AndreaColombo

I keep hoping modals' VFX get fixed so I don't have to remember to deactivate them before saving and reactivate them after loading XD

Hey Brandon, since Fighters got an overhaul, do you know whether Confident Aim was also fixed? It's supposed to add +20% minimum damage but it isn't as of 2.02. Also, could anyone with the beta patch check whether this issue was fixed? Thanks! -Andrea

I disagree. The gap between casters and non-casters in terms of CC capabilities is already disproportionately big to the point that a small tip either way won't make much a difference, and this is by design—it is not melee classes' job to CC; it is casters' job. It is only fair that casters are better at it than non-casters. That melee classes in PoE are offered a small array of CC abilities to enable for more varied tactics than just auto-attack is gravy, but in no way implies that melee classes should rely heavily on CC to win a fight. Their thing is still to win fights by withstanding more punishment than their foes and dealing out damage faster. * * That Wizards can be better than Fighters or Monks at melee through a number of incredibly powerful spells, on the other hand, contributes greatly to the gap between casters and non-casters. Basically casters can become as good at melee as non-casters, but the opposite isn't true. CC immunities are going to hurt more those classes that more heavily rely on CC—casters. Suddenly, Slicken-spam won't be an insta-win move in all fights (though it will likely stay so in most; only a specific subset of enemies is going to be immune to Prone) and you'll have to do something differently. But when my Fighter can hit for 50 damage per swing with a recovery time of 15 frames, I don't really care if my Knock Down doesn't render my enemy Prone. Besides, in 2.03 Knock Down is getting a 20% damage bonus that lands regardless of whether the enemy is immune to Prone, so it will remain a relevant ability even in those fights; Slicken won't really do much if the Prone affliction doesn't work (the same is true for a Monk's Force of Anguish, for example; I'm talking Fighter because it's the melee class I know best.) As an aside, when a Wizard can deal 50 damage to 10 enemies simultaneously with a Fireball without going through the same degree of optimization that my Fighter underwent to be able to deal the same damage to a single target, I'd say the root of the gap problem isn't really on the ability of Wizards to be better at CC. The last thing we need right now is an even easier game. More like, if only enemy A.I. could be as smart as the player... While this is true, it is also true that melee classes in PoE are generally more varied and complex than their AD&D or 3rd Ed. D&D counterparts (haven't really played 4th or 5th Ed.)

^ Could you YouTube that? Rather interested in the tactic

So if Wizards can trivialize any encounter via CC-spam, they're too powerful; but if CC immunities are introduced to make that trickier, they are even more powerful, right? Would type in red but the mobile version of the forum is scant on formatting options.

While it is true that Might is desirable on every class, the same is true for almost every stat. Sure, there will be classes (or better, character builds) that benefit more from some stats and less from others, but in this game it's hard to go wrong (this was one of the design goals.) For example, it is not true that melee is out of the question without pumping Might. You may want not to dump it, but an average Might score can still do pretty decent damage when using a two-hander with Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack, especially if you have good Dexterity and/or use Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Paladins make great "conversation" PCs as they are quite good at tanking, and Resolve (which is the stat that unlocks the most dialog options) is a tank stat. As well, Intelligence broadens their auras' AoE, and Perception can make up for the Accuracy loss they incur when using a shield. I have to disagree Wizards are weak; quite the opposite: They are the strongest class in the game even without min/maxing (Aloth can wreak some serious havoc, and he's got jack-of-all-trades stats with an unimpressive Might score.) Of course if you want your Wizard to be optimized, you'll have to go low on Constitution and Resolve, and you need the latter for conversation options if that's something you're after (personally, I've never played a high-Resolve PC.)

Heh. Yeah, two-handers are pretty slow. That's the price you pay for the higher damage output. If you build your character correctly and use the right buffs, you can bring that down to 15 (11 frames + 4-frame delay) frames recovery while using plate armor and vulnerable attack, which leads to a remarkable DPS. Of course that means you also lose flexibility

Two-handers actually have a 45-frame recovery time on a naked character (or, to be more precise, it takes 46 frames for the bar to go from full to empty, then there's a 4-frame delay until the attack animation starts again.) Wearing plate it brings it up to 75 (plus the 4-frame delay, for a total of 79 frames before the next attack animation.)

