Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[PorkyThePaladin]

Pushing through Act 3 on Path of the Damned but the combat is so body dense that it's getting difficult to chew through. I've read that there is an Upscale option in White March. Does this mean even the most trivial fights in the expansion will be as pumped up as the ones in the endgame?

Haven't played White March nor enabled it.

Don't upscale on Path of the Damned. It's not that bad for regular fights, but there are some fights in PoE that are already borderline retarded in terms of bs difficulty on PotD, like the dragon fights, the monks fights in WM, etc. They are not made for normal players, but for autistic number crunchers.

It feels like I'm hitting a point where I have to optimize my builds a bit more. That and my Cipher not really being very effective. I've been fighting tons of Famyprs and Ghouls. My druid has more or less been filling in for the missing wizard in the party. Instead of fireballs I'm throwing huge rocks and lightning scrolls at everybody. Things seem to be working out.

What can the wizard do better than the druid? Is his thing that he gets to cast more spells or what? Both the cipher and druid feel vastly superior. I can see him fitting into any party composition but not doing better than a cipher/druid. Is he in the game just to replace my cipher when she's having a bad match up?

The reason wizards and druids are so strong in PoE is that on harder difficulties, there are so many fucking enemies with hitpoint bloat and other bs, single target damage is pretty weak. So if you spec your wizard/druid into high AoE shit, they can really clean up.

 

[Axel_am]

But I really like the cipher. Are all of the endgame fights with Fampyr and Ghouls? I feel like after I clear this bunch she'll preform better. Wizard would be nice but he is already 2 levels behind which for sure will be noticeable.

 

[almondblight]

For the third time I've played through the vanilla and transitioned into the DLCs and stopped within the first hour.

That's with being committed to finally finish the fucking DLC for once.

I demand to have this explained to me. Is it possible that the vanilla is just the perfect length for reasonable people to have their fill with Sawyer's idea of an RPG?

Happened to me twice. I also found Endless Paths to be tiring, I nearly quit my first playthrough because of them.

The pacing (at least on PotD) just feels somewhat tedious in some parts of the game.

 

[Lacrymas]

I demand to have this explained to me. Is it possible that the vanilla is just the perfect length for reasonable people to have their fill with Sawyer's idea of an RPG?

Base game is borderline unplayable after Maerwald. WM is where it's at.

 

[sebas]

Ehm..White March is the only thing really worth playing in PoE. It's decent and felt a bit like IWD.

 

[Haplo]

It feels like I'm hitting a point where I have to optimize my builds a bit more. That and my Cipher not really being very effective. I've been fighting tons of Famyprs and Ghouls. My druid has more or less been filling in for the missing wizard in the party. Instead of fireballs I'm throwing huge rocks and lightning scrolls at everybody. Things seem to be working out.

Cipher and Barbarian were like my favorite classes. Cannot unload like a wizard, but always effective.
Make sure you have Priest buffs, they make a huge difference in PoE1 (something like +40 Accuracy).

What can the wizard do better than the druid? Is his thing that he gets to cast more spells or what? Both the cipher and druid feel vastly superior. I can see him fitting into any party composition but not doing better than a cipher/druid. Is he in the game just to replace my cipher when she's having a bad match up?

Wizard and Druid spells are different. Druid focuses on DOTs and hazard zones plus heals over time, Wizard on nukes, very strong self-buffs (including speed increase!) and special spells. Also his summons are not half bad.

Some of them are low-key very effective, like Combusting Wounds (spam fast attacks vs affected targets, like Wall of Fire, beams, blunderbuss multi-shots... and watch in amazement how fast the toughest enemies melt). Chill Fog is an extremly effective low level spell. Try the WM Ninagauth's Shadowflame nuke as combat opener...

 

[Grunker]

I found that Wizard plays best in PoE if built like a Fighter/Wizard from BG. While using nukes can certainly work, Wizard ego-buffs are incredibly strong and can make for an impervious and versatile caster-fighter with OK damage.

Nevar forget my first time of beating Llengrath - my whole team down, Aloth surviving on 1HP.

 

[Lacrymas]

Wizards have a cool build around Kalakoth's Minor Blights. The difference between spellcaster Druids and Wizards is mainly the utility Wizards bring. The vast majority of the Druid spell list is centered around dealing damage in some way, which they can already do pretty well with cat form, so choose your flavor of damage. They also have some healing spells, but eh. Not that there aren't some wacky builds out there, like Rot Skulls, but you get it quite late (lvl 11) and have to be something else until then. There's an item that grants limited charges of Rot Skulls, so you can have a "test run" with it before committing. That's it, though, Druid is pretty underwhelming in both PoE1 and 2.

Oh, and if if you want to spice up your PotD playthrough, play without a Priest.

