Boeroer

Fixed

The good thing is Flagellant's Path + AoE attack on every enemy you pass - not the +15% attack speed. Also the endless stunlockig of groups with Stunning Surge is very,very good. But as I already said: the Wizard/Streetfighter combo with summoned weapons like Minor Blights is awesome right from the start while the Wizard/Monk needs more levels.

Dammit. Ok, thanks. I wonder why this always happens. I'm pretty sure I didn't forget to edit the link after copy & pasting the template....

Even better: Wizard/Monk with Citzal's Spirit Lance + Flagellant's Path. AoE Full Attack on every enemy in my path. Bonus points for casting Combusting Wounds first... Edit: works with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. Edit2: also Minor Blights + Palm shield + Flagellant's Path will do Full Attacks on everybody in line. Here even Swift FLurry works. I don't know why but it seems that the shield somhow circumvents the restriction for ranged weapons not triggering Swift Flurry. So - with a Wizard/Monk you can start with Minor Blights (+shield) and focus on Stunning Shots first - then later add Stunning Surge and Flagellant's Path and even later Citzal's Spirit Lance. Also take Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. Very nice AoE CC/dmg build.

The easiest way (and also the one that comes with the least debuffs - besides getting pummeled) is to get flanked by enemies. A Wizard/Streetfighter with a shield, Weapon & Shield style and Mirrored Image etc. can reach very high deflection very early. It's not so hard to survive getting flanked then and trigger "Heating Up". With Tuotilo's Palm you would even get the bonus of two weapon style - but I suppose (didn't test) that this setup leads to a situation that you will only attack with the shield in melee and the Blights get ignored (being ranged)...? Don't know. If not then Tuotilo's Palm is the no. 1 option for me with Blights. Superhigh attack speed, high deflection - perfect. Only needs some healing source and it's a nigh perfect build. You can also go Wizard/Monk - the shield has some nice enchantments for monks specifically - and Lightning Strikes with Blights is cool (slower than Heating Up - but gets an AoE lash). The real deal is Stunning Surge though: Since you hit a lot of enemies at once (and stun them all) you also crit a lot. I would end up getting more Mortification back than I spend (not possible - it's capped - but I regain all of the cost every time) with Stunning Surge + Wahai Poraga on Xoti (Monk) and keep foes stunned endlessly. This should be the same with Blights. I guess this is even better than wizard/rogue - but Stunning Surge comes a lot later so I suppose Wizard/Streetfighter is more fun early on. Edit: just tested the Palm in melee with Blights: it then only attacks with the bash and not the Blights. You have to be out of melee range - so a bummer with Blights if you want to get into melee. A normal shield would work better in this case. And then the Streetfighter might again be better since his speed bonus is higher than the monk's. The rest works as I expected (endless stunning with a monk and a ton of Dor-afflictions with the rogue).

I wouldn't say there is no point - if you plan to only use a certain subset of spells anyway it may be benefical to use an Evoker etc.. Or if you want to build around Form of the Fearsome Brute (just for fun - atm it's not really good) you need to take Transmuter, Conjurer's familiars aren't too bad after all... and so on. But I also think there is very little inducement when it comes to wizard subclasses. The drawback of completely losing access to some spells is just too harsh. I would like it better if those "forbidden" schools just came with a malus instead. Or some other drawback. I didn't use a wizard subclass so far just because the spells I find most useful are spread over all schools - and the small benefit a subclass grants doesn't balance this out for me personally.

I used this concept in the beta, but instead of Helwalker I used Nalpasca/Unbroken because I liked the constant flow of wounds better. With Blade Turning on you won't get hit a lot and at some point you won't have enough wounds to fuel it. With Nalpascs, a drug and Dance of Death (and lesser Wounds) you will generate Wounds as quickly as you spend them for Blade Turning (and trigger Rooting Pain all the time while casting it repeatedly). But as zendigo said I mostly stood there after gathering enough enemies and casted and casted. Still very powerful. I wonder if monk/Streetfighter wouldn't even be better...?

