LotharVI

... you know the password?...

What I did is this: just 5 characters are not, in my opinion sufficient to handle all encounters... efficiently. I purchased and trained a few specific individuals, each a pure non-subclass and speced them out, for instance, a pure Pale Elf rogue, with maximum perception. She can find open, disarm and steal anything...I equipped her with Scordero's Edge and Grave Calling, and included her in some of the quests... besides being a devastating hitter using Devastating Blow (dual weapon specialization), she is able to discover and find everything.. believe me, there is a level of significant items that are (purposely) easy to miss. Same goes for Monk (Mirke), I found her to be packed with energy and devastating... Rekke, I found to be especially handy as a pure fighter equipped with that soul-bound Lord Darryn's Voluage (and at other times, Sanguine Harvest), -very handy in the more difficult encounters... I make use of the Chanter the same way. So how do you advance them? Mix them into your party off and on, and go out, seek and board a lot of Principi and get all of your crew the experience they need. They have to be on the "active" list of 5 for this to work... if all goes well, one eventually ends up with a fighting crew all at Lvl 20, each with Legendary weapons and armor... Don't forget to give them a higher level of Arcana, giving them the ability to use offensive scrolls, which happen to save the day many times.... Perception is HUGE and using certain accessories/pets handles that also... Bottom line is give yourself the tools in the toolbox... mix and match accordingly, bringing them all up... it is important to READ everything about all items... I am not a huge gamer... but I take what I see as a pragmatic approach.

I couldn't do that - I just love Concelhaut's little skull chattering about, his comments are simply genius humor...

Regarding Bekarna's Observatory: At first, I had found the observatory at Bekarna's to be a real challenge, Concelhaut is a powerful wizard and can easily incapacitate a party if given the slightest chance. So I stealth-rushed as a group and the fight initiated (due to pure inertia) within them... Maia was deliberately held back a ways in overview, using her marksmanship skills with her Legendary Dragon's Drowry (utilizing Twinned Shot) to interrupt and stun as needed, while the Watcher with Mythic Sanguine, Eder with Legendary Chromprismatic Staff, a pure specialist Pale Elf Rogue utilizing a twin single-handed combo of Scordero's edge and Magran's Favor (both Legendary) using Eliminating Blow - finally Rekke using Legendary Burden, devastating the party. I could have gone in with Two wizards, a monk, druid and others, but chose to get this over with very quickly. Besides, having Concelhaut as a pet is wonderful, don't you think? His comments made during later interactions are hilarious. There are a 100 ways to skin this cat...all are good - I like them all, however the approach above is my preferred for this encounter.

I have played it both ways and have simply beat N down, through continuous interrupts (magic and serious thumping) , and I found that boring... I much prefer in this case, the "option" of the diplomatic/bluff on this dragon... makes it interesting. I enjoy the many aspects/choices made available. All of what I read here I agree with... everyone has their preferences. The main thing is, did you enjoy this? If you didn't, try it another way... diplomacy and bluff are powerful and can provide interesting options. The game gets for more interesting with all of the dialog options available... opens opportunities... just my 2 cents....

- For what it is worth, I put the thing out of it's misery... Why would anyone want that around?

Well, I tried with my party of low arcane very heavy hitters and lost each time. I saw the light, I went in with a high asset setup like this; My watcher was a barbarian (Mythic Sanguine Harvest), a tank (Eder, Legendary Amira Axe) each of the following with very high arcana; priest, wizard & chanter each loaded with at least 5 assorted high damage scrolls; Maelstrom, Storm of Holy Fire, Meteor Shower, Wilting Wind, etc.,. I had prepped everyone "before" jumping down the hole with a rest that oncluded Mohara wraps and each was laden with miraculous recovery elixirs to cover hits... I cannot stress the importance of distracting items such as Servant of the Stars, grave hound, etc. What a difference this makes. I almost felt sorry for the thing... It never had a chance... it was constantly being interrupted and shat upon... again and again... It didn't take long, as the damage were big numbers in quick succession. The other troubles: were taken care of by my barbarian, the Soul Scavengers and other entities were dealt with quickly. That is what i really like about POE I and II - one has to really try everything... I switched out my crews and trained everyone by boarding and fighting on many, many Principi Master ships, thereby raising them up to Lvl 20 as well as learning just how the spells are used and how they work... also making money a non-issue by selling everything at Periki's... so now, I plan the approach to handle the Crystal Spider... this is really great play...

If you are really "Good", there is an alternative to simply HP'ing him to death... I have used it... check your stats after looking at too low attributes...in the dialog with this dragon... and retrain to open new opportunities.... Sometimes diplomacy is the best answer, in this case it does not prolong the inevitable; (war anyway) Just my 2 cents... OBTW, the design of the Beast of Winter is top notch the quests are well thought and very complex, My God, I can only imagine a POE III !!!!!!!

