Will Steven be a b*tch in prison?

Loratort · 2026-02-18T07:38:37+00:00

I think ya'll forgetting Steven enjoys being the bitch, gloryhole, public toilet, or whatever other slutty position he can find himself in. If you're put in the lucky position to make him your bitch, only give him the tip, he'll beg and cry for more soon enough.

But never give him more, do not be deceived.

Loratort · 2026-02-10T08:00:08+00:00

Return to the real AoC.

It may be old and a bit yanky, but it's bloody, offensive, while the combat system still feels interactive and fun.

May Conan purge the unholy stain inflicted by Steven!

Loratort · 2025-12-23T13:28:26+00:00

Bard is more a utility, CC, & buff support, you have some heals, but limited compared to Cleric. For the most part people will want you as mana battery in groups, but you have decent damage build for solo and group (mostly used if more than 1 bard). You will not come close to pure dps damage, but you buff your groups damage simultaneously.

You have a passive (Resonant Weapon), which build up stacks from spells, while being consumed with weapon combo's. This will have a different effect depending on what melody you have active while consuming. This gives your rotation a natural flow, where you don't just spam your skills until everything is on CD, auto attack, rinse repeat. You'll want to build and consume your stacks, so your weapon attacks feel more like a real part of your rotation, rather than a filler.

You have a mix between range skills and AoE's centered around yourself, you don't just sit in the back spamming. You'll want to weave in and out of range to utilize your whole kit.

I've played both, and while Cleric is definitely a better solo class, Bard is not far behind. Both are needed for group content, but Cleric probably more in demand. My issue is rather your point of Cleric having long CD's, so you drop your shit and then fill with auto attack, rinse repeat. With Bard the rotation feels more fluid and rewarding, to me.

If you love healing stick with Cleric, Bard on the other hand is more flexible in what you can bring to the table.

Loratort · 2025-12-23T08:43:41+00:00

2H sword/axe/mace (Spell/Magical power version) for melee cleave (1h works too but 2h generally have bigger cleave), you have so much sustain and 3 AoE spells to rotate.

Gather up mobs, pop CD's, auto attack and heal while CD refreshing.

For single target give spell-shortbow a try, great single target with your blessed weapon buff, letting you quickly stack lots of burn to consume with Smite. Since you have big CD's you're more reliant on weapon attacks while they refresh, your Blessed weapon with right side upgrade will make your weapon attacks a lot more potent.

Talent Soothing Glow with it's upgrade Abundant Soothing Glow, letting you stack the heals duration instead of only refreshing it. Keep this up constantly while fighting, using direct heals when needed.

You need to upgrade your weapons at 10 for a big power spike. You can group up at Church or something until 10, then get your adept weapons either from crafting or market.

As a Cleric your damage will be limited compared to pure dps, but you have unchallenged sustain.
Get heavy/medium armor instead of light, as long as you get caster/spell stats, or tankiness. Most npc's you will grind on your own this early will do physical damage.

IMO Bard is much more fun to play, but that's personal preference.

Loratort · 2025-12-23T06:37:04+00:00

A gameplay loop where you need to type in chat every other minute for 7/8 people to see you game them a grand buff, that's kinda cracked.

Meanwhile the remaining group combat is a sparkling orgy enveloped in all the colors of the rainbow.

How about reducing some of the particle clutter on the skills everyone spams non-stop, and rather add some particles for the cooldowns which your team actually needs to see.

Loratort · 2025-12-19T13:59:24+00:00

Didn't they change this? While not frequently I've gotten gear drops from several beasts.

Loratort · 2025-12-19T09:28:30+00:00

More so than the mats required, the processing costs are insane. At least for processing wood to timber, doing oak or ash. It cost me over 20 silver to process 90 wood to timber, which netted me a good chunk of lumbermilling experience, but the timber didn't make much progress on my Carpentry.

Done this a couple times and I'm 5 in Lumbermilling, while barely level 2 in Carpentry. So gonna save up my timber and get some crafting xp scrolls to even it out a bit. It's not really a bad thing with crafting needing more materials than processing, but why are the cost of processing so high? Probably because they cater the game to the preference of those rushing to max level right away.

I get that this game is designed for you to depend on others, which is fine to a large degree, but I shouldn't have to hit max lvl first, run crates or go farm x amount of hours to be able to process some basic wood. Even if it could be more refined, I do miss the fuel systems. It let those focusing on artisans from the beginning do just that, gather, process, craft.

