Eelarc on Jun 16, 2016 wrote:

Said joke being the insane and unexpected difficulty increase in Valencia part 2
I'll point out all the reasons of anger

-Amount of epic talents every enemy has
-VICIOUS CHARGE
-All enemies (that you actually need to fight in the story) except for Armada musketeers are melee
-Along with the epic talents, basically all of them are rank 2
-It eventually becomes more and more required(?) to buy Henchmen, or play with others (I'm a solo person :c)
-Basically, all that causes you to be unable to do most battles without losing atleast 1 companion

Comparing to Aquila

-Aquila enemies had around 3 epics, ~5 at most
-There was alot more ship combat (if memory serves me right, we only did 1 ship defeat and collect in the storyline)
-No more unique battles or dungeons, like the Hydra and the Labyrinth for examples, only special one is the final one
-Didn't feel as rushed, the storyline in Val 2 is way too short (only 2 chapters)

Along with a bug
-Contessa still sometimes refuses to attack, and that bug has been in ever since Test came up

Facts stay until changes.

Difficulty of most enemies have been scaled back since Test Realm. This difficulty is needed as we've haven't had a challenge since the Tower of Moo Manchu.
If you're trying to finish Valencia in one day, most of your companions will not be able to catch up to the levels needed to make battles easier - take time to Keel Haul, Plunder or Scavenge to get gold to buy Tomes.
Clock Works is as a unique dungeon as any in Aquila.
The Promotion quest for your Presidio Companion is long and interesting - challenging also.
Yes, there's still a few bugs but KI will correct that in time.

I don't entirely understand why this Book feels rushed. Especially considering the timeframe it was done in (3 years).

I'm also a loner who enjoys solo play.

If I'm forced to buy henchmen just to further myself in the game, then it's time for me to part ways with it.

Eelarc on Jun 16, 2016 wrote:

Said joke being the insane and unexpected difficulty increase in Valencia part 2
I'll point out all the reasons of anger

-Amount of epic talents every enemy has
-VICIOUS CHARGE
-All enemies (that you actually need to fight in the story) except for Armada musketeers are melee
-Along with the epic talents, basically all of them are rank 2
-It eventually becomes more and more required(?) to buy Henchmen, or play with others (I'm a solo person :c)
-Basically, all that causes you to be unable to do most battles without losing atleast 1 companion

Comparing to Aquila

-Aquila enemies had around 3 epics, ~5 at most
-There was alot more ship combat (if memory serves me right, we only did 1 ship defeat and collect in the storyline)
-No more unique battles or dungeons, like the Hydra and the Labyrinth for examples, only special one is the final one
-Didn't feel as rushed, the storyline in Val 2 is way too short (only 2 chapters)

Along with a bug
-Contessa still sometimes refuses to attack, and that bug has been in ever since Test came up

Facts stay until changes.

Yes, Valencia 2 may be hard, but if you adapt to the opponents, Valencia 2 can be easy. I feel that KI did this to make us push ourselves to innovate new teams, not just use the same team that we've been using from skull island to aquila. The team that I've found to work effectively is Rat, Bonnie, Bill, since rat will take all the assassins and charges that the unicorns can do to you. Bonnie and bill for their birst chains, and bonnie is great for support with her overwatch 3 and heals. However, I completely ageree with the storyline. It was extremely short, and I felt that it definitely lacked a lot of content, seeing as you couldn't be max Without doing sides. Maybe some quests before that would lead up to the final battles could be beefed up a bit, since the final dungeon had things that seemed to just be placed there, without us finding out. Oh, and 2 of the sidequest dungeons are still glitched. I think "Due unto Others" and a "Garden state of emergency"

With difficulty comes growth. You as a player determine how difficult a fight is. You can choose your companions, set them up based upon your play style. You can choose what strategies work best. If enemies use viscous charge, why don't you use some powers of your own? If you're going to complain, you might as well problem solve as well. One method is using companions of varying classes. A team I used in Valencia Part 2 was El toro, Ratbeard, and Bonnie Anne. El toro's buff is game changing and allows a viscous charge to be countered to a degree, Ratbeard can halt enemies from passing, and Bonnie can snipe the enemies into submission. It's all about how you approach the "issue". Remember, a mob is not smarter than us. Use that to your advantage and fight back!!

