yorname

Ah Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a good example, I didn't realize enemies having unique spells was not that unusual, maybe I got tunnel vision since I only had access to minor imprint

I don't know why, but I just had 2 mages both get the unique Ninagauth's Death Ray from Ikorno (bounty), who obviously shouldn't and doesn't have that spell. I think I also stole some spell that wasn't in the grimoire from low level enemies, notably that guy who attacks you after you trade with Dunnage's tavern owner. Can somebody explain it technically? also if a mage steals a spell he knows/has in grimoire, after save/load the spell will be hidden, only the normal version can be cast. A workaround is to assign a hotkey to the stolen spell before any s/l, while it's still next to other unlimited ones, then after s/l the unlimited version will be in the hotkeys row. Useful to allow Aloth to cast minor missles,since it's not bad but Aloth has it at lv1.

BPM changed Fractured Volition to Hobbled and Enfeebled (from Weakened). The original was so bad I totally forgot it's changed.

Edit: I was clearly out of my mind when I used words like impossible, there's one thing really great about Enfeebled affliction: it adds 50% to the total duration of hostile effects, not remaining time, and weirdly the game allows it to apply itself mutiple times to the same effect. For example I hit an enemy with a 40s Disintegration, when there's 10s left if I apply enfeebled to it, the remaining duration is extended to 30s instead of 15s, and it grows exponentially. For the Guardian I only have to be lucky enough to extend both Borrowed Instinct and Disintegration a couple of times in a row to get sufficient time to do other stuff before having to prolong them again, the relatively safe phase 1 is the perfect time to set things up. Without having to desperately waste all of the focus I can now have both statues dominated to keep the guardian busy.

Update: Oracle of Wael was suprisingly easy, only took a handful of attempts to figure out, embarrasingly I'm stuck at Guardian of Ukaizo. This is my first time facing it with all 4 megaboss buffs, and I don't think it's possible to fight without any cheese for an inquisitor? It's will is acceptable but that fortitude is insane, I must get lucky to land club hit - borrowed instinct - fractured volition - morning star hit so that disintegration or body attunement can barely graze it. It has low DEF but I don't think I have enough healing to go full martial without those buffs

I chose soul blade for the concentration. With casters I can't stand the slow recovery if I give up DEX, especially when lay on hands and borrowed instinct both have long recovery, unlike some other defensive abilities from fighters, wizards etc. Since I'm not using shields with this one even if I max RES there will still be constant hits in DLC areas, and cipher multi have so much bonus will from passives it can dump RES for more fortitude.

There's nothing new about the build so I'd rather not waste everyone's time, though there're things I didn't quite expect before actually started. The Steel Garrote was an awful pick for me. More than half of the time I was casting or waiting for spell recovery, the healing from attacks is negligible while loosing an ability point to Garrote is huge, it's so replaceable by cipher spells. Survivability was better than I thought. I still got destroyed in a couple seconds in the first fight in The Bridge Ablaze several times, but after figuring out what to do with the starting focus and one gunshot I haven't used any consumable or empowerment for combat, which is one of the benchmarks needed for me to consider it at least legit for solo. I actually didn't need a strong melee weapon. In most cases I never had to switch out of Scordeo's Trophy + Kapana Taga combination, 2 hit for a Disintegration was good enough. Performance for boss fights are very polarized. Against "normal" bosses the inquisitor is extremely strong, always having an afflication for anyone that's not immune to everything and unlimited access to one of the best single target nuke trivialized every boss I fought so far. However megabosses have some extreme defenses, making the whole damage - focus - debuff circulation failing easily. Many legit martial builds can at least face-tank Auranic, however even trying Borrowed Instinct on phantom or bodyguards it was still too risky and difficult to keep a healthy hp. That said, paladin + cipher might be the best combo to cheese the megabosses. It's just a little bit disappointing. When facing the DLC enemies I still had to use Rekvu's Fractured Casque for some rogue heavy encounters, partly because I dumped RES again for smoother casting with high DEX. Hands of Light was another option, though having a long recovery and the limitation of Zeal made me give up the idea. I can't say it's totally unexpected but having the same problem as that awful melee mindstalker I played almost made me ragequit. At least the helmet did made those encounters very easy. In the end I also allowed myself to use Ringleader so I could continue to not use consumables.

