Gromnir

35k is base, but there is individual state rebates, and there is a fed tax credit o' $7500. HA! Good Fun!

put a deposit down on a tesla model 3. ... *shrug* a $35k impulse purchase (deposit were only $1000) is making us consider a consultation from a mental health professional. that being said, am disliking our bmw x5 more and more every day. am serious considering buying an old, late 90s, minivan for $1500 and just ridding our self o' the bavarian abomination that haunts our garage. the minivan would be more practical for our dogs, but we would still need a real car. am not sure a tesla model 3 counts as a real car, and regardless, is late 2017 before likely first deliveries. our buick is also not an everyday car. am stuck with the bmw for a bit. jacka$$ HA! Good Fun!

stories o' uncharitable sunday-only christians is disappointing. no doubt such folks as the ones shady encountered had heard parables o' the prodigal son and the wedding feast hundreds o' times, and yet on the holiest day o' the year, they fail to embrace their neighbors. 'course we has seen the opposite as well. is a christmas mass in rapid city we recall that surprised us a bit. we were 20 minutes late to a midnight mass. near blizzard conditions delayed our... pilgrimage. so we enter the church covered in wet snow and seeing no room at the inn, so to speak. packed house in spite o' the weather. our sunday best were mended, patched and looking like we had stepped outta a dorothea lange photo. our little family stood at the back o' the church, motionless and silent. well, we were silent after the heavy wooden doors slammed shut behind us-- three reservation indians in an all-white church on christmas eve. disruptive and shabby. anyways, the priest stops mass and asks for folks to make room for us... notices that Gromnir were shivering a bit, so he sent somebody to get a blanket for us before continuing with mass. after the mass, numerous families offered us a place to stay for the night. ... were our first positive memory o' interacting with a group that were predominantly white. am suspecting it were kinda an important moment for us. HA! Good Fun!

christmas were kinda rough for Gromnir's family as winters at pine ridge were brutal. am recalling a month o' nothing to eat but jiffy pop and ketchup soup, a month during which we almost never removed our warmest clothes even while indoors. also, given that we is a twisted sorta soul, the religious imagery o' christian easter has always fascinated us. sure, other religions got death and resurrection, but few has embraced the transformation o' brutal images o' torture into symbols o' hope. easter>christmas. favorite holiday is halloween. regardless o' actual origins and cynical economic motives, a holiday that in its current incarnation exists primarily as an excuse for folks to dress up in costumes and to hand out candy to kids is a win in our book. curious aside: am thinking that the cadbury bunny tryouts commercial ran unchanged for near 20 years. manifested's gastric skulduggery reminded us o' the commercial. HA! Good Fun! ps am wishing a sincere happy easter to all.

Heh, I'm not sure you're qualified to say what impact my video had... However I'm sure nobody was able to come with a video doing the same with a fighter... PS. The 2.03 links aren't about the "main argument", are about your "argument" - ie being able to solo dragons because of scrolls... I was hoping you'll point another mistake, hole, exploit, etc... one reason why we posted the link to the video is so you and others could see the actual impact on posters. am not certain what sorta emoticon is appropriate at this point. am also not quite sure what your postscript is 'posed to prove. your 2.03 links were 6 months and multiple builds removed... including a freaking expansion. is kinda apples and oranges. many changes to fighters, paladins, and other classes occurred to alter the discussion, and is still hardly meaningful to the impact o' your "first video" claims. *zoom* but heck, we recall similar arguments from folks who thought their 30 second solo bard v. firkragg battles proved something 'bout the overall usefulness and power o' bg2 bards. find a way to solo a boss with a hybrid class/character has never been particularly meaningful, but every game produces such... proof. HA! Good Fun!

