Boeroer

Name some.

I'm currently using Willbreaker on my Devoted/Berserker with Brute Force (of course). Before I got Brute Force I liked to use Knockdown->Mule Kick a lot because they have +10 ACC AND target fortitude instead of deflection. That's like doing +35 ACC attacks. I don't even bother with switching off Body Blows anymore. So Morning Stars and especially Willbreaker are just awesome on anybody who uses abilities that target fortitude (also see Cipher's Soul Ignition or Disintergrate - Willbreaker + cipher is not only good synergy, it also sounds so fitting ).

If I understand it correctly then that's what it is now: monk fist for everybody. I can't remember if Monastic gives drastically different scaling bonuses than Transcendent Suffering...? However - I hope now a fun pitfighter build (that doesn't involve monk) is at least viable. I like the idea to bring my unarmed barb over from PoE.

Exactly. You can also fire a gun in between if you don't get attacked. But usually you will unload your two guns with Flames of Devotion at the start of the battle to immediately take out (or severely damage) a high priority target such as an enemy caster. With FoD you will immediately provide a defense buff for your party and if you kill him then some more. Then switch to marking weapon & shield and attack an enemy who is already attacked by an ally to deliver high ACC support. In-between you can charm other enemies with Sworn Enemy + Whisper of Treason. Distant Advantage + Sworn Enemy means that your Whisper of Treason will do an attack roll with +30 Accuracy. Usually everything that is not immune can be charmed that way. An alternative to arquebus would be a dual wielding setup like dual sabres or dual battle axes etc. Then you don't need a 3rd weapon slot. If you'd be an Island Aumaua you could even have 4 weapon sets, get a third arquebus and add Runner's Wounding Shot - which is as strong as Flames of Devotion (without the nice ACC bonus). This would take away some charming power and accuracy but give you a third hefty attack for taking out a squishy.

Spirit Lance + Instruments of Pain = pure fun. Also note that IoP simply gives your melee weapon +500% range. So you can use all melee abilities at range. Spirit Lance has 1.8 meter melee range (reach) and thus becomes a weapon with 10.8 meter melee range. Others get way shorter range with IoP. Reach weapons seem to be perfect for this. And especially Spirit Lance of course.

It's a way to prevent money overflow. You sell all the looted stuff for coin and use that coin to make few items really good. Also enchanting isn't that expensive in general. Only doing superb and legendary enchantments are really costly.

I guess a narrator is always too slow for 99% of people who learned to read in school. And nobody can seriously expect that authors dumb down their writing and reduce vocabulary so that some non-native speakers can follow. You would never ask an author of a novel to not use so many sophisticated words because you don't understand them (at least I hope you wouldn't).

Def. not entirely. Steam says "Top Sellers" and "most players" now in 2018. In 2017 they said revenue. It's not clear at all how the list is processed. That's why I asked if anybody knows - and how stuff like pledges or even investments count in. I guess they don't because steam can't know the pledges and other numbers from Fig. So they are left with sold copies and player numbers - but maybe I'm wrong. But just think about those backers who gave 10.000 bucks and so on. If that money is not part of Steam's equation then the whole list is not that meaningful (for Deadfire). If it is then the list would contain useful info. Who knows this?

Because Steam says that it's based on revenue. That's not my idea. Don't know why they say that and how they determine those numbers. Maybe it's a mix of sold copies and sales figures. I have no idea and it doesn't help that Steam doesn't explain. And because of crowdfunding it's not that simple - if Steam doesn't show how it calculated those numbers. Hence my question. I understand that Deadfire is not in the top 50. That part is clear. But that info itself is not very meaningful if one doesn't know how it got that ranking.

Correct. The stacking rules are different in Deadfire. Also Arcane Veil is not a talent anymore but an active spell like others. It used to stack with everything in PoE but doesn't in Deadfire. Vigorous Defense + Arcane Veil don't stack. The deflection bonus of VD will get supressed by AV. You'll get +20 to fortitude, will and reflex and +50 to defection. After Arcane Veil runs out you'll still have +20 deflection from Vigorous Defense. Of course VD is still an awesome ability - especially with the upgrade. It's especially good (even awesome) if your build without VD isn't that defensive. There are two effects that do stack though. If I remember correctly it's one of the Llengrath spells and Circle of Defense because those two buff defenses in another way (code-wise) so they are not considered to buff the same things. They stack pretty much with everything. Or they did - maybe it got changed. Don't know if this is intended or not, but is surely is confusing and not consistent. However, passive defense buffs and those from items stack with everything while actives usually don't. Also passive defense bonuses usually don't have durations and are active all the time. Thus an Arcane Knight can achieve higher defenses overall than a Battlemage - just because Vigorous Defense doesn't stack with most active stuff. By the way Mirrored Image will not get removed after two or three hits: it looses 5 deflection when you get hit and starts at 30. You need to get hit 6 times for it to go entirely.

You don't say... I edited my post to specify what I mean. Sorry. Maybe you want to read again.

Does anybody know what Steam's "bronze" status means? I only know that this ranking is based on revenue, not number of sold games. Edit: it was so in 2017 - no idea about 2018. I don't know how the backer copies of the game factor in: do the pledges count towards the revenue? How does Steam know how much you pledged when it only gets a key that you use to unlock the game while the financial part is on Fig/Obsidian Backer Portal/PayPal?

