Divinity:Original Sin 2

Just started it this week. Hated the 1st one and never bothered finishing it so I was a bit sceptical about it. I'm loving this though. The story and dialogue are awesome and, for me, are a cut above all of the recent major rpgs. I love the combat but man its tough.
What's normally a 5 minute battle feels like a 30 minute long epic just trying to survive.


Bad points - The interface could be a bit better and the camera angles are awful at times especially near arches or big elevation changes.


I reckon I'm about 2/3 through the first act so still tons to go. Yay!

Kiith wrote: »

I finally started this last night, and god damn it's good. Combat is great (if very tough at times), and the companions seem really interesting.

Only problem is who i want to keep in my party now

I started on tactician and was getting hammered. You cant reduce the difficulty if you chose it so I had to use a hack to bring it down a rung. I was getting totally owned.


I'd advise you to read at least one party guide to get an idea before you get too far into it. It really really helps later in the game as the combat is still pretty damn tough. I didn't and I've a mish mash of not so compatible skills on individual party members. You can respeck your characters half way through the game but it's a nightmare if you've to change skill sets etc.

How do you know you're building a character properly? Or do you just look up a build guide online and copy that? Reading a few build guides it sounds like you'll break the game if you don't stick with a few strict recipes otherwise you won't have the damage for later enemies.

Like my main character is a wizard with fire skills, am I locked into pyromancer now or how does it work? There doesn't seem to be a skills tree only points but you get feck all reward from any fights so you'll need to invest hours in any choices you make.

Also my party is made up of the skull guy and the red lizard, so 2 wizards and a warrior, but it sounds like you need to stick to strict party builds again otherwise you won't be able to win late game, I don't want to invest dozens of hours following other peoples builds, it feels like pointless cheating.

Thargor wrote: »

Even Fort Joy all the fights are too hard on normal, every fight basically begins with your whole party being set on fire and poisoned, then you get 3-4 turns before they're all dead, meanwhile none of your attacks do any damage because the enemies are covered in physical and magic armour that you need to spend a load of time grinding through.

I hate the way theres no strategy to it either, your party is just a big blob clumped together with just as much chance of your wizards/ranged being in melee as your tanks.

If you're finding your party clumped together a lot, then maybe consider playing them in better positions prior to the fight starting. You can split up your party, eg, put your archer on high ground, tank in a possible choke point, ranged magic users behind etc. Mobility skills, such as Teleport, Warfare's Phoenix Dive, or the Huntsman Tactical Retreat skill are all good for this and available relatively early if memory serves. I think Polymorph has some too.

There's a rain spell your Hydro user can cast, will get rid of fire immediately, and it's a base level spell.

Thargor wrote: »

I dont have a Hydro user, its all fire/fire/fire, even my tank has fire spells, 3 restarts and its all the same, they seem to be default starting spells. Do new spells appear if you put points into Aqua or whatever its called? Wish they'd just given you a skill tree so you could do a bit of planning instead of just dumping points into a one word stat.

Ok, that's not right. Your starting spells depend on the skills you choose at the start. So if you put a point into Hydro and Aero - the Enchanter preset -for example, you'll have a selection of eight spells from those schools to choose three to start with. If you see the screenshot below, he starts with Rain, Hail Strike and Electric Discharge.



You can edit the spells you start with by going to "Preset" on the character creation screen and then to Selected Skills. Click on Edit to see the options.

When it comes to your companions, it depends what you choose for them when talking to them - they ask what you want them to be when they start out. Example, if you choose a tanky warrior, they'll have tanky warrior skills. They shouldn't have any pyro skills. Choosing a ranged bow user and they should have huntsman skills. It's all in what you choose for them. To me, it sounds like you're choosing something without realising it - and your companion characters are all the same as a result.

I'd also suggest having one, possibly two characters with a heal. One character should get it from their Hydro skill, and you can get a ring early on (Migo's off the top of my head) that lets one of your other characters use the base heal. It's VERY useful early game particularly. Your Hydro character should have Rain and Restoration, this negates fire and helps keep your dudes alive.

Thargor wrote: »

-Basically having to give up on Rogue which is usually my favorite class, they're dead within the first 2 turns of every combat so theres no point having them in your party.

