Background
When PoE2 came out, I took a week off work to play it from start to finish. This was a very bad idea. The game was really buggy on release and even if the graphics are not high resolution 3D stuff, it was so slow on my computer it was horrible to play. It took literally 2 to 3 minutes to load one area; I had a book on my table so I could read while waiting for the game to load. Finally, switching to a way less powerful laptop, but one with an SSD improved the performance a lot.
I also never finished the game because it was getting too easy. I was going through all the fights without much challenge (on normal difficulty), and I started to kick people from my team to increase the challenge. I ended up with only two characters and it was still a bit too easy. So I gave up and never finished it.
Now it's 2021 and I want to give it another go, so here I am, running it on my Ubuntu through Shadow gaming. Ideally, I'd like to play it solo, but as I don't know the game that well, I think I'll need to do at least a first run before going for a solo run.
So I'm going to do it with a duo of characters. Still don't know which one, we'll see. I know I'll want a magic user because of the versatility, but also a rogue-like characters for all the pick pocket and loot.
New game
Note: I played through Shadow, but somehow misconfigured my instance and lost the first screenshots, so this is going to be long blob of text without much images at first.
Of course with Pause!
I have a few flickering of my screen, mostly due to shadow. I decreased the max bandwidth and it seems to have improved. Still some flicker here and there (and I have tv streaming at the same time).
I'm going to start with some Blessing. I usually look for things that makes moving faster so I can better explore.
I'm going with that: more money to start with, increased skills, faster sails, magic item merchant and more interesting stuff to pickpocket
Thanks for that Ashley, I had forgotten about it all.
Intros are nice, but this one can get pretty long when you have to redo the game. Just like Chateau Irenicus.
I like that we can pick some very creative backgrounds.
But I'll play as this one. The goal of my character will be to become more and more powerful. If those people managed to become god, I went to become one myself, or have them fall from their pedestal.
Ok, I think I'm going to spend a lot of time on that screen. So many possibilities. I'd like to create some kind of stealthy rogue character, but with access to some spells.
And a Mindstalker it is, a Cipher/Rogue. I played a Cipher in the first game and I loved the way they could charm monsters and deal damage. I coupled it with a rogue for the stealth/thief but I picked Assassin because it seemed to fit with the theme.
Remapped Q to Quicksave, and I'm ready!
And let's go for a first fight. I don't think I can really win this one, and I don't even control the whole crew, but let's see what my Tymlis can do.
Well, actually, I managed to get through it. I charmed two of them and managed to have everybody killed. I cannot control the charmed one, but with a nicely placed charm enemy in the middle of a group, I should be able to have them killed.
I told Edér to go on his own, so I can try doing this solo. This might be pretty hard though, we'll see.
Well, I actually thought he would stay there if I ever need to recruit him again, not fade in nothingness, shit.
Restart
Actually, after a good night sleep I wondered if Beguiler/Assassin would work great. Beguiler is more of a range character and Assassin requires to be close. Also Assassins are squishy so I'm (already) wanting to try something else.
This time I went full on the charm aspect. Still Beguiler Cipher, but also Debonnaire Rogue, both charming enemies. This is one of my favorite tactics in BG, so I'm pushing it to the max here.
Oh my, I didn't manage to pass the tutorial fight without dying. My charm misses, and because I only had a slow pistol it took time to replenish my Focus. I'll really have to try to better understand what's going on.
I died one against a Boar. Because of my cowardice debug, I lose 10 Accuracy when not near another party member, which make my charm spells much harder to use. As I want to play this solo, this will be a pretty complex debuff to handle, so I think I'll play duo.
I'll take Edér with me for now, but I plan on swapping with another custom-made character later. I think of some kind of ranger/tank. I uses to have such a character on my first playthrough, and with the right buffs it could just sit in the middle of a corridor and block everyone from coming.
Edér is my strong man. I'll put my skill points on anything related to diplomacy and bluff.
I want to play Silàs as some kind of fey creature that do not really understand how social interaction work in the human world, but has learned that you should try to be friend with people. So she bluffs, lies and charm people so they like her.
