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Pillars of Eternity |OT| You must gather your party before venturing forth.

There are a few types of games that I'd be wanting this option pretty badly but I think for PoE, for me, it's so much better to make irrevocable choices and then have to live with them. The combat encounters (on hard) are going to be an exercise in planning and carefully thought out strategy either way and I doubt my few bad choices in abilities and point allocation would make or break the game.

I know having the option isn't much of a big deal, but it's nice that it's not there because I have little doubt I would take advantage of it at some point and just bork my playstyle and character.

My damn main character rogue is so completely haphazardly built it actually makes the combat encounters MORE interesting :lol

I think it'd be less of an issue if some of the talents didn't feel so inherently weak when on paper they seemed interesting.

Are paladins really that bad? I rolled one as my main to tank... How do you build them if you're going the tank route?

They lack interactivity imo. Very few active skills.
 
Are paladins really that bad? I rolled one as my main to tank... How do you build them if you're going the tank route?

I'm really enjoying my paladin. Worthless for dps but really useful for tanking. Got most points in perception and resolve with might, constitution and dexterity at 10 or lower. Most companions are pretty squishy (except Eder) so an extra tank always comes in handy.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Cipher question: As my cipher's focus generation is currently broken by a bug, I am not too sure how focus gen works in general: Is the ratio of focus gain tied to damage done, or just attacks? I thought it was the latter, making dual wield the best method, but people are saying ranged ciphers actually work quite well so now I'm a thinking it's directly tied to damage done?
 

V_Arnold

Member
Cipher question: As my cipher's focus generation is currently broken by a bug, I am not too sure how focus gen works in general: Is the ratio of focus gain tied to damage done, or just attacks? I thought it was the latter, making dual wield the best method, but people are saying ranged ciphers actually work quite well so now I'm a thinking it's directly tied to damage done?

I am pretty sure that it is indeed a flat focus per hit, not focus per damage dealt.
Gun/Pistol ciphers work well because they can regain focus without needing to engage in melee.

While dual-wielding ciphers give you more focus reg, it compeltely strips you from any form of defense. And you do not want to focus on dexterity for a cipher if you are to rely on your spells.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Gun/Pistol ciphers work well because they can regain focus without needing to engage in melee.

I figured there had to be more to it than that, just because firearm attack speed is SO much slower than melee/Dual wield. I'll probably stick with it once the patch goes live, though. Grieving Mother takes no prisoners with her kith-slaying pistol.
 

peakish

Member
Re: Resting. I love having spell casting as a finite resource, but as with many other games there's no actual consequence to resting here. Running out of supplies only means having to spend one or two minutes running back to the town and replenishing them (gaining an inn stat bonus in the process), as enemies don't respawn and there are no random travel encounters. It's better than having no limits on resting for sure, but it still feels like something's missing.
 

Taborcarn

Member
I picked this game up over the weekend, but haven't been able to play much due to a toddler with a stomach virus. What I've played so far is great though. I have the mage, fighter, and priest companions and just finished the temple of Eothas on normal. I actually skipped two rooms that had 4+ specters in them, then went back to clear them out after I had finished the rest of the temple.

Oh, and my PC is a blue fishman monk named Jinbe :)
 

Alavard

Member
So I guess I have to start thinking about my party composition now that I'm unlocking more companions than I can take with me at once.

I've been just rolling with the companions I've picked up in the order I've gotten them, so my current party is:

- My character (Elven Barbarian)
- Aloth
- Edér
- Durance
- Kana Rua
- Sagani

And I've got Hiravias and Grieving Mother back at base.

I'm thinking of mixing up the party a bit, but am not sure who to drop for now.

Durance often feels like he contributes the least to the average battle, but I do like his large number of abilities and spells that help regen endurance, and I really like his story unfolding as I adventure with him.

I could probably do without Sagani. She's doing a fair bit of damage (I keep her ranged most of the time, and she's got the ability to do bonus damage to targets both her and her animal companion are targeting), but I probably wouldn't miss her as much.

