Tomice

I read the review, but not the 29 pages of comments here, so sorry if I say something out of context. The review is way too negative IMO, but I have to agree to some of the points. And I feel the need to share because I hardly manage to continue playing (Skaen dungeon really annoyed me, too). Reasons: - The main story just won't catch fire. I don't understand the motivation that's supposedly driving the player character. Why am I even doing all this? - I also don't understand the motivation behind the NPCs. Why is Aloth following me through hell and beyond? Who am I to him? To Kana or to the little druid guy? Why are people helping me, why do I help people? Believable motivations are scarce in this game. - Combat is extremely repetitive. I use the same skills over and over, each encounter is the same. Druids, lions, trolls, spiders, ... just send your tank(s) ahead, use a few disablers/debuffs, focus-fire each enemy until they are dead, done. I never need to adapt my strategy, except for ghosts - maybe, a bit (I play on hard). - The attributes are unimmersive and easily exploited by minmaxing. I have a 3 con main char and never regretted it. I haven't played for days and might dump the game for a while if nothing changes soon. But then again, most games nowadays need a few weeks/month and at least 2 or 3 major gameplay patches to become good, so it's not overly surprising

BG and many other games have penalties for using a ranged weapon against someone who's directly next to you. Is there such a thing in POE? Sorry for starting a new thread on a minor question, but it's a hard to search topic.

Well, I'm no huge fan either, but they are well-integrated lore-wise, so I don't mind. But I'd really like bows to be a bit more viable.

Well, nowadays guns are undoubtedly superior, but the game setting is approx tech level 1400AD. In reality, bows were more than viable until repeating firearms were invented around 1800. Their main problem was their immense skill (and strenght) requirement. One could learn how to decently fire a gun/crossbow in a week, while you were only a mediocre bowmen after a year of training. Quality bows also took long to produce (I believe 2 years for a Mongol recurve) and required rare materials (Yew became practically extinct in Britain, they had to import it large scale). So in fact, bows were the weapon of choice for elite professional ranged soldiers, while guns were used by massed levies. Their firepower was practically equal to crossbows and early guns, while their rate of fire was 3-5 times higher. In gameplay terms, I would really like that each option is viable, and bows seem very inferior right now due to how DR works.

I don't think it depends on the weapon. So your melee chars should be able to fire a gun volley and switch to sword and shield before enemies reach them. But I might be wrong, that's why I'm asking.

I'm a PoE beginner BG veteran trying to understand the combat system. I admit I haven't tested these things much yet, but this game is all about planning ahead without respec, so I wan't to know what I'm doing before building my party. Heavy guns (arqebus/blunderbluss) are (seemingly) balanced through their long reload speed. But then again, nothing keeps me from switching to another weapon after firing one shot, right? So actually, the ideal way to fight seems to be: - Scout ahead with a stealthy char - Find group of enemies - Fire a shot to lure a part of the group towards the rest of your party - Greet the enemy with a gunshot from each of your chars (ideally augmented by per encounter + damage/debuff skills) - Switch to the weapons you actually wanna use and finish what's left standing - Don't reload your guns until the next encounter Have I missed something? Is there any reason not use the second weapon slot on guns for everyone? (Except for casters who might want to use mass disabling spells as opener. But even they should probably fire one gunshot when they run out of potent spells before switching to their backup weapon). I admit I'm not a huge fan of guns in fantasy games, so the seeming dominance of guns isn't exactly for me. Bows seem so lackluster in comparison

As you probably know, you can only hire henchmen 1 level below your main char. It doesn't sound like much, but considering the low number of levels you can actually reach, it's quite the penalty. I hired my first henchman before leaving the first village, when I had level 3 and 5000xp. The henchman got only 1000xp! He'll still be level 2 for quite some time after I hit level 4, and the penalty will accompany him for the whole game. If I waited until I'm barely above the level 4 threshold (6000xp), he'd still be 3000xp behind. Doesn't this penalty seem quite harsh, especially later on when each missing level means more xp?

What about ranger with bear companion? Would this be a viable tank?

Hi! No spoilers please, I'm only a few hours into the game. My PC is a ranged rogue, I have met the first 2 companions and I feel like I need another character capable of tanking. but I don't feel like creating a soldier or a paladin (the obvious tanking classes). Is there anything comparable to a cleric from D&D? A melee/tanking-capable caster? The clerics in this setting don't seem very viable for the first line... I general, which classes can tank?