JerekKruger

That's why I refuse to wait before fighting them. Got to show them who's boss In my first full playthrough, with a melee Cipher on normal, that was the first fight that really caused my trouble. This is why I was surprised that they were immune to paralyse since I am sure that's how I eventually beat them (Mental Binding). I battered my way through Caed Nua shortly after beating them. I almost managed to clear the courtyard in one rest, but had to camp for the final largish fight near Brighthollow. Then I beat two spirit fights inside the keep itself but was forced to retreat to Gilded Vale before fighting Maewald since Edér had three injuries and was on 1 health After that I did all the easy fetch quests in Gilded Vale and am about to do the Temple of Eothas.

Oh well, I suspect it will never get fixed but we can hope. I did restart by the way. Went with 18/8/10/16/18/8. Spellcasting is, unsurprisingly, a lot slower, but my damage is up a fair amount allowing me to cast spells more than once a decade. Perhaps when I get to a higher level I'll consider changing my attributes again. I just fought the Forest Lurkers near the Shrine of Galawain in Black Meadow. Five man party (Me, Edér, Kana, Durance and Aloth), all level 3, got down to one Forest Lurker at "near death" and Aloth and so I ran around in circles taking the occasional potshot with his sceptre and it eventually died. I swear they didn't used to be immune to paralysis. In earlier play-throughs Mental Binding was always the key to beating them. Has that changed?

Huh, all I found were vegetables I think. Might it have been in the bear cave? I think the hidden cache there has a weapon (I forget what since by the time I fought the bear I had Edér and Aloth in my party (yes, I am a filthy casual who doesn't even solo the bear cave )

Yeah, it's a shame they didn't do more with unique dialogues based on background, culture, class etc. I guess they just ran out of time.

Quick question: is it me, or is Mind Wave's targetting template messed up? Whenever I cast it the template appears centred on my character rather than the intended target. It makes it even harder to accurately use it.

You're right mosspit, if you leave any in Durgan's Battery then, after completing it, they're lost forever.

You can add an Alpine Dragon to your party, so I suspect you can add Odema

I've found myself heading to Caed Nua fairly early and beelining the Main Keep upgrade specifically to maximise the number of random adventures I end up getting. Probably silly on my part but it has become a habit.

Well, you can have more Worth noting is that, apart from the hidden stash in the mines, all other Mechanics gated ingots (Alpine Dragon and the hard to find cache on Longwatch Falls) can be retrieved after finish Durgan's Battery.

One warning: it might feel a bit weird telling Calisca's sister that she died in a Biawac with Calisca stood next to you

Ner, it's for casting speed, although I'm not sure whether I'll keep it there.

A very simple way to implement this would be to simply have certain kith encounters "call for help", so that if you attack one it will immediately aggro several other nearby kith. Perhaps this could be combined with a timer where if you kill them before the timer runs down, they don't call for help (allowing "stealthy" approaches and perhaps giving the Rogue an extra purpose).

There are actually quite a few good one-handed weapons, although they are concentrated in a handful of weapon types - there are three good sabres, three or four good axes (I haven't used Wodewys enough to judge it), several good stilettos, and three good Warhammers. There are also a couple of very good swords, but they're available so late in the game it's best to ignore them, and and several pretty good fast one-handed weapons which won't keep up in damage terms but have other factors that make them good (the Sword of Daenysis is perhaps an exception to this since with 3 DR bypass it will usually do comparable damage to a normal one-hander). You're right though that on the whole magic weapons are a bit unexciting in PoE, particularly in vanilla PoE. There are some pretty interesting ones in the WM I'd say, though whether they really compare to the best from BG2 is debatable. Also I agree that the DR system needs an overhaul. I like it in principal, and think it makes far more sense than the weird D&D AC system - where armour doesn't protect you, it stops you getting hit - but at the moment it does tend to favour big hitting weapons (two-handers, sabres and axes) and weapons with DR bypass (estocs and stilettos) rather too much. Hopefully Obsidian can tweak it and/or rework it so that we have more choice in the sequel.

You make the mistake of assuming I haven't respeced or restarted Also that Warhammer was just the weapon my Cipher started with. As far as I could tell, none of the Cipher cultures start with a sabre and Heodan doesn't sell one, so the earliest you can get one is by stealing Edér's or buying one from the shop in GV. How does coordinating attacks and marking weapons decide who gets the buff? I had always assumed it was based on proximity, but I've never payed that much attention.

Arrested Development fan?

I imagine that would still work.

I just tried it out and it no longer seems possible (if it ever actually was). The idea was that, just before exiting Cilant Lis you'd dismiss Calisca and Heodan from your party. You'd then step outside, trigger the cutscene, then go back inside and rehire them. However it seems you can't dismiss them anymore so it doesn't work.

