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 What is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning? It's a 3rd person fantasy action RPG made by the now-defunct 38 Studios. It's unlike many other games in that the very first thing that happens, before you even get control, is your character dies. The rest of the game is dealing with what happens when someone returns back to life, no longer bound by fate like everyone else. The title is very long because Curt Schilling wanted to create an epic fantasy series, and this was supposed to be the game that kick started a franchise. In terms of gameplay, it is incredibly fun. The action is really fast paced, and if you decide you don't like playing a certain archetype, the game lets you respec for extremely cheap. So at any time you can change up how you play! Also the game has an extremely troubled history. It was involved in one of the biggest gaming scandals of 2012, and the IP is actually owned by the state of Rhode Island, thus the thread title. More on all that later, though! Wait, Curt Schilling? Yes, Curt Schilling. Former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Apparently he liked games so much that he wanted to create one. Same story you hear from game-playing nerds all the time, except he had enough money to actually pull it off. About the LP Because the game is so open ended with how you can approach it, I'm gonna leave all that to the thread. Yes, you guys will be voting to tell me how you want to see me play this. Every time we get to the end of a zone, I'm gonna put up for vote where we go next and how the character will be specialized. Because I have to reallocate stat points and such every time the character is respecced, you guys won't be voting on specifics. Instead, the voting will be for the general build like mage, warrior, warrior-mage, etc. I will do my best to show off the various skills, and if there are any requests I would be happy to take those into account. But for the most part, leave the specifics to me. The first vote won't occur until the end of the second zone. Until that point, the builds all play about the same and there aren't enough points to distribute to really make a difference. Oh and because it would trivialize the game, I will not be abusing gemcrafting and blacksmithing to create gamebreaking armors that leave the character invulnerable. Also joining me in this little endeavor will be Shlapintogan. Both of us have played the game through at least once, though he remembers more about it than I do. So this should be pretty fun! Spoiler Policy Please use spoiler tags if you're talking about something we haven't gotten to in the LP yet. The story is not very good, but there are still some genuinely cool moments in the game that are much better if they're left as a surprise! Also I would really appreciate it if the pages in the thread didn't look like this. The Videos:  (Ep 01 Direct Link) (Ep 02 Direct Link)  (Ep 04 Direct Link) (Ep 04.5 Direct Link) (Ep 05 Direct Link) (Ep 06 Direct Link) (Ep 07 Direct Link) (Ep 08 Direct Link) (Ep 09 Direct Link) (Ep 10 Direct Link) (Ep 11 Direct Link) (Ep 12 Direct Link) (Ep 13 Direct Link) (Ep 14 Direct Link) ***THIS VIDEO HAS A LOT OF SPIDERS*** (Ep 15 Direct Link) ***SPIDER WARNING CONTINUES***
DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jan 28, 2015 |
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May 14, 2014 17:43
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Reserved for future use
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May 14, 2014 17:44
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Episode 01: Youtube direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pfq8FuV40c Also first vote time. See, the character that we just went through the tutorial is only a placeholder. I can certainly stick with her if you guys want, but you have the option to change her! So if you want to see anything different, I need to know. I need to know specifically name, race, gender, hair color, and eye color. As for races, there are four choices: Almain - These guys are your generic humans and get bonuses to persuade, blacksmithing, and alchemy. Varani - These guys are another type of human and they get bonuses to lockpicking, detect hidden, and mercantile. Ljosalfar - These guys are your traditional magic elf and get bonuses to dispelling, alchemy, and sagecrafting. Dokkalfar - Finally, these guys are your sneaky elves, and they get bonuses to persuasion, stealth, and sagecrafting. The bonuses are only one or two points at most, and don't really affect anything outside of the first maybe half hour of the game. Once you start leveling up, you can put points wherever you wish and the bonuses stop counting for as much. Quick and dirty skills explanation: Persuade is convincing an NPC of something, usually a lie. There's an example of this about 2/3 through the video. Blacksmthing is creating weapons and armor of your own. You can break the game wide open with this. I will not be breaking the game wide open. Alchemy is creating potions from ingredients you find in the wild. Lockpicking is the skill of breaking into locked chests and doors. Usually there are rewards for doing so! Mercantile is the skill of getting a better price when selling to a vendor. Detect Hidden lets you find more gold when breaking open containers. It also lets you see hidden things on the minimap. Dispelling is the magical version of lockpicking. Some chests are magically trapped and this is how you get rid of those traps. Sagecrafting is what I kept calling gemcrafting in the video. It is the skill of using shards to create jewels you