Ryan Winterstone on Jun 16, 2016 wrote:

The biggest problem I have is how much more often enemies crit than us and how much their crits do compared to ours. Along with the fact that practically every enemy has bladestorm rank 2, they often crit 2-4 times in a row, each dealing 1300-1600 damage, easily taking out at least one companion in a single chain of attacks. My crits on the other hand rarely do more than 700 and happen way less frequently without a privateer buff. If they reduced bladestorm to rank 1 on most enemies and evened out their crit chance and damage to be on par with ours, I think it would be fair - still more challenging than any previous world, but not annoyingly unfair in my opinion.

1) Enemies through the game progress in "total ranks" of epics, and for the most part that's a pretty linear calculation. Kane's Court notwithstanding, the mobs in VA2 increased in epic ranks at the exact same rates as (yes, for example), Mooshu, then MB, then AQ.

2) Now, when adding those extra epic talent ranks to mobs, I have two choices: increase the number of ranks of their existing talents (taking them, for example, up to rank 3) or add a couple of ranks of new talents. Having just one or two epics at rank 3 is a big deal, so for this update, I tended to add new epics, so that the mobs would have a more interesting variety of things to do, instead of doing the same things, but harder and/or more often. That increased variety of epics means you have to think more about what might trigger the enemies.

3) I put myself under some constraints on those epic talent choices, as well, ranking up the most class-appropriate talents first (especially blade storm and double tap). Those two talents are better than they used to be, but still not as good as some other choices I could have made (like relentless or burst fire, most obviously).

4) Most mobs have 1 "crit" card at their disposal, moving up to 2 or 3 for elites and bosses. In lieu of the crit power cards, you might instead see the Charge powers on Buccaneers and the Backstab powers on Swashbucklers, Heals on Privateers, various Mojo spells on Witchdoctors.

5) The mobs crits use the same multipliers as the player crits. If you've seen a crit card on a piece of gear, that is literally the same power the mobs are using. It's an exact copy with one important distinction: mobs typically can't just use their power cards anytime they want. The AI has to check every single turn to see if the power is even an option.

6) You're a lot smarter than the AI.

All things considered, you should be more than able to handle the mobs.

Ratbeard on Jun 17, 2016 wrote:

1) Enemies through the game progress in "total ranks" of epics, and for the most part that's a pretty linear calculation. Kane's Court notwithstanding, the mobs in VA2 increased in epic ranks at the exact same rates as (yes, for example), Mooshu, then MB, then AQ.

2) Now, when adding those extra epic talent ranks to mobs, I have two choices: increase the number of ranks of their existing talents (taking them, for example, up to rank 3) or add a couple of ranks of new talents. Having just one or two epics at rank 3 is a big deal, so for this update, I tended to add new epics, so that the mobs would have a more interesting variety of things to do, instead of doing the same things, but harder and/or more often. That increased variety of epics means you have to think more about what might trigger the enemies.

3) I put myself under some constraints on those epic talent choices, as well, ranking up the most class-appropriate talents first (especially blade storm and double tap). Those two talents are better than they used to be, but still not as good as some other choices I could have made (like relentless or burst fire, most obviously).

4) Most mobs have 1 "crit" card at their disposal, moving up to 2 or 3 for elites and bosses. In lieu of the crit power cards, you might instead see the Charge powers on Buccaneers and the Backstab powers on Swashbucklers, Heals on Privateers, various Mojo spells on Witchdoctors.

5) The mobs crits use the same multipliers as the player crits. If you've seen a crit card on a piece of gear, that is literally the same power the mobs are using. It's an exact copy with one important distinction: mobs typically can't just use their power cards anytime they want. The AI has to check every single turn to see if the power is even an option.

6) You're a lot smarter than the AI.

All things considered, you should be more than able to handle the mobs.

