Boeroer

Best weapons for Arcane Archer's Imbue shots atm seems to be Watershaper's Focus and Fire in the Hole. The Imbue-spells do trigger multiple times with projectile jumps which means with Driving Flight you double the outcome and with an additional jump (like from Watershaper's Focus) you'll triple it. Besides that pistols will work like any other ranged weapon I guess. But remember that Arcane Archers get an ACC penalty when they use a weapon that doesn't do elemental damage. You can avoid that when using Essence Interruptor, Minor Blights, Thundercrack Pistol or Frostseeker. I can't see a special synergy between Bloodmage and Arcane Archer. Arcane Archers have reduced health and Bloodmages get self damage, so...

Yes, only interrupting a cast of an ability will give you discipline.

Hi! Glad you liked the boar. I think playing a Shapeshifter is fine. It depends a bit on the difficulty how good he is (PotD has that rather stupid raise of armor rating of enemies that favors any class with penetration abilites). But even on PotD you can have a good Shifter - there are several ways to either bring down enemies' AR or to buff your PEN - it just takes a bit more knowledge. Since you don't plan to cast much I would recommend a multiclass. Fighter/Rogue/Monk/Barb/Paladin are all good picks. My personal favorite classes for melee combat are the Monk and he Barbarian, but that's just personal preference. However - there is that new Barb Subclass now, called the Furyshaper. I think it could be quite nice in combo with a Shapeshifter. I would not recommend a Berserker/Shapeshifter if you plan to use Relentless Storm. Because the Berserker gets confused when frenzied he will hit himself with Relentless Storm. Besides that the self heals of the Shifter and the bonuses of a Berseker work quite well together. Goldpact Knight/Shifter can be a very sturdy guy while his dmaage output is still great. I think in terms of overall power (balance of staying power balanced with damage output) this is the best option. You get very high AR but it will not slow you down, you get a passive aura with even more AR that also heals you as some point, you can cast fast heals/Con-buffs before shifting and heal yourself with Lay on Hands while shifted. At the same time the lashes of FoD and Wildstrike will stack and even the Ring of Focused Flame works with your FoD strikes (+10 ACC on top of the +10 ACC from FoD). With other Paladin subclasses you can get more dmg (Bleak Walker), more heals (Kind Wayfarers) and so on. They all will work well. Since the boar build of PoE was a combo of powerful self heals and good melee dmg I guess the Paladin/Shapeshifter would be the combo that comes closest. One thing: in Deadfire a shifted druid keeps all the item bonuses/abilites except the ones from weapon and armor. The rest will work when shifted - that's a big difference to PoE. There's a helmet that you can get rel. early that gives you Avenging Storm 1/rest. You can't get that spell as a multiclass druid so that's a nice substitution.

I like theorycrafting as well. I just think that giving dismissive statements (without much experience) kills a fruitful theorycrafting discussion. With a more differentiated approach I believe the outcome is better. Having said that I also understand that strong opinions can turn a lame discussion into an interesting one.

Yes.

