Lampros

Guys, terrible news. I lost my saves again. I am at this point infuriated, and I am almost halfway to giving up on the game. Apparently this is a relatively common problem, and I tried every work-around suggested in Obsidian and Steam forums, and none of them have worked. I tried to desynch from Steam Cloud, playing as Administrator-only, un-checking read-only from save file (you can't do this in Windows 10), deleted the Appdata files, disabling my antivirus - literally everything suggested. Basically what is occurring is that saves are regularly disappearing, and I can neither see them in game or save folder. At times, I can see very old saves again for some odd reason, but they also disappear when I re-launch the game. I have not tinkered with the game in any fashion other than install the IE Mod, disable auto-saves from there, and install MaxQuest's UPMod. That's all. I am going to try one last resort and copy saves in a wholly separate desktop location before I exit the game every time. If that does not prevent this problem, then I am likely done. I can tolerate bugs but not game-crushing bugs like this. Repeatedly. Edit: I am on Windows 10.

Compromise between lore and game-play efficiency was inevitable! I just could not come up with a spear/pike Barbarian figure from Middle Earth. Perhaps Glorfindel "discovered" Aeglos; and he is sort of more aloof or mysterious than the other Elves we encounter. Okay, I am stretching it. I am still in Ciliant Lis, so maybe I can change? I could make Gimli a dual wield Barbarian instead of a dual wield Fighter and stick a 2nd Chanter as a Tall Grass 2nd-liner. But Tall Grass seems the most effective for a Barbarian - and frankly only truly effective for a Barbarian. And I really want a Tall Grass character on the 2nd line as a link between the front-line melees and the 3rd line squishies. Anyways, I can already see I need a lot more Accuracy later. My DW Paladin has like 31 percent hit chance against the big spider in Cliant Lis. WTF? Maybe I should have given him more Perception. I had 18 Might, 10 Constitution, 10 Dexterity, 12 Perception, 18 Intelligence, and 10 Resolve. I didn't want to dump any stat. Maybe reduce Might to 16 and increase Perception to 14? Also, will 10 Dexterity be a problem later, even if I have a lot of speed buffs? Couldn't come up with a Barbarian? Beorn! Or a as Druid. Beorn is a good one, but I consider more him a Druid. I was also frankly trying to avoid more than 1 Human front-liner, as I think Pale Elves and Mountain Dwarves superior due to the various resists. I wanted a Barbarian Tall Grass guy, as I don't think I can stomach the frustration of baby-sitting a Barbarian front-liner the early game.

Don't build your party around crits for the early game of PotD Or at least make sure to start each fight with Painful Interdiction -> paralyze effect -> hit the target with deflection lowered into abyss) I have no Cipher; but I do have Painful Interdiction. You got me Although paralyze aside (-40 def), blind (-20 def) and charmed (-25 def) effects can help with lowering deflection as well. And for early game there are: - sunbeam, chill fog, curse of blackened sight - the lover cried, whispers of treason, charm beast For now I was still staying away from Chill Fog, because I want to not use friendly fire AoEs to train for TC. And the Chanter CCs are definitely not reliable, as they take even longer to build up than Cipher CCs! Finally, no Druid, and it works only against 1 enemy type. Again, I find Invocation-based CCs not so reliable.

Almost level 6 now. Defiance Bay is super-easy, and I think I am going to be okay until I start meeting mass charmers or caster zerg (Spores on the way to Act 3?). Shatterstar and Tall Grass mean that the Fighter and the Barbarian are performing even better now, though the rest are still not performing up to my pre-game hopes. (The Priest is so damn squishy, and I suspect this won't change for the rest of the game.) Zero knockouts yet, and I am not save-scumming at all, because I am playing as if this is an Ironman run. I have yet to use friendly fire possible AoEs either. Edit: And I am going to leave Raedric and the Spores for a long time.

K, will try that.

Are you using the Wizard as a puller? If so, how do you do it? Just un-stealth and run back? Or shoot a bolt and then run back?

Ah, I have that spell, and I have yet to even use it! Thanks.

Yup; Iconic Projection has been my go-to ranged tool early going. It's amazing at these levels - AoE heal and damage together! What's your view on Tidefall Paladin? Can he come close to dual Saber set-up in damage at least in PotD?

