MaxQuest

Technically you could also kill your skeletons with Grave Calling for the Chill Fog proc. And if you use a lot of DoTs and disables, you can also hit your skelies with Frostfall, for Dispersed Suffering and Shattering Head procs. Or you could lower your target's AR. There are multiple means for that: Rending Smash (Mace modal): -1 AR for 10s Rust Armor (druid spell; priest of berath spell; scroll): -4 AR (vs fortitude) for 15s Lower Their Guard: -10 AR for 5s (UseLongerDurationIfAlreadyApplied, MaxTriggerCount: 2) Sundering Blow: -4 AR for 15s Expose Vulnerabilities: -2 AR for 20s Body Attunement: -2 AR for 20s Hel Hyraf (invocation): -2 AR for 12s Blister Bomb: -1 AR for 15s Fungal Bile: -1 AR for 30s These above are considered active, and do not stack. While those below are passive: Flanked: -1 AR Death's Usher (Blackened Plate passive): -1 AR (auto-apply, lasting aura) Biting Cuts (Beza's Toothed Blade): -2 AR on Critical Hit for 10s Blunt Rock (Sungrazer): -1 crush AR on Critical Hit for whole encounter And there is also: Prepare the Offering (Sanguine Sword): -2 slash AR for 20s. Which I am not sure yet what type it is.

I suppose if you solo: high will defense and potions of major recovery. And if you are in party: it's likely easier to deal with it preventively: - i.e. either interrupt or disable the casting wizard - or spread your party before engaging. Arcane Dampener is AoE, and there is a chance that enemy AI has a check in it's behavior to cast AD only if it can hit several enemies at a time. At least my experience was that Pestilent Rotghasts were not casting Putrid Blast AoE against a single target.

I'm usually sleeping 8-9h on sunday and 7h 00m - 8h 40m on other days. By the statistics it looks that I'm feeling best in the morning if I am sleeping from 23:40 till 8:10 or from 23:50 till 8:20. But still I didn't have a 5/5 star sleep in ages.

I have a feeling that there are 3 bugs that could be even trickier to fix: - AoE appliance of status effects with AoE weapons (without occasional recovery drop, and recursive cascade effects) - proper damage type selection with dual-damage attacks vs enemies with immunities - tactician's auras messing-up with each other (when there are multiple tacticians in party)

- Persistent Distraction: le wild idea "a swearing/taunting clown with klaxon horn". Kidding) - Backstab: looks fine. But that dripping might create an allusion with poison. - Defensive Roll: good - Dirty Fighting: uhh, looks like a skull snorting/nibbling something - Riposte: from afar, looks like violin. But close-up is fine - Deep Pockets: uhm, how about making two pockets? But if you do so - please don't delete the current version. We could use it for "Extra Pocket" talent for non-rogues ^^ - Adept Evasion: fine - Deep Wounds: good - Slipper Mind: "have some eel on your mind?" - Deathblows: the concept is fine, but something is off. Maybe just leave the damage symbol? - Murderous Intent: good - Wall of Flashing Steel: ehm, looks like skeleton in bandana asking for a cigarette

Yeah, that's most likely.Not to mention that it is triggered by the same ApplyStatusEffectToEnemyByDamageDealt as Wounding Shot and Deep Wounds, and those definitely use postDR damage. And I now understood why I had a feeling that it is preDR: - it acts a little bit like lash. And lashes take preDR damage, and apply it vs the AR type they target. - I applied a lot of stacks to Neryscirlas before the Safeguard trigger. And after the trigger was seeing red numbers pop of similar value, so I stopped paying attention. Am only human ^^ I'd like to have enough free time for all the tests, but usually I don't\ That's why if I am not 100% sure in something I add stuff like "iirc", "I would expect" and so on. As for Bleeding Cuts, was waiting for weekend to test it. But dunehunter already did) Can't tell without testing, but wouldn't be surprised. ApplyOverTime uses it's value as "total base damage". So 20% would have to be divided between 3 ticks in: - 6.66% on 0s - 6.66% on 3s - 6.66% on 6s And either it indeed does so, and there are rounding errors (which make it look like 10%). And this better be tested with a custom weapon that has 100 min and 100 max damage. Or there is some error in the code that computes the tick damage as [total / (duration / tick_interval)] instead of [total / (1 + duration / tick_interval)]. Because there is that immediate tick on apply. Btw, I have taken a look at Maiming (from Effort sword) { "StatusEffectType": "Damage", "UseStatusEffectValueAs": "None", "BaseValue": 0, // it's parent has "BaseValue": 0.15, "DurationType": "UseDurationTime", "Duration": 6, "MaxStackQuantity": 0, "ApplicationBehavior": "DontApplyIfAlreadyApplied", "ApplicationType": "ApplyOnTick", } Which confirms your test. Maiming uses ApplyOnTick.Deep Wounds uses ApplyOverTime) There is a small difference:- Deep Wounds stacks with itself - while Wounding Shot has UseLongerDurationIfAlreadyApplied Btw, do you think if it was really gamebreaking if Maiming and Wounding Shot used StackIfAlreadyApplied ApplicationType?

