Boeroer

Yes, on PotD the enemies are not only tougher, they also come in greater numbers and deal more damage (also because there are other, more dangerous types of enemies). A rogue, while his offense is great in the early to mid game because of Sneak Attack, totally falls behind in the later game because he can only deal single target damage and nothing else. And in the later game his damage doesn't rise as much as enemies' endurance does - meaning it takes a while to grind down an enemy with melee attacks, even with Sneak Attack + Deathblows. While building your whole party around it so that the rogue can shine you lose so much potential while gaining rel. little damage. And on top the guy's squishy as an overcooked ravioli. At the same time a spiritshifted druid can do even more melee single target damage without the whole party having to pamper him. His time as melee single target guy my be limited, but he can also cast awesome spells once his single target damage is not sufficient. A monk can come close to a rogue's single target damage (but takes more levels) while being a lot sturdier and also having great CC and AoE capabilities. It's the same problem the standard dps fighter has on PotD. Hits quite hard - but there are too many foes and he isn't very useful for anything else. A chanter on the other hand is really great on PotD (while he's not so good on lower difficulties - as you said the fights are too short). On PotD however a chanter - specialized on Dragon Thrashed AoE damage - is one of the best damage dealers in every party while being very sturdy and doing passive healing for the party at the same time. Single target damage dealers can still be good on PotD if you build them sturdy enough to survive without too much support and then send them behind enemy lines to take out the squishies - and they have their value in boss fights. But generally rogues and fighters are considered to be weak after the mid game on PotD because of the reasons I mentioned above. Also because you can have awesome occasional single target (spike) damage with other classes who bring additional stuff to the table (wizard, priest, druid, paladin). Dps fighters can get their act together again with Charge, rogues don't have such an awesome high level ability. Because that's another reason: the rogue has weak high level abilites compared to other melee classes. Barbs get Heart of Fury and Dragon Leap, Paladins get Sacred Immolation, Fighters get Charge, rogues get... Smoke Cloud? Feign Death? Shadow Step? Ironic wow! But all in all it depends mostly on the difficulty setting. I played countless PotD playthroughs and the standard dw glass cannon rogue is by far the weakest party member in every playthrough. Not in terms of damage, but in overall usefulness. Can still be fun though.

Kind of. Since the belt is in the game Firebrand went from an occasional weapon (3 per rest) to a potential main weapon (6 per rest). And since it's the melee weapon with the highest possible damage per hit it's nice for several builds. Other two handers like Tidefall can ourperform it in the late game (with a lot of enchanting), but it's so much fun to use it throughout the entire game that I stick to it. It also helps to spare precious resources like durgan steel, dragon/kraken eyes etc.

If you want to make sure they only get 25% damage instead of 100% or even 130% and will not be the ones who get hit first all the time then yes. For -75% damage everybody can handle longer recovery times. In PoE there was a sweet spot when it comes to DR and rushing. Also every point of armor did something for you. In Deadfire it's more like all or nothing. Of course it may be that we'll see some awesome unique medium armors - who knows...

I would never go naked because even your backline can be targeted by ranged attackers easily - and when being naked it's very "easy" to suffer from +30% damage. Also characters with low DR get targeted a lot more than ones with at least decent DR. If you want to concentrate fire on a bait-character (yoi can cast Barring Death's Door or the Kind Wayfarer's ability on him foirst so he doesn't get down) just run him naked and with low deflection and everybody and their neighbor's blowdarts will target this character first.

Yeah - it's just too important now to have good AR. I mean that's maybe realistic - every combatant in medieval times would have worn plate armor if it would have been affordable. But this is a game and not a simulation. All kinds of armor should have some pros and cons and be viable at least. I also don't get why you can't give medium armors excessive protection against certain damage types while they are just medium in general. For example why not give padded and hide armor a LOT more AR against freeze damage? I mean more that heavy armors have. Stuff like that. That would make at least sure they get used in certain encounters/environments. And with plate for example I would even suggest to remove AR vs. shock completely. Also heavy armor should have some impact when you are a seafaring adventurer. There's a reason why plate isn't famous on ships...

It's a pity because Bleak Walker + Spiritual Great Sword would be very nice. They could have made it so that you automatically take Untroubled Faith as first ability when choosing those combos.

