MaxQuest

I have recently finished my first Deadfire playthrough (on v1.0.2), and decided to provide some feedback. Posting it here, since it can contain a few spoilers. First of all: I liked the game and yeap would bake a sequel. Second: sure the game came out a bit raw, but definitely less raw than I expected after trying the betas. So here we go: Things I liked: the atmosphere and exploration. I really enjoyed the grim nature of PoE1, but the bright and shiny Deadfire was also great to explore. the visuals. You guys made noticeable improvements to the game world, character models, lightning, shading and textures. the hook. It is always interesting to play your games from the very first minute. You find a way to get the player invested. the story idea. And having to play a decent role in the gods conflict. subclasses and multi-classing. When balanced well this really adds to the pool of possible builds and improves replay-ability tremendously. sailing and shanties. voice acting. Both characters VO and narrator. (* narrator has pleasant voice but could be a lil bit faster) ingame music. While PoE1 exploration soundtracks were ok, I started to hate PoE1 combat music. In Deadfire through I liked both. neketaka the idea of relationship/camaderie system humour. Both written and emerging. Things I'm neutral about: factions. They are great in the first 3/4 of the game. Flavorful, colorful. Their imperfections make them more realistic. But... at the end of the game their faction leaders look retarded. The future of Eora is at stake and they quarrel about unrelated things. Or let's take their "ambush" at Ukaizo. In my case it was Furrante. I haven't really understood why he decided to suicide by attacking the Watcher. ship combat. I was pretty excited about it when heared it first. Didn't expect it to be textual though. But.. can live with that. The thing is that something feels missing. Having all those trophies and no reactivity about it is kinda lacking Also capturing a ship and not being able to take it or it's cannons was really strange. Also maybe add some unlockable (on higher captain ranks) maneuver perks? And make some enemy ships travel in groups of two? romances. Romances with both Maia and Xoti felt strange, with weird pace (i.e. they started immediately and after that 30h of radio-silence with no new dialogues) and not really satisfying ending. Things I didn't like: Main story was too short. The whole run took ~50h, but I have a feeling that critical path could be done under 3 hours. Faster with an SSD. The sense of false urgency. It feels a bit strange when you need to follow Eothas, but... he can wait while you go for a trip to Splintered Reef, explore the map or do some faction stuff. Had to tell to myself that Eothas is moving very slowly. But if so, couldn't Magran blow that volcano earlier? I.e. when Eothas has arrived to Ashen Maw, but before he absorbed the essence from the pillar? Without it and souls nearby to consume he could potentially halt there. Also.. not really the problem of the game, but with all that built-up, was waiting for some big intense fight in the end (depending on the dialogue option / what to do with The Wheel). Because of this false expectation was sitting during the end dialogs and thinking oh well.. did I really expect to fight a god? And also: how could I convince him to delay breaking the wheel, while