I'm thinking I may try swapping out both of these characters, putting Hiravias and Grieving Mother in similar roles.

Thoughts on party composition?
 

Kiritsugu

Banned
Cipher question: As my cipher's focus generation is currently broken by a bug, I am not too sure how focus gen works in general: Is the ratio of focus gain tied to damage done, or just attacks? I thought it was the latter, making dual wield the best method, but people are saying ranged ciphers actually work quite well so now I'm a thinking it's directly tied to damage done?

Focus generation is damaged based: One focus point for each 3 or 4 damage dealt. However this doesn't take into account the Draining Whip talent, which gives 2 extra focus points per hit, regardless of damage.
 
Re: Resting. I love having spell casting as a finite resource, but as with many other games there's no actual consequence to resting here. Running out of supplies only means having to spend one or two minutes running back to the town and replenishing them (gaining an inn stat bonus in the process), as enemies don't respawn and there are no random travel encounters. It's better than having no limits on resting for sure, but it still feels like something's missing.

To me the loss of the player's time is the consequence in the above scenario. 4-5 minutes round trip of doing nothing is not something I want to do frequently in any game.

Has anybody found a way to increase the sight radius yet? Feels a bit too claustrophobic for me.

You can disable fog via console.

In game you can create a custom formation as wide and as long as possible which will extend your sight out a fair bit from the using the standard 2x6 formation.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Focus generation is damaged based: One focus point for each 3 or 4 damage dealt. However this doesn't take into account the Draining Whip talent, which gives 2 extra focus points per hit, regardless of damage.

Ahh ok, that makes sense. Thanks.

Grieving Mother is cool, but I definitely like the idea of having my main character being a gun-toting cipher on a future playthrough as well. A dwarf perhaps.

you can't not have Hiravias in your party
also: his class is really powerful

I haven't really used him at all, but I am thinking about swapping out birdgirl for him. I like her aura but other than that she's kind of meh.
 

Rad-

Member
So I guess I have to start thinking about my party composition now that I'm unlocking more companions than I can take with me at once.

I've been just rolling with the companions I've picked up in the order I've gotten them, so my current party is:

- My character (Elven Barbarian)
- Aloth
- Edér
- Durance
- Kana Rua
- Sagani

And I've got Hiravias and Grieving Mother back at base.

I'm thinking of mixing up the party a bit, but am not sure who to drop for now.

Durance often feels like he contributes the least to the average battle, but I do like his large number of abilities and spells that help regen endurance, and I really like his story unfolding as I adventure with him.

I could probably do without Sagani. She's doing a fair bit of damage (I keep her ranged most of the time, and she's got the ability to do bonus damage to targets both her and her animal companion are targeting), but I probably wouldn't miss her as much.

I'm thinking I may try swapping out both of these characters, putting Hiravias and Grieving Mother in similar roles.

Thoughts on party composition?

Priest actually has some great offensive usage so I wouldn't ditch Durance. For example try stacking the Seal spells.
 

rakhir

Member
I don't know how anyone can play without a priest, nobody is using the healing spells or what? I don't think any other class have them, right?
 

Tovarisc

Member
Fuck....
Guess I will play some other games until 1-2 weeks in.

I have done all things you shouldn't apparently do or your game will bug out for good, but I still haven't gotten stats, inventory or black screen bugs. Makes me wonder if there is more to them than just e.g. double click for gear equipping also how common these bugs really are?

Just my 2 cents on whole bug thing. Waiting for patch is safest play for sure.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
Has anybody found a way to increase the sight radius yet? Feels a bit too claustrophobic for me.

Yeah, I definitely agree they need to change this a bit. It's fine as it is for dungeon areas/caves, etc, but it should about twice the size for outdoor areas, maybe with a line of sight component, so you can't see critters behind objects, until you circle around.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Druids have some healing ability but it's not as good as a priest, at least at level 4 where my party is.

