Matt516

I sat Sagani in my SH for all of Act 2 and when I pulled her out in Act III, she automatically leveled up to my parties level. Oh really? That's amazing. So companions autolevel to your party while in the stronghold? Awesome. Sure, it's not the most realistic thing ever (though you can explain it via them doing their own questing/training if you choose to do so, which I do), but it's absolutely wonderful from a quality of life perspective. Are you sure this is a thing, though? I could've sworn I'd seen other people talk about having to level up companions that had been sitting in the SH for a while.

Stronghold turns are based on quest completion. That's kinda crappy. Are there only a limited number of turns in the game, then? If so, are they more than enough to get everything done? Or are there repeatable quests of some sort? I've only just taken Caed Nua, so I'm not very far in the game.

So the "in" thing to do these days when looking to fight some chumps is: 1) Send a heavily armored tanky character (Fighter or Paladin, generally) to pull enemies into a doorway and block the doorway. 2) Pew pew with spells or guns and stab stab or thwack thwack with spears or staves while the tank tanks. Obviously this doesn't work in all cases, nor does it work with all enemies (*cough* Shadows *cough*). But in general, the tactical flowchart for the "good" PoE player goes: Am I about to be in combat? If yes, can I door block? If so, do it. This sucks. A lot. Both from a game mechanics perspective (because if there is a single dominant strategy, the game quickly becomes boring) and a realism/immersion perspective (because as far as we know, combat in the era of which PoE is a rough imitation did not consist entirely of blocking doorways and shooting through one really tough guy to hit the guys hitting the tough guy). So how can this be fixed? I've seen some murmurs of making Fighters less durable - this, while perhaps warranted (Eder is freaking immortal with the right gear, and he's not even minmaxed for tanking), will not fix the problem. And doorways or narrow passages can't be removed from the game without making all areas stupid. No, the problem is fundamentally a result of how the enemy AI works, and the solution will only come with fixing the AI. The solution is simple: Program the AI not to fight in disadvantageous chokepoints if it can help it, and (where applicable) to attempt to use the same strategy. A real group of bandits wouldn't wait in line to beat their heads against a suit of full plate while being riddled with holes, they would fall back and wait to engage on more advantageous ground. Maybe even see if they can get around through another entrance for a flank! I'm not asking for Deep Blue here - just a few AI routines beyond "blindly charge at my target". It shouldn't be all that unfeasible to implement AI capable of recognizing when its being funneled into a kill zone and of avoiding said kill zone in favor of a "sit and wait" strategy or some other move. Anything beyond just blindly standing in LoS of a completely blocked doorway. This would make the game much more interesting and add tactical variety. While this sort of behavior makes sense for spiders and the like (they're dumb), it's absolutely immersion breaking for intelligent enemies. If some guards know I'm trying to get past them, are they going to rush through the doorway, or wait for me to come to them, exposed and vulnerable? I know AI is not a simple thing to code, and that this isn't the sort of thing to expect in a balancing patch (though a guy can certainly hope ). But I beseech you, Obsidian - look at the AI for the expansion and the sequel. Consider a retroactive AI fix for the main game with the expansion, and for all PoE titles moving forward. Because super-dominant strategies are boring as hell, and you can build a better game than that. And the solution to this particular problem is conceptually very simple, although (I realize) probably not incredibly easy to implement.

