Boeroer

- Wounding Shot with AoE weapons: nope - the only ability that doesn't apply its effects to the AoE of such weapons. But seriously - if I started to post all the stuff that I tested and which didn't work out the forum would probably overflow.

Stormspeaker + Watershaper = Stormshaper... or maybe...

If it has to be a summon then instead of the Vine I would pick the Oozes (Call to the Primordials). The collection of Oozes is random, but one of them can cast Plague of Insects without limit. But I think for your character Rusted Armor is the best pick.

Ah right - sorry. I somehow didn't think about that. If Tekehu is healing you up nicely and you stack some regeneration gear I guess you won't need Savage Defiance that much. I think it's safe to not take it. No problem, you took Barbarian's "Blooded" which works as an health indicator just as well. In general that is true. But in synergy with Blood Thirst it can make a difference if a spell like Relentless Storm kills an enemy on the fourth strike or already on the third. It also has an impact if you get the refund from Barbaric Smash or not. And even against tough nuts it can be good: some of them have still a lot of health left when they are near death. More crit conversion and higher damage can't hurt then. It's not gamechanging though so it wouldn't matter much if you wouldn't take it. To me it's just a passive that adds a bit of fun (bc. bigger numbers on crits can be fun ;)). I wouldn't drop Barbaric Smash. It's an awseome "finishing move", especially for a dual weapon setup. You can do the same cancel-trick with Bounding Boots. That would spare you an ability point. You can cancel that Leap from the boots, too. The 2 per-rest uses will not get lowered if you time it right (pause/unpause/pause etc. quickly while the char is in the air and do that until the green character circle appears at the target location - before landing. Then hit the x-button. THe combat log will say that you canceled Leap but your char will still land there but the Daze effect etc. will not get triggered - you will still be stealthed if you were before by the way).

I wouldn't take it if ability points are streched thin already. The problem is that Berserker/Fury has no means of healing besides Savage/Stalwart Defiance. So you'd have to rely solely on party members and/or consumables and/or items (you already have Devil of Caroc which can heal a bit on crits - also check out pets like Abraham who give health on kill). You'll have up to +4 PEN for elemental spells - do you really think you need Rusted Armor? I personally would pick Stalwart Defiance over Rusted Armor. Infestation of Maggots does raw damage. Raw damage goes right through armor, it doesn't need PEN. Spirit of Decay will show in the combat log and will add +1 PEN to zero PEN - but it won't do anything because PEN/AR don't get checked with raw damage. Rusted Armor does no damage - hence it has no PEN value that could be boosted. PEN is only applied to damaging attacks (unless they do raw damage). Taste of the Hunt: yes, it works with Spirit of Decay - no matter which type of weapon you have equipped Spirit of Decay will always add +1 PEN to it. If you use Taste of the Hunt with Firebrand and have Scion of Flame as well you will even get +2 PEN. Not +3 because the Fury passive for +1 PEN to elemental spells doesn't work with Firebrand (the weapon lacks the "elemental" keyword). The only Druid spells that Spirit of Decay is good for: Touch of Rot (very good spell, scales so nicely with Power Level), Taste of the Hunt, Autum's Decay, Rot Skulls (only the AoE corrode damage, not the initial crush damage) - I think it's not worth taking. You could think of Scion of Flame (bc. you'll have some "auto-pick" fire spells). But I personally would skip it. Heart of the Storm is good if your preferred spells are shocking spells. --- Unflinching is very good, especially for a Berserker who constantly drops below 50% health an gets healed back up. Once you drop below 50% health the resistances of Unflinching will get removed - and if you regain health over 50% they get added again - removing one layer of affliction. Drop under 50% again and heal back up: next layer removed. And so on. --- I would check out Bloody Slaughter - it also works with spells and is quite good in combination with Blood Thirst and Barbaric Smash (to make it much more likely to kill with it which gives you the Rage refund). --- Leap is an excellent ability because a) you can use it out of combat which makes it essentially free to use as long as you don't trigger combat with it - and out of combat it makes some tasks (avoiding traps, stealing, sneaking, reaching certain spaces that otherwise would be unaccessible etc.) so much easier and b) you can cancel it mid-air. Then it will not cost anything - but you will still land where you aimed. Thus you can move with no Rage cost (but you need to have at least 2 Rage - or the ability button will be greyed out). --- You could think about Spirit Frenzy (NOT Spirit Tornado) : it works with all your spells that do an attack roll on enemies and will stagger them - also Carnage (Spirit Tornado only works with your weapon hits - it's maybe a bug). You will spare an ability point by not upgrading further in comparison to Blood Storm. Staggered enemies will have -10 Fortitude defense - which will synergize with Brute Force and spells that target Fortitude in the first place (which are some). If you add a sickening or weakening spell then the enemies' fortitude will be lowered by 20 points already - again: good synergy with Brute Force. Blood Storm is also good though since it spares you Rage (bc. it prolongs Frenzy on kill) and the raw DoT also works on spell-crits (which is nice).

