[Tapper]

Messremb, on 07 April 2015 - 01:00 PM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 07 April 2015 - 12:34 PM, said:

Messremb, on 07 April 2015 - 11:50 AM, said:

Yeah the burning cave one. Was made a lot easier by playing elsewhere long enough to meet the dragon hunter.

I'm running with me as monk, Eder, Durance, Aloth, Kana, Grieving Mother. If I keep Aloth (and whoever else is nearly dead) back from fights he tends to last a good time and deal out some major damage.

I can't help but look at the fingers rising from the ground in Caed Nua and think of the Jade Statue in the desert...

Ah, I never met the hunter I don't think. Still, took a few goes. I keep Aloth and Sagani back as ranged (Aloth has a pistol for me) and it seems to make him a good bit less squishy as you say.

Aaaah, I can't wait for someone to catch up to Act 3, it's so good

I've got him holding a rod at the moment, sure I have a spare pistol around somewhere in my stash. Along with 200 shields, 350 daggers, 75 swords, 80 spears... (oh god it's an infinite bag of holding isn't it)

I'm not even sure where the dividing lines between acts are - I've not yet gone to Twin Elms or whatever if that helps?

Act II starts immediately after reaching the first city, didn't get further than that.
I am half of a mind to start over. I like the cipher a lot, but I do want to try Path of the Damned, it seems to be a real big challenge and it will probably require me to roll a secondary tank instead of a dps-cipher. But I guess starting over again and again is my curse with videogames, anyway *coughskyrimcough*

[Serenity]

Doubt I'll get to Act III before the end of the week, what with work having the nerve to get in the way Still got some side quests/tasks and a couple of main quest bits and bobs to finish off in Defiance Bay and surroundings before moving on. Also want to do a couple more levels of Od Nua.

Also thinking I might create a couple of companions to check out the classes that aren't available through the pre-made companions, probably a Monk and/or a Rogue, just to see what they're like.

According to Steam I've been at it for 41 hours. Yikes.

[Gothos]

OK so I deliberately read NOTHING about the development of this game. I'm, on purpose, not reading anything in this thread so far.
I've just bought the game and am installing. Will let you know what comes out of that!

[Serenity]

Messremb, on 07 April 2015 - 11:50 AM, said:

Yeah the burning cave one. Was made a lot easier by playing elsewhere long enough to meet the dragon hunter.

Tried to do the burning cave last night and got my arse handed to me on a plate - twice I did manage to kill all the enemies apart from Cail the second time around. That's what I'm really enjoying about this game - although there's an occasional battle that's too difficult at the time, I've never felt like it was out of my reach, so it keeps me coming back and experimenting with tactics.

I had a Monk in my party for the first time when I took on that fight - probably not a good idea. I'm thinking I'll go back to the cave with the Monk replaced by either Kana or Pallegina - I'll probably still get my arse handed to me on a plate but at least I'll have more of a clue about what I'm doing

[Mentalist]

Gothos, on 07 April 2015 - 03:11 PM, said:

OK so I deliberately read NOTHING about the development of this game. I'm, on purpose, not reading anything in this thread so far.
I've just bought the game and am installing. Will let you know what comes out of that!

PICK CIPHER AS YOUR CHAR!!!! THEY ARE TEH AWESOME!

[Morgoth]

What's a good way to build a Cipher?

[Gothos]

Mentalist, on 08 April 2015 - 11:28 AM, said:

Gothos, on 07 April 2015 - 03:11 PM, said:

OK so I deliberately read NOTHING about the development of this game. I'm, on purpose, not reading anything in this thread so far.
I've just bought the game and am installing. Will let you know what comes out of that!

PICK CIPHER AS YOUR CHAR!!!! THEY ARE TEH AWESOME!

Yeah I'm not very happy with my Barbarian so far, I might reroll. Cipher caught my eye but in the end I decided differently (this needs a 2h sword wielding barbarian Karsa Orlong, naturally)

[Mentalist]

Morgoth, on 08 April 2015 - 12:47 PM, said:

What's a good way to build a Cipher?

So far (and I'm only lvl 5, so take it with a grain of salt), i'm rolling my char as a "rogue with offensive magic". Meaning, I have him insecond line of my formation, using offensive spells/ possession. Attacks, prior to getting him to flank primary targets.

In tight quarters, antipathic chain is great-pick a target in the back of a charging conga line, and wach enemy health disintegrate, while the tanks control chokepoints.

The trick is to keep moving,as you need to land hit to recharge Focus.

Right now my char is the primary melee DPS, with Hivarius souped up by lightning storm playing second fiddle.
When not fighting, my char does the bulk of trap spotting/lockpicking and also lots of scouting, due to his high stealth skill. In conversations I often get the extra choices by passing the Perception checks. That's about it for basics.

[Rictus]

Hah, my Cipher carries a two-hander and is clad in heavy plate. Am I playing this wrong?

[Mentalist]

Rictus, on 08 April 2015 - 07:30 PM, said:

Hah, my Cipher carries a two-hander and is clad in heavy plate. Am I playing this wrong?

