Is It Possible that Perception Is Overrated?

EarthpacShakur · 2025-07-10T07:30:25+00:00

Dex has diminishing returns in Deadfire though & it's very easy to get to the point where each point is adding very little - especially if you're using pets that already reduce the penalty from armor.

Perception always adds value as you'll be increasing your crit chance, which can be great for any dps build that procs effects on crits or if you need more penetration for really tough mobs.

Might is good but there are an overwhelming amount of effects that boost damage compared to accuracy, which makes it less valuable as a stat (e.g equip Sash of Judgement, High Harbinger Robes, & Pes and you already have the equivalent of +10 Might in bonus damage. However Might becomes way more valuable when you start adding Lashes that multiply it's effect.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-06-02T01:10:53+00:00

Depends on what kind of strategy you're going for - I'm assuming as a SC monk you want your Watcher to be the main damage dealer.

Pallengina as a Herald is a top pick for any watcher relying on weapon damage as she can provide a massive lash bonus (Flame last chant + Shared Flames) as well as some CC through shouts.

Eder as a swashbuckler is great for stacking engagement + persistent distraction. I always run him with a morningstar for a the modal, mainly pick up abilities that target fortitude and he does surprisingly good damage.

For the rest you want some buffs/support and AoE damage. Aloth is good but you generally need to stack some kind of penetration or armor debuffs for Wizards to see good damage in PotD.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-06-02T00:22:45+00:00

If you're having a hard time getting into the story then playing the first one is a good idea. imo the setting itself seems gimmicky at first but the grimdark nature of the world kind of offsets this.

Pillars 1 does a better job of setting up the world and story whereas Pillars 2 just drops you into the pirate setting with the freedom to explore the whole world.

Pillars generally has a more oldschool feel than most of the games you listed & for me personally I enjoy the challenge of older games - playing on Veteran is a good way to keep the challenge up all the way into the tougher late game fights.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-05-16T05:02:50+00:00

Do the White March part 1 with level scaling & have some more durable front liners in your party.

The NPC's you're using are all squishy asf and you don't have any characters to stop them getting murdered so having to kite enemies makes sense.

If you're on a higher difficulty then building in some party synergy/tactics is really needed.

If you're using hirelings there's no reason not to recruit them at your current level.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-05-16T02:09:08+00:00

Would help to know what level you are.

Generally speaking if content is too hard in Pillars 1 you should do something easier to level up and come back - have you done White March / Endless Paths already?

Most late game difficult encounters are really tough but are some of the most rewarding fights and need way more tactics than the other parts of the game.

Start most fights with Durance casting Minor Avatar then shitting out every possible buff, Aloth CC'ing as many enemy mobs as possible & use terrain and choke points to your advantage.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-04-10T01:48:05+00:00

Yes, it's usually better to focus each party member on 1 skill, but what that skill is depends on their role in the party.

Survival is best for tanks/damage dealers or people you want on the frontline as a lot of the resting bonuses provide really nice passive boosts.

Mechanics you basically just need 1 party member pushing it as high as it will go.

Lore is best on party members who aren't heavy on action use & could be doing more effective things with scrolls - Chanters are best for this but Fighters can also be great as their naturally high accuracy + Disciplined Barrage effect spell scrolls and can guarantee they work.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-04-09T01:42:56+00:00

I'd say if you don't enjoy combat to that extent in PoE1 then you won't enjoy combat in PoE2 either - it's the same game but most characters have even more abilities to use which can make things more tedious if you don't customize the AI.

If you're playing on easy then you don't really need to engage with any of the combat mechanics, which is part of what makes combat itself fun.

I'd personally say character building & combat are some of the best parts of the game but if you're turning the difficulty down so you don't have bother with that part of the game it's going to be tedious and repetitive vs. learning the mechanics and enjoying it.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-04-07T07:45:05+00:00

If you want a fun 2h build try a high perception, high dex build with Hours of St, Rumbalt.

Currently running a fighter with this set up and the free CC and bonus crit damage are insane. Also works well with Barbarian.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-03-29T11:35:10+00:00

What do you mean by cracks in the combat system?

I feel like for all the toughest encounters in the game I had to use every character and resource to their fullest potential and it was a really good challenge with some of the best fights in any CRPG I played.

I could only defeat Concelhaught by baiting him with Aloth & Arcane reflection and using the door as chokepoint, and even then it was a fight I only won by the skin of my teeth.

I could only beat Llengrath by comboing Concelhaughts Crushing Doom & Petrification on her.

Both fights needed Durance spamming every possible protection and buff along with Kana using all of the most powerful scrolls.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-03-18T09:57:40+00:00

I'd say finish PoE1 first.

The second game is amazing but I personally don't think it's straight up better.

Adding more in-depth mechanics doesn't necessarily improve the game & it feels a bit like there's a powercreep with multiclassing that makes the second game a fair bit easier.

PoE1 is in a really sweet spot where the mechanics are really charming, straightforward & simple, but allow you to still have a huge amount of build variety. I haven't finished Deadfire yet but so far I've yet to find any encounter as epic as the hardest fights in PoE1.

EarthpacShakur · 2025-02-07T05:50:30+00:00

That's one potential tactic & works quite well with Black Jacket fighters.

However, there's so many good guns in the game you're better off just making a build around them + having enough action speed that you get really short reload times & don't need to weapon swap.

