[PoE expansion: The White March part 1]

I think its a little weird that its part 1. I assume it will be 2 parts, maybe they intend the expansion to be really big so they split it up.

[My opinions on the wizard]

I feel like casting the buff spells on other characters might be overpowered... however I agree that they are very underhwelming on their own. I think the best fix would be to dramatically increase their durations to 150/300 seconds like the food buffs...

 

I agree that grimoire slam is weak... perhaps if they made it AOE centered on the caster it would make it more useful to escape from multiple enemies.

 

Overall I don't have any serious issues with the wizard the way mine is built. But I could see how if you chose some of the less optimal spells and talents it could be frustrating.

 

I think that blindness and miasma are really good level 2 spells and more than make up for a lack of AOE damage spells. If you look at D&D, there is a similar lack of AOE damage spells at 2nd level as well. I guess my main hang up is that the Web spell seems mostly useless since the stuck condition doesn't confer major penalties and it also doesn't immobilize enemies, it just slows them down. Chill fog does the same thing but damages AND debuffs.

 

I think with a little bit of tinkering and rebalancing they could fix the minor issues but I don't think the amount/quality of direct damage spells is fine.

[Level 4 party overwhelmed on every step - please advise!]

I did the ogres at level 4 no problem but thats because I had... you guessed it! A cipher!!

 

Paralyze + Charm makes short work of those ogres... wizard can pick up some of the slack but not the whole thing. So yeah, come back later at a higher level with better gear.

[Post-1.03, Mind Wave or Mind Blades? (Normal Difficulty)]

I could be wrong but it seems like the nerf to mind blades was negligable. It still seems useful to me, though it helps to debuff your enemies before using it. I've only had it whiff once.

[Sword and Shield Style Bonus not applying anymore]

I would like to know how to remove talents. Are you using the IE mod?

[Is my party lacking...or am I setting myself up for future failure?]

Its perfectly normal for only two or three of your characters do be doing the lions share of the damage. Spells and abilities will probably make up most of this damage, though if your defenses are high enough you can whittle the enemies away on the front lines.

 

Using a bigger weapon like an Estoc could be a good alternate weapon against enemies where your damage is low. Also remember that debuffing enemies and buffing your allies is just as important as doing damage. If you weaken, blind, frighten, and daze your enemies then you will have a much higher hit/crit chance and thus do much more damage.You will also have less pressure to kill them quickly since their accuracy will be lowered.

[Swashbucklery/Fencer type character]

There is a nice cavalier hat and also a tricorn hat you can get early on (no bonuses, but look cool). Good luck!

 

I would suggest paladin just because clerics and paladins get extra dialogue options nobody else does based on their religion.

[Three fights was all it took...]

To be fair even without OSA and the boots my barbarian is the biggest damage dealer in the party.

[Confused by damage. My hits generally 4-10, people report 40+]

My level 5 barbarian uses a Fine pike with fire enchantment and has 18 might as well as frenzy, Savage Attack, and Two-Handed specialization. I usually do 40+. My barbarian is the highest damage in the party having done 18,000 damage so far of the course of the game where my tanks do something like 1,500-2,500 damage. Wizard is 12,000 Damage, Cipher is 15,000.

 

20 might Cipher does pretty high damage with arbalest as well. To be expected I guess.

[Need help for a dragon]

I beat this at level 5 on hard difficulty... BUT with 6 custom characters. So I can't really help you that much with the party you have. I would say waiting until you can cast level 4 wizard spells will help make it a bit easier.
 

What I did was position my 3 tanks (chanter, paladin, priest) in the narrower entry way to the wide open area. Then I had my cipher shoot one of the Xuarips and run back behind the tanks.

I had my priest cast Armor of Faith, then use interdiction on all the enemies, then Despondent Blows, then Pillar of Faith, then Iconic Projection multiple times.

 

I had my wizard cast Chill Fog, Noxious Burst, Miasma of Dull-mindedness, Curse of Blackened Sight, and finally Expose Vulnerabilities, in that order. 

 

My cipher cast charm on one of the young drakes (didn't work) and then focused on paralyzing the biggest enemy whenever I had enough focus.

