AndreaColombo

How much is your HoT per tick? In my latest experiments with the LoP I could get to about 46 per tick (56 if you count the extra healing from Sanguine Blade which can be extended via SoT), but that's within a party (LoP was never a solo build after all.) EDIT: Also, could you list your AR bonuses? I think 15 is the max I got to.

"Sanguine" makes every item better, man.

Brandon confirmed they’re introducing new, cool-looking robes with The Forgotten Sanctum, IIRC. Now give me a Sanguine Plate so I can play the fashion game and look sharp as I gut my enemies

That I know of, Swift is only available to Wizards and Rogues as a self-buff, and Corageous can only be given by Paladins who choose the relevant upgrade to LoH. Besides, Corageous isn’t bad IMO; with the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry it would be a godsend. If Brilliant is balanced in a way that prevents spamming Salvation of Time, fun is gone—again, to leave an ability untouched that is but a glorified God Mode.

Care to elaborate on the reason why?

It's not that it isn't enough so much that it isn't my play style. I rarely play Chanters, and never use that particular Grimoire. Admittedly, I could do so much more with this combo than I actually do. All I use it for is to ensure buffs on my main never run out for the duration of a fight. Stuff like Swift Flurry, Champion's Boon, and the like. As I mentioned in another thread, big numbers in my character record are what makes me feel powerful (no matter how many more powerful builds and combinations I could be using) and having all my buffs on all the time reinforces that. Yes, I could be running more powerful characters if I just let go of my obsession for number-crunching—but that's what puts a smile on me when I play. To each their own

FIFY

Druid/Chanter is very good in a support role, if you don't mind a second Druid in your party.

If I cast BUMP on this thread, will you cast your vote for the Sanguine Plate in Deadfire? (Pretty please?)

Understood. Personally I think only the DEX and MIG tier-3 inspirations are underwhelming. Buffing them to be a closer match to Brilliant wouldn't be that drastic, IMO, as tier 3 inspirations are generally hard to come by (MIG tier 3 is only for Chanters; DEX tier 3 is only for Wizards and Rogues; RES tier 3 is only given by Paladins for a short duration if they choose a specific talent upgrade; PER tier 3 is only for Fighters.) FWIW I would consider it a better solution than the removal or over-nerfing of Brilliant. Since we're in full disclosure mode, I guess the reason why I'm so adamant in defending this combo is that when I found out about it, I thought I'd finally found a way to enjoy the game again after the over-nerfs salvo of patch 1.1.

In my book, 30s Blade Turning is filed under "Fun." Appreciate that YMMV. (For record, Blade Turning is another ability I never take. I just like the idea of being able to extend my buffs indefinitely.)

I personally wouldn't mind. I never even pick BDD because the B stands for Boring. None of this matters anyway; in a patch or two, all of this will be nerfed so far into the ground it will come back up from the sky.

My point is, being able to execute a combo with which your buffs can be extended indefinitely is fun. Remove Brilliant, and the fun is gone. All this to balance an ability that prevents you from dying. Let's agree to disagree on BDD. Preventing me from being dead regardless of how much damage I'm taking when I only have 1 HP left doesn't count as healing for me.

