Normal is to Hard !

[gothxtreme]

Alright so I beat the game for the first time a couple weeks ago and I thought that the game itself on easy was a bit too easy, so I started my new game on normal. All seemed well during the opening act (before Ostagar) but once I hit the Kocari Wilds then shi* hit the fan. My characters were going down left and right and I could barely get through 2 encounters without using all my health potions and elfroots. Can I get some much needed help or info lol I really would hate to replay on the same difficulty and I am thinking since there is Hard and Nightmare difficulties maybe, just maybe I am doing something drastically wrong. Thanks in advance

[WastelandAssassin]

i can give you, as advice, how i used to play, as i managed to beat the game on hard

the first thing you should do, is make sure you have a balanced squad

a full tank squad is useless, so you should always make sure to have atleast one mage, and a rouge is nice to have

now, about battles, they easiest tactic i can give you, is to put your squad in one place, then send a ranged char to shoot the enemies from afar, and draw them to you

then lead them to the rest of your squad, and beat them

basically, devide and conquer is the easiest method to survive long

but, if you find the game very hard, then you can always add mods with stronger items, to be better prepared for the hard fights

 

the last thing i can advise you, is to make sure you are making your chars as best as you can

meaning, if you have a warrior, train him with 1 type of weapons, so he will be great in this type, and not avarege with all types

make sure to make smart choices with the development of your chars, and it should be easier for you to finish the game

 

hope that i was able to really help you

best of luck with your game

[gothxtreme]

Thank you very much I will definitely use these strategies in my game, lol it really differs from easy difficulty where you can just run in and decimate your enemies so I am sort of running in blind. Thanks again WastelandAssassin and if anyone has any other tips it would be greatly appreciated.

[Wrathforged]

Thank you very much I will definitely use these strategies in my game, lol it really differs from easy difficulty where you can just run in and decimate your enemies so I am sort of running in blind. Thanks again WastelandAssassin and if anyone has any other tips it would be greatly appreciated.

 

You should have mages with some form of crowd control; the more the better.

 

Awesome crowd control spells are:

Sleep + Waking Nightmare: Cast from a distance and watch as chaos reign.

Crushing Prison is another great CC by itself.

Force Field quickly takes out a target temporarily.

 

Glyphs and Hexes are also a must.

Healing spells are crucial.

 

Of course, damage spells are also needed, but a balance of both will get you through normal easily. You shouldn't need the consumables unless on tougher bosses.

[Elanorea]

Thank you very much I will definitely use these strategies in my game, lol it really differs from easy difficulty where you can just run in and decimate your enemies so I am sort of running in blind. Thanks again WastelandAssassin and if anyone has any other tips it would be greatly appreciated.

 

You should have mages with some form of crowd control; the more the better.

 

Awesome crowd control spells are:

Sleep + Waking Nightmare: Cast from a distance and watch as chaos reign.

Crushing Prison is another great CC by itself.

Force Field quickly takes out a target temporarily.

 

Glyphs and Hexes are also a must.

Healing spells are crucial.

 

Of course, damage spells are also needed, but a balance of both will get you through normal easily. You shouldn't need the consumables unless on tougher bosses.

Don't forget Cone of Cold; freezes multiple targets, deals some damage, and allows you to shatter them if they're normal rank. Great way to quickly get rid of weaker enemies.

[ell46]

A lot of winning is down to tactics and your party being mixed. I like my mage to use crushing prison or paralysis on any mages or emissaries that I come up against as left alone they can do a lot of damage from afar and the sneaky little buggers all stay at the back as far away as possible.

 

Also I'm not a fan of rush em and be damned, I like putting the party on hold and drawing the enemy towards me, especially if the map shows there are a lot of them, remember if you can't see them, they probably can't see you so you can draw the front ones towards you kill em, then move forward and do it again.

[CrapsterZ]

Another piece of advice is to use the terrain. Use chokepoints where your enemies have no choice but to engage your tank and down him (hopefully they don't manage to do that!) before they can reach your ranged characters. In the Kocari Wilds these are almost non-existent so another helpful tip is to move up to hills and use obstacles. Melee attackers have to maneuvre around the landscape and usually die before get in a hit.

 

Another tactic I often employ is to keep any mages stunned or knocked out while I take out the rest of the mob. Mages and archers are deadly enemies since your tank will be tied down keeping melee attackers off your other characters. What I usually do is use Crushing Prison on Elite range units (Emissaries, etc) and then throw in a fireball followed by chain lightning at the ranged attackers. Stinging Swarm is good too, you get grease as well, which is devastating. With your archer use scattershot to keep the enemy ranged units stunned.

