Ganrich

Ignore the tree. They get to select one phrase, and one invocation for the Chanter class. It looks like Druid or Ranger select screens where you pick spell/spiritshift form or ability/animal companion respectively. I MCed Chanter with most everything at one point in beta. They get to select one phrase and one invocation.

Yes, they do. For sure.

Are MC monks using fists viable? Yes. Optimal on PotD? Doubt it. Any difficulty below PotD fists will be fine. First timers should probably avoid PotD anyways, and if you pick the hardest difficulty in a game you are new to and expect not to get stomped then I dont know what to say. NG bonus, if procced by the appropriate inspiration, should increase the duration of summoned weapons. Does it not work this way? If anyone else from beta knows chime in please. I didnt mess with a gish wizard at all in beta. I'm not arguing that clarity shouldnt be available at CC, though. I definitely feel it needs to be.

Your PL increases the level of abilities you have access to and scales ability damage the higher your PL gets. It will also increase duration of buff/debuff abilities. So, because single class characters gain power level faster they get access to higher ability level abilities faster, and their abilities will hit harder, last longer, etc. So, remember, single class will access higher level abilities a level or so ahead of MC, and his abilities will hit harder. An MC will get access more slowly, but habe two resource pools for their abilities and have some potential for combos that single class will miss out on. It does need more explanation in CC, but the only places I can think of it being explained is in subclasses and races that have conditional PL changes. Death and Nature Godlike races, Lifegiver Druid, and Ascendant Cipher to name the ones I can think of that have such conditionals off the top of my head. I may have missed some.

Some classes have high level abilities that are for sure worth single classing to get. Monk is a good example of this. Can't remember names, but a passive that gives 100 ACC and 100 Pen for an Empowered ability combined with the ability that deals 60-80 crush and does +500% crit damage if it crits is a worth while set of abilities. That ACC buff will make a crit very likely on all but maybe PotD. Combined with Flagellants Path or Long fists could put you in any position on the battlefield to do an equivalent of Finger of Death on any target in an encounter. This, and the Chanter's high level abilities, mean my first 2 plays will be single class plays. Chanters have an interesting dynamic Invocation at 7 that gives them an Energized inspiration for 30 seconds. If you MC that should be enough since you can pop that buff and dump your other class's abilities in short order. I'm imagining an ascendant/Chanter where you pop it right before you top out focus. Cast energize buff, get your last hit for ascendant, and go ham with damage spells from cipher. As a single class you can upgrade and it gives you 3 phrases immediately for use. Which means you could cast one of the low level inspirations immediately after. I dont know how this will work with Skalds with lower Offensive phrase requirements, and might work best with troubadour with Brisk Recitation. However, you could empower that first invocation after you cast the energize buff. Chanters, Druids, Fighters, Monks, and Barbs all look great at high level. Very worth single classing them. Cipher, Wizard, and Priests look good enough. Paladin looks good, but some things might be IMBA for good or bad... So it depends on implementation. Rogue might be ok depending on Guile costs, but I'm unsure. Rangers need something IMHO. However, Rangers and Rogues have very empty talents at high Level, and I think that makes them most susceptible to being MC only for most. There just isn't enough weight at the top of their trees to keep them from being MCed most playthroughs. We will see, though. My play style would probably never single class those two classes anyway. They would always fill out a MC build for flavor. I think some classes are for sure better than others in this regards, and IMHO that is an issue.

Possible but also unlikely. More likely is that Obsidian are keeping the final few for the flurry on day 0 and day 1 reviews and other media there'll be. Yeah, I'm inclined to think day 1 reviews will have the last of them. Or they will tweet some more later today, maybe. Day 1 reviews most likely.

I'm also glad to see you coming around. They were ambitious for sure with the openness and size of the game. Gonna stock up on all the necessities tomorrow so I don't have to leave the house for a few days after launch.

There's also power level to consider. Does it affect duration for summoned weapons? Since IIRC the stats on the weapons scale with character level. It is supposed to? It's hard to say for sure. Also, there are passive talentd to increase durations on buffs iirc, and one for specifically increasing duration on Empowered Spells. All that and I think a base of 25 should be fine, but with these long recovery times it can be tough to say.

Because chanter has some pretty good blast, if I remember correctly they have a tornado like innvocaton at high level. As I said, chanter is very versatile, it can CC, blast, heal, revive, summon and has passive phrase. It also does very good in all of these aspect. Well, to use the invocation after that buff you should rebuild your phtases from 0,dont even know if it will last enough... Oh well i'll keep my pallegina as buffbot anyway The Energize lasts 30 seconds, and you can upgrade that Invocation to immediately return 3 phrases if you single class. If you Multiclass then you will likely have skills from your other class that you can make use of before those 30 seconds run out. Also, these numbers are at 10 intellect. So, that time would likely go up with most Chanter builds. I could see an Ascendant/Chanter that pops it just before maxing out on Focus, and then goes absolutely bananas. I am thinking correctly that Energize is a Strength buff, yes? I can't seem to find a list of the inspirations/afflictions that is complete.

Devoted only get the one proficiency, but fighters all have passive abilities that give you Weapon Specialization with any weapons you have a proficiency in. So, yes.

Bloodlines should also always be installed.

Doh. I should have read more closely. Thanks for the clarification.

