Boeroer

Ever tried to use Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr with Tekehu?

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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.

If you don't care about the lower damage output then of course it doesn't matter. For Full Attacks that have some special effect on hit or crit the additional bash is benefical - for example for Stunning Surge you'll have two chances to land a critical hit, for Crippling Strike you'll have two chances to apply the affliction and so on. But in general: if you can avoid auto attacks with a bashing shield then avoid them. You will have the same attack speed an recovery if you carry the bashing shield but use primary attacks only. For example a Nalpasca/Soulblade may be able to alternate between Force of Anguish and Soul Annihilation all the time (which are both primary attacks that only use the main weapon) but they will have the dual wielding speed nonetheless if you carry a bashing shield. It's just so that the shield bash won't get used but only the main weapon (with dual wielding speed). This is not superimportant or game changing - it's just a small piece of info that's good to know.

No, it was not. The bash is rel. weak - but it's a great shield nonetheless. At least the bash sclaes with Transcendent Suffering (or Monastic Unarmed Training). Still not as potent as a real weapon but not bad at all. You can profit from the increased speed and circumvent the shield bash if you use Primary Attacks (for example Force of Anguish) because those always only use the primary weapon instead of auto-attacks which will alternate between primary and off-hand weapon (in this case bashing shield). Use Sparkcrackers. Throw them left of the guard somewhere to lure him away and quickly grab all that is on the stand. Magran's Blessing has a rubbish bash because it doesn't scale at all - so here it's even more important to circumvent it's use if you are looking for damage output.

You need more manual-handling with melee characters, that's for sure. In mid-difficulty fights you just shoot stuff dead. Pretty simple... If you are set on melee then I would employ a Rogue/something. Escape is cheap, it comes at lvl 1 so you can use the same tactics right from the start of the game and some of the Rogue Strikes will interrupt on graze. If you pair with a Ghost Heart you could have two sources of cheap mobility and you will have Concussive Tranquilizer at some point. Or pair with Monk and use Force of Anguish to play squash with the casters or use Stunning Surge to stun them for a long time. If you use Sun & Moon flail you can not only enhance the crit chances per swing but also get a very high chance of triggering Swift Flurry's additional attacks. Nice mix of disruption and dps and high mobility, too. What you can also do in order to take out two casters right at the start of battle for a long time: Use a Berserker/Priest and cast Withdraw on those casters while frenzied. THe confusion of hte Berserker allows you to cast Withdraw on enemies. It has not hit roll so it will always hit - 100%.

I don't quite follow. A fast enough ranged character will always have it easier to address multiple threats - just because there's no movement involved. If you can interrupt with a simple shot of a ranged weapon without using any limited resourced you will be useful during the whole fight. And you can just wait and see what the casters are doing. If you see one preparing a nasty spell: boom - interrupt. Then the nest caster is about to release something nasty? Boom - interrupt. You cannot do that with a melee character without wasting tons of resources on mobility actions like Escape (Rogue), Evasive Roll (Ranger), Flagellant's Path (Monk) or Leap (Barb) etc. Those characters can be great for disrupting the backline an kill one caster quickly - but they will not be good at controlling a bunch of them. Also their mobility abilities are sometimes coming rather late (see Barb). If you use Effort+Hemorrhaging with a Mage Slayer you will have to rely on crits by the way. It's cool but doesn't work as well against tough foes with high defenses.

Only the first. regular blunderbusses are crap with Imbue shots. The best weapons for Imbue shots are Fire in the Hole and Waterhaper's Focus becvause they have a build-in jump that stacks with Driving Flight. Thus both would proc three imbue spells per shot because hit+jump+jump. But Fire in the Hole has a short reach and Watershaper's Focus has low base damage. But when it's about triggering the imbue spells like Pull of Eora as much as possible (3 parallel Pulls with one shot are very impactful) those are great. Every regular shot that is not done with an elemental keyword. But in my case that doesn't matter much. The penatly is only -5. But if you use Spearcaster you will get +1 ACC for every point of Arcana. So at 5 Arcana all your regular shots with Spearcaster won't have any acc penatly compared to other weapons - and moving forward with Arcana you will only gain accuracy. Also, as I said: Imbue shots gain ACC via Arcana as well - so with Spearcaster doing an imbue shot you will have an ACC bonus of 2*Arcana skill.

