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Raevyn

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Everything posted by Raevyn

  1. One thing is a system that 'fits' into the skill balance, another thing is whether the system makes actual sense and feels good character/class/lore wise. I think the wizard system in Deadfire feels somewhat unrewarding, it's really more of a pluggable sorcerer casting system, which require no forward planning, except at the wrong point, which is on level-up. The example I usually think of as to why the non-customizable grimoire system feels 'counter-intuitive': Lets say you want to build a fire-wizard and you want to cast primarily fire-based spells. You know that there is a fire-grimoire out there (which you would surely want to get your hands on as a fire wizard, right?) With the current system that would mean you should AVOID all the fire spells on level up, since most if not all of them are already in the fire grimoire! That just feels rather silly character-wise. On the other hand, if you do pick fire-spells on level up as a fire-wizard, finding the fire-grimoire is a pretty major 'meh' feeling, since you already have all the spells except for the special unique spell, and you very likely will be using a different grimoire :S Who makes these grimoires in the first place? Wizards, right? Our characters are not true wizards or what? Sometimes it's the little details I sometimes like to be puritan when it comes to spell choice such that the known spells makes sense for the wizard character. It seems off putting that my fire-based wizard also has a random necromantic or fear etc spell in his repertoire and action bar, 'just because random'. If there was an option to switch from a personal customized grimoire to a secondary one with situational/off-spec spells, I probably would actually switch grimoire during combat at times. The system just feels a little half-baked and a bit too locked down in my opinion.
  2. Where are the chain coifs? Do they even exist in PoE2? -if so, where are they found? I have yet to see any (currently lvl 16) In PoE1 there were chain coifs in the game, which was pretty awesome. They looked great as an alternative to a helmet or hood for armored characters who like the hooded look, without appearing too clothy/ranger like. A great deal of the character appeal is about the helmet/headpiece. In my opinion many helmets tend to not always look/fit that great, they often seem too small or too bulky, too shiny or a little too silly/weird. There are lot's of hats/cloth bandanas etc, which fits the setting. In Deadfire I too often end up putting hoods on everybody, unless it's some full plate knight in glorious shining armor. I think it would be great too see some rusty/worn chain mail head-pieces to go with many of the really cool well-weathered metal armors in the game. Perhaps some chain coifs combined in half-face/open-face helmets, with a plated part and a coif for the neck cover. It's possible I simply haven't discovered some of the cooler looking unique helmets yet, and It's all subjective of course, I tend to go for the rusty armored mercenary look Cheers (My sullen Watcher in rusty scalemail, tanky stalker/chanter so the hood fits well enough, yet a rusty chain coif would be even better!)
  3. 2 portrait mods for the TB party: Templar (paladin/priest) Psion Trickster
  4. Hey Watchers Just finished photoshopping a new portrait mix for my next TB playthrough, a Bloodmage / Barbarian (Warlock)
  5. Some interface elements which should be hidden are visible when playing on a widescreen monitor (in this case Samsung 49" CHG90 Gaming Monitor 3840x1080) see attached image edit: appears the ui elements get hidden correctly after combat ends. Thanks for adding a TB mode, having that option is awesome ^^ Just started TB mode, looking forward to seeing the game play out in a new perspective Cheers!
  6. Time for a new portrait mix - this time a veteran warrior! Geared up for the coming Winter @Kangkunis - There are a bit too many chars in BG to do them all, so just did my favs for fun But i'll prob put up a portrait pack mod with all the ones i do. @Phenomenum - awesome watercolor conversion of Viconia ^^ will have to take a look at a tutorial for doing them some day
  7. Did you also do the water colors for Viconia? No, I haven't made any attempts at watercoloring. I don't use the watercolors for player/companions, didn't think they added much, I prefer the color portraits. Makes sense for npc's as they are faster to make i guess. But if you/anyone feel like giving it a shot feel free
  8. finally finished photoshopping Viconia DeVir - a drow, but suppose she can pass for a pale elf as well
  9. photoshopped a couple of my fav characters from BG2, Aerie, Jaheira and Viconia originals from BG2
  10. not a lot of Aumaua portraits around, so I photoshopped together a Huana sea shaman
  11. Ohoy watchers I've made a couple of new character portraits by photoshop remixing various bits and pieces from some of the already great artwork out there. Zera the dwarven Zealot - Sorasha, a druidic Sorceror of the Fall - Hylda the Howler - Teyi, elven Thaumaturge - Cyrinn the cipher Seer (& her dark mirror image) - Nakuri, a mataru Shaman I did not make watercolor versions (I only use watercolors for npc's, keeping PC and companions in full color) if anyone want to give it a shot, feel free. Hope you like em, have fun! also modded a couple companions
  12. an alternative Pallegina mod and a bit darker color variant of Maia
