Boeroer

Erm... what? Don't understand what exactly you mean. Secrets of Rime has zero effect on a Mith Fyr lash. Scion of Flame has also zero effect when the char uses a weapon with a freezing lash. If a char has a weapon with a burning lash and Mith Fyr - then both burning lashes would get raised from 25% to 30% with Scion of Flame. If a character has Mith Fyr and a weapon with a freezing lash, then Scion of Flame would raise the Mith Fyr lash from 25% to 30% and Secrets of Rime would raise the freezing lash from 25% to 30%.

On 4500+ hours of PoE on PotD I never ever switched a grimoire. I just put the best four of every tier into my book and that's it. The "best" means in this case the most suited for my current wizard build. I don't know if Quick Switch and/or Coil of Resourcefulness reduce Grimoire Cooldown - I would be surprised if they did but I actually never tested because I never felt the need to switch Grimoires during encounter in the first place.

Played it for 2 hours or so now and it's really fun. The music is also great - like in FTL.

Bought it right now and am currently installing. Was waiting for this since it was announced - and then forgot about it on release date!

Me too. I wish Obsidian all the best and hope the whole PoE IP will bring us many more nice games. Maybe something classless for a change?

That's what I figured I would have to do, but I don't really want to go outside the game. I have an aversion to Windows mode when I play. I was really just echoing what a couple of beta testers indicated on their YouTube streams. If you use Steam you can do screenshots without leaving the game and without using windowed mode. Also if you use Nvidia Shadowplay. For GoG I don't know since I'm not using it. On Linux you can always trigger a screenshot without tools. You can even take a screenshot in the game, hit ALT+TAB and change to Gimp/Photoshop/whatever toll you want to use crop & resize the screenshot, put it in the right folder, ALT+TAB back to game and pick the new portrait. It may be that you have to go back to the main screen first so that the portraits get re-loaded.

Since I wrote that some things have changed (PEN system for example). Also, as always: you get used to things if you only do them often enough. Maybe remember how pissed I was when Josh said that you will not be able to enchant weapons/armor like in PoE? Well... I got used to the thought - it just had to sink in. And there are lots of things that will change in the upcoming beta and the final release (faster summoning times for weapons, faster casting times, cipher improvements, more passive abilites and much more), so I have higher hopes now. I've put around 230 hours into the beta at this point and of course there are things that are great and better than in PoE (look at the awesome stealth system with sound detection, pickpocket, graphics, loading times and much more). I'm starting to see them better now that the first wave of frustration is over. It was just so that I didn't want a complete overhaul like this - since I, as you, love PoE and would have liked a sequel that uses the same mechanics (with improvements of course). Now I know this is no request concert - I'm just saying this just so you know why I'm still a bit disappointed. Deadfire feels like a totally different game (let me repeat: still feels a bit like Tyranny for whatever reason) and being a beta (with a completely new system), it has several flaws that dampen the fun while playing. So while I'm not really pissed anymore I'm still not very happy. Maybe just because of nostalgia - I mean they took something that I really liked and turned it into something that I don't seem to like as much. Given how much time I put into PoE I'm sure my view on this is totally biased, but still... However: the main reason why I feel still unhappy about is this: When I play the beta I don't get the, how do I put it... the "vibe"? The feeling? The spirit of PoE anymore. That what bound me to PoE all the time. Mechanically it feels like a different game and it can't motivate me. It may well be that this is only the case because the beta is short and not connected to any main plot. So I'll see what the whole game will bring to the table and then I'll judge again. Maybe I will be totally blown away. I hope so. I'm always trying to be objective, but I'm also an emotional and impulsive person (I guess I still hold the record in my Basketball team for most technical fouls in one season - mostly for yelling at refs ) and as soon as you see me write in a somewhat roiling manner you should take it with a grain of salt.

The raising saints and the crawling skeletons are a nice addition to the relativly simple PoE "cutscenes" or scripted combat introductions though. I can image they entail a lot more work, but I would be happy so see a lot more of those. Engwithan Titan is basically the same. It not only prevents massive alpha strikes from stealth (or right at the start ot battle) but also looks pretty neat and gives you those "oh crap!" moments I really like.

Arquebus damage got tuned down and also does no bonus damage on crit, so the FoD damage might be ok with it, but not massive. Dual pistol or blunderbuss has The higher potential because of the Full Attack. The highest damage with FoD I get with rods (because of Blast's AoE getting the lash as well), great swords and sabres atm. Dual scepters with modal are also nice (but short range). The advantage of FoD with an arquebus is that with the modal on (+20 ACC) you can't miss. Or let's say it's really hard to miss. This is great against tougher enemies. I don't think that Videlo Vidorio is even in the beta code. Two hints that they might stack: - in PoE they stacked - Deadfire's rule of stacking: passives stack, actives don't. Sure Handed Ila is on the passive side, FoD on the active one.

Nothing new, we're still in beta3. I'll wait till Tuesday when the next beta will come out. Until then there's not so much motivation to play the beta3 again. I already have 230 hours on the counter.

But you would need a lot more of those scripted encounter starts.

If you find yourself multiclassing everything with a paladin you know something's not right with the class balance.

Eh, that's something for another thread.

Yes, I just wanted to make sure we're talking about the same thing. As I said I also see a problem there. Especially with Empower and the easier resting method (without restricted camping supplies). Other things like Assassinate and Backstab are obviously taylored for this. What's your take on those?

One cannot simply troll Gromnir.

