Any tips for advanced party based combat?

[andysonofbob]

Hi

 

I am seeing lots of beginner tips but I am struggling with the more advanced stuff.  I listen to people on YouTube call it positioning etc but they tend to play on the noob maps and so it isn't possible to show the more advanced stuff involving handling combat against a number of mobs.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks!

[kat7ra]

If you're up against harder packs, what I normally do is:

1. Equip ranged weapons on everything, the slower/heavy hitting the better. One volley kills at least one enemy.

2. Find a choke point, there is almost always one around, back up if you need to, choke points makes all the difference.

3. AOE debuffs, stack em up after the enemies have engaged said choke point, followed by maybe AOE dmg.

4. Don't be afraid of over healing, and using healing over time effects early in the fight

5. Guns are insane if used with the right talents/abilites

 

It's kinda hard to know what you would need advice about tbh, since I don't know what you mean by "advanced" stuff, so far I've gotten through everything on hard following these simple steps.

[andysonofbob]

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning).  He has lots of champion characters...  My party of 5 are level lvl 4.  Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

[sim-h]

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning).  He has lots of champion characters...  My party of 5 are level lvl 4.  Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

 

Yeah - but you'll maybe need one or two reloads unless you've done it before.

 

Gets a whole lot easier once you get to level 6 or so (I'm finding, on 'Hard'). Possibly...too....easy (ducks for cover)

[dangerlinto]

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning).  He has lots of champion characters...  My party of 5 are level lvl 4.  Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

 

Here's your tip on that fight - talk with your main character, run quickly to the choke point.  

[Eos]

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning).  He has lots of champion characters...  My party of 5 are level lvl 4.  Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

 

For this specific encounter: as soon as the fight starts, retreat back to the stairwell while you position your tank(s) at the top of the stairs and your squishier party member at the bottom of it to take advantage of that chokepoint. Then turn said chokepoint into a field of death by using all the AoE damage/disable spells/abilities you have right in front of your tank while your squishies stand at the bottom of the stairs shooting away at everything from a safe distance. If everything works out, your tank is standing in the front getting flailed at by 3-4 dudes while the rest of the mobs blocks themselves and slowly dies to your spells/missiles.

 

As for general tips, as was already mentioned:

 

-use the surroundings to your advantage, mostly to creaty chokepoints in which to position your tank so the mobs can't get through to your casters/ranged DDs

-minmax, i.e. stack damage reduction and avoidance on your tank and stack damage on everything else, your tank can hit like a limp noodle, as long as he doesn't die and your DD's can be made out of papermaché as long as they rain death and destruction on your enemies

-disable is your friend: use your supporters to disable your targets, rather than dealing damage. Everything dies eventually to your bows/guns, but surviving the mass of enemies is the more difficult part, where your stuns/sleeps/blinds help you a lot

-abuse the mob AI: mobs in PoE are dumb, so just use a single tank (or two for convenience) and make the rest of your group ranged. Makes everything easier, from positioning, to itemization, to combat itself

-use slow firing hard hitting guns/arbalests: even though they were recently balanced, those things still hit like bazookas. So just give every puny rogue, chanter, cypher, priest, whatever you have one and watch them make your enemies explode (literally)

 

Other than that.. not much comes to mind. Play smart :D

[Sugam]

 

 

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning). He has lots of champion characters... My party of 5 are level lvl 4. Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

 

Here's your tip on that fight - talk with your main character, run quickly to the choke point. [/quote

 

I don't even wait to talk. I open up all the aoe spells and attacks. That's how I "talk" with my main character. But that's only if I do intend to kill him.

[Malovane]

Thanks

 

I will defo give those tips a go

 

I am specifically struggling with the dude in the keep who owns the town (trying not to give starters but its near the beginning).  He has lots of champion characters...  My party of 5 are level lvl 4.  Is that good enough?

 

Thanks

 

Chokepoint + Fan of Flames

[andysonofbob]

Managed it.  I had to move my party to the doorway.  Worked a charm though.

 

It did feel gamey though.  There is no way I would have won in the open.  I guess this is OK drawing out the opo to where I want them to be...

 

Thanks!

[luzarius]

Check out this tutorial I wrote for Trial of Iron, see if the concepts in there help at all.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76350-combat-tutorial-for-new-players-normal-difficulty-trial-of-iron/

[kat7ra]

Yeah, I ended up in the staircase as well, and then I swung Aloth around midfight for 3 Fans, which DEMOLISHED everything.

Also, to position yourself according to the environment is real life strategy 101, I wouldn't really call it gamey, because if you COULD win it out in the open then the game would be to easy, you're not supposed to sweep a fight when surrounded by competent enemies.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

If you find combat hard, then use doors. Doesn't matter what difficulty, it's all quite easy when you use them. And usually only one enemy attacks at one time.

 

Hard difficulty. Level 7 Od Nua and my characters have just levelled up to level 6. I'm not using any spells and just sitting back having a nice cup of tea watching my characters auto-attacking.