5 hours in and really struggling with the lack of i-frames on dodges.

[sucction]

well, the title says it all. so far, i've only tried Scarlet, Piper, Beowulf and Melusine. the only character that feels comfortable to use is Piper(coincidentaly, the only one i've finished the first difficulty with) due to his sheer range and the lack of constantly dodging to somehow evade the damage. playing on the 1st map is, by design, pretty easy and i don't feel this as sharply, for example, as i do it on the 2nd map, where a lot of enemies have either reach or consecutive attacks with aoe. if anyone has useful tips - i'm all ears. anything to reduce my frustration with this mechanic, since it feels like a skill issue and i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate it.

[Samseng Yik]

Nothing much to say except you
- refuse to accept this game mechanic
- comparing things forever
- low adaptability

You already said it in your last sentence.
It is obviously your own skill.

There is actually iframe for every heroes. When you press any heroes defensive skill, that split second is immune to non shining aoe danger indicator.

Not sure how much soul likes you complete before, you just need understand how enemy attack telegraph and prepare accordingly.
But of course, that is what my eye saw as a rogue ish game embracer, and Challenger of all popular soul like.

[Samseng Yik]

You got all ears of how to tackle some enemies? Especially those with consecutive attack?

Sure I give you some
- the humanoid dagger cultist cannot turn in sharp angle, just dash to their back
- the big gnoll do 3 circle aoe flail while moving slowly toward you.
- sword knight only do 3 slash combo and no other attack. He also cannot turn sharp angle mid combo
- big bird either drop obvious small bomb, or shoot 5 projectiles in front
- giant tree will swing it's arm if you are near, or try root you if you are far. The elite version can do shiny aoe danger slam
- big wolf either do a triple jump slam, or aoe debuff cry.

[sucction]

Publicado originalmente por Samseng Yik:

You got all ears of how to tackle some enemies? Especially those with consecutive attack?

Sure I give you some
- the humanoid dagger cultist cannot turn in sharp angle, just dash to their back
- the big gnoll do 3 circle aoe flail while moving slowly toward you.
- sword knight only do 3 slash combo and no other attack. He also cannot turn sharp angle mid combo
- big bird either drop obvious small bomb, or shoot 5 projectiles in front
- giant tree will swing it's arm if you are near, or try root you if you are far. The elite version can do shiny aoe danger slam
- big wolf either do a triple jump slam, or aoe debuff cry.

yes, i'm familiar with their attack patterns by now, that's not the problem.
my problem is that i often get hit by trying to dodge them, since some of them do multiple attacks and i simply lack the necessary number of dashes.
for now, it just feels right by playing ranged characters, since the melee ones feel like they're at a disadvantage by being close to enemies.

[Samseng Yik]

I guess you didn't evade at the better timing.
Also, even evade at nice timing, you still need correct evade direction.
Some enemies attack don't deserve your evade. Thus wasting evade on wrong thing can cause you miss out evade the real needy stuff.
Personal experience is important to understand every enemy.

My answer is, can beat hidden final boss at difficulty 3 without extra evade.
You don't always need evade, you can use defense.
But of course every hero play differently. Maybe Beowulf is what you need.
His shield block can hold down for few seconds and block LOTS of hit.
Even better if you get the perk block cause explode for every hit you block.

Really, nothing much can suggest side from self improvement.
The game is more based on player skill as there are people beat whole game by just afk in camp until boss. Though we shouldn't compare ourselves to genius

[Ashleigh]

Edit: There is a Witch’s Broom cursed item that gives your dash I-frames but makes you take 25% more damage. So the ability for that playstyle is there!

5 hours is not enough to learn how to scoots your boots around the attack patterns. I promise you’ll get there though. I’m normally not good at these games but the charm of the game makes me want to practice and I feel I do pretty well now! If I can figure it out and you truly want to figure it out I promise it can happen. What has helped for me is watching others play. There are so many creative and neat tricks people have come up with and just watching their distancing, pacing, and routing while clearing the maps has helped so much.

Here are a few of my nightmare videos since I tend to try a lot harder at not getting hit (Darkness I don’t really try at all!).

Aladdin:
https://youtu.be/ITULmuGWv7Y?si=fxXw4JQ6XYh_8Wr2

Sun Wukong:
https://youtu.be/VPl9nejFNqI?si=paDxxq-ZivXQsXSS

Carmilla:
https://youtu.be/AogRnO-zwEg?si=goJlc2dTZS4ptqIn

The two content creators I watch for tips are.


Syphro Plays
https://youtube.com/@syphroplays?si=F4YbTZf5Bc1Q7z2f

Positive4ce
https://youtube.com/@positive4ce?si=fMMPNx_V-vx0wfs5

Positive4ce has a bunch of videos and has really good routing but he does some really weird cuts in his videos, sometimes at critical time management moments that I don’t like.

Syphro Plays is my preferred as he shows his full runs and while his runs end in defeat sometimes it kind of shows that defeats are okay. Bad runs happen. He also doesn’t do really weird video cuts.

[NyxHemera]

This game is not supposed to be played like hades.
It requires to do more crowd control and hit and run. Sometimes you will find yourself running away or around for few seconds until enemies calm down and let you hit a few times.
Evade is kinda more a last resort action because your positioning is not good enough or when you'are in a bad situation (it happens). But dash is not meant to be mashed.
It makes the first hours of the game more challenging. I do think that Scarlett is the best character to appreciate and understand the mecanics. Her defense (invincibility/heal) gives you a lot of agility and forgiveness.
Piper is a trap. He makes you think it can be played like a twin stick shooter. (In my opinion, piper is one of the weakest one and don't teach you to use your defense correctly).

Scarlett is a monster capable of amazing burst damage, but if you need a character with a more traditional evade pick aladdin. His defense is basically an invicible dash

[Chimeric]

To OP,

This game has managed to gather a few of the Dark Souls roll-roll-buttpoke combat defenders. You probably aren't being patient enough because the playstyle your forced into at higher difficulty is boring af (without even getting into the very limitied & rng heavy builds required), so I don't blame you and if I were you I also wouldn't expect any answers in these forums.

Play the game in normal, when you feel like you are bored move on to a different game, the devs don't care. The combat also highlights the lack of variety in stage and enemies too, making it feel very repetitive quickly.

[Ashleigh]

Since I posted a full paragraph, multiple videos with examples, and resource links to content creators much better than I, I’m just going to fix this for you.

Publicado originalmente por Chimeric:

and if I were you I also wouldn't /expect the answers I want/ in these forums

You’re welcome.

[Aetemes]

Things to help you feel not as "squishy" overall. Armor from Grimoires. Defence charges/cd. Healing talents/items (swan cloak with dash reduced cd/charges is super strong, but Holy Grail is a general decent one, maybe invest into a mermaid tear or two).

By time you learn the pattern of the enemies, what abilities do you really want to not get hit by, which talents will really help you snowball, and if this or that camp is perhaps not a good idea to take on given your "power level". Just play more maybe I dunno.

[roddy]

Publicado originalmente por sucction:

well, the title says it all. so far, i've only tried Scarlet, Piper, Beowulf and Melusine. the only character that feels comfortable to use is Piper(coincidentaly, the only one i've finished the first difficulty with) due to his sheer range and the lack of constantly dodging to somehow evade the damage. playing on the 1st map is, by design, pretty easy and i don't feel this as sharply, for example, as i do it on the 2nd map, where a lot of enemies have either reach or consecutive attacks with aoe. if anyone has useful tips - i'm all ears. anything to reduce my frustration with this mechanic, since it feels like a skill issue and i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate it.

Dunno why some others are attacking you over asking for genuine help. Although, some here gave useful tips (albeit in obnoxious ways).

One response correctly pointed out that this shouldn't be played like hades. At least for solo play, while clear time is important (prioritizing damage early game over vit/ survival), not taking damage is the next on the list, and last is build. Thus, knowledge on enemy patterns is essential for higher levels.

As you complained about i-frames, keep in mind evade is not the only way to avoid damage. Use i-frames from intangible skills (check your character tooltips). For example, as scarlet wolf form, you can stand in the middle of a cluster of enemies to do maximum damage, however time your special AOE as enemies attack and you evade any damage, etc.

[Kyuirah]

You can't just stay in combat mashing basic attacks , you have to dance a little with the enemies and actually back off abit to avoid some of their attacks. But yes , every hero has some form of build in iframes , even gepetto (puppet guy). But yea it's not like many other games where you just spam dash whenever you see an attack coming and get rewarded.

As for builds , on Darkness difficulty i've found that having a balance of DMG , Armor , and vitality along with some kind of sustain is better consistency than just trying to stack all on one stat.