- Wilder Hunter: I like it - Threatening Presence: like it - Thick Skinned: is quite good. Rhino associates with bonus AR. As for background: how about that cuirass from Armored Grace? But that's minor. - Accurate Carnage: pretty good - Blood Surge: really suggestive - Brute Force: there is a small allusion to cracked shields (and thus AR malus), but I guess that will do - One Stands Alone: is the asymmetry on purpose?

Yeap. It would have more common sense to compare Deadfire with a game from RPG genre, if I wanted to make a comparison. Instead, I wanted to point the exageration contained in the following statements: And for that purpose, a single example was enough) ---------- Heh, it's like you are in a Circus, and the showman shouts: - and now I present to you: Mister Rafton! The strongest man in the world! - (someone from the crowd): But mr.X from Australia is stronger! - ok, ok, Mister Rafton - the strongest man in America! - (someone from the crowd): But mr.Y from Boston is stronger! - ok, ok, Mister Rafton - the strongest man in Philadelphia! - ... - ... - ok, the strongest in this building... P.S. Ofc, saying "no other game/company does that" is more clickbaity. But common, don't exagerate the scope. Well, I haven't finished Skyrim for example, and imbalance was partially the reason. You enchant stuff with bonus to alchemy. You brew stuff with bonus to enchanting. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. You brew and enchant stuff with bonuses to armorsmithing, and craft armor and weapons. Congrats, you are the master of guild X, Y, Z and Dark Brotherhood. You one shot dragons on Master difficulty with difficulty mods on top. And...(yawns) get bored. The Win (exit) button awaits. Sure, I came back later, created a new character and didn't touch alchemy/enchanting/smithing. But the feeling that any "build" I am coming with now, is so subpar in comparison to the previous one, and that I have to avoid certain features of the game, is very annoying. --- I also remember being annoyed by Isaac's Greater Missile Storm in NWN2. Specifically by the fact that there was no save against it coupled with how easy spell resistance could be bypassed in Battle of the Builds. --- Or how about Marksmanship branch in Witcher 3? Or crit damage being taken additivelly, which was rendering Cat School Techniques/Armor so subpar when you was getting access to Euphoria. Or how about alt-Igni and alt-Yrden which were trivializing the game on release. Later, though, these alt-signs were over-nerfed, But still, the change was kinda welcome as I happened to experience more play-styles. --- That said I salute games, where you can strive for the strongest builds and strategies without feeling that it's broken or cheesy. And moreover if there is not just one direction or build archetype, but more of them; different, but each being near-optimal once refined.

Blizzard.What game is that? Because if you mean Blizzard the company, they haven't released a single-player title in many, many years.I was thinking about World of Warcraft, which has seen orders of magnitude more changes than PoE. And it actually qualifies as an answer because he didn't specify that it has to be a single-player game in his question ^^ Now, if we had to add this new restriction, then I would answer differently. For instance I have played the following games (that had a lot of ongoing balance changes) as single-player: - Warcraft 3 - Heroes of Might and Magic 4 and 5 - Total War: Rome 2 - Galactic Civilizations series The last having especially a lot of balance adjustments. Generally, the games that would like to get played/completed more than twice, are more likely to receive balance updates.

The description says that it applies Stunned, but it lies. It applies Stasis effect. Stasis prevents the target from performing any actions, but gives it 999999 damage shield. P.S. That damage shield works only vs stuff that goes through attack resolution. So if let's say you have applied a raw DoT prior to stasis, it will continue ticking and dealing damage.

