Boeroer

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.

Prepare to have your ass whooped...

Some TB players here said that this is excactly what they do: make their casters go last.

Does Marux Amanth's +2 PEN bonus apply to everyhing or just the dagger attacks?

I do Beast of Winter a bit earlier, like around lvl 13 or 14 or so. Else it gets too easy for my taste. The otehr two can be done when everything else exept the last step on the critical path is done. SSS can be done earlier though, you don't have to be lvl 20. FS has some really tough fights where being 20 helps.

I don't play TB mode (only RTwP) so my expertise is somewhat theoretical only - but I see that you are comparing a "useful" CC effect (Knock Down) with some of the weaker damaging spells which feel "useless". You could try a a spell like Slicken instead (does the same as Knock Down - but in an area of effect) and check if that's more to your liking. I also think casting from stealth at least eliminates the long casting time for that first spell. If you open with a string hard CC/disabling spell from stealth and catch all enemies this can turn the fight so much in your favor that you'll win easily. Low level Wizard spells that are very good in RTwP mode are: Slicken, Chillfog, Miasma of Dull-Mindedness, Combusting Wounds, Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage, Expose Vulnerabilities... Maybe they are nice in TB mode, too...? All the self buffs are instant casts and should also be in TB mode. They are quite strong in RTwP so I assume they asre not too bad no TB Mode either. Damaging spells need enough Penetration to be worthwhile. If you cast some damaging spell like Fireball on enemies that have high(ish) burn armor then the damage will be puny. Besides that I think @Haplokplayed a lot of Wizard stuff in Turn Based Mode, maybe he has some insights and tipps.

The Champion's Helm also visually fits a Huana styled character so that's a plus in this case. But it comes pretty late (end of the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC).

They are part of the original game. It's kind of an in-game achievement system. You can't have those points in your first playthrough though. You collect them while solving quests, exploring etc. for the first time. I was part of the team that made the Community Patch. It's kind of both. There are a lot of bug fixes, but also some minor tweaks of balance - including slight buffs and also nerfs to certain abilities. "How the devs intended" is a nice approach on paper, but the devs often didn't implement things how they intended them to work. Then the official patch cycle ended and devs couldn't work on the game anymore. So a small group of forum users here with significant playing time (I guess between 6 to 7K hours combined...) got together and discussed what changes would be reasonable and enchance the experience - without silly power creep. The patch also contains a rework of keywords (abilites get tagged with keywords so they work properly - for example fire spells get tagged with "fire" so they can be countered with spells that are tagged with "frost" and so on...) which were messed up a bit in the vanilla game. It also contains unique icons for every passive ability in the game. The vanilla game only had a few icons that were reused over an over for all passives - and it was quite confusing to see all the same icons for different passive abilities at level-up. Those new icons were my doing. The Patch is segmented into modules so you can decide which changes you would like and which not (for example only use basic bugfixes and the icons): https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/335 In addition to that it's very easy to deactivate every change manually since every change was done with a separate file. So deleting a mod file will remove that change you don't like. I personally think the game is better with the Community Patch and at the same time I also believe that the devs would agree. In addition to the Community Patch I would also recommend the mod Enhanced User Interface. It is a pure UI mod that only adds more auto-generated tooltips (hover over certains terms to show more info) that are unobtrusive but really helpful, especially for new players. It doesn't change the mechanics of the game.

Assassin/Bloodmage with Arkemy's Brilliant Departure and Helm of the White Void is pretty bonkers, yes. You can reduce the defenses of most enemies to dust and put all sorts of hard CC on them with stellar accuracy and without even being seen. You can even go into an encounter alone to "prepare" the enemies for when the cavalry (rest of the party) walzes in.

Interrupts only occur if you are using an ability (or weapon modal) that does interrupt. It's not automatic anymore - because it's too impactful. DoT ticks (Plague of Insects etc.) do not interrupt at all - like never. Some of them will remove Concentration though which is very good. But pulsing spells (Returning Storm, Wicked Briars, Chillfog and so on) can interrupt on crit if you become energized (tier 3 MIG inspiration). Then even offensive chants will interrupt on crit. You can become energized easily with the Chanter's invocation "Their Champion". So, an offensive Chanter/Caster with pulsing spells and offensive chants can be an AoE interrupt monster in the later game. DoTs in general do one hit roll and then the subsequent ticks are applied automatically (if the initial hit roll was successful). Pulsing spells are doing a new attack roll with every pulse. Again: Interrupts only occur on hit rolls, never DoT ticks. Party with Sorcerer and Druid will have a ton of DoTs (and pulsing spells, too), right. Since Armor/Penetration is so vital on PotD difficulty, especially the raw dmage DoTs (Plague if Insects, Insect Swarm, Infestation of Maggots) can be very useful once you face an enemy with a very hard shell (so to speak). The latter. Perception has no influence on this. It's all about abilities and items (also weapon choice of course - see Estoc vs Great Sword or so, but that won't matter for spells). Goldpact (especially with Sworn Enemy/Gilded Enmity) is also nice. But for a party I consider the early engagement more important than the added armor. Also Gilded Enmity (+4 AR for some hits) does not stack with Exalted Endurance (+1 AR aura) because both are active abilities. And you really want to use Exalted Endurace for your party. I personally would stick to Shieldbearer. Also the Shieldbearer's second ability (Barring Death's Door when using Lay on Hands) is very useful as support. Another thing: yoiur Herald will not be contributing much to offense - yet sometimes you wish he could. For example when he's th last man standing but can't do aything offensively. In those cases Brand Enemy (Sworn Enemy upgrade) can be superuseful: it sclaes with MIG (your MIG is high), it is an auto-hit (your ACC doesn't matter at all) and it is instant with no recovery (your lox DEX and fat armor don't matter at all). It will apply a burn DoT on the enemy that will never end. So it has the potential to kill every enemy that's not immune to fire - you just have to stay alive. And staying alive is rel. easy for a Herald. So I would either skip Sworn Enemy completely - or upgrade to Brand Enemy. 78, yes. Unless you use Berath Blessing points (basically achievement points you can collect during a playthrough) for enhanced attributes, then it would be 90 (+2 to all attributes). You should check that your INT is high enough for overlapping chants asap and the rest you can adjust with items as you see fit. By the way: you can balance back low CON (at least when it's about health and not the fortitude defense) with the passive ability "Tough" quite easily.