Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[AwesomeButton]

There are always more optimal ways to play games. Do you never play without a priest? If so you're missing out

My last, and unfinished PoE playthrough was with a party of four, and I think was without a priest. I have to go digging in my posts in this thread to find what the party was.

 

[Shadenuat]

Would be easier if Priest wasn't the best written companion in the game

 

[Tigranes]

Barb's shtick is only Carnage and transfering the on-hit/crit properties.

Barb in PoE1 is perfect for fighting big crowds, not good as single target damage dealer like Rogue

That's where the whole pointlessness of the class becomes evident. The moment he gets surrounded to "fight a crowd" he gets KO'd.

The Barbarian is a class which starts with the second lowest deflection (15) and the second lowest accuracy (25). It is expected to prioritize Might, Constitution, Dexterity and Intellect at the same time. There are more gaps here than you can fill with attribute points. It's a seriously underbaked concept of a class IMO. You can hardly benefit from Carnage because it's not durable. The high health pool cannot compensate for the low defense stat in the way it compensates for a fighter.

Edit: Sure, like everything else in this [insert adjective] game, it's not unplayable. You can make it through the game, you can build him in a way that makes you feel some kind of progression. Yet there are simply more optimal, less micro-intensive ways to achieve the same effect. Tank with a fighter - hit with a wizard.

But if you insist to bang your head with a barbarian who "tanks" and deals piss-low damage for a couple of rounds before he most probably falls, because that's how you want to "express your character" as Josh imagines it, then that's you.

This is just patently not the case. POE1 Barbarian is a perfectly fine class, just not one of the "strongest" classes especially when theorycrafting the best builds. But it's not some retarded broken class, it's perfectly competent, has a distinct role/skillset, and can be very fun to play. I've had great fun with solo POTD barb, which is obviously not durable in a way a Paladin is, but the whole time you are definitely relying on Carnage and other Barb unique skills to build your play. You're not sitting there forcing the Barb to be a shittier Fighter just to survive.

Arguing that you found barbs unfun or that they should be made stronger / adjusted is a reasonably debatable point, but the idea that the whole class is pointless/underbaked/cannot be played as intended is false.

(And then we have the Deadfire Barbarian, who is pretty similar but especially with multiclass & the itemisation become a raging vortex of debuff/crit procs exploding enemies as he touches them)

 

[Shadenuat]

Maneha heart of furehing things with Pwnhammer felt p strong to me.

 

[Grunker]

There are always more optimal ways to play games. Do you never play without a priest? If so you're missing out

My last, and unfinished PoE playthrough was with a party of four, and I think was without a priest. I have to go digging in my posts in this thread to find what the party was.

Well then you're acquainted with playing suboptimally

 

[CyberWhale]

>every class in poe plays exactly the same
>barb is a shit class because he isn't like the other classes

 

[Prime Junta]

Maneha heart of furehing things with Pwnhammer felt p strong to me.

Maneha with Spelltongue was last one standing against Concelhaut (when I went into the encounter for the first time, blind). Won, too, wasn't even close.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I took companions based on character interest, largely because MC being a Cipher + psychic midwife wrecked haus. Especially with that stupid and gimmicky spell Ectopsychic Echo (looked up the name). Just have them cast it on each other and sprint them in circles around the battle. Like mowing a lawn.

 

[Efe]

considering they make a beeline for casters, i doubt that tactics usefulness.

 

[Shadenuat]

Maneha heart of furehing things with Pwnhammer felt p strong to me.

Maneha with Spelltongue was last one standing against Concelhaut (when I went into the encounter for the first time, blind). Won, too, wasn't even close.

Funny enough they changed her stats in 3.0
Heck, Sagani got changed twice, first early then also after 3.0. I didn't know that.

 

[JDR13]

Anyone here try a Druid as your MC? What was your experience?

 

[Efe]

he was quite an animal

 

[chuft]

I took companions based on character interest, largely because MC being a Cipher + psychic midwife wrecked haus. Especially with that stupid and gimmicky spell Ectopsychic Echo (looked up the name). Just have them cast it on each other and sprint them in circles around the battle. Like mowing a lawn.

How do you sprint around anything with Engagement?

 

[Roguey]

I had loads of fun with my barbarian and tall grass.

 

[Quillon]

Deadfire lacks "prone on crit" weps sadly...

 

[JDR13]

Ok, so I'm definitely going Druid. Anything I should pay partiicular attention to during character creation?

Also, how would you guys rank the 5 skills in order of importance? I want my Druid to be decent in melee, so should I put points into Athletics to boost Second Wind?

