The key to liking this game ...

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

The key to liking this game lies in taking the path of the rebels - and in choosing a 2H weapon instead of becoming a pure spell caster.

Compared with the rebel path, the other paths are shallow. To me it seems the rebel path is the real Tyranny story, while the other options are just a bonus for a little bit of replayability and role-playing. It's been a major mistake in my two first playthroughs to support the Scarlet Chorus and the Disfavored next. Forging an alliance against the overlord Kyros leads to a much more entertaining quest line, more conversation choices and more world "building" around your deeds. Compared with that, supporting the Scarlet Chorus or the Disfavored is unimaginative and uneventful. The path of betrayal means fighting, fighting and fighting - with no other choices anymore.

Wielding 2H weapons could also be experienced with Barik or Kills-in-Shadows, of course - and even more so, if making the main character a weapon'n'shield warrior. The spell casting in this game sucks mostly, but with three melee oriented companions who learn a few self-supporting illusions and healing spells, one can cover 2H, 1H and dual-wielding and use a forth companion for high Lore.

This last playthrough has been much better than the ones before.

[Hawke]

Glad for you.

I prefer the solo path (for the glory of Kyros, of course) and dual wielding. It's really nice for a change to stop worrying about what cannon fodder thinks of you and just cut through. Kind of wierd that maces, daggers and swords are in the one category (one-handed weapon), though.

[shinros]

Originally posted by Hawke:

Glad for you.

I prefer the solo path (for the glory of Kyros, of course) and dual wielding. It's really nice for a change to stop worrying about what cannon fodder thinks of you and just cut through. Kind of wierd that maces, daggers and swords are in the one category (one-handed weapon), though.

Yup same here plus working with the best npc ever.

[tadsaine]

i'll have to try that out, thaks for the tip. i am having a hard time liking this game - it feels shallow to me as well, especially compared to Pillars. the story and NPC companions aren't at all compelling like they were in Pillars, and i actually find the NPC's a bit annoying, especially Verse. BUT, i do like the combat, and there is enough here to keep me moving forward. i hope something in this game will eventually click with me.

[Kaboomek]

Wait, what? Spellcasting sucks? Maybe if your lore is low and you have no clue which runes to use. If you have some idea on how to play a mage class in this game, you are just a killing machine, not to mention that you can CC enemies left and right. On the hardest difficulty new game plus, it would be rather difficult to not run with a spellcaster...

[Aristocratic Cthulhu]

Don't forget that basically everybody can learn a basic heal spell :P

[Happygamer]

I agree that the Rebel path is the most rewarding but I am enjoying spell casting since the other party members I run with typically are melee.

[Dorok]

My answer is before any DLC: I understand the choice of Rebel path but I don't share this answer because for me it's the most conventional path. And solo path tag too much the player as a lonely egoist, I found that tedious.

Chorus and Disfavored are quite more original paths, but both are rude if you don't like be embarked in some evil actions, and from that aspect it's even more heavy with Chorus path. Still despite I never play real evil in RPG and tend try pick the good with some greedy exceptions, I found both path quite playable anyway and quite more interesting to play.

If I need choose my favorite path, it would be Disfavored with a right set of choices during strategic prelude and right choice of companions and bring Disfavored leader on my side.

Magic is very powerful and you don't even need hyper optimize it. There's combinations of sword and magic working very well. My 2H mage worked very well at highest difficulty.

[MrMurLock]

Agreed that the rebel path 'feels' the most true. But I 100% disagree with your opinion on the spell casting, true initially when you dont have the various sigils available spells could be a little lackluster, but the spell system in this game is my favorite compared to other isometric rpgs.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by k4b00m:

Wait, what? Spellcasting sucks? Maybe if your lore is low and you have no clue which runes to use.

Kindly keep your poor attitude at home. You presume too much.

You probably haven't followed my earlier posts where I had mentioned that I've played specialized guild mages in the first two playthroughs. It's not low Lore skill - I've stopped observing the skill at 350 - and it's not that the spell Cores, Expressions and Accents are bad - the cheese is how the scroll sigils are distributed through the game, so the game controls which spells you can build in which order. You cannot influence that. You can focus on a fast increasing Lore skill, but you are limited to the available sigils instead of facing more freedom, such as deciding which sigils to learn when. It's not your caster's level that influences which spells you can cast - it's simply your story based progress through the game that takes you to locations where you can find/buy new sigil scrolls.

