Heijoushin

lol, this glitch has saved my life once or twice!

The key question when allocating skill points should always be, how much combat utility can I get from each skill? For lore, the answer is "quite a bit" -- people think of it as somehow helping you better understand the game world (and it does help a little bit if the main character maxes lore) but the main purpose is helping characters use combat-relevant scrolls. Some of these scrolls are quite good and a few are OP, so it pays to give almost everybody some ranks in lore. If you have characters who you'd like to deliver an opening attack before monsters are aware of them, it pays to give them some ranks in stealth as well (doesn't take that many to be able to move reasonably close). I agree on mechanics, though -- one person maxing it is all you need. You are quite right. I didnt bother with this initially, but when you are fighting the dragons, it really helps having extra people throwing revive spells.

Wow, as a wizard lover, the title of this thread somehow pisses me off... Ciphers were great in the beginning, but have since been nerfed. Additionally, the new level 7 spells for the cipher are really sad... You wanna play a spellcaster? Play a wizard. Oh yeah, their summoned weapons are great, but thats like icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

Nope, my priest aint my mechanics person so I think its unrelated. I think people ask about your priest's Mechanics skill because Repulsing Seal counts as a trap (or used to? idk i don't keep up with patches). Traps do better damage and effects when placed by a character with high Mechanics. Therefore, a priest with high Mechanics would have an amazingly powerful Repulsing Seal. Not sure, but I think that changed at some point. Initially those spells counted as traps, but not anymore.

I always assumed that this wasn't a glitch, but that they simply didn't have enough budget to record all the lines.

Not sure if its related, but my priest had a similar problem today. She just refused to cast certain spells. Hope we can get to the bottom of this...

Now that you mention it, all the shops in Caed Nua... kind of suck. The temple also only sells 2 scrolls or something. Does their stock increase over time or something?

There are loads of nice accessories in Durgans battery but... nothing specific comes to mind... I mean, basically, anything that gives + 3 to a stat or + 9 to deflection is good, and there are a couple of those. Soulbound weapons are also not too shabby, though sometimes a pain to complete... Sorry, thats not a very useful answer I suppose...

Nope, my priest aint my mechanics person so I think its unrelated.

Regardless of the weak main character, some of the companions have really grown on me over time:)

Despite the cynical remarks above, some of these suggestions are really good! If nothing else, I agree that I NEVER change grimoires, so making grimoires with different abilities is a nice idea.

Priest spell 2 - repulsing seal. Since its like a trap, I used to think you had to cast it before a battle, but you can cast it directly on someone too... Anyway, it seems to work very often on Adra and Alpine Dragon, more than high level spells like Gaze of the Adragan. And it knocks them prone for a while. I just think its amusing that a level 2 serves me better than the high level stuff sometimes.

You too!? I think it's linked to an item though (maybe Lilith's Shawl?)

Yeah, I also think that's the buff. Even on hard it's pretty insane. Not that I'm saying the fight is easy mind, it's a big spike in difficulty. Man, I envy that Thaos dude. Endless New Game+'s in life...

4) Not great for a min-maxer, but if they made perfect, god-like companions, not only would it be unrealistic roleplay wise, but it would make your player character look bad. Say your character was a rogue. You'd want your rogue to be better than the companion rogue, yes? Why not? Developers weren't afraid to do this before. Edwin was a better mage than the PC could ever be, and good luck getting Sarevok's stats without half an hour of re-rolling. And he had more health than legaly possible, too. *shrugs* Perhaps it's a more modern game design philosophy. All I can say is, if I worked on making an ultimate mage character, and I came across a better companion one, I'd feel a little sad inside. It's kind of childish, but if we can't be childish in video games, then where can we?