In general I think most of the mechanics turned out well. There are a few things that are a little "gamey" for my taste, but they work mechanically quite well and I haven't had any trouble suspending my disbelief thus far. Endurance/HP system - This system will never be to everyone's liking, but I think it turned out rather well and it adds a very nice short-term vs long-term resource management mechanic. Keep it, it's good. Could make the Health talents a little less terrible to take (potentially give some in-combat effects) or just remove them entirely since there wasn't supposed to be Health healing in the first place. Resting - Such a bitch to balance, resting in RPGs is. No perfect solution exists, but the PoE version is much better than the BG/IWD one mechanically. I could see a bit of tuning improving it somewhat - maybe increasing supplies by a factor of 1.5-2 and adding a small chance of ambush while sleeping - but in general, I think this works quite well. Again, suspension of disbelief is necessary but it's a sound system mechanically. Magic - Variation between Vancian casting (Wizard) to hybrid (Priest/Druid) to alternative resource systems (Cipher/Chanter) is great. Keep 'em all - though they do need to be rebalanced a little bit. Don't have any specific suggestions, haven't played with the different casters enough to make a judgment call. Just keep tuning, nothing fundamentally broken here. New attribute system - Again, there are things that I would've done differently but overall I'd call it a success in terms of adding more viable builds for the player. It's already much better than the 2e attributes, with maybe a few minor changes needed to rebalance them. Constitution needs to go to 4% or 5%, and Perception/Resolve could stand to be a bit more useful somehow. I didn't mind it when AoE and Duration were split into 2 attributes, and I still think I prefer that... but I won't be crying if that doesn't change. I also still don't like Interrupt being on stats (or the new "interrupt stat on weapons and abilities determines time instead of chance" system), but I wouldn't know what to put in its place. It's probably good that Accuracy is no longer on an attribute - we already have MIG and DEX affecting DPS, we don't need another attribute affecting it as well. All in all, I still have some gripes about the attribute system, but it is a good system. Engagement - I think this works pretty well, with one caveat - doorways. This is partly an engagement system problem, partly an area design problem, and partly an encounter design problem - but the "block a doorway with the Fighter/Paladin and pew pew away" strategy is way too dominant. I wouldn't really know how to solve this in a lore-friendly and intuitive way without a good deal of thinking - but it does need to be fixed. Maybe change enemy AI so they deliberately avoid chokepoints - you may catch one or two, but then the rest in a group will move out of LoS of the doorway and wait - or find another way around to flank you. Actually... this would be great. I'm gonna make my own post about it. Ha-HA! So TL ; DR - PoE is great, and I think most of the new-mechanic-gambles paid off. I still have a few bugbears, but PoE is a great game. No denying that. Time to go play some more.

The unoffical wiki is miles beyond the official wiki, btw. Official one has so much misinformation I'm not even sure what's true anymore after I read it. Regarding the OP: Absolutely. Need moar tooltips.

Pillars is a combination - fully 3D characters with 3D lighting effects on a 2D background that's been painted over and enhanced far beyond what an average gaming computer could render in real time. Gotta keep those 2D backgrounds, IMO. Otherwise it completely loses the "IE" feel. Though they really could do some work on background transparency. Can't count how many times I'm fighting in the forest and the entire battle is obscured by trees. Obsidian pls.

Seeing some comments about playing with certain companions for a while, then switching them out. How does this affect XP gain? Do companions not in the party gain any experience? I'd personally like to run with Sagani for a while, then switch Hiravias in. For the time being I've just got the original 4 and my Monk adventurer, though. And I'd be loathe to give her up. Might drop Kana. But all this is moot if non-party companions gain no XP. I don't want to be playing musical chairs if it'll gimp my party's growth and effectiveness.

I've also seen it posted that the lash goes up against 1/4 of the DR - I haven't seen any evidence of this in game, however. It always looks like it's being applied as per B - the normal weapon damage is reduced by DR, then has 25% of the result added. Will test with a bit more conscientiousness tonight by beating the crap out of Eder for a while, then post the combat logs.

Not all are displayed that way though - that's the confusing thing. The Might bonus, Lash enchantments, etc - are all displayed the other way.

For max DPS, follow Judicator's advice. You'll be fairly squishy if you do that, so don't try to play the character tanky (i.e. don't send them in first, try not to get mobbed, etc). I run a bit of a hybrid tanky/DPS Barbarian, which is suboptimal for DPS (obviously - any time you don't max out Might and Dex you're being suboptimal for DPS) but has a bit more staying power. Sounds like you want a purely damage-oriented build though, so you'll want to max those three stats. Cheers.

