Boeroer

All megabosses - besides having absurd stats - have specific "tricks" and it's very hard (I'd say almost impossible) to kill all of them without figuring out what makes them special. So... without any meta-knowledge you are bound to fail. Even the thing that usually always works as long as there's space (use an Assassin and apply Gouging Strike + True Love's Kiss, then retreat and get a coffee) won't work against all megabosses because of those special things they have/do.

No really bugged, but implemened a bit weirdly so that visual cone AoE indicator can be misleading. It shows you the cone where it would be if you really hit the enemy in that particular angle you aimed for. But once the "real" attack and the AoE proc happens the cone will be aligned in a way that its center line would be a straigt line from your char's center point to the target center point. And this might place the cone AoE a bit differently than the indicator showed when you were choosing the target (clicking slightly left or right to the center point of the initial target to make the indicator "hit" the other enemies behind it). Unlike other cone attacks such as invocations, the cone of the WotEP is not bound to the ground but to the enemy you pick. And once you picked that enemy as target the game will use the center of that enemy's circle as anchor point, not where you clicked. But the visual cone indicator used the point where you clicked. It's not a great implementation of course - but I guess nobody really noticed before (and long after) release. Some cone-shaped cipher powers that have to have an enemy as initial target have the same "problem". But often there the cone indicator gets "centered" once you picked your target iirc. WotEP's cone indicator doesn't do this unfortunately. Clear Out/Clear the Path would have the same problem as well - but they have no indicator VFX in the first place so you won't get deceived. I made a quick drawing to explain it a bit better: The best solution to not "trick yourself" with the cone indicator is to pick your target right in the middle of its circle (see red X in the bottom pic). Moving a bit left and right just to bring the indicator to touch other enemies (see red X in the upper pic) won't work. Instead, if you need the cone to move a little bit to the left and right, just move your character accordingly. This might be a problem with disengagement attacks - another reason why I recommend Nomad's Brigandine (immunity to disengagement attacks) when you use WotEP - not only when you enchant it with Offensive Parry (but mostly).

Complicated because what scenario. But in general I'd say there's not much that tops the combined dmg bonuses of a Marauder. Maybe if you take a Devoted and average the damage over several attacks (not only the one from stealth/invisibility) and use Clear Out - because the initial target of Clear Out gets hit twice. Which is a 100% multiplicative boost for the action. But in general I'd say it's difficult to pile up so many dmg bonuses (for more than one attack I mean) as a flanked & bloodied Berserker/Streetfighter Marauder, especially when using Barbaric Blow with a dual weapon setup and Blooded + Bloody Slaughter. You have to crit though to make it really good. And of course you'll also get knocked out a lot... I have played some Brutes in the past and they are just more reliable. Especially on PotD where higher ACC and even graze-to-hit is more important. Marauders start strong right away with the damage output though so I think they are more fun for most people. My current Brute + Amra is top of the food chain when it comes to melee damage so far (not counting Grave Calling stuff) and he's not too squishy - but that's because I cheese a bit with skeletons summons to trigger all the on-kill goodies such as Multi-Cleaving and Blood Thirst and so on. Without summons he would just be an ordinary Brute with more sturdyness but less dmg output as a Marauder. And the skelly-trick would also work with a Berserker/Rogue no problem (no cleave though which is kind of the trick).

Why is that? In the vanilla game it's seriously flawed. Using any mods perhaps?

If it would be dead you wouldn't have gotten answers for all of the topics you created during the last weeks, would you?

Unfortunately I have read nothing about that here in the forums recently.

