Luckmann

I think it comes down to the rules simply being too lax, by and large. Even if you don't hit, you Graze, and the feedback you get on it is more or less "Eh, it hit, I guess". With no Immunities, no hard counters, and no major resistances, you can really just barge through the game like a drunken fool and just sorta headbutt your way through encounters, even if you suck - and if you don't suck, you'll just do tank and spank from start to finish, which is even worse. PoE consists of all these loose parts and mechanics that could be good on their own, but when they all come together, it doesn't play very well, imo, like the no-combat-xp.. but then you still have bestiary xp, lockpick xp, and trap xp... or the idea that combat should be a decision in some cases, yet with the unlimited stash, the infinigold merchants and the enchanting system, you want to kill everything anyway... or the excellent ideas of the generalized attributes and armours, yet the bonuses end up pigeon-holing you as either tank or dps, or all the mobility things to deal with engagement, yet it just ends up with you not wanting to move or adjust due to the many compound penalties and risks. There's still a lot of potential here, but I think it's all just.. too easy and doesn't all interact with all the other stuff very well. Imagine going through any of the IE games like that. Yeah, you sucked at the beginning, and you died to those gibberlings, and you had no idea how armour worked, but by the end of the game, you'd learned the ropes because you had to, and adjusted, reacted in combat over and over, and been weaned of your noobhood. In PoE, I don't even pay attention to what things do, or how they do it. This thing knocks them down? 'aight. This thing dazes them? 'aight, I have no idea what the penalties for that is, but it seems to work. ... I really have no idea what the penalties for daze are, yet I use it all the time, because it's accessible and it does something. It seems to matter, but I have no idea how much or if I really need to use it or not. Yes, I can check in-game, but I'm not in-game right now, and my point is that I never felt that it mattered for me to remember what it does. You can't even hover over the Daze of enemies to see what it does to them specifically, it's just an icon amongst all the others and a quick little timer timing down; was it supposed to last for just 5 seconds? Is that a Graze or a Hit? A Crit? No clue. I guess it did something. Such tactics. Much strategy.

to say that Gromnir is disappointed regarding the absence o' a retroactive reckless assault fix is woeful insufficient to describe our feelings on the matter. ... fine. restart it is. currently we are looking at the beta for 1.04, and based on other developer feedback, 1.05 is envisioned as a much more substantial patch. am suspecting no less than a month will pass before a retroactive reckless assault fix is provided. so, fine. we can take a hint. for Gromnir this is the line o' demarcation that divides admirable patience from stubbornly obtuse. HA! Good Fun! I think I'm just going to hold off playing until 1.05 hits and hope it fixes things. I'm really not feeling the game anymore, especially since the IEMod won't be updated anymore. So I'll wait for 1.05 and see if anyone picks up the IEMod or makes something similar or better, because it's useless playing without it.

I can't answer, because we don't know what Sunlikes or Dawnlikes looks like, and you can't play a Paladin as a member of the fun orders.

Good job on the hidden sudden spoiler in the non-spoiler forum there. How is this a spoiler? Sky Dragon eye is an ingredient necessary to improve items to Superb, if you take one look at the crafting list you know that a Sky Dragon will be murdered at some point. It's a crafting ingredient; there's no shortage of situations where you get crafting ingredients without killing anything at all, and there's no shortage of situations where the name of something does not match it's origin.

