Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[Desiderius]

Simpler explanation would be that pirate game inherently calls for more colorful cast of characters than grim and sombre squad from the first game.

Again, I have no problem with colourful characters. It's not the issue at all. I took Tekehu with me on my last run FFS.

Xoti is just insufferable as Piotrovitz says

Once I figured out how to play her it got easier.

 

[Litmanen]

Ok, I have made it until level 9 (almost level 10) and practically finished all the quests in Neketaka (except the ending of Deleo's quest and the one in Hasongo where I'll be forced to choose a faction.

But there is one thing really annoying: when I enter a location by stealth, notice some enemies and then enter the battle from stealth, a lot of times the game creates new enemies who where not there, often making my pre-positioning quite useless. And, obviously, I'm not talking about those coming out of walls, terrains or statues. Those can be "believable".

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

I'm playing PoTD and I'm starting to assume it is a behavior related to it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

Those dudes just unstealthed, man.

 

[Litmanen]

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

Those dudes just unstealthed, man.

Hmm I do disagree when it comes to Rothgast and I was on their spot with all the party 2 seconds before, in a very small hallway.

They are slow, big, fat, not at all stealth and I have literally marched on them with my entire party ON STEALTH in a 1,5 m large hallway. No chance at all they were there or somewhere else (due to their speed and absolute inability to stealth) stealthed.

Other enemies, I can agree.

 

[Desiderius]

Ok, I have made it until level 9 (almost level 10) and practically finished all the quests in Neketaka (except the ending of Deleo's quest and the one in Hasongo where I'll be forced to choose a faction.

But there is one thing really annoying: when I enter a location by stealth, notice some enemies and then enter the battle from stealth, a lot of times the game creates new enemies who where not there, often making my pre-positioning quite useless. And, obviously, I'm not talking about those coming out of walls, terrains or statues. Those can be "believable".

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

I'm playing PoTD and I'm starting to assume it is a behavior related to it.

Hasongo doesn't force faction choice yet.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

Those dudes just unstealthed, man.

AFAIR there is one dungeon with rotghasts spawning out of thin air in the corridor behind your party, maybe he's talking about this.

 

[Desiderius]

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

Those dudes just unstealthed, man.

AFAIR there is one dungeon with rotghasts spawning out of thin air in the corridor behind your party, maybe he's talking about this.

He comes from way down the hall in Oathbinder's Sanctum. But they're so damn slow to get there it shld be a non-issue.

 

[Litmanen]

Some times the game just spawns new enemies out of nowhere.

Those dudes just unstealthed, man.

AFAIR there is one dungeon with rotghasts spawning out of thin air in the corridor behind your party, maybe he's talking about this.

He comes from way down the hall in Oathbinder's Sanctum. But they're so damn slow to get there it shld be a non-issue.

I'm not saying it was an issue. That fight is a non-fight. Three minutes and it's gone without almost a scratch.

I was referring to that one but not only, anyway. The thing that annoys me it's not that fights become "too difficult", because they aren't. It's just annoying that some shitty spawn happens. Does'nt make sense and destroys the likelihood of what's happening.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Can't really recall any random spawns beside ones in Oathbinder's Sanctum, where else have you encountered them?

Anyway, am currently playing with earlier mentioned XP nerf mod and economy overhaul - lvl 14 and difficulty is already falling apart. Even without metagaming cheese like rushing for Grave Calling etc, it's really hard not to completely break the game around lvl 10-12, which is a bummer with all those potions/explosives/drugs/traps/etc. Guess the only way to keep any challenge is fully cranked up DD or rolling with some wacky party build.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I feel like almost every class gets a huge power spike at tier 4 or 5, which you're gonna hit sooner rather than later even with massive xp nerfs. Le balance man fails again.

 

[Litmanen]

Can't really recall any random spawns beside ones in Oathbinder's Sanctum, where else have you encountered them?

