Divinity Original Sin 2

[WarpedAcorn]

Braccus was foreshadowed by Tarquin, who gave you a subtle hint when he tells you how important Anathema is and that it could even kill Braccus Rex.

You'd think.. why mention this? He's been dead for ages.

Also Dallis having a mysterious mage who seems to know how to turn people into Source monsters is also eyebrow raising.

I did NOT expect Dallis and Lucian, though. I'm running a game as Fane just to see how that goes.

I got all the parts for Anathema, but Tarquin never finished the damn thing. I kept asking him about it and he said it wasn't done and you can't rush these things, or whatnot. Then I was at the end of the game and it was too late. But I also heard that Anethema breaks the first time you use a skill...great if its Onslaught, but considering I would have to spend action points to equip it and equip something else afterwards, it doesn't seem "Action-Point-Efficient", especially in the madness of the final encounter where I personally did not have room for any wasted movement.

But back to Braccus...the dude is mentioned non-stop throughout the game. But there is little hint that the Cloaked Figure is him. Honestly, I half expected it to be Alexander or one of the NPC's you didn't take in the party. Yes, there is the Source Monster thing, but that didn't hint it super strong for me. Maybe it should have. I still think the ending has way too much of a Scooby-Doo vibe of everyone pulling off their masks.

[burek]

But back to Braccus...the dude is mentioned non-stop throughout the game. But there is little hint that the Cloaked Figure is him. Honestly, I half expected it to be Alexander or one of the NPC's you didn't take in the party. Yes, there is the Source Monster thing, but that didn't hint it super strong for me. Maybe it should have. I still think the ending has way too much of a Scooby-Doo vibe of everyone pulling off their masks.

You have missed something. It is explicitly stated somewhere that the masked figure is Braccus in disguise, but i don't remember where exactly. And that is before you learn that Tarquin is the one the raised him.

[pateuvasiliu]

I got all the parts for Anathema, but Tarquin never finished the damn thing. I kept asking him about it and he said it wasn't done and you can't rush these things, or whatnot. Then I was at the end of the game and it was too late. But I also heard that Anethema breaks the first time you use a skill...great if its Onslaught, but considering I would have to spend action points to equip it and equip something else afterwards, it doesn't seem "Action-Point-Efficient", especially in the madness of the final encounter where I personally did not have room for any wasted movement.

But back to Braccus...the dude is mentioned non-stop throughout the game. But there is little hint that the Cloaked Figure is him. Honestly, I half expected it to be Alexander or one of the NPC's you didn't take in the party. Yes, there is the Source Monster thing, but that didn't hint it super strong for me. Maybe it should have. I still think the ending has way too much of a Scooby-Doo vibe of everyone pulling off their masks.

Right now my level 17 warrior hits for 1k.

Anathema has at least twice the damage of his weapon. Add in scaling and more STR points from levelling and I am confident I can literally one shot THAT GUY.

[WarpedAcorn]

Another thing I thought was weird about the end...

I used Spirit Vision and spoke with Kremm after the fight for Arhu. He talked pretty big, so I used Source Vampirism on him. I *thought* this basically unmade the target and completely annihilated them, but Braccus summoned Kremm with the rest of his gank squad. Is that a continuity error or I am misunderstanding something else?

[Deleted]

Getting close to the end, finishing up (I believe) act III at level 18 with 72 hours played.

I'm not AS enamored with the game as I was during the first few sessions. I find myself not really interested in the main story with the gods and all that, but side quests and unpredictable things really are the highlights of the game, for example finding the red gem by the 2 wolves.

I was playing in classic mode and around level 16-17 everything started to become faceroll. I changed to tactician and lo and behold you can't switch back. I had played for quite a while then and didn't feel like reloading a very old load so a little warning when you change would be nice.

Tactician wasn't really for me, enemies having SO much more armor just isn't fun combat at all, I would prefer some other way to increase the difficulty. Either that or the jump between classic and tactician is just too big. The combat got really tedious and not fun at all, luckily I found a mod that makes it easier, so a difficulty between classic and tactician sort of.

Some fights REALLY get annoying though, when there's too many units and you feel like you barely get a turn. When there's too many of one type of enemy and they all spam cheesy abilities etc. Overall it's been a good part of the game though.

The quests can get annoying too, sometimes. You don't know if it's solved, bugged or what sometimes when you can't find any solution and the quest won't close. I also don't really like the game being divided into acts and losing the chance to go back to quests after a while.

