Boeroer

Yessir, it gives you more focus back with Deception spells. It's awesome. YOu can cast Whisper of Treason etc. for free. Actually I think it even gives you more focus back as it costs even though it's just single target (iirc, after some PLs). Cheap spells with huge AoE like Phantom Foes will give you huge focus refill - the more enemies you hit the better. That's why I like SC Beguiler so much: Shared Nightmare with Beguiler is just... I can't...

This should clear it up (the underlying mechanics of "speed vs. time" haven't changed since release): Especiallly this example about speed vs. time from that thread: "For example: I am going with a car at 100kmph. And at that speed going from A to B will take 60 minutes. a). if I am asked to lower my speed by 25%, I would slowdown to 75kmph. [the speed is 25% lower, the trip duration is 33% longer] b). if I am asked to increase the time it takes to arrive there by 25%, I would slowdown to 80kmph. [the speed is 20% lower, the trip duration is 25% longer]" It's simply a mathematical "problem". If you increase your speed by 25% that's not he same as reducing the time by 25%. But since Obsidian uses attack speed bonuses but finally shows their effect on the attack/recovery times they have to transform the numbers like in the example above.

If you are looking for a spell spammer I would completely forget about weapons and just pick a Beguiler. After picking Draining whip the Beguiler gains so much focus from a single AoE low level Deception like Phantom Foes that you can then spam a few shred powers or other damaging stuff and then drop a deception again to refill. No need to skill for weapon damage at all. Just put everything into spellcasting. I like a single class Beguiler best because the high level püassives are just great - but it even works very well with several multiclasses like Helwalker/Beguiler or Berserker/Beguiler that seem to be martial combos - but don't need to be because some of their key abilites work with spells as well (+MIG and +INT, Thunderous Blows, Swift Strikes, Enduring Dance, Berserker's Spirit Frenzy, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst and so on).

Maybe, but I tried to take into account what a "Skald" actually was (historically). They were norse poets (not singers). Kind of wandering historians, too. So I chose the norse axe. Rapiers and such really don't fit the original Skald, even if they are good for crits in Deadfire. Sure: I mustn't stick to such things too fiercely. But if any north european player reads "Skald" and sees a Rapier he/she will be like "wtf???" Evoker: no problem, I can do plenty of variants for a Fireball. Or I use Missiles since they would "fill" the space better...? Fury: I just reused the shape from Toughened Fury (trying to spare some time). Good idea with Storm from X-Men. Maybe just an angry face with sparky eyes or something will do. The ones I don't like myself (but let them be in order to get the first round finished Combat Focus: looks too geomatrical somehow. I wanted to depict the "focus" of a camera lens but it just doesn't seem to fit. Prestige: the combo looks a bit weird somehow. Maybe I will just remove the arrow and use a bit simpler laurel wreath? Black Jacket: Although the Black Jackets indeed wear black brigandines (hence I depicted one) it just looks too different from the other icons. Berserker: not really meaningful. Corpse Eater: I like the idea of the filed cannibal theeth - but it looks more like a monster atm. If I put it in a human face it also looks weird. No idea how else to depict Corpse Eater though. Helwalker: looks more like a Fakir. But I thought "walking Hel and suffering increased dmg"... Psion: Just difficult to differenciate the cipher subclasses, especially Ascendant and Psion. They are all "psionic" classes somehow. So I wanted to emphasize on the telekinesis which is special. Need to draw it in another way. Or I do indeed use the meditating one for Psion (who meditates kind of to gain focus) and invent somnething alse for Ascendant (mayne "angel" wings as a sign of ascension). Iron Will: the general idea is ok I guess, but it looks off. Ghost Heart: I like that the antlers form a heart-shape. But the spirit-swirly stuff has to be done better. Stalker: eh meh Stalker's Link: eh meh 2 Wildstrike Frenzy: I'm so out of ideas and this is the best I could come up with after several (internal) iterations Enchanter/Transmuter: too similar. Also maybe to filigree with the lines and all. Thanks for the continuous and thorough feedback @MaxQuest!

You have to keep in mind that a bonus to attack speed of let's say 10% is not the same as the reduction of attack time by 10%. Sometimes the descriptions list the bonus to speed. But once you look at the character's attack and recovery times (like the seconds it takes to do x or y) this will translate to different - bit lower - numbers. Other example where that happens: Frenzy. It lists the bonus as attack speed improvement but if you look at the reduction of attack time it's a lower percentage.

