Bosmer

Nice rework of the biting whip, a much tougher choice now. Personally I modded the biting whip to be a + x % weapon damage as a function of your current focus. Thus, a soulblade is not required to just spam SA in order to maximize damage. Also encourages to use weapon attacks and cipher spells. I think obsidian missed the opportunity to use your focus pool more as an empowering resource, such as they did with shared nightmare.

Before @thelee chimes in: I think you need to account for the changing base, i.e. being faster by 1 second from initially 2 seconds makes you attack far more often than being faster by 1 second from initially 5 seconds. Hence, if you calculate the relative increase in speed, for example from 10->20 and from 20->30 you'd see: (4.7-3.6)/4.7=0.234 and (3.6-2.9)/3.6=0.194. So increasing dex is still worth it and at this stage the difference could also be partially explained by deadfire's rounding of seconds. If you'd log-transform your y-axis (Attack Speed) you would see probably a rather linear relationship in your plot.

Yes, I think they really missed the chance to write some "stop signs" into the Eothas Main Plot.. some event (like Eothas needing time to recover for something or whatever) that would allow to explain why the Watcher and his crew has the time and need to deal with all the exploring and the sidequests (and DLCs..). To be fair, that's my only negative point on the game and yeah the first one was better in that regard.

I saw Josh twittering that he has still time to decide on his next project (after pentiment's successful release). So maybe we'll know more in the upcoming months Obviously it depends on how much people are currently working on the other large rgp projects Avowed and Outer Worlds 2.

My question was only targeting the technical feasibility. The idea would be: AoE-Pain-Link on allies, but instead to "reflect" damage on attacker, to reflect it on the tank. But as pointed out by @Shai Huludpain link itself is too troublesome to use it as a basis, and if I understand you correctly it's not even possible to change the damage "reflection" direction. So never mind I thought into a similar direction and that basically shows that Take the Hit does need some relevant opportunity costs, otherwise it is too convenient and you would want to have it on all the time. 50% resistance is better than 50% increased damage even if the Fighter and ally are targeted, if Fighter is not targeted it's just a very very strong buff without drawback. Maybe it should break on mobility (such as Blade Turning)?

Sounds great! I think the implementation is straightforward and it would work as expected. I'm not sure on the exact value of the 50% stacking bonus, because I don't know how it plays out with decreasing returns (the difference between 200% and 250% should be minor I guess?) and how it interacts with damage reducing effects, such as defender's stance (and similar item effects). 50% - 50% looks cleaner of course. Out of curiosity: Would a "AoE Pain Link"-implementation also be possible? I.e. allies in the AoE have 50% resistance and damage on them is 50% raw on Fighter" Regarding recovery: I think 4s it fine (maybe 3?), makes also sense from a thematical point of view: While trying to catch the hits, the fighter is not expected to dedicate his time too much on other stuff (similar to blade turning I guess).

Nice idea and I think the values seem right, but regarding the technical implementation.. why make it a 12s tick? Wouldn't it be more transparent to have a faster tick (1s or 3s) that provides accordingly lower chances, such that the exact timing of the tick becomes less relevant. It might feel a bit tedious to try to make sure that each tick lands on a low-health moment in order to maximize resource generation. Just brainstorming here: Would it be possible to combine the two effects (since they lie both on devine retribution), such that they kind of exclude each other? Meaning: Divine Retribution providing zeal for downed ally in 5-Meter AoE and at the same time number of allies in 5-Meter AoE lowering the chances to get the on-health-lost zeal generation? By doing so you would make sure that summon-killing is not the superior (and overpowered) strategy.

Hahah, now I'm curious. I thought that the BPM made Barbarians very strong single-class and multi-class material. I have to agree, however, on the general notion, that Single-class paladins still feel lacking. In my current run I'd really love to see Pallegina as SC Paladin, I just don't see how it comes close to Heralgina in terms of utility, damage or party support. Can't Divine Retribution be modified to only work on Party Members and not summons? Such as some items do iirc? This way it might still be useful for non-summon-parties?

Oh I just saw that berserker’s hit to crit is only provided while frenzy (Active!) .. hence I’m not so sure anymore if it stacks with intuitive hit-to-crit. Would be a bummer if not, but maybe @Boeroercould chime in here?

