rheingold

It's really tough to balance games... there's a lot to take into account, where to spend time on balancing, what difficulty the majority of gamers play... ai, classes and multi classes. I doubt they are going to spend a huge amount of more time on "fixing" PoTD. It just ain't worth it. They will spend more time on balancing classes and fights as they did with the first game. But concentrating purely on PoTD isn't really a sensible use of resources. Pretty much every game ever made (bar a few exceptions) has this issue that the game gets easier at the end. And it's really tough to fix. The more "divergence" you have the tougher it becomes to balance until it's pretty much impossible. The beginning of a game when characters are low level is quite easy, even trying to take the different difficulties and play styles into account. By the time you've hit 15th level in a large game there are way to many things to take into consideration, and it gets exponentially worse from there...

And a darn feminist to boot! She deserved to die for having her own opinions!

Guess Berath is looking for a new watcher. Wonder what the job ad says? "Only serious watchers need apply. Must be physically fit and in good health. Needs to have a good understanding of his/her limits and of cause and consequence. Climbing skills advised. PS Climbing skills REALLY advised. PPS Climbing skills compulsory." Berath 0800heraldofdeathanddestruction Email:berath@heraldofdoom.com No chancers!

I doubt they will be op. Resource management is going to be tough for them. Limited guile means some difficult decisions between using rogue damage abilities or casting. The sneak attack buff is hardly a major issue as well. Street fighter is fine, base rogue is not a bad option either. Assasin does need a buff though. In essence, I hope they don't nerf the trickster changes because assasins are weak.... rather buff assasins to bring them up to the others.

I'm not crazy about aquaman, but he seems well written enough. He's just irritating, intentionally so, from the writers perspective. Regarding mental disorders.... Normal has quite a wide gamut, everyone at some stage or another is a hypocrite, contradictory or irrational in some way or the other. It's pretty normal for someone to have completely opposing views actually, it's called being human...

Finding cipher/rogue as a multi is awesome, both from rp and power. Certainly not weak. Finding amplified wave, disintegration, various charms, pain block, borrowed instinct ridiculously good. They have as much options as other casters. Single ciphers may be a an issue though it's tough to balance them because of the multi class issue - multi will be grossly op if you improve cipher. I also think plain cipher or beguiler are the better options. Ascendant you end up saving focus instead of using your abilities and when you use them, they are slow to cast anyway. Soulblade is fine with specific builds but really I'd rather use focus to cast than do damage most of the time. The class is pretty much fine, just some minor tweaks, particularly if they nerf some of the more overpowered classes.

that's one of the reasons I hate Open world . The Story always end up watered down , in the back burner . Absolutely. Open world are not my favorite. But sadly it seems that that's the way games are going. It's a pity that Obs have jumped on the bandwagon.

Unfortunately open world requires compromises, mostly in the story dept. It's pretty much not possible to have an open world and an engaging, well constructive, tight narrative. They are diametrically opposed. Look at W3, (which handled the open world much better than most) it was a fantastic game, but compare the dlc "hearts of stone" to the main game. The dlc was stunning with an amazing antagonist. Which you can't have in an open world game. Bethesda take some flak for their stories, but they know this very well. The big bad in an open world needs to be very much in the background with absolutely no sense of urgency attached to dealing with it. You're vaguely aware that the dragon of doom is gonna eat the world, but first, you really need to pick some flowers, or chop some wood...

Rogue(any) goes really well with cipher. Melee or ranged works fine - or a combination of both. Missing SA is no biggie, cipher and rogue have more than enough hard hitting abilities as is.

Noobs don't play PoTD. I guess this makes by far the majority of players "noobs". Sometimes people take playing games waaay to seriously. Playing PoTD may give ingame achievements but, well they don't mean anything. I wish people would stop acting as if playing a game on the hardest level is some achievement in itself. Part of the issue is the incredibly condescending attitude to other players who don't live up to their ridiculous expectations. Hence the term "noobs" as if these people are somehow complete failures in life.... BTW the gaming industry wouldn't exist if not for the "noobs" The percentage of hard core gamers is tiny, and certainly not able to support the industry in any way. So it makes perfect sense for companies to pay more attention to the noobs than anyone else.

They shouldn't have made the changes they did to beckoner. However the fact is that troubadour is overpowered at the moment and so the other options (beckoner, chanter base class and skald) look less attractive. Though skald is still ok for some specific builds. Troubadour definitely needs a small nerf. And in fact that's the problem with many other options at the moment. The weaker classes are not necessarily weak, just that they feel sub par because of some ridiculously over powered stuff. Nerf that and the so called weaker options will feel better. I'd personally have preferred if Beckoner summons were the same in number as regular chanters but had better stats and/or lasted longer. Would have been easier to balance them as well. I do hope they relook the nerf.

Hope they relook them. Didn't make much sense considering Troubadour and Skald were better than them in the first place. As others have said, don't nerf their summoning skills - that's the entire point of the class...

Yeah some of the nerfs are uncalled for. Absolutely fine with the overpowered stuff, but other nerfs are frustrating. Really, really hope they relook the darn beckoner nerf. It's a tad bizarre actually, they left troubadour and skald alone,and nerfed the weakest chanter subclass... Not suggesting they nerf the other subclasses btw, just odd that they would smack down the weakest... Will hold off playing my canon (beckoner) in the hopes they will relook it.

I'd go rogue/cipher. Assasin or default rogue spec. Cipher I'd go beguiler or default. Does great damage, can switch between melee and ranged incredibly easily, and has cc. Probably not the most powerful build, but one of the most versatile, and still pretty potent. Loads of fun as well. Arquebus for first shot from stealth then Serafen's blunderbusses.

