Somnium_Meum

I really dislike Berath's Blessings because they're given for just playing the game. "You've started the game! Here, take this a achievement" In my opinion they should be given for something a bit more difficult and optional. Like finding obscure quest solution, beating difficult optional boss, that kind of thing. Take "Stormwind Sails" as example. This blessing could be awarded for obtaining both Bardatto Hull and Valera Sails and keeping peace between both families. Right now Berath's Blessings feel like cheating, which is also hinted by their absence from Challenge Mode.

Conjured Blackbow is still pretty decent for pure Wizards. Supported by buffs such as Citzal's Prowess you can get some nice DPS Spellblade (Wiz+Rogue) is neat, you get large damage increase from Sneak attacks and buffs from Wizard. It's reliable and quite good. Sage(Wiz+Monk) can get both Citzal's Lance and Instruments of Pain, which means you'll be creating explosions from 9m range, dealing massive AOE DPS Every time i use Blights i feel like i lose a lot of DPS to blights switching. Each blight lasts for a fixed amount of time and if you're in middle of animation when the switch occurs it resets that animation.

Ever heard of Gorecci St.? I didn;t find it too bad. I thought that the fight before meeting Aloth was much more tricky - I had to use some cheap tricks to get past this one. Gorecci Street and pre-Aloth Digsite encounters are challenging on PotD only if you limit yourself - meaning you run just with Edér and Xoti and you refuse to buy weapons/use consumables. You can easily get 5 party members as soon as you reach PM, you can buy super-powerful Essence Interrupter or that unique Club, both will drastically decrease difficulty. If you decide to limit yourself, follow this guide to beat PotD Triple Crown PM with any class and without exploits: Large Shield, Xoti's Sickle, deflection ring and cloak, unique helmet, downgrade bracers and Arrack for Edér. Stock him up with healing potions. Don't forget to give him Spirit Shield potion for the Drake encounter (It's carried by Xoti by default) Give Xoti some firearm, i prefer pistol + lantern. Get rid of her armor (it only slows her down), give her gloves that have per encounter lay on hands. If possible give her Apothecary Sash and stock her up with scrolls. MC's class doesn't really matter, everything can work, just be sure to get some Cinder Bombs for that sweet sweet AOE blind. As i said, unique weapons REALLY help, and some classes might have it easier, especially Wizard/Druid/Cipher. Be sure to fight pre-aloth encounters during day, as panthers there have +15 deflection at night making them much more difficult to kill. Large Boars have Gore skill that deals tons of damage and applies raw damage DoT on your tank if it connects, but it's simple to cancel it by moving ~1m away from them if they try to use it. Keep distance between characters when fighting Drake otherwise he'll cast AOE bomb. If you're struggling with Drake fight, be sure to pick up +1 PER cat and clear out skeletons for guaranteed Fine Hunting Bow which really helps. Try to use bottlenecks as much as possible, and if there aren't any try to break LoS (especially important on Gorecci street where the Mage and Ranged can kill you really quickly)

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.

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

Doing only main quests and beating the game with level 20 shouldn't be a thing. Reaching lvl 20 should require completion of Main Quests, all installed DLCs and about 60% of all optional quests. Anything less than that makes the player max out too soon. However, i think the best way to fix experience in Deadfire would be decreasing amount of XP for Exploration, Bounties and mundane quests. There's simply too much "free experience" after you leave Port Maje. You can explore everything for 2-3 extra levels, do like 15 bounties for another 2-3 levels and boom, you're level 11 before you even talk to the Queen for the first time. Btw. why would you increase Port Maje experience gains? I think they're already a tad bit high and that you should finish PM 1 level sooner (so at level 4 instead of 5), it's not like there's much challenge on PM. I think it should be like this: Level is gained at the start of the game Level for saving crew and reaching PM Level for completing PM quests Level for Engwithian Digsite

