What are you playing right now?

[majestic]

almost every poe trash mob has us micromanaging at a level similar to bg2 dragon battles.  yeah, am actual impressed by a few o' the new wm battles-- they challenge our established tactics. even so, poe, particularly on potd, can become an endurance challenge.  in the future, when we play poe, we likely will drop the difficulty as our most recent potd run is becoming exhausting.

 

The annoying part was when our Obs guys here did their best to remove, redesign or nerf abilities that made trash battles take less micromanagement. The biggest offender of White March Part 2 was the change of spell mastery. It had absolutely no effect on the balance of the few major and really interesting fights because you can spend the spells only once per encounter anyway but for some for me utterly unfathomable reason it was deemed making trash battles to easy.

 

It's hard to blame Obsidian for listening to the complaints on the forum though, but recent efforts have been a bis schizophrenic I think. First we get the Party AI that is supposed to lessen the micromanagement load and then we get a redesigned spell mastery so we get more micromanagement back. Yay... I guess.

 

Also, I don't know, but Grom... I had more problems killing you in ToB than killing any of the dragons.

[GhostofAnakin]

What's the best (read: easiest for people like me who suck at combat) class to play in PoE?  I tried a Cipher my first (and only) time through, and it seemed ... rough.

[Raithe]

What's the best (read: easiest for people like me who suck at combat) class to play in PoE?  I tried a Cipher my first (and only) time through, and it seemed ... rough.

 

Cipher is actually quite decent once you have a couple of the level 2 abilities. At least I find it quite efficient to mow down enemies with.

[Bartimaeus]

Also, I don't know, but Grom... I had more problems killing you in ToB than killing any of the dragons.

That's not really a surprise, if you know the general weaknesses of a dragon (namely, it's a single enemy who can only do so many actions so fast...while you can run a 6 member party with additional summonables that can vastly outstrip a dragon's meager spellcasting abilities and such if you know what you're doing - plus, vanilla BG2 dragons are kind of weak to begin with). The Gromnir fight, on the other hand, you just have a load of crap thrown at you at once...and it has a tendency to overwhelm your party immediately. And if you're using difficulty-enhancing mods like SCS and the enemy spellcasters actually intelligently use their abilities (...timestops and high level abilities, yay...), well, that's so much worse.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[GhostofAnakin]

 

What's the best (read: easiest for people like me who suck at combat) class to play in PoE?  I tried a Cipher my first (and only) time through, and it seemed ... rough.

 

Cipher is actually quite decent once you have a couple of the level 2 abilities. At least I find it quite efficient to mow down enemies with.

 

 

I found it good for stunning enemies (forget the ability) so the rest of my party can go to work on them, but overall I didn't enjoy playing the character for some reason.

[Gromnir]

 

 

What's the best (read: easiest for people like me who suck at combat) class to play in PoE?  I tried a Cipher my first (and only) time through, and it seemed ... rough.

 

Cipher is actually quite decent once you have a couple of the level 2 abilities. At least I find it quite efficient to mow down enemies with.

 

 

I found it good for stunning enemies (forget the ability) so the rest of my party can go to work on them, but overall I didn't enjoy playing the character for some reason.

 

is few things more straightforward in poe than a dps fighter with few active abilities.  you will be relative durable (unlike the rogue) and you will be able to dish out serious pain simple by stabbing, smashing or slicing enemies with your weapons.  

 

that being said, you do control a party and not just one character, so...

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Rosbjerg]

What's the best (read: easiest for people like me who suck at combat) class to play in PoE? I tried a Cipher my first (and only) time through, and it seemed ... rough.

I've found Paladin to be the easiest so far and there's a good RP element as well. You can play a Paladin as a pure tank and once you get a hold of the mechanics (around lvl 4 or so for me) they become even better.

 

But Druid is probably the most fun class I've played. You're a decent caster through the whole game and the shifting ability is quite effective in the first 5 levels, where you need the boost.

 

I'm not enjoying rouge, cipher or barbarian at all.. They require too much attention to the mechanics.. Gonna love 'em on my potd run in a few years no doubt

[Katphood]

Tried beating the first boss in Bloodborne. Everything was running fine until he transformed...

[DreamWayfarer]

But Druid is probably the most fun class I've played. You're a decent caster through the whole game and the shifting ability is quite effective in the first 5 levels, where you need the boost.

The best part is that they buffed spiritshift so that it remains useful for the whole game, and if you dislike it, druids have enough base deflection for you to give them a shield and defensive talents to have a decent off-tank.

 

@spell mastery: honestly, I liked the change. Attrition became meaningless after level 9 even if you didn't abuse rest-spamming, and the massive power increase of casters rendered all other classes superfluous.

 

Now, things are a little better, and with update 3.0 they removed some of the trash mobs from wilderness areas.

[WDeranged]

Tried beating the first boss in Bloodborne. Everything was running fine until he transformed...

 

I watched a couple of guys doing the same stage last night, the frustration was delicious 

[Raithe]

I have to admit, the various "director commentaries" from the team on Deus Ex: HR are quite interesting for the most part.

