thelee

is that from a mod? I don't think that condition exists in vanilla; there's like "has 10 focus" "has 20 focus" "has 30 focus"

i'm not quite sure if i understood you correctly, or you misunderstood boeroer but I just want to say that effectively Bullet Time doesn't work. It says -100% reload time, but there's a minimum reload time for all reloading weapons. If you're extremely slow, you'll notice a speed up, but if you're close to the minimum reload time (not hard to hit when dual-wielding with dual-wielding style) there's barely a difference. but boeroer's basic point is that once you're recovering from a non-reloading weapon, you're stuck waiting for recovery, so I don't quite see how a reload time adjustment would be useful here.

in fact, IIRC, the increased damage bonus from ascending is universal, so not just weapon damage. so even if you forget, you still will be doing more damage across the board than a normal cipher. though tbqh i would kill for a mod that puts a gigantic dialog box or message the moment you ascend, i do agree that it can be rough to remember in casual situations (e.g. outside of using a weapon ability that basically guarantees you max focus)

In general I always neglect Con and Res for non-tanks. PotD early on (when it is the hardest), the enemies so outclass you that Con and Res don’t feel particularly helpful to me versus better CC or killing enemies faster. If I still need help with survivability later on I end up taking Tough. Thrice is close range but good intellect still helps you hit without getting too close.

it's alright. Dazed is available at AT1 for priests and is good for engagement and survivability. i think it's mostly useful against bosses in longer fights [where longer duration from writ is useful] or in situations where you'd have a hard time landing a strength affliction [barbarians, might immunity, etc]

yeah. it's frankly a bit overtuned (given where other summoned weapons are at). from https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/priest they are the same as base monk fists, which are already above-grade - they do slow one-handed weapon damage at fast one-handed weapon speed, which for comparison purposes is basically like applying a 30%x multiplier damage compared to a normal weapon, which is insane. Add to that that priests can get up to 31% lash on their spiritual weapon, and that's adding on even more. Further on that, woedicans get a raw lash, which completely bypasses AR issues, making it generally the best possible type. The only thing holding them back against an actual monk with actual monk fists is the fact that they still scale like summoned weapons, instead of scaling like monk fists, but even then monks need to do a bit of work just to catch up to that raw lash.

eh, historically in other games the "builds" section of the forums was about diving into the mechanics of the game, not just builds, so i think that's what's happening here.

once i finish out my first run this is high on my list of things to test out. i've been operating under the assumption that it's like New Vegas, with DR first followed by absolute reduction, which is what Sawyer actively worked on and was a deliberate reversal from Fallout 1/2 (absolute reduction followed by DR).

i think i agree with kaylon in general broad strokes. it might be worth just having a SoT/WoD/SoF nerf on its own and let it simmer for a while. I don't think we've done that before, incl with Elric's stuff. Nerfing indefinite buffs might do a lot to rein in the extreme cheese. It's true that something like Unbending can be powerful w/out indefinite duration extension, but something like that is actually symmetrical with enemies, whereas enemies are incapable of abusing Brilliant or SoT/WoD/SoF. Beyond that, while balance is an admirable goal, there should still be opportunities to find interesting interactions for power, and it may be without indefinite durations the really powerful interactions aren't really that powerful. BDD with 2x duration from a nerfed Salvation of Time would be situationally good, but no longer the centerpiece for Ultimate runs, for example.

I seemed to recall that Elric had a fix for it, but didn't see it mentioned in your post (I could have missed it, sorry if I did) so wanted to bring it up. Personally - eh... I haven't played with Elric's fix, but in my gut going from 2 to 1 damage doesn't seem like a significant enough change. an Unbending-like change might be quite good though.

MaxQuest is back! I wonder if there's an anti-cheese that can be made with Combusting Wounds. Used normally it's a pretty good spell, but used in a synergistic party it's abusive, for the same reason as Unbending - every new damage roll procs damage from the entire stack when the DoT gets a new stack. Maybe a max stack count (10?) - would not affect casual use and would still allow for some synergies, but not quite the "melting bullet sponges very rapidly" territory. Bleeding Cut may need a similar treatment, though in my mind it's only really an issue when paired with Scordeo's Edge (which is already being nerfed).

i have a similar gripe about Marius. You can upgrade Shadow Step so that it basically instakills stunned enemies. When it works it's great! But he'll just waste it on un-stunned enemies or not use it when there are stunned enemies! I tried disabling the setting for companions to use their abilities themselves, but this added way more radial micromanagement than I enjoyed. Other allies have similar problems, but it's less of a big deal w/ e.g. Kai's taunt, because at least he's still taunting. But Shadow Step has an extremely looooong cooldown and it's only really effective if it's smartly targeted! (Same goes for another upgrade that lets it do more damage the less health the target has) I wish there were slightly better smarts for companions, or at least have a system where if I put an ability on my hotkeys that they stop using it automatically.

Sweet jeebus, I must have just completely missed the option. I only ever saw the breakdown option, so I thought lower level mats were only if for some reason I wanted to upgrade extremely under-tiered uniques or something.

You can craft higher tier Adra?????

very important and want to +1 this. a new skill i had to develop with avowed on PotD is constantly glancing at the top left of the screen so I can see where all the red dots are, and (very importantly) what direction they are facing. this makes sure i don't get tunnel-vision on a single enemy while someone is flanking me from the side. also, really good to just pay attention to audio cues. this is probably the only RPG i've played where the random things your companions shout in combat are insanely useful. if Kai says something like "enemy to your right!" i dodge to my left instantly, without thinking.