Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Maculo]

Paladins are good supports, but if you really want to drive two wizards through the roof, a priest is probably better. Devotions for the faithful is a whopping +20 spell (and melee) accuracy for a pretty long duration and +12% damage. Champions boon is a 30% damage boost & +10 base accuracy (from perception, so it stacks with devotions). Alternatively, crowns of the faithful is +30% duration on summoned weapons/buffs/debuffs, +6 accuracy, +25 deflection (and +62 will save)--good for the melee-focused wizard. Dire blessing is slightly better than merciless gaze, if you can cast it on both wizards. It does require more micromanaging and set-up than two paladins, though.

Unfortunately self-defense causes the chasing. I don't know of a way around it except to turn it off.

I maxed intelligence and dexterity on my Priest in anticipation of these buffs. With avatar active, it should be easy to chain cast buffs. I am excited to see how this party will handle Concelhaut and the harder bounty missions.

Also I figured self-defense was the cause, but I am worried of characters like Eder sitting idle at times.

 

[vortex]

I like balances in this beta patch. I have better fun with rogue now than before.

 

[Lady_Error]

Got the White March and started again with a Ranger after playing it a year ago last time. I have no idea why I didn't use ranged weapons much more from the beginning before. Also, with the animal companion you basically get an extra party member who can be buffed up.

 

[Prime Junta]

Got the White March and started again with a Ranger after playing it a year ago last time. I have no idea why I didn't use ranged weapons much more from the beginning before. Also, with the animal companion you basically get an extra party member who can be buffed up.

One of my favourite parties had three rangers, two paladins, and a druid. Low-micro, low-rest, and very very powerful. Pets up front, second line is paladin + defensively built druid + paladin, third line rangers with arbalests. Paladins have Zealous Charge and Zealous Focus. Equip the paladins + druid with reach weapons and they can stab over the animals, too.

In an open area you can run and gun; to hold a position, paladins Lay On Hands on the animals; once they're down there's usually not much mopping-up left. And if things really get tough, let the druid off the leash. With Swift Aim and the various accuracy buffs you get, the rangers will be inflicting a lot of Prone On Crits as well. Arbalests have massive damage so also good against armoured foes.

 

[Lady_Error]

I went murdering through Raedric's Keep and for some reason it's really boring. I guess the infiltration I did last time was more engaging.

Also, the priest and mage spells in the beginning are pretty tame and get used up too quickly anyway. If it wasn't for them handling ranged weapons, there would be no point in having Durance and Aloth in the party at all. Is there some experience bonus for letting their stories unfold?

Also, fuck Sawyer for giving experience for only up to 4 enemies of the same type.

 

[DosBuster]

I was thinking about how PoE's opening went off, and holy shit, the game's first area is fucking terrible from a narrative standpoint. Within seconds of starting the game all of these new terms you've never heard of before are being thrown at you like it's common knowledge.

 

[Doma]

 

[Roguey]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87762-302-303-missing-audio-in-ending-slides/#entry1823104

Hey,

I brought this up a little too late to get it into the 3.03 patch. Hopefully we can get a fix in for a future patch.

Sorry guys/gals

-Sking

future patch

At least this means 3.03 will likely drop next week and I'll have a Chris Avellone novella to read.

 

[Drudkh]

lol, that GDC presentation is just another example of how Josh really is perceptive about fan feedback and hearing out consumers more than any other game director i can think of. Even to the point of spending time making a whole argument/case against an obscure thoughtless fan mod. I wonder if the GDC audience was supposed to know the inside joke around these parts about him hating fun. He seems truly hurt, you folks around here should really chill out on this guy

 

[Mastermind]

I went murdering through Raedric's Keep and for some reason it's really boring. I guess the infiltration I did last time was more engaging.

Also, the priest and mage spells in the beginning are pretty tame and get used up too quickly anyway. If it wasn't for them handling ranged weapons, there would be no point in having Durance and Aloth in the party at all. Is there some experience bonus for letting their stories unfold?

Also, fuck Sawyer for giving experience for only up to 4 enemies of the same type.

fan of flames is (or was, it probably got nerfed since I last played a wizard) one of the best spells in the game. with enough int you can wreck the enemy party without even having to position your wizard on the flanks or the front line to avoid hitting your party members.

 

[Lady_Error]

If it was that good, it got probably downgraded in one of the updates. #Sawyerism

 

[Excidium II]

And it was.

 

[Prime Junta]

Ehh Fan of Flames is okay, especially against enemies with low Reflex or fire vulnerability. Early-game though, Chill Fog and Concelhaut's Staff are where it's at. Slicken remains good through the endgame. There were other good spells listed earlier in this thread.

Generally speaking, the wizard's direct-damage spells are nothing all that special, CC, debuffs, and gish is where it's at. Only hit them with a DD spell if you know they have low defence against whatever it's targeting (naturally or because you've debuffed it).

