Boeroer

Low defenses, low AR and low HP means she will be the no. 1 priority target of almost every enemy - if there isn't some tweak for hostile AI (concerning Vela). There are other abilites like Withdraw - but so far it seems to be best to make a party of 5 Priests/whatever.

The auto-pause on combat start doesn't work in boarding fights. You have to pause manually and assign orders.

Frostseeker + Assassin is a bad combo because only the first of the three projectiles will get the bonus from Assassinate.

I don't know. The 3.1.0 beta was put on halt because of some gamebreaking bug so I can't check it out. I guess/hope it's a bit like in Icewind Dale. At least that's what Gromnir originally suggested and what I (and others) supported.

Ah, yes. Instruments of Pain is one of the coolest abilites in my opinion. Don't know why your attack speed should be faster with it, but the whole "turn melee into ranged" is nice.

What's an Evo?

Hm, just checked TLP with Enervating Blows in game: doesn't work for me. Everything seems to be as I said (I mean about TLP). Turning Wheel isn't melee only (despite its description). It works with everything (even spell-like abilites) and I guess that won't get changed.

But TLP is dual (ranged) fists. That's why it does a full attack with both hands. Interesting that it works with Enervating Blows. Maybe that ability works with ranged weapons despite its description or TLP is an exception or it's mechanics got changed. Last time I tested TLP (not too long ago) it didn't work with any melee ability (Swift Flurry crit procs, Heartbeat Drumming, Force of Anguish and so on).

But while you are generating focus (while shifted) you couldn't use your focus. Which would be kind of stupid.

Don't know. A while ago I could buy/steal stuff from the Deck of Many Things, then turn around and sink it - getting the same items a second time. But this seems to be fixed now: didn't work last time I tried (yesterday).

I wonder if you can make it so that these "hirelings" auto-level with pre-defined abilities. Or if you can restrict the level - so that Hireling X can only be recruited at lvl 8+ or so. And if you can give them special (unique) gear.

Barb/Druid is bad because...? It has the same advantages as Warlock basically. Do cipher powers also get deactivated when a shifter shifts? Because then I'd vote for Cipher/Shifter.

Yes. If you know how the ship combat works it's pretty easy. That's why I said that boarding is not a good alternative. You can't win against the BIBs or Thaenic if you go straight to boarding at lvl 8 or so. I mean you can maybe - but what a chore that would be. Much easier to blast them out of the water. I still don't think the ship combat is implemented nicely (for my taste) - but at least it's rewarding.

Priest/Ranger could be kind of meh maybe. I can't see any great synergies other than buffing your animal companion like crazy.

Priest/Druid is actually quite good if you pick up the Spine of Thicket Green and go full support/healing mode.

Yes, Haefric's Nose is a long range cannon. It is indeed very good. Also the quick reload and the huge range span it covers. But you don't need it. For example I didn't get it yet but still was able to sink all ships just with double bronzers which you can buy in Nekataka. I'm only lvl 8 by the way but quicky got Kapana Taga and stuff. Boarding is not a good alternative.

Sadly Long Pain does not work like in PoE where it was a "ranged melee" weapon. In Deadfire it works like a pure ranged weapon which means no melee abilities (but pure ranged ones like Driving Flight would work). If to you want "ranged melee" you would indeed need to go for Instruments of Pain (IoP). This just adds more reach to your melee weapons. If you have a reach weapon like a pike you will have a reach of nearly 11 meters with IoP. For normal melee weapon you'll only get something about 5 meters or so.

Also Salvation of Time is kind of weird for me. When I use it for the first time in an encounter it will give me ~20 sec. The second time it will give me the time it states in the tooltip.

Ok, then maybe it got fixed in the meantime.

If you want to take on a heavy ship with a much lighter ship then the Voyager is your best friend. You can't get around enemy ships (unfortunately) - but with a Voyager you can fire while advancing/retreating. You can use that, Palm Sails, Long Range guns in the bow (front) and a Magranite Flamethrower in the stern. Start firing from 600 meters (target sails) and once the enemy ship turns its gun ports towards you advance quickly (the to-hit chance of the enemy is much lower once you are going full speed and the Voyager itself has a much lower to-hit chance because it's small). Advance until you are <100m away. Usually enemy ships don't have cannons that can hit at that distance. Turn around and start firing with the Flamethrower. As soon as the enemy ship turns to ram you, advance a bit to keep a safe distance and fire again, rinse and repeat. Target sails. If the sails are destroyed the ship can't turn to fire and you can safely sink it. I sunk every ship (including Deck of Many Things) with this setup. Rathun are harder because their ships are very fast and also have guns in the bow. But I managed to sink them as well. I also sunk every ship in my current playthrough with the Sloop, 4 Double Bronzers and the Red Dream hull improvement (Dunnage). It gives your Sloop nearly as much hull points as a Junk while turning and doing jibes stays at 1 turn. lvl 4 cannoneers make a huge difference. If you manage to hit crew or rip sails or flood the ship the AI wil always stop firing and assign crewmembers which gives you a lot of time to jibe and fire.

You curmudgeon.

It used to be the same with Riposte. Also Whirling Strikes could be abused that way. Maybe those got fixed in the meantime. There's also some weird stuff going on with Red Hand + Cleaving Stance. I got an additional attack on kill although the Red Hand is obviously a ranged weapon. I reported it but got no answer so I guess that is still a thing.

Just share your character file I suppose. We'll see. I could easily put the files under each list entry in the build list. THis is going to be awesome. Also a lot more motivation to a) do a character build and b) refine it a bit with portrait and so on.

Steel Garrett? That's this blonde violinist, right? He strangles foes with his hair while playing a sad tune on his fiddle...

Hello! Now isn't that the sweetest new feature that I ever saw? Now we can share our builds as hirelings in a tavern. So awesome. Thanks a ton Deadfire Development Team!