Shai Hulud

Yeah I don't mind removing recovery so much as infinite accuracy. I guess that's because I grew up playing Baldur's Gate where your fighter mage could attack six times per round with improved haste or later with high level abilities 10 times per round. Honestly POE feels really slow for a RTWP game, especially Deadfire where you generally do one thing every 6 to 10 seconds (half that with a lot of buffs). But in BG you still had to roll to hit things, and I can remember a lot of cheese in that game but nothing that made you a permanently unkillable auto crit machine. Of course, you could stop time and empty your entire spellbook in one round, but there were many enemies who would still slaughter you because they were immune to your petty, mortal attempts at time manipulation. Anyway I realize the distinction is arbitrary, but even in a permadeath run there are some things I wouldn't do.

Does it have to be offhand for stability? If so that is odd...out of curiosity what are you using main hand? I haven't found any range/melee dual-wield very appealing. I guess if you used Scordeo's Edge and Trophy how they were intended to be used. Yeah the Mohora Tanga multi proc didn't seem to be a problem it was when it procced other stuff that had graphics I guess. I'm guessing trying to launch 40 mini fireballs at once crashed it, IDK. I was pretty bummed when I realized Scordeo's Edge could be stacked infinitely. I guess there is a lot of nearly game-breaking cheese, though. I don't mind using these tactics if they're super strong (but still leave some challenge), but infinite melee accuracy was too much for me, same stealing Salvation of Time and casting it for BDD forever.

Interesting. Haven't ever used Mohora Tanga, ironically because I prefer weapons that do cool stuff on crit (and DOT didn't make the cut). Does this work with dual-wielding weapons? LIke Aldris Blade of Captain Crow procs heal on crit, Ball and Chain procs prone, Sungrazer procs stun, Magistrate's Cudgel procs stun, etc. ? I tried to test this myself but all my saves that far in had Magran's Challenge on and it is hard to read the log mid-combat. I did see the log saying I crit enemies like 30 times, but they didn't seem to die much faster. Gatecrashers did proc, Boltcatchers too, maybe it is limited to worn items? Also it did crash my game after like 5 minutes of messing with various combinations, and I have an absurdly top of the line PC, so...probably not usable, but cool in theory. It crashed when I was dual-wielding Mohora Tanga and Sungrazer with the fireball crit, IDK if that repeat procced or not, hard to tell.

Unfortunately every way to get antlers requires wasting at least a day. I guess the most reliable is the scripted encounter on Neketaka Island, plus you get a cool bow. I actually did see ONE antler at Cuitzli's in my latest run, first time in 900 hours of play lol

Didn't have a problem with Sea Lashed Crypt, Grave Calling makes this fight pretty easy. You can buff accuracy to insane levels vs vessels (psychovampiric, borrowed instinct, +15 from GC) and crit nearly every hit to paralyze individual enemies. Fun fact, you can start the fight with summoning the instruments of death, then attack one yourself to rebuild phrases (not focus unfortunately). The bow in particular is easy to crit IIRC, think its deflection is around 80. Anyway this tactic can be useful while waiting for enemies to come to you if you start far away. Zerg the fampyrs, their will is pretty low to begin with. I reloaded a save and had 131 accuracy at that point, and had 85% chance to paralyze from the get-go. Use a psychovampric shield or borrowed instinct and it becomes 100%, and they stay paralyzed about 10 seconds. The basic strategy with big groups is out of combat cast psychovampiric, when combat starts summon the instruments of death, they buy you some time to cast borrowed instinct and then you mass paralyze/charm/stun what you can and punch the rest to build focus and phrases, use soul annihilation on the troublemakers and keep mass paralyze/charm/stun when you can. Menzaggo- didn't have a hard save at this spot so don't recall his stats or resistances but I do remember I snuck past him and started in the northeast corner so I didn't get surrounded by the alguls and fampyrs. Basically you just want to keep your enemies in front of you so the invocations get as many as possible. I did this fight in one try and can't recall more than that beyond the basic strategy outlined above. Trial of the Naga, just redid that. This fight is hard mostly because of Vela IMO. What I ended up doing is sneaking as close as I could to the back right V thing where all the poison naga are, I cast psychovampiric shield on the shaman pre fight then borrowed instinct, positioned myself so the paralyze cone would hit all the poison naga, paralyzed them, paralyze lasts about 10 seconds and they are easy to paralyze or charm once your buffs are up (I usually prefer paralyze because of the cone size). Problem here is the flame naga archers. The flame naga marauders can be paralyzed easily. The archers also don't come too close, but there were only a few of them, and stun does work, particularly if you upgraded it for +15 accuracy, and it pushes them back. I had Trixie as pet so I could move a little faster but the biggest weakness of this build is you can't move around a large battlefield quickly. No Quarter on Rakhan Field boots works for shorter fights but it is 1 / encounter so I used boots of speed, combined with Trixie it is +50% stride. While the poison naga were paralyzed I zerged the totem, mostly ignored the flame naga sorcerer, the drake he summoned was actually targeting the poison naga which while weird was helping me. Maybe because that's where I used withdraw on Vela... anyway, once I got to the other side I took out the archers or stunned them while re-paralyzing the poison guys then taking them out one on one. Tough fight and I don't think I can do it 100% yet, guess like 80%. Need to think about how to kill the archers and poison totem faster. The bog oozes are a bigger pain than the drakes IMO. They didn't get through my defenses much, besides deflection, but switched to Devil of Caroc / devil's due which heals about 8 per crit, didn't get below bloodied. Could also use Aldris Blade of Captain Crow which heals on crit but I went fists, didn't want to worry about breaking it. Not sure how much Aldris heals, description says 8, but it is probably more, usually dawnstars and/or might are applied to get about double that. Can't pause unfortunately so hard to find in the combat log... EDIT: You can actually bait most of the nagas with traps and take them out at the bottom of the arena one at a time. Boring, but makes the fight easy. @dgray62 I am playing POTD upscaled solo with all trials except wael (because I need to see stats to figure out the build) and iron (because I haven't perfected it). Have had to reload some as I'm still figuring this out but I think it might be possible for an ultimate run. I did the megabosses with no reloads. SSS is the hardest I think. And the early part of the game where you have to sneak everywhere, have had to reload several times from misclicks. I'm sure troubador / psion is more reliable because of all the passive focus regen and passive phrase buildup from brisk recitation, but is that not like, really boring? I mean to each his own but I tried watching a troubador/psion ultimate run and it was 100+ hours or something. Might have been you for all I know. IDK I'm just trying a combo I haven't seen used much and I like the more active focus/phrase gen

