Sanctuary

I've had Serafen using the Shattered Vengeance club for a while now, and lately (now that I'm facing more casters) I've noticed that he keeps ending up with the amplify damage curse that the weapon procs on himself quite a lot. Is this intentional, and now random weapon procs are considered cast spells?

I just finished the Steel Preacher at level 7, and the bestiary entry that popped up showed level 16.

Despite reports to the contrary, I'm not seeing level scaling working yet. I had a previous save in The Hole (Tavern) where I was testing a bunch of random patrons before and after getting the beta patch. They seemed identical. So I started a new game to see if that was a requirement. Without having been there yet in this playthrough, I went to Fort Deadlight at level 8. Enemies were piss easy and chunking left and right from a single focus fire attack from three ranged (two of which are low damage), and barely doing any damage at all. So, if level scaling is actually working, it appears only to be scaling the stats of the enemies, yet not their gear along with it. -2/+2 levels is nothing, because the stats can't compensate for the much better gear the player finds along the way.

WIth Blessings of Bereth you can start with main char wizard at level 4, extra gold,+2 all stats and vendor that sells gloves with +2 power level to evocation spells in Port Maje. Mix that with Infuse with Vital Essence Nature Godlike for another +2 power levels and you are probably highest damage dealer at level 4. Chillfog ticking for 37 damage in big aoe that also blinds? I would understand if you called that imbalanced but weak or worst? Nah, you just haven't found enough game breaking **** that make wizard strong. I just hinted you one above. I'm sure there are more. So now those blessings, and race are exclusive to the Wizard? Also, not only have I already mentioned empower, I mentioned Chill Fog. Twice now, and you can't use it every fight. Not every enemy is going to bunch up and stand perfectly still for you, especially early on when you're using a tank that can only hold three enemies at most. Ranged enemies generally don't bunch up with melee either, so you're either hitting melee, or you're hitting ranged, but not both. It also makes using any class that has a flanking bonus way more obnoxious to micromanage than they need to be if the blind gets resisted, because either they won't be getting their damage bonus, or you risk blinding/damaging them as well. Are you telling me that for every fight, if there's any kind of corner or choke point, you try to draw the attention of ALL of the enemies, and then run them all the way back to that point (if they all happen to aggro, since often when you do that half of them don't move) just to make good use of Chill Fog (and then later Fireball)? If so, you're going out of your way to set up a scenario that puts the Wizard in a way better light than what actually shines on them right now. For the time it takes to do that, you could have already killed at least half of the enemies or more through other means. Things start looking different if you're talking about stacking multiple Wizards, but the same is true for a few other classes too, especially stuff like a Black Jacket/Ascendant or Devoted/Soul Blade, or how about 2x - 3x Barbarians? BTW, those gloves don't affect all spells, only Evocations. Chill Fog is a Transmutation. The gloves slightly boost the damage output early on with Fan of Flames (should you bother using it) and Missile, but inconsequentially so. The best thing about them is the accuracy boost. Edit: Is the difficulty level of the game even being considered here? Despite it still not being very challenging, enemy health pools scale up a little more on Veteran and then PotD don't they?

