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Trust me, I could've spoiled a lot in there. Just saying though, Solo rogue is do-able for everything except the boss/group fights.

You're not through yet

 Sigvatr wrote:
You're not through yet

I'm 12 hours in. Obviously I am not.

F5 / F8 still working under excessive load?

 Sigvatr wrote:
F5 / F8 still working under excessive load?

I fear I may need a new keyboard before I am done here.

Looking at the global Steam achievements, nobody yet has completed the game entirely solo. Much less completed on the hardest difficulties solo.

Well, someone may have done it, so it could be reading 0% because so few have achieved it that it isn't registering.

Completed the first "dungeon": the area under the village with the *Tree*.

It was 2 am and I honestly just wanted to play all night long because how good it felt. I had to lay down a fireball trap, sneak attack to attract the enemies, run back and pray the fighters held the line while the wizard casted some AOE spells to take care of a particular room. Hell, I scout everywhere because I don't want to be caught with my pants down or else my party is wasted. (The Phantoms hit like a truck)

Seriously, this game just feels GOOD. The attention to detail, that warm and fuzzy feeling when the search finds a secret, oh, glorious, how I love this game!

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Completed the first "dungeon": the area under the village with the *Tree*.

It was 2 am and I honestly just wanted to play all night long because how good it felt. I had to lay down a fireball trap, sneak attack to attract the enemies, run back and pray the fighters held the line while the wizard casted some AOE spells to take care of a particular room. Hell, I scout everywhere because I don't want to be caught with my pants down or else my party is wasted. (The Phantoms hit like a truck)

Seriously, this game just feels GOOD. The attention to detail, that warm and fuzzy feeling when the search finds a secret, oh, glorious, how I love this game!

Exactly what both me and my wife felt too. It has been such a long time where you just wanted to explore that dungeon not because of any SUPER EPIC LOOT or a ACHIEVEMEEEEENT at the end but because you were genuinely interested in /exploring/.

Started a new game with my party based on the main characters from Vikings, because why the hell not. Going well so far.

Dear lord, how can people stand playing fighters? Talking about one-trick ponies. You just...run...into enemies, then stand around until the end of the battle. Oh, and you sometimes push people over. That's it. Exciiiitiiiiiiiiing!

 Sigvatr wrote:
Dear lord, how can people stand playing fighters? Talking about one-trick ponies. You just...run...into enemies, then stand around until the end of the battle. Oh, and you sometimes push people over. That's it. Exciiiitiiiiiiiiing!

Eh, I like playing mine, it's more a case of gear micromanaging, though they get some abilities pretty quick if you choose them. (I didn't, passives up the wazoo!) The knock down is great for crowd control or just kicking the snot out of a single target.

 Soladrin wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Dear lord, how can people stand playing fighters? Talking about one-trick ponies. You just...run...into enemies, then stand around until the end of the battle. Oh, and you sometimes push people over. That's it. Exciiiitiiiiiiiiing!

Eh, I like playing mine, it's more a case of gear micromanaging, though they get some abilities pretty quick if you choose them. (I didn't, passives up the wazoo!) The knock down is great for crowd control or just kicking the snot out of a single target.

You're also not playing a character, you're playing a party. Having fire-and-forget fighters makes managing everyone else a bit easier. It doesn't hurt that fighters are just damned good at what they do. Having 4 Engagements is such a big deal. You can get high defensive stats on anyone but being able to be sure that those 6+ enemies STAY on the people with the defensive stats is what makes that deflection 90 really count.

Fighters are the absolute best at tanking - impossible to take down, 1 more engagement than other tanks. They also are the most one-dimensional characters, though, that's why I still prefer Paladins. 1 less engagement, but Auras and Buffs to make up for it.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Fighters are the absolute best at tanking - impossible to take down, 1 more engagement than other tanks. They also are the most one-dimensional characters, though, that's why I still prefer Paladins. 1 less engagement, but Auras and Buffs to make up for it.

Where is the extra engagement on the paladin coming from? Fighter's defender is +2 for a total of 3 native. Paladins don't have anything comparable (unless the wiki information I've been looking at is outdated). This means taking Hold the Line they're still behind by 2 (2 vs 4). Losing only 1 Engagement would certainly make the paladin option seem more compelling.

Oh, got it mixed up then. I just had in mind that base engagement is 2.

Finally beat it. Pretty unique story and satisfying ending.

In addition to being a great game, I felt the in game universe was excellent and unique. Can't wait to see how this franchise expands!

As far as the ending goes:

Priests. Mother of God.

Start out utterly terrible and nigh-useless, from lvl 7-8, they turn into your party's heart. The buffs are downright insane.

Really? My priest has been performing pretty well from the get go. Heals + buffs + some aoe damage. (though I also gave him one hand style and a good axe and armor).

 Soladrin wrote:
Really? My priest has been performing pretty well from the get go. Heals + buffs + some aoe damage. (though I also gave him one hand style and a good axe and armor).

"Good" is relative. Most other classes outshine Priests early on as Priests are very limited. Once you get able to cast every 1s / 2nd spell of yours on a /per encounter/ basis, poo hits the fan. You absolutely need at least 18 Dexterity with a Priest, else you can't spam enough.

Meh, I've never really had any great difficulty in the game and most every build seems to work for me. I'm playing on easy though since I CBA to keep quick loading in such a massive game.

