Boeroer

Troubadour might generate more phrases than Skald with Brisk Recitation - but if you focus on offensive invocations with a Skald then he will still generate more "phrase value" in a given time when Brilliant (and add a crit-phrase sometimes). If you look at "Her Revenge Swept Across": No Brilliant, no crit-phrase, with Brisk Recitation: Skald needs 12 secs (normal linger time) Troubadour needs 12 seconds (0 linger time) Brilliant, no crit-phrase, with Brisk Recitation: Skald needs 6 secs (normal linger time) Troubadour needs 9 secs (0 linger time) Brilliant, 1 crit-phrase (think of melee attack), with Brisk Recitation: Skald needs 3 secs (normal linger time) Troubadour needs 9 secs (0 linger time) Brilliant, 2 crit-phrases (think of melee attack + 1 Offensive Parry), with Brisk Recitation: Skald needs 0 secs (normal linger time) Troubadour needs 9 secs (0 linger time) Take into account what you said about chanting stopping after Invocations, too: a Skald has the opportunity to generate phrases even then, especially when using Offensive Parry. Even without crits-phrases the Skald can perform better - IF you want to focus on low-cost offensive invocations. As I said the Troubadour is a lot more verstile - and if you also want to use summons, support etc. then Troubadour will on average be the best pick imo. But if you like to shout things to pieces a lot then I'd look into Skald. Mainly because of the cheaper cost, not he crit-phrases (those I only see as little bonus but nothing to rely upon). The best weapons imo for Skald are: Sun & Moon (two flail heads = two chances for a crit with only one attack) Fists + Tuotilo's Palm and lots of Power Level bonuses Kapana Taga in combination with lots of engagement Concelhaut's Draining Touch + club+modal (e.g. Kapana Taga) in offhand + Miasma cast: Will debuff of -65, Draining Touch targets Will instead of Deflection. You need a little trick with grimoire-switching to prevent Draining Touch from disappearing after the first hit though - little cheesy Willbreaker + modal + fortitude debuffs + any melee attack that targets fortitude (Force of Anguish, Mule Kick, Brute Force in general) WotEP (Offensive Parry) with high deflection and/or immunity to disengagement attacks* Blade of the Endless Paths (ACC bonus + deflection malus on enemy) - especially on a Skald/Wizard because with an Essential Phantom you can apply/stack the deflection malus twice Rännig's Wrath (modal + Rapiers' natural ACC bonus + extra ACC enchantment) Seeker's Fang: modal + Spider's Flurry... Azure Blade (with enough fellows around +15 ACC) Blightheart: no crit-phrases bc. ranged but 1 phrase on kill instead - and it doesn't matter how you kill. Kills with invocations for example also work - also works when killing your own summons like skeletons etc. Pukestabber + another dagger + alcohol: very fast attack speed and inherent ACC bonus means more crits in a give time sure I forgot some... everything that is superfast is great, too. Some weapons have special "spell procs" that count as weapon attacks - for example Grave Calling procs Chilling Grave. I just don't remember if those also count as "melee" weapon attacks and can generate crit-phrases. I think not but am not 100% sure anymore. And if one-handed weapon then I value dual wielding over one handed style. The higher speed + eventual Full Attacks do create more crit-phrases in a given time than one handed's +12 ACC + crit conversion in my experience. *) WotEP/Offensive Parry can be paired with Nomad's Brigandine or Gipon Prudensco: they give bonus (melee) deflection in the first place, but they also can make you immune to disengagement attacks. This means that you will still trigger those attacks - but they all will miss automatically(!), triggering Offensive Parry every time(!). So if you purposefully break engagement you can get phrases for that. If you currently have 7 phrases on your counter and cast an invocation then you will lose 7 phrases (no matter the real cost of the invocation) and get 7 PL as bonus. If you only have 4 phrases at the time you cast you will only get 4 PL bonus. So basically it's "your current phrase counter = your PL bonus". Your max phrase counter determines how many phrases you can hold and that also determined how high your PL bonus can be. So make sure you take one most expensive invocation. That's a good advice for all chanter subclasses though - epecially for Skald, too. You don't want to only pick the cheapest ones because that would limit your max phrase counter. You want a least one very expensive invoc. in order to expand the counter... so you can collect more and don't create wasteful overflow so often. The Power Level only lasts for a short time so it's enough to cover the effects of the invocations you are casting it with. In the case of Eld Nary's Curse it doesn't even last long enough to cover all the jumps of the spell. But as Multiclass you won't get there. Usully if you cast a following invocation the old PL bonus from he previous invocation will be long gone and you'll get a new one for/from your actual invocation. However - you can prolong that initialy short duration with stuff like Salvation of Time or Wall of Draining - then it can stay for a very long time and then the highest bonus will supress lower ones (for example of successive invocations).

