Gothic 3 is the best RPG ever

[Brayko]

A lot of people doesnt understand that you're supposed to suck in the begining of the Gothic games, most ADHD kids wants to feel "epic" within 10 minutes (like in KoA etc).. I really like how vunerable you feel in the Gothic's, and how your armor and weapons are shit for a long time.

Bullshit. The game started out pretty interesting enough and the further you went the brokenness and tedium started unfolding itself. I liked the first 2 Gothics , and it's clear that they had good intentions for this one as well, but time and money has resulted in a half-baked, broken non-worth it disappointment.

 

[Kraszu]

^^ edited my previous post. How do you take on 30 orcs without being overpowered or luring them to keep from being surrounded?

By attacking once, sometimes twice, and move back, if need sprint few meters away, and restarting. When liberating Silden I did end up way further away from it then the hunters houses are. Maybe I will a video but I am pretty lazy about it, what program to use for 360p youtube video (so it wouldn't take too long to send), and a program that doesn't take much RAM as well.

I did try to make some combat videos with fraps but 20s of it took 241mb

The line between tactics and abuse of AI is blurry, your vid shows some abuse of AI, or tactics as you say.

Yes it does, but he fights clean against the animals, and in the same way as I did. I think that the main line is between having all of them aggro and trying to get you, and not.

When you judge a game keep in mind the abilities of the average gamer. A new player playing as you recommend: CP without queuing, on hard will have problems.

The liberation of Ardea is a bit much for a start, but after that you don't need to fight groups of humanoids until very late into the game.

 

[someone else]

By attacking once, sometimes twice, and move back, if need sprint few meters away, and restarting. When liberating Silden I did end up way further away from it then the hunters houses are. Maybe I will a video but I am pretty lazy about it, what program to use for 360p youtube video (so it wouldn't take too long to send), and a program that doesn't take much RAM as well.

That is how pretty much a sensible player will fight, you don't have to make a video as that is how I fight and I consider that to be extreme and abusing the dumb AI, don't you think that is unbalanced and not fun for some people? You can just run off and the AI will forget you, though their health may regenerate.
With the CP orcs gets really stronger, early on I have to hit them maybe 10 times and get killed in 2-3 hits and they are much tougher than your NPCs, the encounter with the ranger comes to mind, I have to quickly kill them before they klll the NPCs and that as a new player, one reason why I won't recommend the CP to new players. With CP I find myself doing outrageous things like you.

 

[Chuck Norris]

You know what? Based at least partially on this thread, I decided to try Gothic 3 again.

I happen to still have a copy, which I played through some back when it came out yet soon abandoned, but I figured with all the patches that came out, plus the latest CP, it had to be better.

Man, was I fucking wrong. It took me less than an hour to remember how incredibly shitty of a game this is. Thanks a lot, Chuck. Wasted time I'll never get back again.

Ban this motherfucker.

So you realized Gothic 3, a game that takes 80 hours to be finished properly, is shit in less than an hour? I don't take the opinions of the people about games seriously unless they haven't finished it, let alone the opinion of someone who is as dumbfuck as you and judges such a huge game by playing it for less than an hour.

Many classic RPGs start slow, uninteresting and confusing. This problem shines more brightly for Gothic 3 because it's just way too huge and open and bugs don't help either. It's easy for a noob fag like Crispy to get confused and lost in such a huge world without any quest marker or detailed map to guide him. So he abandons the game entirely and covers his lack of skill by calling the game shit. I really like to see someone who has managed to finish Gothic 3 properly ( not by rushing through it ) and still has bad things to say about it.

If you'd re-read my reply a little closer, and a little slower, you insipid baboon, you'd see and realize that I've played Gothic 3 before. I actually got quite a ways through it. I was intrigued enough by it then to have dedicated enough time to formulate my opinion on it, deciding after at least 30 hours in that it wasn't worth the time to keep going. The false sense of nostalgia from the first two games had worn off and I realized what I was playing wasn't really a Gothic game at all.

What I was playing was a rushed, messy, abomination completely devoid of the charm that its predecessors had. I wasn't confused, the game was actually pretty easy to get through. I didn't get lost; everything revolves around towns and major landmarks. No, I was bored. I was tired of the stupid combat, I was tired of the ridiculously repetative story, and I was tired of the bugs, the clunkiness and the overall poor quality of the game. Had these patches come out sooner, had the game been more stable and playable then would I have gotten further into it? Probably.

