Just finished POE1 and now I'm moving on to Deadfire. I was a Priest of Eothas in the first game, but after the revelation of the gods being fake news and also my character not being Eothas' biggest fan rn I think a class change is in order. I think I'm gonna go with a Goldpact/Streetfighter (Holy Slayer) riposte build. I really appreciate all the options for build crafting without getting too autistic like Pathfinder. I think I'm gonna end up playing through this game at least 5 times just to try out different builds. I hope there's enough variation in the quests to keep multiple playthroughs interesting. What are your favorite builds in Deadfire?
Oh also what the frick happened to the narrator? The male narrator was way better than the female they use in 2.
Some diversity hire convinced them that hiring the cast of Critical Role would sell more copies
That's unfortunate.
Oh yeah I didn't mean back to back.
I mean, Ashley Johnson's is pretty good for narration, so it wasn't a bad pick.
I think shes a good VA but I agree that the dude from the first game was better as a narrator.
And yea the system of classes, subclasses, and multi-classing in this game is fantastic and it really gives the game way more replayability than it would otherwise have. There are so many niche builds you can create and just switching the subclass around can make a build play completely differently by itself.
I'm on my 4th playthrough and my favorite builds so far have been Shepard ( arcane archer ranger / Goldpact paladin) and Mindstalker ( Soul Blade cipher / Trickster rogue). The Shepard just used firearms and spammed Flames of Devotion with an arquebus on single targets and then switched to a blunderbuss and used powder burns and Imbued Fireballs to waste packs of enemies.
>I think I'm gonna end up playing through this game at least 5 times just to try out different builds
This is very autistic. RPGs should be revisited years later, unless we're talking about something short and varied like VtM:B, or gameplay focused like Dragon's Dogma or Diablo clones.
How many hours did you clock in at, and did you find yourself doing lots of sidequests?
I finished around 50 hours. I did some side quests but tbh it was far from a completionist playthrough because I was looking forward to moving on to Deadfire. White March was by far the best part of the first game imo.
About 50 hours and I didn't do a ton of sidequests because I was looking forward to starting Deadfire. White March was the best content by far, imo.
BTW for any other noobs, I found this mod that addresses the narrator problem https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/36
About 120hrs with main game + DLC
This is with doing everything there is to do apart from the mega bosses.
Drunken fist (rogue + monk) using pukestabber, because roleplay, miroe can essentially be this
Also fighter (tactician) + wizard, While all enemies are Flanked, and no allies are Flanked +5 Intellect, +1 Power Level, periodically regain class resources
PoE has a really nice world with all the soul shenanigans. Playing cipher is pretty fun
>PoE has a really nice world
hmmm how bout we put in Black folk... but italian!
Why are you people so hung up on this?
I'm not hung up on this
It's there for diversity points and that breaks my immersion
And it doesn't matter if i'm gay
So just Italians then?
South Italians exist
Ha! You weren't expecting it, were you. That's why it's so clever. It subverted your expectations and made you question your values and ideas.
Because of the last thread I tried playing my copy of poe1 and try 2 a bit more.
I just cant play this game.
A priest of Eothas is narratively probably the most interesting class to play in Deadfire lmao
>find out the gods aren't really gods
>one of the fake gods destroys your castle and kills you and all your people
>you not only keep worshipping him but proselytize in his name
I can see how it would be narratively interesting but I cannot abide being such a cuck
>find out the gods are 'fake'
tfw priest of wael
tfw faith in my god of lies is now twice as strong
Not as much as one might think; MagranChads have almost as many speech checks as Priests of Berath and Eothas *combined* despite Magran being a very minor part of the story.
Magran's responsible for like 1/3 of the Deadfire map though.
Shame there's no Ondra priests.
I wish there were more options to talk with your patron god if you were godlike, like Pallegina does in 1. It’s weird that I’m a fire godlike but Magran doesn’t treat me, the escape plan in case someone tries to eothas her[spoiler/] any differently than if I was an Orlan or something
Magran has thousands of mooks just like you. The PC selectable godlikes are dime a dozen. Even the unique npc ones aren't unheard of, except for the super special snowflake.
I mean all godlikes are just back up batteries for the gods. Do you talk to your batteries in your house anon?
True, but they still seem to be invested in their godlike (or some are, anyway). Ondra seems to keep a close eye on Tekehu
Deadfire was a real let-down after the first one.
90% of the spells and abilities are re-used from PoE1
Turn-based mode is excessively slow and buggy
Dialogue is poorly written and full of 21st century Americanisms
Exploration is moving icons around a world map jpeg or shitty CYOA encounters
Ship battles... holy frick what were they thinking?
WAY over-used e-celebrity voice actors in too many roles
Multi-class disables all the best talents/abilities instead of being properly balanced
Most of the side quests really sucked (Save another tribe of stupid locals from themselves, read 10 books and put them in the right place, etc)
There were good parts but I'd often run into what felt like shitty B-team work.
Unique weapon: 10% chance to deal 10% more damage for 3 seconds, if you crit. Delete 30,000 coins and two gems to make number go up. wowee
Sick to the main questline, and you'll probably have a pretty good experience.
Playing through the inane garbage side-quests to find the few good ones isn't worth it.
>Dialogue is poorly written and full of 21st century Americanisms
What Americanisms exactly?
Playing Fantasy RPG 2: Pirate Edition I wasn't expecting a new system of Eoran prose but the way words were used felt VERY modern, like using "sure" and "I guess" as affirmatives, "garbage" as an adjective or "forget (x)" in a dismissive sense. I haven't played in a while so I can't quote any specific examples but I recall the companion interjections being pretty jarring and the "lighthearted" dialogue options read like twitter comments.
>Spells
I guess I was just hoping for more. It felt more like an expansion than a full price sequel in that way
>Turn-based mode was an ad-hoc addition coded by 2 guys
Spamming pass for 30 turns waiting for withdraw to expire in deck to deck combat I could really feel it
>The world map is an objective improvement over the first game and most other crpgs.
Ocean travel between towns felt like an unnecessary pseudo-loading screen between loading screens, I guess there was a bit of gameplay in exploring islands but I don't think it beats travelling through connecting zones on foot in PoE1
>At launch multiclass was objectively better for every class except priest. After some patching that was no longer the case and it's actually pretty well balanced now
🙁
>Isn't that every crpg?
oh frick I haven't tried bg3 yet don't say that
>Weapons
There were some exceptions but most of the weapon bonuses were so conservative I'd expect to see them in a MOBA/MMO, not single player
>Quests
After about 80 hours I don't regret it but finishing in 60 with fewer lore-dumps about the social hierarchy of local tribes would have been worth a few neutral ending screens
The two things deadfire really does deserve credit for are its class system and its enchantments. There are countless ways to pit together both unique and really powerful characters, all my favorite characters were multiclasses. My favorite was a Howler Berserker/Chanter using Thrice Was She Wronged, the unique thing about that invocation is its extreme action/recovery ratio, with the berserker benefits and Sasha's Scimitar you can invoke it 6 times in 3 seconds. If you have a priest backing you up with Triumph of The Crusaders or Barring Deaths Door you're unstoppable against most large groups of enemies. It's a great shame about the rest of the game, but I've never had such fun putting together characters and groups in any other cRPG.
>Ocean travel between towns felt like an unnecessary pseudo-loading screen between loading screens
It kinda was, but at the same time I prefer listening to sea shanties while doing that instead of looking at 10 loading screens.
>the way words were used felt VERY modern
anon are you for real?
>this piece of modern media is written so modern people would actually understand the writing
also true for 99,99% of any other writing, what were you expecting exactly?
I must note that these kind of blown out of the ass arguments really makes me feel PoE seethers just really want to hate the game, which alas for them doesn't give much to be hated for
While I do think there are negatives you can point in both games, I've noticed that anons here tend to focus on the more trivial things and make a far bigger deal out of them that they should.
Now this is cope.
Or Microsoft™ marketing.
PoE has a distinctively american and modern twist to it's dialogue and character interactions to a degree that it really starts chewing on the setting's verisimilitude. For a crpg that takes itself so seriously it's just sad how much like a pirate theme park deadfire feels like. Soulless game.
>Now this is cope
>Soulless game
This is like buzzword bingo
>I Have No Argument But I Must Cope
Following the same old script I see. Now you need to accuse anyone critisizing deadfire of being schizos to stay on schedule.
And what's your argument exactly? PoE has American speak? That's it? Other than that, you called the game soulless, which is pretty much a peak Ganker buzzword.
