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  1. [totally new to these forums so I apologize in advance if I'm missing any conventions about sharing builds or in the wrong forum with this post ] Out of the night when the full moon is bright comes the Watcher known as Zorro! The Huana huddle together in the center of their village, parents putting on brave faces as they hold whimpering children close. Cloaked figures with swords drawn advance on all sides, wicked intent written on their faces in the dim torchlight. Vailian mercenaries, Rauatai soldiers, Crookspur thugs - whoever they are, they mean to do evil on this night. But just as they're about to strike, dancing lights suddenly appear in the night sky. The ruffians look up warily as the lights arrange themselves into a letter “Z,” then flit away to the roof of a nearby hut. There, silhouetted against the full moon, stands a figure in a brimmed hat, rapier in hand, their cape fluttering in the breeze. "It is Zorro!" cries a Huana child, joy replacing the terror on their face. "Zorro is here!" "SHOOT HIM!” cries the leader of the cloaked figures, but they might as well shoot at the moon. As they scramble to discharge their weapons, the figure has already disappeared amid the crack of gunfire and shouts of alarm. Through the smoke and tumult, his sword flashes here and there, felling foes in its wake like trees in a storm. Panicked, the soldiers scatter as the villagers erupt in cheers. The night rings with jubilant chants of "Zorro! Zorro! Zorro!" --- I'm still getting a handle on the game's mechanics so I don't claim this as an optimized build at all, and it's only been tested so far through 9 levels, but I would love to hear people's ideas about how to make it more viable! The idea on offer here is to an Eoran Zorro: daring swashbuckler, champion of the oppressed and terror to tyrants across the Deadfire, who appears and disappears like a ghost leaving only the sign of the Z. Zorro fights one-handed with a rapier, and a pistol when necessary for his second set, emphasizing trickery, mobility and daring as he darts about. The accomplished swordsman easily maneuvers across the battlefield, deftly parrying his opponents' strikes and delivering ripostes to critical areas. Diego de la Vailia, the Lord of Caed Nua, an idle dandy the dashing swordsman ZORRO, unrecognizable behind his mustache! By day, the self-absorbed and foppish Diego de la Vailia, Lord of Caed Nua, dallies in the courts of the Deadfire's various contending powers. By night, the enigmatic bandit known as Zorro steals medicine for the Roparu, infiltrates pirate forts and plunders Crookspur ships with his black sloop "Tornado." Diego's sharp, sometimes cruel wit suggests vanity and disdain for the problems of others, while Zorro acts with both passion and compassion for the downtrodden. To the Bardattos, Dereos and Hanzanuis of the world, he is a callous mercenary; to the Huana tribe who he's helped escape from a cruelly exploitative VTC contract, he asks for nothing in return. Knave though he is, Zorro is not without his own sense of honor. He instructs his companions to stay out of his duel with Captain Benweth on the ramparts of Fort Deadlight, for example. And if he should pursue a bounty on any kith, he always announces himself before setting upon his quarry. Name: Diego de la Vailia Species, ethnicity, nationality, background: Human, Ocean Folk, Old Vailia, Aristocrat Role: Rogue (Trickster) / Fighter (Devoted: Rapier if you really want to fit the role, but I went with Black Jacket for the versatility and because regen isn't too important for this build) Voice: Percival de Rolo (lol) Stats (after human & Old Vailia bonus, before Berath's Blessings): M: 10 C: 9 D: 12 P: 18 I: 10 R: 19 (This was less about the stats perfectly fitting the roleplaying concept, and more about trying to fit the playstyle: accuracy, crits, high deflection & riposte. Thought about a higher Intelligence to fit the concept & for the Trickster's illusion spells, and it's hard to accept a Zorro who isn't Dexy, but I wanted to maximize that accuracy & deflection without dumping might or con.) Top skills (you'll want the Berath's Blessings and paid trainers to really get away with Zorro's levels of mary sue-ism): ATHLETICS - to scale the walls built to separate and control the people of the Deadfire! MECHANICS - no lock can stop the cunning fox Zorro! STEALTH - he appears and disappears like a ghost! BLUFF - who is this masked renegade? Surely not the preening Vailian aristocrat Diego de la Vailia, who spends his days idling at the Luminous Bathhouse or shopping at Iolfr's Raiments! INTIMIDATE - to address bullies in the only language they understand! Secondary skills: SLEIGHT OF HAND - for various shenanigans DIPLOMACY - Diego is a Vailian gentleman, after all INSIGHT - Zorro always seems to know what makes his enemies (and friends) tick Maybe? skills: RELIGION - Zorro has always found friends among those of the cloth HISTORY - politics and culture aren't wholly separate from Zorro's purpose, after all Gear: this is the least-developed part of the build, and where optimization clashes the most with the Zorro concept. I honestly did some googling to make some of these choices, since again I haven't even taken this build past level 9, so take them as a very gentle suggestion. I am also very keen on hearing people's ideas for better gear! (I did decline to pick up the Unstoppable fighter ability, which grants resistance to dexterity afflictions, because of Cipher's Shackle covering that resistance in this gear - so if you want a different amulet, you might want to adjust the abilities.) Weapon: Rännig's Wrath, which Zorro somehow plundered from the Bardatto vault at the same time Diego helped foil the Valeras' heist... Weapon set 2: Eccea's Arcane Blaster (crush damage option for piercing-immune enemies) Armor: Miscreant's Leathers or Fleshmender will fit the look, Casità Samelia's Legacy doesn't so much but its bonus deflection, which benefits from intimidation, fits nicely with the riposte build - but for endgame, after Zorro's identity has been exposed and the Vailian Trading Company is out for vengiatta, the Gipon Prudensco is perfect for deflection against disengagement attacks, which you can then bait and turn into ripostes Boots: Boots of Speed (disengagement defense and stride = totally Zorro's jam) Rings: Entonia Signet Ring, Chameleon's Touch Amulet: Cipher's Shackle Helm: a tricorn hat is the closest you'll come to looking like Zorro; the broad-brimmed hat only comes in light brown. otherwise the Blackblade's Hood will give you +10% action speed for carving Zs with a rapier, and a hood's not terrible for someone who's supposed to be hiding his identity, or Fair Favor will boost your crit chance and damage with your rapier while vaguely fitting the rapier-duelist look. Cowl of the Piercing Gaze is creepy and doesn't give you the bandito look but it will at least hide your identity, if for some reason you feel the mustache isn't enough. sadly there's no brimmed hat with a bandit mask, at least not until this wildly popular build prompts Obsidian to create one! Gloves: Burglar's Gloves fits the concept but maybe you want Killer's Gloves for the crit damage Pet: Zorro, of course! Abilities: again I've only played this build through level 9, but planning ahead, these have been selected as an awkward balance the Zorro concept - more to do with evasion and controlling the battlefield than actually dishing out pain - and what I imagine will be more successful in a video game where you have to actually down enemies, not just carve Zs in their pants and disappear. So take this with about ten pounds of salt- 1- Escape, Disciplined Barrage 2- Fast Runner 3- Crippling Strike 4- 1h style, Fighter Stances 5- Confident Aim 6- Determination 7- Riposte, Disciplined Strikes 8- Smoke Veil 9- Strike the Bell 10- Shadowing Beyond, Tumbling 11- Persistent Distraction 12- Dirty Fighting 13- Uncanny Luck, Conqueror Stance 14- Superior Deflection 15- Vigorous Defense 16- Slippery Mind, Clear Out 17- Refreshing Defense 18- Sap 19- Deathblows, Power Strike 20- Coordinated Positioning
  2. Hey guys ! Since I'm new to genre, and the PoE franchise an I would like to have some guidance from the start What are some good builds for story characters, like Eder, Aloth and rest of the crew ? In terms of spells, some good weapon combinations, skills (mechanics, lore, etc) and everything else that might be important ?
  3. The -mostly- finished version, in testing, of Waethir the mean. Version: 2.1, POTD Compatible, Solo run untested. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorcerer: Animist / Wizard (No Subclass) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A magical dps that focus on dmg, CC, Debuff and general unpleasantness. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mystic Background ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Might: 15 Con: 8 Dex: 14 (+1 NG) Per: 15 (+1 NG, +1 White that Wends) Int: 15 Res: 8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Metaphysics (for the Chromatic Staff), Sneak and Sleight of Hand (for fluff) or any you want. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Focus: Medium Shield, Dagger, Staff, Flail ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spellbooks: Ninagauth's Grimoire & Snakeskin Grimoire ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spirit Form: Stag ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abilites: Free (f), picked upon leveling (p), Grimoires (g). Abilities I won't use from the grimoire are unmentioned. lvl 1: Sunbeam (f), Chill fog (p), Nature's Mark (p) lvl 2 : Fleet Feet (p, replace once you get DAoM) lvl 3 : Talon's Reach (p, replace with Touch of Rot later) Slicken (g) Sunbeam and Chill Fog both blind, but don't deal the same dmg/target the same defense. Nature's Mark makes Sunbeam and Talon's Reach hit easier. Talon's Reach got great early dmg, but will be replaced with Touch of Rot for additionnal DOT dmg to synergize with Combust wounds. Fleet Footed will be replaced by Arkemyr Dazzling Lights. lvl 4 : The Moon's Light (f), Infuse with Vital Essence (p), Insect Swarm (p) lvl 5 : Automn Decay (p) lvl 6 : Combust Wounds (p) Could pick Combust Wounds earlier but felt like I needed enough DOT to make it worthwhile (YMMV). At this point I rush to Neketara to do the Arkemyr Manor and get my grimoires and some items. lvl 7 : Returning Storm (f), Infestation of Maggots (p), Llendrath's Displaced Image (p), Arduous Delay of Motion (g), Ninagauth's Death Ray (g), Noxious Burst (g) lvl 8 : Deleterious Alacracity of Motion (p) lvl 9 : Expose Vulnerabilities (p) lvl 10 : Conjure Blight (f), Moonwell (p), Heart of the Storm (p), Ninagauth's Shadowflame (g), Ironskin (g) lvl 11 : Calling the world's Maw (p) lvl 12 : Form of the Delemgan (p) Here I got Nannasin's Cobra Strike. It doesn't work that well with the build, but I must try it once to see if it's as cool as it seems. lvl 13 : Plague of Insects (f), Relentless Storm (p), Rapid Casting (p), Ryngrim's Enervating Terror (g), Malignant Cloud (g), Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (g) lvl 14 : Embrace the Earth Talon (p) lvl 15 : Llengrath's Safeguard (p) lvl 16 : Sunlance (f), Venombloom (p), Death Ring (g x2), Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (g), Gaze of the Adragan's (g) lvl 17 : ? lvl 18 : ? Another two slots I'm not sure how to fill. I already got all the spells I wanted, so either more spells (if I missed something important, do tell) or passives. lvl 19 : Lashing Vine (f) Nature's Bounty (p), Lasting Empower (p), Tayn's Chaotic Orb (g), Ninagauth's Killing Bolt (g) lvl 20 : Potent Empower ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipments! Weapons: Dagger and Medium Shield at first for the increased defense using the modals (only if I read correctly and the additionnal recovery time is only for weapons), then options are; The Spine of Thicket Green, Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff, Magran's Favor or Watershaper Focus & Sun and Moon, Griffin's Blade, The Eye of Wael are all going to be in my bag. Griffin's Blade and Chromoprismatic Quaterstaff have my preference however. Armor: Aloth's Leather Armor, Miscreant Leather, Effigy Husk or Spider Silk Robe all feel like good choices. Gloves: Firethrower's Gloves Neck: Baubles of the Fin, Charm of Bones or Stone of Power Rings: Kuaru's Prize, Ring of Greater Regeneration Cloak: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak Belt: The Undying Burden Shoes: Footprints of Ahu Taka This build plays pretty easely; Buff up, throw a spell that include Crowd Control or Debuff that your enemy is weak against, throw a few DOT spells, add Combust Wounds and wrap up with Infestation of Maggots. Although I included more defensive spells and items, it's still pretty damn fragile and qualifies for the crystal chekhov armory. I intend to have a pretty amoral POE1 backstory to have Effigy ressentment (CoC). This build can Blind, Stun, Petrify, Sicken, Weaken, reduce defences and attributes... I hope I'll make Galawain proud.
  4. Since this was requested I will type up this build. It does require a mod from nexus to unlock Woedica Priest subclass - but if you play monk/priest you may as well go all out and play the Woedica priest because of the excellent spiritual weapon synergy on Woedica: +20% raw damage on "summoned fist" attacks that synergize with monk bonuses to fist attacks. Unmodded Skaen/Helwalker also works but is not quote-unquote absolutely optimized and "op". Note: Helwalker can be replaced by Nalpazca if you don't want to be super squishy although barring death's door kind of solves the squishiness later. This build does excellent single target and aoe damage and is very versatile. This is the general guide, for a more solo specific Contemplative playthrough check this excellent guide as it is more focused on solo play: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105553-build-servant-of-death/ Woedica is a more powerful priest subclass for monk combo than barath so this one is definately adabtable. Race: Human or Death Godlike - human if you want more accuracy on cc attacks and death godlike for more damage potential Stats: (no bonuses) Might 14 + 1 (Human) Constitution 7 Dex 15 Perc 18 Int 18 +1 (old Vaila) 3 +1 (Human) note this is strictly the stat distribution for party play if you are soloing you probably want to lower Might and Dex and not dump resolve or con so much - although this build can handle the low stats once you get barring death's door + salvation of time. And even in Party play going dex 10 / con 12 is not a bad idea if you want more room for error and be on the safe side of things. There are some variations in the ability selection involved ! = mandatory , r= highly recommended Leveling 1. Swift Strikes!/ Restore r default spell: Writ of Engagement 2. lesser wounds! 3. halt (early game) / later can be replaced by suppress affliction r or arms bearer or keep halt. Suppress Affliction is probably the best choice 4. Two-Weapon style! / Withdraw ! default spell: Summon Spiritual Weapon (Fists) 5. Dance of Death ! 6. Clarity of Agony or Weapon and shield style (solo), even The Long Stride is an option in strictly party play but you will probably go with either weapon+shield or Clarity of Agony in solo play or if you want to off-tank 7. Torment's Reach! / Dire Blessing! Default: Writ of Consumption 8. Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry: choose one...Lightning Strikes probably is the more consistent dps choice, in a party setting, you may get more mileage out of Swift Flurry since the party can buff/debuff enough for you to land lots of crits. Overall Lightning Strikes is probably the more sound choice. 9. Stunning Blow r ...while optional and not a core ability to the build it is highly recommended, and the alternatives are pretty underwhelming (combat focus???? really) one of the Bulls/Snakes/Bears talents or the excellent Clarity of Agony if you haven't picked it up yet - but those are more options for solo play where some extra defensives are prioritized over offense. 10. Duality of Mortal Presence! / Scion of Flame! Default spell: Divine Terror note: here things get tricky on the priest side. Scion of Flame is the strongest selection for the end-build but you won't need it immediately so you may take Litany for the Body or Devotions for the Faithful. Out of the two I like Litany for the Body slightly more because it is a fast cast (and +2 ar on top of a good armor is very good) cast but given the aoe effect Devotion for the Faithfull is very good in a party setting. In party probably Devotions is better. Absoluely and in my opinion don't fall for the trap of taking Shining Beacon - yes it is an excellent spell, but one that can be more effectively cast from a scroll. Just keep in mind that for the end build Scion of Flame is the thing to take for the end build and all of your other tier 4 abilities will go into the monk tree. 11. Enduring Dance ! 12. Thunderous Blows 13. Raised Torment ! / Barring Death's Door ! Deafult spell: Writ of War 14. Rooting Pain r 15. Stunning Surge r 16. Turning Wheel !/ Salvation of Time ! default spell: Pillar of Holy Fire 17. Flagellant's Path r 18. Litany for the Spirit r - note: around this time it is a good idea to respec and take Scion of Flame at Priest lvl4 And take either Litany for the Spirit here (recommended) or Keep Devotions of the Faithful at level 4 Priest in addition to Scion of Flame 19. The Dichotomous Soul ! / Storm of Holy Fire ! default spell: writ of sorcery note: I now recommend Dichotomous Soul over Heartbeat Drumming as in patch 2.1 the soul summons will be buffed so in the end they will be more effective than Heartbeat Drumming. You can opt to take minor avatar instead of dichotomous soul though - it is a question if you want 2x very effective summons or if you want to boost your own stats a bit more - with the monk bonuses I personally do not think minor avatar is necessary. 20. Skyward Kick ! Alternative Variation: It is also interesting particularly when soloing, to go for a "kiting" approach: in that case you would stack stride via The Long Stride, Boots of speed etc and take The Long Pain (without upgrade) - that way you can run around and attack from range with your buffed fists. It is definitely an interesting approach. Also if solo play is the focus you should probably give up stunning surge in favor of 2 more defensive talents - definitely clarity of agony and upgrade. Overall assessment: This character is very strong from start and gets even more power to the endgame. As you see by the time you hit level 4 your damage engine is already in place: you have the Spiritual summoned fists on the Priest side and Swift strikes from the monk with generous healing abilities in withdraw, restoration and holy radiance, from there it progressively gets stronger. Another milestone is at level 13 with Barring Death's Door and finally the capper at level 19 with Storm of Holy Fire. It tested very favorably in terms of dps beating out a strong witch rdps meaning it should actually exceed aoe avenging storm blunderbuss scouts - but more importantly it does very high single target damage along with aoe damage and is efficient in doing that seamlessly especially at high levels: after casting storm of holy fire it is free to move in with high single target pressure thanks to skyward kick + stunning surge or further aoe pressure through pillar of holy fire and raised torment and flagellent's path. Further, and this is specific to the Woedica subclass of priest, not only does it get a bonus +20% raw damage to your fist attacks through the spiritual weapon, but you have access to nasty "writ" spells that can pretty much disable enemies: How does Writ of War (level 5) sound? Enemies cannot use active abilities (in a small aoe) for 20+ seconds (up to 30 seconds with high intelligence). Or Divine Terror terror (level 4) - frightened for up 40s with high intelligence. Or Finally Writ of Sorcery (level 6) - cannot cast spells for another 30 seconds. You can disable dangerous targets that way while you pummel them. Also even though I do not use ranged weapons, Acina's Trihorn hat is a very good headgear for this because it gives you +5 accuracy on such attacks. Typical play/ ai behaviour is such: (simplified) Always choose by list order First defensives: 1.) If health under 50%-> Second Wind, Holy Radiance, Restore 2.) If near death -> Bearing Death's Door, Withdraw Offensive list order Turning Wheel is active 3.) Lightning strikes 4.) Dance of Death/ Enduring Dance 5.) Storm of Holy Fire 6.) If attacking high armor target -> tenacious blows 7.) if engaging -> spiritual weapon, dire blessing 8.) If target is bloodied -> Stunning Surge 9.) If engaging/engaged by multiple enemies -> raised torment 10.)lowest fortitude -> Skyward kick 11.)weak to fire-> pillar of Holy fire If soloing you want to buff up first with barring death's door +salvation of time before going into attack mode and keep an eye on the buff bar and be ready to withdraw should you need it. Abilities like the writ abilities, summons, and others you can control by hand Recommended gear: Acina's Trihorn head if not choosing death godlike - boosts accuracy on lots of your spell attacks Armor: If you are soloing you want plate until you get death's door/ salvation of time otherwise I like High Harbinger Robes, Pale Hide, Bloody Links or Gipon Prodensco as well as Garari Cuiras. Pale Hide or Bloody Links is probably the best overall choice here. Rings: Ring of Focused Flame (especially later), after that it depends on situation, solitary wanderer if you are soloing and greater regeneration or Kuaru's Prize if you are in a party. Also Ring of Minor Protection is handy too. Neck: Strand of Favor Cloak: Greater Deflection , Frostfur are nice and of course Nemnok's Cloak if you pferer that Boots: there are boots that give you an extra second level priest cast, those are good Belt: I like The Maker's Own power here personally Bracers: Rekvu's are good when soloing because consitution afflictions are nasty, otherwise Accuracy bracers or Hylea's Talons are nice here going with the "fist" attack theme. Weapons: The beauty of summon spiritual weapon: fists is that it replaces any weapons you have equipped with summoned fists so you don't need an extra weapon slot for more versatility. Otherwise, as fire stat sticks you can't really beat Sun and Moon + Marux Amanth, though Magran's Favor + Marux Amanth may be more consistent Magistrate's Cudgel is great against kith and allows for some really nasty things like marked (+10 accuracy for 30 seconds) followed up by writ of war on the target with a very good chance to hit and poof! suddenly because of your ultra high intelligence thanks to monk they can't use active abilities for 35-40 serconds easy. Follow this up by switching to to something like Frostfall and killing things and the duration of writ of war gets extended on the target. Club (especially the modal) is crucial here to debuff enemy will save further if you want to land those nasty writ spells. And your dps bread and butter is the summoned fist attacks. With turning wheel active you get the following bonuses +10 might (if helwalker) +15% lightning strikes (non conditional), +20% fire damage (turning wheel - but average is closer to 10-15% because you won't be at max wounds all the time) , +20% raw (summoned weapon:fist), and of course there is tenacious from thunderous blows for another +2 penetration. In general to take advantage of the fire stat sticks you want to start a fight by doing storm of holy fire and pillar of fire and then transition into monk melee pummeler mode with summoned fists after buffing with dire blessing. Anyways this is a beautiful build and looks badass to play because of the vampiric summoned fists, enjoy and definitely try this one out, I think it is one of the more fun melee pummeler/offensive spell caster hybrid builds out there.
