I finished with the following party:
21 (PC), 21 (Lantry), 18 (Eb), 17 (Barik).
The Spellcasters lvl'ed up really fast when getting back each time to train Lore.
Barik really fell behind and was never able to keep up with the rest of my team
and, as most of you also found out, he's not really essential.
But I gave him the +1 might pot, upgraded his whole armor set to Masterwork,
selected the -% dmg to everyone talents and I don't have to micromanage him
as much as the other casters, so in the end I enjoyed keeping him in the team.
One can argue that I should have kicked him in favor of Verse/Sirin, but because
of the skill system, all the party members I didn't actively employ were extremely low
with their skills. Interestingly enough, the party members that I have not actively used
lvl'd up beyond my wildest expectations: Verse, Sirin and Killsy are lvl31 on my game.
I played through the game as an Anarchist Unarmed Mage (not the most
original combination but I really enjoyed the fast recovery). Mainly used
the frost cone accent early on, then switched to the bouncing distant spells
and in Act III, I went with vampiric volcanic weapon on my fists.
I finished with the following party:
21 (PC), 21 (Lantry), 18 (Eb), 17 (Barik).
The Spellcasters lvl'ed up really fast when getting back each time to train Lore.
Barik really fell behind and was never able to keep up with the rest of my team
and, as most of you also found out, he's not really essential.
But I gave him the +1 might pot, upgraded his whole armor set to Masterwork,
selected the -% dmg to everyone talents and I don't have to micromanage him
as much as the other casters, so in the end I enjoyed keeping him in the team.
One can argue that I should have kicked him in favor of Verse/Sirin, but because
of the skill system, all the party members I didn't actively employ were extremely low
with their skills. Interestingly enough, the party members that I have not actively used
lvl'd up beyond my wildest expectations Verse, Sirin and Killsy are lvl31 on my game.
31?? My unused characters were higher level but only by one or two levels! Reading that people reached level 21 seems a bit crazy. That's 6-7 more levels than I got.
Not that I had any major problems in the late game.
31?? My unused characters were higher level but only by one or two levels! Reading that people reached level 21 seems a bit crazy. That's 6-7 more levels than I got.
Not that I had any major problems in the late game.
As I mentioned, going back to the Lore trainer at each lvl up really fasten the process.
Ofc it's tedious and immersion breaking, and let's not forget going through several loading screens…
I was also extremely surprised to see that my unused party members are 10 lvl's higher
than my PC. The good thing is that Verse and Killsy are still rather deadly because
I can almost fill both of their talent trees, but Sirin with not even 60 in Lore isn't much
effective in my party setup.
Guess I will plan a Rebel run with Verse and Sirin (not sure about Killsy, I should try her
fixed unarmed tree, long recovery times are a deal breaker for me).
I finished with the following party:
21 (PC), 21 (Lantry), 18 (Eb), 17 (Barik).
The Spellcasters lvl'ed up really fast when getting back each time to train Lore.
Barik really fell behind and was never able to keep up with the rest of my team
and, as most of you also found out, he's not really essential.
But I gave him the +1 might pot, upgraded his whole armor set to Masterwork,
selected the -% dmg to everyone talents and I don't have to micromanage him
as much as the other casters, so in the end I enjoyed keeping him in the team.
One can argue that I should have kicked him in favor of Verse/Sirin, but because
of the skill system, all the party members I didn't actively employ were extremely low
with their skills. Interestingly enough, the party members that I have not actively used
lvl'd up beyond my wildest expectations: Verse, Sirin and Killsy are lvl31 on my game.
I played through the game as an Anarchist Unarmed Mage (not the most
original combination but I really enjoyed the fast recovery). Mainly used
the frost cone accent early on, then switched to the bouncing distant spells
and in Act III, I went with vampiric volcanic weapon on my fists.
Did you play on PotD? On Hard or below, I don't see how you gained that many levels, unless you had a really low damage group, or you played on PotD. I ended up using the lighting/volcanic weapon buff on the entire group, and in my current playthrough everyone has 65% haste, and each encounter is over in a few seconds.