That all said, a Rogue with two weapon style, high recovery armor (15-25%) and reckless assault murders fools dead.

Well, even Monks could work on Easy

Yeah ok I love this game, I cracked a 5 hours session last night.

My character priest is totally fething useless though, I'm now 5th level and still cant heal anyone other than a single gakky guy each rest, only only by 50 health.

I do think the tutorial stuff on the side is lacking though, I am still confused by lots of things, for example I didn't know I could build stuff at my stronghold without going all the way back there until about 3 hours in.

Also, crafting is not explained, and Im confused about armor as well, looking at the tab it only makes a few actions a percentage point slower, so does that mean it makes sense just to stick every class in plate and be done with it?

 mattyrm wrote:
Yeah ok I love this game, I cracked a 5 hours session last night.

My character priest is totally fething useless though, I'm now 5th level and still cant heal anyone other than a single gakky guy each rest, only only by 50 health.

Huh? You should have Restore Minor Endurance and the healing circle that restores Endurance plus you class ability that AoE restores Endurance. Unless you explicitely refer to HP, in that case, yeah, there's little to do. Supplies are plentiful, however, so resting is okay.

Priests aren't your MMO priests, they mainly work as superb buffers. At lvl 9 (iirc), you can cast your level 1 spells /per encounter/ instead of /per rest/ which is amazing. A good priest turns a party into gods. Believe me, they get downright insane later on. Even early on, their Seal that knocks enemies down is overpowered as hell. And Divine Armor at lvl 1 - awesome. +4 DR for your entire party is a LOT.

I hope you have a lot of Dexterity, though, if you got less than 18, lategame will be annoying.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 mattyrm wrote:


Also, crafting is not explained, and Im confused about armor as well, looking at the tab it only makes a few actions a percentage point slower, so does that mean it makes sense just to stick every class in plate and be done with it?

Armor has two effects:

a) Increase Damage Resistance (DR)

b) Lower Recovery Speed. If you have e.g. -50%, then the time between actions is increased by 50%. Casters therefore will absolutely want to stay in light armor in order to spam their skills. It's simple math - yes, you can put your mage into platemail, but you lose 60+% of his damage.

Here' s the ultimate PoE guide:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

It's the best guide I have ever seen for any game.

Thanks for the advice, makes a lot of sense.

Yeah I specifically meant HP, its easy to keep Endurance up as a Priest but they still take damage and I dont like resting the team after 5 or 6 scraps.

Ill be sure to start hitting dexterity, I think I'm still sinking it all into caster stats.

As for the armor, I am starting to get the hang of sticking Eder and a Pally out front and keeping the casters in the rear with the gear.

One question, I tend to lead with the same stuff for most fights, I have managed to figure out formations, is there any way to get the whole party to default to a certain attack at the start of every fight?

Actually, Ive just checked the guide out, that's more than sufficient Im sure.

Cheers mate.

Just beat the game.


Overall, I enjoyed it more than I typically do for these kind of games. For all the nitpicks I have with it, It felt worthwhile.

Final Grade: high C+ or low B-.

EDIT:

One question, I tend to lead with the same stuff for most fights, I have managed to figure out formations, is there any way to get the whole party to default to a certain attack at the start of every fight?

No. Near as I can tell you can't even set up hotkeys, or use any other basic feature games have had for last 20 years. See my above comment on nitpicks. The UI for this thing is a horrible dinosaur. I swear 2-3 hours of my playtime must have just been mousing through the party options that wouldn't have happened if I just had modern keybinding options.

The first expansion for this game is now live on Steam. And it's a two-parter. You can get part 1 for $15, or but both parts for $25. It also adds two new party members, two more levels, and some new areas. I'm not in a position to take a look at it right now, though.

Eumerin wrote:
The first expansion for this game is now live on Steam. And it's a two-parter. You can get part 1 for $15, or but both parts for $25. It also adds two new party members, two more levels, and some new areas. I'm not in a position to take a look at it right now, though.

Its fun so far. The monk is a riot and the rogue I just found, but she seems pretty interesting.

In the older games, the party had auto-actions that you could script in so you didn't have to micromanage every little detail, although you could if you wanted to do so. Does this game have a similar feature?

Col. Dash wrote:
In the older games, the party had auto-actions that you could script in so you didn't have to micromanage every little detail, although you could if you wanted to do so. Does this game have a similar feature?

This most recent patch also included a party AI system, that allows you to adjust how your party acts when combat begins. You can set them to aggressive/defensive/healer/support and such. I was pleasantly surprised by how effective it was, although I feel the need to point out that I play the game on normal difficulty. On harder difficulties, you probably still want to micro manage.

I completed the contents of part 1 of this expansion and wish I had just waited for part 2 to drop. I tried to avoid spoilers for this release and I missed the part that it unlocks at 1/3 of the way through the game. I had gotten to the point where I made the "leap of faith" near the end of the game, and felt that I did the content an injustice by being so high level, and missing out on all the interactions/dialogue that might happen between the monk and rogue while I went about the main quest. I mistakenly thought this was more Throne of Baal than Tales of the Sword Coast.

Although it does give me a reason to do a play through with a new class I haven't tried. But I'm torn on whether to wait for White March part 2 to do that.

Just picked this up since it was on sale on Steam. First RPG like this that I've played in awhile, and it looks pretty promising.