Boeroer

It's surely a lot better to use Wouding Shot on a weapon with higher damage per attack. You are right that for example switching to Lead Spitter for Wounding Shot is a smart thing to do instead to use ith with Persistence. Persistence is great for rangers, especially because it not only is the best ranged dps weapon for auto-attacks but also because it constantly triggers Predator's Sense for the animal companion - but it's not the best option for a Wounding Shot (UNLESS you have Twinned Shot which will almost double your damage per attack with Persistence - then it's totally fine to use the bow with Wounding Shot). Yes, I meant that you can take better talents than Penetrating Shot with Persistence. Because Persistence's wounding damage is calculated PRE DR Penetrating SHot doesn't influence wounding at all. And with high MIG the wounding damage is not 25% but more - with 20 MIG for example you'll do ~33% raw, multiplicative damage. So Penetrating Shot has relatively low influence on your overall damage per hit compared to other bows (that don't feature wounding). In most cases it's better to attack more quickly than to do mere +5 dmg per shot (while you slow yourself down considerably). Also note that DR bypass does NOT work for an elemental lash that you put on Persistance. All this makes Pen Shot a weak pick for Persistence. Rather take something else in my opinion - for example Gallant's Focus (if you don't have a paladin with Zealous Focus or a Priest with Blessing).

Yes, for me Priest and Wizard (also Druid) are the most powerful classes in PoE (with the order Priest > Wizard > Druid).

I also don't like it too much, but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad - also because the loot can be very good.

Then I'm giving an opinion after all. I'm super constructive in showing you that your initial statement (on that all your reasoning is based) is wrong. As several others already mentioned: you are not forced to be a pirate nur do you start as one. I do not need to repeat their arguments. This completely eliminates the reason to discuss further why that is a bad thing - because there is no such thing. And in doing so I prevent others from reading your unwithspoken statement and think "Wow I'm forced to be a pirate - that's bad, I don't want to buy/play this game." And that's why I'm not superpolite about this. I don't like it if people post their feels as if it were facts and influence other people who don't know the game yet and maybe push them away. You could have written your OP in a more differentiated and informed way (e.g. that you have the feeling that the game kind of pushes you towards piracy or so - which would be totally fine with me), but you chose not to. Sorry if I came over as supergrumpy - I didn't mean to. But I wasn't happy about it either.

I also found it interesting - but the cape is a late item so I had to come up with some alternative (when lobbing fireballs onto your own head) as long as you don't have it.

We could also just use the original wc portrait and change the colors a bit. I guess that's easier than making a watercolor version from a "normal" portrait (which is tricky if you want to really match the original Deadfire watercolor style in my opinion). Or wait: was the above picture an official one? If not forget what I said.

Indeed. Else i won't be here talking about this. I played for many hours when the game was published. Then I would say it's even worse that you claim to be forced to be a pirate despite better knowledge. If you don't like the whole "Pirates of the Caribbean" vibe that's fine, but (mildly) ranting about problems which are only self-perceived is supposed to lead us where...?

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83435-class-build-riptide-the-pit-fright-dps-offtank-melee-ranger-double-team-supreme/ Check this out for some basic ideas how to build an effective melee ranger. Some minor things might have changed (now higher level cap), but the basic stuff (wounding weapon + auto-heal for the pet and some dmg boosts for the ranger) still apply 100%.

Nobody forces you to be a pirate. Did you actually play the game?

I'm doing the same with a Warlock (Son of Rekvu ) atm. I wanted to post a build about it in the future. A good trick (edit: as you said) is to cause Severe Burn on yourself which lowers burn AR by 3. I use the Dancer's Outfit no. 2 - so I have 0 burn AR. This helps with overpenetration for fire attacks. CW can't be triggered by your own Wall of Flame because it doesn't damage you. At least for me it doesn't work. I need enemies' hits to trigger it. As you said usually Wall of Flame doesn't do enough damage to heal 1 point but with the brooch and 0 AR and Ring of Focused Flame I can get it to reliably heal 1. That's 1 per second which is nice. Fireballs are usually best for healing - especially empowered ones. If you want to get CW healing you need some source of low dmg multihits (frenzy self dmg doesn't work). Like a fellow member shooting a weak blunderbuss at you or so. Or walking into a wall of thorns. Exit: sorry, overread your severe burn part. I'm still searching for a way to trigger my Combusting Wounds more reliably by myself...

What?

Just step into some Chillfogs. It's pretty easy to unlock the stuff.

It usually one-shots with Backstab + Assassinate.

Do you own Deadfire and the BoW?

Custom adventurers are never really needed. Official Companions make the game easier on every difficulty setting. That's because PoE's difficulty is front-loaded and the beginning is where official companions excel because they have +1 level. Later on the more optimized stats of a custom adventurer who catches up on XP/level don't matter much because the game gets easy. Also some companions get special abilities upon completing their quests - which makes them better than customs. For example Zahua gets a stacking speed bonus and Manhea gets additional stat points.

