mazeltov

What does 'Blind' mean in this context? And yeah DPS Fighter is pretty fun. Got a 1H Sabre Fighter who stays out of harm's way by stacking bonus Def vs. Disengagement.

I think many of the items in that list could have been left out without hurting the game. To the extent they drained development energy which could have been used to strengthen core gameplay, they may have actually made the game worse. No Twin Elms, for example. I felt the story was primed to end by the climax of Act II. A few key NPCs, encounters and zones from TE could have been integrated into the greater Dyrwood area, maybe using some of that dead space in the northeast of the overland map.

The game is not and will not be balanced around PotD. Zealous Charge, the only Paladin Aura that really stands out (in a world with heavy but inconsistently applied bonus Suppression), matches Chanter Songs for radius.

There is a problem, in that most of the other classes get their payoffs too easily. If Balance Man stays true to form, his fix will include significant nerfs to the classes that are overperforming (e.g. casters), and targeted buffs for others. As far as irrelevant hypotheticals go, no, I tried to turn a bad question into an opportunity for a useful explanation. Paladins are helpful not in any specific encounter, but in every encounter. With respect to full support Paladins, you get out of it what you put in. If players ignore half the Paladin support abilities ("too much effort") and then complain about Paladins lacking support, well...

Paladins are not designed to be the best at either of their roles, tank or support. They can be built viably in both directions, however, and a support specialized Paladin provides a less dramatic, but steadier form of support than Priests (or they would if Priests, as Vancian spellcasters, were allowed to run out of gas in the way the Rest mechanic envisions). Not that comparisons between classes fulfilling the same role are a concern, as I mentioned before, as long as both can perform adequately. And about that. The exact types of support a Paladin provides are determined by its Order, but Kind Wayfarers can for example provide two sources of AoE healing that are incidental to other actions, not the result of actions spent casting. With another Talent, each killing blow can provide a moderate generic Defense buff in a large radius, which lingers for a moderate time (more than enough time to score another killing blow). Multiple support abilities can proc on the same killing blow. As Paladins are consummate team players, not lone wonders, this style encourages other members of the party to help the Paladin trigger his abilities, which is a co-dependent design feature that other classes could take lessons from, not one that should be cut out of Paladin. Besides its on-kill abilities, which are what set Paladin support apart playstylistically from other supports, it also has Exhortations and Auras. Exhortations are well-known to be a mixed bag and pretty situational, though all reactive support is situational. There probably will be some needed tweaks to Exhortations. Among Auras, Zealous Charge in particular is an interesting case because its effect is hard to get from other sources, and where it is available elsewhere, as from Chanter, is lower quality and probably not something a Chanter would want to be burning Phrase time on anyway. Taking stock. Is full support Paladin more difficult to play than tank Paladin? Yes. Is it more difficult to get results with than Priest? Yes. But it can get results.

About the level of commentary I've come to expect.

It's not a competition, contrary to what the prevalent optimization brain-rot on the forums tends to imply. The classes each cover a role or two; sometimes they cover them in different ways. Some require more micro, tactics, timing, and so on to execute. It is nice that these styles are available. The theoretical limitation on caster power in PoE is the rest/camp mechanic. To the extent players circumvent the soft restrictions that are in place, casters will appear badly overpowered compared to any non-caster class in the damage, CC/debuff, and support roles.

Supporting, attacking, supporting through attacking. The usual things a character who is not tanking does. Building overtanky weakens the key Paladin gimmick of support delivery: abilities that activate on killing blows. Which is not to say that a stereotypical tank build doesn't work well on Paladins. It does, but it also militates against the supporty aspects. Build diversity in action.

Paladins don't need tank stats unless they're built to fight in melee with non-reach weapons. Conversely, Intellect boosts all of their support skills, and Might benefits most of them.

I would play up the Burn damage angle and go Priest of Magran: 2 Scion of Flame 4 Brilliant Radiance 6 Inspired Flame 8 Ghost Hunter Holy Radiance (talented for Burn damage), Magran's L. Burst of S. Flame, Divine Mark, Searing Seal, Shining Beacon, Pillar of Holy Fire, Cleansing Flame. High Mig/Int works with the other damaging Priest spells, too, like Iconic Projection and Pillar of Prone.

