[POTD Difficulty] Launch NOT tuned discussion thread

[master guardian]

 

 

 

i found that not using figurines on pillars one was the equivalent to a higher difficulty

Really? I found most of them weren’t worth action time.

 

I used all of them right at the start of a fight and summoned them into position to dirsupt the enemy as much as possible. 

 

This had the following major effects:

 

- disrupted enemy movement

- they soaked up damage

- they soaked up enemie casters spells 

- gave me time to buff and debuff

 

Trick is dont give the figurines to casters give them to melee guys so you dont lose valuable casting time at the start of a fight

 

How you went through pillars 1 without doing this (unintentionally) is mind boggling, biggest cheese tactic in the entire game BY FAR 

 

 

I've defeated the Adra Dragon without figurines in PotD, but I tried with figurines too and it becomes incredibly easy. Besides the above, you also have time to reposition your party (after buffing).

 

you can win just about any boss fight in pillars one by buffing your accuracy then using confusion scrolls, unless they are immune to confusion scrolls of course

 

thats how i beat bosses without figurines 

[The Sharmat]

On PotD most of the figurine summons just melt instantly by the time you reach fights you might be tempted to cheese.

[master guardian]

On PotD most of the figurine summons just melt instantly by the time you reach fights you might be tempted to cheese.

i have used them on every single boss encounter with great success

Edited May 2, 2018 by master guardian

[The Sharmat]

Maybe I just used them wrong then. I'll admit I gave up on them pretty fast.

[Boeroer]

There are some high level ones that are quite tough (and good), for example that little magma blob. And for tough fights you want to spread your low level figurines over the whole party to spam 3, four or even 6 of them right at the start. They may be frail and can do no harm but they surely buy you a lot of precious time and block movement. Of course this doesn't work in a solo game.

 

 

This had the following major effects:

 

- disrupted enemy movement

- they soaked up damage

- they soaked up enemy casters' spells 

- gave me time to buff and debuff

 

Right!

 

Because of the same reasons mind control (confusion/charm/dominate) is so powerful in PoE: you basically will have the same effects plus one (or more) enemy less to care about.
 

Edited May 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Nail]

Try it solo potd - quite a challenge.

[HAWmaro]

One change that'll likely make the game easier is the removal of endurance, since now healing is very strong.

[master guardian]

Try it solo potd - quite a challenge.

[Naughtyusername]

This might be something they can address post launch. I agree with you about expert mode, it just makes the game so much less fun to play, so an extra bonus hard difficulty could be quite cool!

[Creative]

Has anyone watched Cohh's stream? I don't want to watch cause spoilers. How difficult does it seem on PoTD? How have the encounters gone so far? Obviously it's the start of the game so it'll start out gently, but I'm wanting to know how difficult it seems cause I'm unsure yet if I want to start on Hard or PoTD. For me, I'm looking for a challenge, though not so much that I'm getting frustrated with most fights. A fight here and there where there's some real challenge is good with me, but having to reload again and again during most fights is too much for me. I would hate to find myself in a situation where I want to lower the difficulty but can't without having the restart the entire game. 

 

How does it seem so far to you?

[Alot]

Has anyone watched Cohh's stream? I don't want to watch cause spoilers. How difficult does it seem on PoTD? How have the encounters gone so far? Obviously it's the start of the game so it'll start out gently, but I'm wanting to know how difficult it seems cause I'm unsure yet if I want to start on Hard or PoTD. For me, I'm looking for a challenge, though not so much that I'm getting frustrated with most fights. A fight here and there where there's some real challenge is good with me, but having to reload again and again during most fights is too much for me. I would hate to find myself in a situation where I want to lower the difficulty but can't without having the restart the entire game. 

 

How does it seem so far to you?

So far it's been pretty much been a breeze for him; he hasn't had to reload once. At this point it is difficult to say whether that is because the game is easier overall or because difficult encounters are concentrated more around the higher levels.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Alot

[Creative]

So far it's been pretty much been a breeze for him; he hasn't had to reload once. At this point it is difficult to say whether that is because the game is easier overall or because difficult encounters are concentrated more around the higher levels.

I'm worried of being in the situation later down the road of wanting to lower the difficulty due to frustration but can't without restarting. I'm not the type of person who'd be okay with doing it all again. I typically play through rpg's once and that's it. I didn't play the original PoE much, so I don't have experience with how the game played on PoTD. Where you having to use everything at your disposal for every fight? I do want a challenge, but not so much that I'm getting frustrated with most fights. But I also don't want to just blindly attack move my way through the game. Which was why I was thinking of doing Hard, but if even PoTD looks like it isn't giving much of a challenge... having a real hard time trying to decide right now. 

Edited May 4, 2018 by Creative

[The Sharmat]

In PotD on Pillars you could breeze through the opening with a good watcher build until hitting a hard spike like the Temple of Eothas. Maybe the guy hasn't encountered PoE2's equivalent yet.

