Boeroer

Grab a Morning Star with Body Blows modal, cast Blessing + Devotions with Xoti for +15 party ACC, hit the dragon with Body Blows (if your Edér is a Swashbuckler then use Blinding Strike because it has +10 ACC), then cast Wall of Flame + Combusting Wounds on it with Aloth (make sure you have the Ring of Focused Flame equipped). Follow up with Minor Missiles and ranged weapons (no pen doesn't matter that much). Should be dead very quickly. Lvl 15 should be totally doable, especially on hard (where it has lower defenses and armor). Always stack ACC, then debuff an appropriate defense (in this case Fortitude because Combusting Wounds targets Fortitude) and then deal damage. If you want you can cast a Miasma of Dull-Mindedness on the dragon as well to drop it's Will, Reflex and Deflection in order give Xoti a chance of landing Divine Mark and Shining Beacon on it (both target Will).

Sabres not really because of the single damage type. Unless you don't care that you get -10 ACC and -2 PEN in cases where you have to switch. I mean there are some really nice sabres... Swords are good. War Hammers are also good but nice unique ones come a bit lateish. A great one is the Kapana Tags Club since it has two damage types and works really well with the increased engagement slots it provides + the ones you can get from Devoted (+4 ACC per engaged target, stacks with everything) synergies very well with the enhanced crit damage of the Devoted. Offhand: shield, weapon or nothing by the way?

Yes. Unfortunately (kind of) in PoE high movement speed + kiting is a very strong tactic. Foes who are slower than you (and with Boots of Speed that nearly all foes) usually turn around and walk back to their starting position until you shoot them, then try to chase you again, turn away because you're too fast - rinse and repeat. In fights like this one in contained spaces it helps that enemy movement isn't smart. For example enemies will always try to go where you are atm, not where you will be. No anticipation whatsoever. That means (for example) that an enemy will chase you around a pillar/ad forever. "Shot on the Run" completes the cheese. Kiting is so strong that a forum user was able to complete the game on PotD solo with a lvl-1 Ranger. Look for "Noober" in the build list.

Decompile.

I think so. But you have to be quick. Some of them immediately cast Alacrity and die right away from the self dmg. Or they get summoned, move a bit, catch a disengagement attack and die.

I don't like any of them. But if there's players out there who feel differently: cool!

Using excessive hyperbole is just the common way of voicing one's opinion where Manervu123's from. Don't judge!

I finished my run (with Konstanten as Barb/Skald-debuffer in it). I'm now testing a similar concept with Skald/Devoted(Morning Star). I'll have no Brute Force, but Mule Kick as well as Clear Out target Fortitude. First Console tests with that dude show that I can refill all my phrases in an instant if I attack a debuffed crowd (-55 fort like Konstanten) with Clear Out. With Devil's Breastplate, Gauntlets of Discipline I will have +2 Clear Out uses...

Just to be clear: Phantoms only get your gear, not your stats or any of your abilities (except the passive ones from yoir gear). So no Driving Flight for Phantoms. Living Illusions get everything afaik. Very cool. Sometimes they even summon Phantoms... But they are also dead very quickly. Best thing is that Living Illusions copies you AND your animal companion! You can also summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights and then Phantom/Living Illusions. The phantom will be stuck with the burn version. But that works with Ring of Focused Flame... Having an AoE burn blast attack with +22 ACC (if one handed) on a phantom (or even more on 6 Living Illusions) is kind of cool as well. Especially if you prepared with Combusting Wounds before. Also here Driving Flight is great as well.

It's very common. Take a look here: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Spirit_Residue_(Deadfire) Under "Acquisition".

I don't think I will follow up on this.

Use Wall of Flames + Combusting Wounds + dual Blunderbusses. 8 hits on a target with Combusting Wounds is ouch. Then follow with some minor missiles. That's a good single target strategy. Use Spellshaping to concentrate CW on one enemy for +1 PL. Or Pull of Eora + Combusting Wounds + dual mortars + Driving Flight. For groups. Also Concussive Tranquilizer is like a Ranger's Arcane Cleanse + AoE interrupt with Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight. Don't forget that you Essential Phantom gets the same weapons. So summon it and watch how it also shoots in an AoE... Only thing is that phantom is bugged atm and doesn't scale. I hope for a quick fix.

