Boeroer

Right. Summoned one handed weapons don't remove the offhand weapon. Why should they? No switching might be a safety feature for you if you have AI on: if you summon a weapon and AI switches weapon sets and the summoned weapon disappears - that would be a bummer.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106565-31-enemies-on-potd-are-being-pulled-too-easily/

You get the same loot and more nautical experience (gaining ranks for you and your crew- making ship fights easier).

No difference.

Yes, right. Firebrand has a +25% burning lash which makes it ok. If you want to build around it you can use Bleak Walker and add Ring of Focused Flame, Scion of Flame + Spirit of Decay for +2 PEN and +10 ACC and additional +25% burning lash with Flames of Devotion. That means you can turn on Rending Smash with no ACC loss. Not too bad combined with the lash(es). Firebrand itself profits from Scion of Flame and Ring no matter if you use FoD or not. FoD of a Bleak Walker just can add an additional +1 PEN with Spirit of Decay and more lashes. Nothing too special but a viable combo if you don't want to shift anyway. Druid/Devoted would also work well I think. +2 PEN from Devoted, +1 from Scion and +10 ACC from the Ring. Nice for the enhanced crit damage.

If you want to survive fort-based CC you should look for effects that shorten/suppress the affliction or make you immune or nigh invulnerable when suffering from a certain affliction. Examples: Wear an item with Preservation (e.g. Blaidh Golan) and Ilfan Byrngar's Solace in the second weapon slot. Once you get proned or stunned switch to that weapon slot with the shield. You'll get +100(!) to all defenses as long as the affliction lasts - because Preservations from items and shield stack. You will be untouchable. Little Savior does the same. Wear Fenwalkers. They not only provide +20 defense against certain mean afflictions but also reduce their duration by 3 secs. That usually means you only get grazed (half duration) and then that reduced duration even gets reduced further by 3 secs. Supergood item if you don't want to put too many points into your defenses. And all in all for a no reload run I would say a priest is mandatory simplky because of Prayers and Litanies against X which make the game a ton easier: no need for defenses if you are immune. Fights with Adragans which can be a major pain in the slapreceiver turn into cakewalks if you can't get petrified.

If you like Animal Companion's damage you should use Persistence (best single target dps ranged weapon anyway) and pair it with Predator's Sense, Vicious and Merciless Companion and also Brutal Takedown. Brutal Takedown is very nice because its damage is fixed and thus only has to overcome 1/4 of enemies' DR. Don't ask me why - it's the same with all fixed dmg abilites (look at Iconic Projection). Also Brutal Takedown provides two Knockdowns. Brutal Takedown's dmg does NOT profit from Predator's Sense and stuff though. Look at it als a fixed bonus that bypasses 3/4 of enemies DR and you will not be disappointed. Usually I can two-shot casters until the later game (Wounding Shot + Fox's Brutal Takedown => *pouf*). Add Stalker's Link, Marksman and so on for Sagani. You don't need PEN shot because Wouding from Persistence (raw DoT) takes care of high DR since it's lash damage is calculated PRE DR. It also profits from MIG (25% raw lash becomes a 32.5% raw lash with 20 MIG for example). Persistence provides constant DoT effect (Wounding) even when not using Woundig Shot which means that the Animal Companion will always get the +50% dmg boost from Predator's Sense as long as you two attack the same target. The base dmg of Animal Companions scale with level. So even if they start out a little bit on the wet-noodle side they scale extremely well with level and any dmg bonuses you can provide them with. They don't attack very fast, but will bite through heavy armor easily aftr some levels. The fox is the same as the wolf - which means their base dmg is even higher. Persistence, although being one of the strongest dps weapons in PoE, can be obtained very early in the Endlass Paths on lvl 4 (south-west of the map). I usually skip Faithful Companion because I run out of points (and there are other options to deal with Mind Control in a party). Also because higher defenses on the Animal Companion most of the time only lead to grazes (if the do anything) - but a grazed Mind COntrol ist still a full Mind COntrol - just shorter. I rely on Priest or Paladin to deal with such things without the need to boost defenses which usually means a lot of investment for little outcome compared to immunites or suppression like Priests/Paladins can provide. But Resilient Companion is also on my list most of the time. IN the early game it's very useful. Later on it doesn't matter that much - you can keep it or retrain. You can also retrain Sagani once you get Twinned Arrows. At that point there's no need for Swift Aim anymore (they are mutually exclusive). SO if you took Swift Aim or Vicious Aim you can retrain, skip it and go straight for Twinned Arrows. Spares you a point that you can put to better use in the late game.