>please reiterate your argument (again) so my shitty shill thread can get more bumps
frick off shill, engage with the criticism honestly or leave
sage
>Everyone that disgrees with me is a shill
Your argument is weak and you don't even provide any examples to discuss. And if I have to honest, I'd gladly let this thread die and not give it any more bumps since it's turned into a complete shitshow thanks to homosexuals like you. If you really hate the game, why are you even in here? In a thread that was meant to discuss builds.
>no arguments
we already knew you didn't have any sense in you from the previous post.
you didn't have to bother with your "I have nothing to say so I'll post Ganker-speak" pathetic of an attempt post
well the part about Saweyr admitting to VA being pushed by business is true
anyway I can tell your main point is that PoED is a failure, so I'm only going to address that
it's not a failure by any metric.
It got great reviews
both critic and user scores in the same time frame and sub-genre are second only to the first part
and it most definitely generated a profit by steam sales alone
it just wasn't as successful as the first part (and that 100% marketing to blame)
>previous post
>no arguments
>Ganker-speak
That was my first post in this thread moron. The dialogue and character interactions being americanized is a valid argument and valid criticism. All you're left with is being butthurt about the *tone* of the criticism and you go for "that's too Ganker". On Ganker(nel) of all places.
The quality of Microsoft shilling has really gone downhill. They should dock your pay for the week for such a weak effort.
Sage for trying to bump up the thread with bullshit shilling over inane bullshit.
>americanized is a valid argument and valid criticism
Its not
For reasons already stated previously
Frick off
>no u
>provide no argument
>proceed to seethe
???
I think that anon is trying to say that people in PoE talk a little TOO much like modern 21st century humans with the sensibilities of human citizens of 21st century liberal democracies. It's kind of hard to pinpoint, but it is noticeable. You just have to put in a LITTLE effort to avoid the effect. Just using a classic "high fantasy" dialect helps offset too, like in pic related, that dialogue option does NOT sound like something a 21st century human would say, thus helping to make the world feel more real, like it actual exists and has it's own politics, culture, and dialects.
>classic "high fantasy" dialect
>reads like someone ripping off A Christmas Carol
lmao
I could have posted literally anything and you'd make the same snarky reply. That dialogue choice would fit right into LotR.
Read pic related. This is classic high fantasy dialect before Americans ruined it, plebeian.
This sounds a lot more natural compared to
Chris is that you?
Your writing was alright in pst, but iys never gonna be on the same level as lotr
You really should take those meds, they are good for you
I could have shopped in LotR dialogue into a screenshot, and you would say the exact same thing like clockwork. You're an NPC. You wouldn't know good prose if it sat on your face.
>That dialogue choice would fit right into LotR.
>shit taste
>posts jojo
LMAO
>Ugh! Like, ye olde timey-wimey speak is not got for atmosphere, they should all just talk like my fellow burgerfornians baka!
Living proof that zoomers are the cancer that is killing RPGs.
>If every single character, even the illiterate peasants, don't speak eloquently in my fantasy game, then it's shit and literally unplayable
Why are boomers such pesuds?
Honestly, I like the dialogue in Planescape, but some of it sounds like it comes from people in a school play trying their hardest to imitate Shakespeare.
Yeah it's this reflexive disdain for anyone daring to write any kind of flowery prose that lead us to PoEs signature 21st century quippy sarcastic cast of characters
>PoEs signature 21st century quippy sarcastic cast of characters
They are just being inspired by the best.
You seem desperate to keep shoving these jan interjections in my face like it proves something. It doesn't, but I can guess that your intent is to show that BG has the same "21st century brain" problem that I say PoE has, despite me literally never arguing that point.
It would have been 20th century brain back then. Before your time, you couldn't understand.
I literally never even mentioned BG, schizo.
I'm not against it though, but some of the dialogue in Planescape does feel incredibly wooden in its attempt to sound "flowery".
>lead us to PoEs signature 21st century quippy sarcastic cast of characters
Not really a signature of PoE. Many modern crpgs do it, a lot of which is far worse compared to Pillars.
>helping to make the world feel more real, like it actual exists and has it's own politics, culture, and dialects
U can't be serious
>Renaissance fair speak makes the world feel real.
U just can't make this shit up
Yes, using era-appropriate language makes a world feel more real, moron. Your snarkiness doesn't change the fact.
the fact that you are calling a Dickens-parroting prose "era-appropriate" for Planescape setting is just hilarious
even more amusing that the line is not even appropriate in the same dialog, its the only one in renaissance-fair-speak, the other lines are written in modern English
>Dickens-parroting prose
Why do zoomer tards invent shit like this when there's not a single shred of evidence in that screenshot
This. From the shitty factions from other details it feels terrible.
And what's wrong with the factions?
>Ocean travel between towns felt like an unnecessary pseudo-loading screen between loading screens,
They really missed the mark when they though that fricking turn-based ship combat with no proper graphics would actually do something.
If only they'd have copied Sid Meier's Pirates a bit. Or just flat out copied everything sea-related,
>If only they'd have copied Sid Meier's Pirates a bit. Or just flat out copied everything sea-related
to be fair that would be a fricking burden on the budget and time-constraints
not going that way is what unironicly shows Saweyr to be a good game-director
also I just don't get it, how can anyone complain about ship combat, if it's been patched to be completely optional since forever?
>budget and time constraints
And full voice acting is a rational use of these constraints…
>how can anyone complain
They wanted good ship combat?
>They wanted good ship combat?
were they intentionally lied to about buying a naval warfare sim instead of a crpg?
Pirates! isn't a naval warfare sim. It's ship-to-ship combat is pretty barebones, isometric one on one with a ship.
It is however in real-time, with a pause and the ships use chainshot, grapeshot and standard cannonballs, with each ships having diffrent speed and turning speed. To board, you have to get in close, which opens up another mini-game, involving fighting the captain, with your crews acting as a kind of HP/power source.
It's an extremly simple mini-game to implement and it just so happens to actually use all the same mechanics as the shitty turn-based interaction that Deadfire has.
>It's an extremly simple mini-game to implement and it just so happens to actually use all the same mechanics
not really
I understand it's fast to do an mvp for that, but you'd be surprised just how much of a burden on resources polishing that shit would be
besides at best you are ending up with
>some alien to the genre mechanic and just hope all fans of rpgs will like said mechanic
>And it's all for literally nothing
I disagree
for instance speed is beneficial outside of ship combat,
more crew means more fighters on your side during boarding
buying new shit for your ship is still fun even if your aren't planning to be routinely engaged in ship-to-ship combat
etc
>some alien to the genre mechanic and just hope all fans of rpgs will like said mechanic
Why even implement that half-assed abortion of a mechanic to begin with? It literally does less than nothing. A mini-game that's bad is than nothing at all.
>more crew means more fighters on your side during boarding
Never had any crew in my fights, except the very first few fight from Port Maje to nig-nog city. It's always just all the sidekicks and companions I don't use.
You weren't paying attention. All of your crew participate in boarding battles.
>And full voice acting is a rational use of these constraints…
it's debatable but objectively much less of an issue
>you are adding on to the same mechanic rpg fans already want, not trying to add some alien to the genre mechanic and just hope all fans of rpgs will like said mechanic they won't, see pathfinder
>you can out-staff the whole thing
>you can plan out milestones at which you stop and ask yourself if you have the resources to continue. for example you do the main quest dialogs, start doing faction quests, start doing side quests run out of money, stop. You only wasted the last part (side quests) and you have completed 2 milestones that actually add value to the game
Don't get me wrong there is a certain challenge in managing this, you do need to plan out the script and it has to be done miles ahead of anything else, any changes will be much more costly, but otherwise it's not that bad
I'm a bit surprised it needs to be explained
Josh has said on his tumblr that full voice acting was decided on by the suits and they wouldn’t be budged despite the fact that the game had NOT been budgeted for full voice acting (the implication seeming to be that Deadfire ended up going way over budget, contributing to its failure)
>And full voice acting is a rational use of these constraints…
Feargus is the one who pushed for full voice acting
>if it's been patched to be completely optional since forever?
Because it's seen as a big part of the game, at least from the UI perspective. It has it's own inventory, own leveling system, it's own stats to the items.
And it's all for literally nothing. There is no reason to engage in ship-to-ship combat at all. It's a dogshit minigame with less thought put into it than a most scripted encounters on the map.