can socket into armor. It can be paired with blacksmithing to utterly break the game. Stealth is the skill of moving around undetected. Higher ranks mean you have more time before an NPC sees you. We also need to pick the character's patron god, and this is for a permanent bonus to one thing or another. Almain can choose from the following gods: God of Fire - A 6% fire damage and 6% fire resistance bonus God of Wisdom - A 10% mana bonus God of War - A 5% physical damage and 5% armor bonus God of Order - A 5% health and 5% mana bonus God of Justice - A 10% health bonus Athiest - A 1% bonus to all experience earned Varani can choose from the following gods: God of Fire - A 6% fire damage and 6% fire resistance bonus God of Water - A 6% ice damage and 6% ice resistance bonus God of War - A 5% physical damage and 5% armor bonus God of Death - A 1% chance to critical hit and 8% critical damage bonus God of Mischief - A 6% poison damage and 6% poison resistance bonus Athiest - A 1% bonus to all experience earned Ljosalfar can choose from the following gods: God of Earth - A 5% elemental resistance bonus God of Air - A 6% lightning damage and 6% lightning resistance bonus God of Wisdom - A 10% mana bonus God of Order - A 5% health and 5% mana bonus God of Justice - A 10% health bonus Athiest - A 1% bonus to all experience earned Dokkalfar can choose from the following gods: God of Wisdom - A 10% mana bonus God of Love - A 5% health and 1% critical hit chance bonus God of Death - A 1% chance to critical hit and 8% critical damage bonus God of Fate - A 5% mana bonus and +5% mana regeneration per second God of Mischief - A 6% poison damage and 6% poison resistance bonus Athiest - A +1% bonus to all experience earned DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 19:23 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 17:47
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I need to make a correction... I'm only partially right about the god bonuses. See all the bonuses I posted above? Those are for Almain. Each different race has a different pantheon to choose from. So gimme a little bit to make some corrections... EDIT: Made some changes to the list of gods. Lots more choice now! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 19:23 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 19:04
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Magnetic North posted:
I'd be really interested in seeing a Rhode Islander's perspective on what happened! It's bound to be much better informed than whatever I would type up as a recap on the events. Everyone Else posted:Votes It's been more-or-less 24 hours and I've counted up the votes. I'm counting each separate category as a separate vote. So Speedball's elf is a vote for Dokkalfar, Female, and God of Fate for instance. code:VV - Changed the viking god vote to reflect water instead! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 18:27 on May 15, 2014 |
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May 15, 2014 18:24
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It also just occurred to me, but how do you guys feel about the special delivery items? For those that aren't aware, the special delivery chest is where DLC armors get placed. It's right in the first town and contains at least one set of every type of armor, and at least one of every weapon type in the game. The items are all really good for when you get them, but they're only useful for the first hour or two. Right now my plan is to beeline for that chest once I get control and loot it for goodies, and then occasionally switch the weapons and armor around to show everything off.
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May 15, 2014 20:28
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Drachir D Nalem posted:I never could get through this. It's like playing a MMO all alone This really is the most apt description of the gameplay. It also hits really close to the truth, probably closer than you anticipated. The money that Amalur didn't make was supposed to bankroll 38's next project - a MMO in the Amalur setting. Unfortunately, the studio needed Call of Duty numbers to finance the project. And the game, while not a critical failure, simply had too much going against it to ever reach CoD numbers. It was a brand new IP, it looked like a generic fantasy hack and slash, and as far as I can tell, it received next to no advertising. This is getting into the 38 story, but I recall reading that the company was so broke from trying to develop their MMO that quite a lot of paychecks were dependent on the game achieving financial success. I don't mean that as a condition either, like when Zenimax screwed over Obsidian on their bonuses for New Vegas. No, I mean that the company was so broke they literally could not afford to pay their employees for several weeks, maybe even months, until money from the game came in.
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May 16, 2014 18:01
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Alright, voting is officially closed! Final totals listed in descending order (in numeric form) code:code:code:code:Anyway, time to get to recording!
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May 17, 2014 19:13
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I've finished recording the first zone and I've got approximately two hours of footage. So I'm thinking four or five videos, depending on how edit points fall. Also a quick twitter poll had nearly unanimous support for "Lisa" so that's what I wound up going with. Kinda wish I'd seen the Hrist suggestion first, because that sounded pretty awesome!
