Luckmann

Cheers. You have made a positive difference on the game. Your engagement exploit videos were especially good. It was a non-obvious problem and it would have been a bad thing to discover it after release. Here's hoping for a successful launch, many successful sequels and a wake up call to others in the industry about good writing and engaging gameplay vs. shiny crap. I wonder if they can actually fix them, though, and if so, how they did it.

Depends on the build. From an RP perspective, I want to say Resolve, but honestly, you really should only take Resolve if you are going to tank. Constitution is also largely meaningless, but it's debatable. Might is good for anything that wants to do damage (or heal, but healing in PoE? All the lols).

And if it had no relevance, you would have to ask yourself why it exists to begin with. Of course it has relevance. It's the foundation of everything above it.

Alright, so, it's kinda clear that you haven't actually read the thread, because no-one has said that they think that all the CNPC:s would be min/maxed with high might and Intellect. No-one. Not a single one have even hinted at this, as far as I've seen. Total strawman. The issue isn't the Attributes that for example Aloth is saddled with, but rather an issue of the Attributes themselves being unbalanced. To stick to the Aloth/Perception example, that's a solid 6 points that are straight-up dead weight. This is not to say that Aloth's Attributes should be changed; I don't think they should be. The issue is fundamentally that Perception shouldn't be dead weight for him, and seeing as how it is, it is sad to see him stuck with it. Look at Edér. A high-ish CON Fighter who was made into a Fighter in order to give people a tank, with a lot of MIG. No-one is really complaining about that, despite it being a relatively bad tank build, and clearly not min/maxed. The issue is with the Attributes themselves and it leads to spreads that should otherwise be reasonable feeling incredibly ****ty. It's also very lopsided and uneven, looking at for example Kana Rua, a character that is very clearly min/maxed by comparison to anyone else. The fact that the game can still be completed does nothing to diminish the present issues and does not constitute an argument against balance. A choice of attributes should contribute actively to the completion, the game shouldn't allow you to complete it in spite of them. Some do, some doesn't. The attributes are very far from equally viable, but you are right that they are viable insofar that it is possible to complete the game with any spread. This is beside the point. You could complete the game with 10 in all stats, but you'd never argue that a CNPC that was 6 points behind everyone else was balanced.

I'm inclined to agree with the assertion (Paladins are not the best choice), but speaking strictly from a survivability standpoint as a tank (not the utility), Paladins are beasts when built as tanks. Now, there are other factors, such as utility and Engagement bonuses, and the Fighter steamrolls the Paladin in those regards, but the AI in PoE is dumb as a brick and for most tanking, you really have to just engage with the tank first and they'll pelt him and nothing else. And the Paladin can be absolutely crazy when it comes to survivability in that regard, due to the bonuses they can get on top of the bonuses anyone else would get. Something to keep in mind.

Then the Wiki is wrong. What does it effect? The wiki is wrong about everything, categorically, all the time. Do not trust it. Never. Perception gives you a bonus to Deflection, Interrupt, and Reflex. It's pretty much exclusively useful for front-liners. Do people really rely on the wikis for games that are still in development? Yes. No, I don't know why. Yes, it's sorta crazy.

I have no idea how to read this.

I think that this idea is literally worse than Hitler.

The release version will not change considerably. The best we can hope for are minor adjustments. The entire current system favours heavy specialization and greatly awards min/maxing. While I share your wishes, I say curb your enthusiasm. Nothing will change considerably in 3 days. To say that the system isn't nice to hybrid builds or utility builds is probably the understatement of the century. That being said, it's also pretty hard to fail irrevocably. Even a really bad build should be able to finish the game.

I have nothing constructive to add to this discussion. But I wanted to repost this because I love it.

Ulfric Osric Eldoth Not entirely sure. I'm wavering in my decision to play a Deathlike since I decided to play my Bleak Walker wearing nothing but clothes. They can't wear helmets and the head models look a bit stupid, so without proper armour, it could end up annoying me too much. I'm considering a human instead (which is a big woah for me, like, humans?) and if I go with a human, Bleak Walker Paladin, no armour, duelist with a rapier, I'm definitely going with Eldoth. Eldoth, aedyr aristocrat and heroic douche. Edit: It also depends on what portraits will be available by release, to see if anything inspires me.

Yes, and a matchlock with powder and lead can outperform an M-6 carbine that doesn't have any ammunition. That doesn't mean the matchlock is better, it just means you've weighted the scales. Scales are already weighted, you will start the game with basic armor set, and will slowly find components for basic enchants and some already enchanted armors that will be better performing due to lack of top enchants on your basic armor. I also believe there will be many unique armor sets that will not follow baseline armor sets very much. They will be medium and they will be amazing. Unsubstantiated, and by that logic, you will find equally amazing unique heavy armours or maybe even clothes. When discussing armour balance, we're strictly discussing the mechanics as they are, not theorycrafting air-castles that may or may not come to pass. Even if there would be amazingly overpowered armours in the game that are specifically medium armour, and all the rest would get nothing but rusty trash, it would not mean that the base system would be balanced.

Yes, only your main character speaks for the party. CNPC:s only interject at their own leisure.

Generally speaking, you would probably want to avoid doing an unarmed monk, because weapons can be enchanted, your hands can't. The game is a bit odd like that; fully armoured monk tanks, rogues that are terrible at stealthed backstabs, resolve being terrible for non-tank paladins, intellect being a prime attribute for barbarians, etc. It's pretty unintuitive in a lot of ways. Just a heads up on the weapons, since unarmed monks is a bit of a staple of the genre.

