MaxQuest

You don't need to hit max level to kill them. Nor use any cheese or exploits. Just learn the encounter. Carnage and Mayhem Dragon have respectable melee damage output. Especially Alpine Dragon. And 2-3 AoE abilities, each on a separate cooldown, but without usage limit. Plus a small army of minions that you already mentioned, to distract your attention via charm/paralyze/interrupts/etc; although you can use them to your favor as well. Useful links: Alpine Dragon's army stats/abilites, Dragon Breaths comparison & Alpine Dragon abilities/preferences/cds.

Well: - get Scion of Flame - put your ranger in front - either in flank, and thus you'll need a narrow cone (pistol/arquebus) - or put him in the middle of frontline with a wider cone (blunderbuss) You can take Quick Switch, Arms Bearer, and equip your ranger in heavy armor. Because you will max MIG and INT, your deflection will be so-so. Swaddling Sheet and Shod-in-Faith will help you out.

It's indeed a bug, because elemental/racial_slayer talent tooltips list no exceptions. There is an unofficial fix though: link. And a related thread in tech support.

@Kaylon, I'll take a look on weekend. @fiddlesticks, Yeap. The tooltip can show you: 30s. But if your chanter has 20 INT, the summons will actually last for 45s.

Reminds me of Geralt in a way) I'd say it also depends on what kind of dragons do we fight. Killing those from Dragon Age doesn't cause any remorse for me. On the other hand I wouldn't want to harm the dragons like Villentretenmerth or Saesenthessis. There is) You need 17 RES though (link).

It has less optimal choices, not "non viable" choices. That's what I said) Indeed I do. It's basically an optimization problem, and pleasure comes from solving it. But hey, there are different types of players, and that's ok. There are 4 types according to Bartle, and even more if you take a look at Quantic. And it's not like player tastes are binary (where you either like a specific facet or completely not), it's more percent based. (example). I must note also, that min-maxing does not necessary lead to min-maxed stats. It depends on how the system is implemented. Crudest example: if you have 10 points of something, and there is plain multiplication at hand: 5x5 > 2x8. Now that's bad. Min-maxing character's efficiency in a single-player game, or in a mmorpg which is based on competition is one thing. Min-maxing in a cooperating tabletop is another. Tbh I never played any tabletop D&D games. But my understanding is that if you make a powerful but onesided character - GM will just bring harder enemies that target your weaknesses. Min-maxing the character/build in such environment does seem to have little returns. So one can focus on minmaxing the fun)

It's also interesting if the spells from Ninagauth's Black Pages, Llengrath's Grimoire and The Ironclasped (Concelhaut) grimoires will make it into Deadfire.

It means that supposition has failed. So: - he had 4 ms outside of combat - he had 6 ms during combat in spiritshift form, under effect of Zealous Charge - he wasn't shifted at the end of combat - but when combat ended his ms was 2 (instead of usual 4)?

No idea what caused that bug. The save file could get corrupted, or something went wrong when Hiravias came back and joined your party. Thus no solution. What you could try through is: - remove everyone from party except Hiravias - go to an inn and respec him - remove, and re-add back to party, and see what happens Or you could give up on Hiravias, and hire a custom druid (and if you lost any items, add them via console).

And PoE1 indeed does not have "non-viable decisions". Bow barbarians don't count) That's the point of min-maxing... to make the game (or a specific encounter) as easy as possible. And what does it mean "not needed"? Once you have beat the story, it's time to start and test the boundaries of the game, explore it's ins and outs, and check how far the optimization can go. Because... it's a pleasure in itself. Also it's great when there comes a new difficulty with new patch or expansion. Like Dark Mode in Witcher 2.

Well, you've spotted it yourself: Zealous Charge. There was a problem with Spiritshift and boots of speed. No wonder charge gives you a similar problem. The base run speed during and out-of-combat is 4. But you do benefit from movement increasing effects only during combat. I haven't looked in the code, but I suppose what happens is: - you run at speed 4 - you enter combat and your speed becomes 4 + 2, because of Zealous Charge - you spiritshift, and probably the movement speed is hard set to 4 - spiritshift ends (*) and 2 is subtracted from your current speed. (*) you can check if this problem occurs only when spiritshift is ended due to combat end; or always.

