At what level are you supposed to play White March?

[abaris]

So this is getting really frustrating.

 

I've got a level 6 party and barely survived Stalwart with many saves and reloads. I venture into the other regions, band of fampirs mass charming my party, wasted within seconds. Venture into yet another region, wasted by these new monsters mass paralyzing my party.

 

Please don't tell me, it's geared at level 10 upwards. I hoped to get at least the Devil a little earlier than that to supplement my party.

[Mechalibur]

Around level 7/8, with some high level encounters sprinkled in.

 

If you have a high level party the game will also ask if you want to scale the content up.

[lonelornfr]

Yeah i went there at lv5 and it was really hard. I'd say level 7 is mandatory unless you're a masochist who happens to love saving reloading a lot.

[abaris]

I wouldn't even know how to master one particular building at a higher level. Party's at full endurance and some contruct throws something which instantly downs them wholesale without warning. I can deal with hard fights, but whole party instakills just frustrate me. And that's with being buffed to the eyeballs by Durance.

Edited September 3, 2015 by abaris

[Mechalibur]

I wouldn't even know how to master one particular building at a higher level. Party's at full endurance and some contruct throws something which instantly downs them wholesale without warning. I can deal with hard fights, but whole party instakills just frustrate me. And that's with being buffed to the eyeballs by Durance.

Are you referring to the constructs in Galvino's house by any chance? There's a known glitch where sometimes their deflection and accuracy spikes to ridiculous levels whenever you reload in there.

[abaris]

 

I wouldn't even know how to master one particular building at a higher level. Party's at full endurance and some contruct throws something which instantly downs them wholesale without warning. I can deal with hard fights, but whole party instakills just frustrate me. And that's with being buffed to the eyeballs by Durance.

Are you referring to the constructs in Galvino's house by any chance? There's a known glitch where sometimes their deflection and accuracy spikes to ridiculous levels whenever you reload in there.

 

 

Yes, that's exactly the place. So, better leave it for another time and not reload in there.

[BicycleRepairMan]

I am not entering White March be4 i get my party 2 at least level 10, i was getting overrun at level 7.

[abaris]

I don't want to scrape the level cap when I'm doing the White March. For one because of the new companions and second because I want to have the opportunity to develop my party further afterwards. And third because I did the rest of the game so often that there isn't anything new to explore.

[synfrei]

Problem with the Scale up from White March it dont tells you which level they are around if you dont scale up, so to understand it i first needed to test how it feels when i dont scale up...

but anyway it will scale up my playtime ;-)

[AndreaColombo]

I went there at level 8 on hard and found it adequately challenging.

 

Now I'm doing the battery on PotD at level 10 and sone of the fights can be rather unforgiving

[BURAKIM]

Hi,

Started White March around level 7 on hard and feel it packs quite a challenge vs base game. After adjusting to new monsters and improved AI - I feel good about this - need to optimize and plan a bit more, but definitely not a save / load or micromanagement fest . For old timers, I feel WM is a bit more like an Icewind dale experience - not bad in my book 

 

[Starwars]

I went in at level 6 at first which was a challenge (and this is only on Hard). While I could do rather a lot of the encounters if I applied myself, there were definitely one or two that stomped me at that level.

 

After that, I kinda ended up weaving back and forth a bit between the main story, the Endless Paths and the expansion. Works pretty well.

[pi2repsion]

So this is getting really frustrating.

 

I've got a level 6 party and barely survived Stalwart with many saves and reloads. I venture into the other regions, band of fampirs mass charming my party, wasted within seconds. Venture into yet another region, wasted by these new monsters mass paralyzing my party.

 

Please don't tell me, it's geared at level 10 upwards. I hoped to get at least the Devil a little earlier than that to supplement my party.

It is not designed for level 10 upwards. Happy now?

 

As for what level it is intended for, I would guess that it was designed for "around level 8 or so  on normal difficulty but with a bit tougher encounters to give a bit of Ice Wind Dale feeling" on the grounds that many enemies in White March drop Exceptional items, there are exceptional soulbound weapons, and Exceptional is only available as an enchant at level 8. If one compares with Defiance Bay, almost all item drops there are Fine with Exceptional primarily available from merchants at high cost.

