Gromnir

we mentioned that we took a substantial hit to our net worth when the real estate market bottomed-out a few years ago. from a practical pov, the losses didn't affect us at all as we were bringing in same net incomes. however, for tax purposes we were able to be showing considerable operating losses. in fact, we still have a carryover o' losses such that we will be paying significant diminished income tax for the next few years. ... for many years we has used a lender at vitek to handle most o' our residential property needs. unfortunately, our go-to guy were in a car accident a few months ago and he realized that he liked fishing more than working. so, we no longer got a go-to guy. our fishermen friend recommended a fellow vitek personage to handle our most recent transaction, but we decided to go with somebody else, somebody who could give us a slight better deal on closing costs n' such... save us $1000 to $1500. not much but we is frugal. unfortunately, our unique tax situation is significantly more unique (yes, we know "more unique" is not possible) than the lender we chose were expecting. am thinking she is regretting taking our business. am knowing our accountant is a little annoyed that he is needing to explain things to her, but is understandable that the lender would look at seeming identical yearly operating losses in excess o' $150,000 with a bit o' suspicion. regardless, the loan is becoming more o' a headache than we anticipated. HA! Good Fun!

if that is your "main criticism," we s'pose it is a good sign. Gromnir is most concerned about dexterity working opposite o' the way one might expect for a melee combatant. high dexterity should speed up attack speed, but it might actual be working the opposite. is possible it is a weapons problem as 'posed to dexterity, but we haven't had an opportunity to check. we do wish the dryford weapon vendor had a better selection o' weapons so we could actual test all weapons, but... *shrug* also, it does appear that interrupts is funky. it is possible that the attack numbers is fine, but if so, then the concentration checks is broken. HA! Good Fun!

the new beta build has tuned the skill checks for stealth and mechanics making both more challenging. have a rogue would appear to be even more valuable if one wishes a party member who could possible disarm traps without needing to leave the protection o' stealth. HA! Good Fun!

is a smidgen over 20%... we will see what appraiser says. worst case scenario is 25%. a relative expensive personal residence is seeming like a serious extravagance, but in our racket it is necessity as 'posed to conspicuous consumption. the interest rate and tax advantages on a personal residence is considerable. HA! Good Fun!

we will be eating sloppy joes and veggie chili for at least a few more days. is another drawback to super bowl parties as we needs eat leftovers for almost a week afterwards. we like sloppy joes, but am not a fan o' veggie... anything? even our salads (caesar being an exception... unless you count anchovies) have meat in them if we can manage it. pretty much all the other foods we made for sunday is gone, so sloppy joes and veggie chili monday, tuesday, wednesday and maybe even thursaday? HA! Good Fun!

leferd claims tuesday is for tacos. just saying. HA! Good Fun!

the rate at which new business fail is staggering. we don't have the requisite intestinal fortitude to do new business. real estate is our game. sure, we saw almost 3/8 o' our total net worth evaporate a few years ago, but we were diversified enough at that point that we weren't crippled, and the real estate collapse actual presented an incredible opportunity to buy income properties for very little investment. will be a few years before we complete recover what we lost, but is not as if we is genuine hurting. in fact, 1/3 o' our properties is paid off and we is even taking out a 200k loan on our personal residence (which were paid off in 2008) to close out the loans on three other properties with ridiculous high relative interest rates... 6.75% on one o' them? sheesh. real estate, even when things is bad, is good. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV2DaY4hLUI? that kinda thing? in our beta play, we haven't noticed a mechanics skill boost for our play o' priests o' magran. if such exists, we could easily give enough stealth to durance so that he might fulfill our desired stealthy-trap-disarming-guy role. HA! Good Fun! ps am serious considering a priest o' skaen character for our first poe game. the thing is, we is much dubious that we can squeeze out the requisite lore, stealth and mechanics.

well, "afternoon" ends in an hour, so w/o an update by 6pm pacific, that would constitute a fail, if only a minor one. perhaps he references the multiple assurances o' a 2014 release? is not stated as such, but that would be a valid previous case o' fooling for some. (no fooling Gromnir btw as we had always predicted late march or early 2015 release... pj has been much quiet on that issue.) also, arguably, "early this week" is ending today as well, so perhaps that is what he meant. even if we stretch so that there is only an early week and late week with no mid, developers got a limited time tomorrow to get new build released without having missed their own announced projected release. regardless, is various ways in which quad might justifiably argue that he were fooled into believing earlier obsidian predictions and projections. HA! Good Fun! ps to clarify, we don't mind obsidian missing projected release dates. as a person who has followed game developments for decades, we largely ignore announced projected releases o' anything game related. the real foolishness is in not mentally adding a half dozen qualifiers into any obsidian release date estimate. the way we actual read prediction from obsidian regarding the final beta build: the final beta might possibly be released early or mid or even late this week if everything goes well...

you is making assumptions. if there is no rogue companion, then to fulfill what we believe is essential role o' the stealthy trap disarming (essential for Gromnir,) we needs have either our main character, or some other character spread their limited pool o' skill points 'tween stealth and mechanics. however, for rp reasons, we very much wish for our main character to at least have high lore. am not seeing how to make such a character in poe. without a poe rogue companion, a seeming odd omission, we is facing a difficult choice between making our first character what we wish from a role-play pov, versus having him fill what we feel is a traditional gameplay role. is not that an ability is tied to skill points. is that w/o a rogue companion, we is trying to stretch skill pool in an impossible way. HA! Good Fun!