there won't be enough animancy advances in order to be sure that we can fix it once broken. Some quest givers turning hostile if you don't want to kill for them. Pallegina didn't feel like good ol Pal. It looks like time spent away from the Watcher affected her hard. Expected more light-heartedness from a pardoned Pallegina. Also where is Vielo Vidorio? Her only unique ability is quite lacking; and a wayfarer would be more useful in party. tooltips that don't give you complete information. "Has a small chance", "inflicts a small DoT"? Rot Skulls and Nannasin's Cobra Strike tooltip not mentioning the DoT data. bugs. Usually not a big deal. But that reload time bug was annoying. weak bounties. In PoE1 many of them were quite memorable. And I can remember none by name in Deadfire. weak bosses. balance. So many OP abilities, especially in proper combination. Also so many trash options that are not worth the time spent to cast them (i.e. 3s cast time + 4s recovery and get 5 resolve? or deal 80 damage to 5 enemies?) crowd control not being reliable and useful enough. Why try to charm the enemy when it's faster to kill him? In PoE1 it was great that you could make parties with completely different playstyles and they both will be optimal. encounters are not diverse enough. I didn't feel the need to adapt, or change my combat routine. In PoE1 we would fight differently when facing: shades | ogre druids | kith druids / pwgras | kith | monks | dragons. generally in v1.0.2 it wasn't even worth to watch the inspirations/afflictions and try to counter them. inbalance between AR versus Defenses for damage mitigation. the seeming imbalance between damage types. There seem to be quite more enemies with low crush AR and high fire AR, compared to other armor types. confusion with speed/time and damage calculation. Specifically malus steps. Also it seems that confusion was not only in how the game processes this stuff, but also at the dev level; looking at how might became multiplicative then additive; or reloading becoming affected by recovery modifiers only in beta4. some items had really OP properties. I was like "it's obvious that there is a broken use for it even before you finish reading description". Using it won't give enough satisfaction because it will feel cheap. And imminent nerfing will cause the dissatisfaction of players who use it. So why make those properties this way? at the same time many of those items were overnerfed in v1.1.0. I mean it's definitely bad when an item increases your dps by 50% compared to alternative; and even worse it it doubles total damage just by itself. But if it does so only by 3-5% it's also not satisfying enough. 7-10% is a nice threshold to look at. double-nerfing. Just an example: the problem with Swift Flurry was it's recursive implementation. Instead of taking recursion away, you dramatically reduce it's proc chance. After that make it only work with melee attacks. And in v1.1.0 giveup and make it impossible to proc recursively. Good but why not revert the melee-only change? Also since all hit-to-crit conversions were severely nerfed it's proc chance could be reviewed as well? Overall: it's a great game, a solid 8/10 with potential to get up to 9/10 with extra polishing and fine-tuning, and even more with expansions. In any case am already planing a new run on v1.1.0) P.S. Some party stats for the curious:

