Gameplay Advice Needed

[Taltos]

I'm hoping some of the more experienced players can assist me. I'm currently playing on the old school difficulty, and have reached a point where I can't seem to progress. My characters are level 16-17, and my party consists of a Mage, Cleric, Thief, Arcane Warrior, Fighter and Explorer. I've gotten the initial two artifacts, liberated Velegarn, and killed the first prince. I've also cleared the areas around the gates to Sorrentia, Nabros, Velegard, and Cunavarn.

The problem is I've cleared most of the random encounter areas, but can't progress further:
-The desert kills my party after 2 steps
-The tundra freezes my party to death
-All the various gate guard mobs can wipe my party before I can kill 3 of the 6 guards.
-Going into the snowy area, I get mobbed by parties of TWO Yotum, which repeatedy stun my characters until most of them die
-I though Karraga would be next, but walking toward the gates initiates an insta-death sequence.

I basicaly have nowhere left to level up. And for some reason, despite my speed being in the mid 20s for most of my party, most enemies attack before I do. My attack ratings are in the 80s, but the remaining enemies (guards) have speeds and attacks that wipe my back line before I even get a chance to use my cleric or magic user. I'm also sitting on 5,000 gold, but there are no good weapons or armor to buy at the moment.

I'm thinking I made a mistake investing in speed for my characters, because despite dropping points in there for every level since the beginning, AND taking skills like tactics, the enemy still begins the turns before me. There is something definitely wrong when a lumbering Yotum has a higher speed/initiative than my Thief.

I'm loving the game, but frustration is setting in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Tergon]

Clear All of the random encounters, go to the area west of Sorrentia(wasps can be tough), in karraga try to stick to the forest parts. Run from the yotum, get to the castle. Note inside the castle not all encounters are meant to be fought.

[josephdw106]

the 2 yotum battles ya require leveling up a bit...have you finished all the desert battles that have the giant worms and crows? there is an area with a bunch of golems down on the bottom left you may want to try and wipe those out...i think you need the next artifiact to continue anywere as i remember being stuck a bit around your time so ya i think you gotta figure getting those guards, dunno what your wearing but all ive done all my game up to level 40 is stat stack on my armors almost everything is kings/heroes armors it helps in all cases. i usually leave one item for element resist on each person just incase a boss battle goes sideways i have a chance to negate some damage. if your back row is getting mopped is it spell stuff maybe you need to look at boosting some element resistance. as far as i know speed does make a difference its just as you get into each area the enemies will have superior speeds only now at level 40 have i noticed that ive opened up the game enough that some zones i walk into that im vastly superior to the enemy getting sometimes almost 2 turns (for my whole party)before they go and ive been clearing all zones as well.

[Taltos]

Thanks for the advice. I wasn't aware of the .....other entrance.....into the Karraga castle. I'm not certain how I was supposed to know about that. Perhaps I failed to listen to a rumor somewhere along the line.

Great game, and I'm enjoying the difficulty. I haven't been able to enter the desert yet. It kills my party instantly. I'm assuming I'll need an artifact or storyline portion to open up before I can venture there.

[josephdw106]

hilariously i dont know if there is in game advice about that other passage...i ended up braving the lightning with one person being resist 100 and they laughed the damage off while they carried 5 dead people to the castle and then i rested there... i actually completed the castle then got mopped by the prince i had to just blindly find that path and clear that zone to have enough going on to scrape by him after that.

[Darklord]

Double Yotums wiped me out when I got there to, what I did was used Gaulen's ability to hide from the double encounters and only fought the single ones. Also if you head south once you enter the region you can take a back route through the forest, (you only need to cross a small amount of ice) which is a little easier. Once you have a bit more XP those double Yotums become easier.

And yes Speed is awesome, keep boosting it, it gets better the more it's boosted.

Daniel.

[alation13]

I found the two young yotan battles easier than the golum guarding the desert, the only one I have not done yet is the 2 adult yotans in the north west and for me the last random encounter was a single adult yotan that was a major pain. I found blessings helped with the yotan battles and if you are fast enough to keep one of them stun locked for much of the battle you take MUCH less damage.

[velkito]

About the alternate entrance to the castle, you get a clue from the innkeeper in town (cunavarn). I noticed the clue and it still took me a while to notice the second entrance. I also like how, much later on, there's another such scene where a castle entrance is blocked by a lot of mooks, and you don't get insta-death, but get a warning for insta-death instead, at least if you approach the mooks from the front. Double yotums can be a handful, but if you've been investing in health and speed they should fall eventually. They can stunlock you for a time, but at some point their damage potential will start to pale in comparison to your party HP.

Also, be advised that in Karraga top left(west) corner there's a temple, which is guarded, IIRC, by two yotum adults. You are not going to be able to fight them anytime soon, and you are not going to need to fight them since even later than that.

[Zehnpai]

Speed is the most important stat in the game bar none. To give you an idea of just how important it is, my mage has my highest speed at 66. Gaulen, who i use only as a trap bot, has a speed of 6. During combat my mage will get 7 turns before Gaulen gets one.

Enemies typically have ludicrous amounts of speed as well so it's very, very important you level it up every single level or you will get destroyed later on.

One thing I think a lot of people don't do is clear all the road guards -before- killing the prince of the first castle. That's a ton of XP you lose out on especially early on.

That being said...

What are your skills like? Do you find yourself relying a lot on DoT damage (bleeds/burns) or did you focus on control? (Wounds/stuns).

[Star Paladin]

Ya, in my opinion, speed was way too "needed". I was a bit disapointed having to put up my speed stat every, single, time. I was hoping for a fighter that hit less but did so much more damage, he did not need as much speed, and for a theif with such high speed, he could do many small attacks. But alas, that's not how the game currently is.