luzarius

OLD: REGARDING BLIND PLAY THROUGH ON TRIAL OF IRON Very rarely can I go through an entire game the 1st time and be victorious in a blind no death play through, aka dead is dead, ironman or in this case Trial of Iron. Getting through the game in a blind play through ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT equates to a 100% blind victory. This is extremely difficult and I've only done this with a few games. Most games I die a few times, check this out. Here is what usually happens: - FIRST ATTEMPT: I get 15% of the way through the game and die, therefore the first 15% of the game is no longer blind. I have 85% blind play through left. - SECOND ATTEMPT: I get 65% of the way in and die, therefore the first 65% of the game is no longer blind. I have 35% blind play through left. - THIRD ATTEMPT: VICTORY .. I beat the game in a blind play through with 35% of the game conquered BLIND. Therefore my blind play through score would be 35%. It's not an exact percentage, but you get my drift. Can you guys do better? See how fun it can be? See who gets bragging rights. But honestly, it's more about immersion for me. I could never bring myself to get into save scumming. Nothing is better than defeating an end boss THE FIRST TIME YOU EXPERIENCE IT, it's like a holly wood movie playing out. Very entertaining way to play RPG's. I've done this with many, many RPG's. I've done 100% blind victories, but I had a lot of help from the viewers in my twitch channel. What does this mean? It means I'm pretty decent at doing blind play throughs in trial of iron, dead is dead, ironman mode, however I'm sure other gamers can do it better than me. I'm becoming slower in my dotage (lol). CONCLUSION I'm not sure how long this game is. I have not gotten to defiance bay yet. I'm going to guess that I'm maybe 5%-8% of the way through the game possibly? Therefore I may have 80% of blind play through left. I'm trying to find a class I really like and I think monk is it. The big question is, shouldn't I post the build after I beat the game? Well, I'm too lazy to do that. I'd rather post the build that is showing extreme success leading up to a blind play through and let you guys knit pick it OR TRASH TALK IT (lol).

UPDATE I prefer using pure unarmed and no weapon in the off hand, for some reason torment's reach does far more damage this way. My advice, use pure unarmed. Try it yourself in game. Put guan's flail in your off hand, play for a bit, then take it off and you should notice torment's reach doing more damage, please let me know. You can check my original post int he spoiler tag, it has screenshots of my research.

Does the food buff timer keep ticking during dialogue conversation? (in case someone says, "why not just test it yourself?" I want the answer to get indexed, SEO baby!)

Most hollywood movies and fantastical RPG's have romance. Don't you think it's a missing part of POE? * Conan the Barbarian and Valeria * Aragorn & Arwen. .. man I could list so many more, but must get back to POE to drop more hurtin bombs. Until you get to Defiance Bay your party is pretty much a sausage fest. Calsica should've been a romance-able companion, she had a great voice actor, unique personality, feminist friendly since she is a woman that doesn't cook, clean or shower (lawl, j/k, remember i'm fair game).

It wasn't like, "hey guys! I have a great idea, let's incorporate the theme to shallow hal, MAN IT WOULD BE GREAT!! I like tall, blonde, leggy women, come on man, come on!!" It was more like, as a watcher you can peer into someone's soul and see their inner ethereal spirit. Depending on their personality the spirit form would be beautiful, attractive, demonic, monster like, or whatever your imagination can conjure up. This was a possible solutionto allow straight male gamers to see a beautiful female NPC on the inside, even though she looks ugly & mannish on the outside. It beats staring at fugly man-woman the whole entire game.

Wolf gets stuck in the wall, didn't happen before 1.05 patch. He's stuck there and can't attack me. When I first start this wolf scenario as a solo monk, I corner up just a little bit north east of where my character is currently standing in the screenshot. Once I get to this Wolf, he just sits there, stuck in the wall or corner. It's the second time it happened. This bug is re-produceable if you just stand near that small wall corner about 2-3 inches northeast of where my character is currently standing. In this screenshot i'm actually fighting the wolf that got stuck, but I can no longer see him even though my character is attacking him. This second bug isn't that big deal, because I can still attack the wolf, I just can't use any abilities on him. The first time this happened the wolf was able to attack back, the second time this happened the wolf just sat there not fighting back.

