MaxQuest

Hehe) Regarding global messages: yes, it seems so. It's done either directly via global::Console or via wrappers (like PostAttackMessages for attacks). P.S. A question regarding [charm ending prematurely]. Currently it ends if the charmed enemy has no current target. And there are two ways to fix it: 1. make a search for targets nearby. (and if any are found do not allow the charm to break before it's duration expires) 2. just make charm always last for the stated duration. (as simple as that) I am thinking of trying the 2nd approach, as I don't currently see any benefit in the first one. Do you?

What fight do you refer to? The shadows and phantoms in Caed Nua courtyyard and Caed Nua Keep? If yes - then it should be okay. Actually it should be fine for the whole game. Btw, if shades trouble you, equip your backline in hide armor (frontline should be in heaviest armor already). As for melee weapons in early game, make sure to not use battle axes (you will not crit enough anyway), and give swords, war hammers and especially maces and sabres a try. My experience tells me that it's nice to have 3 frontliners, plus either a midliner who can switch to 1h+shield (if need be) or have a team member capable of charming. In such a way you will have a nice body blocking frontline. Now, out of those 3 frontliners, one should be [high DR, high Deflection] tank - the one who will be used to door block / be on the edge vs numerous but low hitting enemies like xaurips. And one [high HP / high Fortitude / decent Reflex] to tank bosses (esp. dragons). Monk can nicely act as an offtank/dps during trash fights, and main tank during boss encounters. While your chanter (if built as a mix between The Drake's Ambassador and Chillfog can easily tank regular fights, while dealing damage via Dragon Thrashed. Also you could try 18/18/3/10/19/10 chanter. The idea is to provide the same amount of damage (hence high MIG/INT for Dragon Trashed), but have a higher amount of hp/endurance which could be replenished via Wound Binding + %healing modifiers. With +60% (from 14 surv) and +24% (from 18 might) Wound Binding will already restore 73.6% of your health. As for lower Perception than in Drake Ambassador build, just make sure to drop a mass stun or paralyze first for a great reflex malus. The Anvil build is fine for the proposed setup. So is Monksterlasher. Depending on your personal preference you can go for Fire Godlike, Moon Godlike or Human/Boreal Dwarf (with Maegfolc Skull in mind).

Regarding Take the Hit: I am not sure if I can fix the (1). At least not now, as [charmed enemies keeping our auras forever (on charm/dominate end)] is a global thing, and it's better to approach it once I get a better understanding of the PoE code. But the (2) can be easily done. Have tried it and it works: screenshot (the blight is no longer affected by Take the Hit after the patch) Btw are there any similar abilities to Take the Hit? Because I am checking for affected TransferDamageToCaster stat, instead of the ability name (which theoretically can change, and thus unreliable). I understand what you mean Absolutely. Plus I've felt that Goldpact paladins need some love for awhile already.

Well, duh, that's because you indeed lack damage - As you noted you use chanters for cc, and even if you'd want them to deal damage, it's mostly possible only after level 9 (via DragonTrashed and SevenNights). - Fighters are mediocre at dps (until they get Charge at lvl 13, and start rushing with dual sabres). - Durance can deal decent damage via stacking Shinning Beacons in harder and boss fights. But Beacons are per-rest. - Your main dps'er could be Aloth if you build him via Blast, Penetrating Blast, Golden Gaze / Kalakoth's Minor Blights. Although 12 might is not that stellar. Plus your party (aside from knockdowns) lacks cc-on-demand. What will you do if shades will teleport to your backline while frontline is already engaged? The main point-forte you have is sturdiness. But if you kill stuff twice as slow, enemy mobs have twice time to bash your party, leading to twice as much resting. Few variants: swap your melee chanter and fighter, for a melee GM and Barbarian. This will provide cc when you need it, plus will speed-up trash clearing. Or try: frontline: mc_chanter (offtank/dot dps), monk, Hiravias (offtank, cc/dps) midline: Durance (offtank buffer; plate armor in small fights; hide armor + daom in boss fights) backline: Aloth (sup-dps), cipher (custom, dps)

What do you think if we could fix a few bugs ourselves, test them, and offer Obsidian the solution; or as a backup plan make a mod (compliant with IEMod's Patchwork)? Obviously stuff like stuttering or shaking popups is out of our reach, but a few in-code changes probably could be done. I have in mind the following list: Bugs: 1. DoT damage is not being registered in party member stats 2. DoTs do not benefit from elemental talents 3. DoTs do not benefit from slaying talents (like Beast Slayer, Ghost Hunter, etc) 4. Charm occasionally ending prematurely 5. Powder Burns is hitting allies standing in FoE (yellow) zone. (screenshot) 6. Charmed enemies quickly regenerate a portion (10-25%) of hp/endurance when switching alliance Balance suggestions: 1. Make Deep Wounds stack 2. Duration of "fixed" DoTs (Wounding Shot, Wounding, Enduring Flames) should no longer be affected by INT (since their total damage is not affected by INT neither). At the moment, I know how to fix the first bug, and partially the second. What do you think of p3, and of the whole idea? EDIT: UPMod.1.01.306 is ready. Go to this post for download and installation notes.

