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Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Out Now on PC

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Posts

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    I just went ahead and murdered the guy to go forward. I did verify some files. It looks like that fixed the Torturer talent, but did nothing for Gareth. He just teleported somewhere else and kept wandering around. I couldn't click him or anything, not even for a melee attack. I just had to start combat with a fireball.

    Hopefully he wasn't that important. There have been bugs and others have just been me not understanding the systems clearly because the game doesn't explain itself well. But a glitch of this magnitude is kinda boggling. I feel like I am enjoying this game despite itself. I just hope a little more polish goes into the Baldur's Gate 3.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • finnithfinnith ... TorontoRegistered User regular
    I think the Gareth thing was a bug I hit in my play through in the original game as well. I thought they had fixed it with patches.

    Bnet: CavilatRest#1874
    Steam: CavilatRest
  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    Yeah I’ve seen it mentioned a few times when Googled. Doesn’t really seem to be a resolution other than killing him.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    I’m still working my way through my original play through but I decided to start up a lone wolf run to see how it goes. Honestly it’s not clear to me how I’m supposed to accomplish anything in fort joy as a 1- or 2-person party, especially right at the start. The assassin that goes after Red Prince completely wipes the floor with me and there was really nothing I could do about it. Gear is so important and there’s really nothing good to be had at that stage of the game, so damage and survivability are poop.

    My 4 person party is going well though and I’m enjoying it a bit more. The game still does a bunch of stuff that seems like a bug or doesn’t make sense to me (why did flaming crescendo arc all the way back to my healer in the back when there are 3-4 enemies right in front of me?), but things have come together nicely. My rogue dies nearly every fight but that’s probably more my fault than anything.

    Overall I’ve gotten into a decent rhythm with the game and am having fun. I just wish I could say I’m having more fun with it, but there have just been too many hurdles to get to this point.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    Rogues are extremely squishy it seems. We retrained Beast from rogue into battlemage and he's way tougher now.

  • EspantaPajaroEspantaPajaro Registered User regular
    Beast was the mvp of my magic run.

  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    Starting with a 1ap cost petrify touch spell is pretty rad, and his starting source power is probably the most useful of the 4 in our party (Lohse, Beast, Iran, Seville).

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    Fane’s power seems busted, and all the characters’ powers are min maxers’ winning argument against creating a character, which I really dislike because that is half the fun of these games.
    Rogues are extremely squishy it seems. We retrained Beast from rogue into battlemage and he's way tougher now.

    I’ll probably respec Ivan for near full Huntsman because bows/crossbows deal sooo much single target damage, scoundrel does a ton of damage but it’s far too fragile.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    I feel like I completed most of the game's quests, I certainly never felt underlevelled, played on Classic and completed the game at level 20 in ~45 hours. Feels short compared to most reports I've had. I definitely didn't miss significant chunks of quests, I methodically combed the map for things to do in every Act. The only thing I don't tend to spend much time doing in games like this is reading books that are laying around, which I imagine pads out the playtime a lot if I were to do that.

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    Fane’s power seems busted, and all the characters’ powers are min maxers’ winning argument against creating a character, which I really dislike because that is half the fun of these games.

    Hard disagree, Dome of Protection is powerful enough on its own to make up for losing some of the origin characters' source abilities.

  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    edited October 2019
    I spent over 150/180 hours on Original Sin 1 and 2, no idea how people do them so much quicker without skipping stuff.

    Xeddicus on
  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    Dhalphir wrote: »
    Fane’s power seems busted, and all the characters’ powers are min maxers’ winning argument against creating a character, which I really dislike because that is half the fun of these games.

    Hard disagree, Dome of Protection is powerful enough on its own to make up for losing some of the origin characters' source abilities.

    I would trade Ifan's stupid wolf for dome in a heartbeat.

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    You’re right. The wolf power is pretty bad.

    I invested about 90 hours in this game. I am very near the end but I don’t think I’m going to finish it. I have a lot to say about the game but I’m on my phone so it’s not really conducive to spelling out my experience.

    I’ll just say I have a ton of conflicting feelings about it. I’ll come back and elaborate more. I feel like I need to put it out there.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    You’re right. The wolf power is pretty bad.

    I invested about 90 hours in this game. I am very near the end but I don’t think I’m going to finish it. I have a lot to say about the game but I’m on my phone so it’s not really conducive to spelling out my experience.

    I’ll just say I have a ton of conflicting feelings about it. I’ll come back and elaborate more. I feel like I need to put it out there.

    It might not be your issue, but I find that Larian's biggest flaw is that they end up keeping the endgame challenging by making it increasingly tedious. Divinity 2, especially, loves to give the enemies abilities that take away your powers, stunlock your team, and forces you to endure multiple hits in a row.