Chanter. Summons feel awful, sure they're strong but the implementation is just so bad. Their buffs are super strong but every time i see Chanter i want to puke because chanters just lack any theme and they're just standing there, singing. Like, can it get more boring? Priest. I can't shake the feeling that priests were rushed. You know like when you have week to do something and you do all the work on the last day's evening? Priests have no unique talents, many of their spells feel like low effort copy/paste from Druid or Wizard. Heck, Priest subclasses "steal" abilities from other classes instead having their own things. Spells unique to priests are either completely useless or extremely powerful as if there was no time for testing. Paladin. This dude has mostly pointless subclasses, he's locked to disposition system and... why did i pick pally? Oh right, free passive +17 to all defences and one full-attack ability. On the other side, these are the best: Rogue feels amazing. There's huge variety of attacks, status effects, you can play Rogue as Melee, Ranged, Tank and even as caster if you pick Assassin. Talking about subclasses, 2 of them are really good with third (trickster) lagging behind a bit. Rogue works very well as single-class as well as when multiclassed. Unlike other classes, almost all Monk's abilities and talents can be useful. Monk's subclasses are very distinct and pretty powerful. Theme is on-spot and Monk works very well in any class combination

Hunter's fang: gotta polish that Citzal's Lance I guarantee that Heart Seeker will be used to make some great chedarr. Think of Watershapers focus piercing AND bouncing twice. Frostseeker crit explosions? Fractured shot? It's certainly going to be fun. Cheese aside, it seems that i'll be starting single class melee Ranger tommorow.

Gladiator-like soul-powered class. Focus on raw power, bleeds and self-empowerment, using primarily shields and melee weapons. There could be support to multiple playstyles such as: SnS damage dealer, with skills/talents that utilize shields as weapon. Talent [impact] - every shield equipped by Gladiator has Bash. Size of shield affects bash damage (Large shields have super-strong bash) Ability [brutal Strike] - Full attack against enemy. If you have weapon in off-hand you inflict long-lasting bleed, if you have shield you bash enemy with massive force, dealing high damage and knocking him back Bleed-based brawler Talent [Taste their blood] - When you kill enemy while he's affected by bleed debuff, you gain "Bloodied" buff for 7s acting as if you were <50% hp Ability [Rupture] - Primary attack that deals average damage and increases duration of all DoT debuffs on target. Spiritual caster who uses his own body as weapon Talent [spiritual strikes] - If you fail to penetrate target's armor gain +20% raw lash for 10 seconds Ability [soul Rush] - Create barrier from souls around you, charging enemies in area. All enemies are interrupted and take increased over-time damage.

Name that stuff. There's like one thing that comes to my mind - communicating with Eothas by touching Adra Pillars. This can be completely cut, as is said information could be relayed by companions/NPCs instead of having in-between talks with mom and dad (aka Berath and Eothas). After you complete Digsite you're followed by hundreds of souls... and the first thing you do is giving some guy nasty stuff so his belly stops aching and he pukes out a worthless pearl? Really?

Well, no. At the beginning there's Port Maje. You get stranded and you manage to clear out Engwithian digsite and rescue animancers. It's quite logical, everyone on the island is rebuilding and they don't have time exploring and fighting so that there might be chance of saving few guys they didn't like anyways. Clario certainly cares about missing animancers, but he simply can't spare manpower to seek them, half of his city is flooded after all. So there comes a person with nothing to lose and promises to seek missing animancers in exchange for help with his stranded ship. So, you clear out digsite, Clario repairs your ship. Now you can choose what to do: Valians can hire you to fix their Poko Kohara problem. You already dealt with similar issue, except there's an expedition missing instead of few animancers. Adra pillars are concerned as well. Valians are rich and pay well so these might be initial reasons to join them. RDC has spies everywhere, so they know you helped VTC and that you had no choice but to do that. Astura will see that you're capable of doing things and getting your hands dirty so he gives you to job to sabotage Poko Kohara. He doesn't pledge anything, it costs him nothing, he just tells you to do that with no promises attached. RDC is consistent and probably the most powerful faction in the world atm, so it makes sense for PC to join them. Huana is the fun one, you get to the Prince he'll just task you with investigating that smelly sh*thole called "The Gutter". You're capable as you just proved by delivering info about PM and Eothas and you're not Neketaka's Citizen. Oh, and take that annoying watershaper with you. Joining Principi is simple, you're just acting out of pure hate for that ahole who almost killed you by sinking your ship. Joining principi could be easy way to get rich, so there's certainly initiative to join them. Finally you can go after Eothas, just because giant glowing statues aren't common around here and he kinda caused mayhem in PM. Furthermore most if not all companions join you regardless of your status, some are told to do so (Pallegina, Teheku, Maia), some just happened to be in tough situations (Edér, Aloth) and the rest tag along for benefits (Xoti, Serafen)

