Ymarsakar

The wizard can basically do many roles, depending on action speed and attack speed. So I usually start with alacrity, mirrored images, and then see what's going on. If I can't get to the enemy, cause people are in the way, I select blight spell and shoot aoes over long range. If some casters in the back, cast mind fog/flame wall. If priests, cast wall of draining, activate some self buffs and pump up those durations. Merciless gaze, health buff spell, accuracy buffs. If the wizard needs to teleport around, cast essential phantom, use it as another aoe dps/disposable tank, then dimension shift to it, crossing the distance between. So basically, everything relies on deflection, self buffs (INT), and casting/attack speed. Citzal's spirit lance is like what happens when a shapeshifting druid specialized user combines with a barbarian carnage aoe build, for a limited number of seconds. The sorcerer, btw, is the shield druid.

Against large enemies like ogres or lurkers or trolls, it might be useful if you have two melee people who you use to flank enemies. Then if someone refuses to attack your fighter, your fighter can still hold the flank up, and give deflection to the other tank. Assuming the range can even reach the other side. Also it depends on how many of these deflection bonuses can stack with each other. For people with two fighters or non standard fighter builds, who like to micro flanking tank tactics, it might be interesting. I usually take disciplined barrage now a days, plus the cone damage skills. That "take the hit" skill is a much better team talent, but only at higher levels. Some people like to click on the modals to adapt to the tactical situation.

Oh another thing, what I usually do when testing new class and builds is to use the console. AddExperienceToLevel number Number being like 16. This lets me level up the fighter or other class in game to see the tooltips on the abilities, use them against targets, and get a feel for them, as a build that goes up to a high level. Although you can stop whenever you feel like it. Then you just reload, and now you have a better idea of how fighters progress. Of course, if you don't know how fighters play or how the game works, that would just be abstract knowledge that might be hard to put into practice. For class abilities, I chose disciplined barrage for its 20 ACC.

I liked how Torment Tides has minor rests, as well as tavern/night rests. During a fight or elsewhere, you can use 1 of 3 minor rests to get back some pts to cast some ability. Instead of only having 8 hours of rest in Pillars, they might be able to do in combat or out of combat rests for x time, like a nap, to recover fatigue and what not. Maybe resting a wizard every fight will let him cast one more spell, renewing his mastery spells. Or perhaps resting 1 hour, will restore 1 spell level out of half. Instead 4/4/4, it might be 2/1/1 restored. But if they add more simulation and depth to the game, it gets easier to mod and balance, but also more difficult to design as well.

You can console in just enough gold to always retrain, for those that are worried about their main stat balance. Better than restarting, at least. Activate console in game. Iroll20s giveplayermoney 750 Can copy/paste it via ctrl v in game as well. As for a fighter build, the fighter's tankiness comes from two things, the per tick health renewal from the recovery power, which is modified by might. And the other reason the fighter is tanky is high 30 base deflection with a concurrently high endurance/health pool. My level 4 barbarian has around 140 endurance and 820 health. It can take 3-4 critical hits from the druid matron on level 3 of Caed Nua. Which is plenty of time for party healing to take effect. Casters will die in like 2 normal hits, due to the lower endurance without buffs, even with 15 ish con. Because a fighter regens more due to higher might, you want your might equal to or higher than your con. Eder's balanced 16 might 16 con stat works. And since fighter abilities aren't affected, more or less, by INT, you can degrade INt as well. For a fighter, it'll probably have 3 in athletics and 4 in survival. Then both increase up at same time, later. Some people like to pull with their fighters or tanks, so they put some pts into stealth as well. For a mechanics character, ideally you want someone who has good stealth and a lot of modifiers to mechanics, to reduce the skill points you need at higher levels. For defensive abilities, cautious attack, shield talent, or superior deflection. If your fighter is going to use big weapons though, you'll probably avoid the shield talent. I built Eder fighter up at level 3, with just a small shield and a dagger. The dagger adds its +5 accuracy to knockdown. Small shield has no ACc penalty. For the other weapon slot, I used a warbow for pulling or range dps. If you don't use medium or large shields, you can probably reduce per by 2-4 points and put it into might instead. Same for resolve. Fighter has a high base deflection and accuracy.

IE Mod will let you change classes of npcs via console. http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/1/? ChangeClass Companion_Pallegina(Clone)_5 Druid Findcharacter Pallegina gives you which clone number they are in game. IRoll20s in console to activate commands. That's what some people did if they really liked a story companion, they just changed their class to fit with whatever mix they were going with. Of course, Sagani probably should be left alone at this time. The pet tends to do weird things. Check under files for the most recent mod launcher + the beta mod file, and that should work with the latest 3.01 build, but there some crashes and bugs. I've also heard that paladin mains and priest mains tend to have more flavor dialogue unlocks for their profession. Although that couldn't be developed deeply since they would have to account for all the other classes left out of mention for the main plot. Eder might make for a good priest tank, especially since that would be his other class in a different life. You'd have to add in his class talent yourself, though via console, since I don't think it allows selection of gods. Story NPC stats cannot be changed as of this time, it is impermanent. Resets after each load.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84807-potd-party-composition/?do=findComment&comment=1782647 I covered some of the issues with party composition, at that link. If you are really worried about the conversation options or unlocking all/most of them, then pick a main class that can use really high per/resolve/int. Problem solved. Wasn't there like a paladin build with that object in mind? Probably works for a wizard, cipher, or druid too.

