b0rsuk

I'm not asking about best DPS, I'm asking about maximizing the damage from single use ability hits. I'm thinking of a RANGED monk with Dangerous Implement talent: Dangerous Implement (Increases damage done by implements (wands, scepters, rods) by x1.25, but deals 3 Raw damage to self on every attack.) The idea is to generate wounds from afar, then run up and smack enemy in the face. Long Strides for faster movement sounds nice, but I could use higher damage. "Noble" specialization doesn't have a 2-hander. Mace, Rapier, Scepter, Rod, Dagger. So it sounds like no benefit for me from using dual wield. It's either mace for higher damage or rapier for accuracy. And there's a really sweet rod in the Endless Paths.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think for striking talents a 2-hander would deal the most damage ? As far as I know, dual wield pretty much doubles attack rate. It's not about swinging two weapons in a single strike (like in NWN...). Striking skills tend to do something like 1.5x full attack damage, so a 2-hander sounds optimal. Or, if you REALLY care about those ability strikes, perhaps you would go with a single 1-handed weapon for accuracy bonus ? I have a silly build in my mind.

Inability to rotate camera in a 2D game doesn't help. It's the only time I really regret PoE is 2D except character models. There are enough colors in the rainbow to give each party member an unique color for his circle. Alternatively, and for colorblind people, symbols inside circles. Circled square, circled triangle, circled star, circled cross...

Yes, I was starved for Pilgrim's Crown so I can give +2 Might to the hottie Sagani. I finally generated it with Botanical Garden. Just when I found it, I also got a +3 Might belt, and with stat suppression mechanics it meant I no longer needed the Crown ). Also, I wouldn't be so sure about not generating ingredients for Superb enchantment. Curio shop generates body parts in your treasury chest, much like Botanical Garden. Unless someone knows for sure Storm Dragon Eyes don't generate because they're a special case, it's possible. In a way, the hardest type of ingredient is gemstones. You can buy some, but not all of them in shops. Botanical Garden can generate plants, Curio Shop body parts. There's nothing for random generation of gems.

We can't pre-buff because many people don't enjoy mindless, repetitive rituals. There are also those who do enjoy them, and they vigorously argue in favor of pre-buffing. Why are they playing this instead of some Chinese MMO is a mystery.

The Brighthollow sleeping bonuses are terrible. The only one I notice is +1 to Mechanics skill. They are so small I initially thought it would grant ALL of the listed bonuses upon resting, especially that you can't take the stronghold with you and traveling to-from it is not feasible. It's basically only for Endless Path, and even that teases you by dropping camping supplies every now and then.

The way Damage Reduction works in this game heavily penalizes fast weapons. I know they've just been made slightly stronger in 1.03 patch, but the issue still stands. And the boost was for melee weapon only anyway. DR means a fixed number of HP is substracted from weapon damage on each hit. When your attacks are weaker but faster, they are affected by DR more. Obsidian claimed earlier that they would make all weapons viable, even in late game, but I don't believe this is very much the case for fast weapons. Almost all monsters or human enemies have at least 5 DR. Even priests and mages in robes tend to have as much. This means fast attacks - and I'm looking at YOU, Sagani ! - may as well have a Fast Weapon Tax. They only shine against totally soft enemies, which are rare, and in this case I'm not convinced they actually outdamage a crossbow or a pistol. So I took Penetrating Shot on Sagani, she was already specialized in hunting bows by the time I reached her at level5. I don't feel like ever turning it off. Hunting Bow has base damage 10-15. If you substract 5, you get 5-10. Average damage drops from 12.5 to 7.5 on a monster with 5 DR, a decrease of 40%. Penetrating Shot slows her down by 20%, so the net benefit is about +12%. In other words, the talent slows Sagani down 20% for +5 damage essentially. A no-brainer. My consolation prize is Champion's Boon, a level5 Priest spell which gives an ally +5 Might, +5 Perception, and +5 DR penetration. Which brings me to the question: why not go with a War Bow instead ? Smaller portion of it is consumed by DR. I would have a spare talent. When is a Hunting Bow better than a War Bow ? Should I take Interrupting Shots, or something ? ------------ In related news, I feel silly for taking Weapon Specialization: Adventurer on Eder. He spends a lot of time with a large shield, which means he has to put up with a fast and weak flail. Knight specialization would let me choose between mace and sword, Soldier would grant me the flexible warhammer. I'm slightly tempted to get Vulnerable Attacks, but that will pidgeon-hole my Eder into using flails, and doesn't do anything to his ranged attacks when I feel like using tactics. The bottom line, I guess, is that the game doesn't have enough critters with 0 DR.

