Stoner

Odd poll...IMO testing a new build is always fun part of full playthrough, no? This game isn't infinity like Skyrim, dor example, you go along the story, finish the game, start a new one: cycle of PoE life...

I honestly never use drugs in this game, they seem completely useless but always give some alcoholic beverages to drink because they have very good effects on some party members from my perspective (excellent duration), much useful than drugs IMO, but for melee fighters mostly and Blasconn for Cipher, so half of my party is effectively drunk most of the time. Funny thing, I don't drink IRL...

I really makes me sad that Resolve is used so much for talking purposes in this game, basically one of the characters (or maybe the only one?) which benefits from high RES is priest, and I don't want him as PC, not interesting enough as a class for me, they should've make more options... Don't you ever had a desire to roleplay evil, sadistic, murdering character? Just for the sake of experiment maybe, see how that plays out?

I was very sceptical about PoE and refused to pick it up for a long time simply because I was hoping for turn-based combat which it wasn't, so I've been playing DoS and thought it has a decent combat mechanics. Boy, I was wrong... the way real-time combat done in PoE is just mindblowing, I LOVE turn-based combat, but PoE already has almost perfect formula and outsanding mechanics, I won't trade anything for it. No turn-based PoE 2 please.

Arguments like this is always so much fun... I used to play Chivalry a while back and there were many heated discussions as to why small weapons (i.e. daggers or hatchets) can block massive two handers like Mauls, Claymores or Polearms, they posted tons of videos from medieval and close combat experts describing how it is possible, but truth is: blocking with small arms is more like dodging or it's easier to pull off weapon with free hand/movement. As ppl say it's just gameplay balance, no real sense behind it.

This game has corresponding age rating I believe?... Never understood ppl who can't get that...

Totally disagree, I hadn't same great feeling about combat in any other RPG as I had with PoE. In this game you can always make yourself challenge or level up and steamroll enemies. Thrashmob encounters are just fine, biggest pro is that they don't respawn and I can't ask for anything more. There are some encounters with elite named figures, like from druid bounties, and having commander thingy in each fight kills variety. No special abilities please, keep it as grouned to our own group as it is. If there would be many ambush-like abilities encounters, classes will suffer and tank role will be diminished, you would basically need to make every combatant extra durable heavy-hitter. That's not gonna work. Agro and tank mechanics works wonderfull as it is, we had some flanky combat in Cragholdt, tbh that drove unique PoE fighting design completely off the rails. It was interesting as experiment but that doesn't work, if every combat would be like this it will lead to broken class system. Considering enviroment, game already covers it in spades, tons of traps, my party can get some heavy AOE damage in choke points and rangers usually hard-to-get targets, I dunno what else you may want?... The only thing I'd change is trap cap, at leat to 3, 1 is almost useless to even consider, too much hassle. All-in-all the only thing I'd like to be reworked is superboss encounters, like Dragon fights, to make it less cheap and less demanding for exploits to more about positioning and tactics, but I honestly don't see how can they keep it hard at the same time... P.S. Also would like to add: no exp for combat is probaly one of the best design choices in this game, it kills SO HARD gameplay in other cRPGs where you actually get that exp, cannot even be described in words. I really hope it will stay the same way in sequel.

That thread takes me back to one of the older discussions, where I've been pretty confused about how Wizard use his spirit power (probably muscles really) to increase damage of his spell. That fallen into rather ridiculous and funny discussion. Eventually it got down to: "Why pistols are affected by spirit strength of individual? Why Might affects damage directly?" So, to the guys who are trying to imply real life physics logic to the game, please stop... In regards to game system design, any pushover who possesses high spiritual strength can operate any weapons or magic with outstanding power, slicing Dragons in half with one swing of rusted toothpick. So, following that logic I wouldn't wonder if the same person can shoot flintlock and even blunderbuss while holding it in one hand with zero recoil and reload guns on the fly with no effort. So yes, I wonder too why we don't have dual wield pistols.

It's definitely not WH fantasy or 40k universe, so i'd say setting is spot on, hope it stays that way in the future.

