The first thing that I noticed was the buff to armor, it felt a bit strange at first. For example a skeleton (not wearing armor) had an armor level of 11. Anyway in the end I like this change.

 

My problems are with the new fights, some of them feels great, some feels empty and 2 of them are impossible.

 

Let’s start with the good ones. I love what you guys did to the first cave. The useless constructor got some new friends and the locket chest has an exploding gift. I love it, feels great and a lot harder but fair. Other good changes was the beatle fight in the dig site and the boar/wurm fight also in the dig site.

 

Some fights din’t receive love at all or seems easier. For example the fight in the adra pool. There was only 1 wurm and a single imp.

 

Now here is the problem, when playing in the hardest difficulty with level scaling up on. It is impossible to kill the looters in Maje. I love the mage but there are just too many. Eder just gets one shoted. Tune it down please. And there is a game breaking fight. The one with the drake at the dig site. This fight is impossible, 1 drake 3 wurms 4 panthers 2 board, etc... What the **** is this? And at level 4.... Again companions just get one shoted.

 

Yes I can spend 1k and build my own guys, however, I want to experience the companions mission. To bad they suck stats wise...

 

Please try to balance this 2 fights. I can’t continue at the moment. I enjoy hard gameplay but this is just a no go. Harder then the end boss prior to the patch...

Edited June 3, 20187 yr by Cylion

 

Harder then the end boss prior to the patch... 

 

Well, that doesn't mean much. You make me want to jump right back into the game now.

I didn't try the beta patch, so can't comment but in a completely abstract scenario I would prefer PotD to be really really hard. Like almost "bull****!" hard. Seems like a good 2nd/3rd playthrough option. 

 

Harder then the end boss prior to the patch...

Well, that doesn't mean much. You make me want to jump right back into the game now.

 

I didn't try the beta patch, so can't comment but in a completely abstract scenario I would prefer PotD to be really really hard. Like almost "bull****!" hard. Seems like a good 2nd/3rd playthrough option.

Some fights do feel bull***** right now. Especially in the beginning of the game. Most of the reworked fights are actually really really good, difficulty wise. But others feel too much to the point it is not fun. Again you can win them by making 4 custom guys but that does not feel right, story wise.

The drake at the dig site, oh my...

 

I couldn't win no matter what I did, so I went back to port maje to recruit some custom mercenaries to fill up my party.

 

I got 2 beckoner chanters/something and overwhelmed my enemies with dozen skeletons.

 

Of course the drake killed everybody in a single aoe, but I just had to focus him down first, and afterwards it was easy.

In my opinion, the hardest difficulty ought to require us to pull out all the stops to proceed. You can supplement your party with some custom characters if you find it too difficult, or you can play the game on a lower difficulty. You can also sneak by the looters.

To deal with the looters in port Maje, what i did was to wait until i had a bigger party, then sneak up to the left side and bait/aggro the ones in the water, you can kill them this way without taking aggro of the rest.

 

Then for the drake at dig site a simple Whipser of treason from an adventurer i recruited was enough to deal with it.

 

So far i've had no problem getting through the encounters, i'd even say some of them are too easy from mid game.

 

Early game felt challenging but doable to me. At least i managed to defeat those encounters without too many reloads. I'm ok with PotD not being for everyone, that's kind of the point ! But please don't make them make the game easier, it's really not "that" hard

Both of the looter and the drake fights are avoidable. The difficulty seems fine to me, especially when alternative story progression exists. FYI, to avoid the looter fight, enter the street from the west side, then sneak north to their leader. For the drake fight, sneak into the drake pit from the east, then enter the dig site.

My problem is the fact that the early game is much easier than the mid to late game. Even after the patch. There just isn’t a good flow. I don’t mind reloading at all and the first game felt a bit easy, this is almost perfect in my opinion but it need more love. This patch feels rushed.

Veteran mode should be hard enough for most of us and PoTD should feel damned near impossible. You said you can do it if you hire mercenaries. Then hire them. Replace them with companions later.

