Zoso der Goldene
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Posts posted by Zoso der Goldene
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6 minutes ago, Raven Darkholme said:
How does it matter if the Ultimate has a deadline or no, when your deadline for Ukaizo will still run out?
Not having completed the Ultimate quest and ending the deadline will result in failure of the Ultimate, obviously you can't go back to the bosses after beating the game.
So implicitly, it does have a deadline, thanks for the clarification!
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1 minute ago, Raven Darkholme said:
No the Ultimate does not have a deadline.
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?
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Does anyone here know whether the "The Ultimate" quest itself is on the Critical Path, i.e. has a due date attached?
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The more we discussed here, the more I realize that the problem is not 2h weapons are underwhelming, but Full Attack abilities heavily favors dual wielding. You get higher burst damage and less recovery time, and you can turn on mainhand modal without recovery penalty if you have another light weapon in offhand, like axe/dagger, sabre/dagger.
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.
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Random encounters are dead. And they should stay dead
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*
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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-to-higher power levels to make them really attractive. Look what they're doing to Cipher in 1.2. Before that, it was only viable as a multi-class with a martial class for focus generation. Now they speed up things, enhance duration and add some unique things to the list (Brilliant inspiration anyone?
That makes deciding between single and multi really hard (which it wasn't for Cipher), and that's how it should be.
BTW 2/3rd of playthroughs being attempted with single class characters also seem to indicate that single class is not necessarily underpowered. It's not 100% conclusive, though.
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"Figurine Items are now charged items with an additional limit of 1/Rest use"
Why do the have charges? It's a single player game, surely a nerf like this doesn't need to happen?
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.
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Paladins currently have to many broken abilities eg self immolation and hastening exhortation are both completely pointless. The last time i rolled a paladin i found there lay on hands was not very helpful either because of the increased recovery times and new interupt mechanics introduced in deadfire.
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)
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Full attack would be great but i only see the problem as resource cost. Just up the resource cost so that you probably able to cast once or twice per battle.
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, but it’s all up to you and in PoE 1 you cannot even do this, can u has SI twice in 1? No.
It's so flexible that it can be homogeneous.
Let's take the paladin as an example: when I built an FoD-focused paladin in PoE1, they'd have a couple of really impressive alpha strikes to use at advantageous times, and then they'd be doing other stuff (healing, tossing down scrolls/spellbinds, tanking, etc) - throughout the fight, I could realistically expect to do a variety of different things. By contrast, a PoE2 paladin optimized for FoD will just use FoD over and over again, because that's what they're built to do and is, in general, their best option.
Of course, that's an exaggeration, and in particular the difference is more limited at early levels when PoE1 characters tended to have only 1-2 abilities available. It's also variable based on class and build, and for characters like Chanters who replenish resources over time, it tends to be untrue. But hopefully it gets across the point I'm trying to make: tying everything to a shared resource pool sounds good in theory, and it can be good in theory, but it can also encourage extreme specialization and one-trick pony builds. It''s also less of an issue for multiclass characters, since those tend to be two or even three-trick ponies just as a result of their two resource pools.
Finally, from a design perspective, I'd personally be leery of it because it's really difficult to balance - and this brings us back to cases like Charge. See, if an ability exists in a vacuum, it can be tuned as an isolated function, i.e. "if Charge is usable x times than it should do y damage at level z." The fact that such an instance can be thought of in simple mathematical terms is tremendously valuable with respect to tuning it, because all the designer has to do is consider the context it occurs in, and then make sure the function is appropriate for that context. If there's a problem with Charge, that can be addressed, and then if there's a problem with Knockdown, that can be addressed. The two cases do create context for one another, but it's a limited context because the ability to use one does not come at the direct expense of the other. On the other hand, if all of a character's abilities draw from the same resource pool, a secondary consideration arises: the opportunity cost of using ability A instead of ability B, and more crucially, the player perception of that opportunity cost. In practice, unless fights really do prompt radically different styles of play, players are going to look at the cost of an ability and the effect of an ability and either say, "oh, wow, that's better than what I have right now, I'll use all of my resources on that instead," or, alternately, "oh, wow, that's not as good as what I have right now, I won't use any resources on that." If the developer then tunes it the other way, the player may change their conclusion, but the process of evaluating opportunity cost to determine worth still happens. This is why in games like Path of Exile, functional builds tend to have one skill for AoE, one skill for single-target, and buffs - they all draw from mana, so the only skills worth using are the ones that maximize either defense or DPS. It's not an inherently bad thing, but it is a thing I don't like in Pillars.
