What difficulty are you playing on and how do you fare? (Poll)

[Eyestabber]

As I said, currently a PotD game running with PC being hybrid tank/dps fighter. That means I have the defender modal on and picked wary defender as well, 18 might, 16 DEX, 16 Per and 16 Res as stats. Now, what to go for (melee weapons), 1 handed, dual or two-handed? Since you tend to miss a lot on PotD I thought perhaps using a one-handed weapon (+12 acc) would be a good idea. But what weapon type would be best? Sabre? Hatchet for +5 defense? Seeing the pitiful damage the character does so far I'm really regretting not taking rogue again.

Mace/Stilleto for damage, Hatchet for defense. Everything else kindda sucks on PotD. One might consider a weapon with + acc, but I find DR reduction to be more reliable. Also, weapons with "X or Y, whichever is best" are great in theory, but they don't really deliver. There are so very few enemies with varying defenses against different types of physical damage that you're always better off with a mace. Mace OP, kindda like another game I won't mention to avoid butthurt edgyness...

 

[Atchodas]

Sabre 1H Spec , or Dual Wield'ing them is always superior to other 1H weapons because they have base damage that near's 2hander's , when you use them with with skills that increases weapon damage by 1.25 ( Rogue Skills for example ) , also Resolution and Purgatory are badass weapons with great enchantments and then Ruffian is best weapon focus includes stilletos and blunderbuss , you can choose to wield 1 sabre(Resolution is good mid game one) and 1 stilleto (draining/jolting touch one's) or just go with 2x Sabre's and have blunderbuss( best ranged weapon ) for alpha strike.

 

[Eyestabber]

Sabre 1H Spec , or Dual Wield'ing them is always superior to other 1H weapons because they have base damage that near's 2hander's , when you use them with with skills that increases weapon damage by 1.25 ( Rogue Skills for example ) , also Resolution and Purgatory are badass weapons with great enchantments and then Ruffian is best weapon focus includes stilletos and blunderbuss , you can choose to wield 1 sabre(Resolution is good mid game one) and 1 stilleto (draining/jolting touch one's) or just go with 2x Sabre's and have blunderbuss( best ranged weapon ) for alpha strike.

On Easy-Hard, sure. But on PotD everyone gets a huge DR bonus and all your weapons end up dealing shit damage UNLESS they have the DR reduction to match. I remember ditching my sabre for a mace on a PotD early game and the damage difference was HUGE.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I settled on using the Resolution sabre one-handed and gave Purgatory to Eder, tried a mace for some time but it didn't deal enough damage. I'm happy with it, 113k damage so far, not bad for the off-tank and the game isn't over yet. Took one-handed-style, weapon focus ruffian, weapon specialization, weapon mastery, armored grace and confident aim as offensive skills, the rest went into the defense. Wearing a +35% armor, so substracting armored grace it's almost like wearing a robe, speed-wise.

 

[Lhynn]

Low accuracy characters like your tank (he will have relatively low accy if you focused on talents to make him tankier) will probably benefit more from flails to do damage, especially around ghosts.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

How will he have low accuracy if I took all talents to increase accuracy and even took one-handed to increase accuracy further? My tank/dps hybrid has 93 acc unbuffed, that's pretty good. The only creatures who gave me trouble using a Sabre were adra automats, because they are highly resistant to slash and piercing damage. Still, wasn't difficult enough to actually bother switching weapons.

 

[Lhynn]

Why would you take those talents? i just pick stuff that makes him more tanky, the more resilient he is, the more i can skimp on the defenses of everyone else and the less micro i gotta do, there comes a point p. early in the game where you only need to sit and watch your guys auto attack their way to victory.

 

[Hatred]

Why would you take those talents? i just pick stuff that makes him more tanky, the more resilient he is, the more i can skimp on the defenses of everyone else and the less micro i gotta do, there comes a point p. early in the game where you only need to sit and watch your guys auto attack their way to victory.

I considered building a PoE fighter that way actually. Mostly because one of my favourite YouTubers specializes in one handed saber dueling though.

 

[Starwars]

I'm having quite a nice time with PotD. While I still think this level of difficulty should've really been 'Hard' instead, and PotD be the "fuck you, I will wreck you at every turn" difficulty (meaning, it's too easy for the hardest difficulty), I'm pleasantly surprised in that I don't really find it to be too "artificially" difficult. I'm always wary of stat boosts and stuff to enemies when changing difficulty modes in games, but PotD feels pretty good in that regard.
Also, there have been a few battles where I've been pretty owned, despite my foreknowledge of the game. Again, I'm not really that good at realtime w pause but it's nice.

A lot of the core problems are still there, mainly the repetition of the combat and its encounters (and the difficulty drop as you go on), but I kinda expected PotD to just feel dull, artificial and bullet-spongey but I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.