In fairness, unless I'm too sleepy to read it correctly, the 960 is recommended. However, the required gpu is a DX11 compatible card which goes back a ways. I expect older cards will be fine, but the 960 is what they used as a "this is max settings wothout any major fps dips" benchmark. Also, as much as I love Obsidian, them plus unity engine doesn't equal CDPR with their proprietary one. CDPR are Wizards of the highest order. They also weren't building a five million-ish dollar game. Like I said, I just bought a 2k monitor, and my rx580 runs the beta just fine. I expected major frame dips, but it hangs around 60fps no issue. I didn't want to buy a gpu right now. Now the full game might change how well it runs, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I played this and a Trickster/Troubadour a few times in beta, and I had a blast. I will likely play the Trickster/Troubadour as my first MC character after a few single class play throughs. I preferred the Trickster/Troubadour because it is more mobile, has better interrupt capability, and I want this character to use Explosives and I felt they didn't work as well with Beguiler because I could've been generating focus or casting spells. I just felt less efficient. However, I really liked the Beguiler. It is a lot of fun.

I am ok with 5 too. I would have been one of those raising a stink at 4. I didn't like 4 in DA, and didn't like it in Tyranny. Both of those are OK games, but I feel like with 4 you need a tank, a healer, a mage/ranged Damage, and a Rogue. It feels too confining for interesting party compositions. I always liked 6, but I can live with 5, and I enjoy it in the beta. I hardly notice it anymore.

I will be in those other two forums from the moment I finish my first playthrough. Between launch day and finishing... I likely won't be seen on the boards. I almost ignore GD once a game launches, but I will periodically peek in.

I haven't heard anything, no. It would be a cool thing to do. I am pretty sure Watcher spells/abilities will return, though.

I think every class looks good for Multiclassing. Skald/Devoted still looks good. Devoted works with any melee though. Rogue/beckoner would easily get flanked on targets. Barbarians look silly good. I still like pallys but I want to see more first hand than to guess. They are set up to never die. Which makes them unique. Chanters have a subclass for every combo imaginable too. My first MC, which will be my 3rd play through of the game, will be a Troubadour/Trickster I think. Just because I think it will be a mobile interrupter with debuffs and CCs. I plan to give him explosives to make up for the shortage on Guile a MC character gets, and the fact that Rogues have silly high costs on abilities. My Chanter and my Monk will be my first playthroughs, and they will be single class. I am more worried about which classes are good for single class, and which are not. I think Rogue and Ranger have too little at higher levels to justify Single Class, and they will only be used if I MC them. However, others might feel differently.

Single classed casters will be silly good. Particularly Druids and Chanters IMHO. They have great high level abilities. Good enough that I am having trouble justifying MCing my first play through with my chanter. Mages, Priests, and Ciphers also have good top level skills. Keep in mind Power Level means single class spells will hit harder, last longer, and whatever else with lower and higher level spells alike than a multiclass. Multiclass get the benefit of syncing up abilities from two classes, and Single class gets the raw power. Of course they retained the majority of spells, though. This game is in the same world as the first. It is their own Forgotten Realms which has been rehashing their spells for 40+ years or more. Some of these spells are tied to famous/infamous Wizards in lore, some tied to diety, and so on. So, of course they came back. In however many months/years since the end of PoE1 I don't expect those spells to change. I'd be mad if they completely tossed out everything from the first game. I just can't agree with you on this.

There are a couple ways to do it. I am doing this as spoiler free as I can. Although this is a forum for spoilers... so... anyway here we go. 1) play the game and at a point in early dialogue you get certain presets to select such as: Benevolent, Evil, etc. These are preset ending conditions for PoE1 built into Deadfire. 2) In the main menu there is a sort of scripted interaction that lets you select individual decisions for each major event in PoE1. Stuff like how the companion stories ended, major plot points, and a few others. Just pick what feels right. Option 1 is easier and faster, and option 2 here is more in depth and individual to how you wanted your decisions to be made.

Unless it changed with full launch the Skald's Crit to generate phrases system is based on melee only. So, you would be better going Troubadour for the Helwalker build. The tips in character creation do not clarify this well, IMHO. Melee Skald/Helwalker can get pretty crazy though.

I think that PotD, as much as many of us hardcores enjoy a challenge, should take second fiddle to bugs. So, no, if the majority of the game breaking bugs were dealt with by the delay I think it is ok to release with PotD a little on the easy side to start, and I have similar sentiments to balance issues as well. Most the audience will be on Normal and Story mode. I usually do my first playthrough on the 2nd hardest difficulty to enjoy some challenge, but to also be expedient in getting through my first run. Also, since the triple crown achievements aren't in game yet it is ok too. That's because they can tune PotD in order to ensure maximum pain on those that want to achieve it before adding that feature.

Case study in OpenGL > than DX11? Seriously, I don't know why the specs are lower on Linux, though. I can kind of see the GPU jump because this game looks a whole heck of a lot better than the first game, and there are a great deal of ambient animations playing, birds, weather, waves, etc. Which I understand. Most people build/buy a system and only feel comfortable upgrading the GPU. So, if there is a piece of hardware that you can go up on in a lighter game like this I think it would be the GPU. However, that doesn't mean I don't understand the pain for those that don't have the funds to do so. Especially since GPU prices are bananas right now. They have come down, but not enough IMHO.

You should still be able to run the game, since that is only regarding recommended specs, not minimum. Still, you might have to dump quality a little - I might too (my card is a GTX 780, not sure if better or worse than the 960).780, given time and lack of full support from Nvidia for a while is probably pretty close to a 960. I cant say as my 780 died. I do agree that it is very unlikely that 17gb decompresses into 45gb, but the audio files arent going to be small here. They fully VOed a game that is likely bigger than PoE1, and that adds up. However, they may have included headroom for patches and the like in the requirements. I doubt they would even know what the Dlcs size will be. Even the one slated for June is too far out to hazard anything better than a guesstimate.

This. AND have NPCs tease the PC for his failure to get in on the action. What "IS" a Watcher, really? Maybe the PC is just into Voyeurism.