 

PoTD mode will be played by the hardcore gamers for the years to come. They'll need the extra challenge.

 

I would like to hear Boeroer's opinion on this though. If he says it is indeed impossible... then it will have to be looked upon.

The first thing that I noticed was the buff to armor, it felt a bit strange at first. For example a skeleton (not wearing armor) had an armor level of 11. Anyway in the end I like this change.

 

My problems are with the new fights, some of them feels great, some feels empty and 2 of them are impossible.

 

Let’s start with the good ones. I love what you guys did to the first cave. The useless constructor got some new friends and the locket chest has an exploding gift. I love it, feels great and a lot harder but fair. Other good changes was the beatle fight in the dig site and the boar/wurm fight also in the dig site.

 

Some fights din’t receive love at all or seems easier. For example the fight in the adra pool. There was only 1 wurm and a single imp.

 

Now here is the problem, when playing in the hardest difficulty with level scaling up on. It is impossible to kill the looters in Maje. I love the mage but there are just too many. Eder just gets one shoted. Tune it down please. And there is a game breaking fight. The one with the drake at the dig site. This fight is impossible, 1 drake 3 wurms 4 panthers 2 board, etc... What the **** is this? And at level 4.... Again companions just get one shoted.

 

Yes I can spend 1k and build my own guys, however, I want to experience the companions mission. To bad they suck stats wise...

 

Please try to balance this 2 fights. I can’t continue at the moment. I enjoy hard gameplay but this is just a no go. Harder then the end boss prior to the patch...

 

Lower the difficulty.

 

You put the game on max difficulty and then wonder why it's too hard.

Edited June 4, 20187 yr by Maxzero

My opinion is that this is kind of the point of PotD difficulty, for it to be a huge challenge where you actually need to take into advantage of all the resources that are available to you and use them creatively, and you also need to know the ways to handle fights. For example, for the Drake fight at the Engwithan Digsite, there are features on the field like ramps which you can use as choke points. Also there are gunpowder barrels that you can use to gain an advantage. For the looter fight in Gorecci Streets, you can skip the looters by sneaking past them to get to the NPC to finish up the quest which makes the looters despawn, or you can pull the looters to a corner and use line-of-sight and deaggro mechanics to make the fights more manageable.

My opinion is that this is kind of the point of PotD difficulty, for it to be a huge challenge where you actually need to take into advantage of all the resources that are available to you and use them creatively, and you also need to know the ways to handle fights. For example, for the Drake fight at the Engwithan Digsite, there are features on the field like ramps which you can use as choke points. Also there are gunpowder barrels that you can use to gain an advantage. For the looter fight in Gorecci Streets, you can skip the looters by sneaking past them to get to the NPC to finish up the quest which makes the looters despawn, or you can pull the looters to a corner and use line-of-sight and deaggro mechanics to make the fights more manageable.

 

Throw in (literally) explosives, hired companions, etc.

 

There are options.

 

I think people got a little spoiled by the previous PotD difficulty. The game isn't supposed to be that easy on the hardest difficulty level.

There is conceivably a point at which PotD becomes too difficult, and it's important for the devs to try and avoid that. However, I'm pretty sure we're nowhere near that point yet. PotD should be too difficult for a lot of players.

I agree with that, just saying that the jump between the first and second game feels weird. I completed the first game 5 times on potd solo without any problem.

This is strange: first players complain that the game is too easy ( it really was ) and now they complain that it is too hard.

 

My thoughts:

- The hardest difficulty level should be really hard, especially if there are several easier difficulties. Some players will find it easy in any case.

- Some players have beaten the game with the latest patch on PotD, so it is definitely not impossible.

- PoE2 gives you options to avoid combat or you can come back later to do a quest.