1) yes it applies carnage, and in my opinion it's a powerful enough ability. It used to be a AoE-Attack on all surrounding enemies until it got nerfed. And it will apply carnage so fighter and berserker work nice together. However, I'm not 100% sure if a carnage kill triggers Cleaving Stance.. Soul Annihilation for example does not! 2) berserker hit to crit stacks with barbaric blow hit to crit, since berserker's hit to crit is passive! It also stacks with rogue's passive hit to crit -> However: stacking hit-to-crit chances has decreasing returns (they don't stack additively) and hence the rogue's 10% should definitely be of second order here -> I.e. increasing Accuracy by 5 points would lead to a stronger increase in crit-rate (and overall DPS of course.). Intuitive inspiration will stack with all passives, but I'm not 100% sure how it stacks with the hit-to-crit of an active ability... in my opinion it should, such as bonus accuracy or bonus penetration of an ability (e.g. accurate wounding shot) stacks with active (and passive ofc) accuracy or penetration buffs, but I didn't test it yet.

1) no it's a full-attack (with weapon effects) on one (random?) close-by target. 2) I'm pretty sure it triggers SW/HD (didn't play too much fighter/monk). I'm not sure if I would say that it's easy to get "infinite chains". For me, personally, SW/HD don't proc as often as I'd imagine and like them to proc, even if I build for it (with huge accuracy values, deflection debuff etc..). Albeit some unique weapons help with that - however, none of them is a Great Sword. 3) Only guessing: It should work like that. However: Base damage of WotEP is significantly lower, such that the carnage hits will be weaker as well ..

Yes, I changed it for my own game to +30% (based on your mod), which definitely doesn't feel too overpowered. +20 all defenses (that stacks quite nicely afaik!) is a huge buff for a defensive build, +40% damage might be very powerful for caster multiclasses, however they usually have a harder time using melee abilities, so could still feel rewarding and fair enough.

In my opinion a fast 2H-Build needs Barbarian and due to Carnage you have build-in AoE Damage. Personally, I find Berserker a bit too difficult for beginners (my main problem is that the Health Pool is hidden - although there are still other health indicators). However, combined with a Fighter (and Constant Recovery) I think it's fairly manageble. Fighter has even more AoE Damage potential due to Mob Stance and Clear Out and provides even more speed bonus that stacks with Barbarian Speed: Mob Stance and Armored Grace! So my personal recommendation would be Furyshaper or Berserker + Devoted. If you go for Furyshaper + Monk you need some more Crit Potential: One option would be to make sure a party member has Morningstar+Modal running such that enemy Fortitude is lowered to benefit from the Brute Force passive! Apparently it wasn't mentioned before: You should seriously consider to install the Community Patch (!) and Elric's Balance Polishing Mod even if this is your first run. EDIT: Oh, I see that you already mentioned Fighter! For Fighter/Barbarian I would try to raise INT(!)/DEX/PER/CON, keep MIG at 10 and lower DEF (maybe not too much otherwise neg. effects run too long).

Well, ultimately it's Eric's Mod, so.. but I think there is enough evidence in this thread (45 pages long..) that he involves in a frequent and thorough discussion with other people on how to improve the game. But if it's "quite arbitrary", then why shouldn't he do what he wants anyway? Personally, (might be just me, because I'm lying ill at home) it's hard to follow your key arguments, since I feel that some of your points contradict each other. The discussion changes too often between the extremes of "(singleclass) rangers suck and are beaten in each and every aspect by 10 different classes" and "bonded fury providing one net bond after 60 seconds is completely unbalanced" (again, just my loose interpretation!) On a different note: How does bonded fury work with the ghostheart pet? If the duration is too long and the ghost pet cannot be sustained long enough than it might be close to a trap choice for ghosthearts.

