Jayd

This is what I assumed turn-based was when I heard about it. I replayed Blue Dragon not long ago and action speed was extremely important in that turn-based combat. It also allows the interrupt system to translate without a problem. Question: how do interrupts work in Deadfire's TB mode? If everyone does an action each turn how can there be interrupts?

Well that makes things straightforward, thanks.

I've played 3 different kinds of monk so far and I can say that I've never taken Mortification of the Soul and never missed it. It might be good in some builds but I'd just play it by ear and not worry about it in advance.

Linger seems straightforward enough, but when you look at the ability descriptions for chants most of them have an effect duration that is separate from both chant duration and linger. They all look something like: Duration: 6 seconds Linger: 3 seconds Effects: [description of effects] for 10 seconds Now if the chants apply an effect with its own inherent duration (10 secs) at the beginning of the chant, and chant duration is the time separating chants, what is linger doing? Is the linger duration slapped on after the 10 second duration or after the 6? If it is after the 6, then linger would be useless for all but the small number of chants with a 6 sec duration. If after the 10, it would be pretty good (10*int modifier + 3*int modifier?).

Oh shucks, I didn't even know each jump causes a stack. Shows how much I know. Probably had something to do with that because I didn't exactly test it. It was that Red Hand seemed to still be taking long to reload.

Possibly strange question: do some weapons benefit more from time parasite than others? On Ydwin I feel like Frostseeker turns into a machine gun but Red Hand doesn't feel that much better. Maybe it has a different effect on reload or maybe it's just my mind? Either way there might be some interesting mathematical argument about which weapons benefit most.

Since the spirit of the challenge is to make the game as unplayable as possible to see if it is even possible for a human being to finish I would say that it would be against the spirit of the challenge to look down on any strategy as 'against the spirit of the challenge'. This is kill or be killed territory. You're supposed to exploit any and everything you can to get through.

Skyward Kick broke targeting when I was using it on a character over a month ago. That's not a 5.0 thing. Is indeed annoying to deal with.

My comment was directed at the second part of their post, where they said that enduring dance will be the only source of wounds vs Doru. I was suggesting an alternate source. Specifically with the strat that has your summons tank Doru while you stand at a distance. As for Hauani, I don't know.

If I remember correctly, FF works with Instruments of pain. What if you used that and spammed FF at a distance (it doesn't need to land to give you the debuff)? (Sorry for double post)

I have done this and it works well. Run through some mobs for two seconds and your wounds are full again. Extra stride helps for triggering the disengages quickly.

Your first alternative requires two castings, making it slow and giving the enemy time to do serious damage. Your second alternative is just stating an option with all the downsides I've already identified. Look, obviously Haunting Chains isn't going to replace every other spell you have, but you're not going to replicate it with other spells either. Beating the crap out of a a helpless enemy is obviously good, no-nonsense, effective destruction, and dominating does not give you the same experience. I'm curious about Antipathetic Field + 1000 cuts now you mention it. Every tick triggers the extra damage and duration? Does it only work on enemies between the target and the cipher or does it work on the target too?

Let me give an example: a swashbuckler dives your backline squishies. It's a big threat to your party with its accurate interrupts, afflictions, and damage. Your cipher has focus. They can: Dominate it, in which case it runs off to find the nearest enemy while probably being healed by your party. You need to watch the dominated duration; when it expires you will need to deal with it again. If you try to kill it while dominated you will have to overcome your own party healing/buffs and probably move characters out of position to chase it. Disintegrate, which will do good damage but likely be a fair deal tougher to land, and will not prevent it from spamming interrupting full attacks on your priest or w/e. Stasis, which will keep you safe, buy you time to thin the herd/reposition, etc., but you'll still have to watch the time and deal with the swash. Haunting Chains, which will keep your party safe from it, allow the cipher to dps the swash with their weapon and regain focus, have other party members help burst it down if they are not doing anything more important (it lasts a long time so nbd). Downside is this costs more focus than the other two. You'll notice that the only downside to HC is the extra focus, unlike the (imo more significant) downsides of the other options. It's then offset by giving the cipher a perfect target to go after with their weapon. Moreover, that option just gives you much more freedom than the others. You can damage, you can ignore, you can move, you can do whatever the flow of the fight indicates you should do about that swash, without having to navigate the spells restrictions. It won't always be the best move, but it seems like a pretty solid one to me. That was not my intention - the intention was to point out that the most comparable spell is also level 9 but on 1/encounter with a shorter duration. That is a bad spell.