 

[Grunker]

Oh, and if if you want to spice up your PotD playthrough, play without a Priest.

This would be my best tip for anyone looking to challenge themselves. Priest kind of cheats a lot of mechanics.

If you're really a sucker for pain like I am - play without scrolls as well, so you truly have no access to priest magic.

 

[Nikanuur]

The wizard and fighter are such an obvious choice, PoE-wise, but one that paradoxically eluded me personally. Probably because of having been conditioned by other 99% of games where spell strength = intelligence The same went with pumping STR.

I play a third walkthrough of PoE II now from time to time, and Aloth is an absolute beast multiclassed with all the mentioned effects in place. Someone somewhere stated, "Multiclassing Aloth to fighter kind of makes sense from the roleplay standpoint too, having Iselmyr in his head and all."

Fun fact: I couldn't remember Aloth's name for a while, but Iselmyr popped up immediately. Poor Aloth, don't tell him, please :D

 

[Haplo]

Oh, and if if you want to spice up your PotD playthrough, play without a Priest.

This would be my best tip for anyone looking to challenge themselves. Priest kind of cheats a lot of mechanics.

If you're really a sucker for pain like I am - play without scrolls as well, so you truly have no access to priest magic.

Eh, given the encounter density in PoE1, as well as some enemies that frankly feel overtuned at times, I'd not voluntarily subject myself to such flagellation.

Also NOT having a Priest makes certain classes feel MUCH worse - among them my favourite Ciphers (who struggle to land hits and rack enough Focus to fuel their powers) and aoe CC Carnage Barbarians (who also have much worse Accuracy -> much fewer crits -> a lot less Prone on crit and damage).

Edit: Also fighting for example the Lagufueths without status resistance...

 

[Lacrymas]

Priests are a tad bit too overpowered. You can flat out ignore the difficulty of encounters from a certain level onward because you can stack buffs that make you essentially immune to damage and status effects. Priest + Defensive Mindweb is kooky.

 

[Haplo]

Priests are a tad bit too overpowered. You can flat out ignore the difficulty of encounters from a certain level onward because you can stack buffs that make you essentially immune to damage and status effects. Priest + Defensive Mindweb is kooky.

Yes, combos are possible, including temporary immortality. But I was focusing more on the simple and reliable Devotions of the Faithful + debuff enemy defenses with the upgraded per encounter aura.
This was enough in most cases.
Maybe Dire Blessing for good measure. Or later Spark the Souls and/or Crowns for the Faithful...

 

[Grunker]

Also fighting for example the Lagufueths without status resistance...

...is really fun!

 

[Lacrymas]

Fighting the fishpeople with a Priest boils down to rushing to cast your immunities and that's it.

 

[Haplo]

Fighting the fishpeople with a Priest boils down to rushing to cast your immunities and that's it.

From what I remember, they were also extremly aggressive and fast. Therefore even without them perma-stunning your party, one needed to be careful not to be overwhelmed (or nuke them even faster).

 

[Lacrymas]

The only really problematic fishpeople encounter was the one with 3 broodmothers and that one has a bridge that acts as a chokepoint.

 

[Haplo]

I found I needed to be careful and attentive in most encounters with them, but yes, this one was definately the toughest.
Don't know if difficulty plays a role here - I did Upscale WM content and also tried not to be overlevelled for it.

 

[Axel_am]

Oh, and if if you want to spice up your PotD playthrough, play without a Priest.

So what do I click on to save my party? The quickload button? I guess you can attempt to balance things out with scrolls.

play without scrolls as well

No priest and no scrolls? I never imagined 5xMonk would be that strong. I might as well remove the pause button and have one hand tied behind my back just to satisfy that extra difficulty itch.

 

[Lacrymas]

Some monoclass parties are absolutely viable, like 6xChanter

 

[Grunker]

palllllllyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[HoboForEternity]

Some monoclass parties are absolutely viable, like 6xChanter

Do chanter effects stack 6x?

 

[Lacrymas]

Some monoclass parties are absolutely viable, like 6xChanter

Do chanter effects stack 6x?

Come, Come Soft Winds of Death stacks 6x and that's enough. You've got a bajillion summons on top of that to do damage and keep you alive.

 

[Sannom]

Priests are a tad bit too overpowered. You can flat out ignore the difficulty of encounters from a certain level onward because you can stack buffs that make you essentially immune to damage and status effects. Priest + Defensive Mindweb is kooky.

Also they kept the D&D idea that priests and druids know all of their spells automatically but removed the Vancian aspects of the system, so they're busted on that aspect too.

 

[Haplo]

Some monoclass parties are absolutely viable, like 6xChanter

Do chanter effects stack 6x?

Perhaps not the same buffs. But different songs certainly stack.
And offensive ones tick separately as well, as Lacrymas wrote.