Shadenuat

Aren't they supposed to be manipulators aka CC bots though? I'd probably base their damage around something to do with their weapons as they gain focus, while making spells predominantly CC-based.

Spiders are badass but I believe their poison effect is bugged. Something about stacking poison tokens.

Yes I would prefer spirit shifting force druid to take active part in physical combat and lock out all spells but a small set of spells like that one that drains stamina from enemies on a hit or one that terrifies enemies and does shock damage around druid. It would feel more like switching tactics actually.

Let's crown Ziets as our KillXp King and give him a banner and worship him instead of Sawyer King of Balance. Maybe them can also fight for us in the arena or something.

There's Tenser's Transform like spell at level 5 or 6 that switches stats around and forbids casting. That would be most used for tankomages. There's also a contingency that stuns enemies if wizards reaches low hp. Thing is, without pre-buffing, playing a spellsword in PoE is one dull experience. You enter combat and cast the staff spell, then mirror image, then some speed spell, then +accuracy spell... at that point enemies might already be dead. I would add some sort of talent in the game that would allow wizard to instantly buff up with a few low level spells at the cost of spell slots, or something like that. Like a sequencer that holds 1-2 spells but doubles spell cost.

Yes, but Firebrand doesn't spawn in your... claws, unless you shift back. It makes sense since it's like a weapon summoning spell.

I want to know how Obsi will do bosses with interrupt system. For now it is possible to hit single enemy so fast his every action would get interrupted forever.

Well the character list says so I believe. Either that or all forms have innate damage resistance. I don't think you get weapon effect. Otherwise Firebrand spell would work with shapeshift. For now forms do not change gameplay as dramatically as in IE games where turning bear gave you 18 str and 3 attacks per round.

1. Game doesn't give any better feedback than you have already. 2. I think there is a difference in stuff like Deflection. It improves your chance to avoid hits. 3. Wolf gets a roar I think, Boar can activate regeneration, Stag gets barbarian-like AoE attack. Cat can activate faster attack rate. Bear is just tough. 4. Yes. Bear or Stag does slashing, Boar piercing, ecetera. 5. No, the seem a bit underpowered to me in terms of dealing damage. Good for more protection though. But hey - beta.

It's easier to put some sort of debuff on enemy that counts for backstabbing, if we're talking rogues. Simple fighter's Knockdown would work.

Stealth seems too powerful atm. It's like combination of all utility spells from divinity and illusions from IE. It gives you superior positioning in any combat. I also wonder if there are enemies who can also do stealth. But beta didn't feature enemies like that.

