Ivanfyodorovich

I'll test. Class descriptions where? In the glossary? Character creation?

It's tough to think of something that can replace such a simple intended functionality as increased duration of effects. What if you go about it through another mechanical means - +10 second beneficial effect duration on friendly targets (if it can include the current ability), +25% Hostile Effect duration on enemy targets. It's a broader application since it affects every other buff/debuff involved, so you could tune it in accordance with that, but it achieves similar effect and would be worth picking up.

Agia, Deadfire, Act I: Port Maje I thought I'd talk a little bit more about Port Maje, and how I like to do it. Agia will be a new experience, because of the Skaen dispositions I'm avoiding and seeking. I let Chitupec die this time and get the Killer's Gloves in the supplies cache on the beach. More valuable in it is a Thief's Putty and Oil of Allure. I remember to make Eder a Swashbuckler so someone has mechanics before I bring on the hired adventurers. Disarming the traps around Beodul gives more XP, and will be our main source of cash to purchase our 2 hired adventurers. I immediately head in to Port Maje with Eder and pick up Xoti. I have her as a Single Class Monk. That fits a little bit better our eventual team composition, and Agia has priest stuff covered (Serafen and Mirke will replace her and Eder eventually). With her and Eder in tow, we go back to the beach and complete the quest to find our crew members. Along the way I talk to every ghost and send them to her lantern whenever possible, choosing every cruel or shady option. Between the beach, Gorecci street, and the digsite, we can advance her quest to the next stage. When we find Beodul we hit level 2. Back to Port Maje to recruit our custom adventurers. I try to recruit them as soon as I can to minimize the XP gap they will suffer. I don't actually know the formula for how much XP they start with relative to the Watcher, but this method covers all the possibilities. Severa, Theurge (Troubadour / Ancient) Agilus, Mindstalker (Beguiler / Trickster) We clear out the room upstairs with the cruel option, stabbing our drunken captain friend. I also take a moment to steal from Norgund's chest. After talking with Clario, our hired adventurers hit level 2. We scoop up all the quests in town, stealing everything possible, and head to Sātahuzi. We convince Mokeha to give us the purse and we immediately open it for a cool 2,000 copper, plus the 300 from selling the earring. We also steal everything we can here - with the biggest haul coming inside the two houses. In some playthroughs I'd buy the Shorewalker Sandals here, but I'm saving funds for Shattered Vengeance. Agia & companions hit level 3. From here I go back and clear out the cave on the Beach. We enter Gorecci street from the south (you must exist the city on foot and re-enter) so that we can stealth past the looters. One day I'll build out a NR that fights Gorecci street and the whole digsite, but this is not that run. As I mentioned, talking to all the ghosts here helps advance Xoti's quest. From there we turn in to the guard captain and save our 300 copper by blowing Rum-dum Riggere free from the outside. I talk to Rinco, but the only options here are Benevolent or Aggressive, so I just leave. Thankfully, the quest completed when I took the money from his pouch. From there we clear the rest of the island, except for the Dawnstars at Ilonet's Fork; I want to steal from them and can't afford the fight at this level if I mess up the check (which is poorly documented on the wiki). I always fight Stone-Tooth for the Pyrite he drops. We get a Nature's Embrace in the Burial Site and put it on Eder, and a fine padded armor > Agilus. At the Digsite, we loot everything possible and fight the first pack on the steps. Eder takes quite a bit of DMG right out the gate from focus fire wurms & the adult boar. Holy Radiance is enough to bring him back, and the Charm Beast lands on all 3 boars, who engage and tank the wurms while we focs them down from range. I hadn't equipped a ranged weapon on Agia yet (oops). I had a club/stiletto set up, but I'm realizing it's silly to keep that equipped since I get so much more dmg out of Spiritual Weapon if I'm going to engage in melee. We equip a single handed pistol after this fight. My notes aren't clear, but I think Severa and Agilus hit level 3 here. We steal around to the other side of the arena, and after grabbing the medallion from the upstairs room, sneak down past the big fight in the center, and enter the lower levels. With Charm Beast and Hold Beast, I could absolutely handle the fight in the middle (I think there's no Drake on Veteran), but why take the risk when it's just as easy to sneak by? Inside, we snag the Gladiator's Sword > Eder, and fight the minimum number of fights to get to the Adra Pillar. Both of them work well for choke points in the doorway, and on Veteran, the number of enemies is manageable. Pistols help tremendously on the spirits in the second fight. We chose the heal ability for Agia by searching for the lost souls when talking to Eothas. We will have easy access to DEX afflictions via Agilus and Severa, and the RES inspiration isn't as helpful for Agia. Again, not sure, but I think Agia hits level 4. We clear the rest of the lower level for items/money and a little bit of XP. If you approach the fight with the imps from the north, there's an explosive barrel that can kill most of them in one blast if you shoot it with a firearm. On the way out we pick up Aloth as a Wizard. We snag Shattered Vengeance on the way out and pick up Serafen as a Barbarian to replace Xoti. Severa and Agilus also hit 4. Snag a few sailors, supplies, and off into the wild! I like to kill Meryl the Mad, just west of Port Maje, on the way to Neketaka. The fight happens in a narrow choke point stair case, and all the enemies, but Meryl, are vessels, susceptible to Holy Radiance. We search the Giftbearer ship to get the imp cameo and more gold. Beggar Winfruth finds us, and we win our first sea battle. This one is far less deadly as a cannon exchange. Beggar has only 1 cannon and weak sail and hull health. We snagged a third cannon from a shipwreck near Maje Island, and have little trouble taking her out. We also stop over at the island with the swimming race to pick up some extra coin and buy supplies from the town. Next stop, Neketaka!

