GamerSerg

In my ending she is once again in trouble with the ducs for helping me so they assigned her some awful guard duty where her ship sank and body was never found. I really feel bad about how much I have ruined her life without ever intending to. I really like her character but it seems like no matter how loyal I am to her, bad things keep happening to her because of me.

My first game has been Crusader (kind wayfarer) and played it as the hero knight good guy and it is awesome. Armored grace is a must to use heavy armor. You get one fighter and one paladin skill that together give you + 20 defense to every kind of affliction. I had him dual wield swords and he was a killing machine that also could not be killed. Having Paladin Aura and fighter stance was great too. The mob stance cleave triggered a lot. Also, as a multi paladin you cant reach the paladin self rez ability but you can get the fighter one. Looking forward to trying it along with sacred immolation in my next fight! I liked the rp aspect of sticking to my paladin order reps for Divine Faith bonus but that is also why I went with KW over BW. Benevolent and Passionate were easy to RP. I'm considering Inquisitor for my next game. I like the combo and mostly would use cipher for all the damage and penetration passive boosts with a soul annihilation thrown in when available but its also nice to have other cipher abilities as utility when needed. Also since I already did the good guy play through, I may go BW Paladin this time. You do lose out on a lot of good stuff from fighter.

The thing that annoyed me about it is that it is a long range attack but I built her to be my front line tank. In every combat I would want her to start with 5 suns for the damage bonus to future attacks but that would mean she would stand still and cast it from afar while my melee dps characters would rush in and they would get engagement rather than her. Eventually I gave her the leaping boots so she could leap in to combat and then use 5 suns but that only works 2 times / rest. Not to mention a lot of targets are immune to burn and even if they aren't the fire damage is so small. I'd rather just have a regular sworn enemy.

Just wanted to update that in my case (see above) reporting back to the queen did complete the quest properly. Only the journal did not update until the quest was complete.

Glad to hear it’s being removed as I agree with OP. I have gotten in the habit of placing my party around every npc before I speak to them. I even use different walking formations for combat areas and cities to keep the party close together if I expect to do more talking.

I never had an option to use the pass phrase. I told the lookout on the cliff that I wanted to learn about their history and she let me in. I think the quest doesn’t progress if you don’t use the pass phrase. I told her that I already killed the slavers and she agreed to an alliance. I also read her soul (you do not have to kill her to do that) and completed Aloths quest but Fruitful Alliance quest still says I need to use the pass phrase.

Same. I told her that I already dealt with the slavers and she agreed to an alliance with the queen however the quest does not update. It still says I need to use the pass phrase the queen gave me but I never saw any option to use the pass phrase in any conversations.

Yep. Ship combat is fairly pointless. The auto-close damages you a lot, if you just go straight to the enemy, most of them fail to shoot at you much. Also, sure it nets you money and whatnot, but it's never really important Enter combat, sail forward repeatedly, board the ship and fight a quick battle of all your companions and sidekicks against their weak crew. Works every time and you don't even need to bother with wasting gold on better ships or upgrades. Whatever you start the game with is more than enough to win every battle. Kinda sad really. They should have made ship combat more like the scripted interactions used in other parts of the game, with choices to make and skill checks to pass. It would have been more challenging. They do something like that if your ship enters a storm and it was fun. Either that or enter a Sid Miers Pirates style naval combat.

I’m also having this issue for the first time today.

I haven't used the sidekicks much but the wizard sidekick did have some dialogue when I had her in my party and we went to speak with her former employer. So they may speak up here and there if something directly relates to them which would not happen with custom adventurers but that's about it.

To be clear, I'm loving PoE2 and overall really enjoy the game but I have to be honest that ship combat is pointless. I hate to be so negative when I do appreciate how hard the devs work on these things but there is no advantage to sinking a ship over boarding it and you can't capture ships either way so there is just no reason to sit there shooting cannons back and forth for 10 minutes when you can just rush forward full speed ahead, board the ship and win with very minimal damage to your ship or crew (opponent usually gets off maybe one round of cannon volley). If you chose to board right from the beginning you automatically take damage but it's so easy to just enter combat and rush forward with little to no damage. Every ship encounter goes like this for me.... Press 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 2 (prepare for boarding). Then sit back and watch as my party slaughters the other crew on auto combat. There is no strategy or tactics necessary. I'm using only the starting base ship with no upgrades at all. There is absolutely no point wasting money on bigger ships or ship upgrades (and yes the other captains are my level or higher). There needs to be some incentive to participate in ship combat like maybe a chance they will surrender if I do enough damage. Or make it more risky to simply rush forward. Every battle I have been in, the enemy captain just parks and holds position without moving as I rush towards him.

I find sorcerer is a good way to deal with the loss of spells from taking a wizard subclass. I decided to make one of the sidekicks a sorcerer and at first I was disappointed to see she had conjurer subclass which removes evocation spells. Then I realized I could use the Druid spells for damage.