Clean Sweep works better than Clear Out. For some reason with Clean Sweep I always get an endless loop even when I'm only attacking one single enemy with it + Whispers otEP. It loops till death every time. So I recommend single class Fighter. Totally bugged but fun. But it's too broken to do a playthrough with it. I just finished my Mortar Monk run (finally) and that already was borderline broken. Next is my newest cheese: single class melee/ranged hybrid Ranger with some special tricky bits.

Yes. You can install the Unity console mod. With that you can do this and keep achievements.

Doesn't Peter give you 5% dmg and 5% AoE size (party)? Had him in the critter today.

Hm, on a second test the chain was not endless but stopped at some point (like it used to with Lance). Weird...

I just tested both Citzal's Spirit Lance as well as Whisper otEP with Clear out/Clear the Path/Clean Sweep. This behaviour is new. It seems to trigger an endless cycle of "AoE triggers AoE". I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the new bugs: a) when used with an active ability both weapons suddenly omit recovery after the attack and keep attacking with the same ability until there's not resource anymore b) both weapons suddenly don't apply afflictions in an AoE anymore Something got changed and it also affects the synergy between Clear Out and Clean Sweep and both weapons' AoE. Clear the Path has NOT this behavior. This is clearly broken and a lot more bonkers than the "former" synergy of Lance + Clear Out was. That was powerful but not an endless chain reaction. I guess this will get fixed very soon.

Sure. SetClasslevel <companion_name> <base_class_name> <level> trueand then SetSubclass <companion_name> <base_class_name> <subclass_name>Then go an retrain. I don't know if you have to add the auto-passives from subclasses by hand or if they get added via retraining as well. For companion name just type "comp" and hit tab repeatedly until something like companion_clone(Pallegina) shows up. You can use tab to complete all parts of the command if you're not sure how the spelling is.

Sure! The Fear Ward alone is super good and will work well with Willbreaker (who loves to hit enemies with Resolve afflictions). Just remember that you can't have wards + chanter summons on the field at the same time.

Yeah I didn't say that Dragon Thrashed is good. I just said what would by the most effective way of using it in my opinion. That still doesn't mean it's good. Anyways: you can't make it so that it's worthwhile to build a whole char concept around it, but as an additional source of damage it's ok. I mean on a Helwalker the AoE is so big that you usually reach all the enemies and deal a little bit of dmg every tick. Once you stack it it's good against weak mobs. Against high AR enemies you should maybe switch to Soft Winds? I never tried: does Dragon Thrashed/Soft Winds trigger Staggered from Spirit Frenzy on the initial hit roll?

Reading your preferences: I would try a Sage (Helwalker/Wizard)..They have enormous synergies in melee as well as in spellcasting (+10 MIG, +10 INT, generates wounds by himself using Dance of Death and Alacrity). You can cover so much area with the +10 INT and the foe-only part of your AoE spells will be huge while your spell damage will get boosted by MIG. Just watch your health! A nice alternative for melee can be Battlemage (Fighter/Bloodmage). The tankiest of all (for a limited time) is the Arcane Knight. I would pick Goldpact/Bloodmage I guess. For spellcasting a Warlock (Furyshaper/Wizard) is great as well. His casting speed is unmatched. You get Frenzy +Bloodlust+Rapid Casting+Fury Ward and later Blood Thirst which sets recovery to 0 after a kill. Just spam-nuke away. If you use Infuse with Vital Essence you can remove Confused on a Berserker which means you are left with +2 PEN which can be a big deal for a spellcaster (at least on PotD). Spellblade (Assassin/Bloodmage) with Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure as favorite spell is also very fun to play: lurk in the shadows and assassinate enemies with AoE spells like Fireball etc. which get all the assassination bonuses. And with Bloodmage you can repeat that of times. Sneaky playstyle.

Yes. As we said: you can prevent those exploding bodies (leave no corpses) if you turn off "gib" in the game options menu.

Didn't we say that Helwalker/Troubadour would be best due to +10 MIG and INT? Also Thunderous Blows will give you +2 PEN with Dragon Thrashed.

I also would put my focus on INT, DEX and PER. MIG is not that important for a debuffer. My only gripe with Konstanten ist that he has lowish INT.

I actually like the tone/style of PoE better. But Deadfire is still very nice.