Legend Of Grimrock 2 Alchemist
Yeah the alchemist bonus is pretty good but I didn't feel like it'd be necessary and at least early on it's not, and I'd rather have a 2nd mage, though the amount of skills is pretty annoying and I guess a missile user would have been easier to skillup.Also as a side note, Knight's evasion bonus doesn't work. They still get the prot, I think, but that's it. Still sitting at like 50prot at lvl 7 with my knight so it's pretty solid, but kinda annoying one of the listed bonus doesn't do anything. On a similar note, dual wielding swords on a rogue apparently doesn't give it the reduced DW penalty, so if you want to DW swords(or well str weapons I should say), you definitely want a barb, not a rogue. Throwing weapons and Missile weapons are damn handy, since you can always retrieve your ammo. Especially in the beginning, they're a lifesaver.I do like that anyone can cast spells as long as they have a staff/orb/thing, so even my Alchemist can fry stuff.
The added effects from high level elemental skills on spells is nice, like the Burn -status that fire spells start causing after the 3rd(?) tick.Mages do have a lot of skills to learn, but luckily(?) there aren't any 5th tier spells, so you can still round your things up. I don't think you can realistically backstab unless you cast invis first, I checked but even on normal mobs are a lot more reactive than in the first and on hard they pretty much turn as you're circling them, even the slow ones.
With invis though it might be good, but haven't tested yet as I'm rerolling yet again due to the corrupted saves. Frost grenades or Frostbolt would also let you get backstabs off I assume and so would a sleeping dart(but need 2 missile weapons to use the weapon and I think 3 to use the skill).My new party is DW dagger lizard rogue as usual, heavy mino barb(since knight shield bonus doesn't work, might as well get that sweet +1str per level), typical fire/air wizard and alchemist missiles.
Alchemist does make quite a decent difference since you can just walk around for 10mins and get a bunch of free herbs and as far as I could tell, herbs don't respawn so there's a finite amount of consumables you can make in the game without an alchemist. Can't be bothered with firearms ammo and missiles does solid damage with 19dex and the armor piercing thing is nice. Sadly my ratling rolled +str 5levels in a row, so mutation has been pretty worthless and I don't wanna save scum for it. Hope I get some dex or at least vit/will next levels.
Having a rather modified version of my LOG1 party, taking advantage of the new melee classes mostly. LOVE LOVE LOVE the new character portraits; didn't even have to swap in Etrian Odyssey avatars this time!Insectoid Barbarian (Stag beetle)+Acc+armor (the insect-only one)working on +Acc with skills till I don't miss much then dumping in HP and 2HHuman Knight (Granny Beatdown)+HP -Hunger+AlchemistSame story as above, (get to softcap, then raid). Alchemy as I'm doing the 'save only at crystals' bit and I'm sure they ain't going to allow me to rest as easily as the first game did early on.Lizard Wizard (casting Blizzard)+Dodge+WillpowerDodge is for the rare side hits, ain't putting points into it. Didn't find the Lizzie racials that good except for the resists, and hers are already skyhigh.Minotaur Rogue (Cape Buffalo pic)+Headhunter+throwingBLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE.ABC: ALWAYS BE CHUCKIN'. Ah, my first post on GAF, and with one of my favorite game genre too! I wrote FAQs for some of the Japanese Wizardry games back in the day, its nice to see a resurgence for these games lately.
Screw fully open fields, walking in blocks is where it's at!Played about 3 hours with a menagerie party (minotaur battlemage and lizardman rogue in front, ratling alchemist and insectoid wizard at the back). Probably gonna reload, feels a little underpowered and unbalanced.Some thoughts:- Man, dexterity is a must in this game. My minotaur is basically useless in melee combat, since he barely hits anything most of the time. Leaving dexterity as a drop stat for him isn't working so well.- Strength as a stat seems a bit useless so far.
I've found plenty of dex-based weapons that do just about the same damage as str-based weapons, plus you NEED dexterity to hit anything. Hopefully there's some strength weapons that do far more damage later in the game, otherwise dexterity will be a pretty lopsided stat.- On the flip-side, dodge doesn't seem to be doing much. My poor lizardman is almost always the one that is near death after every encounter, lol. But being a dual-wielder with dex weapons, means he's also the best damage output guy as well.- Two mages is probably a bit much, but my minotaur battlemage holds his own with some spells (since he's near useless for melee for now).- Insectoid mage does big damage though, being Fire+Air focused. Could be the fault of RNG, but seems like lightning does more damage that fire, unless the enemy is weak to fire (those wooden things in the forest are the only enemy so far that seem to have a weakness, this case to fire).- Not very convinced on the alchemist so far, not sure if he's worth keeping rather than just putting a couple of points in alchemy on one of my other characters. Herbs are fairly plentiful in the early going.- Is it just me, or when a gun jams once during combat, it basically continues jamming through the rest of it?
Also, the limited gun ammo really kills it too.Will probably try to have three melee guys, with one at the back via the reach ability, have a tank in front, and drop the alchemist.How about you guys? Any party success stories so far?
