Stun

Yep. This makes PoE the true spiritual successor to Icewind Dale 2. lol All the enemies in IWD2 had crap will saves, which was why spells like Chaos, Mass Domination and Symbol of Hopelessness were so overpowered.

So? Are we are supposed to conclude that: 1) these individual testimonies automatically raise your pathetic arguments above Anecdotal and well into the realm of "proof of universal occurrence?" AND 2)each one of these individuals sees a respec mechanic as a solution? AND 3) they would prefer that Obsidian design a respec mechanic first, and directly deal with those bugs second? Because if not, then we're back to square one: Dreaming in Gromniria. What? I never claimed such a thing. I claimed it would lose its utility value in the long term (you know, once Obsidian fixes the bugs). Which is why I accurately pointed out that your campaign for a respec mechanic is SHORT SIGHTED. It doesn't take the endgame into account. DUH (to quote you) Like I said Gromnir. You're going to have to brush up on your English. Because that is the language of the points that you are missing.

That's friggin amazing. Grazing for 93 damage? Against the Adra Dragon? My St. Garam's Spark never did that! That trick with using Eder as a decoy..... Clever. Going to have to try that. I haven't beaten the Adra dragon yet because I've never been able to secure 4 seconds of uninterrupted Buffing in that fight.

Oh for crying out loud, what do you think the entire premise of your 1 argument for a respec feature is? Is it anything BUT a strange egocentric anecdote of yours that I was simply countering? "We need a respec feature so that IF we encounter a skill bug, we can rebuild our character and take a different skill". That's anecdotal, unless you have proof that every single player who's built a Rogue in this game has been afflicted with the Reckless Assault glitch that you've been whining about on three different threads on this forum. (which would be false, btw. I built a rogue. And haven't gotten the reckless assault bug.) Of course you are. Again, what do you call someone who Complains about the game's bugs, wants Obsidian to fix them ASAP, but then turns around and tirelessly lobbies for Obsidian to divert time and money away from bug fixing so that they can sit down and design a new mechanic that lets Gromnir work around bugs. ...And, arguing for such a mechanic without even considering the possible long term implications of it.... how it will lose its stated utility value once Obsidian does fix the various build-breaking skill bugs, thus rendering it a complete waste of developer time and money in hindsight.

LOL Only in Gromniristan would someone request that Obsidian divert time and resources away from Bug fixing in order to design and release a new mechanic to help us work around those bugs instead. And only on planet Gromniria would such a request be seen as anything BUT short sighted. Oh No, it's a little more than that. It's also a solution for anyone who places vital gameplay importance on character builds, and who won't hesitate to whine and bitch all over this forum simply because a single talent he chose on his character isn't functioning correctly (ie. YOU). In my case, I found a Wizard. This game's stock wizard, Aloth. I got him in my party, then I looked at his stats. 12 Might, 16 Intelligence. And his Grimoire lacked both Slicken and Chill fog. What garbage. So I dumped him, then went right inside the Black Hound and created myself a better wizard. One with 21 might, 18 intelligence, Chill Fog and Slicken. FIXED. I then found Grieving Mother....and did the same after seeing how mis-built she was. FIXED. And...No respec necessary. Imagine that.

You're stating an opinion as fact. Two of them, even. I'm finding my Custom party far more satisfying (and much more powerful) than the mis-built NPCs Obsidian has presented to me. Moreover, I'm finding the Adventurer Hall feature to be a fantastic way to work around bugs, while I wait for Obsidian to patch my game. Fixed. Learn English. Because that's the language being used for the points you're missing.

Fixed. Sorry, Just trying to get my self psyched for Witcher 3. (which, btw, you should be *really* interested in Bruce. The Main plot is about Geralt finding a lost love. Isn't that, like, what you live for?)

Indeed. You want something. But they're not going to give it to you. Perhaps it's time now to stop and realize that they actually DID offer you a reasonable compromise to a respec feature. It's right there in the game and it DOES allow you to work around "broken skills" even if you can't fix them. Try the adventurer creation system. Seriously. In my current playthrough, I got Grieving Mother a little late (she was already 7th level), and she was horribly built. But I really wanted a Cipher. So I just ran up the road to the Inn, bought myself a level 7 adventurer, and built him from scratch, from the ground up, to be a truly optimal Cipher. Problem solved.

omg omg omg I agree. It's like we're gamer soul mates or something. Hey, friend, might I suggest another great game? I just discovered it. it's amazing!

