Spells that makes enemies go prone are invaluable. They lower enemy defenses to zero and you can kill them quickly.
You can also use spells that stun enemies.
To everyone in the thread: Do not underestimatimate status effects.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
TYRANNY |OT| Sometimes, Evil Wins [Tiers For Fears]
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
You can also use spells that stun enemies.
To everyone in the thread: Do not underestimatimate status effects.
Sanctuary
Member
Wish I had realized how godlike the Leadership tree for the player character was at the start. I was too busy focusing going down the Magic tree to notice how relatively early you can grab +2 spell slots and also an AoE 35% heal.
Also, I've not really found much use for Lantry's Preservation tree after maybe 5 points. His end talent is super situational and extremely questionable. I thought it would allow my group to reuse abilities rather quickly, but it doesn't seem to do all that (Recovery has no relation to skill cooldowns, just the delay between actions.). Plus, you have to decide between taking him out of action for 12s to activate it, or only use it when he's low on health. I've also only ever needed to resurrect once, so I don't know how useful the upgrade that I grabbed for it really is. His slow talent seems great, until you look at his Sage tree at the third row. Unless you're just getting creamed by magic for some reason, 5 Preservation > 4 Sage (minimum), then maybe grab a few in Quill before returning to Sage. That is of course, if you're using him as more of a caster hybrid than a weak archer/rogue hybrid.
Yeah, they are useful when a) you have enough slots (LOL, see above) for everyone to use at least one and b) they actually work. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the boulder spell. Knocks a row prone.
Also, I've not really found much use for Lantry's Preservation tree after maybe 5 points. His end talent is super situational and extremely questionable. I thought it would allow my group to reuse abilities rather quickly, but it doesn't seem to do all that (Recovery has no relation to skill cooldowns, just the delay between actions.). Plus, you have to decide between taking him out of action for 12s to activate it, or only use it when he's low on health. I've also only ever needed to resurrect once, so I don't know how useful the upgrade that I grabbed for it really is. His slow talent seems great, until you look at his Sage tree at the third row. Unless you're just getting creamed by magic for some reason, 5 Preservation > 4 Sage (minimum), then maybe grab a few in Quill before returning to Sage. That is of course, if you're using him as more of a caster hybrid than a weak archer/rogue hybrid.
Yeah, they are useful when a) you have enough slots (LOL, see above) for everyone to use at least one and b) they actually work. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the boulder spell. Knocks a row prone.
Its actually a watered down chanter from pillars
I played a high resolve chanter first time round in pillars and dear god it was good
I played Leader both times and dear god its OP. Especially the ability that heals the entire party after a kill. I feel like obsidian is going to nerf that considerably. Not to mention the ranged rez. Makes the game a cake walk. Leadership + life magic + whatever you were originally planning to do with your character (and it meshes well with mage/soldier/archer build) is just too good. The sustain is insane.
The scrolling thing is a bit confusing. It scrolls by pages not by individual trees, I think quite a few people have missed some of them because of this.
LurkerPrime
Member
Hard has been a good balance for me. It's been a good balance of straightforward and difficult fights, enough to make the sparse amounts of combat feel like a real event.
I'm playing on hard and doing alright. Lantry and my main character have fallen a couple of times, but other than that, it's been manageable.
bobnowhere
Member
Are their any sidequests at Lethian's Crossing?
I went there first to unlock the tower, went in every building, talked to everyone and nothing. Only thing to find was the new comp. I did get a quest for clearing out the Chorus peeps but that's about it.
Sanctuary
Member
Should use more prone inducing spells.
Actually though, the stone weapon buff is pretty strong on Eb, if you use her, and her Clear Mind talent.
Also, doesn anyone know who the voice actor for Sirin is? I can't tell if I've heard that voice in a billion games/shows or if it's just really typical for the media, but she sounds very familiar.
I do use prone! My main dies a lot but that's because I use him as a kamikaze fighter with AoE stuff. By the time he's dead, I only have to mop up stragglers. His survivability is much better now, though. Gets low on health sometimes but The arcane shield has been essential.Should use more prone inducing spells.
