D:OS2 The most important question - difficulty

Again I'm saying, as every first game playthrough, I'm playing on normal.
Who is (still) playing this game on hard difficulty?

I am playing on Tactician mode. Fights tend to bore me fast in this kind of game but I am having a blast even in the Chapter 2.
The game is really harsh and punishing but in a good way and every skill learned, every new items bring something or new options. Usually in other games you stumble on a set of skills to use and you are fine to go all the way.
Here, each fight is something new depending on what you got, what they are and what is around. I love it.

Tactician and loving it.
I think it's harder than OS1 tactician mode. Spent a lot of time on fights but dont mind.

Classic mode for me. It's a nice middleground, had a few wipes so it's not too easy.

Explore all the way Not a big combat person. Think the last time I enjoyed long drawn out battles was when I was playing Baldurs Gate when it first came out. I use to enjoy strategy and tactical games more back then. Not sure why my mind shifted more into the explore, quests, story, companions, and simpler combat.

Anyhow off-track. I like explorer partly because I find turn based combat rather tedious and slow at times. So being able to get through the fights a bit quicker is a nice balance for me on game play.

Started on tactician, got fed up of having to fight the Avengers on every fight so restarted on Classic.

wolfing said:

Started on tactician, got fed up of having to fight the Avengers on every fight so restarted on Classic.

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I had the same experience. Decided to restart on classic after reading on the forums that the only difference is "HP Bloat". No extra enemies, no added skills, no improved AI. The people who wrote seemed to have a lot of experience with the game and had even checked the files for differences.

Really enjoying my classic run, feels like it was the better choice for me at least for my first go at the game.

wolfgrimdark said:

Explore all the way Not a big combat person. Think the last time I enjoyed long drawn out battles was when I was playing Baldurs Gate when it first came out. I use to enjoy strategy and tactical games more back then. Not sure why my mind shifted more into the explore, quests, story, companions, and simpler combat.

Anyhow off-track. I like explorer partly because I find turn based combat rather tedious and slow at times. So being able to get through the fights a bit quicker is a nice balance for me on game play.

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I've never tried Explore. Is there still somewhat of a challenge? Or is it win every time no matter what?

Aha - that explains it. I'm playing tactian and it is not easy.

joxer said:

Again I'm saying, as every first game playthrough, I'm playing on normal.
Who is (still) playing this game on hard difficulty?

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How far are you ? I'm still poking away on tactician but i have one more big fight in act-1.

Wisdom said:

Tactician and loving it.
I think it's harder than OS1 tactician mode. Spent a lot of time on fights but dont mind.

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Caddy said:

I've never tried Explore. Is there still somewhat of a challenge? Or is it win every time no matter what?

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Well even though I said Explorer all the way (minus the typo) I think I am going to up the difficulty by 1 when Act 1 is done. Partly because I am figuring more things out which makes Explorer a bit too easy now. I don't mind easy but I want some challenge.

I only had a real challenge twice - once with the fight against Griff and once with the the torturer guy. I won both but was a close call for each. So I thought Explorer would be fine at that point.

That being said I don't want to have to focus on min/max on a build or feeling like I have to construct my character in a certain way. I also don't want to draw battles out too long. So my more casual approach means a battle can be a bit more deadly since I basically play with a band of misfits who failed strategy 101.

I do use rain to put out fire and dispel poison though. Mainly because my main character likes to use water and ice spells. I also found out rain removes poison by accident and I was like ... ooh cool. Which started some more experiments which means I got a bit better at strategy.

Rambling, sorry bad habit. In general I will adjust difficulty till I have something where big/boss type fights are a good challenge but other fights are not a 10-20 minute affair every time and I don't have to worry too much about my weapons, armor, or character design and can instead build them to fit my theme/vision of the character.

tl;dr - Explorer mode is not for people who want a challenge. You still need to pay attention but it is forgiving of mistakes and you have to really get sloppy to lose.

wolfing said:

Started on tactician, got fed up of having to fight the Avengers on every fight so restarted on Classic.

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tsk tsk, become Avenger yourself!
Up warfare and str then train cpt. America's "bouncing shield" skill already.
That skill saved my arse in the fight under this hatch (people who fought this one know what am I talking about, I mean Jesus Christ wtf difficulty spike was that lol)!

tomasp3n said:

I had the same experience. Decided to restart on classic after reading on tge forums that the only difference is "HP Bloat". No extra enemies, no added skills, no improved AI. The people who wrote seemed to have a lot of experience with the game and had even checked the files for differences.

