Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Athelas]

I tried Athelas' Paladin build

20 Per, 20 Res
Talents: Cautious Attack, Sword and Shield Style
Hatchet, Fine Large Shield, Boots of Evasion

Did you find the Ring of Deflection just outside Korgrak's cave? It adds 10 deflection, but suppresses the deflection bonus from the boots. I was wrong about the wood beetles by the way, their accuracy is surprisingly high at 51, which will require a deflection of 136 for them to completely miss. I don't think the adra's magic targets deflection - most likely reflexes.

A superb enchantment can add 12 deflection to a shield, and it's possible for a piece of armor to be enchanted with both +2 resolve and +2 perception, adding another 4 deflection.

 

[Sensuki]

Yes I did get the ring, but you get it AFTER you fight the Adra Beetles. I had 126 Deflection just like you said.

You are right about the spiders, they can't hit me (very often). Adra Beetles, Lions and other characters can though.

 

[Athelas]

You can stealth ahead to get the ring.

You're still fighting naked, so of course you're going to be extremely fragile. You should also have a crush/pierce weapon in your second weapon set, considering slashing is often pretty disadvantageous against the enemy's DR and the hatchet's deflection bonus still isn't enough to get you in 100% miss range of the beetles.

The small spiders and some of the mid-sized ones should never be able to touch you. Some of them have a web that targets reflexes, but it doesn't do any damage.

The Spider Queen only has 45 accuracy, so I only need 4 more deflection to solo the spider cave without taking damage.

 

[Sensuki]

With one character you might be able to, but not with the party. And I have done about 20 runs with that character in multiple armors and weapons, and I'm not finding it very useful against any of the groups except the spiders. Higher damage / lower defense is better vs beetles, humanoids and Lions IMO.

 

[aeonsim]

just the chanter who gives a small amount of regen but they have no problems even on PoD

If you have a Chanter with Beloved Spirits, that talent is bugged and gives you bullshit infinite stacking healing

I'd noticed that bug report and checked a couple of times to see if it was happening during combat but didn't see it happening, the healing was always very low as expected though it's quite possible I missed it.

That character only has an Accuracy of 37. Grazes have a fairly low chance of interrupt (even with the bug). You can see that when I actually land a hit, I score an interrupt. Wood Beetles aren't difficult to hit (31 Deflection?) but Adra Beetles have ~60 Deflection

WB 33 Def, 51 Acc

He's right about the spiders though, I only got grazed once outside the Ogre Cave, probably have similar results inside too.

The Beetles all have ACC of 51 or greater while the spiders are in the range of 33-45 so that makes sense.

The my notes from looking at the difficulties can be found in a public spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cRs5CNb4hsSFxTm9kn4UZi1SFzoIwPoS-zwt41Q4BWc/edit?usp=sharing
Still missing a the differences between Normal and PoD for a number of monsters, so feel free to fill them out and add others if you want.

There's still some pretty big issues in this game with enemy targeting and pathfinding. If you get a bit fancy and micro the targeted character behind others and use a chokepoint or something (not a hard chokepoint, but maybe a soft one, using rocks or something), enemies will just stand there bugging out trying to target the character at the back.

Yeah pathfinding still has major issues I never really noticed it playing with my spell casters as most of them were using ranged attacks, but with the melee party it was a cluster fuck in the caves.

 

[Athelas]

With one character you might be able to, but not with the party.

Well, I did say I was gonna solo it.

And I have done about 20 runs with that character in multiple armors and weapons, and I'm not finding it very useful against any of the groups except the spiders. Higher damage / lower defense is better vs beetles, humanoids and Lions IMO.

Not really. For example, the people in Medreth's group have the following accuracy stats:

Cowled dwarf: 28 (although this is mostly irrelevant, since he mostly casts buffs on the party)
Boar companion: 30
Cowled man: 45
Medreth: 46
Cowled woman: 49
Cowled man #2: 49

For the most part, that's lower than the spiders.

 

[Sensuki]

I'd noticed that bug report and checked a couple of times to see if it was happening during combat but didn't see it happening, the healing was always very low as expected though it's quite possible I missed it.

The super healing isn't reported in the combat log, but it is on the 'Active Effects' in the Character Record

Not really. For example, the people in Medreth's group have the following accuracy stats:

Cowled dwarf: 28
Cowled woman: 29
Boar companion: 30
Cowled man: 45
Medreth: 46
Cowled man #2: 49

For the most part, that's lower than the spiders.

Sure, but those enemies also have attacks that do not target Deflection and attacks that reduce it. Knock Down targets Fortitude, Divine Mark/various Rogue abilities target Reflex, some of the Monk shit is Fortitude - you can't just send your high Def character in and expect to win vs that group.

I find their supreme lack of DPS just means that the rest of your party takes more damage due to that character having virtually 0 offensive output in the encounter.

 

[Athelas]

Sure, but those enemies also have attacks that do not target Deflection and attacks that reduce it. Knock Down targets Fortitude, Divine Mark/various Rogue abilities target Reflex, some of the Monk shit is Fortitude - you can't just send your high Def character in and expect to win vs that group.

Knockdown targets deflection and the priest mostly buffs the party rather than debuffing the player. Taking him out first is supremely easy anyway.

This is after the cowled dwarf cast Blessing on the party - which boosted all their accuracy beyond the stats I just listed:

 

[Infinitron]

Athelas Let's see how the people react: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70392-solo-insanity-u-cant-touch-this/

 

[Infinitron]

Ooh, spoilers. High level spells not normally available in the beta: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70376-eternity-high-levels-spells-video-includes-level-12-spells/

 

[aeonsim]

With one character you might be able to, but not with the party.

Well, I did say I was gonna solo it.

