Boeroer

Devoted seems diametrically opposite to what OP suggests, given that he wants to Key is understanding that weapons skills (or better: proficiencies) are not needed to use any weapon properly. You can always take whatever weapon type you find and use it without any penalty (just not being able to use the modal if you don't have the fitting proficiency). Several weapon types have modals that aren't worth considering if you plan to switch weapons frequently anyway, so no loss really. Also weapon proficiencies are completely decoupled from the rest of the class abilities: you get proficiency points "for free" at every few level-ups and have to invest them anyway. So I would focus on the proficiencies that give you useful modals. The rest of the weapon types you can use without proficiency/modal (and without drawback). Proficiencies that I find useful are large shield, medium shield, club, flail, morning star, pike, mace, arbalest, crossbow, hunting bow, pistol, blunderbuss (if one of your classes is Streetfighter), arquebus, rod, battle axe. As I said: not mandatory - but useful. So if I had to pick a proficiency I would use some of these. If one likes to focus on melee then of course a lot of them aren't worth considering. A Devoted however is the only (sub)class that puts a penalty on using weapons you are not proficient with - and he only gets two proficiencies at the start of the game and none later, thus locking him out from any other weapons besides fists and the other weapno type he picked at the start. So "use what I find" becomes more difficult with a Devoted, not easier. Because of that I wouldn't suggest Devoted when I look at what OP wrote. A Black Jacket on the other hand is something that fits the description of OP pretty well: not only does a Black Jacket get more weapon proficiencies from the get-go but he also gets an additional weapon set where you can put alternative weapons in AND he can switch to those alternative weapon sets more quickly. If a Black Jacket takes the ability Quick Switch he can even switch to whatever weapon set he has without loosing any time at all: maximum flexibility of all classes when it comes to "use what I find". The additional weapon proficiencies a Black Jacket gets for free can be used to pick more of the useful modals/proficiencies I wrote above. So, imo the trick isn't to pick no weapon proficiency (because you have to pick some anyway and they only unlock the modals which are not strictly improvements but more like pro/con things that give more options) but to be able to pick as many proficiencies as possible for free AND not having drawbacks if you don't pick a certain proficiency (which rules out Devoted). Because that allows you to play as OP wants: picking up whatver good weapon you find and use it effectively. And as an added benefit you're able to switch to a fitting weapon against a certain foe - as soon as you realize what said foe is vulnerable to you can pick the optimal weapon set. Not focusing on a single weapon but using what is best in a given situation. I think the no.1 wish of OP isn't to not be able to pick a proficiency but being able to use whatever weapon comes along. At least that's how I interpret OP's post (?). The second class can be whatever (if multiclass is an option I mean). I personally would maybe pick Streetfighter if I wanted more melee damage - it's also a nice pick to make use of several different weapon setups depending of the situation you are in. For example you can start with a dual wielding setup and once you feel you get overwhelmed and bloodied switch to a shield setup to be more safe. I also think that Black Jacket/Streetfighter is a thematically fitting combination.

You can put it on Durance if you want. Priests ca get to very high MIG with Aggrandizing Radiance (+2, stacks with everything) + Minor Avatar (+8) or Champion's Boon (+10), Maegfolc Skull (+4) and Abydon's Hammer (+4). That's +18 (+20) MIG which is pretty cool to cast some damaging spells imo. You don't even need to bind it to him in order to test this out - because the +4 MIG also works without binding it. Combine with high INT gear (+ Aggrandizing Radiance + Minor Avatar) and then try something like Shining Beacon + Cleansing Flame. The boosted MIG and INT both add damage per tick and also more ticks so overall the dmg increases a lot. Also works with Holy Radiance against vessels. I could one-shot all but the strongest vessels with Holy radiance alone when I did a maxMIG/maxINT MC Priest with perfect dispositions. Storm of Holy Fire is also nicer with a lot of MIG bonus. This can also work if you give it to Aloth, max his MIG with gear and cast Champion's Boon on him and let hm cast damaging spells - or on Grieving Mother with something like Disintegration. I prefer the Priest though bc. of Minor Avatar (bonus to MIG and INT at also DEX and PER at the same time). You can also attack with it, but that hasn't a particularly spectacular effect imo. If you want to use it in melee then Zahua (especially with Anitlei passive from his quest + Swift Strikes + Gautlets of Swift Action) is a good pick. The high base dmg of the weapon helps all the little lashes with overcoming enemies' DR better and the slow speed (you can't durganize the hammer and it hasn't a speed enchantment) can be countered with Anitlei which otherwise often is overkill with a dual-wielding setup (already at 0 recovery without Anitlei).

