Beast of Winter is a Pretty Solid DLC [minimal spoilers]

[Tagaziel]

The soulbounds seem to require a LOT of investment. Get 100 afflictions?! If I get 5 per fight that's still 20 fights. Are there 20 fights in the whole DLC? I've cleaned out the entire base game apart from Ukaizo and any faction fights I'd get after choosing my side. Still, there's two more DLCs to go, one with a heavy combat focus, plus they're adding more bosses, so I'm sure I'll get there. Giving Aloth the shield and letting him take a pummelling is a lot of fun.

From what I've gathered from the files, Beast of Winter was originally the second DLC, with Triple-S being the first. Might have switched them around partly for this reason.

 

(in case you wonder, all BoW content is marked LAX02, while arena island is marked LAX01)

Edited August 9, 2018 by Tagaziel

[Mygaffer]

Man they should've made Ydwin, or at least Vatnir a full companion with their own companion quests outside BoW. Plus, I hate how they give an option to

sacrifice Ydwin

in the end. You don't get the option to do that to anyone else... This just shows how little regard the devs have for that character :/

This is funny because it was some members of the community who were campaigning, so no real reason, against that character. I suspect that option is there in response.

[house2fly]

Sacrificing Ydwin is the evil option, every single party member protests it. Giving you evil options doesn't mean the developer hates the characters (???)

[Tagaziel]

Plus, Rymrgand has a bloated ego that dwarfs Eora in size. Ydwin is one of his designated followers and she abandoned the Beast, which means he's quite hurt and can't get over it. Makes sense for that to be the only option.

 

Seriously, **** Rymrgand.

[Zap Gun For Hire]

The soulbounds seem to require a LOT of investment. Get 100 afflictions?!

Here's a bit of a tip. 

 

Once you get those two soulbound items, take a detour to the Old City Ruins/Overlook underneath The Gullet and stand around in those expletive deleted Sicken zones.

 

You'll rack up those afflictions in no time at all.

 

===

 

For me, the more annoying one was the "be missed 500 times in combat" for the shield.  I never did test to see if being 'missed' by an Affliction zone would work.  Instead I did it the semi-legit way by debuffing enemies and buffing up the person who had the shield.  Then went into combat and just waited.  And waited and waited and waited.  With the occasional heal.

 

Got it finished within about six or seven fights (making sure to push-pull as many as possible to fight them in chunks to maximize per-combat ability resources).  Still a bit of a pain, though.  Next time I am absolutely going to see if getting 'missed' in an Affliction Zone counts or not. 

[Zap Gun For Hire]

Plus, Rymrgand has a bloated ego that dwarfs Eora in size. Ydwin is one of his designated followers and she abandoned the Beast, which means he's quite hurt and can't get over it. Makes sense for that to be the only option.

 

Seriously, **** Rymrgand.

Yep.  A dickish Watcher can also try to sacrifice some of the other party members.  But Rymrgand shoots all of them down for one reason or another (his reasoning in regards to Vatnir is especially blunt).

 

But Ydwin?  Oh yes, apparently he's all down and groovy for that option