Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[Grunker]

The best part is that the more expensive the weapon, the more expensive the repair. That's actively discouraging you from using or upgrading unique weapons.

Let me tell you about adra ban

Tell me if it can be bought at some merchant. I believe it can only be found in the world.

That's my point. Didn't you see my rant about it? I think the mechanic of adra ban - a few other crafting items too but adra ban in particular - completely undercuts the otherwise extreme diverse itemization. I think it's one of those choices made in design because it "made sense" and no one really thought about the practical impact in game. In essence, it doesn't mean crafting is a slow progression (gold does this already), instead it means once you Legendary a weapon, that's it: you're using that weapon until endgame no matter whatever else cool shit you find.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The best part is that the more expensive the weapon, the more expensive the repair. That's actively discouraging you from using or upgrading unique weapons.

Let me tell you about adra ban

Tell me if it can be bought at some merchant. I believe it can only be found in the world.

That's my point. Didn't you see my rant about it? I think the mechanic of adra ban - a few other crafting items too but adra ban in particular - completely undercuts the otherwise extreme diverse itemization. I think it's one of those choices made in design because it "made sense" and no one really thought about the practical impact in game. In essence, it doesn't mean crafting is a slow progression (gold does this already), instead it means once you Legendary a weapon, that's it: you're using that weapon until endgame no matter whatever else cool shit you find.

That's just your idea of ultra optimizing yourself. It's not necesseary to upgrade weapons at all. I have only a couple of legendary weapons and armor, the rest is either exceptional or sometimes superb. And that's on lvl 19, in Forgotten Sanctum. I'm running around with more than 400k copper.

After all what's the point of legendary if everything is legendary.

Also, wasnt BG2 your favorite RPG?

 

[2house2fly]

There are a fair few unique items you find in legendary condition to begin with towards the endgame

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

… through the bow that spawns summons ...

Where might I find this bow you speak of?

 

[AwesomeButton]

… through the bow that spawns summons ...

Where might I find this bow you speak of?

Port Maje, the vendor at the stalls, in the center of the area.

 

[Grunker]

The best part is that the more expensive the weapon, the more expensive the repair. That's actively discouraging you from using or upgrading unique weapons.

Let me tell you about adra ban

Tell me if it can be bought at some merchant. I believe it can only be found in the world.

That's my point. Didn't you see my rant about it? I think the mechanic of adra ban - a few other crafting items too but adra ban in particular - completely undercuts the otherwise extreme diverse itemization. I think it's one of those choices made in design because it "made sense" and no one really thought about the practical impact in game. In essence, it doesn't mean crafting is a slow progression (gold does this already), instead it means once you Legendary a weapon, that's it: you're using that weapon until endgame no matter whatever else cool shit you find.

That's just your idea of ultra optimizing yourself. It's not necesseary to upgrade weapons at all. I have only a couple of legendary weapons and armor, the rest is either exceptional or sometimes superb. And that's on lvl 19, in Forgotten Sanctum. I'm running around with more than 400k copper.

After all what's the point of legendary if everything is legendary.

It's not ultra optimizing to look at two weapons and pick the clear winner.

Also, wasnt BG2 your favorite RPG?

What I like so much about BG2 itemization is that so often the best choice is not clear - and sometimes, there isn't even one, because item progression is non-linear except for enhancement bonus.

PoE1 and Deadfire are even better in this regard with multiple high tier versions of the same weapon types that offer all kinds of effects.

Why point at you and tell you that the mechanical effectiveness of one of these weapons must surpass the rest? That only makes the choices less interesting I think. I wouldn't mind removing Legendary quality altogether or just allowing us to make them all legendary. What I mind is tying the weapon's most important stats - damage and accuracy - to a limited resource that means if we want to toy with new finds we have to make clearly poor choices.

If anything, I dislike the mechanic because I DON'T play optimally. Most of you guys seem to know most of the weapons and where to find them - I'm pretty sure I missed alot. That makes the Legendary mechanic awkward because when do you commit to a weapon? And why should you even? Isn't the whole point of good itemtization with lots of depths to give you a broad array of complex choices?

