Let's talk combat

[jack1974]

Yes true, will wait second act before doing changes like this then.
BTW I checked and melee attacks from the back have -40% penalty except for the polearms that have -25% (since have a higher reach). So definitely not just 10% penalty.

[yayswords]

Hmm, I checked again and indeed your numbers seem right. Maybe stagger was involved in my earlier observations.

[fabulaparva]

So, currently playing v0.85 in Hard-mode, combination Ranger + Hunter. Not quite at the end yet. The difficulty seems to be a bit closer to normal than hard, really. Most boss battles (Necromancer, Kodiak, Giant Spider) the twins have managed to sail through if not on the first try, then on the second. Considering that this is the first Act, I guess that's Okay. On the other hand, I remember getting somewhat frustrated playing Loren in Hard-mode, when I encountering Grob for the first time at the inn. Of course I'm not suggesting making Hard-mode the new NM-mode and turning the NM-mode into Impossible-mode. Anyway, here's a link to either Hunter-awesomeness or Hunter-overkill. No statuses on the goblin, Hunter is hiding in the shadows, aiming to double-hit at level 5, Strength 22, Attack 27. Kaboom!

http://oi58.tinypic.com/1si3hu.jpg

[jack1974]

Yes is the first act so I don't want to scare people away being too difficult. I might raise VERY SLIGHTLY the Hard in next update, but something like +2% attack/defense, so shouldn't change much now (but will have more importance later with bigger numbers).
The Hunter right now probably is a bit overpowered, because of the double damage with hiding in shadow, so might reduce a bit the damage, even if that one is a weak opponent, on the Huge Kodiak does less damage, but still good.
Warrior = Tank, Hunter = damage dealer, Druid = nuker/healer
I made my dream come true!

[fabulaparva]

Well, I'll be curious how the challenge of Hard-mode will turn out to be in the upcoming versions! I guess another sign for a slight imbalance just now is that I managed easily to do all the other quests except the polar bear-one, of course, before Chapter 2 started. That's too easy for Hard-mode, in my opinion.

Thank you for the Nuke-Druid, I love a powerful mage in an RPG. It's like getting to control Raistlin.

[jack1974]

I will probably increase the encounters of the sidequests, in particular the boss battles a bit but not by much

[Troyen]

Well, I'll be curious how the challenge of Hard-mode will turn out to be in the upcoming versions! I guess another sign for a slight imbalance just now is that I managed easily to do all the other quests except the polar bear-one, of course, before Chapter 2 started. That's too easy for Hard-mode, in my opinion.

Thank you for the Nuke-Druid, I love a powerful mage in an RPG. It's like getting to control Raistlin.

Beating all the battles should be fine, as long as the difficulty is enough that you have to use your special abilities judiciously and you take advantage of board location. I don't think the aim is to "not be able to beat X unless you have all the best gear" but rather "wow, I beat that fight [on my first try?] but it was really close." There should be some risk of failure, but not complete failure.

Of course, I'm still not 100% sure I understand the intended difference between Hard and Nightmare.

[jack1974]

Well, is like Hard, but harder
Jokes apart an extra difficult setting for people who find Hard "too easy" like happened for Loren. The problem is that is probably the hardest to balance.

[yayswords]

By the way, fabulaparva, you don't actually deal the displayed amount of damage with HiS+ Double Attack. The mouseover calculates it as though HiS boosts both the attacks but it will only boost the first, so you will do 75% of what it says there. Which is still a lot of course

On a different note, I think Strike Through might be the currently strongest attack against the back row. At least it hurts more than the bow. My hunter did however NOT acquire some superbow, 18 damage only, and the ranger's hammer is 25 or something. Maybe with Take Aim things would be different. Druid nukes not accounted for. And then bear in mind that Strike Through is going to hurt someone in the front row too

[yayswords]

I want to talk about agility and skill. I have not taken agility at all for several playthroughs now. Speed is, by default, up in the hundreds. To take a point of agility is less than a 1% improvement. Sometimes I compare my characters to mobs and notice I would need like +30 speed to get faster than them. So not going to happen. I know it gives crit too but that doesn't help it enough.

Now skill. On this ranger/hunter playthrough, I went heavy str/con (on Vaelis too), but I did take some skill. Mostly because I had 1 point left after raising them both over 20 and wanted to spend it. Anyway I look at my characters' attack values. They're all around 30. With 22-23 strength on everyone, clearly strength has done a huge part of this. Then I look at defense (my toons have ~14 skill). Like 20 base... and then at least 80 with gear. How exciting does that make skill? Strength constitutes 3/4 my attack but skill constitutes 1/4 my defense, if even that much.

For agility I'd like no change to the attribute but rather divide everyone's current base speed values by 10 or so, and points here would feel like they make a difference. For skill I'm reluctant to suggest a % defense boost as that could easily get out of hand. But maybe +5 per point instead of +1.

P.S. I can't bring myself to make a ranger/druid party. Hunters have gone from ticklers to mana batteries to the coolest class in Loren and SotW combined. Druids are, even if sufficiently powerful, extremely bland right now. I might be spending my day sporadically thinking of a remake of the druid skill tree.