From Deadfire to POE1

[eschu101]

Hey everyone, i played POE1 back when the game launched and now im planning to play once again. I wanted some help with this!

I havent played White March, and ive heard the game changed A LOT since 1.0, also i can barely remember the technical differences from Deadfire (like wiz being per rest spells, endurance, grimoires, etc). I played on Veteran with a Cipher back then, now i'm planning to purchase WM1-2 and do a POTD/Upscale run with a PC Wizard.

Any major tips that could help with playing the game now that im used to Deadfire? Is Perception king for POE1? I'm actually aware that POE1 POTD is way harder than Deadfire, is it viable playing with the companions or should i bring optimal Adventurers? If i'm playing a wizard, should i leave Aloth behind? Any help and tips are welcome!

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 3, 2018 by eschu101

[dreamrider]

I also came back after messing with PoE in the 1.0x range.

 

Still in my playthrough, and I haven't played wizard, but here are my impressions:

 

Hard is just a little harder than it was.

 

The addition of +Accuracy to Perception, and +Deflection to Resolve, does go a long way toward spreading the value of attributes.

Might and Dex are still king and queen (well, maybe not for a wizard), but each of the others has its place.

 

That being said, if you plan to run full party, Min/Max build works well, but don't dump more than one attrib, and have in mind how you will / which character will compensate.

However, you cannot fully insulate your 'squishies' in PoE.  Think about survivability while building, even within the game.

If you are thinking of running solo, or a party of 4 or less, be more well rounded in your build.

 

Food seems to be more helpful.  (However, I am a big PoE 'foodie', so that may just be my narrow focus.)

 

Keep in mind that there are a few side quests that you cannot finish if you get to far on the main story line.  In general, you'll want to finish all the side quests associated with an Act before you move to the next act. 

 

However, there are also some Tasks / Side Quests that you will want to pass by, and come back after a level or two.  Early: the Bear Cave (unless you build yourself a real badass), Later: Yenwood Field (leave this until you have done virtually EVERYTHING else; there a 'helper' events available.)  The Concelhaut quest is also available early...but leave it until later.

I don't think that either Yenwood or Concelhaut were available in the early versions of the game.

 

Read up in the wiki or somewhere about how the Survival Skill works now.  Also Athletics & the derivative Ability Second Wind.  These are totally different from the early versions, and will color your build decisions throughout the game.

 

Finally, some of the gear from the most recent Deadfire Pack DLC, which basically adds a shipwrecked vendor that you meet during Act 1, is AWESOME.  Expensive, but generally worth getting early, binding, and working up throughout the balance of Act 1 and all of Act 2.

 

Also Veteran level doesn't exist any more.  Difficulty levels are Story Mode, for those who want to focus on experiencing the stories, and be sure of getting through without hitting 'roadblock' situations (in other words, Easy, AND mechanics have been tweaked to aid player), Easy (standard mechanics, less opposition), Normal (standard mechanics, 'standard' opposition), Hard (standard mechanics, a little extra opposition), and Path of the Damned  (all enemies enabled for each encounter, and their stats are tweaked up something like +15%).  I think the Veteran difficulty your remember was the equivalent of Hard, but it might have been similar to Normal.

 

There are two additional challenge Modes you can set.  They can be set along with any difficulty setting.  These may be just the same as in earlier versions.  Expert Mode turns off all the in-game help features, like those journal entries that hint at the next step to take on a Quest, and spell range fans, etc.  Trial of Iron limits your playthrough to ONE save file, which may be an autosave, such as when you enter a new map, or a save that you make while adventuring.  When you die, that save file is erased - start over.  You can preempt this by recognizing that you are about to die and re-loading the one save state, often at the beginning of the current map or another 'safe' moment, but you will never have the opportunity to revert to a previous map and progression state.

[Boeroer]

A few tips for Wizard in PoE:

 

Since there is Endurance and Health (PoE-Endurance is like Health in Deadfire, PoE-Health usually only gets healed by resting), you can't rely on healing too much. While stuff like Veteran's Recovery (kind of cross-class Constant Recovery) and Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon help to stay alive during encounters it doesn't prevent health loss. If health drops too low you are going to die.

 

Luckily a Wizard has a very useful spell against this: Infuse with Vital Essence basically gives you back 50 health (+healing modifiers) and is especially good in the earlier game, but also useful in later, prolonged fights (solo).

 

Citzal's Spirit Lance does not transport any afflictions to its AoE like in Deadfire. It used to apply Runner's Wounding Shot, Envenomed Strike (poison) and Knockdown (from item) but got nerfed.

 

Kalakoth's Minor Blights will do an AoE splash. Every AoE hit will trigger Blast (wizard talent). If you combine this with Combusting Wounds it gets ridiculous. Since you like Combusting Wounds...

