Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[chuft]

The game came out with no hard counters. If every answer is “but White March II” it’s just an admission the game’s philosophy is flawed. I never got to WMII and never will because I don’t like the tedious MMO-like system.

 

[Shadenuat]

Well they changed it in main game too. Used to be you could Grease flying creatures.

 

[Grunker]

Most designs are flawed. Sawyer outright did a talk saying the total omission of hard counters was a flaw, which is more than you get from most designers.

 

[Haplo]

For what it's worth, PoE 1 relics are a lot more relicy than PoE 2. Especially since I don't think they ever got the Sid Meier HALF EVERYTHING treatment (except the Dagger). Unless Deadfire then got treatment again I am not aware about. But when all my items suddenly became +5% I just rolfed on my keyboard crying saaaawyer.

In beginning, PoE 1 itemization was fucken garbage. But when they added shit like Storm Bow or Not Carsomyr it became quite OK.

I believe that at many points, IE games still did more with less and by design it is better than any shit with +crafting slapped on top of it; but they also often had lower level caps and such. It was more liek "well there's just a fucken single +2 sword in whole game, so that does feel unique ok", "there's only single +3 katana in whole game which stuns everything - that is unique (obviously)".

But god that Deadfire patch when it came out was pure (╯°□°)╯︵ material

"That druid spear shit on stick did moar damage against enemy type which wasn't even present in the game except 2 encounters" "Now it is balanced - it does 5% more damage against enemy type which is only present in game in 2 encounters"
shoot yourself designer

You're not wrong. Although I always considered PoE 1 itemization pretty good, with White March it became great.

That nerf bat in Deadfire really wasn't necessary for most of these items.
For what it's worth, few weapons really suffered. Plus not all were nerfed (Serafen's blunderbusses, LOL) and they even added some new powerfull ones with the DLCs. But indeed many accessories - nerfed to the ground.
Still, the unique enchantment paths are pretty awesome in Deadfire. And a properly enchanted Grave Calling is one of my favorite crpg weapons ever. Blows the like of Vorpal Sword out of the water.

 

[Shadenuat]

Most designs are flawed. Sawyer outright did a talk saying the total omission of hard counters was a flaw, which is more than you get from most designers.

When people beaten whole game with Slicken up to dragons sure he did.

 

[Grunker]

Nerfing Serafen's weapons would be shitting on the most terrible (in terms of stats) companions in RPG history tho

 

[Grunker]

For what it's worth, PoE 1 relics are a lot more relicy than PoE 2. Especially since I don't think they ever got the Sid Meier HALF EVERYTHING treatment (except the Dagger). Unless Deadfire then got treatment again I am not aware about. But when all my items suddenly became +5% I just rolfed on my keyboard crying saaaawyer.

In beginning, PoE 1 itemization was fucken garbage. But when they added shit like Storm Bow or Not Carsomyr it became quite OK.

I believe that at many points, IE games still did more with less and by design it is better than any shit with +crafting slapped on top of it; but they also often had lower level caps and such. It was more liek "well there's just a fucken single +2 sword in whole game, so that does feel unique ok", "there's only single +3 katana in whole game which stuns everything - that is unique (obviously)".

But god that Deadfire patch when it came out was pure (╯°□°)╯︵ material

"That druid spear shit on stick did moar damage against enemy type which wasn't even present in the game except 2 encounters" "Now it is balanced - it does 5% more damage against enemy type which is only present in game in 2 encounters"
shoot yourself designer

You're not wrong. Although I always considered PoE 1 itemization pretty good, with White March it became great.

That nerf bat in Deadfire really wasn't necessary for most of these items.
For what it's worth, few weapons really suffered. Plus not all were nerfed (Serafen's blunderbusses, LOL) and they even added some new powerfull ones with the DLCs. But indeed many accessories - nerfed to the ground.
Still, the unique enchantment paths are pretty awesome in Deadfire. And a properly enchanted Grave Calling is one of my favorite crpg weapons ever. Blows the like of Vorpal Sword out of the water.

Essence Interrupter is among my favorites as you can tell, though again the Adra Ban scarcity makes it a dubious choice. It's fucking 6 bans to upgrade fully

 

[Grunker]

^inb4 shadenuat "balanced" reaction

 

[Haplo]

You mean Redeemer? Relatively to time you get it, I think undead are not as big of a deal anymore (or at all in the game). You mostly fight then through campaign of ice giants and acid golems, whole dungeon on vitrak etc.

Incidentally Redeemer does work on golems, which are classed as vessels here. Such as the main enemies in WM....
And I never had issues of being too low level to slay vessels with it.

 

[Shadenuat]

ooh that's cool.

I hate golems in all POEs. Fukkin slog with 200 200 200 defences.

 

[Shadenuat]

^inb4 shadenuat "balanced" reaction

I don't like crafting in any PoEs tbh. +unlimited inventory. Whatever rarity it is, I don't consider all that much of an interesting gameplay. I liked combining dumb shit in Wizardry 8 and carrying giant ass silver nugget to Rapax there also.