If you are just trying to generate focus Sun and Moon / Ring of FF is good, but I prefer weapons that stun or prone enemies like Sungrazer, Ball and Chain, or my personal favorite Grave Calling. Although with a skald you have access to "Their Champion Braved The Horde Alone" which gives you Energized for a decently long time if you have good INT, and with Energized you interrupt every crit so really any weapon can work. I actually prefer bare fists in a lot of situations so I don't have to worry about weapons breaking (but you need the monastic unarmed training ability to have good damage), though you lose the +12 accuracy from one-handing. Lot cheaper too. But if you aren't doing Abydon's challenge there's generally going to be better weapon choices than fists. Soul blade you basically just punch things until you can zerg enemies with soul annihilation. The cipher abilities you want are combat enhancing like Psychovampiric Shield, Borrowed Instinct. Mainly those two. Combined they net you effective +40 accuracy and +20 all defenses for 70 focus which is insane. Mental Binding is okay but skald covers paralyze better with "At the sound of their voice the killers froze stiff", but sometimes the cone can't reach an enemy wizard or someone you really want paralyzed so it is situationally good. Borrowed Instinct is good if you don't have enough other sources of penetration, but Energized gives you +2 pen, Hammering Thoughts +1, so it is usually not needed with superb+ weapons unless the enemy has a really really high AR. Recall Agony is good for bosses. For the forced level 1 pick none are great for this build. Whispers of Treason is OK but you get a better charm later with "The Lover Cried Out to the Beloved". Eyestrike is sometimes useful as a fight opener since it can be cast pre-combat but normally I'd open with Psychovampiric Shield. Skald/Soul Blade works well together because your melee attacks build both focus and phrases, and you get -1 to invocation cost so basically you debuff enemies, buff your accuracy, then melee them to build phrases and focus, using invocations to CC with charm, paralyze, and stun cone AOEs, then zerg higher threat enemies with soul annihilation. You'll want at least one high cost invocation so you start battles with more phrases. I like the Tier 7 weapon summon "Called to his bidding, the ancient instruments of death". You'll start with 7 phrases if you pick this and it is actually useful to start a lot of fights with as these summons are very tough and do good damage, and it won't take long for you to have enough focus to cast the offensive invocations. You may also want a spell-type invocation like "Seven nights she waited while the white winds wept / her tears fell like rain" or "so singt thy biting winds of eld nary" but neither is necessary. For god mode fun, use strand of favor to stack focus after fights and one-shot megabosses with soul annihilation Stats I'd do something like this (any race works, though I prefer amaua or wood elf for the might / dex resistance and +2 might and +1 dex/per are useful) might 12 con 8 dex 16 per 18 int 18 res 3 Can dump dex a bit if you don't like resolve 3 / con 8 but enemies will be paralyzed, stunned, or charmed most of the time so I don't mind dumping resolve completely and having low CON. Perception is most important, max that, and you want INT high enough to hit lots of enemies with CC invocations so max or close to max. Here's a screenshot showing my go-to gear late game (but pre-dlc). I like the blackened plate set because it keeps enemies from engaging Vela as much and has enchantments for healing and penetration, but if I were playing without Magran's Fires I'd probably do something like Miscreant's Leathers and helm depends on weapon, Blackblade's Hood if using a weapon it effects, otherwise Horns of the Bleak Mother or Death's Maw. Gatecrashers are nice for extra prones, it procs pretty often. Giftbearer's Cloth is great but Cape of the Falling Star is also great. Ring of Prosperity's Fortune gives 20% hit to crit which is amazing, and Entonia Signet ring gives up to +10 all defenses. By far the best rings IMO. I like Rakhan Field boots because this class doesn't have a fast way to zip across the battlefield. Sometimes you need to zerg a wizard and can't get to him fast enough. Boots of the Stone also great if you aren't an amaua. Lot of good belt choices, I like Undying Burden for a lot of reasons but Upright Captains Belt also good, Gwyn's bridle garter if you aren't an elf. Probably best other necklace is Precognition. For pets Pes is great (+10% melee dmg, 5% hit to crit), Animancy Cat is also valid if you're using the summons a lot. I really like Trixie in some battles since she is like Boots of Haste with 5% hit to crit. This build is best as a no-rest. You can stack a lot of effects. Hylea's Bounty is overall the best food, rest immediately then never again. Most important status effect by far is Nature's Resolve on Tikawara (+10 acc, +2 res) so don't be aggressive/cruel. Then Dawnstar's Blessing (+50% heal) which you get on Port Maje. Then Alchemic Wits, Brawn, and Guile give +2 all stats. I think you can do some of the shrines to get +2 res and +2 con but for me sometimes it forces a rest. Amira's boon in Neketaka scripted fire event gives +2 dex. Savage Cunning gives +1 Perception, +2 survival. Cauldron Brew +1 to any stat. There's guides on no-rest runs, so I'll stop. Hope this helps. More detailed than I initially intended but probably not enough for a full build description