When I was enjoying the game most I was feeling like it was a solid 9 or even 10, but now I'd say it's probably a 7.5. Might change before I end it though!

[Deleted]

I also found 1h + shield to be useless on my warrior, the damage from 2h and the abilities is just too good. My warrior is getting the majority of killing blows in my group while providing tons of utility with the 2 stuns. You can always switch to 1h shield and use the shield up ability mid combat and go back to 2h, doesn't cost that much AP...

[pateuvasiliu]

Kay, as we spoke a couple of pages back, been messing around with a sword and board warrior using Lone Wolf and… no matter what I do, I just don’t find it worth it, the damage is way lower, the survivability doesn’t increase that much and even using stench on my other character he still ain’t tanking even half the damage =/

Bump up Retribution, Necromancer and get Living Armor and laugh as the enemy kills himself.

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Another thing I thought was weird about the end...

I used Spirit Vision and spoke with Kremm after the fight for Arhu. He talked pretty big, so I used Source Vampirism on him. I *thought* this basically unmade the target and completely annihilated them, but Braccus summoned Kremm with the rest of his gank squad. Is that a continuity error or I am misunderstanding something else?

Basically the God King takes their soul away from you before you can eat them. The Covenant makes their soul go to the God King in death, so he can bail them out of Oblivion. As I recall the Sallow Man was eaten by my MC and he showed up in the last fight.

The God King doesn't save all Ring members, though, just the strong ones.

[Deleted]

Getting close to the end, finishing up (I believe) act III at level 18 with 72 hours played.

I'm not AS enamored with the game as I was during the first few sessions. I find myself not really interested in the main story with the gods and all that, but side quests and unpredictable things really are the highlights of the game, for example finding the red gem by the 2 wolves.

I was playing in classic mode and around level 16-17 everything started to become faceroll. I changed to tactician and lo and behold you can't switch back. I had played for quite a while then and didn't feel like reloading a very old load so a little warning when you change would be nice.

Tactician wasn't really for me, enemies having SO much more armor just isn't fun combat at all, I would prefer some other way to increase the difficulty. Either that or the jump between classic and tactician is just too big. The combat got really tedious and not fun at all, luckily I found a mod that makes it easier, so a difficulty between classic and tactician sort of.

Some fights REALLY get annoying though, when there's too many units and you feel like you barely get a turn. When there's too many of one type of enemy and they all spam cheesy abilities etc. Overall it's been a good part of the game though.

The quests can get annoying too, sometimes. You don't know if it's solved, bugged or what sometimes when you can't find any solution and the quest won't close. I also don't really like the game being divided into acts and losing the chance to go back to quests after a while.

When I was enjoying the game most I was feeling like it was a solid 9 or even 10, but now I'd say it's probably a 7.5. Might change before I end it though!

Tactician mode does not increase difficulty, because it is a turn based combat system.
I did play tactician mode in the first game, and it was a big mistake, i did not make the game more challenging, i simply had to min max skills, which made me limit myself to a few options when in combat, which made the game more repetitive.
Also in the first game, because of the RNG associated with the skills, i ended having to save a fight move by move, reloading until the spell/attack did hit, so as i said not more Challenging, just more limited.
What you mention as not being as enamored with the game as during the first sesions, it is a common issue with most RPGs, as you get more familiar with the mechanics and the balancing issues, most of these games lost their charm.
I have just started to play Div 2, this time just classic mode, not interested in tactician, and still the balancing issues are starting to show.
So far the game is fantastic, escaping fort joy and going into the marsh, but still, the more i am getting familiar with the mechanics and the more levels i get, well i know the game will probably lose its charm.

[Deleted]

Explorer Mode

The player gets +80% HP & +30% boost to Chances to Hit.
NPCs get -50% HP & -25% penalty to Chances to Hit.
Regular creatures don't have any crowd control spells (Charm, Mute, Freeze, Petrify etc.): only bosses have them.
Can switch up to Classic Mode

Classic Mode

The player gets +15% HP.
Creatures have all of their regular spells.
Can switch down to Explorer Mode.

Tactician Mode

NPCs get +20% HP.
Most creatures in the game have additional or enhanced skills & abilities, including bosses.
Tactician Mode can not be changed once selected.


“It does not make the game harder, it just forced me to play more carefully and save scum in some fights”… kay o.O;

No, it does not, there is zero skill timing in this combat system.
What it does, as i said, is force you to min-max and to place strategically your chars in all fights, and cheese the fuk out of all the encounters.
Yes, you do play in a total different way, but it is in no way more difficult.