Let's make friend with spirits.
I explored the pirate cove, and there were some nice tutorial-like fights. I'm getting better at it each time. I start by opening fire with my crossbow to get some focus (I initially used pistols, but the range was too short). Then I send Edér tank (maybe he can nock an arrow as well). I they charm one enemy and send it against the others.
This large metal hunk is charmed, let's send it toward his friends.
The good old trapped chest.
And I actually got to keep the trap myself. That's pretty neat!
Getting outside of a dungeon you just cleared can get tedious. Thankfully, they provided a way to move faster \o/
And I also got my first level up, nice. I picked Edér as Fighter/Rogue but I should have put him just a Fighter I think.
Got out of the first zone and got this message; must be something to do with a DLC I have installed. That's the issue with "Ultimate Edition"-like things; it's hard to tell what's the base game and what are the addons.
Oh there is a second one.
On the map
Met some pilgrims on the way. I like the "three stars sailing through the sky" part as I know that it's what is on the forehead of Eothas.
I arrived at Port Maje. I didn't pick Xoti with me. I think this is the turning point where I'll create another companion an ditch Edér too. I'm of two minds on this. I like the discussions with Edér and what all the companions bring to the table, but I also want full control of my party.
Note: Finally! More images
This is my second character. A Stalker/Unbroken dwarf named Jorem.
I love those maps.
Let's try our first fight. I tried to throw a fireball, it inflicted 50 damage on one target (which seems a lot, and nearly killed him) but didn't touch the others. Then they all got near me and because of my cowardice, they could hit me too reliably.
I'm now opening with the classical shot from afar, and then charming them.
Ha, a crit and then some MMM and I'm down. Nope, let's try again with the tank doing the opening shot.
Ok, I managed to aggro them all, but also charm one. Jorem is at 28/86 already. Jorem is KO. Hmm, maybe I should apply my level up first.
I'm now level 3, I took longer duration for my charm spells.
And Jorem is level 2, with more Armor on his pet.
I tried the fight a few more times, and still got my ass kicked. I'm more or less one-shot by the guys.
So I went to do some quests through dialog. They seem to grant much more XP than killing monsters. Maybe I can get my way through the game with cunning and stealth; that could be fun.
Anyway, I told Mokeha to keep the purse, but I'll also steal it. Maybe I can get twice the reward. Hmm, nope, I had no way to give it back to Rinco. Maybe the governor? Nope, he doesn't care either. We'll, I guess I'll just keep the money for myself then.
On the other hand, I re-read the quest description for the looters and I don't need to kill them all. I can just talk to them, give them 40cp and they leave.
This allowed Jorem to level up to 3 as well. I made him move a little faster.
In the end, I aggroed the looter and kited them to Ilari thugs, hoping they would help me but.. they didn't. Still, as it was really slow for the looters to come, I could put a few arrows into them, charm them a bit and finish the fight. I had to use second wind, and my bear fell but it worked.
Which gives me one more level for Silàs. I took the Phantom Foe Cipher spell, which creates an AoE where all enemies are flanked, which in turn means I can sneak attack. And as a Beguiler, I regenerate focus when casting Deception spells on targets affected by sneak attack. This should be an opener to generate more and more focus by charming enemies. I also picked Smoke Veil as a Rogue, to quickly disappear from trouble.
Went on the world map, had to go through a forest and speak with a druid to get the right to go through. He gave me a necklace made of boar teeth and told me this. I'd love to have an NPC say that to my players; they would be scared to use the necklace.
And let's see if I can pickpocket him now.
I then went to the Adra digsite and killed a petty boar with my pretty bow, and it turned into this giant angry beast. OMG what am I gonna do with that. Hmm ok, he hit them and then disappeared. I like this bow!
Another giant pirate appeared and started to hit the boar, and now the boar seems to be stuck in place; it doesn't move. I can fire all my arrows on it \o/
This leveled up Jorem once more. This time I allowed him to heal his companion (the bear is not yet very resistant), and took the fighter stances, once again in order to be the full tank.