Some summoned weapons don't have proficiencies: Minor Blights, Concelhaut's Draining Touch and Rot Skulls come to mind.

Because it's not very good in the first place - especially in the later game where endurance pools are way bigger. If I didn't know what else to pick I would take it - but this build in particular wants to max dmg with Long Pain and grab every CC option there is. I need every talent point and every ability to achieve that. No room for Lesser Wounds. If you desperately need more wounds: shoot your own monk in the back. You only need enough wounds to cast Long Pain. Since you have several CC options that don't rely on wounds (Stunning Blows, Skyward Kick, Knockdown etc.) you can do something even if nobody hurts you. I mean besides letting the fists fly with auto-attacks.

The answers for nearly all of your questions are in the opening post. Distant Advantage (Wood Elf racial) not only provides +5 ACC for Whisper of Treason and Flames of Devotion with the arquebus but also gives you bonus deflection against ranged attacks. It even works with Sacred Immolation. It's explained in the build description. Island Aumaua would be an alternative if you want to spare talent points and still have 3 weapon sets: 2 for arquebuses for FoD and the third for your weapon & shield. You don't use the weapon & shield setup all the time. You want to use the arquebuses for Flames of Devotion shots. It is mentioned several times that the order is a Shieldbearer (of St. Elcga). 8 CON is enough if you have good deflection. INT influences the duration of Whisper of Treason (which is a key ability of this build), it also expands the area of effect of your zealous aura and the radius of Outworn Buckler's Herald aura. It also expands the duration andarea of effect of Sacred Immolation. It also raises the healing you do with Lay on Hands. RES only raises deflection and will a bit which is not needed in a party setup. If this should be a main tank then more defense and less offense and more CON could be better. However single main tanks don't work well in PoE as they can't hold too many enemies engaged - and once you play with two or three dedicated front liners you don't need extreme tankyness but be better off with "tanks" that can also contribute to the party's performance in other ways. This build has great supporter qualities (heal, boost party ACC, boost single ally ACC, boost party's deflection, raise single ally's deflection), can charm very tough foes easily (great single target CC - easily charms dragons for example) and also do serious burst damage (can take out enemy squishies easily with a well placed shot). Athletics is a poor skill compared to survival. Consequences from having low Athletics in scripted interactions are not severe or really bad. You can easily do a playtrough with a party where nobody has even 1 Athletics. Yes - most abilities and talents get only unlocked at higher levels. The ones I named are not ordered by level. Just pick the ones from the list that are available at lvl up.

PL is just half baked stuff atm. Summoned weapons: scale with char level. Animal Companion: scales with char level. Self buffs like Wizards Double: PL does nothing. Debuffs like Marked Prey or Sworn Enemy: PL does nothing. But Sneak Attack scales with PL. Why? Just "because" - I guess. Why not raise the deflection bonus of Wizard's Double with PL - even if it's only a bit? Why not scale the dmg bonus of Sworn Enemy and the ACC bonus of Marked Prey with PL? Why do summoned weapons and animal companions and summoned creatures not scale with PL? I guess nobody really knows.

Err - because Unbending is a healing ability as well? And even if it wasn't a self healing but provided DR (which it doesn't): there's zero difference between healing or taking reduced damage when it comes to sturdyness. Because the health mechanic of PoE is gone. It's all preventing health from dropping in the end now. Tanking means to withstand a lot of damage output while binding forces. Whether this capability comes from self healing, avoiding to get hit or damage reduction doesn't matter at all. And please leave out this "which planet" nonsense when discussing stuff with people who try to bring up reasonable arguments. You don't even know what stacks and what not but make strong statements about classes and their defensive capabilities while dismissing others as lunatics. A bit more self-effacement would suit you much better in situations where you are just guessing the actual game mechanics. Because you don't want to sound like firkraag888 and master guardian all the time. Every now and then is enough teasers.

I hope that you'll recover.

Ah sorry - got it now.

Assassinate + Soul Annihilation does work - however a crit and bonus pen don't do much for the fixed raw damage. Assassin + Cipher isn't the perfect combo unfortunately.

Since in the sketch it's a customer who enters a petshop (and most likely doesn't know the shopkeeper very well) they use "Haben Sie..."

It also gets no dmg penalty from low PEN. For PotD that means that you can skip all PEN stacking and also don't need to look at enemies' resistances and immunities. So Devoted seems to be wasted. +2 PEN where you don't need it and only +25% crit damage.

They should take the same patching route as in PoE when it comes to rangers: make the animal companion better. First step should be to raise the base damage. It's just too low. Then suddenly abilities like Vicious/Merciless Companion and Predator's Sense will have the impact they had in PoE (and where the animal companion could hit slowly but like a truck after some patches). I wonder why they returned to puny base damage for Deadfire in the first place? Some abilities of the animal companion are already great. Try to open combat with Takedown Combo + Ranger/Assassin from stealth. I should really do Stalker/Assassin next...

Since peardox is especially active in the modding subforum I guess "Yarp"?

Are you from Perth?