I was trying to waste time last night instead of moving on to the next big quest since my oldest daughter likes to see the boss battles. I concocted a method to squeeze out an extra few skill points. Since you only get 1 per level, there's really not enough of them to go around if you're a hoarder like me. You need Detect Hidden to find loot spots, Alchemy to reliably harvest, Mercantile to earn max gold, and so on.

I don't really consider this a "cheat" since it's certainly not free (let's just say you could buy an entire suit of nice armor for what it costs). So here's what you need to do if you're trying to get as many of those precious skill points as you possibly can, here's a way:

It gets a lot more interesting the further you get. It also shows this game to be rather lengthy i'm lvl 19 and it looks as if i'm not even halfway through. You kind of plod around doing the side quests up until about lvl 16 when it gets real and purposeful. I like this better than Skyrim because the combat is a LOT more interesting, haven't really got to the point where it isn't fun and don't think I will. Hopefully they will get an expansion going because this would be a great franchise. It reminds me of Oblivion and Mass Effect mixed together if that makes any sense.

By the way, there are people on the GameFAQs message board suggesting that this game could easily be 100 hours +. So it must be REALLY big.

Just an FYI if anyone hasn't seen it.....but if you're a Jack of All Trades character.....you get +1 to each skill point for your destiny card.

Does everyone just repair their own shit with the repair kits?

No, I've been selling the repair kits and having them repaired by a Blacksmith. With mercantile at +3, I actually net more gold that way I'm pretty sure.

I might have to start bumping that skill up then. I think I only have it at 1.

Oh....and the downloadable content weapons/armor are pretty much worthless after the first hour.....if even that long.

Am I the only one that really has no interest so far in the story?

Yep.

Nope. Some of the side-stories are VERY interesting, though.

That's the thing. The side-stories are pretty interesting. The main story? Doesn't interest me at all. Shit.....I think I've only done 2-3 things on the main quest.

Which brings me to my next question.

Has anyone done any of the Thieves Guild quests?

I am trying not to steal anything (this game does give tremendous leeway when it comes to actually playing a ROLE) so I turned down the offer from the Traveler dude.

I have started the Warsworn quests but the waypoint is clear in the next section to the east and I'm not ready to go there yet. :)

Just an FYI if you actually DO steal things. You CAN'T sell them to any merchant.....at least not until your mercantile skill is completely maxed out. You can only sell them to a merchant that buys and sells stolen goods.....which is conveniently located in the Thieves guild.

Yep. Right now my character is philosophically opposed to theft. :)

I should but usually laze out and pay for it.

Kinda bummed over the Uprising quest, I wanted to take out the other chick but not sure i had a chance to. Not sure if i did it right but the one i killed had a much nicer rack and personality. ;)

I'm totally gonna do that

So technically you could do this multiple times if you have the cash.....right?

I thought this game was supposed to be getting beat up by reviews, most i'm seeing are well deserved 9's.

It doesn't quite work the way I thought. I must have been high or something.

The training is PERMANENT. How I missed that 3 or 4 times before, I have no idea.

GI magazine gave it 8/10.

I haven't seen any other reviews.

This game totally sticks it to you when you make bad decisions with armor. I created a couple of gems and slotted them in some armor. About 2 hours later I found a piece that was twice the armor rating and wanted the gems in that piece. I took the original piece to the gem breaker and the ****er wanted 15,000 gold to pull the gems out....AND he destroyed the armor as well.

****.

On the other hand....it's pretty easy when it comes to the enemies. There aren't a whole lot of enemies that can give me trouble.

Yeah and the bad thing about it is that 15K gold becomes a drop in the bucket pretty early in the game, if you want to grind for it.

It's almost like they WANT to force people to grind...

Yeah.....especially because all of the enemies respawn after a little bit.

Does anyone use any of the hammers or great swords? Those things are SLOOOWWWWWW as **** against enemies like the threshes.

I haven't fought any threshes yet but yes, I use a great sword.

The special moves are a MUST, IMO.

In fact, I've kind of developed a "fighting style" around the greatsword.

When I use the great sword.....I basically start off with arrows or lightning to stun them. If you try and charge in against a thresh just swinging the sword....you'll never hit it.

Yeah, I've had similar problems with the Crudok. I use dodge (L stick + B) a lot and it works great for getting around to their flanks or rear and allowing a hit where it would otherwise be impossible.

The harpoon ability is also very valuable.

The daggers are deadly. I can usually get a combo of 4-5 hits in.....roll around to the flank and repeat. They're to fast for an enemy to keep up.

yep

The thing is, with my great sword if I get in ONE hit, they might be dead already . :)

It's built like an MMO in several ways but is a single player game. It's REALLY fun.

Because the combat is so open ended and customizable.......I end up carrying around a set of daggers, longsword and great sword just to switch it up.

Me too! :)

I should also note that residual damage augments (I prefer fire) are pretty nice to have. I've seen foes react by running around crazily instead of continuing to attack...

I've yet to run into a weapon that has gem slots in it.

I didn't get it from a gem, I bought one somewhere. I've made them on the blacksmith bench too.

