I've reached a point where I've purged the Screamers and Gareth and company go to the boat. However, first I have to pass a combat where the enemy is a level higher than me. With difficulty, I defeat them but then appears a huge sea monster that finishes me off. The game at the beggining of the first combat, warned me that I should return later. But I think I visited every part of the island and I think I don't have any more enemies to fight and gain experience. Maybe there's still a couple of side-quest to finish. I don't see where I'll get enough XP to advance a level.

I've started in Classic mode, then turned to Explorer mode, because it was just unfairly difficult to me. However, Explorer was a little bit too easy and after a while, really easy, so I went back to Classic mode again. With more experience and equipment, It was much more accessible.

I wonder if in explorer mode, we earn less XP in combat. If yes, may I have reached a point that I can't earn enough XP to reach the necessary level to surpass this combat? I'm level 7 right now, the enemies are level 8.

You're not really missing anything, the combat with the worm is just challenging.
My party was level 7 when we reached the worm too.
Good luck!

It's exceptionally difficult to reach level 8. It might be possible with a genocide run and Pet Pal.

Regarding levels, I've hit level 8 with some 15% over without unnecessary kills. Before beginning the last fight. I never go without Pet Pal, though.

It's mostly about finding as many of the experience triggers as you can. That is mostly completing quests and visiting locations, not so much combat. Most importantly, doing everything that has an order in that correct order.
My very first playthrough, I did things way out of order and only had level 7 by the final fight, because I skipped experience gaining triggers. Still beat it, after several tries. I've also never won by letting the worm fight the magisters and waiting it out.

I don't think the difficulty changes exp gained.

As many people can demonstrate, Classic is doable and not even that hard. Assuming of course, that you have a good party composition and not throwing too many points around where you won't use them.

I've tended to hit level 8 during the last fight without on my various play-throughs any dubious shenanigans other than playing on explorer mode. I also never go without Pet Pal, which I consider to be one of the more useful of the talents, although mostly as I like exploring...

I just finished a solo character run on Classic mode. For the final fight I mostly kited around the area with Tactical Retreat and sniped the humans and the worm as they fought each other.

Well, going back to explorer mode I've managed to overcome that combat. Instead of entering the area, I've sent someone there and made him retreat, so that the enemy had to come to me leaving behind the two in the high places and avoiding being flanked. That made the combat easy. Then I defeated the two and only then appeared the giant worm.

I think there should be some difficulty mode between explorer and classic or both should be tweaked, because explorer mode is too easy (but I think that's intended, for those who don't like combat very much) but the classic mode can be a little bit too hard, specially if you don't make the right choices in the beggining (for example, if I had known that a sorcerer, archer and knight/soldier would join me, I would not have made my character an archer; If I knew that source points would only be usable near the end, I would not have had spent money in learning certain skills/spells; etc).

I'll try the same fight in classic mode, now that I have a little bit more experience with this combat.

There was no need to take an archer, there is also a witch as a fourth character available. And early in the game, you hardly lose if you respec a character. But honestly I think it would be nicer for single player campaign, if you just could define your team without the need of using tricks to do so. Some of the predefined classes aren't very appealing at current state.

In my first run, I hit level 7 during the final fight.

Classic mode is too easy. You can beat it with a party of one character.

Good for you, but the point of the thread is definitely not to brag about how you finished it, nor how easy you find it.
Some people can have trouble with what other people call easy, but that's still not the point.

Closer to the point is whether or not so much content is hidden out of the main path that it can result in an undepowered character for the end fight. On top of that, there are cases where doing a quest line out of order will result in losing quite a bit of experience.

Even closer to the point, if I understand it correctly, is whether or not the end fight is balanced against the level the average player will reach by that point.

I was responding to his claim that the game is unfairly difficult. It isn't.

Key part:


Nuance.

It is possible that other people are not, in fact, YOU, and are playing the game in a different way with a different party configuration than you. Different people can have a different rate at which they master the combat and systems of the game. That will be the case on release as well, so feedback from those people is entirely valid even if they are not as good at the game as you.

Also not everyone knows as good how to exploit the combat mechanics and AI flaws for the own advantage.

