Not So Clever Hound
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... and stacking 2 items with charges in your inventory to reset the charges, and hunting for items to export to other characters with an Assassin/Bleak Walker sniper with Ring of Focused Flames and Dragon's Dowry... and Sure Handed Ila on a Distracted Firearm-wielding Streetfighter... and Spearcaster with Arcane Archer too. In fact, you like a lot of things in this game. And we like that you like those things, because then we can all talk about them.
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That is a good question and a somewhat tricky one because what breaks or not invisibility is anything if consistent and easy to understand . For simplification, let's assume that you'll use Smoke Veil and not Shadowing Beyond as the latter will break with any damage regardless. EDIT: see Boeroer's post below. For sure, Rogue DoTs won't break Smoke Veil invisibility (e.g Gouging Strike). One application/attack roll then the DoT goes on without interference. For sure, pulsing spells will break invis (e.g. storms, wicked briars, venom bloom). Each pulse is an attack roll, so it will interfere with invis. Where I'm a bit funky is whether Insect Swarm/Plague of Insect for instance will break Smoke Veil invis or not [IT DOESN'T]. I think I saw its DoT break Smoke Veil invisibility on an Assassin I was playing, but I tried the scroll version of the spell, not the spell itself. In theory its a legit DoT, not a pulsing effect so it should not break. But theory doesn't help much with Smoke Veil . I'll see if I can test later. EDIT: I tested just now with a Shifter/Assassin: Insect Swarm and PoI DoTs don't break Smoke Veil.
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Yeah, that's fair. Frankly, I don't think Monk is the best synergy for a Shifter anyway, especially solo. Have you considered Shifter/Trickster BTW? I remember having read posts about people being quite happy with that combination. Soloing higher difficulties will still be an issue due to the lack of renewable resources. But as a Rogue, you can at least play guerilla warfare and reset fights with Smoke Veil (which can fit well with a feral shadow druid kind of shifter that stalks his preys and pick them one by one).
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My 2 cents, in order Yes, Nature Terror's duration as well as any of your storm spells will continue, any spell with a duration that you will have cast before shifting too. But you won't be able to cast new things in spiritshift form. Assassin/shifter can shift from invisibility but once in combat (not from Stealth out of combat). Helwalker/Druid solo... it depends on the difficulty setting you want to play at and how much you want to micromanage Wounds depending on your opposition/health situation (e.g. clearing them with spamming Thundering Blows instacast). The good news is that your MIG from Wounds will also benefit your healing. As Druid/Monk you don't have strong defenses buffs but you have Relentless Storm to stunlock close enemies... All in all, on PotD/Upscaled my opinion is that it will be too squishy. If you want to multi to Monk, maybe FF could be better as a shifter? The FF special ability will prolong negative effects on the enemy, and shifter naturally has a lot of nasty DoTs to cast. Then when you feel like it you can shift. EDIT: it might also increase the duration of the Boar attack DoT but I can't remember this for the life of me.
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I would add also: All things Geomancer (again... the Phantom) Troubadour/Psion to cast Killer Froze Stiff + Mind Wave ad nauseam Furyshaper wards, in particular the Blood one, with an axe and bleeding cuts Naked SC Wizard Slayer Nomad Brigandine + disengagement shenanigans (WotEP/Tuotilo) Now what Boeroer doesn't like: Scrolls that copy class-defining abilities (he'd rather have them do unique effects) Using other consumables Playing an Assassin in a party Grinding Megabosses
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On this particular point, I would mention that the best defensive weapon to use with WoD is Duskfall with Drawing Parry. Paired with Lethandria's Devotion and Casita Samelia or Furrante's Breastplate + of course Giftbearer's Cloth, Bracers of Deflection, Rings of protection etc. they will give you amazing defenses. But that is not really suitable for a Battlemage who wants to deal melee damage... unless you use this setup to buff at the beginning of the encounter in relative safety, pop Unbending, do a bit of CC/softening, then summon Spirit Lance to poke and blast your foes away.
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Well, not for a SC Lifegiver but you can use it on other summons if you multi with Wizard, Chanter etc. I haven't tested with The Dichotomous Soul specifically but it should indeed work: Quick Summoning does this: Self: +15% Action Speed with Summoned Creature Spells And The Dichotomous Soul is tagged with Summoned Creature. So it should get the bonus.
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Related but maybe not relevant… I recall a discussion between @Boeroerand @Raven Darkholme about an obscene SC Cipher using Watershaper’s focus with an absurdly beefed up Shared Nightmare, destroying everything with Ondra Wrath procs. Raven might have made a video. Just for food for thoughts. Can’t find it now but can dig it up tomorrow if that’s of any interest.
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Yes because the race AR bonus is a passive so it will stack with everything in kith or shift form. Yes because the only equipment removed by spiritshift is weapons/shield and armor. So you keep any other effect from other pieces of equipment. And you can keep one effect from armor: First to the Fight from Furrante’s Breastplate which doesn’t disappear with spiritshift.