OP made a perfectly valid point, one that I and some others on this forum thought would be a problem during the development. I am enjoying the game and there are some positives and improvements on POE, but the fact is they were far to ambitious and spent way to much time on the new mechanics and open world and kinda threw out any consistency on the writing/world building.

Well this is the internet, mass hysteria and all. To be honest they did a great job balancing POE but it took time and what seemed to be questionable decisions at the time. Fighter, though is a tough class. There are a number of problems. Firstly people don't seem to like tanks, which is the most natural fit for a fighter. And a perfectly valid one. But people don't like it. Second problem, Barbarians are envisaged as the aoe damage meisters, and rogues as single entity dps. So fighters can't be as good as barabarians with mobs or deal as much damage as a rogue? Nor can they tank because people don't like that. Obviously that only leaves the jack of all trades open to them. But within that role they can be very good at all those things, and plenty of fun. Poe got that absolutely right. But the problem arises when a particular class or subclass makes some of the others obsolete. That was the problem with fighters in Deadfire. They had to be nerfed, either that or get rid of rogues and barbarians. Whether it and the other changes are to much remains to be seen. But Sawyer has a weird approach to balance, where he makes radical changes in order to find the limits, and then he narrows them down. Can't say I'm comfortable with his approach, it can be frustrating at times, but I absolutely can't fault his results. When it comes to game design and mechanics he is pretty much the best. But it does mean some ups and downs. And we've seen all of this before in the first game... the hysteria, hyperbole etc. And because of his approach, we're gonna see a lot more unhappy peeps before the end.

No, just no.... it's been done before, many time before.... I liked the POE writing when it came to the gods. It would seriously destroy the series... it's a bit tacky really. I guess I just find all powerful entities boring. And it wouldn't make sense storywise.

Looks like some good changes. Fighters shouldn't be better than barbs at aoe. And monks needed a nerf as did one or two chanter inspirations. Regarding buffing the weaker classes. They do need a buff, but I've found that attempting to balance both sides ie bringing weaker up wand dropping the overpowered stuff down at the same time often just creates more overpowered classes.... it just inverts the scales. So I'd be fine with just bringing down the op stuff first then having another look at who needs to be buffed. Smaller changes more often are better for balance than big changes occasionally.

Jeepers can we stop with the "fanboy" nonsense. Just because someone has a different point of view to yours doesn't mean he is a fanboy. But name calling in arguments is frankly childish. Regarding the sales I have no data, my feeling is that sales haven't been great but I don't actually have any figures either way. It's all speculation at this point. Regarding the game, I am slightly disappointed... Multi classing is pretty darn good. The world map is great. The factions are great. The open world approach has hurt the main story. And for me, the story is really important in a game. So it's a mixed bag with some excellent parts and some not so good. I also don't think bugs or good/bad games are often the reason for sales. Some terrible games have sold exceptionally well. DOS 2 is a dogs breakfast - (with huge potential it must be said, but a dogs breakfast none the less.) Deadfire is a much better game, but probably won't reach the same sales. Not sure why, though it could have something to do with Larian just being better at marketing.

I'll be honest other than an occasional soul annihilation and the concentration / focus bonus on melee kill the Soul Blade sub class didn't do a ton for me. Having played a similar build I'm curious if you have any feedback on the abilities. Well, without going to much in depth - you've pretty much covered everything. 1: Went with beguiler, I don't like either of the other sub-classes, not saying they are bad, just they don't work for me. I want to be able to cast a spell when needed, with soul annihilation using focus ends up being a problem for me. Ascendant while good, again I don't feel like wondering if this is a good time to cast or not. Beguiler is just much more flexible. Also as an Assasin, soul annihilation is not a must have. 2: Early levels, mainly crowd control spells, Whisper of Treason, Eyestrike, Binding and Puppet Master. Later levels, more damage, amplified wave, disintigrate. 3: Rogue, all the invisibility, disappearing abilities. Normally just cut loose with an arquebus, follow up with dual blunderbusses from Serafen, then switch to melee, disappear, appear then wail away, or crowd control. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!)

Very similar build at the mo, except went Beguiler/Assasin. I'm not a fan of Soul Annihilation personally. It's loads of fun. Did get an extra weapon set for 2 blunderbusses. Really enjoying it.

Pellagina does seem to have had a personality adjustment between games. I think they went to far in the intolerance dept. She was more open minded in the first game. Now she has anger management issues. I understand there was a gap between games but this is a major personality change...

It's a great class, single or multi. Minor tweaks would be good. Maybe a slight nerf with the brilliance inspiration. Other than that doesn't need many changes. It's in a good spot at the mo.

Modwyr is one of the best weapons in the game and it makes you immune to confusion. It's pretty much the staple Berserker weapon. I'm presuming Modwyr wouldn't make a shifter immune to confusion while shifted? Or does it still work? Frenzy first then shift I would assume, can't test it right now unfortunately. I'm in the Svef camp though, with around 10 alchemy it completely removes the drawback of the confusion and gives you immunity to intellect, perception and resolve affliction for about 6 minutes as well as around 9-10 perception. My shifter has around 32 perception and raging blow hits like a truck and crits most of the time. I personally didn't build mine around carnage but instead the great frenzy ability, freezing wildstrike and spirit tornado. This video showcases a build similar to the one I've run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKiy3GDn8VQ Awesome thanks. For my next run I'll definitely give it a go.

Modwyr is one of the best weapons in the game and it makes you immune to confusion. It's pretty much the staple Berserker weapon. I'm presuming Modwyr wouldn't make a shifter immune to confusion while shifted? Or does it still work?