1varangian

Yeah I never pick Grimoire slam. Instead, Wizards should get a defensive caster centered AoE blast that would push foes away and knock them prone or stun them. A panic button when they get caught in melee. As it is, Grimoire slam is really.. meh. Llengrath's Warding Staff kind of does that but it's a 7th level spell. Wizards need something like that from the start without the melee weapon. Think of Mind Blast from Dragon Age Origins.

Wizards can do exactly one thing with implements. And even that is a passive AoE ability. I'm not at all opposed to Wizards using implements but the way PoE did it feels restrictive, unnecessary and unfinished.

I addressed that, too - and showed why it's not a good idea. Because the current implements have secondary effects that carry over to Blast? Let's say Wizards get an innate magical ranged attack with a Blast option. The same implements can still exist and modify this attack just the same. In fact, that's how they should design implements in the first place - to amplify certain types of magic and boost the wizards abilities. Right now the "implements" are basically ranged weapons available to any class and they don't feel at all special or magical. Equipping an "Exceptional Rod" feels the same as equipping a bow. If you call them implements they must always have properties that are relevant to spellcasting. And the implements should come in the form of books, staffs, orbs... not just little sticks.

I mean separating Blast from ranged weapons completely so the class isn't railroaded into a stick and book wielding stereotype. I would also combine Blast and Arcane Assault into one ability that would cost Endurance to use. An unlimited use with a cost would turn it into a tactical choice instead of always using exactly two Arcane Assaults in every single fight. Same goes for basically all per encounter abilities.

They aren't forced, it's just common because blast and 2-types of damage are mechanically great. Parasitic staff is really good and a spellsword using Steadfast would be good as well. That's the whole point, getting Blast without having to wield a sissy wand.

Unlikely. That's a common motif among fantasy cRPG games. Sure, but on every single weapon? Sometimes less is more.

4. Per encounter powers. Could encounter powers have an Endurance cost instead of getting X uses for free every fight? It gets a bit repetitive using 2x knockdown, 2x arcane assault, 2x Flames of Devotion etc. in every encounter just because they're free. And what if you need a 3rd or 4th knockdown to free your Wizard from attackers? You just can't do it. If encounter powers would cost Endurance instead, using them would involve more of a choice. You wouldn't feel forced to "use them up" every fight for optimized efficiency and you also wouldn't be limited to an arbitrary number of knockdowns in a fight.

On that note, I hope they remove the elemental enchanting for weapons. When everyone in the party has a glowing/burning/freezing weapon with vfx it becomes more mundane and annoying than cool and unique. Or at least have alternatives in that enchanting category without the vfx.

I hope they will avoid trying to avoid fantasy RPG norms or cliches too much! Some of the mechanics feel a bit off.. like Might representing both physical and psychic power. Certainly a new approach to stats but why does my Eothasian healer have to be a beefcake? Why do Ciphers have to hit people with weapons to be able to use their powers? It may be a brand new caster mechanic but it's too far fetched. Shooting someone with a crossbow boosts your magical power? In fact killing people with weapons is a kind of a requirement to use your powers.. what kind of a class or person is that lol. Wizards can't do their Blasts with a staff but with a scepter instead...

Sheaths are an out-of-combat improvement. :D But a really good one! No more running around town with glowing / burning / electrified / dripping.. etc weapons drawn.

It seems like the only balanced way to make the finesse types possible would be to have heavy armor cost you Deflection (instead of recovery speed which is too vague to comprehend anyway). Plate mail feels quite overpowered in PoE and I could see this change happening easily. Ideally both finesse and tank options would be viable. With heavy armor being the "always reliable" choice and good for tanking mobs while Light armor would also be good as long as you don't let enemies flank you to counter your increased evasion.

I hope they hide the spellbook from the character models this time. Carrying a massive tome in combat just looks silly. And let Wizards have the ranged attack as a class ability instead of forcing them to carry a wand/rod/scepter. These "implements" aren't a big deal for the class anyway save for maybe blast, and they can be used by any class so they don't feel all that special. I don't understand why Wizards should be forced to carry a stick instead of a traditional staff or sword anyway.