Ahh - fair point that the action speed still helps martial recovery - was incorrectly thinking casting speed. I like the zero recovery & action speed - maybe folks with more experience finding degenerate combos can weigh in on balance.

Action speed is awesome, but overly benefits casters. What if it’s both - action speed and no recovery? The second action following will happen a few seconds faster, but you still have regular casting time on it.

Update: I'm rolling with Brawler Mirke. After 3 failed double Trial of Iron runs, I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. Which brings me to my other change. I'm nixing my Fury Shaper, and rolling Serafen a passable replacement. The build will be less fun, but I just won't find it funny at all if I lose my run to Wild Mind procs. Once I get 1 double run on the board, I'll be more open to taking chances. Final roster: MC: single class Priest of Skaen - Buffs/heals/Storm of Holy Fire Serafen: single class Barbarian - Retaliation tank/dps (Rekvu's Cloak) Mirke: Brawler (Fighter/Monk) - DEF tank Hired Theurge (Ancient / Troubador) - AoE heals/dots (same as the hired Chanter from PoE1 playthrough) Hired Mindstalker (Beguiler / Trickster) - AoE debuffs/dps w/ Mortars

Agia, Heath Orlan Priestess of Skaen: Deadfire Introduction Game Version: 5.0.0.0040 LAX123ABCDEFGHI[TB] (All DLC enabled)Difficulty: VeteranSettings: Real Time With Pause; Expert Mode: Off; Trial of Iron: On; Berath's Blessings: None; Level Scaling: NoneMods: Party Description: We plan for an all Orlan party who will side with the Principe. Agia: single class Priest of Skaen - Buffs/heals/Storm of Holy Fire Serafen: single class Barbarian - Retaliation tank/dps Mirke: Brawler (Fighter/Monk) - DEF tank Severa: Hired Theurge (Ancient / Troubador) - AoE heals/dots (same as our hired Chanter from PoE1 playthrough) Agilus: Hired Mindstalker (Beguiler / Trickster) - AoE debuffs/dps I'm going to "try" to take it slowly and post more about my builds/decisions. I'm hoping that over-analyzing things will help me take fewer risks, and it should be fun, too! Next up, Port Maje! I'm turning off level scaling to try and get this run on the board. I'll try some PotD w/ level scaling later, when I'm more confident with NR in Deadfire.

Agia, Act III & IV Quests in Twin Elms go fast. A few changes to the usual flow: We fight the druid instead of talking her into dying. We let the Pale Elves through the portal (I'm really used to playing a high resolve MC, so not having some options open was interesting). We complete Hiravias' quest and push him toward Galawain. I murder the Fangs to save the grave robbers. I let Delem eat the birds. I hold off on the Sky Dragon for a little bit. I think we were level 11/10 in the party. She crit the Chanter right out the gate and got confused, which bugged the animation for her flying into the air, making her untargettable with direct attacks, but still vulnerable to AoEs that included her model. I used the eyes to upgrade Persistence. After finishing the god quests and pledging to Rymrgand, we pop over to finish the endless paths. Normally I'd settle peacefully with Od Nua, but that required a Benevolent option (something I've not chosen yet this playthrough). We handle that fight without much issue. I have the same situation with the Adra dragon, but I go ahead and choose it. Thankfully disposition in PoE1 doesn't doc you any points right away when you pick a disfavored option. With our new treats, we briefly pop Eder in the party and complete his quest. There's a surprising number of Cruel options to choose, which I do (sorry buddy). Then it's on to Sun in Shadow. I'm cruel to Iovara, and we push her soul back into the Wheel with her memories gone. For the Thaos fight I only had 2 Snowcaps, so I prioritize Agia. We are able to get off the prayer against treachery and bewilderment, though Thaos lands a Cleansing Flame on Agia. We use minor intercession to clear it before she goes down. Hiravias stands in the middle of the statues and casts his storms, stunning both reliably. I clumsily DPS the statue with Thaos in it, leaving the other one still up when he pops out. I don't bother trying to clear the Shields for the Faithful, as the Ranger is able to hit him through it. It's over pretty quickly after that. I imprison Thaos - it seems like the meanest thing to do to him. Aloth recommends that I empower Woedica with the souls, and Skaen pops in to do the same. Why not. To Hel with all these other gods trying to tell me what to do. Anyway, I'm here for messing up Thaos and saving my own skin. Onward!

