Boeroer

Maybe nothing bad. That it wasn't on the show only means it's not going to be finished in the next 12 months. Maybe they hit a wall again... Maybe switching to Unreal 5 took more work than they thought. Kate Dollarhyde was the Narrative Lead on Avowed and she also worked on Pentiment. Unfortunately she left Obsidian, too - a month ago or so. I think the main bulk of P's narrative part is done by now so I guess her departure didn't hurt P. But for Avowed...? It could mean they have to find a new narrative lead Or it could mean the narrative part of Avowed's development is mostly done like with Pentiment. Who knows?

Josh speaks German and has aquired quite the collection of German history books of the period. He occasionally posts new purchases on Twitter and some of those books are really hard to get and/or quite expensive. Also sometimes very specialized stuff about nuns, monks and so on. Now we know why. But I guess he would have bought and read them anyway... Some of them seem to be written in old dialects which even I find hard to read (I studied German Philology back in the days and am rel. fluent in Low German bc. my Grandma spoke not much else - and my wife's Bavarian so I understand that dialect quite well. Doesn't help a lot with those rather old German texts). Also some of the contemporary German books (if not all of them) are written in infamous Academical German - which is truly horrendous to read. The research must have been a ton of work.

The wizard has the advantage that he gets some great summoned weapons even early on (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff not only drains life from the enemy for you and comes with exceptional quality at lvl 1 - which his a huge advantage at such an early level - but it also has enormous base dmg - a lot more than a normal quarterstaff). And he gets very good self buffs that are nearly all fast casts. Druid's Spiritshift, especially in combination with Wildstrike Belt and later Avenging Storm, is one of the best melee single target DPS builds (the base damage of the Spiritshift weapons scales with level - which works as multiplicative dmg bonus - and the lashes he gets from Wildstrike are also multiplicative dmg bonuses). Boar form does awesome wounding damage (great against high DR enemies), Cat form is very fast. But as you already mentioned Spiritshift can be a bit short. Lacks most of the self buffs the wizard had but compared to the wizard he has better starting stats (deflection for example). Also a Druid can be a good healer and supporter as well which makes him more versatile for a party. Both are viable. I would decide based on which "theme" or "vibe" I liked better.

Melee Wizard would be a way to go. On the early levels it's true that you need to rest more often because you will have few spells. But later on you will usually rest because of low health before your spells run out. You can also use a Fighter or Rogue and the use items that grant you spells per rest. Both have very high Accuracy which helps a lot with landing spells. And the Rogue's Deathblow passive even works with spell damage (Sneak Attack doesn't though). All in all the Wizard has the best combo of defensive and offensive and weapon summoning spells imo. It just takes a bit more time to evolve. Druid is also good. You can build one who still does good melee damage even after Spiritshift ends.

Attributes are not super important in PoE in general. A few points more here and there hardly matter. Generally a glasscannon rogue wants to drop Resolve and Constitution, max DEX, PER and MIG and put the rest into INT (or switch INT and MIG). A more sturdy rogue wants more CON and Resolve, especially Resolve because getting interrupted in melee is bad. A Rogue with shield should have highish resolve. All defenses have increasing returns. Deflection and reflex are the defensive stat a rogue with shield will have high values in, and resolve will grant you additional deflection. A Rogue doesn't really need a ton of MIG to deal good weapon damage. Sneak Attack and Deathblows give you sich high dmg bonuses that a bit of MIG gets dwarfed in comparison. So you can always lower MIG a bit in order to achieve a melee sturdy, balanced build. You can lower PER a bit. It is very handy in the early game but later on in the game there are so many sources of accuracy that the effect of PER isn't that impactful anymore.

Barbaric Retaliation, too.

