Divinity Original Sin 2 just launched. Anyone tried it yet?

[NoSoup4You]

I'll have to test out Classic difficulty to see if it's a more pleasant experience than Tactician, unfortunately that means re-rolling and starting over. It's just weird since the hardest difficulty on DOS1 was always challenging but fair, perhaps they've re-calibrated the difficulty in DOS2 so that Classic is now what Tactician used to be...? I don't really have a problem with this... my ego should recover, eventually.

 

[bystander36]

Even on Classic, you are challenged. Here is a break down of what I've noticing.
- 1st, the new armor system prevents any crowd control until you break through either magic or physical armor protection. So you cannot grab a quick advantage, and take out a couple enemy early.
- The new armor system means that your physical damage dealers have to do a bunch of physical damage before you can hurt the enemy, and the magic users have to break down a different magical barrier (I'm not sure I like this, as it makes magic users and physical damage dealers not very good at working together).
- The enemy almost always has better gear, and more hit points. Even on Classic.
- The bigger fights put you against more enemy than your group.
- Most the staged fights also put you in ambushes, where the enemy has the high ground advantage.
- There physical damage dealers do significantly higher damage than my party.

You add all that up, and even Classic requires a lot of care to advance. I've mostly ignored food, but I have a feeling that is a mistake.

 

[bystander36]

Anyways, this new armor system, where magic and physical armor has to be taken out before status effects can be used, has me thinking of a more optimal party structure. On top of the armor, even at level 10, I'm still only seeing level 2 spells (I don't think I've run into level 3 spells yet). This has me thinking that maybe every party member should pick up magic and physical disciplines. That way if you run into enemy with no physical armor, you can quickly control them, and if they have little magic protection, you can quickly bring their magic down and take control. I'm also thinking that physical damage may be preferred for doing damage, as it's generally a lot more consistent.

The start of every fight might consist of everyone dropping magic on targets to allow the Medusa spell petrify everything, or use chill and rain/water to freeze or stun groups. Or if they have weak physical armor, drop that and knock them down, or turn them into chickens. If every member can help out in that, control will be a lot faster.

I just kind of hate this type of party structure, as I'm a fan of the typical tank, healer, controller, damage dealer setup. 4 different types of characters that are stronger together. The first game was a little bit the same way, in which magic was needed on every character for the status effects, but this version may have taken things to a new level.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Is this the EE or the classic? I never played the EE and I read that they buffed some of the crafted items, but the general consensus (when I asked on the Steam discussions) was that crafted items were still years behind anything you could find.

While I played through in both, I was talking about EE. I played the classic on launch and don't remember if I did any crafting at all. Teleport was so broken in classic that it was the only thing you needed to win the entire game.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Okay, Tactician isn't actually that hard afterall. My gear just really sucked, which I knew was the case... I was able to find a couple hidden caches, one of which had a great armor piece and another had a great weapon all for my tank. Using LOS and of course teleporting away difficult enemies allowed me to beat the jailor battle on Tactician, in the process I also leveled up to 4 and got even better gear. Now I'm wrecking face, and picking up more and more better gear at seemingly every turn. I think my tank had like 18 physical armor when I first got stuck, right now only a few hours later he's sitting on 81 physical armor and can actually tank stuff. It's also nice to see there's a taunt skill, I don't remember if DOS1 had that or not. Only the torturer fight and the High Ormand dude (whatever his name is) so far have been too tough. So feel free to forget all my previous whining about Tactician being too tough, it's fine... just watch out for those level 3 big fights and focus, there's at least four huge fights extremely early on that you need gear + skills to have any chance.

The physical/magic armors are definitely a new wrinkle. It seems to encourage hybrid builds for sure, which is okay I guess. I haven't really mixed my damage types yet, I'm only level 5 so we'll see how it goes but so far I'm going the traditional route of melee tank, melee dps rogue, dps/controller caster, healer/buff caster... and it's okay thus far. It's early though so we'll see.

 

[bystander36]

Another trick you can try at times, is to teleport a target that is on the out skirts of a battle to your group, so you can quickly remove him before others get to you.

And don't forget about flee. Weaken a group, get out, regroup, and go back in.

 

[bystander36]

Oh, and for a heads up, around level 8, you will gain the ability to readjust all your skill/stat/talents of all your characters. Don't rebuild if you are close to that, and frustrated with your builds. You can fix them for free.

 

[SMOGZINN]

It's also nice to see there's a taunt skill, I don't remember if DOS1 had that or not.

There is, but it is an Adept skill and by the time you can get Taunt it is no longer useful as everything resists it all the time. Even when they don't it seems that the spell does not make the taunted mob attach only the tank but just increases the odds that it will.

 

[you2]

On tactician mode I didn't find the fights prior to escape that hard. However, I've find 3 fights in act 1 very very hard and almost restarted. Not sure how much you've played so I don't want to give you spoilers. However, the three fights do not include the last fight which in my play-through turned out to be pretty easy.

Okay, Tactician isn't actually that hard afterall. My gear just really sucked, which I knew was the case... I was able to find a couple hidden caches, one of which had a great armor piece and another had a great weapon all for my tank. Using LOS and of course teleporting away difficult enemies allowed me to beat the jailor battle on Tactician, in the process I also leveled up to 4 and got even better gear. Now I'm wrecking face, and picking up more and more better gear at seemingly every turn. I think my tank had like 18 physical armor when I first got stuck, right now only a few hours later he's sitting on 81 physical armor and can actually tank stuff. It's also nice to see there's a taunt skill, I don't remember if DOS1 had that or not. Only the torturer fight and the High Ormand dude (whatever his name is) so far have been too tough. So feel free to forget all my previous whining about Tactician being too tough, it's fine... just watch out for those level 3 big fights and focus, there's at least four huge fights extremely early on that you need gear + skills to have any chance.

