Whats up with this game? Or is it me? Probably me . . .

[Gairnulf]

Anyone having problems, look at the "Beginner's guide" videos on Sensuki's channel. Better than the manual, better than the strategy guide. That's the most in-depth info on the game's systems available right now:

 

[Stark15]

My experience thus far: The game was easier than I anticipated for the first hour or two. Then I ran into some encounters that were very tough and I wiped quite a few times. I then realized that I would need to be more strategic and actually delve into spells/abilities more. This made a big difference as well as just gaining more experience with the combat mechanics. I'd say from about the 4+ hour mark things got easier, although still challenging. I still have some tough encounters but I feel like I've gotten much better at it, although I'm sure more difficulty lies ahead. I think it's simply a matter of getting further on the combat learning curve.

[HozzM]

 

I am playing on Hard.  I found the game to be 'easy' until Black Meadow...which I got through ok even so, the trash type fights just got noticeably more difficult.  Caed Nau though, fights with 5+ ghost type mobs are just wrecking me.  I have Eder, Durance, Kana and myself, a Rogue.  I did not backtrack North of Gilded Vale, or do the Eothas Temple, and I missed Raedric's Hold entirely that was mentioned up thread.  So I guess i have some backtracking to do.

 

I was trying to move through quickly until I got all 8 companions, so  they would be less likely to gimp themselves with bad talent choices, but I guess I will have to shelve that plan.

 

[ModernModron]

3. Speaking of the wizard, his ability you can use in each encounter does some AoE damage.  Make sure you're using this, and try to pick a target that will cause some nice splash damage in a pack.  Don't be afraid to burn all of his spells on a really hard fight.

 

I've barely even started the game, but this is the sort of thing that really worries me.  I don't want to use AoE spells every time I get into combat.

 

One of the nice things about the old BG games was that a lot of the fights were pretty trivial.  It set the tone that we were professional adventurers able to handle the lifestyle, and it made fights against mid-range opponents stand out: they could be challenging without being a 'boss' type encounter.

 

But the more 'per encounter' powers the party has, the greater the pressure to balance EVERY encounter around them.  That in turn makes all the mundane encounters really, really boring; they require too much micromanaging to steamroller them, but they all feel like the same thing over and over again.

 

That's the big reason I really grew to hate 4ed D&D.  So I'm extremely nervous that the 'spiritual successor' to BG seems to have latched onto that system as its central mechanic.

[Reever]

I'm managing pretty well on Normal difficulty, didn't know how to

recruit Eder

so I hired a Paladin

(and then Eder joined too...)

. Got a five people party now and

storming Raedric's Fortress

.

 

I'm really enjoying myself, the game is awesome.

[FalloutBoy]

I wiped in Caed Nua also. So I'm doing some side stuff first and I'll try again at level 4.

[OrangeDeath]

I should have also added:

Save Often - F5 is your friend.

[kozzy]

OP a lot of people are having this problem myself included. They tried to reinvent the wheel and failed miserably. The result is you need to create gimmick builds to survive. It's nothing like D&D. It's a deeply flawed and poorly designed CRPG system and game on so many levels. It's a shame because the art and writing are nice otherwise.

This is not true at all from my experience. You don't have to create gimmick builds at all. I suggest you play more with the game and actually learn how it works. I don't have any gimmick characters and I am doing great on HARD.

 

The combat is not flawed at all, ever thought maybe it is you and not the game that might be flawed? Poorly designed? Deeply Flawed? I couldn't disagree more. Need to build a gimmick build to survive? Complete BS.

 

Gotta love it when people call things broken or flawed just because its to hard or things are not working out for them as they expected.

 

There is going to be hard guys out there, all over the map. Some that are to tough for you to take on right away, come back later and whoop them. This is a wonderful designed crpg, I suggest playing the game more and actually learning how to play it, soak it up.

Edited March 28, 2015 by kozzy

[Malignacious]

 

4. Traps.  The few really bad fights I encounter, I have traps on hand and will set it up so that I can 'pull' them in a way that causes the group to bunch up and trigger something like a noxious explosive trap.

 

How do you craft traps and where?

[The Craw]

I am playing a Druid. I have 5 guys including me party, level 4. I've spent most of the afternoon wiping in the dungeon under Caed Nua. Positioning and area spells help, but sometimes its a wipe in every room.

