Ashen Rohk

Don't worry about health until you're about to keel over, or if you're heading into a new area. If you're really hurting that much, try using some more of the priest's defensive spells to reduce the damage taken.

On the Guild Wars 2 forums, people complain that it's not enough like Guild Wars 1. The reaction: "So go play Guild Wars 1" Read between the lines, kthx. Despite the bugs in beta, I continue to think it's ridiculous the way some are dug into the ground expecting a copy of Baldur's Gate. As someone above said, we're getting a brand new IE-style game. Not another IE game.

My brain has been crushed by the numbers, but this is some damn fine work, sir. Damn fine.

Weren't vanishing inventory items a whole plot point for an Ultima game or something? But yeah, the grimoire thing is beyond frustrating because you have a completely useless party member at that point. The character selection still freezes up a bit too.

I was under the impression that the higher difficulty levels simply generated higher rank / more mooks. Have you noticed a difference in enemy tactics (the bum rush) or gameplay speed when you play the higher difficulty levels? I've certainly noticed that you can't just zerg combat bad guys. Initial observations look like they use skills more/have access to more skills, have a higher 'rank' as you say (I read somewhere that PotD gives you all the mobs from all difficulty at once). At the moment I'm killing Medreth and Nyfre over and over to get familiar with the classes. All in all I'd say it's harder in the fashion you have to use the skills of your class more than once in combat and you can't click attack and go make a coffee. Having said that, a couple of spells (testing out chanter at the moment and OHMYGOD) will drop 'em pretty fast.

Holy ass rogue is boring. Considering how vibrant and wonderful the other classes are it's real let down.

It's athletics - you have to climb the cliff to get to it.

Solution: Don't play on easy! You can't claim a game was too easy when you play on the lowest difficulty setting and allows you to ignore tactics. I'm not saying ramp it up to PotD but give yourself a bit of a challenge! N.B. Check me, <100 posts and sassing moderators. I like sailing close to the wind.

As long as it stacks in big numbers, yes. Craftable types of arrows too! :D

Whoa whoa why the random dig at Pathfinder yo? That should be pathfinding XD

I love how suddenly we're all masters of the profession. THIS IS WHY WE HAVE BETA TESTING. To find these bugs - see how problematic they are, find out what people like, what they think sucks, any tweaks and systems that need to be changed. Yes, pathfinder sucks and the AI is a bit wonky (but it was fine in the old IE games, right lolololz). Plenty of things sucked in W2 and D:OS betas, hell - D:OS is still broken as hell after launch. A beta is an unfinished state of the game, end of. It's not the same as a demo, and there's a lot of people here who don't make that distinction.

The only good thing about PST's UI was that it was something they could refine the hell out of for IWD2, which looked glorious. With no radial menu. I know what you mean about having the skills all down in the left, but I would much prefer something like that over an interface that clogs up half my screen.

Couple more first impressions on class building:

Holy hell, druid is incredible. Damage, conditions, shapeshift...unf.

Right, because clicking the diplomacy dialogue option is tough business. Boy howdie fellers if you thought dem dere lock pickins was easy just wait till they gotsta click option #3 for their EXP that'll learn em. Mahaha, that made me giggle. To me, using an ability or learning a spell isn't the kind of thing you should get experience for - it's not a means to an end of anything. But - the ogre conversation I found had maybe two options that ended in peaceful resolution, the rest in combat. It's not about mechanics, it's about choice and balance. I think in IWD2 at some point if you use a monk or paladin to finish a conversation you get a literal mountain of bonus experience. Avoiding combat netted you far more experience. I think, and I may be wrong on this, that making sure you get the same experience at the end of a quest whether you killed everyone or talked it out is the way to go. When push comes to shove, I don't really care either way as long as I can level up my dudes and not get murdered by the rats in the cellar 20 minutes in.

+1 to quest only XP here. Gotta say, I thought scroll reading and lock picking/trap disarming in BG2 was ridiculous. Pools and pools of easy XP.

This is a fair objection you raise, but even if the story is great. This is a game, and it's clearly built heavily around combat and the level progression for your roleplaying character revolves almost solely around combat rewards. Sorry, I might be misunderstanding you here! You don't get XP rewards for combat, but from quest completions. Or are you saying that you should be able to get XP from combat due to the nature of the game?

That's fine, but you don't have to grind. That you feel compelled to is on you. True, but is an accepted part of MMO mechanics - grind for what you want. Very few single player RPGs require grind - the only example I can think of off the top of my head is in Morrowind if you're too low level and Caius Cosades tells you to bugger off and level up. E.g. massive grind for legendary in Guild Wars 2, or finish a fairly tricky quest in IWD2 for that insane sword that's +10 on HoF that drops from the sky in Chapter 5. One is woven into the story and requires quest completion and the other is excessive repetition. To me, that is the difference.

I do not want grind in my single player RPGs. If I want grind I'll log in to whatever MMO I'm playing this week.

I'd have to disagree about TBC, I overall prefer RTwP. Having said that, it really does benefit some games - Wasteland 2 in particular as I remember trying to play Fallout: Tactics in real time and it became a mess. I RTwP. Everyone also seems to be basing how the storyline and companion interaction will be based on a side quest area and some blank slate party members who have no character whatsoever. This was done so we could experience it when the game launched. I know you could get set up to be burned, but you can't judge the storyline/companion aspect when it's been deliberately left out.

Started a YT series on the classes: First up, Fighter:

Also, Flames of Devotion is super OP

Okay, so my first impressions! Cons first: Pathfinding is woeful, especially in combat from both allies and enemies alike. They get stuck on walls and each other a lot. No indicator about whether or not you can pick a lock or use a key on a door. And not drop anything into the quick slots. I can't get any further into the main temple room under Dyford due to this. Camping supplies go into your inventory and don't stack on the supply counter. Some of the letters of text in the menus can be randomly massive for no reason. CraFting. Some of the party members will stop responding to commands (seems to be BB Fighter especially) or will display other classes' combat abilities. Would like some further customisation options in character creation, as well as maybe some more expansion on how the skill points and stats affect your abilities. My journal lost all of my quests on when I loaded in to a save. And the ogre's head was missing from my inventory. On that note, there was a purple highlighted thing in his cave I couldn't interact with - not sure if bug or not. When not using an ability, I'd like to see party members default to an auto-attack. e.g. ranged wand attack for spellcasters. The Pros! Gorgeous. Colourful, interactive and flat out beautiful. Music is brilliant. Classes are unique and interesting. Monk is still phenomenally overpowered. Sleek, good looking and easily navigable user interface I actually loved the combat. Considering I Ctrl-Y'd my way through my first playthrough of BG2, pausing and thinking through with a massive variety of skills at my hands is awesome. Spamming Armour of Faith before every fight makes me feel awesome. See cons for slight reservation. I felt like a king when I finally took down the crystal eaters and spider queen. For a handful of sidequests seeing the amount of detail going into the lore is brilliant. The conversations are engaging and not a 'hit continue' prompt. Quests actually seem worth doing, double crossing Nyfre and then murdering Medreth for the loot is hilarious. I'm really liking it. Once the bugs are ironed out this could be my favourite OE game yet!

Streaming live now: http://www.twitch.tv/ashenrohk

I'm loving that pathfinding is an issue that constantly comes up like it wasn't a massive issue in IE game. Some nice feedback here though for me to consider while I play tonight