Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - Backer Beta

[No Depth]

I played a little more this morning. Here are some additional thoughts:

1. Was it always the case that you need to hover at an NPC's feet (at the marker circle) in order to get the dialogue cursor up?

2. I'm ambivalent about the transparent dialogue window. Works well enough indoors, but against a lighter backdrop with more items in the background, it's a little distracting.

3. Here are some more examples of what I would consider misuse of the dialogue tooltip. In this first screen, the meaning of "prize-share" is relatively clear from context, and in any case you have a dialogue option to ask about it. There is no reason to add what is effectively a footnote explaining the term.

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1) Don't remember having to hover on the rings to talk in Pillars 1. Actually I remember right-clicking the portrait or something similar to initiate. There was a talk symbol that lit up to click when they had new info to discuss too.
2) I like what I see of the transparency. I assume this HAS to be an option to toggle though, at least in final if not in here.
3) Keep the footnotes. It annoys me MORE when they are hapharzadly optioned and taken away for certain identical terms in some conversations or not at all. If they felt Prize-Share needs further explanation in this instance, is it really so bothersome?
5) Also imagine the reputation adjusts can be hidden with an option, possibly just in final if not in beta. Didn't the original allow you to hide them? I could swear there were options along those lines. Maybe its just for the choices but not the results...
6) You are using the same character portrait I did for my avatar in the first game!

 

[Anno]

Staying on the initial island seems to lead to harder fights. Sailing east to the desert following the story quest I think is the way to find slightly more level appropriate battles. They're still tough, though, even on normal. Enemy AI seems quite a bit better and there are even some random roamers that come sometimes and fuck everything up lol. Gonna keep exploring more tomorrow. For now I've finished four fights without getting anyone downed. The rogue merc is hilariously squishy but escape seems to work well for getting out of trouble. Fighter/Ranger is so far a solid combination.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Did you fight the spores to the north? I'm playing on Veteran. I took them down but it was a hell of a fight. Then, I went west but I had no chance of beating that fight. I managed to do a decent amount of damage to the enemy ranks, but ultimately failed to win the battle. I'm going to take your advice and explore a little bit more.

 

[Anno]

I went out on the first island and found some lagufaeth who just crushed me. Then I noticed that the quest you get in the village has a little skull by it so I figured that maybe that area of the world was a bit higher level so I sailed east instead. Hoping that this area/dungeon/quest get me up to level 7, then I'll go take on some of the other things.

So far I think that I like the pen/armor system more than DR, though it might need a couple numbers tweaked. DR was so mushy that I mostly ignored it until I played on PotD; with this system you basically can't ignore it so I'm paying more attention from the start. It's also nice to have a system that's weapon speed neutral.

 

[MisterShine]

I got used to the casting times, but I do need to get used the fact that spells are now per-encounter, I'm still trying to conserve my abilities too much.

Some general thoughts after about two hours:

-Slow mode being broken sucks. There's a slow/half speed button, I'm pretty sure this is just a bug. It's tough at normal speed, especially since I've done Hard/POTD playthroughs almost entirely in slow mode with minimal pausing, I just got used to the pace
-Priests of Eothas have lost basically all of the good buffs. Suppress Affliction, Blessing, Withdaw, Watchful presence, Circle of Protection... excellent early level spells in the first game are now out of your repertoire. At level 6 I only seem to have a bonus spell of sunfire which doesn't seem very good. I think the bonus spells from druid are busted? I think Eothas priests might just be straight up healers + AoE nukers, which is an odd combo. Priests could heal in the first game but this wasn't really a good use of their time: better to buff buff buff debuff debuff debuff. I'm curious if they're going to make healing a more viable option or just nerf buffs.
-Either I've lost most of my skill or "Classic" mode is actually pretty tough. I think they may have upped difficulty all around. Which I think is fine with a story mode option.
-Adding together bonuses from skills is pretty cool but I haven't really seen it in action yet
-Int bonuses to spell radii are either a LOT harder to see or dramatically smaller. Hopefully it is the former and it is a bug.
-Multi class seems really strong. My Cleric (Priest/Fighter) seems quite a bit tougher than my Fighter due to her spells, almost all of which center on her by default. My Thaumaturge (Priest/Wizard) is kind of weird but I think that's because I chose Eothas- the class seems like a natural Buffer/Crowd Control but can't do the first job at all because she loses all the good buffs. MAD might be a real problem here though: my cleric had stars next to 5 of the 6 attributes hahaa
-The beta itself is REAL choppy and lacking in options. Only get this right now if you're really interested in providing feedback I think.
-I can't fucking tell how many options I have when I level up! Having to decide between my two classes abilities is TOO HARD
-The level up UI needs a once-over, and more options need to be added. There were too many talent options in the first game, way too few here.
-It's looking damn good.
-The world map: I really hope there are random encounters tossed in there and the world map looks a little more dynamic on release. I'd like to see some mini forests, little towns I pass over, etc. I don't want to see just green grass everywhere except where there's a map I can enter


