Good job on xp :) and difficulty.

[Panda Baby]

First i did all quests in vanilla POE, up to the *non return* point, this brought me to level 12 party.

 

after i headed to stalwart and accepted the high levle party adjustement. i did hit 14 after doign all side quests and being at the forge final floor, half way there.

 

then i headed to kill dlc big qhite guy, ,and back act 4 for thaos.

 

Overall the xp is well balanced in the game i think.

 

I didnt mod the xp gain. took 98% of DLC quests including concelahaut, for hit level 14. the over maxed xp part ism inimal.

 

Played thrugh potd, and doing the addon on levle 12 with adjsuted difficulty was quite challenging.

[sapientNode]

I am incredibly confused how you just hit cap doing everything in Vanilla?

I hit cap and did not even have 3/4 of Caed Nua underground done and I had a few Elms quests as well as a number of quests in Defiance that still were not done.

I was quite a bit off from the burial place before I was capped.

 

Are you talking pre expansion?

Did they actually change exp gain in expansion?

None of the reports I see or what I am seeing on PoTD point to any type of exp change.

I am playing with the 50% iemod so I hopefully do not run into the same issue I did with my last playthrough.

[Panda Baby]

nope.

actually i didnt even do caed nua, except 1rst floor for get the keep thats all.was not bothered with it, i ahte it, its boring lol.

 

but except caed nua, i did all side quests, tasks, bounties.pretty sure all of them... i hit 12 after completing 4th or 3rd  quest for a god.so right beofe jump in pit.

i did on potd, mayeb xp difrent there dunno.

 

i foudn the xp to adjsut pefectly.then at 12 i gone to expension and took 95% of expension quest for hit levle 14 cap.

 

maybe u should re do without mod...

[Tennisgolfboll]

The difficulty is broken. 95% of all fights are to easy.

 

Then the dragon fights which feel like casino. Get a good cc and they are toast. If not reload.

[lolaldanee]

i barely hit lvl 12 at all (pre expansion) doing all the quests - EXCEPT the bounty hunt kill tasks from od nua, those tasks are really the biggest XP boost in all the game, without them, xp is quite hard to max actually

[mosspit]

I am curious how ppl consider difficulty in a RTwP game though?

 

Is it difficult when you have to reload a fight a few times? Or when a few party members gets knocked out? Or if you can't roflstomp over the enemies? (And yes, I am implying the subjective nature of it)

[sapientNode]

I still do not know how you just hit cap but perhaps they did adjust the exp table which means my newest 50% increase will be rough.

 

As for what i find difficult. Well currently I am on PoTD and completed up to Caed Nua. I reloaded 3 times altogether in that time. I have only died fully twice. My comparison would be to this games quasi predecessors IWD and BG. Within those games at the highest level of difficulty I had to micro manage each and every single action and spell. In this one most of my fights have been AI driven with perhaps one knock out which is usually the squishy Rogue.

 

I suppose the obvious issue is that we really do not have death. Enemies once someone is knocked out move on to another target and do not keep at it until the party member is dead. And we ultimately have 2 layers of hp with endurance which is almost like an ironskin spell or something of that nature because its DR for all intents and purposes.

 

In addition many enemies that used to be almost unkillable without precise timed spells can be taken down. I speak of trolls which we run into right away and in previous games would have such extraordinary regen that only burn spells or something similar could actually put them down. Similarly some weapons would simply not land hits which does occur in PoE but rarely and it doesnt stop you from taking an enemy down unless you are solo I suppose.  The only enemies who both have issues with weapon lands and swarm and port and whose mechanics feel like some old school fights are Shades and Shadows.  Other than that enemies do not have a specific strategy to follow in order to take them down.  I mean I pretty much swatted Wyverns when i first fought them and the boss Wyvern was a yawn fest.  And then the Dragon I actually landed a knockdown and was like ummm WTF... What did my little human fighter do kick him in the toenail and make him trip.  A dragon in an old school fight would damn near be impossible without the party using every single spell buff and strategy in their arsenal.  And it was a stamina battle.  So by the end it was 1/4 of health on the Dragon with just the 2 or 3 melee classes swinging away and hoping the Dragon would not land some insane smack down hit that would force a reload and a redo.

 

Ultimately I started at normal bumped to hard and then used console to bump to PoTD then I restarted and did PoTD. Overall I am steam rolling enemies with mostly AI driven battles. Perhaps I am just really familiar now with these games and have skill in my strategy but it does feel easier than the games I compare it to from the bygone days.  PoTD states and I paraphrase that I will have a soul crushing extraordinarily hard time of battles in it.  So far I am up to Caed Nua and almost all fights have been AI driven and I am feeling like I have incredible gear on or I have been console buffed and I am only level 3.

Edited September 21, 2015 by sapientNode

[tedmann12]

I'm playing potd too and if I just let the ai fight I will get wiped pretty quickly. Im always using spells and abilities and some areas have been very challenging for me (lighthouse, forge nights).

 

I guess Im just having a very different experience then you, my ai will lose almost all fights I think.

[avari3]

I'm doing PoTD on my first playthrough and the difficulty is perfectly perfect.  Sometimes I steamroll through stuff, sometimes I have to stop and come back to something later.  But pretty much every session I get a couple battles that come down to the wire. 

 

I expect to play Trial of Iron/PoTD if I'm looking for a challenge on 2nd playthrough.

[Gunnar.Maluf]

I finished the game on hard and on Potd and it feels more balanced on Potd. On hard

i steam rolled things 99% of the time. Last boss and a certain dragon being the exception.

[Flix]

nope.

actually i didnt even do caed nua, except 1rst floor for get the keep thats all.was not bothered with it, i ahte it, its boring lol.

 

Then you didn't do all vanilla content.  You get XP for discovering areas, solving quests, picking locks, disarming traps, and Od Nua is full of all those things.

 

Doing all vanilla content before Court of the Penitents will get you up to level 13 and some change.  Completing a bit of expansion content will then bump you up to level 14 quite quickly.  In my full playthrough in 2.01, this meant I did most of the expansion content with max level, as well as the final campaign battle.

 

In my opinion the last 5 levels or so were gained too quickly, so I'd appreciate a ~15-20% increase to experience needed to gain those last 5 levels.