AndreaColombo

^ likely they forgot to pull it from the build before pushing it live. An involuntary marketing tool for the curious and the inquisitive. I like that

^ actually, because attributes' effects are percentage based, having higher base health and endurance means you get hit harder from dumping CON. Barbarians do get away more easily with lighter armor because of that, though. I still like Fighters better because reasons, but I'm also the kind of person who would sacrifice mechanical efficiency for aesthetics, so...

spambot - fairly sure "with backers" refers to "share" rather than to "doing".

Reminder to GoG people who don't use Galaxy: You will need to install both the 2.03 patch for the base game AND the 2.03 patch for TWM for a successful update. I've just confirmed this with Brandon.

I'm with Sensuki on this one (but this was never mystery since beta days.) I love this game, but when it was released I just couldn't enjoy combat without disabling engagement through the IE mod. I thought I had a change of heart post 2.0 but I realize now that I can play with engagement because it is mostly inconsequential. As for kiting, I've always seen it as a legitimate play style. If you want to prevent it, make enemy A.I. smart enough to recognize when it's being kited and act upon it. Engagement seems like an artificial solution (and it doesn't really fix the "issue" anyway; but then again, as I said, I don't consider it an issue to begin with.)

Unless I'm missing the obvious, that should bring it down to +25% (-15% from Durgan, -10% from Pilferer's Grip.)

I love you. Thanks for those helmets that match unique armor (I remember suggesting them over here.) My inner aesthetic b**ch is now hyped as eff :D New vithracks are also pretty fantastic!

In PoE you can only learn spells from grimoires. Most scrolls mimic Wizard, Druid, or Priest spells that you may want other characters to be able to cast, or you may want to be able to cast them from scrolls instead of having them use up a slot in your Wizards' grimoire; however there are some that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Notably Scroll of Valor, Scroll of Defense, Scroll Paralysis and Scroll of Maelstrom are four otherwise unavailable spells that are good to have (though honestly I find Scroll of Paralysis to be rather overrated; I haven't really been using it for the past two play throughs and I never use Scroll of Maelstrom.) Scroll of Valor and Scroll of Defense, on the other hand, I make use of in copious amounts. As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

Pallegina isn't half as annoying, though

Zahua's stats are very close to the Juggernaut's; imho he's one of the strongest story NPCs.

^ the minimum damage bonus was not applying, though judging from your post it seems that might be just a UI/display issue.

^ it is, thankfully.

Can anyone with the beta patch confirm whether the Confident Aim ability was fixed?

The Grey Sleeper is rather strong in my opinion. As for attack speed calculation, there have been entire threads dedicated to the subject. PoE is generally bad at communicating how its mechanics work, but that doesn't mean the mechanics are bad. If you really want to know how fast you attack, do a frame by frame analysis. If you don't, eyeball it based on this chart (part of it is outdated, but close enough.) Damage calculation in PoE is as easy as it gets because the game does it for you. Equip a weapon and the UI will tell you exactly how much your min and max damage is. Of course it varies from character to character: They have different MIG scores, just like different characters had different STR scores in IE games. The same sword doesn't have the same damage output on Imoen and Minsc.

There are skills that are not worth pushing past 3-4 points on each companion, like Stealth or Athletics. The benefits you get from investing more than 3-4 points are too small compared to the cost. Lore is good for some conversation options, but less than you would think. Other than that, I would have 1 or 2 party members pump it to 10 so they can use all scrolls; it is not necessary for the rest of your party to invest in it (but you can have a 3rd party member with some Lore so they can use some scrolls in case the 10-lore guys are knocked out or otherwise unavailable for using scrolls.) Likewise, you only need one party member with high Mechanics (at least 10); it is not necessary for the others to have it. Survival is generally considered a bad/useless skill but I beg to differ. Like Lore, it offers some conversation options (not many) but what I like it for is the increase in duration of the one potion that can make your DPS skyrocket: Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. I always have at least 10 ranks on my main, and some ranks on the rest of my party as well. It also increases the duration of food, which I make ample use of.

SAVED GAME: link OUTPUT LOG: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Select the protagonist and go to her character record. Click her Stealth score and observe it lists the following bonuses: +2 Dungeon Delver, +1 Blooded Hunter, +1 Lilith's Shawl. Further observe the total score is 6, thus implying I only invested 2 points in Stealth. That is not true, as I invested 4. Scroll down the character record until you get to the list of talents. Click on Dungeon Delver to read its description. Observe it never mentions any bonuses to Stealth. The same steps can be followed to observe a +2 bonus listed to Mechanics, where the issue is even more obvious: My Mechanics score is 0 and rightfully so, since I invested no points in it. Yet clicking it says I get +2 from Dungeon Delver. The issue has been there since the base game released in March. I guess those bonuses were originally part of the Dungeon Delver talent, yet when they were removed the textual part was retained.

SAVED GAME: link OUTPUT LOG: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Observe Aloth has a dialog icon on its portrait, indicating he wants to discuss something with you. Click that icon to initiate dialog. Select the first option (the one marked as [Rational] that says the fabricated gods served their purpose.) Observe that after Aloth speaks his answer, Durance intervenes saying that the "half-souled elf is right." The interjection is spoke in Durance's voice, yet Durance's name and portrait do not appear next to it.

Interesting. I may run another batch of tests on a new game to double-check then. EDIT: Still getting only 50% more damage from crits. Guess I'll try again on 2.03.

Aarik, do you know whether this was fixed for 2.03?

... And I wondered why I could finally enjoy the game without using the IE Mod to disable engagement! Thankfully the mod still offers the option, should the devs have a change of heart

Why must a Paladin have high Resolve? They can easily do without if you're building for DPS instead of defense.

Interesting. Good thing it is not a generalized bug Is it possible to verify the game's cache on a GoG install? Otherwise I can live with the issue; it's rather minor since I can just access his inventory to make him pop back up.

The Priest spell Champion's Boon gives +5 DR (among other things), so you could wear lighter armor and use that spell instead. Then again, the DR bonus from the spell stacks with that from armor, so using both is still better. That said, my Fighter wears plate armor and uses a two-hander with Vulnerable Attack and her recovery time only lasts 15 frames. Use Durgan Steel on your armor and on a Speed weapon, take the Armor Grace ability, pump your DEX score and sip potions of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion like your life depended on it, and you'll be fast regardless of what you're wearing.

If you tackle the adra dragon at level 14, you can just physically maim her even without knocking her prone. Blinded, Sickened, and Weakened would still work too.

Sure; here it is. To make him visible I must access his inventory; just moving him around leaves him invisible for me.