But now? I just can't be asked to give a shit. Fuck Gothic 3 and fuck you for recommending it (trolling GRPG). I think I might go back and play NotR, however.

First you say this:

which I played through some back when it came out yet soon abandoned

and now you say you you spent 30 hours with it before abandoning it? So either you're lying about spending 30H with the game or you don't have any idea about the meaning of the word " soon ".

Anyway, if you really spent 30 hours with it and then realized the game is shit, I have nothing to say. It probably wasn't your cup of tea. Just like many other games that are held dear to many people ( like Paradox RTSs ), but I can't stand them for a minute. I won't try to convince you why the game is good, because you won't see my point and it would be a waste of time for both of us. But one thing I can say for sure is that anyone who couldn't get into Gothic 3 lost a great gaming experience.

 

[Kraszu]

By attacking once, sometimes twice, and move back, if need sprint few meters away, and restarting. When liberating Silden I did end up way further away from it then the hunters houses are. Maybe I will a video but I am pretty lazy about it, what program to use for 360p youtube video (so it wouldn't take too long to send), and a program that doesn't take much RAM as well.

That is how pretty much a sensible player will fight, you don't have to make a video as that is how I fight and I consider that to be extreme and abusing the dumb AI, don't you think that is unbalanced and not fun for some people? You can just run off and the AI will forget you, though their health may regenerate.

That isn't what I mean, also how would that make you win if they health would regenerate? Anyway what I mean isn't to run from them but to make a distance needed to find another window to attack, not run until some will stop following you.

With the CP orcs gets really stronger, early on I have to hit them maybe 10 times and get killed in 2-3 hits and they are much tougher than your NPCs, the encounter with the ranger comes to mind, I have to quickly kill them before they klll the NPCs and that as a new player, one reason why I won't recommend the CP to new players. With CP I find myself doing outrageous things like you.

I didn't do any outrageous things you had misunderstand me, and yes I do recommend CP because overcoming such adversaries is big part of what makes the game fun to play. Boohoo I can't do every quest, boohoo quest NPC had died, just deal with it, streamlining for people who want everything to be easy, and that want no challenge above they character abilities in a freaking open world crpg is what causes decline.

 

[King Crispy]

and now you say you you spent 30 hours with it before abandoning it? So either you're lying about spending 30H with the game or you don't have any idea about the meaning of the word " soon ".

I don't consider 30 hours (a few days worth) to be anything more than 'soon'. I play slowly, methodically, and even by then I developed a thorough distaste for Gothic 3's goofiness.

 

[someone else]

That isn't what I mean, also how would that make you win if they health would regenerate? Anyway what I mean isn't to run from them but to make a distance needed to find another window to attack, not run until some will stop following you.

You kill others but leave the rest for another day. Why not run if your health is low? Isn't that tactics? Or is it an exploit?

I didn't do any outrageous things you had misunderstand me, and yes I do recommend CP because overcoming such adversaries is big part of what makes the game fun to play. Boohoo I can't do every quest, boohoo quest NPC had died, just deal with it, cratering to people who want everything to be east, and no challenge above they abilities in a freaking open world crpg is what makes the games shit today.

I was expecting that "can't complete every quest comeback." Typical Codexian behaviour. CP breaks the difficulty curve in that quest and is a valid complain, it was already tough before CP. Did you play CP as a new player or did you have experience in G3? I completed G3 before the CP and the difference is startling.
Do you only consider only your abilities and wants when judging a game instead of the general gamer? Do you despise those who want to play a balanced game? With the CP, even the first fight is outrageous, good thing I have infinite health.

 

[Skittles]

I don't know, the key to effective combat in this game seems to be positioning, weapon selection and attack variety.

During the first part of the game, I had the following weapons in my hotkey slots: my best bow, my trusty Orcslayer (later replaced by the best sword I could use that deals 85+ damage), a spear (eventually a halberd), and a Hashishin knife (later rapier/katana).