POE2 would have much better story if PC wasn't the Watcher. Watcher is "locked" to high-level game - working with gods, against gods. Heck, he had souls of whole nation in his hand. Gods pull him into in-between at whim and he gather souls of fallen kith. It's extremely immersion-breaking switching between Pirate/Bounty Hunter, Watcher and Adventurer/Errand Runner every second. Also everyone is rambling about their ****ty issues while you are supposed to handle stuff related to gods. Like, ffs Xoti stop your rambling, Gaun/Eothas aren't gods anyways. Wouldn't be Deadfire better if you were common kith traveling on ship (based on background - Slave/Dissident could be imprisoned, Aristocrat/Scientist have their own cabin etc.), Ben tries to take over the ship, Edér joins rescues/joins you and eventually random giant green statue makes your ship crash. You wake up on beach with Edér who helps you reach Port Maje. Then you reach Xoti and you naturally want to leave PM, so Clario asks you to go to Digsite. There you meet Aloth and you contact Eothas. After leaving PM you can do whatever you want as every path will naturally lead you to Ukaizo. There would be no sense of urgency, if you don't care about Eothas leave him be. There's no need for "god talks", if there's any special info it could be conveyed by characters (Xoti would be like "Oh dear, Eothas is devouring souls what we're going to do" instead of "OMG DARK EVERYWHERE!!! ME VERY MUCH VISION DARK, ME LITTLE CRAZY".

Are we playing the same game? I have like 10 sources of Fire, Corrode/Acid and Water/Ice damage at level 10. You have 5 characters at hand, it's extremely likely that one of them is Druid/Priest/Wizard. As for Wizards, there is Decay, Fire and Ice spell in every tier (as far as i know), and you're free to swap grimoires. Then you have large amounts of scrolls, grenades and possibly unique items with various lashes. These can be used by pretty much everyone. Furthermore raw damage is pretty accessible, Ninagaunth' spells are doing massive amounts of Raw damage, Cipher has tons of Raw damage. Most if not all bleeds are also doing Raw damage. If anything, it would make players use underused spells. PotD should require planning and preparing, it should be fine to require knowledge and preparation. Steamrolling everything with cookie cutter builds shouldn't be promoted.

You're a better designer than whatever Obs has at the moment. This is the kind of "balance" I can get behind. The way to make content more challenging. Encounter design! No AI changes are needed for this, just some terrain changes, archers on the high ground, stuff like that. I'd love to see this, plus encounters where NPCs "break rules". For example you're going trough dungeon and there's room full of Ratuai Marksmen. They have sky-high damage and they obliterate everything that moves, even tankiest of tanks, but they reload for a long time. One of the solutions could be bouncing spells off wall, the other would be summoning "cannon fodder" to eat their volley and then just rush in and break their necks... Another example would be pit of Evil Eyes or Medusas who spam petrify. The key to beat them could be blinding yourself. Why don't we have specialty enemies vulnerable only to one type of damage? For example some Lava Oozes that are invincible to everything but ice/water. You have to deal certain amount of damage to cool them down and then you have to shatter them with physical damage. Swarms of weak-ish spiders with massive bonuses against flanked targets? Enemies applying debuffs that need to be cleared by moving around? Werewolves Shapeshifters who turn crazy if someone gets bloodied? Flying enemies with 200+ deflection against melee attacks? Dungeons that allow only certain number of party members? We definitely need to move from "number check" encounters to "puzzle-like" encounters.

/* upscaled PotD without blessings and mods */ PotD is just too easy, and it can't be fixed by increasing stats of your enemies. As the other guy said, afflictions are way too weak and they're much stronger in player's hands than if used against player. Most enemies encounters are very simple and straight-forward. For example Hasongo has some great encounters. The first one is 5 Naga Archers on high ground, backed by Caster. Way to them is blocked with barrels and 2-3 Naga Champions. It's easy to mess up and it requires special approach. Why don't we have bounties with similar setups? It's really stupid - "Hey im notorious pirate and there are bounties on my head, so let's just sit in the middle of this field". Like really? Most of these should incorporate some kind of advantage for enemies. Why can't we have "Let's provoke these adventuring **** into attacking me so that my guys can flank them and my mages can drop some fireballs on them" or "Hello adventurers, as you might notice you're standing on pit full of gunpowder, here have this torch"