That's all I got right now. Anyone got any particular class combos they want me to look at later?

edit: And the mercenaries they give you kind of suck. They wizard has terrible spells ditch her immediately. The priest and fighter don't seem too bad? They're a little too 'spread out' in abilties instead of specialized.

edit2:

Healing spells are currently very powerful. Way more than Pillars 1 where you basically never wanted to heal outside of Radiance/Shod-in-Faith/Lay Hands. They cast almost instantly but have a pretty long recovery time.

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For sure, the instant casts on those are very nice. Priest/Fighter is a great combo for that reason, they can heal themselves or other very quickly. Good range too.

 

[Anno]

Healing spells are currently very powerful. Way more than Pillars 1 where you basically never wanted to heal outside of Radiance/Shod-in-Faith/Lay Hands. They cast almost instantly but have a pretty long recovery time.

 

[Deleted member 1687]

For anyone else who wants to use a full custom party and hire adventurers, console commands are in the beta.

Use "iroll20s" then "GivePlayerMoney X", x being the amount copper.

 

[Anno]

It's actually crazy how much better the game is on a technical basis already than Pillars 1. I fired up the game for a second to look at something and I think it was maybe 15-20 seconds to be loaded into my save from when I clicked launch on Steam on a pretty average HDD.

 

[decoyplatypus]

1) Don't remember having to hover on the rings to talk in Pillars 1. Actually I remember right-clicking the portrait or something similar to initiate. There was a talk symbol that lit up to click when they had new info to discuss too.
2) I like what I see of the transparency. I assume this HAS to be an option to toggle though, at least in final if not in here.
3) Keep the footnotes. It annoys me MORE when they are hapharzadly optioned and taken away for certain identical terms in some conversations or not at all. If they felt Prize-Share needs further explanation in this instance, is it really so bothersome?
5) Also imagine the reputation adjusts can be hidden with an option, possibly just in final if not in beta. Didn't the original allow you to hide them? I could swear there were options along those lines. Maybe its just for the choices but not the results...
6) You are using the same character portrait I did for my avatar in the first game!

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3.) Well I don't know that it's so bothersome, but I do find the hypertext drawing my eyes to these words distracting. And as I pointed out with the prize-share example, where the writer feels the term needs further explanation (either for the player or for the characters), the writer will ordinarily give the player the option to ask about it.

I would be fine with a toggle for the hypertext. That way I can read normally, and if for some reason I need a reminder about a term, I can switch on the hypertext and use it as something like a glossary. But whether that solution would work depends on how much Obsidian wrote with the expectation that players would consult the tooltips.

5. You can hide them. In fact, I believe they're hidden by default in this one. But I want the reputation effects and skill qualifiers visible. I just want them to be more legible. The tiny icons require just a little bit of extra mental work for something that should be effortless. It's not always obvious what they represent. A dove, for example, is "benevolent," when it could just as easily be "diplomacy." I think a scroll stands for diplomacy and could just as well be history. I'm sure after a few hours you memorize them, but why put the player through this work at all when you can just write out [Mechanics] or [Might] as just about every other CRPG (including Pillars 1) has done?

6. It's a good portrait! And it would have fit my orlan pretty well if not for the hair glitch turning her bald :(

Healing spells are currently very powerful. Way more than Pillars 1 where you basically never wanted to heal outside of Radiance/Shod-in-Faith/Lay Hands. They cast almost instantly but have a pretty long recovery time.

It's actually crazy how much better the game is on a technical basis already than Pillars 1. I fired up the game for a second to look at something and I think it was maybe 15-20 seconds to be loaded into my save from when I clicked launch on Steam on a pretty average HDD.

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I agree with both of these points. Being able to move indoors and between locations without a book on hand is a great improvement.

