Boeroer

Keep in mind that those 24% are only an additive dmg bonus. So it's calculated only on the base dmg of your weapon. If your weapon is let's say a sabre, the base damage is 13-19 or 16 on average. 16*0.24 = ~3.8. So the investment of 8 points of MIG only gives you +~4 dmg per weapon hit. It's a bit better with ability usage because the power level scaling applies to the base damage - but still not breathtaking - also because you get many more additive dmg bonuses like Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Soul Whip and weapon quality (fine, exceptional etc.). So the 24% from MIG would not be very noticable, at least for weapon attacks. For spell damage MIG is often the only source of dmg bonus besides Pwer Level Scaling. But for example DoTs like Disintegrate profit a lot more from INT than from MIG, too. Imo INT is themore impactful stat for such a build. Just make sure you don't end up with MIG below 10 - because damage maluses really hurt in Deadfire's damage calculation system.

Spirit Tornado in the vanilla game is kind of a trap choice. Reason is: Spirit Frenzy applies the Staggered affliction to all(!) of your hit rolls (weapon attacks, shouts, spells, Carnage, you name it). With Spirit Tornado this is suddenly restricted to your initial weapon attack only (no Carnage, no spells, no shouts etc.)

Every Paladin has access to Lay on Hands and also Exalted Endurance. Jmo that's enough to counter the loss of healing from Fury. Steel Garrote is only useful if you use melee weapons and do put afflictions on your melee enemies often and reliably. For such things Nature's Terror is really good - but beware the friendly fire! The Steel Garrote passive doesn't work with ranged weapons, so a shifted Fury (Storm Blight form) doesn't profit (because its natural weapons are ranged shock bolts). If you want to use those bolts and still get additional healing then Kind Wayfarer would be my pick. AoE healing via Flames of Devotion is nice, also for party members. And you can use Scion of Flame + Heart of the Storm to gain +2 PEN for the natural weapons of the shifted Fury (+1 for the fire part of FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). If you use a Bleak Walker/Fury you can get +3 PEN for Flames of Devotion with Scion of Flame, Heart of the Storm and Spirit of Decay (+1 for the fire part and +1 for the corrosion part of Bleak Walker's FoD, +1 for the shocking base dmg). With Ring of Focused Flame and Ring of Marksman this leads to +20ACC with FoD, double elemental lash (FoD + Wildstrike) and +4 PEN (the aforementioned+3 plus the Ring +1). The base dmg of the bolts isn't fantastic, but they so bounce once or additional enemies and with that much PEN and lashes they become fearsome. A Paladin/Druid can also use Firebrand to get persistent +10 ACC bonus with Ring of Focused Flame (all attacks of Firebrand count as fire attacks, even non-FoD) as well as +1 PEN from Scion of Flame. Also, if I remember correctly, Furies might get +1 PEN with Firebrand as well because of their passive (+1PEN with elemental spells)? Edit: nope for that last part

I am here. The other ones you mentioned: not so much. At least not in these PoE/Deadfire parts of the form.

Hi, Heralds are not supercrazy OP, but they are pretty good and hard to mess up. Most of the time players of Heralds combine Exalted Endurance (Paladin aura) with Ancient Memory (chant) and thus give their party (and themselves) constant passive healing which is quite potent. One reason why they are popular. They can also be very tanky and also versatile. Anyway, Paladin/Fury is not bad because the Fury cannot heal, but the Paladin can. So combining both makes some sense. Also the Paladin's Eternal Devotion (gaining a burning lash for some time) also applies to spells, which is nice. Put on Deltro's Cage + Helmet, grab Lord Darryn's Voulge and you have a cool and shocking Liberator. Race doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't use a godlike - because then no Deltro's helmet. I guess Coastal Aumaua can be nice because you can color the skin blueish with zickzacks - Lightning in your face... literally. I personally really like Arcane Knights (Paladin/Wizards). They can buff themselves to be very sturdy, they are versatile and fun to play imo. One of my most liked combos is Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with the weapon "Whispers of the Endless Paths", using its echantment "Offensive Parry". It allows you to counterattack on enemies' melee misses, dazes the enemy then which unlocks the Steel Garrote's live stealing passive which stacks with your Exalted Endurance, making it easy to pay for Bloodmage's "Blood Sacrifice" with your own health.

