[need help with Pukestabber Build]

Well, maybe Exalted Endurance is what makes the difference. Keep a paladin in your party? Heavy armor plus Thick Skinned goes a long way too. I leaned into the AR and have a Blunting Belt and Dragon Pendant for some pretty heavy physical AR.

I definitely finish some fights with very low HP and sometimes get hit by an enemy and just go down off a no-PEN graze. Like folks have said, not really solo material. But I'm up way more often than I'm down and I hit like a truck. My Watcher has a good 20k more total damage than the next closest party member (though that's also partly due to party composition).

Human, Streetfighter, and items are all a good way to keep track of your HP. Anything that activates when you hit Bloodied or Near Death is useful, because you can see it in your status effects. I like Protective Eothasian Charm because it only pops up at near death and it heals you. But just off race/class, you could go Streetfighter and Death Godlike to have guaranteed notifications of Bloodied and Near Death.

[need help with Pukestabber Build]

My Dwarf 'Zerker has 30 MIG post -Frenzy and while they're multied w/Paladin to offset it via Exalted Endurance, the self damage isn't that bad. You have a metric ton of HP so if you're doing any amount of mitigation, you'll be fine. Even natively with Barb, you can just use Savage Defiance. It's hard to tell exactly what is going on HP-wise but if I activate Savage Defiance right after Frenzy, it doesn't heal for the full amount. So each tick of Robust is worth more than a tick of Frenzy.

The harder thing to deal with is that your DEF is gonna be low, so you'll get crit fairly often and enemies will focus you down. 

[need help with Pukestabber Build]

Wael's Wind IIRC correctly are stocked in Port Maje and Dunnage. If you'd rather use DoC Breastplate you don't need them because it can upgrade to give you INT resistance and you ignore confused. Rymsjodda is sold consistently at Harbinger's Watch and makes the DoC Breastplate faster than a robe if you've got Nalvi or Abraham.

 

Berserker can't solo (or at least not in any way that doesn't make you want to pull your hair out). I'm doing a trio run right now with a Bleak Walker/Berserker, Vatnir, and Ydwin and my Watcher has gone down eight times. IMO it's way too hard to figure out when to pull the trigger on healing. I'm not an expert on solo-ing but I'd imagine that a noSub Barb would stand a chance - 'Zerker is just too much risk.

[need help with Pukestabber Build]

Go Marauder. If you want to be fast, you want Barb's Frenzy, Bloodlust, and Bloodthirst (+ sometimes Wild Sprint). Rogue fits the drunk pirate image and sneak attack plus full attacks help you kill stuff fast.

 

I'd drink Wael's Wind and make my subs Berserker and Streetfighter. Wael's Wind removes Confused and Berserker helps you get Bloodied for Streetfighter. The Frenzy DEF penalty will also encourage enemies to attack you so you'll naturally be flanked a lot. That can obviously be pretty risky and if that level of risk is too high, I'd instead go Assassin and noSub Barb. You can drink Rymsjodda and rock Miscreant's Leather plus Nalvi/Abraham to have a super fast recovery. DoC Breastplate can be pretty fast with Rymsjodda and a recovery pet too if you still want to go with Berserker.

 

Put a Battle Axe in your main hand, since your full attack actives will skip the recovery time and you can make use of the modal. You'll want the SSS soulbound Axe but that's very late game and you'll probably be stuck using generics until then since there's not many options.

 

If you don't like Battle Axes or using generics until the end game, Rapiers also have a good modal that benefits from the skipped recovery time. Rannig's Wrath leans into the action speed theme and can be used with the Blackblade's Hood or Fair Favor you likely have on your head. Rannig's and Rust's Poignard also make for a good second weapon set if you come up against slash immune foes.

 

The other options for your non-Pukestabber hand are Marux Amanth or Lover's Embrace, since they'll benefit from Pukestabber. IMO you have so many full attacks as a multi that it's better to take something that benefits from skipping recovery.

 

Ultimately, the main part of a Pukestabber build is the Drunkard's Regret ring and drinking. As long as you have that, you can pretty much just use any dual wield build.

[Afflictions against enemies w/ Resistance in Turn-based causes it to calculate in real-time]

Yup, have that going on too. It even applies to weaknesses - had an INT weak creature upgrade my charm to dominated then wear off before its turn.

 

It does seem to have been partially fixed since TB came out. It used to happen with everything where now it's just a sometimes thing. I suggest sending in an error report or making a thread in the TB beta forum: https://forums.obsidian.net/forum/136-beta-feedback-for-turn-based-mode/

[Trickster Synergy?]