Rogues do tend to die a lot, however, they do have lots of sneaky abilities to get them in and out fast. They can also do insane single target damage if you position them right. I used Fane as a backstabbing rogue in my first game, which means he heals from poison (he's undead). He died a lot, but he made his fair share of kills before doing so. Fane also has a "Play Dead" skill which means enemies ignore him until he decides to get back up again, meaning he stays alive longer and gets more kills. Bonus: he can use his fingers as lockpicks, so no need to carry lockpicks around.

Thargor wrote: »

-Clicking on a crate or container to see if theres anything in it: Adds the fooking container to your inventory!. Also your inventory is just a big heaping pile, no sorting.

Single clicking on it shouldn't add it to your inventory. It does sometimes happen by accident, but single click should just check. Also, it's a dull grey, there's nothing in it. Might save some time.

There's an autosort button near the top of your inventory. You can sort by Last Picked Up, Value, Weight, Durability and Type. You can also (and this is very useful) choose what types of items to display using the line of icons on the top below where it says Inventory. All, Consumables, Magical, Ingredients, Misc, Books and Keys, and Wares. Tip, Wares is used to autosell items. Mark an item as wares (right click and selection the menu option to do so) and next time you're at a vendor, you can add all wares to the transaction with one click.

The inventory can get a bit cluttered at times, which is why they've given you the bags you have. What I do is dump items for crafting, books etc into the bags. That gets it out of the main inventory but I still have it available for use.

Last thing. You can split up your party and move them seperately - normally they all move as one as they're chained together (their portraits on the left are). You can drag the portraits away to break the chain and then you can move them seperately. Makes positioning for fights possible and the fights themselves much more doable.

Thargor wrote: »

Such a disappointment after all the reviews, greatest RPG of modern times?

You seem to have had a rough start with the game. All I can say is it's well worth sticking with.

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Actually, Fextralife have a decent "Beginner's Guide" to those starting out.

Is that saying that you get your spells from vendors then? Like if I suddenly decided I wanted to be a water mage so every fight isnt just my party standing in a big puddle of fire dying I have to go around the island buying those spells? Do new spells appear as you level up? That beginners guide tells you to avoid pyromancy at the start but all I have is Fire spells, if I meet a new character and tell them I want them to be a magic caster when they give you the option then all their spells will be fire based aswell so its nothing to do with the character creation screen, how are you supposed to build a character even if you do decide to just cheat and look up what works?

Thargor wrote: »

Is that saying that you get your spells from vendors then? Like if I suddenly decided I wanted to be a water mage so every fight isnt just my party standing in a big puddle of fire dying I have to go around the island buying those spells? Do new spells appear as you level up? That beginners guide tells you to avoid pyromancy at the start but all I have is Fire spells, if I meet a new character and tell them I want them to be a magic caster when they give you the option then all their spells will be fire based aswell so its nothing to do with the character creation screen, how are you supposed to build a character even if you do decide to just cheat and look up what works?

There's two parts to spells (skills, actually, as spells are just a form of skill).

One is your points in that area. So fire spells are based (unsurprisingly) on your points in Pyromancy. To cast any Pyro spells, you need to have at least 1 point in Pyro. Some spells take more points in Pyro, up to 5 for example. If your character has zero points in Pyro, then they won't be able to cast any Pyro skills (though they can use scrolls - but ignore that for the moment). Water based spells are based on Hydromancy, Air/Electricity on Aerothurge, etc.

The second part is actually knowing the spells. These you learn from spellbooks which can either drop as loot from enemies, appear in chests, or you can buy them from a vendor. You then learn them (right click -> learn skill) and then you can choose to have it usable (memorised) via the skills page (hotkey K, I think offhand). Once you learn a skill, you'll have it available all the time, but your memory determines how many skills you can have memories (available to use via hotbar, etc) at any one time.

There's several types of magic caster available when you're talking to a companion for the first time and choosing what they are. Firstly you choose for them to be focused on the magic area (I forget the particular line, but it's either magic or arcane or something). Then you can choose the preset. Wizard would be fire and geomancy (probably what you chose). Enchanter would be Air/Water, Conjurer is Summoning, if I recall.

For your own character you build it via the character creation screen. For companions, you pick a preset via the dialogue and then add skills/attributes etc to them until you get to the point when you can respec them fully.

If you want to add me on Steam, it's "davsheep". We can fire up a game and walk through it.

Well, that's a pity.

1. It's not only from vendors. Vendors are the easiest, and most realiable way to get skillbooks. However, they can drop, be found in chests and be crafted using a blank spellbook and a scroll (and a few other items, iirc). I did say in my previous post that it's all skills - spells are just another type of skill. As is special archery abilities and healing and all the rest.

