New player questions

Moonlight · Post by **Moonlight** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:34 pm

I have some general questions regarding this game:
- Is there a map of some kind I could access that would give me hints on where NPCs of quests are? Some of the quests have to be finished later on in the game, and some side quest NPCs are just so difficult to find. So far I finished like none of the side quests such as Dire Wolf and the enchanting quest, since I simply cannot find the NPCs!
- Why are some enemies so difficult? I am in the default difficulty, and fought every single enemy, bought all the new skills, developed only one skill tree like I was supposed to, and have adequate armor; so I should be able to handle all the monsters efficiently right? I have a party of 4, as well as two summoned creatures, yet my characters die ALL the time (yes I have heal set to auto-cast). It seems that a lot of the normal enemies will kill a party member in 3-4 hits, and they all have like 500-1200+ health, while my party members only have 300-400 health. An example would be those "treasure guards" in one of the caves early on in the western jungle. I'm not going to even talk about the boss treasure guard since my party members were doing like 5-10 damage to it while it was hitting us for perhaps 300 damage, but the other treasure guards were still doing at least 100 damage and receiving only 10-20 damage each hit. Is this some bug with the difficulty that I accidentally selected the harder difficulty? I was sure I selected the first one on the list though; is it possible to change the difficulty?
- Is it possible for a mage to start attacking with a weapon if s/he runs out of MP (without manually commanding her to do so, which would be impossible in the middle of a fight)
- What are "auras" in this game? They appear as purple skill icons when I buy them, however I don't exactly know how to use them or what their effect are
Thanks in advance.

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:51 pm

Moonlight wrote:Is there a map of some kind I could access that would give me hints on where NPCs of quests are?

Well, we have a [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/dungeonsiegeii/walkthrough.php"]walkthrough[/url] here that might help out. It contains maps.

I have a party of 4, as well as two summoned creatures, yet my characters die ALL the time (yes I have heal set to auto-cast).

There are a few spots in the game where you'll encounter enemies that are ten levels or more higher than your party, and they'll just be tough to kill. So you'll either need to be patient with them or come back to them later. You should be killing most of the stuff pretty easily. If not, then you might want to describe your party make-up.

SWC

OpaJopa · Post by **OpaJopa** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:59 am

You can pause the game anytime you want, even during a fight. When your mage runs out of MP, you can just pause the game and you'll have enough time to select the weapon. And yes, I also have trouble with the first part of the game on mercenary difficulty. Once you get through the jungle it will get easier (at least that's what happened to me).

Moonlight · Post by **Moonlight** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:25 pm

Thanks for the help. Indeed the game gets easier as you advance (kind of weird). I just got to Act II, the town of Aman'lu, and it seems pretty enjoyable except all the long distance walking and no rides or anything. Where does the names that this game uses come from? I don't recall any language that uses names like "Aman'lu" or "Lothar" or "Taar", etc.
Also does anyone know if it's possible for a Mage to automatically switch to melee attack if magic runs out? And the function of those purple skill tablets (something about auras)? Thanks.

Picture of "rending aura":
[url="http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8819/rendingaura.jpg"]http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8819/rendingaura.jpg[/url]

Pan · Post by **Pan** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:05 pm

Rending Aura

The particular spell pictured is one of the cross-class buffs added by the Aranna Legacy Mod. They function much like the ones added in the Broken World expansion, providing a buff to the character while splitting all xp gained via actions within either of the two classes involved between the two. So, with Arrow Bane on (the one pictured), a ranged attack will split the xp between both ranged and nature magic.

flix · Post by **flix** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:43 pm

That would also explain why Moonlight was dying all the time. Aranna Legacy makes the game considerably harder.

Pan · Post by **Pan** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:11 pm

Not to hijack the thread but how does the mod make the game harder? I've been using it and hadn't heard that before. Lord knows my all-around solo character has run into some pretty rough spots so far (mercenary, last quarter or so of act 2), but I chalked that up to having multi-classed from the start.

flix · Post by **flix** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:22 am

You know I can't find much in the changelog beyond "Difficulty settings revised, slightly easier when starting, some harder for elite," but I know the game got way harder when I switched to the mod. It may not be that noticeable in Mercenary but I switched over in the middle of Elite, and where my party was once owning everything in sight, a single soul lance from a Vai'Kesh seer would instantly kill any character in one hit. Enemies just seemed beefed up, to test I would switch back and forth, and they generally took twice as long to kill with the mod. I could barely keep my party alive in boss fights, and fighting the Rogue Mages in Broken World was completely impossible. I compensated by dialing down the difficulty in the .ini file, but still.... Oh, also, the spirit embrace buff no longer makes you immune to curses, just gives a minor resistance.

Pan · Post by **Pan** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:23 am

Thanks for that info, flix. That's pretty disappointing about Spirit Embrace - the curse immunity was why I'd switched over to that from Earthen, may have to rethink that.

Xzeihoranth · Post by **Xzeihoranth** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:09 pm

Can't possible imagine having to do the second surgeon beefed up, that curse can waste any non-tank fairly quickly as is..beefed up

If you are having trouble with monsters who are Green/Blue/Yellow then you should either remove the mod or dial down the difficulty because you shouldn't have any trouble with monsters within cl+3