HoS Difficulty being Nerfed?

[ReptilePZ]

The damage output was noticeably less and it was a shit tonne easier to actually land blows, as i said in my previous post to that it took me hours to do it on my first run through and even when i did it it was still an almighty struggle.

Also Quen was a lot more effective, there was times in my first playthrough where it would just straight through the quen and one hit me lol. Where as this time Quen blocked strikes and i remained full health. Trial and error isn't really the case here as i played it like 20+ times on my first playthrough, there was just noticable differences which i explained here which made it very easy by comparison.

Alright, so it looks like they may have lowered the DPS, the rest honestly sounds like you just being better at the fight now

Either way, hopefully the REDs can give us some more exact data on what/if anything has been changed next week, so we can stop guessing. From what I've gathered so far, though, Burza's statement stands and there haven't been any major changes to the difficulty (on higher difficulties).

 

[gabo007x]

Satori88 Thanks for your reply. Huh, that is even more than pre-1.11 (1.10 was something like 1800 fixed). Seems there is either a problem with the calculation or it's something on my end (can't be mods since I uninstalled all of them and used a clean save).

 

[MoleWitcher]

Alright, so it looks like they may have lowered the DPS, the rest honestly sounds like you just being better at the fight now

Either way, hopefully the REDs can give us some more exact data on what/if anything has been changed next week, so we can stop guessing. From what I've gathered so far, though, Burza's statement stands and there haven't been any major changes to the difficulty (on higher difficulties).

I honestly don't feel that way, i have completed the game 3 times and currently on my 4th playthrough and i have never felt such a massive difference in difficulty between play throughs. I will concede how ever that in terms mechanics and figuring out what to do that Iris Nightmare is not as advanced ( even though the overall difficulty is tougher) than The Caretaker and the Frog so i will test those as well as i had already beaten them before i downloaded the patch.

 

[ReptilePZ]

I honestly don't feel that way, i have completed the game 3 times and currently on my 4th playthrough and i have never felt such a massive difference in difficulty between play throughs. I will concede how ever that in terms mechanics and figuring out what to do that Iris Nightmare is not as advanced ( even though the overall difficulty is tougher) than The Caretaker and the Frog so i will test those as well as i had already beaten them before i downloaded the patch.

Yeah, thing with the Iris' Greatest Fear fight is that it basically requires you to get it down perfectly before you can beat it. So, once you've managed to get through it once, I don't see how it'd be all that tough a second time through. Admittedly, the same applies to the Caretaker, as well (though I'd say it's a fight with more room for error when compared to IGF), he's quite easy once you have the pattern down. There probably have been tweaks to these fights just purely in terms of stats, but I wouldn't expect anything major, especially when a RED has already said there are no plans for big changes in this regard.

Toad, for me at least, was just all about the stats, so it's probably the fight that would be affected the most by any nerfs to stats.

 

[MoleWitcher]

I actually found the Caretaker fight really easy first time around, ( seem to be one of the few) but it does have certain mechanics which make it really easy to tell if it's been nerfed or not. I remember finding the Frog a lot easier 2nd time around due to what i had learnt in terms of tactics and what i can and can't do as you say but again it has certain mechanics which make it clear if there has been a nerf or not.

IGF is a lot more vague but it did feel a lot easier, i hope i'm wrong mind you even if difficulty isn't my prime source of concern when playing this game as i play it for other reasons.

 

[gabo007x]

I have replayed all the HoS boss fights now, and it seems that the Caretaker is the only boss that is acting weird for me, the others feel more or less exactly the same as when I first beat them on 1.10 (well, they're slightly easier, but I'd attribute that to having experienced the fights before).

 

[RageGT]

Point is, he wasn't hard once I figured him out but he leeched some 1780 points in every hit he got on me. And could go back to full HP if I let him leech from his minions. If he's not doing that anymore, that is a huge nerf.

 

[zetsumeisama]

Yeah, thing with the Iris' Greatest Fear fight is that it basically requires you to get it down perfectly before you can beat it. So, once you've managed to get through it once, I don't see how it'd be all that tough a second time through. Admittedly, the same applies to the Caretaker, as well (though I'd say it's a fight with more room for error when compared to IGF), he's quite easy once you have the pattern down. There probably have been tweaks to these fights just purely in terms of stats, but I wouldn't expect anything major, especially when a RED has already said there are no plans for big changes in this regard.