Since I'm such a park ranger, I've decided to take a closer look at Druid's spells and make a few comments on them. This post will be long as hell. You're warned. Few notes before that: - I don't like PoE's shapeshifting. While it's cool and gives you some choices, I liked gaining new interesting forms in 3d edition more. Part of the charm since D&D playing as druid was ability to turn into any animal, big or small, to solve a particular objective. I'd rather have a choice between strong boar or weak but stealthy cat than various easy combat-applicable two-legged monsters. Not that I don't find playing a walking bear extremely satisfying and cool (has nothing to do with my Location... really), but between one powerful form and two flexible ones I'd choose the latter. - I assume Druid is a more general-purpose Cleric who can do many things well, but nothing really great, and to make character play great, player has to learn to do many things well. So I'm going from that point of view, and from it PoE Druid is more like an offensive caster loaded with DPS spells for now, less of a hybrid. - I was surprised to find PoE Druid gets Natural Casting by default in beta. Meaning you can run around as a bear and call lightning on your enemies. There must be some trick to it, either slower casting or something, otherwise I'm not sure why not run around as a bear forever. There are also no hints about what happens to your items, and if your unarmed attack improves every level... but developers would get to it I am sure. - I can see some Talents working with spells. Maybe one that increases sun spells or healing spells, or adds poison to your every plant-based spell. Things like that. - AFAIK Druid's bonus to damage wasn't implemented in beta. At least not whole 500% of it, heh. Shame. So let's get to the spells. They are more like something that can tell us about the class for now. Obviously my Druid had highest STR/INT possible because why not. Level 1. 1. Winter Wind. The first spell we notice and it has Cone of Cold icon. Now that's a good start. Winter Wind is a fairly big cone spell, probably even too big for level 1, but it's damage is 5-7 times weaker than Fan of Flames that Wizard has. I assume it's a bug, but it is fair to make it less powerful if there would also be some sort of debuff coming with it. Slow or blind would work well. The cone size could use a nerf. 2. Vile Thorns. Same as previous spell but does physical damage and has a debuff. Cone size is twice less than Winter Wind. Damage is about as your basic spear stab, but that's level 1 spell for you. Provides an option if you meet cold or elemental resistant enemy. Seems logical. Needs more damage though. 3. Touch of Rot. And things suddenly started to become crazy. It is not actually a touch, it is an AoE, although very very small - you could probably hit 2 enemies with it. It does acid (corrosion) damage, starting with generous ~20 and then 84 (!) DoT through 8 seconds. So not only we have a fairly rare elemental damage (who can actually be well protected against acid?), but also very high damage. And that's something you should get used to in Druid spells. 4. Tanglefoot. Every druid's favorite Entangle. Doesn't stop enemies outright, but slows them (hobbles... why use that word instead of "slows" I'm not sure, maybe developers want to slap us out of D&D? Huh). The range is humongous. Goes well with AoE damaging spells and Rogue and Barbarian abilities. 5. Talon's Reach. Does Slashing damage about as your normal attack would do in same radii as Touch of Rot. Since there is already Vile Thorns, I don't see a need for this spell. Sure, some enemies might be resistant to cold... and pierce... and acid... but I find it unlikely and it seems like a waste to check every damage type. 6. Sunbeam. A very powerful, almost like 3d level Fireball, but with small radii like other druid spells fire spell. At that point I started to think that maybe all these spells are supposed to be single target, but INT works wrong. Anyway, it would be good to go with Icewind Dale with this spell and make it a bit weaker and only single target. Also has Blind effect. 7. Fairy Fir-- ahem, Nature's Mark. A debuff with very large radii. Makes enemies easier to hit. This should be a spell for Druid to fall back to when his cold or piercing spells don't work, but with so many pure damage powerful spells, I don't see much use in it. 8. Dancing Bolts. Pathetically weak shock spell. Probably bugged. Has little reason to exist, as it loads Level 1 with even more elemental effects. 9. Charm Beast. The Beta spell. An AoE that targets Will and makes animals fight for Druid. Can be cast outside of combat. There is a small delay in enemy AI which makes them fight each other even if they're all friendly to party. Since all classic casters act like Sorcerers now, I see no reason making this one more powerful than just basic single-target. It's really too good. Game doesn't make difference between animals and insects, by the way. It's a minor issue but in D&D3 I think insects had a bonus against Will-spells. The conclusion. Level 1 Druid spells make him look like wizard or warlock who just spams acid/eldritch blasts. It is OK to have 2, maybe 3 damage types. Any character in PoE can use any armor or weapon, and Druid can also shapeshift. That spell selection would be useful if druid still had 6 hit points, sling and Thac0 of 20, but not in PoE. I feel it's much more important to establish at level 1 what character IS, not to give enough spells to kill anything. Level 1 has: Too much DPS, a bit of Control. Could use: A single-target regenerating spell. Since we don't want to step on Cleric's feet, Druid spell should restore Stamina slowly, not instantly. Maybe some sort of a buff, single-target one. A utility/summoning spell. Perhaps it could serve as any of the above. If it would seem good summon at level 1 would be too strong, a summon that doesn't attack but heals or buffs party would work. Level 2. 