Classic or Tactician? Best way to to get full nice experience.

[DerWizard]

Hi, I have a question. I played Divinity Original Sin on Tactician, and it was a very painful experience (especially at the end of the game) because the game forced you to play certain way and punished for any creativity such as choosing wrong perks or investing into wrong attributes.

Now I have same problem with Divinity 2. I played it for several hours on Tactician and I realized that the battles are very challenging here, even more difficult than in Divinity 1. I won't joke, I was even beaten during the first fights on an island in a row. And then I went to the point when my character Red Prince was target of asssasination and I could not even beat 1 opponent with 4 party members.

My question is - will the game be even more challenging in the late game. I am a player that is more interested in a story and I don't want to repeat the game second time. I am single save type of player, and I want to get maximum experience from it. And I really don't want to restart fights just because of one mistake I made (or like in XCOM, if you miss with 90 % hit chance 5 times in same fight).

I need advice what difficulty to pay on - classic or tactician. Thanks.

[zacharyb]

If you don't want the game to be hard, don't play on Tactician. Even Classic is too hard for some people, if you want to just enjoy the story play on Explorer or Story mode. The early game is generally the hardest because of the lack of armor and spells, but the late game can still be difficult.

I'd recommend Classic if you want a bit of a challenge, but without the odds being completely against you.

[no brains]

the problem is larian can't understand the difference between difficulty and bdsm

1) tactician mode is not how this game was supposed to be played, if you care about it
2) tactician mode requires spamming same gimmicks over and over again - drink 100 potions before every fight, use 10 buffing skills, do it through awkward, unresponsive ui
3) tactician mode is unrewarding, only your ego can benefit from it, making think you've got gud
4) tactician mode is even worse if you play it without cheat perk (lone wolf), don't even try

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by telephone exchange:

the problem is larian can't understand the difference between difficulty and bdsm

1) tactician mode is not how this game was supposed to be played, if you care about it
2) tactician mode requires spamming same gimmicks over and over again - drink 100 potions before every fight, use 10 buffing skills, do it through awkward, unresponsive ui
3) tactician mode is unrewarding, only your ego can benefit from it, making think you've got gud
4) tactician mode is even worse if you play it without cheat perk (lone wolf), don't even try

Lmao, you don't need to exploit the game or drink a million potions to win fights. You just need to know how to build a good character. Cheesing and exploiting does make it a lot easier though.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by telephone exchange:

the problem is larian can't understand the difference between difficulty and bdsm

1) tactician mode is not how this game was supposed to be played, if you care about it
2) tactician mode requires spamming same gimmicks over and over again - drink 100 potions before every fight, use 10 buffing skills, do it through awkward, unresponsive ui
3) tactician mode is unrewarding, only your ego can benefit from it, making think you've got gud
4) tactician mode is even worse if you play it without cheat perk (lone wolf), don't even try

While I can agree they need to work on their concept of difficulty a bit, I can't agree with anything else you said regarding Tactician. Depending on your experience, it isn't hard. No cheese or exploits needed, just good team comps.

As for the OP, I do want to say that there really isn't a good way to get the most from the game in just one save. There is just too much content, you will miss stuff, I personally recommend three full runs to get the most out of it, but you do you. Still, you can play whatevery ou want and make it work, though some builds aren't going to work your first time (like the default battlemage). Main thing to keep in mind with this one is that tanking really doesn't work and a dedicated healer is not nearly as useful as having heal or armor restores spread out amongst every character. Armor is vastly more significant than health. Bankrupt yourself at level 3 to get gear (don't buy at level 2 as you outlevel that really fast.

[DerWizard]

My problem with this game is that it forces you to play certain way, so that your party deals one type of damage. I did not know about it in my first attempt and that's why my battles were very difficult. I think this is one of the big problems that I see in this game. This kills any fun of the game.

I am conservative player and I always like to have balanced party (warrior, ranger, mage, cleric), and now I see that this party makes no sense in this game.