 

[decoyplatypus]

Twitter thread discussing Obsidian's response to initial beta feedback: https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/931611039833063424

Paraphrasing the (non-exclusive) list:

• They're going to give the wizard some starting grimoires so players can experiment with how grimoires help customize the class.
• Priests & druids will get some additional spells at each power level.
• They're going to work on a tutorial for inspirations/afflictions.
• They're discussing players' concern about the lack of talents and the absence of graze on most attacks, but they have not decided on a direction yet.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

For those that don't like twitter.

 

[Anno]

A decreased movement speed in combat is pretty important I think. I don't really think that the back and forth of combat is prohibitively quick at the moment, just how quickly engagements begin because people are so damned fast. It'll also give some relief to casters being bumrushed and interrupted.

 

[Enduin]

I wouldn't mind them taking a classic FO approach to Talents and making them more limited but more powerful. Every 3 or even 4 levels instead of 2 and providing a somewhat substantial augmentation to your character. This could help offset some people's fears/disappointment with the fact that your First level/aka choosing between Multi or Single class, plus sub-class, is your most important. Thus making these future level markers more noteworthy and potentially play style altering.

 

[MisterShine]

I think the issue with talents is more in having a variety to choose from as well. Martial classes seem to only have a handful of options per level up and that seems kinda lame compared to Pillars 1. They took a little too much from Tyranny (which I love that game don't get me wrong) into Pillars 2. I'm glad that they're responding so well and so quickly to feedback, though obviously we won't see these changes until next month's update.

 

[decoyplatypus]

What's the best way to transfer items between party members' personal packs? Dragging an item onto a character's portrait didn't work for me, so the one time I tried it last night, I ended up dropping the item into general storage, switching characters, and then pulling it back out. If that's the way things work now, fair enough (transfers to/from storage are common enough that they probably deserve premium inventory space over intra-party transfers), but my guess is I just missed the intended way of doing things.

EDIT: As far as talents go, I'm not theorycrafter enough to guess how the current set-up will work out without significantly more play time. My (mild) concerns probably reflect (a) comfort with where POE1 ended up, (b) preference for choices distributed more evenly across levels,* (c) preference for classless over class-based systems. In other words, there are pretty good odds that I won't appreciate the benefits of this sort of multiclass system until they smack me in the face.

*I voted for 3rd Edition style multiclassing.

 

[Anno]

I still maintain that the majority of those abilities in Pillars 1 are bad and uninteresting to take and it's just variety for varieties sake. I'd much rather have two or three interesting choices at every level than taking a perfunctory +10 will talent or something. The problem of course is that right now many classes don't have even two or three to choose from so I hope they choose to improve that instead.

 

[Anno]

This isn't a surprise. It was obviously out of whack for many weapons.

 

[Altazor]

Lots of changes coming to the Beta on the future, according to JSawyer (it's a whole thread, so click on that tweet and read on!)

EDIT: Disregard, already posted! LMAO, that's what happens when I forget to read the last posts.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

I played around with the beta some more. I'm using the henchmen you get from the start, but I will make my own party later on. Wizards are very disappointing. They are simply boring to play. You have a few spells, use them and then fight with your ranged weapon. The ranged priest is very useful. Healing is very potent in PoE2. He's saved my ass a few times now. There's at least one useful debuff, too. It doesn't hurt that he can also dish out some damage of his own. The fighter doesn't feel as high maintenance as in the first game, which, in my opinion is very good. He seems to be a decent tank, but it does happen that enemies slip through to the backline. The rogue can dish out nice damage, but hoo boy, if they get caught, they're screwed. Escape is very useful.

My character mix is very fun to play. Most enemies killed, most damage dealt and most single target hit at 53 damage. On the other hand, he's the only one that has been knocked down in combat (when I actually won.)

Might 20 (2 from mountain dwarf and 1 from Living Lands: Mercenary background): + 30% damage
Dexterity 17: +21% action speed

Half-Sword (modal: -20 Deflection, +2 Penetration
Proficiency Sword: Higher Penetration at the cost of Deflection
Sneak Attack: +50% Damage with weapons
On the Edge: 100% crit damage with weapons, -20% recovery time, +20% weapon damage
Heating Up: Sneak attack damage increases and recovery decreases when the street fighter is either flanked or bloodied
Looking for a fight: +20% recovery time when not flanked or bloodied (the way I play, this is a non-issue)

Rogue spells (that's how they are referred to in the game)
Crippling strike: Hobble an enemy for 15 seconds or more if it hits
Blinding strike: Blind enemy for 15 seconds or more if it hits

Shattered Pillar: Gain wounds by melee weapon damage inflicted, no wounds from damage received

Swift Strikes: 20% action speed for 10 seconds
Dance of Death: I haven't used it, but it could maybe be useful. It raises accuracy. I think this is based on intellect, but my character only has has 10 Intellect.