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I've wondered about the impact of this ability too in past playthroughs. On one hand its free extra DMG on those juicy disengagement attacks. On the other hand, with your kind of set up it's a bit of a win-more: if you're able to terrify your foes like that via Ryngrim spells or Caedbald Bow (potentially x2 with Phantom) you've basically won the encounter in most cases. The key question is: if you don't take this ability, what would you consider taking instead?
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Yeah probably the difficulty setting matters a great deal, and I guess whether folks venture in higher level areas or not in their playthrough. Also if people get to high level with minimal fighting then go fight a lvl 5 encounter with all defenses at 150+, sure... they might feel that high defenses are useless. Then one should go do the end fights of SSS and FS and then we can rediscuss . Bottom line IMHO: on anything PotD, if party strategy involves one or more "traditional" tanks, they can't have enough defense.
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TBF that's a running joke in Deadfire: "Gosh, I really overdid it piling up all these defenses, now I'm a quasi-god and any additional defense would be essentially useless". 5 minutes later "oh damn, those nagas can reach an ACC of 150 ! And that dragon too! and that one.. and.. I need more defenses for the next run." And then you forget the next time . The only useful mantra: there is no such thing as too much defense on PotD.
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I absolutely second that, actually forgot to mention it. If you want an SC Rogue without Assassin/Streetfighter/Debonaire shenanigans and associated maluses, SC Trickster is strictly better and it can do a million amazing things solo and in a party. My solo run with SC Trickster really opened my eyes to the potential of this class. I mean, a full-blown Rogue with virtually no downsides, who can cast some of the most powerful Wizard spells up to PL8 stuff? Yes please. EDIT: ok to be fair, I also love the Arcane Trickster in D&D . Ah, if only PoE Trickster could add Sneak Attack to spell damage just as his distant cousin from another dimension.
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I see your point, but then I struggle to see the difference between Cipher/Barb and the classes you described above: SC Cipher/Barb awesomeness is also about choosing specific combinations of subclasses and abilities - while I agree that it's hard to not effectively build an awesome SC Druid, Priest, Wizard, Monks regardless of choices. So maybe I see 2 tiers, not 3 but of course it's a bit subjective as you said... anyway back to pretending that I'm doing some work!
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I wouldn't call SC Rogue niche, but maybe that's just me . SC Assassin is one of the most powerful classes in the game from Day 1 and actually pretty straightforward IMHO. Build range or melee (or both), focus accordingly on Gambit or Vanishing Strike (or both) + the other high impact Rogue abilities and become the most ridiculous single target DPS on the face of Eora. Solo monster, Party monster if you accept to do a bit of micromanagement. That being said, as @Boeroer pointed out in another thread, you might end up being tempted to park your team somewhere and just solve tough encounters with the Assassin, which ends up being boring if you went in for party strategy. But definitely SC Rogue is not in the same tier for me as SC Fighter.
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It's legitimate. You want a guy in full plate who makes sure everybody's OK and who stops the enemy dead in their tracks with sword and broad before they can do any harm to his squishy friends. You don't want a dude with a guitar who sings his a** off while everybody else is going to war. But, in Deadfire that can confusingly be the very same character, all in one. TBH I've played very few Chanters compared to other classes I really like, because I don't dig the bard vibe. But I do acknowledge that 1) they make a powerful, versatile and fun combo with virtually any other class and 2) this is to me the most innovative character class implementation that Obsidian did. Sure there is Cipher etc. but it is very much like psionic-like classes in other universes. PoE's version of the bard archetype is truly unique IMHO.
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That sounds fun! Never played it, oddly enough. My MMO experience begins and ends with Star Wars' The Old Republic. I agree that being an effective Tank is very rewarding especially as soon as you experiment higher difficulty areas/modes in a game, personally I've always gravitated towards Mage archetypes, the Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple D&D archetype being very dear to my heart. A very popular option is to bring a Chanter along and let the summons do the tanking (oh boy, they can do it well) and/or the likes of Wizard's Phantoms, Monk's doubles etc. as distractions. Frankly, my experience with both PoE's is mostly Solo but in any case I do think there's a big place in the game for shield tank archetypes - the strongest ones being Arcane Knight and Herald. Those can carry an entire team for the most part. Amen to that! Stat bloating is never fun, but I can also understand that in such a complex game, devs can't have the same flexibility to invent elegant difficulty mechanisms as an experienced DM in a tabletop campaign. But I agree on that particular point... I preferred the bosses in PoE1. EDIT: actually to me the most annoying bloated stat in PoE2 isn't HP, it's AR. PEN issues are very limiting in Upscaled PotD.
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True, true, and true! I love that you haven't taken FoD so far - very refreshing . I agree with your analysis. If you want to do some single target damage, Magran's Favor with the modal is fine. If you want to truly make a difference offensively and do some AoE damage, SI will be a better use of Zeal. Net, you can probably make a greater impact by spending this ability point elsewhere than in FoD at this point, as FoD would be more in the "win-more" range.