Well I know at least some people are holding out for console release, was originally planned to be for December of this year but since there's been no updates I'm gonna guess that got pushed back.
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire |OT| Josh Sawyer's Pirates!
- Thread starter Anno
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Well I know at least some people are holding out for console release, was originally planned to be for December of this year but since there's been no updates I'm gonna guess that got pushed back.
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There was also some kinda cryptic hinting at plans they had to still support the game after the DLC. That probably only means stuff we've seen in patches recently, but hey there's been a lot of good updates in there.
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The new wizard subclass was highlighted on the Obsidian forums and sounds pretty neat.
Ha, Blood Mage had been something I'd been thinking of being good as it's own class. There goes that idea. Does work great as a mage subclass though, especially with how bleh all their current subclasses are. Should make for a ton of options. Wonder how the specifics of the skill go - cool down, damage values, can you use it to recharge non-wizard spells
It might actually be TOO powerful right at level 1 -- unlimited missiles, thrust, chill fog, spirit shield, etc., and now you might be able to use stuff like Eldritch Aim without worrying about giving up the rest too.
It might actually be TOO powerful right at level 1 -- unlimited missiles, thrust, chill fog, spirit shield, etc., and now you might be able to use stuff like Eldritch Aim without worrying about giving up the rest too.
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Sounds like a really solid monk/wizard pick, too. Depending on the regen amount it could also filter into one of those unkillable tank builds maybe?
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Patch 4.0 beta notes are out if you want to see the new subclasses. Hard to tell what a lot of them do without loading into the game, though, as a lot are unique ability based.
Man, those all sound really good, as far as can be told from the notes. Tactician sounds right up my alley, assuming it's some sort of buff/support tank. Arcane Archer sounds woo boy. Ancient Druid with the Spine of Thicket Green? I'm sure someone's gonna come out with a crazy build for a Forbidden Fist Monk based around inflicting hostile effects on yourself. Debonaire just sounds cool.
Seems like they've really cut loose with everything here.
Seems like they've really cut loose with everything here.
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Yeah with as a many weird uniques are in the games (with more to come!) I feel like there will be some good pocket build opportunities here. Even if we never get another one of these games it looks like there's stuff to play for years to come lol
shhh
shushhhh
When I win the lottery...
Seriously though, while I'm excited for Obsidian's sci-fi whatever getting announced at The Game Awards, it hurts to think about how between what they've learned with Tyranny and Deadfire - in terms of tech, what to do, and what not to do - they're really in a position to put out the culmination of the CRPG revival... and it's never going to happen. They don't even need to rebuild like they did from Pillars 1 -> Pillars 2. They could use the exact same tech and systems for Pillars 3, make it a 40-hour+ expansion in the guise of a sequel, and they'd be good to go. A new story in new places with two or three new classes and a marginal bit of overall refinement would be fine.
Annnnd we're never gonna get it.
But I am happy that the studio gets to go on. Under the wing of a platform holder that's more interested in ensuring a library on their platform than maximizing dollar return seems like a good fit for a studio that traffics in relatively niche, quality games.
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Some subclass details just based off of in-game descriptions and tooltips:
Chanter/Bellower - no specific numbers
I think most of these are super interesting. Bellower seems tame - but whatever, Chanters are OP anyway - and I don't have enough Cipher experience to know if Psion is any good, but other than that, I think this stuff is going to be a ton of fun to play around with. Tactician and Blood Mage seem like game changers and Steel Garrote sounds plain nuts with the right build.
This also sounds nuts
- Shape Ward: Frenzy increases allied attack speed - 1 rage, 60 second duration
- Shape Ward: Fear terrifies nearby enemies - 2 rage, 30 second duration
- Shape Ward: Blood grants allies health based on the damage they deal - 3 rage, 60 second duration
- Soul Mind is a Focus/second passive
- lvl 1: +1 Focus /s
lvl 5: +2 Focus /s
lvl 11: +3 Focus /s
lvl 19: +4 Focus /s
- Telekinetic Burst is a 10 Focus Interrupt/2m Push with a .5 second cast time
- Summon Sporelings is 2 sporelings for 45 seconds
- Wild Growth is a single target Robust w/ 8m range, no idea about duration
- Brilliant Tactician - When all enemies are flanked and no allies are flanked, gain the Brilliant inspiration
- Tactical Dilemma - While flanked, become Shaken and Confused
- Deals crush damage that Enfeebles target, sets Forbidden Curse on self for 10.0 seconds.