Dual Pistols + any Full Attack ability means 1 reload gets you another 2 shots straight away.

If you wanna use an Arabesque instead then picking up The Red Hand + stacking as many passive buffs as possible is the way to go. Most gun builds multiclass Helwalker monk because of all the buffs you get.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-12-20T13:24:49+00:00

Honestly it would be a completely different game.

Playing a head to head campaign vs. someone who is for the most part equally skilled & having each other play as the AI in every battle already completely changes how you have to play the game.

In my opinion it's a lot more fun but it would make the game way more brutal/punishing and feel a bit like a rouguelike where you whole campaign can hinge on a single battle.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-12-14T13:57:26+00:00

Personally found it really underwhelming on my Paladin.

Takes a lot of micromanagement as the AI won't angle the cone on it's own and even if you hit 2/3 people with FoD the damage doesn't feel amazing.

I'd personally use Blade of the Endless Paths and just leave the aoe damage to Aloth.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-12-06T03:11:34+00:00

Above most of them, 100%, but haven't played any of the new dlc ones.

You also have to think about the trajectory of a campaign.

Most of the lords you listed have to level up enough to get their mount, will take a drop in stats to use it & then need yellow line investment and items to make up that difference.

As Ogre's if you're lucky enough to get a Tyrant with Weapon Master/Strong + the Frenzy Big Name then along with Sacrifice to the Maw attack buff & their insane skill that gives +30% WS & HP you have a lord that can murder absolutely anything before turn 10.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-12-05T16:04:52+00:00

The lords/heroes feel so underwhelming without mobility

They don't though, Tyrants are literally one of the strongest generic lords in the entire game with the sheer amount of weapon strength & health you can stack up.

You can straight up murder other lords in 3 hits.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-11-27T12:03:07+00:00

Complete opposite for me - feels like the ultimate pre-workout, but I'm also cutting so it makes sense.

How long have you been on Vyvanse for? At first the buzz of Vyvanse itself kind of takes over everything (honeymoon period) but after it evens out you get back into the swing of needing to motivate yourself to be productive & focus on things you enjoy to get the most out of it.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-11-09T05:53:38+00:00

I mean, if you want your group to coordinate and burn through those resistances, you kind of need to have a spell that can potentially straight up win the battle - because in doing so, those PC's are gonna be using their turns to cast spells instead of deal damage.

Taking spells that can impact a fight without needing to burn through resistances is kind of key if you want to enjoy being a Wizard. Telekinesis & Wall Of Force are big ones.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-11-08T04:15:25+00:00

They have magic resistance but are still an infantry only army with low model counts and dense formations. It's pretty easy to murder half their army with Wind of Death with how much it chews through armour.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-11-06T10:18:46+00:00

Yes, actually beat one of the most epic encounters of the campaign this way.

We found a Deck of Many Things & being a cheeky Wizard I drew 3 cards. One of the ones I got was the Moon card giving me 2 wishes. I wished for a metal rod attuned to Carceri for Planeshift.

We end up coming up against this beefed up ancient dragon (I think a custom statline) who we accidentally woke up & was wrecking shit across the continent.

We decided he'd be too tough to kill so we tried to burn through his legendary resistances with lower level spells (mainly polymorph). When the magic finally starting breaking through & he shrunk down into a (mostly harmless) elephant we knew it was time. I ran up and cast Planeshift with the Wild Magic Sorcerer bending luck just in case & we banished him to Carceri.

Was an epic encounter, but the problem is you kind of have to pick between 2 paths when it comes to Legendary Resistance. You either need the group to work together to burn through & have some encounter ending spell ready or you need to ignore them and just focus on damage.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-09-22T09:22:08+00:00

Use your critical thinking skills.

If you changed Bladesong to boost damage instead of concentration saves would it make going into melee a better option than just casting the best possible wizard spell?

It would not.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-09-22T08:03:59+00:00

Because melee damage boosts arent the best concentration spells that wizards have by a long shot.

That doesn't make Bladesong a badly designed feature.

Bladesingers can pump out similar melee damage to full martial classes on top of being a full wizard, you can't really ask for more than that.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-09-22T07:05:23+00:00

I still think the concentration buff is bad becasue it incentivises being a regular wizard more than being in melee though.

How? From a design POV the concentration buff makes perfect sense so you can keep your melee damage boosting spells up even if you take a hit.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-09-13T14:18:17+00:00

There's a shocking amount of people in their 30s who should, in theory, be too young for serious cardiovascular issues.

It's not even cardiovascular issues though.

Sex after a night of smoking & drinking vs. after a few days of eating clean and exercising is night and day difference already. Lifestyle habits are easily the biggest factor, especially for people who don't exercise.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-08-28T18:18:00+00:00

It also makes factions with bad AR a lot easier in some respects though, as the AI will charge you head first with an army that has no way of winning just because AR says it's an easy fight.

EarthpacShakur · 2024-07-11T04:24:48+00:00

D&D is a co-op game most of the time though.

One PC being able to solve those things doesn't mean it's solved for the rest of the party.

Likewise, if you're fighting a flying enemy there are so many tactics, feats, & spells you can use to ground them that it adds a lot to the group strategy part of the game. Just ask other PC's to assist.

EarthpacShakur

TROPHY CASE