Katarack21

There's lots of undead (which count as vessels) in Cragholdt Bluffs and lots of constructs inside Durand's Battery. The druids, I dunno. I'm a little worried about that myself.

The last part is in the Armory in Durand's Battery.

Not really, I'm not worried about my tank doing damage, I'm worried about him keeping the enemies heavy hitters busy while my ranged back line and melee fighters take out their squishier/more dangerous fellows. But, Engagement is the ONLY thing that keeps an enemies attention on your tank and it seems the only way now for them to be effective is to do damage. But, if they're doing damage their defenses must be lacking which means their ability to stand toe-to-toe longer than the other guy is compromised. Honestly at this point, I'm gonna try a Pale Elf Barbarian with Cautious Attack, Hold the Line, a few of the elemental damage Utility talents and with high Perception so his attacks will actually land. I'll have to look at the numbers next time I play, but I'm currently using Eder as my main tank (playing on Hard) and with buffs etc. he's doing fine with regards to Disengagement attack (currently level 8 party). What I'm finding in 2.0 is that I have to switch from ranged to melee with Pallegina and Kana more often because of AI behavior. He shouldn't NEED to be buffed to to make him an effective blocker and wall though, that's the thing. He should be able to do that on his own and the buffing should be there to improve that. Besides Hard doesn't change stats, just numbers of enemies. You want to REALLY test the numbers, pull it on TOI mode. Trial of Iron mode doesn't increase difficulty, it just removes the ability to reload. The game was balanced for Hard mode. 1) Correct. He was probably thinking Path of the Damned. 2) Also correct. That's why it's clear that the balance is off--on the game that it was designed to play, you have to buff in order to to have an effective tank. You should have an effective tank with base abilities, and have to buff to augment that in some scenarios.

Awesome. Thank you! I do have a question for the developers, though. About this line: "We'd like to keep making games in the PoE world. I don't know what metrics the owners would require for us to move forward with that, though. A lot of us have talked about ideas for PoE2 but we haven't done any work beyond that." Aren't the owners Obsidian? Do they not have control over this IP?

This was *REALLY* cool. It's actually one of my favorite pieces of equipment so far. I *really* enjoyed the way you got to choose the past history of the spirit. I suspect--although I don't know for sure--that the enchantments on the helm reflect the choices you made. If so, it's a really cool integration of the story element of Watcher abilities with equipment and gameplay.

I just picked up Stormcaller. It's pretty elite. There is also a helm called Garodh's Chorus which comes in three parts. Each time you find a piece, there's a little scene where you get to choose the outcome of a spirits past life--I don't know for sure, but it seems as if the enchantments on the helm might be dependent on the choices you made.

Those are not "what I think they said". Those are *quotes* from the original Kickstarter launch video.

I have seen several Orlan checks and even one "Slave" check (first one I've ever seen).

I had to use the cheat command to fix the stat bug in the first week of release, so I know how to do it. Just not sure if the technical forum can do anything with my save because of that, and wanted to see if it was actually a bug first.

That's -15, as in negative fifteen attribute points. If I remove 16 points from a stat, I finally have 1 point to spend. I would really enjoy removing my large resolve stat and putting it into something more useful, like perception (which wasn't buffing accuracy when I made the char), but whenever I go to respec my main character this happens. I've tested it without wearing anything, to--same deal. Anybody know what's going on?

No, it didn't. Watch that video again sometime. It promised to be "the next great RPG experience". It promised to be "inspired by the great IE games you loved". It even promised to be "brought to you by the people responsible for IWD I & II". It never promised to be best IE game ever. It never even promised to be an IE game. It's system is so very different that if you played it in the exact way you played an IE game, you'd probably die. It's combat is *better*, in part because tanks can tank and you don't have to resort to kiting everything to make up for the lack of a tanking mechanic.

I spent several hours this afternoon just clearing a single map which included several unique items. added into the original game area? (Or do you mean an expansion area?). Any new content beyond items in the original areas? (conversations / NPCs / quests (whether related to White March or not) / etc?) There's a lot of stuff that links from White March to other areas--a soulbound weapon whose completion quest is visiting areas in the normal game, a companions quest which appears to include tracking down somebody in the original game, etc. I don't know about new things in the original game itself, though--I honestly don't think that's a thing. I believe your supposed to play White March area at a certain point midway in the game, as if it's just another area to explore.