- Forbidden Curse - Stacks, +25% damage/+1 Wounds cost for Forbidden Fist per Curse active. Deals 1 raw damage/second to self
- Garrote Paralyzes for 6 seconds vs. Fortitude
- Writs disable the thing they're focused on -- engagement, consumables/scrolls, non-spell abilities, spells, and healing, respectively.
- Spiritual Weapon is fists
- Imbue casts the relevant spell via a primary attack. Missles/Web cost 2 Bond, Fireball/Eora/Death cost 3 Bond
- Roguish Charm is a 30 second Charm vs. Will, costs 1 Guile. Also applies a random Tier 1/2/3 Body Inspiration to the target if you're above level 6/12/18
- Cowardice is -10 Accuracy/-10 all Defenses if no allies are nearby
- Blood Sacrifice is 0.8s cast time, 0.0s recovery time, +1 Power Level for 10s, and infinite use in combat. No idea about the raw damage or how it corresponds to what level spell you get back.
I think most of these are super interesting. Bellower seems tame - but whatever, Chanters are OP anyway - and I don't have enough Cipher experience to know if Psion is any good, but other than that, I think this stuff is going to be a ton of fun to play around with. Tactician and Blood Mage seem like game changers and Steel Garrote sounds plain nuts with the right build.
This also sounds nuts
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Is there a way to slow down the leveling in the game, reducing the XP gain by around 25% or so? Increasing the level cap probably is too much to ask of Obisidian, but Im planning on diving back in when the game is all dlc'd and patched up, and the thought of hitting the level cap half way through because of all the new extra content really rubs me the wrong way. Maybe they can add it as a challenge if they havent already?
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I think there are multiple mods on the workshop that just reduce XP gain by about that amount.
Like Anno said, there are mods, but it's also not that crazy to do it yourself if you felt like looking that up. Just a couple figures in a .ini file you can change to reduce the experience multiplier on quests and bestiary rewards. I think the default multipliers are around 1.3, so you can just knock them down to like 0.9/1.0.
Hmm, so... I was remaking a bunch of characters I had in one of my saves with the new subclasses -- rebuilding the Arcane Knight with Blood Mage, the Druid/Fighter as an Ancient/Tactician -- and I go to make a new Priest to replace the one I have, only to find out that you can't recruit more than 8 characters and that I've hit the limit. Is there any way to up this limit or dismiss characters you aren't using anymore?
Edit: Eh, I guess I can just go get them killed. Feels kinda crappy though, blowing them up like that over a subclass.
Edit: Eh, I guess I can just go get them killed. Feels kinda crappy though, blowing them up like that over a subclass.
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Still early days, but the new difficulty changes to veteran plus Deadly Deadfire seems like my new sweet spot in terms of difficulty. The island fights were tough but I didn't feel like I had to cheese them, and the experience reduction will hopefully keep later content a bit more difficult.
So, these megabosses really aren't screwing around, huh? I've stumbled across two of them so far and at level 16 basically haven't been able to dent them at all. Seems like between all of them and everything from Beast of Winter-level and up, the game has a pretty robust amount of endgame content now.
lorddarkflare Speaking of, I went back to Nexusmods for the first time in a while and saw that you had left a comment about the Baldur mod no longer working with the updates. I'll try to get back to it and iron out the bug soon (it's probably just some duplicate GUID crap), but for now, as far as I can tell while it won't work on companions, it still works fine so long as you have one of the Baldur items equipped on your Watcher.
Good to see they're still tuning that stuff. There'll hopefully be a decent chunk of new players coming in once the DLC wraps up (and the console ports arrive), so getting that stuff right is still important.
lorddarkflare Speaking of, I went back to Nexusmods for the first time in a while and saw that you had left a comment about the Baldur mod no longer working with the updates. I'll try to get back to it and iron out the bug soon (it's probably just some duplicate GUID crap), but for now, as far as I can tell while it won't work on companions, it still works fine so long as you have one of the Baldur items equipped on your Watcher.
Thanks man. It actually ended up having to do with something Obsidian broke at the time when they changed the modding framework.
Used it pretty successfully during my last run.
That said the scaling is pretty rough with the DLC. Debuffing the first boss in Beast of Winter was pretty much impossible.
