I like the difficulty. I have levelled a NB and a sorc and enjoyed the completely different challenge of both. Some bosses I found easy to solo on the NB but hard on the sorc and vice versa. I have had to be very inventive (especially with the NB) and this has forced me to do some research into all the skills to find the synergies that make for powerful combos that do lots of damage, generate enough resources and keep me alive. I see some really poor builds in the game. E.g. sorc running with two pets. Seriously, pets are crap in this game. They target anything you CC, do next to no damage or give next to no resources and take up two slots on your bar. Every time I see a sorc with two pets I try to avoid them because I know they have no idea about how to play the game. Yes you can play as you want....but don't expect to be as effective in a build you threw together because you liked the look of the spells and abilities as you will be with one that you researched and tested to maximise effectiveness and exploit the synergies between active and passive abilities.

Hilgara wrote: »

Yes you can play as you want....but don't expect to be as effective in a build you threw together because you liked the look of the spells and abilities as you will be with one that you researched and tested to maximise effectiveness and exploit the synergies between active and passive abilities.

So instead of enjoying the game as we want we have to follow a certain playstyle to get further with leveling ?

I get that you have to research your gear and build and play the cookiecutter builds for raiding and hardcore grouping but for simple leveling ? Thats just wrong.

On another note it is not because I can't, just because I do not want to cause I don't find every encounter worth struggling over when it is supposed to be a simple peon of an enemy.

Arundo wrote: »

So instead of enjoying the game as we want we have to follow a certain playstyle to get further with leveling ?

I get that you have to research your gear and build and play the cookiecutter builds for raiding and hardcore grouping but for simple leveling ? Thats just wrong.

Listen to your own argument. You are saying you want a game that requires no thought to level. One that you can just throw any combination of abilities together then faceroll the quests. No, that is the one thing this game should never do, scale the difficulty to the least skilled or laziest players in the game because those are the only ones complaining about difficulty. If ZoS dumb this game down any more they will lose the silent majority.

I don't know how many of you Played Diablo 3, when it first came out. Inferno difficulty was incredibly hard. People complained and they nerfed the difficulty. In fact they continued to nerf the difficulty more and more until people started complaining that it was too easy. Then they introduced Monster Power to bring back difficulty. People started complaining that they couldn't play on the hardest Monster Power, so they nerfed that too.

They found a solution for the casual player, MP, but the casual player wanted to play the same content as the hardcore MMOers, without the effort or restrictions to certain builds. I didn't play the expansion but when I stopped playing Diablo, it was a face-roll everything with min/max cookie-cutter builds kinda game.

You could easily play on an easier setting, enjoy everything the game had to offer and do it with whatever build/play-style you desired, but people wanted to play the hardest. There will never be a setting that will make everyone happy.

I think the difficulty is refreshing. As long as you maintain an appropriate level for your area, keep your gear up to date and play at least a little smart, you should be fine.

I haven't looked up any builds and I change the skills I use almost every day that I play. Admittedly I can't goof around, when encountering anything more than 1 enemy or I'll risk dying but I like it. The feel of relief, when another player happens by, after I've died 3 times trying to complete a dungeon, is great. Knowing that your character is not some sort of god who destroys everything in its path with the twitch of a finger, is refreshing.

There are a few encounters that seem disproportionately hard, compared to everything else around but then I remind myself that this is still a very new game and like every other game I've played, will undergo many changes before it establishes a baseline.

If you take anything from this, it is that even if they lowered the difficulty, eventually people would complain that they feel forced to play cookie-cutter builds to be competitive with the more determined MMOers. You can't have a game that caters seamlessly to the casual and hardcore MMOer when the casuals want everything the hardcore players get without compromising anything.

Robocles wrote: »

Reading this thread (and others) makes me wonder what the console sections of this forum will look like once this launches on them.

I imagine it'll be full of people saying how grateful they to pc gamers for putting up with loads of shiz so they don't have to. Or more realistically, lots of people saying that ZOS only care about Pc gamers.

I think the AI is built rather well. When I come across a new monster, I try and do a solo attack so I can see how and what they can do. Then make my tactics for mobbs from that.

Hilgara wrote: »

if you're not prepared to put a little thought into your build then you probably aren't that invested in your character and won't be around for long anyway so no loss really.

The Zenimax investors and their accountants would probably both disagree with that statement and require an explanation and an action plan if they think something is standing between them and their ROI.

Well the die has been cast really. Zenimax has, for better or worse, nailed their colours to the hard-core group mast. Nothing anyone can say or do to change it.

Maybe they're right and maybe they're wrong.

I's say, it's not that it's too hard, it is more like too much is set to hard. As it stands 2/3 of the game is set to hard.

I think there should be 2 maps for hardcore game play, with repeatability, one for group play (Craglorn) and one for solo. All the factions should be more casual.

But that's just my opinion.

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

Well the die has been cast really. Zenimax has, for better or worse, nailed their colours to the hard-core group mast. Nothing anyone can say or do to change it.

Maybe they're right and maybe they're wrong.

I don't think Zenimax have pinned their colors. They're sitting on the fence, thinking that talking about balancing without broaching the subject of future difficulty is the way to alienate the least amount of players.

Dayv wrote: »

None of that explains my dislike for the level of difficulty in VR. I don't mind slow progress, I just don't like frustrating progress.

Quite.

Hilgara wrote: »

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

The game is one thing to L50 and the becomes something altogether different.

Yes it becomes challenging and just waving a bigger sword won't cut it. his is horizontal progression, something all MMO's need nowadays because the cower creep of WoW just doesn't work (see I can sprout gobbldy *** too)

if you're not prepared to put a little thought into your build then you probably aren't that invested in your character and won't be around for long anyway so no loss really.

yes you can spout (not sprout) gobledy ***. the problem is your gobledy *** is wrong. its not horizontal progression its vertical as in you are still levelling up , regardless to whether they re-name it vet 1,2,3 etc.. or just keep it going 51.52.53

so its not end game horizontal progression which nobody minds being hard as hell and slow. cos its optional and horizontal. like extra options or morphs for example.

so 2 thirds of the entire content of the game being rehashed as veteran with the fake difficulty of simply beefing up HP and damage of every mob you face, is frustrating and forces the homogenization of play options down into cookie cutter molds. (light armour and staffs anyone?)

If you equate that to horizontal progression you need to go read up on what that term means.

The game should be challenging but not impossible. Take the challenge out of the and you'll definitely lose your players. If it were up to me I'd remove things like quest map markers and quest 'arrow' guides, forcing players to be more dilligent with being aware of where they are and where they need to go. This would totally eliminate the frantic quest arrow chasing that often goes on. I don't care for it. Of course, I would then have to award more experience for completing quests seeing as how people would be completing quests much slower. Also, I am not opposed to really powerful enemy bosses but they should have weaknesses that players can exploit, but perhaps need to research a bit tofind. I am not a fan of having to "hulk-out" in order to power through an enemy boss.