Hopefully that provides some clarification on my perspective.
Thank you for this post! I wondered why playing single-class felt so underwhelming (not from a power level perspective), and that's exactly it!
If you have both Crippling Strike and Blinding Strike, you're going to compare both directly, and find that Blinding Strike is by no means twice as good as Blinding Strike, so you're going to use Crippling Strike exclusively. Once you add Gouging Strike, that reverses, and there is no real reason to use Crippling Strike anymore.
I'm sure it was designed with the intention of giving players more flexibility, but it does exactly the opposite, at least for me.
BTW by extension, it also shows which classes are less desirable. I find my Barbarian/Cipher Serafen constantly end up with 150+ focus because to use all the Barbarian abilities immediately feels superior to using Cipher Powers and waiting for them to take effect. Although on PotD + level scale up, the fight is usually over before I really get to cast anything big (same goes for Meteor Shower etc.)
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I personally think that stun is equally useful - just curious why that hassle of reinventing the wheel?
<Insert obligatory joke equating Josh to Eothas>
Hmm, that also includes just tearing it down and having someone else reinvent it.
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deals no damage 4s stun. thought they fixed how fighters were only meatshield now 1.1 they make them meatshields again?
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.
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I was just wondering if a recent patch has made this game easier. I have seen some updates in the past year, and I wasn't sure.
Playing through with a Wizard this time around after finishing POE2. Things are so much easier than when I played last year. I used to struggle through some fights, and now I just annihilate everything. Though I do admit I used a guide and min maxed stats like INT, Per, and Might. What a huge difference this makes. I believe I made the mistake before of having balanced characters and was too afraid to drop stats down to 3. Only fights I've struggled with are fights where my Wizard has died (she is kind of squishy and sometimes I'm not careful).
I know Josh doesn't like people to do that, that's why we have this ridiculous Might mechanic for wizards, but really the D&D system made no sense, and there was no reason to change it. I was foolish enough to listen to Josh and create "balanced" characters in the past.
I've also started using spells more. I used to "save" spells too much, and now I'm not afraid to throw a few fireballs around. One confusion spell can make a hard fight into a cakewalk. I can't go back to the old way of saving spells after POE2 and Tyranny. If it means I have to rest more, so be it. It's a dumb system from D&D days. POE2 isn't perfect either with what they did to Wizards, but we'll see when I bring my wizard into POE2.
Anyone else finding the game easier? I've only played the game 2 other times, and it was extremely hard both times. Not this time.
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.
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They should require crafted meals to cure injuries or include actual penalties (-1 Resolve the horror)
No xp gain
xp loss
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Greetings,Thank you for taking the time and notifying us regarding this issue I do believe this to be fixed in the most recent patch 1.1. Should you have any additional questions let us know!Cheers.
I experienced the same issue, and I do have patch 1.1 already applied.
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I never enjoyed playing a cipher in PoE1, as I feel they're too gimmicky as a single class - but multiclassing they are extremely effective and fun. A rogue/cipher is particularly deadly. The Rogue class gives you mobility and stealth, while the Cipher class boosts your damage and gives you crowdcontrol option and debuffs, which then upscales your damage agin. I consistently dealt ~100 in raw damage (pre nerf) as a Soulblade/Assassin, several times through combat with the soul annihilation + backstab attack.
I generally agree, but with the backstab nerf, I never bothered to become invisible anymore.
It's more efficient to use crippling strike to build focus and then immediately deploy, as the attack build focus that itself goes into the raw damage.
When I first made my character, I saw that they'd left Backstab at 150% and thought "That's great, now Backstab is a viable option - it stays at 150% with everything else being toned down!" All my PoE1 playthorughs with Backstab-based rogues were pretty underwhelming, so that was a pleasant surprised. It felt about right, not weak, not OP, as it required a lot of positioning, guile to spend on invisibility (or a potion)...
Now with the nerf, no point in using it anymore, apart from the opening attack from stealth
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I feel this matters more at the start of the game when there's less stats on your characters. Late game when everyone has 100+ accuracy it doesn't matter if an enemy has 80 or 100 deflection anymore.On Veteran mode and I'm picking fights 5 levels above me now. Feels about right. Some are still too easy.
They should just give the players a +x levels slider for PotD.
