Help a noob :(

[SamOftheUels]

So, I've nevered play a cRPG before, never got round to Baulder's Gate and the like, but I've instantly fallen in love with this game.

 

I am however, struggling.

 

I'm only on Normal, but I'm finding myself needing to reload quite a lot.

 

I can't get to grips with this formation business, simply because as soon as a fight starts, they lose formation - The wizard seems to want to get cast his spells at point black range.

 

My squishies die in one or two hits, which would be fine if my front line was a front line and held aggro, more often than not, the enemy is simply walking on through and beating on my casters and such.

 

I feel like there is something fundemental I haven't caught on to yet - I'm fighting a bunch of goons at Lord Raedics place - and they are pwning me -

 

Anyone have any basic combat tips, and or formation tips - am I underleveled for the content, I mean I received the quest like 2 levels ago, gah I dunno -

 

 

[Cantousent]

My first tip is that if it's frustrating, dial it down to easy.  That's the first tip.  We're kind of swamped with new threads and posts right now, so I can't give more detail, but my post here will bump your thread up so one of the many grognards in the group can weigh in to help you.  Good luck, man!

 

EDIT:  Approved this thread and removed duplicate.

[revial]

"Formations" are almost pointless, beyond simply being the starting point for where your group members are when combat starts. 

 

Anyway, some tips and thoughts:

 

* Use stealth pretty much the entire time you're exploring a new region, in-between fights. Not because you're going to actually sneak up on people, but because with auto pause and stealth, you can generally start the fight "first", rather than both sides starting at the same time. I run a party with 3 range, 3 melee, and usually instantly kill at least one mob after unpausing, as opposed to killing nothing initially if I was just running around and encountering the enemy unstealthed. 

 

* There is no such thing as aggro, as far as I can tell. There's some sort of AI targetting going on based on range and type of mob, but I couldn't tell you the particulars. I find having three melee up front, all three initially told to attack targets that initially spread them out-if even a little-helps to consolidate your enemies in one place. 

 

* Your characters will auto attack what attacks them, and this will override your initial directions. I believe you can turn this off under one of the game options. I actually got used to it, and turned it back on, but for a while I had it turned off because it was initially really annoying to start a fight directing my party members to do this, that, and whatever, and then they all ignored it all as the enemies hit them. Once I got used to always having the initiative in a fight, due to starting them all stealthed, I turned it back on, as I found my melee's reactions as they charged to their targets, only to switch as they were hit, tended to do a decent job at grouping up the enemy.

 

* Going back to formations, there are some positioning tips that can be useful in battle. There is collision detection, so you can block choke points with melee (unless the enemies can teleport), as an example. 

 

* The game gets easier the further in you get. This isn't a joke. The hardest combat I encountered was level 2-3. At level 10 now, and fights are pretty much a joke. The only times fights get remotely hairy now are when large numbers of my party keep getting dominated/charmed, and that's only because I have that auto attack option turned on, and sometimes when a party member gets charmed and attacks another party member, that party member attacks back and really hurts them. :D

 

* Use high damage, slow weapons to overcome damage resistance many mobs have. Pretty much every character I have uses a slow to very slow weapon with high damage. I just find anything a fast, but low damage weapon works well against is generally utter trash anyway, whereas barely doing any damage against mobs with high damage resistance really kind of blows. It's entirely possible I'm missing the point of fast, low damage weapons, however. 

 

* In that vein, I'm missing the point of why I should care about recovery as well (but, I also barely use any spells outside of support/heals). Having to rest constantly, and dying in 2-3 hits if something managed to reach them, made me decide against bothering with any primary casters. So, since I don't care about recovery, all my characters wear the heavies armor with the most damage absorption possible. 

 

 

[Fen(rir)tastic]

I'm not sure about your party comp but possibly it's the priests of berath wrecking you. Focus them with fast attacking ranged weapons and or use knockdowns and paralyze effects.

 

If it is a positioning issue where squishies are getting railed. Make sure your tank (Eder/NPC) is well in front of your backliners. Make use of stealth to position and don't be afraid to range pull enemies back to natural choke points doors/stairs/corridors.

 

Honestly most difficult fights are only made difficult by misplay. Don't move your characters while they are engaged (red arrow from the enemy to your character) and make sure to use your accuracy buffing skills and debuffs especially anything impacting enemy accuracy and deflection.

 

If you are still struggling try on easy for a little while or check out some gameplay vids. You may not be pausing enough to execute actions.

 

Good luck

[Voss]

"Formations" are almost pointless, beyond simply being the starting point for where your group members are when combat starts. 

 

 

Which... really matters.   Which character is where shapes the entire combat.

 

 

Characters don't override your commands.  They'll look for the closest target when the current one falls, and the pathfinding sometimes bugs out.

 

 

Recovery is also really important. It has very little to do with 'primary casters' and a lot to do with everyone, especially anyone using a slow weapon or guns/crossbows.