Zwiebelchen

It's pretty much confirmed already that bounties are the worst offender XP-wise. If you do all bounties, you can get 29k XP per character on a six-member party. That is 43% of all XP needed to cap.

This is summarizes the problem very well... and immediately delivers one question: why, instead of advocating a whole (unrealistic) makeover of stats, don't we try to make the obvious dumps more meaningful? It has often be suggested that Constitution should give a recovery penalty reduction. I'm still all in for that. Heck, this mechanic already exists in the game (as Fighters have a class specific talent that reduces recovery penalty on armors), we only need to friggin' add it to the attribute and be done with it! This basicly makes the stat generally interesting for many builds and adds a fourth "must have for everyone" attribute. And if you now argue that Dex and recovery are basicly the same, then the game developers already added a nice twist to mix it up: dexterity doesn't change weapon loading speed. This basicly creates a non-linearity in both attributes, which allows both attributes to shine in different situations. Which leaves only Per and Res to be "fixed". Basicly, the tools to do that are already there: concentration and interrupt. The problem is: beta days have shown that concentration and interrupt are extremely hard to balance. We had both phases of hilariously overpowered interrupts and meaningless interrupts. Currently, we have a tendency for the latter. Maybe interrupt/concentration is a dead end we should reconsider here; maybe if we add something else to these stats, like: - extra spellcasting range for Perception (my biggest gripe with PoE spells so far is how extremely short their casting range is; especially for priest buffs). This would automaticly benefit all those classes that don't benefit from resolve: Mages, Druids, Ciphers, whereas those that currently pump resolve would have almost no additional benefits from this (Fighters, monks, Paladins). - a retaliate mechanic for Resolve (every melee attack against the character has a chance to trigger a free attack; kind of like the fighter talent) ... this also adds an advantage to carrying a least one melee weapon as a caster... currently, there is no real point in having a mage equip for example a rapier or dagger. It's a wasted weapon slot that could have been an Arbequs or Arbalest.

Also, most enemies in the game are weak to will and reflexes. This only further amplifies this issue. Spirits (including shadows and phantoms) are more or less the only enemies in the game with low fortitude defenses.

This is actually a pretty damn good idea.

Wrong. The way the math behind defenses works makes the defensive attributes extremely impactful. This is not an opinion, its mathematically provable. Each point of defense get stronger and stronger. So while there may be little difference betwneen 1 defense and 0 defense that 1 point difference becomes literally 100 times more impactful on the high end of the mitigation/effective health curve. The difference betwen 17 and 18 might is not that big and follows an obvious linear curve. Defenses do not. Defenses are different, right, but defenses always have two attributes mapped to them, so there's no real issue with that and you will hardly get a "broken build" out of the NPCs in terms of defenses. They all have a pretty balanced set of defenses. Deflection is different, but except for Eder and Pallegina, none of the NPCs are tank classes. And Pallegina has good resolve and perception, so she actually is quite optimized in her attribute spread for tanking purposes. Eder is different as he has high Might instead of Res/Per. But he makes more than up for that by just being a fighter alone and getting all the cheap OP +deflection talents of the fighter class.

Thanks for doing the research. This is clearly the biggest problem in the current XP progression (combined with way too large trap/lockpick XP). clearly, 29k XP in a game that only has 66k XP to cap is way too much for a single optional stronghold questline. Doing all bounties pretty much grants you almost half of the XP required to level cap. I'd say if we tune down bounties a lot and remove trap/lockpick XP, the game is pretty much balanced in XP gains.

The NPCs are not as bad as you think. The impact of attributes in this game is absolutely overrated.

with NO engagement stops unless engaged/threatened upon first .. ... which is basicly how it works. At least for me. I don't know what you're doing different.

Probably. Lots of hidden objects, especially on Od Nua require higher mechanics than 4.

I really wouldn't want even more talents that depend on me not spending my wound resource. I mean, turning wheel is already infuriating. I don't like my characters being passive auto-attackers without active abilities and stacking wound bonuses encourage you to do just that.

