Game difficulty..

ushsta · Post by **ushsta** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:39 pm

.. is pathetic. I remember my first playthrough. It no doubt contributed to my premature hair loss and that was on normal difficulty. Now it's laughably easy on nightmare. I know they rebalanced it but still.. It's not a bug, is it?

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:41 pm

They rebalanced the difficulty to be easier?

I've seen it all now...

flix · Post by **flix** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:31 pm

Nah, they didn't significantly change the difficulty with any patches, you just got better at playing the game. I died constantly on normal/easy my first playthrough, now, I must use a mod that extends the difficulty beyond nightmare.

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childofbhaal · Post by **childofbhaal** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:52 am

It is indeed to easy.I am playing on nightmare and I dont remember that I ever found a difficult fight(ok,the boss in the golems of amgarrak on nightmare is really hard but thats just a DLC,all other bosses should be something similar on nightmare).

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:08 am

childofbhaal wrote:It is indeed to easy.I am playing on nightmare and I dont remember that I ever found a difficult fight(ok,the boss in the golems of amgarrak on nightmare is really hard but thats just a DLC,all other bosses should be something similar on nightmare).

I've found the 7 golems room to be harder than the end boss. Even on nightmare you can just kite everything with the kodo by spamming taunt and running around.

childofbhaal · Post by **childofbhaal** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:31 am

Stworca wrote:I've found the 7 golems room to be harder than the end boss. Even on nightmare you can just kite everything with the kodo by spamming taunt and running around.

I dont remember that room at all(probably because my char was a mage(arcane warr/bloodmage/battlemage)) with strong AE damage.

I never tried to controll the kodo(or other pets) so this is new for meI kited the boss with the warrior and spamhealed my group with the mage and I just ignored the trash,probably wasnt the best tactic because my group died like 9 times before I killed him....and the kodo always died in the first 15 secs because I hate to waste mana on pets

.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:07 am

childofbhaal wrote:I dont remember that room at all(probably because my char was a mage(arcane warr/bloodmage/battlemage)) with strong AE damage.

I never tried to controll the kodo(or other pets) so this is new for meI kited the boss with the warrior and spamhealed my group with the mage and I just ignored the trash,probably wasnt the best tactic because my group died like 9 times before I killed him....and the kodo always died in the first 15 secs because I hate to waste mana on pets .

The room where you got the overpowered weapon. Mace was it? It was "tough" because you had NO place to dodge, and asap receive 7 aoe stones to the face, 200 dmg each.

It's the "I have 5 hp, and the enemy mages spam fireballs that deal 20. The map size is 2x2, the fireball blast area is 2x2 aswell" type of difficulty, which is a poor choice.. always

I used the pet because it ran much faster than any party member.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:48 am

A bit of a challenge in the beginning, yes, but it becomes easier as you progress. Not to mention that choosing an effective fighting strategy does make most fights easy.

But the game does employ a rather cheap tactic of spawning more enemies to overwhelm your party. Not that big of a deal, but it can be irritating.

ParanoidAndroid · Post by **ParanoidAndroid** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:41 am

I almost finished the game but I can't imagine the horror of playing it on nightmare. I played on hard and it was pretty doable but some parts are just plain impossible:
- The revenant in the mage tower. All my rogue does is miss, miss, miss. Completely impossible, I think i was level 12 or so.
- A cave where 3 colorful dragons pop out as you approach a chest. Even at very easy and with 2 mages I couldn't complete it. Tank was dead within seconds.

Guess you guys have special ways to obtain high quality weapons? Or just do everything in a specific order? I never finished the game because the difficulty was crazy unbalanced as I remember.

childofbhaal · Post by **childofbhaal** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:13 am

ParanoidAndroid wrote:I almost finished the game but I can't imagine the horror of playing it on nightmare. I played on hard and it was pretty doable but some parts are just plain impossible:
- The revenant in the mage tower. All my rogue does is miss, miss, miss. Completely impossible, I think i was level 12 or so.
- A cave where 3 colorful dragons pop out as you approach a chest. Even at very easy and with 2 mages I couldn't complete it. Tank was dead within seconds.

