u/thingsagain

I played DDDA way-back, and honestly never changed my vocations much. Now I just maxed out my Magick Archer vocation, and I have to say I absolutely love the loop.

My current loadout is

Lifetaking Arrow
Fortalice
Blazefang Arrow
Sagittate Avalanche

Yes they can do sick damage I guess, but honestly I really like the support / crowd control angle, it was so unexpected. There was a game where the ranger class was also the medic, which I loved and I have never found that style again since. I love micromanaging my party, and working with my warrior pawn - Lifetaking Arrow does surprisingly high damage ontop of healing her, and I can strategically use her as a walking bomb with Fortalice. Needless to say making her even more unkillable than before. It makes for so many awesome coop moments, yet it's not passive. 10/10 class. hype

Yeah, another weird and silly rant.

I love this game, but I hate fighting gryphons.

Not strategically, but simply because I feel like an asshole. Setting them on fire, seeing them writhe and getting sliced and diced, and then everyone cheering after they're dead. I simply can never feel "good" about killing them, and the fact that they are so aggressively seeking you out doesn't help. I'm always relieved when they escape before my pawns turn them into grilled chicken. Also, hiding from them is somewhat fun and makes for great suspense sometimes. I don't know why, it's completely arbitrary, probably because they are typically not "enemies" in other fantasy, or because they seem the most like "animals", rather than monstrosities.

I always hate killing animals in games for that matter. Saurians seem sentient enough to have it coming in a way; though it does extends to wolves as well, but they ambush you and often die rather quickly, so I don't dwell on it as much. Still doesn't feel great. Additionally, I hate it when certain pawn types gleefully kill deer etc. because of the resources they drop. (I first fell in love with my own pawn, when she saw a buffalo and said "It's best to leave harmless creatures be". you got it, grl)

Somebody recently shared this tip of leaving scraps of meat to distract them, and I love that. It's just hard to keep the party under control, and ofc, in most situations, is a very funnicky solution. But I do appreciate stuff like that is also in the game.

I am only level 36, but I am very pleased with my pawn's survivability. So far the only time she has ever been downed at all was against a drake, using that meteor spell. Other than that, especially Revivify seems so broken it shouldn't be this simple and powerful, but I'll take it.

Far be it from me to brag, nor give anyone advice - this is more of a "I shouldn't get away with this" type joy, while also asking for input. So I wanted my pawn to be a greatsword wielding knight type, but also the tank of the duo.

- I went with max rank fighter defensive augments, a quick lvl 2 sorcerer for magick def, and obviously max rank warrior.

- She has the calm inclination to maybe tweak the AI towards not bathing in pools of magma (and yes because voice, c'mon)

-Active skills: Tidal Fury & Revivify for defense, Ravening Lunge to stay mobile, Heavenward Sunder cause it's like the only angle not covered by basic attacks, and because shoryuken

Curiously, whenever I hire other warriors (I only hire support pawns if found in those one off super special riftstones) they are much higher level, all the high level attack skills and carry crazy looking gear I've never seen - and always die. All the time. I give them more potions and they burn through them and die again. Are they not fighting as hard when being just someone's support pawn maybe? Or are warriors supposed to be glass canons? So I maybe I'm not using mine to her fullest damage potential but at least in terms of survivability it's working suprisingly well.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure these players have the builds to compliment them just the same obviously, but while mages and thiefs always seem a great addition to my party and boost my output to a silly degree, other warriors just rush in and drop :/

Are there any other must-have augments from the other vocations I should consider?

I just started this game this week and try to read as little as possible and embrace the chaos, but some things bother me still

Main pawn inclinations :

My main pawn is a female knight type who switches between Fighter and Warrior depending on gear finds and whimsy, and I read that there are de facto optimal inclination combinations for each vocation. tbh I chose the "Calm" in the CC simply because it was the only voice I liked for her, and got so used to it, it would feel weird to switch it. I dunno, considering I prefer mostly travelling without hired pawns and dish out sufficient damage as an archer myself, a less suicidal melee character isn't the worst choice? She usually does a great job at crowd control and survivability both as a fighter and warrior, but ofc I haven't really gotten that far.

Timed quests:

is there a way to tell if a quest is time sensitive? or ar they all? The last thing I did was one part of the "monster culling" bit for the main quest, I arrived at the cave and all soldiers were dead. Somehow I felt like the game solded me for taking the scenic route.

Wakestones:

Also in that very quest, I got a random pop up telling me I could revive any dead NPC with a wake stone. Thing is, I had one, but three dead soliders. And I don't know, not only is it weird to revive someone at all, but to make a choice seemed even more strange, so I decided not to use it. I thought this was basically an extra-life consumable, but it seems like there's a lot more to it? Is deciding to revivie dead NPCs outside of combat going to be a regular thing?

Thanks everybody!

and somehow managed to recreate the experience from when I got the first one: Way late to the party, into most similar games, why not get this one?

And boy, I forgot how much I loved the first one. Quite possibly the weirdest series I've ever played, and it's because it doesn't advertise this but instead dresses up as a AAA game. I love how yanky it is, I love that it feels like a video game that honors its own systems and gameplay to a fault, NPCs get randomly shoved out of the screen during cutscenes by an oxcart, that physics trumps everything, I LOVE (I cannot understate this) that I can high five my main pawn and pick them up just to celebrate. They're my best friend more than any fully realized NPC with a dramatic backstory.

Damn it's good to be back. Everything is so much fun! Feels like this is the last game that actually feels like a video game from the good old days, but looking good enough not to stand out.

Sorry, just had to say it. I embrace the weird. Don't you ever apologize, game.