>Because it's seen as a big part of the game
No it's a minigame. I don't get the hyperfixation on a minigame being necessary for the game. Sailing around in a cool ship, exploring the map and listening to the shanties adds to the ambience of the game. That's all it needs to do.
I agree. The ship is great when you're just exploring the Deadfire Archipelago and listening to the cool sea shanties.
>Deadfire was a real let-down after the first one.
>
>90% of the spells and abilities are re-used from PoE1
So? It's the same system. And they did add a decent amount of new spells and abilities.
>Turn-based mode is excessively slow and buggy
Turn-based mode was an ad-hoc addition coded by 2 guys just to see if they could do it. The game is meant to be played in RTWP.
>Dialogue is poorly written and full of 21st century Americanisms
Not sure what you mean by this.
>Exploration is moving icons around a world map jpeg or shitty CYOA encounters
The world map is an objective improvement over the first game and most other crpgs.
>Ship battles... holy frick what were they thinking?
Agreed ship battles are awful, but at least you can just skip to boarding now.
>WAY over-used e-celebrity voice actors in too many roles
Agreed.
>Multi-class disables all the best talents/abilities instead of being properly balanced
At launch multiclass was objectively better for every class except priest. After some patching that was no longer the case and it's actually pretty well balanced now.
>Most of the side quests really sucked (Save another tribe of stupid locals from themselves, read 10 books and put them in the right place, etc)
I guess
>There were good parts but I'd often run into what felt like shitty B-team work.
Isn't that every crpg?
>Unique weapon: 10% chance to deal 10% more damage for 3 seconds, if you crit. Delete 30,000 coins and two gems to make number go up. wowee
This is nonsense. It was true of POE but not Deadfire.
>Sick to the main questline, and you'll probably have a pretty good experience.
No way. The main quest is ok, but the meat of the game is in the factions and side quests, which also play off the main quest story.
>Playing through the inane garbage side-quests to find the few good ones isn't worth it.
Big disagree.
>WAY over-used e-celebrity voice actors in too many roles
Outside of Ashley Johnson, I can't really think of another e-celeb voice actor in any major role. I mean, unless we also count Matthew Mercer, but he was also in the first game.
Anon, they used all of the critical hole cast.
Most of them are professional voice actors that were in the business long before critical role became a thing.
I'm not saying it was nepotism but
Oh yeah, that happened. Honestly, I payed so little attention to the cosmetic DLCs that I forgot that Obsidian did the critical role pack thing.
Most of them were voices in the 1st game too.
There was a lot of overlap in minor characters from actors with very distinctive voices. When the shopkeeper, one of the slavers, the druid that just attacked you, several villagers and a member of your crew have the same voice, it's hard to not notice.
>the same spells
You should hold your own time to a higher standard if copy+paste is a worthy replacement for new features.
>optional things I don't like
Oh come on. If there's some shit on the fries I'm not just going to eat around them and call it a good meal.
>Small numbers on weapons
Less impactful choices means a reduced scale for customization. Maybe a narrower scope for combat is preferable if you like a more refined/linear experience but I don't think that's what they were going for.
>quests sucked
A lot of that shit was just generic busy-work. World building is one thing but "help Jamal find the stolen fruit" is just padding.
Yes, a lot of the dialogue didn't feel thematically appropriate.
This is an exaggerated example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiMinixSXII
but you can't tell me that's how medieval high fantasy RPG characters should sound.
>copy+paste is a worthy replacement for new features
Ok then, guess they need to replace a feature of sending emails in the next gmail if they want to stand to high standards such as yours.
Anon none of your arguments make any sense. They can be applied to any game
And nice.. nice example you have there of thematicly inappropriate dialog.. not from deadfire
I'll take poe dialog over pkm "strong woman athiest in a setting with priests doing actual miracles on behalf of their deity" any day of the week if that's what you're asking
Pillars have most sane and down to earth dialogs in any modern CRPG, especially comparing to Pathfinder and DOS (which make me play Pillars before Pathfinder and DOS, because i wanted something grounded). But haters somehow pretend otherwise.
>I'll take poe dialog over a character who refuses to worship any god because of a personal grudge
I'm sincerely glad you enjoyed poe, but be so kind to provide an example that doesn't make a perfect sense next time.
Re-used features from the previous game do not satisfy my expectations for new content when being sold a new game. Deadfire combat was like PoE1.5 for the price of a 2.0.
You compared Deadfire to Gmail then said Dungeons and Dragons isn't a fair example of fantasy dialogue modernization? Regardless, I'll entertain your example.
If Gmail was a $40 product and Gmail 2 released as a full $40 sequel that added 3 new fonts and some emojis, people would be asking "why the frick is this $40?", regardless of how many old features it copied over.
For a real-world example of this look at how Overwatch 2 has been received.
That trailer was a general example of how modern dialogue can seem out of place. I'm not about to re-download a 50GB game and start a new 40+ hour playthrough to pick out quotes.
>For a real-world example of this look at how Overwatch 2 has been received.
Nta, but not really an apt comparison, considering that Overwatch 2 has no changes to speak of. If you're implying that PoE2 is literally just PoE1 with no difference whatsoever, then you're being disingenuous.
>then you're being disingenuous
You think he's arguing in good faith? He's pointing at a D&D movie trailer to complain about a game.
>Overwatch 2 has no changes to speak of
>you're implying that PoE2 is literally just PoE1
>you're being disingenuous
okay
I don't think I could come up with more moronic arguments if I tried
>IE games le bad they use the same spells!
>game is bad as these completely optional things I don't like
>this +5 weapon adds less than 10% of damage and less than 5% accuracy over my +4 weapon, delete 30 000 gold numbers go up wowee
>quests really sucked (save some peasants, find a specific book etc)
you just don't like crpgs, which is fine, but it's not the game's fault
>Multi-class disables all the best talents/abilities instead of being properly balanced
absolutely filtered
>Ship battles... holy frick what were they thinking?
I think Sawyer said that upper management forced that shit into the game and he was against it.
very fun game to play as a wizard.
it does have an overcomplicated learning curve, for casuals like myself.
i'm finishing my first full playtrough of both game today and i still find things i don't understand.like pic related, where the frick does that raw damage came from?
well it seems you are using Weyc's Wand
and one of the upgrades is listed on the wiki as
> 50% chance on scoring Crit to leave a seal that deals Raw Damage to enemies
can you “side” with a faction without antagonising the rest? I wanna choose Huana or Cailia but I don’t want Maia to leave my party
nope
So you’ll always lose party members if you don’t keep the island to yourself?
yep
I thought depending on the companion relationship Maia can stay.
You can get Maia to leave the navy and stay with you on any option.
You can also get Fishboy to stay with you, as long as you don't kill the queen.
Pellagina will always leave if you don't side with her country or sail alone, because she's a paladin of her country.
I just want to make my own characters in Pillars 1 and remove all the pre-made ones. How long until I can hire a full party?
First village tavern and you can get the full oldschool experience of getting a custom team.
>playing poe1 without durance
why would anyone do this
Earlier than you can recruit the first pre-made companion, after the tutorial section. The Black Hound inn in the starting town.
>recruits are availble right after you meet the first companion waaay before you meet enough companions to have a full party
I find it hard to belive you are actually playing the game
But ok, here is some benefit of the doubt for you, recruits can be hired in tavern
>I hope there's enough variation in the quests to keep multiple playthroughs interesting
the desperation of your people...
What a punchable face
Play once, or you would be burned out. Also main story is short and is just an excuse to explore, to the point where real main story is faction side quests and political feuds. Immerse yourself in this world, dont play it for the main plot, or you will be dissapointed.
Cypher + Paladin (Bleak Walker) is my favorite. Firearms + Flame of Devotion that damage and crowd control spells provide great combat dynamic. Other casters are mostly useless in multi aside from very specific builds because spell took forever to cast.
Thaumaturge is fun. cast all the spells homie
>cast all the spells homie
I usually play fast and after patches game itself became faster and castiong time in POE 2 is rediculous. 6-8 sec for a huge spells when encounter takes me 10-15 seconds max to kill everyone. In POE 1 casters made huge firs impact, in POE 2 they just cast something in already dead enemies.
gotta pump that dexterity homie
Still i think they overnerfed casting times. Yes on POE 1 casters was, powerfull as hell, but why not.
You can also cast from stealth
Sane and down to earth does not mean fun.
For all the things I like about eora I hate more than half of it as well.
The homosexualry in POE is just too much for me.
