Styger

Been playing since the patch with my melee cipher, and while at first I was concerned, the changes have been pretty damn good. For reference, I'm using Tall Grass with the weapon focus talent, soul whip damage talents, and two-handed weapon focus. On PotD, I've been able to deal decent damage, quite easily, to gain enough focus to cast several high level powers in combat (only access to level 5 powers, still costly but doable). The increase to mental binding means I can lock down a more dangerous foe for longer, and even make the largest brute on the field my focus battery. In one fight, against 2 Ogre's and 1 Ogre druid, I locked down the druid while my other melee kept the ogre's engaged. I was able to cast mental binding (20), silent scream (40), borrowed instinct (50), and detonate (50), all in the same fight. I probably could've done more, but I didn't have to at that point. Focus gain isn't an issue, though I am annoyed that all the Blacsonn I bought is now useless for her... About to enter the fight with the Ogre chief, Zolla, so I'll have to see how my powers stack up against her, but still, no real complaints here. Edit: Zolla was a breeze. Melee tanks kept what Ogres got through at bay, while Aloth kept up oil slicks. I managed to raise upwards of 110 Focus quite quickly in the initial start of combat and dropped a borrowed instinct (50), 3 mental bindings (60), a silent scream (40), and 3 detonates (150) . Total of 300 focus used, with some to spare. Focus gain is fine, and the CC is crazy powerful now. Zolla never got a single spell off in that time.

Reporting in on this issue as well, GoG release. Doesn't happen on every character, but Durance and Calisca are affected by it. Not sure if it's related to the sound loop you get with the scroll closing, that was goddamn awful. Although closing and opening the game helped with that issue...

Unlocked my Royal Edition on GoG, since the differences won't be in game, and I like having all of my IE games on one platform. Additionally, the downloader is better for getting the goodies where I want them. I unlocked my Hero edition on Steam to preload it. I would've liked to share the second key, but I don't know anyone who plays RPGs, let alone CRPGs, so why not make the best of it!?

I've posted my Chanter below, for anyone who's interested! Got it from the post on /r/projecteternity, found in a gallery here: http://imgur.com/a/eOhqV

Yes, you got it right - you can download from GOG and install game offline. Steam, as I explained above, does not allow it. This also means that if GOG goes down - you still own your games. If Steam goes down - you loose everything, as you don't own any games on Steam, they're basically rented to you (that's they way they are bypassing European Union laws). From other arguments on why should you pick GOG instead of Steam.... No bloatware. It's just you and your game. No overlays, no huge application running in background, nothing transmitting data in and out of your PC. That's not so very much important with PoE, but I don't have have any high-end multiplayer game on Steam for exactly these reasons - performance and having absolutely full bandwidth reserved for the game. Better customer service. If you have a problem with Steam game you are on your own, noone from Valve gives a **** about you. GOG is completely different, they are genuinely being helpful to the best of their ability. Each time you run Steam client it does that update check and there's a new, useless and meaningless update to the steam every other day forcing you to wait till that crap completes. No problems of that sort with GOG. (Nearly) each time you run Steam it pops with stupid adverts. No problems of that sort with GOG. Steam pricing policy is pure BS. Regional ripoffs are their standard policy. Obviously though it doesn't apply to people who already paid for a game. GOG got lower profit margins than Steam, so more of your money goes directly to the developers. But it doesn't matter if you backed the game on KS. GOG in general tends to have more freebies with the games. But that does not apply to PoE as far as I'm aware. Good call on the customer support; they've been hands down far more responsive and helpful than anyone at Steam support. Yes they're backlogged to hell and back, but that's no real excuse for such a large company as Valve.

I myself am on the fence. While a majority of my games exist on Steam, all of my IE games and D&D games are found on GoG, as well as the Witcher series. It'll also be where I probably install TW3 from, since it comes with more goodies and a better price than Steam can offer. It will also be MY copy of the game, which is kind of nice to know, and not just a licensed copy. So either you have Steam: - Convenience - Achievements - More active forum base - Easily take and upload screenshots or GoG: - Your own copy, not licensed - Doesn't require internet access or downloading patches and setting to offline mode - You can download all of your goodies in separate packages - Collection with similar titles Of course, if you're like me, you can access your preferred copy of the game on your preferred platform, and unlock your second copy (hero edition) on the opposite for those benefits, if you don't have anyone in mind who would play it.

