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Yeah the mid/late game wizard should be very good but the early not worth i think. I have no idea what they did on Mind Blade so let wait and see. As a matter of fact, wizards in PoE actually start off very strong, what with their fan of fire dealing 70+ damage, or their ability to use bows and suchlike. Allow me to compare your PoE wizard with a BG1 AD&D wizard. Your BG1 wizard starts with a grand total of 4 hp, 3 level 1 spells known, 2 casts per rest. Your standard Magic Missile spell starts at a single missile dealing 1d4+1 damage. At this rate, even a stray cat could kill you. Although, if you were smart, you set his constitution at 16 so to be fair, your wizard would actually have 6hp , that's a 50% increase. With a whopping six hit points I'm not sure a cat would be able to kill you outright... a dog now... I wouldn't hold my breath bro, hope you're good with that sling ! Your level 1 wizard can get killed in the first minute of BG1, when you enter a house just to be assaulted by an assassin and his trusty dagger. A dagger deals 1d4 damage + the strength modifier. Just the one unlucky crit (1/20 chance) or regular hit that does 4 damage (1/4 chance, discounting any STR bonus) and you're restarting the game. That is how a weak wizard starts, not with spells that : - can crit - can slow the attack rate of a whole group - can deal over 70 damage as an AoE So my friend, we will have to agree to disagree here. Wizards start off very, very, very strong in PoE when compared to a whole array of DnD games (BG series, IWD series, NWN series...), in my opinion. I'm not sure why u talk about Baldur's gate when Baldur'sd gate have DnD Rules and the system they employ here is not based on DnD rule but it's their own rule set. It's heavily based on timing, control and interrupts + disengage. Also, i'm playing Path of the Damned and never you will do 70 dmg ( even on crit ) with Fan of Flame.If the mobs attack youre wizard ( you pause and click away to run ) (because you don't want him to tank) and Boom he die because the disengage killed him . In Baldur's gate you're weak mage can run if he want to. You have to Agree or Disagree here. Wow... just chill. There is no reason to be aggressive here, we're having a calm discussion over the pros and cons of wizards in the early game, and whether they're "weak" or not First, prior to posting yesterday, I ran a test on PotD and hit with FoF for 62 damage, hit, not crit. I'm not sure where you're getting your "you'll never crit for 70!" from, but obviously you're half correct, I won't crit for 70, I'll crit for even more. Second, I'm offering you a comparison with ADnD BG1 to show you perspective. You find your wizard weak, I claim PoE wizards are in a much better starting position than we ever had them in the whole chain of IE games. Third, I appreciate you giving an example of a situation where a wizard is weak : melee. It'll come as no surprise that wizards aren't exactly built for melee, unless you focused on him being a war wizard, or battle mage, which certainly is viable in the game. Now let's take a look at your problem "wizard in melee dies when trying to disengage", and break it down following the chain of events : 1/ wizard is in melee 2/ wizard tries to disengage 3/ wizard gets hit and dies Regarding event one, if you've understood your wizard shouldn't be in melee, perhaps you should pay more attention to your positioning, and how your frontline protects your casters. I understand that some monsters do not offer you much of a choice vis à vis positioning, like Shades. It's a mechanic we must all deal with, and if you're playing on PotD you're supposedly looking for a challenge, here's your challenge Regarding event two, there are several tools at your disposal to break engagement and move away safely, including but not limited to : Knockdown from Eder Paralyze from Mother + your wizard Confuse from Mother + your wizard Charm from Mother Repulsing Seal from Durance Slicken from your wizard Dazzling Lights from your wizard Failing these hard CCs, you can always improve your disengage chances by lowering your foe's accuracy : Blind from Mother + your wizard + Hiravias Chill Fog from your wizard Sunless Grasp from your wizard As a last resort, you can try to improve your wizard's survival chances before disengaging, to lower the damage received or avoid it altogether : Woodskin from Hiravias Armor of Faith from Durance Wizard's Double from your own caster And that's only quoting the early spells, of course, since we're debating the early game here. My point is, there are many tools available to you to either get your wizard back to safety, or reduce the damage taken to prevent a KO. And keep in mind that these tools are only necessary if by some mistake on your part (or a nasty ambush, or the fight mechanics), you find your wizard in melee. Lastly, nobody has to "agree or disagree here", people are free to have different opinions, you're free to think wizards are underwhelming all you like, if I've still failed to convince you otherwise I hope I've been able to offer you some insight here, and that might change your views on the early levels of your dear character. Enjoy your game, I've got to run, my Monk wants to get mauled by Lions on PotD -.-

