Boeroer

Only briefly, but it worked quite well. Mob/Cleaving Stance is really nice with the higher damage output of Sneak Attack. Also enemies with afflictions leaving engagement get punished very hard with disengagement attacks that do +150% damage and more and +10 PEN due to the Unbroken's feats + Sneak Attack + eventually bloodied/flanked bonuses (like Blooded, Streetfighter heating up and so on). This can trigger a deadly chain reaction with Mob/Cleaving Stance if some enemies are bloodied or near death. However, the best combos with Unbroken so far I had with wizard (using self buffs and Repulsive Visage to scare off enemies who then get killed by disenggement attacks - now nerfed), monk (using Soul Mirror + Blade Turning + thick armor + shield extensively). And with the Streetfighter it was Berserker - because he wants to be a solitary warrior anyway and the stacking crit damage modifiers of Berserker and Street Fighter, the stacking attack speed buffs and the buffs on low health (on yourself and the enemy with Blooded, Heating Up, Bloody Slaughter) add up pretty nicely. I did this with a Death Godlike to add even more bonuses when being low on health (me and enemy). Fun but risky. Unbroken adds more survivability and leads to a more "rounded" char I think.

That's 2 out of 56 builds in the build list (Backlash Beldam is actually outdated and not working anymore because of a nerf via patch: retalation stopped generating focus). You said I think that is highly exaggerated. Also those two builds count towards the "weird-but-powerful" category I was talking about. Most people won't want to post a straightforward standard build but try to create something interesting. The Anvil still works well enough without retaliation items because the main source of retaliation damage is indeed Battle Forged (and Rooting Pain). See the Monksterlasher build who uses the same principle but no retaliation items. However - I think your idea (including some kind of tag or label that gives a hint if the build relies on special items) is a very good one. I would also add a tag/label that hints if a build is a late bloomer or works well right from the start/in the early game. Or just add the level from which the basic build idea starts to work out.

According to the "simplified" stacking rules of Deadfire, every speed boost that stems from passives should stack. Bloodlust seems to be the only one atm, but hopefully we see some more in the final game (also from items like Gauntlets of Swift Action had). Maybe something like Anitlei? Sadly Blood Thirst got replaced by an upgrade of Barbaric Blow. It was a nice mechanic that also could be triggered by killing your own summons and with every kill (no matter the ability/spell/attack you used - except DoTs).

If he uses Brisk Recitation he has no linger time - but I get where you are going. 24 damage every 3 secs in a big AoE is pretty nice.

Sadly not. Rangers' ranged abilities are pretty nice though. Wounding Shot and Accurate Wounding Shot are neat for example. For a ranged rogue I would use rogue/wizard and use Kalakoth's Minor Blights with Arterial Strike and then AoE Sneak Attacks.

They lowered the damage of all guns (or raised the damage of other weapons). Also blunderbusses no longer have 6 pellets but only 5. The modal for arquebuses is a lot better than for blunderbuss or pistol (in my opinion) tough.

It's good. What's also good is Paladin/Ranger with dual blunderbuss or pistol because of lots of Full Attacks (FoD + Wounding Shot). Also Blunderbuss + Ranger/Monk is kind of bonkers with Driving Flight and Swift Flurry.

In Deadfire it's just like a regular quarterstaff but with draining. Only thing it does is heal you a bit with each hit you score. There will most likely be a better unique staff than this. In PoE it had draining and 20-30 (!) base damage while a normal quarterstaff had 14-20. That's what made it so good...

His German is ok (and fluent) but not perfect.

It's heavily bugged. Instead of raising reload *speed* it raises reload *time*. Once it works like it's supposed to it should be great.

There are few chars that can crit as often as Edér with Disciplined Barrage. Maybe the item is broken. Fulvano's Blunderbuss also doesn't charm in my game. And in one playthrough the Sabre of the Seas wouldn't proc Overbearing Wave (now it does).