Definitely agreed! My biggest problem with the Rogue is not that they are under powered since, as you say, they aren't so under powered as to be a drag, it's that what they do and how they do it is just not very exciting compared to other classes. The max level Rogue ability is that ability to pretend to be dead..., the equivalent ability in WM1 was Sap, a 5s stun. Even Shadow Step*, which is at least interesting, kinda sucks since you have no control over when you teleport back. Meanwhile Paladins are wandering around on fire and Monks are flanked by their elemental simulacra. *This reminds me of the time in WoW when I convinced someone that Shadowstep was a special dance that only Rogues could learn. I expected them to realise it was a joke, but since they didn't I sent them on a wild goose chase to unlock it.

That's my head canon for it

There's nothing saying Aloth has to use the same methods as Thaos did. Assuming he believes in the goal of the Leaden Key I don't see any particular reason why he wouldn't take it over and carry on its mission.

Because when compared to other classes, and when built optimally, the Rogue will either find themselves doing lower damage or find themselves doing comparable damage whilst bringing less utility to the group. Cipher's do slightly less single target damage than Rogues, but have a whole load of spells; Rangers do slightly less single target damage than a Rogue but can take talents that make each shot hit two or four targets, and come with a handy pet; Druids do better single target damage than Rogues and also have spells; Fighters do comparable single target damage to Rogues and are durable; Barbarians do lower single target damage than Rogues, but do AoE damage and, with Heart of Fury, can one shot most easier encounters; the list goes on... It's not that Rogues can't be viable, or even that they can't be powerful, it's that when compared to other classes they simply aren't bringing as much to the party. All that said, if you're enjoying your Rogue then that's all that really matters.

Barbarians aren't the easiest class to play, so don't worry if you're finding yours a little tricky. To answer your questions: 1. Perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively, the typical recommendation for a Barbarian is Constitution 10. You have the highest natural Health and Endurance, so you don't particularly need to raise Constitution higher, but lowering it is also a bad idea since the reductions affect you disproportionately (-X% of a large number is more than -X% of a small number). There are Barbarian Builds that make use of both very high and very low Constitution, but they are always trying to do something unusual. As for Might, high is absolutely fine. I think if I were going to build a typical, AoE damage dealing Barbarian, I'd go for something like Mig 17 Con 10 Dex 10 Per 15 Int 18 Res 8 High Might to increase damage, high Intellect to increase the area of effect of Carnage, and reasonably high Perception to offset the Barbarian's lowish Accuracy and the even lower accuracy of Carnage attacks. Having such a low Dexterity might be a bit painful, but with Dual Wielding, Two Weapon Style and Frenzy (along with some other attack speed boosts) it should be possible to attack very quickly even when wearing decent armour. 2. In PoE you don't get any more Attribute points after character creation. There are a few one off opportunities to raise your attributes through quests, and plenty of items raise them too, but other than that what you start with is what you get. 3. The basic rule is this: you can only ever have one bonus of a given type from gear, and if you are wearing multiple items that give the same type of bonus you'll get the best one (for example, if you're wearing a Breastplate that gives you +1 Might, and a Helm that gives you +2 Might, then you will only get the bonus from the Helm). The exception to this rule are Weapons and Shields: these can stack on top of other bonuses of the same type. Roughly the same rule works for buffs provided by spells too, although that's a lot more complicated and has more exceptions. But generally speaking if two different spells raise the same attribute then you'll only get the highest of the two etc. 4. If you feel like you're doing enough damage then sure, why not. Later on into the game you'll probably be able to do so AND still attack with 0 recovery (the fastest possible). 5. 16. 6. Yeah, there's relatively little benefit from dispositions like stoic etc., there are a few pieces of unique dialogue but generally I think it's something Obsidian thought up early on, but then ran out of time to properly flesh out. Fingers crossed they'll do something better with it in PoE2.

I was toying with raising Might a bit, not so much for the extra damage but for the extra Fortitude defence. It's also the reason I didn't reduce Constitution, and I'll probably take Bear's Fortitude at some point. I realised something about Antipathetic Field. Even if you simply cast it at your direct melee target and no one else gets hit by the beam, it's still pretty good damage compared to the other level one powers.

You didn't do anything wrong. Both Calisca and Heodan are scripted to die. There used to be (and perhaps still is) a way to keep them alive, but since they have no banter or quests or anything it seems a little pointless to do so.

So I rolled up a Boreal Dwarf Cipher with 10/10/18/16/16/8 for Attributes. Using a small shield and his starting Warhammer he does builds focus incredibly slowly (a lot of hits don't even build 1 point). Obviously a Sabre and Biting Whip will help, but I think I might have to go with a two-hander or dual wielding in the early game, or not take such low Might. I also took Soul Shock for a spin. It's really hurt compared to Mind Wave by its Average casting time. It seems to me that the optimal level one Powers are Antipathetic Field, Mind Wave and Whisper of Treason. Eye Strike is good an all, but there are lots of other good sources of AoE blind (chillfog) out there, not really sure about Tenuous Grasp.