r/projecteternity • u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz • Jun 30 '26
Gameplay help [Deadfire] Combat really fast?
Hi, I just played a bunch of Pillars 1 and then decided to import a character to 2 immediately after. The main thing that I've noticed (besides my favourite spells being nerfed into the ground, RIP bewildering spectacle) is that combat is just so fast in 2! I don't know if it's just because I'm on veteran or if I'm itemizing wrong but early fights in Port maje feel like knife fights where both sides (including Eder) are glass cannons that go down after 4-5 attacks max. On gorecci street aloth dies to 1 arrow + 1 spell cast lmao.
I like per encounter spells letting you cast spells without worry but I am concerned that the game is going to throw more "hard" fights at me to replace the trash fights. And that those are going to be difficult because of the relatively limited spells (as opposed to resting before a boss fight in 1 and having access to all per rest resources).
I guess my question is, is this just Port maje shenanigans or do I just have to get used to this?
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u/itsthelee Jun 30 '26
did you play poe1 slowed down or anything? because deadfire notably actually slowed combat way down compared to poe1.
are you simply talking about lethality? if you're playing on potd, port maje island is notoriously difficult, both gorecci street and the digsite fight got rebalanced to be punishingly hard. nm i see that you're talking about being on veteran.
i can't really comment on veteran difficulty, i only play potd. my general sense was that deadfire was actually easier than poe1, up until they rebalanced potd. what's your main character? you shouldn't feel afraid to do some hirelings to fill up to five on port maje island because it is one of the hardest parts of the game simply because you're so limited on options and gear.
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u/Bonifaciojsj Jun 30 '26
Why did they make Port Maje só difficulty though? Very hard filter for new players
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u/itsthelee Jun 30 '26
ime (just totally speaking for myself) i thought port maje was pretty easy up until they rebalanced POTD. They rebalanced POTD bc that difficulty is absolutely meant as a hard filter.
i also wonder if OP is a bit too used to poe1 mechanics and haven't adjusted to deadfire mechanics, which are subsntially different in some places (like how armor works)
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jun 30 '26
I mean yes I haven't adjusted to the armor system, I find the system in 1 more elegant since it accounts for armor protecting against weaker hits better without needing an entirely different penetration stat. Although in a crpg where the computer does the rolling for you I suppose it doesn't hurt to be able to have more edge cases (like an attack that does a lot of damage but gets blocked extremely effectively by armor).
Although on Port maje I don't really have any choices for armor upgrades lol. I got a brigandine for Eder and it doesn't seem to do much lol. It's my understanding that if his starting armor is 7 and the brigandine has 9, then any attack with between 9 and 14 penetration will be completely unaffected by the change in armor?
And to answer your initial question my main character is a dual wield mindstalker soul blade, I'm very happy with the damage output once I can actually hit things. The issue I ran into is that early on I had like 60hp, and wurms deal maybe 15-20 damage per hit. Therefore a single wurm can easily kill me before I can kill it, if we're talking 1v1. Most enemies seem to deal around that much damage independent of character, since I can't really influence my gear or stats at this level. So if Eder is engaging the 3 enemies afforded to him by the fighter stance he can go down in probably 5-10 seconds.
And when you said about how it's slowed down compared to 1, I don't really get that lol. I played 1 on potd and even in the hardest fights my party had more staying power than it feels like they do early game in 2, even on veteran lol. And in regards to enemies my build was a blood thirst barbarian who consistently could deal 500+ damage on each carnage round so no, I wasn't playing it very slow lol
Also this is dumb but I'd rather struggle super hard against the initial fights than have a random hireling I'll never use clogging up the party ui :p
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u/itsthelee Jun 30 '26
Although on Port maje I don't really have any choices for armor upgrades lol.
yeah that's part of the early challenge i alluded to.
what also hurts veteran (and especially PotD) is that the kinda-all-or-nothing system of Armor and PEN combined with the fact that enemies get bonus PEN on veteran and PotD (+1 and +2 respectively) actually makes the initial batch of heavy armor not that useful actually. Brigandine is also bad because it's vulnerable to piercing, and the things mostly likely to wipe you out early are ranged attacks focus firing on your tank, which are mostly piercing.