T1 has chill fog and Slicken. T2 is bleh and I barely use it. T3 has Fireball for easy AoE comp which is the most effective one atm. Later, use it for Del Alacrity because the +5 dex speed still speed up how fast you cast/recover and it doesn't take long. ==== T4 has frozen fireball from a certain grimoire you can acquire really early. Sure the cast time is long but you can retarget and it has almost twice the range of normal fireball. Paralysis on hit. The moment I got this, the game lost all possible mid-game challenge even if you are undergear. T5 is mediocre. Only really use it for Blast of Frost for quick AoE finisher if they somehow survive the fireball. T6 has Gaze and Deathring. Death ring is insane in this one because it's a giant Foe AoE that can also finish off high DR but low health target with no effort. T7 has Tayn Chaotic orb and with enemies using Unbending, Wall of Draining T8 has Wilting Wind. It's a raw damage version of hailstorm which is also busted. T9 has Missile Salvo and Meteor. I don't see how they are weak. Only T2 is really bad but you get through that really fast since the game quickly boost you to like level 7 in only a few hour. Salvo has the highest DPS potential in the game that it took 70% of the tankiest boss fight health in one spell on Aloth who has pisspoor might. And if you don't have enough cast, then empower yourself for +1 to all tier casting resource. Nothing should survive you throwing 1 or 2 fireball in the early game so wizard early is nowhere near that bad. Edit: Also, if you really want to break the game, just give the Wizard some kind of legendary gear early (you cna easily grab a legendary weapon from Crookspur stealing). This gives them a major accuracy boost to their spells. You can be throwing empowered crit fireball 2-3 hours into the game. Thanks, but I don't know why you decided to list all of the spell tiers, when my first post was talking about how Wizards in general are one of the worst classes up until level 7. Then they start becoming tied with single class Rangers. Only mid, to mid-late do they start to pull their own weight and then later screen wipe kings, (which isn't really a big deal with so many other screen wipes from other classes). The transition from zero to hero is not a smooth one at all in this game. Offensive casters generally start out weaker in these types of games and then become stronger late game, but it's really exaggerated here. I already covered empower too...

Level 1:Minoletta’s Minor Missle - level 12 and still using it. Good spell against anyone vonourable to crush damage. Eldritch Aim - useful sell buff if you want or land important spells (not using it in current playthrough. Gave some accuracy bonus items and Aloth doesn’t miss when targeting the right defences). + outside buffs Chill Fog - just as good as in PoE1 Thirst of Tattered Veil - probably my favourite interrupt. Quick, reliable, long range. Crafted bunch of scrolls and gave it to couple of other characters. Fan of Flames - pretty strong AOE for anyone vonourable. With less choke points it’s easier to move your wizard to the position where he can actually use it without hurting your own. Level2 Necrotic Lance - great single character damage Combusting wounds Etc. Don’t feel like writing out more. There are plenty of good wizard spells even early on. It takes couple levels before player gets into real fights. For early fights spell selection is absolutely sufficient. Meanwhile, you could just be using a ranged physical multiclass and contributing 10x more to any given fight. But yeah, sure, those are some of the creamiest Wizard spells on the low tier crap pile. I also mentioned number of casts, which are not enough. You aren't going to be doing much of anything with 1-2 missiles, or 1 Eldritch Aim + 1 other tier 1 spell and 2x tier 2 spells. Really, the only low level spell that's worth casting early is Chill Fog. Missle is fine later when you have more casts, or you simply can't reliably cast Chill Fog. Anything else is really wasting limited casts.

That's a pretty bad flaw in the AI system. The game should automatically take into account being under such an effect, and not execute the command. There's no way you should have to set up an actual rule to account for being under AD. Realistically speaking, I think your best bet is just to turn AI off whenever you see an enemy casting this on you. The game should also have a routine that checks if you have ANY current buff up and not recast the same one ad nauseum until out of resources too, without having to mess with "If I have an inspiration" stuff... It's such a basic feature, yet not yet implemented. Similarly with attacking targets at specified health levels. Why are the only commands you can give purely skills? I haven't run into the issue yet with enemies casting AD, yet it was something I definitely was not looking forward to. Right now, many of the buffs I'm using I've had to actually just set a cooldown timer for so that those that do not have the inspiration check are not spam cast into oblivion. That works well enough as long as the buffs are not dispelled.

A few levels is an understatement. They start becoming more than one of the least useful classes at level 7. The main issue is that the majority of the spell rank 1-2 spells are complete garbage. Even once you have access to the third tier, you still don't have enough casts to make any real difference unless you cheese your way through the game by using empower to return points and then rest after every fight... It takes a whole lot of levels before they have enough casts to do anything other than Chill Fog (which is actually ridiculously good, but at the same time not something that can be cast every fight).