Nope.

In general the FF attack is its own weapon and doesn't care what you wear in your hand. It's like using a third arm with the FF-"fist". If the effect the weapon has only gets applied when that weapon is actually used, then the FF-attack will not profit from it. However, there are some weapons who have effects that apply to all your attacks, no matter if you used that weapon or something else (like FF or a spell or so). An example is Ball and Chain (a unique flail). Its enchantment that lowers enemies' crush AR ("Blunt Rock") would also work with your FF attack (and also spells and whatnot). Those effects are often called "universal" because they apply to all your attacks universaly. Here ist a list of weapons that behave like so and could be useful even if you mainly use your FF attack: As I said before (I believe it was in this thread, but I may misremember) something like a simple Dagger + modal would give you +10 melee deflection while it would not harm your FF attack's damage. Lover's Embrace could be a nice choice because not only does its modal benefit you but also its enchantment that gives you Frenzy would trigger on FF attacks.

Fortitude doesn't have to be lower from the start. For me, the difference of Fortitude - Deflection only has to be lower than 45 in order for Brute Force to be useful. And there are very few enemies with Deflection+45 <= Fortitude. Brute Force in PoE1 was less useful than in Deadfire imo because there was no Body Blows and the afflictions weren't as systemically ordered and based on attribute malus. In Deadfire, the synergy between Body Blows, MIG and CON affliction and Brute Force is the main reason I almost always use a Morning Star on a Barbarian. Hehe, most definitely I guess so - but I didn't try that out myself so I can't say for sure. Vela is an ally but not a party member iirc? Sometimes that's a tricky destinction. I tried it just now on an Essential Phantom and also on a Many-Lives Skeleton (also allies but not party members) and it indeed works on them - so the chances are high that it works with Vela, too I would say. *fingers crossed*

That would be unfortunate - but it is possible. I'm playing with the Community Patch for so long that I may have misremembered. In that case Swift Strikes will suffice I guess.

Sadly that shouldn't be the case. Indeed does Energized work with all sources of crits, including spells and spell-like abilities. Carnage does work like a spell and not like a weapon attack mechanically (that's why it doesn't generate focus and why it doesn't transport any weapon effects). It's like a spell-like ability that uses 33% of your weapon's base dmg as its own base damage (which is pretty bad in the early game) - and it scales that dmg with Power Level (which is nice). So far it could work with Energized. But that "spell" has the unfortunate restriction that even attack rolls over 100 are counted as hits, never crits. Therefore it should never be able to interrupt via the Energized inspiration. But: Amra's "Carnage" is different - because it can crit. --- As a Barbarian/Cipher I personally prefer Spirit Frenzy over Blood Storm (I don't even upgrade to Spirit Tornado), because Spirit Frenzy's stagger affliction works on hits instead of crits - and it can help to land Cipher spells vs. Fortitude (since the -5 MIG from stagger leads -10 Fortitude defense, too). It also helps with weapon dmg if you picked Brute Force (I always do). Brute Force also works with Cipher spells that target deflection (see Mind Blades and Amplified Thrust). In combination with Secret Horrors (Sicken, also -10 Fortitude) you can lower enemies' Fortitude by 20 points with one single spell use, which is cool imo. That can often make a big difference for hit quality, especially if you have Brute Force. Of course I like to combine those effects with a Morning Star - modal (for another -25 Fortitude debuff on top of staggered and sickened). --- Speaking of Witches: a Berserker/Cipher can use his confusion to cast several cipher spells on enemies that usually need an ally (Amplified Thrust, Amplified Wave, Ectopsychic Echo...) or to cast spells that need an enemy on allies (like Antipathetic Field for example). In case of Amplified Thrust it makes the spell hit the target twice and push it back. Usually I consider that spell pretty meh, but with that variant you get twice the damage output and can target Fortitude via Brute Force - which is pretty good in some cases. Do not try to combine confusion with Mind Blades though. Your party members will hate you.

