Boeroer

Riposte sucks hard at the moment. He rest seems viable.

No, but Devastating Blow is good on stuff with very high health like Titan for example. Backstab, then Devastating Blow is not bad. I guess against really big bosses Smoke Cloud + Backstab + Devastating Blow might be a great finisher. Especially with high MIG and a lash from Shared Flames and/or Mith Fyr.

Combusting wounds doesn't feel nearly as worthwhile as it did in the previous game -- the duration is very, very short compared to other spells. Do you mean the actual spell duration of Combusting Wounds or the DoT it applies on each hit?

I didn't see Threatening Presence in the beta. But the chanter has a phrase that weakens everyone in his chanting AoE. Pretty nice to set up Sneak Attacks.

If you take Confounding Blind you can still crit like crazy. But yes - a buff with Intuitive like Disciplined Strike would be nice for rogues as well. Or a strike that paralyzed (comes later with the rogue). Paralyzed enemies give you 50% hit-to-crit conversion. Also Finishing/Devastating Blow multiple times per encounter is a lot more powerful than in PoE. Same as multiple invisibility uses (in order to stack Backstab, Sneak and later Deathblows) - in PoE it was 2/rest.

Cipher and Chanter play fundamentally different. The Cipher needs to deal weapon damage actively to fuel his powers. The Chanter sings phrases passively and has to wait until a certain number of phrases have cumulated until he can use those to cast an invocation. His phrases can be powerful as well though. Some players choose to only use phrases and don't use invocations a lot. Because of that (generally said), a cipher needs to be played more actively (more micromanagement) than a chanter. Also a chanter is a bit slow with the development of power over the course of an encounter. This doesn't matter on high difficulties because fights take longer there. But on normal diff. (and below) new players often have the feeling that a chanter is too slow and is often late to the party with his invocations. On higher levels he will get faster and faster though. Chanters are not particularly great in melee not ranged. Both is ok but nothing special. The whole package is special though. Wizards' spells are hard to manage in the early game because you will only have a few. After some char levels you'll have a lot of spells. Usually you can do 4+ fights easily before having to rest. Good thing with summoned weapons is that they spare you spell uses (you only need one spell use to summon a weapon and hit foes with it - thus you don't need to recast Fireballs over and over to kill them). It's beneficial to have meta knowledge when playing per-rest casters. If you know when which encounter happens you know when it's time to rest. But if you don't hoard your spells too much you can also be successful without any knowledge about the upcoming encounters. Camping supplies for resting are cheap and plentiful. If you're not sure what awaits you and you're low on spells: make a campfire. Wizards have a per-encounter ability called Arcane Assault. It's good and I'd use it a lot in the early game.

In the beta it's 1/encounter, no exception. After the first use in an encounter it greys out. And up to level 9 it's 2/rest.

There are some classes that can do all three quite well after some leveling (melee, ranged combat and magic): - Wizard: has awesome summoned weapons for ranged as well as melee combat (Kalakoth's Minor Blights, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, Citzal's Spirit Lance...) and is obviously good with magic. - Priest of Magran: can get high accuracy with an arquebus (gun) and a sword and his "magic" is very potent when it comes to buffing - Priest of Wael: same, but with rod and quarterstaff. - Druid: can shift into a sort of were-form that does tremendous melee damage. Can cast powerful spells - and later in the game he gets a very powerful summoned ranged weapon named Rot Skulls. - Rogue: good with melee or ranged weapons alike and can also make good use of so called spellbinding gear. That's items that give you some spells which you can use like a wizard uses his spells. FOr example there's a sabre that gives you 3 Fireballs per rest and so on. A rogue is very good with those spells because his accuracy is high and one of his later damage boosting abilites also works with spells and doubles the damage. - Cipher: doesn't matter if melee or ranged - ciphers do great weapon damage. Their powers (spells) are powerful as well. The rest of the classes will have some shortcomings with one aspect or the other.

Correct. Still the case in beta4 at least.

Tested my favorite setup (wizard/monk) again: - Nalpasca - Swift Flurry - Kalakoth's Minor Blights - Eldritch Aim - Merciless Gaze - One Weapon Style - Dance of Death - Duality of Mortal Presence - INT (console) - Pull of Eora (tested with a single class wizard) Plan: take a drug, activate Dance of Death (wounds start flying in until you have +10 INT), summon Minor Blights, cast Eldritch Aim & Merciless Gaze, pull 5 or 6 (or so) enemies togehter with Pull of Eora, activate Swift Flurry and fire with the Blights: *ratatatatata* all are dead. Outcome: Still works like a charm. Despite the nerf of Swift Flurry. The Pull of Eora part could be left out because I used dummies which don't move. I just tested how the pull works now and it's much more controlled than in PoE. Yu can combine it with Binding Web to prevent any movement after the pull so that everybody is packed together tightly. You only need that for the one killshot with the Blights - so short duration is irrelevant. With Spirit Lance it's not really possible to do that on your own (in the beta4) anymore because it lacks ACC and conversion compared to one-handed Minor Blights. But woith a Chanter in the party who can cast Killers it also works (due to 50% hit-to-crit conversion). Maybe also a Shadowflame will help. It also works with monk/fighter (rod+Blast+Disciplined Strikes) and a monk/chanter (rod+blast+Killers). Swift Flurry, AoE weapon attacks and high ACC/conversion: Still the strongest combo in my opinon. What was nerfed: afflictions can no longer be applied in an AoE by Blast/Spirit Lance/Blights. I tested them all today with a rogue's strikes, some monk abiliies and Mule Kick etc. - and they all only affect the initial target now.

Correct.