Um... he wrote that 5 years ago.

One downside of Double Tap: It's really annoying if you want to test out reloading speed with the Red Hand on some CRE_dummies.

It needs to be a melee weapon attack - therefore it won't work unfortunately. Those weapon "spells", even when tagged as weapon attacks, seldomly are tagged as melee. Offensive Parry from WotEP is one of the weapon enchantments that gets treated as a (non-ability) melee weapon attack (and thus works). From the top of my head I don't recall any weapon enchantment other than Offensive Parry that works with Skald's phrase-on-crit. A Skald/Monk with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming can maximize the gathering of phrases because Offensive Parry triggers Swift Flurry/HBD and that also counts for Skald crit-phrases. A Skald cannot get more than +1 phrase from one "attack phase", no matter how many crits rolls they produce from one attack action - so even if you proc a whole crit chain you will only ever get +1 phrase max - but this makes it a lot more likely to get a phrase in the first place because the 50% chance isn't that meaningful anymore if you can produce whole chains of crits per swing (or parry) instead of only one.

I think it's pretty cool. Also because there aren't that many CC/debuff alternatives on PL6 (besides Arkemyr's Capricious Hex).

They would indeed die - and the weapon was used in a Youtube video by a user to one-shoot Neriscyrlas with an empowered Whispers of the Wind. Afterwards it was nerfed by the devs so that it only would apply injuries to uninjured targets. So the injury mechanic works on enemies, too - in general. Skullcrusher with WotW should still apply an injury to all enemies it hits - but only once. But since the injuries aren't too bad (as pointed out by my fellow forum users) it's not too exciting. The alternative enchantment (+10 max health until the end of combat) also isn't fantastic - but it works with killing summons (directly with the weapon) so it's at least abusable (tried some SC Berserker with HoF and such and it's fun but not too impactful).

Huh? I tried that several times in the past and it didn't work. Only the initial attack would proc the raw dmg cone (which would only add to the weapon dmg cone of WotEP).

I didn't try it in Turn Based Mode, but in RTwP mode you can use a Black Jacket with items like Lethandria's Devotion (in weapon set 1) + Outworn Buckler (weapon set 2) to heal up and remove all hostile effects from you and the whole party without any recovery - by simply switching between the two weapon sets multiple times. Each time the passive aura effects get triggered anew. And the Outworn Buckler effect is multiplicative when "stacked" that way. I guess Killers Frozen Stiff (paralyze) will be better than the Thunder Rolled (stun) because its AoE is much bigger - but the duration is comparable. It doesn't deal damage but it's a lot easier to reach multiple opponents, especially with the spell shaping passive. Of course you'll have to get there first.

Ever tried to use Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr with Tekehu?

Congratulations

Welcome! That build is okay. Just don't pick Bloody Slaughter (it's really bad).