I will never ever solo any game intended for a party - I want to have fun, not torture myself! I have begun to lay Repulsing Seals in PotD, and it does make things a lot easier indeed. The issue is that my scout/puller is my Wizard - since he is the Mechanic guy - and he is so squishy that against ranged enemies he gets pummeled before he gets back to the mainline. I guess I could try it with my tank, but he can't disable traps...

I never made any scrolls beyond what was needed for the Steam Achievement, but I recall the higher level spells were rather expensive. Thanks for the reference on "grok"; I have never heard of it before! And I "grok" your inability to "grok" the CIpher as well - as our experiences and frustrations seem to have been the same!

Oops. I meant Purgatory. I was using Bittercut/Purgatory combo with my Paladin at lower level. I know I will crit more later, but the numbers I am seeing is absolutely shocking. Nobody is doing more than 4 percent at level 5 or thereabouts except the Fighter - who is just creaming everyone in crit rate and damage. In general, can a Tidefall Paladin do decent DPS relative to a dual saber one? I like the consistent damage, and I also like the dual damage source.

I made a separate thread here on this ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/93871-potd-crit-starvation-dps-paladin-weapon-choice-advice/ ) but this PotD crit starvation phenomenon is completely throwing my party plan off is how low my crit rate is. I have built my entire party on the assumption I'd achieve at least 30-40 percent crit rate on every DPS character (as I could in Normal), but it looks like only the Fighter can even remotely come close to that. So I am not sure what I am going to do now since my Tall Grass Barbarian and my Rod of Pale Shades Priest or Wizard were also going to rely on on-crit stuns. So probably a straight damage weapon like Tidefall for Paladin, move melee crit to the Fighter and give him the stun hammer, and re-think what I will do with the Barbarian and the casters...

In my first playthrough (at Normal), I went with a double saber set-up on my DPS Paladin, and I enjoyed it immensely. He not only did excellent DPS (for a Paladin), but he healed the entire party alone in a lot of trash fights, because he was a Wayfarer, and his dual wield attack constantly left dead bodies in its wake. So I planned to do the same in my current PotD run, but I am now wondering whether I am better off going Tidefall/2H sword route - or something else. The main reason is that I did not consider how pitiful my crit rate will be v. stat-inflated enemies in PotD, and I am - I kid you not! - averaging about 1.2 percent crits through level 5. So the crit boosts from Annihilating weapons like Bittercut will be less effective on a Paladin. And in this context, is it not better to not depend on big crit damage and go for a weapon that will do big consistent damage like Tidefall? Since this is my first PotD run, I knew I was going to run into the unexpected, but this crit rate is really throwing me off, as I was planning my party around on-crit effects. To a lesser degree I will have to re-evaluate how well my Tall Grass Barbarian will perform - as well as giving the Rod of Pale Shades to either my Priest or Wizard for the on-crit stun. It looks like only the Fighter in my party can achieve acceptable crit rate (25 percent now, but since he depends so much on temporary accuracy buff, his rate keeps going down as fights get longer as well, Goddamn).

I will (almost) never switch characters within a single playthrough, but I am really strongly considering breaking lore and giving Gimli warhammers instead of axes, as I need as much CC as possible (dual damage type is nice, too). I am also thinking about making Aragorn a 2H user and let him go with Tidefall or instead of a double Bittercut. Since I am not going to crit all that much with a Paladin, I am not sure I will utilize Annihilating all that much, unfortunately.

Constant scroll-making is a lot of cash down the drain though. So I only have that kind of cash late-game, once I hit WM 1 area. What's "grok"? P.S. I am really struggling with my inability to control/damage enemy back-line, since I have no archer, and my Priest and Wizard are initially busy buffing and debuffing. I never switch characters once I start a playthrough, but I am really regretting not bringing a shooter. I am also having issues "pulling" and end up aggroing everything in the vicinity.

Ah, ok. The spell descriptions are really not clear.

Just a question: How much how Freeze DR is required to reliably shrug off Chillfog Freeze damage? If I pick an entire front-line of Pale Elves (so +5 DR), give them Rymrgand's Mantle (another +5), and Secrets of Rime (another +5), is that enough? That's +15 DR. Edit: I am trying to figure out a way to be able to use either Chillfog or Slicken in TC playthroughs in the future without suffering too much friendly fire. In fact, I want to practice it now in a normal PotD run.