Synergies Paladin/Soulblade: - FoD: lashes generate focus, so with every FoD attack you generate a ton. You can alter between FoD and Soul Annihilation all day long and do tremendous single target damage. Doesn't really matter that Soul Annihilation is a primary attack only - if you hit with it it's a one-shot most of the time anyway. - Eternal Devotion: the lash that you keep (20%) helps with Soul Annihilation. When you execute Soul Annihilation you will gain focus from the hit (including the lash bonus) THEN dump all your focus into the raw damage. You don't need max focus before executing SA - actually that's a waste of focus. It's ok if you are halfway there. - Soul Whip + Biting Whip = +40% additive damage, combined with high MIG (multiplicative) and FoD (lashes als multiplicative) results in awesome damage. - Zealous Focus: more accuracy and conversion is good for Soul Annihilation because unlike FoD it has no ACC bonus and likes to miss/graze. - Paladins have a big impact on your sturdyness. Since a Soul Blade has to go into melee fight that is a good thing. - With Scion of Flame and Hammering Thoughts FoD gets +2 PEN. Together with Soul Annihilation (that doesn't care too much about AR because it's raw damage) you can take a low PEN but high dmg weapon and still be on the safe side when it comes to AR penetration. - A lot of great support abilities from two pools - Pain Link + Sacred Immolation = auto AoE ouch I guess (later, not beta material) - Borrowed Instincts + Faith & Conviction + Deep Faith = nigh invincible defenses and godly ACC bonus - +40 with FoD! - Sworn Enemy + Recall Agony = really ouchy on tough single targets - At the moment Eternal Devotion puts a 20% burning lash onto all damaging cipher spells (most likely a bug) That's all I can say out of my head. I played a Bleak Walker/Soulblade and it's a great combo.

https://mixer.com/MaximusRaeke?vod=27848688

They scaled in PoE. Base damage of weapons, armor DR and of course ACC and endurance as well as defenses scaled with char level. Same in Deadfire.

I did a Beguiler and I think it's good. When you cast low level deception AoE powers like Eyestrike on afflicted enemies you actually get more focus back than you spend (Blind is such a powerful debuff). I had Draining Whip - so maybe that helps here as well. I found it to be a good CC spammer. Damage is also good enough, especially if you have another party member who can deliver AoE afflctions as well (rogue+blast, wizard, druid). Then you get full focus from soul whip and some from deception powers. Nalpasca is kind of OP if you combine him with high Alchemy. Drugs last for over 600 secs and even the lousiest ones let him generate wounds on the fly. I could use Blade Turning without pause with a Nalpasca with Lesser Wounds and decent INT, making him invulnerable in melee. I don't know if there's a significantly bad class atm. They all seem to be balanced pretty ok at the moment. Of course some multiclass combos are very powerful and others are kind of a waste, but nothing seems totally lackluster when you look at single classes.

Pro tip: don't go into the bear cave. It's quite tough. Come back later with more party members. Is the game too hard? Or don't you know how to play these games?

What about the abilities of a Priest of Galawain?

Woedica Monks all over the place!

It doesn't stack. I think MaxQuest reported that.

Wizard/Fighter is pretty good with Spirit Lance + Cleaving Stance. Each Kill will trigger a sort of double-AoE cleave. Like HoF in PoE basically.

Since a wizard can have Spirit Shield and also Iron skin he can go for 0 recovery with Gauntlets of Swift Action + DAoM and a durganized padded armor. Inthe early game I would prefer heavy armor though- Wizards' endurance and health are low. Since there's Spirit Shield and plenty of Holy Meditations and later Crowns you can drop RES a bit, but I wouldn't dump it completely I think. It's too tedious to always cast a spell just to balance out the low RES in the early game. The Skaen Priest also needs recovery boosts. Since you can't enchant Firebrand you will need other speed buffs to make him hit faster - for example Mourning Gloves or Gauntlets of Swift Action as well. Maybe Outlander's Frenzy is a thing. By the way I love the Skaen Cultist robes with the Executioner's Hood - and then wielding Firebrand.

I'd also nearly always prefer a normal wizard. Self buffs are all over the place when it comes to wizard schools and you will lose access to some nice self buffs if you choose Conjurer or whatever subclass.

They have an orlan swinger club & bar on the Black Isle named "Furnicula". I'm sure you can see naked orlan women there.

Play a Black Jacket. Everybody says it's so bad. I don't know... Once you get Unbending it doesn't matter at all that you don't have Constant Recovery (Unbending is insanely strong with good MIG and INT). You can of course do a quick-switch build with guns (I know that is good for burst damage because I tested it the other day) but I would prefer a melee build that focuses on the initial idea: to always pick the best weapon set for the current enemy. By the way: unlike PoE Quick Switch doesn't reduce the actual recovery after melee/bow attacks but only the extra "malus" recovery from switching. So no 0 melee recovery by switching in Deadfire.

Erm, pretty straightforward? The wizard would make use of self buffs and some talents that boost his weapon damage (Two Handed Style, Weapon Focus, Savage Attack etc.). As long as there's no SPirit Lance he would use the Parasitic Staff. Infuse with Vital Essence is a good thing when using Veteran's Recovery. I think he would also be my mechanics guy The priest of Skaen would take the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster Gloves, Prey on the Weak, Weapon Focus, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Scion of Flame, Two Handed Style, Savage Attack. Both priests would take Inspiring and Aggrandizing Radiance and all chars would max out MIG and INT. Inspiring Radiance stacks with itself so at the start of every encounter you would have +20 stackable ACC to land a great disable with the wizard and then go to town with the lance/burning great sword/Tidefall. Either the wizard or the Skaen Priest would be my main and take Merciless Hand and later Dungeon Delver.