You're right Gromnir. When faced with a bunch of bugs, it's much better that Obsidian spend their time creating new content and mechanics instead of fixing those bugs. Long term thinking. Yep.

They name dropped Baldur's Gate and Athkatla. If you're going to use those cities as the benchmark as big cities then I expect something similar in size. Indeed. But despite this, I'm still going to be lenient in my criticism of that particular aspect of the game. Mainly because despite how small and un-city-like Defiance Bay and Twin Elms feel, I would have to say that they're the two parts of the game that I actually enjoyed the most. I rank them higher than the mega dungeon experience, higher than the wilderness exploration, and about a bajillion times higher than the stronghold.

Bioware's marketing did not tarnish the Dragon Age name. Dragon Age 2 did that all by itself.

Then you don't know jack about Marketing, bud. The only measurement of a marketing campaign's success is whether it succeeds in selling its product. Bioware's marketing approach for DA2, as embarrassing and disgustingly whore-ish as it was, was a miraculous success. It managed to sell an unsellable game. (DA:2's first week sales were TWICE as high as DA:O's, for example) But, as it is plain for all to see, not even a successful marketing campaign can help you against word of mouth. Consequently, DA2's sales took a spectacular nose dive after week 1...or right about the time when the game was finally forced to survive on its own merits.

How are spell combos different from cross class combos? OK, spell combos don't just create party synergy (example: freeze + mighty blow = shatter), they also create a new spell. (Example: sleep + Horror = Nightmare) But again, welcome to DA2, where every detail is cut in half. Where 1 is better than 2. Where less options is better than more. Where tactical is defined by how fast you can dispatch the waves. Where the Awesome Button trumps pause and play. where thinking and strategizing are cuss words. Where poor suckers are conned into paying $60 for the contents of EA's trash bin.

What? That makes no sense. That's like saying. "This game has Swords....as Bows."

Sure, Ok, everyone's tastes are different, and if little Johnny Xbox user sees ME SMASH, POP-A-MOLE, button-mashing gameplay as "tactical goodness!", then who am I to argue with him? It's his "opinion"...blah blah blah. Enough of this banal prattle. DA2 was a bad f*cking game. Period. Even BIOWARE admits that.

You don't need any spells in DA:O, (I had the most fun with my all-rogue party playthough) but that's not the point. At all. Even simple, unbalanced combat can be fun, if the system in place is deep enough to allow you to play (or role play) how you want in combat. DA2....does....not....let....fighters....Dual wield. Or use Bows. What kind of insipid, moronic design is that? If it wasn't for the fact that the game has about 10,000 examples of precisely this same type of Retard-motivated limitations from the ground up, (combat and otherwise), I'd have given it a 0/10 and condemned it for that ALONE.

It's 10 times worse. Because It's more limited. Mages have less spells., Fighters and rogues have less customization options. They removed friendly fire(!). They removed the tactical view camera. They removed stealth. They removed finishing blows. They reduced the bestiary. They removed tactical positioning. They removed the ability to miss (literally. You can no longer miss.), they removed spell combos. Then they sped everything up and gave us the "awesome button" so that we wouldn't miss the removal of what little tactical combat the first game had.

It was basically either that or throw them all at the player at once This isn't even remotely true. There's a bajillion alternatives to the craptastic wave warfare design AND the mindless "dump everything at the player at once" design. But they all require competent designers to actually 1) Give a Sh*t and 2) Be creative with the enemy types and their placement; and 3) Program the enemy AI to be a little more....adult-like. This is all Out of the Question for Bioware, however, as they'd see encounter creativity as a waste of time, And a waste of money, And a waste of effort, considering the fanbase.

Vithrack are ciphers/psionisists. They don't need to talk to you or 'debate you'. They can determine your intent by just reading your thoughts. This particular Vithrack decided that sending the entire hive out to murder you was a good idea. That's called an 'error of judgment'. Why should even a benevolent leaning person reward such a mistake by sparing that monster's life? Especially since the ruin itself seems to be siding with you (Literally. The stone heads on the walls talk to you. They call you hero. they send you on a mission that sees you killing that Vithrack and retrieving its spear.)

