Durance and Grieving Mother Take Way Too Long...

[LaSpeakeasi]

These two's companion quests are triggered by having them in your party for an extended period of time. It sounded cool on paper. But in reality they take waaaaay too long. You end up stuck with them for over half of the game. If you're a completionist, then you'd have to build your entire party around these two. That's not how it should be. NPCs are meant to assist, not be a source of stress.

 

I've resorted to not going into inns at all, only resting in the wilds, in the hopes of speeding up the process. No such luck.

 

Durance has never left my party. From chapter 1 all the way to chapter 3. I even went to White March. I have yet to finish his quest. It took the entire chapter 2 for him to get to his 2nd dialog. Remember how long chapter 2 is?!

 

Grieving Mother isn't much better. At least Durance's a cleric. Ciphers aren't a necessity nor particularly versatile in any party. If you have an alternate DPS, you can't use them. Screw you Sagani and Devil of Caroc, because Grieving Mama is in da haus!

 

I'm glad OBS is trying to diversify these quests, but please, in the future, don't make these kinds of companion quests. They are just... not fun.

[Rosveen]

I don't have a problem with this design because it's compatible with my playstyle. I rarely switch out companions, I choose my team and stick with it all the way to the end. I'm not a completionist, so I'm okay with missing a companion quest. In my first game I left Durance in Caed Nua and never finished his quest. I'm going to keep him for the second playthrough. I'll have something new to learn about him, it's nice to see fresh content when I replay a game.

[Wolfenbarg]

I completely disagree. Companion quests shouldn't be so simple and fast paced. It fleshes them out. If I couldn't take anymore of Durance's bull**** because he's such an insufferable bastard, I could kick him out. That's my relationship with Durance. If I am enamored by some of the qualities I see in his dialogue, I'll keep him around, try to gain his trust, and maybe eventually gain some respect and understanding of him as a character. If it's too easy, those options don't really end up existing. I actually wish more characters were like Durance. Having people you trust/like around vs having a certain combat effectiveness is a big choice, and makes playthroughs unique.

 

They're also carrying some heavy baggage. It fits their characters.

[bonarbill]

I'm the type that likes to switch around companions in my games, and I had no trouble completing both Durance's and Grieving Mother's questlines.

[LaSpeakeasi]

If more characters were like Durance, we wouldn't even be able to do all the companion quests in one playthrough. Is that what you want?

 

It completely takes away players' freedom. You wanna do their side quests? You gotta have them on your team all the freaking time. It's not fair to other companions; nor is it fair to the player. You can only play the game a certain way if you want 100% completion. Because those 2 can't go.

 

It's not like they only need to be there for an extended period of time either, like a chapter or two. They have to be there for the majority of the game!

[bonarbill]

It completely takes away players' freedom. You wanna do their side quests? You gotta have them on your team all the freaking time. It's not fair to other companions; nor is it fair to the player. You can only play the game a certain way if you want 100% completion. Because those 2 can't go.

 

As I said before......

 

I'm the type that likes to switch around companions in my games, and I had no trouble completing both Durance's and Grieving Mother's questlines.

 

I didn't even use Durance that much since my main character was priest.  I still completed his quest before part 4.

Edited September 19, 2015 by bonarbill

[LaSpeakeasi]

I'm the type that likes to switch around companions in my games, and I had no trouble completing both Durance's and Grieving Mother's questlines.

How could I have known? The game outright told you you need to have them in the party!

 

For me their quests remain stagnant throughout the entire chapter 2. I'm in chapter 3 and now and they haven't advanced an inch since.

 

The game journal specifically says they need to be there so I dare not switch them out. If that wouldn't have made a difference I would be very pissed. Because that means the game had screwed me over.

 

It's not like difficulty spikes or confusing puzzles. Those quests have no skill level requirement. The game just outright lied to us to prevent players from figuring out how to do them.

 

Not cool. Not cool at all.

Edited September 19, 2015 by LaSpeakeasi

[Mechalibur]

I don't think you actually need to have them in your party for very long. It's just that you need to be at a certain point in the game before the quest-essential dialogue options become available.

 

Basically what I would do is keep them in the party until you get a special cutscene after resting, then ditch them. Bring them back in your party during Act 3 (and for Durance get to Council of Stars quest and talk to

Magran

), and then get the next cutscene, and finish their quests. You don't need to have them in your party throughout all of Act 2.

[Teioh_White]

I loved both of these on a first play through, was some of the few times the writing was showing brief flashes of life. I didn't mind pacing those morsels across the game.

 

But OP is right, it does take a long time, so it becomes a lot more tiresome when you already know what they're going to say and where this is going. So, on every repeat playthrough i've done, I just skip them and miss out on their 'good' ending slide.

[Suen]

You don't have to bring them with you all the time.

How to...

 

Talk to them until you exhaust all the options.

After that you just need to set camp with them (no tavern) after completing some big step of the main quest or after a change of chapter.

Sleep several times (again, not in a tavern) and it will trigger a vision, that will add additional conversation lines.

You should be able to do it even in Caed Nua courtyard.

 

[Infinitron]

It's not just a matter of plot triggers. You also need to rest while they're in your party - and not in inns. The latter can actually be an issue depending on how you're playing, as much of Act 2 and Act 3 is spent in cities where an inn is always close by.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Infinitron

[LaSpeakeasi]

It's not just a matter of plot triggers. You also need to rest while they're in your party - and not in inns. The latter can actually be a rarity depending on how you're playing, as much of Act 2 and Act 3 is spent in cities where an inn is always close by.