This has been brought up before in this thread, but mathematically it doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters for rolls is the difference between your accuracy and deflection - the absolute values don't matter, just the difference. Each level everyone gains 3 acc/defense, so as long as enemies scale with you, everyone just stays at mathematically equivalent relative stats.
But anyway, all this is a sideshow because the reason why it doesn't feel like it matters if an enemy has 80 or 100 deflection in the end-game is because most encounters aren't tuned for very high level fights. Like I said before, even if a xaurip scaled upwards indefinitely to level 20, it would still be a xaurip with lame abilities. It would not be hitting you with meteor shower or protecting itself with minoletta's sigil or cloak of death.
As I said before, I continually maintain that the base difficulty in 1.1 is fine, there's just a huge dearth of encounters/quests that target level 14-20; the game is definitely weighted to levels 1-13 heavily. I mean, it makes sense, because I imagine most players will stick to the critical path and a minimal subset of the other quests; and it shows because I think we can all agree that PotD feels decent for that level range (especially on the low end at port maje and shortly after). but for us who want a hard PotD for level 14-20, there's like... some bounties, bekarna's quest, nemnok, and shimmering island and that's pretty much it before ukaizo and half of what i just named you're already over-leveled by like level 15 even if you use scaling. i'm really hoping the DLC can help out here, which it did back in poe1. i just want dedicated islands and quests that are tuned for level 14-23 (yes, 3 levels higher than the player, and i want that to mean enemies with PL10 abilities unavailable to the player even) in the same way that the base deadfire game is tuned for level 1-13.
One fact does seem to support the claim that most players finish the critical path and some small subset of quests:
For PoE, only ~11% ever finished the game, for Deadfire, it's more than 20%.
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I find it hilarious that after the difficulty patch, the front page for this forum has consistently been threads with the title, "Why was x nerfed" or "X isnow useless".
why?
I personally would have been happy if they just balanced it by increasing the amount off enemies in every encounter and increasing the stats of enemies,
That would make the game more difficult (increases the mean difficulty), it does not make all powers more on the same level (reduce the standard deviation of power level, escpecially removing outliers).
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HOWEVER, there is a perfect place and time to introduce your beloved changes to the game - DLCs. Not patches, but specifically an additional campaign. It's easy to headcanon changes, it can be avoided (install/uninstall), it can even justify all the changes. Why not wait until then? And - no - "not installing patch" is not an option because of bugfix and QoL changes.
I really wish Obsidian would wait with re-balancing until first DLC (which is already on the go anyway).
What you said makes perfect sense. I would only disagree on this. I believe balance is about fine tuning things. You will change something, look at how it fares for some time, change something else, and go back later to the first one to change it again. I believe balancing such a complex game is not about bringing one, definite solution in a DLC, but more about iterations. That's why it took quite some time to make Pillars 1 better.
As a side note, i still fail to understand why people are discussing about PoTD like this. I can't see the point. Unless people assume (once again) that the class/abilities balance changes are only about increasing PotD difficulty. Which would be getting the wrong idea, probably. Obs takes into account the necessary balancing process while reworking PoTD, but they are not doing it BECAUSE of PotD. They probably aim to balance classes in any difficulty level to begin with, PotD or not. I'm pretty sure of that. Why are people complaining that PoTD gets more difficult anyway, granted class/abilties balance has nothing to do with it? The only reason i could see for this is that there are some people here who can't stand not being able to faceroll everything in the highest difficulty mode. If it's not the case, please, consider that the balance changes you are complaining about probably have nothing to do with the increase in difficulty for PotD, and pick another game difficulty to get the appropriate level of challenge for you. And if you can't stand having your character build modified by patches. probably just wait some time until things start to settle balance-wise. In short, please, stop complaining about PoTD when the problems you seem to experience have seemingly nothing to do with it.
Besides, i never played PotD (sticking to hard), but i very much understand people who don't want PotD to turn into "Let's go pick Mushrooms in the Forest" difficulty...
And I would even agree, accept fine tuning is truly "fine" only during betas. This is exactly what betas are for. Everything that passed beta-test (except obvious bugs) - should stay until huge events like DLCs, because people already bought it the way it was sold and many of those who pay knew exactly what they were buying. You change it mid-use - you change something that was already payed for and considered property of the gamer (not by law, probably, but psychologically).
Worse than that - most of the changes were nerfs. Something was taken away from the customers who payed for some fun, were having that payed-for fun - and suddenly lost it. And all because developers can not stop fine-tuning released product!
