Ganrich

I believe that during the first Beta Obsidian added feats/talents as it went on. So, that could happen to some degree here as well. I might be not be remembering correctly. So, don't quote me.

Aren't we? Source? I was under the impression that the preview trees are the real deal. Pretty sure the level cap is 20 if we look at the fig page. So, we aren't seeing some max level abilities by my estimate. WM2 cap was 16. So, every class should have a bit more at the level cap than we are seeing here. However, Josh changing how you gain access to higher level abilities might have changed things in a way where level 20 is the new 16. I doubt it, though. going from 16 to 20 should give the equivalent of two more spell levels, and if we get the exact same abilities some backers might get together with pitchforks. Now, I am not saying those high level spells/abilities will drastically change anything, but it could make a difference. EDIT: opened the beta and looked. Max level Wizard spells are 5th level on CharGen preview. So, that requires a 9th level wizard in PoE1. The spell levels count to level 10, but 6-10 have no spells listed. So we aren'tt seeing everything.

You can sail. One of you're quests isn't on the starting island.

Did you use PoE1 talents to spec in such a way that cannot be done with 2 classes being multiclassed? If so you were probably spread thin. That melee Cipher people build can now be done by MCing with Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Druid, Rogue, or Barbarian. So, there is 6 different melee Cipher builds right there. That's not including different subclasses. 1/6th of which include the Fighter. Where previously in the first game it was Weapon focus feat, dual wield feat, and so on for every weapon based build. Now you get some variety. Will they vary in efficiency? Of course. That might matter in triple threat solo games, but I'm doubtful it will be so lopsided that most gamers will care. My best PoE experience was a Wood Elf mid-ranged Archer Chanter with deep pockets, a slew of scrolls crafted, and a lot items with per day actives. Also, the cross talent Wounding shot and envenomed strike. Basically, you fired a shot or two, cast a scroll or two, and then used an Invocation. Stayed in the middle of your party so they got buffs, but far enough back that the Wood Elf Passive kicked in on most everything. It was a positioning nightmare, but it was a blast. Troubadour/Trickster build does a very similar thing (it has deep pockets) with a ranged weapon equipped. Or you could do it by mixing Ranger/Chanter without deep pockets, but pick up an animal companion or a Ghost Heart. Or you could do it with a Cipher which will bump weapon damage and add a variety of spells. The more I fiddle the more I am ok with Single classes being streamlined, but SOME classes for sure need a bit more: Rangers for example. No sense playing a stalker single classed if key abilities flat out don't work. My exception is the Evasive Shot or whatever it is called. It requiring a ranged weapon makes sense. I am ok with streamlining because the core class plus 3+ Subclasses gives enough variety even with limited build variety. You can still have ranged rogue, melee rogue, item using rogue, etc. You just have a narrow path after CharGen with single class. Eh, it is what it is. I still think it may be hard to see how everything looks when we definitely aren't seeing the full class trees.

@Boeroer - That Corpse-eater/Skald was one of my next ideas. So, it works well? Also, Shifter/Troubadour is a blast. Cast a few Druid debuffs, Spiritshift (your chants work while shifted even if you can't cast spells) and wreak havoc, when you return to kin-form you can cast a spell or two (Invocation and a Druid spell) while the CD on Spiritshift is ticking down, and you rinse and repeat since you can cast all of the spiritshifts once per encounter. The long chant build up from Troubadour doesn't matter because you are destroying stuff while shifted anyway. I built it around debuffs, and it works solidly. Anyway, I can see both sides of this after playing a while. Multiclassing allows for a mega-****-ton of builds, but single classes need more variety still IMHO.

Yikes, that is really bad. All ranger abilities should work with melee like PoE1 IMHO. I definitely saw a few subclasses that looked like they wouldn't work too well being multiclassed, but wanted to wait and try it out before commenting. I didn't have the time to get very far yesterday. The game kept crashing on my first character (skald/paladin). All subclasses should be viable to multiclass, and the classes need more variability being single classed. And what kind of nonsense is a subclass that can't use his class specific skills?

