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yupper

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Posts posted by yupper

  1. I did ask at the official forums, although this was quite some time ago. The responses were basically "get use to it" or "sorry no idea", to "who the hell uses a controller for this game?" Then the people who replied got into an argument among themselves about whether the default game interface was "intuitive"....I guess because...internet. :)

     

    I have everything set up in Xpadder perfectly. This is the only remaining issue. I actually tried to set up the right trigger controller button in Xpadder to click both mouse buttons at the same time, but that didn't help because it ended up confusing the game and made mouse clicks wonkey.

  2. This is a long shot...

     

    I recently reinstalled Dragon Age: Origins, and I am trying to customize the controls in a way that it would be similar to PoE. The main issues I have is that the game assigns the right mouse button to a variety tasks, like interactions and "click-move", while the left mouse button is still assigned to things like menu and dialogue choice confirmation. I am finding this rather unintuitive when I map the controls to my controller using XPadder. Ideally, I'd like to aggregate all of these functions to one mouse button, and just have the left mouse button take care most of the tasks, like interaction, click-move, dialogue selection, etc., just like in PoE.

     

    The problem is that while you can customize a number of hotkeys in game options, you cannot customize the aforementioned functions or "unbind" the mouse buttons. So I've been searching for third party software that might help me do this, either to allow me to "unbind" the mouse buttons and assign customized game functions to them, or to make their usage interchangeable (ie either clicking the right or the left mouse button can accomplish the aforementioned tasks). Any ideas?

  3. My favourite strategy is to use 3 frontline "tanky" characters, usually at least one paladin with a zealous aura and 2 fighter/barbarian/monk type characters. Enemy mobs still try to run or teleport past the frontliners at times, so the basis of this strategy is really to try and mitigate that and find ways to make my backrow casters more resilient to enemy melee. The party formation will usually look something like this:

     

    Fighter/Monk (Eder)                     Paladin/Barbarian (Pelegina)          Fighter/Monk

    Druid/Wizard (Hiravias/Aloth)       Priest (Durance)                             Cipher (Mother)

     

    - I give all my backrow casters arbalest (which has the longest range) or arquebus, and a hatchet + shield in their secondary weapon slot. When a backrow caster is engaged by more than one melee enemy, I switch their weapon to hatchet + shield to boost their deflection, since I don't need them to inflict melee damage so much as cast spells to buff/heal my party and/or immobilize my opponents (although Mother does need to inflict damage to regenerate her focus. But I can usually spam amplified thrust for that). I also shapeshift Hiravias when I need a backrow melee damager.

     

    - to maximize the benefits of zealous aura on the party, I need to keep Pelegina alive for as long as possible. Her stats are not optimized for melee damage dealing, and she does not have fighters' constant recovery, so I make her a shield + one handed specialist to give her more longevity in battle. She still does a lot of damage with flames of devotion with a good unique sabre, but her utility is in her other abilities like the paladin's zealous aura and liberating exhortation (very useful in negating enemy CC).

     

    - I don't bother with midrow "off-tanks" at all. When I tried it, I felt like they were hampered by being forced into to do something they weren't particularly good at. There are any number of things an "off-tank" can be be doing that is more useful than being a "off-tank." I suppose chanters might make good "off-tanks", but only because they can't really do much else otherwise. Since 90% of my battles are done before (or right when) my chanter finish 3 verses, I rarely bother with them.

  4. Also does anyone know how to keep the party from autoattacking when battle begins? I set it to passive but as soon as the dragon fights everyone throwing everything they got at them lol.

     

    I'm gonna buy me some summon trinkets, right now only got wurm one on my Melee rogue and beetle one on my chanter.

    Turning off the AI for the entire party should make the party passive when the battle starts. Not sure why it's not working in your game. Depending on how far you've progressed in the game, there are lots of summon trinkets you can use. The lamp that summons shades can be found in a locked chest in the Vailan Republic embassy. There is one that summons spiders that I think you can find at level 1 of the Endless Depth (I think...).

     

    I also prefer "full on" battles, because it's just more fun that way. When you cheese through battles like this, it doesn't feel as "epic" or satisfying as when you throw everything into it. :)

    • Like 1
  5. One of the toughest battles, but I found it easier than the alpine dragon.

