Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[ferratilis]

Are you supposed to play WM2 only after completing act 2 and most companion quests? I decided to complete both WM1 and 2 before doing Lady Webb and the riots, and during the ending for WM2 where you have a debate about Abydon with the Eyeless, the assassination of the duc is mentioned, even though it still didn't even happen in my playthrough. Also, the only companion quest I finished at that point was Kana's, so there was one slide about that. Apparently, you have to give some valid arguments to the Eyeless about Abydon to get a specific ending, based on your previous decisions and companion quests, but in my case the only option was to tell them to fuck off, and that was the end. Not sure whether I played it wrong or it was an oversight by Obsidian. Also, during some of those slides, there was a bug where it said *NameError* instead of my character's name. A lame ending to an otherwise great expansion. Not gonna lie, it soured the experience a bit. Also, splitting it into two parts was the dumbest idea they could've made.

 

[the mole]

anyone beat this on path of the damned with story characters

what did you use

 

[Lacrymas]

anyone beat this on path of the damned with story characters

what did you use

If you are new to PotD, Durance is 100% a must. Everything else is up to you.

 

[Haplo]

Always.

Eder always Swashbuckler;
Pallegina always Herald;
Aloth pure wizard; when I didn't use Aloth, I've used Fassina as Sorcerer (really nice support mage when my main was a Blood Mage);
Xoti/Vatinr pure priests;
Maia Scout.

I've also briefly used Mirke as Shadowdancer.

Edit: Oh damn, wrong topic. Anyway, PotD too:
Eder
Durance
Aloth
Sagani
Hiravias

 

[Lacrymas]

Haplo this is PoE1

 

[Parabalus]

anyone beat this on path of the damned with story characters

what did you use

Rule of thumb is that the more Vancian casters you have the easier it is.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Yeah, from my exp the easiest route is to have holy trio of wizard/priest/cipher (Durance has some wonky stats, but is doesn't matter anyway) - you can CC the shit out of everything all day

 

[Haplo]

Sagani is also excellent - due to 2 characters in one.

Having both a ranged striker AND a backline guardian/flanker in one character slot is really great.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'd say it really doesn't matter outside of Durance.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Agree, the only necessary char for first POtD run is Priest - everyone else is just east-of-use feature.

 

[the mole]

Always.

Eder always Swashbuckler;
Pallegina always Herald;
Aloth pure wizard; when I didn't use Aloth, I've used Fassina as Sorcerer (really nice support mage when my main was a Blood Mage);
Xoti/Vatinr pure priests;
Maia Scout.

I've also briefly used Mirke as Shadowdancer.

Edit: Oh damn, wrong topic. Anyway, PotD too:
Eder
Durance
Aloth
Sagani
Hiravias

that party is squish, no?

I'm on veteran and I'm kind of emulating the defenses and accuracy max theory, less focus on crowd control but still have some, my problem is that party was working pretty good but I want to add devil of caroc for roleplaying but I'm discovering that maybe I'll have to respec her and change the entire party structure, ie need a cipher or wizard now to build around sneak attacks because the default path they put her on isn't really worth anything

I'm a 2 handed backline barb, with gallant focus, and a lot of passives
then eder, palle, durance, kana, sagani

 

[Haplo]

Well, Eder is very durable, Sagani brings an offtank with her and I played a Barbarian keeping the frontlines busy (and often mass-prone) + creating a lot of aoe healing from his moon special and Consecrated Ground sandals. That was generally enough.

Except when I played a cipher. That was fun too.
When you play a caster, might be worth including another more durable character, such as Pallegina or Kana.

 

[the mole]

Well, Eder is very durable, Sagani brings an offtank with her and I played a Barbarian keeping the frontlines busy (and often mass-prone) + creating a lot of aoe healing from his moon special and Consecrated Ground sandals. That was generally enough.

Except when I played a cipher. That was fun too.
When you play a caster, might be worth including another more durable character, such as Pallegina or Kana.

do carnage crits prone people with tall grass

I don't even remember where to buy it might have to make the rounds again because I know I saw it in previous playthroughs

 

[Parabalus]

Well, Eder is very durable, Sagani brings an offtank with her and I played a Barbarian keeping the frontlines busy (and often mass-prone) + creating a lot of aoe healing from his moon special and Consecrated Ground sandals. That was generally enough.

Except when I played a cipher. That was fun too.
When you play a caster, might be worth including another more durable character, such as Pallegina or Kana.

do carnage crits prone people with tall grass

I don't even remember where to buy it might have to make the rounds again because I know I saw it in previous playthroughs

Dyrford smith, and they do, that's why it's so good.

 

[Haplo]

Well, Eder is very durable, Sagani brings an offtank with her and I played a Barbarian keeping the frontlines busy (and often mass-prone) + creating a lot of aoe healing from his moon special and Consecrated Ground sandals. That was generally enough.

Except when I played a cipher. That was fun too.
When you play a caster, might be worth including another more durable character, such as Pallegina or Kana.

do carnage crits prone people with tall grass

I don't even remember where to buy it might have to make the rounds again because I know I saw it in previous playthroughs

Dyrford smith, and they do, that's why it's so good.

Agreed. Although its the "safe" choice with its reach.
Personally I prefer Hours of St. Rumbaldt greatsword (has Overbearing as well), with its Annihilation property (+50% Crit damage).

