Cragholdt Bluffs is poorly balanced.

[JadetheBabyMama]

While I recently beated The White March Part 1 and enjoyed it despite some partly bad encounters and some moments where I'm forced into fights, I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate this place. Despite the excuse being it's supposed to be a challenge for veterans, it does not excuse some of the serious issues it shows in the design of the map and quest itself.

1-The enemies all seem to be incredibly tanky and resistant to stunning. I can understand this for some enemies like the basic mercenaries, but why on earth are the mages and priests so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tanky? I find this an issue because their magic makes it almost impossible to kill any of them...especially those war priests, who will constantly heal everyone including themselves! Their damage reduction and health are way too high, I recall having 4 party members and 2 were a wizard and druid at level 10, yet the only spell I recall being remotely useful were Aloth's Tentacle summon and that water wave one done by Hiravias as his level 5 lightning spell seemingly never stunned any of the troops while this one did for roughly 3 seconds. It breaks balancing rules as powerful wizards and priests usually can be killed if enemies focus on them, but these could hold their own and kill my entire party if it was only a warmage and warpriest together.

2-The map and enemy placement, the map is ok from what I seen so far...which was probably 10-15% of it since the enemy placement and design in this stage/quest is awful. It's impossible to approach fights in any way other than trying to survive...only to get beaten cause that one guy asleep can seemingly push stun 3-4 of your party while other soldiers out of your line of sight literally ambush you. It's not like where you think you only have to fight 1-2 enemies but a meter away, there are 1-3 more. No, these enemies are usually over 10-15 meters away, yet...they act like they can see you from anywhere in the map as they will always ambush you with more than 6 extra mercenaries! Combined with every enemy in this quest, INCLUDING MAGES AND PRIESTS, being ambushed and punished like this is incredibly unfair, especially when these enemies break the rules by being able to detect you fighting one of their own from over 10 meters away. I'm aware that White March Part 1 has some unbalanced encounters, but this is worse than those. Those encounters could still be handled if you had the right set up and strategy in mind.

3-This area feels like cut content, and it sort of makes it a bit worse when it feels like the thought put into this was almost nonexistent like they added this in because they could. It drags the dlc down a little when the main stuff in it is rough but still good, and this quest in the corner shows what would of happened if the design team didn't have some sense of fair challenge or outsourced it.

That's all I got to be honest, it just bothers me when The White March Part 1 was rough, but it was very well made, and they tacked this onto it seemingly without any thought just bothered me a bit. Either way, what did you guys think? Did you feel differently about it or do you guys think it's bad? Let me know in the comments below, I do enjoy discussions.

[mojistics]

Attempting that area at level 10 is nuts and probably pointless. I waited til my party was level 14 the first time I did it and it was still challenging but doable.

[JadetheBabyMama]

Originally posted by TheMoj:

Attempting that area at level 10 is nuts and probably pointless. I waited til my party was level 14 the first time I did it and it was still challenging but doable.

Aaaah so it is for that late in a playthrough...still it doesn't seem all too fun to me. Especially with the magic users being so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tanky. It also doesn't change how the enemies behave, being able to notice you from way farther away than they should. Especially when you already have to deal with 4 enemies, having almost 8 is just unfair, even if I was 4 levels higher. Also is there any reward for doing this?

[mojistics]

Yes. There are some good items from there, a special summon, and it is required to complete to unlock another area, without spoiling too much.

[JadetheBabyMama]

Originally posted by TheMoj:

Yes. There are some good items from there, a special summon, and it is required to complete to unlock another area, without spoiling too much.

...well ♥♥♥♥ this is gonna suck, I honestly would rather cheat to get it over with. Plus, I don't like how any status ailments on the enemies seem to be shaken off pretty easily.

[mojistics]

Just go back later once you've leveled up some more. There's no need to tackle what is essentially an end-game area so early and nothing forcing you to do it now. It's worth it to finish it all.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by JacktheRipper:

...well ♥♥♥♥ this is gonna suck, I honestly would rather cheat to get it over with.

You could apply split-pulling tactics solo players use. Have someone with boots of speed or a chanter with move speed phrase pull 1-2 enemies towards your party. And be extremely careful with the Drunken Orlan.

[JadetheBabyMama]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by JacktheRipper:

...well ♥♥♥♥ this is gonna suck, I honestly would rather cheat to get it over with.

You could apply split-pulling tactics solo players use. Have someone with boots of speed or a chanter with move speed phrase pull 1-2 enemies towards your party. And be extremely careful with the Drunken Orlan.

I have no experience in that to be honest, I went in blind, so I'm not an expert, I did find my party preference. It's my player monk, Eder, Kana, Hiravias, Devil of Caroc, and Aloth. I used to use Durance, but I kinda had difficulty with him and decided to have my party damage focused. Plus, Idk if I actually fully got my head around the chanter mechanics aside from being able to use chanter spells, which I focused on mostly a healing one and two summons, mostly cause a drake can help even the odds.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

So, with Durance missing, you've got nobody to give your party worthwhile support.

[JadetheBabyMama]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

So, with Durance missing, you've got nobody to give your party worthwhile support.

Yeah that is a flaw in my party XD ,especially when he learns a spell to revive fallen party membe-oh god what the hell was I thinking O.o...this is the time I wished the max party slots was 7 instead of 6.