Killed them even without scrolls, next time I'll try also to kill them slower... *sigh* https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79181-paladin-solo-vs-adra-dragon-potd/ killing solo has always been more a display o' how to exploit holes/mistakes in the system than anything else. am not doubting folks has found new and curious holes, but you didn't convince folks that paladins were better than fighters at tanking. the main purpose o' a tank, after all, is to absorb damage and hold aggro so that the other party members can more safely heal or dps or whatever. the solo videos o' a 30 second exploit kill o' the adra dragon were no more proof o' a paladin's relative tanky power than the rogue trap exploit videos were showing how incredible were rouges at dps. we can do more links to old threads. show folks, even folks posting in this thread, who were asking for more tankiness and dps from the poe paladin. luckily, the obsidians largely ignored such requests. instead, the paladin actual had their tankability reduced, but their capacity to support increased. HA! Good Fun! Here are more actual ones: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83566-solo-paladin-vs-dragons-v203/?p=1762655 You say mistakes, holes, exploits to solo? I say knowledge, tactics, planning. PS. I guess in your book Sacred Immolation isn't dps, it's just support... *groan* "Well, the main argument was that fighters were better tanks than paladins. Then I made my first video showing how the paladin can tank and kill the adra dragon alone " as you can see from our link to your shared video, your First Video had negligible impact on the argument, and for good reasons. was gimmicky and did little save spawn priest and wizard videos showing how to exploit similar holes in the rules. your subsequent links is from 2.03... and sacred immolation? december 2015? the "main argument" were dead at that point. HA! Good Fun!

Killed them even without scrolls, next time I'll try also to kill them slower... *sigh* https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79181-paladin-solo-vs-adra-dragon-potd/ killing solo has always been more a display o' how to exploit holes/mistakes in the system than anything else. am not doubting folks has found new and curious holes, but you didn't convince folks that paladins were better than fighters at tanking. the main purpose o' a tank, after all, is to absorb damage and hold aggro so that the other party members can more safely heal or dps or whatever. the solo videos o' a 30 second exploit kill o' the adra dragon were no more proof o' a paladin's relative tanky power than the rogue trap exploit videos were showing how incredible were rouges at dps. we can do more links to old threads. show folks, even folks posting in this thread, who were asking for more tankiness and dps from the poe paladin. luckily, the obsidians largely ignored such requests. instead, the paladin actual had their tankability reduced, but their capacity to support increased. HA! Good Fun!

the video did convince people that scrolls could be exploited... as traps were exploitable at release. you did encourage folks to do similar videos o' priests and mages n' such. the tank-worthiness o' a class is maybe not best illustrated in a video in which one SOLO kills a boss in ~ 30 seconds. such doesn't so much show strength o' a class, but rather a weakness o' the rules. HA! Good Fun!

kinda misleading. let's not forget that paladins have not actual improved much as tanks since 1.03. as the paladin's abilities were largely support or fod related, removing perception as a defensive attribute hurt tanky paladins far more than fighters. the reduced efficacy o' faith and convictions has also not exact benefited paladins tank quality, eh? the ai improvements since 3.0 has also hurt tanky paladins a smidge as is now more important for tanks to do consistent damage to hold enemies, which requires that tank paladins must need actual consider damage output and accuracy. fighters has also had numerous improvements, eh? the fighter actual had base deflection increased... which is rare mentioned when defender's nerfing is broached. knockdowns got a damage modifier and the accuracy bonus of disciplined barrage were increased. armoured grace, enter the fray and clear out were all improved. etc. we can bring up the embarrassing paladin threads from pre 1.03 if you wish, but there were few folks such as Gromnir who were requesting better support qualities from paladins. the complaints in the paladin threads were that they were not good enough at dps and were poor tanks compared to fighters. honest reflection: the accuracy buff has done little to improve the paladin's dps output overall. paladins has never been bad at dps, but that is more due to the flexibility o' the poe mechanics than it is due to any obsidian improvements. the largely token improvement to paladin dps via the accuracy improvement o' fod is more significant as a support boosting improvement as it makes the numerous on-kill abilities more viable. the paladin AND fighters has both had their tankiness nerfed a bit as both were too indestructible. fighters are still better as pure tanks, but they lack the paladin's support qualities.... which is no real change from 1.03. HA! Good Fun!

