I keep replaying the Black Pits "explosive platform" fight over and over for kicks. This is such a perfect storm of everything that makes the game a chaotic, glorious mess. The wave of Fire Voidlings is such an awesome "ooooh Larian you beautiful evil bastards" moment
.
I sometimes wish there was a way to bypass the resurrection scrolls (guess there's already a mod for it). I could do with the usual "KOed party members get up at the end of the fight", even though I get why they did things that way.
I was coasting along without too much challenge in Classic until the Act 4 spiders in the
Arx sewers
. Having all my heroes webbed in place with no mobility options made for a very interesting fight; had to come up with some creative tactics and combos.
I do feel that the difficulty peaked in Act 2, after I've been fine as long as I kept my gear up to my level. Still haven't reached the end of course.
Are you playing with 4 members? Then use 2 to distract while your other 2 rangers rain hell. 2 s&b and 2 rangers work super well.
Are you playing with 2 Lone Wolves? then make em both Rangers and demolish shit. Even on Tactician, 2 Lone Wolf Rangers should be killing 2 to 4 enemies in the first round with Adrenaline.
Also, get your Rangers 2 strength so they can wear platemail.
Yeah. In fact, I think you'll actually deal less damage if you're Warfare specced since you'll lose the +physical damage. I believe it gets converted to elemental first, then bonuses applied or not applied depending. But no, Geomancy isn't going to help your Earth-infused arrows.
No way. Elemental Arrowhead definitely scales with the spell skill, I can't test right now but I'm sure I was doing more water damage with higher Hydro skill. You can do a lot of spell damage with water arrowhead AND water arrows (since they also get wet which lowers water resistance). I don't know if it scales with Int or about that elemental talent.
Well first, congrats on purchasing the best CRPG ever made. Since you're a fan of those games, especially Baldur's Gate, this game is similar to that but is the "modern" iteration of it. Imo, this game blows all those ones out the water with its writing, gameplay, replay value, immersion and fun factor.
A tip someone here told me. If you have an undead, take your helmet off in front of your victim to make them run, then intercept them with another char away from witnesses.
After reading all those final boss nightmare stories.. I beat it on my first try, I guess I was lucky?
Braccus Rex was too busy dealing with Lucian the whole fight at the eastern platform, so I could focus on the Kraken. I put Sebile on the high platform on the southeast, and a turn later the Kraken teleported there like a dumbass, just 2 meters away from Sebile. Of course, it got deliberated with the Arrow Spray on the next turn. And as expected, all of the summons vanished as soon as the Kraken dies. On the front line, I messed up a by by bringing Red Prince too far ahead so he died from Braccus' fireball. Lohse and Beast were busy healing and buffing everyone almost the whole fight. After she's done with the Kraken, I put Sebille next to Braccus to own him. Thankfully, I quicksaved once when Braccus was about to die. I forgot to resurrect Red Prince so I reload to make sure that everyone is alive when he dies. Anyway, I saved my game on the final decision so I can see all the endings.
Took me 117 hours to beat the game according to Steam, though if I check it in-game via a manual save, it only says 80 hours. Amazing game all around, definitely a masterpiece.
The game is really great. I've been playing with my SO co-op the whole way. We seem to have a hard time on the battles though. It feels like the damage we do is lower than the damage the enemies do pretty consistently. We are on the same level as the enemies too.
We are still in the initial
prison island
part. We kind of struggle with revivals and how much those resurrection scrolls cost also.
No way. Elemental Arrowhead definitely scales with the spell skill, I can't test right now but I'm sure I was doing more water damage with higher Hydro skill. You can do a lot of spell damage with water arrowhead AND water arrows (since they also get wet which lowers water resistance). I don't know if it scales with Int or about that elemental talent.
Like, you sure? I know wands do, but consumables...?
Because if you're right, then...why isn't everyone giving their mages a crossbow and a shitload of magic arrows of the spell school they specialise in? They'd get height bonuses, be able to cast spells at full strength AND have super heavy hitting ranged attacks (Int + spell school + ranged + huntsman). Suddenly your Enchanter stops being support and starts being a sniper with shock/water arrows.
2H and Ranger are supposedly the bees knees but I'm not feeling it. Too many resources spent babysitting their squishy arse. 1H is not much inferior to 2H once you get excellent shields, and ranger high ground is hard to keep due to enemies blowing their phoenix/cloak/backlash/mark/AOE on him.