Indeed you are. Another difference from D&D Monks is that PoE Monks have the same Accuracy as Fighters, whereas Monks in D&D (at least in 3.0 and 3.5) had a lower attack bonus than Fighters. I too was lukewarm at best towards Monks but playing a Monk in PoE is all kinds of fun.

So, I've read The Ratcatcher. Honestly, I found it a bit disappointing. Part of it has to due with its living up to its "short story" denomination—it is indeed short, perhaps too much to develop any kind of significant plot and/or relatable characters. As a result, most characters as well as the setting fall flat, and the atmosphere fails to build up to a satisfactory extent before the story is over. Likewise, a plot hook with potential is delivered too hastily, with a predictable resolution reached in steps that sometimes come too quick and leave a sour backtaste of triviality. The prose is OK, but not fantastic. I know from what she wrote for the game that Carrie Patel can do better than this (I found the in-game prose for her characters to be superior to the prose in this short story) so perhaps the time and "space" constraints didn't do justice to her skill. That said, this is in way meant to be a bash toward Carrie. I really like her writing in the game and look forward to her upcoming Aloth short story All in all, I wouldn't mind if these short stories were actually novellas, as that would give the authors more room for character and plot development. I also don't mind waiting a longer time for more and/or higher-quality content.

A high-dex Barbarian that sips a potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion can dual-wield battle axes with Vulnerable Attack and attack with no recovery time. The bar never appears overhead between attacks. Replace the battle axes with the Blade of the Endless Paths and you attack with almost no recovery time, but deal a ton of damage with 10 DR bypass (the downside is that you have no on-crit CC effect.)

If you are particularly keen on keeping story companions but want them customized, you can use the IE Mod to change their stats, class, and pretty much everything else. But frankly, that's more trouble than it is worth. Better to play with Obsidian companions, then roll a custom party for your second play through

^ If Steam Spy is anywhere near accurate, they passed the 500K mark a while ago when factoring in GoG and Origin sales.

Fine combines the benefits of Accurate and Damaging together, so go for Fine if you have the resources (which you probably do, since resources are hardly an issue in this game.)

Oh. My. God. I didn't think we'd get the first one so fast! These weren't exactly advertised. I'm starting the first one immediately. Also, the second story just might be spoilering the new companion from TWM pt. II

'sides, whether a specific sale figure makes a success or a failure largely depends on how much was spent to develop, market, and distribute the game. Those expenses determine the break-even point, past which a game is profitable for its stakeholders; therefore, companies can easily calculate the minimum sale figure needed for the game to be a success. A very expensive game can be a failure if it sells 2 million copies, and an indie game can be successful just selling 500,000. Wasteland 2 sold 485K units on Steam according to Steam Spy, so slightly less than Pillars of Eternity. IIRC, Brian Fargo called it a success, and said sales like WL2's would enable inXile to keep doing these games indefinitely. Of course inXile's much smaller than Obsidian and has different expense patterns, but as far as PoE is concerned when considered on its own, I'd say it was successful. Obsidian can't probably sustain itself just making games like PoE, but they can certainly make a profit from them while they keep working on other projects as well.

