[POTD Difficulty] Launch NOT tuned discussion thread

[z_liquid]

When I first started playing, PotD proved to be a reasonable challenge. I specifically remember using up all my skills to beat the ogres in Caed Nua and the lighthouse spirits in Divinity's Reach. But I'm sure a lot agree that once you got a hang of the mechanics, regular Path of the Damned became fairly easy.

 

Now the logical step might be to bump the difficulty to Triple Crown, which surely is a good choice for some time. Though in the end, I feel expert mode in particular makes the game less fun to play, and I'd rather just play a higher difficulty setting. I'm especially worried that now that the playerbase has the knowledge of Pillars 1 on their side, PotD will die just that much quicker.

 

There was some talk of this when Deadfire was first announced, but I haven't heard anything since. Could this be something that's implemented later on?

[Wormerine]

I don’t think there was talk about having a higher difficulty than PotD.

 

I would consider two things when talking about potential challenges:

 

1) Berath’s Blessing - we don’t know what modifiers will B.B. provide. Early on there was talk about modifiers which could make game both easier or more diffficult. Perhaps there will be some neat features there for masochists.

 

2) Level scaling - one of the issues with low difficulty of PoE was how easy it was to outlevel content. While PotD in PoE could be challenging for most part you would roll over your enemies because of XP float. For people wanting a more constant challenge, level scaling might provide a better experience.

[Quillon]

Berath's Blessings was supposed to add additional challenges(beside blessings), but they implied it'll limited to few options on release version, prolly mostly "blessings". We'll wait and see if they'll improve its options post-release if what I said earlier is the case. f.i. Naked run challenge was suggested by Adam Brennecke I believe, an option such as this would ramp up that PoTD difficulty

[HAWmaro]

Maybe through mods we can make POTD harder.

[z_liquid]

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Berath's Blessing. I like that it's the game that's placing the difficulty on you, instead of you intentionally handicapping yourself.

[mrscojangles]

It'll be interesting to see what exactly the berath's blessing options are and if they're forced restrictions (can't wear armor, can't use specific quality of weapons/spells/etc), if they're increasing NPC stats, or what exactly they'll constitute. 

 

One thing I personally did in the first game to inflate difficulty on additional playthroughs was using console commands to repeatedly roll back XP to postpone level ups. Its not the best option because you're likely to drastically delay or entirely miss level cap and the max level abilities, but its an option I've used numerous times in both BG2 and PoE. If you're satisfied with the difficulty you're at, you can continue postponing the level up by rolling back XP until you hit a point where you feel like you need the next level to advance, and then you add back a little XP to hit that next level. In the first game, you had to also manually activate some of the high level scaling before going to zones too, as if you're not high enough level for the game to give you the high level scaling prompt, you'd still want to make sure you used console commands to activate it before going to those zones. While these options aren't the most convenient way to go about things, I found the difference to be very significant in mid to late game difficulty, and was able to have some highly enjoyable tough fights late in the game instead of having the entire game turn into a complete joke if you're the type of person to do every single side quest.

 

The level scaling options should (hopefully) make a big difference in general in PoE2, but if that isn't adequate, the "only scale up" option + rolling back XP should be a decent way to artificially inflate the difficulty a bit, at the cost of getting a lot less time on the high level abilities, or potentially missing out on some of them altogether depending on how much XP you roll back.

[Yosharian]

POTD isn't hard enough for you? Even with level scaling? Yikes...

[z_liquid]

There's people right on this forum that beat PotD solo, so I don't think I'm alone in this. Then again, we don't know if PotD in Deadfire is more difficult than in Pillars 1

[Wormerine]

POTD isn't hard enough for you? Even with level scaling? Yikes...

People like what they like

[Big-Ben]

An entirely new difficulty called "Bad Ass" where the game just kills you as soon as you load in. 

[rjshae]

Infernal Doom mode for the self-flagellating. You can only play as a Monk class with no equipment slots. Your only ship is a leaky canoe, your navigator is a confused monkey, and you're constantly compelled to drip blood in the water to attract sharks. Plus you have a drinking problem and constantly emit an unpleasant body odor due to oozing sores.

[Achilles]

Some people aren’t happy unless they break a controller out of frustration. Nothing wrong with that. Seems odd to expect it from every game on the market though.

[The Sharmat]

POTD isn't hard enough for you? Even with level scaling? Yikes...

Some people are very, very good at these kinds of games. PotD was just right for me personally until the last few areas where overleveling led to embarassing the Eyeless and Thaos. But others had problems long before then.

[Yenkaz]

All stats at 3?

[Yonjuro]

All stats at 3?

 

 

 Or, don't hit the level up button.

[master guardian]

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

[InsaneCommander]

The new level will be called "Path of the Vela". You'll play as the five year old girl on her quest to avenge her parent and all the pets from the first game.

 

All attributes at 3, no class, no level up and automatic terrified affliction on most battles.

[Wormerine]

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.

[mrscojangles]

 

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.

 

 

If for nothing else, they work very well as some extra meat shields to buy a little bit of time at the start of fight for your casters to get out buffs/debuffs/cc/etc. Most useful on fights with a lot of enemies where you're more likely to get swarmed or cc'd right off the bat before you have time for your casters to get out multiple spells.

[Night Stalker]

The new level will be called "Path of the Vela". You'll play as the five year old girl on her quest to avenge her parent and all the pets from the first game.

 

All attributes at 3, no class, no level up and automatic terrified affliction on most battles.

 

And of course the greatest handicap of all: Being an Orlan

Edited May 1, 2018 by Night Stalker

[Boeroer]

 

The new level will be called "Path of the Vela". You'll play as the five year old girl on her quest to avenge her parent and all the pets from the first game.

 

All attributes at 3, no class, no level up and automatic terrified affliction on most battles.

 

And of course the greatest handicap of all: Being an Orlan

 

Hey! 

[TheMetaphysician]

I expect the level scaling (only up) to handle all my concerns about difficulty. PotD difficult for the first half or so of the game is perfect -- I wouldn't want it any more difficult than that. But overleveling removed the difficulty. Using the IE mod to change the XP needed for level ups in PoE 1 solved that issue there. I expect the level scaling to solve the issue here.

[tdphys]

I think this will always be a problem;  primarily because of the linear amounts of XP needed to go to the next level.  I wish they had made the scaling higher, with harder quests giving more xp.   Either that, or implement a sliding XP return, where easier quests return less XP to higher leveled characters.  I just think its odd to "scale the encounters"  rather than scale the XP said counters give.

Edited May 1, 2018 by tdphys

[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 

Edited May 2, 2018 by master guardian

[InsaneCommander]

 

 

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).