While it's nice that we now have some options for auto casting buffs and a very select few spells (the game doesn't have smart targeting (FF or healing and buffs with a radius) and Second Wind, I have to question why they omitted the seemingly most obvious kinds of routines. A simple Target health at X > Attack feature is curiously missing. Why? It's one of the most basic features and also quality of life routines in any game that has programmable AI like this. Also, why is there no check to see if you already have a particular buff active before recasting it on yourself? Yes, I get that you can set it up to check to see if you have any inspirations, which works "OK", unless you're going heavy on Preist buffs, but it's pretty much impossible to set up defensive Wizard spells to be cast at the start of a fight, but ONLY cast once if it doesn't have an inspiration check first. Want the game to auto cast Mirrored Image or Wizard's Double at the start of combat, but only as long as they are not currently active? GOOD LUCK. What ends up happening with virtually every routine is that auto cast will spam cast the same buff until you no longer can cast any spells of that rank, despite it being active already each time you recast it. This means that for a Battlemage character, you either have to go crazy with micromanaging every buff, or you just don't bother with buffs...which isn't particularly smart if you're trying to stay in melee. Setting cooldowns for every single ability somewhat works, but it's very tedious having to go through and check every duration per skill per character, and it also doesn't reapply the buff if it happens to get dispelled prior to the timer refresh.

No, but I would like to know how to make Frenzy cast automatically if it's not active, instead of the current behaviour of simply casting it again and again until you're out of rage.

I'm assuming you're looking for legitimate ways to earn money, but there is what seems like a completely unintentional way to make as much money as you want in Port Maje.

Pretty much already covered by pstone, but you're essentially looking at a Rogue/Fighter combination. Still not really going to be a "tank", unless you focus more on mitigation and less on speed (and damage) though until you get the Fighter's armor passive, but you will still have a little health regen by default. Another option though would be Ciper (Soul Blade)/Fighter. You still retain some of the mobility options (a bit less), are not *quite* as squishy and also don't need to rely on any type of flanking for some massive damage loops via Soul Annihilation + Cleave stance. Berserker/Fighter or even Bleak Walker/Fighter are also decent alternatives, depending on who you plan on bringing with you. Regardless, Fighter is the core you want.

Another thing that really irks me about this game is the buffing system in general. Some are instant, so at the start of a fight they aren't any big deal, but why do long lasting buffs instantly vanish as soon as combat ends? There's also no prebuffing at all. It makes for a very bumpy transition from encounter to encounter, and it's especially bad if you have the AI set to automatically buff and enemies are spaced just enough apart so that after you finish one group, the next is just around the corner. I guess this is off topic, since it doesn't really affect "difficulty" all that much, but it does seem like a quality of life problem that pretty much no other (or none that I've played at least) CRPGs have.

I know it's just your opinion (I've actually seen some others claiming similar), but for this to actually feel more like BG2, the characters would need to have been better written, stealth needs to not be so terrible (playing a backstabber is way different in this than in the BG games), but most of all, the offensive spell casting in this game is just awful. It's no fun at all. You either exploit it via Empower > Rest shennanigans, or you may as well be shooting spitwads for the first ten levels. It doesn't help either at the glacial pace that is required to actually reach the "fun" spells either. CC spells are about as bad too. Half of them either take an eternity to cast, or they simply get resisted. All that's left are defensive spells, and none of those actually buff the player to be more offensive and seem to ONLY exist for some random Battlemage "tank" that isn't really meant to do damage other than the occasional fan of flames or damage shield (oh boy!). This game is all or nothing. You have to wear no armor, or go ultra heavy, so you're either fast and made of tissue, or tough, but slow as molassas. Spells are super weak unless exploiting, then super powerful mid to mid-late game. Most of the encounters are exactly the same too, which isn't really much like the BG games either. The only way it reminds me of those games would be the layout of the big cities, and the way they look at times, but that's about it. Did we play the same BG2? As I recall, THAC0 went so insanely low and saves too that either you went all in on AC or there was no reason to bother in the late game. CC spells were often also resisted most of the time and only buffing ever really mattered. Casting times were long too, one just didn't notice if using the robes of vecna or another item I've forgotten. Better written? Other than Irenicus being a brilliant villain, most NPCs had even less to say and were far more caricatures. Yeah, we must have played a different game, because "end game" isn't "most of the game". Charicatures or not, there's a reason why the characters from the BG games are some of the most memorable of any CRPGs too. Also, the casting times in general were nowhere near as long as they are in this game. They also had contingencies and sequencers.

