Josh Sawyer's tweets and teasers

[MaxQuest]

Though spellblade could also fit with wizard/fighter.

It could, but dunno, it feels closer to rogue than to fighter in my opinion.

 

Plus there are few names left suiting wizard/fighter. Battlemage, Eldritch Knight, Fizard.. (jk)   

[smjjames]

Yeah, I suppose spellblade is more 'subtle' while battlemage is more 'aggro'. I don't have a problem with rogue/wizard being spellblade, and there's plenty of self affecting spells which would benefit a rogue quite well. However, there don't seem to be any spells in PoE1 that directly affect weapons, as you might expect from a class named spellblade.

 

I recall that Obsidian is doing some stuff with the wizard spells (besides the vfx and expected balancing), so, there may be more spells that we don't have in PoE1 and some properties may be changed as well.

Edited July 12, 2017 by smjjames

[DexGames]

IIRC, Josh confirmed (at that time) in the Q&A Session that :

 

Fighter/Wizard = Battlemage

Rogue/Wizard = Spellblade

 

Remember that everything regarding Character Titles are subject to change until release. Plus, they were investigating the possibility to allow the Players to "rename" their Title if they don't like it, because all of this is subjective, it's a matter of personal tastes.

[Enoch]

New Tumblr post on the per-rest/per-encounter issue.

[MortyTheGobbo]

Yeah, everything there is spot-on. Per-rest abilities are not only a massive pain to balance, but also really stunt pacing. Players shouldn't have to wonder if they want to use this spell now or later. Especially since a caster's effectiveness will vary drastically based on a player's willingness to spend them.

[Enoch]

New Tumblr post on the per-rest/per-encounter issue.

And the follow-up.

 

Excerpt:

 

 

The “traditional” casters have their per encounter resources broken up by level, maxing out at 2 per level/encounter unless they Empower themselves to regain a cast per level.  That element makes individual spell choice more important for those classes because you’re only going to get 2 casts of a given spell off in a combat (in most cases).

 

The bit about "individual spell choice" makes me wonder-- will it still be the case that Priests and Druids can choose from all of the spells at a particular level, at all times? 

Edited July 13, 2017 by Enoch

[MaxQuest]

That's indeed a nice change to vancian classes. 

They were very strong during boss fights (because of their ability to unload the full arsenal of spells); but were at times feeling supbar duing easy and medium encounters where you would save their per-rest spells for later.

 

And the change does exactly what is needed:

- tones-up their usefulness during exploration

- tones-down their level of power during 'the big fights'

[Lord_Mord]

 

And the change does exactly what is needed:

- tones-up their usefulness during exploration

- tones-down their level of power during 'the big fights'

 

So basically either the big fights have to become like the normal fights or the normal fights have to become trashfights. Excellent.

[MaxQuest]

So basically either the big fights have to become like the normal fights or the normal fights have to become trashfights. Excellent.

They have to? Why?

[Wormerine]

ok, I wasn't happy with the change of per-rest casting, as I was worried it will turn into a constant spam of weak spells. As it turns out it is not the case. I am really looking forward to this system now.

[Lord_Mord]

 

They have to? Why?

 

Because if the big nuke is per encounter now, the normal fights have to be hard enough to justify using it.

The big bad dragon can't be that much harder than the average adventure group, because how would you beat it without that special spell that you kept in reserve all the time.

 

Eiher that, or every fight except for the big bad dragon is spam that can be nuked away easily.

 

Or there is no big nuke anymore. Just lots of firecrackers.

 

Please correct me if I misunderstood or overlooked something.

[DigitalCrack]

 

They have to? Why?

Because if the big nuke is per encounter now, the normal fights have to be hard enough to justify using it.

The big bad dragon can't be that much harder than the average adventure group, because how would you beat it without that special spell that you kept in reserve all the time.

 

Eiher that, or every fight except for the big bad dragon is spam that can be nuked away easily.

 

Or there is no big nuke anymore. Just lots of firecrackers.

 

Please correct me if I misunderstood or overlooked something.

My guess is that the per rest spell empowerment function is how you will get the "big nuke" effect. otherwise mormal cast are all scaled as "fircrackers"

[Gfted1]

 

 

They have to? Why?

Because if the big nuke is per encounter now, the normal fights have to be hard enough to justify using it.

The big bad dragon can't be that much harder than the average adventure group, because how would you beat it without that special spell that you kept in reserve all the time.

 

Eiher that, or every fight except for the big bad dragon is spam that can be nuked away easily.