Originally posted by k4b00m:

If you have some idea on how to play a mage class in this game, you are just a killing machine, not to mention that you can CC enemies left and right. On the hardest difficulty new game plus, it would be rather difficult to not run with a spellcaster...

And why would you presume that I don't know anything about that?

Originally posted by Mr. MurLock:

Agreed that the rebel path 'feels' the most true. But I 100% disagree with your opinion on the spell casting, true initially when you dont have the various sigils available spells could be a little lackluster, but the spell system in this game is my favorite compared to other isometric rpgs.

First, you get my thumbs up for keeping your Steam profile public, so I could see how little bit of Tyranny you've played in Nov 2016. Second, it's exactly the dependency on how the sigils are distributed through the game that is the major drawback.

[Mongward]

The horror. The game doesn't give all the best bits willy-nilly and spaces them out. How do we ever recover from this blow.
While I could agree that we could start off with some weak accents, getting more freedom with spells would mean making them completely boring, because there's no more "Oh, cool, new core/expression/accent" moments, or significantly fewer of them. I do understand that some players love minmaxing and cheesing, but it's not for everyone and telling people that spellcasting sucks because you're a jaded powergamer is hardly helpful to new players.

[Bmorekareful]

No one's following your earlier posts..

[Dorok]

Originally posted by Mongward:

The horror. The game doesn't give all the best bits willy-nilly and spaces them out. How do we ever recover from this blow.
While I could agree that we could start off with some weak accents, getting more freedom with spells would mean making them completely boring, because there's no more "Oh, cool, new core/expression/accent" moments, or significantly fewer of them. I do understand that some players love minmaxing and cheesing, but it's not for everyone and telling people that spellcasting sucks because you're a jaded powergamer is hardly helpful to new players.

Yeah the best of the spell system is discover new spells/variations, and even it's much better keep many or some schools for replays.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Mongward:

While I could agree that we could start off with some weak accents,

Not Accents. Expressions would be more interesting. Say you want to focus on lightning spells. You can only affect an entire area once you find the needed sigil.

Originally posted by Mongward:

getting more freedom with spells would mean making them completely boring, because there's no more "Oh, cool, new core/expression/accent" moments, or significantly fewer of them.

Cool? No. Currently it's like "d'oh - another sigil of strength, now Strength 2 which is slightly stronger than Strength 1 the caster knows already". And later "oh, and now there's sigil of Strength 3, which is a little bit stronger than sigil of Strength 2". And finally you get sigil of Strength 4 late and for endgame Lore skill. It's over-balancing. No shady merchant to meet early, who sells you a very expensive sigil, provided that you've saved enough rings to afford that one.

Originally posted by Mongward:

I do understand that some players love minmaxing and cheesing, but it's not for everyone and telling people that spellcasting sucks because you're a jaded powergamer is hardly helpful to new players.

Uh? - I've not done any powergaming in the first 2-3 playthroughs. I've not looked up guides or walkthroughs. I've discovered and experienced everything myself. And it sucked that the guild mage could not learn any spells during level up, but strictly depended on how the game distributes the sigils.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Bmorekareful:

No one's following your earlier posts..

Hater, begone!

[Mongward]

Getting sigils in one fell swoop would be like getting access to 8th or 9th level spells in a D&D game from the very beginning. Boring, breaks progression for casters, and breaks down to little more than just pumping up lore to squeeze more sigils in.
As it is now, you get new sigils, including cores and expressions gradually, which means that mages have something substantial to work for, instead of level-by-level unlocks.
One time you get a better Strength sigil (or a weaker one, which is cool too, because you can now buff your area spell with some more juice), another time you get a new core, so you get to try out some entirely different effects. Or you find a new expression. Or a miscellaneous accent, like rapid casting of frostfire. You may think it's dull, others clearly don't, myself included. If you want to break progression for yourself, go ahead and use console, nobody's stopping you. Some people actually enjoy getting new sigils along the way throughout the game's running time.

As for powergaming, I think stressing about effectiveness in a game where combat is little more than an afterthought qualifies. Unless you play Path of the Damned, which most people won't, combat is easy, and not particularly interesting. Playing an optimised character is an overkill, and to most people it would be more fun to actually build a character they think is interesting and fitting the playthrough they want to have.
I played a straight warrior, did an archer, I played a mage a couple times, I didn't experience fights becoming any more interesting in any of those cases. Playing as a mage at least provides some nice visual effects to go with the boredom and provides some fun through crafting and tweaking spells.