Hard mode is too easy.

[etagloc]

the game does have to weird difficulty spikes... the first few levels were okey, you didn't have much to work with and such so you got you ass wiped a few times..the ending of act 1 and ALL of act 2 has been a TOTAL steam roll for me. I just started act 3. and it seems it had gotten slightly harder.. but for how long?. 

I just don't feel like I need spend any none once pr. encounter to win a fight, 

Edited March 30, 2015 by etagloc

[Sensuki]

I still use my abilities, because I like to but I probably don't need to. I'm in Act 2 now and I have not had to change weapons, strategies or anything for a long time. I'm not even using exploits (of which, there are many).

 

I also found it hilarious that Od Nua Level 5 was way easier than Level 3.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Sensuki

[GreyFox]

Sooo what is it...the **** AI or terrible armor/to hit system that never seemed to be right?

[Sensuki]

well Eder has like 120 Deflection and 20 DR vs several damage types, so not many enemie can hit him or damage him really. I don't send my other characters forward very much because recently they've coded the AI to change targets to the one that has the lowest Deflection, so I don't send anyone forward unless I need to, because then they'll take aggro off Eder.

Ranged characters also seem to target ranged party members as well, so I sit them right back to avoid aggro.

 

They've made the game soooo polarized between tanks having bad damage but being really good at tanking and DPS characters doing a lot of damage but dying instantly that doing anything in between is pretty much a bad idea.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Sensuki

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I'm not even using exploits (of which, there are many).

 

There's quite a lot. I was surprised that I could:

 

 

 

Split the bandit camp with the smithy's stolen goods and have two encounters with the enemies..

 

I pulled some bandits away expecting all of them to come waiting for them to walk into my ambush and the rest initially started to follow but then went back to the fire and stood there as I was quite a distance away. After I killed half the bandits, my endurance and encounter powers came back and I went and killed off the rest.

 

 

[Sensuki]

You can also cast Withdraw on a character in a doorway. I'm not doing that one though, discovered it in the beta, decided to avoid.

Not really necessary because nothing gets through Eder anyway.

 

I'm also not really using buffs, or wizard self-buffs - completely pointless, except for maybe Blessing. I just have Durance cast debuff and damage spells.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Sensuki

[GreyFox]

well Eder has like 120 Deflection and 20 DR vs several damage types, so not many enemie can hit him or damage him really. I don't send my other characters forward very much because recently they've coded the AI to change targets to the one that has the lowest Deflection, so I don't send anyone forward unless I need to, because then they'll take aggro off Eder.

 

Ranged characters also seem to target ranged party members as well, so I sit them right back to avoid aggro.

 

They've made the game soooo polarized between tanks having bad damage but being really good at tanking and DPS characters doing a lot of damage but dying instantly that doing anything in between is pretty much a bad idea.

 

How fun, so when do I get charged my monthly fee and when are we getting together to raid that epic loot boss guys?

[Bazy]

After about level 3 or 4 Combat is all the same tank and spank and boring. 

 

Called it since Day 1 of beta:

 

"7. COMBAT

A. Overall experience:

  a. Generally:

-Tank and Spank: The quest to find the daughter, beetles and all... combat was pretty easy and straightforward. 95% of the fights felt like tank and spank. My tank stood still and got hit while everyone else got naked and used a ranged weapon. If there were a lot of mobs I would use CC. In the attached screenshots (POE1/POE2/POE3) are examples. Spider's were CCed. Fighter's standing around doing nothing while NAKED ranged toons auto attacked away. If I let the CC wear off then the fighters would soak up the damage while I auto attacked some more. POE3 is a good example of the mobs simply focusing the tank even with beetle shell up while my ranged just beat them to death."

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67188-completed-playthrough-feedback-257/?do=findComment&comment=1483868

 

For all the work they did on attributes, armor/weapon/DR types and counters none of it really matters. If your tank doesn't die what does anything matter?

 

It's funny because deflection is absurdly strong at high amounts and they let you have +18 at character creation. But accuracy got taken away. Almost begging all tanks to have this boon. And having Dps avoid it at all costs making the gap between tank and dps damage taken all the more extreme. 

Edited March 30, 2015 by Bazy

[Sedrefilos]

I play on normal and it is pretty challenging at times. Had my wipes here and there.

[AgentTBC]

There's a bug where your main character and some of the companions can get significantly higher stats and resistances building up over time than they should get.  And it's extremely difficult to avoid the bug since it kicks in every time you save/load a game in a couple major locations.  So it's quite possible that some people are finding the game too easy because some of the characters are buffed up by bugs.

[Sensuki]

I don't have that bug currently, I know what causes it so I've avoided it.