And priest gets better heal spell ranks and even more insane [de]buffs coupled with direct damage spells etc as you level up. Not top damage dealer, but imo priest is best class for heals and [de]buffing action.
 

Kinthalis

Banned
Thinking further on something I said before - I do think that some of the classes should have a better balance of per encounter and more powerful per rest abilities.

The fighter, at least from wha tI can see, at level 5 has only per encouter abilities, making him feel spammy, and even a bit overpowered at times. While the wizard is entirely based aorund per rest spells (at least until higher levels).

I think a better balance for some of the classes would have been good. Maybe start the wizard with a "cantrip" spell selection for per encouter and mvoe some of the fighter abilities to per rest?

What do you guys think? You like the balance as is?
 

marrec

Banned
I think it'd be less of an issue if some of the talents didn't feel so inherently weak when on paper they seemed interesting.

I do find myself needlessly agonizing over every choice when leveling. Re-reading talents and abilities ad nauseum and eventually just picking the one that seems most obviously beneficial and then seeing almost zero immediate effects of my choice.

Which, in the end, is better really. I'd rather see a gradual differential progression than a single mind-blowing talent that makes all the encounters in X area trivial.
 

garath

Member
Priest is almost indispensable with the tougher encounters. His buffing and debuffing is pretty much unmatched. I don't see how I'd do without him.
 

Alavard

Member
And priest gets better heal spell ranks and even more insane [de]buffs coupled with direct damage spells etc as you level up. Not top damage dealer, but imo priest is best class for heals and [de]buffing action.

That does make perfect sense, as Druids can shapeshift temporarily to wade into melee combat. Not being as good at healing would make sense as the trade-off.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Still struggling to use consumables in this game even though all my party members have at least 4 points in survival. Most I've used them is before a big fight I know is going to be somewhat challenging but for the majority of the time I don't need them and the amount of time is so short, even with the Survival buff, that I don't think of using them in normal conflicts since I waste so much time out of combat exploring.

Haven't used a single trap either despite having 9 ranks in Mechanics on my Rogue and rank 7, plus 2 ranks from an item, in stealth.

I have to say thole Per Rest vs Per Encounter just doesn't work for me as a system. I just have no interest in PR abilities. None of them seem useful enough and any that do seem decent still feel wasteful when there is a PE option available or Passive that's somewhat useful.
 

ACE 1991

Member
I think it'd be less of an issue if some of the talents didn't feel so inherently weak when on paper they seemed interesting.



They lack interactivity imo. Very few active skills.

Ah, okay. That is actually fine with me, given how much other shit I have to manage in fights as it is.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
I agree on the Priest necessity. Although Durance annoys me so I made a new priest, who I have in heavy armor right behind my two tanks.
 
I was thinking about why I find the quests in PoE so much more engaging than in most other RPGs.

I think at least part of the reason is that the NPCs who give you the quests and who you interact with throughout them are actual characters. They may have incomplete information, or withhold some from you. Most of them will only tell you the truth when forced to or if it is convenient for them. And very rarely is anyone clearly in the right.

I'm really enjoying the fact that not everything is black and white at first. And I also like the freedom with which I can resolve a quest. Do I take the money? Do I kill the dude? Do I turn him in?

Sometimes I can't help but quick save before resolving a quest, then checking the outcome of each decision. I should stop doing that, since I always wind up going with my first instinct. But I hate missing out on money and experience. Especially money.... which, so far, is incredibly tight in this game...
 

Curious_George

Neo Member
Okay, I'll definitely take him then and kick out Sagani for now.

If I bring in Grieving Mother, I have to take out either Durance or Aloth. That's the harder call.

Maybe it's because my main is a Cipher, but Aloth has been mostly useless in my party. His stat allocation is bad so his damage sucks, he is paper thin and gets downed a lot, and wizard's in general just seem kind of lackluster to begin with. I mostly use him for crowd control but even then his utility is limited since I have to rest to regain those spells. Durance at least can take a couple hits and keeps my party alive. I will be dropping Aloth for the Druid once I find him.
 