My Barbarian was enraged and doing lots of damage with a spear behind the tanks.


So while your party wont be as efficient as mine in this scenario, I think if you put heavy armor and give a hatchet +large shield to someone to act as a third tank you can hold the line while your guys in the back cast their spells and do ranged attacks. The key is those debuff spells my wizard cast, with the PC using the fear aura ability as well as the priests help. Also the wizard should be using arcane assault when they are clustered together around 1/2 way through the fight.

[Where do I find Tidefall Greatsword]

I'm pretty sure its mechanics actually not stealth. Its pretty lame... I think perception stat should be involved somehow.
 

Its above 7, do you have the gloves that give +2 to mechanics? Thats what I used.

 

Got it with a level 5 party on hard difficulty

[All Recruited Adventurers lost thier Voice Set post-patch]

Odd... my 5 adventurers have their voices working just fine from a pre-patch save. Did you by any chance remove them from your party and re-add them? That causes them to lose their voice.

[Bash broken in 1.03?]

Seems to work for me. Not sure what the 2 does but I am doing bash attacks and I see it on the character sheet properly.

[Ending any quest results in an infinite exp-gain loop]

For this kind of issue, I would go ahead and upload your save game right now. I would say the chance they can fix it without your save file is close to zero.

[I feel offended do you?]

Here is what google turned up on the first page of results relating to this type of issue:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/people-buy-broken-games,news-19952.html

http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology/the-future-of-video-games-is-buggy.html/?a=viewall

http://criticallysane.com/question-of-the-week-if-games-are-so-buggy-at-launch-why-do-we-keep-buying-them/

http://www.gamesradar.com/will-games-always-have-buggy-releases/

http://www.techspot.com/news/47040-weekend-open-forum-why-are-pc-games-so-buggy-these-days.html

 

Notice that there is basically one major article per year on this issue since 2009.
 

Obsidian has a track record of games that were buggy on release. Example:
http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knights-of-new-vegas-how-obsidian-survived-countless-catastrophes-and-made-some-of-the-coolest-role-playing-games-ever

 

I am not saying anyone is wrong for feeling the way they do, or that we should just blindly accept bugs without complaining. I do think that if you haven't figured it out already, it is a bad idea to buy a video game on day 1. Especially Open World RPGs. That doesn't make it right... but you have to face reality. This stuff happens, and they only way to avoid it, is to wait for a week or two and make sure you want to buy the game.

 

I am a kickstarter backer. I knew this could possibly happen, but I am fine to give my money because I know eventually the game will be worth every cent (personally, way more than that). I have been waiting 2 years to play this game, even longer for a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. I can wait another week. Patience is a virtue!

 

[Chanters can either buff party front or back, but not both?]

Um... my main is a chanter and I have no issue at all. I guess its party composition, I have 3 tanks in front and one barbarian with a spear right behind, and my wizard and cypher as slightly further back. I found that even in wide open spaces 3 tanks is enough to keep enemies from engaging guys in back especially with barbarian there to snag anyone who slips past.

Thus even if I had 10 INT I would always have everyone inside the radius.

I am not saying that OP argument isn't valid, it probably is. I think chanters are a bit underwhelming, all things considered. However, I am not convinced you need to have such a big gap between melee and ranged characters, especially since distance doesn't have a huge effect on agro anyways. My party is very close together in every single battle (in case it wasn't clear)

[Obsidian, why isn't there any hotfix yet?]

If you have been reading the threads carefully like I have... you would have noticed that one of the mods stated that 1.3 is already finalized and going through testing before they ship it out. Obviously there is no point releasing a patch if it makes things worse (see GTA 5 fiasco: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-has-rockstar-really-downgraded-gta-5 ) so they have to keep testing and fixing issues until it is ready.

 

I understand your impatience but as a game developer myself I hope that you guys realize that they are working as hard as they can to fix things as soon as possible. They have probably had 20 meetings since launch about what is going into the next patch, what is highest priority, etc etc. There is someone whose job it is to make sure this is done as efficiently as possbile... the producer. I am sure he is doing a great job and probably exhausted from wresting with this very issue all day long.

