Looks like I suck at this game

[Krewal]

So apparently after finishing POE 1 on the veteran, while killing all the tough enemies (alright, it took me few attempts before that bastard Concelhaut went down) and finishing the 2nd game on veteran with ease, I figured - boy I am good at this game, time to play POD.

 

Seems like either my builds are absolutely trashy or it is just way to hard. 

I even decided to use some of the Berath's blessings (main char buff for more dialog options + better ship + store in PM + 4th level). For whatever reason, I cannot even finish first major ruins (Engwithan Digsite). Fight with pigs and bats was so difficult that I needed to reload ~10 times. 

 

Now I am even more blown away since there is a drake in there + SUPER DUPER tanky skeletons in the dungeons. Talking about skeletons; after 4 attempts I took down one warrior. It was a simple encounter, two warriors, one assessing + mage + ranger. 

 

So, yes - my party is a little weird. The main hero is the warlock, which I expected to be weaker in the early game. But what is the point of having self-buffing character if once he runs through 3 fairly quickly spells, there is no HP left to do anything? I literally have time to only run healing/potions to avoid a knockout. And once there is an opportunity to attack, 25% to 39% average hit chance does not help at all. 

 

Not sure what I am doing wrong, or maybe the game is a little too broken after updates (PoD in particular). I understand they increased the difficulty level, but from super easy veteran now I have switched to extremely unfun environment. 

My current team is: 

1. Warlock fire-godlike

2. Eder (he cannot tank ****)

3. Xoti - probably the most useful character as of now

4. Herald - seems to be extremely squishy, but I went with it for nice single burst spell + passive buffs

5. Beastmaster - that was a panic addition for additional tanking mob (bear) + to get some extra buffing spells (good luck hitting someone with offensive spells on 20 something average hit chance).

 

Originally I was planning on replacing beastmaster with Aloth but I am not that sure anymore. That character with bear as companion seems to be much more useful compare to very squishy herald. 

 

What do you think guys? Please, can you share some tips?

Also, is it right I cannot rest and use buffs when resting on PoD? Does it mean food is only good for ship supplies and resting is tavern + special locations strictly?

[Boeroer]

PotD in Deadfire is very tough until you leave the first island and level a bit. Later on it's easier than PoE.

 

It's not you, it's the front-loaded difficulty of PotD.

[Dorftek]

Yeah what Boeroer said, first island is the most difficult time you will have in this game unless u choose otherwise. Just stealth past it

 

Skip the skeletons in digsite, really no reason to be messing with them.

[Franknstein]

A little bit of kiting, lure them pigs, panthers and Drake to a choke point (I like the one near the ladder, at the exit from the skeletons). So Eder has to fight them one at a time and be the tanky-tank. And you can cast Withdraw on him two times.

 

Perception is super important to hit stuff early, accurate weapons help too. I like to poison the Drake with Stone Joint poison while he waits down the line, behind the pigs and panthers. Hate that bastard.

 

The skeletons, I deal with the warriors first, one by one. Lure them down the stairs. If you use hirelings, a cipher can paralyze-lock the warriors w. a club (modal on), tenuous grasp + Mental Binding. After that, swarm the mage and archer from stealth, they are not as tanky. The archer has a fine hunting bow (helps with the Drake poisoning).

 

Or, what Boeroer said, skip them all.

 

Cheers.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Franknstein

[Verde]

Create a Druid or Beastmaster with Charm/Paralyze Beasts and summons for the first island.

[eschu101]

You are probably trying to face them like a normal battle, you need to cheese more.
My group in this current run im doing is my Warlock, Eder Swash, Aloth Spellblade and Xoti Monk/Priest. No adventurers.

Buy the fireball necklace in the vendor, its really good. Frenzy + fireball will help you a lot in harder fights at the start. Also chill fog ALWAYS, once both aloth and MC get it, becomes easier.
Get weapon and shield style for eder asap. Give everyone a shield and have your warlock in the backline with the real DPS (did you put 18 in PER? you need it).
Skip Gorecci street.

If you find yourself dying too much trying different approachs in the fight. Its supposed to be hard, so dont try to face  your enemies proudly as you did with your lvl20 character, you are weaker than they are.

Edited August 14, 2018 by eschu101

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

What Boeroer said but there are a few ways to deal with the first island

 

1) you can sneak past both tough fights - Gorecci and the Drake

 

2) thekey to PotD in both games is use of either  *consumables* or *debuffs*, and ideally both. You don't need to bother with either at lower difficulties in either game but on PotD you have to start using them because the monsters all have stat bonuses so you have to debuff them down to your level or you'll get creamed.

[dbarbarian14]

it was the same for me. until I started watching Sin Tee videos on youtube. S/he is a super pro player and if you watch carefully you will notice, s/he plays mostly solo, and I mean 0 companions builds. And does everything in Triple Crown, which makes the game a lot harder, or actually a little harder.  But once you see how s/he is doing it, you will notice there are some basic tricks.

 

Potions + Scrolls + drugs + luring enemies into corners + positioning is key.

After the big difficulty increase on PotD I wasn't able to kill the enemies in the Arena area to finish Port Maje area.  Now I can breeze thru them, since now I am picking at them 1 by 1 or by 2s sometimes.  Later game when you have more passives and active abilities you will do this kite-pulling a lot less, since you will be a lot stronger.

But you will always do Potions + Scrolls + drugs

[brasilgringo]

I had a lot of trouble solo facetanking the Fampyr cave, sanguine great-sword fampyrs, and even part of Nemnok, on PoTD using a build stacking deflection and using some potions.  

I guess facetanking is bad.  I need to probably use heavier armor (patinated) and abuse mechanics like blunderbuss/streetfighter, plus the aforementioned tactics.  Thing is, I like facetanking - running into the room and just destroying everything.  That's not a playstyle necesarily compatible with PoTD.  If I lower difficulty to Veteran, the screen is full of near-insta-gibs and i destroy everything.  Who knows what is better?

[whimper]

I had a lot of trouble solo facetanking the Fampyr cave, sanguine great-sword fampyrs, and even part of Nemnok, on PoTD using a build stacking deflection and using some potions.  

I guess facetanking is bad.  I need to probably use heavier armor (patinated) and abuse mechanics like blunderbuss/streetfighter, plus the aforementioned tactics.  Thing is, I like facetanking - running into the room and just destroying everything.  That's not a playstyle necesarily compatible with PoTD.  If I lower difficulty to Veteran, the screen is full of near-insta-gibs and i destroy everything.  Who knows what is better?

As Boeroer noted, the difficulty on PotD is very front-loaded, so it's easiest to just stealth past most things on the first island no matter what build you're running.

 

After that, though, there are definitely PotD solo builds you can facetank with (even with level scaling), that don't require using consumables, or only require using consumables in a handful of fights. (I've personally used the Stop-N-Go build to solo facetank on level-scaling PotD, including Beast of Winter, and I used virtually no consumables. And I'm confident that there are a number of other tanky builds which would allow you to do the same.)

 

I will say, though, that in my experience stacking multiple forms of defense is highly desirable for this style of play -- e.g., you want a high deflection *and* a high armor rating *and* sources of damage reduction *and* a good source of regeneration. My attempts to facetank while just relying on one form of defense (just high deflection, or just a lot of sources of regeneration) didn't work very well. 

Edited August 14, 2018 by whimper