Actually I like the fact chanters are so delayed in use of their skills. It gives me something to look forward for in a fight. In another thread people are complaining the game is not very tactical. Chanters are quite different from other classes and you don't go into a fight guns blazing, pre-casting etc (pre-casting in the context of PoE means casting at the start of combat). Having a chanter in a party gives me two options per fight: - nuke them as fast as possible with other classes - stall as much as possible and wait for chanter to turn the tide. This typically involves stacking protective enchantments and auras, which have a good synergy with summons. Many of the suggested changes would bring Chanters closer to other, classic support casters. They would play more similar to them. If you want a classic support spellcaster, you know where to find it: Priest, Wizard, Druid. Leave Chanters distinct ! They have a unique playstyle and I wish this was the case for all of them. The only thing worth fixing here is that chanters can literally cast forever by exploiting kiting. But I would try to tackle this by addressing kiting itself, for example having a stamina meter for running, applying fatigue before combat ends etc. You would be guaranteed to get no combat fatigue until end of combat if it lasts less than a minute, for example. Stalling by spending finite resources (spell slots on other party members, potions...) - okay. But infinite kiting shouldn't be possible. This is hard to fix without limiting freedom and flexibility of Chanters, one thing I love about them. You could make chants work similar to Consecrated Ground, but with a huge radius(heals over time in an area but doesn't move with caster). That way Chanters would still have some freedom, but couldn't run too far in a single direction.

Chokepoints is an issue with level design. The tactic has always been extremely effective in history, and it's hard to blame player for the most natural choice. If anything, enemy AI could be improved so it can apply it as well, and avoids being stuck in a choke so easily. We know pathfinding AROUND characters in this game is less than stellar. Enemy AI has big problems getting all its pawns into action, for example spiders often block each other and don't fill battlefield space optimally.

You leave out too many variables. As mentioned, you can be overleveled for a fight. Second, you can prefer passive or active talents and gear for your characters.

You have to look at the whole picture. Chanters get the best combat stats out of any spellcaster. The fact they can't cast in rapid succession cuts both ways - they are also barely hampered by high Recovery, so are very comfortable in heavy armour. Infinite spells in battles, and the resource charges by itself almost always - I think Terrified or Paralyzed might interfere with that. You also conveniently omit phrases, some of which are quite powerful, like 10 frost/shock Damage Reduction for free (you don't even spend time casting it!). My current party leans on the side of glass cannons, even Eder. His only concessions to defense is Vigorous Defense and a large shield in one weapon set, often switched for a 2-hander, he wears medium armor and has 70+ deflection at level10. My typical opener is two Knockdowns (one from fox). Fights rarely last long enough for a level2 Invocation now, and when they do it's sure nice to revive my glass cannons or summon ogres. My glass cannons have a Plan B. Chanter gets bonuses to Lore, so if you wish you can cast spells, just from scrolls. A wizard or priest doesn't necessarily gain much from Lore, it doesn't expand his options and he doesn't have that much time to use scrolls anyway. A chanter uses an Invocation only once in a while, he has free time to smack stuff or use scrolls. Everyone can do melee in my team, even Durance smacks shades with Whispers of Yewwood, has Aggrandizing Radiance and I'm about to pick up another talent for a total of +16 Sword accuracy. I'm not limited by HP of my tanks, I rotate my wounded. Eder is a competent Adventurer, so he can pull back and shoot stuff with the wand proccing Jolting Touch (Bloody Mess talent helps). So in a party like this even a chanter can fit many roles based on circumstances. Try holding a line with a priest or wizard. A druid just might, if he casts Nature's Terror. Your scaling as a chanter is more powerful phrases. Level3 phrases can be used at the start of a fight, with no waiting. They still power up your resource.

