why is the game so difficult even on easiest ?

[Delaborga]

i remember when i started this game out it didnt feel this difficult, enemies near 1 shot me 1-2 levels above and they are sponges, i did start out with a ranged class because i want to transition into artificer but for the early portion of the game up to 8-10 the enemies hit insanely hard and i for some reason get near 1 tapped,

i didnt dabble into the gearing back when the game released yet that was no issue at all,

[barzai]

At the risk of sounding like one of those horrible people who say things like "skill issue," a lot of it is just learning curve. At the moment I'm playing at a fairly high difficulty level--Nightmare plus a bunch of trials, along with a mod that only gives me 30 percent of the normal experience--and yet...the game seems too easy. I have no trouble with adversaries that are even two or three levels above me, and I usually wind up going into the big throwdown with Cory at around level 13-14.

However, comma.

I have close to 5000 hours in the game: almost 4200 here on Steam, plus 800 hours I clocked on Origin before I rebought the game on Steam. Again...not braggin', just a fact. Point being, I know all the tricks--well not all, but a lot. I have strategies to deal with specific adversaries and overall strategies to deal with the game as a whole.

I'll just share some "lessons learned" from the early parts of the game. I've put the whole thing behind a spoiler mask:

Since you only have a few mad skillz, you're very much reliant on your gear. But you're limited by the level restrictions. So the solution is to craft, because you can almost always craft gear that's the equivalent of looted or bought gear several levels above your pay grade.

After you clear the Crossroads--which is one of the very first things you need to do to advance the ball--you will be able to buy all the Tier 1 leathers (except Deepstalker Hide) from the Crossroads merchant. Metal is not a problem since you can get over a hundred Iron just by scouring the area around Haven before even visiting the Hinterlands. Cloth is in short supply (unless you start as a mage, in which case you get a nice supply up front), and it only drops from enemies, and the cloth store in Val Royeaux doesn't become available until later.

As for schematics, there's some very decent ones at the Schematics merchant in Val Royeaux, and a plethora at the Black Emporium. There's also some low-level schematics sold in Redcliffe Village by the Dwarf merchant.

Of course this depends on having money, but if you're thorough in the early stages you should wind up with around 1500-2000 gold by the time you face the Chantry in VR. So you should ruthlessly sell anything that's more than a level or two above your current level to raise cash, as well, obviously, as looting every sack and lootbox you run across.

And even with your paucity of powers, there's things you can do that allow you to punch above your weight. If you redo Cassandra's powers, you can set her up to be the ultimate tank and--more importantly--support tanker-upper. Ignore all the trees except Battlemaster: pick Grappling Chain (duh) and then the two passives on the left-hand side of the tree, and finally Horn of Valor with the Fortifying Blast upgrade, which grants Guard to every member of the party when they score a hit. This makes you all but invulnerable at the start. You'll need five Skill Points, and Cass starts with three and should earn at least one during the Prologue.

As an alternative--or an addition--you can redo Varric's powers and set him up to make your defenses a lot better. Again, ignore all the trees except Sabotage: pick Poisoned Weapons and work your way down the left-hand side of the tree to Toxic Cloud with the Lost In The Mist upgrade. This gives you up to three barriers of invulnerability: when you're hit, no matter how much damage you take, whether its' one hit point or a million, it zaps a barrier and you take no damage. The barriers stack--up to three--and they're persistent; in other words, you can prep for a battle by having Varric cast Toxic Cloud a couple times before you wade in. As with the Fortifying Blast, this significantly increases your survivability. Again, you'll need five skill points: Varric only starts with two, but you can earn an extra one with the amulet you get as a reward for the "Hard In Hightown" War Table mission. As with Cass, he should earn at least one additional during the Prologue.

[Yoinkyz]

you must have ran into a hard encounter out in the world map. the game has some tough enemys with armor that on my modded breakthroughs can be a real pain.

its a open world rpg so try explore and do quests.

[Coffee Addict]

sounds like you have bad gear or are using a bad build, my artificer archer one shots most things

[Delaborga]

Originally posted by Niki Lauda:

sounds like you have bad gear or are using a bad build, my artificer archer one shots most things

well im not even an artificer yet, im lvl 8 :P? cant really make a build yet, and on casual mode i shouldnt be NEEDING a build, i should breeze through anything except dragons, for the sake of the story but mobs 2 levels higher still 1-2 hit my team mates... and take alot of hits before dying from me, it shouldnt be like this on CASUAL, they should die in 2-3 hits mostly if its just a grunt, not take 20 arrows

[Eternie]

To make game play easier, make sure your mage has the Spirit barrier spell to negate damage and your warrior has the Battlemaster ability Horn of Valor with the added Fortifying blast, Then each of your party gets Guard with every enemy each of your companions damage.
There's a DAI mod called Better Barrier that allows you to change the configuration when merging with the DAITools mod manager.
Hope that helps