Actually though, the stone weapon buff is pretty strong on Eb, if you use her, and her double shot talent.
Also, doesn anyone know who the voice actor for Sirin is? I can't tell if I've heard that voice in a billion games/shows or if it's just really typical for the media, but she sounds very familiar.
depends on
who you aligned with in act 1
superseohyun
Member
How can the AI keeps disengaging and taking huge amount of free dmg from the enemy? hey its a good idea to run away from these 3 dudes with huge two handed hammer.... nope dead.
The AI is awful. I didn't start enjoying the combat until I deactivated the AI and took manual control of my party. Micromanagement be damned.
Do I miss something with the Lethians Crossing quest
?
I
Widows remorse
I
confronted Deya and I only have the option to take her bribe in the end or kill her. When I kill her I get wrath wit Lethians Crossing, because I told nobody about the crime. Thing is, I do no find anybody to talk to about it.
No point in remaining neutral. Just play however you think is right.
I'm sure I read that there's four 'pathways' to the ending and that being Neutral is one of them.
As for my own adventures, It's slowly dawned on me that I've made a terrible mistake. The Voices of Nerat
isn't just 'evil', he's evil, and not someone that my character can trust any more.
I realised this after I sent him
Zedyra
going to end up impaled on a spike
set Ashe's daughter free rather than capture her.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Alright, I shuffled some skills around and trained up everyone's Parry, and I'm doing a LOT better. Also, Berik's skill that gives him a speed boost when combat starts is a gamechanger, lets him close the distance and engage the enemy before they can react. Much better than trying to rely on his taunt skills.
Sanctuary
Member
???
All you have to do is send him in a second or two before everyone else, and those running towards the party almost always go to him first. There's also the combo AoE taunt if things get too crazy. Never had an issue with melee enemies running amok in my group.
Near the end of the third chapter, and I'm pretty annoyed that it seems like I somehow randomly sequence broke some content in Lethia's Crossing (Sunset Spire) and now the triggers are not available, and I'm locked out of getting an item I need to unlock a room in another area for the final core I've been missing since chapter 2. I ended up getting random text options from the "Mayor" of the town that imply there was some big altercation, as well as other information that I wasn't privy to, but I'm getting the text results regardless. Also missing a bunch of sigils, and I don't know how since I've spoken to every merchant, and purchased every merchant available for every spire. I don't know how high your subterfuge needs to be for hidden items, but I've found a ton, and it's at 75.
You really don't need Verse at all (although she does make some fights go a lot faster), and Lantry is probably the second most important party member (or most important if you are playing a tank). Lantry starts out as a "healer", but he only has one talent that makes him special in that way compared to any of the other characters you grab, that can be turned into healers. What I was getting sick of was seeing countless javelins, two-handed weapons and heavy armor (that no one is going to use).
CrichtonKicks
Member
Not sure I like the 4 person party limit. Kind of feeling limited in party options. So far (early Chapter 2), Barik seems the only real option for tank. Landry is the only healer I've found. And it seems like most enemies that aren't weak to parry are weak to dodge which means I really need a ranged party member so that slots Verse in. Swapping any of them out for someone else and I feel like my whole house of cards falls down.
Moff
Member
I feel the same, I want to use the bard girl, but I have no idea who to switch out for her
Poodlestrike
Banned
Is there any way to get to Lethian's Crossing without carving a bloody path through the Bronze Brootherhood? I've exhausted all the dialogue options at this point.
Noooot the case for me, lol. Usually he pulls the first 1-2, and then the rest rush past and start screwing with the rest of the party.
Also, he's tough, but sending him out too far in front just gets his ass focused and dropped, ime.
fwiw, Eb's combo abilities do some pretty impressive healing.
Noooot the case for me, lol. Usually he pulls the first 1-2, and then the rest rush past and start screwing with the rest of the party.
Also, he's tough, but sending him out too far in front just gets his ass focused and dropped, ime.
fwiw, Eb's combo abilities do some pretty impressive healing.
I was able to just walk there.
The boss of the Brotherhood let me go in without a hitch.