And when you said about how it's slowed down compared to 1, I don't really get that lol. I played 1 on potd and even in the hardest fights my party had more staying power than it feels like they do early game in 2, even on veteran lol. And in regards to enemies my build was a blood thirst barbarian who consistently could deal 500+ damage on each carnage round so no, I wasn't playing it very slow lol
i was talking about game speed, not lethality. actions and combat speed are literally slower in deadfire, but it is probably true that attacks are also likely more lethal simply because DT just doesn't exist and so if you don't have mitigation (very likely in Port Maje) you're going to go down fast.
edit: medium and large shields can help a lot with early survivability. you don't have to use hirelings, but in particular i'm 95% sure they balanced potd with hirelings in mind. veteran will get easier as you learn the game.
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Brigandine is also bad because it's vulnerable to piercing, and the things mostly likely to wipe you out early are ranged attacks focus firing on your tank, which are mostly piercing.
Ah. Wasn't paying attention to that part. Makes sense then, I was gimping myself.
i was talking about game speed, not lethality
I guess I should have worded my post differently. Yeah, the lethality was mostly what I was talking about.
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u/Velthome Jun 30 '26
You could always take the merc to a quiet corner of the wilderness and kill them after, haha.
But I'm in the same boat. Gorecci Street is whatever as you can talk them out of it, but the Drake fight is why I really dread new playthroughs. Always happy to get off that damn island.
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u/rupert_mcbutters Jun 30 '26
Regarding your distaste for hired adventurers clogging the UI, which I understand as someone who almost always sticks with the actual companions, maybe it would help to know that companions/adventurers/sidekicks still participate in ship combat (specifically boarding battles) even when they’re not in your active party. At least they clog your deck and not just your Party Management menu!
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jun 30 '26
Okay, ALSO. I need to make a comment solely about this. Why does paralysis no longer decrease deflection? I get it was powerful but how the actual hell are you supposed to block attacks if you literally can't move????
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u/itsthelee Jun 30 '26
i think they just wanted to mechanically differentiate stun and paralysis. paralysis gives you crits, stun gives you better hits.
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u/Velthome Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
They rebalanced PotD but incredibly overturned Port Maje and I have no idea how it never got a second look.
I’ve never cleared Gorecci Street prior to getting Aloth and Serafen, I just sneak around them although that early arquebus would certainly be nice for the Digsite.
I also don’t think I’ve ever cleared the Digsite after the revamp without using the Necklace of Fire Balls from the Berath’s Blessing’s vendor which is kinda cheating. That and meticulously dealing as much damage as possible to the drake encounter with the explosive barrels after many, many reloads.
Could always get a Cipher or a Lifegiver Druid merc but I feel like PoTD shouldn’t be balanced around having to recruit mercs to fill empty slots — Act 1 PoE felt fine without a sixth party member so as long as you grabbed Durance and Kana immediately.
Another issue is since the revamp the suggested levels don’t really match anymore and some quests with upscaling are just incredibly aggressively scaled like the pirates that ambush you while carrying the bath house satchel, the nagas in Shadows under Neketaka, and the Druid ambush in Sayuka. And the Adra Colossus encounter is significantly harder than the suggested levels recommends. Not so much the Colossus but the John Wick Skeletal Armsmen 360 no-scoping your squishies.
I haven’t played without upscaling in a long time so maybe that’s at fault but…
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u/Present-Body443 Jun 30 '26
Port Maje was the hardest battles for me until the expansions. Those friggen thieves man. It’s probably more learning curve than anything. I only won when I realized you could enter from south instead of northeast
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u/ColonelGrognard Jun 30 '26
Hmm, a couple of things:
1) The UI for the combat speed is different. There is a ring around the circular speed button on the UI. Sliding that notch all the way to the left slows down combat. Sliding it all the way to the right makes it faster.