I think we're saying the same thing with different wording There are buffs/bonuses in the game that generically apply to "attack speed." Examples include the weapon "Speed" enchantment, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Durgan Steel when applied to weapons, and the Swift Aim modal. These always apply to your recovery time regardless of whether you also have penalties stacked on it; if you are wearing clothing with 0% recovery penalty and sip a potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, for example, your recovery is 50% faster. There are buffs/bonuses, on the other hand, that only apply to "armor recovery penalty." These include the Armored Grace Fighter ability, or Durgan Steel when applied to armors. These will only do something so long as you are wearing an armor that applies a penalty to your recovery: If you're wearing clothes with 0% recovery, taking Armored Grace won't make your recovery 16% faster. Durgan Steel can be applied to weapons, shields, or armors and gives different bonuses for each. For weapons, it gives +15% attack speed (it applies to recovery even if you are naked); for armors, it reduces the recovery penalty by 15% (only works if your armor is actually bestowing a penalty.) This is in addition to other bonuses that aren't relevant to speed, and therefore of no interest in this context I agree with you that DEX is multiplicative. The reason why I kept the 4-frame delay separate is that it seems to be unaffected by modifiers and stays there even when you manage to eliminate recovery. I've just tested this with my dual-wielding Barbarian: The attack animation is 24 frames, then there's a 4-frame delay before the second hand swings. No recovery bar ever appears. That said, it does seem like it makes sense to include the 4-frame delay into the calculation. I'll keep an eye out for that in my tests going forward. The way we count is very similar. I too count recovery frames from the moment the bar appears to the moment the bar is empty; then, the 4-frame delay ensues, after which the attack animation starts. I never start counting attack-animation frames from the first swing as that seems to also include a delay from the moment you order to attack to the moment it is executed; I always just count after the first recovery is over for the sake of precision. Could it be that we have a 4-frame delay after recovery, as well as one before recovery starts? To test this, I'll use the console to give my character a 100% action speed bonus from DEX and count frames. I'll keep you posted. EDIT: Here's some research. In all tables above, the 4-frame delay is always included in the recovery numbers. Looking at the 10 DEX numbers, it looks like speed penalties are calculated on recovery including the 4-frame delay, then another 4-frame delay is added on top of that. For example, Plate armor bestows a 50% armor speed penalty calculated as 50*(1+0.5)=75, which includes the 4-frame delay (recovery being 46 frames + 4 frame delay.) But then I observed a recovery time of 75 frames + a 4-frame delay, which had already been included in the prior calculation. Dexterity appears to apply "weirdly" in all cases, as shown by just looking at figures for the naked character. Granted, a 2- or 3-frame discrepancy is so small that it makes no difference in real-world scenarios, but for the sake of understanding how the game mechanics work, they pose a bit of a conundrum. EDIT II: Moar tests. This is with the Blade of the Endless Paths. Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel weapon (+15% attack speed) Speed weapon (+20% attack speed) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 50 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 50 * (1-0.46) / (1+0.45) = 27 / (1.45) = 18.62 Observed: Attack: 24 frames (seems to be hard-capped.) Recovery: 15 frames (11 + 4-frame delay) This one is with a Pollaxe. Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 50 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 50 * (1-0.11) / (1+0.45) = 44.5 / (1.45) = 30.68 Observed: Attack: 20 frames (very strange; should probably check a Pollaxe with no bonuses or penalties.) Recovery: 33 frames (29 + 4-frame delay)