- I think it is OK if you need some meta gaming to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Nobody forces you to play PotD Trail of Iron on your first playthrough. ( The last patch changed a lot of things and made the game much harder, so it is almost like a new game )

- You should not underestimate what players can do. The devs said they did not expact that players get the ultimate achievement in PoE1, but some people made it anyway ( No, I am not one of them and I will never be )

This is strange: first players complain that the game is too easy ( it really was ) and now they complain that it is too hard.

 

My thoughts:

- The hardest difficulty level should be really hard, especially if there are several easier difficulties. Some players will find it easy in any case.

- Some players have beaten the game with the latest patch on PotD, so it is definitely not impossible.

- PoE2 gives you options to avoid combat or you can come back later to do a quest.

- I think it is OK if you need some meta gaming to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Nobody forces you to play PotD Trail of Iron on your first playthrough. ( The last patch changed a lot of things and made the game much harder, so it is almost like a new game )

- You should not underestimate what players can do. The devs said they did not expact that players get the ultimate achievement in PoE1, but some people made it anyway ( No, I am not one of them and I will never be )

Agree with everything.

Actually, more than 50% of the people who got Triple Crown eventually got The Ultimate (over 1.000 and counting).

And the PotD crowd is much larger than that, off course.

 

This is strange: first players complain that the game is too easy ( it really was ) and now they complain that it is too hard.

 

My thoughts:

- The hardest difficulty level should be really hard, especially if there are several easier difficulties. Some players will find it easy in any case.

- Some players have beaten the game with the latest patch on PotD, so it is definitely not impossible.

- PoE2 gives you options to avoid combat or you can come back later to do a quest.

- I think it is OK if you need some meta gaming to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Nobody forces you to play PotD Trail of Iron on your first playthrough. ( The last patch changed a lot of things and made the game much harder, so it is almost like a new game )

- You should not underestimate what players can do. The devs said they did not expact that players get the ultimate achievement in PoE1, but some people made it anyway ( No, I am not one of them and I will never be )

Agree with everything.

Actually, more than 50% of the people who got Triple Crown eventually got The Ultimate (over 1.000 and counting).

And the PotD crowd is much larger than that, off course.

 

 

 

Have you a build of your Ultimate Class ?   

Hello Cylion,

 

Thanks for the input! We'll have the devs look into the matter if adjusting is needed for these fights.

 

Best,

 

-Caleb

Please make this game as hard as utterly possible, no need to hold back   The more I have to think outside the box to win battles, even looking into the forums for answers (though it kills me to give up without doing it on my own), the more I love the game.  For the record I was all for the sand blight PoTD encounter in the last backer beta patch, I thought it was amazing that it was so difficult at the level cap.

My experience so far: never managed to kill the the Adra Dragon nor Concelhaut in PoE on normal. Steamrolled PoED on Veteran (on beta patch 1.1).

 

I'm actually confused about it.

Definitely not to hard. I did drake with 4 party members at lvl 4. Of course I died 2-3 times, but that should be quite normal on POTD.

If you cannot do it it doesn't mean that Obsidian should go and make it easier for everybody.

 

If you would like to know the pain of "impossible" fight, go for White March Ondra boss fight at monastery with scaled path on lvl 14 max.

That was a frustrating experience

 

Bottom line, use everything that can raise your chances of winning: additional companions, food, drugs, traps, seals, choose another spells, reposition, stealth, bombs. Look at immunities/resistances, which defense is the lowest for a particular enemy and so on.

Die couple of times, know your enemy and change the tactics. 

 

For me this is a point of POTD that you should be forced to use every possible way to win through some harder fights.

About the digsite fight with the drake - I went back to Pt Maje Harbor, hired a level 2 straight cipher, gave her Whispers of Treason and maxed Perception... empower-charmed the drake, which took care of almost everyone else, and then we ganged up on the drake. I *was* using two henchmen including the cipher, though. Wouldn’t have made it otherwise.

 

The looters? Ridiculously hard, and I love it and hate it. Still haven’t beat them, but I will. Eventually.