Nobear

First, it would take a tremendous amount of work to take a complex game designed for a single player experience, and turn it into a multiplayer experience. It's not some feature that can just be rolled out quickly. You have to consider there would not only be all the code to enable multiplayer itself, but all the changes to gameplay and balance to adapt it to work well. Second, one of the advantages of single player games is that they are immune to what I call over-balancing. As it is, we have people writing threads about how this class needs a buff or that class needs a nerf. Just take one look at all the qq that still goes on on the WoW forums, and how the devs found it necessary to do things like give all healers the exact same healing spells with just different names and visual effects, to placate the angry mobs. Let there remain some great single player games that are immune to this. Look at how generally positive and drama free this community is. I'd like it to stay that way. Those are my 2c on my actual justifications for keeping the game single player. Thanks but no thanks for this game. The same studio can make another game in the future that's multiplayer if they want.

Yeah, they add and subtract as follows: 5/10/10/10 (base) + 3(1/2/2/2) (Honest) + 2(1/2/2/2) (Diplomatic) - 2(1/2/2/2) (Aggressive) = 8/16/16/16. So you are gaining 5 ranks of bonus minus 2 ranks of penalty, which would be the same result as if you had just 3 ranks of bonus. Another way to think of it is that your Diplomatic and Aggressive are canceling each other out, currently.

The only modals I know of that you can only have one of at once are the class-specific ones (e.g. paladin auras, ranger modals, fighter modals), and Defender/Cautious Attack. So it would be a waste, for example, to get Cautious Attack on a fighter. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to the system, or if there are any other examples I'm missing.

Thanks Torm, and whaddya know, I ended up going back to a very early save on my paladin just before she hit level 2 (still Shieldbearer) and playing through to Defiance Bay again LOL! This is almost as far as I've gotten and still been happy with my choices *fingers crossed.* Anywhere is about as bad as anywhere else, really. Honestly, it doesn't matter where you put it, and ultimately, thank god for us not having a dedicated Suggestions Forum where everyone and their mother can make threads that everyone else will ignore, especially those with any knowledge of the game. It's better like this, I think. To both of you and any other interested parties, I decided to post it here: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80481-request-scale-flanked-requirement-with-engagement-limit/ From the description of the forums, it says the general one is for "hopes and dreams," which sounds most like suggestions to me. Unfortunately, it seems to have the least responses from devs of any of the forums. If you like my suggestions, let's see if we can get a response there!

I think that's sensible advice. Personally, I tend to take all the other good talents first before I take these DPS ones with a tradeoff. I have no melee DPS in my party, just two tanks and four ranged. I don't plan to take Savage Attack with any of them, and I only plan to take Vulnerable Attack Penetrating Shot with my cipher when she gets access to a good blunderbuss. People might not consider blunderbusses such clear winners any more for ciphers, but Colan Garow (or whatever the drug is called) still gives a flat focus gain per hit. Out of all weapon types, blunderbusses are the most extreme in that each hit does very little damage (each shot is actually 6 separate pellet hits). Therefore, Vulnerable Attack Penetrating Shot is a clear winner for a blunderbuss user.

Shieldbearers are probably about the easiest and the least prone to mistakes when playing blind; Diplomatic/Honest vs. Aggressive/Cruel. They're pretty hard to mix up, and it doesn't matter to the Shieldbearer if some Passionate, Rational, Clever and Stoic slips in there. The issue really is which constitutes what. Rational and Diplomatic are all over the map sometimes, and Passionate/Benevolent gets mixed up a lot. Shieldbearers basically comes down to don't be a douche and you'll be fine. That last statement basically sums it up. The only difference will come in how fast you gain Diplomatic if you sometimes confuse it with others. Personally, I find I can sometimes confuse it with either Benevolent or Stoic. For example, there are certainly cases where telling someone what they want to hear can be considered Benevolent; and "I see" I have read is considered Stoic, even though you could imagine it said with the intent of purposefully hiding one's feelings to not offend someone. But these mistakes won't hurt you in the long run, they will just make you gain Diplomatic more slowly. Bonuses and penalties aren't shown separately, but are factored in when you click on Faith and Conviction on your character sheet. The base values IIRC are 5/10/10/10.

I haven't gone very far into Act 2 in the main game, so I don't know how the expansion story will fit, but the devs did say that the content won't require max level. I don't know if it will be ridiculously hard to do the expansion content first or not. I don't see why it would make a huge difference if new companions are available early or late. You can always play with the companions you find first, or with placeholder hired adventurers, and swap for your favorite companions later. Lastly, you will be able to continue your save game with the expansion. It is, after all, primarily geared toward players who have beat the main game, even though it's not necessary to have done so to explore the expansion content. The only considerations I would consider highly important are the ones I laid out above, with tips on how to plan accordingly if that's important to you. That is not to say that we won't learn new things about the expansion that will make us want to alter our builds or party compositions, but this already happens to players in practice because the game is so complex and you are always learning new details about mechanics and various quirks that can cause you to rethink your builds, composition, and strategy. Edit: My best advice, as I've mentioned, is to play the game now on a difficulty below PoTD (or on PoTD if you want a challenge). I find the early parts of the game remain fun for a few playthroughs, and this would especially be true if you are experiencing it on a higher difficulty the second time.

