drty

My rogue character and Kana. I'm just level 5 at this moment. So, not much to choose from. BTW: rogue's Escape ability is real crap.

Maybe i wasn't correct. Not hold it in place, but have a ways to get it back.

I don't even know what is "the way things used to be". I just play PoE of version 2.02.

Yeah, that's the point I'm actually talking about - these extra engagements are basically worthless just because at any moment of time foe can easily break an engagement with your tank, simply because they can't hit him/her. Mobs don't even need to use controlling abilities on tank (i mean abilities such as Prone, Paralyze, etc.) - they just decide to go away and do it without any difficulty. So "ideal" tank (in terms of survivability) is worthless for your party because it can't effectively hold the targets. From my point of view, this is a flaw of engagement mechanic in general.

OK, so you propose to trade party-survivability (which Defender actually is) talents with damage-dealing talents. And how good suggested tanking build will behave on the maximum difficulty? How long such tank will live while taking damage from 3-5 mobs simultaneously? Besides, it wasn't the question about how to play or how to build your party. Generally I'm talking about the disengagement mechanic related to the available tanking abilities.

Assuming the situation: Eder (with an active Defender skill) is tanking 3 foes in close-combat. Eder has really strong defenses, so mobs can't even scratch him. At some point mobs' AI decides that Eder is not so attractive target for them, therefore it is time to disengage Eder. Following is my guessing: there is some sort of internal damage threshold value, which has to be applied to the target for every X seconds in order to continue engaging this target. Thus, because mobs can't do this - they are switching to the easier prey. You may already know what should happen next: short-lasting Benny Hill style chasing, when Eder will unsuccessfully try to re-engage at least some of the foes, then mobs are getting to chosen party-member and effectively one- two-shot him/her because it is Death March. Well, it is actually not very usual situation for Eder because fighters hasn't got such superb defenses like paladins, but anyway - it may happen even with a fighter. The problem is: it's basically too painless to get free from a tank's engagement. Tank can't really punish for this, because usually she is an worst damage-dealer in your party. Which leads to the question: doesn't tank need an instrument to prevent/resolve such situations in some way? For example, allow tank to apply a brief Hobbled effect on the disengaging targets (by choosing a separate talent if it's needed). What do you think?

What do you mean by "the same"? I don't suggest to remove any of the shadow abilities. I'm just saying that they don't need to be so extremely annoying. Shadow can blink directly to your back-line dudes ignoring the tank - and that's fine. They can apply Dazed debuff as a secondary effect of their attacks - it's fine too - but not always, not on every hit. It simply doesn't look fun. Another example - you are also facing will-o-wisps early in the game - it can make your goon Confused (a powerful controlling effect) - but only periodically, not permanently - it gives you a window to make some actions between - to improve your Will defense for example - this game mechanic looks fun and balanced to me.

didn't actual say he wanted it nerfed. change bestiary entry. you likely encounter shadows for the first time 'tween level 3 and level 4. change bestiary entry so it reads as level 3... or 4. is true that shadows is a bit strong compared to other level 1 fodder... not that the label should make a difference. heck, we had folks raging at us recently 'cause we suggested that calling the hard counters and insta-kills from bg2 a d&d & ie game legacy. apparently, claiming that folks wanted more o' an ie feature is ok, but more o' a D&D feature is bad... even if they is the same thing. people is nuts. the bestiary entry is odd, but is harmless. also takes next to nothing to change, eh? HA! Good Fun! ps ok, now he wants nerfed. *shrug* Not just nerfed, but *balanced* in fact. I just love everything balanced. Was a humble druid in my previous lives i suppose. %)

I can't say the mechanic which perma-debuff you with some powerful effect on every hit is truly interesting. Like perma-daze from shadows, perma-stun from phantoms, or perma-paralyze from skirmishers and so on. I think some [- Accuracy] modifier for such effects could be good tuning to start with.

Well, yes i understand that i can come back later with stronger party and kill them much easier. But it's not the point. In other words... i've already tried the game many times on every possible difficulty choosing many different party setups (even tried it solo). And what i actually see is that shadows (shades too btw, but they are "level 5" at least and not so numerous at the beginning, so it's fine) are absurdly tough comparing to any other surrounding mobs. I just think that shadow should be nerfed a bit to make it in line with everything else.

- All 4 defenses are extremely good. Add big damage resistance to this. If you have no fire abilities then every shadow can mitigate tons of damage of your low level party. Like a tank. - Blink ability has absurdly short cooldown. Same shadow can use it every 8-10 seconds (maybe bug). - Daze debuff is too powerful to make it applicable by every hit. Basically, it turns any of your party members into a cripple effectively disabling it. And all of this is just for one first-level mob? Really?