Boeroer

You could do Berseker/Streetfighter with Smoke Cloud maybe? IIRC I terrfied myself with Spirit Tornado on a Berseker (or was it the Whitewitch Mask?) - so maybe Smoke Cloud when confused would hit you as well? P.S: Why do you want to get disoriented and then reduce it to distracted? Why not going for distracted directly?

If you like melee (no matter if shifted or not) I would pick Stalker as the ranger subclass. +1 AR without recovery penalty is always good.

Wait a sec... just had a thought: Can one distract themselves with Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights?

Yes, with spell damage it's a bit different. I was mostly arguing from a char's perspective who gets attacked by weapons. I still don't like the PEN/AR system...

Put it into some random container and forget it. There are tons of containers in every map.

Stacking AR as high as possible is very, very useful because a -3 underpenetration of enemies against you will lead to a 75% dmg reduction which in reality (due to double inversion of maluses) is even higher than 75%. So having crazy AR is great and totally worth it (if you get attacked in the first place). Being somewhere in between high and low feels a bit meh and in my opinion you can go for 0 recovery penalty once you have build up a bigger health pool instead of messing around with leather or padded or whatnot. But some unique armors have nice enchantments that make them worthwhile no matter their AR.

Too bad you can't get the Flames of Fair Rhîan in Deadfire (or SSS) then. One of my favorite rogue weapons in PoE*. * look up "Direballs" in the dictionary

Fury = Frenzy?

First you'll have to decide if you want to use Spiritshift a lot - or not.

Then the crowdfunding campain of Deadfire would have been a lot worse. It wasn't as good as PoE's (judging by numbers), but in terms of money it did equally well. But that decline in numbers seems to be in line with most other sequels. A crowdfunded project has the big advantage that the biggest part of "sales" already happened before you (really) start with the development. And also that you can get a lot of money for something that doesn't cost a lot - like beta access or naming(!) a pet for 500$ or being a top-backer for 10000$ (which got claimed 1 time). So I guess you can't generally say that such a game (that doesn't sell that many more copies than the compain covered) is a financial flop - but of course it would be better for fans (who hope for a third part) and the company alike if it did sell more copies. I personally think the whole "Pirates of the Carribean" vibe repelled people who like the classic fantasy CRPG setting - while it couldn't attract that many new players who might be interested in such things. But the good thing about crowdfunding is that you get your market survey and sales all in one and can decide how big your game should be. Maybe the fanbase for such isometric RPGs isn't that big - but then you can just make smaller games, right? I'd prefer smaller isometric CRPGs over no isometric CRPGs anytime.

Like to believe that Justin Bell resigned?

SC Barbs can take Blood Surge which gives them a chance to regain some Rage on kill.

Nope

Yeah it's a bit fiddly.

Bariarian is decent as single class. HoF is great with a lot of weapons, not only hand mortars. For example Morning Star + Body Blows + HoF is a very nice AoE debuffing/damage tool (if you also have Brute Force: even better). The best part is Barbaric Retaliation - sadly it's PL 9. SC Rogue's Vanishing Strike is actually better than most people think because it allows you to get the Assassinate and Backstab Bonus with every swing of the Full Attack. But I agree that the lowish resource pool is a strong argument against it. Sadly the high lvl passives of rogues are pretty lame compared to Barb's or Monk's. So once your Guile is spend you feel a bit gimped.

I'm also not sure how I do it, but I can.

I don't know if they are everywhere, but they are definitely in your head. You can mock anybody in every way you like and I couldn't care less. Just be prepared to be called a douche, a drunk - or even get arrested... depends how far you take it. Doesn't change the fact that ranting about and mocking former co-workers in an internet forum will not earn you the most respectable reputation. If you don't care although you depend on your reputation as a self employed writer then all power to you and your inner ratfink.

Blade of the Endless Paths has no cone (or didn't have last time I used it). That's Whipers of the Endless Paths. You have to click on an enemy standing in the cone or else it won't register the attack. It doesn't work like other AoE cone attacks that you can target on the ground as well. Clicking on any part of the enemies' selection circles (scratching them slightly with the mouse pointer) is enough.

What do you mean? And are you sure you mean Blade of the Endless Paths? Or maybe Whispers of the Endless Paths?

That would kill you really quickly if you're not Tanky McTankface. Obviously Grog is a potshot at D&D grognards who were viciously complaining about the engagement system and the endurance/health system with knockouts (instead death) when PoE came out.

Yaaaawn... Nazis, yeah. Right. Vegetarians? Hitler was vegetarian! Thus all vegetarians are evil. Nothing good or even substancial ever came from an unnecessary Nazi comparison. And I don't think there are necessary ones... People in Swinger Clubs also don't complain about their "colleagues" in public. So Nazis = Veggy-Swingers I guess. It's one thing to complain (in public) about being treated poorly. I could sympathize with that. But it's another thing to mock and attack former colleagues who take some time off after a really exhausting (and successful) project. In a notorious (public) internet forum! While the same colleagues you mock never said anything bad about you and even try to answer to your wild accusations in a sensible way (see Eric Fenstermaker). Alcohol and hurt feelings is the most generous explanation. Another would be a bad character. I'll stay with alcohol because I don't always want to assume the worst.

It may be that enemies react to your evasion (and try to go somewhere else because you are about to leave anyway) before you are actually really gone. I suspect the decision to move and the disengagement check are done after calling the evasion action but before the ranger is really gone - which might lead to such an effect from time to time. Or in other words: the AI's decision-making is too fast.

Afaik there are eight unique great swords in Deadfire (besides the ones the wiki shows there's Twin Eels from BoW and Karöboru - or something like that - that got added to the Wahaki island recently). And maybe there's even an additional GS in SSS that I forgot about. That, plus Firebrand and the Faith Attuned Great Sword from Berathian Priests. Plenty of options for one single paladin. Also your picture of a Paladin is not the picture PoE and Deadfire are painting.

Yes, maybe. I was thinking about the upgrade that adds jumps and thought it might scale with PL...? Chanter-stuff that gets more "projectiles" is Eld Nary - altthough it's more jumps, not really projectiles.