Kyshakk Koan Tcheedchee Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Hi, accidentally I submitted this post, before I came to the opinion, that it might be better as a post inside the 'first impressions…'-thread. Anyway, I've got the impression that, in comparison to all its prequels, Avadon has a much more character-built related choice of equipment. I've found quite a few weapons and armor, where I always wondered, which one would be better for one of my chars or if some of the pieces were just invented to be sold. Now I've acquired Belda's Jerkin. And it's competing with Shaman's Vest. I still can't decide for sure, if a skill +1/+2 or a percentage of improvement to certain abilities is better. At the moment, I tend to think, that such a choice depends very much on the overall character-built. Naturally my shaman does pet-summoning, but actually doesn't concentrate on it. She's rather the fighting spirit and relies more onto the AE-attacks, and does healing. Also, because I wasn't interested in pet-summoning for my main char. too much, I kind of left this to Jenell. So I suppose it will be best to give Belda's Jerkin to Jenell and keep the Vest of the Shaman for my main char. It's more difficult to decide for the other chars, as I lack the comparison. There are so many objects giving dex. and sharpshooting, but my Shima is rather the stalker-type. So I keep a lot of equipment in his inventory, but I actually don't use it. Same for Sevilin, not to mention all the rods to be devided among the three spellcasters… I really think, I did the best equipment-choices for my shaman, because I've got a lot of the lilac enhancement-numbers in her skill tree. I've followed the discussion about the value of shaman as such, and I have to say, that mine does quite well, despite her inherent weakness, which I've managed to minimise by giving her some equipment, which increases her abilities, recovery speed, resistance to effects and dexterity. And her AE-attacks are not to be sneared at at all. Also all the other chars keep ressurection scrolls close by, just in case… Surprisingly I havn't yet found comparable equipment for my other chars. Or I havn't yet managed to built them as clearly as my shaman. Well, I'm just interested in sharing and comparing my impressions, maybe you'd like to give your opinion? Ah, yes! One last thing: I have played all of Spiderweb's As and Gs from 4 to their respective final sequel – on normal – because when I started that was hard enough for me. But in Avadon I really have the impression that 'normal' plays like 'casual/easy' in the prequels. Might this be a consequence of increased gaming-experience or is it rather to be interpreted as an effect of the market-related adaptions of Avadon to gain a broader audience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Originally Posted By: Tcheedchee I have played all of Spiderweb's As and Gs from 4 to their respective final sequel – on normal – because when I started that was hard enough for me. But in Avadon I really have the impression that 'normal' plays like 'casual/easy' in the prequels. Might this be a consequence of increased gaming-experience or is it rather to be interpreted as an effect of the market-related adaptions of Avadon to gain a broader audience? I played on Hard, but my impression is that Avadon's difficulty starts very low and gradually builds to very high. The first quest or two are easy even on Torment. By the time you get to the middle of the game, though, the boss fights at least get pretty darn hard if you're on Hard, and I assume that Normal follows suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Micawber Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Most of them are only hard if you are unprepared. I'm an extremely casual gamer, and I was able to beat all of the fights on normal after a single reload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Normal isn't very difficult, but it can be very difficult if you insist on trying to play through fights the way you want to and not in a way that's actually going to work. —Alorael, who thinks Jeff's listing of Zhossa Mindtaker as the first really hard fight is reasonable. That fight is hard, and it works differently from most other fights. And it's surprisingly hard given that you probably haven't faced any challenges before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Micawber Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 That's the one where he keeps cursing one half of the room, isn't it? The surprise there is that the "zombie" soldiers don't hinder your movement when you are adjacent. I don't know if that dispensation only applies on Normal, but I would guess so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Aoslare Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 No, it applies on Torment. And that fight is pretty difficult on Torment, or at least it was for me. Dealing damage was easy; staying alive in the last stretch of the fight was very hard. The shaman was invaluable, both for the summoned meatshield and the extra group heals. But even with defensive skill trees, maxed Dex, and lots of bread-nibbling, it took me a number of reloads to get past. I think it would have taken reloads even if I had allowed myself to dip into the good consumable items for that fight (which I probably should have). