Boeroer

I would say Fighter is one of the weakest classes for a solo run, especially if you don't want to use stealth and summons. Soloing with any class not using stealth and summons is a challange to begin with, but fighters have limited uses of special abilities per encounter, their regeneration has a rel. short duration (for solo) and they totally lack potent AoE abilities - so longer fights with numerous enemies get reduced to exchanging auto-attacks which takes forever. At the same time the defenses will not be high enough for long. It surely is possible - we had somebody who soloed the game with a lvl-1-ranger who just didn't level up - but overall Fighter is not the best choice. Having said that: Caed Nua is a chokepoint and especially difficult for solo characters if they don't use stealth and summons - because the phantoms are so overwhelming and the constant stunning is deadly and nearly unvoidable. If you can make it past there it's going to be a lot easier for a long time until the late(r) game. Try to make good use of consumables to power through and maybe for once try summons.

After writing my concern I went and checked Venombloom, Plague of Insects and Insect Swarm (among other poison/disease spells) with Spider Silk Robe and Mask of the Grotto Deep on/off and the stats of the spells didn't change one bit. At the same time poison consumables changed their stats. I guess it's fair to say that generally poison PLs bonuses don't work for anything but poison consumables. Those spells are considered poisons when it comes to antidotes and immunity vs. poison though. They just don't get a bonus from poison power levels. I invite everybody to test more/other poison spells. Maybe there are some that are excluded from this behavior. I only tested the druid ones (and Nannasin's Cobra Strike - also no luck).

the two Rings are identical (also in terms of game objects) - so it's basically one Ring with two instances. It has one enchantment named "Commitment1" that simply gives +1 RES to the wearer at all times, no conditions. Then it has a second enchantment called Commitment2 as well that can give the wearer(s) +1 RES on top. BUT it only works if you first cast Lover's Bond (1/rest) on ANYBODY in the party. It doesn't have to be the other ring bearer. If you cast Lover's Bond on any party member then the two ring bearers can profit from the additional +1 RES, making it +2 RES for them overall. The Receiver of Lover's Bond doesn't get the Commitment2 bonus. non-controllable summons can't receive Lover's Bond - controllable summons can though. If they wear the ring they can get the +1 RES from Commitment2 though - they just have to stand near the caster of Lover's Bond. the ring bearer who cast Lover's Bond has to stand near the party member onto he cast it - in order to get the bonus I mean. The second ring bearer (who didn't cast anything) has to stand near the first ring bearer to get the bonus (NOT the party member who received Lover's Bond). It also works if you only have one ring: cast Lover's Bond onto any party member and stand near them and you get it. If one ring bearer casts Lover's Bond onto the other ring bearer then it's all more straightforward of course. This makes it not usable for solo if you don't have controllable summons or an animal companion - since you can't cast Lover's Embrace on non-controllable units to unlock the bonus. If you have controllable summons or an animal companion it can work. Since you can find two of those rings you can stack them in the stash to reload the 1/rest use. That way you could get +2 RES for every fight and the INT immunity of course - which is great imo. Solo without AC and/or controllable summons: nop way as far as I can tell.

Ah, got it. I can try a bit later and see how it goes. Edit: so... I tetsted it and it's pretty wild:

Good imo. Even after CP I'd never use this spell because it's just awfully ineffective. I mean it competes with stuff like Chillfog, Slicken, Parasitic Staff etc... To make it even a tad better and also to match the description/vibe even more I personally would bring the recovery down to 3 secs to match that recovery of fists (aka the casters hands ;)). Too bad this wasn't implemented as a summoned fist... It's a Conjuration spell after all and it would have been cool to be able to deliver a few more frosty blows with those effects it has. But that would mean two summoned weapons in one tier... So not making it an actual summoned fist but having the action time/recovery of one is cool with me. Now that I think of it more and looking at stuff like Chillfog etc. I wonder if it would be unbalanced to add a very short freezing affliction (paralyze+) vs. fortitude. Like 2 secs or so. It wouldn't mean much on the early levels but with PL scaling it could stay useful even for the late(r) game when the base duration scaled a bit and in combination with INT...? And also gainst DEX-resistant foes...? In comparison to: Fetid Caress - which comes at PL 2, has a 10 sec paralyze and 15 sec AoE sicken (takes 4.5 secs to cast though and has no dmg component).