  13. Not sure if this is known / reported already, but noticed that if a Blunderbuss is equipped in offhand slot while already having a Hand Mortar in main hand causes the Blunderbuss to disregard the -10 Inaccurate effect. Swapping main/offhand in specific order causes this issue. steps: 1. Unequip both hands 2. Equip a Hand Mortar in main hand 3. Equip a Blunderbuss in offhand 4. Notice that offhand accuracy is missing -10 Inaccurate 5. Swap main hand Hand Mortar to offhand and Blunderbuss to main hand 6. Swap Blunderbuss back to offhand and Hand Mortar to main hand (in that order, blunderbuss must not be last placed) 7. Notice offhand Blunderbuss now has the -10 Inaccurate correctly optional steps: 4b. Equip-swap (main hand) Hand Mortar directly with a Pistol 4c. Notice accuracy on offhand still missing -10 Inaccurate (see gifs) As far as I can tell it is not only a UI bug, the combat roll seem to be missing the -10 as well: + a couple of other minor UI issues: * missing/disappearing spaces with the damage/penetration display in inventory screen (a bit random) * sometimes very overlapping/oddly placed combat log roll tooltips (maybe due to my resolution 3840x1080)
  14. They are fairly squishy at first, until you gain a few levels for hp and invest a point in the armor passive. I found it also helped once your party can cast some buffs and debuffs, like blind and +con. I play stalker so pet has +1 armor when near the watcher but I'm still using the wolf mainly as a flank attack. In off-tank situations I have Xoti cast +5 con on him. Pet does go down occasionally still (i'm on PotD they hit hard) if caught in a bad spot, and has no way of escape yet or play dead. If pet gets to low health (and is not engaged!), don't be afraid to pull him away or behind you, let him play guard dog in case something rushes past the frontline. Better have him alive and not suffer bond debuff and he can still help mob up the fight. Also don't have him rush in headfirst, sneak in from the sides once enemies are already engaged and get the -10 deflect from Flanked. Atm my wolf can only handle 1 enemy on him, maybe 2 if there are heals still available. That said it helps that i'm multiclassed chanter and using skellys to take some of the hits. I guess the bear/boar are the tanky ones, wolf has good damage and little squishy, but so far it hasn't been a problem once you get used to the micro, and Heal Pet/Play Dead will help a lot.
  15. since PotD adds additional enemies to most encounters, my guess is it is hard to detect which areas/encounters has been cleared already, so not to spawn monsters in places you already went through. Just my guess, it's extra dev work to implement - and it might need some tracking of the state changes in the save data. I would be nice tho, in PoE 1, the second part on hard (veteran) got easy and would have loved to switch to PoTD halfway.
  16. made a dark Xoti mod she needed a bit more goth to fit with the rest of my gang ..her accent is not very goth tho lol
  17. In terms of game balance I never consider anything in terms of buffs or nerfs, whichever produces the best mechanical gameplay is always to be preferred. It seems a lot of people are generally afraid of having their abilities rebalanced, even if it makes sense to do so for a harder to achieve but more enjoyable and rewarding outcome. If I see an ability obviously outperforming others, I feel bad about using it, it feels "cheesy" - and also feels bad not to use it cause you are gimping yourself. What I like is when gear and abilities feel meaningful somewhat based in realistic physics and is well emulated in game mechanics, and useful in combination with other actions. For example, I don't mind that a greatsword has high damage, but low accuracy and bad penetration - if i can produce a situation where it shines. It forces you to use tactical combinations, not just look at the raw numbers in isolation. As a ranger(+chanter), if I mark a target, the priest casts +perc Blessing, and another party member can lower targets armor, the pet uses takedown for even lower deflection - now the greatsword swing (with something like accurate wounding shot + savage strike) has a real good chance of hitting and doing high damage. I personally like doing such setups much more rather than simply looking at flat damage numbers. I've always felt like the high damage needs to be earned rather than baselined, and it feels good when it pays off Admittedly I'm generally not a huge fan of too much high-magic stuff such as superswords/legendary/enchantments/magic effects - and using that as a bar for how to balance the underlying system. It usually ends up skewing all balancing too much. I mean, because some epic sword procs fireballs of doom +5 somewhere lategame, does not justify that a fist punch needs to do near fireball of doom levels of damage to keep up. I'd much prefer to see changes that provides ways to create setups/combos, while keeping the base numbers semi reasonable. I've always thought a cool aspect of PoE battles is just the metal on metal fighting, without too many firework procs There are lot of ways fists could be useful rather than pure flat damage, it's a question of design. Monk's fist attack could have interrupt chance, his attack hits could stack up accuracy or damage ramp-up, stacking debuff - to just come up with a few. Wounds already represent a similar buildup mechanic. So what if rogues do more damage - I'd expect them to - they are rogues, they don't have the same persistence as monks It just seems a bit offputting to me to send a monk with their bare hands to punch a heavily armored target and then watching them hit like two-handed sledge hammers. I'd feel ok with them hitting reliably like noodles for a time, maybe causing some lockdown and ramp up to a finisher. Overall damage can come in a variety of ways, high fist base damage need not be it, it just doesn't feel right in relation to other heavy weapons. Again, not really talking about late game balance, where all sorts of unique abilities and procs factor in, just prefer the base values make sense, that's all.