 

 

For what it is worth, I entered it at level 6 playing Path of the Damned, and I found it too damned hard to be enjoyable, but returned at level 7 and found it to be around the same level of difficulty as what I'd faced the first 2-3 levels in PoTD while gathering companions; In other words, still much tougher than anything left in Defiance Bay, but definitely doable though it required resting after nearly every group defeated in the wild after securing Stalwart, and I occasionally lose a battle and have to reload.

 

Stalwart itself was much easier the second time around, not only because of slightly higher stats or gear, but because I chose to fight my way west along the southern border of the map until I could attack the warboss, thus skipping most of the ogre encounters in the village and preserving almost all my spells for the important battle.

 

I guess it depends a lot upon your group composition and the difficulty level you have chosen.

 

In my case, my main is a pale elf blaster/control wizard with 18 mig, 3 con, 19 dex, 16 per, 18 int, 3 res, with Blast, Penetrating Blast, Dangerous Implements (and picking up the elemental talents afterwards), and blaster wizards are incredibly frontloaded in damageoutput once they gain third level spells (if you know what you are doing), so battles to a large degree rely on my three melee front line (Eder 2H, Pallegina, Durance S&S) holding back the horde while Durance casts defensive and offensive buffs and Kana shoots and summons meatshields (items and chants; open up with the Obsidian Lamps' 3 shades in any dangerous battle; give the enemy something to divert it while you get all the priest and wizard buffs up), while my main character casts Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Infused Vitality, and Merciless Gaze, and uses the 2nd level AOE corruption/siphon spell to regain life, Fireballs for fun and profit, Slicken to knock down concentration of enemies, and K. Minor Blights when low on spells to bombard the enemy into submission, with my 6th party member varying depending on situation. (Aloth only rarely - a two wizard group at level 5+ is way too strong regardless of difficulty level.)

 

I picked up the Devil of Caroc at level 7, close to level 8.

 

I am certain that if I'd played on either a lesser difficulty setting it would be doable starting at level 6, but for PoTD I'd say level 7 is the minimum for it to be fun as that's when you get access to level 4 priest spells and the wonderful +20 accuracy blessing.

[KDubya]

On PotD I did everything I could except for the Animancy trial and the lower half of Od Nua. That put me at level 9. I went to White March and went with the high level option. I cleared everything to the left Russet Wood or whatever and am now mostly cleared to the right at the Falls.

 

My party is a Dwarven Monk in Sanguine plate and shod in faith boots using fists, Zahua in plate using Greenstone staff and TideFall, Pellagrina w/zealous Endurance , Hiravois, Sagani and Kana in heavy armor & shield. Good hit points, good saves and good DR makes the team pretty durable. It also helps that most things are Wilder or Primordial and thus are affected by the Boreal Dwarf bonus.

 

The Glimmer Society bounty fight was real tough, had to fight at the ramp where I could keep a front of three melee. In open ground they just swarmed and beat everyone senseless.

 

I worry that if I went there at level 7 or so, the remaining parts of Act 2 would be a joke when I return at level 10 and I'd be over-leveled for everything. Now PotD with the high level scaling for White March is a real challenge starting at level 9.

[Gs11]

On PotD I did everything I could except for the Animancy trial and the lower half of Od Nua. That put me at level 9. I went to White March and went with the high level option. I cleared everything to the left Russet Wood or whatever and am now mostly cleared to the right at the Falls.

 

My party is a Dwarven Monk in Sanguine plate and shod in faith boots using fists, Zahua in plate using Greenstone staff and TideFall, Pellagrina w/zealous Endurance , Hiravois, Sagani and Kana in heavy armor & shield. Good hit points, good saves and good DR makes the team pretty durable. It also helps that most things are Wilder or Primordial and thus are affected by the Boreal Dwarf bonus.

 

The Glimmer Society bounty fight was real tough, had to fight at the ramp where I could keep a front of three melee. In open ground they just swarmed and beat everyone senseless.

 

I worry that if I went there at level 7 or so, the remaining parts of Act 2 would be a joke when I return at level 10 and I'd be over-leveled for everything. Now PotD with the high level scaling for White March is a real challenge starting at level 9.

You finished whole main plot being at 9 lvl and than done White March and Cragholdt's Bluff? Were You playing with IE Mod Experience nerf 25/50 %?

