Specifically Detail Difficulty Settings?

[Chippy]

So I'm initially starting up my very first playthrough of POE, and the ego kicks in with sticking it on hard because I'm a veteran of IE games, but also because I'm a veteran of games, I'd like to know exactly what that means...

 

Poop tonnes of HP, turning bosses into gods with Godzilla familiars, boosting their stats, doubling their damage output, and all that.  Improved AI I can reason through, and more enemies per map is great, but if any of the above is in - I'm pretty happy leaving it on with normal.

 

Thanks.

[Fenixp]

You only get 2 camping supplies (2 rests before resupplying) and you'll encounter more creatures and more difficult encounter composition. To my knowledge that's about it, neither creature nor character stats get changed at all.

Edited April 11, 2016 by Fenixp

[JerekKruger]

For easy, normal and hard enemy stats remain the same, there are just more of them and possibly harder variants the higher the difficulty. For example, an encounter on easy might consist of a wolf and two young wolves, on normal it might be two wolves and two young wolves and on hard it might be two wolves and three young wolves (this example is entirely invented). The important thing to remember is the individual wolves and young wolves won't get stronger the harder the difficulty, there are just more of them.

 

On PotD all enemies get +15 accuracy and deflection and, I think, a bonus to the health pool and other saves. This is where the real noticeable change in difficulty occurs. I have no idea what story mode changes, but I assume it's a sort of reverse PotD.

 

Given your preference, I'd suggest playing on hard. Enemy stats remain balanced as normal, you'll just face a few more of them. I will warn you that if you are a veteran of IE games you might find hard mode quite easy, particularly once you get past act I, but if you're not opposed to playing the game more than once you can always play PotD on your next playthrough.

 

EDIT: oh yeah, as Fenixp says on normal you can carry 3 camping supplies whereas on hard you can only carry 2. If you're not familiar camping supplies are a consumable required for resting in the wilderness or dungeons, so on hard you can rest less often before heading back to town to resupply. That said, I tended to find most wilderness areas and dungeons had one or more camping supplies lying around somewhere so I rarely felt this limitation (but I like to camp fairly rarely).

Edited April 11, 2016 by JerekKruger

[Jojobobo]

Personally I'd go straight in at PotD, I'm a fan of playing games on their hardest setting and found that "Hard" after a certain point became extremely easy (really after Act I it's much easier) - and I'm not even a veteran of IE games. Going PotD straight away will definitely have a more brutal learning curve, however I think it's much more rewarding in the long run.

 

The key thing is to pick and choose quests and areas to clear out early game (you'll be hard pushed to complete every quest and clear every area early on) and then you can come back to them when you're stronger have a fairer time of it. I'm currently playing solo PotD, but even with party play there should be a decent level of challenge to be had.

[Valsuelm]

So I'm initially starting up my very first playthrough of POE, and the ego kicks in with sticking it on hard because I'm a veteran of IE games, but also because I'm a veteran of games, I'd like to know exactly what that means...

 

Poop tonnes of HP, turning bosses into gods with Godzilla familiars, boosting their stats, doubling their damage output, and all that.  Improved AI I can reason through, and more enemies per map is great, but if any of the above is in - I'm pretty happy leaving it on with normal.

 

Thanks.

 

Play on at least 'hard'. If you're a veteran of IE games you'll find that difficulty setting a bit easier than BG1.

 

In general, the modern day's 'hard' is yesterday's 'easy'. Game companies have really dumbed down the standard play experience for the most part in the last decade (there are exceptions, but Obsidian isn't one of them).

 

I also recommend bumping the level of XP needed to level. This thread discusses how to do that. I'm personally playing my first full playthrough with a 40% increase on hard. My party is level 5-6 in Act 2 and I've not hit anything I'd say is actually hard yet (some fights were moderately challenging).

Edited April 11, 2016 by Valsuelm

[EtherGun]

'Hard mode' in PoE is actually the normal mode. It's not "painfully hard", it's actually slightly hard sometimes where you have to formulate a strategy for a "boss fight" (not necessarily a fight with a 'boss' monster, but an enemy encounter blocking your way that's too many or too strong). I'm not sure, I think you can solo this game using stealth to go around enemies, and use hit and run tactics to kill some enemies, I haven't tried it though.

[nipsen]

"Strategy", here meaning: trigger sure-fire abilities and overwhelm the enemy, after you've leveled up past a certain point, so they can't wipe you out when they start spamming their own abilities.

 

Like people sort of say, normal is plenty hard enough if you don't game the system. Or "learn to play", as it's called..

[Chippy]

Much appreciated, hard it is then.

 

Initial impressions are great, gives you that warm fuzzy feeling to know there's still talent in the industry.