Boeroer

Berserker/Stalker gets +3 AR when frenzied, even +4 vs. pierce/slash/crush with Thick Skinned. That is a lot if you combine it with a decent armor. The Confusion can get resisted with Devil of Caroc's Breastplate or Modwyr - or lots of Luminous Lobster. Self damage is rel. ok if you use Savage Defiance. Corpse Eater/Stalker also fits thematically - but I guess Furyshaper woul be more effective. Don't pick Furyshaper/Ghost Heart: Wards count as summons as does the animal companion. You only can have one summon on the field at a time...

Sure they are. Didn't you get the memo?

Most of those All of those things above affect all characters and creatures, be it allies or enemies. A few are cipher specific (Pain Link, Amplified Wave, Mindweb, Tactical Meld) So one could make the argument that all classes are weaker if you compare them to PoE1. But so are the enemies. Overall the gameplay was made slower and all CC effects (including enemies') were made less impactful.

I don't have that impression. On PotD at least (where PEN issues are common) Ciphers are on par with Wizards due to certain key abilites such as +PEN passives and powers - and of course because they are the only class that can "spam" effective Mind Control which still is the most effective CC option in the game. Besides that they also are able to buff themselves up pretty nicely (e.g. Psychovampiric Shield, Borrowed Instincts, Time Siphon) and others (Ancestor's Memory ftw). Also when soloing o PotD (where fights take a lot longer) it's way easier with a Cipher since he can replenish his resources while Wizards(exept Bloodmage), Fighters (except Tactician), Paladins, Barbarians, Druids, Rogues and Priests cannot. They are also more fun than in PoE1 for me - because the subclasses influence the way you play your Cipher a lot more that Wizard's subclasses change the way you play your Wizard. Beguiler, Soulblade, Ascendant and Psion have pretty unique changes to their mechanic or role in combat. Also while they start with less focus, the generation of focus is much faster, especially if you take Draining Whip (which even doubles it). And attack/casting time got increased for everybody, that's not putting he cipher apart from the rest. In fact with a patch those initial long casting times got reduced so that the cipher is one of the "casters" with the fastest offensive spell pool on average (casting time and recovery combined). They work very well with muticlassing - but are also very good as single class characters. Reasons for that are the truly great passives of the highest power levels but also some very strong powers like Driving Echoes (which, cast on your party's nuker, makes a huge difference), Time Siphon (which stacks with itself to ridiculous amounts as long as you can infect a lot of enemies with one cast - especially bonkers with Ascendant) and Reaping Knives (which is especially crazy if you use with with a Soul Blade). Wizards have the HUGE advage over all other classes that they have potential access to all spells via grimoire and grimoire switching. You don't need to pick up a single spell at level up to be able to cast them. Just equip up tp 6 grimoires and get 12 free spells at your disposal. At level up only pick passives if possible or non-wizard-stuff if you are multiclassing just pick the good stuff from the second class. That's why I would argue that, generally speaking, a Wizard is more suited for multiclassing than a Cipher (although there are exceptions like Soulblade getting a boost from Rogue for example).

We are doing that with the upcoming "Community Patch" (it's basically a mod) which not only fixes some leftover bugs (as long as fixable by modding), polishes some abilities (includes mild buffs and also nerfs, based on a community poll), adds unique icons for all passive abilities but also will introduce some trinkets for priests and druids (which you'll be able to get rel. early in the game). And while will be based on grimoire mechanics, they don't give the exact same bonuses (+2 spells per PL - since both classes already gain a bonus spell per PL) but can grant a broader variety of bonuses such as +Power Level for certain keywords, some bonus spells (fitting the theme of the trinket - e.g. prayerbook) and so on. More about that in the "Deadfire Polishing" threads (discussion thread and poll). Those things will be spread out to seperate mods though (basic polishing, extended polishing, passive icons, trinkets...) so that you can decide what you want to use and what not.

Maybe... maybe not. I know a lot of people, non-religious and religious (no fanatics though), and none of them decides between "like you" or "dislike you" based on that. But I'm living in a bubble - so maybe it's true in general. Additionally: Xoti's is not even a real religion. Reactions to that should be a bit softer. She may be zealous, but it's not dominating her. She is a bit ridiculous though. Still: if I would be an atheist (I am) and because of that would dislike religious characters/people (I don't) I'd still have to distinguish between "I don't like the character because she is religious" and "she's badly written".

Yeah that was hyperbole. I just think it's boring. But I threw the book into a corner. One of the few books I didn't want to finish. I like character development and expositions in general - but what I don't like is excessive descriptions of.... I don't know... archways, food, faces, clothing, whatever... I like Ivanhoe. Can't say if it'swell written or not (not my mother tongue and also fairly old) but it was entertaining for me. Other non-contemporary (yet well-known) stuff I like is e.g. "Kleider machen Leute" from Gottfried Keller. Also can't say if it's well written (difficult to say since I don't know what whas considered to be "well-written" during that time period) but it's a nice read (for me).

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...