 

[Atchodas]

PoTD is actually very nicely balanced ( to be challenging and hard ) for the first third of the game , after you get yourself a castle tho... it all goes downhill you can still find some challenge if you go to Raedrics Hold or Dyrford after Caed Nua and gimp yourself in that way that you dont visit defiance bay , but after defiance bay there is no difficulty left . Defiance Bay is great location but the amount of exp and strong items you get just from going to defiance and doing some go there do that and comeback quests makes your party fuckin terminators that dont even casts spells because those consume more time than just auto attacking while afk .

 

[Irenaeus]

Finished my first playthrough on Normal, gonna play a second one on Normal still. When I start feeling the game is too easy and I have acquired enough game mechanics knowledge, I'll switch to Hard.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Anyone have Path of The Damned Thaos tips?

I can kill the two statues fine, but Thaos himself seems resistant to knockdowns, stun, and paralyze.....unless I just have bad luck.

I have rogue, paladin, wizard, cypher, fighter, and priest.

 

[Athelas]

Anyone have Path of The Damned Thaos tips?

I can kill the two statues fine, but Thaos himself seems resistant to knockdowns, stun, and paralyze.....unless I just have bad luck.

I have rogue, paladin, wizard, cypher, fighter, and priest.

Stack debuffs that lower the same defense, particularly debuffs that are persistent (i.e. Tanglefoot), then target the defense that's the lowest.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Anyone have Path of The Damned Thaos tips?

I can kill the two statues fine, but Thaos himself seems resistant to knockdowns, stun, and paralyze.....unless I just have bad luck.

I have rogue, paladin, wizard, cypher, fighter, and priest.

I finished the game yesterday on PotD and did the adra dragon fight and Thaos fight (no paralyze cheese, spammed slicken a few times though). Adra dragon wasn't that hard and Thaos is easier than that. I just did it the tank and spank way, buff the tanks, have them tank, let the DPS do their job.
Eder using a superb tower shield, using equip that increases resolve and perception (defense) and using food items that do the same had a defense score of 135 or so. When the fight starts use a potion of displaced image. Use a scroll of defense. Have Durance cast Crowns of the faithful (stat boost incl +25 to resolve which goes straight into defense). Eder defense is now at 196. Whatcha gonna do, adra dragon? Dragon breath him? Good luck. Whatcha gonna do Adragans, paralyze him? Why yes, be my guest. The same works with Thaos too. Even my off-tank had a deflection of 155 that way and could just tank the statues/Thaos without bothering to move out of the fire pillars Thaos conjures. The rest is standard fare, buff your own acc/debuff the enemy -> Devotions of the faithful, drink potions of haste (alacrity of motion) on the DPS. Use arcane dampener to supress enemy buffs. Spam slicken a bit. Put a moonwell on your melees (craft scrolls if you don't have a druid). Win.

It's a bit like babby's first tactical RPG to be honest.

I do not know what cipher abilities you have but I found these useful: pain block on melees, tactical meld, borrowed instinct, amplified wave, disintegrate (~200 raw DoT if you actually hit, which is where borrowed instinct/tactical meld come into play). If only Thaos gives you trouble when the statues are already dead I suggest buffing your own accuracy (devotions of the faithful) and using arcane dampener on him.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Athelas' suggestion of debuffs worked.

I had my priest engage Thaos and keep him down with his "prone trap" spell.

Eder engaged right statue, while everyone else engaged left statue. Wizard petrified him (although it took a couple tries) and left statue went down fast. Then got a lucky 3rd petrify on right statue and he died right away too.

Meanwhile, had priest cast debuff on Thaos, while keeping him down, and Cipher casting her debuffs, and wizard casting paralyze.

Everyone ganged up on him and he died very easily.

Beat game on expert, POTD, with no knock outs!

After playing through, I'm very skeptical that Expert, POTD, Solo, Iron Man is possible......not sure how you could get through the final fight solo on your first try. But someone will probably do it at some point.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

You can try it playing 2 games simultaneously. One solo PotD, one solo PotD with iron man. Same character. When you found a working strategy for [insert combat encounter] in the first game and are absolutely sure it works out, apply it to the iron man game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Finished my first playthrough on Normal, gonna play a second one on Normal still. When I start feeling the game is too easy and I have acquired enough game mechanics knowledge, I'll switch to Hard.

It is hilarious how the people that praise the game the most are at the same time biggest casual noobs in it.

 

[Irenaeus]

Finished my first playthrough on Normal, gonna play a second one on Normal still. When I start feeling the game is too easy and I have acquired enough game mechanics knowledge, I'll switch to Hard.

It is hilarious how the people that praise the game the most are at the same time biggest casual noobs in it.

1x1 me on any RST or TBS of your choice, nigger

 

[ArchAngel]

Finished my first playthrough on Normal, gonna play a second one on Normal still. When I start feeling the game is too easy and I have acquired enough game mechanics knowledge, I'll switch to Hard.

It is hilarious how the people that praise the game the most are at the same time biggest casual noobs in it.