I have only fought 4 encounters, so far, but he seems to be good at dishing out damage. I only activate the modal when I am behind an enemy.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

 

[decoyplatypus]

I played around with the beta some more. I'm using the henchmen you get from the start, but I will make my own party later on. Wizards are very disappointing. They are simply boring to play. You have a few spells, use them and then fight with your ranged weapon. The ranged priest is very useful. Healing is very potent in PoE2. He's saved my ass a few times now. There's at least one useful debuff, too. It doesn't hurt that he can also dish out some damage of his own. The fighter doesn't feel as high maintenance as in the first game, which, in my opinion is very good. He seems to be a decent tank, but it does happen that enemies slip through to the backline. The rogue can dish out nice damage, but hoo boy, if they get caught, they're screwed. Escape is very useful.

My character mix is very fun to play. Most enemies killed, most damage dealt and most single target hit at 53 damage. On the other hand, he's the only one that has been knocked down in combat (when I actually won.)

Might 20 (2 from mountain dwarf and 1 from Living Lands: Mercenary background): + 30% damage
Dexterity 17: +21% action speed

Half-Sword (modal: -20 Deflection, +2 Penetration
Proficiency Sword: Higher Penetration at the cost of Deflection
Sneak Attack: +50% Damage with weapons
On the Edge: 100% crit damage with weapons, -20% recovery time, +20% weapon damage
Heating Up: Sneak attack damage increases and recovery decreases when the street fighter is either flanked or bloodied
Looking for a fight: +20% recovery time when not flanked or bloodied (the way I play, this is a non-issue)

Rogue spells (that's how they are referred to in the game)
Crippling strike: Hobble an enemy for 15 seconds or more if it hits
Blinding strike: Blind enemy for 15 seconds or more if it hits

Shattered Pillar: Gain wounds by melee weapon damage inflicted, no wounds from damage received

Swift Strikes: 20% action speed for 10 seconds
Dance of Death: I haven't used it, but it could maybe be useful. It raises accuracy. I think this is based on intellect, but my character only has has 10 Intellect.

I have only fought 4 encounters, so far, but he seems to be good at dishing out damage. I only activate the modal when I am behind an enemy.

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Nice! I have had a similar experience with the wizard being boring and the rogue being super squishy. I gave the rogue a blunderbuss (PoE vanilla-style), but a lot of my combat so far has been about keeping her away from the action. My PC is a skald/barbarian, and she's working out ... okay. Phrases and incantations aren't hitting as often as I'd like, but she's doing fine on the whole. I think there's a super effective version of this character out there.

 

[Enduin]

Well I caved. Bought the Backer Beta and messed around a bit and started three characters on Classic and went through all of Tikiwara with them.

Oh boy is combat fast. Took some getting used to without letting things just get out of hand completely. First rolled a Female Aumaua Ranger(Sharpshooter)/Rogue which did not work out well at all. Animal companion was dead with in the first 3 seconds of combat every encounter. Guy was a just a magnet for every attack. Just a wave of ranged attacks would nuke him. Was missing way too much and barely making a scratch as well with my pistol. Then I tried a female human Monk(Shattered Pillar)/Cypher(Soul Blade). Worked out a bit better, but not sure it's a great combination. Was hoping Cypher abilities would compliment the monk but didn't feel that great. I was still missing way too many attacks, especially active abilities.

Finally made myself a Dwarf Barbarian(Mage Killer)/Rogue(Streetfighter) and boy does it feel good. Feels like I'm hitting most of the time and doing serious damage. Abilities really feel great and compliment one another very well. Just cleared out every encounter on Tikawara without issue. Just mopped up everyone pretty easily. My girl really packs a punch and just wrecks characters. Single handedly took out the Broodmother without issue while the rest of my crew focused on the rest.

Game is buggy as all hell though. So it's hard to really judge anything seriously knowing a bunch of this are busted or incorrect like weapon speeds. Penetration seems pretty punishing though and probably will need to go through a good few revisions. Just being one point below feels like you can only do ~5 dmg at best, while that same attack at equal penetration will do ~30 and above penetration will do ~50. The lack of Grazes also doesn't feel right. Missing so much is just not fun.