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The new patch is in Beta???? YASSSSSSS!
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Yeah, I've been tweaking it bit by bit as I've played because the DLC definitely ramps up the difficulty, and like I said, those megabosses, woo boy. I managed to take out the opening BoW boss at level 16, but it was a "one character with 10% health left" sort of deal. I still have the scaling at -1.5/-1.5 Accuracy/Defenses per level, but I set the PotD bonus Defenses for enemies down to +5 and their bonus Armor to 0. Gonna be interesting to see what things are like in the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor stuff.
I think going with all the god challenges will finally make the balance such that difficulty mods are not needed on POTD.
Are there slower leveling challenges? Because no matter how difficult content is, getting capped halfway or even 3/4 through the all available content would kinda suck. That's the only thing which makes me worry when I'm going to start on POTD myself after the last DLC comes out.
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There's nothing built-in, but there are simple mods that will reduce xp gains. The one on the steam workshop is a flat 30% reduction I believe.
So the Magran Challenge is much, much better now. But Wael is actively unfun.
I am hesitant to recommend those with the god challenges. Some of them can be frustrating enough without also being potentially underpowered.
The real solution to the leveling problem is to raise the cap and up the scaling.
I am hesitant to recommend those with the god challenges. Some of them can be frustrating enough without also being potentially underpowered.
The real solution to the leveling problem is to raise the cap and up the scaling.
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I had totally forgotten about the existence of GameFAQs, but it turns out someone actually wrote (and has kept updated) a super in-depth FAQ about Deadfire mechanics. If you like to sit down and grok some numbers this might appeal to you.
Yeah this is pretty great, thanks.
Tooltips showing chance to graze instead of hit is throwing me off so hard.
Been mulling over what type of melee multiclass I'm going to roll with bloodmage when Forgotton Sanctum goes live. Was originally thinking Helwalker, but then I remembered they actually aren't that good. No subclass monk might actually be a good fit. Get the wounds from Blood sacrifice (as well as the mage haste spell that hurts you) without risking the extra damage taken from Helwalker. The other thought is Paladin, maybe Steel Garrote, but that means maintaining cruel disposition for paladin defenses and I'll probably have a hard time sticking to that since I'm a wuss.
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I think Paladin will end up being the class just because of the healing potential to offset the blood magic. Steel Garrote sounds like the themeiest of the builds since you're kind of a vampire knight, but Kind Wayfarer probably works just fine.
This is cool. I've enjoyed browsing through it and will definitely refer to it when preparing my next run.
Yeah, there's definitely some good Arcane Knight potential, especially since it would be a high-int build giving nice big auras and buff durations. The other consideration is that I want to finally play a build that mostly uses 2h weapons (citzal's lance isn't until 13, so probably whisper's of endless path or another greatsword before then) and I'm not sure if Paladin is as well-suited to that as monk is.
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With monk you could go Deltro's+Darryn's Voulge for the +5 shock PL and be a crazy lightning wizard that also hacks things apart with a huge polearm + Lightning Strikes. Though I guess wizards don't really get a lot of shock spells compared to some other elements.
Darryn's only soulbinds to barb/fighter/druid, so no dice on that I'm afraid.
I think that Paladin's the better defensive option, and Monk the better offensive one. I've been playing through Beast of Winter since 4.0 went live on beta with a Blood Mage/Paladin, and it's essentially unkillable. Granted, Wizard/Paladins have pretty much always been unkillable, but Blood Mage gives you basically infinite Spirit Shield/Llengrath's Displaced Image/Infuse w Vital Essence/Arcane Veil/etc., along with basically infinite use of the other useful spells in those first three tiers as you need - Chill Fog, Expose Vulnerabilities, Arcane Dampener, Combusting Wounds , Miasma of Dull-Mindedness, etc. Not having to worry about saving up for defensive spells has definitely opened a ton of doors with the Arcane Knight as a utility caster. With Blood Mage regen, Exalted Endurance, and my open spell slots almost always being in the first 3 levels, I've never really even felt the cost of Blood Sacrifice.