Really? Ranger can be a bit squishy, but if you've invested to give them multiple movement skills they are really mobile and can get away to safety pretty easily. My Ranger has Tac Retreat, Cloak and Dagger, and Polymorph Wings so he can pretty much never be pinned down.
My MC is my 2Hander and both does the most damage and 2nd highest armor/HP of my group.
The game is really great. I've been playing with my SO co-op the whole way. We seem to have a hard time on the battles though. It feels like the damage we do is lower than the damage the enemies do pretty consistently. We are on the same level as the enemies too.
We are still in the initial
prison island
part. We kind of struggle with revivals and how much those resurrection scrolls cost also.
Gear, particularly, is very important in early game. Even a small upgrade may win you an encounter. Always keep them updated as much as you possibly could. Also, focus your physical fighters on mages and rogues, as they have low physical armor compared to warriors. Mages won't really shine until later, so use them as support at least until you reach the 2nd Act.
Like, you sure? I know wands do, but consumables...?
Because if you're right, then...why isn't everyone giving their mages a crossbow and a shitload of magic arrows of the spell school they specialise in? They'd get height bonuses, be able to cast spells at full strength AND have super heavy hitting ranged attacks (Int + spell school + ranged + huntsman). Suddenly your Enchanter stops being support and starts being a sniper with shock/water arrows.
I dunno, maybe if you do the math it's not that effective damage wise? or worth spreading your skill points too thin? All I know is that water arrows and arrowheads scale with Hydrosophist skill. I can't check now exactly by how much but I'm pretty sure they do.
Edit: I'm not talking about the Elemental Ranger talent.
Gear, particularly, is very important in early game. Even a small upgrade may win you an encounter. Always keep them updated as much as you possibly could. Also, focus your physical fighters on mages and rogues, as they have low physical armor compared to warriors. Mages won't really shine until later, so use them as support at least until you reach the 2nd Act.
Thanks for that. Yeah yesterday we got a good amount of gear so hopefully that will help out. I just don't know how much difficulty i should be facing at this point in the game.
Thanks for that. Yeah yesterday we got a good amount of gear so hopefully that will help out. I just don't know how much difficulty i should be facing at this point in the game.
I've had several 3 slots rune weapons. At least a couple of them can be bought from the vendors. The others are related to the side quests and dungeons within the city.
I didn't tackle the Anathema quest in Act 2 (I think it was bugged) and Braccus is still doable without it.
Is the game still enjoyable on Explorer mode? I'm generally too dumb for technically challenging RPG's and end up getting frustrated pretty quickly and quitting. Would prefer to be able to switch my brain off a bit and enjoy the atmosphere and story.
Is the game still enjoyable on Explorer mode? I'm generally too dumb for technically challenging RPG's and end up getting frustrated pretty quickly and quitting. Would prefer to be able to switch my brain off a bit and enjoy the atmosphere and story.
Explorer mode is very easy while Classic is normal, the gap is quite apparent. You could enjoy the game with ease on explorer, though if you found the game too easy at some point you can always switch to classic and vice versa.
Is the game still enjoyable on Explorer mode? I'm generally too dumb for technically challenging RPG's and end up getting frustrated pretty quickly and quitting. Would prefer to be able to switch my brain off a bit and enjoy the atmosphere and story.
2H and Ranger are supposedly the bees knees but I'm not feeling it. Too many resources spent babysitting their squishy arse. 1H is not much inferior to 2H once you get excellent shields, and ranger high ground is hard to keep due to enemies blowing their phoenix/cloak/backlash/mark/AOE on him.
You don't focus on Huntsman. You focus on Warfare first, and your Ranger should be able to take out almost any single enemy on their first turn. Rangers are the most dominating class in the game right now. Sword and Shield does not ever put out comparable damage to what a Two-Handed build can eventually do other than occasionally hitting 2-3 enemies for 4K very late game either. It used to be better before Reactive Armor was nerfed.
Rogues on the other hand can slaughter quite well throughout most of the game, and only get better as the game progresses. They can't do as much total damage in a single shot like Rangers can with Arrow Storm + multiple enemies, but they can do more single target damage than anyone else. Or at least I haven't been able to make the fabled god of damage Two-Handed, non Lone Wolf Warrior build that supposedly exists surpass it yet. At level 21 end game.