One more thing, I could easily, easily, easily beat this game right now on POTD, TOI using more choke point strategies than need be. I've done it with tons of games in front of thousands of viewers on my twitch channel. I've played and conquered games ten times harder than in Ironman. The problem is I have no game to play after this, so it's better to take my time and go the extra distance, enjoying each fight, appreciating the roleplaying aspect in addition to the challenge of POTD, TOI. If anyone here is doing blind playthrough as well and understands what I'm talking about, then we can do this together Normally I'd be streaming, but I can't so this is the best way to share the burden and fun of this play style with the community. The goal is to beat at least 50% of the game blind without losing at the end. I've done this many times for many games. I've yet to be defeated by an end game boss in Ironman (of course, that's not saying much since in most games by the time you get to the end you're very powerful).

Moonlike Portraits: (Drag drop to folder: PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\art\gui\portraits\player\male)

Man, I wish I was you, then I could experience the joy of how to position and learn to use wizard/priest all over again. Enjoy the ride!

That's stupid if you wanna cheese at the door, go there immediately... You don't think getting to the door is enough challenge in itself? Basically you're fighting your way there instead of taking advantage of telling him you'll kill Kolsc, when in actuality you just want to tactically position yourself. See, if there was a [lie] dialogue option, then it could be justified. You could choose [lie] with Raedric, then tactically position and kill him after speaking with him. It would be justified roleplaying wise. But to actually tell him you'll go and kill kolsc, it's said with meaning and depth, doesn't make sense to turn around and attack raedric right after unless you speak to Kolsc. I don't think so. If anyone can figure that out let me know. Hmm, I guess my point was more about roleplaying immersion than trying to fight him straight up while being surrounded. Don't get me wrong, fighting him straight up while surrounded would be awesome, but I'm not sure how. Raven mentioned the use of wizard's double potions. I actually had four of those potions I could've used for the fight. BTW, everyone, this build is sound, it's my strategy that needs work. Keep in mind, fighting raedric while surrounded is pretty damn hard on POTD @ level 4. I'm testing this build against the most difficult fights in near impossible situations. Hmmm, wizards double potions. So the rule is, when severely outnumbered, use wizard double potions. Kdubya mentioned FoA instead of turning wheels, FoA may of made the difference.

I think I got it figured out. 1. drink ale and eat pearlwood chicken, (optional, equip everyone with hatchet & shield to make the fallback to the door?) 2. talk to raedric then tell him he's going down, then the fight starts. 3. make sure kana's movement chant is on. 4. slowly move kana, durance, aloth back towards the door, then disengage eder & monk and move them towards the door 5. repeat 4 until at choke point, but heal if need be. Like dudex said, use potions, summons, scrolls and make the fall back to the door. 6. once at door choke point, victory on POTD @ level 4. This sounds good in theory, but tomorrow will be the test. I'll give an update tomorrow.

Well, I finally died @ level 4 on POTD, TOI to Raedric and his guards after choosing the [attack] dialogue. I was going on a killing spree and wanted to see what kind of situations I could handle. I thought I could handle Raedric and all his men without needing a choke point. I immediately got surrounded, I lasted for a while, but this build still got overwhelmed by those archmage casts & priest spells. I had fine breastplate armor, i had ale & pearlwood chicken before hand. I had durance put down the healing circle plus the armor of faith, but they still overwhelmed because of that surround. After choosing the [attack] dialogue with Raedric, you're literally in the worst possible position for a fight, especially on POTD @ level 4. I had kana, aloth, eder, me and durance (5 man party). What is the best way to kill raedric without being at such a huge disadvantage after choosing to attack him while speaking to him? How can I justify this roleplaying wise? I don't want to cheat myself or the game. It's easy to tell Raedric we'll go kill Kolsc, but then immediately turn on him after securing a choke point. But to actually beat that fight after telling Raedric you're going to attack him to his face and then handle the surround on POTD @ level 4 without any custom companions, that seems nearly impossible. Any of you guys figure it out? HOW DO I BEAT RAEDRIC FACE TO FACE ON POTD, TOI @ Level 4 with no choke points and handling the surround with a 5 man party (no custom companions)?

I was worried about future encounters where something may be immune to crush so a little fire from turning wheels would help, but I see the merit of taking FoA instead. You've got me thinking now. I took vulnerable attack early so I could deal with high DR enemies asap. Guys, holy ****. Is Monk broken overpowered or what? I can't get over how much damage he is dishing out, while being able to tank lol. I'm wondering if I should just sacrifice speed and get more DR punching power, aka PUNCHIN BOMBS. Just make the punches hit even harder and harder somehow hah. Savage Attack like you said. Wonder if I should go more accuracy for higher chance of the punchin bomb to CRIT. @ level 5 - Weapon Focus Peasant for +6 accuracy for higher chance to crit @ next level - FoA @ next level - Savage Attack WING CHUN VS HAYMAKERS

This is one class I could not figure out, OP asks a good question.