Another vote for Soulblade. Borrowed Instinct, Mirrored Image, and Psychovampiric Shield all stack for +55 DEF, then you can generate focus through Riposte for Soul Annihilation spam.

 

I'm also a fan of Skald. Between Ryngrim's, Killers Froze Stiff, Thunder Rolled, and Lovers Cried Out, you can apply each kind of hard control affliction. Thick Grew Their Tongues is great with all of the Rogue's interrupt attacks and really makes the Harbinger a competent boss killer.

[If Xoti Meets POE Characters, Who Will She Get Along With?]

She has several negative comments about Magran in Deadfire. I think the way Xoti would hate Durance would be interesting.

 

Based on her interactions with Serafen, Xoti and Hiravias would be hilarious.

 

Sagani would probably mess with Xoti in the same ways she messes with Eder and Kana. Might not technically get along but it'd be funny to watch.

[How to deal with opponent's Arcane Dampener?]

oh! It totally lets you rebuff in TB. Gotta remember to mention that I mostly play TB when posting info.

[Turn-based mode - any good? Buggy? Balanced? (Also: is this party OK for it?)]

TB is actually pretty good rn. There's occasionally glitches with NPCs randomly just standing there for ~10 secs instead of taking their turn but it's uncommon.

 

Your Team

1) Probably fine. 2H is pretty good for single target damage in TB. If you have been using the AI scripts to self buff, it might be annoying to play. It's gonna get shown up by the casters on your team.

2) Riposte is really hard to make work in TB due to the increased graze range. Trickster/Unbroken can probably make it work but it's gonna proc a lot less. Persistent distraction and interrupts are really good in TB so you might still want a Swash but you'd probably be better off with a dual wielder.

3) This character is a powerhouse in TB and will probably be winning encounters by themselves. Relentless Storm just wins 3/4s of encounters by itself in TB. If winning easily is your jam, definitely play this char.

The HoTs are pretty good in TB and AoE casters are really good so even if Relentless is too OP for you, then just not using it and playing this character they'll still be useful.

4) Casters are great DPR in TB. Evoker is still good, maybe even a bit better.

5) Same thing I've been saying about nuker casters - they're good. Priests IMO get a significant boost in TB bc their relatively slow cast times are mitigated by the nature of it.

 

I've been really enjoying Chanters in TB. Killers Froze Stiff and The Thunder Rolled are hard control and phrase generation is way faster feeling as 1/round.

 

Terrified doesn't break engagement in TB, so Trickster/Soulblade is pretty fun. You can generate focus by casting Ryngrim's and getting disengagement attacks.

[How to deal with opponent's Arcane Dampener?]

I find most enemy mages open with it. Just waiting a tic before buffing up can often minimize any damage it does.

 

You can also recast your buffs. WRT HoTs, Ancient Memories and Exalted Endurance will just get reapplied and ignore it.

[Let's talk Fire Spells]

I use Aloth's Rolling Flame a lot early game. It does a good chunk of damage when you're still clearing out Port Maje.

 

Delayed Fireball is really good in TB, it just goes off at the start of your next turn.

 

Burst of Summer Flame paired with Sunbeam helped my low level Fury Druid win some otherwise impossible fights. BoSF has a very fast cast time, so it makes for a pretty good follow up from stealth casting. Not very useful late game but early on, tacking that much damage onto a stealth opener and probably even getting a third spell off before martials make their second attack is a game changer.

 

I use Shining Beacon as a follow up to Devotions of the Faithful all the time. The duration isn't my favorite but it's a decent size foe-only AoE that acts as a secondary accuracy boost. It's one of my favorites for PotD trash fights, where I still want an accuracy boost but don't wanna waste time on actual buffs.

 

I don't know how or if I'd rank them. Being an effective caster requires that you have a wide elemental array and ways to target different defenses.

[Abilites that work with Instruments of Pain]

The high base damage works really well with PL boosts (and even just normal additive damage). It'd probably edge out typical Druid weapons like Spine of Thicket Green and Lord Darryn's Voulge, which have a 4.7 sec attack cycle iirc. 2x Sunlance takes roughly the same time as 3x auto-attack. Napkin math says Sunlance wins out (120-150 v. ~90-120 for a legendary QStaff) but that's just looking at base damage and base speed.

 

It's also killer in TB.

[Arcane Archer & Evoker]

It's Giftbearer's Cloth, a cloak from one of the uncharted islands. It's a Cloak of Protection that scales off the History skill. It doesn't take too much investment to make it better than a Cloak of Greater Protection, so if you can spare some skill points for History, it shouldn't be taking the slot of something else important.

