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

[Desiderius]

The problem with slapping a 25% xp nerf across the board is that the tutorial island is freakishly brutal, especially if only using story companions. I've never managed to do Gorecci street with only the story companions f.e. After that, it doesn't matter all that much either way because it isn't the encounters the issue, it's the amount of tools the party has at their disposal. The same happened in PoE1. The best thing to do would be to stagger the xp nerf, start off at 25% when leaving the tutorial island and then progressively get bigger, but no such mod exists afaik. Even with that in mind, there's no way to fix post-lvl 10 levels of power, you have everything possible to deal with anything the game can throw at you. PoE's system breaks down at that point.

I think you can actually Sneak by the tough fights on Gorecci and Dig Site.

 

[Lacrymas]

You can, but why would you? Gorecci Street and the dig site are the best encounters in the whole game.

 

[Haplo]

what's a good rogue build? i'm reading multiclass is better. what would be an optimal build? sneaking and crits are important

Fighter / Rogue built for riposte is fun. Lots of passive damage - particularly good in Turn Based mode. Eder works well, although you can optimize it further with subclass choices.

Bloodmage / Assassin is kinda broken in TB mode. Though that is more of a caster build.

Rogue / Monk is great.

Dual blunderbuss rogue is also pretty great.

Depends on what you like, really. Lots of great, synergistic multiclass combinations in Deadfire.

 

[Lacrymas]

Priest/Rogue, duh.

 

[cretin]

You can, but why would you? Gorecci Street and the dig site are the best encounters in the whole game.

is this even true

 

[Lacrymas]

You can, but why would you? Gorecci Street and the dig site are the best encounters in the whole game.

is this even true

Unfortunately, yes. They are brutal on PotD with only story companions and nothing else comes even close after the tutorial island. Gorecci Street is tougher than the drake fight (even with Galawain's challenge on) because there's no way to cheese it or create chokepoints. I'd dare say both of these fights are some of the toughest encounters in RPG history.

 

[Haplo]

You can, but why would you? Gorecci Street and the dig site are the best encounters in the whole game.

is this even true

Yes, if your only criteria for quality is difficulty.

 

[ArchAngel]

They are brutal but boring fights. You know what else is brutal but boring? Running head first into a wall..

 

[Lacrymas]

How are they boring? They demand everything from you and for me challenging = engaging.

 

[Desiderius]

Pretty sure Gorecci Street at least sneaking is intended play. Infiltrating home base of the bad guys to turn the leader etc...

For Drake fight it seems like it's set up to take advantage of explosives but hard to make it work to your advantage unless I'm missing something.

 

[Haplo]

Would not call them exactly boring.
But the truth is that neither your party, nor the enemies have particularly rich tools / particularly interesting abilities or equipment at that point of the game.
Therefore at least for me, its not particularly exciting either. I do treat it as a kind of test, however.

Particularly the Digsite almost forces the use of certain narrow tactics, classes and/or cheese to suceed.

 

[Haplo]

For Drake fight it seems like it's set up to take advantage of explosives but hard to make it work to your advantage unless I'm missing something.

Its doable - but again, enforces the use of specific setup/skills.
Typically I do it with Swashbuckler Eder.

Spoiler

Park your party at the stairway chokepoint. Equip pistol + shield (with shield modal, I think). Sneak behind the barrel, reveal yourself so that mobs come, shoot the barrel with the pistol to ignite it. Use Escape to rejoin the party.

...but it does not auto-win the encounter either. It will only wound a couple mobs, hopefully including the Drake, but they will certainly remain a threat.

 

[Desiderius]

Encounters that are challenging because you don't have your abilities yet are kind of meh.

 

[Lacrymas]

You tend to get too many abilities at one point, though, which is the problem with the majority of RPGs. I like to work with limited tools because it forces me to use them in the best possible way. When I have 10 ways to deal with something, it tends to lose its bite.

 

[Desiderius]

I usually focus on 3 or 4 and making them better as the game goes on. Tutorial island you don’t even have that many yet, nor are they as good as they need to be to make them particularly relevant.

 

[ferratilis]

If I remember correctly, you can approach Gorreci Street from the north, which means you don't even have to sneak, since the gang leader is right in front of you and the quest can be resolved through conversation.

For the digsite, the encounter with the panthers, boars, and wyrms is unavoidable afaik. Although the encounters within the ruins themselves can all be avoided with stealth.

For those who want to fight, there's always the option of hiring a druid or chanter merc or some multiclass that can help you fight. I like druid with Charm Beast more.

 

[Lacrymas]

If I remember correctly, you can approach Gorreci Street from the north, which means you don't even have to sneak, since the gang leader is right in front of you and the quest can be resolved through conversation.

The tough Gorecci Street fight is the one before it, it's an open space with a well in the middle. The gang leader fight is considerably easier.

 

[ArchAngel]

If I remember correctly, you can approach Gorreci Street from the north, which means you don't even have to sneak, since the gang leader is right in front of you and the quest can be resolved through conversation.

The tough Gorecci Street fight is the one before it, it's an open space with a well in the middle. The gang leader fight is considerably easier.

I remember I beat that fight and got my ass handed to me by leader fight which I resolved with talking after a load of the save.

 

[Desiderius]

You can sneak to the leader to talk him out of fighting at all.

You can sneak into the digsite without fighting Drake et al.

 

[ferratilis]

You can sneak into the digsite without fighting Drake et al.

You're right, I misremembered. You can sneak into the digsite, however you can't free Aloth immediately without fighting the drake.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

What the hell mate, I'e already beaten those two fights on POTD on a number of runs, fuck yeah I'm going to use sneak trick to skip the whole thing.

 

[Sannom]

Pretty sure Gorecci Street at least sneaking is intended play. Infiltrating home base of the bad guys to turn the leader etc...

For Drake fight it seems like it's set up to take advantage of explosives but hard to make it work to your advantage unless I'm missing something.

Having just finished that fight on PotD with a ranger PC, Eder and Xoti, the best use of the barrel I found was to get south of it in stealth, ignite it with a pistol and using my second pistol to damage the wurm that's close to it. This tends to ensure that this specific wurm dies when the barrel explodes and the other one is severely wounded. Then my ranger booked it toward the big ramp with the mobs in tow and the rest of the party left their spot at the top of the smaller ramp and killed the remaining wurm who was straggling behind the other enemies with ranged weapons. After that they went back to the bottom of the small ramp and waited for my ranger to circle the arena and bring about the rest of the creatures (I had traps on the ramp also). After that it was a matter of whittling their health and keeping that of Eder as high as possible. He died when only the drake and a panther remained, so I kitted those with Xoti and my PC.

 

[pomenitul]

Been gone for a couple of years and not only is this thread still regularly updated, y'all are talking about Gorecci Street like it's May 2018. Long tail indeed.

Carry on.

 

[Desiderius]

Tutorial island is like its own little mini-game.

Doubt I could name three other locations at this point.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm sure Sawyer is ecstatic about the fact the only encounters anyone ever talks about are the dig site and Gorecci Street.