New Difficulty ? Death March too easy !

[Medy89]

New Difficulty ? Death March too easy !

Greetings fellow Witchers ,

first off - Let me say that I think :" Death March does not live up to its name".
That being said, I think it would be nice , or let me rephrase : I totally want smth harder than death march. So to say a hardcore mode giving further meaning to potions and oils... As of now , it feels like this stuff is nothing more than a mere show effect and not neccecary because the witcher is strong enough.

But let me further explain (from my experience on death march difficulty) "what speaks for a new difficulty?" or more likely: why a new difficulty probably wont even be neccecary and not the best option.

The first few hours of the game delivered a challenge.
Why is that ? Because you dont have great armor \ skillpoints.....
As soon as you got some of those ... it gets easy very fast ....
I think the culprits that make things too easy are :

-QUEN (Active Shield) - Restores ridiculus amounts of hp on hit ..... lvl 3 definetly needs to be nerved ... OP as hell ... you dont even need swallow anymore .. cutting that effect in half might not even be enough....

-WITCHER ARMOR - Stats are op ( they increased lvl requirements now) but now you will never be able to wear mastercrafted armor before the game is as good as over... stats need to be nerved while lvl requirements need to be lower.... (let us wear mastercrafted lvl 22-25 at the latest) ....

IGNI - I havent seen igni on the latest patch , but my biggest issue with it was : it makes enemys burn way too long which does way too much dmg...

Now if those major culprits are adressed , death march would already be way more deserving of its name....

Now that you dont have OP healing / OP fire dmg /OP armor anymore, stuff like oils and potions would feel like smth you would need...
That would be nice.... I probably would even take a look at the beastiary now , because I no longer have any means of doing op dmg and healing...

I believe a few adjustments of (QUEN, IGNI,ARMOR) could already work wonders for a proper "Death March" difficulty.... there might be some more culprits that ruin death march ..... feel free to add them here... drop your thoughts on death march / new difficulty / balancing... I will also add a poll

Ps :
A major gripe I have with "Griffin school techniques" ( Stamina regeneration bonus ) on an armor which is supposed to be heavier than light armor and drag you down more , gives you a bonus on stamina regeneration ? what the heck ? think about it pls... and replace stamina regen with smth else.... I think its just plain wrong ... and messes with the concept of light ,medium ,heavy armor

Let us help them create a good challenge for us ....

 

[TheCrustacean]

Greetings fellow Witchers ,

first off let me say that I think :" Death March does not live up to its name".
That being said, I think it would be nice , or let me rephrase : I totally want smth harder than death march. So to say a hardcore mode giving further meaning to potions and oils... As of now , it feels like this stuff is nothing more than a mere show effect and not neccecary because the witcher is strong enough.

But let me further explain (from my experience on death march difficulty) "what speaks for a new difficulty?" or more likely: why a new difficulty probably wont even be neccecary and not the best option.

The first few hours of the game delivered a challenge.
Why is that ? Because you dont have great armor \ skillpoints.....
As soon as you got some of those ... it gets easy very fast ....
I think the culprits for this are :

-QUEN (Active Shield) - Restores ridiculus amounts of hp on hit ..... lvl 3 definetly needs to be nerved ... OP as hell ... you dont even need swallow anymore .. cutting that effect in half might not even be enough....

-WITCHER ARMOR - Stats are op ( they increased lvl requirements now) but now you will never be able to wear mastercrafted armor before the game is as good as over... stats need to be nerved while lvl requirements need to be lower.... (let us wear mastercrafted lvl 22-25 at the latest) ....

IGNI - I havent seen igni on the latest patch , but my biggest issue with it was : it makes enemys burn way too long which does way too much dmg...

Now if those major culprits are adressed , death march would already be way more deserving of its name....

Now that you dont have OP healing / OP fire dmg /OP armor anymore, stuff like oils and potions would feel like smth you would need...
That would be nice.... I probably would even take a look at the beastiary now , because I no longer have any means of doing op dmg and healing...

