Advice for a new player?

[Azernak0]

My friend has goaded me into playing this game after months of frustration wanting to talk about it. Apparently, he thinks that a game that eats 275 hours is a game that I should play. Well, okay then!

 

I originally started with a Spiritshift Wolf Druid because of the idea of having played a Druid for so long in DnD. The notion of only having Shift for very limited amount of time kind of bugged me. So I figured I would go the route of other Natural Weapons with the Monk. The Wound system seems kind of strange to me, getting hit to do better, considering every Monk I have seen is the DnD-esque Monk of "very bad things happen when I get hit."

 

I was told to play on Hard because Normal and Easy are too simple. I have also read that "do whatever you want for Hard" but figured I would at least ask for some advice given I am a new player. Monk seems interesting but I can pretty much go with anything.

 

Any suggestions for a new player? I don't need to have the ultimate unstoppable monster character but it actively bugs me when I am playing something that sucks not because I wanted to try something new but because I was so clueless. Thanks in advance.

[AndreaColombo]

While it is ultimately true that this game is overall pretty easy, it only becomes so once you're well versed in its mechanics (which, as you've already experienced, differ significantly from D&D's.)

 

My first piece of advice would be to play on Normal or Easy at first so you can get acquainted with the mechanics without having to worry about dying too fast while trying to figure out what's going on under the hood. You can switch to higher difficulties at any point (PotD requires a console command but that's beside the point.)

 

I also suggest checking out the build list thread pinned at the top of this forum section. You can find good builds for each of the 11 classes there and all will serve you well.

 

Be mindful of your tactics and positioning in combat, as they are more important than you may think at first.

Edited May 18, 2016 by AndreaColombo

[Stasis_Sword]

I agree with AndreaColombo that normal might be a good place to start as you're learning the mechanics of the game.

 

If you're still interested in shapeshifting druids I recommend looking at the Hungry Like a Wolf build and there is a scepter that can give you a second shift per encounter.

 

If you're still interested in monks I recommend looking at the Juggernaut build. Monks play different than monks in other games and their ability to soak up damage is directly tied to how much damage they can do. Think of all those anime characters that magically get stronger as they're beaten to within an inch of their life.

 

Having said that the most important thing is to find a main character whose concept and mechanics makes you happy. As you play through the game and learn more you can respec your main characters stats and abilities, but you can never change their class. As you learn more about the various classes and your preferences you can swap companions in and out fairly easily so don't worry too much about party composition at this point.

[Yosharian]

I recommend Normal.  The 'POTD IS SO EZ' crowd have been playing this game too long.  It's not that easy until you master the game's mechanics.

 

That said, Hard would probably be ok as long as you are experienced with the genre.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Yosharian

[Azernak0]

Thanks for the advice. I had seen the Juggernaut and Hungry thread but wasn't sure if the Monk one was workable, weirdly. I know is is naive but I was still in the mindset of "A Monk in HEAVY armor! Why, this is most unorthodox!" Less because of the "Monk's are supposed to be naked!" and more "If heavy Armor slows you down and you are mostly about hitting quickly, how are you doing any kind of damage?" Inexperience and per-conceived notions.

 

The Wolf is the one I started with but I didn't like the idea of Spiritshift lasting for such a short duration. I like Natural/Unarmed and the Druid seems more to be using the Natural combat as a buff and then blowing things up with spells. Totally fine just not what I was looking for, for now.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

Edit: Oh, my. I just read through that guide again and realized what the build basically is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw

Edited May 19, 2016 by Azernak0

[Elric Galad]

Normal on act I.

Hard from act II.

 

Act I is tedious and, as stated above, it takes time to understand the mechanics.

[jsaving]

Druids are much better in this game than they are in D&D -- their call lightning spells are actually pretty good, their shapeshifting deals solid damage, and their regen spells are useful just before you land your first melee attack.  A druid PC is also good because the joinable NPC druid, while funny, doesn't add much lore value to the game and can be safely disregarded in a first run-through.   

 

Monks are also solid choices, but a lot of people become disenchanted with them in the early game simply because it's so hard to get hurt in the early game, which means you aren't seeing much of the wound system in action.  It also takes time to figure out how much armor you want to wear, as too much may slow your accumulation of wound points (and your ability to quickly use them) while too little runs the risk of creating a "glass cannon". 