Translation: DA2 had the most rigid mechanical Level Scaling of any video game ever created. In fact, its level scaling was asymmetrical. Your armor and attack rating actually decreased as you leveled up, while the enemy's increased. Combat in DA2 plays like an arcade game from the 80s. Literally. Like Pac-man. Cleared a level? Great, here's another level, exactly like the first level, except the ghosts are faster. Cleared that level? Wow, you're good. here's another....just like the first two, but the enemies are faster.... etc. etc. etc. Wonderful design for an RPG, right? Edit: Interesting historical off-topic side note. Does anyone here remember the Jennifer Hepler Controversy? For those who don't here's the short version. Just after DA2 was released, Jennifer Hepler was interviewed by some magazine or another. And in that interview she was asked about Combat in RPGs. And her response was: "Well, if I had my way, RPGs would have a 'skip combat button', so that people who were just playing for the story could have an 'uninterrupted experience'. She was viciously attacked from all directions for saying that. Whole gaming communities labeled her the anti-Christ and ruthlessly spammed her with threats on twitter, and BSN, and Youtube and facebook. I, on the other hand, defended her with everything I had. Because her timing was PERFECT. I had just finished DA2....a game who's combat is so god f*cking awful that there wasn't a single *second* that went by where I didn't find myself BEGGING for a skip combat button. The game needed one. Desperately.

Fire is neither a solid, nor a liquid, nor a gas. It is a reaction. Oh Right, I forgot all about that. You dislike immunities because you don't want to have to think when making party builds. You don't want to be held responsible for your choices. You don't want to play a game that challenges you to adapt. You don't understand the point of party based tactical combat. But I digress. The lack of immunities goes even deeper than its gameplay coddling for the casuals. It ruins the integrity of the game world. How are we supposed to take a game or its lore seriously when it doesn't take itself seriously? When it gives us Flying creatures that can slip and fall on slickened ground they're not touching? Or when it calls something Undead and then gives it living emotions like fear? Obsidian dropped the ball on this one and we all know it. That's why we see people here reduced to making up the most ridiculous of desperate excuses that they themselves don't really buy. "You're blinding their souls!", "You're not knocking down that Ooze, you're knocking down its insides.... or something", "You can put out a fire by making it hotter... really, I've done it!"

What? Where in the world are you getting that from?

That makes no sense. Lets burn that fire to death? Do you know what a fire elemental IS? It is the essence of Fire. It IS fire. "Turning up the heat" on fire, makes fire bigger, hotter and stronger. Not, weaker, smaller and "uncomfortable". The concept here is no different than seeing a small puddle of water on your kitchen floor and then deciding to dump a giant bucket of water on it in order to "make it less wet"

That depends on the Ranged Weapon, And it depends on the class, And it depends on the Talents, And it depends on the Enemy. First, The only ranged weapons that 'out damage' 2-handers are the super slow ones (the rifles and X-bows). And that being the case, we'd need to start discussing things in "DPS" before we could determine whether a specific ranged weapon is really doing more damage than the specific 2-hander it's being compared to. Second, there are some classes who are built to do LOT more damage in a melee situation than in ranged, and vice versa. (Rangers, for example, are designed to do a ton more damage with ranged weapons, than, say, Fighters. But nothing does more weapon damage than a well built Rogue using a Pike or Esoc. (and someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but a Barbarian's carnage does not work with range weapons at all) Third, there are more Melee-only +Damage talents than there are ranged only +Damage talents. Savage attack, for example, grants +20% melee damage, and it stacks with every other general +Damage talent Fourth, 2-handers offer a wider variety of damage types than the high damage ranged weapons. And those high damage range weapons also suffer critical damage penalties. Fifth, it's hard to sustain effective range weapon use in those situations where you have enemies that teleport right to you. I'm not sure what effect that has on Damage output, but the popular playstyle in this game is typically: Open up an encounter with your Big guns, then switch to melee when the enemy is on top of you.