: a Berserker/Cipher can use his confusion to cast several cipher spells on enemies that usually need an ally (Amplified Thrust, Amplified Wave, Ectopsychic Echo...) or to cast spells that need an enemy on allies (like Antipathetic Field for example). In case of Amplified Thrust it makes the spell hit the target twice and push it back. Usually I consider that spell pretty meh, but with that variant you get twice the damage output and can target Fortitude via Brute Force - which is pretty good in some cases. Do not try to combine confusion with Mind Blades though. Your party members will hate you.

If you don't have the Community Patch mod installed (I guess not because iirc you play on console?) then no need to test: FF attack will not work with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. So if you plan to use the FF attack mainly: better pick Lightning Strikes instead of Swift Flurry and skip Heartbeat Drumming entirely.

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.

The FF attack doesn't really use your fists. It has its own base damage and accuracy and all the base values which match those of monks' fists - and it also scales with Transcendent Suffering and other unarmed bonuses. But mechanically fists and FF attack are two seperate things. That's why it's possible that in the vanilla game it isn't treated as weapon - and unlike your fists it won't work with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and so on (because that "weapon" keyword was forgotten in the game object's description). That's maybe splitting hairs though. For the majority of the game this fine distinction might be quite meaningless. It is a very good hint that the main weapon doesn't matter if you mostly attack with the Forbidden fist. Unless - like Shai Hulud said - that weapon gives you some universal bonus. Some uniques are really cool that way (see what Shai Hulud said). For the early game you can even use this with the most generic weapons: a Hatchet gives you more passive deflection, a Dagger+modal can give you an active melee deflection bonus of +10 (the damage malus only applies to dagger attacks so your FF attack is safe), a spear+modal would give you +1 engagement and so on - even though you wouldn't really use that weapon to strike with it, it would still help you.

That last statement is not generally true and depends on many factors (actual build, party composition, difficulty setting and so on). But yes, Serafen's Wild Mind subclass is usually considered the worst one of all the unique subclasses the official companions have, although on paper it is balanced. But it is absolutely unpredictible and that's a bad thing for any well-planned approach. Also one tends to remember the times Wild Mind bit you in the rear much better than the times it helped you.

Hehe, getting that and then trying to permanently glue it to your char with an immunity sounds like a fun little side project for the next run.

Just some hints tow. Debonaire: Engagement: A Debonaire cannot engage enemies (ever). Therefore abilities which rely on/work with your engagement like "Persistent Distraction" (Rogue) or "Parting Sorrow" (Monk) are trap choices: they will not get disabled during level-up, so best to watch out and not accidentially pick them. This also means you cannot stop movement of enemies by engaging them (engaging cancels movement commands of enemies and makes them stop) or deal any disengagement attacks vs. those enemies who decide to give you a pass in melee. This can lead to you missing your enemy because the moment you strike the enemy might take a step back out of the 0.8m melee range (you can see a "out of reach" message in the combat log). This will not happen too often - but if it does you will know where it came from. This is all moot if you use ranged weapons like mortarts of course - because then you cannot engage anyway and you cannot miss because of "out of range". The Debonaire herself can still get engaged by enemies who are able to engage (most beasts cannot, some kith and wilders can... and so on). --- Charm/crit conversion: Also note that only charmed enemies will give you the 100% crit conversion. Dominated enemies (for example turned via Puppet Master) will not give you that. Charmed enemies immediately flip back to hostile as soon as they get hit by you or your allies. This means you can only apply one 100%-crit-strike to a charmed enemy who will then turn hostile again. With hefty crit-punches this might not be an issue though because the enemy might die from the crit - I just want to point that out lest it is not known. --- Alternative source for charms: If you want an additional source of charm then a Chanter is a good one: the invocation doesn't last long (so hitting charmed enemies doesn't feel like a waste of CC) but can target several enemies at once with enough INT/big enough AoE size bonus. Maybe that's something to keep in mind to support the synergy with the FF/Debonaire further? Konstanten, Fassina, Pallegina, Tekehu and Vatnir could use this. Konstanten is a Skald so it's an even cheaper invocation for him to cast (only 3 phrases instead of 4), but his INT is low (10) - so the cone will be pretty small (2.5m length only) and it's difficult to hit several enemies around your main char with that microcone I reckon.

Ah, too bad for Shimmer Scale. But great that you took the time to test it again.

Very unreliable visitor indeed. I have countless hours of gametime but only saw him a couple of times. You cannot rely on anything he potentially sells.

Yes, they perfectly stack. With enough INT and Brisk Recitation you can stack more than 2 instances of the Dragon Thrashed on an enemy. It's absolutely brutal to do so - especially with multiple chanters in the party who will all stack their Dragon Thrashed DoTs on the poor enemies. You can def. put different phrases in between (for example to speed up phrase point generation with Come Soft Winds bc. it's shorter) - but you will lose damage output via chant then. Funny thing: if you use a single one-handed weapon setup (like for example a single sword) then some of the offensive chants will get +12 Accuracy - like your weapon attacks. Dragon Thrashed is one of them. It is some minor oversight that never got patched out I guess - but it can be very helpful in fights against enemies with very high reflex. +12 accuracy with chants is nothing to sneeze on and one of the few cases where single weapon usage is good. However, the single weapon talent (crit conversion) does have no effect on the chants.

Ouh... nice! It didn't cross my mind that some of her abilities are gazes. That lil' shield didn't get much love before - maybe that should change. Once again I wonder if it would work to use the enchantment "immunity to gazes" of Shimmer Scale and the Monk's Soul Mirror in combination. Then you'd have 50% relfection and be 100% safe. It would be a nice alternative shield setup for a Monk. Always Tuotilo's Palm gets kind of boring.

When combining items, abilities and the right food (Mohora Wraps for example) you can max INT and use Turning Wheel on top - and then with a bit slower recovery (if in doubt: Patinated Plate with Bronze Juggernaut ;)) you can still spam the FF attack without stacking the curse. Especially if you alternate FF attack and Soul Annihilation. I that case you can also do with a much ligher armor (see Cabalist's Gambeson for shorter hostile effects). I love high INT on almost all builds, it's so convenient to have big AoEs with big foe-only parts and long durations. But in the early game it's fiddly to get there and you might have to wait with strikes in order to not kill yourself and that's no fun. It's probably an easier entry into the subclass if you don't max INT.