childofthesun

I tested Wildstrike Frenzy, and it stacks with the other spell effects. Everything together caused even the enemy attack animations to be hilariously slow, but of course this isn't a self contained synergy anymore since you'd need another character for the wizard side. With Elric Galad's BPM mod though this character is really nice, since the Wildstrike proc was changed to be on crit rather than on kill, while also providing a +2 frost PL bonus. I'm also fairly certain there's a display bug with blizzard. The spell description says it's a 20% action speed debuff, which is also what is listed under a character's active effects, but the actual debuff is 25% when looking at the attack/cast speed and recovery time on weapons and spells. A trio of this druid, a monk using Dichotomous Soul using the amulet, ring and armor, plus a wizard with the rod and Phantom would probably be equivalent to freezing time for the enemies. I'm not sure how to calculate the total value, but in theory I think the total you could get is: Action Speed: -33% (Arduous delay), -25% (Blizzard), -20% (Wildstrike Frenzy), -30% (Two max stacks of Rod of the Deep Hunter, with wizard Phantom), -30% (3 Sisyfo's Stone, monk summon), -21% (3 Finality's Claim, monk summon), -15% (any dexterity affliction) Recovery Time: +50% (blinded), +45% (3 Magnera's Chain, monk summon) Maybe even using Frostfall with Dispersed Suffering on the monk to increase slow durations and for the ice theme. With BPM, Unbroken also applies a 15% action speed penalty to engaged enemies instead of the AR boost. If solo sorcerer though, I agree the items would probably be more trouble than they're worth other than the rod and ring. Edit: Monks actually get two summons, oops. It would be near impossible to maximize the stacks from the armor and amulet in practice probably.

@BoeroerThat build is seriously impressive... fastest casting I've ever seen for sure. Probably a better approach with this multiclass than trying to maximize speed debuffs honestly Maybe using Sisyfo's Stone, Rod of the Deep Hunter and Magnera's Chain together could be fun, but then again this would require getting hit/crit to proc Sisyfo's Stone and the armor. Seems a bit counterproductive though, slowing enemies down means you'd get hit less, so it would be tough to maximize the stacks - maybe the armor and amulet are just best suited on a barb or something as a nice additional effect rather than the focus of a build. If the rod stacked more, SC cipher could be nice with shared nightmare. You're right with interrupts, honestly I think Thelee's disruptor build would be better at shutting enemies down than stacking slowdown effects. At the very least though, combining blizzard + arduous delay + blind and slicken for some interrupts seems like a great early game tactic before you get access to the best hard cc and perma-interrupt strategies. Definitely going to try this out on my current run and see how effective it is.

I was doing some testing of a few ideas with this sorcerer, and noticed something interesting regarding action speed debuff stacking. It turns out druid's blizzard and wizard's arduous delay of motion action speed debuffs actually stack together, which is contrary to how I thought deadfire mechanics normally work (the larger buff/debuff takes precedence and suppresses a lesser version of the same effect). I tested this on enemies, and when it appeared to work I used a confused berserker/priest of wael to cast confusion on me so I could cast both on myself. Both effects do actually combine to a 52% action speed penalty, which oddly enough is only attributed to the arduous delay effect - blizzard is not listed until arduous delay expires. Here are some pictures to show what I mean. In the first picture my character is affected with both spells, and the second picture is just the effects of blizzard. This also stacks with the recovery speed penalty of blinded, which means you can slow down enemies to a crawl. Miasma (just to debuff defences and resolve) + arduous delay + blizzard + chillfog + freezing pillar for hobbled, and everything is in slow motion. Maybe not as effective as just using hard cc, but pretty fun with a cool ice theme. Everything for this combo can also come by PL 3, substituting freezing pillar for tanglefoot. I couldn't find mention of this interaction anywhere, so I thought I'd post it here - sorry if this was already common knowledge.

Thanks for the info! I had watched a bit of Abot's ultimate run with the psion/troubadour, it's a really cool combination. The only problem is that I've played cipher a bit too much across both games and am trying to branch out Hellwalker is initially very appealing, if I understand the stacking rules correctly though it can only give you +10 might and +5 intelligence if you are also using inspirations provided by party members (not sure about dance with death accuracy). Still great of course, and very appealing for cipher and chanter as you said, just a more difficult tradeoff for the other casters. I didn't know about the berserker/priest withdraw interaction, that's super cool! The cat lifegiver/blood mage actually sounds exactly what I was looking for! I think the main thing I was hung up on was trying to find some interaction of mechanics that's more interesting than single class but still strong enough to not regret losing PL 8/9 spells. I try to avoid running single class wiz/druid/priest because I found their nukes trivialize most encounters after level 19, but I don't like gimping myself intentionally. Definitely a weirdly specific problem. Also, I just wanted to thank you (and the other forum regulars) for all the posts over the years. Despite never personally posting it's been great reading discussions about builds and mechanics, and Pillars probably has the nicest community I've seen in a video game. Anyways, much appreciated

Hi! Long time lurker here, trying to think of an interesting multiclass to finally finish deadfire with (500 hours and never made it much further than ashen maw for some reason, completed PoE 1 several times). I've tested a ton of combinations, but am becoming increasingly convinced that in a party, a caster multiclass character is usually overall less efficient than two characters single classed, or by relying on synergy between party members, with the exception maybe of monk to boost the caster side. The latest idea I had was a troubadour/druid DoT focused character, using the long night's drink + dragon thrashed (with community patch), making fortitude targetting spells easier to land while adding another dot on top. Of course, I ran into the problem where this would be much better accomplished by a single class ancient supported by some chanter multiclass, probably howler. I was thinking about this more, and even using fighter or barbarian to support the caster side doesn't make a whole lot of sense (unless playing solo). The bonus to accuracy and intelligence from fighter can be covered by a priest and chanter (which would also buff the entire party), and while armored grace is nice, it doesn't seem worth it to sacrifice PL 8/9 for extra sturdiness from heavy armor (again relying on party play to remove the need to wear heavy armor). Barbarian boosts also don't seem good enough to lose PL 8/9. Blooded working with spells is nice, but between losing power levels and potentially keeping might at base if using berserker, at best it breaks even in damage while losing the best spells and having slower spell progression. Action speed seems like the best benefit, and blood thirst on spells is a lot of fun, but is it actually more effective than a SC caster? You'd finish easier encounters faster, while losing top end potential and struggling more with tougher foes. Even ranger accuracy boosts I think would be less effective than having another party member specialized in debuffing defences. Howler with a pike or morning star, or fighter with AOE flail/club/morning star modal clear out. Paladin lash on spells is really cool, but again I'm not sure if the synergy is actually more effective than SC. Essentially I'm looking for multiclass ideas with legitimate synergy that warrants sacrificing the benefits of SC. The only caster where it's almost universally better to multiclass is chanter I think (cipher can go either way). When considering planning a full party, the only caster focused synergizes (outside of chanter) that I think are potent enough to justify are: - assassin+blood mage for permanent invisibility and chain CC (Boeroer's idea I believe) - blood mage + soul blade, focusing on the spirit lance soul annihilation - hellwaker + lifegiver when focusing on heals. If focusing on DoTs, while the extra might and int is cool but ultimately overshadowed by maelstrom in the end. - monk+wizard if specifically intending to focus on the lance. - fighter/paladin+ wizard if trying to make a tank, but this is using buffs to boost the martial side instead of using the multiclass to boost the caster. Most of the time if focusing on spells, it seems best to stay single class as a wizard, priest or druid. A melee focused character is another story of course. Any interesting synergizes I'm missing? Thanks everyone.