Playing Through A Second Time: A Few Questions

[Quantum Hog]

I played PoE minus White March 1 and 2 in the Fall of 2015.  I decided to start another game but this time with WM 1&2.

 

A. I have already updated the basic game to the latest patch 3.03 without WM 1 and 2 installed.  Was this a mistake to do so?  In other words, should I have installed 1&2 first?

 

B. Can I start a new game and add WM 1&2 later or is it best to have them installed first?  Since I already have the game patched to 3.03 will it apply to WM 1&2 or will I need to go back and reinstall?

 

Thanks.

[Loren Tyr]

Are you on Steam? If so, it should just grab the relevant 3.03 updates for White March and install them as well. If you're running it via something else you might need to do that manually (not sure how GoG does it, or other platforms (if any)), but it should be fine either way. 

 

You can start a regular game without WM and add it later. There are a couple of abilities you can select (the "cross-class" ones) early on, but other than that the added content first becomes unlocked a bit into Act 2 / Defiance Bay. If you're going to start a new game I would just install first, but if you have a game already in progress you can add it into that as well. 

[Quantum Hog]

Thanks for your reply.  I purchased the game from GOG and where I got the latest patch.  Been thinking of going the Expert Mode this time.  I know it raises the strength of encounters/enemies but does your PC and NPC party members also receive benefits as well?  Thanks again.

[demeisen]

I played PoE minus White March 1 and 2 in the Fall of 2015.  I decided to start another game but this time with WM 1&2.

 

A. I have already updated the basic game to the latest patch 3.03 without WM 1 and 2 installed.  Was this a mistake to do so?  In other words, should I have installed 1&2 first?

 

B. Can I start a new game and add WM 1&2 later or is it best to have them installed first?  Since I already have the game patched to 3.03 will it apply to WM 1&2 or will I need to go back and reinstall?

 

 

​Cool.  WM1&2 are a blast.  If you liked the original game, I think you'll like them too.

​

​I did about the same as you: played through before WM, and then again after WM came out.  I installed both expansions before starting the new game.  It might not be necessary (see comments up-thread), but I figured, why risk it?

​

​I also bought from GOG, and installed the 3.03 game patch, and then (before playing anything) the WM1/2 updates.

​

[Loren Tyr]

I would expect GoG works on roughly the same principle, so it should be just a matter of installing WM. I would expect it just applies the latest update immediately, otherwise you should be able to just hit wherever the 'update' button in GoG is. 

 

Expert mode doesn't change stats actually, it's the Path of the Damned difficulty setting you're thinking of. That upgrades the enemy stats (and just adds more and stronger ones generally). Your own party doesn't get this upgrade though. What expert mode does is to hide various helper features. I never used it myself so I don't know exactly which ones, but persumably stuff like the hit chance you see when you hover the cursor over an enemy, the friendly part of spell AOE (or maybe the whole AOE, actually), etc. 

[Karkarov]

You just need to install the White March 1 and 2 patches, even if you installed them first you still had to update to 3.03 anyway.

[Quantum Hog]

Thanks to everyone; much appreciated.