Rogues are bad at tanking. Especially in the early game. With some effort they can be build into rel. sturdy combatants while retaining good DPS, but they will never be great main tanks. They need levels, certain ability decisions and fitting gear in order to be able to withstand some hefty punishment - and they will not have that during the first levels. What they are good at - again especially in the earlier parts of the game - is weapon damage output. Having said that - I prefer a more balanced Rogue build over a glass cannon one. Glass cannons do nice dps and can take down enemy threats quickly - but they also tend to go down when merely looked at - in which case they contribute nothing anymore. A robust Rogue does less dps - but still good damage - while being able to withstand some hits without going down. In my opinion in easy fights the glass cannon is fun because he can shred so many foes so quickly, especially if a party member disabled them before - but as soon as things don't go as planned he's the first to go down - and then he's worth nothing. Most players tend to reload the fight then. The "classic" DPS rogue build is to use two sabres to maximize the dmg output of the per-encounter strikes the rogue has and to get a good balance of attack speed and dmg per hit (the higher dmg per hit the better against enemies armor/DR). With high DR he will last longer but also have less dps. But for the first few Full Attacks like Blinding Strike etc. the armor doesn't matter as much. It's the auto-attacks where he will be noticably slower with a heavy armor. Anyway - if you rush into battle with such a rogue he will go down very quickly. Wait for the enemies to engage the tank and only come in from the flanks. Use Escape and movement items while avoiding disengagement attacks. Then there's the approach to use a reach weapon (see Tall Grass) in order to combine melee DPS with rel. safety behind the front line and not having to engage the enemy directly in close melee (can flee without disengagement attack). The overall outcome of this might be very good if you are able to control the battlefield well and manage to keep a tight formation so that not many enemies can reach the rogue in melee. But even if you manage to do that there will always be archers/gunmen and they like to target low armor/low defense chars - so it's still useful to give the reach weapon rogue a bit of DR so that he doesn't become the target of every ranged enemy and gets shot to death instantly. Or keep him stealthed until most enemies have settled on the tank or different party members. Most enemies are reluctant to switch targets after they decided. Then of course there are ranged rogues. Here it can totally make sense to build a glasscannon because ranged characters with decent range (10-12m) usually get hit a lot less often and if they do they usually can retreat quickly and easily. Then you can build a rogue with shield. This variant will have the lowest DPS for a big part of the game (still good compared to other classes like Fighter or Paladin) but will be the sturdiest one. If you give him a bashing shield (first Larder Door, later Badgrad's Barricade) he can even profit from the Full Attacks that his per-encouter strikes are (shield hits first, no recovery pause, applying the affliction, main weapon hits second, getting the sneak attack bonus). Once you get Badgrad's Barricade you will have a great mix of both sides, offense and defense. You will do great DPS because the enchantment that releases Thrust of Tattered Veils on a critical shield bash has no proc limit (procs on every bas that crits), the spell works with Deathblows (+100% dmg) and you will be as sturdy as a Rogue can be. But it's a late-ish game item. Before that it's "only" a offensive/defensive melee hybrid. Still works well imo. Not as main tank - but can off-tank reasonably well after some levels.

Yes, I agree. The keyword/immunity implementation was not 100% thought through - or let's say it didn't go through enough iterations of QA and improvement. I guess there were more pressing issues.

I meant that some players tend to just start an encounter with letting the whole party do attacks and offensive spells right away - instead of buffing up first. In the cases I described above this indeed results in a fight that's over more quickly - because you didn't have to take the (real) time for buffing up - and the buffs didn't make a huge difference in the first place because the encounter was easy to begin with. But as soon as fights become more demanding it is detrimental to start combat with all-in offensive actions right away. Imo it's better to make some time and room for buffing up first (mostly accuracy but defense also matters of course). Buying time can be done by using a scout or tank who seperates a bit from the party and starts combat - and then either lures enemies towards the party or just tanks them until the rest of the party buffed up. Or it can be done with very fast buffers (like a support caster with high DEX and no armor) who can dish out a lot of buffs quickly - or both. And/or you have somebody who starts the encounter with some impactful CC effect (mind control of a weak enemy in order to distract the other ones, a hard disable of a big group by a high accuracy disable... or just using summons) which would buy the buffing caster some time. If you have a very sturdy tank then the simplest option is to seperate from the party a bit and just initiate combat with that tank. Let the tank endure the first enemy attacks alone while you buff your party up - and only then go in with disables/debuffs and then attacks. In easy fights however the time and planning you will invest for this are often not worth it. Especially because you will most likely have to pause the game a lot bc. of timing and positioning etc. - and then, even if the fight is over more quickly in "game-time" it will have taken a lot longer in real-time. That's why a lot of players just do "select all, attack" later in the game because it's the fastest - or most "time-efficient" - way to overcome easy encounters, even if it's not the most resource-efficient way (in terms of spell uses and loss of health and injuries I mean).

The initial problem (and why the keyword mod adressed the keywords of some weapons, too) was that weapons which do alternative damage (like shock/pierce but also pierce/slash) might not do any damage against enemies who are immune to one of that dmg types, even if the alternative dmg should work in theory. Problem is that sometimes enemies with immunities against certain damage types have low AR or not especially high AR against that type (see Flame Naga). The game logic first determines the highest dmg type/AR ratio and decides the preferable dmg type, then realizes the enemy is immune only afterwards. Bummer. At least that's what I remember. But it seems the keyword mod only disimproved stuff (in some areas at least). If I'm ot wrong giving Sun and Moon fire/crush or freeze/crush wouldn't really help with the "can't hurt fire immune enemies with crush dmg" issues which occur without the keyword mod. Maybe crush/fire or crush/freeze would be okay in most cases because the first dmg type will get picked if the ARs (or dmgtype/AR ratios) are equal - and in that case it would be crush dmg. But against Flame Nagas for example it would still prefer fire dmg - bc. the fire AR of them is especially low. If Sun & Moon only did singular fire and freeze dmg with the repective head then it would make sense and one wouldn't have this quirky "immunity despite alternative dmg scenario" at least - imo. Just by taking away the alternative dmg type which would avoid all the issues. Same with Dragon's Dowry etc. I personally would prefer another solution (which I don't see atm)... but this seems like the simplest one - and one that shouldn't come with other unforseen problems.