I have encountered a similar slog-related problem. In my case it was Xoti who got that debuff. And it wasn't going away even with resting (and neither with droping unconscious and resurrecting); so she was always moving at walking speed. I didn't use her for my main party, so didn't mind much. But when I finally did, the solution was to bring her to some slog puddle and let her get that debuff again, and after that walk out of puddle. P.S. Atm AFF_Slog_Zone has "ClearOnRest": "false". I think it won't break anything, if it was set to "true" like AFF_Sickened for example.

Well.. chanters start to shine from lvl-9 onward. As for early game: it's time for paladins, fighters, rangers and ciphers to shine.

O yeah, they don't regret. They just enjoy the show)

Every balance change is a change. Not every change is a balance change. Hmm. How do you expect me to answer: "And what do you think 'walking' means except moving?" Fair enough. You can love it or hate it. This is your right. These are your emotions. Fair enough. You can call an ape - banana. Just don't force it on others. Blizzard. The release version and v1.1/1.2 indeed looked like being directed by different people in charge. The first one strived for a more wow-effect. While the second, trimmed a lot of stuff down, like in an MMORPG where every percent counts. As for hardcore: the game on release was too easy on PotD. And additionally there was not so much difference between Normal and Veteran. Josh told us that they were very time constrained, and decided to focus on bug-fixing, with difficulty being adjused later, after release.

Well, explanation is a set of truthful statements that clarify something. Meanwhile you state these: 1). "This topic is about "rebalancing" games- i.e. making them unplayable." 2). "It seems Obsidian can not just stop and not ruin everything" 3). "For example Cipher - never actually was uber class in POE II, but now it feels absolutely nerfed and piece of... ****." 4). "why mess everything and turn good game into a piece of ***?" 5). "I think tinkering with already released games should be stopped, because it ruins everything." 6). "To my knowledge Obsidian is the only company that does it" 7). "game mechanic uses different formulas" Which are false. And why should one listen to lies and substitution of notions? Again substitution. From what I've read, your problem is "the change of already set game values". Imagine if there was some rule inconsistency in v1.0, and it was changed later and made consistent, which collaterally "ruined" your character build. What I mean is: you seem to dislike the change itself. Deadfire is unusual. Unusual in the sense that almost everything is viable here. But yes, a character built in v1.0 around an ability X, might be really different and suboptimal in v4.0. One of the notable examples would be: Charge. Which was changed from full-attacking all enemies in it's path to stunning them. It's indeed a problem, in the scenario when you create a party in v1.0, play a bit, and come back several months later to continue on a much more recent version. On the other hand it's a boon. As you could experience the game back then. And you can get a new experience now. It keeps the things fresh for those that make more than 1 run. Additionally, new-comers can find the game in a more polished/adjusted state. Even through I usually dislike the nerfs, sometimes they are beneficial. For example a player would like to play as an archetype X; but during character creation he quickly spots how an archetype Y has a broken ability or interaction A. If A completely trumps whatever he can achieve with his X... it makes him sad as he has to decide between RP factor and gimping himself. This conflict causes dissatisfaction with the situation in particular and with the game in general. Usually the solution would be to buff the abilities of archetype X to the level of that really efficient ability A. But if A is really brokingly good (e.g. like Charge was), it's easier to just nerf A, instead of buffing everything else (and getting into situation with 5s combat duration and one-shot fiesta). In either case: you just can't leave this stuff as is, because otherwise all the wide range of options and abilities available to player is narrowed to just a few strong-above-all-else ones. Ideally the game would be balanced and perfect from the start. But due to it's complexity it's hard to foresee all interactions in advance. Pretty much explained this in the response to previous quote. Have you tried meditation? Definitely. It would be even worse if he told that the game has transitioned into basketball. The chess pieces are not designed to be slammed on the ground. The good thing is: Deadfire is still Deadfire. So your example would be more on point with: "Suppose I started playing [chess] with a friend and now he says we are playing [chess_with_adjusted_rules]". Changing rules during the game without the agreement of both players is a bad sportsmanship. But thankfully, you can disable the updates, until you have finished your current playthrough. And generally speaking, continue playing the [chess]: - without pawn promotion - without the pawn ability to move 2 spaces, on their first move - with bishops being able to move no more than 2 spaces away - and with limited queens

+20? That's some ****ty defense As for color sample, uhm... something in that direction?: P.S. and here's the initial black:

