Frykas

Just to make sure I didn't convolute things more, promenade fight is fix but which faction shows up there and which one tries to stop you at the edge of ondra's mortar is dependant on the strongest rival faction that uses the aformentioned string value. On other note, before, I searched only the quests.gaedatabundle file for n_faction_strength and got nice 24 hits, not that much. But while looking through it today I noticed that VTC was missing. So I checked the whole design folder. And well... 85 hits, man, this is gonna be a lot o work.

Hi all! So, a while ago while trying to find a way to save Pallegina from promenade fight as I tried to make VTC my strongest rival (it worked, but, well...), I realised (using unity console) that it has nothing to do with reputation. There is a separate "mechanic" for that. Actually not mechanic per se, more a string value of 1, -1 or (in one instance) +2 value of eg. n_faction_strength_RDC (or Huana etc.). At a certain point, strongest faction that you are not finishing the Ukaizo quest with, gets to be the rival. That is it. Very straightforward...but (there always seems to be one) it is not easy, at least with my limited knowlege, to indentify them quickly form the quests.gamedatabundle. The alternative it to check proper entry in Unity Console after every, single , quest. So that's a backup. The purpose of this post is to give first more concrete info about "How strongest rival is declared?" question, aside form just do stuff for them question. After full list is composed it will be easy to calculate as there is no in-game UI to display this unlike reputation. (Honestly, this really should be there from day one or any of the patches, at least as an optional feature like "over PC lvl skull-indicator") Also, if you are interested in helping out, maybe try to explore quests.gamedatabunde file on your own or pm me so we might coordinate. The ultimate purpose is to make a list of quest that influence this value, add it here and on gamepedia with explanation so it is widely accesible. That's it for now, I have an upcoming sailing trip so might be next update from me will be around mid-august. All best, lads and lasses.

Never knew CoS stacks with itself, that's awesome. As for seeker's fang vs rannig's wrath, I also had a rough time deciding. Rannig's thrusting and flurry make it tempting but ultimately DoT from Seeker's fang is a bit better. I just wish it had a bit better 2ND tier upgrade but that might be a bit OP. But I had fun results with changing RW to Rust's Poignard (even with it's lower base dmg) and then switching to fists when enemy is already low on defences. Of course this is useful for bosses as it would be too tedious for others.

Sooo.... Basically me when realising that this might be even more convoluted and I can't test it properly now, as I'm running on the integrated GPU after my dumb a** broke one of the fans while cleaning. So I think, I'll get back to this mess when I finish with sorting the quests that influence the strength of factions for finall taly of strongest rival. PS. Obsidian, seriously, this is the kind basic thing that really should be documented...

Wait, what? I tested it with full attacks and had different results depending which weapon was in OH.

Finally had a moment to check and reply. Obviously you are right, I'll edit the build. EDIT- forgot that it is too late xD I am really glad you are enjoing it and I'll have to try it with dual sabres.

Yes, you are right. During my play and testing it seemed that it's the MH. Especially when turning on/off the rapier modal.

Aaaand again I made some nice discoveries while searching the files. There is a simple string value attached to some quests. They increase the n_faction_strength by 1, -1 or for one RDC quest 2. That's it, nothing too convoluted about it. As I have exams coming up it might take me a moment to write it all but there are basically 24 quest with this string attached. I'll mine it and put it up here and on wiki. Finally it will be solved. Soon.

Hahah, honestly that crossed my mind as she's extremally bitchy in Deadfire. And she was one of my favourites in PoE.

So, I wanted to ask if anyone knows how to prevent Pallegina from showing up with Nirro, Canta Nicese on the last fight on the Promenade fight on Ukaizo. My ending plans are to: 1. Side with Aeldys in honor amongst thieves, have the Floating Hangman and after getting it 2. Side with Huana 3. Go to Dunnage and Kill Aeldys (if she's killed right after getting it, somehow she's resurrected and shows up on Ukaizo, so this is the only way to get Pim as a leader of Principi) 4. VTC is main rival 5. I kill Hazanui by when she attacks when I reject her offer to keep Maia with me 6. Other arcs are unimportatnt for this I think so I'll skip them Now when I show up on Promenade for a secon time she's there and want's to die. So my question is, can I somehow stop her from being there? Maybe make her quests and have +2 rep with her? Or do I have to make RDC the main rival and use to trick with killing hazanui to keep Maia? Would that even work, meaning, can they be the strongest rival after killing hazanui? Thanks in advance.

Ah ok. I would't say very OP but not taking it would definately show more of those min/max aspects and make it a bit more vulnerable so it will require some more assist from teammates. If you don't want a OP MC I'd say that not taking them for Veteran should make some cracks in defences, eg. lower Will and Fortitude. Makes sense RP wise as well.

