[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

6 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Flanked causes "only" -10 deflection, -1 AR

Whoops - good catch. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

7 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

I would indirectly alter a lot of other abilities with an arguably more potent effect except for the said purpose. It's a way more radical change than the current one I would say. 

Oh, interesting. In my head, Flanked is the stronger of the two effects (+50% recovery vs. -10 all defenses, -1 AR). I suppose everything follows from that premise for me, e.g. the problem with Persistent Distraction isn’t that it grants an affliction, but that it grants one that is so strong, trivializes Deathblows, etc.
 

7 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

I won't fix the problem of Persistent Distraction making other Distracted inflicting abilities redundant

I suppose that’s true. Long live Debilitating Strike! 
 

7 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Also I'm quite satisfied with the current effects, so I won't change them. 

Heard. I do think your solution is very nice. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

I have a suggestion for a simpler fix for Persistent Distraction and Blunderbuss/Streetfighter. 

Change Distracted to be -5 Perception, +50% Recovery penalty.

Leave Disoriented and Blind the same.

This let’s Persistent Distraction still add 1 Affliction to enable Sneak Attack, and Powder Burns can still be mitigated by Perception Resistance/Immunity. 

Am I right that this could be implemented somewhat easily, or would you have to edit every single Status Effect one by one? 

[2H Rogue Watcher transition into Deadfire]

2 hours ago, stayhoided said:

I just see dual wield sabres and stealth which I'm not opposed to stealth but I'd like to keep using 2H weapons

If you put aside the typical class fantasy reasons to dual wield, the majority of builds recommending two weapons are doing so because of the way two weapons was vastly superior to 2H builds in the early versions of the game. At some point (maybe patch 4.0?) they reduced the damage that full attacks did while wielding two weapons by 35% and added 1 penetration to all 2H weapons. For good or ill, a large amount of the builds out in the wild had already been built, and the players who published them already moved on to other games, so you still see mostly two weapon builds if you search them out (even on these forums, thanks to the inability to edit the stickied posts). 

@thelee's guide speaks to this, but in all actuality, 2H is probably better in many cases. It certainly simplifies things for a number of builds. 

As far as the viability of a low Intellect build, Deadfire reversed the mechanics such that Intellect makes % of weapon damage DoTs better. If my memory serves, the advantage In PoE1 was that Tidefall did the same damage over a shorter amount of time, actually increasing DPS the less Int you had, especially because the DoT didn't stack, and that Deep Wounds had similar behavior (correct me if I'm wrong here). Regardless, In Vanilla Deadfire, Deep Wounds deals 10% of the weapon damage dealt per tick (completely base, before any adjustments, it actually does 30% damage total (ticks at 0, 3, and 6 seconds). Deep Wounds is increased by Intellect and Power Level, so you actually do more damage total per hit, if you have more Int. It also stacks with itself, making longer durations viable. There's a Great Sword called Effort that has the same effect as an enchantment (Lacerating) and can be upgraded to 15% per tick. It works exactly the same way as Deep Wounds, though I'm not sure if it stacks. 

If you wanted to keep the low int part, I'd recommend getting the Community Patch, which changed Deep Wounds to 5% per tick for 4 ticks with a fixed duration, no longer affected by Int or Power Level. You could pair this with a Beam Cipher (as Beams oddly also do not benefit at all from Int or PL). As an additional synergy, there is a ring that lowers your Int by 8, but gives resistance to Perception, Intellect, and Resolve afflictions. 

2 hours ago, stayhoided said:

and maybe add on something like Paladin or Barb or even Cipher to add some more utility/variance options.

The advice already in this thread is solid. Devoted Fighter adds a ton, not the least of which is being the fastest possible Heavy Armor wearer, thanks to Armored Grace. Standard build stacking that with Devil of Caroc Breastplate and a pet that also reduces recovery makes you faster than if you weren't wearing any armor. 

Paladin has similar synergy to what @thelee was describing with Ring of Focused Flame, in that their signature attack ability is tagged fire (and already gets +10 accuracy base) making it extremely accurate. Paladin also has phenomenal baseline defensive passives, and great party synergy. 