 

[Dwarvophile]

Anybody knows if the gloves of swift action diminish reloading time for firearms ?

Also, is there a basic way to figure out the attack speed of my char and companions based on their weapon and modified by their dexterity and recovery time for each weapons in the inventory screen ? Actually how can I figure it out at all ?


Not sure if it's the hangover but some of this game's feature suddenly feels totally counterintuitive to me. Eg the weapon's speed : what kind of number is 20% of "average" ?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Also, is there a basic way to figure out the attack speed of my char and companions based on their weapon and modified by their dexterity and recovery time for each weapons in the inventory screen ? Actually how can I figure it out at all ?

Flawless Baldur's Gate-and-everything-thats-best spiritual successors don't need to communicate their mechanics to the player.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/139917836751/hi-josh-how-are-actionrecovery-speeds-currently

marmot01 asked: Hi Josh! How are action/recovery speeds currently calculated in PoE? I know there was a diagram you posted a couple of years ago, but I don't know how relevant it still is. Also, what do the keywords for weapon speeds like "Slow", "Fast", "Extremely Slow" mean? Thanks!

It’s complicated and unfortunately obfuscated in the game. The basis of all action and recovery times is the animation. Dexterity and action speed modifiers can affect how quickly the animation plays.

Recovery time is usually the (modified) animation time multiplied by a constant (I think we settled on 1.2). However, this value can also be multiplied by a variety of factors – typically armor recovery penalty and if you’re using a one-handed weapon alone or with a shield.

In the future, we really want to display these times much more clearly so players can make sense of them without having to theorize.

 

[Dwarvophile]

marmot01 asked: Hi Josh! How are action/recovery speeds currently calculated in PoE? I know there was a diagram you posted a couple of years ago, but I don't know how relevant it still is. Also, what do the keywords for weapon speeds like "Slow", "Fast", "Extremely Slow" mean? Thanks!

It’s complicated and unfortunately obfuscated in the game. The basis of all action and recovery times is the animation. Dexterity and action speed modifiers can affect how quickly the animation plays.

Recovery time is usually the (modified) animation time multiplied by a constant (I think we settled on 1.2). However, this value can also be multiplied by a variety of factors – typically armor recovery penalty and if you’re using a one-handed weapon alone or with a shield.

In the future, we really want to display these times much more clearly so players can make sense of them without having to theorize.

Bye Josh!

Damn!

Ok, so from the little I gather action speed modifiers won't modify recovery time, just the attack animation. Maybe I can also deduce from it that action speed doesn't modify reloading time too. Still, damn! Animation meinen arsch.

 

[Chateaubryan]

Even versus fighting games don't get that many balance updates.

 

[Sensuki]

Even to the point of spending time making a whole argument/case against an obscure thoughtless fan mod

what fan mod?

 

[Roguey]

what fan mod?

The one that makes Pallegina a pure healing tank who can't do anything beyond that.

 

[Sensuki]

lol

 

[Ninjerk]

He made an argument against it? I remember him showing the side by side comparison of the stat sheets and he sounding butthurt that someone wanted to specialize their character.

 

[Roguey]

He made an argument against it? I remember him showing the side by side comparison of the stat sheets and he sounding butthurt that someone wanted to specialize their character.

That's what the adventurer's hall is for.

As far as he's concerned it's your game and you can do what you want but it's not "better/improved" because companion stats were designed to be flexible (rather than being good at only a specific role) and Pallegina's high perception is the result of her being birdlike and noted in dialogues.

 

[Prime Junta]

There was a lot of bitching about the "shit stats" the companions have, mostly from players who had an extremely narrow idea of what "the best" build for each class was.

It quieted down somewhat after a while though, when creative, offbeat, yet extremely powerful builds started showing up. A lot of the credit for that goes to a couple of highly prolific guys, notably Boeroer. There's really scope for a lot of variety in power builds in the game, and since the companions are always a level (or more) ahead of Adventurer's Hall hirelings and have other advantages as well (like quests which grant XP), they're quite viable bases for many of them, even if the stats are sub-optimal for any particular build.

 

[Immortal]

There was a lot of bitching about the "shit stats" the companions have, mostly from players who had an extremely narrow idea of what "the best" build for each class was.

It quieted down somewhat after a while though, when creative, offbeat, yet extremely powerful builds started showing up. A lot of the credit for that goes to a couple of highly prolific guys, notably Boeroer. There's really scope for a lot of variety in power builds in the game, and since the companions are always a level (or more) ahead of Adventurer's Hall hirelings and have other advantages as well (like quests which grant XP), they're quite viable bases for many of them, even if the stats are sub-optimal for any particular build.

This is what fanboys actually believe.. That this game has "depth" and "unique builds".

You can steam roll POTD with pretty much whatever the fuck build you want. It's all equally boring balanced.

 

[Ninjerk]