Ensign

Yes, it is consistent with how other modifiers are messaged and work in the game. I'm just "surprised" that it was implemented to work on the increasing returns (inverted) side of the ledger (as 'reduced hostile durations') instead of the linear side of the ledger (as 'hostile effects expire faster'). -3% reduced duration and 5% faster expiration have roughly the same efficacy in the 20-25 range, so not going to belabor this. The game's version just blows out harder at higher values and has pathetic marginals at low attribute values, which is what I would like to address. Feh.

I really like Sundering Blow too. Granted I think I suffer from 'not liking what Fighter does' a little too much, but it and Paladin are still the classes I am least inspired to single class. If lots of other people like those two single classes great, but if not, well, what do you do? Creating 10ish different trinkets as item IDs wouldn't be particularly difficult. Putting the hundreds of instances of those trinkets into the game to make them feel like an organic part of the game, as opposed to tacked on expansion content, could very well be. If there's a strong enough design maybe that's worth doing! If you're re-balancing and designing the class around them having access to trinkets, though, they would really need to be available throughout the game as though they were there from the start. Form is really important here.

Quick thoughts to be torn apart: - I don't think there's anything resembling a 'polish' solution to make Priests (and to an extent Druids) feel as good as Wizards at spell casting. At face value you can balance the lack of flexibility with more raw power per spell, but that's not going to buy you much at typical levels of play. Adding something like grimoires is a non-starter in my mind - between the lack of depth in the spell lists that quickly turns all priests into clones, and the enormity of the workload that would be needed to seed a bunch of holy symbols or whatever into the game in a way that would feel organic...you're not getting that without a pretty massive rework. The path of least resistance would be having Druids lean into their spiritshift more - through trait support or the like - and doing something similar with priests that shifts them from the head-to-head comparison with Wizards over who casts spells better (spoiler: Wizards win) into more of a comparison with Druids as a spellcaster that also does this other thing isn't that cool. No idea what that other thing should be another thing. - Trickster is really overtuned. Rogue at least has other strong subclasses to compete with it, but there's virtually no reason to ever play vanilla Rogue when Trickster is there. Giving up ~5% damage throughout the game for 7-9 strong spells on attractive Guile costs is a no brainer. I think it could lose Sneak Attack entirely and still be a good pick. I don't think that's a good design though, what would be better? - Troubadour too. We all get that it's a massive upgrade over base Chanter, and unless you're doing something very specific with one of the other sub-classes you always take it, right? I don't have any good ideas here, but any comprehensive list should have it on the chopping block. - Rogue mid-tier abilities are pretty underwhelming. Crippling Strike, Blinding Strike, Finishing Blow? Good. Ring the Bell, Sap, and Withering Blow? Super niche at best. The suggestion to put a hard CC on Sap is a good one. Perplexing Sap is still broken (in the doesn't work sense) though, and Ring the Bell and Withering Blow could use some attention too. - Sacred Immolation getting a second look would be good. Was super iconic and a big power spike in the first game; here I haven't even taken it in forever. I want to spend half my zeal on this why? I defer here, with the caveat that this is a design issue with the game - it's hard to make a high level, high cost ability a better use of a very limited resource pool than just spamming lower level abilities. Those cases where it works are places where those abilities just straight blow up the whole fight when used right, too (looking at you, Heart of Fury). - The Zeal nerf to Greater Lay on Hands and Hands of Light has made those pretty bad. Does anyone take them still? They're generally considered a downgrade on the base ability I think, and need another look. - Stoic Steel is dumb. Like we all get how strong 1 passive penetration or armor is given the centrality of those to the damage system, right? Cap it at 1 armor and it's still the first point you spend at this tier. Or, possibly, bump it up to tier 8. At least then you have to make a hard choice to get it, instead of 'I dinged 19, now my Paladin/Who Cares is unkillable.' - The Dragon Trashed. There are enough ways to play a Chanter (that I am unfamiliar with) that I'm hesitant to critique any of the invocations, but Dragon Trashed...leaving it this bad doesn't somehow make it even between games. - Fighter isn't a bad class (plus Tactician herp derp) but its late game is really underwhelming, especially single classed. Power Strike, Critical Defenses, Weapon Mastery...once you finish off your PL5 abilities Fighter just stops getting appreciably better and gets outscaled by basically everything else in the game. What needs re-concepting here?

For some reason I thought this got fed through the same double inversion as everything else. Of course it doesn't, and 3% is what you want in that case. Ugh, what bad design for the stat to have increasing returns on both effects.

