And why?

 

I really like minoletta precisely piercing burst !

I like the star shaped visual and the damage numbers which often goes beyond 100 on POTD.

 

Another of my favourite is relentless storm, all these lightnings bolts coming down and stunning every enemy is amazing!

 

- Body Blows (not really an ability but a modal - but one of the most useful effects in the game)

- Driving Roar (just sooo powerful and also so cheap). Best with Blood Thirst + Blood Surge. 

- Whispers of the Wind (especially with dual mortars). Combine with Resonant Touch.

- Vanishing Strikes (with high INT and attack speed- because 100% Backstabs and Assassination is cool)

- Pull of Eora (the best spell if you like AoE abilities). Especially effective when used with an Imbue **** by an Arcane Archer whose shot has 2 jumps (Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight): 3 Pulls with tremendous ACC = nobody escapes.

- Concelhaut's Draining Touch + Essential Phantom (the combo is just fun and powerful)

4 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

- Body Blows (not really an ability but a modal - but one of the most useful effects in the game)

- Driving Roar (just sooo powerful and also so cheap). Best with Blood Thirst + Blood Surge. 

- Whispers of the Wind (especially with dual mortars). Combine with Resonant Touch.

- Vanishing Strikes (with high INT and attack speed- because 100% Backstabs and Assassination is cool)

- Pull of Eora (the best spell if you like AoE abilities). Especially effective when used with an Imbue **** by an Arcane Archer whose shot has 2 jumps (Watershaper's Focus or Fire in the Hole + Driving Flight): 3 Pulls with tremendous ACC = nobody escapes.

- Concelhaut's Draining Touch + Essential Phantom (the combo is just fun and powerful)

Body blows is the morning star modal right? Why is it so useful?

Damn Boeroer  you make me want to try so many builds/abilities !

Never had the occasion to thank you but I always read your posts with interest, thanks for being so helpful and friendly !

Thanks!

Body Blows is so useful because a lot of great and powerful abilities target Fortitude. And usually that's a high defense with most enemies. But Body Blows lowers fortitude by 25 points. And you can have it at lvl 1. -25 defense that early in the game is huge. And it keeps being useful because it stacks with MIG and CON debuffs (further reducing fortitude).

Oh I forgot one:

- Misama of Dull-Mindedness. Great debuff. Is no affliction and thus stacks with those. Tremendous loss of Will and Reflex and also Deflection. Low level, too. Stacks with flail and club modals.

Spirit Tornado

Eld Nary

Bleeding Cuts (axe modal)

Puppetmaster (finally a charm spell that doesn't brake with friendly fire)

Probably a more boring example but Secret Horrors is my favorite ability in the game, especially on a Beguiler: it packs in so much value within half a second and is available early on. Concussive Tranquilizer is up there too. I'm a sucker for disables and interrupts.

I agree that Secret Horrors is really good. 

Also one of the "coolest" abilites: Chillfog.

No really: lvl1 spell that contains a pulse effect that applies a tier-3 affliction on hit for 15 seconds every 3 secs. AND does pulsing damage. 

26 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Also one of the "coolest" abilites: Chillfog.

No really: lvl1 spell that contains a pulse effect that applies a tier-3 affliction on hit for 15 seconds every 3 secs. AND does pulsing damage. 

Although with a base PEN of 5, its damage is nothing to write home about. Still one of the best spells on the wizard list.

Salvation of Time.

After being really kind of lame in PoE1, Salvation of Time in Deadfire really tickles my metagaming brain in a satisfying way.

The coolest ability in my opinion is Instruments of Pain because it so uniquely alters how you can play a build. Melee vs Ranged distance is such a basic game mechanic and being able to fiddle with it really allows for some creativity.

Kinda surprised Autumn's Decay doesn't get brought up much. It scales wonderfully with PL, and with enough INT and MIG, you can spray a group, load up on defensive effects and healing, and just watch everything melt.

Maybe because it's worse than Plague of Insects - and because it is a direct competitor to Insect Swarm. Insect Swarm has the much smaller potential AoE. But is foe only (Autumn's Decy has firendly fire), removes Concentration entirely, does the same dmg per tick as AD but raw (!) and lasts 30% longer. And it can be boosted by +3 PL with the Spine of Thicket Green. Too bad there are no Decay boosts in Deadfire.

That makes IS better than Autum's Decay in my opinion.

AD can still be your favorite of course. Depends a lot on how one plays. Sometimes cone shapes are just better.

I like the initial damage as well. Should probably mention I have mods that add +Decay stuff.

Also wanted to add the Cloak of the Phantasm summons: I've had a blast using it on a ranged character with Frostseeker, preferably a Cipher for foe-only Powers en masse. It was super spicy when paired with Combusting Wounds.

Edited September 4, 20196 yr by Ophiuchus

I once had Living Illusions who carried Spirit Lances summon some Essential Phantoms who also carried Spirit Lances... 😄

3 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I once had Living Illusions who carried Spirit Lances summon some Essential Phantoms who also carried Spirit Lances... 😄

A while back a poster mentioned that Chanter Living Illusions can summon as well. A whole armory of enchanted weaponry would be fun.

 Ranger illusions spawns with animal companions which have full health. Wizard/ranger with cloack and essential Phantom can literally flood enemies with bodies

18 hours ago, Boeroer said:

 

- Vanishing Strikes (with high INT and attack speed- because 100% Backstabs and Assassination is cool)

 

Do you mean Invisibility does not break after your first hit with melee weapon from invisible ?

48 minutes ago, 3x0du5 said:

Do you mean Invisibility does not break after your first hit with melee weapon from invisible ?

It does break in general.  But the high-level T9 Rogue ability Vanishing Strike does NOT break on anything except expired duration.  So if you could extend that duration indefinitely via Salvation of Time, you would be absolutely invulnerable to everything- your victory would only be a matter of time.  And not even a matter of very MUCH time, because you're going to chew everything up fast with backstab/sneak attack/deathblows bonus damage.

Exactly. That's why a SC Rogue should bring lots of INT.

41 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Exactly. That's why a SC Rogue should bring lots of INT.

And Ooblit if Main Character

Substantively, most of my picks have been covered already in this thread, but the coolest ability icon is easily The Long Pain.  (The upgraded versions don't look as nice, IMO.)

Some of the movement abilities are just satisfying to watch, too.  Leap and Launching Kick, in particular.  (The Knock-up on the latter is indeed annoying to manage, but an AoE interrupt is worth a little disruption in my view.)  

Conceptually, all the Chanter abilities are just cool in my book.  All it took was the inclusion of a lot of world-building epic poetry to achieve the otherwise-impossible:  a Bard analogue that wasn't lame. 

are there any other Invisibility effects in pillars Deadfire that do not break after first hit ? this seems to be worth a SC rogue play trough 

20 minutes ago, Elric Galad said:

And Ooblit if Main Character

Or if Edér.

And Strand of Favor! 

19 minutes ago, 3x0du5 said:

are there any other Invisibility effects in pillars Deadfire that do not break after first hit ? this seems to be worth a SC rogue play trough 

Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure doesn't break on applying CC effects if I recall correctly. Only on dealing damage. Or it was not breaking with Walls and Seals because those are considered hazards and the game handles then as independent entity? Something like that. @Raven Darkholmeknows I think.