I don't remember the exact wording - but I'm 100% sure that a price like that above is obvious enough.

Mule Kick, used with Whispers of the Endless Paths or Citzal's Spirit Lance* will knock up all enemies in the AoE. Which is fun. But there will be no crazy AoE x AoE hit roll fest like with Clear Out (and upgrades). Other abilities who work similarly would be Heart of Fury (Barbarian), Whirling Strikes (Ranger) and Whispers of the Wind (Monk). All only accessible for single class characters. Clear Out is the only "intrinsic" AoE weapon ability** that is accessible to multiclasses. )* with Mule Kick you can only use melee weapons. Clear Out can be tricked into using a one handed ranged weapon if you use a melee weapon in the offhand. )** meaning that it's an attack which has its own AoE but uses your weapon - which can also have an AoE, leading to those crazy behaviors with dozens to hundreds of attack rolls. Edit: maybe the post you were referring to is this: it was used for @thelee's great game faq guide that was linked above by @Not So Clever Hound.

Lol - not even I am using that.

In Germany a deal is void if there is an obvious mistake. There will be no contract from a legal perspective because one of the parties is ripping off the other. So... there is no "lawful" deal. Trying to enforce that deal would be unlawful (as far as I understand the meaning of that word). See § 871 ABGB (if you dare ;)). I think that is a good piece of law. I guess most countries have something similar. I had to learn that when I became a banker 25 years ago and I still remember.

Yes, there is a bit more INT gear. Splitting 15-15 or 14-16 or whatever feels right is also okay.

True. Pushing effects can be very nasty in combination with Arterial Strike: use Xefa's Empirical Explication (blunderbuss which knocks targets back on crit - 4 chances since blunderbuss) with Arterial Strike and the target will soon die trying to reach you. Terrify is also a great thing to use with Arterial Strike, absolutely right. Even enemies who'd normally stand still (because in melee or whatever) will start wandering around. I was just thinking about targets that can't move due to CC such as immobilized/paralyzed/stunned and so on - or those who move without actually "walking". One could assume that pushing/pulling/Escape/Leap etc. should also trigger the effect - but they do not.

Right - I totally forgot to mention the humans' Fighting Spirit. It is very easy to always have enough drugs around for every fight - if you only have one drug user in the party. I'm playing my second Nalpasca run atm. and after reaching Port Maje I never had a single fight where I ran out of drugs. You find so much stuff including drugs, you can craft them yourself and you can buy them for relatively cheap. I was never "hunting" for drugs either. When I see a shop has drugs I will buy them, but usually the stuff I find/craft is enough. Little exception in the very beginning of the game - you might want to stay sober in the easy fights and only use some in the harder ones - because there's not plenty to loot/collect before reaching Port Maje. Just one thing about the Nalpasca: if you get hit by Arcane Dampener it will also suppress your active drug effect which will put you right into a crash (no healing, wounds degeneration and the bad effects from a drug crash). And even if Arcane Dampener is over the crash will remain. You can simply take another drug then and get back to normal - but it's quite annoying. So I would see to interrupt enemy wizards who are about to cast Arcane Dampener and kill them asap. I also don't like scepters/Destructive Channeling very much. Mostly because the unique scepters aren't too exciting.

