mrscojangles

Curious about this as well.

I don't know how you think wizards have nothing going for them. Just to name a few: chill fog (crazy strong for a level 1 spell), combusting wounds, expose vulnerabilities, arcane dampener, ryngrim's enervating terror (easily one of the best CC spells in the game, along with charm/dominated stuff), wilting wind, missile salvo, etc. And plenty of other good stuff, especially in terms of aoe damage.

It's worth mentioning that the Hand Mortar is slash/pierce, so the pierce immune part doesn't apply to that specific blunderbuss. It also is different than other blunderbusses in that it is only firing one projectile per shot, so it isn't like a standard blunderbuss with 5 smaller projectiles. Hand Mortar + Scordeo's Trophy is a solid combo for cipher. There are plenty of other quality guns and scepters and wands as well too depending on your preferences. Also, yes, the cleave on Hand Mortar does generate focus. I can't speak on the rogue stuff as I haven't really played around with the class. I would suggest Ascendant for the cipher subclass and you definitely are not gimping yourself by being ranged. Being ranged also gives you the option of playing with lower con and res (or dumping res completely), which frees you up to put more points in per/dex, since a front line melee char is going to need some more survivability than ranged.

Because of the modal. While you are correct, more deflection is a good thing, the medium shield modal is a 30% chance to completely resist an attack at the cost of 25% recovery penalty on weapons. Since my tank isn't really doing any significant weapon damage and is mostly just hitting things to debuff them with the weapon modals, the 25% increased recovery is negligible. At that point you're trading some deflection for the chance to completely avoid an attack and you're not losing out on as much accuracy, if your tank is a chanter or something else where you still want to be able to hit the enemy with debuffs.

Personally I'd say medium shields seem to be the better option for tank characters, since they're generally taking more damage from melee while the ranged enemies are more likely to be going after your back lines or squishier characters. I can see swapping around to a large shield if you know the enemies have specific reflex save spells that are mashing you, but for general usage I'd argue medium shield is the better option for tanks. Can't speak for non tanks as the accuracy loss has never been worth it for me on dps characters, though I could see the large shield modal being nice to situationally swap on with a heal/buff char, when you are casting spells that don't target the enemy.

Ranged Helwalker/Ascendant is sweet. Generate wounds with dance of death/enduring dance. 10 might from Helwalker at 10 wounds, 10 int from duality at 10 wounds, 5 might/2 pen from thunderous blows, 5 dex and lightning lash from lightning strikes. Since you only lose 1 power level when not at full focus as Ascendant, you can still toss out CC or debuffs just fine even when you're not ascended. Can spam around mind waves/mind blades/silent scream/amplified wave for great damage when ascended. Borrowed instinct for a nice accuracy boost. Secret Horrors is a solid aoe debuff and obviously have great CC with Whispers of treason and the likes. It is squishy but even dumping resolve and only having 8 or 10 con, its still ok as long as you have some heals and a front liner or two. Depending on your difficulty, I'd recommend very high perception. Perception and accuracy are king for this build, then dex and then you want a decent bit of int/might but don't really need to go much higher than 15 or so, since you're going to be getting so much of both from all the monk buffs. I'd recommend dual wielding with serafen's gun and some other 1hander. Serafen's gun works very well for generating focus since it has the built in aoe and the fact that it has two different damage types. I enjoyed the build pre 1.1 but didnt really need the CC portion much and basically played it as a straight up damage machine. I'm sure could still go that route post 1.1 on easier difficulties, but i've been playing upscaled POTD with the hardcore deadly deadfire mod now and its working great as a hybrid character. On tough fights you can spend a lot of time CCing with Whispers, debuffing with secret horrors, etc, and then when you're able you can pump out serious damage and interrupts and stuff too. It is a very flexible character. If you have other people locking down CC or don't need to CC much for a specific fight, you can do a ton of damage. If the fight has 15 enemies you can spend the majority of your time controlling the battle with all the mind controls and debuffs and interrupts. Surprisingly, even with all the CC I'm doing on this playthrough, it still is holding its own on overall damage since with the mod, fights are pretty drawn out and when my other characters may be all out of spells and resources towards the end, the cipher can keep on trucking. On the pre 1.1 playthrough it was top damage by a solid margin, and it wouldnt surprise me if it still ends up that way on this playthrough once i unlock silent scream and amplified wave. But even at low levels, mind wave is decent damage with an interrupt and mind blades is great for 2+ targets, especially against enemies with high saves but not super high deflection. It also has a short cast time so you can really pump out a bunch of them quickly with high dex. I would highly recommend the combo. Perhaps I'll get around to making a guide for it at some point. Edit: I just remembered to grab Scordeo's Trophy in my current playthrough and wanted to mention that is a great second weapon to go with Hand Mortar. Enchant it with opening barrage and you'll be stacking up reduced recovery time the entire fight, which applies to all your attacks and spells.