Let's be clear on this, we know that Moonlikes are Ondra, that Avianlikes are Hylea, and that Firelikes are Magran. But Deathlikes and Naturelikes are unknown, the two in the OP were just my guessed based on the latter mentioned rationale. I fully agree that neither Galawain or Eothas - as Gaun - feel entirely appropriate for Naturelikes, and the jury is very much out on whether Deathlikes are Berath or Rymrgand, but when PhroX mentioned it, I also have this very vague recollection of someone referring to Berath in relation to Deathlikes. If anyone could confirm, that'd be great. If Deathlikes really are blessed (or Cursed) by Berath, I'd expect Rymrgand to, as "the beast of winter", create Cold- Ice- or Frostlikes. Large, icy growths, icy, frost-covered skin, almost transparent, with the veins underneath visible, their blood blue. Constantly, slowly dripping water as if melting, but never actually melting, in warmer climates. That being said.. I'm still not sure on Berath, it would be odd, because Berath is all about the deciding of who lives and dies and who is reborn as what, while Rymrgand is all about death-death, just death. Maybe deathlikes should've been characterized as exhuding cold or something, but they already look diseased, and Rymrgand is about plague and decay.. And if we assume that Naturelikes aren't Eothas-as-Gaun, I can see Dawnlikes as radiant beings with light bronze or golden skin, perhaps a light shimmer, with fully, yellow eyes - much like many depictions of Aasimar in D&D. Godlikes are supposed to be invariably deformed, however, but I'm not sure how dawnlikes (or sunlikes, or starlikes) are supposed to fulfil that. Hair of floating rays of light, like loose blonde hair, mildly statically charged, in weightlessness, glowing with an inner light? Maybe simply a diffuse light that encompasses the entire top of their head and back of their skull, a seemingly opaque morning mist full of dawn's light, as if nothing is there, and if you stick your hand into them, it just keeps going, the further in, the warmer the light gets? Abydon, Forgelike, rather easy, as many have suggested. Metal, rivets, golem-like, ponderous, mechanical. A heart of a furnace's flame, hands as strong and firm as a hammer and tong, and veins of black, oily blood. Eyes of glass, everything about them screaming automaton, golem, construct. A square, rigid body build that encompasses the head; at the very least geometrically shaped. Definitely some basic damage resistances, especially against piercing or slashing, maybe even a bonus to using hammers of all kinds (Obsidian, y u no 2h Warhammers, y u no Sledgehammers?) Skaen? Harder. Shadowlikes? Blacklikes? At the very least, very dark or very pale skin, and invariably pitch-black eyes. Not much to add to Gkathellar's idea of Torment/Slavery Godlikes; blackened, beaten and bruised, cracked skulls and noses and eye sockets. Bony protrusions along the neck and head, resembling broken or bruised bones, sometimes piercing the skin. Generally disfigured in human ways but in ways no human would actually survive. Scars everywhere. Seemingly weak, malnourished, but deeply, deceptively strong. Woedica.. Woedica... would she even have Godlikes? There's good argument as to there not being any Eothosian Godlikes, actually, either, and Woedica might not have any either, largely for the same reasons, but it's very debatable. Either way, Lawlikes (or whatever, I know it sucks); leathery skin, milky eyes, scarred as if by fire, yet regal in stature, almost invariably not too skinny nor too fat. Has a series of bony, apparently polished, silver- or gold-speckled protrusions around the top of the head, like the crowns of royalty, ranging from "sharp tiara" to "Sauron". This is where I add that I would love to play as a Paladin of the Steel Garrote, provided there'd be content to support it (I don't feel that there's content enough to support the Paladin Orders already present, in my limited experience). Wael, Dreamlikes? Largely androgynous and very hard to determine any gender whatsoever. No eyes whatsoever, whether empty eye sockets or simply none at all. Skin like parchment or dried paper. Often appears to change appearance even if they don't, and have a tendency to exhibit bipolar or erratic behaviour, or think and act in ways that are incomprehensible to normal people. Can never have hair, and their head is covered in tattoos that depict runes, symbols, or letters that constantly shift or change just underneath the skin. Covering the head with anything causes a profound and debilitating pain, followed by unconsciousness. Berath, in the case Berath is not the patron of the Deathlikes? No bloody clue. Going by The Usher and the Pallid Knight, in a word, "skeletal", with the face obfuscated by a permanent and unremovable hood or helmet of skin and bones that flows into the body like any other limb. White, profoundly pale skin, gaunt and thin. Silent. Inevitable. And Galawain, if he's not the cause of Naturelikes? Feral. Half-animals with animal skulls and ears, if not their faces. Sharp fangs. Like men and women stuck halfway into lycanthropy, as many types of his children as there are animals, not always predatory in the carnivore sense, as he exemplifies the hunt in all it's ways, whether exploration, foraging or hunting for meat. I can't wait to play a dwarfhamsterlike. That's all I can think of right now, anyway.

