Elerond

They have already confirmed two expansions for the PoE, which all those who bought expansion add on or whose reward included expansion will get. So I would not be surprised if announcement for PoE2, if such will ever come (as PoE is currently Obsidian's worst selling game and worst game that they have ever done, if I should believe this thing that is called review from esteemed board of protectors of RPGs) will be sometime of next year or year 2017 or even later date.

They didn't have a publisher insisting on deadlines. They were on their own timetable. So how did they end up "not having enough time"? Sad fact is that even when you don't have publishers insisting on deadlines you need pay for your staff and when you run out of money you need to release product or bury(cancel) it regardless of how ready and polished it is.

Which other Estoc has those enchantments? Game has only these estocs if they haven't for some reason not used "estoc" in some estoc's file name. estoc_endless_paths.unity3d (Blade of the Endless Paths) estoc.unity3d (Normal Estoc) estoc_drakes_bell.unity3d (Drake's Bell) estoc_exceptional.unity3d (Exceptional Estoc) estoc_fine.unity3d (Fine Estoc) estoc_the_white_spire.unity3d (The White Spire)

None. It seems to just be a visual. It could be remnant of system (although I have my doubts) that would have worked as way to limit how much time player character has to solve their problem/s, but which has dropped because time limits to finish the game was seen as bad thing by lots of backers and/or they realized that it don't work well with how they want to tell the story and/or limit the players.

World where gods have concrete influence in people's every day life by direct acts of power that people can easily perceive themselves it would be quite odd if they would start kill outright children that is marked by god, is such mark blessing or curse is debatable but marked by god anyway. Especially in area where they suffer something (Waidwen's Legacy[hollowborn children]) that they think is caused by people crossing will of the god, probably is even less willing to do anything that could anger gods more, even if they dislike or even fear how those who are marked by gods look.

...maybe calling them 'lazy' is a more of an insult than I realized (and to be frank I still can't), but I am not going to apologize or feel bad for thinking that this is them taking the easy way out. And for me this is that in the end of the day...it's a bit like the situation with the Keep really.... ...but enough of that since it's really offtopic - continue discussing how pretty blue people are - very! Generally when you call somebody lazy it is viewed as insult usually quite bad one in every culture that I have had dealings with in my life. So it would be quite strange if you didn't know that calling somebody lazy is generally viewed as insult and I would say that it is quite cop out to claim such thing which is quite ironic when you claim that somebody else is taking easy way out. And it is strange that you say that they should do things like they are in BG2, which gives you option to make custom silent party from beginning (addition to unique NPC companions that you can find allover) without even trying to make it as part of game world.

So there can't be an oldschool FPS? If you can move your cross hair in non-horizontal directions then I refuse to acknowledge their old schoolness

Dunno man, that's one of aspects I didn't quite like in PoE. C&C seem irrelevant, within 10 minutes of act3 I had the following happening ("translated" into spoiler-free speech): 1. NPC: please do this horrible thing for me Me (a holier-than-holy pally): No, I won't. [ending the dialogue] Quest journal: "New Quest: Do the horrible thing" That don't actually has anything to do with C&C it may be poor way to mark quests that you don't want to do in your journal, but it don't anyway impact on your choices and their consequences. If I choose not to do a quest, surely I don't expect it to pop up as "active" in my journal. It feels like 4th wall breaking: "Hi player, we know your PC refused this quest, but we, the developers, want you to do it nonetheless, so here's the entry in your journal". That's just ignoring my choice, to be honest. But it don't have anything to do with C&C, but how information about quest that you have refused to do are marked. Marking them up just show that your character knows that there are person in the game that is interested you to do something and you are free to ignore it, or change your mind or find way to go against that person. But if journal text don't match your refusal then there is problem in how quest is marked in the journal, but still it don't have anything to do with C&C, because it is not choice nor it is consequence it is just information that is marked up so that player has easier time to recollect information they have learned.

Dunno man, that's one of aspects I didn't quite like in PoE. C&C seem irrelevant, within 10 minutes of act3 I had the following happening ("translated" into spoiler-free speech): 1. NPC: please do this horrible thing for me Me (a holier-than-holy pally): No, I won't. [ending the dialogue] Quest journal: "New Quest: Do the horrible thing" That don't actually has anything to do with C&C it may be poor way to mark quests that you don't want to do in your journal, but it don't anyway impact on your choices and their consequences.

