Hard Difficulty

[Hatred]

 I am feeling like hard could be harder. I am in defiance bay and have cleared out most of it I think. (my party is level 7 atm, havent gone to heritage hill yet). I am just playing with the companions you find. I had one companion go funny with stats, so they just do the stronghold missions now. 

 Anyone else feel like hard isn't really hard enough ? 

[Wolken3156]

Pretty sure all Hard does is change the enemy formations, it doesn't boost the stats of any of the enemies like POTD does.

 

Fighting Shades at 2nd-level in the Temple of Eloth is fun at least.

[CaptainMace]

Even then Wolken, POTD is not even really harder, only longer. The problem, I think, consist of a myriad of WAY too generous xp rewards in the first half of the game.
I spent most of Act II at level 7 to 9 and I kept walking upon level 4-6 creatures that, obviously, were no problem anymore.

I think in Hard and POTD, the game need to be less generous in XP than it is in Normal mode. Because right now, hard is hard in act 1 only, and whether you fight three lvl 4 creatures or two lvl 4 and two lvl 6 ones doesn't really make a difference, since they can't hit you, since you're overleveled.

[Hatred]

I have yet to notice this act business. I am in defiance bay... so is that act 2 ? I also haven't noticed that the enemies have levels. I did have a bit of a loadathon when I first tried fighting the shades. On the other hand I one shot Raedric without consumables (I am still keeping all of these traps and scrolls and potions in case I ever actually need them ....) and have found there to be little of difficulty since. I even went down into the dungeon and dropped down a rope to fight a drake while I am certain I was too low to be there and one shot that. Aside from shades and incomplete parties the game just doesn't feel hard enough. 

[Elvarein]

Level 7 at defiance bay is WAY overlevelled haha. 

[Hatred]

How do you not get so high though ?  Unless some bug gave me a heap of free xp or something. I did go around and read every book and talk to every person and do each and every quest available. I dont feel like that should make me over leveled (and I know that reading the lore books doesn't level you I am just trying to imply that I feel like I left nothing undone)

[Ink Blot]

Tell me how you 'one shot' the drake.

[Hatred]

Tell me how you 'one shot' the drake.

 Ah it has occured to me that my use of language is perhaps misleading. When I say I one shot it I mean I didn't load. Not that I killed it with a single bullet. That would be straight up depressing. Normally I am pretty lazy and tend to die in a fight and need to load before I bother using many abilities in a fight, especially per rest ones. For the Drake I did not hold back like I generally do though considering how under leveled you are when you get to the drake if you drop down the rope I was still pretty surprised how easily I won that fight. I actually had more trouble getting back out since I went down with no camping supplies like the fool I am and was running pretty low on spells and health after the fight. Those Xaurip priests can be a pain if you don't take em out fairly quickly.

[mazeltov]

I did get wiped the first time I ran into a pack of Forge Knights. But that's more an issue of them being insanely OP than anything else. The rest of the combat on Hard has been manageable though, even with stock "horribly underpowered and unoptimized" companions.

[Hatred]

I did get wiped the first time I ran into a pack of Forge Knights. But that's more an issue of them being insanely OP than anything else. The rest of the combat on Hard has been manageable though, even with stock "horribly underpowered and unoptimized" companions.

 

 Yeah that lightning attack of theirs is pretty nuts if you are like me and have a bad habit of letting your guys clump. I did find once I stopped clumping they weren't really so bad.

[Dongom]

The bounties, endless dungeon, and simple DefianceBay quests result in over leveling for a lot of stuff.  

 

But apart from that spammable CC with no real dr that I can see and unkillable tanks is what cuases this.

[Hatred]

 I am wondering if there is any chance of the in game levels or stats of creatures being tuned to account for the over leveling or if I want a challenge maybe I just have to not do a lot of defiance bay. Up until defiance bay things felt fine. I have only just started doing the endless dungeon. I totally agree with you about the tank factor. I think for second playthrough  I will be avoiding warrior tanks. I shudder to think what a min maxed tank with full deflection and constitution would be able to withstand.

[mazeltov]

Let's see, a passive 125 Deflection at level 6 with pally tank, on top of exceptional full plate that was purchased from a shop in DB. So 20 DR against the most common damage types.

 

Even Eder with half that much Deflection rarely gets hit and almost never crit. Maybe he's getting grazed but between full plate and constant fighter regen he stays at full endurance. The only real threat so far is multiple high damage spells cast fairly close together.

[Sock]

You can also try adventuring with a smaller party.

[Arctic]

druids are dangerous all the time, mind control can also take a lot of health down ... for the rest its quite easy .. but every game is if you grind 30 hours in act 1 and do every single quest xD

[Hatred]

125 deflection ! that is nuts. I am kicking with 104 on Eder and I resisted buying any exceptional armour for no reason I can really explain. The smaller party is an option but I don't want to leave anyone behind untill I have played through and gotten to know all of the companions. They are one of the highlights of the game for me. Itd be cool if I could leave me behind haha.

[Hatred]

druids are dangerous all the time, mind control can also take a lot of health down ... for the rest its quite easy .. but every game is if you grind 30 hours in act 1 and do every single quest xD

 

 I don't know that I have been 'grinding'. I do all of the quests because it is fun. For some reason the enemies who spam charm seem to either aim for the tank which can be bad or for my wizard who does very small damage to my team. I have definitely noticed that most difficulty comes from enemy casters. The casters are pretty easy to kill though if you can get to them or have a reasonable amount of ranged dps.

[cycbersnaek]

The hardest fights of this game for me was temple of eothas with no tank and 4 level 3's.  After I recruited Eders, everything is smooth sailing so far.

[Awsumpossum]

Certain mobs give me difficulty.  In general, once I grapsed game mechanics and min/maxed a bit, I'm flying through hard.  I rarely even pause at this point outside of my initial combat selections because things melt so swiftly.  Like with a lot of RPGs, early game is difficult, but once you get going you start to feel pretty OP.

[Ink Blot]

 Ah it has occured to me that my use of language is perhaps misleading. When I say I one shot it I mean I didn't load. Not that I killed it with a single bullet. That would be straight up depressing. Normally I am pretty lazy and tend to die in a fight and need to load before I bother using many abilities in a fight, especially per rest ones. For the Drake I did not hold back like I generally do though considering how under leveled you are when you get to the drake if you drop down the rope I was still pretty surprised how easily I won that fight. I actually had more trouble getting back out since I went down with no camping supplies like the fool I am and was running pretty low on spells and health after the fight. Those Xaurip priests can be a pain if you don't take em out fairly quickly.

 

Indeed it is. This is basically my biggest gripe against people that complain Hard mode is too easy: they tend to make it seem it's really a lot easier that it actually is.

 

I ended up down there as well with my party the same way you did and got thoroughly stomped by the drake and his minions. Honestly I think I could have taken the drake and a couple of the xaurips, but the addition of those priests wiped me out. I admit I'm by no means an uber player, but I do understand the game mechanics reasonably well. I tip my hat to you guys that find these types of battles a cakewalk. I tend to have a lot more trouble with major battles than many of you guys are reporting. To me, hard mode is pretty much spot on. I get waxed every now and then and have to rethink my strategy. That's pretty much the way I expect hard to be.

 

Honestly, how you guys are reporting that you're waltzing through all the battles on hard mode is beyond me.