Durance/Priest is irreplaceable in party? :/

[Labadal]

He has a very important role, I feel but not irreplaceable. You can complete the game with most combinations of classes.

[Crucis]

 

boring religious NPC

/facepalm

They say it's a matter of taste but if you dislike Durance you have rather poor taste.

 

---

 

As for priests in general - the class is powerful if played right but not indispensable. In harder fights you can buff your party using scrolls and there are other sources of healing (paladins, druids, items).

 

Finally, saying that Priest outclasses Druid or Paladin is ignorance at best or pure trolling at worst. Particularly, Paladin is probably the strongest class overall and easily the best healer (if built correctly).

 

 

 

Actually I think that it's a bit unfair to rip someone for not liking Durance.  Durance is meant to be a character that people will like to dislike.  Many people will say that he's well written, and that part of that is being written in a way that makes him into an unlikable character.

 

OTOH, I think that Himself's complaint about Durance being "boring religious NPC" is grossly unfair.  IMO, *ANY* priest Companion would be a "religious NPC" because priests are by definition religious.  If they weren't religious, they wouldn't be priests in the first place.  It's that simple. 

 

 

[Teioh_White]

Durance is neither evil nor a terrible person. He's a realistic person. To quote The Simpsons: "Humans are obnoxious, sometimes. Humans hate things."

 

He only looks "terrible" against the background of SJW-pandering (and genuinely boring) characters like Kana or Sagani. Both of them feel like whoever wrote them was using tvtropes.org as the primary source of inspiration.

 

Eh? He boasts proudly of his killings in the purges. He's just as bad as that woodcutter that Devil wants to kill. Do you think folks dislike him because he talks about using his prick a lot or something? (Which he also implies doesn't even work anymore).

 

I also have no clue how Kana is SJW-like, who is actually pretty interesting, and reacts the most to your adventure, breathing some life into boring questing. I could kinda see Sagani, I guess. She's just a wiki article for a place and people we never see, and sound like we never should see, as it sounds really, really, boring. With the one 'cool' thing being all the woman do the hunting, I guess. It's not really SJW at all though, just boring.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Teioh_White

[Crucis]

Durance is neither evil nor a terrible person. He's a realistic person. To quote The Simpsons: "Humans are obnoxious, sometimes. Humans hate things."

 

He only looks "terrible" against the background of SJW-pandering (and genuinely boring) characters like Kana or Sagani. Both of them feel like whoever wrote them was using tvtropes.org as the primary source of inspiration.

 

I'm not sure that I can say that Durance isn't evil nor terrible.  He has done some terrible things in his past that most would see as evil.

 

As for SJW, I had to look that one up.  I had no idea what it meant, though I've seen it before (never bothered to look it up in the past).  I'm not sure that I'd call Kana or Sagani products of "SJW-pandering".  Boring to some, perhaps.  But does every Companion have to have a backstory that's so convoluted that they all seem like societal freaks of some sort or other?  What's so wrong with some characters who are relatively normal, reasonably well adjusted people?

[Crucis]

 

Durance is neither evil nor a terrible person. He's a realistic person. To quote The Simpsons: "Humans are obnoxious, sometimes. Humans hate things."

 

He only looks "terrible" against the background of SJW-pandering (and genuinely boring) characters like Kana or Sagani. Both of them feel like whoever wrote them was using tvtropes.org as the primary source of inspiration.

 

Eh? He boasts proudly of his killings in the purges. He's just as bad as that woodcutter that Devil wants to kill. Do you think folks dislike him because he talks about using his prick a lot or something? (Which he also implies doesn't even work anymore).

 

I also have no clue how Kana is SJW-like, who is actually pretty interesting, and reacts the most to your adventure, breathing some life into boring questing. I could kinda see Sagani, I guess. She's just a wiki article for a place and people we never see, and sound like we never should see, as it sounds really, really, boring. With the one 'cool' thing being all the woman do the hunting, I guess. It's not really SJW at all though, just boring.

 

 

On the first paragraph, your point regarding the woodcutter and Devil is well taken.  And it's a wonder that it doesn't come up in banter between the two (or maybe it does and I missed it).  Durance seems like exactly the sort of person that Devil would really hate.

 

I wholeheartedly agree about Kana. 