Well first, congrats on purchasing the best CRPG ever made. Since you're a fan of those games, especially Baldur's Gate, this game is similar to that but is the "modern" iteration of it. Imo, this game blows all those ones out the water with its writing, gameplay, replay value, immersion and fun factor.
It's definitely not the best, although it's one of the best in a long while and maybe even in the top ten best of all time. Or it could be anyway. There's a lot of awesomeness in the game, but there's also a lot of stupid and balance problems. The best part of the game is the first two Acts and then it progressively gets worse. Act 4 is comparatively shit to what came before it too. It needs work.
After reading all those final boss nightmare stories.. I beat it on my first try, I guess I was lucky?
Braccus Rex was too busy dealing with Lucian the whole fight at the eastern platform, so I could focus on the Kraken. I put Sebile on the high platform on the southeast, and a turn later the Kraken teleported there like a dumbass, just 2 meters away from Sebile. Of course, it got deliberated with the Arrow Spray on the next turn. And as expected, all of the summons vanished as soon as the Kraken dies. On the front line, I messed up a by by bringing Red Prince too far ahead so he died from Braccus' fireball. Lohse and Beast were busy healing and buffing everyone almost the whole fight. After she's done with the Kraken, I put Sebille next to Braccus to own him. Thankfully, I quicksaved once when Braccus was about to die. I forgot to resurrect Red Prince so I reload to make sure that everyone is alive when he dies. Anyway, I saved my game on the final decision so I can see all the endings.
Took me 117 hours to beat the game according to Steam, though if I check it in-game via a manual save, it only says 80 hours. Amazing game all around, definitely a masterpiece.
That fight can be very different depending on your choices. Also,
I never damaged the Kraken once. I just had my Rogue annihilate Braccus and so the Kraken and all of the summons just vanished. I also killed the doctor with Fane before he had a turn, and this was without previously having Malady weaken him.
No way. Elemental Arrowhead definitely scales with the spell skill, I can't test right now but I'm sure I was doing more water damage with higher Hydro skill. You can do a lot of spell damage with water arrowhead AND water arrows (since they also get wet which lowers water resistance). I don't know if it scales with Int or about that elemental talent.
Pretty sure it just scales with character level. The best use of Elemental Arrow is with an Elf anyway. Flesh Sacrifice > blood drops beneath you > Elemental Arrow, congrats on your +600 physical damage. Split damage is bad in this game.
EDIT: You're right. Both Elemental Arrows the ability and arrows that are an elemental type DO scale with their respective schools. The problem though is that it doesn't scale with INT, only FIN + school, so your support character isn't really going to be doing all that much with them without a heavy investment into Finesse.
Water Arrow with 0 Hydro at level 21 = 1152 - 1409 damage. With 10 Hydro = 1679 - 2054. Elemental Arrows on water goes from 478 - 502 to 717 - 783. Intersting, but I don't really see it as practical for a Ranger, and for an INT focused build, the damage won't be comparable.
Like, you sure? I know wands do, but consumables...?
Because if you're right, then...why isn't everyone giving their mages a crossbow and a shitload of magic arrows of the spell school they specialise in? They'd get height bonuses, be able to cast spells at full strength AND have super heavy hitting ranged attacks (Int + spell school + ranged + huntsman). Suddenly your Enchanter stops being support and starts being a sniper with shock/water arrows.
It works, you just won't be doing as much damage dumping that much into Hydro for minimal gains with a specialized element, especially when your primary source of damage is almost exclusively physical anyway. Enchanters don't gain any benefit from this without a huge Finesse investment. This doesn't scale off of INT weirdly enough.
Act 1 is the hardest part of the game for me as well. It has a quite steep learning curve.
I've had several 3 slots rune weapons. At least a couple of them can be bought from the vendors. The others are related to the side quests and dungeons within the city.
I didn't tackle the Anathema quest in Act 2 (I think it was bugged) and Braccus is still doable without it.
I ve been running around, trying to find dungeons and whatnot but only the places mentionned in quests I have found so far, and not so much of anything else
Pretty sure it just scales with character level. The best use of Elemental Arrow is with an Elf anyway. Flesh Sacrifice > blood drops beneath you > Elemental Arrow, congrats on your +500 physical damage. Split damage is bad in this game.
lol, you guys are going to make me test this during lunch break. Yeah, my ranger is an Elf and if I'm ambushed I do the Flesh sacrifice > Blood arrows. Otherwise I carry an ice wand and make a patch of ice preemptively if I sense a fight coming. It's a hassle to do it though.