Good job on the hidden sudden spoiler in the non-spoiler forum there.

To be fair though, most spells in PoE does not level with the player because they are useful throughout pretty much the entire game. Yeah, other stuff becomes better, but that's because they're at higher spell ranks - the low-level stuff never really gets as useless as it probably should.

This. ^ Taking anything these lunatics say as serious is taking it too far. It is more fair to say that if they're upset, it's a sign you're actually not offensive at all. They actively look for things to sensationalize and take offence of, anything that is actually to be taken serious is of no interest to them. They are the ones that obsess over sexist shirts, racist icecreams and phobic limericks.

The interactions between Edér and Aloth is enough reason to bring Aloth, really.

Isn't that exactly what Pallegina is supposed to seem like? To a point, maybe, but I'm not just referring to the fact that she's an Avianlike. It's more about how she's introduced, presented and so on, and it just sorta adds up.

There's several issues with these calculations. First, the Accuracy will increase at roughly the same rate for both builds, meaning that the +12 will be less and less relevant. Secondly, you are placing two roughly identical weapons next to eachother, which wouldn't happen. You have to compare the duelist to an actual dual-wielder that gets two attacks, or the duelist to someone using a two-handed weapon. So, say, a duelist with a rapier or longsword, vs. a dual-wielder with two sabres or rapier+stiletto, vs. a two-handed-weapon-wielder with an estoc or greatsword. The % increase does not matter half as much as the actual difference in DPS. And this is before we even start talking about the Talents. The Two-Handed Style Talent is a flat +15% and the Two-Weapon Style is practically mandatory for dual-wielders, while the One-Weapon Style is a 30% Graze-to-Hit modifier, for a style that will not get Grazes nearly as much as anyone else, on a style that thus promotes you to stack as much +Accuracy as possible (more than usual); it's utterly terrible. For a single build? I'm fine with that. Duelists will never be tanks and you will never want to give them +Deflection items anyway (unless you have some to spare). My own suggestion often entails making Deflection good for Duelists by making them hit more, the aforementioned riposte. Another suggestion allows them to get a smaller Deflection-like effect with Accuracy. Either would be fine, and quite fitting. Either you make Accuracy increase their survivability, or you make Deflection increase their Action Economy. Neither would be earth-shattering, depending on how you tune the numbers.

This is, in fact, my favourite line.

How? Why? I can see no reason as to why that statement would be true.

Wait until you get to level 9 and those 1st-level spells becomes Per Encounter.

Why do you think that? Unless it was changed in a patch and I missed it, if you are a monk and you equip a 1h weapon, you are fighting one-handed. Your off-hand (literally, as in your fist) is not being used. You should not be gaining the benefits of dual-wielding in any way while having a weapon in one of your hands. In fact, it is a source of many complaints that it is impossible to do that, because obviously, monks want to be able to fight with both their hands whether they use a weapon in one of them or not.

Removing the Talent?

It's a spoiler-free forum, and you don't even tag your topic with [spoilerS]? Get out. >:|

Because if you take them for 1st or 2nd level spells, once they become at-will, they'll no longer serve a purpose. They're not "at-will", they're Per-Encounter. If you have Bonus 1st Level Spell, your 5 Per-Rest Spells becomes 5 Per-Encounter Spells. I'd judge that much more powerful than having just 1 extra per rest. 1 extra per rest is useless. 1 extra for every encounter, forever? That's amazing to the point of crazy. Even with just 12 levels, you become pretty damn crazy. While the game is "low level", the content it provides definitely doesn't feel like a low-level adventure past a certain point... which is actually one of the true failings of the game, imo. You're murdering powerful beasts left and right and punching dragons to death.