 

Good luck!

[baldurs_gate_2]

What i can say as a newbie, i played on normal. I rarely used the shape shift of my druid, cuz he dies really fast, if you don't watch out and suck at micromanagement like i do. The only 2 spells i frequently used where level 5 "Plague of Insects" and "Relentless Storm". Pretty good spells.

 

The Wizard in my opinion is ok, time to time. He has a lot of crowd control spells, that can really help. But you should avoid all spells, where you have to go IN the fight (AoE Spell around your hero) or have a conewise damage in front of you, cuz you will hurt your own team members if you are not in the right position, and maybe get sorrounded by your enemies. The red circle means, your party members get hurt 2, the yellow circle is ok to use.

 

The Priest on the other hand, is pretty good. If you give your Paladin Boots of Speed or he drinks a Potion of Speed, he can lure the enemies away, and your priest buffs the rest of the party in the meanwhile (most spells have a duration of 30 seconds).

 

So i would definitly pick up a Paladin for heavy tanking, a Fighter (best 2H - Unique Wpn Tidefall for Life Leech) for damage dealing, a Wizard for crowd control / debuff and damage and a Priest for buffing your stats.

 

Other members are up to you, but more melee heroes means, they standing in the way of each other, especially in narrow passages. So it's good to have some range heroes (Wizard and Priest should attack with range weapons anyway).

 

You should not listen to the guides from Wizard, Druid and Priest when they say, pick "Weapon Focus" (gives accuary) for melee weapon xyz. You should pick a range weapon (bow "hunting or war", crossbow, blunderbuss, arbalest, arquebus, pistol). The Pistol has a the shortest range, if i'm not mistaken. The best bow is of course the soulbound hunting bow "stormcaller". It's not really hard to get and to upgrade, only the max level, cuz you have to kill the sky dragon to do so. And only ranger, chiper and chanter can bind it.

 

Remember: GODLIKE Race, they can not wear helmets. I picked up 3 (moon, fire and nature) and i only realised that half way through the game lol. Fire or Nature Godlike are pretty good for the Paladin, cuz it gives him stat bonus or damage red if his Hit Points fall under 50%, but i won't use it for any other class. I never used the healing spell of the moon godlike.

 

If you play both DLC's, you really should pick all 6 slots up, cuz you could easly reach level 17 or maybe 18, but the level cap is sadly 16.

 

Good websites:

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_Wiki

http://guides.gamepressure.com/pillarsofeternity/

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85492-the-obsidian-boards-build-list-last-modified-16-may-16/

Edited May 20, 2016 by baldurs_gate_2

[MaxQuest]

I never used the healing spell of the moon godlike.

Oh yes, you did

It's passive.

 

Nice lazy counter to the plague of insects and alike AoEs.

[Boeroer]

You should listen to guides that say "pick a weapon focus" - because they have more experience than you.

 

It depends on the type of wizard or other caster you're playing. If you are going to cast your a** off in every encounter you don't need weapon focus for sure. But if you play an implement based wizard with blast you should definitely take weapon focus. Same when you're using summoned weapons a lot (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, Citzal's Spirit Lance, Rot Skulls and so on). You can spare a lot of spells that way and still do good damage.

 

I took Weapon Focus Adventurer and Spirit of Decay recently for my Arcane Archer who uses Cadebald's Blackbow. It's devastating for just one spell and it lasts a long time.

 

So it all depends. I think most people who post a build here know their stuff.

[Stasis_Sword]

You should listen to guides that say "pick a weapon focus" - because they have more experience than you.

 

It depends on the type of wizard or other caster you're playing. If you are going to cast your a** off in every encounter you don't need weapon focus for sure. But if you play an implement based wizard with blast you should definitely take weapon focus. Same when you're using summoned weapons a lot (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, Citzal's Spirit Lance, Rot Skulls and so on). You can spare a lot of spells that way and still do good damage.

 

I took Weapon Focus Adventurer and Spirit of Decay recently for my Arcane Archer who uses Cadebald's Blackbow. It's devastating for just one spell and it lasts a long time.

