Pillars of Eternity - Patch 1.03 Notes Released

For the monk fans here, are you playing them as a tank, wading into mobs with heavy armor? That's the only way I could get them to work very well, at which point it just stopped feeling like a monk to me.

I eventually got frustrated and switched to a Cipher. Much better to use powers after hitting, rather than getting hit… Ironically, because I've emphasized speed on my cipher, he's running around in light armor, essentially being more of a monk than my monk ever was…

Originally Posted by Falchor
AoE's are the challenge with mages. You have to really plan out positioning before you engage: stealth up a scout, measure up opponents, arrange your party so foes walk into AoE circles or cones… having a stealthy rogue spot and draw and then go invisible seems to be good approach for this, but rogue needs to be fast enough to get out of AoE span or he/she can get a bit too warm on the hind-quarters.

There is no stealth in the meaning of cloaked units in this game. As it is real time though, the requirement to acquire information stands high. Scouting before any encounter is somehow a must do.

In the open, the player has often the option to fall back and regroup in order to prepare an encounter.

In dungeons, scouting also allows to detect traps.

Engaging properly is a big chunk in this game, and this requires prior information that is given by scouting.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I think crafting is pretty much hit and miss. You can't buy crafting stuff, at least in the early game, so you've constantly got to go into inventory to see what can be made, then decide which one person out of 6 gets something. There needs to be more crafting ingredients, or it just seems pointless. Either that or you should be able to uncraft items and get your components back.

Crafting recipes are unlocked by levels and it seems the providing of elements to craft goes along with the supposed progression of the player through the campaign.

Beside, enchanted weapons. armours are not supposed to last, they must be thrown away everytime an updated version is wanted.

Crafting is not pointless: it is a major feature to progress quickly through the hard mode. It might be vital in the path of the damned.

Aaaaand the patch is live. I never even got to try out the double damage chanter phrase before they nerfed it…

Oh, and you're wrong Chien. There are invisible unit and the Rogue has an ability that makes them excactly that. At least try to get your facts straight…

There is also very much a stealth system, although it does need some improvements.

Some of the comments on the Obsidian forums now leads me to worry that this patch may need a patch. O boy…

Damn, I just checked the Steam forums to see whether people were reporting the patch as buggy….and, Good Lord, the whole thing is aflame with people bitching about Obsidian taking out a backer-written tombstone with a little limerick about a guy who killed himself after sleeping with a man he initially though was a woman. Apparently, someone complained about this possibly being "transphobic," even though there is no real indication in the original limerick about anyone being transsexual, just an unspecified case of mistaken gender. Regardless, it strikes me as another case of much ado about nothing.

Why is every little thing these days a political firestorm? When did Orwell's thought police become a volunteer militia? When did everyone so thoroughly lose their minds? I genuinely fear that people, at least here in the U.S., are losing their perspective.

Apparently Obsidian asked the person who wrote it what they would like to do, and he said take it down.

I believe that sensitivity towards others is important. There is a line to be drawn but where that line is drawn is very subjective and often a difficult issue.

I personally don't care that it was taken down, nor was I offended by the original limerick. I imagine Obsidian and the backer author were just trying to avoid controversy, which of course the crazies wouldn't allow. They were damned if if they did and damed if they didn't. Score another one for unthinking idealogues, no matter which side they stand on.

Originally Posted by tomasp3n

Oh, and you're wrong Chien. There are invisible unit and the Rogue has an ability that makes them excactly that. At least try to get your facts straight…

Who are the detectors?

I've not played with thieves. It would be surprising if they did what they are told to do here.

The whole transexual controversy is very stupid.

On a side note: I had to kill several bandits in the first level, who were all MEN. I found this to be extremely sexist and offensive. Apparently, PoE is a male murder simulator. I *demand* they add an equal number of female bandits in the next patch, or I am going on Twitter and a gazillion stupid and dumb people are going to support me, and an even greater number of people with a lot of free time on their hands and nothing else to do, are going to post long comments to prevent such a change. But we all know how it is going to end; so tell me, how many days will it take for that patch to arrive?

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
Who are the detectors?

I've not played with thieves. It would be surprising if they did what they are told to do here.

Yes, there is a rogue skill that enables them to go invisible (immediately, and when engaged in melee). It is VERY useful, because the next attack from within invisible state is always a sneak attack for high damage. And it makes up for the fact that the rogue gets targeted and owned by strong melee characters. It's probably the single most important reason to have a rogue, as it makes him/her the ideal scout.

Originally Posted by Fantasm
For the monk fans here, are you playing them as a tank, wading into mobs with heavy armor? That's the only way I could get them to work very well, at which point it just stopped feeling like a monk to me.

I eventually got frustrated and switched to a Cipher. Much better to use powers after hitting, rather than getting hit… Ironically, because I've emphasized speed on my cipher, he's running around in light armor, essentially being more of a monk than my monk ever was…

I play mine somewhat tanky yes, but he's still my top damage dealer. He hits very fast and very hard, yet doesn't take too much damage. That being said, I run around with fairly heavy armor and high deflection on pretty much anyone who enters melee, to avoid getting flattened in a few seconds.

I still use a Fighter as my main tank though, as they can get absurd levels of deflection (Paladins can as well, with the right bonuses to faith and what not).

Originally Posted by Falchor
Yes, there is a rogue skill that enables them to go invisible (immediately, and when engaged in melee). It is VERY useful, because the next attack from within invisible state is always a sneak attack for high damage. And it makes up for the fact that the rogue gets targeted and owned by strong melee characters. It's probably the single most important reason to have a rogue, as it makes him/her the ideal scout.

Looks more like withdrawal ability (some other skills achieve the same effects)

Cloaked units are involved actively in fighting, their strength being they can hit without being hit until a detection measure is brought on location.