One bug or issue that needs to be fixed that bugged me a lot was that party members will push each other around in combat if they're in one another's way. Flanking is still very powerful and having your Rogue get behind enemies just turns them into total murder machines, but if say your Fighter is in the way the Rogue will just pushing the Figther's model around like they're on ice. Just gliding in a circle around the enemy they're engaged with. It's goofy and fucks up your positioning as the two are still right next to each and not on opposite sides of the enemy like you wanted. I guess it's better than being boxed in and characters being completely immovable, but it needs some work. Otherwise the game looks gorgeous, loads very fast, framerate is not great hovering around mid 30s, but it's a beta so I won't hold it against them.

Abilities need more oomph though and definitely need some kind of failed animation. Being able to slow combat more will help, but non-magical abilities can hit and I won't even realize it happened. And more often than not they miss and I won't even realize they were activated in the first place, let alone missed. I think sound queues alone would be very beneficial in that regard for both hits and misses for those abilities. Right now they're just too quiet or indistinct or simply not there at all.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

I've already seen more modding for this game than the first.

 

[Enduin]

That's really great.

That said, I'm not really expecting anything of real consequence to come from mods beyond what we already saw with stuff like the IE Mod for PoE. What I would really like to see is new content mods with people creating whole new quests and environments, but that's still not entirely feasible in any easily reproducible way with how Obsidian generates backgrounds and maps for this engine.

People will be able to reuse maps for custom content and will certainly be able to add in new characters, scripted events, dialogues and so forth, but it's just not going to be the same as what you find in stuff like TES and FO these days which have both the tools and core foundation that lets anyone pretty easily add in new content and locations within the existing world. You can just plop a new building and create a new interior without much trouble there and fully renovate any existing structure. The way the world map in Deadfire works with the location icons will certainly help as modders probably will be able to just add new icons and maybe edit the map itself to add in new islands, but beyond some massive modding groups like Skywind, FO New California, FO Cascadia or the like pretty much everyone will be recycling the Obsidian made locations and not making their own unique ones. And even that might not ever happen.

I'm sure we'll see cosmetic mods adding more character customization options for stuff like hair, faces and so on. Not to mention new clothing/armor and weapons too. I'm sure a couple people will try to reimagine the whole combat/leveling systems as well; expanding the level cap, introducing new spells and abilities and so forth, but I generally don't care for those types of overhauls. But for a game like PoE most of that will just break the game. Plenty will like that stuff, but personally it's not of much interest to me. I'll be sure to download the good graphics enhancements and model improvements and maybe some of the more well integrated weapon additions, but that's about it.

 

[Anno]

I'm optimistic we could see some fun stuff by mods. But even if we only ever get stuff like balance mods or new weapons I'd be very happy. Make up 10 new items that are cool and that's enough for me to play through the game again lol.

 

[Asbsand]

Woah! I must've been living under a rock. When did this game get announced!? And they're going for 3D graphics this time?
Count me in! That is, count me in for the full version and I'll look forward to hearing impressions about this beta :)
Looks great so far!

 

[Anno]

Woah! I must've been living under a rock. When did this game get announced!? And they're going for 3D graphics this time?
Count me in! That is, count me in for the full version and I'll look forward to hearing impressions about this beta :)
Looks great so far!

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It was announced in January when they launched the crowdfunding campaign. And it's still pre-rendered 2D backgrounds.

 

[Mivey]

I wonder if someone will mod in a sixth character. It might break a lot of stuff, but I just don't see people not at least trying.

 

[Anno]

I wonder if someone will mod in a sixth character. It might break a lot of stuff, but I just don't see people not at least trying.

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I'm actually surprised that there's been very little feedback about this on the forums. It's never even really occurred to me while playing that there's one less character come to think of it. 4 in Tyranny felt very different and bad but 5 seems to be just fine so far.

 

[Enduin]

I'm actually surprised that there's been very little feedback about this on the forums. It's never even really occurred to me while playing that there's one less character come to think of it. 4 in Tyranny felt very different and bad but 5 seems to be just fine so far.

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I think it's because 5 is the sweet spot, or maybe the minimum amount before it gets really noticeable. I thought it felt fine in Tyranny with the way everything worked and was setup in that game, but here 5 still feels like a large crew and lets you roll with a strong mix of classes and abilities. In most of my playthroughs of PoE I generally had a 5 person team of unique characters/roles with then the 6th usually being a redundant role, normally that being Pallegina as a secondary tank or occasionally Hiravias a secondary CC along with Aloth or support character along with Durance.

 

[Rayne]

They screwed over wizards. I'm actually kind of irritated because of that. I play pure casters and I feel useless.