They also said in the video that enemy AI will be more wise to players stealthing one ally, like a melee rogue who wants to backstab after combat starts. I don't know how this will play out in practice, though.

The weapon foci are meant to be a tough choice bound by RP theme, rather than by what you might consider optimal to bundle gameplay-wise. They were chosen to make RP sense, e.g. noblemen would stereotypically be seen more often with the Noble weapons, and the Peasant weapons would probably be easier to afford in their basic form, or even improvised. They also seem to be designed to have at least "one of each" type of weapon, i.e. at least one type of 1H melee, 2H melee, and ranged weapon. This makes choosing a focus hard when there is not an obvious reason to prefer one type (as there is for a Minor Blights wizard). I believe all this was intended, from a design perspective.

With a chanter, your party would look almost like my PoTD party, except you have a ranger where I have a priest. IDK... what difficulty are you playing on? Below PoTD you could probably make do without heals, but I wouldn't do that on PoTD personally. If you don't mind the lack of heals though and you want to keep those NPCs with a chanter, I'd make him ranged. You have good ranged in your party, and chanters have a chant that increases ranged attack speed and reload speed by 20%: a very good DPS boost for most of your party. Also, especially on PoTD there will be situations where you'll really stand to benefit from using some CC on multiple characters. Each one has its niche. From level 4 on, your cipher will start with enough Focus to open with Mental Binding, a strong spell that paralyzes the target and makes surrounding ones stuck. Aloth can get Slicken which will knock people prone in a large area, but you have to be careful of targeting because it does have friendly fire. A priest can drop Repulsing Seal, which will knock only enemies prone in a small area but for a really long duration. Paralyzed opponents will have drastically lowered defenses and so will be easy targets to focus fire down. What I'm saying is, don't get too stuck in each character only staying in his role. Playing strategically, you will want to DD or CC with various characters depending on the fight.

I've read elsewhere that conjured weapons do benefit from weapon talents, so I don't see why Minor Blights wouldn't benefit from Marksman. On my wizard, I am planning Blast, Penetrating Blast, Marksman, Dangerous Implement and WF: Adventurer. Minor Blights and Blast synergize quite nicely BTW. So he will in the end do good DPS all the time with a wand, and super DPS with Minor Blights.

I'm glad it works for you too, and I definitely agree they should make it consistent with the way Defender displays, to avoid confusion, and so it's easier to see what your stats will be in combat, which is all the time that it actually matters.

I'm also playing a Shieldbearer. I also got 3 Honest pretty quickly, and 3 is the highest rank that will affect your Faith and Conviction, so you don't have to worry about that one anymore. Just keep in mind that Dishonest can affect certain quests, where an NPC might focus on 1 rank of Dishonest and distrust you even if you have 4 in Honest. Diplomatic I was so unsure about that I started my own thread about it. What I gathered is that, in general, it's more often about telling people what they want to hear than about playing some heroic role in averting a conflict (which is what Shieldbearers are supposed to be about). The way I see Honest and Diplomatic coexisting is that Honest is about telling verifiable factual information above and beyond what most people would consider necessary or expedient (i.e. even when you could potentially suffer negative consequences for it). Diplomatic is about hiding or lying about your emotional reactions to other people. So an honest diplomat, in this game, is someone who offers up more details than they need to about verifiable factual information, while mostly being a yes-man and stating they agree with people even when they don't. The game usually considers it Diplomatic rather than Dishonest if it's about your personal feelings about someone, as opposed to about a verifiable fact. A high Might score tends to open more Aggressive dialogue options. One of many considerations that went into giving my Shieldbearer tank/support paladin "only" 10 Might, giving preference to other useful stats instead, is that I could do without even the temptation of responding aggressively. That said, to make sure, I keep saves at certain milestones throughout the game, and check my dispositions frequently. Typically, if I made a choice that I was afraid might be Aggressive and it turns out it was, I can just go back to the auto save from entering the map. Another option, if you don't want to restart or backtrack in your game, is to take the Untroubled Faith talent, although this comes with its own set of pros and cons. Best to you!

I wouldn't even consider my tank build screwed up when Deflection is traded for Accuracy, seeing as it'll affect everyone, making tanks squishier (which they could stand to be, honestly, given how few enemies actually pose a problem for tanks), and I don't consider Accuracy a total waste even for tanks. I think the builds most affected will be non-tanks with low Perception. Still, as you point out, no sense waiting around when you could be having fun lol!

