Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Haplo]

Yeah that's actually nuts. There are so many possible variables, but only some of them stack... due to some very confidential and secret criteria.
It's even weirder what is the base equipment setup for calculating the recovery (to which you add/subtract those various modifiers/multipliers).

 

[Parabalus]

It doesn't stack with DAoM and it's radius is pretty short so it's impossible to hit all 6 members - cool ability but not too powerful.

You know for a game that's supposed to have a lot clarity, the game does not do a good job of explaining what stacks with what. Especially in terms of attack speed and accuracy.

I think PoE does a great job here, possibly one of the best, Vielo Vidorio is clearly marked as suppressed by DAoM. Accuracy is also pretty clear except Coordinating in its various forms.

The attack speed mechanic being complicated is a issue separate from the buff/debuff system. Not sure how much of an issue it actually is though, outside of no clarity, it amounts to having increasing returns for stacking speed with a huge boon upon hitting the cap.

 

[Lacrymas]

This is my final party -

Pale Elf Druid
Fire Godlike Monk
Dwarf Barbarian
Pale Elf Chanter (off-tank)
Hearth Orlan Rogue
Death Godlike Wizard

I think I might have too much melee, as only the Wizard isn't. I might change the Barbarian for something else, is ranged Fighter good? Or maybe convert the Rogue to ranged?

I already finished almost everything around Gilded Vale, haven't ran into too much trouble yet. Kickstarter backers have an advantage when it comes to such play because I sold Gaun's Pledge for a lot and managed to amass enough coins to fill all the slots ASAP.

I'll go as far as I can until I die. I doubt I'll be able to do this thing on the first go, but I won't restart if I fail, I'll do it in the future. This is actually the first time I run an iron-man challenge, so I'm not very experienced in not dying, lol.

 

[Sizzle]

Wouldn't a ranged Fighter defeat the entire purpose of that class?

 

[aweigh]

Lacrymas

I'm not a particularly fond player of iron-man modes but a Trial of Iron playthrough of PoE 1, armed with meta-knowledge and a completely customized mercernary party, was without a doubt the absolute highlight of my 3 PoE playthroughs.

I did not finish the campaign nor even reach the DLC areas during my iron-man mode playthrough but it is by far the most memorable one. Deciding whether to take on Raedric's Keep, for example, and at what power level and with what equipment and whether you should do it piece-miel via guerrilla hit-and-runs (it's the earliest moment in the PoE 1 campaign where you can scrounge up Full-Plates and Estocs and Sabres for everybody); suddenly this becomes a very important decision.

As I mentioned in the PoE 2 thread: I am not saying that iron-man mode is the best or "funnest" way to experience PoE (or any RPG); I am simply saying that my Trial of Iron playthrough of PoE 1 provided me with my fondest memories of the game.

As long as you keep in mind that you will probably not finish the game, and that deciding to tackle encounters such as the Lighthouse will almost certainly result in ending your game then you will have the proper mindset to enjoy yourself.

I find PoE 1's first half, oddly enough, to be very well-suited to iron-man mode play. Once you reach Defiance Bay however the thrill of it will wane, however, due to the exponential increase in fetch-questing and back-tracking.

For reference I met my end to a pack of lions near Defiance Bay, because I had become cocky.

:D

 

[Jason Liang]

If a character dies, you can't just roll a new one?

Also, definitely ranged Elf Rogue. With Scholar skill for spells.

Not sure how Iron Man works, if you can leave companions at the Inn, but a solo Rogue can stealth through Roerdric's without any deaths easily. If you solo the start of the game, you can get to level 5 and do Roerdric's before Cae Nua. That's what I did for my solo run (although I think I did Roedric's at level 4). Make sure to get Heodern killed before you enter the ruins (you'll need mechanics skill so you can disarm the traps by yourself) and make sure Calisca dies in the ruins to get the most xp.