I only like upgrading relics by singing songs to them i.e. Redeemr, Labourer Blade, etc.

 

[Haplo]

These things were rare, had a huge impact, it made a real difference who was wielding them, and they were memorable. You built entire battle plans around employing them effectively.

In PoE1 1 I've built my main char around the use of greatsword that would prone enemies on crit - in a large aoe with the Carnage effect and high Int - The Hours of St. Rumbalt.

Come to think of it, in Deadfire I've build ALL my chars with specific weapons in mind, which were playstyle defining - much moreso then in BG2. Lord Darryn's Voulge, Engoliero de Espirs, Grave Calling, Hand Mortars - to name a few.

 

[Grunker]

^inb4 shadenuat "balanced" reaction

I don't like crafting in any PoEs tbh. +unlimited inventory. Whatever rarity it is, I don't consider all that much of an interesting gameplay. I liked combining dumb shit in Wizardry 8 and carrying giant ass silver nugget to Rapax there also.

I only like upgrading relics by singing songs to them i.e. Redeemr, Labourer Blade, etc.

The mutually exclusive upgrades in Deadfire are fucking king of the itemization world. Reminds me a bit about HoMM5's unit upgrades, which were also cool

 

[Shadenuat]

Come to think of it, in Deadfire I've build ALL my chars with specific weapons in mind, which were playstyle defining

I just given everyone 2 sabres.

 

[Grunker]

These things were rare, had a huge impact, it made a real difference who was wielding them, and they were memorable. You built entire battle plans around employing them effectively.

In PoE1 1 I've built my main char around the use of greatsword that would prone enemies on crit - in a large aoe with the Carnage effect and high Int - The Hours of St. Rumbalt.

Come to think of it, in Deadfire I've build ALL my chars with specific weapons in mind, which were playstyle defining - much moreso then in BG2.

Same here. The obvious example I always use when explaining PoE itemization to noobs if forgemaster's gauntlets. Barbarian + those is hilarious.

 

[Grunker]

ooh that's cool.

I hate golems in all POEs. Fukkin slog with 200 200 200 defences.

Easily the shittiest opponent in Deadfire

 

[Shadenuat]

Mutually exclusive paths are interesting, but I also remember choices like "5% chance" and "summon 2 bigass dragons every day".

 

[Grunker]

Mutually exclusive paths are interesting, but I also remember choices like "5% chance" and "summon 2 bigass dragons every day".

Those exist (mainly on beginning items), but again Essence Interrupter is a good example of the well-designed items - double duration for its summons which is just insane considering mid and late game summons, but that shit can also reck you, or allied summons which is the safe choice but the duration isn't all that long so choice #1 really is very enticing.

 

[Grunker]

Right now I'm using Whispers of the Endless Paths on Pallegina and its dynamic is very interesting. It attacks in a Cone sort of like Barbarian carnage, but it's kind of hard upping it's damage without saccing too much acc. I wonder if the cone attacks benefit from Barb carnage, in that case you could do insane AoE melee with it?

 

[Haplo]

Yeah, I've tried a lot to use it. It's... not very practical.
I guess best you can do is some SoulBlade/Rogue multiclass with Soul Annihilation... but it's a very risky playstyle and still not great.

A shame, I really liked Whispers. Kinda wish they didn't nerf it (initially it stroke the primary target twice).

 

[Shadenuat]

The damage sadly on that is shit. I also tried it.

Also did they ever fix 2-handed weapons being kinda shit?

 

[Haplo]

Two handed weapons were always pretty good IMO. Just the dual FullAttack spam made them look bad.
Well, they did nerf dual-wielding It got -35% damage, I think. And 2-handers a slight buff to Penetration.

I enjoyed my Estoc Streetfighter/Devoted Swashbuckler a lot

 

[Shadenuat]

Ah so they did nerf TWF. By how much?

It got -35% damage

Wowsies

Two handed weapons were always pretty good IMO

I had great fun with Acid 2-handed sword by paladin or cleric with some evil God with acid

....but then they nerfed it.

 

[Grunker]

The damage sadly on that is shit. I also tried it.

Also did they ever fix 2-handed weapons being kinda shit?

The damage is shit because you can hit 3-5 enemies in a single swing. If I can somehow get acc enough to use the modal its gonna be crazy.

Yeah, I've tried a lot to use it. It's... not very practical.

Thought so.

mary target twice).

Yeah, but that was a bug right (hit + hit from cone)? It seems to me it would be a clear contender for top 5 two-handers were that still the case. It doesn't deal FF anymore though as far as I can tell.

 

[Grunker]

TB nerfs dual wielding implicitly because all the other weapon styles do useful things while dual wielding gives +15% action speed which on tb is not even worth getting. My PC dual wields and I don't even pick it up

However dual wielding is also the only way of attacking twice in TB, so I guess it balances out.