Finished the game at last

[Zhuangzi]

Phew, 80+ hours and I've finally finished my Impossible Skald game. I didn't want to restart after the patches so some of the quests were bugged and unfinished (I think I had 88 complete, although I could have finished a few more). The final battles were very easy although I did like the fact that you have to use different units for some of the final battles. A bit of diversity was much appreciated, but unfortunately there wasn't a lot of that in KB:WOTN.

I liked the game enough to play it through to the end pretty obsessively, but a lot of the time I was bored at having to grind my way through stack after stack of undead units. I wasn't too concerned with the bugs, but I did experience some CTD issues such as the Ice Dragon death problem (which is now fixed) and the Skald ability crash which isn't (at least not without restarting). I also had a weird issue where sometimes the battle would come to a halt between units turns, like the computer couldn't figure out whose turn it was or something. That always required a reload.

This game has some fairly severe pacing and difficulty issues, imo. There's far, far, far too much boring grinding. A lot of the quests aren't very interesting, and only a few of the boss fights are challenging. A couple of the new mechanics are okay (such as the runes in battle) and the Skald song is okay I guess as well. By far the hardest battle for me was in Rezo's tower - I actually had to do it about 4 times to win. I wasn't trying for no losses, and I'm glad I didn't bother because it would have taken much longer. Also, the final battles require you to use particular units, so I'm not sure no-loss is possible (anyone finished the game without loss?) The difficulty was okay in the first four islands and I had some fairly tough battles in Demonis/Verlon Wasteland. But Freedom Islands was a joke when I attempted it, and the latter part of the game was just ridiculously easy. Toward the end I had 40k leadership and maybe 40 each Attack/Defense/Intellect and I was finishing Very Hard enemies in maybe 3 turns with no losses.

Unit wise, the best of the new units was the Warrior Maidens for me and I ended up using them for 3/4 of the game. I did use the Rune Mages for a while but eventually I got bored of phantomed armies and went for direct damage units. I always use Paladins and I like Horsemen as well. I've always found that Lake Fairies and Forest Fairies are amazing damage dealers, so I used them too.

So, in summary, KB:WOTN is okay, and I assume a bit better after the patches, but it's nowhere near as groundbreaking as earlier games in the series. So much of the game felt copy pasted from TL and the magic of the first game is not really there. At least AP was a short campaign and probably my favourite of the series, but WOTN is neither short OR interesting. The Valkyrie abilities aren't so interesting and the new Rune Spells are a mixed bag. Unfortunately, in the end, WOTN is 'meh.' I still liked it enough to play it for 80+ hours in a month or less, but I can't get excited about playing it again anytime soon.

[ckdamascus]

Yeah, I felt somewhat similar issues as well. Although my pacing feels slightly different. I'm SKIPPING a fair amount of the packs and trying to strategically go further.

This makes it far less grindy when I only really need 3 hard battles to level up. I'm almost maxed on the important medals.

I'm also avoiding rune mages completely this time around, but I'm abusing my old Phoenix style that worked so well in Crossworlds. (Only because my Mage would have done it far worse with crappy leadership).

On one hand, I like a few things about this one

a) more battles so you aren't FORCED to obsessively prolong battles for medals like in Armored Princess. When I say "forced" I mean, so I can actually USE my medals in a useful manner for a lot of battles.

b) easier to complete sets and get more items. All in all, the items they give you seem a lot stronger and more plentiful. I'm seriously considering finishing a hunting set for extra bear power.

c) Less emphasis on no loss. A side effect fo this is "too much gold/crystal/etc". Honestly, I don't completely feel that way in my second play through as a mage. I am desperately short on crystals and I don't even have my spellbook even moderately maxed out yet. I'm actually somewhat short on gold but it is slowly changing for me now. I think it is because I actually bought a lot of different level 5s somewhat early on.

d) Balance is ... different/better? Besides some horribly horribly broken builds, I feel to compensate for the loss of mana accelerator they really made it possible to mega buff level 5s. Stoneskin that lasts for 7 rounds? Thanks! Because it was super annoying to waste my double casts on buffs only to recast them... when I was better off using other spells. Critical chance for magic? Woot, that's pretty nice. Although critical chance damage buffs of Viking/Warrior is pretty suspect. The amount of damage I end up doing with my 100% shooters was INSANE.

I wonder if it is just the Skald/Paladin class which is boring (I've hated using Paladins; I blame it on my Diablo 2 trauma).

e) NO MORE digging for scrolls. Thank GOD. Digging was a blessing and a bane, but I felt it hurt combat pacing when you are consuming/prolonging battles JUST to get more digs. What? Now I just steam roll battles and I'm still able to get close to 100% utility (only the valkyrie rage medal is absurd and mostly worthless).

I think with just some minor tweaks to balance, I find I can get a "great game" without having to scan as much and I can hit it MUCH sooner so I can have fun sooner rather than in Armored Princess it was a crazy gauntlet and you might not have much time to use/enjoy your overpowered army.

