draego

Well you are technically already over leveled a bit. Without cheats the only things you can do is skip quests (which i do regularly now but i have beat the game and now try to role play what my character will and will not do so this helps) or when you get enough experience dont actually level up. You can stock pile levels and level up at the pace you want. One piece of good new coming up is that when you go to White March and Act 3 the game will ask you if you want to upscale the enemies because you are higher level already so you can say yes to that which should help with the combat. White march has some of the hardest combat and more of it, if you dont know what to expect. The expansion has more of a dungeon crawl feel in several places. Also stop clearing out Od Nua for now and dont do any bounties from Od Nua for now. There is an IE mod to lower experience gain and lots of other stuff but dont know its state and could have unforeseen side effects not sure. For instance i think it broke one of my weapons specials after installing it one time but i can't say it just totally busted my game or anything.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3807509&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=203 Post: There's a preview over at GameSpot, though it doesn't have much in the way of info. Also, obviously can't speak for rope kid, but considering this is ported by another studio, I imagine Obsidian and PoE2 have little to do with it, save for signing the contract. Josh's Answer: Obsidian didn't do any development for PoE on console. That was all Paradox Arctic. Deadfire is being developed only for Windows, Mac, and Linux. End Post So surprise this isn't an issue.

Its not that big a deal. Let the console user try it out. POE1 was great so far POE2 looks great.

Boeroer I would be curious to hear your thoughts on crossbow ranger. I have seem some talk about it in the forums. I guess it would be more like gun switching build with crossbows like Good Friend, Wendgar, Twin Sting and once you switch you stay with that crossbow for the rest of the fight. I had seen a debate on swift aim vs Vicious Aim with this build also.

Ye that was my experience to and this was one of my first playthroughs. It was pretty annoying but i plowed through with it. I didnt understand how powerful speed enchants were at the time. You can re target your pet to the confused person so that is how i handled that. You just have to pay more attention to that. again annoying but doable Good point about Borresaine in that it is useful until stunning shots later in the game. I stand corrected.

I didnt mention Borresaine on purpose. Its affect is 'Stunning: Attacks can Stun on Crits'. This is not a good effect for a ranger. Rangers get Stunning Shots which is not the exact same thing but close enough to make it not as useful as the other warbows i mentioned. I stand corrected by Boeroer below

Agree with Josh. No random encounter for resting its just annoying.

I think the above posts hit the optimal build info. I did a warbow ranger run once before i knew a lot of the optimal stuff. There are a few interesting warbows. For ranger they would be: Cloudpiercer - Rending: 3 DR bypass AND Spell Striking: Grants Jolting Touch on Critical Hit (1 per encounter) The Rain of Godagh Field - +20% Attack Speed Sabra Marie - Spell Striking: Grants Confuse on Critical Hit AND Annihilation: +0.5 to Crit Damage Multiplier I ended up use Sabra Marie alot the confuse is funny and annihilation good. It was a little annoying because the second confuse hits enemies, companions would stop targeting those enemies and you had to pause and re target them. Not sure i remember which warbow the community landed on as better dps - The Rain of Godagh Field or Sabra Marie but it was a fun playthrough but not optimal. I love the ranger class in the is game with the pet. I enjoy the micromanagement with maneuvering your pet around. i actually go melee rangers mostly now for even more micro. So be prepared for that.

They are adding some divinity like stuff with elements. Its not as involved as divinity though i think

I found out today eder went to some place called Ombre and changed his hair hmmm... https://youtu.be/TY-ZxqDPRrc?t=551. but he still got that pipe

Daggers in POE1 get +5 accuracy

i thought the way they were addressing this was to do away with grazes in most cases

I dont see the big deal it could be a cool option. for those that dont want to change then don't. For other giving you character special name would be fun.

I am also curious that since they are redoing the health/endurance system will healing become more important than POE1. So this may be a situation where the priest role has diminished when it comes to counters but increased when it comes to healing. I know there are other healing classes so maybe it balances out.

Cool stuff from Josh https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/161974572686/josh-positively-thrilled-with-the-poe2-e3. He mentioned this before. Cant wait to see how this works out. Afflictions and counters seems tactically interesting

Ye i am sure we will hear more about it this at some point but Josh does give examples in the video. Basically if your companion has passive skills like diplomacy or bluffing then in dialogue if a particular dialogue option required diplomacy, the passive skills of all your companions will stack to help you unlock that dialogue option. That is how i interpret Josh's answer. There could be some missing mechanics we dont know about. This could be a straight stacking affect meaning it just adds up all the diplomacy skills of your companions and see if that passes the threshold. However, there could be rules we dont know about for where, when, how, diplomacy and other passive skills stack. Or they could not just use summing all skills across all companions but stack the amount of points a companion spent in the skills. Example if you have 4 diplomacy and companion has 1 it could be considered 5 total if just summing across party members or could be 4 total because the amount of points to go from 4 to 5 requires an additional 5 points spent from all companion sources similar to the current POE1 skill progressions and in this example just one of your characters spent 1 point so it doesn't help. But who actually knows until we get an update. If they design the game expecting summing up skills from all companions then i would think they would have to raise the thresholds in conversations. This would mean they would have to set conversation threshold high enough to not make it easy to reach them. This leads to weird situations to me. 1 - Your character could have zero diplomacy because you are not diplomatic but because your team is diplomatic you can say things that are diplomatic in conversations YOU are supposedly having. Again if you like the group tactical stuff like in Wasteland or Torment then this isnt an issue but if you like the game to react to your character skills and actions this leads to weird experiences.This one not that big a deal i guess because ye role-playing just dont pick the stuff 2 - Your character could be really diplomatic but no one else on your team is but because the game has to be designed expecting summing skills from 5 character, you could run into diplomatic conversation options you cant pass even though you spent most of your points in diplomacy. This would be really egregious but summing all points from all characters would seem to require this to some extent to not make it to easy. None of these points may be an issue because we dont know everything just speculating. Interjections sound great. If companions let you know in and out of dialogue how they feel certain actions you are taking affects them or others around you, or they say something (something not in the dialogue tree for you to say) in the middle of the conversation to npcs your are talking to, that seems fun and interesting. That would seem to make the companions deeper than POE1 but reactivity to your actions/conversations is not the same as giving you passives skills as if you had those skills yourself. And i do want to make clear this is not 'do this or i will not buy the game' like i see bandied about in some of the post here for trivial stuff. This just seems to detract from immersion some (just shot me for saying this phrase agh ) and will probably be little more than an annoyance at its worst, i hope, but just something i thought was interesting to think about.

