Boeroer

Whoa, I totally forgot aboput Crucible of Suffering. This is truly useful in dragon fights and will stack nicely with Defiant Resolve as well. Sorry about that. I never take it because I never feel the need with a monk. I knew that Faith and Conviction got nerfed, but when I looked it up in the wiki I didn't double check (because the wiki says it got nerfed - but didn't update the numbers - bummer). I know you can't trust the wiki, but I can't always fir up PoE when I want to check the numbers. Maybe I should. So yes, deflection is 30 (paladin) compared to 33 (monk) if the monk chooses to use Duality for deflection or 30 compared to 25. I would still consider the Outworn Buckler part of every paladin tank which gives the paladin the edge when it comes to passive defenses until the monk grabs Little Savior. I don't say that paladins are the better tanks, I was just confused by the "only 2 points off". Another nice thing for a paladin tank is Liberating Exhortation which can be cast on self. Sadly, Reinforcng Exhortation can't. I would say yes if you plan to mainly lower DEX. With a lot of MIG and INT you do better healing with Lay on Hands and Veteran's Recovery, your Sacred Immolation will be a lot more effective, too (if you don't lower PER too much). Fortitude is more important than reflex in my opinion (the most nasty disables like paralyze, stun and petrify target fortitude most of the time) plus you can boost reflex with Weapon & Shield Style. Also, when using Sacred Immolation it's cool if you don't get mind controlled. High will helps to only catch grazes and Righteous Sould will then make sure that the alliance flip is canceled immediately or is very short. There are some situations where it's very cool to have very high reflex - like when your wizard wants to nuke the whole place with an AoE spell but your paladin is standing right in the center. But generally I'd say it's more useful the other way round.

Yes, those points are valid. I think in certain situations a defensive monk is more effective than a defensive paladin, too - but the numbers weren't correct by a wide margin. Concerning Cautious Attack: what keeps a paladin to take Cautious Attack as well? Stacks with Faith and Conviction just fine. He then has +13 deflection compared to the monk who also uses it and +24 to other defenses compared to the monk (if Outworn Buckler is in). Also, paladins can use Zealous Endurance to get 15% hit to graze conversion - which works against every attack and stacks with durgan steel on shield and armor. When it comes to plain passive defense numbers, there's nothing better than a paladin. Doesn't mean that he's the most effective tanker though. Also depends what you want a tank to do.

What do you mean with "only 2 off" and that the monk gets higher potential deflection? The monk gets +8 to fortitude/reflex/will OR deflection (base 25) from Duality. The paladin can get +27 to fortitude/reflex/will with Faith and Conviction + Deep Faith and +13 deflection (base 20). Now the monk has to decide which part to boost (deflection OR the other defenses), but that aside both end up at 33 deflection - while the paladin gets his other defenses buffed a lot higher than the monk. It's not 2 but 19 points of difference unless I missed something (it's 2 points if you only look at the starting bonus of Faith at Conviction which is +5/+10 at lvl 1 without dispositions). Now add the Outworn Buckler that you can get very, very early in the game for rel. little money and that can only be worn by a paladin and you'll have +18/+32.

Actually a high CON monk or even barb work better for me in that regard. They just can't be killed with one attack and can be healed a lot before health runs out. Monk is especially nice because of Duality, Crucible and the summons who are surprisingly sturdy. But overall the MC paladin is unmatched.

What you all seem to forget is that Time Parasite is a debuff (without immunities or resistances), too.

Actually English has a bigger word pool than most other languages I believe. But most of those words don't see much use in everyday conversations.

I'm not defending the flaw, I'm just showing how/why you can play a barb who didn't go to university. The points you make are true. If I'm not misinterpreting it: seems that Carnage might not be an automatic ability in Deadfire any more. Because subclasses' features don't alter Carnage but rather Frenzy (look at the Berserker)...?

Alacrity and other spells work - also with potions and scrolls. Form of the Delemgan is a great spell to cast before you shift by the way. The last question is a good one. No idea. I only know that you can't summon Firebrand or Rot Skulls yourself when shifted. Maybe it works but Wildstrike doesn't get applied? Because it's supposed to only work with the natural weapons of the shifted druid - but who knows?

Yes, barbs are very squishy at the beginning because their endurance and health pool isn't that much bigger (in flat numbers) but their deflection is awful. With every level the advantage of the higher modifiers for health and endurance gets more and more obvious and they turn into great meat shields. But that doesn't help at the beginning. So just be careful. That's the main reason why I pick Vet. Recovery at lvl 2 with a front line barb every time.