When selecting abilities/passives/talents the screen needs a spot showing how many points you have to spend. The "Next" link doesn't highlight well either, IMHO. It could be a bit cleaner all in all. However, it's a great start.

The first beta wasn't available for Linux, but I'm unsure. I remember hearing this beta would be the same. I haven't had much time to keep up here for the past few months with work and all. So, I could be wrong.

So, the tooltip during character generation indicates the Beguiler's bonus' apply to his/her "Illusion" spells, but the keywords for the spells are Echo, Deception, and Shred. I would assume this is suppose to imply that these bonus' are for the Deception spells (maybe Echo), but it could be that the illusion keyword is missing from the spells themselves (not as likely in my estimate). It could use some clearing up.

When you're right, you're right... and you're right. EDIT: I have crashed a few times, though. This beta is in a better state than the first, for sure. However, I crash here and there. It seems to freeze if I quit to the main menu. Which I am doing a great deal trying to make a build I like.

Any theories on their abilities? Given the name it makes me wonder if they have a self heal when they land a kill, or perhaps they gain fighter like Regen as corpses pile up. Either way, the name has me intrigued.

Is there any details on Corpse Eater other than the name? Updating now.

Yeah, sorry. Been working way too much lately. I'm on my way there now. I'll try to update when time allows this evening.

I had money saved in general, and my tax returns had gone unspent. I went full tilt to be sure. The Taichi and the Trident Zs are a matching white/black combo, and they also go with the XFX RX 580. It is a nice white/black build for the moment. I normally go Corsair or Geil for RAM, but it was a cost difference of too great a sum to justify. Also, all the equivalent corsair stuff had a ram fan with the package, and that is something I have never had much use for. When I found the White/black/silver Trident Z's I just spent the money. I wanted the higher ram speed with lower timings anyway. Gotta make use of that Infinity Fabric lol. Normally I am pretty frugal, but this is my last expenditure for a long while outside of maybe Vega. So, I wanted to get a new rig before I start stock piling money from home improvement projects.

Computer is built. My ram (Gskill Trident Z 3200 CL14) OCed to 3200 (with advertised timings) by a click of the XMP profile. No fuss. I got lucky to be sure. Still getting things settled, and haven't tried OCing the CPU, yet. Boot times are very quick, and I noticed a solid reduction in load times on games and a few other applications seem much zippier. I was coming from a 2500k, though. It (the 2500k) is still a good processor, but it is a very noticeable difference. Anyway, I was in a rush building it. So, the wire management hasn't been looked at much past getting them out of the way for airflow. It looks ragged, but runs really well. I'll clean it up in the next few days, and eventually get my old PC up and running again with a fresh install for a home media server (music, dvds, blurays, etc) so I can rip my media on it and stream it to anything with wifi. That way I can box up all my physical media besides my Vinyl. I still need a Bluray burner for that, though. I also may need more storage. I may get a smaller case for the old PC, too. The CoolerMaster HAFX is a bit too big for my tastes these days. We will see. NVME and booting off a M.2 Samsung EVO 960 500gb worked immediately. All Mobo features were working immediately without a driver update (I of course went ahead and updated them anyway). It almost felt like a Linux install in how everything just worked out of box with little fuss. Even wifi and the on board sound card (even though I use a USB DAC most of the time anyway) worked immediately. I am not using the Ultrafast boot feature as of now, but Asrock (I got the Taichi x370) has a solid in Windows App that will restart from Windows directly into UEFI. This is because the ultrafast boot bypasses the bios splash on boot up. So, I might reinstall Windows with that in mind now that the Bios is updated, and I have all the current drivers/software on a USB stick. I didn't want to mess with it right off the bat. I just wanted to make sure everything worked without error. So, I will likely wait a week or two before I do a Windows reinstall, and make sure everything remains on the up and up. It wasn't all painless. I had some issues with my case fans running @ full RPM (Noctua 3000rpm fans), and they sounded like it was a Nasa launch. However, this can be chalked up to me building it after being awake for 16 hours and doing a 12 hour shift at work in the middle of that 16 hours. I was too tired for my own good. Got the fans under control and started updating/downloading stuff and got some sleep when I started nearing the 24 hours without sleep mark. It is still a bit louder than my previous PC, but it is much more normal now. My old PC was a handful of larger fans (140mm +). This one is all 120mm. So, a little more noise isn't out of the ordinary. Now it'll be minor tweaks from here on out. I am really happy with the new build, and have zero regrets moving to Ryzen. Take that for what it is worth. Just my 2 cents.

