dododad

Nah, they don't care about achievements that much. I believe it's there to encourage multiple playthrought, tho.

Eh, never mind. I restarted the game and it works, old one was just stored ether in temp folder or in memory.

One particular track is giving me nightmares, and I tried changing it, but it appears that it's not in ...\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\mus\mus_final\ directory. I found it there, replaced it with custom .ogg file, but the old one still plays during combat. It's no big deal, I'd normally just disable it all and run my own music in the background, but I quite like the rest of them, and all this one is making me do, is making me enter menu every other combat.

That's not a poleaxe then. They were no larger than two handers, but they had a pointy end as well, making them ideal in ground man to man heavy armoured combat. Just think of them as swiss army knife designed for opening some tricky cans. Ideally they'd have pierce/slash/crush. But that would take away the usefulness of estoc. So it is definitely was a balancing decision. But when you look at it from that angle, you quickly notice that balancing wasn't well thought out from the onset. Whole grouped weapons design makes little sense. I see that they wanted to make more weapons available per specialization, but much better solution would be in giving free selection to player in deciding individual weapons. Same as in d&d, just give bigger selection of proficiencies. Pole axe is a polearm, which all have reach in D&D. This may not be D&D (but, really, it is). Actually, battle axes and such depended more on sheer weight and mass for their damage then anything else, with the sharp edge designed to concentrate this mass. This is especially true in the middle ages when large axe-type weapons were designed for a combination of crunching and slicing plate armor. This ^ Basically all middle-age heavy weapons were all about the crushing. Even large two-handed swords used from horseback was all about concentrating the blows and crush through armour than it was about slicing and dicing. The fact that Great Swords (...why not Greatswords?) in PoE even does Slashing/Piercing is really just in order to cater to fantasy tropes, rather than historical accuracy. I expect even Sawyer, who supposedly studies history, to know this. There's so many weapons that should actually be dealing crushing damage more than anything else, and really heavy armour should make you practically immune to slashing damage. ...that last part though.. I'd be perfectly fine with. Armours need to be tuned upwards in terms of specialization. That's actually not true. In middle ages heavy armour was expensive, and most foot soldiers wore no better protection that some leather, so sabres were extensively used even in the west, while straight sword itself, was also primarily used as a cutting weapon. You really could not use it in any other way while mounted anyway. But middle ages really aren't the proper era for the game. Game has arquebuses, estocs, rapiers, greatswords and pikes. That fairly accurately places it to the beginning of renaissance. A time when heavy armour became so elaborate that it brought with it whole new weaponry to battle it, when greatswords were introduced to battle pike walls, when gunpowder first entered the battlefield, and when rapier first showed itself as a duelling weapon. In fact, both armoury and weaponry in game can be almost precisely placed in real timeline. Offcouse, when used in a game system, that requires balance, but just seeing game use proper weaponry, instead of huge fantasy battleaxes that every other game has, is refreshing. I wasn't talking about most foot soldiers, I was talking about middle-age heavy weapons. The setting itself is anachronistic. The point was that the majority of those weapons were all about crushing. That's not to say that other weapons, such as sabres and rapiers and so on, were crushing weapons, or middle-age weapons, or even intended for use against heavy armour. The overall point was that despite this, the game is based in fantasy tropes, not historical accuracy, hence why Great Swords (...greatswords) still ends up with Slashing/Piercing, despite the fact that most of the historical ones probably couldn't slice through a cheese without making it explode like a melon. Historical great swords were slicing weapons. Their main, and pretty much the only role on a battlefield was battling pike walls, that is cutting them down, you certainly don't crush a pike. And in duels they were used much like poleaxes as wrestling tools, with added piercing option. Here's a good example: Both armours were designed for the great Field of Cloth of Gold tournament. First, unused one, was designed to leave no openings in combating poleaxes, while the later had the added skirt to combat slashes of the greatsword. Mind also that in this case greatsword was a sporting choice. No one was meant to be hurt, so it was chosen precisely because it was the safer option of the two.

