Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

Steam forums are always floooooded with trolls, especially around the game's initial release. My favorite are the price point trolls. "This game sucks! And it's way too expensive!" Literally every game at every price point, including free, gets people complaining about the price.

There's an existing thread for this in the backer beta forum that might be worth checking out. One good source for pictures is online collectible card games. Lots of people have found images from "Legend of the Cryptids" that worked well for PoE with proper cropping (though lots of the art is too anime-ish).

That's the thing though -- I think because of the buff stacking limitations, lack of a head slot may not be as big of a thing as it would be. You can only stack so many buffs. I do agree it would be nice if the stat buffs were partially based on the underlying race and thus more modal.

There may be like Ring +5 Accuracy or whatever.

The more I think about this the less I'm concerned about it, honestly. The thing is, there are like six or seven item slots, and there are only so many possible bonuses from items; you can only have, at most, one buff to each stat, for example. So the loss of the helmet slot is a penalty but it's one that can be gotten around, most likely. We won't really know until we have complete item lists and some experience playing the game but it doesn't seem like as big an issue as I thought it would be at first. That said I do like the idea of making the godlike stat benefits more modal, with one +1 based on their godlike type and one +1 based on their base race. So you'd lose the flexibility of the head slot, but gain the flexibility of more choice in your starting max stat. I agree with the above that battle-forged really isn't that great, but what the hell, it's fun, and apparently has been tweaked upwards for release (we'll see how it does). I've been messing around with a fire godlike build with 20 dex, 14 might, 14 resolve, swift strikes, turning wheel, scion of flame. It's a fun build and attacks lots; currently I'm leading my BB group in damage by a significant margin, even with the wizard using AoE's.

That's what Zealous Focus is for.

Yeah, I'm convinced that there *is* a good Fire Godlike monk build out there. I'm just not sure what it is.

Yeah, I mostly just want confirmation that I'll be getting a Steam key so I know whether or not buying an edition upgrade makes sense or not.

I don't like the first action to be a non-spell. I find it more useful to have the Cipher get off a spell to isolate a VIP before the battle becomes pitched--which is as soon as it begins. That's one of the main reasons why I avoid long recovery duration weapons for the Cipher. Switching to another weapon would cost even more time. It's sortof situational for me. Sometimes if there's an enemy soft target, like the wizard in the group of adventurers by the drake eggs, i can usually one-shot that wizard with a blunderbuss blast, so that's better than crowd control powers because at that point an enemy is *removed*. If you're facing more durable enemies then CC-first is the better tactic.

You follow your bliss, dude.

One paladin build I've seen discussed a lot and plan to try at some point on release is a Bleak Walker arquebusier paladin with flames of devotion and the accuracy modal. Open combat by one-shotting the weakest enemy then wade in with a big weapon.

Yeah, I've read it! Again, wasn't claiming that *flanked* the status effect didn't stack with other afflictions, but that (presuming it follows the stacking rules that everything else does) its effect of -10 deflection wouldn't. (just like if you have two buffs and they both buff Deflection and something else, only one of the Deflection buffs will take effect). Yeah, that's possible and maybe that's the logic here. Maybe it's a "passive" effect rather than a "debuff" in the stacking formula, which would make it stack with everything else. That still doesn't really make phantom foes "good" or worth taking but I guess it's slightly less horrible. Either way this is either a bug or something that needs to be clarified.

It's sure as hell This just got interesting... So is that a bug? Is Flanked even an affliction? Only "afflictions" can override other "afflictions". It's sure as hell something. My understanding was that only the strongest penalty to a given stat would be put in place, just like stacking with buffs. Maybe "Flanked" counts as "passive" ? Did the "flanked" in your test come from an ability or from positioning? I mean that's still not really enough to make Phantom Foes "good" but if it stacks with everything because of some weird twist of the rules that's a benefit.

