AncientToaster

Yeah I have the broken voice acting. It's like every patch always breaks something along with fixing other things. I'd like one patch to fix things and not break something else. It's getting kinda frustrating. For instance, voice acting during combat pause is completely gone now in 1.04. If combat is paused and I select a character, they will not respond to being selected.

I'm fairly certain Fighter is better in every way

All of the pets are pretty bad, you have to at least admit that. That "1 add" he's tanking is probably a Sporeling or some other garbage tier enemy. Anything that has any serious punch is going to shred any pet to pieces.

Problem with Deflection is that it really only matters if you have a ton, like 80+ If you have anything under that amount consider it all wasted.

Maybe you missed the part where I said the story itself wasn't quite compelling enough for me to finish either.

Somewhat agree. I feel like most if not all of the Defense and Utility talents will never make it into any serious character build. There really is a way to make a crappy character, unlike what the devs were saying before release. I guess if you really wanted you could take some ridiculously bad talents in those trees every level.

I agree. They made it way too much of a headache. If you actually cared to resist certain damage types, you literally have to swap armor and carry different sets around. It's the same with weapons. It makes me miss THAC0 and the archaic DnD systems of the IE games, they were easier to understand and just much easier to play.

Good point. I miss the interesting combat situations that those games brought. I haven't seen that yet in PoE

I think that would be fine but they would have to abandon the Engagement system entirely. It's not a simple fix of an enemy deciding to target your squishy mage. If they did that and left engagement intact, you'd basically be screwed. Engagement pretty much negates any kind of tactical strategy in combat, if you're engaged you're put in place until you can either use an ability or spell to CC that enemy so you can actually move away without getting completed demolished by disengagement. Another thing I forgot to add was the complete lack of party AI in combat and the massive amount of pausing that I have to do really starts to wear thin in a 50 + hour game. I never paused this much in the Infinity Engine games.

At first I was a pretty staunch defender of this game and it's changes to the IE style, but the closer I get to the end, the harder it becomes for me to even want to boot this game up and complete it. There have been many people suggesting that the combat quickly becomes formulaic and follows a flowchart of - Sneak -> Position -> Tank and Spank and win This is pretty much the case. Once you get a full party and get into the mid game, this is what every combat encounter becomes. Sensuki said it best in another topic that there is no dynamic shift or any strategy involved, it's just a set of motions that you go through almost every fight, you don't have to adapt to combat at all, because once your Tank is engaged with the mob of dumb enemies up front, you simply lay down all the AoE CC you have and you move onto the next exact same group battle. It's the same thing, over and over again. I started to get a little concerned with this combat system in Act 2, and I never ran into a situation where combat became different or engaging. You level up and get new spells and abilities but early game spells remain really good for most of the game, and there are a lot of priest, Wizard and Druid spells that are never really worth casting in battle. The fact that you can't pre-buff in this game also reduces strategy and combat dynamic IMO. So I keep trucking along because of the story, but even that is nowhere near the level I was expecting to get when I pre-ordered the game. I have a couple well written characters and fairly simple fantasy story going, with a pretty boring Antagonist. It just doesn't grab me and keep me moving like Baldurs Gate or BG2 did, and it's nowhere near as impressive as Planescape: Torment. I don't expect PoE to be at the same level of those games but it just doesn't seem like they put enough heart into the story. I don't know how else to describe it. I like certain things about this game, I really do, but when I tally up all the things I dislike, such as the combat, the attribute system and some parts of the story, overall I just find myself struggling to finish and I don't think this will be a game I start up again after completing it like I did with Baldurs Gate 2, and Planescape. Bring on the flames!

Been playing a Cipher...apart from talking to one of the Dunyrd Row guys downstairs and Grieving Mother, i haven't seen much in the way of unique dialogue. I'm still in Act 2 so I guess that could change.

You know, you guys can hold down TAB and it shows the names of NPC's on the current screen. If you're looking for a very specific person this alleviates you having to click on these "dreaded" yellow named NPC's that everyone loves to hate around here. If you never click on them, they don't ruin your immersion.

Yeah complaining about a stretch goal that encouraged us all to PAY EXTRA MONEY FOR, that was half bake delivered is sooo shallow a thing to complain about... ~sarcasm~ You got two major cities. Stretch goal achieved.