I would say that it appears that the mobs crit far more often than our pirates, or companions.
Even if I have a participant with a crit boost talent, the number of crits still seems insignificant in comparison.

The mobs tend to crit on initial attack quite frequently, then often crit on every triggered talent from that point forward. Since Crits trigger several epic talents this just creates a domino effect of mass (and not particularly fun to watch) destruction.

It does seem that my pirate and companions are getting crits a little more frequent than in the past, but it absolutely pales in comparison to the number of mob crits.

I'm not having any trouble with difficulty as a swash- I don't have pvp reward gear or anything particularly special. I've done Moo once or twice. I had to change up my strategies, but it's certainly nothing I can't handle. My greatest disappointment is how rushed this whole update is. Three years and we get no new regular gear (apparently unique stuff drops later, but why can't we have some regular Valencia gear after having had access to the area since the game came out FOUR years ago?), overused old area models, including a recolored Armada boss (?!) and over-repetitive use of only a small handful of new models, artificial lengthening of the game by forcing us to either pay massive amounts of gold for comp healing or waiting 7-8 hours to heal naturally, an unbalanced and buggy new swash comp, and we even go back to Aquila as part of the main storyline, which would be ok if it was for a side quest, but this is for the main storyline. This seems unconscionable to me- why did we wait two years to spend more time, no matter how long or short, questing in an old world? I'm not paying money to relive the drudgery of Aquila yet again. The last part of the update hasn't even been released, despite the fact that this is a very short world that took two whole years. I feel like I've been strung along for way too long while KI has made poor exec decisions and frittered their money and resources away on an unsuccessful mobile games division instead of using those resources to strengthen the P101 team. I'm thinking I might have some irreconcilable differences that will cause me to part ways with this game. I'm genuinely glad that there are many people enjoying the new update, but I am thoroughly underwhelmed.

Different classes will be having different sets of difficulty - on my swashbuckler, I have struggled most with melee fights and there are mostly melee fights here. FS3 has rendered Hide as useless for causing damage; however, its still useful for buff and shield/heal rounds.
On my musketeer, its been a different experience, like Aquila, my musketeer is just mowing down the melee fighters before they can approach; in battles with a small board I use my melee team to block a rush on me.
I haven't yet done much on my Witchdoctor in Valencia, but it hasn't seemed so difficult yet, I finished the Duomo fairly well, though Scratch took a dirt nap.
I haven't tried Privateer or Buck yet.

Eelarc on Jun 16, 2016 wrote:

Said joke being the insane and unexpected difficulty increase in Valencia part 2
I'll point out all the reasons of anger

-Amount of epic talents every enemy has
-VICIOUS CHARGE
-All enemies (that you actually need to fight in the story) except for Armada musketeers are melee
-Along with the epic talents, basically all of them are rank 2
-It eventually becomes more and more required(?) to buy Henchmen, or play with others (I'm a solo person :c)
-Basically, all that causes you to be unable to do most battles without losing atleast 1 companion

Comparing to Aquila

-Aquila enemies had around 3 epics, ~5 at most
-There was alot more ship combat (if memory serves me right, we only did 1 ship defeat and collect in the storyline)
-No more unique battles or dungeons, like the Hydra and the Labyrinth for examples, only special one is the final one
-Didn't feel as rushed, the storyline in Val 2 is way too short (only 2 chapters)

Along with a bug
-Contessa still sometimes refuses to attack, and that bug has been in ever since Test came up

Facts stay until changes.

The only real problem I had with enemies in Valencia 2 was the double wave fight in the Duomo or whatever it was called. I did manage to solo it but it took a few tries and around 9 wounded companions (ouch). I was able to solo the entire world without purchasing henchmen save for the final dungeon (a friend came along and hired the privateer henchman) as a swashbuckler with only one fight marked as a loss. You need to plan for your companions to die and adjust your strategies accordingly. It would be helpful if companion healing costs were reduced.

I felt the side quests and story itself were enough to make up for the straightforward yet difficult battles in place of unique-goal instances. Lack of unique clothing was a bit disappointing; I hope that the styles are updated. At least we got weapons!

