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Divinity: Original Sin 2 |OT| Dragons & Dungeon Mastering

Sanctuary

Member
- Loremaster is needed to avoid consuming identifying glasses. You can skip it as long as you have these items to identify your drops or are willing to pay the vendors to do it for you. Overall, I like to have it on my mage.

I didn't realize that you could identify items with just the identifying glass without Loremaster though as a consumable.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I actually found playing with friends to be detrimental to my enjoyment in this game.

It's just way too chaotic in terms of story/conversations. I don't want to miss out on pieces of dialogue and I found it a weird fit to play such a text-heavy game with multiple people.

I'll give it another shot once I finished the game once.
That will always be the problem of a serious story based game and multiple people. Works better with comedic games
 

Chaos17

Member
After Act 2, I don't use epics anymore. It's either unique, legendary or divine. Everything else goes to the vendors.
I was including them too.

How's the writing in this game?

I didn't find the writing in D:OS 1 bad, per se, but just pretty annoying - borderline insufferable fwiw
Writing in this game a better than 1 but the problem is how the stories are told (I mean side quests and main quest) it's... so... meh compared to the first game where you had so many more cutscenes.

Here you can stumble on super cool quest but only first npc who give the quest has dialog then the one at the end but before reaching your goal you will have to go to point B C D FG... sorry but for once I would've prefered simple fetch quest instead on getting me hyped for nothing and the rewards aren't that nice or not fit for your party...
 
Persuasion is good for your main character, it's used in tons of situations.

Thievery is one of the best abilities in the game.

Lucky charm is good to get extra loot to sell, but don't expect good gears from it.

Loremaster is needed to identity items.

Just split these abilities between the four characters in your party.

Just to add a counterpoint to this.
- I found persuasion to not be needed at all. Sure you can avoid some fights and solve some quests in a easier way due to being able to convince the NPCs of whatever you want but I found that missing out on the EXP from the avoided fights is not worth it at all in the long run and you can convince most NPCs anyway by giving them some item or gold.
- Thievery is excellent while in Fort Joy. After that it's a nice thing to have but it's importance gets significantly lower the longer you play.
- Lucky charm was broken, now it's not as broken but it's still a great way to get gear. FYI, the gear you find is tied to the zone you proc lucky charm at, so if you proc in a level 10 zone you get level 10-ish (9/10/11) gear, if you proc in a level 16 zone you get level 16-ish (15/16/17) gear, no matter what level your character is.
- Loremaster is needed to avoid consuming identifying glasses. You can skip it as long as you have these items to identify your drops or are willing to pay the vendors to do it for you. Overall, I like to have it on my mage.

uhm

on the other hand

Sneaking - pratically useless for combat, can be a little useful after pickpocketing but meh

Telekinesis - outside combat i use teleport, i guess it can be useful on the battlefield to move barrels but is really situational

Bartering - useful to sell the stuff, you gain stuff from lucky charm and thievery but i don't know how the economy evolve from after act1

__________________________________________________

i was also of using perseverance for the tank in sinergy with the talent "walk it off", but it applies only on frozen or stunned for MA and knocked down or petrified for PA...i mean why even bother when half the fights you're burning...

i was also thinking of dropping arrow recovery on my huntsman, 33% and i barely use special arrows
 

Reani

Member
After Act 2, I don't use epics anymore. It's either unique, legendary or divine. Everything else goes to the vendors.
i am in act 3 and i think i still didnt replace my +1 warfare +1 scoundrel chestpiece for my rogue with 20/20 armor. more armor for less damage is just a bad trade lool
 
i am in act 3 and i think i still didnt replace my +1 warfare +1 scoundrel chestpiece for my rogue with 20/20 armor. more armor for less damage is just a bad trade lool

True. Bonus stats and skills are more important than armors.

Though when it comes to weapons, I always keep them updated every time I gain a level or two.
 