The physical/magic armors are definitely a new wrinkle. It seems to encourage hybrid builds for sure, which is okay I guess. I haven't really mixed my damage types yet, I'm only level 5 so we'll see how it goes but so far I'm going the traditional route of melee tank, melee dps rogue, dps/controller caster, healer/buff caster... and it's okay thus far. It's early though so we'll see.

 

[NoSoup4You]

None of the fights are all that hard on Tactician once you have decent gear and a few skills. Without either though, there are some huge fights which you have to get past. Actually, I bet you can sneak past some of them but I didn't try that. This game is pretty flexible with the routes it allows you to leave the prison, a great starting area to be sure.

 

[bystander36]

None of the fights are all that hard on Tactician once you have decent gear and a few skills. Without either though, there are some huge fights which you have to get past. Actually, I bet you can sneak past some of them but I didn't try that. This game is pretty flexible with the routes it allows you to leave the prison, a great starting area to be sure.

I think I found 4 different routes out of the prison area.

 

[frowertr]

I gave up on this game after about an hour and got a refund. I love reading books, but not computer games. I spent 45 minutes walking around a boat reading and listening to NPCs and then about 10 minutes worth of combat. I loved Skyrim but I could't get into this game at all.

 

[bystander36]

I gave up on this game after about an hour and got a refund. I love reading books, but not computer games. I spent 45 minutes walking around a boat reading and listening to NPCs and then about 10 minutes worth of combat. I loved Skyrim but I could't get into this game at all.

It takes a couple hours to get the setting set for the combat. This is more like an old school AD&D game. Once you get past the background, combat starts to happen more and more. You also have to think a little, and look for clues. Once you get around level 3-4, you can start to make your move and get out of the prison and off the island around level 8. Then you'll have a little bit of the same again, at a new location, but the combat is more exciting right away.

Anyways, if you don't like the questing aspect of the game, you might just quit now, but if you stick it out until you can make your prison break, the combat gets fun.

 

[Grooveriding]

Awesome game. For the price this is a steal compared to what AAA studios charge for total garbage.

 

[Mem]

I enjoyed the first game and have my eyes on this one, I might wait awhile for a patch or two, also a price drop on Steam or GOG would be nice especially when Christmas is not that far away .

You guys found any bugs?

 

[bystander36]

The amazing thing is, I have not run into any bugs as of yet. Everything seems pretty polished (up to level 15). The fights are interesting, and upgrades are also good. There are no artificial level blocks on fights that I can see, but every level offers a pretty substantial HP and gear boost, so it's still hard to fight outside your level range. I think the highest I've gone is 2 levels higher than me on a major fight. And my theory on making every character have some magic is paying off. Almost all battles are finished with melee, but to get control of the fights, you need to be able to drop their magic armor in a hurry.

 

[you2]

THere are a few bugs. I find bugs in every game I guess but nothing that makes me scream. I've had two hard crashes; and lots of journal issues (patch today is suppose to fix some of those).

 

[WhiteNoise]

This is without a doubt the best rpg D&D style game I have played in years. It is fantastic and easily my favorite game this year. I just made it to Act II after spending 31 hours in Act I.

 

[Qwertilot]

Nothing like D&D is it? 1 very definitely wasn't. Hugely different sort of feel to the world. Which is one of the good points of course.

 

[bystander36]

Nothing like D&D is it? 1 very definitely wasn't. Hugely different sort of feel to the world. Which is one of the good points of course.

Both are very much like AD&D style games. It's a lot like Baldur's Gate, but the character builds are unique (though not that different), and the mechanics are more modern, the way AD&D would have been more like had it been designed for a PC, and not for the table top. It's turn based, but you can move a bit more freely, rather than in constricted grids.

 

[Grooveriding]

The journal is a mess as far as bugs go. I also find the AI for unit pathing is broken in certain instances. There is terrain that is navigable, but the AI thinks it isn't, forcing you to manually control a party member to move them past the point the AI thinks they can't pass.

They patched today though and it's supposed to have fixed a lot of the bugs. Haven't had time to play today to check it out yet. I am level 13 and working through Act 2 right now.

 

[bystander36]

The journal is a mess as far as bugs go. I also find the AI for unit pathing is broken in certain instances. There is terrain that is navigable, but the AI thinks it isn't, forcing you to manually control a party member to move them past the point the AI thinks they can't pass.

They patched today though and it's supposed to have fixed a lot of the bugs. Haven't had time to play today to check it out yet. I am level 13 and working through Act 2 right now.

I'm not sure about the journal, but as far as pathing goes, the AI does not allow your party members to cross damaging surfaces. Though that does not include mines and traps which are not triggered.

 

[bystander36]

Ok, so I've made it to the final area I believe, in Chapter 5. The final show down is probably coming shortly, and all I want to do now is restart the game and try it as a Lone Wolf (it allows 1 companion this time around). What's wrong with me...

 

[Stg-Flame]

I know it goes without saying, but please keep this spoiler free for those of us who haven't played it yet.

 

[bystander36]

I finally finished the game. It was definitely a good one, one of the best RPG's in a long time. Some of the puzzles took real thought.