I think Contessa's attack bug is a skipping of the animation of a failed (blocked or dodged) attack but I'm not totally sure. It seemed like that was the case when I observed it.

As for the story, I personally didn't feel that it was too rushed. We got a lot of information in a short amount of time, yes, but that was kind of the point. We're in a world of court intrigue and spies; you don't have time to sit around and find things out slowly. I do feel that there could have been more story, but honestly, I'm very happy with what we received in this update.

I have started Valencia 2 on my buccaneer, and I'm having no problems at all. Duomo was easy - I shielded and got Whale's Might from Peter and we Vicious Charged them before they could VC us!
Yes, Peter and El Toro both went on bed rest, and I was defeated but the other companions pulled the victory out of the fire! You just need to adjust your strategy from the "tried & true" and INNOVATE
Now, I need to take my Privateer into Valencia.....we'll see how that plays out.

Eelarc on Jun 16, 2016 wrote:

Said joke being the insane and unexpected difficulty increase in Valencia part 2
I'll point out all the reasons of anger

-Amount of epic talents every enemy has
-VICIOUS CHARGE
-All enemies (that you actually need to fight in the story) except for Armada musketeers are melee
-Along with the epic talents, basically all of them are rank 2
-It eventually becomes more and more required(?) to buy Henchmen, or play with others (I'm a solo person :c)
-Basically, all that causes you to be unable to do most battles without losing atleast 1 companion

Comparing to Aquila

-Aquila enemies had around 3 epics, ~5 at most
-There was alot more ship combat (if memory serves me right, we only did 1 ship defeat and collect in the storyline)
-No more unique battles or dungeons, like the Hydra and the Labyrinth for examples, only special one is the final one
-Didn't feel as rushed, the storyline in Val 2 is way too short (only 2 chapters)

Along with a bug
-Contessa still sometimes refuses to attack, and that bug has been in ever since Test came up

Facts stay until changes.

I honestly don't know what you're talking about.

I'm a solo player and I finished the entire thing in two days, the machine being the only thing I needed help with, and I did it with 3 people, on the 2nd day be it. I'll admit, the ningizeeda snake lady and the ophidian renegades were really annoying, but in general as a musketeer you just double agil boost and you win, though they got epic hits like every time you really just need to survive the first round that they attack and you're fine.

Oh and yes, Contessa's reposite glitches etc did mess me up a lot but I just replaced her with Bonnie for a Chantal, Duck, Bonnie lineup which served me incredibly well. In my opinion the only class that would have trouble solo'ing is none. Smart decisions are a key factor in Valencia P2 (battle-wise).

Maybe I'm just not seeing things right, but I agree with the OP. I had problems with certain enemies in Aquila, but I gritted my teeth and got through it. Without doubloons and without hiring henchmen.

In Valencia II? I'm using doubloons like crazy mad (assuming I even have any, and for that matter, why am I seeing egg timer ones in PvE?) and actually teaming up with people, because in some of these storyline battles I'm seeing every companion shredded on the first turn.

I've always enjoyed being able to leave it on random (who shows up as a companion) and still figure out a way to get through by working with what was given to me. So now I have to actually force who shows up and plan a strategy around that, which goes against everything so far.

I feel like I'm being forced to team up, both to have additional help, and for the chance to get doubloons so I have an extra option each turn. Half the time I don't even get the option to look for a team. Is this the way it's supposed to be, or a bug?

I feel like I have to reset my companions, again, to redo their epics to stand a chance here. When I walk away for the day with fifteen plus companions on bedrest, of all different classes, well...

The Contessa seems glitched with not doing things that are popping up (Riposte, for example), I see an enemy hit someone wearing a shield (I see the Absorb message), and yet they get a Second Chance, which makes no sense to me given that the attack did hit (the damage was just absorbed). Or, they get Second Chance multiple times in a row (when my people certainly never get that kind of luck).

It's depressing and it makes me want to walk away. I'll run out my subscription, but... If the game isn't fun, then I guess I wait until I've cooled down and then some time down the road I sub up again so I can give it another shot.