Here I go then. Eder - I dunno who might not like him, he's calm, friendly and very sharp minded for a farm boy. Great example of neutrally good character without any deviations in behaviour or reactions. Aloth - My favrorite, he's basically copies my main character in mood/reactions/roleplaying aside from being more kind hearted and with a bit of eccentrity... well, don't wanna spoil. Durance - If he wouldn't be a priest, I wouldn't have this character with me. Most annoying person in games I ever seen. There's basically everything wrong with him. Never shared love for blind fanatics with mentor attitude. Eder along with some other party members sometimes make hilarious jokes at his side, that's... very amusing. Grieving Mother - Outstanding concept but too cryptic and wierd representation. I'd love to get more into her, but I can't seem to understand her. She doesn't uncover herself well enough, too disconnected. Kana Rua - Most boring character in the game, doesn't possess any features which makes him stand out anyhow, too bland. Totally worth sacrificing in the Blood Pool. Hiravias - That's Durance number two with a twist, and with good one actually. Pretty annoying but fun at the same time. Flamboyant and memorable dude. Sagani - Very neutral charater, i'd say it's downsampled female Eder from the tribe. Biggest pro of her is that while being traditional she's still pretty open minded. Unexpected. Pallegina - Most passionate character, best possible representation of true Paladin I've ever seen. Gorgeous, brash and polite all in one. Explosive! Love! Devil of Caroc - Refined charisma just bursts out from this character, sharp, cruel, insolent, with great sense of humor. Replies short but always spot on. Outsanding companion. Zahua - I dunno who designed him, but that was some genious for sure. That's very rare to see how one can make you laught your ass off that hard while being dead serious. Phrases and remarks are just insane. Character is fresh and original. VA basically done most of the job making up his nature and temper. Amazing guy.

That's very odd complaint here because it's a game, and there's no way it can take into account billion roleplaying designs players might have, especially in sidequest which might be easily go unnoticed or skipped. The fact that you don't directly speak with NPC's but choosing dialog options instead (because technologies aren't there yet) put high restrictions on your freedom in roleplaying and action consequences. This particular quest have enough options for many (not all) types of characters IMHO. Content which I don't like or can't get over with I just skip/abandon, you can do the same since it's not really related to story.

@ruzen If you are really that curious, here you go: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/82209-trying-to-decide-whether-to-give-this-a-second-chance/page-3 But that covers mostly combat mechanics (which are biggest indication of casuality in the game IMO). You can read only first part and skip the rest, where I talk about other games. Sorry to mods for off-topic...

That's a very hard question, Mr. Ruzen, because Arcanum too had some real cheesy moments in it's mechanic (rather spammy and OP stuff), and breaking it down here would totally derail the disussion along with creating huge and unnecessary wall of text. I just made small remark on DOS, you can not agree with that, and I can prove my point with some arguments, but that would be obvious off topic...

@kanisatha Well, you can give Monks weapons in PoE but it kills their effectiveness obviously, but regarding armor: I have a monk in gorgeos Heavy Armor, and at time he serves as better tank than my fighter in heavy armor and tower shield, so I wouldn't say type of armor has huge restriction on him, you can build him either way.

@ruzen Well, since I beat it twice (second time on max difficulty) and it was like a walk in a park, because there are TOO many exploits in combat system which are easy to abuse and have some experience with Infinity Engine and other cRPG titles, I can surely say that D:OS is rather casual. Sure, it might not seem that way, but as soon as you get deeper in its mechainics, it becomes pretty obvious. Hence levelling, PoE's one being not most confusing leaves D:OS one MILES behind...

No offence but points missed IMHO. D:OS should fit in console market just fine, it's casual, has coop and eyecandy 3D graphics. I don't see where this game requires any focus on reading. Crafting is basically in-game cheat menu with being absolutely useless like 90% of it... I forced myself to read very poorly written and uninspired dialogs which were pretending to be funny, on second playthrough I skipped them and finished game just fine. Game has totally broken combat mechanics and completely out of logic pixel hunt puzzles. World is VERY small, so no handhilding needed really. I honestly don't see why lazy person who dislikes reading would get PoE in a first place. Nice joke tho.

