SaruNi

Would be nice if they listed things they've changed. Waiting for: Conjuror summons to work (not counting the familiar) Tactical Meld to grant accuracy (i.e. do high-level single-class ciphers eventually get the ability to hit things)

Also, while offensive chants can be chanted without exiting stealth, if you actually get within range and they do an attack roll, you automatically exit stealth/invisibility (that definitely would have been broken, especially since having your entire party either stealthed or invisible no longer causes combat to end...).

Could try making summoned weapon damage scale with Resolve as well as Might. (No need to nerf casters at this point....) Alternately, if they really want to make Priests and Wizards choose between weapons or spells or hybrid based on Strength / Resolve points, they could just buff summoned weapon and spell base damage/healing for the hybrid. For Ciphers... we'll see how patched penetration works. If it's still not enough they could just get their penetration bonus passives buffed (and increase the bonus from power level to make ascendant worth the micromanagement).

(Of course, one problem with buffing before casting is that you give your enemies time to buff themselves. Having your Rogue assassinate one of the spellcasters helps, but the strongest solution is to time your debuffs so that you hit your enemies with an Arcane Dampener to remove their buffs right before your buffed debuffs/CC hit.)

Currently, having all your party stealthed or invisible does not cause combat to end. This means that you can send a Rogue in, backstab, and use Shadowing Beyond (base duration 10 seconds, more with high int). (A firearm attack has no recovery, so the Rogue can immediately use Shadowing Beyond with no risk except potentially AoE. However backstab for firearms isn't working yet.) That gives you plenty of time to cast your buffs, timing it so that you don't waste the short casting time / short duration ones. Then start casting your debuffs/CC from stealth. Since your Rogue gets 3 uses of Shadowing Beyond, they should get in another backstab / invisibility combo. With fully buffed casters, at least some of your CC is almost guaranteed to hit. Now you cast your damaging spells.

Some kind of enemy scouting skill is actually a really good idea. The current system relies pretty heavily on exploiting enemy weaknesses, both defense and armor weaknesses, but you don't really know what they are until you've missed with and got "no pen" with half your skills. Part of it can be built into the game's reading material or dialogues---that would be fun. One could justify giving some sort of "knowledge of enemy" ability to Chanters (lore), Ciphers (scanning minds), Rangers (at least for some enemies)... any class would have special knowledge of at least some types of enemies. Since iirc there's no random enemy defense / resistance generation (unless you count summoned blights, but their resistances are obvious) it wouldn't really affect balance, but it would be a fun and ergonomical addition. Ideally maybe each class would get a once per encounter instant-cast, 0 recovery time enemy identifying ability, with chance of success tied to a non-combat skill, and applicable enemies limited by class---with Chanters (because of their knowledge of lore) being able to recognize any enemies and also bosses. And maybe Ciphers too, but with a roll of Accuracy vs Will. Or it could be limited to Chanters, Ciphers, (maybe Rangers,) and the Conjuror's Familiars (and Expose Vulnerabilities...). Or it could be a part of existing debuffs (one of the Chanter invocations, one of the Cipher spells, Wizard's Expose Vulnerabilities...). Maybe Rangers could do it outside of combat (Ranger vs. reflex to reveal one or two defenses / armor ratings with a 4 m and a 15 second cool-down to make the positioning aspect interesting).

I was wrong about Sneak Attack applying to spell damage---the pop-up screen detailing the damage roll does list Sneak Attack but it's grayed out with a word starting "Condition" next to it. Unfortunately the word goes off the edge of the screen, but I'm pretty sure it says something like "Condition not met". When it does work, it's not grayed out. The description of attack and damage rolls is also difficult to read because it overlaps with the text scroll underneath it---so the characters are superimposed over each other. Since you have to hold shift to see the attack / damage roll box, it would be better if the text box had a solid color background.

