JFutral

I don't mind the penalties for choosing a spell school having been exposed to something similar in BG. What I mind is the new grimoire structure that I can't seem to affect. It is difficult to keep up with spells I choose on level up and which grimoires have spells I want to and can use. I still fall into the PoE habit of picking one grimoire that works well enough and going with that the whole play through. Maybe that's just me. I'm lazy that way. I'm not totally clear on what problem this new grimoire structure is supposed to solve. But I do agree that the balance between benefits and penalties is way out of whack. Let me at least get an extra cast out of my chosen school of spells. This whole two casts per level is kind of wanky. I also agree, right now there are only two wizards worth the time, standard and evoker. Joe

I pretty much agree with your wizard points. I just don't think the depth of spells exists yet to divide them into schools, or at least not as many schools as there are. I was also thinking, and I know this really throws high complexity into the mix, but just as coming from different areas can affect stats/attributes, I think they should affect spells, at least druid spells. I would think a druid from one climate would have a propensity and proficiency for certain spells based on the inherent nature of those regions. Sort of spell schools for druids, but these make sense. the current sub-classes are sort of interesting, but only in an abstract way. I could see something similar for barbarians. But like I said, added complexity would be the weakness of this idea. Joe

Although, maybe with Deadfire, we want a soulbound boat? Final unlock gives you T-Pain! Joe

This has happened both leaving and re-entering the outdoors area for the world map as well as the ruins themselves. The little pipe smokes for a while and then freezes requiring a force quit. Joe

I occasionally hit character creation bugs in the Appearance selection screen where the selection under the portrait does not start with portrait, usually Pose is selected first but not always. Plus the gallery of portraits do not complete filling in. If I select a non-eixtsant portrait I white picture fills in. I can select a portrait after i have started the game (and can we get the gallery view of portraits when in game? Or did I miss how to do that?) I did not get a screen shot of either of these issues. Also the section under the second class selection view when multi-classing does not show Chosen First Class Details I haven't thoroughly perused this forum enough to know if this has been brought up before (and as slow as I am about these things, they probably have). So my apologies if this has been brought up before. Joe

While I am no fan of money-ball strategies, one thing to keep in mind regarding stats is what sort of made actual stat distribution almost moot, almost ridiculously so, in PoE I was the proliferation of stat enhancing items and resting bonuses (never mind spells). In the right combination one could easily boost any attribute by as much as 6-7 points. Obviously this being a beta and not a complete game yet, we are still in limbo about how that may change. Personally I think 15 points to spread around is about 2 points too few. But like I have chanted regularly, I want epic heroes not common schmucks as my player characters. Joe

Bonus points for using the word 'fungible' correctly! Carry on. Joe

A Rogue/Conjurer who max Str and use Kalakoth's Minor Blights as main weapon is very strong. You can turn Blind Strike or Hobble Strike into AOE CC with it, then all your blights will do sneak attacks. Not to mention AOE Arterial Strike or Gouging Strike. An Assassin/Evoker is pretty cool as you can apply assassinate to your blasts. Or a Streetfighter/Illusionist as a Riposte build. There are many possible builds for Rogue/Wizard. Ultimately I've never been a multi-class fan even in AD&D and BG. I have enjoyed dual classes, like starting out as a fighter or thief then switch to magic-user. Seeing your recent posts about an assassin/wizard has really made me curious though. And I have had fun with my other multis. Mostly I really want my wizard to be a really good wizard, or my druid to be a really good druid, etc. A melee wizard was still a viable build in PoE I, which is part of what made PoE fun. Although I really do like my ranger/rogue and the barbarian/druid. I don't like my sharpshooter losing recovery speed, though. That makes absolutely no sense. Joe

I haven't delved as deeply yet as many others here have. Over all my preferences are still pretty much unchanged: 1) Ranger, rogue, druid 2) Wizard, barbarian, paladin, priest 3) cipher (which I still cannot grok), chanter, monk (which the whole "wounds" thing has always thrown me) My favorite multiclasses so far have been: 1) Ranger/rogue which I built to be a sort of bounty hunter with lots of bluff, streetwise, and hunter skills. 2) A barbarian/druid which I kind of built up as a shaman style paladin since I still think of druids as a variation of a priest class. So far my worst multiclass was a chanter/cipher. Should be no surprise since I am not particularly fond of either class anyway. My second worst was a wizard/rogue, but only because I think I felt the need to spread my attributes/skills selection too thin and not settle on one of the classes playing a more supporting role for the other. Some of the subclasses strike me as potentially intriguing, but the abilities and skills haven't been really diversified as much for all of them to be that interesting. I love the idea of the devoted, but I must be missing how this subclass really functions. I thought I was devoting all my fighter skills and focus to one weapon, but when I keep adding weapon proficiencies, I feel like my focus is diluted. Some other subclasses intrigue me: Mage Slayer Fury Assassin (which I used in my ranger/rogue build) Shifter The whole wizard schools thing seems to lack depth at this point. I feel like if I am going to specialize in a subclass, then I want more substantial benefits. But in a game that seems bent on balance, that is unlikely to happen. Joe

I had visions of the cape or cloak doing damage as it whipped around during combat. Joe

I've been trying to keep up with those in the news, but I haven't initiated any updates and I have it set-up to only update when I tell it to. That does not mean something didn't sneak-in behind my back, but I have no log of that happening. Joe

