AndreaColombo

Consider that on many spells, power level only affects duration. This is the case, to the best of my knowledge, for a Wizard’s self buffs and summoned weapons, for example. The power of summoned weapons and a Druid’s spiritshift form is based on character level, and that’s precisely for the purpose of not putting multiclassed characters at a disadvantage. That said, multi are 1 power level behind until level 8 and at level 10 (IIRC), and 2 on other levels. You can make up for the difference in many ways (nature godlike, specialist Wizard, tactical strikes to name those that come to my mind.)

Well, IMO summoned weapons should really be fast cast. Of course then you’d still be spending an ability point on the summoned weapons—if they are the same as any other, I’ll use any other and pick a different spell. Then again, how many draining weapons shall we have? At present we don’t know—if there aren’t many, then the draining staff may have value. The blights have elemental damage types, the lance has carnage, and we’ll see the others when the game ships. If they’re made fast cast, that might suffice.

1. Create a Wizard character. 2. Make sure you select the spell Arcane Veil at level up. 3. Equip a weapon (I tested this with a staff.) 4. Enter combat. 5. Cast Arcane Veil. Observe that your weapon becomes invisible for the duration of the spell. It will become visible again when the spell expires. I've had this happen both with an Exceptional Staff and Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. Chances are it applies to all weapons indistinctly.

You can console in the Lance itself (or buy it if you're using morti's mod.)

Amazing graze!

Let’s try again: https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/938947400319746048

I believe that's a placeholder VFX (same thing with Firebrand.) If you look at Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, it looks very good with the smoldering head and the funky smoke VFX trailing as you walk. By contrast, both Firebrand and Citzal's Spirit Lance are very bare bones VFX with no "solid" weapon behind them. They look ... unfinished, which they probably are. Let's see what comes of them in the upcoming beta updates.

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/93894740031

I know. I elevated the achievement of no recovery on my frontline to an art, though, so it won’t super make a difference for me

The problem is that if it takes my caster 10 to achieve the same result my melee guys do in 5, there’s no reason for me to take a caster. (Numbers are in an arbitrary unit of time for the sake of exemplifying.) At present, by the time I’m done casting most enemies are dead or badly hurt. My melee guys got it; no need for the caster to do anything. Also no reason for summoned weapons to be anything but fast cast, to be honest

Fairly sure they also said they’re looking into casting times.

Less spells, no high-level spells or abilities, lower power levels

I've spent the afternoon thinking of ways to boost my Power Level on a Devoted/Conjurer build specifically to avoid lagging behind a single-classed Wizard when it came to summoned weapons, so I can't say the news is bad for me

Interesting. Thank you for checking, JerekKruger. The bonus from Conjurer not applying to summoned weapons, which are AFAIK Conjuration spells, is probably a bug. Likewise with Wellspring of Life, which should apply to all spells and abilities. It’s probably worth reporting it to get visibility with QA.

How much does power level increase for specialist Wizards? +1?

Part of the nerfing is probably due to the fact that Wizards now have higher starting Accuracy and can become proficient in the use of these weapons, thus benefiting from the relative modals. Plus you can multiclass a Wizard to Fighter, Monk, or Barbarian; in PoE you could only use those weapons on a pure Wizard. It sort of makes sense that they wouldn't be as powerful in this context. Currently the staff isn't draining at all, which is a confirmed bug. Likewise, QA confirmed casting times are being looked at by the design team, so we'll see where that gets us; right now I agree casting times are way too long in general, and definitely for summoned weapons.

Nature Godlike Helwalker/Lifegiver is a great Thundercat *wink wink*

If we don't, there is no way for a Devoted to gain bonus penetration and crit damage with that particular summoned weapon. It doesn't seem particularly fair. Right now, Devoted/Conjurer (or Devoted/Wizard, for that matter, though if you're going to focus on summoned weapons it pays to be a Conjurer) is forced to pick staves as that's the only summoned weapon available at level one. Alternatively you can wait until level 10 to get Citzal Spirit Lance, seeing as you can't possibly be proficient with Kalakoth's Minor Blights. Having to wait 10 levels to get your chosen summoned weapon is not my idea of fun, though; at best, you'd have to respec (but respeccing every time you want to use a different summoned weapon is tedious and still counts as a way to work around the subclass's limitation.) As for nomenclature, saying a weapon has a universal proficiency suggests that every character is automatically proficient with it. If that's not the case, the information is misleading; people will wonder why their character is not proficient in the use of a universal weapon. Your suggestion to remove the Accuracy penalty from universal weapons without applying the bonuses unless the relevant proficiency has been chosen is interesting, though again there should be a way to become proficient in the use of the Blights.

Again, fine by me. Just remove the misleading “universal” tag from summoned weapons, since their proficiency is clearly not universal, and assign to them a specific proficiency that can be picked at character creation (currently there isn’t one for the Minor Blights.)

The entire point of the Devoted is being a Fighter with good penetration. What is the point of universal weapons that aren’t universal? I’m fine with removing the misleading universal tag, assigning a proficiency to Kalakoth’s Minor Blight, and leave the rest as is. Granted, if you leave the Accuracy penalty with summoned weapons, a Devoted/Conjurer is de facto strong-armed into choosing staves...

That’s brilliant! :D

I played Shifter and Lifegiver, both multiclassed with Helwalker, and they were very good. I’m interested in the Fury conceptually and I will try it, but as Boeroer mentioned, right now casting times are too long across the board.

To add my .02: Re: Ogre club IMO it should be treated as universal like other summoned weapons; that should make the Devoted automatically proficient with it. Alternatively, it could be tied to the existing Club proficiency, although I believe the other solution makes more sense in the context of what amount to a shapeshift. Re: Kalakoth’s Minor Blight I don’t necessarily advocate for the creation of a proficiency for this spell in particular. I’m also not interested in a modal to go with it, seeing as the majority of modals in Deadfire have been extremized into uselessness. IMO this spell, like other summoned weapons, should be universal and therefore consider the caster always proficient in its use. A Devoted would gain its class perks and not incur the Accuracy penalty. Alternatively, if the devs implemented an unarmed proficiency (as has been requested multiple times), the spell could go with it—but it would be a subpar solution compared to the other. Re: multiclassing If I’m having a problem with Devoted/Conjurer, telling me I can play a Priest/Conjurer isn’t really a solution or even a topical answer I chose Devoted because I want bonus penetration (which summoned weapons are sorely in need of, especially when multiclassing and therefore trailing behind in power level), I want Disciplined Strikes, and I want Armored Grace and Weapon Specialization. A Priest can’t get me those.

Good idea. I support it.

A lot of people are annoyed by the unnecessary MIG nerf that doesn’t really make RES much better