To be blunt: Hope Eternal, inexplicable weapon rarity and the short end of the stick

[Anthile]

So I have been playing a devout cleric of Eothas. Sadly, it didn't work out too well. If you are unaware, priests have access to a special talent according to their deity that grants a hefty +10 accuracy bonus to two categories of weapons, plus a minor daily spell. It's too good to pass up.

Problem is, for priests of Eothas these two weapons are the flail and the morning star. I get it, Eothas' symbol is a sun and stars. Somebody obviously put quite a bit of thought into this. This setup, however, means that any priest of Eothas is restricted to only ever deal crushing damage with his weapons. None of the other priests have this particular problem (mace/greatsword, sword/arquebus, stiletto/club) except for Wael followers, who are doomed to use quarterstaves and rods. I was wondering about that but then I read on the wiki that morning stars used to be crush/pierce instead of simply having a higher interrupt chance. In fact, the item description still refers to it having this property, which is quite confusing. 

This leads to my second problem. How good are flails? I don't know. So far I have lead two characters to Caed Nua and I have yet to see a single flail. As far as I know, they are as mythical as unicorns. For some reason certain weapons are exceedingly rare in the Eastern Reach. I can accept certain weapons such as guns to be rare, or exotic weapons that do not belong in the region but I have yet to see any flail, sabre, estoc, arquebus or blunderbuss that were not in the hands of a companion. Call me entitled, but I feel like I should be able to purchase any basic weapon at the blacksmith in Gilded Vale. When the rest of my party are all armed to the teeth with Fine weapons while I don't even have access to a basic version I'm supposedly really good with then something is amiss.

Right now Hope Eternal is simply not a very good talent, if not an outright trap. All the other deity talents are strictly superior, except for Wael. Nobody ever cares about Wael, though.

 

 

Pictured: The morning star's misleading description. Turns out, dank spores possess a colossal crush resistance which is how I found out about this issue. I had to use a Fine greatsword in the end, much to the chagrin of my god. Eothas did not die for this.

[Tigranes]

I don't know abotu the other issues, but let me just quip that I've found several flails, at least one magical flail with a special name, before or in Caed Nua. Sorry I can't be more specific.

[PrimeJunta]

I wonder where you'd find a weapon that's sacred to Eothas...?

[Gallenger]

The flails will come and it will be good - you don't even need the stronghold for them.  There should be some "fine" flails chilling in defiance bay for sure. 

[santanzchild]

I have found a number of Morning Stars that do crushing/pierce damage you could probably do it yourself with the enchantment system.

[Bollockoff]

I'm pretty sure there's a magic flail in the Temple of Eorthas. My Chanter was using it anyway. Drains Endurance on hit.

[waretaringo]

just jumping in to say that I love the pun in the thread title.

 

my experiences with priests have been limited so far, since I've found both Durance and per-rest-casters in general to be lackluster so far I haven't gotten very far in experimenting with pc priests, so I can't contribute much to the weapon division argument. I haven't been finding much in the way of flails either, though, but I of course haven't finished exploring the Eothan temple

[Bollockoff]

Or what RhetoricalJunta said.

[Anthile]

Yeah, a friend told me about a certain flail in a certain location but I'm mostly asking for adding common weapons to the blacksmith's inventory to avoid a weird weapon vacuum.

 

I have found a number of Morning Stars that do crushing/pierce damage you could probably do it yourself with the enchantment system.

 

Interesting. I had no idea such an enchantment existed. I will keep that in mind. I was thinking about picking up that talent that allows piercing DR next but that might be a better solution.

[KingNee]

just jumping in to say that I love the pun in the thread title.

 

 

[Rosveen]

I'm pretty sure there's a magic flail in the Temple of Eorthas. My Chanter was using it anyway. Drains Endurance on hit.

Gaun's Share. It's Fine, Draining and converts 30% grazes to hits. Very decent weapon.

[Katarack21]

 

I'm pretty sure there's a magic flail in the Temple of Eorthas. My Chanter was using it anyway. Drains Endurance on hit.