Alavard

Member
I agree on the Priest necessity. Although Durance annoys me so I made a new priest, who I have in heavy armor right behind my two tanks.

Hrm.. Okay, I may have to keep him then.

Has anyone (not playing a wizard) dropped Aloth and still done well? I'm considering swapping him for Grieving Mother.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Still struggling to use consumables in this game even though all my party members have at least 4 points in survival. Most I've used them is before a big fight I know is going to be somewhat challenging but for the majority of the time I don't need them and the amount of time is so short, even with the Survival buff, that I don't think of using them in normal conflicts since I waste so much time out of combat exploring.

Haven't used a single trap either despite having 9 ranks in Mechanics on my Rogue and rank 7, plus 2 ranks from an item, in stealth.

I have to say thole Per Rest vs Per Encounter just doesn't work for me as a system. I just have no interest in PR abilities. None of them seem useful enough and any that do seem decent still feel wasteful when there is a PE option available or Passive that's somewhat useful.

I play on Hard, party at level 9, close to end of Act 2 with a lot of content done and I haven't touched buff foods once. There just hasn't been anything that I couldn't beat into my will through priest buffing and debuffing during encounter.

Also I do agree that earlier traps suck hard and that you can only place one at the time limits options they could present for encounters. I would like to use few of those 10 or so arrow? traps I have, but using them one at the time isn't efficient. Better off doing chokepoint tanking. I have gotten few more... advanced traps and descriptions for them do seem interesting damage wise. Still mechanics skill is all about lock picking and disarming traps.

Also per rest abilities don't tickle you from right places? Bro, do you even priest and/or wizard?
 

garath

Member
Still struggling to use consumables in this game even though all my party members have at least 4 points in survival. Most I've used them is before a big fight I know is going to be somewhat challenging but for the majority of the time I don't need them and the amount of time is so short, even with the Survival buff, that I don't think of using them in normal conflicts since I waste so much time out of combat exploring.

Haven't used a single trap either despite having 9 ranks in Mechanics on my Rogue and rank 7, plus 2 ranks from an item, in stealth.

I have to say thole Per Rest vs Per Encounter just doesn't work for me as a system. I just have no interest in PR abilities. None of them seem useful enough and any that do seem decent still feel wasteful when there is a PE option available or Passive that's somewhat useful.

You should bump the difficulty up to hard. It'll put a little more emphasis on the PR abilities.

I'm really enjoying the fact that not everything is black and white at first. And I also like the freedom with which I can resolve a quest. Do I take the money? Do I kill the dude? Do I turn him in?

Sometimes I can't help but quick save before resolving a quest, then checking the outcome of each decision. I should stop doing that, since I always wind up going with my first instinct. But I hate missing out on money and experience. Especially money.... which, so far, is incredibly tight in this game...

Yeah. I like the gray options. Though it's a little exhausting that EVERY single quest is like that. You'd think SOMEONE would be completely wronged and need help in a clear cut decision making process.

As far as money, I've had good luck selling hats. Weapons aren't worth much but helms and hats are useless unless enchanted and sell for a solid chunk of cp. It is pretty scarce in this game though. Kind of unfortunate. I don't see myself ever buying something from a merchant because I need every cp to upgrade the stronghold :( Maybe once I start doing bounties I'll see a bit more money entering my coffers.
 

Alavard

Member
Maybe it's because my main is a Cipher, but Aloth has been mostly useless in my party. His stat allocation is bad so his damage sucks, he is paper thin and gets downed a lot, and wizard's in general just seem kind of lackluster to begin with. I mostly use him for crowd control but even then his utility is limited since I have to rest to regain those spells. Durance at least can take a couple hits and keeps my party alive.

I'm finding it just very hard to line up many of his spells for good damage (without slaughtering my party in the process). I fully understand how the AOEs work, with the improved area not hurting my party, but that still means he often has to run to the other side, or at least a 90 degree angle to where the combat is happening to be effective, and he does tend to get bum-rushed at that point.