Service post: Bellower (to bellow ~ to shout) A Belower would be a Chanter who either sings really deep tones, can only be Orlan or Dwarf, is exclusively Roparu or is a subclass from the Abyss or so I guess.. I value Troubadour over Bellower with most multiclasses because of the higher versatility. If you like offensive invocations a lot then I would also look into Skald because Tactician/Skald can have very high invocation output because stuff like Her Revenge only costs 2 phrases and those are quickly generated with singing + Brilliant (+the occasional crit). Note that a Skald can only generate 1 phrase max per attack - even if he crits multiple times with an AoE like the WoTEP cone. However: every Offensive Parry counts as separate attack and can generate a phrase on crit. So a high deflection, Brilliant Tactician/Skald who parries a lot of attacks can generate phrases very quickly and at the same time has very cheap offensive invocations.

Could you hover over the dmg or post the base dmg of the tusks? The screenshot is with (unknown) dmg bonuses. So far it seems to me that Spiritshift Cat weapons are better (unless the base damage of those Changeling's boar tusks is much higher and/or the ACC bonus is higher than legendary). Not taking exporting into account because that allows for super cheese anyway.

I didn't know that the weapons of the Mantle'd shift form where better than the other spiritshift weapons (e.g. Cat's)?. That's cool and good to know. But the Great Sword from Citzal's Ench. Arm. is one-handed as well. Fury spiritshift weapons are meh imo because the base dmg is low and they don't work with Driving Flight.

sounds under-whelming

Yes. Unlike PoE, in Deadfire Persistant Distraction is enough to unlock Deathblows - if enemies are not resistant/immune to DEX afflictions, not immune to engagement (Fleet Feet or Alacrity for example) and if you can engage (see MIG afflictions, Grog pet, game options or Debonaire passive).

Berserker/Debonaire: best support char ever!

Funny, I was toying around with Berserker/Cipher yesterday (the result was the dual Amplified Thrust discovery I wrote about) and also tried to find some use for Stasis Shell but didn't succeed. Turn out all it needed was some additional domination. My only question is: why would you want to stun a dominated enemy?

So - that would have been in the game if ship combat would have been scrapped soon enough.

Hey there, so if you are a Berserker/Cipher and like to do some cool stuff while confused (like casting Amplified Wave or Ectopsychic Echo on enemies) you will probably like this one: When you are confused and cast Amplified Thrust on a single enemy (you can bc. confused) it will damage and push that enemy directly. If a second enemy is around it will jump to that enemy, too (and do its thing). This is essentially a +100% multiplicative dmg boost and pretty cool because the single target dmg is quite high (for a tier-2 spell). Enjoy!

By the way: why not Ring of Mule's Wit? Frees up the food part for better ones and also gives several resistances. You can't drop below 1 INT.

Or better than perfect. As I reported some time ago I played an SC Psion with weapon & shield setup (and the CP) and I had zero problems with stopped focus generation (because crits seldomly happen), especially if you spam charms/domnates non-stop and then focus on taking down one single enemy - which this build obviously excels in. I think players still underestimate Soul Mind and that it keeps generating focus at all times: during recovery, during attack animation, during hard CC and so on and so forth. One can easily dismiss how good the focus generation of a Psion is (also because the PL scaling isn't obvious). Having done a playthrough with a SC Psion it is now by far my favorite Cipher subclass - because its resource genertion is so independent from actually anything (except eating crits). I reckon without CP it wouldn't be as feasible (but I didn't try). But sure - if you are alternating FF and a Cipher spell all the time (and have CP) that should be a totally legit alternative as well. Not Soulblade though imo - this build isn't about dumping focus into damage but about disabling a single enemy indefinitely. And CC spells are usually no shreds. Beguiler: not so sure - most hard-CC spells aren't deceptions and the focus gain from weapon attacks is nothing special. Maybe with Puppet Master though...? I can see Ascendant being a good pick even with the reduced Ascension time.