     

    - you need to spread your backrow casters out far enough that they don't get hit with the first blast of the dragon breath. In fact, the first thing I do for this battle is to summon everything I can. Let the summons absorb the initial hits while my party potions up (I stockpile potions of power for occasions like this).

     

    - the adra animats need to be killed first because they inflict paralysis and can CC your party (although the first mobs I kill in this battle are usually the xaurip high priests, so they can't heal their own). CC is pretty useless against the dragon as it seems to resist most of my attempts to immobilize it, including paralysis scrolls. Debuffing the dragon first will help slightly. However, CC against the dragon's minions are quite useful. Since you don't have a mage or druid with you, this may be a problem depending on what abilities you chose for the chanter. If you can, CC the mobs first and take them out of the battle.

     

    - in my fights with the master, Durance was pretty much casting healing spells non-stop during the battle. I only managed to squeeze in one bless spell from him. I usually give him a second chance item in case he gets knocked out, since he is also the one who will be resurrecting, unless your paladin can do that too (but the paladin can only do that once) or if you've stockpiled revival scrolls.

     

    - barbarians are not as good as fighters in a battle like this, since their specialty is against numerous weaker mobs rather than single target. So the barbarian is better off hacking away at the mobs than the dragon. The rogue will be the primary damage dealer of the party against the dragon, so you will need to keep her/him alive at all costs. You didn't mention if this was a range or melee rogue, so not sure what to suggest here.

     

    - the masters breath is indiscriminate and the rudimentary AI doesn't care much about friendly fire. So this is something you can use to your advantage to thin the mobs.

  6. 1) Any of the zealous auras will benefit the party, but either zealous endurance or barrage are the ones I find most useful. I typically go with endurance when I make the paladin a defensive tank since zealous endurance is a defensive ability. There are some items that will increase the AOE of the paladin's abilities that you can pick up in Act I. The rationale here is that since party members in the aura AOE benefit from its effects as long as the paladin is alive, you make the paladin a defensive tank so they will last as long as possible in the battle. This is particularly useful path for Pelegina since her stats makes her a poor melee damage dealer in comparison to a min/maxed fighter, and even Eder. Although her flames of devotion can ensure she holds the record for the highest or second highest single target damage well into Act II (if only using the story companions, that is), her overall cumulative damage output will never compare to a 2-handed or dual wield fighter (since flames of devotion is only 2 use per encounter), especially after fighters get armoured grace, and they will outpace her single target damage record eventually at high levels (rogues will do even higher single target damage but that is an entirely different discussion).

     

    2) I would not bother with a defensive fighter build in the current patch (so would never take something like guardian stance), for all the reasons I previously listed about their lack of usefulness. At best, my fighters might spend a talent on superior deflection (and you will probably find some players who would argue it could be better spent on another talent). My rationale is that if you use a mage or even a cipher (paralysis) to CC effectively, you wouldn't need to concern yourself with all that engagement stuff. That's just my opinion though, it's your game.

     

    3) barbarians are great damage dealers as well, and as Beoreor said in another thread, their damage output for the bulk of the game essentially revolves around carnage. There are a couple of cool barbarian builds you can find in this forum, and they are definitely fun to play. To maximize the damage output, you might want a weapon with reach (ie pikes like Tallgrass) so you can hit more mobs per swing.

     

    I've tried barbarian (and all the classes) but still prefer fighter. Fighters are the most resilient and reliable damage dealers in this game, even if not the "best" or "most powerful." They can take damage and dish it out with almost no supervision. There have been a couple of tough dragon battles where my fighter and Eder (or just Eder, when I played a barbarian) were the only ones standing at the end of the fight. Essentially, fighters will be tanking for the party even if you don't build them as defensive tanks. :) At one point, I had one 2 hander fighter specialize in estoc and another specialize in great sword (so I could split the unique two handers between them), but then I had both specialize in great sword and arquebus (soldier group weapons), since there are more than enough unique great swords (ie Tidefall, Hours of St. Whatever) to go around and I don't need to switch weapon around pierce-immune blights. They were doing so much damage late game that the estoc's DR bypass was just overkill anyway.

