Gromnir

a couple quick observations 1) your experience with buffs is the opposite of the reality dunno. maybe you gotta bug. once battle starts is the only time a majority of buffs may be applied to your party. pre-battle buffing is, for the most part, limited to persistent auras and food consumption. 2) pallegina is effective to an annoying degree josh sawyer's jnpc contribution to poe is pallegina. am simple stating a fact 'bout the link 'tween josh and the npc paladin with unique special abilities which make her more efficacious as a striker paladin than any player created paladin can aspire to be. draw what conclusions you will. nevertheless, be it as a ranged or melee combatant, pallegina can be a comical powerful addition to your party. 3) cipher balance has been a constant problem sure, there has been a few bugs which made it possible for a player to ignore focus concerns, but even when such have been addressed, the developers has been fighting a near impossible battle to keep ciphers from being overpowered. no doubt if you take a quick peak at a few o' the cipher build recommendations a bit lower down the board, you will no doubt see suggestions for how to keep a cipher's focus reserves plentiful. 4) rangers no longer suck at release, rangers were a pain to micromanage, and kinda weak as well. rangers are no longer weak, but am not a fan even so. chanters and rangers rare have a place in our party, but it ain't 'cause they are underpowered. again, if you genuine wish to keep sagani in your party, read any one o' the numerous ranger optimization threads in the class build portion o' the board. the dwarf ranger also is making significant thematic contributions to the poe story, so there is that. 'course you gotta dig through layers o' lore exposition to get to her story, so... am thinking the most troublesome aspects of poe combat for new players is same now as they was during the beta. combat is fast and unforgiving. IF you don't got established tactics to handle charm or confusion encounters, then such combats will end fast and ugly. bug swarms cast by ogre druids (even w/o the benefit o' technical bugs to enhance damage) can reduce a low/mid-level party to formless goo in less than a minute if the would-be heroes ain't prepared. well, how the heck can you be prepared if you are new to the game? as bad as were beetles and bears in the beta, improvements in enemy/monster ai has made poe similarly unfriendly for new players. combat starts and a moment later the mobs o' whatever rush past our tanks and target whomever in our party has the worst possible defense 'gainst __________. such ai improvements is welcomed by hardcore players who have literal hundreds of hours of experience playing poe, but for a new player the shock and awe tactics is gonna be demoralizing. is tough for many veterans of poe to provide useful advice precisely 'cause they have so much experience. functionally the game is far slower for a person who has played poe for an embarrassing number of hours. also, the game were intended to have no specific tactic which would work for every battle, though such a goal has remained outta reach when experienced players is manipulating the game mechanics. *shrug* poe were not meant to be a rock-paper-scissors game. each enemy were not 'posed to have a kryptonite. even so, enemies will be weaker 'gainst __________. rare does a foe have equal good defenses. will be a weapon type or elemental type a monster is weakest 'gainst. perhaps a critter has relative poor will defense? well then, before trying to target the foe with a will attack, hit it with a will debuff such as miasma of dull mindedness, then follow up with a divine mark which targets will but also lowers deflection and does fire damage. at the same time, enemies will target your weaknesses. similarly, you can pile on a whole lotta buffs on your own party transforming your pedestrian seeming group o' adventurers into monster-slaying juggernauts. the thing is, and here is where poe is particular opaque for new folks, it is often difficult to discern what effects will stack. typical, two spells offering the same benefit will only use the higher value when cast 'pon the same target. there is seeming exceptions to this rule. a priest's modified holy radiance will stack with a paladin's aura. why? do you care? how on earth is you, as a new player, s'posed to know what can stack? veteran players know. vet players will give advice which works perfect well when you got ridiculous buffed defenses and accuracy, but may leave you frustrated. play on normal difficulty is kinda hard compared to most crpgs. poe combats is fast and unforgiving, but unlike games such as age of decadence, there is gonna be multiple ways you can build effective characters. as brutal as poe can be, you will see dozens of different recommended best tactics for dealing with particular nasty foes. sure, solo potd runs is gonna see options marginalized as gimmicks is often the best (only) way to handle a combat, but a full party is gonna have many options available. give you good advice is gonna much depend on how you wanna play poe. all-priest-party? no-priest-party? both is viable and can be effective... even overwhelming. so, how do you wanna play poe? whatever is your answer, is gonna be folks who can make suggestions on making your party members work together... and because three people give complete different advice hardly means any of 'em is wrong. HA! Good Fun!