No, not just a you issue. They look the same on my end as well.

I think easiest way to check will probably be your quest log. At least when i swapped from the normal version to the HC version, it increased the difficulty skull rating on all my quests. I assume swapping from no mod to the normal version would also be bumping up the skull rating on a fair number of quests as well.

Yeah, you can install the mod or swap between the normal and HC versions at any point. The only catch is that any maps you've loaded into will not change, so you may want to set up a separate save file for when you set up the mod. That way if you go to a handful of maps and find they're all too tough, you could roll back to the previous save, as my understanding is the enemies on those loaded maps would hold their levels even if you removed the mod or swapped from the HC to the normal.

Deadly Deadfire: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43 I started my 1.1 potd upscaled playthrough with the normal version on V2.1 and it was solid at the start but then difficulty dropped a bit and I decided to try swapping over to the hardcore version(V1.2). With the hardcore version, I just swapped over last night so I've only played a bit but it wouldn't surprise me if it's serious overkill on intro island, since you're going to be lacking gear to deal with the large level differences between you and the enemies, so on a fresh game you may want to start with the normal version until you get a few pieces of gear and then swap over to the HC. Or the HC might be good from the start, but I haven't tried it yet so I couldn't say. Since I've only played a few hours since I swapped over to the HC version, I can't speak with certainty on how it will hold up throughout the entire game. I'm only level 7 or 8 i think, but so far it's making pretty much all non named enemies 2-4+ levels higher than me and I think all the named enemies/bosses are set to 4+ levels higher than the player. Both versions are nerfing XP gain significantly, but with the way some of the high levels spells are balanced, I think XP restrictions are going to be fairly standard on anything thats trying to significantly ramp up the difficulty, at least until some mods start adjusting enemy AI. And I'm guessing if you're a completionist and doing all the side quests, you'll still be hitting cap with time to spare. It's too early in my game for me to give any definitive review of the overall difficulty with this mod for the late game/game as a whole, but it certainly is increasing it significantly over the base game. Whether it will hold up throughout the entire game remains to be seen. It definitely is not going to be for everyone, but it may be worth a shot for people who are looking for some additional means to buff up the enemies at the moment.

To be fair, the 5000g Berath's Blessing effectively does that as you can make a beeline straight to Port Maje and hire 4 adventurers. Downside is they'll be 1 level lower than you, but the experience needed per level is minuscule if you start at level 1 and still small if you use the Berath's Blessing to start at level 4, so the gap in levels gets closed quickly and then you just have a tiny bit of stagger of a few thousand xp when hitting a new level. With XP in the game capped at 190,000, the 3000xp gap or whatever it ends up being is insignificant in the grand scheme of things

And that's fine, I have no issue with people playing solo or whatever they want to do. But the fact is, it's a tiny percentage of the game base that even plays POTD and then it is a tiny fraction of that who plays it solo. At the end of the day it's not reasonable to expect the devs to be balancing the game in any way for the .01% of their base who will ever do a solo potd play through. It's cool that there are people doing it, and I'm glad people are finding all sorts of ways to enjoy the game, but the game is never going to be balanced around that in any way, shape, or form.

I'm confident that making sure the game is a reasonable difficulty for solo isn't even on their list of priorities. The triple crown solo achievement is just an achievement, they absolutely aren't doing any game balancing around it, and nor should they.

Your best bet is probably to only use empowers to refresh resources, because empowering the abilities themselves is stupidly OP. Obviously if you like being stupidly OP, thats cool too, but if thats not your style, then I'd definitely avoid empowering spells themselves. Especially spells that are already crazy OP like missile salvo.

