JerekKruger

Oh yeah, definitely. That's exactly how I do it to be honest, although thinking about it it might also be worthwhile to level it in Galvino's Workshop too. I think, out of the five WM 1 soulbound weapons I only rate Stormcaller and the Redeemer as decent, and the Redeemer primarily because of the proc. The Greenstone staff sees nearly no use in most my playthroughs, though I usually equip it on Hiravias since it seems fitting, and I only use the Grey Sleeper on Eder until I get a better weapon for him. I might try to make use of Nightshroud on my current playthrough, since I intend to use Devil, but I'm not sure it really compares to other options for her.

I think against your average vessel you'll do better (or at least as well) with a good non-soulbound two-hander. Where the Redeemer really shines is against really tough vessels. You activate destroy vessels against an Eyeless One and it's a pretty huge help, you activate it against a Battery Defender and meh, who cares.

Well it depends on exactly what you mean by designed. Certainly no one ran the calculations to optimise it perfectly, but a process of trial and error improved the designs slowly but surely so that late medieval plate was surprisingly cleverly designed. Don't forget that this was something designed to protect people from death and, until the very latest periods where plate was fielded, primarily to protect the lives or rich people. That gives a good reason for your artisans to design the absolutely best plate they can in order to secure the lucrative business of selling this stuff to the nobility. But even before that people were aware of the importance of distributing weight to some extent. Generally when wearing a mail shirt or hauberk a warrior would wear a thick leather belt tightly around their waist and allow the mail to sag over it, taking the weight off their shoulders and putting it onto their hips thus making it far less tiring to fight in. Generally speaking when it comes to situations where peoples' lives are on the line technology improves pretty fast. You can find any number of videos of people wearing reproduction plate and running, doing cartwheels and other acrobatic things on YouTube. People tend to overestimate the weight of a full plate harness: they'd typically weigh no more than 25kg (about 55lbs), often less (particularly for suits designed for fighting on foot) and this would be distributed over the whole body both by design and necessity as you pointed out above. Of course going for long periods of time wearing 25kg of gear would be tiring, but the evidence is that over shorter periods of time it doesn't limit mobility much at all. Now of course, the only people wearing plate would have been professional soldiers of some sort, so whilst not necessarily Might 18+ characters it's probably fair to assume they were of above average strength and endurance and had trained wearing their armour. As a side note, plate worn for jousting tournaments was much thicker and heavier. You might wonder why you wouldn't want the absolute best protection in battle but the answer is simply that it has to be a compromise. This heavy jousting armour probably did slow the wearer, and it definitely reduced vision, two things that a battlefield soldier couldn't afford. Actual field plate would be thinner in less important areas, focussing it's protection on the head, neck and torso. It also made heavy use of cleverly designed slanted surfaces which made it very hard to strike a square blow against the plate, and naturally angled in such ways to direct blows away from vital areas. It was actually really clever stuff. Partly certainly, but the body armour, weapon, spare ammunition, grenades, small med kits etc. all add up to a surprising amount of weight.

From the point of view of plot involvement the Cipher certainly has more than most. I think perhaps a Priest may also have a fair amount, though I've never played through as one.

Wow, that's impressive. I think my first play through was about 100 hours but I reloaded a lot to tailor my dialogue options appropriately to my character (sometimes I'd pick an option, then the response would suggest I'd clearly read the option wrong) and try out different endings for various quests.

It's not about criticising the game too much, it's about the way in which you criticise it. It's hyperbolic and often based on false statements about what is or isn't possible. I agree that the difficulty balancing in PoE is not great (bad even) and I agree that WM 1&2 made things worse, but to say it's the "worst ever" is just rubbish. The difficulty balancing in BG 1 was terrible: if you followed the story and headed straight to the Nashkel mines then mages and rogues could be one shotted (depending on the difficulty setting you were playing, in such a way as to disallow rezzing) and even sturdy fighters could be two shotted; but if you spent time doing every single annoying fetch and carry subquest between the Friendly Arm Inn and Nashkel, particularly if you did this with a small party, the mines (and indeed the rest of the game) would be a complete walkover. It was still a good game. Also I challenge anyone to say, with honesty, that BG 2 without spellcasters is fine in a way that PoE isn't. It's definitely doable, but then so is PoE solo on PotD with a non-spellcaster class, but it's significantly harder than playing through with a mage and priest or three.

Actually, whilst obviously heavy, plate isn't particularly slowing in real life since it's designed to distribute its weight well to minimise the effect. The main difference is that someone wearing plate will fatigue more quickly, not that they'll be much slower. Interesting side fact, the weight of kit modern US soldiers carry in combat is quite a bit heavier that a typical plate harness.