  5. =================================== Armorbreaker =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.01 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Devoted(Estoc)/Streetfighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human, Hearth Orlan (party play) or whatever, preferably not Godlike, as there are 2 good helm picks for this -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Dissident -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 14 (you'll have plenty of other additive damage bonuses; still moderately important, it modifies aoe "spell-like" effects of some weapons and healing done) CON: 10 (don't really need more, don't really want to risk less) DEX: 14 (to be reasonably fast even without Streetfighter special active) PER: 18 (to hit & crit stuff, duh) INT: 17 (to keep that sweet Unbending + Disciplined Strikes + Refreshing Defence active as long, as possible; you only have so many resources) RES: 03 (with Unbending you'll survive anyway and kill any threats fast) -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Proficiencies 01. Disciplined Barrage + Crippling Strike | Estoc! 02. Knockdown 03. Escape 04. Fighter Stances (usually use Cleaving) + Dirty Fighting 05. Two-Handed Style 06. Confident Aim 07. Disciplined Strikes + Finishing Blow 08. Rapid Recovery 09. Mule Kick (optional: Penetrating Strike which targets Deflection rather then Fortitude and provides even more Penetration) 10. Vigorous Defense + Persistent Distraction 11. Charge 12. Determination 13. Unbending + Deep Wounds 14. Devastating Blow 15. Armored Grace 16. Clear Out + Adept Evasion 17. Refreshing Defense 18. Slippery Mind (note it can disable some Streetfighter special trigger methods!) 19. Unbending Shield (optional Trunk) + Deathblows 20. Weapon Specialization (optional: Fearless or another defensive ability) or the recently buffed (but still expensive) Power Strike --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Estoc: BotEP -> Eager Blade (!) ->Engoliero de Espirs (!) Weapon Set 2: Some blunt(s) for skellies Alternative: Devoted to Battleaxes with Amra Axe. The playstyle is similar, it's an "in your face" aggressive melee that melts enemies around. It's a really good weapon. You'll face Penetration issues much more often though (2 lower Pen, no bonus Pen modal), so no longer an "Armorbreaker". Or you can go with generic Fighter and switch between estocs and axes, depending on enemy, but you'll loose Devoted 2 Pen (you'll have trouble penetrating some high armor enemies, but probably can manage with foods), 25% Crit bonus (Swashbuckler crits often) and frequent 30% Overpenetration on estoc crits. Head: Helm of the Falcon (speed) ® / later Heaven's Cacophony - for Avenging Storm 1/rest, which has good synergy with Clear Out ® Back: Giftbearer's Cloak with high History skill or Nemnok's Cloak for "On the Edge" playstyle or simply Greater Cloak of Protection Neck: Precognition or Claim and Refusal Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (class resources! + good protection and speed) ® Waist: Gwyn’s Bridal Garter, optionally Undying Burden for more survivability or Upright Captain's Belt if you like to use Pull of Eora (the more interesting picks, like Nature's Embrace and Ngati's Girdle have sadly been nerfed to the ground) Hands: Gauntlets of Discipline ®, alternatively Woedica's Strangling Grasp or Boltcatchers, Rings: Entonia's Signet Ring ® + Ring of Greater Regeneration or Chameleon's Touch Boots: Boots of Stone, alternatively Rakhan Field for another active aoe ability Pet: Abraham (speed and heal) ® It'd be good to play with a history where Devil of Caroc from PoE1 spares Harmke/dies. Her Breastplate then becomes available in Marihi's Shop in Neketaka and offers good protection, speed and additional class resources for ability spam (very valuable). --------------------------------------------------------------- The build was created as a part of my journey to design a melee build that will: 1. Deal respectable aoe damage, 2. Deal high melee damage, 3. Use two-handers (my preferred weapon type since, well, always), 4. Work well throughout the game, not just at cap, 5. Be survivable and efficient even without much party support. It's probably solo-capable, but I don't test it for this criteria. I've tested various adventurer builds, mainly with berserker, at my own criteria: level 13 against tough Xaurip encounter on the Nekataka island with party present, but acting mainly as distraction, control over that char only, almost no AI scripts. Wasn't too happy with the results. Finally a Swashbuckler - Estoc Devoted with Eager Blade / Streetfighter aced the test. Why Estoc Devoted? An Estoc in the hands of a Devoted has high Penetration (10 base, goes up to 14 at Legendary quality), you get +2 Devoted Pen bonus and with a Fighter multiclass you can freely use the modal, which gives additional +2 Pen at the cost of some Deflection. With a Fighter you can soon outheal most damage (just not at the start), so tanking Resolve and Deflection is a non-issue. You end up overpenetrating a lot of the time for +30% damage (particularly that your bread & butter rogue move - Crippling Strike, also provides +2 Pen and crits multiply Pen by x1,5). And generally there are very few enemies who you have trouble penetrating. Advanced/elite skeletons are one such group, as they are immune to piercing damage. Well, eat that 10 Accuracy penalty and switch to another weapon for them. You'll still do more then respectable damage. Also there are very cool Estocs in this game, with some of the best available very early - and Eager Blade and Engoliero de Espirs effects greatly support the aoe damage playstyle I was aiming for. -> Blade of the Endless Paths depends on imported/set history from PoE1 and can be reforged as soon as you reach the main city for cheap. BotEP is Exceptional has nice speed, Accuracy and Critical damage bonuses. Might be best for single targets. -> Eager Blade can be bought from pirates in Dunnage - which can happen even before visiting the main city, if you know your way around. And it's even better. It's Superb, provides a random bonus at start of combat (+8 Deflection, +1 Armor or +10% damage) and stacking Accuracy and Speed bonuses on Crit. More importantly it's upgrade has 10% chance to negate recovery on hit (so basically double-attack) and, last but not least, attacking Near Death targets causes an attack aoe in frontal cone (which is not very small, with good Int I've seen it affect 3rd enemy row). Together with Cleaving Stance, this can lead to a cascade of kills and obviously works well with the likes of Avenging Storm. -> Then there's the Legendary Engoliero de Espirs. Not sure it's significantly better then the earlier pair. The Accuracy and Recovery bonuses on them are pretty sweet, but the quests and lore behind Engoliero are top notch and badass factor is trough the roof. Plus after you down an enemy, you get +2/+3 Might, Con & Dex (rather then -2/-3 before first kill, so not too good vs single opponents) and the Dex part kinda partially compensates for lack of other speed bonuses. The Ghost Blade procs (modified by the various damage variables) are very sweet vs large mobs due to the fairly large cone (but will nicely soften up even moderetely tough enemies). The raw lash is also very nice and makes Engoliero pull ahead in terms of damage done. Streetfighter likes to live dangerously. He's a fair bit slower then other rogues in his idle state, but when flanked by enemies or Blooded (below 50% Health), he becomes a meatgrinder. Blazing speed and additional +50% sneak attack damage vs vulnerable targets (on top of regular 30-60% of other Rogues and potential +50% from Deathblows). When both of the above criteria are met and when his Accuracy allows him to achieve a decent crit rate, things just explode (additional +100% crit damage on top of all the earlier bonuses). Of course this means he likes to engage multiple enemies, get hit and possibly stay damaged and Fighter abilities are just the perfect fit for that. In my opinion, Streetfighter with Heating Up or On the Edge abilities active is the best class to use two-handers and not feel slow and/or inferior to dual weapons. Some playstyle for tips for early party play: Recovery (+ later Rapid upgrade) you get from the get go is a nice healing stream, but often not enough to keep you alive, particularly on the first island, particularly when surrounded by enemies. If you have a Priest (you can recruit one in the first town you reach), at Power Level III he/she learns Consecrated Ground, which will temporarily help when you stay in the effect circle. Once he/she reaches Power Level IV, can cast "Triumph of the Crusaders", which heals for a LOT when you down an enemy - that should make you much more survivable already. New Power Levels are reached much earlier by pure classes btw. - level 7 for PL IV). Otherwise if you have a Druid, he can provide plenty of healing also. You still have to be careful for some time, but can afford a more daring playstyle. At your Power Level V (so multiclass character level 13) comes the bomb: Unbending, which makes you nearly unkillable for its duration. Just watch out for enemies casting Arcane Dampeners. Your signature Rogue moves are the trusty Crippling Strike, Finishing Blow for Blooded targets (up to +200% damage, eventually upgraded to Devastating for up to +300%), Escape for battlefield mobility, Persistent Distraction to make everyone you engage Sneak attack vulnerable. Dirty Fighting for extra crit rate. Later you'll pick Deep Wounds and finally Deathblows. Adept Evasion for defence. On the Fighter side you'll use Knockdown to interrupt nasty enemy skills, later upgraded to Mule Kick. Later Charge for cool mobility multihit and finally Clear Out to make mobs your bitches. The last 2 would work very well with Heaven's Cacophony Avenging Storm. Fighter Stances -> Cleaving Stance for extra attacks on kill. Disciplined Barrage-> Strikes should be always active. On the defensive side you'll want Rapid Recovery, Vigorous Defence (+Refreshing upgrade), Determination and, most importantly, Unbending. Also Armored Grace will be nice. With Fighter's Refreshing Defense (bonus to all defenses) and Determination (bonus to Intellect, Perception and Constitution affliction defense), Rogue Adept Evasion (negate Reflex Grazes - and we have high Reflex) and Slippery Mind (immune to Perception, Intellect and Resolve afflictions when Blooded - as a Streetfighter we like to be Blooded), as well as equipment: Gwyn's Bridal Garter (Dex affliction Resistance) and Boots of Stone (Might affliction Resistance), you will be well protected against most debilitating effects. Fighter's Disciplined Strikes, Vigorous Defense and later on Unbending Shield provide Concentration to ensure that nothing can stop you from demolishing your targets. Any comments are appreciated. Edit: Updated 02.09.18 to re-arrange some abilities and add info about Engoliero de Espirs.
  6. First of all, this post will be heavily edited as i play this guy further, but he has been tested at higher lvls using console to lvl 16 to test if the concept would work, and it did. As of right now the character is lvl 13 and is a blast to play. I am currently at work, bored to death, wich is why i thought id start this post and i could edit it later when i get home, but because of this i cannot at this time be 100% accurate on my attributes or spells picked per lvl but i will edit that in when this character is all done. Class: Mystic - Ascendant/Priest of Wael Race: Wood Elf (not important tho) Attribute dist. priority: Mig: Medium Con: Low'ish Dex: Medium Per: High Int: High Res: Dump Skills: As of right now not important, that might change later but its doubtful. Key gear pieces: Weapon slot 1: Scordios Trophy + Nerian's Ward (Vs singletargets) Weapon slot2: Whisper of the Endless Paths (vs groups) Head: Whitewitch Mask Chest: Fleshmender + 1 weaponslot (The Regen HP regen is much needed) Gloves: Using 10% hit to graze gloves atm, cant find them on Wiki, later i might switch them out for something else. Neck: Charm of Bones Cloak: Cloak of Greater deflection Rings: Marksman's Ring and Ring of Greater Regeneration Belt: Trollhide belt Boots: Ahu Taka https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Footprints_of_Ahu_Taka Pet: Abraham Food: Captain's banquett, Mohara Wraps, Glazed Chops or Brew Battered Ysae How do we play this? First, before we pull we place a spell trap on the ground in front of us, the burn+blind is solid (searing seal), then we wait so we get our resource back. Pull with borrowed instinct, before u get borrowed instinct pull with the pistol so we get two rapid shots asap. Activate shield modal if enemies have good acc, cast Litany for Spirit (Accute, +5 int +1 PL) and then Arcane Veil, keep shooting until Ascended. When we Ascend we cast another arcane veil incase it ran out, then hit urself with Salvation of Time x2, enjoy ~1min of Ascended with massive deflection and hit to graze conversion pluss very high action/recovery speed from Scordios + Captains banquett. If u want to use potions or buff scrolls, use them right before u ascend. psychovampric shield + secret horrors + shining beacon - Mind Lance spamming is an amazing combo! Keep pistol modal on at all times, we have enough ACC so we dont have to worry about, and we rather have the speed to build up action speed for spell casting rather then pistol shot crits. This character is very defensive while also being very offensive, its a great mix =) While i play this character i will record some fights and make a video to show how i play her. I will edit this quite a lot during the next couple of days
  7. Hi All! I haven’t seen much in the way of Spiritualist builds, so I hope this spurs some fresh discussion. This is my first posted build. I have been playing with this build on Veteran and am about halfway through. I have so far found it very fun to play, although it does take a bit of micro. I suspect I could use the AI to run a few things, but paying attention to targeting and tactical placement are still important. If anyone would like to go where I fear and run this on PotD and/or solo please let me know how it goes! Here is my character build detail for the Siren. I hope you all like it. Build Name Siren Subclass(es): Beckoner/Beguiler (Spiritualist) Description: The Siren is about control, both of your enemies and of some summons. She also has a good amount of debuff with most of her abilities focused on the mind and deception tags. She prefers short ranged combat using the blunderbuss as her main source of damage. She tries to remain as central to her teammates and summons to maximize her chant and other AOE abilities. Her intellect allows her control and debuff capabilities extended duration and maximizes the area of effect of them. Her dexterous nature allows her to utilize her talents at a frightening speed. Author: Toadbat Game version: 2.0 Difficulty: Veteran (I am a wimp, this build might be able to go higher) Solo: Untested Companion: No companion or sidekick fit’s this class build. Race: Moon Godlike (I chose this for some additional staying power, but any race will work.) Culture: Old Vailia (for the increased intelligence) Background: Artist (This is open to change based on your desired skill choices) Attribute Adjusted Incl/BB Might 8 10 Constitution 8 10 Dexterity 18 20 (Godlike) Perception 18 20 Intelligence 20 22 (Godlike, Old Vailia) Resolve 6 8 Level Proficiency Active Skill Passive Skill Ability 1 Blunderbuss Whispers of Treason 1 Saber If their Bones.../Come, Come Soft Winds… 2 Athletics Survival Lingering Echoes 3 Athletics Metaphysics Eyestrike 4 Dagger Mechanics Insight Draining Whip, At the Sound of His Voice… 5 Stealth Metaphysics Mental Binding 6 Stealth Insight Dual Weapon Style 7 Arcana Metaphysics Secret Horrors, At the Sound of His Voice… 8 Hatchet Mechanics Bluff Ancient Brittle Bones 9 Athletics Insight Combat Focus 10 Arcana Metaphysics And Their Fear Followed…, Body Attornment 11 Mechanics Bluff The Lover Cried out… 12 Pistol Athletics Insight Hammering Thoughts 13 Arcana Metaphysics Borrowed Instinct, Rapid Casting 14 Mechanics Bluff Gernisc's Beast Lit the Night… 15 Athletics Insight Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr 16 Spear Arcana History The Empty Soul, Quick Summoning 17 Mechanics Bluff Mind Plague 18 Athletics History Spell Resistance 19 Arcana History Yet it's mate…, The Complete Self 20 Mace Mechanics Bluff Echoing Horror I picked what weapon proficiencies made sense to dual wield, so I could improve my reaction time. I maxed perception because this is my trap-finder. As far as skills go, pick what you want. I know a lot more min/max’ing could occur and feel free to discuss that here. Also, please comment and opine on the skill and attribute selections. I am not yet sure that the ones listed below are best in class. I am looking forward to your opinions. -Toadbat Edited for format and some content. Word copy/paste import failed miserably . I will continue to improve. Updated abilities based on comments from Verde and Ophiuchus. Further improved formatting, rewrote some of the content to flow better, corrected chant to Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr per Ophiuchus (thanks!) Just realized that 2.0 came out a while ago, no changes there affect this build to my knowledge. I have updated the Version above to reflect that.