Ok. I mean I suppose it's theoretically possible that it could be a bug unique to you, but that seems unlikely. The good news is, despite the confusion from some passives being applied out of combat and others not, it's working for everyone else as far as I know, and hopefully for you too!

Well, you could speculate or you could have fun. Unless you like... have a life full of other really important things to do or something lol, I choose having fun over speculating. Could be part of the reason I don't have a life full of other really important things to do, but hey, I can play this game and also wear down real life goals like a fighter, slow but sure.

For 2.0 I'd dump Con and Res if your wizard will stay in the back row doing either DPS or CC. Accuracy is good, but it's really good. I'd want more than 10 for sure. For a second row Spirit Lancer, you might want something different, but for ranged I don't see why you couldn't dump Con and Res. Wizards have good situational defensive spells. No need to sacrifice other things to make them super hardy all the time, even on PoTD.

Adino, F+C does apply a split second after combat starts. Check my response to your thread for a more full explanation. You followed good procedure in reporting it as an issue, but try to wait until it is 100% confirmed as an issue before jumping to conclusions like "all discussions of how to build a Paladin are kind of Mute, as the Fighter is clearly going to be better." Your instincts were right to imagine you weren't the first person to report it as an issue, and fortunately our community is full of smart and knowledgeable players who have taken these things into account. But you are one of them now, and it's how you should report an issue in the future, just try to wait until it's confirmed as an issue (and an issue for everybody) before stating conclusions based on this possibility as definite fact. Fortunately, the only change called for here would be to make this passive effect apply outside of combat as well, so it is less confusing for every new player learning how the game works (and I was one of them).

I was beat to it Adino. Faith and Conviction activates a small time after combat starts (within a second). If you have the game set to pause automatically when combat starts, it will still not show Faith and Conviction bonuses. So the ability itself is working. What should change, however, is that F+C (along with other passives) should be applied out of combat as well, simply so as not to confuse new players. I was confused by this too at first, and also thought it was a bug. Edit: It is also known and intended that F+C doesn't apply to anyone but your main, since your main does all the talking, and it wouldn't make RP sense for other characters in your party to abide perfectly by the exact same dispositions that your main does. The priest's Holy Radiance also gets bonuses like this. So if you're going to have a paladin or priest in your party, there is a strong gameplay advantage to making one of them your main.

Well Adino, I'm glad to see you have come around and your last two posts here were pretty reasonable. The bottom line about the semantics thing with "dump below 10" is that I don't think Luckman actually ever cared enough to argue it fiercely or hold it against you. I think you misinterpreted his tone that way, and the rest of us had already moved on, including him. I'm glad you will hold off further judgment. I'm also very glad that you have now beaten the game and learned a lot based on personal experience. The reality of anything in life is that we will never learn something as well as we can without experiencing it ourselves. We will not think to ask all the right questions, because we don't have the context yet of what types of things matter most. FWIW, I agree with most of your conclusions on all points. I agree about the importance of Deflection and Fortitude, and now you see why hitting harder is usually more important than hitting faster. For DPSers and casters, though, I'd say Dex is good to max after Might (and Int, depending on the class and build), but tanks won't get the same mileage from it. I would add that your Per Encounter abilities get no benefit from Dex, because you will still use them the same number of times per encounter. I still like my choice to have 14 base Int on my paladin because (once they fix the bug where auras currently grow huge and will cover your whole party anyway), 20 Int is the exact breakpoint value I need to cover my whole party. And I do consider Zealous Focus to be very important, especially for my back row. 6 Accuracy and 15% graze-to-hit for everybody is nothing to sneeze at. However, my choice does come with a tradeoff (for instance, in Fort), so each of our choices have their own pros and cons. Neither is the clear winner in every respect. Finally, one justification I never mentioned for my Shieldbearer, in particular, to have "only" 10 Might (it's not like I'm dumping Might, which would definitely be bad), is that the only dialogue options Might opens up, as far as I know, are Aggressive. Aggressive is an unfavored disposition for Shieldbearers, so I can easily do without even the temptation of those dialogue options which would hurt my Faith and Conviction. Overall, I'm glad to read your latest couple of posts, and to know you are apparently enjoying the game. Cheers.

Yeah, I'd take it if it were Per Encounter but it's not. You know, the conjured Spirit Lance (a pike) is the highest DPS weapon in the game and Concelhaut's Quarterstaff does high DPS too, so you could build your wizard as a second-line DPSer, in which case those talents would be worth it (unless you're ok with dying and reloading a lot). However, for a more traditional wizard who is ranged DPS/CC, I wouldn't bother personally. Minor Blights is another good conjured weapon (a wand) and, while its single target DPS isn't quite as high as the melee weapons, it is AOE and you can safely use it from ranged. In that case, you'd want to build with wand talents like Blast, Penetrating Blast, Dangerous Implement, Marksman, and WF: Adventurer. That still allows you to get your Scion of Flame, which will also boost your Minor Blights when it randomly switches to fire. Overall, there are many ways to build a wizard, but I'd only consider taking Arcane Veil and Hardened Veil if I were building a second-row DPSer who will use Spirit Lance endgame.

