From Gothic 2 to Gothic 1

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

After the couple of playthroughs of the Gothic II Gold Edition I've done recently, I'm giving Gothic 1 a try, too.

First thing that I felt was necessary is switching the keyboard controls to Alternative Settings to be close to Gothic 2.

Was about to quit for a first time at level 4 or 5. In the Old Camp and after a brief visit of the two other camps and the old mine. Asked myself whether I like the slow pace of the game? Also made a beginner mistake, selling items without taking something of equal value in return. In Gothic 2, much more happens already on the way to the first city. It pulls you in quickly. And once arrived in the city, some of the tasks take you out of the city again. You are flooded with side-quests. In Gothic 1, it took much more patience.

So, I've restarted and forced myself to play even more slowly and carefully. And that made a difference. Eventually I went out into the woods and tried my luck as a hunter similar to what the Militia/Paladin guy has done in my first Gothic 2 playthrough. Looking for easy prey and finding out whether and when to kill the next stronger types of enemies. Eventually, I was brave enough to visit the Sect Camp (I know one can accompany NPCs) and went through all the requirements of joining them only for the extra XP. Then back and forth between the camps and the forest for more hunting.

It's been getting much better. Meanwhile, I've reached level 7 and feel pulled in.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Progress as a fire magician, who has joined the water mages meanwhile:

Can't say the game is so much easier than if playing a pure melee based fighter.

Sure, as most spells are ranged attacks, one can kill enemies from the distance, but Storm Of Fire needs to be charged and requires multiple attacks to do enough damage. That's increased risk with some mobs, such as razors or orc warriors. Duration of Ice Wave and Ice Block is short. One needs to refresh the spell and cast once more while killing frozen enemies.

Entering the Free Mine is insane. Gorn immediately gets mad, jumps down the shaft and runs around in a small circle, not being any help at all. Meanwhile, one melee guard and two crossbow guards attack the player. Their ranged attacks cause frequent and reliable interrupts, so freezing the first guard doesn't work too well, and then hacking on him and performing the finishing move while being under heavy crossbow fire, one takes many hits. Not a good idea. Arrow protection equipment doesn't help much. There is also not enough room to retreat, because after a few steps the area transition loading screen triggers. To make it worse, one cannot reliably target the three attackers.

At this point of the game and for this fight, a fighter is the better choice.

With the fire mage, it took me a dozen reloads. The safest way seems to be to jump down the shaft and hide from the crossbow men, but be prepared for guards to climb/jump down, too. Didn't try whether buying Rain Of Fire from Xardas would make a difference, because one gets interrupted so frequently while casting and charging. The crossbow men further down in the mine are a similar problem, but at least one can hide around corners before stepping aside and casting a spell.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

The Old Mine:

So, it hasn't collapsed afterall? Gomez lied to the fire magicians? Or is the game not finished in that area? I've entered the mine and went to the bottom. Diggers, guards, invulnerable NPCs (Ian, Ashgan), orc slaves, a few new minecrawlers even. No underground river anywhere. No damage to the mine.

[Oneeyed]

Firestorm is not better than Fireball. The reason is the afterburn effect of fireball if you charge the fireball spell. And Pyrokinesis is the best spell imho. You can buy the rune in chapter 4 at the sect camp. I never had any problems killing all the enemies with spells only. This is maybe because of my experience with the game.

In my games Gorn only freaks out if he sees me killing someone. The best way to deal with it is to just run away from him and leave him at the entrance. He gets teleported back to the entrance as soon as he leaves your Mob-Radius (in which NPCs and mobs are active). Gorn freaking out is cleary a bug.

The old mine is a bug, too. The game should just prevent you from entering the old mine.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Progress as a fire magician, who has joined the water mages meanwhile:

Can't say the game is so much easier than if playing a pure melee based fighter.

Sure, as most spells are ranged attacks, one can kill enemies from the distance, but Storm Of Fire needs to be charged and requires multiple attacks to do enough damage. That's increased risk with some mobs, such as razors or orc warriors. Duration of Ice Wave and Ice Block is short. One needs to refresh the spell and cast once more while killing frozen enemies.

Entering the Free Mine is insane. Gorn immediately gets mad, jumps down the shaft and runs around in a small circle, not being any help at all. Meanwhile, one melee guard and two crossbow guards attack the player. Their ranged attacks cause frequent and reliable interrupts, so freezing the first guard doesn't work too well, and then hacking on him and performing the finishing move while being under heavy crossbow fire, one takes many hits. Not a good idea. Arrow protection equipment doesn't help much. There is also not enough room to retreat, because after a few steps the area transition loading screen triggers. To make it worse, one cannot reliably target the three attackers.