  7. Sorry, I wasn't sure if this was your first run. CC = crowd control (as Gfted1 said). There are a number of spells for mages that do this, like slicken, sleep, confusion--basically knocks out the enemy mobs and temporary takes them out of combat while your damage dealers clean up the battlefield. Mages are particularly suited for this, and you are right that druids are not great at it compared to mages. Although druids do have some fantastic area damage spells, some of which can cause stun.

     

    - I've also noticed that you've specced your fighter to be a tank. Personally, I've found fighter tanks to be pretty lackluster as opponents in this game habitually run past them to attack my backrow party members. From my understanding, based on what I've read in the forum, they were much more useful as tanks prior to a particular game patch. Since then, paladins have become better suited to tanking in comparison to fighters. Particularly due to their zealous aura, it pays to make sure they are the "last person standing" on the battle field (even though my fighters are always the last ones standing in those situations due to high endurance/health and constant recovery). I now always spec my fighters to be damage dealers, either dual wield or two handed. Just a suggestion you might consider.

     

    - I always pick up apprentice sneak attack for my non-rogue melee damage dealers and cipher (in fact, I even give it to my dedicated spell casters). IMHO it is one of the best talents. It's a passive talent so is always in use if your character is inflicting melee or range damage when opponents have any of the listed afflicted status. By mid game, my party is usually armed with arqebus and arbalest (all enchanted or unique by end of Act II), and the opening volley benefits from this and can take out 2 or even 3 enemies before they can react (which leads to my next suggestion).

     

    - I've read that 4 athletics is sufficient for all party members (notwithstanding benefits of higher athletics for dialogue purposes, etc.), so that's pretty much what I've done with skill points distribution. I also raise all my party members stealth to at least 4 or 5. This allows me to sneak close enough to enemy mobs so I can target their backrow spell casters with my opening missile volley, which usually takes them out. After that, I will devote the remaining points to survival or lore. Lore for one front row melee party member--usually the tank, since they aren't dealing much damage anyway, might as well have them cast scrolls to do damage, heal, paralyze, etc.--and survival for melee damage dealers so they can make good use of potions of power, etc. There are enough points before reaching the level cap, such that I can do this and still max either lore or survival for each character. Only need to have one character specialize in mechanics.

     

    - You can pick up all the party companions by level 4. Your character is level 2 by the time s/he leaves the tutorial dungeon, level 3 when you talk to the innkeep at the Black Hound Inn in Gilded Vale, and would be level 4 after meeting Mearwald. After you build the western barbicon, you would be able to pick up the remaining story companions, without doing any of the quests in Gilded Vale and its surrounding areas. I generally go this route if not soloing. Having a full (and well rounded) party does make combat easier. I would recommend this if this is your first playthrough.

     

    - druids are great as their high level spells are pretty good (as Boeroer said), and they are "multipurpose." On my last playthrough, I dropped Aloth for Hiravias after Act I. I usually had Hiravias in the backrow casting spells and using range attacks, but whenever the party is in open space or enemy mobs manage to surround the backrow (ie teleporting spirits), I shapeshift the druid and have an instant melee damage dealer.

  8. I did that battle on hard a couple of days ago, level 4. I had only story companions but 6 of them. The one thing that made the battle a cake walk as opposed to a painful exercise in reloading was that I had Aloth slicken the pwgras repeatedly. My character was a fighter with a two wielder, along with Eder, and both had apprentice sneak attack. So they inflicted pretty decent damage once the pwgras were prone. Durance opened with bless, than cast suppressed afflictions against the maggots, followed by consecrated ground. Once Aloth ran out of slicken, my fighters used their knockdowns. Since you have no mage in the party, you can try having your druid CC the battle.

    • Like 1
  9. This is strange. I finished the game, got the "bad ending" for Gilded Vale because I killed Raedric, but never saw the frightened villager at Celestial Sapling. I also have never been attacked by undead from Raedric's Hold. When I talked to the stewart at Caed Nua, I receive no dialogue options about it. I did do this quest sort of late in the game, immediately before starting Act III.