First of all: I think it has some value if the weapon doesn't come late game. Stuff like Engoliero do Espirs with Blade Feast is very good for a Brute for example, but it comes so late(ish) that I consider that a major drawback. So I prefer stuff that can be obtained earlier than that. I would say the two best options are either Amra (in combination with Riven Gore, confusion and weak summons like Many Lived Pass Bye skeletons) or the Willbreaker (Spirit Frenzy + Body Blows + Brute Force). The Morning Star also has decent PEN and two damage types. Before getting Willbreaker one can use Saru Sichr. If you have Ancient Brittle Bones and later Many Lives in the party then Amra is def. more devastating. Riven Gore + Cleaving Stance will chain-kill all skeletons around you on the spot, triggering Carnage and additional Riven Gore procs and kill the real enemies, too. Meanwhile all other on-kill effects besides Cleaving Stances also work with killed summons: +20 health per kill from a pet, Blood Thirst, Bloodlust and so on. But Riven Gore might also instakill party members who get too close to the Brute (meaning: removed from party because really dead/destroyed). Many Lives gives a steady stream of summons without having to micromanage anything. Willbreaker is most universally useful and would be my no. 1 pick if I hadn't (or didn't want to (ab)use) party summons I think. You can also get rid of the confusion without any drawback. For Amra-mayhem you must keep the confusion. Other nice options are Sungrazer (bit late-ish, too but potent AoE on crit-kill), Stalker's Patience (very early if enough money, 20% chance to omit recovery on crit and also on kill via Blood Thirst). I would use both either as single weapon (one handed style), with shield or with a ranged weapon in the offhand (two weapon style). Oops - I forgot Lord Darryn's Voulge. This is also really nice with a Brute. Dual damage, one of that shock, Lightning Strikes more often than not and AoE potential. I won't recommend Grave Calling (Chilling Grave) with skeleton summons - although it's the most potent combination for anything with Berserker. Just because the stacked VFX of multiple chillfogs makes it kind of unplayable (horrid fps drops and sometimes crashes for me, too).

Yes, the advantage is mostly about flexibility (when using the spiritual weapons). Still: if you don't plan to use a lot of Full Attacks there's no real drawback either. I personally would have liked two or even three variants of spiritual weapons per Priest subclass - in line with PoE's weapon options for Priests (Magran: Arquebus/Sword, Berath: Mace/Great Sword, Eothas: Flail/Morning Star, Wael: Quarterstaff/Rod and so on). Would have been easy to implement. But that's not the case so...

Shining Beacon in combination with Miasma of Dull-Mindedness:

Fixed it!

It's suboptimal if you have any class combo that grants you Full Attacks (like Priest/Rogue or so) which you wanted to use. Because with a hybrid weapon setup only one weapon will be used fot those Full Attacks (which is a shame). If you only get Primary Attack abilies and/or auto attacks then the hybrid setup has no drawbacks: you still get the speed bonus of dual wielding and two weapon style, even if you only attack with one of the weapons. The advantage is that you can attack all sorts of enemies on the battlefield without moving but can still use melee features (like engagement). And you can use melee-only and ranged-only attacks, too. If you get a lot of accuracy bonuses (like Aware + Devotions and so on) you can use the pistol's modal and combine it with dual wielding/two weapon style which leads to fantastic reloading speed for the pistol. Something like Magran/Ranger can be nice where you use the sword for Hunter's Claw to gain more ACC for example and the pistol with Gunner and Driving Flight for high speed ranged stuff then.

Mostly lots of cheese is involved. I never tried because I (almost) never use the Blackened Plate - but I guess you can sneak in solo (park the rest of the party on the ship) with the help of Smoke Veil/Potion of Invis./Bounding Boots and only kill the quartermaster + ads with Lover's Embrace/Gouging Strike/Brand Enemy. As an Assassin this should be possible pretty early if I don't forget some major obstacle. But in a Triple Crown run I still wouldn't try that I guess. One misstep and you're done. Easier to export the plate with a character and import that char with items in a new game.

If you kill One-Eyed Prim then Two-Eyed Prim will take over after that (you can see that if you kill One-Eyed Prim earlier). And iirc you can't kill Two-Eyed Prim. I never tried but I saw Josh's talk about faction leadres where he explained how the game handles the killing of faction heads. Two-Eyed Prim is intentionally silly of course.