Well, I for one like when game recognises my strengths and weaknesses. Opening different paths, and dialogue options, based on who your are and what can you do does vary things up when replaying the game. If it is easy to fill all the skill slots, than what is really a point of choosing between them? It is better to have every choice, than limited choice. At this point skills become a busywork rather than a choice e.g. Torment TotN and Wasteland 2 Well said. Like i said above it seems like there are two different experiences players want to have. One being a single player adventure where the game reacts to your choices and one a group tactical experience. I get that this game is combination of both. Also i suppose when i play the game on expert mode i wont notice what is happening with the skills and will no feel pressure to game companion skills. You were also right that what i am objecting too would make companion passive skills just flavor. That is what happens in lots of D&D games for charisma or speech stuff heh. And that always seemed weird in those games. god help me i am referencing D&D in my argument i must be wrong. Have to go rethink my position.

ramming speed I appreciate your ranger work Adam keep it up.

heh, just wait until is starts to happen to your party that some fun times.

I actually remember Josh saying they will chime in conversation or comment on your actions which i think will be fun and useful. I was just referring specifically to when you click a specific dialogue option as if you were the one saying it but getting the benefit of one of your companions skills even though your are the one speaking.

I hope so but like i mention when you have a party i have seen the opposite happen in some recent games. Its weird because i am trying to role play my character. If my character is undiplomatic and cruel and what not i dont want the fact that one of my characters allows me access to diplomatic choices otherwise whats the point of my main characters role in my head. It seems weird to me for my main character to have a conversations with npcs that determines my personal reputation to be affected by random characters that join my travels. Its really the difference in how we view the game. To me this is still a single player adventure. When i am choosing dialogue its is with my main characters voice and its weird to me that a random skill from an npc who is not talking can contribute to that. Yes if my companion were allowed to initiate the conversation and they were the mouth piece of my party then it would be fine. Its not a huge issue i suppose and in the games i mentioned like wasteland 2 and torment i had more of an issue with what they did. Josh basically said the main will still be speaking with their voice its just companions can aid them not talk for them. so its not quite the same issue i had with those other games.

I generally agree that Pillars alleviates the need to win dialogue because a lot of choices lead to different results and not necessarily better results. i also agree that when it comes to tasks to perform then it is natural to have one of your companions do it. Like the burning house example in stalwart or even during conversations if say a pick pocket option comes up. You are correct about the roleplaying aspect as well that just because you can doesn't mean your character should. I think it maybe fine in POE2, i just know that weirdness in the other games i mentioned with the whak-a-mole like conversations detracting from my roleplaying enjoyment. After all i am on this adventure not aloth or eder and the conversations system seem to detract ( but not ruin) from my single player experience in those other games.

Also since you are new. Try keeping a priest in your party. You dont have to have one but they have a lot of get you out of jail abilities. Almost every spell level they get 'prayer against x' ability which makes you or your party immune to some affects. I also like to focus on roleplaying skills but there are better ones and worse ones. Like lore lets you cast spells from scrolls and gives you more dialogue options. Survival can be good for resting bonuses. You will need at least one mechanics monkey in your party for traps and locks. some stealth is nice for front line characters so they have more time to react to enemies. if you dont know the layout one stealthy/mechanics guys can be nice (if one of your characters is going to be the mechanics then really specialize) and then Athletics is not that great to have on lots of people. For scripted interactions and conversations there are some uses for each but i generally specialize with what feels right to role play my character. So do not spread out your skill to each one. i think i would do two on one character and maybe a third with just a few points in the third.

Well there is no one that has to many more spells then druids. With equipment priest and wizards can have more. Later in the game the caster classes get so many spells its fine. The cipher has an interesting mechanic. You have unlimited spell cast but are limited by the amount of focus you can build. So as you attack enemies you gain focus and that focus is used to cast spells. I am not saying you can cast more with cipher its just different. Chanters also have a different mechanic. they have chants that build up without having to cast anything then when x number of chants build up they can cast invocations. If you want a more active character stay away but they have some interesting chants/invocations. If you go with ciphers hint: first spell - whispers of treason

The only thing to stop pick-pocketing would be role playing. Maybe you dont steal in general or you dont steal from your allies but your enemies. I try to come to games like this with that in mind. If they do it like lock picks where it warns you you dont have enough skill to succeed then you wouldnt need save scrumming. "Well, maybe the players won't use it" is a very bad way to balance a mechanic. If it exists, it will be used. Treating pockets as locks would prevent save-scumming, indeed, but it opens up a new problem. Maybe only some NPCs will have stuff worth taking? So it becomes a possible solution to a quest step. As for a dagger that binds with paladins and priests... I see nothing wrong with it, although I am curious as to what its story will be. An artifact of Skaen, maybe? A sacrificial dagger? Ye that would help if they didnt have crazy gear on every character.