b0rsuk

I think xp issues may be caused by the bonus for each missing companion (below 6) being increased from 5% to 10%. In 1.00, I entered Gilded Vale and hired Eder before he had a chance to learn Weapon Focus: Ruffian or Defender. In 1.03, I only did one minor quest before going to Eder, and I'm already level3. I'm level2 upon entering Valewood.

Probably someone in the dev team thought Greater Blights are harder than they really are. But they're trivial to take out from distance with the help of some basic slowing spell like Tanglefoot.

And it hits one person every few seconds, with no splash damage. Clustering is the last thing to worry about. But be my guest, fight single target spells by spreading out.

You know, Defender talent is not the only option for Fighter. He has knockdowns, weapon specialization, mastery, armored grace, vigorous defense etc. All these can be put on a damaging fighter, without sacrificing his damage output. I killed the Adra Dragon with Eder who had these talents and abilities, but no Defender or Weapon&Shield style. It's possible and not that hard. I can pull it off five times in a row, without using Paralysis or Petrify, just my suboptimal first party. My Eder is quite offensive. If you put offensive talents on a fighter, he's still quite tough. Also, there are abilities which make your defense almost irrelevant, for example Weakening Interdiction. All you need is a few weakening spells and enemies are chopped into pieces.

While the talent is meh, Battleaxes are good fit for one-handed fighting style. They get increased critical damage, and with the bonus to accuracy you are likely to get more criticals.

I think the issue stems from two things: 1) Lack of resources and funding. It would take more money to create more companions, so that everyone can have a full party. Not much can be done about it. 2) The options companions have regarding your behavior seem to be very limited: stay with you or leave. And because of #1, they can't really leave. Only Grieving Mother can be pushed so far as to leave. But there ARE other ways for companions to meaningfully object without leaving. They could be getting temporary bad moods from following a leader they don't agree with. For example, if you kill an innocent, harmless person X, companion Y would say something disapproving and had -2 resolve, -2 dexterity until you gain 1000 xp. Passage of time would be measured in xp gain, similar to how Stronghold works, because otherwise you could just trivially wait it out and suffer no consequence for enraging a companion.

Paladins are not very religious in PoE. They are tied to orders, and each order has a philosophy. Bleak Walkers favor Cruel and Aggressive behavior, hate Diplomatic and Benevolent. The idea is that by being brutal and terrifying they can stop more conflicts from happening just by showing up.

Stealth is quite good for melee party members. You sneak right into melee range. Lore is good on low micromanagement characters, such as Rangers, Chanters or Fighters with small shield. A ranger can use Jolting Touch or Fan of Flames to get rid of several enemies harassing him. Lore is quite bad for most classes where it thematically fits, like Priests, Wizards, Ciphers, Druids because they already have stuff to do. It saves parties without dedicated support casters (Wizard, Druid, Priest). But if you're a person complaining about wizards running out of spells, by all means take Lore. Mechanics boosts accuracy of priest Seals, because they count as traps. So if you have Mechanics on a single character only, let it be the priest. Athletics lets you rest at Dracogen Inn or Celestial Sapling Inn and explore distant areas with resting bonuses. No, I don't think you can always choose the character involved. When you're climbing a cliff the character who climbs first can help the others.

Be aware that Paladin has been used to win solo on Path of the Damned. Here is my feedback on Paladin from another thread, to give you some food for thought: Some Paladin abilities could be improved, for example Liberating Exhortation doesn't clear effects like Stuck and can't be applied on Charmed or Confused allies. They don't count as allies anymore. Inspiring Triumph is awkward and could be completely replaced, because with Accuracy as low as that Paladin is not going to get many kills. Maybe giving Accuracy bonus to Flames of Devotion strike would help. Deprive the Unworthy could be faster to cast and 2/encounter rather than per rest.

While Paladin has a limited subset of abilities, Lay on hands and exhortations are single target. There is a distinct lack of single target buffs and debuffs in this game. Paladin fills a niche. It is difficult to make use of more powerful Priest heals, because to do so you need to distribute damage equally. This also affects Kind Wayfarers. Aside from Lay on hands, there is no option for a strong, single target heal. Similarly, most forms of revival revive several people. So what am I supposed to do - revive one person straight away, or wait until several are downed ? I can think of one fight in the game where mass revival can be useful. I prefer a focused revival with a strong healing effect.

You are contradicting yourself. You spread out to take advantage of the limited range! No. Relentless Storm is not a typical area spell. It's a single target spell with the extra requirement for the target to be close. It doesn't matter how far apart your party members are from each other. You can put them right next to each other, and shoot the druids from afar for example, while Eder is holding them away from you. Either way lightning will only strike a single target each turn. With typical AoE spells, clustering is bad. Against this spell, it doesn't really matter. Spreading out is good against fireball, blizzard, insect swarm, sunray,, concussive missiles etc. Consider a ranger with Defensive Bond. The ability gives +15 defense against area attacks that hurt both the ranger and his animal companion. It wouldn't do anything against Relentless Storm. There is also a level5 Relentless Storm spell, which hits all enemies in range at the same time. Again, spreading out doesn't matter, but standing far from the caster does. My first playthrough was with two druids.

Vithrack have pitiful toughness, and they count as Wilders. Sagani gets +15 accuracy against Wilders.

Why do people have problems with animal companions being knocked off ? I use companions not as frontline tanks, but as suplementary ones. Guarding a flank is not good, because it's easier for them to become surrounded. One character to the left, one character to the right, the companion in the middle, and make sure the companion is not engaging more than 1 enemy.

