Completelt overwhelmed by Ocrin - what's wrong?!

[max.savenkov]

The games was going OK for the most part until I got to Orcin caves and Stronghold. Now, my characters constantly miss enemies (esp. my warrior, who has 16 in Blades) and deal little damage, and enemies deal HUGE piles of damage that no armor can even begin to mitigate (~140-200 per attack).

I'm playing with the default party, with the fighter with blades/shield, sorcerer with cone ligthing attack, priestess focused on healing and thief on the first bow ability. Am I missing something? Should I have gone somewhere else to level up before trying these zones? Or is my build completely scrwed?

Also, I completely hate how SP are depleted. Basically, I need to rest after every second combat, or user loads of potions, even though I put quite a lot of points into Intellegence for everyone.

The game left a middling impression so far, but Orcin Caves drive me mad, and are quickly turning the impression into a bad one.

[max.savenkov]

Whew. I passed the caverns and the fnal battle there, by hiding in a hole and letting only one enemy come at my party at a time. On one hand, I like when boss battles require tactics. On the other, it was really hard to spot the suitable place, and I restarted the whole battle around 3 times before I found the stop to make the successful stand...

Still, a lot of things about the game's balance bother me. The damage is very random - one strike, I deal 0 damage, the next 70 (without a critical). A critical strike can either deal >100, or just 50 damage. The game has a very random feel (which is why "replay last turn" feature comes in handy).

[Trese Brothers]

@max.savenkov - sounds like the Orcin battles were pretty hard. What level were you at that point? From your listing of what Talents you are using, I am curious if you are employing Curses and Buffs? A good mix of both is important to have a viable build. The game's strategy elements emphasize synergy between your group, as opposed to thinking about they can individually be the best. You might consider a Respec or buying into more curses & buffs when you get your next Talent points.

The combat guide goes into detail on all the dice rolling of damage and armor. In both damage and armor there are static values, but then the dice that can be rolled in addition can be large. Back to curses and buffs -- they will help you reduce randomness, increase static values, decrease enemy static values, so they are very helpful in this regard.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252556760

[max.savenkov]

My party was level 20 in the final battle and the last part of the caves. I think I maybe have not enough buffs/curses, but I use them, and sometimes they make all the difference, but at other times, not so much. It's pretty hard to balance between getting yet another level of attacking skill (i.e. direct increase in accuracy and damage, at SP cost) vs. getting a level of buff.

My party:

Vraes:
10 STR, 4DEX, 10CON, 6WIL, 5INT, 3KNW
16 Blades 3 Hammers & Polearms 1 Leadership 5 Lore
Crushing Blow 8
Stone Skin 3
Savage Sweep 2
Natural Mastery 1
Ferocity 1
Juggernaut 1

Vincent:
4STR 4DEX 4CON 6WIL 11INT 9KNW
3 Blades, 1 Polearms, 16 Sorcery, 5 Conjuring, 5 Lore
Storm Strike 1
Lighting Spear 7
Fridig Air 1
Slash 1
Charge Speed 1
Energy Storm 4
Eye of Storm 2

Kyera:
4STR 3DEX 6CON 4WIL 15INT 6KNW
3 Hammers, 2 Polearms, 7 Invocation, 3 Conjuring, 13 Lore
Smiting Blow 2
Myshana's Tears 4
Ethereal Anguish 4
Strike 1
Holy Retribution 3
Sacrifice 2
Banishment 1

Tamilin:
5STR 10DEX 5CON 4WIL 10INT 4KNW
2 Thrown, 16 Bows, 2 Lore, 5 Security, 3(9) Stealth
Aimed Shot 9
Farsight 1
Precision Pick 2
Loose 1
Disarming Touch 1
Throw Dagger 1
Torrent of Steel 2
Deadly Intuition 1
Ranged Onslaught 1

Do I need a respec badly? I only have enough crystals to respec one character. Right now, the problems I'm seeing is Tamilin getting VERY random damage (often 0 then 50+ on the same enemy) and Vraes missing a lot of attacks. Also, there are not nearly enough SP to use special attack all the time, but non-special attack so weak they are nearly useless.

[Trese Brothers]

@max.savenkov - I think the comments you made about SP use are also directly tied into Buffing and Cursing. These two abilities are key to successful strategies within the game. Because you've raised Aimed Shot, Crushing Blow, Lightning Strike so high in level, you are spending a ton of SP and a ton of extra attacks to get what you could get done by taking them down a few levels, and applying those points to Buffs and Curses.

If you click on the character list (4 squares), there is an Auto-Buff button. I would suggest using it between every single combat to ensure that every single Buff is up all the time. Also, keystroke 'b'.

Just as an example ... Aimed Shot 9 is nice. But if you had Deadly Intuition 9 and Aimed Shot 1, I think you'd be spending 20% of the SP and killing at least 2-3 times as fast due to the +Accuracy and +Critical %.

Buffs make every attack better and only cost SP when you AutoBuff. In many cases, they provide power that you can't get (elemental damage, critical %, accuracy) by just raising the standard attacks.

Curses work the same, just in reverse. If you are having Accuracy issues, or taking too much damage, then make sure that Kyera's first priority is to curse every single target with Ethereal Anguish. Before you hit any target with Lightning Spear, be sure to drop an Energy Storm on them to reduce their Lightning Res.

I hope this helps!

I don't think a respec is badly needed, but it might help someone like Vraes or Tami the most, as their main attack Talents would probably better be spread between a few Buffs. A few points into Blacknight for Tamilin will help make sure she is far harder to hit.

[max.savenkov]

Aha, thank you... I use auto-buff (when I don't forget about it, which happens pretty often :( ).

[Trese Brothers]

Let me know if any of that helps :D Here to answer more questions if you have them. Also, our forum for the game has a very active user base of veterans who can provide a wealth of advice --

http://startradersrpg.proboards.com/

[Gamerzilla]

Yes, buffs make the difference between your tank being a short term arrow catcher or a godlike personification of defence who eats said arrows and asks enemies to please try harder when attacking. Placeing your tank so that everything attacks him/her is also quite important. If you are having trouble LIVING through fights, always focus on defence first, because turtling will (eventually) win the fights minus possibly a few time limit gimicky ones?

[Trese Brothers]

I think its a theme in many of our games -- Buffs, curses and support roles are real and have very powerful effects. Makes them fun imho :D

[nobrien]

yes but if that is the case there is no need to have all those options, that is the confuseing part, remove the options for the diff classes that dont work to make the game more straight forward in what a class does and most of the diff issiues disapear.

[Trese Brothers]

@nobrien - I am sorry, I don't think we could plan to remove options from the game. The characters all start with a set of Talents that are great. If you just put your emphasis on those you can do very well. There is a lot of complexity in building a team strategy by mixing and matching abilities, buffs, curses, and it would gut the game to remove that.