Hiravias = comedy There's also one paralytically nasty involving him and Kana.

More work.

Can't you configure Fraps play/pause button to space? That way Fraps would stop recording as soon as you paused the game and continue when you unpaused it. Only thing you'd have to worry about is not moving the camera while issuing orders.

Actually, battle axes and such depended more on sheer weight and mass for their damage then anything else, with the sharp edge designed to concentrate this mass. This is especially true in the middle ages when large axe-type weapons were designed for a combination of crunching and slicing plate armor. This ^ Basically all middle-age heavy weapons were all about the crushing. Even large two-handed swords used from horseback was all about concentrating the blows and crush through armour than it was about slicing and dicing. The fact that Great Swords (...why not Greatswords?) in PoE even does Slashing/Piercing is really just in order to cater to fantasy tropes, rather than historical accuracy. I expect even Sawyer, who supposedly studies history, to know this. There's so many weapons that should actually be dealing crushing damage more than anything else, and really heavy armour should make you practically immune to slashing damage. ...that last part though.. I'd be perfectly fine with. Armours need to be tuned upwards in terms of specialization. That's actually not true. In middle ages heavy armour was expensive, and most foot soldiers wore no better protection that some leather, so sabres were extensively used even in the west, while straight sword itself, was also primarily used as a cutting weapon. You really could not use it in any other way while mounted anyway. But middle ages really aren't the proper era for the game. Game has arquebuses, estocs, rapiers, greatswords and pikes. That fairly accurately places it to the beginning of renaissance. A time when heavy armour became so elaborate that it brought with it whole new weaponry to battle it, when greatswords were introduced to battle pike walls, when gunpowder first entered the battlefield, and when rapier first showed itself as a duelling weapon. In fact, both armoury and weaponry in game can be almost precisely placed in real timeline. Offcouse, when used in a game system, that requires balance, but just seeing game use proper weaponry, instead of huge fantasy battleaxes that every other game has, is refreshing.

So, what's everyone using? Personally, I find everything wider than 3 squares had to use in dungeons and smaller maps, so these two are my main: XXX Eder-Hirvais/Durance-Pallegina XXX Durance-main-Aloth X X Edder-Pallegina XXX Hiravais-squishy main priest-Kana/Durance X Aloth And I use this one for larger areas: x x x x x x

I rated them overall, and I took into account the amount of them that you can cast per encounter as you level up. Anyway since I see no way of editing my post, I'll leave it as it is, although I did change my mind somehow. 1st and 2nd level healing spells, for instance, become very useful when those levels become per encounter. But for them to be, you need Priest in low armour on fairly high dexterity. That way their poor healing power is quickly offset by the quickness he can cast them.

That's not a poleaxe then. They were no larger than two handers, but they had a pointy end as well, making them ideal in ground man to man heavy armoured combat. Just think of them as swiss army knife designed for opening some tricky cans. Ideally they'd have pierce/slash/crush. But that would take away the usefulness of estoc. So it is definitely was a balancing decision. But when you look at it from that angle, you quickly notice that balancing wasn't well thought out from the onset. Whole grouped weapons design makes little sense. I see that they wanted to make more weapons available per specialization, but much better solution would be in giving free selection to player in deciding individual weapons. Same as in d&d, just give bigger selection of proficiencies.

lol Says the man that uses Durance as main tank.

Yes, let's put a cooldown ability into a game that thankfully DOESN'T HAVE ONE!

Oh, please. Even well before lvl 9 the three casters classes already have huge array of spells available. There is no need to memorize spells beforehand, and only Wizard has a slight compensation for that in having max 4 spells available at the time, but what people overlook is how EXTREMELY powerful certain spell combinations are. So, you really don't need more than one or two higher level casts to completely dominate a single encounter. That way you can easily survive even on two supplies for a very long time, and yes, have caster actively involved in every encounter.

