MaxQuest

Usually yes, but if those enemies can't attack because they are terrified, stunned, charmed, dominated or paralyzed... the count doesn't matter much ^^. Another strategy could be to throw the dots, and than chain Barring Deaths Door) Although yeap, these are different things, and can hardly be compared within the same party. Depends on the enemy count. But yes, I wouldn't mind upping dot and periodic damage by ~20%, while lowering their duration by ~15%. This way dps is 20% higher, while total damage by only a fraction. I was doing 254dmg at 36 MIG/31 INT on a godlike hireling. Wasn't bothering with pumping more. At the same time I doubt it was possible to go higher than 36 MIG/38 INT on her, which would result in 80*1.78*2.4 = 341. A main, non-godlike priest could probably get up to 400 if he's really dedicated. And these values are achievable in Deadfire, although in beta you have to use empower (with a single-class priest), or have a really high arcana on a single-class helwalker.

Do agree here, there are several damaging spells and powers whose damage is suboptimal. Duh, that was a reply to Dr. Hieronymous Alloy, where I listed what spells I use in beta4 on wizard the most. Many indeed were nerfed. And Shining Beacon now deals 64 base damage, down from 80. In PoE1 a buffed priest could deal ~240 preDR damage with one Beacon. At the same time I'll just say that I can do more in Deadfire. But shhhh... ^^ 200 damage + ~50 vs 2 adjacent targets, make a 75 dmg fireball worth it if it hits 4+ targets. At the same time, fireball was listed as average cast in the last patch notes; and opening from stealth reduces recovery by 85% now. Dunno, which is better atm as I haven't played an alpha-strike party since beta2; so would have to actually play-test and see how it feels first. Atm am playing via dot-charm-lots-of-heals style. But generally I do see atm how to achieve ~50-60 single-target steady phys dps (with alchemy, but without cleave/flurry). And ~10-15 dps per spell vs all enemies in 4-5m radius, after the dots have landed.

That's quite a hyperbole) I tend to separate damaging spells in 4 groups: 1. alpha-strike damage (stuff that likes to get empowered and is used to eliminate enemies asap, like missiles and fireballs) 2. periodic damage (have decent total damage values but can't be used to "evaporate" enemies; also usually do not benefit from INT) 3. total damage-per-casttime kings (spells that can deal tremendous amounts of total damage, but do it slowly, over time, like Shining Beacon, Touch of Rot, Disintegration) 4. utility damage (usually has low values but gets something useful like interrupt attached in return) If I want to deal "spell damage" I use categories 2 and 3. If I want to quickly eliminate weaker enemies at the start of combat, and fight the remaining sturdy ones, I will use spells from 1st category. Wizards in my opinion were always great at 1,2, and 4. And unlike priests sucked at 3. Which in my opinion is ok, but maybe that's why you have a feeling that they deal "no damage"? Unless my party is built around alpha-strike, I spec my wizards for crowd-control, and leave "total spell damage" department for priests, druids and in case of poe1 also: ciphers and dragon-trashed chanters. In beta4 my favorite wizard spell so far is Repulsive Visage. Even through terrifying is only partially working at the moment (as it doesn't prevent enemies from using all hostile spells like some aoes), it still prevents enemies from auto-attacking you and afaik from using single-targeted offensive stuff. The next spell I like is Miasma of Dull-Mindedness due it's decent malus to will; which helps with landing charms, beacons and also helps that visage. Other than that there is Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights, which was UP in PoE1, but decent in Deadfire, since it guarantees that your armor won't be overpenetrated, if penetrated at all. And the rest is survivability ones like: Arcane Veil and Spirit Shield, because they have good effect/casttime ratio. Special note about Confusion and Bewildering Spectacle: in PoE1 I sometimes used those as oh-shi- emergency buttons, since it could quickly transform a 10x6 into 6x10 fight. And was really disappointed with them in deadfire. But I can see a situational incentive to pick them after beta4 came in. For example Confusion could be good vs Scirocco as in: let them kill and blind themselves.

Here's the transcript of this Q&A by Fereed.

Absolutely agreed. Unless there are very strong martial self-buffs at higher ranks, these need to scale, in order to keep shifter-sc and shifter-mc (like /monk/barb/devout) at somewhat equal footing; and some for sc-spellcasters focused on summoned weapons. Regular weapons get +15% dmg/+1 pen at character levels 4/8/12/16/20. That's why I would scale summoned weapons and spiritshift claws in the following manner: - get +1 pen at character levels 4/8/12/16/20 (same as regular weapons) - and +15% dmg when they reach power levels 2/4/6/8/_. And additionally: a). add a good dmg passive on rank 9; or b). some small quest that you can get at character level 20 for an extra boost (like Anitlei); or c). just add +15% dmg on character level 20. As for carnage... it's too weak at 30%, comparatively to PoE1 variant. Making it 25% + 5% per character's base power level would bring it up to 70% for sc and 60% for mc barbarian at max level. Which at the moment looks fine in my opinion.