I killed the group of panthers and wyrms by kitting the fast panthers on the other side of the map (I run as fast as they do) and Vanish. They went back to their spawn spot, and then I could kill the wyrm group.
I went here. Too many skeletons with two skulls on their head. I'll come back later.
Some even have three. Hmm, I'm under levelled. I'm pretty sure in a few level I'll be able to handle such fights, but for now I'll have to find another way.
Hmm he saw me but I managed to charm him. Let's see if I can get this through. Hmm nope, I got mauled.
I'm gonna need two Adra Ban and two Awakened Adra to make my bow turn my dead enemies into friends.
I recruited Aloth, because he was on my way. I want to get a feel for what a mage can do, but I don't think I'm going to keep it in the group. I might create my own Mage/Paladin later.
I'm brute forcing this puzzle.
Oh, got it!
Finished the dungeon, lit up the adra stone and got one more level (I stole Aloth vest). I increased my hit to crit ratio.
I also have a level 5 Aloth, which really make me want to build my own mage. I think I would do a Fighter/Mage; one that can buff itself and summon weapon and do high DPS. This will work well with the stealthy rogue and tanky ranger I have.
After a good night sleep, I've been thinking about the way I want to play. I decided to play solo because I wanted some challenge, but I realize that the game is challenging enough with 3 characters. I also realized that most of the multi-class builds I had in mind only really work with higher level characters; when they have a bit more active and passive skills at their disposal.
So I decided to create a team of 4 homemade characters, named The Sneaky Bastards. I envision them as an (almost) all-rogue party, that would still fit the classic trope of the party of 4: a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a priest.
I'll keep Silàs, my Beguiler/Debonnaire as the wizard like (focusing on charming people). He will invest mostly in Stealth / Sleight of Hand and Diplomacy / Insight.
His right hand is Pearl, an Assassin/Soulblade that will fit the kill from the shadows. I hesitated in doing an Assassin/Bleakwalker for the Flame of Devotion damage, but I like the idea of having a pair of Cipher working together.
In the back row, I want a character that can Engage many ennemies and not be hurt. I don't need him to deal damage, but to aggro everybody and wait. I've been thinking of creating Captain Vencarlo, a Streetfighter/Unbroken that would have high defence and riposte on any miss, but Riposte is too high a skill for me to have right now. I've also contemplated a Steel Garrot / Trickster combo because the mage part could help in the defense and the Steel Garrot heals itself when damaging afflicted enemies, but it's both too high level and not in the roguish theme I'm aiming for.
Finally, I decided on Paunga, an Unbroken/Gold Pact Paladin. Unbroken will give me health regeneration, stances and more engagement. Goldpact will give me even more armor as well as the paladin auras. I picture him as some kind of Hellknight from Pathfinder, not speaking much.
Finally, the support class will be Tanya, a weird Nymph turned Priest of Woedica / Chanter that will be in the backrow, debuffing the enemies engaged by Paunga.
Took me a whole evening of gaming, but I have my band of adventurers ready for pillaging. I'm going to try again the skeletons that were too high level for me before.
And... I did it. It was a long fight, but never seemed too challenging. I had exhausted all my resources at the end and had a hard time killing them as they are immune to piercing damage and I only had that equipped.
I now have a ship and will start exploring this large world.
With the vast amount of sea to visit, I decided to go do the first quest on my list. Paying Deadlight a visit.
I might have visited for too long, as a new cutscene started.
I'll keep that in mind.
I sneaked my way in Fort Deadlight, going all the way to Benwenth.
I'm doing a lot of sneaking and talking quests lately, and not enough fights to really understand the fight mechanisms. I'm still hazy on how backstab/sneak attack works, as well as what weapon to use or why. After this quest I'm going to find a place where I can fight a bit more.
I might be out of my depth, but I need to test fighting some monsters to see how I fare.
Ah ok, there's like, no warning and I'm against a giant blog of black goo? Okay...
Hmm, 114 Deflection, I don't think there's much I can do at my level to be honest. Immunity to charm as well...
Ah this seems to be more my alley.