Hit by this one as well with latest patch. It's definitely a bug.

While Chanter is a beast early on, he certainly isn't op later in the game. He even turns into somewhat mediocre to low tier character. His lvl. 3 chants duration is huge, making them unsuitable for filling up his spell ration, and his summoning spells also loose usefulness with the number of summoning figurines available. They are weaker, but they can be cast at the beginning of the battle, while Chanters spells take time to fill, and often come too late. He still has some nice boons, but next to high level Priests huge array of options, they are simply not needed. I had Kana with me for majority of the game, but in act 3 and lower levels of the dungeon, I noticed that he stopped contributing to battles, and I switched him out completely. Still, there's a really nice trick involving Priests Withdraw and him. You can use him as a decoy to start the battle and throw Decoy on him with the rest of the party hidden. His spellpool will fill up even as he is out of battle.

Hard is getting to easy for me, so I'm looking into turning it up a bit. I don't mind loosing achievements, but looking for solution I only found this console command: SwitchPOTD - changes your game difficulty to Path of the Damned. Or if it's already at POTD, changes it back to Hard. And it desn't work for me. Anyone other way, or am I doing it wrong?

Have you installed the latest patch? It fixes some of the issues causing increased loading times. Latest patch only fixed really bugged loading times caused by certain ability and summoning spells. I agree with op, that loadings are too long. And looking at save structure and some content in it it's clear that saves are unoptimized. Just entering an individual area and immidiately leaving will make some 2meg of data of that area.

Here are the rest. I'll need a bit of help on 6th level. They appear to have some broken tooltips and besides that I didn't test them thoroughly. 5th level: Revive the Fallen [7/10] Useful resurrect. That it only gives a bit of Endurace back is of little concern because the way ai targeting works in this game. But with health/endurace system it actually has a drawback, it's sometime better to leave low on health party member down. Salvation of Time [8/10] Combo extender spell. It's duration is fairly short. Only base 10 seconds increase duration of all active beneficial effects, but that includes, all Priests beneficial spells, all Fighters activating abilities, Paladin's Hastening Resortation, Wizards Martial Power... You can extend huge number of effects with just one spell. It has big potential, but also required a lot of micromanagement. Champion's Boon [9/10] +10 might +6 perception 5 damage reduction for base 30 sec. What's not to like, it creates a juggernaut out of the recipient. I think the best use for it is on spellcasters. Ether for damage, or for quite as important interrupt bonus it provides. Restore Critical Stamina [6/10] It has a use, but what you gain with better healing numbers, you loose in spending 5th level spell. Prayer Against Imprisonment [5/10] Protection vs Paralysed/Petrified. No idea what's doing up at this level. Pillar of Holy Fire [8/10] Good damage, not that much better than Shining Beacon. Both are very useful late game damage output of a Priest. Shields for the Faithful [7?/10] One of very few deflection boosting abilities. +25 on it, with 30 sec base duration is quite a big boost, I just didn't went far enough into the engine into how big an improvement that is. 6th level: Crowns for the Faithful [6/10] +6 perception/intellect and some added resolve for base 30 sec on small aoe. Decent bonus on those stats, but only useful in boosting people at start of the combat. Cleansing Flame [7/10] Chain lightning kinda spell with one target and then two extra. No accuracy bonus, but it has -5 duration on duration of beneficial spell on target for base 5 sec. Damage at first look isn't spectacular, but it's deal over time, so it makes it effective for high int. characters. Shame that it rolls without accuracy bonus. Minor Intercession [6?/10] Firstly, tooltip is broken. Judging by tooltip alone this is 1/10 spell. On my 7 might Priest it's +22.7 endurance, -5 duration of active hostile effects. But when I cast it I also get it's duration of 8.5 sec (19int), and that makes it a fairly powerful regeneration spell. Now all that needs to be determined is how many times in those 8 seconds does it give endurance, and what all that -5 duration on hostile effects does. Is it effecting hostile effects on my party, beneficial effects on enemies, or what? Spark the Souls of the Righteous [11?/10] Not sure about this one. Description is crypted, and it's effect aren't properly displayed. Not in battlelog, and not on character. It appears to be a long duration based aoe effect on allies that deals electrical damage to all close to them, and apparently it uses no hit roll! On my Priest it's 43.5 sec duration of 11-8 shock damage. All party members and all summoned creatures in aoe of this spell gets the benefit. While there's nothing said on how often that electrical damage is dealt, it looks to be frequent. Prayer Against Treachery [2/10] If I was questioning myself what Prayer of Imprisonment was doing at 5th level, I'm just baffled what this one is doing here. Priest has five lvl. 6 spells and one of them is this?

