(Act 2 Spoilers) Balthazar boss fight. How did it get past QA?

[MINUANO GAMING]

Look, I don't mind some jank in my games, I tend to enjoy it actually, but what the hell was that. lol

Without too many spoilers, nearing the end of act 2 you follow Balthazar into some sort of chasm, jumping from platform to platform until you reach him. He's talking to an NPC. In order to get the dialogue, which is *VERY* important to one of your party members, mind you, you have to jump onto his platform.

HOWEVER, if you move an inch forward the dialogue starts automatically, and if you're doing a good route you'll have to fight him.

He will summon about 20 skeletons, mages who will spam sleep on your party members and warriors who will surround your party and spam push until they toss you off the cliff. (You start the fight at the edge of the cliff so you can't move away from it)

The only way I managed to beat this was by casting slow and silence and having my ranger just kill all the mages in one turn, then DPS Balthazar.

Here's the fun part -- I reloaded a save to try a different strategy, and if you DON'T jump onto his platform but rather stay at the previous platform and attack him from range, it breaks not only his AI but all the 20 skeletons who just sit at the edge of the cliff skipping their turns and let you kill all of them with a single fire ball... Balthazar just keeps teleporting in place until you kill him.

Like, I'm genuinely confused at what happened here. Did no one playtest one of the major boss fights of the game???

[Bloodwest]

I guess I messed up another fun bossfight. Destroyed him in GoS, where he gives you a task. Wasn't nearly as fun as you describe.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Yeah that fight was really bad.
I had to reload often.
After i killed him i had to sneak around to revive dead companions without triggering the remaining undead soldiers.
The worst part is you start on the low ground with a bunch of Archers firing at you.
Archer that woud normaly die to fireball if i could accauly hit them.

[Valandryl]

This fight (and most of the fights after it) is terribly designed.

Larian really dropped the ball on combat encounters on this game. Especially with the combats where you face like 20 enemies in turn-base (isn't the number 1 rule of turn-based "don't throw too many enemies"?). And get reinforcments of course.
The fact that you're forced to start in a position where you'll easily be pushed to death is terrible, too, as if you have 1 character with low initiative, he's automatically dead, no matter what. But you better get used to the terrible combat design, because that's a trademark of this game, especially in act 3.

[Juice.]

This, but for the entire game (unfortunately).

[Lamp]

I didn't find this one too bad, what level is your party MINUANO? Could be that you're there a bit early?

[Noctoculus]

Act 2 wasn't in EA so there was no QA. Also it was rushed like Act 3.

[VeraelHasta]

Skill issue.

Other than that, you can position your characters when your main character is talking with him. Bottom left corner of the screen.

BUT I second one thing. There is a lot of fights which you will lose the first time just because you can't see them. And if you can't see them, you can't position yourself. Which is the biggest gripe I have with a lot of fights here.

[Noctoculus]

Originally posted by VeraelHasta:

Skill issue.

Other than that, you can position your characters when your main character is talking with him. Bottom left corner of the screen.

Someone didn't read the OP...

[Hyena]

I moved my other characters into position while my main guy was talking to Balthazar. You don't need to leave your party at the edge.

[Wolfgang421]

Originally posted by Valandryl:

This fight (and most of the fights after it) is terribly designed.

Larian really dropped the ball on combat encounters on this game. Especially with the combats where you face like 20 enemies in turn-base (isn't the number 1 rule of turn-based "don't throw too many enemies"?). And get reinforcments of course.
The fact that you're forced to start in a position where you'll easily be pushed to death is terrible, too, as if you have 1 character with low initiative, he's automatically dead, no matter what. But you better get used to the terrible combat design, because that's a trademark of this game, especially in act 3.

If you rush into a fight with the big bad dude - who you are told many times IS a big bad dude - yeah, you're going to be overwhelmed. Most of these fights seem to have one or two ways of sneakily adjusting the difficulty. For instance, with the whole Moonrise towers bit, you can stealthily kill off most of the NPCs bit by bit, so when it comes to the invasion part you then have numbers on your side.

[Silmaril]

that's why u kill him inside Shar's Temple.

[Hyena]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

Originally posted by VeraelHasta:

Skill issue.

Other than that, you can position your characters when your main character is talking with him. Bottom left corner of the screen.

Someone didn't read the OP...

Yeah, SOMEONE didn't read.

"You start the fight at the edge of the cliff so you can't move away from it"

[jcw163]

I just Thunderwaved him off into oblivion

[VeraelHasta]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

Originally posted by VeraelHasta:

Skill issue.

Other than that, you can position your characters when your main character is talking with him. Bottom left corner of the screen.

Someone didn't read the OP...

Hm? His complaint was that you can't move away from the ledge. But you can.

[Bloodwest]

Originally posted by Valandryl:

This fight (and most of the fights after it) is terribly designed.

Larian really dropped the ball on combat encounters on this game. Especially with the combats where you face like 20 enemies in turn-base (isn't the number 1 rule of turn-based "don't throw too many enemies"?). And get reinforcments of course.
The fact that you're forced to start in a position where you'll easily be pushed to death is terrible, too, as if you have 1 character with low initiative, he's automatically dead, no matter what. But you better get used to the terrible combat design, because that's a trademark of this game, especially in act 3.

Later into the game each of your characters can take down few enemy grunts per turn if properly built. Early into the game enemies are weak enough for your squad to take some punishment even when outnumbered. Stay away from ledges it's not that hard. Whenever possible, start combat by hitting enemy while sneaking, this will make them surprised (alert enemies are very rare), hold off before ending turn and let your other teammates join the fight to make the most of surprise attack, better placing them at the best flanking spots beforehand (through sneaking, obviously).