Dominated enemies benefit from your AOE heals and buffs, and the dominated effect breaks when they are deliberately attacked . It is a bad ability to use if you want the target dead. Other spells that stop a single enemy from fighting (stasis shell cipher lv7, temporal cocoon wizard lv8) also stop them from being targeted (except petrification (at wizard lv9!)) Haunting Chains both renders an enemy as no threat and makes them vulnerable to get focused down for a hefty duration, cast by a character with bonus accuracy and who can easily restore their resources, anywhere within a 10m radius. There is no other ability with all these benefits.

Saying it's bad against mobs because it's single target is a ridiculous argument. Is Soul Annihilation bad against mobs because it's single target? Stunning Surge? Flames of Devotion? Blinding Strike? Are you really going to maintain that single target abilities are universally bad in the vast majority of the game? (Before you say those are only good because they do damage, really consider the effect that hard CC has on an enemy, including your subsequent attempts to kill that enemy and its allies - its inability to defend itself, disrupt your party's actions, or support its teammates.) Terrified is a lvl3 affliction - not lvl2 - and it's the real star. Hobbled just stops them from running about too quick and adds a reflex debuff. Bosses tend to resist lots of afflictions - big deal. For the ones who resist resolve, you still get the ability to apply Frightened for a long time, which is good because bosses have very strong offensive abilities.

I feel Haunting Chains gets unfair hate. Sure if you compare it to the earlier terror Wizard spells it seems out of place in PL9. But it must be remembered that Wizards are limited to 2/encounter (usually) and with the opportunity cost of other spells at that level. A Cipher can gain enough focus to cast a level 9 spell in just a few seconds, and can therefore completely remove an enemy (or multiple if they are doing nothing else) from the fight indefinitely. Ciphers also get bonuses to will-targeting spells. So unless an enemy has resistance or sky-high will, a sc cipher can just turn them into a punching bag at will. Couple this with the fact that most CC targets fortitude and you realize you have the perfect tool to neutralize annoying enemy tanks.

@Boeroer is there anything more to share about how you make Tekehu do work with blunderbusses? Any items or buffs you rely on, especially for accuracy? And are there any special tips for not having Blinding Smoke mess with your own team?

It doesn't say you have to clear every fight, just the Porokoa. You don't have to do that fight to get to it. Anyway, if anybody actually does this thing (when? I'm going to say 'if'), that's going to be a Let's Play I watch from beginning to end.

I feel so emotional. I love this game.

Thank you for helping figure this out. I was baffled and frustrated. Weird decision to begin with since it's such a huge nerf to the cannon. Much worse to not tell the player.

Think I can actually add something @thelee : in the Ranger section you mention that you don't think there are other "marked" accuracy buffs similar to Marked Prey, but Magistrate's Cudgel's "Judged' effect is similar and I can confirm that they stack (playing a Wanderer right now).

This must be it. I tried it most with Wyrmtongue, then when I switched I probably got bad luck and assumed nothing had changed. I started boarding instead so I'll check again another time. Does the game tell you flame cannons behave this way?

In earlier playthroughs I've used the Junk to blast down ships with cannonballs. It's always worked fine. To try something different this playthrough, I've tried using the Voyager. It would be fine except for one big problem: I use cannonballs (the ammunition which the game says almost always hits hull, which has been my experience before) but they are hitting sails more than hull. It makes the ship combat impossible because I have to get through much more HP (sails+hull) to get the kill while the other ship just tears my lightweight ship apart. What is going on here? I tried using different types of cannon. My cannoneers are tier-3. I keep clicking cannonball and getting sail hits. Should I report this as a bug?

Holy crap, I wish I had this when I was starting the game. It's thelee's work (according to the power-level page) and a pinned link should replace his pinned thread on Power Level on this board. New players are badly missing a resource like this.

So, uh...we expecting this thing today?