Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Parabalus]

Any of you guys managed to find good ways to fuck the eyeless up? I managed to do okay using aloth's magic missle that shoots in an aura around him. That really really just rapes.

They aren't immune to paralayze, take Grieveing Mother/Aloth and CC lock them with Mental Binding/Shadowflame. Stun/prone from a weapon also works for a stunlock.

 

[Haplo]

The Kraken itself is a joke to beat

It needed way more armour, it's way too easy to just blast it up with guns before it can even start attacking you, especially with blunderbusses.

Makes me really concerned about the variable penetration in PoE2. Why couldn't they leave static DR/Penetration values.

 

[Sannom]

Why couldn't they leave static DR/Penetration values.

I think the gist of it was "Too many ways to augment damage, not enough to augment DR".

 

[Haplo]

Why does the DR need to be augmented, though? You can set it high enough that only very strong attacks will get trough. If you're strong enough to do more then chip damage, then your strong enough. If not, you've got a problem and need another solution (another damage type? spell damage?).

Honestly I didn't see a problem with PoE1 approach. Made heavy-hitting weapons and/or weapons with penetration and/or penetration feats more desirable.

 

[Infinitron]

Why does the DR need to be augmented, though? You can set it high enough that only very strong attacks will get trough. If you're strong enough to do more then chip damage, then your strong enough. If not, you've got a problem and need another solution (another damage type? spell damage?).

Honestly I didn't see a problem with PoE1 approach. Made heavy-hitting weapons and/or weapons with penetration and/or penetration feats more desirable.

Heavy armor isn't good enough in PoE1.

I'm not sure you understand what you're talking about here. PoE2's armor penetration system will make it easier to create resilient enemies, not harder. A heavily armored boss will reduce your damage by a percentage rather than a rapidly diminishing absolute value.

 

[Grunker]

Kraken is the most disappointing fight in the game by far yeah

 

[Sizzle]

Kraken is the most disappointing fight in the game by far yeah

Especially disappointing as that fight is both heavily foreshadowed to be really epic and cool (though you can discern what it will be by looking at the components for the Legendary enchanting tier), and the Kraken itself looks menacing when you first encounter it... only to easily beat it without any particular strategy on the first try.

Oh well, it kinda ties into Sawyer's opinion that the Main Critical Path shouldn't be too hard to beat. At least we've got the Archmages, Dragon and bounties fights to provide a challenge.

 

[Haplo]

Why does the DR need to be augmented, though? You can set it high enough that only very strong attacks will get trough. If you're strong enough to do more then chip damage, then your strong enough. If not, you've got a problem and need another solution (another damage type? spell damage?).

Honestly I didn't see a problem with PoE1 approach. Made heavy-hitting weapons and/or weapons with penetration and/or penetration feats more desirable.

Heavy armor isn't good enough in PoE1.

I'm not sure you understand what you're talking about here. PoE2's armor penetration system will make it easier to create resilient enemies, not harder. A heavily armored boss will reduce your damage by a percentage rather than a rapidly diminishing absolute value.

Honestly I'm in favor of a mix of both: % partial immunity + fixed DR. Like in the classic Fallouts. Also somewhat similar to what monsters have in DnD (obviously armor works differently there). But if I can have only 1, I will always choose a fixed value DR.

 

[FreeKaner]

Oh well, it kinda ties into Sawyer's opinion that the Main Critical Path shouldn't be too hard to beat.

Where did he say that? Because in his last blog post he seemed to in opposition to this?

 

[Sizzle]

Oh well, it kinda ties into Sawyer's opinion that the Main Critical Path shouldn't be too hard to beat.

Where did he say that? Because in his last blog post he seemed to in opposition to this?

When it comes to what Sawyer said, I don't have Roguey's perfect recall :D

But I do seem to remember him saying on several occasions that the Critical Path (in PoE) is deliberately easier (i.e. - has a lower level requirement) than some of the side-content.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Oh well, it kinda ties into Sawyer's opinion that the Main Critical Path shouldn't be too hard to beat.

Where did he say that? Because in his last blog post he seemed to in opposition to this?

When it comes to what Sawyer said, I don't have Roguey's perfect recall :D

But I do seem to remember him saying on several occasions that the Critical Path (in PoE) is deliberately easier (i.e. - has a lower level requirement) than some of the side-content.

kinda makes sense. I dont really oppose these decision since there are surprisingly alot of people who stop playing when they stuck even for just 2 or 3 tries (hell, even MCA is oen of these people based on the devgameclub interview)

as long as the hardcore players are given great content that challenge their skills that the more casual ones can easily skip if stuck.

