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mazeltov

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Everything posted by mazeltov

  1. Martial classes (which I assume means non-casters) have plenty of abilities, both per encounter, and for the more powerful ones, per rest. The exact number of active abilities a non-caster will have depends on which abilities/Talents are selected on level up. Pick a bunch of passive stat-increasing Talents? Character has less active abilities to use. Prior to 4e, there were no per encounter powers, since "encounter" wasn't a discrete concept for action budgeting yet. This makes the PoE power system closer to to 4e by default than to other editions. The way Engagement works now is that it controls melee mob movement so well that there basically are no attacks of opportunity, so to call it "glorified AOO" doesn't make sense. PoE Engagement is much more robust as a system of aggro control and zoning than 3e's AoO mechanic, and closer to 4e to the extent that both 4e and PoE try to treat aggro control as more than a passing concern. Level-based AC scaling, saving throws converted to AC analogues, Health/Endurance recalling healing surges, the list goes on and on.
  2. It looks more like 4e than it does any other D&D system, which is the relevant point. The per encounter/per rest ability split happened in 4e. The strongest push for "aggro management" mechanics happened in 4e. Attempts to bring casters more in line with the power of other classes happened in 4e etc. etc. One more time, but in English.
  3. Which is why there was much said about Balance Man's supposed fondness for 4e during the backer beta, and how that system had more influence on PoE's design than something atrocious like BG2's 2e.
  4. Of course, though classes with access to easy AoE (e.g. Wizard, Barb, Druid) will be the best Interrupters. Tanks get Interrupts as it were for free through Perception stacking, which makes things like Flails and One Handed Style even stronger for them, to convert their Grazes to better-Interrupting Hits. Accuracy is useful for Interruption, to a point. Dedicated Interrupt builds should be able to generate very frequent or guaranteed Interrupts without the need for Crits.
  5. This fact is only slowly dawning on the devs. That said an incremental approach to fixing things is probably best. Change a few moving parts at a time, see what happens. Change a few more next time, and go from there.
  6. The caster nerfings will continue until morale balance has improved. Er, except for the Wiz overbuff, presumably that will be tweaked eventually. Solo achievements and "challenge modes" are JSaw's way to get dedicated cheesers to find anomalies in the game for him, so he can quash them over time. It's working splendidly so far.
  7. Speaking of 1.05, has someone in the beta been able to determine how fixed IB actually works? By checking the combat log, etc.
  8. "All that is necessary for the triumph of bad ideas is that good posters do nothing." - Lil Wayne -- The Graze system was supposed to help mitigate the all or nothing nature of attacks. At astronomically high Defenses even Grazes are obsoleted to some extent. I think the automatic Defense gain per level could be flattened out more, but it needs to be done in a way that brings tanks down a peg without hurting the other roles too much.
  9. Ah, you imagined an implication, and claimed I was wrong based on it. Fair enough. I realize what you were trying to say, but it was relevant to explain why it was wrong, not to convince you personally but for the sake of others reading the thread who might buy into your claims and develop a false impression of the way the game works. Tanks need good Defenses, and they need good armor for when those Defenses fail, which is why "there was a good reason to give a player both high defense and high DR."
  10. Didn't claim you did play that way, only that it would be amusing if someone did if they followed your reasoning (such as it is), switching from slow, bulky Plate to slow, bulky, less protective Mail for trivial reasons. Not that there's much risk of that, because Plate is clearly superior for tanks in virtually all cases but complete Misses, i.e. for the parts of the game that matter, reducing the reasons to downgrade full tank armor to either "aesthetics," "feels," or, more saliently, unique enchantments provided by lower-tier armor that are more valuable for a specific build or party setup.