Ideally, you choose a battleground to funnel enemies, so they can only come at you a couple at a time. Use the bow to soften them up and then switch to the Orcslayer/sword for one-on-one combat. The spear is for animals with the jump-back dodge--forward momentum was enough to close the gap and keep attacking them--or for when I got surrounded--you can do a large ~360 degree attack if you buy yourself enough space. The quick weapon is for dealing with larger groups--steal a regular attack if you can, if you can't, use a quick attack and step back to buy yourself space from one opponent and quickly turn to deal damage to the next closest opponent. Constant side stepping and distance control are key. It isn't rocket science, and I don't think any of those things are AI exploitation.

Besides that, I have a question. What town did you have to liberate alone? I haven't found one yet, assuming you do the prerequisite quests to win loyalty with either the townsfolk or at least a rebel bruiser nearby (e.g. Finley in Nemora for Trelis). Besides that, if you choose to pursue the thief path, you can assassinate a good number of orcs beforehand. That's not including specific missions to take out orc leader types, like Gunnock (sp?) in Geldern, open to anybody. Metro's suggestions about improving the liberation process sound good to me, but there are some implemented quests and opportunities to thin the enemy's numbers before moving to liberate the city--you just have to find them.

 

[Kraszu]

That isn't what I mean, also how would that make you win if they health would regenerate? Anyway what I mean isn't to run from them but to make a distance needed to find another window to attack, not run until some will stop following you.

You kill others but leave the rest for another day. Why not run if your health is low? Isn't that tactics? Or is it an exploit?

Meh I will just make a video instead of guessing what each of us mean. I do kill them without running until they go back.

I didn't do any outrageous things you had misunderstand me, and yes I do recommend CP because overcoming such adversaries is big part of what makes the game fun to play. Boohoo I can't do every quest, boohoo quest NPC had died, just deal with it, cratering to people who want everything to be east, and no challenge above they abilities in a freaking open world crpg is what makes the games shit today.

I was expecting that "can't complete every quest comeback." Typical Codexian behaviour. CP breaks the difficulty curve in that quest and is a valid complain,

No it isn't it would be a valid complain if you could do all quest that are given to you, and kill everything without ever needing to get stronger. This is one of the things that make games like Skyrim dull.

Did you play CP as a new player

Yes.

Do you only consider only your abilities and wants when judging a game instead of the general gamer?

Oh I see how wrong I was now. G3 sucks because you can't hide behind cover, and shoot Orcs from there, that is the most popular gameplay so it is objectively the best for general gamer.

Do you despise those who want to play a balanced game?

Being too weak to do a quest doesn't make the game unbalanced.

 

[Kraszu]

I don't know, the key to effective combat in this game seems to be positioning, weapon selection and attack variety.

During the first part of the game, I had the following weapons in my hotkey slots: my best bow, my trusty Orcslayer (later replaced by the best sword I could use that deals 85+ damage), a spear (eventually a halberd), and a Hashishin knife (later rapier/katana).

Ideally, you choose a battleground to funnel enemies, so they can only come at you a couple at a time. Use the bow to soften them up and then switch to the Orcslayer/sword for one-on-one combat. The spear is for animals with the jump-back dodge--forward momentum was enough to close the gap and keep attacking them--or for when I got surrounded--you can do a large ~360 degree attack if you buy yourself enough space. The quick weapon is for dealing with larger groups--steal a regular attack if you can, if you can't, use a quick attack and step back to buy yourself space from one opponent and quickly turn to deal damage to the next closest opponent. Constant side stepping and distance control are key. It isn't rocket science, and I don't think any of those things are AI exploitation.

Besides that, I have a question. What town did you have to liberate alone? I haven't found one yet, assuming you do the prerequisite quests to win loyalty with either the townsfolk or at least a rebel bruiser nearby (e.g. Finley in Nemora for Trelis). Besides that, if you choose to pursue the thief path, you can assassinate a good number of orcs beforehand. That's not including specific missions to take out orc leader types, like Gunnock (sp?) in Geldern, open to anybody. Metro's suggestions about improving the liberation process sound good to me, but there are some implemented quests and opportunities to thin the enemy's numbers before moving to liberate the city--you just have to find them.