The goal is to experience as much of the game as you can in a blind play through. If you die in Trial of Iron, your second attempt will not be blind up to the point you died. This means up to that point you may change your tactics and approach. Once you reach the point where you were defeated, the rest of the game becomes blind again. The ultimate glory comes from beating a game blind on your first attempt in any type of Ironman, Trial of Iron mode. We've done this many times in our twitch channel - http://www.twitch.tv/luzarius Ideally, you want your first playthrough to be blind 100% of the way through, however the nature of this game encourages you to try new builds. This may come as a surprise, but I have not reached Defiance Bay yet out of all the times I've played. Do you know why? If I beat this game too quickly, I'm not going to have anything else to play afterwards. Epic games like this are rare sadly What do you think of Concelhauts parasitic staff? I've been using it on Aloth and I think it's actually better than Chill Fog. The staff is incredibly powerful. You are doing "guides" for this game and you haven't reached DEFIANCE BAY yet? :D:D:D Players who do POTD, TOI, blind will understand my logic. Those who beat the game could easily point out flaws in the build to disprove the effectiveness of the build. The question is, which are you? After a minute or so, you will feel the sting.

Your character is a Watcher, surely they of all people would be able to clearly see inner beauty and all that. Your response sparked writers gold for any game writer who wants to use this. This is clever actually. So you would make two versions of the female companion: In the normal physical world she is ugly & mannish, but when you use your watcher powers to peer into her soul, you are treated to her ethereal representation in which she is drop dead gorgeous, beautiful. How she looks in spirit form is similar to a super model, because she is beautiful on the inside. This would satisfy a straight male gamers need to see a beautiful woman, but also forces us to see how unattractive she is physically in the outside normal world. You see two versions of her, the hot one inside of her and the unattractive one in the normal physical world. Interesting and thought provoking. I'm fine with this. This has been done in the movie Shallow Hal.

See, the Paladin just stands there, not helping his allies. This is the fifth I've seen this happening. Not that big of a deal, but sadly it does make some encounters easier on POTD. It's not that big of a deal though, I just thought I'd report it either way. I've noticed that the NPC that doesn't help is always far off into the distance, so it must be some kind of problem with the distance check to help allies?

Guys let me ask you something in regards to virtual romance. This question applies to EVERYONE here. SERIOUS QUESTION: If you were to design a female romance option for a straight male gamer, would you make her ugly and masculine? If so, why? ------------------- Responses: Yes! Mainly because it would irritate you, and fair is fair. Sadly, this is the only logical conclusion, what if I told you that a certain writer is LGBT, would you suspect a conspiracy? The only reason I suspect this, is because I have an innate ability to understand peoples ulterior motives. NOTE: My concerns are nothing but professional. Someone's been playing DAI. Obviously the romance options in that game were designed for a very small demographic of the gamer population. BioWare can be really proud of themselves for that. If I were to design my own it would be more like the 'girl next door' type as that's what I find attractive. Cute, athletic, but not overly made up or shaped. That would be ideal. Sounds like an honest response, from a straight male who has no agenda nor political motive. I'm in the same boat as you man. I really like Calsica's character. You say you can understand the temptation to create an ugly and masculine female romance option for straight male gamers. I can understand if this was done for the first installment of a game series. Concepts found in the first installment of a game, usually carry into the next. However, in my unfortunate experience, a writer made the female romance option look ugly and mannish in the third installment of the series, which was unexpected and shocking, not what I was used to at all which made it feel like a bait & switch. As for your curiousity to explore new territory in terms of character creation, I respect that to the highest degree.One more thing, I'm not going to pretend to understand everything you wrote in one sitting. Maybe? If the game already had other romances with attractive women. The reason why being that variety is the spice of life. Are you a lady? This is why Bioware needs more straight male testosterone. No one at Bioware has any balls or they got surgically removed against their will by feminists.

The goal is to experience as much of the game as you can in a blind play through. If you die in Trial of Iron, your second attempt will not be blind up to the point you died. This means up to that point you may change your tactics and approach. Once you reach the point where you were defeated, the rest of the game becomes blind again. The ultimate glory comes from beating a game blind on your first attempt in any type of Ironman, Trial of Iron mode. We've done this many times in our twitch channel - http://www.twitch.tv/luzarius Ideally, you want your first playthrough to be blind 100% of the way through, however the nature of this game encourages you to try new builds. This may come as a surprise, but I have not reached Defiance Bay yet out of all the times I've played. Do you know why? If I beat this game too quickly, I'm not going to have anything else to play afterwards. Epic games like this are rare sadly UPDATE The staff sucks compared to the combo of slicken,chill fog + cold of rime utility skill. OLD What do you think of Concelhauts parasitic staff? I've been using it on Aloth and I think it's actually better than Chill Fog. The staff is incredibly powerful.