Honestly there aren't really any wrong choices in this regard so I'd suggest going with whatever class appeals the most. Rogues and Barbarians are a little weaker, but outside of Paths of the Damned this shouldn't really matter. I guess perhaps you should avoid being a Priest or Paladin if you want total freedom in dialogue (those classes have mechanics tired to certain dialogue choices) but this is not that important so if those classes appeal don't feel obliged to avoid them. If you have some idea what you want your main character to do (melee damage dealer, tank, ranged damage dealer etc.) Let us know and we could suggest off that. If all else fails, I can suggest that monks rock.

Come on, using anything but your fists is cheesing. Nature didn't give you weapons and armour so you shouldn't need them. Punch the dragon to death (not if you're a Monk, being a Monk is cheesing).

You make a good argument, but since your post starts with the [DECEPTIVE] I know you're lying so I can't believe you

Level 3 is the ogres yeah. It's the damn ogre druids that are a pain, particularly when there's more than one at once.

Yeah, Raedric can be tough. At the very least I'd pick up Kana before facing him, ideally pick up the sixth companion you meet (not sure if you've got them yet so don't want to spoil, but you get them soon after passing through Caed Nua). Also unless you feel the need for role-play reasons, agree to help him initially, then set yourself up better around his throne before talking to him again and attacking. The primary targets should be his priests and mages but make sure someone (Eder probably) tanks Raedric whilst you do this.

I get the feeling that Od Nua was meant to be split roughly as 1-5 doable at the end of Act I, 6-10 doable at the end of Act II, and 11-15 doable in Act 3, though this is only a very rough guideline. As mentioned, level 3 is very rough if you do it early on, it remains a little rough even with some levels under your belt.

Of course there can, in exactly the same way as reading a novel can be immersive. It's just a case of letting your imagination take over.

@Tennisgolfboll Moon Godlikes are indeed very powerful, but that's why I avoid them (well that and aesthetics). Thanks for the other suggestions, I might indeed invest in some defensive talents. What I can't work out is whether Deep Faith is worth it or not. @Ichthyic yeah, Rumbalt is a nice weapon. Probably better against weaker enemies. I can use both and switch them out where appropriate.

See to my mind the big reveal really isn't that big a deal:

Thanks for the feedback KDubya. I am fairly certain that as of 3.02 they do, though none of their portraits do of course. I think the strategy I've seen is to sacrifice Ituumak at the start of the battle to use it, though this does get Sagani her sadness malus. Yeah, I think I shall. I just didn't have much of an idea how reliably a Paladin could get finishing blows on PotD without micromanaging. Huh, I'd always assumed it was good. I assume it's supressed by Dire Blessing though which is a lot better. I rarely take Arms Bearer as it seems a waste, but the more I think about it and the more builds I see with it, the more I realise it's really not.

Huh, I didn't know that. I ought to learn the various buff suppressions to avoid that sort of thing. Thanks for telling me.

There is a scroll of boosting mechanics (no idea of the name) like there is for each skill. I think it gives everyone within a certain range of the caster +3 mechanics for 300s.