[Jazou]

There's a bug where your main character and some of the companions can get significantly higher stats and resistances building up over time than they should get.  And it's extremely difficult to avoid the bug since it kicks in every time you save/load a game in a couple major locations.  So it's quite possible that some people are finding the game too easy because some of the characters are buffed up by bugs.

 

Is there any way to check if this bug already happened to my savegame? I'm saving alot and the increasing stats sound really gamebreaking. 

[AgentTBC]

It happens when you load a game in a location where you've recruited a companion, and they have an item or effect which boosts stats.  So if, for example, you load a game in Gilded Vale with Eder in your party and he has any items on which give a stat boost his stats will be permanently increased by that amount.  Or if you load a game in Caed Nua with with Kana in your party.  And that one is easy to see since he comes with a +1 intellect item on so you can save/load over and over in Caed Nua and watch his intellect go up.

 

Sensuki, how did you avoid it?  As far as I know it happens every time you load a game in a couple major locations so unless you simply never saved the game there...

[Luckmann]

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.

I'm going to have to double-check this, because I'm also playing on Hard and I'm not feeling the heat, even playing with an utterly rubbish Paladin build (lol @Perception & Resolve).

[Sensuki]

It happens when you load a game in a location where you've recruited a companion, and they have an item or effect which boosts stats.  So if, for example, you load a game in Gilded Vale with Eder in your party and he has any items on which give a stat boost his stats will be permanently increased by that amount.  Or if you load a game in Caed Nua with with Kana in your party.  And that one is easy to see since he comes with a +1 intellect item on so you can save/load over and over in Caed Nua and watch his intellect go up.

 

Sensuki, how did you avoid it?  As far as I know it happens every time you load a game in a couple major locations so unless you simply never saved the game there...

I don't think it works like that, there must be some other trigger. Either way, none of my companions have inflated stats and I hate double click to equip anyway and thus never do it, so I still have all of my passives. My Rogue has Reckless Assault on permanently though but oh well.

 

I think mine is definitely on Hard because I'm up to the Dyrford now, and the encounters there are the same as Hard in the beta. I've also seen lots of other 'hard' creatures and really big groups of stuff.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Sensuki

[Jazou]

Ok, I will check my savegame for this bug later. I've just recruited Aloth and of course saved before I've quit the game. 

 

Is this bug already targeted for the upcoming update?

[SeekDWay]

I switched to normal on my Chanter, so far hard has been just big blobs of more stuff which breaks immersion for me too much. The only difference was that you need more AoE and nukes on hard, which I did not enjoy for long.

[Luckmann]

 

well Eder has like 120 Deflection and 20 DR vs several damage types, so not many enemie can hit him or damage him really. I don't send my other characters forward very much because recently they've coded the AI to change targets to the one that has the lowest Deflection, so I don't send anyone forward unless I need to, because then they'll take aggro off Eder.

 

Ranged characters also seem to target ranged party members as well, so I sit them right back to avoid aggro.

 

They've made the game soooo polarized between tanks having bad damage but being really good at tanking and DPS characters doing a lot of damage but dying instantly that doing anything in between is pretty much a bad idea.

 

How fun, so when do I get charged my monthly fee and when are we getting together to raid that epic loot boss guys?

 

 

That's not entirely fair, honestly. I think I would have preferred an aggro-based system, despite the fact that it's quite far from how it worked in the IE games, when it comes to tanking. There are some really definitive issues with how it works right now, partly because of the polarization, but also because tanks simply can't hold the line when non-tank melee-ers comes into the game.

 

Nevermind the issue of keeping doorways, something that could've been done without Engagement; I hate how when anything in the doorway dies, my tank leaps forward to the next target, and because of Engagement, he can't move back or reposition, and because of the cramped space, none of my other meleers can even get close, so often, me, the rogue I made (and has since ditched), or Pallegina simply cannot get close to the mobs, because Edér is blocking OUR access to the mobs.

 

Ranged really is king. Melee tank, ranged DPS, complete polarization on all fronts.

 

There's a bug where your main character and some of the companions can get significantly higher stats and resistances building up over time than they should get. And it's extremely difficult to avoid the bug since it kicks in every time you save/load a game in a couple major locations. So it's quite possible that some people are finding the game too easy because some of the characters are buffed up by bugs.

I haven't seen this yet, I think, but how do I detect it? And how do I avoid it?

 

It happens when you load a game in a location where you've recruited a companion, and they have an item or effect which boosts stats. So if, for example, you load a game in Gilded Vale with Eder in your party and he has any items on which give a stat boost his stats will be permanently increased by that amount. Or if you load a game in Caed Nua with with Kana in your party. And that one is easy to see since he comes with a +1 intellect item on so you can save/load over and over in Caed Nua and watch his intellect go up.

 

Sensuki, how did you avoid it? As far as I know it happens every time you load a game in a couple major locations so unless you simply never saved the game there...

...Well ****, I definitely have that, then. I Save/Load like crazy. Is there any workaround to fix it?