Just get rid of the different base deflection scores of classes and put deflection back on armors. It's stupid that half of your deflection comes from talents and class choice. Literally, it's that easy. Remove the damn recovery penalty from armors and instead make it a deflection penalty. It makes sense, after all. You can decide between max deflection (light armors) or max DR (plate armor) or anything inbetween. At least this way armor is actually a choice (I can decide between better evasion or a more reliable damage reduction) and light-armored guys don't instantly drop when attacked once.

The key to the Maerwald battle (and pretty much every battle involving fire blights) is to concentrate on the non-blight enemies first. If you kill a fire blight, you're up for a big explosion for tons of damage. Also, if possible, apply some extra elemental DRs via buffs.

Any fantasy porn site. Looks like a Lineage 2 dark elf artwork to me.

I also have to say that I never had this problem, really, except if the enemy actually did engage me, in which not moving further is actually a good idea... I've been using grieving mother as a dual-wield backstabber in my games and she never stopped until reaching the ordered position unless when engaged. What were the enemies you've had this problem with? Maybe those were enemies with a higher engagement limit (like Ogres).

Yes please. Dominate/Petrify grazes are totally OP right now, both when used against your party and when you use them against bosses. Your idea would fix that. Add another +1 from me for this idea. It's weird that a graze applies the same effect as a hit. The reduced duration isn't even a problem when most CC's have ridicolous durations to begin with (8 second paralize on a more or less spamable cipher skill? In the time it takes for the paralize to fade even on a graze, a dual-wield cipher has gathered enough focus to apply 2 more ...)

This is basicly a protection against disengagement attacks: the enemy turns towards your moving unit, engaging it, which would immediately trigger a disengagement attack, potentially killing your melee. The way it works now, your NPCs will immediately engage and enemy that engages them to prevent the disengagement attack. Unfortunately, this behaviour is extremely one-sided in favour of the AI. Enemies will frequently run by your party members, not eating the disengagement attack even if you ordered them to attack the runner.

This game definitely needs the 5-foot-movement rule of D&D.

I can confirm tank wizards to work much better than expected. It takes some levels for them to really shine (basicly until you have access to Displaced Image at spell rank 3), but fortunately most enemies you battle early are shadows anyway (which basicly get hardcountered by elemental bulwark). My build is a little bit less hybrid and focuses more on the tanking side of things with 16 Res and Per, 14 Int and some Dex (Might and Con at 10, but I already consider dropping Con even lower for my next build, as it doesn't really matter much due to the flat +50 and +100 endurance buffs). All I can say is that it's extremely fun to play, especially since you can freely spam cone-attacks without the tedious "yellow zone positioning" when playing a standard wizard. Also, a tank wiz requires surprisingly few talents: +10 deflection modal and weapon & shield passive and you're pretty much good to go. Arcane veil is also worth an investment in case things go downhill.

I don't know what you guys are talking about; a lot of the game content of PoE is externalized, including models, maps and localization files. Just because the community hasn't made tools to manipulate stuff yet doesn't mean it's hard to do. I expect the first minor community content pieces like new companions around the end of the year.

I don't know about PotD, but haven't seen that at all on hard since 1.04. I've been tanking and spanking on hard with mostly one tank (did have Eder but swapped him out for Sagani to finish her quest) and nude ranged characters. Nothing has changed at all imo. In fact, once you get to around level 10 onwards, the game becomes easy mode and tanking and spanking makes it easier. Biggest surprise for me so far was the Fampyr bounty I did recently. Tanked and spanked and encounter was over in seconds. You should probably try a game of PotD then. I was really surprised to see that the game was - contrary to popular oppinion - NOT steamrolling on PotD so far. Sure, there were some fights that were clearly easier than others; but that's the nature of the matter (trash vs. crafted encounters). I haven't hit level 10, though. Maybe it changes there. I'm currently trying several of the bounty battles and on PotD and boy, are they painful. I tried the lurker battle for almost one hour yesterday and still couldn't manage to win. I'll probably drop it for now and come back 1-2 levels later.

Good point.