As I mentioned, going back to the Lore trainer at each lvl up really fasten the process.
Ofc it's tedious and immersion breaking, and let's not forget going through several loading screens
I was also extremely surprised to see that my unused party members are 10 lvl's higher
than my PC. The good thing is that Verse and Killsy are still rather deadly because
I can almost fill both of their talent trees, but Sirin with not even 60 in Lore isn't much
effective in my party setup.
Guess I will plan a Rebel run with Verse and Sirin (not sure about Killsy, I should try her
fixed unarmed tree, long recovery times are a deal breaker for me).
Did you play on PotD? On Hard or below, I don't see how you gained that many levels, unless you had a really low damage group, or you played on PotD. I ended up using the lighting/volcanic weapon buff on the entire group, and in my current playthrough everyone has 65% haste, and each encounter is over in a few seconds.
Played on Normal difficulty on Anarchist path. I ran with 3 casters so I wouldn't really say low dmg group!
Didn't do anything extraordinary afaik: did all quests and always ran back to the Lore trainer at each single lvl up.
Played on Normal difficulty on Anarchist path. I ran with 3 casters so I wouldn't really say low dmg group!
Didn't do anything extraordinary afaik: did all quests and always ran back to the Lore trainer at each single lvl up.
Dunno about Normal, but above Normal, melee end up doing way more damage overall. Still no idea how you got up so high in levels. I wonder if it has to do with focusing on fewer skills though? When you level up, your quest experience is divided among your current skills. Each time a new skill reaches a rank, it applies more experience to your character. I ended up training everyone too each level.
An another note, was anyone able to obtain the infamous Hound's Hide Mantle required to craft the Nightwalker's Boots?
I'm aware it is obtainable on the Scarlet Chorus route
through a quest received by Misery in Halfgate/Plainsgate where you have to kill Rending-Hound at the end
,
but on the Anarchist route it's apparently nowhere to be found.
I might try a 'mostly melee focused' setup in my next run. Because of the limited enemy variety, I was glad later on I could end almost all encounters with a couple of bouncing spells.
Can anyone share their opinions on the combat for this game compared to PoE? Ratio of combat encounters? I really want to get this game but it seems it's more dialog heavy instead of just pure game play heavy.
An another note, was anyone able to obtain the infamous Hound's Hide Mantle required to craft the Nightwalker's Boots?
I'm aware it is obtainable on the Scarlet Chorus route
through a quest received by Misery in Halfgate/Plainsgate where you have to kill Rending-Hound at the end
,
but on the Anarchist route it's apparently nowhere to be found.
I might try a 'mostly melee focused' setup in my next run. Because of the limited enemy variety, I was glad later on I could end almost all encounters with a couple of bouncing spells.
Can anyone share their opinions on the combat for this game compared to PoE? Ratio of combat encounters? I really want to get this game but it seems it's more dialog heavy instead of just pure game play heavy.
It's more dialogue heavy and less combat focused than POE. But there's still a fair amount of combat. It's also a much shorter game than POE, a single run through takes about 20 hours.
Can anyone share their opinions on the combat for this game compared to PoE? Ratio of combat encounters? I really want to get this game but it seems it's more dialog heavy instead of just pure game play heavy.
Instead of PoE's 80% combat, 20% dialog/exploration, it kind of feels like the reverse. There are stretches with more combat, but dialog and exploration feels much more prominent overall. Though granted, a lot of the dialog is for background/world lore that you're free to skip if you want.
Tyranny feels more like BG2 to PoE's BG1, if that makes sense.
I don't really think BG2 is a good comparison at all. Tyranny isn't structured or paced anything like it, and the POE->Tyranny transition is nothing like the leap between the BG games.
You spend a lot more time in BG2 exploring dungeons or questing than you do in Tyranny, which is focused on dialogue and managing factions. If anything POE is more similar to BG2 than Tyranny.
I don't really think BG2 is a good comparison at all. Tyranny isn't structured or paced anything like it, and the POE->Tyranny transition is nothing like the leap between the BG games.