Well, yes. But noble/oak brown, not poop brown) It kinda gives a sensation of passive sturdiness. :thumbs-up: It reminds me of Abydons Hammer and it's Ring of the Ancient Forge. Shattering the Earth imo has to have some non-targeted AoE component in it. And it doesn't give me a sensation that my weapon attacks target fortitude now. > Head to crush a wall: that's some Juggernaut/Unstoppable stuff. > An alternative symbol for accuracy: that could do. But what could it be besides the aiming target, which gives a sensation of range weapon? Argument taken. Allusion to Rekvu is a nice touch. And yeah, I would increase the number of spears. From 4 to 5? and a liiitle bit more widespread. But that's super-minor. Makes sense. Ah. That's probable. Btw, I kinda like those plus containing icons.

You mean the cuirass silhouette, like on Armored Grace? If yes,... I think that one is fine; just a tiny bit wide for something with grace in it's name. Oh common... Feeling ashame now, as I didn't recognize it) But yeap, it's definitelly fitting then. The previous Brute Force was better in my oppinion. It was kinda showing that you are targeting Fortitude. While the new iteration shows that you are trying to crush/fissure the earth. As for One Stands Alone: both are good. The difference being that the last one underlines barbarian's position; but one might think that's it's effective only vs enemies from the front. Associations that come to mind can be really unexpected. Was thinking "what's common between Zooey Deschanel and critical hits" for a moment. Yeap; I have a pretty strong association between: and Raw Damage (which could also be poison / over-time) and General Damage And the latter, I've also seen being used on pillar's gamepedia: example1, example2 It could be also some form of dice. E.g: Where it could be red, with a skull on it's facet for offensive criticals. Or "healthy-green", with a clover on it's facet for some defensive criticals. But you mentioned the detalisation problem and the 42x42 limit. So... there is that. From what I've seen, current non-root passives use: - dark-red: Blooded, Two-Handed Style, etc - magenta: Great Soul, Tough, etc - steelblue: Fast Runner, Tumbling, Unstoppable, etc - navy: Weapon and Shield, Critical Defence, Determination, etc - ~gray: Two-Weapon Style, Arms Bearer, Thick-Skinned, etc - ~yellow: One-Handed Style, Uncanny Luck, Unflinching, Bear's Fortitude, Prestige etc - ~violet: Bull's Will, Combat Focus, Fearless It's kinda inconsistent. I think they could be grouped as: - darkred: damage and blood stuff - gray: utility stuff (deep pockets, arms bearer) - yellow: accuracy and luck - brown: defenses and fortitude - violet: mental determination, focus, concentration - steelblue: speed, recovery, duration

I didn't see him saying that. P.S. Hmm, the save file in OP is related to that Putrid Blast issue, right? I'll try to replicate it... when I'll have time. Have been able to replicate it. But had to really try for that to happen. - loaded your save, ran into those rothgasts and... no one is using Putrid Blast. - after 2 minutes of watching, reloaded the save and... still nothing. The cast other spells, but not the Blast. But have noticed Tekehu getting "Reduced Healing" overhead text on each tick of Consecrated Ground (screenshot). Even through he wasn't affected by any debuff at all starting from the very start of combat. - reloaded the save again. Rested with just water. Disabled Tekehu and Lillith AI. Still nothing. Rothgasts don't cast Putrid Blast. - reloaded the save again. Rested with just water. Disabled Tekehu and Lillith AI. Sent everyone to be close together. And now I've finnaly got some Rotghast to cast Putrid Blast. Perhaps it's in their AI to cast it only if they can cover 4+ enemies or something. Putrid Blast sickens and immobilizes. If Tekehu uses his Shark From, the game shows that Immobilized effect is waved from him, but he still can't move. And the game shows that this is due to sickened effect. See screenshots. P.S. The good thing is: I now know that I won't be using Wael's challenge ever. Geez it's annoying)

True that. Although the resistances and that encounter were designed before Charm effect got nerfed. I have a few mods, but nothing special or remotely related to getting extra info, at the moment. Is there any chance you have seen resisted against stun/paralyze/terrify that would potentially land at the same moment? If not... it's indeed some Wael shenanigans. I didn't see him saying that. P.S. Hmm, the save file in OP is related to that Putrid Blast issue, right? I'll try to replicate it... when I'll have time.