 

So it all depends. I think most people who post a build here know their stuff.

 

 

I could be wrong Boeroer but I believe baldurs_gate_2's point was that almost all the currently posted wizard/priest builds (except your Hurtstacker) recommend melee weapons rather than ranged ones. While these weapon choices work for the builds listed (and I love melee wizards) I think most of us would consider the "traditional" wizard build is probably ranged with implements and blast.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Stasis_Sword

[Loren Tyr]

I could be wrong Boeroer but I believe baldurs_gate_2's point was that almost all the currently posted wizard/priest builds (except your Hurtstacker) recommend melee weapons rather than ranged ones. While these weapon choices work for the builds listed (and I love melee wizards) I think most of us would consider the "traditional" wizard build is probably ranged with implements and blast.

 

 

But if you're going the blast mage route, you'd still benefit particularly from WF: Noble. You still need to hit stuff first to blast properly after all, and Wizards are hardly blessed with an innate sense of accuracy.  

[Stasis_Sword]

 

I could be wrong Boeroer but I believe baldurs_gate_2's point was that almost all the currently posted wizard/priest builds (except your Hurtstacker) recommend melee weapons rather than ranged ones. While these weapon choices work for the builds listed (and I love melee wizards) I think most of us would consider the "traditional" wizard build is probably ranged with implements and blast.

 

 

But if you're going the blast mage route, you'd still benefit particularly from WF: Noble. You still need to hit stuff first to blast properly after all, and Wizards are hardly blessed with an innate sense of accuracy.  

 

 

100% agree with you that you should use the appropriate weapon focus for the character. I read the original quote as a critique on making all the casters in the party melee characters with melee weapon focus. Which if you were blindly grabbing builds from the build list is what would likely happen.

[baldurs_gate_2]

What i tried to say was, i skilled blast, penetrating blast and so on, but never used it a single time. Only used spells and equiped a very good pistol on my mage, later a crossbow. I don't say the guide authors are wrong, but for me the skill build was not working out for my playstyle.

 

Maybe a melee wizard works, but i don't like the idea behind it. They should cast spells or use a range weapon and stay out of the fight.

Edited May 20, 2016 by baldurs_gate_2

[Loren Tyr]

What i tried to say was, i skilled blast, penetrating blast and so on, but never used it a single time. Only used spells and equiped a very good pistol on my mage, later a crossbow. I don't say the guide authors are wrong, but for me the skill build was not working out for my playstyle.

 

Maybe a melee wizard works, but i don't like the idea behind it. They should cast spells or use a range weapon and stay out of the fight.

 

Fair enough, if something doesn't fit your play style then by all means don't use it. But I don't quite see how that equates to good general advice for new players. Sure, a mage permanently cowering behind the rest of the party flinging spells and shooting guns is perfectly viable. But so is a blast mage, and so is a melee mage.

 

And even when your mage doesn't feel a pressing need to engage in melee, they still can benefit greatly from getting close to the action to use short range spells like Fan of Flames or Ray of Fire (which you are flatly advising people not to use). Takes a bit more care and manoeuvring perhaps, exposes your mage to a bit more danger, but those spells deal a lot of damage as well. So why not build a pyromaniac mage flamethrowering his way across the battle field, occasionally get squished by his own ball of rolling flame? There are a lot of different ways in which you can go about building (viable) characters in this game, wizards included, and advising new players to stick to just a single narrow build type is doing them a disservice.

[Loren Tyr]

100% agree with you that you should use the appropriate weapon focus for the character. I read the original quote as a critique on making all the casters in the party melee characters with melee weapon focus. Which if you were blindly grabbing builds from the build list is what would likely happen.

 

 

True. Which makes for a good argument against blindly grabbing things, I suppose . I would argue new players shouldn't follow the build list anyway, try stuff out for themselves first, but maybe that's just me.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Loren Tyr

[Elric Galad]

The basic of wizard is his spells.

Ice damage talent is recommanded because the best wizard damages spells are ice-related.

 

Apart for this, pretty much everything is a bonus, and is mostly useful for trash fights. For hard fights, you'll be slinging spells most of the time.