Monk would do basically the same thing, but has better synergy as a striker than a meat shield with utility. Eldritch Aim's Aware is the one martial buff a Monk could use but doesn't have (I'd go and adjust the duration up to 15/20s just for QoL), Wizard's Double works perfectly with Dance of Death, DAoM is more free Wounds plus the ability to run away at will if you're in trouble, Merciless Gaze might actually be worth a cast w/ Swift Flurry and infinite spell slots, etc. If you went Helwalker, there are a lot of options to mitigate the downside. If you went Nalpazca, eventually getting Arcane Reflection will give you a great defensive option against that subclasses biggest weakness - enemy casters stripping your beneficial effects (drugs) and causing a drug crash mid battle.
Either way, you're going to be living in that first 3 or 4 spell tiers so I wouldn't recommend multiclassing Blood Mage if you're looking for lots of big spells, because every time you hit one of those fast-cast low tier ones you're just making it less likely to get a big cast back. It would probably be okay single-classed if you focused exclusively on top-tier stuff, but with the way the rest mechanics work in this game I'd rather have no subclass so that I could empower and use my lower level spells at will.
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Ah crap, for some reason I forgot that was a bound weapon. Oh well.
As you mentioned, a major benefit of wizard/melee multiclass is those defensive buffs in the first 3-4 tiers, so I wouldn't focused on trying to regain spell slots from higher tiers.
Just curious, do you have anything specific in mind when it comes to mitigating the downsides of Helwalker, or is it just the standard defensive benefits of the wizard spells making it an overall more durable build? Iron wheel would certainly help, but I actually like the idea of going the Int route with duality on this type of build for the extra buff duration and AoE. Not to mention by the time PL6 is unlocked the character will likely already be a powerhouse.
Just talking about the basic defensive stuff, and yeah, I'd run Turning Wheel for INT too with all these buffs. Don't need the CON/Armor with all the Wizard stuff, which gets better with INT. Doubt Iron Wheel even stacks with Armorskin. That Gamefaqs almanac probably has the answer to that.
And Minor Arcane Reflection is PL4/level 10, which you can hit in Neketaka with hardly any combat IIRC, and works essentially as well as Arcane Reflection because everyone's using lower level spells at that point anyway. Ha, I was so confused when I was writing that first post because I couldn't find it on the wiki but I was sure it was there.
Although, just seeing this on the subreddit, seems like it could be a fun caster Monk/Wizard
Shadowflame having no friendly fire continues to be the greatest thing ever.
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So I freed the slaves at Crookspur and I went to do the quest Of Like Minds but when I speak to Furrante it fails. Am I just locked out of progressing the Valian and Principi questlines now?
I haven't tapped out that end of the 'lawful' Principi/Vailian questline personally, but I do know that they eventually send you that way. Makes sense that you would get locked out after taking out Crookspur.
I just played through Ashen Maw again for the first time in a while, still so good. Say what you will about the overarching story, but this game has moments. It's almost criminal that we couldn't get a CGI cutscene for that -- not that that's Obsidian's fault, budget and all.
I'm finally going to do a real, actual playthrough once the last dlc and 4.0 patch drop! I figure I'm gonna use that 30% less exp mod and play on veteran with no scaling. That way maybe, just maybe I can avoid this whole "level cap 2/3 through the game" scenario and have a reasonable journey to 20 when all is said and done. Not a fan of character progress just stopping at potentially half way with all the dlc.
Is veteran a pretty reasonable difficulty these days? I know when the game was new it was rather easy. Like, too easy. Just not a fan of scaling so I'm trying to nail down the sweet spot, personal difficulty preference wise.
Is veteran a pretty reasonable difficulty these days? I know when the game was new it was rather easy. Like, too easy. Just not a fan of scaling so I'm trying to nail down the sweet spot, personal difficulty preference wise.
I've seen a lot of positive feedback with regards to the small buffs they've given to veteran. It's probably what you're looking for.
On the other hand, I don't have any idea how XP scaling might play out with all of the DLC content integrated. I think Beast of Winter earned me more than a level, and although I was 20 before I started SSS, I would imagine it's about the same.
Personally, I would turn on level scaling. The hard stuff'll still be hard, it just makes it so that when you stumble across an island you hadn't visited before, things will still maintain a modicum of challenge rather than being as difficult (and interesting) as folding laundry. Even without the XP reduction mod, it takes maybe 50+ hours to hit 20 - but with all the DLCs, you're probably looking at 80-100 hours of game. Capping out only to discover that you have another dozen or two hours of purely mopping up lower level mobs is a bummer.
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