[Zhuangzi]

Yeah, I felt somewhat similar issues as well. Although my pacing feels slightly different. I'm SKIPPING a fair amount of the packs and trying to strategically go further.

This makes it far less grindy when I only really need 3 hard battles to level up. I'm almost maxed on the important medals.

I'm also avoiding rune mages completely this time around, but I'm abusing my old Phoenix style that worked so well in Crossworlds. (Only because my Mage would have done it far worse with crappy leadership).

On one hand, I like a few things about this one

a) more battles so you aren't FORCED to obsessively prolong battles for medals like in Armored Princess. When I say "forced" I mean, so I can actually USE my medals in a useful manner for a lot of battles.

b) easier to complete sets and get more items. All in all, the items they give you seem a lot stronger and more plentiful. I'm seriously considering finishing a hunting set for extra bear power.

c) Less emphasis on no loss. A side effect fo this is "too much gold/crystal/etc". Honestly, I don't completely feel that way in my second play through as a mage. I am desperately short on crystals and I don't even have my spellbook even moderately maxed out yet. I'm actually somewhat short on gold but it is slowly changing for me now. I think it is because I actually bought a lot of different level 5s somewhat early on.

d) Balance is ... different/better? Besides some horribly horribly broken builds, I feel to compensate for the loss of mana accelerator they really made it possible to mega buff level 5s. Stoneskin that lasts for 7 rounds? Thanks! Because it was super annoying to waste my double casts on buffs only to recast them... when I was better off using other spells. Critical chance for magic? Woot, that's pretty nice. Although critical chance damage buffs of Viking/Warrior is pretty suspect. The amount of damage I end up doing with my 100% shooters was INSANE.

I wonder if it is just the Skald/Paladin class which is boring (I've hated using Paladins; I blame it on my Diablo 2 trauma).

e) NO MORE digging for scrolls. Thank GOD. Digging was a blessing and a bane, but I felt it hurt combat pacing when you are consuming/prolonging battles JUST to get more digs. What? Now I just steam roll battles and I'm still able to get close to 100% utility (only the valkyrie rage medal is absurd and mostly worthless).

I think with just some minor tweaks to balance, I find I can get a "great game" without having to scan as much and I can hit it MUCH sooner so I can have fun sooner rather than in Armored Princess it was a crazy gauntlet and you might not have much time to use/enjoy your overpowered army.

Yeah I had lots of sets to choose from as well. I had so much money that I bought practically every item in the game to grind some for crystals, and I still had like 50 items in my inventory. :-P

I might try a Mage game in a few weeks to see if that's more of a challenge (after I finish the new XCOM for the second time). No digging for scrolls is good, and yes, the battles are finishing in quick time, but is it too much to ask for the game to be a MODERATE challenge on impossible? It's not like I'm really thinking too hard about what I'm doing. Just a KB veteran is all. :cool:

[ckdamascus]

Yeah I had lots of sets to choose from as well. I had so much money that I bought practically every item in the game to grind some for crystals, and I still had like 50 items in my inventory. :-P

I might try a Mage game in a few weeks to see if that's more of a challenge (after I finish the new XCOM for the second time). No digging for scrolls is good, and yes, the battles are finishing in quick time, but is it too much to ask for the game to be a MODERATE challenge on impossible? It's not like I'm really thinking too hard about what I'm doing. Just a KB veteran is all. :cool:

Well, I am only level 35, so the going is slow, but I am sure I will be rich one day... :) Crystals are in super short supply for me for now though.

I'm not sure if it is more of a challenge as a Mage. It is really what you make of it. I always liked the middle ground the best where it is somewhat challenging and my "nifty builds" do as designed. :)

I'm not a fan of 200 rounds just to get a "no loss" and I'm not sure if I am looking forward to truly doing no loss as the methods to do so are so artificial... and again, I only did no loss for economic reasons.

You could say I like min and maxing.

I think the potential for challenge is there, but they definitely screwed up some balance. Rune mages are WAAAYYY too strong. How did the last Pygmy and Avenging angel bug leak through?

I think it is somewhat related to the "Favorite of the Gods" passive... ah whatever.

Some of the rage skills are potentially too strong but opens up more strategy (hello Christina's Gift and Regina). If I get Loki, I can only imagine what evils I can do.

Because I hit the level 60 rage cap too fast with my Viking/Warrior, I'm intentionally trying to semi-speed run it to get all the rage skills in time so I can somewhat max useful ones.

[Xargon]

Because I hit the level 60 rage cap too fast with my Viking/Warrior, I'm intentionally trying to semi-speed run it to get all the rage skills in time so I can somewhat max useful ones.

Good luck with that, you might need it. I got the last rage skill at rage level 47, I think, and now, at rage level 57, I still have not seen any upgrade option for Loki's rage skill, and only 3 upgrade options for Mista's Lightning (two times increased shock chance, one time increased kill percentage). This is rather annoying because the other upgrades are worthless to me (and may even be unwanted if they increase rest times).