Gromnir

"Because I read threads and reviews that initially expressed that the game was relatively bug free at launch." in spite o' your reading o' all the aforementioned links that show just what a low standard the industry has for day 1 stability? five minutes looking at the PoE tech support board and patch updates woulda' given you a notion o' game stability. take some personal responsibility. your behavior was foolish and contributes to the ENDEMIC problem your links suggest exist. and be specific. generalities get you nowhere. you can compile a bug list for bg2 as it exists today, 28 may 2015, and it will have hundreds o' bugs. compiled a list tells us nothing. how is poe more buggy or noteworthy buggy. foolish and lacking any kinda specifics. what response do you expect? HA! Good Fun!

am seeing links and quotes from the genesis poster that bolster the general observations that games were, in the past, more stable at release. ... okie dokie. why did the genesis poster buy poe? the genesis poster has loads o' support showing how the industry has increasingly devolved insofar as day 1 stability is concerned. is this something he/she learned yesterday? he has provided zero support for the notion that poe is anymore buggy than games o' a similar size released in the last... +15 years. so, knowing how ill-made is the games o' 2015, why buy? is complete irrational to buy with an expectation that game will suffer from endemic bugs and then to complain that game were indeed buggy. is a simple and obvious solution to the genesis poster's problem. poe were a kickstarter and we were a kickstarter backer. we paid for poe years ago. however, for any traditional commercial sale o' a game title, we wait 6 months (or more) before purchasing any title. yeah, day 1 releases o' ALL game titles is unstable. if one wishes to play a genuine stable title, the solution is obvious and easy and economically responsible: wait. wait 6 months and the title in question will invariably be more stable and will likely be cheaper. if enough people follow such advice, developers will indeed make game releases that is more stable as their day 1 profits will suffer. *shrug* regardless, to knowing buy a newly released title, a title that is no more buggy than is typical or ordinary in the industry, and then to complain that yet another title is indeed buggy is... silly. genesis poster is silly. but hey, who doesn't want an al pacino moment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BofddwtPBPw HA! Good Fun! ps we don't think the genesis poster's opinion is "totally rouge." am s'posing one could make a link to marxist ideology... or cosmetics.

so, Pillars of Legos? HA! Good Fun!

you do realize that boardies tends toward hyperbole, yes? never trust gamer fish stories. HA! Good Fun!

is so gauche to quote self, but... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70927-480-discussion/?p=1582604 http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70927-480-discussion/?p=1582622 perhaps Gromnir is not bothered because we had reasonable expectations? the only surprise we have had regarding bugs in poe is the number o' patches we has seen since the release. is no way we woulda' anticipated a 1.06 build as of may 2015. developers have been reactive beyond our estimations. HA! Good Fun!

copperlane. easy directions for rosbjerg: south/southeast of actors... between fox and goose and a tiny bridge. HA! Good Fun! ps we hesitate to mention, but vis is one o' the few npcs that may be dispatched w/o a reputation loss. he has the toothed deer helm that grants dex and athletics buffs.

well, this board is the appropriate venue for complaining about poe. the thing is, the general complaints is not gonna get much o' a response. U Sux! *shrug* two months after release, there is more than a couple game killing bugs that continue to prevent folks from finishing the game. is more than a few other less serious bugs that is proving to be roach-like in their capacity to avoid eradication. there is justification for folks to complain about the stability o' poe, but am not certain what the genesis poster hopes to achieve. if the goal is simple to vent spleen, then this is the correct place to do so. unfortunately, if actual change or solutions is sought, the post that is the equivalent o' an inarticulate grunt o' displeasure, while perhaps cathartic, is doomed to fail at bringing about such change. HA! Good Fun!

