NotDumbEnough

I personally program Eder's AI so that he uses Mule Kick about every other attack, so there's little reason not to leave the modal permanently on. I want full uptime on the effect even if he misses every now and then.

The battleaxe bleed DOES stack, and in fact stacks in a very powerful, potentially broken way. Whenever you apply another stack, all previous stacks immediately tick again. So if you attack every 3.1s, you will get ticks at 0s (there is a tick immediately on hit), 3s, 3.1s (because you just hit them again), 6.1s, 6.2s, 9.2s, etc. Anyhow, I think the downfall in the weapon system is partially in the excessively large number of different weapon types. We don't really need dozens of different weapon types, especially for melee. They could be halved and still provide a very large selection, only it would be much easier to make each weapon type unique.

I'd personally prefer something more akin to Battle Brothers' weapon system, as it actually gave weapon types their own identities. Bonking people with a 2h hammer felt much different from a 2h sword. Translated to PoE, I guess that would mean something like giving all 2h swords an infinite-use but watered-down Clear Out with extra recovery time, etc. As it stands, rolling a Greatsword Devoted means "I will use Voidwheel or Sanguine Greatsword or WotEP or Effort..." more than "I will use greatswords in general and see where I go from there" as a lot of the uniques are quite picky about what sort of character uses them, but are really strong when they do fit. By having unique properties frontloaded into the weapon class rather than the individual unique weapons, it would help reduce the feeling of being led by the nose. In case that was confusing to read, I guess what I dislike is the need to metagame to make unique items work, since you don't know what you're going to come across until you've played through the game once, due to unique items being so unique that they drown out whatever identity the base item has. A flail Devoted, for example, is thoroughly uninterested in Sun and Moon even though it's technically a flail.

I do think that about 60% of the unique items you run into are not particularly interesting. Unique armor that you get later on tends to be good, but unique weapons can be very hit or miss, as are a lot of the shields and accessories IMO. For weapons in particular, there are really only 4 types of unique weapons worth using, IMO: 1. Caster stat-sticks like Magran's Favor or The Eye of Wael or Marux Amanth for priests, Spine of Thicket Green for druids, etc. Kitchen Stove also counts as Thunderous Report fills your focus instantly. There aren't a whole lot of these in the game, so they're so essential that you kind of want to plan your play-through around them. I do wish they had given more thought to weapons that casters might want to use given that they very rarely attack. 2. Amazing damage, whether it be through triggered abilities, lashes, or something else. Like Voidwheel for lashes and triggered Necrotic Lance, Red Hand for double shots per reload, Scordeo's Edge for Blade Cascade cheese (which is so overwhelmingly powerful that I refuse to use it as it trivializes the game), Spider's Fang on ciphers due to the amazing DoT. Not going to list them all. 3. Weapons with stunlock capabilities. There's a flail that prones on crit, and another that stuns on crit. Don't deal a lot of damage, but you can permastun someone with Gambit. 4. Blunderbusses for doing goofy stuff like Stunning Surge in an AOE. Why use Embrace of the Earth Talon from a druid when you can stunlock in a similar AOE for free (and with no friendly fire)? I've generally found that weapons that don't fall into one of these 4 categories kinda suck. Like Rod of the Deep Hunter gives you about -10 deflection and +30% recovery on one particular target if you do nothing but attack and never miss or graze. Um, OK? There are also quite a few meme weapons like Vion-Ceth where even if you completely lean into what it wants you to do, the results are underwhelming. I guess what I want to say is: 1. Unique weapons should feel more like interesting sidegrades over generic weapons (with both advantages and a price to pay for using them), rather than strict upgrades to different extents, so that a weapon type is not defined by what unique weapons it contains. A Greatsword Devoted will have lots of fun with Voidwheel. Some newbie who chooses a Warhammer Devoted will not have a very fun time at all. 2. Unique weapons that are picked up early should have more powerful upgrades to help keep up. I get that the first unique item you find shouldn't be as broken as Scordeo's Edge, but it would be nice if some of the weaker unique weapons weren't just stepping stones that you never bother to upgrade. 3. I also wish that weapon modals were replaced with more interesting per encounter weapon abilities, as a lot of the modals are not worth using past the extreme early game and take away from the identity of different weapon types. e.g. You probably won't use the Sabre modal once you have a priest with Champion's Boon. What's the point of so many weapon types when their identities are overshadowed so strongly by unique item properties?

I believe dispersed suffering applies to any sort of kill whatsoever. So casters can use Frostfall as a statstick and pile on the duration of negative effects. I personally think it's just a win more item though, if you're annihilating lots of enemies than you don't need ridiculously long debuff durations if you just kill em all instead. What I guess you could do is once again do some sort of Berserker/Beckoner cheese, only instead of spamming Chill Fog, you get a super lengthy Disintegrate on Dorudugan or something so that you can just wait for him to die. Edit: found a hilarious Youtube video of someone doing the Grave Calling cheese with a Tactician instead. Arguably stronger as you're also immortal due to Unbending procs.