Just tried this fight in beta4. It's indeed tough, and the main difficulty comes from Sirocco, and specifically: +100% recovery from blind coupled with mini-stuns which combined are making your party really unresponsive. Having 10s recovery after something like Holy Radiance... hurts badly if you need something urgent like an extra heal. Btw, had an idea of shutting down the Blights from using Scirocco via terrifying and frightening effects (repulsive vissage / bear roar). Turns out they just don't care. Still managed to do it... but had a crapton of healing) Video: link

1. Blizzard description mismatches effect (Recovery Time is different from Action Speed): image 2. Two Weapon Style description missmatches effect (same as with Blizzard) 3. One Handed Style icon makes you think of marksmanship due to that arrow: image 4. Clicking on Weapon in Firebrand (and other summoned weapons) description doesn't show you the actual weapon: image 5. "Cannot die" description on Barring Death's Door and Shieldbearers talent is kinda vague. "Prevents from falling unconscious" would be a more exact note. image 6. Taste of the Hunt - had it's per-tick damage fixed, but visually it still displays total amount: image 7. Withdraw actually doesn't stun, and resistance vs might afflictions doesn't help here. It completely incapacitates instead. It would be nice to edit the description, before players go for aumaua rogue-priests) image 8. Some DoT's don't have penetration listed: image 9. There are a few problems with spiritshift form display in inventory screen: image1, image2 10. Fighter's Charge ability does nothing except consuming discipline. 11. Terrified effect doesn't prevent enemies from using hostile abilities. See Scirocco: image Edit: 12. Pollaxe weapon is missing it's attack data: image

^ Am a bit confused. But yes, the [duration bonus from power level] is multiplicative with the [duration bonus from INT]. So if at 10 INT you had 8.8s instead of 8s. (8.8 = 8 * 1.1) At 30 INT you would have 17.6s instead of 16s. (17.6 = 8 * 1.1 * 2) And that x1.1 is likely coming from power level bonus

I had a similar problem in beta2. Resetting hotkeys to default values helped back then. P.S. A partially related question: how do I attack a friendly target with a regular auto-attack? At the moment I can do it with a special ability, but how to do it with a simple attack? For example I have a paladin with Aegis of Loyalty, but don't want to waste FoD and deal extra damage to an ally.

^ Than it's same as in PoE1. Tooltip wasn't saying that summon duration is affected by INT, but it was. P.S. In Deadfire it could also be affected by power level. 8.8s instead of 8s, would mean +10% (so that's likely comes from +2 accounted power levels)

ACC bonus from multiple Devotions does stack??

- Will all Godlikes have 2 racials? One inline with those of other races; and a second one - scalling down from zero, and compensting for the locked head slot? - Will it be possible to mod and add custom sidekicks with banter? - Afflictions in PoE1 provided a much bigger defense malus. It was handy for debilitators to soothe the targets before throwing heavy-damage. Why was this changed? - (Lore question) When characters cast - they use the might of their soul, right? Does casting consume it, making soul weaker? How does this work?

This was actually done in update #2 (i.e. backer's beta 3). Somehow previous patch notes made their way in the new one ^^ From this point of view the calculator is up to date, as I'm already using 1/0.7. I have checked the statuseffects.gamedatabundle and the value is indeed 0.8. Will have to check also in game how it's taken into account.

I was mouseovering over the blunderbusses of my cipher in brigandine, and haven't noticed armor penalty... I'll check again in the evening. Edit: have checked and indeed armor penalty started to apply to reload time in beta4:

Seems so. Sure the cap could be higher, and points put in RES over 34 would just do nothing, unless attacker has a higher INT than 10. But yeah, it would probably rise extra questions and require a note or extended description. On the other hand, it's kinda limiting. My 19MIG/20INT Helwalker even naked can already reach 34MIG/35INT, with: - Thunderous Blows: +5 MIG - Helwalker: +10 MIG - Duality of Mortal Presence: +10 INT - Clarity of Mind: +5 INT And that's without items, drugs (up to +8 more) and Minor Avatar. P.S. I was intending to build a Helwalker/FirePriest, and it's understandable that the main power comes from DoTs and maxing both MIG and INT to the, and above the roof ^^ I do agree on deflection. It indeed had increasing returns. And in specific scenarios bumping RES could make a big difference. Although overall, I was and still am finding RES stat in PoE1 underwhelming. Now regarding "intrinsic" - it's just a word that I use (haven't found a better one yet), to denote that the "relative" gain per point is going down the more you invest: - from 10 MIG to 11 MIG: 1.03/1 = x1.03 - from 20 MIG to 21 MIG: 1.33/1.30 = x1.023 Quite often for an auto-attacker it's better to take 20 MIG and 11 DEX, than 21 MIG and 10 DEX. So even if a character selects 1-2 primary stats, he might want to smooth the stat-curve a bit instead of min-maxing too heavily. The idea was to point that the game already has a very soft mechanism against putting all attribute points into one single stat. Yeah, I know of that. Josh has elaborated on this here. And we have discussed this here. Although the exact numbers discussed where +12-15% area per INT point; not +10%.