Shining Beacon, Cleansing Flames are good. Symbol of X [rank 8] although not a dot, deals respectable periodic damage. Disintegration is nice. And would be superb if it wasn't targeting fortitude. Rot Skulls is unfortunately much weaker than in PoE1. The DoT was ticking for 6 dmg and had a duration of ~43s at 29 MIG/33INT. Although it could also have really low penetration, which is shown nowhere. Also there is a poison, Stone Joint iirc. Tooltip shows something like 10 damage / per 3s, no matter how high is your alchemy. But actually ticks for ~90 at 21 alch.

Guys, I'd like to make a minor recap in order to check that I understood the whole stuff about "The Wheel" right. (!) So please correct me if something's wrong: 1. [The Wheel] - at the most basic level is the process of reincarnation. 2. [The Wheel] - existed before Engwithans. Sources are: - Iovara who told about their animancers discovering no gods only the wheel in perpetual motion - Thaos: "a world where there was only the Wheel, grinding without end and without mercy, slowly turning souls to dust" - Common sense? Engwithans were not immortal but raised as a civilization, so perhaps healthy people were actually being born. 3. Engwithans created gods. 4. Engwithans altered [The Wheel]. I.e. they added a few [modifications] over the base functionality. We can refer to this modified version as [Engwithan Wheel] 5. [The Wheel] can be [destroyed]. This *ucks-up the process of reincarnation completely. And it cannot be rebuilt. The *uck-up can manifest in two ways: a). according to Berath: souls can no longer go from [iN BETWEEN] to [THE BEYOND]. This means that after awhile, once there are no souls left in [THE BEYOND] all newborns will be hollowborns. Insects, birds, animals, kith, everyone will eventually die, without new blood coming to the world of Eora. b). alongside with previous point, the process of soul going from [THE BEYOND] to a newborn in Eora, could be defective as well, because [The Wheel] - the reincarnation is destroyed. In this case hollowborn effect would become apparent immediately. 6. [The Wheel] can be [broken]. This removes all [modifications]. It also makes [The Wheel] inoperative. - inoperative, because otherwise it would be referred in ingame dialogues as "to fix / to restore the wheel" but not "to break the wheel". - while [The Wheel] is [broken], souls do not move from [iN BETWEEN] to [THE BEYOND]. But hollowborn effect won't be immediate, at least not until there are no souls left in [THE BEYOND] The good news are: it can be fixed/rebuilt to the original pre-engwithan state. 7. Having [The Wheel] restored to it's initial state, and with enough knowledge [kith+gods] technically can modify it again, be it in the same way as engwithans did, or some other, new way. [Engwithan Wheel] (aka [The Wheel] plus engwithan modifications) works as follows: - mortal X dies - his soul gets to [iN BETWEEN] and (usually) passes the judgment of the gods - soul loses (usually) a small part of it, for the gods to feast - the remaining part is passing to [THE BEYOND] - soul gets into a newborn being Y. - unless awaken, Y doesn't have the memories of X, but it's almost the same soul Important notes: - souls can get weaker or fracture. Be it from soul-twin phenomena; or if gods have taken too much 'tribute'; or if their soul essence was drawn by shadows, pwgras and alike. - when beings with heavily fractured souls die and their remaining soul cannot re-enter the circle of rebirth: their souls are left in this world and are manifested as shadows. They crave for more essence and try to draw it from the people when they are asleep, or try to get it from souls that are no longer tied to a physical body but haven't yet left for [iN BETWEEN]. That's why there is the need for shepherds/reapers like Xoti. - beings can consume other souls, adding their essence to their own. Judging by Maerwald and Gift from the Machine it looks like efficiency of such consumption is pretty low though; unless it is your soul-twin. - not confirmed by lore but souls seem to be able to grow stronger during their mortal lives. They are defined as "essence of individual's consciousness, memory, and personality". And memories, challenges and hardships it had to endure seem to add to it's essence. This also seems to be in line with Zahua and Galawain view. Character level is also tied to the gain of [experience], although it's a game mechanic not lore thing. - because gods chip a bit of the soul on every reincarnation, the whole process is subject to entropy. And unless souls grow stronger, the collective soul essence is going to diminish over time. Eothas dislikes that: - gods chip from souls of the mortals - gods keep their true nature in secret - gods don't do anything really worthy for kith and Eora Eothas by default wants: - to break [The Wheel]. I.e. strip it from modifications made by engwithans; or in other words change it from [Engwithan Wheel] to [Default Wheel]. But unfortunately it will get broken in the process. - broken [The Wheel] will require an effort to fix. And he was hoping that gods will reveal their true nature to the kith, and they will all cooperate. Because the alternative is death to all living, gods included. - ideally kith should decide by themselves if they want to worship the gods, and if they want (while waiting for rebirth) to give a part of their soul essence to their patron deity. And deities would have to behave worthy of such sacrifices. [Default Wheel] (aka [The Wheel] before engwithan modifications): - we know little about how reincarnation worked before. - what we know is that gods didn't chip/fed on souls in the [iN BETWEEN]. And lastly there is a hypothesis about adra pillars: - after engwithan modifications: when mortals die their souls go into the closest adra pillar which is connected to the machine at Ukaizo which serves as a single entry point to [iN BETWEEN]. Having all souls to pass through this "gate" make it easier for gods to inspect/judge/chip on them. - before engwithan modifications: without the Ukaizo Machine, every adra pillar is the entry into [iN BETWEEN].

Iirc there was a dialog where Eothas referred to himself as Engwithan. Thus I was under impression that he was once mortal. That engwithans have chosen 11 between them. And these chosen ones have ascended when the rest has given their soul essense.