Stuff off the top of my head: Resolve 3% duration -> 5% duration. I think we've seen this doesn't matter for min-maxed solo runs where you stack immunity anyway, but matters for nudging its value in parties and for less optimized parties. More relevant is how it would move resolve debuffs from +15% to +25% duration, increasing their importance. (Doesn't go through double inversion, irrelevant) Swords and Greatswords - may just be me but they pay far too high a price for their two damage types. High pen type weapons only lose 1 pen for dual type (see mace vs hammer; estoc vs morningstar), but low pen types lose 1 pen *and* the additional bonus. I'd stick something minor (+3 / +5 deflection vs melee) here, it just irks me that the iconic weapons are under budget. Cipher: Biting Whip - like the raw lash suggestion. Would need to be at least a +30% marginal vanilla bonus for me to look at it. Mental Binding is fine as is. A lot of power budget in the immobilize. Hard CC is strong yo. Psychovampiric Shield: Steadfast -> Resolute. While interesting for the big stacking will debuff, would be an effective tool for tankier builds with a small change. Fractured Volition: Hobbled -> Staggered. I look at this if it does -20 Fort. Puppet Master: 4s recovery -> 3s recovery. Consistency with WoT, RL. Body Attunement: additional -10 / +10 deflection. Mind Lance: interrupt on graze, as suggested. Wild Leech: I would just give it a 5m radius (foe), making it effectively a better Phantom Foes. Back and forth if the inspiration should be AoE as well - how fast would that turn into a 'stack all the things' ability? Mind Plague: 3c, 3r -> 0.5c, 4r. Underappreciated spell, but doesn't need to be slower than Secret Horrors. Stasis Shell: 3c 3r -> 0.5c, 4r. Need to be able to react quickly, otherwise why not just Puppet Master. Haunting Chains: 2.5m radius. Agree on Defensive Mindweb not breaking on graze. Time Parasite is fine. The debuff isn't very exciting and the speed buff, as good as it feels, loses a lot of its sheen once you price in the 5s cast and recovery. Ranger: Wounding Shot: +10 accuracy. Accurate Wounding Shot is a good skill, but the base version is a waste of resources compared to the other 1 resource attacks. Heal Companion: 3c -> 0.5c, bond 2 -> 1, range 4m -> 6m, duration 6s -> 8s. Throw the kitchen sink at it. Healing your own pet should be at least worth considering over just offloading that job onto the party healer. Revive Companion: 100 health. Again, should be more accessible and powerful than using a general purpose revive. Hardy Companion: Hardy -> Robust Vengeful Companion: Cannot die for 15s. Master's Call: 4r -> 0r. Play Dead: 4r -> 0r. Good thread concept. More later.

I don't know that they need full stat scaling. Getting unarmed scaling would be fine in my book, forcing another trait choice to let them continue scaling into the late game. As is yes, I think they're a fun and useful tool early in the game but once you pick up exceptional+ gear the lack of scaling mods is very apparent, and it doesn't take long for them to fall behind plain shields from a damage perspective (barring ranged + shield shenanigans).

Good point, they should work well in ranged weapon + shield combos where you get the two weapon style speed but never actually swing the shield as a weapon. As long as you avoid actually getting into and using it as a weapon in melee it could be pretty good. Kinda a pet peeve since after the complaints about bashing shields lowering DPS in pillars 1 I had hoped they had a solution for deadfire...but no.

Early in the game they are attractive due to being able to benefit from both style traits, but with the exception of Tuotilo's Palm they fall off dramatically. The lack of accuracy, damage, and crucially penetration bonuses cause them to fall behind regular weapon and shield once you get superior weapons or so.

Does anyone have a good understanding of the timing and stacking of inspirations and afflictions? For instance I thought at one point that prayer for the spirit was a 60s charm/dominate immunity, but Fampyrs tear right through that. I figure it is that the first charm nullifies smart, then the second charm works as normal. PftS thus nullifies a single charm, right? How about after the fact? I have wanted to use PftB to remove enfeebled, but when it is spammed with multiple instances on an ally it feels like it only pulls one copy. The counter-charm or counter-dominate seem to fail a lot too. Is there a multiple stacking thing going on there, potentially?

It's true for all inspirations but keep in mind that for the advanced INT inspirations they'll no longer be a friendly target, so the inspiration would need to go on in advance.

What one thinks of Ranger largely reflects how they feel about animal companions, in my experience. If you think they are a liability, bonded grief waiting to happen, then yeah Ranger is pretty terrible. If you see them as an extra engaging body and supplemental DPS they probably look strong. Main issue with Ranger in my mind is the lack of a really transformational subclass or overtuned abilities that you build around. Stuff like Trickster or Tactician push those classes to another level and Ranger has nothing comparable.

The nice thing is that classes are well differentiated. Even if some classes are generally stronger that matters a whole lot less than the jobs they do and importantly don't do. Many of the weaker classes are nonetheless important because they support the rest of the party well.

Monk and wizard have some important structural advantages over comparable classes that make them stand out. Rogue, while certainly good, I don't think is anything special. What makes you think it is a cut above?

This really is the core of it. Of all the martial classes Barbarian scales the most with attention - both deliberate micro from the player, and support / buffs being pumped into it from other party members. It is fantastic as the 'star' of the party that everyone else is setting up to carry. It's not dissimilar to rogue, in that timing and positioning are very important to making the most of the class, and if you just set the AI on one and forget it's going to feel like a bad fighter.