  8. This is an armor tier list i threw together. It's just my opinion based on reading their ingame description. Most of them i've never worn. Some can go up or down a tier depending if you use them in a specific build. List will be updated for Beast of Winter when I have time. Channel links: Twitch Channel Youtube Channel Donate via Streamlabs Reddit Discussion Steam Guide S - tier: Best in Slot Miscreant's Leathers: Hands down the best armor for dps due to the reduced recovery time Sharpshooter's Garb: Best Armor for Arbalest/Arquebus/Crossbow users. Reduces reload time. Devil of Caroc Breastplate: Reduced Recovery time and +2 Power Pool. Especially good on Multi class since both classes benefit from the increased Power Pool Reckless Brigandine: Increased Action speed per engaged target. Best armor for tanks with a lot of engagement slots A - tier: Very strong but is probably either situational or outperformed by a similar armor The Bloody Links: Exceptionally strong on Streetfighter/Humans due to proccs on bloodied Swift Hunter's Garb: Reduced Recovery Time. Outperformed by Miscreant's Leathers. Pale Hide: Very good on dps off tank. Incoming hit to grazes conversion and low recovery time. AoE fear Hearth Defender's Scale: Bonuses if good Relations with the Watcher, Penalties if bad. Very strong on a frontline support. Casità Samelia's Legacy: Deflection scaling with Intimidate. Very strong if stacking Intimidate & Deflection Patinated Plate: Chance to Stun attackers when hit with melee weapon. +armor against melee attacks. Strong on a pure tank but makes you super slow. Very good on chanter tanks, less useful on builds that care more about recovery. Deltro's Cage: +2 All Electricity Power Levels could have been great on Fury (Druid subclass) but 55% recovery time makes it garbage. Apparently you can make some very powerful builds with this armor. 55% recovery time keeps it out of beeing S - Tier. Sidenote, outside those synergies the armor is fairly useless. B - Tier: For when all your other good armors are taken Fleshmender: Health/sec and Incoming hit to grazes conversion Very good on dps off tank. Effigy's Husk: Decent on a Ranged Streetfighter but Bloody Links is way better. Does have 0% Recovery though Furrante's Breastplate: Reduces damage taken by party memebers and increases healing. Grants Concentration. Good for frontline Casters Blackened Plate Armor - Grants damage or heal over time aura. Random Mind Inspiration when bloodied. Second Aura deals damage over time and reduces armor by 1. Gipon Prudensco: +25 defense vs disengagement attacks. +1 deflection/+2 reflex when hit in combat (stacks 10x). Immunity to Flanked. Can get Immunity to disengagement attacks instead. Good if you want to rush past frontline to get into backline with your frontliner or to retreat with your backliner. Imo best used as a defensive option for a squishy frontliner. C - Tier: Decent to wear before you get the good armors. Can be situationally good Garari Cuirass: Incoming hit to grazes conversion. Reduced damage from weapons. Cabalist's Gambeson: Very good against spellcasters. Spider Silk Robe: Immune to Dexterity afflictions and Grants Binding Web. Magnera's Chain: Increases recovery time on attacker when getting crit with melee weapons. Resistant to Might affliction. Ok for tank. Iridescent Scale: Can be enchanted to be exceptionally strong vs a specific dmg type. Conjure Greater Blight. Saint's War Armor: Revives the wearer when they get knocked unconcious 1/per combat. Decent but with correct play they shouldn't be knocked unconcious in the first place Desgraza Breastplate: Reduced Damage the lower health the wearer has. Ok for tanking Five Suns Breastplate: See above Honor Guard Breastplate: See above Humility: 20% Resist Slash/Pierce attacks. Not bad on a backliner just not very good either D - Tier: Don't waste your money on enchants Nomad's Brigandine: Can get Immunity to disengagement attacks but if you are a dedicated tank you probably dont care about that. Too much recovery for an offtank Edit: Moved Patinated Plate into tier A. More useful on chanter tanks or builds that doesn't care about recovery then i gave it credit for. Moved Humility to Tier C. Slash/Pierce attacks are rather common in the game. Moved Casita Samelia's Legacy into tier A. Moved Deltro's Cage up to Tier A based on siggestions for build synergies. Moved Gipon Prudensco to Tier B
  9. That started as an answer to "the best girl tank" thread here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/104752-the-best-tank-in-the-game-herald-vs-crusader/, but grew in size to deserve its own topic. I'd go as far as to say, that adding Goldpact Paladin class to your multi-class provides highest possible damage avoidance and mitigation combo from one class compared to absolutely anything else. +8 free all defenses (up to +15 with 1 point investment)? Yes please! +4 armor on demand? Sure thanks! Oh, here's another +1 armor on demand (aura) just in case you need it when you run out of zeal. And just in case something vicious on PotD has enough ArPen to do more than 25% damage with their attacks late game, we give you infinite armor edit:+3 Armor as long as you don't move. Please go ahead and pull enemies to you, using corners to gather them all together. Now, if you play solo, you'd probably want to do damage: Now that you got deflection and infinite armor, why not get some infinite resource pool to outlive your enemies while they wither: Sir Sit-a-Lot Oh, standing still for long periods of time bores you? Don't worry, you can stand still for less and do more damage with: The Faceless Dancer But what if I like Streetfighter more than Trickster? Answer is simple: Stop-N-Go Want to have powerful ranged dps, tank hybrid monstrosity? With Paladin you can: The Holy Hand Grenadier In conclusion I'd like to say that paladin class is severely broken compared to others. Of course it doesn't hand out insane buffs at zero cost (looking at your Streetfighter+Blunderbuss), but the fact that Paladins can do anything at least well (tank, heal, dps), leaves them with no almost downsides and hence severely ahead of other classes imho. Downsides that are exclusive to this class are: -RP attributable to sub-classes is a mess sometimes -Weird stacking with priest deities -Not an infinite resource pool (because they are not Cipher or Chanter) -Small selection of de-buffs -Not very mobile (not so noticeable and easily fixable with investment in +deflection on disengage) Hel, who knows maybe after I'm done with my Solo+Berath's Challenge play-through, I'll go for Triple Crown+ Magran's Challenge with Sir Sit-a-Lot (summons, buffs, "everybody died? no problem, I'll clean up"), The Faceless Dancer (damage off tank), The Holy Hand Grenadier(main dps), Paladin/Druid(meaty healz), Paladin/Priest(more buffs) dream team. And just to make sure they don't accidentally die make them all Moon Godlike #teamBlueberries
  10. The Imperial Fanatic This is another thematic build (so not 100% min/max). It ends up being tank enough to just run into the fray (with support) and most of boss fights were WAY easier than they should have been because of the amount of crits I could pump out with Last Word silencing the mobs. I just wanted to make a Warrior Priest and this was the result. It was a really fun toon to play that was resistant to every affliction and I even got the party efficient enough that I could let my custom AI run almost all the fights (with a little micro for consumables and empowers). Last word locking down Concelhaut for the whole fight was HILARIOUS Game Version: 2.0 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: Untested Race: Human Class: Fanatic [berserker/Bleakwalker] Home: The Living Lands Background: Explorer Stats: (not including blessings) Mig: 20 Con: 10 Dex: 16 Per: 16 Int: 12 Res: 4 Skills: Active: Split Alchemy : Athletics Passive: History Abilities: Frenzy FoD Sworn enemy Deep faith Blooded Thick skin Zealous aura Two weapon style Divine purpose One stands alone Eternal Devotion Bloodlust Sworn rival Blood frenzy Exalted focus Mental fortress Inspired path Interrupting blows Scion of flame Iron gut or Clear head (based on which enchant you put on DoC BP) Righteous Soul Brute force Virtuous Triumph Barbaric blow Barbaric smash Retribution Bloodthirst Equipment Main weapon: Magran’s favor + Last Word (used lastword + bardatto’s until I could get Resounding call, double hammer so win on looks, until I could get the axe) Backup weapons: Glacierbane + Last Word Heaven’s Cacophony Charm of Bones Devil of Caroc BP (plan the resistance to complement ability choice) Ring of greater regen Ring of Focused Flame Boots of the stone The Giftbearer’s Cloth Boltcatchers Gwyn’s bridal garter Pet: Nalvi (Used Abraham until I got Nalvi)
  11. Need 5th for my super-duper team (also some ideas for others' team builds): I always found that traditional tanks do very little for the team, hence I split duties of a tank between my melee dps and the healer/buffer, resulting in a stable 4 man PotD (no scaling) group that allows to "carry" companions through their respective quest lines. I prefer to go for level 20 before Hasongo, so right now the only companion being carried is Eder. Once he's good, I will have a spot open for 5th custom character on my team. I would appreciate to learn new "OP" build while doing so. At the moment I have the following team comp: 1. Trixie (Swashbuckler: Devoted/Trickster) as WotEP Deflection-Riposte "main tank" 2. Xander (Templar: Kind Wayfarers/Eothas Priest) as Healer-Buffer turtle (120+ all defenses lvl 16) 3. Vilara (Mindstalker: Ascendant/Streetfighter) as Main DPS (Streetfighter+Mortars and Ascentant for self buff, and some extra utility for hard fights) 4. Ravig (Loremaster: Troubadour/Wizard) as De-buffer/Summoner turtle (Used to open fights with Summons, then put maluses on enemies: Pull of Eora+Expose Vulnerabilities+Arkemyr's Torment & Hex for sneak attacks from Vilara) and then stand around occasionally summoning stuff with 12% vamp/ +10 deflections chants always active. 5.??? I have never played/been attracted to Druid,Monk or Barb in either PoE or PoE 2: Deadfire. Would appreciate strong PotD builds including these classes focused around big damage numbers Thank you!
  12. Hi, i noticed the lack of a vanilla wizard guide in this section and here it is! The build is very simple and straightforward, Wizard is a super strong class and doesnt require any gimmicks to deal a lot of damage and control the field. This guide is POTD/Upscaling party oriented but its completely viable for solo which i will give some insights. My experience comes mostly from full-party play, but i provided and some tests in solo runs. If you are looking for an advanced solo run check Sintee's triple crown solo guide for for a complete walkthrough. His guide helped improve this build, so thanks a lot. Check it here. Character Creation Wizard (No subclass) Nature Godlike The solid choice for the wizard's race: Infuse with vital essence provides us an easy +1 power level. This is not mandatory, so feel free to change it if you want. Elf is also is an optimal choice for +1 perception if you want to wear a mask. Culture The white that ends, Deadfire Archipelago and The Livings Lands are the best choices. White that ends is the most optimal choice being the best for solo play. Perception is our most important stat. Deadfire Archipelago is the best choice for the dialogues and +1 dex is great. The living lands is decent because more damage is always good, but its not optimal. Skills & Background This is up to you. I recommend Alchemy for active skills, but a few points in Atletics can help. Invest your points in Alchemy and you can take Laborer as background so you can be Eora's working class hero. For passive its your call. Later in the game you will want to respec to max History for Giftbearer's Cloak. Tip: If you are playing Huana, you will want 9 points in Metaphysics (with party assist) for an important check. Party oriented atributes Might 18 Con 5 Dex 19 Per 18 Int 14 Res 3 We want to maximize our damage output by boosting perception, dexerity and might. Intellect is important, but 14 is ok. If you are going to solo, i suggest not dumping any stat, so lowering your might and dex to get at least 8 in res and con. Always max perception in this case. Grimoire: Ninagauth's Teachings (found at Archemyr's Manor). Weapon specialization: Medium shield, Flail and Pistol. Choosing your abilities Passives (they are NOT in picking order) Snake's Reflexes Scion of Flame Secrets of Rime Weapon and Shield Style Farcasting Rapid Casting Tough Uncanny Luck Improved Critical Accurate Empower Potent Empower Accurate Empower Prestige Active spells (does not include from Grimoire neither are in order) PL1 Chill Fog Spirit Shield Wizard's Double PL 2 Combusting Wounds Infuse with Vital Essence PL 3 DAOM (Deleterious Alacrity of Motion) Llengrath's Displaced Image PL 4 Minolettas Concusive Missiles PL 5 Ryngrims Enervating Terror Llengrath's Safeguard PL 6 Minolettas Precisely Piercing Burst PL 7 Skip PL 8 Minolettas Piercing Sigil Wall of Many Colors PL 9 Minoletta's Missile Salvo Important spells and strategy: Early Game: Chill fog, Weapon & Shield. These two will help you make it. Port Maje in POTD is really hard and the chill fog is the key to survive it. Weapon & shield style + medium shield modal boost your survival a lot and will be useful the whole game in some situations. Your DPS bread and butter: Combusting Wounds: Doesnt look that much strong? Combine it with with your damage over time spells and this spell is one the most important DPS spells for wizards. High accuracy and fire power level helps to land this awesome ability. Ninagauths Death Ray: Works with C. Wounds. The raw damage works versus high armor enemies. You will use it less later in the game because PL3 will be taken by Displaced Image and DAOM when you get Ninas Bitter Mooring, but until that its one of your most important sources of damage. Nina's Shadowflame: Stronger fireball with paralyze chance and greater ranger. Nina's Freezing Pillar: Works with C.Wounds. Colossal damage. Wall of Flame: Clunky to land but combined with C. Wounds its one of the strongest sources of damage versus big guys that dont move around. Minolettas: Pick every kind of Minoletta's Spells except for the level 1. They work with C.Wounds (especially PL9 Salvo). So good its hard to talk about. Meteor shower: Works with C.Wounds too. Its clunky and Salvo is better, buts can come in handy. Other very good skills used often: Wilting Wind, Delayed Fireball, Nina's Killing Bolt, Fireball, Wall of Many Colors. Empowered fireball + Fireball as stealth opener is a cheap strategy, but it works...a bit too much. Buffs Spirit shield: Always use it. +AR and most importantly: Concentration. Wizards Double: This skill is not that great, i know. But Mirrored Image and Arcane Veil are PL2 skills, which our resources are used by Infuse V.E and C.Wounds. We dont use Chill Fog that much later in the game and we get 3 resources for PL1 spells (+1 from Nemnok). DAOM: Action speed. You will use it more and more later in the game when you have more resources. Infuse with Vital Essence: ALWAYS use this buff first, the Intellect bones will make your following inspirations last longer. Llengrath's Displaced Image: +Reflex, convert to grazes. Your reflex will be very high so you dont get hit by AoEs. Llengrath's Safeguard: Very good but situational, PL5 gives us Enervating Terror and Bitter Mooring which we use more often. Gear Chest: Miscreant's Leather or Garari’s Cuirass (if are you solo or you want Exchange DPS for survival) Miscreants he best choice for DPS. You get it very early in the game by killing Benweth. Good stats with very low recovery and +8 reflex. Uncanny luck and Kidney Gyard can come in handy. Garari's Cuirass provides Hits to Grazes and Damage reduction from weapons, very good for a light armor with 20% recovery. Necklace: Stone of power +1 power level per rest. Rings: Ring of focused flame and Kuaru's Prize. You get ring of focused flame very early in the Dark Cupboard (Periki's Outlook shop at Neketaka). Kuaru’s prize you will get later but its good to skip. Gloves: Firethrower's gloves. You can buy it very early at the shop activated with Berath's blessings (5 points) in Port Maje. If you dont activate it, you get it later in the game. Use accuracy gloves until that. Boots: Bounding Boots Leap grants us a lot of mobility, works for positioning and escape. Waist:The Maker’s Own Power There's a lot of good viable options early game, but this is my final choice which saved me quite a few times. Cape: There's a lot of good early game options which include Cloak of Greater Deflection, Cloak of Greater Protection and the Magnificent Escape Cape. But my final choice is the Giftbearear's Cloth which is obtained later in the game and increases with History skills. Pet: Otto Starcat provides +1 Fire Power level which is insanely good and is obtained early in the game. Nemnok is another great option if want +1 resource for level 1 spells. Mask: If you dont pick Nature godlike, Whitewitch mask is great and is obtained early in Delvers Row. Weapons: There's a lot good choices for wizard weapon. But some standout: - Sun and Moon (Flail). +2 Fire PL during the day +2 Ice PL during the night. 5% chance to repeat Fire attacks: This flail is a beast and is easy to obtain. Its around 25-30k in the Shop at Radiant Court in Dunnage. You can start with +50k gold with Beraths Blessing. - Magran's Favor (Axe): +2 Fire PL and looks really cool. Notice that when the description says "kills with Magran's favor" it means that you need to kill WITH THE WEAPON, so spells dont work for Living Pyre stacking, but Enduring Flame does. If this has changed, let me know. - Nerian's Ward (Medium Shield). Weapon damage reduced as health is lost and 15% Hits to Grazes. Very good choice for early-mid game. Wizards starts very frail and you get a lot of enemies attenton, and this will help you a lot. Get Weapon and Shield specialization as soon as possible. Considerations: Sun and Moon + Nerian's is your primary kit. You will get them quite fast and will stay with you. Later you replace Nerians with Magran's Favor for increased Fire Power Level, but keep Nerian in your secondary kit if **** goes down. Some other great options: - Griffins sword. +10% spell damage/+5 will. You will probably get it first than S&M and it one of best weapons for wizard. - Eccea's Arcane Blaster (Fractured Bullet + Elemental Shot Fire) Really good if you run out of spells in longer fights and against Enemies with high armor. ____ - Fire in the Hole & Hand Mortar (COMPANION). I havent tested much but these 2 hand cannons have a lot of sinergy with Combusting Wounds. I recommend a Ranged DPS companion use them. You can use them yourself with DAOM and your high dex but its not optimal because you are already busy casting your spells. And thats it. If i missed anything let me know. Please, share your thoughts!
  13. ------------------------------- The Furry Ravager ------------------------------- Difficulty = PotD v. 2.0 ------------------------------- Solo: Possible, needs more testing ------------------------------- Class: Helwalker / Berserker ------------------------------- Race: Hearth Orlan ------------------------------- Background: Deadfire/The White that Wends ------------------------------- Base stats: Priority goes PER > DEX > MIG MIG: 15 (17) CON: 8 (10) DEX: 18 (20) PER: 20 (22) INT: 8 (10) RES: 8 (10) I took Effigy: Devil of Caroc, but take whatever you like for that. Skills: Whatever you want really. I like to have a moderate Athletics and set my AI to use when near death. Points in alchemy if you wanna use drugs. Passives I like to spread them around, but if you plan to use Giftbearer’s then pump History. Abilities: Lvl 1 – Frenzy/Swift Strikes Lvl 2 – Lesser Wounds Lvl 3 – Blooded Lvl 4 – Thick Skinned/Two Weapon Style Lvl 5 – Barbaric Blow Lvl 6 – Long Stride OR Wilder Hunter Lvl 7 – Blood Lust*/Swift Flurry* Lvl 8 – One Stands Alone* Lvl 9 – Bloody Slaughter* Lvl 10 – Bloody Frenzy*/Duality of Mortal Presence Lvl 11 – Wild Sprint Lvl 12 – Stunning Blow Lvl 13 – Barbaric Smash/Stunning Surge Lvl 14 – Enervating Blows OR Interrupting Blows* Lvl 15 – The Long Pain Lvl 16 – Lion’s Sprint/Turning Wheel Lvl 17 – Brute Force Lvl 18 – Improved Critical Lvl 19 – Blood Thirst/Heartbeat Drumming Lvl 20 – Instruments of Pain **Levels 7-9 can be taken in any order, though this is the order I took them in. **You can take Lightning Strikes then respec to Swift Flurry later, if you feel you aren’t critting enough early on. **Spirit Frenzy can be taken at lvl 10, however stun overrides staggered. Also if you use a rogue tank for persistent distraction, this will remove it so bear that in mind. **I'm undecided on which is better out of Interrupting/Enervating Blows, but need to drop one for The Long Pain. Gear: Head: Fair Favor/Helm of the White Void Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate Gloves: Aegor’s Swift Touch, or anything that increases DEX/MIG Amulet: A few choices here; Bone Setter’s Torc, Precognition, and Orishia are my favourites. Amulet of (greater) health is good for early game Rings: Greater Regeneration + Voidward Belt: Undying Burden/Upright Captain (very handy in BoW) Boots: Anything that increases DEX. Early on you can use Boots of the Stone, BiS is Footprints of Ahu Taka. Boots of Speed are also nice Cloak: Still not set on this slot yet; for pure damage you could go Violet Redemption; Nemnok’s will save you in a pinch, but will make you even more squishy; Giftbearer’s or (Greater) Protection for the will; (Greater) Deflection is probably the overall safest choice. Pet: Abraham Trinket: Waidwen's Sundial/Eye of Rymrgand. Both strong defensively, Sundial also has a debuff though this can be applied by a party member. Per rest so if you don't like abusing rest (I don't) then save for big fights/rough situations. Weapons: Scordeo’s Edge: You will want to go to Ashen Maw early. Put it in your main hand and leave it there. Rust’s Poignard: Obtainable early, though the fight can be tough. I was able to do it at lvl10 without much trouble, so I’m sure it can be done earlier. Worthy mentions/situationally good: Grave Calling: BiS OH for skeleton fights. +15 accuracy vs vessels makes this the obvious choice, as a bonus we can summon minions with it too. This will also probably be your main hand until you get Scordeo’s. Modwyr: Solid weapon, however the action speed buff doesn’t apply to your other weapon whereas Rust's does (the lashes do though). A solid option pre Scordeo/Rust, also against Fampyrs. Aldris Blade of Captain Crow: Good synergy with our high crit chance. If you are having trouble with healing then you will like this sabre. Beza's Toothed Blade: Only one reason to use this, and that is Veil Piercing. Veil-Touched (all ghosts have this passive) grants -50% damage taken and 100% incoming crit to hit conversion. Only way to circumvent this is with Veil Piercing, showcased in the Onadere bounty video below. Tarn’s Respite: Very good early-mid game weapon due to +1 PEN and a cold lash. The upgrades are only really good against bosses. Edit: After playing through BoW I have made some adjustments and removed some weapons, because honestly Scordeo/Rust can't be beat (outside of immunities and ghosts). Even the 21 slash/pierce armour snow bears couldn't slow me down. I was even able to prone-lock the final boss at half health thanks to Rust and a good Blade Cascade proc; fight ended about 15 seconds later. For other gear, there aren't many changes. The Helm of the White Void provides us +10 accuracy on Stunning Surge, so is a very strong contender for the head slot. Looks weird if you're not also wearing the Guardian's Plate though. Added trinket recommendations. New ring (Prosperity's Fortune) from the Deck of Many Things DLC is interesting, however you'd have to drop the ring of regen. Also appears to be no in game indication whatsoever of how much hit to crit chance it gives, so can't recommend at this stage. Most of this gear is obtainable early, providing you know where to look and have the cash. Most of the expensive ones can even be stolen with mechanics 14, which is nice. My fight against the Kraken was quite bizarre; hopefully you find it as amusing as I did playing it! I had to equip Eder with the Bounding Boots to get him out after. It is very easy to stack Scordeo against, the results of which I show at the end. And this is why Swift Flurry is so strong; this was before I got Scordeo so my accuracy wasn't even that crazy: Some videos of bounties (almost solo) pre patch 2.0: And some more bounties from 2.0 patch day: So as you can see the build is still very strong after the nerf to SS; basically don't spam it until you have high Scordeo and/or they are sufficiently debuffed. Gameplay: So, how it all fits together. Stunning surge will provide us with 2 mortification if it crits, this used to apply to both attacks meaning it was possible to generate Mortification (patch 2.0 limited it to one refund). It also gives you 2 wounds; though this is likely a bug. This is why we want to maximise our crit chance, and is why Scordeo’s Edge is so good here. Each hit with it grants +2 accuracy, which stacks. Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming have a chance to trigger an additional attack when you crit; the important thing to note is that the additional attack seems to always be with the main hand (which is why Scordeo’s must be in MH slot), and they can proc several times on a single attack (most I’ve seen is 8, sometimes you will literally make a mob explode with a single hit). This means it is very easy for us to stack our accuracy, leading to more crits, more SS spam, and more free attack procs! I've also added in Instruments of Pain, which allows us to hit from a distance - don't use the Long Pain as it will replace your weapons, just wait for the upgrade. Against some bosses you may want to not use it, as you can't flank from range. Next up we have Lion’s Charge, which gives +15 accuracy (note this doesn't stack with Priest's Devotions of the Faithful). The description states it is only for the first hit, however it is currently bugged and will last for the duration of the encounter. This will eventually get fixed, but even then it will still be a solid choice as you want to get those free attacks pumping ASAP. Sprint is also great for rushing the backline at the start of a fight if you want to take out a caster quickly, and repositioning in general. Bloodlust and Blood Thirst to increase our AS when we kill things, which will be alot. Bloody Slaughter and Barbaric Smash for finishing off low health enemies. Rust's Poignard - Shank gives 3% AS per stack against flanked enemies (also works on your MH, though tooltip it doesn't always show on the weapon), so you will want a Rgoue tank and/or Cipher to spam Phantom Foes. Lay Low is also very powerful when it procs (prone and -10 all defenses). It even works on bosses so if you get a Blade Cascade proc you can lock them down for a solid duration (Salvation of Time extends it). For basic fights I have a script handle pretty much everything for me, which I can upload if anyone is interested. Athletics when near death - auto cast frenzy, swift flurry, and instruments of pain - if mortification > 5 then use SS on lowest deflection - if rage > 5 AND enemy is near death then use barbaric smash. Activate sprint at beginning of combat after your auto cast buffs and pick your first target. You will be disgusted at how efficient this is when you get a Blade Cascade proc. Note: This is no longer strictly recommended in 2.0. Take control early then once the momentum has built up let it spam. I think that's everything, if you have any suggestions or critiques I'd love to hear them! Edit: Updated for 2.0, added a bunch of videos, changed some formatting. Edit: Can't believe I'd never tried out The Long Pain/Instruments of Pain before, so much fun! Take them at 15 and 20.
