Boeroer

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).

Let's make sure that we do something awesome as forum collective once Josh hits 20 years in the industry next year. We should open a thread like "Josh, it's a surprise for your 20th anniversary in the game industry - don't read!" and discuss what to do.

Doesn't it suffer a bit from Finishing Blows Syndrome? Sure, you're doing a lot of damage, but you're doing it to an enemy who doesn't need a lot of damage to kill.If you want to build around on-kill effects (see Barbaric Blow's Upgrade -I also assume there will be items with on-kill effects as well as in PoE) it can be decent.Bloody Slaughter was raised from 10% endurance (PoE) to 25% health (Deadfire). Because it's a passive I find that it's a good ability now. Finishing Blow uses Guile and competes with Crippling Strike/Blinding Strike and so on for Guile - so I find it less appealing. Barring Death's Door and the Kind Wayfarer-stuff (forgot the name) can be pretty cool with a Death Godlike and/or Blooded and/or Streetfighter. Also stuff like Wizard's Double or Blade Turning can be used to stop health loss once you reached bloodied status (50% health). You can also tell the AI to heal you automatically once you hit certain levels of endurance.

Any wizard with rod+Blast or Kaloth's Minor Blights in combo with rogue is great: summon the Blights and apply Confounding Blind in an AoE and then use missile or other multiple-hit spells to debuff deflection like crazy or cause Arterial Strike in an AoE and then force enemies to move (Repulsive Visage, Pull of Eora etc.). An Assassin/wizard can do ridiculous crit damage out of stealth and also out of invisibility (needs fix). Also the PEN bonus of Assassination is very helpful. There are not many other PEN buffs for spells. Backstab, Sneak Attack and so on are not good for spells, but you can cause afflictions in an AoE (be it via spell or Blast/Blights) and then do Sneak-Attack-AoE damage via Blast/Blights. Blights is the better option since it can be used with dual wielding speed and the damage is higher. Spirit Lance is the same as Blights - just melee and you can't use neither dual wielding speed nor single weapon ACC bonus. But Crippling Strike and so on also work in an AoE with the Lance.

Fearsome Brute also can't use Chanter's invocations if I remember correctly..?

As beta player: yes, totally viable.

Contacting email support is what most people helped in those kind of situations with backer stuff. There have been some cases I read about in this forum and as far as I know email support did work well. I guess Aarik and Mickey have tons of other stuff to do atm, so I wouldn't bother them too much. Although they usually write the kindest replies.

It is quite nice if you build around low health - like with a Barb/Streetfighter with Blooded and Bloody Slaughter. The (crit) damage on enemies with lowish endurance (<= 25%) once you are blooded (<= 50%) is spectacular. Spells like Watchful Guardian are cool with this. They heal you automatically if your health drops too low, but they don't heal you all the way.

I guess not.

Yes. There have even been several solo chanters with dumped PER and MIG who used summons as main damaging and defense tool. With Aefyllath and other support phrases it works pretty well. Of course the lower tier summons lose impact at higher levels, but you get more powerful ones - like Ancient Weapons.

First it was put on the bug list by Cdiaz and then it got removed by the devs. The case is clear. In general, single class chars gain a power source point every 2 levels. Multiclass chars gain 1 power source point for both classes every 3 levels. At level 7 the single class char will have 6 power source points to use for active abilities per encounter, the multiclass char will have a total of 10 power source points. And so on.

You could write a PM to Fluffle. He's the contact person of the BiBs to Obsidian. If somebody besides Obsidian knows something then it's him. But as I know Fluffle he would have posted news about the BiBs immediately.

You can write a PM to Aarik D or Mickey Dowling and will most likely receive an answer. But the "official" and save way is to contact email support. There is very little chance that a forum post is going to do anything.

Still a multiclass caster has more active ability uses per encounter which should balance the more powerful spells a single class caster might have. There are also other synergies besides lashes that can be very good: Assassinate + spells, Thunderous Blows + spells, Confounded Blind or Arterial Strike with certain spells, Disciplined Barrage + upgrades with spells and so on. The appliances of weapon lashes to spells was identified as bug right from the start (see technical support subforum of the beta). No surprise they removed it.

Wow. What an elaborated answer. Very concrete. It's basically like saying: "Because I really really think they are powerful." Concelhaut's Staff only adds draining. So how can it cause +30% damage in a playthrough? Most likely because you will attack with it more often because you have the feeling you have to since you invested summoning time and a spell use. You would do the same damage with a regular quarterstaff of the same quality. This only shows that melee and offensive spells are still poorly balanced (assuming the staff wasn't buffed in Josh's game version). Or that you can't find a good quarterstaff... No word about WHY they are supposed to be powerful. Firebrand is total crap. Not because of its values alone (it's a scaling great sword with a different damage type) but because you use summoning time,a spell use and an ability point for something that is as powerful as a normal weapon you can carry. Minor Blights and Lance are powerful because: - Blights profit from dual wielding speed if you carry a one handed melee weapon in your offhand - Blights and Lance apply afflictions/lashes/on hits to all enemies that are hit in an AoE - Blast does the same with all rods (there will most likely be very broken combos with unique or soulbound rods). But the power of one or two summoned weapons don't make all summoned weapons powerful. Concelhaut's Staff is ok in its current form if Draining works. It's lvl 1 and draining, besides the scaling, is good enough I think. But Firebrand is crap. Instead of saying that summoned weapons are powerful "well because!" over and over again I would like to see some more differentiated approaches.