Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[IHaveHugeNick]

Druid-like are generally the hardest fights among the trashmobs. Lots of annoying AOE that fucks your squishies and summons make it hard to take out priority targets quickly.

 

[Lacrymas]

The OP spells you use against the mobs turn out to be OP when used against you as well, surprise, surprise.

 

[Lacrymas]

Beat the tough Fampyr fight, with only 1 knocked out char even. It was pretty intense with 4-5 reloads. I had to split my team up and position them properly, kill the wizards with the initial attack and then micro the fuck out of the priests to be able to control the battlefield. The paladin is a mountain of a tank, unless she gets paralyzed she just won't go down, which is great. The bear companion was key, it held the bridge marvelously while my ranger and cipher were raining down death and afflictions.

What I liked about this is if you've learned Engwithan from Incantha you can actually speak with the lead fampyr and avoid a fight altogether. I didn't want to, because I won't deprive myself from a good fight, lots of xp and a pretty great armor, but it was a nice bit of C&C.

 

[Prime Junta]

He's a dick. Also the very definition of the oppressor, how could a priest of Skaen not want to painfully murder him?

 

[Parabalus]

If you can't kill the Adragans etc. quickly enough just charm/dominate them, then they mass stun their friends since they keep the buff from the storm. Works wonders against chanters too.

 

[Prime Junta]

BTW Lacrymas, I think you may be getting both the best and the worst of having a slightly offbeat party (two priests, no wizard). Some fights are a lot easier, others somewhat harder. I do rely on my wizard's crowd control a quite a lot, and no other class does that quite as well.

 

[fobia]

How do you play your Skaen Priest Lacrymas?
Is he pure support or do you use the Skaen specific talents for melee? Dual wielding stilettos?

 

[Iznaliu]

The problem is the adragans casting Lightning Storm or whatever the name was, the one which stuns you constantly. I don't have the prayer against stuns yet.

This is a good spell in player hands. The winning strategy is to stun them before they can stun you.

 

[Lacrymas]

Prime Junta, maybe, but I find the cipher's CC quite good up to now. I can switch out Durance for a wizard, but I want him in the party, at least up to the conclusion of his storyline, so that won't happen soon :p I also like buffs going out faster.

fobia, dual-wielding stilettos. I was intrigued by the priest/rogue multiclass-like build and wanted to see if it's viable. It requires a lot of micro to get the most of, especially if you only wear plain clothing, but it's great. I have Azureith's Stiletto +
Exceptional Stiletto in my first weapon set and Misery's End + Dîal Ewn Dibita in my second, going to go for Azureith's + Superb Stiletto in the first weapon set and Misery's End + Bleak Fang in the second. This gear set shamefully stolen from Boeroer, but the build itself isn't. You want to begin with Azureith's to trigger Jolting Touch, then switch to the other set.

 

[Jason Liang]

Prime Junta, maybe, but I find the cipher's CC quite good up to now. I can switch out Durance for a wizard, but I want him in the party, at least up to the conclusion of his storyline, so that's won't happen soon :p I also like buffs going out faster.

fobia, dual-wielding stilettos. I was intrigued by the priest/rogue multiclass-like build and wanted to see if it's viable. It requires a lot of micro to get the most of, especially if you only wear plain clothing, but it's great. I have Azureith's Stiletto +
Exceptional Stiletto in my first weapon set and Misery's End + Dîal Ewn Dibita in my second, going to go for Azureith's + Superb Stiletto in the first weapon set and Misery's End + Bleak Fang in the second. This gear set shamefully stolen from Boeroer, but the build itself isn't. You want to begin with Azureith's to trigger Jolting Touch, then switch to the other set.

No need to apologize, stilettos are OP. For melee anyway.

 

[AwesomeButton]

What I liked about this is if you've learned Engwithan from Incantha

What is the requirement to have her teach you Engwithan?

 

[Prime Junta]

What I liked about this is if you've learned Engwithan from Incantha

What is the requirement to have her teach you Engwithan?

What's the requirement to not have her teach you Engwithan? Serious question, I didn't even know that would be an option.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's part of the main storyline, you can't miss it. At least I think so, I don't know if you can complete the quest without learning Engwithan. Maybe turning the dial randomly?

 

[Parabalus]

What's the requirement to not have her teach you Engwithan? Serious question, I didn't even know that would be an option.

Her dialogue I really disliked, since you can convince her to teach you, but if you fail you just use Watcher-fu and force her to do it. Could have tied a talent to it with something benign like +1 Lore at least.

It's part of the main storyline, you can't miss it. At least I think so, I don't know if you can complete the quest without learning Engwithan. Maybe turning the dial randomly?

Psure she HAS to teach you since, IIRC, you can't get past the final dungeon level in Caed Nua without knowing Engwithan, got stuck there on my first run.

Pallegina has unoptimised stats but her attack speed boost for the party is very strong, also unique to her.