Tactical combat is a big reason for me to play party based RPGs. Combat in PoE is quite good but I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement as well. Here are some thoughts after a few playthroughs. 1. Overall feel of combat. PoE combat feels very mathematical. Characters move into their positions and execute their attacks at an even pace based on complex timers. I want to feel it more - feints, dodging and blocking animations, staggering under heavy hits, being knocked down by fireballs, randomness... Longer attack and casting animations would be much more exciting to watch than a dead recovery time with a shrinking bar. I would gladly give up some of PoE's mathematical precision to have combat look and feel more like fighting for your life. Combatants also tend to clutter up in a messy ball of melee to the point where you can't even see your party members which is quite frustrating. 2. Stats and afflictions.. oh boy. The accuracy vs. defenses and damage vs damage reduction is simply brilliant. I wish all RPGs had a system like that. But the myriad different afflictions and their durations in tenths of seconds? Too many, too often. Checking for afflictions kind of makes you pause every 2 seconds on slow speed which implies a turn based system would have been better since the flow of combat has to be disrupted too often anyway. I think a real time system with enough tactical depth that also looks and feels intense and exciting is the optimal way here. PoE combat involves a lot of buffs and debuffs usually with really short durations. Some spells or abilities affect combat stats directly and some indirectly by affecting ability scores instead, overlapping with the former. The miss/graze/hit/crit system seems good but it also makes it much more difficult to get a feeling how good your defenses actually are against a particular foe, since very few attacks are clean misses. And then you have action speed / recovery time math that you can't see from your character sheet on top of everything. It's all just really hard to keep track of (or even understand) with a party of 4-6. It's like BG combat with 3 extra layers of complexity when 1 would have sufficed (damage reduction). The Priest class needs their own entry here as their spell list best manifests the problem with stats and afflictions. They have a buff and debuff for everything and spells against individual afflictions I can't even name after several playthroughs. It feels like a complete redesign for the Priest class and ruthlessly axing the number of buffing spells would make it more fun to play. They should get a few cool unique powers based on their deity instead of an expansive faith universal list of boring spells. And why is Prone duration determined by attacker instead of how quickly the defender can get back up? It's silly seeing someone stay prone for 7.4 seconds instead of just getting up. ,-) 3. Feedback. Visually, it's very difficult to tell who is under what affliction or where it came from. Or how well someone is doing in melee against a particular opponent other than inspecting the damage numbers - miss / graze / hit / crit isn't clear from visual feedback.

I would welcome an injury based system. Having two separate values for endurance and health and injuries on top feels unnecessarily complicated. Injuries and health both work for the same goal which is providing an incentive to rest. So one of them should be axed, and injuries are more immersive and descriptive than a second numerical value. Injuries should also be possible without getting knocked out. That would make combat feel more random and real. Always getting an injury from being knocked out gets repetitive and predictable and it just turns injuries into something of a chore.

Something with a powerful toolset and DM client. Multiplayer co-op and PW support. Pathfinder ruleset would be appropriate.

Wizards are my favourite class usually in every game. I'm up to level 8 now and here's my take on the class so far: - No staff implement? What are these little sticks I have to wield for a ranged weapon? - No spell schools / domains / specializations and related items? Meh. - The novelty of the massive book you are constantly holding gets old fast. The chants and casting times range from instant to short so surely you can remember 4 spells per level without having to read them from a book every time. It looks silly and cumbersome in hand. Not being able to cast anything without a grimoire item is theoretically a massive weakness for the class. - 4 available spells per level? Really? All other caster classes get everything for free and complete freedom to cast whatever whenever. How is Wizard the "most flexible"? - Spell durations are really short which means the impact of the Intelligence stat on duration is also fairly unimportant most of the time. - Combat gets very cluttered in PoE most of the time and most spell effects don't have a visual indicator. Hard to tell what's going on without pausing all the time and examining enemies. - The actual impact of the spells is much harder to tell than in the IE games since the effects are generally much weaker and there are multiple stages of success with everything (multiple stages is good but the actual results are hard to discern) - Most AoE's are quite small too, making the Wizard play more like a surgeon with pause than a battlefield controller. - Severe lack of defensive spells and spells to break engagement. Teleporting enemies love to gang up on Wizards and they have no means to protect themselves. Hardened Veil requires 2 talent picks and even with the Veil on Wizards get evaporated in seconds if something engages them. Arcane Veil lasts for only 14 seconds and even during those 14 seconds you're not even remotely safe. - Poor spell balance. Lots of things you never want to cast like the "mirror image" line of spells that do next to nothing. Fan of Flames is absurdly powerful and Fireball is absurdly weak. - Damage spells lack secondary effects. Knockdown for Fireball, Stun for Crackling Bolt etc. - Scrolls are tedious to use with no scroll case and 4 quickslots. Not sure about the whole casting from scrolls mechanic. It never was the strongest point of DnD spellcasting system so why copy it in the first place. In Eora magic is channeled through the soul, not from writing on paper, right? - Anyone can use Wands, Scepters and Rods for the same effect as a Wizard? - Party members run into FF AoE's (and visible traps) like idiots after their targets die. - All spells seem to use the same chant So.. needless to say I'm underwhelmed so far by PoE Wizards.

