Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Status effects and new armor system

Just wanted to open a discussion about status effects.

In DOS2 Physical/Magic armor prevents physical/magic status effects
vs.
DOS1 saving throws Body Building/Willpower negate physical/magic status effects .

Which system do you prefer?
I can see both systems working but I think I have a preference for DOS1 since it may work sense. For example just because I have armor on doesn't mean I can't be knocked down by someone who is way more powerful then me. DOS1 in my opinion has a more convincing system because it allows heavily armored characters to still have a chance at being knocked down where DOS2 anyone armored can't be knocked down yet. Of course in DOS2 if you are fighting someone way more powerful they can strip your armor much more quickly.

The same goes for magical effects such as stun.
Its good to discuss these things early in development.

DOS 2 since it doesn't involve RNG.

I think putting a barrier on CC and status effects promotes good gameplay and less cheese for both PC and NPC. Hard CC should be rare and tactical now its plentiful but you have to get past the shield first. I find myself paying attention to these values and choosing my targets accordingly.

Its like D&D again with saves, targeting the will save against the tank and the fort save on the mage. I use knockdown arrows/ground stomp on casters/unarmored targets. And magical status effects on targets without magic armor.

This also leaves room for some heartier mobs with less outright immunities. (although plenty are still 100% immune to hard CC)

Ya thats true. In DOS1 particularly in the beginning its easy to play CC. You can open the battle with CC and hit then CC again and hit some more until everything is dead.

In DOS2 so far you can't just open with CC without hitting them first. Even then after you do break their defenses theirs spells like fortify which boosts your defenses back up, denying CC.

The 2 different systems are cool.

I like the new system. I agree it makes crowd control less cheezy.
Think its good for DOS 2 especially since the surfaces (thinking mostly of electricity) seem to last a lot longer without 'top up' now so you can focus on attacking them rather than juts re-electrifying a puddle every turn.
Also makes it (a bit) easier to not accidentally disable your whole team by stunning them.
Also, never really knew how much of an impact my bodybuilding or willpower had on my saving throw chance so often didn't stat them as much instead picking up immunity items.

I really like the new system but the attributes for the armor are really low. Like only 5% or so. I hope they get quite bigger the more points you add.

I like the new armor system a lot.

I wish the game had a Mana system in place of this Armour system.

The new system is more predictable than a "saving dice system" ala D&D which is needed for pvp/arena/esports

How does a mana system relate to the amour system? Mana is a resource not a defence/armour "thing"

The fact I'm no longer having my tank knocked on his ass for 3 rounds in the first action of the first turn by a damn goblin archer makes the new version much better in my view. Likewise its not possible to use charm arrows in the first round to completely cheese fights.

That said it is a bit daft to see an enemy stand knee deep in fire and not get the burning status.

the new system is unusual and original, though it gets some time getting used to it. BUT I think some high level skills should debuff through shields, e.g. over 9000 armor doesnt save you being knocked down by an earthquake etc. We see Oil though, which slows even those with armor on.
I think the system is just quite not totally finished.

I actually quite like the new system. It makes it more predictable when and how easily you can CC someone. You now have to focus priority targets with strong attacks and spells in order to open up their vulnerabilities. This means you have to carefully select your targets in group battles so you can take care of pesky threats and accept that you will have to take damage from the others in order to control the battlefield more easily. You also know exactly how much punishment your characters can take before becoming vulnerable, and plan your movements accordingly. However, this is easy to cheese, especially with how many aoe spells mages can get early on now. With teleport and hail on two characters, it's incredibly easy to take care of 2 or more NPCs or at least leave them frozen if they don't die. Each system has a cheese, but I like this one more for its predictability.

Actually, it seems even easier now. I'm playing on classic difficulty and I'm using CC even more than in the first game.

My lone level 2 mage once encountered 4 level 4 magisters who attacked him on sight. I was forced to play dirty, and it worked. I won with a basic stun-lock.

I prefer D:OS1's system actually. Enemies get so many attacks (on classic) armor really only serves as more HP, their CC-buff expires pretty much round 1 already. And then you're vulnerable to *everything* they dish out, no defense. Not good.

Same works the other way, just 1 spell cast inside a group of enemies generally kills their magic armor *and* stuns them. While the higher physical armor makes melee players even less useful than mages, having to move in battles, actually having cripple be negative, etc.

I think the system is too skewed for mages, and as a result actual melee-opponents are rare too (just try and use cripple, they immediately go into full-out grenade mode).

The DOS1 system made it too easy to open a fight with CC that trivialized the encounter.

I like that you have to whittle them down some first.

The DOS1 system made it far too easy CC-lock a boss right from the start. I managed a run on tactician mode where, as a mage, I was able to solo the spider boss without taking any damage or it doing any mechanics. (Drain Willpower -> Blitz Bolt -> Shocking Touch -> Repeat.) This way Larian can force us to have to deal with some mechanics before we can CC-lock the bosses.

Agreed.

I would judge it like this:

Pros:
- Active counterplay against CC, and CC made the first game too easy
- Counterplay against burst

Cons:
- There is no damage mitigation anymore, only extra health against specific kinds of damage, even blocking is removed
- The current system only works for short battles, since armor regeneration is very scarce
- After your armors have been broken you feel hopeless against CC, too much of a contrast between having armor and not having armor
- It is best to have a good mix of physical and magical armor, which forces you to mix and match with light and heavy armor, which hurts the visual identity of a character (armor sets do not visually represent unity, but look like an assembly of random armor pieces of different kinds)

Possible fixes:
- Adding more ways to regenerate armor
- Adding more counters to CC apart from armor
- Adding different armor type (magical,physical) distributions for each armor class (light,medium,heavy) so that you can run a full set of one armor class without being restricted in the armor type proportions

The new Armor system creates a LOT of new problems and while it eliminates old problems it also removes one of the best parts of the first game...

Zone Control is kind of useless now... Which was one of the largest parts of the first game. Enemies also almost always have advantageous positions against you. AND almost all enemies have the movement capacity of the heavens. As well armor can ignore several surfaces even if they decide to walk through (and you RARELY get an opportunity to Zone control AFTER an enemy crosses the distance...)

Worse in a way are enemies that are missing armor/magicarmor because they are "balanced" to basically kill you in one hit. I hope you specifically had CC against them!

As well while the enemy can have substantial armor... You are always running around in what amounts to tinfoil. I've never seen armor or magic armor survive a single around of a single enemy attacking you. Especially annoying when you are fighting multiple opponents with large AoE CC attacks (which is oddly... not uncommon in this game)

Then after armor or magic armor is gone... CC kind of hits the state of being almost TOO strong because everyone has absolutely no resistance against you. Ohh but lucky for you that everything now has LONG cool downs.

Then there are abilities with weak effects (or... "Not that bad" effects) that never happen because of armor. So you could remove the opponents armor and use it... But that is a waste because once armor is removed then anything EXCEPT CC is useful.
-Bleed is the biggest one. Would make the moves decent if it didn't rely on removing armor.

So in the end instead of experimenting with builds and interesting combinations like I could in the first game... I kind of have to lug around the powerful combos from the getgo and stick with them religiously.

It needs some serious balancing. Is what I am saying. Though EA just started so of course there are going to be bugs and kinks they have to work out.

Which do I prefer? I actually prefer the old system... to the currently implemented armor system

But I'd prefer the new system be balanced correctly.