knownastherat

It's alright Murp, it does not bother me.

Who said it was intended? Intended or obvious is the obsession of developers with "balance". Mr. Saywer wrote and spoke pages on it. Frankly, I do not care what was intended and whatnot, I care about results. It is the same thing. A problem not requiring complex approach and/or solvable by simple approach is not complex from the definition of the term complex: not simple, easy, or straightforward; complicated.

It will. You use Infuse at the start so your subsequent buffs get a duration bonus. Just tested it and right you are it works like you say though I remember it differently, Confused removed the Smart buff.

You could but you did not have to and we can only speculate how many players actually have done it, have figured it out. It is not an argument against "strategic layer" claim. I've spent two years playing BG2 with relative intensity and I am quite confident I know all tricks there are, so saying this or that was possible in BG2 is lost on me. It was agreed already, at least I thought so, that BG2 encounters were like puzzles and required meta-knowledge. This is the strategic layer PoE lacks.

The (difficult) encounters of BG2 require metaknowledge. And, as you point out, when you have that knowledge it's quite simple. So claiming that is more complex than PoE is really a stretch. Particularly when you take into consideration that the devs have clearly stated from the beginning that they wanted to, and have tried to, move away from encounters that hinges on metaknowledge for the player to be successful. It's still your prerogative to prefer metaknowledge encounters, however that is not the same thing as the BG2 encounters being more complex when you make a comparison. It is the same thing. If an encounter can be won simply be walking in and doing the same thing as in previous encounters, its simplistic by definition. Sure to solve a puzzle for the second time is easy but change few parameters, like different party makeup or spell selection, and its can be a whole new puzzle.

If Deadfire combat is more simplistic than BG Then you must have been playing a completely different game. I dunno what to tell you. Deadfire combat is more simplistic. How can it be more simplistic when in BG2 most classes rarely did anything other than auto-attack? Let me rephrase simplistic to lack of strategic layer, as Barleypaper called it, because with regards to our earlier exchange I am lead to believe that you consider queuing buffs with shift, casting CCs then AoEs as complex. Strategic layer is not about the number of abilities one can use, if it was ancient combat would had zero strategic layer, but how encounters are designed and what kind of approach they require from players. BG2 encounters are like puzzles, which once solved are admittedly easy, unlike PoE encounters are mostly not puzzles and all they require is a brute force.

If Deadfire combat is more simplistic than BG Then you must have been playing a completely different game. I dunno what to tell you. Deadfire combat is more simplistic.

Rirngrim's Enervating Terror (which will be nerfed to 5 sec in next patch btw) is PL 5 so this PL is not a problem for Evoker. PL 6, especially with the said grimoire, is indeed kind of problematic if one wants to stay ranged, on the other hand, since staying out of melee will probably be not always possible, there are picks to deal just with such situation. Or just pick debuff/CC. With INT buff from Duality Gaze of the Adragan could actually be worth casting.

IIRC it's in a chest/locker in the room next to the shop, the room where the cure quest item is.

Casting Infuse before becoming berserk will not offset Confusion or?

I dunno, I am still of opinion that such differences/distinctions are insignificant in the greater scheme of things, but it's not only 15% to echo, its 2 PLs for going subclass. Blindness you'll get with the Ninagauth's Teachings, without the AoE hazard Chill Fog is, to cast instead of Infuse with Vital Essence (which does nothing for burst damage and does not stack with Duality) and cast Thrust (interrupt) or Missiles or Fan on PL 1 instead of Chill Fog. What do you want your MC to do? This I still have not heard. I hear you weighing options which without contexts have little meaning.

Yes but OP is not playing solo, I think, and in such case, they are not essential. Could even go Nature Godlike and function like debuffer and burst damage dealer. IMO function or playstyle is the first thing player should determine, then pick class and abilities accordingly.

I'd say the fun isn't so much a property of the game itself, but rather people's experience of it. What someone considers to be fun of course ties directly to their individual preferences, and how well a particular game (or anything else) caters to those. Though I'm certainly not denying the fundamental importance of having fun when playing a game, because indeed why play it if not to have fun? For me a game feeling unbalanced would detract from my enjoyment of it, in part because it tends to rather constrain viable playing styles and options and such. How a game being/feeling too balanced would for others reduce their enjoyment though, I don't quite see; hence my curiosity (complaints about insufficient energy having been spent on other things or post-release rebalancing I get, but then it's not really about being 'over-balanced' as such). Thanks for the correction. Let me rephrase it then. Regardless of what is and what is not a fundamental property of a game, it ought to be fun to play. Glad to see that despite my poor wording you were willing and able to see my point.

I've noticed it, activation of weapon bonus, too with Scordeo's Trophy. The description says: Scoring Hits with this weapon grants .. working as described. Hit .. unlike a blow which is ranged

There's nothing for them to figure out if they don't agree it smells bad in the first place, though. So you'd have to be rather more explicit on why balance-oriented design is a bad thing to convince them. Although I must say I don't see it as anything other than positive, good balance is of rather fundamental importance to the quality of (almost) any game as far as I'm concerned. Well, while you are certainly entitled to the opinion that good balance (we could spend years trying to define it) is a fundamental property of any game, I would argue, just like some before me, that fundamental property of a game is fun. While these two are not mutually exclusive, if a game is not fun, it does not matter if its balanced or not because who would play a game which is not fun? It's like with art. It can be the most artistic art ever made but if nobody will see it and enjoy it, what is the point?

Trying to answer the question would take us far off-topic but let's just say we live in the age of virtual achievements, virtual diplomacy or virtual interaction or virtual sexuality. Lots of stuff for our brains, who have not evolved virtually, to handle. Back on topic, I ran further analysis on Terrify and my numbers tell me that 8 sec and even 7 sec duration is too much. Around 5 sec is balanced, considering Wizard is the strongest class.

I am sorry but .. lol .. though don't worry about it, there is enough self-appointed balancers around here.

Well, I realize my command of English is not very good but does not a blow imply it's not ranged? I mean .. she received a severe blow on the head from an arrow .. sounds weird or? --- edit: that is unless its a lore thing

Simple, the breaking point is the point where overpowered becomes balanced.

Indeed, Terrify should be shortened further to 8 sec, probably 7 sec max. I will post comprehensive analyses showing the breaking point is around 7.43 sec later.

Alright, but don't worry about it too much because I kind of know the answer and the question was more or less rhetorical. For example, Freezing Pillar is obvious since it targets Fortitude and Reflex and after casting buffs and with the current state of the game - how encounters are designed, how PEN/AR works, grimoire mechanics, spell limit per encounter or spell design - there is not much room for creativity and versatility. I would love to be proven wrong, however, I am afraid the design is so flat that it will be very hard. As a side note, could the buffing phase be handled by AI?

YES but I tell you what. Seems to me the devs listen to only certain kind of feedback, respectively feedback from certain people so .. I would not worry.

Of course, they should be nerfed, especially those PL1 spells.

Yeah, no shield I understood as flavor, however, with injury and Rekvu's Fractured Casque say goodbye to Empower or hassle to get an injury when Empower points run out.

I suspect those using Time Stop (Improved Alacrity and Robe of Vecna) either have not grasped let's say finer elements of game mechanics or just wanted to be done with encounters as soon as possible And even with Time Stop BG2, whether it's better than PoE or not, is regarded and accepted as of one the greatest RPGs ever. So much for "need for balance argument" which is supposed to make the game better, right? Right