LadyCrimson

So I've read your Codex post on this issue and I'm coming to agree with it, to a degree at least, particularly the "No Immunities, Hard Counters or Counterspelling" section. I actually do love the game for non-combat aspect reasons, but as I get closer to the endgame of my main playthru I find myself more and more unmotivated because I'm tired of the combat. It's giving me a "sigh, another fight, get it over with" attitude. I don't really care about immunities or being able to pre-buff, per se (I'm fine with trying other/new ways instead, if they work well) but in PoE combat over the long haul - at least for a full or close to full party - starts to feel rote and tedious. It's all very same-y and wearying, outside of those few special encounters/enemies. All these different spells/talents related to protection/suppression etc. and I use none of them, either because an encounter doesn't last long enough to bother, or because there's not much need to - you'll still win. To quote from your post: Yup. It's a shame really. Combat is never my personal main criteria for enjoying/replaying a game such as this and usually I can overlook - or may not really even notice - that it's not ideal. But something just feels off in PoE. It's not engaging/complex enough to be long-term fun, for me, nor quite "mindless" enough (eg, Diablo-like with less to little micromanagment) for me to not mind that it's not complex, if that makes sense.

Outside of cheat/console commands and camping/resting at an Inn more than once, there doesn't appear to be. The only method would be to travel from a map to another and back again to waste time. Pick one that's 4-8 hours travel time, for example.

Will the expansion let your port your chr. into it? If so, the cap makes sense in that regard, because otherwise the expansion would either have to remove extra levels or you'd be overleveled starting the expansion, and people would talk about how EZ the expansion is ... Anyway, the easiest way (I'd guess) for a modder would be some kind of small blanket quest XP reduction, or a large reduction of XP gained from the bounties.

Well...that certainly puts a crimp in solo (or even 2 or 3 perhaps). Enemy unlimited casting? Was that actually intentional? Does it happen outside of PoTD? They should remove that "feature". It's just a tad on the silly side. Sorry, Obs, but it is. Giving AI some advantage is one thing, but that's just ... My full-sized Normal party never noticed this, since they whomp mostly everything fairly quickly, outside of a few certain encounters. Haven't gotten around to tiny or solo parties yet.

I've tried to scrub that memory from my mind, but with only partial success.

Fun idea for a thread. Indexed. More pics!

Oh, that. Yes that was funny, but I thought it was funny because it was making fun of how horrible that movie was and all the flak back then. Not because I wanted to see another Duck movie. A one-off reference/joke can always be funny/timely/popular. Doesn't mean it should be taken farther. That said, with CGI these days, it'd at least be better than the old movie for that reason alone.

Yeah, I don't care about any of that stuff. I mostly mentioned the enemy-mage thing because I think it's one of the symptoms of why combat starts to feel so same-y and wearying. There are very few serious measures/countermeasures in the game that mean anything significant (and most enemies don't use them), thus most combat is just the same thing over and over, because much of the time you don't need to even use the ones available. It starts to feel a bit like playing Diablo or something, where you just keep hitting the same 3 buttons all the time, except you're doing it on 6 chrs. instead of 1, which makes it tedious.

This. Couldn't you just lower the Cipher's starting Focus even more, vs. eliminate it entirely? That is, maybe a flat number starting, so they can cast one tier 1 thing as an opener, say. I don't know...that probably wouldn't be ideal either, tho. I just don't think future tweaks should be balanced around the Ciper's being the current top .. Cipher should be brought down/altered instead.

Yeah, they were still squishy hp wise. But if you weren't into stealth etc. the first 10-15 seconds could mean a lot. And what was that in BG2 with the early town's mage-police or something...you'd start the encounter after dialogue with them all in their bubble shields or something. I had one of those go on "forever" felt like. It was a long time ago tho... In PoE my fighters could sip tea and exchange stock tips while walking backward towards the mage and the mages would still be doing nothing of note.

Really, isn't a core ingredient of guacamole Avocado? Yes, but not all guac tastes a ton like plain avocado. Some are more like .. hot chunky salsa with some avocado mush in it.

Really?

Depends on the guacamole.

^ I meant enemy wizards, not ones in your party. I have not met a single caster-mage sort of enemy in the game that did anything but die in a few hits, except the Ogre Druids. Occasionally one has charmed/confused one of my party, but (with a full party) the change that does to my ability to smoosh the wizard is like lolwut. The lesser Drakes do more damage. The fire spirit thingies that fire-poof on death do more. Edit: in BG1 and BG2, a battle with a group of mages could be grueling, depending. Nothing like that here.

"The days of my breaking into stuff (etc) are over. What do you want me to do?" that was cute. Graphix are spiffy, as always. I like Corey Stoll. Paul Rudd is a little harder to picture but...could be fun. I'm guessing it has more humor so maybe Rudd fits. But seriously...Antman? I had no idea there was an Antman. Well, as long as it's not Howard the Duck.

The doldrums hit me during the afternoon for some reason, so now I'm sitting around the house with a Grumpy Cat face. It's occasionally tempting to cash out assets and just fly off somewhere. But....nah. At least not quite yet.

You need to rest, if you haven't already, so you get a dream. Then go to the hanging tree and have a convo. Then walk by Eder again and talk to him.

