Boeroer

With heavy armor + AR abilites (especially passives that stack) you enter the interesting zone of AR. Everything below is meh. I'd always prefer strong healing over AR since there's no health system anymore that prevents the abuse of excessive healing. And since attack speed penalties hurt a lot more than in PoE (double inversion) and the attack speed bonuses have diminishing returns in Deadfire (opposed to PoE) it's harder to speed you up - and speed is important. So I want to avoid as many speed penalties as possible (as long as there's a good reason - better than uneffective AR - to endure it). The pitfalls of the PEN/AR system. But surely it's better than having a "mushy" DR system*... *hint for the sarcastically impaired: whatch out, there's irony.

What makes you say that? Oh no! Interrupt! Let me put it differently: on what reasonable grounds do you base that statement?

Wasn't Abjuration lowered to an earlier PL in the last beta version?

Yes, me. Same for chanters.

Yeah, supercheesy. I expect they also trigger Blood Thirst as they did in PoE.

Stacking in PoE was a huge mess. In Deadfire it's supposed to be better: General stacking rule of Deadfire: passives stack always (right side of the tree). Actives (left side) only stack if they address different stats. For example +5 PER stacks with +20 Accuracy. The effect is +25 accuracy but the first didn't address accuracy directly but PER instead. So Devotions (if it says it raises ACC universally) shouldn't stack with other accuracy buffs that also raise ACC directly and universally. For example it shouldn't stack with Zealous Focus or Warrior Stance (+5 ACC). If it does it's a violation of the stacking rules. I didn't test this combo yet. Maybe there's an exception because those are modals. I hope not. I know that it doesn't stack with Borrowed Instinct that buffs ACC directly by 20.

Well it's very difficult to remove hits entirely, so hit to crit is always good, especially if it comes in chunks of 50%. Conversion chances don't add up. They are multiplicative. So every added conversion has less and less impact. 50% and 50% will result in a 75% chance overall, not 100%. That's because on a hit roll all conversions will be checked one after the other. Also remember that you can get hit by an afflicton (lowering ACC) or meet foes with exceptional defenses. Of course conversions have diminishing returns the higher the discrepancy between ACC and defense is, but still... Uncanny Luck's conversion is meh by the way - especially if you already have other conversions like Disciplined Strikes. Uncanny Luck will raise the overall conversion rate from 0.5 to 0.525. if you add Single Weapon Style with 15% conversion it will be 0.575 to 0.596 with Uncanny. And so on. I would never give an ability point for that conversion. Maybe for the damage resistance as a tank...

Yeah - we'll have to wait and see it they are worth it. Currently Cleaving Stance and Disciplined Strikes are so good with Spirit Lance that they have to be really, really good to give that up right from the start. That the Blackbow comes so late/is not accessible for multiclass is a shame for every wizard/ranger aka wannabe arcane archer out there. Since it scales now it would have been nice to put it into a lower spell level. I disliked how late it comes in PoE already. When you want to play an arcane archer you have to play with a normal bow for 90% of the game. I mean Persistence + Alacrity + Martial Power is fun, but obviously inferior to lots of other things you can do as a wizard. Also I always wanted to see what happens when Blackbow meets Driving Flight.

Best track of PoE is the music that plays when you enter Caed Nua for the first time, especially when you meet Maerwald. If I want to name games with great soundtracks (that I played), it's FTL and Hotline Miami. But that music would be a tad weird in Deadfire (except maybe in the Furnicula bar on the BiB island ).

Priest of Berath gets Rot Skulls at higher levels. Also lets you wield the evil soulbound dagger from the beta. Also: vessels in the lower left of Russetwood who worship Berath - "Champion of Berath" Raedric (vessel). So Berath seems to have no problems with necromancy - just with people who prolong their lifespan unnaturally. If a god has problems with vessels it seems to be Eothas (St. Ydwen's Redeemer...). But whatever... As Helig of Thein and others teach us: animancy is science but necromancy is magic. No idea where the difference is, but wizards seem to fit best thematically (see Concelhaut + apprentices). Beckoner/Wizard with skeletons, Soft Winds of Death, later maybe Mith Fyr or Ancient Memory or the phrase that sickens (or weakens?), Concelhaut's spells (including staff), Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp (although ****ty), Thrust of Tattered Veils, Necrotic(!) Lance, Noxious Burst, Malignant Cloud and so on. Alternative: Beckoner/Bleak Walker. Also lets you wield the soulbound dagger if I'm not mistaken and gives you Shared Flames and Zealous Auras which stacks with Mith Fyr for a great effect on the summons. Other Alternative: Priest of Skaen. Revenge from the grave and all that.