I think each character marrying a specific weapon type is both unrealistic and unfun. Unrealistic, because by doing the same thing over and over you're not likely to get any new insights. Specialists tend to be narrow-minded. Not fun, because it's limiting and you keep seeing all these weapons you (practically) can't use. In many games, particularly roguelikes, your character is like a blank slate. The world is full of possibilities ! You can shape the character any way you like, try anything ! Learn this skill or that skill ! Too often leveling up is like crystallizing conrete. Like putting the character in chains. -------------- POWDER the roguelike has a weapon specialization system that's simple, but has very different characteristics. Rather than shutting off options you once had, it makes new opportunities open up. It still has weapon specialization of sorts, but it's clever: You have three kinds of weapon skills: 1. Size-based Small Weapons/Medium Weapons/Large Weapons 2. Damage-based Blade Weapons/Piercing Weapons/Blunt Weapons 3. Weapon specific Stun for club/Impale for spear/Riposte for shortsword/knockback for warhammer/disarm for rapier/... Each specific weapon (such as mace, dagger, spear) can benefit from 3 skills. One size-based, one "damage"-based, and one unique to that weapon. For example a Spear is a Large weapon dealing Piercing damage. You can learn the third skill unique to spears: Impale, which allows you to hit two enemies is a row. But learning "Large Weapons" is not just good for spears, it also helps you with warhammers. Similarly, learning "Piercing Weapons" also makes you better with Daggers and Rapiers. So if you want to specialize for spears, you want to learn Large Weapons, Piercing Weapons and Impale. But that will make you decent at Daggers, Warhammers, Rapiers for no extra cost ! If an artifact of that type falls into your hands and it's not a spear, there's no reason to despair. Weapon skills in POWDER are like partially overlapping layers, and you can only get specialization by learning a few skills which cover a specific weapon. This works especially well in roguelike games, because they have random world and item generation, and you can't just memorize that Grey Wolf drops Varscona which is an artifact sword. MORAL OF THE STORY Swords1, Sword2, Swords3, Swords4, Swords5, Swords6... is not the only way to implement weapon skills in a game.

Historically speaking, there are three things at work here: - Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" - pen&paper RPG legacy and the need for everything to be manageable by a single human (Game Master) - tradition Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" books had an unique - for its time - magic system, where every single spell had to be committed to memory, and a wizard could only cast that "slot" once. It makes for some intriguing plot twists, with wizards explicitly mentioning how many spells they have memorized. Wizards frequently fight one another, and knowing what spells the other one has prepared can be used to defeat him. And it greatly enhances variety, because - far as I remember - no wizard ever memorizes the same spell twice. I don't think it's even possible. Regarding pen&paper RPG games, it's like with board games. The best, most strategic ones have transparent rules which are easy for humans to remember and make it easy to plan. It's much easier to remember several individual spells you can all use once, than remember that spell A costs 5 mana, spell B 7 mana, spell C 12 mana and you have 44 mana. Meaning you can cast A 8 times, B - 6 times, C - 3 times but wait then you end up with 44 - 36 = 8 mana left, enough for spell A or spell B. And if you cast spell B 3 times, you end up with 44 - 18 = 26 mana, meaning you have enough for one spell C, or five spell A. You can't manage this in your head in split-seconds unless you worked as a cashier. And when you're in a pen&paper RPG session, other players will hate you if you spend minutes thinking what's the best use of your mana in a fight happening RIGHT NOW. Best computer strategy games know rules must be manageable. That's why games like Age of Wonders III use small integers for movement ranges in combat. As for fighters, there's... - avoiding unnecessary complexity Keeping in mind what I said above about making all the calculations in your head, it would be awful for a human Game Master to evaluate how exhausting each swing of sword, dodging or parry attempt is. These actions are much more common than casting a spell. You may think with computers we can let them do all the bookkeeping, but this comes at a price. Player no longer understands the rules fully and can't accurately predict how many resources he has, and how much longer he will be able to fight. This already happens to a degree with HPs. Let's not make it worse. Pushing too many rules onto computer is sweeping things under carpet. More often than not, it's not fixing complexity, it's hiding it. Then you get frustrated players because things are happening for reasons they don't understand. Trying to plan ahead feels like trying to nail fog to a wall.