Poison PL boosts only work for actual poisons (the consumables) iirc...? Will check later...

Correct. Woodskin wouldalso work. Pollen Patch and Garden of Life as well iirc. Beetle Shell, too - but's that's not really useful unless you want to cast a long-lasting, pulsing spell (e.g. Moonwell) and then retreat into the shell and let the pulses profit from the raised PL. Even bothering yourself with Tanglefoot would work I think. Woodskin and Form of the Delemgan are the best options imo. I personally would pick staff and pike and switch based on the spells I want to cast and also based on the enemies' AR. Having crush and pierce as alternatives is good - having both at reach is even better. +3 PL from the staff is better than +2 from the pike... but the latter is universal while the Spine of Thicket Green "only" works for Beast and Plant spells. Vion-Ceth bonus is only +20%/+30% dmg which is pretty lame overall imo. I think you misunderstood. It converts poison/corrode damage should you get hit by it - not when you are causing it. Anything that raises MIG and INT since many of his spells are DoTs which profit a lot from a combined MIG and INT score. They are pretty bad. You can cheese the Fire Stag though: if you prevent death (for example via Barring Death's Door or Shieldbearer's Lay on Hands) you can trigger the self-destruct of the stag but it won't die. You can then trigger that action over and over again... Aspect of Galawain is cool visually - and you can make it quite tanky with "Wild Growth" (the robust spell you can use on summoned beasts - it has no duration and lasts as long as the summons lasts). But honestly... for its Power Level it's pretty lame and especially weak offensively. The Sporelings are excellent though. You can controll them. At higher levels they last for a really long time, they scale properly and get big health pools - and if you use both Wild Growth spells on them they can tank well. Also Call to the Primordals is a very good summoning spell. Some of the Oozes have special attacks (for example Plague of Insects - inlimited uses!). Multiclassing with a Helwalker is a good choice as well imo - since you will get bonus MIG, bonus INT, unlimited (paid with wounds) summons (Dichotomous Soul) and bonus ACC (Dance of Death) and casting speed (Swift Strikes). They do stack. Riposte and Offensive Parry can get triggered by the same miss. Wizard also does work bc. of the self buffs. With Wall of Draining you can later keep up all the self buffs forever. You can also prolong stuff like the deflection buff of the Mask of the Weyc (stacks with everything except Arcane Veil) and the +50 deflection from the Escape Cape (stacks with everything except Escape itself). Ciphers generate focus with Offensive Parry (but not Riposte). Shattered Pillar generates wounds with Offensive Parry (not Riposte). Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming trigger from Offensive Parry, too (not Riposte). I think it even generates phrases for Skalds if it crits. Steel Garrote gets health from Offensive Parry (because it also causes dazed). But generally Trickster/Fighter is a good combo for this. Also because Refreshing Defense (+20 to all defenses) stacks with Mirrored Images (+30 to deflection). I prefer Unbroken (because Ryngrim's + Disengagment Attacks) but Devoted is fine, too if you want to stick to WotEP at all times. By the way: Riposte and Cleaving Stance both use the cone AoE of WotEP. Offensive Parry is single target. You might also want to look at the Great Sword "Effort". It has an enchantment that works like Vengeful Defeat and they stack. Immolation does raw damage - it doesn't work with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak. Parallel resurrection effects get all triggered at once and thus will be wasted. If you get two Rings of Reset (one by exporting/importing a character who wears it) you can stack them in the stash after use and the depleted one will get "reloaded". That way you can use it 3 times/encounter. It's a bit cheesy but the only way to really make such a build worthwhile imo. Else you will have debilitating injuries all the time.

No. Summons don't really get knocked out but get removed from combat on 0 health -> no revival. I don't fully understand the question. I haven't used this ring in a long time - but iirc it's an active 1/rest ability that you can cast on an ally -> you and the ally become immune to intellect afflictions. Phantoms/Dichotomous Soul summons aren't controllable - so you can't make use of active abilities they might get from items. And they won't use them themselves. You can cast Lover's Bond on a summon - but that's not that useful since you would cast an effect without duration (until end of combat) on a summon which has limited duration.