Grimoire limits you to 4 spells per level. Why would you need more than 4 different spells of the same level in a single encounter ??? Unless you are strict about no reloading and playing in ironman mode, no point. You only start to feel the limit if you take a class talent for extra spell, or wear a ring that does the same. Unlike Priests and Wizads, Druids don't get any free per-encounter abilities worth mentioning. Spiritshift doesn't scale, deals bad damage against anything with Damage Reduction, and even if you burn two talents to improve it - has short duration. It also disables your armor and shields. Arcane Assault is a very fine per-encounter ability. It inflicts -10 Accuracy penalty, it dazes (-15% attack speed) and does so in an area. Raw damage it deals bypasses any Damage Reduction. Interdiction from priest requires a talent to unlock, and is only really better once you spend another talent point to boost it with Weakening effect.

Another thing AI could do better is focus fire. They are too happy to spread their damage around. If they all ganged up their shots on one of my squishes, that would be something.

It's Returning Storm, a level3 spell that hits a single target and stuns. It deals Shock damage, is defended against with Reflex. Spreading out doesn't help, but the spell has limited range. A good idea is to focus fire druids casting it. As soon as one dies, the storm is over. You can also lower their accuracy with something like Interdiction, but wait until the storm is cast.

Paladins are somewhat tricky to discuss all at once, because their order has more impact than Priest faith. 1. They can use most or all their buffs practically in the first seconds of combat. A priest has the bottleneck called Recovery Time, which all buffs have to go through. + Aura has no casting time, and no recovery. + On-kill effects don't interfere with auras + On-flames effects trigger when you smack things, which you want to do anyway. On-flames effects don't interfere with auras and on-kill effects. + Reviving Exhortation is designed in such a way that you don't want to cast it early. Not only you're doing something WRONG if you need to cast it early. But also, you don't pay the price of damage over time if you cast it near the end of combat. + Coordinated Attacks is passive, doesn't interfere with anything except non-attacking. + You probably don't need to cast Lay On Hands early. You can go exhortation-heavy, and then recovery could be a problem. But Priests don't have the option to build into something as fluid. 2. Mobility. Priests need to spend several "turns" to get their buffs off. But their buffs usually have short range, or even worse - are centered around the priest and immobile, like Consecrated Ground. Having a priest in the middle of a melee group is a bigger risk than with a paladin. So Priest parties are encouraged to fight defensively and hold choke points. You can't buff with short-ranged spells while charging forward. Buffs like Consecrated Ground and Moonwell are a double-edged sword. If someone casts a damage-over-time spell in there, you have to suffer it. With Paladin, you can move away. Switch to Zealous Charge for best results. Paladin's auras work outside combat ! Your party can have the initial ranged volley or sneak attack with accuracy boost. Zealous Charge aura works outside combat, too. You can more easily sneak into positions, it magnifies the effect of stealth and sneak attacks. There are actually only two paladin auras you'd want to use together: Zealous Endurance and Zealous Focus. Other two combinations - Charge+Endurance, Charge+Focus - let you switch practically without penalties. 3. Deprive the Unworthy may be a sleeper ability. I'm not aware of any such effect that would work on enemies. If enemy AI is improved and/or expansions come with more buffers, it may become more valuable. Monsters just rarely use buffs intelligently.

Are Shieldbearer paladins really that bad ? I'm considering running a party with one. +10 deflection in an area sounds nice, and I can combine it with Zealous Focus. Not so nice for a tank, but for a 2nd row fighter with Reach it should be allright. Revival once per encounter, mmmhhh. No, Paladin support abilities are not as great as Priest's, but he can deal damage and tank. There is also no great synergy between paladin abilities. I think they're more generalists, with a bias towards melee parties. Paladin can keep dishing out damage and supporting while under area attacks, something other support classes struggle to do.

There's something that bothers me more. I am a lord. I own a stronghold. Right ? So why do I have to run around doing errands ? Run a long, long way to the warden. Run to the Brighthollow. Run to the Great Hall. It feels like I'm a servant, not a lord.

Helloooo ? Ranger with Swift Aim wielding a Morningstar ? Base attack speed equal to Barbarian's with Frenzy AND Bloodlust ?

Vadasz has a point. There are very few shades and shadows you must fight in early game. Perhaps less than 10 on the way to Maerwald. Late game, there is a HARD counter to shadows - Fire Shield, level4 Wizard spell. +10 Freeze DR and fire damage dealt to attackers ? Base duration 60 seconds ? Can you ask for more ?

I'm roleplaying a nasty person in my second playthrough, but not a stupid one. MY character is cruel and motivated by greed. But he will happily help people if it's more profitable. A typical psychopath. He will do a lot if he can gain from it, but stop short of actions that can make companions leave.

Count me as another person who has been spoiled about Aloth in this NO SPOILERS forum. I chose not to hire him in my first playthrough because I dislike elves and smug people. Plus it sounded like he was provoking peasants to kill them.

Do you know killing Shades make their summoned Shadows disappear ? You seemingly started with killing Shadows.

And yet.. My first party was led by an Ixamitl Druid Philosopher, who enjoyed arguing with people and challenging their beliefs. But I still had to earn favor of a god to finish the game! A small consolation prize was the conversation with Iovara. - Gods aren't real. (Background: Nihilist) - I KNEW IT!