this battle were harder the second time we played poe. our first play were with a priest o' wael player, and we had durance in party. as with most every battle, we had a searing seal and repulsing seal cast before battle at accuracy levels near guaranteed to crit as both durance and our pc had max mechanics. searing seal does predictable crit burn damage and blinds nearly all foes just as combat starts? we put the repulsing seal underneath our squishies, so in case they got attacked or charmed, they would be protected or knocked outta the fight. durance cast the charm/domination protection at start of battle, and our pc cast shining beacon. 'course even with charm protection, grieving mother got charmed before she could use amplified wave, which made us sad for half a second or so. grieving mother were prone thanks to our seal. both durance and our pc had scion o' flame talent, which at the time did not buff our searing seal, but it did add to shining beacon. am not recalling what aloth cast... didn't matter. our typical opening were slicken followed by ryngrim's terror or miasma o' dull mindedness. not particular sexy spells, but the will debuffs made our priest spells all the more likely to crit. our pc's holy radiance were doing near 100 burn damage to vessels and our shining beacon were ~145 burn over 12 seconds. were not a difficult battle. am pretty sure we used one or two pillar o' flames to finish things. we mighta' thrown in a divine mark to debuff and burn raedric. our second play had a paladin tank pc, and while we only needed one try to win, we did see half our squad get knocked out. the paladin pc were functional unkillable and unhittable, but the same could not be said o' the rest o' our party. am pretty sure durance actual got knocked out once as well, but we had him in upgraded saint's war scale precisely 'cause we thought he might need the second chance benefit. hiravias' relentless storm were likely the difference 'tween a wipe and victory. grieving mother were, once again, our first casualty. third play were a rogue and we used multiple traps and scrolls to make the battle manageable. eder were tanking, but we gave him the altered hand and key breastplate for the loyal quality for max charm and domination protection. lesson learned: priests is win. HA! Good Fun!

rabid wolverines with laser beams... forced to watch nothing but women's golf for 48 uninterrupted hours. HA! Good Fun!

for even suggesting time limits and respawns, may you be locked in a small room with a dozen rabid wolverines... with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, the beta experience for poe is illustrative when speaking o' difficulty. yes, more than a few aspects o' the beta were needing fine tuning as elder bears were ridiculous powerful and the dot from spiders was a bit harsh, but given that the developers had much greater control over player gear and level in the beta, it were useful for observing how relative difficulty were perhaps intended to work in poe. the genesis poster notes that there is not a meaningful difference 'tween easy and hard. such were not the case in the beta. where levels and gear were controlled, there were a considerable difference 'tween normal and hard. oh sure, there is gonna be a few posters who feel the need to observe that they played the beta solo on hard difficulty with their monitor turned off and using only sound and feel to react and they still never had health drop below 50%. is always a few such folks. and yes, after playing literal dozens or hundreds o' times, the beta battles became ez regardless o' difficulty. even so, am gonna observe that the poe beta difficulty slider had a noteworthy and considerable impact on actual game difficulty. also, 'cause an old gamer should be aware o' this fact, the two most common complaints for Every ie game were as follows: the game was too difficult. and the game was too easy. HA! Good Fun!

voted. don't care. *shrug* however, we do applaud the genesis poster. he posted the same post multiple times today and got almost no reaction. however, perhaps recognizing the predictability o' internet behaviour, the genesis poster made the spam post a poll and actual got a response. good on you. recommendation: attach your grievance to a list or review from a recognizable gaming site. don't even need be legit. suggest that _______________ or ______________ claimed that PoE were one of the 10 most disappointing games o' 2015 thus far and you would get a much greater response. just a thought. HA! Good Fun! ps as an aside, Gromnir were one o' the few folks that were predicting that it would require more than a few months post release before the game were stable and balanced. the only surprise we has received is the build number: 1.06. honestly, we assumed we would be at 1.03 or 1.04 after 2 months. obsidian, for good or ill, is being highly active and reactive in their attempts to fix and balance.

for numerous spells and abilities, having 'em buff friend and foe alike adds a useful tactical consideration. abilities such as holy radiance and inspiring triumph are a bit different. holy radiance and inspiring triumph target on the priest or paladin. heck, inspiring triumph targets on the paladin and triggers on a kill. have such an ability buff friend and foe alike serious diminishes its usefulness. HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, no. I have no interest in restarting a game 80 hours in. That's probably the least helpful advice you could possibly have given. you have no idea how many times we has made the same observation. in any event, as you o' all boardies well know, the developers made a serious error regarding the poe xp progression. at the end o' chapter 2, the completionist will be multiple levels above what the developers anticipated (am not sure why) and such a player is gonna have access to end game 1007 that were no doubt considered outta reach. the critical path problem rears its ugly head in yet another game, eh? the further you get into a game such as poe, the more you will see a disparity 'tween critical path difficulty and completionist power. the disparity is inevitable, but the power gulf can be minimized. obsidian developers, for reasons we cannot fathom, failed to recognize just how great were the disparity. conclusion: if you do a majority o' side quests in poe, chapter 3 will be too ez on hard. we don't like potd as it actual requires less tactical and strategic consideration on the part o' the player. there is gaming cheese that can make potd battles a breeze, but in the absence o' such you is nevertheless having your tactical and strategic options narrowed as you must inflict max damage as quick as possible. is perhaps ironic that increased difficulty makes poe gameplay less varied. one o' these days, if Gromnir becomes extreme bored, we will try a critical path run o' poe on hard difficulty. am genuine curious what level we end at and how difficult the game plays with less than optimal gear and levels. our curiosity is a small and pitiable creature that is likely to expire at any moment, but it is real nevertheless. HA! Good Fun!

