Hard mode is too easy.

[Mazisky]

I'm playing hard setting and i find the game too easy, i'm not even an hardcore gamer, i completed Baldur's Gate  (at time) only on normal settings. I'm at 12 hours of game.

 

Would be fine a new difficulty level between hard and pod, or buffing hard mode.

 

[Rosveen]

Another thread, and I'm slowly accepting that I must just be terrible at video games. Alternatively, everyone else plays with a full team including hired adventurers.

[Lephys]

Are you sure it's on Hard? There's another thread in which people are noticing that, even though they started a game on a harder difficulty setting, their game is actually set to Easy or Normal for some reason.

 

I don't know how prevalent that is, or how easy to notice it is, either. I just figured that, if that IS going on a lot, then it would be understandable to select "Hard" at the beginning of the game, and assume the game is set to that, even if the game for some reason reset itself to an easier difficulty setting without notifying you.

[Abraxis]

I've restarted 3 times. 

My first game was insanely hard (with my chanter),

Second game was reliably modderate in difficulty (with paladin)

Third game with rogue is alternates between insanely easy so long as my rogue lives, and impossible if she dies.

 

This is all on hard.  I think it really comes down to what class you are and how you've built.  A lot of things just seem brokenly over-powered, and other things flat out completely unviable.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Abraxis

[Mansen]

Another thread, and I'm slowly accepting that I must just be terrible at video games. Alternatively, everyone else plays with a full team including hired adventurers.

 

Reminds me of Baldurs Gate back in the day. I felt so inferior

[Althernai]

I think it's about right for somebody who has played Infinity Engine games on the highest difficulty settings, but isn't familiar with PoE's rules. I'm playing a Wizard on Hard now and I think that if I knew which are the "good" spells, it would probably be easy, but since I've deliberately stayed away from guides, it's pretty balanced.

[Mazisky]

Are you sure it's on Hard? There's another thread in which people are noticing that, even though they started a game on a harder difficulty setting, their game is actually set to Easy or Normal for some reason.

 

I don't know how prevalent that is, or how easy to notice it is, either. I just figured that, if that IS going on a lot, then it would be understandable to select "Hard" at the beginning of the game, and assume the game is set to that, even if the game for some reason reset itself to an easier difficulty setting without notifying you.

 

 

Well, i checked again ingame just to be sure and the difficulty bar it's on hard.

 

I have a party of 5, 2 tanks, 2 range dps and the priest.

[Lephys]

^ Ahh. Just curious.

[Tigranes]

If you build a custom party, and if you take on more characters than a non-custom party would have at that juncture, then it will be easier than just picking up Eder and Alroth. 

 

You could play with less characters, try some creative builds, or just jump to POD. Hopefully there will be some difficulty mods later on.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I'm playing on Hard for the first time with a Rogue and finding it relatively easy. I put it down to the 100+ hours on the beta which I played at the easiest setting with working out exploits.

[Trius]

Another thread, and I'm slowly accepting that I must just be terrible at video games. Alternatively, everyone else plays with a full team including hired adventurers.

 

Are you using your AOE disables? They make big fights so much more manageable. Slicken + Repulsing Seal will keep an entire group on lock down for a long time.  Also focus down the squishier targets first especially any caster. They go down a lot more quickly and won't be able to support the more tanky mobs and/or reek havoc on your back lines with AOEs.

 

Also opening with slow reloading heavy hitting ranged weapons helps a ton. You can normally take out at least one mob before the fight even starts (and then switch to your faster weapons, I haven't tried loading up on multiple sets of ranged burst yet). Use bottle necks to keep the focus on your main tank/s. I currently have Eder in fine full plate, large shield, with a mostly passive tank build. He doesn't hit that hard, but can take a huge beating. If you see that your tank has most of the aggro his him with pain link if you have a Cipher. 

 

I've only been running with the companions that I find (took a while to get six) in an optimized party. My main is a priest and I currently have the Cipher, Priest, Wizard, Fighter, and Chanter companions (missing dps). I think I'll switch out the priest companion with the druid one when I find him. I have Eder as my main tank using the chanter companion as an off tank. It's easier than I thought it would be on hard. The first dungeon was a big challenge though, but I did that first with just a party of 3 so that may have been it. Anyways I hope this helps! 

[Gromnir]

the two most common complaints for every ie game:

 

it was too hard

 

it was too easy

 

is no way for developers to win.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Delicieuxz]

Difficulty is not just the mode selected at the start of the game - it's also completely relative to party size and composition. So a decked out party will breeze through what a minimal or unshielded party will agonize over.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Delicieuxz

[Lord of Riva]

Im agreeing to the assesment of the difficulty. i have a full party with the companions atm

 

(Barb PC, Eder , Aloth, Durance , Pallegina and Sagani.)

