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revial

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Everything posted by revial

  1. The pet's damage is not tabulated with the Ranger's damage. So the large number you are seeing could possibly be even larger. What I was insinuating is that the pet must passively buff ranger damage quite a bit, otherwise the numbers don't make any sense. :/
  2. I guess it depends on your level/gear. I think I was level 7 when I first tried them, and they were pretty tough, but doable.
  3. Everything after gaining access to Twin Elms is pretty anticlimactic, and almost seemed rushed, though they explained everything clearly, so saying it didn't make any sense seems to me more a player issue than a game issue. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I played the game, but it was just way too "safe" in its attempt to be the spiritual successor to the IE games (and, yes, I know that's exactly what they kickstarted to be), for me to really consider this a candidate to join the all time greats.
  4. Yes, it gets unlocked at a certain point in the main quest.
  5. I said screw the intricacies of the combat system. All my characters wear the heaviest, most enchanted, damage reducing armors possible, plus whatever accessories I can find for +deflection and +accuracy. All use the slowest, highest damage weapons on hand, highest base quality possible (for the accuracy bonus). The Endurance difference can't really be compensated for, but while my party is slow as all hell, they all tend to hit (relatively) hard, and the high defense + slow, but hard hitting attacks, tends to be a far simpler approach than micromanging the squishies to death while trying to play "correctly" with balancing armor types, weapon types, worrying about recovery rates, utilizing traps, any spells that aren't buffs/heals/damage absorptions, and choke points, etc. Boss fights are the only real fights that can get hairy since probably level 7ish (currently level 10), but that's simply due to the sheer swarm of mobs that tend to accompany those fights, and my chanter just keeps summons rolling to help spread the incoming damage around (only times I've had to reload since level 5 were when the chanter went down first, and I didn't have those extra meatbags around to absorb incoming damage). "Normal" fights have been a complete joke since probably level 5ish. I play on Hard. Scout mode always and play every character, regardless of class, like a siege tank, while utilizing spells and skills as support (rarely used in normal fights). It's incredibly homongenous, and a bit boring, but the alternative of playing "correctly" was faaaaaaaaar too far in the busywork territory. Just my opinion, and experience. I could probably get away with putting far lighter armor back on the three ranged, as they rarely get attacked outside of boss fights anymore, but if it works, why break it, and all that.
  6. I will agree that the Ranger pet seems a gimmick, and requires micromanaging so it doesn't just die in a few hits, just to provide some seemingly small percent boost to the Ranger's total damage. Seemingly, being the key word. The pet does such little individual damage per hit, but at the same time, Sagani has managed to become my second highest damage total, despite my keeping in her the Keep until I reached Twin Elms (last bit of the game). Which is kind of crazy, and would suggest the pet does actually contribute quite a bit. And, so, I'm not sure I agree that there's something inherently wrong with Ranger. If I do another playthrough, I'll likely start Sagani immediately in the lineup, and I'm expecting to see just crazy numbers by the time the game is done. In comparison, my character, who's obviously been with the group the entire time, just barely eeks out ahead of Sagani, at #1 on the total damage chart despite having spent probably 70% more time in the party. Crazy. And, I have two other ranged who've been with the party almost the entire time (using Arbalests with similar talents), and have similar damage numbers as Sagani, but again...they've been with the party almost the entire time, which would further suggest the pet-while not flash-has some major impact on Ranger damage, because the pet is about the only difference between them and Sagani. I actually like the attribute system. They're all fairly important regardless of class, which makes for interesting diversity, unlike the traditional D&D stat system used in the IE games.
  7. I use arbalests on all three ranged in my party (cipher, chanter, cleric). High damage (personally, I think weapon speed is pointless compared to whether you're actually damaging the enemy) to overcome damage reductions, plus knockdowns on crits. On paper, there's all sorts of synergy with the different weapons, speeds, damage types, etc, but in practice, three arbalests attacking the same target tend to punch holes. I generate zero focus on my cipher, but fights don't really require her to cast anything outside of her absorption shield twice-if at all-on one of my three melee. My character (Fighter) has 39707.2 total damage. All three ranged of mine are in the 30k-35k range. The two melee are 18k (fighter) and 13k (Paladin) respectively (and two of my ranged were the last two characters to join the group). Also, I went with passives (weapon focus, marksman, gunner, etc).
  8. For barbarians and fighters everywhere, I am only replying in this thread to fight for their rights to be treated as individuals, as all other classes have been!
  9. Well, it's kind of crazy what even one level does in terms of power, despite not much seemingly having changed on one's character screen. I was level 5, I think, when I initially tried the top of the lighthouse, and got creamed. Went back at level 7 and did it almost on auto pilot. High damage, slow weapons on every character helps (to the point where I honestly can't fathom what the point of fast, low damage weapons are).
