Boeroer

Just remap the key. I'm using a German layout and ~ doesn't work properly,so I remapped to 0 (zero).

I can't remember how Psychovampiric Shield works in Deadfire (I'm already in the holidays without a computer), but in PoE it lowered the enemy's resolve by 10 and raised your deflection directly instead of your resolve...

Druid Livegiver is my no. 1 candidate for it.

It is quite nice and fun to play - but I never tried it solo. I guess the defenses are too bad for solo. One could easily adapt with some other talents though. I would also switch from Tidefall to Drawn in Spring + shield at some point I guess.

It's good if you are using something where Power Level has impact. Like healing spells for example.

Way too early. You should be max lvl before doing that. There are plenty of other encounters you can do and level up before going after high level andragans. You should always pop out some summons when going after andragans. It's very important to not catch a petrify from them because it lasts for ages.

I find the multiclass restrictions kind of stupid. Now I can't do a Bleak Walker/Priest of Berath because their dispositions clash a bit - but it's totally ok to pick a Priest of Berath and play him cruel/aggressively. I will just get weaker disposition bonuses which could be removed with Untroubled Faith. Why can't I do the same with said multiclass options? If I pick Bleak Walker's/Berath I should get punished by weaker disposition gains. Then I could pick Untroubled Faith at some point to remove the restrictions if I wished. This could also mean that I have to take it once for my paladin class to remove the maluses for my paladin abilities and a second time to remove my maluses on the priest abilities. This would mean that there is some hefty drawback when I choose uncommon combos - but we wouldn't have "forbidden" combos (which I don't like).

Raising CON from 3 to 18 doesn't make any sense if you don't get killed with 3 CON. The advantage high CON gives you is only circumstancial, while the advantage of higher accuracy or higher damage nearly always applies. That's why even 5% per point of CON doesn't feel very powerful while a 3% multiplicative gain of damage per hit or attack speed or healing power feels more useful. If you play certain build like ones that rely on abilities that trigger at 50% endurance or drain you health constantly then it may be different. But the common frontliner would be stupid to raise CON from 15 to 20 if he didn't get knocked out a lot. While those 5 points wouldn't improve his survivability (what's to improve if you don't go down?) the same 5 points would help him more if he put them into DEX, MIG or PER. There is no "damage/accuracy" cap as there is an survivability cap. Well there would be if you'd one-shot most enemies all the time. That's the main reason why CON should give a lot higher bonus per point. Its benefit is capped at some point.

Raising CON from 3 to 18 doesn't make any sense if you don't get killed with 3 CON. The advantage high CON gives you is only circumstancial while the advantage of higher accuracy or higher damage nearly always applies. That's why even 5% per point of CON doesn't feel very powerful while a 3% multiplicative gain of damage per hit or attack speed or healing power feels more useful. If you play certain build like ones that rely on abilities that trigger at 50% endurance or drain you health constantly then it may be different. But the common frontliner would be stupid to raise CON from 15 to 20 if he doesn't get knocked out a lot. While those 5 points wouldn't improve his survivability (what's to improve if you don't go down?) the same 5 points would help him more if he put them into DEX, MIG or PER. There is no "damage/accuracy" cap as there is an survivability cap. Well there would be if you'd one-shot most enemies all the time. That's the main reason why CON should give a lot higher bonus per point. It's benefit is capped at some point.

Yes, but Wellspring of Life stacks with everything. But since stat points are not overwhelmingly important in PoE I'd also say it's one of the weakest races.

Everything should stack as long as it's not the same inspiration. Gilded Emnity also doesn't stack with Spirit Shield.

If you want him to top the dmg charts you need to give him Unforgiven + Starcaller or Sword if Daenysis + March Steel Dagger. Dual Bittercut is nice and the best option for any Full Attack ability such as Flames of Devotion or Heart of Fury, but it's worse than the above without some Full Attack abilities - which the cipher doesn't have. Besides that, if you'd still want to use Bittercut you'd want to take Weapon Focus Ruffian, Two Weapon Style, Biting Whip, Draining Whip, Spirit of Decay, Savage Attack and Apprentice's Sneak Attack.

Exactly: if it can remove the boring and tedious self buffing routine then I'm a fan already.

I was being sarcastic it was crap. sorry if it didnt come across that way. ROFL - ok. Maybe my sarcasm detectors need an overhaul.

Ok, but there's no point to both arguments in this discussion. "as backup until something better" - that fits for every weapon in the game and says nothing about the overall effectiveness. "because I liked the name and backstory" - that also can fit for every weapon in the game regardless of how bad it is. I once finished a playthrough with fully enchanted torches because I liked the looks...

Yeah, it seems to be really cool. I hope it also solves micromamagemet issues with switching weapons.

Exactly.

Yeah, I just meant if I would have to decide between long cast/long duration and short cast/short duration then I'd always opt for the later. I would also gladly trade some lash power from the priests' weapons for a faster casting process.

That was why I said it's better to have fast cast and shorter duration instead of long cast and longer duration. It's a party rpg and no matter how powerful your summoned weapon is: if your friends killed all enemies before your weapon materializes it's a waste. Rather have a good weapon from start to 75% of the fight, when it's most needed - than to start at 75% and clean up the last near-death enemy with mighty force (you don't need anymore).

Besides their self buffs (which are still good) wizards in Deadfire suck. Alacrity doesn't give you attack speed any more but a boost to DEX instead. Atm it's a lot weaker than in PoE1 and I never use it.

your guess would be way off, particular for pre wm poe. we most often played priests and paladins as mains... why play anything else from our pov? could add a hireling to the companions if we wished, but only priest and paladins received gameplay benefits from disposition gains. sure we ended up getting around to just 'bout anything, but priests and paladins were our staple. have stated many times how we thought folks were using priests all wrong in poe as ours were typical doing considerable weapon damage, after throwing down a few buffs. firebrand did burn damage and the sky dragon, in spite o' breathing fire, were weakest to fire. not sure how many times our priests o' berath, wael and eothas switched over to firebrand to fight the sky dragon. were an ideal weapon as we likely had two-handed style for those characters. high base damage and burn meant it were an ideal option for overcoming skydragon dr. so, how often? Most o' the time pre wm... and often enough after depending the order we finished quests. were a highly effective weapon 'gainst the sky dragon... and trolls and constructs and primordials and... we played our paladin tanks with intellect as highest stat 'cause we believed they were wasted as simple meat shields. no 3 dex nonsense for us neither. so, as firebrand were a universal weapon, once we had debuffed the sky dragon we typical switched over to firebrand for a few flames o' devotion strikes. *chuckle* keep in mind the adra dragon weren't immune to fire or petrification at the release o' poe. she were having something in the order o' +30 burn dr? maybe even 40? petrification were admitted ridiculous broken, but even so, we killed the adra with fire multiple times. so, yeah, your hyperbole 'bout how often we benefited from firebrand burn quality were way off, but so too were your guestimate 'bout the number o' times we killed the sky dragon with a firebrand. HA! Good Fun! ps alpine dragon were having better overall defenses and were just as weak to fire as the sky dragon. the alpine dragon got a kiester full o' Gromnir's firebrand more than once. So... three times?

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).