Feels good man. Six or seven quests just in Copperlane, five shops not counting the inn. Several factions to consider, and a boatload of quests, NPCs and shops citywide. There is a solid amount of content in Gilded Vale and its environs, with Raderic's/Stronghold acting as good capstones before the player heads to DB for Act II. Dyrford has a good amount of hustle and bustle. While I haven't explored much of the side content in Act III, testimony around the forums is that that content is particularly strong. Various quests in and around the Stronghold weave a kind of non-linear content density into the game, in that the Endless Paths and bounties seem to be intended to be completed intermittently, as the player goes about other things in the game. If anything, sometimes content density is too high, in the case of filler combats and repetitive horde encounters. Just imagine the content density if you stopped to read every backer NPC story...

~4m, which is what 18 Int currently gives to ZFocus and ZEndurance, is a comfy radius (though I suggested bumping the base from 2.5m to 3m in the Talent suggestion thread). Large enough to catch an entire frontline, or an entire backline, but not both at the same, unless the backliners move up and assume more risk. Balanced. Actually dumping Intellect past 10 would bring two of the Auras down to almost melee range. Current radii encourage thoughtful use. This is just for Auras. Decent Int also has an impact on the radii and durations of last hit ability procs and Exhortations. If Paladin really is a support class, and I agree that it is and should be, then game mechanics should encourage Intellect for Paladins just like the attribute is encouraged for other support classes. Greatly expanding base radii and/or durations is a cop out (no pun intended).

Every time I read a variation of this it decodes to: "I want to be able to dump Intellect on my Pally without consequences."

I wouldn't. AC is an interesting feature for the class, akin to Rigger drones in Shadowrun Returns. Not especially powerful in their own right, but useful for complementing the overall offensive or defensive strategies of the party. ACs can be used offensively, in battles with room to maneuver them onto a backline squishy, while the Ranger combos with Stalker's Link. That's risky, though, since the AC is likely to draw proximity aggro and go down, giving the Ranger a personal offense penalty for the rest of the Encounter. I prefer to use ACs defensively, acting as a second layer of defense for the backline (including the Ranger), in case adds work around the front or aggro toward the back for any reason. ACs become very proficient at this after getting Takedown/Brutal Takedown, though they can intercept and and tie up opponents before taking them. An optional Ranger class ability to heal the AC 1/e or X/r would be welcome, in addition to the tweaks to AC stats and talents which are likely being considered for the balance patches.

Can be helpful for certain parties that make use of the "bonus vs. Disengagement Attacks" feature, say by combining ZCharge, Capes of Withdrawal, and Fast Runner. The way most people play though, unticking the option would just lead to more KOs.

Fun fact: Dirty Fighting (Rogue Hit-to-Crit talent) works with at least some spell attacks (tried Fan of Flames scroll). There are many unexpected synergies buried in the system, but I don't think anyone has made exhaustive tests/lists yet.

Might improves Fighter tankiness in other ways. It scales Constant Recovery, Drain restoration, and potion healing.

True enough as far as it goes. None of the story companions I recruited are optimized for damage, and my dialogue-y tank/support Paladin main certainly wasn't. What the picture does is put the lie to the main contention of the original post, that "Gone are the good old days of BG and IWD where Fighters could give as good as they got. Now tanks just sit on the front line tieing up the enemies while the other classes have all the fine." Eder tanked more enemies, and simultaneously did more damage than (giving 300+% better than he got), any other member of my party, a party that probably resembles the parties of lots of other people who just picked up the game and played through it without being in thrall to an optimization fetish. Eder also had lots of fine fun while on his tear of tanky, protective destruction.

I thought he meant old gamers, i.e. ones with a lot of experience playing vidya RPGs.

Healing!

Solid 7/10. Nowhere near as good as DA:O, though. About on par with their NWN2 work, imo, except that PoE's stats/afflictions are worse than trusty 3.5 rules, and prerendered backgrounds make PoE far more visually appealing.

Don't remember switching characters out on this first playthrough. Rushed 4 + hired a custom Rogue. Endgame as in "right after killing the last boss;" I became pretty frustrated with the storytelling at the end of Act 2, and blitzed through the Act 3 main story arc to get to the end. Even doing that, my party was only 1k from level 11 by the last fight.

Offtank Eder endgame snapshot: Eddie da real MVP.

You never really get to know someone until they pull out their balance suggestion.

Dwarven Might synergizes with all primary and secondary Pally heals, as well as healing scrolls, potions (powerful gulping?), and healing spells from Spellbind items. Draining weapons can act as a secondary source of healing.