It's an RPG "you're supposed to play it your way, " lol

I've only recently bothered to read the loading screen about why dual-wielding isn't the best thing since sliced bread. But as I like my dual-wielding Cipher, I guess i'll be investing into a 2 handed talent on my next level up (if it's available)

[Tapper]

I play my cipher as a Wood Elf ranged attacker, mostly. As Ment says, Focus building requires hitting. The Wood Elf accuracy boost works on ranged attacks only, and that +5 accuracy is higher than the accuracy boost you gain per level as a cipher, which makes it pretty good to have. With a very high dex for additional attack speed, I am not too disappointed with the results there - I might get a pole arm as a secondary weapon to serve as melee support over the tanks' shoulder, though.

[Serenity]

Tapper, on 09 April 2015 - 07:03 AM, said:

I play my cipher as a Wood Elf ranged attacker, mostly. As Ment says, Focus building requires hitting. The Wood Elf accuracy boost works on ranged attacks only, and that +5 accuracy is higher than the accuracy boost you gain per level as a cipher, which makes it pretty good to have. With a very high dex for additional attack speed, I am not too disappointed with the results there - I might get a pole arm as a secondary weapon to serve as melee support over the tanks' shoulder, though.

Mine's a Wood Elf, too, armed with the blunderbuss called Lead Spitter plus Penetrating Shot. Generates Focus very quickly.

[Serenity]

Just went back to the burning cave with Sagani in the party rather than the Monk I'd created and the battle with Cail the Silent was so much easier.

[Rictus]

All right, then. Game finished, final boss disemboweled, etc. It's ... okay, I guess. After Act 2 ends there's just not too much new content, especially if, like me, you go out of your way to finish everything before hunting the Leaden Key leads. Not that that was much of a problem, since I was already getting a tad sick of the combat system and the endless samey mobs in Engwithan dungeons. So I just slaughtered my way through the last section of the game, basically.


And the antagonist? Nah, big miss with regards to charisma and competence. Could be the poor soul just needs a better voice actor, but I suppose none shall beat Jon Irenicus. He never even struck me as threatening in the least, since he only ever said "You are so meddlesome, man!" whenever we met face to face. Also, I wish the ending had a few more choices.

So there. My first impressions were very positive, but as quests went by the game didn't really expand as I'd expected. There were some fairly good tidbits, however, such as the trial (not the end!), Raedric's place and a few others, so I may return for the two expansions that are said to be in the making.

[Avatar]

How many hours did it take you, Rictus? I'm a couple of hours in now.

[Rictus]

My very last save, the one moments before the final decision and ending slides, shows 34 hours. I am, supposedly, busy with university and all that. Where I find so many free hours is a mystery for the ages.

[Serenity]

Ha, I've been going 55 hours and only just reached the start of Act 3 I was always going to take my time with it, though

[Mentalist]

Started Endles Paths on the weekend (Lvl 7 party).

started in style-

Spoiler

by climbing down the pit in Lvl 2, straight into a drake fight on lvl 5.Beat the thing on my 3rd try (Fire wall rawks!), and then worked my way backwards first, then forwards again.

ended off almost done Lvl 7

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure having 2 rangers should be considered cheating. Basically, at this point, Ituumak is close to overtaking Eder for the "been knocked out the most" award. That thing's my main tank, and combined with a Lvl 3 cypher spell called "chains somehting or other", which makes all enemies around take a portion of the damage inflicted on it + fire wall right in front of him, which not only hurts, but also INTERRUPTS anyone trying to cross--which means, unless they roll a dodge or ignore, every enemy that ties to cross the fire wall, gets stuck in it--means death. I have 3 permanent ranged units, with 2 of my fighters having ranged as their 2nd weapon set, with only Hivarium, my shiled and spear druid doing melee, while laying down AOE elemental spells. But back to Ituumak--the reason I feel the ranger's so OP is simple--the companion has no health bar. meaning, it cannot die. Meaning, there's absolutley no reason not to throw them head-first into a fight and see what happens.

In terms of main story, I'm mostly done with Defiance Bay (haven't been to Dyrford yet, except for Durance, who did an average adventure there), I've avoided getting stuk in local politics, except I've got the mafia hating my guts. I took the Stormwall Gorge quest--so it may be time to start picking sides soon.

I also still need to go back and do Raedric's hold.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

I'm just starting the last section (Burial Isle) and have to agree with Rictus, there's no real meat to Act 3. Feeling slightly less resentful of that though as I hadn't started The Endless Paths, so spent a couple of hours finishing that.

Overall, i'm still really enjoying it (although I would say Endless Paths isn't as well put together as Watcher's Keep, its fairly obvious inspiration - couple of non-challenging levels further down than they should be).

I like Josh Brolin as the baddy in what I've heard so far - but as Rictus said, Jon Irenicus set such a high bar in the field of charismatic nutjobs.

[Serenity]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 14 April 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

I'm just starting the last section (Burial Isle) and have to agree with Rictus, there's no real meat to Act 3.

Oh, that's a shame. I thought from what you said up-thread somewhere that Act 3 was really good. Ah well, I've only just started it, so I'll find out for myself soon enough.