Act 2 difficulty feels to hard. Am I doing something wrong or is the balancing off (refuge/forest primeval)? [Spoiler]

[Goedeke]

Maybe I am just not doing it right, but I feel like the difficulty ramps up way too much when entering the forest. I am having a very hard time fighting the monsters (golden boars and shadow wolfs). I can take them on one by one, but it feels very tedious and takes a lot of ressources. And I am completely stuck fighting the bear to progress the quest for Roarke to get the knowledge to pass the trial of trust.

I would level up a bit more and come back at a later stage, but I have the feeling that I have done most of what there is to do right now outside of the main quest. I finished pretty much every quest in the camps and the world and can't find any more. I also killed most of the wildlife that I can face at this point.

I am level 13 with prowess 57 and 4 learning points remaining

Strengh 40
Dexterity 9
Mind 8

I skilled into swordfighting level 2 and I have a longsword which deals 44 Damage and I am wearing the Nemeton Heavy Armor (48)

So, unfortunately I am kind of stuck right now. I will try to cheese the bear and use a ton of gadgets, but it isn't a lot of fun to be honest.

Does anyone have any tips for me? Did I miss anything or am I just not good enough in the game? And even, if it is a skill issue, I feel like there should be a way to outlevel the enemies to compensate for this lack of skill. But as I said I think I have done most things that grant xp and can't get to much higher level at this point.

[Ark]

If you are finding the game to difficult you can switch to explorer, and edit the settings in the options so enemies do less damage, or you deal more.

[technophebe]

This is definitely one of the harder parts of the game. At this point I started having to really pay attention to the sounds/animations of creatures and the timing of blocks/dodges.

The trick with the bear is timing your dodges, I would recommend dodging over blocking.
It does two swipes in a row, dodge towards or sideways across these so you can get a hit in between the swipes.
The big smash he does should be dodged away from, the white circles you'll need to run (not dodge) away from (use the opportunity to regain stamina).
The lunge/leap again can be dodged through.

Once you have the knack of his timing, the whole fight can be done "bearly" taking a hit.

[Goedeke]

Thank you. I didn't know that it is possible to change the difficulty during a playthrough. I actually was able to kill the bear after like 8 tries even on classic, but it was a real pain. Though, I am still wondering I it is supposed to be this way or if my character is missing something important. The bear kills me with 4-5 Attacks and I am doing something like 2% damage per regular hit...

[Goedeke]

Originally posted by technophebe:

This is definitely one of the harder parts of the game. At this point I started having to really pay attention to the sounds/animations of creatures and the timing of blocks/dodges.

The trick with the bear is timing your dodges, I would recommend dodging over blocking.
It does two swipes in a row, dodge towards or sideways across these so you can get a hit in between the swipes.
The big smash he does should be dodged away from, the white circles you'll need to run (not dodge) away from (use the opportunity to regain stamina).
The lunge/leap again can be dodged through.

Once you have the knack of his timing, the whole fight can be done "bearly" taking a hit.

Thank you for the tips. Very helpful.

[Sanda]

caltrops carried me hard at beginning of the game, put around 6 down in a arena, and kite mobs thru them while you dodge stuff, enemys bleed out at some point, and if the fight didnt take forever, you can pick them up and use them again.

What helped me too was kiting the bandits northwest from ruincamp to the camp entrance. one of em drops a key to a chest at the bandit camp with a good armor at that point in the game. The armor is so good it only got outclassed when I got heavy armor from Nemeton. It has like 84 defense

[o4zloiroman]

It's difficult because you didn't explore the world and didn't find an epic weapon beforehand to see that you have to put everything into leveling up the prowess to wield them instead of going for talents early on. I'm not sure if it's by design but I can't imagine playing through Act 2 with blue items. I guess while in the forest you're basically pushed head first into a couple of purple weapons, hope that they're the kind you're using.

[Nightslaver]

Act 2 is on classic difficulty a question of good preperation and exploration, to find enoth ressources to craft traps and find good items.
I was at end of Act 1 level 16 and had a prowess of 71 and the beginning of act 2 was still tough, but duable, if you use a good bunch of traps and dodge and block good.

[Cat]

For what it's worth using the shield talent that stuns on perfect block will stun lock bears forever, just have to get the timing down and they will not be able to do anything. Just don't try to parry the charged attack as it does way too much damage to you if you fail the timing. The swipes are predictable enough.

[Goedeke]

Originally posted by Nightslaver:

Act 2 is on classic difficulty a question of good preperation and exploration, to find enoth ressources to craft traps and find good items.
I was at end of Act 1 level 16 and had a prowess of 71 and the beginning of act 2 was still tough, but duable, if you use a good bunch of traps and dodge and block good.

Mhmm, ok. I learned all hunting skills and lock picking, so I definitely lack some skill points that I could have invested into my prowess level. Though, I thought I explored pretty thoroughly - doing all the quest for both camps before joining one and exploring I would say 80% of the map that is explorable in act 1. I killed most the wildlife apart from harpies, bears and these stag creatures that are too strong for me)

Comparing to you I have much lower prowess level (57 to your 71), though. And I only had a blue weapon (long swort). But honestly, I am curious how you managed to get that a high level in just act 1. And I don't think that you are anything like the average player.

Well, in the end I have beaten act 2, but for me it felt a bit too much like work and was not that much fun. I wonder what prowess level the devs designed it for.

[Goedeke]

Originally posted by Sunricer:

For what it's worth using the shield talent that stuns on perfect block will stun lock bears forever, just have to get the timing down and they will not be able to do anything. Just don't try to parry the charged attack as it does way too much damage to you if you fail the timing. The swipes are predictable enough.

Thank you. That is also good information

[Ink]

Originally posted by Goedeke:

Originally posted by Nightslaver:

Act 2 is on classic difficulty a question of good preperation and exploration, to find enoth ressources to craft traps and find good items.
I was at end of Act 1 level 16 and had a prowess of 71 and the beginning of act 2 was still tough, but duable, if you use a good bunch of traps and dodge and block good.

Mhmm, ok. I learned all hunting skills and lock picking, so I definitely lack some skill points that I could have invested into my prowess level. Though, I thought I explored pretty thoroughly - doing all the quest for both camps before joining one and exploring I would say 80% of the map that is explorable in act 1. I killed most the wildlife apart from harpies, bears and these stag creatures that are too strong for me)

Comparing to you I have much lower prowess level (57 to your 71), though. And I only had a blue weapon (long swort). But honestly, I am curious how you managed to get that a high level in just act 1. And I don't think that you are anything like the average player.

Well, in the end I have beaten act 2, but for me it felt a bit too much like work and was not that much fun. I wonder what prowess level the devs designed it for.

It's possible with quite a few different ones, personally I used gear you found around the area of the forest itself and did it around lvl 10-13. I concentrated my own playthroughs more on skills than attributes/prowess, both are viable, depending on playstyle. For example, crafting and hunting nets you trap materials, very useful, and weapon skills can make immense differences in their handling. Adding another combo hit, upping their base damage, etc. We allegedly even had a playtester that beat the game without any armour for most of it and just bare fists, so that's -possible- though of course far from our general expectation.

[Goedeke]

Thank you for you answer. Very interesting. I understand that balancing ist hard and is impossible to be perfect for every player. I think my main gripe is that I felt that I couldn't just come back later to have an easier time with the forest enemies because I couldn't find any more quests. And I think I played more thoroughly than the average player. It should be possible to compensate skill and game knowledge to a certain degree with just leveling.

But anyways, I managed to get through act 2 and overall I enjoy the whole experience a lot. Thank you for the great game and the post launch support and responsiveness.