 

[MajorMace]

… through the bow that spawns summons ...

Where might I find this bow you speak of?

Port Maje, the vendor at the stalls, in the center of the area.

I call it the framerate interruptor.

 

[Grunker]

BTW can we talk about how this game's structure, just like the first one, makes running around really annoying? Maybe I'm misremembering though I did play BG2 fairly recently, but the reason you get so annoyed with loading screens in this game isn't that they're long (they're not really), it's that you have to enter and re-enter so many areas so many times - especially in Neketaka. I didn't feel like I had to do that much in Athkatla. How did you guys experience this?

 

[Reinhardt]

most important stats - damage and accuracy

Penetration. If you don't want to watch "no pen" all over your screen.

 

[Reinhardt]

they're not really

Queen's Berth loading times is on par with late game Kingmaker. Even when you just arrived from Port Maje for first time.

 

[2house2fly]

You get some free Legendary upgrades- two magma dragon gizzards, three culmination stones, and two godseed fragments (depending on quest choices). Godseed core and mythical adra stones can upgrade Legendary items to Mythic. It would be neat if Mythic items were immune to degradation in Abydon's challenge

 

[Reinhardt]

Started this playthrough to try dlcs but now i think i'll just go and finish game quickly. Fighting megabosses for 20+ minutes with broken sticks and bare fists is not exactly what i'm looking for.
Abydon can really go full retard sometimes. Won battle, repaired all equip, time to move on. Oh, some lone monster stuck in rubble. Ok, finish him off and THEN move on. Two more damaged weapons. Same weapons you just repaired 30 seconds ago.

 

[Prime Junta]

Started this playthrough to try dlcs but now i think i'll just go and finish game quickly. Fighting megabosses for 20+ minutes with broken sticks and bare fists is not exactly what i'm looking for.
Abydon can really go full retard sometimes. Won battle, repaired all equip, time to move on. Oh, some lone monster stuck in rubble. Ok, finish him off and THEN move on. Two more damaged weapons. Same weapons you just repaired 30 seconds ago.

Have you considered playing without Abydon?

 

[Reinhardt]

Maybe when tb mode will be released.

 

[FreeKaner]

Just got my galleon at lvl 11 lads, with 8 imperial long guns. Time to show deadfire pirates and corsairs who is the boss.

Aedyran Empire will rise again.

 

[Delterius]

Started this playthrough to try dlcs but now i think i'll just go and finish game quickly. Fighting megabosses for 20+ minutes with broken sticks and bare fists is not exactly what i'm looking for.
Abydon can really go full retard sometimes. Won battle, repaired all equip, time to move on. Oh, some lone monster stuck in rubble. Ok, finish him off and THEN move on. Two more damaged weapons. Same weapons you just repaired 30 seconds ago.

Have you considered playing without Abydon?

I actually wanted to go Abydon+Rymrgand+Skaen for MAXIMUM IMMERSION MODIFICATION, but Abydon feels more like busywork than just a money sink.

 

[AwesomeButton]

BTW can we talk about how this game's structure, just like the first one, makes running around really annoying? Maybe I'm misremembering though I did play BG2 fairly recently, but the reason you get so annoyed with loading screens in this game isn't that they're long (they're not really), it's that you have to enter and re-enter so many areas so many times - especially in Neketaka. I didn't feel like I had to do that much in Athkatla. How did you guys experience this?

I am pretty sure the small size of areas was a technical neccessity in order to avoid even longer loading times. The Infinity Engine areas didn't have to support huge resolutions of the ground texture. But best ask someone from Obsidian about that.

I am sad the areas are mostly small. It's detrimental to the feeling of exploration, you can't get lost in a PoE map like you could in BG2's starting dungeon or in some of IWD's dungeons.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Started this playthrough to try dlcs but now i think i'll just go and finish game quickly. Fighting megabosses for 20+ minutes with broken sticks and bare fists is not exactly what i'm looking for.
Abydon can really go full retard sometimes. Won battle, repaired all equip, time to move on. Oh, some lone monster stuck in rubble. Ok, finish him off and THEN move on. Two more damaged weapons. Same weapons you just repaired 30 seconds ago.