But I think the point still stand, fight can't get properly balanced, before stats and skills got their final balancing.

It might not be difficult for you personally, but other people (like me) may not have exactly the same experience as you or may simply have a different playing style: for me personally combat is a part of the game but not an end in itself.

Oh I got WRECKED the first two times trying this (both times before the turn the Voidspawn appears), then I went BS mode and snuck my people into better positions outside the courtyard (for example, teleported my wizards up on top of the bridge), down by the shore that Gareth takes off in the boat at, lured a few of the losers down there and started wasting them...until I caused a Holy Fire underneath the Voidspawn as it first appeared, while also having primarily fire-based weapons.

2nd time around I made sure I could knock off Whatshisfaces armor with a Source based skill so my rogue could tickle his guts before Mr.Snek could come in and ruin the party again (kept everyone on the ground this time, too).

But overall, the entire experience for the game (so far) isn't really all that difficult, other than the EXP being pretty low (and I explored the entire dang island, even the area where the little kid keeps his treasure and even killed the fake-out fire-skele's in the Gargoyle's Maze) and getting to lvl 8 being impossible in Explorer mode without killing anyone/everyone you come across.

It's definitely possible: I've got to level 8 three times using my "blundering about aimlessly" technique, although only just. None of those occasions involved killing anyone or anything I shouldn't, though I'm a bit sad about having to pwn the source hounds every time.

If you're lazy (like I am), you can also just sneak around and teleport everyone into shriekers. Also position someone else in shrieker range (outside of their vision, though) in sneaky mode. The worm will still nom it, since it seems to find sneaking characters everywhere. And the shrieker will one hit the worm and you just revive your guy.

If you do it like this, it's probably gonna be the most anticlimatic fighting you've ever done in this game.

Gotta try that on my solo / duo run.

I've gotten to level 8.5 twice now without killing a single innocent (magisters aren't innocent!) but it required attention to dialogue choices to get the most XP from situations and only running some quests out of order. (I find and rescue Gareth before going to the seeker camp.)

Found a fairly easy way to cheese the last fight, as long as you have a teleport spell or two. Did it at lvl 6 with one level 5.

Get your weakest party member (support/healer if you have one) to talk to the Bishop, they won't be attacked once in dialogue. Once in dialogue the rest of the enemies will not attack you until you engage them, so there's no need to sneak and you can set the fight up however you want. (http://postimg.org/image/j2allsu55/)

Keep two people at the base of the stairs, preferably two people with teleport. The worm should pop up like 2 turns in and do his poison spray, just light it on fire and it will create a necrofire. Teleport enemies to the other side of the fire and they will die within a few turns of trying to reach you. If you stand right on the edge of the fire they will stay in it and attack you with physical attacks. The worm seems to prioritize attacking the magisters, it certainly never melee attacked my party, but just in case stand outside of melee range from it. All you have to worry about is the mage/archer. If you can, try and netherswap them with a melee into the fire otherwise you'll just have to kill them normally. Once all the magisters are dead just kill the worm, which should be fairly low since the magisters attack it fairly frequently. Then just heal your party up, end the dialouge with Alexander and kill him.

This may get nerfed but necrofire was doing almost 50 damage a tick, the rogue died in 2 turns trying to cross the necrofire.

Strategically, I prefered to keep my units not too far from eachothers, because the worm warped to my caster/archer in the back instantly leaving my warriors useless behind luckily on second try I equipped my warrior with the jumping fire skill.

What made this fight easy was to cast Bless on his cursed fire which heals you for a few turns instead of doing dmg.

Also, since he was the only boss that I died to, on second try, I actually equipped healing potions and personnally I felt invincible with them, they are really easy to make, dont waste buying them.

As for lvling, I reached this boss at around level 8.9 missing really little for level 9 and I did miss some quests, and didnt kill any innocent people. I was being pretty thorough while playing though. I got level 9 after the boss exp.

If you are still not strong enough to your liking, checking all shops for new gear every hour or level up is a pretty simple way to get better stats on your gear. There are easy way to make money in this game using crafting.

So earlier in the thread, someone mentioned "order of operations" and experience triggers...

