Boeroer

@MaxQuest: I know you once spoke about the Transmuter's/Ogre's hide armor and that it has +100% recovery with 6AR (superbadass) - while plate has 55% and Spiritshift armor has 0%. Do you have plans to fix this as well? Or maybe you already did and I missed it?

@KaineParker: In Deadfire? Because in PoE they do. Stat bonuses on weapons and shield stack with *everything* in PoE. @dunehunter: just an example. And yes, in PoE two handed weapons had double enchantment costs when it comes to ingredients. Despite them having multiple weird and maybe costly enchantments they are considered to be the worse option in most cases because: no lash.

Well there's a two hander in PoE that gives you +4 MIG while the only other one hander that gives you MIG only does give you +1 MIG.

Ah, ok. Yes, with that many ACC bonuses Savage Attack works quite well. Another combo I like with Savage Attack + good ACC: Assasin/Bleak Walker with Backstab and Smoke Cloud: the attack from stealth has several bonuses (Assassinate + Backstab + Sneak Attack), so has FoD (+20 ACC, 2 lashes). I have numbers over 300 against CRE_Dummy that way and can do it 5 times per encounter. And in between I'll have Eternal Devotion with +20% lash. I'll do an Arterial Strike without Savage Attack and then use Smoke Cloud: the enemy wants to reach another target since I'm gone, suffering a lot of raw damage from moving while I prepare my final Backstab. It's really a great combo - especially because the Bleak Walker makes it very sturdy (for an Assassin) because of the nice defensive passives. Sadly Assassination doesn't work from invisibility yet (althoug it says so in the tooltip). Would be even better with a priest with Devotions in the party... I'm really thinking about playing a Bleak Walker again in PoE in order to import im to Deadfire as Bleak Walker/Assassin.

Nice combo. You can't get to Deep Wounds with a multiclass char in the beta but at further levels this would be really nice. Concerning Savage Attack (since it surprised me that it should be multiplicative): I just did a quick test with a Bleak Walker/rogue and did a Sneak Attack + FoD + Savage Attack and when I re-calculated the damage that was displayed it only all fit when I assumed that Savage Attack is applied additively, not multiplicatively.

I feel the same. I mean it can be cool to be able to pick the perfectly suitable weapon at the start of an encounter - but I seldomly switch during a fight. So I guess the Black Jacket just needs something more than just quicker switch and an additional slot.

I really hope the guys at Obsidian are still following this. What you can't really compute is how over- and underkill affects the encounter. If you manage to one-shot an enemy with an overkill at least he's no threat anymore - while he could theoretically do something really nasty while you recovery from your first (underkill) strike. It's not that easy. I think you can't just put additional 4% damamge on two handers and then it's all perfectly balanced. What do you think? Also I hate that Full Attacks favor hard hitting one handers. But that's another thing...

But in beta3 the high PEN weapons like estoc and hammer and such got a base damage upgrade (others as well, but to a lesser extend).

They seem to scale like all summoned items (which they might be in the end - I mean code wise). So it doesn't matter if you multiclass or not.

Yes, meanwhile I did some testing with a shifter (hadn't done so until now) and indeed the scaling bonus is only additive - unlike PoE where is was multiplicative. So forget what I was saying about base damage. It also seems that unlike PoE the two Wildstrike talents do add the lashes to a big one instead of having two seperate ones. This is an advantage over PoE. Although it doesn't matter at all with the new PEN/AR system... My point about armor still stands though: 0 recovery with good AR ratings (that scale - also look at the bear form) is a big advantage over normal armors. Especially because the recovery penalty goes into calculation via double inversion which has a big impact on your attack speed. There's a reason why Goldpact/Bear shifter or Berserker/Bear is so good.

I assumed it worked like in PoE where base damage got raised. If natural weapons only get additive quality the OP has a point.

But only because your second example has a granularity of 1.

Some things to consider: You forgot that the damage of your natural weapons that scales is base damage. While normal weapons with quality enchantments fine/exceptional/superb also gain +4/+8/+12 Accuracy and +1/+2/+3/+4 Penetration, they only gain +15%/+30%/+45% additive damage bonus while your natural weapons gain the same, but as multiplicative bonus since their base damage is raised. Plus: you'll have elemental lashes. If you combine that with a class that has additional damage bonuses like rogue or cipher it becomes pretty obvious that this is more powerful than mere weapon quality. With your armor: you'll get the equivalent of fine/exceptional/superb via scaling, but your AR/recovery penalty ratio is better than that of normal armors. Also don't forget that it's an advantage if you don't have to spend resources for enchanting in order to keep your gear up to date. You can give good stuff to other people in your party because you won't need it.

That also depends on the average enemies' AR.

Like so: [img=http://www.thisisnotreal.com/example.gif]

Or... we just do some playtesting and look how everything works out. Maybe better than number crunching 'til there's no tomorrow. The game's too complex to solve its problems with theorycrafting alone I guess.

Of course there is a community manager - and a nice one at that. Search the member list for Aarik D.

ROFL. Firebrand is even worse than a great sword now. The rest of the damage changes seems to go into the right direction. Why is the sword so good? Even its modal is good.

They have problems with it since Deadfire is in the making. I guess at some point they changed the term from "reload time" ot "reload speed" and the guy responsilbe for implementing the numbers got really confused (maybe he's a berserker whose frenzy got triggered): The hat in Deadfire did extend reloading time as well as the soulbound arbalest in the PoE Deadfire Pack. Some weapon modals also did the opposite from what they are supposed to do, so is Gunner in Deadfire. With reloading time (or is it speed? ) it's all a big mess atm.

Whooha - lots of data. Give me a prod once you think your balance mod is (kind of) finished and I will do several playthroughs with it and report.

Doesn't matter if the lesser base damage + bonus from overpenetration leads to the same end result as with a weapon that has higher base dmaage but gets a malus from underpenetration.

Did you actually try it in the beta? It's debateable if that mechanic is "fantastic". Or is this just some "I didn't try it, but come on, the company is nice so why shouldn't we praise everything they do although you don't really like it" statement? I like Obsidian, I like Josh (well, the parts I know of), I like PoE, I like CRPGs, I like to give feedback if I'm asked for and I really don't like the ship stuff (yet - maybe it gets better). So there's my feedback - bear with me.

I played FTL for over 400 hours - and the stuff in Deadfire is nothing, really nothing like it. It doesn't have to be, but claiming it is sounds just silly.

It happens when you reload a savegame. Honestly I'm superhappy about this - because the VFX of Soul Whip, Savage Attack, Vulnerable Attack and so on are too much for my sore eyes.

Why not? A stunning/vicious Cladhaliath is a great weapon for her. The "aggro mechanic" is different for certain enemies by the way. For example barbarians' first priority is low deflection while other enemies will have casters as no. 1 priority and will even disengage from tanks or use escape etc. to reach them. Others priority is low DR or low endurance (if dropped from fighting or generally low). Also distance plays a role. That's why glass cannon rogues with low DR, low deflection and low CON get attacked so often. Same with glass cannon wizards. They fulfill nearly every criteria for any enemy to get targeted. If you put a plate armor on a rogue you can see that it helps with surviving but also makes some attackers not targeting him. MaxQuest had a very informative thread on that with detailed criteria. Can't find it atm though. But basically the tactic that Phenomenum describes works well. Archers, ranged casters however will immediately switch to your squishies once they unstealth. Crowd Control (like a Whisper of Treason) is important then. Since charm is a hefty defense debuff as well most of the time enemies attack the charmed one.