Prince of Lies

Not quite. All creatures have a maximum detection range of 12 meters. If you use something that has a "loud" noise that's within 12 meters of the creature, it will come and investigate. If you have a creature that can't see you, but is within that range, it will come and join combat. An area where it's noticeable is: So it doesn't quite directly affect anything in combat- but can pull in more enemies.

I haven't been able to find the minimum mechanics required to open/unlock all chests/doors. I can say that the highest difficulty level trap is 12, and the highest perception required to find that trap is 19. Found that when I looked at global.gamedatabundle lines 13063-13146:

I don't know about PoE1 . PoE1 wasn't as transparent about mechanics as Deadfire is. Yeah, most people seem to have a Mechanics specialist, so if you keep on investing in Mechanics- eventually you'll be able to pick anything. Party Assist provides a fair amount as well. I forget what thread I originally got this from, but It works like:

They only grant a "bonus" If your mechanics falls within a certain range of the lock difficulty. They do not grant a "bonus" if your mechanics is two points below the lock difficulty. It would be more accurate to say that lockpicks increase the effectiveness/lock difficulty range of your mechanics skill as opposed to a flat bonus. So sure, a conditional bonus. Just curious, you wouldn't happen to remember what chest/door it was, would you? I've been examining Mechanics/Stealth/Sleight of Hand more in depth with my latest playthrough to try to get the exacts. EDIT: I'm guessing because you deleted that part, that you found my original assessment was correct. The only lock I don't know about is:

No they don't. They are just needed (as a resource) to pick locks of the same difficulty level or one difficulty level below of what you are trying to open. Example: Lets say you try to pick a difficulty 12 lock with 11 mechanics. You would use three lockpicks to do so. If you have 12 mechanics, you would use one lockpick. If you have 13 mechanics or higher, you would use no lockpicks.

Lockpicks do not increase your ability to pick locks. Lockpicking works as such: If your mechanics is above the lock difficulty, you consume no lockpicks. If your mechanics is equal to the lock difficulty, you consume one lockpick. If your mechanics level is one level below the lock difficulty, you consume three lockpicks. If your mechanics is two levels or more below the lock difficulty, you cannot unlock it. You can increase your mechanics with gear, party assist, thieves' putty, and certain resting bonuses.

Yeah. It's a great weapon! You just have to be cognizant of the Accuracy penalty and plan accordingly. (Perception + Accuracy boosting items, food, etc). They fire multiple projectiles, and the attack is rolled for each projectile. This means you can get a critical hit on each projectile. Furthermore, the modal (Powderburns) allows you to deal significant AOE damage at the expense of being Distracted. (-5 Perception, Flanked). As a Streetfighter Rogue always using Powderburns, you always have -50% Recovery Time, and +50% Damage against flanked or afflicted targets. If you take Persistent Distraction, that's +50% damage all the time, AND -10 deflection on enemies, which essentially mitigates the -5 Perception if you use weapon attack abilities.

No problem If you use Abraham as a pet, you get reduced recovery penalty (varies depending on armor used, you attack faster) and + 10 HP heal on kill.

When regarding non-POTD, Suboptimal does not equal Unusable. You can definitely get around fine with 20 Might, 14 Dexterity, 14 Perception. That being said, I would probably pump perception up a couple of points. Reduce constitution by a couple points. If your finding you're dying more at 8 constitution (-10% HP at 8 Con, 37.8 Base (versus 42) + 10.8 per level (versus 12 per level) ), take the tough talent or boost your constitution with gear.

I'm looking forward to using the world's smallest but most powerful Maelstrom. Anyone have info on the megaboss yet in terms of stats and mechanics?

That's what the chair is made of.

Just so you know- I'm critiquing the information your putting forward... You are posting a guide about mechanics without going into some pretty important variables that would be useful for people looking for that information. I'm not posting to deceive or undermine you, I apologize if it came off that way. Anyways, back on topic: If the "In a Vacuum" assumption was correct; you posit that all players only roll auto-attack- which would be incorrect and leads to a miscalculation of damage. I'm just saying you should do the calculation with at least full-attack abilities taken into account. For your last point- Even on POTD, most people who complete 50% of the content will find themselves overleveled. There are also things like Ancestor's Memory, resource increasing items, etc.

*COUGH* *COUGH* No big deal though.

