Tequilaflavor
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Posts posted by Tequilaflavor
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The Charm is pretty strong, but has the usual downside of counting the enemy towards your team for the duration (regarding outgoing buffs etc.)
The weaker Sneak Attack can be really strong with a decent set-up (obviously best on a "pure" damage dealer).
The Ranger ability that hobbles the enemy could be really nice on a ranged Rogue, but I have yet to try it.
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My only real problem is the current state of monks, and I was wondering maybe I'm the only one feeling that way. Monks are my favorite RPG class. I always picture them in my mind as these awesome martial arts guys, in light / no armor, kicking and punching faces, dodging / soaking hits in a decent manner. But in this game, they really didn't live up to my expectations. The wounds system sounds awesome on paper, but you have to get hit for it to work. Now, I can theoretically run a monk with full plate armor, but it doesn't feel like it fits the class theme, or the way I picture them in my mind, and running with light / no armor gets me killed too quickly. I can avoid getting hit, but then there's no interactive play to it without wounds.I suspect that there are players out there building monks with maxed Might and Dex, no damage reduction, and having them lead the charge to the enemy line to try to max their damage output. That combination doesn't work too well, but it doesn't mean monks are a fail.It's possible to have a functional no-armor monk. You'll want to max Perception and Resolve, enchant your clothing as soon as possible for a little bit of damage reduction, and keep your eyes out for gear that will boost your damage reduction or defenses. Send your tank(s) into combat first to take the enemies' first attacks, with your monk close behind, and try to swing around the line and get into combat with a high-value target, like an enemy caster. Low damage reduction will mean that you'll be taking damage (and thus have wounds to use), but high defenses will mean that you won't be crit much and many attacks will only be grazes - which will mean that the damage you take will be less bursty, which should give your healer(s) a chance to throw some more endurance your way. Ideally you want to get your monk into a series of 1-on-1 confrontations; avoid getting mobbed if at all possible. Success is as much a matter of how well you play as it is how well you CharGen.
The problem is that the Monk seems to be a class that likes high Deflection (aka not being hit) but then also needs to be hit a lot to accrue Wounds for his/her abilities.
This just feels . . . weird/wrong to me and like the Monk class is infighting against his/her own abilities/skills/talents.
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Interesting post. I actually disagree on the armor and the classes - which might mean stuff is more balanced than I thought.
Classes:
As far as I can tell right now, Druids are completely overpowered compared to Wizards (they just a lot of really strong foe-only spells early) and that's before even facturing in shapeshifting. Ciphers and Priests are both at a good middle ground in terms of spellcasters, imho, and Druids and Wizards should be balanced to meet their power level.
Paladins and Monks also feel weak compared to Fighters, both as tanks and as "tanky dps/offtanks". Fighters simply get a lot of really strong passive effects where Paladins get dinky auras and active abilities instead (that often aren't all that useful or less useful once a few party members go down) - and the Monk as a class has an identity crisis in terms of "do I want to get hit or not ?".
If your Monk gets hit a lot, he/she has enough Wounds to spam abilities, but will go down incredibly fast if he/she is not a tank. If the Monk is a tank then the Wounds will be much less useful because most of the abilities feel dps-centric.
Rangers seem to be in a good spot as physical damage dealers, their pets make for decent-is offtanks and they do have the range abilities to take down enemies quickly. Rogues are fine aswell because they need to go a risky melee route to maximize their potential but can also do reasonable as ranged dps.
Haven't tried Barbarian and Chanter yet because they interest me the least - my opinion could also change in later acts (only partly through Act 2 right now on my Ranger).
Armor: I actually really love Padded Armor on my PC (Ranger) because he's pretty much a "range only" dps guy and my party easily has enough tankiness to keep most enemies off his back and kill the outliners fairly quickly. Of course, I could wear incredibly heavy armor instead and take about twice as long to reload, but why would I want to on a character that tries his best not to get hit ?
Heavy armor is great, on the other hand, for tanks and offtanks, as it should be. I think, overall, the armor system is actually in a pretty great place, all things considered.
The biggest problem I currently have is that the Skill system feels very flawed: Mechanics is pretty much the god-tier Skill to go for, then come Athletics and Lore as decent-ish choices and then Stealth and Survival as "really niche/flavory/bad picks".
So far, I've only run into 2 Survival checks (both needing only 4 Survival) and other than that, it will help me get my 300s lasting food last for a couple more seconds . . . yeah ? Contrast this to Mechanics, which is pretty much insanely useful on close to every map, everywhere, will find you more loot, disarm traps, open doors and give you a decent amount of experience for your "troubles".
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To be honest, I'm not happy with Paradox getting a big share of the profits.
What did Paradox deliver to us that wasn't the work of Obsidian?
1) an overpriced boxed copy (compared to digital distributors that already take their 30% cut! I expected the shelf copy to cost the same as the steam copy since it requires steam anyway, but that's not the case.)
2) a low quality cloth map
3) a horrible, horrible localization job
I'm not amused. Obsidian did a good job, Paradox otoh screwed up almost every job they had.