Atuin

Member
I'm thinking about "waste not, want not" build: elf skeleton necromancer that uses enemy's skin for face, flesh to regain memories and bones to summon skeletons. I don't know anything about the game so how viable is that build?
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
I was in bed last night build crafting while having sex with my gf... This game man.

My hydrosophist/necromancer wand dual wielder is just not as effective as my other party members, he's got some physical and mostly magical damage output and the others are mostly physical damage so he feels useless most of the time.
 

Eyeh4wk

Member
Sneaking wouldn't be so useless if it wasn't so costly (4 AP, really?). And more importantly allies and totems shouldn't reveal you! Larian should make that Guerilla talent lower 1 AP to sneak in combat. I like to keep a couple of points in it anyway so that, while everyone is locked in combat, I can go around and steal all the precious arrows/grenades you know the enemy will have.
 
I'm thinking about "waste not, want not" build: elf skeleton necromancer that uses enemy's skin for face, flesh to regain memories and bones to summon skeletons. I don't know anything about the game so how viable is that build?

What you're describing is viable, but it's mostly just flavor. Choose Fane as your character and change into an elf with his shapeshifting mask to consume body parts if you want max flexibility.
 

J4g3r

Member
Why isn't it letting me put a point into Thievery?

wRy3aiw.png
 

Makareu

Member
Just finished the third act and I am a bit disappointed by the combat (classic), every encounter is trivial even with a balanced party. I avoid spending my points or my gold and I hope act 4 will bring some challenge.
I could up the difficulty but I really want to keep the tactician mode for a second playthrough down the line with the 3 other origins characters. An enhanced version would be awesome, or at least a serious balance patch.

That being said I really enjoy the writing and my companions (Red Prince, Sebille and Ifan), so I will happily keep playing to the end.
 

cevion

Member
Civil Abilities are? Damn...

I've only ever found gloves and belts that give bonuses to Thievery (which is what she has now) - Shame...

There is a unique chest with +1 thievery and other skills that fit a ranger/thief in Act 2.
It can be stolen from (Early Act 2 item location spoiler)
the dwarf in Driftwood inside the Inn that guards the entrance to the Undertavern, IIRC

There's also a pair of gloves with +2 thievery in the same act, nearby location.
It's from a lady dwarf in Driftwood, with a name I can't remember. She's just north of the square. You can offer to give her 250 gold. If you flirted with Butter in Act 1, you can mention that you know of Butter, and apparently lady dwarf gives you the gloves. I missed them myself since I just gave her the gold without looking closely at the other dialogue options, which then led to her running off)

So with the right gear (belt +1, gloves +2, chest +1) you could get yourself to +9 thievery, which I imagine lets you steal like 30k gold per character. +8 thievery let's me steal around 14.5k. The scaling is nuts, just like with weapons and armor.
 
Should I respect my aero/hydro mage for a Ranger? I have a decent crossbow and I've noticed how difficult rangers to deal with due to high damage.
My current party
2Handed polymorph
2handed warfighter
Cleric/Necromancer
Aero/hydro mage
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Should I respect my aero/hydro mage for a Ranger? I have a decent crossbow and I've noticed how difficult rangers to deal with due to high damage.
My current party
2Handed polymorph
2handed warfighter
Cleric/Necromancer
Aero/hydro mage

That is the weirdest party makeup I've seen listed yet.
 

Sygma

Member
Should I respect my aero/hydro mage for a Ranger? I have a decent crossbow and I've noticed how difficult rangers to deal with due to high damage.
My current party
2Handed polymorph
2handed warfighter
Cleric/Necromancer
Aero/hydro mage


I have 2h warfare + poly + pyro and its virtually impossible to stop or escape her

Basically you want polymorph as a melee because it has the best mobility skill in the entire game (spread your wings), pyro because of clear minded / haste aswell as phoenix dive, and warfare because of blitz attack that allows you to backstab anyone despise the height difference on top of giving you the rest of the goodies

Your problem is going to be the magic armor regen if need be. As far as physical armor goes you should be good with soul mate from necro coupled to the polymorph regen skill

hydro has the cold soothing if im not mistaken, and cryostasis in order to completely cancel damage you could get. Both aren't as good as what you can get with soulmate when you re using rally cry with say, 1 ally, your invoc and 2 totems.


