Boeroer

Dps wise Abydon's Hammer is not the best weapon. No lash (which is multiplicative damage), no speed, usual base damage. There is no universal "best" gear. It depends a lot on your character. For example Munacra Arret can have a bigger impact on an encounter as the Maegfolc Skull.

Hehe. Well it has been the case in the past (Retaliation Cipher, Envenomed Blights and so on) and I guess it will also happen here. If they only remove the jump feature from the AoE splash of Ondra's Wrath it will only "nerf" this particular build, not the weapon itself (if it's used in a more common way) or the other individual components of this combo. And as I said: the build would stay viable even when Ondra's Wrath itself does not bounce around ike crazy. But of course it's always sad if the fruit of one's labor gets spoiled. I mean it takes some time to play, test, record and write that stuff down. More work than simply filing a bug report.

Scout + Spearcaster is nice. If you chose to use the Minor Missiles enchantment on Spearcaster you can make it proc more often with Driving Flight. Also rogue's afflictons get applied to secondary targets. Ghost Heart seems to be the best pick aesthetically because a thug won't have his bear running around in a back alley all the time. Assassin sounds nice, too. As others said: if you just use the Assassinate feature as a bonus from stealth it's no micro increase at all. I wouldn't pick Chanter just because of Sure Handed Ila. Since you can already have Acina's Tricorn, Gunner and Sharpshooter's Garb (or Miscreant's Leather) + Cosmo you wouldn't notice a huge difference with Sure Handed Ila due to how speed bonuses stack. Not enough to give up Rogue's DoT strikes and Deep Wounds or Ranger's Driving Flight and accuracy.

No, it's a special interaction between Ondra's Wrath and Driving Flight + Rogue's DoT strikes. The components themselves are not particularly overpowered. It's technically not a bug because they all work like inteneded - just the combo is very strong. I guess that the jumping behavior of Ondra's Wrath will be removed or capped in the future to prevent this. Then this build would be still totally viable and fun (the jumping rod projectile will still trigger Ondra's Wrath often enough) but will not be able to one- or two-shot every group anymore. But at that moment Fire in the Hole + Hand Mortar would be the better weapon choice.

You have to engage enemies to make Mob Stance and Reckless Brigandine work. So you need many engagement slots to make it stack multiple times. 5 is a good number (that can be achieved by any char) to see some really noticable effects.

I also apologize in advance for the incoming nerf of Watershaper's focus.

If you read the build description you will know. Tl,dr: Basically the AoE procs of Ondra's Wrath (crush AoE damage from the rod) also jump two times if you have the rod in hand (gives one jump) and use Driving Flight (additional jump). It instagibs nearly all enemy groups.

The risky "assassin" all-or-nothing approach that goes horribly wrong sometimes helps to uphold the tension. Loki can be bought at that pet merchant in Neketaka/Serpent's Crown. I wanted to have a really big AoE because the damage doesn't matter that much if you get that many procs. Also the higher move speed of the party is Handy. But basically yes: you could easily swap those. Honestly the main reason that I use Loki is the name.

Ah, nice analysis. Combusting Wounds + Ranger (so basically Geomancer) also worked well, but not as good as Scout. It's not only the damage, but also because it evolves a lot more casting time. CW is not really a quick cast. The CW did not seem to get quenched by the Wrath's water/crush attack though (as it's supposed to). It's the same as with Frostseeker + CW. I think those secondary attacks/effects are not keyworded properly?

Look behind the spoiler tags. There are three short clips that show what happens.

With Peek, a very simple tool for Linux (doesn't record sound, only screen). It can also save vids as MP4 and such - but I found this to be cooler somehow when tinkering around with it. It can do even more pixelated versions.

The rod's Blast AoE hits do not jump themselves. If you have three jumps with Blast you simply get three Blasts as if you had done them one after the other. I suspect that Ondra's Wrath jumps, too and that causes this sort of reaction. It's not infinite though. Just a LOT of hit rolls.

If you plan around Empower use (which is good for Invocations) then the Singing Sabre is very powerful. You can get EMpowerment back from using Empower - I mean wow. Berserker/Skald is not only a pretty great combo (30% crit conversion from Frenzy, 30% from Barbaric Blow and 25% from Killer's Paralyze and you are already at 63% crit conversion) but also fits the whole nordic warrior/runesinger type of style. Boreal Dwarf or Pale Elf, some Junvik armor and a Draugr helmet et voilá - Dovahkiin (in this case elven)

Oh, thank you - you charmer.