You spend a lot more time in BG2 exploring dungeons or questing than you do in Tyranny, which is focused on dialogue and managing factions. If anything POE is more similar to BG2 than Tyranny.
I don't really think BG2 is a good comparison at all. Tyranny isn't structured or paced anything like it, and the POE->Tyranny transition is nothing like the leap between the BG games.
You spend a lot more time in BG2 exploring dungeons or questing than you do in Tyranny, which is focused on dialogue and managing factions.
Ehh. BG1 has a lot of situations where you enter a map with the sole purpose of clearing it out to proceed to the next map. PoE does the same. Cities are the exception, and while not every map is 100% combat, this largely holds true.
BG2 meanwhile has a lot more talking, exploring, and, as you say, questing. It doesn't feel so much like clearing out one map after another of encounters, but adventuring. And Tyranny has that similar feel, albeit noticably smaller in scope.
Did you play on PotD? On Hard or below, I don't see how you gained that many levels, unless you had a really low damage group, or you played on PotD. I ended up using the lighting/volcanic weapon buff on the entire group, and in my current playthrough everyone has 65% haste, and each encounter is over in a few seconds.
Maybe it has to do with the anarchist path. I am currently playing that as well, and despite not using the skill trainers as much, I am well on my way to topping those levels.
Maybe it has to do with the anarchist path. I am currently playing that as well, and despite not using the skill trainers as much, I am well on my way to topping those levels.
I have yet to play that way, but I'm still trying to figure out how there's a five level difference, unless when you're anarchist, you actually get to experience all of the maps in one go and have additional encounters that you wouldn't have otherwise. I was going to start that path next. I think it might also have to do with splitting quest experince among extra skills too. Each party member gets Illusion and Lightning through self buffs.
I'm not really seeing the BG2 comparisons either. Combine the dialogue of Tyranny with the combat and exploration of Pillars and then you'd have a contender. If anything, Tyranny is a lot closer to Torment (I prefer BG2 by a huge margin).
Third playthrough, and about to hit Act 3. For whatever reason, it seems like the Rebel path is longer than choosing the Scarlet Chorus or Disfavored too.
Barik is at 21k, PC 25k, Lantry 28.5k. Eb is melee, using a huge two-hander that procs an arcane blast on a crit, as well as a lightning weapon buff. She's also at 1s recovery.
Act 1 was great, and the beginning for Act 2 was also great - it really felt like the game was about to open up. But....... instead you end up being railroaded and your factional decisions already being mostly made up for you. This has extremely soured my impression of the game. I'm still enjoying it, but the good note it started off on kind of fizzled away :/
Read through the guide book and it was pretty boring and not worth the $20 extra beyond the $60 edition. I was expecting something like Xenogear perfect works or Nier other Japanese rpg world guides, where they expand on and flesh out the interesting background lore beyond what you get in the game. Wanted stuff like Archons, Cairn's betrayal, edicts, oldwalls & kyrios. Instead got like farming and merchant techniques.
But I feel Tyranny's guide is meant for before you play the game and so it goes out of its way to not talk about anything possibly interesting that you might learn in-game. It's basically an 80 page version of the little intros in manuals. Would've much more interesting if it was ok with spoilers and meant for after you've finished the game to expand on stuff.
Alternatively I would've liked it if the "guide" had been more akin to the Fallout NV prima guide and show all the possible quest lines and branches within them. That stuff is fascinating and saves having to replay the game a bunch because you can see how everything can go from the branches & endings.
I guess I can rationalize that at least it was an extra $20 towards a good developer.
I've encountered what i think is a bug with Sirin?
After swapping her out of my party for a quick minute and putting her back in, I am no longer able to use her level 7 song, Bane of Night. It's even like, greyed out in the talent window as if it was not selected even though everything in that tree is auto-granted once you reach the proper level.
Finished my first play-through, I ended up sticking with the Scarlet Chorus rather than betraying them because I was curious to see where it would go. My first playthroughs of games like this doesn't tend to be very roleplay focused as I end up gaming systems like reputation and faction standing rather than trying to be a consistent character. I'll exhaust every dialogue option and try to play nice (to the extent possible haha) with everyone because I'm trying to learn as much about the world as possible. I like to learn what everyone's abilities and talents are, what works and what doesn't, that sort of thing.