Originally Posted by Fantasm
For the monk fans here, are you playing them as a tank, wading into mobs with heavy armor? That's the only way I could get them to work very well, at which point it just stopped feeling like a monk to me.

I eventually got frustrated and switched to a Cipher. Much better to use powers after hitting, rather than getting hit… Ironically, because I've emphasized speed on my cipher, he's running around in light armor, essentially being more of a monk than my monk ever was…

I love monks, unfortunately there aren't any monks in this game. They call it a monk, but it's no monk.

If they wanted to do the wound thing, great make it a new class and have a traditional monk. Also I heard fighting unarmed is a waste because enchanted weapons do way more damage.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
Looks more like withdrawal ability (some other skills achieve the same effects)

Cloaked units are involved actively in fighting, their strength being they can hit without being hit until a detection measure is brought on location.

You don't think being stabbed in the back qualifies as a detection measure?

It it a withdrawal ability if you want it to be, but it's also a way to get into a good postition and deliver a backstab attack (you cannot be targeted at att all once you're invisible). The Rogue only gets 2 per rest however, resulting in me seldom using it. I woudl rather see they got one per encounter, or that the setalth mechanics are revised to allow for units to stay hidden after combat has started. .

When path 1.05 hits and I reroll a new team, I won't be including a rogue this time around. They're pretty worthless beyond the generic melee dps quotient, and I don't enjoy one dimensional characters.

• You don't need stealth unless you're roleplaying what you're used to from D&D. Autopause on enemy sighted taked care of everything traditional stealth scouting would have covered.
• Requiring two wasted talents simply to be able to Backstab (not sneak attack, people) only twice per Rest is just plain dumb design.
• Mechanics is a universal skill.

Ideally, I'd like their stealth mechanics reworked in the next patch or two.

And monks, yeah, ugh… I wanted to roll one but class abilities that revolve around and require getting hit?! Did Rocky Balboa design this class?

You don't really need wounds though. I mainly used it to fuel my attack speed increasing ability, and I could keep that up 100% easily (needs 1 wound per 10 seconds). A fully buffed monk hits like a truck.

And rogues are nice when you need to take out someone fast. They get their sneak attack bonus the first 2 seconds of any fight, so you can use a big, slow ranged weapon to pretty much snipe an enemy caster in the first second of the fight. Very useful.

Originally Posted by Maylander
You don't really need wounds though. I mainly used it to fuel my attack speed increasing ability, and I could keep that up 100% easily (needs 1 wound per 10 seconds). A fully buffed monk hits like a truck.

And rogues are nice when you need to take out someone fast. They get their sneak attack bonus the first 2 seconds of any fight, so you can use a big, slow ranged weapon to pretty much snipe an enemy caster in the first second of the fight. Very useful.

How do you keep your monk alive without using heavy armor? I rolled one just to try it and I get killed in a few hits.

Putting heavy armor on a monk is just not something I want to do.

I have a similar problem with the rogue. if i sneak up behind an enemy and attack then I'm engaged and since there's no running away I end up just trading blows until one of us dies. I suppose I could us ranged but I refer to sneak up assassin style.

I basically play all my RPG's with a stealthy/assassin type and I can't seem to find a class or build that supports that adequately in the game.

Short coming of the game? or am I doing something wrong?

Originally Posted by Drithius
When path 1.05 hits and I reroll a new team, I won't be including a rogue this time around. They're pretty worthless beyond the generic melee dps quotient, and I don't enjoy one dimensional characters.

• You don't need stealth unless you're roleplaying what you're used to from D&D. Autopause on enemy sighted taked care of everything traditional stealth scouting would have covered.
• Requiring two wasted talents simply to be able to Backstab (not sneak attack, people) only twice per Rest is just plain dumb design.
• Mechanics is a universal skill.

Ideally, I'd like their stealth mechanics reworked in the next patch or two.

And monks, yeah, ugh… I wanted to roll one but class abilities that revolve around and require getting hit?! Did Rocky Balboa design this class?

I think your problem is that the ability is called 'backstab'. Imagine it's called "Boom attack" and problem solved. I'm playing with my main as a rogue, and she always attacks with sneak attacks. Once you're past level 3 or 4, most enemies will have some debuff on them, and sneak attacks work on enemies with almost any type of debuff, not just prone or you hidden, so my rogue is by far the most DPS character in my group.

Now if you're referring to other traditional 'Thief' abilities like pick pocket and climb walls, yeah they don't have it, but the class is not 'Thief', it's 'Rogue' and my guess is that WoW changed how people thought of what a Rogue does.

My rogue works totally in concert with my tank, and that arrangement works just fine for me. Sneak, imo, should never influence range damage, my rogue is an assassin and my ideal range is about 5 centimeters from my opponent. I haven't play since Thursday so I don't know if the patches have change anything for rogues, but I don't intend on changing how I play mine. It works better than most think, it does take some management, however.

I love having a rogue in the party, and I think the implementation was to prevent "kiting" from being a viable tactic.

My strategy with my front-line is this: My tank (Eder), my rogue, and my main character (cipher with decent might and damage output) use firearms as a volley to start a battle. The rogue gets a bonus to damage here, and inflicts "Deep Wounds." Then, switch to melee. My two ciphers cast debuffs on the enemies, such as blindness and "Unseen Foes." Eder engages at least two front line enemies, and my rogue either double-teams these enemies or moves to the back to quickly take care of an archer or mage. Blinding Strike is very useful here.

Sometimes, I have to re-adjust this approach, and that's great. So far, I have been very satisfied with how the game challenges and surprises me with a good deal of variety, yet allows me the room to adapt and be creative with my tactics based on the strengths of my party.