A:EftP - First playthrough reactions and a few questions

[Timesink]

I've read the forums pretty thoroughly and am at the end of a pretty epic first playthrough. I started on torment and was getting crushed, so I knocked it down to hard, and aside from the middle levels when I spent a long time wandering trying to find a place I could hack it it was pretty smooth sailing.

 

On to the questions.

 

"Hostile effect" = does this include all non-physical damage types and attacks? Mental/Magic/Fire/Poison/Acid/Cold? Or is it just things that a curing potion interact with?

 

Haste rebuffs against slow, yes? But I noticed unshackle mind also cures slow?

 

Mental = Stun, terror, daze, charm, and slow? Not sure about the last.

 

For items that give bonuses to Blessing/Curse does that include Mage spells?

Blessings = Protection/War chant obviously, but also haste?

Curses= (priest? - domination?) Slow, Daze, Howl of terror (Spray acid?) Is acid Elemental?

 

I also noticed things like Exploding Imps lightning penetrates invulnerable. Made Grah-Hoth more interesting. That's been the only place I've had to use invulnerablity, although I haven't done Hawthorne yet.

 

***Big question: Does intelligence affect To-Hit with mental attacks? Daze/Slow/Domination/Howl etc? Or is it just the Mobs resistance?

-- Also does intelligence effect summoning at all? Or just base level of the spell modified by summoning focus (if present)? Do creature levels go up at all with L2-3 or just the buffs?

I never found summoning useful except as a distraction/blocker. I found myself healing (or mass heal! my pets just to keep mobs busy. That was useful, but they were not dealing any damage.

 

I think I severely underused Debuffs. Once I stated getting L2-3 Lightning, Arcane blow, etc I noticed how great a little slow or weakness curse could be, not to mention the snare of daze in outdoor encounters. My tactics were pretty much frantically trying to kill as many or the most dangerous creatures as quickly as possible.

 

Dungeons were fun mostly exploring in combat mode. I ended up using ranger with +2 action point gear and gymnastics to scout as the extra points made ducking around corners and getting back much easier/flexible.

 

 

In general I love the game. I started with an Archer/ranger, Paladin, Mage and Fighter. My ranger ended up picking up Mage 8 and Priest 8 and contributed a good bit of added AOE damage and was still hitting with a the bow at except against bosses (40-60% against equal level bosses). I'd like to do another playthrough with a ranger who sticks with the bow and becomes buff/debuff/healer plus wicked sniper.

 

 

End party build:

1) Eric - Viking Dual-Wield Fighter - not a true tank more of a berzerker who took a ton of damage but dealt event more. With three healers to back him up he was fine, especially once he got Hardiness to 10+2.

 

2) Balan- I wanted a Paladin who could frontline and swing a mean sword while healing and blessing, but found the INT/STR/END to be too thin. He ended up in reserve much of the time, but came up front a bit to help finish fights or add backstab opportunities.

 

3) Marion- Started ranger with Bow, tool use, cave lore, first aid but after reading and playing quickly added Priest and ended up with mage as well. Ended up with 8 mage 8 Priest and was a lot of fun to play but definitely not min/maxed. She could lay on a mean sheet of Icy rain and Lightning while making strategic shots and with going first with guaranteed two actions started the party off with Haste and War Ceremony which was very nice. Made outdoors much easier. Gymnastics is fun. To randomly start some rounds with +4-5 action points keeps things interesting. Frenzy + AR + gymnastics + sniper + items = 5+ actions some rounds

 

4) Selene- Death dealing mage who picked up 8 Priest by the end for mass heal, although I probably could have stopped at 6 for unshackle. Using her as a healer was waste of an AOE attack. Most dangerous opponent on the field was always my own Bezerker on pixie dust. He could one hit kill either of the ladies and usually my Paladin as well. Of course he did have Venemous Blade and Flaming sword in hand at the time.