Barbarian is very fun, similarly sturdy thanks to Thick Skinned and Savage Defiance. A Streetfighter Berserker is a classic "ride the edge" build that has really great synergy for staying bloodied. If you have a party that can provide constant healing (via chanter, paladin, druid, or some combination of those) then you can avoid much of the downsides. No subclass barbarians or Fury Shapers work well, too, and the synergy around killing blows and critical hits is pretty fun. 

Cipher has a lot of great options. Borrowed Instincts is great on any melee damage dealer, as well as Hammering Thoughts. Those alone would be worth the multi-class. Soul Annihilation is very strong, also. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

In doing some Dorudugan research, I found a small bug that I was able to fix for Saint's War Armor and the Veteran's Maneuver upgrade. The short version is that the vanilla enchantment is cleared by friendly spell "hits" making it totally worthless without some very counterintuitive and odd player behavior (definitely not intended by the designer). The fix appears to be a small toggle in the status effect from False to True for ValidateWithAttackFilter in the trigger section. I tested it just now and it no longer clears on friendly buffs. It's possible that there are still odd spells that might still trigger it incorrectly, but for now this seems like an easy enough fix. 

Here's the file: 

 

statuseffects.gamedatabundle

[Can Writ of War trivialize Dorudugan?]

6 hours ago, thelee said:

Especially disabling Brutal Cleave is a nice plus and makes tanking easier

/agree. It's pretty easy to get enough Deflection/Fortitude to avoid being Crit and to push him into constant underpenetration. Nice find! 

 

19 hours ago, thelee said:

you're sure the person hasn't been hit by other attacks?

So, I did some more focused testing. I disabled all addons, just in case. As it turns out, Veteran's Maneuver is pretty terribly coded. It is disabled on friendly spell "hits". All you need to clear it is cast 2 buff spells. **Whomp Whomp Sound** However, if for some reason you have a character who will use no buff spells, it does provide immunity to helfire barrage (and I'm assuming helstorm as well). Pretty handy, if a little awkward to use in current implementation. 

I'll poke around and see if that's easy enough to fix. Maybe @Elric Galad has looked at similar situations with BPM. If we are able to fix it to only count hostile spell hits, it would be a great piece of Dorudugan tech (and likely exploitable in other fun ways). 

Edit: Update - I was able to fix it pretty easily. It will be added to the next update for BPM. 

[Can Writ of War trivialize Dorudugan?]

2 hours ago, thelee said:

whenever something weird like this happens i assume it must be implemented like a hazard or something. those always break all sorts of rules

That’s my thinking, too. I can more rigorously test it, but it happened a few times for a ranged character. 

[Can Writ of War trivialize Dorudugan?]

Just dropping here for science some things I learned in my recent Dorudugan fights. 

• Dorudugan's Large Shield attack (off-hand shield bash) targets Fortitude. 
• Saint's War Armor with the Veteran's Maneuver upgrade does not provide immunity from Helfire Barrage (not quite sure what's up with this one, but maybe I'm just missing something here)

[Can Writ of War trivialize Dorudugan?]

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

And which is Brutal Cleave? 

It is also usagetype NONE

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

2 hours ago, SenSx said:

Does the new persistant distraction counts as 1 affliction for sneak attack ? 

Or just 0, and you has to use your other afflictions attack/spells and flank yourself alwready ennemies alwready engaged by companions ?

It counts as 0 now.

2 hours ago, SenSx said:

It could be a huge nerf if so, but on the other hand it also means vanilla rogue with persistant distraction had very generous Deathblow conditions, basically just engaging an ennemy meant Deathblow damage (2 affliction conditions), which is a bit braindead and not interesting, you don't have to be tactical...but without it, is rogue still good compare to other more straightforward dps class ?

It counted as 2 for Deathblows, and this is considered by many to be an oversight on the part of the designers, or at least not well considered. 

Rogue gets a ton of buffs in BPM to its other active abilities, some are pretty OP (Strike the Bell upgrade). The nerf to PD makes the class play much more like intended and much more tactical. 
 