You cannot take out all leaders of a faction.

There were steam achievements for PoE. In Deadfire "Berath's Blessings" points are the new in-game achievement system. Don't know if there's still achievements on Steam (never actually bothered to look at those). I guess not? If you used the console with IRoll20s then you won't get BB points etc.

Large Shield + modal

I just remembered Cloak of the Theocrat as random (sort of unique) loot.

I think Chanter is a solid pick. But the first seconds of combat are a bit tricky because you will only be able to call summons once the combat starts. That means the enemies will rush to you before the summons are out. An animal companion might help to keep them busy until summons are there. So maybe Chanter/Ranger? Not Ghost Heart because you cannot have chanter summons and ghost animal companion at the same time. But Arcane Archer/Troubadour with Essence Interrupter sounds like a ranged build that might be able to solo quite well and be very versatile.

I think the Dragon Pendant is indeed the only equippable item with enchantments that's random loot. Never thought about it - but now I tried to remember some other such items but couldn't come up with anything.

Summons and Mind Control (charm/dominate which is basically like getting a summon while taking away an enemy) are very impactful - especially if your ressources are basically endless and you can recast that stuff over and over again. Summons/controlled enemies take heat away from you, help control the battlefield and also can deal damage. I have no brilliant idea how I would change them in order to make them more balanced. In this case I think there's a fine line between "feels too good" and "feels boring/useless".

It used to be too easy at release so they tuned it up several notches afterwards.

Yes, you can't send anyone near the dude at some point. Even now - when I place 9 Ancient Brittle Bones skeletons near him he will Cleave all in range (up to 9 + 18!) to death which just instakills his buddies, too (if in Carnage range).

Cool, I'm still trying to slip a few hours into my week in order to play him. Currently lvl 7 in Neketaka. I brought a SC Troubadour and a SC Beckoner as skeleton fuel providers. In the early-ish game having 9 wurms on the field is pretty devastating, too. A SC Psion is a marvelous mind controller by the way. Whispers and Dominations left and right - dominating is obviously better because the confused Brute will flip enemies back who are only charmed. The best thing about Psion is that they generate focus while they cast and recover. No other class does regenerate resources non-stop, not even Chanters (chanting pause after invocation). Just don't get hit. Also brought an SC Kind Wayfarer with dual pistols to harvest 2 Zeal for every dead skeleton with Divine Retribution. Should be able to spam (Shared) White Flames non-stop at PL 9. The range of White Flames is pretty bad though, need more INT/+AoE size stuff. Currently my Brute goes down a lot because I can't get too near with the Pally (else he will be destroyed). But soon I'll have a "+20 health on kill" pet...

The Beguiler gains a lot of focus just by casting (cheap) Deceptions spells. You can often fill your whole focus with just one cast of Phantom Foes for example. The funny thing: enemies need to be afflicted for this to work - but the affliction of the Deception spell itself already counts. So basically you will always get focus, no matter if the enemies were afflicted before (because they will get afflicted in the process). The amount of focus gained is pretty high. So - the Beguiler doesn't need to deal damage in order to gain focus. Casting stuff like Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors is enough. But at the same time he can also gain focus from dealing damage. So he has two sources for focus: casting and dealing weapon damage. That's why I like the Beguiler so much. I also like him with a Barb because the Willbreaker is such a perfect weapon for a Barb/Beguiler: it lowers both Fortitude and Will and benefits from Resolve afflictions the Beguiler can apply easily (e.g. with Secret Horrors). Ascendant is also very good, especially with Blood Thirst later on and damaging spells. But I almost never pick Ascendant because I find that duality of "Phase 1: fuel up with weapon attacks until full, phase 2: cast cast cast" a bit annoying. But it's just personal preference.

Not Furyshaper? It fits Beguiler quite well imo. Barb/Beguiler works well in general.