I managed to sneak on a young black drake, let's see how to fight this.
I charmed it, so it goes on attacking the Xaurips. I like this opening, even if I might not get the XP for the kills.
I managed to aggro an insolated Xaurip, while the other two fight the drake. I'll try to bring it far from the main fight, so I can finish it quickly.
Hmm. I managed to kill the Xaurip (one sneak attack by Pearl followed by a Soul Annihilation), but he managed to poison Silàs first, and Silàs died. At the same time, a Xaurip killed the Drake. I think I would have rather killed the Drake myself for XP. I'm going to reload and try again.
I managed to kill them all, but not really through micro-managing my spells, but more by focusing all firepower on one while charming/stunning the others. I didn't gain XP for killing the Drake, as far as I can tell.
Makes me want to focus on passive abilities, firepower, and spells for crowd control.
I went in the following cave, fought some more Xaurip. One character died, but the "focus on one, and crowd control the others" kinda worked. I still haven't really figured out how to bring focus back from range, but that will come.
Let's try a backstab.
Hmm, I thought it would do a backstab, not just engage.
Ok, this time it worked. 70 Accuracy, minus the 38 Deflection gives me a 32 bonus. With an average roll of 50, it's a final 82 to hit, which is a critical.
I then have Overpenetration. 10 Penetration (not sure where it's coming from) against 5 Armor. Not sure when Overpenetration is triggered, not what it does, but it seems like a good thing.
Then my damage roll, for a total of 47 damage.
That does not one-shot the enemy though.
It built some focus so maybe I can try to Soul Annihilation directly. I'm afraid that if I vanish into shadows, the combat ends and the health comes back. I'm gonna try.
45 base Accuracy, and 48 Deflection this time. It had 38 on my first attack. Maybe an attack from stealth has a default -10 Deflection on the target?
I have only 6 Penetration instead of 10, and no Overpenetration.
Final damage is 23.9 slashing, and 28.7. Target is almost dead, but not quite.
I then hit it with a base attack, no soul annihilation. Same Accuracy and Penetration, but only the slashing damage this time.
This time I tried the same target with an Arquebus. I don't know if it's a backstab or a regular attack as I'm at a pretty long range. I'm going to create a table for comparing.
| Type | Accuracy | Deflection | Penetration | Armor | Penetration result | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backstab Sword | 70 | 38 | 10 | 5 | Overpenetration | 47 |
| Soul Anihilation Sword | 45 | 48 | 6 | 5 | Pen | 23 + 28 |
| Sword normal | 45 | 38 | 6 | 5 | Pen | 29 |
| Arquebus long range stealth | 61 | 48 | 13 | 9 | Pen | 36 |
| Arquebus long range | 36 | 48 | 13 | 9 | Pen | 39 |
What I get is that attacking from stealth increases accuracy by +25, even from range. Soul Annihilation and normal attack have the same Accuracy. I don't understand why I had a normal attack with 38 Deflection and one SA with 48. Armor stays consistent.
Except at range, where Armor can be tougher, but my Penetration is as well.
Another fight, without any sneaking or preparation possible. None are Elite though. I tanked, and killed them one by one.
Now, in another dungeon I found another tactic. I charm one enemy, make it run long enough for the fight to generate 3 chants on Tanya and have her summon three skeletons. They attack the Imp; they'll eventually die, but not before I have three more chants to summon three more skeletons. As this does not break stealth, I can stay away and send my skeletons from afar.
There are so many dungeons to explore, it's pretty fun.
This look like a nice room to tackle. I'd love to throw some AoE here. I think the Dank Spore can't move, so I'll try to lure the Vine Lurker first. I managed to kill the sporelings and the Vine Lurker, but not the Dank Spores. They have a very long range attack and charm my characters.
Idea for a character: Assasin/Mage, because increased damage from Stealth seems to apply to spells, and mages can conjure nice weapons.
Neketaka
I'm going to do the quests one by one, as they are given to me, as to not feel too lost in the large number of quests here.
But, for the record, I'll also keep an eye on every unique item I see that I don't buy, so I can find it later.