Well, we did run into Berath-worshipping Fampyrs in WM1. If you're a priest of Berath they'll even go fight the ogres for you. My guess is that direct intervention in the mortal realm is something that the gods have mutually decided to not engage in too often, but they are capable of it nonetheless (e.g. Wael stealing all your scrolls out of spite), so vessels that break the life and death cycle are probably not eager to attract Berath's ire.

IMO turn-based games tend to give a lot more importance to alpha-striking (that is, killing or disabling the enemy before they get to move). You see this in Darkest Dungeon, new XCOM, DOS, etc. RTWP is a bit more balanced in this regard. On the other hand, I find that RTWP seems to encourage devs to just wing the encounter design, since if something is too easy you can just fast forward through it, but if it's turn-based you have to play through it regardless. Both PoE games have a lot of trash fights (especially the first game, with tons of unnecessary fights on the way to Caed Nua), whereas it's clear that DOS2 put a lot more thought into encounter design, including when and where enemies spawn into the fight, as well as exposition after the fight is over.

Unfortunately, Deadfire has a very bad habit of being quite vague when it comes to weapon-triggered abilities. e.g. "Do freeze damage in a cone on crit", with no mention of penetration, area, damage, etc. I've found that some of these abilities are quite powerful, such as Voidwheel's triggered Necrotic Lance, which receives bonuses not just from your Might, but also weapon upgrade, sneak attack, deathblows, soul whip, etc., easily doing hundreds of damage. But not all effects follow this rule, such as a lot of raw damage DoT effects, e.g. Three Bells Through simply applies a 5 dmg/3 sec DoT for 12 seconds, affected by intellect and might but nothing else. Which abilities have you found to be actually useful?

I think Fallout: New Vegas managed it relatively well. There is some geological railroading (i.e. you can't take the straight path to Vegas with high level enemies in the way if you don't know how to cut through Black Mountain), and you also have the latter 60% of the main game gated behind visiting House. Narratively this is explained as the conflict over Hoover Dam gradually escalating, so it doesn't feel super artificial.

I think it's less of a difficulty problem and more of a difficulty curve problem. Port Maje is fine, the DLCs are fine, Nemnok's Lair and Splintered Reef are OK, but everything in between is generally too easy unless you deliberately rush into content you aren't prepared for, and the megabosses don't play well with the combat system (class resources don't play well with a single very tanky enemy). Even if you turn up the difficulty the problem still persists, you're inevitably going to have 70% of the game being much easier than the 30% at both ends.

Some more amusing Vela reactivity I've noticed: Will try to make friends with Ishiza Refuses to close her eyes if you bring her to the bathhouse Wants another bite of your Forbidden Flesh Pie if you have one in your inventory

A Devoted Helwalker multiclass can more or less play the game by itself after you reach a high enough level. You have good hit to crit from your perception inspiration and can often chain loads of attacks with Heartbeat Drumming and Swift Flurry. The extra intellect makes Unbending stupidly powerful and completely nullifies the downside of taking extra damage as you effectively become immortal. The only real threat is somehow running out of resources before the fight is over though you do have an inbuilt Brilliant inspiration for particularly long fights. I guess Arcane Dampener can also give you problems by turning off Unbending. That's about it though.

Edit: mistake

IMO, if they wanted the destruction of the Wheel to be set in stone, it should start occurring at the beginning of the game. e.g., by the time you arrive in the Deadfire, Eothas is already at Ukaizo and in the process of tearing the Wheel down. Instead of it being nearly instantaneous, the dismantling process would take some length of time, during which you would traverse the Deadfire and find some way of reaching Ukaizo yourself to reclaim your soul. The gradual dismantling of the Wheel starves the gods of souls, and the various factions all have their own ideas on which gods they would like to see weaker, and which gods they would like to persist, perhaps even cutting deals with the gods. The main content of Deadfire, then, would be to not only help the various faction solidify their position in the Deadfire, but also decide which gods you want to selectively weaken or strengthen, and in the process find a way to Ukaizo. By the time you reach Ukaizo, Eothas is just about done. He discusses your choices, finishes dismantling the wheel, gives you your soul back, then runs out of soul juice and dies. The destruction of the Wheel would still be non-negotiable, but you would be able to make the best of the instability and uncertainty that its destruction brings about.