I really wish obsidian were actually smart and literate enough to create an intriguing pre modern setting. But they are not.
Yes I also know there are little to no other decent crpg options. It does not excuse poe.
Is modding the way to get the old pre-white-march menu screen back?
its fine and all, I just like the original better
Replaying PoE1 for the first time in years. I was doing Raedric's hold and got my ass kicked, what level do you guys recommend doing it at?
You can do it with stealth and dialoges. I dont remember level, i usually go there after Kaed Nua or even Defiance Bay.
I stealthed through most of it, its only the last boss fight giving me trouble. I'd resolve it peacefully but Raedric is shit, so. Not that Kolsc is amazing, I remember he gets by undead Raedric
Yeah he puts up a fight. Having a full party really helps, especially since the dog acts as an extra ally
>Replaying PoE1 for the first time in years
same
After Caed Nua I went to get the ranger dwarf
as soon as I did I went to Raedrics with a full party and had little issues.
Are you trying to fight everybody? you can get cloaks and sneak around the high officers
I didn't know the quest line can be resolved peacefully unless you want to join him, and frick that sob, I'm not doing that
He puts up quite a fight though
I want to play through the first one but I haven't gotten past the first town with the hanging tree because I hate the companion characters so much. How long do I have to play the game until I can completely fill my party with hired mercenaries?
>doesn't know that it is possible to recruit mercs as soon as you get your first companion
or as I like to call you the-never-palyed-the-game
Frick off
I can only recruit 1 in the first town. I want to have a full party of them
At least take Eder and Durance. The latter is the best companion ever written.
I like to make my own companion characters so I can have a party that fits all of my desires and so I can specialize each character to play off of each other. It's why Icewind Dale is still the best rpg to me. I can role play my own story between my six characters
Say what you want about Solasta, but it's great for that. You custom make your whole party, so they're actually useful, but they still feel like proper people who are part of the game due to all getting lines and talking to each other.
That's exactly what I like. Let me design my entire party with my choice of alignment and voice for them determining their loose personalities that I can develop through my journey. You feel so much more connected to your party when you design the entire team, envisioning the different interactions between them in both combat and non combat situations. That adds deep replay value and more immersion than you can imagine. Pre made characters kill role playing
What gets me is the recent trend of making companions as insufferable as possible, and having no good reason for them to team up with the PC.
To use Baldur's Gate as an example, even if you don't like Imoen, she grew up with charname so they have a connection. And if you don't like Jaheira, she makes sense to join the party since your foster father recommended her as trustworthy. And then annoying Khalid is fine because he's Jaheira's wife. Even if you don't like them, they make sense for the party so you can imagine the characters trying get along.
In PoE, why would you ever team up with Aloth? Why would you help him out and why would you put up with him?
You and Aloth are both strangers in the land and band together. Very basic concept to understand why you hang out.
Not really. If you were both from the same place, then yes. But you're not going to team up with someone who is even stranger.
It’s very common for expatriates to a new country to become friends with other expatriates.
I'm going to have to think about that. My point still stands, but maybe it was a bad example.
>In PoE, why would you ever team up with Aloth?
To help each other. Aloth wants to join you because he's well aware thay travelling alone would be far more dangerous. I mean, he nearly got his shit kicked in when you met him in front of the tavern at Gilded Vale.
Personally by giant godlike Barbarian wouldn't take Aloth in his crew
And you have dialogue options to reflect that
Even BG wasn’t stellar in that regard. I was expecting these based old games to have real choice and consequence but when you tell Imoen to frick off after Gorion gets killed she just decides she’s following you anyways. Like I don’t give a shit about this annoying character, my mission was to find Khalid and Jaheira and go from there, I do not care that this person is a ‘childhood friend’ because the game skips your childhood. I have no connection to Imoen therefore I couldn’t give a shit about her. Same goes for most of the companions in that game. I know Beamdog made it worse by adding more but frick me is there companion bloat in that game and barely any of them are interesting. 90% are just ‘you’re doing this quest for me so I’ll tag along’. Maybe I’m just autistic and too particular about companions in those games but I got a lot more out of playing solo or just taking the 1 or 2 that made sense.
youre insane, hes one of the worst in the first game
>The latter is the best companion ever written.
i read this opinion over and over again and dragged him kicking and screaming through the plot and regretted it in the end. i don't know what depth everyone else was seeing but he fell flat for me.
Mostly he's just projecting his personal issues onto the Watcher.
>start out intensely devoted to Magran, in his own special way
>find out he's partially responsible for the biggest event the Dyrwood has ever seen
>totally loses his faith in Magran by the end
nope no depth or development there
>be me
>have a day off work
>family is out of town
>play aaaaall day long
>my eyes hurt
what is the counter to this OP shit?
still quite happy though
what class are you?
they have low Will as far as I remember
i'm an office worker and I just checked...
by god my will is abysmal!
Just pick a chanter and solo the entire game.
I think being an Eothas Priest is even more interesting in 2 honestly. Particularly since you get to talk to him yourself.
god the companion reputation system in Deadfire stresses me out. like do pallegina and aloth have to be such buttholes to tekehu and serafen? i dont want to have to choose between them
I used pretty much all companions, rotating them in and out and I don't think I ever had to choose one other another
Isn't only your reputation with that particular companion that matters if someone leaves ?
Cure your OCD. It is not necesseary for all companions to love you and they can leave only in very rare cases, for example, when you oppose their faction.
the trouble is that unless you do solo or pirate runs, youll lose at least one companion and maybe more based on faction choice
Well I don't think that there's any straight up downsides to characters disliking each other. I think it's mostly fluff.
Also, and actual spoilers,you'll likely have to choose between Pallegina and Tekehu eventually depending on your choices. I believe there's one route where they can both remain on your party though.
will probably ditch Pallegina then. she was one of my favourites in 1 but she sucks in 2, shes just b***hy and unpleasant, and boring
PoE >>>> Deadfire
Fricking pirate ships, what were they thinking.
>N-NO EVERY FANTASY GAME HAS TO BE EUROPE
PoE was cool, but not great. Deadfire is just trash.
>Deadfire is just trash.
How so?
I doubt you'll get and answer. People here have been memed into hating the game without knowing why, or at least not going any more in depth that muh woke or hating on the pirate setting.
>muh woke
that's reason enough to avoid it, plenty of normal healthy games available tbh
not saying its woke trash but it's a good reason to hate it if it is. and it seems most westie devs are cuked into wokism
you got memed and you didn't play it
and you are only cheating yourself out of the great game
honestly need help understanding how to enjoy poe1
do I need to just play on easy or something? i got to the castle and I'm just not feeling it
im a rogue and I have eder and aloth with me but we feel weak and the 2 guys on the outside wreck us
somehow feel like im just not using my stuff right, ive played plenty of crpgs before I just dont get how this game feels so bad even compared to deadfire
>party of 3
>trying to assault the castle head on
bro sneak in. you'll need more if you're gonna fight Raedric btw
It might be Marmite: The Game. You love it or you hate it. You can't change that. You can't learn to love it, and if you already love it then you'll never be convinced its bad. It just is the way it is.
I think if people could just accept that then there would be fewer problems.
I am afraid of this, I hear white march is really good but I dont think I can make it that far forcing myself to play
I think I'm gonna go try to hire a full merc squad and see if that helps me out any
so far I have never had more then 3 people in a party in this game, might also just restart since rogues not really doing it for me
I keep coming back to it every so often. Right now I'm thinking about the way every ability only seems to last a few seconds. It's the kind of thing that really forces you to keep pausing the fight every couple of seconds. It's very jarring and really takes you out of it. It's not like queuing things up and then unpausing and watching the action unfold. It's stop and start and stop and start.
dude just use slow time
>might also just restart since rogues not really doing it for me
I strongly suggest you to reconsider dropping rouge
rouges are the best single target damage dealers in this game and that makes them immensely fun
If a specific build is not playing for you try re-specking in any tavern, it's pretty cheap and actually meant to be used
if you really don't like being rouge, I recommend trying cipher
enjoy the most OP level 1 ability in the entire game
ciphers are broken in both games.
there is no way to go on long fights/dongeuns without one in PoTD.
