Decline Nerd Commando Guide Channel (ex-funbuilding & stuff)

[Humppaleka]

Great videos, but as I am very shy of spoilers, should I watch these before starting PoE or should I go in blind? I generally do not like going into games and finding out that because I am a brainless retard my characters are underpowered and I have to pretty much start over, which makes videos like these a blessing. Divinity videos didn't have many spoilers at all from what I remember, those are the only ones I've seen so far.

 

[Pope Amole II]

I almost never do spoilers. Like, you will get spoiled what kind of ability you get at each level & stuff, but that shouldn't be counted as a spoiler, especially in a DnD game (I mean, PoE's system is pretty much a DnD remake). The couple of times I mentioned some spoiler, I did that at the end of the video and with a loud warning.

 

[naossano]

If you suck at character building, you might try on easy/normal.
Or check character builds instead of walkthrough if you want to avoid spoilers and explore the lands without prior knowledge.

 

[Wizfall]

I got a special request.
I really can't get over the idea that being a bodybuilder is needed to be an offensive rogue/wizard/gunner.
It's by far the most stupid thing i have never see in any cRPG system and it's totally kill my immersion.

Can you have a wizard/rogue/gunner (!!!) build that does a lot of dps without relying on might (i mean by that normal might of 10) ?
Or it would be really much more inefficient ?

Can't stand this might mandatory for any offensive character whatever his class.
Damn stupid system where the best "minmax"tank are pussy that can't even lift a rock and all the best wizards/rogues/gunners are bodybuilders.

And Josh claiming every cRPG got it wrong, he really has no shame creating such a system, what a joke.
I'm not a a similationist but things have to be a bit believable, or at least not completely retarded.

 

[Bubbles]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

 

[Wizfall]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

Yea sure even measure the soul force of my bullet...
And what about those might adventure/dialog check where might, you know measures might and resolve measures your soul force...

 

[Pope Amole II]

I got a special request.
Can you have a wizard/rogue/gunner (!!!) build that does a lot of dps without relying on might (i mean by that normal might of 10) ?
Or it would be really much more inefficient ?

I know this feeling, mate. Actually, when I created my first character, I was driven by kinda the same thing - I hated this system so much that I absolutely wanted to make not even a might 10, just a might 3 character work. And it didn't go well.

The problem is, might is the source of damage dealing in this game, whether you want it or not. Dexterity just doesn't work as well because of the damage threshold system. For wizards, I guess you can go for some clunky mass-control might 3 build, but it will suffer through the majority of game and while it will gain a Finger of Death-like effect at the level 6 (I'm sorta unsure if it is not bugged, though), that hardly counts as a damage dealing potential. Wizards are pretty much crap outside of Might 18, that's just the way they are. Well, wizards are one of the weakest characters in the game even with Might 18 and a proper build, so anything lower than that is just crippling.

Rogues can do decent damage even with might 10 but there isn't any way for them to abuse their other stats to dish out more damage. So yeah, they do well with might 10 but they do even better with might 18. There pretty much isn't any other choice than to stop worrying and start loving might.

 

[Athelas]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

Yea sure even measure the soul force of my bullet...
And what about those might adventure/dialog check where might, you know measures might and resolve measures your soul force...

It's the lore of the game - the characters draw their power from their soul.

For example, fighters can harness their soul to perform incredible feats like knocking an enemy down in melee for a few seconds.

 

[GrainWetski]

If you suck at character building, you might try on easy/normal.
Or check character builds instead of walkthrough if you want to avoid spoilers and explore the lands without prior knowledge.

Nobody should play Pillars of Eterenity on anything but hard. The encounters were made for hard(and then scaled back for normal and easy) and they aren't very hard.

Positioning melee fighters so the enemies can't run to your squishy characters means automatic victory in most battles on hard.

 

[naossano]

Nobody should play a game on hard and then complain that they can't win.
Hard mode is supposed to be played by veterans, hardcore gamers, and people who already finished the game a few times.
An "hard" mode make absolutly no sense if the average joe can beat it the first time.

If you are not confortable with the character building or the combat system, it is better to play on easy/normal.

 

[Jaedar]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

While might may also be a measure of offensive soul force, it is definitely used as a measure of physical power in dialogue.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Deleted the barb one, will redo him tomorrow - stupidly obscure game, ugh. Anyways, todays was the Cipher, this one is sorta easy (though a bit bugged, it seems, but it's nothing critical):

 

[Bubbles]

Your first build is almost identical to the one I rolled on day 1 (one more Int, one less Might), so it gives me some comfort that I don't truly suck.

 

[Bubbles]

Really minor remarks:

- you say around 46:10 that -8 Int and -8 Per both reduce Will, but Per reduces Reflexes

- you can actually find Blunderbusses at level 3 if you're lucky; I found one at the bandit camp for the blacksmith's shipment quest

- I hadn't considered the Obama build at all (overlooked that the Focus mechanics would especially benefit from gun swapping), but it sounds very fun, thanks for that one.

In my experience, Antipathetic Field can be quite dangerous to your own party if you do not very carefully manage your positioning, especially against teleporting enemies or when trying to navigate the beam around your tank. The damage is completely OP, but to me it was a bit of a hassle to use as my go-to damage spell for the first few hours of gameplay, and the auto-attacks/Focus gain wasted while repositioning myself made me more fond of Soul Shock as an early damage spell. Completely personal preference though.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

While might may also be a measure of offensive soul force, it is definitely used as a measure of physical power in dialogue.