Well, Obsidian made it very clear they would not have been able to do it without a publisher.
When or where did Obsidian ever state that ?
The only thing I ever saw stated was that a) Obsidian relegated the boxed version of the game and the extra goodies to Paradox and gave them a (rather small) cut and b) Paradox and Obsidian both saw this as a kind-of "prestige first" partnership that was less about actual finance and more about "looking and feeling stronger together" - I'm obviously paraphrasing here.
Obviously, that doesn't mean that Paradox didn't cover the cost for the box, the cloth map etc. or that there won't be traditional publishing work done on the expansion or the sequel of PoE (could or could not be, who knows), but I think if there was a "we couldn't have done it without you guys" - statement, it was most likely symbolic and just a sign of courtesy by Obsidian (they simply made enough money via Kickstarter, Paypal and pre-orders to cover everything themselves, had the need come up).
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Quick jab at those who vociferously try to keep Respecs from all the players that want the option to use it :
Riddle me this, does Bloody Slaughter increase the crit multiplier for every single crit, or just for those it has converted from hits ?
This changes the talent's worth dramatically, and without a Respec option I, for one, am definitely not going to risk it...
I don't know the answer, but just save the game, spec into it, try it out and then load your save if the talent is not to your liking ? Seems like the most logical cause of action to me.
Edit: Sorry for the double post, was unsure how - if possible - I could add this post to my last one while keeping the quote intact.
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If we're leaving balance changes and mechanics reworks out of the discussion, there are 2 major things I need for higher replay value:
1. Many, many more talents (like 5-times as many as currently !) to choose from.
2. "Prestige classes" alà NWN2 (classes that you can only "spec into" at later levels and if certain requirements are met - a character with 14 Dex and 14 Per could become a Duelist, for example, getting special talents and abilities that help him/her evade attacks and getting free counterattacks when he/she does so again melee attacks).
These are the 2 things that I absolutely will need if I'm going to replay PoE over and over again, they are also the main draw that made me put way more hours than I ever should have in NWN2 (the amount of character customization available in that game is absolute insanity - and yes, I'm aware it's based on D&D 3,5).
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I have been creating and deleting characters, I can't decide what to play...........its really frustrating.
At the moment I am partial between Druid, Fighter, Paladin, Priest and Rogue. Can anyone please help me decide in between these five?
Thanks
Seems you have "restart-itis", which is actually very common in RPGs and I usually "suffer" from it aswell. I also do so in PoE.
Nobody can give you a clear answer what class to play because it's simply personal preference ("power-levels" aside, which shouldn't be the deciding factor in a single player RPG).
It's actually not a problem, though, just restart and play all those classes until you find out if you (really) like them or not and then continue to play through the game.
Eventually, the urge to experience the world and the story will outweigh the urge to restart and experience the classes/systems.
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They really want the Ranger to be a ranged class but it's much better being on the frontlines. I am using mine with an Arbalest but I feel like I'm wasting it's potential being back there, oh well.
I actually kind of agree with the points you made regarding the Monk, but I'm at a loss here.
How is being on the frontlines better for a Ranger when the Ranger a) has a companion that is supposed to "tank" at the frontlines for him/her, b) has skills that only work with a ranged weapon and c) is supposed to be built as a squishy damage dealer who works best away from the frontlines ?
I really can't follow your argument there - where is the wasted potential and how exactly is being at the frontline better ?
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If you actually examine how much Endurance a point of Con grants you, you will be somewhat less impressed with it.
Resolve and Perception are much more important to a tank - it's just that they have little or no importance to everybody else.
Well, I just imagined it would work as the tooltip suggests, giving me a couple of % bonus on my max endurance and health per point, which is pretty useful for a fighter who has a very high endurance to begin with (thus benefiting more from %-based boni).
I think, considering that it gives endurance and health, it's pretty much in line with most other stats (my fighter sometimes has to worry more about health than endurance).
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CON for me is the one that really stands out, as in, no builds really need it and for most builds you can take points from it and not really notice. To me it is clearly the weakest Attribute.
I don't think making it better at what it does is the answer though...I think maybe they should take deflection from PER and give it to CON and put Accuracy back to PER? Or something else.
Agree with you also that Might feels like the strongest attribute, at least the most useful across all classes and builds.
I actually find CON fairly useful (in moderation) on my "frontline offtank" PC. It's a stat that should only be taken by "frontline grunts" which is why it is %-based (which isn't neccessarily a poor design choice, imho).
If CON got changed to a flat endurance/health bonus, it should be balanced around how much Fighters and Barbarians currently get out of it - which might potentially make it too good on Wizards and the like, depending on how the encounters get balanced. Seems unlikely, but it's something to keep in mind.
RES is, in my opinion, a decent secondary tank stat. It's not super-amazing, but it's in line with the majority of the stats in usefulness and I would not want my frontline fighters without at least some RES for that reason.