I've been thinking does Soul Blade bring enough to the table from dps perspective? There is: - Soul Annihilation which deals 10 + focus/4 afaik in v1.1.0 - Bitting Whip (+30% additive damage bonus) or Draining Whip (+20% additive damage bonus, +100% focus gain) - Hammering Thoughts (+1 penetration with weapons) So bassically SB gives you +1 pen and: - +30% additive damage bonus plus ~total_damage/8 if taken Bitting Whip, or - +20% additive damage bonus plus ~total_damage/4 if taken Draining Whip I have a feeling that Streetfighter/Shattered Pillar will outdps a Soulblade/Shattered Pillar due to: - streetfighter bonus - sneak attack + backstab + deathblows - deep wounds - full attack abilities; and many of them have bonus penetration or accuracy And Berserker/Shattered Pillar will likely out-dps SB/SP too, so long as there are at least 2 close enemies in the encounter. As for stats, is there any reason not to drop RES to 3? And invest the spare points in CON and PER instead?

Good to know) I was in those underwater caverns. Deactivated 3 machines, flooded the caverns and the quest has "succesfully" resolved as "couldn't stop the coral growth". Was curious how it gonna play out and decided to live out the consequences) I'll do an "optimal" playthrough later anyway) I decided to make my first run without Tekehu. I never entered Watershaper's Guild. Also I haven't entered Arkemyrs Manor. Left them for the second run. My MC happened to be under effects of Captain's Banquet. Pretty much all fampyr fights were: MC+Eder+Pallegina+Xoti vs ragging fampyrs + Maia

PoE1: I am sending only the tank in melee range of the dragon. Other melees are sent to block or kill his minions. Although if the dragon is the last enemy standing and is hard-disabled, will command everyone to attack him. Deadfire v1.0.2: Didn't bother with tactics. Deadfire v1.1.0: Just thinking of starting a run.

I have briefly tested it, and it looks to be partially fixed. For example tooltip was showing 1.4s reload time, while checking the frapsed video was giving me 46 frames, which corresponds to 1.533s. And for reference: in v1.0.2 I couldn't get below 2.766s (even if tooltip was showing 1.0s)

There was a similar thing in WoW Yeap. Like in PoE1: Adra Dragon is harder to fight with a level 11 party than Llengrath at level 16. Although if both encounters done at max level, Adra Dragon is definitely easier. If I had to fight all encounters at max level on PotD/upscaled, here's how I would rate their difficulty: - 8/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Brynlod Bounty - 7/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Llengrath - 6.5/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Magran's Faithful - 6.5/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Alpine Dragon - 6/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Radiant Spore - 5/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Concelhaut - 5/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Adra Dragon - 3/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Concelhaut - 2.5/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Nemnok - 2/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Lava Dragon - 2/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Menzzago - 2/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Ukaizo Guardian - 1/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Giant Cave Grub - 1/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Engwithan Titan And if I had to order them by the perceived difficulty when I actually stumbled upon them: - 8.5/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Alpine Dragon @ lvl 13 - 8/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Brynlod Bounty @ lvl 16 - 8/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Magran's Faithful @ lvl 13 - 8/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Adra Dragon @ lvl 11 - 7/10 [PoE2.beta4] Engwithan Titan @ lvl 9 - 7/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Radiant Spore @ lvl 14 - 7/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Llengrath @ lvl 16 - 7/10 [PoE1.v3.0+] Concelhaut @ lvl 14 - 7/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Giant Cave Grub @ lvl 8 - 6/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Concelhaut @ lvl 12 - 4/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Nemnok @ lvl 14 - 3/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Lava Dragon @ lvl 18 - 3/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Menzzago @ lvl 15 - 2/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Engwithan Titan @ lvl 9 - 2/10 [PoE2.v1.0.2] Ukaizo Guardian @ lvl 20 P.S. I haven't encountered Kraken nor Sea Dragon in my first playthrough.

Well... even through Nemnok was easy... Guardian and Lava Dragon were even easier than that ^^ I think Giant Cave Grub was the longest fight for me. I've stumbled upon her on level 8, and it took almost 2 minutes.

Do agree with you. If anything I have a feeling that their racial would be balanced around +1.5 - 1.6 power level. So +2 was a bit over it. While +1 is not enough to justify the loss of head_slot and other_racial. But since it has to be an integer number, I'd prefer Wellspring of Life to provide when triggered: +1 PL with all spells and effects; plus +1 PL with restoration and rejuvenation spells and effects.