You were not around, when there were 10 threads with 10+ sites about how useless paladins and how superior fighters are?^^ were surreal. basically the argument went as follows: the paladin cannot tank as well as a fighter. the paladin isn't as good in support as a priest. therefore, as there are already two classes that do what a paladin can do and do it better, the paladin serves no purpose. *shrug* as crazy as it sounds, the vocal minority from march 2015 were far more likely to have agreed with brimsufer than the folks posting in this thread. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

Honestly, Gromnir, I disagree with this. I like the idea of skill bonuses being tied to classes. why? what purpose does it serve? the poe classes, w/o the skill bonuses, play complete distinct. is some unspoken goal achieved by making certain skills integral linked to a class? on the other hand, a goal were to allow players to customize, which makes tying the skills to classes even more curious. HA! Good Fun!

am honest curious what marc thinks he is reading. is this simple an example o' having made a mistake and not wanting to admit, or is some other explanation? HA! Good Fun!

our main complaint with the skills is that we see no reason why the skills should have bonuses tied to classes. is a stoopid and anachronistic approach given an espoused goal o' increased player freedom and customization. perhaps make the background bonuses more significant is a good idea if the class bonuses were removed, but the classes themselves is unique enough w/o adding in an additional class limitation. am also not liking the survival thresholds or even level usefulness from lore. every point in a skill should have value... approximate equal value. dr from survival has thresholds o' 1, 7, and 14. accuracy bonus v. creature type is 4 and 10. damage v. flanked is 6 and 12. am not in favor o' such gaps. am understanding that the change to survival were a fix and thus not optimal, but is still poor design. am similarly bothered that only the even levels is enhancing ability to cast scrolls. making odd-levels o' skill progression largely meaningless outside o' dialogues is bad design. what is our motivation to get other than even numbers o' skill levels for any non main character? HA! Good Fun!

am personal getting to that age where more than a few folks we know has bradycardia. frequent such folks simple see their cardiologist every 3-months to make certain that the situation doesn't get worse. others need a pacemaker. a pacemaker sounds serious, and we s'pose it is, but nowadays is an outpatient procedure, as often as not. frequent is no biggie. sure, the pacemaker keeps you from stroking out, but otherwise you go on with your life, save for some dietary changes and additional meds. heck, they even got new pacemakers that is mri friendly, or so we hear. 'course there is more serious bradycardia and heart related issues, but is best not to get too worried. get checked is a good idea, but get over-concerned is likely pointless. 'course such advice coming from Gromnir is amusing considering we got serious white coat syndrome. HA! Good Fun!

Somebody whose favorite RPG is Fallout and thinks high fantasy tropes are boring? And yet is working on "boring high fantasy tropes" while doing very good job at it. Seriously, I don't understand how you can create something as good as PoE when you don't love it's core mechanics with all your heart... am thinking the word you might be looking for is professionalism. architects design buildings 'ccording to needs and wants o' the folks paying the bills. lawyers represent clients they despise. the number o' artists and writers who has, at the direction o' patrons, completed masterpieces is considerable. *shrug* classes is terrible if the goal is to maximize customization and player freedom... which were indeed espoused goals o' poe. is a conclusion that should be obvious, but always needs discussion. no matter how good is your class system, the classes limit the player's choices. classes each have unique abilities, otherwise is no point to the class. unique is, by its very nature, a limitation. so, why? why add the limitation? but more important we will once again observe how ridiculous it is to suggest that josh is personal averse to doing poe2 based on a misreading o' sawyer's observations 'bout the poe attribute/class system. silly. josh also has criticized aspects of fallout mechanics, and he has, more than once, complained 'bout d&d rules. even so, josh very much wanted to do fallout 3, and most o' us is aware that he were much invested in bg3 when black isle were developing the project. this kinda poor reading skills coupled with a penchant for rumor mongering deserves to be stamped out with some harshness. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/03/24/a-japanese-fleet-killed-333-whales-for-research/ one can only dream o' the countless scientific discoveries that will flow outta japan now that their research program has resumed. ... am suspecting that the discoveries will be limited to enhanced efficiency o' dispatching large, marine mammals... and perhaps a few curious culinary advances. am predicting an iron chef special/reunion with whale liver as the secret ingredient. HA! Good Fun!