Gaun's Share. It's Fine, Draining and converts 30% grazes to hits. Very decent weapon.

 

I enchanted it up and am still using it at level 6.

[Viperswhip]

I use Faun's Share as the main hand weapon on my rogue, although she mostly used a fine warbow until I ponied up 11k for a nice, named one from the weapon seller in Defiance Bay.

[Mungri]

Wael are doomed???

 

Rods are a great choice on a squishy Priest, and quarterstaffs get reach.

[KingNee]

I used Gaun's Share on my main but the flail physics were distracting, they look like limp.. biscuits... instead of the fearsome weapons that they are.   

[Emerwyn]

Yep I got Gaun's Share at level 2 and still using it on my Priest of Eothas. Pretty sure there'll be better flails out there, and you can always enchant one up. 

 

Might be more problematic keeping a Priest alive in hand to hand combat, but that's another issue.

[Valmy]

Yep I got Gaun's Share at level 2 and still using it on my Priest of Eothas. Pretty sure there'll be better flails out there, and you can always enchant one up. 

 

Might be more problematic keeping a Priest alive in hand to hand combat, but that's another issue.

 

Boy you are not kidding. My avatar leads the party in knock downs. At least he keeps Aloth standing up.

[vilePossum]

yeah, the thing about flails bugged me as well. you can buy them at the vendor in the camp at the very start, but not in gilded vale... ?!? not even after the upgrade of their blacksmith?! kind of a let down.

[Muppetoid]

Perhaps the absence of flails for purchase in Gilded Vale is intentional.  I mean, it IS a symbol of Eothas and the GVers are not too keen on him lately.  If I were the smithy in that town, I wouldn't carry morningstars/flails cause i'd worry someone might decide I'm a sympathizer. 

My very first run through is with a priest (about to hit lvl 4 in Defiance Bay) and I completly forgot to enter the temple in GV and headed straight on to the stronghold.  Now I might go back.  But I want to clarify something: Does the +10 to accuracy from Hope Eternal ONLY apply to melee attacks with the 2 listed weapon types? It's not like it applies to my base accuracy as long as it's in my hands (i.e. increases the accuracy of all my spells)?  If that were the case, I would totally go for it; although for role-playing purposes, my character is more of a longbow user. 

[Matt516]

So if the Morning Star doesn't have 2 damage types... what is it's "thing", now? I don't see any special quirk for the weapon that sets it apart (2 damage types, DR bypass, etc). Am I missing something?

[Longknife]

I wonder where you'd find a weapon that's sacred to Eothas...?

 

 

....Walmart?

[JerseyP]

So if the Morning Star doesn't have 2 damage types... what is it's "thing", now? I don't see any special quirk for the weapon that sets it apart (2 damage types, DR bypass, etc). Am I missing something?

They have the strongest interrupt effect. Theirs is 1.0 compared to .75 of other 2-handed weapons. I haven't tried using them because such an amazing bonus seems game breaking.

[Jasta11]

I got a pretty beastly flail in a side-quest somewhere, can't recall which one. It's named Unforgiven and is an Exceptional quality, converst grazes to hit, increased attack speed, and 25% extra fire damage. Edér is still using it. he used one I found in a certain Temple earlier on, and Kana is still swinging around an Exceptional morningstar I pried from the freshly dead hands of a priest of a certain quiet deity.

 

Meanwhile, i didn't find a single unique arquebus for Durance. It's simply the nature of a having a big pool of weapon types, you won't find too many uniques for each. 

[Mungri]

Quest reward.

 

 

I still havnt even found a fine rod for my custom wael priest. I tried buying one, couldnt find one at any vendor either. I cried.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Mungri

[Gromnir]

Wael are doomed???

 

Rods are a great choice on a squishy Priest, and quarterstaffs get reach.

crpgs have programed people to think that the quarterstaff is a sucky weapon for candy arsed wizards.  the poe quarterstaff is a most unappreciated weapon and we look forward to playing a combat priest o' wael (too close to weal for a dyslexic like Gromnir) who takes incomprehensible revelation, peasant weapon focus and 2h weapons talents.

 

HA! Good Fun!