A6 - What to expect on Torment?

[Colonel Haste]

I'm a long time Spiderweb enthusiast having played Exile before Exile II even existed. But I'm relatively new to these boards and have always played on Normal until recently. After reading a lot here I decided to have a go at A6 on Torment.

 

I wanted to check in and see if my experience is typical or if I'm just not cutting it from a tactical perspective. The problem I'm having is that in many, perhaps most, medium serious fights I'm having trouble finishing without having one or more team members going unconscious. Many times this necessitates a retreat back to town, followed by a return to finish the fight, and this is tormenting me.

 

I'm pretty sure I've done an adequate job building my party so this probably isn't my problem. I also know A6 having completed it twice previously, once on Normal and once on Hard. I'm using the full available set of buffs before all relevant fights.

 

It is possible that I should be using more potions, wands and scrolls. I tend to be conservative and given the way I've built my party I don't necessarily need to save up for late game. So I will try being a bit more aggressive in that regard. But I don't think even substantially more aggressive use would would be enough to eliminate the retreat requirement.

 

FWIW I'm now just about to head into the Abyss having done everything prior to that except for the honeycomb and a few battles that I just can't win (eg crypt wight). An example of a medium serious fight where I had to retreat and reload was the fang clan bandits near the Tower Colony. I don't remember this fight being particularly tough, but I had to take out the mage and chief separately. Since I've completed nearly everything I can up to this point I feel like this should be a doable fight without having to run.

 

But putting expendable magic aside, is this just the way it is in Torment in A6, or do I need to go back to school on tactics? Note that I'm not reloading all that often; I'm usually able to survive as long as I don't mind cutting and running and coming back.

[Randomizer]

Most of the really tough fights like the Fang Clan near Tower Colony do require at least healing potions and sometimes speed potions on torment difficulty. It's just that the monster do more damage, but you have the same armor and health as on normal or hard. I do find that you have to increase endurance to have more health to compensate for these fights, so endurance of 10 to 12 is needed from this point.

 

If you play on normal you don't need the buffs and can afford to make mistakes that you can't get away with on torment. Using control foe spell to make temporary allies to absorb damage and divert attacks from you is a good strategy that you don't need on normal.

[Colonel Haste]

Interesting. I do use Control Foe quite a lot particularly when facing battles with Nephilim Archers and the dark green sliths. Even with Control Foe though I had to run from the fang clan.

 

The endurance though, wow, I thought I was putting a lot there but haven not been pumping it to that level. I guess I know where my next batch of skill points will go. Thanks for the feedback.