Pallegina's Panties

I'm still confused about just how attack speed works - especially how it is any different than the recovery time/speed penalty offered by armour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well if it's just the music, you can listen to all of it on Klepacki's homepage for free. Sorted by games. http://www.frankklepacki.com/listen.html I think there was an issue with it branding you as a cheater by using them though? Something like that. I do recall looking into respec mods for Torchlight.

Agreed. While I don't generally respec as I'm the type that doesn't really powergame, I make my character and don't care if it's sub-optimal, not having the option in the game is insane. Yeah, I don't really care about being the super optimal player in these game either but not being able to simply pick a skill to try it out, then respec into a different one if you don't like it... aye, I feel that is a must in these games. As I recall, Titan Quest suffers from the same. Which is a shame, because Greek Mythology is such a good backdrop.

The only thing that stopped me from getting fully engaged with Torchlight is the lack of a respec option in those games. ARPGs based around various character builds and the like simply needs a readily available respec option to soothe my OCD about making a permanent mistake with picking a skill or leveling up an attribute...

Busying myself with the new Season that just started in Diablo III - the Necromancer release breathed some life back into it.

Honestly, I fail to see the point of Cautious Attack when you can just pick up the passive Deflection talent instead. Sure, it is just 5 vs. 8 but it comes without drawback.

That's immensely disappointing considering the shift in location.... I want my goddamn tank Turtle pet, damn it...! >_>

Unless I am mistaken, the faith-thingy for Paladins buffs Deflection less than other defenses?

Once you start finding moar of the Unique weapons in the game, there is also the advantage of being able to get the special benefits/effects of two weapons at once as opposed to just one.

Of course they can. Lord Firkraag has all kind of minions guarding/populating his lair that you have to slog through to get to him. Within the setting of game it makes perfect sense for less powerful, but equally wicked creatures being drawn to him like that. That's quite different from the Alpine Dragon all of the sudden, for no reason other than pad out the encounter, literally conjures an army out of thin air as soon as he goes hostile.

I frequently ran with a 3-man party in both Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale all those years ago (moreso the latter than the former as the interactions with followers in Baldur's Gate makes them much more desirable to keep around en masse than your own custom members of your Icewind Dale mercenary troupe). While it is true that you start out weaker (a full party of fresh level 1 characters is way more powerful than one not so full) but I found that it quickly evened out as less people sharing in the spoils meant that each individual character can be outfitted in better gear, and the XP allowed you to gain levels faster - although I'm not sure how Pillars deals with XP like that. So I am perfectly content with the idea of a 5-man party in PoE II.

I kinda wanna see more variation in pets, too. - Polar variants of the Wolf and Bear for Pale Elves and other characters from the arctic regions. - Semi-Aquatic pets like a Turtle or Crocodile for coastal/island Aumaua and other characters not hailing from any mainland region.

If you want the "good ones" it can easily stack up to 1.000 - 2.000 gold per day. Korgak, for example, isn't cheap.

Well, I disagree. They'd still be worthy encounters without this "cheapness" factor of throwing mobs at you.

Eh. it is my understanding that the Dragons are more than formidable on their own. The army is overkill.

Maybe if it isn't your first playthrough so you know exactly what you want to buy and where, sure. In either case, it doesn't really change how flawed the design with hirelings is - aside from the novelty factor of populating your stronghold with NPCs to liven it up, they are nowhere near worth their cost. Quite the opposite.

I just realized that they keep draining my money each day whereas the taxes are only collected when I perform quests (i.e per turn). This means that whereas the earnings of your stronghold is severely limited (and not to mention utterly pathetic - even if bandits didn't take most of it no matter how high the security rating!) the drain your stronghold represents is, in essence, unlimited. So it is with much sadness I'm going to have to sack Korgak - as awesome as it is to have your own Ogre pal around, it is just not economically viable in the long run to even keep any hirelings about. The drain they bring about just doesn't seem worth the upgrade they provide to your keep over just upgrading it with the one-time cost building upgrades.... What were the devs thinking in not having both their wages AND your earnings tied to the same event? That is how pretty much every single game that has a similar system does it - and for good reason. Sigh...

There is also of course although I'm not sure if he is actually transformed into a Death Godlike or... something else. His Fampyr underlings, as well as his return from the grave seems to say otherwise but visually he does fit the part.

Yeah I was totally taken aback when their stupid army showed up as well. Lord Firkraag didn't stoop to summoning a horde of stupid cronies when he faced down the Bhaalspawn. These dragons of PoE lack... draconian dignity!

... that's not what I meant when I said "moar Godlikes". I do however agree with you - but you should blame the Backers for wanting their NPC to be "kewl and speushl", not the Godlikes themselves. If you look outside of Backer NPCs, they are indeed rare. In fact I can really only think of one on the top of my head - the Death Godlike who gives you the ring to get into the VIP room at the whorehouse.

The artist is Fiona Staples. She's a comic book artist and currently works on a comic called SAGA. Aye, I realized as much - if you look at the file names you can tell I even had the foresight to name them after the artist. Didn't help me remember her, so I guess that didn't work in the end. Oh well.

The visuals are only "bad" in the original game because of how limited the actually customization is. I hope they don't just stick you with a pre-packaged head and be done with it in the sequel, but actually allow you to pick a base head and then you have the various bits (such as horns and other bits and pieces) to pick from like how the other races pick from hairstyles. Or in the case of Nature Godlikes actually allow you to pick hairstyle rather than it being pre-set by the choice of head... Oh and facial hair - how cool wouldn't it be to have a male Fire Godlike with a flowing, fiery beard?

Bleak Walker is pretty clear-cut: avoid the cuddly and friendly options and you'd be fine. The "evil" and "good" dialogue choices are pretty clear-cut. Things like Rational, Honest and Passionate on the other hand... you'll have a hard time eventually picking these up. I've played with the show option enabled and these things are literally everywhere. Won't interfere with your Bleak Walker though, as mentioned, so no biggie. EDIT: On a second thought, while Benevolent is pretty easy to avoid, Diplomatic is kinda iffy. Quite a few times I've been surprised that an option counted as Diplomatic when I would've thought otherwise.

I know what you mean. I usually skip Barbaric Blow on my Barbarian, especially if I don't have her use two weapons (or a 1H + Bash shield). Aye, me too. But now this fancy-looking "Heart of Fury" has started poppin' up each level-up, haha.

Pfft. The only cheese I'd ever use against Firkraag was using the Paladin "sub-class" that is Immune to Fear. Which, admittedly, is pretty cheese-y.