Would a list of such things be possible? I've just completed the game for the third time now, and every time I'm 20k exp shy of hitting level 8. I feel like I've explored every corner, teleported to every ledge, looted every room, but still I'm coming up short.

What's going wrong?

No real list exists as of now, but just like in Divinity Original Sin, pretty much go through the Master List Quest and get the most exp out of them, make sure you explore every corner of the maps you get exp for exploring some places, speak to all NPCs, fight every enemy.

For now you can browse through these lists and se if you missed some things:
http://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/Party+Quests
http://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/Personal+Quests
http://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/NPCs
http://divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/Creatures

There might be someone who will make a walkthrough for it in the futur who knows. Just know that it is not at all needed to complete this game. This game offers a lot of diversity in how to do everything. For example, it is possible to fight Dallis and her forces in the beginning to get exp even though most people wouldnt waste time doing this.

I think you might need to be on classic not explorer as groups seem to be smaller on explorer mode so you may not get enough to fight. You probably want pet-pal as well.

You could also try

I've not noticed the order matters much really (except fighting Dallis and the source hounds/ball thing).

If you save Alexander before going to the shelter you miss the healing quest in the shelter but it is only a few hundred. Same with saving Elodi at the start - if you ignore her too long you can't save her but again it is only a couple of hundred.

How much exp does slane give you when you kill him vs when you give him the wand? I would hate to do that as I don't want to do any "dick move" things just to hit level 8.

How many waves of copies does the jester summon? I've only ever fought two waves worth of foes.

Never thought to allow the blind magister to cuff me. I'll have to try that.

Tower by the beach shrine I've been catching as well. I don't know if I remember getting the ancient sword there. It's possible I just glossed over it being a weaker item than what I was using though.

Should going after dallis be necessary? That sounds like it would be odd to need to do that to hit level 8.

Other than that, I get everything else listed. I also always play on classic mode.

I've not been methodical enough to note the various XP I'm afraid - just tried different options and picked the highest number... As I remember the jester sends only 2 waves but any remaining vanish when you kill the real one.

I don't know if fighting Dallis is *required* to get to level 8 before last fight but I've not done it without. I'll try that next time.

At the moment I'm playing on easy (to see if you still do it). It is a bit of a slog though - takes me 30 or 40 hours as I'm very slow.

I think I've always hit level 8 during the last fight, but not before it. But then again, I've never picked a fight with Dallis.

3 more questions : I got to the lava cave in the gargoyle's maze, but couldn't get off the spire and into the area with another skull or the chest. what have I missed ?
Is there any way to open the dark door to the room with the cursed lever and dead magisters ?
Is there any way to make the inert wands work ? The dragon came and killed all of the shriekers outside the gargoyle maze, but there's still the one outside the ruins with the dark door.

Ok, I got the dark door open after reading about casting bless on the lever. What a let down to only get a helm that wasn't nearly as good as what I already have.

There's different portals into the cave: ISTR the one that gets you to the bits and pieces you mention is in the same room as the burning archivist.

I got that one now too, thanks.

There are at least two wands for source vampirsm as far as I recall. Only one you needed to give away for Slane.

If you give the wand to Slane you get 120XP. If you refuse to give it to him you get 600XP. If you then kill his petrified form after you get another 3360 XP and usually some epic level 7 stuff. You can then use either of the wands or the helm to kill the shriekers.

Having played D2 I don't really like doing that but there you are. Evil pays sometimes.

Perhaps (hopefully) it will change next release as it was different in the last one although I forget how exactly. Certainly he was easier to kill before - I think only Marksmans Fang will do it now.

Gives you source vampirism though and changes into something marginally better (but still cursed) after 5 uses.

I don't really like the Braccus' gear as not only is it rather weak for when you get it (except for the spear) the curses make it incompatible with Glass Cannon which is a very fun talent to play.

Don't think so. AFAIK you need to use the source vampirism skill from one of the 2 active purging wands or the helm. to kill that one. The others can either be killed by Slane or by yourself in the same way as you wish...

Thanks. I just let the dragon kill them and then took to the last big fight.
I'm wondering now if when the rest of the game releases, you will be able to carry this character forward, or have to start all over with a new one.

An entirely new character. You'll have to make new characters to try out new future major versions of the alpha