Poodlestrike
Banned
That uh didn't happen for me. Any idea what you did?
bati
Member
You can pay the toll I'm guessing? If you back out of the conversation you can go back to the bridge guard and there's an option to pay. I chose to pay in blood. Theirs.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Nope, he insists that I got talk to the boss, which... I already did...
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Buying in a bit.
Tips on best character shit?
Tips on best character shit?
CrichtonKicks
Member
I was able to talk my way past. Pissed him off but then again I piss everybody off.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I think mine might just be bugged.
Sanctuary
Member
It might have to do with your intial choices at the start during Conquest mode. I don't remember if there was a choice between the mercenaries and the Forge-Bound for Lethian's Crossing, but I think there was.
I had the option to pay Will, or whoever the guy on the bridge was, but screw that. What's messed up though is
I wiped the mercenaries out, including the leader and then ended up with some bullshit in act 3 that claims the mercenaries just attacked (the leader is alive), took the leader of the Forge-Bound captive, and now I have a bunch of new areas that are all greyed out with a quest I can't complete.
If you're talking about the player character, at least a bunch in the Leadership tree. My character took a lot of Magic talents instead, but aside from those that grant more spell slots and the early lore, it wasn't really worth it. Going to go for an arcane archer type in the next playthrough. You can do any build really, but Leadership is the best tree for really good talents that can be grabbed relatively early.
CrichtonKicks
Member
Are you sure you killed the merc leader? I attacked them for the hell of it and he specifically retreated while leaving everyone else behind to fight.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
What about Int?
Sanctuary
Member
Maybe I am just thinking of the second in command. Regardless, the quest is bugged and was something that was supposed to have been done prior to Act 3. I ended up with a quest I cannot complete, and a bunch of random dialogue that assumes I already knew what had happened, without any prior knowledge.
If you plan on doing a bunch of direct damage, take Wits to 19 at least.
Second in command also departs the area if you attack. Only Will and the generic soldiers remain.
And to answer the earlier question about them not letting you through, yes, it is tied to a choice in Conquest. If you were governor of Lethian's Crossing some of your choices may have negatively impacted the Brotherhood.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
So I take it this is using Pillars' attribute mechanic, wherein there is no Intelligence proper for conversation checks.
Finished my first run in about 22-23 hours. Did everything I could, although the bronze brotherhood was glitched for me so I couldn't activate the Lethian Crossing storyline to get into the oldwalls dungeon and get the final rubbing. So I just cheated and found the rubbing online to get up the spire.
The way I glitched Lethian's Crossing quest was:
-In the intro/backstory give Lethian's Crossing to Disfavored
-Go to Lethian's Crossing and fight the brotherhood on the bridge (they wouldn't let me by no matter what dialogue without a fight)
-Be on Disfavored route
-At the end of the Stalwart campaign (here's where it glitches):
Also had some minor glitches where I couldn't report one of the side quests because the quest giver vanished off the map :|
Normally when I play choice driven rpgs I tend to play pretty much complete paragon/good route. So even though this had some fun evil options I still tried to take what seemed the most good route. Was a little bummed at some of the evil stuff I couldn't avoid. Here's what happened in my route:
Gameplay-wise, outside of some weak pathfanding and AI characters not using their skills enough, I really enjoyed the battle system. Mixed around my party a bit and there's some interesting team setups. On hard the game is solidly challenging and was turn-pausing it for a while, but I like that sometimes when it's easier and you just wanna steamroll through you can auto-fight with turbo mode and no pausing and just blow through. I felt around the last 20% of the game the difficulty suddenly got MUCH EASIER, I think that was around when everyone was getting their final skill tree skills and artifact equipment/weapons. Siren getting 2 songs at a time really made a difference for my party. She is great constant buffers/debuffer with 2 songs going.