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May 17, 2014 23:10
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Hey everyone, you know what time it is? Ep 02 Youtube If you reflexively responded "Tool Time" then you, too, watched too much Home Improvement while growing up. If the HD isn't ready yet, give it a few minutes. Youtube JUST finished processing it as soon as I stuck it in the polsy wrapper. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 05:03 on May 20, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 04:59
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Sindai posted:Those stretched polygons at the end are usually a symptom of a failing/overheating video card, not a bug in the game. If it starts happening more frequently or in other games your card is probably about to die. The stretched polygons luckily went away when I swapped from fullscreen to windowed, and didn't appear again for the rest of the session. And while it would be frustrating if my card were dying, I would also understand. Sucker's been in my PC for four years now, and it's gotta be nearing the end of its life. This is the card currently installed, and you can see that sucker's old. So if it does go down, I can order a new one and have it expedited and be back up in a couple days. The LP curse (hopefully) won't take me down like it did for dotHack!
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May 20, 2014 08:04
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Zain posted:One thing I noticed in this video and it might just be the area you came into. It's a lot more chug than anything else. It's hard on the eyes to actually watch it or maybe that's just how the combat now goes. I went back through and scanned through the source video really quick, but I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say you see "more chug." I'd be glad to fix anything wrong with the video, so please let me know what you're seeing and where it is you're seeing it!
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May 21, 2014 01:14
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Looking again, the framerate drop is in the source video, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it. When we transitioned from Allestar Tower to the outside world, the game loaded every zone in Dalentarth. The only discrete load points in the game are for dungeons and between major areas (the forest, the plains, the desert, etc). Otherwise, it's all a gigantic open space.
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May 21, 2014 01:26
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It's at least three more videos out, but I'm gonna dedicate an entire episode to those things. They are insanely awesome and were what I used for pretty much the entirety of my first playthrough. New video will be up in the next day or two. But no matter that. If you're in the United States, you don't need to be in today anyway. You need to be outdoors eating grill charred meat! Happy Memorial Day
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May 26, 2014 09:47
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New videos are coming Very Soon! Also while recording commentary for the next video, we decided that because there was so much talking to NPCs, and because all the conversations were so close together, that voiced commentary just wouldn't work. The NPCs wouldn't let us get a word in edgewise! And so, have a teaser for the next video! Also accidental TweetDeck popup.  The next video will not be done in Comic Sans MS
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May 30, 2014 16:17
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I also apologize for the lateness of this update. I've had some annoying Internet connection issues that don't seem to actually get better, no matter what I try. The only reason this update happened at all was because of a jury rig I pulled to ensure I could stay connected.
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May 30, 2014 19:38
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It's Monday and I like to think I can keep a schedule. Or pretend I can at least. (Ep 04 Direct Link)
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Jun 2, 2014 20:28
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Schwartzcough posted:So if Fae are immortal and come back to life if they die, why is anyone concerned about healing the one that got beaten up in town? She'll be fine. Fae have a that whole better-than-you thing going on. And even though Iluvia will be reborn, I can't imagine that her liege lord would take very well the news about the murder of one of his vassals at the hands of mortals. It would be extraordinarily unhealthy for Gorhart.
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Jun 3, 2014 02:56
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If you have an Origin account and don't own this game, it's 70% off on that service. https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/buy/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning $6 for a game this long and fun is one hell of a deal!