>dongeuns
im druk
hello drug
I'm fren
>literally gets filtered
>this game feels so bad
LOL I'm screencaping this :^)
No, unironicly the correct way to play this game is on hard and above
You aren't meant to steamroll everything and you don't have to, that's why regular mobs give very little xp
sneak around, focus on the task, not the killing
regarding this particular quest, there are two other ways in the fortress, look around
if you want to dispose of Raedric you will have to fight him thou and it's not an easy fight for your party
Go to Caed Nua first, get Kana, then go south to get the dwarwen ranger
Having a full party will help you tons
post stats/gear
are you talking about caed nua or raedric? aka leoric
Im at raedric, I decided to reroll as a druid this time and shapeshift is helping me out quite a bit
I found durance finally and also hired a merc paladin to help eder tank so I think I might be able to actually do it this time
>im a rogue
found the problem. Rogues are the only class I would say is straight up bad in PoE1. Sneak attacks is a pain to set up, and rogues have very limited ability to set it up themselves so you have to build your party around it.
And then your reward is that you can do ~20% more single target damage than a barbarian while having no CC, no utility, no survivability, and having absolutely no AoE potential in a game where combat is built around encounters with large swarms of enemies
I disagree my rouge was doing much more damage than any other party member including nukers up to level 9 or 10. now nukers are probably ahead
but Devil sucks though
that irremovable breastplate sure makes her
harder to build efficiently
For the most part I agree, with the asterisk that I think Obsidian did a amazing job iterating on the original system of classes by adding sub-classes and multi-classing.
Deadfire DLC >>>>> POE > Deadfire
Where does White March fit in your ranking?
Never played it. By the time I got back into the games POE 2 was out
You should play it. It's the best Pillars content in my and most people's opinion.
I’ve just gone to magrans teeth, how far am I through the game?
do you mean you passed moargran's teeth or have you landed in the fire giant location?
the former -- very close
the later -- close
What do you mean by close like is that close to the beginning or end
I mean go suck your dick
Why is the sword so tiny?
Is it worth playing the game solo, or would it just be a tedious headache?
I did it. I fricking slogged almost 100 hours through PoE1. Now I get to reward myself with PoE2. Wish me luck OP.
OP here. I miss POE1.
I'm enjoying PoE2 more, like I knew I would. A pirate's life is a life for me.
I probably laughed way harder at this than I should have
you know what sucks?
that the guy you can't call for the guy you helped get the castle from raedric and the game doesn't bother to explain why.
and the worst part is that later you go kill the lich king in the same castle and the guy is just chillin in the throne room.
is this a plot whole? did i miss something?
Kolsc? He should be dead
Kolsc is dead by the time you fight Raedric again
>be me
>struggle through some of the tougher WM encounters
>'this is bullshit, it's like they are forcing me to use a priest, and I want to use new companions who I didn't get to play on my initial playthrough'
>later that day while doing something completely irrelevant I suddenly realized I had a bunch of consumables that could help me out
How do you deal with forgetting you have consumables?
I only start going through my backpack when I hit a wall, if I feel like I can make slow but steady progress I don't bother using them, but I realize it would make this area much more quick and enjoyable
consumables make the game trivial
craft some scrolls of confusion, paralysis, protection from treachery, and faceroll
crpgs are shit tbqh
>crpgs are shit tbqh
yeah well so is your life in general but I don't see you quitting
BOOM!
kys homosexual troony
dilate chudcel
alpine dragon seems a tough sob
can I save him for after I finish the main quest of WM or will he be gone in WM p 2?
bump
I need to know
You can fight him in White March part II, or even after you resolve WM's main quest if you want. As long as you don't go past the point of no return in the main game you can go back and kill the alpine dragon.
thanks fren!
Convince me why I need more than Eder, Aloth and Durance, and why I shouldn't just roll with a 4-man party.
Hard mode: without arguing that those 3 are gay or annoying.
Because you need tank/dd Fire godlike barb to use firebrand, or White March 2-handed weapons with Heart of Fury, then Torrent of Flames to see encounters die to that, especially with little help from wizard and priest (Pull of Eora to gather all enemies in radious of Fury and Torrent, Priest to give Barb max might). And when they hit back your barb they fricking burn.
What difficulty?
that party should be fine on normal especially if your MC can deal serious damage, since this seems to be the only role missing
Normal. MC is a greatsword fighter. More for the roleplay of him being some guy who just wanted to settle down but gets roped into a shitstorm.
Leaning towards restarting with a monk, though.
Monks are probably better at dealing damage, but you can manage with a second fighter as well
I wouldn't take a rouge with a 4 man party since you need more meat to take that dmg per party member
I mean people solo the game so yeah you don't need more
Welp, just finished pillars 2. Now all I can do now is sit around and wonder if pillars 3 will ever be made.
There is zero chance of a proper Pillars 3. We may get Avowed which sounds like it's actually a prequel. It also has a woman game director. If Avowed does well, MS will want another Avowed. If it doesn't do well, MS won't want anymore games in Eora. Pillars is done and honestly anything from nuObsidian is going to be trash anyway.
>There is zero chance of a proper Pillars 3.
Not really. Microsoft invested a shitload of money into Wasteland 3 and had a turn based tactics spin off for Gears of War.
It is impossible to sell Pillars 3 with californian budget. If Avowed would be good game (which is doubtful) it wont lead to Pillars 3, it would lead to Avowed 2 - action oriented game in Pillars setting. Isometric BG-like crpg from obsidian impossible now, because a large audience does not need it, and it is unrealistic to sell such a game without good marketing or a very recognizable brand.
Avowed is just pillars of eternity 3. They were already in pre-production while Deadfire neared the end of its development cycle and Forgotten Sanctum, the last DLC, has a plot hook that matches the Avowed leak of the living lands.
>Avowed is just pillars of eternity 3
And Skyrim is Baldurs Gate.
New Vegas is still a sequel to Fallout 1 and 2.
>Avowed is just pillars of eternity 3
Somehow doubt it. Plot-wise it's more likely to be a prequel than a sequel to Deadfire.
This would mean that Obsidian are idiots. Leaving your setting on a global cliffhanger, after which a sequel will never come out, and then making spin-off prequels is the worst thing you can do to a story.
It could be a sequel for all we know, but I'd prefer a proper PoE3 to cap off the story instead of Avowed.
>This would mean that Obsidian are idiots.
No way
The prequel meme is people thinking there would be no guns based on the teaser having bows and arrows. But they were confirmed to be in the game by leaks.
And one of the prophecies in Wael’s sanctum match up to plot leaks about aedyr invading the living lands.
Ackshually the prequel meme is based on the Woedica banners, leading people to believe it takes place before her fall.
Even after her fall she’s still the patron god of aedyr
Let's just humor the idea that Avowed turns out to be a massive success. Where do they go from there? Making more games set before pillars 1 will only get them so far in terms of creativity; and they can't go make another game set after the 2 pillars games without addressing what pillars 2 did during it's ending. So if they were to keep making games set in Eora, they would have to wrap up the watcher's storyline eventually.
theyre never going to make another iso rpg. they were a failed experiment.
They have the perfect lore to keep your watcher for old players but also do a soft reboot for new players which is reincarnation. Your Watcher can always return in a future game or Avowed sequel even set hundred of years later as the main character using the reincarnation cycle to wrap up the storyline.
I feel like PoE2 could have been much more interesting and not so saddled with baggage from the first game if you were a reincarnation of your PoE1 character (retaining your watcher status in some way) and ran into a reincarnation of a companion or two on the way.
>So if they were to keep making games set in Eora, they would have to wrap up the watcher's storyline eventually.
There's no reason not to. Pillars 2 ends on a "to be continue" with a tons of set ups for a future game. The only reason why they haven't already is because Pillars 2 didn't sell as well as Pillars 1, so they have no incentive to make third game. Maybe if Avowed does in fact succeed we'll get a proper PoE sequel.
>they have no incentive
Besides enjoying making games and wanting to expand their own one?
Sure, but you also have to consider the business side of things. PoE2 didn't sell as well as the first game, so making sequel would be risky right now. And it's pretty clear that Obsidian doesn't want to abandon Eora as a setting, considering that Avowed is set there. Maybe one day we'll get a proper sequel and finish up the Watcher's story, but that will most likely depend on how well Avowed does.
Doesn't kickstarter work anymore?
>Eora
Shit, it has a name. I didn't know that before despite most of the dialogue being wikipedia info dumps.
>Avowed
It won't work. Poor thing had so many restarts and director changes it will be another duke nuken forever.
>Shit, it has a name.
Surprise Surprise
>Poor thing had so many restarts and director changes it will be another duke nuken forever.
Maybe. I was never personally on board with a Skyrim clone set in Eora, even less so after the Outer Worlds. But I'll judge it when gameplay footage drops.