So yeah tl dr : use spread your wings + cold steel and you ll never be bothered by rangers ever again, since spread your wings is 1ap to reach a ranger regarding of its location, which will save the AP you d normally have to burn by climbing a ladder. (Same logic applies with phoenix dive) And you skip teleport aswell. Its also a 1 turn cd which means you have it at every new turn .. so in case the ranger you're on is escaping with tactical retreat, well, joke's on him

In one turn, with spread your wings + phoenix dive and battering ram you can literally cross the whole map when you re fighting for 5 ap, and at the next turn, Flight is up again


However the safest way to deal with projectiles is to remove polymorph while your overall of armor is on the low end of the spectrum(ie : bad gear), and play with aero instead, so you can benefit of uncanny evasion. Its only a one turn 100% evasion but its so freaking amazing, especially in the arenas
 

cevion

Member
Should I respect my aero/hydro mage for a Ranger? I have a decent crossbow and I've noticed how difficult rangers to deal with due to high damage.
My current party
2Handed polymorph
2handed warfighter
Cleric/Necromancer
Aero/hydro mage

I would suggest giving 1-3 polymorph on all your characters. Cloak, chicken, medusa head, tentacle and wings are all very helpful)

I would also advice giving 3 or 4 of your characters 1-2 point in hydro for Restoration and Magic armor + Soothing Cold, or 2 in huntsman for heals + tactical retreat. (Pyro for haste and peace of mind is also helpful, along with geo for fortify/mend metal and aero for teleport/netherswap/evasive manoveur) Spreading out your skillpoints in different schools does not gimp you IMO, just gives you more utility. The only exception would be a summoner where you want to hit 10 in summoning ASAP for the beefed up incarnates.

Do you need/want to play with 2 2 handers? Otherwise 2 x physical and 2 x magical companions is a good balance. Respec your weakest character or your character of preference. Rangers are very powerful indeed. If you give your casters shields and shield throw (1 warfare) and your physical damage dealers Medusa Head and Chloroform, you can deal phys + magic damage with everyone. The ranger can also deal magic damage if necessary with magic arrows.

Good luck :)

edit: Beaten, solid advice in the post above me!
edit2: Pyro is a fun school and has alot of good AoE spells. If you stack the enemies up with something like teleport, you can rain down fiery hell upon them. Savage Sortilege (spelling) and Elemental Affinity is very nice to have on any caster, but esp. pyro since most battles tend to begin or end with everything on fire. The Pyro won't hit as hard as your ranger or 2hander single target, but will be able to do great AoE combos/CC with Geo through earth and poison spells.
 
Is it worth putting a few pts into Summoning or is it 10 pts or bust?

Currently have 2 mages: hydro / air and pyro / geo and debating whether to branch them out a bit.
 
I just finished the first one again and it a great game. I've seen a lot of people saying its story and writing aren't very good, but I disagree on that. It has some short coming, especially when it comes to exposition dialogue, but it's overall level of quality is high.

There is two things however that I strongly disliked about the game:

i) The pacing. For the majority of the game this isn't such a problem as you can set your own pace, but the more linear parts, like the beginning and the end, can become a chore.

ii) Puzzles and traps. I found the excess of traps in this game and the puzzles to be lackluster. More tedious than fun. There were some parts that simply walking foward was a challenge.

So I'd like to ask how the sequel is concerning this two aspects.
 

lionpants

Member
I'm at the Mirror and it's letting me continuously add 1 point to Warfare if I unfocus it and refocus after it displays as maxed out.

Is this a bug?
 

