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Starting lvl 4 not necessary really with all the dlcs and xp gain. nor fine quipment. -Get bonus stats, mythical, and 50K money and extra merchant those are the best ones. Then if you still have points go for extra skills.

On Potd that shadowdancer is very nice but you will need a support healer otherwise it will be a bit too squishy in some encounters. I would recommend a Priest/Chanter or Paladin/Priest as your healer support or Paladin Chanter. For solid solo you typically mix Paladin/x like Paladin/Trickster , Paladin Chanter or something like that to be tanky enough. Check the boards build list for build ideas. As I said for solo a Paladin multi with a strong dps class (Rogue, Monk, Barbarian) is a good way to go.

Giving everybody access to Avenging Storm is like giving everybody Heart of Fury or Sacred Immolation. It not only makes the game much easier, but also anger single class druid players. Why the hell everybody can have my class's trademark ability? Yeah after alchemy/insect swarm nerf druids became pretty much pocket healers because you don't want to rely on scrolls/items for healing every encounter in a typical playthrough and they have those aoe heal over time spells still going for them.

wiz/evoker with vaporous grimoire bonus is pretty beastly too. instabuffs and nukes everything on screen. - i guess the trade off is the wizard spells damage allies as well but its still a much more powerful dps than pretty much anything else.

I disagree. It was nerfed for casters (by removing 1 PL) and fixed proccing from itself, but it still has: Split damage (pierce/slash) nearly twice as much damage when compared to standard scepter Good chance to proc decent AoE attack 15% corrode lash Its damage output is very comparable with The Red Hand. Please do some research before you write off things because they were supposedly nerfed. The chance to proc was reduced to sub 10%....have fun. Meanwhile who can get a 2sec reload/recovery on double attack from The Red Hand on a ranger/monk or sub 2 sec recovery on the Hunting Bow with modal activated. Over a period of attacking something Hunting with Modal on and The Red Hand will do 2x the damage of the rod.

It's a great weapon one of the best actually but late game. The obvious first choice for two handed ranged weapon is the red hand in the crossbow/arquebus class. Fleetbreaker and Spearcaster are just a grade bellow it but better than anything else not named the red hand. I am talking about two handed reload weapons of course. Two handed recovery weapon like the two unique Hunting Bows are very good too. Fleetbreaker is just a tiny bit bellow The Red Hand in terms of DPS, but it's not obtainable early. Essence Interrupter is very strong bow that sacrifices a bit of DPS for reliability and powerful "crowd control". It's available even before you leave PM and it's only downside is it's cost. Spearcaster is really good weapon for casters but requires a bit of investment (about 15k) The Red Hand is powerful, versatile and obtainable pretty early (12 mechanics and certain quests) Watershapers focus is easily the most powerful ranged weapon, it's obtainable extremely early (upon reaching Neketaka) and it's free. As for Melee Weapons Pukestabber (one of best melee weapons) is obtainable as soon as you get ship and it's free. Griffin Blade is great weapon for any damage-oriented Caster or Tank, you can get it early from one easy fight Magran's Ward (dunno it's name, it's from the latest patch) is really good shield when coupled with one-handed ranged weapon. It's obtainable by reaching Neketaka and more importantly it's free Watershapers focus got nerfed to the ground in the last patch, useless and slow now.

Some form of variation of this is still valid. Basically prebuff Daltro's cage helm lash with lightning damage, open out of stealth with thunderous report with the lightning lash modifier. Insta kill a bunch of mobs, reset encounter with stealth and repeat. Assassin/Wizard or Assassin/Skaen good combo for it.

It's a great weapon one of the best actually but late game. The obvious first choice for two handed ranged weapon is the red hand in the crossbow/arquebus class. Fleetbreaker and Spearcaster are just a grade bellow it but better than anything else not named the red hand. I am talking about two handed reload weapons of course. Two handed recovery weapon like the two unique Hunting Bows are very good too.

When playing with hardcore deadly deadfire installed for me the game is most challenging in the levels 12-15 range because with the scaling I am always facing enemy groups especially kith who are +6 levels above on average in that range so my party has level 12x abilities vs enemies who sometimes cast tier 7-9 level abilities lol. And at that point in the game I only have Nekataka am short on money to upgrade so I am running around in most exceptional gear with some superior while the enemies are casting high level wizard and priest spells / acepalm. Like until you are level 15+ some encounters are impossible like Sealed Fate/ Talfor is like seriously harder than gorecci street at those levels.

I don't think bellow level 14 is realistic on PotD, you need to be relatively geared already to take on those vamps which means you probably already did some questing before. I'd say level 13 doable with some superior pieces. That's for average good party. Of course if you have multiple chanter/paladins in plate you can probably try at level 11-12.

Huh? Wouldn't you lose more money if you didn't board and capture the ship intact? It that's the mechanic, then it goes against common sense. I will check the southwest island(s) then. No rewards from doing the bounties and equipment you get if you just sink the ships and not board is about the same Also I recommend getting as many weapons as you can from my list and doing deadlight dungeon before takling south east islands but once you do it and also the cave with eccea's blaster you should get enough superior quality drops not to worry about credits

easiest way to make credits is to use blessing money to buy dhow stack it with double bronzers and sink all ship bounties but I enjoy boarding too much to do that the other easiest way to get credits is to clear the island in the southwest of the map and get exceptional superior gear from the drops there and sell it.