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Jun 3, 2014 15:58
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Apparently this week is sale week. Amalur and all DLC is ALSO on sale on PSN. Base game is $5 and DLC is less than that. https://store.sonyentertainmentnetw...aystation-store
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Jun 4, 2014 00:55
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I'm behind this week, because I am incredibly good at balancing my time. So have an interim video while I get the real update sorted. (Ep 04.5 Direct Link)If 720p isn't available, give it a few minutes. It JUST finished processing. The music used is available here ETA: I'm incredibly good at using hammers and greatswords in this video. Thus the clusterfuck designation. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 20:02
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(Ep 05 Direct Link) As always, give it a few minutes if 720p isn't available yet. Also watch the update before reading the spoilertext below. No seriously. Watch the update first. SPOILERS START HERE!    Disclaimer: No I don't necessarily find lazy eyes funny. It was just a snowball effect where one of us started laughing and that set the other one off. I pointed it out right as soon as we started talking to him and the giggling lasted well past when we stopped recording. ETA: This video also puts us at the end of the first zone! Gonna respec to mage the next time I record and get the second zone knocked out in short order. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 01:41
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So like I mentioned on the last page, I respecced to mage for Yolvan. I just finished recording the first bit of that and wanted to share how I kitted Lisa out. For skills, I just dropped all three points I could into Detect Hidden. The fourth rank, and the last one we can take before level 8, lets us disarm traps!  As far as the actual important part of leveling up went, I had 12 points to distribute. (Note that there are 0 in Might and Finesse respectively, so she's a pure mage right now.) 6 went into the first and second tier weapon skills over on the left side. Those give us various moves with the three sorcery weapons, as well as damage bonuses. I show them all off in the next video, but right now I have a charge attack for the staff, scepter, and chakrams. The staff and scepter also get an attack you can use from behind cover of a shield. Over on the far right, three more points went into a skill that reduces mana usage, which gives us pretty decent savings. Finally, there's two points in the lightning skill we already had and one point in a pretty awesome fire rune skill that I will be abusing like crazy in the videos.  Finally, at 11 points in any given tree you can unlock the second tier destiny which further improves damage and mana efficiency! So we're pretty well set for the coming zone.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:44
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In the increasingly unlikely chance that anyone following this hasn't yet purchased a copy of the game, it's on sale. Again. This time on GMG. Activates on Origin, but has all DLC. $10. http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/rpgs/kingdoms-amalur-reckoning-pack-na/ The number of sales is getting to be kinda funny, tbh. 
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Jun 13, 2014 20:29
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Double post! (four days later) (Ep 06 Direct Link) With me this time are Shlapintogan and EntranceJew! ETA: Youtube is taking an exceptionally long time to process the HD version. So right now all the 360p version is all that's available. ETA2: Complain about it enough and it apparently fixes itself. HD is now available! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 08:01
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Lord_Ventnor posted:What exactly makes scepters a terrible weapon, out of curiosity. The damage is super low compared to other weapons and it uses your mana as ammo. I'll keep trying scepters as the LP goes on, but compared to longswords, daggers, bows, staves, and chakrams they simply are unable to hold up. Also they don't really do combos, you just kinda brace it like a RPG and shoot it. 
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Jun 18, 2014 02:26
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(Ep 07 Direct Link) Still featuring EntranceJew!  This is the level up seen in the video. I was wrong, as I only put one additional point in the mark of flame ability. The third point went into more mana efficiency. 720p will be available eventually. Stupid slow youtube processing. DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 23:13
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Schwartzcough posted:I forget if this was covered already, but is there any reason NOT to always try the persuasion options? Does it ever lock you out of other options? As far as I know, you're not penalized for trying. TBH, I have almost never used the persuasion options simply because I almost never invest points in it. There's always better skills to invest points in, and if you really want an outcome, you can just savescum until the 5% chance succeeds.
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Jun 28, 2014 23:47
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There was a video here, it is gone now.
DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 04:02
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Double post. Apparently youtube hosed my audio. So I'm taking the video down and re-uploading it.
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Jul 3, 2014 04:29
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Another post. Whatever! It's fixed now! (Ep 08 Direct Link)
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Jul 3, 2014 05:08
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Psion posted:well, that and the helpful quest sorting into four categories: "you need to do this, you should do this, I guess you can do this if you want, gently caress this noise" The book quest I picked up in the video I posted last night is a perfect example of the last category. There is nothing redeeming about that quest and it is easily the worst in the game. I'll eventually start ignoring that last category as well, because there's simply too many to realistically do.
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Jul 3, 2014 20:20
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(Ep 09 Direct Link) This video features Grasslamb and Shlapintogan  The level-up in this video had us picking up two more points in Mark of Flame, which is quickly becoming my favorite ability ever. Also the last point in Conservative Casting, giving us a 22% mana cost reduction on every spell we cast! The video's been processing for 45 minutes now and still isn't HD. So, y'know, beware and such. 720p will eventually be ready!