Because the Forbidden Fist ability doesn't generate focus.

Lol, nice!

Its range is pretty bad, that's right - but with Fleet Feet or D. Alacrity you can cast it and run away (no engagement) before the meteors hit you. Also Farcasting helps a bit. Sometimes I just use Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and stand in the midst of it - especially if I use the Fractured Casque with Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry anyways. I mean it's supposed to be a shower - so I take one.

Just assume that puns are always intended.

I think for such complex games the occurrence of really annoying bugs was quite low (in PoE/Deadfire). In the past it was not uncommon that I bought a game and couldn't even start it. The most annoying bug I had so far with PoE was that the game crashed reliably when you climbed from the basement of Raedric's keep to the captain of the guard on the roof. That was fixed within days. After that it was only "inconveniences" that I could circumvent until patched. Granted: I don't use potions much, hehe.

@Yell0wCheck out this picture, specifically the combat log in the lower right: I did three attacks there: one standard attack and two Barbaric Blows. As you can see in the combat log: --- 1. the first attack hit the initial target for 44 dmg and the two other enemies got a hit and a graze from Carnage (I would need to hover over the hit and graze with the mouse in order to see how much damage Carnage did). 2. the second attack - Barbaric Blow - did miss. This also means that Carnage will not get triggered! If you miss your initial target there will be no Carnage. 3. the third attack - again Barbaric Blow - was a hit again for 46 dmg, which also triggered Carnage hit rolls against both bystanders, but one of them missed. Carnage makes hit rolls against alle enemies in range. Those hit rolls can miss, too. Carnage has lower accuracy than your initial attack so it's not uncommon to miss with it a lot in the early game. --- So I presume you just had bad luck with your Barbaric Blow rolls and either you missed the Blow entirely or the Carnage rolls did miss. Check the combat log to determine if Carnage rolls were made and what the outcome was. If you hit with Barbaric Blow but no Carnage rolls are made - although there are enemies in reach - then you have encountered a bug. It's unlikely though because I never heard about such a bug. But never say never... Carnage only works with melee weapons - but the quarterstaff should be fine. Carnage originates from the initial target, not your character. Hope that helps.

Yes, I really enjoyed my last Aloth iteration with him, the Phantom and two Blackbows (+Helm of the White Void). It's so impactful and so easy to script for AI, too. I tend to forget my Aloth after he cast his initial spells and for a pure caster it's hard to set up non-annoying AI imo. But this is so easy and it just wrecks nearly all enemies. It's even effective against RES-resistant foes. Not being able to use offensive abilities ist still a great debuff.

