Boeroer

Hi! So... why not summon Llengrath's Warding Staff as a Warlock, right? Just because nobody else does. And also because every hit with it pushes the enemy into their own Carnage area. That means you are not only doing the normal weapon damage to the initial target but also the Carnage dmg (which ususally only hits enemy bystanders and not the initial target). I think that's not overly powerful but a pretty good use for that staff - and most of all: it's fun.

So... I didn't read about this much - or at least I don't remember reading it: If you are a confused Berserker and are wielding Amra with Riven Gore - you will instakill your party-members if you accidentially hit them with the Amra-Carnage while they have 50 or less health. And I don't mean that they get knocked out. No... they will be really dead, destroyed, gone for good, tschüssikovski. So... if you are like me and have a Berserker (without removing confusion because it's so good with skellies) with Amra and Riven Gore: stay away from that dude like your life depends on it. Because it does. It's one melee and 4 ranged characters now...

Kind of. On that engagement works better in Deafire than in PoE so it has more value imo.

Wizard can be tanky if you gear up very defensively and give +engagement gear (for example Kapana Taga + shield + Reckless Brigandine = 4 slots). The missing engagement will be the worst part in the early game though. Tanks without engagement don't work so well imo. An essential Phantom can help tanking. Once you get Llengrath's Safeguard you can become very tanky (especially with the use of Wall of Draining). The universal defense boost stacks with all the deflection buffs.

It stacks with the Barb's Frenzy. I would suggest the "on kill" variant of course in this case. Also Amra's "Carnage" stacks with Barb's Carnage which kills those summons around you even faster. Also with Amra I would suggest to use Bleeding Cuts once you get Blood Thirst.

I guess you mean Beckoner, not Bellower? Generally speaking a Beckoner and also a Skald (lots of crits) work fine as well. I chose a Troubadour merely because of convenience/mircomanagement lazyness: - Beckoner's skeletons do scale with level and are harder to kill than the skeletons from Many Lives Pass By - at least at higher levels. - I'd have to micromanage the Beckoner's skeletons. They don't run on AI. The ones that appear after the initial skeletons get killed do have AI control though (which is good in this case). I personally found the added micro annoying for this particular character. - Beckoner has to invest casting time (and potentially recovery) for summoning his skeletons that can't be used for smashing things. His summons' duration is shorter than Troubadour's. Troubadour can summon more skeletons on the fly via chant + Brisk Recitation: comparable amount of skeletons but way less micro and time "wasted" with actual summoning invocations. - If you summon 6 Beckoner skeletons it often happens that you kill several of them (or sometimes even all of them) with the same Carnage attack. This means that you "wasted" all the nice skellies for just one Blood Thirst proc. Blood Storm will get extended several times and you'll also get the healing effect per kill though so it's not too bad. It just feels better to not have them die all at once. - Troubadour summons a skeleton every 3 secs which leads to a constant but fast enough stream of "fuel" for Blood Thirst and the other kill effects. Ideally with every attack only one skeleton dies. By the way, check out Amra's Riven Gore: since Many Lives Skeletons have very low health they will get destroyed on the spot. Of course this is only most convenient and "better" once you get Many Lives Pass By. Before that I guess it doesn't really matter that much because you will have to manually summon creatures anyway (don't need to be skeletons by the way, they are just the weakest summons and Ancient Brittle Bones is so nice). Beckoner can summon more at once, Troubadour can summon them more often and they stay longer, Skald will get a lot of phrases from crits against the skellies and thus can summon more often etc. I guess it would need testing which one is the perfect fit for one's taste. I just liked Troubadour because I could completely automate this character that way. In the end it's just using Frenzy at the start of battle and doing lightning fast auto-attacks.

With the Least Unstable Coil you will have a pretty reliable way of getting Brilliant if you are a Priest (or Chanter, Druid or Wizard). Cast an empowered Storm of Holy Fire (Her Revenge/Greater Maelstrom/Missile Salvo) and you should have all tier-3 inspirations on you (because with those spells every attack roll counts as a singular empowered spell). Then there's Ancestor's Memory from a Cipher, ne? Forgot if you will bring one or not... Also the cape "Shroud of the Phantasm" can get you brilliant - but it's a bit of a chore to trigger it. But doable (e.g. stand in a Wall of Flame with high burn DR). Afaik there is no AoE that gives you brilliant. But as soon as you have it (see Least Unstable Coil) you can have it forever (hello Salvation of Time).

