MaxQuest

Most likely. There is a slow progressing towards 3 mods: - Polishing Mod (with conservative and extended versions) - New Passive Icons - Druid and Priest Trinkets - Wall of Flashing Steel: looks great now - Deathbows: is an improvement over previous iteration - Dirty Fighting: hah, that crit under the belt)) This idea looks much better, just.. adjust that ass a bit? as the man looks naked - Critical Defence: perfect - Persistent Distraction: perfect

I still haven't tried quite a few spells in practice, so if I had to rank the fire spells by damage, first would try estimate the expected total damage judging by their tooltip values. So here's some assorted math. Assuming that the spell hits 5 enemies: - Storm of Holy Fire - vs enemies that are 1.5m apart or closer: (35.5 * 4 ticks * 5) * 5 = 3550 total base dmg - vs enemies that are farther than 1.5m apart: (35.5 * 4 ticks) * 5 = 710 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG AND INT. (a character with 30MIG/30INT, will get a x3.2 dmg increase from stats) - it's a rank 7 spell. and has 7 penetration - Symbol of Magran - dmg: (42 * 7.66) * 5 = 1609 total base dmg - it's a rank 7 spell. and has 7 penetration - dmg is increased by PL, MIG AND INT. - it's a rank 9 spell. and has 7 penetration - Magran's Might - don't know how it works exactly. Is 8s prolonged by cleansed effects? And is 0.5m AoE usually just single-target? - Cleansing Flames - dmg = (80) * 3 = 240 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG AND INT. - it's a rank 7 spell. and has 9 penetration - Hand of Weal and Woe - dmg = (26.5 * 10) * 5 = 1325 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG. ? Is the duration fixed 10s or affected by INT? - it's a rank 8 spell. and has ? penetration - Shining Beacon - dmg = (16 * 4) * 5 = 320 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG AND INT. - it's a rank 4 spell. and has 7 penetration - Meteor Shower - vs enemies that are 1.5m apart or closer: [(28 * 3.666 ticks * 5) + 6*4 * 8/4] * 5 = 2806 total base dmg - vs enemies that are farther than 1.5m apart: (28 * 3.666 ticks + 6*4 * 8/4) * 5 + = 753 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG AND INT. - it's a rank 9 spell. and has ? penetration - Delayed Fireball - dmg = 80 * 5 = 350 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG - it's a rank 7 spell. and has 7 penetration - Fireball - dmg = 42.5 * 5 = 212.5 total base dmg - dmg is increased by PL, MIG - it's a rank 3 spell. and has 7 penetration ------- TL.DR. Storm of Holy Fire and Meteor Shower are kings at incinerating enemies that stand really close together. And yes, these are deadly if used with Pull of Eora and Beckoner's skeletons surrounding your enemies. Otherwise a lot of damage can be done via Symbol of Magran. And the good thing about these three - is that they are periodic, i.e. their damage is not reduced by enemy resolve like in the case with DoTs. On the other hand: positioning matters for the whole duration; and each tick goes through attack resolution. Another thing to take into account is: the spells that get their damage increased with INT, can usually achieve higher total amounts than the spells that just deal direct damage. Also, spells that are higher in rank get a slightly higher accuracy. But spells that are lower in rank, will get a higher damage and duration bonus from class PL.

I think that debuff can be applied via: - lowering Dorudugan's deflection (which is 147 on PotD) - and rising own accuracy and chance to crit. The deflection can be lowered by the following effects: Active (don't stack with each other): Confounding Blind: -3 Deflection per 15s (stacks up to 10 times) Pike (modal): -10 Deflection Divine Mark: -25 Deflection for 10s Nature's Mark: -10 Deflection for 30s Passive (stack with all others): Crushing Depths (Rod of the Deep Hunter): -1 Deflection, +3% Recovery Time for 45.0s on scoring HitOrCrit (stacks 5 times) Pure Class (Aretezzo's Cane): 50% chance on scoring a Crit to lower enemy Deflection by -5 for 8.0 sec Marking (BotEP): -4 Deflection on target on Crit for 45.0 sec (stacks 5 times) Brittle Frost (Tarn's Respite sabre): -1 target Deflection for 60.0 sec on Hit (stacks 10 times) There is also -10 deflection from Flanked (but if I am not mistaken it is considered active atm; at least it doesn't stack with Confounding Blind). Also you can additionally lower Deflection by 10, by lowering enemy Resolve via one of the following: Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment for 30s Miasma of Dull-Mindedness for 20s Psychovampiric Shield for 20 sec And also you can use: [Active] Shining Beacon: lowers all Defences by -10 [Dunno if active or passive] Bring Low (Rust's Poignard): 30% chance to knock target prone and lower their Defences by -10 for 6.0 sec on scoring Crit So it's possible to lower his deflection by 40 without trouble; or by up to ~95 if you really invest into it.

Btw, I was sleeping for 6.5/7 hours for a few years, and have to note that I didn't feel it at first, but the lack of sleep tended to accumulate. And it took quite a while to recover it.

Bitting the dirt. Hmm, I like heldred's suggestion more as well. Or a female rogue fighting topless, ehh? Naa... Btw, wouldn't hurt to check what NWN2 used for Slippery Mind feat. Because he reminded me of some kind rapper/gopnik which asks for cigarette just as a pretext. And those sabres look like neck chain from afar)) Something duelist related will do. I was also thinking of someone swinging his blade so fast that it looks like a 'wall'.

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.