As others have said, didn't think to look outside of WM. Literally everything else in inside the WM area. If they could do that, couldn't they have spread out the rest of the WM content a little more? (instead of stuffing it all into 3 maps)

I lol'ed at the title. Didn't know some people played with big-head mode on!

lol, very true. The internet has allowed douchebags to be more open than ever before! I blame the internet, not fat people;)

Generally speaking, I wish there was a bit less reliance on status effects in PoE. From spell lvl 2 (which is quite early!!!), everything becomes a paralyze-athon. Surely there's some other ways to bring a strategic element into the game?

If you manage to run really far then I think you can break the engagement. Probably depends on the map and how fast your pursuers are though. As others have said, Trial of Iron is all about knowing what battles you can handle on your level.

I think the lore, setting and history of this game is top-notch. And of course I love the gameplay. If I had to complain though, I would say that the main character's motivations are pretty weak through-out the game. The weird past relationship with the big bad didn't really fire my blood.

THIS. Why do developers so often feel the need to CRIPPLE player companions, making them weak and un-optimised from a whole variety of angles? The completely silly companion stat distribution has been plaquing PoE from the start. But, it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little console fiddling. However, now the devs have hit a few new lows in one fell swoop: 1) A "DPS" companion with NON-REMOVABLE ARMOR that imposes a steep 40% recovery penalty, and with a pathetic 8 DR? It's like the WORST armor ever imaginable: it doesn't give the recovery rate of lighter armors, while at the same time remaining far from the protection of full plate (with only 10% recovery rate difference), and it doesn't offer any of the unique armor abilities (such as Second Chance, Retaliation, Preservation, extra flanking damage, skill boosts etc). Not to mention the purely aesthetic "pleasure" of constantly having to look at DoC's C-3PO body. What, did the designers think it was so "appealing" they didn't want players to "hide" it under armor or clothing? ROFL. 2) "Living machine" has to be among the least useful racial traits to date. Not being able to wear armor of the player's choice would have at least merited a decent racial ability; however, immunity to disease and poison (how often does a DPS char - especially a ranged DPS char as rogues are wont to be - gets hit with one of those?) in exchange of being unable to use food, drinks and drugs? At best, this is a zero-sum trait; at worst, it is a penalty rather than a benefit. If there was also immunity to fatigue, it would have been decent (and far more logical); as it stands now, it is pointless. 3) Weapon focus: Peasant? Are you kidding me? Hatchet, Spear, Quarterstaff, Hunting Bow, Unarmed - truly "excellent" weapon selection for a rogue, not to mention "logical" for a mass murderer who's made a career in killing. Using farming implements. 4) And, of course, to round it all up there's the genius stat distribution. 15 Resolve and 10 Dex/13 Might on a DPS character? Sign me up... not. So yeah, all in all the DoC's gotta be the worst companion to date from gameplay perspective. Unfortunately, she's also the only "evil" companion, and her banter is quite enjoyable. I don't know if the devs went for the HK-47 (of KOTOR fame) feel, but it feels like a botched effort. Probably I'm still gonna be taking DoC for a ride (personality-wise she's a welcome diversion from the majority of PoE's milquetoast entourage), but it will require some heavy editing to make her into a reasonably optimised combatant. Easy tiger. Consider the following. 1) Yes, her armour isn't great, but with the white forge, and general enchantments, you can make it pretty decent by end game. 2) I sort of agree here. Being non-living should give her a lot more benefits, not just immunity to disease and poison. I find it really funny that she can "sprain her ankle" in a cut-scene. 3) Can be re-trained. 4) Not great for a min-maxer, but if they made perfect, god-like companions, not only would it be unrealistic roleplay wise, but it would make your player character look bad. Say your character was a rogue. You'd want your rogue to be better than the companion rogue, yes?

I think he says something like "I'm gonna catch my breath before leaving" but really he should high-tail it as soon as possible.

Killed the dragon before receiving the quest and now the game won't acknowledge that I've killed the dragon...

Yeah, I tried ironman mode a couple of times, and died sadly. I think a lot of the skill in this game (especially with ironman mode) is knowing what areas you can handle at what levels...