[majestic]

 

That's not really a surprise, if you know the general weaknesses of a dragon (namely, it's a single enemy who can only do so many actions so fast...while you can run a 6 member party with additional summonables that can vastly outstrip a dragon's meager spellcasting abilities and such if you know what you're doing - plus, vanilla BG2 dragons are kind of weak to begin with). The Gromnir fight, on the other hand, you just have a load of crap thrown at you at once...and it has a tendency to overwhelm your party immediately. And if you're using difficulty-enhancing mods like SCS and the enemy spellcasters actually intelligently use their abilities (...timestops and high level abilities, yay...), well, that's so much worse.

 

Gromnir is an interesting case also in the way it shows how access to Watcher's Keep gear and the raised experience cap make the game that much easier. The fight is really only an issue if you carry over a vanilla SoA party at the experience cap or when using the default party (I'm guessing here, I never used  the pre-mades).

 

I never played BG2 with SCS installed because it came out after I stopped playing. I did play the game on Insane with full Tactics and Improved Ilyich (back when they were two seperate mods, pfff, do I feel old now). Yeah, well, after Improved Ilyich you know enough cheese to make the other fights in the game utterly boring by comparison. Except maybe for Kuroisan the Cheesy and Ascension. All of which are mods though.

 

So, time to stop thinking about it before I actually reinstall the game. Time for some more Grim Dawn.

[Katphood]

 

Tried beating the first boss in Bloodborne. Everything was running fine until he transformed...

 

I watched a couple of guys doing the same stage last night, the frustration was delicious 

 

 

I finally killed the damn thing. Molotovs are your friend. 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Katphood

[Bartimaeus]

Gromnir is an interesting case also in the way it shows how access to Watcher's Keep gear and the raised experience cap make the game that much easier. The fight is really only an issue if you carry over a vanilla SoA party at the experience cap or when using the default party (I'm guessing here, I never used the pre-mades).

 

I never played BG2 with SCS installed because it came out after I stopped playing. I did play the game on Insane with full Tactics and Improved Ilyich (back when they were two seperate mods, pfff, do I feel old now). Yeah, well, after Improved Ilyich you know enough cheese to make the other fights in the game utterly boring by comparison. Except maybe for Kuroisan the Cheesy and Ascension. All of which are mods though.

 

So, time to stop thinking about it before I actually reinstall the game. Time for some more Grim Dawn.

Yeah, you should really only be able to access Watcher's Keep from ToB - you can get a bunch of pretty OP stuff if you just waltz right in at the start of SoA. Plus, you get a ton of XP for no reason for just arriving at Watcher's Keep...

 

Haha, that's crazy. I don't like playing on any difficulty besides core, personally - giving enemies huge damage bonuses as a way to try to make the game harder isn't really my thing. Personally prefer the slightly more organic solution of using the XP reducer mod and just reducing all given XP to 50%. And yeah, Improved Ilyich is just ridiculous - who in the world thought that was a good idea?

Edited March 3, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[Majek]

 

 

Tried beating the first boss in Bloodborne. Everything was running fine until he transformed...

 

I watched a couple of guys doing the same stage last night, the frustration was delicious 

 

 

I finally killed the damn thing. Molotovs are your friend. 

 

Just to be clear, Cleric beast ? Or were you at the actual non optional boss ?

[Katphood]

Just to be clear, Cleric beast ? Or were you at the actual non optional boss ?

Non-optional boss I think. It was a fellow that went by the name of 'Father Gascoigne'.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Katphood

[Chilloutman]

so, downloading grim down, any tips? Thinking about druid character..

[GhostofAnakin]

Nothing more annoying than playing a Prison of Elders match with 2 people who don't even understand the point of the various challenges.  Particularly the mine challenges that require you to destroy the mines within a short period of time or it's game over, they'll do nothing but try and earn kills while ignoring the fact the mine's timer is ticking down.

 

On a positive note, I've finally found a good legendary auto rifle.  It shoots ridiculously fast, especially when shooting from the hip.  It's great at clearing out hordes of enemies that try and swarm you.  I got it as a random purple engram drop while doing some patrol missions.

 

On a negative note, every time I get purple gear from doing a Prison of Elders strike, it's always a level 20 gun/equipment for some reason.  So it's pretty much useless to me other than to break it down for its component parts.

[Majek]

 

Just to be clear, Cleric beast ? Or were you at the actual non optional boss ?

Non-optional boss I think. It was a fellow that went by the name of 'Father Gascoigne'.

 

Ah that one. That one is hard the first time and the next few too. :D Though you do get other items to help you. So you skipped the optional one or didn't even encounter it or was it a piece of cake ?  And did you find any NPCs? Weapons? Armor?  If not, go explore the first areas again, then go further on after Gascoine area.  :D

 

 

 

Nothing more annoying than playing a Prison of Elders match with 2 people who don't even understand the point of the various challenges.  Particularly the mine challenges that require you to destroy the mines within a short period of time or it's game over, they'll do nothing but try and earn kills while ignoring the fact the mine's timer is ticking down.

 

On a positive note, I've finally found a good legendary auto rifle.  It shoots ridiculously fast, especially when shooting from the hip.  It's great at clearing out hordes of enemies that try and swarm you.  I got it as a random purple engram drop while doing some patrol missions.

