Jojobobo

I guess I was curious as to when overhaul patching (where large bits of the game's mechanics are completely rebalanced) will end? From my perspective, every time the game's mechanics are severely tweaked (the big three coming in 1.05 being a complete alteration to experience rewards, the retaliation nerf and nerfs to some paralysis effects) I feel obligated to start again even if my save is retroactively brought up to speed as so much changes and my character has benefitted from so much that now isn't in the patch is doesn't feel like a very legitimate playthrough any more. With the amount of restarts I've had to make just because of bugs (and common reasons for RPG re-rolling, like finding an appropriate difficulty you like and wanting to stick with it or testing different classes) I've now done the initial areas of the game many more times than I would have liked, and having many more huge rebalance patches will only make this worse. This isn't to say I don't that I don't think rebalancing was necessary or that the rebalances brought in aren't worthwhile (though really this should have been mostly resolved in beta testing), but I hope that huge game-changing rebalancing can be completed fairly swiftly and subsequent patches will be of the minor tweak variety so there won't be this meteoric shift in gameplay each time (and hence wouldn't feel compelled to re-roll as nothing significant will have changed). Anyone else get this feeling? I guess beyond anything else I'm just hoping to pressurise Obsidian

I wouldn't mind more VO than PoE, but I wouldn't want it to take away from other areas of the game significantly. If they have the budget to spalsh out and other areas not take a hit then sure, if not then PoE levels are fine.

It seems like this patch is going to be pretty punitive on solo PotD players early game - Fan of Flames damage has been nerfed meaning a much harder time getting through the bears and phantoms/shadows at Caed Nua and the Temple of Eothas. This in turn really railroads attempts to get to level 4 (the bench mark where things usually get better due to access to Vulnerable Attack and the fine enchantment) - as you'll likely need to wait until a higher level to do some of these encounters, which means that reaching that higher level is all the more difficult because of not being able to do these experience heavy encounters. Obviously the Second Wind activating even if you're the only party member is a boon to solo play, but unless you kill Eder early solo players aren't going to have access to anything like that. I guess solo play is supposed to be difficult, but hopefully this is the kind of difficult that doesn't make certain solo builds more or less impossible as you can't progress past Caed Nua to the experience cash cow that is Defiance Bay. I suppose maybe they haven't messed with act I experience too much, which would render this point mostly moot. Apart from that, the balances seem pretty solid - especially the Cipher focus pool nerf and the retaliate damage nerf. The only thing that does seem off to me is the passive mechanics thing; detecting at 4 levels lower is too low for this to be useful - meaning that people are still going to be stealthing everywhere (no one is going to have mechanics 4 levels higher than necessary just to move a bit more freely, especially as you may as well level up other skills that could have gone into mechanics). Detecting at 2 levels lower - I could see that working (especially as you could buff your mechanics with scrolls if you were that desperate to run around) - but 4 levels lower seems completely useless for what they're aiming for (i.e. not constantly stealthing).

Maybe we're not all into interspecies coupling like you b0sruk... I'm joking of course. I guess some couples would probably want to have sex but not want to have the resulting kids until Waidwen's Legacy has been taken care of or animancy has progressed sufficiently to deal with the issues of having a hollowborn. The majority of these couples would likely be same species because it's the norm (as in before Waidwen's Legacy couple would marry their species and have kids, which is likely still the trend despite having kids being problematic now).

I found them a bit underwhelming, and even the bear is pretty sucky at tanking (even with Resilient Companion) for any decent stretch of time. Ciphers seemed to do ranged much better.

Gotta get that antelope bestiary experience.

Can you sneak to get it, or must some Drakes be defeated on the way? I was pondering this for a solo run, but never got around to trying it out (plus I don't know where the stash is located as I'd never had mechanics 10 getting there either).

If you were going DPS, I would have a look at the Priest talents and pick a deity who's weapon accuracy bonuses you like. +10 accuracy on a weapon is a pretty big deal, if you were to take than and a corresponding Weapon Focus you'd be just as accurate with a couple of weapons as a fighter (not that you'd necessarily need to take both the Weapon Focus and the deity talent).

So people seem to be achieving the Triple Crown now, I was wondering if anyone wanted to attempt the Double Triple Crown? The idea - minimise all your attributes on character creation, then try a normal Triple Crown playthrough. If anyone could manage it (with literally any Class or Race) then I think they should go down in PoE history forever. I guess the Triple Triple Crown would be for notoriously bad race/class combinations and lacking any stat boosting gear. Something that's achievable, or no way Jose? Not that I'm going to try this ludicrous challenge, I'm happy with solo PotD - maybe regular TC if I feel like making a particularly minmaxed character - but hey I'm not a masochist like some of you

In general, I think they should lower XP generally but buff it for party members missing from your team (maybe significantly so if you're running solo). Such an XP system would encourage people playing parties of less than 6 to level a smaller party higher, which currently isn't really something people care for.