Trickers has only 20% sneak attack bonus, that almost kills the only basic damage bonus they have. So u give rogue a large shield and make him a tank, that's doable, but they still...not good strikers. But if you get extremely high deflection from Mirror Image you can riposte with a greatsword. Alternately you could have a streetfighter with a shield---will get hit more and needs support but has great damage potential when flanked and bloodied and using Deep Wounds. Rogues are also the only class with extra quick-use item slots, which means they can have more grenades, scrolls (scrolls currently all have 1.4 second casting time iirc, even if the corresponding spells take 6 seconds to cast), and potions. 2 extra quick-use slots = 10 extra grenades or scrolls.

Fireball actually does have graze. Would be nice if that were included in the spell description. Part of the balance issue could be resolved if some enemies have high Deflection but relatively low Reflex, Will, or Fortitude defenses (at least one of them being low enough to consistently at least graze). Fighters and Monks are limited to targeting deflection or fortitude, while Paladins and Barbarians are limited to deflection or will. Rogues can target deflection, fortitude, or reflex, and Tricksters can also target will. Most casters can target any of them. Of course, one problem is that you don't get to immediately see what the enemies' defensive values are. It would be cool if the Conjuror's familiar had an ability that would instantly reveal (at least one of) them (per usage...).

Yeah Rogues have some single target abilities, Finishing Blow is a +50% basic damage for one full attack. That doesn't change they lack Attack Speed, and the other two Damage Multpliers, and I doubt this 3 Guile cost ability will make any difference. Talking about DoT, that might be useful in Boss fight, I didn't do any test on DoT builds but a build focus on DoT might work. In the last, I wanna say again, riposte only works with builds that have high deflection, and I'm only talk about single class here, u really need to multiclass to make riposte work. Trickster gets high deflection from Mirror Image (which only costs one guile point, so can be cast 7 times iirc). A large shield and tank build will also do... and those DoT apply to riposte too. Rogue does have AoE disables (Smoke Bomb, and one of the possible upgrades to Finishing Blow... as well as Trickster's Dazzling Lights and Confusion), and perhaps more importantly the single target strike abilities can be made AoE using Blunderbuss's powder burns (which also gives Streetfighter the bonus from being "flanked" at range) or the Rod modal.

You're not counting the bonus raw DoT from Deep Wounds, not to mention the damage bonus of upgraded Finishing Blow and the raw DoT from Strike the Bell (and Arterial Strike, and Gouging Strike). *And* four uses of backstab (1 from stealth + 3 shadowing beyonds). With raw DoT they don't need to penetrate heavy armor (and of course the traditional stiletto and rapier have +penetration modals). Streetfighter easily gets bonus sneak attack damage, and Assassin obviously has the backstab bonus... and then you also have to factor in the crit bonuses (and, as has been mentioned, riposte...).

Tooltip for Tactical Meld says: "grants the cipher accuracy when attacking the ally's target". Tested it with both melee and ranged weapons, it definitely does not add accuracy to the cipher's attack (when attacking the same target that the ally on which the spell was cast is attacking). So all it does right now is grant the ally target one extra engagement. For 50 focus....

Ah, that explains it. Should have double-checked before posting. The name ("Interfering") is a bit confusing, though....

Wands with the "Interfering" modal active don't seem to cause interrupts. Spells have been causing interrupts but hitting rapidly with dual wielding wands has failed to score a single interrupt on the same abilities.

How about letting Conjure Familiar be cast outside of combat, with a 30 second base duration? Maybe let the Familiar become invisible too. Granted, it could open up the possibility of soloing much of the game from stealth as a Conjuror/(something-to-buff-the-familiar) summoner, but your fragile familiar would have to survive long enough for you to cast a summons without using its invisibility ability (because that would end combat, and all the other summons can only be cast in combat). Since you can already do the equivalent using a Ranger/Beckoner (ranger stays stealthed while tanky pet runs around until the summons come out), and it would require significant strategy to keep the familiar alive, it doesn't seem too OP....

(Just realized you can hover over and press shift to see exactly what's contributing to the damage. Sneak Attack shows up there for spells, or least DD spells.)

