Boeroer

You are correct that the naval combat lacks some fetures that would make it make more fun (like being able to sail around a big, heavy ship with a much smaller, faster ship as a tactic). Also the game does a very, very ppor job of explaining the rules to you. Actually it's a complete refusal... But: once you figured out how it actually works it's a very easy way to get XP and money (and some items) really early - and it takes a lot less time and levels than boarding. However: if you don't know how (and don't want to spend your time with testing session or browse the forum for any ideas on how to do this naval battle stuff - which is totally understandable) - it can be a real chore. Missed opportunity. As I said so many times already: the biggest gripe I have with both Pillars games is the lack of proper explaining/examples/tutorials - let's call it communication. It's like in general software development: everybody codes the heck out of his keyboard - but nobody does seem to so proper commenting and documentation. Of yourse usually you want to get the code done and afterwards do the documentation (because else you would have to change it all the time) - usually that means that the documention suffers the most from crush/deadlines. Also nobody likes to do it it seems...

I guess most people don't really distinguish between "I don't like it" and "it is bad". Because if I don't like it then surely there must be something wrong with it. I also think that most people are unfit for judging the quality of writing. I loathe books like "The Name of the Rose", "L’Homme qui rit" or "La sombra del viento" (still read them though, urgh). But I would'nt say tht they are not well written. Or would I?

Like Phenomenum said, the game checks if an attack has the "shock" keyword. Unfortunately all the weapons you mentioned that don't work do carry that keyword. It means that their attacks will get bonuses from stuff like Heart of the Storm (+1 PEN) and from shock Power Levels (e.g. from the armor "Deltro's Cage": +2 Power Level). It also means the game totally ignores that they will (also) do non-shock damage (slash or pierce) and just dismisses the whole attack (including the damage) without further explanation. Same happens with Dragon's Dowry (pierce damage but tagges with fire keyword - can't hurt burn-immune creatures), Essence Interrupter (shock/pierce, shock keyword), Frostseeker (pierce/slash, frost keyword) and so on. I don't think it's fixable in any other way as to remove the keywords from those weapons. At realease they didn't have those keywords and honestly: the drawbacks because of this "bug" are more severe than the benefits I think.

I think that emboss would look "cleaner" or "sharper" if the icons themselves weren't white. White edges can't be made any brighter - and thus the added highlight looks a bit like a blur effect on the top while it's totally fine on the bottom (where the contrast beween white icon and dark edge is the highest). Maybe grey icons would solve this - but then all the non-altered icons (all class icons, Snake's Refelx, Confident Aim etc.) would need rework as well... But actually what you showed my in your last PM was totally my cup of tea.

Wow, you were fast. The right ones look a bit blurry, but only at the top. That might be caused by the slight "embossed" effect that adds a highlight to the top edges and darkens the bottom edges. The ones you did a few weeks ago for the "alpha" version didn't have that. Therefore they look sharper - like the original ones. Here's the atlas file from the mod: I think I prefer them without that effect.

Deltro's Cage is the armor, Deltro's Cage Helm is the... helm. Would have been nicer if the helm had it's own name, like Deltro's Stockpot or so. Unfortunately the Druid has no ability which can be used to inflict shock damage to themselves except Greater Maelstrom - at least I think so. I mean besides scrolls or Rakhan Field Boots + Essence Interrupter.

Hm, weird. Maybe it's a Turn Based thing? Maybe you could have hit more enemies if you had attacked the most right enemy (clicked on him)? Because afaik the weapon spins clockwise. Maybe after your ally the game decided that there's no adjacent enemy and canceled? Shouldn't be like this but who knows?

Yes. It works with Returning, Relentless and Avenging Storm as Well as Greater Maelstrom (and others). If you also put on Deltro's Cage you'll get +5 PL for all those spells. Which is +25% base damage (and more PEN and duration and ACC).

No Tekehu in party?

Unfortunately it's just a bit of a ****ty combo. The abilites with which you could cheese a bit (e.g. Whirling Strikes) are PL 8 or 9 non-priest. Rogue sounds like the best bet. I wonder why they didn't keep the arquebus as signature weapon of Priests of Magran - as in PoE.

Sure, if you like God Mode.

Lightning Strikes I presume? It's either Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry. SoT-cheese with Brilliant aside: There are other options that do a lot more dps - especially on mobs (not necessarily on single targets) but they trivialize the game so much that it's no fun. E.g. Berserker/Beckoner with Ancient Brittle Bones and Chilling Grave from Grave Calling. Usually instadeath when you proc 18 parallel Chillfogs at once that all profit from the weapon quality enchantments (meaning +dmg and +PEN etc.). Monk with Whispers of the Wind and a scroll of Avenging Storm, combined with Hand Mortar (Blinding Smoke) and Fire in the Hole (additional jump), Stalking Cloak, Resonant Touch... also usually instadeath if enough enemies stand side by side. Single Class Streetfighter with Vanishing Strikes, Stalking Cloak, Gambit and dual Mortars + Blinding Smoke/jump and scroll of Avenging Storm + Backstab + Powder Burns: same. Usually the encounter is over then and you don't need Brilliant not SoT. Unfortunately Megabosses force you to pick a class with replenishable resources. I honestly think that's unfortunate design. I also think that Brilliant is way too strong. So instead of removing the possibility to get it to almost zero it would have been better to just nerf Brilliant itself. Acute gives +5 INT and +1 PL. Why Brilliant not simply gives you +3 PL or something is beyond me. Why this game breaking resource generation? And why aren't there more abilities for rogues, fighters etc. that let them regain resources more reliably? Those 25% on kill and whatever is just... bäh.

Yes, it is OP. Backstab by the way only does +100% base damage (roll). At best that's +25 or something. It gets weaker the higher you level because it doesn't scale at all while ResTouch seems to scale with PL. I mean it's an active ability so why not - bit Sneak Attack does scale - why not Backstab? Anyways - none of these issues will get fixed now, so yeah... mods.

Damn. My wife will hit me...

Streaming today?

Uh... what's wrong with you? And what is Persona 5?

One is about finding stars and the other one about jamming...?

Nice analysis. But where is the problem? That they stack? Don't think so - they should. That they get all triggered by one use of Resonant Touch? Well that spares you some wounds and recovery time - but I don't think it's a big issue balance-wise. 2 wounds is not that expensive and if every monk had to trigger his own stack of RTs it would only cost +2 wounds per monk - while the enemy will be dead anyway from all those stacks. Or do I miss something? The main balance problem is that Resonant Touch has no stack limit (no matter if one or multiple monks). That's why the upcoming "community patch" addresses this issue and puts a cap of (I think 25) on Resonant Touch. This is just too powerful against high health enemies like Megabosses or Dragons - who usually trigger certain events once they lost a certain amount of health. Those get omitted if you can simply stack 500 RTs and then trigger them all at once...

Ouch. Maybe this is indeed turn based related. This doesn't happen in RTwP. There it is only a UI messup.

Very cool

Gambit does generate Guile internally (with mortars you'll get an insane amount of dmg bonus based on your temporary Guile gain) - but it gets cut back (capped) after execution.

Hm... then you could skip Draining Whip and Biting Whip entirely.

quick shot at "Wild Mind" (see in Cipher box):

Does anybody know if those "special" companion subclasses like Wild Mind, Gunhawk etc. have any additional passives? Like e.g. the Tactician or Psion have (in addition to the "subclass-passive")? Edit: checked myself ingame: doesn't seem so. Phew...

Goddammit!