 

 

I've resorted to not going into inns at all, only resting in the wilds, in the hopes of speeding up the process. No such luck.

 

The problem here is not enough pointers in-game. Even if you've fulfilled the resting requirment and are just waiting til the main plot to trigger it, the game gives you no such information. It just says you need to travel with them. I didn't want to spoil my game so I didn't check the guides.

 

And I kept thinking I need to travel with them --> doing the opposite of what's required (traveling some more and do more side quests and even the White March). I would MUCH rather spend those time with other companions. By the time I realized this there's virtually nothing left to do even if I switched in the others.

[oaktownbrown]

 

It's not just a matter of plot triggers. You also need to rest while they're in your party - and not in inns. The latter can actually be a rarity depending on how you're playing, as much of Act 2 and Act 3 is spent in cities where an inn is always close by.

 

 

I've resorted to not going into inns at all, only resting in the wilds, in the hopes of speeding up the process. No such luck.

 

The problem here is not enough pointers in-game. Even if you've fulfilled the resting requirement and are just waiting til the main plot to trigger it, the game gives you no such information. It just says you need to travel with them. I didn't want to spoil my game so I didn't check the guides.

 

And I kept thinking I need to travel with them --> doing the opposite of what's required (traveling some more and do more side quests and even the White March). I would MUCH rather spend those time with other companions. By the time I realized this there's virtually nothing left to do even if I switched in the others.

 

 

@Infinitron post,

 

This was a big problem for me. In my party playthrough, where I'm almost done with Act II but quit because of boredom, I think I only rested outdoors twice. The first time was with Durance because it was in the small cabin on that map. From a roleplaying perspective, it seemed like a good resting spot for the party and there were camping supplies right there so I replaced the one I used. That may have been too early to advance his quest, though. I also rested once in the Stronghold. I rested in the Defiance Bay inns, probably more often for roleplaying reasons than bc the party actually needed to rest. (I like to run the party into the yellow or red fatigue states to add more challenge to the combat. None of them have high athletics, though.)

 

Until I saw this thread, I had no idea that I needed to rest to advance Durance's quest. I've been trying to talk to Durance and Grieving Mother without much luck. I did have some conversation with GM but none that I recall with Durance. He had comments in the Searing Falls cave (I think that's the name, I call it the Yellowstone map) so I thought that might be what I needed to do but the conversation options stayed the same. I rotate members regularly because I like for all party members to have about the same number of XP and, since it's my first party playthrough, I don't know where I need to take each member for their quest. E.g., I did Cilant Lis without taking Eder. I think that's ok but if not, I hope that I can just go back there with him.

 

@LaSpeakeasi post,

I like priests in PoE so I don't mind taking him. He's very useful for buffs and debuffs, along with his trap spell and iconic projection. But I agree that the pointers given for both Durance and Grieving Mother don't tell you much and seem like they point you in the wrong direction. If you need to rest outdoors with Durance, Obsidian should give you that information. Do I need to rest with GM to advance her quest?

 

Unless you really mess up combat or do the Endless Paths early (or probably right before the final fight at the end of the game), I didn't see any gameplay reason to sleep outdoors in PoE, especially if you have a party so you can rotate who takes more damage in particular fights. It can make sense for roleplay or convenience, e.g, in the stronghold before you build Brighthollow, especially when doing the Endless Paths. But, depending on when you do the dungeon, that can be pretty early in the game so it's probably too early to trigger Durance's conversation (and it could be before the road to Dyrford is built so you couldn't have GM). And if it's later, you've probably built Brighthollow and rest there instead of camping.

 

I know that most players will need and want to camp but it seems like Obsidian should have considered that some players won't and need some tips so that they will do so with Durance (and GM?) if they want to advance their quests. They should also let all players know that you don't need to keep Durance and GM in your party all or maybe even most of the time. Until this thread, I wondered if I was keeping Durance or GM around enough to advance their quests. Am I ditching them too often? In the wrong places? Can I ditch them more often? It bothered me bc I didn't want to keep them around as often as I did if I didn't need to. They had more XP than some other party members. OTOH, I'd hate to keep them much more frequently than I wanted to but not keep them around often enough so that I just missed out on completing their quests. The quests and party banter were the primary reasons that I was taking any of the companions.

Edited September 20, 2015 by oaktownbrown

[MunoValente]

Sleeping at the stronghold triggers their conversations and there is more reason to do that now that the stronghold rest bonuses are better.  That you can do it as much as you want to try to trigger their quests with no real cost.

 

You don't really need to them party that long, usually if I get one of their dreams in Chapter 2, I kick them out of the party until chapter 3 and can usually get their next vision pretty quickly after that, I got them both between the start of chapter 3 before getting to Twin Elms this most recent time.  Durance's last conversation is very specifically triggered by something very late in the main story, so no amount of keeping him around will help with.

 

The bigger issue is that is no real guide or transparency on what the specific triggers are.  

 

Some of Aloth's triggers are hard to know about as well and he even has some important conversations you can miss after you finish his quest.

[LaSpeakeasi]

You don't really need to them party that long, usually if I get one of their dreams in Chapter 2, I kick them out of the party until chapter 3 and can usually get their next vision pretty quickly after that, I got them both between the start of chapter 3 before getting to Twin Elms this most recent time.  Durance's last conversation is very specifically triggered by something very late in the main story, so no amount of keeping him around will help with.

Unless you risk spoiling the game there's no way of knowing. The game not only doesn't provide you with sufficient information, it outright tells you the opposite of what you need to know.