stratigo

I am wondering, would cypher SB and Monk multiclass work at popping the megabosses? I did this for my first playthrough and so shied away from it in subsequent ones, but I have never actually beaten the game yet, and figure since it is 'done' as it were, this is the time to do a full completion type game.

Funnily my last two runs were soulblades, one monk and one fighter. But they just nerfed soulblade and, like, flames seems to spike higher damage even after it, too got nerfed. I might go back to soulblade if that's really a thing.

I always like to have a build that COULD solo a megaboss. I'm not sure inquisitior has that build, and I stared at Herald for literally 2 hours. But Cypher just means a lot more in the game than chanters do. They just have more on the roleplaying side and my char import was a cipher (Sadly not my backlash cypher as I did not finish that game before Obsidian nerfed it)

So, I started my 'true' playthrough of the game with all the DLC out. I decided to rock inquisitor with ascended as my cipher subclass, but I am getting brutally stuck in character creation paralysis and having trouble pushing forward in the game without the niggling doubt in the back of my mind going "Your character isn't mean enough to beat the megabosses" and for this playthrough I intend to do a complete 100 percent PotD run. I'll be rocking the characters this game gives me, but no created ones. So, I guess i am looking for some of you terrible wonderful powerbuilding masters to reassure my fears and paranoias about this game XD

This is a function of people confusing gratification with agency. The former is apparently what the medium exists to provide and must be heaped upon the player at every possible opportunity, regardless of all other considerations. It’s not enough that we get to kill every god in the next game, I need to a video game to make me feel powerful and important *right now* Your every post in this thread is pretty much revolving around how anyone who did not find the main plot as satisfying as you is either stupid or uncultured. This is a quite entitled opinion.

makes me sad no one is talking cypher. Poor cypher.

I'd watch it

Nah. It's a bug. I'm something like 40 hours in and Irrena has been sitting on rest the entire time and hasn't healed even a little. I've cycled through multiple injured crew, and she still won't heal. There's probably something that borks in the early game that prevents her from healing for some people

Eh. DTC seems to be the only rationale actors in the area. A few discrete 'tidying up' of details (and a few people) seems a lot better than wholesale murder/slavery, destruction of souls, and/or wide-scale repression and literally feeding the bulk of the population garbage (and just murdering the ones that fall ill). Only if you think the colonization of India was a good thing (and if you do, you need to do some research into the state of india under British rule). They're out and out there to conquer the deadfire, are purposefully racist and dismissive towards the inhabitants, and self assured of their own superiority. We have real world history that shows us where that goes, and it is extraordinarily unpleasant. The Valians operate like a merchant republic. They aren't particularly interested in colonial rule. They want trade concessions, and they'll be ruthless about it, but they aren't in it to take over a place, and, ultimately, it leaves their control more fragile and less.... awful to the natives. The natives are just... eh. They're ****, but they're **** in a way that is probably less dicking themselves than other people would **** them, because they're all **** in the end. And the pirates are pirates. Like, yeah, they're bad people. Duh. And the VTC are completely fine with slavery, and wiping out anyone that stands against their trading posts. Sure they won't try to rule the locals, but if the locals don't comply with their demands, they will just wipe them out. That came very clear in the council session at the end of the game. You can compare it to the colonization of America; We will leave you alone, if you leave us alone, and maybe even work together/trade with each other a bit, but if you stand in our way we will destroy you. And how did that ended for the locals? All of them have goods and bads really. It was the whole reason I went in alone at the end, as they were never going to change for the good even if you sided with them. So '**** them all' seemed the best option for me; They got to start working together or plunder the world in chaos. They chose the latter at the end (A bit disappointing ending really. Was hoping their was a way for everyone to get to work together a bit). It doesn't compare to America. America was a colonial enterprise. The Rauatai are more likely to pursue that than the Valians. To see how the Valians would treat the natives, you have to link back to.... well the societies the valians are pretty much ripped from. They're Italian merchant republics. We saw where merchant republics went and what they did, which was very often not pleasant, but far less not pleasant than colonialism. But their power was always fragile and reliant on making good deals. Ultimately, the republics are too fractious to be completely domineering, and their control over the isles will not be a strong one, a concerted effort would push them off. The Rauatai, once they are in, will be there for centuries to perpetuity. No amount of effort would force them out, they would have to have a shift in societal priorities to ever lose their grip or have the entire empire collapse. I'd be much more inclined to side with the huana if the huana leadership weren't outright scummy arseholes though.