I'd be very interested in knowing this as well. I know they switched around from multiplicative to additive and back during the Beta, and I have no idea what they eventually ended up with. Notation would indeed suggest that the +% boni (including the one from Might) are additive (with base damage as the reference point, I assume?), and the x1.X boni are multiplicative. What order these are applied in is a mystery.

So a "lash" enchantment adds +25% of X damage type to your attacks. Cool. But from what I've seen, it doesn't look like it interacts with DR in the correct way. I'm wondering if I'm just misunderstanding the way it works, or if it really is implemented as nonsensically as it appears to be from watching the combat log. There are 3 main ways (as I see it) that lash damage could be implemented: A) Lash adds 25% of your base damage roll as a separate instance of damage of X type that is then separately resisted by DR of the appropriate type. This is stupid because it makes lash attacks almost worthless as they have to resist a huge amount of DR relative to the damage they do. B) Lash adds 25% of your damage after DR as an instance of damage of X type that is then not resisted by DR (added directly to the final damage, in other words). I'm pretty sure this is how it actually works from watching the combat log, but I could be wrong. This is also stupid because it means that the damage type of the lash makes literally ZERO difference due to the damage not being resisted by DR. What's the point of fire lash vs frost lash if it's just 25% of the base damage after DR that gets tacked on at the end? None, I tells ya. None at all. C) Lash adds 25% of your base damage roll as a separate instance of damage of X type. The base weapon damage is then resisted by 4/5 of the enemy's DR of the appropriate type for the base attack, and the lash damage is then resisted by 1/5 of the enemy's DR of the appropriate type for the lash. This means that lash has basically added 25% extra damage to your attack, and the enemy doesn't get any more or less DR than normal - the DR is just partitioned according to what percentage of the incoming damage is of each damage type. This is the only way that I can think of that keeps lash from being useless (as in A) and still lets the damage type of lash actually mean something (as opposed to B). Or to put it another way - this © is the only sensible and fair way I can think of for lash to work. Unfortunately... I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. At least, the combat log doesn't make it look that way. Am I correct about lash working as described in B? Is there another "fair" and "sensible" way of implementing it other than what I described in C? Am I an idiot? Thanks. PS: My testing was done primarily with Justice. If you know what that weapon is or don't mind looking it up, cool. If you don't and don't want spoilers, don't. Just providing that info in case it makes a difference for some reason.

Gonna throw one more hat into the "you people are greatly undervaluing Monks" ring. I've been playing on Hard with a Barb PC, the first 4 companions, and a Monk adventurer - and man, that Monk is a powerhouse. Somewhat squishy if built for pure damage as this one is (otherwise known as "every character ever" or "duh"), but is an absolute wrecking ball while she's up. I generally send her to solo a single enemy while Eder and the Barb take on the clump. She brings down whatever she's fighting extremely quickly, and can kick it 10 feet away if it's proving too much for her. The dueling style works very well for Monk IMO - they take enough damage to get wounds, but not enough to die - and they give better than they get. Leave fighting swarms to the Barbarians, Fighters, and (I guess) Paladins. Use the Monk as a hyper-mobile damage fountain skirmisher, repositioning as needed to keep out of the middle of the fray. Can even run them up to destroy enemy spell casters or hold them back to burst down teleporters that are wrecking your backline. Monks. Barrels o' fun. Don't knock 'em til you've tried 'em.

I like the wound system, myself. Having a ball with my adventurer monk, even with her being perpetually ~3/4 of a level behind. Fists do so much damage. My only complaint with her is that she's a bit squishy even with the insane amount of health - but then again I've only got her in padded or robes so that's partially my fault.

I think there may have been some issues introduced with the latest patch. I'm running PoE on a gaming rig (GTX 760) and I've had a few occasions of severe slowdown (talking 5 fps or so). That should not happen. Wish I could remember what triggered it. I think it was a few specific spell effects.