Guess you guys have special ways to obtain high quality weapons? Or just do everything in a specific order? I never finished the game because the difficulty was crazy unbalanced as I remember.

My nightmare group setup:3 warriors+a healbot(Oghren and my dwarf 2 handed DPS,Shale usually tanks but in hard fights I switch to offensive mode with him for that big hit thing and back to defensive asap,Morrigan just heals).

First I went to Orzammar/Deep Roads-->Haven--->Redcliff--->Circle of the Magi--->Brecilian Forest,the next 1 will be Denerim.You can equip your whole team with t7 items in the deep roads and haven.

I found Revenants hard with my first character too on normal(or was it hard?I dont remember....he was a mage dps,morrigan was a mage dps too and they kept alive the group with just that basic heal spell) but on my warrior they dont pose a threat,they go down in max 15 seconds on nightmare(tbh I had more problems with hurlock emissarys and I am a templar/reaver) imo they have high magic resistance but they are vulnerable to melee damage.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:21 am

With multiple physical dps you win the game by having the spell Haste. After my first playthrough with only 1 mage, i found out that all-mage parties actualy have it tougher..

Yes, yes, there is Arcane Warrior, but i prefer winning fights in nanoseconds

- A cave where 3 colorful dragons pop out as you approach a chest. Even at very easy and with 2 mages I couldn't complete it. Tank was dead within seconds.

Freeze them with Cone / Winter Grasp
Stun them with a bilion stunning moves that are avaliable
Give the tank ALL types of health potions, afaik there are 5, which don't share CD's
Have restoration on him
Focus one at a time
Laugh
Collect loot & Proffit from xp

GoldDragon · Post by **GoldDragon** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:28 pm

Storm of the Century.

Enough Said.

(Note: on Higher Difficulties, where Magic DOES cause Friendly Fire incidents, use appropriate salves to minimize damage to party, and spam Group Heal if Wynne/Anders/PC has it).

Haven't come across any revenant that can stand up to THAT. Actually, I cleared out the Marketplace with Wynne and Morrigan (PC was Warrior) doing nothing but casting Storm of the Century. ONly one creature is immune to it: Queen of the Blackmarsh is immune to Electrical attacks of all kinds (and should be quite obvious as to why...).

ushsta · Post by **ushsta** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:22 pm

My party in awakening routinely dies to storm of the century, the aoe is huge. Maybe the problem was that my first playthrough I went with an arcane warrior, which became good very late in the game and was dead weight at most times prior to that. My current playthrough I am playing a dw knife warrior and stuff melts. Toward the end of OC in dragonbone armor I could solo most reds with 1-2 heal potions.
I am actually thinking of doing another arcane warrior run but suspect it's bound to be underwhelming after the dual-wielder. Knives are OP compared to the 2H.

childofbhaal · Post by **childofbhaal** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 6:56 pm

ushsta wrote:My party in awakening routinely dies to storm of the century, the aoe is huge. Maybe the problem was that my first playthrough I went with an arcane warrior, which became good very late in the game and was dead weight at most times prior to that. My current playthrough I am playing a dw knife warrior and stuff melts. Toward the end of OC in dragonbone armor I could solo most reds with 1-2 heal potions.
I am actually thinking of doing another arcane warrior run but suspect it's bound to be underwhelming after the dual-wielder. Knives are OP compared to the 2H.

Arcane warrior is not bad at all imo.I picked up the spec because it makes you a good enough tank with the strongest armor(spell failure was never a problem) and if you play mage agressively you will often find yourself tanking everything hostile on the screen(especially if you pick up battlemage in awakenings) and in a robe thats not very healthy.I never had a melee weapon just a staff because I just wouldnt have time to use it.

I am happy with my Starfang(greatsword),normal mobs die in 1-2 swings on nightmare(and its fun to kill a half group in a 2 handed sweep).