Teioh_White

Either the Sky-Dragon scales, or they just re-did the fight for 3.X. I was rather shocked by the fight he put up when I went after her for the first time in Scaled Act 3, as she always was just a speed bump before. Still not on the level of the other 3 dragon fights, but it was a long drawn out fight.

I know I did it in 3.0, and multiple times before that, so it'd have to be a pretty new addition. Also a weird one. I'd lean towards bug, which could take awhile. I imagine the patches will slow down now that the games 'done'.

A 'classic' rest system like the rest of the IE games is basically the same issue. Just now it's killing/reloading for 'interruptions' rather than going back to town. No IE game that I'm aware of has really tried to be a 'resource' game, despite basing the entire combat system off a resource system. It's just up to the player to self police themselves on that front, which is mildly annoying, but far easier on the Devs limited time.

How are people playing this game that they need to go back to town ever? I always have to rest when I don't need too just because I've found supplies out in the field, and well, might as well at that point. It's really just there for the Devs to give a very rough estimate for how often you 'should' be resting, but it's not great at its job. Better would be unlimted rest on easier difficulties, and strict limitations on the hardest if the game still wants to try and be a 'resource' based system. Though not enough people care enough to make that worth the Devs time in a medium always strapped for time.

Most of those are top flight weapons, only a few I'd take off or add on. I wouldn't use it on Leadsplitter myself, not that it doesn't help, but it doesn't take great advantage of the speed increase. Maybe if it was one ingot, but two of the 9/12 total ingots is rough. Cloudpiercer is better now with extra room (Legendary comes so late the biggest impact it has on the game is tons weapons which were lacking before due to no SuperbLash are suddenly amazing). But it still has to compete with other bows, of which if falls short. It's great in my 6 ranger teams, but generally, you won't get far enough down the list to need it. Other than that, I'd just add most of the speed weapons work great with Steel, as they give increasing returns the more speed you can stack. So, Speed weapons with other good effects like Strike Hard, Blade of the Endless Paths, Spell Tongue, and Daeynis Rapier are all good choices. Additional top flight non-speed weapons are Drawn in Spring, Purgatory, and Cladhaliath.

Hmm...I agree that Barb's non-carnage abilities area all trash. I don't really agree they're an appreciable degree worse than any of the other martial classes. Carnage is just that nutty. They are ridiculously narrow in what they can contribute to a team though. Rogue's are a little worse off. Doing 50%+ more single target melee damage is about their only schtick, which isn't as useful in this game as targeted fire on a back line target or trash cleaning potential. Unless we want to scroll spam, then weee, death blow Flame Cone spam or whatever. That's pretty nice.

Words=good is just as much a fallacy as words=bad. As always, have to make a judgement on every situation. For POEs case, I appreciate what they did with the resources they had. It has lots of issues, but video games just arent a medium to deliver high % writing. Well, they can be, but economic concerns will rarely let it be so.

All right, but its a public forum; vast majority reading don't care about anyones personal preference. Harping on your own unasked is pretty useless except for your own personal outlet. No worries though, thats what we have an ignore feature for.

Also, P.shot costs a talent. Normally not a concern, but Rangers are far and away the most talent starved class due to the plethora of nice pet talents.

Ah, that makes Aim a really good skill then. 10% more damage isn't shabby for talent, and WM2 has a few fights the Reliable effect isn't useless on. One thing to think on for Rogues is their SA+DB work on scrolls. Magic has a hard time getting mods, so a Rogue dropping their massive mod bonus on them makes them scary effective. It's not really relevant to me, as you can't get enough scrolls without 'farming' them, which is just as bad to me as rest spamming. Still comes in nice for a tough fight for the rogue to go all 'nova' on a fight like a Wizzy would. Amusingly enough, the other class that has little but its one passive to lean on, Barbarian, also used to be able to do dirty things with a few of the scrolls, but that was nerfed a few patches in. Can't let the dirty melee into the cool caster club afterall.

All the backer stuff is terrible, but it's not supposed to be there at all. Promises to backers forced them to include the nasty warts, and the most we can do is just our best to pretend they don't exist. I'm thankful it's at least not so in your face about it as say, SRHK is, but still wish we had an option to get rid of it. Outside of that, the old adage is 'good writing is rewriting' which devs don't get time to do. Especially not in a game such a tight budget. So it's expected it won't all fit together perfectly, or even very well. It gets the job done, and you can generally see what they wanted to do with it, so I forgive.

I've noticed Sneak Attacks work with scrolls, and always assumed it was unintended, like how Carnage used to work with a few spells. Still, been in the game this long, so probably was actually intended, and is here to stay. Lore continues it's hilarious OP ways.

Wait, does C.Aim boost damage even if your not hitting min? Really boost that into a stellar skill if so. And Crucis, as mentioned, I wasnt talking about the merits of encounter design; just how a skill performs in the current design. Seems you're just a bit primed on another topic, and saw a chance to rant.

Eh? Wasn't complaining about it. Just describing gameplay. Unless you mean you already handle mobs of crap just fine, so Knockdown being underwhelming in those situations isn't a big deal. Which gets us to another issue: Is there a limit to how 'good' we can be, such that beating everything is simple, and that stomping the game even more doesn't matter? But really, it was just about gameplay, which is really all I'm interested in. For example, Barb being better with a Rapier and a Dagger than a Giant Axe or whatever doesn't mean anything to me. The barb class could be called Spongebob and Carnage called Squarepants and all the animation look like something from Rugrats, and I wouldn't overly mind if it's practical gameplay is the same as it is now.