 

The AoE of Blast helps to proc on-hit/on-crit effects of implements (wand/scepter/rod). A rod like the Rod of Pale Shades can stun in an AoE. The soulbound scepter dominates a lot with Blast and so on.

 

Spells and summoned weapons don't scale (except with stats like MIG and INT of course). Chillfog is crazy good for a lvl 1 spell. So is Parasitic Staff (exceptional weapon at lvl 1 with very high base damage and draining).

 

Summoned Weapons have a lot more base damage than in Deadfire and also a lot more than their mundane counterparts. They are very strong.

 

Phantoms don't get gear like in Deadfire.

 

Priests' Inspiring Radiance stacks with everything and itself. So instead of bringing two Wizards (which is also good) I would rather bring two Priests. Also because Priest is one of the best nuking class on PoE from mid to high levels - because his DoTs like Shining Beacon profit from high (buffed) ACC that leads to crits (=longer duration) and the stats boosts the priest had (+MIG leads to more damage per tick, +INT to more ticks). If you want only official companions then brining Aloth as well is fine.

 

Wizards are also good nukers, but they excel in CC and also melee/ranged combat (just because the summoned weapons are so strong and provide a lot more oomph for a spell use than a nuke). You can summon such a weapon for the usual mob fight and use the hefty stuff for tougher encounters.

 

Self buffs are fine as in Deadfire. However, stacking rules are different:

 

Item bonuses almost never stack unless they are from weapons. So a torc of intellect and a ring of intellect will not stack and so on. On the other hand Arcane Veil stacks with everything and is a talent rather than an ability. So with Wizard's Double + Arcane Veil (+90 deflection) you are usually untouchable for some time (attacks on fortitude etc. are not influenced of course).

 

Tou can also get some cross-class vibes: Blunderbusses have 6 pellets instead of 4. But they are two handed. You can pick an Island Aumaua + Arms Bearer and Quick Switch (or the Coil of Resourcefulness which gives you a form of quick switch and spares you a talent), cast Combusting Wounds on a target and then fire 4x6 pellets on an enemy. If you do it with Runner's Wounding Shot usually every non-boss enemy dies from DoT. Usually several die. Bosses tend to have very high DR and that eats a lot of Combusting Wounds' damage unless you find a way to reduce DR (fighters Sundering Blow, Expose Vulnerability from Wizard - great spell by the way).

 

Having one melee wizard and one implement wizars usually is fun.

 

Official Companions are totally fine for PotD. Some people will say that custom adventurers are better but I disagree. The game is especially tough at the beginning and there the official companions have +1 level which is much more useful than a few stat points in "better" places. Later on the game has the same difficulty issues as Deadfire: it becomes easy so the advantage of a custom adventurer who catches up on XP don't really make a difference.

 

There's several other stuff but my kids are starting a riot...

 

Edit: I forgot: speed calculation is different: every additional speed bonus has increased returns in PoE unlike in Deadfire. So if you combine Alacrity (whopping 50% speed bonus, it's super good with Gauntlets of Swift Action you will be very, very fast). In PoE it's rel. easy to reach 0 recovery. Dual wieldig means -50% recovery and the style does add 20%. Combine with Alacrity and you can wear plate and still have 0 recovery.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Boeroer

[eschu101]

Wow, thanks a lot guys! Looks like the game changed even more than i thought since its release. When talking to Concelhault in Deadfire i really didnt recall fighting him in POE1. Now that you told me that it wasnt available at 1.0 makes complete sense. it will be like playing a whole new game.

I didnt recall most of what you just said so it will of great help. The stacking rules for itens are intriguing, i think BG was something like that. I will probably try the new companions from white march, maybe i will stick to 4 or 5 members, 6 is a bit too much. Wizard looks even stronger than in Deadfire. Do we accuracy problems in POE1 too? I will probably max perception just like POE2, or it isnt necessary? Missing/grazing is really annoying.

If Deadfire gets half the treatment POE1 after its release, we have a bright future. 

 

Thanks again!
 

[Boeroer]

Yes, for me Priest and Wizard (also Druid) are the most powerful classes in PoE (with the order Priest > Wizard > Druid).

[dreamrider]

Be warned.  It takes a while to get to those new companions. 

2 of the 3 are WM2 material, albeit in relatively safe areas. 

So I guess you could get to them fairly early in Act 2, if you focused on only doing that, then returning to Caed Nua and Act II stuff.

[draego]

Be warned.  It takes a while to get to those new companions. 

2 of the 3 are WM2 material, albeit in relatively safe areas. 

So I guess you could get to them fairly early in Act 2, if you focused on only doing that, then returning to Caed Nua and Act II stuff.

 

You can get all 3 the companions of them during WM 1 around level 7-8. Zahua and Maneha can both be gotten basically after the initial incident when you first go to WM