I talked about AoE weapons (WoEP, Wahaī Pōraga, Hand Mortar, Minor Blights, Spirit Lance) + rogue's DoTs in at least four threads in the last 7 days. Not so secret anymore I guess. Also works with Battle Axes (without being a rogue) but it takes a bit longer. But one decent Full Attack with Battle Axes will lead to 150+ raw damage (over 60 secs). Causing everlasting DoTs and running away is powerful - but it also feels cheesy and a bit lame and gets boring after a while - at least for me. Still the AoE appliance of DoTs is very cool. I mean you don't have to run away. It's also nice for a normal fight without running away.

As in PoE a rogue is good early on but falls behind a bit the more levels you gain. At least on PotD difficulty. Mostly because he lacks decent AoE abilities and he's frontloaded. That makes him a very good choice for multiclassing. It also leads to the impression that a rogue might be OP once you first try one. The good thing about Deadfire (for high level single class rogues): there are AoE weapons with which you can compensate that lack of AoE capability. Funnily - despite the common complaints about ciphers - I think that ciphers are the opposite atm: meh at the beginning but really strong later on.

I saw you post this in another thread, and it def made sense as a possibility. It also has good spammability, is a full attack (for two weapons), and helps with accuracy. In comparison, am I overhyping how good an extra bounce would be with Ranger? I feel like it would add a lot, with accurate wounding shots. In addition, are damage pets even worth it? I would probably need to keep the pet too, since I would go sharpshooter. I guess Ranger with Driving Flight would also be nice. I only tested the Fury/Bleak Walker variant though.

Since INT doesn't have such a big impact on circular AoEs anymore I would indeed say that rogue is better because of Sneak Attack and the many afflcitions and DoT effects he can apply. Especially Streetfighter is nice because of the easy to get +50% attack speed. ALso the monk doesn't start with 10 wounds - so the +10 INT is the best case - not the norm.

*snore*

Fury/Bleak Walker with Spirit of Decay, Scion of Flame and Heart of the Storm gets +3 stackable bonus PEN for FoD attacks, +1 with simple auto attacks and +2 PEN for all elemental spells except freeze (+1 PEN). If you pick Wildstrike Freeze you will deal 4 different types of damage with FoD. Fury/Ranger with Driving Flight will give you one additional "jump" (not two as one might think).

Kalakoth's Minor Blights would be my no. 1 choice with the brawling small shield: speed of dual wielding with AoE attacks, defenses of a shield, afflictons in an AoE and lots of damage per hit as well. The +20 ACC is actually the best part of Minor Blights. And it also cycles damage types. It's really good. No Riposte though.

Backstabbing with a huge two-handed sword kicks my immersion in the balls :D But I realize that it's effective. I was actually considering a "dot" build. Single class Assassin with True Lover's Kiss and Rust's Poignard, spamming Gambit from Stealth, but I'm not sure how good would that be considering that I'd have to spend Guile to re-stealth during combat. Yes, you can stack a lot of DoTs with one single hit from stealth (Mask of the Grotto Deep + Deep Wounds + Lover's Kiss + Gouging Strike for example) and then vanish. It works very well because stacking DoTs is powerful - even when going toe-to-toe. However - in my opinion a simple battle axe (or two) + modal (Bleeding Cuts) works even better than that dagger. Bleeding Cuts stacks with itself and puts a very long lasting DoT onto the enemy that does 10% of the attack's damage as raw dmg tick every 3 secs. If you are doing a Full Attack and each axe does 40 damage that means that 2 Bleeding Cuts will do 4 (modified by MIG I think) raw dmg every 3 secs for 60 secs (20 ticks * 4 raw dmg * 2 = 160 raw damage). Perfect for the "hit and run" strategy.

Oh, nerfed with 1.1? SO the cone counts as ranged I guess? That's unfortunate for the monk. I think the pollaxe still works because it's not really doing an AoE attack but merely attacks two additional targets (and not everything that's in its radius).

Lindsay also retweeted this: Don't know what to make of it. If it's not related to the change then it's pretty bad timing. Good luck at Funcom! I don't play any of their games and I doubt I ever will, so no more seeing your artwork.