Well help of one NPC doesn't really change that much, he will die fast. You almost liberate it yourself(the paladin in city will also fight with you if you give him fire chalice still 3 vs ~30), thief skills are very costly so I had never played as a thief, sounds fun and since it is a skill used as designed it isn't an exploit. Killing the Shaman (part of quest where he shows you where the rebels comes from so you can kill him outside of the village) does help, even one shaman can mess up your liberation.

 

[someone else]

Did you play CP as a new player

Yes.

That explains a lot, you don't have the perspective from vanilla vs CP. Sheesh.
In vanilla, the ranger quest was an early introduction to orcs where you have the aid of a stong npc, in CP it turns into you helping the npc against terrible odds. Also, the quest is more of a likely to do-at-the-start then a optional-out-of-the-way-side-quest, the orcs were blocking your way and the ranger is there to help you clear them. This is what I'm talking about, the change CP did to the quest and game in general, at least we don't have stun-locking wolves any more.
If you want to compare G3 with CP, compare it players who played G1, G2, Risen and other action RPGs, instead of the strawman cover-based FPS or Skyrim. These are the people who don't like G3 combat and it is not because they suck. By the time I played CP, I know what to do and powergamed a 2-hander who can 1 hit kill most orcs, prior to that I can tell that CP will be difficult and I understand why others complained about it.
I'm out of this ridiculous argument over the CP, pretty pointless when you lack the perspective of vanilla vs the change CP brought.

Skittles, the cities are Trelis and Geldern, Geldern is end game. Trelis you get 1 or 2 rebels with you. I assume you are talking about CP, cos vanilla is much easier. I last played this a couple of years ago so my memory is hazy and vanilla was played even further back.

 

[Kraszu]

Did you play CP as a new player

Yes.

That explains a lot, you don't have the perspective from vanilla vs CP. Sheesh.
In vanilla, the ranger quest was an early introduction to orcs where you have the aid of a stong npc, in CP it turns into you helping the npc against terrible odds. Also, the quest is more of a likely to do-at-the-start then a optional-out-of-the-way-side-quest.

G3 starts with liberating a village from Orcs, and you need introduction later on to how strong Orcs are? What are you putting in your pipe?

This is what I'm talking about, the change CP did to the quest and game in general, at least we don';t have stun-locking wolves any more.
I'm out of this ridiculous argument over the CP, pretty pointless when you lack the perspective of vanilla.

G3 /w CP is great game regardless of what unpatched G3 was like.

 

[someone else]

G3 starts with liberating a village from Orcs, and you need introduction later on to how strong Orcs are? What are you putting in your pipe?.

*sigh*, you are unkillable in the first fight remember? And you have a whole bunch of people fighting with you. There are also other places where you are introduced to orcs depending on where you go. Some of them only KO you but this one kills. Maybe I should use the word early fights instead of introduction. Happy?
Seriously how old are you?

G3 /w CP is great game regardless of what unpatched G3 was like.

Is this what this is all about? Your snarky comments and veiled insults? BECAUSE PEOPLE CRITICISE A GAME YOU LIKE? GROW UP! I did say I like G3 even with CP, I'm just pointing out that it has flaws. Anyone can turn off alternative AI and balancing and turn down difficulty and avoid most of the problems. Happy?
I'm honesty annoyed, when I replied to you I was wondering whether I'll be getting one of those "you don't like the game I like" types.

 

[Gord]

Kraszu:

My problem with the combat is not that I wasn't able to win fights - I had fought through the orc army laying siege to the king and enitre fucking Nordmar, including all the stupid graves and every last orc outpost. My problem is that combat just wasn't fun enough to keep me going. After Nordmar I had lost every interest in continuing.
The amount of enemies, coupled with the combat mechanics makes combat in G3 tedium.

If you liked the combat, good for you, I didn't find it particularly good. Maybe it has to do with playing a mage with alternative balancing, meaning that you will spend most of the game using 2 or three different spells because most of them just plain suck (it's telling that one of the few spells that can target a group of enemies, flame wave, is almost entirely useless, as they manage to interrupt your casting 90% of the time due to stupidly long build-up time) and you have to wait until about 2/3 of the game until you can finaly read all the plates that give you ancient knowledge, as doing it before would mean wasting valuable skill points, which again means that it takes forever until you get access to some of the more interesting skills/spells.
Also this was the reason why i bothered with Nordmar, I needed the exp.