OK I'll try to help. There is a solution to the soul fragments... The key is to use the sundial to shift to the time before, during and after the (spoiler) happens... Also you have to go onto many areas during the "noon" and later phases of the sundial that are not apparently accessible... really look... if it was easy everyone would be doing it. in short, use the various time scenarios and go and look everywhere... It helps to have the jumping boots on the watcher... They are all there. One in particular soul piece is NOT for the taking and that is normal all of the other pieces are available. There is also another scenario you have to deal with under the bridge... that is all I have to say... Keep trying. This segment was beautifully designed on may levels... impressive.

Thanks Gromnir, So now all I have to do is drop into the lower bowels and finish off that silly eye... Funny thing... no mention of where the location of this "accessory" at all ... in the wiki's Weight of Revelation! Weight of Revelation! There, I said it... all I have to do is find it... I told Woedica to go jump in the lake... I was so tired of her telling me how I was doing this wrong, that wrong; she was always so negative... I had thought perhaps I was to be denied this last "piece" because I had told her to jump. Like the Dragon Stone, I had found it TWICE, grabbed it only to see it instantly disappear from my stash. - that is from the great and ever-present god, BUG!

I can't find this ... so far I have been waylaid once with a group on a side street in Neritaka...and the note was obvious that someone or something else is looking for the same item...I need to find this (accessory) and complete my crown... Any suggestions as to it's location? hints would be appreciated... Thanks... MD

I have played through POE II with the standard party. Afterwards, I created a "custom-hybrid party" using select individuals I purchased trained and equipped for "Specialty Quests". Early on, I mixed these individual companions in with "regulars" allowing everyone to advance in lvl together... this is especially helpful in shipboard combat as well as the unit customization to allow efficiency for each bounty, etc... knowing what each weapon armor, belt, etc., does and how they interact really helps... It takes time... as there are almost infinite permutations... as we all know. So, I am on my 4th go at POE II with a highly-advanced party I am now in the early stages, everyone is at lvl 8 and so far doing quite well...for where they are... I have the "specialists" always waiting in the wings to be added/changed in the party in order to keep up with the fun... so to speak. This is such a deep piece of software I keep finding new subtleties each and every time I give it a go-through. Reke and his origins are a mystery to me but with the right equipment found to be an unstoppable tank almost equal to Eder... Monks are amazing if you know how to use them, as are ciphers and priests. Rogues, if created with a dexterity of +22 are able to see and do things that really enhance the game with what the see and find... I will have TWO super dedicated Rogues next time around to see if that makes any difference, from what I see, the makers made this story full of complex secrets and tricks... we just have to find them. Just my 2 cents. Do your research and read everything. Oh, I have seen spreadsheets on this forum that are great... and so usable. The greatness of Poe and especially POE II is the writing and the depth... read everything you grab/steal and purchase. There are a lot of hidden (in plain sight) areas to access that you have to be truly creative to find... Just my 2 cents... MD

Please let us know how it goes... I'll bet the Obsidian devs knew exactly what was going down - the update was due in a week or so.... Just my guess. I do know devs communicate with Apple/Micro$oft frequently... as they all do.... a super-collaborative relationship at best.... and when it works it is for the benefit of everyone. I was an old Amiga guy, I ran three separate operating systems (guess which ones) as BACKGROUND tasks... in 1988... in this day and age I am more than happy with Apple... I really miss the real-time asynchronous multi tasking... in my daily work... I wish for an other seeding of Adra-ban, Sapphire and more fights... but that is not in the cards.

Additionally, the save games also had shown graphic noise in their preview screens, - now all of this has been eliminated also. Apple comes through again...

GOOD NEWS for Mac users! I just installed the latest OS 10.14.5 update and all graphics "issues" at sea and within certain other areas have disappeared! Everything is back to the normal, beautifully rendered scenes, my money is on Obsidian talking with Apple and knowing that the "fix" was already in the works... it was a "system" issue. This was tested in TB mode only. I will test more but so far 100% elimination of error... Even the players have stopped moving erratically.... no more slick as snot stairs with players running in place, no more freezing of players, no more sending your player to a specific spot and seeing him/her running in the opposite direction or, in circles... these issues are eliminated for us mac users, all of it!

- starting to look like it's a "system" effect... Great work, I just cannot reload back to an earlier version without risking a lot of data... So earlier version (non retina?) seemed to have minimal damaged gfx effect... thanks for trying this! I am not an Apple dev, otherwise I would bring this up with them... It is a "layer thing" ???

With all the discussion relative to the merits (or demerits) of T-B, I favor turn based, the increased control I receive is substantial. I understand the release of T-B was clearly couched with the beta tag, and I am very optimistic that OBS will correct these issues for the sake for their customer base and credibility (for future title releases).

Yes

Has anyone reloaded their mac system software IOS 10.14.3 to see if this goes away?

Well, some consistency....

I also revisited Delvers Row and tried to trigger more artifacts, etc., but it was perfect.

Okay, more gfx issues, all the same type but this time in Old City Overlook, and Old City..one is actually within a map! Due to file size I will post these thumbnails separately

- I also found this issue in the Old city when viewing the "Map" it was all corrupted inside it's own window... go figure. I tried to trigger the GFX corruption using the typical mouse placement that triggers it in the general Old City screens and it did not show, I also checked the smuggling area and did not see this at all... Looking forward to the patch... MD

Oops I meant AI, not UI...