I agree, there is definitely a lot of potential but I think even still it isn't ever going to be able to reach that same level of meta gaming as BG2 with mods. I think so much of the tactical feel of the BG2 mods came down to casters though. Yeah, there are some tough melee opponents but the bulk of the serious stuff was all about properly utilizing your casters to properly counter the enemy casters. The affliction/inspiration system just doesn't have that same level of depth to me. I have a dexterity affliction so i cast a dexterity inspiration to remove it. There isn't any more depth to that. With BG2 casters there were so many more layers. Yeah, Breach will remove the enemy wizard's stoneskin, but your breach isn't going to work until you remove his spell shield. So you pierce magic the shield but now he's got invisibility so you can't target breach on him. And he has immunity to Divination so you need to use a rogue to detect illusions cuz your true sight doesn't dispel his invis. Etc, etc. Where as pillars, you can negate anything on your characters with suppress affliction or Liberating Exhortation. Or arcane dampener on the enemy (it has a saving throw, but still). And beyond that its just a enemy has a X stat inspiration. Do i have a X stat affliction? If not, its no big deal because they're still not giving enemies the same level of immunities as something like protection from magical weapons or mantle or protection from magic energy or whatever.

Depends on how you play on the lower difficulties, but I would say it certainly is going to put a lot more importance on buffing/debuffing/CCing/positioning/etc. At least on intro island on potd with deadly deadfire, I'm having to play smart with my abilities and can't just use all my spell casts/resource on damage abilities and then auto attack everything to death. Where as I'm sure that is a viable option on lower difficulties. Yes, it will take longer due to number inflation, but at least at this point in the game and with the mod, I can't just zerg rush 95% of the fights like pre 1.1 potd.

I love me some SCS/Tactics/Ascension BG2 and also hope people are able to mod the enemy AI significantly in deadfire, but that's going to be a waiting game, if it is even possible. I'm not a modder so I really have no clue to what extent the AI behavior is modifiable. At the end of the day though, I don't think you're ever going to get that same level of tactical back and forth in POE as you could in BG. The sheer amount of shield/resistance/immunity spells and all the spell thrust/secret word/breach/pierce magic/dispel magic/etc just doesn't exist to that same extent in pillars. The affliction and inspiration system kinda touches on it, but its still a whole different ballgame. But I also do understand that your average person doesn't enjoy that SCS style of having to work your way through the 5 or 10 different immunities and spell shields that every enemy caster has, in a very specific order, as they constantly are rebuffing and reapply their immunities and such. Granted, I love it, but we're certainly in the minority in that regard.

I'm still on intro island of my post 1.1 playthrough, so its probably too early to judge much, but I've been using the deadly deadfire mod for this play through and I'm thinking that may be a good option for you as well. I did use the start at level 4 berath's blessing, but none of the stat ones or anything. POTD with scaling to only scale up. Most everything I've been facing so far has been 1 to 4+ levels higher than me. Obviously I can't speak for further into the game and its certainly possible it'll still be a cakewalk once I get to mid levels or higher, but the mod also does have a hardcore version that increases everything even more, and I have not tried that one yet. I would recommend checking out the mod. It'll lower your xp gain, it'll buff up how much enemies can scale upwards, and it'll buff up enemy HP. It won't change their AI, but it's better than nothing if the game is far too easy for you. And, if its still too easy, you can try the hardcore version which lowers xp even further, and buffs their level/hp further. If thats still not your speed, you're probably just going to have to wait for some more modders to put out other difficulty increases or impose some self restrictions on yourself. Personally, I don't love using drugs and potions besides health potions, so I don't use them much, if at all. In my first playthrough I never bothered with any food besides hardtack. You could refrain from using empowers on any abilities and only use them to refresh resources. Or don't use them at all. Or don't use any of the summoning figurines (this increased difficulty a bunch in POE1). Or any other number of self imposed restrictions. I know you mentioned fixes without a "mods will fix it agenda", but at this point I'd say you should give the Deadly Deadfire mod a try if you're doing another playthrough: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43

Been wanting this feature for like 20 years of CRPGs. Especially playing on high difficulties or with mods like SCS/Tactics/Ascension, you end up pausing like every second and never really get to fully appreciate the visuals and all that. I definitely can understand it being low on the list of priorities, but it would be really awesome to be able to sit back and watch that tough fight that took you 20 minutes with all the pausing, or watch the fight that you've been wiping on for hours, etc. Not only would it be cool for the wins, but from a tactical standpoint it could be really helpful to rewatch a fight you're wiping on and be able to better understand what is happening and how to properly adjust. Mostly I just want to see the glory of unleashing a barrage of spells in real time though.

Instead of dragging the menagerie item into the slot, left click it to lift it up and then left click it into the slot. Or thats what worked for me when I was having the same issue before this patch, so it's worth a shot.