[Abilites that work with Instruments of Pain]

Lay On Hands and Coordinated Positioning both seem really useful, good find.

 

I wonder how you could engineer a situation where you could use a 120m Sunlance. Poko Kohara strikes me as a possibility - sneak a character over to the Xaurips to allow for targeting, then start firing from the Drake/Delemgan encounter. Does Fog of War block LoS? Would you have to build a bridge of characters through the Fog of War to actually have LoS? Hm. Gonna have to test this.

[Deadfire Polishing Poll]

I'm not sure how many voters it influenced but in the discussion thread the stance on trinkets was that they would do stuff like give +2 Condemnation PL or an extra spirit shift use rather than be an exact copy of grimoires. Some limited extra spells too but I don't think anyone wanted the full 1-9 on a single trinket.

[How would you change penetration values or would you change them at all?]

I'll put in another vote for Ensign's level-or-difficulty-scaling-but-not-both. Except rather than messing with level scaling, just leave the difficulty scaling at Vet's +1.
 
IMO underPEN is a bigger issue than overPEN. If you're going to adjust things, I would start on underPEN. Maluses are huge damage reducers and even having AR 1 or 2 greater than PEN is a significant defense. Your scaling by 15% looks right but obviously it's pretty hard to say for sure. Even if you'd like to adjust both sides, I would still test underPEN changes and overPEN changes separately before adding them together. You'll get a better feel for what is working and what isn't.
 

PoE1 had a similar problem, where the DR made a big difference early game, but as you progressed damage scaled up much more quickly than armor could, leading to a situation where pretty much everyone wore robes at max level.

 
PoE1 was way faster and the everyone-in-robes issue was partially due to speed shenanigans that aren't possible in Deadfire. You're right but there's a bit more to it.

[Get the Titan's Heart after setting fire to the powderhouse]

Have you tried using Bounding Boots and stealth to hop over them and see if the whole Citadel is hostile?

 

You could also just fight them - it's not like your RDC reputation is doing anything for you.

[Deadfire Polishing Poll]

I wonder if gray area is fair for something like Trickster SA - it's IMO the most blatant nerf being proposed and I think the threshold for a nerf ought to be lower than a buff. Really need some sort of control group measure for a thing like that.

 

How would the 25% pass apply to keywords? Currently they all pass but they had a lower response rate and there was no option to disagree with all of them. Given that not clicking them was the disagree, and that they have a lower total response rate, it's very possible that at least one participant out of the total 81 simply disagreed with all the keyword changes and didn't click any to express that. It would push a couple of the Priest's 75.9% keywords into the gray zone if the theoretical complete keywords disagreer had been marked in the total.

 

I should have thought of that when I was critiquing the poll structure - there are a few different ways to avoid the "non-participation is indistinguishable from total disagreement" dilemma.

[[CLASS BUILD] The Fate Testarossa]

Yes it is.

[Engaging Eder Build]

Engagement Swashbuckler tanks are pretty much just Defender Stance + Persistent Distraction. You pick up a lot of enemies and just passively debuff them.
 
For Eder specifically, I'd look at something like this:
 
Abilities

PL1
Disciplined Barrage
Open Slot (Probably Escape but Monastic Unarmed Trained is good if you want to use a shield, since it boosts Tuotilo's Palm)
 
PL2
Fighter Stances (!)
Weapon Style (Weapon and Shield is good on a tank and helps proc Riposte but IMO Two Weapon Style is better for a Rogue's full attacks)
Into The Fray (Don't let the AI handle this, it will mess it up)
Open Slot (Blinding Strike is good, Eder specifically likes Confident Aim since his PER is garbage and he could use some extra Graze-to-Hit)
 
PL3
Tactical Barrage (Tactical is better than Disciplined for Eder because he's not very smart and really needs the added duration he gets from Acute)
Riposte (Don't bother if you're playing Turn-Based, the miss rate is impossibly low with the expanded graze range)
Rapid Recovery (!)
Open Slot (Upgrading Blinding Strike is good if you took it. I like Finishing Blow, personally)
 
PL4
Vigorous Defense (!)
Persistent Distraction (!)
Lower Their Guard
Open Slot (You should take Charge if you didn't take Escape, I normally grab Weapon Spec)
 
PL5
Unbending (!)
Deep Wounds
Open Slot x2 (Lot of options. I'd grab Devastating Blow if you took Finishing Blow. Armored Grace is pretty useful. If you're trying to do a DEF tank, Superior Deflection helps. I'd take Armored Grace, since you'll probably be in slow heavy armor)
 