 

[Anno]

I think it's because 5 is the sweet spot, or maybe the minimum amount before it gets really noticeable. I thought it felt fine in Tyranny with the way everything worked and was setup in that game, but here 5 still feels like a large crew and lets you roll with a strong mix of classes and abilities. In most of my playthroughs of PoE I generally had a 5 person team of unique characters/roles with then the 6th usually being a redundant role, normally that being Pallegina as a secondary tank or occasionally Hiravias a secondary CC along with Aloth or support character along with Durance.

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It certainly seems to be my sweet spot in terms of micromanagement. And I feel like I'm someone who micros more than most people. So yeah this seems like a choice that's worked for the better all around. I just realized I haven't really had any many pathfinding issues so far either and I'm sure this is part of the reason why.

They screwed over wizards. I'm actually kind of irritated because of that. I play pure casters and I feel useless.

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A lot of spells need balance passes for sure. I'm sure it'll change plenty as beta updates happen.

 

[MisterShine]

They screwed over wizards. I'm actually kind of irritated because of that. I play pure casters and I feel useless.

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The casters (Wiz and Priest especially) were indisputably the strongest classes in the first game, I feel like they just tuned them down a bit too low.

Offensive multi casters seem to get the worst of this, their reduced power level makes them pretty ineffective at getting through enemy defenses. My Wizard/Priest was very hit or miss.

 

[Enduin]

I'm really really liking my Streetwise Rogue/Mage Slayer Barbarian aka Marauder. Completed all the content in the Beta and my character smoked everything. Was about as MVP as you can get. 45% of kills, 50% of total damage dealt, 54% of damage received, 1:2 ratio of crits to hits(though that's what my pure Rogue had as well, 85 crits to 187 Hits, so I guess that's not so special, but her damage output was only 1/3 of mine and she had half as many kills and her strongest single hit was again 1/3 of my own).

Definitely did not need to invest so heavily in Athletics though, rarely had to use it as the Priest was able to handle that most of the time and really it wasn't often that my character was in much danger. But since I can't use potions I was pretty wary when I first started and felt the need to have something else in case. Also never used my Frenzy ability as I was already slicing and dicing enemies a ton with my Sabre and Hatchet, Barbaric Yell would have been more useful.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Did you play on veteran difficulty?

 

[Enduin]

Did you play on veteran difficulty?

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Just Classic at the moment. Thought about rolling Veteran as that's what I play on in PoE, but with the current bugs and issues with the build right now I decided not to. But as I said in an earlier post the other two characters I rolled, Ranger/Rogue and Cypher/Monk, before this struggled a good deal on Classic. Compared to those two prior characters though the ease at which I handled every encounter on Classic with this Marauder I'm pretty confident I could hold my own on Veteran.

I'm sure this build could use some tweaks and improvements and who knows what will happen with changes that are introduced as the Beta progresses, but for now it's at the very least a solid foundation.

 

[Anno]

I wonder if Berserker would be even better for that build rather than Mage Slayer. Presumably his Frenzy hitting allies wouldn't matter as much on a character who already kinda likes to be by themselves and surrounded because of the Street Fighter stuff.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Looks a million times better than Pillars 1. The UI is so good.

 

[Enduin]

I wonder if Berserker would be even better for that build rather than Mage Slayer. Presumably his Frenzy hitting allies wouldn't matter as much on a character who already kinda likes to be by themselves and surrounded because of the Street Fighter stuff.

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Maybe, but like I said I never even had cause to use Frenzy, so that wasn't an issue at all. Barbaric Yell would have been far more useful for my purposes. Plus I really like the idea of a Mage Killer character as those bastards can be a real pain, so killing them quick and good is always a bonus. Plus it worked out quite well against the Lagufaeth who are just lousy with magic users.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Looks a million times better than Pillars 1. The UI is so good.

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The Ui is actually one of the things that I dislike the most.

Enduin I see. I'm doing a Veteran run just to see how it is, but as you said, some things aren't 100% working. I think that on classic, the class combo I'm going for would do fairly well. I need to do a run on all difficulties and compare the stats of enemies.

