TheMetaphysician

Yeah, with the video taken down, could you post a link to the account? Sounds interesting.

I agree that the disadvantage shouldn't have been summon-related. Right now Beckoners are worse summoners than Troubadours, which doesn't make sense, since that is the whole identity concept for the Beckoner subclass. They should have nerfed something else. Maybe they could have reduced linger for their chants -- basically the opposite of Troubadour. That would allow them to fill the summoning role, but they'd have a significant downside.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. I can't find a list of wounds by googling. Anybody know how to figure out a list? And how to get them -- it seems they aren't random, but have something to do with the type of damage that knocks you out.

Yes，POTD is harder.But it's not fun enough.Devs just increased normal enemies' data and add more units,which make battles slower and a little boring.But most bosses are still weak，no new abilities,no new spelles，no new AI，just increase a few basic data as normal enemies. I don't agree. A couple of lagufeth on tikawara had Stoic Steel running (at level 9, no less), and to overcome that I had to turn it into a running fight so the bonus armor didn't get too high. New ability, new tactics necessary.

Oooh, nice. Now another question for everyone to weigh in on: what is the least damaging injury for a battlemage type and how do I inflict it on myself?

Two items: (1) Rekvu's Fractured Casque: prevents interrupts when you are carrying a wound. (2) Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry: gives +1 spell casts of every level, but you are interrupted every time you take damage. How do these interact? Does the helmet prevent all the interrupts from the grimoire? If so, that's a pretty cool synergy. I'm not in a position to test it right now.

My experience on the 1.1 PotD difficulty, due to how long the fights last because of armor buffs for enemies, is that Cipher rechargeable charm spells are something I really need to have in my party. So I'm respeccing my Serafen Cipher/Barbarian to include one. My question is this: should I pick Whisper of Treason or Puppet Master? I'm picking at a higher level, so I can do either. I can't figure out which would be better. Whisper gets more bonus accuracy because of power level, right? Does that outweigh the benefit of getting Dominate over Charm? I'd love some pro/con discussion and advice from those more familiar with cipher gameplay.

OP said that was the only ability he already had on his list.

With the new PotD difficulty, there are a couple of facts about fights that make ciphers a lot better than I've seen people recognize: (1) Enemies are a lot more powerful and harder to kill. That makes charm effects correspondingly more powerful. I've seen now a couple of accounts of fights that are otherwise impossible being turned by a well-timed cipher charm spell. One ambush in Neketaka I found unbeatable, but I read one account of winning it because of a charm spell that hit a rogue, and the rogue killed a wizard, and boom, the fight is doable now. (2) Enemies are a lot more powerful and harder to kill. (Yeah, repetition for rhetorical effect.) That makes fights last a lot longer, which means that on harder fights you are going to run out of resources. So classes with renewable resources -- chanter and cipher -- are quite a bit more powerful, as they still have their best abilities long after all the wizard spell casts (and all other finite class resources) are spent. Cipher -- all varieties -- should therefore be higher. I'd take a cipher over a druid/wizard any day with the new difficulty, especially a multiclass cipher (for survivability purposes).

Cipher Secret Horrors (PL 2 or 3): causes Sickened and Frightened. This is the main AoE debuff used in Sin Tee's Barbarian/Cipher Serafen build (on youtube). It fits really nicely with your theme of outlasting your opponent, since cipher resources (like chanter's) are renewable.

Some more impressions on 1.1 PotD difficulty: with armor and penetration scaling with PotD now, your penetration makes a MUCH bigger difference. It reminds me of what I remember reading in the comments on the beta, where people were saying that penetration mattered more than almost anything else. You have to be sure to keep your weapons upgraded to the highest point you can achieve and look for other sources of penetration; I can totally see using generic weapons over unique ones if they are an enchantment level above, just for the penetration. Relatedly, I've found myself needing to outlast my opponents, as the fights last a lot longer. (Especially fights where I just can't reach the penetration level of the armor of the enemy melee classes.) From my experience (though this could be a function of the way I've built my party), the balance has shifted away from just going all-offense all the time to defense and healing mattering a lot. As a result, renewable-resource classes like chanter and cipher shine a lot more, if they can survive the initial onslaught. My battlemage Aloth is good at surviving the initial onslaught, but has often found himself completely out of resources for a lot of the fight; if my witch Serafen can survive the initial onslaught (which is harder for him, admittedly), the fact that he never runs out of cipher spells is huge. Most importantly, the fact that I'm mainly relying on Ancient Memory (and eventually Exalted Endurance) for my healing has saved me over and over, since my healing is still going strong long after I've used up all my resources, and can sometimes get to the point where the enemy has used up all their resources too and my healing literally outpaces all their remaining damage.

Nice job. I found that fight impossible -- never got close, with many tries; should have thought of using charm -- and had to resolve it peacefully (you can, in dialogue, and you can still talk the kid out of betraying his ship).

Do you have the Deadly Deadfire mod installed? That's the only way I can think of to have scaling move enemies multiple levels above your own.

Trial of Iron is pretty crazy. I need reloading.

This is very important information, thank you. Any idea when the next build, including these areas, will be available? Great work so far.

