AndreaColombo

I included that in "maxed-out DEX" should get to 30, I believe: 18 + Elf + Archipelago + Caed Nua resting bonus + Rauatai Sweet Pie + Ring + Caroc's sacrifice That's a whopping +60% speed.

Imo, Elf Wizard protagonist with maxed-out DEX and durganized robes opening the fight with DAOM.

Why? What alternatives is Firebrand making useless or unviable? I'm a two-hander user and a powergamer and I've never used Firebrand once.

Looks like some corrupted files. There's chance everything will be pink when you enter those locations. I suggest running a verify\repair from either Steam of GoG Galaxy as that will fix any issues those files have.

Definitely both sides need to be fiery.

in this thread's first page I mentioned I'd like no romances and better A.I. and encounter design in PoE 2. I would like to elaborate a bit more on the latter while making a broader point on game difficulty. Let me start by telling Obs that I get it I completely understand that by making the game easier, you enable players to pursue their roleplaying ideas without feeling like they're being pigeonholed into specific choices and optimized character builds; the majority of the gamers are casuals who don't do completionist runs and don't spend too much time carefully min-maxing their builds--and the game had to be beatable in this scenario. However, there is one thing I don't get: Why are PotD and enemy upscaling also balanced around casual non-completionist play throughs? Since launch, casuals have had three (3) difficulty settings geared towards them: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Later on, Story Mode joined the fray. Aren't four game modes enough for one category? Don't veterans, completionists and power gamers also deserve one difficulty setting? Why is PotD not unapologetically hard and balanced around a full party of six optimized characters packed with durganized items? Why isn't enemy upscaling balanced against a party that maxed out at level 16 at the beginning of Act III? As it is now, Act III and Act IV are an absolute joke even at PotD with scaling on if you're running six well-built characters in a completionist run--and my problem is not that I can max out at the beginning of Act III. I mentioned this several times but I actually like it that I can reach my full potential so early as it gives me some time and content to enjoy my being badass before the game is over. Maxing out at the very end with just one encounter left is anti-climatic: I've finally reached everything I've been playing for, I look totally badass and I'm super strong but ... the game is over and there is no more content left to enjoy what I've built. Ouch! The problem is that the game never takes into account how powerful parties can actually get. Which leads me to my PoE 2 wish list-- The hardest difficulty setting should be unapologetically hard.By that I mean that it should be balanced around completionist runs with a full party of six optimized character builds (not necessarily min-maxed henchmen, mind you; companions can get pretty strong in PoE with the right selection of talents, abilities, and equipment.) Difficulty settings should change A.I. and encounter design more than monsters' stats.It is my understanding this is something Tyranny does. When I crank up the difficulty, I don't want to get more of the same--more monsters with higher stats and that's it. I want smarter A.I. that makes use of all their abilities and items (including scrolls and potions, or spells from spellbind items, etc.), acts synergistically and uses positioning to gain an advantage (perhaps by means of better encounter design: At higher difficulties, the same monsters could be positioned better on the map from the start.) Bracketed scaling as a toggleable option.Upscaling as currently implemented is immersion breaking and limited in that it can only be selected when prompted, and only if you meet a specific requirement at a specific point in time. If I wanted to rush Act III to get an item, then come back later to actually play it, I may end up being over-leveled for its content and never being offered to upscale it. In PoE2 it would be better to implement bracketed scaling for the whole game from the start, toggleable at will from the options' menu. Scaling may include stat boots as well as smarter A.I.. While we're at it, I'd like to make a separate, lore-related request: Lore-friendly encounters and monster ecology. What is this about? Well, A lore-friendly encounter is an encounter comprising only monsters that it makes sense to find grouped together. In PoE it can happen quite often to run into motley groups of monsters that don't seem to have much to do with each other. I would prefer monster groups to make thematical sense. A corollary to the above is that it never made much sense to me that all monsters only aggro the player, but never fight each other. It feels artificial, as though some kind of unspoken agreement existed across all non-kith races (whether sentient or unintelligent) not to ever attack each other, and slay all kith at first sight. Now, if monster groups made thematical sense, then it would also make sense for them not to aggro each other--otherwise, let us see them fight (note: I'm not vouching for intra-monster fights as a rule--it would just make the game easier which is the opposite of what I requested above. I'm vouching for encounters where it makes sense for monsters to be allied. However, for the sake of making the world feel plausible, seeing monster fight each other now and again could be good for immersion.) Dungeon encounters should make sense.This is a pet peeve of mine. If someone's tried to get inside a dungeon before and made some progress, it makes no sense for you to encounter monsters before the point to which this someone got. Sure, if time has passed since the attempt was made, monsters may have repopulated the area ... but how do you explain the raiders on the first level of Od Nua's dungeon? You had to slay LOTS of monsters to get there; you mean to tell me monsters didn't aggro them? Last but not least, monster ecology. One thing that kinda bugs me in fantasy in general is the apparent lack of politics (in the broad sense of the word) within intelligent monster races. In PoE, Vithracks are perfect example of this. I picture Vithrack colonies to be organizationally akin to human nations. How realistic would it be for a human nation to dispatch a small group to search for something that is advertised as being of vital importance for the nation itself (I'm referring to the adra expedition in Od Nua's dungeon)? Who makes the call about the mission's relevance, and about the size and nature of the team who should handle it? Is there no dissent at all? No other opinions (even among those chosen to carry out the mission)? All Vithracks are nationalists with a blind faith in each other and their colony? Everyone thinks seeking the secret of adra is a priority and a good thing for the colony? When they're back, a very small group made a massive difference for everyone? It just felt really simplistic to me. I appreciate this is just a game and everything (a huge part of this "everything" being the resources that would be necessary to implement the Rothfussian level of depth I desire), but if anything could be done in PoE2 to add some depth to the ecology of intelligent monstrous races, I think it would make for a much more interesting game overall.