I know it's just your opinion (I've actually seen some others claiming similar), but for this to actually feel more like BG2, the characters would need to have been better written, stealth needs to not be so terrible (playing a backstabber is way different in this than in the BG games), but most of all, the offensive spell casting in this game is just awful. It's no fun at all. You either exploit it via Empower > Rest shennanigans, or you may as well be shooting spitwads for the first ten levels. It doesn't help either at the glacial pace that is required to actually reach the "fun" spells either. CC spells are about as bad too. Half of them either take an eternity to cast, or they simply get resisted. All that's left are defensive spells, and none of those actually buff the player to be more offensive and seem to ONLY exist for some random Battlemage "tank" that isn't really meant to do damage other than the occasional fan of flames or damage shield (oh boy!). This game is all or nothing. You have to wear no armor, or go ultra heavy, so you're either fast and made of tissue, or tough, but slow as molassas. Spells are super weak unless exploiting, then super powerful mid to mid-late game. Most of the encounters are exactly the same too, which isn't really much like the BG games either. The only way it reminds me of those games would be the layout of the big cities, and the way they look at times, but that's about it.

What difficulty were you playing on, Normal? I read that both Normal and Hard (prior to the month delay) seemed a bit too easy, yet that extra month was supposed to be for both bug fixes and giving priority to balancing the difficulties below PoTD.

This is what I've been finding the most success with: Fighter - Tank Wizard x 2 (Arcane Assault is so overlooked, and more Chill Fog/Slicken just make everything easier) Cipher Priest Ranged Rogue, Ranger, Druid or another Wizard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFL1-fL-WtM

You can already do this with IE mod, but the notes don't state whether or not you can actually adjust their attributes besides their talents. IE mod lets you adjust the horrible companion attribute spread.

I mostly agree with your Tier 1 rankings, although only for Hard and PotD. Also, it's kind of strange that you don't have Fighter up there, since the game is a whole hell of a lot easier with a tank; more specifically, a Fighter tank. I also disagree about teleporters. Sure, they won't all stay on the tank, but you can force it so that the majority does, and that only one ever really teleports out of the group.

You spend a long time at level 12, though, far longer than any other single level, and level 12 is used as the "end result"; the differences do not scale linearly, but all the lower levels would do would be to lower the gap on average. Guess I'm just used to playing with the 50% mod /shrug. Didn't hit level 12 until an hour of the game was left. If you skip bounties and Od Nua until after you're a bit into Act 3, you still aren't going to be at level 12 for very long. The problem is when you hit level 12 right as soon as Act 3 begins. They are also toning down the rewards for the bounties in 1.05, but it still probably won't be enough.

Did they really? I mean that as a serious question too. The only Ranger that I know of in popular fiction that did this was Drizzt. But he didn't start out a ranger at all. Rangers in D&D mostly ended up with the generic, general "melee" feats too for dual wielding anyway didn't they?

This is interesting and all, but you aren't at level 12 for very long before the game is over. All of the damage classes go up and down for overall contribution at various points of the game as well as levels. I'm not really sure what a level 12 comparison is supposed to prove.

Is that 10 DPS number for the Ranger on the primary target without the pet alive? Otherwise, it just demonstrates exactly why the Rogue is better. Most arguments are about how the Ranger does okay to good ranged damage as long as the pet is up and actually attacking as well. But the pet dies a lot, even on Hard, and on PotD it's extremely annoying to use.