Boeroer

Interrupt is calculated like so: interrupt value + d100 > concentration = interrupt occurs. So if you have an interrupt value of 48 you will interrupt Durance with nearly every second attack. In my opinion Interrupting Blows is not worth it unless you have a very special build - (in my case it would be a special Barbarian, Druid or Wizard). With a ranger you can bypass enemies' DR via Persistance (wounding = raw damage), with Stormcaller (-6 shock DR on hit) and/or Penetrating Shot and/or Ryona's Vambraces. If you don't have Stormcaller yet Persistance is the way to go. You animal companion can punch through DR easily if you give him some talents like Predator's Sense, Merciless + Vicious Companion and Brutal Takedown. Penetrating Shot is quite cool with Twinned Arrows because it's +10 damage per shot instead of "only" +5 against targets that have DR5 or more. With Starcaller Penetrating Shot is only effective if the enemy has more than 10 shock DR (or ist immune to shock). With the chanter I would use the Ogres as blockers. Do you have a priest?

Don't know if "noble" is the right term, but it's most certainly nice.

It's 20 base damage. MIG bonus will get added (if any). I also think Merciless and Vicious Companion's bonus might get added. Brutal Takedown is good because it only has to overcome 1/4th of enemy's crush DR. Because Marksman works with any ranged weapon while Weapon Focus only works with the weapons in that group. However - you can take both because they stack. Stacking ACC is crucial, every point is benefical. Scion of Flame does not affect Dragon Thrashed. All those talents (Scion of FLame, Heart of the Storm and so on as well as Sanctifierm Beast Hunter and so on don't work with DoT - Damage over time - effects). Scion of Flame profits from single weapon use (+12 ACC). You have to decide if you want more sturdyness or give your chant +12 ACC.

I got me a nasty one from Deviantart.com + Photoshop (well, Gimp in this case...): Monksterlash (with Battle Forged!) is very powerful in my opinion. I didn't use the Supper Plate though because dual wieldung (or wielding a bashing shield like the Barricade) is so much better with Torment's Reach (Barricade procs ToTV also with the AoE of Torment's Reach). By the way: lashes work with draining which might be very handy in a solo game. Turning Wheel + Torment's Reach + Linghtning Strikes + Blood Testament + Purgatory means a ton of endurance draining. Braven found that out.

Retaliation damage profits from Vulnerable Attacks and also Ryona's Vambraces (also Devil of Caroc in the Blood Pool, but you are solo, so...). DR bypass is better than stacking MIG in this case because the base damage of retaliation is so low (except Battle Forged of course, this scales and reaches very high damage numbers at higher levels). I'm also surprised you didn't max CON, don't you have issues with low health? If you take Vulnerable Attack + Ryona's (which I recommend with any kind of damaging retaliation) you might think about another (light & fast) weapon like Unforgiven or Sword of Daenysis. Those do more dps than Bittercut with decent dmg mods (such as Soul Whip+Biting Whip) and Vulnerable Attack+Ryona's because of the superior speed. This means more focus. Unforgiven also has an additional 10% burning lash which will give you additional focus. It's very good to use Body Attunement as well so that the lashes all go through and give you focus. What also works ok-ish solo is to start the fight with the Golden Gaze and hope for a quick proc of Expose Vulnerabilities. The focus gain with it against low DR foes is very good. It's in the same group as rapiers (Sword of Daenysis) by the way. But the proc is not very reliable. The chance is nealry 10% per attack (9,8% because of the two projectiles each having a 5% chance to proc). Since ciphers have nothing like Driving Flight or so it takes a bit to get the rod to proc. Another smarty move to get more focus is to enchant your melee weapon with a shocking lash (again Sword of Daenysis maybe?) and first use Stormcaller to lower an enemy's shock DR. This stacks with Body Attunement so you can make sure that most of the lash damage gets through.

So... it's unclear to you?

That's why said "basically".

Yes, it used to be baloney - now it's quite nice. Still quite situational though.

That's why said "basically".

Eh sorry. I meant reduced damage from ranged attacks that target deflection or reflex. Guess I did a Powder Burns shot and got distracted while writing my previous post.

Imagine a character who sings Dragon Thrashed and casts Relentless Storm at the same time. Ouch... It may also be that the Skald will drown in phrase points if he uses Relentless Storm + Seven Nights. That is if the "crit leads to phrase points" also works with non-weapon attacks.

Same is true for Chanters. They can cast or do whatever they want (except using invocations) while chanting.

Give the mace to a barb I'd say. The Wall seems to improve your deflection and reflex against ranged attacks, yes. So I think it's great against all sorts of missiles, Cleansing Flames and Fireballs & friends. Any other interpretation doesn't make sense. I guess a fighter with Charge will still be able to move, eh?

Yeah, obviously. Why should they give you another copy of the game for free? If you already have PoE and download the Deadfire Pack for free you'll basically have the Definitive Edition I guess.

