Not So Clever Hound

Confusion is the Tier 1 Intellect Affliction. DoC has an enchantment that gives resistance to Intellect Afflictions. Paladin has a class passive that does the same. Since Confusion is Tier 1, it gets completely cleared. Note that an Intellect Inspiration would do the same, but you'd lose the buff. DoC: Mechanical Mind Pally: Mental Fortress

To add to Boeroer's point, if you're playing in a party (which I think is what you mentioned) survivability will be slightly less of an issue. The Berserker/Devoted will have Clear Out which is yummy with your setup and high Hit-to-Crit (sorry every other thing I post these days seems to mention Clear Out ). On the other hand, a plus with going with the Pally is that you get access to a passive that auto-clears Confused (so you can give DoC to someone else). Early game in any case, you may want to pick Monastic Unarmed Training and dual wield ability to kick some Port Maje butts, until you retrain to 2-Handed when you get the Voulge of your dreams.

Trickster + Steel Garrote with WotEP is another strong combo, with Riposte, Offensive Parry and of course Persistent Distraction. Lots of free self-heal and damage when engaged in melee.

You could call it The Parrying Parrot or something like that. Cute.

That reminds me a bit of the old "Sir Sit a Lot" Solo build. The joy of infinite resources/summons - and in Sir Sit a Lot's case, infinite DoT. Coming back to your Death Metal Band, I can totally see the safety benefit and the satisfaction of going into very dangerous places at a low level. A solo Arquebus Assassin type could also venture prematurely in higher level encounters as soon as they have Gouging Strike and Smoke Veil. But as you pointed out, I can't even imagine how much time it might have taken to fell the Engwithan Titan on Poko Kohara with skellies summons..? On PotD (upscaled?). Did it die of boredom? You're up to play a whole concert every time you see a hostile!

If they're all Corpse Eaters you could recreate a nice Cannibal Corpse vibe. But you can only play with Trial of Iron to enable Megadeth (permadeath).

Thanks so much Boeroer! Great work. It's interesting that devs put a lot of efforts to give this weapon a unique effect/animation but somehow botched the implementation of the attack. I tested your mod and I really like what you did. Just a note on Clear Out which becomes (as you might suspect) bonkers when surrounded. Below I did 28 attack rolls with one Clear Out . I don't think it's completely broken in this case because the base damage is so low that you don't one-shot the entire screen. But if you apply on-hit effects like Combusting Wounds or, god forbid, Avenging Storm, it might become interesting . Also didn't test with Carnage...

Whether it works or not, thanks @Boeroer for helping me understand why I found the weapon underwhelming (damn I should look more closely at the combat log in those cases) and thanks for further investigating a fix. I really wonder if making it as advertised would turn it into a nice weapon. Happy to help if needed - though I'd probably be mostly useless. I can do some testing.

Yes the combat speed cursor is different from the Fast Fwd button, it's a tiny little cursor just above. Ninagauth is an Archmage and he crafted a few standard and unique spells in the game (unique = only available in unique grimoires) - nothing to worry about right now . You don't get anything like lone wolf bonuses when you play Solo but you level up faster and you can concentrate all the best stuff and buffs/bonuses on one character so it helps. Ultimately Solo is still harder in end-game but I prefer it personally - for the challenge and to generally avoid the hassle of party placement and loot distribution. I work with a team all day so when I relax in a video game I'm happy to be an "Individual Contributor" . Your party seems hard hitting, lots of damage and CC - as long as you can make it work I can see that you don't need healing. You can dismiss your party members when you enter one of the cities (the map view), in a tavern or on your ship. The bottom menu.

Not sure if you know, but you can increase combat speed with the little cursor inside the little clock/timing thing on your HUD (it's a bit hard to notice, you can pull it to the right for increased combat speed). Beware though, with everything at full speed you can win or die very fast. (Personally I play full speed but with Auto-Pause when party member casts ability). In Deadfire your enemies will naturally try to target your squishiest little dudes. So pre-combat placement/stealth is great to give the opportunity to your front line to engage and lock down opposition. The enemy will usually not try to move after that, for if they do they'll take a nasty disengagement attack.