J4g3r

Member
There is a unique chest with +1 thievery and other skills that fit a ranger/thief in Act 2.
It can be stolen from (Early Act 2 item location spoiler)
the dwarf in Driftwood inside the Inn that guards the entrance to the Undertavern, IIRC

There's also a pair of gloves with +2 thievery in the same act, nearby location.
It's from a lady dwarf in Driftwood, with a name I can't remember. She's just north of the square. You can offer to give her 250 gold. If you flirted with Butter in Act 1, you can mention that you know of Butter, and apparently lady dwarf gives you the gloves. I missed them myself since I just gave her the gold without looking closely at the other dialogue options, which then led to her running off)

So with the right gear (belt +1, gloves +2, chest +1) you could get yourself to +9 thievery, which I imagine lets you steal like 30k gold per character. +8 thievery let's me steal around 14.5k. The scaling is nuts, just like with weapons and armor.

I just found a unique ring that gives +1 to Thievery in Act 3 also, thanks for details!
 

cevion

Member
Is it worth putting a few pts into Summoning or is it 10 pts or bust?

Currently have 2 mages: hydro / air and pyro / geo and debating whether to branch them out a bit.

I'd say 10 points or bust. The incarnate becomes incredibly powerful (along with the bone widow and the other summons, but the incarnate is the most diverse)

I had the same mage setup as you. As soon as my hydro/air mage could go 10 summoning, I respecced into it. I then geared him so I had 2 in hydro / air which let me use him as summoner / buffer + some extra damage/CC after he's summoned the incarnate and buffed that with farsight, power and haste. Gave him 1 pyro for haste and 1 geo for fortify. Once you level up a bit and gear up you'll have enough points to do both! I also gave my pyro/geo some points in other schools for Soothing Cold, Magic Armor, Tactical Retreat, Cloak etc.

edit: Oh and shackles of pain in the necro tree (coupled with living on the edge) is great for casters if you meet a mob with high elemental resistance. If you shackle the enemy and cast the spells on your ally instead, the spells will go through the ally's resistances, making it possible to kill for example fire slugs that normally absorb fire damage, with fire spells :)

I just found a unique ring that gives +1 to Thievery in Act 3 also, thanks for details!

Awesome! No worries! I just have one area left in Act 2, would you mind spoiling me on where you got the ring? :)
 

J4g3r

Member
Awesome! No worries! I just have one area left in Act 2, would you mind telling me where you got the ring? :)

If you have Sebille in your party, it's hard to miss as it's part of her quest - I'll spoiler tag it:

Act 3 spoilers

Sebille's master had it on him.
 

Sygma

Member
Is it worth putting a few pts into Summoning or is it 10 pts or bust?

Currently have 2 mages: hydro / air and pyro / geo and debating whether to branch them out a bit.

I mean, points into summoning are literally there ONLY to boost the summons. At 10 you get the incarnate champion, so yeah


i) The pacing. For the majority of the game this isn't such a problem as you can set your own pace, but the more linear parts, like the beginning and the end, can become a chore.

It was my biggest issue and could never finish the game because of it. Way too slow everything.

in div 2 maybe the 2 first hours are slow and then it pretty much goes full steam


Puzzles are much more straightforward, there's nothing like the "mirror dungeon" in act 1 of the original, for example.
 
I just finished the first one again and it a great game. I've seen a lot of people saying its story and writing aren't very good, but I disagree on that. It has some short coming, especially when it comes to exposition dialogue, but it's overall level of quality is high.

There is two things however that I strongly disliked about the game:

i) The pacing. For the majority of the game this isn't such a problem as you can set your own pace, but the more linear parts, like the beginning and the end, can become a chore.

ii) Puzzles and traps. I found the excess of traps in this game and the puzzles to be lackluster. More tedious than fun. There were some parts that simply walking foward was a challenge.

So I'd like to ask how the sequel is concerning this two aspects.