Yes, it doesn't work too well if you aren't a bit sturdy yourself. Like - glasscannon caster + Edér as Rogue: Unless you start at lvl 4 with Breath Blessings and get him Smoke Veil. That trivializes most early encounters because you can just "solo" them with him (and stop combat by just vanishing after killing a single enemy). I had him as a SC Rogue some time ago and made him into a DoT-guy (Lover's Embrace + Pukestabber and then Gouging Strike + Ring the Bell + Arterial Strike - and Toxic Strike sometimes). He needed a lot of INT boosting equipment but it worked out well. I think most players underestimate how well a quickly applied pile of raw dmg DoTs works against otherwise extremely sturdy enemies (try to storm Arkemyr's Manor early without raw dmg DoTs... ;)). Edér: "Hey, they misunderestimated me!"

Even better! I don't actually use the resistance chants - because the "cascading immunity" feels so darn cheesy, hehe. So my in-game experience is limited and I just assumed there has to be a little gap. Barb's Unflinching works the same - but here at least you have to drop below and raise above 50% health to trigger that effect. Which is more effort imo - so the potential immunity feels more justified.

Berserker/Troubadour for the win! (don't mind the monk abilities in the action bar - it was a test character who was created with the console). That Berserker/Troubadour kills his own skeletons "accidentally" with Carnage and triggers Blood Thirst because of it (no need to actively target your skeletons, they will get killed by Carnage alone because they don't scale with level = very weak). He also uses the Twin Eels great sword which not only heals him but also the enemies (bc. he is confused) which is a little fun gimmick here (he won't die from Berserker Frenzy but enemies get healed, too - just less than the dmg they receive). If you pick another weapon (Amra, Chromoprismatic Staff or Lord Darryn's Voulge should be real nice for example) and use a pet gives 20 health on kill (there are several) you will also not die easily but the enemies will fall much faster - because no healing for them. Of course this also works with a Chanter in the party who summons skeletons and another Berserker/something or SC Berserker. All sorts of "on-kill" effects are great with this. --- Debonaire/Beguiler is nice thematically - but since the Cipher doesn't have a lot of friendly fire spells that could profit from the Debonaire's crit conversion against charmed enemies it's mechanically better to have a Beguiler in the party and a Debonaire/Wizard. Wizards have plenty of friendly fire nukes - and if the Beguiler starts to charm via Ring Leader then the Debonaire/Wizard can prepare to haul a Shadowflame or whatever at those charmed enemies, giving him 100% crit conversion for all hit rolls. Also works with a Chanter + charming invocation + Debonaire/Wizard of course. Where Debonaire/Beguiler is indeed very nice is once you get Soul Ignition and later Disintegration. You can cast those on charmed enemies (and get the crit) and they won't even flip back to hostile.

Use Essence Interrupter (with modal) on a decently accurate character and it should be not much of a problem.

If you have a Chanter in the party who runs Sure Handed Ila* I would use Maia as a Scout with the Red Hand. Use Gunner, Acina's Tricorn and her garb to speed the shooting futher up. The single target damage and the shooting speed will be very good - even with the arquebus modal she will be shooting quickly enough (and that's +20 ACC which is just great). The Gunhawk +20% range passive will counter the shorter range of the Red Hand. Use a rod as backup weapon for those pierce immune foes - later Eccea's Arcane Blaster maybe. --- As a Geomancer you can go with the versatility that a Wizard brings and amp up the accuracy for your spells with the Ranger side - or you could try to amplify the Ranger side with some Wizard spells. Or both - it's not mutually exclusive. For example the blunderbuss Xefa's Empirical Explication has an enchantment that increases the range of the blunderbuss by 50% (4m -> 6m) which gets further boosted by Maia's Gunhawk passive (+20% range). That way you'll have a rel. long range blunderbuss in the main hand (with not so nice initial ACC - but you are a Rager so what ). If you now put any other blunderbuss like Kitchen Stove (with only 4 m range) in the offhand - but use Full Attacks (e.g. Wounding Shot) - the game will execute both shots of the Full Attacks at the longer range... because your main hand weapon determines the max range of the Full Attack. Also the Xefa blunderbuss will knock back enemies on crit which can be very useful. With that setup you could then summons an Essential Phantom and then use Combusting Wounds (rage 10m). You and your Phantom will fire lots of projectiles on enemies with Combusting Wounds. Use Driving Flight to affect more than one enemy per shot. That way you can shred enemies pretty quickly from safe distance. And the other Gunhawk effect (5% interrupt on hit) triggers quite often. You can also combine Combusting Wounds with Infuse with Vital Essence (+5 INT) and Hand Mortar + Fire in the Hole. That will trigger combusting wounds on the whole AoE of enemies who got hit by Combusting Wounds. The range will be shorter though. You can also use Frostseeker and use the Essential Phantom to fire around with two Frostseekers. Stuff like that. --- )* Sure Handed Ila applies both the 20% recovery bonus as well as the 20% reloading bonus to all reloading weapons (arbalest, crossbow, firearms) which makes it very good for all party members who use reloading weapons. It counters the arquebus modal easily.