What are you talking about? When I get "[MIGHT: 16] *You lift him off the ground by his neck* Dead or alive you're coming with me, creep" option talking to a sharkdude for my orlan wizard, he's not using his mind? But that would mean he carries around boxes to stand on for situations like these, and that would be downright silly in a well thought out game like PoE. You're silly.

 

[Pope Amole II]

- you say around 46:10 that -8 Int and -8 Per both reduce Will, but Per reduces Reflexes

Whoopsie. Well, stuff happens.

- you can actually find Blunderbusses at level 3 if you're lucky; I found one at the bandit camp for the blacksmith's shipment quest

That's pretty awesome to experience.

In my experience, Antipathetic Field can be quite dangerous to your own party

I think the good tactic here is to stealth your cipher close to your foes, cast the field on the farthest enemy and then run like hell towards your group (dunno, maybe the fast runner is even worth considering?)

 

[Wizfall]

Might measures the offensive power of your soul force, not your physical power.

While might may also be a measure of offensive soul force, it is definitely used as a measure of physical power in dialogue.

What are you talking about? When I get "[MIGHT: 16] *You lift him off the ground by his neck* Dead or alive you're coming with me, creep" option talking to a sharkdude for my orlan wizard, he's not using his mind? But that would mean he carries around boxes to stand on for situations like these, and that would be downright silly in a well thought out game like PoE. You're silly.

No he is not using his mind, it just show you how this part of the might thing is stupid from a roleplay pespective (and they did not though about orlan).

For god sake even in character creation might is described as physical power !
Why do you think Orlans have small stature so get -1 Might ?
Why do you think Aumaua are the largest and so get biggest (+2) might ?
Even from the manual : might is a character’s physical and spiritual strength
I can understand people liking the mechanics but no need to defend the absurdity of it.
Your Orlan wizard is a bodybuilder (i'm sure he can push rock with his mind too in the first tutorial dungeon hehe)
How "soul power" make bullets from firearms so much more dangerous.
Ridiculous.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Monks.

 

[Pope Amole II]

The marathon continues, btw.

A dance with rogues:


No one expects the inquisition:


I'm too tired to invent the third dumb joke:


7 done, four to go. Steam guide will be updated with rogues shortly.

 

[Shadenuat]

Teh nerf bat for traps was strong, not only can't you stack priest seals from different levels, they even count like traps, so you can only have 1 trap (or seal) at a time, ever.

Deep Wounds probably would work okay to help Ranger talent that gives 1.2 damage against targets with a DoT on them.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Teh nerf bat for traps was strong, not only can't you stack priest seals from different levels, they even count like traps, so you can only have 1 trap (or seal) at a time, ever.

Deep Wounds probably would work okay to help Ranger talent that gives 1.2 damage against targets with a DoT on them.

Good. TBH, I'm mentioning these kiting tactics but it's not like I like them I'll errata the videos tomorrow. Still, they're good in combat so who cares.

Yeah, but I'll mention that in ranger videos. They're similar to rogues - the party must work to make the most out of them. I think even taking envenomed strike with rangers can be quite worth it.

 

[Bubbles]

By the way, exiting the spell tooltips with ESC or by right clicking on any part of the tooltip window doesn't close the opened spell bar, which makes it slightly faster to look at the next spell. It's only a tiny difference, but I noticed it during your Priest video.

 

[Pope Amole II]

KK, time for some rangers!



Ugh, I meant these rangers:

 

[Shadenuat]

After playing a bit on PoTD with various builds including some of yours I would recommend to NOT dump attacking stats in favor of Constitution unless for veryveryveryvery specific build. Having ~20 extra deflection does matter but you see, when you dump STR for some extra hp what you really do is keeping generally same +fortitude (because -str +con) while trading your ability to do amage AND possibly sucking at some unique abilities class or race has. And since as a tank you still better to have high accuracy to land disabling abilities (my monk uses rapier with 3 bonuses to hit), you can also do crits, which helps somewhat with doing damage. If you completely dump Might though you do almost no damage in combat and it often can lead to funny situations when your DPS guys are down but you can't kill the enemy
Same about some other stats, for example Int, may seem good idea to dump on some characters but then duration of your disablers or range of your auras become crap; but pumping it too much also does not affect combat in critical way for some classes.
So for a MonkTank for example, maxing Per&Res is a good idea, lots of points in Int is also good, but dumping Str I wouldn't go that far, and also dumping Dex isn't the best option. Why? Well, because he often accumulates wounds faster than he can use his abilities and in heavy armor sometimes you have to wait too long to land that flying kick.

I'm thinking on respeccing into something like Per+Resolve, some int (although I think it is arguable if you actually REALLY need those 3.5 extra seconds for FoA instead of 40% (!) damage in combat - just think what we're actually paying here), moderate stats everywhere else. Oh and Moon Godlike is best especially if you have no cleric in party. Non-dumped STR helps with that too. Also Torment's Reach when you look it is kinda crap, you might get more by using faster attack rate combined with some unique weapon that has status effect like prone on crit (we're stacking accuracy anyway).

I wouldn't dump Dex for Chanter too unless you're total tank, since you can stack spellbinding items and scrolls on him and constantly cast spells in combat while chanting and then also use incantation.

tl;dr all-or-nothing builds may not overperform regulars more while paying a way too high price for being so specialised.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Playing a monk any other way but unarmed and unarmored would just feel very wrong for me, how would such a build scale in power?