The loot drop bug wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. But I can't reproduce it anymore - so I think it indeed is fixed. Hope the same is true for this special bug.

Ok, all subclasses' icons done - at least the first iteration: Feel free to comment. Next step is to create the last missing general passives (Quick Summoning and such) and then to incorporate the feedback I get/got from you. Some changes I already implemented, but not too many of them. I will compile a list with the feedback so far.

If you take Savage Defiance the self damage is manageable even with high MIG (since the high MIG and Power Level scaling also boosts Savage Defiance's healing). You can also use the Voidward ring to reduce the self damage further if it's too much for your taste. Nice synergy with Berserker's self dmg: a Monk as second class (Nalpasca or vanilla. Helwalker dies too soon and the others don't gain wounds from self dmg). Berserkers don't have tzhat many dmg bonuses so dumped MIG does hurt their dps a bit. If you multclass with a Rogue: no problem, you can dump MIG. If you multiclass with most other classes and want to deal lots of damage... maybe don't dump it if you can counter the self damage with Savage Defiance sufficiently. If you multiclass with Paladin you shouldn't have any problems at all (due to Savage Defiance + Lay on Hands which you don't want to upgrade + Exalted Endurance). Berserker/Livegiver also no problem most of the time.

Erm... I almost never sacrifice anybody to the Blood Pool. Except when I play an evil blunderbuss user. Then Devil of Caroc. Maneha sounds nice. Prone and stun are very annoying. Another alternative would be Durance. Barbs get a lot of base health and endurance and Durance in the pool will give you +5% max health and +10% max endurance. Or Hiravias since DEX is always nice an the +1 slash DR... hm why not?

Scordeo's Edge is not only great because of Blade Cascade but also because of Adaptive. It stacks with every other ACC buff since it's from an item Speaking about Avenging Storm: against mobs Hand Mortar is still the most awesome way to use it. Especially if you can crit a lot with Adaptive (+20 ACC) or even Strategic Shot (+30 ACC). As said earlier Blinding Smoke triggers Avenging Storm and every AoE attack roll from the mortar has the potential to trigger the AoE cone of Blinding Smoke. In addition to the Disorient. So Tactician/something sounds like a good idea. If you combine it with Pull of Eora & Clear Out you generate (AoE_targets_Clear_Out * AoE_targets_Hand Mortar * AoE_targets_Blinding_Smoke) hits which all trigger Avenging Storm. And against single targets I would presume that Scordeo's Edge + Xefa's Empirical Explication should be very nice as well once Blade Cascade triggers. Or doesn't it remove reload time as well? Always used it with another melee weapon...

Short update: Only Wizards' subclass icons are left...

I often said that Driving Roar does bonkers damage and is awesome. I looked at the base numbers and didn't know why. I assumed I must have landed crits a lot. Now I know better. Thanks for sharing that info!

WotEP has the enchantment "Run Through" which is 1/encounter and is perfect for Backstabs. If you want to make sure your Soul annihilation lands use Rännig's Wrath + modal in the main hand (+29 ACC) and a fast weapon in the offhand (e.g. Pukestabber). While SA is a primary attack and thus you will feel the longer recovery of the modal, all of the Rogue's Full Attacks will skip the Rapier's recovery and only execute the dagger's. That lets you build focus more quickly but you still keep the very high ACC for Soul Annihilation so that it doesn miss (and wastes all the focus). Or you use Sun & Moon: it has two flail heads that each do a seperate attack roll. Sou you have twice the chance to not miss. Ad if you hit your SA with the first flail head the second one will already regenerate focus.

Ooze 2 min, dorugudan 5 min seems like an extreme exaggeration if you count it in actual in-game time (which is the time you should keep in mind if you want to estimat how many scrolls you need).

If you look at the raise of traffic this forum has seen since 5.0 - and the amount of posts that evolve around "The Ultimate" you might change your mind and think that the PR stunt wasn't so little. Even if players don't plan to do the challenge themselves they might be interested to read about it and to follow the players who are trying to do that. I didn't say that it only was done because of PR reasons. But usually creating a challenge with rewards (see Scavenger Hunt) is there to get attention. I believe this one is not different, even if there might be additional reasons to create that challenge.

