Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[AshenNedra]

doa

As far as i'm concerned, itemization in D&D or similar games is the best. Items that have their own character, histories and powers that are in line with the lore and are often unique and not found anywhere else. I haven't got far in Pillars but i'm already starting to see several ones like that. Just bought the Outworn Buckler, which i guess is this game's version of Pale Justice (unassuming looking item that's actually incredibly powerful), and this stuff is just really cool.

By comparison, i hate the Diablo system where it's all just about the stats and nothing else. Diablo sort was able to get away with it because at least it had some really cool inventory icons, probably among the most beautiful ever drawn in a game. 99% of Diablo clones don't even have that and every weapon is just some generic reshash of what came before. And you get so much loot that everything just becomes a blur.

Agreed 100%.

The Diablo system, which you can also find in Larian games, is a cancer.

BG3 ,despite its many flaws, is miles better than DOS1 and 2, because it adopted the handcrafted and hand placed, itemization of DnD.

Coherence between gameplay, world and storytelling is what makes a game become a world.

It's the equivalent of style in literature.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, one question.

Is there a way to boost HEALTH, not endurance?

What i mean if there are buffs that can help you go longer without resting. This health/endurance system almost makes it pointless to use healing spells.

 

[Haplo]

There were some Talents which allowed you to regain some Health. Wound Binding and Field Triage.
Can be useful for certain parties.

Healing spells are not pointless. Certain classes have huge Health pools (barbarians, monks).

 

[Lyric Suite]

There were some Talents which allowed you to regain some Health. Wound Binding and Field Triage.
Can be useful for certain parties.

Healing spells are not pointless. Certain classes have huge Health pools (barbarians, monks).

I mean pointless in terms of extending the time between rests. Healing spells only restore endurance, which means all they do is prevent the character from dying during the fight. Health is still lost even if you regain endurance during the fight so healing spells make no difference in that reguard.

 

[Lacrymas]

Potions of Infuse with Vital Essence can be used to regain health. If you use them just before a fight ends, you don't lose the extra health. The only way to increase health iirc is through constitution, unless some items directly increase health.

 

[Technomancer]

are often unique and not found anywhere else. I haven't got far in Pillars but i'm already starting to see several ones like that. Just bought the Outworn Buckler, which i guess is this game's version of Pale Justice (unassuming looking item that's actually incredibly powerful), and this stuff is just really cool.

Few item effects are truly unique in PoE1. Most of the time they share it at least once with different configurations. Outworn Buckler shares its Herald enchant with Little Savior which is a superior shield since its not class restricted and comes upgraded.

In Pillars2 each and every unique has a unique effect that is not reused anywhere. I actually preferred the more robust and simple systems of PoE1 to 2.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Few item effects are truly unique in PoE1. Most of the time they share it at least once with different configurations. Outworn Buckler shares its Herald enchant with Little Savior which is a superior shield since its not class restricted and comes upgraded.

Well, it's still miles ahead of the Diablo system.

 

[Lacrymas]

Good Diablo systems do have unique items, they just drop randomly.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So google led me to this:

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87977-vital-essence-exploit/

Guess this will have to do.

I'm clearing Raedric's Hold (this time i just hacked my way through the front gate fuck subterfuge lmao) and i'm exploiting the shit out of choke point but the result is that Eder is now in the red while everybody in the party is in perfect health. I actually ended up rotating through my barb first, then the paladin but it's not ideal and eventually i was forced to rest. Whenever a monster starts hurting someone in the backline is actually helping me as damage taken by Aloth is less health lost for Eder it's a bit of a mess.

BTW because of this i'm finding Kana is kinda of a big help, because of his summon spells.

 

[Haplo]

There were some Talents which allowed you to regain some Health. Wound Binding and Field Triage.
Can be useful for certain parties.

Healing spells are not pointless. Certain classes have huge Health pools (barbarians, monks).

I mean pointless in terms of extending the time between rests. Healing spells only restore endurance, which means all they do is prevent the character from dying during the fight. Health is still lost even if you regain endurance during the fight so healing spells make no difference in that reguard.

I liked this dynamic a lot. There are consequences to being beaten on, you know.
And yeah, my glass cannon Barb with a huge Health pool mainly died from loss of Health, not Endurance.

I remember for healing Endurance there were some OP sandals, that triggered a healing over time aoe sigil.
Also druids had extremly potent healing over time spells.
Priests weren't even that great at that.

 

[Lacrymas]

Druids are better healers, but I question the efficacy of in-combat healing. It's better to not take the damage in the first place.

 

[Lyric Suite]

There were some Talents which allowed you to regain some Health. Wound Binding and Field Triage.
Can be useful for certain parties.

Healing spells are not pointless. Certain classes have huge Health pools (barbarians, monks).

I mean pointless in terms of extending the time between rests. Healing spells only restore endurance, which means all they do is prevent the character from dying during the fight. Health is still lost even if you regain endurance during the fight so healing spells make no difference in that reguard.

I liked this dynamic a lot. There are consequences to being beaten on, you know.

Maybe but i really like stretching resting as much as i can, used to be one of my favored things to do in the IE games, but here there's really no reason. Might as well unload all the powerful spells to avoid taking damage then once i run out it is time to rest (after looting Raedric's Hold i should have enough cash to start using scrolls and consumables on the regular, which ought to help extend the time between resting i should think).

BTW, i think i'm just gonna kill both Raedric and Kolc. I'm starting to upgrade my keep now which means my Bleak Walker is now in control of the whole region once i take out the tyrant and the pretender. I came to look for settlement but it's fitting that i ended up carving out the whole territory for myself.