mostly you convinced us that not watching supergirl is a good idea. that being said, we had our 2016-17 nfl season-in-a-nutshell surreal moment when legarrette blount called out ndamukong suh for being dirty. of course suh is dirty, but blount criticizing? dunno. perhaps manifested would feel better if he watched the bills presser following the firing o' their head coach. at least you can rest easy knowing the browns, 49rs and bills are far more disorganized than the chargers? maybe not. not a great season o' football. were like an episode o' mash, but not funny mash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYjy7uUn7fc&list=RDsYjy7uUn7fc HA! Good Fun!

metacritic annoys. a game gets only 20 total critic reviews, and most such reviews is from sources we ain't never read, so what does we actual learn? only get 20 reviews and a couple inflated (or deflated) scores is gonna distort averages. and the user reviews is even more suspect with the tendency for folks to score games in response to perceived opposition scores. m0mazboi likes the game and see a bunch o' zero scores, so he gives the game a 10 'cause all those zeroes is clear unfair and undeserved. ch33zwh!zsamura! sees a bunch o' perfect ten scores and so makes his submission a zero to balance out the fanbois. for the enormous aaa releases, metacritic may have some value as the highs and lows balance out a bit, and there is no paucity o' critics. dunno. personal, we don't use meta. we tend to look to a handful o' profeshnul reviewers and fellow gamers whose tastes appear to largely align with Gromnir's pov regarding games. our buying habits has us waiting, on average, 'bout six months post release 'fore considering a purchase. after six months am gonna have a fair bit o' feedback regarding a title we is considering, yes? regardless o' metacritic, if Thing 1 and Thing 2 both liked Balls o' Brass: a Glengarry Glenn Ross Game, chances are Gromnir will give it a try. if Thing 1 liked and Thing 2 did not, then perhaps we look to a few o' the folks we know on this board and others for input. ain't a foolproof system, but it has us rare feeling cheated by a game purchase. sidenote: 6 month delay also gets us a cheaper and more stable product, which tends to make us less angry than many day 1 purchasers. a mediocre and stable game for $20 is admitted almost an entire different game than a $50 purchase rendered near unplayable by bugs. HA! Good Fun!

tell us your party disposition. tactics will change substantial based 'pon what you can actual do. if only we had a wheelbarrow. HA! Good Fun!

moot HA! Good Fun!

no good reason for gifted getting a boat... unless. HA! Good Fun!

gonna watch her 30 rock episode. "help me liz lemon. you're my only hope!" is better if we can laugh.

you don't need roles if you abandon classes. unfortunately, poe has classes. poe has loads of classes. to avoid "best tank" or "best dps" nonsense, the developers realized making each class distinct were necessary. give each class a unique powha has always been a fail in ie games and elsewhere as it results in clear bests, which means you also got worsts. to avoid such wastefulness o' classes, the developers attempted to make each poe class genuine unique. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66380-update-81-the-front-line-fighters-and-barbarians/ sadly, with all the patches, the initial design concepts got lost. "Overall, fighters are designed to be low-maintenance, reliable, and long-lived even in marathon battles." in the ie games, fighters could laugh off trebuchet blows while dishing out epic pain. the goal o' poe were Not to make the poe fighter perform same as the ie fighter. the poe fighter would be able to sit on the front lines and absorb pain without the need for constant micromanagement. damage output of the poe fighter would not be challenging that o' poe monks or barbarians, and definite not rangers and rogues. unfortunate, post 3.0 patches and the poe fighter is looking very much like the ie fighter. the fighter is no longer a low maintenance damage sink who can hold baddies away from squishies. the 3.0 fighter now does rogue-like damage and requires just as much micromanagement as any other class... while being less able to hold enemies away from squishies. you got many classes? you need many roles. otherwise you got considerable overlap and eventual marginalization. take the poe rogue. the poe rogue still is, in limited situations, the premier melee damage dealing class in the game. the poe rogue has not been altered much since release, save the initial trap nerf. rogues is still squishy and fragile... and an increasing suspect choice 'cause o' ai changes and alterations to other classes. why play a rogue when rangers has been improved so very much and clear out damage a rogue? why play a rogue when fighters now do similar damage w/o being so darn squishy? at least in the past tanks could reliable hold foes away from squishies. is not as if rogues has become worse since release, but even so, 'cause fighters and rangers and other classes has seen so many changes, rogue is now the leper class o' poe. doesn't mean much to complete a potd solo run these days... unless you do it as a rogue. engagement has always been a suspect quality. as far as we is aware, developers has made no changes to engagement in a long time. so why are people complaining, eh? what developers made changes to were encounter design and enemy ai. the developers also spent considerable efforts "improving" weak or dull classes. unfortunate, the changes to ai exposed less salient weaknesses o' a few classes. furthermore, the developer improvements o' a few classes has not... not been improvements. more powerful, while always meeting with initial player approval, is a dangerous option in a game. increased power is not frequent an improvement in a game. some folks reflexive hate the idea o' balance, but balance is an essential quality in most any game. is kinda ironic that with all the post release improvements, the classes is less unique and far less balanced. am hopeful a fresh start with a poe 2 will allow the developers to turn back the clock on a few o' the classes, 'cause while we enjoy the game, obsidian let the post-release game kinda spin outta their grasp. perhaps the developers fixed isolated issues and lost sight o' the game as a whole? dunno. good game. we like game. sadly, is more than a few things 'bout the game which were better at release. HA! Good Fun!

