Weird difficulty

[keyvin]

Hey, I am wondering if there was something about my play style that made the first visit to breza woods so difficult. I usually take the fighter, the mage, and my main is a shaman. I burnt through almost every consumable I had on normal difficulty clearing the pit, and I may have never of been able to do it if I hadn't figured out only the undead prevent free movement in the boss encounter.

 

The next mission back to Dhoral Steed was downright easy by comparison. It was so easy I was expecting an event after murdalizing the boss. I literally just pumped as much damage as I could into him and the fight was over before I ever needed to heal.

 

I seriously reloaded in the breza pits like 20 times between the boss and the second guardian. I even lowered the difficulty down to casual, but that was so easy it wasn't even fun. Was that a particularly challenging encounter or was I playing it sub optimally?

[Randomizer]

Some areas work better with different parties and equipment, for instance a sorceress with firebolt is almost useless going through the area beneath Zhethron's Lair because the monsters are mostly immune to fire damage. The pit is a hard fight the first time you do it, but as you found there are tricks to make the fight easier. I found it easier once I understood some of the rules of Zhoss Mindtaker's game on how to get it to end.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave any sanity that Mindtaker left by the door.

[Kelandon]

Avadon difficulty is simply bumpy. Part of it is having the wrong characters for an area (or the wrong scarabs, etc.), but part of it is that some parts are just harder than others unexpectedly. I had the same problem on my first time through the game.

[Valdain the King]

It says in the manual-It is not uncommon to have a party with no melee fighters. The game is just not meant for pure melee unless you attack when it is possible to get into distance. If you make a melee warrior, place some points on both dexterity as well so you can hit with ranged weapon. The shadowalker is good because he can get into melee distance and attack with poison, shadowstep and get out of there stunning them and then pelting with ranged weapons. The game is very strategic and has the most pluses when you use marksman and spellcasters as your damage dealers.

 

Sevelin is a tank/marksman. With left column his critical chance is high and he gets really good Aoe attack. For blasting Nathalie is very good. Jenell is good for healing and some of her aoes are awesome. She can also be useful with wolves and such. Shima is good but he doesnt get as good as Sevelin does as fast. Later on he is great getting 2 attacks when hit sometimes.

 

The fighter classes are good for taking the heat and can take a lot of punishment. Shima and Sevelin are hardy chars. When you have 2 spellcasters its good for damage but its harder if you get through if you get hit a lot in long fights.

 

Both Shima and Sevelin with your shaman should be a good mix of aoe firepower and veracious deadly force with their combat skills. They should protect you well. The good thing about this is that Jeff decided to let you retrain your character/characters right before this fight in the hunting building.

 

This was a brutal fight and when I first attempted it, It took me 5 tries to get it right. Once you get the tactics it should come naturally to you. But it is never easy. There are still times when I get caught off guard and dont pay attention, the game serves me a nice warm dish of defeat. But if it didnt beat me for slacking off, I shouldnt be allowed to get further.

[Alorael at Large]

I respectfully disagree. Ranged is optimal, but my first playthrough largely rested on a shadowwalker and blademaster, both strength-invested and melee-oriented, and it worked just fine. Zhossa Mindtaker is one of the harder fights, though, and it also took me several reloads. The biggest thing is that it's a trick fight, one you can't just win by pumping damage into an enemy.

 

—Alorael, who found it tough but manageable once he understood that focusing damage, keeping himself away from damage sources, and prioritizing being safe over making progress was a good way through the fight. Glass cannoning through it did not go well for him.

[keyvin]

Had a doozy of a time on the lone justice mission. I am now going to take down Cast'aral and I am only level 22. On the steam forums I heard a lot of complaining that people were max level for this mission. Is this a normal level to do this or did I miss a ton of side quests?

[Lilith]

You should at least be close to maximum level by that point if you've been doing all the sidequests. In general, most people who give you a sidequest at one point in the game will have more quests for you when you return to the same area later in the game. Also note that endless item collection quests like the one for Arcane Scrolls give you a little XP for every one you bring in, which adds up, so keep an eye out for those items.