Definitely stronger class w BPM, just less one note song. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

I could even have made the bonus from Wild Leech stacking so no problem with hitting twice with the same debuff.

I suspect stacking +10 to attributes could have led to degenerated situations though...

Yeah, stacking is too strong. Your design is the simplest and closest to original. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

6 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Final description for proposed Wildleech :
-0.5/3s cast time, 40 focus
- -10 to a random stat vs Will, +10 to corresponding random stat to self
- Duration 30s. Reasonable for a higher Tier than Psychovampiric Shield which at least is non-random at what it targets.
Could be included in the nerf/rework package as it is not a strict buff, especially compared to CP version.

Great change. Still a few dud results, but worst case (Resolve), you’re still gaining +5 resolve vs Psychovampiric.
 

If you wanted to focus it a little more, making it only body stats (might, constitution, dexterity), would make it always useful, relative to your other abilities. That might make it too strong, with a 66% chance to get Might or Constitution, in which case you could lower it to +/-8. 

[Level scaling Up in game: retroactive ?]

On 1/12/2024 at 8:25 AM, SenSx said:

Hello,

 

My current playthrough in PotD became a bit easy, and I noticed I forget to activate the level scaling up to everything in the options.

So I just turned it on, but is it retroactive on the alwready discovered places or did I screw up the difficuly of my game ?

Thanks

My understanding is that it applies only the first time you enter a map. At that point, it is locked in for the rest of your playthrough. It's still worth keeping on, though, as there are lots of little one off maps around the world, and the DLC content you haven't done, etc. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

As far as I know, this was never released (or point me where ^^ ). So I'll do.

It's there in the Community Patch Basic (attached here for reference). 

 

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

If you don't mind testing, I haven't a save close from those :

Tested. It's not working, for some reason. I've tried a few different ways (included with all the mods, just with Community Patch and Balance Patch, and completely by itself). 

Just to rule out a different cause, I loaded up the little mod I made with Apotheosis, and it was still working. Attaching that here, also. 

en.talfor_encounter_level.gamedatabundle worldmap.gamedatabundle

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

6 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Won't make a new version necessary, but I will do if any new version is released.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. No pressure. I was able to mod it successfully on my own, but if you do release a new version one day, it's such a small change with a big impact. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

Request for next version: 

Increase the "encounter" level of the Hanging Sepulchers maps (Area IDs below). This will fix the unintentionally extreme enemy difficulty that this map is notorious for (a similar change was made in the Community Patch to the Talfor Encounter Map). Some details: 

• These maps are currently set at level 6 (likely inherited from the Sacred Stair which is also 6). 
• The challenging Skeleton Enemies inside (Risen Champion, Risen Mage, etc) are all base level 10 enemies, and the Dargul Corpse Eater and Armsman are base level 12. 
  • Because of the 4 or 6 level difference between the encounter level and the base enemy level, they will remain 4 or 6 levels higher than your party until you reach level 11 and pass the upscaling cap. 
  • Because they are enemies with classes, they gain additional abilities as their level increases, which makes the scaling all the more deadly (e.g. Risen Mage casting Chain Lightning & Wall of Draining). 
  • For reference, the Sea Lashed Crypt is set to level 15, meaning the Risen skeletons on those maps are actually weaker at party level 10 than the Hanging Sepulcher ones. 
• The two base game quests for this area (Eulogy for the Dead, and Symbols of Death) are both currently difficulty level 11 quests; however, there's some indication that they were lower at one time (Link).

Suggested Fix: Increase the Area Level to 8 or 9.  

• Based on the placement in the Principi quest line, I'd guess it was intended to be completed by a level 8 party, right before or after Hasango (level 8).  
  • Blow the Man Down (the previous quest) is intended for level 5ish (Pre-Hasongo)
  • A Shrewd Proposition (the follow up quest) is intended for level 12ish (post Hasongo, pre Magran's Teeth
• Setting these maps to level 8 would keep the skeletons 2 levels higher and the darguls 4 levels higher until the party reaches level 12. 