How many years have passed and we still have frick all of gameplay. They have bitten much more than they could have possibly ever chew and as such they will pay the price for it.
>How many years have passed
One. The game was announced July last year. And it's no different to what Fromsoft did with Elden Ring.
Announce the game, go full radio silent for some time, and then make a big reveal. Not that I'm holding my breath, but I'm not one to judge prematurely.
Shit, I suppose you're right. Still it had a dozen of different directors over such a short timespan.
they'll make Avowed expansions, then the card game, the comicbook, netflix series, etc
>Let's just humor the idea that Avowed turns out to be a massive success. Where do they go from there?
Avowed 2 with bigger scope. They did it with Outer Worlds, even if it wasnt massive success, just B-tier bland of FNV, Bioshock and Borderlands..
Avowed 2, but your character has to be some kind of LGBTQ freak.
what are good companions that deal good decent damage? i cant use aloth because i'm a wizard and its a waste of space for another class.
I feel wizards to be far more powerful in crowd control role, confuse, inflict debuffs that sort of shit
If you want a 'nuker' i find druids to excel at this role
Sorry forgot the question
The answer is Hiravias, you can find him at Stormwall gorge wilderness location
speaking of, is he unlocked after a quest or something? i went there looking for him and i didn't see him
That's strange
No he is in that part of the map that is open from the start
i found him, of course he was in the littlest bit of the map i hadn't gone to
How does Avowed combat work? Do you just swing your sword and then have to wait 5 seconds while you recover? Do you get to cast 4 spells and then have to nap?
also you press 1,2,3,4 to keep scrolling between your party members
if they would have choosen another setting it would have been more succesful and we might have gotten a baldurs gate 3 made by them and not fricking larian oh god damn it i hate this timeline.
Are ranged enemies supposed to be so keen to shoot your spellcasters that they'll break engagement and even keep shooting while getting beaten up by multiple melee attackers?
any recomendations for fixing my party?
i need 2 suppor but with decent damage for the megabosses in upscaled potd but i suck in multycass. so far i almost finished the game using companions, all of them are single class. but i just realise that i cannot beat the bosses with this mediocre dps.
my watcher is a full no sub wizard. my tank is éder wich is ok.
i need a priest and a cipher for long fights.
any recomendations on wich combinations works as support and dps?
I only figured out one and still didn't have the patience to finish the job, so I'm the last to give advice on that matter but I don't think you are supposed to beat every megaboss with the same party. Also each one of them [supposedly] has a gimmick you have to figure out to beat them.
anyway there really not much play here, druid and priest are your support, Tekehu is great for dealing nukes, but I think don't they work as good on megabosses. Serafin is the cipher (also cool to restore class resources) and the weaboo redhed is a nice damage dealing if you went for monk.
Anyway, for damage output you want monks and rouges
why do the caed nua chapel and craft hall only ever have like 3 items max in stock? I'm in early game (relatively, I'm level 9 and put the main quest on pause to do white march and I'm almost done with that) do they ever get more in stock?
not craft hall, artificer's. mixed 'em up
Is that the dude with monster body parts?
Yeah he will get a restock pretty frequently
>zealous focus from multiple paladins doesn't stack
Gay and no fun.
>finish a 50 hour POE1 playthrough as a goody two shoes
>move on to deadfire
>frequently find myself wanting to be a dick
>doesn't fit with my character
>start POE1 again with a new character
sometimes i really hate my autism
What are the best companion quests in PoE2?
Do sidedkicks have quests too?
Sidekicks don't have quests but some have more involvement in the DLCs. Also they're ironically better than most companions.
Ydwin has a lot of interactivity in Beast of Winter. It's really a damn shame that Obsi didn't make sidekicks full companions, the companion roster is pretty anemic and its annoying that so many of them will leave you based on your faction choice
The lack of companions (in both games) really annoys me. There should be twice as many as there are.
I just wish for a DLC they'd added full companion functionality to all the sidekicks
Will Pallegina still leave your party if you side with the Huana when she isn't in your active party? I want to keep all my party members and am gonna side with either Huana or Vailia. I need to get Maia to leave the navy too.
>get bored of Durance and replace him with a hireling priest
Much better.
imagine being a janny
>paladins are actually mercenary companies
Very clever subversion of expectation, obsidian. You are euphoric.
how do you even understand what the dwarves in the battery wrote, anyway? there's no way they were speaking aedyran
and for that matter, how do you understand half the people in deadfire?
Because cultures and different species don't matter. It's a fantasy califronia all is supposed to be incosive and stating otherwise is raycis.
don't use my semi-serious questions about unimportant plot holes as a springboard for your politisperging
That's how it is in the game you moron. Unga bunga frick wungas can't have different metallurgy than the waning empire and no culture can't be any different than the other because it would mean than some are worse in some aspects than the others.
lol you irradiated your brain on polshit and can’t enjoy games anymore
Play the game. Everyone is exactly the same, that's the point of it all.
>Didn't play the game the post
You have to go back
I mean practically every fantasy world has a 'common' language so this is a pretty dumb nitpick.
Giving poe another shot.
Druid good class?
Very good
its a lot of fun to be a tanky close combat druid. its like fighter + wizard
I built mine more like a glass canon.
Druid is thematically and mechanically very good in both POE games, both druid companions are A - S teir as well ignore gayfish poster
Druid is the best Nuke/healer class, Wizards are CC, psykers are charms/debuffs and priests are buffs
Shifting is great gameplay and storywise since you're re-living your souls pastlife as an animal tying into your role as a Watcher. I like to use the Stag as it fits your heraldry as the Road Warden of Cad Nua and your Flag in Deadfire.
For druid build, I would recommend Ancient subclass then buysteal the Greenwood staff from Nekataka magic shop
With this you now have a huge bonus +PL with any spells keyword beast or plant
add your daily Powerboost or powerstone and you can brute force a lot of spells.
I was wrong, the staff is The Spine of Thicket Green and you need to upgrade it with Empowering Instinct, this will give your druid spells +4 power level for plant and with the Ancient subclass
that is a disgusting amount of spell power to only be juiced up later.
I can reliably say that Its quite strong as my last character based off the old witch in the Tempest
Arguably the best nuker, but also has strong healing and some buffs/debuffs and summons in case you need them
If you are talking about poe1 you'll have access to all spells making it very versatile
how do you make pure wizards useful in the deadfire endgame? aloth became dead weight ~3/4 through the game because the powerful enemies/bosses (i'm going through SSS at level 19 atm) started coming with insane resistances that completely invalidate all of his CC. he has to be insanely close to melee/aoe splash to cast his nukes, gets interrupted if a trash mob farts in his vicinity, and the nukes themselves generally feel 10x less effective than tekehu's anyway. feeling like i should start a new game and leave that fricker at the digsite.
aloth and fassina just kinda suck in deadfire. my main party was pallegina, tekehu, eder and serafen, with xoti subbing in for pallegina after she ditched me cos i sided with the queen
You do know you can swap companions? Why would you want to restart the game?
LOVED the first game, second game really improved on combat and a lot of my gameplay gripes from the first game.
HOWEVER, I could not get into the pirate setting and I felt like I didn't really like anyone but Edyr. Disappointing because I had so much fun with the first game.
Not bad- but not your classic sword and sorcery adventure. It's all pirates of the carribean now.
I'm kind of the opposite I like the polynesian/colonial caribbean setting. I find classic medieval fantasy a little boring, mostly because it's been done so much, and appreciate it when fantasy does something different
i liked the setting in concept/on paper, but i feel like they didn't do enough (or much of anything) with it. the tone, mood, and music were all still just as somber and moody as POE1 during the height of the hollowborn crisis. the atmosphere should have been so much more energetic: you're in a fantasy hawaiian island chain chasing a god while fending off or joining pirates for frick's sake, but everything still feels so sedated and mournful.
not that anon - really? the first thing i noticed when i played deadfire for the first time was that it was much less dour than the first game. maybe my memory made it more downbeat than it actually was, though. i'm halfway through replaying PoE1 right now, maybe when I move on to deadfire I'll feel differently
...How have you been unlocking chests and doors? And what about traps?
idk, maybe it's just me but it just felt like too many NPCs were at rock bottom - and not even just the ones that had quests/problems that needed solving. not saying that there wasn't a narrative reason for it, but it just felt like a bummer that there wasn't ONE island in a prosperous or lively state. every huana village was starving, dealing with colonization issues, or overrun by ghosts/animals/engwithian constructs regardless of distance from the capital. even when you find purely huana in-house problems, they're situations like the koiki fruit quest where everybody is kind of a shithead and you feel ambivalent about the resolution. i can only recall one memorable moment in my whole playthrough where i stumbled on an event that wasn't about someone dying or losing everything they loved: the one where you meet another adventuring party and can choose to join their camp and just enjoy the evening with no strings attached or twist where they're ACKSHUALLY child slavers or something terrible.