That's why I will probably not play Tactician mode because on Tactician the differences in builds become in even more noticiciable. I don't think the purpose of armor was like that. I don't think this is how Larian intended the game to run. For me Tactician mode hides all fun RPG aspects the game has yet to offer, because now it forces you to be either magicians or fighters, but not both.

But that's what I think. You guys might not agree and that's fine. But thanks for your feedback, it was really helpful.

[no brains]

Originally posted by zacharyb:

Lmao, you don't need to exploit the game or drink a million potions to win fights. You just need to know how to build a good character. Cheesing and exploiting does make it a lot easier though.

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

While I can agree they need to work on their concept of difficulty a bit, I can't agree with anything else you said regarding Tactician. Depending on your experience, it isn't hard. No cheese or exploits needed, just good team comps.

And what does fall under "good character", "good team comps"? Having a lone wolf perk? Getting 10 warfare + picture of health on all characters at lvl 3? or 10 summoning?

Originally posted by DerWizard:

My problem with this game is that it forces you to play certain way, so that your party deals one type of damage. I did not know about it in my first attempt and that's why my battles were very difficult. I think this is one of the big problems that I see in this game. This kills any fun of the game.

That's why you should go for classic and play the way you like, not the way game forces you into.

[Shellbie]

Classic.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by DerWizard:

But that's what I think. You guys might not agree and that's fine. But thanks for your feedback, it was really helpful.

Yup. I don't agree. But there is truth to it too. Without solid knowledge of the mechanics, going all one type does seem better. Because its simpler. It isn't really stronger though, just simple enough that you can do it without knowing much about the game. A mixed damage team is often the best, but it needs to be somewhat optimized (on Tactician) to work well. My current team setup can take fights that are level 15 (bosses even) at level 9/10 (level 10 but with level 9 gear). That team involves two mages and two physical damagers. But it is also built carefully with planned out tactics that enable me to shut the enemy down quick. This team took many hours to think up though (great way to keep my mind occupied at work on breaks) as well as many hours of experience playing.

The one thing that often gets people is that the traditional party setup involving a tank, heals and damage simply doesn't work too well. There isn't really aggro to hold enemies to your tank, and you often find characters dying because the enemy went before the healer. You need balanced teams, but a different kind of balance. Particularly a team of self-sufficient characters that can synergize between each other but still function rather effectively alone. Its... different. But fun once you understand it and accept it for what it is.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by telephone exchange:

And what does fall under "good character", "good team comps"? Having a lone wolf perk? Getting 10 warfare + picture of health on all characters at lvl 3? or 10 summoning?

Ew. No. No to both of those. Health is not important. Like, literally not at all. I actually don't even run STR based builds much either. FIN and INT builds are just too adaptable in ways STR isn't. While I do still pump Warfare for physical builds simply because of how it scales, I wouldn't consider picture of health. And summoning? Ew. Even with the DE buffs it is still pretty much the weakest skill available just a few levels after you max it. It feels strong because it scales really fast when you pump just summoning, but as soon as you can't keep investing, it stops scaling well and quickly hits a point where any other dedicated build would outperform it. The DE changes helped it last a bit longer, but I generally dump it as soon as I hit act 2.

As for lone wolf... Maybe before the DE. The nerf the DE did really made it weaker. Its great if you want to two man co-op and not have to deal with companions, but otherwise it just isn't... I would say great but I think broken is the right word. It isn't broken like it used to be.

As for what falls under god cahracter and team comp, it can vary depending on the specific classes involved. The basic concept is not to build each character to be the best it can be at its class. Its to adapt the classes to benefit your entire team as a whole. Having a rogue snatch up Hydro to use vampiric for themselves while learning rain to set up your Hydro mages' elemental affinity, while running two mages of similar builds to make the best use of the AP reduction that comes from that, while having an archer ready to pop elemental arrows on enemies to prime them for shock CC. Making each character good at what they do, but also able to assist the other characters on your team.

