Boeroer

Their are no proficiencies in PoE1. Only Weapon Focus groups. I guess you meant that. However, both don't work with universal weapons in Deadfire atm. Weapon Focus of the Deadfire-Barb only works for weapons you are proficient with while Weapon Proficiency doesn't apply to universal weapons. So - currently the term "universal" means/does nothing. No idea how OBS wants to solve this. @Gromnir: how often did you use Firebrand to kill a dragon in PoE? My (hyperbolic, yet educated) guess is 0 times. But yes, priests' weapon are def. powerful enough, if not too powerful. The staff: we don't know because draining is not in yet. Lance: good enough for me after some testing. Especially the implementation that triggers on hit/crit effects in an AoE (like Swift Flurry, Soul Whip, Soul Annihilation...) make it prone to cheesy exploits. I didn't even test what happens if you do disengagement attacks with it... Firebrand is the only one that I consider rather pointless at it's current state. It's just annoying that it takes so long to summon all of them. I would prefer shorter summoning time and shorter duration rather than longer casting time and longer duration (see the Long Pain: short cast, shorter duration). It's just better and less micro/standing around when you use a whole party.

Yes, 26.5% charm chance is correct (if we let misses and grazes aside). A ranger could even achieve ~46% with Driving Flight (assuming no misses and grazes and that there's somebody to charm behind the initial target). I don't think Powder Burns will trigger the charm, so I would stay with Swift Aim and compensate the lack of ACC with Stalker's Link, Marksman and WF Ruffian maybe even Mob Justice instead of Merciless Hand. You shouldn't even pick Penetrating Shot in order to spam charms more quickly - but to be honest that's maybe too much gimpage of your damage. I would use Penetratin Shot + Ryona's with a blunderbuss anytime. High INT would be benefical for the Wounding Shot effect (triggering Predator's Sense for a longer time) as well as Envenomed Strikes (higher damage also because a crit is more likely with 6 pellets and thus longer Predator's Sense). Hig INT is also cool for Binding Roots which will add another nice CC effect. A charmed enemy here, a stuck enemy there... Then put on Munacra Arret and later even Spirit Spiral, grab the Ring of Changing Heart, pick Enigma's Charm and your hefty Mind Control Ranger is ready to be put into the build list.

Gromnir's point is that the summoned weapon lasts longer than Lightning Strikes or Spiritshift. And that's correct. But in those cases you get something powerful quickly for a short amount of time. It helps you to overcome your foes more quickly. You use it because it makes a big difference. Using Firebrand at the moment gives you zero increase in power - unless you meet a foe that is vulnerable to burn. And even then it's debatable if it's not better to simply hack away with your usual weapon for 9 seconds instead of summoning Firebrand which may get interrupted. The only reason to summon it would be that you meet a special foe that you can't harm with your weapon and now you really need burn damage. While this may be useful 2% of times in a solo game it's totally useless in a party setup. Give Firebrand a burning lash and then it's on par with the others. Actually I think they simply forgot this. Because which weapon other than Fire-Brand deserves a burning lash? I would also prefer shorter duration if that would lead to shorter casting time. The others seem to be fine at the moment. But also here I would like them to be summoned more quickly even if that means that they don't last as long. You can always summon it twice if you need to.

So you're saying that a spell that replaces your great sword with another great sword that replaces slash with burn damage and takes 6 seconds to cast + recovery until you can finally use it, which uses up 1 per-encounter-resource and can be interrupted is a well balanced thing...? In my opinion the Firebrand spell has to either be fast cast OR produce a weapon that does something more special. Also, you can't put a summoned weapon on a level with let's say a self buff. After the summoning process you have to actively use the weapon in order to profit from the spell. A buff will give you a passive bonus and you can go on with whatever is on your mind. If you don't attack with a summoned weapon the spell is simply wasted (time & resource). The duration has to be long because if it weren't long you never would be able to get something out of it in the first place. If the weapon doesn't do anything special (other than changing the damage type and give you that additonal virtual weapon slot) it's strictly worse than just using the weapon you have at hand. Because you have to invest time to summon it, you can get interrupted and you use a point of your resource and an ability point. In a party the fights are over quickly, especially at classic difficulty. If you invest 6 or 9 seconds in order to summon a weapon - it either should be powerful (like the faith attuned weapons or the Blights/Lance via auto-AoE) or have some special purpose (like keeping you alive via draining) or whatever could balance out that you have to invest time and resources. In that regard, Firebrand in the momentary implemetation is total crap. And if it stays this way nobody will use it or pick it. Not even Gromnir (if he cares a bit for effectiveness).