What's the difference between Charmed and Dominated? Do you know? Curious, that's all. Charm includes a significant debuff component, Dominate doesn't. The real advantage of Puppet Master is that taking it instead of Treasonous Whisper opens up other first level Cipher powers. There are four good level one powers -- soul shock, treasonous whisper, eyestrike, and mind blast -- so it's a tough call which to take. On the other hand if you want a junk power, right now at least Phantom Foes is the worst one by far, worse even than amplified thrust. All it does is give flanked, and all Flanked does is give - 10 Deflection. There are ten other Cipher powers that will over-write that penalty and make it redundant/suppressed/worthless while also giving some other benefit as well, and your Cipher will end up taking at least one of them. Its only marginal value is if you really want the Flanked effect for some reason, like you have a magic item that gives bonuses against Flanked targets, but that's an edge case and not a reason to take a power. Wait, flanked gets over-written by other afflictions? "Flanked" doesn't, but the only effect of "Flanked" is -10 Deflection, and there are like ten other Cipher abilities (including Eyestrike and Whisper of Treason, which are both lower level) that give similar or greater debuffs to Deflection, and those won't stack. So you still get the "flanked" affliction, but it doesn't *do* anything if there's just about any other debuff on the same target. So if (for example) you've already hit the target with Eyestrike, or Secret Horrors, or Silent Scream, etc., and you also hit it with Phantom Foes, the only thing you're accomplishing with Phantom Foes is if you happen to be carrying a weapon that gives a bonus vs. Flanked enemies.

What's the difference between Charmed and Dominated? Do you know? Curious, that's all. Charm includes a significant debuff component, Dominate doesn't. The real advantage of Puppet Master is that taking it instead of Treasonous Whisper opens up other first level Cipher powers. There are four good level one powers -- soul shock, treasonous whisper, eyestrike, and mind blast -- so it's a tough call which to take. On the other hand if you want a junk power, right now at least Phantom Foes is the worst one by far, worse even than amplified thrust. All it does is give flanked, and all Flanked does is give - 10 Deflection. There are ten other Cipher powers that will over-write that penalty and make it redundant/suppressed/worthless while also giving some other benefit as well, and your Cipher will end up taking at least one of them. Its only marginal value is if you really want the Flanked effect for some reason, like you have a magic item that gives bonuses against Flanked targets, but that's an edge case and not a reason to take a power.

I have gotten amplified thrust to work once or twice. I think k the push element must have to hit separately.

"I saw some videos and didn't like the UI, this up to 100 hours long RPG is clearly not worth $45!"... Ok. Literally every popular new game at every price point gets flooded in the first week or two with posts complaining about the price. This happens even with free to play games - people complain about the ads, the dlc, etc.

That's precisely why I like big slow weapons on the cipher, though. With one alpha strike you attack once, get a great big pile of focus, and then cast for the rest of the fight. I don't like using lots of small attacks because then I'm spending a lot of time attacking instead of spending a lot of time casting. Instead I just blast once then immediately stop bothering with the weapons and move to casting. That said yeah either approach can work so long as you build for it appropriately.

Oh it's not you it's the description, right. Thank you for pointing out the ambiguity.

Heh, thanks, yeah, I just saw Ushas' bug post. I'd been assuming that the description he pointed out was a typo, that basic soul whip gave no damage enhancement, and that biting whip just added 20%. If base soul whip added 20% and biting adds an additional 20%, and then lashes *too*, yeah, the more damage multipliers you stack, the more the Biting Whip pays off. Honestly I think the real "intent" of Draining Whip is for melee ciphers using dual weild against high-DR targets. If you have a 20 dex character you could start pumping out lots of attacks very fast, rack up lots of +2 Focus, low damage hits, and also dump out your powers very fast too. It does have that nice synergy with the blunderbuss though that makes it worth considering even if you're going for a high might, low dex build, but probably not as your first talent.

