Maxzero

Keep in mind each character can only have one summon spell active at a time. So you if you use a Druid summoning spell while your Chanter Skeletons are out your Skeletons will disappear. I am not too keen on the Ghost Heart combo because you spend too long at the start of each fight summoning stuff. The other two are fine (using Beckoner/base Wizard myself). Use your summons to absorb agro while you DPS from behind safely. Sharpshooter, Fury, Wizard are all good for this.

Not in BETA but Beckoner lives up to the hype. Chill Fog is still stupid strong too.

Remember you may need to restart Steam because the deadline is actually Steam services updating with the game being released.

19 eh? Looks like you will need at least 1 guy with a lot of Perception. Unless an NPC has has high base Perception it looks like the MC is the best candiate. Sure there are items but still.

Because in Deadfire Perception is used to spot traps not mechanics. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94851-cannot-seedisarm-traps/?p=1957475

One bit of advice for people making your character. You might try making sure that your MC has high perception and mechanics. Since your MC is always in the party it means the key roles of trap spotter/disarmer, door/chest opener and hidden item spotter are always covered. If you put these roles on other characters you will find it really difficult to rotate them out for others. With those key roles all covered by your MC you will be able to move your other 4 members around much more freely.

I would rather the pets each the AoE then my party members. Everytime an enemy is attacking summons I am not sad I am happy because they are doing their job. I am never more then 12 seconds away from 6-18 more hired goons.

A single Pistol. 8m range will put you right in the middle of the party. Accurate and good damage. Activate the modal if you are fighting weak enemies (less accurate but faster reload).

Gone for now. May shown up in a Grimoire.

Finally settled on a build (maybe). Nature Godlike Beckoner/Wizard (no sub) 18 5 12 18 20 5 Starts fight be casting Infuse to give +5 Con, +5 Int and activating Nature Godlike. 1min+ duration. Then with their 25 Int summon Skeletons and screenwide Chill Fogs that last forever. Should be good from level 1 and a steamroller by 4. As they level up just keep adding more and more DPS ingredients (Combusting, Expose, Wall of Fire, Malignant Cloud, Freezing Pillar) to the Chill Fog soup while hiding behind stronger and stronger summons. It's not so much a skill synergy but a playstyle synergy. The character is designed to play a certain way from level 1 and every skill from then on just keeps supporting it.

Judging by the size of the map reaching max level might not be that hard. But yes builds that actually start functioning earlier is something that I feel a lot of theorycrafters forget to take into account. We are not starting at level 6+ in the release.

You know I don't disagree that Wizards, Druids and Priests would probably be better off with a more flexible resource system. Although with the power level scaling system there is still some merit for some lower levels spells. Maybe for PoE 3 we could see a new 'mana' system but I feel this system is definately a step in the right direction and much better then the system in PoE 1. Of course some will disagree.

But should encounter difficulty be balanced around how often you rested? I was the same and it felt so artificial. Now I don't need to worry about it I can engage an encounter using my full resources knowing that it is balanced around me doing so. Caster's would never be balanced under vancian. It's impossible because their power levels just varied so much based on the whim of the user.

The point is that in the fights that mattered you'd pretty much always go in fully rested and the ability to vomit your spell book made the "Vancian" casters extremely powerful. Sure if you're not rest spamming you'll be less powerful against the easy encounters in a dungeon: but they're easy anyway. Again depends on how often you rested. Even with easy encounters how many can you go through without needing a rest especially early on? I wonder how many 'easy' encounters were easy because people were always rested (or close to it) when they encountered them. While current PotD difficulty is messed up once it is fixed by taking resting out of the power calculations it allows Obsidian to push encounter design much harder because party power levels are much more consistant. Vancian spellcasting makes this messed up balance system where your casters do nothing for 90% of the fights and then 90% of the work for 10% of the fights. Good riddence to a dated mechanic well past it's use by date.

Thats difficult to judge ... here the data from the beta (tested with no subclass chanter): Skeleton: - base skill: PL1, 3 phrases = PL1, duration = PL1 - upgrade: PL3, 3 phrases = PL1, duration = PL1 Ghost - base skill: PL1, 3 phrases = PL1, duration = PL1 - upgrade: PL4, doesn't work in the beta Wurms - base skill: PL2, 3 phrases = PL2, duration = PL2 - upgrade: PL4, 4 phrases = PL4, duration = PL2 Wisp - base skill: PL3, 4 phrases = PL3, duration = PL3 - upgrade: PL5, 4 phrases = PL3, duration = PL3 The upgrade for Ghosts does not work so they are out, also Ogres and Drakes because there is no upgrade for them in the beta. Upgraded Skeletons and Wisps are still treated as if they are on the power level of the base skill, so they need the same amount of phrases and they get a duration bonus based on the power level. Upgraded Wurms are different. After upgrading you need 4 phrases instead of 3 phrases, so they are treated as if the power level of the upgrade matters. But for the duration bonus from power level they are treated as if the base skill power level matters. Hmm that is interesting. A split decision wasn't expecting that. So in some cases it does 'uplevel' them (Wyrms) and some cases it does not (Skeletons). It's rather inconsistant, how very Obsidian.