bleak wankers have cruel as favored, so... you get liberating exhortation for 1 ability point, which is an ability we take for any support paladin regardless. is hardly as if one is throwing away ability points to get to the accuracy boost. and yeah, particular early in the game, +10 o' accuracy is huge. accuracy is more than d&d thac0 as it also pivotal in determining graze/hit/crit which affects not only damage output but any number on-crit effects. if we were playing a main character striker paladin, we would consider goldpact. HA! Good Fun! Makes sense. What would be the benefit of Goldpact as a MC striker paladin? Would love to hear your suggestions with regard to that build as well, thanks. sorry 'bout the delay. goldpact gets enduring flame, which is a damage over time effect triggered by flames of devotion. so you build a striker paladin around flames of devotion. obviously need take flames of devotion and enduring flame. scion of flame boosts all your flame damage. intense flames enhances your flames of devotion. tag a foe with sworn enemy and then hit 'em with your flames of devotion. both dual wield and two-handed weapons is viable, but we would recommend 2-handed 'cause of forgemaster gloves. you will see all kinda builds which rely on durgan steel and whatnot. durgan's steel is nice. the thing is, you are gonna play much o' the game w/o all the bat-crap crazy optimized 1007 folks recommend. might as well play a character who excels the entire game rather than only during last 1/3. forgemaster gloves are available early in the game. forgemaster gloves create a universal weapon which does pure fire damage... a whole lotta fire damage. so now we got foes tagged by sworn enemy and being hit by an over-the-top flame weapon which is being modified by intense flames, scion of flame, and enduring flame? the universal weapon created by forgemaster is universal but is 2-handed, so build 2-handed and then either consider greatswords or quarterstaves. why quarterstaves? durance's staff is one o' the more underrated weapons in the game 'cause it has a unique quality: it does crush/burn damage. scion of flame modifies durance's staff even though the tooltip don't show it appropriate. with one o' the very first unique weapons available in the game, you is gonna be seeing a +20% damage boost from scion o' flame. alternate 'tween forgemaster gloves and durance's staff. burn everything. ultimately, a durgan's steel enhanced tidefall (greatsword) will get you better damage than durance's staff. meh. people get way too worked up over attribute scores in poe. as a melee combatant you are gonna wanna focus 'pon might and dex, but do not waste much time looking for the perfect attribute spread as you can be xtreme effective with non-optimal attributes. by mid-to-late portions o' the game, talent, ability and gear choices all eclipse the importance o' your initial attributes when predicting combat success and failure. even so, regardless o' your starting attribute spread, focus might and dex via gear. earlier in this thread we included a less-than-optimal striker paladin. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85343-post-30-paladins/?p=1792507 can build similar, but go goldpact. main goal is to stack fire damage. edit: am personal seeing an attempt to genuine maximize dps as a mistake for a paladin striker. paladins is underappreciated as a support class. don't get so focused on trying to make an effective striker that you forget to develop your paladin's support capabilities. aside: remember rakhan field builds for bleak walkers is another option for a dps paladin as you add corrode damage on top o' your burn damage for flames of devotion. in addition to scion of flame, you take spirit of decay to boost corrode damage. if you get all tingly seeing ridiculous crit hits, you build a ranged bleak walker with an arquebus and get some o' the highest crit numbers possible in the game. alternative, choose dual wield and use bettercut, a sabre which does slash/corrode damage. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, the new ai is just silly. how the hell does every enemy know which one of your party members has the worst will/fort/reflex defense? and somebody needs explain the new math of engagement to Gromnir, 'cause it sure seems as if we need two tanks in a party, and both tanks need be able to do respectable damage to hold enemies, which kinda defeats the point o' engagement, no? etc. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