I believe a few adjustments of (QUEN, IGNI,ARMOR) could already work wonders for a proper "Death March" difficulty.... there might be some more culprits that ruin death march ..... feel free to add them here... drop your thoughts on death march / new difficulty / balancing... I will also add a poll

Ps :
a major gripe I have with "Griffin school techniques" ( Stamina regeneration bonus ) on an armor which is supposed to be heavier than light armor and drag you down more , gives you a bonus on stamina regeneration ? what the heck ? think about it pls... and replace stamina regen with smth else.... I think its just plain wrong ... xD

Let us help them create a good challenge for us ....

Jesus, more ignorant "sign" / "igni" is OP post.

Combat is just as broken. Don't be a hypocrite. If Igni burns too much than Whirl is just ridiculous with the shenanigans you can pull.

 

[Medy89]

Jesus, more ignorant "sign" / "igni" is OP post.

Combat is just as broken. Don't be a hypocrite. If Igni burns too much than Whirl is just ridiculous with the shenanigans you can pull.

I didnt even think of whirl as it does not interfere with anything early on , because you aquire it very late game....

stuff like igni can be used from the start.... quen shield can be aquired in white orchard with places of power.... it breaks the balance very early ...

thats the problem I have with some abilites... they ruin the difficulty at early stages of the game.... making other mechanics like potions / oils obsolete.... why even bother applying oil when a simple igni is 10 times more effective ?

 

[PJmichelle]

Yes, I agree the game is way too easy at the moment. It really needs a new difficulty above Death March, with everything re-balanced. I really hope this is the final DLC they are giving us next week, but quite frankly I don't believe it. I always apply the oils and try to combine it with useful bombs and signs, simply because I like it, but if I ever try to face enemies with just the swords, it seems like I melt them just as fast. Dark mode was later added to Witcher 2, so who knows, maybe at some point they will add something? But even Dark ended up being way too easy.

Meanwhile, you could try giving yourself some kind of challenge. Like, let's say, don't use any witcher armour at all. Don't sell anything, only spend the money you find and get from contracts. Only go for one skill tree. Or something like that, be creative. And for the love of god, don't use the respec potion, I can't believe they put that in the game...

I remember back in the days of Diablo 1, players used to come up with their own rules to give the game more challenge, like for example never to return to Tristram once you entered the cathedral or not to use the blacksmith or Cain to identify items for you. It was a lot of fun. There were even names for each type of challenges, but I was about 10 years old back then, and can't remember anymore.

 

[qwal]

Or you can just do like me. Using normal quen, never upgrading it. using starting chest armor and only switching rest of light gear.

using bombs and oils is very important. only healing with food out of combat. only swallow in combat.

first playthrough also. lots and lots of fun.

 

[OptoNick]

Way too easy.

I like the idea to remove mutagen links. Maybe nerf some decoctions and decrease power of critical effects (burning, stunning, etc.). Make some monsters kill Geralt with one shot, no matter the level - like heavy blow by elementals/fiends/trolls/etc., air strike by griffins/basilisks/etc., ghosts 'going-through' attacks, and so on.

 

[thibaudv]

If you're on PC, check out the better combat enhanced mod, it completely fixes the problem imo.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...age=1&sort=DESC&pid=0&thread_id=2977794&pUp=1

 

[Richiesname]

If you're on PC, check out the better combat enhanced mod, it completely fixes the problem imo.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...age=1&sort=DESC&pid=0&thread_id=2977794&pUp=1

Agreed. Better Combat Enhanced totally fixed the combat difficulty thing for me too.