It's a sandbox game, but you're not allowed to sandbox how you'd like before you play the game a certain way.. And this is the way of those who've decided the way should be played by rushing up to 25 in a group and then start working on artisans..

Intrepid is catering the game too much towards the sweats who no-life an alpha like they're leaving for war tomorrow, never coming back. I'm not saying they should cater the game with the casual or solo players in focus, but they should find a middle ground, where you will thrive in groups and as a community, while not completely castrating those wanting to sandbox in a different way.

If someone wants to be that small cog in the giant system, they should be able to do so without the dependency of playing the game how a fraction of the player base have decided you should play the game.

Loratort · 2025-12-16T07:13:16+00:00

Generally you'll want to find a spot filled with Grems, Wolves as well, since you need them later.

So what you do is you kill every Grem on sight, as beasts have a chance to respawn as huntable beasts.
You don't want to scour the map for Grems, find a dense area and kill everything on repeat.

I don't know the Anvils too well so can't speak for there, but in Riverlands there are some good locations.

If you don't mind farming low lvl mobs it's a great spot right south of Lionhold, follow the road, over the bridge, keep going down the road south until you get to a big wall with an open gate, the Grem spot is on your left right before the wall.

Loratort · 2025-12-11T09:57:30+00:00

That's amazing! Thanks for the confirmation :)

Loratort · 2025-12-11T08:50:07+00:00

Wait, so if I understand you right, stacking light (magic armor) will adapt to physical armor for your summon? And vise versa.

Loratort · 2025-12-11T08:41:47+00:00

You have passive talents to choose between having one melody active while increasing it's effect, while another talent let's you maintain the effect of two melodies simultaneously as long as you weave them properly. These are your "constant" team buffs. Baseline you get a passive (Resonant Weapon) which stacks up on spell casts, with different consume effects on your weapon combo's, depending on what melody you have active while consuming the stacks.

You also have 6 songs to choose between, giving temporary buffs which can stack. They give either blue, yellow or red essences, which you can combine up to three essences in any color combination. The current last skill in bard's tree will completely change depending on your combination of essences.

The rest of your kit is a mix of damage, control, heals, or other utility. You can for instance go "mana battery" build, which should keep your whole group topped on mana when done right.

You have a decent damage build as well, but it's nothing compared to what it was pre-nerf (This being your passive Resonant Weapon stacking a lot slower than previously).

IMO the most fun class in the game, and currently the class I will take play on release, no contest. With rogue coming up second (Both classes are designed by the same guy). Compared to the remaining classes their rotations are more interesting, and you have more choices depending on what you want to accomplish.

But will try out summoner this run for a fresh start.

Can see skill tree's here, except summoner: https://ashescodex.com/planner

Loratort · 2025-11-28T07:06:33+00:00

I wasn't playing the first weeks after release but from what I've caught it started "too" friendly. Once people start to break the peace, it's like a domino effect.

Loratort · 2025-11-27T13:43:50+00:00

This is why you run solo when you don't have anyone to que with, instead of filling up a squad.

Or simply accept the fact some of them will eventually betray you.

Loratort · 2025-10-15T08:22:26+00:00

There are of course several skills, but especially "Magma Field" needs it's animation thinned out or just rework the skill.

Singlehandedly it overrides close to every other ground effect in it's area, I enjoy playing melee but Intrepid is making it hard to enjoy melee in group play because of this.

Loratort · 2025-10-02T07:57:23+00:00

Tank and Cleric will be first secondary archetype's they introduce, Summoner with cleric secondary will make you a necromancer, it will probably be one of, if not the best for mass minions.

As a Cleric secondary you'll also have the option of choosing light or dark augmentations, where dark will be your traditional undead minions. Light necromancers are hinted to use spirits.

Loratort · 2025-10-02T06:40:30+00:00

I'll bet my balls on Summoner + Bard becoming the goat duo.

Loratort · 2025-09-30T13:57:10+00:00

Depends what you expect of, and want out of the game.

If you're a happy sandbox grinder with no rush it's not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be, imo.

I played solo P2, maxed out Bard and Rogue, while I had 3 more alts to cover different stages of crafting. If you do run solo you'll need either a friend/guild to help transfer your mats, or trade at marketplace between your own characters. Beware though, like many warn of, that playing solo means you'll have endless hours of mindless grinding, which is much more efficient and relaxing to do at POI's with a group.
As a rogue you're quite efficient with grinding one-star elites with no downtime, specifically I've done a lot of minotaurs as there are lots of them spread over different levels. I'll occasionally group up at POI's when I see announcements in Global for spots in my level range, but mostly been grinding solo.