It was a bit nerfed in the last patch right? I didn't list it because I only listed actual spells. Radiance is more an ability. I tried to re rate some based on feedback, but somehow can't edit my initial post anymore. Ether I got blind and lost sight of edit button, or they have some weird editing rules on this forum. So in the mean time: @Bubbles. Agreed on Armour of Faith, it should be higher. 6/10? I still think it gets pushed back in the line when better beneficial spells become available. @Odd Hermit on Supress Afliction. So it does work! Still certainly not 10/10? I'd be willing to boost it to 7/10. @Omg Fireballs. I don't know how I missed that +10% on damage in Blessing, so yea that should bump it up. I mean, it's 10% on everything. 7/10. It still does nothing to accuracy. As for Withdraw, I never even thought of that one. Iconic Projection. Base on feedback 7/10. Anyway, if I can't find a way of editing it, I'll post the rest under here later.

I started with a Priest, and almost switched early on due to him being very one dimensional. I still kept playing, and he grew on me. His abillities are crap, his level up bonuses are crap, but his spells are a different story, even if they look a bit crap on the first look, there are some real gems hidden amongst the lousy ones. So, I decided to rank them for everyone sticking with him for some power, and hopfully finding some uses that I overlooked. 1st level: Armour of Faith [2/10] Very good duration, but +4 damage reduction becomes negligible later in game. Barbs of Condemnation [6/10] Mainstay in priests repertoire as one of his few direct target offensive spells. Great range, but effects loose importance later in game. Blessing [6/10] Nothing spectacular, but that extra +5 accuracy can often mean hit or graze. Divine Terror [7/10] -15 accuracy vs. Will, good duration, and good effect compensate somewhat small area of effect. Halt [?] Holy Meditation [6/10] Good duration, and decent buff on will saves, makes it useful for whole game. Prayer against Fear [2/10] Fairly useless because priest has more universal solutions to same problem. Restore Minor Endurance [3/10] Early healing spell that losses usefulness early on, only to get a tinny bit of it back when it becomes per encounter with lvl.9. Withdraw [10/10] Single most useful first level spell in the game. Even it's intended role is a lifesaver for whole game, it will save target from dying, and it'll make them immediately useful when they get out of it because enemies will already be engaged elsewhere. That last characteristic makes it also a superb tactical spell. Throw it on squishy character early in battle and enemy will forget him when he gets back, throw it on rogue and he'll get free backstabbing opportunities, or just time it on decoy that runs into a pack of enemies a second before you obliterate the area with fireballs. Possibilities are endless. 2nd level: Suppress Affliction [2?/10] Whenever I try to use it, the thing I try to 'suppress' does not count as an affliction. Restore Light Endurance [4/10] Better healer. Consecrated Ground [7/10] Healing effect is good, but this spell really needs good Intelligence for it to last longer and gain wider range. Being centred on caster, makes it also a bit situational. Great for 2nd row priests. Divine Mark [8/10] 2nd direct target spell. It attacks will, and has long lasting deflection penalty, so it stays useful. What I'd give for it to have better range... Repulsing Seal [7/10] I misused seals as traps early on, only when I started using them as fire and forget aoe spells, they became godly. Just jug them over your tank when he's got plenty of enemies around him, and