leeloodallas

I'd love to see some attribute enhancements. Stamina, agility, attack, will. Especially attack, since I tend to ignore it completely.

You go into the big pool of "Items" and right-click to enchant your selected item. A menu comes up, and you pick which essence you want to use on the item. You lose a little gold when you enchant, also.

That's a good question. I'm not doing a second playthrough of the DLC until Friday when I install an aftermarket cooler. My FX-8120's stock cooler sounded like a Hoover going through the DLC, and Torchlight's about the only thing that's bearable. I can tell you that for Kat it was a massive heal, a shielding power, and a huge eruption of fire. Your companions also use whichever of the powers you've selected. They only unlock when you activate the relevant pillar in the game. You can change up by activating one of the pillars after you've finished the associated side quest.

That explains why I had no idea that Steam was downloading the DLC. The Install button didn't give me any feedback at all, and the download only took four or five minutes on our slow connection. That's a lot of content for a tiny download.

I'm actually thinking that 6 1/2 hours is probably conservative if you don't want to have your hiney handed to you every couple of seconds. I'm really getting the impression that a good grind or two through the whole desert area would make things a lot easier. You could probably stretch things out to 8 hours, if you weren't dying to know how the story ends like I was. I'm curious to go back and redo Rebirth now with that Kat playthrough just to see if does impact the endgame. The endgame save is right before you hit the Rukkenvahl Chapterhouse, and the DLC considers Jeyne to still be in power in some form. That's very cool that the overall game difficulty has increased! I noticed a huge patch download before Steam let me play last night. Most of the combat is very similar, but a lot harder. You're not going to notice vast changes. Some of the lower-level minibosses have a couple of interesting new abilities, though, that will really catch you by surprise the first time you fight them. Kudos to the dev team on this! I haven't played Fallout: New Vegas, so this is my first Obsidian DLC. I'm not used to this feeling of not being ripped off, aside from LOTSB

Yes, just the three. One is defensive, one is healing, and one does damage. I only used the defensive ability, so I don't know what the others do.

You get a real conversation. The devs added some really nice speaking animations for your character, and you actually see more than the back of the head in several of the conversations. At the end of the DLC, you end up back at the Causeway after taking a "DLC Teleporter," though I think you can go mess around in the desert some more at the end of the DLC before leaving the area if you really want. I'm tired, so I didn't

Huge! The vodyanoi cave is probably three times bigger than the cave outside Raven's Rill. The temple and the vault are both really sizable, and the vault takes forever. The Hero's Crypt and the vault are probably about the same size, though I think the vault's a little bigger. The temple is larger than Gunderic Manor. The desert actually feels surprisingly open and sprawling, with several different branch paths. I really think the devs listened to some of the criticism about the maps being too linear, though the story in the DLC is pretty straightforward. I have to say, I liked the story. It wasn't exactly surprising, but it was satisfying. Total playtime, I'm guessing, is about 6 1/2 hours. The vault was a lot longer than I'd anticipated, and the final boss battle's pretty brutal.

Also, I'd recommend starting with a Reinhart playthrough, or have Reinhart as your companion. He has some really great unique drops. It's comparatively sparse for the other companions.

Funny thing was, when I jumped back into the game right after I posted, about half of my quests closed really quickly. I think if you just played straight through, you could probably finish in 4 1/2 - 5 hours. I have to take frequent breaks with DS3, though, because I get claw-finger from my right-click death grip So, I end up fighting a lot of respawns. I just finished what I think is the second to last map, so now I have a desert's worth of monsters to fight on the way back. I'll probably finish in 5 1/2 hours total, maybe 6 at the outside. That, of course, depends on how often I die. The DLC is tough-- harder on normal than my one hardcore playthrough of the main game. A lot of the bosses and minibosses are quite cool.

I think I'm far from the end. I know I have a temple and a vault to hit yet, and a few things to find. That may or may not be true, however. I thought I had a ton of game to go when I hit Stonebridge the first time I'll update with approximate playtime when I finish.

Looks like three from the shrines from what I've seen so far. I've yet to come across anything else.

I'm in love with all of the Stonebridge goblins, especially Sweatcog and Mudgutter. I'll admit I'm a little biased, because I adore Gideon Emery's voice, but Mudgutter hits all the right cynical buttons with me. Sweatcog has some brilliant lines as well.

Y'know, I only found out about the release via Blue's News this afternoon. For some weird reason, there was nothing that showed up in my Facebook feed, either from the DS3 page or Obsidian. On the positive side, I'm really, really, really enjoying this. It coincides beautifully with my processor upgrade, so this has been a double treat. The maps are extensive, there's a good amout of lore, the environments are absolutely beautiful! Voice acting is excellent, as usual, and there was quite a lot of dialog recorded. I'm impressed, and my faith in DLC has been renewed after DA2: Legacy soured me I've been playing probably for three hours now, and I still have a full log of quests to go.

I have short, stubby fingers, so the key combo's a challenge for me

Updating on the "max out" thing: I did manage to completely max Lucas and Reinhart my last playthrough. Not sure if it's possible for any other combo, though. We'll see if I can max both Kat and Reinhart this playthrough.

All I ask is that it's released a few hours before midnight on Oct. 31, to give me a chance to play before all my time is sucked up by NaNoWriMo. Please, Obsidian? Please?

Just to be realistic, though, we are talking about the Dungeon Siege series. DS1 didn't have much customization at all, and it sure didn't have any post-game goodies. The game just ends. In DS2, you could play the same game all over again at a higher level.

A couple more Reinhart opportunities I missed: When Kassel tells you about the Stonebridge Foundry, tell him, "You're arrogant." When Yamas tells you to destroy parts of the Stonestream, tell him, "I'd rather not."

I've only tried multiplayer once, jumping into someone else's game through Steam. Talk about a personal disaster! I'm assuming the host was from another country where English wasn't the native language, because I could hear the other-language VO clashing with the English VO in my game. Not to mention the multiplayer camera was horrific, every bit as bad as all the complaints here. I've never opened my game to anyone else, so I can't speak at all from the host end. I didn't know other players could actually buy gear-- I thought that was up to the game's host. Maybe I should have; their Anjali was really badly equipped.

Yes, I maxed out Lucas

I don't think Steam has the same approval process, at least from what I've seen of Bioware's patching + DLC process. The consoles always require the most extensive approvals, while the PC can pretty much release at any time.

I have to say, those drops are great. Kat and Reinhart are always green with envy. I never seem to get them when I'm playing as Anjali.

I wonder if this is a KB/M thing, and most of the advocates are PC players. Shift + Numkey isn't easy. By game's end, Kat has always had more than enough available orbs, but trying to hit those keys in succession while rotating the camera with A&D and spamming Space is a real pain. Magic Bullet's kind of a savior then, as is Surprise Attack for building focus (and power).

I'm actually playing a dual-wield game for the heck of it. Kat may not do a lot of direct damage, but she takes down crowds really quickly and she's shockingly durable. I'm curious to see how she holds up in all of the Spire battles. I'm pretty much maxing stamina, agility and armor with her. Am I in the minority in loving "Magic Bullet?" On previous playthroughs, with Heartseeking Shot maxed with it, she's been able to take out multiple enemies with a ricochet without having to use her empowered abilities. Then again, using empowered abilities with keyboard and mouse isn't exactly easy.