Corrosive Skion at PL9 is 1 spell/encounter and it "only" does corrode dmg (9 PEN). I cannot really see how this is as good as Disintegrate which gets paid with focus, does more overall raw damage and isn't even expensive. It's just too weak for PL9 imo. Not counting when Bloodmage - but that's another story. I'm pretty sure not many SC Wizard players ever take it... Lowering the base duration in order to set it to overall 30 secs again wouldn't be nice - since that would be bad for scaling with INT. -100% healing instead of enfeebled would be a solution, but I prefer systemic approaches. Introducing a "special" effect instead of using an exisiting affliction is not what I would do personally. Also it would make it kind of a more potent death sentence - since you wouldn't be able to counter it with an inspiration. I personally would be totally fine with enfeebled raising the duration to 45 secs immediately. 8 corrode dmg per sec would mean 360 corrode dmg (with 10 MIG and INT). That's not unbelievably high in the late game and most tough enemies have way more health than that. They also might have high AR so with underpenetration that would result in rel. low damage overall. And there's always the risk of grazing or missing that precious 1/encounter spell. Also it takes a long time to actually kill a late game enemy because of the rel. low ticks. So - dps is not stellar. Then it's rel. easy to dispel enfeebled with any CON inspiration and then heal the victim back up. A resistance would even prevent enfeebled and only result in weakened. At the same time: when you can't do/have any of that then it will be pretty devastating - as a PL9 single target, 1/encounter spell should be imo. In theory it's a cool spell - could be cooler though.

I can't remember if this was already discussed or even modded (sorry if that's the case) - but don't you think Concelhaut's Corrosive Skin should cause Enfeebled instead of Weakened? According to the desciption the spell should "prevent" healing. That would be the case with Enfeebled, not Weakened (50% healing still applies). Also the spell is notably weaker than some other PL9 alternatives...

Most likely

They work like a Phantom - except they don't get your weapon(s) but instead flaming/freezing fists. One fun armor to use with them is Kahako Nihi - because it gives a +10% piercing lash for unarmed attacks. The Dichotomous Soul summons do fire/frost damage, but their attacks are considered "real" unarmed it seems (unlike Concelhaut's Draining Touch or Woedica's Spiritual Weapons) - so they get the lash.

Futility is also weird because it is listed under benefical effects on the enemy. You can use it to suck duration from enemies with Wall of Draining (as you can do with Cap of the Laughingstock). And I guess it can't be suppressed by Suppress Affliction then...? Stacking Action Speed penalties isn't too great though. I stacked 10 of Ball and Chain's Crushing Yoke and 10 of Futility on a Tiger and he was slower but not THAT slow...

Sure. For example you can have fun with stuff like Necklace of Unlocked Possibilities which will give your phantom a random unique weapon every time you summon it. I didn't try it on Dichotomous Soul though... but with Watery Double and Phantoms accessories work 100%. I'm not using Dichotomous Soul much so I'm not 100% sure there. Edit: just checked: also works with Dichotomous Soul. In case of the Necklace of Unlocked Possib. they each receive a different unique weapon.

Given how stacking hostile effect from items work I suspect you can lift that to 10 stacks with the help of an Essential/Substancial Phantom or Watery Double and maybe even to 15 stacks with The Dichotomous Soul? I mean in theory - if the enemy attacks everybody who's wearing (copies) of Sisyfo's Stone quickly enough.

You are welcome - and thanks for the kind words.

Hylea's Talons do work with Vaillant Demise (and also Vengeful Defeat of SC Barbs - both abilities stack by the way). If you use stuff like Effort + Cape of the Falling Star and so on, sometimes not all the AoEs trigger on death (don't know the exact "rule" here, just noticed). Too bad Ring of Reset doesn't work with Phantoms (they just disappear and have no real knockout animation so they can't be revived). Else it would be a very cool item for phantoms...

The area is small but more open - and there are more ranged enemies (casters etc.) that won't run towards you (but still attack you). You can pull the melee enemies away from the sigils (there are some, too) but it won't feel cheesy. If you start combat from the entrance of the cave it's just the way it goes. The sigils are in the back and mainly there to make it harder to sneak up on the enemies. It's normal that all enemies in that cave join combat once you trigger it. It's just like one big cave - so no surprise they all come. The ranged ones usually stay in place if they can reach you while the melee ones totally swarm you with leaps and disrupt your whole tactics by landing in the midst of your party etc. It will most likely be a mess. Beware - that Lich is a tough nut.

