Zoda

I've been literally sitting on character creation screen for days, so I figured I'd ask some opinions for my watcher's build on my next playthrough. I'm planning to use Edér (swashbuckler), Tekehu (druid) and Maia (scout) with some sort of a ranged cipher MC (ranger or chanter). So my ideas are: Berserker/Druid - I NEVER used druid in deadfire, and this intrigues me. I'd use Lord Darryn's Voulge most probably and Deltro's cage with the extra pen and might from frenzy. Int affliction removal either with Modwyr switching or with drink/food/svef. Not sure how tedious it would be to track my health, I only played with berserker multiclassed with devoted, and unbending + voidward was enough to be on full life pretty much every time my frenzy ran out. Sounds like a high risk - high reward build. Tactician/Druid - applying Taste of the Hunt with WOTEP sounds fun (am I correct that it applies it in AOE?) early on and with this party setup Brilliant comes easy. Tekehu's chill fog + Edér's persistent distraction + the cipher can easily set it up. Should be very sturdy and adaptible build. Druid: I already plan to play Tekehu as a druid and his sublcass sounds superior, I guess he would become a Stormspeaker or multi if I do pure druid. Does druid get a lot of benefits from the watcher's bonuses compared to Tekehu/hired adventurer? Berserker/Steel Garrote: I want to play with Lord Darryn's Voulge a bit, but I already played devoted/berserker, and the lack of other good polexas would lock me into that single weapon, which I might get bored of. This build would have the flexibility of other weapons, and I'm hoping that the passive drain coupled with Spirit Frenzy (and/or party debuffs) would be enough to counter Berserker's self damage. Also would become very tanky in the endgame with stoic steel + hardy + thick skinned + heart defender's scale aura from Edér (and I have a fetish for AR stacking). Unbroken/Trickster - this is a build I already played on a hired adventurer for a few levels, but could get a bit extra out of it on the watcher, plus on the hired dude, I usually just let it play on AI after initial agro grabbing. Tutotilo's Palm setup. Devoted/Rogue - would aim for Voidwheel. Strightforward greatsword striker build. Stalker/Soulblade - takedown combo + soul anihilation. Cipher has good synergies with the pet. Seer is my most played class though, I just never played it in melee. It would free up the hired adventurer slot for a herald healbot.

If you go stalker, then deffinitely take Edér. +2 armor for both you and your bear is nuts, and Nalvi for recovery bonus for the rest of the group (honestly Edér's party bonuses are crazy, and I like the guy). Tekehu with specific builds can also perform extremely well, thanks to his unique subclasses. Like he is amazing at setting up Tacticians with the foe only Chill Fog he gets from Watershaper and there are some insane combos you can do with his Stormspeaker subclass and the Effort great sword if you go single class. I often take Maia for the gunhawk subclass, as a scout. She is very good at picking off casters with her increased range and built in interrupts. Scout gets all the acc/damage from the class, the suboptimal stat spread is nothing compared to the benefits gunhawk offers. The other companions I'm not so keen on from a powergamer standpoint. I can second Boeroer on fighter + something. Devoted/Unbroken/Tactician are all amazing multiclasses. I'm planning a Tactician/Druid right now that applies Taste of the Hunt with WoTeP in an AOE, then switches weapons until the DOT needs to be reapplied. Probably gonna take Edér and Tekehu with him with a Seer and not sure on the last party member. Tactician/soulblade was my 2nd plythrough, very sturdy build as well that sets up Brilliant tactician for himself, while also dishes out damage. Tactician gets better the more you put into your party. You can just stack a tonn of armor and use unbending with high might and int in the lategame. Like I made a Devoted/Berserker after I killed Memnok on my last playthrough to make use of the Chromoprismatic staff, and despite the berserker selfdot, unbending and high armor kept him up without anything but the passive heal of my herald even in harder encounters. Warcaller can also be a nice tank, it is not just sitting around with the agro. I used mine as unbending/trubadour. He has a +10 deflection/+1 engagement chant, and with 20 int you can linger 2 chants (or go for brisk recitation and invocations). Unbroken can be changed to Tactician, if you are using a tactician party, brilliant + brisk recitation returns phrases super fast to use on invocations. Unbroken/trickster is another fun tank build. I used it with Tuotilo's Palm and monastic training. It does very good damage for a tank with the riposts and autoattacks. Throw in the 15% drain chant from a chanter and it probably doesn't need much looking after. I guess it would work well as a Steel Garrote paladin too instead of Unbroken.

