Boeroer

The initial target will use Deflection during attack resolution, but the targets that are in the AoE will use Reflex. Using Miasma is a good way since it lowers both through attribute debuff (-10 PER --> -20 Reflex, -10 RES --> -10 Deflection). Best combied with Nature's Mark: this one directly lowers the defenses (-10 Reflex, -10 Deflection) and thus stacks with Miasma. So if you have a Druid and Wizard in the party (or one Sorcerer) you can guarantee (at reasonably low levels) that your dual mortar user will hit stuff very well. Add Blessing + Devotions (on top of any passive or ability-based ACC bonus like Blinding Strike etc) that means that you have the equivalent of +35 ACC vs. Deflection and +45 against Reflex for your whole party.

There was a table with attribute based dialogue checks floating around in some of the latest threads here... can't find it...

From Memory: - Ball and Chain - Karabörü

Of course we'll have to play the Ascension of the Watcher to godhood!

Assassinate (attacking with higher ACC, crit damage and PEN from stealth and invisibility) works with spells - also AoE spells like Fireball and such. That's what makes this multiclass work.

I mean it's lvl 19 - other lvl 19 stuff is bonkers as well and require no items at all. Like Missile Barrage or Maelstrom for example.

How did you distribute your stats? MIG: 10 CON: 11 DEX: 17 PER: 18 INT: 19 RES: 03 But I didn't think too much about it.

Ghost Heart doesn't work because it's a Spirit, not a Beast.

And once again we have reached the point where I will post this clip: Something similar can be done with Barbarian's Heart of Fury. NOT with Ranger's Whirling Strikes though - because those are melee only.

I'd only use single weapon style if I had a weapon that procs something on hits and/or crits or on kill and I wanted to make sure that I always hit/crit/kill with this weapon (like Blade Cascade from Scordeo's Edge or so).

Blessed Harvest scales wickedly with Power Levels. One of the best lvl-1 spells there is. Try a Xoti with Morning Star + this spell: *whack*...*explode*. Priest of Gaun + Helwalker would be a great combo just because of this spell...

As explained in the lore, Priests don't get their spells from the gods, but from the power of their souls. In this case their soul power + beliefs form the spells you use as a priest. If you could really believe in the ideals of atheism you would be able to be a Priest of Zilch or so - in theory. Or maybe a Proest of the whole Pantheon - if you worshipped all of the gods equally. Whatever... It doesn't remove afflictions in an AoE, it doesn't buff in an AoE, it doesn't revive in an AoE - it doesn't do a lot of things a Priest can do better actually. That's because yopur Wizard only uses self buffs while the Priest is buffing the whole party. How OP would it be if he could cast Blessing + Devotions like a Wizard can cast Eldritch Aim + Alacrity? Besides that: most Preist spells have the same recovery as an melee attack. Not that long actually. Priests are good nukers - but it wouldn't feel right if they were better than WIzards in this case, right? Priests are for support - nuking is only an addon. Yes, that is a valid point that has to be addressed. Grimoires are very powerful and there's nothing camparable for other classes. That depends on the Priest and Druid. Druids are actually a mix of Priest and Wizard plus some melee. But I agree that in general the Druid is the better healer. But he's a worse buffer and affliction remover. Sure there is a way: try Priest of Eothas/Ascendant. Once you reach ascended state cast Salvation of Time and cast everything into the ground while ascended for a long time. Helwalker/Priest is also fun because DoT stuff like Shining Beacon profits a lot from both +MIG (+30% additive dmg) and +INT (+50% multiplicative). Same with healing over time. You can play it as melee character, but then I would suggest heavy armor and a heavy shield in the second weapon slot at least. As ranged priest you won't have that many problems with your increased "damage taken" - still carry a large shield in the seciond slot. You want to switch to it once you get focus-fired by guns. I still like a mig-ranged monk (multiclass or not) with mortars. The AoE size profits a lot from the +INT and the fact that you have no recovery but only reload (which can be cancelled for casting) helps a ton at being reactive/responsive. Stunning Surge + mortars is awesome as well. Dance of Death is very nice. Besides that a melee Priest with Sun and Moon is always nice. THe chance to repeat fire spells is great and the weapon totaqlly fits a Priest of Eothas. Grab Xoti's Lantern - it's great.

edit: what was this doing here? Nvm...

