Killyox

Artificial difficulty is not always the good type of difficulty. Having boss take 20 minutes to kill and 1-2 shot player is not difficult but retarded and cheesy and shows a total lack of effort in developing AI. Having robust AI for enemies and various skills and mechanics to play around is more interesting. Sure people can go PotD solo with trial of iron and expert mode but will that be fun? I doubt it would be for me. I did Ironman in X-Com and my save LITERALLY got fked up on the last boss just before entrance to his very room! Man was I pissed.

Finding game easy or rather AI being not too bright. Stats not bugged Just checked them. Then again I barely save and play on a single save (quik save).

Sorry, your post was too long to read. Got bored at thread title.

I am almost sure Triple Crown will be done by Mechanics & Stealth character utilizing LOTS and LOTS of traps :D

I believe you downplay Ciphers AoE dmg capability

It's nice to have that to look forward to. I'm sure it'll make a big difference when I get to level 9. By the way, do druids and clerics also get their starting spells turned into per-encounter or is it just wizards? they do AS to cipher, my Cipher has like 4x the dmg of the 2nd most damaging guy in my party. ~40-45k dmg at lvl 6

I have yet to run out of spells on my wizard before I rest. Don't just casually sling them. Use them strategically so they do the most damage to enemy they can. Like using fireball on 2-3 enemies is a total waste. Don;t also use them in fights you know you will win and without problem. I use a lot of Aloth's 2p Encounter aoe with Raw dmg and gave his attack Blast upgrades. Cipher is great, but for that AoE damage I'd go with a druid. Much of the cipher's power comes from damage with a weapon and debuffs. They do have AoE damage (and yeah, better than a wizard...) but it seems like druid is king there. I dunno if druid can beat my cipher. Mental Echo + Blunderbuss shot + 4 Mind Blades are devastating. Mental echo does like 40-50dmg non crit to enemies in path while i spam MB that also do 30-50 dmg per target. Also without per rest limits.

Normal. I am @6 and I'm 36h in.

So because you think they broke their promise it means that's a fact? I disagree. I feel it is very inspired by IE games which is exactly what they said they would do. Also they can;t copy&paste mechanics that they have no intelectual propety of so it was obvious combat will be different. Combat system is OK. It just need better AI and balancing of spells and monster abilities. I also think engagement hurts the game overall. I don't have problem with it but it's very artificial limitation that seems to actually favour the player.

How fun, so when do I get charged my monthly fee and when are we getting together to raid that epic loot boss guys? That's not entirely fair, honestly. I think I would have preferred an aggro-based system, despite the fact that it's quite far from how it worked in the IE games, when it comes to tanking. There are some really definitive issues with how it works right now, partly because of the polarization, but also because tanks simply can't hold the line when non-tank melee-ers comes into the game. Nevermind the issue of keeping doorways, something that could've been done without Engagement; I hate how when anything in the doorway dies, my tank leaps forward to the next target, and because of Engagement, he can't move back or reposition, and because of the cramped space, none of my other meleers can even get close, so often, me, the rogue I made (and has since ditched), or Pallegina simply cannot get close to the mobs, because Edér is blocking OUR access to the mobs. Ranged really is king. Melee tank, ranged DPS, complete polarization on all fronts. I haven't seen this yet, I think, but how do I detect it? And how do I avoid it? ...Well ****, I definitely have that, then. I Save/Load like crazy. Is there any workaround to fix it? Edit: Strangely, I had not have this happen to Kana Rua, despite definitely loading several times at the Stronghold, but I did have it happen to Edér because of something you can find at the temple. God. Damn. I guess I can live with Edér having +1 Per/Res, because they're abysmal to him anyway, but damn if it's not pissing me off. Luckily it's the only one that I've had it happen to so far. Use Pikes/Staves/Firearms. I don't see an issue. Is not hitting at all somehow worse than hitting with worse weapon ? Pallegina has soldier weapons so you should have Pike there for such situations or areqbus or arbalest with which she is also good. I don't see a problem at all with doorways and reaching. Hell even Eder has pistol since he is good with them.

That explains why Eder is level 5 in one of my saves and has like 70 on all defensive stats... But on another save its perfectly fine and the bug does not happen at all. Not at all. My lvl 6 eder has ~107 deflection for example and ~90 other stuff but not due a bug. I gave him some passives like shield style + magic items like deflection 10, and other saves +5 and all sorts of things like improved modal. Modal alone gives iirc +15 deflection and will and so on when it's improved. Depends on gear a lot too. For example my Cipher at lvl 6 has something like 30 deflection? 35?

