JerekKruger

I thought they were a Paladin order dedicated to protecting and serving the Vailian Republics. If so, they would theoretically be bound to go against the Ducs in cases where the Ducs wishes run against the best for the republics.

I interpreted the Shield Bearers as having been formed during a military conflict, but not being part of the military any more. I don't think I am basing this off anything though. The Frermàs mes Canc Suolias are, as I understand it, essentially an arm of the Vailian Republic government I think.

This sounds amazing. You could have such a nice variety environments in such a setting and it wouldn't feel forced. Obsidian, if you're reading this thread, do this

My thoughts on each of the topics the OP named: The Main Quest: I broadly agree with the OP. The idea of it is, I think, very good and quite fresh and whilst I think the execution is good, it could be better. In particular I felt that Thaos failed to hit the mark as a truly epic villain à la Irenicus which is I think that the devs were going for. He wasn't a bad villain, but we didn't see enough of him to develop that sense of uncaring malice that Irenicus did so well. I also like the idea of some sort of tying in of (major) side quests with the main story. One thing that always bugs me is when I have to choose between role-playing the urgency of the situation (saving Imoen or uncovering the Leaden Key's plot) and being a completionist. This problem existed in BG2 as well, since usually when I finally set out to rescue Imoen I had several hundred thousand gold and many months had passed. What would be great is making it so that each major side quest has a clear benefit towards the main plot (learning more about your enemy, thwarting lesser plots etc.) but the delay caused would add an unknown difficulty to the end game. Side Quests: I agree with PrimeJunta here I think, I don't think the side quests are too bad. I particularly like the ones which pose genuinely hard choices. Stronghold: yeah, this was one of the weakest points in the game I'd say. I doubt we'll see multiple strongholds like BG2 in PoE2 but I'd like to see a better stronghold. Add some cool stronghold related quests, remove all the bean counting and the random fights. Done. Wilderness Areas: I am probably almost alone in liking the wilderness, though I am more than happy to admit that there is a lack of variety and a repetition in fights. I just like nature maps I guess. That said, more variety is always welcome, as is more exoticism. Dungeons: I hadn't thought about this much, but I agree broadly with the OP. I do think the Temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale is nicely fleshed out with atmosphere, and I love Durgan's Battery, but other dungeons do suffer a bit from being generic cave/ruins. I'd prefer fewer, more fleshed out dungeons in PoE2. Areas and Locations: I liked them, but the same caveat applies from wilderness areas. Certainly more variety and exoticism would be welcome in PoE2. Endless Paths: I think this would have been much better had it been, say, 5 floors rather than 15. A huge mega dungeon is a cool idea, but in reality unless you're going to make your game a full blown dungeon crawler you probably won't have to time to make all those floors cool, and fewer better floors will be... well better. Also I'd have preferred to see a different final boss, perhaps Od Nua, but that's just me. Reputations and Factions: I didn't mind the reputations system and certainly preferred it to classic binary reputation systems in other RPGs. It wasn't a major part of the game, but it did the job fine for me. I agree that the factions could have featured more. Also Dunryd Row should have been a faction and/or had a cool investigative quest chain. Luckily that one Dunryd dude survived so I hope he can rebuild it and have it feature in PoE2 (or have PoE2 be a prequel).

Oh I don't disagree why, I am quite willing to accept that her build is the correct one for representing her new incarnation plus her old skills and in a hard difficulty or lower run her slightly wonky build really doesn't matter all that much. It's just a shame that on PotD I'd be hard pressed to make myself take her, but then PotD does sometimes require a bit more min-maxing at the expense of role-playing.

I interpreted it as meaning the White March 2 will bring PoE to an end, and the future chapters implied future PoE games. This would be in line with what we've already heard.

Yeah, Devil of Caroc rocks, it's just a shame she's so weirdly built.

Honestly, whilst I'd be happy to get an Avian Godlike playable in PoE2, I don't want to see it in PoE for the simple reason that it makes Pallegina less appealing. It's cool that she fits into the standard mould of Godlike but with her own unique twist. We already know that there are other Godlike varieties that the player can't pick so why give them Avian?

Yeah, I felt very similarly about Durgan's Battery. I think the Endless Paths fell victim of Kickstarter stretching (I believe Obsidian have acknowledged this) and would have been better had it been shorter (though it's not clear that the theme would work then). Durgan's battery did a great job of taking the standard "fallen Dwarvern hold" theme and making it fresh. It conjures that sense of mysterious menace very well I think. Fingers crossed there'll be a similarly great concluding dungeon in White March 2.

On the one hand I'm not at all surprised it's delayed a bit, I kind of expected it and I'd rather they delay it but release a more finished product than rush it out. On the other, I had been hoping that I'd be playing this before the month was out. It's nice to have a solid date to look forward to though. EDIT: Also, I might be wrong but isn't the narrator a certain important NPC in the main plot?

Honestly I'd like to see spiritshift changed to a modal ability that disables casting, rather than a short term buff. Oh that would be awesome actually. I'd love to see something like this in PoE2

Yeah, I really wish it was modal rather than a temporary buff. To balance that you'd need to remove spellcasting I guess, but I just feel druids should be able to be animals for as long as they want.

Do you think your Skaen priest build solo viable Boeroer? I rather liked him.