There are several weapons / shields with very nice enchants that require antlers, but I have not seen anything drop them. Only place I know for sure that has any is the scripted encounter at Maukotu's Canopy outside Neketaka but it's a bit of a trek and still you only get 2, which is enough to enchant one item. Like Street Sweeper's prone on crit requires 2 antlers, ball and chain prone on crit requires an antler, outwork buckler symbol of courage requires an antler, some others I can't remember. I heard you could get them at ori o koiki vendor, but I've never seen her have any.

You can solo any class if you aren't doing a bunch of magran's fire challenges or trial of iron. Some are easier than others. Multiclass is usually better, some very strong builds I've messed around with (actually for ultimate runs, so they'd definitely work on normal) black jacket / skald, you can stack ridiculous stat bonuses with chanter and black jacket helps a lot with abydon's challenge and the fact most long fights will break your weapons if you only have two. Also can cycle with no recovery penalty between weapons, which is very useful. I like it for Essence Interrupter and whatever (e.g. Grave Calling). Essence Interrupter can spawn tons of allied mooks so the summon penalty for skald is not as important. Also lots of ways to stack accuracy and crit all the time, by late game a skald should crit more often than not so your phrases fill up real fast, and the best offensive incantations cost 2 phrases (at the sound of his voice, hel hyraf, thunder rolled like waves) or 3 (the lover cried whatever). black jacket / soul blade, similar to above in some ways, haven't tested it as much, but borrowed instinct offers insane accuracy + defense bonuses, and cipher has lot of decent crowd control that costs .5 seconds to cast. Not as much as chanter, but still very good. soul blade / skald, absolute crit machine, can basically permanently paralyze / stun / charm most mooks and then zerg the tough opponents with psychovampric shield, borrowed instinct, and weapons that stun on crit, and with energized you interrupt every crit (their champion faced the horde alone) ranger / soul blade and ranger / skald are extremely strong, similar to above builds but with added benefit of a companion. Boar is good because regen, can cast pain block on it with cipher to make it pretty tanky blood mage / anything is really good Can go more in depth about specific builds if you want. In general you want high stealth and to avoid most encounters until you are high level enough for the build to come together and have the needed items.

