Lephys

Ahh. That could be what's doing it. Yeah, that's still not really the wording's fault. Just the math-failure's fault. If it did the proper math, it'd be okay. And, just for what it's worth, I haven't looked at all the ability tooltips in the whole game. I'm like 5 hours in with a party of two Wizards and a Fighter, so there may very well be a bunch of wonkily inconsistent tooltips for DoT's. I only point out how the choice of wording (if consistent) makes sense, if it's done properly. And I only brought that up because the initial posts here seemed to suggest confusion purely because of the total + duration display, as opposed to a per-tick + duration display. My mistake for that not being the case.

Not-knowing really isn't so bad when you simply pass the time another way. The more you focus on uncertainty, the more stressful it becomes. As for more communication... Sure, it would be, but is "Oh, sorry, we were hoping for Thursday, but it looks like it'll be Friday now"-type updates every hour really any better than simply not hearing anything until they have a concrete estimate lined up? In other words, if they can't get the patch out 'til Monday (hypothetically), then what good is hearing that they hope to get it out tomorrow, then that there are issues, then that they want to try and get it out Thursday, then that there are still issues, etc. etc., until Monday rolls around? You still don't really know anything. It's just the illusion of knowing. Clearly, their intended time to get the patch out is as early as possible. The only thing holding them up is how long it takes to get the patch ready to go. If you think the not-knowing is frustrating to you, imagine how it is to them, with everyone riding them constantly about how they haven't heard anything, and how nice it would be to know something that they don't even know.

^ Could you provide a specific example? I have many "It's possible..." statements lined up, but if I could see the actual ability description in question, I'd know what wasn't possible/likely anymore, and whether or not it does actually appear to be in need of a balance tweak or something.

There's nothing wrong with desiring a walk-toggle. But, it was admittedly a very low priority thing on their To-Do List for getting the game out the door. Since NPCs and such already have walk animations, I'd say it'd be pretty easy to add in later. But, I wouldn't expect anything until they've tackled some bigger issues. Yes, being able to walk around can support immersiveness, but it's rather minor, in all fairness, as there are plenty of other things that go un-simulated in these games and we don't even think twice about them.

I'm sorry, as my meaning wasn't clear. I was talking about Rogues in RPGs in general. When they get to become invisible, and then get a "if you're invisible, and you attack, you get a bonus, because invisibility!"... the stealth becomes a bit moot, since there's no effort involved. You either make your Rogue invisible and he gets a free hit, or you don't and he doesn't. There's no "Oh no, I'm going to be detected because I didn't do it right!", and no range of effectiveness of that hit. So, I was saying, when people design Rogues like that in games, I don't understand why they don't just skip the Stealth and just say "the first attack you make gets a bunch of extra damage." I wasn't commenting on how Rogues work in PoE, specifically. I'm just saying, if we ever do get individual Stealth in PoE, I'd hope there's a bit more to it than "You're invisible... now start the battle with everyone else while your invisible Rogue jogs in circles around the enemy as he waits 'til everyone else has gotten their attention before he strikes. There's nothing really super wrong with that -- with the ability to be hidden and strike whenever. I just feel like: A) It'd be nice to see a slightly more in-depth stealth system in place, that doesn't get superceded by the Rogue's mysterious ability to become completely invisible. B) It'd be nice to have to employ more tactical effort to achieve a range of effects from the positioning/usage of your Rogue in something like a Sneak Attack.

Erm... that's how all DoT's work, in anything. I realize that the information usually given to you is just "Deals 5 damage per second for 10 seconds," but that's no different math than "Deals 50 damage over 10 seconds." It's not as if how much damage it's dealing each second is more important than how much damage it's going to deal in total. The closer to 1 the seconds value is, the faster it's going to deal its damage. The higher that number, the slower its going to deal its damage. It's extraordinarily easy to compare relative damage output between DoT's this way. Again, I understand preferring to see the per-second number, but it's not exactly providing you with confusing or misleading information. It's just giving you the total and the duration, rather than the per-second and duration. That's the only difference.