You will be able to cast up to 4 spells per spell tier per rest. If you unlock a new spell tier you start with fewer spells than 4, but as you level up further that will increase. So naturally the more levels and tehrefore spell tiers you gain the more spells you can cast per rest. At low levels casters are at a bit of a disadvsantage because they will have few spell tiers and also not full 4 spell uses per tier yet. But if you are patient caster turn into the most powerful classes after leveling up several times. At higher levels you can choose some low level spells for "spell mastery" which you than can cast 1/encounter (on top of he per-rest uses). So those will refresh their uses after every fight. Intelligence only determines effect durations and Area of Effect size (and influences the Will defense). It ha nothing to do with your spell uses. Hiravias has the same amount of spell uses a any other caster (Wizard, Druid or Priest). Maybe you remember him from times where he was of higher level than you are at the moment. You should regain your spell uses after resting. If not then something is wrong.

Also works with only one pair if you cancel the jump mid-air (as soon as the circle appears at the target location - in this case in the water). You will still land in the water and will still have 2/rest uses left. Then give the boots to another party member and do the same. With the same trick you can sneak to/reach places with the whole party which otherwise would be impossible to do.

Against crowds I like Amra + modal even more. You'll be frenzied + flanked and can even wear the Cap of the Laughingstock + Sandals of the Water Lilly which will drop your deflection by 40 points which makes cross against you very likely. Piling up damage reduction gear and armor is crucial though. Then you'll have Carnage + potential Riven Gore + Bleeding Cuts from a Retaliation and the +50% recovery time from Bleeding Cuts won't matter at all while Blood Thirst will work fine (doesn't for arquebus). So you can use that for some active 0-recovery-HoF or -Dazing Shouts or whatever after the shell breaks. Lord Darryn's Voulge: also really nice with this setup bc. of Static Thunder. Even a rod + modal works well. With something like Rod of the Deep Hunter + Sisyphos Stone you can slow down bunch of enemies' considerably while doing damage. Against singular (or not that many) tough foes the arquebus trick is pretty amazing though.

Frenzy also speeds up casting, how does it go to waste? Yes, Dance of Death applies its ACC bonus to all attack rolls. It scales with Power Level. I think at PL9 it's at 5 focus per second (or 6? can't remember). But with additional power level bonuses (for example from Lance of the Midwood Stag's enchantment Lord of the Forest) you can go even higher. The good thing is that focus even loads up while you are in recovery and cast Druid spells - or just run around. SC Stormspeaker has access to Avenging Storm though and can cast it over an over. You can try it out with either Effort (+Hemorrhaging) which will make all your crits (including chant and invocation crits) proc Avenging Storm - or you use Sure-Handed Ila + dual mortars (Hand Mortar with Blinding Smoke and Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot).

Yes, correct. And the Sporelings are very good summons considered the immediate access. That's why I wouldn't have recommended Furyshaper/Ancient (if I had read your plans before today ;)). I'd still say that Furyshaper is a great Single Class. The offensive beast and plant spells that are DoTs are very good (Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects, Venombloom) and adding Infestation of Maggots to the mix (although not a beast or plant spell itself). There's only two possible problems with them: first they all target fortitude which is often the highest defense - so you might need a reliable way (in the party) to debuff it. For example a SC or MC Chanter with The Long Night's Drink, your own Tanglefoot while Spirit Frenzy is active and so on. The better candidate for a Ancient Multiclass is the Helwalker imo. +10 INT are great to have for summons an DoT spells. And up to +15 MIG is great for DoTs, too (+10 from Helwalker passive, +5 from Thunderous Blows - although the +2 PEN is a little wasted if one mostly uses raw dmg DoTs - but for stuff like Wicked Briars it's great). What is also a nice candidate for an Ancient is the Psion. It needs no weapon damage to gain focus. You can stay behind and cast spells from cover. Psions have access to (mass-)charm and dominate which works really well in combination with summons such as Sporelings. It's very effective to be able to not only put summons on the field but at the same time also produce allies from enemies via mind control. Also the Psion has access to some accuracy buffing (Borrowed Instinct, Tactical Meld) which helps with landing spells. Alternating between druid spells and cipher spells and having one bottomless ressource pool is great imo. A Berserker/Fury has the advantage that he could stack +2 PEN from Frenzy with the +1 PEN of the Fury (when casting elemental spells) and then later even +1 PEN from some of the elemental talents such as Heart of the Storm and so on. +4 PEN on elemental druid spells is a big deal and helps a lot. Combining fast casting with spell spamming is nice as well. Also using Lord Darryn's Voulge is pretty cool as a Berserker/Fury. Once you get Blood Thirst this combo can be really fun when using stuff like Relentless Storm and Nature's Terror. Just make sure to get rid of confusion before casting Relentless Storm... The only thing that's not so great is that Furies don't have access to restoration spells - which means you cannot heal yourself from Berserker's self damage while frenzied (except with Savage Defiance and Second Wind and of course scrolls or potions). So a good healer in the party would be nice to have (for example using Tekehu with some Moonwell + the Moon's Night etc.).