Edited September 23, 2015 by Gs11

[KDubya]

 

On PotD I did everything I could except for the Animancy trial and the lower half of Od Nua. That put me at level 9. I went to White March and went with the high level option. I cleared everything to the left Russet Wood or whatever and am now mostly cleared to the right at the Falls.

 

My party is a Dwarven Monk in Sanguine plate and shod in faith boots using fists, Zahua in plate using Greenstone staff and TideFall, Pellagrina w/zealous Endurance , Hiravois, Sagani and Kana in heavy armor & shield. Good hit points, good saves and good DR makes the team pretty durable. It also helps that most things are Wilder or Primordial and thus are affected by the Boreal Dwarf bonus.

 

The Glimmer Society bounty fight was real tough, had to fight at the ramp where I could keep a front of three melee. In open ground they just swarmed and beat everyone senseless.

 

I worry that if I went there at level 7 or so, the remaining parts of Act 2 would be a joke when I return at level 10 and I'd be over-leveled for everything. Now PotD with the high level scaling for White March is a real challenge starting at level 9.

You finished whole main plot being at 9 lvl and than done White March and Cragholdt's Bluff? Were You playing with IE Mod Experience nerf 25/50 %?

 

 

I stopped before the Animancy Trial, so before the riots and before the water goes down to allow access to Twin Elms. Not using any mods.

[SubRosa]

The big problem I found in the White March was the Lagerfeths. They paralyze with every hit, even just a graze. You might still defeat them with half your party paralyzed all the time, but it is really annoying. So you need Prayer Against Imprisonment, and have to cast it at the start of every fight. That means you need a 9th level Priest, and have to rest after every two encounters (because you only get two castings of PAI per rest at that level). The area to the east - Longwatch Falls - is filled with them. Stalwart and the western area of Russetwood doesn't have them, so you can clear them at an earlier level. The final area of Durgan's Battery has more Laugerfeths that you have to fight through to get inside, and even more in one area inside.

 

So I recommend not trying White March until Level 9.

Edited September 26, 2015 by SubRosa

[abaris]

No, level 7 works and level 8 works fine. The Lagerfeths aren't that much of a problem if your wizard spams them with slicken. Once they're down, they're cheap meat for melee fighters.

[KDubya]

Or just have good defenses like a Monk and Paladin can have.

 

Sagani, Hiravois, and Kana fall pretty quick but Zahua, Pellegrinna and my Monk stayed alive and would carry the day. This was PotD, level 9 - 11 with White March scaled up.

[Gs11]

My party is a Dwarven Monk in Sanguine plate and shod in faith boots using fists, Zahua in plate using Greenstone staff and TideFall,Pellagrina w/zealous Endurance , Hiravois, Sagani and Kana in heavy armor & shield.

You mean Hiravois,Sagani,Kana all of them in heavy armor and shield? Or just Kana with heavy armor and shield? Trying to play  with POTD and I'm wondering which armor I should use on my ranger and other characters.For example I wanne to play as  Barb as dd with two-handed sword, he have 40 deflection,lvl 5,dont wanne make him tank, but he struggles to stand up if I send him into battle and surrounded by 3 enemies, so maybe beter options to give him shield? Or is it possible to play with bard as dd, just need to have 2 pro tanks on POTD?

 

Is obligatory to have on every character heavy armor and high as possible deflection, no matter what class in POTD?

Edited September 29, 2015 by Gs11

[Luma Akasha]

I'd say level 6 or 7, if you have good intra-party teamwork. Level 7 or 8 otherwise. Theoretically, you could go as soon as you get the quest if you take Aloth and Durance. Properly used Slicken and Repulsing Seal can make things so much easier.

[KDubya]

 

My party is a Dwarven Monk in Sanguine plate and shod in faith boots using fists, Zahua in plate using Greenstone staff and TideFall,Pellagrina w/zealous Endurance , Hiravois, Sagani and Kana in heavy armor & shield.

You mean Hiravois,Sagani,Kana all of them in heavy armor and shield? Or just Kana with heavy armor and shield? Trying to play  with POTD and I'm wondering which armor I should use on my ranger and other characters.For example I wanne to play as  Barb as dd with two-handed sword, he have 40 deflection,lvl 5,dont wanne make him tank, but he struggles to stand up if I send him into battle and surrounded by 3 enemies, so maybe beter options to give him shield? Or is it possible to play with bard as dd, just need to have 2 pro tanks on POTD?