Okay, turned off mods, exited the game, openend it back up and the Ring and lashes work. Seems I really have to shut the game down in between. Turned keyword mod on, exit/restart and the lashes are still there. So the keyword mod of CP may not cause the loss of the lashes? But the +10 ACC from the Ring is gone with the keyword mod. I don't know, maybe somebody else wants to join in finding out what is happening here. I think the keyword mod doesn't allow the acc bonus of the ring to apply to Sun & Moon's fire head. But it doesn't seem to remove the lashes. That seems to be caused by something else (also tried the other CP mods and the lashes stayed). They seem to get removed kind of randomly? I'm a bit lost and I gotta go for now.

Does nothing. Now I'm really confused though because the lashes went missing even without me turning on ANY mod. Err... wtf??? Apparently the missing lashes and turning on the keyword mod was just a concidence? Or would I need to start a new run in order to properly test whether CP causes this or not?

Yep, turned keyword mod of the CP on and the lashes are gone. Now I want to check if enchanting the weapon further removes the quirks with the Ring etc. usually I enchant the weapon asap to maybe that's why this was missed...

Okay, this is superweird: Removed all mods and not I get the lashes. But I still don't get any ACC bonus from Ring of Focused Flames AND the one-handed acc bonus of +12 only gets applied to the second attack roll, not the first one. Eh?? This wasn't the case some time ago. What happened? Now I will gradually turn on all seperate mods of the CP and see which one causes the lashes to fail (I suspect the keyword mod).

There should be additional lash damage, yes. I don't think CP took that away. I'm using the Community Patch as well and don't experience that behavior. [edit] that's actually wrong, see below [/edit] I get lashes and +10 for the fire head of Sun & Moon with the Ring of Focused Flame. Maybe the mods you installed are biting each other - maybe the loading order is not like recommended. Also sometimes unique weapons can lose their enchantments. It's a very rare bug of the vanilla game (not the mod) - but it's known to happen. Does the weapon's tooltip still mention the lashes and other enchantments? Edit: okay... tested it right now to be sure and indeed I get no lashes anymore despite the tooltip saying it. This is new to me. Maybe the latest update on CP broke Sun & Moon. I will test further and report.

Ring of Focused Flame doesn't add bonus damage to burn/fire attacks but +10 Accuracy instead. Or what am I missing? Check the attack roll for the fire head and then the one of the frost head (or some other weapon with similar accuracy). Do they roll with the same accuracy in the combat log?

Debonaire or Trickster: different gameplay because usually you'd pick a Trickster for melee combat and a Debonaire for ranged or reach weapons. No particular gear in mind, but Trickster would profit a lot from gear that raises defenses, like Gipon Prudensco, Bracers and Cape of Major Deflection and so on. Using Sasha's Singing Scimitar as main weapon would be a smart choice imo because it allows for a free empower use in every encounter with an invocation which is very cool. Something like empowered "Killers Froze Stuff" and then smack the helpless enemies is good. Can be paired with a second sabre for dual wielding - or pick a shield for more defense. Troubadour/Debonaire could use a weapon with increased crit effect (see stuff like the pistol Scordeo's Trophy or the pike Wicked Beast or the hunting bow Essense Interrupter or so). Pistol + modal (rushed reload) suppresses the reloading bonus of Sure-Handed Ila, so you might as well use two pistols + two weapon style, Sure Handed Ila + Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr chants and Scordeo's Trophy + Eccea's Arcane Blaster. Full guns(l)inger. Troubadour/Streetfigther should maybe get Maia's armor (Sharpshooter's Garb) at some point and use a pet like Cutthroat Cosmo or Abraham, Acina's Tricorn, Ring of the Marksman. As with nearly all Rogues I wouldn't put too much into Might but would prefer DEX, PER and INT. Melee Trickster might want some Resolve, too.