watch them burn, or in this case, watch them fall on their asses. Prayer against Infirmity [3/10] It has it's uses, then again, they aren't many. Instill Doubt [?] Iconic Projection [?] I really don't know where to put this one. It's healing/damaging spell with huge ray-aoe that does not report damage in battlelog. It actually offers a bit more healing than lvl.2 healing spell, but it's not instant. Holy Power [6/10] Aura centred on caster with very small aoe, but it lasts for base 30 sec, giving +3 might and small resolve bonus. That might bonus makes it very useful even if it affects priest alone. 3rd level Pillar of Faith [7/10] Crush damage and prone in one spell with 10/15 accuracy bonuses. Still, a bit awkward targeting makes Warding Seal a more flexible choice. Watchful Presence [6/10] Fire and forget healer. I used it a lot when I first got it. As game progressed it became a tinny bit underpowered. Warding Seal [8/10] Another of those lovely seals. Good electrical damage, no accuracy bonus against reflex, but being foe only aoe means you get twice as many enemies even in it's somewhat small circle. Restore Moderate Stamina [6/10] A good and reliable healer. Prayer against Restraint [?] In its self it has little use, but in combo with Wizards and Druids restricting spells? Despondent blows [6/10] With good duration, this accuracy and criticals reducing spell has it's uses. Dire Blessings [8/10] One of the best Priests boosting spells, effective for whole game, and natural combat started for harder battles. Good duration, sufficient area, and with companions focused on criticals, it gets even better. Everyone gains from it's 20% on critical hits. Circle of Protection [4/10] +15 on defences, and huge area sounds good, then you see it's low duration. 4th level Triumph of the Crusaders [6/10] 200 endurance per kill for base 60sec. Sounds really good, but endurance can also be regenerated in other ways, and with it's low aoe it becomes a bit hard to target it mid battle when it's effects would be most needed. It's also a bit unpredictable. You never know when your Druid will take a kill from a fighter that would need that 200 endurance boost. Prayer against Bewilderment [3/10] It's in no way worse that other status reducing/preventing spells, but taking precious 4. lvl slot??? Baring Death's Door [1/10] Utterly useless. It does nothing that Withdraw can do better. Maybe there's a tinny bit of use for it in Ironman mode, but that's it. Devotions for the Faithful [9?/10] A very interesting spell. I'm not quite decided on rating, but it appears to be high. First it has -10(!) Might and -20 ranged/mele accuracy penalty on enemies vs will at naked role. Slight accuracy bonus would alone make it a golden spell. Then it has +4 Might, +20 ranged/mele accuracy boon on allies as well. Might bonus does NOT stack with Holy Power (eliminating it's usefulness?), but it appears to work with Blessing (+5 accuracy) and Dire Blessings (20% on criticals). That should make for some quite powerful ranged and mele damage output, while that +4 on might still helps casters. Restore Major Stamina [6/10] Healer. Searing Seal [6/10] Big area seal. Damage is not at all good for 4th level spell, still, it's nearly certain to blind someone in it's large area of effect, even with it rolling without bonus. There are times for it instead of Beacon. Shining Beacon [10/10] Huge damage dealer, big aoe, foe only, 15 accuracy bonus against will. Oh, and -10 on all defences. That's rivaling every Druid and Mage aoe spell, with added flexibility of it being foe only. This one turns Priest into an offensive behemoth. I'll do the last two if there's any interest.

