Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[AwesomeButton]

Just watched the video. They've definitely gotten better at making them entertaining.

The visuals look superb too.

I think they are copying Sven's update videos, in a good way though.

I'm indifferent towards the change of multiclassing at this point. I know too little to make an assessment.

What I don't like is the inclusion of the crazier looking abilities like kicking the laguafeth up in the air or doing the good ol' "jump up in the sky and land on the enemy" type of visuals. I guess there was a bit of that in PoE (mostly in the expansion) but yeah... not a big fan of that stylistically. But I guess it's a good way to distinguish things from one another since there are a fuckton of spells and actions to take in combat now.

Over the top animations were shit even in TWM. I agree. It's that wretched game Tyranny where they pushed this style even further.

 

[Jimmious]

If anything it does seem that Sawyer is learning from the mistakes of the first game. Hopefully he won't fall in the trap of balancing everything to the point of boredom again

 

[Lacrymas]

PoE is far from balanced, lol.

 

[Jimmious]

PoE is far from balanced, lol.

True, but that was the intention and this is what led to some weird character development choices that made leveling kinda boring

 

[Jenkem]

FUCK JOHS SAYWR

 

[AwesomeButton]

The boredom in PoE was not the result of "balancing" IMO. It was the result of small maps, repetitive combat tactics and obfuscated core mechanics.

 

[Parabalus]

The most powerful ability of the priest was crowns/devotions of the faithful which changed the tide of battles imo, and Josh said something along the lines of nerfing these bonuses? That makes sense but also leaves the priest with only 1 utility, countering dominate and stun/petrify.

Since the companion priest is a follower of Gaun (aka eothas) , he'll also be lacking protection spells (prayer / litany against shit I presume?) so he'll be a totally useless deadweight. Too bad since hunting eothas with his priest would've added a nice flavor.

To this day I want to believe that Crowns of the Faithful is just a bug. +25 RES in an AoE? Just WTF. Should have been +6/+6/+6 and it would have still been swell, I legit thought it was a typo when I read it.

Outside of buffs priests spells do a surprising amount of damage, so I doubt she'll be bad. Storm of Holy Fire is ridiculous. Her subclass will likely be stronger than PC ones too.

 

[Prime Junta]

If I'm ever to replay PoE1 I'll do it with a party without a Priest, to see what the difference is.

Highly recommended. It's a LOT harder and you need to get much more creative, probably falling back on scrolls for the hardest fights.

 

[Infinitron]

The "of the faithful" line were all overpowered. The prayers and litanies also trivialized a lot of encounters. Withdraw countered Concelhaut hard. If I'm ever to replay PoE1 I'll do it with a party without a Priest, to see what the difference is.

One of my favorite thread titles from the Obsidian forums: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/8...otions-for-the-faithful-is-crazy-overpowered/

 

[Haplo]

The "of the faithful" line were all overpowered. The prayers and litanies also trivialized a lot of encounters. Withdraw countered Concelhaut hard. If I'm ever to replay PoE1 I'll do it with a party without a Priest, to see what the difference is.

Agreed about the "faithful" line being OP. Still kinda liked them that way, but eh.

Considering the hordes of enemies and skill spam, I consider the litanies and prayers a must, though. I actually thought that access to those immunity spells was too limited/came too late. Would be a major pain to have to play without them.

 

[Lacrymas]

PotD generally starts showing where the cracks in the system/encounter design are, but playing without a Priest might burst at the seams altogether. I predict, like Prime Junta said, heavy use of scrolls of prayers and litanies, just to get their effects in there.

To this day I want to believe that Crowns of the Faithful is just a bug. +25 RES in an AoE? Just WTF. Should have been +6/+6/+6 and it would have still been swell, I legit thought it was a typo when I read it.

I assume it's going to be an easy fix to do if it was a bug, they not fixing it says a lot.

 

[Prime Junta]

heavy use of scrolls of prayers and litanies

Not heavy. Only for the hardest fights.

Beating a dragon without a prayer against Fear is a bit of a handful though. Can be done, but not easy, so you will likely want to reach for a scroll there.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I've never touched a scroll in this game and I've beaten PotD with a no-priest party. It was with 5x custom companions and abusing summon items, mind.

 

[Parabalus]

heavy use of scrolls of prayers and litanies

Not heavy. Only for the hardest fights.

Beating a dragon without a prayer against Fear is a bit of a handful though. Can be done, but not easy, so you will likely want to reach for a scroll there.

It's a good illustration how redic priests are, Devotions + Prayer is 40 ACC, which is 13 levels, without much gameplay in them. It wouldn't be such an issue if other classes had anything in the way of ACC buffs, but there is practically zilch except the scrolls and pots (and sandals IIRC but that's +5[ or is it HtC conversion]). Guess chanters work vs fear, think they changed it to immunity.