This is in the top alleyway.
Avenging Storm seems to be an interesting skill to use in a lightning-oriented character. I kinda remember there was a lot of items with Lightning resistance, so if I can build a full Lightning gear, I might make such a char.
Interesting, but nothing groundbreaking. The Resistance to Resolve might be interesting to reduce some effects, but I don't remember what Resolve afflictions do.
Oh, this is better. Thematically fits a monk. Stunning enemies when hitting them. I might try it on my assassin backstabber. Argh no, it costs 7k; even if I can afford it, I'll keep my money for more interesting stuff.
Oh, and I'm also level 7 now. I took puppet master to Dominate instead of Charm, and Dual Wielder to hopefully regenerate my focus faster.
I helped a shipwright with missing money, by talking with the Principe. I also helped nobles duel, and sided with the Bardatto.
Like her, she seems to have some nice lightning armor. I need a way to get my hand on it. Side with the Valera instead?
Haha, nice one.
I just realized there is no XP gain for killing monsters. This is an interesting design decision. This means that I feel better finishing quests by diplomacy/stealth alone. And that I can focus on named characters (because loot) and ignore all the thugs.
I'm going to see if I can play the Bardatto and Valera against each other, killing them all and looting everything.
I went to see the head of the Valera family, telling him I'll try to negociate a truce. Now I'm going to see if I can rob the Bardatto vault.
Got into the vault on the premises of inspecting the place. Got some incriminating letters.
I managed to gather everybody in the same room. Now, let's see how I can make everybody calm, and then kill them.
Got Duskfall, which will become a nice Backstab weapon. Better base damage, +10% Action Speed and +15 Accuracy / +10% Damage on first attack of combat. I wonder if an attack from stealth while the enemy is neutral activates it, though.
So, there is a weird bug in that now the Bardatto are hostile to me, even if they did agree to a truce. It's because I told the Valera about the plan to break in the Vault. Anyway, I'm going to kill them all, that way everything ends well. And then I'll come kill the Valera.
Leveled up Pearl so she can make a more powerful first attack from stealth with Strike The Bell. This will fill her focus and if the target is not yet dead she will chain with a Soul Annihilation and if not enough I'll then take the Finishing Blow.
Leveled the tank as well. Better regeneration and Gilded Enemy is refunded when the enemy is down.
Same for Tanya. Picked the chant that reduces reload and action time, as well as a spell to set a lightning trap on the floor. I'm not a fan of the Priest spells so far.
The fight is tense, but not impossible. I just need to keep my people alive. My problem is that once the assassin has done his opening, there isn't much more she can do.
I finally hide in a room, charming/backstabing those I could reach.
Finally! Would have been a shame to pass on that.
There's a nice possible enchantment on the Mace, for example to get through some poisoned area.
A nice Lightning breastplate that might be used as part of a lightning set.
And another to complement on the head. When I'm hit with lightning, my damage adds lightning. interesting.
And here we are, in the vault.
Found Rannig's Wrath which has a lot of +Accuracy bonuses, I'm going to use it for backstab I guess. What I need to understand is why Pearl is taking all the aggro. She can't tank so I need her to stay out of aggro.
I found a dog that seems to cost a fortune.
Taking note of two grimoires found at Sanza's Map Emporium.
As an aside, when I'm not playing the game (during my commute for example), I browse the official (fandom) wiki. And this website is a plague. There are ads everywhere and the content is all junky as a result. So, being a developer, I started building a proxy: same content (thanks to the api), but simple static display.
I killed a troll on an island and got this. I would need to test this out and see if I can abuse it to have casters waste their spells on a petrified target.
Stumbled upon this bounty. I don't have much blunt weapon, but I'll try the classic tactic of charming one and having it killed by the others.
So far it's only distracting them, but after a while I managed to charm them all and I almost killed the whole bunch with my main character alone.
After doing a bit more bounties, I realize that I could probably ditch my Chanter/Priest. I'm using it only to fire through her bow, summon a few skeletons for distraction and sometimes heal. I'm want to discard her and see how I fare.