I'm happy to announce that I added my first own build to the list.

Here it is: The Deep Leap

Somewhere in Old Vailia, 15-year-old Dervide Riso gave his crush, Centa Enricis a carved rod with which she was supposed to scratch her back. A bully, Marco Zaurippi, took the rod and threw it onto a frozen river. While trying to retrieve it, Dervide fell through the thin ice and with him his beloved pet bear Frogfish. They were pulled away by the current. Dervide suddenly found himself in the local library and discovered his ability to "jump" from one place to another. Amazed with his new ability, he left his permanently boozed father and leaped away from home. Frogfish simply drowned that day but was too dumb to notice, so he followed Dervide as a ghooohoohoost. Booo! Eight years later, an adult Dervide lived lavishly on stolen money and fed his Frogfish imaginary golden currywurst nearly every day. One other day, he was ambushed in his home by Lolrand Capon, a member of the Goldpact Knight Paladins, who was hired to tracking down Dervide because of his habit to steal everything that's not nailed down. But Dervide escaped with some nice evasive leaps. Feeling that he needed to leave the hot zone, he returned to Old Vailia, seeking his old crush Centa. Unfotunately she turned out to be ugly like an Ogre Matron who regularly ate directly from the deep fat fryer without cutlery. When Marco attacked him again, Dervide leaped right behind him and hit him with a newly carved rod. A Blast got released and Marcos head exploded! Yikes! Dervide quickly cleaned up the mess and from that point on decided to turn off the gib option in his life menu. He then returned to Centa. After talking, they shared a kiss - brrrr - and "let the rod have a blast". Yikes again! Dervide then invited her on a trip to the Dyrwood because some wacko Rodriguez lord made a call for settlers. Dervide and Centa finally arrived in the Dyrwood by ship. But when they got on shore, Centa tripped over her greasy shoelaces and fell off the gangway and into the Dyrwooden mud. One half-unwitting leap later Dervide found himself amongst some people with a caravan and was a bachelor again. During some neat adventures that followed and which involved going on the nerves of some fake gods, killing a guy with two inbecile living statues with big noses, opening up an ancient forge and killing sevel dragons with magnificent Blasts from his rod he became the Lord of Caed Nua by killing some presumptuous smug. Lots of killing lately, really. Then onother imbecile statue emerged... Yikes! "See you later Watershaper far'well-ahoy fishy boy. I'll have to borrow your back scraper 'cause it will be my new toy." - Dervide Riso while stealing Tekehu's rod - =================================== The Deep Leap =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 1.2 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Ghost Heart/Trickster -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wood Elf (alternative: whatever) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Dissident -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 15 CON: 03 DEX: 19 PER: 19 INT: 19 RES: 03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies (a=automatic) 01. Marked Prey + Crippling Strike + Arkemy'r Dazzling Lights (a) | Rod, Arbalest 02. Escape | +1 Arcana (-> 1), +1 Diplomacy (-> 2) 03. Wounding Shot | +1 Arcana (-> 2), +1 Streetwise (-> 2) 04. Marksman + Dirty Fighting + Mirrored Image (a) | +1 Arcana (-> 3), +1 Bluff (-> 3) | Scepter 05. Blinding Strike | +1 Arcana (-> 4), +1 Diplomacy (-> 3) 06. Two-Handed Style | +1 Arcana (-> 5), +1 Streetwise (-> 3) 07. Evasive Roll + Arterial Strike + Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage (a) | +1 Arcana (-> 6), +1 Bluff (-> 4) 08. Gouging Strike | +1 Arcana (-> 7), +1 Diplomacy (-> 4) | Pistol 09. Marked for the Hunt | +1 Arcana (-> 8 ), +1 Streetwise (-> 4) 10. Concussive Shot + Withering Strike + Llengrath's Displaced Image (a) | +1 Arcana (-> 9), +1 Bluff (-> 5) 11. Protective Companion | +1 Arcana (-> 10), +1 Diplomacy (-> 5) 12. Stalker's Link | +1 Arcana (-> 11), +1 Streetwise (-> 5) | Crossbow 13. Driving Flight + Deep Wounds + Confusion (a) | +1 Arcana (-> 12), +1 Bluff (-> 6) 14. Accurate Wounding Shot | +1 Arcana (-> 13), +1 Diplomacy (-> 6) 15. Finishing Blow | +1 Mechanics (-> 2), +1 Streetwise (-> 6) 16. Concussive Tranquilizer + Toxic Strike + Arkemy'r Wondrous Torment (a) | +1 Mechanics (-> 3), +1 Bluff (-> 7) | Arquebus 17. Survival of the Fittest | +1 Mechanics (-> 4), +1 Diplomacy (-> 7) 18. Devastating Blow | +1 Mechanics (-> 5), +1 Streetwise (-> 7) 19. Accurate Empower + Deathblows + Gaze of the Andragan (a)| +1 Mechanics (-> 6), +1 Bluff (-> 8 ) 20. Lasting Empower | +1 Mechanics (-> 7), +1 Diplomacy (-> 8 ) | Wand --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Watershaper's Focus (! - +Ondra's Wrath, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Spearcaster (+Pinning, +Missile upgrade) Head: Acina's Tricorn (r - for ranged ACC - also works with certain spells) Back: Magnificent Escape Cape Neck: Charm of Bones (for more Blast AoE and longer DoTs) Armor: Aloth's Leather Armor (+Superb, +Structurally Stable, Known Causality - for the Blast AoE) Waist: Spellkeeper (for the fun) Hands: Burglar's Gloves / Aegor's Swift Touch Rings: Ring of Overseeing (for the Blast AoE), Ring of the Marksman Boots: Boots of Speed Pet: Loki (because it's a Trickster and Loki is the trickster-god