And I also haven't been able to get him the Slicken spell, which would have made a huge difference in many battles. He's picked up like 5 grimoires from other mages I've beaten, but none of them have Slicken, and I haven't felt like wasting one of his new spells on level-up on a level 1 spell.

So yeah, think I'm gonna try dropping him for a while.
 

garath

Member
I'm finding it just very hard to line up many of his spells for good damage (without slaughtering my party in the process). I fully understand how the AOEs work, with the improved area not hurting my party, but that still means he often has to run to the other side, or at least a 90 degree angle to where the combat is happening to be effective, and he does tend to get bum-rushed at that point.

And I also haven't been able to get him the Slicken spell, which would have made a huge difference in many battles. He's picked up like 5 grimoires from other mages I've beaten, but none of them have Slicken, and I haven't felt like wasting one of his new spells on level-up on a level 1 spell.

So yeah, think I'm gonna try dropping him for a while.

I wasted a level up spell on slicken. Was completely worth it. I've been able to get level 3 spells with grimoires easy.
 

studyguy

Member
Man enjoying this a ton.
Rolled Rogue, dual dagger (proc skills cause things to blow up) /bow (waiting for another large gun to use for sneak attacks)
Kana & Durance with guns (kana buffing atk speed on them)
Durance works pretty well just to buff, Kana I'm waiting to use more than just SKELETON MINIONS FOREVER

Aloth = Slicken Slicken Slicken Slicken (Slicken causes even flying monsters to fall over and eat crits, amazing skill)

Eder is basically my big meat tank now

Just got the ranger girl. Not sure what to make of her yet.

So far I'm blowing things away in encounters I can manage. I sorta wish I had a second tank because Eder alone can get overwhelmed if I don't have a doorway.

Also Doorway is the best ally.
This guy is OP as fuck.
ancient_doorways.jpg
 

Violet_0

Banned
Okay, I'll definitely take him then and kick out Sagani for now.

If I bring in Grieving Mother, I have to take out either Durance or Aloth. That's the harder call.

Grieving Mother is a cool character and she's also great in combat whereas Aloth is an annoying whinny brat, just saying :p
 

peakish

Member
Tanglefoot is soooo good. Makes a world of difference when trying to position your party while the enemy is advancing. Just beat The Dweller by a scroll of that (and lots, and lots of AOE damage).
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I play on Hard, party at level 9, close to end of Act 2 with a lot of content done and I haven't touched buff foods once. There just hasn't been anything that I couldn't beat into my will through priest buffing and debuffing during encounter.

Also I do agree that earlier traps suck hard and that you can only place one at the time limits options they could present for encounters. I would like to use few of those 10 or so arrow? traps I have, but using them one at the time isn't efficient. Better off doing chokepoint tanking. I have gotten few more... advanced traps and descriptions for them do seem interesting damage wise. Still mechanics skill is all about lock picking and disarming traps.

Also per rest abilities don't tickle you from right places? Bro, do you even priest and/or wizard?

I mean PRs outside of magic classes. Though I still hoard those a bit even though I'm level 10 and they all have like access to 7+ for most spell levels now, so I am just starting to be a bit more free with my use of them. I love GM though Ciphers are just so OP, Mind Blades is just crazy.

You should bump the difficulty up to hard. It'll put a little more emphasis on the PR abilities.

I'll stick with Normal till the end just to see how some big encounters change when I bump up to Hard, but yeah Normal is really easy for the most part. I usually end most encounters before my enemies can even hit me and even longer engagements are pretty one sided.
 
I am having trouble with combat, I run out of endurance with at least one party member every fight.

I am early right now in the first town and i have 3 party members level 3.

I am in the ruins of the old temple with ghosts and although I can survive most battles I have to "camp" or return to the inn after every 2 or 3 fights

I feel like I am doing something wrong.
 
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