For what it's worth and after some extensive testing yesterday, Bloody Slaughter did not trigger for enemies at just 1 pip of HP. It would sometimes trigger after whittling them down a little more.

Yeah the mid/late game wizard should be very good but the early not worth i think. I have no idea what they did on Mind Blade so let wait and see. As a matter of fact, wizards in PoE actually start off very strong, what with their fan of fire dealing 70+ damage, or their ability to use bows and suchlike. Allow me to compare your PoE wizard with a BG1 AD&D wizard. Your BG1 wizard starts with a grand total of 4 hp, 3 level 1 spells known, 2 casts per rest. Your standard Magic Missile spell starts at a single missile dealing 1d4+1 damage. At this rate, even a stray cat could kill you. Although, if you were smart, you set his constitution at 16 so to be fair, your wizard would actually have 6hp , that's a 50% increase. With a whopping six hit points I'm not sure a cat would be able to kill you outright... a dog now... I wouldn't hold my breath bro, hope you're good with that sling ! Your level 1 wizard can get killed in the first minute of BG1, when you enter a house just to be assaulted by an assassin and his trusty dagger. A dagger deals 1d4 damage + the strength modifier. Just the one unlucky crit (1/20 chance) or regular hit that does 4 damage (1/4 chance, discounting any STR bonus) and you're restarting the game. That is how a weak wizard starts, not with spells that : - can crit - can slow the attack rate of a whole group - can deal over 70 damage as an AoE So my friend, we will have to agree to disagree here. Wizards start off very, very, very strong in PoE when compared to a whole array of DnD games (BG series, IWD series, NWN series...), in my opinion.

Your error starts much earlier : Shader warmup: 13 shaders 31 combinations 0.006s Platform assembly: C:\Games\Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Managed\System.Configuration.dll (this message is harmless) Fallback handler could not load library C:/Games/Pillars of Eternity/PillarsOfEternity_Data/Mono/libc Fallback handler could not load library C:/Games/Pillars of Eternity/PillarsOfEternity_Data/Mono/.\libc Fallback handler could not load library C:/Games/Pillars of Eternity/PillarsOfEternity_Data/Mono/libc System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for Mono.CSharp.CSharpCodeCompiler ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Windows mono path not found: C:\mono\mono\mini\mono.exe at Mono.CSharp.CSharpCodeCompiler..cctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider.CreateCompiler () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.GenerateSerializers (System.Xml.Serialization.GenerationBatch batch, System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters cp) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.RunSerializerGeneration (System.Object obj) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 It is odd because I'm using the Steam version here and there is no Mono redist file. I've got the VCRedist ones, as well as DirectX, but no sign of Mono. Note however, my directory structure : <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\ <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\ <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\mono\ <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\mono\1.0\ <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\mono\2.0\ <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\mono\mconfig\ There is also a file : <game>\PillarsOfEternity_Data\Mono\etc\mono\mono.dll Check that you have these files and directory structure. If not, either the GoG and Steam versions differ in some way or another, or your install derped and you'll want to try uninstalling and reinstalling the game.

That's a good start indeed Can't wait for 1.04 fixing Stealth and Backstab though , rogues know what I mean.

The in-game description says "those crits do additional damage", it is unclear whether "those" refers to only crits converted by Bloody Slaughter, or crits in general. Just from the talent's text, there is no way of infering it. There's no mention of what "low endurance" means either, could be 25%, could be 10, could be a flat number like < 30. The point is, the talent needs to be reworded correctly for one to assess its worth. Having to rely on trial and error to determine if you want to pick the talent is just plain wrong, the description alone should suffice, provided that it's clear enough.