A few tips for Wizard in PoE: Since there is Endurance and Health (PoE-Endurance is like Health in Deadfire, PoE-Health usually only gets healed by resting), you can't rely on healing too much. While stuff like Veteran's Recovery (kind of cross-class Constant Recovery) and Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon help to stay alive during encounters it doesn't prevent health loss. If health drops too low you are going to die. Luckily a Wizard has a very useful spell against this: Infuse with Vital Essence basically gives you back 50 health (+healing modifiers) and is especially good in the earlier game, but also useful in later, prolonged fights (solo). Citzal's Spirit Lance does not transport any afflictions to its AoE like in Deadfire. It used to apply Runner's Wounding Shot, Envenomed Strike (poison) and Knockdown (from item) but got nerfed. Kalakoth's Minor Blights will do an AoE splash. Every AoE hit will trigger Blast (wizard talent). If you combine this with Combusting Wounds it gets ridiculous. Since you like Combusting Wounds... The AoE of Blast helps to proc on-hit/on-crit effects of implements (wand/scepter/rod). A rod like the Rod of Pale Shades can stun in an AoE. The soulbound scepter dominates a lot with Blast and so on. Spells and summoned weapons don't scale (except with stats like MIG and INT of course). Chillfog is crazy good for a lvl 1 spell. So is Parasitic Staff (exceptional weapon at lvl 1 with very high base damage and draining). Summoned Weapons have a lot more base damage than in Deadfire and also a lot more than their mundane counterparts. They are very strong. Phantoms don't get gear like in Deadfire. Priests' Inspiring Radiance stacks with everything and itself. So instead of bringing two Wizards (which is also good) I would rather bring two Priests. Also because Priest is one of the best nuking class on PoE from mid to high levels - because his DoTs like Shining Beacon profit from high (buffed) ACC that leads to crits (=longer duration) and the stats boosts the priest had (+MIG leads to more damage per tick, +INT to more ticks). If you want only official companions then brining Aloth as well is fine. Wizards are also good nukers, but they excel in CC and also melee/ranged combat (just because the summoned weapons are so strong and provide a lot more oomph for a spell use than a nuke). You can summon such a weapon for the usual mob fight and use the hefty stuff for tougher encounters. Self buffs are fine as in Deadfire. However, stacking rules are different: Item bonuses almost never stack unless they are from weapons. So a torc of intellect and a ring of intellect will not stack and so on. On the other hand Arcane Veil stacks with everything and is a talent rather than an ability. So with Wizard's Double + Arcane Veil (+90 deflection) you are usually untouchable for some time (attacks on fortitude etc. are not influenced of course). Tou can also get some cross-class vibes: Blunderbusses have 6 pellets instead of 4. But they are two handed. You can pick an Island Aumaua + Arms Bearer and Quick Switch (or the Coil of Resourcefulness which gives you a form of quick switch and spares you a talent), cast Combusting Wounds on a target and then fire 4x6 pellets on an enemy. If you do it with Runner's Wounding Shot usually every non-boss enemy dies from DoT. Usually several die. Bosses tend to have very high DR and that eats a lot of Combusting Wounds' damage unless you find a way to reduce DR (fighters Sundering Blow, Expose Vulnerability from Wizard - great spell by the way). Having one melee wizard and one implement wizars usually is fun. Official Companions are totally fine for PotD. Some people will say that custom adventurers are better but I disagree. The game is especially tough at the beginning and there the official companions have +1 level which is much more useful than a few stat points in "better" places. Later on the game has the same difficulty issues as Deadfire: it becomes easy so the advantage of a custom adventurer who catches up on XP don't really make a difference. There's several other stuff but my kids are starting a riot... Edit: I forgot: speed calculation is different: every additional speed bonus has increased returns in PoE unlike in Deadfire. So if you combine Alacrity (whopping 50% speed bonus, it's super good with Gauntlets of Swift Action you will be very, very fast). In PoE it's rel. easy to reach 0 recovery. Dual wieldig means -50% recovery and the style does add 20%. Combine with Alacrity and you can wear plate and still have 0 recovery.

I already made them a tad more green but not all the way because I thought a slightly different (more yellowish) color might look nice. If you prefer "greener" ears (in line with the face): no problem at all. I just went to bed though - so you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Funny how nobody asks how I gave an Orlan a beard. Seems everybody's distracted by the axe...

dare i ask why he is completely naked? So we can completely focus on the axe of course.

You think? I think it looks extremely good with the dancer's outfit no. 2 (seriously): Barb style!

Did it

But also huge.

Here you go: ....... ...... ..... .... ... .. .

Eh - as I said above: nope. Because they don't go unconscious, they simply vanish. So there's no proper trigger for those procs. Effigy's Husk can do an AoE raw damage attack on KO that is pretty strong - but phantom doesn't trigger it when it gets killed.

Heal on kill: I guess so. From my tests with Essential Phantom I think that the phantom gets an 1:1 copy of your items, including weapons (with enchantments). So it should proc on kill. Reviving is not possible because summons don't go unconcious but simply vanish. They don't proc effects on KO - like the Effigy's Husk has and don't leave an instance that can be a target for revive.