Great Durance - Great voiceacting, plenty of lines and great fit into the main story. Good Eder - Likeable and well tied into a story, just lacking the same amount of content that Durance has. Hiravais - Comedy relief that went well. Same as Eder, If he commented more often, he could be a tier higher. Decent Sagani - Grounded motherly character, and finally a female dwarf character that's well written. It's just my personal hate for how rangers are depicted in this game, that keeps her here. Kana - I hate his portrait, and quite like his backstory of being a scholarly orc-thing, it's just that he's really not as well developed as I'd like. Pallegina - Crappy stats, ugly 3d head, and gimped class aside, probably the character that I'd like to like the most. Her, Kana and Aloth appear to have the least amount of content in the game. Bad Aloth - I've had him around for most of my playthrought, and he's just quiet. He says nothing, does nothing, his quest is dull. I kept waiting for him to suddenly transform into super Aloth and start throwing around meaningful word, but nope, nothing. Few words against animancy, some jokes, and that's it. Only saving graces are him being only wizard in the game and good voiceacting. Really Bad Grieving Mother aka Emo Milf - Atrocious voiceacting that in no way fits the character, accompanied by some of the worst writing in the game. She's on par with Durace in amount of content, but when you have huge blocks of text that mean nothing, it becomes hard to tolerate. So, what worked on Durance, comes out pretentious in her. Maybe she'd fit into Planescape setting, in this lore she feels extremely out of place. Overall, main thing that ties everything is big disparity in content per character. Both in number of voiced lines, and in written lines. Durance and Grieving are by far the most vocal in that aspect, but seeing them fall into big extremes in what people like, I'd much rather see attention given to them disparaged among all of the companions. I'm also missing more meaningful interactions among the companions. I've no idea how Durance and Eder can get along, seeing one was responsible for things the other is running from. It could easily be explained through dialogue, but we're left with some missed opportunities.

I just can't get d&d priest out of my head, so rods are a big no for my priests. They just look so out of place flinging those magic thingies. So, Durance is on natural staff/handgun path. And with my Eothas priest I went with ranged weaponry. High dexterity, and arques. I took one look at his Eothasian speciality and went away. Spell is lousy, and close weapons are useless for a priest. Priest are also inexplicably without self boosting abilities. That's something that Wizard and Druid have, making them both much better close quarters fighters. Priests still aren't bad. By lvl 7 they already have huge amount of spells available. And even low levels stay useful, so they can keep flinging them all the time without much need for anything else, but they are still very onesided. aoe effects, very few offensive spells, and quite lousy fighting abilities makes them fit for only one role. In that way all priest specialities are crap and out of place. They look like something left from d&d that's in just for the heck of it. For priests to be competent fighters. They'd need pikes, ranged weapons, and some self boosting spells.

I really think endurance/helth combo may be a huge advancement in party based rpgs, and may stay for good, but I also think it's still plenty of room for improvement. In IE engine games and up to Wasteland 2 you'd have to reload when a party member would die. Now they are only knocked out, but still get a penalty for taking damage. The good sides of it are less reloading and pressure added, while the bad is that getting knocked out is less of a threat. For me the best system was in Baldur's Gate 1 before getting resurrection spell/scrolls. You'd worry whenever a character would fall, and often got incredible logistical problems just bringing fallen compatriot to a temple for revive. But it was nevertheless very satisfactory doing all that just to revive a party member after a hard fought battle. With resurrection spell and higher levels of BG2, it all got easier. Death was irrelevant as long as your had a spell ready. Here, health bar offers some worry, and even punishes every hit a party member takes. Still, it's not perfect seeing all the hurt gone after a single rest in the middle of the battlefield. And after a while, you are simply forced into a required restocking of camping supplies, and that's the dullest thing of it. Supplies are completely tied to health, and backtracking to a store is always and option. It's almost the same as having unlimited supplies. It turns a decent underlying mechanic into a slight annoyance. Now, I don't think anything need to be fixed, but possibilities are countless. I'm wondering how the game would play without endurance regeneration outside combat? With resting disturbances? Without full recovery of health per camping. With no supplies at all, and much higher health bar? Or, more supplies, but leaving them only effecting spell recovery? How the system would work under locked areas with fixed supplies?

Just use console and be done with it. And if you're worried about achievements install iw mod. It allows 'rest' without writting 'iroll20s' and disabling them.