For non min-maxing, NPC party playthrough which would be better? I didn't play the game since the release and only got to Act 3, will be restarting now. Will Hard be too easy outside of boss battles after Act 1? Anything got changed?

 

Also is melee wizard in heavy armor any good? One that uses a normal melee weapon while not casting spells.

 

 

I recommend PotD. Min-maxing isn't needed, nor are custom companions. Just strategy.

^{Always PotD}

Plenty of great ideas from this thorough review: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844

PotD trial of iron.

 

Come back and share your salty tears of defeat. They sustain us.

For non min-maxing, NPC party playthrough which would be better? I didn't play the game since the release and only got to Act 3, will be restarting now. Will Hard be too easy outside of boss battles after Act 1? Anything got changed?

 

Also is melee wizard in heavy armor any good? One that uses a normal melee weapon while not casting spells.

 

Sure about restarting now? The second part of the expansion is supposed to arrive in january, if time is not an issue, you might want those couple weeks as well. On the other hand, if you aim for the time during christmas season, go ahead now.

 

Don't know about PotD, but hard feels like normal difficulty to me, maybe a bit on the easy side of things. If you want a challenge, definitely PotD I guess.

I think hard is very forgiving also.  I accidently pulled a whole bunch of spiders and their mom on hard and I was not in a good position and not ready for them.  I had most of my spells and most of m health at the time the fight started, but I still had to scramble to protect people.  Aloth cast a few devastating spells before he went down.  After that, the fight took a long time, but we managed to defeat them on two fronts.  It was a great battle, but I think path of the damned might not have let me live.  I'm sure more of my party would have gone down at least.