Though counting powers is a reasonable proxy for character effectiveness, and multiclass characters definitely start much stronger in that respect, all powers are far from equal and looking at where characters come online and have power spikes is a bigger deal. A lot of classes have big power spikes at PL 3 and 4, making those single classes come online and do their awesome stuff a lot faster. Yes, you'll be weaker clearing out the dig site (unless you start at level 4 with the blessing), but once you are off Maje isle your single class characters will be meaningfully stronger than a mediocre multiclass character.

I had started testing Beguiler again a week or so ago to re-evaluate it and it's working as intended. It was just a tooltip issue, stemming I suspect from the Soul Whip bonus being split in two.

High level Monk powers are not messing around either. Resonant Touch can burst targets down and Whispers can just pump damage with decent wound generation. Plus those passives and extra power levels giving you super-mythic fists. Heart of Fury and Barbaric Retaliation transform how you play a character. High armor low deflection zero recovery Barbarian tanks are not a joke. Whirling Strikes is better than HoF in a vacuum in a lot of ways, but unfortunately has minimal synergy with the class. High level chanter gets some serious tools, including the dragon killing chant and dragon / enhanced weapons summons and mega bounce Eld Nary. Single class Ascendant with Time Parasite is pretty serious too. Those classes have a lot of good multiclass synergies but the single isn't a joke.

The mortars are just for the eye candy in the video. Vanishing Strike is really good for bursting a target and crucially triggering your stealth attack procs over and over again. It's really good, though not on the level of the high level Barbarian / Monk / Wizard powers. Gambit I was pretty disappointed in though. I suspect it would be pretty nuts on lower difficulties, but besides clearing trash faster it's hard to keep the hit rate high enough to consistently get the guile back, and without that guile restored it's a badly overpriced skill that doesn't do all that much more than Crippling Strike once you factor in all the damage mods.

I have never felt any compulsion to run him as anything other than a swashbuckler. Pure fighter and pure rogue have some nice high level powers but nothing eye popping, and their power level scaling is pretty modest. I typically spec for dual wield early and always keep a dual wield set, but once you start getting superb equipment I give him a weapon and shield set as well (usually Last Word or Kopana Taga). That way you can use him to clog up the battlefield when necessary, or swap to dual wield to dive the backline. Swashbucklers are excellent divers but you don't always need that fight to fight. Dual wield is ideal for spamming Crippling Strike. Slow weapon in main hand and fast weapon offhand is min-maxed. Pukestabber is great in the off hand for the even faster recovery, but Marux, Acolyte's hatchet, or one of the good flails are good options too.

Are there any crush immune mobs? Nothing is coming to mind.

That's a good point about Watcher's Blade being particularly good for a Devoted, since they don't have good options to swap for damage types. It's still a pretty major loss from single wielding Modwyr though, as it won't benefit from the accumulated speed stacks. Even if half the lash is getting eaten by armor Modwyr is going to be outperforming WB after a few swings. I do agree that raw damage lashes are undervalued, but it's nowhere near as good as a Flames of Devotion per swing. The +10 accuracy on FoD is nearly as valuable as the lash, and there's power level scaling to take into account. Plus if you are evaluating a weapon for DPS you have to include the sword tax.

I dislike dual wield devoted. Very few weapon types are deep enough to make it shine over single weapon style with the best weapon available. If you really want to dual wield I would suggest war hammers. With BoW installed you can get two great ones midway through the game. Flails and sabres are good too, but only a single damage type (so you'd be stinking it up against the occasional immune enemy - fortunately not super common). Swords give you a lot of uniques early but only have one standout weapon. I think it's a good choice to one handed style but dual wielding it is going to be really underwhelming midway through the game.

Attributes get pretty generic advice for a primary spellcaster off the front lines. Moderate (8-10) CON, dump RES as low as you are comfortable. High or max INT for all the synergies it has with buff / debuff / AoE powers. Split the balance between MGT / DEX / PER, where you'll get a dozen different opinions about which distro is best but the actual difference between those combinations is generally very small, so pick whatever flavor suits you.

I agree with the previous comments about wizard feeling pretty limited without INT, but there are some cool things you can do still. Besides the aforementioned Combusting Wounds combos (and it is a fantastic skill to combo across your party), DAoM is a great general purpose buff, and Essential Phantasm is a good summon with any sort of gun build. At higher levels, Chain Lightning and Ninagauth's Killing Bolt are powerful nukes that do not scale with intelligence. They also work really well with Takedown Combo, which gives you +100% damage on your next attack and will double the damage of one of those nukes. Great when set up with your accuracy bonuses for massive crits.

Attributes don't have *that* big of an impact. You don't swing wildly from unreliable to reliable through your attribute choices. I think there is a strong case for MGT DEX and PER. Damage spells scale very well with might as they don't get diluted by weapon damage modifiers as well, and while dexterity is overrated as a damage stat it is underrated for its effects on tempo and reactivity. So you can shift between DEX and PER but I imagine the differences are going to be extremely marginal. Just be sure to invest in both!