And because of Blast's AoE of course) --------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! The Dead Leap? What's that? It the combination of Deep Wounds with DoT afflictions, Blast with several jumps and leaping around to and fro on the battlefield. What's interesting about this build? It's the Watershaper's Focus! Believe it or not, but when you combine the Focus' inherent jump with Driving Flight and Ondra's Wrath (enchantment of the Focus) you can reliably produce a chain reaction of multiple Blasts jumping around and also multiple crushing waves rolling around so that everything is dead that can't swim. Only thing is: you want to have the enemies in one spot to make this happen - because recovery is so sluggish you can only afford to fire twice: out of stealth and then immediately after (because stealth reduces recovery by 85%). But honestly: two is all you need... So if there's let's say 5 enemies in a tight spot and I shoot them with Watershaper's Focus + Driving Flight, I theoretically generate 3*5 = 15 hits with one shot. Each hit would have a 15% chance to trigger Ondra's Wrath. This would mean a nearly certain proc chance of over 90%. Something weird is going on... But that's not all. Something else is going on. I suspect that the Wrath's crushing attacks themselves jump, too. Because I generate not 15 or even 30, but hundrets of hits with this setup as long as there are enough enemies. Ondra's Wrath usually triggers multiple times as long as there are more than three enemies. Combined with Deep Wounds and for example Arterial Strike I also add so much raw DoT that most mobs just explode in a wave of crushing water *booooom*. Even if some survive they get felled rather quickly by Deep Wounds + Arterial Strike (and/or Toxic Strike and/or Gouging Strike). If you manage to gather the enemy in one spot, encounter is over before it even starts most of the time. Single enemies are no problem as well: I shoot them with Spearcaster + Arterial Strike and leap here and there to make them follow me. They die like with any other rogue. Sneaky crowd control: Who's there? Now that we know that we have to cramp as many enemies as we can into a tight spot, how can we do that? Sparkcrackers? Meh... But doesn't Arkemy'r Dazzling Lighs work the same way? It does! That's actuall my no. 1 reason for picking Trickster And if you don't hit an enemy with it you even stay stealthed. That's important because the recovery bonus of stealth (85%) lets you fine two shots in very quick succession if you start shooting from stealth. So the huge recovery malus of Blast is not noticeable between the first two shots. But two shots of this caliber should be enough for most enemy groups, shouldn't it? It should. Even high level enemies with a lot of health (like Rathuns for example) nearly aloways get one- or two-shotted as long as you can get them to gather in one place. Additional stuff Besides the powerful AoE behavior I also found out that gaze spells like Gaze of the Andragan work with Driving Flight (=two chances to paralyze) and also work with the hat's accuracy bonus. Neat... The cons What are the weaknesses? Obviously enemy gunmen. Since this build is extremely squishy as long as you didn't cast Mirrored Image he can get screwed by ranged enemies pretty quickly. But to be honest I like the "all or nothing" approach. Plays like... This build basically plays like an Assassin without being one. The difference is that you assassinate the whole encounter if everything works smoothly, not only one single enemy. But what about... Now you might think: would a pure Ranger with Twinned Shot be even more devastating? I also thought about that and tested it - but funnily enough a pure Ranger with Twinned Shots doesn't perform half as good as the Scout. I guess it is because of Deep Wounds, Sneak Attack and all the DoTs you do apply. But to be honest I don't really know why the scout performs so much better. I only know that the Scout one-shots nearly every cramped group while a Ranger doesn't - even though the Ranger can generate six Blasts with one shot. If somebody wants to find out what really-really happens: be my guest! Variants (after a nerf...?) Another nice variant is to pick Sharpshooter/Street Fighter instead and use Fire in the Hole and Hand Mortar. The dps is better after the initial attacks because rod's Blast causes 50% recovery penalty. Vids I have huge problems recording the game atm. I get massive flickering blue bars when trying to capture a vid directy from the graphics card. I blame my drivers. What works is Peek (makes short animated GIFs). And if I'm honest I like those even more than Youtube vids for some unknown reason. Maybe because they remind me of Monkey Island? Enjoy (open tags to load animated gif)! --------------------------------------------------------------- Luring enemies to a spot with Arkemy'r Dazzling Lights: --------------------------------------------------------------- One-shot of a group of Rotghasts: --------------------------------------------------------------- Attacking a group of Rathun Raiders out of stealth with Empower: --------------------------------------------------------------- Attacking a group of Rathun Raiders from stealth without Empower: --------------------------------------------------------------- With Empower - without Empower - makes no difference, hehe. Edit: had to rewrite some text because of major forum formatting screwup that put links everywhere. Yikes!

