Loren Tyr

Just to be clear: it is the CW DoTs stack completely, but CW itself does not. In other words, hitting a target more will add more (concurrent) CW DoTs on that target, but casting CW a second time on a target already affected by CW will not result in a hit on that target triggering two CW DoTs. Casting additional CWs on an already CW-affected will only serve to (potentially) keep the CW effect itself going for longer. Note that only the CW itself is shown as an active effect on a character though (and multiples will be suppressed), the DoTs do not.

Are you sure it's 10? It should be five, at 10 INT. The 20 second duration is the duration of Combusting Wounds itself, the DoT duration is set by the ExtraValue parameter. DOTOnHit Tooltip: "When the target is hit, he takes an additional Value damage of type DmgType per tick for ExtraValue seconds."

Somewhat to my surprise (Blunderbuss sometimes works a bit unexpectedly with these things), both Blunderbuss and Minoletta's Missiles do indeed trigger multiple CW DoTs. Just tested it (v3.03 beta).

Certainly. Plenty of ways to build a rogue in that regard, one of the many reasons to like the class . Backstabbing with something like Firebrand is quite hilarious by the way, especially if you crit with its extra big crit multiplier (and especially especially if you Deathblow as well). +400% damage FTW. It's a pity you can't do it from stealth though...

Firstly, taking just Backstab works fine as well. You still get one or two (depending on circumstances and target) +150% damage bumps at the beginning of most combats (you can easily get one even with horrid stealth by the way, though my rogues generally invest in stealth regardless of having Backstab anyway). A +10% crit chance by comparison gives you at best +5% chance at +50% damage, which means statistically you'd need about 60 attacks in a combat to get to the same bonus damage as a single backstab, or 120 for two backstabs. If you compare +20% crit chance vs Backstab + Shadowing Beyond that drops to 30 / 60 attacks, not counting any additional ones facilitated by Shadowing Beyond. Obviously there are further differences (crit also increases durations of eg. Strikes but Backstab is better against high DR, Shadowing Beyond gives one or two backstabs at will and does more than just enable Backstab), but the choice is hardly as obvious as you make it out to be. Both are viable options with different pros and cons, the only reason I can think of why you would call it a no-brainer is that you simply never really thought about it to any degree.

The margin would probably be wide enough (even with 0.5 - 1s cooldown), though. Though in some cases I agree the wait might be annoying, true. That could be fixed by tweaking it slightly so that a second unpause does unpause. But what works best will definitely depend on play style, optional separate key mappings might work better for others. Both options are very easy to implement though (though the key bindings are certainly the easiest), in terms of developer workload there'd be very little reason not to add them both.

If Recall Agony and Pain Link must roll to hit (I don't use Cipher's much, so not sure off the top of my head), then they will work. Sacred Immolation definitely does, by the way. It is literally just an OnHit effect, and it only checks whether damage was actually dealt, so any effect that meets the "hit roll + damaging effect" criterium will trigger CW. Which is why DoTs don't, since they don't roll to hit anymore. And also why they shouldn't, because as coded right now the code doesn't recognise a CW DoT *as* a CW DoT. So if DoTs did trigger CW anything affected by CW (and not immune to fire) would instantly incinerate in a recursive ball of fire on the first CW DoT tick :-D.

That works, yes. Basically, anything that deals damage and must roll to hit to do so. And all CW DoTs stack, regardless of who or what triggered them.

I concur, I arrived at the same conclusions. I think the reason it doesn't trigger off of DoT ticks is that those don't count as hits and thus don't trigger the WhenHit() function. Which is probably for the best, since it would be rather overpowered if it did ;-). It actually should also trigger from friendly fire; haven't actually tested that though.

A backstab-oriented rogue is perfectly viable, not sure why you would recommend against it. One of the best things about this game is that there are generally a lot of different ways of building any class of character, you hardly need to stick to a specific path (besides, if you take backstab you're still going to be sneak attacking and probably deathblowing anyway, it's like they're mutually exclusive). Maybe *you* want your rogue to avoid getting too much in the thick of things, maybe others do. Besides, talents like Escape and Shadowing Beyond aren't just useful for getting out of a sticky situation; they're also useful as offensive tools, allowing you to manoeuver across the battlefield and (say) get rid of an obnoxious mage. With Backstab the Shadowing Beyond just gets an extra "+150% damage on your next two attacks against target enemy" (on top of any Sneak Attack/Deathblows it may already be facilitating, of course).