As a rule, I agree with this; one of my main pain points with this game is the poor A.I. and encounter design. However, in the case of sabres the nerf was called for. Their base damage overshadowed all other one-handed weapons and generally threatened two-handers' perk of being the highest damage output weapons in the game. It was not a matter of being overpowered in general; it was matter of enabling player choice by making sabres comparable to other one-handers.

^ it's a known Mac-related issue; the plug in used for cape physics (IIRC) doesn't work on Mac.

Crush is better than Pierce. Regardless, the difference across damage types vs DR is very small if we consider the average DR values from all creatures in the game (including TWM I and II)—and by very small I mean typically below 1 point.

After all the effort that went into this, it can't be left unfixed!

Now I must build a character around these items.

Any chance to look into this? http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/89299-303-unlabored-blades-firebug-not-proccing/?do=findComment&comment=1845498

Hey Sking, Do I understand correctly this mean Sabres now come with 11-16 and a 20% damage increase that stacks with everything, so that further % bonuses apply to the base 11-16? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQ-REfn6Ao Also... any feedback on my requests from a few posts above?

Definitely. I've just added it

Hope these get fixed; it would be a shame if all the digging Loren Tyr's done went to waste! Thanks, Loren Tyr!

Hey Sking, could you check whether 3.04 gets rid of the sound it makes when you return to the main menu from a game? I believe it's the sound paladin auras make when you activate / deactivate them; it's been there on the menu since TW2 dropped and it's rather annoying. :\ Also, any chance of addressing the current impossibility to get Wael's Boon, and the binding rope, lavender wreath and retaliation items suppressing each other?

I know, right? I've been mostly lurking in the shadows, though I've also been moderately pseudo-active in the 3.04 thread. Just updated the build list, though. Once 3.04 drops (and the IE Mod is updated to comply), I may make a comeback for a full play through

I suggest reporting this on the IE Mod's Nexus page so it can get fixed. You know, for those of us who may want to use the IE Mod for more than just fast scouting

Could you sneak in any additional fixes besides those listed in the OP?

Thanks for the update; list's shaping up quite nicely Hope you guys get to Wael's Boon and the Binding Rope/Lavender Wreath/Retaliation bugs too!

^ I reported that with Pallegina a while ago so it's in their tracker. Agree it's annoying; hope they fix it but I doubt that. The sound it makes when you quit the game and go to the main menu (which I believe is from a Paladin's aura) is also very annoying.

Yeah, that's kind of annoying, though it might be too minor to make it to 3.04 :\ EDIT: Stuff as quick as this, for which a fix has been provided, should really make it to the patch regardless. Not to mention the issue I linked in particular (Spelltongue providing infinite duration for buffs) is not exactly minor either.

Loren Tyr for president! (Obsidian are hiring, btw ... just saying )

Sking, thank you and the team for this. This is the kind of dedication and community orientation that I felt was missing from the 3.03 release. Thanks a lot for this

If this hasn't been mentioned yet, it definitely needs fixing: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84465-30-consecrated-ground-triggers-eyestrike-from-elryns-jacket/