Malkoy

I don't seem to understand something: don't you have to have Grave Calling or Hel Beckoning equipped in order to proc a summon? Pepole are talking about stance hitting friendlies(does it?) or Wahai Poragwa(neither Grave Calling or Hel Beckoning are in the main slot). Can someone explain to me what I am missing? Imho, this would be a very fun build if skeleton killing could be automated. If it could not, then it will be micro-management hel (for me at least)

Where are you drawing damage bonuses info (additive/multiplicative) for the script? I would be interested in Blunderbuss(-10 acc.)+Modal(distracted(+flanked) and fire damage)+ Streetfighter("Heating Up active due to Modal")+Sneak Attack+Deathblows+ Ascendant's "Ascended"+Stolen Instict (+20 acc) numbers

Semantics are important though. I would not call Citzal's or Firebrand "weapons" without adding "summoned" beforehand. If we consider magic to be weapons, then so are our will and determination, and as we expand upon definition things get very confusing

@Ansalon I would say that these lists are amazing for reasons that were not intended. I am relatively new to the forum (at least as active contributor), but this is the first time I see the informative gear lists like these outside of wikis AND they come with short descriptions. Clearly a lot of effort went into making these. I'd say due to the game being so mechanically reach, it would be very difficult to rank gear for all builds in general. What would be INCREDIBLY AMAZING is compiling all these tier lists into one general neutral gear reference compendium post. Value of this to newcomers to the game would go through the roof. I am on my 5th or 6th (if we get all partials into one) play-through and was searching for the best Solo tank weapon for over an how due to gamepedia pages devouring my 16GB of Ram like is was a free fairy cake in the middle of Walmart. List like that would have pointed me in the right direction right away though Lists are good: look at how well Boeroer's class compendium list is doing - it's pinned and everything. At worst Build builders can copy-paste these links into their guides, so that poor sods like me could access Gnipon Prudanesko and Waharai Poraragwa pages by clicking links and not typing items names in google

FYI: I think Fire in the Hole has same issue with bounces as Watershaper's Focus you've mentioned in your The Deep Leap guide. I was able to wipe of half a ship (lvl 15) because of enemies being clustered together in one shot as Streetfighter/Ascendant. I was excited to try Red Hand on Maia, +40% damage taken doesn't stack well with her armor: low armor rating attracts enemies, no bueno with reduced range. What was happening to Maia can be only described as Bukakke Red Hand is great for single target damage for heavily armored characters, who don't draw aggro and have a sizable recovery bar. I'd day, you can get to over 200% weapon dps increase with Patinated Plate

Hmm. You make a very good point there. Plus, more or less getting Ironskin is pretty great. And it's fitting in with the Principi too. If you garner a reputation for slaughtering people, they'll be more willing to fight to the death. Plus the focus on Sworn Enemy/Sworn Rival (Gilded Enmity/Gilded Rival?) is essentially a mark. Tomorrow, I'm going to start producing a more complete version of the build I want to play, going for a Goldpact Knight perspective. Since you will be tanky enough, you also get to choose your weapons with close to no restrictions, I enjoyed pirate RP with Serafen's mortars personally, Scordeo's Edge and Scordeo's Trophy are pirate's wet dream. I would try Duelist with one Blunderbuss concept with Streetfighter/Goldpact for my damage dealer on Triple Crown+ Magran's Challenge once I finish my Solo+Berath's grind.

I though the whole reason behind the Ghost Heart was not having a godawful pet attached to your stats=P Priest of Wael/Trickster would be pretty pointless due to overlap. Blunderbuss Devoted/Mage slayer will play off "amazing ranged barb" with all the Fighter class buffs nerfed and accuracy penalties on any weapon. Beconer/Conjurer Conjurer/Mage Slayer Mage Slayer on Solo PotD in general

I will have to test it out, since I usually skip on Barbs due to their Melee only (kind-of) nature and poor default accuracy. I am always ready to be impressed by other classes than Wizards, Paladins and Rogues for damage:)