1. The already mentioned Transmogrification (i.e. armor/hat look change) 2. Ability to take all guns from a ship, if you have boarded it and killed the enemy crew. Perhaps even use the captured ship? 3. Find ship schematics which could be used for construction of dhow/galleon/junk with better base stats. 4. Ability to become the governor of... Hasongo, Port Maje, Fort Deadlight or set a colony on an uncharted island. And manage it like Crossroad Keep in NWN2. 5. When you have killed enough faction bounties; the faction sends headhunters after you. Really strong headhunters. And preferably 2-3 ships at once. 6. When you train/retrain a character, have all the ability-buying points at once; and be able to pick all abilities without hitting next next next... And same for skills and weapon proficiencies. 7. Sidekicks banter.

Although I like "Charge" a lot, have to admit it's definitelly OP in it's current state.My main is a devout ascendant who dual-wields scordeo trophy and stormcracker. Focus gets full after 1, maximum 2 charges. At level 14, with gloves of discipline I can charge 4 times. On average this results in 8 dead enemies in the first 4s of combat, and ~ -60-69% recovery time bonus which is hefty for the following detonate spam... P.S. I think it would make sense if Charge with ranged weapons would full attack only the main target. While charge with melee could also hit those on the path (but without carnage/citzal blast secondary hits).

That's strange. Just frapsed my attack + reload time with a Scordeo pistol, and counted the frames: - got 24f (0.8s) for attack time, and - 83f (2.766s) for reload time While the tooltip was displaying 0.8s attack time and 1.0s reload time: image As I understood, reloading animation (unlike recovery animation) is consisting of animation chunks that are played several times in a cycle, plus an additional animation of jitter at the end. In case of pistols visually it looks like the character is taking bullets from his pocket and putting them into pistol's gunpoint; repeated n times. Each such chunk takes 57 frames (1.9s). And it looks like there can't be less than 1...

Is the trick in having melee weapon in mainhand and ranged weapon in offhand? Or in stance itself? I was checking yesterday Pistol/Sabre interaction with simple Full Attacks. At range - only pistol was firing. At melee - only sabre was hitting. Perhaps will have to swap them and check again. Also Charge...

I have also tested this. Gunner does stack with both components from Sure-Handed Ila chant: They also do stack with Gunnery (from Maia's armor) and Shootist (from Acina's Tricorn hat). P.S. What doesn't stack is: Sure-Handed Ila (reload component) with Rushed Reload (from Pistols modal), since both are active effects and affect same ReloadTimeMultiplier.

Ehh, this were I screwed up. Told her I want to solve this peacefully. Went to investigate what she asked for; cose a little detective work won't hurt, won't it? Eavesdroped on Persa at "The Hole". While being at The Guile done a few quests there. Went to Old City. Cleared everything. Been to Undercroft. Sailed to complete 2 bounties. Found Oswald at the Woedica themed temple. Done a lot of stuff. Five or six hours later when I return to Neketaka, I find out there is no peaceful option available. If I go now and talk to Valera: - either have to accept to save Belda; or kill them all (in which case Pallegina leaves you, if she's in party) If I go talk to Ezzali Bardatto: - she asks to ambush the thieves in the vault; and after that requests to kill Valera family. Funnily even if you reply "I am not assassin" and leave, the "kill all valeras" quest is "accepted" anyway. In the end I decided to live with the consequences, not to enter Valera's house (since they are all hostile), and see if it won't block me from any further vailian quests.

Yeap. We can say so. Yeap. Thinking about speeding up attack frames is a bit complicating the view.But we can express so too. Yeap. Yeap. Yeap.Although must note: afaik the displayed tooltip effect is generated automatically and thus is showing the corresponding type statuseffect.gamedatabundle: Yeap. Have represented that in the "examples" table in post above. Hah, that's exactly what I did for the calculator.I am storing all as "speed coefficients". E.g: Although, I do partially understand why Obsidian went with storing some coefficients in respect to [speed] and another ones in respect to [time]. In JS I can easily write "1/1.5" and leave it at that. In JSON they would have to write "0.6666666666" and make sure they are rounding stuff, in order to not get tooltips writing something like "Warbow modal: increases your recovery time by 49.99999999%". I have added to the end of above post, why I don't like double inversion of maluses.