[Alot]

At this point I strongly believe that the primary factor in Deadfire's seemingly low level of difficulty is the "skull-based" difficulty indicator present on every single location and enemy. If Pillars 1 had the same feature it might have also been considered to be easier. I think that I'm going to turn it off for my playthrough and that I'll refrain from making any conclusions on the overall level of difficulty until I've seen a real bossfight.

[z_liquid]

It's honestly been very easy for Cohh so far. I feel like the early game lacks enemies you really got to watch out for (like spirits in PoE1). I'm not trying to hate on Cohh since he is a very nice person, but I was watching him struggle on Sky Dragon on Hard difficulty in PoE1 a few days ago, mainly cause he wasn't curing terrify or utilizing accuracy buffs. He's not very experienced in Pillars of Eternity at all.

 

 

Though it is a possibility the game actually gets more difficult now as it progresses, so lets not lose hope yet.

Edited May 4, 2018 by z_liquid

[Alot]

It's honestly been very easy for Cohh so far. I feel like the early game lacks enemies you really got to watch out for (like spirits in PoE1). I'm not trying to hate on Cohh since he is a very nice person, but I was watching him struggle on Sky Dragon on Hard difficulty in PoE1 a few days ago, mainly cause he wasn't curing terrify or utilizing accuracy buffs. He's not very experienced in Pillars of Eternity at all.

 

 

Though it is a possibility the game actually gets more difficult now as it progresses, so lets not lose hope yet.

He also struggled because that fight bugged out for him.

[The Sharmat]

It's honestly been very easy for Cohh so far. I feel like the early game lacks enemies you really got to watch out for (like spirits in PoE1). I'm not trying to hate on Cohh since he is a very nice person, but I was watching him struggle on Sky Dragon on Hard difficulty in PoE1 a few days ago, mainly cause he wasn't curing terrify or utilizing accuracy buffs. He's not very experienced in Pillars of Eternity at all.

 

 

Though it is a possibility the game actually gets more difficult now as it progresses, so lets not lose hope yet.

Wait so he's not playing on PotD? Then all this is meaningless to me.

[z_liquid]

 

It's honestly been very easy for Cohh so far. I feel like the early game lacks enemies you really got to watch out for (like spirits in PoE1). I'm not trying to hate on Cohh since he is a very nice person, but I was watching him struggle on Sky Dragon on Hard difficulty in PoE1 a few days ago, mainly cause he wasn't curing terrify or utilizing accuracy buffs. He's not very experienced in Pillars of Eternity at all.

 

 

Though it is a possibility the game actually gets more difficult now as it progresses, so lets not lose hope yet.

Wait so he's not playing on PotD? Then all this is meaningless to me.

 

He's playing on PotD in Deadfire. He only played on hard in Pillars 1

[dunehunter]

Imo the game just gonna to be easier because all new gears and the high level abilities looks pretty op for some classes

[Luagha]

Despite buying on release it took me four tries to finish POE 1 because of the awful difficulty curve (each of the first three had an extended period of boredom or frustration that killed my motivation)... can we switch as appropriate when things are too easy or frustrating this time around?

On the fourth try last month I had learned about (From this forum, thanks!) and installed IEMod to start on Hard then finish on POTD, but cheating through an external tool like that is unsatisfying, plus my understanding is that it took a while for the cheaters/modders to enable that function anyway?

[mrscojangles]

Not a direct answer to your question, as I haven't played beta or seen anything said by Obsidian, but there is also a console command you can use to change to/from POTD. No mods necessary. Deadfire has more scaling options though, so that may solve your problem as well.

[Archaven]

I don't understand why Obsidian would not allow players to change difficulty on the go. On second thoughts, i get it probably because of achievements.

[Luagha]

Not a direct answer to your question, as I haven't played beta or seen anything said by Obsidian, but there is also a console command you can use to change to/from POTD. No mods necessary. Deadfire has more scaling options though, so that may solve your problem as well.

I learned about the console commands from this forum around the same time as IEMod - they're functionally equivalent as a fix, including feeling a bit dirty for cheating.

 

I expect i'll do something similar if need be this time around instead of repeating my mistakes or missing out on the game, it just left a niggling dirty feeling and i'm hoping for some reassurance from someone who's messed around with the menus that I won't need to.

 

Your mention of scaling is encouraging, though only a bit since I recall how frustrating it was seeing an option RIGHT THERE that would obviously help yet which they'd arbitrarily blocked :<

[anathanielh]

I don't understand why Obsidian would not allow players to change difficulty on the go. On second thoughts, i get it probably because of achievements.

You can switch difficulty between hard and below, but not to/from potd (at least in poe1 idk about deadfire) because it changed the stats and actual number of enemies you faced.

[omgFIREBALLS]

So it seems even the postponed release date was too optimistic