Boeroer

Have a look at this table: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384851536 As you can see the Bear is not far behind the wolf in terms of damage but way ahead in terms of tankyness due to the higher health and the +2AR - which is a big deal, especially if you also use Resilient Companion + Pain Block for additonal +4 AR so it makes it worthwhile to stack AR on him for being tanky. The Wolf is better as a dps companion - but you are not looking for dps from your animal companion if I read that correctly. The Boar is also pretty tanky because he has the biggest health pool and on top has a constant health recovery during combat. Compared to the bear (and wolf) his dps sucks though. But if that's not your focus anyway you could give him a try, too. With Pain Block his health regeneration will be nice. Seers can make use of the nice synergy of Takedown Combo + Disintegration (and Soul Ignition). Both spells don't count as actual damaging attacks but are considered status effects (which conveniently deal damage). Thus they don't remove the Takedown Combo effect on the enemy. Usually you will use Takedown Combo with your Animal Companion on an enemy, said enemy will get an effect on him so that the next attack roll against him gets +100% damage and then the Takedown Combo effect gets removed. But if you aply Takedown Combo and then use Disintegration (or the other way round, doesn't matter) all the damaging ticks of Disintegration will get the +100% dmg bonus while the Takedown Combo effect will NOT get removed until it runs out, basically doubling the damage of Disintegration (or Soul Ignition, works the same - or even both).

I never saw one.

Tested this now - it only works with crits from the sabre itself.

I didn't test that specifically tbh. I only tried to maximize crits with the weapon itself. But iirc Dire Talon was not on the list of weapon which get triggered universally which @Constentin Lévinecomposed. But I can try later. I have a bit of free time today. Edit: since an Essential/Substancial Phantom uses an exact copy of your weapon a way to produce more Wurms might be to use a Wizard/sth. with the Dire Talon and summon said Phantom near a weak enemy. Maybe... don't know if it's worth it and warrants the summoning time. A Monk/Ranger with Swift Flurry and Mohara Tanga in the offhand + Dire Talon in the main hand produces a lot of Wurms in a given time though.

If it would be a multiplayer online game I wouldn't play it. I very much prefer single-player games - but if it had optional co-op (or hooks for modded co-op) I wouldn't mind of course.

I don't know. He worked on the Pillars TTRPG rules in his free time after Deadfire's release.

Some leading devs of Deadfire stated on Twitter that they would be up for it - about a year ago or so. I guess if Microsoft gives a thumbs up we might actually see something like PoE3 (maybe a bit smaller) - Xbox Gamepass needs games!

Yes, those images on the XBox website do indeed look good to me, too. Don't know why the gameplay trailer created a different impression, I haven't really analyzed it.

For what it's worth: Josh Sawyer's own Pillars of Eternity Table Top/Pen and Paper rules also have no classes. No classes doesn't mean you didn't have to study your craft in-universe. Multiclassing is nothing else than softening the borders between classes and a step towards a classless system. And it's just mechanics. It doesn't necessarily define what your life looks like and how you learn your craft. There is always an explanation why an "official" Wizard might have the determination and discipline of a fighter but also some skullduggery and guild of a rogue and so on.

Time for you to put on a helmet. Aedyr is inhabited and ruled by humans and wood elves. Your char is an official envoy from Aedyr. You will be either human or wood elf, I'll bet on it.

I liked the visual tone of PoE best, Deadfire is lighter and colorful but still nice and appropriate for the setting. I know that the Living Lands are supposed to be colorful and thriving with all sorts of wildlife and flowers and so on - and medieval times weren't as drab and dirty, muddy and gritty as Hollywood would like us to think... but still the overall visual style presented in the Gameplay trailer is not my cup of tea. This will not stop me from buying, but it's also not something I'm excited about.

Iron Wheel also requires resources. If you would constantly spend your wounds (= Iron Wheel requires no resources) you could not have a meaningful AR increase. The "cost" is basically the same - you don't have resources to spend or you have resources you cannot spend.

Using Wahai Poraga on the Corpse Eater works quite well if another character provides the wurms (I used a Berserker/Helwalker in the test). Send the wurms into the AoE of Wahai Poraga. While the Corpse Eater can still attack actual enemies the friendly fire AoE wll make sure he will kill some nearby wurms soon enough. This is also good because it not only leaves bodies for the Corpse Eater to consume but also triggers Blood Thirst and so on. Wahai Poraga is also an excellent weapon for Swift Flurry... My Berserker could also help to kill wurms with his confused Carnage - which then helped with his Changeling's Mantle (Primal Carnage) - giving him action speed when he hit those wurms with this friendly fire Carnage.