OP lv2 spell for priest? Lemme guess, the one that makes ALL NEGATIVE EFFECTS on your party temporary disabled for XX seconds? Yeah, it's VERY VERY VERY good. Paralyze? Stun? Knocked down? Blind? Just Kidding! Here you go! *casts spell*

I went on ahead and actually went to higher lvl zone. I went to Backer Beta zone, Dyrwood, at lvl 4 skipping Defiance Bay entirely. Then Skaen boss encounter was kinda cheesy because it forced my Cipher at the front row and he was usually dead in split second after releasing pause. One time he did not get insta gibbed I managed it flawlessly. I barely ever use potions and food never. Other tricky fight was Ogre cave when 90% of spiders from the whole cave somehow came at me (I was at the entrance and still almost all from map came when I started a fight :D) but it was managable too. I dunno. Hard is still easy with default companions tbh. Maybe second playthrough I will use adventurers for Path of the Damned.

My thoughts so far (using game's companions, not adventurers) Cipher is incredibly strong. Mental Bindings, Mind Wave, Mind Blades, Mental Echo (!), Eyestrike are all incredibly good. Mental Echo is somewhat tricky to set-up but BOY-OH-BOY does it hit hard. I get 40-50 dmg hits like every 2 seconds from it. I often engage dudes with my tank, and run other character around them to hit multiple foes. So it's like 50dmg per monster every 2 sec or so + other stuff i cast or blunderbuss shots. Cipher still has a lot more stuff but mine (PC) is right now at lvl 6 getting close to 7. Priest (Durance) - For the most part I find him useless. Most spells yet are never needed and tbh I don't really need his spells since my chars get tired a lot long before I run him out of spells. Aloth the Mage - I am on the fence here. He's not as offensive as Cipher is tbh and I use most of his spells for debilitating effects but he's not the heavy hitter. In general I find make to be rather mediocre. Fighter Eder - good tank, not too good dmg He just doesn't die tbh Pallegina the Paladin - Just started using her in Sagani's place. So far she's ok. Kana The Chanter - Tbh I find Chanter rather useless. The reason for that is because 95% of fights end before he gets to 3-4 charges for his invocations. So I use him as a backline Arqebus guy with Chant that DOUBLES reload speed for guns and so and makes them fire faster iirc. Goes nice with my Cipher's Lead Spitter Blunderbuss. Other than that he didn't have much time to shine but he snipes enemy squishies nicely (better than sagani if you give him reload chant!) Sagani - With how she's made, hunting bow, fox companion and all I would say she is rather bad because od bow being bad vs DR. She would've rocked with Pistol (unique one with 20% faster attack speed) gunner perk and Kana's chant. Meh Grieving Mother - I did not use her yet but seeing as she's Cipher she's probably strong eitherway and I didn't want to cheese through the game with 2 ciphers. All in all many fights end very quickly so Chanter doesn't have time to shine. One of the very few fights that took enough time for him to build it up was vs Drake at Endless Paths lv5 and when I mass pulled Ogres in lv3. Right now half the time I don't even bother with scouting mode - mostly for spotting traps or secret switches (cipher has mechanics)

I myself try to avoid using skills that overwrite eachother on enemy as not to waste them. But thus Far I really like Mental Binding + Mind Blades combo. So many crits. For tougher fights i can gulp +15 accuracy potion before that combo and most of the time all blades will crit for ~50. I use Wood Elf Cipher (for Distant Advantage perk, really awesome!) with pistol and reloading trai. 14might 18dex 18 int iirc. So it goes like Mental Binding + Mind Blades + pistol Shot + Mind Blades or Mind Wave if needed. I use companions from the game. Eder Aloth and so on. Played with 5 ppl in party for the most part. Just got 6th. Only at the beginning I got myself adventurer monk which isn't bad (making him full active instead of passive) Thus far it's really cool. Greatly enjoying the game. Also with Cipher I disable & plant traps. With high mechanics they have like 85-90 accuracy at my lvl 4 and crit for 40-60 depending on type of trap.

So i did not really play backer beta besides 2xx or something but I read forums how on hard there is every enemy available and that this could be considered "proper" uncut difficulty without modified monster stats. What I am wondering is whether or not they nerfed the difficulty or is the beginning really easy? I just got to Caed Nua am around 4-5 lvl and so far every fight has been pretty easy thus far. So did they nerf it or does it get harder after? I am not save scumming. Only did twice at the start of the game because it was rather new to me. Made PC Cipher because I was afraid other casters would run out of spells but thus far Fatigue kicks in when casters still have like 50% of their casts available. Any thoughts guys? I don't want to come in as show-off or anything of the sort. Just genuinely curious

I wouldn't worry overly much if beta worked for you.