If you don't have the Community Patch mod installed (I guess not because iirc you play on console?) then no need to test: FF attack will not work with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. So if you plan to use the FF attack mainly: better pick Lightning Strikes instead of Swift Flurry and skip Heartbeat Drumming entirely.

Sometimes, when an inspiration-like effect is coded weirdly, it might also stack with the actual inspiration. Also maybe after a save & reload. Only a slight chance imo but maybe worth a try.

The FF attack doesn't really use your fists. It has its own base damage and accuracy and all the base values which match those of monks' fists - and it also scales with Transcendent Suffering and other unarmed bonuses. But mechanically fists and FF attack are two seperate things. That's why it's possible that in the vanilla game it isn't treated as weapon - and unlike your fists it won't work with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming and so on (because that "weapon" keyword was forgotten in the game object's description). That's maybe splitting hairs though. For the majority of the game this fine distinction might be quite meaningless. It is a very good hint that the main weapon doesn't matter if you mostly attack with the Forbidden fist. Unless - like Shai Hulud said - that weapon gives you some universal bonus. Some uniques are really cool that way (see what Shai Hulud said). For the early game you can even use this with the most generic weapons: a Hatchet gives you more passive deflection, a Dagger+modal can give you an active melee deflection bonus of +10 (the damage malus only applies to dagger attacks so your FF attack is safe), a spear+modal would give you +1 engagement and so on - even though you wouldn't really use that weapon to strike with it, it would still help you.

That last statement is not generally true and depends on many factors (actual build, party composition, difficulty setting and so on). But yes, Serafen's Wild Mind subclass is usually considered the worst one of all the unique subclasses the official companions have, although on paper it is balanced. But it is absolutely unpredictible and that's a bad thing for any well-planned approach. Also one tends to remember the times Wild Mind bit you in the rear much better than the times it helped you.

Hehe, getting that and then trying to permanently glue it to your char with an immunity sounds like a fun little side project for the next run.

Just some hints tow. Debonaire: Engagement: A Debonaire cannot engage enemies (ever). Therefore abilities which rely on/work with your engagement like "Persistent Distraction" (Rogue) or "Parting Sorrow" (Monk) are trap choices: they will not get disabled during level-up, so best to watch out and not accidentially pick them. This also means you cannot stop movement of enemies by engaging them (engaging cancels movement commands of enemies and makes them stop) or deal any disengagement attacks vs. those enemies who decide to give you a pass in melee. This can lead to you missing your enemy because the moment you strike the enemy might take a step back out of the 0.8m melee range (you can see a "out of reach" message in the combat log). This will not happen too often - but if it does you will know where it came from. This is all moot if you use ranged weapons like mortarts of course - because then you cannot engage anyway and you cannot miss because of "out of range". The Debonaire herself can still get engaged by enemies who are able to engage (most beasts cannot, some kith and wilders can... and so on). --- Charm/crit conversion: Also note that only charmed enemies will give you the 100% crit conversion. Dominated enemies (for example turned via Puppet Master) will not give you that. Charmed enemies immediately flip back to hostile as soon as they get hit by you or your allies. This means you can only apply one 100%-crit-strike to a charmed enemy who will then turn hostile again. With hefty crit-punches this might not be an issue though because the enemy might die from the crit - I just want to point that out lest it is not known. --- Alternative source for charms: If you want an additional source of charm then a Chanter is a good one: the invocation doesn't last long (so hitting charmed enemies doesn't feel like a waste of CC) but can target several enemies at once with enough INT/big enough AoE size bonus. Maybe that's something to keep in mind to support the synergy with the FF/Debonaire further? Konstanten, Fassina, Pallegina, Tekehu and Vatnir could use this. Konstanten is a Skald so it's an even cheaper invocation for him to cast (only 3 phrases instead of 4), but his INT is low (10) - so the cone will be pretty small (2.5m length only) and it's difficult to hit several enemies around your main char with that microcone I reckon.

Ah, too bad for Shimmer Scale. But great that you took the time to test it again.

Very unreliable visitor indeed. I have countless hours of gametime but only saw him a couple of times. You cannot rely on anything he potentially sells.

