Zoso der Goldene

@Raven Darkholme Just watched the first couple of episodes of the Bloodmage/Priest of Skaen attempt, nice! But I wonder whether there is a reason not to take Hylea's Boon right away, add the black bird as a pet and do the Helping Hands quest by sneaking through the cave? I costs 2-3 hours tops, you get some more "Deceptive" and "Cruel" options (on deck with the ghost, the other in the cave), and it nets 1484 xp right away. AFAIK food effects last until the next rest, so there's no downside apart from 2-3 hours, but hey, 1484 xp might be worth that. And if it fails for whatever reason

So implicitly, it does have a deadline, thanks for the clarification!

Then I don't really understand some of the discussion re: not being able to craft enough Scrolls for most of the bosses - did I miss something?

Does anyone here know whether the "The Ultimate" quest itself is on the Critical Path, i.e. has a due date attached?

That's been the case in PoE all along, both for auto-attacks and full attacks. It's more prominent now, maybe (haven't done the math for Deadfire yet), and there were no weapon modals.

Especially random encounters/auto-generated quests like in Skyrim that break immersion or even the game by accidentally coinciding with other random encounters/quests and story quests. The should stay extra dead. *Sharpens stake*

I don't think it's imbalanced, and you can't really compare on level 20 / PL IX really. They build in a couple of deterrents to multi-classing, and the most powerful is not that you don't get access PL VIII & IX. It's that you get access to PL VII 6 levels later. I think single classes seem under-powered at times because they only use one resource pool, instead of two, so they feel more like one-trick ponies. Some of the classes (like wizard) already work great for both single and multi class play, and the solution for classes that don't is more about tweaking some of the mid-t

It's about balance in order for the content to be interesting to everyone. That's hard enough to do with the wide range of levels a character might have in any given encounter, especially late- and mid-game.

Completely pointless? Not really, Sacred Immolation just requires high Reflex to work without killing yourself (short of having Sacred Sacrifice or Providence). Weapon and Shield Style, Snake's Reflexes, High Dexterity, High Perception, Equipment, ... all help in that regard - (if that's tanky is another question, but Sacred Immolation is not really "tanky", per se)

The problem that then arises is that you also wouldn't be able to do anything else in most battles. Ultimately that's an issue with the way they've replaced uses/encounter with resources/encounter - every ability has to be balanced as something repeatable that potentially replaces all preceding abilities, rather than as something that will happen X number of times per encounter. /shrug Why that is an issue? U can choose to use FoD 10 times or use SI x1, Lay on hand x2 FoD x4, it’s more flexible than PoE 1. Yes u can barely do anything if u use your high cost abilities a lot times

<Insert obligatory joke equating Josh to Eothas> Hmm, that also includes just tearing it down and having someone else reinvent it.

Have ciphers cast Ectopsychic Echo on the your fighter, or have your priest cast Hand of Weal and Woe before the Charge, and then Charge again.

I'm pretty sure it's not the min/maxing; stats tend to have a lot less influence than people think (especially overvaluing negative numbers, of course). It's more about tactics/preparedness/understanding of the game mechanics/using synergies, and all that comes with experience.

No xp gain xp loss

I experienced the same issue, and I do have patch 1.1 already applied.