gkathellar

It's not totally clear if he was one of the researchers. Certainly he was an Engwithan, and the Engwithans determined this - to their satisfaction, anyway. Right. It's implied that the Engwithans sacrificed themselves willingly in order to create the giant masses of soul energy known as gods. It's not really clear - Durance certainly provides the best explanation later in his personal quest, where he guesses that Eothas may have wanted to conquer the Dyrwood before Thaos could make a move on its animancers. If that's the case, it's ironic, because the Godhammer guaranteed that Thaos would get involved in the Dyrwood's affairs. I think the other big possibilities are that Waidwen was just kind of a vainglorious ass, or that Readceras really needed the Dyrwood's natural resources to feed its population. Emphasis mine. More than that, it's a matter of opportunity. Magran considers Eothas her enemy, and she's long vied with him for followers in the Dyrwood. She blew him up because she had a chance and she figured could get away with it. She also wanted to hide her involvement. Durance and his ilk were the only witnesses, essentially. The enemy of her enemy was her friend (until her enemy was dead, at least) - Durance explains that Magran is opposed to Eothas and Hylea. She is the god of strategy, after all. Thaos was definitely going to make a move on the Dyrwood sooner or later, since his M.O. is to prevent the development of animancy and the rediscovery of Engwithan science. Again, the whole "killed a god" thing can't have made Thaos happy either, even if that god may have been opposed to him. I think we can assume he was waiting for a good moment. Restoring Woedica was a bonus, but his primary goal was the destruction of animancy by scapegoating it for the Legacy.

With the Perception change, you can't really dump it anymore, and investing might be worth it. So, maybe something like this? Might 16 Dexterity/Constitution 16 Constitution/Dexterity 10 Perception 12 Intellect 16 Resolve 8

DR and damage are exactly the same between difficulties. Accuracy and deflection are increased by 15, HP is increased a bunch, and the helper mob is bigger.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's not how probabilities work. Perhaps more importantly, the endgame is not when these adjustments have the most impact. A +10 boost is never anything to sneeze at, but by level 11-12, it's dwarfed by other bonuses from level and special effects. Throughout the early and mid game, however, there are two things to consider. First, the boost is relatively more important. You may not consider this important, but the notion that only the endgame matters is a troubling one. Second, the outcomes accuracy affects are arguably more important at low levels. At level 11, grazing with Slicken during a boss fight is an inconvenience; at level 4, it costs you precious resources and can even cost you the fight. And IMO, the fact that grazing with CC is less of a pain later on is itself the result of the game's dramatic difficulty drop at high levels - tougher fights, like the Adra Dragon and some of the bounties, make you feel your Grazes again. (Third: In solo, at least some Perception will be mandatory. Accuracy matters too much in the solo game.) I also feel it's important to remember that it's not only high Perception scores that are improved, but also low ones that are greatly worsened. You can get through the game without an extra 5-10 accuracy, but you can't get through it with a -7 accuracy penalty. Dumping Perception is basically just a non-option at this point, no matter the build. Maybe that doesn't matter in your evaluation, but it's worth remembering. I don't think the accuracy bonus to perception is a strictly bad idea. But let's not pretend that casters - whose limited resources make Accuracy crucially important - don't get way more mileage out of it the change than warriors, while also losing much less.

Oh good, now there are even fewer reasons to play a full tank fighter. :/ because fighters and paladins needed moar pigeonholing amirite

This is actually my biggest concern. Even more than resources, I'm afraid that accommodating MP will by necessity require compromises in the SP game. I guess I'm looking for a great single player game created for the PC. I'm sure that a game created for SP and MP to run on the PC, XBox (whichever), and PS (whichever) is great, but there are compromises that must be made to fit everything into one box and sometimes my mode and platform of choice will be on the losing end of that compromise. It might be nice to see an IWD-style game with co-op on PoE's modified engine at some point, but PoE itself is not the game to do it in.

Exactly what would be the point, aside from consuming potential development resources for something that is "not necessary," and maintaining the fantasy that it's 1998? Also, can you burn me the latest patch to CD-RW and slide it through the grate on my locker? Some of us like our physical artifacts, if only because they are aesthetically pleasing. Others only have internet access through libraries or other public facilities, and so rely on physical artifacts. My view is that Obsidian can put a flash drive in an envelope and send it that way, just so long as the expansion is eventually available for Backers who need physical access.

Yeah, but by contrast, text is disgustingly blurry at lower resolutions now.

2.1 gigs, damn. Big patch.

Yeah, I would question those accounts. "Pics or it didn't happen," and all that jazz. I'd use them on the Outward Buckler and either the Coat of Ill Payment or some other shield. The Superb bonus for armor is kind of meh, at least compared to the one for shields. Well, if the Fampyr lord on Floor 8 was willing to teach you how, you could. But he's not, and it might require you to be undead, so ... Dragons take on features of their environment they grow up in, which is why she could get away with eating Adra.

She mentions that she found her way down there when she was just a wyrm, IIRC, and has been eating the Adra ever since. By the time she contemplated leaving, she was way too big and way, way too heavy.

Hey, good stuff. Hong Kong arriving first gives time to wrap it up, too.

Has anyone said it would ruin PoE? Because all I've seen people say is that it would be difficult, costly, and yield little benefit.

wut Gwisk Glas and Vengiatta Rugia are the only suits of armor in the game that start with the superb enchantment.

Noooooooooope "It's unlikely, difficult, and would be a waste of money" =/= "I oppose it"

Depends on how you intend to play. Monk, barbarian, fighter and chanter all have a lot to recommend them for tankier solo runs. Rogue is ideal if you're looking to sneak through the game. I hear tankier wizards can do great things with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff.