I feel you. I have added the step_n values to that table: And here is an example of how to calculate those values: Also, let's say Obsidian wants to add some speed/time altering status effect to the game. In this case they add a new effect, and set: - [statusEffectType] - which denotes: 1. if the value is applied to [speed] or [time]; 2. the corresponding phase (attack, recovery, reload; or action if for all combined) - [baseValue] - which denotes the magnitude of the effect. And this data is stored in game files. Later on, when your character is performing an action, the game processes all these active effects. And initializes so called [multipliers]. I usually refer to them as coefficients or simply [coef_n], because I find the term multiplier confusing since they do not stack multiplicatively. > The value of [coef_n] equals to [baseValue] if the effect affects [speed]. > Or it equals to [1 / baseValue] if the effect affects [time]. I call this time->speed coefficient conversion. Thelee refers to this as normalization. While the game uses a boolean property called [inverted] for this. If it's true, it inverts the value. We can express this as: coef_n = type == 'speed' ? base_value : 1 / base_valueNow, for each [coef_n] the game computes a corresponding [step_n]. (note: step is also a term taken from game files) step_n = coef_n >= 1 ? coef_n - 1 : 1 - 1 / coef_nFor bonuses, i.e. values higher than 1, it's pretty straightforward. While maluses get inverted. I call this: [first malus inversion]. Furthermore all [step_n] are added together, and form [step_sum]. And this [step_sum] is used to calculate the final coefficient: final_speed_coefficient = steps_sum >= 0 ? steps_sum + 1 : 1 / (1 - steps_sum)If step_sum is positive, it's again, pretty straightforward. While if it's negative, it's value gets inverted with a twist. I call this: [second malus inversion]. Having this coefficient, we can now calculate the actual duration of the related phase (recovery, reload, etc): phase_duration = base_phase_duration / final_speed_coefficientThe higher the speed, the lower is the interval between attacks. P.S. Together: [first malus inversion] and [second malus inversion], form what we do refer on this forum as [double inversion of maluses]. And the problem I see with it is: - it's hard to compute the final_speed_coefficient in mind. You pretty much always need a calculator. - if you have any malus, the end value you get is unnatural. And by unnatural I mean: it has no physical representation. To show this I'll extend the previous example with the car. Imagine that you are driving with a base speed of 100kmph: - If you are asked to increase the speed by 25% and after that decrease by 25% in respect to the base value, you will end up with 100 + 25 - 25 = 100kmph {100 * [1 + (1.25 - 1) + (0.75 - 1)]} - If you are asked to increase the speed by 25% and after that decrease by 25% in respect to the current value, you will end up with 100 * 1.25 * 0.75 = 93.75kmph The first variant is: additive stacking. The second variant is: multiplicative stacking. While under the current system we would get: step_1 = 0.25 step_2 = -0.33333 step_sum = -0.08333 final_speed_coef = 0.92307 and thus: 92.307..kmph ...and what is this value? Imho, if we do apply all the coefficients in respect to the base value (and that's how it's done in the majority of the games, to avoid dps skyrocketing due to glass-cannons stacking multiple bonuses), a [bonus] and a [malus] of the same type and value should effectively cancel each other.