I agree but in a party of six characters don't you think an interrupter could be quite useful? A barbarian or fighter, for example, or maybe even a wizard seem like they could function well in this role. in the previous builds, increased interrupt % didn't quite work as one suspected. is not as if adding +20% to interrupt via the attribute modification aspect resulted in a +20% rate/chance of interruption. the math for interrupts were a bit complex, and whatever were being modified by 20% were not the overall/final chance o' interruptions. HA! Good Fun!

bad news. magic 8-ball offered this response: My reply is no oh well. perhaps tomorrow. HA! Good Fun!

with $100mil in the bank, am doubting the tax implications is meaningful... though am doubting you is complete serious. alternative: give to offensive line collectively... let them decide who gets the vehicle. raffle? best bbq cook-off? thunderdome? am recalling how barry sanders would give exorbitant gifts to his ol even when they stunk. HA! Good Fun!

They don't just seem identical when the next map has the remains of the skeleton I killed in the previous one. Didn't think of using wilderness lore though, even if I have it on one character. It's a skill I actually need to actively use? Lol, I'd give it a go but already cheated my way through. there is typical 3 paths leading out from most maps. some exits will send you backwards. is simple breadcrumbs solution. use fallen skeletons garbage gear to mark which entrances/exists is dead ends and which is not, and have one other bit o' dropped gear to identify if you is on map 1-4 (or whatever) o' the identical seeming maps. is plenty o' dead skeletons for just such a purpose. is annoying and a bit time consuming, but is not complex or difficult. am suspecting folks get frustrated and quit before trying to figure out the puzzle. we weren't a huge fan o' fell wood 'cause it were too easy but it were time consuming... felt like an unnecessary time sink. am suspecting the developers were caught off guard by how many folks hated fell wood, when there were ps:t fans telling how nifty the modron maze were. HA! Good Fun!

well, doubling the impact o' the attribute point boost is seemingly a noteworthy "except." the thing is, the +3% were near complete negligible, so am not certain that doubling is enough. if the developers didn't change the way interrupts is generated beyond doubling the impact o' the attribute point, am dubious that the 6% will add requisite value. that being said, am thinking some difficulties in judging the usefulness o' attributes and derived stats has as much to do with play difficulty than anything else. is kinda counter-intuitive, but hard difficulty actual robbed us o' many strategic and tactical considerations. at hard difficulty level, our strategy were to build characters that could deliver as much kill as fast as possible. yes, very complex. many tactical considerations is similarly moot if one needs kill everything extreme fast. hard difficulty is frequently, and ironically, a bit o' a mindless hackfest. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna disagree. it all depends on just how much a point o' perception affects tendency to successful interrupt and how necessary concentration becomes to effective mitigate interrupts... and o' course the degree to which a point o' resolves contributes to such mitigation. the problem with interrupt attributes in previous builds were not that interrupt were weak as'posed to strong, but rather that adding or reducing points in the interrupt attribute had negligible benefits and/or penalties. it made far more sense to hit opponents more frequent via boosted accuracy and to make appropriate weapon choice for your potential interrupter character than to spend attribute points specific to boost interrupt. also, playing on hard, we were needing to kill enemies so freaking fast that interrupt were becoming less noteworthy than were pure damage potential. concentration is a bit different. regardless o' how effective interrupt is, if enemy ai or behavior is such that opponents rare interrupt, then regardless o' the potential usefulness o' interrupt, one might not need concentration. it remains to be seen just how much we needs to boost concentration. also, at hard level o' difficulty, we frequent die if we is hit successful more than once, so our fear o' being interrupted, in addition to being a corpse, is a largely incidental concern. HA! Good Fun!

quick aside: when Gromnir uses legal word o' art such as reasonable or malice or any o' a hundred other such descriptors, it would be a mistake to thinks we is using those words as they appear in a dictionary. what is reasonable in the context o' passing Constitutional muster is Not dictionary reasonableness. is a whole line o' cases that illustrate what ain't reasonable as a matter of law. Constitutional "reasonable" is far less subjective than is dictionary reasonable, or even tort reasonable. assume that a cop gets a call on his radio that a latino male between 5'10" and 6'3" wearing a hoodie, and weighing between 200 and 250lbs were involved in a rape at gunpoint in the local area. that don't mean that a cop would be legal reasonable if he shot any freaking latino who conformed to the above physical description and chose to run when the cop stopped to question him. we has brought this up in another thread, but legal reasonable in the United States is actual very different than similar terminology used in western europe. the kinda reasonableness we require for warrants n' such is much higher than in france or england. what western europeans typical consider to be legal reasonable is amounting to no more than mere suspicion here in the United States. *shrug* law is weird. HA! Good Fun!