I'm surprised that it took this many posts for someone to say this. Why are we discussing this at all? Let's return to whining about the game.

This is one of my biggest problems with the game in general, the fact that I pretty much have to live in Pause mode to see if the enemies have been affected by any of my status ailments.

This. It's painfully clear that the developers were playing favorites with the classes. Cipher got all the love cause they invented it. Wizard and Paladin clearly received quite a bit of neglect, comparatively. How's that Kool Aid?

Mind Blades aren't really that strong. My Cipher w/ 18 Might needs to use it multiple times a fight to kill anything substantial. Little critters that die from Eder don't need spells anyway, so that doesn't count. Mental Binding is pretty crazy though, it's good from start to finish.

The Min/Maxers think Paladin's suck Therefore they suck /blatant sarcasm

Everyone cry nerf! They will nerf it and everyone will cry "BUFF IT BACK!"

You do realize that we're only in the Dyrwood, which is essentially a country of a Eora?

Even if they promised "two major cities" I still don't find it that upsetting. Defiance Bay is big enough and has some interesting quests, it reminds me of Baldur's Gate. Actually this whole game really reminds me of Baldurs Gate 1 with the country side areas and the big main city. Defiance Bay isn't nearly as large as Baldurs Gate or Amn but it's still good enough. Those two cities had way too much going on sometimes for me to keep track of.

Select her, then click on her character sheet (Hit the Head icon on the bottom bar) Scroll down

I've played a lot of Cipher and I think the Focus mechanic is really what brings the class into crazy-town. I think if they started combat at 0 focus and had to work their way up, while fixing some of the crazy ways a Cipher can gain a quick pool of focus (ala Blunderbuss), then the class would be much more in line with the other strong choices. Mental Binding should also be moved up a tier (or three) and cost more focus. That is probably the best and most efficient ability in the entire game. I just don't agree. The class is squishy, almost as much as a Wizard. Requiring the class to Auto attack to build focus would make the class terrible. Priests, Wizards and Druids can cast spells right away, and higher levels get per encounter spells of the first two tiers. Also, the way fights work in this game, most are over before you know it. Auto attacking for Focus would probably make it so you're on the same level as the Chanter, where you're spending half the fight doing nothing but attacking waiting to use an ability.

Thanks for the responses. I think I did give Durance the talent that adds +10 Accuracy for an Arquebus, so he could do something during combat when he's not buffing or healing.

I won't put any spoilers here. I'll just say that I've been mostly following the main story and I'm in Act II just now leaving an Engwithan Ruin after learning something. This is my current party: Eder - Tank. Guans Pledge Flail, Fine Large Shield, Full Plate. I have him at 100 Deflection and high saves. He does like...no damage at all but can tank an army by himself. Essential team member! Hiravias - He's dual wielding a unique Mace called raven something and a fine spear. I have him in Fine Scale Mail. His deflection is the next highest in line, I use him mostly for spells and mixing it up in Melee if the need arises (it usually doesn't) Kana Rua - I think he's the weakest link I have right now. I don't know...I have him chanting Sure Handed Ila basically all the time and using an Arquebus. If and when I need his summoning I throw out a Phantom or Wurms (I usually forget about him to be honest in fights) Natalie (Player Character) - Named after my daughter She's a Cipher wielding Lead Spitter Blunderbus and a Unique Pistol I found somewhere (I'm actually not 100% sure where I got this Pistol, but I barely use it) she's by far the best character in my team. She has the most kills, the most damage, but if the enemy gets a hold of her she goes down very fast. Low defenses, low deflection, very squishy but don't mess with her! Great spells. Durance - I like this guy but I'm not sure what to do with him when he's not buffing or healing. I have him using an Arquebus as well. Should I change this? He has pretty good resolve and Endurance really...Maybe I should start using him more as a Fighter/Priest? Aloth - I like this guy. I think his spells are great, squishy but useful. The problem I have is, I feel like all of my damage is coming from two sources, magic and guns. I'm worried I'm a bit one dimensional with my DPS. If I can't cast spells I'm shooting guns, because Hiravias and Eder aren't putting out a lot of melee damage at all. I'm wondering if I'm going to stumble upon some enemies that just shrug off my guns/magic and then I'm stuck trying to have Eder poke him with this meager flail attacks. Is there a better weapon I can grab for Eder or something, maybe Hiravias?