Got you covered. I'm #1 Paladin Fan. Yes, Gilded Enmity duration is supported by golden shell visual, that also beautifully cracks (you can see shards on the ground) once broken. Honestly between Bleakwalkers and Goldpact, I would have to say that Goldpact adhere to modern pirates stereotype more. They are all about money (booty comes first, rational part, dead don't pay, hence lack of love for aggression) and contracts (honor among thieves, not bound by conventional morals like passionate characters, hence stoic). Whoever pays, has Goldpacts loyalty once the pact have been sealed. Bleakwalkers at least to me, associate more with totalitarian dedicators or barbarian kings. Sort of you are either with me or against me character. Food for though, from Blackbeard's Wikipedia page: "Teach was a shrewd and calculating leader who spurned the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response that he desired from those whom he robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the consent of their crews and there is no known account of his ever having harmed or murdered those whom he held captive. He was romanticized after his death and became the inspiration for an archetypal pirate in works of fiction across many genres."

Maybe bump these 1 tier up, due to Solo usefulness: Squid's Grasp (engagement), Acolyte's Frostbite (solo long casts casting)

I would bump Hand Mortar (A) and Fire in the Hole(S) into the list as only AoE Ranged Weapons that also apply on-hit effects. I dare you to try present me with the class that can dish out more damage per second than Streetfighter+Blunderbuss Modal+20int+<any other class> with one or both of the above #The Howitzer #The Holy Hand Grenadier

No love for Patinated Plate: I would bump it up to A tier at least. Great on Fighters and Chanters main tanks in group settings due to stun (amazing affliction). Conditional use: need to aggro enemies (have high engagement limit to make them attack you, and prevent them from running towards squishies) Blackened Plate Armor Very good for sustain on Fighters, generally found all enchantments usefull. Gipon Prudensco: - Trash tier, Due to "No Fool, I" Enchantment not being functional. Biggest disappointment in the game. Generally list is heavily skewed towards armors that favor builds reliant heavily on attack speed/recovery-reload. Tanks, healers, buffers, Streetfighters would generally have very different criteria for favorite armor. Other factors also come into play: I want to love Miscreant's Leathers, but Adra Ban for armor upgrade is ridiculous. Unless you use 2 Kraken's eyes to upgrade to Superior quality this gets very prohibitive, by reducing amount of legendary weapons for the group.

WotP is group friendly Wahai Poraga. Definitely A tier for double riposte (weapon ability stacks with Rogue's "Riposte" ability). I would not go as far as S, since it has low damage, requires extra ArPen and is good due to applying AND using rogues on-hit afflictions for bonus damage. Very Niche, hard to position for 3+ enemies hit, I usually get 1-2 extra enemies hit at most with 20-25 Int.