[Deleted]

*sigh

I still don’t get it, you keep saying that it ain’t more difficult, yet you keep admitting that it forces you to find better strategy’s and min-maxing your shit… or even cheesing it out however you can, isn't that kind of contradictory?

It’s like saying “oh in a virtual chess game increasing the difficulty doesn’t make harder cuz there is zero skill timing! It just forces you coming up with better strategy’s in order to win!”… derp.

No, it is not contradictory.
Because you can save at anytime, and because there is no skill involved, just tactics and more preparation, it might be harder or even more tedious, but it is not more difficult.
Look there are some things i can afford to do in classic difficulty that i would not be able to do in tactician.
In classic i do not use potions, food, scrolls, ress scrolls, i very rarely position my chars before fights, i do not use walls to my advantage, and so on.
In tactician i would have to use all that, and more, because it is required, but it is simply another way of playing the game, i do not see the difficulty increased because of that.
Anyway, i am gonna give it a try to tactician but with a group of six chars instead of four, that way i can play with more roles, see more origins stories, and i guess find a sweet spot between classic and tactician.

[Deleted]

Lol kay, whatever make you feel better I guess.

Well, yes, i mean that is exactly the point of the different difficulty settings in this game, anyone can play the game more close to his/her liking, plus the fact that bosses and mobs have more abilities in tactician ( i did not know this) gives replayability to the game.
Also for even finner tunning anyone can use mods, there are quite a bunch in Nexus.

[Deleted]

Isn’t that the point of difficulty settings in any other game as well?

Yes it is indeed, but usually it only makes the game more difficult, requiring a better timing and nearly flawless execution, while here (and i think it is a good thing) it changes the way the game has to be played, which adds replayability.
I do not dislike tactician mode, it is just i think it is better to not use it in the first playthrough.
Anyway it is just a semantic discussion between harder and more difficult, i do think tactician makes the game harder, but not more difficult, for me more difficult means same way of playing but less forgiving, as i said merely semantics.

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I don’t disagree that players should play the game however they want to

Yep, this is capital in single player games, that is why i do adore mods.
I would not even touch the witcher 3 without a mod for removing encumbrance, and another one for regenerating health out of combat.

[Soulflayer]

Any advice for Mods for a new game?

[Deleted]

Any advice for Mods for a new game?

I am just using one at the moment, the one that allows you to remove the limit of chars you can recruit, although i will just have six, otherwise the screen would be too messy.
So far it works amazingly well, but i am also gonna use the one that provides a hotkey/icon for unchaining/chaining your chars with one click.
I do visit the nexus each two days or so, but the rest of the mods i am not interested in, although there are quite a few just for making the game more convenient, so you should take a look at them.
There are also graphical ones,but i think the game looks already amazing as it is now.
In any case if you wanna give them a try, you can create different profiles, and decide in each profile what mods do you want into the game.
I have a profile with the mod i mentioned activated, in tactician, and another profile without mods in classic.

[WarpedAcorn]

one removes items from being thrown into your skill bar every time you pick them up, the other turns your civil ability’s into auras that will affect nearby party members as well…

Those should be standard. Also, I remember hearing about one that gave Pet Pal to everyone...considering how essential it is and how to can simply respec in and out of it in a flash, it should be considered baseline.

[Tekkommo]

Was thinking about playing this again.

Mods are always a must for a second playthrough, any that are highly recommended?

[kraid]

Tried the game, got adicted pretty fast...playing on explorer mode right now, will try classic after my first playthrough.

[Bugg]

Definitive Edition soon:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../posts/2207876

[Gerrie]

Very beautiful. Immediately there was a desire to play it.

[StrawberryZebra]

Really looking forwards to the Definitive Edition - Act three had a ton of issues that, hopefully, are getting worked out. At present, it feels very rushed, lots of exploring and just hoping you stumble into the right area, all the quests being concentrated around the enterance with nothing around the Cathederal and so on.

The big one I really hope they look at is the scaling late game though. You get practically double the Armour going from 21 to 22. To the point where the final boss goes from being a challenge, to being a complete pushover that you can just muscle your way through. I'd expect it only gets crazier from there on out. Even the jump from 19 to 20 is significant, if you're not updating practically all of your gear then you end up extremely fragile for most combat encounters.