Now PER . . . really stinks, as far as I can tell right now. Whenever I spend points in it, it just feels bad. Interrupts aren't reliable or good enough to invest in, the high deflection bonus is nice (deflection IS useful in moderation because it works on a "1% to not get hit" system) but PER feels like a tertiary tank stat at best and you usually don't have the points to invest in it.
Not sure what to change about it . . . maybe make interrupts better ?
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I actually consult the PoE wiki for that - which is pretty good in that regard.
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Not sure if I spoil too much by saying this but . . . there is another companion . . . nearby . . . that can follow you into this dungeon.
With a party of 3, the first floor is no problem. Stay clear of the second floor until you recruit a 4th party member/get some levels, though, unless you are looking for . . . unusually tough challenges.
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I'm a backer but I haven't got any wurm
I'm also a backer and I don't have a Wurm either.
Special items I got (as far as I can tell): Space Piglet, Cape of the Obsidian Order and a ring (not sure if everybody gets the ring, though).
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If you played BG1 and BG2 you must know that you can easily in both games run into areas that are too tough for your current level and you need to level up somewhere else (or get better loot) and come back later.
This is no different.
In all fairness, though, I never ran into this problem just following the main quest line. Sure, if you head straight north after visiting the Friendly Arm Inn for the first time and come across a couple Ankhegs you're gonna be in a world of hurt, but there were plenty of times I went into the Nashkel Mines as fresh level 2s and while it was tough, it wasn't constant party wipes.
I'm not trying to be defensive, I'm just pointing out that im going to the places the game naturally points me to go.
Yep, you're right about that. What you have to consider though is that you might be currently pretty bad at the game. That will go for many of us. When I fire up BG2 now, I've played it, and other D&D games, so many times that I'm starting from a pretty high level of competency. With POE, sometimes I find out basic things after dying several times because it's got several new rules and mechanics.
Arguably that means the game should have been balanced to be easier, but I like it this way, since when we play for a bit more and develop a competency it'll still have challenging options.
So much this ! Couldn't help but to "like" your post for quote-worthiness.
I'm new to PoE (backer but never played the beta) and - for example - I only found out how Engagement works by seeing a Talent for "+1 Engagement" for the first time, thinking "What is this ? I'm not a bigamist !" and then looking it up in the wiki. And this was several hours into the game ! I had a vague notion that you get hit if you run around while in melee combat (alà Attack of Opportunity) but I had no clue how Engagement actually worked !
Point is: Most of us truely are newcomers to this game and its system and I think it's fine to be humbled by some harder encounters here and there and forced to learn how the systems work to overcome these fights.
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This is my first IE game (I dabbled in Baulder's Gate but never very far). So far I'm really enjoying it. But Maerwald is kicking my ass. He one shots 3/4th of my party with his fire AOE thing.
Not sure if I'm
1) Too low level
2) Don't know what I'm doing
My party is
1) Human fighter (player char) level 3
2) Durance level 3
3) Kana level 3
4) Aloth level 3
5) 2nd level Aumaua Barbarian
6) 2nd level Godlike Druid
I recruited 5 and 6 after I had trouble clearing the undead in the courtyard. That helped, and got me as far as Maerwald, but he's just totally annihilating me.
Is there a particualr spell or something I should be using? I looked over all the spells but didn't see anything about resisting fire.
Or do I need to go back and explore maps and get to level 4 or something.
I know I could just set difficulty to easy but that's lame.
I think you simply are too low level.
If I remember correctly, I was level 5 when I encountered Maerwald and the rest of my party was level 4 - I played without hired adventurers, though.
Enchanting your gear is also a really worthwile preparation and I was quite frankly stunned by the amount of enchants I could already throw out before reaching the first major city.
While fighting Maerwald, try to spread out as much as possible to get hit less by the AoE and try to use as many disables as possible on him (knock him prone, stun him, etc.).
Hope that helped a little.
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I actually enjoy the fact that Chanters are pretty much "reverse Wizards" in that their abilities get stronger in longer fights instead of doing their best upfront and then being not very useful later.
I also found that most of the more difficult fights easily last long enough for the invocations to kick in (fights where I have to reposition and "heal" my party several times etc.) - and on the easier fights they're not needed anyway.
I'm playing on Normal btw. and my characters are probably not really optimized (I like a bit of flavor and am still learning PoE's systems).
Supply and Demand can't complete (Ondra Gift - Cant loot)
in Pillars of Eternity: Technical Support (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
The task "All Hands on Deck" in Ondra's Gift (Defiance Bay) is currently bugged on my latest playthrough (I have WM 1 + 2 installed but started the campaign before WM 2 came out) - even after reloading.
Everything seems to go as planned until after I've defeated the thugs.
The problem is thus:
I can neither loot their corpses, nor can I take or open the chest (that is physically standing around in the game world a few meters from the thugs) - in fact, I can't interact with the corpses or the chest at all.
The quest description updated and says something like "I should take the chest, now that I've dispatched the thugs."
This bug is reproducable (when reloading) in its entirety on this character (aka I reloaded a save file before even talking to the quest giver at all).