What Video Games Have You Been Playing, Part 10: Or; A Shameful Display!

[EgonSpengler]

Path of Addiction: My second go-around with the Templar is very different from the first. Level 30-something. Molten Strike. Firestorm. Armageddon Brand. Spell Totem Support -> Scorching Ray.

I'm using a mace & shield again, but mostly for the gem slots and bonuses provided by the equipment. No passive skill points spent on melee, as yet, and the effectiveness of these fire spells, I don't foresee any need for melee. I like the idea of a staff for this character, but it seems like two pieces of one-handed equipment are always going to be better than one, two-handed weapon. Maybe I'm missing something.

I hadn't realized how the Brands work until I started using one. I thought they were static, meant for sticking to a Boss or other high-health target. Just from the name, "brand", I was imagining something likes runes in tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons - powerful, but of limited utility. The fact that they jump around is borderline overpowered (that also makes "Brand Recall" make more sense - on paper, I wasn't sure what that spell was for).

 

[Broken_Erika]

Path of Addiction sounds like the title of a game where you chase an un-catchable dragon.

 

[Lexicus]

Path of Addiction sounds like it could be added as a subtitle to pretty much any game that I play.

 

[PhroX]

In general in PoE (or should that be PoA?), using two one-handers or one plus a shield is better, but two handers do have a place. The main advantage of 2 handed weapons is that they can have up to 6 sockets, something only your chestpiece can do otherwise. So, if you want to use two main skills (e.g. one single target, one AoE), this lets both of them be 5 or 6 linked and thus significantly stronger than if you had to put them in a 4 socket piece of gear. This is much more of late game thing though. Other than that, it'll mainly come down to the specific gear involved - there are some very strong unique two-handers, and some rare item mods only available on them.

And if you're liking brands, make sure you get the keystone node in the top left of the tree that lets you attach an additional brand to an enemy (forget the name off the top of my head) - it basically doubles your damage on bosses: by default, no matter how many brands you can have active, only one can attach to each enemy. When clearing, this doesn't really matter, as there's plenty of targets for them to attach to. But when you come up against a boss on his own, it really hurts your damage. You also probably want to get at least a couple of nodes/ascendancy nodes that give you extra brands - being able to have 4-5 up is very nice. Once you've done this, you don't need any other offensive skills - both Storm and Armageddon brand are perfectly capable of covering both bossing and map clearing.

 

[Kjara]

On staves in POE:

There can be a couple of reasons to want to use a staff in POE (as a caster). One is that there are some nice crit and charge nodes in the passive tree (theres a circle in the upper left that has a decent chunk of both global crit chance and global crit mult that works with spells as long as you have a staff equipped) and a circle on the westish side that gives a decent chunk of block and a way to get either power or endurance charges (or both perhaps? Can't remember for sure) which can be nice.

The other advantage is that its far easier to get + gem level modifiers on staves than it is body armor. There are a couple of cheap uniques that give +2 fire gem levels (which works out to around a ~20% more modifier given how spell gems scale) and +3 rares (+1 all gem levels, +2 fire) are not too uncommon. There's also a couple of other uniques (pledge of hands?) that let you have a 6 link with a decent additional free link (spell echo in that case).

 

[EgonSpengler]

Path of Addiction sounds like the title of a game where you chase an un-catchable dragon.

And if you play too long, you get a monkey on your back.

On staves in POE:

There can be a couple of reasons to want to use a staff in POE (as a caster). One is that there are some nice crit and charge nodes in the passive tree (theres a circle in the upper left that has a decent chunk of both global crit chance and global crit mult that works with spells as long as you have a staff equipped) and a circle on the westish side that gives a decent chunk of block and a way to get either power or endurance charges (or both perhaps? Can't remember for sure) which can be nice.

The other advantage is that its far easier to get + gem level modifiers on staves than it is body armor. There are a couple of cheap uniques that give +2 fire gem levels (which works out to around a ~20% more modifier given how spell gems scale) and +3 rares (+1 all gem levels, +2 fire) are not too uncommon. There's also a couple of other uniques (pledge of hands?) that let you have a 6 link with a decent additional free link (spell echo in that case).

Good point. I hadn't scrutinized the skill tree for staff skills.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Path of Addiction sounds like the title of a game where you chase an un-catchable dragon.

Drug of the Asian - where the government had to ban gaming after midnight because too many people were dying from excessive playing
Also the national sport of Best Korea.

 

[Synobun]

Batman Arkham Origins.

Meh. It's "open world" but you can't access most of it without playing through the story first. Hit a game-breaking bug that totaled my save during the Copperhead fight. Womp womp. Game was not impressive so I'm done with it.

 

[Akropolis24]

No Man's Sky:

 

[Kyriakos]

I reinstalled eu3. 8 hours later i erased it. Out of fear.

 

[Lexicus]

The Just Cause 3 bug I was experiencing went away (had to restart the computer I think) I was disappointed in the story, not as cartoonish or over-the-top as Just Cause 2. The world is also significantly smaller than in 2, but I think the addition of the wingsuit and certain other mechanical changes to the game makes it overall more fun to play than 2. Finishing the story unlocked the Sandbox mode where I can un-liberate any settlement on the map which means I can just mess around blowing stuff up indefinitely, which seems like it might be pretty fun.