  10. There is a locked door in the north part of Raedric's dungeon, past the backers' tombstones, that I can't open. It cannot be picked as the "proper key" is required. Apparently, this is Osyra's room, but I don't understand why it is locked. I first encountered this door as I was clearing the dungeon. The only thing I had done prior to this was to free Giacco and killed 2 gate guards at the keep (before I elected to go through the sewer instead). 

     

    I thought perhaps I would get the key to open that door after I've progressed through the rest of the keep, so I continued with the quest. But even after killing Raedric, that door is still locked (I have the key from Nedmar, which does not open that door).

     

    I can't find any information about this. Any ideas?

     

    [Edit]

    Nevermind, I found the stairs on the east side of the sanctuary and made my way down to the room with the switch, which opened the door. Turns out it was just an empty room with stairs. Funny I never met Osyra as I was clearing the dungeon....just undead.

  11. Soldier Weapon Group is pretty solid. I am running a fighter as my main character right now, specializing in the Adventurer Weapon Group, with Edar specializing in the Soldier Weapon Group so we can split the magical great swords and estocs between us. But I am finding the Soldier Weapon Group slightly more effective in many battles because of the arguebus. The opening party missile volley can usually take out at least one enemy (and often two), even against spirits, whereas war bows (for the Adventurer Weapon Group) are not really well suited for that purpose, such that I find it more efficient to slot a pollaxe to the second weapon slot (for battles against mobs with piercing immunity). I am considering respecing my main character to specialize in the Soldier Weapon Group, since there are enough unique great swords to go around anyway. Although I'd be missing out on some really powerful unique estocs (like BotED).

     

    I am not sure bonus knockdown is worth it, but then I rely on Aloth to slicken the biped enemy mobs. With the talents available to your character's level at this point, I would have picked apprentice sneak attack (mostly because I am not running any rogues in the party).

  12. You should change your username to "Mr. Confused" cause you're missing the mark twice in a row.

     

    You said, "I thought it made sense that hatchets inherently provides deflection bonuses."

     

    That thought process addresses the weapon in its natural state, independent of the user.

     

    But then...

    "Really, almost any off-hand weapon can be used as a deflection aid in melee combat, because it really just depend on how you use it"

     

    That though process addresses the user, with no regard for the weapon. 

    Uh yeah...no weapon in their "natural state" provides "bonouses" independent of users, as if an axe lying on the ground will just jump up by itself and inflict retaliation damage on a random passerby....that you would deliberately misconstrue that sentence into something utterly absurd, is just sad.... 

     

    I know there are some users who exhibit a pattern of trolling the forum to bait people, far from it my intent to disrupt their favourite social past time. :) But I will just note that you are "confused" that there is a "contradiction" only because you missed the part where I had stated:

     

    "After reading this thread, now I am convinced otherwise."

     

    ----------------------------------

    Anyways, if every weapon type gets something "special", then for game balance reasons, it makes sense for hatchet to get something special. Good enough for me.

  13.  

    it really just depend on how you use it

    Which means that the Deflection relies on the person using the weapon, which means that the Deflection bonus doesn't come from the weapon it comes from the person. 

     

    You should change your username to "Captain Obvious." I am not sure why you felt the need to basically repeat what I said, though.

     

    Anyways, as far as game mechanics go, it still makes sense for "game balance" reason. I am just no longer convinced that it does for "realism." And really, it would make more sense to discuss whether the mechanics make sense for "game balance" reasons rather than whether there is a strong basis in "realism", because then...dragons... 

     

     
  14. "No one can convince someone of something if they already are set with their preconceived notions."

     

     

    Before this thread, I thought it made sense that hatchets inherently provides deflection bonuses. I just had images of fight scenes from "The Last Mohican" and "The Patriot", and thought "hey, hatchets deflect!" 

     

    After reading this thread, now I am convinced otherwise. Really, almost any off-hand weapon can be used as a deflection aid in melee combat, because it really just depend on how you use it and what you are fighting against. Anyways, it's a game. Pretty sure no one in real life can take a pounding from a dragon no matter how much armor s/he's wearing...

  15.  