 

[Enduin]

Going through on Veteran with the same build, though I've gone with Islander Aumaua this time around and leveled each of my companions from lvl 1. Definitely been a good deal tougher going through Tikawara, just now starting Poko Kohara. Took a couple tries on a few encounters, especially the Broodmother fight. Had to go after the two Legufaeth on the bottom first and use that bottle neck to mitigate the remaining numbers/strength and let my Priest/Wizard pile on the debuffs and status effects. Still my Marauder's preeminence remains. 55% of all dmg dealt was by her, most dmg dealt so far was by her at 67(twice that of the next highest). Crits to hits ratio is lower 1:4 so far, but both are higher than all the others, save my Rogue which has a few more crits at the moment. Relying a lot more on my Fighter though to absorb damage.

Edit: Just finished up Poko Kohara. Not that hard on Veteran. Some of the fights took a try or three, but once I got my strategy in place everything fell into place. End of the day my Marauder was far and away the MVP once again. Most damage dealt by 2.5x the closet member. More hits and crits by nearly 2x. More kills than any other member by nearly 2x and nearly half of all total kills. Highest single attack by nearly 2x. And most damage received by a couple hundred points. Managed to never get knocked out as well.

 

[Dandy]

I'm really hoping to make a Cipher-Rogue of some sort. That's sort of how I played my PoE 1 character.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I mean to ask, how are they handling portraits now? Full painted portraits for player character and party, the little sketch ones for everyone else? Also, is there anywhere I can see all the portraits in the backer beta?

(Portraits weirdly matter to me.)

 

[visvim]

the story so far doesn't seem as interesting as the first game :/

 

[Anno]

I mean to ask, how are they handling portraits now? Full painted portraits for player character and party, the little sketch ones for everyone else? Also, is there anywhere I can see all the portraits in the backer beta?

(Portraits weirdly matter to me.)

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Your party gets portraits as usual and then major NPCs you talk to get the watercolor paintings in dialogue. You also get one there of your portrait so that your painted one doesn't look way out of place.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

the story so far doesn't seem as interesting as the first game :/

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There's basically as little story as possible in the beta, and it is only side content. They want to spoil as little as possible.

Shake Appeal Disc C>Steam>steamapps>common>Pillars of Eternity II - Public Beta>PillarsOfEternity_2 Data>gui>portraits

There are 26MB worth of portraits for now.

 

[visvim]

There's basically as little story as possible in the beta, and it is only side content. They want to spoil as little as possible.

Shake Appeal Disc C>Steam>steamapps>common>Pillars of Eternity II - Public Beta>PillarsOfEternity_2 Data>gui>portraits

There are 26MB worth of portraits for now.

Click to shrink...

ahh, that is good news. I was worried.

 

[Kinthalis]

The new avatars are fantastic! Also load times are super short.

 

[Shake Appeal]

There's basically as little story as possible in the beta, and it is only side content. They want to spoil as little as possible.

Shake Appeal Disc C>Steam>steamapps>common>Pillars of Eternity II - Public Beta>PillarsOfEternity_2 Data>gui>portraits

There are 26MB worth of portraits for now.

Click to shrink...

Oh, I don't have the beta. I was hoping someone had uploaded them somewhere (they did for Pillars 1), but I can't find them on the forum or wiki.

Last question, I promise: Do we know what all of the Cipher subclasses are now?

 

[Anno]

Oh, I don't have the beta. I was hoping someone had uploaded them somewhere (they did for Pillars 1), but I can't find them on the forum or wiki.

Last question, I promise: Do we know what all of the Cipher subclasses are now?

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Yeah we've known all the subclasses for a bit now.

Barbarian

• Corpse Eater - Targets unconscious enemies to devour their flesh and gain power. Powers cost more to use.
• Berserker - Has a more powerful Frenzy, but attacks can damage friends as well as foes while Frenzied.
• Mage Slayer - Gains spell resistance and can disrupt enemy spells, but cannot use potions or scrolls and beneficial spells have shorter durations.

Chanter

• Beckoner - Summoning invocations are cheaper and summon more creatures, but the creatures are weaker.
• Skald - Offensive invocations are cheaper and melee crits grant phrases, but all other invocations are more expensive.
• Troubadour - Phrase linger is 50% longer, Brisk Recitation as a modal that increases the rate of phrase elapses, but shortens linger. All invocations are more expensive.

Cipher

• Ascendant - Powers and Soul Whip are more effective when used at Max Focus, but Focus drains quickly if left at Max for long.
• Beguiler - Illusion powers are more powerful, but Soul Whip suffers when used against targets that are not vulnerable to Sneak Attack.
• Soul Blade - Offensive cipher that can dump Focus into a Soul Annihilation melee attack for extra Raw damage. Shred powers have reduced Focus cost. Lower Max Focus.