PL6
Refreshing Defense (!) (Eder has terrible ability duration and this will save you SO MUCH discipline)
Slippery Mind (This will save your bacon when it works but also Eder is pretty good at being above 50% health so taking a nice Rogue talent from a lower level is good here too)
Clear Out
Open Slot (Overwhelming Guard is good but honestly? Enemies don't disengage very often and are pretty good about using things like Escape when they need to disengage. I'd go with Reaping the Whirlwind because Eder's poor ability duration makes him very Discipline hungry)
 
PL7
Unbending Shield (Unbending Trunk is a better tanking talent but IMO the buffer against RES afflictions has more value. Hard call. You should pick one of them, though)
Deathblows
Coordinated Positioning (Absolutely do not let the AI handle this.)

 

 

 

I've built Eder this way a few times and mostly let the AI handle him. If you keep him at the front of your party and mostly try initiate combat by un-stealthing him, he'll naturally pick up most of the enemy frontline. I generally have a sturdy melee DPS/debuffer up front with him and then 3 squishies, so I can confidently say that this set-up covers the tanking role fairly well.

 

Gear

 

Accessories

Head: Horns of the Bleak Mother until you get Blackened Plate Helm.

Neck: Strand of Favor OR Eothasian Charm. Dragon Pendant is also very nice if you're AR tanking.

Cloak: Cloak of Greater Protection

Hands: Aegor's Swift Touch until you get Bracers of Greater Deflection. If someone else wants Aegor's, Of Accuracy or Of Discpline are good.

Ring 1: Entonia Signet Ring

Ring 2: Ring of Greater Regeneration

Waist: Eder doesn't need anything in particular here. If you're AR tanking, you should look into Ngati's Girdle or Blunting Belt (both of which are fine choices even if you're not stacking armor). I personally like Ngati's because the Athletics bonus is nice for those Second Winds.

Feet: Boots of the Stone if you can spare them. Otherwise, whatever is fine. I like Shorewalker Sandals for the RES boost. I'd also consider upgrading to Rakhan Field Boots when you get them but your DPS might appreciate them more.

Pet: Definitely Nalvi. +RES and your whole party loves that speed boost. It won't stack with armor recovery on your Watcher's pet, so if your Watcher is using Abraham or Cutthroat Cosmo, I'd use Eviee instead for that +2 RES. Giftwrapper is a reasonable upgrade from Eviee when you do FS (though Nalvi is irreplaceable).

 

Armor

Armor (Option 1): Devil of Caroc Breastplate (Crit healing/CON resistance) - Eder is resource hungry and really doesn't want to lose his passive healing. This is the armor option I'd pick if you wanted a faster Eder.

Armor (Option 2): Casita Samelia's Legacy (Whatever) - A good option for DEF stacking. Take this if you like Riposte or if you want slightly faster armor but DoC Breastplate isn't available. (Note: There's no consequences for killing the guy after you finish the related quests)

Armor (Option 3): Reckless Brigandine (+DAM/+AR) - Good for an Engagement tank but it looks so so bad.

Armor (Option 4): One Dozen Stood (Near Death AR/Bonus Engagement) - Looks nice, good for a tank, thematic for Eder. This is what I'd personally use. Unfortunately late game.

Armor (Option 5): Patinated Plate (better %/better recovery) - It's the heaviest armor you can wear. If you're playing in TB obviously get the extra AR over the better recovery. In RTwP, you have to get better recovery if you want to do more than one thing per combat.

 

Weapon

Two Weapon Style Weapon Set 1 (Option 1): Main: Kapana Taga (+Engagement/Flanking Immunity) Off: Last Word (Whatever/+Engagement)

More Engagement and benefits for engaging. Immunity to flanking is also really really helpful because Eder is going get flanked a lot. Kapana Taga could also be Squid's Grasp but IMO the Club modal and dual damage types is more useful. If you do use Squid's Grasp, put it in the off hand instead of the main hand. Full attack abilities (ie all the Rogue actives) skip offhand recovery, so you can use the modal for "free". This is the reason to put Last Word in the offhand, too.

Two Weapon Style Weapon Set 1 (Option 2): Main: Stalker's Patience (Immediate Recovery/More Raw) Off: Rust's Poignard (Whatever/More Raw)

You automatically cause the Flanked affliction to engaged enemies, so these will allow you to DPS better without distracting from your tanking abilities. Since you mentioned a subclass change mod and most of those come from Checoden's Deadfire Tweaks, I'll also mention that if you're using Vanilla Weapon Tweaks, dual wielding a Spear and a non-spear with that mod will cause you to constantly miss from being out-of-range with the non-spear. There is a fix, so let me know if that's the case and I'll do my best to explain the fix.