As it stands, the game has a lot of potential (I wouldn't have played that long otherwise), but the remaining problems dragged it down for me eventually.

 

[Kraszu]

G3 starts with liberating a village from Orcs, and you need introduction later on to how strong Orcs are? What are you putting in your pipe?.

*sigh*, you are unkillable in the first fight remember? And you have a whole bunch of people fighting with you. There are also other places where you are introduced to orcs depending on where you go. Some of them only KO you but this one kills. Maybe I should use the word early fights instead of introduction. Happy?

No you aren't on hard, and you get knock down when your health goes to 0 on medium or easy, what did you expect to happen later on, and you get kill Orcs patrol, and free Cape Dun quests in location that is before the ranger (if you go the way that are advised to go by the NPC to Reddock) so your Ranger theory is nonsense. Others are fighting with you, but there is more Orcs then allies so you will be attacked in 1v1 or 2v1 or 3v1 anyway.

Seriously how old are you?

87 u?

G3 /w CP is great game regardless of what unpatched G3 was like.

Is this what this is all about? Your snarky comments and veiled insults? BECAUSE PEOPLE CRITICISE A GAME YOU LIKE? GROW UP! I did say I like G3 even with CP, I'm just pointing out that it has flaws. Anyone can turn off alternative AI and balancing and turn down difficulty and avoid most of the problems. Happy?
I'm honesty annoyed, when I replied to you I was wondering whether I'll be getting one of those "you don't like the game I like" types.

What insult that you suck at melee combat when you need to use exploits? It isn't about criticizing the game, but about how horrible most of the arguments against G3 /w cp are.

Kraszu:

My problem with the combat is not that I wasn't able to win fights - I had fought through the orc army laying siege to the king and enitre fucking Nordmar, including all the stupid graves and every last orc outpost. My problem is that combat just wasn't fun enough to keep me going. After Nordmar I had lost every interest in continuing.

Yeah I didn't kill most of Orcs in Nordmar, and I didn't even clear all of the graves. Getting to King was pretty fun at least killing those Orcs near rebbels, everybody except for one paladin in the temple had died in the process, and all that were defending the stairs that were leading to kings castle.

The amount of enemies, coupled with the combat mechanics makes combat in G3 tedium.

So much combat against the same enemies would get tedious no matter what mechanics there were, but you can easily ignore things that aren't great in G3, there is still plenty of quality content, no need to kill everybody/do every quest. Nordmar should be better, but I don't get why you had struggle there when you could use teleporting stone, and see what is it like in Varant, as you could teleport back fast anyway.

If you liked the combat, good for you, I didn't find it particularly good. Maybe it has to do with playing a mage with alternative balancing, meaning that you will spend most of the game using 2 or three different spells because most of them just plain suck (it's telling that one of the few spells that can target a group of enemies, flame wave, is almost entirely useless, as they manage to interrupt your casting 90% of the time due to stupidly long build-up time) and you have to wait until about 2/3 of the game until you can finaly read all the plates that give you ancient knowledge, as doing it before would mean wasting valuable skill points, which again means that it takes forever until you get access to some of the more interesting skills/spells.
Also this was the reason why i bothered with Nordmar, I needed the exp.

They give more AK above some level? Or do you mean 250AK cap? I had only played battle Mage without AB (I wanted to see the difference, and I wanted enough LP to get good at melee, and only use supporting skills to see how they work, and I didn't know if that would be possible with AB on). Bloodlust, tame animal and summon demon help allot, and they don't require so much AK so maybe that would be also possible with AB not sure. Healing spell is also faster, then drinking potion animation, and heals 100%. And using fireball before getting mana regeneration sporadically.

As it stands, the game has a lot of potential (I wouldn't have played that long otherwise), but the remaining problems dragged it down for me eventually.

I had found that any problems can be pretty much ignored, and avoided, and that the game has more great context then any other crpg.

 

[Morkar Left]

In vanilla, the ranger quest was an early introduction to orcs where you have the aid of a stong npc, in CP it turns into you helping the npc against terrible odds. Also, the quest is more of a likely to do-at-the-start then a optional-out-of-the-way-side-quest, the orcs were blocking your way and the ranger is there to help you clear them.