Good things should be advertised And tarn's respite is a great idea for early game. Full -10 Def malus should be achieved rather fast with speed native to this build. Thanks for that.

What exactly you mean by bonus abilities? Like summoning muatu? Or the blade cascade from SE?

As you can see, puns are back. This one is thanks to my lovely SO. And that "u" in the name is no mistake, just a lovely pun, cause you know...he's a shadowdragon, on drugs right? he he he... Ok, enough about puns. =============================================== Shadowdrugon ===============================================Difficulty: PotD v5.0.0.0040 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Role: High single-target DPS and single-targer disabler-----------------------------------------------------------------Solo: No (maybe if you abuse summons to use as a distraction and use nemnok's cloak, still doubt it) -----------------------------------------------------------------Berath's blessings: +50K Gold/Loaded pockets/Bonus attributes(!)/Fine equipment/Pet for Eder(!)(cause you know he really deserves it)/Unique item vendor/Infamous Past/Mythical discovery------------------------------------------------------------------ Class: Shadowdancer (Rogue + Monk) ------------------------------------------------------------------Subclass: (Trickster/Nalpazca) Nalpazca can probably be changed to Helwalker but will be much more glassy, possibly too much. ------------------------------------------------------------------Race: Human (The Fighting spirit can be of great help, but other than that, any will do)------------------------------------------------------------------Background: Any will do, for RP purposes I chose deadfire and explorer------------------------------------------------------------------ When listing attributes values, it's what creation window should show when you finish distributing them, racial bonus and background included, any further changes to your attributes will be berath's blessings and abilities (on my previous post it was a bit unclear so a new method, if you use all attribute points, they should add up to 78) Attributes: MIG:12 CON:11 DEX:16 PER:18 INT:11 RES:10 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Proficiencies: Rapier(!) (+20 Acc modal with -50% Recovery penalty, works great with full attacks and rapier's low 3.0 sec recovery time) Sabres (always in off hand so we get +2 pen for free becaus for full attacks, only main hand recovery counts) Stilletos (With legendary, we get up to 15 Pen (just weapon) for those extremaly armored enemies, recovery malus hurts just as little as in rapier) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Alchemy/History (Makes sense to respec into history from other roleplaying one once you get giftbearer's cloak and it will give more than Cloak of Greater Protection ------------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities: Legend: essential-(!), sugessted-(S) otherwiseto can be considered situational and may be changed PL1: Monk: Swift Strikes(!), Lesser Wounds(S); Rogue: Crippling Strike(!), Escape(S) PL2: Monk: Clarity Of Agony (!); Rogue: Blinding Strike (!), Dirty Fighting (!); Mutual: Two Weapon Syle (!) PL3: Monk: Swift Flurry(!), Stunning Blow(!), Soul Mirror (S); Rogue: Confounding Blind(!), Finishing Blow (S), Riposte PL4: Monk: Duality of Mortal Presence(!), Thunderous Blows(!); Rogue: Persistant Distraction(!) PL5: Monk: Stunning Surge(!), Enervating Blows(!); Rogue: Devastating Blow (S), Deep Wounds (S); Mutual: Tough PL6: Monk: Turning Wheel(S), Flagellant's Path(!); Rogue: Slippery Mind(S) PL7: Monk: Heartbeat Drumming(!); Rogue: Deathblows(!) Other worthy mentions that can be taken to shape the playstyle in some niche a bit: -Backstab combined with Shadowing Beyond instead of Flagellant's path and Crippling Strike at later levels when CP is not used very often. -If you stay with just Escape, and don't "upgrade" to Flagellent's Path (FP) (better range and full attack, higher cost), Weapon and Shield Style is a great choice for tougher battles and when using Tuotilo's Palm Outward Spikes to further increase chance for riposte attacks. -For tougher fights, Iron Wheel can be useful with it's +3AR max bonus, change if for Turning Wheel -Improved Criticals should be taken instead of Slippery mind if you choose to frequently use food blocking mind afflictions ------------------------------------------------------------------- Items: Weapons: Rannig's Wrath/Scordeo's Edge and Rust's Poingard/Scordeo's Edge and Scordeo's Edge or Rannig's Wrath/Tuotilo's Palm; Aldris Blade of Captain Crow is a nice earlier alternative to SE Helm: Helm of The White Void Neck: Protective Eothasian Charm (a tiny mod to change per rest to per encounter, so it's less tedious) Torso: Devil of Caroc Breastplate Ring: Ring of Prosperity's Fortune Feet: Boots of Stone Cape: Giftbearer's Cloak (after your history skill gives more than +10 that Cloak of Greater Protection gives) Trinket: Muatu's