* BUILD TESTED AGAINST RAEDRIC HOLD FIGHT ON POTD w/level 4 party no custom companions, muscling it with no door choke points. Click link to go straight to the post with screenshots of whole fight. - http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79442-monk-build-lets-start-buildin-some-hurtin-bombs-potd-toi-blind/?p=1691123 * WHAT THE HELL DOES BLIND PLAY THROUGH MEAN? Click link to find out (links to another post in this thread) - http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79442-monk-build-lets-start-buildin-some-hurtin-bombs-potd-toi-blind/?p=1691074 Portraits: (Drag drop to folder: PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\art\gui\portraits\player\male) Question: How do I possibly beat this game in a POTD, TOI, blind play through with a MONK? ANSWER: RELAX MY FRIEND, first watch this: CLICK HERE - Watch this first or click the following image. Question: But, Luzarius, can I really punch through steel, ON PATH OF DA DAMNED? ANSWER: YES! @ Level 4 - 46.9 Crit PUNCH THE BUILD Race: Godlike - Moon - Aumana Special Ability: Silver Tide (Moon Godlike) – Every Encounter when reduced below 75%, 50%, or 25% Endurance moon Godlike generate waves of healing moonlight that heals Endurance to them and their allies. Class: Monk Culture: Living Lands Stats: - 19 might (for damage) - 18 con (so you can take punishment) - 18 dex (so you can punch fast) - 3 perception (you want to get hit) - 10 int (you want to retain willpower) - 10 resolve (you want to concentrate to a certain degree) Abilities: - (lvl1) Torment's Reach: Spam the hell out of this as much as you possibly can, spam it, spam it, spam it. - (lvl2) Lesser Wounds: - 2 wound threshold so you gain wounds faster. - (lvl3) Turning Wheel: For every wound you gain 5% of burn damage, to be used against enemies who are vulnerable to burning damage. - (lvl4) Vulnerable Attack: You punch 20% slower, but gain -5 DR bypass. THE HURTIN BOMBS. NOTE: I am not a fan of Fist of Anguish, it's not reliable. Skills I want to get: - Weapon Focus Peasant: +6 accuracy with unarmed, extremely important on POTD difficulty. (I'm at level 4, will take this at level 5 if possible). Armor: - Plate or Brigandine, the highest DR protection armor you can get. Tactics: - Have Durance cast consecrated healing and try to stay in it, but don't be afraid to punch the crap out of everything, being aggressive. - Durance may need to throw his iconic projection to heal you from a distance. - Spam the hell out of Torment's Reach. - Have Aloth use the Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff to support you from behind. (Make sure he doesn't poke your backside with his staff though). - Don't be afraid to disengage to hurt yourself to gain more wounds. - Have Durance cast withdraw on you if you're in trouble. Your Role: - You are the TANK & DPS. You go in first, you want everyone to hit you first. I actually use Eder as a tank/dps, 50/50. Eder uses a fine estoc. Eder & this monk build can hold a frontline very well while Kana, Aloth & Durance are in the back. You want to get hit as much as possible, build wounds fast and spam the hell out of torment's reach. PUNCHIN BOMBS FTW! The Inestimable Lord Raedric meets DA HURTIN BOMBS with level 4 party, no custom companions Frontal Assault Readric Hold

It hasn't been updated unfortunately. I tried it and it resaves files incorrectly and doesn't work with the game. If anyone figures something out, please let me know. Also, it requires unity. I'd rather have a standalone tool for extracting/importing, tbh. You think Unity would have a command line tool for this, but it doesn't, from what I hear unity 5 will be mod friendly.

- Afra no longer says anything when you successfully steal from her without getting caught. - Being able to level up companions is excellent. - I like the new icons for various gear. Probably one of the best patches I've seen for an RPG game. Only other company I know that goes the distance like this is CDProjectRED and the community that made all the patches for Vampire the Masq. Bloodlines. Bioware must learn from Obsidian. Then again they tried to learn from Skyrim and failed horribly, so scratch that.

They've been brainwashed to be politically correct. If they had their way, the game would be censored to death. Dark and sinister content is exactly what it is, dark and sinister. What we have here is a clear cut case of a writer's creative freedom being attacked by PCism.

It hasn't been updated unfortunately. I tried it and it resaves files incorrectly and doesn't work with the game. If anyone figures something out, please let me know.