I felt magic was kinda underpowered and in the last 1/3rd I moved from 2 melee, 2 casters to 3 melee & Sirin as my only caster/healer. Stuff like false pit making enemies prone was good and buffs/debuffs were but eventually skills/artifacts did those better. Caster debuff magic to silence in a straight line was always helpful. I never found any really damaging spells, plus I didn't like how spells a lot of times had low accuracy with my casters so you'd waste a queue only to miss it anyways (best spells seemed like ones that hit a bunch of targets so even if they missed on one or two they'd hit the others). I felt in general a lot of the moves/spells lacked impact or major damage. Sure the team combo ones were nice, but they were sloooow to pull off and leave the characters open. I really liked using Kills-in-Shadows in the last 1/3rd because here dash move felt impactful as she'd slam through and knock a line of enemies down and then do an extra 40% damage to the prone enemies. My MC was a 2H Melee character and I never felt he had the strong hit impact skills like that. In fact, pretty much all his skills were just single enemy walk up and strike them outside like one multi-hit slash that did weak damage (.80x).
Combat was still real fun though, just felt like a low level underdog campaign. Which is ironic because the story is fairly short (not too short though) yet the power levels story-wise are crazy and your MC is supposedly going from a normal guy to ridiculous power taking out armies and stuff all within the timespan of this short story and combat-wise you're still going around poking guys for 50 damage maxing out at level 13 or 14. Just sorta a disconnect there.
In fact on the scope size, even though I think the length is fine, certain aspects of the game feel like they were built for a much bigger game. Like I just got my party member's final skill (or some didn't even get there) right before the end, and I was only just able to build an artifact weapon right at the final boss fight. I never even used any of the support potions and those seemed like they'd be fairly useful especially when you have an infirmary and could build out what you want. Like the gameplay systems seem like they could go for a 30-40 hour game even though the story is 20-25.
I feel like the replayability is alright. The game doesn't remind me of Alpha Protocol at all which is what I was hoping for (my favorite branching game ever), but it feels like a smaller scope, mini-Fallout New Vegas from the Tribal War factions to the way reputation is handled between them to the 3rd act and ending stills. Which is great. Fallout NV was awesome, and I'm quite happy with a mini-NV campaign here with D&D combat. I can see there being enough really unique content for at least a second playthrough as the other army (I'm assuming act II plays out very differently if you are on the other side) and I'm really curious how the
playthrough goes and if it's unique enough to make a 3rd playthrough its own thing. I'm not a big fan of replaying games, so I probably won't play it again but definitely will check out some guides/youtubes once their up to see how things go down in some of the other branches.
For the most part, especially when the ending rolled, I felt like it did a pretty good job being an rpg where it's your story and you make a bunch of choices and go down your own route and the ending reflects that. I think maybe there were a couple parts where you could have had more leeway, but I'm satisfied.
Definitely was worth a play. I still haven't played Pillars or Dungeon Siege III, but haven't played a bad Obsidian game yet. Tyranny joins their lineup of interesting & quality games.
The way I glitched Lethian's Crossing quest was:
-In the intro/backstory give Lethian's Crossing to Disfavored
-Go to Lethian's Crossing and fight the brotherhood on the bridge (they wouldn't let me by no matter what dialogue without a fight)
-Be on Disfavored route
-At the end of the Stalwart campaign (here's where it glitches):
When I had the choice to kill the baby, if I kill the baby and go back to Ashe, he gives me the choice to address Lethian Crossing or Burning Library next. However if I don't kill the baby and search for a way to save it, he gives me only Burning Library and when I'm done with that he moves to marching on Stone Seas and Lethian's Crossing questline just vanishes.
Also had some minor glitches where I couldn't report one of the side quests because the quest giver vanished off the map :|
Normally when I play choice driven rpgs I tend to play pretty much complete paragon/good route. So even though this had some fun evil options I still tried to take what seemed the most good route. Was a little bummed at some of the evil stuff I couldn't avoid. Here's what happened in my route:
Joined the Disfavored since they generally seemed like honorable decent military and Ashe was like Santa Clause dad, they got out of line sometimes but I mainly kept them in check. Killed Voices of Nerats/Scarlet Chorus murderer/rapist gang, got Tunon to bend the knee and Ashe as well so kept it as bloodless as possible.