Bloody Slaughter works with everything iirc.

If I want a character that can shut down casters reliably (and kill them rel. quickly) and also be useful against bosses (and maybe shut them down, too) I build an arbalest or a crossbow shooter. The modal of both will interrupt reliably (on hit) which cancels the caster's ability and takes away the spell use. Since enemies' concentration prevents interrupts I like to use a build that contains a Troubadour. The Troubadour can run "Thick Grew Their Tongues" and "Sure-Handed Ila" simulateously which is important. The first one removes all Concentration from enemies and the second speeds up reloading weapons twice: once the recovery bonus of 20% gets applied and then also the reloading bonus of the chant will get applied. So as an arbalest user you get 20% speedup two times. This is needed because the modal of arbalests prolings the already long reloading phase. Sure-Handed Ila counters this nicely. As second class I like to use the Arcane Archer. First of all it's a Ranger - so it has a lot going for it when it comes to ranged weapons and high accurcy through passives and active abilities. It also got Gunner which stacks with Sure-Handed Ila and speeds your reloading up further. However, the Arcane Archer has two more amazing tools in his belt for messing enemies' actions up: Imbue:Web and Imbue:Eora. Both proc an instance of the spell with every projectile + jump. They also get bonus accuracy with Arcana - nice synergy with Spearcaster which already gets such a bonus - they stack. So every imbue shot with Spearcaster+Driving Flight will produce two high accuracy instances of the spell (here Binding Web or/and Pull or Eora). Pull of Eora alone is devastating for enemy casters because it cancels their actions and whirls them around periodically every 3 secs. Binding Web also pulses every 3 secs but it "only" stucks enemies. Well, that changes as soon as you get access to the invocation "Their Champion" which turns every crit roll (including those from Binding Web or Pull or Eora) into an interrupt. Remember that you remove concentration with Thick Grew Their Tongues so every crit from you, no matter the source, will interrupt. This will not only shut down one single caster but everyone in the AoE who gets crit every few seconds. The attack rolls of "Thick Grew Their Tongues" count, too. Then you will have access to summons - later game the Animated Weapons will be very good at shutting down casters, too. One of the weapons does kockdown attacks which work like interrupts - so you'll have a summon that can interrupt casters by themselves. The other two weapons will help to kill off that caster. And you also have access to invocations that can shut down casters on their own, for example the stunning wave or Ben Fidel (frighten prevents offensive spellcasting). Imo this build has it all besides healing: sufficient survivability (just pick a Bear companion to guard you), unlimited access to interrupts, crowd control, single target and AoE damage and fantastic accuracy. It also works well with crossbows. Scourge of Bezello is an excellent weapon for interrupting casters because it has three bolts which will each interrupt - but it somes superlate while Spearcaster cames very early. So for me it's Spearcaster. --- There are other altenatives of course - for example a Mage Slayer Barbarian with fast weapons. Or anything that can reliably hard-CC enemy casters (stun, paralyze, charm/dominate, terrify). I perfer the ranged approach though because you don't have to move a lot which spares time and doesn't put you in harm's way.

Indeed The effect of high Resolve, paired with Clarity of Agony, is much more potent than high INT. So it's no problem to take Turning Wheel. Especially if you only took mediocre INT from the start. You are right. I was still in the Paladin/Forbidden Fist bubble and forgot that Devoted can't have both modals. Well - small shield also works fine without the modal and thae bash counts as unarmed attack (it scales with Transcendent Suffering) so it should't get the Devoted penalty.

Fair Favor is a fancy feathered hat that looks cool and fits a shwashbuckling Edér mechanically as well as thematically (if he wants to have that vailian vibes, too).