 

A combo I normally do is Grease > Fireball > Chain Lightning > Stinging Swarm.

 

Normally nothing survives past Chain Lightning, so I save Stinging Swarm for the second cluster of range units (if any) and drop Blizzard on top of them. Of course that's a buttload of spells that you're not going to the whole lot of them till late game, so work with whatever spells you have. For early game I rely on Blizzard to keep ranged enemies frozen, and focus fire on melee.

 

My lineup is usuall a tank + archer + 2 mages, unless I'm playing a DW rogue (on warriors I become the Beserker/Champion tank if I go 2h or DW) so I have a mage use AoE to clear clusters of ranged units and the second mage keeps the tank alive with buffs and heals. My archer is either helping the tank thin out the melee or attacking the mage.

 

For boss fights, if there are any minions that need to be dealt with, I use Force Field on the boss and kill the creeps, or have my tank engage the boss while the rest of my part thins out the normals. This works to help the tank build up aggro on the boss as well so my mages don't draw aggro too quickly.

[gothxtreme]

Wow thanks for all the tips guys I will surely use them in battles to come. Right now I am starting the game from scratch as a Warrior hopefully all will go good there. I cannot seem to play well on a Rouge though...I know your supposed to stick to backstabbing or archery but I get pummeled every time lol Well thanks again hopefully I can learn to use these tactics to my advantage. Oh and a special thanks to CrapsterZ for suggesting the force field strategy, I for some reason thought that was to protect your tank when surrounded by enemies and had no clue it could be used on mobs as well.

[CrapsterZ]

No problem. A lot of people don't realise that, though using it on your enemies makes them immune to damage as well, which in most cases is a good thing as it allows you to focus on the small fry first before focusing on the real threats.

 

Another useful combo to remember is Force Field + Crushing Prison. Saved my tank countless times. Knocks down everyone in the area except for the target. Buys your tank time to get a heal in or move to a better position. Alternatively, use the time your enemies are down to do a Sleep + Waking Nightmare combo, pull your tank back and throw in Virulent Walking Bomb and a few fireballs for good measure. This tactic actually manages to clear large mobs really nicely. Most mobs don't survive past the first bomb and those that do... don't survive the next few.

 

As for archers, don't waste your stamina on talents. Use auto-attack. The only really useful talents are Pinning Shot, Scattershot and Suppressing Fire. Talents like Arrow of Slaying are wasted because while the damage is high, in the time it takes for it to be cast, your archer can actually do the same amount of damage on auto-attack with the right gear and set up. Stealth+AoS is only good for taking out Emissaries and mages, but that's about it, all the other skills aren't worth the time and cost to cast them. Rapid Aim should only be used if your crit chance is less than 10%, any higher and you should just stick with normal bow attack speed.

[Thandal]

All of the advice here is just that, advice! Most of us develop a certain style (or styles) of play based on a combination of "learning the hard way", "accidents" (lucky and not so), "tips from others", and for the truly studious, "research using all the in-and-out-of-game lore".

 

I, for example, usually play a Dual-Wielding, Archer Rogue and I find Arrow-of-Slaying an incredibly useful talent. When combined with high Stealth, some Poison skill, and DW, one can employ various grenades (I like "Shock" and "Soulrot", myself) or Scattershot for crowd control, then AoS followed by a sneak attack of Backstab+Flurry (after dodging around a bit during the Stealth cool-down) to really do some hurtin'! Add Momentum+Power of Blood (or your favorite lethal coatings) and who needs companions?!? :D

 

Others like playing a Tank. "Push it all into Strength, Willpower (Stamina) and Constitution, and let them try to go toe-to-toe with me!" Templars (and Dwarves) have the added advantage of dispelling/being resistant to magic. "Not feeling so powerful now, are you Zathrian?!"

 

So I've done multiple Mage and Warrior PCs to experience other approaches as well. Discovered that ALL of the talents/abilites/spells can be useful additions: arrows in the quiver, so to speak. But as in RL, one does have to make choices and pursue paths that work together toward one's goal. If one is a Sword+Shield Tank, then 2-Handed or Archery skills are pretty much a waste of effort.

 

So play around. It's a game. Have fun! :thumbsup: