Boeroer

Yes, Wounding Shot works in melee and is now a Full Attack, not Primary like in PoE. That means that dual weapons will each strike - mainhand (no recovery) --> offhand (recovery). In PoE it was offhand --> mainhand for Full Attacks.

Since recovery is fairly long with a morning star you could do that - if you don't mind the awful micromanagement.

Yeah, but the shots jump, so +100% damage.

I'd say it's one of the worst weapon options for several reasons: Knockdown is a Full Attack The initial hit roll of Knockdown (and any other x on hit/crit effect) gets +12 ACC and hit-to-crit conversion from one weapon (style), but the fortitude roll that determines if the target goes down does not(!) Charge ends in a Full Attack but the AoE damage isn't connected to your weapon - so no ACC bonus Same with Into the Fray and Clearout Disciplined Barrage already gives you plenty of ACC Sword is one of the worst weapon type when it comes to unique ones - they come either superlate, are just meh or only circumstancially useful. But of course it would be viable.

I remember that Josh said that sidekicks are comparable to PoE's companions while Deadfire's companions will have more stuff like relationships and so on. That was a very early statement - but it made me believe that they'll have banter. But as far as I know it wasn't explicitly said they would have it. A pity, but understandable.

You could also use a sword + shield and two battle axes. Sword and axe share the same Weapon Focus. Spears have +5 ACC,so it's not that bad when not using Weapon Focus Peasant for spears.

Oops,I overlooked this, sorry. A bashing shield is a shield that has the special enchantment "bash" which comes in qualities from I to III (or IV?) which only raises the damage. The bash is an offhand attack that alternates with the main hand. But it gets no bonus from dual wield info and Two Weapon Style. But it works with Full Attacks. A bash is considered a active attack ability and thus gets +1 accuracy per char level which makes it's accuracy pretty good later in the game while it's not that great at the beginning. The bash damage is crush and usually it's super low. Only special procs like on the Dragon's Maw or Badgradr's Barricade make it really worthwhile. But bash itself is better than no-bash when you have Full Attacks like Knockdown or rogues' strikes and so on. For auto-attacks it's pretty meh.

Nope. I wrote a few descriptions here and there but not a complete build list. Shock Hog: Take max MIG and high INT, CON and DEX, pick Veteran's Recovery and skill survival to 12. Pick up an item that has +2 to survival, like Jack of Wide Waters or the Rugged Wilderness Hat. Choose healing bonus when camping. Talents/Abilities: Veteran's Recovery, Weapon Focus Peasant, Two Weapon Style, Wildstrike and Greater Wildstrike Shock, Heart of the Storm, Outlander's Frenzy, Savage Attack or Apprentices Sneak Attack. Also Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver as story talents. Items: any item with a +2 bonus to survival, Wildstrike Belt. Rest doesn't matter that much because while shifted it all disappears anyway. Cast Returning or Relentless Storm (and also Avenging Storm once you get it) run near to your enemies, then cast Outlander's Frenzy and then shift and go to town. A nice trick is to skip Outlander's Frenzy but instead wear Sanguine Plate: it has +2 Survival and Frenzy on a received crit. While you run towards your enemy you often get a crit. After Frenzy gets triggered quickly shift and you will keep Frenzy but the sluggish plate is gone. If you think you need extra healing just cast a healing spell like Moonwell or whatever. Those work exceptionally well with the healing bonus from camping. When enemies are weak you can instead pick accuracy bonus in order to crit more often.

No idea. Nothing about that in the beta.

As I said: consistent damage output.

Why is it cheesy? You'll have a drawback in form of lower damage. I think the cooldown is between 3 to 4 secs. Just a guess though, didn't clock it or so.

A patinated plate (legendary), a robe made of human leather (Effigy's Something),some cool helmets and whatnot.

And they vote again... This is the most revealing poll that has ever been around.

Different time zones, that's all. US is pretty late...

Seriously? It isn't. The NPCs and 'story' simply aren't interactive enough. Its an entertaining hack\slash and exploration game, but the RPG elements are light and largely irrelevant. And choice and consequence are kept in the writers' hands, not the player. Its generally true of all of Bethesda's games and New Vegas as well. And most third acts of obsidian games (which have a noticeable 'we ran out of time\money, so sit back and let us tell you how you should feel about this and what your choices really meant') Well it's considered a computer roleplaying game by developers, media and critics. If you personally think it isn't that's fine, but it won't alter the general perception. CRPG is an umbrella term for all kinds of roleplaying games. This includes stuff like Diablo and also Witcher or Skyrim. Of course it's not a "classic" computer roleplaying game. It's like an ego-shooter with roleplaying elements. But nonetheless is is considered a CRPG. Why are we even discussing this in the first place?