I'm on the grindy leveling up stage of a Steel Garrote/cipher, and finding it hard to decide what weapon to use for best damage. I feel Kapana Taga is a must for modal and defensive enchantments, but offensively it's not very impressive, I'm considering Scordeo's Trophy for "main" weapon, since the reduced recovery can help with cipher spells, and range allows the character to better sustain stoic steel. Maybe another hard hitting weapon for inevitable melee situations? Also how does the CP biting whip fare against draining whip? Draining whip gives another 0.5 * weapon damage to focus gain, if convert the extra focus to Soul Annihilation, considering might and PL it would be close to biting whip's 20% raw lash, but I guess the lash can contribute to SG's heal so it might be worth taking?

I was worried about abilities that interrupt on graze, which pretty much work 100% on this one, while those won't neccessarily be lethal, trash fights can take forever without immunity. I thought about that clown hat if no using Fractured Casque. Dumping RES was more about balancing fortitude and will, since high INT was a must, high RES would lead to average MIG and CON at best, even though I already had body affliction immunity I still found effects that target fortitude more deadly than will ones. I guess I was just determined to not take them rather than reducing the durations.

thanks for your work! so many stuff went from meh to actually worth trying

@Elric Galad's Balance Polishing Mod buffed many meme abilities in the game, making more classes viable for solo. Fighter's Toughened Fury now trigger on most damage rolls instead of crits, suddenly SC fighters have near infinite resources. With the help of multiple defense buffs and Unbending Trunk, a fighter can protect themselves from most negative effects and regen any amount of damage thrown at them. Class: Devoted (Fighter), Sabre proficiency Race: anything except Godlike Attributes: max MIG, PER & INT, dump RES and average DEX CON PotD solo: only with CP & BPM. Skipping content is also needed because the build doesn't work before lv16. Active abilities: Knock Down, Conquerer Stance, Refreshing Defense, Unbending Trunk, Inspired Discipline Passive abilities: Arms Bearer, Monastic Unarmed Training, Determination, Two Weapon Style, Rapid Recovery, Bear's Fortitude, Bull's Will, Hold the Line, Weapon Mastery, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Armored Grace, Spell Resistance, Improved Critical, Reaping the Whirlwind, Toughened Fury, Critical Defense, Great Soul, Prestige No Rest Buffs: Konstanten's Boon (+2 CON, +1 PER & INT), Shark Soup (+2 MIG, +1PL, Body Afflictions Immunity) & everything else Gear: Scordeo's Edge - the go-to sabre in most cases Aldris Blade of Captain Crow (heal on crit) - when additional healing is needed, and the enemies' DEF is not super high Animancer's Energy Blade (Raw damage) - when sabres and fists both can't penetrate Grave Calling - anti-vessel Any good scepter - for sigils, also very useful to attack with one sabre all the time but at dual-wielding speed. Rekvu's Fractured Casque - combined with Wrenched Knee injury (-25% Stride, can be repeatedly acquired in Poko Kohara ruins), we can take every hit without being interrupted to death, a must for this build. Charm of Bones (+2 INT) Magnera's Chain (+10 Fortitude & Will, +2 Piece & Crushing AR) Ring of Minor Protection * 2, keep Ring of Greater Regeneration Boots of Stability (+5 Fortitude), Boots of Speed is useful in a certain situation The Giftbearer's Cloth with max History Woedica's Strangling Grasp (+2 MIG, +2 Burn AR), Gauntlet of Discipline (+2 max Discipline) Girdle of Eoten Constitution (+3 CON), some belts that give AR to certain types of damge can be useful too Pet: Hemp (+1 CON, +5 Fortitude), Kathrynn (+1 INT, +5 Will). Eviee (+2 RES, resistance to RES afflictions) when boss level enemies have Terrify The general idea is to have reasonably low DEF so most damage rolls can hit us, triggering Toughened Fury, giving Discipline. Fortitude and Will should be around 200 thanks to gear, Refreshing Defense and Inspired Discipline (all tier 1 inspirations, equals +5 DEF and +20 other defenses). Unbending Trunk combined with Dawnstar's Blessing and MIG bonus (I'm not sure about this) will heal more than the original damage taken, so in 99% cases we are literally unkillable. There're exceptions though. The first one is DoT. They don't trigger Toughened Fury (unsure) and don't count towards Unbending Trunk, so they're real damage for us. In most cases Rapid Recovery and the healing from Aldris Blade of Captain Crow is