 

Edit: Strangely, I had not have this happen to Kana Rua, despite definitely loading several times at the Stronghold, but I did have it happen to Edér because of something you can find at the temple. God. Damn. I guess I can live with Edér having +1 Per/Res, because they're abysmal to him anyway, but damn if it's not pissing me off. Luckily it's the only one that I've had it happen to so far.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Luckmann

[AgentTBC]

I asked in another thread for a workaround.  The workaround is apparently "don't save the game in locations you hire NPCs".

 

Thanks for the tip, buddy.

[AgentTBC]

Make sure you check their resistances and stuff too.  The attributes like Might and so on are the easiest and most obvious to see but stuff like Deflection or Reflexes also increase over time, can have even greater effects, and can be less obvious.  I mean, can you say for certain if a Reflex score of 50 is bugged or not?  Maybe it should be 40.  Are you sure either way?

[endervoid]

After about level 3 or 4 Combat is all the same tank and spank and boring. 

 

Called it since Day 1 of beta:

 

"7. COMBAT

A. Overall experience:

  a. Generally:

-Tank and Spank: The quest to find the daughter, beetles and all... combat was pretty easy and straightforward. 95% of the fights felt like tank and spank. My tank stood still and got hit while everyone else got naked and used a ranged weapon. If there were a lot of mobs I would use CC. In the attached screenshots (POE1/POE2/POE3) are examples. Spider's were CCed. Fighter's standing around doing nothing while NAKED ranged toons auto attacked away. If I let the CC wear off then the fighters would soak up the damage while I auto attacked some more. POE3 is a good example of the mobs simply focusing the tank even with beetle shell up while my ranged just beat them to death."

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67188-completed-playthrough-feedback-257/?do=findComment&comment=1483868

 

For all the work they did on attributes, armor/weapon/DR types and counters none of it really matters. If your tank doesn't die what does anything matter?

 

It's funny because deflection is absurdly strong at high amounts and they let you have +18 at character creation. But accuracy got taken away. Almost begging all tanks to have this boon. And having Dps avoid it at all costs making the gap between tank and dps damage taken all the more extreme. 

 

Thats exactly my impressions too. Playing on PotD and it's annoying that there is no AI at all. Just dumb HP and number bload of enemies which makes fights even more boring.

 

Imo the time invested in the endless dungeon should have been used to make at least some very basic combat scripts for the AI.

[Killyox]

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

OP lv2 spell for priest? Lemme guess, the one that makes ALL NEGATIVE EFFECTS on your party temporary disabled for XX seconds? Yeah, it's VERY VERY VERY good. Paralyze? Stun? Knocked down? Blind? Just Kidding! Here you go! *casts spell*

[SeekDWay]

Make sure you check their resistances and stuff too.  The attributes like Might and so on are the easiest and most obvious to see but stuff like Deflection or Reflexes also increase over time, can have even greater effects, and can be less obvious.  I mean, can you say for certain if a Reflex score of 50 is bugged or not?  Maybe it should be 40.  Are you sure either way?

That explains why Eder is level 5 in one of my saves and has like 70 on all defensive stats...

 

But on another save its perfectly fine and the bug does not happen at all.

[Luckmann]

Make sure you check their resistances and stuff too.  The attributes like Might and so on are the easiest and most obvious to see but stuff like Deflection or Reflexes also increase over time, can have even greater effects, and can be less obvious.  I mean, can you say for certain if a Reflex score of 50 is bugged or not?  Maybe it should be 40.  Are you sure either way?

Good point. The most annoying thing about this is that there's no way to know for sure, unless you recalculate the entire character by hand.

 

Goddamn it, how this this go through internal testing... =_= I now have the fear the my Edér is utterly broken. At the very least, he has +1 Per/Res, +10 Will and +5 Deflection too much. And I don't even want to think of what this has done to my other characters that I just haven't noticed.

[Killyox]

 

Make sure you check their resistances and stuff too.  The attributes like Might and so on are the easiest and most obvious to see but stuff like Deflection or Reflexes also increase over time, can have even greater effects, and can be less obvious.  I mean, can you say for certain if a Reflex score of 50 is bugged or not?  Maybe it should be 40.  Are you sure either way?

That explains why Eder is level 5 in one of my saves and has like 70 on all defensive stats...

 

But on another save its perfectly fine and the bug does not happen at all.

 

Not at all.

My lvl 6 eder has ~107 deflection for example and ~90 other stuff but not due a bug. I gave him some passives like shield style + magic items like deflection 10, and other saves +5 and all sorts of things like improved modal. Modal alone gives iirc +15 deflection and will and so on when it's improved. Depends on gear a lot too. For example my Cipher at lvl 6 has something like 30 deflection? 35?

Edited March 30, 2015 by Killyox