Even for a full power gaming party I like Edér. Heart Defender's Scale and 2nd pet (for me it's usually Nalvi), makes up for no subclass and unpotimized stats spread imo. I like taking a Seer. It was my first watcher build on my initial playthrough (potd), and I find it hard to let go. Steady good damage output with all the cipher goodness. If I hire a second adventerure, that's my herald usually haha. As for your watcher's build, take one that has an engaging, interactive playstyle. I think most of us focus on the watcher the most, and a build that can be set on an AI and let go can get boring real quick. The Spearcaster build can definitely work on a companion, and doesn't feel like it would need much micromanagement. The druid/barb combo on the other had sounds like something you want to pay a close attention to.

Maybe I just never took Amra far enough, always stopped my builds around level 8-10. It just feels like there are real standout one handers and ranged weapons, and the mods on unique two handers don't really compare. Like Magran's Favor and Slayer's Claw are both super amazing to begin with, compared to those, Amra feels (at least to me) subpar, as I said.

Kind Wayfarer and shield for roleplaying reasons I guess? The Kind Wayfarer Flames of Devotion upgrade really shines if you are using two weapons unfortunately, since it procs the heal on both weapon hits. If you are dead set on shields, you can use Tuotilo's Palm with monastic training to not cut your subclass effectiveness in half. Unfortunately other bashing shields' damage doesn't scale at all. I'd probably want higher might on a wayfarer too for better healing done, but you can only really cut from resolve. Your deflection won't be any good on POTD. I just posted my Kind Wayfarer Inquisitor, but that's dual wielding as well. It is not doing any casting but the healing is really really noteworthy.

Estocs just don't give me the same executioner vibe that great swords do, and also single damage type, but I agree they are nice. It feels like two handers really got short end of the stick in Deadfire, feels like there are more unique sabres than two handers all together. Obviously I'm exaggerating, but there is no true standout two hander to me before Chromoprismatic (and that's a staff... not really what I'm usually going for). Nothing like Tidefall in the prequel for example, that comes early and stays relevant till the very end. Barely any pikes, only Ngati's Tusk usable, and it comes super late. Only decent poleaxe caps out at superb. And greatswords... well, WOTEP is very niche use, there is no way in hell Effort is working as intended, Burden is unfortunately useless. Twin Eels and Sanguine Great Sword are okay I guess, but nothing to write home about, and they are still punished by the modal, if you want to use it. Voidwheel feels like it may be worked with but it's no walk in the park to get to begin with. Karabörü is at least there for the taking from the getgo. Rest don't even worth mentioning. On the other hand there are countless amazing one handers (which is cool), many many crazy combos, full attack synergies and so on. Kinda bummed out about it, because in other games, I'm a two handed hammer/axe/great sword guy haha Morning Stars at least have amazing utility and great dual damage type, but again, super limited choices (only 2 uniques pop to my head). Maybe I'm gonna try my hands at Amra/Oathbreaker's End, but they too feel subpar compared to dual wielding. I actually started a devoted/shattered pillar build a while back with Amra, but it didn't feel very engaging to play, and was also a bit squishy (nothing that Unyielding won't fix later on I guess...)

So my idea of chaining paralyze and charge won't work indefinitely kind of sad, but the build would still function I guess, just have to add something like chill fog or phantom foes and time everything so everything is under some CC effect.