@kanisatha I had TONS of fun with barbarian, you can go with two handed or dual-wield as you wish, he does both great. Paladin is also fantastic choice but I mostly used two-hander on him + he 's a bit tougher than Barb. Fighter is basically Jack of Trades, you can build him as you like, but I prefer this class as heavily armored tank, there are builds making him good archer even. As for the build, since you are casual, I doubt you play on Path of The Damned difficulty, so on Normal or Hard you will be fine, build as you feel like, game won't punish you + with 2.0 update there's respec option so don't be afraid to experiment on your own.

Adra Dragon is supposed to be one of the most powerful forces to exist in the game's explored universe. I too was kind of pissed when I encountered it for the first time by the massive difficulty spike - now in retrospect I realize that if the fight was too easy, it would kind of cheapen the game's lore, and that there's a reason why the fight is optional. It's far too easy to get accustomed to modern game design which hands you everything on a silver platter. It cheapens lore anyway because combat can be cheesed out. There's no way to beat this boss in a fair fight, you have to go prepared a.k.a. know what types of spells and abilities work best against it. Not mentioning positioning with dialogue/ladder exploit... If fight would be fair and required player to micro and use tactics instead of paralize spam, I guess more ppl would be happy, along with the lore.

There is an exploit, not sure if fixed already (probably is) because I had it on 2.0 IIRC, hadn't launched game since so not sure. After finishing Cragholdt Buffs you get a special pet which gives you an ability to summon powerfull creature (no spoilers), this "thing" has a spell Concelhaut's Crushing Doom, so well, that spell used from the bar of summoned "thing" used to one hit kill ANYTHING, Adra Dragon incuded, you might try it tho I doubt it will work on newest version.

After playing this game for awhile I had a strong feeling that VA wasn't even planned for this game and arrived later, it's pretty obvious from dialogue constructions. I'm tempted to completely turn off voices because this way it won't break the flow of reading (like it does now), but overall acting is good, so skipping it feels like a waste. What I'd really like is total in-game text revamp, so reading won't hurt hearing and vice versa, but that's probably will never happen... Hope PoE2 will be better thought-out on this matter.

For me melee is fun when it's working. I don't care how many active abilities I have, I just want my frontline figher to do the excellent job at what I built him to. So, in PoE when I build Fighter or Paladin into full armored tank, he does just that: keeps bad guys busy, don't fall and lockdown area. When I build my Barbarian towards max DPS, I give him two handed sword or dual axes, spec his stats and ablilties accordingly, then I rush him into the fray, and if he manages to avoid heavy punishment I see gibbed guys all over the floor in a few seconds. Many-many RPGs and semi-RPGs I played fail at this hard. Classes don't work, or working the wrong way. In PoE everything works as intended for me at least and I can easily build what I desire, and it'll work exactly the way that I desire. That's main fun point for me in combat anyways.

That's some real masochistic stuff here author... I dunno, you'll probably cry when you get into new areas added by White March DLC, cause I had few unpleasant surprises and tough fights even on hard, not PoTD. I honestly don't think it's possible to beat this game on trial of iron on first playthrough.

Yes, story tied around dieties pretty hard, it's strange that we can't choose those those for our character. When I was RP my atheist Wizard it was fine, but my Barbarin was hardcore Galawain follower, so my enjoyment of this came only in the last chapter sadly...

That's strange topic here... I honestly believe that if you forcefully skip every dialogue, won't read any book and etc you'll still progress steadily in story and even sidequest. I don't think it's possible to get lost in this game, and never had an issue when I didn't know where to go and who to speak to. Game world may seem rather huge, but honestly it's pretty small on closer inspection. If you're not on a speedrun you will most definitely explore every bit of map in time.

@Sylvus_Moonbow Thank you very much, yes I found it, it is track between 6:30 - 7:50. After some digging up I found this music in my game folder. Its name: px1 mus inn c filtered. Turns out the composition that won my heart so much was filtered version of The Gref's Rest music, but nonfiltered is even more beautiful. It's in .ogg format but converting wouldn't be a problem. I have what I wanted, now maybe this info and video above, provoded kindly by Sylvus_Moonbow will help someone else in search of tracks.