Then, if I manage to survive, I might replace my tank with a full Riposte build. Maybe a Rogue/Fighter (for the constant heal recovery), or Rogue/Mage (for the self buffs and summoned weapons).
I did a bit of island exploration with only 3 characters.
I'm now gonna give a try to this. I think that if the topology is favorable I might be able to do something, we'll see.
Ah. No way I can beat that, too bad.
Went to another area above my level, but this time a trapped dungeon. I'm going to leave the traps and see if I can lure creatures in them.
Holy shit, that's a lot of traps.
Ok, I don't need a higher level, I can just cleverly disable them.
Hmm, more and more puzzles.
I pulled all levers at once. I'm pretty sure something bad is going to happen if I take the thing, but we'll see.
Whoopsie. This might be hard to handle...
By putting them in a column I prevent the ones from the back from hitting me. And by charming the ones at the front one by one, I can focus my attacks. It will be long, but it might work.
It took a long time but I managed to kill them all. Discussed with another group of adventurers on the island and got back to Neketaka (killing a pirate ship on the way. Pretty easy fight compared to this one).
I went to pick more bounties and on my way to a simple bounty, I stumbled upon that.
Well, I tried to jump with my boots of leaping to get closer but they saw me. I tried to charm one, it failed, so I vanished and ran away. To fast enough apparently because two of them followed me, and I could kill them one on one with the other party members.
I found a heavy armor that could either reflect disengagement attacks, or be completely immune to it. This means I could run around the enemies without issue.
Wasn't so hard.
I did play a bit more. I also read a lot on game mechanics, stats, abilities, classes and so on. I took a lot of notes, but now I better understand how things work. I plan on retraining my characters to have them all be Rogue/Cipher variants.
Some groups I can handle with only one Cipher/Rogue, charming one of them and waiting.
I went ahead and recreated a new party.
I started with Captain Vencarlo, my Streefighter/Ascendant whose role will be to tank mobs and riposte while other deal damage. I struggled to assign attributes, they all seem so important...
- Might not so much for damage, but for healing
- Constitution because I needed to be bloodied, so better have a large pool
- Dexterity because Action Speed will be important once Ascended so I can cast many spells (maybe not so important actually)
- Perception for the Accuracy, it would be a shame if I riposte but miss
- Intellect for increased range on my cone riposte and duration of spells
- Resolve because some deflection is nice
Actually, I might dump more Might and Dexterity and put more in Resolve
So, after rubber ducking with myself, here are the new stats.
Found this sword that allows switching places with enemies/allies. I'm sure there is some exploit potential in that.
I'm in Delver's Row. Two merchants wants to kill each other. I already bought/stole everything I needed from Ernezzo, so I'm siding with the Sindle Man. There is also an assassin, Rust, I'd like to kill because he has a nice dagger, but he keeps vanishing when Bloodied.
So my plan is to turn everybody in Ernezzo room hostile, and send a charmed Rust in it so he get killed.
I thought I could put a trap and have the thugs trigger it but apparently neutral creatures don't trigger traps.
I first attacked the thugs to turn them hostile, closed the door and vanished. Then I attacked Rust with a wand, had him follow me up here, charmed him and opened the door. Now he's attacking the thugs on my behalf. I only hope they'll kill him first.
This didn't work. The charmed ended before he could get killed. I tried several more times, but I only have ~20% chance of charming so it failed more often than not. Also, hostile thugs became back to neutral after a reload, so I had to redo the whole setup each time which took time. Still, this reload trick might come in useful later on.
I tried an alpha attack on Rust several time, with all I got, but I couldn't get him further than Near Death before he escaped. So I finally decided to follow him in the Narrows. There I managed to follow him to an ambush, but because my whole team can just vanish, I went away from the fight, back in the shadows, and having him at his own game of shadows.
Finally got a nice set of Dagger & Stilleto.
After numerous hours of play, I still want to rebuild new characters. So I'm going to "recruit" three builds I'd like to try. Instead of theorycrafting the perfect builds, I'll actually create them, audition them in my playthrough and keep the one I likes.