 

[Medy89]

If you're on PC, check out the better combat enhanced mod, it completely fixes the problem imo.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...age=1&sort=DESC&pid=0&thread_id=2977794&pUp=1

Im really liking some of what I read so far.... might even try it when the new expansion comes out ...( if the mod still works and cdpr didnt do smth about it themselves) .... So far this mod seems to adress major issues , but also makes some rather harsh changes.... like the bit where you can use every alternate sign & sword skill from the start.... dont get me wrong I think it might do better than what default does atm ... cdpr could take notes from this and adjust things without making such harsh changes ....

 

[Phinnway]

Way too easy.

I think part of the reason why is they attempted to make the game like a cRPG where leveling is really slow and you feel really weak early on, but once you overcome that hurdle you feel like a badass. I know for a FACT that's what they were trying to do because Damien has talked about it on a number of occasions. The problem is... that style of progression works fine in a game where max level is 6 or 12. But in a game where max level is 35, it simply doesn't. You feel weak for the first 10 levels and badass for the next 20. If they really wanted to go for that style of progression the "badass" feeling should come around level 25, not level 10.

 

[Medy89]

Way too easy.

I think part of the reason why is they attempted to make the game like a cRPG where leveling is really slow and you feel really weak early on, but once you overcome that hurdle you feel like a badass. I know for a FACT that's what they were trying to do because Damien has talked about it on a number of occasions. The problem is... that style of progression works fine in a game where max level is 6 or 12. But in a game where max level is 35, it simply doesn't. You feel weak for the first 10 levels and badass for the next 20. If they really wanted to go for that style of progression the "badass" feeling should come around level 25, not level 10.

Yeah that didnt really worked out... some skills really need to be reworked ( at my next playthrough I will probably try to avoid some rather op skills)
I really liked what the modder(nexusmod) wrote here and I strongly agree .. didnt like what I read about some of the harsh changes though...

--> The default difficulty curve in Death March is something like this: very difficult at beginning, moderately easu by middle game, very easy in the end. With these changes it is more like: moderately difficult in the beginning, moderately difficult to difficult in the middle game, normal to moderately difficult in the end (values are naturally dependent on player skill).

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...r3/ajax/moddescription/?id=212&preview=&pUp=1

 

[PapaVeNeti]

Well, a quick solution could be a scaling up system where all enemies would have geralt's level +2. But, the have to rebalnce the combat system a bit before the expansions. Especially the alcemy system. I mean, players could have a white raffards potion and a tawny owl at the beginning (white raffards should be craftable, i mean like swallow , that we have to craft, not like tawny owl that we get from the beggining. Then all potions/ decotions., should have a more durrable effect , but we should be only able to drink tham in meditations. Oils , should have limited uses, until we meditate to refill them. And all armors should be nerfer a bit. I mean witcher gear makes you a god for the next 5 levels. Only another witcher gear has more armor. The witcher gear could be powerful for the next 2/3 levels and then relic armor sets should offer more protection. mastercrafted armor sets could be op for the next 5 levels or we could enchance them every 10 levels , especially necessary for ng+
BUT YEAH. THE GAME IS TOO EASY.

 

[Abjatha]

After early game, vanilla deathmarch is definitely too easy. Better Combat Enhanced mod does pretty good job at re-balancing or removing op stuff. I'd would suggest Enhanced Gwent mod for new play though as well, it shakes up Gwent quite nicely.

 

[Garrison72]

I don't know how NG+ took precedence over this but yeah, the game needs to be rebalanced or it could use a harder mode. And have the difficulty extend to the economy so that herbs and loot don't pop up every five feet and making money is harder. I wonder if something like a 'Classic' mode would be possible, where alchemy worked closer to how it did in the last game, ie; no taking potions during fights, long lasting buffs, etc. Probably too much work though.

 

[molnibalage]

Play as way you do not loot anything from villagers, houses and other public locations (which looks very weird...) only from wilderness, "?+ marks and abandoned locations.

Well, a quick solution could be a scaling up system where all enemies would have geralt's level +2.

There is no worse in CRPGs than matched and boosted NPC-s and monsters according to your level... I hate it.