Yeah, the problem with Cipher is more micro, and I am already tired of micro-spazzing with the Priest and the Wizard. Adding a third micro-intensive character would be too much pain. That's why I was considering a Ranger lobbing two arrows per shot with Borresaine. As for the Druid's Relentless Storm: That does friendly fire, too, no? Also, I really want to limit casters to 2 - and Priest and Wizard seem automatic here (and I like the Wizard for CC, due to the long, AoE petrify later). Do you think a Druid or a Cipher can fully replace the Wizard and handle the late-game CC?

Thanks for the detailed suggestions! On picking elemental resist races or prone resist races: I may do that in the future in a non-Middle Earth playthrough. But with an Aragorn-led group, it's kind of hard to include all Pale Elves and certainly not Anamua - which seems like PoE version of Orcs. (Are there ever good Orcs? I guess I'd have to choose Thrall and do a Warcraft playthrough? ) On Slicken and Chillfog: I suppose I can put them in the grimoire and see if I can consistently learn how to guess ranges - which is what I had to do in Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop games. But I am an old man with poor eyesight! Obviously the better way is to run Pale Elves, but I am not sure how much frost resist I need to consistently shrug off Chillfog friendly fire. I would probably need Pale Elves plus the frost resist talent plus a frost resist item like the cloak? On Curse of Blackened Sight: I was not aware that it is enemy-only. I have never actually used it but now I will. Thanks! I do use Wizard's Double and Arcane Veil - though I do not use Hardened Veil, because 2 defensive talents on Wizard seems to be too much. But if I have survival issues on PotD on the Wizard, I will consider. I think I am going to avoid tackling Raedric until I hit level 7 or something, ROFL!

I am trying to refine my game in PotD but eventually I want to try TC some time later. And in this context, the biggest issue for me seems to be the need for reliable CC, and I am not sure how I can get it. I am used to using a Wizard in this role, but a lot of his early CC spells have friendly-fire possibilities, so I am practicing not using them (because I can't see the lay lines in TC). And it's very difficult early going without stuff like Slicken or Chillfog. The problem with Cipher is that he cannot start the game with a massive AoE CC, due to Focus limits. So I am trying Barbarian as this guide suggests http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=758240760 but he won't have CC until Tall Grass. Besides, even with it, I question how reliable the Tall Grass Barbarian will be. On the one hand, he needs to crit, and everyone but the Fighter in my current crew is having a rough time getting crits in PotD. On the other hand, even if he can crit, the very backrow won't be immediately accessible. So whom can I bring into the game who will be reliable AoE CC - especially early- and mid-game until the Wizard picks up the AoE petrify and other late-game goodies? Is Ranger the only option here? I am also considering a ranged Rogue again, but he's only going to lock a single target down with Borresaine - unless I switch targets with every shot.

Well, I have 3 ciphers... So my second Deadfire playthrough will likely be with a devout blade or devout ascendant. Haven't decided on the multi/sub classes for the first run though. Naked solo runs again?

You'll crit a lot more later into the game, although outside of Flames of Devotion Paladins aren't exactly crit monsters. Yes, I was severely misled by the 90 percent rate on Rogue and 30-40-plus percent I got on all other DPS characters in Normal. PotD is whole different game - though I will buff Accuracy more via talents and gear now.

No, you'll miss out on it (unless you kill them after unlocking their merchant and buying it all of course). I will kill them after unlocking her - just to not miss out on anything good she sells. Initially, I was going to side with them and kill off one or more of the other houses, since I thought 0.3 crit multiplier was OP. But then I realized that I won't crit nearly as often with a Paladin in PotD (he's averaging 1 percent now - serious), so I'd better choose one of the other two.

Oh, you mean subclasses, not multiclasses. Well obviously those will have trade-offs. The point to the Black Jacket is you can switch between damage types to get past enemy resistances/immunities, and/or you can more rapidly cycle through a bunch of arquebuses for a huge alpha strike. If you want your fighter to be robust then it's not the right subclass for you, but if you want a versatile damage dealer then it might be. Oops. Sorry. I am getting the two confused!

Ah, awesome. I am going to wipe them, LOL. You won't get all their merchant gear if you kill him/her though, right? That would be too broken!