At this point of the game and for this fight, a fighter is the better choice.

With the fire mage, it took me a dozen reloads. The safest way seems to be to jump down the shaft and hide from the crossbow men, but be prepared for guards to climb/jump down, too. Didn't try whether buying Rain Of Fire from Xardas would make a difference, because one gets interrupted so frequently while casting and charging. The crossbow men further down in the mine are a similar problem, but at least one can hide around corners before stepping aside and casting a spell.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Gotta get the pyrokinesis rune then. Xardas doesn't offer a firestorm rune so early.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Pyrokinesis spell is okay. Its range is kinda small, it doesn't work against undead, but I like how it stops enemy movement while doing damage to them. Clearly a fun spell that's helpful for a pure mage. I've gone to base STR 65 and 5% 1H skill, however, so killing various of enemies in melee combat is an option. Meanwhile, STR is higher due to potions and equipment.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Pyrokinesis doesn't work against orc warriors, minecrawler warriors, temple guards.

[Oneeyed]

So use fireball instead (and not firestorm). Or you could also summon skelletons, golem or demon.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Pyrokinesis doesn't work against orc warriors, minecrawler warriors, temple guards.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

I didn't ask for help, just poined it out.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Iceblock and Storm of Fire is still my favorite combination.

Bought the Teleportation to Fire Mages rune. Hey! Hundreds of potions and scrolls on their corpses, since they had been killed already.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

In the english version of the game the final battle seems to be bugged.

That's how the endfight really is: All the novices should have attacked you simultaneously after you killed Cor Calom and the sleeper should fire a fireball spell onto you every 15 seconds so you cannot even put one of the swords into one of the 5 tombs without being hit by at least one fireball.

It is no different in the German version. Cor Kalom attacks with Pyrokinesis if getting too close, and the novices wait unless one attacks them first (such as with Storm of Fire). Then they attack all at once. I've had 205 Mana at the end due to tons of potions and used Wave of Ice and Uriziel's Wave of Death against the novices and long-rang Ice Block and Storm of Fire against Cor Kalom. Afterwards, no fireball from the sleeper (or just pure luck?), but the demon lords caused me some problems. Impatient as I've been at the end of this playthrough, I've used an Army of Death as a bit of hindrance and then Breath of Death against them without trying much else.

Oh, btw, 97 STR final and 1H berserker sword is not enough to hurt several of the endgame enemies.

[Oneeyed]

The difference is the novices attack you as soon as you kill Cor Calom. There is no attack from you necessary.

And the fireballs hit you during the fight with the novices and afterwards regardless of what you do. You have to hide in order to prevent getting hit. In order put in a single sword of the 5 swords into one the 5 tombs means you get hit at least twice for every sword you put in. Then you have to run a bit away from the sleeper and constantly change your position in order to dodge the fireballs while you fight the demons. Watch the video link I have posted and you will see the difference.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

In the english version of the game the final battle seems to be bugged.

That's how the endfight really is: All the novices should have attacked you simultaneously after you killed Cor Calom and the sleeper should fire a fireball spell onto you every 15 seconds so you cannot even put one of the swords into one of the 5 tombs without being hit by at least one fireball.

It is no different in the German version. Cor Kalom attacks with Pyrokinesis if getting too close, and the novices wait unless one attacks them first (such as with Storm of Fire). Then they attack all at once. I've had 205 Mana at the end due to tons of potions and used Wave of Ice and Uriziel's Wave of Death against the novices and long-rang Ice Block and Storm of Fire against Cor Kalom. Afterwards, no fireball from the sleeper (or just pure luck?), but the demon lords caused me some problems. Impatient as I've been at the end of this playthrough, I've used an Army of Death as a bit of hindrance and then Breath of Death against them without trying much else.

Oh, btw, 97 STR final and 1H berserker sword is not enough to hurt several of the endgame enemies.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

The video is irrelevant. I've played the final temple in the German version of the game. So, this is personal experience I've mentioned.

And yes, attacking the novices first is not necessary, but I've deliberately chosen to attack them with Storm of Fire to draw their attention. Then Wave of Ice and Ring of Death as safest way to stop them and kill them quickly. Cor Kalom tried to chase me, and as Ice Block's range is higher than his Pyrokinesis, which couldn't hurt me anyway, he didn't have a chance. Afterwards, I could stab the hearts without any fireball attacks from the sleeper. It's just the demon lords that took some effort, and I even made the mistake of fighting two at once. Kiting and hurling Breath of Death was one solution. I don't care whether there's a better solution.

The very obvious choice would be to create a real battle mage with more melee fighting power. Possibly 2H weapon skill even. There are enough LP, and I could have used the early Mana bonus potions instead of saving them and skill to Mana 100 first.