If you have been waiting…
 

If you have been waiting to play this game now is the time.

I completed this game when it first came out and while I did enjoy it, even if it did had its problems.

Well what can I say a year later, many patches and two DLC.

I am only finishing up chapter one and it is GREAT!!!! I wish this was the game they had released to begin with. I am not sure all the game stopping bugs and lack of AI made me rush this game before. Or was I in some rush to complete it…

I am loving it, spells are better, combat is better, the story seems better, stronghold is great…

IF you have been waiting, stop waiting and get playing.

It's really very polished now.

The only gripe I have is that they didn't get the difficulty right. If you delve deep into the mechanics, you'll only find Path of the Damned consistently challenging. OTOH, on that difficulty, a lot of builds are invalidated. This takes a lot of fun out of experimenting with party setups. In fact, my parties look and play very similar. The only real tanks are the paladin, monk and fighter, and I can't imagine going without two of them. I tried a tanky ranger but he was more a liability than anything, even with maxed Con, Res and a big shield. Also I find the priest's healing to be essential early on, when you really need it .

You could choose a lower difficulty and Trial of Iron, but the AI and pathfinding are so random that I really can't recommend it.

I don't find the AI and pathfinding that bad at all this play through. Now the first one it was insanely bad.

It's still terribly random. One time they may line up in an orderly fashion so you can cut them down, the other time they all go after your squishy DPS. Also a lot of the time enemies will just stand there doing nothing even after you drop an AoE on them.

Have you played with path 3.01?

I just spent 2 hours loading and reloading fighting the Sky Dragon and it played out the same until I figured out how to beat it.

While I had lots of fun with the game when it came out, I have never fully come to terms with the iffy Might stat. Is there some sort of unofficial mod that changes it somehow?

Still want to play the DLCs, but I'm going to wait until I'm finished with some other games on my list.

Don't you mean 3.02? I started playing with 3.02 and it is very polished indeed. Only noticeable issue I have found is when you assign a hero to a quest and then close and open the quest window it displays with the "Assign" button even though the button correct "Recall"s the hero when clicked.

I'm about half way through chapter 2 (at a guess) and it is one of the best games I have played. Loving it.

Change what exactly?

If you don't want to use it because it doesn't fit your character, don't use it. There are spells/abilities/talents that can boost your damage better than a few points in might would and since they added immunities it's more important to use the proper buff/debuff/damage type to defeat opponents.

I didn't play very far into PoE (stopped right after getting the Stronghold), mostly because I really don't like the RTwP combat. I thought the quests in the beginning of the game were pretty good but it seemed to be getting increasingly combat heavy. I know that they added a "Story Mode" in an update but from what I understand this just makes the combat a bit easier… not less frequent, which is what I'd really want as I just don't enjoy it much. Haven't played awhile so I don't know whether I'd like the improvements but I think I'll always dislike RTwP no matter how much they tweak it.

I suppose I should give it another shot, but am not hopeful.

Oh well, I guess this just isn't the game for me.

I really enjoyed it during my first playthrough (about 2 months after release) and am looking forward to playing again now that both parts of the expansion are out.

I'm playing 3.02

I do remember the game being this random from the beginning though

It so happened that I got in a "party-based" mood and started playing PoE 3.03 with both expansions.

To spice things up I made a full custom party with a different protagonist (my priestess this time) and PotD difficulty. I'm also going to follow the gameplay order posted on the official board. Specifically, I'm trying to make sure I don't outlevel the content while still following a sensible story progression, which means that I delay leveling up until I have cleared certain areas.

My party is currently at Raedric's Hold and so far it's working out fine.

I loved this game up thru Raedric's Hold and then it went downhill for me quickly due to the outleveling issue you mention.

Is there any way to skip all or most of the original story/plot and quickly get to the White March expansion content with a new character? I want to explore the expansion but have no desire to replay main campaign.

I played the game, beat it… and now I beat all the White March content and all I have left is the stuff I already played through so I gave this a break until I'm so bored I feel like doing that. :)

One of my favorite games but I'm not a "multiple playthrough" guy. I haven't even played The Witcher 3 yet because I want all the DLC and patches to be done so I can play the "finished game" which on the PC usually means 2 years after it was released. :D

I had reinstalled to restart a few months ago but got distracted by something else … :) So it goes. Definitely want to replay again!

Never played it and starting to feel bad about it sitting in my steam library.

What should you play if you want to focus on the story and not having to be obsessed with min-maxing?

C

Well the easiest difficulty level is actually called Story Time. :)

If you want most out of the story make sure to make a character with high Resolve and Lore skill (only the MC is checked for dialog in POE1). That unlock most story relevant dialogue choices.

Cipher has some unique dialogue choices too.

Well, I am probably going to play on normal (would be embarrassed to play on easy or story mode :-) )

Good to know about MC
sucks for me though since I had this image of a rouge firing of a pistol and then wading in with a sabre shouting "ye scurvy dogs!"

Is that even possible?

damn, I don't want to be sitting for hours prepping as I usually do

C

I'll be starting this this weekend and I will be obsessing about min-maxing and paying very little attention to story.

I've heard with the balancing though that min- maxing isn't really possible, true?