aqeelus

I've recently started replaying both POE 1 and 2. I would say there are two main reasons why the sequel didn't sell well, gameplay and story. When POE1 first came out, it was far from balanced. When no one knew that carnage's accuracy increases as you level up or how most classes work, the game pits you against the stupid ghosts that shred your party at level 4. Believe it or not, but most people tend to give up and blame the game when they face a tough encounter like that rather than lower the difficulty. So what does Obsidian do for the sequel? They flip everything 180 degrees. When Deadfire came out, all you needed was cleaving stance and everything died on POTD. Obsidian's tendencies to nerf fun builds also don't help. Game balance is crucial, and I understand that a certain class shouldn't have a 1 shot button skill. I agree that the game should be challenging for a cookie-cutter build. However, nerfing fun niche builds that require certain synergies to work is mind-boggling for a single player game. Creative players shouldn't be punished for trying to explore the available options, nor should they be forced to play a certain way, this isn't a competitive mmo. A lot of game critics critique the story when most of them only had an incomplete picture. Also, while reading the forum it seems a lot of people are confused about the story. The writing is excellent, but problem is the fact that POE1's story is split into three intertwined parts; Endless Paths (Pre-Gods), Inquisition(main story), and Waidwen(companions). It was a pretty bad idea to put much of the story that lead to the creations of the gods in one long ass optional dungeon. The funny part is if reach the fampyr without learning Engwithan welp guess what no more story for you. The Waidwen part is also very important in understanding the interaction between gods but guess what you need to bring the most obnoxious dude with you the whole time and convince him at the end that his goddess betrayed him to get the complete picture. I'd like to write a full review on the story of Pillars but I am too lazy and still haven't finished my latest Deadfire playthrough.

Aloth's story was pretty much over the moment he burned Thaos' robes or took his place. His quest in Deadfire was pretty much meaningless and contributed nothing to the story. Also, it seems like he learned nothing from the previous game, which is unfortunate because he was one of my favorites. The only two characters that should've returned in Deadfire are Eder and Durance. Durance's story wasn't finished and it would've been cool seeing him interact with Eothas and Waidwen. I wanted to see him gloat about blowing up Eothas right to his face IMO, for POE3 It should be Eder, Rekke and Xoti.

I wanted Tekehu's Stormspeaker abilities so I can make my own Talos Stormcrown but unfortunately the most annoying companion gets the coolest abilities.

Well, a bit squishy is fine and constant recovery and unbending will solve that issue I've never tried tempest so how will it play? Will it be a full nuke caster rather than melee focused?

What's the best voulge build, though? Tried Shattered/Berserker and it was too squishy. I'm thinking Berserker/Devoted, Berserker/Garrote or single class Berserker. I am suffering from a sever case of rerollitis, please help.

Will killing in POE1 her stop you from getting the godseed quest?

I didn't get the memo. What ghost ship?

I am looking for the new item list desperately before rerolling a new character. Need those shiny weapons.

There seems to be a lot of fanboyism and bias here. People are bashing Thaos for certain things while praising Irenicus for them, eg. the reason for the chase. While I was joking about ToB being wiped from existence, no one has given a real reason why Throne of Bhaal was a good expansion other than the companion stuff which I mentioned. I know it's based on opinion but "BG2 has a better story" is not really a good argument. Seriously, one of the countless Blizzard cliched good guy turned bad guy is better than our good old Karapan Thaos? The more I think about it the better Thaos becomes, honestly. Faerun isn't special in anyway, it's comparable to Tamriel and Azeroth. Eora's Engwithans are special though. Also, guys go fight Draconis and then the Alpine Dragon then tell me which one is the better boss. Better yet, let someone who never played these games do it. I guarantee you they will choose Alpine/Adra over Drag-on-is and Llengrath over Amelyssan. On the other hand, Kangaxx vs Concelhaut1 is a closer match. But in general the BG bosses can be cheesed thus giving 0 satisfaction or just a chore.

You do not need to interact with the villain in order for them to be a good villain. Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman never had a scene together in the Fifth Element and many considered that one of the best things about the movie. TTO does not interact with us much and despite that he is still an amazing villain. What Irenicus has going for him that Thaos does not is that every time he appears someone is going to get their butt whooped and there's going to be a badass quote thrown around. We see Irenicus' power firsthand and we know he is a bad dude, and I'm guessing that's why people love him, while Thaos' power is only described through dialogue. One of the reasons the Watcher is hunting Thaos is the same reason the Bhaalspawn is hunting Irenicus, Irenicus stole your soul and Thaos stole your sanity. The game shows you what will happen to you through Maerwald and Aloth. "Are the gods real?" part isn't there because the Watcher is curious about metaphysics. The real question the Watcher's soul is asking is: "Did I betray and kill the most important person to me for a false cause or not?" which is the reason for the awakening in the first place. Honestly, Thaos is such a breath of fresh air from the typical "ancient evil awakens and wants to destroy the world" fantasy villains.

Both Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age are both part of the generic fantasy games, and it was the reason I compared them. However, in Origins the tropes are usually well done, take for example The Brecillian Forest, the section of the game filled with every imaginable fantasy trope from hobo Saruman to talking ents. It still did a good job in explaining the Dalish back story in an interesting way and the "villains" were good. And yes, I consider Loghain to be the real main villain not Sauron- I mean Archdemon. None taken. I've voiced my opinion without giving reasons so I'll elaborate. 1. Planescape and LOK vs BG2 Vhailor is not memorable or the chaste succubus Fall From Grace? PST is the only game I've ever played that made me enjoy every single companion available even the crazy Ignus. Not only were they well written but they were tied up to the story of TNO. Legacy Of Kain is not an RPG so I'm not sure how familiar people here are with it but let's just say it has one of the best plots ever and some legendary dialogue accompanied by awesome voice acting. Also, let's be honest Soul Reaver's intro is the most memorable cinematic ever. Even my sister who doesn't play video games remembers it after 18 years. 2. Irenicus vs Thaos Irenicus was some dude who wanted to be a god for some reason so he was kicked out and became a creep who wanted to steal your god powers. On the other hand, we have Thaos, the Karapan priest and enemy of Zarathushtra or "Iovara", who comes from this ancient civilization that used the gods to rule people and totally not inspired by the Gathas or the Rigveda. I believe Thaos had the potential to be be much better if they found a way to make the plot moving without Lady Webb, but even without that Thaos wins. 3. Throne of Bhaal I'm not sure where to start with this one, maybe with the horrible main villain? How many people didn't think that Melissan was going to be the main villain? The expansion is so linear that it can be described as follows: "Go dungeon crawl and kill this Bhaalspawn and then this Bhaalspawn because there can only be one and then you're gonna get betrayed by the chick who told you to kill them". I liked the companions stuff but the endings just ruin everything I did. Turn Sarevok from a psycho to a normal dude? Well guess what that doesn't affect the ending cause he's gonna end up conflicted anyways. Romanced Viciona? Gonna die by poison and there's nothing you, a powerful demigod, can do about it, not even give her a history lesson about Mithradates V. The endings were such a buzzkill that even David Gaider released a mod for them. Gameplay was tedious especially when you run into Draconis the first time. Honestly, I'd take VTM:B, Original Sin 1-2, POE1 and even 2, Tyranny, DA:O, Witcher 2-3, and even ES games over BG any day. I think BG2 is a good game that aged very well but I don't think it's the best RPG ever let alone the best game ever that everyone keeps talking about.

BG2 is the most overrated game of all time, IMO. In terms of story it was not even great for it's time compared to PS:T or Legacy Of Kain. Irenicus is evil for a silly reason and I think even Thaos is a much better antagonist. The companions were a mixed bag, Haer'dalis, Jan and Edwin were awesome, Aerie and Nalia were horrible. I can't deny the amount of content in BG2, but I prefer POE's gameplay over BG2. Also, there is a game that did Baldur's Gate much better than BG2 called Dragon Age Origins. PS. Throne of Bhaal was excrement (Sarevok not included) and should be wiped from this world.

Exactly. Gods went from these mysterious beings to a washed up rock band that keeps whining about their glorious past every three seconds. What made Pillars unique was this whole philosophy based theme. Sure it was no Dostoevsky novel but it was way better than anything out there at the moment. Why did Obsidian drop the philosophy theme and go for a generic high fantasy theme? I'm guessing it's because of the vocal minority who came from let's say Skyrim, that were tired of reading descriptions no matter how well written they were. I'm basing this on the fact that a friend of mine who enjoyed POE1 but hated the lack of flashy images and cool cutscenes. That is why the gods are in your face and no longer have any mystery. I'm not hating on Skyrim, In fact I have 500 hours in that game but If I want to play a Skyrim or a Dragon Age I can just go and play those.

Already have and I'd definitely recommend it. Bleakwalker/Assassin is pretty badass.

Haven't played since patch came out and planning on playing a Harbinger(Assassin/Troubadour). Do DoTs and offensive chants break stealth like pre-patch?

Seriously, how did they go from Zahua to this teenage rapper?

I think Deadfire lost what made Pillars of Eternity a unique game. The philosophy theme, love it or hate it, was a big part of why Pillars 1 was kinda unique. The dialogue is very superficial in Deadfire, there is nothing like the Grieving Mother or the amazing mushroom trip with good old Zahua. Deadfire is basically like every other generic fantasy RPG right now. They tried to make the factions very similar to how the factions were in Tyranny, but the problem here they are very loosely tied up to the main plot while in Tyranny they are in a way the main plot. In terms of the story, Deadfire could have been a 3rd expansion to POE 1. The Eothas story wasn't unexpected and I would say we knew everything about Eothas and his motives from Eder's and Durance's quests in the original game, not including the wheel retcon of course. The new companions aren't anything special compared to Zahua, DoC and Durance, but to be fair Maneha and Kana were annoying as hell. However, it's Pallegina who took the biggest blow in this game. She just has mommy issues and whines about the gods non stop.

Sometimes I lose it instantly by just being around enemies, no AOEs or dots going on. Doing it mid combat is really unreliable right now.

https://youtu.be/ACGGglJQ7eM?t=426 I liked the old narrator better and I miss the music too. In my opinion narrating everything can be done even well but I've seen it only once in Original Sin 1. I really liked the narration of the Weaver of Time in that game.

I started more than one game just to make sure. The AI behavior does not work on hard unless classic is chosen before getting all the companions and then switching to hard. I switched to Hard early and now Xoti is bugged forever.

There is a problem with the Party AI when starting a new game on Hard. Basically there is no way to make it work unless I start a new game on classic difficulty and then switch to Hard after getting all the companions.

Thank you. I cleared the place but missed the survivor somehow.

Been stuck in the Old City because the lift isn't there. Is it a bug or am I missing something?