the reason we is serious contemplating "rolling" a rogue for our first poe character is not 'cause o' mechanics skill, but 'cause o' mechanics AND stealth. be able to scout and disarm traps while stealthy is a capacity we would want at least one party member to possess. rogues is the most obvious choice. converse, given the history o' obsidian games, am suspecting that beyond crude combat and mechanical checks, there will be an emphasis on so-called role-play choices. am predicting that checks for intelligence will be frequent. lore skill checks will also be common. is doubtful that perception is a You Win attribute as wisdom were in ps:t, but am guessing that perception, even while no longer being the accuracy attribute, will be cursed by many poe players who chose to make it a dump stat. our problem is obvious in that we is having difficulty envisioning a capable rogue character that emphasizes intelligence and perception for attributes and is having skills enough to satisfy stealth, mechanics & lore. HA! Good Fun!

I completely agree with you. I see interrupt as being possibly very useful. I could see a fast attacking high interrupt character really messing up a warrior wielding a slow two handed weapon. I just think explaining how the mechanic works is very difficult. If my characters is doing circa 50 damage, then I understand that +10% damage yields 5 more points on average, or how +5% critical hit chance works. Explaining how interrupt works seams a lot more challenging. I'm assuming it checks against concentration. So slower attacking characters could get extra concentration to mitigate. what is "it" and how exactly is it generated? *shrug*' with early builds, interrupt checks were mathematical enigmatic. HA! Good Fun!

Look, I know that as an Euro, I can go "sit and spin*". But... We used to have something similar over here. It was routinely abused to execute "fleeing" prisoners, political undesirables, union members, etc. How the hell is that even supervised? Doesn't that kinda go against due process and presumption of innocence? I don't even... well, the obvious response is that it ain't used over here to "routinely" execute folks, in spite o' what you see on rt. we got any number o' reasonableness and good faith standards that works very well. cops still gotta show that they were indeed acting reasonable, which is frequent tough to show when you shoot an unarmed and innocent person in the back. is usa circa 2015... is not wild west. is not eastern europe. is not china. is not a japanese prison where you can be beaten for raising your eyes w/o permission. HA! Good Fun!

you do realize that identical seeming fellwood maps is intended to be a puzzle, yes? ain't never heard of the hansel & gretel we s'pose as you can use same trick they did. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm015.html also, use of wilderness lore skill will get you through fellwood without any frustration. is not a particular complex puzzle. HA! Good Fun!

Oh yeah in case no one answered this... No, range is no longer on the stat either. It now buffs interrupt chance (just like it did in the beginning) and it increases reflex saves. It seems a strange decision to me, since many people who playtested the earliest version were dumping perception. I'm not saying interrupt is bad, it just seems like a difficult mechanic to convey. I always thought modifying critical hit chance, piercing damage resistance, or increasing range were easier mechanics to understand since they also exist in other games. Honestly, my first thought when I got into the BB was "Interrupt? Is that really that useful, how often do you face casters, anyway...?". I'm still a bit confused, truth be told. My first idea for a character was a duelist (rapier) Paladin with high Perception and Resolve. But now I'll be really damn hard pressed to ever take Perception, and Resolve is a pretty bum stat for Paladins, so.. yeah. interrupt has the potential to be very useful as it interrupts more than just casters. as far as we can tell, just about any current queued action can be interrupted. it is unfortunate, but from a practical pov, am complete baffled by how interrupt is modified by abilities. am recalling back in summer 2014, folks took a shot at explaining the math behind interrupt and it seemed to be a mess. regardless, it appeared as if the attribute modification o' interrupt chance were very small. in the early bb releases, we had an extreme useful ranger that were based on an interrupt concept, but as our current ranger's summoned bear is no longer a meat-shield but rather a twisted s&m pain transfer device, our dedicated interrupter no longer has appeal. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.ask8ball.net/ HA! Good Fun!

sadly, the dishes and kitchen is now clean... finally. maybe we call you up after easter, but we woulds need negotiate the "smoke a set of rears" request. perhaps bring a pair o' these with you? HA! Good Fun!

most valuable is priest, at least on hard. we can contemplate any number o' party configurations, but on hard difficulty, we would not survive for very long w/o a priest. two more? am suspecting that with new build we we will need consider moving paladins up our list o' party mvp candidates... or perhaps not. in the most recent build, paladins were very easy to min/max into uberness and their buffs were some o' the best available in the game. however, while paladin buffs will become relatively even more useful, the removal o' accuracy padding from max perception will likely significant diminish their combat efficacy. currently, chanters is likely our #2 mvp behind priests. the buffing for chanters is excellent, but more significant is their summons. in a game with few party summons available, and a tendency for enemies to bum rush our little band o' heroes, summons is invaluable. in hard-mode, many enemies is capable o' one-shot or two-shot killing any party member, even our tanks. a summons that provides cannon fodder is welcome. regardless, priests is clear #1 mvp. HA! Good Fun!