I am lazy. That is, during combat. But can spend hours before a new playthrough, planning, in order to cover all possible encounters. P.S. In my first run I had a situation where 5 party members were wielding only piercing weapons. It was kinda fun watching Eder tickle remaining Rain Blights with a sword.

From one point of view, we should still be able to heal our confused team members. On another hand, if we don't want to get confused - we can prevent it. Or use specific shenanigans - when we want, like: - cast a Stasis Shell on a confused tank. Confuse effect will soon end, but the 999999 absorb shield will hold. - cast heavy DoTs, and then follow with charm/dominate/confuse. Enemies will still take damage over time, but won't attack you. My only gripe is that if we charm a charmed teammate, he will not become uncharmed; instead he will act like a friendly NPC (i.e. we can't use his abilities for the duration).

To an extent this is already the case in PoE1. Upscaling, besides multiplying enemy creatures' level by 1.333 and adding +2 to all of their attributes, also sets the following multipliers: DetectableDifficultyMult = 1.250000 DisarmDifficultyMult = 1.250000 TrapAccuracyBonus = 20 TrapEffectMult = 1.330000 TrapDamageMult = 1.330000 SkillCheckMult = 1.250000 OT: I would gladly have a mode with increased check thresholds, especially if that would override the current "Expert Mode". (I prefer to learn/know/see information, instead of it being hidden..)

An effect of less value should not suppress that of higher value. Are you sure you wasn't affected by other "attack speed" buffs?

Stumbled upon and cropped a few more:

No one does) <a joke about Deadline Archipelago/>

Yeap. Been there)

I don't tbh. Edit: made a search by: - ".StringComparison.Ordinal" - used in at least 17 files - ".StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase" - used in at least 15 files Majority of checks use OrdinalIgnoreCase. But RighteousSoul and two checks from StatusEffect use case sensitive comparison (and yes... one of them is for poison):

Diving Helmet provides two persistent buffs: ResistKeyword 35 vs DefenseType (5) {None}, Keyword ("DragonBreath") ResistKeyword 20 vs DefenseType (5) {None}, Keyword ("poison") This means that it adds 35 to a defensive roll vs any spell or ability marked with "DragonBreath" keyword, and it doesn't matter which defense is targeted. P.S. Alpine, Sky and Adra dragon breaths are marked with "DragonBreath". While Turi and Gafo breaths are marked with "DragonBreath Poison". But I don't know if this helmet provides 35 or 55 defense vs them, or even if "DragonBreath Poison" is recognized at all, because there are no keywords on their respective tooltips.

Tbh, I felt that taunts are a bit weird even in games like WoW and Rift. When you are in battleground (or warfront) a player will (unless specific circumstances) prioritize targets with higher DPS/TTK and Healing/TTK (or EHP if you will). Why should NPCs act different? It's the task for CC and Supports to keep enemies at bay, away from specialized healers and glass cannons. Sure frontliners could attract more attention at the start of the battle (first few seconds, before engagement), but it would indeed be strange if "an enemy would stop murdering Aloth because Edér whistled at them". On the other hand if Eder would have confuse/charm/paralyze... or would charge and knockdown, it would be another story.

Dunno Torm, it looks like a completely valid question to me.

Yeap, and you have read correctly. Only Turisulfus' breath would match Aru-Brekr's condition. But then again: a bonus to deflection doesn't make any difference vs a spell that targets reflex.

Boeroer is right. Technically through there is AttackRanged class that extends AttackBase, and AttackAOE that extends AttackRanged. And dragon breath is an AttackAOE. Afaik "Ranged Deflection Bonus" (Aru-Breaker) works vs AttackRanged attacks that are considered ranged. And "Reflecting" (The Golden Scales, Durganized Shields) works vs AttackRanged attacks that are considered ranged and are single-targeted. AttackRanged is considered ranged if !ApplyToSelfOnly and there is PathsToPos (i.e. you click somewhere not on the caster himself; true by default) AttackAOE is considered ranged if !ApplyToSelfOnly, there is PathsToPos and !IsCone. P.S. Gafonercos, Adra, Sky and Alpine dragons use cone breath aoe. While Turisulfus has circular aoe.

Interesting... how will Deadfire handle respec. Will it allow to change second class, or will it lock main-secondary class combination once picked. Because there might be some x/y optimal builds for early-mid game and x/z for late game.