Goldpact is much better imho for tanking purposes. They get penalties for "passionate" and "aggressive" behavior, and from what I read you are trying to role-play as a smart-ass who really don't give a damn and is piratey, which in this game are "Clever"(Humor/Sarcasm: Eder: "Is Eothas Worth Following?", PC: "Even Berath wants us to follow him!" XD )- "Stoic" ("I don't give a dam type of attitude: Flip off Bennewith, then remind him of who you are by flipping him off again, long sullen silences during gods' tirades)- "Shady"(sacrastic "[lie] I would would never look into the bag that you want me to fectch for you, how could you even ask such a question?!"). On a side note I was blown away due to the amount of intimidate checks that are not aggressive. Usually aggressive choices are: screw dialogue, lets fight type of picks I am wary of deflection gear like Casita Samelia's Legacy due to the Entonia Signet and "That armor with stacking deflection that also doesn't work and requires negative rep -4 to get"=P People are clinging to Bleakwalkers, even though they are not what they used to be: FoD nerfed, Bleakwalker FoD bonus damage nerfed, Const affliction healing reduction nerfed. I might be mistaken, but I sense some inspiration drawn from this build: The Faceless Dancer . With focus on pure deflection and with limited class resources on solo (Especially SOLO+Berath Challenge) this little bit of damage and one extra affliction are so much more useful than in the group environment. I personally play-tested all paladin sub-classes on PotD: Dracozzi are widely perceived weakest, and they live up to this rep. Mostly because if you'd like to even begin utilizing flame shield, you need low deflection, high armor and plenty of healing supply. Sadly for us, AI steers away from high armor value characters. The only way to get enemies to hit you is to engage them and satisfy above conditions, which is about as easy and simple as shooting off left nut off a fly, with a blunderbuss while piloting a plane. Shieldbearers are mechanically interesting due to +1 engagement for laying distracted de-buff from rogue tree and work well with Pale Plate helm and Kapana Taga, but are tied into using a shield to receive it this bonus. If this is you designated tank, and you have a healer to look after them, you might want to consider. Invulnerability granted by the Lay on hands sounds good, doesn't work. If you Lay on Heands on target that is about to die in the middle of recovery phase, the target will die. Lay On health don't provide throughoutput to bring the target up quick enough if the target is being focused by enemy. If you are doing everything right, you would be taking most of the damage in your team, but you don't get invulnerability, so it's very meh. Kind Wayfarers are very meh. I had high hopes for them, and they embody my RP preferences best among all the sub-classes. As mentioned above, AI tends to disregard high armor targets. Now your melee characters surrounding Paladin would fall into this "ignored" category. Backline squishes are the ones who will need healing, but the radius is not that good on the FoD healing, so even with 20-25 Int you'll be pulling your squishes into AoE danger zone, if you'd like them to benefit from this healing. Goldpact Kinghts benefit greatly from essentially "free" +4 bonus armor, once you get a Refund Upgrade on your Sworn Enemy. Gilded Enmity lasts for 7 ->hits<- (or crits), which are rarely going to happen to Trickster though (miss-miss-graze-miss). Basically the only time I have had to use Lay on Hands on my GREATSWORD (WotEP) Trickster/Goldpact on PotD was on a final boss, when my team died to each other due to dominate. If you rock a good large shield, you can throuw couple of health regen items on your tank and forget about ever healing them again. Hope that helps. Worst comes to worst, you can always offload the burden of RP limitations to the custom adventurer=P

I consider this to be the best weapon for the Sir Sit-a-Lot solo play-through. Got it on the 1 (Mid-Autumn). I am not 100% on this but I also noticed that he Fyrgist was wielding it on an attempt I got it. I vaguely remember him wielding regular sword on other attempts.