Except that I never proposed splitting pause and unpause into two buttons (though having that as an option in the key mapping menu seems like a good idea as well). I'm suggesting an *optional* cooldown that briefly prevents unpausing after auto-pause. This is a fairly simple concept, presumably apparent to most people from the menu label already and otherwise clarified by the accompanying tooltip. Besides that, if you're honestly opposed to options whose function is not readily apparent from the menu label alone, you must favour removing the various existing options to which that applies as well. Including your precious PotD (then again, the new players whose mental well-being you're so concerned with are unlikely to use that anyway, so that would be a splendid idea in that regard).

Exactly how is an auto-pause cooldown slider in the auto-pause menu confusing? It's not a difficult concept, just slap a tooltip on it and it'll be fine. There's, like, twenty options in that menu already, one more isn't going to do any harm.

The problem is that if you hit the space bar just as an auto-pause kicks in, you actually unpause again. I agree this can be really annoying. To just "let auto-pause do its job" as suggested isn't really an option, in my experience (and apparently that of others) there are plenty of situations where I will want to pause that aren't covered by any auto-pause. Depends on play style how much this affects you I suppose. I don't think there should be a separate button for unpause though. A short cooldown specifically on auto-pauses that prevents unpausing would be much better I think, especially in combination with a slider bar in the auto-pause settings menu with which you can change the cooldown time. This way the issue is effectively addressed for people who are affected by it, but does not impact other players who aren't (of which, as the thread already shows, there are plenty as well).

I encountered an issue with Confident Aim, which upon loading causes the fighter to do considerably more damage than he should (both melee and ranged). For example, when testing a bit with Eder + Mace, which should do 13 - 19 damage on a hit before DR, damage on a hit was consistently in the 20 - 30 range (before DR). The issue seems to be due to an error when loading. When initially taking the Confident Aim talent, damage is normal. Subsequently saving and loading causes the bug to manifest. It doesn't stack, subsequently saving and loading again doesn't increase it further, which suggests it goes wrong when loading rather than saving. I further confirmed this by reverting back to 3.02. Here I could not reproduce the issue, by reproducing the process (levelling up and taking CA, saving and loading). Moreover, the same 3.03 save that in 3.03 immediately manifests the bug does not do so in 3.02. Conversely, once I switched back to 3.03 beta a 3.02 save with Confident Aim equipped Eder did again manifest the bug. I still have all the corresponding save games, should they be needed.

Generally speaking I'd say you can't quite go the BG-style backstabbing route, because as Boeroer notes there aren't nearly as many possibilities to turn yourself invisible (though that's a wise decision design-wise, I'd say). I see it more as a nice extra damage boost for rogues at the beginning of combat, and a trick to pull out of the bag with for example Shadowing Beyond as needed. So it's more "backstab-optimized" rogue, rather than something the character entirely revolves around. In terms of weapons, DW sabres or something two-handed is advisable, you'll want the high base damage. Arquebus is also nice for this of course, though it's a bit more finnicky to get the distance right (the 2m distance is checked when you actually fire rather than when the attack animation starts, by the way); don't use Blunderbuss though, if you're using WF: Ruffian go for a Pistol instead. Three things to keep in mind: - in principle you get two backstabs, the second attack also gets one. This applies regardless of weapon type/style, even firearms (provided the target is still alive and within 2m). However, this only happens if you don't interfere with the auto-attacking. If you click to attack after the first attack was made you don't get the second backstab (even if you clicked to attack the same target). - if you click-attack when in stealth you always (in principle) get a backstab, even if you are unstealthed before performing the actual attack. As such, even a rogue with 0 stealth crawling towards his target would get to backstab. The 'in principle' being again that you don't interfere in the meantime, and also that you don't get intercepted by another enemy before you reach the target. Also, in this case you don't get the second backstab, that only happens when your first attack was from stealth or invisibility. - in principle (caveat trifecta!) backstab works with Strike abilities now. It does have two bugs though: it doesn't work when attacking from Invisibility (I only tested with Shadowing Beyond, but assume it is a general Invisibility issue), this completely suppresses the Backstab. Backstab + Strike only works from Stealth. Secondly, it only half works when dual-wielding: the first Backstab is suppressed, you only get one on the second attack; this actually counts as the first Backstab though, will still happen when you become unstealthed before the first attack hits. The likely reason for this is that Full Attack special abilities like Strikes (but also eg. Knockdown) attack with the offhand weapon first for some reason. (note: the above is all as per 3.03 [beta], Backstab in 3.02 still has some additional issues)

Go Rogues! (just on general principle) Anyway, Combusting Wounds is fairly straightforward as far as I can tell. It just sets up a DOTOnHit, which results in a (base 5 damage / 5 second) ApplyOnTick DOT effect when the subject gets hit and damaged by an enemy (see StatusEffect.WhenHit() ). The DOT itself is entirely standard, so subject to the usual modifiers to damage and duration (based on Burning Wounds caster) and 0.25 Fire DR. Also, although Combusting Wounds itself doesn't stack the DOTs it produces do, so with a couple of quick attacks you can easily get three or four going at the same time (well, overlapping anyway).