For my personal preference in personalities Hiravias > Aloth > Sagani > Pallegina > Eder > GM In terms of how easy their classes are to use (the builds can affect that as well): Eder > Pallegina> Sagani > Hiravias > GM > Aloth. Easiest to hardest class to micro and learn. For hiravias, a fun combo in the early game before level 5 or 4 is to use outlander frenzy at the beginning of each encounter, spiritshift, flank an enemy, and then tear them apart with those claws. GM is "caul illusion cloaked" to the other party members. So they don't actually banter with her, but GM's interjections tend to feel more relevant to the main plot. These days, I hybridize almost all the classes. They aren't specialized for melee or range, they're kind of both now. Talent wise, they still resemble certain builds, but weapons wise, I make them to be versatile. They can shoot at range or tank enemies in melee. I would recommend against having too many micro intense classes in the same party. So I would avoid Aloth + Cipher + Druid + Priest combos. Of course, if you like these classes and want to micro/pause a lot, ciphers and traditional caster types are great for that.

Darguls don't paralyze anymore? I was sure they still did back in 3.0 beta... The low level ones I met in Anslaug compass only weakens now. Long duration though, around 10s. I surmise that the higher level undead ones will probably have paralyze now. A lot of the earlier wilderness maps are pretty easy now (besides the bear cave, bears, and lions). I guess they toned it down, even for POTD.

It's not hard to control who aggroes whom in this game, but you do have to get some experience with it to figure out the tricks. Keeping your rogue individually stealthed as a tougher class/tank pulls is what I usually start with. The cipher can probably take on 1-3 enemies. The druid build, about 2-4. Paladin magnifies how long people can absorb damage due to lay on hands, so it's about 1+2/3. So basically unless you're facing more than 7 enemies against your party, your rogue should have plenty of free space to move around to attack people. You don't need to use the rogue to flank enemies, you just need two melee people to make an enemy become flanked, then the rogue can melee/range attack for sneak dmg on that flanked enemy. Replaying from the start in 3.0, the trash mobs in wilderness areas feel... far fewer compared to the game from 1.0 days. Spirits are tougher due to instant stun lock via touch, but darguls are weaker because they no longer paralyze. A lot more enemies have immunities based on their type, differentiating the various genealogy lines. The tanky builds for cipher and druid are pretty versatile, although not as easy to use for a beginner as Eder with dagger/small shield. You should be okay in POTD (now at least), so long as you don't try clearing Caed Nua at level 2 or something. Same goes for that temple of Eothas in GV. Once your party hits level 3 or 4, you should easily be able to take on most of the wilderness areas before Defiance. And dungeons too for Caed.

The druid using outlander frenzy + wildstrike on the shapeshift, is pretty good at early levels. Doesn't need spells for damage. 1 per encounter only. More int= more damage. And the druid has some close range aoe heals and aoe dmg blind spells. The druid can also be fit with shield talent for more deflection for off tanking 1 or 2 enemies, instead of taking weapon focus, rely on the spiritshift for damage instead. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84781-advice-for-solo-potd-rogue-tank/?hl=%2Brogue+%2Bbuild There's a level up talent list there. But it's designed with the shield/tank rogue in mind. A shield rogue is probably the easiest to use for melee in the beginning, before you try anything more fancy. For a dual wield, 20% attack speed from two weapon wield, cautious attack for when you start getting engaged by enemies you can't get rid of, reckless assault, backstab. I think a rogue can fit that in before level 5. With a party, should be simple to get permanent flank with positioning. I normally don't pull with my rogue, I use a tankier character like a fighter/chanter/druid/monk. Backstab is a little bit hard to use, if you don't like doing rogue pulls. So it might be more viable to take both blind/cripple, and leave backstab for later. Instead of a druid, you can also use a wizard to off tank, but that requires using a little bit more spells per rest. The wizard's base deflection is like 10, barbarians/rogues 15, and fighters are at 30, highest. Chanters at 25. The wizard makes up for the low deflection via spells like mirror image 2nd level spell and arcane veil 2/rest. So wizard off tanking is limited, until you get more spells, and the two rings that add spell levels. It requires some thought and good micro to get it right, so some people might find a wizard self buff tank fun that way. I usually use a wizard to spot tank for when the main tanks are low on health or in trouble. The wizard's cone spells are also very effective if they use dimensional shift to get to the front and blast people. I think one combo I used was deleterious alacrity+essential phantom+dimensional shift on essential phantom to switch places and teleport, then cast cone damage spells. The chanter is a very easy to use as a main aoe dps/tank or off tank/healer/support/summoner, and gets more powerful at higher levels now with recitation shortcuts. The reason is that all your talents can go into defensive talents, besides one for aoe healing from the verses. Other classes have class talents they have to pick instead. As for build lists, http://forums.obsidian.net/user/155448-boeroer/ has a few on this forum section that has been updated to 3.0 or close enough that it still applies.