  10. "Formations" are almost pointless, beyond simply being the starting point for where your group members are when combat starts. Anyway, some tips and thoughts: * Use stealth pretty much the entire time you're exploring a new region, in-between fights. Not because you're going to actually sneak up on people, but because with auto pause and stealth, you can generally start the fight "first", rather than both sides starting at the same time. I run a party with 3 range, 3 melee, and usually instantly kill at least one mob after unpausing, as opposed to killing nothing initially if I was just running around and encountering the enemy unstealthed. * There is no such thing as aggro, as far as I can tell. There's some sort of AI targetting going on based on range and type of mob, but I couldn't tell you the particulars. I find having three melee up front, all three initially told to attack targets that initially spread them out-if even a little-helps to consolidate your enemies in one place. * Your characters will auto attack what attacks them, and this will override your initial directions. I believe you can turn this off under one of the game options. I actually got used to it, and turned it back on, but for a while I had it turned off because it was initially really annoying to start a fight directing my party members to do this, that, and whatever, and then they all ignored it all as the enemies hit them. Once I got used to always having the initiative in a fight, due to starting them all stealthed, I turned it back on, as I found my melee's reactions as they charged to their targets, only to switch as they were hit, tended to do a decent job at grouping up the enemy. * Going back to formations, there are some positioning tips that can be useful in battle. There is collision detection, so you can block choke points with melee (unless the enemies can teleport), as an example. * The game gets easier the further in you get. This isn't a joke. The hardest combat I encountered was level 2-3. At level 10 now, and fights are pretty much a joke. The only times fights get remotely hairy now are when large numbers of my party keep getting dominated/charmed, and that's only because I have that auto attack option turned on, and sometimes when a party member gets charmed and attacks another party member, that party member attacks back and really hurts them. :D * Use high damage, slow weapons to overcome damage resistance many mobs have. Pretty much every character I have uses a slow to very slow weapon with high damage. I just find anything a fast, but low damage weapon works well against is generally utter trash anyway, whereas barely doing any damage against mobs with high damage resistance really kind of blows. It's entirely possible I'm missing the point of fast, low damage weapons, however. * In that vein, I'm missing the point of why I should care about recovery as well (but, I also barely use any spells outside of support/heals). Having to rest constantly, and dying in 2-3 hits if something managed to reach them, made me decide against bothering with any primary casters. So, since I don't care about recovery, all my characters wear the heavies armor with the most damage absorption possible.
  11. I'm sure there's a mathematical point to fast weapons, but I'm level 8 now and pretty much every person in my party uses a slow+ and heavy hitting weapon due to damage reduction on enemies. :D In the vein of the point of fast weapons, I have to wonder what in the world I'm missing on blunderblusses, which are super slow, but have the damage of a very fast weapon (ie: very low). :/
  12. This view is what I have issue with. This concept of "You have 1 PC and that's the important one. The rest don't matter as long as they bring dialogue!" that is being floated around. That's a great concept if you Solo the game, running into NPC's that add flavor in towns and on roads. Not in a game built around the 6 unit group working in synergy together in combat. At that point, you have 6 hero PC's, not 1 hero PC and 5 companions. It's a flawed concept and a big difference. If you are playing through multiple dungeons and on multiple quests through a campaign in an RPG with a group of allies of equal level to each other, they are all PC's/party members. It isn't Super Man and his hireling crew of followers. It's a group of allied people striving towards a common goal. Who all should be on relatively equal capability to do the job they are assigned within the group to survive their dangerous adventures. The concept of 1 PC and derpy companion sidekicks doesn't really work. Not unless you mainly solo the game, and only have the companions show up for moral support. Which isn't how this game was designed to be played. Everything you say is true, but completely not relevant to the issue, since in this particular "campaign" your character really IS the "hero", "chosen one", <insert other cliches> and it isn't just some random group of six adventurers off to make a fortune.
  13. It seems obvious that they're designed around RP reasons, rather than min/max reasons. You can hire your own adventurers if you want to min/max. Don't get me wrong. I agree wholeheartedly that they're not particularly effective at their classes, but they're not the hero of this story. You are. :D
  14. I'm only level 6, but imo, casters are infinitely more difficult than fighters. I've lost track of the # of times everyone will die but my two fighters, who then slowly end up saving the day as they sloooowly hack hack evade absorb ohhh regenerate endurance hack hack everything dead. :D And, with friendly fire, unreliable nature of spells, the very few number of times you can cast before you need to rest, etc, I've been asking myself why in the world I continue to keep classes like Wizards in my party. I mean, I presume it's like previous IE type games, and they'll be super powerful at higher levels, but gawd if they weren't painful at the lower ones (I much prefer the casters like chanters who can at least offer magical benefits that you can always rely on). So, I'd say...yes, what you're experiencing is normal. :/
  15. Not to be mean, but it falls far closer to the "runs on a toaster" side of the equation than the "needs the latest everything" side. I mean, it's basically a slightly souped up Infinity Engine game (I love it, btw, so that's not a criticism), which wasn't exactly pushing the envelope 15 years ago. If you look at the stated system requirements, and punch either the cpu or video card into a benchmark chart, it'll just really reinforce that point.
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