Am I missing some important aspect of the combat system?

[scsr]

To me it seems like ranged combat in this game is slow. You hit an enemy, then hide until they give up looking for you and then repeat that until the enemy (or enemies) is dead. This is very slow and repetitive.

Fighting melee might as well be a suicide mission considering how much damage enemies do and how hard dodging attacks sometimes can be (especially big enemies). On top of that dodges don't seem to have any invulnerability time.

Even hitting the weak points don't really do that much more damage (except headshots on human targets). Critical hits and sneak attacks are pretty weak too.

The Tripcaster doesn't seem to have much use either. The time the enemy is down doesn't give you much time to deal much damage at all. I guess the best use for it is to stun an enemy to get past it or something.

So, is there something that I've missed about the combat? Don't spoil anything (e.g. exploits or enemy specific strategies). I'm looking for general advice. Basically something that the game intends to be used that I might have missed. If you need to know where I'm in the game right now to not spoil anything that may come up later, I'm at the "metal ring" in the "Revenge of the Nora" main quest.

[scsr]

Originally posted by geronimo:

In the case of the thunderjaw, if you shoot of his disc launchers they will drop to the ground, allowing you to do massive amounts of damage, and if you know to focus your shots will blow of his armor to expose his weakpoint.

I have been wanting to try the disc launcher, although I can't shoot with them for some reason. The only thing I can do with it is to drop it.

Originally posted by Dani3009:

If you play on normal - why would you CHOSE a boring sneak aproach?
...
There are many way - of course the slow sneaky approach works - maybe dont use it if its boring?

For now it has been the only relatively working approach. Especially the cauldron bosses thought me that engaging in an offensive fight with enemies is the easiest way to get yourself killed, since those fights don't have any safe spots. The amount of damage enemies do makes offensive fighting very risky.

[UncivilS3rvant]

Originally posted by ScottySR:

Am I missing some important aspect of the combat system?

To me it seems like ranged combat in this game is slow. You hit an enemy, then hide until they give up looking for you and then repeat that until the enemy (or enemies) is dead. This is very slow and repetitive.

Yes, stop hiding.

[EbonHawk]

Originally posted by ScottySR:

I have been wanting to try the disc launcher, although I can't shoot with them for some reason. The only thing I can do with it is to drop it.

Something's wrong then, unless it's out of ammo. I don't recall ever picking up a launcher that was completely out of ammo though. I've been able to use all the dropped weapons so far that I've come across.. Not even sure how or IF it's possible to fix that.

[geronimo]

Also, one aspect I forgot about if you find the combat slow is to make good use of the slow time mechanics. There are almost no fights where you should be lining up shots while standing still. You should be juimping and sliding araound, dodge roll after every shot and just keep it flowing as a whole.

The slomo while jumping/sliding is HUGE in combat, allowing you to shoot weakpoints without ever really stopping.

You can also apply hit & run while riding a mount in order to take stuff out pretty safely (with the exception of stuff that has a ton of ranged attacks.

I'm playing on very hard, fresh start, and I can simply run into a pack of scrappers, watchers and horses (forgot the names) and be completely fine. It does take a lot of resources if you have to bow everything though.

[Nikanuur]

a) You fight small creatures (the "game" and the watchers). Just dodge, make hard hit, come closer, make critical, finished fight.
b) You fight big monsters. Well here it's completely different. It's been probably said many times, but look at the damage numbers on the traps and trap like devices. It's mostly 3x to 5x the normal weapon damage. Also, bear in mind you play a squishy girl with the severly underpowered survivability and the weaponry compared to those of the creatures she hunts. You MUST use brains to overcome. The game doesn't do a good job teaching it paradoxicaly. Only the very begining tells you to respect the enemy power, and that's mostly it.
3) One thing the game doesn't tell you at all is the IN window of the dodge. You have around 0,2 seconds invulnerability during the dodge at the right moment. At one time I got really angry about dying all the time, and I actually dodge-killed a Demon class Scorcher with this in a state of rage driven focus. (All Jedis please forgive me :) It took me around idk 30 dodges and heavy attacks after that. Never failing single dodge of their flame attacks or jumps. I felt vindicated. I've never been able to repeat it :D :D But it is possible.
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Tl;dr use traps. Not one but five. Then use some elemental damage the monster is weak to. Don't use one or two fire arrows, spray the enemy with them. Etc. You'll see a big difference. For me it was taking down a monster under half HP in 20 seconds, whereas before fighting it 10x for 2 minutes and dying in the process all the time without doing any significant damage. Is this enough inspiration for you =^.^=