Seagloom

I can take it or leave it. I enjoyed it in BG2 and NWN2, but to be honest none of those places ever felt like home. Other than Big MT in OWB, I can't remember a protagonist ever being linked to their stronghold in an ending either. They tend to feel like a disconnected part of my character's past once their relevance to the story is over.

I agree with Hoverdog. While I prefer classless systems on the whole for their fludity, party dynamics tend to be more interesting with rigid limitations on what everyone can do. I also like the idea of NPCs having a unique ability a la KotOR2 instead of choosing from an identical pool. Classless systems in a party based game run the risk of homogenizing the whole group unless mechanics are superbly balanced. It becomes very tempting to pick the best of everything instead of trying to work with what your classes have available. I can live with either approach, though.

The fashionista in me would be remiss were I not to support any request for cloaks and capes. Thusly, I support it. It would also be nice if there were dress options for us mage players with a taste for the extravagant, and trousers for the practical. Only having bathrobes to choose from can get old, ya know? We don't get all those neat armor type upgrades the meat shields do.

In regards to factions, I would like to see a roughly equivalent positive and negative portrayal of them all. One area I felt New Vegas failed was in how Caesar's Legion was presented to the player. Yes, there was the odd NPC that provided a fresh perspective and a conversation with Caesar about his long term goals, but beyond those scant moments I was never presented with a compelling reason to support his side. Not unless I was role-playing a sadistic monster or an unempathetic pragmatist, anyway. That is not to say I'm against the idea of an "evil" faction. Only that I'd like every faction to offer believable incentives to join or support. I don't ever want to feel as if one choice is clearly superior to another. Perhaps it might be easier if none of the main factions were the primary antagonists. Unless having an option for Evil McEvil characters to join the Big Bads is intentional; in which case ignore this whole post.

I agree with what Delterius wrote on page one. Vancian magic is an old favorite because it adds a layer of resource management I enjoy. I'm not especially concerned about magic mechanics as I am about its application to role-playing, however. In the vast majority of CRPGs, magic is merely another weapon. You kill stuff with it. On occasion you buff a follower, debilitate a foe, or strip a defense. Once in a blue moon a game incorporates a spell into a one off dialogue or requires magic to circumvent an obstacle as part of a plot point. However, there is often a massive disconnect between magic and story that is tiring. Take for example, Shandra dying in NWN2 and there being no option to resurrect her despite the multitude of means available to your party. I want magic to feel, well *magical*. A living, breathing part of the world with impact and not merely another ranged attack/debuff option in combat. Arcanum dabbled this in a teensy bit with some of its spells, and it was wonderful. Now realistically, I do not expect anything approaching my dream scenario with the budget Obsidian will be working with here. I'm only hoping that magic gets at least a fraction more attention to detail than it receives in so many other games.

What I dislike most about Anjali is her clunky modes. Katarina and Reinhart's modes feel more... seamless, for want of a better term. There is synergy there. I found myself wanting to switch between them constantly throughout the game. With Anjali, there isn't a whole lot of incentive most of the time short of wanting a change of pace. Visually some of her abilities are neat, but mechanically it feels like she's two very different characters lumped into one. I wasn't too thrilled with Anjali's talents either. Several of them are healing oriented which is great for survivability, but not to my personal tastes. Katarina's are a mix of support, debuff, and damage boosting which I vastly prefer. Different strokes for different folks 'n' all, I guess.

I finished it by using empowered heartseeking shot at point blank range a few times. Actually, that was my tactic for most TotS bosses. They were not challenging so much as cheap.

Toss up between Katarina and Reinhart. Katarina is just pure awesome in terms of abilities. They are useful, flashy, and feel powerful. Higher level Kat is plain fun to watch. Reinhart is on par for similar reasons. His moves are powerful, but slower to execute. Reinhart is the easier character to win with but has the steeper learning curve. I also liked his design. Pot-bellied wizard dude that punches people in the face? Badass. Lucas and Anjali were bland in comparison to those two.

I think we found Lion's Roar and the scimitar you describe. I'll mention those items so we can backtrack for them. The two of us respecced our characters and Lucas got some doom, retribution, and vampiric regeneration on his gear. He's performing better now. He is also the main character, by the way. Katarina is the tag along. It's odd that the equipment disparity has been so massive considering that. Hopefully Lucas gets better random drops soon. We still have Stonebridge and the Spire left, so who knows. The way Kat is geared, she's set up for the rest of the game already. I've taken off over a third of a boss's life with a point blank empowered Heartseeking Shot. It's ridiculous. Not that I dislike playing Kat, of course. It just hurts my fun factor to know my friend is frustrated and I'm inadvertently not helping matters.