enough, but there're encounters where DoT can be a real threat: Young Porokoa's in SSS. They have a DoT attack that target Fortitude. That doesn't sound like a problem but in that fight every enemy attacks really slowly, so there's not enough Discipline to sustain every buff, resulting in occasional hits. 1 stack is acceptable, 2 is a reload. luckily the big Porokoa is not super tanky, and with 16 + 8 Discipline (empowerment) I was able to beat it without the use of Potion of Enlightenment. Frightened Child. The encounter is very tricky for most martial classes, but for us it can almost be automated if only for the child's Disintegration. I don't know how she had so much focus, constantly dishing out high level spells without even attacking me. Even with all the attacks on me I still couldn't afford Knock Downs on every Disintegration, costing me several potions and an empowerment Some random polarbears in BoW. I forgot which defense they target, but they attack pretty slowly and has good accuracy. I guess it's not impossible but after a few attempts I skipped them. An SSS fight where you need to protect some research. I imagine with many potions it's doable, I just skipped it. Another one is a single slow-hitting boss, namely Neriscyrlas. There's no other enemy, its attacks are extremely slow, and without interrupt on our side it's constantly at 21 AR, forcing me to use the Animancer's Energy Blade. It also has Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon targeting Fortitude, means we either take DoT that heals the dragon or we spend precious Discipline to defend against it. I think if I planned every buff more precisely, it can be killed with a lot of consumables and an empowerment. But in the end I just took a Potion of Enlightenment, the only use in the run. And of course there're dispels. High Will performed better than I thought, the only Arcane Dampener I took in the entire run was from Auranic, only once. The obelisk cleanses all the buff on us, but IIRC the healing part of Unbending Trunk can't be dispelled, we only lose the buff that applies healing. I only needed to make sure every time the obelisk activated, I was at full health and had some additional healing on. After punching it down the rest was a free win. I didn't notice it in previous runs, but there's a "dispel" that target DEF in the game - Luminescent Sporelings in FS has a Noxious Injection that target DEF, dealing huge corrode damge and applies -1000s to all beneficial effects, a perfect counter to the very basic of this build. Those in the Quarantined Section can either be blocked by others or lured to a choke point then killed one by one, but there're 3 in the Upper Bowels that I couldn't find a place to fight comfortably. In the end -50 damage from poison on Blackened Plate Armor (I was not sure it worked), Knock Down and a bit of luck saved the day. They're the toughest possible fights imo. The impossible fights are Hauani O Whe and Dorudugan. I couldn't outheal the DoT from the ooze and obviously don't have an answer for the splits. When trying Dorudugan I found that it's possible to sustain Unbending Trunk with Potion of Enlightenment, but it also has an attack that reduces max HP, so inevitably one-hitting me. I also coudn't deal enough damage to cover its self healing. And there's The Changling's Dance, since most defenses are active abilities. Overall it was pretty fun. Dual wielding is often risky in solo, the melee+ranged trick is even harder to pull off. With the changes in BPM finally I could take some liberty in weapon choices. Slowly chopping everything down while surrounded by a dozen enemies without even blinking is hilarious, more so if you do it with a broken knee.

the modded Toughened Fury is changed to "when receiving damage" though, that's why I don't know for sure.

Does the new Fighter's Toughened Fury possibly trigger on every DoT tick or do they require a hit roll like some other abilities? I'm having great fun with a SC fighter with the balance changes, but it's hard to test if Hylea's Talons actually helps with Disipline regen.

min CON and RES, I didn't try reflect potion since it (75% one) failed to do anything against those spells, multiple times in my previous runs. gear-wise I think I got highest fort/will with things I have fire damage was actually never the problem with high reflex, it's just getting lucky with CC spells then failling to outheal remaining enemies' auto-attack because I couldn't get enough phrases to summon as a skald. Having tried how OP Scrolls of Greater Malstorm are I made myself a rule to not using them, at least out of FS DLC.