On missing and dex, note that the Accuracy skill provides 10accuracy per point, while dex is only like 2. Also can get the weaponmaster trait at creation for 7accuracy. With that said on my new mino I went 5str 5dex at creation, he has 14vit base anyway so hp is fine plus I made a barb so high hp growth, and the 5dex puts him at a decent amount, with 1pt accuracy he's actually not missing much.Str as a stat is definitely weaker than dex though. On the flipside, you can get much much more str than dex, besides maybe ratling save scumming. Barbs minos get +1str per lvl and +1str per skull with a base of like 21, while most dex chars just kinda cap at 19dex with no real way to increase other than ways also available to str(potions, gear and such).
Legend Of Grimrock 2 Alchemy
So while dex chars are better off early on, later on I assume str outscales them(backstab dagger aside, but as per my previous post, backstab seems iffy for now, I need to get high enough to really test it though). And you can make str chars decent early on by just investing a bit into accuracy. On missing and dex, note that the Accuracy skill provides 10accuracy per point, while dex is only like 2.
Also can get the weaponmaster trait at creation for 7accuracy. With that said on my new mino I went 5str 5dex at creation, he has 14vit base anyway so hp is fine plus I made a barb so high hp growth, and the 5dex puts him at a decent amount, with 1pt accuracy he's actually not missing much.Str as a stat is definitely weaker than dex though. On the flipside, you can get much much more str than dex, besides maybe ratling save scumming. Barbs minos get +1str per lvl and +1str per skull with a base of like 21, while most dex chars just kinda cap at 19dex with no real way to increase other than ways also available to str(potions, gear and such). So while dex chars are better off early on, later on I assume str outscales them(backstab dagger aside, but as per my previous post, backstab seems iffy for now, I need to get high enough to really test it though).
And you can make str chars decent early on by just investing a bit into accuracy. Thanks for the info.
I've put one point in Accuracy for my minotaur, he still whiffs most of his attacks though - maybe I'm just that unlucky, I dunno. Then again I'm still early in the game so I didn't really find any good str weapon asides from some clubs. The rapier (that you used for a few early puzzles) special thrust attack is BOSS like hell though, heh. Dual-wielding that with a magic dagger lets my rogue tear through stuff.By the way, does anyone know what's the max level you can achieve in this game, or how much skill points you can ultimately get? Want to plan out my party a bit. I'm sticking with my initial character roll, warts and all.
I've certainly wasted a few points here and there as I've picked up on the game's systems (assumed swords would be heavy, and that only daggers and other small weapons, etc. Would be light, for example) but I'm playing on Normal difficulty and I feel pretty confident that the game will allow enough leeway for me to get by comfortably. I only tend to ride the min/max cart when I'm specifically challenging myself on higher difficulties. I enjoy the learning process and the on-the-fly adjustment thereto. I'm sticking with my initial character roll, warts and all. I've certainly wasted a few points here and there as I've picked up on the game's systems (assumed swords would be heavy, and that only daggers and other small weapons, etc.
Would be light, for example) but I'm playing on Normal difficulty and I feel pretty confident that the game will allow enough leeway for me to get by comfortably. I only tend to ride the min/max cart when I'm specifically challenging myself on higher difficulties. I enjoy the learning process and the on-the-fly adjustment thereto. Battlemage seems like a weird choice. On one hand, they have a much higher survivability than other mages, but on the other hand, you can't really put one in the front row and expect them to tank it out. And there are the skillpoints too, of course.
A Battlemage can reasonably expect to master out maybe one spellschool, and the rest will be divided with fighting skills. You could use a Battlemage like a normal mage though, from the back row, to ensure they survive in back and flank attacks, but those won't happen if you're careful.Just go with Wizard. On my first party, my Wizard was the only one that hadn't died even once after I managed to. Battlemage seems like a weird choice. On one hand, they have a much higher survivability than other mages, but on the other hand, you can't really put one in the front row and expect them to tank it out.
And there are the skillpoints too, of course. A Battlemage can reasonably expect to master out maybe one spellschool, and the rest will be divided with fighting skills. You could use a Battlemage like a normal mage though, from the back row, to ensure they survive in back and flank attacks, but those won't happen if you're careful. Lots and lots of ambushes, I can attest to that. Tha'ts why Force Field is.the. best spell in the game. With 5 Concentration, you can cast a second one while the first one still has about half it's duration left.
You can create bottlenecks with it, freeze enemies in place by casting it on them or, best of all, cast it on a wall and create it around yourself, turning it into a sanctuary where you can drink and make potions, cast protections, wait for cooldowns and all that good stuff. It turns many ambushes from 'instant death' to 'mildly irritating'.
In my opinion it's less 'Dance Dance Revolution' (as I saw it described) - monster AI (not all monsters though, they seem to have gone for varying levels of intelligence) has improved to make kiting/dodging to the sides less effective.I never fully got into the combat in the first, and it sometimes felt like a chore to me. In 2, positioning is still very important with bottlenecks and the like, but I haven't found myself always trying to run around enemies to attack them before they can turn like I did in 1.TL;DR, it's better (imo).
