Leveling new heroes is now a slog

So, the game has gotten very big and with this balance patch the lower levels are now a huge time-sink. I am trying to get a Witchblade to 100, and with its lower damage I feel like I am hitting bricks with a foam hammer with some boss and unique monsters. Basically, it is just taking way more time. There is something risky about increasing health pools to increase difficulty. Sure, you need to be more careful with the damage increases to mobs, but the increase in health and resist equals time and makes leveling alts less fun. I feel like it will take forever, now, and end-game builds are what GD is all about for me. I get that you are balancing the complete game for console release, but can you cool it on these big health pool increases? Oddly enough, I don’t notice a big difference for my end-game builds so it feels unbalanced.

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Play the game as a completely new player, you will feel that there is no longer a wall when you get to FG or AoM content.

If the goal of the game was to get as many chars as possible, crate would just make things even easier - but from a balance point of view it is kinda insane that there suddenly is a big freaking wall when you get to FG and AoM content and many new(er) players have complained about this.

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I am saying that increasing health pools and making bullet sponges (or sword and spell sponges…) is not a way to make something harder, just more time consuming. I agree with the new damage stats for early game. I have had to be a lot more careful. But beating on Ikrix for what seems like forever with rinse-and-repeat is just boring.

on what difficulty?

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Don’t worry, they also buffed their damage so that they can kill you if you blink at the wrong time :rofl:

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Veteran. I am trying to get levels quickly with bonuses, not challenge myself on grinding low-level stuff by jumping to elite or ulti off the bat. Defensive Witchblade’s start damage is hot garbage unless you are doing generic cadence, but I still think health levels need to be adjusted for CERTAIN mobs. I have a few heroes in the 50’s and 60’s and I can’t tell a huge difference with those levels on elite. But at level 29 on veteran the sponge effect is very noticeable.

The easy way is to drink a clarity pot and play crucible until 50.

I have the Lokarr set as well so with that set and the xp pot I can get to 50 within an hour or 2 just playing crucible over and over.

Just play in Normal then, Veteran is not mean to be “the quick way”

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Exactly, for getting level 50 asap its crucible or bust

With a 10% exp and clarity boosts it seems like the quick way if you aren’t going Lokarr-Crucible. But I guess I will just do the “grind crucible” method. Though I prefer playing through the story to wave defense. My main point is that some mobs take forever but the challenge level isn’t increased, just the time. Which is bad. But not all mobs. I like the new damage stats and dangerous AoE effects.

Why should that 10% exp mean that veteran is faster than normal? you can easily get to level 50 faster in Normal due to how faster it is to kill stuff there

Dude. You are missing the point. It is about enjoying the journey, not the time. If i cared about super-fast leveling I would do crucible. I enjoy the journey less with tedious mechanics, namely making some enemies sponges with rinse-and-repeat gameplay. Sponges are not a balance or a challenge, they are just a ploy to slow down players’ advance through content. Its an old design trick, and a bad one. I’d like to see the “new” GD avoid it by lookingt at some mobs’ health pools.

But then:

Hm… :thinking:

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If you are for enjoying the journey, play normal instead of veteran.

Indeed, monsters now taking two hits to kill instead of one is quite spongy; a 100% increase in time to kill!

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I love it when people make mountains out of molehills. Trash mobs are fine. You must have missed the “certain boss and unique” part of the original post. Being threatened by a unique’s damage output and abilities is fun…like old Loxmere Nightmage. He wasn’t a sponge, he was just dangerous. However, beating on a non-challenging enemy for a few minutes is not fun. If you think that is a good design choice, go try Chaosbane. You will love it.

This is less about me and more about a concern for how some monsters have been re-balanced. Like I said, I can easily do crucible since veteran is apparently “no longer for leveling.” It doesn’t change the fact that sponges are not fun. Take that as you will.

Veteran was never the call for leveling. It had always been leaps and bounds more efficient to speed through Normal, power through Elite, and rush Ultimate as fast as possible. This still remains the case, except now Veteran is actually challenging again for the first time since Early Access. The 10% XP boost serves only to help new(er) players meet that challenge without being supremely overwhelmed.

In my HC Veteran playthrough with a PRM Arcanist, I didn’t find anything spongy that wasn’t

  • An elite pre-level 15
  • A boss

If it’s taking you “minutes” to kill a “non-challenging enemy”, I’d say you have a very serious build issue.

What is the definition of “speed through”, “power through” and “rush” ?

What do you suppose they mean?

Yeah. Veteran was always slower than normal. And more health does require you use more resources in fights. If that’s not the case then your build is good and you’re powering through anyway.

I already have a thread proving how even non optimal skills for low level can power through veteran let alone normal. I honestly find the increase more fun. Maybe some enemies were undertuned if anything. Salazar could be harder in veteran. If you want more enemy damage instead of hp, that is a fine tightrope to walk though.

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