Very early on in the game.
Only noticed when I went into temple of that god dude who blew up or something
I don’t really feel the same way. The Huana and Vailia music is fairly upbeat. As for the story, it’s about a people being colonised and a mad god trying to end the world, I wouldn’t say it’s a fun romp or anything
Do you guys have any hope in that Avowed game? It feels weird for Obsidian to pivot to this genre all of a sudden. Sure they made New Vegas, but it just feels weird. It's either gonna be New Vegas with wheellock pistols or Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis with guns.
>Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis with guns
and didn't care for it until you mentioned the possibilities
now I'm kinda hyped
>Obsidian making an Arx Fatalis
not in a million years
best we can give is Skyrim with guns
>It's either gonna be New Vegas with wheellock pistols or Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis with guns.
You're saying that as it it's a bad thing.
so finding hidden goodies have nothing to do with perception... but mechanics?
huh?
Yeah, enjoy wasting time sneaking everywhere.
Wellp, respeced Aloth to have mechanics because I totally ignored it.
in the sequel they realise this is bullshit and change it to perception
Does Onekaza die if you do the Vailian ending? Also, under what circumstances will the faction companions leave you?
I think she only dies if you do the RDC route, since the last mission they give you is to assassinate her.
>turn Xoti down when she comes on to me because I want some of that fish boy dick
>she starts grouchily saying “what now” when I click on her
I literally turned her into a tsundere
Which of the sidekicks have companion-level reactivity in the DLCs?
White elf.
In all 3 of them? I was always malding in the vase game that she wasn’t a full companion, she’s more interesting than Pallegina or Maia
Ydwin in Beast of Winter/Forgotten Sanctum
Fassina in Forgotten Sanctum
Konstanten in Seeker Slayer
Also Rekke. In BoW you can get him to speak to the dead Huana king if he's in your party. While in Forgotten Sanctum you learn about his past, and he joins in the conversation you have with Fyonlecg about "those who came before", which are Rekke's nation.
I've finally had to give up on Pillars for good. I stopped reading the text dumps, then I stopped clicking the more information options (tell me about yourself/this place/what do you do here), and even stopped reading the lengthy action dialogue (he scratches his chin and then turns around and looks at the wall before turning back to you and continuing to talk). And even after all of that, I'm still finding it tedious when an NPC drones on about some shit.
My brain has rotted through.
What about trash fights everywhere that give you nothing at all but waste your time?
spec em for my next run
conveniently enough Deadfire has a party size of 5
I knew how I'm doing Zuko first
It's a no-brainer since we want the flashy fire/lightning spells
>sage (monk/wizard)
>all fire and lightning spells
>curved swords/arquebus as a backup to fists
actually what was I thinking !
paladin suits zuko much more than a monk would
>Arcane knight (paladin/wizard)
another obvious one
>swashbuckler (fighter/rouge)
>straight swards, spears, clubs and bows
this one is trickier, but I think I got it
>oracle (druid/cipher)
>focus on druid healing and water/ice spells
>cipher dominate and raw damage spells to simulate blood-bending
>staff, dagger or stiletto
the last ones are trickier
I was obviously thinking of making Aang a monk as well, but what do I multiclass him to?
perhaps a chanter?
they have some Invocations that would suit an air-bender very well
>The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas
>At the Sound of His Voice, the Killers Froze Stiff
>So Singt Biting Winds o'Eld Nary
I need Toph ideas
so what's the best way to play Toph in Deadfire?
desperate here, I'm out of ideas
eder best bro.
>enemies would rather take the disengage hit so they can rush a spellcaster
How do I stop this? What's the fricking point of engagement if it doesn't do what it's supposed to do (discourage rushing the backline)?
Don't make pure tanks. The best fighters are dual-wielders because they will actually have enemies attacking them. Chanters with small-shield + hatchet are also good since they will do AoE damage with dragon-thrashed which will keep enemies on them.
>The best fighters are dual-wielders because they will actually have enemies attacking them
So enemies are skipping them because they're not attacking fast enough to be considered threats?
I don't think you should count on being able to always block your backline from the enemy
casters have plenty of utility abilities as well as talents and items to frick off or fend off if needed
druids are specifically strong in this department with shapeshifting
chanters are fine as well, as there are very few enemies in the game that are immune to both paralyze and charm effects
wizard has a bunch of self-buff abilities and spells particularly in defense department
priests... well I don't think my priest is getting targeted too often come to think of it
you can also use your melee chars to return and make retreating safe for squishy casters, knock down attacks etc.
>chanters
meant to say ciphers
Durance was my priest and he was getting targeted as a maximum priority to the level of enemy being willing to suicide themselves for a chance of hitting him. Up until I changed his armour and put him in a breastplate rather than his shitty robe. Then the enemy completely ignored him.
Nice throwback. At least the game makes me feel (slightly) better for spending 100 hours on PoE1
Alright, so all you shitposting Sawyergays have finally made me give Deadfire a try, even though I was frustrated and bored out of my fricking mind every single time I tried playing PoE1. I can safely say, multiclassing plus the complete removal of the Vancian Casting system means I'll probably stick around until the end of the game for at least combat, if nothing else. Playing with normal difficulty cause I'm a fricking baby, content scaling on for everything.
I'm at a pretty early point in the game, just axed Benweth and arrived to Nekehara, I'm running what I like call the Slavic Knife Fighter build, Rogue + Barbarian with one-handed dagger while trying to stack as much fricking action speed + crit chance as I possibly can, I'll definitely get a single-class chanter later for that sweet eventual tier 9 party buff to make it even more seizure-inducing. I know barb is kinda considered a class that sucks balls in 2, but the 20% bloodlust speed buff plus the frenzy buff plus having another mobility tool (gigachad leap) on top of rogue's Escape was enough to win me over. My only big gripe? All the cool shit for leap is locked behind tier 8. Honestly, I would roll up a Final Fantasy dragoon LARP character to do leap spam with a pike, but solo barb seems to suck balls so bad I'm not going to do it.
Good night everyone
god speed
also both FS and BoW DLCs are very good
I'll give you a tip anon
you can just buy boots of leap on any character, they're pretty cheap/spoiler]
on a side note has anybody compiled the best Power Level to keyword minmax? I rolled an illusionist wizard first run with the wand and mask that gave a pretty decent boost, nothing that wasnt immune would be instagibbed by CC/spellchains
>Power Level to keyword minmax
Fire has two weapons that give +2 PL each plus the ring that gives +10 accuracy with fire attacks
druids can get +5 PL with storm + lightning effects from armor + Lord Darryn's Voulge
Wish there were a few more Soulbound weapons in Deadfire, they’re a fun concept but there are only like 5 of them
The dragon in Harbinger's Watch is harder than Thaos
About to start PoE 2. I remember playing the first one (when it released) as a cipher, and liking the class, so I'd like to go with the same here. But I'm having trouble choosing specifics. Soul Blade sounds cool, since I love spellblades, and it sounds like I would be in melee a lot with him, but it also seems like it's not really a good subclass for a pure cipher, and I'm generally not too fond of multi-classing.
Ascended also sounds potentially good, but I feel like it would make more sense to go with something like a bow instead on it, and that's simply not as cool.
Can I get some general Cipher build tips?
Go Asscended or go home. Tha balans man decided it and you have no choice but obey.
Single class it's Ascended or Beguiler.
Soul-blade needs to be multiclassed to be playable, single-classed doesn't do enough weapon damage and can't survive in melee combat.
A bit off topic, but If Avowed would be set in a long? time before PoE, could it be that firearms hadn't been invented yet?
Eh, even if Avowed was set in Engwithan times I'm sure they would still have guns considering they were super geniuses who could build all sorts of devices
They we're swinging bronze axes other than the times they weren't.
Has there ever been a first person shooter that did slings well? Then again, if the magic system is good chances are most players wouldn't choose the unga bunga option.