Hello! I guess you knew that when you use the Dire Talon (sabre) and enchant it with Wurm Call you will have a 20% chance on crit to summon 3 wurms? Did you also know that if those wurms die they will leave a body hat only disappears after combat ends - unlike the summons that you gain from your abilities (that includes summons from items that give you an active summoning ability like a Whale of a Wand's Fantastic Friends - they will disappear on being killed and leave no body)? I surely didn't. But those wurms' bodies will stay. And wurms are beats... That means that you can consume the body with Flesh Communion. All Corpse Eaters: This can help your Corpse Eater to use their Flesh Communion in every fight - you "only" need to crit often enough and then get a wurm killed. You can do so yourself by attacking it with the weapon itself (there's a chance that you crit and summon another bunch of wurms and so on - there's no hard cap on how many wurms can be on the screen) or by using some friendly-fire spell like Shadowflame or whatever. If you crit a lot (hello Swift Flurry/HBD) you can summon a lot of wurms - and some might end up dead even without your interference because they are just weak. The bodies will be there until combat ends. So nothing speaks against piling up some wurm bodies for later in the fight. Of course this doesn't have to be done by one and the same character. You just need somebody in the party who will crit a lot with Dire Talon in order to prepare a rather monothematic Corpse Eater buffet. I then also tried it with Hel Beckoning (summon Hel Imp on killing spirit) - and this also leaves the body of the imp when he gets killed. But alas: it doesn't work for Flesh Communion. I forgot that Imps are not wilders - they are primordials. And since Flesh Communion only works in kith, wilder and beasts... Off to Essence Interrupter you say? Right! It works, too: If you crit and then kill any enemy and let's say a Xaurip gets summoned (and then killed) - you can consume its body. Same with Ogre Pirates. Unfortunately there's several summons with Essence Interrupter that are neither wilder nor beast (oozes, guls etc.) - so it's not very reliable. Also some of the summons take some time to kill compared to the very weak wurms that Dire Talon gives you. And some summons don't leave a body when killed - like the Boars wouldn't do that for me for example. But still... it can work. I didn't find another suitable item for this interaction - maybe you know one. Anyway - with this you can make the Corpse Eater better in long fights that usually don't have "food" for him. Bringing your own targets for deliverering crits will make it easier (for example Many Lives Skeletons). Don't know yet if it's worth it though - or if it's too fiddly. We'll see...

If you use the Helwax Mold for The Flames of Fair Rhîan and then also buy Taluntain's Staff you could have 9 Fireballs per rest. I did this with a Rogue (because ACC also not bad and Deathblows working with spells - Sneak Attack not though). But this comes all a bit late. Rotfinger Gloves, Amulet of Summer Solstice, Sun-Touched Mail and Munacra Arret are esp. nice imo because they can be obtained rel. early. Same with the White Spire (estoc in Defiance Bay). It has 3 Blizzards per rest. You can stack a really decent amount of per-rest spells on a character that way and make him a good caster. I wrote a little build guide for a Rogue + scrolls, it's in the build list under "Sorcerer's Apprentice". It's a Rogue and not a fighter but the principles apply to both (instead of Deathblows the Fighter has Disciplined Barrage which stacks very nicely with the accuracy bonus that is on most of those spellbinds - except Ring of Changing Heart which has no acc bonus iirc). --- Edit: in Deadfire you can recharge "charged" spellbinds if you have two of the same item. FOr example a Necklace of Fireballs usually has 8 charges and if it's depleted you can basically throw it away. But if you have another one in the stash you can stack them to a pile and when you seperate them again both are charged full again. I never tried this in PoE - but maybe... maybe one could use the Helwax Mold on one of those charged items (there's the Red Reed Wand or the Rod of Wind and Thunder for example) and then do the same in PoE? As I said I never tried and most likely this doesn't work like in Deadfire - but maybe it's worth a shot? Because then you'd have the perfect spellbinding item that had a ton of spells and you could recharge them after every encounter...

The rel. early Amulet of Summer Solstice and Sun-Touched Mail of Hyran Rath for some AoE dmg. Munacra Arret and Spirit Spiral (charm) as well als Ring of Changing Heart (dominate) for impactful CC.