Yes, they perfectly stack. With enough INT and Brisk Recitation you can stack more than 2 instances of the Dragon Thrashed on an enemy. It's absolutely brutal to do so - especially with multiple chanters in the party who will all stack their Dragon Thrashed DoTs on the poor enemies. You can def. put different phrases in between (for example to speed up phrase point generation with Come Soft Winds bc. it's shorter) - but you will lose damage output via chant then. Funny thing: if you use a single one-handed weapon setup (like for example a single sword) then some of the offensive chants will get +12 Accuracy - like your weapon attacks. Dragon Thrashed is one of them. It is some minor oversight that never got patched out I guess - but it can be very helpful in fights against enemies with very high reflex. +12 accuracy with chants is nothing to sneeze on and one of the few cases where single weapon usage is good. However, the single weapon talent (crit conversion) does have no effect on the chants.

Ouh... nice! It didn't cross my mind that some of her abilities are gazes. That lil' shield didn't get much love before - maybe that should change. Once again I wonder if it would work to use the enchantment "immunity to gazes" of Shimmer Scale and the Monk's Soul Mirror in combination. Then you'd have 50% relfection and be 100% safe. It would be a nice alternative shield setup for a Monk. Always Tuotilo's Palm gets kind of boring.

When combining items, abilities and the right food (Mohora Wraps for example) you can max INT and use Turning Wheel on top - and then with a bit slower recovery (if in doubt: Patinated Plate with Bronze Juggernaut ;)) you can still spam the FF attack without stacking the curse. Especially if you alternate FF attack and Soul Annihilation. I that case you can also do with a much ligher armor (see Cabalist's Gambeson for shorter hostile effects). I love high INT on almost all builds, it's so convenient to have big AoEs with big foe-only parts and long durations. But in the early game it's fiddly to get there and you might have to wait with strikes in order to not kill yourself and that's no fun. It's probably an easier entry into the subclass if you don't max INT.

That's why I like a Beguiler better for the unmodded game - a Beguiler can gain lot of focus from just casting one or two of the cheaper AoE deceptions (like Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors) on enough enemies. And also spells like Whisper of Treason etc. are considerably cheaper. Also do not pick Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming if you want to use the Forbidden Fist attack a lot (I guess everybody does ;)) and if the game has no Community Patch mod. They won't work. Lightning Strikes (+15% shocking lash) does work though. By the way: Inner Death (Monk PL9) has the same problem (also fixed with Community Patch) - but that's only an issue with single class monks of course. If you do install the Community Patch mod (not possible on consoles, otherwise it's easy - but don't know about Steam Deck) then both of my objections are moot and FF/Soulblade and also Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming are cool options.

But it is - because lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses instead of the additive ones (for example the forbidden curse bonus - which is pretty high but still only additive). A lash takes all the damage that gets rolled into consideration (all additonal dmg bonuses, crits, overpenetration, forbidden fist curse etc.) and calculates the 15% based on that. While the additional damage bonuses only use the base dmg of the weapon (or ability, PL scaling counts as base dmg). A persistent 15% lash for rel. little investment is actually pretty awesome to have. If you can't use the Lightning Lash of Lightning Strikes then you should stick to Swift Strikes - but I assume that's what you meant in the first place. And yes, +5 DEX and an additional action speed bonus is a very good thing to have for only 1 point of Mortification. --- I would absolutely recommend the Community Patch. It's free and easy to "install" (aka copy a folder into the game folder). It's a mod that doesn't go crazy with wild and fantastical "improvements" but focuses to address some hickups and oversights of the original game and does that well imo. See the Forbidden FIst punch which doesn't generate focus in the original game and also doesn't work with some of the Monk's own abilities (clearly an oversight by the devs). The mod also has unique icons for every passive ability - which the vanilla game doesn't have due to time restrictions during development. The original game uses the same icons for a lot of totally different passive abilites. That can be confusing if you ask me. Me advertising that stuff has obviously nothing to do with the fact that I created those CP icons, ehehe... You can also individually trigger every change the CP does to the vanilla game by deleting or renaming some files in the mod folder. They are named in a way that it's easy to guess which file contains which individual modification. In addition to that the mod is even split in two parts (basic and extended). Edit: now I read the part with the PS5 - rofl sorry. :super-embarrased-emoji