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Jul 10, 2014 06:28
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The next video is encoding as we speak so it'll be up in a few hours. In the meantime however, I have something important to say. It's voting time! Yes, we've finally reached that point where the LP "opens up" as it were, and you guys get to decide on stuff from here on out! Go to this link to vote on what zone we go to next. One way leads us toward the main plot and the continuation of the House of Ballads questline. The other way continues the Warsworn questline and some miscellaneous assorted sidequests, including the grieving widow we found in Gorhart village. Optional Assignment: In no more than 200 words, I want you to write what class Lisa should change into, and what two weapons she should use. This is not a popularity vote! The best reasoned essay will decide what class, if any, she becomes. This is also the time to suggest any skills you want me to show off! EDIT: Polls and essays will be open until sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. Don't wait until the last minute! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Jul 17, 2014 |
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Jul 17, 2014 05:43
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And here's the video that I promised! (Ep 10 Direct Link) This is the level up we got in the video. I put the last point in Mark of Flame, put another point in our mage shield, and a single point in healing. We talk more about healing after the main video's over. Spoilers: it's a bad spell. Also, as far as the voting goes? The locations that do not win on the polls will be where we go after we finish the two that won. So in the case, as it appears now, of Glendara and Haxhi winning, we will go to Webwood and Ettinmere after we finish in Haxhi. So don't worry too awful much about missing any content.
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Jul 17, 2014 07:29
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Just reminding folks that the voting ends tomorrow. It's gonna end approximately this time tomorrow, so... 4pm EDT. Adjust as necessary for your own timezone! So if you haven't yet voted in the poll, or haven't typed up that essay on the class to use yet, now's the time! This is the official 24 hours left warning!
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Jul 18, 2014 21:00
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Double post, but whatever. I'm about 10 minutes early, but no new votes have been cast in the past several hours, so I can safely announce the winner. Glendara and Haxhi have won the popular vote for next destination, with 11 votes against Webwood and Ettinmere's 5. Also there were only two entries for what class to be, and given the nature of both votes, I can safely say that both won. Speedball posted:Universalist Build and AltaBrown posted:I went full rogue in my playthrough, so I'd like to see any other build. Use mine as a tie breaker if it comes down to it. The Universalist build won! And since that build is not a rogue, that also qualifies! As far as weapons go, I've been using chakrams a lot, so I'm going to shelve those for a while to give other weapons a chance to shine. So, I'm thinking Longsword and Bow, or Faeblades and Longsword. Something to that effect.
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Jul 19, 2014 20:55
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Because I am incredibly lazy, I only today finally recorded the next set of updates. Glendara is an incredibly short zone, maybe three videos at best. But that's not why I'm posting. Time to show you all how I built the Jack-of-all-Trades Lisa.  Skills time! After spending ten videos preaching about the usefulness of Detect Hidden, I have opted to show off something else instead. All the discussion recently about Persuasion has, well, persuaded me to give it a chance to shine. Also featured are points in lockpicking, because that will never not be useful.  These are the sorcery talents I put points into. Just the bog standard electric blast and conservative casting.  On the might front, I've got the first tier of Brutal Weaponry, a point in the Harpoon skill, and one in the defense skill to unlock the second tier. The harpoon skill is, as you might imagine, a Scorpion-style "GET OVER HERE!" ability. The defense skill adds points to I think shield blocking ability? In the second tier, I put another point in Brutal Weaponry, and finally a point in the second tier defense skill, because it provides a percentage reduction to incoming damage. Also note that you should avoid the skill with the hand icon on the second tier of Might. I'll let the BeforeIPlay wiki speak for itself here: "Before I Play wiki posted:If you decide to put points in the Might tree, do NOT invest in Adrenaline Surge. Instead of healing you for 20% health when you drop below 25% like it says in the description, it is bugged and will damage you for 20% instead.  Finally in the Finesse tree, I put points in Shadow Flare and the longbow skills. The bottom bow skill adds raw damage, while the top adds armor penetration to your shots. Both also increase the number of arrows you can fire.   Finally, because we have more than 6 points in each of the three trees, we have unlocked both the first and second tier Jack-of-all-Trades destinies.  While before today I hadn't used a universalist build, it is incredibly powerful. Here, I believe we're getting the bonuses for the level 8 Persuasion ability while at level 6.
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Jul 28, 2014 21:54
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(Ep 11 Direct Link) Featuring Shlapintogan    The skills taken at the level up in this video were all passives. Conservative casting for the mage tree, extra damage and more arrows from the rogue tree, and more additional moves for our longsword from the warrior tree.
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Aug 19, 2014 22:43
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Sleep of Bronze posted:When it comes to universalists, do you prefer lots of passives over having to manage actives from all the classes, or is this just a thing for the level? I'm gonna be honest, my strategy while leveling up is to just grab whatever skills look the most useful. I tend to gravitate towards passives, as I'm playing with a controller instead of a keyboard, and can only have four skills easily accessible at any given time.
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Aug 19, 2014 23:42
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