Difficulty increase in Level 5/6 dungeons [EDITED]

[Swimfan]

I really have to say that I never ever went from "I love this game so much" to "this is unbalanced garbage" faster in any game. I play on Sentinal Mode (I believe it is called) with all negative stuff turned off to get a feeling for the game. Everything below 5/6 feels very fair and balanced. I got to a point where playing level 3 dungeons is relatively easy with my lv 6 heroes and thought I'd try the best of them (with the best trinkets) in a champion dungeon (a normal one, no bosses).
Man, does this game suddenly blow as*! Out of noweher all my attacks miss, the enemies deal insane amounts of damage, need ages to kill and deal so much stress that I can't even finish a medium dungeon. It feels like red Hook went completely overboard. Even thinking about doing a boss under those conditions makes me want to deinstall this game.

And that's not even the worst part! I abandoned the mission halfway through because I had to and now everyone is full with stress and diseases which will take ages to cure! Then they all need different facilities to cure from stress because some only want to gamble a.s.o.

♥♥♥♥, I feel so sad right now :-/ I thought I found a game I want to play for hundrets of hours but it just doesn't feel fun in the slightest against those odds.
______________________

Edit:
Currently trying Darkest Mode (slower level curve) to see if a slower progression helps in learning the game better. So far the harder beginning seems to help in grasping while my later attempts at LV 5 dungeons failed.

[aardvarkpepper]

1) mod gaem
2) success

[Ploof Ploof]

Yea, the difficulty curve between the lwoer levels and the higher levels is more like a wall.
But you'l learn, old tactics don't work or have to be modified and trinkets become very important.
I personaly tend tos tack a lot of dodge and that works most of the time

[No One]

You're bad at the game. It was going easy on you, but it stops doing that in champion dungeons.

If you can't take level 5s into veteran dungeons, there's a huge difficulty spike between veteran and champion. If you can, there's an Everest of difficulty spikes between veteran and champion. It's not unbalanced, just misleading.

Are you abusing stuns? Are you going fast? Do you have at least 120 accuracy? Are you killing the back row? If all else fails are you abusing stalling?

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by aardvarkpepper:

1) mod gaem
2) success

In a normal game I'd never mod or cheat but I never felt so cheated by a game in my entire life. I play games for over 15 years now and I can say with certainty that the Darkest Dungeon really wants to be unfair on LV 5/6 out of nowhere.
So yea, can you tell me a good mod to use?

@the other guys
Thanks for your advice but I don't feel like farming trinkets like crazy for heroes that can so easily die off. I now really get why so many people complain about the grind in this game (something that is 100% not apparant below lv 5 dungeons).

[Kaz]

Yeah you just need to get better at the game

[Sir Francis]

Those lvl 6 heroes are supposed to stomp lvl 3 dungeons, they are really meant for lvl 6.
lvl 3 heroes are supposed to be used in lvl 3 dungeons and so forth.
Radiant mode has a huge problem: people can overlevel their heroes easily, stomp all the low dungeons without ever having learned anything and then in champion they finally meet the game how it is supposed to be played and they get obliterated.
Its just sad, noone should start with radiant IMO.

[Swimfan]

My problem with farming is that heroes in this game can just die easily and investing hours in planning perks etc. can just be undone in a single heartbeat because the rng screws you. Even worse: If you fail, you can't come back to try again because all heroes need ages to be useable again. The whole cycle is very challenging and fun on LV 3 and below and just seems to be become tedious work above that.

[No One]

I realized the other day: Radiant is for playing torchless, after you've already tried Darkness difficulty.

There's a balance issue arising from the fact a) apprentice dungeons are necessarily newbie dungeons and b) you must take level 0s into apprentice, but you don't have to take level 2s into veteran and so forth.

Because you can take level 0s, they have to be substantially easier than they should be, relative to veteran. And especially because you have to run apprentice dungeons before the guild and blacksmith even open.

[Swimfan]

I guess I'm now at the point where I really have to decide if I want to invest that time and patience into farming/planning and learning :-/
I'm a little scared that I will get more frustration out of this than enjoyment tho because the rng plays such a big role ....

[No One]

Don't just grind. Try out various party combinations and skill choices.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by No One:

Don't just grind. Try out various party combinations and skill choices.

Agreed. Although I really have to ask (stupid question but I have to) if it's normal for everyone to come back like useless for 2-3 rounds bc. they all are full of diseases and quirks you have to fix first. Just the amount of preparing for one run seems ... absurd to me right now :-/ My Crusader got The Runs in room 1 (-20 DODGE/-10% HP) which just seemed like it's over already and just not fair at all,

[No One]

Yes it's normal. I really wish I didn't have to unlock disease ward slots to open more psych ward slots.

You can slightly reduce the chances by leaving a mission with full health and zero stress. (It scales, probably linearly.)

If you get a disease mid-mission, the graverobber and plague doctor have disease-removing camping abilities. Also the graverobber is fast and can hit hard, preventing them from landing disease-causing abilities, and the PD is fast and is Queen of All Stuns.

[Sir Francis]

it is kind of normal to have any hero use any facility once after every second run, most negative quirks arent bad enough to get rid of them and diseases you can cure on the fly with grave robber and plague dr.

[Yuufa]

Also, being quite new to this game myself, I've found that high crit parties (with a Jester in particular for stress-healing and Battle Ballad) makes stress basically a non-issue. I've been through a few champion dungeons now and yes, the difficulty does spike quite a bit but it's not unmanageable as long as you plan out your route, where you think you'll need to camp up and have the proper trinkets, skills and provisions with you.

The game tends to play like Apprentice and Veteran dungeons are there to teach you the games mechanics and then Champion dungeons are it throwing you in the deep end and basically saying "Show me what you've learned." It's difficult, but it feels rewarding when you find a team comp that works for you and things go smoothly.

[Swimfan]

Is there any "mandatory" party member for LV5+ runs? I always thought Vestals are kinda needed in every situation but if you take her and Plage Doc, you already filled 2 slots?!

Also: Is Leper even a good idea if the DODGE of all enemies gets that high?! (even with Bard and Man-at-arms in party, is he even a possibilty?)