It only works when the target actively "walks" (pushing/pulling and stuff like moving via Escape won't trigger the DoT). So it does indeed nothing if the target doesn't move normally. If it does walk/run it's pretty hefty dmg though. Extremely good against slow but hard to crack enemies like Iron-/Steelclads etc. It's even more devastating if you use it with any kind of AoE weapon (Whispers of the Endless Paths, Hand Mortar, Fire in the Hole, Citzal's Spirit Lance, Kalakoth's Minor Blights, Rods + Blast modal...) Debilitating Strike stops being useful once you get the Persistent Distraction passive which unlocks Deathblows by mere engagement. That needs a melee weapon though (else no engagement). So as a melee Rogue I'd always prefer Arterial Strike + Persistent Distraction over Debilitating Strike. Arterial Strike stacks with Gouging Strike and alse Ring the Bell and Toxic Strike. If you combine some of those on one target its AR won't matter - its health will melt away very quickly. And most of those guys do move. The only case where I'd may pick Debilitating Strike over Arterial Strike would be a ranged Rogue who doesn't use Hand Mortar - in order to unlock Deatblows. But on the other hand I can also unlock Deathblows with Blinding Strike - so it may be that I won't take Deb. Strike even then. Another alternative is to simply not upgrade Crippling Strike. If you feel Arterial Strike isn't worth it and Deb. Strike neither - then spare the ability point. Crippling Strike scales with Power Level just fine - and from a direct-dmg-perspective both upgrades won't add any direct damage.

High MIG is not really needed for a Mindstalker imo. Your melee dmg will be raised by Sneak Attack (scales with Power Level up to 50% with a multiclass Trickster iirc) and later Deathblows (50%) - then your weapons will add some dmg with quality and so on. Even if you went to 20 MIG it would "only" give you a +30% additive dmg bonus. If you use a lot of damaging cipher spells one could make better use of MIG. But if your main dmg output comes from weapon attacks I think it's not worth it. But that's just my personal approach. You could try it out and see what feels better.

Hi! Did you know that Sundering Blow works with ranged weapons? Because I somehow missed that all the time. Okay, I haven't played a lot of single class fighters in the first place (bit boring) so I didn't have much motivation to check that in- or outside the game. But causing solid -4 AR in a quite big AoE for over 30 secs is nothing to sneeze at. Trying a SC Tactician atm and the Blinding Smoke (distracts) seemed to be a convenient way to flank most enemies on the spot. Then I stumbled across Sundering Blow... Sunder! Ah-ha-aha-aha-ha-a! Sunder! Ah-ha-aha-aha-ha-a! I was caught In the middle of a duuummy pack (Sunder!) I looked 'round And I knew there was no switching back (Sunder!) My mind raced And I thought, what could I use? (Sunder!) And you know I had already lightened the fuse... (Sunder!) Scorching their arse penetrating their heart The thunder of mortars Tore them apart They've been... ...Clean Swept!

Yes, Destructive Channeling will kill you if you don't stop to use it - or heal. A Wizard who wants to use bloodied with scepters can multiclass to a Warlock. You'll have higher action speed right away with Frenzy, you could either cause a raw DoT or the Staggered affliction via Blood Frenzy/Spirit Frenzy - they also work with your spells. The Blooded dmg bonus works with spells, too. You'll still have the problem with surviving though - like with the Streetfighter. Barbs get Savage Defiance at some point and that might help, but Frenzy lowers deflection so you will be even more exposed. The Fear Ward of the Furyshaper could help, but it also comes quite late. Casting damaging spells as a Warlock becomes a lot of fun once you reach Blood Thirst imo. The only other thing that might help a low health Wizard with scepters (I can think of right now)* is the Death Godlike's "Pallid Fate": +3 Power Level when near death (<25% health). +3 PL is a great bonus for a caster. It would stack with all other PL bonuses. If you plan to use a fellow Priest with Barring Death's Door it might be rel. safe, too. )* besides the High Harbinger's Robe

A Chanter can summon upgraded Wisps who will have a distracting attack which does very little shock damage. You can use them as your own "Heating Up Generator" and even combine that with Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain a shocking lash for all your attacks in the process. Makes you go to bloodied even faster, too - in combo with Destructive Channeling. And you can then switch to Ancient Memory to stay at 50% even while still using Destructive Channeling/getting hit by the Wisps. Also a Streetfighter/Chanter can achieve even higher shooting speed because Sure Handed Ila and the Streetfighter passive do stack. Combine with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr and you'll also have a nice burning lash (and your party, too). Upgraded Wisps take some levels to unlock though.