Character building is such a big part of the game, as well as finding combos that work. From using the spider legs root and a smoke grenade to hard CC enemies through armor to having a Torturer rogue with ignition to set all enemies on fire for a Pyro mage to gain boosted damage, the key to a good Tactician team is creating synergy and unique combos.

And that is why many first time players turn to all one type of damage. They don't have the knowledge of what abilities the game has to offer to be able to put the required effort into making these combos. It isn't thier fault really, without having played the game through, you simply can't be expected to know what you have available.

[TehOuchies]

Sounds like classic would be more enjoyable to you, but it's all perspective.

Currently doing a three player, one character each on tactician. Two handed weapon, backstaber and a support/nuker. Even with unbalanced team comps, as long as you understand the basics of physical and magic armor along with CC the fights are more than manageable.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by TehOuchies:

Sounds like classic would be more enjoyable to you, but it's all perspective.

Currently doing a three player, one character each on tactician. Two handed weapon, backstaber and a support/nuker. Even with unbalanced team comps, as long as you understand the basics of physical and magic armor along with CC the fights are more than manageable.

True, though I would emphasize mostly status effects. Not just CC, but learning what each status effect does (by right clicking enemies that have it and reading the description) is very crucial. You want to know what can be applied, when and how, and what is needed to cancel it. Knowing that the "rested" effect can pick up an ally that is affected by a knockdown for instance, it very important. Or knowing that putting haste on a character who is crippled will cancel the effect and let them move. Or cancelling dodge, I have seen so many posts asking about how to deal with enemies with dodge aura. Knowing that a slow from oil or ice, or a root like web or worm tremor will reduce dodge by 30% or 70% is important since enemies with high dodge can be nullified using these since they can't dodge spells. Since enweb ignores armor, and is part of the general skill group of polymorph, even warriors can make great use of the ability.

Knowing how each status effect works, whether its a CC or otherwise is critical to making an effective team. And is the main reason stacked teams like all physical are inferior as they lack the diversity to have all those effects at their disposal to have the adaptability and versatility to handle anything thrown their way.

[jice]

Old School difficulty. Don't care if you're used to playing what other games call "hard," Play classic first on this one.

[jice]

Originally posted by DerWizard:

My problem with this game is that it forces you to play certain way, so that your party deals one type of damage. I did not know about it in my first attempt and that's why my battles were very difficult. I think this is one of the big problems that I see in this game. This kills any fun of the game.

I am conservative player and I always like to have balanced party (warrior, ranger, mage, cleric), and now I see that this party makes no sense in this game.

That's why I will probably not play Tactician mode because on Tactician the differences in builds become in even more noticiciable. I don't think the purpose of armor was like that. I don't think this is how Larian intended the game to run. For me Tactician mode hides all fun RPG aspects the game has yet to offer, because now it forces you to be either magicians or fighters, but not both.

But that's what I think. You guys might not agree and that's fine. But thanks for your feedback, it was really helpful.

Oh god. I'm sorry. I see that you tried to be more reasonable towards the end but defaulting to blaming the game when you're still learning the mechanics is a bit cringeworthy. I'm not saying it's wrong to feel that way. If you go through a game like xcom or this without experiencing the urge to force one's keyboard through one's monitor at least once while you're still learning, then you're doing wrong but still such cringe.

[Warfare]

The game is pretty easy on Tactician. First Act may require some tactics, but since Act 3 you might get bored due to too big damages from the player's side, which would result in mindless steamrolling on all enemies.

[Mikan]

You should play Classic first, just enjoy what the game has to offer and take your time going through the story and mechanics, while still keeping an element of difficulty to the game.

If you find yourself craving more, than maybe give Tactician a try on your next one. By this point you should have a better understanding of how the different combat schools function, and how to synergize them. With so many different spells and combos at your disposal, it would be best to get familiar with them before jumping straight into hard mode. Plus, there is no reason to rush, there's so much to enjoy about this game, after all. Take your time.