Dexterity reduces your cast times and recovery time for spells. So, yes, there is a ton of value to it.

Just to clarify, this is saying that they're capped at only being able to scale 4 or 6 levels higher? So if I'm level 16 and come across a fight that was level 6 unscaled, it would only scale up to level 10 for the unnamed enemies and 12 for the named ones? Why not have them scale all the way up?

That is not true, you do NOT get more loot from boarding. You get less. There is no advantage to boarding other than skipping ship combat mechanics if you just can't stand them. https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/8hqmww/any_reason_to_destroy_ships_at_all_when_you_can/ While I haven't done all the ship fights both ways to do a complete side by side comparison, it definitely has seemed like the loot is the same between similar ships if you board or do ship combat except for ship fixtures - ie: I don't recall ever looting cannons when i sink anyone, where as I have when I board them. But the actual gear itself (weapons, armor, gold, etc) seems to be the same or very close to the same between similar ships. I can't recall if I've got food when sinking the ships or when boarding them, but as far as gear or any unique weapons/armor, you're going to get that stuff either way. And at the end of the day, a few extra cannons or food is chump change. So I'd say do whatever you enjoy because the differences are pretty negligible. Definitely seem to get more ship/sailor experience from actually doing the battles and not boarding straight away though. Edit: In response to the added picture, I'm guessing the "more loot" is probably including the ship fixtures like cannons, supplies like food and probably some extra vendor gear. I'm sure eventually someone will test out a bunch of the fights side by side, but I'd be very surprised if you're missing out on unique items from the named captains or anything by sinking a ship as opposed to boarding it, so it still boils down to preference as gold becomes a non issue relatively early on in this game.

You're likely going to reach a point where you have so much gold there is no reason not to upgrade if you intend to do any ship stuff. I've bought every single ship for the achieve, decked out my junk, have like 3000 of the +1 morale food and drink, have bought every piece of gear i've found that I want (and some just to toss in my bags as potential backups), bought up all enchanting mats from every vendor I find just to make sure I have anything I might need, and I still have a a few hundred thousand and maps i haven't explored and quests I haven't completed.

Ascendant/Helwalker is crazy strong. I posted this in another thread, but its relevant here as well. Updated a few things: Ranged Helwalker/Ascendant is pretty awesome. Lightning Strikes, Duality, Thunderous Blows, Enduring Dance, etc on the monk side of things. With Draining Whip and the blunderbuss that has the built in aoe damage and one of the scepters with an extra jump or something like that (recently found the pistol with the stacking action speed buff and thats absolutely amazing for cipher), you cap your focus super fast. I'm sure it'd be really strong with long pain and turning wheel too, especially for single target, but I haven't messed around with that yet. Definitely a bit squishy but its easily manageable if you're playing with a party with a tank/melee or two and something that can give you some heals. Good damage, good cc and debuffs. I'd definitely recommend it. Edit: I really don't see single class ascendant being able to compete with the multi from a damage standpoint. Time Parasite is really nice but with the helwalker multi you're getting: ​-Lightning Strikes: 20% action speed, 30% lightning lash, 5 dex -Dance of Death/Enduring Dance: 12 accuracy at full -Thunderous Blows: 5 might, 2 pen -Duality: 10 int at 10 wounds -Helwalker: 10 might at 10 wounds At lower levels you still have mind blades which is great damage for 2+ targets. A little bit higher you get silent scream, then borrowed instinct is an amazing buff, and then a bit later you get amplified wave. All 3 work great as spammable damage dealers. Obviously theres really good CC options at lower levels too (ie: whispers of treason). The trade off is basically all of the above stats for Time Parasite, Death of a Thousand Cuts (and Driving Echoes as far as party buffs go), and unlocking stuff a bit faster. But its not like cipher doesn't have any good damage spells until you get to amplified wave or silent scream, so basically you have a very strong 2+ target damage dealer right out the gate with mind blades, so I never felt like it was in a rush to get those higher level abilities like some builds need to really unlock their potential. This isn't all to say that single class cipher couldn't be strong too, it's more a statement of the current state of monk buffs, because they are really really OP for a class like cipher that benefits hugely from all the accuracy/speed/might/int. With the current undertuned state of POTD, lot of fights are ending so fast that I barely even have time to utilize being Ascended, so I feel like this build is only going to get stronger as POTD gets tuned and hopefully a lot of the later game fights stop being auto attack roll overs.