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    It’s tied to that, yeah. I’ll get more of it out there but the combat really frustrated me.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • RightfulSinRightfulSin Registered User regular
    Ok so any advice on a party makeup using heavy mages? I like the idea of being a magic slinging,God slaying, avatar of doom.

    "If nothing is impossible, than would it not be impossible to find something that you could not do?" - Me
  • ED!ED! Registered User regular
    Heavy Mages being Mages in armor or mostly magic users? I heard they overhauled the combat system, but I believe Magic/Physical armor is still there. So enemies with giant pools of Physical Armor would be a bit of a pain.

    As for the game, I really want to redo the "definitive agenda" but I was so damn far in the first one. I honestly am considering getting in on the Switch as I can see myself just playing the game on a commute.

    "Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular

    Ok so any advice on a party makeup using heavy mages? I like the idea of being a magic slinging,God slaying, avatar of doom.


    Everyone needs at least Aerothurge 2

    it gets you

    Teleportation
    Nether Swap
    Uncanny Evasion
    Vacuum Aura

    Movement/teleport skills are critical in Divinity 2

    Medusa Head (Polymorph 2) is also super useful.

    In the endgame, Pyroclastic eruption (Geomancer 5) is the most powerful skill in the game, to the point where it might be bugged. Very useful for longer battles and multi-stage boss fights.

  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    If you include summoning creatures with the magic sets and some physical damage options to be thematically "magey" enough you'd be fine.

    Magic Armor and Physical armor might both be a struggle starting out because without mixed damage types and limited skills/spells you'll be waiting on cool downs a little bit but it seems doable. I don't know how low your magic stats will be to strut around in heavy armor in act 1 but it might be a fun challenge.

  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    Heavy armor needs less of a strength score than you'd expect. Although honestly I am a big proponent of wand/shield mages. Shields give such a huge armor bonus (and possible straight percentage block chance) that I have a hard time not giving them to the whole party.

    Also of potential interest is that later Polymorph skills let you deal strength based magic damage.

    Or make sure one of your people is a summoner so they can pull a truly ludicrous source of physical damage out of any flat surface not covered in elemental effects (or covered in blood) in a pinch.

    In general though a heavily magic damage based party should do fine, enemies with high magic armor tend to be casters themselves, which your team will have decent armor against in turn.

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    I mixed pyro with necromancy, the tortured talent and the one that gives your spells crit chance. Damage was pretty insane and every nuke was also a massive heal.

    I was worried about the physical/magic damage split but honestly it didn’t matter that much because I had enough characters with options to deal with one, the other or both.

    What I wouldn’t do is mix damage stats. I kinda wanted to make a fighter-mage but splitting between strength and intellect made me worse at both. Which in turn meant it wasn’t worthwhile to try and wear heavy armor, because any point invested was 5% less damage with my spells. So that always bummed me out a bit.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    Ok. I mentioned I needed to get some thoughts out about this game, and I finally have some time to do it. I have somewhere between 90-100 hours on my first run through this game, and 1-2 on a second save, so I feel like I can speak to the game and my experiences with it. But I don't think I'm going to finish it, even though I'm so close to the end. I am very, very conflicted about this game. There are a lot of things I like about it, but there are some design decisions and other things "around the edges" that frustrated me to no end.

    First, I'll say this: my experience is definitely colored by a series of technical issues and bugs that not everyone else experienced. Certain talents didn't work, other things just randomly broke, and other annoying stuff. The biggest one was this: at a certain point, I could not interact with a plot-important PC, who was critical for moving from the second to third act. He just wandered around certain areas, mumbling random shit. It was impossible to initiate dialog with him. I was forced to kill him to move forward. I realize not everyone had these experiences, but having done a lot of google research, I know that I am not alone with these problems. Regardless, it became an endless frustration to run into some random-ass thing that didn't seem to be working, and it plagued me throughout most of my game. So, that is what it is. On to the game itself.

    I'll start with combat, because despite the sweeping epic story, I think the combat system is the biggest draw and most important focus of the game. The basics of the system are, for me, exactly what I would want. An X-Com-style tactical turn-based system with a lot of crazy powers and options built over time via traditional RPG systems? I eat that stuff up. I am a huge Baldur's Gate fan, and DOS2 is like the next logical advancement in pause-and-play combat. I really want to see more of this, especially in Baldur's Gate 3.

