Boeroer

I have to correct me: you can disable Expert Mode once. Actually I never did this during a playthrough, so I missed this entirely. So now - in my game (Ubuntu 17.10 and also Windows 10) I can disable Expert mode during the playthrough. But I can't reenable it if I did so. Just like the description said. I tested this on Hard mode and PotD difficulty. I didn't try the combination with Trial of Iron though. So, I guess it's a bug with the PS4 version. Please note that Obsidian has not much to do with the console versions of PoE (I know, confusing). Those where done by Paradox Interactive (the publisher of PoE PC version) on their own initiative. They have their own subforum for bug reports: Paradox Interactive: PoE Bugs (console version)

Wait, I'll check with my game. Didn't start it up for some time now...

Hm, with a similar build, using Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes and Blood Testament Gloves as well as Vulnerable Attack, max MIG and Scion of Flame (may I also had Savage Attack - don't know if this works anymore with Battle Forged) I saw damage numbers near 200 with Battle Forged quite often (see Monksterlasher build in this subforum). But yeah: the game is balanced around party play, so no wonder one has to use cheesy tactics in order to solo the game. There are only few build that can just walk into the fight and stay alive until everyone's dead (like a superdefensive paladin - but it's so tedious to play until lvl 13). I once did that solo run with a barb - and there I wanted to jump into the fray because of Heart of Fury. But it was always a very risky game. But that's def. a class that ends fights quickly after lvl 11 - in a positive or negative way. Priest is very powerful if you can reach the higher levels. Wizard, too. But the easiest way in my opinion to do a solo game is to pick chanter and skill for tankyness + The Dragon Thrashed (lvl 9). Also quite fun in early levels because of White Worms (which can be used in a cheesy way because dead bodies can be reused over and over again after explosion. You basically pull all enemies to a chokepoint and kill them there. The more dead bodies on the pile the better. Turn off gib effects in the game menu!). A chanter can have decent defenses, great regeneration (Vet. Recovery + Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits + regenerating item like He Carries Many Scars + survival), thick armor doesn't slow down his chanting and dumped DEX also doesn't gimp his chanting. High MIG and INT and PER are good for Dragon Thrashed damage. Besides that nothing boosts the chant's damage yo you can focus on defensive stuff. Try to expand your AoE size with an overseeing item + Voice of the Mountaintop + INT bonus item. You might still need to split-pull somtimes, but at least the enemies will get killed while they're trying to reach you.

I don't agree to the criticism of the Beckoner. He is very powerful and summoning double the creatures with the same casting time is good. Since summons only last 12 seconds you need to resummon right after the initial cast in order to keep some summons on the field. So there is no "one cast and then you'll do nothing". I played a Beckoner/Bleak Walker with Shared Flames and Mith Fyr as dps support abilities and enemies got wanked pretty hard.

You can't. Once you pick it you are bound to it for the whole playthrough.

I'm sure nearly everybody would like it. It's just a matter of cost.

Yeah ok, we can agree on that. I'm talking mainly about the combat system of Deadfire here (because most things in Deadfire that are non combat-related I like), so I didn't differenciate properly.

My brushing is done (and it turned out to be a nice piece of coiffure by the way) - so please go ahead.

I didn't mean to go all absurdism on you. If you really think that it's necessary to remind Obsidian about this every now and then then go ahead.

Hehe, yes. Maybe that's the reason.

*supersigh* Because Obsidian can't handle this and needs counseling on that matter... from the same fans?

If you say so. I must now go and comb my really dense chesthair. With a wire brush. Like Shan Yu teached me...

I'm not riled up. I'm lying on my sofa drinking a cold beer while you postulate weird philosophical nonsense about true manhood in the forum of a fantasy role playing game.

Charming always heals the target a bit. I guess this was introduced to make it less OP. It's really annoying if you meet dragons (and don't know this).