I'll contribute my .02 safe in the knowledge it'll make no difference. I mostly do it as an exercise in style. Barring Death's Door is essentially a timed God Mode cheat, which in itself is a wonky concept. I don't think there should be any ability that makes you completely unkillable for any length of time in the game, because it obviously lends itself to being abused. That said, if the ability must be there (which by now BDD does, as it's been there since the first game and it would be odd to remove it entirely from the game at this point), the most logical thing to do would be to make its duration not extendable by any means. Obviously this also means it's something that will never happen. I'm calling it now: BDD will remain untouched on the back of this thread. Salvation of Time is good as is. Any change to Salvation of Time on the basis of something else being broken would be an awkward attempt at fixing an issue without actually fixing. It would be like, say, "fixing" Swift Flurry's recursive proc by lowering its proc chance instead of preventing crits generated by it from proccing other crits. Oh, wait... So yeah, I fully expect this spell to be over-nerfed into complete uselessness based on Deadfire's patch track record. Let's consider the combo in question: It requires you to have Cipher in your party. The Cipher must take "Ancestor's Memory." It requires you to also have a Priest in your party. The Priest must take "Salvation of Time." If your Cipher is a multi-classed character, "Ancestor's Memory" only becomes available at 19th level, which is pretty late. So either you use a single party slot for a custom Cipher/Priest and get the combo late, or you use two party slots for specific classes with specific picks to executed it earlier ("Ancestor's Memory" becomes available at level 13th for a single-classed Cipher.) This is not something you can casually, unwittingly run into and it completely trivializes your game. It is something you must know about and willfully seek. If you're willfully seeking it, you know what you're getting into. Complaining about it afterward is hypocritical. If an ability is OP by itself and players can unwittingly pick it and suddenly find their every encounter's been trivialized by their choice, by all means that needs addressing. This was the case with Mob's Stance and Swift Flurry, for example (and even in those cases, the fixes implemented were very awkward workarounds.) If a carefully constructed combination of abilities you couldn't possibly run into unless you were willfully seeking it is powerful, that's clever use of the game's mechanics; the resulting power is your reward. BDD is an exception, because as I mentioned it's practically a glorified God Mode cheat. There's a reason why God Mode is a cheat and not something games normally allow as part of the rules. But really, this isn't even a must pick or a must execute. It's just a fun a little minigame. If you enjoy permanent buffs, you'll go for them and have fun. If you don't, you'll try this once for the kicks, then get bored and stop doing it.

I generally prefer high-power campaigns to low-power ones if the relative difficulty is the same. Using Berath’s Blessings doesn’t increase my enjoyment because the game is easier; it does because big numbers in my character screen make me feel powerful. I would still want the game challenge me though, so yeah—Blessings plus God Challenges sounds good to me.

The problem with infinity BDD lies with BDD, but guess what will remain unchanged when they get to this? You heard it here first.

Not holding my breath for the final boss. I am, however, fairly certain that the topic of this discussion will be over-nerfed in 3.0. Failing that, 3.1.

I doubt that. Obsidian explained about the Steam keys already in the Fig comments during the crowdfunding campaign. The mistake was in assuming every backer would read them and run into the information. A clearer communication was in order. However I believe Dan H addressed this in the other thread about backer rewards? IIRC he did admit on behalf of Obsidian that communication on this matter was subpar. I knew from the Fig campaign so I’m not overly bothered (although I would have preferred DVDs), but I understand the frustration of those who only learned about this upon opening their CE.

I don’t think this combination really qualifies as an issue, but by now I know better than to put forward rational arguments when it comes to the game’s balance.

Yeah, there it goes. I was careful to shut up about this but now it’s just a matter of time. Oh well, it’s been good while it lasted.

I think BotEP is pretty good for single-target DPS. It never seems to get much love.

Monk has a subclass that gains Wounds by inflicting damage, if you don’t want to have to take a beating to power your abilities. EDIT: For 2H DPS check how I built the Lady of Pain for Deadfire. I sort of provided an update in the last few posts of the thread—BotEP is the weapon of choice.

There are a few weapons that have speed enchantments. Other than that, it's about stacking DEX, using a pet that decreases armor recovery penalty (i.e. Cutthroat Cosmo, Abraham, or Nalvi), and picking abilities that either reduce the armor recovery penalty (e.g. Armored Grace) or provide a bonus to recovery time (e.g. Swift Strikes, Frenzy, etc.) There are consumables with similar effects as well, with the caveat that consumables count as active abilities and therefore don't stack with other actives that provide the same kind of bonus.

Armored Grace + Cutthroat Cosmo + Miscreant’s Leathers should get you there and make you faster than naked, IIRC.

Is it not this? https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105445-21-character-falls-into-animation-loop-when-using-an-ability/ It's super annoying.