It still sucks, but it is a compromise i can do as long they dont go too far.

There are alot of ways to circumvent this kind of design, although they are probabky more of a hassle to make

 

[Prime Junta]

Where did he say that? Because in his last blog post he seemed to in opposition to this?

Couldn't cite chapter and verse, but it is a sawyerism.

P1 was designed pretty much this way. There were a quite a few legit difficulty spikes off the crit path, but the crit path itself was pretty relaxed, the final boss fight notwithstanding (which is a challenge if you hit it early).

 

[Projas]

But I do seem to remember him saying on several occasions that the Critical Path (in PoE) is deliberately easier (i.e. - has a lower level requirement) than some of the side-content.

Yeah, that seems to be his design philosophy. I don't hate it. Kraken was pretty lame, but the Llengrath fight makes up for it imo.

 

[Sizzle]

But I do seem to remember him saying on several occasions that the Critical Path (in PoE) is deliberately easier (i.e. - has a lower level requirement) than some of the side-content.

Yeah, that seems to be his design philosophy. I don't hate it. Kraken was pretty lame, but the Llengrath fight makes up for it imo.

Well, broadly speaking, BG2 also worked in a similar fashion (though with a much greater potential for cheesing) - the Kangaxx fight, the Twisted Rune encounter, etc.

 

[Lacrymas]

Many RPGs have that design philosophy. Even JRPGs. At the top of my head, the Weapons from FF7, I don't think any of them were mandatory, but they were the toughest bosses in the game. I also agree with this philosophy because it gives meaning to side content. Not only that, but if you make the critical path harder it necessitates doing that side content, in effect making it mandatory.

Some people might argue that this creates a 'ludonarrative dissonance' where the story says the antagonist is your biggest threat, but some random side boss is mechanically harder. There are ways to circumvent this, but it requires careful planning of the narrative.

 

[Sannom]

Especially disappointing as that fight is both heavily foreshadowed to be really epic and cool (though you can discern what it will be by looking at the components for the Legendary enchanting tier), and the Kraken itself looks menacing when you first encounter it... only to easily beat it without any particular strategy on the first try.

I can't help but think that the Kraken himself was meant to be very squishy, if only to make up for the fact that his tentacles have been deterring you from the moment you got in the vicinity of the meteorite. In my play-through, I though that I had been lucky Abydon's Hammer was able to stun the three tentacles which spawn next to the party before they could do any damage, but apparently that's not a problem for anyone?

 

[Sizzle]

Especially disappointing as that fight is both heavily foreshadowed to be really epic and cool (though you can discern what it will be by looking at the components for the Legendary enchanting tier), and the Kraken itself looks menacing when you first encounter it... only to easily beat it without any particular strategy on the first try.

I can't help but think that the Kraken himself was meant to be very squishy, if only to make up for the fact that his tentacles have been deterring you from the moment you got in the vicinity of the meteorite. In my play-through, I though that I had been lucky Abydon's Hammer was able to stun the three tentacles which spawn next to the party before they could do any damage, but apparently that's not a problem for anyone?

Maybe I was just lucky in my playthroughs, but I never had that problem with the Kraken - it always went down pretty quickly.

The biggest issue, I feel, was that it came as an end boss in an expansion pack that was filled with memorable encounters - it made that battle all the weaker in comparison.

 

[luj1]

What the fuck, all spells are per-encounter now? Saywer should be crowned the autist-king.

 

[Roguey]

What the fuck, all spells are per-encounter now? Saywer should be crowned the autist-king.

Weakened versions of the spells, yes, with the option to buff it to per-rest levels.

 

[luj1]

*Sawyer's favorite little concubine arrives to the rescue*

 

[Roguey]

I don't approve if that's what you're suggesting.

 

[luj1]

I *know* this will probably be better than PoE 1.... they learned from (some of) their mistakes...

Its just sad that it couldn't have went without some bizarre, autistic design decision. That kind of became the series staple

 

[Quillon]

At this point with "per rest spells/abilities" out of the window, they should ditch the empowerment also and stick with limiting the number of abilities/spells per encounter with power source and justify resting with clearing injuries which should decrease per encounter max health(new endurance) per injury as well as having negative effects.

I just don't get what's so cool about "empowerment"? Anyone here is excited with being able to cast more powerful versions of the same spells 3 times between rests? Doesn't it sound like just a gimmick added for rest incentive?

 

[Lacrymas]

Absurdian can't into resource management, so they threw that concept out the window altogether. Turns out you don't have an incentive to rest anymore so they added the empowerment mechanic.

 

[Quillon]

I'm thinking injuries should be nuff incentive & they should hurt to be so.