The GOG patches wouldn't necessarily be compatible with the DRM-free disc. I still think these patches will be accessed through the backer portal. Not necessarily, but I would be surprised if it wasn't. It would be odd if they supplied patches through the backer portal considering that they've had to manage a redundant system instead of relying on the pre-existing ones that already exists (Steam/GOG). Edit: Oh, alright, fair enough. Thanks.

Circumventing the "Combat Only"-system of abilities and spells. Now, the "Combat Only" system is utterly insane for a wide range of reasons, but there are definite benefits to prolonging the combat state. Primarily it has to do with buffs and summons.

You really don't need backstab for a rogue. Sneak attack works darn well, and you save a talent. This. Backstabbing from Stealth or Invisibility is of very limited value, since Invisibility is only 2/Rest and you can't Stealth in combat (or even choose to tactically deploy in combat once it's started, you either initiate from Stealth right away, or you can forget about backstabbing at all), and you most often do not want to initiate with your rogue and get swarmed (enjoy that Engagement and Action Recovery penalty for trying to get away). There are much better choices for a Rogue. The Backstab Talent and the Shadowing Beyond Ability are pretty much trap choices, imo.

Yeah, I know. That's why I picked Arms Bearer in conjunction with Quick Switch - to fire one shot, switch to a second pistol, fire another one and finally switch to a Greatsword and go to town. Ah, fair enough. In my defence you did say "greatsword and dual pistols" and I know people have wanted to do that before. I would definitely try to fit Intense Flames in there somehow, to synergize with Remember Rakhan Fields, but I cannot for the life of me think of what Talent you should drop for it. If you really want two pistols and fire both before engaging with your Two-Handed Sword, I would definitely not drop Quick Switch, especially if you intend to use heavy armour. I would also question the choice of Resolve for a non-tank, since you won't really be benefiting from it that much at all. That being said, I assume it is important for your core concept, so it's understandable.

I would assume that you would need to register with GOG to download the patches.

Hehe, I remember making that thread addressing that issue. I would have to ask Sensuki, but he seems super busy playing the game . Keep in mind, you can get a free backstab attack if you stealth and attack before the fight begins. Backstabs don't require you to be only invisible, you can also get backstabs off from stealth. While I question the start-with-a-backstab viability, that's neither here nor there, but they really should update the description to clarify that it includes both Invisibility and Stealth, since they are not the same thing at all in game terms. It's an easy mistake to make, since someone that isn't used to reading RPG rules probably isn't going to make the distinction. The difference between Backstabs and Sneak Attacks should also be clarified since it's common terminology in games, and they often refer to the same mechanic.

Depends on what class and build he's talking about. I'll be the first one to say that one should go for what they want and aim for the RP, but if he's going for a traditional wizard and referring to Perception, saying that Perception is good for combat for him is ignorant at best and deceptive at worst. Disagree...it depends on the build. You can build a tanky Wizard with High perception and take down the Harond Guard at the bridge at 4th level with the right selection of spells and basic equipment. Just did it and interrupt came in quite handy. With the right equipment and crafting, one could build a very good character around a high perception concept. It may not be great for a Power gamer, but for for someone who wants to RP a particular type of chracter and have synergy between the RP aspects and combat, it's fine. BTW, we don't know how this might change between 480 and release, so the whole discussion might be moot Well I did say that it depends on the build. It is possible to build perfectly viable characters with incredibly underoptimized Attributes, really, simply because Attributes are not the end-all, be-all. But keeping with a "vanilla Wizard" concept and the Perception Attribute, you'd be doing well despite the pumped Perception, not because of it. There's an argument in this general vicinity about the feasibility of battlemages (it's.. not positive) but if that is what you're building for anyway, then yes, we can place Perception back on the table to a degree, but then you might as well invest in Resolve rather than Perception. And no, we don't know if it'll change, but if it hasn't changed since v435 all the way up to the post-1.0 release copies (I think it's, like, v1.0.1.490?) that have gone out to journalists and streamers, I think it's unlikely to change at this point, less than 3 days before release. However, it is a fair point that we can't be sure, and it could get both better or worse. It is an unknown, which is why we're sticking to discussing things as they are or as they could be, rather than theorycraft on completely unknown factors.

You cannot dual-wield pistols. Also, note that Flames of Devotion have been nerfed and made into 2/Encounter, but we're not entirely sure what's changed or how. This was intended to kill the super-blaster-bleak-walker build, because Paladins can't have nice things and not even Blackguards are allowed to build for damage.

Well I obviously disagree, because I think that the foremost goal should be to fix issues, whether they're bugs or issues of balance, and there's some very real problems with the attribute system as it is right now. That being said, I do share the concern (as I have voiced in the past) and I would be incredibly surprised if they fixed the attribute problems post-release. The fact that it's a singleplayer game and not a multiplayer game is no excuse for poor game mechanics or mechanics that interact with eachother poorly. That being said, Sensuki is also right in that either way, a character is unlikely to be "ruined" in the same sense a AD&D or MMO character might be from such changes, due to how the system works, but I don't think the bellyaching would be curtailed by that.

I have no idea what you're even saying in the OP, really.

Depends on what class and build he's talking about. I'll be the first one to say that one should go for what they want and aim for the RP, but if he's going for a traditional wizard and referring to Perception, saying that Perception is good for combat for him is ignorant at best and deceptive at worst.