The Fundimental Flaw of Heroic "difficulty".

[Jinette Rufflepaws]

After ~180 hours of playing exclusively heroic difficulty, I have concluded it to be anything but difficult and falls apart within the first 1-3 hours due to the complete artificial nature of it.

Heroic difficulty grants no more challenge than the now ironically called "chicken" difficulty. It creates more early game frustrations than any consistent challenge as you progress. Enemies do more damage, but does not have more health or defenses, so aquiring a legendary weapon or a rank 3 spell, both which can be achieved shortly after the traders' escort quest, drastically nullifies the potenial difference. While more enemies spawn, and chances of recieving damage is higher, you are able to roll around in combat to avoid nearly all damage including arrows and they merely grant you higher multipliers than you would normally and increase you level quicker despite the initially reduced experience gain. You're still able to do trading for gold, the changes only force you to buy larger bulks and have a heavier purse and you can sleep every 3 game days if you opt to do real estate instead for renting; Oakvale yields 2000 gold each time if you furnish and add 2 trophies to the marital house. Ranged heroes can aquire the bow from the Temple of Skorm, the most power one, and melee heroes can aquire the greatmace from the Temple of Avo and trivialize most of the game from there. You can also farm the trolls, giving you multipliers ranging from 10-16 that return at every locations' revisit. At first the game will feel more punishing, because it is, by the end of Arena it begins to rapidly feel less differentthan the game originally felt spare being more tedius. Potions drop by the crateful, 30-70 for both health and will. In the end, it is just like age and scars, annoying--playing the original diificulty can be more relaxing, less menial grinding to circumvented the initial artificial difficulty cliffside.

[Jazzyboy]

I actually agree. While they have made some great steps towards creating a challenge, they still need to do some more meaningful changes than just adjusting stats. Increasing enemy health only makes fights longer rather than more challenging and they can end up just becoming grinds. And increasing damage is pointless when anyone with the slightest competence can dodge most enemy attacks by rolling.

I wish they would actually adjust fights properly, especially the boss fights. Twinblade should have a large number of his bandits join the fight to distract you from him, similar to venom enemies in the Batman Arkham games. Arachanox should stop doing the laser attack completely since it's insanely easy to dodge and leaves her immobilised for far too long... you get the point.

And Skorm's temple should be either closed off until the player's reached a higher level or the bow should be heavily nerfed. Skorm's Bow is OP for low levels.

Also, the xp cost for Slow Time should be increased dramatically and if possible, it should have a cooldown. If used properly, Slow Time can make everything ridiculously easy.

[Jinette Rufflepaws]

Originally posted by Jazzyboy:

I actually agree. While they have made some great steps towards creating a challenge, they still need to do some more meaningful changes than just adjusting stats. Increasing enemy health only makes fights longer rather than more challenging and they can end up just becoming grinds. And increasing damage is pointless when anyone with the slightest competence can dodge most enemy attacks by rolling.

I wish they would actually adjust fights properly, especially the boss fights. Twinblade should have a large number of his bandits join the fight to distract you from him, similar to venom enemies in the Batman Arkham games. Arachanox should stop doing the laser attack completely since it's insanely easy to dodge and leaves her immobilised for far too long... you get the point.

And Skorm's temple should be either closed off until the player's reached a higher level or the bow should be heavily nerfed. Skorm's Bow is OP for low levels.

Also, the xp cost for Slow Time should be increased dramatically and if possible, it should have a cooldown. If used properly, Slow Time can make everything ridiculously easy.

Yes, it goes without saying that increasing health would only compound the monotony and grind from increased damage. The Skorm bow is not the only easily accessible legendary, the Wellow pickaxe is from the 2nd demon door and only requires you to eat 11 chrunchy chicks you can buy from wandering traders. The problem with dodging is not that you can spam it, but that you are invulnerable while doing it. Most enemies are also quite hesitant to attack, even bosses, like their spooked with paranoia; the AI is very poor in this game, numbers don't change much. They wouldn't have to overhaul that, but just refine it and related game rules. As you've said, tweak the boss fights to have a more interesting pattern that requires more attention from the player.

[Пятнистая Рысявка]

Alright brotha, I'm about to begin the game and was searching for an advice on which diff to choose.
I guess chicken it is

[OnyxRain]

I totally disagree. Im trying to complete the trader escort quest and you have to pass through a troll area, the troll is easy enough to deal with if you hit his rocks back at him but just ahead there are two boss bandits who simply do NOT DIE and by your defination with time and perserverance even someone who doesnt have alot of upgrades should make short work of them.