 

I want to play the game more myself, and I am waiting for a patch to proceed. I am just as eager as you to see some progress being made.

If I were you I would focus on positivity to encourage the devs like "This game is so awesome, I can't wait for the patch!!!" Nothing we say or do can make it come faster, but we can at least make them feel good whenever they have a few minutes to relax and read the forums.

 

P.S. If any devs do read the technical support forums for "relaxation" I think you need some help

 

[Receiving Bonus Content from Steam Purchase]

On your desktop/laptop computer you can right click the game in your steam library. Then you should have an option to get the manual. For other content you will need to go to the same right click menu and click view downloadable content.

You should see checkboxes nexto to all your bonus content. If not, check them so that they download.

 

Then they should be in your steam folder,
Steam\SteamApps\common\Pillars of Eternity

 

I hope that helps.

 

For the ringtone, you will have to either use a USB cable or use email, dropbox, or something else to transfer the music. I'm not sure why you expect them to do that for you...

[My own portraits are blurry]

The best way to avoid these types of problems is to do the following:

Open up one of obisian's portraits in your image editor.

Paste your image on top

Resize as necessary

Then "save as" with a new name.

 

This means if there are any special formatting options they will be applied to your image. It also ensures that the dimensions are exactly right (if you are using an advanced program like photoshop).

[The farther I get in the game, the more TWO Tanks feels mandatory.]

My strategy has been exactly what you described and works really well (custom party of 6) on hard difficulty.

Chanter, Paladin and Cleric tank on the front lines, usually a wide enough formation to keep enemies from running behind. Barbarian has a reach weapon and does a TON of damage. Cypher can lock down enemies with paralyze or just use mind blades to wipe them out. Finally wizard lends ranged support and also AOE spells.

[Non-squishy, tanking capable classes apart from warrior/pala?]

My custom party has 3 tanks: Chanter, Paladin, and Cleric. The paladin ends up being the best with the chanter slightly behind, and the cleric being a bit father behind. The cleric does a large amount of damage though, and the Interdiction ability is very nice. My cleric only has 10 Perception and Resolve though...

 

I also have a glass cannon barbarian which has really high Con so she can survive for a little while on the front line as long as she isn't swarmed.

 

So I think any character with heavy armor and 18+ resolve and perception will be a decent tank, I would worry more about having a good assortment of per-encounter abilities as well as crowd control, aoe damage, and being able to target a variety of defenses / damage types.

 

With this heavily melee focused arrangement combat flows pretty smoothly though I don't have enough ranged firepower to take down enemy ranged characters until the melee is over. This has just become an issue for me (party at level 5 right now) because my cypher and wizard keep getting sniped down. I still win the fights easily but I have to rest more often so I might end up just giving them heavy armor and sacrificing the damage potential.

[No Voices after Remove/Add to party]

I am playing with 5 custom adventurers in my party. I removed all 5 of them and then re-added them right away to fix the double-click inventory bug. However, now my characters have no voices, only my main character (the watcher) has voice over. I tried both at the Inn at Gilded Vale as well as the Stronghold, same issue.

 

To be 100% specific, if I click on someone and tell them to move somewhere, there is no audio unless its the main character.

I realize that you guys have limited resources, but I really wish I could change my portrait and sound set at any time just like in the IE games... it would provide a work around. Even if it was a console command, it would be nice to have. I guess I will recreate my party and use cheats to level them up.

[Dialogue Sound issue glitch]

I experienced this briefly during a single conversation but it happened for several lines. It seemed like it might be related to clicking to progress the dialogue mid-sentece for the voice overs.

[Minor Issue with Gravestones]

When you click on the gravestones in Esternwood it remembers the scroll position of the last time you clicked on a gravestone. It should reset the scroll position to 0 (the top of the list) every time you exit a gravestone.

 

The reason it is annoying is because if you read to the bottom and then click on a new gravestone, it starts at the bottom of the list and if you aren't careful you will not realize you missed half of the content.

[Cipher Focus gain]

From what I can tell the in-game suggestions aren't always accurate from a min-max perspective though they may be good suggestions for either well-rounded characters or a casual playthrough.

 

Unless your character is a tank, you might as well max might... though I am still pretty early in the game.