Once late in the game I usually have stupid amounts of money (300k+) so why not buy some ships? The junk absolutely destroys other ships if you equip one side with 5 Vailian Hullbreakers, or alternatively 8 double bronzers and jibe, hold between volleys. Though the first volley often cripples the enemy. The sloop is good enough with upgrades to sink any ship, really any of them are, but some ships like the Voyager get wrecked in ship combat because of raking fire. It's the fastest ship (not a big difference vs upgraded sloop / dhow / galleon though), but man it sucks at ship combat. If you want to use the Voyager I'd put two double bronzers in the front, fire immediately (don't hold) so you can get raking fire, and use grapeshot. If both shots hit you take 4 enemy crew out, then you can board. Or even better, Haeferic's Nose + Double Bronzer can take out 6 crew in one volley with raking fire. Personally I don't enjoy the ship combat, I prefer sinking them. And if you want to sink them, the Junk is the best, period. 10 cannons? Yes please. You need a lot of sailors though. Make sure to collect the three Master cannonneers, then you can add a couple experts for the last two slots. The junk travel speed is slightly lower, which only really matters if you have Eothas' challenge enabled. If Eothas' challenge is enabled the galleon would probably be best for ship combat. The dhow is also okay but IMO not a big advantage over the sloop. Sloop can fire 2 cannons every 3 turns with fire jibe hold fire jibe hold repeat dhow can fire 3 cannons every 4 turns, since jibes take two turns. fire jibe jibe hold fire jibe jibe hold repeat. So the dhow actually has slightly higher damage potential (3/4 per turn vs 2/3 per turn), and it also has more hull and sail health, but it is less maneuverable and you will find it harder to do strategies like I outline below. If you like the idea of managing lots of sailors and sailing around sinking everybody the junk is pretty fun, too. Combat, depends on the enemy ship. Vs. dhow and galleon a good strategy with the sloop is to fire one volley at the sails broadside, then sail in within < 100 meters of the enemy. The enemy ship will turn after firing either to charge you or run away. Either way, fire at the sails. Two Vailian Hullbreakers will do about 38 damage raking fire if both shots hit. The enemy can't turn without sails so now you can pick away their sailors then board or sink them. Vs. junks you can use the same strategy but you need good hull health vs a lot of enemies. If they have 5 double bronzers or Hullbreakers, watch out! With the sloop it will usually take you 3 volleys to break the sails, and the enemy will likely have fired 2 to 3 itself so that is potentially a LOT of damage. One thing I've noticed to conserve action economy, when you have to do a "report to" to fix some ship event, you don't need to actually confirm. Just click "report to", fill in the sailors, then hit cancel. They will still fix whatever the problem is and you don't lose the turn. Only thing this doesn't work for is switching out injured sailors. Vs. voyagers their hull health is so low it is generally best just to use cannon to sink them. You'll often take 1 to 2 rounds of raking fire which sucks but there isn't much point targeting their sails since they can still get you with the fore cannons. Voyagers don't have much loot anyway. Galleons are the best targets since they are fairly easy to sink and carry a ton of cargo. The best cannons in almost every situation are the Vailian Hullbreakers. Enemies usually have longer range cannons so you can fight close enough (range 0 to 250 meters) to give the enemy big accuracy penalties. The base damage is also huge and they can be fired every 4 turns. Getting 4 is a little tricky, you can actually get 6 but 4 of them require boarding enemy ships (Radulf, Rafiq Red Beard, Rock Stomper Radul, and Fyrgist). If you need to board enemies, take the sails out while they're facing you or fleeing, then whittle away their ship defenders with grapeshot. Also if you need to use grapeshot then Haeferic's nose is the best cannon. It does double damage with grapeshot for some reason. If you're using the sloop 2 Vailian hullbreakers are enough and you can get two in Port Maje if you bought one before the first quest. On the other side use two Royal Bronzers or Haeferic's Nose + Royal Bronzer (Haeferic's Nose requires you to have bound the spirits to the cannons in The White Forge, you get it first time you leave Neketaka). Magran's Flamethrowers do a lot of damage but you can't really target specific parts of ships. Even if you pick grapeshot or chainshot they just randomly hit, usually the hull but often the sail, and seem to set deck and hull fires more often. Vital upgrades - get the misc. upgrades when you can afford them. The Dragonwing sails and Red Dream are probably best overall for combat. Once you figure out the battle mechanics and realize enemies don't target your sails, the Palm Sails are actually fine, as are Stormwind. On the rare occasion your sails get hit you can repair them in 2 turns.

Longtime player of this series but forum newb, sorry if this is in wrong section. I searched and found some similar issues reported years ago but no cause was identified. I completed Coming to Terms a while back. Normally Luca is fired as a result (I used the diplomacy options to get him to void the contract). However, when I enter the VTC building, the firing event doesn't occur. The VTC offical who fires him just says "Not now!" if you click on him and you can converse with Luca - he is miffed and says "I'll be lucky if Governor Alvari lets me manage the kitchen, much less another contract of value." (Luca presses his temples and sighs.) Subsequent attempts to talk to Luca yield "This room stifles already. Must you crowd it further?" to which I can respond "Farewell". And that's it. Was going to buy a galleon. Pretty annoyed the only pure Boatswain is unavailable to me. I've done some quests in unusual order, so maybe related to that. I did Hasongo but haven't done Storms of Poko Kahara. Any solution to this or I need to find Ponamu Bird-Scorned? Alternatively is there a console command to put Luca on my crew?