Boeroer

You are awfully late. The game will be out in less than a month. The beta is short (it starts at lvl 6 and goes up to max 9, and it's not the whole game in beta state - it's more like a small testing area with a few quests) and is lacking a lot of stuff. It also seems that it won't get updates anymore. Not a few mechanics already work differently in the final game. The feedback that Obsidian gets from the beta today will most likely not make it into the game. As a beta user I want to warn you: it's not worth the $20 at this point.

I would never give up the belt & Firebrand. You'd have to rebind and level the belt again. That rapier + dagger combo is good with every char who can have dmg bonuses and doesn't do too many Full Attacks. So, fighter, rogue, cipher come to mind.

The damage output is better for the biggest part of the game with those two uniques and some damage modifiers. Just because of the blinding speed. Also, Vulnerable Attack will give you +5 damage per hit and Sword of Daenysis itself is rending, meaning another +3 DR bypass. If you add Ryona's Vambraces at some point you can have +11 DR bypass with the rapier and +8 with the dagger, with 15 DEX you'll hit every 16 frames. That's hard to beat for a two hander (hits every 26 frames with 0 recovery and 0 DR bypass). If a two hander can get to 0 recovery it can compete - but it's not easy to reach 0 recovery with a two hander while it's very easy to reach it with those two weapons. In the early game however they feel a bit underwhelming against high DR - but every dmg bonus and every DR bypass helps. Body Attunement is also great with fast light weapons.

An unarmed Chanter? Never tried, but might work. Too bad chanters have no awesome self buffs besides the two invocations that give +5 to stats (too expensive, takes too long to build up phrases for those) and the Champion (too late, too expensive). Mith Fyr could be nice with fists...

Except the special ones that come with unique grimoires or from quests (Ninagauth's Black Pages and so on). But those don't get erased when you retrain. You will always keep them once you learned them.

Yes, it is viable. With Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger I would use Vulnerable Attack. I the earlier part of the game it's beneficial anyway and later on you can use it without speed loss (because both weapons have the speed enchantment which leads to sub-zero recovery values with dual wielding and Two Weapon Style). Stats: nothing special. Maneha needs Two Handed Style, Scion of Flame, Savage Attack and everything else that gives dmg bonuses like One Stands Alone. And of course Bloodlust + Blood Thirst. Try to have high ACC as well because you want to crit with Firebrand. So Accurate Carnage and Weapon Focus are a good choice.

Starcaller ist a good cipher weapon because the -6 shock DR helps a lot and the dual damage is also very nice. Not to forget that Heart of the Storm gives it +20% damage. The lack of a lash is not so good, but the Soul Shock proc on enemies is cool. It would have been even cooler if it was a Amplified Thrust, but Soul Shock is also ok. All on all I like it better on rangers though. @Stargazer55: concerning "swashbuckler" - dual sabre is a good choice for melee ciphers. Rapier + Dagger (especially Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger), too. Firebrand is also good on Barbs with Blood Thirst, Paladins with FoD+Intense Flames+Scion of Flame, melee priests, rogues and dps fighters. Barb is maybe the best synergy because Blood Thirst/Bloodlust remove the biggest disadvantage: the low recovery speed that can't be improved by enchantments. The Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger combo is also on of the best dps setups for ciphers. The good thing is that both weapons come quite early and can be kept until the end. You'll hit 0 recovery pretty early.

Eh, sorry. Two Handed Style obviously. Stupid typo. Merciless Hand is not mandatory, it's just a great addition. Firebrand itself is Annihilating, meaning it does +100% crit damage instead just +50%. With Merciless Hand it would be +130%. You can do without.

No. Things that generate focus: - direct weapon damage - (non DoT) lashes (doesn't matter if raw/elemental/physical). That excludes wounding and stuff like Runner's Wounding Shot's raw damage, Envenomed Strike and so so on. Procs of whatever spells or effect do not generate focus. There was a time wheere retaliation generated focus, but it was nerfed after I posted a somewhat OP retalition cipher build.

I didn't say that it's insignificant.