Two Weapon Style Weapon Set 2: Main: Marux Amanth (Bound to Rogue) Off: Acolyte's Axe (Whatever)

Provides an alternate damage type to the above options as well as a fairly defensive set-up. Marux Amanth's Sacrifice makes every boss fight 10x easier by just ending it on the spot.

 

Weapon and Shield Weapon Set 1: Kapana Taga (+Engagement/Flanking Immunity), Tuotilo's Palm (Riposte/+Accuracy) OR Cadhu Scalth (weapon resistance)

Same as above, what you really want is the flanking immunity because, well, Eder going to surround himself with enemies and get flanked. I greatly prefer Tuotilo's Palm when using a shield because Eder's rogue side comes with some great full attack options but it's also useless without Monastic Unarmed Training. I recommend Cadhu Scalth because if you're going Sword 'n' Board, you might as well lean full into the DEF tanking. Worth noting that you don't really need the Metaphysics bonus on Cadhu Scalth and even a smaller Athletics bonus still leaves you with a higher deflection than other shields.

Weapon and Shield Weapon Set 2: Squid's Grasp (Get rid of the curse!/Action Speed), Cadhu Scalth (Weapon resistance)

Provides the last damage type that Kapana Taga does not. I wouldn't use Tuotilo's in both slots because the most common reason for weapon switching will be that Crush damage is a bad idea.

 

 

 

The gear recommendations are way more "suggestion" than "requirement". One of the nice things about specifically Eder as an engagement tank is that his decent MIG/CON paired with Constant Recovery make him reasonably sturdy even naked. If you just give him whatever is the most defensive loot you have on hand he'll do fine.

 

If you're using a mod that changes Eder to Unbroken/Streetfighter most of the advice stays the same. Personally I'd turn the mod off, since it takes more micro than I like on my tanks to maintain that flanked/bloodied status. The gear advice would probably change to Reckless Brigandine or One Dozen Stood as armor options and you should definitely go Weapon and Shield Style but with Last Word and a shield, using a slashing weapon as the main hand for your second weapon set. I'd recommend Marux Amanth again but there're a ton of great sabres and half-swords. Absolutely do not take the Flanked immunity weapons. Same advice applies to the Iron Hammer build (now that I look at it, it's basically the same as my suggestion... should've checked earlier and saved myself the typing).

[Arcane Archer & Evoker]

They'll definitely prioritize lower health on PotD. They're good at focusing down a character. Even with Deep Faith and a non-dumped RES, you gotta keep in mind that your melee DEF is at -10 for using a ranged weapon. I think enemies with engagement also have AI set to engage ranged characters. I'm not sure if that's a reaction to the -10 melee DEF or if they're keyed to specifically target ranged weapon users but it's something I've noticed.

[Jadaferlas Ashen Maw]

Ah yes my bad. That's all you get back from Eothas, ever.

[Jadaferlas Ashen Maw]

You get Gift From The Machine and Effigy's Resentment back.

[What's Kraken Eye Used For?]

Two eyes upgrade armor/shields/one handed to Superb (you need four eyes for two-handers). Nice for armor, since it lets you save on the fairly rare Adra Ban.

 

They replace the normal Superb upgrade, allowing you to save money/ingredients.

[Arcane Archer & Evoker]

I've done both SC AA and Bleak Walker/AA on TB now. TB is great for Spearcaster builds because you can freely leave the modal on and save some ability points (you don't need Gunner anymore). You don't even lose much initiative advantage because Pinning and interrupts negatively affect enemy initiative. Note that sometimes the Arbalest modal's initiative effect glitches to apply to your initiative turn one - you can avoid this by turning it off post combat.

 

Imbue Death and extra Bond absolutely make SC AA worth it end game but Bleak Archer is more fun the whole way through. It's also worth noting that any Paladin sub is fine for AA if you don't like BW's disposition. Kind Wayfarers is especially nice early game to help keep your AC on its feet. BW is the best for damage by far though.

 

I also recommend a mod that allows you to get the Bird AC. Being disengagement proof is nice for your AC because you're going to want to have them be able to end their turn inside your healing aura.

 

Barb action speed passives are still good on caster multis because spells still benefit from action speed in TB. You will resolve more spells if you can cast them faster than enemy initiative.