 

Thanks to whoever (Lillith?) posted the quick acting Fighter acting before Mobs and slow acting priest acting after. That fixed almost every charm fight except found myself with a few where Gazers would slip in a charm up front.

 

Ok, TLDR. Thanks for all the great info. I think I had a couple other questions, but this has gone on too long already

[Lilith]

"Hostile effect" = does this include all non-physical damage types and attacks? Mental/Magic/Fire/Poison/Acid/Cold? Or is it just things that a curing potion interact with?

 

Yep, it applies to all damage types. You can see this if you check your resistances on your character sheet before or after equipping an item.

 

Haste rebuffs against slow, yes? But I noticed unshackle mind also cures slow?

 

Yeah, if you cast a sufficiently strong haste spell then it'll counteract Slow.

 

Mental = Stun, terror, daze, charm, and slow? Not sure about the last.

 

If you've observed that Unshackle Mind cures Slow, then I suppose it must count as a mental effect.

 

For items that give bonuses to Blessing/Curse does that include Mage spells?

 

Yes, anything that inflicts a buff or debuff will be affected, even battle disciplines. I think it only affects the duration of the condition, though, not the chance to inflict it.

 

Blessings = Protection/War chant obviously, but also haste?

Curses= (priest? - domination?) Slow, Daze, Howl of terror (Spray acid?) Is acid Elemental?

 

I think blessings and curses are just haste, blessing, shielding, elemental protection, battle frenzy and their corresponding negative effects (slow, curse, weakness and vulnerability).

 

***Big question: Does intelligence affect To-Hit with mental attacks? Daze/Slow/Domination/Howl etc? Or is it just the Mobs resistance?

-- Also does intelligence effect summoning at all? Or just base level of the spell modified by summoning focus (if present)? Do creature levels go up at all with L2-3 or just the buffs?

 

Intelligence affects accuracy of a mental attack, but doesn't bypass resistance chance. There are two separate checks for mental status effects: first, the attack has to hit, which is based on a comparison between your intelligence, spellcasting skill and accuracy bonus compared to your target's intelligence and evasion bonus. If it doesn't hit, you'll see the message "Missed" over the target's head. Then, there's a second check that's just a flat percentage chance that the effect will fail based on the target's resistance. If the target passes this check, you'll see the message "(Effect) resisted" pop up over the target's head.

 

Spell level may affect the level of a summoned creature (I'm not sure, although I don't think it does), but intelligence doesn't.

 

I never found summoning useful except as a distraction/blocker. I found myself healing (or mass heal! my pets just to keep mobs busy. That was useful, but they were not dealing any damage.

 

Yeah, unless you focus very heavily on picking up summoning bonus traits in the early to midgame, that's the general experience -- and even then they'll start to fall off in the late game.

 

I think I severely underused Debuffs. Once I stated getting L2-3 Lightning, Arcane blow, etc I noticed how great a little slow or weakness curse could be, not to mention the snare of daze in outdoor encounters. My tactics were pretty much frantically trying to kill as many or the most dangerous creatures as quickly as possible.

 

That's a solid tactic, especially late in the game where you can throw spell points around with wild abandon, but debuffs are useful too. Daze is wonderful early on.

 

Thanks to whoever (Lillith?) posted the quick acting Fighter acting before Mobs and slow acting priest acting after. That fixed almost every charm fight except found myself with a few where Gazers would slip in a charm up front.

 

you're welcome~

[Timesink]

Interesting. I'm starting a replay trying to build a legit archer. I noticed before that Sniper lists damage at +4% compared to Melee at +3%. Combine that with a shortcut to Lethal blow and I wonder if an archer might do at high levels. Especially with all the great gear that was sale fodder in 1st run. I'm looking forward to it

[Jerakeen]

Oh, an archer will do well enough, he just can't compete with a dual-wielding warrior in terms of damage output. But that doesn't mean you can't beat the game with one, and have fun doing it.