Braven, where have you been? This was all over the subforum some weeks ago with vids and everything, hehe. Yes, it's especially powerful against Drakes, Dragons, Banshees and the like. Also against barbs with Threatening Presence. So keep your barb out of aura range when meeting ciphers in the Skaen Temple for example. They will stunlock you. As far as I know they don't have Brutal Backlash though. Also makes a nice combo with Wild Orlan. The in-game description still says 1/encounter!

1) Sura's Supper Plate will stack with everything 2) retaliations an how they stack: Battle Forged stacks with 1 item-retaliation (type of retalition doesn't matter) that's not from Supper Plate (Garodh's Chorus OR Hiro's Mantle OR Coat of Ill Payment OR Vengiatta Rugia OR Binding Rope OR Lavender Wreath) + Flame Shield OR Wreathing Flame (from mantle) + Barbaric Retaliation + Pain Link + Supper Plate + Psychic/Brutal Backlash (now triggers unlimited times per encounter) 3) true 4) true 5) As far as I know only Spark the Souls of the Righteous (priest) does generate focus - maybe this got nerfed as well in the meantime. Usually only weapon attacks will generate focus. Deep Wounds works with any source of damage that does pierce, slash or crush damage. Retaliation, spells, scrolls and so on (also in an AoE). Since Flame Shieldand Battle Forged do burn damage, they don't trigger Depp Wounds. Deep Wounds don't stack like wounding does! Only the duration will get "updated" a bit if you hit multiple times. The cipher retaliation build used to be totally bonkers - now it's not as powerful any more. But with Psychic + Brutal Backlash which now gets triggered unlimited times per encounter there's anothe nice component. Anyways: with a multi-retaliation cipher + Pain Link + Combusting Wounds you can still do a lot of damage while using powers at the same time. But the best retaliation builds nowadays come from the monk and barb class. Monks' TUrning Wheel, Lighting Strikes and Blood Testament Gloves all work with every damaging retaliation effect (adding tons of burn/shock/raw lash damage) + Rooting Pain - and barbs have some nice damage modifiers (One Stands Alone, Blooded), Barbaric Retaliation and a tremendous health pool. Druid used to be OP as well with Avenging Storm + multiretaliation, but that got nerfed as well. Wizards can be fun, too with Expose Vulnarabilites, Combusting Wounds, Minoletta's Piercing Sigil (doesn't stack with normal item retaliation though), high CON and lots of uses of Infuse with Vital Essence.

So finally my new computer from Tuxedo arrived yesterday with a dual boot (Ubuntu/Win10 just for the beta which only runs on windows - shame on you OBS ). It has 64GB of RAM, an i7-7700K and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 - so it might handle Deadfire well enough. Since this machine seems to have a bit more capacity than my "old" laptop with a Nvidia 550M I'm planning to do some videos of my builds "in action". Hope it works out... never ever did I capture gaming vids before...

No, you can't. But if you don't care about steam achievements you can just open the console and type: iroll20s<enter> *open console again* additem sabre_resolution 1<enter> *open console again* iroll20s<enter> And you will get a new one. Just sell or trow away the old one with the wrong enchantments.

In terms of defense: Whispers of Yenwood is a good way to raise your fortitude defense (+4) as well as adding a bit more endurance and health. Its +2 CON stacks with everything. Usually fortitude is more important than deflection in the tougher (later) fights. So I wouldn't say it's outright crappy. But in the early game +5 deflection from Hearth Harvest is better than +4 fortitude. Offense: Hearth Harvest comes with a burning lash and is rending, which is nice. For dealing damage Ravenwing is the best weapon on that list (early in the game) because it comes with Damaging III which is quite an improvement if you don't have a lot of other dmg mods and can't enchant gear to exceptional yet. With more dmg modifiers and enchantment Hearth Harvest will be better at some point though.

Soulbound weapons work with any weapon focus, you don't need WF Soldier. You should grab Shatterstar and enchant it with a shocking lash. I mean because of the name. But it's also a great hammer. You can wear the Animancer's Boots and pretend that the spellbound Jolting Touch comes out of your hammer. You can also use the White Crest armor and pretend that the Dancing Bolts are caused by your hammer strikes. Sadly there's no weapon that procs Crackling Bolt, Dancing Bolts or similar. Only Jolting Touch - and those are a stiletto and a war bow. Maybe playing a shock druid + single hammer or Abydon's Hammer (later) without using Spiritshift would be the best solution.

I played a LOT during parental leave.

If I remember correctly there was some info that they are doing their own cloth physics this time?

That's the case for all classes in the game and not a bug. All offensive abilities get +1 ACC per character level that goes on top of the ACC that's displayed on the character sheet. Auto-attacks will have the displayed ACC (except Carnage hits - because Carnage is an offensive ability as well and also get +1 per level). The Accuracy will not be displayed when you hover over the button of the ability (e.g. Knockdown or FoD) - for whatever reason. This could be improved indeed.

That's because you like to watch the very entertaining and blazingly fast loading screens of PoE...