Difficulty is a questionable thing. For me "Classic" is challenging enough to enjoy mechanics too. For others - PotD is laughable. When they say "G, lower the difficulty" I can say the same - "G, increase your difficulty yourself - take the most gimped class and repeat your PotD. If it's not enough, try to play blindfolded or bind your hands behind your back, ffs!". And emotions aside, there was already mentioned at least one modern game (DOS-2) with no balance at all from the start, yet, game was a smashing success. "Balance" is not the reason people buy any game - cool mechanics and interesting stories are.
If balance still so much important for Obsidian - fine, but released product is not their own playground anymore, yet they could play and tune DLCs all the way they want, then suggest it to players saying "you thought core game was easy, now try that!". That way those who left for lack of challenge will be lured back, yet, those who enjoy things as they are still can play the way they want. Everybody is happy!
Balance helps in coming up with interesting stories for everyone.
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I find it hilarious that after the difficulty patch, the front page for this forum has consistently been threads with the title, "Why was x nerfed" or "X isnow useless".
It's not necessarily the same people who were complaining about the game being too easy who are complaining about certain abilities being nerfed. Moreover there were plenty of things that were nerfed in the difficulty patch which really didn't need to be (a bunch of items that no one had ever complained about were suddenly nerfed seemingly at random). It's quite possible to both think the game is too easy and not want random abilities to be nerfed.
I agree that a few nerfs seem to be pretty random, but I think it's a misconception that the nerfs are intended to increase difficulty.
There was both difficulty tuning (encounters, enemy stats) in Veteran and Path of the Damned AND overall balance changes, mostly nerfs (some things were actually improved, like some AoE going from AoE to Foe AoE).
Of course, nerfs are important to arrive at a consistent power level across the board if you want to tune difficulty, and that aspect is far more important than any change to difficulty as nerfs also affect enemies, so there Backstab is now less powerful as well.
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I also never understood this infatuation with some of the broken and poorly balanced aspects of BG2. Sure, you could finish the whole game by spamming cloudkill and closing the door to the room, but where's the fun in that? To me—and probably anyone who picks Path of the Damned—games are fun when they're challenging, and stop being fun as soon as they're not. Blowing stuff up effortlessly is fun on the first time but gets old by the third. For those who aren't even seeking particularly challenging combat, there're the Classic, Relaxed, and Story difficulties.
This is subjective AF. Who are you to tell someone how to have fun and what's fun for him? The whole point of an RPG game is to play however you want to, because someone's game does not affect yours AT ALL.
How do you define challenge? If I take 5 minutes hitting an iron construct because his defenses are sky-high, was that a challenge or just poor design? Making player's characters weaker and enemies stronger just means that fights take longer to end, because you run out of resources and have to watch as your group autoattacks **** to death with Grazes. This isn't Dark Souls where you actually have to be skilled to finish the game. How do you define that in Pillars?
Making the game about a war of attrition sounds more like a snorefest than fun. And this is the only way they can "balance" the game without completely reworking the mechanics or the AI, both of which cost too much to do post-launch.
I just finished the game on POTD and have to say there is some truth to that.
It's not caused by balancing, but rather by a conceptual issue:
If you want to avoid giving players the potential to one-shot bosses on a regular basis - and that's a good idea -, that is going to protract some fights, especially boss fights.
And that fact doesn't play well with the per encounter resource pool. Why?
It makes the resource cost of an ability one of the, if not the the single most important consideration in most cases. Where it isn't, the more expensive ability is usually overpowered or close to. Compare Crippling Strike and Blinding Strike. Blinding Strike is twice expensive as Crippling Strike, but is it twice as powerful? Definitely not, so you're never going to use Blinding Strike. I would very much want to have a hard time deciding between the two, that would be the challenge I'd like to see (at least in PotD). But with attrition, not challenge, this is a no-brainer.
On the other hand, the upgrade to Blinding Strike, Gouging Strike, is so powerful that again, it's again a no-brainer.
I know this is not exactly easy - how do you design abilities that are roughly twice as powerful (3x, 4x) as other abilities? Making characters' power levels comparable, and providing a consistent experience as you level up? (You have to pay twice for an ability, once when you level up, once every time you use it.
I'm not sure whether complicating things by introducing variable resource pool costs for all classes was a good idea. It was already an issue with Cipher, but this resource pool was theoretically infinitely refilling, so it became more a matter of how you want to spend your time (manifest 7 small powers, or one big one and then refill?). With limited resource pools, that's no longer the case.