1. Woodskin. Increases Damage Thresholds for the whole party against 3 damage types - piercing, burning and shock (huh). Not sure what would be a good time to cast this spell, players must get a very good feedback to know if they want to, like a prolongued burning effect. Or, if all animals use Piercing attacks, that would be a good reason to cast it. OTOH, Druid has better ways to do with animals. I guess it could protect party against ranged damage? Then perhaps it is useful. 2. Taste of the Hunt. Makes caster's weapon restore stamina. My guess natural weapons (unarmed, claws) counts as one or it's not that of much use. I'd rather cast another powerful damaging spell. Could work for Shapeshifting build, but again, druid doesn't have a reason to go into melee because many spells do physical damage. 3. Insect Swarm. Favorite dish of Jonatan Irenicus. A... powerful spell, strong enough to finish whole group of bandits/hunters at spawning point in beta. Humongous radii, does more than 100 damage through 10 seconds and lowers Concentration. Could use a nerf in both damage and size. It would be better to leave it as more of a debuff spell than damaging one. 4. Hold Beasts. Paralyzes animals, also AOE, but now it makes more sense since it's Druid's bread&butter. Inferior to Charm Beast in every way imo. Can also be cast outside of combat. 5. Firebrand. Summons a fire sword that ignores DF. In D&D it just gave profiency and +4 THAC0, so this one is more powerful. Lasts for a minute. Was fairly useful in BG-games when there were trolls and slimes around, because druid didn't have loads of sun-based fireballs. Doesn't work when shapeshifted. Personally I wouldn't use it now that I have damaging spells. Moonblade from IWD was more useful since it worked well against undead at least. 6. Conjure Lesser Blight. Summon minor elemental, basically. Slow, buggy and does nothing in beta, so nothing to talk about for now. I'd rather have a pack of wolves and leave elemental summoning for higher levels. Would require big description to tell what each element does. Doesn't dissapear after combat ends and certanly could use a faster flying speed. 7. Burst of Summer Flame. Fireball, basically, but with smaller radii. Has Fast casting speed so you can spam it as much as you like. Probably would be most used spell together with Insect Swarm. 8. Blizzard. Does what you'd think it does. Huge radii and moderate damage, and a debuff (slows enemies attacks). Looks like a spell that would belong to higher (3-5) level. 9. Autumn's Decay. Cone of acid. Damage is weaker than level 1 spell. 10. Rot Skulls. I got this after another reload, so it's bugged for now. Cool idea. Description says it does Crushing damage, like magic missiles, which I don't really like. Also has an additional corrosion DoT, which suits it more. I am afraid this spell might get scripted as just another boring magic missile which I won't want to see. Level 2 has: Powerful attacking spells and some good old druid's stuff. Could use: Something utilitarian, like stealth enhancement or some sort of a single target buff. Level 3. 1. Twin stones. Magic missile that also hurts anything on it's path and does some piercing aoe. Reasonable damage for level 3 (50). I don't like spells like that, not only they feel like something that belongs to a Wizard, but they make weapons and shapeshifting unnecessary. But at least this one seems to be stopped by AC and maybe even armor. 2. Stag's Horn. Alicorn Horn from previous games. Does piercing damage (about 20% more than Twin Stones) and also throws a debuff. Was somewhat useful in IE where druids couldn't just shoot people with guns and had poor THAC0, but here it just looks like an effort to give character yet another thing to throw at people. 3. Spreading Plague. Not an AoE, slows and weakens enemies. Seems alright to me. Works for a minute. 4. Returning Storm. Little brother of old Call Lightning. The "returning" part I've yet to see, and animation is too fast. Damage is suitable for a long lasting spell. Doesn't look nearly as impressive as Call Lightning from PST, but that's aesthetics. 5. Purge of Toxins. Surprisingly single-target. Also doesn't cancel poisons absolutely, just improves defences (+10). No idea how it works - poison in beta is as harsh as in BG, doing continous stamina damage, so I don't know how can this help. Does it acts as DR? Anyway, you get more for your buck from next spell in line. 6. Nature's Balm. AoE regeneration, finally. Very powerful - average 40 stamina per second for 10 seconds. Nothing not to like here. 7. Beetle Shell. A save from combat spell. Weaker than Priest's, that also restores stamina or "locks" target from possibility of dying, but that's fair, since we're not pure support caster. Level 3 has: A decent combination of damage and heals. Could use: A summon and a buff instead of one of damaging spells. Level 4. 