Bad things that I was unable to avoid:
-Archon Carne. When the earthshakers wanted to fuck up the entire stone sea region to take out the scarlet chorus, I was like this is fucked up yo and I told that to Ashe who got pissed but said he appreciated my insight and still gave them the go ahead. I was hoping the game would give me an option to sabotage their plan without betraying the alliance, but didn't see an option. Would've liked to fuck up their plan and just go take out the Scarlet Chorus instead saving the Stone Seas.
-Stoneshakers beast tribe. I tried using friendly talks with them, but they'd always reject it (even though I saved the guy in Hedge whatever) and so I ended up having to kill them all Luckily Kills-in-Shadows seemed to understand.
-Beat the Vendrions Well, Unbroken rebel groups. Looks like there's a way to go that rebel route, but couldn't figure it out. Also accidently wiped out all the Sages because I went to get a captive and they attacked me! Then I saved their member the next location over and he goes "hey, you should go back and talk to Rentera, she'll totally be on your side to take out the Scarlet Chorus at the Burning Librarby" kinda late when she attacked me on the way there and ended up dead.
Bad things that I was unable to avoid:
-Archon Carne. When the earthshakers wanted to fuck up the entire stone sea region to take out the scarlet chorus, I was like this is fucked up yo and I told that to Ashe who got pissed but said he appreciated my insight and still gave them the go ahead. I was hoping the game would give me an option to sabotage their plan without betraying the alliance, but didn't see an option. Would've liked to fuck up their plan and just go take out the Scarlet Chorus instead saving the Stone Seas.
-Stoneshakers beast tribe. I tried using friendly talks with them, but they'd always reject it (even though I saved the guy in Hedge whatever) and so I ended up having to kill them all
Luckily Kills-in-Shadows seemed to understand.-Beat the Vendrions Well, Unbroken rebel groups. Looks like there's a way to go that rebel route, but couldn't figure it out. Also accidently wiped out all the Sages because I went to get a captive and they attacked me! Then I saved their member the next location over and he goes "hey, you should go back and talk to Rentera, she'll totally be on your side to take out the Scarlet Chorus at the Burning Librarby" kinda late when she attacked me on the way there and ended up dead.
Gameplay-wise, outside of some weak pathfanding and AI characters not using their skills enough, I really enjoyed the battle system. Mixed around my party a bit and there's some interesting team setups. On hard the game is solidly challenging and was turn-pausing it for a while, but I like that sometimes when it's easier and you just wanna steamroll through you can auto-fight with turbo mode and no pausing and just blow through. I felt around the last 20% of the game the difficulty suddenly got MUCH EASIER, I think that was around when everyone was getting their final skill tree skills and artifact equipment/weapons. Siren getting 2 songs at a time really made a difference for my party. She is great constant buffers/debuffer with 2 songs going.
I felt magic was kinda underpowered and in the last 1/3rd I moved from 2 melee, 2 casters to 3 melee & Sirin as my only caster/healer. Stuff like false pit making enemies prone was good and buffs/debuffs were but eventually skills/artifacts did those better. Caster debuff magic to silence in a straight line was always helpful. I never found any really damaging spells, plus I didn't like how spells a lot of times had low accuracy with my casters so you'd waste a queue only to miss it anyways (best spells seemed like ones that hit a bunch of targets so even if they missed on one or two they'd hit the others). I felt in general a lot of the moves/spells lacked impact or major damage. Sure the team combo ones were nice, but they were sloooow to pull off and leave the characters open. I really liked using Kills-in-Shadows in the last 1/3rd because here dash move felt impactful as she'd slam through and knock a line of enemies down and then do an extra 40% damage to the prone enemies. My MC was a 2H Melee character and I never felt he had the strong hit impact skills like that. In fact, pretty much all his skills were just single enemy walk up and strike them outside like one multi-hit slash that did weak damage (.80x).
Combat was still real fun though, just felt like a low level underdog campaign. Which is ironic because the story is fairly short (not too short though) yet the power levels story-wise are crazy and your MC is supposedly going from a normal guy to ridiculous power taking out armies and stuff all within the timespan of this short story and combat-wise you're still going around poking guys for 50 damage maxing out at level 13 or 14. Just sorta a disconnect there.
