Blovski

Yes, decent AI would be fantastic. Escaping combat is honestly more a matter of when the AI (and which of the enemies) decides to stop chasing you relative to where your knocked characters with no health left that will get killed if they get back up at an unfortunate moment are. Something between heat-seeking opponents and the current scatter-brained, slightly inconsistent AI would be nice.

Vithracks have really crap Fortitude, I think, and they're pretty nasty. There's not loads of occasions where it's amazing but there are a fair few.

Wow that's niche. I mean, fair enough, but I wish that the alternative Maerwald consequences were better illustrated elsewhere and that the game gave you some indication that was *why* you can't access it so you don't waste half an hour fiddling with mechanics scrolls and resting.

Minsc couldn't dual wield in BG 1. Ranger kits came in with BG 2. The whole Dual Wielding thing was largely a byproduct of those Drizzt pulp novels. At a certain point you then get to the 'why isn't deflection as good as fighters so they can tank?' and suddenly all the combat classes become awfully similar in a system like POE where equipment isn't class limited and everyone levels at the same rate.

In PotD I think the encounter variety is generally OK as long as you hit it at a level where it's still interesting, though I'd certainly like to see more miniboss type enemies (e.g. Cliaban Rilag lacks a 'boss' encounter, with the first level's Corrupted Druids and Swamp Spores with traps being rather harder than the second level's Animats) and no obvious final loot. Challenge on PotD, and especially for Tank and Spank parties will come from a slightly deeper AI. It doesn't need to be Deep Thought or anything.

Any idea how much mechanics you need to get into the treasure room in the Northeast of the map. I'm having some difficulty.

Ciphers and Druids both need a lot of Might. Wizards need Int. Rogues and Rangers both want Might and Dex. Fighters really want Perception and Resolve imo. Everyone can use Dex, just to different extents. It's rare that Con is that important.

I'm going to try Swift Aim arquebus ranger somewhere in the future. Swift Aim, because those +25% damage criticals are not worth it. Swift and Steady is a talent giving +5 Accuracy in Swift Aim mode, so Swift Aim only has a penalty of -2, not -7. -7 is with gun accuracy. If you add an animal as target spotter, you end up at +3. In fact, a party with 3 shooters (archery contest) is on my list of things to try. Ah, with Swift and Steady that's a less extreme -17 total relative to the bow build. I think my next run'll have one with a chanter and priest for the necessary support. Would maybe drop stunning shot for something else with the lower rate of fire. I suspect that if you're building for the unique Ranger quick reload it's superfluous to go the whole hog with Island Aumaua, Quick Switch etc. General question: Is anyone getting mileage out of implements as Rangers? There are some really good ones in Od Nua and it gives you a different damage type to your other backliners.

There are *tons* of improvements in the New Features and Bugfix department. Even if you don't like the generally good balance adjustments for some ridiculous reason the patch is probably worth having for the Stronghold rest change, AC fatigue removal and bug/quest fixes alone.

Is this so you can get the crit bonus from the Doemenels? Also, regarding the Cloudpiercer vs whatever else Hunting/War Bow, you could always just use Cloudpiercer until it procs and then switch to another bow for utility I guess. Only downside is you'd need twice as much for enchantments (triple if you use another slot too), which I'm not sure some are actually factoring into these theorycrafted "best" setups. Well, it's a bit niche/psychotic but you then get your talent of choice (crit if your ranger's the lead, DR if you have a tank as the main character) and you can pick up one of the other factions' second quest rewards as well. Yeah, you could do that but since Cloudpiercer has Rending anyway it'd probably be more efficient in terms of inventory slots and crafting thingies to just pick one and stick with it.

Can you guys post some numbers or something? Everyone says rogue does twice the damage, but where are the figures? Rogues deal more damage if an enemy is vulnerable to sneak attack. They have lower accuracy and don't have driving flight, stunning shot or binding roots. Will a Ranger archer fill its role adequately on PotD? Yes. Will it offer some things that a rogue doesn't? Yes. Hence, it's a viable build even if it's not dealing the highest potential damage. If people want to make their own Ranger-gunner thread, I'd welcome it as a contrast, and I'm certainly going to consider trying it out next run. The point of this thread was to illustrate the viability of and discuss the nuances of bow ranger builds. For me personally, the combination of quick switch fatigue (will be improved by the next patch, I think) and the feat investment required to get the most out of a gunner kinda puts me off. I believe a Ranger built for that will have a whopping -22 aim relative to the bow build (-5 firearms, -10 no vicious aim, -7 swift aim), -27 if you have to go Island Aumaua instead of Wood Elf for The Most Possible Guns and will not have space for a spell-binding item in their off-hand. That is a lot of hits, crits and grazes you'll be missing out on and you need the rest of your party (Sure-Handed Chanter, accuracy buffing Priest etc) to be built around it. Additional info, you can actually acquire Cloudpiercer by murdering Wenan if you're so inclined.