    I didn't "imply" anything. I am quoting directly from the game. Maei says Serel costs 1000/500 (pending the sidequest) "for the night." If you are paying the room "for the night" presumably you are doing more than just having a quick romp.

     

    Sir, you are in fact implying that the "romp" is "quick." I figured my subtle hint would have been enough but now you're defending the point. Then again, I suppose there was no Viagra back then so maybe you're on to something, if we're talking about a character over the age of 50...

     

    Elderly aside, and I hate to break this to ya, but there is such a thing as "all nighters." Especially when you've been out hunting dragons all day

    :w00t:

     

    1) I don't know what you mean by "all nighters" and didn't see anyone say that. When you put things into quotes ("..."), it's should be because someone said it. 

     

    2) I don't know what you are trying to "imply" in the last remark but it seems contradictory. On the one hand, you say that not all "romps" are "quick" (Ok. But I don't see how that is relevant). On the other hand, you say "there is no such a thing as all nighters." So...if you don't feel your character would ever have a "quick romp", but also won't do "all nighters", then logically, it means the character has sex then rests--pretty much what I am saying. Otherwise, I don't know what you think your character will do for the entirety of 8 hours that passes when someone spends a night at an inn in this game. In any event, it's still irrelevant, because the rest of your party would be technically resting.

     

    I am not "implying" anything. I am sorry if you are having difficulty understanding one of my points--which is that if you spend "the night" with Serel (this is a direct quote from Maei's dialogue) at the the Salty Mast (or any of the prostitutes there), it should be treated as resting at an inn in terms of game mechanics (time should pass, and per rest spells/abilities should reset). We probably shouldn't get any more perks than that on top of the perks that we already get from sexing the prostitutes (so equivalent to sharing a common room with all the riffraffs at an inn) because then, no one would bother resting at the inns.

  16. Prostitutes and Dungeons... wasn't that the plot of the Hostile horror flicks? And am I the only one who noticed that the OP implied that sleeping alone is just as restful as sleeping with a prostitute?

    :blink:

     

    I didn't "imply" anything. I am quoting directly from the game. Maei says Serel costs 1000/500 (pending the sidequest) "for the night." If you are paying the room "for the night" presumably you are doing more than just having a quick romp. So if that's the case there is resting involved (and time should pass, and the party should heal). I don't know what you think the other party members would be doing during that time since Serel also says she charges extra for additional participants to the romp (of course we can't do that...this is a CRPG, not porn). Since the upstairs of the Salty Mast is basically a common room, I would imagine that's where the party would rest "for the night" while your character is snoring on a luxurious bed. I don't see how it would be different from resting in the common room at the Blackhound Inn, except maybe it's more luxurious and less noisy. You know what a "common room" means, right? If you think sleeping with a woman on a bed with pillows and cushions makes you less "restful" than sleeping in a common room....

  17. One thing with the combat being repetitive is that it's probably more common on the PotD, because the enemies have so much more brute force and resistance, taking certain risks and experimenting with certain tactics and abilities and being lax with preparation and micromanagement is much more punishing.  This isn't really a situation unique to Pillars either, even playing better tactical games like XCOM or Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13, I've found my biggest tactical adjustment to cope with the overwhelming brute force on the highest difficulties, is usually to play in a more cautious, more structured and more repetitive style and while it's more effective tactically, I find it to be significantly less fun than playing on a next difficultly down and taking more risks and experimenting more, so while the tactics may be good from an effectiveness stand point, they aren't good for an enjoying the game standpoint.

    I am glad someone brought up JA2....

     

    I like this game, mostly for the writing. But the combat system is pretty horrid. I find myself constantly micromanaging party members--but for the wrong reasons. Most of the time, I am micromanaging them to make sure they don't do stupid things, because both the party AI script and path finding in this game are horrible, worse than from what I remember of BG and BG2. When I don't pause every 3 seconds and micromanage my party members, some or all of the following things can happen:

     

    - quite often, fighters do not use their knockdown ability in the opening of a battle even though I've set them to aggressive/aggressive. This also has happened with a lot of characters, like priests and interdictions, or barbarians and frenzy;

    - some of my melee party members habitually moonwalk around several enemies to attack some random opponent not immediately next to them;

    - party member have been known to stand idle for several seconds and literally do nothing while combat is happening;

    - pathfinding is horrid, just horrid.