typical. a misattribution o' an opine to josh sawyer regarding his willingness to do a poe sequel? *snort* is similar to how the poe-as-spiritual-successor nonsense got started. the genesis poster seems to wish to perpetuate old mistakes in addition to creating a new one. *sigh* that being said, the last thing we want is "godlike heights" and "epic levels." even a good rule system will inevitable crumble as you add more and more... features. d&d 3.0 is actual a decent example of a good system gone bad. oh, sure, harm and 1-level-of-ranger/rogue were initial flaws, but any new system is gonna have growing pains. unfortunate, with every new splat-book and setting expansion, new and "better" were introduced, resulting in new and better ways to break an otherwise decent system. ever more ridiculous spells, feats and prestige classes contributed to the eventual ruin o' 3.0. similarly, following the almost comic book-style narrative one upmanship the wotc writers employed, the most popular d&d settings became a increasingly gut clench worthy. each new supplement resulted in less internal logic and worsening balance. am thinking that for any sequel, the developers need be very careful o' increasing power levels. refine what they already got? sure. poe needs refinement, but am thinking we has already witnessed how the addition o' new and more powerful gear, spells/abilities and talents is already stretching poe mechanics to the logical limits. is gonna be difficult for obsidian to do otherwise than to give marc what he and others wish. there is gonna be an expectation from many fans that poe2 will provide an additional dozen levels. even so, am hopeful that the developers take a step back and recognize just how much they can do to improve the current world and level-scheme they got in place. obsidian did iwd2 not bg2. the same core o' developers also had a hand in nwn2 and kotor2. the black isle and obsidian folks has shown a willingness to do a sequel that returns the protagonist to square-one. heck, even bioware, since bg2 and tob, has seen the wisdom o' avoiding level-bloat. for mass effect and dragon age, bioware had sequels return to level 1. we got a much longer list o' what we do wish from poe2, but for the moment we will simple observe that more is rare better when it comes to a rule system, and we hope that obsidian avoids the epic level trap for poe2. HA! Good Fun!

You are dead to me. indiana jones and lara croft is a bit different... though we has always thought that lucas didn't genuine understand the appeal of indiana jones. honest. lucas seemed to believe that indiana jones were camp. the character and movies were intended as a tongue-in-cheek homage to the b-movie adventure flicks o' a bygone era. am s'posing that is why so much o' the sequel movie content went over poorly with fans. stuff that lucas thought were campy fun, such as short round and aliens in south america, typical didn't go over quite as well with audiences. raiders of the lost ark were 'posed to be camp. for Gromnir, it wasn't. oh sure, there were moments o' humor in indiana jones, but perhaps we were too young to realize that we weren't s'posed to take indiana jones and nazis searching for magical treasures in the deserts o' north africa with any degree o' seriousness. we don't know lara croft as we has never actual played the games, but to an outsider, the appeal o' the character would seem to be different. to us, lara croft were not so much trying to replicate the appeal o' indiana jones so much as it were trying to one-up pitfall harry. as to daisy being too soft for the role, we will observe that linda hamilton were far more soft before the second terminator film. http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Sarah_Connor_h1.jpg compared to https://s2.graphiq.com/sites/default/files/7522/media/images/t2/The_Terminator_6828440.jpg or http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMzUzMjE4MDE2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTU2NjU0MQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg ... am s'posing that the actress transformations o' linda hamilton and jessica biel from too soft is why we is so disappointed with gal gadot's wonder woman efforts. even so, is no reason to believe daisy can't be hard... if that is the direction intended for the character. HA! Good Fun!