Quoting truth. Try to find a "gaming" graphics card released in the last two years with less than 4 gig ram. There will be some, but for every one you find there will be a 4 gig version of the same card for like 10-20 dollars more. Quoting falsehood. When you look at the list of Geforce 700 cards, six(6) out of eighteen(18) has 4GB RAM or more. 3 of these is the terribly overpriced Titan. In these 18 cards two unreleased cards will come with 2GB. Geforce 750 Ti, the card I own, released in February 2014, has 2GB. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_700_series

Footwork is a big part of melee duels. That's why it looks odd to have opponents nailed to the ground. The inability to move around an enemy even a tiny bit might be a current bug, but I have an idea I'd like to share. What if... - a critical hit made the attacker gain ground - a critical miss made the attacker lose ground ? I guess it wouldn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it would make melee combat look less static. And add a little bit of unpredictability. In similar vein, several abilities could have an additional effect of pushing both engaged duelists around a few steps. Things like shield bash, trampling attacks, unarmed grapple(this one would pull). An unarmed brawler could grab the opponent and drag him out of sight of ranged allies, so that they can't support him.

I haven't played the Backer Beta, but even I reached similar conclusion by reading the wiki. Fighter seems to be a one trick pony - a "tank". More generally, most classes might take more micromanagement in combat, which I like, but they seem to be designed around a specific role in a party. This will have some consequences I haven't seen mentioned yet: - Fighter duels could become terrible slogs, because they're designed as damage sponges - unbalanced parties are going to suffer. You may say it's a dumb idea to form a party with 3 Fighters in it, but it's sometimes very thematic. For example, a band of questing knights, or brigands ambushing caravans. Try to imagine Baldur's Gate 1 on PoE system. There's an area where you encounter a bunch of radical Druids, who put nature first even if it means some humans have to be killed. They attack you, and... it turns out Druids are designed for crowd control ! When you send 2 strong barbarians and retreat the rest of the party, and I assume 4 druids can't do much about that because they're designed for crowd control. I fear the system is designed with "1 of each role" parties in mind. Classes may be effective at what they do, but not self-sufficient. If I'm tired of "Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Priest" parties are you going to punish me ? If I create a "back to roots" party like "2 fighters, 1 barbarian, 1 rogue, 1 monk, 1 ranger" are you going to punish me for focusing on melee, physical damage, no magic support AND no crowd control ? If I create a team of 1 Fighter, 1 Rogue, 1 Wizard, 1 Druid, 1 Priest, 1 Ranger, will I be completely unable to split the party in 2 teams of three to perform a Pincer attack ? With only 1 Fighter in the party, and no one else being able to hold his own in melee. Why do I call this "back to roots" ? Because I consider the roots of RPG games to be fantasy books, not D&D. Even D&D was heavily inspired by books like Dying Earth(magic system) or Fafhrd&Grey Mouser (Thieves' Guild). In fantasy books, you very rarely have very balanced parties or 2 spellcasters (such as X, Y, wizard, priest). In fantasy books, everyone is pulling his weight in combat. Gandalf - the archetypical wizard - fights with a sword, Legolas, a great archer doesn't shy away from cutting orcs with a long knife. Conan the Barbarian from books can use any weapon, frequently a ranged one, commonly sneaks around and can be seen backstabbing "bosses", knows when to fight and when to run, is clearly intelligent (but not talkative), cautious and plans ahead. When faced with magic, he prefers to avoid it or uses amulets prepared earlier for a specific circumstance. Conan from books if far from the one-dimensional brutes of D&D. Roles of party members in books change dynamically because every fight is different, there are ambushes and unpredictable situations. And frankly, a wizard and an archer raining death from behind two meatshields in every single battle would be awfully boring to read about. Heavy specialization in fantasy books came later, and is the strongest in books known to be based on P&P RPG sessions. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms and Malazan serries are a great example. In Pillars of Eternity, will I be able to create a party of individually competent and largely interchangeable people who can adapt to many situations, or will each class perform only 1 role for the whole game ?

It looked odd back then, it looks more jarring now that we have high resolution and so many colors. It makes enviroments look static and lifeless. I realize this is essentially a 2D game - most things are pre-rendered and it's no longer possible to make them move the right way. But you could use post-processing effects to at least pretend the grass is moving in the wind. It won't look great, but I think it would look better. Any effort is appreciated. The background in Fish Fillets is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zac7C4QZk