Boeroer

Yes, I also tried right now and it's totally NOT useful. Something for the bug section I guess...

Nope. All two handers and heavy one handers had actually the same attack speed despite their descriptions.

I also think that the estoc is kind of weird: I can live with the low base damage because it has high PEN and this can be very benefical for damage - especially when it comes to overpenetration. YOu could also argue that the narrow blade is great for PEN, but doesn't cause as much tissue damage as a bright blade would do. But even lower damage for more PEN when using the modal is a bit bonkers. How do you inflict less damage with a blade that didn't change and now has even more penetration? Maybe because you target vulnerable spots in the armor where no vital organs are found? Don't know... But lower attack speed I could understand better - you aim more careful in order to hit the weak spots and so on. Sure, using realism is not what I normally do, so...

Do you mean Path of the Damned (PotD) or Pillars of Eternity (PoE)? But yes, with a Full Party you could totally go the non-optimal way in PoE with PotD difficulty.

Yeah... but you know what I mean: In PoE1 this would also be very good, but you couldn't do it all the time without resting because a) your healing spells wouln't be per encounter and more importantly b) your health pool would suffer a lot. Now in Deadfire it is like a godmode cheat for nearly one minute without any consequences. You can do this forever without resting. Maybe if you step into a trap... but that's another story.

It is determined by your guile pool. If you have more guile you can use it more often. Empower can refill your guile pool. So far I haven't seen anything else that can. Corpse Eaters can refill rage with Flesh Communion, however there's nothing like that for the rogue (yet). So yes - you can do multiple backstabs during an encounter: first out of stealth, then with Shadowing Beyond (as many times as your guile pool allows). And I guess an Assassin/Soul Blade is a very good solo character. I mean not only because he can one- or two-shot most enemies from stealth/invisibily, but also because the gameplay will be a lot different and fun - now with the new stealth system, the sources of noise with which you can distract enemies and so on. For example you can place a trap somewhere and then sneak to another place. The enemy will hear the trap and look what's happening, often stepping into it. THis is very loud and so other enemies might come to look what's up while you can sneak where they cam from - the path is clear.

Modal large shield and modal dagger is actually what I use. Then please don't use it. I don't want you to die from boredom. Anyway - this is suppoesd to show how the health system is a bit broken or at least exploitable.

They also boost healing a lot. I did a Nature Godlike Livegiver and healing goes through the roof with +9 power level (Wellspring of Live: +2, Livegiver: +2, Living Surge: +5 = healing effect more than doubled). Topic and OP: I would have liked option #1. Not necessarily all passives have to be accessible by all classes. My initial post on the topic "Removing universal talents was a bad idea" was based on the experience that leveling up a single class character was very boring and railroady and that casters had no passives at all - and I wished for more choice (still do) - like the universal talents gave in PoE. I'm not too happy with the idea to put them into the same category as proficiencies. For example I would have liked access to Two Handed Style for a Conjurer (summoned weapons specialist) and for a priest of Berath (can summon great sword), Bear's Fortitude for a Transmuter, Envenomed Strike for a Druid and so on - stuff like that, where it makes sense and gives some more meaningful choices without cluttering everything up with combinations nobody would take because it doesn't either fit the class or is completely rubbish. Another option for me would have been to reinstanciate the talent choice as a seperate thing again. Pick an ability every level und maybe pick a talent every third or second level or whatever. THose could also include very special stuff like "improved explosives" or "strong shooting arm" for higher range with explosives, "nimble fingers" for an additional bonus for pickpocketing and whatnot. Not necessarily Two Handed Style and Weapon Focus, but why not...

I tried again with all non-casters except the Livegiver and it's a lot more powerful than having casters only. Reason is that rangers/fighters and so on shred things a lot faster than pure AoE casters can. Even when they have enough time now to cast things they are just very bad compared to classes that deal weapon damage. I presume a pack of helwalkers would be cool - because they can gain wounds and MIG bonuses by taking damage - which is healed all the time... The healing makes it easy to go full offense. It's still benefical to have one dedicated damage sponge who unstealths and absorbs the first wave of attacks so that you can cast your fast healing sequence unhindered. A large shield with that modal might help a lot - and after healing is "on" switch to a more offensive setup. Afflictions like Sickened and Weakened can easily be countered with an inspiration.