IIRC, from what I've read in here, a Spell Striking effect only triggers once per encounter (unfortunately). Spell Striking: Jolting Touch is an excellent effect, since it zaps a number of nearby enemies with strong amount of shock damage (see the Jolting Tough spell for the exact numbers, I suppose). I actually added a +25% shock damage effect to Cloudpiercer because it felt like a really good extra bonus from a roleplaying perspective. Is it better than Borresaine? I don't know. I think that I like it better, but I'll admit that that's not the same as knowing whether it's really better or not. Of course, as you pint out, Cloudpiercer's availability is more limited than Borresaine's, to take that for what it's worth. I will say that the Stunning effect's time seems rather limited on Borresaine. 3 seconds, IIRC? The Rain of Godagh Field warbow is technical better than the other warbows, being as it's a Superb weapon. OTOH, I found it rather boring since it didn't have any other interesting effects (besides, Speed, IIRC). Speaking of Marked Prey above. When you say that it will become a "free action", do you mean that it can be used an unlimited number of times per encounter? Ah, that explains a lot about Spell Striking. Jolting Touch is pretty great in the early game and electrical damage is really useful against a lot of Pierce-Resistant enemies (Platemail wearers and Animats especially) and Rending is generally a good thing to have on Bows. I seem to be getting reasonably good stuns (6-10s) on Borresaine out of my Rogue on my current game. WRT Marked Prey, next patch it ought to have zero recharge time, so you can use it and then instantly do other things.

Two questions for the hivemind. A) Under what circumstances does Spell Striking trigger. I'm finding it slightly hard to tell. Is it just crits or? B) Spell Binding items, especially as a backup weapon, will frequently not display the cast button for me even when the correct weapon is equipped, or often not restore uses after resting. Does anyone know the exact shape of this bug - when and why these bugs will occur - so as to work around it?

Lack of an edit button is deeply frustrating. Anyway, noteworthy updates: - as of 1.05, Animal Companion Fatigue is being removed - as of 1.05, Marked Prey is being made a free action, which drastically improves its value for this kind of build. I am currently running a party with a custom hunting bow ranger NPC through PotD. This time, I'm running an Island Aumaua with a backup Arquebus and Scepter for encounters with high general/piercing DR. It certainly seems to be holding up just fine. Adra Animats are the main enemy that my archer backline (at level 8ish) doesn't really have much of an answer to and they're hardly a major challenge as long as my frontline are alive; otherwise I'm very pleased with the performance. Considerations with War Bows - Fine War Bows seem to be easier to find early on than Fine Hunting Bows. Defiance Bay contains two of the game's best War Bows. Borresaine is a Fine Stunning, Draining War Bow, which can be purchased in the Copperlane Market. Since your Ranger is a crit machine, it works very well for them and if you're not planning to join the Dozens, you should pick it up as soon as you arrive. Cloudpiercer is a Fine, Spell Striking: Jolting Touch, Rending War Bow and is a reward for The Bronze Beneath The Lake, requiring you to side with the Dozens. You can also get it by murdering Wenan, if you're that determined. Rending is great. Spell Striking is something I've never been able to work out when it does and doesn't trigger. I'm honestly not sure if it is or isn't better than Borresaine but it would save you 10,000ish gold for a Figurine or the faction vendor accessories. Either of these will carry you up until the third (I think) round of Bounties (requires act 3 and a few difficult fights), where you can pick up The Rain of Godagh Field, a Superb Speed (I should note that Speed is apparently bugged/not working as intended currently) War Bow, off of the Foemyna Bounty (Woodend Plains). Honestly if you're not angling for other Bounty equipment and you're prepared to up the quality enchantments, you can probably just take Borresaine and use it to the end of the game.