Unless these pictures are being taken with professional quality cameras (they're not), you're kind of talking out of your ass here. A photograph does not show how something looks to the naked eye. True, but the map isn't going to be sharper in a photograph than it is in real life. If anything, it's going to lose some amount of quality in the photograph. So, I think it's fair to see that photo, and say "Hmm... doesn't seem as blurry as someone else suggested." Of course, now we know that, apparently, some people's maps are much better-looking than others. I'm questioning the quality control of the print shop. That's simply unprofessional, and they should've stopped it themselves and reprinted those for free. And, that having not occurred, Obsidian or Paradox (whomever) really should've shoved those bad maps in their faces and said "Excuse me, but these are unacceptable. Please re-print these at the same quality you printed these others," etc. I mean, I realize how much of a hassle that can be, and I know they were probably just trying to get everyone their physical goods as close to on-time as possible (Heaven knows there's been enough fuss flying around about any and all delays in this whole process), but, still... on principle, if some people are getting low-ink/sloppy map prints, and others are getting pretty decent ones, then the print shop did not do its job. That's just shoddy work. How can a place who prints things all day not realize their print run is lacking in ink/calibration? Do they just start the run, then go to lunch, and come back later to check on the results?

Everyone uses Might. Unless your character never attacks or heals.

There are actually just data-gathering nanites in the cookies, so they can steal all of Obsidian's thought-processes. 8P

@Blowfish: That's not a problem with "I don't get XP for combat." It's a problem with "the loot wasn't good enough," or maybe quest design, etc. In other words, maybe the sneaking approach should result in further consequences down the road, when the not-dead folk are still alive afterward and continue living their lives and causing people problems. When combat isn't just "some spiders are chillin' in the woods," it should reward you with something significant. Doesn't always have to be XP, but, the main thing with "no kill XP" is that people don't want XP purely for the simply fact that something died. XP should be resolved for "quest" solutions/accomplishments, for lack of better terminology. Doesn't mean "if someone didn't tell you to kill this person, it doesn't give you XP." It just means that if killing a group of enemies isn't actually affecting anything else in the game world/narrative, then it really shouldn't give you XP. It can give you spiffy loot, or maybe the knowledge of some secret technique or spell (heck, that'd be perfect. Combat rewards you with improved combat capabilities!). Etc.

In some settings it does, yes. Okay, so then, if you do all that, THEN bench-press weights for 3 years straight and drink protein shakes every day, are you not then pick-up-castle strong +MUSCLES? If becoming physically stronger impacts your total "power," then it has to provide the independent ability to perform tasks requiring "Might." So, how physically strong is someone with 18 Might, and how soul-fully strong are they? We have no idea, because both aren't represented in the game. It's like... Schrodinger's Strength. Until you actually observe someone's muscles-to-soul ratio, you have to assume that they have both 18 Might worth of soul-power AND 18 Might worth of muscle strength.

^ What we should do (totally sincere, here) is find out who printed the maps, and review their product en masse. I dunno... maybe there's some reason they're like that? But, I can't think of one of the top of my head that makes it understandable to ship blurry cloth maps and call it a job-well-done. Like I said, I don't understand why a place who prints things for a living (which I'm assuming is the type of shop they had print the maps) wouldn't ensure the customer (in this case, Obsidian) gets the best quality product they can. If, for example, the image, ink, and cloth choice Obsidian (or Paradox, I suppose... not sure who actually spoke to the printer and had these printed/OK'd them) went with were going to cause an issue, or if the maps came out obviously less-than-ideal quality, they should've said something about it. I know I would.

I guarantee they are not relaxing. This. @cane: When you are waiting on something to ship to you, do you assume that shipping employees are all just sitting around sipping martinis next to a big portal? Then, 1 minute before it's arbitrarily-scheduled delivery time of 1 week later, they quickly step through the portal and knock on your door and hand it to you? Or do you realize that people are working around the clock to transport that package all the way to your door, so that, when it finally gets there, it's the product of a week's worth of effort?

^^ Understandable, but it's really the game's fault if: A) It's easy to just prevent your Wizard from ever taking hits (thus Concentration never being a significant factor) B) It's not even feasible for your Wizard to really take many hits, because he just dies in 2 or 3 of them. The fewer hits you can take without being dead, the less you can really be aided by Concentration. My point is, you said it they need more non-tank applications. And they have them. That being said, it might not be the stats' fault, but it's currently (as pointed at above) highly infeasible to have your Wizard taking a bunch of hits. Or, not without heavy armor, which is ALSO pretty infeasible, seeing as how you gain less by it (because of crappy Deflection on Wizards) than other classes do, AND it slows down your casting time, negating any time saved by ensuring that you aren't Interrupted. Etc. The concepts for the stats are sound, but the field in which they are operating is uneven.