I just did a single class Nature Godlike Livegiver and I have to say I'm very impressed and see that my worries about the new health system have been confirmed: - Cast Nature's Vigor in order to trigger Wellspring of Life (Nature's Vigor is a fast cast, leads to +2 Power Level.) - shift into cat form to gain Living Surge and use Cat's Flurry for faster casts. This will give you +5 Power Level for Rejuvenation spells. - Lifegiver's automatic ability gives all Rejuvenation spell +2 Power Level - you are now at +9 Power Level for Rejuvenation spells in a matter of seconds (everything was fast cast) - now you cast Nature's Balm (get +4 armor and healing per tick with +9 Power Level) - cast The Moon's Light with +9 Power Level You and your party can't die for about one minute. If you have a priest in the party he can cast a spell which gives you oancentration and then you have all the time in the world to cast offensive spells/summons/whatever. You don't need to leave the healing are if you use ranged attacks or spells. Slow caster-only party which doesn't have to move is fun and totally possible. You can even give everybody CON 3 and RES 3. If you have a Beckoner he can summon 6 Sekeletons which will also heal. It's crazy - and this is only lvl 6. By the way the healing of Nature's Balm and The Moon's Light don't suppress each other. Later you can get Moonwell (didn't level up yet) and I guess it gets even crazier... You can also multiclass with a priest but sice Restoration spells don't profit from Lifegiver's stuff I found it wa more benefical to concentrate on a higher power level and gaining the good spells faster. But the priest can heal after shifting runs out because then you'll have -5 power level for Rejuvenation but no penalties for Restoration spells while you can still profut from Wellspring of Life. I'd use this multiclass when fights take a lot longer (PotD maybe). But honestly I think it's just better to take a single class priest with you instead. Now add a Beckoner with Ancient Memory...

Yes, but the high base damage also makes it an ideal weapon for any character with a lot of damage modifiers (like crit or even Merciless Hand, high MIG and so on). A rogue with Firebrand is absolutely murderous (until you can lay your hands on durgan steel). I'd also say it's the perfect backstab weapon - if only the summoning wouldn't break your stealth. It's also great with Flames of Devotion + Intense Flames, Scion of Flame, Sworn Enemy and stuff.

It's Thanksgiving. You'll have to wait a bit before you can expect any answer from Obsidian. They left for the holidays.

You can pick spells that have no friendly fire. For example Freezing Pillar. Golden Gaze also procs Expose Vulnerabilities which help a lot with Blast's damage and the two (weaker) projectiles. Also try Combusting Wounds + Kalakoth's Minor Blights. Two spells only to shred enemies to pieces. Blights + Blast generate a plethora of hits which all trigger Combusting Wounds on the enemy. If they don't have enormous burn DR they will die very quickly and you don't harm your party members. Pull of Eora helps to pull enemies together. Perfect pre-spell for Minor Blights use.

Barbs are only squishy in the early game and later become serious meat shields even with lowest deflection. With Bloodlust (stacks with Frenzy) and Blood Thirst you can make Two Handers pretty fast with a barb. Firebrand is a nice option if you want a very good mid-game weapon and it can be used until the end if you want to spare enchantment ingredients for other party members. Other good picks are Tidefall, Hours of St. Rumbalt or Tall Grass. With a reach weapon you can place Carnage more effectively. However, if you want to use Heart of Fury (who doesn't?) and Barbaric Blow I would go for dual wielding the heavy one-handers. Resolution + Bittercut is a nice combo, so is Shatterstar + Godansthunyr and We Toki + Wodewys. So basically sabres, hammers or battle axes. Dual spear looks ridiculous and dual maces and swords lack good uniques for this task. All light weapons are a bad pick for Heart of Fury. A great end game weapon (and worth retraining) is Acuan Giamas, a morning star. It is not only wounding which is the best damage related enchantment in the game, it also steals wizard/druid/priest spells on hit and works with Carnage. You can then cast all stolen spells as often as you want/can in a given timespan. They work with Blood Thirst. So for example if you steal Calling the World's Maw from a druid you can cast it over and over again until enemies start to die which lets you cast with zero recovery. It makes all fights where kith spellcasters are involved a joke. True Mage Slayer if you want. Superlate though.

