KDubya

I always though of Athletics as only needing to be like four and have everyone have that much, maybe one guy gets more. I usually have my main be the trap finder, regardless of class as long as it is one of the front liners. Grieving Mother does a good job at CC with her high intellect, but Hiravois is easier to use. Just choose and cast, no need to worry about keeping focus or learning about drugs. I'd say Hiravois for the easy use aspect and easy learning curve. With a druid you get all spells and can pick what you want, with a cipher you need to choose a few powers from a larger list and what works for you will depend on stats playstyles and team synergy. High level at the end game is not the time to figure what works and what doesn't, especially on Trial of Iron.

+1 million. + another million I'll see your 2 million and raise you a gazillion! Hey, romance is already in the game! It just skips out on all that unnecessary "getting to know them" and jumps straight to what the player really wants: to pay for a fade to black. The Salty Mast has romances for all! On a side note, I'm surprised no protest group has made the claim that Pillars is pro-prostitution: you not only have the chance to engage in the activity but you gain a game bonus if you do, without any of the negatives (like crabs). And remember you are not paying them for sex, you are paying them to leave afterwards.

Have you cleared every map that you can reach besides Readric and Maerwald? Can you kill the rest of the map and level up? One more level will make a big difference. Even just starting Raedric and doing some should get you to fifth level.

You can always go somewhere easier and level up some more, maybe even recruit a merc to bring it up to a full team.

One big help for the melee is Shod in Faith boots healing the pet that is standing next to you. The bow ranger is going to be far away and probably not even get hit in the first place. For solo It looks like melee is better since you can help keep the pet alive and the enemy will melee you in the first place, regardless of what you want. On a team there are five other team members to consider as far as what is better for the Ranger - dual wield or ranged. With five barbarians you'd be better as ranged, with five wizards you might be the tank so melee would be better.

If you are hitting the cap, why can't you use all the wound abilities then? You shouldn't be running out of wounds if you are capped up all the time. Does that mean you have never tested a monk with lesser wounds vs the same level monk without lesser wounds? The big block of wounds come from the enemy Alpha Strike, here Lesser Wounds would just hit the ten wound cap faster. Spending the wounds on the wound burners I have works very well, so well that I don't think I'd ever get around to using Force of Anguish, or at least not enough to justify the cost of an ability. I don't have any casters on my team so there is no opening AoE CC that takes the enemy out. I just bum rush with my Monk, Zahua and Itumaak and eat the strike. When it hits the Monks it fuels the beatdown, when it hits Itumaak it makes Sagani upset Sometimes the fox lives long enough to be saved by a LoH and then buffed with a reinforcing exhortation. Usually Itumaak dies, in fact he dies so often I should be hunted by PETA not by the Leaden Key.