Sometimes you need to save, quit the game and reload for those problems to disappear. It sometimes happens that the spellbinds don't show up in the bar after equipping the item.

Funnily, if you stun with the thunder invocation (tier 1) while holding the Flinger it also counts. Made upgrading it a lot easier...

They are all at one merchant in the Anlög's Compass map. Just go there and have a look at his sortiment. The best ones in my opinion are the Company Captain's Hat and the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer. Not necessarily on the same character though. Bugs: Fulvano's Blunderbuss doesn't seem to proc charm as its description says. The Spike Flinger gets slower and slower with every upgrade instead of speeding up reloads.

Actually most PoE builds are not pointless without special items. They are just optimized with certain items. There are some builds that rely on a special item(s) (e.g. Bilestomper), but the majority of them function pretty well without. That's exactly what most build descriptions in PoE's subforum are about.Most of them are flexible as well - the author describes the "trick" or the basic idea behind the build. If you don't deviate too much from that basic idea you can alter the build quite a bit and it will still work well. Builds that don't rely on items at all can be druids (Spiritshift), umarmed characters (Transcendent or Novice's Suffering) or melee wizards who use summoned weapons. Basically all casters can be build without any special equipment. The think is that most of those builds are pretty straightforward and don't need a lot of creativity - so why should they be posted? So naturally it's the weirdo-yet-powerful builds that often get posted.

Another good option is to use the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer Belt + Forgemaster GLoves and use Firebrand as main weapon. It's perfect for FoD strikes and also works very well with Runner's Wounding Shot. Make sure to pick Intense Flames + Scion of Flame as well als Two Handed Style and Savage Attack. Also make sure to choose the Doemenel faction for the Merciless Hand talent. Firebrand is the strongest weapon choice in the early to late game and stays to be viable in the late game whee it need zero resources like Sky Dragon Eyes or Durgan Steel. With that lowish INT Tidefall is also a good option. With a Two Hander I'd always recommend Runner's Wounding for an offensive Paladin.

With Curse of the Blackened Sight.

I just realize that the vessels are called (Ancient) Death Guards and not Death Knights... :oops:

Not really. The whole Form is meh to be honest. They could have done a better job with it. Also the casting time is totally douchy.

Well, Dark Knight is not occupied. By the way: one can use the console to add a Death Knight's plate armor to the inventory. It's not really cheating - it just looks cooler than normal plate but doesn't do anything special.

I'm really tired of that. Zahua is a very powerful companion. With fists or with estoc or dual hammers and whatnot, it doesn't matter much. He also is one of the few companions who can get a unique talent or ability (n this case "Anitlei" which is a stackable attack speed bonus). Since OP doesn't want to take neither Sagani nor Kana this also doesn't matter much, but both are absolutely viable picks for PotD. Devil of Caroc has construct immunities (mind control, sickened, poison, disease) which make her more useful than other rogues in general. Drawback is her fixed breastplate, but you can enchant it. Manehas's stats are as high as those of any other companion (78 total). She starts with Barbaric Yell instead of Frenzy which can be a bummer for certain build ideas. All companions are viable for PotD. It mostly depends on preference and playstyle if they work well for you or not.

There is no such modal in the beta. Since we are not the developers nobody here knows if they included such a modal into the game yet. But I doubt it.

What JerekKruger said, plus: Form of the Fearsome Brute will remove any weapon and give you a (scaling) ogre club. Like Spiritshift will give you natural weapons, the Ogre's natural weapon is the club or something...

At least in the beta. Granted, draining is more powerful in Deadfire than it was in PoE because there's only endurance (renamed to health) now. Healing in general is more powerful because of the new health mechanics and so is draining. Because of that I guess that a scaling quarterstaff with draining is ok for a lvl 1 spell. It's nothing spectacular or brutal though because I suspect you can find something better during the game - which will make the Draining Staff pretty pointless (no problem if retraining is still possible).