Phew - I'm glad that we cleared that up. Now off to something different!

If you like paladins and flaming swords and high spike damage, then here's something: Race: doesn't really matter, go for your favorite Stats (not set in stone): MIG: 15 CON: 10 DEX: 15 PER: 15 INT: 15 RES: 08 Class: Bleak Walker's or Goldpact Knight (more spike damage) or Kind Wayfarer (good AoE healing - here Moon Godlike makes sense) Key items: Forgemaster Gloves and Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (both are obtainable quite early so you're not spending 75% of the game with hunting equipment to make a build work). Talents: - Weapon Focus <whatever your backup/alternative weapon should be> - Remember Rhakan Field or Enduring Flames or Strange Mercy+Sword & Shepherd - Intense Flames - Scion of Flame - Runner's Wounding Shot - Two Handed Style - Savage Attack - Apprentice's Sneak Attack (not in case of Kind Wayfarer) Abilities: - Flames of Devotion - Lay on Hands - Zealous Focus - Sworn Enemy - Inspiring Triumph - Righteous Soul - Sacred Immolation - Behold the Martyr or Abjuration Your main weapon will be Firebrand which you will use in every fight (you'll have 6 uses per rest which is plenty). Against burn immune foes you need a solid two handed backup weapon you like. I like using a pike because of the reach, but a great sword is also good because of the two damage types. ST. Ydwen's Redeemer is also a good backup weapon. If you take this I would also pick Abjuration. You can then get instant kills with vessels and spirits which can help a lot. Redeemer can use any weapon focus. Firebrand itself works with any weapon focus, too. Story talents you desperately want: Merciless Hand (Doemenel Faction) and Dungeon Delver (dyrwooden looters). Firebrand itself is already Annihilating and seasoned with those talents it nearly do +50 damage on crit. With Sworn Enemy + Flames of Devotion (+ 35 ACC) you'll crit pretty often. Use a priest to buff party's accuracy with Devotions of the Faithful and Inspiring Radiance! I recently tested a Bleak Walker with this setup and got crits over 200 with Flames of Devotion... Also Runner's Wounding Shot with Firebrand is very good. Offtanking is ok as always with a paladin. Use Lay on Hands on yourself if you need to. Spike damage is awesome. Really nice. You might want to use medium armor instead of plate in order to be faster. In the early game plate is very good but durig Act II I would tune it down to hide or even padded. But this depends what feels best for you. If you like plate then it's also ok of course. The micro is not too high: summon Firebrand and beat up stuff with FoD and Runner's Wounding Shot. Heal once you or friends seem to have trouble. That's it. Later summon Firebrand and turn on Sacred Immolation.

See shanties! Now that's a cool nice addition. Maybe I will come around and like the ship stuff after all.

You can use Empower to regain half of your spell uses (that is 1 cast per spell level) once per encounter.

I'm using the armors that fit my characters and which I like optically. For example I don't like the shiny appearance of standard/fine/exceptional plate on my frontliners so much so I will use breastplate or so. And with some abilities you can do some AR stacking so that you can outperform enemies' PEN. But this requires some meta knowledge (already spend 200+ hours on the beta). To be on the safe side you want to use plate or brigandine all the time. I don't know how you could make standard/non-unique medium armor worthwhile in the current system. I suggested a stride malus for heavy armor as well (the heavier the more severe - while tuning down the recovery maluses a bit) - maybe that would do something. Also a non-linear increase in recovery penalty might help.

I noticed some robes from WMII are missing (Robes of the Tidebringer for example). Null-edit doesn't fix it this time. I think they are just not in.

Depends on enemies corrode/burn DR. Both are ok. Goldpact Knights have the advantage that their dispositions are not as "extreme". Penetrating Shot for an arquebus is kind of wasted. It only gives you +5 damage and DR bypass does nothing for your lashes (FoD/Intense Flames/lash on weapon). Quick Switch can be substituted with the Coil of Resourcefulness to free up another talent point. Just an option though. Quick Switch is a bit faster and they also stack (for super quick switching). What about Arms Bearer? You could add a third arquebus and pick Runner's Wounding Shot. It's as good as an FoD shot against 0 DR but better against high DR foes. It's only 1/encounter but usually enough to melt one squishy. Critical Focus is crap. Edit: If you really want to use a single weapon and use a Bleak Walker then I'd suggest Bittercut and also take Spirit of Decay. It will add +20% damage to your physical damage as well as the Rhakan-Field lash.