By the way it occurs to me, right now and because I'm getting curious. We're all used to our DnD rogues getting a flat damage boost from sneak attacks, something between 1d6 and 15d6. These character types favored very fast weapons because you'd get more SA procs. In PoE however Sneak attacks do not trigger a flat damage boost but rather a multiplicative one (50% for SA, 100% with Deathblows). I'm curious about the kind of damage a rogue with Two-Handed Weapons style and a greatsword would dish out. Mix that up with Kana's Flaming Weapons and Pallegina's Zealous Focus and that sounds like it would hurt. Anyone find a +0.5 crit multiplier two-handers yet ?

I deeply appreciate your insight, especially about weapons and enemy types to look out for. What would your opinion be on min maxed builds for hard, eg: 21 Mig (playing Aumaua) 3 Con 18 Dex 17 Per 3 Int 16 Res Is this even viable or are there encounters where you would die no matter how good your positioning is? Sounds doable but you'll spend your entire time micro-ing your rogue. Also, you're dumping INT too much. It affects the duration of your own disables so you'll get less sneak attacks off, if you even get any at all. Blinding Strike has a base duration of 10 seconds, lower if by your 3 INT malus, then assume you Graze with it and remove 50% duration, that's gonna be very short indeed. Keep in mind your cipher (which is mandatory for the spammable CC, the other casters are per rest, sadly) might have something else to do than setting a debuff on your target, saving the group from an enemy your tank didn't intercept for example.

Battle Axes, or weapons with a magical +50% crit damage, really shine in the late game. The problem with stilettos' DR is that it doesn't scale very well. Slower weapons like Sabres or Battle Axes not only have more critical damage, but also more base damage, which helps in getting over the enemy's DR. Besides and with the build I'm using, my hit-crit ratio is roughly 1/2 so the +50% crit damage bonus does show, AND I already have other +crit damage multipliers from faction talents. Lastly, the enemies' HP tends to get higher in the late game, I really struggled on the last floors of Od Nua with stilettos and daggers, for example. Even with sneak attacks, I'd get what, 10 damage, perhaps 20 on good hits, against some opponents.

Uhm.. looks very powerfull! I started yesterday with a rogue, can you tell me your rogue build please? Sure, my Hearth Orlan started with : 17 might 10 con 19 dex (18 + 1 from province) 13 per 10 int 09 res Start with Blinding Strike, which although it comes with 1 less use/encounter than Crippling Strike, helps in the medium term, with survivability. Very much later on, you'll also be picking Crippling Strike, so you can set up more targets for Sneak Attacks each encounter. At the beginning of the game you want to rush roughly 2000 copper to buy the stiletto with the Jolting Touch proc from the smith in Gilded Vale, that will carry you very very far into the game, I was still using it at level 9. Abilities (in alphabetical order) : Blinding Strike (to set up sneak attacks and for survivability in duels) Coordinated Positioning (this one's for mobility in fights) Crippling Strike (to set up sneak attacks) Deathblows (this one is pretty important, if you stack debuffs on a target, you'll do more Sneak Attack damage) Dirty Fighting (10% hit-crit conversion) Minor Threat (racial, 10% hit-crit conversion when attacking the same target as an ally) Reckless Assault (-8 deflection, +8 accuracy, +20% melee damage) Talents (in alphabetical order) : Backstab <--- stealth is broken, pick something else to be honest Vicious Fighting (+10% hit-crit conversion for Dirty Fighting) Two Weapon Style OR One Handed Weapons Style , depends on your playstyle, I play dual wield Savage Attack Interrupting Blows (delayed enemies are enemies who deal less damage) Bloody Slaughter (no idea if the +50% crit damage only applies to Bloody Slaughter crits, or all crits ) Faction talents : As you can see, the character itself has a built-in +30% hit to crit conversion. On top of that, rogues have very high natural accuracy and accrue even more over time. I managed to get a 121 damage crit in the following circumstances : - Flaming Weapons chant from Kana - Double debuffs on the target, triggering Deathblows The weapon used is : Keep in mind however that everyone has their own playstyle, and you may have more fun following your own instincts than a strangers' opinion.

