Boeroer

That would have been way better. But maybe also non-programmers had to write down stuff - maybe into a database or a readable file format or whatever - or they used some other tool to create game objects without having to know C#. I have no idea, but there might be reasons why they used strings. OBS - they might have great ideas and so on - but as I said a while ago they don't seem to write the most sophisticated code. But on the other hand: who does when a deadline is approaching.

Typical programmer's error that can happen during development. Especially code completion (as awesome as it is) can lead to such an oversight. But it should be easy to fix with a search that you did. A simple "search & replace" in the IDE should do the trick.

Do you know if keywords are case sensitive in PoE? In C# (which is used by Unity) the usual string comparison works with "System.StringComparison.Ordinal" which is case sensitive, but you can use "OrdinalIgnoreCase" as well. Although I like a keyword approach, using case sensitivity with keywords might be a bad idea. In this case, it might not work because the keywords "poison" and "Poison" will not be considered equal if you choose to use "Ordinal" instead of "OrdinalIgnoreCase". And once designers (who don't know this case stuff) and programmers (who don't know the right spelling of keywords) start to place keywords indepentendly things get messy. For example I see a lot of names where designers and programmers used different words although they mean the same (for example in the game object folder: Foregemasters Gloves/Forgemaster's Gloves, Rumbalt/Rumbald and so on). So if you don't have some sort of keyword completition or a spell checking this approach can be very prone to bugs and errors. Last time I used a lot of keywords (or tags, labels or how you want to call it) in a project I had to write a special phonetic search to filter all the duplicates which got misspelled. I didn't test it in PoE, but I suspect that the Diving Helmet will provide no bonus to the poison part of the swamp dragons' breath.

No problem. The subforum "stories" is still the best place for this I think. But of course nobody will be mad if you leave it here. It's just that this subforum is frequented a lot more and if the posts for your story don't come quickly and plentiful it may happen that your thread will be pushed to the second page.

I guess you mean crossbows only and not arbalests? Crossbows have some disadvantages: - a reload phase (bad for dps) - lowest base damage of all reloding weapons (bad for quick switching) - only one damage type (like all reloading weapons) - no special feat like other weapons have (e.g. dr bypass or prone on crit or two damage types - nothing) - not so special uniques (nothing really exciting like wounding or annihilating or whatever) - late uniques (lvl 8 and 15 of the Endless Paths) - few uniques (only 2) - shares weapon focus with only 3 other weapon types, none of them ranged (weakest weapon focus group) Advantages: - normal crit damage modifier (compared to all other reloading weapons) I don't consider Twin Sting a crossbow because it's soulbound and thus works with any weapon focus. It's a good weapon for a ranger but no reason to stick to crossbows until you get it. Because of those reasons I consider crossbows to be one of the worst weapon choices in the game. They are ok for rogues who can achieve a great hit/crit ratio, but even then there are other reloading weapons like arbalest, arquebus or blunderbuss which are simply better (higher base damage = great for damage mods like Sneak, Deathblows & Backstab). For a ranger, a crossbow has no special benefit whatsoever. Sure, with your pet and stuff you can crit a lot, too, but things like Wounding Shot favor highest base damage and other stuff like Stunning Shots needs higher attack speed. Then there are Twinned Arrows for bows and Powder Burns for guns - but nothing special for crossbows. You can achieve an ok attack and crit rate with crossbows and Swift Aim + Gunner + Wendgär - but it's nothing compared to Twinned Arrows or the burst damage of three (or four) guns with Powder Burns, fired with quick switching. It's even worse than using the Golden Gaze (rod) or the Engwithan Scepter which also don't profit from Twinned Arrow or Powder Burns. Actually a ranger with Vicious Aim + Dangerous Implements is pretty nice - because there are so many awesome unique implements. Good Friend has a nice enchantment for ranger & pet who like to attack the same target - but I tested it with a hearth orlan ranger + wolf and even that combination is not even close to Persistance which you get a lot earlier than Good Friend in the same dungeon. And it's still worse than a simple implement. What crossbows lack is some special feat (maybe +0.3 crit damage mod for all crossbows or +5 ACC like rapiers, clubs, spears and daggers) and more uniques to make them worthwhile. I guess Twin Sting was an attempt, but it comes so late and its not a real crossbow for me - nothing to encourage the use of crossbows.

Well, there's a whole subforum for that (and it's not this one): http://forums.obsidian.net/forum/90-pillars-of-eternity-stories-spoiler-warning/

Yes, Borresaine is the earliest weapon you can get that has a disabling enchantment (in this case stunning). Very nice until you get Stunning Shots (which comes pretty late at lvl 11). It's totally useful to have Borresaine before that. You can buy it as soon as you enter Defiance Bay. After lvl 11 I like the Rain (if I use warbows). Sabra Marie is not so great for rangers in my opinion because the pet will always stop attacking a turned enemy and has to run to another one. I like that bow more on rogues.

Ok I really don't get that one. Not even after I read everything about that song that Wikipedia has to give.

