Dealing no damage to enemies.

[Myth Alric]

I don't know what I am doing wrong but I keep running into enemies that are like immune to attacks. Like right now, I am near the start of the game right outside the first encampment to the left, there are some bandits. Most of the bandits are a piece of cake but then there is a tougher version mixed in and I do no damage to him.

I am the starting ranger type class, and even if we kill all the other bandits, 4 vs 1 we can't take the guy. Even when my pawn grabs him from behind and holds him down I can wail on him and do no damage. And I thought maybe he is just very resistant to physical damge but I got two mage pawns in my group and they don't do any damage either.

I don't get it that one enemy will drop in like 5 seconds of attack from just me, but 4 vs 1 it takes like 5 minutes to fight that one guy and if I mess up that is it, since he two shot kills everyone. Is the game just really unbalanced like that? It feels like there is always super overpowered bad guys mixed in with the low level chumps. And it isn't even the big monsters or anything, the big monsters are no problems

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

The short answer is that if your attack or magick attack levels are below the enemies corresponding defense levels, you do at the most 1 hp of damage per attack.

I think these enemies were put in there to stear the play to Gran Soren. I would say that they are tough up to about level 20. Then they seem to be better balanced. They might be a reason why the game gets lumped into the "souls like" genre. It gave me a flash back to the skellies outside of Firelink Shrine the first time that I encountered them. There are some goodies that lie beyond for experienced players who just want to run past to get them. Unlike souls games you can't suicide or homeward bone. You have to run everywhere until you progress the story to Gran Soren.

I don't know if any of the starting vocations can deal enough damage early on. The advanced vocations have some skills that scale up damage, but then you are level 10+ already.

My advice is to get to Gran Soren to the point where you can access the inventory at the Inn and get your Eternal Ferrystone. Once you get it, come back immediately to Cassardis and work on quest there. If you start doing quest in Gran Soren, you run the risk of losing side quest in the side areas as they will auto cancel when you advance the stage of the main quest.

I really have no idea why the developers made some of the decisions that they did in the first 10 hours of the game. You are presented two different directions and one leads to getting your butt kicked and the other leads to missing out on some key side quest.

[Zappieroth]

Thats the thing any player seeking exploration myself very much included would go above and beyond do explore every inch of the map.
I leveled up and geared up to a point that I could take those bandits and everything else out there before I even did the escort quest.

Yes I might have ran the 1st area once or twice but really the combat was so much fun that I felt it wasn't a waste of time at all.
Some players claim they explore like a real adventurer or a real gamer but I hardly see anyone put in the effort to look further then their nose.

[BurlsoL]

Long story short, yes it is normal. You would not be able to kill these enemies early on without doing a large amount of unnecessary leveling off weak enemies, doing the main story till you hit Gran Soren for better equipment, or visiting BBI.

These enemies are there for one specific reason... so that you are are not sidetracked from progressing the main story and getting access to the advanced vocations. There are also several other enemies in that area which would completely destroy lower level players so allowing people to run around and explore would lead to people encountering unwinnable fights and death loops as they try to figure out where they're supposed to go next. Having a pawn speak about the dangers that lie ahead and having an enemy right at the entry point to the area is a firm message to say "go the other way". The problem is that they forgot to make the quest with a target in the Witchwood not fail soon after arriving to Gran Soren so you have players encountering a conflicting message.


For the quest, just run past them till you hit the Witchwood. Running is a perfectly valid game mechanic.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by James:

I am the starting ranger type class, and even if we kill all the other bandits, 4 vs 1 we can't take the guy. Even when my pawn grabs him from behind and holds him down I can wail on him and do no damage. And I thought maybe he is just very resistant to physical damge but I got two mage pawns in my group and they don't do any damage either.

It's like a game of paper/scisors/stone.

There are top tier bandit Fighters requiring total Strength ~300 or more to harm so they are challenging for physical Vocations...but are susceptible to Magick. - maximum M. Def 250 and lots of negative resistances (these at Southron have maybe M.Def. 100-150)

There're also the opposites of them, Assassins, that are very resistant to Magick(M. Def the same but 50% resistances) but less to physical attacks (actual 30% weakness). These suppose to be a challenge for a Mage.

Mix your party Magick+Strength and you should be able to handle all.

[Myth Alric]

Yeah that is weird, because common sense says you do the quests in the starting area first, then move to the next area. So giving a quest that goes through the harder enemies your not supposed to fight yet doesn't make sense.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by James:

Yeah that is weird, because common sense says you do the quests in the starting area first, then move to the next area. So giving a quest that goes through the harder enemies your not supposed to fight yet doesn't make sense.

Common sense stands for bs repeated by many for many years ;)
Open world is open world. Just cause SOME games make it linear experience doesn't make it is becoming a standard from now on. Common sense has nothing to do with it. Actually Granys is build so that there's always a reason to go back to previously visited places cause something new (NPCs, quests, inventory) may appear there.

The worst charge one can come up with here is that some quests expire upon clearing certain stages of the main story, otherwise one can always go back LATER.

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

This is one of the few areas where it is safer to go at night. Bandits are replaced by wolves and they are a lot easier to deal with.