I have found some other backgrounds that have similar problems, which is left me wondering if there has been communication disconnect or did they change background options after initial writing to make them seem more unique but writing was never brought to date.

No, but I feel totally within my rights for calling out a name that sounds stupid. And fampyr sounds stupid. Fampyr is actually only one of their made up monsters whose name don't sound stupid or weird in my ears, but that maybe that is because I am Finnish and it sounds about same as our word for vampire (vampyyri), if you drop final syllabe.

What it now let you find information from souls of dead people, which let you progress in story and solve and do things that weren't necessary part of main plot, but still quite important part of the story as whole. But maybe those things don't count.

I find this review lacking objectivity, which just show how corrupt gaming media is these days. In my opinion we need much better journalistic standards and we should all boycott this media outlet until they fix their review standards... Isn't that the line we should use these days or did that already drop out from fashion?

Crating is in the game because it was feature that backers requested during Kickstarter and Obsidian promised one. Upgrading your weapons and armors with exceptional/superb enchantment is may not be necessary, but very helpful thing to do as is to give your weapons lash enchantments and your armors attribute boos enchantments. Food and Potions gives temporal boost that in certain play styles gives your character/s massive edge in next encounter. They can become quite important if you play with party which don't have characters that are able to boost your characters. But you can survive with out them if you want, but using them would make your life easier and in end game you don't fall short of them if you so desire. Scrolls give spells to those members of party that don't normally have access on them or they give your wizards/priests/druids more spells to cast without need to rest. But you can survive without using them, but using them probably will make your life easier. Crafting system was much more powerful initially, but backers with beta access felt that it over shadowed unique items that you can find, which is why it was heavily gimped before release.

It is better than any other Sabre or Battle Axe in the game in my opinion, only Wē Toki's special enchantment Disorienting together with Piercing Lash We Toki doesn't have those enchancement's in the release version (I assume you're talking about the beta where it was awesome). It just has overbearing now. I looked them from strategy guide (which seems to have quite lot false information in it, I feel bit bad for all those people that bought hard covered copy of it) as I hadn't picked it up for any of my characters as I haven't used Battle Axes with any of my characters..

It is better than any other Sabre or Battle Axe in the game in my opinion, only Wē Toki's special enchantment Disorienting together with Piercing Lash comes close to be as useful as Reliable + Annihilation combo in Resolution. Draining in my opinion is not that good enchantment at all. Of course sometimes getting endurance back is nice, but most times it isn't that exciting. Although some could argue that The Flames of Fair Rhîan's fireball granting enchantment is good, but I don't have found it to be that useful.

It technically does 2 attacks one with 50% of damage against 25% of DR and one with 25% of damage against 25% DR. Which will produce same result as 75% of damage against 50%, except in cases of high DR compared to damage. 10 damage against DR4 would produce following 10*0.5-4*0.25 = 4 | 10*0.25 - 4 * 0.25 = 1.5 total 5.5 == 10*0.75 - 4*0.50 = 5.5 Against DR 10 result would be 10*0.5-10*0.25 = 2.5 | 10*0.25 - 10 * 0.25 = 0 Total 2.5 == 10*0.75 - 10*0.50 = 5.0 Against DR 12 result would be 10*0.5-12*0.25 = 2 | 10*0.25 - 12 * 0.25 = -0.5 Total 2 == 10*0.75 - 12*0.50 = 1.5 Test in game show that damage from every lash is calculated separately Test target has DR 21 against pierce and DR 16 against burn Hit roll graze Graze was done with Lead Spitter (DR bypass 7) with burning lash and Flames of devotion + intense flames - done by paladin Original Damage: 9.1 Damage after DR: 1.8 [Min] Burn damage: 0.5 (100% damage - 75% DR would produce 9.1 - 16*0.75 = -2.9, but actually there are three lash hits, which do with Flames of Devotion 9.1*0.5 - 16 *0.25 = 4.55 - 4 = 0.55 | with Intense Flames 9.1 * 0.25 - 16 * 0.25 = 2.275 - 4 = -1.725 | with Burning Lash 9.1 * 0.25 - 16 * 0.25 = 2.275 - 4 = -1.725 | Total 0.55 damage which is rounded as 0.5 in combat log.