One thing I want to clarify about the whole rest spamming complaint I have been seeing on this thread and other threads. The camping/resting system is designed to work around the concept of attrition in line with the difficulty setting the player chooses. Thus the lower levels of difficulty (easy/normal) are set up to have copious opportunities for the player to rest. At the higher difficulties, resource management is meant to be a significant strategic factor. Thus, if you are playing on Hard/ POTD, you should be able to progress through the game using the camping supplies you carry/ find in any area you explore. If you need to rest spam to get through these difficulty levels, whether it is through mods or slogging back to an inn, you are playing on a level that is too hard for you (or deliberately altering the game to make it appear easier than it is intended to be). Either way, that play style isn't something the designers can eliminate in this type of system without making everything completely per encounter. I won't comment about whether that is the direction they should have gone in or not, but I will say that they really have no reason to design the game to accommodate those that will meta game or outright cheat to make the game easier for themselves. BTW, I do agree that the 3 original classes are the most interesting in the game, and I hope that Obsidian gets a chance to develop an original IP that moves further away from the old IE games. I understand that some people see the rest mechanic as an actual strategic system and based on the fact that they do in fact reduce your camp supplies by a good amount from Normal to PoTD I agree that the intention was to have the rest mechanic as a strategic aspect. However I do not see it working that way at all with the other added mechanics. Any person who wants to use strategy is going to go get the buffs from an inn before tackling a dungeon and unless they are for more than 1 or 2 rests per buff bonus the attribute bonuses from inns are just screaming to be utilized. So to keep our buffs which are often very helpful per encounter is quite useful. And if I lose my buffs because they want me to camp out more to get my spells up I will just use iemod or potentially trudge my way back to the inn. Which ultimately is me clicking map button clicking by exit to map. Running party in fast mode to exit click click click and click then back to the map. That just gets old and tired. And without any variance like encounters between maps or random encounters popping up on maps already visited its absurdly tedious even if I am rping. You state this commonly posted statement about cheating and meta gaming. I never quite understand when people say this. Its pretty much like if I had taxes and decided to use the tax code to write something off that is obscured from the public in general. And because of this I am cheating the system in some way. I tend to view cheating in a game as hex editing the code or manipulating the data on that level. Or using the console to god mode your party or to gain access to otherwise unavailable skills/attributes/powers in the base game. All I see is that people get upset because they did not figure out how to optimize the available variables in the game for winning and would rather eliminate things so they feel like they are on more even ground with those who can readily see how to capitalize on them. Or they want to have rules put upon them and everyone else when they could easily apply the rules to themselves with the proper discipline. I mean if you feel per-encounter is too abusive of a system or OP. Do not use it. If you feel a certain spell is too amazingly powerful dont scribe it in your book. Or choose something in the middle of that disciplined application and go suggest that iemod offers up a method to switch per encounter off or in a different variance than what it is now. Ultimately if you remove per encounter you just use more resting for tougher fights. And if you want some incredible challenge this game is not it even on PoTD. However if you are trying to forcibly challenge yourself and have the discipline to not use inns or camping supplies then anyone can do that regardless of how the game is designed. Turn on PoTD and RP that camping supplies no longer exist or that there is some lingering poison that is emitted from a Watcher that will kill your party on rest. If they wanted the rest mechanic to be truly a strategic system they would add encounter probability as well as a cool down to being able to camp or rest. At the very least add camping options in the expert mode settings. If they wanted to really make casting spells a more robust a strategic system they would add cool downs and other intricate systems that had you using more foresight. Per encounter on/off is really not the problem that seems be really being discussed here. Soon though iemod will have a more direct avenue of ability tweaking and hopefully that will grow into something where we can have more direct access to the difficulty and game mechanics. Then everyone can be happy and we can post things about additions instead of eliminations. I try and approach the game as if there was a real human DM running the game instead of the game engine. I would call keeping an Inn bonus or prostitute in effect all the time as being a 'rules lawyering' approach. It is allowed but is against the spirit of the game in my opinion. I believe that a real DM would have consequences for you if you left all the time or rested too frequently. The game doesn't have those types of consequences and that is fine. I can have any 'house rules' that I want and I do. As I said before, or at least at the end of the other thread after reading and re-thinking my original premise, per encounter spells are not the problem. The problem is Vancian casters. The only solution I have is to just not use them, or at least stop at mid level. This I can fix on my own and I do. I'm just disappointed that the Devs did not take the bold step of making everything like the Cipher and Chanter. Maybe in PoE2 they can break free but now their is a legacy of Vancian casters here so they will probably do the same thing again. It's like the Civilization games, CiV is a great game but limited to human history. When they announced Beyond Earth I thought that they could really stretch the boundaries since the future is not written. They could have gone to extreme possibilities like Eugenics or what ever without being tied to what really happened. Instead of something bold they went with bland pastels and just gave you more of the same, except not as good as CiV. The best I can hope for is that PoE2 is not a console port.

I have GoG. Galaxy was working on 5.7 GB, or I could manually download a 200 MB. I went with the manual Also that way I have a saved copy of everything I've veer downloaded from GoG so I can re-install with out downloading more. GoG has a patch for Vanilla and a patch for White March. I only used the White March Patch and everything is working fine. The game version is now 2.02 with just the one patch (the White March Patch)

I'd say so 5.7 GB or 200 MB is a hell of a difference. But achievements work retroactively. or at least a lot of them do.

I thought it was pretty funny. I want Bunty The Clown to be in the game, it'd be hilarious.

I did not catch the solo part before. I definitely see where you are coming from now and your build and plan all make sense now. As a solo there is no frontline to hold enemies at bay while you shoot them, they'd just run up to you and smack you. With you and the pet in melee you can cover each other's back and both benefit from Shod in Faith boots. Different question - If your Ranger gets KO'd can the pet win the fight and you get up afterwards?

You are limited to only ten wounds at a time, in big fights even with plate, the Paladin Zealous Endurance Aura and spamming Torments I still hit the cap so getting them a little faster wouldn't help. For me there is always a better choice for a Talent than Lesser Wounds. The issue is what to spend the wounds on. If I get one wound I spend it on Lightning Strikes for the +25% speed and +25% lightning lash. If I have another or even a few more I'll start the Torments spam. If I have three or more, have a soft target or a big group that I can line up I'll use a Flagellant's. Maybe multiple Flagellants and just keep going across the battlefield as the pack tries to chase after me. If I get seven or more right at the start I'll wait for the eighth and summon the Twins. I've got all the wound burners I need. With the above wound spending plan the only use I'd have for Force of Anguish would be if I had a single target and less than seven wounds but more than two. It'd be really situational. If there are a lot of targets I'd rather attack them all with Flagellants or Torments. Making one guy prone for a long time would not be as useful as killing the pack of minions or Flagellanting the casters in the back. I need to test more to see if all the lash effects are working or not. Some have said that Turning Wheel does work at the same time as Lightning Lash.