Your examples are not correct. Damage reduction (and other percentage based mali) in Deadfire works mostly multiplicative in contrast to damage bonuses that are most often additive. Check out this link to know why: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/inversions Still not a great chant because of the slash/pierce restriction. Would be a great chant if it was a universal 10% dmg reduction. It removes Concentration from enemies and does a hit roll vs. Will for that. It can be very useful against enemies that you want to interrupt (casters, bosses) but who have Concentration which would normally require you to remove the layers of Concentration (some enemies have more than 10 layers!) with a lot of interrupts. It is very good in combination with "Their Champion Braved the Horde Alone". Because also chants with hit rolls will interrupt enemies if they crit. This one does a hit roll, too - so you are removing Concentration and doing a hit roll with this at the same time. A Troubadour chanting with Brisk Recitation has a chance to interrupt every enemy in chanting range every 3 secs... The hidden awesomeness of this phrase is that it will apply both the 20% recovery bonus AND the 20% reload bonus to all reloading weapons which leads to a pretty phenomenal speedup for all who use an arbalest, crossbow or firearm. That's why Streetfighter/Troubadour (with Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr with blunderbusses or with the help of upgraded Wisps that distract you) may reach the highest DPS with reloading weapons. Red Hand + Heating Up + Sure Handed Ila... ouf). Besides that it works for your whole party... --- All resistance phrases are very good because they can make the party nearly immune to all addressed afflictions: - got paralyzed -> chant resistance reduces it to immobilized -> other chant -> again resistance chant, reduces immob. to hobbled -> next time chant hits it reduces it to nothing... But in order to do that the resistance has to go away in between - so it's best to alternate between those chants every 3 secs. That way you can make your whole party quasi-immune to all afflictions that are covered by those chants. Instead of chaining different resistance chants you can also remove the resistance shortly by simply using an invocation (invocations stop chanting briefly). --- Thick as Steel is very good for slow tanky chars who only suffer very little damage normaly and woukd only die from a thousand little cuts. Combined with Ancient Memory it can make you immortal because the little damage that comes through from underpenetrating grazes will get further reduced by this and what comes through can be healed by Ancient Memory. For other chars it's not that useful. --- Many Lived Pass By is extremely good with Brisk Recitation. Every 3 secs there will be a weak skeleton that automatically stops enemies, dies quickly (good with some class abilities and items) and doesn't count towards the summoning limit). If you have a SC Paladin in the party it's kind of mandatory because it provides unlimited Zeal for that Paladin via Divine Retribution. Also a confused Berserker in the party loves those weak skeletons (Blood Storm, Blood Thirst, healing on kills via pet or weapon etc.). In general I consider this phrase to me the most potent one. It has the most universal impact on the battlefield in all situations imo. Never useless. --- Old Siec works with spells. But the draining is limited to the first hit roll of an action iirc. So you will not gain massive amounts of health from the AoE of a fireball. Better used with high dmg single target stuff. Still good though. If you want an ability that drains life from ALL damage that is done (except Wall spells) you need to use the Furyshaper's Blood Ward. It is Old Siec on massive steroid overdose. --- The Long Night's Drink is excellent. It's my go-to chant for Howlers because of Brute Force (Spirit Frenzy + this phrase applies both weakened and staggered with one hit roll - add a Morning Star with Body Blows and you'll attack a very low fortitude defense most of times). -14 fortitude debuff on the fly from CON and MIG loss besides the weakening effects themselves (-health, reduced healing). There are some shady things going on if you apply weakened, deal damage, lift weakened, deal damage, apply weakened and on. Basically it causes more health loss than you actually did deal damage. I did a quick test & analysis two years ago or so but can't find it now. Anyway it's a great phrase. --- Dragon Thrashed is just a shadow of its PoE1 glory. It's pretty bad unless you have a highly defensive and slow playstyle. If you then combine it with Soft Winds of Death and Blackened Plate it becomes quite useful. Best if somebody gives you bonus PEN though and/or lowers enemies' DR because it doesn't have that much PEN (e.g. a Cipher casts Driving Echoes on you). --- My most used phrases are: Mith Fyr, Sure Handed Ila, The Long Night's Drink, Many Lives Pass By

More than two years later my perspective about the PEN/AR system has changed. I still don't think it's optimal but in general it's a good approach that needs some refinement. Instead I have identified the mathematical handling of percentage-based bonus vs. malus (mostly speed and damage) as one of my least favorite parts. This also leads to the problems people have with the PEN/AR system. It's not that system itself which causes troubles but how underpenetration influences the damage calculation ("double inversion").

No idea - never happend to me. If you kill enemies with a DoT effect (for example Deep Wounds or Blood Frenzy or Gouging Strike etc) it will not register as a kill done by Modwyr. Maybe that's the problem? Although it is very unlikely that this happend every time you killed a kith enemy...

