[Animal Companion Stealth and Knockout Wounds?]

Twisted Ankle was the one really messing me up; pets already move slow to begin with, and this really hurt their ability to peel enemies making an end around. Plus the whole, -20% hp and DR's not helping their tanky ability, and the -25% attack speed hurting their dps quite a bit.

 

Just two or three is fine, but the 6x Ranger plan generally calls for almost all the animals to die at least once per encounter, so they'll get the whole collection soon enough if not resting to cleanse them.

[WM II items]

Wait, there's a 3rd Tier to the survival bonus? That would def change how I view +2 survival. As is, it only takes 78 points to get rank 12 where we get 90 in a game with not a whole lot else to dump points into. (Only one person needs mechanics, I find Stealth cheezy, Athletics is worthless, and Lore...well, Lore is very good.)

 

Makes survival a lot better then; be really hard to get 16 for (I assume) +20 acc without it. Of course, I played the game far more in 2.0 than I did have so far in 3.0, where the Survival was utterly useless.

 

I wouldn't say games almost over for Superb; comes from Adra dragon, whose normally on my hit list right before I go start all of White March. Could easily fight her earlier as well, and probably should actually be doing it before scaled Act 3. Still, only get two of those, so 4 guys have to do without. Hitting a 3rd tier of Survival is a nice consolation bonus to my silly Death-like.

[Does Frenzy work with Bloodlust?]

Off the top of my head, I'd guess yes, as it's a Modal, which should be their own category. (Passive+Weapons/Armor/Active/Modal). On the other hand, I've had plenty of Actives overwrite Pallegina's auras, so who knows. (Modals in generally are really inconsistent in how they're handled in general).

 

edit-just tested and newp,don't stack. Guess go go spelltongue fighter keeping a 25% haste to go with his +20 acc and defenses as well as -20% of the armor penalty.

[Toughest fight in the game?]

I'd say Alpine and Llengrath because there are no cheesy choke points. Adra can block her own adds with her fat ass if you lure her to the nook on the left. Same goes for Concelhaut - you can block the adds at the door. 

 

While there isn't a choke point there in that fight, it is a massive arena with a big rock in the middle, so it's super easy to kite the dragons around it. Which is pretty much what I did; rest of the team dealing with the trash in the bottom right corner, while someone ran in circles with both dragons following. Once adds where dead, just kept running in circles while dragons got pinked to death.

 

Not to take away from their being cheese in the other fights; most everyone fight in this game lets you do cheesy strats to win, and sometimes, it's hard to win otherwise.Normally whenever I try to fight a dragon 'legit', it'll do something lame like spin around to insta Tail-gib someone in front of him, or turn and breath the squishes. And well, if that's how the dragon wants to play....

[Does Frenzy work with Bloodlust?]

I'm pretty positive it does, as it falls under a 'passive' boost, like Dual Wield style, which stack forever and ever, rather than an 'active' boost, which you can only have one of. And yeah, Spelltongue is broken good. Kinda fun at times seeing how much crap it can break the game with, which is fun, but the actual watching the demi-god murder things gets me bored pretty quickly. Dual Spell tongue can pull it off as well for any class, if you want to Branch out from Barb. A little more dangerous, as it builds slower, so if monks knock you prone at the start, buffs could wear off.

[I think characters should get a couple of free talents at the start]

Can be used in and out of combat. I normally take it if I'm trying to see how few rests I can get through the game on. Otherwise it's pretty useless with how frequently the game lets you rest.

 

As the the actual topic....I wouldn't mind if we there was some other...utility section, and every 4 levels or something we got to pick a 'utility' talent or some such, and just remove them from the general talent pool.

 

I'd also like to add racial talents to the general talent pool they one can take on level up, similar to how classes add class talents currently.

[WM II items]

I'm with you on the Sanguine Plate. My fave gear, and always goes on my main Char. Of course, I always run the horned devil Death god-like, so it matches him perfectly. Kinda a shame it's a bit hard to enchant properly with that survival. Choosing between +2 DR and +2 to a stat because of some silly +2 to survival makes me sad.

[Animal Companion Stealth and Knockout Wounds?]

Man, these knock-out wounds are putting a damper on my all ranger playthrough, almost crippling it if intentional. (Or at least forcing me to actually rest more than once an Act). Seeing as even the trash pull plan generally relies on at least a few of the critters taking a dirtnap, those wounds add up fast. And for the hard fights, which I largely won through Revive Scroll spam, loses a lot of luster as a plan when all the pets have 4+ wounds.

 

It is a bit of a shame, half the reason I loved Rangers so much was the pets had infinite health, and when you're trying to win with as few rests as possible like I like to play, that was a big appeal.

 

Unreleated, but playing with 12 Chars, plus sometimes more from Idols, really just shows how horrid the pathing is in this game. Fights I should be able to just let the team largely handle itself, only keeping an eye if I need to peel if they try and end around, I instead have to micro. This is because things frequently just try to somewhere, run into something, and just stop. Or they keep running back and forth to get around something, instead of committing to a path, and end up going no where. Or they try to attack something they could get too by running around one guy on their right, but instead choose to try to run all the way around literally everyone else to come from the otherside.