My new PC's parts are in, and I'm building it after work in about 13 hours. I was hoping to get started and do a post test before work, but I ran out of time. I have it ready to rumble the moment I hit the house. I have the mobo mounted to the mobo tray, ram installed, but I have to mount my heatsink and connect the psu up and run a test. Then it is time to put it all in the case. I am excite. Ryzen here I come. Oh I need to remove the RX 580 from my old rig too. Also, Asrock just dropped a new bios today. So, kind of perfect timing.

You can hide the numbers, but in any popular game the min/maxers can still figure stuff out by digging through the game files. Min/maxing will happen regardless of this. Even if the math is so hidden that they can't figure it out then you will have people figuring out what kills the fastest, what heals the most, and what mitigates the most, or some combination of the two. All you are doing is putting an unnecessary road block in their way, and in time they will crash through it either way. It's better to not try to hamstring them. Not to say I don't see some value in what Mr Cain is proposing. You can do the bad/ok/good/amazing thing with the triangle, but giving those min/maxers the ability to figure out numerical values to those labels easily within the game is probably for the better.

Found this today, and it is my personal favorite Castlevania track (Simon's Theme from Super Castlevania IV) performed by two solid guitarists on their acoustics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toC1IqhcLWg

Yeah, I am not a huge racing guy, but I have a friend that is. 3 monitors is an unforgettable experience even for a baddie like me. At least he got a laugh. I do like Elite Dangerous, and hope Star Citizen is good when it is done... and those I'll possibly get a Vive to play eventually. I have a full CH products Hotus + rudder pedals, and those games in VR with the Hotus sounds like a similar experience to triple monitor racing for us space sim nerds. Frame rates are definitely more important than pixels to me. I usually let monitor tech (and GPU tech) evolve enough to make the jump worthwhile. I feel GPUs are close enough now that it is a safe investment for a good many years to move to 2k. 4K... not so much as I refuse to relinquish my higher framerates. I'm dragging my feet on VR for the same reason (waiting for the screen door effect to be alleviated some and prices to come down). I was going to wait on LGs Ultrawide 2k 144hz, but I decided I would prefer using a more universal aspect ratio for simplicity. So, simple 2560x1440p. Also, if Vega is a dud, and I don't think it will be, I can always snag another of these XFX 580s and crossfire it. I'll see framerates high enough in demanding games that I will survive. I am rarely a day one game purchaser. Waiting for those games to get their sli/crossfire updates out won't be an issue.

I snagged myself an XFX 580 Black edition on launch day to replace the 960 in my system. That way I can put the 960 back into my Steam Machine, and get it going again. When I can snag that motherboard I will then use the 580 in the new system until Vega. It's a really good GPU, btw (the RX 580). The few games I've thrown at it have been smooth as butter. The thing with Crossfire is I plan on that 2k 144hz monitor, and when I build a new rig I like cranking settings. I just want to ensure I'm hitting those high frames without much sacrifice. Also, the GPU memory pooling possibilities of Vulkan and DX12 may make multiGPU a more viable solution in the future, but given how long these things take to come about I realize I could be jumping the gun. There are a handful of AAA games I have on the back burner that I would like to give a go when the new system is built, and I am ready to be liberal with my budget to achieve that. I usually go wild when I build a new system, but only build a new system once every 4-5 years. I may replace a GPU here and there but I keep the core system for a long time.