And I have done about 20 runs with that character in multiple armors and weapons, and I'm not finding it very useful against any of the groups except the spiders. Higher damage / lower defense is better vs beetles, humanoids and Lions IMO.

Not really. For example, the people in Medreth's group have the following accuracy stats:

Cowled dwarf: 28 (although this is mostly irrelevant, since he mostly casts buffs on the party)
Boar companion: 30
Cowled man: 45
Medreth: 46
Cowled woman: 49
Cowled man #2: 49

For the most part, that's lower than the spiders.

That ACC for the cowled woman is after her boar has died her default ACC is 49. Your build is giving near immunity up to ACC of ~50 on Easy-Hard this includes all spiders (apart from Queen), Medreth's party (but not the other groups of humans). Creatures that can still hit you are wood beetles (51, so maybe not or very rarely), Stone Beetles 62, Adra Beetle ~71, Elder Wolves (possibly) 54, Bears 73, Elder Bears 85, Korgrak 84 and probably most of the spell casting enemies and Elder Lions.

It's a pretty nice build for solo play though I'd want to probably switch the weapon to a Spear (for decent dmg + the ACC bonus) or Mace (decent dmg + Penetration) with Accuracy 2, Damaging and some secondary damage types to speed up the damage being dealt.

On PoD the build loses it's advantage as all the enemies have ACC of over 50 (usually they get +15ACC).

 

[Sensuki]

Elder Bears have 97 accuracy in my game (?)

 

[Sensuki]

Knockdown targets deflection and the priest mostly buffs the party rather than debuffing the player. Taking him out first is supremely easy anyway.

Knockdown is two attacks - the weapon attack and the Knock Down status effect which targets fortitude. The weapon attack does have to graze you for the Fortitude attack to inflict prone to work though. What happens to me is I get grazed by the Fighter and knocked down because of my shit Fortitude every time. Prone nerfs your Deflection, you get Flanked too (-10 Deflection) and gg.

 

[aeonsim]

Elder Bears have 97 accuracy in my game (?)

Hmm I may have had a status effect on them reducing the accuracy...

 

[Sensuki]

Made a Solid HUD Feedback thread for Kaz to read if anyone's interested: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70393-solid-hud-feedback-thread/

 

[Athelas]

Knockdown targets deflection and the priest mostly buffs the party rather than debuffing the player. Taking him out first is supremely easy anyway.

Knockdown is two attacks - the weapon attack and the Knock Down status effect which targets fortitude. The weapon attack does have to graze you for the Fortitude attack to inflict prone to work though. What happens to me is I get grazed by the Fighter and knocked down because of my shit Fortitude every time. Prone nerfs your Deflection, you get Flanked too (-10 Deflection) and gg.

Sure, which is another reason why having high deflection is so good - you prevent the possibility of those status effects from ever happening, since the game only rolls for them when the initial roll for deflection results in at least a graze.

 

[aeonsim]

With one character you might be able to, but not with the party.

Well, I did say I was gonna solo it.

And I have done about 20 runs with that character in multiple armors and weapons, and I'm not finding it very useful against any of the groups except the spiders. Higher damage / lower defense is better vs beetles, humanoids and Lions IMO.

Not really. For example, the people in Medreth's group have the following accuracy stats:

Cowled dwarf: 28 (although this is mostly irrelevant, since he mostly casts buffs on the party)
Boar companion: 30
Cowled man: 45
Medreth: 46
Cowled woman: 49
Cowled man #2: 49

For the most part, that's lower than the spiders.

Here is a plot showing the minimum attack roll need to graze you when using a max Def Orlan Paladin build vs enemy accuracy, so at Acc 50 they have ~3% chance to hit you...

 

[Sensuki]

How are you getting 130 Def at level 4? Enchanting ?

I can get 126 after I get that Ring of Deflection.

 

[Athelas]

I'm still at 126. I can get 130 right now by enchanting my armor for +2 perception and +2 resolve, allowing me to solo the spider cave without taking a single point of damage.

In other news, one of the NPC's just used the phrase 'Hylea's feathered tits!'.

 

[aeonsim]

How are you getting 130 Def at level 4? Enchanting ?

I can get 126 after I get that Ring of Deflection.

The following are what I added on top of base + 3 per level when calculating it out.

If you really want to max deflection build a Wild Orlan (+ 10 to defences when Will attacked) with 20 Per (+10 def) & 20 Res (+10 def, need to choose + resolve culture).

Then use a Hatchet +5 def, Fine Large Shield +24 Def, Weapon & Shield Talent +10 Def, Cautious Attack talent +15 Def and a Ring of Deflection +10, Faith & Conviction +5, Deep Faith +2 for a extra 71 Deflection.

 

[aeonsim]

I'm still at 126. I can get 130 right now by enchanting my armor for +2 perception and +2 resolve, allowing me to solo the spider cave without taking a single point of damage.

In other news, one of the NPC's just used the phrase 'Hylea's feathered tits!'.

Well good luck with the Queen , Korgark and the Bears or Elder Bears, they'll hit you .

 

[Infinitron]

In other news, one of the NPC's just used the phrase 'Hylea's feathered tits!'.

Baldur's Gate had a "By Sune's boobies!". Might actually be a direct homage.

 

[Athelas]

Going for the pacifist solution with Korgrak counts as soloing.

My orlan just got called son of an orlan whore. #reactivity

 

[aeonsim]

Going for the pacifist solution with Korgrak counts as soloing.

My orlan just got called son of an orlan whore. #reactivity

True, the Queen won't talk though , and it's a bit harder to get there in the first place than it is to work your way through the cave. Would need to be very good at sneaking!

 

[Athelas]

Hey, there's a general talent called 'Superior deflection' that adds another +5 deflection.

Acting in accordance with your paladin's tenets should also increase the deflection bonus from Faith & Conviction.