Difficulty: Easy (from about Orobas Fjords on), although started on "Normal" See Notes at end for further info.
Right before end battle-- the 'autosave' (I may have did something w/ skills & stat points after the autosave, I don't remember)Level:
35Numbers in brackets [#] is WITHOUT armor/jewelery.
Stats: Vitality
49 [36] Spirit
7 [4] Strength
49 [43] Dexterity
33 [28] Intelligence
51 [46]Hit Points
816 [452] Mana
358 [228] *Unassigned stat points = 7
Weapon Damage (two weapons) melee
189-241; magic
26-31 [
67-82--fists & naked]
Melee Resist 52.78% Ranged Resist 47.48% Magic Resist 47.93%
Conditioned Body 73% [43%-naked]
Heightened Reflexes 42%[28%-naked]
Indomitable Will 75% [46%-naked].
Skills: These are final placements before "end battle", after doing two 'unlearn all'.
*WARRIOR SKILLS:
Whirlwind 7/10
Jump Attack 5/5
Life Leech 2/5 (+1)
Bleed 3/13
Regeneration 2/10 (+1)
Death blow 3/5
Reflect 6/10
*DRAGON SLAYER SKILLS
Fists 1/5
Single handed 1/5
Dual Wield 8/13
Sword and Shield 1/5
Two handed 2/10
Mindread 2/5
Wisdom 2/5
Lockpick 5/5
Encumberance 5/5
*RANGER SKILLS
Potion Efficiency 5/5
Evade 1/10 (+1)
*MAGE SKILLS
Firewall 4/5 (+1) {LOVED this skill!}
Mana Leech (+1) Was given by item
*PRIEST SKLLS
Summon Mastery 5/5 (Great thing to have)
Master Herbalist 5/5
Summon Demon 3/5
Armor: Wearing FULL set of "Ulthring"-- utilized most enchantment slots
Belt & Jewelery: Archmage Scorpion set (belt, necklace, earrings, bracelet, ring)
Weapons:
Aleroth Archmage Warhammer w/ 1 charm and 2 enchantments {primary hand weapon}
(Legend)Paladin's Well-Crafted Light Noble Sword of the Firebat 1-handed Sword: Melee 41-69, 13% critical hit chance; +3 vitality, +15 melee damage, +86HP, (+15% fire curse enchantment)
NOTES:
*Difficulty* I originally started the game on "normal" difficulty; had to switch to "easy" to kill bunny because my bow was only doing, at most 5HP damage--after going to "easy," bow began doing 100+HP damage! That bunny has A LOT of life! I went back to "normal" difficulty until Orobas Fjords, where I had to go "easy" again because of all the goblin shaman hoards/mobs. They'd take me out in just a couple of hits, often before I could get close enough to do any damage, even as a ranger! Finished the game on "easy" because, in my opinion, balancing is off when facing hoards/mobs. I'll try a different character build next time to see if it was merely my build that was off.
*Skills* Some skills are worth something only in the beginning of the game, particularly the summons (other than demon, which was awesome!) and the polymorph. I didn't choose them early on, and by the time I wanted to use those skills, they weren't high enough to be of help. I am grateful, therefore, for being able to "unlearn" skills and redoing to fit that later game playing.
WHIRLWIND is a fantastic and useful skill, which I used a lot-- cool down time is adequate for balance. JUMP ATTACK I didn't use until much later, and I like that it's passive. REGENERATION was very useful, but I didn't know about that skill until after I was level 33 or 34! REFLECT is a definite keeper! Great skill, and again, I love that it's passive. I didn't get FIREWALL until much later (after level 30), but found it extremely useful, particularly going human battle in the flying fortresses. Maybe it would have helped against those nasty goblin mobs! POTION MASTERY was good. SUMMON DEMON and SUMMON MASTERY are definite keepers-- they are very helpful to a mostly melee fighter.
*Set Items* I found the complete Ulthring set, Scorpion Set, Hunter Set, and Aleroth Archmage set. I like there are sets, and it's okay that the sets require you to basically choose what type of character build-- BUT, it would have been nice to know about/get these earlier on in the game to plan placement of points better (since those cannot be reset). Even with my waiting to place points, I found the Aleroth set first, so I threw down my saved points so I could use that set-- I may have preferred the Scorpion set, however, as I was mostly a melee fighter for the latter half of the game (basically, post Battle Tower). The Ulthring set is a very good set-- love the bonus' it gives, the charm slots, and enchantment slots-- but again, would have been nice to get this a little earlier on in the playing to get more use out of the sets. ~~I do like that an entire set is in 'one' location-- one fortress, instead of spread all over different fortresses or the Fjords. This is the only game I've ever been able to complete a set with, and I have to say "That's nice."
*Charms and Enchantments* I like the ability to enchant and unenchant items. This was a great feature I utilized quite a bit. The best thing about unenchanting is learning that enchantment in the process! I found charms to be nearly worthless. +1 to anything even early in the game is too low, particularly for applying something that cannot be reversed. For future reference, if something is going to be irreversible, then it'd be nice for it to be worth something; maybe starting charms at +5 or more to something (again, because it's irreversible).
*Gold* I ended the game with 88,435 gold-- I wasn't expecting the end to come so soon after getting such good 'stuff', or I'd have enchanted the heck out of what I had.
*Humor*
I LOVE your sense of humor!! Both hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed the humor woven into the original Divine Divinity, and I was very happy to see that same humor brought into this game-- that's part of what keeps me playing! Bringing back the conversation about "existential thought" skeletons was a very nice touch that I greatly appreciated. Keep that humor coming! So, were those three pigs in Aleroth supposed to be a reference to Otho's pigs? Nice touch with the "Kirill" in the Battle Tower and being able to choose compositions.
*Music*
As usual, the music by Kirill is fantastic. He's a wonderful composer, and his music makes your games worthwhile to play (even when there's gliches!) by itself. I do hope your future games will continue to feature his compositions. Music is very much a part of my being, and plays an important role (in my opinion) in gaming. Love Kirill!
*What I didn't like*
The main thing I didn't like about this game was having main quests that included the jumping & platforms things. I found that the controls on this game "loose," less specific control than some other 3D games I've played. If one is going to have a main quest that requires that amount of specificity, then there should be a "tighter" control and less delay between when I hit a key (space bar = jump, for example) and when the character performs the action. While I appreciate the throw back to Nintendo games, that whole hand-eye coordination never did work well with me. Also, the dragon flying controls were... headache inducing! While flying as a dragon, when hitting a "no access" part (like, getting close to land, hitting the edge of the map, etc), the rapid camera movement was very hard on the eyes and head (yes, I know that those of use who suffer migraines need to be careful with 3D games, and I read the warning). There were also times where it appeared I "should" be able to go somewhere, but get stuck, which many times cost me hundreds of hit points if not the life! Whether as human or dragon, the controls seemed a little "too loose"-- I'm not sure how to better explain this.
Overall,
this was comparably addictive as your Divine Divinity. The discovery of side quests easier on this than DD, which is nice-- I have a lot of fun doing side quests, for story as well as for leveling up. It's a game I'd recommend, and one I will definitely play again (because now I know how to better build a character). . . and I may play it again before allowing hubby to get his turn with it!
Great job, Larian!
This was a very fun game, even during the frustrating times (like the platform jumping).
All best,
~~CierraShore