In fact on the scope size, even though I think the length is fine, certain aspects of the game feel like they were built for a much bigger game. Like I just got my party member's final skill (or some didn't even get there) right before the end, and I was only just able to build an artifact weapon right at the final boss fight. I never even used any of the support potions and those seemed like they'd be fairly useful especially when you have an infirmary and could build out what you want. Like the gameplay systems seem like they could go for a 30-40 hour game even though the story is 20-25.
I feel like the replayability is alright. The game doesn't remind me of Alpha Protocol at all which is what I was hoping for (my favorite branching game ever), but it feels like a smaller scope, mini-Fallout New Vegas from the Tribal War factions to the way reputation is handled between them to the 3rd act and ending stills. Which is great. Fallout NV was awesome, and I'm quite happy with a mini-NV campaign here with D&D combat. I can see there being enough really unique content for at least a second playthrough as the other army (I'm assuming act II plays out very differently if you are on the other side) and I'm really curious how the
rebel faction
For the most part, especially when the ending rolled, I felt like it did a pretty good job being an rpg where it's your story and you make a bunch of choices and go down your own route and the ending reflects that. I think maybe there were a couple parts where you could have had more leeway, but I'm satisfied.
Definitely was worth a play. I still haven't played Pillars or Dungeon Siege III, but haven't played a bad Obsidian game yet. Tyranny joins their lineup of interesting & quality games.
Sanctuary
Member
That's exactly the same order and choices I had as well, and it locked me out of the quest (but I still ended up with the aftermath somehow). Also, you don't need the completed rubbing to complete the glyph puzzles. Only one of them did I find three rubbings, and two of them, only one. They are pretty easy to figure out just based off of a single rubbing.
The conversation checks are all from support skills: Lore, Subterfuge, Athletics and a few randoms like Soldier and Hunter.
90% are Lore/Subterfuge
exmachina64
Banned
Magic.
And put heavy armor on Verse.
FYI: Like Conquest mode, choosing Lethian's Crossing or the Burning Library is a "pick one" situation.
Coriolanus
Banned
yarp. conversation options are derived from athletics, lore, subterfuge or character background, and every one of those also governs other abilities. (i might be forgetting another one.)
i quite like the conversation skill check system, tbh.
I also really liked the main theme song for the game. The rest of the music was ok background stuff, but it's a nice theme.
What are the strongest attack spells if your MC is a mage?
I felt like Verse is better with light armor and dodging. She doesn't seem to get hit much but I never found her to do enough damage to keep her in after Act I.
I feel like you always need Barik to tank no matter your party. One time I tried running without him using my MC melee and Kills-in-Shadows to tank and my party got shredded on hard and I needed to put Barik back in.
Verse seems kinda week, Eb is a good caster, Lantry is a good healer/ok caster, Sirin is a good buff/debuff/ok casters, KiS is great knockdown/damage melee with rampage on (but takes 200% damage) and Barik's damage is mediocre but he can live near forever tanking.
What are the strongest attack spells if your MC is a mage?
I felt like Verse is better with light armor and dodging. She doesn't seem to get hit much but I never found her to do enough damage to keep her in after Act I.
I feel like you always need Barik to tank no matter your party. One time I tried running without him using my MC melee and Kills-in-Shadows to tank and my party got shredded on hard and I needed to put Barik back in.
Verse seems kinda week, Eb is a good caster, Lantry is a good healer/ok caster, Sirin is a good buff/debuff/ok casters, KiS is great knockdown/damage melee with rampage on (but takes 200% damage) and Barik's damage is mediocre but he can live near forever tanking.
CrichtonKicks
Member
They were pissed at me because I kicked them out in Conquest and gave the town to the Scarlet Chorus but they still let me through when I demanded it.
I don't know- Deflection seems pretty damn useful- early in game and there is a 50% chance that any hits are downgrowded to a graze or a miss does a lot for survivability. She isn't one of my glass cannons and I like the faster action time that the lack of armor brings.
Damn, really? Both sounded super interesting to me.
Lots of enemies seem specifically weak to ranged while being strong to melee and magic. I keep Verse primarily spec'd as an archer for that reason and she really holds her own.