Not So Clever Hound

Thanks for sharing. I can totally see that this toon being very front-loaded in terms of key abilities, you would feel very powerful at the beginning - I'm assuming with pretty high CON though. However, I can't see it being too dumb to die in high level content. FS, SSS, certain Fampyr fights... isn't it? Unless you use BDD/SoT all the time, you'd need to play very strategically around this toon and use defensive abilities a lot (invis, mobility) to not get absolutely wrecked the second enemies focus you. EDIT: for me Too Dumb To Die with simplistic gameplay concept would apply more to 5 Heralds for example but without the dropped INT .

Lawrence Lilarcor +3: "hold my beer, I'm coming!!". "Swing harder, swing harder! Swing harder!!" "Who's your daddy!" "Wouldn't it be cool if you could dual-wield me?" "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do ain't pretty!"

Called to His Bidding, the Ancient Instruments of Death, Proved Yet Again How Much of a Menace Toxic Masculinity is in Our Deeply Phallocratic Society. And They Did Sing a Song of Carnage, Fair! Chanter Invocation PL15

Hi @Elric Galad In cased you missed it I mentioned earlier in this thread that after testing, the 6s pause seems incompressible and is unaffected by INT, PL, RES, Strand of Favor/Cabalist gambadons/Lone Wolf.

IMO, you're mostly talking to people who check this videogame forum several times a day to discuss the most intricate mechanic/synergy/exploit/oddity or whatever. So no need to apologize for having very specific questions and deeply caring about those aspects of the game. That's why we're here for the most part . How I'd answer your questions: 1. Druid healing can be great, Lifegiver or not - obviously not Fury though 2. I think Mystic in the game is more about being curious than religious. You've never been able to explain how the universe guides your path. Behind every task you undertake is a feeling of cosmic direction. 3. The Druid has several good summons, the Ancient has the Sporelings with Wild Growth - nice early game. The oozes of Call of the Primordials are really good late game especially when you randomly get one with infinite Plague of Insects. 4. That is not dumb. Shifter is fun. Shifter is life. Assume you play in a party? 5. Yes especially early game. I won't spoil any further. 6. It is but a shadow of its former self. And a lot of enemies are immune to its Disease keyword.

Sadly, RES and things like Strand of Favor do not have any impact on the 6sec focus gen. interruption which seems incompressible. I'm also using the Community Patch. At max level with Prestige and another source of +1PL a SC Scion can generate 6 focus per second, more of course with Brilliant. At this point focus generates very, very fast, you always have a lot of it and you can pretty much spam Ring Leader and/or Amplified Wave. It doesn't feel cheesy OP though. Certainly not on the level of, say, an SC Ascendant using Thunderous Report, with Ancestor's Memory and Time Parasite + any Priest with Salvation of Time and Barring Death Door, etc etc.

Thanks @MaxQuest for the explanation! Then I think I understand what's going on in my case: When you have a Confused character casting an Imprint spell out of combat on a hireling, combat never starts or ends. So the SpellSteal statusEffect on your hireling is never checked and never clears, and you keep the stolen spell without having to switch grimoires.

I've read about your fun experiences with Scion SC/MC as well as others' and I really need to play with this class more. One question I had since you mentioned it: can you lower or even remove the "6 sec disable of focus generation on being hit" with high RES and/or % negative effect duration modifiers? Otherwise I'll look into it, just wondering if you already have the answer.

That sounds great, the weapon is definitely on theme and SC Stalker + modal would add dmg and a nice debuff to the party. Given the crazy Will debuffing, I struggle to not see a SC Cipher with echoing horror, the empty soul, soul echo etc. but it's less impactful to this party b/c they don't need Brilliant as much.

I wonder if you could use (and extend) the Wild Shot ability from Kitchen Stove (attacks bounce +1 time) to make Caedbald's even more effective? My very quick testing of Wild Shot a couple days ago wasn't very conclusive. You can definitely prolong with SoF etc but I struggled to see the add'l bounce work consistently.

For a true win-more crit-fest, add a Sage with Draining Touch, Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. EDIT: I think that Entrancing Aroma and Hunter of Hunters would also stack for another -18 WILL / -10 FORT. EDIT 2: it would be a really cool way to dispose of enemies if lowering stats below 0 could instakill them like in AD&D IIRC.

So, just a hypothesis from someone without any technical grasp of what's really going on under the hood of Deadfire: In my experience this exploit is purely related to casting Imprint from a grimoire without knowing the spell. It is actually not related to doing that plus grimoire switching. I keep spells forever when I cast Imprint from a grimoire and keep using that same grimoire. So if it's not about the switching, maybe the Imprint spells that exist in grimoires don't have the component required to clear stolen spells at the end of an encounter, unlike the learnt spells? Is that possible at all that 2 instances of the spell exist in the game? EDIT: could it be then related to the fact that when you cast Imprint from a grimoire on hirelings, they keep forever a buggy "Imprint" debuff in their character sheet?

Yes it's true and because they're passives, they work on top of everything else. A well-built, fully buffed Arcane Knight with Divine Purpose = incredible defense against any hard CC in the game. Except Charm/Dominate but Infuse with Vital Essence works as a counter for INT/CON Afflictions anyway; and you can also pick Mental Fortress.

Also just a quick note, in case it wasn't widely known, that Forbidden Fist gets the Accuracy bonus on both the Damage roll and the Enfeebled roll. Sweet! And the same is true for Rogue attacks that have a secondary Affliction component ("if successful, then...") : tested with Arterial Strike, Gouging Strike, Toxic Strike, Sap of course Pernicious Cloud etc. both Damage rolls and Affliction rolls get +10 ACC. EDIT: Also, the Helm gives +10 ACC to Thunderous Report, both Damage and Daze rolls.

