Does WM work as a mid-game expansion?

[Grimo88]

Want to start by saying I love this xpac to bits. I'm still in awe that I'm getting a second part later in the year. However, I'm having a lot of trouble justifying playing this mid-game. Here's some reasoning: 

 

1) it's unreasonable if you wanted to play through the whole crit path with the rogue and monk companions, as they are behind a huge difficulty/level spike. 

 

2) If you do this around level 7, as you're supposed to, in Act 2, by Act 3 you have the best gear in the game. There is no reason to do Endless Paths, or many of the side quests available.

 

3) By the time you're back from the March, you've outleveled a great deal of content, or are overgeared, and the rest of the game is trivialised (I just stomped the Sky Dragon on hard first go, unrested, in about 3 moves, not because of my great prowess, but because almost all of my party had soulbound weaps, and not even fully upgraded). 

 

4) The story is great, but completely jarring in the grand scheme of the overall narrative, and not very well tied in. 

 

In fact, after leaving the White March, I'm not enjoying the Dyrwood at all, as everything is trivialised. I feel like now I'm just killing time until I can tackle Cragholdt. 

 

 

What do you guys think? Do you have advice for how and when to play the WM content? Should I simply treat it as a high-level add on and go with my pre-endgame save 12th level party? 

[Heijoushin]

Hi Grimo. Here's what I'm thinking:

 

1) Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but Zahua isn't. He's just hanging around Stalwart. Defeat Maelwald, go to Stalwart, and you can get him. I agree that Caroc's dungeon is a serious pain in the ass though. 

 

2+3) Yeah... look, at the end of the day, if you're a completionist (ie you do every single quest) then you're eventually going to overtake the story level, and become all powerful. Even without the expansion, this happens on a completionist playthrough. There's not a hell of a lot you can do here, because if you make it more challenging, non-completionist players will never be able to finish anything. Hey, if you work that hard, you deserve to feel like a god at the end. If you don't like that, then you should pace yourself a little (ie leave out a few quests)

 

4) Yeah, it's pretty random. I still think the Devil of Caroc's backstory fits in nicely, but the rest is random. Still, do you really want more Leaden Key stuff? I think a change is good.

 

Edited September 9, 2015 by Heijoushin

[Fardragon]

I guess it's about choice. You don't need to do Endless Paths. You don't need to hunt bounties. You don't need to do White March.

 

If the endgame difficulty or the XP rate where balanced assuming you did all of these things, then the game would be too difficult for non-completionists. In effect, it would remove choice.

[Starwars]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, though I think the story works well as a big sidequest. I don't have a problem with that part of it though I guess they could've tied the main plot into it a bit more.

 

But I agree with the rest. Personally, I "solved" it by sorta of diving back and forth between the expansion and regular campaign. It still screws with the difficulty a bit obviously but I still think it felt pretty natural. I sorta tackled an area at a time in the White March. 

[Killyox]

Duh, I got there at lvl 5 and most mights then at POTD were very challenging. Levelled to 7 in the process but was still behind curve so I went doing Od Nua got to 9 and got back there now. Gonna see how it is.

 

Also what level of difficulty? if POTD then well, you can always go Ironman and activate Death on first time to 0 health. Or just go Triple Crown. Makes things suddenly more "challenging".

[Darkpriest]

I do it somewhere between level 7-10 and it always works, usually i get to lvl 6-7 then collect companions from there ASAP and then decide what do I want to do first, WM or rest of content, before hitting a certain meeting and then the WM. I mean, it's really up to my RP path

[Heijoushin]

Duh, I got there at lvl 5 and most mights then at POTD were very challenging. Levelled to 7 in the process but was still behind curve so I went doing Od Nua got to 9 and got back there now. Gonna see how it is.

 

Also what level of difficulty? if POTD then well, you can always go Ironman and activate Death on first time to 0 health. Or just go Triple Crown. Makes things suddenly more "challenging".

 

Yeah, I tried ironman mode a couple of times, and died sadly. I think a lot of the skill in this game (especially with ironman mode) is knowing what areas you can handle at what levels...

[jsaving]

Do you have advice for how and when to play the WM content? Should I simply treat it as a high-level add on and go with my pre-endgame save 12th level party? 

If you are concerned about being over-leveled, then that is exactly what you should do.  Postpone WM until you hit Twin Elms, then click the box to upscale WM's difficulty. 

[MunoValente]

 

If the endgame difficulty or the XP rate where balanced assuming you did all of these things, then the game would be too difficult for non-completionists. In effect, it would remove choice.

 

Something that annoyed me was when I got to Act 4, the game said my level was high and asked if I wanted to upscale it and I said yes, but I still was able to auto attack everything leading up to the end boss and beat the boss very quickly and easily.  If they are going to ask that sort of thing, they really should mean it.

 

I'd like a scaling option you choose at the start of the game, completionist or casual, and if you choose completionist it both slows down your level gain and ramps up enemy difficulty in Acts 2 and especially Acts 3 and 4.