Not that comprehensive, but there is. They are in game files that can be accessed in the open, using a simple text editor like notepad. Check the statuseffects.gamedatabundle file. It is located in /PillarsOfEternityII_Data/exported/design/gamedata/ folder. Or you can check it's copy that I uploaded here. Yes, you can consider this as confirmed. The stored value for arbalest modal is 0.75. You can make a search by "Arbalest_Overbearing_Shot_SE_AttackSpeed" to verify. Also here are a few examples for v1.0 of the game: Btw, I had a formula in the starting post: step_n = coef_n >= 1 ? coef_n - 1 : 1 - 1 / coef_nJust want to note that: - for [speed] status effects: coef_n = baseValue_n - for [time] status effects: coef_n = 1 / baseValue_n The game converts [time] values to [speed] values before calculating steps. First: yes, coefficients of 1.25 and 0.80 do cancel each-other. step_1 = 1.25 - 1 = 0.25 step_2 = 1 - 1 / 0.8 = -0.25 step_sum = 0 => final_coef = 1 Second, Obsidian takes all coefficient values in respect to the base value. And they do use 0.75 value for coefficients when they want to denote -25% speed. And truth be told, I am not convinced yet that they should use 0.8 instead. For example: I am going with a car at 100kmph. And at that speed going from A to B will take 60 minutes. a). if I am asked to lower my speed by 25%, I would slowdown to 75kmph. [the speed is 25% lower, the trip duration is 33% longer] b). if I am asked to increase the time it takes to arrive there by 25%, I would slowdown to 80kmph. [the speed is 20% lower, the trip duration is 25% longer] The quoted malus does refer to Arbalest Modal which writes: -25% action speed, so it's a). That's why I don't see (at least at the moment) why do you call Obsidian being naive for putting 0.75 base value for it. Yeah you wrote "you", but I am not taking values from top of my head, but from the ingame files ^^ Swift Strikes grants +20% action [speed]. But when you mouseover the recovery time of weapon, the game tries to display how much did Swift Strike affect the [time]. It converts speed coefficient to time coefficient: 1/1.2 = 0.8333. So a +20% increase in speed, corresponds to a -16.(6)% decrease in time. P.S. Will reply to other stuff as soon as I have time. Do have a heavy week.

Easy)Tooltip writes 25% just because. While the actual baseValue contained in statuseffects.bundle is 0.1

The game adds all coefficients together. Bonuses, maluses, doesn't matter. In PoE1 it worked fine, since there weren't enough big maluses. While in Deadfire a similar approach would lead to negative damage on under-penetrating graze. A lazy workaround could be to limit the damage at 0, or 20% of original value. A better way would be to divide sum_of_bonuses by sum_of_maluses (all numbers being positive, so the result will be positive as well, plus it ends up with meaningful result). But Deadfire went on the path of double-inversion. Which personally I see as math shenanigans, as they use different sub-formulas for bonuses and maluses, and do not cancel-out nicely if they have same absolute values. Specifically, imagine that you have: +25% action speed from Frenzy, which translates into 1.25 speed coefficient; and -25% action speed from Arbalest's modal, which translates into 0.75 speed coefficient The game takes 1.25 and transforms it into +0.25 (step_value) via [coef - 1] formula The game takes 0.75 and transforms it into -0.(3) (step_value) via [1 - 1/coef] formula Now it adds them together: step_sum = 0.25 - 0.333333 = -0.083333 And after that computes the final coefficient: - if step_sum is greater than 0: final_coef = step_sum + 1 - if step_sum is less than 0: final_coef = 1 / (1 - step_sum) In our case it's the later, thus final_coef = 1 / (1 - -0.083333) = 0.92 And finnaly: phase_time = base_phase_time / final_coef So if you had 6s reload; with Frenzy and Arbalest's modal you will have 6.52s, even if one effect was giving you +25% action speed, and another -25% action speed. P.S. We call it double inversion because: - individual malus coefficients are inverted when computing their individual step values - if step_sum is below zero, it is inverted in order to get final coefficient It for sure feels strange. But from another point of view: - single-wielding a pistol inherently grants +12 acc. - what should dual-wielding pistols inherently grant instead? (full-attack profit aside). Also we should take into account that there is a cost attached. If you are a quick-switching black jacket focused on 4 quick full-attacks, you would want 8 unique 1h-firearms, and also would have to enchant all of them.

