Thormind

Last night i was fighting in the lost city (entrance in the gullet or something like that). Every fights were super hard and i had to use all my resources to win. Then i arrive at a point where there is a group of shades and i just cant win (same thing for the giant worm boss). I get tired and use a mod to switch the difficulty from POTD of veteran. When i reload i see the 3 red skulls over my opponents meaning i was probably under lvled for the place. Is it normal to not see those skulls in POTD? If yes how do i know if a fight is just meant to be challenging or if im simply at the wrong place?

Playing a War Caller (unbroken/troubadour) at the moment on POTD and enjoying it. The speed penalty for the unbroken sub is really not an issue. A lot of gear you can find give +stride on top of other useful bonuses. At first i though the chanter side was not so good because i barely had the time to cast 1-2 invocation before fights were over. Im lvl 7 now and many fight are long enough for my character to truly shine. Some of my observations: - Maybe it will change later but for now POTD is really challenging. I suspect player complaining about the difficulty are min/maxing and creating adventurers instead of using the companions. The reason why i say that is most companions have poor stats and low perception. Some fights are literally a "miss fest". My main character miss quite often with 18 perception. Imagine the other characters at 10-13 perception... - You really want your main character to have high perception. Contrary to POE1 its used to spot hidden treasures and traps instead of the mechanic skill. Like i previously said your companions will have poor perception. If yours is not high youll be missing on many good hidden treasures. - I think Warcaller might be broken if you use the Skald subclass. With the other subs you cant perma paralyze by having a high crit rate. - For companions i've found its often better to not multiclass. The faster growth rate does make a difference. I dont have access to all companions yet but out of all the ones i have i would only multiclass Eder. Hes a single class rogue at the moment and the accuracy and survivability available in the fighter tree would really help him. I left him out of the group in exchange fo Serafen who makes a good enough melee as a pure barbarian. - Maybe it will change later but at the moment i really like my casters and i dont see why people complains they are outshined by melee. Ive got Aloth, Xoti and Tekehu in my party all single class casters and i would not change that trio. I really need the survivability of double healers. Xoti provide her precious perception buffs. For long fights she only does that, heal and attack. Aloth and Tekehu are both nuke and control. Ive found Tekehu amazing at aoe damaging when i started taking advantage of his water spells not hitting allies. As was the case in POE! Aloth is still really good at crowd control with the illusions spells. Both of them have a useful aoe spell to lower your opponents defenses.

Tks!

The blade is seems really nice until you read the last part. The way i understand it any character wielding it gets a -5 will penalty and another -5 will every time they are critically hit? This is a debuff to your own character and not to your opponent? Am i reading this wrong?

Because some 2h weapons have a nice look or for rp reasons? The game is not that hard that you are forced to use the absolute best possible items. Ive put a big 2H sword on Serafen (pure Barbarian) and he usually use the best 2H with reach i can find as a back up for when my tank is door stacking. Maybe he could do better with dual wield but hes still doing well. And thats on POTD.

Exactly my reaction. With the way agro is designed getting a bonus on disengagement attacks actually help the tank keep mobs on him. The +1 engagement is also a big deal since it allows the fighter to use 2 handed or dual wield and keep a reasonable number of engaged targets. Some multiclass combinations gets such a good defense that they can easily lose the shield with no major impact on survivability. Crusaders come to mind. If you do keep the shields it allows you to skip the +1 engagement passive from the fighter tree, thus saving you an ability point. You can also get both bonuses (shield + passive) and use another stance than Guarding. Speed debuff is not that big of a deal because fighters can charge to melee when needed. The -reflex can be balanced by taking higher dex and perception stats. Perception is needed because it helps you land your CC abilities and maintain agro (through DPS potential). Dex is needed because you want to be able to use your "life saving" tools as fast as possible when you need them. After many restart i think the priority stats for a tank is resolve, perception and dex. I do not like to min max so i generally go 10mig, 10con, 15dex, 17per, 10int and 16 resolve. If multiclassing with chanter class i would switch to 10, 10, 10, 17, 15, 16. Now to get back on topic there are some badly designed subclasses but IMO its not most of them. Fighter: all viable, Paladin: all viable, Priest: all viable, Chanter: all viable, Monk: all viable, Ranger: 2 good ones, Cipher 2 good ones, Druid: 2 good ones, rogue: 2 good ones, Barbarian: only 1 viable, Wizard: only 1 viable. I you look at other similar RPGs (computer or tabletop) thats really not a bad design...