And she is an *awesome* companion. She is now sticking with my party...forever.

No, not yet. It was being such a bastard that I decided to go do some of the Duran's Battery content, instead. I did get up into Cragholdt, though.

No, the problem is that a tank build designed to hold an enemy is effectively a non-viable play strategy, and it's the strategy I spent 11 levels and 2/3rds of the game creating and using. The way the enemies are behaving in that map, it wouldn't be any different if you removed engagement entirely from the game--the battle would play out in pretty much exactly the same manner. The only reason to have a "sticky" mechanic in combat that I can even understand is to create a situation where tanks can hold enemies; there's always the option of breaking combat engagement, for a penalty, but it's not something that the AI should do every time, without fail, as their only combat mechanic. Fortunately, it's not. Not really. The other parts of the expansion that I've played have intelligent AI, much better than pre-2.0, but aren't doing that. I'm pretty sure that the enemies on that map are specifically designed to basically ignore engagement--it's showcasing what a combat-mobility focused group can do. And what it can do is seriously **** up your day.

I'll try. Hope I have a saved game in the right moment next time. What's the process for making the output log?

I'll be heading over there to get her soon. She's actually one of the things about the expansion I have been *most* excited about.

Ganked at 10? Jeez. I thought 6 was bad. All I have to say is: Someday, "Drunk Orlan", someday I'll be back. In the Immortal words of Ahnuld. I was having a *REALLY* hard time in Cragholdt Bluff at level 11. I got through into the place, but it was a real, absolute bastard.

The word "tank" has nothing to do with WoW. The word "tank" comes from tabletop D&D via wargames, in reference to actual tanks originally. Josh Sawyer, the lead designer, uses the word "tank" when talking about fighters in Pillars of Eternity. Telling people not to use that word comes across as incredibly pretentious and patronizing. As for the difficulty...probably a little of both. If that's true about it being the higher-level area, then I actually have reason to be proud of myself, don't I? "If you want a mixed support/off-tank/light offense character, play a paladin. If you want to coordinate nasty attacks with an animal companion, play a ranger. If you want reliable damage output and the most consistent tanking ability, play a fighter." --Josh Sawyer

You know, that's not the first map of the expansion. That's the optional high level area you are supposed to tackle at the end of the game with max level. The main expansion content takes place in the white march (as the name suggests), which is to the top right on the world map. Seriously? Like...seriously? I mean, I knew the main expansion was that other area--but are you serious that the mage encampment is the higher-level part?

This isn't particularly tactical. The AI is using the *same* tactic over and over again--rush the back line. Rush the back line. Rush the back line. I did adapt--I got through the area, eventually. It's a hard tactic to deal with--it is basically designed to **** me--but it's also *EXTREMELY* predictable. The Mercenary Beserker will *ALWAYS* jump over the tank, knocking him prone, and attack my back line. The Mercenary Warrior will *always* break engagement and rush the back line. It's not an "occasional" thing, it's not a "sometimes" thing. It's an entirely predictable event that you can depend on, and therefor manipulate. The complaint before was that you always were doing the same things over and over again? You still are. It's just a longer, more complicated sequence.

Bad example--Conan *lives* to bitch out walking gods. :-P

Well I did finally manage to get through the first map and into the ruins. It's not "easy", though. I actually skipped one group of enemies. I think the biggest problem may have just been the particular types of enemies in that first area, though. The *edited out* on the other part of the map aren't anywhere near the total bastards that those *edited out* were. No wonder they hired them to take on a legendary *edited out.* I would, too. Cant EDIT: I edited out two words that didn't seem particularly spoilerish, but we're cracking down on spoilers in this forum. Please report or PM moderators for spoilers in the PoE general forum.

Ahhh, the child of Bhaal has awoken. It is time for more...'experiments'. This is the worst part about it, you have to watch the whole cutscene over and over without being able to skip. I've never understood why any game ever made would *EVER* include unskippable cutscenes. I mean yeah, I get it, you want people to get your story etc.--but if they're gonna skip the cutscenes then they *clearly* either don't give a **** about the story anyway or have already seen it, so all you're doing is annoying and frustrating people for no gain.

Ahhh, the child of Bhaal has awoken. It is time for more...'experiments'.