masterty66

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.

This topic is somewhat tempting me to do a multi class Ranger. Stalker/Shifter sounds really fun. Of course I also still want to try out a Brute with Amra as well. Too many fun builds to try, not enough time. I've taken a few month break from Poe since I was grinding playthroughs for a while and I wanted to mix it up but it might be about that time again soon ;).

Wait binding roots unlocks Vion-Ceth's bonuses? I actually never thought about that before. That's a really neat trick. I always wondered what the point of that hatchet was as it seemed really niche. I never thought to use a Ranger to set up the debuff. That's pretty cool!

I definitely use escape in numerous ways and not just for defense. It's a great offensive tool to hit the backline of enemies and to your point it can be nice for repositioning to save another squishy as well. It's just a great talent imo.

Eder can be built out to have a crap load of engagement slots. But even with that, there will be some enemies that do zip by your frontline like Boeroer said. So it can sometimes be advisable to have another character who can baby sit the backline and take care of anything that gets past Eder or whoever your main tank is. I generally like to have one more tanky character who soaks up a lot of enagements and then another melee character who isn't built out purely to be an engagement specialist but who can maybe engage a few enemies if needed and can take a few hits while dishing it out too. An example of this might be like Eder as a Swashbuckler who is specced for engagement slots and uses Kapa Tanga + Cadlu Scalth and takes all the engagement talents and then Serafen as a Barb with Willbreaker to debuff enemies but also able to attract a bit of enemy attention without dying if anything breaks past Eder. Summons can sometimes serve this role as well. A few Ogres summoned from Pallegina as a Herald can soak up a lot of enemy actions. I also prefer that my backline not be completely squishy unless I'm doing some sort of gimmick build that needs to be. So having Aloth as a backliner for example...he'll have some defensive spells at the ready if he gets rushed even if his main role is to do damage and apply CC. Or Maia if she's a Ranger/Rogue I'll give her escape to reposition if needed or if she's a Geomancer I'll have her have some defensive spells ready as well so she doesn't get crushed if she gets enemy attention. Ever since Poe1's DLC it's been my preference to have a backline that can defend itself a little bit if needed because WM1 & 2 love to throw enemies at you from all angles and tank and spank on POTD in that is not easy :). Imo if you're gonna have a glass cannon character that character better be a hell of a cannon and you better take every precaution to CC or engage enemies so they can do their trick. But most classes will have at least some minor way of defending themselves even if they're focused on offense. It's always good to not neglect defensive abilities completely. Even something as simple as Escape on your Rogue can save that character's life in certain situations.

So with Amra do you target your skeletons specifically to trigger the on kill effects or do you just wait til you kill an enemy to proc and kill a nearby skele via cleave? What's more efficient?

How are you hitting 25 might for Amra if you're starting with 18? Frenzy gives 5. Where is the other 2 might coming from to unlock Amra's bonuses?

I am almost done with my Psion/Troubadour playthrough and it's a fun multiclass. The bread and butter for me early on was spamming the Killers Froze Stiff and then hitting enemies with Soul Shock. A lot of enemies are vulnerable to lightning damage it feels like so the combo of crowd control + damage felt very nice early on. Later I also took the Ogre Summon and some charm spells and got good mileage out of those as well. Recently now that I am higher level I still spam the paralyze invocation a lot but now after doing so my go-to tends to be to either cast Ancestor's Memory on my casters (to let them spam high PL things like Missile Salvo etc) or I buff myself with Borrowed Instinct and then spam Disintegration onto enemies. Having party members that can apply the morningstar fort debuff or club modal will debuff can be very nice to help you land your offensive spells as well. A wizard who hits enemies with miasma and arkemyrs torment and such things can be really nice to help you with that as well. As far as chants go I pretty much just spammed the skeleton summon chant once I got it because popping out a skeleton every 3 seconds is really strong. I did also pick up the resistance chants and made a song that just casts those because sometimes that can be really clutch against enemies that like to hit you with debilitating afflictions. Having each resistance chant go off every 3 seconds means I can clear my party of hostile effects rapidly. All in all it has been one of the stronger characters I've played. It's so versatile. The offense is actually quite strong once you get Pl6 Cipher spells because Disintegrate is one of the best offensive spells in the game. But even before that Paralyze invocation + Soul Shock will get you through a lot of the earlier content, and you can use charms and summons and things too. This character could truly do it all too depending on how you want to build it. Heal? Take Ancestor's Memory and the + heal effectiveness chant. Take the Cipher spells that heal. Summon? You got all kinds of summon invocations to choose from. I like the Ogres because they hit hard and have lots of health. Charm? Both Chanters and Ciphers can do that. Dps? Disintegrate, Soulshock, Soul Ignition, etc. Crowd control? Paralyze, charm, etc. I dunno. It's fun