 

[aweigh]

Jason Liang

the problem in these games is that every encounter is impossible to escape from (mostly). Take the Lighthouse as an example: once you start getting gang-raped in the 3rd floor you can't just take the stairs down...

remember that thou must gather thy party before venturing forth!

this is one area of these games where they really should include escape options.

Also once someone drops dead, especially due to stuff like engagement and/or simple scenario of enemies circling your characters, it is very difficult to have someone 'break free' and escape.

 

[Jason Liang]

Jason Liang

the problem in these games is that every encounter is impossible to escape from (mostly). Take the Lighthouse as an example: once you start getting gang-raped in the 3rd floor you can't just take the stairs down...

remember that thou must gather thy party before venturing forth!

this is one area of these games where they really should include escape options.

Also once someone drops dead, especially due to stuff like engagement and/or simple scenario of enemies circling your characters, it is very difficult to have someone 'break free' and escape.

So you can't leave dead bodies? You have to retrieve the bodies first kind of like Diablo?

 

[Piotrovitz]

This is my final party -

Pale Elf Druid
Fire Godlike Monk
Dwarf Barbarian
Pale Elf Chanter (off-tank)
Hearth Orlan Rogue
Death Godlike Wizard

I think I might have too much melee, as only the Wizard isn't. I might change the Barbarian for something else, is ranged Fighter good? Or maybe convert the Rogue to ranged?

Ranged fighter build relies mostly on auto-attacks and is one of the most boring ones to play - don't do this.

Ranged rogue is pretty nice, but it's damn more fun to have him in melee for the hit&run sneak attacks. I would stick with hearth orlan for melee and roll an elf one for ranged, if you don't mind having two same classes in the party.

 

[Lacrymas]

Already converted the orlan to ranged. Minor Threat is too good on a Rogue to pass up, especially combined with Dirty Fighting. I finished Temple of Eothas, the worst fights were definitely with shades because they hurled ice bolts at my Wizard who almost died to them. I'm done with all of Gilded Vale, except Raedric's and I don't know what to do now. Either go to Caed Nua first to confront Maerwald or go to Raedric's. My MC is level 4, while the others are almost at 4.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Wouldn't go to Raedric's at level 4 if you want to do full blown assault.

Maerwald is the way to go, however be sure to craft some fan of flames scrolls for the shades in the courtyard. I remember this fight being much more tough than the Eothas' temple ones.

If you don't want to risk getting screwed you can always lure them one by one to the entrance near Kana.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm pretty sure I can take on everything in Raedric's if I don't assault it from the front (which I won't), but I'm not sure about Raedric himself, many things can go wrong in that fight. Even though I one-shot it last time, I still know that it was due to luck and he can fuck me up hard this time. Or I can leave him to rule, never done that before. I'd say the most valuable "resource" in an iron-man is levels, you want to get as much xp as possible with the fewest risks.

 

[aweigh]

Lacrymas

If you truly want to go for absolute optimal char-builds, I humbly recommend:

- Main Character: Moon Godlike (their Silver Tide ability, which scales with Might, is inarguably 'OP'); a Moon Godlike Rogue, specializing Sword and Shield Style (in order to skyrocket Deflection) and the 'Riposte' talent. Coupled with 'Retaliation' gear which you will find later, the Moon Godlike's Silver Tide, a very high Might attribute score and eventually that one shield which casts Thrust of Tattered Veils randomly; additionally coupled with the Rogue's ability to swiftly move in and out of enemy engagement ranges via Escape and (probably, though boring) using a Sabre as their Main-hand weapon... this makes for a very good character.

Do make sure to dump this MC Rogue's Intellect attribute down to the lowest possible, which I believe is '3', and to boost their Might and their Resolve and (in tertiary fashion) their Constitution.

As for the rest I was going to simply recommend that you utilize the IE Mod's ability to customize story-companion Attributes and to make Eder a dual-wielding, 'Wanderer' Estoc-user in Full Plate, and that you further utilize the IE Mod's ability to customize story-companion Attributes to dump Intellect on every character that isn't a Chanter (Kana) or a Wizard/Druid.