white march monks and faux sahuagin (google spell-check actual knows "sahuagin"?) initial annoyed Gromnir as reasonable tactics didn't appear to matter. radiant spore battle mighta even been more tedious. felt as if 1/2 our radiant spore successes were the result o' our prayers to the rng deities being answered as 'posed to our stratagems. am not certain where you are at, but am thinking you identify a clear flaw in the game. poe is kinda a hard-core micromanagement game, and white march is clear designed to challenge the tactics people spent hours developing during their poe play. unfortunate, hard-core appeal is limited appeal. many (not all) hard-core folks is comic snobbish. not only must a game be hard-core, but it must needs be the right kinda hard-core game. gotta be tb and classless? maybe gotta be exact like bg2, but with all the "proper" mods? a developer tries to go hardcore and they necessarily limit the folks who will possible appreciate. sure, the developers added story-mode, but for folks who want some level o' challenge w/o being overwhelmed, story-mode no doubt feels patronizing. is a goldilocks kinda thing, eh? the bell curve for crpg appeal is gonna be fat in the middle allowing for very limited numbers o' happy purchasers at either extreme end o' the curve. core poe purposeful aims appeal at a more extreme end o' the bell curve. white march pushes towards even more hardcore appeal. as much as am personal liking poe, am thinking the overall design philosophy is suspect as it necessarily has limited appeal. you gonna make a game to appeal to papa bear? fine. gotta accept papa bear for who he is: a grumpy curmudgeon with a rather refined (limited) palette. make papa bear happy necessarily means you leave most others dissatisfied. works for Gromnir... a grumpy curmudgeon if ever there was one. HA! Good Fun!

bleak wankers have cruel as favored, so... you get liberating exhortation for 1 ability point, which is an ability we take for any support paladin regardless. is hardly as if one is throwing away ability points to get to the accuracy boost. and yeah, particular early in the game, +10 o' accuracy is huge. accuracy is more than d&d thac0 as it also pivotal in determining graze/hit/crit which affects not only damage output but any number on-crit effects. if we were playing a main character striker paladin, we would consider goldpact. HA! Good Fun!

early in the development, the obsidians vague implied vancian casting, re-charged by rest, would be exorcised from poe. as with too many good ideas, a large % o' ie game purists rose up and railed 'bout how obsidian were ruining the spirit o' a spiritual successor game. so, we got traditional daily casting for traditional ie caster classes. congrats for the purists. *shrug* the developers has observed how the game is clear not balanced for solo potd runs. the % o' purchasers who actual do solo potd is so small it makes little sense to balance the game for their benefit. save for a few challenge-ruining exploits which can also be used in party runs, the obsidians do not lose sleep over solo potd fixes. as tig observes, you were never intended to be able to rest 10 times in a dungeon on a potd run, solo or otherwise. gotta change tactics 'cause obsidian won't actual cater to potd solo concerns... particular in light o' how we got daily casting priests n' wizards in the first place. yeah, gloves o' manipulation is essential IF, and only if, you want your non-rogue to be able to succesful disarm every trap and open every lock in the game. 1007 tables change with every patch, but if you really want gloves o' manipulation, do a search for 1007 tables. is a chest in raedrics where we believe you will be able to get the gloves you wish. is only in the chest 1 day outta 30, but... personal, we see no reason why poe classes have inherent skill bonuses. such inherent bonuses is offending obsidian's espoused goals o' freedom o' customization. the skills weren't thought out and designed well, and they do not make any class feel more unique. poe skills kinda suck. the genesis poster's trap concerns is the Only reason we foresee a player making a character class choice based 'pon skills available. hopeful poe 2 skills is improved, but the genesis poster does have solutions available to him. 1) include a rogue in your party. 2) meta-game access to early-game gloves o' manipulation. even so, not being able to disarm a handful o' traps w/o a rogue or gloves is unlikely to get obsidian to make changes. loading times, for some folks, is excessive. have heard explanations 'bout load times, and following patches a few folks invariably claim loads got better/worse. dunno. for Gromnir this game does have rather lengthy loads. as tig mentioned, d&d/ie game hard counters and immunities were purposeful avoided during development. the reasoning for avoiding hard-counters were sound... and were actual kinda funny how irrational folks could be 'bout immunities post release. the aforementioned ie purists would complain 'bout how their naked glass cannons with basement intelligence and resolve were proof of the pointlessness o' poe attributes. 'course same people were complaining 'bout how their naked glass cannons were 3-shot killing each other 'cause o' seeming unavoidable charms and dominates. we got a good laugh as such folks argued themselves into knots. even so, it were unfortunate how poe accuracy bloat and effect stacking made a mockery o' the lack o' immunities. example: a character with high accuracy and enough fire effects could encounter critters with high fire resistance and still easily kill the fire elemental (or whatever) with fire. give +30 resistance to ________ were a negligible hurdle for a player who could guarantee crits with overkill kinda damage. but yeah, not all folks are happy 'bout being stun-locked by functional unavoidable repeated grazes. there are, o'course, strategies for dealing with such encounters, but many folks are indeed perturbed, particularly if they min-max self into a metaphorical hole from which they can not extricate themselves. it will make the genesis poster pleased to know obsidian is considering adding hard-counters and immunities for a sequel. unfortunate, their reasoning for doing so is bass ackwards. is not the stun-lock situation which offends developers-- that kinda encounter is working as designed. nope, rather it is the fire wielding fire godlike monk or paladin going 'round killing fire elementals with a burning lash weapon that cheeses off josh. 'stead o' fixing the actual problem, it appears as if obsidian will simple go expedient and add immunities for poe2. so kinda a win for baldurs_gate_2 and a loss for us all when you think 'bout it. HA! Good Fun!