She's working here now: Funcom.com

Boeroer: That kind of rogue build sounds a lot of fun. In such a rogue build, how high would you prioritize Intellect for the AoE effects? Are we talking max PER and max INT first and foremost?I use WotEP on Aloth (Spellblade) and use his leather armor and two Rings of Overseeing as well as INT buffing gear and Infuse with Vital Essence. In this case I prefer INT over DEX. INT and overseeing have a good impact on cone size (but not so much with circular AoEs due to the new way of applying the AoE-size-bonus in Deadfire). Atm I have double cone length and can easily hit 4 or sometimes even 5 foes with stuff like Arterial or Gouging Strike without too much positioning hassle and then vanish. I guess it could also be cool for a solo run where you inflict Gouging Strike to several enemies, then vanish and let them die - then rinse and repeat. I also tried this with Confounding Blind and Finishing Blow and other non-DoT upgrades of the rogue strikes - and while it's nice to put Confounding Blind on a bunch of enemies I find it's a lot more powerful to use the DoT variants in an AoE. Especially Arterial and Gouging Strike since the don't get influenced by the (lowish) weapon damage of the WotEP - this is just about hitting several enemies at once. This works even better with the Spirit Lance I guess (if its blast still procs afflictons). Its a better weapon than the WotEP but comes rather late for multiclass chars. Another really nice variant with WotEP is using rogue/monk instead of Wizard and combine +10 INT from Duality (INT) with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. I prefer Nalpasca + Dance of Death because then I don't have to get hit so much in order to get wounds. Helwalker would be nice as well in order to get really high numbers with the DoT ticks. But it's not so easy to get a lot of wounds at the start of battle without hassle. I added Enervating Blows and also used Stunning Surge besides Arterial Strike and so on. Enemies get stunned, weakened AND bleed to death. The Pollaxe does the same but in a less big AoE and it only hits 2 additional foes. But basically the same idea. The Hand Mortar is also cool for a Spellblade because Pull of Eora + AoE Arterial Strike with the mortar is just bonkers. They try to reach you but bleed to death while trying. Arterial Strike costs only 1 Guile and you can combine that with Combusting Wounds as well. Rod + Blast will NOT work. Also works well with Frostseeker I guess, especially the Combusting Wounds part(?). But maybe the frost/burn combo negates each other? I didn't test that.

I have never seen this actually working. The stealth recovery bonus does work with bows and melee weapons but any weapon requiring a reload doesn't seem to benefit from it. I use an Arterial Strike from stealth with a pistol and then a Gouging Strike that follows almost immediately. Works like a charm. The stealth bonus also applies to reloading. I have tried this numerous times and never gotten it to work. As soon as the first ability is activated, it pops me out of stealth and any reload speed boni are lost immediately. Maybe you're using a dual weapon setup?

You may have accidentally triggered auto-leveling in the game options. If that's not the case then it's a bug.

Okay, thanks.

When I use Eyestrike on several enemies who already suffer from an appropriate afflicton I usually get more focus back than I spend - so in this case it seems to be working "as advertised". I didn't use Phantom Foes though.

Wasn't Flagellant's Path changed? The description now says it only does a Full Attack at the target and minor crush damage in between? Or is that not correct? I didn't test it since 1.1.

Hi, I would make a high INT offensive fighter with Disciplined Barrage, Two Handed Style, Savage Attack, Weapon Focus (whatever backup weapon you want to use), Scion of Flame, Weapon Spec and Mastery and pick up Forgemaster Gloves & Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (gives you 6 times Firebrand per rest). The ACC boost comes from the paladin and the Fighter can pair that with his Barrage - to generate a lot of crits (also when using Knockdown). Firebrand does tremendous damage on crit. For sturdyness I would go high MIG (also good for Firebrand) and skill survival really high so that I can get the healing bonus and also use the Robe of the Tireless Defender, Rapid Recovery and a Belt of Bountiful Healing. He will destroy any single target the paladin marks for him. This works even better if the fighter is the MC and takes the Doemenel route and get "Merciless Hand" and later sides with the Dyrwoodan Looters in Twin Elms and gets "Dungeon Delver". Add a priest with Inspiring Radiance and Devotions for even more crits. For crowd control something like a cipher or wizard is better than a low dmg tank. Tanks who do low dmg but have very high defenses will be ignored by most enemies as long there are more "valuable" targets. A fighter with Take the Hit doesn't work well with Mind Control (like the Ploi has) because Take the Hit is bugged when it comes to charmed/dominated enemies: If they get attacked your fighte will also get their damage (because thy have flipped alliance and now work for you) - but it will not go away after they flip back - that makes them really hard to kill without killing your fighter as well.