 

I'm currentlt using a High Per Interrupt blast wizard and she's pretty efficient, especially with minor blights on packed crowd. Even then, it's just icing on the cake compared to CC and damage spells.

 

Furthermore, wizard and priest are more or less "default" build. No meed to create a build thread for it.

[Reent]

the less reliant on squishy damage dealer you are, the faster you can scale up to POTD (caster are quite fragile, if you are slightly careless they  can die... making the fight much much much harder - not so much with monks or rangers) - thats my experience with PoE, i played <POTD maybe 3 times (runs that lasted >1h), my first run ended in gilded vale after i lost my grimoire to a bug, my 2nd run ended to redric castle bug, my 3rd run ended in act 2 because the fighting was too easy (the AI was more "oh lets focus the tank" then)

 

the by far worst run i had was with a mage MC (okay, 3 con mage... wasnt the best decision i ever made)... i was raging like mad at the end of the run - sometimes i had to kill him myself so he wouldnt regen the last 3 endurance (else he would have really died)... i didnt even include him in every fight (more like... i used withdraw after 1-2 spells cast, if i could have benched him i would have done that)! (in one fight in the endless path i had him 2 screens away before engaging the fight, the enemies still aggroed him... if the priest hadnt gotten to him fast enough with withdraw that would habe been the end (ironman run))

 

 

starting POTD is ridiculous since the game tends to throw random encounters at you (act 1) that are harder than bossfights (at that time)... go ahead, play with 3/4 characters and try to clear the area south of gilded vale. Go ahead, the dungeon in gilded vale is harder than anything else you can face in act 1 - even most of act 2 isnt as hard.

 

POTD isnt as much about game mechanics as its about items and encounter knowledge.

 

As long as you leave yourself a way out in all fights or play a defensive party, you  can start POTD quite early

 

If you are good at BG like games... start hard... (or POTD and reload in act 1 like mad -.-)

 

 

Things that make the game much easier:

Use a priest (not as MC, but have one in party), he can counter most CC abilities (sadly, you need quite some levels to do it)

Use withdraw - its the best spell to safe someone.

If you play monk - make him your DD, use quite some int (at least 15 - i prefer 18-20) and learn your positioning for torments reach (you can use less dex - the game isnt about min maxing if you just start), if you position well he will deal enough damage to get through all non bossfights easily.

Get a character with enough mechanic and go get the shade figurine and beetle figurine (you can get both early in act 2), they can change a lost fight.

Abuse doors! Every door with enemies behind it is a free win - really, its as easy as it sounds - even a 6 melee party can use a door.

Abuse walls and "end of maps", the game loves sending endless amounts of enemies, dont fight them in an open area, if there is a wall, perfect - only 3 sides left, so you cant get surrounded.

Look who's your MVP character in every fight, make sure he is in a good position in fights and get him the support he needs (sometimes the MVP is the tank - if he keeps aggro because of good positioning than nothing is worse than the tank leaving the position - so make sure he doesnt) - a monk with torments reach can hit 1, 2, 3 or every enemy with every use (if there are many enemies its the bug that makes it strong, however 4m reach ability isn't bad, and thats what you can get) so if your monk is your MVP... position him well!

The pathing is bad, you can abuse the enemy pathing (sometimes the pathing sucks enough that 1 enemy blocks 4 others... despite them having a way to your character) however make sure your characters dont stuck because of the pathing - its annoying and can cost you.

[Loren Tyr]

the less reliant on squishy damage dealer you are, the faster you can scale up to POTD 

 

[...]

 

POTD isnt as much about game mechanics as its about items and encounter knowledge.

 

As long as you leave yourself a way out in all fights or play a defensive party, you  can start POTD quite early

 

But why would you want to? Even if a new player would eventually want to try out PotD at all (which isn't a given), why is it better if (s)he gets there more quickly? Especially when, as you say, it requires game knowledge a new player inherently does not yet possess.

[Boeroer]

I totally agree that you should use the builds in the index as an inspiration, not as a "you have to do it this way" guide or something. If you feel good with a pistol on your wizard and it's fun, then you've done the right thing.

 

P.s.: you might want a blast wizard with implements as soon as you realize that on-crit effects work in an AoE with blast though.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Boeroer

[Reent]

 

the less reliant on squishy damage dealer you are, the faster you can scale up to POTD 

 

[...]