speaking o' nitpicks, why is there a need to make analogous to d&d attributes? poe resolve is not d&d charisma d&d, nor is it 'posed to be as far as we can tell. poe resolve represents will and purpose, which is why durance has high resolve. is arguable that durance has crummy charisma, but am understanding why the developers and writers o' poe would see durance as being resolute. resolve boosting deflection is the abstract quality o' the poe attribute. somehow in the poe universe, strength o' will adds to deflection, but resolve insofar as ordinary dictionary definitions is not an abstract concept. is not charisma. is not 'posed to be charisma-by-another-name. poe might? is more abstract than even resolve and while it largely follows the mechanical role o' d&d strength, it has not a specific d&d analogue insofar far as representing the qualities o' a personages character. IF might represents some kinda quality o' the poe character, it is a largely unseen and enigmatic descriptor o' o' the being's soul. is not d&d strength that represents a character's physical brawn. poe perception is not the same as d&d wisdom. the actual oddity o' perception is not how poe uses perception but rather how d&d has, at least since 3.0, used wisdom to represent both good judgement, but also as some kinda modifier o' situational awareness. johnny manziel could arguable have fantastic perception, but am doubting anybody would think to call him wise, yes? play football at a high level, particularly at the qb position, requires amazing awareness. conscious (or unconscious) recognize dozens (hundreds) o' small details simultaneously while being chased by multiple men weighing 'tween 250lb-350lb, men o' who is intent on slamming you to the ground with force similar to a car crash, requires near preternatural perception. be a qb at college or pro level, as has been shown many times, does not require any kinda wisdom. etc. discussion o' poe attribute strengths and fails will be more productive if the d&d baggage is abandoned at the door. HA! Good Fun! ps one quibble we got with josh presentation and comments regarding the poe attribute system is the insistence on referencing the intelligent poe barbarian as some kinda representation o' the diversity possible with poe characters. *snort* one o' our main gripes regarding the poe classes (not attributes) is that the barbarian is integral linked to carnage. we can make a low intellect poe mage who focuses only on single-target spells that have instant durations, but try and make a decent poe barbarian with crappy intellect. one fail o' poe classes is that for the barbarian, intellect is not much o' an option. carnage is a class defining ability o' the barbarian (which is 'posed antithetical to poe philosophy) and intellect is necessary to fully realize carnage. for josh to continue using the example o' the smarty poe barbarian to illustrate points 'bout freedom o' the poe attribute system strikes us as intellectual dishonest.

dr is often rock/paper/scissors. developers near always leave one or two best or better options for overcoming dr, so even if you can't lower dr, you can use paper to cover rock. even so, there is multiple dr reducing or bypass options. is weapons that have dr bypass. use an estoc bolstered by vulnerable attacks? can have your cipher use body attunement. can have pallegina simple laugh at foe dr after using wrath of the five suns. etc. and yeah, increasing damage output is another blunt approach to overcoming dr. petrify an enemy doesn't lower dr, but it significantly increases damage done to the petrified foe. got a high dr opponent that is subject to petrify? *shrug* in any event, there is options for reducing dr, but mostest obvious approach for overcoming is rock/paper/scissors. HA! Good Fun!

Okay, so after hearing "isometric Dragon Age 2", this is about the SECOND harshest way I think you could describe the game. However, just because Oblivion completely sucked at using this kind of system, doesn't mean it has to, too. dunno. in a perfect scenario, improve-by-use might not be complete dreck. less crpg and more "linear" helps improve-by-use systems as the number o' possible uses o' _________ becomes more predictable and less subject to degenerative gameplay. regardless, one needs do considerable mental and practical gymnastics to prevent improve-by-use from being anything other than moab. come up with a good improve-by-use mechanic is a curious thought experiment, but poor game design even so. obvious solution is to avoid improve-by-use rather than expending considerable effort to keep such an easily broken approach from breaking. HA! Good Fun! ps am not using "moab" to reference a place in utah. pam from archer knows where Gromnir is coming from on this. apologies as is nsfw.

