Luckmann

No, the party wasn't rested. They walked to the fight straight from the compass. When you get back, the game is like, "oh no, people are dying, we have to get in their and help." It wouldn't feel like much of an RPG if I went and had a pint at the bar before the adventure. All that wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't hide monster statistics and disallow retreat from the map during a fight and disallow retreat when half a dozen monsters are standing on the body of a down but not out comrade. Even all that wouldn't be so bad if on top of it all the game didn't throw curve balls at you. That's my grip - that the game isn't set up for hardcore. Take a game that is for example, Path of Exile. When you are leveling your character up in that game and provided you are pursuing a standard and obvious design, you can FEEL your way through the game. If you are losing too much life, you can advance health. If you need damage, then damage. If the monsters start becoming too hard, you can check your gear, go back to a previous area, party up, and so on and on. It was designed with the hardcore experience in mind. Other than beating the game in regular mode and memorizing everything because it doesn't even change, what can you do in Pillars? The game goes out of its way to be dense. It's not so much a "have a pint" thing as a "Oh, no, we're not rested and we're gon' get killed if we don't rest up and think this through carefully before committing". Granted, I think that the dialogue in the game should allow you to really act that out way, way, way more often, but that's pretty much it. In Hardcore, you really need to stop and think before you do anything at all, considering your options. It wouldn't be hardcore, otherwise. That said, I specifically do not run hardcore myself because I don't trust games to not arbitrarily and suddenly screw me over due to bugs or crashes or just plain weird mechanics suddenly acting in a completely unintuitive manner. So, yeah.

Alright, time to delve into the all-to-common territory of "Why didn't PoE explain that to me?". Let's take the object we have at hand, Plate Armour. Plate Armour has a base DR of 12, a Slash of 18, and a Shock DR of 6. Now, let's say you add Burn-Proofed. This bumps the Plate Armour up to Burn DR 15. Makes sense, right? So, what if we add Shock-Proofed? That'd add 6+3, no? Because that would make sense, after all, cover your weaknesses, right? Eeeeeeeeh! No! The armour system and the special "elemental" DR:s are based on percentages of the full DR. So in fact, when an armour has a base DR of 12, and thus, say, a Burn DR of 12 (unlisted), what it really means is that the Burn DR is at 100%. So what's the effect on the Shock DR? 6 of 12 is 50%. And 18 of 12 is 150%. So in reality, it's: Base DR = 12 DR. 100% Burn (12 DR) 100% Freeze (12 DR) 50% Shock (6 DR) 100% Corrode (12 DR) 150% Slash (18 DR) 100% Pierce (12 DR) 100% Crush (12 DR) Meaning that when you modify the DR of the armour in any way, this will be taken into account. And unless I'm mistaken, DR can even be applied in fractions, although the displayed numbers are rounded, making it even harder to determine what's going on, sometimes, in terms of actual damage reduced. This is something important to keep in mind when planning armours. For reference, what armour are you wearing, specifically? I have no idea what would have the stats you describe in the OP. Edit: And yes, Pale Elves could make really good tanks.. if fire and especially ice damage was more common. My memory is fuzzy, but I think shades and phantoms deal ice damage, but they're also notoriously hard to tank. Nothing else comes to mind.

Also, I've seen a lot of people scoff at movement speed, but unless you've got a tank with really pumped Stealth - which is unlikely - movement speed is actually very useful in having the tank run really fast into the enemies once combat starts, ensuring that the tank alone engages the enemies. The rest of the party is then free to engage from range or deploy however you wish. Once we finally get indivdual/combat Stealth, I foresee this getting even more useful, with Rogues being able to sneak up after the tank has engaged, and immediately take out 2, maybe even 3 of the weaker enemies. PoE is opening, opening, opening, opening. Edit: With the Rogues, I was thinking two rogues. It's obviously not likely that a single rogue would be able to take out 3 enemies right away. I had this image in my head of my own PC rogue with the CNPC rogue, working together. Pallegina is my off-tank. I've found the +Engagement Talent to be completely superfluous, though, and does very little in terms of making enemies stick to you. They rarely "unstick" from you, and if they do, they will likely have done that whether Engaged or not. Pallegina with Medium/Heavy Armour and a two-handed sword worked wonders, built for support and DPS-ish, staying power secondary, and Edèr as the blitz-tank (it's funny to see him just starting to leg it like crazy when combat starts, because of the silly "Combat Only" states not kicking in until it does).