Druid

• Fury - Shift into storm blights and gain bonuses with elemental spells. Cannot cast Restoration spells.
• Lifegiver - Rejuvenation spells are cast with increased Power Level but cannot cast Summon spells.
• Shifter - Druid can shift to any animal form, once each, per combat and heals damage each time they shift back. Cannot cast spells while shifted.

Fighter

• Black Jacket - Bonus weapon proficiency, reduced Recovery when switching weapon, but lacks Constant Recovery.
• Devoted - May only be proficient in a single weapon. Higher Penetration and crit damage with that weapon. Suffers Accuracy penalty when using other weapons.
• Unbroken - Bonuses to Engagement and Disengagement Attacks, but lower Stride.

Monk

• Helwalker - Begin all combats with Wounds, gain Might for every Wound. Wounds require more damage to acquire.
• Nalpazca - Drug effects last longer and Wound cap is increased while under the effects of drugs. Penalties while not under the effect of drugs.
• Shattered Pillar - Gain Wounds by inflicting damage with melee weapons (fists or otherwise). Lower Max Wound cap, does not gain Wounds from receiving damage.

Paladin

• Bleak Walkers - Flames of Devotion (Remember Rakhan Field) generates black flames and does Corrode damage. Healing given and received is reduced. - Cannot multiclass with priests of Eothas, Berath, or Skaen.
• Darcozzi Paladini - Lay on Hands (Flames of Darcozzi Palace) creates a flame shield around the paladin. Lower Zeal power. - Cannot multiclass with priests of Berath, Magran, or Skaen.
• Goldpact Knights - Sworn Enemy (Gilded Enmity) creates protective gold armor on the paladin. Cannot learn Zealous Auras. - Cannot multiclass with priests of Magran or Wael.
• Kind Wayfarers - Flames of Devotion (Sword and the Shepherd) heals nearby allies. Does less damage against enemies vulnerable to Sneak Attack. - Cannot multiclass with priests of Berath, Magran, Wael, or Skaen.
• Shieldbearers of St. Elcga - Lay on Hands (St. Elcga's Grace) prevents the target from being knocked out for a short duration. Cannot use Lay on Hands on self. - Cannot multiclass with priests of Skaen, Magran, or Wael.

Priest

• Berath - Can learn Decay spells from the druid list, cannot learn Condemnation spells. - Cannot multiclass with Bleak Walker, Kind Wayfarer, or Darcozzi paladins.
• Eothas - Can learn Elemental spells from the druid list, cannot learn Protection spells. - Cannot multiclass with Bleak Walker paladins.
• Magran - Can learn Fire spells from the wizard list, cannot learn Restoration spells. - Cannot multiclass with Shieldbearer, Kind Wayfarer, Goldpact, or Darcozzi paladins.
• Skaen - Can learn rogue offensive abilities as priest spells, cannot learn Inspiration spells. - Cannot multiclass with Shieldbearer, Bleak Walker, Kind Wayfarer, or Darcozzi paladins.
• Wael - Can learn Illusion spells from the wizard list, cannot learn Punishment spells. - Cannot multiclass with Shieldbeaer, Kind Wayfarer, or Goldpact paladins.

Ranger

• Ghost Heart - Animal companion must be summoned as a spirit. They are not affected by Bonded Grief and the companion is more powerful, but the summon is limited duration.
• Sharpshooter - Bonuses to Penetration and Accuracy at range, but slower actions and lower Deflection.
• Stalker - Stalker and companion gain bonuses to Deflection and Armor Rating when close to each other, suffer Bonded Grief when too far apart.

Rogue

• Assassin - From stealth or invisibility, weapon attacks have bonus damage, Penetration, and Accuracy. All incoming damage is increased.
• Streetfighter - Sneak Attack and crit damage increases when Flanked or Bloodied (<50% Health). Recovery is slower when neither Flanked nor Bloodied.
• Trickster - Gains access to Illusion spells from the wizard list. Sneak Attack deals less damage.

Wizard

• Conjurer - Conjuration spells are more powerful, cannot cast Evocation or Illusion spells.
• Enchanter - Enchantment spells are more powerful, cannot cast Illusion or Transmutation spells.
• Evoker - Evocation spells are more powerful, cannot cast Transmutation or Conjuration spells.
• Illusionist - Illusion spells are more powerful, cannot cast Conjuration or Enchanting spells.
• Transmuter - Transmutation spells are more powerful, cannot cast Enchantment or Evocation spells.

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