Tidefall is a brilliant weapon, possibly the best two-handed weapon in the game, but for various reasons I rarely actually use it. In my next run, and my first run on PotD difficulty, I intend to rectify this and make it my Watcher's primary weapon. I've also wanted to play a Paladin for a while now, but have been putting it off until Faith and Conviction was fixed for the Watcher. Well patch 3.02 did just that so I feel like now is a good time to start a Paladin as well. Hence I'm going to start a Paladin who wields Tidefall. Order: The first question that arises is which order to pick. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Kind Wayfarers (second would probably be Darcozzi Paladini). The question I have is how good is Strange Mercy? I imagine a Paladin, even one built for damage, is going to struggle to reliably get killing blows; is the healing from Strange Mercy good enough to justify it anyway? Race: Race wise I'm probably going to go with an Elf, probably Pale but perhaps Wood. This isn't optimal I'm sure but I like them aesthetically and their racial abilities aren't bad: the Pale Elf will give my Paladin some extra protection against fairly common damage types and the Wood Elf would improve any arquebus alpha strikes and provide a little extra protection from archers and mages at a distance. If I decided to go for a Darcozzi Paladini I'm almost certainly go with Ocean Human for role-playing reasons, and their racial is semi-decent for a melee damage dealer. Attributes: Attribute wise I'm currently thinking of something like: Mig 18 Con 8 Dex 10 Per 16 Int 16 Res 10 My reasoning is as follows. I want high Might as the high base damage of a two-handed weapon benefits the most from it (as will an arquebus shot), I want to up my Perception to make up for the Paladin's relatively low accuracy, and I want high Intellect to benefit Sacred Immolation as much as possible. Given I am planning on doing damage I can't really afford to drop my Dexterity much, and since I am going to be in melee I don't want to dump Resolve at all. I figure, not being a primary tank, I can afford to drop Constitution a little without much danger. This also has the benefit of giving all my saves the same attribute bonus so I won't have any weak points there. Any thoughts or suggestions? Abilities: Here's where things become more difficult. Paladins have a lot of nice abilities, and not enough levels to take them all. Here's what I'm thinking at the moment (in the order I'll take them): Lay on Hands Zealous Focus Flames of Devotion Sworn Enemy Hastening Exhortation Aegis of Loyalty Sacred Immolation ??? Lay on Hands is so good I feel like I have to take it, but perhaps this is a mistake? Zealous Focus seems like a no-brainer. Flames of Devotion allows for a powerful alpha strike with arquebus and also works well with the high base damage of a two-hander. Sworn Enemy is a big buff against tough enemies, though if I intend to go the Kind Wayfarer's route my Paladin should probably focus on squishier targets first so perhaps this is a bad pick? I have to admit I don't know if a Paladin can exhort themselves, and if they can't then perhaps this isn't the greatest pick, but it's still a great buff for other damage dealers in the party. Aegis of Loyalty gets picked for the lovely synergy with Sacred Immolation rather than for its damage dealing potential. Finally Sacred Immolation gets picked because it's brilliant. Abilities I'm wondering whether I should take: Inspiring Triumph: this once again depends on how reliably I can score killing blows. Thoughts? Liberating Exhortation: this is a very popular ability amongst people on this forum but I've never used it much when I take it on Pallegina. Presumably I'm missing something about it but I'm not sure what. Reinforcing Exhortation: if I can exhort myself, then this might be a useful emergency button. Even if I can't it's a useful ability. Righteous Soul: I can't decide whether this is any good, it's a big buff to the Paladin's charm and dominate saves which synergises well with the Aegis of Loyalty + Sacred Immolation combo, but perhaps Paladins have sufficiently high saves already? Behold the Martyr: I can't decide whether this is worth taking or not. I guess it depends on how often other members of my party go down. Talents: This is a fair bit easier to pick. Obvious choices are: Weapon Focus Soldier Two-Handed Style Savage Attack (annoyingly bugged at the moment) Vulnerable Attack Scion of Flame (for Sacred Immolation and Flames of Devotion) Critical Focus Intense Flames That leaves one going spare. I'd be tempted to skip Savage attacks given the current bug, though the extra damage is very nice. Other talents that might be worth taking would be The Sword and the Shepherd and Bloody Slaughter (if I go the killing blow route), and perhaps Superior Deflection for a bit more melee survivability. Deep Faith used to be really good value for money, but it's new incarnation seems a bit lacklustre. Other Questions: I like to build Eder as a Lady of Pain, do you think that'd still work or should I build him as a sword and shield fighter for a bit more tankiness? Also any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.

To add, I did reload specifically because I actually reached Gilded Vale before resting, opened the chest to find a Ring of Deflection, then reloaded and rested just to see what I'd get the next day.

Huh, I just got the mantle from the Gilded Vale Inn. I can't say exactly which day it was, but it was exactly one rest after the start of the game, so the second earliest day you can arrive in GV.

True, although if you can reach zero recovery (by whatever means) then that half recovery from dual wielding becomes irrelevant. If I understand the way it's calculated correctly, a durgan refined BotEP with Swift Strikes activated is at 27.5% recovery. Throw in another decent speed buff like hastening exhortation and you reach 2.07 recovery which allows you to wear durgan refined padded armour with no recovery. I think a potion of deleterious alacrity of motion will allow you to wear unrefined plate I think. All that said, I might be making a mistake with respect to my calculations and what stacks with what. The Greenstone staff seems an obvious backup weapon for when your primary damage type doesn't work. The paralysis proc for the monk is actually pretty nice.

I think the main weapon I'd consider using with the Monk instead of his fists would be the Blade of the Endless Paths. With a lash and two-handed style its damage will be close to that of max level fists, the DR reduction puts it over the edge and the attack speed enchant means you're not losing out on two weapon style. Perhaps Tidefall as well given how amazing the wounding ability is. Indeed, pikes are a formation fighting weapon and would probably be a liability in the type of combat in PoE. At best you'd get one chance to hit your opponent as he closes, but if he parries you he can very quickly make your pike useless. That said, the "pike" in PoE is more like a spear in length, and wielding a spear two-handed, whilst not ideal, can be a decent duelling weapon (the shorter length allows you to use it as a quarterstaff if the enemy closes). At least poleaxes makes sense as is. I've seen some people argue that they should have reach but I think they're getting confused between halberds and poleaxes. Poleaxes were (relatively) short and more of an individual combat weapon whereas halberds were longer and a formation fighting weapon.

But as mentioned, unless the Watcher is specialising in mechanics the only companion who can reach high level mechanics early on is Devil of Caroc who is also the last companion most people get, and even then if you are low enough level you might not be able to disarm or even detect some of these traps.