Watched episode 9 and 10 of Better Call Saul. They were both pretty good, although the "bingo rant" scene went on for far too long. Was that the last of the season? Or will there be a couple more? I'm still impatient to start seeing more crashing together of all these pieces, but those episodes were great at really showing/setting up the path Saul walked to get there. And of course ... Mike is the uber kewlest.

I miss enemy wizards that actually "scared" me. They are largely just squishy sword-bait in PoE. Not counting Ogre-Druids. I haven't done anything much in Twin Elms yet, just got there, picked up the quests, left for the Paths. Did some of that and haven't really touched it since. Did get to clvl 10, maybe I'll go check out a certain major sidequest tonight.

Wasn't using Task Manager's graph, it was Asus's CPU suite monitor. But I get what you mean. Stuff like that can be misleading, and different programs can even seem to contradict each other at times. I have no clue how to "read" them, really and I don't tweak hardware much, so I don't often look, outside of checking temps and total usage. Anyway, with my lvl10 party just idling in an Endless Path dungeon level, I get graphs like these, whatever that means - it bounces up and down I'm sure, and no idea about full-on combat. The 1st one might max out then, who knows.

Not for me it doesn't. Which isn't to say it's not for you and others or that there isn't a problem somewhere. Just giving my own experience. My i7-920 (not OC'd) stays about 50% most of the time, when I looked at it once. I didn't check if cpu dropped to almost 0 or not if alt-tabbed to the taskbar, tho. I don't do that very often.

My energy for getting to the end of PoE is flagging. Not because I'm not enjoying it, it's just because ... that's I how I roll these days. ...even 7 Days to Die is going to morph into Alpha 12 before I get back around to it. Heh.

Can't answer re: Mac's, but alt-tab does work on Windows for me ... most of the time. I have it bound to a function in the game (select all) so sometimes it acts a little flaky maybe because of that. Not sure.

SECTION II =================== CLASS BUILD LISTING =================== Will update as more are posted. Barbarian My fire barbarian tankish build Rogue Dual wield stiletto Rogue Paladin Dracozzi Paladini aka the PC paladin The Pillardin Tank build for PotD Dragon slayer Paladin Two arquebus/high burst damage to kill dragons quickly Cipher Ultimate build high dps and tankiness Blunderbluss Ciper for Hard/PoTD (party) An overall guide Apathetic Cipher for 1.05 Ranger Rangerer "The most ranged of Rangers" Wizard Dynamite Melee Wizard (1.05) =================== Solo/Triple Crown Builds =================== Finished triple crown solo as cipher Paladin solo PoTD with last boss video (Bleakwalker) Wizard Solo PotD

=================== SECTION I Forum discussions that might be of interest to players looking for general gameplay advice/opinion. Note: this is not a spoiler-free section. (This list is ongoing. If you see a topic that seems like it would fit here/be useful to others, feel free to PM/message me with a link to the thread, for consideration) =================== General Mechanics/Gameplay: =================== Combat Mechanics? Attack Speed, Recovery analysis/tests of such Attack resolution & Accuracy: How exactly does it work Graphs and discussion Does secondary elemental dmg. ignore elemental DR? How is spell accuracy determined post #6 of thread Gloves of Manipulation How does loot RNG for non-Unique items work How many skillpoints in each skill To Lore or not to Lore? Hard vs. PoTD, what are the differences Monster strengths and weaknesses Thread links to a wiki-table created by a forum member Will saves and other questions chr. defenses vs. charm/confusion spells, eg there are no saving throws in PoE Abitilies/other dmg related mechanics some numerical testing of some abilities/dmg things How low is "low endurance" for items/skills w/this description Bloody Slaughter questions (unclear description vs. effect/how does it work) Interrupt build discussion re: how effective or not One handed good enough? How good is 1H weapon style vs. others? Named weapon locations (incomplete, but still useful) Looted Grimoire spell lists Understanding the Stronghold pros/cons/opinions =================== Class/Skill/Build Discussions: =================== Your End Game Character Record Show off a screenshot of your chr's "Personal" record stats. ---------- PotD (party) Builds A build idea/concept to try for each class Let's talk class balance How do you rate the 11 classes overall? ---------- Paladin tank build discussion Paladin stats Attribute spreads for paladins Flames of devotion dmg how is dmg. calculated (paladin skill) ---------- Advice for 2H dps fighter What's good for a 2H melee build? (fighter, barbarian) ---------- Rogue Advice Tips and thoughts on the Rogue Help building a ranged rogue discussion/opinions ---------- How Do I Monk? Some advice/tips for playing a monk Let's discuss Force of Anguish (Monk) ---------- Priest Spell Ratings A members rating/guide of the Priest spells ---------- Recommended spells for wizards opinions on wizard spells ---------- Looking for Druid advice armor, weapon, talents ---------- What do I need to know to plan a Chanter Attributes, talent/skill selection discussion ---------- Ranger PotD/trial of iron A potential Ranger (party) build/strategy to discuss/try out ---------- Weapon choices for Cipher the blunderbuss seems popular Melee Cipher Building Prefer melee over guns? Some ideas. =================== Soloing the Game =================== Triple Crown solo tips and tricks, Let's compare notes Solo play tips (not exploits (PoTD))