Boeroer

I tried it and it's absolutely solid. I took the hardest hitting one hander I know of (sabre), omitting PEN because the disengagement attacks will have +100% damage and PEN anyways. Engagement slots, defenses and AR are stellar. You can also collect a lot of resistances.

Oh oh oh oh...

I guess they wanted to prevent ACC stacking which made the game too easy for "experts". Inspiring Radiance is also gone.

@MadScientist: all good. I wasn't sure if there is a new high level ability with that name (was too lazy to look it up).

I agree to all of that.

Great! I'll have to bookmark that...

Don't forget Marksman (low lvl ranger passive).

Sadly Dragon Thrashed is more like Dragon Trash in the beta. But besides that: yeah it's a nice combo.

See above, I edited. It's especially good with a paladin. At least in the beta.

It's gone. But all chars start with the same accuracy, so it's not needed anymore. In exchange the priests now have really strong summoned weapons (you have to pick that spell though) that match the talents of PoE. A priest of Berath can now summon a scaling great sword with a 50% corrosive lash, Wael summons a scaling rod with 50% shocking lash and so on. They are very powerful. If you want to be a martial priest this works even better than in PoE (because of those awesome weapons). For example multiclass a monk with Priest of Wael and pick Lightning Strikes and get a rod with +80% shocking lash - also translates to the AoE of the Blast modal (or did the last time I tried). Very sweet. Or a Priest of Eothas + Kind Wayfarer who gets a flail with + 80% burning lash when doing FoD.

there is a functional exception. spells which can be cast before combat but which have a long enough duration to remain in effect following repopulation may be empowered for what amounts to two empowers per combat. for example, a priestly seal spell has an incredibly long duration and may be cast and empowered outside of combat. wait a few seconds before beginning combat and the per encounter empowering will have refreshed... and you will also have your X level ability available for use. regardless, it is possible to have a single character benefit from multiple empowers during a single combat encounter, but the exceptions is limited... and a bit exploitive. HA! Good Fun! ps full disclosure: am gonna confess, have used pre combat empowered warding seal more than once when fighting the greater blights. follow up short thereafter with a second combat encounter use o' empower... pillar o' faith dropped on blights clustered by a wizard's empowered pull of eora. Ouh - good catch. I didn't know that. It's so gimmicky - I like it! Technically it's still 1/encounter though because casting "out of encounter" is not casting "per encounter". But yeah - it's an exception. Sorry!

Both good questions. I didn't look at that extensively but I think casting the invocation doesn't stop chanting. I'm pretty sure. I believe only invocations' recovery pauses chanting. Weapon recovery and martial ability recovery (such as FoD, Wounding Shots and so on) does not pause it. I'm not 100% sure about spells though (for example from multiclassing with a wizard or so). Will test when I'm at home...

Those accuracy talents are gone in Deadfire...

Haha - nope. That one ist just too expensive. No discussion needed.

What happens if you deactivate AI first and then try to retarget?

Yeah, it seems to be broken. I saw it being used in one of the latest streams though - so I guess this bug was already fixed in the actual game build.

What do you think: which other non-weapon melee attacks are there? Maybe stuff like Jolting Touch and such? Concelhaut's Draining Touch is now a summoned weapon that disappears after one attack (it's not so bad actually) so that doesn't count as non-weapon melee attack I guess. Retaliation?

I can't find it either. At some point I guess I'll have to get up and put things into the gamepedia wiki myself.

It actually doesn't matter at all in this case. For two reasons: 1. You have to crit anyways to make this happen and crits do 1.5 times PEN which usually is enough. 2. Since you are triggering a chain reaction that increases exponentially it doesn't matter what tiny damage your crits do. I even dumped MIG completely in one test and it makes no difference. The hits/crits pile up exponentially and everything in range (thus INT is important) is dead after 2-3 seconds. Killed by a staccato of hundrets of hits/crits. It would even kill with 1 dmg hits. Maybe I'll upload a video. I guess this stuff you have to see with your own eyes.

Hilarious! Does that mean you are choking the guy you're healing? Can't test myself, writing from my phone.

Don't you guys think that Barbaric Blow with 2 Rage and FoD with only 1 Zeal is a bit unbalanced? When I use it BB doesn't feel more powerful than FoD. The refund on kill is not very useful in my case and opinion. I want to use BB as a tool to bring down foes' health quickly, not as unreliable finishing blow that might overkill like crazy. Also the 0 recovery on kill upgrade might be moot when I look at higher PL where Blood Thirst waits for me...

The casting categories have been reduced. 6 became 4.5 and so on. Also slot of spells have been put into a faster category. There's also an ability now that reduces casting time. And universal attack speed buffs like Frenzy reduce casting time as well - unlike in PoE. Maybe you might want to have a look? Seems to be more smooth than complaining first and then eventually having to take it back. Fireball is still slower than in PoE though. But it does more damage as well.

I'm realizing a lot these days. Especially because I play all that stuff before starting rants. Since when did rogues in PoE have upgrades to strikes - like Confounding Blind that reduces the enemies' deflection with every hit or Arterial Strike lets them suffer 6 damage with every step they make? Since when could rogues in PoE use Backstab or Finishing Blow multiple times per encounter? Since when did rogues Persistent Distraction unlock Sneak Attack in PoE? Since when could round multiply their additive dmg bonuses with MIG in PoE? All that stuff makes the rogue a lot more powerful than in PoE. He also got a lot sturdier than in PoE. The only thing that misses is Reckless Assault. Why don't I give a damn? Reckless Assault is good in the early game - but it's non-stackable(!). Those potential +8 ACC are bad after the early game. Not only because 8 ACC is not that important at that point but also it supresses/got suppressed by any other universal ACC buff. And in Deadfire it would not stack with Zealous Focus, Devotions and so on. So no big loss. Also rogues strikes come with ACC or PEN bonuses. The loss of Reckless Assault in the beta is not a big deal. As if 8 accuracy would make you crit like crazy... And who says that there will not be more ACC and/or conversion stuff at higher levels? And since when is hobbled gone? Weapon Focus is gone for everybody so no impact on balance.

1. No, not affected 2. Only the low DEX 3. Recovery will suffer from it all - except weapon modal (that only affects weapon attacks) 4. Yes. Chanting pause after invocation. So as an active invocation user you don't want to be a slow turtle unless you use fast invocations with short recovery.

As a Troubadour you can also pair it (without a gap) with another phrase that doesn't stack - like Mith Fyr or Old Siec or whatever. I think it's pretty cool, putting a tier-2 affliction on everybody just by standing around. It will also cancel all fitting inspirations on enemies all the time. Seems to be very good in my book. Doesn't weakened also prevent healing?