  14. Good morning guys, I've started my journey on POE2 by using a Bleak Walker from POE1 I became a Spellsword but I wanted to be a Templar of Magran because of the fire, etc. I would like to know if would be better to be the Herald of Berath or go to the wheel? I decided a spellsword because of all the self buffs that you can get and also, the high defense of being a paladin + flames of devotion inclusing the corrode damage. I'm using as main a superb large shield + Whispers of Yenwood (+ spirits silenced + superb). second weapon setup is dual wielder (as I was on POE1) using Modwyr + a really nice superb ice Hatchet that I've found killing a Giant of a bounty. I need to know, basically, what are good stats, where to get money and good equipment, who would be a cool party if I don't want to kill Eothas. and also, If I can trust Serafen (which seems to be a good guy). Thanks for any response!
  15. Basically, Swords: - Whispers of Yenwood - Hel Beckoning - Duskfall - Modwyr Vs. Sabres: - Aldris Blade - Grave Calling - Tarn's Respite - Scordeo's Edge
  16. I liked PoE I well enough (to finish it on PotD), but Deadfire surpasses it in just about every important aspect. The introduction of multiclassing and a quick leveling curve (especially when playing solo) makes coming up with new builds very entertaining. The game is almost like an action RPG (like Diablo, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn etc.) in its diversity of builds. Part of this is facilitated by the great variety of mods found in unique items. It's clear the team put in the effort to build a very powerful item mod system and examples like Hand Mortar, Tuotilo's Palm, Pukestabber, Deltro's Cage, Reckless Brigandine, Whitewitch Mask (all off the top of my head) are testaments to the flexibility on display. However with the strength of the itemization some things stand out: Some item types are disproportionally underrepresented (Wands, clubs, crossbows, etc.). A total of five soulbound items in total Lacking any enchantment options, Magic items have no use at all The first two points are easy enough to fix: just add more! More items, especially with an eye for enabling new or exclusive character builds, can only benefit the game. I might as well make the suggestion when there are two more DLCs still in the process of hatching. For the third, I recommend taking a page out of Diablo II (not I, not III)'s book -- where magic (blue) items had exclusively powerful +skill mods that still kept them relevant in some cases -- and provide magical items with a diverse pool of enchantments that also happen to be somewhat stronger than the mods on unique items (that is, numerically). Let magic items have more aggressive scaling from Skills, or have higher proc rates for on-hit/on-kill/on-engage abilities, or have a higher stack count for stacking bonuses, etc. that sort of thing. I stress that the existing Deadfire game is much more interesting than Pillars 1 as it is, partly owing to the itemization. But I absolutely believe that it could be much more.
  17. I present to u all The Lord Of The Imps!! Classes: Beckoner/Berserker Description: This is a "fun-build" rather then a power build. It uses beckoner subclass to summon small, squishy skeletons that u can then smash with Gravecaller and generate Imps. We are using barbarian for this because whenever u kill a squishy little skeleton u get ur recovery back instantly due to blood thirst so we can smash another squishy little skeleton right after and rince and repeat. With a high Int score an imp stays for more then a minute and they do not despawn when u summon more creatures wich results in armies of imps in longer fights. Quite fun actually and ur character is usually very safe because the enemies are so busy trying to fend off the never-ending spawns of imps to be bothered with u. Able to solo Potd? - Ofc, its a chanter! Here's what it looks like: (Fun starts at 1min) Race: not important, whatever floats ur boat really. I went with Nature Godlike for the PL whenever i feel like tossing out some dmg spells. Attribute Priority: -Mig: High (want to be sure to one-shot those little skellies) -Con: Low (we dont get hit much) -Dex: Medium -Per: Medium -Int: High -Res: Dump Important Gear: -Weapon: "Gravecaller" in main-hand and "The Eye Of Wael" in Off-hand. Gravecaller generates imps and the scepter allows u to help the imps shoot at enemies, it also provides u with an illusion buff whenever u get bloodied wich is quite handy. -Chestplate "Devil of Caroc" To get rid of confusion -Nek: "Charm of bones" for +2 int The rest u can mix and match however u want. Important Abilities: Barb: The only really important ones for this particular build is Blood Thirst and Blood lust for speed. I'd also recomend taking the Spirit frenzy line for terrify instead of the blood frenzy path wich i took because i was tired and not thinking straight. Fast Runner is also convenient. Chanter: Skellies+skelly upgrade. Two Weapon Style. Rapid Casting. Quick Summoning. Aefyllath Ues Mith - gives ur imps a lash :D. "Many lives pass by" Chant is used as the first chant in combat to instantly generate a skellie to interfere with ur enemy wich buys u some time to start generating imps. Then pick a dmg spell of ur choosing. How i play this: When combat starts u will almost instantly summon a skeleton with the chant, this skeleton is very weak but he does his job by charging right into the enemies and intercepting them, buying u time to pull back and summon the little guys. I have turned the AI off for summoned creatures so my little guys wont go charging ahead forcing me to chase after them however, when i kill a small skeleton an imp and two more skeletons will spawn. These guys will charge right in so u wont have to bother thinking about what they are doing. Make sure ur watcher is standing as close as possible to the skeleton when u are trying to kill it, otherwise he will just out of range for his melee weapon but he will still be trying to hit him, resulting in u always missing because the target is out of range O_o. Really not that much else to it. U smack skellies to turn them into imps, thats it :D Enjoy
  18. Riposte Tank - Trickster/Bleak Walker Click the video below for a more detailed look at the build Showcase video Steam Guide Follow me on twitch >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Combat Showcase Timestamp <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Overview: This build is designed to be a resolve based dodge/riposte tank which utilizes the rogue passive Riposte and the enchant ability of the great sword Whispers of the Endless Path to counter attack when an opponent misses you in melee. It relies on a lot of deflection based passives, items and buff+-/debuff spells to mitigate damage taken in melee by making the opponent miss. It has very low constitution and is therefore bit weak to magic and ranged damage compared to other tank builds, but makes up for it by having the added damage from going 2 handed. I haven't tested it yet but the build should be able to solo on PotD. Bleak Walkers favored disposition is Aggressive and Cruel but you can make this build work with other Orders aswell. Update: Trickster recieved some buffs in patch 1.2.0. It shouldnt affect the build path just makes Trickster stronger. Rogue Trickster Gaze of the Adragan Guile Cost 3 -> 2. Trickster Wall of Many Colors Guile Cost 4 -> 3. Trickster Sneak Attack penalty -20% Damage -> -10%. Trickster now also acquires wizard illusion spells at PL 2, 4, 6, and 8. Eliminating Blow only applies Shaken to secondary targets, as suggested by its upgrade string. Attributes: Might 10 Constitution 5 Dexterity 14 Perception 14 Intellect 15 Resolve 19 Role: Main/offtank, Offhealer/buffs, AoE damage dealer The build offers a lot of utility to the party in addition to beeing a tank by buffing and healing your team while debuffing enemies. Race: Human or Hearth Orlan. Both have bonus Resolve and racial passives that increases damage. Level progression: Level 1: Lay on Hands/Crippling strike Level 2: Deep Faith Level 3: Backstab Level 4: Dirty fighting/Zealous Aura Level 5: Two handed style Level 6: Inspiring Triumph Level 7: Riposte/Glorious Beacon Level 8: Hands of Light Level 9: Eternal Devotion Level 10: Finishing blow/Zealous aura upgrade (Exalted charge?) Level 11: Persistent Distraction Level 12: Scion of Flame Level 13: Elimination Blow/Enduring Beacon Level 14: Uncanny Luck Level 15: Deep Wounds Level 16: Improved Critical/Virtous Triumph Level 17: Divine Purpose Level 18: Retribution Level 19: Deathblows/Sacred Immolation Level 20: Stoic Steel Skills: Max intimidate for Casità Samelia's Legacy Passive Mix stealth/Athletics Weapon Proficiencies: Great Sword N/A. Just choose other two handers Pros: High damage for a tank build Can work as an off-healer Buffs/Debuffs High AoE damage Cons: Weak to ranged and magic damage due to low constitution Equipment/Gear: Priority is to max the deflection as high as possible to proc Riposte and Offensive Parry. There is quite a lot of gear you can pickup before endgame but I will list best in slot items Weapons: Whispers of the Endless Path with Offensive Parry enchant Equipment: Helm - Whitewitch Mask : +1 Illusion Power levels, Ryngrim's Enervating Terror, Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage when bloodied Neck - Claim and Refusal Modal ability: +10% damage taken from Melee attacks, +15 damage with Melee attacks Chest - Casità Samelia's Legacy +Deflection that increases with Intimidate skill Ring 1 - Entonia Signet Ring Entonia Signet Ring: +3 All Defenses when Engaged (Stack 5 times) Ring 2 - Ring of Focused Flame 10 accuracy with fire attacks Boots - Boots of the Stone +1 Dexterity, +1 Resolve, Resistance to Might afflictons Belt - The Maker's Own Power Reforge the flesh; The wearer transforms into a stationary pillar of steel, reducing incoming damage and restoring health Gloves - Gatecrashers Slugger: +2 Might, 50% chance to knock targets down on Critical Hit/Reeling Blow: Cone attack that pushes and stuns target (2 per rest) or Onepahua's Strength +2 Might, + 2 Intimidate Cloak - Cloak of Greater Deflection +7 Deflection Pet - Nalvi (Dog): Reduce recover Penalty for armor (varies by type) - Party Wide Consumables: Coral Snuff +10% action speed, +5 Deflection, +5 Reflex for 180 sec Grog (Deadfire) +15% Damage with Melee attacks, -1 Dexterity Potion of Improved Arcane Reflection (Against Casters) Potion of Insubstantial Form (Against Melee) Core Abilities: Faith and Conviction: +All defenses scales with disposition Enduring Beacon: Blind enemies, + Deflection Sacred Immolation: AoE DoT around caster Mirrored Image: + Deflection buff Riposte: Counterattack when opponent misses in melee Offensive Parry (Whispers of the Endless Path enchant): Counterattack when opponent misses in melee
  19. Hello everyone. I've wanted to create and play with a "Arcane Archer" for a while now. So first i made a Ranger/wizard hybrid but after a while i decided i wanted to make as much use of the Frostseeker bow as i could and for this i decided to go pure ranger and use a few Arcana scrolls for the "Arcane" feeling. The bow itself gives u a very arcane feeling on its own tho. In any case, this build is very simple, it uses Frostseeker bow with Twinshot skill + driving flight and avenging storm scrolls for massive burst dmg. The more targets we hit with the frostseekers small AoE on crit the better the effect so we also use Sparkcrackers, thorny roots and pull of eora scrolls to crowd enemies together and keep them there. This is extremely effective and i have prepared a showcase video to show you. All gameplay recorded was on lvls 16-18 Enjoy: As for Abilities its very hard to go wrong because as a singleclass ranger u dont really have much variety but here is my abilities as of lvl 18: Class Choice: Ghostheart Ranger with Boar pet. The boar is quite good at taking hits and as a ghostheart i never have to care if he dies. Race Choice: Heart Orlan for "Minor Threat" (5% hit to crit vs whoever is targeted by an ally, this works with pet as well) Important Gear: The Red Hand, get it and enchant it for "Unburdened Soul" and get 20 kills with it for a +20% dmg mod wich applies to your frostseeker bow and ur scrolls as well. Frostseeker Obviously, ur main weapon. DoC breastplate for +2 resources. Acina's Tricorn, its Acc bonus applies to everything u use at range and not only the weapon. https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Acina%27s_Tricorn Ring Of The Marksman. Mainly for the +1 Pen with ranged weapons. https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Ring_of_the_Marksman Firethrower gloves for Dex and Arcana boost. https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Firethrower%27s_Gloves Then feel free to mix and match. Attribute Priority: Mig: Medium Con: Low Dex: High Per: High Int: Medium Res: Dump One could argue that a ranger does not "need" high perception, but those few extra points could mean the difference between a crit and a hit, and we really want to crit to proc the AoE blast on Frostseeker as much as possible. We deal loads of small dmg numbers instead of few big ones so might is not overly important. Drug of choice: Coral Snuff for action speed. Important Skills: Arcana atleast on rank 13 for Avenging Storm scrolls. Stealth quite high to make it easier to sneak in and use sparkcrackers and crowd the mobs. Other then that feel free to mix and match however u want em. This build can be played solo wich is what ive done (but i havent finished the game with it) but it suffers on fights vs the very big HP enemies such as dragons and Nemnok because while the burst dmg is very high it is not enough to take down those big boys with the limited resources we have and the dps without resources is very weak on a ranger. So party play is recomended but solo potd is possible but hard at times.
