Best melee caster's slayer - need some advice.

[Lonlon]

On 3/17/2022 at 7:39 PM, Boeroer said:

Every regular shot that is not done with an elemental keyword. But in my case that doesn't matter much. The penatly is only -5. But if you use Spearcaster you will get +1 ACC for every point of Arcana. So at 5 Arcana all your regular shots with Spearcaster won't have any acc penatly compared to other weapons - and moving forward with Arcana you will only gain accuracy. Also, as I said: Imbue shots gain ACC via Arcana as well - so with Spearcaster doing an imbue shot you will have an ACC bonus of 2*Arcana skill.   

@Boeroer Question regarding Spearcaster :
What upgrades should I pick ? If I understand correctly the Elemental Bolts (+3% Damage as Burn, Corrode, Freeze and Shock) would negate the malus from arcane archer subclass (because elemental keyword ? right ?), but Arcane Bolts (15% chance to cast Minoletta's Minor Missiles at target on scoring Hit) seems strong too. I'm not sure what to chose here.
Also Pinning (20% chance to Immobilize target on scoring Hit) seems stronger that Skewer (Grants Skewer: Fires a bolt through multiple targets, inflicting 25-30 , pushing them back 5m and setting Immobilized for 10.0 sec if successful. Uses: 2 per rest.) Am I right ?

Also I do not remember if items enchantements can be reset in deadfire ?

[Boeroer]

4 hours ago, Lonlon said:

If I understand correctly the Elemental Bolts (+3% Damage as Burn, Corrode, Freeze and Shock) would negate the malus from arcane archer subclass (because elemental keyword ? right ?)

No, added lashes don't change how an attack is tagged. Either the weapon itself or the ability you are using need to have that keyword. An enchantment usually doesn't add a keyword to the weapon - at least I don't know any enchantment that does. So Elemental Bolts will not negate the malus of an Arcane Archer.

4 hours ago, Lonlon said:

but Arcane Bolts (15% chance to cast Minoletta's Minor Missiles at target on scoring Hit) seems strong too. I'm not sure what to chose here.

I don't think Arcane Bolts is very strong. It doesn't scale like normal Minor Missiles does. Normal Minor Missiles adds projectiles instead of dmg with Power Level. And then some PEN of course. The Missiles of Spearcaster don't gain projectiles. They will profit from weapon quality (+dmg,+PEN and +ACC) though.
To me Arcane Bolts is better because 4 added mini-lashes are more reliable than a 15% chance to proc missiles - and lashes are also multiplicative dmg bonuses which will most likely result in higher additional dps than missiles every 6th or 7th shot which only do 5 base dmg each.
So for me it's always Arcane Bolts. But I didn't use or test the Missiles excessively so maybe there's some combination with an ability or so where it's cool. I haven't discovered one yet.

4 hours ago, Lonlon said:

Also Pinning (20% chance to Immobilize target on scoring Hit) seems stronger that Skewer (Grants Skewer: Fires a bolt through multiple targets, inflicting 25-30 , pushing them back 5m and setting Immobilized for 10.0 sec if successful. Uses: 2 per rest.) Am I right ?

If you are not dismissive of per-rest abilities then it's not an easy choice. In the right situation Skewer is actually pretty good and it scales well. The good thing about x/rest abilities is that you can "spam" them in hard encounters. Two Skewers fired into a crowd in one encouter can make a serious difference. 
Pinning is a good pick if you don't like per-rest abilities much or tend to spare them up until it's too late and then rest without ever using them.
Pinning is also not bad with Driving Flight. But - if you use Imbue:Web a lot (as I do with Spearcaster) then Pinning might be a bit redundant. It's still my favorite pick because it is quite good in very long fights which will become more common in the DLCs.

4 hours ago, Lonlon said:

Also I do not remember if items enchantements can be reset in deadfire ?

Nope! If you decide then it's fixed and you can't get rid of it. However, without using the console you can export a character with the (uncenchanted) item from another savegame, import that chat with the item into your current game and enchant it anew. Will be expensive but possible. You would then have two of those items, each with a different enchantment path. 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Boeroer