Depends on how often you rested. Fast cast does not mean anything if you have nothing to cast.

Honestly I think casters will be even better. In PoE 1 you could only do those combo's in a big fights (due to needing to rest) whereas now you can do them every fight. I mean in PoE1 Chill Fog pretty much carried my entire party in the early game all on its own.

It might be, but that combo wouldn't come online until level 16, and I suspect without iron wheel the armor from bear form isn't going to be enough to reduce damage down by 50%+ to offset the increased damage taken. Typically these games (particularly on the highest difficulty settings) are hardest at the beginning of the game, which is when this combo would be at it's most vulnerable. By the time you get to 16+ you are likely going to be steamrolling enemies with any decent build. Combos that are reliant on abilities that you have to wait 3/4 of the game to get don't seem worth it to me, but YMMV. Something a lot of people forget. Even in PoE Chanters and Wizard were all a bit iffy till level 9 (then became gods). Reminds of NWN when people would theorycraft Drow (level penalty) perfect DW builds that need 25 dex to work but were total garbage till then.

Don't you get -1 phrase cost from beckoner? it is already calculated in ... the current progression in the beta is: PL 1 + 2 = 3 Phrases (2 on Beckoner, 4 on Troubadour) = Skeletons / Ghost / Wurms PL 3 + 4 = 4 Phrases (3 on Beckoner, 5 on Troubadour) = Wisp / Ogres PL 5 = 5 Phrases (4 on Beckoner, 6 on Troubadour) = Drake based on this the higher power levels should look like this: PL 6 = 5 Phrases (4 on Beckoner, 6 on Troubadour) PL 7 + 8 = 6 Phrases (5 on Beckoner, 7 on Troubadour) = Ancient Weapons PL 9 = 7 Phrases (6 on Beckoner, 8 on Troubadour) = Dragon so I think I need to correct my assumption for the dragon: - Beckoner: 6x6 = 36 seconds for summoning a dragon (PL9), summon base duration = 18 seconds - Troubadour: 8x3 = 24 seconds for summoning a dragon (PL9), summon base duration = 25 seconds So a Troubadour can keep up his dragon relatively easy (just a bit INT to offset the casting time). But for a Beckoner this should be really difficult. It only seems to be be a big advantage at PL 7 and higher. So for single classing summoning it looks like Troubadour is the go. My endgame goal for multi class Beckoner will be the upgraded Ogres (4 x cleaving pets = yikes) at PL 6. 24 phrase duration (23 at PL 7) with 18 summon duration (27 with 20 int which I have and plan to get more). Since phrases seem to increase every second PL if you want to min max a little bit you should target even PL summons (Wyrms, Ogre). Stronger without the increased phrase cost. I wonder does the upgrade to ablities increase their PL? In my example I assume they did but since I don't have BETA I can't test. So would upgraded Wyrms count as PL 2 or 3?

You mean summon TWO Dragons right?

Actually it will be amazing for Beckoner since they tend to have a larger number of weaker creatures so the extra penetration may be just what they need to break a DR threshold. Throw in some solid, non-affliction Cipher debuffs like Body Attunement and you've got a nice sub-squad for dealing with larger enemies. Honestly Beckoner seems to work with everything. Every class can benefit from a primarily passive group of minions who tank and DPS for you.

I am talking about the duration. 30 Int is double duration. So if the shields are sequentially stacking thats 60 effective health every 3 seconds in a AoE (correct me if I have the mechanics wrong).

So would a 30 Int Beckoner just chain chanting 'Her Courage' effectively have a 60 point damage shield for their whole party? Is it difficult to reach 30 Int? Is it worthwhile to go Monk multiclass for 'Duality' for the 10 bonus Int?

It's definitely a bug because the damage you take isn't reflected on your health. Your health and endurance will go back to normal after the combat ends.

Not only do the elemental passive not apply neither do the +25% damage against creature type. Have yet to test but I suspect the +20% against Spirit and Vessel ring or the +30% damage against Dragon chant might not work with the chant either.