So, I have this build in mind for my next playthrough of a Warcaller that spams his stuff. I think most people focus on Brilliant Tactican when building Tacticians, and neglect the fact that you generate Discipline when you interrupt. I want to take advantage of both. Chanter provides energized for easy interrupts, and you can also spam Charge. My sequence would be the following: Click + Disciplined Strikes + Unbending (+ Vigorous Defense) With Bronlar's Phalanxed equipped with Tactician upgrade, then charge in, restore discipline. Switch to dual wield. Then use "At the Sound of His Voice" to paralyze, then charge, rinse repeat. Paralyzed helps you crit, so skald returns phrases faster, you get to use "At the sound of his voice" for 2 phrases only, and if you also have something like a Cipher or Wizard helping to get Brilliant, then you have even more resources to play with. Can use club modal to lower will even further (Kapana Taga also synergizes nicely with Tactician). Can also use Sungrazer/Sun & Moon to lower reflex if I want to use invocations targeting reflex, like "Seven Nights She waited". Sungrazer as far as I understand also adds "Blunt Rock" effect to chants that can crit, lowering crush armor of foes in AOE (like "Long Night Drink", which both set up a morning star barb pretty well, that sets up fort attacks even further with morning star modal, at which point every defense is lowered so everything should land). Sun and Moon obviously helps your chances of getting back both discipline and phrases. There is also Sasha to play with empower and fill phrases for "Their Champion Braved The Hoard Alone". So lots and lots of choices, Arms Bearer and Giftbearer's Cloth are things I love to play with on my watcher, probably would be used here too. Priority stats would be PER/DEX/INT with reasonable MIG, dumped RES and low CON. Feels like it would be very engaging watcher to play, so I could set the rest of the party on AI for the most and still not get bored. Planning to take Edér and Tekehu with me, maybe Maia/Serrafen, then the mandatory hired Ascendant/Ghost Heart. Now my questions is: can you get back multiple phrases/discipline with a single Charge that hits multiple enemies? I know that Skald only gets back a single phrase even on a full dual wield attack with Sun & Moon even if it tripple crits, but Charge hits multiple targets, so I'm unsure. Is there any fault in my line of thinking?

I don't use Wizard and Cleric. Extending buff durations feels so cheesy to me. Sad that I can't really create a great sword build that I'm happy with, WOTEP is not my style, and the modal makes them pretty bad, and there is no real lategame king great sword. I mean... I can create a GS build that's okay, but not one that wouldn't be better with other weapons. Maybe my knowledge is just limited.

I actually made a Steel Garrote Trickster where I tried to do just that, but in my experience it exceled in the easy fights. I only took it to something like lvl 10-12, but I don't see it doing well against the real tough cookies, and then I'll just stand there with my maxed resolve, and probably lower might/dex. I also tried a berserker/steel garrote that I never finished, but I might try something like that again, as if I understand correctly spirit frenzy + carnage + passive drain should all work together nicely. And paladin also gets int affliction resistance passive later on so I'm not locked into any kind of gear

I always want to try Steel Garrote for the passive drain (either with Spirit Frenzy or Persistent Distraction), but it is quite hard to beat Kind Wayfarer healing with Steel Garrote I guess Steel Garrote could use a shiny two hander and doesn't get his healing cut in half.

I want to try my hands at some new builds for my next playthroug, as my usual, well tested Watcher + Herald + Seer trio began to feel boring, but I'm not sure how some interactions work. I also want to take only 1 hired adventurer now (plus Edér, Serrafen and Maia). So here we go: Kind Wayfarer FoD heal proc + Frostseeker + Driving Flight: do I get 6 heal procs around the user? If so, I found my new healbot Helm of the White Void + Spirit Frenzy: do I get the +10 ACC on auto attacks this way? Refreshing Defense + any kind of self dot: anyone know what works here? Seems like the raw DOT from berserker frenzy does not. Carnage + stuff: are secondary targets affected by modal abilities? does the prone proc from Burden work on secondary targets? Basically, anything but Lord Darryn's Voulge has any good combo with carnage? This is it for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more questions after I sit in front of character creation screen for another few hours