Maybe your biological role is to die in battle. Although I guess you wouldn't be of much use in such an event. My biological role is to die on my sofa with a cold beer after propagation. Which I already did thrice. So where's my beer?

I don't know about Heart of Fury, but Carnage and Spirit Lance work well together (somebody watched out in this case). It will do the normal Lance's AoE damage AND the normal Carnage raw AoE damage. But the additional attacks from the Lance will not trigger carnage. In this case the systems designers had an epiphany moment. BUT: Lance's AoE attacks will all trigger Swift Flurry (when they crit), they will all cause afflictions and raw DoT from the rogue's strikes, they will all get +50% lash from Lightning Strikes or Flames of Devotion, Stunning Strikes will stun the whole AoE, all targets will suffer additional raw damage from Soul Annihilation(!!!) and so on. So - most of the things that carnage doesn't do anymore (for a good reason) the lance does now. Same with the rod's Blast - here somebody watched out that Wounding Shot doesn't add raw damage to all the AoE targets - but most other stuff works like with the Lance: Stunning Strikes stuns the whole AoE, rogues' strikes will cause afflictions an that AoE, every AoE attack works with Driving Flight which in return doubles the chances for further Swift Flurries (!!!). TONS of things to patch in the future because somebody decided that is the way to go.

Reality often is to those weak of mind. Only those who have seen, and accepted, the ugly side of life can truly appreciate its beauty, and often it comes with the realization that the 'ugly' side is the very reason life is so beautiful. Truly accepting the possibility of death as an outcome is the best cure for nihilism in the whole wide world, and the ugliness of the world tells us why our actions matter, there are no second chances and this life we have here is everything. What does that have to do with that absolute shartload of cowplop about "true manhood" that you posted before? You wouldn't recognize true manhood even if it would bite you into your mankini.

Ok, you lost me there...

That's what I meant: this (good) tactic doesn't work because of carnage. Also as a chanter you might want to NOT use Soft Winds of Death.

Yeah, but they simply don't listen to MaxQuest!

That would have been my preferred approach. But there are also some really nice things in the beta. I guess a mix of the new features (that I like) and the old ones would have been great. But that's just me. The beta still feels a bit "tyranny-ish" to me. I didn't like Tyranny too much (only played it for 300 hours or so ).

This is true. 75% of the game mechanics were obscure and the descriptions either inaccurate, not clear enough or non-existent. But basically it's not like the mechanics are supercomplex.. It's just that PoE does a very poor job of explaining its mechanics. If they just could have done this better then there wouldn't have been so many complaints a la "I don't get how XY works". I mean look at the PoE forum (char builds subforum especially). Even today there will be a new thread that discovers how some hidden mechanic works and everbody (even the hardcore players, including me) will go "whooot? Didn't know that!". That's a pretty good example of bad documentation. But so easily solved... so easily...

What you wrote there is simply disgusting.

Huh? Who are you and when did you emerge? Doesn't matter though - I like your style!

THey should balance Soft Winds and Dragon Thrashed like so: Make Soft Winds do lowish damage (but maybe more than it does at the moment because it's superweak) but really "drain" some health for the chanter (as the description suggests when it says "drains"). Doesn't have to be 100% of the caused damage of course. Just a small healing effect. OR lower the damage even more and transfer all damage as endurance to the chanter. This would mimic somethin like COnstant Recovery as long as you hit enemies. Let Dragon Thrashed do more damage then Soft Winds. That way you'll have three distinct phrases and will have a realy choice: - Soft Winds: okish passive AoE damage, a bit of healing for the chanter OR lowish damage but more healing for the chanter - Ancient Memory: bit of passive healing for the whole party - Dragon Thrashed: more AoE damage It's true that the damage output of the phases had to be tuned because in Deadfire every ohrase takes 6 secs. But I think there is still room for improvement. Like... massive improvement. It goes without discussion that the behavior you described with Dragon Thrashed is a bug.