You'll find this game to be an improvement in both areas. I personally miss the puzzles and traps. There's a few here but nowhere near the same amount. It should work better for you though.
 
Persuasion is good for your main character, it's used in tons of situations.

Thievery is one of the best abilities in the game.

Lucky charm is good to get extra loot to sell, but don't expect good gears from it.

Loremaster is needed to identity items.

Just split these abilities between the four characters in your party.

Loremaster is also to determine what stats/resistances/attack damage/accuracy a enemy has

Lucky Charm is dam near OP if you can get it to 8 or higher even more so when divine stuff starts to trigger
 

Sygma

Member
I was in bed last night build crafting while having sex with my gf... This game man.

My hydrosophist/necromancer wand dual wielder is just not as effective as my other party members, he's got some physical and mostly magical damage output and the others are mostly physical damage so he feels useless most of the time.

Play pyro with Necro. Because of corpse explosion / mass corpse explosion and the combos you can d between fire skills and bloat corpse. Also laser ray to burst stuff down. Necro arguably has the best dps buff in the game but you need to build him as a glass canon to profit of it
 
I wish we could have made our own character from scratch with Zrilla instead of having to pick pre-generated henchmen, it sucks for RP purposes.
 
Question about questlines in Act 1. My party is level 5 so I'm assuming I'm more than halfway through.

So I escaped the Fort Joy dungeon and made it to the other side of the island. Decided to return back to the starting area and all of the magisters are hostile.
Any issues if I kill em all?

Also, I explored the outside of the Fort and ran into High Judge Oliand inside the top of the fort.
On the exterior there is a neutral Paladin Cork who looks like he is trying to escape. Are these characters part of a later questline? Should I proceed with exploring the other side of the island and then come back for context?
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
Play pyro with Necro. Because of corpse explosion / mass corpse explosion and the combos you can d between fire skills and bloat corpse. Also laser ray to burst stuff down. Necro arguably has the best dps buff in the game but you need to build him as a glass canon to profit of it

Tell me more about this glass canon necro build.
 
Started my first char as necro / hydro healer and then just messed around to create a knight 2h. In second seemed I found no healing whatsoever. Best to stick with first inclination?
 

Sanctuary

Member
I'd say 10 points or bust. The incarnate becomes incredibly powerful (along with the bone widow and the other summons, but the incarnate is the most diverse)

I had the same mage setup as you. As soon as my hydro/air mage could go 10 summoning, I respecced into it. I then geared him so I had 2 in hydro / air which let me use him as summoner / buffer + some extra damage/CC after he's summoned the incarnate and buffed that with farsight, power and haste. Gave him 1 pyro for haste and 1 geo for fortify. Once you level up a bit and gear up you'll have enough points to do both! I also gave my pyro/geo some points in other schools for Soothing Cold, Magic Armor, Tactical Retreat, Cloak etc.

edit: Oh and shackles of pain in the necro tree (coupled with living on the edge) is great for casters if you meet a mob with high elemental resistance. If you shackle the enemy and cast the spells on your ally instead, the spells will go through the ally's resistances, making it possible to kill for example fire slugs that normally absorb fire damage, with fire spells :)



Awesome! No worries! I just have one area left in Act 2, would you mind spoiling me on where you got the ring? :)

Summoning is pretty much an all or nothing affair for the pets, but it's situationally good to have two into the school for Charm in a split group. The Incarnate really shines though in either an all elemental damage group, or a split group.

It mostly sucks in an all physical group other than having kind of a distraction, an extra Battle Stomp and the ability for the caster to deal damage at a range they normally wouldn't be able to on the first turn. It just can't keep up with the physical damage characters can do thanks to the crazy item scaling though. At best you end up with a beefy distraction that can supplement the "okay" damage of the caster until the caster also has 10 in Warfare, which is late game. There's pretty much no reason to infuse it with an element in this kind of group either.