Agreed completely on Wild Leech. At the moment it's too weak and situational to warrant to be picked and casted over other alternatives. I would leave Borrowed Instinct and Devotion of Faithful as they are though, because +20 acc is why I would take them in the first place; and -32 will (from instinct) in second. And am neutral on Psycho Shield. Because -20 will and +30% hostile effect duration make it almost good; on the other hand frightening can be situationally good as well, if it will "silence" the enemy from using offensive abilities. Btw, what I don't like about Psycho Shield, is that unlike other resolve inspirations this is considered a hostile action, and won't help you to get rid of being frightened yourself. All in all I find that this power needs a buff; and I am inclined towards bonus deflection.

Yeap) Not the first time I'm misnaming it. P.S. Fixed the previous post.

Reload Time is indeed affected now by dual-wielding and two-weapon-style talent O_o At the moment, I tend to think this is not intended, because: - 1. their descriptions explicitly mention "recovery time". DW (from patchnotes): "Dual Wield Recovery bonus has been reduced from -50% to -30% Recovery" TWS (ingame description): "-20% Weapon Recovery when dual-wielding" - 2. Reload Time (unlike recovery) is not reduced by armor.. Edit: just tested: actually in beta4 armor penalty started to apply to reload time.

Thank you for the update and the detailed patch notes guys. Much appreciated!) mini note: unedited notes also include changes from previous update There were two things: you can't auto-attack a team member, and this one. Feeling strange about this one ^^ because: - a cap of 100, would achieve the same thing, i.e. prevent "from scaling away into infinity" - in PoE1 we could achieve up to 43 dexterity; although do note: it was not worth it - hard caps do smell bad. Sometimes it's indicative that the game loses it's balance outside of certain range; and that the system can't handle it gracefully itself. No hard cap in PoE1 was a healthy sign in my book, and it was really well handled, as dropping attributes was stinging, while maxing them to the roof was affected by intrinsic diminishing returns; not to mention that there were often wise to smooth the spread a little: think of MIG and DEX both contributing to dps, and at a very simplistic level: 15x15 > 20x10. It's no big deal though)

Looking at druid's spells and abilities from beta3, I'd say one takes druid for: - Moonlight, Moonwell, Nature's Balm and Form of the Delemgam; or - Taste of the Hunt; or - Touch of Rot, Insect Swarm, Returning Storm, Relentless Storms and Plague of Insects (as backup if enemies cannot be stunned); and also Roar + Cat Flurry. I am for example thinking of taking two druid/wayfarer frontliners. But haven't decided what subclass yet to take: lifegiver, shifter or none. But yeah, there is little point in taking [single-class phys-dps shifter] at the moment at all. I think there could be more incentive for pure-shifter, if they got some sort of upgrade to their forms at around rank 8+. Maybe Dire forms? with bonus defenses and 2nd effects attached to their claws? Also there could be a rank 6 talent, that unlocks 1 additional active per spiritshift form. This would give a phys-dps-built shifter more stuff to do, and have a more interesting playstyle than just auto-attacking. At the same time would note that Shifter can also be played as a spell-caster of sort. Start with cat form -> use it's cat flurry -> shift to bear -> roar -> shift to humanoid (1h+shield) -> start casting stuff (and only shift+immediate cancel if you need the heal)

Aye, it's about time)

Nature Godlike's is pretty nice. +2 power level is great for every character that uses DoTs and HoTs, since the power level bonus increases both dmg/heal and duration. At the same time Death Godlike's Pallid Fate is pretty low in my book, since I don't want to keep my characters near death. That is, unless there are some spells/abilities that will be able to keep said on characters from falling unconscious. Has anyone tested Barring Death's Door in current beta? P.S. I remember Josh mentioning that all godlikes will have 2 racials. One on par with racials of other races. And a second one - with a heavy scalling, that would be somewhat equal with potential headgear, acquirable at different levels. (think of starting from no-effect to something close to Maegfolc Skull?) P.P.S. Druids while spiritshifted have all their items unequipped. In theory this makes godlikes kinda tempting for them.

Spiritshifted druid (cat, bear, boar, stag, wolf)... dual-wields 2 one-handed weapons (claws) Spiritshifted fury (storm blight)... wields 1 two-handed weapon (elemental claws) P.S. Swift strikes is getting suppresed by Cat Flurry Attack.

You can take a look at fextralife wiki. It's not complete, nor completely accurate... but at least something.

Haven't tried it yet. As it didn't look that powerful, at least on paper; nor have found a bashing shield yet. Also Deadfire Riposte only mentions counter-attacking on misses. Unlike in PoE1 the graze part seems ommited. But would take a look at streetfighter/priest (wael cose of Arcane Veil), if Barring Death's Door prevents the character from falling on the ground; or streetfighter/monk if Blade Turning results in misses. As I haven't checked those yet. First of all it's all about AR vs enemyPEN. After that deflection + fortitude, as most damaging stuff targets these defenses in the current beta. And ofc healing.