Fire, ice, lightning, and poison are all possible without socketing gems.

I'm looking for a socketed weapon that I can add gems to.

Me too.

If you get the Blacksmithing skill up high enough....can you create socketed weapons/armor?

No clue. There's enough good loot available, I haven't seen the need to up it.

I got that. Loving it man. I'm going full might/sorc/fin

htis, you sound so giddy about this. I'm glad. But those damn spiders in that fortress in webwood raped me after i met the Widow and she disappeared. I mean it was hit,hit,hit,hit,hit death. Couldn't block once. Which is great b/c it's on hard. I let them surround me like an idiot too. I love crafting things too. Oh, anyone get that armor set in gorhart? I think that's pretty cool too.

Maybe I need to bump up the difficulty. I'm on Normal and I had no problems fighting the widow.

I haven't fought the Widow yet but the spiders in Webwood proper are pretty tough, especially the Venomspitters...being poisoned really hurts. If I can get close to them though, they are dead.

It's the Crudok that's super tough simply because he has so many attacks that interrupt mine.

By the way, we should be careful with spoilers. ;)

I think I'll do the first playthrough on Normal and then I'll bump it up to Hard on my second run through.

Just finished the House of Ballads storyline. Pretty short but it had a nice boss battle at least, it was actually pretty challenging and felt rewarding after winning.

oh and Chakgrams are the motha****ing WIN in this game, they're so beastly as a mage.

Been using them since i found my first pair.

Yeah, Im a full on mage rocking Chakrams and a Scepter.

Meteor is absolute lolwtfpwnage on the face of whatever used to be standing in front of you. With all of my -mana cost gear/ability/destiny I can pretty much cast all of my spells and never run out. I end up waiting on cooldowns of spells more than needing mana.

Elemental Rage is teh rape, as well as maxed out Mark Of Flame. Tagging five separate targets at once and immolating them all=WIN.

I have master smithing, but cant seem to create gear with epic slots, or ANY gem slots for that matter. I dont know if I need to find higher quality components, or what the deal is. Everything I create at the top level of blacksmithing says mastercrafted, and is usually of blue gear caliber.

Im around level 27 I believe, and unlocked the fifth tier destiny for sorcery, but the level cap is 40, so the epic components/gear just may not be dropping yet based on current level of my character.

I highly recommend speccing into detect hidden, up to the point where you can locate hidden doors. You find so much more hidden loot, its ridiculous. My problem is finding something to spend my gold on. I have over 770k, but just cant find gear/weapons better than what I currently have. I expect that once I cross the waters to the other area on the map, the vendors over there will be asking some seriously high prices for the gear.

Right now the blue level stuff being sold is around 320k. Ive been playing the hell out of this game, and I STILL have a quest list longer than my damn arm.

Well worth the purchase price, but I will say SCREW THE DLC. I downloaded the sorcery pack for 240 points, and the gear in it was absolute shit. Its supposed to scale with level or whatever, but it didnt even come close to beating the stuff Id found in locked chests on my own.

Here I am with 79 or so points in sorcery and I get a set of robes that requires 28 points and has 100 less armor and about 8 less buffs on it.

Totally worthless DLC.

damn, I'm only level 14 atm. But this game could win game of the year for 2012, I haven't put Skyrim back in since I started playing this. But I'm rocking daggers and chakgrams atm. Do spectre's get better? I couldn't get damage when I tried them, I'm sure you have to max out the ability but it is pretty sweet stabbing people in the back for a 1-hit kill with daggers.

I have a scepter right now that does I think 112 damage, divided up over Physical, Fire, and Lightning damage. It also has -20% to mana costs for spells.

I socketed 2 gems in there that I created, both utility style. +20% damage to lightly wounded targets for the first, and then +20% damage to heavily wounded targets. So pretty much after the first hit, my scepter is doing an additional 20% damage.

It hits pretty hard against stuff that is not resistant to fire. Most of the damage total comes from fire, including like 56 burning damage over 3 seconds.

You really have to get the scepter combat boosted, as well as arcane combat to drop the mana total cost per shot. Scepter is actually the only thing i have right now that could actually drain my mana faster than it could regenerate.

WTF!? Im watching Conan and Curt Schilling is there to promote this game, how is he involved? Wtf?

He owns 38 Studios. :)

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showp...4&postcount=39

I never knew, Curt Schilling is even more awesome than I thought.

I can't decide should i play some more Reckoning or catch up on much needed sleep. I haven't played this in about 36 hours so i'm going through withdrawals but i will be out all evening tonight. So Sleep or Reckoning?

I chose Reckoning. It's really contributing to my insomnia problem. :)

looks like a 3D/1st person version of torchlight

Kind of...have you played it yet?

I actually described this game to my friends in a similar way. I used examples like Baldur's Gate, and Torchlight, just using a closeup third person camera.

Honestly, I dont even read half the quests. I see exclamation points, go up and X through to the point where I accept it and just check the Quests menu to see what I need to do. I think the only quests Ive actually read/listened to were the Faction Quests, and my Main Story Quests. Even then, its only the blue topics, I never check out the white ones.