[SKull]

 

 

4. Traps.  The few really bad fights I encounter, I have traps on hand and will set it up so that I can 'pull' them in a way that causes the group to bunch up and trigger something like a noxious explosive trap.

 

How do you craft traps and where?

 

 

If you successfully disarm one it pops up in your inventory and you can use it yourself. Pretty cool system for traps actually.

[Katarack21]

Nevermind.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Katarack21

[Tequilaflavor]

 

 

If you played BG1 and BG2 you must know that you can easily in both games run into areas that are too tough for your current level and you need to level up somewhere else (or get better loot) and come back later.

 

This is no different.

In all fairness, though, I never ran into this problem just following the main quest line. Sure, if you head straight north after visiting the Friendly Arm Inn for the first time and come across a couple Ankhegs you're gonna be in a world of hurt, but there were plenty of times I went into the Nashkel Mines as fresh level 2s and while it was tough, it wasn't constant party wipes.

 

I'm not trying to be defensive, I'm just pointing out that im going to the places the game naturally points me to go.

 

 

Yep, you're right about that. What you have to consider though is that you might be currently pretty bad at the game. That will go for many of us. When I fire up BG2 now, I've played it, and other D&D games, so many times that I'm starting from a pretty high level of competency. With POE, sometimes I find out basic things after dying several times because it's got several new rules and mechanics.

 

Arguably that means the game should have been balanced to be easier, but I like it this way, since when we play for a bit more and develop a competency it'll still have challenging options.

 

 

So much this ! Couldn't help but to "like" your post for quote-worthiness.

 

I'm new to PoE (backer but never played the beta) and - for example - I only found out how Engagement works by seeing a Talent for "+1 Engagement" for the first time, thinking "What is this ? I'm not a bigamist !" and then looking it up in the wiki. And this was several hours into the game ! I had a vague notion that you get hit if you run around while in melee combat (alà Attack of Opportunity) but I had no clue how Engagement actually worked !

 

Point is: Most of us truely are newcomers to this game and its system and I think it's fine to be humbled by some harder encounters here and there and forced to learn how the systems work to overcome these fights.

[NorthernSquirrel]

Haven't noticed that myself, but then again I think Ciphers may be overpowered. I start with 30+ focus, throw 2 mind blades into the enemy mob and they are all almost dead. Single target, I do the push spell for CC and massive damage. Elite monster withs adds, I cast dominate on the elite while I kill the adds, then we kills the big one.

 

My ciphers barely lvl 6 and he's dealt 3.5 times more damage than anyone else, including the mage. Actually, he's dealt more damage than the 5 other characters in my party combined.

 

Playing on Hard + Expert.

Edited March 28, 2015 by NorthernSquirrel

[mpcarolin]

I've (unfortunately) never played an Infinity Engine game before. Still, I'm about 10 hours in on the standard difficulty, and while the game is very challenging, I fortunately haven't faced anything that I couldn't beat after 2 or 3 tries. 

 

Here's what seems to work for me:

 

- Finish as many available quests along the way as you can/want, which racks up experience and some loot (in the buried temple of the first town, for instance). 

- My party has two defensive-focused fighters that hold the front line (esp. with a defensive stance ability that engages up to 6 enemies). It keeps them away from my other party members. 

- I have my ranged characters in the back

- Use the battlefield to your advantage. Funnel enemies through doorways, and in the case of those nasty enemies that can transport behind your front line, position your squishy members between a wall or object and your front line, protecting them all around. 

- Take advantage of the bestiary to know your enemy's weaknesses

 

Sorry if my comment is obvious to people in this forum or turns out to be wrong; I'm learning all of this as I go and this is just what works for me. But the most common problem I read about is the absence of that solid front line. 

Edited March 28, 2015 by mpcarolin

[graf wasili]

Yeah, learning the combat mechanis is alot of fun I started on ultra evil difficulty, than I wanted to go back to hard, but realized I can't.

 

It's really though, but it forces me to play the game a way I actually like: Retreat, sneak around enemies, not explore a whole map at once, think about when and where to rest... Suddenly an inn is a thing again, haha.

[AncientToaster]

OP a lot of people are having this problem myself included. They tried to reinvent the wheel and failed miserably. The result is you need to create gimmick builds to survive. It's nothing like D&D. It's a deeply flawed and poorly designed CRPG system and game on so many levels. It's a shame because the art and writing are nice otherwise.