so turn the dagger into slash AND pierce as well as accurate and the way to balance is to give the rapier 1 additional point to its damage range? ... am not certain how giving the dagger a second quality would be balanced by a slight buff to the rapier. and to answer the initial thread question, the reason a dagger is not slash/pierce AND accurate is 'cause o' balance. achieve your goal is simple: make the dagger slash/pierce instead o' accurate, no? HA! Good Fun!

update: this bug is not limited to holy radiance. the paladin's inspiring triumph is an example o' an additional ability that buffs enemies as well as friendlies. we suspect that there is more than a few abilities that is inappropriately buffing foes. HA! Good Fun!

qft however, we will admit being mystified by the lack o' enervating blows in the aforementioned monk builds. with your high accuracy you are gonna crit frequent as an off-tank monk. enervating blows adds the weakened status effect on a crit. choose to build cladhalíath (a peasant weapon) with the stunning effect on crits ability and equip off-hand for double the fun. heck, the genesis poster has a dps rogue in party, and both weakened and stun is gonna be creating additional sneak attack opportunities for the rogue. HA! Good Fun!

there is no best. the druid is a much more straightforward damage dealer, particularly at low levels. the mage has a more varied selection o' debuffs with options to debilitate will scores that are absent from the druid. the mage, as noted already in this thread, has access to powerful combat buffing spells which, perhaps ironically, means that the mage can be a more capable melee combatant than any druid wildshape build, but that is a late game option for the mage. the druid pairs very well with a rogue as the status effects of many druid spells create sneak attack opportunities. however, with an appropriate spellbook selection, you can have your mage bolster a rogue quite well indeed. the mage pairs well with an offensive-minded priest, as the priest gets considerable mileage from spells that attack will. a monk's enervating blows also deals a considerable and dependable will and fortitude debuff. that will debuff is gonna be less useful to your druid than to a priest, mage and cipher. etc. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain that obsidian ever retroactive fixed a few o' the stacking bugs. we kept waiting for a patch to fix reckless assault but to no avail. we were becoming increasing disappointed with each patch that offered no fix. eventual we gets a fellow boardie tell us o' a workaround provided to him by an obsidian. the workaround involved disabling the modal ability, then saving, followed by a reload... or two... or three. it always struck us as odd that obsidian never made any attempt to give widespread attention to the fix seeing as this were a game killer. if one is genuine curious, we would suggest observing how a save and reload of a paladin with the modal abilities deactivated impacts their radius. we ain't that curious ourself, but... ... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76862-i-found-a-new-way-to-fix-the-rogues-reckless-assault-stacking-bug/?p=1651130 HA! Good Fun!

I think that's kind of the point the OP is making.. traps were highly situational at best before 1.05, so nerfing them to make them even less likely to be used seems a bit odd. we use traps all the time. why not? individual traps is situational useful, but trap setting is always useful. we typical got two players with maxed mechanics in the party. so two traps per (difficult) battle is a nice advantage. the damage from traps is often negligible, but a number o' the traps impart debilitating status effects. start off a battle with a few foes already weakened, sickened, hobbled or whatever? the aoe traps can leave 4 or more foes with a debilitating status effect to start a battle. again, why not use traps? also, people is attempting to divorce trap setting from the mechanics skill. that is a mistake. the skills is 'posed to be balanced. trap setting is not a skill. mechanics is a skill. yeah, stealth is a near complete fail. fine. even so, given all the advantages the mechanics skill imparts w/o even considering trap setting, how do you balance mechanics compared to survival or even athletics? mechanics already is a ridiculous useful skill for priests and it uncovers hidden 1007 and secret doors n' such. so, make mechanics no better than stealth. go ahead. as an aside, sunlance does impart secondary burn damage, but much like the druid spell o' the same name, the burn damage range is a mystery. sunlance is a trap we almost never use 'cause it don't add a noteworthy secondary effect to foes, so the -40 penalty is actual meaningless to Gromnir. even so, approx. half o' its potential damage is inexplicable hidden. HA! Good Fun!