I've left her with the small shield and sickle. Heavy armor is great. Her default armor is mail, if I'm remembering right. I don't think you can make her use a shield modal ability, but you can tweak her AI and it *should* follow the new AI. At least, that was my experience with Aloth in the last run. That said, I didn't add a custom routine, I just put a new spell in the list for the existing logic.

Xoti casts Dire Blessing on damn near the whole boat every boarding fight. If nothing else, it saves you that cast.

It's so nice to see these new, creative builds! I feel like your builds help teach the game. I always learn something new.

Agia, Act II Standard Act II pathing for Agia, completing easy and combat optional quests first to gain a few levels. I get caught stealing in Purnisc's House unexpectedly, and aggro most of the first floor. Thankfully Nyrid doesn't attack and we survive. Once level 5, we do the catacombs followed by Brakenbury and Heritage Hill. I'm siding with the Doemenels and looking for deceptive & cruel disposition choices, which makes some quests more interesting. This is the first playthrough where I've gotten the Gift from the Machine. When everyone is level 6, we go back and kill Raedric. I sneak in using the priest robes and free Giaccolo. There's a neat Skaen option to select before I murder him. We also clear the first few levels of the Endless Paths to get Persistence for the Ranger and some other items for the team. The squishiness of the Chanter is decreasing as she gains levels and adds defensive talents, and the Barbarian is picking up usefulness as we get better items. When I have about 20,000 copper, I go buy the Company Captain's Cap for the Chanter, Belt of the Deadfire Cannoneer for the Barbarian, and Molina's for Hiravias. In Dyrford I kill Nyfre and collaborate with the Skaen cult to kill Lord Harond. Durance is sacrificed to the Blood Pool. His arrogant bullying would be enough reason, but his bigotry towards Orlans makes it an easy choice. This is also my first Effigy's Resentment. I pull as many spiders as I can in the ogre cave for fun, as I'm overleveled at this point. We recruit the Ogre, speed through Clîaban Rilag and the remaining quests in Defiance before doing the Animancy trials and convincing the Duc that Animancy is too dangerous. I've been pushing Aloth toward authoritarianism and taking control of Iselmyr. This is the opposite of my last playthrough, but mostly I want Thaos' Headdress in Deadfire. Hiravias we are pushing towards Galawain, because that feels more Skaen aligned.

Setting aside the value/viability of Bladeturning, are there any other pro/cons folks are seeing here that haven't been mentioned? I'm leaning toward Brawler, because it's a Trial of Iron run (even if it is Veteran), and I'd rather have a slower, but more sturdy team. Anyone think SC Monk is viable as a tank? I'd prefer to be playing with a max RES Forbidden Fist, but I'm settled on using Mirke here instead of a hired adventurer.

Thanks for the input, @thelee And, yeah, I was tracking that she is a Streetfighter, but I figured the low recovery penalty when not flanked/bloodied isn't too much of a problem for a tank. I see your point about incentivizing flanked/bloodied, though. It sort of pulls the whole build a little off center in terms of items/etc, and I already have a "tank" that I expect to be bloodied/near death more often. Another thing that tips it to Brawler for me is wanting her to be relatively auto-pilot, and I'm getting mostly passives from the Fighter side.

