Difficulty-spike at level 13?

[CaranBhelza]

So, I just got wiped out on the level 13 Tewelyn quest. I had the following knights at level 13: Mordred, Sir Balan, and Merlin. Then Boudeica at level 12. First time Mordred got killed in my playthrough. Then I tried another level 13 quest with the Sidhe, and this time it was Sir Balan who got KO'd.

Anybody else notice how much harder the enemies hit at level 13 onwards?

I will concede that tactics used play a huge role, but I can't help but notice how the enemies hit much, much harder once you hit the level 13 quests. Whereas before, Mordred can just soak up the damage and bringing an under-levelled knights present no issues.

[Rightman]

I felt it even earlier on some missions at level 10. Can say that using a lot of CC and to know when the time in a fight to go full in is what got me to manage, trying to avoid any contact as much as I can. Merlin is awsome for that and I think you should take a sage with you, that 2 ap for the team is crazy good in the right timing.

[Grandork]

There's a difficulty Spike after every act. The reason is that the Gear Tier increases by 1 after every Act. So, if you are fully decked up in Tier 2 Gear (Level 5), it will feel hard against enemies where you need Tier 3 Gear (Level 10).

A trick you can use to avoid this is to make sure to do the Act mission when the Relic Shop is about to Reset, that way you have a chance to get the Tier 3 Relics for your damage dealer.

[CaranBhelza]

Honestly, I didn't feel the difficulty spike until I hit level 13. Mordred has always been my tank for 90% of the missions, so he serves like a barometer in terms of the damage I'm taking.

So, in an effort to push through, I tried the main mission at level 13 since I wasn't having much luck in the side missions. I was able to clear it but I got a pretty banged up Mordred. He'll be quick healing for injuries and vitality for two missions.

Not sure if this is a common issue, but might be worth bringing up for the devs to look into.

@Grandork, how do you gather the currency for relic items? Is there any other way aside from sacrificing relic-level items and assigning Sir Ector as your Master of Faith?

@Rightman, in my last dungeon clear, I played defensively. Pretty much like what you said. It was a first. In lower level dungeons, Mordred had no problems tanking arrows and what have you. Merlin is great! But I am mighty curious about Morgana as well. I have her mission unlocked already. Just prepping a proper party before I go in. Lol.

Thank you for your inputs!

[Left-Hand Path]

There are hidden chests in some missions. You need Spellcraft to find them. I am a bit behind you in the campaign, so 1-2 Spellcraft is enough to reveal them.

They net around 175 dust, give or take.

[CaranBhelza]

Originally posted by DJ Geräteschuppen(Ricochet):

There are hidden chests in some missions. You need Spellcraft to find them. I am a bit behind you in the campaign, so 1-2 Spellcraft is enough to reveal them.

They net around 175 dust, give or take.

Crap. I played my missions sage-less until I got Merlin. I might just start a new game if this proves to be a major factor in the problems I am encountering now.

[Left-Hand Path]

Originally posted by Mundane:

Originally posted by DJ Geräteschuppen(Ricochet):

There are hidden chests in some missions. You need Spellcraft to find them. I am a bit behind you in the campaign, so 1-2 Spellcraft is enough to reveal them.

They net around 175 dust, give or take.

Crap. I played my missions sage-less until I got Merlin. I might just start a new game if this proves to be a major factor in the problems I am encountering now.

I only found two or three chests so far, so you missed around 530 dust. Of course, there may be more then those I ´ve found.

Edit: About the downward spiral with injuries/vitality missing: I feel you. It´s hard to come back from.

Some things that might help dealing with it:

If you play christian/rightious you can unlock jousting at 5/5. It skips a day basically for 900 gold with 5 days CD.

If you have a decission on the strategic layer which gives you time to decide with a morality shift you can try to delay those to hit the requirement for a knight unlock when you need to recuperate. The first one for instance is Level 9 iirc.

[Vangy57]

Same for me, at level 13 every side mission is a pain to play. The archers in particular are just OP and Mordred just be gang bang like hell by every unit. The gap is way to high as i've tried in story difficulty also. It's manageable but you still take crazy damage.

[Ace490]

Had the same feeling around lvl 13/14. What somehow helped me was abusing stun locks. Morgawse and Mordred can do it with the lightning bolt, sages can do it through freezing and Morgana has the ice bolt for it. If you rotate Morgawse/Mordred/Morgana you can permanently stun lock the most dangerous opponent on the field. Once you add a third char with freeze, the levels become far more easier. Only really annoying thing is when the major casters start miles away from your position like in the Unseelie court and artificer mission.
What might also help is to leave a few of the recruitment missions from Act2 before moving to Act3. No one needs all the chars you can recruit here and it gives you some easy filler missions for your B team to heal injured main chars.