I want a flame cloak that not only protects me from cold and fire damage, but also enhances my fire damage either directly from a flaming cloak or provides my weapon with fire damage. Of course available in all the elemental flavors—corrosive, cold, etc. And if we HAVE to, okay, balance as a once per day affect, or once per encounter with shortened duration. Particularly lethal with Fire godlike, Paladin, or Magran priests (or other appropriate abilities and related attributes.) Maybe even be a soul-bound item. Joe

Weapons I don't bother with because they are too slow: pistols, blunderbusses, arquebuses, crossbows. Now spells casters, well at least certain spells. I think to deviate this much from the Pillars I model at this point really requires a host of new spells to justify both casting times and spell schools. We have already been given a hint of new spells casting apparel coming down the pike. I am sure the limited nature of the beta makes much of the changes seem arbitrary. Let's hope the heed the call and infuse the next build with some of the enticing answers to our predicament. Ultimately I am fairly agnostic about the whole thing. But PoE I really was a watershed for spell casters for me in light of the missed opportunities in other party based CRPGs. She didn't have to be an archer/magic user to contribute after unloading her one or two magic missiles. He could even wield a sword respectably. It is a shame to see that mucked with. I do feel like there are tow things I consider with spellcasters and I do think whether one is wielding divine magic or arcane magic makes a difference. I think divine magic can and should be deity specific and influenced. That the arcane magic here requires the spell book to be in hand is still kind of weird to me. But I do feel like proficiency in either spells or disciplines should have an affect similar to weapons for fighters, both in study and in caster level. I am surprised that wizards like Llengrath or Concelhaut haven't come up with ways to quickly trigger spells from some sort of stored capacity. We already can trigger spells, or at least spell like functions, from traps. Joe

My problem definitely involves the Steam app. I found the PoE II app and it launches independently just fine. I didn't even know that was an option. Still will not open through the Steam app. Joe

Well, I just tried an experiment and went straight to the PoE II executable and bypassed the Steam app and it launches fine. The problem is definitely with the Steam app. I didn't even know I could launch the game this way. Sweet. Joe

Is there anyway I can change my game key to a GoG key? (Does GoG work on macs?). If the problem is intrinsically Steam, this is the only way I can think of finding out. Thanks, Joe

Hey, thanks for checking in. I don't have any anti-virus software, except what might be built into the macOS (which I don't think is anything these days, but I could be wrong). I've tried turning the firewall on and off to no avail. I emailed Steam support to see if they pushed any updates out on that day, but they just keep playing dumb and tell me to contact the game developer, it isn't their problem. I kindly pointed out that this has not been determined yet, so please comply with my request for information. I haven't heard anything back. I doubt I will. Developers love to play "point the finger at the other guy". I am totally flummoxed as to how to troubleshoot this. I even went to a back up of all the relevant files from 4 days ago and the same thing happens. Steam launches, PoE II launches, black window (which used to be white), PoE II exits back out to Steam app. I don't know what changed. I have no idea. The Mac's console is greek to me, but if someone who knows what to look for would get back to me (from ANY company) I would be more than willing to troubleshoot some more. Joe

I guess this means I am out of the beta. I can't find what changed. I've reinstalled Steam, PoE II, validated files, restarted, checked drives, everything I could think of. No joy. Well, have fun everyone. Play on! Joe

I'm on a Macbook Pro 13" retina, macOS X.12.6. Joe

I can't get Deadfire to launch at all now. Not sure what happened. Everything was fine until yesterday. Was a new update pushed out yesterday? Joe

Okay, so I am officially making this a support issue. I am running the latest Deadfire build via Steam on a Macbook Pro with os X.12.6 with an external monitor. As of yesterday I can't get Deadfire to launch. Steam launches, the PoE II window starts, although black instead of the usual white, and then exits to the Steam app after a short period. I'm not entirely sure how to troubleshoot the issue since I haven't (knowingly) changed anything from the previous to yesterday when it worked fine. And PoE I is working fine, too. So i can't tell if this is a Deadfire issue, a Steam issue, or an OS issue. I guess i am the only one with this problem else others would be chiming in in my other thread or here. Any help is appreciated. Joe

I've tried to launch PoE II all afternoon and Steam launches, the initial black screen for Deadfire opens and then it exits back to the Steam app. I'm running on a Macbook Pro on an external monitor, with Os X.12.6 and as far as I know the latest Steam client. Am I the only one with issues? Joe

I was just wrapping up a left over campaign in PoE I and took on the Battle of Yenwood. There was an implied benefit precedence when the enemy Battle Mages gestured in "unison" to cause some extra fire AoE and damage level. It's all sort of prose in the description, but I think it is there. Joe

I don't know if it was luck of the draw but I found a Pull of Eora scroll that I used and for the life of me I would say it was much faster than a 9 second cast. Or maybe I was just high on adrenaline. Joe

The two hardest encounters my first play-through were the lagufaeth mother. I eventually took the passive way out that first play-through. That was with stock party and a simple rogue MC. The second hardest was the spirits on the way to the forgotten temple. Also stock party and rogue MC. Since then I've only used custom parties to play around with different multi-classes and sub-classes. Nothing has been all that difficult, but I haven't tried PotD level yet. that's next. Joe