It's an absolute monster though in split or an all elemental group however. For whatever reason, the Incarnate hits way harder with the same spells that a player can use even at the same rank in that element. They can only cast two spells, but they hit like a truck and are also cheaper in that they are "free" aside from the single source point you spent for the infusion. The same spells for the player would cost 2-3 source points and do less damage (WTF?).

Started my first char as necro / hydro healer and then just messed around to create a knight 2h. In second seemed I found no healing whatsoever. Best to stick with first inclination?

Healing is overrated and you will almost never have any need for anything beyond the basic Restoration spell. The Huntsman's First Aid is useful mostly for the caster, but it removes some rather annoying debuffs on top of the healing it does too. Most of the time potions are more than enough and you'll barely need them either. Keeping your armors up is more important. Two-Handed isn't that good until level 10+ and it doesn't get great until close to end of the game. The best physical damage dealers are Rangers and Rogues.

Basically you want polymorph as a melee because it has the best mobility skill in the entire game (spread your wings), pyro because of clear minded / haste aswell as phoenix dive, and warfare because of blitz attack that allows you to backstab anyone despise the height difference on top of giving you the rest of the goodies

Your problem is going to be the magic armor regen if need be. As far as physical armor goes you should be good with soul mate from necro coupled to the polymorph regen skill

hydro has the cold soothing if im not mistaken, and cryostasis in order to completely cancel damage you could get. Both aren't as good as what you can get with soulmate when you re using rally cry with say, 1 ally, your invoc and 2 totems.


So yeah tl dr : use spread your wings + cold steel and you ll never be bothered by rangers ever again, since spread your wings is 1ap to reach a ranger regarding of its location, which will save the AP you d normally have to burn by climbing a ladder. (Same logic applies with phoenix dive) And you skip teleport aswell. Its also a 1 turn cd which means you have it at every new turn .. so in case the ranger you're on is escaping with tactical retreat, well, joke's on him

In one turn, with spread your wings + phoenix dive and battering ram you can literally cross the whole map when you re fighting for 5 ap, and at the next turn, Flight is up again


However the safest way to deal with projectiles is to remove polymorph while your overall of armor is on the low end of the spectrum(ie : bad gear), and play with aero instead, so you can benefit of uncanny evasion. Its only a one turn 100% evasion but its so freaking amazing, especially in the arenas

Haste is a questionable use of AP to cast on yourself unless you're using it to remove Cripple and Slow. It essentially costs 1 AP to move you an extra 2m per AP spent (so up to 6m on a typical first turn) since the AP you gain from it makes it a zero sum total. It's not terrible for 1 AP, but it stalls your first turn. Polymorph is a great tree, but it's only situationally useful to go beyond two points for a long while, and even then it might not even be worth going beyond the first rank until late game. Flight is a good skill, but its use compared to the other movement options is dubious. It costs two AP for the first time you move with it and then one after on the next two turns. Phoenix Dive, Cloak and Dagger and Tactical Retreat (which you most likely wouldn't have) all cost 1 AP and move you the same distance. It's rare that you'll need to actually move that many times in most encounters anyway, because even if you do end up using it a third time, chances are it was to move to the complete opposite end of the screen from where you were and even then you still would not have reached the last enemy or two--which will most likely already be picked off by your other characters anyway.

As far as keeping armor up, Fortify is better than both Uncanny Evasion and Heart of Steel (it also removes burning and prevents teleportation), although if you don't want to spread your points out too much, even Bone Cage is better than the other two options, especially since Necromancy has a handful of really useful buffs, debuffs and situational healing that work well with melee compared to both Aero and Geo.
 
You'll find this game to be an improvement in both areas. I personally miss the puzzles and traps. There's a few here but nowhere near the same amount. It should work better for you though.

I like puzzles, but I found the ones in Divinity to be bad. Some involved too uch walking, or finding a buttoms that were very hard to spot. Samething for traps, sometimes they were just too excessive and I felt uncreative. More an annoyance than a interesting game mechanic that you needed to overcome.
 
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