After a few more attempts I can get most enemies killed, but still can't finish the strongest enemies, partialy because Called to... is my only summon, but more importantly skald doesn't get much in lv20 encounters when certain enemies have around 120 DEF, crits become very rare and their phrase gain can be slower than normal chanters, not to mention troubadours. Her Revenge... is also trivial against high REF and high hp targets even though I'm already using flail modal. On the fighter side rebalanced unbroken is still not as good as paladins when that couple points of AR is huge. I'm pretty sure even FS can be done with better preparations, scrolls etc but not many classes can't with high arcana anyway.

After a couple of days I hit the tougher contents where you realize "maybe this doesn't work after all". I struggled at Splintered Reef for hours but eventually made it, but now facing Nemrok I'm kind of lost: I don't have enough defensive stats for Arcane Dampener and Form of Helpless Beast, and couldn't kill those higher level warlocks or acolytes fast enough with Her Revenge... or Seven Nights... Basically finding somewhere not to be surrounded - summon weapons in the crowd (empowered with the sabre) hoping friendly fire on their side - hit lowest DEF enemies to get phrases - doing anything with those phrases doesn't prevent me from dying. I only heard good things about chanters and with the rebalance of troubadour I thought I might give skald a try, and using rebalanced unbroken for defensive since I've played so many paladins and FFs. I don't know if there's something wrong with the way I play chanters, or should have utilized slightly cheesy items like inivisibility potions or high lvl scrolls, or this build just doesn't work very well?

isn't there supposed to be additional damage with or without the ring anyway? also no bonus acc with the ring either, same acc for 2 heads. pretty sure it's community patch

I forgot to check the keyword component of community patch, it seems that Fire and Freeze keywords are replaced with something else so the crush damage can hit enemies with elemental immunities, but I still don't fully understand the files and have no idea why the bonus damage is missing

I'm running an Unbroken/Skald using Sun and Moon and Magran's Blessing to get the most out of Ring of Focused Flame, however when I got my hands on them I found that not only the fire head didn't get +10 ACC, but neither of the heads did bonus damage, is this how it should work? I think I ran a monk/skald with this setup back when I first played this game, and it seemed to work iirc. I have Community Patch and Balance Polishing Mod installed, but I checked changelog and game files, neither of them touches this item. I also tried getting one with console and it's the same.

Edit

Yep, intentional or not it's just not there (checked combat log), must be something about FF being a similar but not exactly fist attack. I'm both mildly frustrated and amused because it performed so well and autopiloted through contents I previously struggled even though I picked human without healing and PL bonus. BPM fighter changes are pretty insane. Thanks for the advice, I'm not familiar with console but will give it a try.

I hope I read this post and comments more carefully, because I rolled a Devoted/FF without realizing I gave up 1AR for basically nothing, and I'm already halfway. Now I wonder why the fixed FF work with Haymaker and everything else, but not devoted bonus specifically.

I learned how to use Gouging Strike from your post, great guide there.