Just a wild guess: Aware Inspiration grants bonus acc AND ability to interrupt on hits as well. Agreed. It looks nice, but in order to find a specific item we'll have sometimes to circle through all the characters; plus we'll have to use stash as an intermediate mean when transferring stuff from one character to another. Damn, that dagger is useless to me. I would never bind a dagger to a paladin or a priest. Maybe if a character is some weird multiclass with paladin or priest... Yeah, it doesn't look like it would suit a dps paladin. FoD being a limited resource, benefits from slower, hard-hitting weapons more. On the other hand it looks like a soulbound weapon; and maybe it has some unique properties that could be useful for buffing or tanking. As for priest... The feel of ex-vancian classes is going to change. Being able to use Minor Avatar in every encounter - opens some interesting phys-dps build options. I haven't noticed anyone getting unconscious. It could be that a character gets injured when his health drops to zero; and you can't progress further once everyone is laying on the floor. Plus it depends on how worthy are the items designers are going to put into NPCs for us to pickpocket. And ofc if there are scrolls/spells/unique equipment that buffs stealth/pickpocket. P.S. I still remember Divayth Fyr from Morrowind. He was providing a cure from corprus disease and I didn't want to kill him, yet he was wearing Daedric Armor. Solution was simple: max stealth, cast disintegrate armor spell, repeat x n, and pickopocket it once the armor drops to his virtual backpack. Definitely. But it's important to keep in mind that they get less spell usages. Aloth in that video has access to rank 4 spells and is likely to be lvl 7 or 8. PoE1: wizard lvl 7/8 can cast: 4, 4, 4, 2/3 spells PoE2: wizard lvl 7/8 can cast: 2, 2, 1, 1 spells (link) This makes ex-vancian classes weaker in prolonged and boss fights. In a way it equals the field through, as in PoE1 they (and especially priest) could deal tons of AoE damage.

If Obsidian would make use of a mini-feedback, then: Things I liked: + nice ui with sleek ability bar + animal companion icon; and animated (on-portrait) attack icons + awesome character preview + idle animation + aumaua model and face improvement (6:00) + interesting level design (9:45 levitating platforms) + explosive barrels (it's nice when you can interact with environment) + for pre-alpha it looks superb Didn't like: - eder and pallegina portraits - unreadable red text in combat log (4:12) - when you use Empower and mouseover an ability, it's tooltip remains the same (i.e. you can't tell it's effect) So-so: (minor stuff) ~ total gold could be somewhere near <Crafting> button ~ neck slot could be placed under helmet slot ~ inventory/stash grid is a bit OCD-unfriendly ~ swamp running animation Interesting stuff: - Interrupts now seem to happen only on crits - There are at least 3 Inspirations: Aware Inspiration (Disciplined Barrage); Nimble Inspiration (Wild Sprint); Robust Inspiration (Greater Lay on Hands) - Elemental spells have associated 'counters'. (example) - Frightened status effect seems to be substituted by Shaken (see Barbaric Yell) - There seem to be six quick items available from the start (?) - Barbaric Blow nerfed (?) Bonus damage / hit-to-crit conversion no longer affects carnage. (tooltip) - Vielo Vidorio wording is a bit confusing. "and decreases allies recovery time" would better reflect what it does. (tooltip) - Knockdown and Flames of Devotion costing only 1 power is a sensible update to their dps department - Knockdown seems to target only Deflection now, compare: - Weapons seem to get a faster attack and slower recovery durations: PoE2: 0.4s attack time; 1.0s recovery time PoE1: 0.666s attack time; 1.111s recovery time (dagger) - Bonus Tooltips:

A bit disappointing update tbh.

In PoE1 we had unique and soulbound items. Were uniques had a unique set of basic properties 'designed ahead of time' (e.g. borresaine: draining and stunning), while soulbound stuff had a set of really unique properties, but could not be durganized and lashed. And in Deadfire this difference seems to be getting blurred or eliminated. Hah) If in PoE1 I was asking myself when lashed a weapon for the first time: does fire lash go against burning DR or the one targeted by weapon? In Deadfire, if I would start with it, I would ask the same question. I mean it's not really more straightforward, as the question will be asked either way, unless there is a detailed tooltip. Imo improved transparency is the key to making stuff less confusing. Well yes, one would expect attacker's and defenders current, i.e. realtime stats (DR, acc, defences, damage modifiers, etc) taken into account.

That's basically 18/3/18/18/18/3. Btw, unless you really want to max Disintegration damage, 18/7/18/16/16/3 might be a bit more comfortable to play with, as you risk less being one-shot with stuff like Talons' Reach, Ooze Spit, Icycle Storm (or w/e that frost blast is called), and so on. It depends on enemy DR, but for majority of cases a non-reloading weapon with provide a higher steady-dps over prolonged fight. As for misses: it depends. On lvl 3 you have 25 + 3x3 + ~6(from per) + 5(wood elf) = 42 acc While enemies can have for reference (on PotD): - 38 Def - Xaurip (DR: 4) - 49 Def - Xaurip Skirmisher (DR: 7) - 63 Def - Ogre (DR: 10) - 76 Def - Shade (DR: 16; Burn: 8 ) The idea is to throw Aspirant's Mark for instance, quickly build focus, and follow up with Painful Interdiction into Mental Binding/AoE Blind. It's ok to miss early with auto-attacks, but it's preferable to make sure your cc effect do land. It's not exactly how aggro works) You might want to check this post.

Godspeed