south park classics (?) sweary warning merry christmas tough for obsidian to complain 'bout the last one, eh? HA! Good Fun!

there is myriad options for avoiding those debilitating afflictions which is relative infrequent encountered during the course o' the game. +10 accuracy will be useful every encounter. so, if one is being actual objective and measuring use o' the relative paladin powhaz... and rp is wholly subjective. each order gots 2 disfavored dispositions. aside: 'cause o' how ai now works, minor arcane spell reflection cast on party member with worst will save is a hilariously effective solution in most charm/confuse instances. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

Unfortunately no, Tyranny is only 10% off. I got myself White March Part I and II. They are 40% off. I guess this means I won and when you think about that's what christmas is all about: winning. he can wait 'til next christmas and likely get tyranny for +40% reduced. game has only been out a month or so, yes? don't expect much o' a reduction during the first quarter after release. merry christmas... or a belated hogwatchnight. HA! Good Fun!

if you like an order, then it is the best. ... 'course the truth o' the matter is Frermàs mes Canc Suolias is actual best for a striker paladin... making this kinda a trick question. otherwise, we would say the best option for a tanky paladin during the first half o' the game would be Darcozzi Paladini. the liberating exhortation accuracy bonus is just too good compared to other options early in the game. latter in the game we would give the nod to Shieldbearers of St. Elcga as accuracy bloat largely nullifies the Darcozzi Paladini benefits. Bleak Walkers is a darn solid option from start to finish for a sinister tank, but later patches reduced the number o' foes who can be frightened. HA! Good Fun! ps if you are playing w/o a priest, then Kind Wayfarers deserve serious consideration as "the best" option.

So you want to play an incest simulator? You sick, sick puppy. if one genuine wants such, they can get it from most any japanese dating game. *shudder* HA! Good Fun!

am gonna take a shot: h00kers and caffeinated beverages. no doubt most developers already has got the beverages covered, but am believing Milestone Wh0res is an incentivizing plan worth consideration. HA! Good Fun!

the priest-specific talent, incomprehensible revelation, is not providing an accuracy bonus with durance's staff. edit: after a reload, the staff is now receiving the correct accuracy boost from incomprehensible revelation. HA! Good Fun!

given how slow is the reload on the arquebus, the difference 'tween 9 dex and say 14 dex would be largely unnoticeable in all but the longest battles o' the game. nevertheless, would still be a fine alpha-strike weapon. and can always opt for sword and shield if the dex is too onerous for you. for us, the curious thing were giving durance potential one o' the best staves in the game. HA! Good Fun!

because traps were having ridiculous high accuracy when combined with mechanics... and petrify had a higher damage multiplier... and the adra weren't immune to petrify... and there were jolting touch exploits. etc. has been a few changes since release. HA! Good Fun! ps near release there were a few videos o' petrified adra being killed in 4-5 hits by solo rogues. were funny and sad at same time. pps early release, it were possible to fight the dragon w/o aggro o' all the adds.

actually, at release, traps were way overpowered. solo rogues killing adra dragons with nothing but traps? poe traps almost immediate got nerfed, which led to all kinds o' confusion as the already opaque trap math became more muddled. we were aware that traps in white march were having different accuracy, but we never looked close enough to see the cause. to the genesis poster: thanks. good find re: which traps is broken. HA! Good Fun!

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16925 torment update HA! Good Fun!