 

Is obligatory to have on every character heavy armor and high as possible deflection, no matter what class in POTD?

 

I was pretty unclear in my description. Kana is in heavy armor. Sagani was in padded or the new Superb Hides armor, Hiravois was wearing Aloth's Leather armor for the extra AoE size.

 

I rely on armor and melee toughness to win the fights, with more casters you can either kill everything before they can damage you or CC everything so that they never attack, or some combination of the two.

 

I have four heavy armored melee type plus a pet until I get the Devil who replaced Hiravois. Then I have five heavy armored melee types and a pet with only Sagani providing ranged support and no casters. I do have Kana use and swap out per rest spell enchants on equipment, if needed their are always lore and scrolls. The only reason I rest is if health loss threatens a maiming or worse a maiming followed by a Second Chance resurrection in combat.

 

For me and my playstyle the above team works well but it is definitely not the only way. A typical caster heavy party will have completely different strengths and have difficulty with different encounters than I do. Find out what you enjoy and build a strategy around that.

[Azmodiuz]

sounds like, the white march was all higher level encounters, even though it seems the expansion was overpriced considering how little content is in it. What they need to do, is make the game abit more open ended and add some lower level area's that have a sprinkle of things you know better then to deal with. Like in BG series, you could easily go get killed by a Siren or a carrioncrawler or run into a group of mages 5 times your level throwing fireballs, and yet your still level one ! THAT is what made BG good too !

If this game is supposed to have been in that same spirit, they missed it by far. SO VERY FAR. They instead made the game abit mediocre in terms of where you could go and what you could do at first. I hope they fix that, I followed the game for like 2 years everyday in development, and when I finally played it, I was surprisingly disapointed, bored, and fealt like I had to force myself to play it. In the end I enjoyed the story, and all of Chris Avellone's darker narrative that I recognise in the game (seriousaly, best thing about it) but, I want freedom.

I am happy there was some crafting. 

I hate the fact after a few levels all the abilities you would take, are just choices you make because theres nothing you want to take. Like your taking an ability bgecause its the least unapealing choice. 

 

Pretty much everyone ends up taking 2-3 abilities on every character that they rarely if ever even use once.  In BG games using 2nd edition, you never wasted an ability (except maybe detect illusions??)  like feats in 3rd edition, you always had TONS of things you wanted and could never get all that you wanted. In PoE.. by 10th level your bored, and don't want ANY of it. What they need is the ability to PERMANENTLY increase an attribute by 2 points with the abilities. That would be useful. It could even help fix abuild. Make it lvl10+ and you get to assign 1-2 attributes every 5th level or something, this would make the game more customizable and much better.

Just because you have to balance the rest of the game, doesn't mean you have to dumb the options down and make it less interesting. thats what I fear they have done 

[Gairnulf]

I went to Stalwart with a full party at level 9 on Hard but scaled up the encounters. It felt just right. The party was Rogue PC, Eder, Aloth, Durance, Kana, GM.

[jsaving]

So this is getting really frustrating.

 

I've got a level 6 party and barely survived Stalwart with many saves and reloads. I venture into the other regions, band of fampirs mass charming my party, wasted within seconds. Venture into yet another region, wasted by these new monsters mass paralyzing my party.

 

Please don't tell me, it's geared at level 10 upwards. I hoped to get at least the Devil a little earlier than that to supplement my party.

Pillars is a game where you are often allowed to go places that are best postponed until a higher level -- which is a good thing overall but does cause frustration in the form of saving/reloading if you try to do an area whose difficulty is beyond you at this point in time.  Sometimes you can get past this by altering your playstyle and adopting more effective combat strategies.  Sometimes, though, you just need to come back later, and it sounds like this may be one of those times. 

 

I do agree that placing the only NPC rogue in a relatively tough-to-reach location is problematic given how many players like having rogues in their parties but don't want to roll up generic characters at an inn.  One way you can address this problem is to create your own Devil of Caroc at an inn who will be replaced by the real one once you acquire her.  Some people shy away from this because they are afraid of "wasting" XP on the inn-generated character, but this is not -- at least in my judgment -- anything to worry about in PoE because of the ease with which the XP cap can be hit even if you replace characters on a fairly frequent basis.