[Souledge]

I'm stuck a bit before that, the last secondary quest level 12, the wild hunt, I get slaughtered without being able to do much, there is a big difficulty peak in this mission. Do you have any advice? my main problem is that Mordred and Pelleas are injured and unavailable, I have as available knights: Balan, tengyr, tristan, indraine, hector merlin and boudeica. I tried several combinations but I manage to pass the first fight with my armors almost all destroyed and my pv take expensive too. I play on hard

[Ace490]

If you can, I'd leave that mission until you are 1 or 2 lvl above it. This one is more difficult than the other ones with the same difficulty. Boudeica is good to jump and backstab the Unseelie commanders, but your roster balance seems a bit problematic. I see only one champion (wouldn't take them here anyways, but in general), both defenders injured and not a single sage (or was Tengyr one?). Don't you have Guineviere? Her teleport is pretty helpful against the most annoying Seelie units.

[Souledge]

Thanks for your answer, here are my available knights for the mission (I can remove those in training), and those in reserve but they are clearly not high enough level. I don't like the sage at all, I probably play him wrong but I find him really weak, but Iseult can fill this role

https://ibb.co/sHvQTWL
https://ibb.co/vm708Q8

[Left-Hand Path]

Originally posted by Souledge:

I'm stuck a bit before that, the last secondary quest level 12, the wild hunt, I get slaughtered without being able to do much, there is a big difficulty peak in this mission. Do you have any advice? my main problem is that Mordred and Pelleas are injured and unavailable, I have as available knights: Balan, tengyr, tristan, indraine, hector merlin and boudeica. I tried several combinations but I manage to pass the first fight with my armors almost all destroyed and my pv take expensive too. I play on hard

I did this mission with Balan (as off-tank), Balin, Dindraie and Ector in other words:

Champion, Vanguard, Marksman and an Arcanist.

This mission is imho quite difficult if tackled early. Balan almost didn´t make it ( 10 Vit left), so you might want to use a defender.

I am by no means an expert, but this worked for me on hard.

So, here I go:

Even though some of the enemies have a perception passiv, I d highly recommend a Vanguard for this mission for surpise mechanics .. err ... surpise attack. Balin can almost one-shot anything, even on range.

However, because of the aforementioned detection range, you might want to use throwing daggers until you are sure you can go back into hiding without beeing spoted. Always check enemies for this passiv before you move your vanguard.

The key for me was to know how to bait certain abilities and to know which enemy needs to get focused first.

1. "Fogknights" (don´t have there name at hand): These guys are a pain. When they die, they explode for a big chunk of damage and freeze everyone in melee range. Furthermore, they can turn themselves invurnable. Kill them ASAP with range attacks.

2. Lady of summer: Casts a fog which envelops the whole arena, -50% range damage for your team and she does alot of damage as well, fun. Kill her first by any means necessary.

3. Try to stay out of range from those axe throwers until you are sure you can kill them. They have a stun. If they manage to stun your tank, he will probalby take alot of punishment or die. You can engage if they used their stun on a NPC of course.

4. Those dryad looking guys can cast blind (-80% hitchance for 2 turns), try to bait it with your tank if the CD is ready. If they hit your vanguard unless very lucky you will fall behind hard.

5. Enemy archers have 50% melee dodge, use throwing daggers with your vanguard from stealth, it should oneshot them.

Some more notes: The campfire around the arena with the Lady of Summer can be reached without triggering the fight if you stick to the map edges.

In the camp, I choose to defend the left side. I don´t know which side is harder in general but the left seems fine.

[Souledge]

Will try with same line up, thanks for taking the time :)

[CaranBhelza]

Originally posted by Souledge:

I'm stuck a bit before that, the last secondary quest level 12, the wild hunt, I get slaughtered without being able to do much, there is a big difficulty peak in this mission. Do you have any advice? my main problem is that Mordred and Pelleas are injured and unavailable, I have as available knights: Balan, tengyr, tristan, indraine, hector merlin and boudeica. I tried several combinations but I manage to pass the first fight with my armors almost all destroyed and my pv take expensive too. I play on hard

Souledge, I agree with the previous comments, this mission would be pretty hard without a Defender in your lineup. I played this mission using Mordred, Yvaine, Guinevere, and Merlin - Mordred and Merlin were at 13, Guinevere at 12, Yvaine... couldn't remember.

Mordred got gangbanged/debuffed 90% of the time. But still did not go down. I used his lightning attack to stun key targets while the others took them out from range. Guinevere and Merlin's teleport skills are awesome since they lay the groundwork for surprise attacks nicely.

This is also what made me post my concerns about the difficulty spike, this was the last mission I played before going into the level 13 quests. Mordred was tanking like a rock star, then all of a sudden, you feel every arrow shot you take - and I am playing at Normal difficulty. LOL. Good luck dude!

P.S. @Ricochet, I started a new game and I decided to go the Tyrant + Old Faith route. Started using Sir Ector more also. Let's see if I can get more Relic items with this approach. Cheers!

[Souledge]

Thanks to your advice I managed to finish the mission, I didn't manage to save the village so I don't know what I missed but it was optional and my whole team was in bad shape, I'm now several missions further, Gauvain joined me so I have a good extra tanking option ( Pelléas was quite painful with his negative trait). This mission was really more difficult than the following ones