I actually value Meteor Storm over Minoletta's Missile Salvo. It works the same with Unstable Coil etc. but does a lot more overall dmg, has a bigger AoE and is boostable with fire PL (of which you can stack a lot). I also think Storm of Holy Fire is very good for the same reasons - and it's PL7. As soon as Xoti reaches PL 7 it's a different approach to encounters all of a sudden - at least in my case. Their biggest drawback is the fire-only dmg. But for the Priest it's PL 7 (so enough alternatives to cast) and Wizards have Grimoire - so plenty of alternatives to choose from really. The symbol spells' biggest advantage is - imo - that they are foe-only and sometimes have a nice support effect for allies at the same time. You basically cast two spells at once which is a lot better than most players think initially I guess (I mean in terms of action economy mostly). Honestly, I think that is how all PL 8/9 should feel like. There should be a price to pay for multiclassing. And I don't only mean in terms of power/impact/mechanics but also in terms of coolness and the "I want" factor. PL 8 and 9 shoukd really make you sit down and think twice whether you really want to multiclass or go for single class. Priests and Wizards and also Druids achieve that (not the spiritshift part unfortunately, that's sharts for SCs)... Monks, too I think. And that's because of their powerful but also "cool" PL 8/9 stuff. The other classes... mnyeah... Rogue maybe - but only if you really understood how Gambit and/or Vanishing Strikes work and then you'd still be hard-pressed to pick SC Rogue imo because the possibilities and the "coolness" for multiclassing are/is so vast. Barbs are also an edge case. As much as I love Driving Roar and especially the Blood Ward... it's a bit much to forego the fun of mukticlassing a Barb just because of Driving Roar - which then kind of forces you to play a Barb like a ranged caster of sorts (same is true for the exploding fire axe... wtf, hehe) . But weird and maybe also a bit offputting for the classic Barb lover who just wants to smash - but with a boom. This also has something to do with VFX and audio in my case. If it has awesome effects - like most high tier spells have - I just want to use it. WotW with Mortars for example is just so moch fun to watch. Gambit on the other hand - while really good - ist just not that spectacular. Then you cast a Missile Salvo and holy **** you unleash Hel on Eora with visuals and sound and it's awesome!

I doubt that MS wants to see the use of Unity3D again - but maybe they don't care. Performance-wise it's not the best choice for such a big game with so many components/prefabs etc. Maybe one can polish this up, I'm not an expert with Unity3D, only dabbled around with it. But they should def. write down the systems/mechanics they had in Deadfire into a dev's handbook. They feel really good right now (for the biggest part) and it would be a shame if somebody thought the wheel has to be reinvented yet again. There could be more interaction between effects (like affliction/inspiration but also truly and more cleanly implemented for fire/water poison/antidote and so on) and generally a bit cleanup (see stacking of Mirrored Images + Moonwell/Refreshing Defense/Llengrath's Safeguard and so on, modals being actives etcpp). But besides that I would love to see them focus on everything else but not systems again.

Yes Like using a pistol one-handed with the modal on. Only there it's a reload bonus which is better than the great sword's damage bonus. The Citzal's Great Sword has no special features other than being one-handed (and scaling).

Great Sword proficiency and either Weapon & Shield-, Two Weapon- or One Handed Style. Like any other one-handed weapon basically. Two handed style doesn't apply. It's nice to use One Handed Style (+12 ACC and crit conversion) in combination with the great sword modal. It gets you some bonus damage without the otherwise hefty accuracy loss.

Yes, it's unintended behavior. It also worked with the Breastplate and the Morning Star and several other summoned weapons when you used Form of the Fearsome Brute instead of Draining Touch. But Form otFB got patched after I reported that. They also patched all sorts of summoned weapons to truly disappear after combat. They just forgot to fix Citzal's Enchanted Armory, Spiritshift Weapons (claws etc.) and Draining Touch. So nowaydays you can only "persist" a one handed Great Sword or a Spiritshift weapon (a claw, tusk, antler etc.). It's not gamebreaking but just a nice little detail. It's cool to be able to use a Great Sword one-handed or dual-wield them.

Crusader can be very boring but even when build offensively is always sturdy. If build defensively it's really sturdy, has tons of engagement - and is really boring, too. I showed in some post in tha past that if you build a Crusader quite agressively and with a two hander you can land pretty good blows (over 170 dmg crits) and still be quite tanky. Not main tanky but off-tanky with still enough engagement if needed. A fun defense/offense hybrid could be a Crusader with Whipers of the Endless Paths/Offensive Parry - maybe Steel Garrote/Devoted? High deflection, initial parryfest and then later switch to a single target Great Sword to clear out the remainders or so. If you have an SC Wizard then you can even get a single handed Great Sword* for that Devoted which he could with a large shield for little dps drop but vastly increased defenses in a third setup. That could be used when Whispers otEP doesn't offer enough defense or when a lot of ranged enemies are around. )* Cast Citzal's Enchanted Armory, then Concelhaut's Draining Touch, then don't hit with it but kill all enemies. You will be left with a permanent, ethereal, scaling, one handed Citzal's Great Sword