They're called adra pillars. GYAH! *TERMINOLOGY POLICE SIREN*

Perception and Resolve DO have good non-tank applications. Resolve keeps your Wizard a-castin', for example, when he gets hit by things, for example, and the +Interrupt from Perception can be very useful with, say, a Rogue with dual-weapons, just to interrupt the crap out of some enemy you don't want hulk-smashing everyone to death. That being said, the Interrupt/Concentration system is a bit too "behind-the-scenes" and could probably use a little work. It's extremely passive at this point.

Does it? Hmm. If that's the case, then yeah, there's probably a pretty big discrepancy there. I kind of expect a lot of numbers tweaks, though, in the coming patches, after/alongside the major bug fixes. This kind of thing almost always happens with new RPGs like this. There are just so many ability values, it's difficult to get them all properly tuned. Though, again, if Fireball doesn't have any other advantages over FoF, then it's indeed a bit strange for there to be such a damage discrepancy.

Constitution's probably the biggest glaring example right there. It is mathematically BY FAR an inferior choice for a Wizard. That could easily be fixed, though, by simply evening out the base Health/Endurance values of classes, and/or changing the CON bonus into an integer (it would be less of a % gain for Fighters/Barbarians and such, but you could STILL have the level-up gains be % based.) Just imagine if 18 CON gave you +26 Endurance. Even if you didn't change the base values for the classes, as a Wizard, that would give you +78 Health and +26 Endurance. That's a heck of a lot better than +8. And if you pumped all those points into CON, it's not like you can still have maxed out MIG, INT, and DEX or anything. So, it wouldn't be "OP." It would simply better allow you to build a Wizard that actually expects to see some melee action. As it stands, you can max it for +8 Endurance, which is less than 1 more hit from most things (unless you're wearing full plate, in which case you'll be standing around for so long between actions that the enemies will get even more attacks against your still-pathetic Deflection -- also just because you're a Wizard -- that the advantage from the armor's DR will cancel itself out by exposing you to more potential attacks that are probably going to not be grazes or misses). It isn't. But it's possible to have a system where all stats are viable for every class. The different builds are always going to favor different stats. But your class shouldn't determine which stats are useless to you. That should be circumstantially dependent upon how you choose to build that class. And that's as much the stat system's responsibility as it is the class system's.

Tartantyco just pointed out how it does, though. If Fireball has a larger AoE radius, then that means you can do X damage to more targets than with fan of flames. So, if you hit 10 people with less damage, instead of 4 people with more damage, you're still able to deal more damage to the greater number of people. And more easily hit them all without having to get them to cluster up. AND without having to get so close to them, or take the time to reposition so that you can cast Fan of Flames, etc. I'm not saying it's perfect, but there are advantages. You can't just look at one spell's base damage number, then another's, and go "3rd level should be higher!". Yeah, if they both function identically. If they were both just single-target fire spells, the 3rd level should most definitely deal higher damage. Now, that being said, it's possible that the encounter design is lacking in the "allow you to take advantage of those advantages" department. But, that isn't the spell's fault. What you CAN do with the spell is not the same thing as what you end up being able to do. But, that's kind of the whole point of this game being "tactical combat." How you use your spells should be just as important as which ones you use. If they were all just "see enemy - fire off spell straight at them", it would be rather bland.

There's an idea being missed here. Being high on Might doesn't make you into Conan, but it effectively does because there's absolutely no distinction between two separate entities (soul strength and physical strength). Either they're the same thing, and everyone's muscles are directly proportionate to their soul strength, or they aren't. Now, it's possible that they're just literally one factor of a person, but that's pretty bland in my book (bye bye "this child has ludicrous soul power, so they're able to do amazing things despite being small and frail," or "this Conan guy is super buff, but his soul is very weak.") Does that make sense? The problem isn't that one stat means only one type of strength exists. The problem is the identification of two things, but the measurement of both of them with one stick. Can Conan throw a piano across the room while a small child cannot? If so, what would a Conan with a strong soul be able to do? Doesn't matter, 'cause all Conans just have "18 Might." Also, gone are any situations in which soul strength could affect something that physical strength could not, etc. Also, does your muscle size affect the potency of your Fan of Flames, as a Wizard? If not, then it's only half your Might stat that's affecting your magic, but you can't measure it. Is 17 of your Might from soul-strength, and 1 Might is from muscles? If so, your spells would only get the benefit of 17 Might. But they're getting the benefit of all 18, which means you have 0 strength that isn't coming from your soul. So, how do you function? Are you just a puppet body, animated by pseudo-telekinetic soul energy from your own mind? If so, why do yo have a physical body with muscles? So, anywho, abstractly, sure, it's fine. "Meh, you have two kinds of strength, and everyone has both kinds, and we aren't measuring them exactly, but you do 'strong' things because of them." But, when people say that, mechanically, Might makes the existence of either individual source of power meaningless, that's actually true. That's the main thing. However strong you are, the world doesn't care where it comes from. Kinetic force exists in the world, because a rock can fall on you and still crush you, and yet a fist traveling at a speed and striking something can never be just physical force. It's always simultaneously some unknown mixture of soul power as well.