Head Gloves: Aegor's Swift Touch or Mortification Bindings Ring: Entonia Signet Ring Belt: The Undying Burden Pet: Abraham or Dude the Six-Toes Cat (Eder should carry Nalvi, however, giving him Concelhaut's Skull is much funnier and more petty (pun, I almost cried when I realised that, might be too much time in quarantine)) ------------------------------------------------------------------- That's it, now for more 'in depth' description. So, Crits. This is what this mod circles around. Also speed. Hence highest PER and very high DEX. High crit chance is achieved by combined buffs to Acc and instantly debuffing enemies with stunning surge, confounding blind and persistant distraction. Full power is revieled when high accuracy is combined with both swift flurry and heartbeat drumming as one can proc the other and vice versa. But even before that this is a true single target DPS beast. About level 17, his total damage was about 163K while Maia(pure ranger) was 2nd with 95K and Eder (swashbuckler) was 3rd with about 60K. And for testing stuff on dummies I had to mod their HP from 500 to 5000 because they were dying too fast. Beast. My favourite part about this build is that he's ready instantly and, if used wisely, can retain full damage capability through the whole fight. Biggest hole in defences is Will, that is filled with minor protection rings and greater cloak of protection(unique item vendor) and later with Giftbearer's Cloak and some bonuses to RES. Party. I played this build with full party comprising of: Eder (Swashbuckler), Xoti (Priest), Aloth (Battlemage), first Maia (Ranger) later ~18lvl Tekehu (Theurge) Abilities. It is important to maintain battle discipline and do not use up resources too fast as without them DPS falls greately. Crippling strike is never upgraded as we use it scarcely and as a back-up if we run out of mortification. As outlined in worthy mentions some changes can be made without sacrificig core parts and survivability. I would not recomend Helwalker instead of Nalpazca as it probably would need constant casting on him Barring Death's Door. About Confounding Blind (CB), while exploring this build I found some issues with flanked and CB, you can read about it here if you care at all, if not, I made a tiny mod that fixes both issues and it's here: Flanked 'fluctuating' stacking and confounding blind fix.rar. My solution is also included in @Elric Galad's BPM, which I would recommend to check out. Another important part is getting to enemies quickly and hunting ranged enemies and mages. This is done by using Escape and/or Flagellant's Path. Mages with Deflection below ~80/90 and lvl 20, be probably outright destroyed with FP. It is crucial to remember that while Guile is not refundable with this build and Mortification is, often using CB to be sure Stunning Surge(SS) is refunded, is the way to go. Most attacks should be carried out with SS as long as we have high Crit chance. It is a full attack so the cost will be refunded even if only one weapon crits. Both Escape and FP can be used to traverse the battlefield and have their finer points. At the begining Escape is a must have, later can be changed to FB but having both is just as good. Trickster abilities give us the much needed survivability while sacrificing just +10% additive sneak attack bonus. Mirrored Image costs just a tiny 1 guile and the +30 Def bonus is just huge. Coupled with Llengrath's Displaced Image and this multiclass native very high reflex, make you neigh untouchable (although for just few hits) and for longer if used with Weapon and Shield Style and Tuotilo's Palm. Weapons. Rannig's Wrath is a perfect rapier with increased action speed, total +9 Acc bonus (+5 is from any rapier's "accurate") and enchantment to add +1 Pen and another for +10% Dam angainst flanked targets. And almost all of them will be flanked. It's modal of +20 Acc stacks with its native bonuses AND +20 from SE Adaptive, and tops with 162 Acc (+10 from helmet) that can be further increased with Devotions of the faithful and/or Aware, with both it tops at 167 Acc (170 with accuracy gauntlets). While still having nice 1.6 sec recovery with the modal active (swift flurry also active), and dropping to 1.3sec when modal is deactivated (SF still active)(That is with proposed gear). Scordeo's Edge makes for some ridiculous DPS whe cascade is active and with +10 INT from DoMP it last a quite a bit longer then 5sec. Rust's Poingard is best used against enemies that are immune to being blinded. CB only adds it's additional Def malus if the target can be blinded. Enemies resistant to Perception afflictions are saved from this malus. Incidentaly, the malus from Rust's Poingard is for some reason concidered a beneficial effect so it will most likely stack with everything else you thow at your enemies. Like stunned or flanked. Tuotilo's Palm makes for a perfect shield here, it hit's can add Acc to unarmed attacks (it also counts), benefits from Transcendant Suffering therfore scaling and