I don't see how that argument is important here. Look for example at the BPM change to Wall of Flashing Steel. In combination with Gambit (that ideally has 0 costs) you will have far higher expected resource return by using that ability... the goal of the Single-Class resource changes (as I understand it) is to bring the higher resource-pool (and the higher resource generation with Brilliant) of Multiclasses more in line with Single-classes. Hence, the internal costs (after 60 seconds!) of one ability is not relevant, but the total resource generation of the class compared to multiclasses in the fights where it matters. I also don't understand your argument against giving Bonded Fury some recovery time to increase its opportunity costs. Most buffs that are not self-only do have recovery and the recovery time will make a difference (especially in shorter fights) for the player to use it or not ... why should bonded fury in that regard be any different from any other ability in the game?

So would you implement it as: 1 Bond after x seconds of moving or x% chance for 1 Bond while moving? I think the problem here is that the best playstyle would be to send the pet to the other side of the map and just keep it running. The duration of the effect (independantly from bonded fury) would need to be prolonged by some form of combat-related activity: e.g. on pet-crit or being crit etc..

Or: give bond while the pet doesn't move (and in addition being inactive?): Gameplay-wise players would have to decide whether to actively use the bonded-fury-buffed animal companion in combat or keep it still (i.e. "bonding" with it) and generate bond. Could be an interesting decision to make.

I really like the idea that bond generation is somehow related to pet+ranger interaction, and on pet-crit would work in this direction. However, would you be able to generate enough bond on the tougher fights (where you really need the extra bond)? Or would you than rely on gimmicky friendly-summon (from chanter?) critting to create bond with the pet? EDIT: and cat animal companion would probably be the best choice for attacking faster.

I also think that the scaling feels too aggressive and maybe Base damage vs. Scaling damage could be readjusted. BPM, however, already buffs the effects of CON and savage defiance, which should make it easier too manage berserker's frenzy. In addition, mage slayer and corpse eater are also buffed and hence the draws of Berserker might feel more pronounced now.

Yeah I completely see your point and playing with Jayd’s mod I have to admit: it’s overpowered - at least in the short fights in the beginning .. but also a lot of fun I want to try shape shifting with your backstab and assassinate changes, maybe I’m able to chain an arquebus+shapeshift full-attack fast enough..

Aaah thanks for pointing that out. I went back a few slides and found the Mod (by @Jayd linked in a post from May 24, 2022) and the discussion. I can understand both sides but in this case I think that BPM shifter might be balanced and still powerful but loses its main appeal (and fun imho.. especially in short fights where the cooldowns don't play a role). Another possibility to balance the Shifter subclass could be by adding recovery to shifting, such that the opportunity costs of quickly shifting in and out increase. Link of the mod is: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/613/

Hey Elric! I tried to play around with your changes to the Shifter subclass. Reading the patch notes I thought that the 75s cooldown was a cooldown only to the specific spiritshift form used, but it seems that it blocks all spiritshift forms for 75s. I assume that's intentional and I wonder if that's really supporting the idea behind the shifter subclass (i.e. shifting in and out of the different forms as you need their features and abilities).

I tested it with console abilities and items and it is .. a bit inconsitent. Blunderbuss usually gives more than 2 stacks with driving flight..sometimes it’s more than three but not always.

Actually, it's optimal to use the ability from distance with melee + blunderbuss. Gives up to 4*2 stacks after one shot with driving flight. Do you think that this behaviour might be fixable? It's definitely not supposed to be a best-used-ranged ability but thank you for your answer and I get your thoughts regarding dual-wield.

Hi Elric! I'm playing around with your newest updates and I wonder if Takedown Combo could receive a similar treatment as all the "from stealth" effects (assassinate, backstab), i.e. a 1 sec "lingering" of the effect? Such that full-attacks would also come to profit from this. At the same time I think that the well-known interaction with dots should remain, although probably not intended by Obsidian.. I think it's a cool little feature to play around. /// And also regarding Ranger.. I really like your changes to Hunter's Claw now providing until end of combat stacks. However, it seems that dual wielding here is by far the best option, since you can get the full stack with only 5 ability points, whereas single- or two-handed would require spending 10 ability points to see the full stack .. which would probably be achieved in almost no fight. Do you think that stacking a fixed value, similar to stunning surge, might be an nice adjustment? Maybe increasing the value to 3 acc/def/dam per hit, then? In this case dual-wielding would still be the optimal option, but not by a huge margin anymore.///As always, thank you so much for working on this! Highly enjoy it