Anyway, am currently playing with earlier mentioned XP nerf mod and economy overhaul - lvl 14 and difficulty is already falling apart. Even without metagaming cheese like rushing for Grave Calling etc, it's really hard not to completely break the game around lvl 10-12, which is a bummer with all those potions/explosives/drugs/traps/etc. Guess the only way to keep any challenge is fully cranked up DD or rolling with some wacky party build.

I'm level 9 on PoTD and I'm using the same mods (XP and economy overhaul). The only difficulti thing, as for the moment, are some ship battles (because I suck at strategy) and the big worm in the Temple in the Old City (but I tried it the first (and only) time two levels ago.

Generally speaking, yes, if it wasn't for me being utterly unable in strategizing or using potions/bombs/traps/drugs, the game is quite easy

 

[Piotrovitz]

I feel like almost every class gets a huge power spike at tier 4 or 5, which you're gonna hit sooner rather than later even with massive xp nerfs. Le balance man fails again.

Yeah, PL4-5 seems to be the threshold past which difficulty nosedives. Around this point you also start getting gear that carries you through the rest of the game, which only amplifies the drop in challenge. Would be nice to have some late game uber-tough fights in which you would need to throw everything you got etc. But soyer's idea of fun high level challenge was 30 minutes endurance marathon with giant spider.

 

[Piotrovitz]

The only difficulti thing, as for the moment, are some ship battles (because I suck at strategy)

Fuck the ship minigame, never had any motivation to figure out any meaningful tactics. I just shoot grapeshot from one side, jibe, shoot from the other side, then charge. Grapeshots thin out the upper deck crew so you usually fight with maybe half of the mobs, which makes the whole thing much faster.

 

[Desiderius]

Voyager can light you up before you get a shot off, and trading lead with a high level Junk or Galleon will take out your hull before you get close enough to board.

There's a good bit of play there.

Compared to Pillows there's a lot less free cash lying around if you don't harvest ships either so incentive to figure it out.

 

[Haplo]

For ship combat, it seems important to recruit good sailors ASAP - by good, I mean singularly specialized, NOT diverse in skillsets. Since the number or rank ups has a very low cap, you want ALL their "stars" to go into 1 category.
Specialized, high rank sailors, make a world of difference.

 

[Haplo]

I feel like almost every class gets a huge power spike at tier 4 or 5, which you're gonna hit sooner rather than later even with massive xp nerfs. Le balance man fails again.

Yeah, PL4-5 seems to be the threshold past which difficulty nosedives. Around this point you also start getting gear that carries you through the rest of the game, which only amplifies the drop in challenge. Would be nice to have some late game uber-tough fights in which you would need to throw everything you got etc. But soyer's idea of fun high level challenge was 30 minutes endurance marathon with giant spider.

Seeker, Slayer, Survivor has you covered.

Beast of Winter had some decent challenge for its level also, AFAIR.

Also, you are playing on Upscaled difficulty, right?

 

[Haplo]

Can't really recall any random spawns beside ones in Oathbinder's Sanctum, where else have you encountered them?

Anyway, am currently playing with earlier mentioned XP nerf mod and economy overhaul - lvl 14 and difficulty is already falling apart. Even without metagaming cheese like rushing for Grave Calling etc, it's really hard not to completely break the game around lvl 10-12, which is a bummer with all those potions/explosives/drugs/traps/etc. Guess the only way to keep any challenge is fully cranked up DD or rolling with some wacky party build.

I'm level 9 on PoTD and I'm using the same mods (XP and economy overhaul). The only difficulti thing, as for the moment, are some ship battles (because I suck at strategy) and the big worm in the Temple in the Old City (but I tried it the first (and only) time two levels ago.

Generally speaking, yes, if it wasn't for me being utterly unable in strategizing or using potions/bombs/traps/drugs, the game is quite easy

Wasn't the "worm" vulnerable to some cheap, crippling status effect by any chance?

 

[Piotrovitz]

For ship combat, it seems important to recruit good sailors ASAP - by good, I mean singularly specialized, NOT diverse in skillsets. Since the number or rank ups has a very low cap, you want ALL their "stars" to go into 1 category.
Specialized, high rank sailors, make a world of difference.