Troubadour/Psion is an excellent combination and can fit the theme imo. The most effective thing is to combine summons (Chanter side) and Mind Control (Cipher side). Basically you can turn a whole army against one single leftover foe. But can cast a ton of other stuff, too. Can sing and cast all day, no need for weapon usage at all (still possible of course, just not needed and not particularly effective). Troubadour/Beguiler is similar but is more roguish. It gets bonus dmg for weapon attacks if the enemy is afflicted and he gains lots of focus if he csts against afflicted enemies (weapon usage not needed to gain focus, but still effective). Troubadour/Debonaire also fits the Scoundrel-Bard theme well imo (and so is Troubadour/Trickster). The Troubadour/Debonaire can almost guarantee critical hits because he can mass-charm with an invocation cone and then get a 100% hit-to-crit conversion on those charmed enemies (nice with weapons and/or abilites which do something special on crit - or in order to circumvent PEN-issues etc.). Troubadour/Priest of Skaen? Little dark, but Preist of Skaen has Rogue elements (like turning invisible). Troubadour/Streetfighter also works very well with an arqubus (especially the Red Hand) if you use your own summoned Wisps (The Lights Danced across the Moor) to distract you. You can stack 50% recovery reduction from Streetfighter with twice the bonus of Sure-Handed Ila (20% reload bonus AND 20% recovery bonus which both apply to reloading weapons). Until getting the Wisps one can use Blunderbusses to trigger the Steetfighter passive.

There's another downside that is more impactful in the later game imo: a Bloodmage (even as multiclass) has no access to Empower and therefore also cannot profit from abilities and items that work with empowering abilities (for example the empowered Missile Salvo + Least Unstable Coil + Wall of Draining combo).

I guess Moon Godlike - which is especially impactful in the first half of the game. Something with a head slot starts to become better later in the game when fights take longer (so you spend more time unshifted and can access the bonuses of the helmet). But since the hardest part of the game usually is the early part I'd say Moon Godlike.

I don't know. If you use them for tanking it's pretty good to have two additonal casts for 2 more phantoms in long fights. The substancial phantom casting stuff is indeed a bit annoying at times (I like Arduous Delay of Motion because it targets Will and stacks with all other debuffs, but Necrotic Lance and Minor Missiles are often just a waste of action time - casting can also break engagement the phantom might have via items which is detrimental to tanking) but if it's used as a tank then bigger health pool doesn't hurt I guess. It would have been very exciting if one could pick the 3 spells for the substancial phantom from your own spell portfolio. The opportunities...

These days I give him Effort and enchant it with Hemorrhaging because that also works with all crits, not only weapon crits. If you add Hylea's Talons you can generate ebven more crits per spellcast (because the DoT on the gloves also does a hit roll that can crit). Even before getting Avenging Storm (which procs on Hemorrhaging hit rolls bc. it originates from the weapon) it's cool to cause hobbled or sickened as additional CC effects on the fly while casting Chillfog, Wicked Briars, Tanglefoot and so on. Later add Avenging Storm and of course Maelstrom and he's wiping ads (which are usually more prone to receiving crits) like few other characters. Venombloom is lso excellent with this because it does 3 attack rolls every 3 secs (loads of chances for crit rolls which all trigger Hemorrhaging which in turn triggers Hylea's Talons and Avenging Storm - which when those crit trigger Hemorrhaging again and so on and so loop). Effort + Taste of the Hunt is also a pretty decent combo during mid levels. The combined DoTs melt tough foes pretty nicely (if you can reliably hit).

I somewhat agree. However, the pl7 phantom has better stats iirc (at least more health). But you confused the names. Essential Phantom is the pl4 summon while Substantial Phantom is pl7.

Yes, you are right. It's only auto-leveling companions before you pick them up - sorry. I forgot about that limitation since I always wanted to level them manually. But since there is the retraining option you can try things out without too much regret.

Besides (pistols in general and) the early game where single weapon usage is really good bc. of the +12 ACC - which is a huge bonus compared to the overall low ACC/defense numbers at that point of the game - I only used One-Handed Style "seriously" with a Monk/Berserker + Stalker's Patience and the "0 recovery on 20% of crits" enchantment. The combination of Swift Flurry/HBD, Blood Thirst and the enchantment made it a lot of fun and the high ACC (+29 from Enduring Dance + single weapon + spear) also made it very viable against high deflection enemies. In most other cases it just feels lackluster. It may have its uses in edge cases - but that's not enough to make it an attractive alternative for most of players who aren't too fixated on the fine details. It not only lacks broad mechanical impact - it also lacks (a) feature(s) that would make it more attractive. Dual wielding and two handers will always have their fans just because of how "cool" they are. Maybe instead of giving increased crit conversion it would have been interesting to focus on the fact that you have a free hand... which could be used for all sorts of stuff during a fight (grabbing the opponent's weapon shaft, throwing random stuff at opponents, grappling, making offending gestures... ;)). Don't know how that would affect combat mechanically though (in a not too complicated fashion)...