Not in my opinion. The introduction to orcs was given much earlier with the quests in the first rebel camp (Reddock). And the rangers asked you to help them against the orcs, not the other way around. They needed your help. And I remember that the ranger companion was really needed for me to kill the three orcs with CP (they are stronger orcs than the usual ones from before).

*sigh*, you are unkillable in the first fight remember?

Not with CP on hard. But even without cp you could already learn how much damage they do. The more you sucked the more often you were going down with little health left.

Is this what this is all about? Your snarky comments and veiled insults? BECAUSE PEOPLE CRITICISE A GAME YOU LIKE? GROW UP! I did say I like G3 even with CP, I'm just pointing out that it has flaws. Anyone can turn off alternative AI and balancing and turn down difficulty and avoid most of the problems. Happy?
I'm honesty annoyed, when I replied to you I was wondering whether I'll be getting one of those "you don't like the game I like" types.

As response to "G3 /w CP is great game regardless of what unpatched G3 was like."?

Oh, you're trolling. Nevermind then...


EDIT: things already addressed from Kraszu...

 

[thesheeep]

G3's intro cinematic is comedy gold.
The rest of the game is awesome exploration with combat that is either ridculously easy (when fighting against 2 or less enemies) or ridiculously hard (when fighting against any group bigger than 2*).


*Yeah, I know you can exploit the shit of the game or position yourself on some roof and pin them to death with arrow needles or whatever... But honestly? This sucks. If a game forces you to do stupid shit to win and if the only available difficulties are either "easy" or "omfg-ragequit!!!", something went terribly wrong. If you're making an ARPG, use the "A" to get your combat right. Have a look at Darksiders, etc.

Risen was better when it comes to combat, not even exactly sure why. Memory betrays me, but I do remember raging only very rarely when I played that game (on hard btw).

 

[Metro]

Re: last page or so...



Jesus, now you know why I bowed out of this discussion.

 

[Kraszu]

G3's intro cinematic is comedy gold.
The rest of the game is awesome exploration with combat that is either ridculously easy (when fighting against 2 or less enemies) or ridiculously hard (when fighting against any group bigger than 2*).


*Yeah, I know you can exploit the shit of the game or position yourself on some roof and pin them to death with arrow needles or whatever... But honestly? This sucks. If a game forces you to do stupid shit to win and if the only available difficulties are either "easy" or "omfg-ragequit!!!", something went terribly wrong. If you're making an ARPG, use the "A" to get your combat right. Have a look at Darksiders, etc.

The game doesn't force you to do that, it is only necessary when you try to liberate town at low level, or do some harder quest at low level. I disagree about 2 enemies being easy at low level you don't have much room for error, and it depends on enemies, even one Orc with long weapon isn't trivial, most 1v1 aren't hard but they aren't easy to the point where you don't even have to focus on combat at all. Even with many enemies on hard 3 can attack you at most, and medium isn't easy, it is proper medium imo.

Risen was better when it comes to combat, not even exactly sure why. Memory betrays me, but I do remember raging only very rarely when I played that game (on hard btw).

In Risen you didn't fight so many opponents at once often and if you did there weren't strong. Later on power attack was imba so you could easily fight against groups of enemies, it got too easy then imo.

 

[Morkar Left]

I think the biggest problem with G3 combat was the slow combat animations and not beeing able to attack your oponent probably when standing on higher ground. If this things were fixed it would have been an excellent combat system. They had the right idea but the execution was really lacking and was only fixed halfway from the cp.

 

[Gord]

They give more AK above some level? Or do you mean 250AK cap? I had only played battle Mage without AB (I wanted to see the difference, and I wanted enough LP to get good at melee, and only use supporting skills to see how they work, and I didn't know if that would be possible with AB on). Bloodlust, tame animal and summon demon help allot, and they don't require so much AK so maybe that would be also possible with AB not sure.

With AB, above 200 or 250 AK (not sure right now) you need to invest double the amount of gold and skillpoints to increase AK (or strength and dexterity). So using the stone plates right after you found them would mean potentially wasting valuable skillpoints, instead it's more sensible to wait until you have reached a high number through normal leveling.
Additionally most spells have a higher AK requirement and are more expensive to get.
It all adds up, getting to 200 AK or above takes it's time, I also took a few other talents to make the early game easier and get some money.