Hi blinkicide, attack speed and recovery times have been subject to long investigations and debates since the game's release, as seen in this thread which you may find interesting. I have conducted some tests myself for my Lady of Pain build; you'll find them here. My tests are all frame-based, however, as opposed to second-based. To conduct them, I capped the game's speed at 30 fps, then recorded a 30-fps video with nVidia Shadowplay and advanced it frame-by-frame in VLC, manually counting. Math usually adds up except in a few cases; 1 or 2 frame discrepancies can be due to human error or simply system glitches (since PoE is not the only process running in Windows at any given time.) They amount to 1/30th of a second, so they're fairly inconsequential. It is known that while DEX affects everything, anything in the game that says "attack speed" only affects recovery time (except, of course, stuff that explicitly affects firearms' reload speed, such as the Gunner talent or one of the Chanter's chants.) I believe the devs mentioned in an interview they did this purposefully to avoid messing too much with attack animations. Additionally, there appears to be a 4-frame delay between the end of the recovery time and the beginning of the next attack animation; I believe this was done to avoid glitches or otherwise strange behaviors in case the player built a character with 0 recovery time. It is worth noting that stuff that reduces armor speed penalties only works if you actually have an armor speed penalty. So if you're wearing clothes with 0% recovery penalty and take the Armored Grace ability, and/or enchant them with Durgan Steel, they will not make your recovery any faster. All my tests are based on a character wielding a two-hander, although I've recently built a barbarian that dual-wields battle axes with no recovery time while using Vulnerable Attack (after sipping a Deleterious Alacrity of Motion potion, of course.) Standard attack animation for a two-hander lasts 30 frames, and there appears to be a hard limit of 24 frames for it. A character with 36% bonus speed from DEX attacks at 24 frames, and so does one with a 45% bonus. Chances are attack animations were capped this way to avoid messing with them too much, as the developers mentioned. Recovery is often quoted as being 60 frames, but that is not consistent with my frame-by-frame analysis. I consistently get 50 frames, including the 4-frame delay; this would put recovery at 46 frames, which is consistent with recovery for two-handers being attack speed + 50% (1-frame variance is immaterial.) My most recent test: Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-16% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel weapon (+15% attack speed) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: 46 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.5-0.45) = 46 * (1-0.71) = 13.34 + 4-frame delay OR, if DEX applies to recovery in the same way it applies to attack as you suggest, Recovery: 46 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.16-0.15-0.15-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 46 * (1-0.26) / (1+0.45) = 34.4 / (1.45) = 23.5 + 4-frame delay Observed: Attack: 24 frames (seems to be hard-capped.) Recovery: 21 frames + 4-frame delay (closer to your way of applying DEX, but faster by 2.5 frames)

Let us not forget, on top of what others already mentioned, that PoE is a PC-only game in a console-driven era and it belongs to a genre long considered obsolete and dead. Nowadays console-kids prefer shooters with swords action RPGs with awesomesauce buttons, copious amounts of hand holding, and voice acting that ensures they don't need to strain their eyes and minds on longer text than a line or two tops. Selling 500,000 copies in seven months is not bad, imo.

You know you want it.

I honestly thought they had passed the 500,000 mark a while ago. Steam Spy puts the game at about 545,000 owners, and the Hero Edition was ahead of Divinity: Original Sin in overall number of copies sold on GoG.com for a time, which would put it over the 150,000 mark. Plus there's origin. So, about 700,000 minus backer copies; can the latter be as many as 200,000? Even then, they say they're at 500,000 including backer copies. Oh well. Whatever the case, I sure hope they keep selling well and keep making isometric, party-based RPGs with RTwP combat Also, http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-10-23-pillars-of-eternity-sells-500-000 Oh, yes. YES, I tell you! EDIT: Just spotted in Eisenheinrich's link F**K YEAH!

^ Ah, I thought Sickened also triggered Sneak Attack but I see I was mistaken. Oh well. I'm not a fan of Heart of Fury as I don't think it is powerful enough to justify its being just 1/rest. Barbaric Blow is per encounter and gets more bonuses, unless I'm missing something. Threatening Presence + Brute Force should work well on Hard; I see how it could be less effective in PotD. Barbaric Shout and Vengeful Defeat (or Blooded) can be good replacements. Eye of the Storm can actually make it harder to trigger One Stands Alone so I would definitely avoid it unless you were purposefully going for a mobility build.

^ Chanters have the issue of building up chants really slow. Other than that, they're not a class I'm particularly keen on, but that boils down to personal taste. Just tried to build a Barbarian—there's a pretty nice synergy between Threatening Presence, Brute Force, and Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Barbaric Blow is pretty neat and of course Dragon Leap is cool. Other than that, I can get him to attack with no recovery time while dual-wielding battle axes with Vulnerable Attack. That's A LOT of DPS, especially if we factor in (accurate) Carnage and the ability to stun-lock enemies with We Toki. Deflection and Will are low but there's a Priest for that plus Edge of Reason regenerates Endurance so ... yeah, I wouldn't say Barbarians are weak.

That said, it is totally possible to beat the dragon at level 12 with story NPCs. A fully custom party just makes it easier; if you're level 14, it's a walk in the park with story companions too

Normal speed with auto-pause options and of course extra manual pauses whenever I see fit.