I'm only lvl 11 and I'm avoiding some skills schools like Warfare, Pyro and Geo. But maybe by the end game I'll be swimming in skill points and I'll try out different builds.
EDIT: You're right. Both Elemental Arrows the ability and arrows that are an elemental type DO scale with their respective schools. The problem though is that it doesn't scale with INT, only FIN + school, so your support character isn't really going to be doing all that much with them without a heavy investment into Finesse.
Water Arrow with 0 Hydro at level 21 = 1152 - 1409 damage. With 10 Hydro = 1679 - 2054. Elemental Arrows on water goes from 478 - 502 to 717 - 783. Intersting, but I don't really see it as practical for a Ranger, and for an INT focused build, the damage won't be comparable.
It works, you just won't be doing as much damage dumping that much into Hydro for minimal gains with a specialized element, especially when your primary source of damage is almost exclusively physical anyway. Enchanters don't gain any benefit from this without a huge Finesse investment. This doesn't scale off of INT weirdly enough.
Just tried it out and it does seem like a fixed number. Actually though, it's worse to have Hydro at 10 when trying this out, because you have to take points out of Warfare to even hit that, which makes your damage (even elemental for some reason) drop. Without any in Hydro, the bonus water damage against those standing in it was 340ish average and 596 crit. With 10 in Hydro it never broke 500 crit.
I never really bothered with special arrows during my first playthrough other than charm, and that was with a split damage team, and I had zero use for them with my last playthrough with an all physical team. While doing 1500 AoE with water on a team like that seems great, this is at end game. You would need to fire off at least two of those with one Ranger (potentially three if you use Adrenaline) and one with another to even break through magic armor, and to even be useful for that you would need 2-3 enemies bunched up to get hit by them. Rarely are you ever in a situation that allows such things.
You don't focus on Huntsman. You focus on Warfare first, and your Ranger should be able to take out almost any single enemy on their first turn. Rangers are the most dominating class in the game right now. Sword and Shield does not ever put out comparable damage to what a Two-Handed build can eventually do other than occasionally hitting 2-3 enemies for 4K very late game either. It used to be better before Reactive Armor was nerfed.
Yep. The top (weapon) abilities are all additive and Scoundrel, Huntsman and Warfare are multiplicative. Huntsman is great since it works with everything ranged, including spells, but for your base damage, you want to max Warfare first with all physical classes, then go Hunstman for Rangers, Scoundrel for Rogues and Two-Handed/Scoundrel for Two-Handed builds.
Question re: mods: I want to put the 'taunt ignores armor' mod and the 'sneak cost to 2 AP' mod, when it says accept on the mod part of the menu, it says it will disable Steam achievements...will they be re-enabled again if I decide to disable said mods, or is that the end of Steam achievements from there on out?
Just tried it out and it does seem like a fixed number. Actually though, it's worse to have Hydro at 10 when trying this out, because you have to take points out of Warfare to even hit that, which makes your damage (even elemental for some reason) drop. Without any in Hydro, the bonus water damage against those standing in it was 340ish average and 596 crit. With 10 in Hydro it never broke 500 crit.
I never really bothered with special arrows during my first playthrough other than charm, and that was with a split damage team, and I had zero use for them with my last playthrough with an all physical team. While doing 1500 AoE with water on a team like that seems great, this is at end game. You would need to fire off at least two of those with one Ranger (potentially three if you use Adrenaline) and one with another to even break through magic armor, and to even be useful for that you would need 2-3 enemies bunched up to get hit by them. Rarely are you ever in a situation that allows such things.
Alright, finished in 53 hours (in tactician). What a brilliant ride. Aside from the same default than Nier Automata earlier this year (good gear = godmode) , I definitely don't think this will be outdone anytime soon. Missed like 9 quests
Almost feeling bad for Obsidian and their PoE 2. Fantastic stuff, will surely replay it at some point
Not sure if I'm doing something wrong but sometimes when I move my characters, the camera doesn't follow. Like they go all the way to the top of the screen and I have to drag the mouse for the camera to fix.