 

POTD isnt as much about game mechanics as its about items and encounter knowledge.

 

As long as you leave yourself a way out in all fights or play a defensive party, you  can start POTD quite early

 

But why would you want to? Even if a new player would eventually want to try out PotD at all (which isn't a given), why is it better if (s)he gets there more quickly? Especially when, as you say, it requires game knowledge a new player inherently does not yet possess.

 

I would have loved to start the game with POTD - if act 1 had a similiar difficulty as act 2 i would have finished the game with a party directly (restart POTD in act 1 instead of act 2) - however since the game was too easy for "hard" i restarted and played POTD at the end of act 2, only to stop the run at about the same point again and restart with a solo character - i prefer challenges! Thats why i havent finished everything yet, i know if i played a party i would get bored and die because of it (ironman always - naked chanter and until the first run to thaos were the exceptions) since i simply cant be bothered with the game if its too easy - while there are some bugs that make the builds i wanna play quite a bit weaker and i am waiting because i hope they are gone next patch (monk with triggered immunity bug... monk with torments reach bug... maybe chanter can buff his dragon thrashed next patch... that would be awesome)

my solo run didnt finish thaos because of bad spells, bad items and bugged talent (itemslots), started a group run (ironman potd) after that and finished the game with 150+ death - the game was too easy to make me bother about anything, if my MC hadnt been a 3 con mage i wouldnt have needed pauses outside of bossfights (4 tanks, 1 healer, 1 3con mage... no i didnt need the mage for the fights, he simply made the game much harder)

 

And i am not the only one who found hard too easy, i watched some streams when the game was released and one of them even went as far as changing it to POTD later on (as you know, not possible without tools or something) blind POTD... it wasnt that hard after act 1... quite some ppl played POTD blind on release on twitch.

 

Now... i only play solo potd ironman, everything else is too easy - maybe i will try a no pause full clear party run... but that would be too hard instead :D

Edited May 20, 2016 by Reent

[Erstarrung]

i only play solo potd ironman, everything else is too easy

Yes, I as well only play solo potd ironman, but with my hands tied behind my back and just randomly pressing a button on my keyboard with my nose -  everything else would be far too easy, you know!

 

And by the way, your remarks make perfect advice for a new player, as was requested...

[Reent]

 

i only play solo potd ironman, everything else is too easy

Yes, I as well only play solo potd ironman, but with my hands tied behind my back and just randomly pressing a button on my keyboard with my nose -  everything else would be far too easy, you know!

 

And by the way, your remarks make perfect advice for a new player, as was requested...

 

the advice i gave wasnt the remarks about my "i only play" it was about doors, withdraw and other thinks.

and you know what? I have played 389h Pillars, (thats what steam says, its more - there is a bug, if i dont open it with steam it doesnt log and doesnt unlock achievements) and i finished the game a grand total of... 5 times? (group once, 2 times vanilla ironman chanter, 1 time ranger ironman vanilla, one time non ironman naked chanter with both expansion main storyline) I could go on and on and on and tell you why the game is easy, but i will make it short: if i dont play ironman i dont learn anything about how good my build is, because i die because of "its faster to risk dying then to make sure not to die" all the time, now if i am serious about a chanter run and its content i already mastered... i dont die. With all the tricks i learned in my runs i could finish the game in a serious ironman (chanter) attempt faster than in casual non ironman run - and man that feels good!

[Bugged Wolf Companion]

 

i only play solo potd ironman, everything else is too easy

Yes, I as well only play solo potd ironman, but with my hands tied behind my back and just randomly pressing a button on my keyboard with my nose -  everything else would be far too easy, you know!

 

And by the way, your remarks make perfect advice for a new player, as was requested...

 

i had to laugh for 3 straight minutes

[Eadan]

Just signed up to say after playing 200 hours I would have preferred if someone told me the game gets easier later on even on PoTD with high level scaling, especially if you are a completionist. Not to hijack this thread, but now I am wondering if solo play provides any meaningful challenge or is it about abusing some mechanics? Would using ie mod with half xp makes the game more fun than a solo run?