The strength of this game is without a doubt, the core gameplay. If you enjoy tinkering with character builds, crafting potions and weapons, and undertaking the neverending quest for better loot for your character, then this game is aces.

The combat is absolutely awesome, and the minor nitpick I have is actually with the camera needing to pan back about 10 yards or so in instances where there are multiple mobs surrounding me. The gameplay is addictive, and very enjoyable.

If youre looking for Story as the main draw of your RPG experience, Reckoning may let you down, but if you enjoyed games like Torchlight that really didnt even need a story to be fun, you will absolutely love this game.

Killing, Looting, Crafting, and Re-Speccing. Thats the name of the game in Reckoning.

I always explore all of the conversation topics. It often makes for great fun, especially when they say strangely somewhat-conflicting things like:

"I wonder why the Tuatha would attack the Well of Souls" and in the next choice say "The Tuatha evidently weren't happy the Well worked".

:)

I always like "You must follow me to blah blah" then ending the dialogue in the next sentence it's "Alright stop by and see me again sometime"

LMAO it's still fun regardless, It's kewl they've already announced the next game in the series.

Yeah, I just can't stop playing. Totally addicted.

Time to pick it back up again, been ages since i last played...about 7 hours ago. :p

wow, weren't kidding about crafting


so much crap that i don't know what to do with it all

finally got that smash 1000 objects achievement so at least I can stop doing that

Its a pretty good thing that the gameplay is so good. Im around the 32 hour mark, and I seem to have hit a wall in regard to looting. Im still 10 levels from the cap, so I dont know if its just a really bad run of luck on the drops or what.

Looting has been more like junk collecting for the past 12 hours or so.


I did find out however that Boss loot is not set. I killed a huge Niskaru boss and looted a pile of junk off him and my electric company decided it was a good time to flip the power off, and then back on again.

I reboot and go from my autosave, kill him again and he dropped a purple hammer that had some pretty BA effects on it. So if you get into a boss battle and he doesnt drop something good, might just reload your autosave before you reached him and dust him again for a shot at some better loot.

maybe they want to force you to craft good equipment after a certain level?


I just started ... are there craft skills that are a must?

must skills in general?

i'm a mage, love my machine-gun cold wand so far

usually use daggers to sneak up and get first shot then whip out the machine gun and start hitting anything that moves. I use the dodge/roll move a ton.

Laz, try chakgrams. visit a faeweaver and max out chakgrams and you will like it

uhhh ... what?

try whatit's from the whoit's and max out the thingiemajig?



i'm like level 2 ROFL

After putting about 20 points in Might, I've been upping finesse lately. I'm working towards "Blademaster" as a roleplaying kind of device. I use a combination of great sword, long sword, and daggers in the spirit of my character.

My current great sword I actually made at the Blacksmith bench because I hadn't found anything good for a while.

The looting is actually kind of slow in this game overall - I had heard it was bad at high levels but I'm finding the mid-levels even kind of slow. Maybe great swords are just rare...

Right now I've got just enough points in Alchemy (1) to harvest Black Cohosh and Embereyes so I can make an unlimited supply of Minor Healing potions. And I've got just enough points in Sagecrafting (3?) so that I can combine shards into the next higher quality before I craft a gem with them (also helps to keep my inventory under control).

On a side note, is anybody that's over level 20 using Major Healing potions? I've got a few hundred hit points and finding that Minor Healing potions are still plenty good enough.

Could you quit bumping this thread, i've been trying to watch college basketball all day. The combination of Dickie V doing the St. Marys game and you bumping this I won't watch anymore hoops today. ;)

holy crap ... playing this game is giving my headaches.


something about the FOV is screwy

So if you already bought a bunch of training and you want to go to faeweaver to respec, will you keep the training or lose it?

You must be 80 years old. Sucks man.

Training points are kept, as well as points from reading skill books.


Laz, Chakrams are THE weapon for Mages. They are midrange whirling razor discs that you throw out and they come back to you Mjolnir style. You carry two and start flinging those badboys around, you'll only be using that wand to pull mobs and maybe deal finishing hits to ones nearly dead.

Staffs have some neat effects, but theyre so damn slow and the third hit in the chain is what is most effective, but if you get interrupted before that you can get in a bind.


My early mage, I was using Chakrams/Scepter, and using the Mark Of Flame spell quite a bit. I have that thing so pumped now I can tag 7 targets at once and just obliterate them all. Lots of enemies are extremely vulnerable to fire, so if you dont max out Mark of Flame youre really gimping yourself in my opinion.

Im a mage, so naturally all the points I put into sorcery tend to boost my Mana pool every levelup instead of HP, so Minors still do the job for me really easily.

I normally dont even bother crafting them to be honest. I find so much loot that doesnt apply to my build that is actually pretty badass, I end up selling that stuff for 30k plus for each yellow or purple piece, then I just buy out all the potions from the vendors.

I had thought about stashing some of that gear in my house just in case I decided to see a fateweaver and change my playstyle, but my Mage is just so badass I just cant bring myself to do another build yet. I imagine Ill be finishing the game out with all points put into sorcery.

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Total BIscuit strikes again.