  18. Greetings fellow watchers I'm a little concerned about monk unarmed base damage: Short version: Monk fist base damage are basically like dual wielding 2 greatswords, with the accuracy and attack speed of daggers, while penetrating like an estoc (a weapon specialized specifically for piercing armor). It's only bludgeon yes, but up to 11 pen + scaling. Fist base damage should perhaps be more in line with 2 clubs rather than super all-round weapons? - or perhaps a timed damage increase, like empowered fist for 20-30 sec? My main gripe with the current implementation is that it makes any other heavy weapon wielding class look like wet noodles in baseline comparison, especially early game and also makes Xoti's sickle subpar. Granted, It's still early game, but feeling a bit forced to ditch any other weapon but Xoti's fists, which outshine every other party members damage currently. Long version: Pardon up front for a bit of a rant, but here goes.. I was trying to decide which weapon to use on Xoti as a contemplative (priest+monk) and while while doing some basic auto attack testing, noticed that when removing her sickle she would out damage any other wielded weapon. In fact, her unarmed fist damage would outperform any other weapon base damage on any character, even without spending a single skill point in weapon style or damage increase. (I'm talking low levels here, where the base weapon mechanics are most obvious) Xoti is the only party member who can easily beat down Eder in full fighter tank setup/gear, even out of combat. Her monk fist alone are basically like she is dual wielding 2 two-handed swords, with the accuracy and attack speed of daggers, while penetrating like an estoc (a weapon specialized specifically for piercing armor). Now, I understand that the monk traditional class fantasy is to be kick-ass throwing punches and such (which I personally always found a bit out of place in a setting with heavy armor, weaponry and firearms - but hey, it's all "soul magic", so oh well) My main gripe with the current implementation is that it makes any other heavy weapon wielding class seem a bit like wet noodles in comparison, especially early game and also makes Xoti's sickle subpar. Ex, my (fairly high acc) ranger with greatsword + two-handed style + proficiency (savage attack) can hardly hit/dent Eder at all, while the bare-fisted Xoti happily hammers him down in seconds. I know greatswords are very dependent and best on soft targets etc, it just "feels" and looks wrong in relation. I'd agree that the base unarmed damage of monks fists should be slightly higher than default, maybe on par with a pair of clubs - but not on par with two-handers, and certainly not with nearly twice the penetration values, without using any ability. Who Would like to attempt to punch a guy/gal wearing full plate? ouch.. I find it is (sadly) often the case that monk is implemented as an all-round super high damage dealing class in games - why not have it depend more on sustained and precise but lower-damage hits, a lot of interrupts/stuns with build-up kill moves to represent the high martial skill of a fighting monk? Very effective vs softer targets. The game already has most of this - but on top of the out of place high base damage/pen on fists. Yes, it's bludgeon, but what does it matter if the pen can go to 11 (and scaling up) Equippable knuckle-dusters to add a +pen or two which can gear-scale slightly could perhaps have been a thing, but probably too drastic change. Maybe have a monk specific unarmed passive to specialize in fists, so weapon wielding monks do not feel like missing out on the class main bonuses. Heck, I'd even be totally fine with the high fist damage if it was a baseline 20-30 sec ability, something like "soul empowered fists" for a nice damage burst period (essentially like instant spiritual weapon summon) - which would also allow for weapon monks to deal out some knuckle-justice once in awhile.. I'm guessing some of the explanations might go along the lines of "gear-scaling and legendary bonuses on weapons will offset this later in the game", but that is not really comforting if the underlying base seem unrealistic and skewed in this case. There must be other ways to make it seem less "implausible". The PoE combat system is otherwise doing a nice weapon/armor simulation on a base mechanical level (which is awesome!) but the unarmed monk dmg feel a bit like Fist of the North Star thrown into the mix. I generally love PoE for some of it's emphasis on good martial weapon combat, where you select the best tools for the job, consider weapon/armor types etc. I really want to like the monk class (usually don't most fantasy games) without it feeling OP, and do love it so far, the ability path & wound mechanic, just wish it not to overshadow the more "realistic" weapon wielders and weapon type decisions. Anyways, enough of a rant, and perhaps things will balance out over time, enjoying the game so far after the increased PoTD dif in 1.1, hope everyone else is too Sidenote: two-handed greatswords should probably have +1 pen due to the non-tapered blade mass (and since no +pen modal option, as well as the fact that it does not have longer reach, which would be it's main advantage)
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