I'm not super keen on Knockdown overall. And extra 3 damage and 4 seconds of CC on one mob, twice a fight, isn't super impressive. Game just has too much emphasis on large mobs of crap for it to have a huge impact. Of the two, I honestly prefer Barrage, just for a boost to para scroll Acc for tough fights. A few crits on those can end a fight in a hurry. Of course, the level 3 talents are equally meh for Fighter, so I often take Knockdown anyways. Though with WM2 having numerous Kith mobs with defense in 120+, Confidant Aim gets a nice shot in the arm. Outside of that though, few things break 85+, limiting it's usefulness.

Hmm...weird then, that Durance got targeted so often despite only throwing out a buff or too. He had the highest deflection and tied for highest DR on the team, and wasn't hurting anyone. Didn't have a chance too, as he'd have to start running as unengaged mobs would start lumbering towards him right from the start. Maybe the mobs just hate Durance. It's not like he doesn't deserve it.

I think there has to be more to the formula than just that. Most recent playthrough I had nekkid wand Aloth and SnS plate mail Durance in the back line, and mobs still always made a bee-line for Durance. It was at the point most fights were Durance running in a circle around the 2-3 mobs stuck on Watcher+Eder, while Aloth pewed away. I don't like to use kiting strats, but the Mobs just would not leave Durance alone.

That's pretty much what I do with Sagani, except take out Frenzy for Interrupting Blows. I don't like to slow down Sagani's 4x chance to proc Returning Storm CC, so no Penetrating Shot. I just take the Blows to take advantage of her decent Per (17) and keep up with the theme of locking down whatever she's targeting.

Which encounters did they make tougher? I've noticed the missing mobs, but I don't recall too many fights that were harder. Outside of the new Act 3 scaling, of course. Elmshore and that Simoc fellow caught me off guard with with their new buffness the first time.

Yeah, the only time I could see the +12 acc being useful for getting crits is Kith type mobs in WM2, which all have 110-140 or so defense. Bit of a pain to rely on a crt based plan without caster support against crap like that. As far as 2handers go, since we can now Lash the Blade, it's likely the best 2hander. I'd have to do some napkin math to see if the extra 25% from Tidefall could beat the blades extra 5 damag3 +20% recover speed, but I doubt it. From what I can tell, weapon type damage doesn't come up enough to really be a worthwhile weapon trait, especially compared to just 5 extra damage a swing. (Which is basically a .3 mod on every hit).

Hmm, I phrased it poorly. I was trying to say 'Casters are better even with consumables when going all out; tangentially related, relying on constant consumables for every encounter is far more annoying than just rest spamming' The argument after this is a tough one the whole, 'well, the games easy in general, what's it matter if one class obliterates it if another merely wrecks it' A true statement, one that points out more to serious design flaws. No argument it reduces the gap though, as using scroll is a better use of a GCD than most things a martial class could've done otherwise. Just Casters get to use all their GCD on (often better) 'scrolls' just by being a caster. On another note, beyond Casters being overpowered, so is the Lore skill to a hilarious degree. Both would take serious re-works to actually be 'balanced', which is large part why I rarely use them. (Casters I rarely use, Scrolls I never buy/craft, and only use found ones. Which still is too good, really).

It is kinda funny how Barb's have gotten pretty trash abilities in WM, when all the other classes got some pretty great things to help them not be quite so clearly behind. Pld gets the great Immolation and the charm busting Aegis, Monks get silly duel clone powers as an excellent wound dump, Rangers 2x Attack per rounds stance, even Fighters got something in Charge and some situational talents, and Rogues got....err, free deathblows off flanks? Barbs just got trash you'll barely use. I guess the immune to engage talent? Though of all the classes, Barb's the one I cared the least about engagement, as he wants to be stuck in a big pile of trash. Dragon Leap? It's hilarious how much worse than Charge it is in damage and speed getting off. Blood Thirst? As mentioned, literally does almost nothing in a decent build. Still, even with all that, Barb's don't fall to their own special crap tier just because Carnage is so good. Most classes really melee very similar, just with small +0.XX mods and a little attack speed being the difference. Carnage is a legit massive difference in how they attack. It's a shame they've got nothing else to go with it.

And the thing about resting is, you have to go out of you way to -not- rest. The game throws rests at you, to the point I have to throw out spells on a fight that's already under control, just because I know I'll be finding a camping supplies 3 encounters down the road. And any of the 'hard' fights, you'll be rested for. (Again, this is just playing the game as intended with no backtracking.) The only way Casters aren't way overpowered compared to the rest is if we're playing under personal restrictions, which can't really count. I mean, I myself try to never rest, and generally only do it a handful of times throughout the game. But that's clearly not how the game is designed to be played. As for Martial classes with potions and scrolls beating casters? Eh....no, not really. I mean first, is while Potions and Scrolls are technically unlimited, it's a far bigger pain to farm enough to use every encounter than it is to just rest spam. Casters can use them too, as well, if they really wanted. Even if using potions and lore, a Caster going all out is still much more than a martial class will do. And heck, it's not as if the martial classes even use weapons -that- much better than the casters, due to Pillars desire to have every class use the same talents/growth/gear/stats. Now, every class is of course viable in the game. But that doesn't mean they're all balanced.

Mine's same as it's always been. Rankings within a tier are close enough I don't really care, just listed in order they came to mind. Hopelessly Overpowered Tier: Wizard Druid Priest Cool Mechanics and Potential to be Balanced, but has some serious Cheese Tier Cipher Chanter Guys Who Use Silly Weapons In A Land of Magic Tier Monk Paladin Rogue Barbarain Fighter Ranger

Same reason Vampires are called Fampyrs, I'd guess.