  20. Sword Bearer of Endless Whispers May Berath have mercy on my enemies , I won't !Mild Spoiler! I apologize in advance for the watermark, basically this is an unbuffed (aside from hot razor skewers buff and some passives) solo encounter https://youtu.be/b64hixy86mk Multi-Class Build: Barbarian/Fighter Sub-classes: No sub-class (Recommended for non-solo), Devoted: Great-sword (Optional for theme Purposes) Table of Contents Overview Blessings & Legacy Choices Stats Skills Abilities Equipment Playstyle(TBA) Overview Relentless and unfaltering we bring the story of the great keep upon each swing of our blade- Lyn Col'ien As the build suggests we will focus on the whispers of endless path Make sure you have reforged it it Periki's Overlook you can get the blade via combining the shards of "Whispers of Yenwood" and "Blades of endless paths whilst paying 3000CP to the said blacksmith. Take the upgrades Bladeform and Spinning Assault Respectively Berath's Blessing Required: Champion Stats: +2 to all Stats Bonus Skills: +2 to all Skills Bonus Money: 50,000 & 5,000 respectively Special Merchant (Optional) Others: Optional, but if i my recommend considering you still have achievement point to spare Sails Upgrade: For Naval Combat Surviivability Explored Map: Navigation and strategic Purposes Fine Equipment: its a good Start Pillar's of Eternity Legacy Choices: Effigy's Resentment & Gift of the Machine (Regained at Hasongo according to wiki, for that extra boost.) I did not take these for Diplomatic and role-playing reasons, whether you take these abilities are up to your discretion Race: Island Aumaua (+2 Might and no waddling in some terrain during combat for that relentless drive) Background: Deadfire Archipelago (+1 Dexterity and Unique Dialogue, good pair for Island Aumaua The Prodigal Child returns to the land once called home Base Stats Might: 16 + 2 (Aumaua) Constitution:10 Dexterity: 15 + 1 (Deadfire Archipelago Background) Perception: 16 Intellect: 14 Resolve: 4 Bearing the great-sword with fervor the watcher Strikes with speed, power & accuracy This Distribution is balanced for a relentless and tempered brute, good damage and area of effect. For the low resolve and base Constitution will be discussed below, as for the decent dexterity and perception are for dialogue purposes and for frequent and reliable attacks. Recommended Skills Active Mechanics: Mechanics is GOD Stealth: if you don't have a companion for solo invest some on this skill Alchemy: a few points, it can be temporary to enhance the effects of "Ripple Sponge" for the magistrate's cudgel 15 Resolve Check Paired; +2 Rice Wine, +2 Eviee, + 2 "Token Faith"+2 "Boots of Stone" +1 "Ring of solitary Wanderer" Athletics" SECOND WIND !!! Passive: Diplomacy: if you're one those goody-goodies (like me) or just want to avoid some pointless fights and such Survival: Dialogue checks and for a cape, will be discussed below History: More dialogue checks Metaphysics: a few dialogue checks also if you want a peaceful end to a certain sea dragon, or not "Mestre Dragonslayer" Insight: you have guessed it more dialogue checks or observation skills during conversations Streetwise: always helps in a pinch or two or three wise as she was powerful with the voice of a hundred souls and the skills to show for it Steps you don't have to follow it to the letter, experiment if you want to fit your play style Fighter Ability Tree( Level 16) Barbarian Ability Tree( Level 16) Level I: Core Barbarian: Frenzy Carnage Core Fighter: Constant Recover If Devoted sub-class Great-sword Level II: +1 Mechanics, +1 Diplomacy Fighter: Disciplined Barrage if you're not on solo run you can focus on Alchemy or Athletics instead Level III: +1 Mechanics, +1 Insight Fast Runner: can be Knockdown early on for crowd control Level IV: +1 Mechanics, +1 Diplomacy Barbarian: Barbaric Blow: Nothing like a good'ole swing that hit harder with greater Aoe Fighter: Fighter Stances(Cleaving Stance): Barbaric Blow + Near Death Enemy + Cleaving Stance = i let you picture out Two-Handed Style: 15% Damage for 2-Handed Weapons (you can replace this for one of the upper 2 for this level) Level V: +1 Alchemy, +1 Metphysics Two-Handed Style: 15% Damage for 2-Handed Weapons Level VI-VIII: +2 Mechanics, +1 Insight, +1 Metaphysics, +1 Athletics, +1 Diplomacy Fighter: Tactical Barrage: very important for +1 all Power levels and +5 Intellect for carnage AoE and ability duration Confident Aim: not needed if you're confident with your accuracy Rapid Recovery: Because, why not Thick Skinned: +1 Armor Rating against Slash,Pierce & Crush Accurate Carnage: if you want more accuracy for carnage not 100% recommended for now Level IX: +1 Alchemy, +1 Diplomacy Fighter: Determination: Defense against Perception,Intellect and Constitution Afflictions Frisk would be so proud Level X: +1 Stealth, +1 Insight Fighter: Charge: the fun can finally begin Barbarian: Wild Sprint: No engagement, +5 Dexterity & 100% Stride if you don't want to invest in stealth just do the talk while stealth trick does work on solo run considering your alone and such Frenzy + Tactical Barrage + Wild Sprint + Charge on crowd + Empower + Barbaric Blow + Cleaving Stance that is still without the buffs Level XI: +1 Mechanics +1 Metahysics Fighter: Weapons Specialization: 10% Damage for Proficient Weapons Level XII:+1 Alchemy, +1 Diplomacy Fighter: Unstoppable Barbarian: Unflinching Level XIII: +1 Mechanics, +1 Metaphysics Fighter: Mob stance: it is like cleaving stance but with faster action speed for each unfortunate soul to ever cross your path Barbarian: Barbaric Smash: what's that after crushing the enemies with the combo you also regain rage, poor things Or Crushing Blow: an extra move fore every combo kill in play will make your enemies' day, their last that is Level XIV:+1 Mechanics, +1 Diplomacy Fighter: Armored Grace: Every enemy can die if you hit them fast enough, bring out the brigantine Level XV: +1 Alchemy, +1 Insight Situational Uncanny Luck: not much but its something especially with decent perception and tactical Barrage Tough: Die a little slower basically Superior Deflection: a little defense goes a long way if you haven't gotten the other Fighter: Unstoppable Barbarian: Unflinching Level XVI Fighter: Reaping Whirlwind: More Discipline = More Charge Barbarian Ram Sprint: Good CC Proc on Crit Lion Sprint: for good guarantee for Crit with Great Increase is accuracy in Next Attack Triggering Gatecrasher Equipment Equipment: Early Game (Remember the stealth conversation trick to sneak past well guarded non-hostile caches, the Tab button reveal interactibles by default) Credits to @lunattic for well-supplied merchant item info Gloves If you have the well-supplied traveling merchant you can go for Gauntlets of Ogre Might(1375 CP): +2 Might, if you want before you head to to the engwithan dig site but i replaced it with the accuracy one Gauntlets of Accuracy: +3 Accuracy, You can get them in the ancient training hall, Ancient Engwithan Dig site on First Map if you took port maje first Swordsman's Bracers: 10% Hits to Grazes taken by melee, you can steal them from the crate behind the merchant Boots If you have the well-supplied traveling merchant you can go for Boots of Speed: for fast stride in solo or stealth Boots of Stone: Since you don't have unflinching yet the resistance bonus and a +1 Resolve really Helps Shore-walker Sandals: +1 Resolve & 20%Stride, if you don have the merchant, these are good early boots Belt If you have the well-supplied traveling merchant go for Troll Hide Belt(775 CP): 1 HP Regeneration per 6 Seconds, not much but a welcome bonus for the blank belt slot, you also get via loot early on but still Girdle of Mortal Protection(1775 CP): +2 Constitution, 20% of Crits to Hit taken, Good defensive capabilities but i chose Troll hide Weapon Fine Great Sword: Decent early-game weapon you must get those fragments fixed after going to Neketaka Fine Arquebus/Arbalest/Crossbow: although arquebus is preferred due to damage, if you aren't a devoted fighter sub-class they make for a good opening shot or you can take their regular counterparts if you dot have the corresponding blessing Cape/Cloak If you have the well-supplied traveling merchant you can go for Cloak of Greater Deflection(775 CP): +7 Deflection (melee combat damage mitigation by decreasing the state of damage by one level if successful) Cloak of Greater Defense(775 CP): +10 Fortitude,Reflex & Will or you can go with a cloak that you might be able to loot from the Old Battleground or Burial Mound on the first map, luck is needed sometimes in RNG Armor Fine Breastplate Fine Leather Armor or you can take their regular counterparts if you dot have the corresponding blessing Rings: you can loot these early on from the Old Battleground or Burial Mound on the first map, luck is needed sometimes in RNG Ring of Overseeing(400 CP): +10% AOE, better carnage and other aoe dependent skills although there might not be much this early perhaps scrolls (needs 1-3 Arcana) Minor Ring of Deflection Minor Ring of Protection Gaun's Pledge: if you don't have some potions can help with your survivability early on Helmet: if you aren't a God-like Death Maw: being near a killed enemy grants temporary damage reduction, a nice early on bonus Amulet If you have the well-supplied traveling merchant you can go for Amulet of Greater Health(1075): +25 Max Health Wise Teeth Necklace: +1 Intellect, History, Insight from the encounter in the first island located just before the Old Battleground Protective Eothasian Charm: +1 Perception and a really good Regen & DR ability that activates in near death, must rest to recharge skill from the hidden cache in on the well in the middle of Gorecchi Street, Port Maje Equipment: Mid-Game(Neketaka an Beyond) Gloves Gate Crusher Gloves: +2 Might, Knock down on critical hit in melee & grants "Reeling Blows" good crowd control skill 2/2 Per Rest the knockdown procreation of your gloves go really well with you combo and the cc skill with the extra might is an added bonus Sold by Wanika at Queen's Berth Belt The Undying Burden: +1 Athletics, +2 Constitution, Grants Second Wind & a scaling Damage reduction as health decreases 30% Max you really can't have too much second wind, Sold in Delver's Row by Imuani Rings Ring of Solitary: +1 Resolve, -35% debuff duration, Perfect for and independent vanguard or Solo run Looted from Bount-Pirakau, encounter located at 26* 58'S 45* 9' E well its better it you just browse the map especially if you the explored world map blessing Chameleon's Touch: +1 Random Attribute & Skill, Dependent on class Looted from Bounty-Nomu the Marauder, encounter located in the me island as neketaka Ring of Overseeing: +10% Aoe, Still a good choice Amulet Baubles and Fin: +1 Constitution & Intellect, +5% Damage 6.5M Aura A reward for the (Peaceful Preferably) resolution of "Broodmother's Fury" in Tikawara Wise Teeth Necklace: +1 Intellect, History, Insight from the encounter in the first island located just before the Old Battleground Protective Eothasian Charm: +1 Perception and a really good Regen & DR ability that activates in near death, must rest to recharge skill from the hidden cache in on the well in the middle of Gorecchi Street, Port Maje Helmet Heaven's Cacophony: +2 Intellect +1 Religion, also Grants a 2/2 Knockback Stun and Shock Retaliation Skill The extra skills granted are really helpful for situational enemies who are immune to slash and pierce the increase in buff duration and aoe due to the Intellect +2 Bonus does wonders for your build, the +1 Religion is just a little extra to match the theme of the helm Armor: you current fine armor should be good enough if you find/loot/stole an exceptional/ superb Counter part replace it right away but if yo can spare the funds go for Cloak Ruata's Walking Cloak: +1 Diplomacy & Survival, +5 Reflex +20% Stride(Scales with Survival) Obtained as a reward for Eulogy for the Dead Garari Cuirass Sold by Ernezzo in Delver's Row Weapon: The Whispers of endless Paths Equipment: Mid-Late Game found as a drop on the dead guard fanatic in the forgotten catacombs (be careful of Fampyr Charms) sold by the merchant at crookspur Play Style https://youtu.be/chQ-7oOoxIk a bit harder encounter compared to the xaurips, buffed with "lumious adra potion, arcanist balm for +4 Alchemy" Taru-Taru Chew +5 to Might,Dexterity & Constitution higher level encounter with levels higher than that of my current watcher (The Steel Preacher Encounter) https://youtu.be/k55xi8-JraU Start of Combat Tactical Barrage: For concentration,aware and acute Lion Sprint: For nimble, +15 Accuracy, Immunity to Engagement. you can now barbarian Frenzy or retreat to safer distance with speed bonus and apply more buffs Charge the the farthest yet softest enemy if available e.g. Priest etc. pause a moment to let enemies catch up Barbaric Smash the enemy killing it regaining rage whilst also applying cleaving stance and Boosted Carnage to the enemy at this Point us spinning assault then charge to another enemy regardless to keep the momentum flowing Barbaric smash near death enemies and finish them off At this point feel free to use your remaining resources to end the fight, if you lacking health this build focuses on dr reduction and speed yet you will have two "second wind" one from basic athletics and one from " the undying burden" Conclusion: if you find yourself lacking in early game don't be afraid to take on some drug, potions and scrolls until you get the core abilities you need to run enemies through.
  21. How viable this class would be? Rogue is a damage-focused class and Paladin is a tank or a supporter, but the ability to buff myself, therefore increasing DPS looks promising. What attributes and abilities are recommended? Is there a soulbound greatsword?
  22. My class was a Ravager (Shattered Pillar Monk/ No Subclass Barbarian) So i finished the game on POTD with stats : Might: 18 Con: 11 Dex: 10 Per:10 Int: 10 Res: 19 the game went fine using robes and light armor, Mohora Tanga and Tuotilo's Palm. I spec into both two weapon fighting and sword + shield fighting. This makes me very tanky. Only issue I ran into was missing a lot of my hits. I had enough life and i was attacking more than fast enough. A lot of people don't know this, but with Shattered Pillar Might is just the way to go. Dex is good, and it yields superior dps but you're already fast enough and the extra might gives you the single hit damage to gain wounds more easily. Also used Lord Darryn's Voluge and went barehanded. Darryn's works great for crowds and synergizes well with primary attack abilities but it lacks dps vs single targets until you get off that first disorient. Barehanded had great dps versus single targets. Both weren't defenseless but werent tanky enough for me to be comfortable. Mohora Tanga and Tuotilo's Palm did nearly as much damage as barehanded but they had the added benefit of making me very tanky. So the build felt better overall. As i mentioned before my only issue was not landing enough hits. On my second play through I plan to use the same armor, weapons and class. My stats, with Berath's blessing have changed to: Might: 18 Con: 10 Dex: 10 Per: 18 Int: 13 Res: 19 Any thoughts? Also I am considering specing into Blade Turning/Dance of Death. Has anyone tried that? Can you tell me if it works?
  23. So I've started my first REAL (started a cipher and didn't enjoy it) character to play and I decided on a rogue since I've heard they do the highest single target damage and look appealing to me. Here's my build, any pointers or tips to improve it would be much appreciated: Race: Moon Godlike (I like the passive, the stats and they look cool) Attributes: MIG: 12 CON: 8 DEX: 18 PER: 18 INT: 12 RES: 10 I want to use dual sabres because they look cool and I like pirates. I've also heard they are very good on the rogue.
  24. [CLASS BUILD] The Way of the Formless Form (The concept of yielding to overcome) Core Concept This build is inspired by martial arts style known as Tai Chi in which self defence is realized by the ability to react to an opposing force and redirect it onto the attacker. Seemingly, the Monk's PL3 ability Blade Turning is imo one of the Obs's attempt at representating this martial arts form. And this is in line with my inclination to create builds that has a retaliation concept. I have to put in a disclaimer to state I am in no way qualified to state and discuss anything pertaining to Tai Chi. This build is only my personal intrepretation of what this martial arts form could be in the context of Deadfire. =================================== The Way of the Formless Form =================================== Difficulty: PotD v.1.2.0.0008 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Brawler (Unbroken / Helwalker) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Deadfire Archipelago (Hunter) -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: Untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation, no Berath's Blessings): Mig: 12 Con: 13 Dex: 20 Per: 16 Int: 13 Res: 3 Skills Alchemy (max 10*) / Athletics * Alchemy is set to 10 to avoid overly abusing consumables. Potion of Spirit Shield is quite decent on TWotFF at Alchemy 10. Also this is an attempt to future proof the build if Obs decide to nerf Alchemy and one increase the levels to hopefully gain the same effectiveness. * Note: Patch 1.2 nerfed consumables as expected. So it is possible to bump Alchemy to about 15 without feeling too OP. Potions of Spirit Shield is too good for tankiness at a Pinch. Recommended Items (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Head: Heaven's Cacophony (!) Body: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (!) Neck: Stone of Power (®) Gloves: Firethrower's Gloves Belt: Ngati's Girdle (®) Legs: Boots of Stone / Bounding Boots Rings: Ring of Greater Regeneration / Ring of Overseeing Cape: Three Trolls Stitched Weapons: Set 1: Squid's Grasp (®) / Tuotilo's Palm (!) Pet: Abraham Recommended Abilities Level 1: Force of Anguish / Discipline Barrage Level 2: Swift Strikes Level 3: Lesser Wounds (®) Level 4: Fighter Stances / Two weapon style Level 5: Clarity of Agony Level 6: Mortification of Soul Level 7: Rapid Recovery / Blade Turning Level 8: Soul Mirror Level 9: Determination Level 10: Hold the Line / Thunderous Blows Level 11: Rooting Pain Level 12: Duality of Mortal Presence Level 13: Mob Stance / Crucible of Suffering Level 14: Unbending Level 15: Unarmoured Grace Level 16: Tough / Enlightened Agony Level 17: Turning Wheel Level 18: Falgellant's Path Level 19: Unbreakable / Heartbeat Drumming Level 20: Swift Flurry Mechanics Blade Turning This ability is not very commonly found in builds but it is one of the abilities that define this build. BT will grant complete immunity to melee strikes during its buff period. In the combat logs, you will notice that attacks onto TWotFF will be treated as though the attacker directly strikes its peers. And CC effects the would be attack would trigger will also be retargeted to the victim Rooting Pain Another aspect of TWotFF is to trigger Rooting Pain via skill and belt. Rooting Pain benefits from the Fire Dmg of Turning Wheel, and can trigger Sungrazer's effects as well as Avenging Storm. * Note: Patch 1.2 nerfed Sungrazer so Squid's Grasp is used to aid the survivability of TWotFF. Avenging Storm is still used to provided added DPS. But inevidently there is significant DPS loss. Make sure to snapshot Avenging Storm at max Wounds. * Note: There is also significant DPS loss from Rooting Pain nerf. There is more reliance to use auto attacks once you dwindle down the enemies numbers. Recovery Speed and Int TWotFF will benefit greatly with high action / recovery and high int as one will want to overlap the effects of BT to achieve near 100% melee protection. Action / Recovery to reduce the time between BT activation, and Int to increase the buff duration of BT. This build is also incorporates many self buffs and so high Int provided by stats and Turning Wheel can help with sustain. High action / recovery speed is achieved by max dex, Devil of Caroc Breastplate, Mob Stance and Abraham's pet effect. Due to Mob Stance, it is ideal to use Unbroken as a subclass for the bonus to engagement and AR as the recovery bonus scales off number of engagements. And for that Tuotilo's Palm will also provide the best synergy for this build. Snapshot This build has no issues with hitting 10 wounds easily. For that reason, the bonus of +10 Mig from Helwalker and +10 Int from Turning Wheel is very achieveable. Therefore it is best to time the use of Unbending and Avenging Storm at max or near max Wounds as the duration can be snapshot. Wounds Manipulation Against a large number of enemies, TWotFF will hit the Wounds cap easily and one will want to dump the Wounds so as to enable Rooting Pain triggers. The key to this is Thunderous Blows which is instacast. A cycle of TB and BT can drop the Wound count by 5, which will mean 5 more possible triggers for RP. Against a single target, Mortification of Soul can be used to artificially generate the Wounds and trigger Rooting Pain. BT might not be triggered consistently due to the Recovery Speed drop but BT will now also solely return the melee attack back the same attacker Enlightened Agony and Crucible of Suffering These 2 abilities synergize to give respectable saves on all defences except deflection. Soul Mirror can utiize the high saves to cause ranged attacks to miss and likely to be reflected back to the attacker. Ranged Weapon Attacks The bane of TWotFF is most likely ranged weapon attacks so as a seconadary weapon set, one can go with a Large Shield together with the Large Shield to deal with ranged aggression in certain situations. Other Synergies TWotFF works well with a Cipher companion due to Pain Link and Pain Block. Pain Link will add on decent amount of dmg as TWotFF will potentially take in good amounts of incoming aggression. Pain Block gives AR and healing, which is what TWotFF needs. Cons This build is quite micro intensive as it involves the constant juggling of BT which is essentially a short term buff. I will maybe include some updates on AI micros that can ease this aspect of this build. Other Notes I am currently running a playthrough with this build and will most likely be updating things as I do along. Happy Sailing! Note: Using Patch 1.2 for new playthrough