Then I would go for the duelist style and use the Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger (both obtainable in Defiance Bay early). Ciphers have no full attacks, so they are best off with a combo that does the highest auto-attacking dps. Because the cipher has good dmg bonuses (Soul Whip, Biting Whip, maybe flanking bonuses and Appr.- Sneak) this class has no problems to overcome some DR even with light weapons - and light weapons have the best auto-attack-dps when utilized with some dmg bonuses. The speed of both weapons + Two Weapon Style can be used to have Vulnerable Attack and still retain low (even 0) recovery. With this setup + Time Parasite you can finally wear undurganized plate, use Vulnerable Attack and no Gauntlets of Swift Action (instead get Ryona's Vambraces) and still have 0 recovery. WIth the Vambraces, Vulnerable Attack and maybe Devil of Caroc in the Blood Pool you will have 12 DR bypass with the Sword of Daenysis and 9 with the dagger which is plenty and powerful with that superb attack speed. Without Time Parasite and no armor penalty you only have 3 frames of recovery and with 20 DEX only 15 frames of attack animation. It's lightning fast... It's one of the best dps melee setups for ciphers. Drawn in SPring has more dps, but the wounding that hekps achieving this does not generate focus. Another plus is that both weaposn can be obtained very early and thus you can play through 80% of the game with your favorite setup.

High MIG (important for wounding, the higher the better), DEX (it's impossible to reach 0 recovery without consumalbes with Persistence) and PER , low INT (low INT raises wounding's dps). Wood Elf or Hearth Orlan, wolf companion Talents/abilites: Marked Prey Weapon Focus Peasant Predator's Sense Marksman Stalker's Link Resilient Companion Takedown Brutal Takedown Driving Flight Vicious Companion Stunning Shots Merciless Companion Twinned Arrows Apprentice's Sneak Attack Vengeful Grief Story talents: Merciless Hand or Mob Justice, Dungeon Delver, Effigy's Resentment Devil of Caroc or Sagani, Gift of the Machine, Galawain's Boon, Song of the Heavens, Scale Breaker Skills: Survival 14 (+2 from Jack of Wide Waters) for +30% damage against flanked targets Items: Stalker's Torc, Cloak of the Frozen Hunt, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Glanfathan Stalking Boots, Ring of Thorns, Bartender's Ring, Ultimate Hat of Alluring Perfection, Jack of Wide Waters. Try to stack as much accuracy as you can right at the start (Weapon Focus, Marksman, Stalker's Link...). Don't forget the pet - with Predator's Sense alsways on it hits like a truck. Brutal Takedown only has to overcome 1/4 or enemies DR, it's perfect to take out and kill casters and other high priority targets very quickly even if they have high DR. The wolf does the best single target damage, that's why I prefer him. He's also one of the faster attacking pets. Flank an enemy with your tank + pet. Your ranger will get a damage bonus of +75% against "flanked by your pet" enemies (+30% from survival, +10% from boots, +15% from Apprentice's Sneak, +20% from Stalker's Torc). With Mob Justice and Effigy's Resentment Sagani + Stalker's Link you will get a bonus of +16 ACC in that situation, too - or +10 ACC and +30% crit damage with Merciless Hand - both is good. The pet will get a damage bonus of +95% (Vicious + Merciless Comp. + Predator's Sense). Against tough bosses or enemies with very high deflection Marked Prey is really good. You don't need Penetrating Shots because of wounding.

Everything that's faith attuned seems to be a priest's summoned weapon. Xoti may have her own variant. I really hope they are not all corrosive because that seems to be boring and not fitting.

I thought that they just didn't fine tune that yet and it's just a beta-thing that all the faith attuned weapons have a corrosive lash instead of a fitting one. It will be more effective in Deadfire because there is no endurance/health system anymore. If it provides good healing (think of Sneak Attack + draining) this may be very useful.

Best dual weapon setup for melee ciphers (when it comes to focus generation) is Unforgiven + Starcaller - because both get an additional +10% burning lash on top of the 25% burning lash. If you want to use the Helwax Mold then it's 2x Unforgiven (because of the speed). You can use Vulnerable Attack and still reach 0 recovery. With Scion of Flame you will get +30% lash +12% lash. Both will give you additional focus if the lash goes through DR. Make use of Body Attunement.

Yes, those are pretty powerful. The lance is also good enough. Since we don't know how the draining of Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff will work (maybe this time it's 50%? The ingame description doesn't give numbers) we can't say yet if it's really inferior or not. I agree that Firebrand is meh compared tp the priests' faith attuned weapons at the moment. Am I wrong or did it not only loose the higher base damage but also enhanced crit damage and Damaging III?. Currently it seems it's only a scaling great sword that does burn damage as its second damage type, right? Why not give it a burning lash like the faith attuned weapons get - just to make it equally good? Maybe I missed some new gimmick it now has?

Ah... and I thought you found some nice console command to unlock that stuff.

Confirmed. Also the case with Citzal's Spirit Lance. I I remember correctly it also happens when I carry the lance and then use Spirit Shield.

You have to be stealthed I think. I constantly have gigantic models in my char screen and also disappearing models with a gigantic floating head behind the stage and the frame. Funny that you devs didn't see that yet. It's there like... always.