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Solo druids have no tool (besides consumables) to boost their accuracy - but plenty of tools to lower enemies' defenses.
And that would work better with - wait for it - accuracy!
Patience works as well, but protracted fights increase the risk of getting fataly wounded.
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And skip Deep Pockets. You don't need Deep Pockets if you aren't soloing.
I would argue that you don't need Deep Pockets ever, even when soloing on an Ultimate run. I can't remember ever having used more then 2 or three slots. Even if you argue you don't know what you're going to need and should best be prepared, I had scrolls of Moonwell and figurines in there - and that's it.
Do you think that's class dependent? I'm about midway through an Ultimate run with a solo fighter, and I have a hard time imagining getting through some of the fights I've done without having figurines, scrolls, and potions. Although I suppose I don't have great gear at the moment, and I didn't have to do those fights as soon as I have...
Yes, class plays a role here, My Ultimate experience is mainly with Wizard, Chanter, and Rogue, and with the latter, I would say it's likely you need more than 4 quick items, as opposed to the other two. The only fight I absolutely needed a figurine to guarantee success was the Caed Nua hall. Sold everything including Gaun's Share and my armor up front to Heodan (he pays 5 times normal normal price) to be able to afford Adra Animat.
Race is also important. If you're not a Moon Goodlike, chances are you're going to rely on potions or scrolls for healing to some extent.
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Though, i'm not quite sure any fights would last this long, aside from very important ones, like the one against Irenicus.
Fully modded game with SCS had lots of tough fights. Maybe I'm a bad player, but some of them took me very long, or at least felt like they did. A fight that I remember that was part of the original game was of course Kangaxx. That took always very long and I had to reload a lot.
That's because there's one item in the game that makes it really easy to survive for some time (Scroll of Protection from Magic), and only 2 or three weapons that could hit him.
Without the Scroll, it was possible, but highly unlikely to defeat Kangaxx. With the Scroll, the fight was over in < 30s.
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A good thing to keep in mind with PoE is that while stats do matter, your equipment, your fight prep, and your buffs matter much, much more than your base stats. Make sure you're taking full advantage of rest bonuses, food, traps, etc.
As far as how to build your party... I find it's helpful to think about the party in terms of tasks. Straightforward example: The typical task of your party fighter is to lock down the maximum number of enemies and hold them in place for as long as possible. Any choice you make that makes your fighter better at accomplishing that task is a good choice for that fighter, even if it doesn't maximize damage.
The primary task of your rogue is to activate sneak attack as much as possible. This requires you to flank your opponents and to continuously apply conditions that will activate your sneak attack (and when you get it later, your deathblows, which require two conditions at the same time). So when you're picking abilities, ask yourself: How will this help me proc sneak attack? Also, a suggestion: Bump up your INT to make conditions last longer so you can get more out of each ability use and keep your damage up during long fights. Alternately, take the White March expansion's Persistent Distraction passive, because then you automatically apply a second condition when you move into flanking position.
Your second task is to crit as much as possible. Take Dirty Fighting and Vicious Fighting to bump up your crit chance, but know that this is mostly done through equipment choices. I recommend browsing the wiki's lists of unique weapons, armor, and accessories to get a better sense of what your options are and when you can get them.
Also, take Deep Wounds. I'm astonished it's not in that build's ability list. Anything that goes straight to health damage is worth taking imo. And skip Deep Pockets. You don't need Deep Pockets if you aren't soloing.
Your party comp is fine -- there really isn't a wrong way to build your party in PoE. I'd swap Cipher for a summoning Chanter because I like the constant healing and the periodic meatwall/extra damage, but that's me.
Especially on PotD, it helps to look at the tasks of the other companions in the group and look for synergies.
A good example would be Curse of the Blackened Sight, Phantom Foes, or Eyestrike and a Rogue's Sneak Attack/Deathblows.
As an extension of that idea, try to avoid tactics that contradict each other to a degree, e.g. locking down enemies with two tanks, casting Chill Fog on them and then sending in the melee Rogue is maybe not the brightest idea if that means you're going to be hit by your own Chill Fog a lot . Basically think about how the team works together.
The Ultimate discussion thread
in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
@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 - I don't see why it would - it would be so early in that it hardly mattered.
Am I missing something (again :)?
(To be honest, I TCSed the original game without the DLCs, and now came back for the Ultimate - so I missed the fact that, like PoE1, you can't do DLC content after the main game, silly me:)