 

[Parabalus]

There were some Talents which allowed you to regain some Health. Wound Binding and Field Triage.
Can be useful for certain parties.

Healing spells are not pointless. Certain classes have huge Health pools (barbarians, monks).

I mean pointless in terms of extending the time between rests. Healing spells only restore endurance, which means all they do is prevent the character from dying during the fight. Health is still lost even if you regain endurance during the fight so healing spells make no difference in that reguard.

I liked this dynamic a lot. There are consequences to being beaten on, you know.

Maybe but i really like stretching resting as much as i can, used to be one of my favored things to do in the IE games, but here there's really no reason. Might as well unload all the powerful spells to avoid taking damage then once i run out it is time to rest (after looting Raedric's Hold i should have enough cash to start using scrolls and consumables on the regular, which ought to help extend the time between resting i should think).

BTW, i think i'm just gonna kill both Raedric and Kolc. I'm starting to upgrade my keep now which means my Bleak Walker is now in control of the whole region once i take out the tyrant and the pretender. I came to look for settlement but it's fitting that i ended up carving out the whole territory for myself.

Good approach is never buying resting supplies and using only the found ones, it's still very generous but adds some tension.

 

[Haplo]

Druids are better healers, but I question the efficacy of in-combat healing. It's better to not take the damage in the first place.

It works fine. As long as you're aware of the limitations. My Barb took a lot of damage. The solution was to push his Accuracy high enough (and lower enemy defenses) that he'd mostly upgrade his Carnage hits to crits and keep enemy groups perma-prone from the weapon effect in the Carnage radius.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It's better to not take the damage in the first place.

Might as well remove hp as a stat and turn the game into a bullet hell shmup.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i killed the priest of Berath, then killed the animancer (i also kicked the cat), now i'm going to kill Kolc and then i'll kill Raedric.

There, all the problems of Gilded Vale are now gone.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok, so this was interesting. Killing Kolc dropped Gilded Vale reputation, but turning in the quest to Raedric gave me rep with Defiance Bay. Also, he gave me his sword so when i attacked him after he fought with his fists only lol. I failed the fight for the time being, i'll try again tomorrow. Wonder if killing him will make me lose the rep i got with Defiance Bay.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright, so Raedric is dead. Everybody acts like i helped Kolc now, which is hilarious. For some reason, he had a second Justice on him.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Well, best part of the game done, you can quit now.

 

[Lacrymas]

Best part is White March 1, but if we are talking base game then yes.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Always do the Raedric's Hold when I'm overleveled (lvl 6 or 7)so I can waltz in and murder all the knights for 30k+ gold after selling all the plate armours.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Always do the Raedric's Hold when I'm overleveled (lvl 6 or 7)so I can waltz in and murder all the knights for 30k+ gold after selling all the plate armours.

Just coming in with a party of six did the trick, no need to overlevel.

I switched up the barb with a ranger for the Raedric fight, and it went more than well. Beat him on my third try without even taking much damage (Eder and the pally are still in the green).

What i did actually is sell that Graun ring thingy to the tutorial merchant, and then used the money to just fill up all my custom companions slots (all eight of them) when they were 250 copper each, and i been playing on and off with them. I tried a druid for a bit (kinda disappointed animal form turns you into a gigantor goofy werewolf thingy. Wish you became the actual animal), a cipher, a monk etc. Right now, it seems because my main is a dual wielding pally (due to how FoD works), i have no room for any melee unless i can give them a reach weapon, that's why i stuck with the barb longer than anybody else (plus carnage was really something). This means i'll likely not use the melee story companions much as i just have no room for front liners.

I just gave Kana that chant that makes everybody reload faster, that's why i wanted to try the ranger. Right now i have the option to either go to Defiance Bay and start Act 2 or make a detour to go pick up Grieving Mother, since i remember where she is from last time. Thing is though, my character has no reason to go there, so it feels wierd.

 

[Haplo]

Carnage actually gets better with levels. Make sure to pick the talent that increases Carnage Accuracy - eventually Carnage attacks become more accurate then base attacks AFAIR (because of double dipping - from level Accuracy bonus to skills and the talent). Also the Talent that makes the Barb target Fortitude instead of Deflection (if lower) makes them simply crit-murder squishier targets (and comboes great with the Priest Radiance upgrade - which aoe debuffs Fort by a lot).

 

[Piotrovitz]

Also the Talent that makes the Barb target Fortitude instead of Deflection makes them simply crit-murder squishier targets (and comboes great with the Priest Radiance upgrade which aoe debuffs Fort by a lot).

Is the talent for targeting Fort instead of Def really that good?

Haven't played PoE1 in years so can't remember mob stats there, but when I did Deadfire few months ago I noticed that with most of the mobs Fort was actually highest defense stat, rarely lower than their Def.

 

[Haplo]

Also the Talent that makes the Barb target Fortitude instead of Deflection makes them simply crit-murder squishier targets (and comboes great with the Priest Radiance upgrade which aoe debuffs Fort by a lot).

Is the talent for targeting Fort instead of Def really that good?

Haven't played PoE1 in years so can't remember mob stats there, but when I did Deadfire few months ago I noticed that with most of the mobs Fort was actually highest defense stat, rarely lower than their Def.

It is. And you're right, Fort often is highest, except on casters and rogue-types. But also it is easiest to debuff - without spending per rest resources.