1. Wicked Briars. Like Tanglefoot, but also does damage. Lasts longer too. A fine spell, but it seems like a waste to try and slow enemies with a high level spell when you can expend a level 1 slot instead. It also makes you feel like spells are starting to repeat itself. Instead of just thorns, it could be something like sickening fog or like that. 2. Overwhelming Wave. Twin Stones that also have stun effect. Damage is the same. It was one of the best attacking spells for a druid in Icewind Dale series. In PoE it probably won't stand out as much because of a load of other damaging spells. 3. Moonwell. Four times weaker than Nature's Balm, but lasts almost 2 minutes and buffs the party. It could use more interesting mechanic, maybe a bonus against undead, to make a throwback to older games. All the sun and moon-based spells could also be weaker or stronger during day/night/outside. If all heals would be based on moon and damaging on sun, it would give at least more flavour to all these spells. Maybe a bonus visual effect would work at the very least. 4. Conjure Blight. Like level 2 spell. At level 4 I expect to be able to throw hordes of bears on people. I hope it would get replaced but something different and I won't just summon same creature every level. 5. Calling the World's Maw. It's like summoning a rock where little lion Simba was born. Does average damage for that level and knocks targets down from their feet for whooping half a minute. Could use a nerf in radii and secondary effect. 6. Boiling Ray. Weak burn damage in a very small cone (like level 1). Pushes enemies back, but not a lot. I applaud that this one at least is not another burning circle on the ground. Level 4 has: It actually just repeats same effects previous levels had, almost. An AoE buff is welcome, but overall it feels like underwhelming level, like developers just tried to give even more slots of the same druid already has. Could use: Something unique. Next 2 levels weren't balanced for beta, so they're just to learn how druid's design on higher levels might look like. I got them using ArtMoney for XP. Level 5. 1. Wall of Thorns. This is the first not-circle or cone-like spell I learned about in the game. You get a line (very long one with my INT, whole screen) and a wall of thorns grows. It does piercing damage, as well as poison and weakness. It's a spell I would prefert to have at level 4, since that one was fairly dull. You can really made barricades out if this stuff. 2. Relentless Storm. Same as level 3 spell but probably would be stronger. Druid had 2 spells like that in Temple of Elemental Evil. I don't really like having same mechanic return again at higher levels. I would prefer a stormy cloud that stays for some time, for example. 3. Plague of Insects. Lower level spell on steroids. Four times more damage and radii on whole screen. Damage type is Raw, so I guess it must be harder to protect yourself from this, and there is also sickening effect with concentration penalty on top. I'd keep this for level 6 or higher, unless previous insect spell gets weaker and would have different animation. 4. Nature's Terror. Self-buff. Does shock damage and terrifies enemies in melee. I've been waiting for something for melee for a while. 5. Firebug. Chain lightning but with fire damage. I'm not sure about this spell, it feels too wizardy for me. Summoning horde of actual bugs and making them run into enemies exploding would be a lot more druidy and less click-n-nuke. 6. Embrace the Earth Talon. I'm starting to feel person who wrote names for these spells is a little... odd. And this spell also looks kinda like a... anyway, it's like Maw but smaller and with chance to petrify. So it's another damage-in-circle. It would be better if it would look like a huge spear and act as a ray spell that pierces multiple enemies, I think. 7. Cleansing Wind. Heals party and pushes back enemies. I'd move either it or Moonwell through levels. However real crowd control spell is welcome, but we have wall of thorns for that. Level 5 has: Some new interesting effects, even more raw damage. Could use: An interesting summon spell. Level 6. 1. Venombloom. Creates a field of poisonous flowers. Great concept, but it acts almost just like Plague of Insects. Instead of just another Raw aoe dot, make it a trap. Make it a field of dormant flowers that explode when enemies walk into them. 2. Sunlance. Ultimate sun spell. Chooses best from fire or piercing. Single-target. Seems fine. 3. Garden of Life. Turns corpses of enemies into healing for party. Cool concept, but I'm not sure players would use it instead of low level aoe heals druid already has. 4. Conjure Greater Blight. Druid summoning spells can really use something new. Level 6 has: It seems like a level still in the working entirely. That's it with the spells. Overall I'm really missing on druid flavor here. Spells like goodberries or fire seeds, controlling plants or plant-like enemies, buffs, stuff like summong plants to increase your stealth, that sort of thing. But most of all I miss on summoning animals and how variable druid spells were in other games. For example, in Baldur's Gate 2 I could summon fast lions, winter wolves who had ranged ice attacks, powerful bears with crushing attacks or elementals immune to normal weapons. There was even a spellcaster-summon (Nymph) who could charm enemies. That would be missed. Purely from mechanical standpoint, there are too many damaging spells. Nothing makes you want to use shapeshifting, or to use new weapons and armor mechanic. I was looking for playing druid with a bow and spear&bukler, but with that richness of spells and free shapeshift, that won't matter. Spells ask for more variety and less "magic missiles" and "fireballs".

