White March II in existing playthrough?

[dulcamara]

Hi all,

 

Trying to figure out whether I should buy WMII, just wanted get some info cleared up.

 

First off, the most basic question - Can you install & integrate it into a current playthrough, or do you need to start from scratch? If the former - Does it dramatically change the balance or difficulty in a way that would be disruptive to an existing run?

 

I'm currently at the beginning of Chapter III on POTD and am working my way down Od Nua, haven't even ventured to the first White March yet but that will come next. I think most characters are level 9-ish. Aside from changing the balance or other quirks of adding an expansion mid-game, I've also got a little concern that the experience/levels gained in the expansion content (and that goes for WM 1) would make the main storyline ridiculously easy. Did this get addressed at all in the expansion's patch?

 

These days at the ripe old age of 38 my allocated weekly gaming time is limited, so this isn't something I can just "try on the next playthough". This will be my only jaunt through PoE.

 

Thanks in advance for any info or recommendations you folks might have...

[house2fly]

You can scale up content to remain challenging at the start of act 3/4 and the White March if you haven't been there yet.  Based on where you are I'd recommend doing act 3 until you get to the bit in the main quest where you have to jump down a hole; that's the point of no return and will kick off the final act.  When you get there, head to the White March.  You'll get a popup saying "you're high level, would you like to scale content?" and then when you're done and go back to the main game and jump down the hole you'll get the same popup.  By doing it that way you can make sure the combat stays challenging the whole way through.

[dulcamara]

Hmm, but from what I've read in other threads, the WM difficulty scaling only bumps up enemies a couple levels - at this rate by the end of Act III I'll just end up cutting thru WM like a hot scythe through butter. Maybe I *should* try a new playthrough and a new class, and hit WM at the end of Act II.

 

That's the only glaring flaw in this game - but it's a doozy - maintaining a consistent difficulty and a good flow of main vs side quest vs expansion content.

 

I'm hardly a min-maxer, enjoy a little tactics in combat but not full micromanagement, but already had to restart once becase Hard got too easy. POTD seems more appropriate, but even then the easy camping mechanics take a lot of suspense out of quests. Hope they really take a step back and re-evaluate that stuff before any sequel.