I’m planning out a PoE1 & 2 Trial of Iron run for the No Reload thread here on the PoE1 forums. When I get to Deadfire it will be all Orlans, and I’m going Principi for faction. I’m playing with Community Patch and Balance Polishing mods, though I’ll turn off a few changes as desired. Im trying to choose a class for Mirke to be my high deflection melee. The rest of the party is: Priest of Skaen (buff/heal/melee dmg) Retaliation Furyshaper (dmg sponge/melee dmg/buffs/debuffs) Ancient/Troubadour Theurge (dots/heals) SC Cipher Serafen (debuffs/CC/dmg) I’ll be building around Tuotilo’s Palm for the most part. Initial thoughts: Shadowdancer Riposte Pukestabber / Marux Amanth (alternate dmg set) More dmg potential Brawler More Crits: Intuitive & CP weapon mastery More Deflection More Engagement Unbending SC Monk Whispers (stuns with Ajumaat is a kind of tanking) Imagined Pain / Razor’s Edge Resonant Touch

Agia, Act I I pick up the 3 hired adventurers ASAP and with Aloth do as many quests as I feel comfortable, before picking up Eder to clear through to Caed Nua. I was trying to "close" the XP gap between them and my MC, but in hindsight, I don't think that reasoning works. The group is optimized for damage, but is more squishy than I'm used to. The chanter and the barbarian are planned to come with me to Deadfire, and their stats reflect their builds there. Both have low RES, and the Chanter has low CON. Still, we clear through the quests in Gilded Vale easily. The Temple of Eothas gives the most challenge, with the hired adventurers being level 3. Another tricky part is having such a melee heavy party with Eder. 5 melee characters (including the Ranger pet) is too many in small rooms and hallways. We clear through Osyra in Raedric's Hold, but leave the rest for Act II. After that we head to Caed Nua, clear the spirits in the corner for maximum defense, and pull Maerwald out of his room into the doorway, where Chillfog, ranged attacks, and Eder's knockdowns take him out before he can do any damage to the party. Quick jaunt out to the Gorge to snag Hiravias and we head to Defiance Bay.

Whelp, back on my bs. Agia, Priest of Skaen Game Version: 3.7.0.1318 - All DLC enabled Difficulty: Hard Settings: Maim Before Death: On; Injuries: On; Expert Mode: Off; Trial of Iron: On Mods: One-Eyed Molina's Gold-Fingered Spike-Flinger Fix Main Character Description: Agia escaped slavery in the Deadfire after leading several other enslaved orlans in a ritual murder of the overseer of their work camp. She has been collecting followers in her travels, and has come to the Dyrwood in search of opportunities to practice the quiet revenge her god demands . . . This run will be all Orlans and Aloth. We have a hired Chanter, Barbarian, and Ranger, and will pick up Hiravias as soon as we clear Caed Nua. I plan to document sparsely, as previous, with fewer pictures. I will not be completing the DLC, though I may go to Stalwart to snag a few items.

I think those are pretty conservative bonuses and fit the design of having to rest less often. Is the +1 phrase increasing the +1 Max phrase count? Is the focus for Cipher Max and starting focus? I think those would be strong. Currently +Max Power Pool effects are totally weird. How much of a lift would it be to recode those effects to give some version of the above? AFAIK, they don't work this way (totally worthless for casters, chanters, etc.)

Inspired Defense feels mostly okay as is to me. Maybe increase to 4 seconds? The drawback of it changing w/ another type of DMG still applies at 4 seconds, so it doesn't make it too strong, but guarantees it remaining up if you keep getting hit by one DMG type consistently. Spell Resistance @ 15% seems fine to me. I'm assuming spell resistance works like Hit conversion, where all the effects apply independently, rather than being added up, which helps to reduce the value of stacking this with other kinds. Empower Talents: Adding some info to help with the discussion: Launch Empower: +10 PL (+10 ACC, +2.5 Pen, +50% DMG, +50% duration, +5 projectiles) Vanilla "balanced" Empower: +5 PL (+5 ACC, +1.25 Pen, +25% DMG, +25% duration, +2.5 projectiles) Current (w/ Community Patch) : Penetrating Empower: +1 Pen (+2.25 total), worth +4 PL (+9 total w/ current empower) Accurate Empower: +10 ACC (+15 total), worth +10 PL (+15 total) Lasting Empower: +20% duration (+25% multiplicative +20% additive), worth ~+4 PL (9 total) Potent Empower: +20% DMG (+25% multiplicative +20% additive), worth ~+4 PL (9 total) Proposed Change: Penetrating Empower: +4 Pen (+5.25 total), worth +16PL (+21 total w/ current empower) Accurate Empower: +15 ACC (+20 total), worth +15 PL (+20 total) Lasting Empower: +100% duration (+25% multiplicative +100 additive), worth ~+20 PL (+25 total) Potent Empower: +30% DMG (+25% multiplicative +30% additive) worth ~+6 PL (+11 total) My thoughts: These talents are available to Multi-class characters, so the risk of "degenerate combos" is more likely (and harder to test/predict) PEN is usually the most valuable of the talents for a DMG ability, unless you already have very high ACC, so maybe +3 PEN (+4.25 net) is strong enough (talent is worth +12PL of PEN) Lasting Empower is very weak as is (though more valuable with the Polishing Patch Brilliant and Salvation of Time nerf), so +100% additive seems fine. To test - how does this interact with Least Unstable Coil shenanigans? How does this interact with the most powerful/rare T3 Afflictions (Stunned, Paralyzed, Terrified)? Potent Empower is the least valuable of these for a DMG ability, and the most conservative bonus listed, but I don't think we need to be that conservative for an additive DMG source. Overpen gives +30%, Crit gives +50%, so you're almost always better picking one of those talents if you want to increase DMG. Granted you can stack these, but +50% feels like it competes here. It's the value of Deathblows once per fight. Accurate Empower @ +15 is strong. +20 ACC total is a solid # (compare with Borrowed Instincts, etc.) and should help guarantee an important attack lands or make a crit very likely I'll comment on Great Soul in a bit.