This. How can you not need more than one tank (or other frontline character who doesn't die too easily, i.e. offtank) when there are often fights with 10 or so enemies and only about 5 will fit around a character before spilling over to find someone else? I think you wrote in another thread that you hadn't played the game much or at all recently. View's comment implies that things maybe used to be different. I don't know. I do know how they have worked since 1.0.5, which is when I really started getting into PoE. And for strays (or teleporting shadows or other enemies who get past your front line), I find the most effective way to handle them is to CC and focus fire it. If you have a tank running around just to pick up one stray, he will suffer disengagement attacks left and right and things can easily get messier, not cleaner. It'll mess up positioning of friendly fire AoE spells etc. I keep tanks stationary and the fights are almost always clean and controlled unless I mess something up. For disclosure, 1.0.5 is the one I've played last (and probably the most); I don't think I've even got 1.0.6 installed, but I can't check right now. Basically, you just let the tank sorta stand there, covered in defences and armour, not doing much at all, while the others just tear through things, and use choke points when necessary. The only real problems are heavy mob groups in completely open grounds, and teleporters - but teleporters always were, since they enjoy putting their chompers in your wizard. And you shouldn't have your tank running around to pick up lone strays, really. That's what an offtanks are for, or "tanky DPS" - or Nakia's two medium armoured fighters.

Actually you can copy the exclusive items between multiple installations of the game. Not that it would make this kind of "exclusive translation" more acceptable in any way. You can probably copy the localization, too, but either way would be dodgy.

Yeah, that's honestly pretty upsetting to hear, why would you make a contract pertaining to localization but that excludes anyone that bought or acquired the game at an earlier point in time? That's horse****, truth be told. Saying that Kickstarter Items will not come with that version of the game makes it even worse - it means that even if someone was to buy the game a second time, just for the localization, which is BS in and of itself, they'd have to choose between the localization and the kickstarter/pre-order/etc bonuses? That's the craziest **** I've heard all week, honestly.

If you feel you need more than 1 tank, PotD or otherwise, you need to work on your pre-combat positioning and initial attacks. You absolutely do not need more than 1 tank for anything in PoE. The off-tank is really just there for catching strays when something goes wrong, but mostly for bashing heads in.

I bloody well hope so. If it's soon-ish, they really should just set a release date already.

1 tank is more than enough. Provided you know what you're doing, you'll never need more, for any reason. "Off-tanks" are pretty much just tanky DPS. Things that don't die when sneezed at by the opposition.

Technical Support forum.

It is third-party because it was developed by someone else. It can be third-party and still officially sanctioned. If it's not resolved, I'll share your outrage - after all, what if *I* want the korean localization, for whatever reason? Just give them a chance to catch up.

Personally, I would prefer it if each expansion only added a single level, and that maxing out would require diligently cleaning the entire game of everything, but I can't disagree with what you're saying - especially that the higher we go, the more care must be taken. PoE already suffers from the whole "Monday, random Peasant, Friday, slayer of dragons" ridiculousness.

Have you been informed of compensation? Because if you have, and you've agreed to do the job, I think that's pretty much it - if the other party does not pay up later, they're the breaker of the bond, not you. That being said, I wish there were more options to really play up charcter angles like this. I could never play a goldpact knight, because there's seldom an option to be upfront about what you're about, such as demanding payment in advance without you acting like a greedy misanthrope, or taking a mercenary approach to things. Same goes for pretty much all the Orders and Deities. Wonkyness abound.

While I would not take Zealous Charge as my first pick, if you have two (or more) Paladins in the group, it's actually not that bad of a pick. 90% of combat in PoE is pre-combat positioning, and while Zealous Charge only kicks in when combat starts, due to the ridiculous "Combat Only" restrictions, added speed to your tank(s) is of amazing use. In my paladin game, I have Zealous Focus myself, with Pallegina using Zealous Charge, boosting her speed and Edèr's. ...it could really use a talent that increases attack speed or something, though.

If the korean company just released the localization patch today, you might want to give Obsidian a moment and a chance to actually deal with it before feeling all insulted and whatnot. I could see the frustration if it's been a week or two, because not having localization available everywhere is rather unacceptable these days, but there hasn't even been a chance for an official patch yet. It's going to be a while before Obsidian even has a chance to address this, if the localization patch is some third-party-but-official patch (which, based on what you're saying, it is).

First, you probably wouldn't, since Blunderbi are no longer the unquestionably broken Cipher-weapon they once were. Second, we know next to nothing about the attribute changes coming in 2.0, making speculation on adaptations of builds completely meaningless.

Alright, so not completely unknown, I guess I was a bit hyperbolic again. Still, I ask myself what quests in Gilded Vale they'll comment on. That and the cross-party banter is what I'm going to pass judgement based on.

Maybe not make THIS game online, but have a game within the PoE universe online, with similar style and graphics and everything. Would LOOVE this to happen I really hope not. I'm enjoying PoE, and the last thing I want is for there to be story-centric stuff spread all over the place in eighteen different places and products I'll never enjoy, let alone get into. The whole franchising thing has gone too far. It is a mercy that Dragon Age decided to spin off into mediocrity so soon, because nowhere has it been worse in this regard than there, as far as I've noticed.