 

[Rivmusique]

Okay guys just me again here, I'm at the point where I've entered my first town. Any advice as to which NPC I should talk to first and in what order? Which points of the ground should I be clicking on to place my character within line of sight of someone I want to talk to? I've talked to a few people already and what I've been doing is reading the text at the bottom from left to right, up to down, seems to be working out so far but is that what I should be doing? Cheers everyone.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This is just patently not the case. POE1 Barbarian is a perfectly fine class, just not one of the "strongest" classes especially when theorycrafting the best builds. But it's not some retarded broken class, it's perfectly competent, has a distinct role/skillset, and can be very fun to play. I've had great fun with solo POTD barb, which is obviously not durable in a way a Paladin is, but the whole time you are definitely relying on Carnage and other Barb unique skills to build your play. You're not sitting there forcing the Barb to be a shittier Fighter just to survive.

Arguing that you found barbs unfun or that they should be made stronger / adjusted is a reasonably debatable point, but the idea that the whole class is pointless/underbaked/cannot be played as intended is false.

(And then we have the Deadfire Barbarian, who is pretty similar but especially with multiclass & the itemisation become a raging vortex of debuff/crit procs exploding enemies as he touches them)

You give him facts, he answers "Well, that's not true", and goes on to reply what his opinion is. 'k

Well then you're acquainted with playing suboptimally

I needed some more challenge, but having a party member who spends most of the combat in knocked out state is pointles, I'd rather not have him at all.

With four people on PotD you need to maximize their usrfullness, which makes picking a class like Barbarian counterproductive. In a sense I wasn't gimping myself so much as evening the odds, because as I've explained, PoE can only be difficult in a dumb way.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Okay guys just me again here, I'm at the point where I've entered my first town. Any advice as to which NPC I should talk to first and in what order? Which points of the ground should I be clicking on to place my character within line of sight of someone I want to talk to? I've talked to a few people already and what I've been doing is reading the text at the bottom from left to right, up to down, seems to be working out so far but is that what I should be doing? Cheers everyone.

Might wanna give a try at reading top to bottom
Report back and let us know how it goes

 

[Grunker]

I needed some more challenge, but having a party member who spends most of the combat in knocked out state is pointles.

We know you're better than me since presumably you did not have as hard a time as me beating Llengrath, and since my barbarians never, ever "spend most of their combat time in knocked state", we can surmise that you are not just exaggerating here but misrepresenting the facts.

 

[Grunker]

Ok, so I'm definitely going Druid. Anything I should pay partiicular attention to during character creation?

Also, how would you guys rank the 5 skills in order of importance? I want my Druid to be decent in melee, so should I put points into Athletics to boost Second Wind?

For skills, make sure to have 1 character with maxed Mechanics. Beyond that, usually most people go for Survival flanking bonus on damage dealers, and a little bit of Stealth is useful on everyone (though I don't use it, because I dislike the playstyle).

Lore is the most OP since it allows you to break class restrictions and make everyone a glorious caster. Again, I don't use it since it reduces class diversity and makes the game significantly easier, but it is the optimal way to play.

In my mind, Athletics is not that great because the time it takes using it is usually better spent doing something else. If you go Athletics, it needs to be maxed.

 

[Lacrymas]

It doesn't need to be maxed, it has to be enough to save you and put you into a good position Endurance-wise.

RE: Barbs - a boring class that can be made overpowered is still a boring class.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I needed some more challenge, but having a party member who spends most of the combat in knocked out state is pointles.

We know you're better than me since presumably you did not have as hard a time as me beating Llengrath, and since my barbarians never, ever "spend most of their combat time in knocked state", we can surmise that you are not just exaggerating here but misrepresenting the facts.

Honestly, I've never taken a barbarian for so long into the game. The one I made just kept dying in every combat during the first chapter, and I never continued. Meneha annoyed me too much with her writing and voiceacting.

 

[Roguey]

My non-tall grass go-to was one of those weapons that converted a % of damage to endurance. A barbarian can stay up for a long time with that kind of thing.

 

[JDR13]

Ok, so I'm definitely going Druid. Anything I should pay partiicular attention to during character creation?

Also, how would you guys rank the 5 skills in order of importance? I want my Druid to be decent in melee, so should I put points into Athletics to boost Second Wind?

For skills, make sure to have 1 character with maxed Mechanics. Beyond that, usually most people go for Survival flanking bonus on damage dealers, and a little bit of Stealth is useful on everyone (though I don't use it, because I dislike the playstyle).

Lore is the most OP since it allows you to break class restrictions and make everyone a glorious caster. Again, I don't use it since it reduces class diversity and makes the game significantly easier, but it is the optimal way to play.

In my mind, Athletics is not that great because the time it takes using it is usually better spent doing something else. If you go Athletics, it needs to be maxed.

I plan on keeping most of my party in traditional roles. I'm not going to have fighters and barbarians casting spells. Outside of using scrolls, am I correct in that Lore is basically useless for companions?
Skills in PoE 1 seem pretty straightforward. I'm guessing the choices are a lot tougher in Deadfire with the expanded skill syustem.

Attributes is what really has me agonizing over choices. None of the stats seem dumpable, and no one seems to agree what's more important for any given class.