this bug has been an issue since release... or 480 (?) actually. pretty much any reload on a map where an aura is already active results in the extension o' the aura. honestly, am thinking the developers should throw in the towel and have paladin auras extend to the entire party regardless o' distance from the paladin. even w/o intelligence impacting aura radius, it is a useful attribute for extending the durations o' exhortations and other paladin abilities, so is not as if our motivation to buff intelligence is decreased in light o' this inexplicably unkillable bug. *shrug* am admitting that we is curious (minimal curious) as to why obsidian can't fix this bug, but am not particular bothered by it neither. paladin class has been maligned since day 1. we believe that the scorn directed at the class is unfair-- based on misrepresentations and a kinda herd mentality. even so, perception is important. if folks don't play paladins, regardless o' whether or not complaints is justified, the class is a fail. have paladin auras affect all party members regardless o' distance makes a perceived weak class stronger. is a bug, but is not a bug we see needing a fix. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

1.05 was supposed to be a major patch insofar as balancing concerns. Gromnir's assumption were that 1.06 were gonna be far more limited and more focused on eradicating some o' the more persistent bugs. and in all honesty, given the absence o' a respec feature, the rebalancing with each patch is actually a bit annoying to us. rebalance is swell and all, but if to take advantage o' such rebalancing we must needs restart the game, we is a bit underwhelmed by such changes. there is more than a few persistent bugs that has lingered for a couple months and we would personal prefer to see at least one patch dedicated to fixes rather than improvements and rebalancing. as for the expansion, it's only been 2 months since the release o' the game. many significant issues have been addressed since late march. in fact, every patch has resulted in at least a few folks complaining that _________ was nerfed. pretending that the obsidians has not made significant changes to the game mechanics in a relative short period o' time is delusional. 'course this is one o' those conflicts wherein perception and reality are at odds. if a particular player does not get his issues addressed, he will fume and rage that obsidian is ignoring the fanbase and/or being lackadaisical in fixing know poe problems. regardless o' how much obsidian does, if those issues of concern to bob or roy or other folks is not addressed, then obsidian is clearly no doing their job, right? *snort* HA! Good Fun!

actually, this bug fail does not result in any kinda Gromnir bafflement. am suspecting that even for the folks testing on hard or potd difficulty (though am not sure if they do have anybody testing potd) most o' the annoyance features such as limited resting/camping supplies is gonna be disabled. is also likely that many obsidian folks testing enable unlimited copper/gold as well. is not difficult to see how this kinda thing could slip past 1.06 testers. obsidian folks focused on mechanics missing a quirky economy bug? no surprise at all. HA! Good Fun! ps 1.06 is beta... 'cause that seems to be ignored.

holy radiance now buffs foes. clarification: vessels, for example, do suffer holy radiance burn damage, but they also get the benefits of the accuracy buff from inspiring radiance and they seem to also get the friendly endurance heal. this seriously limits the usefulness o' holy radiance particular as it is centered on the priest and cannot be easily targeted to exclude foes. HA! Good Fun!

haven't played in a week or so, so am not certain if this is new, but as of this AM (5.0567), applying a debuff to a foe that is already suffering from that debuff can/does/will complete purge the debuff. for example, if a troll is suffering from the paralysis condition and 2 seconds remain on effect, afflicting the troll with mental binding and getting an 8.6 second hit (or whatever is the duration) results in said troll being liberated premature from both paralysis effects. am not certain if this is a 100% kinda thing or what other factors might influence, but have seen this issue multiple times with utilizing knockdown on an already prone foe and overlapping mental bindings from grieving mother. we will need check on similar/differing effects. ty in advance for looking into this. HA! Good Fun!