masterty66

I wonder what everyones sense of the difficulty curve is on potd/upscaled. For me, the game starts off challenging and mostly stays that way until I finish Poko Kohara. By that point I have done Neketaka, some bounties/side quests, and Poko Kohara, and from then on I actually find it pretty easy up until I start the DLCs. Beast of Winter is the easiest (but still hard at times, Neriscylas and those damned burning archers), SSS can be a right pain in the arse at times, and Forgotten Sanctum has some very challenging stuff. I actually think the hardest fight I ever had in this game was fighting those Vithrack in FS tunnels, but mostly because I had Galawain enabled and all of those spiders in that one big Vithrack set piece fight rolled exalted. That took me many tries to beat for me. Megabosses are a different matter entirely but I haven't really bothered much with those. I beat Belranga once but I more or less don't want to deal with them usually.

On a recent run I had Tekehu as a Chanter and I had him use Eld Nary a lot. Whenever it got reflected it was hilarious how quickly it would shred my entire party.

This is extremely important imo and a factor that many people overlook when designing/playing builds. There is a huge chunk of the game that you play before being level 20 and before being geared out and if you struggle during that period of gameplay that can be frustrating.

It is kind of interesting to frame character building in terms of what can't the npcs do. Technically every class is covered but probably the least supported one is Monk since most players would not want to make Xoti into a monk as Priest pl 8/9 spells are extremely good and she doesn't get a whole lot out of being a multiclass monk. I suppose as a single class Monk she could still be quite good. I've never done that with her. But Monks are very powerful so I assume she'd be just fine at it. Maybe I'll try that next time I play as a Priest as a main char.

Oh I can only imagine the carnage one could do if Essential Phantom were controllable. One of my only complaints about my recent Geomancer run was that try as I might the Phantom would often target things I didn't want it to. It was still really good despite that. I wonder if things like Ngati's tusk aura stack with Tekehu's watery double. I think Willbreaker/Saru Sichr do so already that could be a good combo for Tekehu + pet to hit enemies with. Guess the only issue there is Tekehu's accuracy probably isn't super high with the classes he gets. If he could multi with Ranger that'd be nice.

These boots seem like they'd be nice with a Barbarian who can make themselves immune to engagements. Pop ram or lion sprint and then run around the battlefield hobbling everything. When it wears off, bash as normal. I could see the following strategy: 1) Priest cast hand of weal and woe on the Barbarian 2) Barb pops lion/ram sprint 3) Jog around the battlefield laughing as the beam and hobble affects everyone

True, there are other ways to get engagement slots. Fighter is just the most convenient, like you said. One of the builds I'm considering doing for my next run is an Unbroken/Trickster. Building a tank that disengages with terrify sounds pretty fun. A part of me wants to do some sort of Priest of Skaen variant too, though. I have way too many ideas..

I almost want to put Fighter into "great" tier for multiclassing, simply because +3 engagement slots is extremely useful on POTD. On my recent POTD run with a Geomancer, I'd have to say that Pallegina was probably my MVP. Between rezzes, a million engagement slots, heals...I could not live without her. Perhaps it's a limitation of my playstyle but if there is one class I often find I can't live without on POTD it's a tank. Keeping a bunch of enemies pinned with engagements and soaking up enemy attacks is beyond useful. It's hard to achieve the necessary amount of engagements without having a fighter as one of your classes. Personally I don't see how it's possible to live without some sort of fighter based tank on POTD (with a party at least...solo is a dif story I suppose) unless you're using a Priest and giving your non fighter tank champion's might every fight. But that can be dispelled.

That is good to know, thanks. So that makes it even better than I thought and makes it in some ways better than Miasma. Definitely vs single target far better..

Ah I did not realize this. My Geo is using Willbreaker plus modal so I guess I'm getting a double bonus on debuff enemies for Aloth :).

I feel like there are a lot of abilities like that where you almost have to look deeper to realize how good they are. I do find it odd that Miasma applies the same effect as Arkemyr's. The only difference is Arkemyr's is single target + jump and Arkemyr's lasts 30 seconds versus 20. But Miasma is AOE which is nice. However I guess sometimes not having to worry about debuffing your teammates too is good. It's kinda crazy how many ways there are to debuff will defense. Some of my enemies this run get their will debuffed down into the 20s and then my Phantom crits super hard. It's kinda funny watching a summon crit enemies for 40+ damage with CDT.

