Pillars of Eternity Thread [Pre-Expansion]

Wait, they went from one of the better classes to crap just by moving the level of a single spell?

 

Pretty much, because it was so good - net dps increase for the entire party.

 

But that would mean that it was at best a very uneven class. Having only one useful ability from it's pool of chants wouldn't make what I call a good class. Useful and efective if well build, maybe, but definetly not good if everything outside one element sucks.

In my opinion, chanters are very cool conceptually, but need tweaking, as almost any mechanic from PoE (don't get me wrong, is a really strong start from my point of view, but a start always have this kind of issues), although chanters a bit more. Right now I don't find very useful to combine chants, which one would think would be how the class should be played. Either the effects need to be significantly better, or they need to allow more chants on level up. I have no issues with the chanter invocations, I think they pop up at the right time, not too late not too soon, although maybe I would buff them a bit.

 

As it is, buffs are already useless, caster defensive spells are useless, crowd control is useless, de-debuffers are useless... Now with every spell that is actually good or useful being nerfed or already nerfed (gathering from these forums this includes slicken, fan of flames, mind blades, etc)... I'm assuming the end result will be that the entire fucking spell system will be nerfed to obsolescence? Am I the only one that thinks this is mind numbingly retarded???

 

Well, my party composition made it pretty obvious that i needed him for the reload speed phrase, but someone has to explain for people here

 

Except gun chant only highest level chants actually do something interesting, and they screwed up with the timing. Also, combining chants together seems completely pointless because of timing and lingering ain't that long. Most of the effects, you want them playing all the time. So no combinations like elemental chant + elemental chant = stronger elemental damage etc.

 

In theory using the low-level chants with weak effects has the benefit of building up to invocations faster, because they have shorter chanting times. The issue is the pace of combat, I think.

 

Many spell-casting classes are a bit uneven currently, since all of them have spells that are simply lacking due to being too short in duration (and in comparison to casting time), or have too little effect.
On the other hand there are also several good spells, so one ends up focusing on them. Slicken is still very good and probably the one spell I cast every fight. Bewildering spectacle can be good, as can be Confusion. Both can turn a fight if used right, or at least help a lot (so much for CC spells being shit). The Chanter's Paralyse invocation is very strong, too, although it takes some time to reach the necessary number of chants, so it's a bit situational.
What I'm missing, esp. in the low and mid tiers of wizards are some reliable and effective single-enemy damage spells - although Fan of Flames is good early on.
The Priest is probably the class which I think needs to be buffed the most currently, since it mostly focuses on buffs and debuffs, which end up feeling somewhat underwhelming most of the time.
With the miss/graze/hit/crit system, small (de)buffs are less noticeable, I guess.
Generally there also seem to be a lot of spells that feel too similar.

 

Not theory, works in practice, but low level chants are also dull and pointless. But if you really want those ogres...

 

For pure AoE damage go druid. For double awesome AoE go double druid. For single targets use overlapping Returning and Relentless Storm = high damage hits, constant stunning, deflection-debuffing and long duration.

Those damn druids. They're so hot right now.

 

If chanter would start the combat with an already available number of chants like cipher starts with focus, most of the problem would be aleviated.

 

Do you know this for sure and can you link something ? Thanks

 

That, or reduce the intervals of Phrases and/or extend their lingering effects—not only to increase Chanter's potency, but to allow for more interesting combinations.

As it is, you can put from one to three near-useless 1st Phrases on repeat to build up the Phrase count quickly, you can put 2nds on repeat or mix them to build the count more slowly, you can put a powerful 3rd Phrase on repeat with one or more decent 1st and/or 2nd Phrases sprinkled in between the lingering gaps to build the phrase count yet more slowly, or you can stack 3rd Phrases and largely get one nice bonus at a time, while waiting forever to build up phrases.

It's balanced for what it is, at least in theory, but ends up being unsatisfying and shitty. You'd think you'd compose interesting chants with that sheet music interface, maybe something complex and clever and useful... but no, it's just for show. Might as well put Wendgrith on repeat to spam out paralysis AoE and summons ASAP.

 

Yeah, I usually switch between reload speed and deflection bonus depending on fight and summon something from figurines with the chanter at the beginning until chants build up.

Besides that I keep Kana in full plate with Greatsword/Arbalest and use him as tank/dps wildcard. Chanters have good deflection/accuracy so I often send him to tie up archers/spellcasters in the enemy's backline.

 

Empirically people playing the BB found Chanters fun. Personally I thought that they were an effective class simply because of that one chant and stuff always died before I could use any invocations.

Also I didn't find a Grimoire with Slicken in it and Aloth didn't come with it That would have made the game like lol ez

 

you couldve recruited a lvl1 adventurer mage, pick up slicken for him and use his grimoire to teach aloth the spell

 

True, although I didn't want to make any adventurers. Just wanted to roll with the companions and hope that I'd eventually find one.

 

You can take lower level spells at level up.

 

Well, my game just got a lot more interesting





Persists through reloading saves, too. I wonder if i should keep on trucking with this or reload from a few hours ago.

 

Lol.

Dat x363634346 damage

 

Hey, neat idea. Guess I'll be making a level 11 Wizard or three when I hit level 12 (not far off now) to pick up every spell in the game for Aloth.

 

I lol'd

 

Someone on Something Awful is massively triggered by my opinion on Pillars of Eternity that they paid $9.95 USD to do this

 

Welcome to SA.

P.S. That must've been rope kid.