I really liked the game overall but combat definitely felt like more of a drag than something exciting or tactical. Some of that is just part of the genre and that's my own personal hangups. I prefer having less abilities, less loot, and less items so that the choices feel more important and meaningful as opposed to just cycling through my ability CD list. They really ought to have a double row of quick-abilities rather than just 9, you can easily fill that up with your spell slots alone, not to mention your talents, combo abilities, faction abilities, potions, artifact abilities, etc.
It may not be quite the right word but after a while it starts to feel like filler. I eventually stopped using all the abilities I had because it was too much of a hassle to go through the sub-menus to select them since they wouldn't all fit on the quick-row. Just throw it on fast mode and let the AI brute force it, maybe take manual control if health starts to dip too low. The game could really use a Dragon Age 1 style AI tactics menu if they're going to throw this level of things of to click/do at you.
Same filler problem with loot/items as well, there's so much of it and it's not very useful so it just feels like a hassle to collect it in order to sell it off. I don't need or want dozens of consumable foods and potions; an inventory full of stuff isn't good if if none of it is fun or meaningful to interact with. Equipment upgrades are pretty marginal so you're never excited to get something new, you're just like, eh, it's got slightly less recovery so it's better I guess. Even if you do scrimp and save, you'll find yourself overwhelmed by the number of vendors and options, everything is just so marginal an upgrade that you almost don't care to look.
By the time you get the ability to research and craft your own stuff you'll find yourself overwhelmed with those options too. Dozens of choices means that none of them are particularly interesting or powerful and so it ends up losing any sense of importance. Oh this rare ore I found in a cave is needed to forge an ancient spear, it must be amazing. Oh wait, it's just one of 6 ancient weapons I can craft and none of them are that much better than something I could just buy. Oftentimes you're better off just upgrading whatever equipment you're already using in a forge or through a vendor.
Frankly I think you could do away with a lot of this extraneous content and systems and the game would be better for it. A lot of it felt like it was put in there just to be in there, not because it made the game more fun to play. This is extra concerning since the game was rumored to have suffered from budgetary/development issues. I'm not coming to this game because I want to micromanage my party's consumption of food and potion buffs, I want to explore and interact with the world and its characters.
And that's where the game really nails it, because despite all those negative feelings I just went through the rest of the package was more than compelling enough to keep me going. I really liked how the conquest serves as both an introduction to the world as well as a tool for fleshing out your character's backstory. Yes, some of the decisions just end up being a boost to like/dislike by certain factions, but there were enough moments where your decisions actually caused new options to appear or NPCs to behave in different ways to make up for that.
I think the 'Evil Won' setting is really interesting and they wisely stuck with a faction/reputation system to build off that; it is a great change of pace to see the forceful/violent option be the default mode of operation. The politics and intrigue among the Archons was fun to explore and I thought they did a good job of slowly peeling back the plot layers to reveal that there is more going on than you might first expect. The game also shows how you properly incorporate female characters in military combat/society; they just exist and are as (in)competent as any other character, end of story. No contrivances, no excuses, they just are. I'm also very glad they resisted the urge to reveal or explain exactly what or who Kyros is; the Overlord is very much this enigmatic force that you learn little bits and pieces about over time, never enough to know the contours, but just enough to get your imagination working.
I liked the companion characters and felt there was good reason to include all of them in your party, Lantry in particular was my favorite and I kept him with party 24/7 lest my deeds go unrecorded. Clearly there was some side-quest content for them that didn't make the cut, and they probably shouldn't be unquestionably loyal to you the entire game regardless of what you do. I liked the idea of combo abilities but they were pretty hit and miss in terms of effectiveness, some feel like "win this fight" buttons and others feel worthless to press.
I thought the spell customization system was really cool as a concept with the various rune options, but the number of choices you get starts to get overwhelming. There are just too many classes of magic and expression types in my opinion, so you find yourself trying dozens of combinations just to see if the base result is a spell you would even bother using. I think customizing baseline spells is better than making them entirely from scratch.