I noticed on my Geomancer this run that these spells drain stats but they don't put an affliction on the enemy. Does that mean they work on enemies that are immune or resistant to standard intellect/resolve afflictions? I've been loving using these spells this run as you can debuff enemy will defense into oblivion with them plus other spells and then that makes landing will effects quite easy. Got a lot of mileage in Beast of Winter out of Aloth + his Phantom using Black bow while my Geomancer debuffed will saves into oblivion. Everything was terrified all the time. Also helps my phantom land CDT.

Since you're going for an off tank type role I'd suggest adding a main tank character to go along with that. Eder as a Fighter/Rogue with Kapana Taga and Cadhu Scalth + all the engagement talents and heaviest armor you can give him is a real solid tank. You can spec Pallegina the same way though. I currently use as a Crusader with the same setup and it works well. The difference between her and Eder is she doesn't have stuff like Riposte and Persistence Distraction (these are both real nice on tanky Eder). However, she does offer better party support via lay on hands and inspiring beacon and the auras and things. Pallegina as a Herald is great support too but she won't have the engagement slots then so if you do that she's more of an off tank at that point. Beyond that you can go whichever way you want with your companions and it should work fine. I really do recommend having a main tank on Potd though because having someone to soak up all the engagements can really help protect your backline. One tip I'd suggest as well is to give everyone large shield model and carry a large shield/hatchet (or other 1h) as a backup setup. On fights where enemies are teeing off on you with guns or ranged weapons that can be an initial life saver until you get things under control. The Torkar bounty fight in Dunnage for example is brutal if you don't start it off with large shield + modal on as those gunners will just rip your softer party members apart. But with that modal you can absorb the initial volleys and then get things under control. Such a setup also works really well on ship boarding fights where there's a ton of ranged enemies. You don't have to stick with it on all the time - just to survive those initial volleys.

Wizard PL8 is starting to really grow on me as well. Black Bow is amazing.

I always do POTD + Upscaled. Often with Galawain's Challenge too. I haven't noticed that anything has been too overly difficult. Oh don't get me wrong I wipe sometimes and there are some very challenging fights. But usually after a little perseverance and some better use of consumables etc I manage. The beginning tends to be the most difficult. Once you get into the upper teens and start finding the powerful equipment things aren't so bad aside from some select fights in the DLCs. And for my part some fights can get annoying when I fight a tough beast type enemy which rolls an annoying effect with Galawain's challenge but I enjoy it anyhow

Played through Neketaka so far (finished Old City last night). Doing pretty well. Only got knocked out once so far this run and that was when I foolishly let my guy get swarmed when fighting the Mad Harvester. This guy is sturdy but not so sturdy that you wanna throw him into a big group of monsters. So that was a lesson learned. Saru Sichr + Predator's Sense is a nice early combo with the Wolf. I'm pretty impressed by stacking regen gear too. I have Ring Of Regen + Troll Cloak + Ring of Greater Regen already and those go a long way towards letting me do my thing as a Bloodmage and spam Corrosive Siphon. I'm not high enough level for Essential Phantom but will be soon. I guess early on I will just use that to get double stacks of Saru Sichr up. @BoeroerI know you like Willbreaker a lot for this. How soon can one do the slaver area to acquire that? I'd assume you'd probably want to be at least level 12 or so for that but I've never bum rushed it so not sure. Gotta say I've actually been impressed by Eder as a Rogue too. He has gotten knocked out more times than I'd care for so far, but when he's upright he does pretty good damage. His ability to put long lasting dots on enemies via True Love's Kiss, Gouging Strike, etc is nice. I just need to be careful with him because he goes down easily if he gets more than one thing on him.

Yeah that makes sense. I normally run her as a Herald but Heralds while great off tanks lack engagement slots. Very interested to see how she performs as a Crusader. Will probably gear her similarly to how I do with Eder when I tank with him (ie Kapana Taga + Cadhu Scalth). I feel like it's hard to beat that as a sword/shield combo. The + engagement slots from Kapana Taga is just hard to beat for a tank.