Just accuracy. Specifically a one handed weapon and nothing else gets you +12 accuracy, a small shield gets you +0 accuracy, medium shield -4 accuracy and large shield -8 accuracy. Attack speed is the same for all shields and for one hand only.

What weapons are you using to dual wield? Swift Aim just gets you something like +20% attack speed, same as Dual Wield, plus it has a big -7 accuracy malus. Melee will do more damage but unless you are wearing heavy armor you get trashed in melee, and a Ranger is about as durable as a Rogue except you miss out on all the big damage boosters like reckless,sneak attack and deathblows.

Still no Dev comment in the bug thread about Turning Wheel turning off the Electrical Lash from Swift Strikes. If that is by design then there is no reason for me to take Turning Wheel at level five. What to take in its place? 1.) Stunning Blows doesn't require wounds and gets two uses per encounter. 2.) Force of Anguish - great CC but takes two wounds and I already use wounds on Torment's, Flagellant's, Swift Strikes and the Twins. I'm not sure I'd ever get to use it. 3.) Long Stride - Once I get Flagellant's I use that to move around and attack everything in between so not as useful for this build. I'm thinking Stunning Blows is the choice for this build. Too bad the more interesting options are all at higher level.

Not sure on the moon godlike choice for a rogue. I think moon godlikes are stupidly broken balance wise but they work best on someone who will get hit a lot, like a Monk or a Barbarian. Not so much for a Rogue who ideally won't ever be getting hit. If your Rogue starts taking enough damage to make the Moon Godlike's heal attractive you need to work on your Rogue tactics. I'd suggest one of the more offensive race talents like Death Godlike, Heath Orlan, Boreal Dwarf, Island Aumaua or even Pale Elf for the extra DR. All of these racial abilities help you deal out damage or with the Pale Elf tank it.

Single Weapon Style works fine with a shield other than with a Bash shield or if you are using a fist. It has always been that way. A weapon in one hand and a shield or nothing both satisfy the requirement of using only a single weapon.

Why is there even the bash enchant in the game? Other than to trick people into gimping themselves? If your shield has it you lose out on Single Weapon Style, do less damage per second since the bash slows down your normal attack, and it does not benefit from Two Weapon Style. I can not see any redeeming feature or reason to want to have Bash on a shield. The shield that the travelling merchant sells is one of the few Superb enchanted shields in the game, the only medium sized one I think, has a useful spell enchant but is ruined by having bash. You end up doing near 40% less damage per second if you use the shield with bash. If bash can't be fixed so that it does not change the attack frequency of the main hand at least give us the ability to dis-enchant it.

Isn't Little Savior a small shield so it doesn't have an accuracy malus?

Reducing the power, or nerfing, one class is a lot easier than trying to increase the power of ten other classes and then try to increase all the enemies to make it some what challenging. Unfortunately this change does not address the issue. If it is four per rest + one per encounter it does the worst of all possible solutions. In the tough fights you are stronger and in the trash fights you will cast less or rest more. The three original classes, the Cipher with focus, the Chanter with their chants/invocations and the Monk with wounds, are great. New and refreshing takes on how a class will play. Easy to balance, they get stronger but in a linear type fashion. They should have expanded on this mechanism for all the casters instead of bringing in Vancian casters. PoE did solve the issue of casters being too weak in the beginning but did nothing to solve the quadratic issue at high levels. Blame the backers for this, they wanted the god-mode mages from BG and PoE delivered.

For the trap finding problem I just have the tank be the trap finder, usually my main character at that. That way my exploring formation is my combat formation and my team is always in position. You can pass through when out of combat to minimize any pathing issues. In combat positioning has consequences. You can have the guy in the wrong position pull out eat a disengagement attack and then go to where you wanted him to be. Or you can just put him in the right position to start with. Without combat positions having 'mass' to stop pass through the enemy would just mob the front guys stacking themselves five tall instead of flowing around and flanking you.

At level nine starting White March it gave me the option of upgrading the White March encounters. I did with my PotD and then cleared everything except the Dragon, finished at 13th and then went to the Animancy trial to start Act III. If you upgrade the encounters then you can do some, leave to go back to Act III and then come back as you want. It'd let you get Zahua early, the Devil would be harder to get but you'd get more time with the new guys that way. If you don't upgrade the White March then it will be too easy for you at level nine and will level you up such that the rest of Act III will also be too easy. This'd be the worst of both.

If you could add any enchantment to your upgraded Tall Grass (You will make it Superb and add a lash) what would you want? Faster attack speed and more hit to crit conversion. That is what Durgan Steel does for you In PoE Santa is a Dwarf bringing Durgan Steel to the bad boys of the world.

It says it right in the description. Plus it has been tested many many times.

So with GoG with the White March DLC, I do not need the base game new patch, I just need the White March new patch?