1x1 me on any RST or TBS of your choice, nigger

Damn all that money and it cannot buy you dignity

 

[Hatred]

1x1 me on any RST or TBS of your choice, nigger

Deal. I will 1v1 you at The Banner Saga:Factions. My steam name is the same as my name here. Once you have a squad and can beat the developers mother I will play you. Or you can practice as long as you like. Just let me know when you feel ready.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

STEAM TICKETS BITCH
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[Irenaeus]

1x1 me on any RST or TBS of your choice, nigger

Deal. I will 1v1 you at The Banner Saga:Factions. My steam name is the same as my name here. Once you have a squad and can beat the developers mother I will play you. Or you can practice as long as you like. Just let me know when you feel ready.

Deal. I have it installed and never play it. I'm confident I can beat you in a week.

 

[Starwars]

Just reached Twin Elms on my PotD playthrough and this is the right difficulty for me. If you're a really good player and/or someone who has that "breaking games" affinity then it will be way easy (and so, this really should've been Hard and PotD should've been harder) probably but it feels right for me. There are fights where I've wiped pretty hard even though I knew they were there from previous playthrough (in fact I just died to the Ogres *outside* the Ogre bounty cave in the area west of Twin Elms) and a fair amount where I come out pretty damaged and/or close to party-wipe.
I've not done any bounties on this playthrough though so I haven't gotten the XP from those (whatever those three bounties you can access prior to Act III give XP-wise). I've gotten to, and cleared out, the Fampyr level in the Endless Paths (8 or 9 I think?) and done most of the rest of the content. My crew is level 9-10 at the time of reaching Twin Elms. I switch out party-members pretty frequently. Random thoughts are:

-The difficulty drop-off is still there after Act I but it's not quite as noticeable to me. Meaning, there were fights that gave me some problems. I went into Heritage Hill pretty early for example and the fight with the Caen Gwla and the knights wiped me pretty badly.
-Wizards are fucking good, and very useful on PotD.
-Chanter is a class that is set-up in a kinda bad way as they don't get to *do* much on easier difficulties because fights end quickly. I'm getting a lot more use out of Kana on PotD overall and find his invocations really useful.
-As predicted, PotD doesn't really solve the repetition of a lot of the combat even though it still makes the combat overall more fun I think.
-My Monk is a badass.
-Tuning is still needed for some classes, some of the Druid spells in particular. I like the 1.05 patch changes so far though.

 

[visions]

I'm still in Defiance Bay, Path of the Damned, only Obsidian's companions. Party at level 7. Playing on 1.04 since they nerfed Fan of Flames, Blizzard and Stag's Horn, I don't like when things I'm already used to using get nerfed.

Was quite difficult before I reached Defiance Bay, had to leave the second floor of the Eothas temple and Raedric's fight for later. Maerwald's fight was also quite challenging, had to try it several times. And I cba to deal with all of the ghosts in the courtyard, sneaked past most of them to get to the keep's entrance (despite some in my party having no points in sneak, it wasn't particularly hard to pull off), only had to fight a couple.

The difficulty has been mostly trivial since I got to Defiance Bay though. Have done most of the quests that can be completed without leaving the city, haven't done much else. Came straight to Defiance Bay after killing Maerwald. One fight I couldn't win after a a few times and left for later is the one on the bridge , from the quest you get from the Vaillian ambassador. I tried this fight at level 5, also the difficulty is magnified here by the fact that they take control away from you in a cutscene and have your pc waltz up to the enemy group, fucking your positioning up if your pc's not a melee character.

Last night stopped playing in the Lighthouse (didn't tackle it earlier since I fucking hate shadows/shades/ and it seemed p. obvious that a haunted lighthouse would have them) when I triggered the fight there, this also looked like it could prove difficult. Caen Gwla and the knights was a pretty cool fight, they put up a decent fight but I still did it the first time. Some other fights were kinda challenging too although by this I mean (as far as Defiance Bay is concerned), need to think and use a bunch of spells but will still win the encounter on the first or second try. Since I've armed most of my group with firearms, quite a few encounters can now be won without using any spells, only sending Eder and Ithumaak (Ithumaak gets knocked out p. fast usually) into melee and having everyone else shoot. The AI looks pretty dumb, often (maybe most of the time) it engages only Eder and Ithumaak who I have a few steps ahead of the others, the others can blast away in peace. Enemy stats seem right on POTD though, they don't feel bloated, feel adequate. I haven't tried the other difficulties but I get the feeling that the enemies would feel weak without POTD stats.

 

[Tigranes]

All IE games became rather easy after a few playthroughs. (Indeed, there are very few games in the world that remain difficult after 'a few playthroughs', because 90% of players never last that long.) Vanilla BG2 is ridiculously easy at this point, for example, which is why SCS was a godsend.

POTD is decent, and sometimes still springs some nasty surprises, especially when soloing. Ironically, one thing that would immensely improve difficulty without making fundamental changes is balancing - Paralysis and Maelstrom scrolls are very powerful (even after 1.05 paralysis nerf), as is Adragan (partly fixed by nerf), and of course the figurines (there are too many, and some, like Adra Beetle, are too strong).