Sanguine Plate was probably a bit strong for where it was in the game. Coat of Ill Payment and Argwes Adra and especially He Carries Many Scars are behind harder stuff and make more sense as end-game equipment. Also reduces overlap between armour specials. Why use Coat of Ill Payment when Sanguine Plate is just a better version of the same. A moderate Petrify nerf would be welcome (apparently they've added a new effect to it? Don't know what.). OSA will presumably be percentage based rather than flat damage, in line with EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE GAME. Nerf to Stag Horn seems un-needed for the player because druids tend to have better third level spells anyway but enemies with it were really nasty. Paralyse scroll was blatantly insane. Glad that's been tweaked. You've ignored that Ciphers received a massive nerf to their opening-encounters casting, which is excellent news and Fan of Flames has been tweaked down for sanity's sake. Ranger Animal Companions got the fatigue issue fixed, which is wonderful. Lots of good bug fixes, some great usability stuff.

Fixes, Features, UI and Quest bits all great news. Cipher balance changes are going to impact the meta positively, I think, and help differentiate them further. Ranger Animal Companion fix is very welcome indeed. Bounty, Revival, Paralysis and retaliation fixes were needed. Armour rebalancing seems great to me. Some new options. I'm really hoping Llengrath's new effect is in addition to its other ones. The Wizard's Double/Mirror image ones look great. Hopefully a solution similar to Mirror Image can be found for Ironskin. Sworn/Marked foe ability change is a great one. Wind Blight change is very welcome indeed. Wow Arcane Veil got a large buff...