 

As for Sagani, yeah, I suppose that maybe she's not the most exciting character.  But it seems like the nature of her personal quest and backstory would lead to her being the sort of person she is, even if that's not the most exciting character to some people.

 

 

 

[JerekKruger]

The only way I can see Sagani bring SJW pandering is that she's a woman who's job is traditionally done by men. I doubt that that was actually written to pander to SJWs, it's just the only thing I can think of. I can't see it at all with Kana, he's just an enthusiastic, slightly niave intellectual.

 

As for Durance not being evil, that really depends on what you mean. I think most people in Eora would see him as evil, as would most people in our world. I doubt however that he sees himself as evil. He has justifications for his acts, not ones most would agree with, but they aren't empty.

 

Essentially he seems to believe that things need to be constantly challenged in order to remain (or become) strong(er), and that any act that furthers this strengthening is justified. There are Nietzschean elements going on in his world view.

[Himself]

He's well written and really useful to have in your party.  I can see why you wouldn't want to use him.

Lol yeah it is kinda crazy, but the thing is, he excels in being an annoying NPC, you don't need to love a character to admire how he/she is represented.

 

Elric said it best with less words: I think Durance is the best written companion. But I hate him.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Himself

[Himself]

sorry wrongly posted ^^

Edited April 7, 2016 by Himself

[anameforobsidian]

Durance is neither evil nor a terrible person. He's a realistic person. To quote The Simpsons: "Humans are obnoxious, sometimes. Humans hate things."

 

He only looks "terrible" against the background of SJW-pandering (and genuinely boring) characters like Kana or Sagani. Both of them feel like whoever wrote them was using tvtropes.org as the primary source of inspiration.

 

I'm sick of the stupid SJWs and their non-genocide/ non-deicide / non-imperialism / non-racism / non-arson agenda; they're ruining my realism!

 

 

Durance is at best a collection of diagnosable criteria, and at worst an evil fanatic.  I also have him in my party every game.

Edited April 7, 2016 by anameforobsidian

[the_dog_days]

I sympathize with Durance and actually like him more than Chris Avellone's other character, Greaving Mother. Durance and Eder's back stories share a lot in common: both of them are patriots who defended what they thought was right, and both returned home to find the home they were protecting wasn't quite the home they remembered. Eder's reaction was to hope the uproar passes, while Durance was outraged at being used and discarded and reacted violently.

 

That said, I still don't like the structure of Durance's quest.

[house2fly]

Durance and GM both have terribly structured quests, they're kind of buggy as well- I did a quick run through on Storytime mode a while back and never got either of their quests to advance despite resting a lot of times.

[Merany]

In my current POTD playthrough, I also wanted to change a bit and see if something else was viable, even though I love Durance and will absolutely pick him again in the future.

My party is:

PC: ranged chanter, invocations and party buffs.

Zahua: Juggernaut style monk, main tank.

Maneha: off tank / melee DPS.

Hiravias: healer, storm caster.

Pallegina: naked ranged support / dps palladin. This one is not conventional 

Aloth that will be replaced by Devil of Caroc as soon as I can.

 

So far so good, although I must say it can get pretty tough without a priest, we'll see how far I go

[Crucis]

Durance and GM both have terribly structured quests, they're kind of buggy as well- I did a quick run through on Storytime mode a while back and never got either of their quests to advance despite resting a lot of times.

 

I don't know how much of Durance's quest is rest driven as opposed to event driven.  I do know that the concluding dialog of his quest only comes after a specific event.  I don't know if he has to be in the party or not at the time, however.  Logically, it would seem that he should need to be, but one never knows.

 

As for GM's quest, I don't recall anything about it being at all event driven, though I suppose that there may be some events that have to take place to advance her quest, even if logically they don't really seem tied to it.

[JerekKruger]

At least one of the triggers for Durance's quest comes both after a certain event and requires you to rest with him in the party, so I guess that could be a problem.

[Blunderboss]

You can replace a priest , with a character that is focused on lore and casting scrolls , but then again why would u build such character if you can simply make him a priest in the first place , 

Triumphant Kind Wayfarer Paladin can replace priest in healing , but then you still need to craft scrolls for Immunity ,

And then there is that level 7 Firestorm spell priest can cast ..... and those Accuracy buffs .... yeh...