If your party's placement is a pain to manage in certain situations, there are also spells in the Wizard toolkit that have super powerful debuff/CC effects and that don't come in a pulsing/hazard AoE format. So they are one-shot, you only have to worry about initial targeting. To cite a few that get very very good if combined: Dazzling Lights Curse of Blackened Sight Miasma of Dull Mindedness Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (!) - applying Terrify and Weaken vs. Will in such a long duration will completely shut down your enemies and prime them for devastating attacks. Everyone in your party will love you very much. Of course Gaze of the Adragan... you also have a unique Ninagauth spell that does both DMG and Paralyze in a fireball type effect. And another one that spawns a giant magical hammer to pummel-lock a single target to oblivion. Etcetera, etcetera . Bottom line: if you can position your party carefully or if you play solo, the Wizard pulsing spells are outstanding, but many non-pulsing spells are outstanding too!

It's not that strange really, you'll notice that many folks on this forum have a similar approach that is only amplified by a game like Deadfire with so many different and cool class combos. I don't even know how many times I've been through Maje at this point . My only humble advice would be to take your Mindstalker a bit closer to the end and get a flavor of the DLCs especially in terms of difficulty as this is where it ramps up again. That will give you a good feel for future playthroughs. You can also use your Mindstalker at high level to hoard equipment and recruit custom adventurers to "try out" builds before actually committing to a playthrough. Saves you lots of time and energy. I don't know what you like and dislike but a next run involving Bloodmage one way or another could be very nice. This is arguably the most versatile and powerful Single and Multi, probably with Monk and Assassin as close contenders. Chanter has very powerful possibilities but mostly multiclass AFIK.

I've tried to make it work several time with no satisfactory result. My take is that its base damage is too low. Damage isn't drastically enhanced by its enchantments. The friend-or-foe AoE isn't super helpful in a party. Even with a hard-hitting AoE demultiplier like Clear Out, IMO you're better off with basically any other unique 2Hander. If you want AoE, okay-ish damage and a strong Riposte effect, nothing beats WotEP.

Nerfed yes, but VERY far from being underwhelming . AFIK they were just completely insane before in the way they were implemented, now it makes more sense. A proper build with high level Arcana can still effectively supplement their offensive potential with scrolls, sometimes to trigger absolutely devastating effects. I would not rely upon scrolls for every fight though of course.

Absurdly broken builds aside (i.e. the Shadow Camembert thread I just posted), I do appreciate cheesing a bit the stealth/aggro-deaggro mechanics with Rogue multiclasses, especially Assassin ones. I mostly play Solo PotD Upscaled, which basically means that odds are going to be very much NOT in your favor - unless you're playing optimized power builds, which narrows down options and tends to limit creativity. An Assassin brings very unique abilities and the potential to break up fights easily, which unlocks IMO more classes and builds as Solo PotD viable and most importantly fun, without a huge grind... At the same time, it remains challenging because many higher-level fights cannot be ended without all enemies defeated (e.g. SSS Arena fights) so you still need to get creative. But Assassin/Whatever gives you a lot of flexibility in how you approach your other class and how you solve each encounter. I haven't played it personally, but everybody loves Troubadour/Whatever with Grave Calling to kill your own skeletons and create crazy amounts of enemy-only Chillfogs + have the Grave Calling unique paralyze effect hitting every foe. Special free-for-all variant is Troubadour/Berserker. "To cheese or not to cheese, that is the question" - Tekehu ( who is basically a mix of Kevin Costner in Waterworld and the Naavi's from Avatar).

Shadow Camembert, Shadow Cheddar, Shadow Munster... in any case once they're warmed up, they all melt (enemies) . Sorry I've had a lot of opportunities to think about cheese puns while getting this toon up to level 20!

This "encounter" manages to be both very anticlimactic and deeply satisfying .

You could push the concept further indeed, for instance with Blade Cascade and combining all food bonuses together. When I got to the point of recording the video this morning, I got lazy . But hey, that is still all 4 Megabosses in the bag within 7 minutes of absurdity .