I'm completely aware that we agree on the mechanics. I also added that the problem with Carnage is that you get it automatically (class defining). I don't try to oppose tou, I'm just trying to point out some details that might be of interest to the readers of this thread. I don't have a problem with the intelligent barb. The points you make are true. It just doesn't bother me that much because I don't care a lot about immersion or meeting fantasy tropes or fulfilling expectations or making every class playable in a lot of different ways (as long as the class itself if fun to play even if it is a one-trick pony). But I get the point. My solution, as I said above, would be to remove all automatic abilities. That way you'd have more freedom for char development and you're not stuck with a barb who has to invest in INT just to make Carnage better.

You can say all that (threshold, low INT gimps) about every AoE ability in the game. In certain situations it doesn't matter if your INT is 10 or 15: you will scratch the circles of some enemies and damage them the same way as if your AoE covers their circles in whole. The only thing with the barb is that Carnage is an integral part because you get it automatically. You can't omit it. And this has to be balanced out in some way so the class is not too strong. So you get less ACC and low deflection and all that. If you want to play a ranged barb there will always be the feeling that you wasted the best thing of the barb. I think most people have the same feeling when lowering INT with Carnage. They think "if I already have an auto AoE attack that grows in size with INT I should put a lot of points into it or else it's a waste." And it's true that Carnage gets better with a lot of INT. But again: it may be that it doesn't matter a lot of times if you have 10 or 15 INT because it's enough to just barely scratch enemies, you don't have to cover them completely with your AoE. And it needs a LOT of additional INT to reach the next line. So, either make a barb with a LOT of INT or leave it a mediocre levels. It's of not much use to put 1 or two points more INT if you can't reach the next row of enemies with it. It would have been better to give the barb another automatic ability than Carnage. It should be an optional pick at lvl-up. That way you could have played a dumb barb (maybe even ranged) without the feeling that you're throwing away your best tool. I would have preferred that there are no fixed, automatic abilities for any class.

If it's as powerful as Battle Forged in PoE1 it's worth it. If it's the weak, non-scaling fire shield it used to be it's garbage.

Yes, but you need high CON on a rogue then - else the small health pool will kill you quickly.

I think it's great. Like Braven said, it's the passive and "no fuzz" part that makes it good. It doesn't matter if you are paralyzed, stunned or prone: you heal. It's as powerful (or even a bit more powerful) as Constant Recovery of a fighter. And nobody complaints about that ability. I always use it with healing bonuses and try to stack it with several other passive healing sources (like Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits + Shod-in-Faith boots for example). It is especially useful in the early to mid game where your endurance pool is a lot smaller than later. But since it scales it's also not bad in the late game. Unlike Savage Defiance which is very good in the early game and gets less an less useful the more you level. I like it a lot on all builds that have poor defenses, decent health (be it from class or through high CON) but want to be on the frontline.

Ha - nearly the same word as for "early".

I meant if you are going to use official companions only. I never use Vielo Vidorio. That is doesn't stack with other speed buffs is a real bummer.

I like to have both Edér and Pallegina in the party - and that's because a fighter with Disciplined Barrage with the aid of a marker paladin is a great boss killer.

I guess Gauntlets of Swift Action will always be the winner. Mourning Gloves are also nice - especially if you don't use other "non-stackable" speed buffs.

I know a bit russian because I lived in Uzbekistan for three years (2010-2013). But I never had to look up or use the russian words for cut or scar.

The question is what comes first. If first Comtessa's Gage gets calculated and then Confident Aim it's pretty cool. If it's the other way round it's not so cool. It could also be that both get calculated seperately and just get added. I never read about a proper test about this. But I know that Kaylon said not long ago that with both enabled you basically have pretty uniform damage rolls.

Cuts are wounds which you get when you get... well, cut. By a knive or a sword or a sharp piece of office paper. They turn into scars after some time. The "scars" in the face of the woman look quite fresh. Red and a bit gaping. Not like scars but like fresh cuts. Which I don't like on a portrait. So good job on removing those.

A barbarian with 1 INT can still hit adjacent foes with Carnage. They have to stand close ot each other, but it still works. Since it doesn't matter if the AoE of Carnage just barely scratches your circle or fully covers it, there is quite a bit of play when it comes to INT. A barb with 10 INT will not hit a lot less enemies than one with 15 INT for example. There are some sweet spots though. Once you mange you scratch the second row of enemies with your Carnage AoE things get interesting. And that's why some people like to max out INT. But it's not that much of a gimpage to play a barb with mediocre INT. Of course there's still Frenzy and Savage Defiance which get better the more INT you have...

Didn't you remove the scars and cuts with Photoshop?

If you trigger Frenzy at the start of combat and also took Veteran's Recovery then the concealed endurance/health is not too bad - because you heal automatically. If I'm not sure if endurance drops too quickly despite Veteran's Recovery I like to trigger Savage Defiance. It's strong from early to mid game. Later it falls behin because it doesn't scale with level, but with healing modifiers like survival and item (up to +85%) it stays to be useful. At the same time Shod-in-Faith boots work very well with such stats.

Good job on removing the cuts. Those were a bit over the top for my taste.