X-posting from the Steam group. These are probably not final. -- NOTE: The 1.05 beta will be released later today if our initial tests come back positive. This is a big one. Patch 1.05 features hundreds of bug fixes, balance changes, and new UI features. There are many minor fixes that are not listed in these notes. Please Note: Save games in 1.05 are not compatible with 1.04 or earlier versions. The game will automatically back up your save games in a special folder in the save game directory after converting the saves to the new format. Known Issues "Previous" button is disabled in character creation. This is currently being fixed and should be fine in the next beta that is released.New Features You can now rename save games. You can now change the portrait and sound set of characters from the character sheet. Click on the gear icon to open the customization window. You can only use this feature on player characters and hired (non-companion) characters. New Stash sorting. You can now sort stash by item type, enchant score, and sell value. Added a news feature on the main menu to keep you informed on patches and Kickstarter updates. Added a new color for unique items in the inventory. Added a new hotkey for switching weapon sets on selected characters. You can now bind extra mouse buttons to Ability hotkeys. There's a new option to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience). This will allow you to level up companions to your liking. Balance Reblanced XP rewards of some quests, particularly the bounty quests, to prevent parties from hitting max level before Twin Elms. Ciphers now start with 1/4 max Focus instead of 1/2. Wizard and Cipher's base endurance has been raised from 30 to 36, and per level from 10 to 12. Wizard and Priests health multipliers were raised from 3 to 4. Interdiction range has been reduced from 20 to 10. Tuned down damage on the Retaliation mod. Citzal's Spirit Lance will now do 50% more damage, is faster, and has an increased AoE. Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy. Wind Blight's Returning Storm is now set to 1/encounter. Earth Blight's Teleport ability is now set to 2/encounter. Sturdy bonus is improved from +20 to +30 vs Prone. Hand and Key's Preservation has been replaced with Loyal. Aru Breaker's Preservation has been replaced with a +1 Speed. Angio's Gambeson's Reflex bonus is replaced with 1/day Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Rebel's Call Preservation has been replaced with Wary. Lightning Strikes damage is increased by 25%. Fan of Flames damage is reduced by 25%. Minor Arcane Reflection base duration is changed to 60 seconds. Llengrath's Displaced Image gives 50% hit to graze conversion on Deflection and Reflex. Wizard's Double now grants +40 Deflection against a single attack. Mirrored Images now grants a base +30 Deflection. It decreases by 5 after each hit. Ilengrath's Safeguard's bonuses are now unified. Crucible of the Soul, Speaker to the Restless, and Steps to the Wheel ranges have been increased. Arcane Veil now grants +50 Deflection, with Hardened Veil adding +25, for a total of +75 Deflection. Scroll of Paralysis is now slightly weaker and has a higher skill requirement. All Spell Holdings are 2/encounter. Soul Shock radius reduced from 2.5 to 1.25. Blizzard damage reduced significantly and attack speed increased to from 0.2 to 0.8. Overwhelming Wave now uses a range of 30-40 and stun duration lowered from 10s to 8s. Noxious Burst trap damage now is in line with other player trap damage. Reduced the accuracy on higher level player traps. Unbroken is now a per encounter ability. Malignant Cloud damage increased. Ghost Blades set to foe only. Death Ring damage slightly raised, made foe only. Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar switched over to foe only. Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon set to foe only. Stag's Horn damaged lowered. Reflex and Deflection penalties cut in half, and reduced duration from 15 to 10. Bracers of Spiritual Power and Archer's Gloves reduced damage from +20% to +10%. Scroll of Revival AoE reduced, range slightly reduced, and restored endurance halved. Marked Prey and Sworn Enemy have been set to 0 recovery actions, so they can be used and the Ranger/Paladin can immediately act again. Items, Spells, and Abilities Many spells and abilities will have more accurate and updated stat blocks and improved output in the combat log, tooltips, and character sheet. Modal abilities now have activation and deactivation timers. Fixed an issue where some AOE attacks were not displaying the extra Intellect bonus properly. Added new effect when petrified. Traps can now be passively detected at -4 Mechanics. Added an animation to the Fox and the Hunter ability and removed the damage effect. Second Chance will no longer trigger the defeat screen if the entire party goes down right before the effect fires. Fixed display of the cast UI for Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept. Tuning Wheel's effect is not hostile anymore. Painful Interdiction is now correctly marked as hostile. Escape should now always prevent disengagement attacks. Seven Nights She Waited While the White Winds Wept will no longer attack allies. Barbarian Threatening Presence will no longer spam the combat log when the Barbarian loses all endurance. NPC Chanters will now resume chanting once they use their invocations. Getting maimed will not clear fatigue. All wall spells should now disappear when combat ends. New Glossary entries for spellbind, spell holding, and spell striking. Switched the ingredients for Freezing and Shocking lashes. Druid's Wildstrike Belt is now working as intended. Marked Prey is now working at intended. Draining Whip is now working as intended. One Stands Alone is now working as intended. Interrupting Blows is now working as intended, and will correctly increase interrupt. Mortification of the Soul is now working as intended, and should only award 1 wound. Scion of Flame, Spirit of Decay, Secrets of the Rime and Heart of the Storm should now correctly increase damage of all abilities. Driving Flight will now work properly with Blunderbuss type guns. The Retaliate mod should not strike allies after using Field Triage. Pet fatigue has been removed. About 30 item icons have been updated, including some backer items, such as the Hermit's Hat. Quests and Companions Party member stats on the character sheet will now show properly if the companion is removed and re-added from the stronghold. Fixed issues where companions could lose their items when assigned to the stronghold. Grieving Mother's Perception and Intellect scores have been switched. The Man Who Waits: The citizens of the Sanitarium will no longer become hostile if you kill and loot Azo after the Sanitarium riot and then fight flesh golems. Fix is retroactive. Fixed issue with a reputation loss with Gilded Vale when entering Raedric's Hold. Removed disposition exploit with the Records Keeper. A few encounter placement changes. Fixed issues with stronghold hirelings becoming hostile. Retroactive fix to update Sanitarium quest stage to proper state if you already talked to Ethelmoer and then asked for Sanitarium directions from a city guard. Added retroactive fix if you've advanced Heritage Hill quest to Icantha but then asked a city guard for directions to Heritage Hill. Fixed a number of issues with the Winds of Steel quest. This should be a retroactive fix if the quest was already started before working on the second quest with the Dozens or Doemenels, or if the quest was acquired or completed in conjunction with Bronze Beneath the Lake or Changing of the Guard. Attacking any of the main three Defiance Bay factions after having secured their invitation to the hearing will now make Lady Webb give you an invite in the name of Dunryd Row. Fixed issues with the Hermit of Hadret House quest. If Sul or Oernos were defeated before speaking to Desthwn for the first time then The Old Queen and the New King quest will not revert to an earlier quest stage Hendyna's conversation is fixed up to be properly linked together. Fixed a case where one of Clyver's responses would not appear in conversation if you ask him twice about the hearing. Killing Alwah while she appears in Oldsong now prevents her from appearing alive in Galawain's Maw when you turn in the Prison of Ice quest Fixed an issue where the Hall of Revealed Mysteries would turn hostile after opening the door to the Elder Archives and then re-loading into the scene (while not in stealth). Rinatto will no longer appear in the Celestial Sapling if you convince him to leave Twin Elms as part of the Hard Bargain quest.) UI Changed the display of most stat multipliers to be percentage based. Added Shift as a default control for multi-selection, in addition to Ctrl. Inverted the Stronghold log. Improved the output in the Bestiary and added beast abilities. Portraits now turn grey if Stamina is being capped by Health or Fatigue. Improved multi-selection. Stronghold adventures will now show the duration before you embark. Added apply button to resolution options screen. Default stealth key on Linux is now Ctrl. Weapon set buttons are now disabled when Spirit Shifted. Fixed several issues with containers and mouse cursor state on hover. Fixed an issue where the Lore requirement on scrolls was always displaying as red text. Fixed an issue where weapon sets were not visually unlocking. HUD does not upscale until 1920x1200. General Fixes Removed exploit of being able to transition into a new area with a dead player character. . Spells and abilities stuck in 'Already Activated' state will be fixed whenever a game is loaded. Now camping in a stronghold map when Brighthollow is unlocked uses Brighthollow instead. Party members will no longer switch weapon sets when charmed. Resolved a problem where misses on some secondary attacks were not being reported in the combat log. Camera should center on party members faster. Trial of Iron: Loading a game will now force a save to happen to prevent save scumming. Fixed many issues related to auto pause. Firearms will now reload when combat ends on alternate weapon sets. Poison and interrupted VO now has a cooldown. Allow quick-loading when UI windows, like dialogue, are up.