Some more questions: Can you cast Beetle Shell on Vela (guess not)? If yes: do enemies lose interest? I also guess not. But maybe it's worth checking? Would there be any way to cast Cipher's Statis Shell on Vela? e.g. if you are confused (hello Tactician)? Wouldn't mind control spells like Whisper of Treason or Puppet Master help to pull enemies away from Vela? I guess there's no trick that allows you to cast Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure on Vela... ?

Oh - it was that way round? Also good. But yes - you have to have one melee weapon equipped - else no AoE*AoE magic with Clear Out. Using Clear Out with Blinding Smoke fomr Hand Mortar should be pretty nice for a Tactician.

Honestly: when I said that I had PoE1 in mind where you had to deal at least 10 dmg in order to add a stack. I just unconsciously assumed it is the same for Deadfire. Maybe it's not though. Cool thing with the two stacks. Very good to know. By the way: all dmg dealing abilities that originate from weapon procs will not only profit from quality enchantment of the weapon and other stuff, they will also work with weapon-only restricted effects: e.g. Frostseeker's AoE will trigger Avenging Storm, it stacks Resonant Touches and so on. Same with Watershaper's Focus (Ondra' Wave - used to be so at least) and Engoliero do Espirs (Blade Feast). So maybe there are other weapons that are great for stacking Resonant Touches with weapon procs?

Yes he does. He said so in his post. That's why I ask if it's really a bug - since the mod breaks the behavior that prevents bad things from happening.

I wouldn't even try it for 10K EUR. It's a little PR stunt and that's fine. Deadfire needs more attention. I like theorycrafting around the challenge though. If we (as forum in a collective approach with providing tipps and tricks) can help a forum member to succeed that would make me happy somehow. If he/she's not a jerk I mean.

I guess the synergy is that ResTouch also gets build up by the frost AoE of Frostseeker. So in theory (if every arrow crits) you could stack 6 ResTouches. But why should you be able to create more stacks with it than with a blunderbuss? Dual blunderbuss with Full Attack should put 8 stacks on the target instead of 6. But you need to overcome a certain damage threshold. If your blunderbuss pellets can't penetrate or the dmg rolls are too low then it will not stack anything I suppose. Maybe Frostseeker has less problems in that regard?

Afaik Knockdown/Mule Kick never worked with ranged weapons. What I could get to work was Clear Out (and upgrades), Hunter's Claw and Whirling Strikes. I simply put one melee weapon into the main hand. While this makes sense with Full Attack abilities like Whirling Strikes it still works (or worked?) with the primary-only Clear Out. For Clear Out you put a melee weapon into the offhand. You will then walk up to he enemy (since melee ability) but instead of the offhand melee weapon you will execute Clear Out with the main hand ranged weapon. At least that was the case pre 5.0. But sincethe patch notes don't notice it... Unfortunately I didn't take a video from it. But with Hand Mortar + Blinding Smoke + Fire in the Hole + Chain Shot and Heaven's Cacophony's Avenging Storm you could to pretty bonkers things (and also break your graphics card) since every AoE hit from Clear Out triggered the usual AoE attack from mortar (including Blinding Smoke and additional jump of FitH whioch all trigger Avenging Storm). Flagellant's Path, Whispers of the Wind and HoF and soms others always worked with ranged weapons, even when dual wielding two ranged weapons or using two handed ones. So what about Tactician/Troubadour with Grave Calling? By the way: does Vela profit from Ancient Memory? Or Her Courage Thick as Steel? If yes this could be used to lower the amount of needed Withdraw scrolls? Can you cast Statis Shell on Vela? I suppose not but who knows?

Is this a bug though? Usually you can't save while holding summoned weapons/being shifted since summoned weapons disappear/spiritshift ends with the end of combat.

I have no idea how Obsidian wants to determine if somebody used a save copy or not. Afaik there's no way to do that. The video footage will have cuts - because you can't do the challenge in a single day (if you have at least a rest of a real life). So that's also not suited to proof you didn't cheat. Of course they could always disqualify your attempt on a whim because they don't believe you did it properly... but dealing with it highhandedly also doesn't feel right. Imagine there's some player who can indeed pull it off properly but they just don't believe him... the frustration and anger will be enormous given how much energy you'll have to put into this in order to be successful und not to viloate "the spirit of the challenge".