Really enjoying my classic run, feels kind it was the better choice for me at least for my first go at the game.

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There are some small elements on top of hp
http://divinityoriginalsin.wiki.fextralife.com/Difficulty+Modes

But yes you are right Classic is at it was meant to be played for the 'designed' experience

Started on Explorer to learn things, thinking of going to Classic. I actually find DOS2 Explorer easier than DOS EE Explorer.

But the step between Explorer and Classic is kinda big (x2 health/armors on enemies, while you get ~35-40% less health/armors). I calculated it today by loading my saved and checking characters with all 3 difficulty levels (Classic to Tactician is less of a bump than Explorer to Classic).

Playing with main char (wizard pyrokinetic/summoner/geomancer), Beast (tank with shield), Lohse (enchanter aerotheurge/hydrosophist) and Sebille (backstabbing rogue).
I don't really plan the builds careful for now. Still don't know all the available skills etc.

I just escaped Forty Joy on classic difficulty. For me that's currently an ideal difficulty. Fightes are challenging. It really helps to backtrack and pick fights with weaker opponents or solve quests to gain levels, coming back to more difficult fights later.

Currently running classic, mainly because tactical is too tedious. The fights are too long later on; too drawn out. I feel even classic struggles a bit in that regard once you get to mid-level enemies (12-15).

As for the party:
- Ifan: 2h slugger. The closest I have to a "tank", mainly because actual tanks are seemingly ignored here, and taunt only works after physical protections are removed.
- Beast: Ranger + thief/sneaking.
- Lohse: Healer/controller.
- Red Prince: Fire/Earth/Summoning.

I'm thinking of trying a 2x Lone Wolf game after this, but I suspect I'd a bit frustrated by it. It worked well in D: OS (pre-EE), because I could get so many action points I still felt like I could use a similar amount of overall abilities per turn. That was not the case in the enhanced edition, however, and it doesn't look to be the case here, which means I'd spend even more time simply watching the enemy move. That bores me really fast, even if it's viable.

Maylander said:

taunt only works after physical protections are removed.

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Is this conformed? Indeed it didn't work often for me but I assumed that higher physical protection increased chance of ignoring it. I'll pay attention tonight.
This would make the skill really inferior because imho its most useful in the early stages of combat where the enemy of course has some protection.

azarhal said:

Started on Explorer to learn things, thinking of going to Classic. I actually find DOS2 Explorer easier than DOS EE Explorer.

But the step between Explorer and Classic is kinda big (x2 health/armors on enemies, while you get ~35-40% less health/armors). I calculated it today by loading my saved and checking characters with all 3 difficulty levels (Classic to Tactician is less of a bump than Explorer to Classic).

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I am still at explorer for now as things got harder and had my first death. From what I have been reading from others the difficulty only gets harder as you get further into the game so suspect I will stay put for now.

That jump sounds like it would be too big for me to want to slog through it.

Maylander said:

Currently running classic, mainly because tactical is too tedious. The fights are too long later on; too drawn out. I feel even classic struggles a bit in that regard once you get to mid-level enemies (12-15).

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I defeated a level 12 encounter (5 enemies with a boss) at level 10 last night on Explorer. Enemies all had high ground advantage at the start of the fight and I was still using the same gear since level 7 (some of which was still grey level 4-6 stuff).

A single of my characters lost all armor and I used a single support spell in the entire fight (regen on the character without armor). For some reasons, the enemies just kept focusing on the party member with the shield. It was a bit weird really.

Has anyone tried purposely luring the enemies with low/no physical? Load someone up with physical scrolls like Fortify but have them with low armor. Once the enemy all start chasing that person, create your killing field in front of them. I only play on explorer, so I'm no expert, but I use the "lure" tactic all the time with success.

Also with 3 points of sneak, I seem to be able to peruse most battlefields before I ever trigger the fight on purpose. I move barrels around, not oil hazards, find a nice spot of poison for my undead to stand in, etc.

In my fight with level 2 Fane solo against the arena in chapter one. I was able to scout the area a bit before battle started. That way I knew where the chests were that I wanted to loot before battle was over.