Eh - I have no idea why my text is in the spoiler tags, too. Sorry - I can't get it out. Oh well... Edit: removed the spoiler tags. Man those are really messed up...

Wat? Here comes the Mortar Monk (vid) : Stunning Surge with blunderbusses - especially Serafen's mortars - is one of the best (ranged) abilities. Very high chance for Mortification refunds and hjust absurdely strong CC. Add +10 INT for the mortar AoE and longer durations for "Heating Up" and stuff like Stunning Surge and Arterial Strike etc. as well as longer distracted durations from Hand Mortars "Blinding Smoke" which unlocks Deathblows automatically. Suddenly a Monk/Streetfighter seems like a really good idea (and it is). If going with destructive channeling first you would also gain wounds very quickly in combination with Dance of Death (later Enduring Dance). Self damage such as destr. channeling doesn't end Dance of Death. There is no source of healing though nor a reliable way to raise defenses once bloodied so a party member would have to provide that. On the other hand you have two summons (Dichotomous Soul) that are superuseful to prevent harm from you. Other goodies for such a bloodied ranged Streetfighter char from the top of my head: Barbarian: Blooded, +25% dmg Barbarian: Unflinching, grants resistance to all Body afflcitions when over 50% health and NOT when bloodied. However, you can use this mechanic to completely remove any affliction. As soon as you heal over 50% the resistance kicks in, removing one tier of affliction (e.g. paralyzed to immobilzed). Then you drop below 50% again (no resistance) and back over 50% (resistance again) and the immobilized gets downgraded to hobbled... and so on. Wizard: Llengrath's Safeguard, +defenses and +5(!)AR High Harbinger's Robes, the lower your health the higher the action speed buff The Magnificent Escape Cape, grants an escape-like ability when bloodied that gives +50 deflection, stacks with all wizard buffs (not with Rogue's Escape!) and can be prolonged with Wall of Draining As Elric pointed out a Bloodmage is a very convenient way to reach bloodied and then being able to maintain the bloodied state rel. safely. You don't even need scepters for that. Also with mortars the Infuse with Vital Essence spell comes in handy because the +5 INT will enlarge the AoE. THe Streetfighter/Monk (e.g. Helwalker) is a lot more impactful offensively though.

It was a SC Monk in my current playthrough. I added the multiclass with the console for testing purposes. That lowers the Power Level autimatically but doesn't remove any abilites.

The reason for your shorter DoT is in the post I wrote before (see bold part in the quote). Shifter gets unique Spiritshift forms (Spiritshift_Boar_Shifter instead of Spiritshift_Boar) - I guess because of the healing but I don't know for sure what lead to that decision. The Boar DoT is attached to the spiritshift ability, not the tusk weapons. Somehow Obsidian made an error (Copy & Paste Error? Forgot to give a duration in the first place so it inherits the partent ability's duration? I don't know) : instead of the original short duration it has the same as the whole Spiritshift.

Unmodded game with INT 28 (first FF and then Stunning Surge) :

Shifter or normal Druid? Of course enemies' RES will play a role, too. I achieved over a minute on dummies who don't have high RES.

Roleplaying, giving your char a unique face and mentally investing in the (back)story does indeed help a lot. Even if you're doing your umpteenth playthrough. Berserker/Paladin is indeed a nice combo. And there also is the Goldpact/Shifter who can achieve enormous AR with 0 recovery penatly which makes him sturdy af but at the same time a good damage dealer. Err... I guess I'm not helping...

One can't mod new models into the game afaik. If the model of the Spiritshift forms are seperated (like - individual objects for head and body) it might be possible to assemble the shifted body with a godlike head - but it wouldn't look right I think. The models can be tinted iirc - so at least the colors could be brought to match...? But the portrait would be no problem of course (given you find someone who has the skill).