Here are what I'll try:
- A Priest of Magran / Bleakwalker type. Centered on everything fire-related, and to act as a burning tank. Can handle damage, and retaliates with burning damage.
- A Barbarian / Streetfighter type. Does a lot of damage, in a zone, and with all the lightning gear to have it generate a storm. I'm ok switching the Streetfighter aspect with another class with lightning affinity.
- Maybe a Chanter coupled with a martial class, someone that's here for the long game, regenerating resources and unkillable.
- A Fighter / Mage, something with enough protection spell it can handle the heat of melee.
Magma
Priest of Magran / Bleakwalker. I imagine him diving into an inferno and going out unscathed. He will Engage enemies, and have them burn on him. I don't expect him to be fast, just a passive rock of lava.
Thor
Thor, on the other hand will be about dishing out a lot of damage actively, to a target and those around it. So Barbarian and Rogue, with dual wielding in mind. Don't need to be especially Tanky, I just want to deal damage with it.
Now, let's equip them with Fire and Lightning gear and see what we do for the level up.
Potential other builds
I'll also add screenshots of items that could be used in other builds.
For a Disengagement/Riposte build. I like the idea of having a lot of Disengagement strategy and just running around the enemies and have them be hurt just by trying to follow me.
Or this, I could just walk around, hitting everybody with my flame shields.
I realize with this Breastplate that +2 Electricity Power Level is wasted on my Barbarian/Streetfighter has he does not have any lightning ability...
Makes me think that a nice thematic secondary skill for Magma could be explosives. I'll have to check the type of the Magran Fire spells => Not all Fire spells are Evocation, but more than half are, so it could be useful. Regular Priest spells are not, though, nor are Paladin spells. So this would have more effect.
I'm also wondering if I shouldn't take Tekehu as my Lightning build. Or any other Companion as an interesting build base, for the NPC interactions.
Overall I feel I'm back at the same stage at during my first playthrough. The game is both too easy and too hard at the same time. There are so many class combination, abilities and items that I feel like I could spend hours thinking of a nice build. I can also easily punch above my level using some kinda cheesy tactics and game mechanics, or stealth/talk my way through the game. There are too many quests to do and everything seems empty at the same time. I'm unsure how to continue. Either cruise through the main quest to get some interesting story, or keep building nice characters and test them in fights.
The thing is; there isn't a lot of "training fights". Most of them are boss fights or fights against 5 or 6 creatures. There is no "single bear wandering around" or "cluster of kobolds" to test new abilities. Monsters are usually grouped with a priest, rogue, fighter etc so it's hard to "test" builds and discover mechanics.
Also this for the lightning build. I would need a way to receive shock damage myself.
This for Magma; Petrified and untargettable, I might still inflict damage through my fire shields.
This might be helpful for another build. The +3 Deflection of hatchets is always great in Melee. The chance to Paralyze on Crit might work well with the Carnage AoE of a Barbarian.
Another freeze weapon. Multiple projectiles is interesting, I need to check how it fares with special abilities like Blind. Are all projectiles affected (actually, I'll need to test that for the AoE Carnage as well). Best of Slash/Freeze is also great and Garland's Breath is basically a Stunning Cone of Cold.
Immunity to Constitution Afflictions is situational, but very nice. It might completely negate some totem/ward/afflictions. I don't really see this as part of a build, but a nice trinket to always have in your bag.
This might better fit in a Beast/Plant build (that I don't have planned yet). It adds +2PL when under such a buff.
This might be an interesting one on a Barbarian. Critical hits prevents any abilities (like a preemptive Interrupt) for 2 or 3 seconds, and it gives a 2/rest ability to deal 20% of weapon damage in two ticks (or more with high Intellect, which will be a high stat of Barbarians). Also does more damage if many enemies so... Barbarian.
A few "meh" buffs and +1 Burn Armor Rating
More Burn Armor Rating, and Defenses. Another enchant allow for reflect against Fire Attack, or Immunity to Gaze attacks. I wonder if Burn Armor Rating is useful for Magma. I guess so. I guess it means I can throw a fireball at him and not suffer much.