Just restart without challenges. And if you are in it for the story, which isn't bad is actually good in the two DLCs that have a story - then just go with Hard or Normal. The mobs are smaller and not buffed. Combat will be shorter. I think Hard with level scaling is the ideal difficulty for experienced players.

 

[Delterius]

Rymrgand+Skaen isn't even much of a bother, tbh. Its okay for immersiun.

 

[Reinhardt]

Just restart without challenges.

I have no problem with other enabled challenges - fog, animal buff, enemy ships, etc and potd. But Abydon is really tedious.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Just restart without challenges.

I have no problem with other enabled challenges - fog, animal buff, enemy ships, etc and potd. But Abydon is really tedious.

If you dislike prolonged battles and having to play on the lowest speed, pausing often, then PotD will be tedious. That's why I mentioned dropping he difficulty.

In general, I am not happy with how PoE provides higher difficulty. It's either buffs or increase of mobs' numbers. Tactics remain the same with the lauded exception "we allow them to use abilites on PotD which they won't use on other difficulties".

You will never see enemies dispersing when they see you casting an AoE spell. You will never see one enemy buffing another who will then use the duration of the buff to cast abilities which will use the buff's benefits. You will never see enemies trying to avoid getting tanked by your tank - they will always rush the tank and get locked in engagement, and never switch unless some backliner does heavy damage to them. What you get instead - we buff their defenses +15 and we buff their armor +2.

Thus playing on PotD doesn't reallly get more difficult as much as it gets more grindy. Your main tasks become to keep watch on your buffs' and healing AoE spells' durations, and to conserve soul power points so that you use your more damaging abilities while you are under the effects of buffs which will give you bonus accuracy or bonus might or bonus penetration to your hits. Conversely, if the enemy is buffed, wait out the buff and use default attacks during the buff's duration if you want to play it safe.

I don't know - is it a similar thing in Kingmaker, or does anyone actually play Kingmaker on harder than Normal, after all those bugs surfaced?

 

[Tigranes]

I basically only ever played POTD, so for those who have put substantial hours into various difficulty levels, is it really the case that you do the exact same thing on Hard as in POTD, just faster?

It just felt like with lower difficulties, it's too easy so there's no point doing things like stacking accuracy buffs to beat a particular defence, relying on graze status effects and timing your strikes around them, defending with paranoia against lagufaeth paralysis, or any number of other things. It feels like you might as well just stand there and lob fireballs.

I don't see POTD as some special added difficulty, I just see it as the normal way to play that requires you to engage with at least some of the available tactical options (which isn't necessarily to say that Deadfire has a gazillion of those or whatever). Similar to most other RPGs these days where Hardest or Hard is usually the only way to not be on stupid god mode.

But perhaps I'm wrong about Hard? Or maybe it's different if you go back down to Hard after learning the game, as opposed to starting with it?

 

[Lacrymas]

The system makes no sense at a lower difficulty than PotD. You don't engage with many of the mechanics, like accuracy or PEN. Penetration is still shitty, though. The AI is also terrible, it's nowhere near SCS, which makes the BG saga still the most interesting and satisfying RtwP combat.

 

[Anthedon]

I'm also in the midst of a PotD playthrough. What bugs me at the moment is that pure damage spells are pretty meh due to high enemy HP. And that casters with renewable resources seem to have a leg up (again, due to high enemy HP/combat length). Otherwise, I'm having good balanced fun. I didn't touch any of the DLC yet.

 

[Delterius]

Playing as a blood Wizard just shows how painfully shitty the other former vancians are by comparison. With 4 Grimoires you can debuff and target any enemy defense, cast the more interesting spells like Pull of Eora, buff your stats and protect yourself against enemy attacks in the blink of an eye and completely shutdown enemy attackers. You can do so many combinations, its great. Druids and Priests though are just sooo boooring.