We haven't been fortunate in finding good equipment for him. Stuff for Katarina is dropping all over the place. I still think he's using the same Lescanzi Witchblade reward from Leona. Build wise, his Lucas is excellent. We discussed it last night; and having played Lucas before, I offered what pointers I could. About the only thing I think his build is lacking is ranks in the Death Defying talent. He's only just started working on that. It should be clarified we're nowhere near level 35. I don't think we're even at 25 yet. Honestly, I can't disagree with him on the melee thing. It doesn't feel like the game was balanced for hardcore, but rather normal difficulty. Lucas is at a serious disadvantage compared to Reinhart and Katarina. He lacks the former's AoE dominance and the latter's range. Items and essences will surely help, but its patching a core problem with the character's mechanics. I don't think it's fair to compare an optimally equipped level 35 Lucas partnered with what may be the most overpowered character; to a Lucas that's sub level 25 with mediocre equipment.

My friend and I finally reached the DLC content after clearing Glitterdelve. We're saving Stonebridge for last. The difficulty has jumped up several points. It seems like there's a boss encounter around every corner. My friend isn't happy with how Lucas has to get into melee range for his attacks and gets dropped with ease at the slightest tap. That's exacerbated further by what he sees of Katarina. Thrill of the Hunt is stupidly useful when paired with the first shrine's healing ability and Surprise Attack. Katarina can roll through enemies, and the damage it does is enough to fill up her three orbs in seconds. After that, she can full heal. While it's still sort of balanced since bosses tend to drop her in one hit; it makes her survivability godlike in lesser encounters. I considered Thrill of the Hunt great before, but paired with this it's plain ridiculous.

There is also no telling if that figure takes digital sales into account. DS3 is a Steamworks game. Doubtless some consumers passed on a retail box copy. Then there was that sale weeks back when Valve temporarily knocked down the price. Sure, they got less per unit but probably pushed more overall in that time frame. We would probably never have seen Treasures of the Sun were DS2 a complete flop.

Maru-yatum killed us once. The second time we won, but it took awhile to whittle him down. We ran out of time at the warbeast. That fight is pretty crazy since being trampled is one-shot. And it isn't like we're playing inefficiently. If anything, this has forced me to step up my game since even building the best character I can doesn't mean I can fall asleep in a fight. That's what makes the game exciting, though. It's cool that most fights feel serious. The first Jeyne fight should be torture. I fear it.

I haven't messed with these abilities yet, but I'd imagine the healing and fire would be handy with a late game Katarina. She builds power faster than it can be spent with a maxed out Thrill of the Hunt. Then again, if the abilities are substandard compared to existing options, I suppose it's moot.

I still haven't played this DLC yet. My friend and I are plodding through the campaign as time allows. We plan to finally go there after clearing Glitterdelve. So far I'm very impressed with the increase on challenge. Playing on hardcore with the tweaks makes the game a lot more fun. It feels like I need to use every trick at the best time or Katarina ends up dead in any battle with too many enemies. The boss battles are truly epic now too. If I have any complaint it's that the HP totals are insane now. It takes an eternity to put down some of the tougher bosses. Heck, even some midbosses. The fight against those two dakkenweyr at the entrance to Glitterdelve was tougher than Rajani.

Is it a damage over time effect like gears of annihilation? What about the healing and shield abilities? Is there anything unique to them or are they just a rehash of old abilities? I need to play this already. Darned busy mornings.

I see. That's a shame. I was hoping everyone got three new personalized powers. I shouldn't be surprised, though. The art and animation expense to pull that off would probably be unreasonable for a DLC project. I would likey take the healing power, then. Aside from Anjali, I don't think any of the characters will benefit much from another DPS boost.

Do they differ between characters or are they identical across the board?

Oooh... I look forward to this new challenge then! I held off on starting TotS last night since a friend bought it. We're starting a fresh co-op campaign tomorrow on the highest difficulty. Should be amusing.

Most likely, yeah. I had a feeling it would be handled that way. It makes sense the Aranoi would be reachable by causeway. Once you get to the final area the way's blocked off and you're stuck. :/

I wish. No, I won't have the time to play until later tonight. It's all downloaded and updated, tho'.

Endgame Autosave is when the game autosaves after exiting the Spire via causeway. The autosave occurs the second you arrive there. It's clearly labeled "Endgame Autosave" in the load game list.

It's appeared on Steam now. Download time!

Nice. I hope just around the corner is this Tuesday. I would've loved to play TotS over this weekend, though. Le sigh.

I have long fingers so hitting shift and 2 or 3 isn't any more problematic than 1. Not that it's convenient even then. Empowered defensive abilities are definitely worse. I can't move while activating them which makes it chancy at best. I gotta say, this is the only console holdover I really dislike. With so many keys on the board, it should be easier to activate those abilities.