She's one of the better party members IMHO, since paladins have so many talents which buff party members she doesn't have to do much herself. I also like her Wrath of the Five Suns, it's a per encounter 100 damage ability very early.

Prime Junta, maybe, but I find the cipher's CC quite good up to now. I can switch out Durance for a wizard, but I want him in the party, at least up to the conclusion of his storyline, so that won't happen soon :p I also like buffs going out faster.

I think Junta is wrong here, Ciphers' have better CC imho. At low levels they can spam them per encounter much more than wizards and at higher (reaping knives) you have unlimited focus and chain cast like wizards, except cipher powers are fast compared to the wizards average/slow.

 

[pomenitul]

Psure she HAS to teach you since, IIRC, you can't get past the final dungeon level in Caed Nua without knowing Engwithan, got stuck there on my first run.

Except that's not part of the crit path. 'Undying Heritage' is, however, and all three resolutions involve learning Engwithan:

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Undying_Heritage

Spoiler

30000 ✓ I learned that the Engwithan machines across the Dyrwood can be used to move souls. I also learned Engwithan, which means I can now operate them. I turned the machine atop Teir Nowneth off, which means that the souls in Heritage Hill can be returned to the cycle.

30001 ✓ I learned that the Engwithan machines across the Dyrwood can be used to move souls. I also learned Engwithan, which means I can now operate them. To prevent the machine from ever being used again, I sacrificed the trapped souls of Heritage Hill to destroy the machine.

30002 ✓ I learned that the Engwithan machines across the Dyrwood can be used to move souls. I also learned Engwithan, which means I can now operate them. I used this machine to absorb the power of the souls stuck in Heritage Hill.

Not to mention the 'deus ex machina' at the end of the game cannot be operated without knowledge of Engwithan.

 

[Parabalus]

Except that's not part of the crit path. 'Undying Heritage' is, however, and all three resolutions involve learning Engwithan:

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Undying_Heritage

Spoiler

Not to mention the 'deus ex machina' at the end of the game cannot be operated without knowledge of Engwithan.

Do you think they would lock you out of the final level of the mega-dungeon because of a decision in an unrelated main quest? It not being part of the crit path is even more of a reason why she has to teach you Engwithan.

 

[almondblight]

I fucking hate that RPGs force you to choose between competent builds (create your own party) or content (use NPCs) like this. Why can't we have both? Asked Josh about it regarding Deadfire but he hasn't responded yet.

I wouldn't call the NPCs incompetent. You can play with only companion NPCs on PotD for your first play through and steamroll 90% of the fights without much effort. Haven't played with hirelings, but if they're even better you're probably going to lose most of the challenge.

 

[Jason Liang]

The ingame companions having unoptimized attributes makes very little difference since attributes make very little difference in this system. And some of them have unique abilities like Pallagina and Haerdalis.

Also did you at least loot Eber's armor off of him? Since its good armor.

 

[Quillon]

If they allow attribute reset(why the fuck haven't they already?) then custom party guys will still not be fully satisfied; they'd want another race+class combination for companions for better synergy or something. Other than that they are already opening up more customization with 2 classes for most of the companions.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'd be happy with attribute resets. There are very few racials that are worth picking up (Hearth Orlan and Moon-like basically, with some extreme cases of human or Fire-like (barbarian built around falling in combat)), so whatever. It's not true that attributes make little difference. Yeah, some of them are borderline useless, like constitution (con is almost useless even for tanks, best left at 10) and resolve (same thing), but otherwise they give meaty bonuses.

 

[almondblight]

I wouldn't say attributes were useless. I made a glass cannon Wizard for my main, and they both hit a lot harder and died a lot sooner than Aloth.

 

[ilitarist]

I wouldn't call the NPCs incompetent. You can play with only companion NPCs on PotD for your first play through and steamroll 90% of the fights without much effort. Haven't played with hirelings, but if they're even better you're probably going to lose most of the challenge.

I did exactly that. I had to reset some companions, mostly when I discovered that soulbound weapon is made for a specific character so his perks should be reconfigured for another type of weapon. But I didn't kill those 2 dragons in a bog, talked my way out of it. Doubt I needed some special team for that. Maybe if I'd wanted some cheese.

IIRC I was a Cypher and I used Eder, Durance, Kana, Sagani (later Devil) and Aloth. Plan to have a playthrough where I at last use Pallegina and that druid guy. And Monk. And I'll probably be a barbarian cause, as I understand, it's the only class I had no opportunity of checking out.

 

[Lacrymas]

Lol @ level 10 of Od Nua. 2 Adragans, 3 Caen Gwlas and a bunch of spectres. I'm perma AoE CC'd, guess it's finally time for White March.

 

[ilitarist]

Where are you in the main story?

 

[Lacrymas]

Nevermind, I did it. I just bullrushed the adraganas. I'm at the Dyrford investigation.