Actually, it's not. It was mentioned way, way, waaaaay back as an intended mechanic, but it was never tested during the beta because.. well.. it didn't exit. The beta was capped at 8, so no beta-tester really got a chance to try this out. I would prefer the mechanic being reworked somehow, because I want spellcasters to be more differntiated and have more class-specific stuff (like Domain Spells for Priests, a focus on spiritshifting/wildshape for Druids, and whatever makes sense for Wizards) but ultimately, if this entire mechanic was just completely cut, no ifs, buts or maybes, no compensation at all, I would still be fine with it, because spellcasters already become exponentially more powerful as they level. They don't even really need this mechanic at all. I'd prefer it being reworked into something reasonable, but seriously, if that's not feasible, just axe it.

And speaking of 15-year-old functionality, named saves.

For Deathlikes and Naturelikes, it isn't explicitly said which god they originate from, but for Deathlikes, I figured that Rymrgand was the originator, because Berath appears to be more about the cycle of life and death, the passing, rather than death or decaying itself. Dying and the inevitability of dying, rather than Death or being dead, if that makes any sense. Naturelikes being of Eothas did occur to me, due to Eothas appearing also as Gaun, a god very close to nature, but naturelikes feel more like untamed nature than Gaun would suggest. Gaun is a figure of rebirth, and depicted as a farmer with a sickle and a lantern. I would expect him to be more about the season harvests and the sowing, rather than nature in itself; the passage of time, cyclical death and rebirth, and the bounty of the sun and land. It is really impossible to say whether I'm right on this or not, so any arguments as to where Deathlikes and Naturelikes originate from are welcome, but my bet is still on Rymrgand and Galawain, however, Galawain is easily the most imperfect bet of mine, because I would expect him to have something more feral, more animalistic; he is the god of the hunt, and the patron of explorers and so on - he does not actually strike me as very bound to nature as an abstract concept, and certainly not to the wood-like, undbound, druidic look of the naturelikes.

I don't identify as a GamerGater, but I found this insanely hilarious, since I just came across this less than 5 minutes ago. I'll just leave it here. http://imgur.com/gallery/KzoKk3B The comments are the best.

In a sense this is bringing some of the level advancement feel of dnd in. Wizards tend to be useless at low levels much weaker than fighters etc., but at high levels they are to be one step away from becoming demi gods. At least I think this is the reasoning behind it. Not even spellcasters in 3.5 Ed. have this kind of jump, though. Also, I thought we were trying to get away from that, anyway? Well then it's a problem because it's arbitrary and nonsensical. A game should play by it's own rules, not assign things seemingly at random. So yeah, they could do that, but that's really just acknowledging that there's a systemic issue and then instead of fixing it, let's put a band-aid on it and break the mold because lolrandum I dunno lol.

Oh, concentration camps, now? Seriously? Oh, we're not censoring anything, we're not the thought police or anything, we're just relocating the undesirables. Um yes that is the whole point of having separate forums in the first place. Basically every single forum in the world with topics is Nazis. But then everything is Nazis. Every single President we elect turns out to be Hitler. Just how it goes. You will be a good Swede and sell them ball bearings. In any case, culture wars are not what this forum is about. And rocks. Let's not forget rocks. Copious amounts of undelivered rock.

+8 + 1 per level would be a good scaling, I thinking, meaning +20 at level 12. But the biggest issue really is the Talent. The Two-Handed Style Talent is boring, but at least it's good and dependable. The One-Handed Style Talent is really, really bad. My suggestion has always been to add a secondary effect to it, such as increasing Penetration, or reducing Recovery Time a lot after managing to Deflect (a riposte-like effect, essentially; you deflect during Recovery, you get to attack faster). Or something like that.