I confess myself completely lost regarding combat. I have only the dimmest idea of what status effects do, mere beetles are kicking my tail, and sometimes characters don't seem to even attack what I click on. And well, I could use some help. Even if it's just Arcanum's "Hey, a big strong half-ogre makes things easy" tip. I wouldn't say no to a proper tutorial like BG/BG2. Or even an easier difficulty mode. I don't want the game dumbed down. But as someone who has played the IE games but not P&P, I'm feeling overwhelmed.

Jumping in with level five characters and no tutorial is indeed jarring...I even made the mistake of turning on Expert Mode (yeah, that'll show me!)

After turning on all of the HUDs and indicators it started making a bit more sense.

 

But yeah, we need to start from level 1 with a tutorial. If they implement a good one it will alleviate this problem.  Backer beta = thrown into deep end

I lost the first few encounters with the beetles. But pausing often really helps and then make sure you look at everyone's abilities and spells. I've already become a little over-reliant on that fireball ability the priest has and the knockdown the dwarf has. Knockdown and then set them alight! But it does look too much like a flash-mob kicking away at someone and it's going to need to be tweaked.

What others have said plus there are a LOT of combat bugs making things even more difficult.

Oh and "pause" often.

I AM NOT ALONE!

I sucked too, but the game bugged and deleted a character out, then I gave up.

Still, I spent 100 minutes playing this bland demo and yet, I didn't see the time pass at all. It should be a time-sucker once it's done.

1. Press "s" to slow time. 

 

2. Do not press "d" ...ever

 

3. And take the time to get a grasp of your abilities, and what situations they would be useful in

 

4. Make sure your tank is tanking. Your support is buffing/healing. And your ranged and non tanky melee are not getting  punched in the face.  

 

5. If all else fails... use crowd control

Edited August 21, 201411 yr by Bazy

The AI is broken, so a lot of the time your characters aren't even doing what you tell them too, which makes combat a lot harder than it should be.

I confess myself completely lost regarding combat. I have only the dimmest idea of what status effects do, mere beetles are kicking my tail, and sometimes characters don't seem to even attack what I click on. And well, I could use some help. Even if it's just Arcanum's "Hey, a big strong half-ogre makes things easy" tip. I wouldn't say no to a proper tutorial like BG/BG2. Or even an easier difficulty mode. I don't want the game dumbed down. But as someone who has played the IE games but not P&P, I'm feeling overwhelmed.

Do bear in mind that the beetles are probably the toughest encounter in the beta, so doing badly at that doesn't necessarily mean you'll do badly at everything else.

Tips:

 

(1) Use slow-motion (tap S).

(2) Use at most two melee characters. Three or more will trigger the Y U NO DO???? bug, which will leave them just standing there getting punished.

(3) Switch out the starting gear. BB Wizard wears breastplate, which makes him cast s-l-o-w-l-y. Swap that out and wear it instead if you're a melee character.

(4) Explore the per-encounter and per-rest abilities. In particular, use BB Priest's buffs; they're seriously powerful.

(5) Pay attention to weapon type vs damage. Bugs in particular are vulnerable to crushing.

(6) Move your character before switching weapons, or it'll trigger the "stuck" bug and you'll have to reload, which will trigger the "disappearing items" bug.

Might be adding to the confusion more than anything else but what I did is hire a sixth member to the party right off the bat, before leaving the village, a "BB Chanter". Sure he is under-levelled compared to the other BBs, but that's a 20% increase in the team size.

Might be adding to the confusion more than anything else but what I did is hire a sixth member to the party right off the bat, before leaving the village, a "BB Chanter". Sure he is under-levelled compared to the other BBs, but that's a 20% increase in the team size.

They level quickly. I'm surprised more people don't do this. 

If everyone has to play with slow motion on shouldn't the speed be decreased in a future release?  Seems like the enemies are shot out of cannon at you.

IMO the game seems easy just buggy. Don't feel like they need to change the difficulty; maybe just add 1-2 tutorials for noobs.