I think you confused the Ancient Deathguard in the Forgotten Catacombs (the one who drops the Reckless Brigandine) with the Lich + Corpse Eaters in some other (flooded) cavern. For example there are no guls that emerge from sand in the flooded caverns. It does not (entirely) because you can't use Dazzling Lights to lure away non-hostile NPCs - for example to sneak to a chest. Several encounters (e.g. Concelhaut) start as non-hostile and a conversation leads to a fight. If you want to fight anyway and use some luring to get an advantage Dazzling Lights won't work. Explosives other than Sparkcrackers also won't. Only Sparkcrackers (and the ability of Rokowa's Fingers with the identical name) will have the desired effect. Besides that every noisy AoE spell that can be cast out of combat and targeted on the ground can work like Dazzling Lights. Dazzling Lights has the VFX of Sparkcrackers (not the sound fx iirc) and also not too big AoE - so that's why I prefer it as luring spell, too. Iirc most dungeouns aren't as small and "condensed" as the Forgotten Catacombs so there's less problems with enemies all swarming to one place. But it happens occasionally. Especially if there are many enemies (and especially some guarding/patrolling ones) they will alert other nearby enemies. Some even have means of alerting the whole dungeoun that you are there (with blowing horns or just yelling). But the whole dungeon won't rush you - but just turn hostile (if not already).

You can use noise very effectively to lure enemies to spots. For example you can use any noisy spell that is usable outside combat (usually all offensive AoE spells that can target the ground) to lure enemies to the spot you cast it to. Explosives also work for this (obviously). It can help with sneaking past enemies or just to get enemies to a spot where it's easier to fight them. You can also use it to split and pull single enemies. When used properly it can make encounters a lot easier. It's especially fun for characters or parties that use a sneaky approach. Sparkcrackers are special: usually only enemies (red circles) can get lured. Sparkcrackers also work on neutral NPCs. In case of the Forgotten Catacombs: I seldomly have a problem with the Deathguard leaving the room prematurely. I lure the patrolling enemies to the entrance which prevents the whole dungeon from following. And then I can usually start the final fight right in front of the door (out of reach of the sigil). If you are far enough away and use a silent weapon (e.g. a bow) you can actually destroy the sigil without aggroing the enemies in the room (depends on how near they are to your char).

I guess it's not a widespread issue because I haven't read about this before. I fear you might not get an answer here because the Pillars I forums aren't frequented a lot nowadays- and it's unlikely that somebody with the same problem (and a solution how to fix it) will show up here. For what it's worth: I played PoE on several different Linux versions and it always worked. I suspect it's just a minor detail that prevents your game graphics from properly loading up. You could try to search the technical subforum here - see if somebody else had the same problem. Sorry that I can't offer more useful advice.

It works like a petrify. It's essentially a tier 4 DEX affliction that gets reduced to tier 3 (paralyze) by DEX resistance. It has no effect against DEX-affliction immune enemies. Afaik no megaboss is immune to DEX afflictions though, only resistant.