I did a complete playthrough with a SC Barb (Serafen), one with a SC Corpse Eater (hireling) one with a Corpse Eater Warlock (MC), one with a Berserker Warlock (MC), and one with a Berserker/Nalpasca (hireling). So I'd say now I have sufficient experience with Barbarians. In most fights the Corpse Eater has clear disadvantages simply because he runs out of Rage where other Barb's would not. But in prolonged fights with the right kind of enemies he's pretty good. Especially when you are a single class solo Corpse Eater: Flesh Communion and the higher PL come in handy because you will run out of resources anyway as a solo barb and Corpse Eaters can refill Rage in some fights (means less use of consumables). Also later you can combine Barbaric Retaliation with Flesh Communion which is pretty great: while you eat (and heal and regain Rage) you can still dish out retaliations and kill enemies = produce more corpses. Especially with Blood Surge this is nice. At some point I was basically only jumping into crowds, doing Flesh Communion and use the Rage for more HoFs. So... he's not straight out worse than a vanilla barb. There are situations where he's better. I'd say he's the best solo barb. Having said that I admit that +1 Rage cost is bad until the higher Power Levels. HoF for 4 or 5 isn't such a big deal, but Barbaric Blow for 3 instead of 2 for example is hefty. I wish they could find another way to balance his advantages. In most scenarios he's not the best pick. Like the Mage Slayer. But he's not straight out worse. Why do I keep arguing against statements like "xy is straight out worse","xy is useless" and so on? Balancing is tricky: before the Trickster got his Sneak Attack rebuffed lots of players here said he's the worst rogue subclass. Then his Sneak Attack got raised a bit and suddenly he's the best. Actually not much changed... Those players seem to have very strong opinions on the usefulness of classes and subclasses - everything is either "useless" or "op". Even when they didn't actually play with such a class. That can influence new players who read this and drive them away from playing (sub)class x or y - even though they might be fun. Example from PoE after release: "Wizards are useless", "Monks don't work" - and the best: "Rogue is the most powerful class". PoE after several years: "Priests and Wizards are OP", "Rogue is bad". And that's after casters received a major nerf and Rogues stayed pretty much the same (except Backstab and Riposte got a buff). That's why I like to take a step back and be cautious with my judgement about what's good/bad/useless - while others may throw around those statements very quickly and carelessly. If I really played a class for several levels I won't hesitate to call it bad if it was. But I didn't find one yet that was really bad or useless. Boring maybe... I'm just trying to consider classes/abilities/mechanics in general in all their aspects. You thinking that's me being a contrarian Champion of the Downtrodden doesn't really trouble my sleep.

Well... there are other soulbounds that can't even be equipped by certain classes. Bloodmage's life is not a bed of roses.

Well there goes my idea for a Woedican Paladin with an predilection for autoerotic asphyxiation. Speaking of Steel Carrots...

It's there till release. Rathûn ships do the same by the way.

Argh! *shakes forbidden furry fist*

Maybe we should open a new bug report in the non-beta section now that 4.0.0.0034 is out of beta?

Yes, it will surely work. I didn't try if Eternal Devotion (adding a small lash to your auto-attacks) will remove the ACC penalty on attacks. FoD does, so that's a good combo. Also Ring of Focused Flame works with Imbue: Fireball and FoD.

Nice try Boeroer. It's true and you know it. I think you quoted the wrong person too. I replied to dunehunter (whom I know, discuss with and tease since the beta phase of Deadfire) and I quoted nobody. What do you mean?

Maybe because it's an animated gif.

They don't attack on sight. You can just sail past them. At least I can...

You have to opt out of the beta branch.

I am one with a season pass and FS was downloading and installing normally.

Ha! Caught you in flagrante delicto! I'm pretty sure you didn't post this yesterday at 03:50 AM - because it wasn't there a few minutes ago...

One in-game explanation could be that the range of all spells is too short to be useful in ship-to-ship fights.

If Veteran is too easy I would pick PotD. And then, if that's too easy as well I would think about Deadly Deadfire and stuff - but only then.

Yes, like that. Also high DR and endurance/health helps a lot to not attract too many enemies. Some of enemy AI's go after low deflection (=you), but others go for low DR or low endurance/health. So my recommendation would be to wear thick armor and also take stuff like a Blunting Belt (can be bought in the first village) and maybe pick the Thick Skinned ability at some point. While DR loses appeal later in the game (enemies' damage scales more steeply than your DR) it's very beneficial early in the game. With your health pool and endurance it's the other way around: less impact at the start of the game: gets a lot better later on.

There is.

Fun fact™: Mikey Dowling got promoted to Obsidian's "Director of Communications" last week. So don't bother one of the top brass now.

While I like PoE I appreciate that sharp but delicate sarcasm.

Plus: it's Twitter. There are so many users that will vote for anything even if they don't plan being a part of it in any way. But even here: I mean have you followed the poll for the Black Isle Bastards in the Deadfire subforum? Votes came in... one year after the Fig campaign ended.