Cant get the hang of combat

[=Horus=]

Hey, long time RPG player here. Played the hell out pf the divinity, dragon age etc. games and loved them all. Startet playing POE2 on GOG last week and the game (story, visuals and sound) seems awsome but the combat is massivly irritating. Iam now at the engwithan digsite and entered the room at the beginning with the massive army of skelettons....I have no idea how to beat them, my party (berserker, fighter and priest) just get anhilated in mere seconds and I can barely kill 1-2 of them. My meele guys barely ever hit them, its just constant misses and grazes while the AI always hits my guy. Its soooo early in the game, I feel like I dont have the tools to win this battle. Xoti has 1 meager heal and a few buff and my melee guys still have regular weapons etc.
Am I missing something enterily or do I just suck at this game? I rarely had such a "meh" combat experience in an otherwise very great game.

[=Horus=]

And now I have to fight 4 young panthers, 2 wyrms and a young drake with 3 level 4 guys....how can I do this? Its like I needed to have a perfect character setup this early in the game or did I miss a large chunk of the game? Did a recent patch break something?

[.//slayer]

It's a pretty tough fight that early in the game, but if you add a stealthy character to a party, you can skip the entire area by sneaking past all the combat and grab the quest item that was asked of you. This will also remove the young drake fight from the equation.

That, or try a lower difficulty to familiarise yourself with mechanics of the game first.

[=Horus=]

Originally posted by .//slayer:

It's a pretty tough fight that early in the game, but if you add a stealthy character to a party, you can skip the entire area by sneaking past all the combat and grab the quest item that was asked of you. This will also remove the young drake fight from the equation.

That, or try a lower difficulty to familiarise yourself with mechanics of the game first.

Hey thanks, how can I add a stealthy character that early? My main is a barbarian.
I eventually overcame it since only 2 panthers attacked me and the rest wasnt pulled, thankfully.

[Batbro]

Yeah the Engwithan digsite is an early-game roadblock given how weak you are at that point in the game. The game will become easier as you level up and get access to more abilities. A few tips you might try:

-Pull enemies back into chokepoints where Eder (or your other tanks) can hold them back

-Fill out your party with hired adventurers until you pick up more companions

-Sneak close and use the nearby gunpowder barrels to soften the enemies up

-Sneaking past them entirely isn't difficult, and they'll go away after you find Oderisi's notes

-Completing that quest should probably level you up, and an extra level against those skeletons can make a HUGE difference

[fynx]

Skeletons are virtually immune to slashing and piercing damage at this point.

[Niv]

You can actually do pull mobs like an MMO if you know how. Got through the digsite with just me and Eder using such tactics on Veteran difficulty.

[Edstyles]

What difficulty? Pretty sure i only see 2 panthers at the start of the game in normal. <-- 1st playthrough.

Anyway if you got a ranger or druid dont remember You can charm beasts :P. They fight for you then.

Im running a monk tho skeletons should be ok for me with blunt fist attacks. I guess. Maybe pick another weapon for Eder? Also maybe its a good idea to make eder a hybrid? Always nice to have a rogue in the team.

[puppet74]

go higher some party members at the inn to get a full party. then setup traps and pull targets back. use potions, eat before the fight. check the weapons you are using, sword against skeletons isnt the best you want blunt weapons for those ext.
read all your spells and abilities , take your time. once you know what works against what your get things done in no time.

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

You on normal difficulty without level scaling? Because that can greatly effect those battles.

The above advice is good: using bashing damage vs. skeletons. Try using Xoti's Daze spell on the skeletons. Her default spell setup isn't my favourite.

Combat's a lot better once you get a full party. You can recruit Aloth (a wizard) shortly after that fight.

Anyway, that fight is kind of tough, so hopefully you can persevere, or try to sneak past everything - just select your entire party and hit left-alt to enter stealth mode.

It's a good game, but if you've never played one of these before, there's a bit of a learning curve.

[Justin_760]

Yeah the combat is frustrating very often. Turn based mode is significantly easier, but boring and slow as hell. You can change the difficulty, and refine the builds of your party members. But since the character progression and class customization is so complex, its difficult to translate what looks good in the menu and what actually performs well.

[Onx]

@Justin brings up a lot of good points. The worst part to me is the combat AI in all of it- too often my magic wielders run head first into melee and seem to be a lot of times the ones who unnecessarily take the brunt of the hits. I've optimized my formations and have learned to live with it. Also, you say this now but the games gets infinitely easier as you go so much so that I think it's too easy in general- maybe way too easy. The first Pillars seemed to be much more challenging. My advice is to ramp up the difficulty when you get a good feel for it. I did this but was too late in doing so. Your RPG intuition will soon take over as well, often telling you something is meant to be tackled later in the game. Just because you get a quest doesn't mean it's the right time for your party. Also, you'll be amazed at how you think a battle is insurmountable only to realize it's doable with a much different plan of attack- remember enemies do dumb things in battle too. To what Justin is saying, there are infinite class/character combinations and permutations, so build your party to your likes and inclinations. I love a majority of tanks, coupled with a magic user and priest- I'm much more offensive orientated.

[puppet74]

best way to play the game tbh is just turn all A.I off then they wont do stupid things unless you mess up. As for the game being easy yeh it can get that late game, but there are the god challenges that can really make the game brutal and dont forget the mega bosses are no joke even for the great players.

[sirchaunce]

I suffered 15 losses and then made this real easy. I had snuck past and found oderisi's notes, then went back to save file to not miss out on XP (min/max bebe!)... sneak entire party to lower circle south, just on the other side from the gunpowder barrel from enemies.. You get maybe 2 at best from upper tier, but at ground level it blew and took half the enemies out with it. they were wiping me like hwip cream on pie, but this time I blew their ass, and took the rest out no problem. big ups on maiden deadfire voyage, and I haven't seen a boat yet.