Boeroer

In the early days of the game, sometimes when I googled about "Pillars of Eternity" some weird stuff came up. The results sounded like esoterical nonsense mostly so I didn't bother looking further into it. What really annoyed me though is that when I googled "PoE" only Path of Exile results were shown.

It also has a crushing lash (lashes are multiplicative dmg bonuses) which a lot of players miss for some reason. In my opinion the higher PEN and the crushing lash already make it good enough gainst single target foes in some cases - compared to a "normal" great sword. But yes: often it's best to use it as long as enemies are plenty and switch to a backup weapon once only a few enemies are left (and/or don't stand near each other). Also the combined raw damage of Soul Annihilation to all targets in the cone AoE is higher than if you would have hit a single target (and dumped all the focus there). There's some weird calculations happening under the hood, but it seems as if the AOE hits are generting new focus which immediately gets dumped as raw dmg onto the next target in the AoE. Yes, it's a great enchantment. I as you said it includes the riposte + dazing the enemy and on top giving +4 deflection against all melee attacks. I just love it. But you really have to build around that enchantment to make it fun to play and that might take some time and planning imo.

That's true for many games. I'm sure if the devs could afford it they would polish their games further until they are nearly flawless. But you can't really justify that (economically I mean) unless it's a subscription- or microtransaction-based model. At some point it's just damaging to the company to pump resources into a game that very few people still play. Same reason for premature releases basically: economic ones. Not that this is great - I wish all games would reach perfect shape or even better: came out in perfect shape. But honestly no (serious) software product ever achieved that afaik. In over 30 years of programming and nearly 20 years of professional software-engineering I can only say that there's always a lot of room for improvement left. The console versions are not an example of walking away - more like an example of not taking a walk in the first place. Both games were advertised as PC-only games and Obsidian insisted multiple times that thay had no plans to bring those games to consoles on their own. So they didn't but simply let other devs do this. Will they still get flak for flaws of the ports? Sure. Are they really responsible? Maybe not. I also don't know how you could handle the situation in a better way: you don't want to do the ports yourself because you have 0 experience with consoles. But your publisher wants to earn some money from console releases and maybe you get some, too - so why not? So now there's a dilemma, right?

Yes, that was my point. Cyberpunkt is not an Obsidian game, is discussed en large everywhere right now and thus an exception imo. Usually "foreign" games don't produce a ton of discussion in therese forum (besides the really big ones like Witchter and now CP). And even with CP it's only that one big/hot thread afaik. Funnily enough the Deadfire subforums saw quite enough traffic even a month ago (I mean for a game with rel. low sales numbers and well after Obs support ended). I guess part of that was caused by the console releases. Now suddenly it's all kind of dormant - but I suspect that's because all the frequzent posters are playing/discussing Cypberpunk right now. And indeed I have not checked the Cyberpunk thread because that game sparks zero interest in me. Therefore I guess it's better to not waste my attention and energy there because surely (as with all things that get discussed heatedly) there will be so many dumb takes that I would suffer 134d20 psychic damage from reading it. So what I just wanted to say is that these forums are never truly dead - it's more like hibernation really.

I put the skill points how they were when I played this guy. Maybe it was done to solve some early quests more easily (to sneak around some encounters for example) but I really don't remember why there's 4 stealth. It doesn't really matter.

Besides the original meaning "deathmarch" also gets used in project management (including the development of games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_march_(project_management) But while I guess that PoE has seen some crunch like most other games I didn't hear about it having been a death march before.

The biggest problem seems to be that often enough the EU needs an unanimous vote. It's pretty difficult to sanction members if said members have a say in this. On the other hand Greece and Italy got bullied around plenty when they had economical issues - so maybe there is a way to rap those rule breakers over the knuckles...? Gotta ask my wife, she's an expert on all things EU (I still don't get why you want to be that though ;)).

Who said PoE was a death march?

Maybe they didn't really know much more at the time the video was planned? I liked it as a teaser. It's there to tease and it did imo. Doesn't need to be too specific for that.

I'd say that superior attitude is not a really good way to approach life in general - especially if my trail of thought resembled the boisterous capers of a besotted chipmunk - but what do I know, right?

It comes and goes like the tides. As soon as there's some new info about Avowed or Josh's current (smallish) project there will be more traffic. I remember when Deadfire got released it was so much I almost got overwhelmed. Only lasted a few weeks though.

Don't do it?

Open world is a blind alley.

Well I'm always here so feel free to post stuff.

Becaaause it's not a Pillaaars gahaaame

Why that? Both thave the same amount of talents available.

Bittercut is great because it not only has an alternative damage type (corrode/slash) but also works with Spirit of Decay which gives it +20% dmg in all cases (no matter whether corrode or slash dmg gets applied).

Fleshmender's AR is too low. Put him into heavy(er) armor like Devil of Caroc or Bloody Links or even Brigandine/Plate. Even 1 point of AR can make a big difference, 2 or 3 are huge leaps in survivability. The Fleshmender's regeneration can't compete with higher AR if you get attacked frequently. Also use Savage/Stalwart Defiance. I like to use mind control like Whisper of Treason etc. against enemies who attack the Witch. Works very well if you are wielding clubs + modal or The Willbreaker.