As you yourself pointed out in the PoE 2 Backer Beta: Intellect is the premiere dump-stat simply because neither the duration malus nor the 'range' malus is enough to make much of an impact on any PoE playthrough.

A '3 Intellect' Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Barbarian, Monk or even Paladin (keeping in mind the existence of Rings of Overseeing) benefit more from taking points off Intellect and using those points to instead boost Might, Resolve and Constitution.

I consider Might, Resolve and Constitution the 3 most important Attributes for any character or class in PoE 1 with the obvious exceptions of Wizard/Druid classes.

Since you're going with customized henchmen, however:

- 6 Moon Godlikes for maximum cheese?

Lewl.

 

[Haplo]

Disagree with dumping Int. It's a very valuable stat... if raised high. Barbarian with maxed Int simply rocks!

 

[Lacrymas]

I specifically didn't want to go Moonlike because it's cheesy and I'm bored of them already. Int is dumpable in the PoE2 beta, not in P1. What I am currently missing from the party is healing, relying mostly on Athletics and not taking damage in general, but I'd like a way to continuously heal the Monk. The party has a loooot of damage, CC and ability to spread a bunch of afflictions, but it lacks healing.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I'm pretty sure I can take on everything in Raedric's if I don't assault it from the front (which I won't), but I'm not sure about Raedric himself, many things can go wrong in that fight. Even though I one-shot it last time, I still know that it was due to luck and he can fuck me up hard this time. Or I can leave him to rule, never done that before. I'd say the most valuable "resource" in an iron-man is levels, you want to get as much xp as possible with the fewest risks.

Having beat the game several times on PotD with different party builds, I honestly wouldn't face Raedric on lvl 4 without priest's consecrated ground. Just too risky on ironman.

 

[aweigh]

Technically speaking a Barbarian is simply a gimped Fighter. There is no real reason to ever use a Barbarian (in PoE 1) over a Fighter other than LARP-ing.

 

[Piotrovitz]

aweigh, dude, you are wrong on so many levels. I'm not even going to touch your post about optimal char builds.

Barb is gimped fighter in D&D2 - in PoE he's a killing maching with Tall Grass or St. Rumbalt.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I specifically didn't want to go Moonlike because it's cheesy and I'm bored of them already. Int is dumpable in the PoE2 beta, not in P1. What I am currently missing from the party is healing, relying mostly on Athletics and not taking damage in general, but I'd like a way to continuously heal the Monk. The party has a loooot of damage, CC and ability to spread a bunch of afflictions, but it lacks healing.

TBH healing should come mostly from potions, or in your case, druid's Moonwell (later on).
Beside Consecrated Ground, I barely used any of priest healing spells in any of my PotD runs - the amount of hp they heal is just too tiny.

 

[aweigh]

I'd forgotten about Tall Grass w/ Barbarian.

Yes, that is an extremely 'OP' build permutation. I agree.

 

[Lacrymas]

A barb dual-wielding Godansthunyr is also pretty sick. It's because on-hit or on-crit abilities "spread" through Carnage.

 

[FreeKaner]

Barbarian is weaker fighter if you do not utilise their mechanics basically. Fighter is too good though most of the time.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Barb in PoE is kinda similar to rogue in a way - vulnerable melee DPS. The main difference is that the dmg is spread among few mobs, instead of concentrated on one.

This makes him less viable on PotD, at least at the beginning, where it's better to shred something fast and move to the next one, instead of chipping everyone slowly. Later on he's catching up - mailny due to 2H on-crit weapons.

 

[Piotrovitz]

All this PoE talk just makes me want to make another run, but fuck, all those loading screens take like 1/3 of the whole game and I don't have patience for that.

 

[Parabalus]

A barb dual-wielding Godansthunyr is also pretty sick. It's because on-hit or on-crit abilities "spread" through Carnage.

Another good choice is Spelltongue since it makes any buffs you cast on the barb pmuch permanent. A reach weapon lets you pick better Carnage targets though so I usually stuck to them.