Even then, that's two talents (or is it 1 talent and 1 ability ? bah) for a combo you can trigger just twice per rest , that's just so not worth it. Even if the invisibility trick had been 1/encounter , the invisibility alone would be worth it, but not Backstab itself. I'm afraid the devs have miscalculated (and mis-tested) on this one. I mean, motherflipper's called Backstab, would have made sense to let it trigger when you hit someone from the back perhaps... Hopefully there may be balance changes in future updates, one can only hope. Edit: I'm afraid Finishing Blow is much the same, I think it's 2/rest ? Definitely not worth picking. Basically, rogues are pretty fun to play and veritable powerhouses when you position them correctly, but they require lots of micro and jeez, you just won't get to use skills much, just autoattack like a tool.

Use an hex editor to fix your FocusGainMult as explained on page 2 of this thread. I understand that's hardly an acceptable or easy solution but at least it'll fix your character. Edit: spelling

Which was the first and how, please ? I would like to not repeat the mistake

The wording suggests it works with every attack, possibly even status effect durations. Regarding DoTs the matter is unclear, that depends if their damage is computed on application, or at the moment it ticks. As for test results, to have a representative sample you're going to need 50 crits without the talent, 50 crits with the talent, 50 crits on foes at 10-25% hp with the talent. Unless you want to spend many hours on it, I don't think anybody's gonna bother. It would be nice to have a community rep give us a clear answer about this talent.

'kay actually there seems to be a limit to the number of procs on Spell Striking. Some people say multiple per fight, others say just the one proc. I seem to recall having seen up to 2 procs per fight but that may just be my rogue hitting twice too fast for the game to register the proc was already used, idk.

@TheVoxyn , @Sendoa : Just landed a 99 damage crit, without Backstab. Just stick with it and you can end up with a great character. Of course, if you had in mind a more assassin-ish type character, I'm afraid with the current state of Stealth and Backstab you're out of luck :/ @Valeris : Be careful not to confuse engagement and aggro, Eder can engage 3 enemies (even 4 or 5 depending on talents and melee weapon), but these enemies are still at liberty to switch targets and focus your rogue instead. By the way unless you've got someone else doing that, you want to get your Mechanics score to 11, some traps require a score of 12 but you can get +1 from resting in Caed Nua.

Edit: nevermind, poster answered his own question.

@Olpika : I do not see what blinding the enemy has to do with backstabbing. Blinding grants more crits from lowering deflection, picking Backstab or not has no influence there, so I fail to see the synergy ? Unless you mean opening with a blinding strike backstab, in which case I hope you maxed your stealth because the stupid skill is hell'a broken right now. @TheVoxyn , @Sendoa : My first rogue sucked, and I deleted him after Magran's Fork. My second rogue melts faces, and behinds, and basically pretty much anything, on Hard difficulty. He's reached level 12 just a few minutes ago, let me share his personal stats while he stands here in Twin Elms at the beginning of Act 3 : Hits: 2195 Crits: 2140 Highest single target damage: 141 Damage done : 100227 Enemies felled : 801 Time in combat : 3 days, 31 minutes. He has single-handedly done more damage than the whole team combined. And yes, you've read that right, that's a 50/50 hit-crit ratio. Forget Backstab which is currently not useable nor worthwile, and focus on sustained damage abilities and talents, as well as correct positioning in battle. Also keep in mind that a Flanked enemy is a Sneak Attack-able enemy. Regarding weapon choice : Regarding companions choice : Do pay attention however, to certain rogue-unfriendly encounters for which you may want to use your bow instead, notably the following enemies : As long as you position correctly, your rogue will deal unparalleled single target damage. I know the comparison is likely unwelcome here, but forget your DnD rogue, and embrace the spirit of a WoW rogue instead, hitting from behind for prolonged periods of time. I understand your frustration over Backstab being damn hard to use and overwhelmingly lackluster, just build something different and you'll get yourself a very solid leader.