  25. WHAT THIS IS Trying to do something different here. I'm going to discuss a character build that I had a lot of fun putting together and playing on 1.1 PotD (probably the most fun I've had in Deadfire so far), but I'm going to use it as an entrypoint to teach-by-doing various game mechanics and how to think about them and use them for your own builds. People already comfortable with min-maxing their way through Deadfire might not get much out of this, but hopefully for everyone else there's something useful here, because there's a lot of information scattered through this forum, reddit, and the in-game cyclopedia and I hope to consolidate some of it here and put them to actual use. In fact, I would say something like 90% of this is just going to be talking about game mechanics, because understanding the game mechanics thoroughly is key to understanding this character build. I hope you find this useful! Oct 2018 - Updated stats, items, build for 3.0+, added alternatives, and god challenges notes July 4 2017 - Updated stats for patch 1.2. July 3 2017 - Partially updated for patch 1.2. TABLE OF CONTENTS - Introduction - What does this build do - The build itself - TL;DR playstyle - Detailed playstyle - Details - Armor - Details - Weapons - Details - Surviving - Details - Consumables - Details - Miscellaneous spells and abilities - Details - Stats - Conclusion/Putting it all together - Alternatives - Rejected approaches - Notes for Magran's Fires - Appendix: Linear returns INTRODUCTION "What the hell is an 'Umezawa?'" Well, while I don't play it anymore, I still follow and am a big fan of Magic: The Gathering. And with one of the more recent sets out (Dominaria), I got to thinking about a couple of cards that struck me as particularly flavorful: The latter card is actually from a set more than a decade old and is/was so stupidly powerful that it's banned in one of the super-powered tournament formats (banned in Modern). The former card is just a nostalgic callback to the latter that was in Dominaria (which itself was a set all about nostalgic callbacks). It's not particularly tournament-worthy.(*) (*) If you're a M:TG lore purist out there, yes yes I know that the Umezawa on the left is not the Umezawa that the Jitte on the right is named for. Even if you don't play Magic: The Gathering, the takeaway here is a fragile, weak, but elusive hero, and a stupidly powerful tool-kit of a weapon that the hero is lorewise linked to. I liked the idea of taking a very blue (crafty, subtle, evasive) approach to stupid levels of power, and decided to personify it in Deadfire as a Streetfighter/Wael multiclass that I'll just brand here as an Umezawa build. WHAT DOES THIS BUILD DO This character is very versatile and mobile, tanking on huge packs of enemies or jumping around behind enemy lines to assassinate troublesome foes. This character is not going to be great at doing burst or area of effect damage (at least until you have a steady supply of explosives), but it will do frankly a stupid amount of sustained damage, maximizing uptime for the Streetfighter's special (at least without resorting to just being a ranged blunderbuss dummy). While this is probably not the most powerful Streetfighter build you can make (a Streetfighter/Monk is probably better for pure damage) and is fairly micromanagement-intensive, it can nonetheless be a very fun and engaging way to play. THE BUILD ITSELF Before diving into the mechanics of it all, let's just lay out the build order. UMEZAWA CLASS: zealot - streetfighter + priest of wael RACE: wood elf BACKGROUND: living lands + scientist STATS: 10 (9+1 living lands) might, 10 constitution, 17 dexterity, 16 perception, 18 intellect, 7 resolve SKILLS: roughly 2:1 ratio between Explosives to Alchemy. For your secondary skill, shove as much as you can into Religion, though you can respec out of this after a certain point. Be sure to pay 3000g each to train both Explosives and Alchemy. STORY ABILITIES: be clever at the first summons to the gods so you get Wit of Death's Herald ABILITIES: (active priest abilities with arabic numerals, active rogue abilities marked with roman numerals for their power levels, automatic priest spells in angle brackets, weapon choices in italics) Updated for 3.0: some skills reordered, dropped Searing Seal for Champion's Boon, weapon proficiency recs changed 1. Restore (1), Escape (I) <Arcane Veil (1)>; hatchet, blunderbuss 2. Fast Runner 3. Arms Bearer 4. Holy Meditation (2), Smoke Veil (II) <Iconic Projection (2)>; large shield 5. Weapon and Shield Style 6. Two Weapon Style 7. Despondent Blows (3), Riposte <Mirrored Image (3)> 8. Deep Pockets; mace, sabre, or stiletto 9. Prayer for the Spirit (3) 10. Devotions for the Faithful (4), Dirty Fighting <Llengrath's Displaced Image (4)> 11. Persistent Distraction 12. Pillar of Faith (2); mace, sabre, or stiletto 13. Barring Death's Door (5), Tough <Confusion (5)> 14. Champion's Boon (5) 15. Uncanny Luck 16. Salvation of Time (6), Smoke Cloud (V) <Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment (6)>; dagger 17. Rapid Casting 18. Pillar of Holy Fire (6) 19. Cleansing Flame (7), Deathblows <Gaze of the Adragan (7)> 20. Smoke Grenade (VII); remainder of mace, sabre, or stilleto or your favorite end-game weapon here IMPORTANT ITEMS: Sparkcrackers and Cinder Bombs as explosives. Deadeye, Potion of Ascension, Potion of the Last Stand, Potion of Deftness, Potion of Impediment, and Potion of Piercing Strikes for alchemical goods. Mix in other stuff as desired. IMPORTANT FOOD/DRINK: Meppu, Roe, Forgotten Night IMPORTANT GEAR: Miscreant's Leather, Cutthroat Cosmo (the special pig pet), Xoti's Sickle (early on), Marux Amanth (soulbound to priest), Fair Favor, Nemnok's Cloak, Entonia Signet Ring, Shorewalker Sandals RECOMMENDED GEAR: Pukestabber, Frostfall Mace, Rust's Poignard, Animancer's Energy Blade, Bronlar's Phalanx, Wintertide Bulwark, etc or whatever else floats your boat. TL;DR PLAYSTYLE Early on (when your health is super low, like levels 1-4) you are going to dual-wield a hatchet and a blunderbuss with Powder Burns enabled. You'll attack at range with a blunderbuss to trigger the Streetfighter's Heating Up bonus, then run in for melee. When the Powder Burns self-debuff has ~3.5 seconds left (first reload) or ~1-2 seconds left (subsequent reloads), you'll shoot at an enemy or ally 3-5m away and refresh the Powder Burns debuff. (Early on you may just run out of range manually and shoot your current target.) Once you have a bit more health and a bit more abilities under your belt, the playstyle is very aggressive. Instead of relying on Powder Burns, you'll rely on one of: blindly charging in and getting flanked; blindly charging in and getting your health pummeled really fast; or manually triggering your Streetfighter special by hitting yourself with Sparkcrackers or, in a pinch, Cinder Bombs. So depending on the situation, you might be tanking for your entire party, or you may be dodging back behind enemy lines to take out important casters. For boss fights, you'll drink a Potion of Impediment and try to pin the enemy down with repeated interrupts. DETAILED PLAYSTYLE This character is a "build-around" on the Streetfighter's special. To reiterate here, when you are flanked or bloodied, you get a special buff (Heating Up) which gives you a whopping -50% recovery time, along with a +50% damage bonus against sneak attack-enabled targets (effectively it is a souped up sneak attack damage bonus). If you are both flanked and bloodied, you get a special buff (On the Edge) which not only grants you the same bonuses as Heating Up but gives you a further +100% crit damage bonus. Both the damage bonuses are additive with other damage bonuses, so while they are certainly very good, it's not insane. The real star here is the -50% recovery time. -50% recovery time is equivalent to a whopping +100% action speed for your recovery, or the equivalent of getting +33 dexterity during your recovery. Furthermore, contrary to what you might think or read elsewhere, speed bonuses offer linear returns(*), so you can add on a bunch more recovery time reductions or action speed boosts and get to really fast levels (translating to high damage output). This is especially important for maximizing Potion of Impediment, which can really shine with a "Heating Up" Streetfighter's very fast attack speed. (*) Linear returns may end up being one of the most controversial things I'll say mechanically in this entire post, but is mathematically true and I will fight anyone who says otherwise . There'll be an appendix at the end that will go through the ugly math and details of it. Notably, unlike Pillars of Eternity 1, Deadfire distinguishes between action speed adjustments and recovery time adjustments and they are very different and expressed in different ways, and is responsible for a lot of confusion about how action/recovery works. The Streetfighter's bonus only applies to your recovery, leaving the attack part untouched. This means this bonus heavily favors weapon attacks, potions, and throwing bombs, because weapon attacks, potions, and bombs have very short attack times and the bulk of the time spent using them is just recovery. By contrast, spell casting has significant attack ("cast') times that will be left untouched by the Streetfighter's special. (Scrolls sit in between, having slower attack times than other consumables, but faster recovery than spells.) But the way cast times work in Deadfire is that they generally follow a pattern where spells with faster cast times have longer recovery, and slower cast times have shorter recovery; this means that, ironically, a very slow spell cast (6s) will have a much shorter recovery time (typically 2s) than even a very fast cast spell (0.5s cast, up to 4.5s recovery). (The standard progression for spell timing is 3s cast/4.5s recovery, 4.5s cast/3s recovery, 6s cast/2s recovery so the total action time spent doing a spell cast monotonically increases with slower spells, even if the recovery is less.) This means that we can still get some benefit out of the Streetfighter's special if we focus on casting fast (3s) and some average (4.5s) spells, because shaving off 2.25s or 1.5s off your recovery is still incredible (shaving 2.25s off a fast spell cast is roughly equivalent to a +42% action speed or almost like taking three stacking copies of the Rapid Casting passive talent, even though it's all weighted towards the recovery phase instead of the cast phase). The major downsides to the Streetfighter are twofold, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit downside is that while you are neither flanked nor bloodied, you get a +20% recovery time penalty. The implicit downside is that to maximize the Streetfighter, you have to be at least flanked or bloodied which is generally a very dangerous situation to be in. This character focuses on letting you survive in those situations while trying to not take away from the Streetfighter's strengths. DETAILS - ARMOR A really important piece of gear is actually your pet. The cosmo pirate pet (unlocked by doing the deadfire scavenger hunt or special non-achievement-disabling console commands) gives your main character a reduction in their armor penalty. The effect varies on armor, but this variance is because of the weird way it's implemented (which is identical to how a Fighter's Armored Grace is implemented). Internally, the game stores armor recovery penalties of +20%, +35%, and +55% roughly as coefficients of .83, .74, and .65. (What these numbers mean is not important right now.) Instead of applying a consistent effect on the listed recovery penalty, the cosmo pirate pet adds a flat .1 to these internal coefficients, which means these coefficients become .93, .84, and .75, which means the armor recovery penalty becomes +7%, +19%, and +34%. This means that the armor recovery penalty reduction is actually strongest for heavy armor, but that's not the important point here. The important part is the interaction with Miscreant's Leather (a light armor you can get for doing the first Principi quest by killing Benweth). Miscreant's Leather comes with a special enchantment that reduces recovery time by -10%. Theoretically, this was supposed to have the net effect of mitigating a majority(*) of the of the +20% light armor recovery time. However, with the cosmo pirate pig, your base armor recovery time penalty is +7%, which means the -10% recovery time enchantment makes wearing Miscreant's Leather actually faster than wearing any +0% recovery time clothing. (*) one of the ongoing confusions that one might have about recovery time is that you can't just add up your various recovery time adjustments and expect to get a sane answer. In fact, the best way to think about adjustments to your action time is that there is a different "native unit of measurement" depending on whether it's a bonus (either a +X% action speed or -Y% recovery time) or a penalty (either a -X% action speed or a +Y% recovery time). For bonuses, the native unit is "action speed," whereas for penalties the native unit is "action time." This is a weird distinction but is important for understanding how modifiers are combined. You can read the Appendix for further discussion. Anyway, for our purposes here what you need to know is that the -10% recovery time bonus needs to first be translated into its native unit as an action speed adjustment, or +11% action speed. The +20% light armor recovery time is in its correct native unit so we don't need to change it. Now (and for you people who took science classes in high school and pay attention to your bases/units this might hurt your head but is how Deadfire does it), you subtract the recovery time from the action speed and get a unitless -9%; because it's negative the effect is considered a recovery time penalty, and so the net effect of the -10% recovery time adjustment is that the armor effectively has a +9% recovery time penalty instead of a +20% recovery time penalty. TL;DR: a +20% recovery penalty combined with a -10% recovery time bonus does not equal a net +10% recovery penalty. In fact, the -10% recovery time bonus is actually more powerful than an equivalent recovery time penalty. This will come up again later, and I will go into further detail about the math then. So, as one of the few mandated pieces of gear, you should really have a cosmo pirate pig pet, and you should prioritize getting Miscreant's Leather. It will give you extra protection than cloth and be faster than cloth. Plus, it has a really useful enchantment for this build (Kidney Guard, which reduces received flanked damage by -10%). For the early part of the game before you get the leather, you should otherwise be in +0% recovery time clothing. If you're struggling a bit too much in early game, you can equip other light armor and the cosmo pirate pet. 3.0+ Update We now also have Epsilon as a good pet choice (available in Dunnage). In addition to reduced armory recovery time, its party-wide bonus is extra stride speed, which can be a much more useful bonus than Cosmo's firearms damage obnus. DETAILS - WEAPONS A hatchet and a blunderbuss (along with their proficiencies) are your absolute #1 priorities early on, followed up by a large shield. A hatchet is important because it provides a stacking +3 deflection against melee and its weapon modal applies a -10 accuracy (regardless of attack type) to the enemy, both of which you'll soon see is very important for this build. The blunderbuss is important because Powder Burns applies the Distracted affliction on you every time you attack, and conveniently for the Streetfighter, all Perception afflictions also apply Flanked which will trigger the Streetfighter special. (In fact, I'm sure many people have discovered you can create a stupidly good ranged attacker by just making a Streetfighter equip at least a blunderbuss.) Early on, using a blunderbuss at the start of the fight is a good, safe way to trigger the special, and the powder burns aoe damage is generally so low that it's ok to occasionally hit armored allies with it. Later on, Powder Burns is still a useful way to trigger your special in small fights or when you're isolated by yourself against important targets away from everyone else. An important pickle with gun reloads is that any adjustments to their reload speed is delayed by one reload. This means that after you fire your Powder Burns blunderbuss, the immediate next reload will not benefit from the -50% recovery time bonus. However, subsequent reloads will. I believe this also works in reverse. If you start reloading your blunderbuss while benefiting from the -50% recovery time bonus and Powder Burns wears off, you still benefit from the faster reload until the next time you need to reload (though by then you will already have refreshed it). For this character, you will want to dual-wield your blunderbuss with a melee weapon (early on, a hatchet). Because of game mechanics (even if it doesn't make logical sense), dual-wielding a melee weapon with a ranged weapon means that outside of melee range you only use your ranged weapon, and in melee range you only use your melee weapon, but you do both as if you were dual-wielding, so you get the -30% recovery time bonus from dual-wielding (plus an additional -15% recovery time bonus from two weapon style), even though you're just repeatedly attacking with the same weapon. In fact, in some parts of the game, you may have a melee weapon that is so good that you don't want to switch off with a weaker second melee weapon, which makes it a perfect candidate for pairing with a blunderbuss. In practice, it also means you can blunderbuss, melee, and then re-blunderbuss a ranged target (to re-trigger Powder Burns) without having to switch between weapon slots, which incurs a costly 2s recovery each time. This is a relatively painless (if micromanagement intensive) way to get 100% uptime with your Streetfighter special. Note that blunderbusses have a low range (4-5m, depending) so when you are in this melee/blunderbuss mode you should be cognizant of viable blunderbluss targets, particularly since for a good amount of that range your character will want to melee or take a step in order to melee. It is actually worth shooting your own allies (and positioning them close to do so) because for armored tanky allies they will take negligible damage that is well worth the continued uptime of Heating Up. In the worst case (if you're not engaged by your target), you can just step away from your target and fire at range. This downtime of running back and forth will still be outweighed by the significant damage boost you get from having constant uptime on your Heating Up effect. Do remember that for your first reload you need to give yourself 3-4s of time (depending on stats and gear) though subsequent reloads will only need a little more than a second. At level 4 you pick up large shield proficiency because this build has two very large weaknesses. I'll go into the second one later, but the first and most common weakness is enemy gunfire. See, this build leans on Arcane Veil heavily for protection, and Arcane Veil unfortunately offers no protection against "veil-piercing" attacks, of which enemy gunfire is the most common type. In such a situation, the large shield modal gives you an astounding defense against ranged attacks, -50% to ranged damage, on top of the natively large deflection bonus (coupled with Weapon and Shield Style) that will work against gunfire. It's such an extreme survivability difference that in any fight involving guns (at least early to mid game), you should switch to using a large shield and prioritize taking out the gunners. The downside to the large shield modal is that you are immobile, but fortunately we pick up Escape at level 1, which will let us hop around the map without having to toggle the large shield modal on and off (in addition to providing a nice, gun-effective deflection bonus for a short time). Note that even outside of gunners, many ranged attackers in Deadfire have stupidly high accuracy bonuses for their attacks that it may still be worth switching to large shield in ranged-heavy fights in early-to-mid game, both for the extra deflection, and for the significant damage mitigation. As you go up levels, you'll need to pick up some blunt weapon proficiency for damage diversity. I prefer flails and clubs for two reasons: they are fast (3s base recovery) and their weapon modals let you reduce enemy reflex or will by -25, which is huge. Clubs in particular are good because two of your most important spells (Despondent Blows and Devotions for the Faithful) target will. If you don't want your weapons lots to be oversubscribed, you can give a party member a club to do the debuffing for you. 3.0+ update With some of the rebalancing that has occured since this guide was first written (especially PotD enemy scaling) a weakness that glass cannon builds like this have is penetration. On PotD enemies can sometimes have substantial armor, and if you can't penetrate their armor, a glass cannon can't do the high damage output needed to balance out its relative fragility, which means you're just a fragile character with little upside. As a result, I no longer recommend fast blunt weapons, which lack penetration weapon modals. Instead I recommend diving into maces (which have high inherent penetration and whose weapon modal debuffs armor for everyone in the party), sabres (for access to Animancer's Energy Blade, which does raw damage; you don't technically need the weapon proficiency to take advantage of this, but sabres are just a good class of weapon to have proficiency with early on), and/or stilettos (high inherent penetration, access to Rust's Poignard). Both stilettos and sabres benefit from the Fair Favor hat, which this build already uses. In addition, as I'll mention later, I recommend picking up Champion's Boon instead of Searing Seal for the extra penetration from the Tenacious inspiration. This character will also pick up dagger proficiency. For reasons that I'll elaborate on in a moment, the weapon modal isn't too important, but what is valuable is getting the Fair Favor hat and getting a Marux Amanth soulbound to your priest class. Fair Favor gives you hit-to-crit and bonus crit damage with daggers (among other weapons). Marux Amanth has very useful abilities for this character when fully unlocked: Worthy Sacrifice (which is an instakill against Near Death targets if you hit them), Corona of the Soul (10% chance for a decent burn aoe effect), and Echoes of Faith (10% chance to re-cast any priest spell a half second after the initial cast). Echoes of Faith is a particularly good ability; 10% isn't very common, but when it does happen can be a tide-changingly good effect. We actually pick up certain spells basically because they would be really good to have duplicated (Pillar of Faith, Pillar of Holy Fire, Cleansing Flame). Still others get good benefit (Salvation of Time), and at the very least you get double chances to afflict enemies with Despondent Blows or Devotions for the Faithful. Corona of the Soul is also a decent ability and works well with this character because we will be attacking so fast that we'll be close to maximizing the number of times we can proc the burn aoe (which does ~10-20 in about ~1.5m) in any given amount of time(*). As an extra plus, imagine that the Marux Amanth is the Deadfire equivalent of Umezawa's Jitte from above . (*) Funnily enough, while trying to test some Deathblows-related issues, I discovered that Corona of the Soul has its damage boosted by damage modifiers that affect any weapon, including Deathblows itself (and any lash effect). This appears to apply to any weapon-based proc. (See below screenshots--click to enlarge--the left is a Corona of the Soul proc in the combat log and the right is a Sungrazer proc in the combat log, though unlike Corona of the Soul it doesn't have a special name in the combat log. I also tested some other procs and verified those get boosted, too.) This is both a general thing to keep in mind for your own builds, especially rogues who can sneak attack and Deathblows, but is especially good for a Streetfighter who can easily get an additional +50% from Heating Up and a further +100% from critting while On The Edge. As far as other unique weapons go, steal Xoti's Sickle as soon as you can, you'll be able to put better use to it. Not only does it have the benefit of having two damage types unlike other hatchets (giving you much-needed damage diversity), but its power-up effect (additive +5% plus .5% per religion skill to sickle damage until end of fight, up to 4 stacks) is very good and likely to trigger since this character will be doing a lot of finishing blows. I highly recommend you enchant it to have Urgent Harvest, which gives you 15% plus .5% per religion skill action speed bonus to Xoti's Sickle the moment any enemy dies anywhere, regardless of whether or not you did the killing blow. Importantly, due to stacking rules (which I'll go into further later), this combines with the Streetfighter special, with Potions of Deftness, etc so you can get stupidly fast attack speeds with the sickle. Mid-to-late game better hatchet options will open up. Acolyte's can be straight up better than a Xoti's Sickle because its Freezing Lash is always active (whereas Xoti's Sickle needs to power up upon kills) and is a multiplicative bonus with the total damage you did, which means a +15% freeze damage lash is worth much more than a +15% xoti's sickle damage. The combination of sneak attack damage (up to +60% additive) and Streetfighter special (another +50% additive) and possibly the Streetfighter On the Edge bonus (another +100% additive from crits) can make that lash worth more than a fully-powered up xoti's sickle. Later on when you have more survivability tools at your disposal and the +3 deflection bonus from a hatchet (or +6 from two hatchets) is less important and the -10 accuracy weapon modal more redundant, you can start ignoring hatchets all together. I like pairing Marux Amanth and Pukestabber together; when Pukestabber is enchanted with Mad Drunk, while under the effects of alcohol, both daggers will have +20% additive damage and +20% action speed; plus, both of them will benefit from the Fair Favor hat. Regardless of what weapons you choose, you'll have three weapon slots each with an important role: one that has a blunderbuss/melee pair, one for dual-wielding, and one for a large shield. Your dual-wielding one will be your main slot past the early game, but you'll need to be ready to switch to one of the other slots as the situation demands. And be sure to have damage type diversity, because this character will lose a lot of steam if you're stuck in a 25% No Pen situation against most of the foes in an encounter. In fact, I recommend keeping your high penetration backup weapon as your blunderbuss/melee pair - this is essentially your "boss mode" set up where you can both do high penetration and trigger self-flank at will throughout a long fight without having to repeatedly weapon switch. 