[Legendary items]

Ah, that's good to know. Means I was just flat out doing it wrong when using it with a 25 Int Barb. Kinda was unintentionally bringing the weapon down against trash mobs on a char whose main job was killing trash.

 

Well, Eder will be using the Daggers, and with Drugs he can chill around 6 Int, so they shouldn't lose much damage on trash mobs.

[Legendary items]

Wait, is that how it works? so, 20 Int would just make it do 25% of damage over 7.5 sec instead of 5 sec, making it worse? Well, that's not too shabby if so, I think there is some +10 deflection, -4 Int drug I can keep Eder addicted too to help out.

[Eric Fenstermaker Narrative Interview at RPG Codex]

Good interview, confirmed a lot of the reasons I thought portions of the game underwhelmed. Also gives me hope that PoE was them testing the waters, and the sequel will be something special, like BG1->2 or SRR->DF.

[Legendary items]

Hmm...I've never really used the wounding weapons outside of Tidefall, always went Dual Anni Sabers for my dps chars. Mostly because I thought the DoT kept overwriting itself, making it pointless with how fast you swing optimized. But since it stacks on top of each other, that sounds pretty amazing, as unlike a Lash, it doesn't get killed by DR.

 

I guess that makes Int a pretty decent stat if using those weapons? Not amazing, of course, but like right now I'm taking a Con item for Eder instead of an Int one, mostly because the Int's pretty useless. But if that Int is basically 1.5% or something more damage a hit, might slightly change how I gear.

[Quality of the new class skills]

I....think you really misread that. I was attempting to show that the quality of later skills cannot take away from the quality of prior skills. (Might make them better, of course, but can't make them worse). To do this, I showed if a hypothetical class (not a barb ) had an ability that could kill everything for no cost, it wouldn't matter what other skills it got. No matter how horrible every other skill was, it wouldn't take away from that original skill in the slightest.

[Do CC-immune enemies still exist on PotD?]

Well, max accuracy and interrupt don't always go hand in hand. In 2.0, I generally used a stun lock plan without much ability to interrupt, just because few things had more than 85 defense, so gear+ a single buff and debuff would put it into 50%+ range no problem. This even for my 10 perception guys, who weren't interrupting jack. Going for crits and going for interrupts require two somewhat different approaches to buffing/gearing/debuffs.

[Quality of the new class skills]

 

You are right. Totally right. But what happens then?

 

We have the feeling to invest "meanly" with the barbarian. It's really the impression it gives.

 

It remains on carnage. The others talents are small bonus really insignificant.

 

Meanwhile, in the others classes... Rogues, Ranger... They are better talents. (Rogues its insane in comparison)

 

It is therefore quite logical that the barbarian is bad at the end, compared to others classes.

 

 

 

I....have no clue this means. Or see any logic. Just because the skills Barb gets later are underwhelming, does not somehow retroactively take away from Carnage. Which is all a Barb really needs. (Would be nice to get more, of course, but OBS gave them more useless junk, and games down now). To illustrate, if someone had a 1/enc 'kill all enemies' skill, it wouldn't matter if every other skill they got was '1/rest -delete your hard drive'. That ability would still make the class the best in the game.

[Fun Ability Synergy: Sacred immolation and Aegis of Loyalty]

More sweetness for the Pld. Looks like I'll have to make sure they have an Aura and Retaliation item on the pld; just take that durn Charm outta the game. Really are a team player. Specially now they can we can have two Spelltongue dorks with +25 Deflection, +10 Acc and Lay on hands for full duration of every encounter, to go with whatever other buffs to toss on them, like Outlander's frenzy. (Turning that into Perma 25% haste, 3 might, 3 con is pretty nice.)

 

Hmm...now that I think of it, I dunno what class and team set up best abuses Spelltongue. Got two of em now, so worth potentially building some fun around.

[Quality of the new class skills]

Err...Carnage. That's my point. Barb has Carnage, and a ton of jank for the rest of their skills. Everyother ability being jank doesn't have any bearing on how good Carnage is. But that's fine, Carnage alone makes the Barb just as good as the rest of the non-casters. It's does silly things, even after they removed the cray cray parts of it.

[Quality of the new class skills]

Well, you're comparing Barb to casters there to take away from what it can do. I'm sure we'll all agree (and I mentioned) the casters are on another level from the rest, and have been overpowered from launch. And now that the games finished, it looks to remain that way. (Which they sorta have to be, based on the system mechanics). All the classes look bad next to the casters.