-Grave Calling (steal it Cookespur) -The Red Hand (steal it) -Scordeo's Trophy (steal it) -Tuitilo's Palm (steal it) -Sun and Moon, Amra, Sasha's (buy them but $$$$ can be expensive) -LDV - (get past the storm) -Essence Interruptor (just $$$$$) -Frostseeker (relatively ez map fight on Nekataka isle) -Magran's Blessing shield (magran's Temple Nekataka steal it) -Modwyr -Blightheart (ez with high intimidate skill to get past ambush on beach same ilse with Rotten Lady etc) -Magran's Favor, Sungrazer (northeast isles some what challenging at level 10-12 but doable) -Aamina's Legacy (Umaru the Pretender - challenging+ but doable with split-pulling, I always do it at level 10-12) -Kitchen Stove (don't do all all the pulls in the undercity just get to the temple, but you need to defeat giant cave grub) -Rust's Poignard (Kill Rust tricky too put doable) -Eccea;s Arcane Blaster (use gunpowder barrels in that cave area to help clear the enemies early) great dual wield weapons in bold. but if you exhaust this least your party should be pretty well geared and ready for adventuring the main and side quests

only rymrgand

This is for multi-target damage: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102507-class-build-the-howitzer/ Streetfighter/helwalker is probably stronger though than nalpazca/assassin but every thing else is the same this is for single target damage: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/104638-class-build-the-big-game-hunter-massive-single-target-ranged-damage-wanderer-ghost-heart-helwalker/

Ah, got it. But how are they producing DPS now though? Go crit high build and spam FoD? Yes combine FoD with another class that has good fire attacks and use +PL fire items and ring of focused flame. Fanatic, Votary and Holy Slayer are all really good in terms of offense, also Templar although Templar is slower to get going.

Barbs are good dps either way at range or melee. At range I would multi with a ranger for hunting bow sick and fast damage. Works also well with chanter, cipher, monk and wizard if you want to stay ranged. Serefen though is not really optimized as a character his stats and sublcass are really meh and do not showcase what a witch can do.

Not surprising considering Lion's Sprint another accuracy bonus does not stack with borrowed instinct.

so you basically gouging strike and sworn enemy this thing and wait?

Priests are pretty fun as melee caster hyprids. They have stronger spells than druids or wizards up to the level 7 spells actually, it is after level 7 that wizards get a decisive edge. So doing a multiclass priest is less of a tradeoff than a multiclass wizard. Priest definately have the strongest nukes in the level 7 spell lineup when compared to wizards and druids. Also they have the best aoe party buffs and utilities in the game: dire blessing, devotions for the faithful, circle of protection, barring death's door and salvation of time. These make a priest actually a top addition to any party on potd I would say.

I mean you will have less stress in a breastplate than in a light armor in melee until levels 15+ when you have so many godly abilities on the party that can heal/sustain you through damage.

Because this was about melee and not ranged and you need 12 ar at least in melee.

Just know the test I run are at lvl 20 characters with optimized equipment and basically ignoring incoming damage so take it as it is. Over the course of the game I have found the following for example: -Barbarian (Berserker) -Streetfighter (Blunderbuss/ recovery reduction) -Cipher single class and their multiclass variants Can do impressive damage from the start of a game throughout the playthrough and tend to out dps other strong dps classes like monks and wizards until the very late levels. Like wizards and monks / monk/x variants to spectacular damage but at very late levels when they get key decisive abilities like the level 8/9 nukes in case of wizards and turning wheel , heartbeat shenanigans in the case of monks. What about single target DPS - especially melee? They are generally lower than spellcaster/ ranged builds. Barabarians and monks are quite good when optimized but in general aoe blunderbuss/ spellcaster builds that can jst stand in one place and pewpew of course do more damage. Like in my game right now a ranged shadowdancer streetfighter/helwalker with blunderbuss and pistol is doing more damage (though not by much) than a melee witch zerker who has to chase some targets during target swap sometimes.

Just know the test I run are at lvl 20 characters with optimized equipment and basically ignoring incoming damage so take it as it is. Over the course of the game I have found the following for example: -Barbarian (Berserker) -Streetfighter (Blunderbuss/ recovery reduction) -Cipher single class and their multiclass variants Can do impressive damage from the start of a game throughout the playthrough and tend to out dps other strong dps classes like monks and wizards until the very late levels. Like wizards and monks / monk/x variants to spectacular damage but at very late levels when they get key decisive abilities like the level 8/9 nukes in case of wizards and turning wheel , heartbeat shenanigans in the case of monks.

Finally someone not hating Magran's challenge! I like Magran's challenge, combined with Barath's it makes the game pretty exciting or maybe stressful, depending on what you want up to the point. Biggest gripe with Barath's challenge is that keeping extra companions alive I do cannot directly control becomes a matter of dumb "luck" in ship boarding battles. Abydon's is a tad too much money realistically for the game's economy if playing in a full party (for solo you should have enough money not to worry about it) should be halfed I think. It get's really expensive maintaining superior and legendary pieces. Unless the point is to scavage random armor as you progress and use it untill it falls apart and than switch to the next armor you randomly picked up in an encounter.