Lifegivers get +2 PL for rejuvenation and +5 on top (so +7) while shifted. After the shifting ends they suffer -5. Combined with the +2 they always have that's -3 after shifting ends. Those PL boosts stack with other passive boosts like Wellspring of Life (nature godlike). So a Nature Godlike Livegiver who's shifted and has an inspiration going will have +9 Power Levels for his rejuvenation spells. And yes, that's very, very powerful. Only Shapeshifters can't cast while shifted. Lifegivers can obviously. The shifter malus includes spells from other classes.

So in the stream there were Mind Blades several times and they jumped 5 times on every cast - even if there only were two enemies. It would just jump back and forth between the two. Josh and Aarik gave the impression that this is intended (Aarik commenting something like "pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!"). So I guess this is not a bug. Anf hinestly I hated it that Mind Blades or other jumping spells stopped jumping if it killed the initial enemy or if the range between two enemies was just a tad to big. So this change is good in my book. You'll always get the same amount of damage out of those spells - concentrated on few enemies or spread over more.

You mean... you won't use an ability named "Arterial Strike" with a vampire? Ks ks ks...

Boar druid with emphasis on self healing I'd say. It's very solid in survivability, melee damage and also spell damage. Also fun to play because you don't have to scratch it from the floor all the time.

Depends. Usually, once you run towards your target you catch some wounds on the way due to disengagement. You can start with Stunning Blows and Skyward Kick for a quick, non wound driven CC and once you have some wounds the FoA magic happens. Of course it's superawesome to charge into the backline and deliver Knockdowns left and right - but Charge comes at lvl 13 while Long Stride and FoA are low level stuff.

Then for a min-maxing approach simply go max MIG, INT, DEX and dump CON and RES, rest into PER. Going melee will result in knockout then. Take Heart of the Storm or any other elemental talent that fits your spell choice and use an overseeing item. You might want to use Rot Skulls later on. It is very strong but comes quite late. In this case skill for implement use (Marksman, Dangerous Implement, Weapon Focus Noble or Adventurer). If you want to focus on the very strong DoTs like Plague of Insects, Infestation of Maggots and such then you don't need an elemental talent but have to focus on high MIG and especially INT. Rot Skulls also have a DoT component. If you want to use direct dmasge with elemental spells (Storms for example) then you want the elemental talents. Even hater talents work. For example you can go Boreal dwarf, take three other hater talents and an elemental talent and have either very high ACC or increased damage for your direct damage spells. Depends a bit on what spells you like.

Actually I think you should go ranger/rogue and use Wounding Shot + Arterial Strike + Deep Wounds with Battle Axes. I tried it the day before yesterday and all the DoTs stack. It's very powerful with high MIG and INT. Cre_dummies and cre_tigers die so quickly despite their high health... You can even summon a wolf as Ghost Heart or be a Stalker with a wolf. As far as I know know vampires can call/control wolves and so on. At least Bram Stoker's Darcula could. And somebody has to eat all the leftovers... Also Predator's Sense + DoTs, you know. Blood Frenzy is not so good in my opinion. Another thing that would be possible is Soft Winds (causes DoT and drains endurance) and later maybe Old Siec as phrases. There's even a weakening chant which seems to fit.

As I said: how do you know it will be useful for the next encounter? Do you sneak up and then change armor after inspecting the enemy? What if you haven't met those before. This all sounds rather meh.

I think it doesn't stack with Wyrwood Ring or Rymrgand's Mantle. If you don't use those then sure. Heldrik's Coat is good anyway. I mainly took the White Crest because of the looks. I think Overbearing Wave can save the day - but so can Breakout Sturdy.

You can surely use other armor. The Golden Scales are only here for their optics. In this case hide armor would look best I guess? Or, after looking at the image behind the link: a monk's outfit with a red cape maybe? Aumaua can have blue stripes in their face. This build uses a (or two) special bashing shields for proc effects with Carnage and Heart of Fury. You can use any other (bashing) shield that looks cool for you and this will not gimp your tankyness, but you might want to switch to a dual weapon set just for Heart of Fury and then switch back. For example use a medium round shield that looks a bit celtic (search for Scath Gwannek) with a spear (Cladhaliath is cool with a barb when using stunning and vicious) and switch to dual battle axes for the Heart of Swipe. You can also just skip that and live with the fact that Heart of Fury does less damage with a normal shield or a shield that has no special proc on bash.