Should backstab bonus show up in the combat log? I know I have to use shift to see sneak attack bonus but I never see any mention of backstab bonus even after using smoke veil.

Thank you. I have been wondering what those things are for every time they pop up!

I have Eder set up as a swashbuckler and I am making sure to flank, blind, hobble or put afflictions on enemies but I can not tell if he is getting sneak attack or backstab bonus as I do not see it mentioned in the combat log ever. I do see other passives trigger like Riposte. How can I tell if the sneak / backstab bonus is triggering? Thanks!

The one issue I seem to be having (with only limited testing) is that it seems like if I have multiple abilities in a group, only the first one ever gets used and the character will never use 2,3,4, etc. This kind of makes sense because abilities do not have cool downs so ability number 1 would always be available but if I have a group of different buffs and I want the character to cast each spell in that group (if possible), how would I set that up? Also, how exactly does the cool down number in the top right corner of each group work? Does the character try to use all abilities in the group and then the cool down starts before checking the group again or does the cool down start right after ability 1 is used? Thanks!

Which district is the Vailian Trading Company in? I’ve been all over the city and didn’t see it.

I'm planning Crusader for my first game and I agree with you, it looks awesome. Also, even though I won't reach the Paladin self rez, I think I can still get the Fighter self rez Unbreakable at PL 7, correct? Although that may come pretty late in the game. I just can't decide on the subclass I want. Originally I was thinking full on tank... Unbroken & Shield breaker with sword & shield but maybe I could let a companion be the tank and I can be more dual wield / melee dps?? Good catch, I forgot that one So you already have a self ress at level 7, even. In this hybrid I'd go for dual wielding. You have so much armor and healing from both talent trees that I don't see you needing a shield, and you can always pick kind wayfares to add *2* party aoe heals to each flames of devotion you use (it's a full attack, so both the attack and heal trigger twice). Shields also lower your accuracy, and with the fighter stance adding both +3 enemies engaged and -5% damage taken per engaged enemy on top of everything else I really don't see why you'd ever want to use a shield. I can see you tanking just as well as Eder while also having more damage than him, if he's a shield using pure fighter. And having both melees isn't a bad idea depending on the rest of the party makeup. I'm planning to use Eder + me + aloth + xoti + the ranger companion so i'm lacking a second melee. I think you have convinced me. I was also thinking the fighter stance that adds +3 engagement should be fine when needed, no need for the + engagement from the sub classes on top of that. Maybe dual wielding hatchets would be almost as good as having a shield anyway? Kind Wayfarer sounds good but I may not take a Fighter subclass. Devoted sounds great but on my first play through I want to be free to use whatever cool weapon I find next. In fact your party looks similar to what I had in mind (great minds think alike). I'm thinking my Crusader, then Eder (maybe fighter/rogue), Aloth (pure wizard), Xoti (is monk/priest enough healing or do I need full priest). For the last spot I will probably rotate people in and out, maybe a Witch (barbarian/cipher) or druid.

I'm planning Crusader for my first game and I agree with you, it looks awesome. Also, even though I won't reach the Paladin self rez, I think I can still get the Fighter self rez Unbreakable at PL 7, correct? Although that may come pretty late in the game. I just can't decide on the subclass I want. Originally I was thinking full on tank... Unbroken & Shield breaker with sword & shield but maybe I could let a companion be the tank and I can be more dual wield / melee dps??

I really liked the Holy Slayer idea. Best part of a Rogue is sneaking up to the biggest threat and unleashing a Backstab alpha strike but then what? Once you reveal yourself, you end up swarmed. The solution.... Holy Slayer. Kill your first target and then easily tank the rest.

I'm thinking of going with a Crusader (Unbroken + Shieldbreaker). I like the idea of a super hard to kill Paladin hero but maybe this is overkill, not sure. I would love feedback from those of you in beta. Coastal Aumaua (+2 Might, Resist Might) - Rauatai (+1 Constitution), Laborer (+2 Athletics) Might 20 - Constitution 14 - Dexterity 12 - Perception 12 - Intellect 10 - Resolve 10 Possible Abilities: Deep Faith Weapon and Shield Determination Divine Purpose Unstoppable Fearless Mental Fortress Clear Head Iron Gut Armored Grace Vigorous Defense This guy has resistance to every type of affliction so he's immune to all of the worst afflictions in the game. His deflection, AR and defenses should be very high and with the high Might hopefully will do some decent damage. In an emergency, Lay on Hands prevents death! I'm unclear if the +20 Defense against afflictions from Determination and Divine Purpose is enough protection from afflictions or if I should also invest in all those resistance abilities as well.

How does selecting abilities work for multi-class at each level? Does the game force you to select from each class at certain levels or are you free to always pick from whichever class you want?