Betcha it not gonna happen) As it would be a very sensible boost. On the other hand if Reaping Knives Claws would become applicable to your Animal Companion...

The power builds will try to combine the best of two worlds classes) I am also quite interested in: - how far Deathblows and Minor Avatar will be able to pump DoTs damage. - how will Barbaric Blow compare with Flames of Devotion - how strong will Their Champion be, provided that chants will no longer be ranked - cipher with Twinned Arrows, and a mobile pet for Ectopsychic Echo - the mechanics behind Torment's Reach, and it's interaction with Citzal's Lance, Carnage and focus generation. - cc-focused wizard/fighter frontliner (min MIG, max INT/PER), with Disciplined Barrage + Knockdowns and per-encounter Bewildering Spectacle, Confusion, Shadowflame and so on... But first of all we need to know the scaling formula for abilities' damage and duration in function of power_level.

Yeap, Dragon Trashed chant will be affected by Scion of Flame (it's fire component), Racial Slayed talents, plus it will be registered in "Total Damage Done" section on character's sheet

From what we know, Obsidian are going to make the inner mechanics of Attack Speed system more transparent and intuitive. Plus things like speed, armor and other recovery-affecting stuff will also start influencing reloading_duration. Source: This made me thinking how exactly could the speed system be improved: 1. the game should clearly communicate all phases of action cycle and stick to the same terminology everywhere. 2. tooltips should specify the correct phase that is getting affected. For example in PoE1, speed tooltip reads "+20% Attack Speed", when in fact it reduces recovery. 3. if the tooltip reads "+20%" then.. it should be +20% (at least in the absense of other effects). And I think this can be achieved even if we don't touch the attack duration. Example: Link to spreadsheet. Pros of this approach: - player can calculate in mind how much will his attack rate get increased from taking x talent or using y buff. - reloading weapons are now fully affected by speed, armor and other recovery-affecting effects. - armor penalty is heavier now, in line with the tooltip values. - reduced gain snowballing when approaching zero-recovery. But this is compensated by the fact that other speed categories are now as important as AttackSpeedMult, and will have higher impact when pushing for the last mile. - flexibility. You can easily change recovery_factor without breaking anything; relative speedup will be the same. You can also make attack_duration getting decreased when recovery becomes negative (i.e. remove the hard-cap), without fear of getting to extreme 0 attack-duration. Formulas: P.S. Few questions regarding terminology: - how would you name the blue phase? In PoE1 it was named "attack" or "totalAnimation" (if in code). But this also refers to buffing/casting animation and potion consuming. - how would you name the green part? - how would you name the yellow phase?: "recovery time" or "recovery duration"? We can't just use the term "recovery", because it will lead to duration <> speed confusion.

Right Hand/ Left Hand ?

It's not like there is much of a choice between uniques from these two weapon types.. There is the classic barbarian build with Tall Grass. It's less dpsy/bursty than Tidefall/BoteP/DW Sabres builds, but it has the ability to inflict prone on crit; plus the predatory property makes it a bit easier. There are also a few niche/situational builds like: - Tal Grass fighter with Overbearing Guard and bonus Engagements - The Wind's Arm fighter, who debufs enemy concentration; and is used to help an interruption barbarian - Wizard with the summoned Citzal's Lance (which is considered a pike iirc)

I was hoping there are some additional advantages Don't get me wrong through, I find immersion being very important, even through I usually min-max. Many games implemented it somewhat askew... WoW also had the usage based 'weapon skill'. It was especially funny to go in the wild as max-level warlock and auto-attack with {dagger, sword, staff and wand} in order to max the respective skill. Agreed, a plain 'usage based' progression would not suite PoE1/Deadfire. It could be interesting through, if game designers would find a way to remove the chore/grind part, and add some tactical or strategical planning instead. Having an extra decision-layer doesn't hurt, but adds to game depth. As for retrainer... as usual there are pros and cons. The main pro was already named by MortyTheGobbo. While the main con (immersion aside) for me is: you can make a character that especially optimized for early game; and later respec for the late game build; and if the difference is sensible enough, retraining does no longer feel optional (if you minmax) rather a must.