It does. When engaging 6 enemies I get -19% recovery in the tooltip and 30% from Mob Stance. They stack - but why it's 19% recovery I can't really say. Also attack speed gets sped up but since that's not very long in the first place it's not noticable.

Yes, after the dialogue they were gone.

Why are you guys mixing up per-rest/per-encounter with the limited ability/spell choice and endurance/health or even cast- and recovery times? Those are all seperate things. Saying that PoE1's per rest system is better because you have more spell choice is nonsense. Same as saying Deadfire's per-encounter system is better because it doesn't have persistent health loss anymore. It would have been no problem to do Deadfire with the per-encounter spell system but the spell choices and the health system of PoE. If you want to discuss those things, don't mix them up but isolate them. Else it's all a huge hodgepodge. For me as a player who tends to play those games multiple times the PoE system was more fun. Also because meta knowledge is more rewarding. The seperated class abilities in combination with universal talents gave a lot of combos for a non-multiclass class system. The whole endurance/health mechanics allowed for more build variation and it made high defense builds play differently than high healing builds (which basically play the same in Deadfire). On the other hand level ups in Deadfire have more meanig especially for casters. The abilities need better balance though so that you don't end up with the same picks all the time I do think that a per-rest system is harder to balance (when designing encounters) in a way that every fight is equally difficult. But on the other hand: do they have to be? Not for me. And then: what is the empower mechanic? Since it mainly serves casters atm it's nothing but a caster's per-rest system in disguise. Even ciphers now have a per-rest mechanic with empower. How does one balance around that? Rest-spamming aside: Since Empower has so much impact on certain actions (you can one-shot whole groups with an empowered AoE spell) AND is more binary and limited I think it's even harder to balance for that than PoE ever was. The difference between a fight wit no empower use compared to a fight with empower use can be huge. Saying that a boss fight in PoE was easier than a common Xaurips fight (in the same area) seems disingenuous. It was certainly not, even if you unleashed all your spells. Seldomly got wiped by a Xaurip party even when using no spells at all. Having said all that: Deadfire's combat doesn't feel significantly less enjoyable for me. Just a bit. So maybe other factors than per rest/per encounter play a role as well.

Oops - double post.

Just retried that mini-build and put it solo against 6 tigers. It's still really good - patches didn't change that. The best part is that enemies really don't want to leave you but at the same time you deal good damage to them. Riposte and Crush Riposte from the shield stack. I guess I will make a build thread out of this - just because it fits the whole Deadfire/Huana theme so well from a style- and roleplaying perspective and at the same time is a very solid performer.

I'm using a Trickster atm and for my build it's def. better than a Streetfighter. But Streetfighter is too strong. Basically only because of the blunderbuss modal. If he could trigger Heating Up only by "really" getting flanked it would be different.

Ok I’m intrigued! How are you using it? I will post a build today or tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Definitely Watershaper's Focus - by a large margin.