There is one thing i dont understand. After a few canon exchanges, when i fire i get a pop up screen. It looks like its saying that i'm going to take hull dmg if i shoot (but i dont). On the screen there seems to be 4 slots to put something in but i do not have access to my inventory during that time. What is the purpose of that screen? Another thing i dont understand: I have canons on both side of my ship. I use one side and while they reload i turn 180, halt and shoot the other side. The canons from my 1st shot are still recharging. during that time my opponent is able to shoot his canons from the same side twice. Is there a way to reduce reload time or are they buffing my opponent because im on POTD? There really needs to be an in game tutorial for ship battles. It looks like they are a big part of the game but they are a bit confusing. If i had to review the game i would lower the score just because of that.

I love the hand mortar that comes with Serafen. Is that a unique weapon or would i be able to find others like that in the game? Also at 13 perception hes able to hit much more target than my War Caller does with his chants at 18 perception. How come? Help me understand how to be good at ship battles. I just dont understand how it works. For example if me and my opponent are parallel and facing the same direction, i go full speed ahead and he halts, how come the distance between our ships doesnt increase? On one turn my opponent chose "brace for impact" and i chose "halt". On the next turn he halts and i fire my canons. With 95% to hit all of my shots miss. It looks like he still has the bonus from the move he did the turn before. Is that normal? Tks!

Im still not far in the game but it seems my troubadour/unbroken takes forever to cast his invocations even if the modal is active. I can get the 1st one fast enough but after that i get 1-2 cast at the most per fight. Seems to me that a paladin would have much more abilities to use per fight if it remains the same... Does it get better?

I havent seen them yet but if the mushroom from the 1st game a back (the stationary ones that could dominate) the low will might make ppl cry...

You are right. If an Inspiration gives you +armor penetration, it will stack with a modal, item and buff from spell. However, the modals and spells are at the same group and they won't stack with each other. What I am not sure about is whether I will benefit from a bonus to +x in melee if I already have +x in general within the same buff group. So a bonus from an active ability stacks with a bonus from a modal ability (say +accuracy from paladin aura with +accuracy from the fighter active ability)?

First you say to dump resolve but then you say you need deflection to not get autocrit 24/7...? IMO resolve is needed for any character whos going to get hit regularly. Also IMO the order for defense should be Will/reflex/fortitude. The mind afflictions are by far the most handicapping ones (dominate/charm/confuse...).

Title says it all. For example can i take both FOD upgrades from the Paladin?

Shattered Pillar is bad for solo. A solo monk will walways get hit enough to build wounds, but shattered has a max wound threshold of 5 instead of 9(10?). I'm personally torn between Soul Blade and Ascendant for cipher/monk, seems like Soul Blade is much stronger early game and the late game shouldn't be a problem either way, but still Ascendant sounds so nteresting in theory. Im not sure i understand how ascendant works. he way i read it ontce you reah max focus you can just chain cast your cipher powers because they cost 0 focus. Is that correct? Seems really strong, whats the catch?

Why blunder instead of pistol? I would really like to know why pls. Im trying to go with the pirate theme but i really like to create tank characters. If youve seen the TV show Blacksail i want a character who fights like Blackbeard.

Is it possible? Is there a penalty for using a ranged weapon in melee? Also for easier fight does it work if i switch to gun+sword or gun+hammer?

Would a chanter/stalker tank work in POTD?

Would it be tanky enough? With shield, spear modal and chant you get 4 engagement. Your pet also gets 2.

So if i understand lets say you wait until the moment you have to sit and you press F8, where will the save file be created? Normally its under your character name but you have not chosen one yet...?

Isnt F8 actually used to Quickload??

I believe Shieldbearers do when you have a shield equipped ah ok. But thats a subclass, not a skill...

Which Paladin skill gives +1? I saw one in the fighter tree but none in the Paly tree...

Every time you lvl your chanter class, do you get both a chant and an invocation pts like at 1st lvl? When you get a power lvl (4, 7, etc) do you get 1 ability for your other class + 1 chant + 1 invocation? tks!

The Paladin being so healy/tanky, I think the way to go is to emphasize the summoning abilities of the Chanter and not try to Skald it up as tempting as it it. I think the basic Chanter class is entirely inferior to Beckoner. It seems like Beckoner should have a downside that isn't just weaker summons since really, the actual spells that summon end up overall stronger and this downside is null. The problem with paladin + summon is the long cast time. At 6s the chances youll get interupted are high. IMO melee characters are better with the faster offensive/support chants.

Im thinking about making a shieldbearer/shatteredpilar tank The idea is to use fists when the fight looks easier and shield+x for tougher fights. Some questions: - If i have shield + empty hand, do i get the bonus for unarmed attack? - Can it work with shield + spear, to increase engagement? - If i go pure unarmed, would i be though enough to be main tank? Tks!