For the Lightning Barbarian. It actually binds to a Barbarian, but I'm wary of binding it to the wrong character. I will test the build without it first, or test in an isolated saved game first. Lightning Strikes gives +15% Action Speed, +15% Damage as Shock and +5 Dex, which is really nice.
Increase Deflection and a chance to strike back if hit, hmm that doesn't play well together. But it could fit a Passive Tank type, like Magma.
Regeneration Cape. I think I can do something fun with a character with high Might, all the Regeneration items and a class like Monk that gets better when receiving damage.
Shock Armor, 1/rest very powerful storm. That's my way of getting hit by Lightning. Must be devastating in close corners. This goes for Thor.
-2% Action Speed and Damage is interesting if, and only if, it's Stacking with itself. I need to test this out.
I might test another build centered around being "anti-magic", not affected by magic and reflecting it as much as possible. Killing mages whenever I encounter them.
Seems like a great Priest of Magran item. 2 more Burn Armor Rating, and some increased Restoration.
A Fire Grimoire, in case I want to do my Fire build with a Wizard component. That could work as well, maybe as a Wizard/Rogue (I could try that on Aloth)
Interestingly enough, there's a similar Grimoire for Weather (Lightning and Frost) effects. There are SO MANY spells in this game, it's a pity I don't have a mage to test them yet.
Another of those regen-type items, for the Monk.
Aloth's vest could be interesting for both Fire and Lightning builds, but it's only a vest so doesn't offer much protection.
Summoning Dragons for Magma and another Burn Armor rating Improvement can be interesting.
This gives Second Wind, which is always useful, even if you already have one.
This seems like a weapon for a Rogue/Wizard; I'll keep that for Aloth.
Immune to Interrupts. This is so good. I'll keep that in my quick stash.
Maybe good for the Barbarian if I'm looking for Action Speed, but as he's going to AoE I'd rather invest in Proc effects.
Funny item for Magma. Additional Burn Damage in an AoE on hit is kinda useful.
Magma's Test Run
I took Magma for a test run in the dungeon below the Gullet. First I stopped to kill Ernezzo. The fight went quickly, I tried casting Flame Shield first, it kinda helped but all the enemies ran past me initially. Maybe I need Magma to do the opening shot and only after have my two rogues sneak attack.
For the Spindle Man I opened with a Gouging Strike on him (infinite dot while in combat), Smoke Veil to run out of sight. This put them all hostile and running everywhere. I then Dominated the Ogre from afar, and ran around the corner. And waited a bit.
It didn't kill the Ogre, but almost. I prepared a Fire Shield and a Shining Beacon, but I don't think I understand how Shining Beacon works. I thought it would put a glyph on the floor that would inflict Burn damage when stepping on. But I can cast it outside of combat and it does not seem to leave anything on the floor.
I managed to Charm the Elf through Roguish Charm and she went in melee.
Roguish Charm runs for a long time (~45s) compared to Domination (~10s) so it's my favorite one, but only works on Kith.
Elf managed to finish the Ogre and got a bit hurt at the same time. Spindle Man Dominated her, which turned her Neutral; not Hostile.
The dot finally killed the Spindle Man.
The Ogre came in my direction, I Dominated him, but it really only lasted for 12s. The Cloaked Elf is still Neutral while Dominated. Focused my DPS on the spider, then the Ogre and the Elf.
I learned that if I prepare casting Fan of Flame toward one enemy and that enemy moves, I'll still cast Fan of Flames in the initial direction. The good thing is that the Ability to change the size of the effect allows for more or less risk. Still, it didn't make a lot of damage so I think it's better to finish critters.
I also found that the build is missing offensive abilities. I have too many defensive ones: heal, Withdraw, circle of Healing, Triumph of the Crusaders.
I think the regeneration works relatively well, Magma wasn't too hurt.
**This is unfortunately the end of this recap. I actually almost finished the game (did both DLCs), but I lost the text I wrote along the way. As I was playing on Shadow, my renting ended, and I forgot to backup the content...
It was a nice run, I love this game.***