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Ceiling Durkheim Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 That, and the imp-flinging demon right before him. Though in general I find bosses and sub-bosses differ in strength from trash mobs more in Avadon than they did in most previous SW games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd InsaneShadow Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Normal is actually easy, but I'm definitely an experienced gamer, might have something to do with it. I'm currently rolling through with a Blademaster (minor str major agi stats, tank gear, power/utility spec) Blademaster (str/agi stats, melee gear, power/battle spec) Shadowwalker (all agi stats, ranged gear, power/battle spec) and so far, I haven't had to reload once (I've had a few deaths, but no whole group deaths) and I haven't used a SINGLE consumable (including runestones). Normal is definitely easy. I haven't beaten the game yet, and I'm about to go after Beloch (group is level 26) but so far, simple avoidance and lots of self healing abilities has made it a breeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Originally Posted By: FnordCola That, and the imp-flinging demon right before him. Though in general I find bosses and sub-bosses differ in strength from trash mobs more in Avadon than they did in most previous SW games. I found the imp-flinger next to impossible on my first play-through and nearly a joke on my second (both on Hard). It was a strange difference. The second time, I had melee blademaster/archery blademaster/direct damage sorceress, everyone with middle columns as maxed out as I could get them at that point and then whatever extra skills I had points left over for. No one could hit my archer, who took down the demon, and my blademaster hacked through the imps without serious problems, with sorceress backup. Zhossa was a little harder (I think this was one reload), but the right choice of skills and stats really seems to make a huge difference. I remember this being absolutely ridiculously hard the first time I tried, but it was not at all the second time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd InsaneShadow Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Originally Posted By: FnordCola Zhossa was a little harder (I think this was one reload), but the right choice of skills and stats really seems to make a huge difference. I remember this being absolutely ridiculously hard the first time I tried, but it was not at all the second time. I'm gonna have to playthrough on Hard next time. I just took down Zhossa. Little Miss Sorceress got roasted pretty quick, but my tank blademaster and razordisk flinger just sat there and evaded everything while plinking away at images with ranged. Took way too long (I only used a few AoE's) but I don't think I lost more than 10% health on either of those two, without using any healing whatsoever. Then again that may just be how overpowered agi/avoidance is. Tank has 30 dex and a lot of avoidance gear, diskflinger has 38 and no avoidance gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Aoslare Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Try it on Torment. Your archer will be hit (I couldn't get close to complete avoidance in that fight, anyway) and everyone will be hit harder and more often. It's pretty brutal. Edit: InsaneShadow, I think the rest of us were talking about the first Zhossa fight, with the charmed soldiers and pylons, not the one with the images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan Tcheedchee Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 I think either Zhossa fight was uncomparatively easy in comparison to many Avernum fights. In fight one you just have to shift your party to the right sight of the area before the pylons are activated. Makes me remember a certain lich in Avernum, who really was much harder to vanquish, even on normal. Fight two is even more easy, in spite of all the images. I really didn't have a clue, which one could be the real Zhossa and still I managed victory first time round. The images just disolve very fast, and every hit on the real Zhossa counts. Even my fragile shaman didn't have to be resurrected, although the fire blasts of all Zhossas were admittedly quite frying. I really, really remember a lot of Avernum areas, where one had to fight much tougher adversaries and situations. Still remember all the sentinels in Avernum 5 (can't remember the mages name, who owned them, at the moment.) The testings were quite tedious, not to speak of the lab. Or the lich I already mentioned, or, the slith generals in Avernum 6 or, well whatever. I admit, I'm still in my first playthrough, so I can't estimate how far into the game I am (crumbling tower on Bandit Roads in the Beraza woods, second quest together with Monitor Shigaz is awaiting…). I really do hope for more Avernite style fights to the end, although these made me pretty desperate, because in parts they were so hard, that I needed the help of the forum. Let's see, when that's gonna happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd InsaneShadow Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Try it on Torment. Your archer will be hit (I couldn't get close to complete avoidance in that fight, anyway) and everyone will be hit harder and more often. It's pretty brutal. Edit: InsaneShadow, I think the rest of us were talking about the first Zhossa fight, with the charmed soldiers and pylons, not the one with the images. Yeah, I basically had the same experience on that one as well, only I had my second blademaster instead of the sorceress. I think I got hit a few times, but blademasters have so much self healing it's hardly an issue. I'm even super conservative with abilities; I rarely run below half stamina and again, that's with no consumables. I think I'll go straight for Torment on my next runthrough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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