Psion is one of my favorite class options. Very nice with all sorts of casters in multiclass I think, but I also enjoyed it a lot as single class (bc. notably faster focus generation). The one I liked best is maybe Psion/Troubadour. However, I didn't really try Psion/Priest yet - so I cannot say how that plays. It should be good though, don't see a reason why it shouldn't be. Having said that: usually Xoti as single class Priest is fine for me. I don't like to bring too many "soulless" hirelings into the party. It makes the playthrough a little dull for me personally. Later Vatnir is a cool Priest alternative. He has an excellent spell portfolio because he brings some nice alternative damage spells to the usual priests' offensive fire spell monotony. --- An unorthodox Priest option that I did and enjoyed was Berserker/Priest (mine was Berserker/Priest of Wael, but the Priest subclass doesn't really matter). The reason to take Berserker was to become confused at will, which allows you to cast Withdraw on enemies. It is an auto-hit and a benefical effect. That means: defenses don't matter, high Resolve won't shorten the duration, no immunities whatsoever. Just *pouf* - gone for some time. You can use that trick very early in the game to shut down dangerous enemies in no time, finish the rest of the group and then deal with the withdrawn afterwards. There's a pair of shoes that grant you an additional spell of that Power Level, so iirc you can easily get 3 casts of Withdraw per encounter. That's three enemies taken out of the fight for a pretty decent amount of time. With Empower to fill up your spell uses again you can even take out some more. If you have a Cipher in the party who casts Ancestors Memory on you: just withdraw everybody but one. Very easy fights... Of course there's other little synergies between Berserker and Priest (casting speed with Frenzy/Bloodlust/Blood Thirst on kill, +2 PEN, Spirit Frenzy applying to spell hits and so on... if the Berserker/Priest is a good finisher then Triumph of the Crusaders + Blood Thirst is great), but the main reason was withdraw + confusion. A thing that one has to keep in mind: If the Priest wants to buff the party a lot at the start of the encounter then one might run into action economy issues. Casting an Aware inspiration + Devotions ftF takes some time and you def. don't want to be confused while casting those. So maybe wait with the Frenzy until all buffs are cast - or have high RES so that the confusion only lasts a short while during the Withdraw cast - or use Modwyr to "unconfuse" with a weapon switch at will. A Tactician/Priest could also do this in theory, but I guess way more fiddly. Anyway - just one maybe interesting ability/spell combo that's not widely known and can be very impactful.

I personally think Sage is the most entertaining combo to play. Yeah, Godlikes - or rather their racial abilities - are not really that great. But for thematic reasons it might be still nice to pick them. Also Death Godlikes get some special dialogue options in the game.

I ran a solo Geomancer (Stalker/Bloodmage) - but it used Willbreaker as main weapon for the Geomancer himself. Draining Touch was used for the Phantom. The synergy was that Willbreaker + modal lowers fortitude which is great for the Animal Companion's Takedown Combo (targets fortitude) and also lowers Will (stacks with Miasma) which is great for the Phantom's Draining Touch (targets Will). That way the AC could apply Takedown Combo and the Phantom then smashes the enemy with Draining Touch crits and with a +100%dmg bonus. Takedown Combo also works for spells from the Geomancer of course. With thick armor the phantom + Draining Touch was pretty sturdy, the Bear companion was sturdy, too - and the Geomancer was also pretty sturdy because Stalker's passive + wizard's buffs. --- My approach with Draining Touch as main weapon for the character (I often used it with Aloth): I use it with Engagement-bonus gear like a shield or Kapana Taga (club, +modal) and Reckless Brigandine and then use Ryngrim's spells to cause terrify whenever possible. For those I use Whitewitch Mask (also looks decent with the Brigandine). This will allow free disengagement attacks against the terrified enemies which are brutal with Draining Touch. The Phantom can use the same method because from its gear it will also have some engagement slots (usually 2 or 3). So enemies get into double disengagement trouble... Kapana Tanga can be better than a shield because it not only provides +2 engagement but also lowers Will by 25 points with the modal - and that's the defense that Draining Touch does target. But I think it depends on the class combo you pick. You can then decide which second class is best: Unbroken is cool because of the additional armor with a shield and the insane PEN bonus of the disengagement attacks and the additional engagement slots from Hold the Line and Defender Stance and so on. And of course a Fighter/Wizard can later use Unbending with Wall of Draining which makes you basically immortal. I'd go with a shield because of Shield Mastery (Unbroken passive). Monk is nice because Club+modal+Draining Touch is a lot of virtual accuracy which works well with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. And later Spirit Lance + Stunning Surge or Efficient Anguish is just great. For a Sage I would def. use Tuotilo's Palm. Rogue is also very good because the very high base damage of Draining Touch works nicely with the Rogue's damage bonuses such as Sneak Attack and Deathblows. I'd recommend a Streetfighter because ,out can easily become bloodied with Blood Sacrifice and then dish out truly jawdropping dmg numbers when doing disengagement attacks while heated up (because Sneak Attack will have a +50% bonus then). Debonaire is a no-go imo because: no engagement. I'd use Kapana Tanga here. Steel Garrote is another nice combo. The Draining Touch applies weakened which unlocks the Steel Garrote's life drain. It stacks with the one from Draining Touch, giving you nice healing when punching things. Combine with the other goodies any Arcane Knight can have and you will be a very tanky yet offensively capable character. I think I would use a shield in this caseto double down on the tankyness. Furyshaper is the next option I enjoyed. You cannot combine Phantom and Wards (both summons) but the interaction of the fear ward with Barbaric Shout and Draining Touch and a club+modal is great. You drop a fear ward , summon the Draining Touch and then you will lower enemies' Will via shout and gain +3 engagement. You drop the Miasma and maybe even a Spirit Tornado. Most enemies will have their Will defense crushed and be terrified by now and you can engage them and punch them with good speed. Carnage is nice with Draining Touch because the base dmg of the weapon is high. When enemies disengage you punish them, too. Bloodlust, Blood Thirst, Blood Slaughter... This combo is also nice for your action economy because you don't have to cast Ryngrim spells that often. I'm sure other combos with Draining Touch Bloodmage and Ranger, Cipher etc. can be cool, too - but I didn't really try those out enough to be able to make any meaningful recommendation. For all of those combos my final piece of headgear is the Helm of the White Void by the way. Before that I use Whitewitch Mask as I said. Since Draining Touch comes with the weaken effect the +10 accuracy of Rhymrgand's Influence always applies. Of course this comes rather late, but it's something to look forward to.