You have to keep in mind the following: chants don't cost any resources like spell uses chants keep on going forever chants are passive and thus stack with everything chants are passive and thus you can do different things while they are running. With a Troubadour/Lifegiver for example you could use Ancient Memory active AND cast Moonwell at the same time (and they'd stack). Or you hit somebody with the sharp end of the stick while you heal the whole party passively while they work, chants generate phrases for powerful invocations (for example calling summons) chants won't get interrupted chants have no casting time and recovery So yes, there are a couple of advantages of chants over spells. But you should not compare Ancient Memory with active healing spells though. You should compare Ancient Memory with other passive healing effects, for example the upgrade of Paladins' Zealous Endurance which gives the party the robust inspiration, which is also nice (and stacks with Ancient Memory by the way).

It doesn't have to be for bad reasons. Actually, it may well be that it's for very "gleeful" reasons. You know... she got married not long ago, she's young... I don't want spread rumors, but that would be a very good reason to leave a company - at least for a while. Ooor she's just moving to Sweden. Or she's a teeth model now.

It's pretty good actually. I had a whole "Troubadour testing session" just with Ancient Memory and Her Courage Thick as Steel - which is even better. Those two could be reasons for me to bring at least two chanters.

Haha. Well - at least this problem is solved. That's all that counts, right?

You can also write those two into any grimoire, retrain, pick two other spellst lvl-up and then after retraining learn the former two spells from the grimoire again. Then you'll have 4. And so on...

Some things to consider: 1. Flipped enemies don't give you focus. If you use Whisper of Treason on an enemy and then hit him, you won't get any focus. Use Mental Binding instead. 2. Novice's Suffering's bonus damage doesn't profit from damage bonuses like Soul Whip/Biting Whip/Savage Attack and the like. Only the 5-8 base damage do. On the other hand the bonus damage gets raised by MIG - unlike weapons where MIG only uses base damage. Also, grazes and crits only work with Novice's Suffering's base damage of 5-8. Novice's Suffering therefore is perfect for builds that don't use damage bonuses, have lowish accuracy but very high MIG. You can build a cipher with them, but you have to know this stuff. Taking Biting Whip for example is rel. pointless. Also thinks like the Merciless Hand. You'd have to focus on attack speed and MIG and can use more defensive talents. 3. Fists can't be enchanted with a lash. But a lash generates focus. 4. Tidefall's wounding doesn't generate focus 5. The best melee weapon for a Cipher until you get Durgan Steel is Firebrand. You can get the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer pretty early, followed by Forgemaster's Gloves. Those will give you 6 Firebrand uses per rest (from another thread): Firebrand with Soul Whip/Biting Whip/Savage Attack/Scion of Flame and Merciless Hand usually crits for over 100 damage. Use Mental Binding (that will make sure you crit often) and get ridiculous amounts of focus. Firebrand, unlike fists, loves damage bonuses. It can have no lash, but its base damage is so high that it more than makes up for this. With durgan steel, more than superb quality and a lash other great swords can be better options. For example the Hours of St. Rumbalt. However, even in the late game Firebrand is viable. You can stick to it and spare resources like Durgan Steel and dragon/kraken eyes for other party members. Also, Time Parasite with Firebrand is epic... If you are interested I can elaborate.

Besides that: it was about hirelings (aka adventurers), not companions. And adventurers you can hire in the Black Hound.

A while? It's right after the "tutorial" part in Gilded Vale.

When you hover over your MIG score, what does the tooltip say?

Eh? Until you find the first inn or similar. That shouldn't be too long.

Ancient Memory is actually not bad if you only use it and nothing else as phrase. It stacks with itself. With good RES you'll put a regeneration effect on every party member in range which is stronger than Constant Recovery.

Guns have no recovery time but only reloading time. Reloading time is not influenced by armor penalties, only recovery is. Thus you can shoot as fast in plate armor as you could in fresh underpants.

Stalker! PoE3 will have stalkers!

As far as I know dominate is still bugged and ends prematurely. Charm shouldn't have that issue though.

Or both. I also don't use consumables when I play with a full party. Also not on PotD. Mostly because I'm too lazy. And also because I don't need to of course. It's different for solo PotD. There I use everything I can get. Consumables in Deadfire are a lot better than in PoE (especially with enough Alchemy). So maybe my behaviour will change. But I doubt it... I also never use traps. In PoE they are weak - so why the hassle? In Deadfire they are quite good. Again, maybe I should change my bahaviour...