Don't get why this should be a dumb question. Totally viable question for me. And from MaxQuest's answer I learned something new as well. Win-win!

true. But it's a nice armor in combo with monk + Aila Braccia if you like to reflect ranged attacks.

Corpse Eater + Necromancer = Glutton

I still think Josh just meant it differently. I can't see any reason why he would overthrow everything he told us about Deadfire's multiclassing so far (in backer updates, twitch streams, vids and so on) and secretly use a completely different approach.

Argh, I mistook Aru-Brekr's defensive bonus as reflection (like Golden Scales has). Sorry. But still: Dragons' breath attacks (which are cone-shaped except one) will not work with Aru-Brekr (if I read MaxQuest's answer correctly). Only Turisulfus' circular breath attack will lead to a defensive bonus. Quite complicated check by the way.

More ACC is always good. But the hardest time you will have at the start of the game - and when fighting bosses. Apart from that it gets easier and easier to land hits and crits the more you advance. So, things like Eldritch Aim are most effective in the beginning of the game, but they are still useful even in the endgame. ACC is king in this game. And knowing the stacking rules (and exceptions) will make the game a lot easier. As a wizard you'll have low starting ACC. Luckily, most of your spells have a bonus and you also have a buff. All spells and abilities also get a "hidden" +1 bonus per char level. But in the early game it's common for a melee wizard who uses normal weapons to miss a lot. Because of that I wouldn't put PER to 10. Arcane Veil and Hardened Veil are always useful - but you have to decide if they fit in. If you use summoned weapons you might want to put every talent point into improving the weapons' performance and self heals (Veteran's Recovery, Weapon Focus, Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack and so on) and you might find out that there's no room for the Veil talents. If there is: even better. If you get surrounded a Hardened Veil is one of the best ways to survive.

No, it's considered an AoE attack. Those don't get reflected. Everything that is targeted on a single character and has range should work though.

But that's only an assumption. Nobody said that. In former explanations Josh always gave examples of characters who advance in both classes individually so that you could end up with 19 fighter/1 ranger and so on. His statement (if he really meant it this way) can also mean that you only have to decide on your multiclass combination at the start of character creation - so that it's clear what special class(combo) you are throughout the whole game. His statement says nothing about class level advancement. I doubt he changed the whole multiclass mechanics. And I would be angry if they change multiclassing in such a bad way. Maybe it's easier to react to the character in dialogues properly if you already know he's going to be a priest/fighter for example. May help with that strange thing that some people have with these games. "Immersion" or what it's called.

In PoE1 only the duration of an affliction is influenced by graze(-50%), hit (+/-0) and crit (+50% duration). The affliction itself is always the same. That means even grazes which paralyze you will completely disable you for some time. I would have prefered the same duration but a weaker affliction instead.

I like to use Runner's Wounding Shot at the start (usually a paladin has some INT and Runner's raw Dot takes some time to be completely applied) and spare FoD for the times I really want to take out enemies.

Just don't use it at the start of combat but a bit later. Slightly different usage of FoD, but still a nice addition.

Yes, it would be better if afflictions had different stages which relate to graze/hit/crit. That way a paralyzing atttack wouldn't be that devastating if you get grazed. A prayer could simply ensure a downgrade to a lower state. But I guess they are doing something like this at the moment when I'm reading those things about Frenzy countering Weakened and so on.

I think he just wanted to point out that new players will be presented with all infos around multicallsing right at the start of character creation. I guess he just explained it in an ambigious way. But even if you would have to choose it at the start it wouldn't change much, would it? Since you can retrain it doesn't really matter.

No worries. I forgive you.

First of all: using grey color on grey background is a bold move. If you want to play a bow ranger (so it seems) then one of the best weapons can be achieved very early: Persistance is a hunting bow that lies in level 4 of the Endless Paths, a dungeon below the fortress of Caed Nua (that you will take as your own home base). This bow has the wounding enchantment. It's the best unique enchantment for damage (besides the speed enchantment). Especially if you combine it with a high might (MIG) and a low INT value (some weird damage-over-time mechanics are the reason). And there's another reason why Persistance is one of the best choices for a bow ranger (besides Stormcaller): wounding triggers Predator's Sense, a talent that boosts your pet's damage a LOT (+50%). Since your animal companion will have high base damage but attacks quite slowly, you want to make sure that every hit (or bite) is as effective as possible. With Persistance that's very easy: just shoot at an enemy and let your pet attack with Predator's Sense, and it will bite most foes in half. It's like having an additional rogue in the party. Good thing is that bow rangers don't need a ton of talents to be good shooters, so you can but quite some talents/abilites for the pet's damage, too. Pet's damage scales with level and gets really ridiculous once you combine wounding + Predator's Sense, Wounding Shot (hobbles the enemy) + Merciless Companion and Vicious Companion. It will hit like a truck after some time. A slow but heavy hitter. I would recommend a wolf in combination with Persistance. Wolfs have the highest base damage of all pets and attack quite fast (compared to bears for example). Stag's carnage is also nice, but since Persistance is better against single enemies the wolf fits perfectly well. Another nice thing is that you can even get away with low INT as long as you attack fast enough. Low INT favours the wounding damage of Persistence and Wounding Shot because the fixed raw damage will not be spread out over time but gets applied in a very short amount of time - thus increasinf damamge per second. Just adjust INT in a way so that the enemy is wounded permanently, that's enough to ensure high dps AND Predator's Sense all the time. This is the best setup for single target damage for a ranger. Stormcaller produces less single target damage, but has the nice shock based things (reduced DR, two damage types and so on) and additional crowd control (stun through Returning Storm). The Storm- and Plague-Caller build is very nice as well. You can even start with Persistance and then retrain after you find Stormcaller - if you feel that bow suits you better.

