youspoonybard

I've only played Xoti, but PL8's Symbol of Eothas is a really powerful spell - not just Party Friendly but Party Beneficial and it does a LOT of damage. Once she hits PL8 she switches from support to one of the higher damage dealers just tossing that out 1x / encounter. Likewise, Spark the Souls can be used with positioning and abused with multiple targets, like Summons, to buff, and Dismissal is a situational but powerful spell too. Really, PL8 is really strong, it's just in a different role from the previous levels where I like to use Priest spells to support. PL8 is about offense, and the spells are really good at it.

I guess making the game any better will improve sales, so it is indeed a cash grab. But by that logic the patch they are releasing is also a cash grab, hmm.... Making a game is a ca... Having a job is a cas... Participating in the economy is a cash gr.... Being born is a cash gra....

Am I the only person who thinks Driving Echoes is the best buff to your party's casters in the game? By a landslide? Yeah, but that's just one good power, and by the time you get it, the game is mostly over. The last three tiers are all like that -- one good active power and a bunch of dead buttons that aren't worth pressing. Tier VII, Stasis Shell is the best option and it's basically just a crappy paralyze for paralyze-immune targets. Tier VIII, Time Parasite is good, reaping knives should be redundant if you've built correctly (spending 80 focus to get back focus is usually a bad trade), and defensive mindweb is nerfed into the ground Tier IX, Driving Echoes is good, Haunting Chains is worse than a fifth-level wizard spell, 1000 cuts is . . .well, not awful against a boss, but compare vs. any wizard damage spell? The class is playable. It's not utterly broken. But the current implementation is always gonna be the weak link in the party. Not disagreeing with you; was only asking re:comment that "there is no reason to play pure cipher".

Am I the only person who thinks Driving Echoes is the best buff to your party's casters in the game? By a landslide?

Geez, people don't rely on crits to penetrate, especially when you have limited uses of things. So many people seem to be banging their heads against a wall instead of taking a step to the side and walking through the door.

There are differences between physical attacks and spells that you have to take into account, but the overall statement isn't false. a) Weapon modals lower FRW by 25 instead of 10 b) Base stats add +2 to each relevant defense and there are two of them to target instead of +1 and 1 stat on deflection. You can potentially lower FRW defenses very quickly. c) Are you complaining that you can't target strong defenses with no setup and reliably succeed? Why not use Fetid Caress if you're trying to hit a high will caster off the bat instead to take them out of the fight?

Apparently they are. Have not tested personally though. No they are not. Carnage does not transfer modal "afflictions" like Body Blows etc. What works is Charge (pre 1.1) and Clear Out (plus upgrades). Those are the only two abilities I could find that apply Body Blows (morning star modal) in an AoE. At least that's with game version 1.0.2 Heart of Fury (and I assume the Ranger T8 ability)? Pretty sure HoF was working for me, but my 1.1 Barb doesn't have it quite yet to confirm.

It doesn't work like that... I will consider the average situation where your accuracy equal to the enemy's deflection. That means your attacks will be: 15%misses, 35% grazes and 50%hits. If you add 20 accuracy it will become: 30% grazes, 50% hits and 20% crits. In the first scenario your average damage would be: base dmg * (.35 * (0.5 + dmg bonuses) + .5 * (1 + dmg bonuses)) = base dmg * (0.675 + 0.85 * dmg bonuses) In the second scenario your average damage would be: base dmg * (.3 * (0.5 + dmg bonuses) + .5 * (1 + dmg bonuses) + .2 * (1.25 + dmg bonuses)) = base dmg * (0.9 + dmg bonuses) In the case of a ranger/cipher how much dmg bonuses you can have? 60% from weapon, 20% soul whip and maybe 30% from might ie 110%. If we compare the two scenarios the dps increase will be: (0.9 + 1.1) / (0.675 + 0.85 * 1.1) = 2/1.61 = 1.24 That means only a 24% dps increase from +20 accuracy... He assumed 50% misses though, which puts him starting at an (Accuracy - Defense) of -35. I mean, the thing is both of you are touching the real conclusions - a) Accuracy (or more specifically Accuracy - relevant Defense) is a very potent stat, easily more powerful than Might or Dex at low starting values b) (A-D) at higher values drops in effectiveness harder than any other stat, making it much worse than Might or Dex once you reach certain levels of (A-D) (homework: can you calculate the values where this drop off occurs? It's probably lower than you are assuming! Extra credit: do it for attacks that can graze vs attacks that can't graze) c) (A-D) are the most manipulable stats in combat. You can get a Strong buff to add +5 Might. But you can flank an enemy and hit them with a pike for -20 Deflection, lower their resolve by another 10, etc. The aforementioned weapon modals are a huge PARTY WIDE buff to (A-D). Combat spells tend to raise Accuracy much more than Might, Dex, etc. Basically, there is a sweet spot that you want to hit for (A-D) and then put effort in raising your attack rate, might, etc, rather than pump more accuracy. Also, as mentioned, positioning and tactics in combat play a HUGE role here and should be emphasized.

Only way to debuff in an area is using whisper of endless paths or Wahai Pōraga ( unique pollaxe). Carnage doesn't work anymore as poe 1, now it do only raw dmg on area, no status effect Heart of Fury...

Josh has posted that a new Enchanting interface resolving these problems will be included soon.

Kill them is the easiest way.

If you have metaphysics (8 or 9ish, forget exactly what) you can siphon some of the dragon's strength to the wards and free him, allowing the Watershapers to preserve their strength, then free the dragon.

Ship boarding is bugged right now - what should be enemy corpses are being spawned as living enemies, so if you try to board them you can get overwhelmed, especially before you have other party members to assist in the battle. Don't judge difficulty off these boarding fights.

Blood Pit also works.

It took my crew months to mutiny but only hours after I ran out of food to suggest to me who they'd like to feast upon. I guess they had someone in mind already.