Boeroer

Non-gun? Don't think so. Barbarian with Heart of Fury and dual hand mortars. It's comparable but Whispers of the Wind + Resonant Touch will always be better. But you'll get HoF earlier. Atm I think nothing can beat monk with dual mortars + Whispers of the Wind (+Avenging Storm). Also as a whole char comcept because of Stunning Surge and Flagellant's Path (both awesomest with mortars). Non-gun variants can be Battlemage with Clear Out + Spirit Lance. Or Sage with Torment's Reach + Swift Flurry + Heartbeat Drumming + Spirit Lance (also Stunning Surge). They are cool and powerful but not as devastating. A very nice melee variant is Rogue/Soulblade with Whispers of the Endless Paths. Rocks right from the beginning.

I don't want to put anybody's nose out of joint, but what Kaylon was saying (besides other stuff) and what was interesting to me: --- Your example of "-30% recovery time equals to 42.8% action speed" is only true (numerically) if you leave out the attack animation phase (which is not affected by the recovery bonus). So basically you have +42.8% recovery speed, not overall action speed (which would include animation and recovery phase). While an action speed bonus of 30% would affect animation phase and recovery phase alike. If you then take your +42.8% recovery bonus and add the unaltered attack animation phase you'll end up with +34% overall attack speed which is not that much of a difference to 30%. --- That's what I understood Kaylon was saying and what he claimed you didn't address in your response. While he can sometimes show the posting style of an asperger-shaped dead blow hammer (don't ask me to draw that shape) - I think I understand what he wanted to say there and I think he has a point? And I think you didn't address that particular point. The discussion was very enlightening and informative so far but would have profited from less "sorry to burst your bubble" or "go and look up this and that because you didn't get it" and a bit more benignity. It's easy to say that because I'm not involved.

Spiritshift lets you use all items except armor and weapons. I think that's good enough and you can build around that. For example a Fury/Bleak Walker can get +4 PEN and +20 ACC with FoD attacks while shifted (Ring of the Marksman, Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay, Heart of the Storm, Ring of Focused Flame, +10 ACC from FoD). That's pretty good compared to most unique weapons. However, I would make sure that there's proficiencies for spiritshift weapons or that they count as unarmed - so that Haymaker works and Devoted/Shifter can make use of his +2 PEN. I also don't understand why Transcendent Suffering sclaes with Power Level but Spiritshift (and summoned) weapons do not. That would make single class Shapeshifer much more interesting. I also think the high lvl Wildstrike abilites are a bit lame. Aaand I would raise the base damage of the spiritshift weapons a bit. Works better with the lashes of Wildstrike and in combo with other martial classes (like rogue).

And while doing that you could play the grumpy cat in other forums. And then you can return to Deadfire's someday. Maybe. Eventually.

Awww! So! Mest!

It really seems it's like Icewind's Dale. And I am pretty sure you can get duplicates of unique items this way.

Ah - you mean compared to a bow or other two handers? Yes, TLP is a dual weapon setup. If you have normal fists and then summon TLP nothing about your speed should change. As far as I know White Flames only procs one per swing and doesn't work with any additional hit rolls (AoE from mortars or rods, additional attacks from Heartbeat Drumming). Also Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming only work with melee weapons. So: Instruments of Pain is the only way to trigger them while attacking from range.

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.