Buffing has always been a boring mechanic in IE and DnD (up to 3.5e) games that easily throws balance out of whack when you can just stack 6 protective spells on someone. I think most buffs should be modal with only 1 active at a time. That would end the pre-buffing debate as well. PoE Priests are effective but ultimately boring to play, spamming their buffs and debuffs that only last a few seconds. Giving numerical boosts to stats.. could there be anything less exciting? Obtrusive vfx just throws it from bad to worse. I hope they will fine tune magic to be less buff-centric in PoE, especially for Priests. Priests should have fewer powers that are more fun to play and more focused on their faith.

I'm still stuck on why Ciphers need to hit people with a weapon to be able to use psychic powers. And if they are sucking their souls why does it work with ranged weapons? Soul whip could be a separate close range ability that would inflict small amounts of damage while replenishing their focus. That I'd buy. And level 1 characters with glowing weapons is a bit much. Hope the vfx was more subtle since it almost always on.

Some casting times are too fast i.e. the spell flies off before the chant is finished (fireball for instance). And sometimes the chants are inaudible. Longer casting times are more fun since you get a chance to interrupt the spell. Or have to put "shields up" on your own caster against archers.

Am I missing mine? Yes I am.

Implementing line of sight properly would help the ranged overpoweredness a lot. You could keep the fragile mage types safe. Move behind a tree. Stay behind the companion with a large shield. Also enemy spellcasters could avoid line of sight of PC archers with the proper AI. Line of sight in general would be a good tactical consideration for spells as well as ranged combat. Terrain should matter in tactics a lot. Not to mention you could have fun spells like a force shield that would give full cover against archers in a 90 degree angle.

This dual mechanic has a lot of good possibilities. - Experience levels can increase Stamina instead of Health, which is great. High level NPC's who are in a defenseless state won't be protected by an unrealistic HP pool and can be damage to Health directly. - Armor can protect against damage to Health but not necessarily Stamina - Strength / Willpower / Dexterity can increase Stamina so it's not all about Constitution - Fights can often be finished without injuries so healing magic won't be mandatory in the party I like it a lot.

The lore is inspiring and the screenshot is just stunning. Can't wait for more now.

Let's have a look at Origins' bad points then: - Combat. It wasn't reactive enough for an AAA title. The characters just basically stood there trading blows and depleting big HP pools. There was very little dodging or blocking involved.. the most important things in making combat look exciting and real and feel intense. Outcome of combat was decided by the amount of healing potions in your pack. (Still prefer the lazy Origins combat to the absolute nonsensical mess that was DA2.) - Enemy level scaling was hideous and undermined the feeling of progress the characters made. - Same with equipment.. material scaling was lame. How special is a dragonbone weapon if after level X every enemy drops a dragonbone something and steel basically disappears from the universe. I really don't think you have to be upgrading your equipment every 5 minutes. - Mages couldn't do anything outside combat. - PCs never dying felt like easy mode forced on you.. it was insulting. (Plot NPC's who can't die for plot reasons should be limited to just that.. being NPC's instead of party members) - Stamina and Mana completely regenerating after every encounter was horrible. Using your most powerful spells and talents in every single fight really made them less awesome every time. Other than those points.. great game. :D Overall I wanted DA to move a little bit towards low fantasy (less magic, realistic weapons and armor...) And then they made DA2 which was the biggest letdown in gaming history for me.

Zooming in reveals the Monk's fists are on fire. o.O We have so many of these superhero "awesome" RPG's these days. I would like a Game of Thrones kind of down to earth and believable world for a change. Less is more.