On the test char so far I used hirelings. Pirate clerics, maybe the encounter at the Wapau jungle is another easy way to steal it without using hirelings? Need to test it. EDIT: of course not, by definition you can’t do it solo…

That's a fair point, for a fair build... but I can't hear you over the deafening sound of my infinite Shadowing Beyond casting over and over

I did absolutely miss this very nice build, thanks for bringing it up. Some very tasty synergies there. I can see how Energized takes this toon to god-of-interrupt level.

Hi everyone, It is relatively well known that the Helm of the White Void can be very useful with its unique Rymrgand's Influence enchant, granting +10 Accuracy with Body Affliction / Mind Affliction attacks. What I didn't know was that the implementation of Rymrgand's Influence can be a little funky depending on the weapon/ability you use it with, which will be either very generous or not generous at all in granting the +10 ACC bonus. It doesn't necessarily depends on whether there are 2 rolls or just 1... it seems a bit more complicated than that. It can have really cool implications for certain builds, as I've discovered when doing a bit of testing. (note: I'm using the Community Patch) The Bad: it is not very generous in granting +10ACC with weapon triggered Affliction effects: e.g. Sungrazer's Impacting, Griffin's Blade's Howling Blade, Effort's Hemmoraging... Either it won't apply at all, or just to the separate Affliction roll, not to the roll dealing damage. The Good: it is however a lot more consistent and useful with martial abilities, whether they have 1 or 2 rolls. for example with Mule Kick, Power Strike, Lower Their Guard, Spirit Tornado's initial attack, Driving Roar... both the Affliction component and the Damage component get the +10 ACC anyway. Obviously, Ciphers and Chanters can also benefit quite a bit with a number of signature Affliction actives (e.g. Killer Froze Stiff, Ring Leader...) and passives as well (e.g. Long Night's Drink, Echoing Horror...). The Amazing: BUT, I think that Wizards and Druids can benefit the most because they have a lot of very powerful AoE abilities mixing Damage + Affliction that can both get the +10ACC (!), and those powerful abilities often target FORT - so +10ACC is very helpful. The list of verified Wizard/Druid abilities with dual Damage + Affliction components that get the +ACC bonus on ALL the rolls is actually amazing, see below. And of course on top you can add all the spells that "just" deal Afflictions and that also get the bonus! Wizard: Chillfog, Ghost Blades, Draining Touch, Noxious Burst, Shadowflame, Freezing Pillar, Bitter Mooring, Wilting Wind, Freezing Rake, Black Bow, Corrosive Skin. Druid: Sunbeam, Vile Thorns, Returning Storm, Wicked Briars, Overwhelming Wave, Relentless Storm, Embrace of the Earth Talon, Plague of Insects, Venombloom. Conclusion: If I think about a Sorcerer build like the Thundercat 2.0, the Helm can become an incredibly useful tool that I somehow overlooked before! It can also make SC wizard even more OP given how many devastating high level spells can benefit, as if SC Wizards needed more OP-ness....

The thread I was talking about.

In addition to @Boeroer’s point, I think it can also be very strong with abilities like Toxic Strike or Disintegration, that scale off so well from extended duration buffs. In certain scenarios vs. a very sturdy opponent, it can make a sizable difference. The one and only @Raven Darkholme . I remember the thread about his Chanter class choice for this toon between Bellower and Troubadour. I’ll add a link later (on my phone now).

Yes, Slippery Mind + Shark Soup = immunity to all Afflictions. But you have to be and stay below Blooded which is risky business with low CON and low-ish defenses, unless having a priest cast BDD/SoT. I like that your build uses some equipment that I don't often see/use. About Frostfall, it's very interesting - I had overlooked it. When you say "Frostfall (dispersed suffering is awesome, and you can freeze on critical hit, even an dexterity immune ennemie. That is why i use my Mythic Adra Stone on it)" do you mean that the Freeze effect also triggers on Crits that are not weapon attacks (i.e. Chants/Invocations)????

Thanks @dgray62 and @Constentin Lévine It looks like a great build and it should get indeed the attention it deserves .

That sounds like a great idea @dgray62! It actually might warrant a different post altogether: something like Arcane Roquefort the Cheesing Archmage, a close relative to Shadow Camembert. I think I can actually find enough motivation to play a fresh game and compile how absurd SC Blood Mage can get. I'll keep you posted. BTW, I didn't follow through with the SC Solo Fury build because it worked well as expected but didn't have much else to offer - mostly milking Brilliant from Wit of Death Herald + Deltro's Cage Helm Lash on a barrage of neverending Greater Maelstrom - and staying alive until everything is dead. Cool, but nothing interesting enough to further report on.

In short, I think yes every little bit helps and overall you don't need to try to shoot for round numbers. But I'm a lot more certain about this for PEN than for ApplyOnTick durations. For example when you start getting into Crit and Overpen mechanics, an initial 0.2 PEN difference can have a disproportionate impact on your end damage. But you're not going to see that make a crazy difference in every fight. I think DoTs are a bit harder to grasp in Deadfire because there's a lot of hidden stuff that goes in. But generally my experience is that they can also get benefits from small increases in the various parameters, including duration, but I'm not sure exactly how it works - I **think** for small duration differences it is visible on your final DoT.

Since we're on the topic of unique weapon effects, it is probably common knowledge but I only realized now that Lover's Quarry from Lover's Embrace (33% chance to apply Frenzy on Crit) applies to all Crits, not only weapon attacks. This is really good because basically any AoE caster can reliably proc it every fight. Every caster can benefit from the various buffs but I'm thinking Druids will benefit disproportionately from Action Speed due to their relative lack of speed buff and long casting times.