So, I'm about to bite the bullet and adopt Ryzen. I'm just waiting for the Asrock x370 Taichi to be in stock somewhere at a reasonable price. Currently you can only find it online when you don't have a micro center or frys within driving distance (they only have in store pick up for them). EBay's listings are almost double the list price. Newegg has been out of stock since the 12th. TigerDirect hasn't carried it. Etc. I ordered my case, and all the other parts (sans motherboard) are in my Newegg cart. I'm excited. Ready to ditch this 2500k rig for gaming/work stuff, and convert it into a home server. Already have it loaded up with 6TB of HDD ready for my DVDs/Blurays in order to get them boxed up and out of the living room. I've been ripping one or two a day or DLing my digital copies for a permanent home. Still debating if this new rig will get the crossfire treatment when vega launches. That Ryzen of the Tomb Raider video from AdoredTV makes it incredibly tempting. I am also eyeballing 2k 144hz freesync monitors. I'd rather buy the Acer, but no VESA mounts is a no no for me as it would require me buying another desk (mine is too shallow ATM), and that is a bit much right now. So, I may settle on the Asus. It's pricey, though. First world problems.

Yeah, I need a new video card asap. So, my plan is to wait for Vega, buy one, and put them in my current rig for a while. I will likely wait for more updates on Ryzen. I'd also prefer the future proofing of the 8 cores. However, I will be doing mostly gaming and if they don't get the scheduling stuff sorted I'll settle for the 1600x as a last resort. Still, it's good to see R5s showing more spunk in gaming on launch as the R7s. It gives me hopes for the R7s being much more capable in the future. I'm definitely waiting on new mobos though. That I'm sure will fix a fair few issues in and of itself. Particularly hoping some high end RAM compatibility fixes. Then I might just go all in on the PC the moment my Vega cards are installed.

R5 1600x info has started surfacing, and if the trend holds it is beating the 6600k handily while trading blows with the 7700k. A 6 core that has this solid IPC at a $250 price tag it might be a steal. I definitely think AMD is heading the right direction. I'm still going to hold out and see if some of the bios changes and scheduling fixes do anything with the R7s, but the 1600x is pretty tempting.

Kinda disagree with this point. Chanter is the best class for spamming scrolls in boss fights and high dex obviously helps with that. I actuall really like ranged dps/support chanter.I think its an overall very well designed and interesting class. The main issue I have with chanters is that in an "optimal" party they compete with priests for the support slot and priest is one of these completely overpowered vancian casters Just because you can doesn't make it good. My favorite Chanter is an archer too, but he isn't nearly as good as my sword and board Max Might, Intellect, high res/perception build. Why? Because AoE and Duration are tied to Int, Might makes the damage for Chants too good, offensive Chants work best with melee (not saying this shouldn't be the case). You sacrifice too many Recommended attributes to spec the Chanter in odd-ball ways. My Archer Chanter was high might/per/int (int near Max), near maxed Dex was a wood elf with deep pockets, lore, and marksmen. I basically used buff chants, level 1 damage invocations (using the int buff zone on spells so as to keep in the range that Marksmen and wood elf racial worked). It was a lot of micro to be less effective than the stock Chanter build. However being a skirmish Archer meant that my buff chants almost always covered the entire party. It was a trade off, but the buffs aren't as good as many of the top tier damage chants. I made the character to make the chanter more engaging to play, and it worked. I would still like more ways to build as to make the class less passive. At the very least the class needs some major re-tuning. I should be able to make a more active chanter without resorting to a strange build. Even if current mechanics stay then at the very least we need more Chanter specific talents. Having two class talents (one being a buff to the other) is sad. Every other class gets far more play in that department.

I think Castlevania 4 is the best of the pre-symphony Castlevania games. It has great controls, great level design, great bosses, and a great soundtrack. It's tie in to Symphony is also cool.