Every player character becomes watcher

Sad ending of PC that can't cure their condition, because they decided not to trust certain person:

...someone that is not you, I suppose? How do you think that I know that is option that you can choose and what choosing that option will bring?

If somebody wants to absolute evil bastard then promise to all the gods that you will do as they ask with souls and then choose one of the options that don't fulfill any of those promises and see Dyrwood suffer like nothing ever before.

Yess nerf the uber op classes, Paladin, Ranger, Monk !! Nerf them to the ground .. Wait ... what ?! If there is bugs behind game mathematics, then those should be fixed and then classes effected by should be checked and re-balanced if there is need, because if mathematics don't as developers intent then it is much harder for them to make corrections in game balance. Buffing of classes you mentioned (ok not monk as they are seen as quite good class by many) has been asked by quite lot already.

It is said in game that being awakened and watcher means that you eventually lose control of yourself over your past lives and you can't do anything to prevent that. It don't mean that you lose your mind, even though it seem like that for other people. Being awakened is not that bad and it seem not to be that uncommon in Eora, like for example Aloth is awakened, but he don't have same problems that you have even though his past self takes over sometimes. It is also hinted that Aloth is somewhat special case. Also Thanos is awakened and he seems to be able to work normally, although some people would argue that he is bat **** crazy. Watcher is ability to see past lives of others and in some case experience them by yourself, end game also implies that with enough power watcher can manipulate souls and even destroy them at will. Through the game PC seems first to be bit disoriented by their ordeals and only seek to make sure that they are OK, but when PC learns more and experiences more (especially dreams that aren't shown or told always to player) they start to get worried over their condition, and this is not helped by fact that most entities that have some knowledge about your condition seems to think that you are doomed and many even say that there is no cure, which seems to drive PC become more determined to find Thanos, which is probably also influenced by PC's past life as inquisitor and past life's relationship with Iovara. Although depending on what PC does these things aren't portrayed to player in most clear ways and this was not helped by some bugs that made it possible to PC to skip over some storyline in way that isn't logical or coherent and in some cases possibility to multiple choices in same plot point which made especially Journal look bit weird.

There is transparency in the maps, as you can see your characters through any map object that obscures them. I would guess that they actually use transparency/alpha layering to make it so that characters appear to be behind objects on map even though they actually walk over them. But I admit that transparency of object could benefit from tuning bit so that you see your characters clearer or they could but transparency slider in options so that players can tune it themselves to fit their tastes. Pre-rendered backgrounds make it too time and resource consuming to produce maps where you can turn camera, when we speak games that use axonometric projection and have hand finished maps, even though you could argue that it is technically possible.

Supposed to be. The "No Bad Builds"-thing never gets old. There is bad builds, but all combinations that you can do in character creation are viable with right builds. Which of course don't mean that they are equally good, but there will not be situation where you find that your character is just useless. In this game like in games that it's inspired by itemizations is most important thing for character build, and character's stats, abilities and talents are just used to optimize build, so if you want optimal build of some sort then stat distribution in character creation will lock you down in certain path (only difficulty level that needs heavily optimized characters is Path of the Damned, but of course optimized characters will make game easier on lower difficulty levels too) and not picking right abilities and talents can destroy your build in sense that you don't get most optimal build. Every single class has it optimal roles in the party and it could be argued to end of world which class is most optimal for certain role as people's opinions, experiences and tastes are quite different in these matters. Although in some cases you can use mathematics to so that at least certain situation certain classes are just better than others. And of course if you don't build character towards certain role they are usually bad in it regardless how optimal that role is for that class. If you don't have deep knowledge about mechanics behind PoE following roles are probably most safest picks for the classes. Fighter: Pure tank/Tank DPS Monk: Tank DPS Barbarian: Tank DPS Paladin: Support Tank Chanter: Support tank/pure support Priest: Pure support Wizard: DPS CC Druid: DPS CC Rogue: Ranged DPS/Melee DPS Ranger: Ranged DPS Cipher: Ranged DPS/DPS support So in short: There are builds that are bad when you count all aspects that go in the build, but you aren't able to screw yourself too much over in character creation, except if you play in PotD difficulty, OPs Paladin build at least stats wise should work in PotD. I wouldn't recommend playing game in PotD difficulty if you want focus on story aspects of the game, because it emphasis combat so much more over other aspects of the game.