Pretty much this. You do have to choose between infinite armor buffs and helping your DPS. My grenadier build went for the refund because flames of devotion and all the accuracy I was stacking really helped his DPS. The truth is I could have still taken brand enemy. I rarely touched empower and could have just used that for more zeal. The grenadier is way weaker on potd because of armor being +2 across the board. You have to beeline for the ring of marksman and upgrading hand mortar to superb. I don't find Paladin OP at all. Actually you trade a ton of whatever else you could have taken for that defense. A devoted/streetfighter who uses blunderbuss would potentially be stronger in PotD due to the pen. The same for a maurauder variant doing the same self flanking trick. I think the real balance issue is that PotD very lamely increases enemy deflection and armor to such an extent that it pigeonholes you into certain subclasses when playing around with certain multis. For example, almost every fighter build generally goes devoted. Almost every barbarian is a zerker. PotD is about min maxing, but it does it in such a way that you really need certain subclasses. So, while kinda strong, my grenadier is not OP. He hits some enemies like a wet noodle in PotD until you get certain gear. Paladin only gives you accuracy, but lacks anything to overcome pen. He plays like a ranged tank of sorts, so he pays for his survivability with a rough start to the game. Edit: actually to be fair, once he gets his dots from rogue abilities in aoe, he doesn't care that much about armor on enemies. Still, he needs PL3 and PL4 skills to be good at what he does. AOE arterial and gouging are sick. I would not call them weak. I have comfortably went through PotD with in-game companions (no scaling) with almost exact The Holy Hand Grenadier build ( I forgot to get marksman ring when I had a chance to also). I was not happy with my Xoti and Eder standing doing nothing most of the time, so I went for my first custom group walk-through with couple adjustments. Due to the mortars targeting reflex instead of deflection, I went with one mortar only, one-handed style and 8 (no Berath) Dexterity, Max Perception, Int, rest couple points equally into resolve/might. Imho accuracy is better than ArPen for this build, since you can roll out so many Crits (and crits increase ArPen by 1.5 if I remember correctly). Also I feel like Streetfighters -50% recovery is huge enough boost, but with a sluggish animation on mortars 2nd weapon doesn't bring out that much more damage If you have party to support this play-style, you can always go for Cipher (+1 ArPen, -2 armor debuff for tanky targets). But when I did that I regretted not having Pally's innate tankiness very often. Since this was my designated dps I reloaded every time she died. EDIT: Rogues have +5 pen ranged attack for 2 guile with Strike the Bell. I only go for Confounding Blind+Crippling Strike(+2 ArPen for 1 Guile btw)+Strike the Bell, then spam Devastating Blow if enemy group is at 30-40% hp (even with 2 armor difference it seems more worth it, since Devastating Blow hits like a truck). So depending on how much ArPen you might need, go for Strike the Bell attacks or cheaper Crippling Strike. Also Confounding Blind allows your team to crit and surpass Armor. In addition I usually have Wizards Expose Vulnerabilities or Chanter's Hel-Hyraf (-2 Armor) on tough enemies (Rusted, Iron, Steel Constructs, high level kith). Also, I would really like to see the build that can dish out more dps than Streetfighter+Blunderbuss+<insert second class here>. I liked paladin the most because of lower downtime. DoC Breastplate and Gilded Enmity usually make enemy AI steer clear from you, so you don't have to preposition that often or self heal (not that it matters much with Escape) That's why Goldpact is my favorite, you can have 85%-100% uptime on Gilded Enmity mid-late game with "Free Brands" if you have sufficient single target damage (also always pick on squishies first). One thing I forgot to mention is FoD, being amazing damage buff early game (accuracy, later +15% fire damage). The progression of the class is just so perfect: you get bonus defences (deflection, then armor) then your accuracy increases (FoD, then Aura), then you have self heals for when you make a mistake, and if you want it +40% damage buff for your team in short radius. I will update this thread once I finish Sir Sit-a-Lot walk through solo with Berath's challenge.

That started as an answer to "the best girl tank" thread here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/104752-the-best-tank-in-the-game-herald-vs-crusader/, but grew in size to deserve its own topic. I'd go as far as to say, that adding Goldpact Paladin class to your multi-class provides highest possible damage avoidance and mitigation combo from one class compared to absolutely anything else. +8 free all defenses (up to +15 with 1 point investment)? Yes please! +4 armor on demand? Sure thanks! Oh, here's another +1 armor on demand (aura) just in case you need it when you run out of zeal. And just in case something vicious on PotD has enough ArPen to do more than 25% damage with their attacks late game, we give you infinite armor edit:+3 Armor as long as you don't move. Please go ahead and pull enemies to you, using corners to gather them all together. Now, if you play solo, you'd probably want to do damage: Now that you got deflection and infinite armor, why not get some infinite resource pool to outlive your enemies while they wither: Sir Sit-a-Lot Oh, standing still for long periods of time bores you? Don't worry, you can stand still for less and do more damage with: The Faceless Dancer But what if I like Streetfighter more than Trickster? Answer is simple: Stop-N-Go Want to have powerful ranged dps, tank hybrid monstrosity? With Paladin you can: The Holy Hand Grenadier In conclusion I'd like to say that paladin class is severely broken compared to others. Of course it doesn't hand out insane buffs at zero cost (looking at your Streetfighter+Blunderbuss), but the fact that Paladins can do anything at least well (tank, heal, dps), leaves them with no almost downsides and hence severely ahead of other classes imho. Downsides that are exclusive to this class are: -RP attributable to sub-classes is a mess sometimes -Weird stacking with priest deities -Not an infinite resource pool (because they are not Cipher or Chanter) -Small selection of de-buffs -Not very mobile (not so noticeable and easily fixable with investment in +deflection on disengage) Hel, who knows maybe after I'm done with my Solo+Berath's Challenge play-through, I'll go for Triple Crown+ Magran's Challenge with Sir Sit-a-Lot (summons, buffs, "everybody died? no problem, I'll clean up"), The Faceless Dancer (damage off tank), The Holy Hand Grenadier(main dps), Paladin/Druid(meaty healz), Paladin/Priest(more buffs) dream team. And just to make sure they don't accidentally die make them all Moon Godlike #teamBlueberries