Just finished my first solo potd run, the build performed slightly worse than I expected, but I decided to post it anyway for some advices to get a better understanding of the game. Race: Coastal Aumaua (doesn't really matter, I picked it so that I didn't have to worry about stuns) Class: Trickster/Soul Blade. Trickster for safety, Soul Blade because I wanted something melee. Skills: Eventually Arcana + Alchemy, History. This build has no sustainability without consumables, and there's no game-breaking synergy for FS content. Stats (Before Berath's Blessing and other buffs): MIG 8 CON 9 (I chose Rauatai background for RP, should've put 1 point somewhere else) DEX 18 PER 18 INT 16 RES 6 I wasn't confident enough to furthur dump CON and RES. I'm pretty happy about high DEX and INT because maintaining cipher buffs was a pain, it would have been more miserable if I went lower. Also I didn't feel the need for MIG as weapons are the primary source of our damage. Weapon proficiencies: Spear, Club, Sabre, Large Shield, Morning Star Food: Captain's Banquet. Again a safe choice. Action Speed helps with those buffs and immunities are always nice. Hot Razor Skewers might have been better but with the help of Body Attunement I don't think there was an occasion I seriously regreted my choice. Pet: Abraham (reduced recovery from armor, heal on kill) And other no rest buffs Abilities (rogue): Escape, Crippling Strike, Gouging Strike, Dirty Fighting, Riposte, Adept Evasion, Persistent Distraction, Deep Wounds, Deathblows I spent most Guile on Escape, Crippling Strike and Illusions spells, and I had no idea how to make invisibility abilities work, so I picked none. Abilities (cipher): Whisper of Treason, Lingering Echoes, Iron Will, Draining Whip, Hammering Thoughts, Body Attunement, Borrowed Instinct, Disintegration, The Empty Soul. Most are "fast" spells. I only picked those essential for melee, except Whisper of Treason and Disintegratin are too good for any cipher. Secret Horrors is amazing but Trickster already have Ryngrim's Repulsing Visage. Since it's mostly melee, Rapid casting and Farcasting are unnecessary. Abilities (general): Two Weapon Style, Weapon and Shield Style, Bear's Fortitude, Snake's Reflex, Bull's Will, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Improved Critical. Gear: Weapons: Stalker's Patience, Kahua Hozi (optional), Kapana Taga, Scordeo's Edge, Bronlar's Phalanx, Grave Calling. Stalker's Patience is our main hand most of the time. Off hand is Kapana Taga later Scordeo's Edge. Grave Calling trivializes vessal combats as all damage from its Chill Fog is considered weapon damage so even if there're non-vessel enemies, we can spam Soul Annihilation on them nonstop. Head: Blackened Plate Helm. The Maw of Ingimyrk for beast fights in SSS. Neck: Baubles of the Fin, Charm of Bones Chest: Blackened Plate Armor / Reckless Brigandine, depending on incoming damage type. Back: Cape of the Falling Star, The Giftbearer's Cloth Hands: Bracers of Greater Deflection, Gatecrashers, Burglar's Gloves Fingers: Entonia Signet Ring, Ring of Minor Protection Feet: Boots of the Stone, Rakhan Field Boots, Sandals of the Water Lily Waist: Blunting Belt, The Undying Burden, Girdle of Eoten Constitution General Strategy: I have to admit I skipped those lower level combats, even though with charm I imagine they might be doable. This build starts to work when we get borrowed instinct. Start the combat with dual weapons if enemies are melee heavy or standing closely. Large shield with modal for scattered archers and mages. Mirrored Image / Llengrath's Displaced Image + Borrowed Instinct to start with, if there's space for a little more kiting then add Body Attunement, otherwise Repulsive Visage when surrounded in melee, this should significantly reduce incoming damage and give lots of disengagement hits and free focus, which can be used to SA archers or casters. Against mass high level archers / mages I had to just buy enough time for Borrowed Instinct then Escape to a relatively safe place for Scrolls of Great Maelstrom. In most cases combat is all about avoid dying in the first few seconds and find best targets for Borrowed Instinct / Body Attunement. Specific Encounters: 3/4 Megabosses, SSS crocodile and Oracle of Wael were cheesed by Gouging Strike. This build can't push defensive stats to extreme and lacks healing, so I couldn't find a way to play fair against them. I think the strongest boss I managed to defeat in a straightforward fight was the Dracolich from BoW and it was all about keeping the buffs up, easy and boring. Hauani was the one I thought I had the strategy for, but didn't quite work out in reality. After Gouging Strike it to near death I couln't reliably get Club modal (lowering will) + Borrowed Instinct + Morning Star modal (lowering fortitude) + Disintegration without getting killed even with full buff, inserting any heal other than Second Wind will cause the debuff on it to expire and retrying takes forever, so I just gave it up. I guess that's about it. Trickster is always pretty good, but cipher buffs are a little unreliable and certainly become a chore very quickly. To be honest I don't feel pround about this run, just "finally it's over". I hope I could be able to make SSS and FS fights less arcana reliant next time.

wiki says it upgrades as a weapon (damage, PEN, etc) instead of shield, and I saw an old post here saying the same thing, but currently it's the same as Magran's Blessing for me, and I can't find a changelog about it, was it changed at some time so it wouldn't be everyone's go-to shield?