I think the biggest attraction is being able to create your own builds, even if you're using interactions the devs did not necessarily foresee, e.g. blunderbuss monks, gun-switching Blackjackets, etc. I personally had a lot of fun with a Death Godlike Streetfighter/Forbidden Fist where I deliberately brought myself to near death then had someone use Barring Death's Door on me. I've recently started playing Dragon Age Origins for the first time, and while I definitely enjoy it, it is very clear that the game is railroading you into certain builds. If you're a warrior, you're expected to go for a twohanded weapon build or a sword and board build; you can't make a decent ranged build. In Deadfire you can go for a Hunting Bow Devoted/Ranger build, and definitely be quite effective, even though the devs did not necessarily foresee someone doing that. I think where the game falls flat is the companions and the relationship system. In every game I've played with similarly quantified relationship systems, the AI always comes off as psychotic or petty because they track literally every single thing you do. It happens in Civilization games, it happens in Total War games, and unfortunately Deadfire is not really an exception. I don't think anyone likes the feeling of your companions judging you for literally every sentence you say. Sawyer also mentions that this system actually took a lot of time and resources to set up, so I think this is definitely a pretty big shortcoming. IIRC, they set up the system so that people would not get confused why one companion would suddenly hate another, e.g. Eder making negative comments about Durance despite the two of them having just met and having never talked to one another before. If so, they really over-engineered this. I'd much rather have relationship based off of major plot choices and one-to-one conversations with your companions, similar to Dragon Age Origins where your companions will address you and ask you why you made the choices you did. I'm also fine with no quantified relationship system at all, similar to New Vegas or the first game. You'd still have Pallegina pull you aside and ask why you're supporting the Dozens, but there would be no numbers going up and down.

Serafen will also very specifically cite the fact that you murdered Vela onboard the ship if you do so, when he deserts your party.

Kitchen Stove for instant full focus from Thunderous Report. It's a fan-shaped AOE which deals ~100 damage, nice thing about it is that it's per-combat and you actually gain focus from the ability since it counts as a weapon attack.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought melee+ranged weapon combos didn't work for full attacks. I think I tried that with a Flail+Blunderbuss Rogue in the past, I remember that I could either do a Gambit with melee or ranged but not both.

To answer the title, no, you don't. In fact I frequently make do with 0 frontliners. Just bring a Priest to use BDD on whoever's getting hammered and that's all you need. Particularly on higher difficulties most fights are about alpha strikes, i.e. since you usually get to use stealth, 90% of the time you get the jump on the enemy. There are a few fights where you can't do this (shipboard fights, scripted events, boss battles) but mostly it is a matter of neutralizing most dangerous enemy targets in the first 5 seconds or so of combat, then ending it before they can recover. Fighters aren't particularly helpful here, Rogues and Rangers deal superior single target damage while casters generally take care of the actual alpha striking (e.g. a Rymrgand's Call + WoMC + Great Maelstrom combo from stealth). If you're fighting particularly difficult enemies that can't be taken care of like that, you bring Paladins, Chanters, Ciphers for sustained combat.

Can't recommend Kitchen Stove on ciphers enough. Take Thunderous Report and start every fight with full focus.

Blunderbuss + Avenging Storm isn't the most broken interaction iirc. Last I checked, each individual proc of Avenging Storm counts as a new spell cast, so with Sasha's Singing Scimitar you get 3 phrases every time you hit someone with empowered Avenging Storm, effectively near infinite phrases.

Just run away from their ships, you don't need to take every fight and Beggar Wifruth isn't even a bounty. Shipboard battles are a bit overtuned for the early game and undertuned for the late game as all their sailors participate in the fight as well, though they tend to be quite low level and never scale.

Probably one of the less obscure observations, but Unbending and upgrades only work with hit-based damage and not DoTs, nor does it work with self damage I think (does not work with Blood Mage's sacrifice). If you're looking for a way to mitigate a Paladin's Sacred Immolation damage, just bring a priest or another paladin and use them to suppress the DoT until the fight is over. Conveniently, Paladins also get a soulbound weapon that suspends hostile effects on kill. Speaking of suspending hostile effects, you can have a lot of fun with Forbidden Fist in a similar way. You can use the Fist to your heart's content while your debuffs are suppressed, though you can quickly build up DoT ticks of several hundred damage that will kill you instantly afterwards, so you need Barring Death's Door to survive that. Still, if you can end the fight fast enough, you can deal insane amounts of damage. For me I was playing a Death Godlike Streetfighter/Forbidden Fist which dealt extreme damage by first building up the debuff stacks with Xoti's help in suppressing them, and then murdering everyone while I was at 1 hp.

I feel that this is an issue with late game single class casters in general. You don't even need to blow an empower, if you have multiple casters (e.g. Aloth, Tekehu and Xoti) you can just lay down a wombo combo from stealth and instantly annihilate everything. Something like Call of Rymrgand+Great Maelstrom+Wall of Many Colors is just stupid when you cast all three from stealth at the same time. I personally have a house rule that I only use one spell at a time when attacking from stealth, otherwise I would trivialize way too many late game encounters.

The game doesn't completely break. At first it did but they sort of duct taped it together. Basically if you meet him at Ashen Maw first you can still do Hasongo. It's just that there's nobody to talk to at the end of the quest since he's obviously already headed for the endgame area.