3.0+ update There have been some random changes to how dual-wielding a ranged weapon and a melee weapon work. First, you can no longer attack destructibles at range if you are main-handing a melee weapon; your ranged weapon must be in your main hand. Second and more relevantly for this build, you cannot actually engage enemies unless you are main-handing a melee weapon. This is important because a good crutch for this build was to main-hand the blunderbuss, so that the range indicator properly indicates the range of the firearm so you know how far away to go before it's too far when trying to trigger Powder Burns. You can still do that, but you can no longer engage foes if you do this. Since engagement can be pretty important, if you don't need the visual aid of the blunderbuss range indicator, you should main-hand a melee weapon and keep the blunderbuss in your off-hand. DETAILS - SURVIVING The basic point of this character is getting into dangerous situations to trigger the Streetfighter special and then surviving, which is a harder task when playing on Veteran or Path of the Damned. Before we dive into the many tools that we'll lean on, we need to talk about how effect stacking works in Deadfire. On the face of it, the rule is pretty simple, paraphrasing the in-game cyclopedia: all passive effects stack, but the highest active effect suppresses all other active effects. While the rule is simple, the devil is in the details and thinking through the implications of this is important for your own gameplay. A "passive effect" can be thought of as constant item effects (like a Ring of Minor Deflection), innately triggered item effects (like Xoti's Sickle's Urgent Harvest or its damage boost or Entonia Signet Ring's defense bonuses), and passive class abilities (anything in the passive column and always-on innate effects like the Helwalker's might bonus from wounds). Everything else is an active effect, including weapon modals, paladin auras, and stances. This is relevant because one of the ways that we'll lean on surviving in dangerous situations is by having a high deflection. Veteran min-maxers will know the finer points of getting your deflection to sky-high levels, but the important detail for us is that when it comes to defensive abilities we actually have a lot of redundancy, and surviving will involve avoiding that redundancy. Look at the following table for ways that we will make it harder and easier for enemies to hit us, and what active effects fall into each stacking category (this is not a comprehensive effect of all things in the game, just common ones relevant to this character): +Deflection | +Deflection from Resolve Arcane Veil (+50 vs non-guns)| Any resolve inspiration (+5) Escape (+50) | Ripple Sponge (+2) Mirror Image (+30) | Llengrath's... (+10) | dagger modal (+10) | Coral Snuff (+5) | ------------------------------------------------------------- -Enemy accuracy | -Enemy accuracy from Perception Despondent Blows (-15 melee) | Arkemyr's Wondrous Torment (-10, jumps to -5) hatchet modal (-10) | Any perception affliction (-5) Devotions for... (-10) | Blinded affliction (-10) | ------------------------------------------------------------- -Deflection | -Deflection from Resolve Flanked (-10) | Any resolve affliction (-5) This means that any given time, you can have around a 85-point net swing in your relative deflection to the enemy's accuracy. This is by combining Arcane Veil, a resolve inspiration, a Despondent Blows debuff on the enemy, and a perception affliction on the enemy, though you will likely also have a constant -10 from being flanked. Still a 75-point net swing after being flanked is still pretty huge and this is still ignoring stackable passive effects like the hatchet innate weapon bonus (+3 deflection against melee), Entonia Signet Ring (+2 all defenses per enemy engaging you [which is different from enemies that you engage]), a large shield with weapon and shield style (+12, +6, plus an additional +2 per large shield enchantment level), Cloak of Deflection (+7), Minor Ring of Deflection (+2), Shorewalker Sandals (+1 resolve), etc. However, this also means that if you have Mirror Image active, there is no reason to have your dagger modal active. If you've hit all the enemies nearby with a blinded affliction, there is literally no reason to have your hatchet modal active and casting Devotions for the Faithful could potentially just be a waste of time. Juggling all these various stacking effects will constitute a good chunk of the micromanagement of this character. You certainly could just leave your dagger or hatchet modal on all the time, but you'd be giving up a significant chunk of damage unnecessarily. Now, a big question is, say all enemies nearby are hit with Devotions for the Faithful (-10 accuracy); is it worth the opportunity cost(*) of casting Despondent Blows on top of that (it would be a net change of an additional -5 accuracy)? Similarly, if you are already protected by Arcane Veil, is it worth the time to get a resolve inspiration? The answer, my friend is that defenses offer increasing returns(**). Basically, look at the combat log. If the enemies don't have too much of a negative penalty to their attack roll, then it's probably not worth it. If they have a pretty huge negative penalty (but less than -75), then yes it's probably worth it. Even then, this guideline isn't perfect because if you're trying to get hit to get low enough health to trigger On the Edge or a perma-Heating Up (common later on in the game), then you may never find it worth it to cast even the hard-hitting stuff to begin with. (*) "Opportunity cost" is a crucial concept for this character, and an important concept for any other character. There's an idea that there's an "action economy" in games like Deadfire, that is, you only have enough time to do so many things before combat ends, one way or the other. You certainly could cast every single buff or debuff in your arsenal willy-nilly, but then you'll spend actually very little doing anything of import. When you eventually are able to attack about once/second for a significant amount of damage (40-50 a pop, with potential Corona of the Soul triggers), you'll have to judge very carefully whether it's worth instead spending 3-6 seconds (i.e. giving up 150-300 damage) by casting a spell or using an ability. (**) Defenses offer increasing returns because of the way attack rolls work in Pillars/Deadfire. The higher the relative defenses to an attacker, the more significant each additional point of defense becomes. A pair of examples illustrating this: let's say you have 0 defense against an attacker with 25 accuracy. What would the impact of 5 additional defense be? Well, with Deadfire's rolls, you'll go from being graze/hit/crit by the attacker 100% of the time to 95% of the time. Not much of a change in your total survivability. Now, let's say that you have 95 defense against that same attacker. What would the impact of 5 additional defense be? You'll go from being grazed 5% of the time to never being touched ever again. You will have gone from having finite--if huge--survivability to literally infinite survivability: that enemy could attack you until the heat death of the universe and they will never so much as reduce your health by 1 point, where with a 5% chance to graze they could probably kill you within an hour if you do nothing but stand there. This might sound like an absurd example, but for many types of "The Ultimate" runs for Pillars of Eternity 1 (beat the entire game solo on the hardest difficulty in iron man mode) some fights could literally last for more than an hour and the difference between being grazed 5% of the time and never being touched could be the difference between a successful run and one that fails after many hours of playing. Plus, when you are surrounded by enemies in melee and targeted by enemies at range, even a 5% chance to be grazed can be significant; when there are ten enemies on the battlefield one will be expected to graze you every other attack, which will quickly add up to something fatal if you aren't killing things quickly). You'll note that I list Escape as a source of deflection. And while it lasts an extremely short time (3s), with decent intellect and stuff like Meppu/Roe it can last almost 5s. Early on it can be a way to get some extra emergency protection without burning an Arcane Veil (especially since you don't have many other non-situational Guile-spenders you can potentially just chain together a bunch of Escapes to your current location since it has only a .5s base action time and no recovery), and at all points in the game can be used so that you can jump straight behind enemy lines and have a few seconds of unconditional +50 deflection protection to buff yourself or do something else. (If you want to be tricky, you can use Salvation of Time to extend the unconditional +50 defense of Escape by 20 seconds.) Now, it's important to highlight that this character is not intended to be an immortal riposte build. We could just leave a large shield equipped and stack on all sorts of bonuses to be untouchable, but frankly I find that playstyle boring (I did that for my own The Ultimate achievement run and while it was certainly impregnable it was also tedious). What we really just shoot for is enough defenses and debuffs to not be squished into oblivion within a few seconds of being flanked, so that we can go on a killing rampage. This character picks up riposte not because we are going to rely on it for as a centerpiece for our damage, but as an accent of some additional damage in certain situations (which we maximize by dual-wielding since riposte does a full attack). In fact, in the late game, we may just want to deliberately get to near death ourselves and not worry so much about defenses, which leads me to another aspect of the survivability equation: CAN NOT DIE EFFECTS If you played Pillars of Eternity 1 with a priest, you'll be forgiven for ignoring Barring Death's Door and similar effects in Deadfire, since the effect in Pillars 1 was pretty lame. All they did was prevent you from dying, and dying in Pillars of Eternity 1 meant getting knocked down to 0 health (as opposed to 0 endurance), which would have been a permadeath instead of just a knockout. What Barring Death's Door and similar effects do in Deadfire is prevent anything from reducing your health below 1 (even instant kill effects from something like Death Ring). Fortunately for the Streetfighter, one way to trigger Heating Up is to get Bloodied or lower, and the only way to get On The Edge is a combination of being Bloodied or lower and being flanked. Both Barring Death's Door and Potion of the Final Stand give us a nearly foolproof way to trigger Heating Up and sustain On The Edge. But both Potion of the Final Stand and Barring Death's Door have low base duration. It's for this reason why we pick up something like Prayer for the Spirit (+5 intellect means an extra +25% of base duration for Barring Death's Door), invest in Alchemy (+5% duration per point in Alchemy to Potion of the Final Stand), and love food/drink like Meppu/Roe (+15% beneficial effect duration, additively stacks with intellect and power level scaling) and importantly why one of our most important late-game spells is Salvation of Time (+10 seconds to beneficial effects but as of 1.2 actually grants +20 seconds at least the first time you cast it per encounter). This stuff also helps Arcane Veil--which has a fairly short duration as well--but is more critical for these "can not die" effects because the moment they wear off with you at 1 health, you are probably going to be knocked out. This leads to the second of this character's weaknesses, and it is Arcane Dampener. It's not too common for much of the game, but during the Paradise of the Mind quest and Nemnok the Devourer quest, literally every enemy wizard will try to hit you (and especially this character) with Arcane Dampener at least once; will Arcane Dampener temporarily suspend any current protections for a long time. You can try to hope that your will defense--which will be sizable thanks to a high intellect (buffed further by Prayer for the Spirit)--protects you, but this hope is dangerous because even a graze will dispel all your protections for a few seconds, which is more than enough time for you to be interrupt-locked to your death. You have two main approaches. First, you can try to use Smoke Veil to go invisible the moment you see the Arcane Dampener icon appear above wizards' heads (they tend to all cast it at the start of the fight, so if you see one you will probably see a lot) and let the enemy wizards re-target it to another member of your party who is less reliant on spell protection for survival. Second, you can try to use Smoke Grenade/Smoke Cloud or something like Grenades or Concussion Bombs to interrupt them while they are trying to cast it. This is very risky because if you miss you don't get another chance to interrupt them, so generally prefer the first approach. Either way, you should then eliminate the enemy wizards with extreme prejudice, because some of them will hang on to their third level spell cast to try again later. DETAILS - CONSUMABLES In addition to blunderbussing with Powder Burns or charging in to get flanked/brought to Bloodied quickly, an additional way you are going to get uptime with Heating Up and On The Edge is with explosives. Sparkcrackers is the way to do it for much of the game, since it will afflict you with Distraction and with a high explosives skill can last ~30s on a hit. The catch is that it needs to hit deflection first, so it will not work very well if you have already buffed your deflection or are in the middle of an Escape. A smaller catch is that your Intellect and possibly your Resolve are high, so your will defense will be high, making it hard for Sparkcrackers to hit, so only do this if you're desperate for a buff or are under the effects of Deadeye, Potion of Deftness, or something like Potion of Perfect Aim (all of which will give you a modest boost to accuracy). Do note that with a modest intellect, Sparkcrackers will attempt to hit you twice: one upon contact and once again a second later; its distraction effect triggers every second and Sparkcrackers actually has a base aoe duration of 1s.(*) (*) Note that patch 1.2 significantly weakened the effects of Deadeye and Potion of Deftness (no additional accuracy from alchemy) and somewhat weakened Sparkcrackers (no extra duration scaling from intellect). If all else fails, you can use Cinder Bombs (or rely on a friendly wizard to cast something like Chill Fog). Unlike Sparkcrackers, Cinder Bombs don't need to hit deflection first and instead of targeting will targets reflex which may not be as high if you have a perception affliction. Note that the blinded affliction is much worse for you than being distracted, because in addition to being flanked and losing 5 perception, you will also have an additional -10 accuracy penalty and a severe +50% recovery time penalty. However, even though the +50% recovery time penalty has the same magnitude as Heating Up's -50% recovery time bonus, the recovery time bonus is much more powerful than an equivalent magnitude penalty, and so you will still gain a significant speed up from being blinded(*). Cinder Bombs can also be used suicidally in a pinch if you want to lose some health to either trigger On The Edge or get into Heating Up in the first place, but do pay attention to that ongoing damage because it would be stupid if you ended up actually killing yourself. In higher-level fights, Cinder Bombs can also be a useful protection since if you're blinded you cannot be hit by Fampyr's Dominating or Charm Gaze. (Theoretically, blinding enemies also blocks them from using gaze attacks, but as of 1.1.1 this is bugged and doesn't work.) (*) This point comes up again and seems confusing, and is a minor disagreement I have with MaxQuest's otherwise excellent work on action speed; in the pinned post he asserts that all maluses (through something he calls "double-inversion") are stronger than their equivalent magnitude bonuses. This may be true for damage, but is not quite the right way to think about this in terms of action/recovery because action/recovery has different "native units" depending on whether it's a bonus or a penalty. The true complexity is left for the appendix, but for here it serves us just to remind you that because of the different "native units" a -50% recovery time bonus is not countered by a +50% recovery time penalty. Instead, if you are at all familiar with investing or finance, it's related to why if your investment loses 10% of its value one year, you actually need more than a 10% gain the following year to make up for it, because you're starting from a smaller base. In fact, let's stick with this investment analogy and swap in numbers from Deadfire here: imagine you had $1000 worth of stocks that lost 50% of its value one year. What return would you need the next year to make it back? If you lost 50% of your $1000, you are down to $500. So you would actually need a 100% return (doubling your money) the next year to get your money back. And in fact, this holds true for the blinded/Heating Up interaction. For the blinded affliction to cancel out the -50% Streetfighter recovery time bonus, it would need to be a +100% recovery time penalty. Sure enough, you can verify this in-game by looking at your weapon recovery time and then blinding yourself. Even though you have a +50% time penalty from being blinded your recovery time will go significantly down. To get the magnitude of the specific effect, we have to convert to our native units; -50% recovery time bonus is natively a +100% action speed during your recovery; a +50% recovery time penalty is already in its correct native unit; we take the +100% and subtract the +50% recovery time penalty; the answer is positive, so we treat it as an action speed adjustment of +50%, or a net recovery time bonus of -33% which is still significant. Yes, this math is weird. Other than those explosives, you should load up on whatever else floats your boat. Remember that, like weapons, explosives have a short action time and a longer recovery, so the Streetfighter with their special will be able to spam explosives like nobody's business. because of this Grenade and Concussion Bombs are a little less useful than others because spamming bombs is a little harder to do when Grenade and Concussion bombs are knocking everyone around. For alchemical uses, Deadeye and Potions of Deftness are mostly there as accuracy bonuses (though the action speed bonus from the potions of deftness is a nice plus), not just for landing Sparkcrackers but also because even with 17 perception there's a high likelihood that you have a perception affliction, so you are going to find that sometimes you need the accuracy help. Note that once you get Devotions for the Faithful, you can just use that for a powerful if slower accuracy boost (though it may be too slow for just trying to trigger Sparkcrackers early on since you'll have to go through at least one slow spell recovery from Devotions before attempting a Sparkcrackers).(*) (*) As of patch 1.2, Devotions for the Faithful's +10 accuracy bonus is the best active common accuracy bonus that I can immediately think of. This is because patch 1.2 significantly nerfed all consumables but in particular Deadeye and Potion of Deftness by no longer letting their accuracy bonuses scale upwards with your alchemy skill, so Devotions's +10 bonus got significantly better as a result. In addition, Devotions is special because most other accuracy bonuses come from being perception inspirations (like Fighter's Disciplined Barrage), so the +10 accuracy will stack freely with other perception inspirations and importantly for this build won't counter perception afflictions. Potions for the Final Stand are a good, if uncommon, supplement to Barring Death's Door (and your main option--aside from a friendly Shieldbearer Paladin--before you get Barring Death's Door). Potion of Impediment meshes extremely well with the Streetfighter's ultra-low-recovery rate for weapon attacks; as of 1.2 you no longer get effect scaling with alchemy but with a 30% interrupt chance and a fast attack rate you can still prevent a dangerous enemy from getting much done (interrupts, in addition to countering any active ability adds a little extra time to their current recovery). And lastly, a major weakness is that the Streetfighter/Wael lacks a lot of good ways to penetrate enemy armor (you won't be picking up any weapon modals that give you bonus penetration, and there are no armor penetration skills), so when you can, keep a Potion of Piercing Strikes ready to give you bonus penetration for big, hard fights.(*) For much of the game, you'll also want Potions of Minor Healing (nothing stronger) just to help you when your health gets too low. (*) Due to the fact that damage maluses are significantly stronger than damage bonuses due to double-inversion, under-penetration can lead to severe loss of damage. 25% underpenetration cancels out upwards of +300% worth of damage bonuses (it's a similar situation to a -75% recovery time bonus requiring an equivalent +300% recovery time penalty to cancel out), which is well more than what even a Streetfighter that is On the Edge and critically sneak attacking can put out. Even just going up to a 50% underpenetration (which only cancels out +100% worth of damage bonuses) can actually more than double your damage output. E.G. a neutral might, level 20 streetfighter/wael on the edge, sneak attacking, critically hitting, at 25% underpenetration would have a net damage adjustment of almost -40% (-3 + .6 + .5 + 1 + .25 = -.65 => 1/1.65 = .61 => -39%) whereas just managing to go up to even 50% underpenetration would have a net damage adjustment of +35% (-1 + .6 + .5 + 1 + .25 = 1.35 => +35%) which is a 2.25x increase in damage. Shows you how important penetration can be. DETAILS - MISCELLANEOUS SPELLS AND ABILITIES As mentioned before, we pick up Pillar of Faith, Pillar of Holy Fire, and Cleansing Flame just to do some extra damage and cause some interrupts (for Pillar of Faith), and hopefully trigger a Marux Amanth double-cast. Remember that opportunity cost is very important; make sure with all of these that you are doing something that, on its own, is worth giving up the melee damage you are foregoing by not auto-attacking instead. For Pillar of Faith, that means trying to interrupt several enemies in one go (remember that the prone itself targets Fortitude whereas the damage targets Reflex). Pillar of Holy Fire against groups of enemies (and potentially yourself if you're trying to trigger Bloodied). Cleansing Flame to eliminate enemy buffs and when it looks likely you'll get some good jumps off of it. Holy Meditation is just for some early resolve inspiration if needed, and later on as a way to cancel out a growing number of ways that enemies can Terrify your party. This character doesn't have many offensive abilities, so Frightened is not actually that big a deal, though the resolve hit can be a liability. Searing Seal is there as an additional source of blind and a way to lure enemies and blind them for free. That's because if you cast a spell outside of combat and you stay out of combat for a few seconds, you get that spent resource back. For many abilities this is not too useful. Seals, however, have a long duration. So you can cast it, wait for your resource to come back, and either lure enemies into it or wait for them to walk over and be hit by it. In fact, so long as you cast it a decent distance from enemies away, but still close enough to alert them by its noise, they will walk over the seal and be affected just after you get your 5th level spell cast restored. Because your 5th power level of spells is going to be oversubscribed (Barring Death's Door is just so good in this build), an opportunity for a free blind is too good to ignore. 3.0+ update I no longer recommend Searing Seal and instead recommend Champion's Boon. Champion's Boon solves several problems for us. First, it gives us +2 penetration from its Tenacious inspiration; this won't stack with a sabre or stiletto weapon modal, but will stack with the mace effect (because the mace gets extra penetration by implementing it as a debuff on the enemy, not as a buff on yourself) and importantly is the only consistent way we have to boost the penetration of daggers. In fact, for daggers this is better than a weapon modal because most other bonus penetration weapon modals give you a significant recovery penalty, whereas Tenacious gives us the +2 penetration without any drawback. The second and smaller perk is that Champion's Boon gives us +3 engagement. Combined with Persistent Distraction, this means up to four nearby enemies will be Distracted. Combined with the inherent Resolute inspiration Champion's Boon gives you, this is a net 10-point hit chance swing in your favor, in a way that stacks with accuracy penalties from Despondent Blows or Devotions of the Faithful or the hatchet weapon modal. It also means your Riposte attacks have an easier chance to hit on virtually anyone attacking you. The downside to this choice is that we no longer have a "free" spell like we did with Searing Seal. Because Barring Death's Door is so important for survival, you really should evaluate your combat situation carefully and weigh whether or not you are going to need the bonus penetration or you're going to need to prevent death/trigger On The Edge. We pick up Smoke Cloud solely as a prerequisite for Smoke Grenade. And we pick up Smoke Grenade for two reasons: as an additional fast interrupt, and as a way to help enable Deathblows. Persistent Distraction will take care of Deathblows for you automatically (the free flanked that perception afflictions bestow counts as a second affliction), but Smoke Grenade will be useful for triggering Deathblows on enemies you are not able to engage and for situations where the enemy is resistant to perception afflictions (you get the weakened effect from Smoke Grenade, and then rely on either manual flanking or some other explosive or party member to apply another affliction). If you have no problem with keeping near 100% Deathblows up-time without Smoke Grenade's help and don't mind the friendly fire, you can pick up Pernicious Cloud instead for the extra damage. 