I'm into Deadfire and enjoying this so far. Just finished the Digsite. A good test of its survivability is that I made Eder into a pure Rogue this run (for the hell of it as I've never done so before) and my Geomancer was able to tank just fine during the prologue. I beat Gorreci street and the Engwithan ruin despite running the default npcs + an Ancient hireling. Admittedly the Ancient helps a looot during chapter 1 and I almost always hire one because their spells are so useful at the Digsite. I do need to figure out who to make into my main tank this run. Normally Eder is that. I made Serafen a Witch so far and I think he will probably be more of an off tank as well. Maybe Pallegina as a Crusader would be my best bet there. Not sure. I figure having someone to soak up a lot of engagements would be nice. Normally that's Eder but since I switched it up and made him into a dpser this run I'll have to figure something else out. This Geomancer seems more an off tank than a main tank. I did end up going Blood Mage with this. I think I will probably try to stack some regen gear and spam Corrosive siphon later on as well as using the Draining Touch/Phantom trick. Character should be pretty versatile in terms of aoe/single target dps that way.

Ah that makes sense. Sounds like a pretty fun and versatile build. I always love Rangers so this might be what I opt to go with. What's your preferred armor for that type of character? I suppose you'd want at least a decent AR since it's if not a main tank then probably at least would be considered an off tank type character? I was very impressed with Caedbald's Blackbow on a recent run I did. I was doing a Psion/Troubadour and I had Aloth using it quite a bit. I don't think I was even as optimal with it as I could have been but I do recall getting a ton of mileage out of the terrify that it does. It definitely ended up being my go-to PL 8 spell with im. I only wish it was PL7 since I'm sure some of the multiclass shenanigans you could do with that bow would be pretty awesome. But then it might be overpowered I suppose :).

How does that work exactly? You hit with Willbreaker and then cast draining touch and then cast essential phantom? Doesn't the phantom spawn with the weapon you have? That does sound fun though. Single Class Wizard (those sick nasty PL 9 spells) and Assassin/Bloodmage also sound pretty fun though. Oh the choices the choices..

That sounds kinda cool. I think I want to avoid Arcane Knight. It's good but I've done it before. Battlemage or Sage sound kind of appealing to me. I know at high levels Wall of Draining + Unbending is pretty insane too

I'm importing a Wizard soon from Poe1. Can't decide what to do with it. It's been kind of a tank type Wizard in Poe1, but I suppose it doesn't have to be that in Deadfire. What have you guys been having fun with lately Wizard-wise?

Was just thinking about BM. I know the traditional wisdom is to keep Might low in order to make it so Blood Sacrifice isn't so painful. What if you took the route of having high con instead? Would that be enough to counteract the high might? You would be a little attribute starved since you'd have to put points in int as well. Dex would suffer then. But Wizards get Alacrity so having average dex isn't so bad I should think. But maybe even high con + corrosive siphon spam wouldn't be enough to counteract having high might. I dunno. Never tested out the idea. But was curious if anyone else had :).

What exactly is the action economy like on a Shifter? I'm thinking of doing a Stalker/Shifter but I'm not sure how often I should be casting spells vs how often I should be just shifting and shredding things in melee. Is it just situational or should a Shifter normally be in form and doing things there and only use the occasional spell?

Planning a Stalker right now. I'm in Poe1 currently with a melee Ranger. Went Dwarf with an Antelope because why not. Hard to decide between Stalker/Shifter or Stalker/xx. Or even pure Stalker. They all sound kinda appealing to me. But I suppose I'll have a long time to think about it before I get to Deadfire lol. My last run months ago was a Psion/Troubadour which was really fun and good. I'm hoping this will be a nice change of pace from that with more of a melee bent. I guess if I went Shifter there'd be some spells there but I assume the flow in combat with that is to buff oneself up and maybe toss 1 or 2 spells and then shift and beat up enemies in melee. I'm pretty set on the Ranger part of it anyhow . Melee Rangers are fun and I think it will be a nice change of pace from the usual more primary caster builds as I tend to gravitate towards Priests/Ciphers lately.