My recommendation would be: when getting to level 9, pick "The Dragon Thrashed" and only use that phrase. When it overlaps the damage from it will stack on enemies. If you already have enough tanks then give him a single handed melee weapon for one weapon set. This will give his offensive chants (so, The Dragon Thrashed in this case) +12 accuracy. This bonus only applies to attacks with the one-handed weapon and offensive chants. The talent (one-handed style) does not work for the chants so you don't need it. The second weapon slot is for a melee weapon (for example a hatchet) and a shield. Use Ilfan Byrngar's Solace first (you might already have it, it's a drop from that Drake in lvl 6 of the Endless Paths), then later use Little Savior (difficult, hoard of the Adra Dragon). Weapon and Shield Style is optional. Use the armor Blaidh Golan. This one is also an early armor to get (Brackenbury Sanatorium in a crate for free). Give him a Ring of Overseeing and later the Voice of the Mountaintop (Dyrford Village, the arms vendor there) - they both stack for chant AoE size. Alternative amulet: St. Borragia's Tears. Give him Veteran's Recovery and Ancient Memory+Beloved Spirits at some point. Use +MIG and +INT gear to raise the damage of Dragon Thrashed, the AoE size and the Linger time. Third weapon slot is a an arquebus or arbalest or so. Use a Belt of Bountiful Healing and Shod-in-Faith boots. Now stand to the side of eder like your MC does, but on the other side and work like an offtank, catching bypassers who want to reach Aloth/Durance/Hiravias etc. while chanting Dragon Thrashed with +12 ACC and healing your party passively with your Ancient Memory aura. Should you get into trouble switch to the shield setup. Should you not be able to do much because it's all so crowded and your accuracy with the chant is sufficient, switch to the ranged weapon. You will be pretty sturdy even with no shield because Veteran's Recovery and Ancient Memory stack - and should you receive a crit you will trigger Consecrated Ground, too. The long goal with the shield setup and the armor is to combine it with Grieving Mother's Defensive Mindweb and Durance's Withdraw (as a spell mastery): See, chants also work when Kana is withdrawn by Durance. You you can use Withdraw on Kana but his Dragon Thrashed will still work. This is the only way how a character can do anything when withdrawn: chant (and have auras like that from Ancient Memory and Little Savior). At the same time Withdraw counts as a stun effect. If you look at your shield and armor, they both have an effect that gives you +50 to all defenses when stunned. Since a shield is counted as a weapon and all weapon enchantments stack with everything, both effects stack to +100 to all defenses when stunned. Now - if Kana is withdrawn he gets +100 to all defenses. Wow - but that's not really useful because he's withdrawn anyway. Here Grieving Mother comes into play. Cast Defensive Mindweb on the party and everybody in the party will have Kana's absolutely stellar +100 defenses with no drawbacks. Kana will be out of the fight, but he can still contribute with a chant, dealing damage. When WIthdraw ends he will have cumulated enough phrases for a nice invocation of your liking. Dragon Thrashed will do tremendous damage in the meantime. Even before getting to that little Mindweb/Withdraw trick it will be very impactful, especially with the +12 accuracy from one-handed usage. Invocations can be used for further damage, summons or support while Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits + the healing bonuses will work nicely for your party while you will be a versatile offtank, too. Later with Mindweb/Withdraw you will be the absolute superstar who grants unbelievable defenses and nice healing while still dealing great AoE damage. A variant can be to double down on the healing an use a combiation of short chants (e.g. the starting March of the Kamoa which does +10 Will, Fortitude and Reflex) with the Mercy and Kindness chant (increased healing done). This is also very useful for the party because the healing will be so strong all the time. You will do no chant damage then but do nice support and more healing. I have a build that uses this:

I forgot: always flank the enemy if possible. It's giving -10 deflection and -1 armor. It's easy to do, you just have to attack from opposite sides with melee characters or melee summons. There's no immunity to it nor do you actually have to hit to apply the "flanked" status.

This guy has very high armor. You don't have enough penetration (see the "No Pen." message in the combat log in the lower right of the screen). That's because you attack the Titan with slashing or piercing weapons (like the hunting bow, guns, sabres, swords and so on). As you can see it has 11 armor against most things and even 13 vs. pierce damage. In the combat log it is shown that you tried to deliver slash damage (your hunting bow does pierce or slash damage depending what armor is lower - in this case slash armor at 11). Given your low level I assume that you are far from reaching 11 penetration with your hunting bow. I assume your whole party is using either pierce or slash damage. Underpenetration means a severe damage malus. Making sure you penetrate enemies' armor is one of the most important things to do in Deadfire. THat's why switching weapons according to the enemy is important - and to pick some abilities that may raise penetration (for example Fighter's Penetrating Strike) or lower enemies' armor (for example Wizard's Expose Vulnerabilities). As you can see the Titan has only 7 armor vs. crush damage. So the easiest way to beat him is to attack with crushing weapons. Instead of pierce or slash weapons use weapons that do crush damage. It doesn't even matter if the crushing weapons have lower quality or whatever - underpenetration is so severe that it's much better to attack with a weak crushing weapon that can penetrate than with a good pierce weapons that cannot. Ohter alternatives are shock damage and corrode/acid damage. For example Serafen could have Antipathetic echo (corrode), Aloth could use some shocking spell like Crackling Bolt or something. Also there's a hunting bow in Port Maje (you can buy it) named Essence Interrupter which is very good and does shock damage. What always works: ablities/spells that do raw damage (see some Ciphers spells vor example) - raw damage just ignores all armor.