 

Outside those though, Barb holds it's own for reasons mentioned plenty of times in many threads on folks who for some reason don't understand Barbs. Which is weird, as they only have one ability of worth, Carnage. Which also goes into why it's not really useful to say '13+15 abilites are trash, therefore bad class'. That's not how it works. Other talents being bad doesn't take away Carnage. Sure, it'd be nice if Barb had gotten even one other 'game changer' in its list, but Carnage itself is so strong it still carves a solid niche for Barb by itself, even with all the cheese removed from it.

[Quality of the new class skills]

But...they are in range. Most zones in this game are full of clumped mobs up close. Act 1? Fork, Temple, Keep, Meadow, Compass, Woods, Caed Nua all full of mobs clumped in melee range. Act 2? Crossing, Cult, Hill, Catacombs, Trails, Falls, Bluff, and most of Cilag all clumped in melee range. Gorge isn't great for it. Act 3? Bloodsands, Noonfrost, Maw, Elmshroud, Burial Hill, all loaded with it. Endless Paths? That's all it is by and large is crap for a barb to cut through.

 

WM? Ogre's tend to be too spaced out due to large size and lots of ranged units. Fish people always bring a heavy melee wall to cover their annoying archers and mages, so plenty of fodder there. And tons of Vessals in Gavino's shop up close. Battery? Tons of crap swarming there as well. Torn Bannerman not as good, most fights against fewer, but stronger foes. WM2? More Fish people in Cove, plenty of Swarming in battery, and plenty of dorks in the swamp. Also tons of Ondraians if you go the murder them all route. Not so many of the Eyeless, as they come in smaller numbers. And of course, the various Bounty quests are full of melee mobs to cover for the dangerous ones in the back.

 

So....I'm not seeing all these portions of the game where a Barb doesn't get to flex Carnage. You can hold it against Barb that it can't beat a caster, but thinking it can't dominate at large portions of the game is just a poor understanding of game mechanics.

[Do CC-immune enemies still exist on PotD?]

Yeah, Immunties only really affect martial classes from using prone or stun weapons to lock down creatures. And since so little is immune to stun, it doesn't really affect that. And with the introduction of 'ground' immunity, rather than just prone itself, those weapons gained back a lot of utility.

 

Of course, this all of very limited use in WM2, as the tougher fights are full for dorks with 120+ in all their defenses, making it take heavy buffs/debuffs to even put Crits on the table, let alone the 50%+ range you can get them in the rest of the game.

[Quality of the new class skills]

I'm not sure what game you're playing, but damn near every fight in this game has 3+ enemies grouped up. The 'complex' fights? Also full of trash. (Normally 2-3 random dorks to every caster mob). It's very much the exception that there's not a ton of crap running at you, and even more rare it's a bunch of enemies all spread out from each other and not clumping up on their own. And if it's some weird pack of archers? Barb's immune to engagement and/or can teleport a bit, so it won't have any trouble being near a group of enemies.

 

Properly built, once something gets caught in a Barb's Carnage, it'll be locked down unless something stops the Barb from attacking. That's pretty much barbs schtick; lock down and kill a 2.5m area of dorks. Doesn't much matter the dork, so long as it's in Carnage range. Casters of course do that schtick better and do much more beyond that, but again, they're overpowered. Nothing really holds a candle to them unless we're competing to see who can be the game with the fewest rests, and even then, they'd probably still pull it out.

[Quality of the new class skills]

Well, he's not entirely wrong. I think it's more an issue of calling that tier 'bad'. Caster's are just overpowered in this game, and really, in most every game of this style. Just how it is. Compared to a Wizard? Yeah, a Rogue or a Barbarian isn't that great. But, that's how the games always been. Casters at the top, martial all pretty well balanced with each other below, and the semi casters in the middle being all balanced and crap.

 

He's a bit wrong in the whole 'barb is awful' thing, as it's just fine if your baseline isn't the class that kills everything in big circle, at range, without them ever getting the chance to fight back. (Barbs actually play pretty well with casters; they have the highest DPS of the martial classes, and clean up a group of CC'd things like no one's bizniz. Or you could just rest as the game intends and have the casters blow it up themselves.)

 

Not that you can't play the game just fine on PotD with all martial classes; it's how I tend to play, as the casters both make the game too easy, and increase micro, neither of which I want.

[WM II items]

Yeah, I didn't see him a ton pre 3.0. Maybe once or twice a game, always selling something I don't want, and not something cool like Hiro's Cloak or Rimecutter. This time, after I did his quest, he went away for a long time. Then he came 6 times in a row. Then he never came again. Was kinda strange.

[Quality of the new class skills]

Well, that's certainly one way to look at it, theBs, heh. I wouldn't agree, of course.

 

Game still seems much the same to me as it did in 2.0. The casters sit on the top being overpowered, Cipher chills in the middle, maybe Chanter can join him if you don't mind spamming scrolls, and the rest of the classes are all nice mostly balanced with each other, all have their own niche.

[Does Aloth spoil the twist or am I missing something?]

Hmm...the Gods are made from the souls of a dead, advance tech civ from the past, ruling over a backwards future. I'm getting some FFX flashbacks.