Toad, for me at least, was just all about the stats, so it's probably the fight that would be affected the most by any nerfs to stats.

Good job. Originally I was trying to beat all 6 with my level 1 equipment, it didn't really work out. I did beat them with my level 1 equipment but one by one. The game forced me to use my real build against all 6 Iris' Greatest Nightmare on death march. It wasn't an easy fight, but I did beat all 6 on death march twice. One with Superior White Raffard's Decoction and the second without it (I died a few times on the second). This was done on my 6th playthrough.

Spoiler

 

[scratcherpen]

And now people complaining about the Bosses is too easy.:sleepy: Seriously? For me-the difficulty and balance must be scaled to HoS level and the monsters and enemies level and quantity must progress together with Geralt. For example -after 15-20 level he already should fight with more than one fat monster (vampires, draconids e.t.c. at battle and more than 5 mens). Even with console and last diary -be a Pro the fight was more funnier than now.

 

[RageGT]

Good job. Originally I was trying to beat all 6 with my level 1 equipment, it didn't really work out. I did beat them with my level 1 equipment but one by one. The game forced me to use my real build against all 6 Iris' Greatest Nightmare on death march. It wasn't an easy fight, but I did beat all 6 on death march twice. One with Superior White Raffard's Decoction and the second without it (I died a few times on the second). This was done on my 6th playthrough.

Spoiler

What game version in this video? They don't seem to be hitting nearly as hard as they on my level 37 or 38 with Mastercrafted Ursine which should reduce damage compared to Wolf's on 1.10, at least when getting just one hit on Geralt. Now, the 6 of them together hitting you... heh... good job!

 

[holyass]

Bosses was a joke before 1.11 and now its not even funny
[video]https://youtu.be/0SiqTy6tP0U?t=40s[/video] Toad Price in 20 seconds
[video]https://youtu.be/ulrrAzJCQmw[/video] Iris Greatest Fear in underpants and without HUD
This is on Death March difficulty.

 

[DJ_Kovrik]

Ok guys, I've compared monster_base_abl.xml from 1.10 and 1.11 patches - there are a few changes and some new records, but only half of them look like nerf, Iris even get some regen boost for Hard/Hardcore.

As for others:
Toad got a slightly decreased Igni damage amplifier (I gues it means resist), attack power nerf for Hard (-0.2 multiplier) and Hardcore (-0.1)
Caretaker got a new combat script and separate healing_per_hit_perc and number_of_shades params for different difficulty levels
Burning resist for Black Spiders variations decreased roughly on ~50%
Some random monsters also got decreased attack power (eg., abilities named mon_ghostsnerf_ep1 and mon_boarnerf_ep1 says it all).

 

[Pug.]

Ok guys, I've compared monster_base_abl.xml from 1.10 and 1.11 patches - there are a few changes and some new records, but only half of them look like nerf, Iris even get some regen boost for Hard/Hardcore.

As for others:
Toad got a slightly decreased Igni damage amplifier (I gues it means resist), attack power nerf for Hard (-0.2 multiplier) and Hardcore (-0.1)
Caretaker got a new combat script and separate healing_per_hit_perc and number_of_shades params for different difficulty levels
Burning resist for Black Spiders variations decreased roughly on ~50%
Some random monsters also got decreased attack power (eg., abilities named mon_ghostsnerf_ep1 and mon_boarnerf_ep1 says it all).

Huh, so it looks like they didn't touch my beloved fight with Iris' Biggest Fear?

 

[CoconutChriss]

Good news.

 

[DJ_Kovrik]

Huh, so it looks like they didn't touch my beloved fight with Iris' Biggest Fear?

