AndreaColombo

I agree, to an extent. Game mechanics being overemphasized and prioritized over narrative and storytelling is an issue, if not THE issue, with most modern RPGs. If I had to choose between a game with good writing and a good story, and a game with great mechanics, I would pick the former. Thankfully, later this year a game is being released (Torment: Tides of Numenera) that puts a lot more focus on writing and narrative design than on mechanics (though hopefully mechanics will be fun too.) BUT ... in an ideal world, we get both—and PoE is a game that provides both as far as I'm concerned. It's got good writing, a good story, and fun mechanics that enable players to be really powerful if they want to. The issue at hand, I believe, is different. The problem is that if you are completionist and hit the level cap in PoE—regardless of whether you are running optimized builds—nothing will challenge you anymore. You'll be too powerful for pretty much any challenge, including the boss fight, even at the highest difficulty setting and with the optional level scaling enabled. Steamrolling everything so easily has the sour backtaste of overkill, where a voice in your head keeps saying, "You could have done this with a lot less. You're practically killing ants with a nuclear bomb." After all the time and effort invested in hitting the level cap, and perhaps in optimizing my build, it feels rather unrewarding that I can't enjoy it for a few fights because everything is so massively weaker.

The final boss in PoE is not "a privilege" to fight for high-level completionist characters. It is a wuss. Just saying.

From the lore book:

My money's on yes, it's expected behavior. In the same way a Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion suppresses the speed bonus from a Barbarian's Frenzy, or a Scroll of Valor suppresses Zealous Focus.

It also had an experience progression that made the gap between completionists and non-completionists much smaller than it is in PoE. Leveling up in PoE is a bigger deal then it was in (A)D&D games in general, and you level up much faster. That makes balancing for both approaches a lot harder.

So, it looks to me like you did visit both bridges of which I am aware. I'm not very fluent when it comes to achievements, but this looks like a bug to me. Might be worth posting about it in the tech forum so QA can have a look.

Could you post a screenshot of your world map? There are only two bridges that I recall of, and one of them is a mandatory step to get into Defiance Bay.

I understand PrimeJunta's point, though if you think about it, it boils down to a matter of semantics. Basically, what PoE calls with fancy quality appellations (Fine, Exceptional, Superb), D&D calls with sterile numbers (+1/+2/+3). It is pretty much the same mechanism: It determines how good the basic item is; then you can have other enchantments on top of it, or not. Being used to the traditional D&D system (where a Wizard could, in fact, enchant your rusty old weapon up to +5 if they were high level enough, and you were willing to pay), this doesn't bother me too much in PoE. A system without this might as well work; I don't know. I'll try pretty much anything Obsidian throws my way in the PoE franchise anyway

When you level up, you can elect to pick lower-level powers even if a new power level has become available. However, you don't really need to pick that many lower-level powers; after a while, the good ones deplete.

^ but it lets me hold onto a weapon I like if I want to, without the fastidious feeling in the back of my head that I am not, in fact, using the most powerful weapon I could. To me, that's invaluable. Appreciate that YMMV; when I play, I pursue power and looks equally (I would never use a powerful combination of items if they looked bad together; I'm OCD and weird like that.)

Is your character named Angela or Alissa, by chance?

As far as I'm personally concerned: (1) No. (2) No. But let the record show that I generally like to power-game, so I'm fond of everything that lets me do that (and vice versa, of course.)

I haven't really timed them; I would call them "longish", but not as long as to really bother me. Installing the game on a SSD definitely helps; I also make use of the IE Mod's component that disables auto-saving at every area transition (I only save every 15 minutes), which further decreases loading times.

Personally, I'm a fan of crit-path-only scaling (which may or may not be bracketed.) The crit path being something that all players have to go through when they play the game, regardless of whether they are completionists or not, it makes sense for it to adjust to your level in order to always provide a challenging experience. This is even more important in a game like PoE, where the power gap between completionists and non-completionists is very high; you need to keep the game beatable by casual, non-completionist gamers but completionists deserve some love too. Side quests, on the other hand, are completely optional so it makes sense that you get stomped if you go too early, or steamroll them if you go too late. Appreciate that this is not gonna happen in PoE, but I still advocate that completionists deserve some love. Act III level scaling should be for level 14-16 durgan-packed characters, not for level 10-12 casual parties.

Not that I know of. When I played through his story in 2.0 it looked fine.

Aarik, I think HawkSoft's point was that Sworn Enemy is no longer a Per Rest ability; it has become Per Encounter in 3.0. The A.I. instruction set's description still says it will only be used if you activate "Per Rest abilities", which is probably not true anymore as a result of the change.

As I cannot think of going through the game myself without a Priest (their buffs are too good to pass), I'm going to vote for Durance. I also like his personal story, though if you've already sat through it once or twice, it may not be as enticing because it's rather wordy.

I second this request. Because scaling is optional, it would be nice to get some love for completionists who get to Act III and IV at level 14-16 and well equipped (including, as Enkeli said, the bounties.)

Ouch, Boeroer won't like this!

It doesn't; it only damages foes caught in-between. The same is true of Ectopsychic Echo, one of the most popular Cipher powers.

Blasphemy!

Because it might be a better fit for the kind of play style you're after (Monk would also be good fit if single-target DPS is your thing and you want cooler-looking moves.)

Oh, yeah.

More like -20% armor recovery penalty since 2.03 (and I think Disciplined Barrage is +15 Accuracy) On top of the already mentioned features, Knock Down and Sundering Blow are definitely single-target DPS abilities, alongside Confident Aim.

Don't get me wrong, there—I have the utmost respect for the PoE team. They have shown their dedication, passion, and talent more than once since before the game released. The game has come a long way since March 2015 and I look forward to more of it when TWM pt. II drops. I'm also aware of the doubling/halving approach Josh embraces, and I too believe Ciphers' current status is not final. I'm merely voicing my opinion of it because the devs are known to read the boards for players' feedback, and this is mine