I don't know the answer, but just save the game, spec into it, try it out and then load your save if the talent is not to your liking ? Seems like the most logical cause of action to me. Edit: Sorry for the double post, was unsure how - if possible - I could add this post to my last one while keeping the quote intact. I acknowledge your point, however that is Save Scumming which, in my opinion, is not much better than a full fledged, lore-friendly Respec ability. Actually, it's much worse. While a Respec ability can be established within the devs' boundaries (limited uses, gold cost, experience loss...), there is not much they can do against save scumming. Regarding your suggested course of action, I see no practical way to tell if the talent really added 50% crit damage without extensive testing, which I am frankly not up to. Damage being randomized, I'd have to run a sample of roughly 50-100 crits without the talent, and 50-100 crits with the talent. That's many hours worth of testing :/

Spell Striking : procs on landing a crit (multiple times per encounter, don't think there's a limit) Spell Holding : procs on being crit'd (once per encounter ? more ?) Spell Binding : renders the spell available to you on a per-rest basis , if it doesn't show up when you first equip the item, try Resting

Great work Xenocrash and qndel. I can confirm, from a much earlier save, that the FocusGainMult is still 803F even with Draining Whip. Edit: Also,Brishalgwin Mindmarker -which uses a different type of bonus for 1.1x focus gain- works correctly. - without the amulet: 24 damage hit, 7 focus - with the amulet: 23 damage hit, 8 focus IDK if the damage done is factored into the focus gain ? No main Cipher here, only the Grieving Mother.

Quick jab at those who vociferously try to keep Respecs from all the players that want the option to use it : http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73572-bloody-slaughter-talent-few-questions-and-doubts/?do=findComment&comment=1618366 Riddle me this, does Bloody Slaughter increase the crit multiplier for every single crit, or just for those it has converted from hits ? This changes the talent's worth dramatically, and without a Respec option I, for one, am definitely not going to risk it...

I came here pondering the very same question -.- Apparently, it does apply to spells : http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/pillars-of-eternity-beta-discussion-game-released-go-to-new-thread.93694/page-403 As for the crit multiplier, you might be wrong. The wiki is waaaay outdated and should not be relied upon. The wiki description says "all crits do more damage". The ingame description specifically states "and those crits do additional damage". I'm afraid the talent isn't specific enough and it doesn't say if "all those very specific hits that become crits do more damage", or "speaking of crits, they will all do more damage, enjoy". Got to hate lazy descriptions, I want to know what I'm picking, to assess if I'll be picking it, talk about the lack of a Respec option... Edit: spelling

By the way while I'm here, anyone miss spell interactions, a.k.a combos ? I refer to the combos that could be created in Dragon Age and where some spells interacted with each other. That was fun, and definitely added strategy. The mechanic exists to some extent in Divinity Original Sin (get an enemy wet to shock him more , or to extinguish flames , or to freeze him outright...). I for one, would very much like to see spell interactions in PoE.

Regarding the inventory and more specifically this "infinite thing that is just stupid", I would like to weigh in here : 1/ don't use it then ? (I agree an option to disable it entirely would be nice) 2/ first thing that people did in BG2 once out of Irenicus' dungeon was to get a gem bag, a scroll case, and look desperately for a potion case while waiting for their first bag of holding. My point is, inventory management in BG2 was a real chore (although I'll give you it certainly added realism). If I'd wanted to embark on a mighty quest for inventory management, I'd have played another game Regarding your second point about xp for killing monsters, while I agree with your statement and find myself struggling to gain more xp, the current system makes sense in a way. I mean, you can kill 200 xaurip, killing 100 more isn't likely to make you much better at it, is it ? You're supposed to already be quite practiced there. But then, you're entitled to your opinions