What do you mean? PoE? In PoE you can go with exceptional durganized robe (= 0 recovery penalty, 7 DR) and be fine in the late game. You can also try to stack crazy amounts of DR (superb plate + Iron Wheel + Second Skin + Blunting Belt + Cloak of Comfort for example for way over 30 DR). That helps but is really extreme. For tanks who can't deal damage or do active support of course more DR is always better (see Dragon Thrashed Chanter). Since more DR with no speed loss doesn't hurt, builds that have crazy speed stacking can also go with plate and have 0 recovery. But every other build who has decent endurance and can't reach 0 recovery in heavy armor should go with a 0 recovery armor (so durganized robes - or in case of fighter durganized scale). But the DR in PoE also has another aspect: certain enemies will not focus on you if you have decent DR. So even it it doesn't do much once you get attacked, a thicker armor can prevent that xou get attacked at all. That's why I always wear medium armor with by backline - it helps a lot to prevent rushing.

Also some of the races have resistances as racial feats now. For example Wood Elves have Resistance against Dexterity Afflictions (Hobbled and so on), Wild Orlands have Resistance against Resolve Afflictions (all the fear stuff), Mountain Dwarves have Resistance against Constitution Afflictions (Sickend, Weakened...). Unfortunately (for Berserkers) there's no race with a Resistance to Intellect Afflictions.

The armor system in PoE was not silly. It just didn't scale well with endurance and damage numbers over the course of the game. In the early game high DR was too good while in the late game it didn't matter much. Compare 10 DR of plate to an endurance pool of 30 at lvl 1 (1/3) and then compare 20 DR to an endurance pool of 300 at lvl 16 (1/15). It would have been a better system if it would have been based on percentages and not on flat numbers.

Yes - armor penalties are worse in Deadfire and also have more impact on your attack speed because those penalties are calculated with double inversion. Thus, they have a lot more impact than in PoE where they were just additive penalties. In Deadfire you have even less motivation to wear medium to light armor. Once the enemies are above your AR they do full damage - and most enemies I've seen in the beta have higher PEN than medium armor has AR.

I think it had to be nerfed because it had to fit into the new affliction/inspiration system which works with stats as a basis and has three tiers. So in case of Intellect afflictions that's Confused -> Charmed -> Dominated. Each tier is supposed to be a lot more severe than the one before. You can counter afflictions with inspirations of the same base stat and Resistance. In this case Resistance to Intellect afflictions which will tune down the affliction that hits you by one tier. Meaning that Berserker who is resistant to Intellect afflictions will not get confused at all and if he gets hit by a charm effect he will only get confused. I guess that's also the reason why prone got nerfed so hard: it had to fit in the new system and be notably weaker than stun and so on.

Sorry, I edited while you were responding. So if you need more advice then just come back and we'll figure something out.

If you can't win the fight at lvl 12 with the official companions on Path of the Damned difficulty you are doing something wrong. You would need to give more details about what you're actually doing in that fight in order to receive proper advice. Usually that fight is easier than let's say the fight vs. the Adra Dragon. If you could beat her you should have no problems against Thaos and maybe only your tactics are a bit off. One tip though: if you have a character with high deflection and Weapon & Shield Style then give him the small shield Aila Braccia you get from the monks in the Celestial Sapling, buff his deflection and present him to Thaos. That shield turns ALL ranged grazes to misses and will reflect Thaos' Cleansing Flame back to him. Another tip: send Kana Rua in with a one handed single weapon and chanting Dragon Thrashed only. Then cast Withdraw on him with a priest. He will be untouchable but still do lots of burn & slash damage. At the same time try to buff your accuracy and then debuff/disable the enemies. Take out the statues first because Thaos' can send his soul into them should you beat him down first.

It's how Germans eat their spaghetti. That should tell you something about the practical aspect. Well... and the stylish one as well.

Tell that to an Italian while eating spaghetti with fork and spoon...

Hahaha yeah, right?

Buck up!

Eh dude? Did you actually read it completely? I'm pretty sure you did not (properly). Like... a 100% sure...