I can't really speak to solo play to be honest with you. I've never tried it in this series. Lifegiver is certainly very strong in a party. Strong Aoe heals, aoe damage. It's great.

Yeah I try to avoid total gamebreaking stuff. Salvation of time + BDD is something I no longer do really. I used it on occasion to beat megabosses but it felt cheesy so I don't even do that any more, and generally just avoid mega bosses unless I really feel like grinding it out or have a build that is especially suited for them.

I do think it is important to realize that a Lifegiver can still dish out respectable damage with Druid spells like you said. People might see the name and assume healbot. Yes it can heal exceptionally well but the offense is surprisingly good too. Druids are just a really strong class. One of the best.

That makes sense. Yeah I've been using the weaken/interrupt chants a lot. I also have a song setup to blitz through all the resistance chants. That one is nice on fights where afflictions are irritating as I can quickly clear out (or at least reduce) all negative effects. I haven't quite gotten to the level to do Many Lives yet but I'm looking forward to trying it out. I have been using summons more than I thought I might. The Ogre summon is just so good sometimes. However my go-to is still killers froze stiff/soul shock. If the enemy is resistant to dex afflictions I'll use summons or charms at that point. Still, those Ogres hit so damned hard on crush vuln enemies that they're nice sometimes. It's kinda nutty how versatile this class combo is. I feel like I have tools for most any enemy type.

I've been playing a Troubadour/Psion. It's pretty fun! Summons, charms, and the old reliable killers/soul shock spam. One thing I'm still kinda struggling with is when to use Brisk Recitation versus when not to. To be honest I've been using it almost all the time. When I have afflictions it lets me clear those faster if I play those songs and if I just want an all purpose chant it lets me build invocations quickly. But with how quickly the chants elapse I wonder if certain ones are even worth it if using brisk recitation. For example something like the fire lash chant...that elapses so quickly that timing it to actually give a benefit when swinging a weapon seems rather difficult. On the other hand, something like ancient memory, or the skeleton summoning chant, is going to provide value no matter what. So when do you guys use the standard extra long linger with a Troubadour? I guess it would be valuable if I were not trying to spam invocations/cipher spells or if I really wanted to get extra long buff chants such as having a really long time to keep burning lash on my weapon. But it seems not so great for chants that give instant benefits like summoning skeletons. Unless I'm missing something. What do you guys think?

If I'm using the medium shield modal on a caster, is that basically just free defense? The tooltip says that it gives 25% increased recovery with weapons. So if I used it on say my Psion/Troubadour (who casts 99% of the time) is there any drawback? I would still cast as fast as normal, right?

So I have the medium shield modal on my Psion/Troubadour. This character rarely goes into melee and is almost always casting something. The modal says "25% increased recovery with weapons". Does this mean if I'm only casting spells that I will incur no penalty for having it up all the time?

I can't speak to Vatnir but I was messing around with Tekehu as a single class chanter last playthrough and it was not bad. Some of the class only invocations he got were pretty nice and you can make a somewhat funny build of having Tekehu use dual mortars and use the free level 8 avenging storm invocation he gets to dish out pretty good dps. It's a really bizarre build for Tekehu to use thematically but it does work lol.

Thanks, that's a lot of really good info to consider. Interesting that you favor the resistance chants so much. I actually hadn't thought to pick them up before since they seemed so situational but you make a compelling argument for them. I'll definitely give them a try this go-around. I wonder...does one dozen stack with a wild orlan's racial? My guy is a wild orlan and it'd be hilarious if having that chant + the racial made him really hard to fear.

Yeah I've had so many playthroughs where I get pretty far and then reroll to something else. It's so hard to get myself to finish because there's always another fun build to try on the horizon lol.