Area IDs: 
AR_0709_Temple_Sepulchers
AR_0707_Temple_Mausole

[Which Fights (at what level) Do You Use To Test Builds?]

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Gorecci Street is kind of biased cause it is so early that you have barely any time to "build" anything. It is a crash test, but not very representative. 

Yeah - that's my thought, too. Could be a fun mini-game for builders to see how creative they can get and still beat it under certain parameters. Not sure it has much meaning for the rest of the game, though. 

[Which Fights (at what level) Do You Use To Test Builds?]

5 hours ago, omgFIREBALLS said:

Gorecci Street @ASAP

This is an interesting idea (though I'm assuming you're mostly kidding). What level for this is "appropriate"? Considering you likely need the XP from this quest to hit level 4 for the Digsite fights, is level 3 right? 

Similarly, what's the standard party to use? Assume Watcher, Eder, Xoti only? Standard hirelings? 

[Which Fights (at what level) Do You Use To Test Builds?]

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Slayer Seeker Survivor Standalone mod. Make a custom lvl 16 party, but any equipment you want, reach lvl 20 quickly, use it vs various foes. The mod is basically made for this. 

Yes! That mod is so cool. I have it and plan to do some fun party build tests with in.

Barring a full play through (which I may still do here), are there any particularly challenging fights in SSS that you think should be included if I don't play through the whole DLC? 

[Max Sleight of hand, stealth and mechanic ?]

On 1/11/2024 at 11:41 AM, thelee said:

yeah i agree. i honestly don't think it would've been too hard to make sleight of hand functional (what you talk about is pretty much it),

Moddable? Rewards improving with level means coding NPCs with more items that have a requirement? That’s just some spreadsheet and itemization work, yeah? 

[Which Fights (at what level) Do You Use To Test Builds?]

Howdy Folks! 

I've got some basic builds for Fassina & Konstanten that I want to post for posterity, and I'm finishing yet another full play-through with them, but I hit level 20 too quickly to test most of the things at the levels I wanted (and this is a full clear PotD ToI run, so I can't reload and replay at previous spots). All of that got me to thinking that I'll go back and play through select fights using the console to do the setup. 

So, what fights do you think are essential to test builds against to consider them tested? Here's my running list and the levels I think are doable but challenging. 

• Ship Battle @5 vs Well-Weathered Cormio
• Lost Dues in Good Faith @5
• Hanging Sepulchers (Symbols of Death) @8
• Ship Battle @10 vs Crookspur Captain
• Kraken @10
• Sea Dragon @13
• Magma Dragon @14
• Neriscyrlas @14 (Harbingers Watch)
• Ship Battle @15 vs Fyrgist
• Menzaggo, Splintered Reef @15
• Neriscyrlas (Death's Depthless Dominion) @16
• Flame Naga SSS @16
• One or two other SSS fights (which ones?)
• Frightened Child @19 
• Oracle of Wael @20
• Megabosses @20

I would love feedback on the list of fights and the levels. What's missing? What would you change? 

[Eder Swashbuckler build help]

4 hours ago, SenSx said:

Does it improve spells as well or just beast form ?

Yet another plug for the Balance Polishing Mod, which adds +1 (+2 w/ Greater Wildstrike) to Power Level for the element associated. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

37 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

So I'm going to change caltrop and fire ground trap to instant effects with DoT.

Can you show me which attack you're editing and what values? I'm poking around with Apotheosis and would love to learn as you make these changes. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

2 hours ago, Elric Galad said:

Guardian Stance : And what about adding "+3 ennemies required to be flanked" imported from One Stands Alone, to align with the +3 engagements. Granted the role of Defender/Guardian stance, this one would make perfect sense. This is a quasi-immunity to flanking (apart from Per Affliction and Phantom Foes) so it would be very valuable when engaging up to 4 foes at a time.

This is really solid. 

[Balance Polishing Mod Release 1.0]

29 minutes ago, thelee said:

isn't there some armor that has this effect riding on a disengagement attack?

One Dozen Stood has this effect on Disengagement Attack. Sort of has the same problem we are trying to solve for here.