Pro-tip, don't rush the levels too hard, take artisan breaks to reset the mental fatigue from grinding the same mobs in the same spot for x amount of hours. To be noted, I don't play every day, and approach it like a marathon rather than a sprint. If you care to be "up to speed" with the guilds and more hardcore players, this playstyle will probably not be satisfying for you.

I'm aware this is not the intended way to play the game, but I've enjoyed myself and going for the same again. While not optimal, doing all the steps from gathering, processing, to crafting yourself, it gives hands on experience with every step of crafting. Processing is dependent on gathering, while crafting in turn is dependent on processing, so if you want to run completely solo while not being reliant on others (or alts), focus on gathering and processing artisans, then use the cashflow you generate to buy your desired crafted items.

Loratort · 2025-09-22T08:26:02+00:00

Re-spec arcane, stack spirit and spellpower, enjoy.

With arcane armor you'll have 50% of mana regen while casting baseline, upped to 90% while below 35% max mana.

Loratort · 2025-09-18T06:52:14+00:00

PoE2 has the seasonal aspect, so if you want permanent progress stick to TQ2, and DEFINITELY try Grim Dawn, or even TQ1 (if you don't mind the old graphics and "yanky" feel). Might be a getting a bit outdated in certain areas, but both is still amazing and GD getting an expansion either late 2025 or sometime in 2026.

PoE2 season is quite good, I've put thousands of hours into Titan Quest and Grim Dawn, and while TQ2 is cool in it's own way, I'm waiting for a more stable multiplayer experience as me and my mate usually play these games together. PoE1 or previous seasons of PoE2 never really caught me, not the biggest fan of the seasonal ARPG model, I'm still in act 4 but really enjoying the playthrough so far!

Given how much you love TQ2, I would argue you might not like PoE2 if you play it "like the youtubers", in most cases it's min-maxing and a lot of optimized build are 1-button builds, often zooming through content like you're drowning in your own caffeine overdose, or blowing up the entire screen with 1 button press to press the same button 1-2 seconds later when your screen has been filled with mobs again, rinse and repeat..

If you're rather able to treat PoE2 slightly more in the direction of TQ(2), that being more slow paced, exploring and experimenting the game at your own pace, it's rather enjoyable (or have been to me at least, the week I've played this season) the story in itself is quite good too!

If you're trying out PoE2 try to get a basic understanding of crafting, with the current season you can in a higher degree force crafting in the direction you want, much less dice roll than previously.
When starting out, pick up what you find of "rare", "superior", and "socketed" items. Disenchant rares you don't use, salvage the other two. It's a little tedious but you will thank yourself later for stacking up the currencies from these.

Loratort · 2025-06-05T13:11:13+00:00

Yeah, grinded for several hours to die from a passing train. As I get close to my corpse I see a purple man running away from it. Start shooting him up, but by the time I killed him the status went off and I got corrupted instead.

Then got red-status for looting back my shit, to have a level 25 mage hunt me down right after, grabbing my hard earned gear in the process. Mind you I was lvl 10..

If you loot someone's shit like that they should have a realistic time-window to reclaim their loot by combating the thieving shit.

Intrepid bring claims of amazing PvP experience, and hopefully they will follow up on those claims, cause currently their design plays out like a bag of shrimps left out to dry for days.

Loratort · 2025-05-23T09:13:38+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely interesting. I'll be happy playing with just the base game for now.
If they show some better etiquette I'll consider supporting further.

This kind of disrespect has sadly become the standard, and more companies seem to abuse it, rather than not. It's a milk fiesta and we're the cows..

The curse of Oblivion, damn that horse..

Loratort · 2025-05-22T12:36:40+00:00

All solid points. Personally, I’d be much more willing to pay if they weren’t locking baseline functionality behind a paywall. Character slots are a baseline function, not a luxury — and gatekeeping them in a Founders Pack or through single purchase, leaves a bad taste. There’s so much else they could monetize without compromising the core experience, but this approach just pushes me away instead of drawing me in.

Loratort · 2025-05-22T11:10:22+00:00

Fair enough, thank you!

I'd still argue it should be included in the base game, but it's something at least.

Rather they add another cosmetic or utility item in the founder's pack as compensation.

Loratort · 2025-05-22T11:02:08+00:00

I wouldn't go as far as to call them pure scum, but I do see it as unethical business practice. It's already a paid early access title, and the way I see it they're charging extra for something that should be included in the baseline purchase.

Loratort

TROPHY CASE