The Adra Dragon definitely has Adragans on hard, or at least does on the current patch. They're located roughly "behind" it, and if I recall correctly there are four of them.

Hah yeah, this game doesn't really starve you for money. I also had significantly more than 200,000 gold towards the end of the game after buying every item I wanted and many I didn't really need. I might deliberately handicap myself on my next play through and avoid picking up mundane equipment from dead enemies, because in my last game the Black Hound inn in Gilded Vale had enough Xaurip spears to equip a small Xaurip army...

The Officially Background Book specifically mentions that, unlike Wood Elves, Pale Elves can grow facial hair. It doesn't bother me too much as I doubt I'd make a Pale Elf with a beard, but if it's something they can add in easily I'd like them to.

Yeah every time I see a Boerer or Torm51 character post I know I'll enjoy it (there are a few other posters who are very good too). I like this build too and have been looking for a Paladin build for a play through so I might try it. I agree that it's nice that it works both mechanically and aesthetically, that's strangely important to me in a build.

I thought even with the "build from scratch" box ticked you couldn't change the pre-made companions level 1 choices, including their spell choices. Or do you just mean you pick different spells for Aloth's level 2 and 3 picks than the default ones? Also yeah, Reny Daret's Ghost is amazing early on, and even late game it's still a decent distraction. If Kana started with it instead of the skeletons he would be close to perfection, but as it is he's merely very good. First time I played the game I didn't like his character so didn't take him, but in my second play through I discovered he actually has some pretty cool interjections and he grew on me.

Indeed my tanks aren't pure tanks but rather sturdy tank damage dealer hybrids. It's one of the things I like most about patch 2.0: I've always disliked the pure tank archetype introduced from MMOs where you have a character whose job it is to literally be hard to kill, and nothing else; so having, what seems to me, a more realistic situation where the front liner also does damage or supports the party is much more satisfying to me. Also to clarify, I usually also had Ituumak helping with tanking duties, and usually had one of my ranged characters set up to be a little sturdier for emergency off tanking duties, so perhaps my setup should be viewed as a 2+ tanks. The main thing I wanted to avoid was having more than three characters set up for pure melee because, in my case at least, I often found it difficult to get them all into contact in dungeons. That said, an extra reach weapon wielder is fine and I don't care too much if pets can't always make contact.

Just to clarify, I don't think heavy melee is bad. My preference is just for 2/3 less pure tank frontliners and then 3/4 ranged DPS. Two things. The first is that non-main character Paladins will level up their Faith and Conviction ability. This won't go quite as high as the main character can with perfect reputations, but it is independent of reputations (it's tied to level instead). Second a screenshot of a class specific talent for Pallegina's order has been released. The second one is of unknown usefulness, but the improvement to Faith and Conviction will definitely help Pallegina a lot.

As of patch 2.0 I prefer to run two tanky melee DPS characters (sometimes backed up by a hunter's pet for a third tanky unit) rather than relying on one pure tank. In my last game that was a hybrid tank/DD build on Eder and my main character playing as Boerer's retaliation cipher build, with Ituumak as well a lot of the time. If you use stealth to find encounters and make sure your tanks engage first and are a little spread our they usually do a decent job keeping most of the enemy away from your ranged damage dealers; any that do creep past can be crowd controlled then focused down fairly easily. The reason this is my favoured set up is that whilst additional durable melee characters are helpful in outdoor encounters, in a lot of dungeons it can be hard to get them all into range. I find two to be a nice sweet spot for this. If your main character isn't at all tanky then Zahua, Pallegina and Kana can do a good job of being a second tank after Eder (my preference is in that order, though with the changes to Pallegina in 3.0 that might change), or you can hire an adventurer.

Honestly I think it's best not to ask, or even engage directly.

I didn't take offence don't worry I was being honest, I don't think I'm particularly good at PoE. It's part laziness and part lack of practice, and at some point I intend to get better, but at the moment I am merely average.

She does aggro, but for some reason she doesn't actually move. Actually I don't know for certain that she aggros since I had betrayed her so she and her adds started off aggressive when I entered the cavern. Honestly I doubt I could have beaten her without killing off the Adragans separately. I was trying to beat her in a straight up tank and spank, with Eder tanking her facing away from the rest of the party, Durance nearby trying to keep Eder alive and the rest of the party DPSing from behind and that was hard enough. Having to handle the Adragans mind control, with the possibility that they'd mind control Durance and then Eder would die would have been hellish. That probably tells you all you need to know about my skill at PoE

Hah, I wouldn't say it's particularly good. I only discovered by accident when I thought I'd wiped but then noticed the Adra dragon ambling slowly north and realised how slow she is. I think it works because she seems never to use her breath attack when there's just one target, so anyone can outrun her. It also needs a lot of patience: had she not been near death I think I would have reloaded the game and tried again. By the way, to kill the Adragans without aggroing the Adra Dragon you want to skirt the southern side of the cavern from the stairs down, crossing near the foot of the statue and coming round. In my game the Adra Dragon did aggro, but for some reason didn't move from her start location and so allowed me to kill of the adds with ease. It might be worth mentioning that I had betrayed the dragon to the hunter to learn the talent (I am a sucker for free bonus talents) so that might be necessary for this to work? For me move speed wasn't that handy because the main limiting factor on taking shots was recovery time, but if your ranged character has a fast attack speed I'd imagine move speed would help a lot.