How about 69%?

Right. Also Corrupting Beauty has pulsing attack rolls (great for Avenging Storm) - but that's not mentioned in the description.

It doesn't matter why I don't use consumables. I know I'm not the only one so it doesn't hurt to give another reasonably argued point of view... so that OP can see if he agrees - or not - and then make a well-informed decision that matches with his wishes and expectations. I'm not pushing somebody towards anything - I just give my perspective and then let OP decide whether that applies to him or not. Again: I'm not saying it's not fine. I'm saying that I - personally (stated that every time explicitly) - am not in favor of making consumables an integral part of my character. So if OP feels the same way or can somewhat relate then he can consider this - and if he doesn't agree then he can discard what I wrote. Better to read two reasonably written opinions on a matter than just one. Yes, it stacks with everything except the Rogue's Escape. Later Veiled Hood (Mask of the Weyc) is the same: it stacks with everything except Arcane Veil. You can stack both and extend them with WoD for +100 deflection, which stacks with all other deflection buffs (like Mirrored Images or so). The downside of the cape is that you have to become bloodied in order to unlock it - but I guess that's not a big problem with a Bloodmage. By the way, speaking of WoD: I also like to prolong Blightheart's healing on hit and Lesser Lay on Hands (gloves). You can switch Blightheart after shooting/receiving the heal effect. The healing will stay. Iirc it pulses and every pulse adds a healing over time and they can be individually prolonged (but maybe I remember wrong). I mean just in case one seeks some "self contained" healing options that work with Wall of Draining. Wall of Draining works best if enemies have beneficial effects which the Wall and drain from. If enemies don't have that then WoD doesn't work as well. You can makesureall enemies have a benefical effect to drain from by wearing the Cap of the Laughingstock. Its "Village Fool" enchantment gets automatically placed on enemies in range (as well as allies) and is considered a benefical effect - thus the Wall can drain duration from it, even though Village Fool has no duration (is infinite).

Yes, but only from time to time for a rel short amount of time. Doesn't make the modal (which works at all times) redundant. To the contrary: the faster you can shoot the higher the chances to trigger Bullet Time in a given time frame. Skipping reload (original idea) would also be an absolute buff which would make any speed buffs obsolete for a short amount of time. So I think when it's about coming close to the original (which doesn't work) -80% is more in the spirit than -50% imo. Doesn't matter if the 80% would be overkill often. But it would be very nice for characters with no actual speed buffs and feel powerful compared to their usual slow reloading speech. Another thing: does Bullet Time allow to get triggered while Bullet Time is active? I imagine if it worked like intended (0 reload time) it could lead to an extended duration because it gets triggered again during that rapid-fire phase.

I quickly tested the Apex Ward jut now (with CP and Enhanced UI mod) and it worked like intended: when blooded I gained +10 ACC and +10% dmg to my attacks. Healed back up - bonus is gone. Next fight, getting bloodied: again +10 ACC and +10% dmg. :shrug It's weird though that the Bood Rage effect will not get listed under benefical effects or on the char sheet at all. You have to do an attack roll and check the log in order to find it. Which other enchantments did you put on your shield? Maybe there's some interaction... Nevermind: tested it with all enchantments - didn't change the outcome.

Then maybe do -80% (like the stealth bonus) to make sure the floor is def. met with Bullet Time?