Yeap, Disintegration is awesome) You only use Soul Ignition before you get access to Dis. Or if the target doesn't have that much endurance. On another hand if the enemy doesn't have much, it either dies to AoE or to hard-cc + auto-attacks / direct damage.

Chuckled at Holy and Holier Befuddlers. On a serious note: Transcendent seems ok, but for other options... I would take community' multiclass titles any day.

Yay, have tested Soul Ignition and Disintegration right now, and they indeed stack with themselves now. And I am 99% sure that they didn't in 2.03, when I found out that chanter's DoTs stack while cipher's don't. That makes them even better) Tooltips lie. And in case of DoTs combat log can lie too Disintegration does benefit from Might. You can check this by looking at the red popup values (as they correspond to real damage values applied by the game). At 35 MIG the tick damage increases from 40 to 70. So: - @26 MIG & 18 INT: Disintegration deals: 240 * 1.48 * 1.4 = 497 dmg over 21s - @30 MIG & 18 INT: Disintegration deals: 240 * 1.60 * 1.4 = 537 dmg over 21s - @35 MIG & 18 INT: Disintegration deals: 240 * 1.75 * 1.4 = 588 dmg over 21s In any case you can simplify the dps comparation further: - disintegration dps is: mightCoef * 40 raw damage / 3s - double soul ignition dps is: 2* mightCoef * 22 burn damage / 3s Since tick damage goes vs 1/4 of respective DR: - double Soul Ignition will have slightly higher dps than Disintegration vs targets with lower than 8 burn DR - double Soul Ignition will have same dps vs targets with 8-10 burn DR, and - double Soul Ignition will have lower dps vs targets with higher than 10 burn DR P.S. But because Disintegration lasts for x1.5 longer, it's total damage will always be greater than that of two Soul Ignitions (provided that the target will live up to it's duration). It will be playable as in viable (even on PotD). And will show decent results on early levels, especially if you will take Kana's arquebus. But it won't be as optimal as bow route or quick-switching blunderbusses in mid-late game.

There is no outcome/return advantage in sending one companion over another. Yes that particular member will get some bonus xp. But the difference is not big enough, to justify some xp shenanigans because you won't be able to make that questing member to outlevel the content.

I did. Both Disintegration and Soul Ignition were buffed in 3.00 to accommodate higher focus cost. Base values are: (at 10 MIG, 10 INT, regular hit) - Disintegration deals: 240 dmg over 15 seconds (6 ticks for 40 raw dmg) - Soul Ignition deals: ~95 dmg over 10 seconds (4 ticks for 22 burn dmg + 1 tick for 7.33) Btw, what do you mean by stack 2? Afaik Soul Ignition and Disintegration do not stack with themselves. Was that recently changed? P.S. Disintegration is in particular great vs high-hp, high-DR targets. I used it vs Alpine Dragon for example. At 22 MIG, 29 INT, and crit it resulted in: 240 * 1.36 * 1.95 * 1.5 = 954 raw damage over 43.8 seconds. But tsss, that's the beauty of stacking damage coefficients. P.P.S. And then there is also Recall Agony. Which deals 30% of inflicted damage. And is further increased by Might score...

There needs to be an option: - safely destroy P.S. Since the trapped souls are getting destroyed anyway (as I don't want there to be victims later) I'll just pretend that my character has figured how to consume them without Aldhelm's help. I.e. destroy the machine, add talent via console. Problem solved)

That's what I did. Just wanted to know if someone has changed the class of a companion, and the game did recognize it correctly. I guess it is indeed a meta issue. A nice guy without meta knowledge, would quite unlike try to blow it up. It's a mysterious machine he knows little about. What if it would blow the entire district, or the whole of Defiance Bay? It's safer just to stop it, and put guards and quarantine (so no one can enter into Heritage Hill) until further investigation. Too bad there is no such option.