I will not succumb to my piqued interest! i will resists and wait until 26th ! I must !!!

I must say I feel dumber for reading 8 pages of this thread. It is filled with so much bickering and useless crap that it's pretty sad. Too much OT arguments and insults instead of actual discussion. Sad really.

2D graphics when done right are not bad at all. POE looks very good. Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut looks really cool too. Shadowrun: Hong Kong looks even better from the glimpses I've seen. Bastion, Transistor also look gorgeus. Ori and the Blind Forest is also very eye-candy. I don't really understand why people always assume that good graphics mean 3D and not 2D. 2D also ages a whole lot better than 3D.

I am sorry op but not every game has to have pvp, multiplayer, online and so on. You have other, different games for that. There are games specifically made for that. This isn't one of them. POE wants to fulfill different kind of want from a game. Play MOBA, FPS, RTS or man different games that have PvP. POE focus is on single player experience.

I wonder how would a rogue fare with 2h spear for reach and staying out of harms way while still doing pretty nice melee dmg.

2D can still look good and be enjoyable. From newer games I definitely recommend Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut. Very nice lil piece of game tbh. Wasteland 2 is not a 2d but also very nice rpg. From older definitely Planescape: Torment for story part. If Baldur's Gate then start with BG2. There are also Fallout 1 & 2 but I recommend 2. From more recent but "very old styled" games Avernum: Escape From the Pit is also decent. Also POE looks very very nice because it's 2D done the way it is.

No thanks. We shouldn't have to "imagine" or "make up" the game's lore. That's the developer's job, remember? And if they fail, then that's a black mark on the game itself. As of right now, we have no such game world explanation to go by. Instead, all we have is Josh Sawyer's mechanics explanation, which is overly cynical and gamey in my opinion. The reason for the health + endurance mechanic is to simply prevent rest spamming and save scumming via layers of padding and "second chances" (if you go down in a fight you're not dead! you're just out of endurance for a while! So no need to reload! Yay!) And I thought roleplayers ARE supposed to actually imagine stuff. What cannot be presented by game itself has to be imagined.

Those were in fact, the stated reasons. All of them ridiculous. - The first one is easily rendered moot with potions, scrolls and items that anyone can use. Radical concept, I know! And RPG fans love loot, so it's a win/win alternative. -The second one is typical Josh Sawyer philosophy - worrying about the lowest common denominator instead of the *role player*. Hey Josh, Here's a news flash for you: In PoE, a total party wipe makes players reload their game, too. So what are you gonna do about that? Hmm? Are you going to scrap total party wipes in the sequel to eliminate such degenerate save-scumming? Or are you just gonna expand on your design and introduce a 3rd, 4th, or 5th type of health bar to make reloading even more rare? -The third one shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone who knows better. Sawyer himself developed Icewind Dale 2 - a game that only took 10 months to make -and- didn't suffer from any balance issues, -and- didn't see players resting after every battle -and- didn't have to have 2 kinds of health bars to prevent 'degenerate reloading'. Incidentally, if these are the *actual* reasons why they introduced an endurance bar (instead of just being the explanation given for public consumption) then the design is already a failure. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm finding myself both resting more frequently and reloading more frequently in this beta than I do in ANY of the IE games. The addition of a stamina bar is not making any difference whatsoever. 1) and then with potions and all additionally having a healer makes things a lot more easier still 2) your assumptions that "role players" are the people who care for mechanics etc. are wrong. I know many role players that aren;t too bothered with mechanics but with story, setting and impact of decisions and actual role playing. No powerbuild min-maxing crap but making chars for story reasons. Role Players are not a unified group that shares same likes/dislikes. They are different across the board 3) IWD2 was based on AD&D which set all the foundations. They just copy/pasted it into game environment so it was a lot easier balancing and making from scratch then thinking everything, including combat mechanics, from ground up. It wasn't also balanced. Summon Undead anyone before it was nerfed in a patch ? You could solo entire game just summoning crap (because summons scaled with difficulty too). They had classes, resolution rules, racial bonuses and limitations, spells, rules on gaining spells and all other stuff. That takes humungous amount of work out of developement. 4) If the addition of a stamina does not make a difference then why hate on it in the first place?