yeah, the fact that we can use a single paladin to replace a fighter AND a priest in a potential party loadout is quite the boon. am knowing we said this earlier, but this thread reminds us o' a few o' the very early, and largely dismissed, post release paladin complaint threads. "shortly after release there were considerable criticism o' the paladin... which we didn't get. claims that fighters were better tanks than paladins seemed wholly misguided. after all, the paladin were a support class. the observation that the paladin, while effective enough in the tank role, 'could support far better than any fighter build, were seeming ignored. another frequent complaint o' the paladin were that it were not as effective in support as a priest. 'course such folks ignored the fact that paladins were far more resilient than priests and that they typically required less micromanagement than a priest. claim that priests were better than paladins in support mighta' even have been true, but such claims ignored that priests and paladins played very different and that both were effective at supporting a party. not as good as a fighter at tanking and not as good at support than a priest were s'posed a meaningful critique. misguided." we revealed a support paladin earlier in this thread, one that had the kinda overkill deflection that is the prime determinant o' tanky success. our tanky henchman paladin also had numerous, powerful, per-encounter support abilities that no fighter main character or henchman could replicate. in our illustration, we described how our paladin actual responded in ordinary combat encounters. our henchman paladin were hardly optimized, but am thinking it took little imagination to see that she would be effective in a potd run. wanna play a ranged-support paladin with a bit more dps? is not only viable but extreme effective. we got a few wood elf archers who make efficient use o' the per-kill abilities. our bow wielding paladins is not tanky, but they is still resilient and their auras is more likely to affect the second-row party members. 'course other folks offered a few striker paladin builds as an alternative to Gromnir's tank-support hybrid. for laughs we built a non-optimized, human striker paladin that wields peasant weapons. is not our favorite poe character build, but it is a potent dps paladin... even w/o a few obvious optimizations such as death godlike and savage attacks. heck, we had the paladin in relative crappy gear and you can see that he were critting frequent and doing considerable damage... even as we purposeful avoided using immolation. used durance's staff as our primary weapon. we also did not petrify any foes to inflate our high damage totals. "bog guardian" is toughest kill 'cause we were using primarily on the mowrghek ien map o' a potd run, so it weren't as if we were facing the wimps o' poe to generate numbers. is a pretty straightforward striker. cast liberating exhortation on self for the +10 accuracy and then kill stuff. wait a moment or two to choose who to target with sworn enemy, likely after a priest or druid debuff on foes, then wade in and use flames o' devotion to make the enemy disappear. maybe use forge master gloves to create a fire brand for extra laughs. *shrug* at some point, given all the folks who is disagreeing with brim, folks who is supplying specific builds supported by screenies and tactics, a reasonable person might consider that the problem might not be with the paladin class. could be a problem o' expectations. could be something else. dunno. regardless, am thinking that nothing said in this thread will change brim's mind. he needs see to believe, though am not certain what is causing his selective paladin blindness. the only reason why we posted as many times as we have is 'cause we suspect that there is other critics o' the paladin reading the thread, and perhaps those folks is actual a bit more open-minded. HA! Good Fun!

not wearing a helmet, on a dirt bike with no lights, at night, wearing dark clothing, is not only more likely to cause an accident, but is more likely to result in a fatal accident. that being said, our cousin works as an er nurse at a major midwestern hospital. she says she is actual relieved when motorcyclists don't wear helmets, 'cause they is more likely to die at the scene o' the accident. am guessing she has seen some particular grisly motorcycle accidents where an individual survived 'cause o' a helmet. poor bastards.

if that is the new formulation, then Gromnir would be okie dokie with that. as noted elsewhere, the difference 'tween +8/+17 and +10/+20 is significant but not huge. we could live with it. however, obsidian specific mentioned that no changes to faith and convictions bonuses for main characters was intended with 3.0. we were told that the problem (+8/+17) would be fixed. all we really need is an explanation that makes sense. HA! Good Fun!

if you are trying to build a dps/striker paladin, Pallegina Order Abilities > Protagonist Orders Abilities *fixed* if you wanna dps as a paladin, pallegina is your best option. you can still play an effective ranged or melee striker paladin, but pallegina will best you. so, fixed, but not wholly relevant. in poe you are able to build a resilient and low maintenance support-class character using multiple paladin orders. 'course that issue has been ground into hamburger over the course o' multiple pages. you do not like the per-encounter abilities or do not believe that such abilities is actual useful. many other folks disagree. fine. play another class. is a relative large number o' classes, which by necessity means that such classes is more distinct and narrow tailored. is axiomatic that more genuine unique classes offered by obsidian, the more likely it becomes that you won't like one or more o' those class offerings. if the per-encounter support abilities don't work for you, then don't play a mc paladin. HA! Good Fun!