Just got back to Deadfire once again and I'm having a blast playing this build, so I figured I share its more important outlines. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with something like this, but it worked amazingly well for me through the entire game. I hit 20 with it but haven't finished everything yet. Easily blasted through all the SSS fights and Memnok and stuff though. Not sure if it can be played solo, as I don't really enjoy solo runs, did one just for the heck of it, but I prefer playing with a party, and using all the shinies I find. Definitely can't solo megabosses. So the idea is that I want my watcher to do the heavy lifting when it comes to both dps and tanking, and that can prove to be difficult in many cases (especially since I like to use a hired Seer advanterurer in POTD playthroughs, that can be hard to compete with, once he gets his desintegrates going on top of already amazing damage output). I also stay away from wizard, cleric and monk for the most part. I like the cassic melee combatant feel. No super cheesy interactions, potions, scrolls, no no rest strategy, nothing like that. That's part of making the game harder for myself With these restrictions for my 4th POTD playthough, I came up with this: Race: whatever you prefer, I went for mountain dwarf, but works with any race. Stats: might/dex/per maxed, rest into con, int and res dumped (+2 all BB, +1 might blood sacrifice, +1 cauldron brew, +1 mig living lands, +1 gift of the machine), make sure to pick Iron Will up early from cipher to compensate for the terrible will save Skills: I maxed Athletics and History, but pretty flexible, if you want to go an other rout. Build defining gear: main weapon set: Sun and Moon + Magran's favor this combo nets +4 power level for FoD (during daytime), and also hits 3 times for the Kind Wayfarer heal proc, which makes most fights trivial. The heal AOE could benefit from higher int, but I always managed to get the heals off when needed. I like to use a herald healbot, so my main tank, the watcher and healbot usually fight in tight configuration and become pretty impenetrable while the rest of the party picks off casters. I picked up arms bearer and use Giftbearer's Cloak, and I fully utilize all 4 weapon sets (actually I'd even like 5th haha), PEN is nothing crazy, so I keep all kinds of setups handy for the watcher, Modwyr, if INT affliction immunity is needed. I also picked up two handed style too, and I use The Willbreaker against high AR targets, so my Seer can land desintegration easier, thanks to morning star modal. Dragon's Dowry is kept in the inventory too, in case if I want to go ranged. Ring: Ring of Focused Flame - super OP (no news there), it helps landing FOD, and also buffs the acc on the fire half of Sun and Moon auto attacks. I think frost half hits first, so unfortunately it does not help landing Soul Anihilation though, so keep that in mind. Neat little detail is Sun and Moon start to recharge your focus on the same hit you used Soul Anihilation Boots: Rakhan Field Boots - while I wouldn't say that it's essential, I really loved these pair of boots as Inquisitors have no mobility skills like Leap or Charge and so on, and it really helps getting in range sometimes for emergency FOD heals. Bounding Boots can be used too, but these can be picked up pretty early on. Rest of the gear is pretty standard, you can use whatever you like. Hard to beat stuff like Devil of Caroc Breastplate early game (I changed it to Contender's Armor later, mainly for aesthetic reasons, plus I tried quarterstaff devoted/berserker after I beat Memnok that need it). Haeven's Cacophony clicky can make some otherwise hard fights trivial (again, no news), even on dumped INT, but I don't like to rely on /rest actives. Gameplay: Position yourself where other party members are taking damage, and spam Sworn Rival + FoD + Soul Anihilation, pretty simple. I did pretty much 0 spellcasting. Picked up only Desintegrate and Ancestor's Memory for megaboss fights. The amount of healing (and damage) this build can dish out honestly surprised me. For the first half of the game, I played with a party of 3 (hired Seer + Herald), and even when the herald got KOd (or even both hirelings), I did not have to reload most of the time, just used Evasive Rolls on my seer to benefit from the FOD heals.

Finished a complete POTD playthrough of the game with all DLCs on my Tactician/Soulblade and in the end, I decided to go with Herald for my next one. Does this look okay: Race: Mountain Dwarf Class: Herald (Goldpact/Troubadour) Stats: MIG20//CON8//DEX2//PER15//INT14//RES19 (Aedyr) + 2 Berath's Blessings Aimed for 20 int with 4 from necklace+helmet. May drop some RES for more INT/PER, I'd like to keep MIG maxed. Depends on how well would WOTEP do. Gear: Weapon Set 1: WOTEP Weapon Set 2: Kapana Taga + Cadhu Scalth (random dagger/spear early game) Armor: Patinated Plate early game Blackened Plate later, if I don't need the extra armor for the encounter, maybe Nomad's Brigandine Helm: Heaven's Cacophony (Survivor's Tusks is a nice one too, but comes late) Cloak: Greater Deflecion Bracers: Greater Deflection Boots: Boots of the White (idk...) Belt: Undying Burden/The Maker's Own Power Necklace: Charm of Bones Rings: Ring of Greater Regen//Enonia's Signet Ring/Chameleon's Touch//Kuaru's Prize Pet: idk yet, maybe the +2 Resolve one? open for suggestions Blood Pool Sacrifice: Edér (does not feel right... well...) Plan is to hand out Brand Enemy and use the two DOT chants + WOTEP retaliation against trash mobs and turtle up vs bosses. I don't really want to solo, because I'm the kind of hoarder who likes to use his shinies, but there seem to be some benefits to soloing on this one. Probably gonna have a Ghost Heart/cipher, as it is hands down my favorite build so far, so much utility with reliable damage output, it kept up really nicely in damage done to my Watcher last playthrough with single handed style and Ecca's Arcane Blaster (should have respecced to have Dragon's Dowry/Red Hand options, but I was lazy). Disintegrating low FORT casters all the time might have went a long way in the great overall damage done, I pretty much ignored casters with the rest of the party. I used a Shieldberer/Troubador herald last playthrough as a healbot (that inspired me to create this build for my Watcher for the next playthrough, as his only way of dealing damage was Brand Enemy, but it was really handy in the tougher fights), which I absolutely loved, so might go super lame and double up on heralds. The last 2 slots are up in the air, but I try to stay away from micro heavy characters and to some extent Priest/Wizard. I want to try a pure suicide barb with Twin Eels + Saint's War Armor + Vengeful defeat, shame that Survivor's Tusks won't bind to barb. Getting Sain't War Armor won't really be possible if I chose Edér as blood pool sacrifice...