Disclaimer: This is meant to be a fun, somewhat silly post and video about what happens when you pile up the most absurdly powerful exploits on a toon and unleash them upon Upscaled PotD Megabosses. It is certainly not a build suggestion or what I advocate as a "legit" or "serious" way of playing, whatever that means . It is simply meant to satisfy the curiosity of cheese lovers around the world about this existential question: "really how absurdly powerful can you get in Deadfire if you have no shame?". If you are a new player of Deadfire, you might want to skip that post for now, I don't want to ruin your fun. The story of Shadow Camembert: Shadow Camembert was born and raised in rural Normandy, France so he knows a thing or two about stinky cheese. Single Class Assassin by trade, he has dedicated his whole life to finding out about the cheesiest exploits discovered by other fearless players in the Deadfire, and using them for his own deadly benefit. He knows his hobby is controversial: what is a tasty loophole to some may be an unpalatable cheat to others. Most players have their own limits in terms of lactose tolerance - but Shadow Camembert doesn't have any. It's all fair game to him as long as it can help fulfill his secret lifelong mission: to one-shot every Megaboss in a single, gruesome Rampage Tour. What makes him so powerful? Permanent Vanishing Strike - can never be targeted or damaged. Gives permanent Assassinate and Sneak Attack. Permanent 110,000% Deltro's Cage Helm Lash... so, yep. He wields Engoliero do Espirs because Blade Feast is fun, and sometimes switches to Watershaper's Focus + Blast when he doesn't want to chase stuff around. Permanent Brilliant Inspiration from Wit of Death Herald, not that it matters. Other permanent goodies for good measure (not all of them, they don't matter anyway). Here is Shadow Camembert in action on his Megaboss Rampage Tour (sorry there's more loading and travelling time than actual combat ) Conclusion: It was fun to get to record this, but for obvious reasons this is not a playthrough that I'm planning to continue . My curiosity is satisfied, I hope this was somewhat fun to review if you are intrigued by Deadfire cheese. Now I think I'll put my Strand of Favor back in the deepest vault of Area 51 for a little while.

Then what Haplok said. That is the most synergistic. SC Ranger wouldn't be bad either with a party. With the Community Patch I'm testing a Solo Arcane Archer/Streetfighter with Hand Mortar-Blinding Smoke, which seems to have some potential.

party play or solo play ?

It has been said several times in other threads, but if you struggle to stay alive and want to make it your big focus then an Arcane Knight properly equipped, buffed (and played) is as sturdy as they get. If it's sturdy enough for PotD it will be even sturdier on Veteran which provides less ACC bonus to enemies. All while offering a ton of utility, flexibility and fun/firepower. You can choose based on your RP favored dispositions, all Paladin orders can be good in a party. For solo, Steel Garrote is probably optimal but everything is viable. There is also absolutely zero shame in discovering the game on Normal and coming back to Veteran/PotD once you've learnt the ropes. Personally that's how I learned PoE1, then I started Solo playthroughs on PotD when I felt ready. I did a first half-playthrough of Deadfire on Normal, then I felt good enough to just play PotD. From then I've played almost only Solo Upscaled PotD. And I really don't consider myself a particularly cunning player . It's just that this game has a significant learning curve, even for seasoned PoE1 players because enough mechanics have changed in Deadfire. All I'm saying is you don't have to suffer through the learning curve . Especially given the great replay-ability of the game, you can definitely do yourself a favor on your first playthrough!

Hi there, Just a couple thoughts: you will find that as soon as you have a few levels under your belt, Deadfire is not so difficult (IMO less than POE1) BUT the difficulty is very front loaded, kind-of peaking at that dig site encounter. Gorecci street... just avoid the fight. And the skeletons in the training grounds are high level, come back later. Then if you finish Maje and go to Neketaka to do non/less violent quests, Deadlight, a bit of Tikawara, a bit of Dunnage, explore... you'll be fine. I won't spoil anything but difficulty comes back up with end game DLC content. To better survive early game: Indeed pay attention to armor rating (on both sides). Super important in Deadfire, on top of usual defenses/offense (which will be dismal at this point). Maybe it's a bit obvious, but really make sure you've done everything else in Maje before engaging that digsite battle at the best level/setup possible. Early on, just 1 level = huge difference. On martial characters early game, I'm a big fan of Monastic Unarmed Training, fists are the best weapons you can get at this point and until quite later (Xoti is also not a terrible Monk but she may be more useful as a Priest). Don't hesitate indeed to recruit bodies. If you want discardable ones once you've gained all story companions, Devoted/Monk fighting with fists can be nice, straightforward early adds. In a party ultimately you can win with any main character combo so really go with whatever floats your boat, you're not gimping yourself. Positioning in Digsite is key: creating choke points up the stairs, discovering that there is a barrel of gun powder down in the pit... You'll crack it you'll see If you've beaten Adra/Alpine wurms you really have everything required . Cheers!

By the way I would totally see the Jake Peralta character from Brooklyn 99 somehow lurk in this forum, see the title of your post and answer:

Well @abotwon The Ultimate with this multiclass after all .