Where/how did you get that?

I can agree to that. 6 seconds plus recovery is bad. I currently like the wizard's self buffs a lot. And the only reason is because they are fast casts...

By the way: the solution of the Spirit-Lance/Carnage combo is quite good. You will deal your normal Carnage damage and the AoE of the Lance just gets added. No weird cascading side effects. Good, but not OP. Although: Spirit Lance does generate a TON of focus with the AoE and has a cheesy behavior with Soul Annihilation.

Both PER and MIG are important - as is INT and DEX. You won't be able to max any of those if you are not willing to dump a stat completely. So I would go for something like MIG 15 CON 10 DEX 15 PER 15 INT 15 RES 08 Since cipher powers usually have an ACC bonus and also enemies' defenses are not that high at normal/hard difficulty you could also lower PER and put more points into MIG, DEX and INT. YOu want to attack stunned/prone/flanked enemies anyways: MIG 16 CON 10 DEX 17 PER 10 INT 17 RES 08 But I would prefer the first approach with more PER.

Borrowed Instincts is very good later on. I'd always use it. You can use it instead of Vampiric Shield once you can get it (because their deflection bonuses don't stack). Veteran's Recovery helps in the early game to survive. Don't rush in and get attacked by everybody, but rather play more like a rogue. Whisper of Treason is very good to deal with attackers. Just turn them from threats to friends. Before getting Firebrand you can use Justice from Raedric and keep it as backup weapon (Firebrand does burn damage only). It has an additional crushing lash (10% on top of 25%) which also generates focus. With the help of Soul Whip, Biting Whip and Two Handed Style the smaller lash can make it through DR and give you some additional focus. Once you got Firebrand and also Scion of Flame I would drop Justice and use Hours of St. Rumbalt or whatever two hander that you enchant with a burning lash. Another nice trick you can do to get the best focus per hit via Firebrand is to stack flanking bonuses (Glanfathan Stalking Boots, survival 12, Apprentice's Sneak Attack) and use Phantom Foes to trigger flanked on a lot of enemies. +45% damage with Firebrand is devastating.

Hi! When using Soul Annihilation with Citzal's Spirit Lance ALL damage rolls (initial target and all enemies that get hit by the AoE) will get a raw damage bonus from Soul Annihilation. The intial hit gets the biggest raw damage bonus, then the next damage roll in the combat log gets a small bonus, the next is a bit bigger and so on until it reaches crazy numbers. I suspect that while all damage rolls are done focus is building up again in the background and used for calculating the raw damage (without it getting reduced to zero). I guess Soul ANnihilation should only get applied to the initial target, then focus should be 0 and than that's it.

I agree that it would be a cool effect. But then I would prefer that they summon a trinket that fits the deity and that boosts spell damage (with a lash). Like those holy symbols in Eye of the Beholder or something.

No, why? I didn't suggest that nor did I complain about summoned weapons. Why do you sound like I did? Actually I voted for a scaling based on Power Level and not character level. But clearly this is an oversight. The raw damage of Soul Annihilation should only be applied to the initial target.

Ahahaha! Try a Soulblade/Conjurer please and console in Citzal's Spirit Lance. The lance (just as the rod+modal) generates focus with the AoE damage. One attack and you might get 100 focus. Then - and now comes the best part: Soul Annihilation's raw damage bonus gets applied to all AoE damage rolls. BOOM!

By the power of Grazeskull!

It was just a joke about enchanting. "Superb" as a tier of qauality when it comes to enchantment of weapons and armor. You can upgrade weapons and armor to "superb" once you got Adra Dragon or Sky Dragon Scales. And if you can get Kraken Eyeballs you can even upgrade them to "legendary" quality.

You can't seriously tell me that it's intended that if I summon a great sword that deals +60% (!!!) additional corrode damage suddenly all my damaging spells also deal +60% additional corrode damage. It's clearly a bug. No need to argue further. We can come up with lots of fancy explanations why this could be intended ("now the priest channels his spells through the weapons!") - but the simplest and obvious explanation is: it's a bug. I can't say if it was intended that Mith Fyr added a burning lash to spells as well in PoE - it did. I don't know if this was altered for Deadfire since I didn't test it yet. But as least in this case I don't summon a weapon with a 60% lash but instead put a weaker AoE-effect to everybody all around me with a chant (that might be intended to buff every damaging effect). Who knows. It was long known and not patched, so I guess it was intended. With Wildstrike I don't know. They reduced the lash damage for Deadfire - so maybe applying the lash to offensive spells as well is an approach to balance the smaller lash numbers. I don't say I don't like it. It gives druid casters something special. But it's still worth mentioning in a bug report I guess because it's different from PoE without any explanation why. If it's intended they can easily make the description more on point to avoid more questions. Then the murky description is the bug, not the effect itself.