Rogue probably needs a modal that is part shadow, part backstab, part evasion. They only started getting into hit to graze conversions around 2.0 white march 1, like the paladin's new zealous endurance modal. But it really would have worked better for rebalancing some rogue abilities and new modals. I say modal, because choosing a mix of them can be a nice gameplay in itself, without having to use per rest or per encounter attacks. And making it into a modal ability like shapeshift, with a duration, might also be interesting. That would allow shadowstep back to work on manual activation/de-activation at least.

Any kind of per encounter aoe debuff against deflection or fortitude can be pretty good opening for a barb. The priest's affliction, wizard daze aoe, druid's sunbeam, and cipher's aoe flank power. The ones that are per encounter or that you can keep up the entire battle, would have better effect. Carnage would also work well with doorway pulls, choke points, where you make sure there's a line the enemy can't get around.

I'm having a lot of fun with Hiravias as stelgaer shift + outlander frenzy. Although it seems you have to cast the frenzy first. That then maybe stacks with cat's frenzy 33% attack speed. Producing a cat death ball. The AI also now has a script to auto activate shapeshift if in melee range/engaged. I'm beginning to prefer self buff type duration abilities, since they don't require saves against enemy defenses. Much more predictable. Aloth is still level 3-4, so no minor blights yet. No staff spell yet either even.

I usually cast an ability with a flat duration, equal to 40s, that way I can use the in game clock to count certain things like attacks.

Gandalf had a transformation after his near death experience, however. Gandalf was said to be the least of the 5 wizards sent to earth to aid the people with advice. Saruman was the head, and preferred direct control, domination and force. Gandalf has spent a long time trying to indirectly coral forces against Sauron, rather than testing their strength directly. Gandalf's weakness was not one of the body, but one of spirit and will. For people that have been using asymmetrical warfare for so long, contesting 1 on 1 with Durin's Bane, fighting force to force directly, was something they sought to avoid. The outcome would be in doubt given the lack of experience. Durin's Bane, by forcing a student of Nienna, patron of mercy, into a direct confrontation with no escape, it forced the unlocking of Gandalf's power. Powers that they had forced themselves not to use for quite some time. Perhaps Olorin had gotten used to playing the role of an old wise man. Durin's Bane was used to getting his way, though. Maybe that balrog thought he was beating up on some low level humans. The old Gandalf, before his fall off that bridge, wouldn't have chased a near equal for 8 days around Moria and then up a winter mountain. Wouldn't have contested strength against strength, force against force, merciless in the hunt.

This is the internet, even the redundancy is useful, especially after the X crashes the net by breaking apart the inter continental fiber optic cables.

Aragorn's more like a chanter, when he summoned an entire undead army using nothing but words and phrases.

Reckless assault is still a modal, so just turn it off if you are getting hit hard. So the shield is still good with it. If you aren't getting hit at all, reckless on always. As for leaders and orlans, leaders have power for a couple of reasons. 1. Their personal power or prowess is sufficient enough to beat anybody else around, so people cluster around the security source. 2. They have hidden resources and talents that offers protection and benefit to their subordinates, which their subordinates cannot acquire any other way. An orlan cipher, for example, would be able to charm or dominate people, thus acquiring hidden resources, which draws in subordinates. In game lore, it's the Watcher abilities and title which is the reason people follow you around. Or Caed Nua.

Should make a certain boss fight easier.

It's probably something left over from talents and effects that were changed or no longer exist. Retrain the character, save, then reload, will probably fix it.

That's why Durance got the spell power, to take care of those bounty hunters. The Dyrwood is kind of like the Wild West. If you run fast enough or have enough firepower, there is no Law. Justice is with whomever has the most firepower and gets there first. The Stasi got away with far more in East Germany. Fair enough, but he's still a bad guy. Isn't that why Josh Sawyer designed the game for a psycho playthrough, for when a Watcher becomes "insane" and can't take it any more? Look at all those Meat Bags waiting to talk to the Watcher! Personally, that's not quite as satisfying as an RPG game flow or content story. But maybe to others, it is enough.

That's why Durance got the spell power, to take care of those bounty hunters. The Dyrwood is kind of like the Wild West. If you run fast enough or have enough firepower, there is no Law. Justice is with whomever has the most firepower and gets there first. The Stasi got away with far more in East Germany.

US or Anglosphere voice acting is inconsistent. Until people understand why that is, I don't think they can improve upon it. From a technical standpoint, the English voice actors have the skill for it. They are professionals and for anime like Journey to the West, they did a great job of it. Some of them even became VAs because of anime in their childhood. Yet something is missing, beyond the legal contract issue. Until people find that something, it'll be a black hole for some time.

Durance is a follower of Magran, so technically he has a boss. That would mean he's just following orders, whether of his culture, his nation, or his god hierarchy. If they were willing to go deeper into this subject, it would have required them to link Durance to the main character's progression. That was not allowed, of course.