2. Your attributes, skill points and talents are the basis for character progression. Gear and spells are just what you use, and they depend on the former. Some armor/weapons can only be used with certain attributes, daggers require high finesse for example and mage armour requires high intelligence.

3. All the statuses in the game have a counter. You're on fire? Restoration (basica heal) removes that, as does Fortify, Armor of Frost and Rain. That's probably not even all. Poisoned? First Aid, Restoration, Fortify. Some combo together, such as fire and poison.

Much like other party RPGs, your party composition matters. My first party I completed on normal was: Archer/Summoner. Tank/2Handed DPS. Rogue. Mage Healer. Fairly vanilla, but did the job.

4. You can carry bedrolls with you, you're encouraged to. There are also healing potions, healing spells (though you don't appear to have figured out how to use them) and food/drink items.

5. I really don't know how you could make a mistake in the character creation screen. You have a dozen presets to choose from, one of which is fire based. As I explained.

I'll leave my replies to you there, since you seem determined to dislike the game and not really take on board what's being said (apologies if that's not the case, but it really seems that way). If you're really finding it tough, lower the difficulty until you get the hang of the mechanics, character creation and development and combat (statuses, damage types etc) and once that's sorted, go back and ramp up the difficulty to your hearts content.

Some games just aren't for everyone though, that's cool.

**** it, I'll go again.

Thargor wrote: »

But where do you get those spells? If you dont get lucky and start with them you're fcuked, it takes too long to level up aswell so if you dont start with the right points in the right skills to use them you'll never be able to gain enough XP to progress.

You start with those spells. Your character will start with those spells, or your companion character will, depending on your choice. It's not a question of getting lucky. You choose the class for yourself (and you have more freedom here) or you choose the class of your (three) companions.

Let's assume you don't even choose a hydrosophy specialist as one of your four characters (though why you would if you're finding it hard, is beyond me). You level up to level 2 or 3 and you can put a point into Hydro. You get level 3 maybe forty five minutes to an hours in. Then you stroll down to the blue lizard down in the merchant area of the starting area, and you buy a rain spell, or a healing spell off him.

Tadaa.

I did this yesterday. In fact, I chose a party composition that had no healer: Death Knight (Necro Warfare), Mage (Pyro, Geo, Aero), Ranger (Huntsman,Summoner) and Duellist (Rogue, Dual Wield). I only got a heal spell at level 3. I was playing on one below the hardest.

I'm level 4 now, but at level 3, I put a point into Hydro on my Death Knight (not even my mage) and he got a rain and heal spell, but even if he didn't, I was doing OK. Because I took the time to understand the mechanics and played at an easier difficulty to figure it all out.

You should not be able to play at the highest difficulty first time out in a game, otherwise it's too easy.

Thargor wrote: »

I really couldnt be bothered playing another 8 hours over again just because the devs didnt include a warning that if you cant make it rain or party heal then you cant win even the basic starting fights...

You don't have to replay 8 hours. Not even 1 hour if you decide not to. You can finish the first act (without even trying) well within 8 hours.

Thargor wrote: »

I dont play games on easy, especially RPGs, Ive completed pretty much all of the well known ones since the Ultima/Daggerfall days usually on hard and Ive never seen one that makes you despise it from the beginning like this one. If a game requires you to lower the difficulty to progress theres something wrong with it. If a game requires you to view Youtube videos of what build to work towards from the instant you start in order to be able to finish the late game then its broken, if its so unforgiving that choosing to give fire spells to a mage character prevents you from progressing then again, its broken.

This game, on hard, is hard, it's unforgiving and it requires you to understand it's mechanics. You, quite clearly, don't. So expecting to be able to dive right into hard isn't a condemnation of the game, it's a condemnation of either one of two things. Your ability, or the ease of the other games you mentioned. I suspect it's not the latter.

Thargor wrote: »

Theres a horrible feeling when you're playing that everything you're doing is wrong, the camera angle is hideous aswell, this is one of the worst attempts at an RPG Ive ever experienced tbh, actually with the requirement to buy your upgrades to progress instead of finding them on your travels Id say it probably is the worst.

You can change the camera angle at will, with your mouse.

As I explained, and again it appears that has been ignored, you don't buy your upgrades in progression. You earn them through XP, and through that XP you earn the right to wear better gear, and to get better skills.

To others: please tell me I'm not going insane here?