All classic casters are too over specialized now, which is strange, because it was promised that classes would be suitable for multiple roles. Wizards cannot into summons, Druids only get healing at level 3 but are loaded with damage spells that copy themselves through levels, Priests are all same no matter what they worship.

Would be nice if other classes got their own unique summons too, cause otherwise it looks like nobody but Chanters are capable of summoning help for now (druid's Blight is so weak, slow and buggy for now it's not worth talking about).

Hard counters were half the fun. Now you get your Mirror Image that just improves your Deflection by 20 (while Arcane Veil improves it by 25, the first level double spell by 10 or 15, the 3d level spell by 25, ecetera), enjoy your next generation of design. But hard counters is one hot topic.

Wrong about what exactly? I know what you're trying to do, it's just that it's so easy to make you bang your head against some wall that I find it very amusing, so I wasn't stopping you. I said that BG2 provided players with a variety of powerful weapons for everyone. It never was my goal to argue how balanced it was or if game was well protected against exploits, but you yourself proved that itemization was rich and items were very diverse, and end-tier weapons actually were all valid and good depending on situation.

Yup. Items in that game were p. awesome.

Temple of PoE! Temple of Eternity.

After playing Child of Light I barely notice music in games. If we're talking beta, I was unimpressed. Nothing bad, but nothing that made me clap my hands either. But I'm open for new experiences. Environmental effects did make some themes stand out more as I thought they would though.

Does it matter? We can argue about metagaming **** out of BG2 for pages. The argument was - some items in IE were so good, that party felt gimped without classes who could use them. In PoE any class can use any item and there is no Grandmastery, so there is no need for enchantment or effect-moving mechanic.

I used dual wielding rogue with stilettos (they ignore 5 DR). Generally same play as dual-wielding barbarian. Rogue gets 1.3 or 1.5 more damage depending on dirty fighting/sneak attack, barb gets 1.33 attack speed increase. From level 5 to 8 Rogue gets a blind attack and even more various DPS stuff, like some sort of a DoT. It's almost a standard MOBA assasin DPS-char. Boring as hell.

No it didn't. You're not going anywhere with this, you know.

Obsidian used fame of old games to get money to make their own game and possibly get even more money out of it. They're basically in debt of games like Baldur's Gate for what they got. They would not go on Kickstarter to "make something new". But that's really beyond discussion about item systems.

That has nothing to do with your previous statement or my reply to it. If game gives you a powerful weapon against vampires, and then only throws at you vampires who hit you in melee, it doesn't mean that the item is poorly designed. No, it felt that way because item system was more robust than character one. Leveling up was fairly automatic compared to future D&D games that had special feats, abilities and free multiclassing. It is not a fault of a designer who filled world with cool items. If anything, it's a testament to their work since a lot of customisation and playing around was possible just because there were so many interesting toys in the world, even if system itself wasn't complex.

Tilda opens console in game, how about developers give us some commands like xp and quest integers manipulation.