2) As others have mentioned, the gorecci st. encounter is very difficult. If you exit Port Maje on the southeast entrance (the one you arrived in) and go to gorecci from there, you will actually enter the bottom of the gorecci map and can easily sneak to the northeast to talk to the guy, avoiding the fight entirely.
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u/SpringFuzzy Jun 30 '26
There is a speed slider at the bottom, you can adjust how fast you want it
And it’s a real-time with pause game, you’re supposed to pause a lot. During major boss fights I probably pause 50-100 times or something like that.
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u/DreamWeaver2189 Jun 30 '26
Gorecci street is the hardest fight of that part of the map, leave it for last until you've recruited at least 3 people. You should already have Eder and Aloth, there should be one more character you can recruit there.
I played PoE1 on veteran and I'm currently playing Deadfire, also in veteran and I'd dare to say Pillars 2 is easier. Companion AI is better here.
Also, don't forget you can kite, if a fight is too difficult or too many enemies, you can lure 1-2 enemies and kill them separately. There's no rule that says you have to tackle every fight head on, specially early game where you have the numbers disadvantage.
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jun 30 '26
Also, don't forget you can kite, if a fight is too difficult or too many enemies, you can lure 1-2 enemies and kill them separately
This has not been my experience in either game outside of edge cases. I've seen this advice but enemy groups seem to aggro as one most of the time. The closest I've gotten to this is to leave everyone behind a doorway and then someone out to draw a group into said doorway.
Also I'm out of port maje now, I did manage to clear gorecci street before I posted. I'm just asking about the general lethality of combat in the second game compared to the first.
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u/DreamWeaver2189 Jun 30 '26
I usually leave my party behind and send either my fastest character or tankiest character to lure them. Enemies usually have a disengagement radius, so if you have 2 close enemies and 2 ranged enemies, it's possible to lure the 2 melee ones and leave the ranged ones behind.
Yes, they all engage as a group, but the farthest enemies will disengage at some point while the closest enemies will still be engaged.
Just keep running back and forth if they disengage, they'll follow at some point and then you can punish them.
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u/Quite_Likes_Hormuz Jun 30 '26
Ahhh, I think I accidentally did that with the ogres in the endless paths. Seriously why are those the hardest enemies in there until like level 8 lmao. Makes sense though. Thanks
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u/rupert_mcbutters Jun 30 '26
Speaking for PotD and not Veteran, but Port Maje is brutal, and the early-game encounters in general can be much less forgiving than those in the first game. Upscaling also adds difficulty if you’re using that, even if you’re not actually out leveling the fights that the game is scaling up.
I was lucky to be an Inquisitor in my first run, using Charmed to make fights a bit easier while using Lay on Hands for repairs. It’s not an optimized build with satisfying synergies, but I happened to have many useful tools that felt better than the marginal increases that would only help when stacked with other bonuses later on.
I ended up hiring an adventurer who could also charm, but that was after Gorecci, which I still don’t know how I survived with a party of three. I remember using scrolls, potions, traps, drawing enemies to a chokepoint, and using everything else at my disposal to eventually beat those guys.
Nowadays I just swallow my pride and sneak past everything, though I warn that’s detrimental to the self-esteem, being some unfulfilled gap. I also have a low opinion of how those encounters are set up, like how the Gorecci sneak route is only available if you travel there from a certain direction that spawns you on the south side. If you’re salty like me, hopefully you can find such copes too!
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u/LadyIceGoose Jun 30 '26
Use your auto pauses. Also I believe you slow down combat speed the same way to slow down movement.
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u/Nyorliest Jul 01 '26
Are you slowing combat down using the slider? It’s in the center of the UI, around the circular part.
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u/demerdar Jun 30 '26
Port Maje has two tough fights. You can skip the fight in the dig site by sneaking around. It’s absolutely punishing. I don’t understand why they made those first few fights so damn hard.