Hand Mortar: Blinding Smoke (friendly fire - like powder burns) Fire in the Hole: Chain Shot (the AoE also jumps which makes landing crits for Stunning-Surge refunds even more likely)

If you use Wild Growth on them they can stay for over 100 secs at lvl 20 and won't go down easily because of endless Robust. They also grow their circles then which makes it easier to block whole paths with them. Maneuver them somewhere when they are still small (it's easier that way) and then let them grow which often blocks the path to you. It's not foolproof and not as reliable as engagement but it helps imo. Also check out the circle of an Aspect of Galawain with Wild Growth, haha ("only" lasts a minute though). The durations are with high INT and with most convenient PL buffs (Wellspring, Spine of Thicket Green).

Mortars do pierce/slash dmg - so pierce immune enemies are not that much of a problem as if you used classic blunderbusses. On the other hand pierce immune enemies are often the ones who are most vulnerable to crush damage, so picking The Long Pain is still a good idea. It's also better against lonely targets. Stunning Surge with a Helwalker/Streetfighter and mortars is very effective. It's combined AoE CC & dps deluxe. Blinding Smoke (you should always pick that enchantment with Hand Mortar) unlocks Deathblows very reliably. No need to first use Debilitaing Strike or Blinding Strike. Just fire away with Stunning Surge. Check out Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure which is an additional source of invisibility on top of Smoke Veil. Its invisibility does NOT break on CC hits, only damage. That means you can cast debuffs/CC from invisibility with +25 ACC and then follow up with a +25 ACC/+4 PEN (and potentially +50% crit dmg) nuke.

If you want to make Edér a SC Fighter I would suggest picking up Clear the Path instead of Clean Sweep later on - because (Edér's lowish) INT has no effect on the AoE size of Clear the Path. Clear the Path is very good imo. Especially when used with a Morning Star + Body Blows. It targets Fortitude so the Morning Star will apply -25 fortitude to all in the AoE which makes it a lot easier for follow-ups with additional Clear the Path uses (or Mule Kicks). And alternative can be a mace + modal - for example bind Magistrate's Cudgel to Edér. You can lower enemies' AR in the AoE and also with the cudgel you will instakill all lower-level kith on the spot with every crit-roll in the AoE. The AoE of Clear the Path is pretty broad and also very long. I used to have a party with SC Barb Serafen and SC Fighter Edér. In the later game Serafen with Driving Roar and Edér with Clear the Path were like two cannons. Most enemies never got back up once they both started "firing".

He didn't talk to him at Ashen Maw though but only saw him in the background (at least that's what I understood) so everything should be in order...?

Grimoire mechanic is extremely useful - at least for multiclasses but also for non-Bloodmage single class wizards - because once you realize that you don't have to invest ability points to cast spells you can spend them all on passives and/or active non-wizard abilities. SC Wizard can pick all the empowerment abilities and have fun with the Least Unstable Cool and Weyc stuff in the endgame for example. 7 Grimoires (1 trinket slot, 4 quick slots + 2 more via Deep Pockets or Fleshmender/Giftbearer's Cloth) means you don't have to use a single ability point and still can have a huge portfolio of spells. Massive versatility - that's what grimoires give you - not more spell uses. Spell uses are part of the balancing process. If a grimoire would allow you to cast the spells it contains in addition to the ones you learned the balance would break. That would mean you'd need to nerf all wizard spells to make up for that. Now versatility is also part of the balancing process, but more versatility won't break the game balance as easily as more spell uses. There's a reason why Blood Mage and Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry are so popular despite their disadvantages. I think it's a good system, too good compared to other casters like Priest and Druid even who "only" get some fixed bonus spells which feel like predefined, very thin and tiny "grimoire light".

As a Spellblade you can have 7 grimoires at the ready. The versatility is enormous compared to all other casters. Why use ability points for spells in the first place? By the way: the passive ability Aloth can get from his quest and which lowers the grimoire switching time by 1 second should have been a Wizard passive ability besides Rapid Casting, Spellshaping and so on. Too bad it's not...

No, you just skipped some conversations you were supposed to do first while following his footsteps (so to speak). But as far as I know nothing you did/see breaks the game/main quest line. You can go back and do something else and later return and he will still be there waiting for you (and then it all will make more sense). Obsidian should have made sure that you can't enter Ashen Maw accidentally before the time is right - with a hard lock and not a soft one (Rathûn patrolling around). That's not too cool but I think nothing is kaputt.

Yes, it stopped working for some reason. It's quite annoying when you for example have Caedebald's Blackbow and meet a foe who's immune to corrosion - but you can't switch/get rid of the weapon.

Summoned weapons are/were supposed to go away once you switch weapon sets - but somehow they messed up the implementation (or forgot to implement that in the first place).