A side question, somewhat related to my original question, while this thread is still active here: Does accuracy and graze-to-hit directly affect the fighter's Knock Down ability? The whole idea I have behind giving Eder 95% graze-to-hit is mostly so that his Knock Down can be highly reliable and hardly ever graze. I figure, as suggested by the tooltip, that Knock Down gives two separate rolls: the damage component against Deflection, and the Prone component against Fortitude. I know I could easily test this much, but my question is whether grazes for the Prone affliction of Knock Down will be converted to hits at the same rate that the damage component is. If so, this is the chief reason I'd build Eder with flails and Bonus Knock Down: it'd probably be the most fast and reliable CC in the game. Abilities of other classes are useful for being AOE, but none could beat the speed and reliability of Knock Down like this.

I think some combination of Luckman's and Sabotin's ideas might be good. I like Luckman's suggestion that the base bonus scale slightly with level. For the talent, make it not apply with anything in the offhand (like a shield) and change it to just hit-to-crit I'd say, plus some mild defensive boost that's not strong enough to make a dualist as tanky as a tank with shield. If you think of fencing as an example of trained dualist combat, it seems to be about cautious combat, involving footwork to ensure you take the right (accurate) strikes while trying to evade enemy attacks. In that light, a small defensive graze-to-miss boost seems appropriate. Just make sure it's not so strong that it encroaches on the defensive ability of using a shield. Also, I believe that dual wielding and two handed should always have at least a marginal DPS advantage over the dualist approach, especially if the talent is changed to grant (in part) a mild defensive advantage. If you think about it, the greatest force possible will always be with your full body and both hands/arms. Also, while dual wielding may be seldom (if ever) used in real life situations, you have to consider that in a game, where you are sometimes able to stab someone in the back repeatedly while they are stunned or their back is otherwise exposed to you, you could theoretically stab a bit faster (though probably not twice as fast, and this game includes an appropriate penalty to reflect that) than you could with a single weapon.

There are only two known changes that are very likely to have a significant impact on your character builds or party composition. 1) Perception will grant Accuracy instead of Deflection. Other bonuses will remain unchanged. This will make Perception suddenly very good for non-tanks (both DPS and CC), where it was previously mostly a tank stat. Now, my main is a tank with maxed Perception and fairly high Constitution, so the changes certainly won't break her. She'll be less invincible and more accurate, and I might not even change her stats if I were building for 2.0. Also, I'm playing with all story companion characters who have predefined stats anyway (except placeholder custom adventurers until I unlock the companion I plan to replace with). So really, this change probably won't affect my builds or party composition. I'd say it'll affect you much more if your main or custom adventurers are DPS or CC with little or no current need for Perception. So, if you're concerned about this and want to start playing now, you can plan accordingly. 2) Stealth is currently party-wide, but will become individual in 2.0. What that means is that, currently, if you want to use stealth effectively for pre-combat positioning, you have to have the skill on all your characters, although it's more needed on your front line as they get closer to the enemy. In 2.0, you'll be able to build, say, a stealthy rogue, who remains stealthed to backstab even after your other party members are detected and combat starts. Currently, you'd have to invest heavily in stealth on everyone, especially your front row, to pull this off. Other than that, there are enemy AI changes, but I don't know if anyone understands those changes well enough to plan builds and party compositions around them yet. You can always start the game on Normal or Hard now, and, if the expansion happens to come out before you beat the game, and you realize you'd build your characters and party differently with the changes, you can restart on a higher difficulty. I have already restarted many times and played through the entire Act 1 a few times to optimize things based on new things I learn about the game, and I will tell you Act 1 is still enjoyable for me. I do want to move on this time, though . I hope that helps you make your decision. Have fun!

lol that's funny... Luckman a troll. He has over 3k posts and is one of the most helpful guys here. Nothing he or the other guy said was insulting. Are you a troll Adino? Because I'm questioning my wisdom responding to you. Actually I don't think you're a troll, but you are showing a recurring pattern of assuming the worst in people, misinterpreting their words and thinking they're against you. I think you really believe they're against you. Unfortunately I don't know how to help you, because you probably won't believe me that they're not against you (at least not before). I'd like to congratulate you on leapfrogging me and killing a dragon I am probably not close to seeing, but you make it hard to retain good feelings about you when you accuse good people on these forums of unfounded things without ever looking at yourself. Sorry.