The chantry has subquests, and long story short:
My party of pure powergaming gold min-maxed level 7s get put up against...
2 darkspawn emisaries, 3-5 darkspawn warriors, 5 darkspawn archers, 5 darkspawn rogues...
EACH darkspawn emisary dealt 8-15 damage per staff-hit, and regular spells dealt 30-50 damage -- to a party where the TANK has 150 health!
Each tank dealt 15-20 damage per hit, while my melee characters with the best swords available in the game at that point barely damaged them 15 through their armor.
They ALL had well over 200 life, one of the emisaries well over 300.
Dealing more damage than everyone in my party in the same role, beeing thrice as many, having more HP.
Which leads me to the conclusion these guys were, in terms of player characters, ALL level 10.
Pitting 4 level 7 player characters against a THREE higher level parties is friggin annoying.
That, and in a wild encounter in the same line of quests I met 7 wolves, where the battle went like this:
1: A wolf downs one of my characters, the rest eat him alive before he can chug a single potion
2: A wolf downs another character, while the first wolf on their team dies, and I've lost 2 characters.
3: A wolf downs the third character, my tank, who barely survives -- and I make new potions mid-battle because 20 health potions isn't enough.
4: Potions end, 3 wolves with full life remain, injury kits deplete, I run around trying to use the bow, I get caught in a trap.
5: Fin
That, and THEN the third wild encounter comes.
A freaking drake.
A drake.
Luckily, the AI is bugged like hell, but suffice to say: I stood stationary for 4 minutes downing it with arrows. 4 minutes at 10 damage every 4 seconds?!?!?!?!
Did that thing have 500 hitpoints?
When I tried to confront it in melee, it took out my main tank in one fell sweep by knocking him down and chewing him up before I had the chance to heal him.
...
...
How about a friendly warning when you take a sidequest not ment for your party before you're five levels higher?
Losing all the sidequests in a certain city after visiting with the mage tower made me paranoid, so I decided to deal with all the sidequests BEFORE doing main quests.
Boy.
....
The MAIN problem isn't the difficulty, but the fact that my main character feels utterly useless in combat, damaging enemies 1% of their health per hit using talents that spend half my stamina, realizing that the 50x health poultices in the inventory ISN'T going to be enough to win the battle at hand, 10 minutes before the battle is through!
My weapons don't deal enough damage to kill the enemies, but it's the best I have found or afforded.
My armor doesn't reduce damage enough to survive the enemies, but it's the best I have found or afforded.
Enemy spellcasters only make me want to play my mage again, because getting hit for 1/3rd of my HP once every 10 seconds by an enemy with 300 life who resists most stun effects attempts and doesn't seem to be taking damage AT ALL from my swords
Difficulty is good.
But I'd rather see difficulty in brutal enemies dealing much damage, WITH low health, than in enemies with 500 health who cut through your team like a rusty spoon through hardened butter, but cutting through none the less -- without ever beeing at risk.
THEN when I kill the dozens of 500 HP monsters that got tossed at my low level party without warning, I get crap loot that looks like it's based on my level, and the same experience as for killing regular easy-to-kill enemies back in the areas where I actually survived.
The loot didn't pay for the potions I needed, so I came to a complete standstill: No money because all cash was used to buy potions and the current gear, and loot from the high level enemies looks like it's based on player level instead of monster level.
It's discouraging, to say the least, to be defeated without knowing WHY you were defeated:
-Lack of strategy? Are you supposed to HAVE to place traps before each combat?
-Lack of potions? Are you supposed to smear demon droppings over your body after reloading to resist the element the mages cast on you?
-Why, why, why do I lose?
That is how it feels, but the fact is, it was the AREAS that were high level.
BUT after finding three high level areas in a row, with three high level random encounters inbetween, each of the six encounters shredding my team to bits and pieces a dozen times each makes me rethink my choice as an armored fighter, fondly recalling how it was like to be a disabler mage, beeing ABLE to kill anything over time thanks to self-healing.
That, and there's absolutely NO reward for my efforts what so ever!
No loot, no experience, only an empty potion supply and countless hours wasted!
...
Seriously, those six high level encounters last nigh has MADE me drop my high strength/dex rogue, and I will reroll as an arcane warrior, and not fear high level encounters any more.
Finally, why oh why did the warrior get the bow tree of skills instead of weapon specializing tiers like Mace, sword and axes??
If anything, had the rogue had exclusive access to that tree, the rogues would have been considerably different from warriors.
Currently, the only difference between rogues and warriors is backstabbing and flanking versus tanking -- and neither does the job much better than the other in either role -- AND the mage does both better!!!
Modifié par Red Frostraven, 11 février 2010 - 08:41 .
Retour en haut
)..
Archdemon gos roaaaar - rogue dodges. Archdemon goes swooosh - rogue dodges. Archdemon goes swipe - rogue gets pushed back and charges back. Archdemon goes grab - rogue dodges. A lot of fun 
*Shrug*