For the first question, nothing is known. I personally am hoping for a few quest passes, some added options and content, some cleaned up quests and questlines, fixed narrative issues, etc, etc. But I also realize that that is extremely unlikely, especially since the saves needs to be backwards compatible for some reason. And the new companions are supposed to be two full, new companions. How well-integrated they are is completely unknown. Hopefully they'll be fully integrated, with proper interactions with old companions and eachother, interjections, area or event-specific dialogues, and not simply token main-questline one-liners. I have my doubts, though.

10 hours is strictly DLC territory. 50 hours +, now that's an expansion I can live with. 50+ hours is a game, not an expansion. I took 70 hours for my first run. Seriously, though, "hours" is a ridiculous measurement of game content. Hours is indeed a ridiculous measurement of game content, but it's inherently pretty hard to gauge. If you can think of a better way, shoot. That being said, I don't consider 50+h "a game" in ©RPG terms. I think that 50h is a bit optimistic, but surely 30h. Since they chopped The White March into two parts, 20ish each would be about what I'd consider acceptable-ish. But hoping for much more, of course. I'm not surprised Strawnir would think that. says the guy who can't figure out strawman or hypothetical? ah well, am guessing we embarrassed you one too many times... though you did to self, truth be told. is more baffling that you don't even realize. *chuckle* [...] HA! Good Fun! Strawnir, I don't think you could embarrass anyone but yourself even on your best day, anymore. I honestly and genuinely fear for you, as you seem to be deteriorating rapidly. See someone. :| Well what we know gets down to how specific we're being here. We know a bit about the companions - one's a monk and another's a rogue. And we know a bit about 2.0, which sorta ties into the expansion stuff a bit.

I'm not surprised Strawnir would think that. That being said, we've heard such estimates before, such as when the stronghold can be acquired. For all we know, "1/3" to Josh means as soon as we get the Stronghold or reach Act 2. "1/3" is very unclear.

Hahahahaahahahaha. Bwaaaaaa hahahahahahaahahaha. Ooha ha hahahahahahahah. If forced to pick, probably #2, but oh lord what a waste of resources.

Hence the conversation.

I personally can't envision a Deflection-focused Rogue to work out very well, but... Dual-Wielding Riposte? Or even a Weapon-and-Shield Style, One-Weapon Style, Riposte Rogue in Clothing? Maybe? Use Vengiatta Rugia or Hiro's Mantle for Retaliation attacks.

not necessarily. in more than a few gameplay previews for poe, the obsidians were playing max level characters, regardless o' the inappropriateness o' such a level for the given content. we wouldn't read too much into the videos. regardless, if the expansion increases the level cap, then am suspecting that without playing any additional content you could reach level thirteen, or better, simple by playing a completionist run o' the core game areas. get less than 2 full levels from the additional content would not surprise us in the least. HA! Good Fun! Well even if that's true, it doesn't really change anything. When the cap is increased to 14, or later 16, does it really matter if the levels are gained from the expansion content or from the main content? actual, we suspect it matters to some folks. read the posts in this thread and you will see that some folks appear to believe that the expansion will offer enough material to level 2x. so, what if that ain't true? what if even at level 6 or 7 you do everything and it results in only a single level-up? we already see a few guesses of gameplay hours for white march part 1 that exceed any crpg expansion we can recall playing. as for guesses about adjusting level progression... hypothetical changes, eh? am doubting that the obsidians make any major changes to the way xp is provided. for whatever reason, the obsidians were confident that they understood how much xp were available in the game and they believed that it would require a completionist the entire game to reach level 12. they were wrong. however, we will note that the rather simple expedient o' cutting the bounty awards in twain had a significant impact-- the number o' folks claiming to reach the level cap before chap 3 largely disappeared. we do not foresee a major overhaul forthcoming. am of the opinion that the current xp scheme is less than ideal, but am also suspecting that obsidian has much on their plate. a simple and quick solution would be our first choice, even if such a choice would not be perfect. reducing bounty awards worked to reduce the perceived xp problem. make further reductions in the side-quest material to achieve the desired goal o' slowing level progression is a simple solution. yeah, we agree with matt516 regarding level progression, but from a practical pov, we would be surprised if the obsidians changed the xp scheme as a whole. HA! Good Fun! Exactly that; so what? Why would it matter, in the context of what AndreaColombo said, whether you gain enouch experience for levels 12->14 in the expansion alone, when the expansion alone clearly wouldn't be necessary? Currently, I'm absolutely convinced that you could easily reach level 13 in the main game alone, maybe even level 14, provided that the necessary experience needed continues to increase by established formula. That being said.. I'm not disagreeing with you. I think the game could really use significant experience tweaking, but I don't think they're going to do it. It would really help, but.. I just don't think they will. It could cause major gripe with some people. Like you say, they evidently though they had a handle on it, but they didn't. And to me, much of the issues with the current experience doleouts and brackets isn't so much the amounts, but the pacing. You overlevel content in the game significantly. Simply adjusting the bounties haven't solved that at all; and the easiest way to deal with it would be to scale necessary experience upwards, exponentially.