I'm glad he's looking at them but that's still not exactly "good"; any ability that requires dropping to 25% endurance is a lot higher-risk than it's probably worthwhile. Compare with the human racial ability, which is just better, and humans don't have to give up a head slot, much less Wood Elf or Hearth Orlan, which aren't conditional on shooting yourself in the foot first. Just in the backer beta, we saw one helm that gave +1 dexterity and +2 athletics; the wiki shows another helm that gives +2 intellect. Every +2 armor item that isn't on your chest slot, is another positive enchantment you can put on your chest armor instead of that +2 stat. Losing a head slot is a larger penalty than it seems in the beta because the beta doesn't have many good items for that slot. It's a big hit to equipment flexibility. Maybe a +1 bonus to (stat) would be more reasonable than +2, but the Godlike bonuses aren't really strong enough in comparison to other racial bonuses to justify the loss of the head slot in balance terms. Give, say, Nature Godlike an additional +1 to Resolve, Death +1 Con, Moon +1 Perception, Fire +1 Might, and you're all good. Godlikes give up some long-term character flexibility in exchange for a permanent standing bonus to a given stat.

Oh, I'm aware, but it isn't, so it should be. The obvious balance would be to give each type of godlike a +2 bonus to a particular stat to balance out being unable to wear a +2 item in that slot

Oh one thing They should give Godlikes a +2 additional stat boost to compensate for the loss of head slot.

Seems to be base 10 focus + 5 focus/level, yeah., and twice that is your "max." Presuming that it is 1/4 of damage dealt == focus gained: From some rough back of the napkin calculations, a blunderbuss shot at the current base 6-9 per shot is going to average around 60 damage per shot, assuming everything hits, against an unarmored opponent, and presuming Might 10. So if focus gain is 1/4 damage dealt, that would be 15 focus gained from the base damage. If you take biting whip, you'd deal 72 damage instead average, and thus get 18 focus, for a gain of six focus vs. base. Conversely, the same shot would give you 15 base focus (from damage) + 16 focus (from the talent) if you took Draining Whip. So almost twice as much focus gained -- 31 focus vs. 18! But would only do 60 damage instead of 72. If you're going against an armored target -- say someone in plate -- the numbers get even more skewed. On the other hand, let's say you've made a character with 18 Might. That gives you a 24% damage bonus. So your base 60 damage is now 74.4 damage, average, so you're getting 18.6 Focus per shot. Add Biting Whip and you're doing 89.28 points of damage, average, and getting 22.32 focus per shot. Let's say you also have a "Superb" enchantment on your blunderbuss (for an additional, what, 50% damage?) and a Burning Lash enchantment (for another 25% damage). I'm actually not sure how those formulas all work together (does biting whip enhance the burning lash, or is it calc'd separately off the base?) but let's say your base damage is 60 x 1.24(might) x 1.5 (quality enchant) x 1.25 (lash enchant) that gives 139.5 base damage; if biting lash multiplies off that total, that's then 167.4 damage (or about 27 additional points of damage), and you're getting 41.85 focus per blast average, about seven points of which is additional focus from the biting whip. So yeah you're actually always going to get more focus from the draining whip than from biting whip, even with top end enchantments and a reasonably high Might. When I ran those numbers in Beta 435 the calculation I got was that biting whip was better late-game but the nerfs to blunderbuss damage seem to have changed that. On the other hand, if you can get a blunderbuss early on, even with biting whip you're still going to be getting just shy of 20 focus per shot before you even start enchanting it up. And twenty focus is *plenty* at low levels -- at second level that will top out your meter if you open with it before casting. So I'm not sure the extra focus from draining whip is worth the lost damage. I think the "best" option for a blunderbuss Cipher is probably to take Biting Whip at 2nd level, but more for the long term damage boost than for the focus gain. At fourth level take Ruffian skill set for the accuracy boost (and go get the Leadspitter). At 6th level go ahead and take draining whip *also*, because by that point, your focus meter is getting big enough that having the nice reliable boost from draining whip might be a big help. At 8th level probably want penetrating shot. On the other hand, there's definitely something to be said for taking Draining Whip early, especially if you find yourself facing a lot of heavily armored enemies.

How much ram and CPU does it take to run the emulator though?