I really like that they simplified the skill system to be based on usage and independent experience. So the more you shoot bows, the better your bow skill, no need to put points into bow. This lets you change your combat focus in the early game without being punished and streamlines the leveling process to be much simpler. Pick your stat and your talent and you're good to go. I will say that it wasn't always entirely clear what the stats did though, for example, does finesse/accuracy increase spell accuracy or just melee/ranged accuracy? No way to tell based on tool-tips alone.
Plot-wise I wasn't happy with where the game went on a macro-level but I really enjoyed what was happening on a micro-level.
I was hoping this game would eschew the 'chosen/special one' trope but not only did that make a huge appearance we also got 'ancient magical ruins with no known creator' trope too. I was hoping for more fatebinder adjudicating and less 'usurp all the archons/Kyros and take their power'. I understand that most players want and expect the power fantasy, but it's just so damn boring to me. Oh I have untold power / connection with ancient magics / natural talent...ugh gag me. Playing as tunon's wandering judge was more than enough to keep me interested and engaged.
Performance wise I only had problems in the burning library (something about the fire/lava effects I think) but the load times were not great on an SSD and that got pretty annoying in places with lots of rooms or screen changes. Didn't run into that many bugs outside of inconsequential stuff like text being too small/big. I did have some issues selecting/viewing characters when a bunch of enemies would clump together on top of me though, made it hard to select and target individuals.
I'm definitely going to play through again, but I might play on easy to minimize combat altogether. Hopefully it sells okay because I want to see Obsidian keep making games.
Third playthrough, and about to hit Act 3. For whatever reason, it seems like the Rebel path is longer than choosing the Scarlet Chorus or Disfavored too.
Barik is at 21k, PC 25k, Lantry 28.5k. Eb is melee, using a huge two-hander that procs an arcane blast on a crit, as well as a lightning weapon buff. She's also at 1s recovery.
I played as a dual wielding mage. Spread out my spells everywhere. I cast spells from all 11 schools. I also had a two handed weapon in my second weapon set that I used from time to time.
I'm kind of on the fence about this game. One of my friends has played it and he won't shut up about how great it is, but all the scores I'm seeing are 7s and 8s and the one website I trust blindly, RPGFan, has not reviewed it yet. I really don't need another game right now, but I don't want to miss out either. I did love Pillars of Eternity. A little help?
Act 1 was great, and the beginning for Act 2 was also great - it really felt like the game was about to open up. But....... instead you end up being railroaded and your factional decisions already being mostly made up for you. This has extremely soured my impression of the game. I'm still enjoying it, but the good note it started off on kind of fizzled away :/
I don't think you're really bound that much besides taking missions from one of the two factions. You get enough choices within the mission to not just fall in line and follow one route.
I'm kind of on the fence about this game. One of my friends has played it and he won't shut up about how great it is, but all the scores I'm seeing are 7s and 8s and the one website I trust blindly, RPGFan, has not reviewed it yet. I really don't need another game right now, but I don't want to miss out either. I did love Pillars of Eternity. A little help?
I don't think you're really bound that much besides taking missions from one of the two factions. You get enough choices within the mission to not just fall in line and follow one route.
It depends on which faction you are aligned with. If you chose the Disfavored at the end of Act 1, you're locked into a lot of choices in Act 2 and are forced to kill everyone in many cases.
I don't think you're really bound that much besides taking missions from one of the two factions. You get enough choices within the mission to not just fall in line and follow one route.
It depends on which faction you are aligned with. If you chose the Disfavored at the end of Act 1, you're locked into a lot of choices in Act 2 and are forced to kill everyone in many cases.
I'm kind of on the fence about this game. One of my friends has played it and he won't shut up about how great it is, but all the scores I'm seeing are 7s and 8s and the one website I trust blindly, RPGFan, has not reviewed it yet. I really don't need another game right now, but I don't want to miss out either. I did love Pillars of Eternity. A little help?