If memory serves me right Paladin has Stacking armor buff that goes forever late game for as long as he/she doesn't move? Brand Enemy can be buffed a bit with Scion (+1pen), and it's innate ArPen scales with level also. Chants have piss poor descriptions, so without testing it would be hard to say what their ArPen amounts are and whether they scale well.

Yeah, doing solo playthrough. Retraining is the name of the game. Unless you want stealth for the entirety of the play-through:P

I'd like to say that this build is... FIRE. I do so enjoy RPing the character with a well developed personal BRAND. Haters will try to attack it, but sadly for them my DEFLECTION is too high

I think I broke the game somewhere along the way. I have 3rd class now (fighter with constant recovery and knockdown, that can't be used due tothe lack of discipline resource, but hangs around on my bar in per-rest abilities) . Also I have both Visage and Mien of Death's Herald. Also needed to sleep in the tavern to clear all the "per-rest buffs" (I had Gaun's blessing, and 3 stacked food buffs) I suspect this is due to the buggy ship boarding after the 2.0 patch/BoW add-on (no ability resets between boardings)

Note: this will probably be of very little value to anyone who's not on solo play-through or who's a completionist in sense of builds. I clean all of the spots on the map in each play-through. I noticed that during one of my later play-throughs one of the ship wrecks dropped spyglass for the first time I've been playing this game. Judging by forum posts Bracers of Great Deflection drop from places similar to Abandoned Villages and Burial sites. Now if you like me, really-really want these bracers for your solo playthrough, you can abuse save scumming, since the booty of these spots generates randomly with each load, so F5->F9 is your friend. I have a strong suspicion that villages and burial sites have separate loot table and that some spots have different "tier": I've had several greater protection and deflection cloaks dropping from one burial site, whence others dropped regular rings of protection +int +history cloak etc. Edit: Magran challengers might want to settle on some good items early on by saving the game in a separate slot (sorry Triple crown people). Loot table seems to be similar between similar spots that are geographically close. +4 deflection cloak, dragon pendant, ring of minor protection are all good to me=P If someone wants to test with me please reply to this thread. I'll keep updating my progress. So Far the best drop I've got using this method is "Unique" Dragon Pendant from abandoned village near Sandswept Ruins (@lvl 5) Method of testing: Quick saving, looting the booty and reloading, rinse and repeat. After sufficient sample size, load quick-save to be able to test the same location at a later level. Update one: Greater item rolls are level dependent? I have not encountered any greater rolls at level 5 yet. Update two: Over many-many rolls the pattern seems to clear up: at most one wearable item per spot. Update three: Abandoned Village drops food (rice, fire kelp, palm stones, taar loafs), random minor gems, random drugs, Theocrat cloak, cloak of protection, cloak of deflection, ring of minor protection, Nature's embrace belt, Dragon Pendant (rare). Burial Site (gravestones): Variety of scrolls, random sigils, random regular weapons, random minor gems, cloak of protection, cloak of deflection, ring of minor protection, ring of overseeing, trollhide belt Burial Site (mound): Variety of scrolls, random sigils, random regular weapons, random minor gems, cloak of Theocrat, ring of minor protection, Huana Charm Belt, Psycher Belt, Dragon Pendant Ruined Tower: Potions, minor gems, scrolls, utility items (grappling hook anyone?), Grimoire of Disruption, crafting mats (solution, rune powder etc note: more variety than usual). I gave up after a while of not seeing any wearable drops from Towers. Let me know if someone had different results Update four: Seems like some spots have separate loot tables, despite the same "type" Shipwrecks seem to stably drop the same flag over and over. Got another Dragon Pendant and spyglass from the shipwreck near Fort Deadlight. Update Five: Seems like tier of goodies could be affected by geography (higher tiers north): I started getting fine equipment from Old Battlegrounds further north Update Six (Small): I have went up to level 11 with no change in loot tables of existing sites. I suspect that if there is a level breakpoint for items it will be around level 12 or 15. Second though is "gated" sites, that require you to complete higher level content to access, but otherwise look identical.