You can semi-cheese dragons by using a Cipher with Psychic Backlash, it'll hit since the fear pulses frequently then you start the CC train. Tactical Meld helps since it stacks with everything too.

PotD generally starts showing where the cracks in the system/encounter design are, but playing without a Priest might burst at the seams altogether. I predict, like Prime Junta said, heavy use of scrolls of prayers and litanies, just to get their effects in there.

To this day I want to believe that Crowns of the Faithful is just a bug. +25 RES in an AoE? Just WTF. Should have been +6/+6/+6 and it would have still been swell, I legit thought it was a typo when I read it.

I assume it's going to be an easy fix to do if it was a bug, they not fixing it says a lot.

I don't think the combat system works at all outside of PotD. Higher enemy stats force you to use buffs/debuffs, otherwise you could just (even more than on PotD) spam damage/CC. Having to use a "round" for setting up changes things significantly.

Yeah, it's not a bug for sure, just really really sticks out. Some priest enemies in WM2 can get over 200 defense when they stack buffs, if it were commonplace there would probably been changes.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's generally pointless to create a complex combat system if the difficulty isn't in place. Why have the most elaborate and well-thought-out system in history if the mobs can be defeated by just bullrushing them? So, yeah, PotD is where it's at.

 

[Grunker]

I played without a priest and without scrolls, it was fine. Actually the way I'd recommend playing

 

[Mojobeard]

Are the stats going to be like in the first game? Maybe it's just my primitive monkey brain, but I really had no idea what to invest in. Does my Paladin need action speed? Concentration? Uhhhhh. And then I just kinda put one point to everything, and rest to strength and constitution. Didn't really feel like a choice, everything is tied to five other things.

Like what the fuck is this:

 

[Grunker]

It didn't feel like a choice because you didn't have clear best option..?

 

[Mojobeard]

It gives you the illusion of choice. Lowering any stat by one (10->9) already made a character practically useless. The way everything is tied together, you might as well remove stats and auto level up.

 

[Grunker]

Lowering any stat by one (10->9) already made a character practically useless.

not sure if trolling or 100% retarded

Most standard builds have several stats with 3 or 18. If anything, the worst part of the system was that it still incentivized dump- and focus stats rather than more varied spreads.

 

[Lacrymas]

CON and RES are dump stats, best left at 3, only "useful" at 10 for tanks. Everything else is very important, so it's already better at that than D&D.

 

[FreeKaner]

Res has best dialogue options however, plus it isn't really bad if you intend on making a frontline support type of character either.

 

[Mojobeard]

Most standard builds have several stats with 3 or 18. If anything, the worst part of the system was that it still incentivized dump- and focus stats rather than more varied spreads.

*Barbarian interrupted by wolf, every single attack* Yes, this stats at 3 business is working well.

CON and RES are dump stats, best left at 3, only "useful" at 10 for tanks. Everything else is very important, so it's already better at that than D&D.

More in line with what I experienced.

 

[Prime Junta]

Are the stats going to be like in the first game? Maybe it's just my primitive monkey brain, but I really had no idea what to invest in. Does my Paladin need action speed? Concentration? Uhhhhh. And then I just kinda put one point to everything, and rest to strength and constitution. Didn't really feel like a choice, everything is tied to five other things.

Yes I think it's your primitive monkey brain.

You need to decide what kind of paladin you're making.

Are you making a tank? Then you'll rely on incredibly high defences, passive Auras, and occasionally dropping a Lay on Hands or an Exhortation to get someone out of trouble. ----> dump PER, DEX since you won't need to hit anything, pump INT, RES since you'll want a maximal AoE for your auras, maximal duration of your Exhortations, and maximal defences. Put whatever you have left into MIG and CON -- MIG to pump up your healing abilities, CON to give you more staying power.

Conversely, suppose you're building a back-row alpha striker/commander relying on ranged weapons and Flames of Devotion. Now you need to pump MIG and PER because you'll want those alpha-strikes to bite, but you can afford to dump CON and RES because you don't expect to be hit a lot. The remainder you'll put into INT and DEX because you'll still want nice big auras and long durations, but you will want reasonable action speed too.

Same thing for any other class/concept you might be considering. Do you have important abilities with AoEs or durations? You'll need INT. Do you need lots of crits? Pump the shit out of PER. Are you anything other than a pure tank? Pump DEX (spellcasters can get away with a little less of it). Glass cannon? Dump CON and RES. Fast attacker who doesn't care so much about crits? Moderate PER, pump the bejeesus out of DEX, pump MIG. Fronliner? RES is important. Backrow? Dump it. And so on.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

CON and RES are dump stats, best left at 3, only "useful" at 10 for tanks. Everything else is very important, so it's already better at that than D&D.

In no way is RES a dump stat.