1.) I haven't used console yet, I guess it's easy enough to test though, I'll just roll up a tavern barb and try later. Would be a crazy strong combination. 2.) I was wondering about the potential double dip 3.) The instakill under 50hp is still pretty nice though. Thanks for the answers

I have a few, and I'm sure I'll run into more so... 1.) Does Helm of the White Void provide the +10 accuracy bonus if I take Spirit Frenzy as a barbarian? (in theory it shoud...) 2.) Does Might/Healing Done affect Steel Garrote drain/Old Siec Would not rest/Unbending? 3.) If I use Amra on a barbarian, do I get both the Carngae and Gore AOE damage? (I remember reading somewhere that they can't both apply on the same hit) 4.) If I become frenzied from an Amra proc, do I still get the benefits of Spirit Frenzy/Blood Frenzy/Berserker? (only relevant if the answer for 3.) is yes) 5.) Do afflictions from weapon procs such as Aamiina's Legacy/Patinated Plate get duration benefits from INT?

I just realized that Tuotilo's Palm counts as unarmed. In my last playthrough I made a swashbuckler with the idea of using Magran's Blessing (that I evnetually dropped for the adra shield... can't remember the name), because it felt useless. I'll definitely try something with Tuotilo's palm now, but I just played Trickster/Tactician in my last playthrough, so probably something different this time (in hindsight, unbroken or even devoted would have been better probably...). I really got warmed up to the idea of playing a stalker (in part for roleplaying reasons), and even if a bit tedious, he can get great deflection bonuses eventually with the innate and Beast's Claw, but not sure how useful the pet would be if I multiclass. Definitely needs a chipher buddy to keep up Ancestor's Memory. I usually go ghost heart on any ranger, but I wonder how much damage the pet can do with all the passives taken . During the midgame I can just target kith with Beast's Claw I guess, then for bosses I'll already have Ancestor's Memory running. If I do multiclass, would Beast's Claw stack with various other sources of deflection? (Trickster or Helwalker sounds like decent mc choices, depending on how much it hurts the pet) Or maybe I can tank with pistol + shield?

That's a build I tried and played it up to lvl 9 or 10, but decided that it'd not pack enough punch in the more troublesome encounters (megabosses, SSS fights), and hordes of melee mobs can be roflstomped in more than enough ways. I had no trouble completing POTD on either of my playthroughs (first as Ghost Heart/cipher then as Tactician/Soulblade), I even did the ooze megaboss on my seer, and felt like I could get Dorudungan down too with a bit of practice, but I wanted a build like my dumped RES dps tanks in PoE1, something that can solo tank regular encounters (even if not bosses), and dish out nearly as much dps as a build optimized for it. Had really high hopes for Steel Garrote/zerker with the rage upgrade that staggers foes for constant draining, and all the armor stacking that combination provides, but even that felt underwhelming compated to the PoE1 builds. Maybe it's just Shod-in-Faith was bonkers, and I grown completely reliant on it for building melee in PoE1. I just feel like ranged has a huge edge over melee here, especially with gearing (+5 acc helm/ring, +10 acc ring if you use Dragon's Dowery, +10% dmg +3 acc pet...), maybe it's just my knowledge still being limmited. Also godlikes don't really feel like godlikes in the sequel

I recently started playing Deadfire, played 2 builds to lvl 20 so far, finished FS and all the main questlines (with reloads). In PoE1 I really liked tanky dps frontliners for my watcher, I played moon godlike barb and fire godlike monk and they just smashed content on POTD, however I have difficulty finding such high dps frontline tank builds in Deadfire. I tried stacking armor as steel garrote zerker or use unbending, as tactician/soulblade, but haven't got the results I was used to in PoE1. Are there such builds available in Deadfire without abusing the more cheesy abilities of the game? I want to do all bosses with them.