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Everything posted by KDubya
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Disengaging a tank is so simple
KDubya replied to drty's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
The simple answer is to build a better melee, and then make a few of them. Get three or more frontline melee and you won't have any problem of enemies running past your melee. Go with Monks, Paladins, Chanters or Barbarians. One of each makes for a nice synergistic melee team that will destroy enemies in relative safety. For Eder re-spec him out of the garbage Defender and take Confident Aim, a Weapon focus, spec and Mastery in whatever you find appealing, armored grace, savage attack and vigorous defense. He will then do pretty good damage and be just as or more 'tanky' as your Defender build. If you go with a shield go with sabres, or go two handed. One 'tank' and five casters doesn't work like it used to. -
I'm a fan of using big two handers for Paladins. The hardest enemies also have the largest DR so going for slower bigger hits is better than fast and weak. To me DR matters more than deflection but you can still get 100+ deflection with two hander Paladin of you have two of them in the party and they cast Reinforcing Exhortation on each other for a big +25 deflection buff. This also gets you two auras and four Lay on Hands. I've got a PotD Kind Wayfarer Island Aumaua using Long-Feller Arquebus for a FoD alpha, then either Tidefall or Grey Sleeper. Good survivability, leads team in damage at level 13. Just got the Sacred Immolation on him and Pellagrinna and looking forward to double the burn. Stats are 18 Might, 10 dex, 10 con, 15 perception, 10 intellect and 15 resolve. Team is MC Paladin, Pellagrinna, Kana, Grieving Mother, Zahua and will drop Sagani for Devil. Heavy on the melee. Since most of the team is on the frontline the 10 intellect aura is plenty. Also means there are no real squishy team members that need to be protected. If I lose Sagani or Grieving Mother it doesn't change much, the big hard hitting heavy plate team of two paladins, a monk and a chanter will beat down most encounters.
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You don't have to have Might for an effective PotD build, for the easy levels you can do whatever. For casters Might only affects damage. You can make a very effective controller type Wizard, Druid or Cipher with an average Might and instead pump Intellect for area and duration, and Perception for accuracy and interrupts. Rogues can easily get to +285% damage without anything from Might, Dexterity for attack speed and Perception for accuracy are more important for them. They are the class that can ignore Might and end up with a more effective build.
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Pillars of balancing
KDubya replied to brindle88's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
If you care that much about the numbers use a calculator. If you absolutely need the bestest gear at all times maybe Diablo is a better genre for you. The increased base damage displayed includes bonuses from Might only, it's a display problem. Again the simple answer is bigger numbers are better then smaller numbers for damage and faster is better than slower. If you really, really need to know then go record the game at 30 fps video and count frames. I can happily go to my grave without ever knowing exactly how many frames my character attacks at. -
Grieving Mother (Cipher) and Durance (Priest) need time in party to talk after camping. Also PotD is easily accomplished with only using the story companions. A few stat points moved around will not make much of a difference. If you want additional classes such as two Ciphers in the party then you'll need to roll up a merc but there is not much reason to replace Eder with another Fighter or Aloth with another Wizard. At least in my opinion anyway.
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The AI does a good job of activating Swift Strikes and Torment's Reach, only need to micro for Flagellant's Path or Force of Anguish. I like to take Turning Wheel even when I'll be using my wounds as fast as I can via Torment's Reach. More damage is always good and the only competition ability wise is Stunning Blows
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The Quest "A Farmers Plight"
KDubya replied to victorweaver's question in Pillars of Eternity: Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)
I bet you exited from the other exit that goes onto the small outcropping where a body has a key. Go back in the cave and use the other exit -
Pillars of balancing
KDubya replied to brindle88's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
The math in the IE games is easier for me, because the values are immutable: 2d4+3 will always equal something in the range 5-11.In PoE, a weapon's min/max damage varies depending on: 1) whose inventory it's in - the same fine sword will have different min/max damage in Eder's inventory and in Aloth's. 2) whether or not it's equipped And you call that easier than the IE games? Also, as you say yourself, this doesn't take into account additional damage multipliers. For example, the "slaying kith 1.25x" I'll have to calculate on my own, if I know what I should apply it to in the first place (which I honestly don't know). Regarding weapon damage per round being more difficult to calculate in the IE games due to multiple attacks - quite the opposite. It's in PoE where it's more difficult to calculate the time between attacks, because you have to know: 1. the number of frames for attack (for the specific weapon) 2. the number of frames for recovery 3. a modifier coming from the weapon setup - single weapon/weapon&shield/dual wield/two-handed 4. the modifier from Dexterity (in %) 5. the modifiers from weapon enchantments and positive/negative afflictions 6. modifiers to recovery coming from your armor 7. possibly other things I'm unaware of 8. Then you need to know in what order do you apply the percentage and multiplicative modifiers. No one knows that as far as I'm aware. All that in order to know how many attacks per second you have (or how many seconds per attack, no matter). As you see, a lot more complicated than knowing you have 2/3 attacks per round in the IE games. These calculations would be nearly impossible to do on-the-fly if Obsidian had documented all this info. And as we know, they never have. Whatever info we have is from players who have been hacking PoE's code and conducting their own experiments. For D&D it's enough to read D&D rulebooks at least, no decompiling .dlls is required, heh. So, after all this, the IE games' weapon damage is more difficult to read? Weapon descriptions are more difficult to read? Lol. No. D&D was made for people playing PnP, with dice, and face to face. Whatever calculations were needed there, they only involve integers and absolute values (no percentages). It's meant to be used by