 

Or there is no big nuke anymore. Just lots of firecrackers.

 

Please correct me if I misunderstood or overlooked something.

My guess is that the per rest spell empowerment function is how you will get the "big nuke" effect. otherwise mormal cast are all scaled as "fircrackers"

 

 

Per Sawyer:

 

 

 

Wizards, priests, and druids still have some really high-impact spells, but those spells have the trade-off of long casting times, which is a tactical consideration.

 

Aside, weren't long cast times what jacked up the Chanter?

[MaxQuest]

Because if the big nuke is per encounter now, the normal fights have to be hard enough to justify using it.

The big bad dragon can't be that much harder than the average adventure group, because how would you beat it without that special spell that you kept in reserve all the time.

 

Eiher that, or every fight except for the big bad dragon is spam that can be nuked away easily.

Or there is no big nuke anymore. Just lots of firecrackers.

 

Please correct me if I misunderstood or overlooked something.

This was the first thing I was thinking that should be taken into consideration, when they announced that per-rest spells become per-encounter.

And also the reason I wrote "exactly what is needed" in the previous post, as it seems to me that Josh has found a nice middle-ground, because:

- there will still be the 'big nuke'.

- you will have not 4, but 2 usages of that nuke.

- they will have a longer cast time compared to PoE1, but are usable on per-encounter basis.

- yes you wan't be able to Gaze of Adragan a dragon 4 times in a row. Or use 4 Shinning Beacons in a single fight. You will have only 2 usages. But you will be able to Empower one of them for high damage bonus (want already to say hi to damage coefficient stacking; this has potential to be broken in earlier version), or use Empower to get a 3rd usage. Plus talents like "Bonus xth Level Spell" might also make it into Deadfire.

- in PoE1 a priest can already solo Alpine Dragon with 3 base spell usages per-rank. That's for sure. Maybe he can even with just 2.

- if Elemental and Racial Slayer talents would affect all spells as per description, it would be even easier.

- a max level ex-vancian caster in Deadfire will also have access to 2 spells of rank 9 and 2 of rank 10. With at least 20 spells to cast, they will have enough stuff to do.

 

All in all, in my last run I carried the priest around who contributed with the Painful Interdiction + auto attacks for the most of the time. It probably looked like a 5-man group, but with a bonus of having easy-time during boss and bounty fights. And Deadfire attempts to balance that a bit.

Edited July 13, 2017 by MaxQuest

[draego]

Aside, weren't long cast times what jacked up the Chanter?

 

I wouldn't interpret it that way. Chanter were jacked up because you couldn't cast their invocation at all for a predetermined amount of time. With the wizard when a fight starts you can still cast the spell it just takes a little longer to cast. I know its a slight distinction but its there.

Edited July 13, 2017 by draego

[Wormerine]

 

Aside, weren't long cast times what jacked up the Chanter?

 

I wouldn't interpret it that way. Chanter were jacked up because you couldn't cast their invocation at all for a predetermined amount of time. With the wizard when a fight starts you can still cast the spell it just takes a little longer to cast. I know its a slight distinction but its there.

 

If it will be implimented right there could be a big distinction. Will there be spell interruption? WIll you be able to loose the spell? If your wizard is casting a highlevel empored spell, you might have to also make sure he won't be interupted. It might be annoying, it might be brilliant, it might not be possible to stop the cast at all. We will see.

[Enoch]

Interrupts are in. 

 

Running interference to keep the Wizard safe while he completes his arcane rituals seems like fun gameplay to me.  (As does the reverse-- getting through to the enemy caster before he can melt your party's faces off.)

 

 

In general, a shift to fewer fights that are more consistently challenging/consequential sounds great from where I'm standing. 

Edited July 13, 2017 by Enoch

[injurai]

Interrupts are in. 

 

Running interference to keep the Wizard safe while he completes his arcane rituals seems like fun gameplay to me.  (As does the reverse-- getting through to the enemy caster before he can melt your party's faces off.)

 

 

In general, a shift to fewer fights that are more consistently challenging/consequential sounds great from where I'm standing. 

 

I agree completely. I want more ways to influence how encounters unfold, and more reasons to be strategic and thoughtful.

[Gromnir]

Interrupts are in. 

 

 

interrupts have always been "in," but they were almost pointless in poe1 as an interrupt often causes little more than an imperceptible delay o' a foe's action.  

 

am glad poe2 interrupts has been a feature o' emphasis for the developers, but am also waiting for the beta 'fore we congratulate obsidian.  doesn't take much imagination to foresee players creating builds which exploit interrupts resulting in effective stunlocking o' any and all enemies with other than instantaneous activations o' abilities. 