it can be enchanted to either give another chance for riposte attach to proc, or give us another +10 Def and Ref bonus. Awesome. Aldris Blade of Captain Crow is also a very nice addition for survivability and damage as it gives +8 health on every crit, gives 10% Hit to Crit and also flat +10 shock damage on Crit. Very nice indeed. A important addition is Beza's Toothed Blade. it is a must when fighting Veil-Touched enemies. I forgot that when I went for BoW dlc and my crit/hit ratio dropped anoyingly and I burned through Mortification way too fast. Gear. Helm of the White Void gives us a "all-stack" +10 acc bonus to any attack that aplies body or mind affliction. So any affliction. Also that's almost all of our attacks. Excluding Devastating Blow and auto attacks. Before it's obtained Thaos' Headdress is a good substitute with only +5 Acc but also +10% Dam to flanked targets. I know it's PoE 1 dependant but later about that. Protective Eothasian Charm. Great Near Death incoming damage reduction bonus plus, juicy +1PER, available extremaly early, worn it the whole game, never looked back. Devil of Caroc Breastplate. Obvious, +2 each class resource, Self mending for +2 AR, and INT Aff resistance. Also nice -10% recovery time. Ring of Prosperity's Fortune. Given the economy in the game getting full 15% Hit to Crit from it is a no brainer. Nice for times when we face high Def enemies and to help SF and HD also get Crits. Boots of Stone. Much needed RES and DEX bonuses and a resistance to MIG Aff as a cherry on top. Giftbearer's Cloak. Already covered above. Only other thing is the extra weapon slot and quic item slot for more druuuugs. Muatu's Head. Good for a tough spot as his attacks restore your health. Aegor's Swift Touch. It allows us to reach the height if speed potential. Mortification bindings to increase error margin for using SS. Entonia Signet Ring, up to +10 all Defenses (+2 for every enemy that engages you, 5 stacks) The Undying Burden. +2 CON and up to -10% incoming damage, just what the doctor ordered. Abraham helps us reach the full speed potential as well. Also he gives the entire party +10 HP on kill and we plan to do that a lot. Dude the Six-Toes Cat is a nice switch with no recovery time reduction but double the HP regen on kill. Also as my girl says, "soo cute". Possibly it is. Potions/Drugs/Food. The single best survivability potion for me is Compassionate Soul Essence. Makes you neigh invincible and is available very early on, and it's extremaly cheap. For drugs I like the whiteleaf for the health regen and bonus Will, concentration also desn't hurt when fighting ranged Rogues thet interrupt you a lot. For regular fights I try to have Honey Wine Hen active for damage reduction and HP regen. Depending on the particular tougher fight, either Captain's Banquet/Shark Soup or Mohora Wraps, Brew Battered Ysae is nice with +3 CON bonus and -20% recovery time bonus. Aaaand that would be it. The thing I said I'd adress later: I just plain added the Thaos' Headdress with Unity Console. As I plan to add SE or at least Aldris Blade. After the added mechanic of exporting NPC with gear I figure it doesn't really matter and it's starting gear anyway, and for Aldris Blade, I rushed Ashen Maw on this playthrough and was punished with still unpatched bugs around Wahaki questline. And it doesn't change that much. So if you ask me, go crazy. Still though I wouldn't go too far so as to let progress mean something. Even if after getting to Neketaka you basically can get anything anyway. (I am very tired when writing this so that's probably why I'm a bit salty). When I read this tommorow I'll probably find something more I should have mentioned, if crucial, I'll post it as a separate post in this topic. And for last, here a short showcase video (would have done more but it is very late) of single combat vs 5000 HP dummy. It has very low defences but I mostly wanted to show the full DPS potential. @whatever369, rushed this for you as I know how impatient I get when I want to try out a new build. Have fun! And of course all best to all you lads and lasses. May you be safe from Ishiza's droppings.

I have run a Transcendant (nalpazca/soul blade) [build] and now finishing on Shadowdancer (nalpazca/trickster) with swift flurry and stunning surge, both builds on PotD. And I must admit that total damage and crit/hit ratio speak greately for the shadowdancer. The malus from trickster is negligable and the defensive capabilities are really good, so much that you can get semi-passive crowd control help (more then capability) with riposte and rooting pain. Now I thing maybe even turning blade might be helpful. Also rogue's confounding blind let's you amazingly quickly reduce enemy Deflection and stunning surge can keep even some bosses stunlocked. The biggest problem is low will, and that can quite easily be mitigated with items. I'll probably in one or two days upload a build proposition for the shadowdancer but in my opinion it's extremaly fun to play.