Are you sure it's a pathfinding problem? Maybe it's just love at first sight. Am I the only one who saw a companion and an enemy running after each other in a circle around another character? I wish I had recorded that and made a gif. Nope, I've seen that too :-D.

I'd say the pathfinding is significantly better than in the IE games (then again, so does a braindead squirrel; it's hardly the highest of bars one could set), but I quite agree there is considerable room for further improvement there. It has not been an uncommon for characters (my own, or the enemy) to take a clearly roundabout route, or to occasionally be unable to find a route (around another character, typically) when it obviously does exist. It would also be nice for at least some minor coordination and/or wiggle room between (friendly) characters, actually; it's rather annoying when one character can't get past another, or can't squeeze in between two other characters because there is infinitessimally to little space.

As discovered by Dashel84 and confirmed by me, a bug occurs when a Rogue with Adept Evasion is affected by a Cipher's Going Between, with Adept Evasion converting regular Deflection-targeting Hits/Grazes to Grazes/Misses to some degree. Based on some testing this isn't at the 50% / 75% rate of Adept Evasion, though they seem sufficiently greater than Going Between's 25% to suggest that it isn't purely a cosmetic error in the log either. See also https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87807-possible-bug-adept-evasion-working-on-deflection-attacks/

I've tried it out in combination with Going Between, I do get the same issue now so clearly it's the combination that is bugged. It's a bit unclear on how it effectively manifests though. Out of 31 Grazes I got 10 converted to Miss (32%), as well as 18 out of 49 Hits converted to Graze (37%). Statistically speaking, a larger sample of attacks would be needed to get a better fix on the true percentages, but so far this suggests that they are elevated though not nearly at the 75% / 50% of Adept Evasion. The majority of conversions was also tagged as Adept Evasion rather than Going Between. There was some indication that the bug is intermittent, with conversions seemingly tending to come in sequences of multiples at a time. Though again, not really enough data to be sure on that, and I didn't keep track of the exact sequence (otherwise I'd probably be fitting a Hidden Markov Model to it right now :-D). Anyway, I'll put a thread in the Bug Report forum, maybe they can fix it before the final 3.03 version.

I agree it would be overpowered, but on the other hand I can't reproduce it (3.03 beta). I get Hit to Graze and Graze to Miss conversions on Reflex and none on Deflection, as intended. So either the OP is using an earlier version and it has since been fixed, or it was some kind of fluke.

In the code they all instantiate the same Carnage class (Barbarian Carnage, stag companion Carnage, spiritshift Carnage), just varying some of the parameters. So my expectation would be that it doesn't work either, though obviously it never hurts to try .

It is.

Actually, my above probabilities are off, I forgot to account for the fact that of course the Envenomed Strike won't occur at all if you miss with the original attack. So the probabilities will be a bit lower, though it's a bit more difficult to quantify them as the actual EV probabilities will thus depend on both Deflection and Fortitude. If we simplify and assume that Deflection and Fortitude are the same though, you get the following probabilities (Miss / Graze / Hit / Crit): - Differential = -40: 26% / 50% / 24% / 0% - Differential = -30: 12% / 38% / 50% / 0% - Differential = 0: 0% / 4% / 96% / 0% - Differential = +10: 0% / 1% / 54% / 45% I've also made some plots comparing the Blunderbuss EV hit/crit probabilities and expected duration (in multiples of standard EV duration) versus a normal single shot weapon (reference). Horizontal axis shows the differential for the reference weapon, the Blunderbuss is assumed to differ only by the -10 ACC inherent to the weapon.

To illustrate how well that works: if the differential ACC - FORT is 0 you still have a 98% chance of scoring a hit. It only drops to the usual 50% at a differential of -39 (and you'd still have only 2.4% chance if a Miss). And at a +10 differential you already have a 47% chance on a Crit and 53% chance on a hit (there's actually 0.4% chance on a Graze in the rounding somewhere, but that's hardly worth mentioning; and a 1 in 64 million chance of a Miss). So even without the poison stacking, Blunderbuss is still the ideal weapon for delivering venom. Obviously, because the inherent -10 ACC you can in some cases have lower Crit probability, but since the hit probability for Blunderbuss will still tend to be vastly higher I'd say it still comes out on top overall.