    I will admit that I am not great at these systems, but I understand the basics. Two things kept me from really enjoying the combat. One was that, without prior knowledge, almost every combat started by my party being caught flat-footed. There are not an options to change formations, so your characters kind of huddle around each other in a group. Combat starts one of two ways: via a surprise attack from enemies, or initiated first by dialog with a quest or story driving NPC, resulting in combat. The dialog is often automatic. This means that almost every combat starts with my group in a tight formation, surrounded by enemies, who more often than not act first in the initative order. And in a game where AOE and crowd control are absolutely devastating, this leads to some really frustrating moments. I would often restart fights multiple times because if one character's positioning was not just so,u that character would get wiped out, which would then cascade to a defeat or almost total defeat. It was only after running something 2/3/4/5 times before I was able to command and complete major combat encounters. That got tedious quickly. I always started at a disadvantage, and I never felt like I could recover from that point. The only way I felt I could succeed at combat was with prior knowledge.

    X-Com forced me to move units in very methodical ways, one at a time, each getting behind cover. It was much easier to learn good positioning, and more importantly, even though you did not know what you would be facing, you could initiate combat in ways to would give you an advantage, or at least allow you to overtake enemies. DOS2 doesn't allow for that kind of thing, in part because it is not meant to be that deep, but I think it is a huge flaw when there are otherwise so many-layered systems that interact in unique ways.

    The second problem is that there are a number of abilities that are absolutely critical for all or most characters to have. And the only way I could know this is either by 1) respeccing constantly or 2) looking up stuff on the internet. I wanted to go through the game pretty fresh and unspoiled, just because there was so much of it to see. I am not precious about spoilers at all, but having to constantly research what key thing I was missing was tedious, and often resulted in me reading something I didn't want to read. But it also felt necessary because, again, most combats did not present themselves in ways that allowed for tactical decision making. But watching YouTube vods of people dominating tough combats with Lone Wolf characters reinforces my point. They all play characters with a ton of critical abilities and can leverage them to full effect because they know the enemies and exactly what's coming.

    The story's pacing is all over the place. Fort Joy is a slog and it takes a while not only to get your bearings, but you spend a lot of time running around poor and broke with very few options to get gear. I get it, it's a prison, why would that shit be there? But there are not great ways to know exactly what to do to escape, either. The game doesn't usually put markers on a map, which is fine, but the quest log is a mess and it's just cryptic enough that you're left to kind of stumble around until you find what you need. There are also tons of things that will absolutely wreck you (I'm looking at you, Red Prince assassin), and because you have crappy gear and almost no abilities, there's not a lot to be done about that. It just adds to the frustration of moving around that place.

    Throughout the game, there are other critical story moments that don't really foreshadow themselves until I stumbled into them, often necessitating I reload if I didn't want to lose a critical party member or take some shitty irrevocable action.

    The rest of the pacing is relatively fine, but again the quest log and UI kind of clogged up my movement through quests and story progression. And there is an unnecessary obtuseness throughout the whole thing. Some major merchants never actually tell you that they are merchants. You have to know that you can buy anything from anyone. Thievery is ridiculous because it is premised on exploiting a certain way that NPCs behave. If you try to do it as the game expects you to, no matter how good you are at it, eventually, the NPC figures out you stole their crap.

    A lot of other things about the game felt like afterthoughts. Most of the puzzles just felt like guessing games. The ones that give clues in the quest log are, again, frustrating to deal with because they make it so difficult to navigate. There is also just not very much onboarding for any of those puzzles. There is nothing in the game that teaches you what to look for. When you encounter a puzzle, that's probably the first time you've seen it. And if it's complicated, well forget it. The last major puzzle of the game, before you can enter the final area, is a perfect example. I'd never seen anything like it before in the game. I mean, I had seen puzzles like that before, but there was a specific mechanic I needed to engage in order to even start the puzzle. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what it wanted me to do, wandering around the room looking for a clue and trying to manage the terrible quest book. I finally had to look it up, and it was the kind of thing the game could have, at some point, shown me earlier, so that when I encountered something similar later in the game, I'd know what to do.

    Finally, a lot of the other systems just feel bolted on. I didn't understand the point of crafting. I almost never needed to craft anything, other than books. Potions could be bought or found, most consumables weren't necessary, or were just so plentiful it didn't matter. Except for a few, the best weapons could be bought, and money was never an issue in the late game. There are probably other things that I can't think of right now. But outside of combat, most of the other RPG trappings felt like afterthoughts.

    Having said all of that, and having walked away from the game when I did, I still want to go and make another character, maybe a lone wolf, exploring and focusing on some of the other abilities I hadn't really tried. So there is definitely something to this game that I really, really like. But all these other problems pushed me away, to the point where I didn't need to come back.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    edited October 2019
    Only issues I had with the game were the
    fight in the temple with the dogs that would 1 shot everyone, giant spike in difficulty there for some reason.

    And to a lesser degree I'LL KILL YOUR SHINNING LIGHTS!. Tempted to go back and cheese that at some point.