 

[Parabalus]

Well, Eder is very durable, Sagani brings an offtank with her and I played a Barbarian keeping the frontlines busy (and often mass-prone) + creating a lot of aoe healing from his moon special and Consecrated Ground sandals. That was generally enough.

Except when I played a cipher. That was fun too.
When you play a caster, might be worth including another more durable character, such as Pallegina or Kana.

do carnage crits prone people with tall grass

I don't even remember where to buy it might have to make the rounds again because I know I saw it in previous playthroughs

Dyrford smith, and they do, that's why it's so good.

Agreed. Although its the "safe" choice with its reach.
Personally I prefer Hours of St. Rumbaldt greatsword (has Overbearing as well), with its Annihilation property (+50% Crit damage).

Reach isn't just safety though, often it lets you target the middle of a formation (e.g. doorway bottlenecks) and hit several enemies more.

Conveniently GS and Pikes share the same weapon focus so you can use the appropriate one, even useable with Firebrand.

 

[almondblight]

The only Vancian I'm playing with now is Aloth and it's going pretty well. Durance felt like dead weight a lot of the time (problem with a lot of Vancian casters). If it's not a major battle (where I'm throwing everything at the enemy), he didn't have much to do.

 

[Haplo]

The only Vancian I'm playing with now is Aloth and it's going pretty well. Durance felt like dead weight a lot of the time (problem with a lot of Vancian casters). If it's not a major battle (where I'm throwing everything at the enemy), he didn't have much to do.

In PoE1 priests had strong non-spell per encounter abilities (that could be further boosted with feats).
Painful Interdiction crippled enemy defenses, particularly Fortitude. Particularly good to land some spells, like Disintegrate or take advantage of Barbarian Brute Force (target Fortitude instead of Deflection if lower) - and crit non-stop.
Inspiring Radiance is not only a nice and cheap aoe heal, but also briefly boosts Accuracy by a stackable +10.

And of course, the main reason to always have a Priest along, is Devotions of the Faithful: +20 Accuracy to allies, -20 Accuracy to enemies (and -10 Might). That's rather huge, as with one spell you massively swing the offense equations in your favor. Eventually it can be used on a per encounter basis.
Another spell that can be eventually used per encounter and is of great help would be Consecrated Ground for sustenance.

Higher level spells, like Salvation of Time, Spark the Souls of the Righteous, Crowns for the Faithful are extremely good also. But limited use, sure.

 

[almondblight]

In PoE1 priests had strong non-spell per encounter abilities (that could be further boosted with feats).
Painful Interdiction crippled enemy defenses, particularly Fortitude. Particularly good to land some spells, like Disintegrate or take advantage of Barbarian Brute Force (target Fortitude instead of Deflection if lower) - and crit non-stop.
Inspiring Radiance is not only a nice and cheap aoe heal, but also briefly boosts Accuracy by a stackable +10.

I dropped him around level 6, so no per encounter priest spells. I might pick him up again at later levels - I'll probably end up choosing between him and Grieving Mother. No doubt per rest abilities can be powerful, but I don't care for them since it means a lot of time is spent guessing how many more encounters a game designer put in a dungeon. Always felt a bit meta-gamey to me.

Only got to pick 2 talents, so I went with Inspiring Radiance and Inspired Flame, which meant Durance was good for a one time temp accuracy boost per encounter. I should probably just respec all my companions though - I looked and the auto-level had apparently picked Bear's Fortitude for Durance's first talent when I initially picked him up.

But either way, replacing him with Pallegina has worked well enough, even for big fights. PotD doesn't seem that hard, although it does have some weird difficulty swings.

 

[ferratilis]

This is why Kana is the best companion. My entire party got wiped 30 seconds into the fight. It was Kana and his ogres that killed the dragon. Just make sure not to put him directly behind the ogres not to be caught by dragon's breath. As soon as you know the ogres will go down, summon another pair. Rinse and repeat, while circling around the dragon. Funny thing is, my main character had Scale Breaker, which I forgot to cast lol.

Mind you, this is not PotD, but on anything below, it will definitely work. On PotD, just hire five chanters to summon non-stop and engage the dragon with a tank. Give all the chanters war bows to deal with the xaurips. Accept the dragon's quest to easily dispose of the two adragans behind him, he doesn't even react, which is kinda dumb, but Obsidian probably did it deliberately that way.

Spoiler

 

[Lacrymas]

Adra Dragon is an infamously bullshit fight. I've completed the game 2 times on PotD, and both times I have no idea how I managed to kill her. In the sense that I don't know what works and what doesn't, she just goes down whenever she feels like it after x number of reloads.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Edit: Oh damn, wrong topic. Anyway, PotD too:
Eder
Durance
Aloth
Sagani
Hiravias

This was my party too except the pc was one of them muscle wizards Lyric Suite is so fond of so instead of Aloth I had Kana in the best armor I could find standing in the middle singing that dragon song and summoning shit. Once Sagani gets the bow its easy money.

 

[the mole]

there's this dude shilling the shield you get in white march, on pillars forums

the shield is supposed to basically be a bashing weapon and if it crits it's supposed to grant tattered veil

but I've been trying it with a riposte rogue and there is no bash

https://ibb.co/VJSpdWg

 

[the mole]

should I go back to the inn and respec

or just destroy the rest of the dungeon because I'm level 12 on veteran in durgans

 

[the mole]

does the devil of curoc have any interesting story elements revealed in durgans battery or is it just you refine her armor and that's it