Dumped Resolve also means that hostile effects on you will last longer. If you are no frontliner that's not a big downside though.

Also: if you apply effects with durations on enemies like Many Nights or Soft Winds etc. - and only then switch to Brisk Recitation, the effect on the enemy gets refreshed to the original duration with every new hit (the game the doesn't remove the linger time when the effect is already applied) and thus won't run out. So it can be very benefical to first apply effects without Brisk Recitation and then switch it on as soon as enough enemies are affected. It's micro-intense so it's only really worth in long fights with durable enemies imo, but then it's pretty cool.

You can wear items/consumables that raise MIG to at least 10 points and then some that give increased spell damage. For example Blightheart, Harley (pet - it works with spells, too), Griffin's Blade and so on. 6 is quite low. I wouldn't want to drive MIG to 20 as a Bloodmage, but in Deadfire a malus (-x%) is calculated multiplicatively in most cases (that's why grazes and underpenetration will hurt your dmg output so much) - therefore I wouldn't go beneath 10 MIG (or 8 if you use Breath Blessing points for raised attributes).

Furyshaper's Blood Ward is awesome and worth going SC imo. What's also awesome is Driving Roar as damage/CC tool or Dazing Shout as defense/dmg tool. I personally prefer Driving Roar The good thing about it is that even the tier before that comes fairly early (Barbaric Roar) is alredy very useful since it's cheap but already knocks down foes and interrupts. The Fear Ward (which si also very good) also comes rel. early when you are a single class Barb.

No, added lashes don't change how an attack is tagged. Either the weapon itself or the ability you are using need to have that keyword. An enchantment usually doesn't add a keyword to the weapon - at least I don't know any enchantment that does. So Elemental Bolts will not negate the malus of an Arcane Archer. I don't think Arcane Bolts is very strong. It doesn't scale like normal Minor Missiles does. Normal Minor Missiles adds projectiles instead of dmg with Power Level. And then some PEN of course. The Missiles of Spearcaster don't gain projectiles. They will profit from weapon quality (+dmg,+PEN and +ACC) though. To me Arcane Bolts is better because 4 added mini-lashes are more reliable than a 15% chance to proc missiles - and lashes are also multiplicative dmg bonuses which will most likely result in higher additional dps than missiles every 6th or 7th shot which only do 5 base dmg each. So for me it's always Arcane Bolts. But I didn't use or test the Missiles excessively so maybe there's some combination with an ability or so where it's cool. I haven't discovered one yet. If you are not dismissive of per-rest abilities then it's not an easy choice. In the right situation Skewer is actually pretty good and it scales well. The good thing about x/rest abilities is that you can "spam" them in hard encounters. Two Skewers fired into a crowd in one encouter can make a serious difference. Pinning is a good pick if you don't like per-rest abilities much or tend to spare them up until it's too late and then rest without ever using them. Pinning is also not bad with Driving Flight. But - if you use Imbue:Web a lot (as I do with Spearcaster) then Pinning might be a bit redundant. It's still my favorite pick because it is quite good in very long fights which will become more common in the DLCs. Nope! If you decide then it's fixed and you can't get rid of it. However, without using the console you can export a character with the (uncenchanted) item from another savegame, import that chat with the item into your current game and enchant it anew. Will be expensive but possible. You would then have two of those items, each with a different enchantment path.