Only for those who rest extremely frequently to keep all battles in easy mode regardless of difficulty setting. If the time limit is only on hard or PotD then there's no problem. People who want to rest all the time can play on easy or normal. I don't really agree here. If you want to do a completionist PotD run while taking on Od Nua at an early enough level that the items you get are useful, you don't want to suddenly find out you have three rests left to beat Twin Elms or be spending the whole game worrying about an arbitrary time limit even if you're not going to run into it. Basically, if you were going to play it like this it'd encourage a more severe version of the Ironman gameplay where you want to soak up a load of easy XP as early as possible and then take on otherwise interesting and challenging encounters or areas once they're easily accomplished in one rest. Again, I don't see what gameplay this encourages that the optional ten rest achievement wouldn't?

+8 deflection is absolutely nothing. If it was +8 DR, that's an entirely different story. Er, that's an inbuilt +3 DR and a gradual total of +40! Deflection, which is a bit mad and an optional Bonded Grief that arguably makes rangers *better*.

Frankly, time limits tend to run against the way people play the game. I mean, the (real) Fallout games had a time limit and it didn't really serve either of them (especially 2, but I suspect that's more because Fallout 2 was fundamentally a bit stupid in the plot department) well. I do think it'd be an interesting challenge/achievement mode but I suspect the 10 rests one would accomplish much the same thing? In many ways, having an illusion of urgency is better than a hard limit - this is what BG 2's dream sequences did really stupendously well. Hell, even the first BG's dreams added a lot of impetus to you wanting to complete the plot and knowing it was happening. PoE's biggest story problem is that the whole Watcher/Awakening/Slowlygoinginsane business is reinforced really inconsistently throughout the game and never in a way that affects or interrupts the player.

Yeah, four robes of note (Blood-Blessed, Rundl's Finery, Starlit Garb and Gwisk Glas). Gwisk Glas is the best, Rundl's with an exceptional enchantment would see you through the game just fine, though. I don't think they're underserved relative to other armours (especially light armour).

With a range of 2 meters (IIRC)? I mean, any enemy within range of that is probably already in range of your melee chaps and is going to invariably be some sort of frontliner anyway, and for escaping engagement the imaginatively titled Escape has twice the range and doesn't rely on having someone to swap with. Not meaning to be too acerbic but that's what the ability sounds like/should be on paper but I just don't run into game situations where I see that being applicable.

Yeah, ACs do not need to be a free tank that automatically scales any better than they would now. I would like specialising in the animal companion talents to give them small bonuses to DR, deflection, Constitution, Intelligence so there's a meaningful survivability difference between an AC with specialisation and one without. I would also like, possibly as an expansion thing, the Ranger to have some way to heal them (I'd like a mutual Vampiric Bond, really).

The big problems boil down to three: 1. Animal Companions have no athletics, this means they're usually running around with half endurance. 2. Animals have terrible Int. This makes their abilities kinda redundant. 3. No hugely meaningful bonuses to AC survivability from the AC feats. Rangers have better accuracy than rogues and marginally more interesting abilities for a ranged character, imo.

Is anyone finding much use for this Rogue ability. It's got shorter range and gives you less options with where to go than Escape. The range is super-short, so I can't see when you'd be able to use it to pull a squishy into one of your fighters or vice versa. Anyone got any tips, uses, experience with this ability?