I would say that the Chanter is still the best bet for the point you made "I think chanter would still make the best PC for survival and RP checks in dialogues and scripted events". For the first playthrough, you want to get a nice rounded experience, especially in a story driven game, and the Chanter might lend itself to unveiling the story moreso than the rogue or cipher. Of course, this is speculation, but it feels right I suppose. Besides, in the end will it really matter? You know you'll play through at LEAST 3 times. Choose whichever you will enjoy the most the first time through, then hit it up again with the next choice.

I played as a DPS chanter in the BB, and it was quite different from what you were considering. I created a necromancer chanter, that primarily used a rod, with envenomed strike when needed, and then focused on Debuffs, summons and then damage in that order. The stats were max Might and Intellect, to get the most out of my invocations. As he would be in the backline, I didn't worry about Con, Dex, and so I went with Resolve/Perception at the same level, as that fit my RP for the character. He played amazingly well, and the summons were fun to make use of, especially to give flanking bonuses.

Even so, the fact that these are produced days away from the full release seems to suggest that these are meant for the actual game, especially since no one will have access to the BB after that time.

While the concept is nice, wouldn't it be prudent to wait for the first day patch and everything to make sure nothing has been changed that would affect class builds?

That's actually exactly what I was looking at; to have a character that would be able to navigate dialogue options freely to affect the pacing through RP, not so heavily in combat. A call back to Planescape. Except they claim the stat-based dialogue options are spread equally and aren't even necessarily the best choice. So honestly this means making a combat ineffective character for nothing. 'Normal' dialogue options (and reputation options- benevolent, rational, cruel, etc) seem more suited to RPing than 'you smell, so obviously no one would bed you.' Not that Might/Int is combat ineffective, but taking some of the other stats just because doesn't seem to serve much purpose on either end of the system. I'm going off the assumption that while a strength character might be able to have dialogue based options, a character with higher intellect and perception might notice things more in the environment and with other NPCs, lending themselves to have more interactions. I don't recall if I ever saw a post about equal opportunities, and from what I experienced in the BB, resolve, perception, and intellect were king in dialogue, following those were the skills. As for the other stats making you combat neutered, well those stats lend themselves to a more caster-tank individual, such as a Chanter, Pally, etc.

Those are also decent stats for a Chanter tank, who you can then bump up lore, stealth, and mechanics with. My first character will probably be a chanter with those stats, with minor adjustments for Con, Int, Per, and Res, Int and Res being the highest and Per/Con trailing. While Rheingold pointed out that they are a mostly passive build, the joy will be in the out-of-combat experiences such as exploring the world and getting to know the people around it. Don't let that fool you of course, as summoning a drake into the field is awesome, and that's where your damage will come from.

I think only Holy Radiance has reputation mechanic and not the deity specific spells. Each deity has a special ability, such as Hope Eternal (Eothas), Prey on the Weak (Skaen), Inspired Flame (Magran), etc. Each deity spell gives a weapon accuracy bonus and a special effect. For example, Hope Eternal gives an accuracy bonus to Flails, and a spell that heals and reduces fear duration. I agree with the OP that a small buff to these spells would be nice. Alternatively, it may be nice if those deity spells also increased in power akin to Holy Radiance. Ah, I missed that distinction initially, thanks for pointing that out! I'll still hope for a bonus to power though with the reputation gains, as it'd give more credence towards acting one way vs another, and encourage more people to roleplaying their characters.

I believe they do become more powerful as the game progresses, at least according to the in-game description and gamepedia. It's quite possible that they are weak in the beta because of a lack of reputation. In the full release, I would assume that the abilities will become much more powerful as the party aligns itself to the priests reputation requirements. Of course this is speculation, but I would hope it to be the case!

I would say that combat happens so quickly, that it might be better to stick with that spread, and move some points from constitution over to dex, since they get a 'low' bonus to endurance. Since they'll probably been in the back lines, it shouldn't be much of an issue. If it is getting hit, then something's already terribly wrong!