[xeilyy]

So a similar question. I am going through Bitterblack Isle, and am on the last third of the Isle, am lvl 162, and am doing little to no damage to the soiled pawns. Meanwhile, my pawns are doing a ton of damage. I suppose this would be fine, but I'm also doing no damage to Daimon. I've tried attacking him as a Magic Archer, a Mystic Knight, and one other vocation. Is it the same deal?

[zadymek]

Originally posted by xeilyy:

I suppose this would be fine, but I'm also doing no damage to Daimon. I've tried attacking him as a Magic Archer, a Mystic Knight, and one other vocation. Is it the same deal?

Yes. Like with all other cases at the BBI you only need bigger damage numbers.

BTW Which weapons and skills are you using?

[yds]

Originally posted by xeilyy:

So a similar question. I am going through Bitterblack Isle, and am on the last third of the Isle, am lvl 162, and am doing little to no damage to the soiled pawns. Meanwhile, my pawns are doing a ton of damage. I suppose this would be fine, but I'm also doing no damage to Daimon. I've tried attacking him as a Magic Archer, a Mystic Knight, and one other vocation. Is it the same deal?

I think creating a new thread would've been better, since your question is NOT at all similar to the original one. Daimon is not the same as the Witchwood bandit.

But I suppose that yes, the answer is similar: just use throwblast. I'm not even kidding, in any situation where you don't do enough damage, go buy throwblast and blow up all the enemies. Including Daimon. It's fun.

Or blast arrows, if you have any archer vocation leveled up. But throwblast is more fun, because it's kind of a challenge to constantly go into your item menu to throw it.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Not enough damages output causes are:
- Wrong skill (some skills arent designed to dps)
- Wrong weapon (or too little level of upgrade)
- Wrong augments (boosting your magic while using physical attacks wont work and vice versa)
- Wrong target (ennemies have weak spots, on some of them, not attacking those weak spot equals no damages)
- Wrong element (especially true when using spells, affinity buffs and permanently enchanted weapons)
- Ennemies resistances. Some enemies have resistance to slash or blunt, some have more defense in either magic or physical, use the wrong type of attack against the wrong ennemy and your damages will be reduced (slash against skeletons, magic against wyrms, casters or gobelin chaman, etc....)

Things that can help you damages ennemies you have trouble with:
- Use the element they are weak against (enchanted weapons, affinities, spells), the difference can be tremendous enough to make a low level weapon deal more damages than the best BBi weapons.
- Upgrade your weapons.... find rancid bait meat, bait cursed dragons and farm them (equip the stuff you want to dragon forge right before the killing blow). They are particularly efficient for dragon forging (they are weak to fire and holy, have an obvious and easy to reach weak spot, and they have the highest dragonforging rate in the game after grigori)
- Knock them down. Knocked down ennemies take pre-emptive damage untill they get back on their feet, not to mention that they cant retaliate while knocked down. Use high knock down power skills, use gear that boost your knock down power. No matter your vocation, Knocking down is the meta in DDDA
- Put them asleep. Doesnt work on all ennemies, but for those who are not immune against sleep, it's a major weakness that you need to exploit. Asleep ennemies will take 5 times the damage of the next attack that will hit them, and then they will keep taking pre emptive damage untill they can get back up (because they are basically knocked down)
- Use periapts. You can stack 4 of each type on your character, conqueror periapts for physical attacks, demon for magical attacks. You can stack both (4 of each) if you plan on using both magical and physical (or hybrid) skills.
- Bring a red pawn with the trait utilitarian. Tank vocation have the ability to grab staggered and knocked down small ennemies into a nelson hold, negating their defense while they hold them.
- Abuse the debilitations like tarred and drenched. A drenched ennemies will take 200% damages from thunder and ice attacks and have an higher chance to get shocked and frozen. A tarred ennemy will take 200% of a fire attack and get set on fire instantly.
- Blast arrows and throwblast. For throwblasts there's even a special ring that double the damages of thrown objects, and you can equip 2 at the same time....
- Push them into pits. Doesnt need to be a bottomless abyss, ennemies take fall damages as much as you do. Can be done using high knock down or knock back skills, or, if you're a red vocation yourself, using the nelson hold and then kicking them toward a pit, etc....
- Use enraged ennemies. Enraged ennemies are prone to friendly fire, once enraged a cyclop or ogre will damage anything caught in their attacks, even their own allies. It's to the point where you can actively use this to make ennemies fight each others. For example in midnight helix you can make the CGC fight cursed dragons for you: Get both a CGC and a cursed dragon here (eventually using rancid bait meat to lure the dragon), dont attack the dragon and attack the cyclop untill it enrage, then make sure the dragon is grounded and run to safety.... the enraged moves of the cyclop will hit the dragon untill it turns on the cyclop... let them fight to death, kill the winner (if the winner is the cyclop, which is more likely, leave the area and re-enter to get another spawn of cursed dragon and repeat the trick, can work up to 3 times).
- Use death.... it's way easiier to perform than it sounds. Bait ennemies in death's sleep AOE when it flails his lantern, then when it readys his scythe, bait ennemies into the swing (and dodge it by moving in the back of death at the last moment, there's a small safe spot). It's easier if you make yourself immune to sleep (either gear or consummables).