[Edit: I was reading the damage roll box wrong, Sneak Attack doesn't work with spells, or at least not the ones I tested] Just tested it, works with Twin Stones and other spells, if I'm reading it correctly.

They also shoot lightning out of their fists and weapons. Bows need to be re-****ed with arrows too. Greatswords and other large weapons need to be pulled back to strike again. The idea is that the monks' spiritual power from wounds allows them to move with superhuman speed. Including re-****ing bows and reloading firearms. Maybe they already have the arrows and bullets ready to pop back into place with their incredible hand speed. But as a balance issue sure, this seems to be a vastly OP exploit. If a fun one.

Except that you don't risk getting hit in melee (and don't have to micromanage so much). Firearms have reload time, but 0 recovery time. That means that you can backstab and then immediately escape or use Shadowing Beyond. With a greatsword, you have to stand there waiting for your recovery to end. And if you're quickswitching as a Black Jacket, you can fire many firearms in rapid succession. Also, since armor only affects recovery time, not reload time, you can wear the heaviest armor with no attack speed penalty. So your assassin becomes much tankier. And with a blunderbuss's five shots, even if the AoE doesn't backstab (hopefully it does), you're almost guaranteed to at least hit.

Why not just limit it to 3 iterations or something?

The Blunderbuss modal also triggers Streetfighter's buff (it causes Flanked, and the Perception penalty can be countered by Black Jacket's Tactical Barrage). Blunderbuss modal AoE or rod modal AoE should work with backstab once it's working with ranged weapons. Confounding blinds + blunderbuss + black jacket with 8 blunderbusses = 20 ranged shots in rapid succession that strip away deflection, and your 5th weapon can be something completely different. Alternately with mobs and Swift Flurry the blunderbuss AoE should trigger an AoE version of swift flurry, allowing you to one-shot / infinity-shot mobs.

Beckoner/Ranger. Your pet unstealths to initiate combat, while you stay in stealth. Start chanting a buff and summoning skeletons. The chant changes to the speed chant so the skeletons can move into position. If you're a Stalker you and your pet can act as tanks within 4 m of each other, thereby benefiting from buffing chants and creating maximum engagement (there's also a passive that lets your pet engage an extra enemy)... and if you really need to get away to cast an invocation you can use Evasive Roll. Or you can stay stealthed and move away to remain untargetable (while using chants to buff your ranged characters), and have your pet run away too so it doesn't get KO'd and trigger bonded grief. (You could even do an all summoner party that way, and never have to leave stealth.) Some of the random druid summons are tanky (huge hp pool---not all of them though, fire is more offense oriented) but they can't engage many enemies. Can cast Beetle's Shell on it though. Once Maura's Writhing Tentacles and Essential Phantom (does shock damage when hit) are working a Conjuror might make a good tank---Llengrath's Safeguard can be cast out of combat and you can get the spell point back while still under its effect. The defensive buffs are fast casts with 0 recovery time so heavy armor doesn't affect them.

Tooltip doesn't specify melee. It's magic... or spiritual wound magic, or whatever. Or the Monk is just reloading very fast.

If you want to add Shadowing Beyond to a companion (hired mercenary)---suppose their name is "meow"---the console command is: AddAbility Companion_P_meow Shadowing_Beyond Their name has to be a single word, though. Best Assassin multi-class seems to be Monk with Swift Flurry and Confounding Blind (as someone suggested in "best beta build"). Once backstab is fixed to work with ranged weapons, a blunderbuss (5 chances to crit, AoE) or rod (AoE) should be able to take out clustered groups very quickly too.

If Dance of Death were working as described in the tooltip (stacking bonus to accuracy every 3 seconds) then with enough time (and stealth/invisibility) you could logically guarantee a "one-shot infinity shot"... unfortunately it maxes out at +12 accuracy. (What happens if you hit an infinite number of times but do 0 damage with each hit?)