That's Eviee. Following that logic you also shouldn't have ever seen a point of having a Coastal Aumaua, Wood Elf or Mountain Dwarf Watcher. Sometimes it just fits. Besides that - players usually don't like to swap pets or items around a lot and there are way better pets for a ranged character than Eviee. If covering resistances is one of the goals I mean. For a backline character I don't focus on that to be honest. With this character in particular it's pretty unlikely that you get hit by terrify often. And frighten or shaken isn't much of a problem since modal effects + autoattacks still work just fine when frightened. Also a Troubadour could easily remove all afflictions just by running the appropriate resistance chant with Brisk Recitation. So maybe Wild Orlan wouldn't be my first pick in this case. For a melee guy it would be higher up my list though. I'd prefer mountain dwarf or ocean folk for this arbalest char I think. Just because of the vibes. Racial abilities don't matter much here.

You are welcome. Race: anything that can wear a helmet would be fine imo. Since Acina's Tricorn is a... well, Tricorn I like to use Ocean Folk from Vailia. If I wanted to use the Helm of the White Void + High Harbinger's Robe I would pick a Boreal Dwarf I guess.

I do not have anything on paper (so to speak) - but it's not difficult. I would use high DEX, PER and INT. RES can be dumped. CON can be low, too. Rest into MIG. Max Arcana. You can also get the Firethrower's Gloves early. Later maybe even train Arcana at some teacher (don't recall which one does it). Every point of Arcana = +1 ACC with Spearcaster and +2 with an Imbue Shot with Spearcaster. And of course you get access to all the great scrolls. Pick Arcane Archer/Troubadour. Phrases which are good: Thick Grew Their Tongues, Sure Handed Ila, Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and later Many Lives Pass By. For invocations I would pick mainly summons and Their Champion. The best summons are the animated weapons, but early on the wyrms are very good, too, especially if you sing Sure Handed Ila. They don't scale well so you might want to retrain out of them at higher levels and pick something else. White Worms scales very well for example... Pick everything from the Ranger tree that gives accuracy and is suited for ranged weapons, Driving Flight, Concussive Tranquilizer and of course Gunner. The Anmal Companion is sidelined for this build because it's of not much use in the field when you are shooting imbues all around. It would only get stuck or pulled around. You can use it as your bodyguard though. I would pick a bear, give it Resilient Companion and keep it close. In theory it couls also interrupt with Takedown - but I found it's too tedious to try and keep it out of your own AoE shots. Weapon Proficiency Arbalest of course, a backup weapon for pierce-immune foes is not bad. Essence Interrupter + modal is perfect for this. But anthing that doesn't do pierce-only damage is fine (also see Eccea's Arcane Blaster or so). Maia's Sharpshooter's Garb is nice for this, especially if you pair it with a pet that reduces recovery penalties of armors - like Abraham or Cutthrouat Cosmo. A good alternative would be Miscrean't Leathers or High Harbinger's Robe. For the head it's either Acinas Tricorn or Helm of the White Void (if use this when I wear the High Harbinger's Robe because it just looks better and the helm is very nice, too). Don't forget the Ring of the Marksman. Some Boots of Speed or Bounding Boots and it's cool. You main tank (for example Edér) should get an items that makes them immune to push & pull effects (there's the rel. early Upright Captain's Belt) and also an item or passive that makes them resistant to DEX afflictions. That way Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora will have zero effect on your tank while enemies will get screwed up every few secs. After imbue shots just wait and see what casters are doing. If any of them starts to cast something you don't want them to: shoot them once with the modal active. If the enemies don't have concentration you can switch away from Thick Grew THeir Tongues and use something like Mith Fyr for more damage or Many Lives Pass By for pouring out some skeletons. But always keep Sure Handed Ila going.