We can't be sure because entities files of some bosses has been changed too. I inspected just a single file
As I have unpacked resources from HoS 1.10 and 1.11 so in theory it is possible to make a selection of boss-related files (scripts, entities, xmls etc.) and pack it as a standalone mod which reverts all changes back, if it was a real nerf

 

[Sunsibar]

I don't understand the logic of players attempting to play at higher difficulties who then find it impossible to defeat a boss and then make comments like 'i was forced to turn down the difficulty level to defeat this boss', and expect the boss to be nerfed or re-balanced so they can defeat them at those higher difficulty levels. If you can't you can't, don't expect the devs to make higher difficulties less difficult for you. Level 32 wolves in Death March NG+ can kill my level 38 Geralt in 4-5 hits. Eredin, Caranthir and Imlerith can kill Geralt in 2-3 hits in DM NG+. No ones forcing you to challenge yourself and go thru this hell.

Also, I have a strong feeling many players complaining about the HoS difficulty are attempting it at much lower levels than the recommended 32. In the main game, even in the second lowest difficulty, I recall being instantly murdered by high leveled monsters I had no business fighting. Won't be a popular choice, but to avoid this from happening the devs can just lock the expansion until players reach level 32 (62 or play as an individual game). It's better than trying to nerf a level 32 quest into a level 22 quest.

Good points. I like to play easy, I don't shame it a bit. I tried "normal" on Witcher 2 and I didn't like it. Story is my thing, not the fighting. It is absolutely fantastic, that we have those difficulty levels. That way the game is interesting for many kinds of people. If someone wants to "torture" him/herself with some insane difficulty, that's fine for me, they like fighting. My friend likes challenge and he's playing this with harder difficulties. We can both enjoy this fabulous game and in my opinion that is great. No need to change difficulties.

 

[whitewoof]

Bosses was a joke before 1.11 and now its not even funny
https://youtu.be/0SiqTy6tP0U?t=40s Toad Price in 20 seconds
https://youtu.be/ulrrAzJCQmw Iris Greatest Fear in underpants and without HUD
This is on Death March difficulty.

Lol. Well you are sort of making it easier for yourself with the OP sign build. I never play with a sign build and toad took me a good 20 mins on DM NG+. Still quite surprised he was that weak to igni, your video makes him look like a normal monster contract boss

 

[RageGT]

Lol. Well you are sort of making it easier for yourself with the OP sign build. I never play with a sign build and toad took me a good 20 mins on DM NG+. Still quite surprised he was that weak to igni, your video makes him look like a normal monster contract boss

Was that fight of yours with 1.11 already?

Good points. I like to play easy, I don't shame it a bit. I tried "normal" on Witcher 2 and I didn't like it. Story is my thing, not the fighting. It is absolutely fantastic, that we have those difficulty levels. That way the game is interesting for many kinds of people. If someone wants to "torture" him/herself with some insane difficulty, that's fine for me, they like fighting. My friend likes challenge and he's playing this with harder difficulties. We can both enjoy this fabulous game and in my opinion that is great. No need to change difficulties.

I get you. I was in a rush to finish TW2 for the 20th time to get a new save to import into TW3 and I really didn't want to go thru in in Dark Mode again. The time it takes from hard fights then farming to get gold to craft Dark Mode stuff would be the enough for 3 runs in Easy diff so I played it on Easy and it was somewhat fun too. Just one clarification. It is not a torture at all. It is a challenge and the more we play at the hardest difficulty, the better we get at it as players and it then becomes less punishing, still challenging and lots more fun because our Witcher gets to be some real badazz.

 

[Walster]

Good points. I like to play easy, I don't shame it a bit. I tried "normal" on Witcher 2 and I didn't like it. Story is my thing, not the fighting. It is absolutely fantastic, that we have those difficulty levels. That way the game is interesting for many kinds of people. If someone wants to "torture" him/herself with some insane difficulty, that's fine for me, they like fighting. My friend likes challenge and he's playing this with harder difficulties. We can both enjoy this fabulous game and in my opinion that is great. No need to change difficulties.

I get you, I too like to play mainly for the story.

However, there are some valid complaints in this thread. I play on the highest difficulty and it was an absolute nightmare at the start of the game. Now, at level 13, with a Witcher gear set and some improved sign talents the game is getting a lot easier. Even when I play for the story only, the combat has become a bit too easy once you get a nice gear set, can't remember the last time I couldn't win a fight.

I think a Death March+ difficulty would be nice.

 

[ReptilePZ]

General difficulty concerns are out of the scope of this thread. Seeing that the changes have been cleared up and we're now moving into off-topic, I think it's time to close it.