Depending on how it is implemented. If the weapon has "+% action speed" property - then it will apply only to that hand/weapon. (think of Speed property from PoE1) If the weapon has some proccing effect that grants a character buff - then it could be implemented as a character-wide effect that affects everything. (think of Spelltongue from PoE1) At the same time there is Modwyr that is somewhere in the middle. It places a buff, but speeds-up only it's own hand. At least if we check tooltips; as I wasn't frapsing [modwyr+offhand_weapon] setup. Confirming what Ciphys has already mentioned: Articulated from DoC's breastplate does stack additively. A character (with Armored Grace) attacks slightly faster while in DoC breastplate than when naked Btw, I have added Articulated to the calculator. But a small note: at the moment it's placed in the effects block on the right, so don't forget to also select the breastplate armor type.

With the game being released now, I have updated the speed calculator for the current v1.0 version. You can access it here: Attack Speed Calculator version 1.0.3, compliant with Deadfire v1.1.0 Additionally here's the aggregated info on this topic: PART 1: History. And what has changed since PoE1: PART 2: Formula. Or how the speed/time values for attack, recovery and reload phases are actually computed: PART 3: Weapon base values: For v1.1.1: For v2.0.1: PART 4: Action cycle, and phases: For usual weapons action cycle goes like this: For firearms, crossbows and arbalests, recovery phase is substituted with reload phase like this: Reloading is almost the same as recovery. The difference is: - recovery phase is affected by ActionSpeed and RecoveryTime effects. - reload phase is affected by everything that affects recovery; and in addition to that by all effects that specify reloading. - you can start a new action at any time, and reloading will resume when the character has time. While with recovery - you have to recover from previous action first. PART 5: Types of attacks: Weapon attacks can be of 3 types: - Normal (auto-attack) - the character alternates hits with main and off hands. - Primary Attack - the character makes a hit with his main-hand. - Full Attack - if you wield a single weapon, it's the same as Primary Attack; but if you dual-wield you hit with both weapons, in the following succession: The great thing about Full Attacks is that if you dual-wield you can effectively skip the recovery/reload phase of your mainhand completely. And yeap you can chain Full Attacks with something like two pistols, and your mainhand pistol won't require reload. PART 6: Mini FAQ on various related stuff: Q1. How does the math behind Armored Grace work? I don't get how the -25% armor recovery penalty from the tooltip factors in. A: It is a bit convoluted but works in the following way: - the game doesn't operate that much with [recovery_time] penalties for armors; Instead it stores and uses their speed coefficients. - for heavy armors it is: 0.645 (= 1/1.55) - for medium armors it is: 0.741 (= 1/1.35) - for light armors it is: 0.833 (= 1/1.20) Now, Armored Grace increases the armor speed coefficient by +0.1, which becomes: - for heavy armors: 0.745 coef => (1/0.745 = 1.342) => +34% displayed recovery time penalty - for medium armors: 0.841 => (1/0.841 = 1.189) => +19% displayed recovery time penalty - for light armors: 0.933 => (1/0.933 = 1.071) => +7% displayed recovery time penalty P.S. Yeap, tooltip lies. The actual value is 0.1, not 0.25. And it reduces recovery speed penalty, not recovery time penalty. Q2. Is Sure-Handed Ila working as intended for reloading weapons? A: Sure-Handed Ila chant has two components. One that lowers recovery time. And another that lowers reload time. In beta4 all effects that affected recovery now started to affect reload as well. This resulted in both components of Sure-Handed Ila chant to affect reloading time, basically granting you -20% reload_time x2; or in other words +50% reload_speed. [(1/0.8 - 1) + (1/0. - 1) = 0.5 Q3. Feel free to ask. Q4. ... P.S. If you find any bugs or inaccuracies feel free to PM me or post them in this thread.

Have you rechecked this ingame? Iirc there was a mentioning about 'melee weapons' in subclass' description, but I don't see it anymore: