Returned player need some tips

[frostyshad]

First some prehistory: this game I have played few years ago, fully completed, explored the whole possible map, and so on. My playing style on the hardest possibly difficulty settings with no stealing items, no any cheats or cheat-like abuse, no any evil quests or killing NPC and so on along with my character — the pure melee warrior with all point in strength with warhammer make that walktrough in the past a total pain! :(
The game itself horribely unbalanced in the side of range, as a most RPG like Divine Divinity, Diablo, Torchlight, etc...
The point is recently some other guy in the internet said that my char cannot made such walktrough without cheats! He said that vampires (quest about murdering in Verdisit or something) cannot be complete with my char on Hard difficulty setting! I have found a bloody save-game files, the save before vampire killed was on 19th level and after vampire killed was on 23th level, and I have decided again defeat that vampire and load the saved game... Good that I have bought Divine Divinity Antology.

I need some tips to faster reach and complete that stupid quest with vampire, I will make a video-record how my char defeating that vampire (by simple kiting as it was before, but it was a tough as I remembered) and those I have make a proof that!

Level 20 Warrior

Strength: 83
Agility: 33
Intelligence: 17
Constitution: 26

From active skills only "Special Move" and "Restoration", passive in "Wisdom", "Elven Stamina", etc...

— How to find some good hammer in game on this level against vampire? (I am not using poison weapon because my char is noble and I said to the guy that I have defeated vampire in my past walktrough without any freeze or magic or offensive magic or something like that because it's actually was).
I don't remember about good items and for now with "Deathblow" warhammer (40 strength require) the damage is horribly low, to defeat simple Heavy Giant Orc need a half of hour minimum... I have totally bothering to fighting against stupid elite orcs but the vampire will be much more strong, and more important there is closed dungeon, not an open area.

— What damage in vampire? I mean there is some magic or some special resists my char need?

P. S. This is all about hard difficulty settings. And thanks for the future answers.

[Raze_Larian]

The passive Stun skill helps.
If you have not been to Verdistis yet and completed a quest for Finnigan (in the cellar of the Ducal Inn), do the quest, but do not return the item he asks you to retrieve. It is much more valuable than quest XP (the magic lockpicks he wants back are unbreakable, and give an agility bonus when in your inventory; don't drop them on the ground, or they will disappear).

I used swords (the game is fairly biased towards swords, in terms on unique weapons), and don't recall if there are any unique hammers consistently in the game.
You may need to check merchants for a hammer to buy. Merchant inventories reset every 10 or 15 minutes (depending on the NPC), so if you go through the available good merchants who may have weapons (in Ars Magicana and Verdistis; there are a couple more in the elven village and dwarven halls, but you probably haven't cleared the Dark Forest yet), you can keep checking them until you find something.
If you wait long enough for an NPC's inventory to reset, then quicksave before mousing over them (or chest, etc) or hitting Alt nearby, you can trade and quickload if they do not have what you are looking for (make a named save after buying minor upgrades, if you want to keep trying).


Checking with a level 20 character, the stats of the vampire are:
Level 30
Resistances: Fire -45, Lightning 45, Poison 100, spiritual 100
attack 68 / defense 64
damage 36-116
armour 247
chance to hit 95
HP 1800
sight 8

[frostyshad]

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

The passive Stun skill helps.
If you have not been to Verdistis yet and completed a quest for Finnigan (in the cellar of the Ducal Inn), do the quest, but do not return the item he asks you to retrieve. It is much more valuable than quest XP (the magic lockpicks he wants back are unbreakable, and give an agility bonus when in your inventory; don't drop them on the ground, or they will disappear).

Verdistis almost clear exception few quests and one mansion, and probably the quest about lockpicks is already done to and no such thing in inventory.

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

I used swords (the game is fairly biased towards swords, in terms on unique weapons), and don't recall if there are any unique hammers consistently in the game.

No anything better than "Deathblow" hammer on such level? Omg...

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

You may need to check merchants for a hammer to buy. Merchant inventories reset every 10 or 15 minutes (depending on the NPC), so if you go through the available good merchants who may have weapons (in Ars Magicana and Verdistis; there are a couple more in the elven village and dwarven halls, but you probably haven't cleared the Dark Forest yet), you can keep checking them until you find something.
If you wait long enough for an NPC's inventory to reset, then quicksave before mousing over them (or chest, etc) or hitting Alt nearby, you can trade and quickload if they do not have what you are looking for (make a named save after buying minor upgrades, if you want to keep trying).

Farming merchants is looks like a not a fair play, I not used such tactics in the last walktrought for sure and no will.
The area where Ars Magicana located is almost fully explored on 20th level of my char for an exceptions of few not defeated giant orcs (I have marked not defeated foes by flags on the map and same with locked chests etc, so I can return after a while and when enemy defeated I changing properly the flag to not mislead after) and of two small orc soldiers camps, the first one is where elite giant orcs the second one where annoying super fast guard with HP like giant orc has.

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

Checking with a level 20 character, the stats of the vampire are:
Level 30
Resistances: Fire -45, Lightning 45, Poison 100, spiritual 100
attack 68 / defense 64
damage 36-116
armour 247
chance to hit 95
HP 1800
sight 8

Yes! I remembered that "Deathblow" works amazing with the fire damage imbued, now I understand why. I have even found a screenshot where my char doing over 130 damage to the monster with single hit, but there is I need a more damageable fire hammer! Or the battle will such long that I cannot upload video on Youtube because of my internet (2G) and 15 minutes limitation, I need defeat that super annoying piece of bloodsucker faster than 15 minutes then! :(

[Raze_Larian]

Check Commander Kratus' desk/table again; depending on what happened to the lockpicks they may have been returned there. If not, it is still possible to replace the lockpicks[forums.larian.com].

The name of the item only indicates it has a Deathblow bonus, so I have no way to judge if anything is better (even uniquely named equipment, always in the game, has randomly generated stats).

The higher character level you are, the more likely you are to get bonuses in the upper range of what is possible for any particular equipment. A new hammer may have better damage, especially if you have been using this one for some time.

You do not need to farm merchants, but doing the rounds when looking for particular equipment is entirely valid gameplay, especially if you want to use an uncommon weapon type (and on top of that, would prefer very specific bonuses).

FWIW, when I started a new game on hard, to double check the vampire stats were the same (they were), George in Aleroth had 2 battle hammers (both 29-43 damage, one with a bonus to Stun and something else). I reloaded the save after boosting the level to 20, then checked Tingalf in Ars Magicana, the weapon smith and Blake, bought a frog statuette from Kistandalius (to get to Verdistis faster), checked Mpenzak and Corinna (chances she would have a weapon were slim, but I was going past there anyway), then checking Tingalf again he had a Well Made Battlehammer (49-73 damage). I didn't check George again, since he wouldn't still be available in your game.

If it is just the time/size limitation, you can always speed up the video for the middle of the fight. It would be better to find a hammer that does more damage, though, to eliminate the tedium of the fight and make a more convincing video.

[frostyshad]

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

Check Commander Kratus' desk/table again; depending on what happened to the lockpicks they may have been returned there. If not, it is still possible to replace the lockpicks[forums.larian.com].

The name of the item only indicates it has a Deathblow bonus, so I have no way to judge if anything is better (even uniquely named equipment, always in the game, has randomly generated stats).

I thought the names are unique, for an example my char has warhammer "Deathblow" with max 43 damage and fire augmentation, I just was curious about any other but more powerful unique hammers. Well at least I have no must to attack vampire on 20th level, but I can farm maximum to 23th and this is means a few more skillpoints and stats. Actually, in case of my char what build against vampire will be better?
Youtube have a limit of 15 minutes video for free account (if I understand it's good), at least it was when I downloaded the video last time as I remembered. So obviously I need to deal with vampire this time much more faster.
From time to time I will check traders, because really need a good hammer with fire damage!

[Raze_Larian]

Sorry, that is indeed the name of the unique hammer in the game. However, IIRC 'of Deathblow' is also a random weapon suffix.
Unfortunately, Deathblow is also the only unique hammer in the game.
http://www.gamebanshee.com/divinedivinity/armorweapons.php

Also, a minor correction on the vampire's stats. I listed the stats for the Rivertown vampire; the one in Verdistis has slightly more damage (39-123) and HP (2268).


I'd suggest boosting agility more (Finnigan's Lockpicks would have help with that, if you hadn't already completed the quest). When checking merchants for hammers, look for equipment upgrades in general, especially if you are strict on only boosting strength with attribute points.

If you have enough restoration potions[www.larian.com], that greatly increases survivability (as long as you can not be killed in 1 or 2 hits from an opponent, with restoration potions hotkeyed it would just be a question of doing damage faster than the opponent can heal). While a strict warrior build can not mix potions (you can get a level of Alchemy as a quest reward in the Dark Forest), you should be able to buy or trade for them when checking merchants for equipment, or selling off loot.

At level 20, my character's stats were below, using a 2 handed sword doing 68-113 damage (the unique sword you can get from killing the knight that approaches you near Stormfist castle). In that save I hadn't killed the vampire, so did so, requiring 3 or 4 minor restoration potions. I also had not started clearing Verdistis, so didn't have Finnigan's magic lockpicks.

With and (without) equipment:
Strength: 75 (54)
Agility: 45 (41)
Intelligence: 10 (10)
Constitution: 44 (37)

[frostyshad]

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

Sorry, that is indeed the name of the unique hammer in the game. However, IIRC 'of Deathblow' is also a random weapon suffix.
Unfortunately, Deathblow is also the only unique hammer in the game.
http://www.gamebanshee.com/divinedivinity/armorweapons.php

Omg...

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

Also, a minor correction on the vampire's stats. I listed the stats for the Rivertown vampire; the one in Verdistis has slightly more damage (39-123) and HP (2268).

I'd suggest boosting agility more (Finnigan's Lockpicks would have help with that, if you hadn't already completed the quest). When checking merchants for hammers, look for equipment upgrades in general, especially if you are strict on only boosting strength with attribute points.

If you have enough restoration potions[www.larian.com], that greatly increases survivability (as long as you can not be killed in 1 or 2 hits from an opponent, with restoration potions hotkeyed it would just be a question of doing damage faster than the opponent can heal). While a strict warrior build can not mix potions (you can get a level of Alchemy as a quest reward in the Dark Forest), you should be able to buy or trade for them when checking merchants for equipment, or selling off loot.

At level 20, my character's stats were below, using a 2 handed sword doing 68-113 damage (the unique sword you can get from killing the knight that approaches you near Stormfist castle). In that save I hadn't killed the vampire, so did so, requiring 3 or 4 minor restoration potions. I also had not started clearing Verdistis, so didn't have Finnigan's magic lockpicks.

With and (without) equipment:
Strength: 75 (54)
Agility: 45 (41)
Intelligence: 10 (10)
Constitution: 44 (37)

Omg... Anyway to improve fire damage of my char with hammer? "Deathblow" has already charm quality of 5 so I cannot enchant it more?
The point of the battle against vampire that was last time was kiting, but I have hell no idea how many time I have spent... Need also to realize how to edit video good to reduce it's size.

Some moments: the game under Windows 10 is awfully lagging until setting "Software" but not "D3D" is enabled, now kiting is far more simple without such pluggers! I have remembered how I defeated giant orc — not only with hammer kitting but wuth hurling a heavy boulders into them! :D The good strength is making it an effective tactics, but I have doubts it's work on the vampire which actually fast as hell. And the good idea of developers to make such interractive gameplay zone.

[Raze_Larian]

Charm quality means that you can add charms to the equipment, if you invest in the warrior skill Enchant Weapon (works for armour and jewellery, as well)

Charms only give bonuses to attributes, resistances or vitality/mana. Check
Kistandalius in Ars Magicana and Corinna in Verdistis whenever selling loot or checking for equipment; Blake and Mpenzak may also have charms, as can any other NPC (though a lesser chance, in my experience). The largest you can buy (until the end of the game) is large / silver; very large / gold charms can be found, but are quite rare (before the Blessing Ceremony, I had found or bought 59 silver charms, and 6 gold charms). Lizards (Dark Forest, Verdistis sewers) and dragon riders can rarely drop gold charms.
I'd try to get agility charms, or strength, and since gold is easy to come by if you loot everything and trade with items when possible, it wouldn't hurt to grab some constitution charms, in case you don't have much luck with agility/strength.

The passive Fire Damage skills should help (on level 20 you can get level 3 of the skill, the next level requires character level 23). As mentioned, maxing Stun should help, and if you haven't already, Augment Damage / Augment Defense (though levels of those two can also be gotten as quest rewards).

Free skills, and spell books you can buy[www.larian.com]


For the performance, you can try the Windows 8 Performance "Patch" (works in Win 7 and 10, as well). I only noticed the edge of the fog of war not being as smooth in Software mode, but a couple people reported the graphics being darker or lighter.

In the ..\SteamApps\common\divine_divinity install folder, try right clicking on the div.exe program file, select Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab and try different compatibility modes. In Win 7, disable desktop composition and check 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings'; for Win 10, check 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' and set it to Application.

You can try using the disk version of the configuration program[www.dropbox.com], to set the game to run in Direct Draw mode. Rename or move the existing configtool.exe and NlsEng.dll files in the install folder, and extract the disk versions from the zip file. Note that this will also reset the game resolution to what the disk version supported, but you can manually edit the config.div file to change the resolution back.


Dropping the resolution is probably the easiest was to reduce the size, as long as it doesn't hurt the image quality too much. There have got to be lots of guides about editing videos for Youtube, with recommended resolutions, codecs and settings.

[frostyshad]

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

The passive Fire Damage skills should help (on level 20 you can get level 3 of the skill, the next level requires character level 23). As mentioned, maxing Stun should help, and if you haven't already, Augment Damage / Augment Defense (though levels of those two can also be gotten as quest rewards).

Cursed Abbey cleared and the silver enchant on agility has been bought after that. Still is not enough, lost of misses. Also I just get fun from the playing and started to clear Dark Forest, unfortunuately my char has maxed "Wisdom" so level grows fast and now it 22th... And in addition I have picked no any stun neither more fire damage but the "Bless", thought it's will be good more stats... Thank you for tips about items, last time at my walktrought I have exploread probably 95-95% of all map that can be explored, defeated probably all evil monsters etc, but of course I have forgot almost anything about quests and etc becuse it was few years ago.
And I probably will never play Divinity series with a anything than mage! >:( I always playing RPG-s with a mage, but Divinity and Torchlight is an exceptions, and the hell it's was a total mistake! So unbalanced... No good hammer in Divinity, nothing. >:( That because Beyond Divinity I have created two mages on hardcore for the playtrough. :) Beyond Divinity as for my taste actually too much gore and violence depicting, but probably modern games much more.

About "Software mode": I have some artifacts! The color not like it suppose to be sometimes, looks like a "glare" colored or something around the dark areas, but I don't even care until it will no lag (for now the game even too fast performance), the one only thing that I have no any against in Divine Divinity it's the graphics. Which is looks awesome, all this details and interiors and with music it's creating somekind of a cool atmosphere.
But maybe I will try set some options to restart the game on Direct Draw mode.

I have downloaded some fancy free video editor, I have made already video but seems without lot of success... The result is too dark, web camera no sound record making and I somehow managed to badly crop the video in editor. The example of video I have made for the guy to explain for him what is mean "kiting" in Divinity, music included just to not public a silent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_dbRKBmOaY so I have a no idea how to make a good one, but I will read manuals and stuff. My limitation is mainly that I need very low size video clip in result.