Large Shield modal "The Wall" gives you a damage reduction against reflex attacks. Why would it prevent you to see the PEN value of those attacks?

No, you spoke about different things.

The modal of the Morning Star is def. worth it: - Barbs get Brute Force - Fighters' Mulke Kick targets Fortitude - Monks' Force of Anguish targets Fortitude Helwalker's increased damage is an issue. With Constant Recovery and later Unbending it becomes manageable though. A nice combo can be Devoted/Berserker if you get the Devil of Caroc Breastplate to remove Confusion entirely and then aim for the Sanguine Great Sword to counter the self damage of the Barb or use a Morning Star and counter the self damage with Savage Defiance, Constant Recovery and Unbending. The modal of great swords only works for the weapon attacks with the great sword itself. Actually it's a pretty bad modal. If you lower your MIG by 10 points and push PER by 10 (just in theory now) and use the modal you would do the same weapon damage as with unaltered stats. But your healings would be worse (because of low MIG) as would be you non-weapon damage and your accuracy with non-weapon attacks would be higher. Also your Fortitude would be lower but your reflex higher. All in all I wouldn't recommend it at all.

One weapon slot: Morning Star. Force of Anguish and Mule Kick target Fortitude.

I did indeed a melee Geomancer with Stalker/Wizard (no subclass). And it was able to solo the BoW Dracolich without any consumables fairly easily because of the very high ACC, high AR and single target dmg.

One nice multiclass with priest was Assassin/Skaen. If I had to multiclass a Priest of Eothas I would maybe pick Helwalker because the +MIG and +INT will be great for healing, nuking as well as support duration. At the same time he could do good melee dmg. I didn't try out spiritual weapons (faith attuned flail) with Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes yet, but the lashes should add up nicely.

If you like to use Takedown Combo (+100% base damage bonus for the next attack that hits the enemy - only costs 1 Bond) you need a way to lower Fortitude (because that's what Takedown Combo rolls against). That's why I played a melee Geomancer with a Morning Star. The Animal Companion can then put Takedown Combo onto your enemy and you can cast a high dmg,single target spell on that enemy - for example Killing Bolt. You will do double base dmg * Power Level bonus then. On top comes all the Animal Companion stuff like Stalker's Link, Predator's Sense and so on. On-kill effects will not trigger on you if your AC kills something.

My experience with single class priests in Deadfire - I don't multiclass them anymore since I think they make the party better when they are single classed. Stuff like Devotions and Salvation of Time (amongst other spells) are so crucial to my parties' performances that I want them ASAP. And because my last PoE run that I took over to Deadfire was a Priest of Eothas.

I would do single class Priest of Eothas despite all the catcalls.

Just tested ingame: it's two weapons now (dual wielding) like all the other spiritshift weapons. Base damage is 8-13 shock, base PEN is 8 (can be raised by +1 with Heart of the Storm), attack base speed is 0.5 sec, recovery 4 sec. And it jumps one time. Range is 10 m + 4m jump. Jump's damage malus is 20%. Bear as comparison: Base damage is 13-19 slash, base PEN is 9, attack base speed is 0.5 sec, recovery 4 sec. No jumps, melee range. All in all it's comparable I think. Take into account that a ranged character with 10 m range won't lose dps from running around to reach enemies so much. With Wildstrike and Heart of the Storm I got nice numbers.

I agree that raising AR on enemies on PotD is not the best decision that was made. I keep saying so since beta because of the reason Dunehunter posted: narrows down choices (classes, abilites, weapons - items in general). In PoE's PotD difficulty enemies didn't get additional DR but "only" defenses (besides adding more enemies and tougher creatures, too). Boosting enemies' damage output would be fine. Healing is very strong in Deadfire anyways - and usually PotD players know how to stack enouch healing sources so that they are nigh unkillable. Or giving enemies more abilites to play with.

Amen