It's doable. You have to figure out a strategy that works, though. It may take a few attempts. You have to look at what is killing you quickly and find a strategy to either minimize that or that takes it out of the equation asap. As for the thugs, you can sneak by if you can figure out how to get in at the bottom SE corner of the map and not the top. If you can only come in at the top of the map, there will be blood. Joe There is no taking anything out. The best case scenario is pulling only 2 boars and 1 young boar - that alone is going to wipe anything the story companions can do. Their stats are too high to land anything meaningful. If you manage to somehow deal with those, you still have huge packs of wyrms and panthers that will swarm you, and the lack of accuracy will guarantee spells/attacks/abilities don't really do much of anything I loved Potd in PoE1 but you weren't required to hire tavern characters. So I guess the question is: a.) is POTD simply rushed and overtuned b.) balanced with the expectation that you use berath blessings c.) balanced with the expectation that you hire tavern characters in order to get through the game d.) turn off or turn on level scaling I managed to do those fights. They are possible. No tavern characters, no Berath's Blessings, no food or resting bonuses. You can come in at the bottom of the Gorecci Street map if you come from outside the town to Gorecci Street, rather than from the Main Square to Gorecci Street. It does seem to me that using Berath's Blessings to get the opening vendor would make some of those very early fights more manageable, and that would be better balanced a bit. I did them without that vendor, but having it might have made it a bit less frustrating for some. So don't feel guilty if you get that vendor for PotD.

See, that's the kind of creative solution you are forced to try when the fights are really hard! Fun! Hmmm. I don't agree with that. But obviously fun for you. Joe The general idea I have is that I really like, in RPGs, to find the fights scary enough that there is an incentive for me to find non-combat solutions to puzzles. I like the feeling of trepidation when I pick a fight, because then I have a genuine feeling of accomplishment when either (1) I find a non-violent solution I'm happy with from a role-playing standpoint, (2) I win the fight I feel forced into for role-playing reasons. It is the same feeling that makes me care about finding gear (just so I can win those fights) or getting XP (so I can come back and win those fights). In other words, it makes everything about the game matter more to me. From a role-playing standpoint, avoiding killing those guys by making peace with their leader really fits certain types of characters. I wish I'd thought of it.

AndreaColumbo, you officially have the coolest forum avatar. I take everything you say 12% more seriously just because of the mood I get into when I see it.

Fighter still seems awesome to me, especially as a multiclass. Disciplined Strikes by itself is really good, the fighter stances are still good (and you actually have a reason to switch among them now), penetrating strike is really good for only 1 discipline. And Disciplined Strikes pairs well with the self-buffs of the monk. Oh, and armored grace. Paladin's Deep Faith was nerfed. I have + 13 to my defenses now, when pre-patch I had +21. Some of that is the slower accumulation of dispositions (because of the fix), but I doubt I'll get above +15.

I thought that was fun. That's what you want out of PotD, overtuned fights. It is an optional fight -- you can move on and then come back and do it later if you need to. That's the kind of fight I like to see overtuned -- your progress isn't gated by it, so why not make it super hard? I dunno it makes the bear cave look like a joke - when are you supposed to come back to it? The engwithan site to pick up Aloth is full of a massive ****block as well. Seems like being able to hit level 4 is pretty important off those quests to progress I agree. But I did stumble upon a non-combative solution that I am not entirely sure how I hit it. There is a way to come into the map from below and sneak to the gang leader. I do enjoy a tactical work out. But when I went in with a 4 party group at 4th level and kept having party members getting one shotted, I stopped trying. I was ready to pass on this task until I found this bypass. Joe See, that's the kind of creative solution you are forced to try when the fights are really hard! Fun!

I agree this is a problem, but (in addition to the Empower nerf helping) it is less of a problem than in the first game, where you could restore all the Vancian spell casts by running back out of the dungeon and resting. This is an easy thing to self-impose limits on for role-playing reasons, for instance, by refusing to rest in an unrealistic spot. So it doesn't bother me much. (And I'm speaking as someone who really likes the resource-management aspect of having a lot of per-rest stuff like the first game; I'm on that side of that argument.)

I feel exactly the opposite: the balance changes have rekindled my interest in the game. It is hard now, which means I have to care about the mechanics.

I thought that was fun. That's what you want out of PotD, overtuned fights. It is an optional fight -- you can move on and then come back and do it later if you need to. That's the kind of fight I like to see overtuned -- your progress isn't gated by it, so why not make it super hard? I dunno it makes the bear cave look like a joke - when are you supposed to come back to it? The engwithan site to pick up Aloth is full of a massive ****block as well. Seems like being able to hit level 4 is pretty important off those quests to progress I came back to it after getting Aloth and doing the Engwithen Ruins, and it was still harder than anything in the Ruins. But you could even come back to it after going off to Neketaka if you need to.

Sin Tee has a good one on youtube -- I didn't know how to build him until I saw that video. One of the spells in that build is less good now (the cipher one that leeches armor), but other than that, the build should still work.

I thought that was fun. That's what you want out of PotD, overtuned fights. It is an optional fight -- you can move on and then come back and do it later if you need to. That's the kind of fight I like to see overtuned -- your progress isn't gated by it, so why not make it super hard?