Feeling SUPER weak and underpowered

[Ya Boi Fed-Ex]

New to the series and im not sure if im just not far in yet or something, but im around 8 ish hours, lvl 18 and im PAINFULLY weak, im barely scratching enemies yet my pawns are doing HEAPS of damage. not sure if im missing something or thats how its meant to be?

[Cuddle_Rat]

Originally posted by TREXINATUX:

Upgrade equipment. Yes even the low level stuff. If you wear it, upgrade it. Do not hoard items you ain't no dragon sitting on his gold trying to hatch it like some damn egg. Sell the items. Keep a few pots on hand sure but, sell them high dollah curative items. Status cures and stamina pots all get sold. You don't need that trash. You do however need that cash to splash for that blinged out bikini outfit and the latest weapon of power.

Everything this person said is accurate for a successful Dragons Dogma run be it 1 or 2.

I do however want to point something out about upgrades though. I've noticed each town you upgrade in stamps it's own icon into the slot ie. human town vs elvish town...leading me to believe different towns upgrade stats with different weights I suppose you could say? All theory mind, it could just be flavor art.

[Louis Cypher]

"Strike the tail!"
"The scales atop their head are soft."
"The scales along their back are hardest of all."
"Their spittle is fell poison!"
"Their cold blood cannot abide ice!"
"Their spears have long reach."

[Ya Boi Fed-Ex]

Originally posted by Jack Niggleson:

Originally posted by Ya Boi Fed-Ex:

New to the series and im not sure if im just not far in yet or something, but im around 8 ish hours, lvl 18 and im PAINFULLY weak, im barely scratching enemies yet my pawns are doing HEAPS of damage. not sure if im missing something or thats how its meant to be?

Upgrade your gear. I got my ♥♥♥♥ pushed in by the minotaur on the road outside the capital a few times, then I bought a new sword, upgraded it, came back and wrecked him.

i bumped into him in the middle of the night and ran as all my pawns were gored : (

[Ya Boi Fed-Ex]

Originally posted by Cuddle_Rat:

Originally posted by TREXINATUX:

Upgrade equipment. Yes even the low level stuff. If you wear it, upgrade it. Do not hoard items you ain't no dragon sitting on his gold trying to hatch it like some damn egg. Sell the items. Keep a few pots on hand sure but, sell them high dollah curative items. Status cures and stamina pots all get sold. You don't need that trash. You do however need that cash to splash for that blinged out bikini outfit and the latest weapon of power.

Everything this person said is accurate for a successful Dragons Dogma run be it 1 or 2.

I do however want to point something out about upgrades though. I've noticed each town you upgrade in stamps it's own icon into the slot ie. human town vs elvish town...leading me to believe different towns upgrade stats with different weights I suppose you could say? All theory mind, it could just be flavor art.

i think one of the prompts brought that up, i havent encountered an elven town yet tho so i cant say for sure

[Myrrdinn]

Do the questline for the elf standing in front of the weapon vendor in town and keep following it he will take you the elvish settlement the vendors their have some REALLY nice stuff that will last you quite awhile but bring your coin purse it aint cheap :)

[Glowing Bum]

Skill issue

[Cuddle_Rat]

Originally posted by Ya Boi Fed-Ex:

Originally posted by Cuddle_Rat:

Everything this person said is accurate for a successful Dragons Dogma run be it 1 or 2.

I do however want to point something out about upgrades though. I've noticed each town you upgrade in stamps it's own icon into the slot ie. human town vs elvish town...leading me to believe different towns upgrade stats with different weights I suppose you could say? All theory mind, it could just be flavor art.

i think one of the prompts brought that up, i havent encountered an elven town yet tho so i cant say for sure

Hmm guess I'll be using some ferrystones to test this out then and see just how drastic a difference each race allows in upgrades.

[ninakoru]

Is part of the game design, you'll eventually blow enemies with ease. Some sort of "from zero to hero" progression.

[year199X]

Bring mage pawns with elemental buff spells, they'll apply the respective elements to your weapons which will make you do a ton more damage assuming they're weak to it.

[AvG]

Regarding upgrades on gear, yes keep in mind that each "faction" for upgrades has a different goal in stats. I am pretty sure that elven upgrades for your weapon result in maximum attack or magic, while the human city was "balanced" stats I think.
Also you can further mix the upgrades say (2 human) (1 elf)

I would keep this in mind and read more about it online maybe, but I think if you want to maximize damage as a sorcerer for example you probably want to stick with elven upgrades.

[EvolutionKills]

If you are playing the fighter, you need to make peace with the fact that the game's dedicated tank class cannot also be a DPS main (at least in the early game without cross-vocation augments). If the pawns in your party are archers, thieves, two-handed warriors, and spell casters? Yeah, they should all be out damaging you. Your whole shtick is drawing aggro, then mitigating attacks with your shield or defensive abilities.

That being said, you CAN do damage. You just need to make sure you know where to hit an enemy, when, and with what.

Saurians are vulnerable to having their tails cut off, and once you do, you can quickly follow that up with a heavy attack while they're recovering that often finishes them off with a single blow. They're also weak to ice, so having a caster imbue your weapons with ice damage will let you hit much harder.

Cyclops are, unsurprisingly, very vulnerable in their face where their massive singular eye sits. When it gets up on one leg and looks ready to topple over, grab the leg they're standing on and give it a push to get the Cyclops to fall over. Now you have much easier reach to their vulnerable face. They are likewise weak to electric damage, if you can charge your weapons with such.

Minotaurs tend to be very aggressive with their axe swings. Combine that with a magic elemental infusion and the shield-counter, and you can dish out a lot of damage while taking none yourself.

Stamina regens fairly quickly, meaning you should be using your abilities frequently. Compass Slash, Shield Bash, whatever. They're almost all certainly going to hit much harder then your basic slash attacks.

Blocking is very effective, and the timing window for a perfect block is very generous and early. So much so that it took me a while to get over missing the window and blocking too late, because I was expecting it to be much smaller than it was. You can block quite early and still get the shield-counter, and if you don't but keep holding block, you'll still get a normal block that works nearly as well.

This game very much follows the design philosophy of CAPCOM's flagship series, Monster Hunter. Learning a specific monsters vulnerabilities, behavior, and move set are all crucial to defeating them more effectively. Likewise many can be weakened, if not outright maimed (horns or armor broken, tails or heads severed, etc.), and this will alter how they act and what they can do. Chimera raining down hate with magic and poison? Kill the goat head on the back to stop the spells, while severing the snake head will stop the poison.

[Kashra Fall]

Originally posted by Ya Boi Fed-Ex:

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Need better equipment. My pawns are doing as much damage as me right now. Pretty sure that's part of the design.

Also thiefs are godawful in the early game, and only become OP later.

weird, playing a fighter class, and all my armor is the best i could buy, same with weapons, my sword is 232 strength and does 100 slash damage, i just wish i had a table of reference or something, to kill one of them alligator fellas i have to hit em like 300 times, goblins are toilet paper ttho and get 3 hit

Cut off the tail, they become more vulnerable when the tail is off.

[Ya Boi Fed-Ex]

Originally posted by EvolutionKills:

If you are playing the fighter, you need to make peace with the fact that the game's dedicated tank class cannot also be a DPS main (at least in the early game without cross-vocation augments). If the pawns in your party are archers, thieves, two-handed warriors, and spell casters? Yeah, they should all be out damaging you. Your whole shtick is drawing aggro, then mitigating attacks with your shield or defensive abilities.

That being said, you CAN do damage. You just need to make sure you know where to hit an enemy, when, and with what.

Saurians are vulnerable to having their tails cut off, and once you do, you can quickly follow that up with a heavy attack while they're recovering that often finishes them off with a single blow. They're also weak to ice, so having a caster imbue your weapons with ice damage will let you hit much harder.

Cyclops are, unsurprisingly, very vulnerable in their face where their massive singular eye sits. When it gets up on one leg and looks ready to topple over, grab the leg they're standing on and give it a push to get the Cyclops to fall over. Now you have much easier reach to their vulnerable face. They are likewise weak to electric damage, if you can charge your weapons with such.

Minotaurs tend to be very aggressive with their axe swings. Combine that with a magic elemental infusion and the shield-counter, and you can dish out a lot of damage while taking none yourself.

Stamina regens fairly quickly, meaning you should be using your abilities frequently. Compass Slash, Shield Bash, whatever. They're almost all certainly going to hit much harder then your basic slash attacks.

Blocking is very effective, and the timing window for a perfect block is very generous and early. So much so that it took me a while to get over missing the window and blocking too late, because I was expecting it to be much smaller than it was. You can block quite early and still get the shield-counter, and if you don't but keep holding block, you'll still get a normal block that works nearly as well.

This game very much follows the design philosophy of CAPCOM's flagship series, Monster Hunter. Learning a specific monsters vulnerabilities, behavior, and move set are all crucial to defeating them more effectively. Likewise many can be weakened, if not outright maimed (horns or armor broken, tails or heads severed, etc.), and this will alter how they act and what they can do. Chimera raining down hate with magic and poison? Kill the goat head on the back to stop the spells, while severing the snake head will stop the poison.

really appreciate you typing all this out, i might try and find a greatsword and swap to the class that can use that one, the names failing to come to mind right now, i just hit vocation 8 tho so i might stick it out for a little and see what happens.

[Caligamy]

Listen to your pawns, they will throw suggestions constantly about tactics that work, ie; elemental weakness, attacking certain body parts, grappling their legs to topple them, etc..

[yatowari]

You just need to learn different monster's weakness.

A Lizardman's weakness, for example is the tail. Once you cut off the tail, it's defense is significantly lowered.

Zombie are weak to magic and fire. If you play melee, make sure a mage pawn has fire boon when fighting them.