XP nerfing is a bit of a minefield, if you plan to play solo I wouldn't bother (the game seems very hard on PotD before hitting level 4 from my experience, which is tricky to do). If you're always doing party play, then by all means nerf XP like crazy.

So I recently started a Paladin solo with high Resolve (for Deflection) but now want to restart due to an irritating bug. I was thinking of re-rolling as a Barbarian, however as they don't care so much about Deflection I was wondering if Resolve could be comfortably left at 10 without being interrupted all the time (as Resolve also boosts Concentration)? Obviously things like Retaliation will help a great deal anyway, but it's still a little bit of time from early game until you get some with Retaliation.

Permanent DR bug for Battle-Forged: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76831-battle-forged-stack-bug-even-after-103/ I'm still suffering from it after 1.04, and because of it I'm now going to restart (I don't feel happy that my solo PotD run has been somewhat marred by easier difficulty). Maybe it's under the remit of one of the bugs you already posted, I'm not sure?

I've got this bug after 1.04, anyone else?

Or maybe I just don't use Steam so I don't follow all the bull**** jargon that the trophies are called. But thanks for being rude and patronising by saying I don't show interest in the game. You should pick up the Aminat horn ASAP from the smith, then do the Temple of Eothas. If your mechanics is high enough you can spot a switch on the wall in the first level (in the eastern room with 4ish spiders) meaning you only fight them and a few Skuldr Whelps, then on the lower floor if you have a mechanics of 4 or 5 (remember you can buff it at the inn) you can pick a south eastern door leading to the remains meaning you only have to fight a few Shadows (no Shades), a Phantom (watch out, they can stun lock you) and some Black Oozes. Fan of Flames scrolls are your friend for the Phantom, as is the Animat. That should let you hit level 4 (I think), and then things start to get noticeably easier anyway. For Raedric's Hold, you can get to Raedric fairly easily for some XP. Scale the wall and kill the guard to the north east (can be a bit tricky, but I think you should fare better as a Moon Godlike Fighter than I did with my Fire Godlike Paladin). Kill the archer if he shows up, then go through the first door. You can then get Berath's Priest robes which will disguise you, and if you have 7 mechanics and some picks you can do a door on that floor which leads straight to Raedric. Once you get there, have a chat (which grants XP anyway) and then come back to kill him later if you so choose (or just kill the far easier Kolsc). You then have free run of the Hold to get more mechanics XP. This is from me soloing on PotD, but without Trial by Iron.

Despite the way that you explain how you use the ability, it still doesn't overcome my main hurdle, namely that it simply kills off anyone that you try to resurrects after it's short buff has expired, unless he or she has dumped quite a few points into Con and has a high base HP. Which significantly narrows the potential survivors. To be honest, with something like a Cipher, that's plenty of time to do very serious damage. However your point it valid, I guess it depends who you're looking to bring back (for a tank, granted it's quite useless). Make sure that you're not going off the wiki when it comes to priest spells, it's still quite out of date and uses older beta data. I was mistaken myself too, thinking that it was 5DR. But now that I have access to the game itself again, I can verify that my point still stands (though not 'almost double the DR'). It currently offers 4 DR ingame, vs 3DR from the aura. The duration is also base 30 seconds, compared to the documented 15 from the beta. Also keep in mind that that a Priest is always better to be geared towards a spellcaster, while a Paladin usually isn't (although high Int is sometimes used with Paladins for conversation options), boosting that duration to 42sec at 18 Int. I also double checked to be sure, and the effects do not stack. Yeah I was checking the wiki, I guess never of our first numbers were correct. Comparing Paladins and Priests though, Paladins are much more tanky which Priests really aren't so good at - which can in some ways make them more consistent at delivery the DR in some ways. It does all depend on party composition, but I still find it difficult to fathom why people think Paladins are completely naff.

I love guns in the game, and guns in fantasy settings in general (part of the reason I like Arcanum so much). However, compared to Arcanum, the fact you can make magical guns makes them even cooler. Very nice on the whole.

What's TC? Do you mean TI, as in Trail by Iron?

If you keep healing his spell uses run out. As long as you target him he goes down pretty easy. This is based on soloing him on PotD.

What I want to know is why Lionesses have manes?

General talent: Fortification - When paralysed or petrified, you gain +6 DR. When stuck, gain +3 DR. Might be good to solve the paralyse/petrification insta wins, both for monsters and for party members - though it is highly situational.

Gotcha, I'll look there in the future.

For Ciphers at least you start with some Focus and can cue attacks by holding the shift key. For Chanters I kind of get the point but it's not like that gradual chant meter should really catch you by surprise.

I thought the intro was the weakest bit (even a lot of the Gilded Vale), I found getting to Defiance Bay and having much more compelling things to do (as well as more trivial things on the side) far better. I mean who really cares about The opening section, whilst not exactly dull, didn't suck me in much either (apart from, you know, the opening tree scene).

As Raven said, you definitely need to fight some of them in Caed Nua.