Yes, kind of niche. But you can build around a blunderbuss and turn the nicheness into a generally viable and useful concept using several class combos. I consider the modal to be pretty awful except for a Streetfighter though. Mainly because Powder Burns has low dmg and more importantly friendly fire.

There are no penalties to dual wielding in general. There's only a -35% dmg penalty to Full Attack abilities which are executed with two weapons.

Not really.

Nope. Afaik the only summons that "stack" are from Grave Calling/Hel Beckoning/Essence Interruptor and from Many Lives Pass By. All others will replace each other.

You forget the fact that you have 4 hit rolls with a blunderbuss. This can be very useful in certain situations/setups. Like Confounding Blind, Combusting Wounds, The Shield Cracks, applying afflictions, triggering special on-hit effects and so on.

I only know that Heart of the Storm works with Fury's Wildstrike attacks since they have shock as base dmg.

Hi. I didn't test it thoroughly lately but I think the "leeching" aspect of the rapier Spelltongue is not as powerful as it used to be. When I did this build I could prolong my own buffs and positive effects on me endlessly with enough enemies around. I now have the impression that this doesn't work as well as it used to. Either you have to really hit enemies with actual buffs on them - or the durations you leech are shorter nowadays. It will not be as overpowered as it used to be. Still a viable concept though. If you are looking for a really fun barb to play (with the latest game version) then I would advise to buy the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer asap, grab Forgemaster Gloves and use Firebrand as your main weapon. Pick all the dmg and ACC boosts like One Stands alone, Two Handed Style, Accurate Carnage and whatnot and aim for Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. Then let your jaw drop when hitting groups of enemies. Hard CC from your party members helps to land crits. So much fun...

I know of no other one handed melee weapon which does lightning dmg. Scordeos Edge is always nice. And get yourself some Boltcatchers.

It's funny: in PoE Barring Death's Door was supersituational. It prevented you from dying because of low health, not from knockouts due to low endurance. As such, you would use it once, maybe twice in a playthrough. But that was ok because you got the spell without any drawback - came automatically with all the other spells at level up. Now with endurance/health gone it has to be redesigned to be of any use. If the designers would have wanted to keep its nicheness then they would have redesigned BDD in a way that it prevents death from too many injuries. THat would have been the 1:1 translation from PoE to Deadfire. But at the same time priests have to hand pick their spells now. So you want to make sure you don't pick a spell that you might only use twice in a playthrough. That made the 1:1 translation less attractive and they ended up with the current solution - which is a pain in the stern to balance.

Yeah - and there doesn't seem to be any intention to stop...

A very tenacious one obviously...

The more I read from this guy the more I get the impression that he's a douche. Or drunk. Or both.

Same strategy - just with double bronzers. But doesn't really matter. Sloop is enough to sink all ships on the map.

Helwalker/Streetfighter is quite godly with mortars and stuff like Toxic Strike. Hekwalker/Fury may be good (didn't play that), but usually I think a SC Fury is better for dps due to higher Power Level. Shifted it's not comparable to Helwalker/Streetfighter. Those are not two handed though.

Yes, it is fast. But it's also a ton of attack speed/recovery bonuses.

You need to crit a lot. So stuff like Dance of Death/Enduring Dance is kind of mandatory. Also Razor's Edge for Monk or Devotions + (Dire)Blessing for Contemplative. Then it's not bad. 33% and 25% is an overall chance of ~52% to repeat an attack after you crit. If you crit half of the time it's like a 25% multiplicative dmg boost (comparable with a 25% lash - kind of). If you crit 30% of times it's only 15% and so on. Generally speaking: if you often face low defenses and/or have high ACC then Flurry + Drumming is better. This might be the case if you use a lot of CC and debuffs like Miasma + Shaken and Blind and such and also ACC buffs. It's also great if you are a Sage with Citzal's Spirit Lance. If not then Lightning Strikes is better (unless shock AR is high). It's also a lot more predictable. I think against most bosses Lighting Strikes is the better pick.

1. No. Articulated gives you an actual speed bonus like Frenzy etc. does. So if you can reduce the recovery malus of the Breastplate enough you will be faster than without armor because the speed bonus is higher than the recovery malus. 2. Yes. Both stack. Frenzy gives you an attack speed bonus that reduces animation time and recovery while Heating Up cuts the recovery in half. Heating Up doesn't negate Bleeding Cuts because of double inversion (the way maluses are calculated under the hood). But it helps a lot.

Hi! Like Pernicious Cloud (which I reported the other day) Wall of Many Colors (Wizard) also seems to have 0 PEN with its damaging effects. Thanks for reading - and maybe fixing.