Wormerine

Yes, and it doesn't seem to be the case with all NPC. But most of NPC text boxes display for far to short.

THat is odd. I am pretty sure two beatles joined the combat.

Beta isn't feature complete. Quite a few mechanics are missing.

This “lootbox” micro transactions never work for me. I stopped playing Heartstone as I always felt I am catching up to other players and wasn’t able to catch up without spending money. I would rather pay set price and get access to all the content than have to grind/pay every few months to stay on top of things. That said I don’t have a problem with that as it is Free to Play. It’s just not a model I see myself returning to anytime soon. I have no problem with Overwatch model, though for purely selfish reasons: this model abuses players who care about cosmetics. Content I care about is given out for no additional charge. Still I feel rate at which you acquire lootboxes is enjoyable and it doesn’t overshadow gameplay. While getting EVERYTHING is expensive, so far I managed to get every skin I liked without playing beyond I feel like playing. While I don’t believe Blizzard needs lootboxes to be in the game I don’t believe it hurts the experience. It did open gateways for other publishers with less integrity, however. Any interest I might have in Shadow of War, Battlefront2, New Need for Speed disappeared after seeing what they did with lootboxes. I am sick of buying incomplete games and with games designed to milk as much money throughout their lifespan it seems they might never be complete, always making you feel like you need the new, overpriced stuff.

I don't think it would work as some of the subclasses change in big way how said class works. Even with spellcaster, suddenly loosing access to spells which you might have picked would be odd. It wouldn't change how restricted single class characters feel as it would add around 3-5 mutually exclusive perks per tree. To me the game does feel very BG2 style, and I probably wouldn't mind it at all if it was my first dive into PoE. I did find flexibility of PoE1 quite interesting though.

I think that’s very much the point - how do you mak multiclassing work and a system which already supports flexible builds with single classes? Restrict single class characters, move interesting hybrid builds to multiclassing. This system has its benefits. If you want a wizard who only casts spells you choose a pure wizard. If you want to a wizard no goes beyond that you multiclass him. It is really all that different than in original? The downside is that once you opt for single class character levelling up is boring as you won’t even have a choice of expanding your character.

But weapon proficiencies unlock modals and don’t increase your accuracy with weapons, right?

You can still use new spells you find in Grimoires, and switch Grimoires before a difficult fight to switch up your spells. There's a better Grimoire than the one your wizard starts with near Tikawara, which you should probably pick up before doing the dungeon on a high difficulty. Tbh, without having played the beta myself, havign your wizard pick fewer spells but cast more from grimoires that you can find and collect sounds pretty fun to me. I never switched grimoires in the first game, I just picked up spells and stuck with them because it felt a bit of a chore. This sounds more interesting. Yes, overall I do like the new system. The downside is that spells don’t feel all that impactful, especially when they have long casting time. It might be a case of polish and feedback.

There is little benefit of rest spamming. The only benefit of resting is removing injuries and replenishing “empower” points. As you can use one empower points once per combat they last for a while. True injuries are easy to equire but are quite devastating. If someone has two injuries you should consider resting.

The new system is very clear. And for the most part fulfills similar role. It might get more interesting once Rez is available - do I Rez my tank or DPS and have him fight weakened with 2 injuries and risk him dying or use the spell for something else and try to beat encounter with 4 characters?

After completing first combat heavy area I must say that the new system feels less organic. However, I do enjoy combat itself much more so far. Recource management works very well. I didn't feel yet new system influencing combat just yet - while in lengthy combat scenarios in PoE depleteing your health on your tank was a thing, here you encounter the danger of running out of healing abilities. So far it works but I did find the original more elegant.

I believe power level also determines how good abilities are: the higher power lvl the more effective they will become. Power level is also a recource you use during combat. I will use monk as an example. He uses to recources - mortification and wounds. Wounds work the same as they did in the original. You get hit and you gain wounds (with some variables depending on subclass.) Some abilities will require certain amount of woulds to use. However, there are also abilities which consume "mortification." Mortification is "per encounter" recource and is determined by power level. So higher power level = more effective abilities (I belive, someone might need to comfirm it) but for sure more ability use per encounter.

Stuck animation. During battling some Wyrm my monk character fell in combat with the next order being to dring healing potion. After combat ended he woke up and got stuck "drinking" no matter if he stayed in place or moved. Problem was resolved by saving & reloading. Screens also show an issue with flickering - the menu at the middle bottom misses buttons on both screen. Most of UI tends to flicker in and out of exictence.

Well, I wouldn't say it was that obvious. For instance I thought that Eder's primary class was limited to being either Fighter or Rogue, which made sense, since having Eder a wizard/priest would be just weird. But I was under impression that we are still free to choose their secondary class.That said I am ok with the new limitations, like having to choose for Eder to be fighter, rogue OR swashbuckler. So long as we can at least choose their subclasses. Early concept for multiclassing companions was like you said: pick on class from “recommended ones”, pick other of your choice if you want. One of the forums member cleverly read between Josh’s lines after multiclassing update and pointed out that multiclassing companions will be more limited after the change. As it turns out he was 100% right.

Indoor location streaming is a wonderful thing! Makes exploring town areas much more fluid. I did encounter some minor stutters when exploring town back and forth (my guess is streaming rest of the map?). I use HDD drive.

I have managed once to get back to main menu without crashing.

The tropical environment and more sun certainly gives a different vibe. I do like it though. One side quest I completed was morally conflicted and was rooted in reality still feeling very much like PoE. But I wasn’t greeted by a tree ornated with dead people - 0/10.

Yes, I think the idea is nice but so far I found it to be more annoying than helpful. Maybe if icons were more recognisable?

I do get a feeling that classes are far more specialised. If you want to get utilities of “the other class” you are supposed to multiclass while in PoE some of the overlap existed due to shared talents. Still need to get to combat heavy areas to see how the combat feels.

Yeah I had one combat encounter and speed confused me. The UI seems to still be from the first game with slow and fast buttons.

So far so good. Didn’t get to try try combat just yet (spent all my time so far in opening village). Lots of things to like. I am a bit disappointing with how character’s daily routines works so far, compared to what was advertised. Most of the characters keep doing what they do no matter the time of day. I kept having an eye on one of the characters for quest purposes and he seemed to teleport from one place to another depending on a time of the day. Is that how it will be, or will they impliment NPCs walking from one point to another? Having some performance problems and UI likes to flicker quite a bit.

Minor issue no one: monk skill dance of death is supposed to allow you to stack accuracy buff and wounds - however, you gain +0 accuracy per 3 sec. Not very helpful Issue no. 2. False statement. She did mention this guy, but game didn't recognize it.

eh, Since you haven't backed at that level already I'd say wait for release. You can always watch let's plays on youtube and comment in here. If you were a beta guy you'd already know that I might not be a beta guy but I am "let's make irresponsible life decisions" guy. Backer beta being downloaded. Too much hype. Let's make the purchase worth it.

Yeah I feel you. Polish prices were getting a bit better since they introduced polish currency in GOG and its coming to steam as well. How the game will be priced remains to be seen. Tyranny was much cheaper for me, if I remember that right.

For me they said “tomorrow” today at 2am so it’s all fine.