     

    I recall that in BG/BG2, there were elaborate setup of party AI combat scripts (although maybe I am thinking of modded BG/BG2, not vanilla...), whereas there are very, very limited options in PE. Of course, some people will say "oh...that's lame, you just chain a series of AI scripts and watch like a spectator as combat unfold...you may as well go play Dragon Age: Origins (where the only characters I ever bothered to micromanage were mages...and really only the offensive caster mages)..." Sure, fine. But if a game's party combat is going to require this level of micromanagement where I am pausing constantly to hand hold many of my party members every step of the way, it might as well be fully turn based, because that is what it is intended to facilitate. The main reasons why some old school JA players were annoyed by Jagged Alliance: Back in Action's "plan and go" system was not because it was a departure from the fully turn based combat of JA and JA2, but because the AI was so bad that it felt like part of the "challenge" of combat in the game was just trying to mitigate the horrid party AI to prevent party members from doing stupid things, rather than..."real" challenge, if that makes any sense....to be frank, I feel much is the same with PE's party combat.

  18.  

     

    Nothing is absolutely necessary. I also had a "wizard is absolutely necessary!" mentality, but then I tried an all warrior party, and it worked great! (in fact, it's nice not to have to sleep every two minutes to refresh spells)

     

    Hmm....at which difficulty level though? I guess if you have enough fighters you can CC by fanning them out against multiple opponents, but wouldn't you need at least a priest, chanter, or cipher to counter enemy CC? Otherwise I'd think you'd be reloading a lot in White March.

     

     

    Admittedly, I do have a priest (My party is: fighter, paladin, rogue, barbarian, monk, priest) And admittedly, I haven't played PoTD so I can't speak for that.

     

    But for the first time, I'm seeing the value of a barbarian. 20 str (Aumaua) + long range weapon (so he can hit from the second row and stay out of harm's way) and he really gets through the crowds!

     

     

    Yeah barbarians are great. I've read many melee-rogue builds but I really have to wonder just who edges the other and comes out on top in an actual combat situation. Because rogues are so squishy, they need to be positioned properly for optimal effect, whereas barbarians can just rush up to the enemy and swing away. In the time required to position and sneak a melee rogue, the barbarian is already doing damage. I can also count on one hand the number of times I've met a boss opponent by his/her lonesome self, so the barbarian's area damage can be quite useful. I discontinued my barbarian playthrough to start a melee rogue, but while I like the rogue, I am finding the barbarian seems to be better at inflicting cumulative overall damage as the campaign progresses.

  19. Nothing is absolutely necessary. I also had a "wizard is absolutely necessary!" mentality, but then I tried an all warrior party, and it worked great! (in fact, it's nice not to have to sleep every two minutes to refresh spells)

     

    Hmm....at which difficulty level though? I guess if you have enough fighters you can CC by fanning them out against multiple opponents, but wouldn't you need at least a priest, chanter, or cipher to counter enemy CC? Otherwise I'd think you'd be reloading a lot in White March.

  20. On the one hand, I don't particularly want a rogue. 

    On the other, getting anyone else's mechanics up to max is pretty painful. 

     

    Are there any items which boost mechanics, other than the random-drop gloves? 

     

    I've found scrolls for temp boost. But since I haven't found much use for skills (4 athletics is sufficient for every character), having one person invested in mechanics wasn't a big deal for me.

  21. Has anyone ever played without a rogue or wizard?

     

    Were there any problems by not having such NPCs in the party?

     

    My current character is a rogue, although I have previously attempted unfinished playthroughs with other characters. As others have mentioned, any character can pick up mechanics (although it's easier for rogues to do that). So playing without a rogue isn't going to be an issue as long as you have one character who is invested in mechanics to disarm traps.

     

    On the other hand, I have found Aloth to be indispensable to my party (currently level 6). He is one of the best damagers in my party right now (along with my PC rogue that is min/maxed with dual sabres). What's surprising to me is that I just picked up Pallegina and she has good damage output (compared to the other party members) even though I am building her like a sword and shield tank...

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