In my current Stellaris save I've embarked on a noble campaign to cleanse the galaxy of its clutter of species, hopefully boosting the game's performance significantly by the time I'm through. I've cracked (destroyed) enough inhabited planets to have a -5000 attitude modifier with most empires. This matters very little because my total fleet power is nearly 500k whereas my strongest foe, a 4-empire federation, had barely 100k total before I smashed their most powerful fleet like a cockroach, and now can only offer token resistance as I gobble up systems.

 

[AdamCrock]

I've recently discovered Dungeon Siege 2 (How could I have missed that one back in the day)... anyways now I'm completely hooked up ! I like the team mechanic in that game though it lacks complete individual control over each character (like in Baldur) . Playing as a half-giant "tank" .Just got Finala (sorceress) in my team and I completely do not know what skills I should invest in . I never knew how to decide what elemental force will work on monsters without spoilers (to see monster resistances.) Think I will choose death magic path though.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

In my current Stellaris save I've embarked on a noble campaign to cleanse the galaxy of its clutter of species, hopefully boosting the game's performance significantly by the time I'm through. I've cracked (destroyed) enough inhabited planets to have a -5000 attitude modifier with most empires. This matters very little because my total fleet power is nearly 500k whereas my strongest foe, a 4-empire federation, had barely 100k total before I smashed their most powerful fleet like a cockroach, and now can only offer token resistance as I gobble up systems.

Just to be clear, "noble campaign" in this case equals genocide, right?

The things we do in games!

For my part, my empire in Distant Worlds is under attack from one of the neighbors, which is annoying. My automated defenses are holding, but a counterattack would require my personal attention. Currently my attention is split between running my colonization program and managing assaults on pirate clans. I don't think I have enough leftover attention to spare for these ... I think they are mollusks of some sort.

REAL TIME BABY!!!!!

Been a long time since I ventured out of turn based, and I'm finding it challenging to adapt.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Oh dear, I didn't know I shouldn't spend my talent points in Path of Exile, I won't do that any more. I have no idea what I should do, and I don't understand builds at all, would anyone who knows Rangers please tell me what I should do with my points? I don't want to mess up my character, but I also don't feel up to really learning intricate details of how it all works and everything, and I also feel it's not likely I'd want to play my character over again from the beginning. I know I probably sound hopelessly demanding, but if any of you experts are so kind to have an idea for me that'd be so lovely and I'd be so very grateful

The game does provide respect points to redo your passive tree, but as was said, usually not enough. Orbs of regret can be used too on a one-for-one basis. By the time you are into levels 50+ you should have enough "regrets" to fix problems. for new characters, I usually save up 7 to 10 points and then apply them with a particular goal in mind.

 

[Lexicus]

Just to be clear, "noble campaign" in this case equals genocide, right?

Near-omnicide, actually. I read a forum post claiming that lategame performance issues (which many people have been grumbling about; 4x games generally slow down the further into them you get but it's particularly bad in this version of Stellaris) were resolved via cleansing the galaxy of all but one species.

Since my "species" is actually a machine consciousness, the galaxy will be nearly devoid of biological life when this campaign is finished (I'm allied with a hive mind empire which I believe can only comprise one species, so I probably won't bother taking them out). I consider the outcome of the game running quickly to be a "noble" one though

 

[EgonSpengler]

For my part, my empire in Distant Worlds is under attack from one of the neighbors, which is annoying. My automated defenses are holding, but a counterattack would require my personal attention. Currently my attention is split between running my colonization program and managing assaults on pirate clans. I don't think I have enough leftover attention to spare for these ... I think they are mollusks of some sort.

I recommend melted butter and a little garlic.

For those who haven't tried Stellaris yet, Steam has it on sale right now for 10... er... clams. Sorry.

 

[Lexicus]

For my part, my empire in Distant Worlds is under attack from one of the neighbors, which is annoying. My automated defenses are holding, but a counterattack would require my personal attention. Currently my attention is split between running my colonization program and managing assaults on pirate clans. I don't think I have enough leftover attention to spare for these ... I think they are mollusks of some sort.

REAL TIME BABY!!!!!

Been a long time since I ventured out of turn based, and I'm finding it challenging to adapt.

Stellaris is also real-time, though I can't imagine playing it without frequent pausing, and my playstyle (at the fastest speed, damn the torpedoes) makes for a lot of moments like this.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Near-omnicide

Oh. Okay. Well, that certainly makes it better!

 

[Lexicus]

Totally, I'm an equal-opportunity MAD GALACTIC WARLORD

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Stellaris is also real-time, though I can't imagine playing it without frequent pausing, and my playstyle (at the fastest speed, damn the torpedoes) makes for a lot of moments like this.

Frequent pausing is certainly part of my approach too. In fact my first swat at DW involved a guide that might well have been titled "how to turn off all automation and play like a man!" It was recommended to me on the valid grounds that knowing how things actually work is really helpful, and if you let the automation handle things you lack that knowledge. That led to massive pausing just to manage my home planet and a handful of exploration ships.

But at this point I have ten colonies in nine systems and at almost any given time at least one of them and frequently more is fending off some sort of pirate raid. If I was handling basic defenses manually I'd be on pause pretty much constantly, switching from one system to another. Judging "how big is this raid and do I need to intervene there" when the message comes in is part of the game.