Firebrand with Doemenel is nice. Because it doesn't care that much that you can't speed-enchant it when you have Bloodlust + Blood Thirst. Hm... but how is it different from using Forgemaster's Gloves and a Potion of Flame Shield (besides the stat points that won't make a whole lot of difference)? Don't think it needs a nerf because of that. I played a retaliation barb exactly like that, but added Battle Forged and Blooded, One Stands Alone of course and so on. Flame Shield stacks with Battle Forged. It is strong. But I have to say the damage output is dwarfed by a Monksterlasher who uses the same approach - despite that he has no Blood Thirst. I also had the impression that Hours of St. Rumbalt is a better pick after you get Durgan Steel and Sky Dragon Eyes. +8 accuracy, more speed, even higher crit modifier of *1.3, *0.45 dmg, crit conversion and two damage types - and prone on crit of course. This all makes is the better weapon although it's base damage is lower. But yes - until that Firebrand is a beast. And you need zero enchantment resources to be great. By the way: Colored Coat triggers Wicked Briars as spelldefense which also trigger Blood Thirst when they kill with a pulse. It's a nice addition. The binding rope ensures you crit a lot more with Firebrand. Not in a solo game unfortunatly and not when using this special belt of course.

No idea - I only bound my soul to my wife and maybe I'm proficient in dealing with her modals now.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94446-items-bezas-toothed-blade/?hl=%2Btoothed+%2Bblade

How Do you want to implement universal weapons with the current proficiencies? If you have let's say 4 profs and get a universal soulbound weapon: which modal will be displayed in the UI? All 4 side by side? Or the game picks one for you? I guess the days of universal weapons are over - except if you simply get the fitting proficiency automatically while binding+wielding the soulbound weapon. For example the soulbound dagger will give you the proficiency for daggers if you don't already have it.

Or just make a barb/monk and check if Enervating Blows and/or Swift Flurry work with carnage-crits. Or use a battle axe (raw DoT on hit) or use a pike (reduced defenses on hit). Or a mace (reduces AR on hit) and so on.

Well... It nearly doubles your amount of spells per encounter. That is pretty useful.

They didn't stack in PoE either, so I'd say this is intended.

Is it set that we will be having enchantment? Because atm there's no such option. At least Josh said that things like lashes can't be enchanted anymore. That means that monk's fists don't have that special disadvantage like in PoE. Same with Durgan Steel I guess. So if they have the base damage of a sabre but are way faster then they are powerful. Still doesn't explain why you can't be proficient with them and get a nice modal as well as stuff like grazes and extra PEN. If it's too powerful then please nerf the damage a bit.

Oh! Nice one! Could also add up nicely with Blooded to an overall damage boost of 50%. The paladin has a passive that makes him resistant to intellect afflictions. That means that the confuse of the frenzy doesn't get applied. I wonder if Heart of Fury will be in later. Because I can totally see a game breaking thing with Beckoner/Berserker: summon 6 skeletons (with the upgrade that they split into two lesser versions after death) then trigger friendly-fire HoF. This would generate a quadzillion of (carnage)hits and would make the "Beckserker" great against multiple foes as well as single ones.

No idea. It's still too much new stuff happening that I have to process so I couldn't concentrate on testing out those things. But I'm curious, too. Also if the carange-crits give the Skald phrases or not.

Nice synergy between Blade Turning and Riposte. But I'm asking myself: is Blade Turning considered a miss so that it can trigger Riposte? And since I didn't try it out yet: does it redirect the attacks to an ally or enemy or both?