It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.

Corillan on Jan 19, 2015 wrote:

It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.

What are you talking about? I pretty much do everything solo and its not that hard. It just takes awhile. As a swashbuckler, you can just use walk in shadows/ darkness to hide if you have low health.

Fearless Finnagan lvl 52

I read this and begin to wonder why you moved your companion to a spot where they could be surrounded....

Virtuous Dante Ramsey

I played solo every class, the difficulty varies depending on what class you played.I find as a Buccaneer and as a Swashbuckler playing solo not that hard, at least based on my gaming experince.The game for me is not that hard for these two class,compare to the olden days when the difficulties were even harder. Belive it or not playing pirates in the early days was challenging compare to today's difficulty, just ask any active veteran players, they have a story to tell. As a Musketeer and Privateer it's a bit more challenging, in my opinon these are recommended for intermediate players or players want a more tectical aporch to the battle. As a witchdoctor now this class in my opinon is recommended for advanced player or players want the ultimate challenge, unlike other class this class is unique it focus on more hoodoo power than physical powers.

I am used soloing for most part of the storyline,but some zones are hard for me to solo like Moo Manchu tower, the Hydra Cave and the smuggler's arena.If lucky ask a willing player to form a group or hire a henchman or two only if it's the last resort in my opinon. ( Henchman in pirates are very rear, use them wisely. )

I have soloed with all classes and never had much trouble. I will agree a Swashbuckler is probably the easiest to solo with.

Corillan on Jan 19, 2015 wrote:

It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.

Also, the programming is "designed" (but not necessarily by design) so that each class can take advantage of a "player induced cheats"-- they're not really cheats at all, it's just knowing what to look for, recognizing programming tendencies and patterns, and using what you learn to your advantage.

Take for example Musketeers. I started a Musket just recently and have leveled him up to level 14. So far, My Musket and my crew have only been touched in a couple of battles...and just barely and usually just one crew member sustaining very insignificant damage. In probably 85-90% (just a wild, yet observant guess) of the battles so far, my crew as a whole has sustained zero damage per battle. One thing that really helped was paying attention to how the AI, or enemies traverse across the board-- particularly their first turn in battle...or should I say "First Step".

As a low level musket you have access to Claw Trap and also Louis le Bisque who also has Claw Trap. These traps will kill, or reduce to very little health, just about any lower level enemy. But of course you need them to "stumble into" the traps. Well, by watching enemy movement, and first turn movement again being key, you will notice that the AI and programming is extremely predictable-- or at least it provides you with a great idea of what the AI will do. Almost all enemies move in 1 of 3 ways on their first turn. Either 1st step diagonally up, then horizontal..1st step diagonally down, then horizontal..or just horizontal towards your crew. The majority of the time though, it is a diagonal step heading in the direction of your crew. So, if the enemy is near the top of the battle board, the enemy will move diagonally down one move, then horizontal the remaining 2 or 3 moves. If the enemy is towards the bottom of the board they will first step, diagonally upward, then horizontal. Sometimes they just come straight across but it's pretty rare actually. So, using that knowledge of the enemie's first step is sooooooo useful as a Musketeer and in general. Putting that Claw Trap in the "right" diagonal spot, pretty much removes 2 enemies from the board in the first round. Then your crew mops the other ones up before they can even reach your blazin' guns.

Each and every class can take advantage of the AI's predictability and the programming as well. You just have to watch for it and use it. That's why so many people enjoy PvP so much, because the enemies there aren't as predictable and it presents greater challenges and thus a greater sense of accomplishment. Beating a predictable group of AI enemies is one thing, but beating an intelligent human being is more impressive...if that is your sort of thing. Which in my case it is not, I just simply notice things and try to learn from them. Just clicking on powers and buttons won't guarantee success, but using strategy and understanding (and noticing) predictable program behavior, will more than likely lead to success-- on most occasions.