High level fights got harder?

[ChromaKnight]

This suddenly started happening when playing through the latest build and it's started infuriating me to the point where I'm not sure if something's changed or something's bugged. I booted up some random old save file and found myself utterly unable to do old Zheng Shi fights that I could do without issue before. In particular, the Sylveren Slavebreaker, Jasvalla, and Sophora fights have suddenly become seemingly impossible. Even the Bored Jumpers can be randomly difficult.

For reference, my character is a level 10 (the previous max) Mercenary that focuses on ranged attacks. I, of course, have 50 Aim, which is the max for my level. Even using a Stormbull Shotgun, which has an Accuracy of +18, my shots seem to hit these enemies an average of 20% of the time. I can Rapid Fire and consistently miss 3 or all 4 shots, which begs the question as to what the point of my Aim stat even is if I can't seem to hit enemies?

The Sylveren Slavebreaker is annoying because she can seemingly infinitely repair her shields by sapping mine, and since I can't hit her, I can't out-DPS the shield gain. I don't have sexy or un-sexy clothes, but all of my teases seem to have no effect on her. Once I get pinned, I'm guaranteed to lose. It doesn't matter if I struggle for 5 turns in a row, my 8 Physique means I'm utterly helpless, to the point where I unintentionally got bad ended by one, which I don't think has ever happened to me before. As I stated before, I don't recall ever having this sort of trouble with this particular enemy. Running from fights also seems to be much less likely to work.

Jasvalla and Sophora I know are supposed to be difficult fights, and I haven't been able to defeat them as consistently in the past as I have normal enemies such as the Slavebreakers, but Sophora will sometimes deal hundreds of damage in one turn while I can't seem to hit her. I don't recall her doing that sort of damage in the past either, so maybe she got a huge buff in her latest update?

I'm sure a lot of this is going to come off as whining, or rage from someone who doesn't interact with the game mechanics properly (I'll admit that I can be guilty of that), but I've played this game enough to feel like something has changed about these combats that doesn't seem right. I've also tried other weapons and getting better armor, to no avail. If anyone could let me know if I missed some combat update or if they're experiencing the same things, that'd be nice to know. I'll also attach my save file, why not?

 

[Animefan666]

You should train your other stats up. Single digits aren't doing you any favors.

 

[Theron]

When was the last time you played? There have been a number of changes. Evasion and Accuracy were changed some time ago, so Accuracy directly counters Evasion, but Flurry Attacks like Rapid Fire have a 45% chance to be forced to miss, IIRC. Bonus Hit Rate would help. Libido is also Tease Accuracy, so you need high Libido to successfully Tease, unless you have Ice Cold, in which case lower is better.

Spoiler: Weapons

Tri-Beam Rifle from Urbolg should increase your chances of hitting. You won't benefit from Heavy Weapons, but that's only 20% of the weapon's damage.

Heavy Slut Ray from Slavebreakers. Bonus Hit Rate + Stun Chance. Very effective vs anything not immune to Lust. If you go this route, I suggest buying a Slut Ray from Dr. Badger. I had a hard time vs Slavebreakers with other weapons on your save.

Shock Bow from 'Craxy' Carl. Has a pretty good chance to Stun, as long as you're hitting HP.

You might think about switching to Trick Bracer. 1 less Evasion, but 20 more Shields and 3 Shield Defense.

Spoiler: Amor

I usually switch to Augment-Weave from the Cyberpunk Security on Zheng Shi. You'd have a positive Evasion score afterward. Getting one will also be good for working out to improve your stats.

Jumper Spacesuit would give you 17% total Evasion and keep Airtight.

Spoiler: Other Thoughts

Light Jetpack from Uveto would give +10 Evasion. It also was changed to grant the Lift Off Special Ability (Fly for no Energy and doesn't take a turn), which makes you immune to most Trips. Even those that hit can be negated by Lifting Off again for free.

Low Physique means you can't use Headbutt to reliably Stun enemies, and Mercenaries don't get to replace Physique with another stat to escape Grapples. It's also used to resist some Stuns. Training it will also increase Willpower.

Also, I think the Slavebreaker's Shield Drain attack is bugged. It doesn't actually steal your Shields. This actually makes it a lot stronger, since it otherwise has diminishing returns.

You might think about going to Dhaal and buying better equipment.

 

[ChromaKnight]

When was the last time you played? There have been a number of changes. Evasion and Accuracy were changed some time ago, so Accuracy directly counters Evasion, but Flurry Attacks like Rapid Fire have a 45% chance to be forced to miss, IIRC. Bonus Hit Rate would help. Libido is also Tease Accuracy, so you need high Libido to successfully Tease, unless you have Ice Cold, in which case lower is better.

Spoiler: Weapons

Tri-Beam Rifle from Urbolg should increase your chances of hitting. You won't benefit from Heavy Weapons, but that's only 20% of the weapon's damage.

Heavy Slut Ray from Slavebreakers. Bonus Hit Rate + Stun Chance. Very effective vs anything not immune to Lust. If you go this route, I suggest buying a Slut Ray from Dr. Badger. I had a hard time vs Slavebreakers with other weapons on your save.

Shock Bow from 'Craxy' Carl. Has a pretty good chance to Stun, as long as you're hitting HP.

You might think about switching to Trick Bracer. 1 less Evasion, but 20 more Shields and 3 Shield Defense.

Spoiler: Amor

I usually switch to Augment-Weave from the Cyberpunk Security on Zheng Shi. You'd have a positive Evasion score afterward. Getting one will also be good for working out to improve your stats.

Jumper Spacesuit would give you 17% total Evasion and keep Airtight.

Spoiler: Other Thoughts

Light Jetpack from Uveto would give +10 Evasion. It also was changed to grant the Lift Off Special Ability (Fly for no Energy and doesn't take a turn), which makes you immune to most Trips. Even those that hit can be negated by Lifting Off again for free.

Low Physique means you can't use Headbutt to reliably Stun enemies, and Mercenaries don't get to replace Physique with another stat to escape Grapples. It's also used to resist some Stuns. Training it will also increase Willpower.

Also, I think the Slavebreaker's Shield Drain attack is bugged. It doesn't actually steal your Shields. This actually makes it a lot stronger, since it otherwise has diminishing returns.

You might think about going to Dhaal and buying better equipment.

I really appreciate the breakdown/sanity check. I haven't played as in-depth as in the past for quite a while, I normally just beeline to the new content when I see an update that piques my interest. Maybe Ranged Merc just isn't that strong of a spec, which is what it seems like to me, but I'm not sure that the Accuracy/Evasion change is working very well if I'm shooting with about as much accuracy as I possible can and still missing almost all of my shots.

I don't like the idea of having to stat pad or abuse certain mechanics (stun) to interact with high level content, but I suppose that's more on-brand than not for Fenoxo games. The Slavebreaker's drain being bugged makes that fight basically impossible for me, so I imagine it is a bug. Maybe/hopefully things get changed going forward to even out the difficulty some. I think I've always had an easier time with melee specs, but I definitely remember shredding through a ton of content with the tri-beam laser before, and it seems a lot weaker now because I can't hit the broad side of a barn with 50 Aim.

 

[Theron]

Ranged Merc was considered one of the more powerful specs, though I don't know how much of that was the Saurmorian Rail Gun. My Merc was Melee, and I haven't done a full playthrough in quite some time.

There was a period recently where Second Shot wasn't working, and it seems like some of the basic code has been changed. It's possible that other, more subtle bugs were introduced as well.