I've started playing Deadfire, and is it just me or is the audio, mostly voice quality pretty bad? I think the narrator is the biggest issue, but everyone sounds just kind of off. I'm not certain what is it exactly, but I think voices lack depth, like not enough bass perhaps. Sounds like a mixing issue to me, unless it's just been originally recorded in a low quality.
Anyone else noticed that?
Look at it. Such a cool piece of art. An almost great setting ruined by modern homosexuals.
I am not a native English speaker, I wish I could understand myself so much more, or even explain in a succinct and clear blogpost, that will nevertheless be picked on or scapegoated because that is the nature of the internet...How utterly disappointed I am with poe.
Maybe because I expected obsidian to do something good, I really dont care about pathfinder or DivOS in fact in many ways they are even worse.
Maybe I have been also infected by politics and culture war and schizos, but POE is so fricking mind numbingly boring.
Yes I dislike the Vailains and Aumaua and fricking women warriors everywhere but I really can deal with that homosexualry.
But everything else is just so bland, I hate most of the companions, npcs are all shit, I hate the fricking combat.
There is this feeling sawyer was trying to bring that icewind dale magic in winter march, but everything feels dead and limp.
I have played both these games over and over to half point and I just dont fricking like them. And I guess I become pissy at the little things because there are not alternatives. I am just done.
>Yes I dislike the Vailains and Aumaua
I still don't get people's problems with these two. And I mean actual problems that don't amount to some /misc/ shit about "erasing" white history because there's blacks in an RPG. I mean actual problems, like from a world-building standpoint or something about their culture. Same thing with the Aumaua. The most I've seen is that people think of them as cheap orc replacements, but would you just rather have orcs then? Seriously, a lot of the issues people here seem to have with them come off as petty and more about aesthetics than anything else. Which is fine if people don't personally like them, but they seem to think they're objectively shit without being able to explain why.
I like them, Vailians are 17th century Euro explorers. Some very OBVIOUS dutch and Philip 2 influences there. And Aumaua, fascist orcs with gunpowder. Sure I see what you are doing there Sawyer but still frick you.
But everything is trying so hard to be serious but at the same time the grime from modern trash like critical role is so evident.
Poe is like a beautiful painting smeared with shit grease all over. That's how i feel about it.
There's a feeling of insecurity to the whole setting. Like they were making something they liked but then had to keep changing characters, names, places, races, etc. to make it different but still the same. Almost like they had a setting they wanted to make but let themselves ruin it because they were worried people would say they were just ripping off other settings.
yes. I get that feeling as well.
playing POE with an entirely custom party of mercenaries greatly improved my experience by the way. making up my own stories and characters in my head was way better than digging through incredibly systematic dialogue trees to uncover whatever horseshit backstory some nerd at obsidian thought was unique
But then there are the quests which are really fricking unfun, with some exceptions.
I dont understand how obsidian changed so much, Kotor 2 even unfinished has good companions, New vegas is nice, Mask of the Betrayer is awesome.
In fact I fricking loved alpha protocol, even with the jank great fricking attempt, frick mass effect.
Then there is this time gap, and poe gets kickstarted, they release south park and outer worlds which is disgustingly boring like poe and such mediocrity surprised me.
and yet those games got them way more praise and publicity than any of those older games except maybe nv
Its just the times we're in
Its a fricking cosmic joke. I have no doubt those older games on better tech like today would get the same publicity and better fame. Those dark console years from 2007 to 2017 fricked everything.
>I dont understand how obsidian changed so much,
>same question asked every day
>answer is always: wokeshit and diversity hires
I hope you're asking rhetorically.
Because they don't care about the genre or actually advancing the elements of design that made it fun in the first place, they care about marketing more copies to the easily entertained and stroking their egos/building their rep as a designer.
You can't keep anything that you didn't tear down and rebuild in your own shitty image, that wouldn't be "progressive".
Cipher Watcher with all fighter "mercenaries" is the way to do it.
Removing more awful writing from the game this way would improve it via subtraction.
why do all these CRPG revival games have such a boring approach to dungeon design ( and a severe lack of dungeons as well)
no riddles, no puzzles, no hidden walls, a novelty amount of traps that exist purely to string along rogue players unfortunate enough to put points into that
Its so fricking dull. The can ONLY make combat slogs and the combat slogs are NOT interesting either. no idiots tweaking numbers of everything opposed to me to be higher is not fricking interesting why cant they get inspired by the lesser known D&D monsters
poe1 peaks with raedric.
I could see being an alright tabletop session. A fortress, multiple entrances, some side shit to do, disguises yourself and your party as monks! FUN! And a final boss fight.
But everything is done in a very dull and dry way.
>no riddles, no puzzles, no hidden walls
Why don't you actually play the game instead of samegayging this baitposting sheit every once in a while?
The modern rpgamer hates riddles and puzzles. They make him feel stupid. He should be able to create a character with high INT who can just instantly figure it out for him.
>The modern rpgamer hates riddles and puzzles
As they should. The people making these games can’t be trusted to make good puzzles like they couldn’t be trusted in the 80s and 90s
You can see some of sawyer historical autism in it however very clearly, like the song names from the chanterbards, like "For by his rain of blows he destroyed Koll's shield" from old norse Aurvandill.
dont try and do the keep as soon as you find it or you will get bored and you will drop the game
how to play poe:
>make your own party of merecenaries
>skip most side content and companion shit
I read multiple doorstopper novels my friends couldnt readnt and this game still filtered me
The text seems to written by people that hate joy in their life
I decided to revisit first PoE a few years after playing it for a bit.
Now I'm lost in the castle of that guy who hangs everyone (Don't expect me to remember their names). I wandered into the place where priests of Berath are, but can't find a guy I should've talked to. Also can't find where to go next. I could go outside and fight several tanky enemies, but the whole point was to not do it. I also ran out of supplies like a dumbass.
Can I get some spoiler-free hints?
go here
>level cap is level 20
So how am I expected to beat the DLC? Just look for better equipment? Some new game+ feature?
I wasn't going to raid Ukaizo until I finished the DLC
yeah DLCs are tough compared to main content
optimize party composition
optimize builds
optimize equipment
hire mercs to tailor-optimize builds, if steps above failed
although I feel you can just brute force through if you are playing < veteran + scaling
It just doesn't seem scaled properly for classic mode.
I believe it is intended
Since it's supposedly for someone who already knows the game it's kinda "the gloves are off" content
I also feel it's tough but not unfair
>I hope there's enough variation in the quests to keep multiple playthroughs interesting.
Do you get sexual satisfaction from doing fetch quests for Blacks? If no, there isn’t enough variation for one play through.
>Do you get sexual satisfaction from doing fetch quests for Blacks?
Only if you do the VTC route. There's 3 other factions if you want to associate with them.
You mean work for the worse very cool hawk handling arquebus orc Black folk ( are we cool enough already?) and the Black person pirates?
I know they look like African American but they act like Euros from meds to northern ones. And everything is multicultural.
The setting is trying way too hard to be grey and smart, from the " gods" to the races, everybody is guilty and innocent kinda of shit. Its not that I dislike that but I really just wanted some high fantasy shit with some smart stuff sprinkled.
Can we all agree that vatnir > xoti?
Literally anyone > piss > shit >>>> powergap > Xoti = Serafen
Damn, you really hate them both
Why romance greasy xoti? Why the ridiculous accent?
Why not make better grills to romance?
I do that. I make female mercenaries and then pretend my character is romancing them. Much better writing. Basically they don't fricking say anything while I'm playing the game and save it all for world map travel and camping where I don't have to be bothered with it.
I did that in Icewind Dale 1 and 2. I even created romance triangles, and if a character died it stayed dead. Among other stuff like backgrounds related to the story.
It was fun really, it helped me create stuff for tabletop sessions.
What we really ned is a crpg like DF adventure mode that is expert at creating random stories and a sandbox world to explore.
I really hate eora.
Meh, Vatnir started out interesting, but he had very little to do even in his own DLC, and after that he doesn't have any dialogue on the ship like the other sidekicks, meaning that he's left with frick all to do. Ydwin has a far bigger and more impactful role in the expansion. Overall Ydwin > Xoti > power gap > Vatnir
Maybe if Obsidian ever does a PoE3 and Vatnir becomes a full fledge companion then I might change my mind.
Welp I beat PoE2 siding with Eothas and the Huana. It felt like a good ending to me tbh. Had to skip the DLC boss fights (especially the arena and the ice dragon) because they were just too hard for me :/
Cool series. Idk how Avowed will be.