I suppose the intended design is that Monks don't get Fast Runner, they get to choose between two stronger skills that split the functionality. It does seem quite weak, though it comes 2 tiers before Tumbling, and you can get both. Instead of flat +Defense, how about 50% Graze > Miss vs. DIsengagement attacks? Similar to Adept Evasion, but for disengagement, and less strong, because Tier 2. More thoughts on the other parts of this, but will need to reply a little later.

Hmm. Now I'm seeing it on this save when I just picked it up after leveling. The other save I had it already when I loaded it. Edit: Closed and reloaded and same effect - apply to regular hits. Also confirmed in vanilla.

I just tested and it showed in the tooltip, but did not apply to the attack. It correctly applied to the carnage hit, but not the main attack.

Lucca update: dead to the Valeras when the mediation with the Bardattos went bad. It has me a bit stunned, considering I’ve resolved this peacefully almost every previous play through. I checked the wiki to be sure I got it, and something went wrong. Maybe I didn’t go through enough of their dialogue trees beforehand? I asked Pallegina to quiet them down, and the easy option from Ezzali wasn’t there. I tried for the “let’s make money” option, but I hadn’t set it up correctly. I was level 7 and the whole Valera house attacks (all 3 skulls). It’s gonna be a little bit before I can do another PoE1 play through. I force quit during the fight and will finish this play through as if I’m still on a NR. It is trial of iron still. I’ll update here as it goes, but less thoroughly, since this is not a legal NR run anymore. Update: I went back and was successful. I needed to use the intimidate option (ENOUGH) and then a high RES option.

Lucca, Moon Godlike Darcozzi Paladini: Deadfire Introduction Game Version: 5.0.0.0040 LAX123ABCDEFGHI[TB] (All DLC enabled) Difficulty: Veteran Settings: Real Time With Pause; Expert Mode: Off; Trial of Iron: On; Berath's Blessings: None; Level Scaling: All, Only Upwards Mods: Community Patch: Basic, Extras, Keywords, Typos; Balance Polishing Mod: Buffs, Nerfs, Summon Rebalance (Minus Blunderbuss nerf, Chain Heal rework, Strike the Bell rework, Brilliant nerf); Carnage & Powder Burns Indicator; Enhanced User Interface Main Character Description: Lucca, Darcozzi Paladini and Watcher, has spent the years since Thaos enjoying all that life has to offer. She returned to visit Old Valia, but found little there to hold her loyalty or interest. The spirit of the Valian Republics now holds her attention, with their advances in animancy and bold action reaching towards the future. With no noble house to serve, Lucca spends her days serving her chosen family, the friends she has met along her adventures. This is just the kind of life she could get used to . . . Our chosen party this run will be Pallegina (Herald), Konstanten (Howler), Ydwin (Cipher), Fassina (Loremaster). A Chorus of Valian pride awaits!

Lucca Act IV I brave the Adra dragon and make it through the conversation without mistakes. We do the amulet trick and come back to loot the hoard. Totally unnecessary, but feels good to finish it out. Everyone is now level 14. I don't have the energy to clear all the bounties and any remaining side quests to get to 16. I planned to get Ryona's Vambraces for Pallegina to complete her Missile Commander build, but I don't need the extra firepower with everything on Standard, and I don't want to take the risk of a misclick at this point in the run. We clear through Sun and Shadow faster than I've ever seen. I feed the team all the food buffs, including dragon meat dish, and everyone pops a snowcap. Thaos is down in record time, though Pallegina barely gets off her FoD blunderbuss shot for 200+ damage on him right at the end. I thought took a screenshot, but must have goofed, because it didn't save. We trap Thaos in Sun and Shadow and scatter the souls across the Dyrwood like we promised Galawain and Magran. On to the Deadfire!