Blood Thirst will get removed with your next attack no matter the duration I believe.

Predator's Sense is for the Animal companion so that's not related to the Ranger's attack speed. Ranger can have quality enchantments on his weapons (e.g. superb for +45% dmg) and stuff like Apprentice's Sneak Attack and also crits (+50%) or even Annihilating weapons (crits do another +100%). Since DEX is a multiplicative damage increase it's better for auto-attack dps than MIG in most cases after the early game/towards the mid/late game. However, MIG can get you more damage (not dps but one-time damage) with stuff that has limited resources - like Flames of Devotion, Wounding Shot, spells etc. So you get "more dmg for your buck". Also MIG is kind of mandatory if you employ a wounding weapon since wounding damage scales with MIG. In the end it doesn't matter THAT much though. A few points here and there in DEX or MIG hardly makes any difference. The attribute system isn't that impactful (which is intended).

By the way: Chanters won't stop chanting even if withdrawn by a Priest. So you can block a doorway with a withdrawn Chanter who's still singing phrases while withdrawn, and once he emerges from Withdraw he's usually ready to cast an invocation. Also Preservation items (+50 to all defenses when stunned or prone) will trigger when withdrawn, giving the Chanter +50 to all defenses minus the stun debuff. Even +100 if you stack a preservation shield with another preservation item. Now you ask why that's any good because the Chanter is withdrawn anyway. I only say "Defensive Mindweb".

I think it would be best to switch to Story Mode for the early game. Always better than giving up. You don't seem to have experience with this sort of RPGs and the early game is hard for somebody who doesn't. After Act I the game becomes a lot easier for many players and you could then increase the difficulty to easy again (you can switch whenever you want). In general the rule of thumb on the road to success is: stack accuracy to deliver reliable debuffs, then deal damage. Using brute force is inefficient. You can hit a lot more reliably in the early game with an accurate weapon (dagger, spear, rapier, club) or a flail which you use in the right hand and nothing in the left. This will give you +5 and +12 accuracy which is a huge plus in the early game. I'll name a few things that might help you in the early game: Use flanking! That means attack an enemy in melee from two sides. This reduces the deflection of the enemy. Aloth ("dude who uses magic"): use the spell Chillfog. It is very strong and applies it's Blinding effect every few seconds so it will hit eventually. Also use Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. It's very good in the early game and it gives great value for only one spell use. Also use Arcane Assault after Durace buffed your accuracy (see below). Durance (Priest at Magran's Fork, you can travel there and pick him up at any time): use Inspiring Radiance and Blessing. Edér should use Disciplined Barrage. It has a huge impact in the early game as well. Travel to Caed Nua without any fight and pick up Kana Rua. You don't have to enter Caed Nua, he's standing in front of it. Use the Phantom summon with him. If you can stay alive long enough so that Kana can call the Phantom you should win the fight a lot more easily. Also most quests can be solved without fighting. If you can sneak a bit you can turn in some quests like the blacksmith's shipment. Other quests (against the grain) can be solved with just being reasonable and not trying to escalate everything. One character level can make a big difference in perceived difficulty. Hope it helps. PS: wise decision not to go into the bear cave.

I guess so but I would need to test that as well. I just prolonged a Bellower's +7 PL buff to 343453456346 secs or so. It doesn't stack with the next one - but still it's cool to always have +7 PL for your invocations. I wonder if I can manage to prolong Whispers of the Wind's invisibility as well...

Swift Aim does work with melee weapons. Viscious Aim doesn't. DEX is the only thing that shortens the actual attack/spell animation (and also the recovery). So it keeps being useful even if you reach 0 recovery. 1 point of DEX will always speed you up for 3% (which when attacking means a 3% multiplicative increase of dps) - no matter if you have recovery left or not (because DEX reduces animation time as well). When using already fast weapons with few animation frames (e.g. daggers) the impact of a few points isn't that obvious but you will be faster: Let's say you have two daggers and 20 frames animation time and 10 frames of recovery each - so 30 frames total per attack at 10 DEX. If you set dex to 20 you will have 15.4 frames / 7.7 frames = 23.1 frames --> 30% faster. Now let's say you have the same two daggers and 0 recovery (for whatever reason) and have 10 DEX: your attacks will take 20 frames to complete. With 20 DEX they will only take 15.4 frames. That's still a 30% multiplicative dps increase. +10 MIG would only give you a +30% additive damage increase which is worse (leaving healing power and DR issues aside for now). So it doesn't really matter if you have 0 recovery or not, DEX still works for you all the same. As a Rogue for example (plenty of additive dmg bonuses that help with DR already) it's a lot better to raise DEX than MIG.

was that only achieved by re-equipping Strand of Favor??? Edit: I just tried it - it's multiplicative! I didn't know that. So after some time it climbs really quickly obviously. Too bad it doesn't work with stuff like Avenging Storm from Heaven's Cacophony. It gets removed as soon as combat stops.