Is this game easier now?

[Masticator]

I was just wondering if a recent patch has made this game easier. I have seen some updates in the past year, and I wasn't sure.

 

Playing through with a Wizard this time around after finishing POE2. Things are so much easier than when I played last year. I used to struggle through some fights, and now I just annihilate everything. Though I do admit I used a guide and min maxed stats like INT, Per, and Might. What a huge difference this makes. I believe I made the mistake before of having balanced characters and was too afraid to drop stats down to 3. Only fights I've struggled with are fights where my Wizard has died (she is kind of squishy and sometimes I'm not careful).

 

I know Josh doesn't like people to do that, that's why we have this ridiculous Might mechanic for wizards, but really the D&D system made no sense, and there was no reason to change it. I was foolish enough to listen to Josh and create "balanced" characters in the past.

 

I've also started using spells more. I used to "save" spells too much, and now I'm not afraid to throw a few fireballs around. One confusion spell can make a hard fight into a cakewalk. I can't go back to the old way of saving spells after POE2 and Tyranny. If it means I have to rest more, so be it. It's a dumb system from D&D days. POE2 isn't perfect either with what they did to Wizards, but we'll see when I bring my wizard into POE2.

 

Anyone else finding the game easier? I've only played the game 2 other times, and it was extremely hard both times. Not this time.

[OrpheusM]

I've noticed the same.

 

We either became much better at the game by playing Deadfire or something is off. I've repeatedly checked the options to confirm I'm playing potd.

[Fenixp]

Breaking news: Stuff gets easier as you get more experienced with it.

[Mangamina]

OrpheusM may be on the right track, have you checked your difficulty in the options?  Maybe it was put back to normal or story mode.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Mangamina

[Zoso der Goldene]

I was just wondering if a recent patch has made this game easier. I have seen some updates in the past year, and I wasn't sure.

 

Playing through with a Wizard this time around after finishing POE2. Things are so much easier than when I played last year. I used to struggle through some fights, and now I just annihilate everything. Though I do admit I used a guide and min maxed stats like INT, Per, and Might. What a huge difference this makes. I believe I made the mistake before of having balanced characters and was too afraid to drop stats down to 3. Only fights I've struggled with are fights where my Wizard has died (she is kind of squishy and sometimes I'm not careful).

 

I know Josh doesn't like people to do that, that's why we have this ridiculous Might mechanic for wizards, but really the D&D system made no sense, and there was no reason to change it. I was foolish enough to listen to Josh and create "balanced" characters in the past.

 

I've also started using spells more. I used to "save" spells too much, and now I'm not afraid to throw a few fireballs around. One confusion spell can make a hard fight into a cakewalk. I can't go back to the old way of saving spells after POE2 and Tyranny. If it means I have to rest more, so be it. It's a dumb system from D&D days. POE2 isn't perfect either with what they did to Wizards, but we'll see when I bring my wizard into POE2.

 

Anyone else finding the game easier? I've only played the game 2 other times, and it was extremely hard both times. Not this time.

I'm pretty sure it's not the min/maxing; stats tend to have a lot less influence than people think (especially overvaluing negative numbers, of course).

It's more about tactics/preparedness/understanding of the game mechanics/using synergies, and all that comes with experience.

[AeonsLegend]

Wizards are much much more powerful in D&D, hence the spell preparation and resting requirements. I think Wizards are crazy OP in deadfire as well now with infinite casts and rest anywhere without being punished mechanic. You can basically blunder your way through an area without ever getting into trouble as long as you win every fight. There is no attrition, no planning, just mindless spamming of abilities. To top things off you can even get ability uses back in Deadfire with an even more broken ability called empower.

[gkathellar]

Breaking news: Stuff gets easier as you get more experienced with it.

 

Yeah, it can be honestly shocking how responsive this game is to player skill.

[Blovski]

It is a lot easier to just outlevel everything you're doing than it was last time I played (before WM). Whether it's been made a little objectively easier in places, I don't know. Obviously certain immunities that weren't in when I last played have made it rather richer as a game and obliged me to vary a lot more. The new WM and Deadfire pack equipment is absolutely ridiculous when applied to the base game. I don't know how WM 2 and act 3 are going to feel yet.

Stat minmaxing isn't really necessary; I'm playing with base companions and a non-minmaxed main character and it's been basically fine.

The thing with D&D (especially AD&D/2nd edition) systems were that they were very limiting for roleplay purposes and also allowed players who didn't realise just how much of a difference minmaxing made to simply create borderline unusable characters (like IIRC, strength 8 and strength 15 identical in combat, while strength 18 was +1/+2 and strength 19 was +3/+7 whereas dex stacks fairly linearly). At least in Pillars, while there are better and worse ways to build your character, at least there isn't one 100% correct way to do it.

Edited June 23, 2018 by Blovski

[dreamrider]

As some others have indicated, I think you're probably finding it much easier because you are attempting it again, "after finishing PoE2".

 

(That is, after all, kinda like saying "the Olympic downhill events seem easier after my World Cup tour season.")