Those are two seperate things and you mix them up all the time: A) Boeroer wants shorter summoning times. B) Boeroer wants to tweak down some summoned weapons and buff some others - especially Firebrand. I want shorter summoning times because I think it plays better/ is more fun. Said that from the beginning, tried it with a mod and I think I am right. More people agree than disagree, so I can't be totally stupid and unreasonable. I didn't say that this would fix any problems that some summoning weapons have. You keep saying that, not me. Origin of this fruitful discussion was: Josh says "Summoned weapons are ludicrously powerful", Boeroer says "no they are not, for example look at Firebrand". Then you came along and added lots of other stuff about being unreasonable and some other baseless assertions. If it fatigues you why don't you just stop?

How do you define alpha strike? Is it only done from stealth or are things like an arquebus shot with FoD in the early phase of an encounter also considered an alpha strike (I mean in this discussion)? Because when we're only talking about the first I think you are right: things like Assassinate and Empower made attacks from stealth even more devastating than in PoE and it can get kind of boring. And once the developers would balance around this you would feel gimped if you're not doing it. Maybe restrict Empower so that it can't be used from stealth? Now that you brought this up I realize that I seldomly attack from stealth in PoE unless I have at rogue. Can't say why - maybe because it indeed gets boring after a while. The second variant of alpha strike - a powerful attack in the early phase of an encounter to take out a caster or so - is ok for me and I like it. It's still a very powerful tactic but more "fair" because enemies can do/will do the same (see Lagufaeth for example, often targeting my casters with Necrotic Lances once encounter starts).

Harhar funny - I meant that part (and I guess you knew that): Should have shortened the quote in the first place... Or the developers just tried MaxQuest's mod and realized it was more fun.

Ahaha! But I also asked myself several times why they go there and not into the ability bar (like spell masteries for example).

One might think. But there are different summoning times for weapons in Deadfire already. Look at The Long Pain for example: short summoning time, short(ish) duration. I don't quite agree that summoning times for weapons and summoning times for creatures are the same stuff. The creatures are very potent because of their use as cannon-fodder, distraction and body-blocking (not even looking at their stats and abilites). So I can understand why a few summons that pop up right at the start of an encounter would be too good.

I thought about Josh's statement about the ludicrous summoned weapons again and wondered why he would say that - since the summoned weapons in the beta (on average) are not particularly powerful (if I assume that the gamebreaking effects like AoE afflicitions and crit/kill cascading effects will be fixed). I thought something like "Wait! Did he even use them?" or "Which other game with summoned weapons is he playing?". And then I thought a bit further: Josh is playing the nearly complete game now (playtesting week and so on) and knows all the summoned weapons. So it may be that there are summoned weapons on higher level tiers (Llengrath's Warding Staff and Blunt Wisdom, Rot Skulls, Cadebald's Blackbow) that are very powerful - so that this statement would be true. But then I would ask: Why not having different summoning times? They also have different durations, so uniformity can't be the real reason. If a summoned weapon is so good that it has to be balanced with longer summoning times - ok. But why does this have to apply to all summoned weapons? Also when comparing it to summoning times in PoE. Was that so bad (even with regard to multiclassing)? As I said in another thread: summoned weapons are much more fun to use in Deadfire if their summoning time is shorter (see MaxQuests beta speed mod). Maybe they would have to be rebalanced (don't think so). I think the decision to reduce summoning time is a good one. I'm not against longer summoning times for especially powerful summoned weapons though if the designers are convinced that this is the best way to balance them.

The only thing that you can do about it is hit pause once a target gets confused, mark all party members and force an attack on the confused enemy. This is the reason why I seldomly use Sabra Marie and also the soulbound scepter (chance to dominate): the randomness can be more of a chore than a benefit.

Ach, of course. Sorry!

Why not? If you are a Berserker/Paladin and get a resistance to intellect afflictions via paladin's passive ability you won't get confused anymore.

I never said that nor did I mean it. Of course the problem of summoned weapons is individual! But that doesn't mean that I can't vote for faster summoning times in general because I think this would play better than very long summoning times (for several reasons that you all know). I brought Firebrand up as an example to show that Josh's statement "summoned weapons are ludicrously powerful" was extremely hyperbolic. That statement was made to justify long summoning times - to balance them I guess. I simply showed that this statement is (if not plainly wrong) too broad-brush. Because of that I also said that several "features" which make some summoned weapons so powerful are actually bugs or oversights, and without them they wouldn't be so powerful anymore. And if they are not all that powerful in the first place - why the long casting times? If casting times were that long to balance out the power of summoned weapons - why has Firebrand a long casting time? It's a normal great sword with a different damage type! That's hardly ludicrous power. That's not even Dark Helmet power. So in my opinion this whole argument is not valid - that's why I brought up Firebrand as the most extreme example. Could have added Parasitic Staff as well. I even said (now and in former discussions) that I would happily trade power for shorter summoning time in order to keep the balance. And that I think that this - while keeping balance - would improve the gameplay. I never asked for unreasonalbe moar power or something like you seem to imply. All this doesn't sound unreasonable to me (but maybe I'm just not good at self-reflection...). Yet you keep repeating yourself with "unreasonable". Answering to you is pointless in 90% of cases Gromnir. But some people still brace up and do so - I guess because they kinda like you no matter what. If you have to mention it and call it silly and childish it can't have been too amusing. You came around the corner with your usual uppity eyerolling demeanor - you deserved some childishness.