Well, 1H-Style is definitely good enough now, in my book :thumbs-up: 2H-Style is also an improvement over the previous version. Weapon Mastery and Specialization: you nailed it) Brute Force, One Stands Alone, Unflinching: are also great. Improved Critical: the skull is somewhat ok. But that drop reminds me of raw damage icon; and sets a wrong expectation. Blooded: the raw damage icon here is also misleading. How about a flexing arm (like on Body Control) to denote the damage increase? Blood Thirst: skull is reserved for criticals no? I understand that there is a different kind of skull, but, hmm. What if it had same icon as Bloodlust but with a flash instead of hourglass? P.S. Looking at that "explosion" on Overbearing Guard. What if it was used for critical hits, and the skull for onKill effects? Or naa?

Afaik Blood Sacrifice restores differently from Brilliant. There are 3 tiers. And if you have access to rank 9 spells, these tiers would be: 1..3, 4..6, 7..9. When you use BS, the game rolls the tier at random. After that it deals corresponding damage, and restores 1 spell usage in the limits of that tier's range. So if the player has casted only 1 rank-6 spell during combat so far, and wants to get that spellusage back, he has only 33% chance to get it. And it's usually better to use one spell from each tier first, before using BS. ----------- As for charm ending prematurely... I have experienced this in PoE1 (where it was a bug, and which I've fixed in the UPMod). But I haven't experienced this in Deadfire. That said, here it can break: - from friendly fire (starting from v1.2 patch iirc) - if someone has landed an INT inspiration on it. Or took away 5s via Minor Intercession. - if it's a rogue with Slippery Mind, who got Bloodied or Near Death. - if there was some enemy paladin with bare fists and Aegis of Loyalty (although haven't seen such enemies) Also, if an enemy warrior was dominated (not charmed), he could theoretically get rid of it via Tactical Barrage depending on his AI. And lastly there could theoretically be some unexpected interactions with hostile periodic effects. Let's say enemy B casts Chill Fog. And you charm enemy A, and after that enemy B. And I wonder if it counts as friendly-fire towards charm end, if A gets hit by B's Chill Fog.

I like the majority of those icons) Especially the empower related ones. That pseudo-star background really groups them together. Improvement on Tumbling is also noted. And how it is kinda related to Hold the Line, but it's clear that it's different. And do like also the new Quick Switch. As for criticism, what do you think about adjusting combat focus? Atm it looks a little bit like headshot / suggests a higher accuracy. What if instead of those circles, there were these ones: example. Hmm. Naa.. still headshot. Also some style icons still seem a little of. - The first thought that came to mind was: you are firing the battle axe the wrong way! But it's actually ok. - Now regarding 1h-style... that hand looks strange. - And two-weapon style gives an impression that the character has to wield two different weapons. Tbh, dunno what do here. Maybe: - two-weapon: just have two swords crossed instead of sword-and-pistol - 1h-style: just have that dagger ?

1). Yes, an enemy who hits an ally affected by Pain Link, would take 25% of dealt damage back as raw damage. And from what I can tell from statuseffects.gamedatabundle it doesn't go through attack resolution. The enemy just instantly gets damaged back. Btw: - I wouldn't be surprised if those 25% are further affected by Cipher's MIG. And also by whatever damage amplification is on the enemy. - The damage is not 'reflected'. It is rather 'shared'. As the buffed ally still takes same amount of damage while under Pain Link, as if he would otherwise. - Only the damage that goes through attack resolution can be 'shared'. - Iirc, Pain Link worked differently in PoE1. It was: whenever you take damage, deal 25% of it to each nearby enemy. So it was much stronger when having multiple enemies in melee; but weaker vs a single enemy that is at range. 2). It should be the a). Just like paladin's stats/gear affect his Greater Lay on Hands effectiveness, same thing goes with Pain Block. P.S. That said, I still haven't found optimal uses for those two powers. 1). Pain Link requires you to take a lot of damage, in order for Pain Link to be worth it. Ideally your hp + healing taken should be x4 higher than enemy hp + healing taken. 2). Pain Block asks for high MIG and INT, but doesn't care for cipher's accuracy/perception. So it would be nice on a lifegiver/psion or psion of eothas/wael offtank. But only if psion focus generation wasn't paused by incoming damage.

Like.. market speculation?) Pretty much. Except for Red Bull messing things up)