  11. Lots of effects that deal damage target Fortitude. While there may or may not be damaging spells that target Will, effects that do target Will typically lower the other Defenses, making Will important to have high for a tank as well. In any case, end game stats are the exception; for most of the game, characters, including tanks, won't have Defenses high enough to consistently make attacks Miss. It would be pretty amusing for a player to use all-around superior Plate armor through most of the game, then switch into worse Mail near the end game for the sake of +5% Recovery Speed on his already infrequent, low damage attacks. To take this line of reasoning all the way, it would be best for your "unhittable" tank to wear no armor at all, since any Recovery penalty inhibits his ability to deliver low damage attacks along with the odd Interrupt.
  12. Is Plate -55% a 1.05 change, or is the ingame tooltip wrong, which lists it as -50%? If this is more of a full tank build than a tanky DPS off tank build (which it clearly is if it's "not getting hit"), slightly more of a small amount from +5% Recovery Speed is negligible. Significantly higher DR though is valuable for all tanks, and the higher base DR the better, since DR is used against hard-hitting spells along with every other attack.
  13. Agree. +10 Fortitude or +10 to Defenses vs Spells would fit the Dwarven archetype and be much more valuable as character options. It's part of the greater racial bonus imbalance problem. Some are universally useful and/or wildly OP, others pointless or only good for one or two builds.
  14. Medium armor, like -35%, -40% Recovery? The Mail you mentioned your character uses has -45%. At what point does +5% Recovery Speed (on a tank/offtank no less) outweigh the much greater DR benefits that Plate provides?
  15. Oh, I thought you were joking. In that case, the reason to put W&S on a tank is because it is far and away the strongest generic defense Talent in the game, and my first post gave the reason why it synergizes especially well with a Plate tank, i.e. the way the vast majority of players likely outfit their tanks.
  16. Essentially tanks are too strong. One element of that is the way W&S Style interacts with Plate armor. The only weakness a Plate wearer has is Shock damage (which is relatively rare itself), but W&S provides a huge boost to the same Reflex Defense that Shock effects often try to penetrate. Maybe remove W&S' bonus to Reflex, and increase its Deflection bonus from six to eight. The penalty for being mobbed in melee should theoretically be -10 Deflection due to Flanking, but in practice most critters will not complete enough of a wraparound to trigger the debuff. According to my understanding of Engagement zones, critters should be able to wrap around Engaged targets without drawing DAs as long as they stay within the Engagement zone while moving. Problem is the AI fails to exploit this. Further, due to how easily Deflection can be stacked from midgame onwards, even a functional Flanking system probably wouldn't impact full tanks all that much. Maybe if Flanking was -15 Deflection? Or -10 Deflection, -10 Reflex? Ultimately, the supertank issue won't be resolved unless and until enemies have greater access to variable Defense targeting attacks, supported by smarter AI to allow those attacks to be used against the proper targets. Which is to say, probably a long time from now.
  17. Six rest-spamming Wizards. High Might, Dex, Intellect. A few Wiz keep the enemy pack permanently Prone, Confused, or otherwise crowd controlled, while the others rain down an overwhelming amount of AoE damage. Healing potions work great for a high Might party. Wizards can provide their own defensive buffs, casting speed buffs, Accuracy buffs...
  18. Good progress with this patch, though they probably went overboard with the Wiz buffs. Cipher is almost in a state where I would run one in a party. A global nerf to caster hard CC durations would do the trick.
  19. Three sword and board tanks is a very conservative setup. You could turn Durance and Kana into riflemen for a lot of extra ranged punch. Maybe take a Talent on Durance for +10 rifle Accuracy, and use Kana's reload speed Chant, which would help your Cipher's firearm reload too. Maybe look into the Expose Vulnerabilities spell for Aloth, which gives enemies -5 DR and some other penalties for a decent duration.
  20. Someone (else) should probably make a thread about the 1.05 patch notes, so we can start in on those. People are already reporting undocumented fixes/nerfs as well, e.g. to Petrify.
  21. Can you explain this a bit more? Your deflection determines how well you can disengage? Combining Zealous Charge, Cloak of Withdrawal and Fast Runner yields +35 to all Defenses when targeted by a Disengagement attack, for example. The +3 Move Speed from this setup helps both offensively and defensively.
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