Eh. DTC seems to be the only rationale actors in the area. A few discrete 'tidying up' of details (and a few people) seems a lot better than wholesale murder/slavery, destruction of souls, and/or wide-scale repression and literally feeding the bulk of the population garbage (and just murdering the ones that fall ill). Only if you think the colonization of India was a good thing (and if you do, you need to do some research into the state of india under British rule). They're out and out there to conquer the deadfire, are purposefully racist and dismissive towards the inhabitants, and self assured of their own superiority. We have real world history that shows us where that goes, and it is extraordinarily unpleasant. The Valians operate like a merchant republic. They aren't particularly interested in colonial rule. They want trade concessions, and they'll be ruthless about it, but they aren't in it to take over a place, and, ultimately, it leaves their control more fragile and less.... awful to the natives. The natives are just... eh. They're ****, but they're **** in a way that is probably less dicking themselves than other people would **** them, because they're all **** in the end. And the pirates are pirates. Like, yeah, they're bad people. Duh.

I am slightly disgruntled that they decided to give her a texan accent myself.

I'm with you there. So far, I've done the independent ending and VTC; the Vailian faction quests were great up until the last one, which requires you to kill a bunch of people (though the fight at the palace may be avoidable?). And they're slavers, which... ugh. I'll try Rauatai and the Huana next, but I'm worried they aren't going to be much better. At least the independent option is always available! Killing the leaders of foreign states in a big melee is really frickin weird to me. That really isn't something people do very often. That so many questlines end up with you getting in a big knockdown fight with the queen of the huana... just feels wierd

There's no... outright offputting companions like Durance in PoE2. There's also no overwhelmingly tragic characters like grieving mother (there's tragic things, but no one is defined by their tragedies).

Companies trend towards.... being immoral and upper management selects for certain anti social behaviors. It's easier to make money if you have less empathy. So, upper management of any business being **** isn't particularly newsworthy. It'd be more unique if Obsidian upper management was run by genuinely nice people who took the feelings and well beings of their staff into account every decision they made.

The game reviewing industry is more credible today than it ever was really. There's been a shift from reviewers to influencers (eg, youtube personalities. The people you check out for them and less the game they play) by companies, meaning less pressure on reviewers, a lot of the shadier outlets have closed, and a lot of the most popular review groups have shifted practices.

"Waste time?" Making your own builds is half the fun of the game! depends. I enjoy clearing content and experiencing the story. I'm not a huge fan of experimenting and running the same content multiple times to find the most efficient way to play. Letting someone else shoulder the experimenting saves a lot of time.

I usully want to murder ciphers or wizards ASAP

is there a sure place to get ryona's vambraces? Or do I just have to get a lucky drop?

Could you stat that out cause I have Hiravias permenantly on the bench with Aloth because nothing I do seems to make him work

druids always annoy me on sight. Ogre druids especially.

But.. isn't Outlander Frenzy an average cast speed? It feels much faster than chucking a potion. Actually very noticeable faster. But I also don't wear armor and have high Dex and am sometimes on the tail end of pallegina's 20% attack haste effect as I hit the frenzy button to continue the fun. It seems that potions have sometimes a weird delay where your toon doesn't do anything for half a second before taking the pot. Abilities don't have that. You know, I'm finding this too. my retaliation cypher constantly flubs chugging a potion in the middle of a fight.

what's the secret to this build at the very start of the game. I'm running into the bandits for the blacksmith mission and just getting destroyed constantly. Like an hour of dying in all sorts of combinations, while my monk didn't have near the issues I am now

I have been tweaking my high defense Paladin and I pretty much play him like I am pvping players. I start the fight with no shield to trick the AI so it thinks I have way lower deflection then I really have. I have armor and high End so a few hits is no big deal. I also have Zealous Charge on if anything un sticks I disengage (no big deal I have high defense and more disengage Defense with Charge) and pretty much pin ball around engagement stuff while my aura helps my ranged Kite if they have to. Its actually fun and a very interactive way of Playing a Paladin who is known to be not very...well interactive. Also with a heavy one hander like a Mace, Warhammer or Saber going onehanded style gives you some sick disengagement attacks that will make the AI pay. If I am taking too much heat I just switch to weapon and shield and am a full tank again. maybe I'm wierd, but I like controling my main char, and my favorite class is a cipher. One of the changes I was looking forward to was they I wouldn't have to obsessively micro all my party for them to not suck. Tanks literally lack a point if you can't hold aggro through unless.... you stop being as tanky. I mean in BG2, fighter type classes were all sorts of worthless without a mage just buffing them. But you could go "lul" and take all magic using guys, self buff, and stomp everything anyways. PoE doesn't even have long lasting buffs, so... from what I'm getting is that tank classes are just worthless now. Make them dps.

If the enemy ignors your tanks, there's no poin in having tanks. BG combat was ****stupid guys. Like, I know people are nostalgic, but it was a hideously broken set of nonsense. Trying to emulate it more is dramatically silly.

You can choose to have the expansion content scaled to your high level characters. And, as noted, there's an autosave right before entering Sun in Shadows. Surely it's not that big a deal that you start there instead of right at the very end? Honestly? I don't care that much about the dungeons or fights or anything. I care about the story. And the story of PoE was already nicely self contained, I'd like an expansion to... expand on the aftermath of your actions, not add a side project to what was a pretty coherent story. Did they at least make the stronghold better?