The problem with ship minigame is that ultimately nothing matters. On my first and so far only completed run I've never upgraded ship past Dhow, equipping it with free Valera sails and random looted cannons. Tons of crew you can recruit for free by just exploring world, with conveniently diverse skillsets, so no reason for looking for specialized ones in different ports.

The only case I can think of where you could benefit from mastering the minigame is wanting to sink higher lvl ships early, when on-deck fight would be too tough. But then again, there's no reason to do so, since after Neketaka you swim in money for the rest of the game.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Seeker, Slayer, Survivor has you covered.

Beast of Winter had some decent challenge for its level also, AFAIR.

Also, you are playing on Upscaled difficulty, right?

Yeah, upscaled.

Gonna check SSS this time, on my only completed run I've skipped it and FS cause was already at lvl cap, even with huge xp nerf applied in .ini and was to burned out to even start it.

 

[Litmanen]

Can't really recall any random spawns beside ones in Oathbinder's Sanctum, where else have you encountered them?

Anyway, am currently playing with earlier mentioned XP nerf mod and economy overhaul - lvl 14 and difficulty is already falling apart. Even without metagaming cheese like rushing for Grave Calling etc, it's really hard not to completely break the game around lvl 10-12, which is a bummer with all those potions/explosives/drugs/traps/etc. Guess the only way to keep any challenge is fully cranked up DD or rolling with some wacky party build.

I'm level 9 on PoTD and I'm using the same mods (XP and economy overhaul). The only difficulti thing, as for the moment, are some ship battles (because I suck at strategy) and the big worm in the Temple in the Old City (but I tried it the first (and only) time two levels ago.

Generally speaking, yes, if it wasn't for me being utterly unable in strategizing or using potions/bombs/traps/drugs, the game is quite easy

Wasn't the "worm" vulnerable to some cheap, crippling status effect by any chance?

I don't know. I still have to figure out how to understand (in)vulnerabilities of monsters and others pieces of shit.
But yesterday, in the end, I made it at my overall second attempt, the first at level 9 and the first with my new party composition: Me (Priest of Magan who heals and does melee with great sword), Eder supertank, Xoti monk, Aloth as wizard (or whatever) and Konstanten pure bard.

He was resistant to a lot of things, but got a "good" amount of damages with slashing attacks and arrows.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Pretty challanging party build for a first blind potd playthrough haha

 

[Litmanen]

Pretty challanging party build for a first blind potd playthrough haha

Before, it was me, Eder, Xoti (I don't think I'll change them) + Teheku & Serafen as Cipher.

Teheku was very helpful, but I was missing Aloth, personally. And I wanted to advance with his quest (no news yes, anyway).
And Serafen was good-ish with two hands combat + some cipher's powers. But I was not satisfied.

I'm not sure I will stay with this configuration. It has been the first fight with it and we were successful. But yeah, Teheku was quite useful.

I could maybe go back to:
Eder+Xoti frontline
Me in between with a bigger presence in frontline
Teheku with some smaller evocation and damages over time with his magic
Alothn with is powerful magics and war bow (he was actually the one doing the biggest damages to the "worm" and its "womlings", espexially with the bow).

 

[Piotrovitz]

Tekehu is probably the most powerful companion due to his unique subclass and party friendly chillfog, but when it comes to cringiness only Xoti comes close.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Since you're putting your MC priest in melee would be way better to multi him with pally or fighter - would be way sturdier and lagging in power lvl is not that much of a downside.

 

[Litmanen]

Since you're putting your MC priest in melee would be way better to multi him with pally or fighter - would be way sturdier and lagging in power lvl is not that much of a downside.

I could if only the idea of multiclassing wasn't killing me.

I'm autistic, i must accept it. I don'y know what kind of autism I have, but I have one. The idea of learning new things like multiclassing or using traps/bombs/more alchemy kills me.
I was stuck two days without playing just thinking about what was the best party conformation. I wanted to do it just once and forever, since I knew I had to re-configure all the party abilities and skills and that was killing me.

I'm a bit of a Sheldon Cooper, once I have some configuration, I do not want to change it.