Ah, so I can get them from a Stronghold upgrade. Cool. I guess that's a reason to actually upgrade the damn thing then.

I'd be happy with a difficulty level in between PotD and Hard. I like that they didn't just increase enemy stats to go from the lower levels from Hard, but instead made the encounters more interesting (more enemies, different enemies, etc). I'd like to see a level beyond Hard that does the same thing again with the encounters, without resorting to just buffing enemy stats. Buffing enemy stats just makes the game a bitch to balance because you have to account for 2 sets of Deflection/DR numbers instead of one. No thanks. Just add more or different enemies instead (ideally in such a way that AoE doesn't become overwhelmingly better, of course). Not an easy problem to solve. But I'd concur that one more level in between PotD and Hard would be nice. I've played up to Caed Nua (so still early) on Hard and only had to reload once or twice (in the temple). Raedric's Keep was thrilling, but ultimately not all that difficult - I fought and beat both bosses without having to reload. Maybe I'm just that good. Or maybe the game could be a mite bit harder.

That was basically the reasoning. Indomitable itinerant warrior who doesn't take **** from anyone and doesn't let anything faze her... is what I was going for. Rather slow, but hits like a freight train and pops right back up when downed if wearing Eder's armor. Speaking of.. anyone know if there are other ways to get Second Chance, or is it exclusive to Eder's armor?

Depends what you mean by "encourage" - any game with build choices of any kind will always have a "best" way to do things for the min-maxers to discover/argue about/enjoy. PoE is no exception. But if you compare it to other systems (most notably 2e D&D that was used by the BG games), the player has considerably more freedom to experiment and/or use different playstyles. In any case - for this character I wanted 18 RES for the RP reasons/dialogue options, so 18 RES I took. It's not *optimal*, but nor is it bad (as it would be to have a high Int barbarian or high Charisma fighter in D&D, for example) because it does offer a bit more Deflection and Concentration. I play pretty suicidally (Barbarian is the most downed character), so it's not like I'm not using all of my health. Anyway. The attributes are what they are and I'm happy with them. You say Barbaric Yell is bad - why? Just because it isn't DPS? Because although I'm a bit ambivalent about it, I do think its a good control ability in general. The AoE is huge and with my INT I can get a good 7-14 seconds out of it (hit or graze). My main issue right now is that my Accuracy isn't as high as I would like it to be - though other than taking a weapon focus group (which I'm hesitant to do because the focus groups for 2H are so heavily biased towards the Estoc group due to partnering with the Poleaxe, whereas I like the 2H greatsword and wish the Estoc would be nerfed).

There is a middle ground between tank and dps, as hard as that may be for some people to believe. ;P If I were going for optimal dps I obviously would've pumped DEX. I'm not, so I didn't. Thanks for the input, though.. I guess? I wasn't asking about attributes, but talents and abilities. My 18 RES barbarian is liquifying everything just fine, thanks.

As an avid XCOM player who never plays without Ironman, I understand the appeal. I do. But I wouldn't advise doing the same with PoE. Story-driven RPG with written companions and bears hiding in caves is completely different from a strategy game with (somewhat) disposable squad members. PoE is neither an XCOM-like nor a Roguelike - it doesn't lend itself well to Ironman mode IMO. So.. That would be my advice. Play through without Ironman first, then do it as an additional challenge for replayability. But not as a first or standard run. That's my $0.02.

You're gonna have fun with those charming enemies...

No - different classes have different base Accuracy and Deflection, but all classes get +3 to both (and to the other 3 defenses) every level up.

Is there a renewable source of this crafting ingredient, or am I limited to how many are in the open world? I made a few Fine enchantments that I now regret - not a big deal if I can get more Pilgrim's Crown, but probably going to reload if not.

Yup. You're not supposed to run out of Health in any single fight - depleting Health represents slowly being worn down over multiple fights until you can't go on any longer.