Too hard

[ZenithQuasar]

I'm a veteran table top and CRPG gamer, but maybe I've gotten too old.
All monsters hit all my characters at least 85% of the time. Misses are rare.
I hit frequently, over 50%, but not with the frequency of the monsters.
Most of the time, I'm being hit for 20+ hp, often 40, occasionally 50.
My hits range from zero, to 40 or 50 hp, but the high end costs blue.
Most rounds I'm having to cure someone.

I struggled to get through the first chapter. I faltered at the first battle of the second chapter. I'm not going to continue to bang my head against this wall. Game balance is out of whack.

I'll check again in a few weeks.

[nobrien]

basicly the prob is every enemy reqs a full debuff and use of SP costing abilitys to kill in any sort of quickish manner, there is no cannon fodder mobs you dont have to waste SP casting buffing debuffing and the lack of gold around esp for rewards cost twice as much as you get just to get to the area the quest is in,

the enemys dont need to rest or restock and allways hit hard and resist hard, i CAN beat them all but it takes all i have to survive every enemy type and theres so many mobs every where your lucky if you go 1 min without being jumped by lots of enemys all the time.

So you never feel like your actually getting better because everthing spawns en mass and the lack of any decent gear drops for 90% of the loot ive found leaves you in the middle of nowhere all the time on the back foot with only 1 way to win and thats to just eat mana potions.

there is no balance because theres no cannonn fodder, giant rats and rat swarms are a super exsample of this because the swarms move so far and hit so hard and are hard to hit even with debuffs which makes them more dangerous than their giant rat counter parts.

im doing the side quests out of oksa stonetroll and merchant cart so far, i have the blacksmiths upgraded gear on tank outlander and on DW duel weild rogue and also better mage and cleric armor ect, but it still doesnt stop the fact that every single type of enemy is boss mentality theres no mobs that my max weapon skill rouge and tank can hit even after debuffing them with the non SP costing atks.

EDIT: a game is a failure of a RPG like these if it relys on equipment that you might never see in a playthrough is the only way to make classes viable, without the ability to craft potions you rely on gold to buy them and if your stuck you just spend every second fight running to the camp to rest untill you can buy more potions, thats really lame to have a mechanic so totally reliant on it :{.

[Trese Brothers]

@nobrien - thanks for the extra details as to where you are having issues. On Normal difficulty, I wouldn't expect this kind of stuff, but I am sure we can keep talking and work it out.

There is a lot of variation in the power of the monsters, but yes, they all fight at the best of their abilities unless cursed, or in the case of the Ratkin, the shaman's buff them to make them stronger.

Here is a YouTube video we published a little while ago talking about strategy, and maybe it would shed some light on your group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujPyPuKFNkE

Also, perhaps the combat guide could help:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252556760

Finally, if you are interested, we have a dedicated forum for all of our games and there is a pretty active crew of Heroes veterans there, if you'd like to ask their opinion. Lots of them playing on the highest difficulties, so they'd be able to answer questions!
http://startradersrpg.proboards.com/#category-6

[nobrien]

ive read the guides, i dont watch videos of ppl playing games full stop, if a game is so badly made that the info available isnt in the game for me to see trial and error ect then i cant be bothered with it, same for walkthroughs they are there if i get stuck on a puzzle or something not much need of walkthroughs in my life either useually.

this game got me interested i downloaded it and played for 12 hours straight b4 needing to sleep, i play your other game templar one had-having a blast in it and all the improves you made, which is why im sorta bummed out by the total cluster fk this feels like all the time now.

When playing the fights each one is so long and painfull because of the lack of abilitys available to me, im nearly 9 and still see no AoE dmg spells in my future untill lvl 10 or 12 + and with all of the endless numbers of mobs in the enemy camps that im lucky if i can kill 1 per round sometimes 2 if im lucky.

i just found the deathkin and have been in that fight for 15 mins now 2 mins of watching the enemys 20+ atk my toons 20 secs of me attacking and now the only melee mobs left are 2 giant rats that i can see atleast the rest are archers and shammys and i cant hit more than 1 per turn, the giant rats fully debuffed still atk 3 times for 40-50 dmg each and rarly miss i on the other hand rarly hit for more than 10-20 dmg, i have the best equipment that money can buy and a few drops here and there but nothing great so far.

i REPEAT i can and will kill them { have only died 2 times so far atleast and they where my bad } but the constant massive amounts of enemys in engagments and the near zero ability to hit more than 1 enemy at a time means that it takes ages of watching the AI play each time and now im just getting bored-frustrated i dont know why all of the AoE spells all req such a high char lvl in a game like this that is crawling with enemys everywhere. why lock them behind lvl reqs to even unlock ? very confusing.

[Trese Brothers]

@nobrien - sorry that you dislike the game to the point of describing it as a cluster. Maybe if you could provide more details about the Talents you are using every turn, I could help. Otherwise, I hope you find a way to enjoy the game. Sorry you don't like videos talking about tactics, just trying to share what resources might be available.

[nobrien]

sorry playing at the same time lol, i thought i had mentioned the guide for classes i was useing from your list of info earlyer ? the guide was the one in steam forums called the gallows something guide, i use the debuffs fior the scorc frigid and soemthing else and the outlander sweep and the duel weild fast thingy that the guide describes better than i can.

[Trese Brothers]

@nobrien - the guide details what Talents you might spend your levels on, but it doesn't detail your style of play or how you are spending each of your character's 7 AP every turn. That is the kind of information I'd need to be able to make any further recommendations at this point, I think, as I've shared a lot of other details.

[nobrien]

sorry cant type cut 2 fingers had to keep them up, no offence meant about cluster fk comment,its just how things feel after 8-10 hours of playing for me esp after temp battle force,

on debuffed mobs i use the outlnder sweep for acc bonus and the deul weild one thats the same atk bonus vs the debuff, the scorc only has debuffs untill lvl 12 from what i can see in the guide so he just debuffs and self buffs +mp dodge one as well.

[imryll]

Nobrien, I've only used the four original characters--with Vraes as a S&B tank and Kyera as my off-tank, not a caster, but a couple of your comments made me wonder if your running into the same problem I had in the fight where you meet your first deathkin. That's really the only fight where I've guzzled potions, and it was because I stood there and fought where too many enemies could chip away at my health. Every other time I've done that fight, I've retreated back to the narrow passageway I used to enter the room and let the majority of the enemies come to me, one or two at a time.

Also, not every enemy needs full debuff treatment. Anyone with a shield and giant rats generally do, but not everyone has high armor and resistance, and you only need to AP debuff if either the enemy will survive the current turn or your debuff is packaged with another debuff needed to improve their vulnerability. For instance I almost always have Kyera hold back on Ethereal Anguish (and reserve some AP) until just before the end of my turn so as not to waste it and so I have it if I need it.

For a first time player, I'd also recommend Kjartan with his Choking Ash (-parry, -dodge, -armor) debuff over Vincent, although I've not played Vincent, so what do I know. :D I can say however, that if you raise Kjartan's conjuration and Choking Ash early on, you fairly quickly get to a point where you're debuffing 3+ enemies at a time which means you're using fewer AP and spirit points to make the enemy vulnerable. He also gets Immolation at level 6 which is an AoE damage and -crit spell.

AoEs, whether debuffs or damage are also a great help with the fog of war you mentionned in another thread. If you pay attention to the spell effects they can reveal where enemies may be standing. Another trick is to use even a single target debuff on a black spot on your map. If no one's there, it won't cast. If they are, it will.