This. It's also important to note that while dual wielding got nerfed (-35% Damage), it still has a higher DPS when dealing with full attack abilities. The conclusions regarding Might, however, appear to be accurate.

I'm assuming you are on POTD. Pull everything away from the totems. Interrupt/Hard CC Cancelhaut as much as you can. IIRC his deflection is lower than his other defences. Target that for damage. If you have a Priest and a Cipher you can also do: Salvation of Time -> Ancestor's Memory -> Barring Death's Door

It's been temporarily pulled from the Beta branch.

Yeah, I tried the Red Hand + Cleaving Stance thing and wasn't able to replicate it myself.

+ POTD rebalance + No more wuss sea dragon + New megaboss + Spellshaping (Adjust PL by changing spell radius) The update looks fantastic! I wonder if we'll be able to easily import/export other peoples characters.

Your mainhand (primary weapon) is the slot to the left, your offhand (secondary weapon/shield/torch) is the slot to the right. To continue from my last post: Both auto-attacks and full attack abilities use your ranged weapon at range, and your melee weapon at melee- but never both at the same time. Doesn't seem to matter what hand you are wielding them. Let's say you have a Pistol and a Sabre equipped. If you attack at range it would be: [Full Attack Ability (Pistol Damage/Effects) w/ Pistol Attack Speed] -> Pistol Reload -> REPEAT If you attack in melee it would be: [Full Attack Ability (Sabre Damage/Effects) w/ Sabre Attack Speed] -> Sabre Recovery -> REPEAT Auto-attacking works the same. This essentially makes your offhand weapon a stat stick and a way to decrease recovery for when you do use a weapon-based full attack. EDIT: Ninja'd. Did not realize that. Is it the same with Riposte?

PIstol/Scepter is fine- expecially if you plan on using predominately full-attack weapon abilities. If you do, then it will only use the attack speed, recovery/reload of your main hand, but still additionally use the offhand for damage/effects. It would look like: [Full Attack Ability (Pistol + Scepter Damage/Effects) w/ Pistol Attack Speed] -> Pistol Reload -> REPEAT Otherwise auto-attacking it would be: [Pistol Attack (Pistol Damage/Effects) w/ Pistol Attack Speed] -> [Scepter Attack (Scepter Damage/Effects) w/ Scepter Attack Speed] -> Scepter Recovery -> Pistol Reload -> REPEAT I'll have to test for Ranged Mainhand/Melee Offhand just to confirm. But I think it's the same as the first sequence above when the ability is a full attack ability with no weapon prerequisites. If it's a Melee only full attack ability, I think only the melee weapon is taken into consideration. Otherwise the auto-attack sequence would look like the second sequence above- so long as you are in melee range to the target you are attacking.

It's fairer that way. Well, I am still a bit on the fence with the utility of the Charm and Dominate spells for the Cipher. Will a Cipher who won't run them be a drag and not a good character? Can't I just sit back and pew-pew with an arquebus and hurl debuff and nuke spells? Oh, heck yeah. Verde and I are just saying that Charm/Dominate are great CC spells. Not only are they "hard" CC, but Charmed/Dominated enemies attack other enemies as well, boosting party-wide DPS, and can take some heat off of your own characters.

Yeah, attacking a Charmed/Dominated target breaks Charm/Dominate. I think originally in POE1 it didn't, but was wayyyy to powerful. It's still good. Just make sure you have good aim with any fireballs you plan on hurling in their general proximity.

Yeah, you could do it in POE1 as well. You just have to manually do so by clicking the manual attack button (little sword), then click on the non-hostile target. IIRC, If you have your AI set to auto attack, you will automatically attack it anyway.

Well, Ascendant only gets -1PL below other Ciphers. They also get more starting focus and more focus gain. So if you're cating when not yet ascended you're basically trading a bit of power for a substancial increased amount of focus. I think Ascendant would even be balanced if they hadn't access to Ascendant state. IMHO people are too obsessed about Ascension and miss the versatility of this subclass. Oh I wholeheartedly agree. There are some substantial benefits to Ascend for casting multiple high-level spells, though. The point I was trying to make is it's not as simple as X Cipher Subclass is better than Y Cipher Subclass.

To hit ascended, you have to hit max focus (which depends on level). There wasn't a nerf to Ascendant, but there was a nerf to dual wielding damage. So if you were dual wielding before, you'll notice that your now dealing less damage and thus generating less focus.