In my opinion it's less 'Dance Dance Revolution' (as I saw it described) - monster AI (not all monsters though, they seem to have gone for varying levels of intelligence) has improved to make kiting/dodging to the sides less effective.I never fully got into the combat in the first, and it sometimes felt like a chore to me. In 2, positioning is still very important with bottlenecks and the like, but I haven't found myself always trying to run around enemies to attack them before they can turn like I did in 1.TL;DR, it's better (imo).
A first person dungeon-crawler with sedate real-time action and nefarious puzzlesInfluenced by: Chaos Strikes Back, Eye of the Beholder 2Play it on: Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 1GB Graphics CardAlternatively: Ys: Origins, Dark Souls 2Copy protection: SteamRelease: Out nowDeveloper: Almost Human GamesPublisher: Almost Human GamesMultiplayer: NonePrice: £16/$24Link:Legend of Grimrock was the triumphant resurrection of a long-dead genre. Twenty years ago, first-person roleplaying games with real-time combat were the height of sophistication. I remember: I was there, playing them and having an amazing time.
The question is whether this sequel can bring fresh creativity to grid-based dungeon crawling.Instead of a dungeon, your team of four prisoners is shipwrecked on a mysterious island. You can run the default party, or build your own from an expanded range of character options. These include the disease-immune Ratling, and the Farmer, who improbably gains experience from eating instead of battle. I was frustrated by the original's long skill trees, which forced me to specialise before I understood the game, but there are now more skills with fewer levels, so I felt safe experimenting without fear of spoiling my character builds. It's enough flexibility to satisfy those who enjoy optimising statistics, but it's not necessary for success.When ready, you're released into one of the new outdoor areas.
Legend Of Grimrock 2 Alchemist Download
The beaches and bogs, forests and foggy graveyards all look spectacularly atmospheric in the improved engine. But it's an illusion. You're still moving around a grid on a one-tap, one-square basis. The oddly geometric riverbanks give the game away: it's just a dungeon without a roof.There's still plenty of underground action too, to please the purists. No longer limited to single storeys, the design kindles a wonderful desire to explore. With so many novel environments, it's easy to lose track as you wander down every path and staircase.
Several times I'd be scouring a new area for clues, then stumble over some hidden dungeon. Unable to resist the lure of discovery I'd emerge hours later, clueless as to what I'd been doing in the first place.To see it all, you'll need to get past the puzzles that often control access to new areas. The diabolical mix of logic, riddles and hidden objects that characterised the original remains intact. Sometimes the solution is a distant pressure plate or secret button, sometimes it's experimenting with diverse switches and levers. There's little handholding: just you, your brain and the uncaring pixels. Getting stuck made me feel anxious and alone.
The payoff for cracking the answer was a fleeting moment of being the cleverest gamer in the world.With so many novel environments, it's easy to lose track as you wander down every path and staircase.That extra map space has been used to up the ante. Now, some puzzles demand you piece together clues and objects scavenged from the far corners of the island. Opening one stubborn door required me to untangle a cryptic riddle hidden in a library at the bottom of a distant dungeon. It's sometimes overwhelming: faced with some fresh conundrum, I was never certain if the answer was under my nose or hours further into the game. The problem is exacerbated by limited facilities for note-taking, buried in the automap.If you do get stumped, you can always take a break with the new dungeon builder.
Creating your own environments is time consuming, with lots of options to play with, but the simple interface makes it relatively easy. No doubt we'll soon see plenty of fan-made dungeons to download—many less vexing than their progenitor. It hardly bears imagining that some might be worse.Some puzzles require real-time dexterity, such as the spike trap that requires precise timing to navigate. Combat is the bigger test of reflexes. You launch attacks by clicking, either on weapons or rune combinations for spells. Often you'll also need to quaff a potion or use a magic item in the melee.
Monsters often seem to be one step tougher than your party, so even with the relatively sedate pace of the action, overcoming foes demands a skilled frenzy of coordinated clicks.In the original, fights devolved into a slow-motion circle strafe of backing off and looping round, trying to land blows while avoiding pain. But many new monsters have new moves to thwart this trick. Some have ranged attacks, some assault all adjacent squares and others tumble sideways faster than you can run. This makes combat more tactical affair, where you have to use the scenery as a shield.
It also encourages experimentation with the expanded palette of spells and missile weapons. The latter include primitive firearms that are almost as dangerous to the heroes as the monsters. One new class, the Alchemist, minimises this risk by reducing the chance of malfunctions.Grimrock's greatest strength has always been the seamless stitching of diverse elements. By adding new angles in exploration and tactics, this sequel brilliantly expands the synthesis of puzzles and twitch action that made the original so memorable. Existing fans will love it. But by continuing the unwavering dedication to difficulty, it's unlikely to win new converts to this neglected genre.