    Xeddicus on
  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    you can teleport her to a certain friendly NPC who will oneshot her for you

  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    I spent up to that point combining poison bottles, knocked off her physical armor, chained her, cast the necromancy skill that prevents death and chugged poison until she died. It was very, very funny. And absolutely a dumb strategy that should not have worked.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    I picked this up after watching the BG3 presentation at PAX. Haven't made it very far yet, in the cave underneath Fort Joy, and having a hell of a time with the Fire Slugs. The little ones are ok but then the big one slithers over and it's game over.

    I have the Lohse as my main character, a rogue. Red lizard as warrior with shield. Dwarf as hinter. And Syl-something elf as witch. I'm playing on normal and so far it's all really hard. Did i miss some fights i could have taken along the way to level up more? I cleared everything up top i cold see + the arena fight + the guards leading up to the slugs. I'm pretty much out of consumables at this point too which does not help. Did i make a big mistake by not having at least one cleric character for heals?

    I'm trying to kite the slugs to the river in the back, but at least one character dies before i get there and i have no more res scrolls.

    steam_sig.png
  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    The combat starts off pretty hard depending on your characters/party makeup. I had trouble with certain enemies at the start until I leveled like one time then it clicked. There are a few fights were the difficulty can spike depending after that, but I'd skip whatever you can't kill atm and try later. Also, get a healer it can't hurt.

  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Smrtnik wrote: »
    I picked this up after watching the BG3 presentation at PAX. Haven't made it very far yet, in the cave underneath Fort Joy, and having a hell of a time with the Fire Slugs. The little ones are ok but then the big one slithers over and it's game over.

    I have the Lohse as my main character, a rogue. Red lizard as warrior with shield. Dwarf as hinter. And Syl-something elf as witch. I'm playing on normal and so far it's all really hard. Did i miss some fights i could have taken along the way to level up more? I cleared everything up top i cold see + the arena fight + the guards leading up to the slugs. I'm pretty much out of consumables at this point too which does not help. Did i make a big mistake by not having at least one cleric character for heals?

    I'm trying to kite the slugs to the river in the back, but at least one character dies before i get there and i have no more res scrolls.

    A tip:
    You don't have to aggro the slugs. You can talk their queen down, and they'll leave you alone.

  • DocshiftyDocshifty Registered User regular
    The slugs are an incredibly hard fight, yeah. But! Red Prince and animal talker can get you past them.

  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    Is your gear at your current level? DOS2 is very gear driven. If your weapons and armor are a few levels behind, see about some upgrades. (This can be hard in Fort Joy as your art stealing skills may not yet be honed.)

    Lt. Iolo's First Day
    Steam profile.
    Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    I had to restart the beginning myself. It's definitely possible to screw up your early leveling to the point you can barely move forward. I highly recommend learning how to steal a couple items and skills from the local merchants. Theft is bit overpowered in Divinity 2 but kind of necessary at a few points in the game.

    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Yeah the big take away with the Fort Joy chapter is that you don't need to do all the fights, and you can definitely run into ones that you're not equipped for.

    Brolo on
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Docshifty wrote: »
    The slugs are an incredibly hard fight, yeah. But! Red Prince and animal talker can get you past them.

    I actually managed to sneak past them but i figured if i fine kill them I'm losing out on a ton of XP which will just screw me later.

    steam_sig.png
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    You can return to most locations in a chapter, by the time you get a few levels you shouldn't have much difficulty coming back to the slugs and killing them.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Woowoo i just beat the slugs with strategery!

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  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Got some gear on me and feel way stronger now, recently went back to the Fort Joy basement to beat up a torturer guy that was too much before. Pasted him to the wall essentially. At this point cleaning up island areas i haven't been to yet (I'm in some weird maze where gates only open if you have souls to spend except i have teleport on two characters so i completely bypass that mechanic). Tryring to figure out if i should try to figure out how to free this dragon or go into the basement where some void door murdered a bunch of magisters, or go on a magister extermination mission inside the fort after this, and in what order.

    I assume the hill with several shriekers is where all my new found rebel friends ran off to wait for me to bring my wand (which hopefully has enough purge charges left).

    Still don't know what to do with runes.

    It feels kind of weird though to be 14 hours in and feels like I'm still on the "starter island". Either the island is a significant chunk or this is a 300 hour game.

    steam_sig.png
  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

    You can't revisit areas after each act too, be aware. So do everything on the island before you leave.

    Xeddicus on
  • ButtersButters A glass of some milks Registered User regular
    edited March 2020
    It's not 300 hours but the island, though large, is the starter part.

    Butters on
    PSN: idontworkhere582 | CFN: idontworkhere | Steam: lordbutters | Amazon Wishlist
  • DocshiftyDocshifty Registered User regular
    Fort Joy is like The Hinterlands. 40 hours in you get past it and go "wait that wasnt the whole map?"

  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    there were definitely points in the game where I got to a new act and was like

    "motherfucker this goes on for how long now? how much game can there still be left? "

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