 

On a negative note, every time I get purple gear from doing a Prison of Elders strike, it's always a level 20 gun/equipment for some reason.  So it's pretty much useless to me other than to break it down for its component parts.

Prison of elders is year 1 content so year 1 gear is what you'll always get. Same in Crota raid or Vault of glass. Even the exotics you can get are only year 1.  If you want year 2 gear you'll have to play Vanguard Heroic strike playlist.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Majek

[the_dog_days]

so, downloading grim down, any tips? Thinking about druid character..

Druid isn't an available class in Grim Dawn. I'be only have about ten hours of playing time, but a Shaman is the closest thing I've seen(you can summon beasts to aid you).

[GhostofAnakin]

 

 

Just to be clear, Cleric beast ? Or were you at the actual non optional boss ?

Non-optional boss I think. It was a fellow that went by the name of 'Father Gascoigne'.

 

Ah that one. That one is hard the first time and the next few too. :D Though you do get other items to help you. So you skipped the optional one or didn't even encounter it or was it a piece of cake ?  And did you find any NPCs? Weapons? Armor?  If not, go explore the first areas again, then go further on after Gascoine area.  :D

 

 

 

Nothing more annoying than playing a Prison of Elders match with 2 people who don't even understand the point of the various challenges.  Particularly the mine challenges that require you to destroy the mines within a short period of time or it's game over, they'll do nothing but try and earn kills while ignoring the fact the mine's timer is ticking down.

 

On a positive note, I've finally found a good legendary auto rifle.  It shoots ridiculously fast, especially when shooting from the hip.  It's great at clearing out hordes of enemies that try and swarm you.  I got it as a random purple engram drop while doing some patrol missions.

 

On a negative note, every time I get purple gear from doing a Prison of Elders strike, it's always a level 20 gun/equipment for some reason.  So it's pretty much useless to me other than to break it down for its component parts.

Prison of elders is year 1 content so year 1 gear is what you'll always get. Same in Crota raid or Vault of glass. Even the exotics you can get are only year 1.  If you want year 2 gear you'll have to play Vanguard Heroic strike playlist.

 

 

That's disappointing.  I've still got a couple of treasure keys in my inventory for the Prison of Elders vault.

[SadExchange]

Well. There is a Druid but it's a combination of two classes being the shaman and arcanist I believe.

[majestic]

 

so, downloading grim down, any tips? Thinking about druid character..

Druid isn't an available class in Grim Dawn. I'be only have about ten hours of playing time, but a Shaman is the closest thing I've seen(you can summon beasts to aid you).

 

 

Druid is the hybrid class you get for selecting both the Shaman and Arcanist masteries.

 

According to this post on the Grim Dawn forums Druids are quite capable of clearing Ultimate. I've just skimmed through it but it's apparently been updated for B30. The current build (B31) changed a few things - especially constellations and their bonuses -  but generally that guide should get you started. It's a bit of a mess though, you need to scroll down a bit for a more concise version.

 

Seems like a good choice for a starter character.

[Keyrock]

I never found the appeal of looking up pre-set builds and following a template.  Grim Dawn has an amazingly flexible character system with a ton of class combinations and a multitude of viable builds within each class combination.  For me, much of the fun is experimenting with and figuring out a build on my own.  That's just me though.

[Katphood]

Ah that one. That one is hard the first time and the next few too. :D Though you do get other items to help you. So you skipped the optional one or didn't even encounter it or was it a piece of cake ?  And did you find any NPCs? Weapons? Armor?  If not, go explore the first areas again, then go further on after Gascoine area.  :D

I didn't encounter the optional boss. I do recall skipping a certain part of the sewers because as I entered, I saw this huge Rhino-like(Not sure, was too scared too double check!)creature and I was on my way to opening shortcuts/doors so I ran away. I just noticed yesterday that I might have skipped a part in the sewers completely. Is it there? I have saved 2 npc's so far. The little girl that was asking me to find her mother. I sent her to Iosefka's Clinic and then noticed that she had given me a music box I though maybe I could have actually found her mom?

 

I also sent that grumpy old woman near the bridge to Iosefka's Clinic. I could have also sent them to that other guy who claims he is sane, but acts like a lunatic(forgot his name), but decided not to. I wasn't much pleased with Iosefka's rewards though, mostly consumable items I haven't found a use for yet. I mean look at poor Gilbert, you talk to the guy two times and he gives you a flamethrower! I have a Cleaver +2, Flamethrower +1 and the shotgun which I haven't upgraded yet.

 

Bloodborne brought back some neat memories from 2009, trying to discover how Demon's Souls works for the first time and going through all those pages of Demon's Souls Wiki. I still haven't figured everything out in Bloodborne, gotta check out my stats again which brings me to my only complaint about this game: why are the stats not properly explained in the options? I mean they are, but it sure takes some time to get used to. I have to go on fiddle with the character-stats screen a bit and see the item descriptions and such. Can't remember what I chose at the beginning of the game, but I like my character. I have high Arcane, Vitality, Strength and Stamina.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Katphood