 

have personal been relative quiet during this portion o' poe2 development 'cause our input is least important at this time.  developers had all kinda internal and external dialogues 'bout poe2 development months and even years removed. nothing we say at this moment is gonna change implementation. community input at this time is little more than white noise to the developers.

 

however, once the beta goes live, am hopeful the community is offered a real chance to break the game.  history shows us the playtesters is never complete up to the task o' finding game mechanic exploits, and interrupts is simple one o' many features which has the potential to be exploited. better to fix the game in late 2017 than mid 2018, no?  obsidian were much responsive to beta respondents o' poe.  am hopeful obsidian is similar receptive to poe2 beta feedback. am pleading for a more expansive look at mechanics to break in later 2017.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[DexGames]

however, once the beta goes live, am hopeful the community is offered a real chance to break the game.

 

Josh said that he hopes (no promises as he says), he hope they can implement a sort of Battle Royal System for the Beta :

 

Where people can pick, whatever Combo/Classes/Party they want, and as you say, go crazy with it & break the game.

So, there's a chance we'll be able to do this, so the devs can make great usage of that kind of feedback.

[Boeroer]

I guess another thing that will be exploited (at least I will try) is the removal of health. I can imagine stacking a lot of regenerating effects, also with multiclassing so that it will be very hard to kill a character while he can still focus his abilities and stats on offense rather then picking defensive stuff.

 

Another problem will be to balance the stacking of damage modifiers (like rogue + cipher or rogue + fighter) and especially stacking of lashes (monk's Turning Wheel + Druids Wikdstrike burn).

 

I guess a lot of this will get solved with the power source scaling, but I'm 100% sure we will find some ways to break the game in the beta.

 

Think of Battle-Forged + Turning Wheel + Blood Testament + Scion of Flame or Jolting Touch with the same things. Envenomed Strike + Blast or Citzal's Lance or Rot Skulls, Jolting Touch + Carnage, Cipher + retaliation building extreme focus while receiving hits and so on. All of those quite obvious game breakers survived the beta of PoE 1 and some of those are still in the game today.

[MaxQuest]

Oh there indeed will be so much broken stuff

- rogue/cipher/monk + citzal/minor avatar | note: in PoE1 Citzal Lance bonus hits do not generate carnage nor focus

- cipher + blast + minor blights | iirc blast hits did generate focus

- fire priest + deathblows: stacking damage coefficient of DoTs to the roof

- and yep, Rot Skulls can get absolutely bonkers.

 

Not to mention subclass combinations. Am already thinking of:

- soulblade + black jacket: knockdown with dual-pistols -> swap -> knockdown with dual-pistols

- soulblade + nalpazca + shod-in-faith/healing + pain link: get hit -> get wounds -> torment's reach -> get focus 

- shattered pillar + soulblade/assassin/corpse-eater : just ouch

Edited July 14, 2017 by MaxQuest

[MortyTheGobbo]

I wish I'd been able to back the campaign, so I could have access to the beta. Between multi-classing, subclasses and the universal empowerment mechanics, there's going to be a staggering number of combinations. At least I know there are dedicated players who will hunt down every exploit.

[Dr <3]

Oh there indeed will be so much broken stuff

- rogue/cipher/monk + citzal/minor avatar | note: in PoE1 Citzal Lance bonus hits do not generate carnage nor focus

- cipher + blast + minor blights | iirc blast hits did generate focus

- fire priest + deathblows: stacking damage coefficient of DoTs to the roof

- and yep, Rot Skulls can get absolutely bonkers.

 

Not to mention subclass combinations. Am already thinking of:

- soulblade + black jacket: knockdown with dual-pistols -> swap -> knockdown with dual-pistols

- soulblade + nalpazca + shod-in-faith/healing + pain link: get hit -> get wounds -> torment's reach -> get focus

- shattered pillar + soulblade/assassin/corpse-eater : just ouch

I still belive that the most broken thing will be shapeshift druid + barbarian. In poe 1 you could reach about 350 dmg per hit, do that without a time limit and in aoe will be massive. Even more if corpse eater barbarian.

[Boeroer]

I guess wizard + barbarian will be totally bonkers if Citzal's Spirit Lance works the same way as in PoE 1. The Lance's AoE attacks combined with carnage would be total overkill.

 

And since paladins can now use FoD up to 11 times per encounter (at lvl 20) it might also be that druid or monk + paladin will be a lashfest.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Boeroer