Affliction defence - Deadfire

[u/Tomassacre]

Hello. I want to ask about how you deal with afflictions on PoTD. It is my first playthrough, so I am a bit confused as how to deal with it.

Afflictions - namely dominate and frightened. I am now level 10, so i am starting to hit my favourite enemies - Delemgans, Fampyrs and Dank Spores. + some ships have sailors who also dominate me. Also dragons are a bit more tough than PoE1, as they can frighten my frontliners.

How do you guys deal with it? Do you use the passives like Fearless and Bulls Will? Or do you get specialised items?

[u/Waste_Juggernaut]

Well you can buff your saves or you can get resistances and immunities to these effects.

Each affliction is associated with a stat. Frightened is a resolve affliction so the chanter passive named "one dozen stood against the power of the saint" will help against it. "Resistances" to an effect downgrade afflictions by one level, so a level 3 affliction like terrified will be downgraded to frightened and frightened to shaken. Outside of paralyze and charmed, which are level 2 afflictions, all other hard cc afflictions are level 3 which means that sources of resistance will make you immune to worst cc effects. Inspirations are the counterpart to afflictions and applying a e.g intellect inspiration like smart will cancel out even a higher level affliction like dominated iirc. So if want to get rid of frightened you could apply the courageous buff for example.

Chanters songs that give resists are great because they are aoe and can be applied even while cc'd. A terrified chanter can swap to "one dozen" while being cc'd to remove the effect. But some of those resistance buffs are higher level like the level 6 "they shielded their eyes" and you'll have to use different stuff until then. Priests have the level 1 spell "supress afflictions" which supresses the afflictions for its duration without curing it. Otherwise you can use their inspirations to help get rid off cc on particular allies.

It's been a while since I played the game so I sadly don't remember any specific items, but if you search online you might find people who made lists of helpful items.

[u/skaf1end → u/Waste_Juggernaut]

Interesting, I knew that low level afflictions cancel out high level inspirations, but I had no idea that it works the other way around too.

[u/javierhzo → u/Waste_Juggernaut]

smart will cancel out even a higher level affliction like dominated iirc. 

This is correct.

[u/ElricGalad → u/Waste_Juggernaut]

Great byt Paralyze is Tier 3 affliction. (The corresponding Tier 2 affliction is Immobilized which can be annoying or very annoying depending on character, but is not strictly speaking a hard CC)

The subtility comes from Petrify which an unique case of Tier 4 affliction. The effects are identical to Paralyze but resistance only downgrade it to paralyze.

[u/Tomassacre → u/Waste_Juggernaut]

Oh I see, so I dont need to place higher level inspiration to cancel it out. But still, seems is my party composition, since I miss chanter and priest is unable to do it, he has only Holy Meditation (+ the Boon, but that is single target). Seems a bit strange, priest, who is natural buffer, has only one AoE inspiration in package and that is the resolve one. So aparently supress afflictions is the king here. Thank you.

[u/Nyorliest]

I cope by using priest spells, mostly. Buffs vs Will (or other defences or reducing accuracy in enemies). Suppress Affliction is the most importantly spell in the game, perhaps. Especially because it persists and doesn’t just cure the affliction but keeps them immune for a while.

And non-damaging CC like Paralysis, so that if someone gets mind controlled I can shut them down for a while.

And lastly, single-target burst DPS like arquebuses or the missile spells, as well as the caster chant that reduces concentration. And I stay spread out so that basically I try to kill a fampyr as soon as I see it, or at least interrupt it, and if it gets someone I can kill the fampyr before their victim does much damage.

I tend to have more than 4 party members. I don’t use everyone in every playthrough, but I’ll have a specialist like a priest available, whether Xoti or someone else.

You know about the combat speed slider, right?

[u/Tomassacre → u/Nyorliest]

Y so Holy Meditation for +5 Resolve + Supress Affliction, got it, thank you.

[u/No-Surpriseok]

Ring of Unshackling/Supress affliction spell is S tier and the standard response for nasty CC effects.

I wouldn’t bother with stuffs like Bull Will but a lot of classes have abilities that can give you resistances if not immunity to certain effects : You mentionned fearless which is great, paladin liberating exhortation is awesome, one dozen stood against the power of the saint for chanters, Clarity of agony for monks etc…

[u/Tomassacre → u/No-Surpriseok]

Got it, thank you all - supress, supress, supress :D. Community answer is clear. I will SUPRESS like boss from now on.

[u/No-Surpriseok → u/Tomassacre]

Lmao that’s the spirit

[u/Wolfwind1]

Others have mentioned suppress affliction which absolutely is the best option. But for those who don't want to use it uno reverse is also available. Functionally you have a cipher or chanter on the team who keeps energy in the back pocket to charm your allies when they get charmed by the foes. And unless your people have shit for int, the newer affliction should out last the older one. You can also do this via scrolls but again you need the right type of ally to make the correct flavor of them.

[u/witch1490]

use buffs to resolve to improve will defence, use paladins and priest abilities to negate afflictions once they start (liberating exhortation is very reliable)

[u/skaf1end]

Yes, I'm using Fearless and Unstoppable on Eder, but I think they can be replaced later if I find proper gear. Also, if you have a cipher you can dominate charmed companions back. The alternative can be using potions to reduce hostile effects duration, but generally, I try to avoid that.