3.0+ update I added a story choice to the build--to be snarky at the gods when they first summon you after leaving Port Maje. This is because this unlocks the Wit of Death's Herald upgrade to your Death's Herald watcher ability (it also fits in with Wael's preferred disposition of being clever, coincidentally). Wit of Death's Herald adds on an intellect inspiration to the base effect, so is a "free" way to cast Prayer for the Spirit once/rest without using up a PL3 slot. DETAILS - STATS The last part of this is just the easiest: why are stats the way they are? Intellect is the only mandatory max-out, because you want to squeeze as much duration and area of effect out of everything you have. Resolve/deflection is an important stat, but after the consumable nerfs of patch 1.2, this build really needs the accuracy help due to perpetually being hit with a perception affliction (and no longer able to rely on Deadeye or Potions of Deftness with a high alchemy), so we actually skip resolve and invest in perception instead. We'll eventually get Shorewalker Sandals for its +1 Resolve to get up to 10, but we don't actually want more than that, because patch 1.2 also weakened Sparkcrackers' duration, so having too high of a resolve will negate many Explosives skill points. Basically we'll rely on deflection-boosting buffs, enemy-accuracy-penalizing debuffs, and Holy Meditation for our survivability instead of requiring a high inherent resolve. If things are too rough for you early game, you can put on a Cloak of +7 Deflection or some resolve boosting gear or some such, but as you get more tools you will generally want to dump some of that stuff just so that it can be easier to self-Sparkcrackers when you need to. (By contrast, we like Entonia Signet Ring because its defense bonus only occurs while you are actively engaged by enemies and you frequently are going to be doing Sparkcrackers while you aren't actively being engaged yet. Perfect for this build.) A lower resolve means we're going to get hit more regardless of what we do, so we don't dump constitution anymore. We don't have the spare points to invest in it, but we also don't want to make ourselves squisher than we need to be. In fact we pick up Tough later on for extra buffer room against high-impact enemy spells/abilities, but it's really a double-edged sword. More health means you can stay at Bloodied or below for longer, and there's more room for mistakes (like not paying attention to the fact that your Arcane Veil just ran out or that your Arcane Veil isn't doing anything because the enemy is using guns even while you melee them), but it also means it takes a lot longer to get to Bloodied. Whatever might adjustments you make here will be generally dwarfed by the huge amount of damage bonuses you'll get from a Streetfighter sneak attack (the base +30% plus power level scaling, plus the +50% from the Heating Up special). We opt for a neutral score to put the points elsewhere (and we want to avoid a penalty because damage penalties are stronger than bonuses). We put points into dexterity because action speed stuff has linear returns (see appendix) so we'll be able to be even faster, and importantly our spell cast times aren't affected by the Streetfighter special (just their recovery), so dexterity is the main way we'll make our spell casts a little more nimbler. (Picking up Rapid Casting later on will help, too.) Wood elf background is pretty important for its Dexterity affliction resistance. This character really wants mobility, and being able to shrug off hobbling, and convert a near-lethal Paralyze into a not-bad-at-all Immobilize is pretty valuable. You can find gear that provides Dexterity resistance, but this way you can reserve those inventory slots for more interesting stuff. CONCLUSION/PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Whew! That was a lot of text to read. If you made it this far, congratulations! And I hope you learned a thing or two. If this build still sounds really abstract to you, here are a couple typical examples of mid-to-high level encounters and how an Umezawa would handle it. SCENARIO: mixed group of melee 0. already affected by deadeye. 1. main tank charges in, unstealthed, while Umezawa is still stealthed. Targets self with a Sparkcrackers with ~70% accuracy (which is almost a guarantee to graze/hit, and the will effect will be likely to at least graze), if the main tank pulled right maybe an enemy gets affected too. 2. Escape towards the bulk of the enemies. While you still have the +50 Escape bonus active, make sure hatchet modal is enabled (in case Riposte procs you can debuff enemy accuracy), and then self-buff with Prayer for the Spirit and then cast Despondent Blows before disabling your hatchet modal and then casting Arcane Veil. 3. DPS everything down. Throw some bombs if you feel like it. Re-cast Arcane Veil if necessary. If fight is still going on and you're out of Arcane Veil, self-empower, chain Escapes together, use Mirror Image, etc. SCENARIO: high-level mixed group of melee and casters 1. Charge in. Notice that casters start casting Arcane Dampener. 2. Use Smoke Veil to go invisible. Continue to run Umezawa towards the back while the Arcane Dampener gets retargeted to your other party members. 3. Unstealth by throwing Sparkcrackers at point-blank range with one of the back casters, hopefully affecting yourself with Distraction. Cast Prayer For the Spirit, then Barring Death's Door as enemies reconverge on you. 4. Let them bring you down to 1 health and flank you while you DPS the caster down (you can also self-target with Pillar of Holy Fire to help bring your health down), and Escape to target the next caster. If you see another Arcane Dampener start getting fired, use Smoke Veil or Smoke Grenade. 5. When all the casters are gone, DPS everything else down. Use Salvation of Time for extra Barring Death's Door time. If you're in a situation where Riposte could be relevant and you're already at 1 health, go ahead and use Arcane Veil just for the added damage from your counterattacks. If you run out of Salvations of Time and Barring Death's Door, self-empower for another round of both. SCENARIO: "deal with it" nemnok fight. 1. Let main tank unstealth and trigger everything. 2. While stealthed, Umezawa either Powder Burns or self-Sparkcrackers. 3. Carpet bomb the area with Lightning Bombs and whatever else you got (Immolator, Frost Bombs, Blister Bomb) and mix in a couple of Smoke Grenades to lower enemy fort/reflex and reduce their ability to heal back from this hellscape you're creating. 4. Watch the entire enemy fight disappear under a hail of bombs exploding every other second. SCENARIO: single-enemy tough fight 0. Start off with deadeye already enabled. 1. Start off with your melee/blunderbuss weapon slot, the melee weapon being a fast (base 3s recovery) weapon. If you are able to land a non-graze self-sparkcrackers, switch to your dual-wield. Otherwise stay with this weapon slot and just find ways to keep Powder Burns uptime for the rest of this scenario. 2. Drink Potion of Impediment. (The interrupt chance from this and Deadeye are multiplicative with each other, so you'll have a net 40% [1 - .7 * .85] chance of interrupting with any given attack.) 3. Attack the enemy with a fast weapon. While as of 1.2 you won't completely interrupt-lock the enemy, attacking almost every second with a 40% chance to interrupt will turn down the danger level of any given tough enemy a lot. 4. Use Salvation of Time if necessary. Use Cinder Bomb, Pillar of Holy Fire, or other explosive to get your health down if you also want to be On The Edge while doing this. ALTERNATIVES After having dug up how monastic unarmed training works, I suggest two alternatives that rely on picking up Monastic Unarmed Training instead of Fast Runner. (You can pick up Fast Runner later in lieu of e.g. Holy Meditation or Pillar of Faith). TL;DR: Monastic Unarmed Training gives you potentially extremely fast, high-penetration weapons, but you need to find bonus sources of PL to really get mileage out of it (ideally at least +3, hopefully even +6). Option 1: Nature Godlike Until you pick up Champion's Boon you are going to a friendly party member who can buff you with a body inspiration, but you get +1 PL, and then you can get up to another +2 PL from either food (+1 PL) or a Potion of Ascension (+2 PL). +2 PL is enough to get you better-than-superb fists pretty early on, though not quite enough to get better-than-legendary, so you'd need to start crafting/buying Potions of Ascension on a regular basis to get to better-than-legendary scaling (at level 19). This is the "consistent" option, but is dependent on party composition. Option 2: Death Godlike For much of the game you won't get much bonus PL, but once you unlock Barring Death's Door, you can hover around Near Death for +3 PL, with the possibility of another +2 PL form either food (+1 PL) or a Potion of Ascension (+2 PL). +3 PL is enough to get you better-than-legendary fists by the end of the game (level 19), and conditionally +5 PL will get that for you by level 13. Unfortunately I don't think there exists another way to stack on another +1 PL to get better-than-mythic fists by the end of the game, at least without exploiting a bug(*). If there does exist another source, do let me know (it would have to be a non-class/keyword-specific PL bonus that comes from an item). This is the "spikey" option, but doesn't require you to have a body-inspiration-buffing-capable party member. (*) The Heart-Chime Amulet (reward for Pallegina's quest) is supposed to give you a variable bonus as a godlike or watcher, but is currently bugged to always give you the bonus that a Moon Godlike should get, which is a +1 PL stackable bonus. You can use it here to get +6 PL, but be warned that Obsidian will fix this bug and it's only a matter of time before this loophole goes away. In either option your main dual-wielding set of weapons will be your fists, which you can treat as fast blunt weapons with bonus inherent accuracy, damage, and penetration and a +30% damage lash. The weapon modal proficiency for fists is an additional +2 penetration, so you could theoretically re-drop Champion's Boon and bring back Searing Seal. You'll have a strong early game due to how the monastic unarmed training talent works, and the bonus PL will help ensure that you continue to scale at a reasonable pace. Though you need to be a Death Godlike comfortable with dancing with Barring Death's Door to really take advantage of it; fortunately for this build lots of good things happen at near death, so you'd be really leaning into that "glass cannon" philosophy. You're giving up a head slot, but this build was mostly using it for Fair Favor, which you don't need if you're busy punching everything in the face. REJECTED APPROACHES One immediate alternative approach to an Umezawa build you might think of is to pair a Streetfighter with an Illusionist, or at least a Wizard. You get a lot more opportunity-cost-worth-it damage spells and ways to afflict enemies. You also get Infuse With Vital Essence with is like a super-charged version of Prayer for the Spirit (since you are mostly using it as a self-buff in this build anyway). Plus, the Wizard has access to Wizard's Double, which, with a sufficiently high deflection, its duration-less unconditional +40 deflection is the best defensive spell you can use. The problem is that the Wizard actually has its defensive spells inefficiently distributed for our purposes. Both Arcane Veil and Mirror Image are at PL2, which means a Priest of Wael actually effectively gets twice as many casts as the wizard, since for the priest Arcane Veil is at PL1 and Mirror Image is at PL3. The fact that Arcane Veil is a PL1 is also a bigger deal than you may think. For one, early-game (Port Maje) 1.1 Path of the Damned is a fair challenge, and a wizard multiclass won't get two casts of PL2 spells until level 7, which is after when you probably most desperately need it. In addition, there are several resting effects in the game that give you a bonus +1 level spell cast (The Wild Mare and the Luminous Adra Bathhouse immediately come to mind). This is great for a Priest of Wael because it potentially means 3 casts of Arcane Veil, plus an additional 2 upon a self-empower. There's basically no equivalent for a wizard. And while Wizard's Double is good, it won't be that good for much of the early game because your deflection just won't be high enough to really milk it for what it's worth, and by the time you can take advantage of it, the Wael version will be picking up new tricks. Speaking of which, wizards lack the following spells that really help tie the Umezawa together: Despondent Blows, Devotions for the Faithful, Barring Death's Door, and Salvation of Time. It makes for some great general party utility and combat versatility. While I'm sure there is a great Streetfighter/Wizard build out there, I am fairly confident that for this specific playstyle (as opposed to an immortal high-deflection riposte build, which a wizard could do better) Streetfighter/Wael is the way to go. The Umezawa build as of now is also not a solo PotD build. A soloable version of Umezawa would be closer to an immortal, high-deflection riposte build, because the way this build is now the Umezawa is a team player. Frankly, without a lot of delicate pulling of enemies or just constantly equipping a large shield, there's just no way that the Umezawa can sustain all the enemy hate in the world because while your deflection is high to mitigate a significant portion of damage, it's not going to be high enough. Even with access to Barring Death's Door, encounters would probably just take too long and you'll be left out of steam with enemies still standing. Umezawa can work great in smaller-than-5 parties, but a completely soloable build would likely be unrecognizable to the one being presented here today. NOTES FOR MAGRAN'S FIRES Abydon: not recommended. This build leans hard on certain unique weapons and armor and you can really run up an expensive repair bill versus other characters that can use generics instead. Berath: nothing relevant to worry about. Eothas: nothing relevant to worry about. Galawain: be on the look out for Unstoppable and Bullish enemies. Unstoppable can't be afflicted, but they can be flanked; important to keep in mind for keeping your DPS up. Bullish enemies interrupt and knock back at will, so make sure you don't drop your best deflection bonuses (Arcane Veil or Escape) before trying to cast something at point-blank range. Magran: if you can pull off this build along with a party on this challenge you should probably quit your job and become a professional DOTA or Starcraft 2 player. Skaen: if you want to use this character to help illuminate things, the sabre proficiency is more important early on, and then you can use the sabre-torch. If you don't have access to the sabre-torch, well... *shrug*. Normal torches are still usable but represent a huge DPS loss. APPENDIX: LINEAR RETURNS I made the assertion earlier that speed adjustments offers linear returns. I've fought similar debates re: World of Warcraft and Diablo 3, and I'll fight it again now. But before we go onto my analysis and conclusion, we need to be clear what we mean by "linear returns." If you've taken calculus, then the easiest way to express what "linear returns" means is that for a given differentiable function f where f'' is the second-derivative and f consumes a stat x to yield a metric y, then if f(x) = y, ∃x₀: ∀x > x₀ f''(x) = 0. Putting it into words, we mean that after a certain point for x the second-derivative of f(x) is 0. Analogously, "increasing returns" is when f''(x) > 0, and "diminishing returns" is when f''(x) < 0. Put in less math-y speak, a stat has "linear returns" when for a given absolute change in that stat, the resultant metric always yields the same absolute change as well, regardless of what our starting point was. By contrast a stat has "increasing returns" when for a given absolute change in the stat, the resultant metric yields continually larger absolute changes the higher our initial stat was. Similarly a stat has "diminishing returns" when for a given absolute change in the state, the resultant metric yields continually smaller absolute changes the higher our initial stat was. A key point to this is properly identifying what the "metric" is. The poster child for this is resolve(deflection) and perception(accuracy). I've talked to and read posts by people who assume that because +1 deflection gives the enemy a -1 penalty on the attack roll and a +1 accuracy gives you a +1 on the attack roll that deflection and accuracy have linear returns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because the actual metric is "effective health." That is, how much effective health do you have? And as this is the true metric it becomes very clear that deflection/resolve has increasing returns, because at very low deflection another point hardly matters, but at the top-end each point of deflection is so important that eventually it gives you infinite survivability. Accuracy, by contrast, has diminishing returns, because it's the flip side to that deflection equation. When you go from missing all the time to grazing some of the time, you just got an infinite increase in your damage potential (which was previously zero). However, when you already have accuracy so high that you are critting all the time, another point of accuracy will do literally nothing. With regards to action speed and recovery times, a lot of people get hung up on the fact that when it comes to speed adjustments, the more bonuses you have the smaller your reduction in your action time and recovery time, and they therefore conclude that therefore the returns are diminishing. This is wrong for two interrelated reasons. One, the action time/recovery time is not actually the metric. It is in fact just a mere component of our true metric, and is in fact the denominator. Two, because it is the denominator for our true metric, the smaller our starting value, the smaller the change needs to be to accomplish the same net effect. For example, reducing your recovery time by .1s when you're starting at 1.5s is way better than reducing your recovery time by .1s when you're starting at 5s. So just the mere fact that you get less recovery time reduction the more action speed you already have does not, by itself, mean you have diminishing returns. Instead, you have to look at the true metric. So what is the true metric? Basically, damage per second, or damage over time. More generally, it is "how many things can we accomplish in a given amount of time?" Now, does this metric get linear returns from speed bonuses? Or is it diminishing? Or is it increasing? Let's imagine a hypothetical scenario where you attack and on average do 15 damage to the target, and you do so every 5 seconds. Using the action speed equation, we can draw a graph of how much damage you are capable of doing for different levels of +action speed. See that smooth diagonal line going up(*) in the graph below (click to enlargen)? That's literally the definition of linear returns. (*) Note that for a game like Diablo 2 or Diablo 3, it's not quite this simple. At a certain point, because attack animations are connected to whole numbers of frames (frames as in "frames per second"; whole numbers as in no fractional frames) you start running into a "breakpoints" where you actually get 0 returns for a while until you get enough accumulated attack speed improvements to "round" down to the next lower number of frames per attack. So at a certain point it stops being a smooth diagonal line and starts becoming a steadily embiggening staircase. It averages out to be linear returns, but in truth it no longer really is any sort of well-defined returns because the function is no longer differentiable at that point, which was an important part of defining any kind of returns above. It is possible that at the extreme, Deadfire hits similar issues, but in truth it is clear that Deadfire retains recovery time to two decimal places (even if it rounds to one-decimal place in tooltips), and it is likely that it is impossible to accumulate so much action speed so as to hit "breakpoint" issues. Plus, if Deadfire allows for fractional attack frames, then breakpoints are a non-issue altogether. Now one hiccup here is the fact that the way Deadfire treats adjustments to your action time and recovery time is that it has different native units of measurement depending on whether it's a bonus or a penalty (malus). In effect, the native stat for bonuses is action speed. The native stat for maluses is action time. So when you have a -50% recovery time bonus, it is actually truly a +100% action speed adjustment. However, if you have a -20% action speed penalty, it is actually truly a +25% action time adjustment. Why is this relevant? Because it affects how Deadfire combines the numbers behind the scenes. When you're combining bonuses, you translate anything that's not an action speed into an action speed adjustment and then just add them up; you then optionally reconvert it into whatever unit (recovery time adjustment or action speed adjustment) the tool-tip requires; e.g. a -50% recovery time penalty and a +15% action speed bonus becomes a +100% action speed adjustment and a +15% action speed adjustment which becomes a +115% action speed adjustment for the recovery, which turns into a -53.5% recovery time bonus (and just a -13% action time bonus). When you're combining maluses, you translate anything that's not a recovery time penalty into a recovery time adjustment and then just add them up e.g. two -20% action speed adjustments become two +25% recovery time penalties that add to become a +50% recovery time penalty, which you can then reconvert back for display purposes into a -33% action speed adjustment if needed. When you're combining bonuses and maluses, you convert all bonuses into positive action speed adjustments and sum them, and then convert all maluses into negative recovery time adjustments and sum them, and then you subtract the latter from the former even though they are two completely different units of measure; so a -50% recovery time bonus and a -20% action speed adjustment becomes a +100% action speed adjustment minus a +25% recovery time penalty. The resulting number's unit depends on its sign. If it's positive, the resulting answer is determined to be an action speed adjustment. If it's negative, the resulting answer is determined to be a sign-flipped recovery time penalty. This is needless to say weird. Anyway, this is to say that yes, penalties can drag your numbers down because a -20% action speed is actually much more powerful than a +20% action speed. But unlike what MaxQuest says in his otherwise really useful action speed post, it's not just maluses that do this because of double-inversion (unlike damage penalties). For similar reasons, a -50% recovery time bonus is much more powerful than a +50% recovery time penalty. It's because you have to first convert to the "native units" at which point you see that a -20% action speed is actually a +25% recovery time penalty, which is more powerful than the +20% action speed; and the -50% recovery time bonus is actually a +100% action speed bonus which has a larger magnitude than the +50% recovery time penalty. Yes, again, this is weird and confusing. This odd use of native units of measurement also has an effect on the full understanding of our linear returns. When all you have are action speed bonuses, the linear returns are easy to see as a diagonal graph going up and to the right. When all you have are recovery time penalties, it is trivial to see that e.g. each +10% recovery penalty you add to your 5s recovery is a flat .5 second, which is also linear. But when you are combining bonuses and penalties, things get a little harder to compute and things don't add up as trivially. But if you remember about "native units" then it looks a little less weird that a -75% recovery time bonus can cancel out as much as a +300% recovery time penalty (which can make it intuitively feel like there's increasing returns to time/speed modifiers) or that a -20% action speed penalty outweighs a +20% action speed bonus (which can make it intuitively feel like there's diminishing returns to time/speed modifiers). And this is why it's so important that you get x and y right when analyzing whether for an f(x) = y, that f''(x) = 0 . Now, astute observers will note that with linear returns, the more you have of something, the less any further gain is worth relative to what you already have. MaxQuest has called this "intrinsic diminishing returns" for lack of a better term. I don't quite like the terminology because "diminishing returns" has a specific meaning, but I also don't have a better suggestion. Anyway, it is certainly true that if you have +500% action speed, another net +25% action speed is going to be a relatively less impact than when you had +0% action speed. This point is relevant if you're trying to decide between investing in damage or investing in speed, because to maximize total damage over time you want to balance out your bonuses as much as possible (for the same reason that given a rectangle with sides a and b with a fixed combined length of a + b = c, to maximize the area, a = b. In other words you get more area from being a square than from being an extremely skinny rectangle). But if you're not actively concerned about a tradeoff between damage or speed (such as when choosing how to allocate points between might or dexterity) the fact that the relative gain is less and less is completely irrelevant to whether or not you get linear returns, and sort of an orthogonal point altogether. Why? In general, a good way to think about increasing, linear, and diminishing returns is this: if something has increasing returns you generally want to invest a lot in it; if something has diminishing returns a little bit of investment might be worth it but it's definitely not worth it after a certain point(*); if something has linear returns, you're always going to get value out of it. If instead of this being Deadfire and us talking about speed bonuses, we were instead talking about Baldur's Gate and equipment that gives you bonus damage to weapons (like a pair of gloves that might give you +1 to weapon damage rolls), literally no one would be saying "oh I guess you have +5 total damage bonus now. Not worth getting more" unless it was some sort of tradeoff between equipment that gave you +1 damage or one that gave you +1 extra attack. In fact, everyone would probably be trying to stack on as much weapon damage bonus as possible after maximizing their attacks per round. It's the same thing here. When you're not trading off for damage, there's basically no reason to not get more speed if you can. (*) This is very simplified and glosses over a lot of nuance. Something can have such extremely slow increasing returns that it may never be worth investing in, and something can have such extremely slow diminishing returns that over a reasonable range of stats it may never not be worth investing in. Similarly, if every action speed and recovery time adjustment in Deadfire were suddenly decimated to literally one tenth of their current value, even though speed adjustment would still be linear returns, the gains would be so small that even though they would still be linear returns, you would be getting linear crap returns. The linear returns for investment in speed works out for us players in Deadfire because in large part Obsidian purposefully balanced speed with damage (see the Might/Dexterity correspondence). So that's it. What are you still doing here? Show's over! Hope you found this useful, entertaining, or at least educational!
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