I always liked FF/Beguiler in order to extend the duration of Mind Control via DualityOMP(INT), Enfeebled and Lingering Echoes. You can charm or dominate an enemy for a really long time with that combination. Also I think Beguiler and Old Vaillian fits somehow - also with the portrait options. Also nice that you can hit a charmed enemy with Soul Ignition and/or Disintegrate and that enemy won't flip back to hostile but will keep fighting for you while dying. --- Not on your list, but FF/Berserker has its appeal with the Confusion/Clarity of Agony & Crucible of Suffering combo. Don't pick Rooting Pain because you will interrupt yourself (while confused). With the shouts and Spirit Tornado there's als some afflictions to prolong, but mainly it's about using the self-inflicted confusion to your advantage. --- Also not on your list, but ever thought about FF/Druid? Like FF/Ancient for example? Touch of Rot and Taste of the Hunt are brutal with enfeeble + INT bonus. And stuff like Insect Swarm and Plague of Insects profit a lot from +10 INT. But the shock spells such as Relentless Storm and Nature's Terror, too (maybe better with pick Fury then). Embrace of the Earth Talon is also a good spell candidate. And if you would pick Hold Beasts you can paralyze beasts (except immune/resistant ones) for a really, really long time because the base duration is a whopping 20secs. With Tanglefoot you can create your own source of short-lived and rel. harmless afflictions (hobbled) that can give you wounds and healing all the time (because it does friendly fire). Also, one of the most hilarious findings in my Deadfire time so far was that some spells work with Instruments of Pain (because they are labeled "melee" internally) - among them is Sunlance. It already has very long range (20m) and goes to 120m range via Instruments of Pain. You can stay at the other side of the map and throw a Sunlance towards an enemy (as long as you have a party member in place to actually see them - can be invisible or in stealth mode). Just a tidbit but it's fun. --- FF/Wizard can be nice too. I mean Sage in general is a nice multiclass and with FF there's no exception. May I lead your attention to the spell Fetid Caress? It is often overlooked because its paralyze is single target only (as is your FF attack with the Enfeeble though) - but it delivers a pretty long paralyze effect for such a low level spell (PL or tier 2). Combined with +10INT from DualityOMP(INT) and +50% from Enfeeblement - and also the generous Power Level scaling (because it is of low starting Power Level) - you can get a very long paralyze time out of it. Also targets fortitude which should be a fair bit lower after you struck an enemy with enfeeblement. It has a range of 5m which is roughly in line with your melee range+Instruments of Pain (4.8m). Even an Illusionist can cast it. The most interesting spells might be Ryngrim's I think. --- FF/Chanter is also appealing. The cone shaped invocations gain the most impressive AoE increase from all the INT the Monk has to offer. And stuff like Killers Froze Stiff turns into a very good tool with that much size and also additional duration from the INT bonus alone. Picking out some individuals and giving them even longer downtime is fun, too. Also check out "Ben Fidel's neck was exposed" - because its "-10 to all defenses" debuff stacks with all debuffs from afflictions and also other debuffs of individual defenses (like with a Miasma for example). And it causes frighten, too (helpful to cast it before Killers Froze stiff for example). So - it can be a nice addition to the debuff cycle - or just an alternative if enemies are resistant or even immune to DEX afflictions (see Killers FS). There is no immunity to Ben Fidel's defense debuff (only the frighten part). --- I personally think the first and the last options would be the most enjoyable (at least they would be for me, for now) because resources would be limitless and the abilities are still impactful and fun to use.

Yes, it wasn't a crit build by any means. It was more about fast shooting speeds/short reloading time while still delivering hits reliably - so that White Flames do actually trigger (won't on misses). That way I could dish out the AoE healing while doing ranged damage on top. And with ranged weapons it's a lot easier to target the enemies with the lowest deflection - if you want to make sure to get the healing procs.