people doing maths without calculators. To know your precise damage and speeds in PoE which was supposed to have a simple system, you need an Excel spreadsheet calculator. That is why I say again - PoE's whole implementation of RtwP is profoundly and irredeemably botched (to refrain from using a stronger word), and should best be redesigned from the ground up for PoE2 with the goal that it should be possible for players to quickly gauge the quality of items and their chances to inflict damage vs an opponent. Speaking about the "slaying" modifier - what is this modifier applied to? The base damage values, or the damage values adjusted for whoever is holding the weapon? And please give me a source for the info, because I haven't seen it anywhere. The math is really straightforward, not sure what the issue is?????? All damage modifiers are additive and affect the base damage. All the damage adders are the same - +25% from Might = +25% from slaying = +25% from whatever. You just add them all up and then apply to the base damage. Lashes are applied differently but follow the simple rule of having one is better than not. For any casual player "bigger numbers are better" is about as simple as it gets The percentage system allows for small increases, especially with speed. It is much better to have a +20% speed enchantment than to have an extra attack that doubles your damage output like AD&D had. Tabletop D&D had to be useable with simple dice based on a system of turns. PoE is computer based in real time, the computer understands the percentages even if the players don't. At the end of the day it is a role playing game, use the Blade of the Endless Paths because you cleared an entire dungeon for it and t looks cool instead of it does 0.034% more damage per second. -
PoE sells 500K units
KDubya replied to Eisenheinrich's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Those numbers also don't include GOG sales. I bought GOG and I'm sure many others did as well. They've made enough to keep the Forums on, patches rolling out and continue work on White March part II. No epic failure like Flagship had with Hellgate London which in its defense, I thought was pretty fun with an interesting lore. -
Change Fighter with Monk and you have a much better combatant. Give the Monk the same armor and weapons and the Monk will hit harder and faster with Lightning strikes and any damage you take become wounds which fuel your attacks. Even with just auto attacks the Monk will do more than the Fighter, which unfortunately for the Fighter is all they get. Add in the Monks AoE attacks or super duration knockdowns and you outclass the Fighter by a mile. The only thing a Fighter is better at is going full meat sack with the taking damage for the team aura.
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2.03 patch changes teased
KDubya replied to AndreaColombo's topic in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Do you think the CC changes will be across the board immunities such as Dragons can not be CC at all? Or more like they can't be knockdowned prone but can still be mind effected like confusion and domination? If it is across the board the encounters will need to be rebalanced as I'm not sure you can take some of the Dragons without locking them down. If it is only physical attacks that get affected then spells become even more powerful and required. One good thing about the Fighters getting a buff is that lots of the enemy are Fighters and will get stronger. I still think a Monk will outclass a Fighter by a bunch even with the proposed changes. Maybe there are some cool details that Josh left out that will make me have to eat crow. -
I've also never even thought of swapping a grimoire in combat. Like you I pick the four spells per level that best fits my gameplay. The only difference is I like Spirit of Decay more than Heart of Storm as I like the corrode spells more than lightning. Other than that I'd say our spell picks are like 90% the same.
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I think you'd have to either: 1.) Make all spells and abilities per encounter, completely remove the rest mechanic and health. Then balance the encounters based on max strength every fight. Probably cut spells down to one or two per level instead of four, or have them chosen at level up like an ability. Or go with cool downs. 2.) Have all classes need to generate focus like Ciphers do, no Vancian casters at all. 3.) Do nothing and let modders mod and players self regulate however they see fit. #1 and #2 require a big revamp of the entire game so that is pretty unfeasible. #1 would be like Dragon Age Origins, I think #2 would have been the most original and best solution but maybe a new game will try something like that.
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I'd choose to go with either the intellect - clever, looking for a loophole type conversation options, or go with resolve - strong conviction, making the hard choice type conversation options. From a role playing standpoint I don't think that the same person would be good at both types of conversations. If you have strong convictions - resolve - you don't need to look for a loophole like intellect has to. Likewise if you can find a loophole and 'cheat' there is no need to have strong convictions. This also has the plus of letting you go for a high resolve or a high intellect. If it was me I'd go with either: Might 16 Con 10 Dex 15 Per 15 Int 6 Res 16 With food and an item you can easy get back to 10 intellect for no malus. Go with dual wield melee or retaliation shield, heavy armor. Look for powers that do not have a duration like the rays. Melee does better damage faster than ranged so you will generate focus quickly. With this go with something other than wood elf, Boreal Dwarf or Moon or Fire Godlike if you like cheese. or Might 18 Con 8 Dex 16 Per 15 Int 18 Res 3 A more standard ranged glass cannon build, maybe even dump con all the way for more cannon.
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Lighthouse story/rant
KDubya replied to Wald0's topic in Pillars of Eternity: Stories (Spoiler Warning!)
At level 6 you should be able to handle the fight. It might just be that your team is too squishy. Were you using story companions or mercs? If mercs were they min maxed for glass cannons or balanced stats? -
Nothing wrong with that? Might as a single attribute controls physical strength and spiritual strength at once. A mage with 18-20 might is also very strong and can act like that with regard to heavy items and scripted interactions ... e.g. lift a log of wood. That's not a good concept. Would it make you happier if they replaced Might with Spiritual Strength for powers and Physical Strength for weapons? As long as they did not add more than 3 stat points you could then min or max the two as you want without getting extra free points. Would be bad for Ciphers but it'd make everyone happy who can't handle a combined spirit and physical stat.