I have to admit that I didn't use Bloodlust, as I wanted to stay away from Beliar magic (so what, it's an rpg after all...) with my char. Tame animal was nice, though.
Still, combat meant casting a few fireballs, running away, drinking potions, running back, casting fireballs, running away, etc. The tamed animal helped, yes, but it wouldn't win a fight on it's own (and again, Goblins, they honestly would almost kill my tamed Shadowbeast).

Once you finaly have mana regeneration it all get's a bit easier, but by that time (after my genocide in Nordmar) I had lost the will to go on.

 

[Kraszu]

They give more AK above some level? Or do you mean 250AK cap? I had only played battle Mage without AB (I wanted to see the difference, and I wanted enough LP to get good at melee, and only use supporting skills to see how they work, and I didn't know if that would be possible with AB on). Bloodlust, tame animal and summon demon help allot, and they don't require so much AK so maybe that would be also possible with AB not sure.

With AB, above 200 or 250 AK (not sure right now) you need to invest double the amount of gold and skillpoints to increase AK (or strength and dexterity). So using the stone plates right after you found them would mean potentially wasting valuable skillpoints, instead it's more sensible to wait until you have reached a high number through normal leveling.
Additionally most spells have a higher AK requirement and are more expensive to get.
It all adds up, getting to 200 AK or above takes it's time, I also took a few other talents to make the early game easier and get some money.

I have to admit that I didn't use Bloodlust, as I wanted to stay away from Beliar magic (so what, it's an rpg after all...) with my char. Tame animal was nice, though.

Once you finaly have mana regeneration it all get's a bit easier, but by that time (after my genocide in Nordmar) I had lost the will to go on.

At what lvl did you end up? What were your stats about, what other skills had you learn. any LP left? I know that using stone tablets is a bit of a waste, but since you get very powerful with magic at the end, maybe it is a better option overall.

Bloodlust is maybe even imba. I had problem with finishing the Masil quest so I did cast bloodlust on him when strong mercenary NPC was near, Masil lost, and I could loot his body from fire chalice without triggering anybody aggro. Before liberation cast it one multiple guards, and it will make it much easier as well. It is 250, the only spell that requires more is army of darkness at 275 so it could work.

 

[Gord]

Kraszu, I don't remember, maybe I'll fire it up tomorow, but not today. I think I had learned a bit alchemy (talent raised only through books/tablest though), staves skill, robes skill, a few spells (fireball, the frost spell, tame animal, flame wave, healing, not sure what else). Mana regen of course. A few crafting and hunting skills to make money.
I had done all of Nordmar and most of Myrtana (I had not yet liberated most cities, though). Never been to Varant.

 

[Kraszu]

Kraszu, I don't remember, maybe I'll fire it up tomorow, but not today. I think I had learned a bit alchemy (talent raised only through books/tablest though), staves skill, robes skill, a few spells (fireball, the frost spell, tame animal, flame wave, healing, not sure what else). Mana regen of course. A few crafting and hunting skills to make money.
I had done all of Nordmar and most of Myrtana (I had not yet liberated most cities, though). Never been to Varant.

Varant is good if you focus on doing quest they will make you visit all the interesting places anyway without wondering around doing nothing interesting. Learn bloodlust you probably don't need so much to increase AK anymore, you will get some free AK in Varant.

 

[Kraszu]

I had played with mage build a bit. I did use only 3 LP, and 5 STR to learn staff fighting, and us pretty decent one very fast 75 dmg +10 def vs cutting weapons it was in Reddock cave that you get quest to clear, you also get help from NPC that will follow you, and fight with you. I had also busted my HP a bit. Got Learning fast at level 7, and I am very close to good supporting spells, it doesn't seem hard, but you must play a battle mage at the beginning.

Edit: I did end reading only one stone tablet, I bump up DEX to use rapier (staff is too slow against some enemies but still worth to learn because of magic staffs), and learned hunting skills (after getting 100AK for full use of tame animal). 105 AK I will get mana regeneration pretty fast. I can save stone tables for later. It is a bit easier to play this battle mage build then pure warrior build. LvL 18.