One may even argue that Unbroken/Trickster would not really need a shield. I get plenty of deflection with Trickster spells and as far as I know WotP's innate riposte with daze effect and Rogue's riposte stack ( #AOE Ripostes). I would say that 5 engagements (1innate+3stance+1pallid helm) will suffice most of the time. As mentioned above, this is amazing for applying 2 different affliction types to enemies for Deathblows for all the rogues in the party. I am giving a try to Patinated Plate, since this build does not care for recovery/attack speed at all save for the opening 2 sec of the fight for 1st cast of Mirrored Image. Mind you that this is still a tank for me, if I used her as main DPS, stuns from Patinated Plate would hurt damage output. Streetfighter+Mortars is a ridiculously strong Combo. My favourite build so far. I am not impressed with any class combinations other than Streetfighter+Golden Pact Pally (FoD + 2 armor) and Streetfighter+Ascendant (self buffs, Ascended dmg buff).

I don't accuracy matters THAT much without PotD buffed npcs. If you embark on magical PotD journey, I think the devs expect your game knowledge to surpass the need for little golden and silver stars. This game is very rich in mechanics. It took me 3 characters with Serafen's mortars, to realize that mortars as weapons target reflex with auto attacks instead of deflection as you would normally expect from weapon auto-attacks. I have a Pally/Priest healer in party that is not meant to harm/target enemies. His only job is to heal,buff and survive, he has maxed Might/Int with the rest going into resolve, and could care less for accuracy/perception. My Streetfighter Grenadier has -10 Acc from Blunderbuss weapon type and -5 Perception from Distracted modal and is also is main dps for party on PotD (+15 all def on enemies). I have leveled her Perception to 18 (20 with Berath Blessing)at the strart and focused background and everything else on +int for AoE area. So even though I have 30 acc handicap, it is still less favored by me than Int due to items and buffs available). I see your point that with spells being limited as opposed by auto attacks, misses hurt more, but then again: wizards get Eldritch Aim available at level one, priests have Perception bonus spells at levels 1 & 3. Not only these boost your accuracy by five, but they give you ridiculous bonus of Graze-Hit starting at "Aware". With party play, my Wiz will always start with self buffing before commencing with offensive casts. By the time he/she is done, he/she will have +acc and enemies will have -defense from priest. If you want to go even deeper, different spells target different defenses, and you can target maluses towards enabling certain spells: -Ninagauth's Shadowflame Paralyze will target Fortitude, aim to reduce it with Might/Constitution maluses on enemies, then unleash you Ninagauth's Shadowflame to see them paralyzed. -Aim for reflex defense maluses (Dex/Perception) for big AoE damage -Aim for WIll (Int/Resolve) for status spells like Arkemyr Torment/Hex FYI I have not played druid yet to comment on them.

To be absolutely honest, I feel comfy without Alchemy use on PotD (no scaling) at level 16. I am too lazy to micromanage quick use consumables in addition to other stuff. I have potions/drugs and summon items equipped in these slots, but I rarely get to them other than for the sigils/totems. Aside from designated mechanics character (around 14+group bonus=18+) and stealth (item bonuses, sometimes useful in quests) I don't see mandatory active skills. Athletics are nice to have on your main face-tank character and designated healer for quick heal (fast cast time, once per combat is alright). So to answer your question it is definitely not necessary to max alchemy. As for other skills on watcher I follow this for the values I am aiming for Deadfire Dialogue Options Report Berath skill blessing gives a sizable bonus to skills on multi-class party members which also.