The wizard has awesome self buffs, I'd concentrate on those besides the summoned weapons. Also Rhyngrym's Repulsive Visage is a great spell for melee wizards. Some illusion spells are great self buffs (Mirrored Image for example), that's a resaon why I would use a vanilla wizard and NOT a Conjurer (looses access to illusions). The fighter has Disciplined Barrage which gets upgraded to Disciplined Strikes. That's a must-have. Another must-have is MobStance/Cleavin Stance. It's very powerful with Spirit Lance. Confident AIm will stack with Disciplnied Strikes for 75% graze-to-hit conversion. I'd also take Two-Handed Style. Mule Kick is very nice with Spirit Lance as well (ALL enemies in the AoE get kicked into the air) - but it competes with Disciplined Strikes for Discipline (fighter resource pool). Armored Graze is also great if you plan to wear thicker armor. Best synergy is Cleaving Stance with Spirit Lance: once you kill an enemy you'll execute an attack to all adjacent enemies. Since Spirit Lance does AoE-attacks and Cleaving Stance cascades, this often leads to a one-shot for whole groups of enemies once you killed your first enemy. Also the massive conversion of grazes to hits and hits to crits works extremely well with the AoE of the Spirit Lance.

Yes, due to the new attack speed formula, attack speed bonuses have diminishing returns. Quite the opposite to PoE where they had increasing returns. But in Deadfire it also affects attack animation!

They add up. An Unbroken with a shield, a spear and Defender Stance can engage more enemies (in theory) than fit around him.

As I already said: I think Intuitive is too strong. I mean think about it: if a target is paralyzed you get 50% hit to crit and some minor nicknacks. But if you're intuitive, you get a stat bonus, 50% graze to hit AND 50% hit to crit? Every idiot can kill a paralyzed target with a chopstick. No need for intuition...

But when taking Rooting Pain you DO get wounds from getting hit as a Shattered Pillar - kind of. Getting wounds from dealing damage is a lot more effective than getting wounds from taking damage. There has to be a drawback. Not necessarily -5 max wounds, but something. Maybe 7 wounds would be ok. Torment's Reach via Mortification is a big no for me, too. I like to use both Swift Strikes and Stunning Blows so far. Skyward kick will most likely be paid with it, too (was per encounter in PoE, like Stunning Blows). So no room for Torment's Reach there, competing for the scarce, non-refillable resource Mortification. I'd have no problems if Swift Strikes would work with wounds instead of Mortification though.

By the way: where's Sonic? Somebody needs to tell OP he's gonna get toasted for criticizing.

It's in. Everybody gets it automatically.

Since summoned weapons scale with character level and not Power Level I'd say it's always beneficial to multiclass with a melee class such as Streetfighter, Devoted or Unbroken, Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, Stalker, Soulblade, Skald. Wizard/Fighter and Wizard/Monk felt best for me. But Wizard/Skald was also fun. Especially with Citzal's Spirit Lance + Killers Froze Stiff (lance added via console). Of course we don't know which high level summoned weapons might wait for a single class wizard which a multiclass wizard can't get (like Llengrath's Warding Staff or so).

-more playable priest subclasses (Galawain, Abydon, Ondra, Rymrgand...) - more playable paladin orders (Fellows of St. Waidwen Martyr, Steel Garrote...)

Since there are no bonuses for piling wounds 5 is enough for a Shattered Pillar. I mean he even gets wounds when Rooting Pain hits and with every hit he lands, be it Force of Anguish or Torment's Reach. When enemies are disabled he can still get wounds by hitting them. A normal monk will get none if the enemies are not attacking him.

Very nice and helpful criticism. I agree.

I said Beguiler/Trickster was good, not crazy good. First you cause Hobbled in an AoE with Blast, then you can cast Eyestrike and gain focus from that. Enemies full of afflictions with no focus loss. That was a very useful addition to the party. Why is Skald in low tier? You gain 50% hit to crit conversion with Killers Froze Stiff. If you attack paralyzed targets you can build phrases easily. And Killers only costs 2 points for the Skald (who starts with 2 points into the fight). Multiclass Skald with fighter and gain 75% hit-to-crit conversion plus Cleaving Stance... Streetfighter can trigger flanked via powder burns. Open fight with a blunderbuss shot and voilà.

Two Handed Style should give +15% (or even +20%) and +1 PEN - or two handers should have higher PEN per se. More force = more penetration. More penetration translates to additional damage without raisig the dmg modifier.

Push attacks don't lead to disengagement attacks. Only willfully leaving the engagement triggers it. Even frightened or terrified targets who leave you will not get punished (anymore - was the case in beta1).

Yeah but that's due to the bug that attack speed mods also reduce reloading time in beta4 while armor penalty doesn't.