 

its pretty harsh in the beginning, was incredibly hard for my barb ( 18 10 18 7 18 7 ) but after picking up durance it was a breeze (not because of him i wanna switch him out as soon as i hiravas.) (although there is this way too OP second level spell of priests, and this way too strong level 1 spell for wizards)

 

There was this one quest that i solved with crashing through the front door, which should be hard (it wasnt) now im also swimming in money. (trying to avoid spoilers here)

 

Now most fights are just positioning und auto attacks tbh. My barb hits like a Truck with incredible speed (feels like she shames an Arqebus Damag per hit wise) in a by now disgusting range Aoe (with equp and rest bonus i come easily around 24 Int with her).

 

Well we will see maybe i m  just overlevelled (want to avoid PotD since you cant back out of it if you suck, prolly going to play that on a new game somewhen)

 

also some people complained about the companions Being to weak. Eder is like not possible to damage atm

Edited March 28, 2015 by Lord of Riva

[TrueMenace]

Either way, I'm saving PoTD on my 2nd playthrough. Playing on Hard currently and it's fine. 

[PIP-Clownboy]

Im in agreement at the moment but I'm barely entering mid-game. But so far Hard Ironman has been steamroll, basically attack moving most things besides Spirits. No real close calls besides Spirits chain confusing my PC Barb and then the party AI for some reason start auto-attacking my PC.. which is super annoying i have to say. 

[LadyCrimson]

I've been finding Normal about right for me (close to being too easy however) for a first playthrough, when I personally want to take it easy a bit more as I'm learning and more interested in viewing the game vs. challenging combat etc. But I do think on replays I'd want to do Hard at least. 

 

And I'd agree with Gromnir - dev's can't win re: difficulty. And not just with IE games. Just a common thing in general.

[isms]

Just reached the big city (about 10 hours) on hard and have never had more than 4 companions. Eder (my tank) can basically stand still while I afk and naturally outheal everything he fights. All my other companions die in 2-3 hits. The game isn't forgiving of mistakes, but I'm not feeling very challenged at the moment. I keep considering re-rolling to PoTD, but my PoTD game is just a giant miss-fest as every spell or attack I use misses the enemy.

[teknoman2]

if you find it too easy, try turning expert mode on

[Rosveen]

if you find it too easy, try turning expert mode on

Expert mode doesn't really make combat harder. Maiming doesn't matter if you don't die in the first place, AoE highlights and defense tooltips are a memory, not tactical challenge, and I'm not sure about combat tooltips, but I assume they aren't terribly useful for people who know what they're doing.

[Tanred]

I too find the hard mode to be relatively easy, hope it will pick itself up in Act II. My main concern is overlevelling the content - I am quite surprised that gaining early levels happened so fast. I have not been to

Raedric's Hold

yet and my party is almost at level 5.

 

I will probably restart it on PotD and as soon as possible hire adventurers up to a full party to slow down the levelling speed.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Tanred

[Ohioastro]

I'd wager that the "too easy" crowd have extensive experience in the beta. This was also true for Baldurs Gate (and divinity: OS). In a complex game you can come up with munchkin moves that trivialize content. The only real solution is noting imbalanced things or going for the hardcore options.

[ryukenden]

The thing about this game is new players find easy mode too hard while veterans find hard mode too easy.

Edited March 28, 2015 by ryukenden

[Uvtha]

I'm on hard with a Ranger, not using hired characters, only the story ones, and it seem to be either an encounter is reasonably challenging, but not hard, to impossible to overcome.  I'm down in the temple now, and shadows are not hard, even if there's 4 of them, but make it 3 shadows and 1 shade, and I'm just toast because I simply can't hurt the shade anywhere near as fast as it hurts me.  Mainly I think if something has more DR than you can handle you lose the fight unless you get insanely lucky.  It's a little bit uneven, but I don't mind avoiding things stronger than me until I'm better prepared.  

[Tanred]

I'm on hard with a Ranger, not using hired characters, only the story ones, and it seem to be either an encounter is reasonably challenging, but not hard, to impossible to overcome.  I'm down in the temple now, and shadows are not hard, even if there's 4 of them, but make it 3 shadows and 1 shade, and I'm just toast because I simply can't hurt the shade anywhere near as fast as it hurts me.  Mainly I think if something has more DR than you can handle you lose the fight unless you get insanely lucky.  It's a little bit uneven, but I don't mind avoiding things stronger than me until I'm better prepared.  

 

Aloth has a level 1 aoe spell that can practically one shot them. It requires proper positioning though.