It depends. If you want to rely on high defenses you can get away with low CON for example. Wizards can use Arcane Veil and Hardened Arcane Veil in combination with a shield and also Wizard's Double and other self buffnig spells to reach very high deflection. Thus they won't get hit a lot and don't need a lot of endurance and health (both are influenced by CON). Of course, this will gimp your melee offense because a shield will prevent you from using the (really good) summoned, two handed weapons or using two weapons (dual wielding). I made such a tanky wizard some time ago. Although this is a very special build, it explains how high defenses can be achieved. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86900-class-build-bilestomper-tanky-corrosive-drainer-wizard/ But it's very slooow, too. Casting takes a long time and therefore not everyone likes it. If you want to use summoned weapons or other two handed weapons - or want to dual wield weapons - then you might need more CON in order to survive more hits. Such a wizard works really well when he has some means of self healing. First of all there's Veteran's Recovery which works very well with high MIG and INT - two stats most wizards want to put a lot of points into anyway. This will heal you constantly and can make you very sturdy if you combine it with self healing spells (Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon is great for example). In addition you can put 8 points into survival and get a +40% healing buff. If you combine this with an item that also buffs healing (Fulvano's Amulet with +25% can be found very early) you will be sturdy as hell - until your health runs out. Health can only be regained by resting - OR using Infuse with Vital Essence (lvl 2 spell). This also works with those healing bonuses from survival and items - meaning you'll regain a lot of health when you cast this spell. Other than the description suggests, this tomporary health wll be regained permanently if the fight ends before the spell runs out. I consider to be the second apporach to be more fun than the tin can approach and it's very effective, too. But since you want to have high MIG, high INT and also good CON this will lead to a situation where you quickly run out of stat points at character creation. High deflection is not that important with this build, so we can get away with low RES, but most other stats are quite important: MIG: 16 (bonuses to damage and healing) CON: 14 (bonuses to endurance and health) DEX: 14 (bonus to casting speed) PER: 14 (bonus to accuracy) INT: 16 (bonus to all durations and sizes of AoE) RES: 4 (malus to concentration and deflection) Watch out though: you won't be good at tanking a lot of foes at once because your low RES will lead to low concentration. This will lead to a lot of interrupts if you get hit a lot. However, wizards have a nice counterspells for this: Spirit Shield. Another reason why we can dump RES. With those stats I played a wizard (PotD difficulty) who used his fists (Novice's Suffering) and focused on touch-baed spells - just in order to emulate a wizard/monk. It worked very well although this is of course not hte most effective way to play a melee wizard. Still very viable. The other times I played such a wizard was with summoned weapons. Concelhaut's Staff is very powerfuk at lvl 1 - and so is Citzal's Spirit Lance later on. In my opinion those are the best weapons for a melee wizard. Once you combine Deletrious Alacrity of Motion and Citzal's Martial Power with Citzal's Spirit Lance most enemies get vaporized after few hits. Unfortunately, there's no build in the build list that demonstrates this self-healing approach. But I guess my writings above are sufficient to figure things out.

Definitely. I almost never use my priests for healing. Sometimes Consecrated Ground is handy, but I don't use it too often. Their buffs and prayers however make the game so much easier that even PotD gets easy (if you know what you're doing). If you have a priest you don't have to bother with defensive talents or abilites. Why putting points into Aegis of Loyality, Bull's Will or Body Control or whatever if the whole party can be immune with the casting of a prayer? What makes priests so strong in PoE (besides their really powerful damaging spells in higher levels) is buffs and prayers, not healing. In fact, I consider the druid or a Kind Wayfarer to be the better party healer (Moonwell and Garden of Life are really strong) and the paladin to be the better healer for individuals (Lay on Hands). Besides that, there's Ancient Memory + Ancient Spirits, Constant or Veteran's Recovery, which is really good - especially if you combine those with the relatively new healing bonuses you can get from survival (+20% for 2 points and then +20% every 6 points) and items (St. Borragia's Tears: +15% healing done, Belt of Bountiful Healing, Fulvano's Amulet, Maneha's Armor: +25% healing received). This stacks pretty nicely with other self heals like Savage Defiance and also Second Wind so that I rarely need healing spells at all.