Right now I prefer PoE over Tyranny. The latter has a little too much talking for my taste. While it shares a lot of similarities with PoE I think it's closer to Shadowrun games in how it plays.
Yeah the action choice at the end of act 1 really annoyed me too since I made the choice I thought would be the best strategic decision, not the one I would of made if I knew how it affected the story. Oh well.
Okay, so I just got Eb and I'm trying to decide on my party. Right now its obviously my main character, Verse, Barik, and Lantry
My main is going for a sort of valkyrie build, tank + javelins and spears and some buffs/healing
Verse is going bows
Barik has been going 2H
and Lantry is pure mage
I kind of want to introduce Eb into the party. Barik is probably the character I'm least interested in, maybe Lantry. Any suggestions on how Eb would fit best and who to take out? Also, any good build suggestions for Eb?
I finished the game today. I'm curious (endgame SPOILERS):
1. What happens if you choose to seek an alliance with the sages at the Burning Library rather than the Earthshakers in Cairn's neck of the woods? Do you still get access to the last two spires?
2. On the Vendrien Guard/Rebel route, is there any option apart from casting an edict on the northern lands at the end?
I finished the game today. I'm curious (endgame SPOILERS):
1. What happens if you choose to seek an alliance with the sages at the Burning Library rather than the Earthshakers in Cairn's neck of the woods? Do you still get access to the last two spires?
2. On the Vendrien Guard/Rebel route, is there any option apart from casting an edict on the northern lands at the end?
Okay, so I just got Eb and I'm trying to decide on my party. Right now its obviously my main character, Verse, Barik, and Lantry
My main is going for a sort of valkyrie build, tank + javelins and spears and some buffs/healing
Verse is going bows
Barik has been going 2H
and Lantry is pure mage
I kind of want to introduce Eb into the party. Barik is probably the character I'm least interested in, maybe Lantry. Any suggestions on how Eb would fit best and who to take out? Also, any good build suggestions for Eb?
Eb is probably the most damaging character in the game as long as everyone has haste and an electric + volcanic weapon enchant. Later on you get an accent that allows you to make a really strong buff that can be used everyone but yourself. You have two characters do (have Lantry do the group version since his Lore should be a bit higher and the second character just do the single target version) this with haste, and your entire group can get their recovery time down to 1s, including Barik, who is typically at 3.5s - 4.5s. If you haven't started doing it yet, I also highly suggest dumping points into the Leaderhip tree up to Killing Rush too.
Anyone had an issue with vanishing key items? I picked one up but can't find it anywhere. (And I don't think it's that "inventory is full" thing mentioned previously. That tab isn't near full.)
That was my main concern with using Kills-in-Shadow, that her natural armor wouldn't keep up. From her skill trees and preset AI behavior drop downs, it's clear that they intend for her to have 2 very different roles. One is for making bee-lines to soft targets and ripping their entrails open (in game ability), the other is for tanking.
If you look closely at her Titan skill tree, her version of tanking seems to be high health with life leech + scaled damage boost, versus high armor with dodge and parry. I think she's the tank alternative to Barek for a Scarlet Chorus or anarchy playthrough. Her abilities are all about losing health from a high health pool.
That was my main concern with using Kills-in-Shadow, that her natural armor wouldn't keep up. From her skill trees and preset AI behavior drop downs, it's clear that they intend for her to have 2 very different roles. One is for making bee-lines to soft targets and ripping their entrails open (in game ability), the other is for tanking.
If you look closely at her Titan skill tree, her version of tanking seems to be high health with life leech + scaled damage boost, versus high armor with dodge and parry. I think she's the tank alternative to Barek for a Scarlet Chorus or anarchy playthrough. Her abilities are all about losing health from a high health pool.
I don't think any path forces you to lose party members, it's always in the players hands. Party members are pretty much compartmentalized off from story decisions.
Currently mid way through Act 2 on my first run as a mage.
Is there any real reason to put into leadership?
My mage line is filling up so thinks will start spilling over, but so far I'm pretty content to just roll through it.
Also what are the better spells? Started with frost spells and have mostly kept to it along with some CC spells like false pit.