 

 

Oh come on, get outta here with this. It is not poorly designed at all, you are just too lazy to learn the new mechanics of the combat system, and expect it to be identical to IE games.

 

This system is fine, I've been playing for about 5 hours and I have not wiped yet on Normal, and it's been fairly challenging, you just have to use all the tools available to you. If you try to auto attack your way through fights, you're gonna die.

[HozzM]

One thing that plagues me when I play CRPGs, I constantly go back and forth between different games, to mess with different classes and builds.  Rogue kind of stalled in CN, as I mentioned earlier, so today I created a Cipher, Ranger, and Paladin and gave them a shot.  Only got them to level 2 each.

 

Cipher feels pretty powerful early on.

 

Ranger is ok too.  I got a Bear and, early on at least, he is a hell of a tank.  It seems like he never takes damage.  I hope the pets scale with the PCs level!

 

Paladin, I made a tank so its kind of boring but with the weapon and shield talent is almost invulnerable.

 

Also, hired a dude to fill out the party with myself and the first four recruitable companions, I didn't do that with my Rogue.

[NorthernSquirrel]

 

- Finish as many available quests along the way as you can/want, which racks up experience and some loot (in the buried temple of the first town, for instance). 

 

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut roleplaying

[Dongom]

I'm having similar issues.

 

I rolled through BG1/2 on hardest difficulty.  Hell I solo'd it on some builds.  But this game on normal I'm just getting destroyed.

 

It seems your build/party has to be quite a bit tighter and more controlled in this game. Gonna have to keep restarting until I find out what's good.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Dongom

[The Craw]

Well after so much wiping under there, I went all the way back to the first inn to get more camping gear. I hired a dwarf rogue and then went back to the bear and killed it with a full team. Then I walked all the way back to Caed Nua and finished up under there. What a surprise when it was finished!

 

Didnt really do too many side quests.

[kryadan]

My problem is positioning. Ii find a lot of times I try to focus fire let's say a mage in the back. So i send them all after the mage. My ranger and my priest stay back throwing skills.

 

Once the mage is almost dead (or immediately after knocking him down with my fighter) I send my fighter to pick someone else up. Here pathing doesn't really seem to be working well for me. He just stands there unless i point and click him around the group of people to where I want him to go. Seems very odd but happens a lot in cramped spaces or where the fight is beside furniture.

 

That explains a lot of messed up fights for me, the for the ones I cannot get through I sneak around them and keep exploring. It's exploring and quests that give majority of experience anyways. I come back once I have better equipment or skills/stats.

[kryadan]

I'm having similar issues.

 

I rolled through BG1/2 on hardest difficulty.  Hell I solo'd it on some builds.  But this game on normal I'm just getting destroyed.

 

It seems your build/party has to be quite a bit tighter and more controlled in this game. Gonna have to keep restarting until I find out what's good.

 

Look at some of the steam achievements. Beat the game with resting under 10 times. beat it by killing less than 175 creatures/NPCs, beat it with no members hitting 0 endurance etc...

[Voqar]

In this kind of game you usually have "freedom" and that often equates to having no clue where to be that's appropriate for your party's level and abilities.  It's a good idea to quicksave regularly in case you get in way over your head and wipe.  It's a good idea to keep at least one "main" save so you can back up a ways if you really hose something badly.

 

This game has some pretty hard fights on even on normal - you need to be using all of the many abilities you get.

 

Beyond that, explore what you can and find stuff you can defeat.  You can always recruit a few custom heros at an inn to make a bigger party and fill in gaps in party composition (I did and I'm dropping them as I find more companions since I want to see their backstories/quests during my first time thru - kind of like BG style, then I may do a full custom run more like IWD style).

[Dongom]

 

I'm having similar issues.

 

I rolled through BG1/2 on hardest difficulty.  Hell I solo'd it on some builds.  But this game on normal I'm just getting destroyed.

 

It seems your build/party has to be quite a bit tighter and more controlled in this game. Gonna have to keep restarting until I find out what's good.

 

Look at some of the steam achievements. Beat the game with resting under 10 times. beat it by killing less than 175 creatures/NPCs, beat it with no members hitting 0 endurance etc...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a tank monk, dies in seconds on normal against wolves.  I've restarted 3 times. I even put maximum Con this time for 19 and I'm still the first one to fall flat on my ass. 

 

I've read up on guides and I'm a pro at these type of games so I'm extra frustrated.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Dongom