Yeah, I mean, I'd really love for my dinner tonight to be a lobster dinner. But, that doesn't mean tasty sandwiches aren't tasty just because they're not lobster. I would change TONS of stuff about this game if I could, with a magic genie lamp or something, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate what the game is. I realize some things just matter more to certain people, and that's fine. Something I might not mind, someone else might mind a TON. But, still, I really feel like some people focus way too much on the negative, so that they don't even really try to look for any positive. Some people lack a "make the best of it" attitude, so all they can do is think "there's not even a best to make of it!" And that makes their perspective a bit skewed. It's not "Oh, you're just supposed to love the game." But, you can not-love the game without completely hating it. There's a much broader range there. Also -- and this is purely matter-of-factly said, and not a hostile "LOLZ, WHAT AN IDIOT" remark -- someone who's going to be that much more sensitive to things in a game not being in line with their ideals should probably take greater care in purchasing games. I've been burned by many a game, trust me. I kinda "hate" Destiny (even though I still don't hate it fully, it just pisses me off how much potential it fails to take advantage of), for example. So, next time there's a game sort of like it that I'm interested in, I'm probably going to treat it with that much more scrutiny before buying it. It's totally Bungie's right to make their game however they want, and there are things about it to enjoy, even though they aren't my preference. I can still comprehend how people enjoy them. That's the biggest thing. When you post a negative perspective about a game, and you can't even begin to fathom how anyone could enjoy any part of the thing you're describing, it instantly comes across as almost blind rage. Like when you get to a particularly hard part of a game, and you die like 10 times in a row and become INCREDIBLY frustrated. Then comes the "Man, this game SUCKS!" But, later, you pick it back up, eventually get past that part, and the rest of the game's pretty good. So, you say "I just hate that that part was way too hard." Well, in the moment, you really felt "THIS GAME SUCKS!," but you didn't honestly believe the entire game sucked. That's how most of the negative remarks about this game (and most others) come across, because of how they're typed. Instead of simply pointing out how many things really could've been better, and how and why, just a simple "THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING EVER AND I CAN'T EVEN PLAY THIS AND NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY ENJOY THIS GAME!" sentiment.

No worries. Trying to find out something you don't know is never anything but smart.

See, that's another feasible split: Accuracy. Between ranged and melee. Dexterity could affect your melee accuracy, while Perception boosted your ranged Accuracy. And Accuracy already applies to both magical AND non-magical attacks, so it's not really one of those "Oh noes, a dump stat for certain classes!" things. That, and the thresholds for things should be lesser. The farther into "Oh noes, if I don't have 18 Perception/Dexterity, I can pretty much only graze this thing!" territory you go, the rarer that defense value should be. You can have very low-Deflection foes with very high DR values against most things (save for a few types of damage). Stuff like that. Sure, but, if you built the classes right, that wouldn't have to mean "Class X pump MIG, Class Y pump RES." It's just like the ranged/melee scale. You can have a stat only be helpful to ranged attacks, and that's fine, because any class can freely focus on ranged attacks or melee attacks, if they so choose (except maybe Monk? *shrug*).

Yeah, it's just a little out of whack, and needs to be reined in a bit. I mean, the Fighter can get Defender Mode, allowing him to intentionally engage 3 enemies. So, holding his own against 3 enemies should be feasible, but not for the next 30 seconds with no worries. And, a fourth coming in and attacking him should be bad news, etc. He should be able to deliberately mitigate a lot of damage and attacks, but that's not the same thing as never getting hit. That threshold for "Oh crap, I might be in trouble" needs to be lower than it is.

I don't think people who toss that word around realize that the opposite of fanboys exist; those who irrationally hate a game purely because they can't believe some people irrationally adore it, like they're trying to balance out the universe or something. Someone can like the game and not be a fanboy just because you dislike it. Also, just because someone likes it does not mean they think nothing's wrong with it or that there's no room for improvement. And just because SOME people are actually irrational fanboys does not mean that liking the game makes you an irrational fanboy. I swear, if humanity would learn to stop exaggerating and assuming everything, we could get a lot more done around here,