I got to say I read this a lot... But I want to be perfectly honest here: Since 1.04 is out, this is not my observation anymore. (at least not in PotD mode; I don't really know if that changes AI somehow) I've been trying several of the bounty encounters yesterday and, oh boy, are they friggin' hard for my level 7 party. Not only does my 100 deflection monk go down quickly, even with GM's pain suppression dropped on her, but also do lots of mobs blatantly ignore her mid-combat. I had lots, I mean lots of trouble keeping my squishies alive. So much trouble that I decided to make them all wear at least DR10. I still haven't managed to kill the Lurker bounty with the two sirens and trolls. It's almost sadistically hard. Before that, I tried some levels of Od Nua with the same party ... with the result that several encounters were simple tank and spank, whereas others quickly changed targets and went for my squishies. The ogres were a pain in the ass. As a response, I changed my party to get a second full-fledged tank (so recruited Eder again) in my group, as my PC simply couldn't do it anymore. It seems that the AI of enemies varies a lot as of 1.04. Trash encounters like jellies, trolls and Xaurips are mostly tank and spank, whereas hand-crafted encounters are much more responsive now. But ... is that really a problem? Jellies and Trolls are not really intelligent, if we really think about it? Why should they have superior AI? It seems that the AI scripts actually do vary based on the type of enemy. I also observed that whenever my tank PC gets knocked prone or stunned, enemies immediately switch targets and everything goes downhill quickly if you don't have any backup plans. I don't know if enemies have the same sets of skills in the lower difficulties. I suppose not. But on PotD (at patch 1.04), I encountered lots of enemy groups that you definitely couldn't tank & spank. Of course, if you're door-cheesing all the time, no AI in the world will change anything about it, really. This is actually my biggest gripe with PoE combat so far. The lack of immunity spells. Granted, the "Prayer against" line pretty much is immunity (+50 defense against the effect), but those spells are so far down the line that you won't have them until almost the end of the game. At the point of the game where most content is happening (level 6-7), you don't have access to a Prayer against prone, stun, paralyze, etc. ... Also, no other class except the priest have access to these spells. If you don't have a priest in your group, well, you're ****ed.

Dude, what the actual **** is your problem? I expressed oppinions, nothing more. I never attacked someone personally or insulted someone. If you feel the need to get something out of your system, do it somewhere else.

This is a joke, right? Cities: Skylines is still in the top 10 fastest selling games on Steam (since March 10th, so ~40 days now), has been on that list more or less continuously since it was released (despite several high profile AAA launches), and has just passed 1 million units sold (according to SteamSpy). And it has done all of this at a tiny fraction of the budget of SimCity 2014? If that's not hitting it out of the park, then I think your standards are unreasonable, to say the least. Now, it is perfectly reasonable to say that PoE hasn't (and won't) "crushed" DAI, but I suspect it probably has met or exceeded Obsidian's internal sales targets -- in short, "an OK entrance to the industry". But to say the same thing about Skylines... No It wasnt a joke. Skylines is a marketing success, yes. Just because It fully supports modding doesnt make It good. A broken traffic simulation game which is fed from the hatred of simcity 2013 is not a successfull game for my liking. Then why did I have so much fun with Skylines whereas the latest Sim City releases sucked balls for me? :/ I'm confused... Look, I've never watched Jersey Shore, so I have no idea what you're on about over there, but you seem obsessed with scoring brownie points over how much better the writing in PoE is compared to DAO. We get it. DAO doesn't hold a candle to the uniqueness that is POE's characters. POE's writing is the height of profundity. Its got Gods and Souls! Animancy and mature issues and ****!... ...actually I can't do this. I actually like PoE as well so I'm not gonna sink to your level of petty "my game is better than your game" bs. Enjoy the game and lay off the Jersey Shore or whatever that is So we get personal now? Nah, sorry, I'm out then.

Don't get me wrong; I like the fact that they go for the TotSC approach and add new content to the base game... but I also fear that by doing this, they are also taking away from the momentum that PoE has generated. I want to see more of the world, because the world, by lore, sounds awesome. I wouldn't want to stick to the "humble beginnings" setting for too long, especially if the base game's story content would still be the "grand finale". It's always weird when the side content is more epic than the main content. This was basicly my gripe with Durlag's Tower.