I hate to tell you this, but for all that Raedric is a wake-up call fight, that's exactly what he is - a signal that you need to adjust your tactics. He's totally beatable at level 3 or 4 prior to Caed Nua, even on PotD.

It would also explain how she gets to the Inn before you even if you leave first. There was definitely an option to tell Harond the truth in the beta. Dunno about now, haven't tried.

There's generally some issues with being unable to redo certain choices when you take the passive option. But in this case I think the bigger problem is that Aelys stays in the room after you do so - by all accounts, they should hurry her off to her uncle as soon as you've said you won't interfere.

You can also do it with a level 1 Druid spell (Hold Beasts). There's a reason that casters are the MVP characters bu later levels, and that good accuracy is the most important thing for the Adra Dragon fight.

Mostly it's that I suck at using them. You need a very deliberate play style and better terrain sense than I have to keep them alive.

Good luck. Transitioning from Easy to PotD is going to be a painful experience. My first thought is that you need more CC. PotD's big difficulty increase comes partly from the abundance of enemies with huge debuffs, and it helps a lot if you can fight fire with fire. Priest is a good start, and I certainly wouldn't field a melee-heavy party without one, but it just can't hurl around AoE debuffs like a wizard or long-range spells with huge areas like a druid. General tips: Savage Attack and Penetrating Shot are always worth using. Vulnerable Attack is pretty slick, too. There are only four Second Chance items in the game and you should use every one of them. Keep everyone's defenses at least respectable, because the difference between a debuff grazing you or hitting you can be 5-10 seconds of character control. Casters need Accuracy more than anyone else. Choose your random loot, and make sure you have enough cloaks/rings/bracers of protection/deflection to cover your needs. If you can, be sure to have both Outworn Buckler and Little Savior on your party at earliest convenience - Herald stacks, and it's damn useful. Fighter is always a safe bet, but I personally think that with Constant Recovery and Unbroken, fighters are better suited to off-tanking (preferably with high-damage weapons, due to Weapon Specialization/Mastery), rather than pure tanking. If you want to play a heavy tank, though, make sure you take Wary Defender, and avoid Cautious Attack, which won't stack with Defender. In any case, bear in mind that Might affects Constant Recovery. A paladin is probably better than a second fighter, if only because of Zealous Focus and the Outworn Buckler (ZF is skippable if you have a priest, but ZE is kinda meh, and that graze-to-hit bonus will help your casters a lot). Get Reviving and Liberating Exhortation, and don't totally forget offense - a paladin with 10 Might can still help on the attack with Ravenwing, Blesca's Labor, or any one of several other strong weapons. Chanters are fine. They're kind of boring sometimes, but there are lots of ways to use them as builds go. You absolutely need Int - otherwise, eh. It could make more sense to use your Chanter as a pure tank, rather than your fighter, since the Chanter's abilities continue to function if they're just standing around picking their nose and getting wailed on. The key phrases are At Sight of Their Comrades, Blessed Was Wengridh, Their Endless Host, Sure-Handed Ila (if you have ranged attackers), The Dragon Thrashed, and Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr. The key invocations are The Thunder Rolled, But Reny Daret's Ghost, At the Sound of His Voice, and But Knock Not On the Door of Urdel and Gurdel. Your barbarian is going to be very fragile, and keeping him behind the tanks won't always be an option, so remember to cover them with CC effects. A draining weapon will do a lot to keep them alive, making Soldier a great weapon focus - you can switch back and forth between Tidefall and Tall Grass that way, coating enemy mobs in DoT and self-healing from up close, or critting them from further back. You could also go for a tankier barb, typically using Retaliation items - in that case, Tidefall is even more important. I don't like melee rogues much, so I can't give you much advice for them. Ranged rogues are really just a lot easier to keep alive and get phenomenal gun damage. That said, the consensus about melee rogue attributes is that the order of importance goes Might>Dexterity>Perception/Resolve>Constitution>Intelligence. People swear by Ruffian for dual sabers or dual stilettos. Estocs aren't a bad choice either. Priest over druid. But, like I said, you should probably have more casters.

Disabling the level cap would just mean dead levels with slightly higher numbers. I'm not sure what the point of that would be. If you're determined to only play when you can gain XP for it, though, you should probably play with IEMod for the increased XP requirements. Anyway, this is really an issue with the experience curve of the game and the distribution of XP rewards between sidequests and main quests. It's not totally clear that it's a fixable issue, due to the need to cater to both people looking for 100% completion and critical path players.

Coastal Aumaua and mountain dwarves both have specialized defense bonuses, and there are talents covering basically every type of effect. I guess you mean stuff like 'Mentral Fortress' or 'Body Control'? In that case, I knew about them (also mentioned them indirectly before) but my point is, they are grouped, so you can't separate them in any combination. It's not possible to have an arbitrary combination of increased resistance against afflictions. That's totally fine for the player, but I think it would be nice to make that even more diverse on enemies, as long as it makes sense somehow and is properly portrayed in the encyclopedia entries. Yeah, those. There are also items like the Boots of Stability, and some rings, IIRC. I'm mostly just noting that the code for resistances to particular afflictions already exists in the game, so if the devs want to add those kind of affliction resistances to enemies willy-nilly, there's no barrier to doing so.

You get to keep the graze-to-hit bonus from 1h-style while using a shield, yeah. Sticking to small shields to avoid the accuracy penalty is probably best, though. The best shield, endgame, is of course Little Savior, so that works out well.