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exquisite tea posted:Early on especially I used the axe more for crowd control and fists + shield for DPS, since you can very quickly build up stun meter that way. The axe gets better later on when you can cycle through runic attacks. Yeah in my current replay I have a lot more appreciation for stunning enemies with fists + arrows vs whittling health down with the axe.
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# ? May 18, 2024 18:41 |
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acksplode posted:Yeah in my current replay I have a lot more appreciation for stunning enemies with fists + arrows vs whittling health down with the axe. The fists keep them busy better. Less of your flurries getting interrupted by the guy you're attacking. In some ways it hits 'harder' not just for building stun meter but for actually preventing them from breaking your flurry (which may be related to the stun meter or maybe not, I'm not sure).
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shortspecialbus posted:The hand/shield combat is actually incredibly powerful and shouldn't be overlooked or skipped. ![]() ![]() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPx_T7ERaVE&t=195s
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Can you waste limited materials on early upgrades to lock yourself out of later ones in this game, or are you pretty safe spending everything you have? I have a couple items from the realm tear fights, and can upgrade some of my rare armor with it, but I'm still pretty early in the game (just got Mimir). It looks like there may be a limited number of these realm tears so so I don't know if blowing it all now keeps me from upgrading later game armor. I also have just enough (3) leiptr alloys to upgrade one of my axe hilts, but again they seem to be in limited supply.
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PageMaster posted:Can you waste limited materials on early upgrades to lock yourself out of later ones in this game, or are you pretty safe spending everything you have? I have a couple items from the realm tear fights, and can upgrade some of my rare armor with it, but I'm still pretty early in the game (just got Mimir). It looks like there may be a limited number of these realm tears so so I don't know if blowing it all now keeps me from upgrading later game armor. I also have just enough (3) leiptr alloys to upgrade one of my axe hilts, but again they seem to be in limited supply. You can't waste anything. From memory those rare materials only go into one item for upgrades anyway.
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haveblue posted:That's probably why it takes so long, to encourage you to use both at once Khanstant posted:There's also a recall that you can aim that will do a big hit and freeze someone. Both of these are spot on. The game really wants you to vary your combat, the freeze with axe throwing is just hugely useful to just take someone out of the fight for a while. It's a surprisingly deep combat system, and you absolutely can and should be recalling your axe in an offensive manner.
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The thing I've never understood about Dad of Boy mechanically is why the blades of chaos exist for anything other than thematic reasons. (I also didn't really like the narrative use of them even though the actual scenes themselves were very loving cool) It's like this, right; the game has gone to extraordinary lengths to present its gameplay flows as organic. Even the mostly-gimmicky one-take presentation fits into this pattern. The loot drops are pretty much the only part of the game that's really outwardly gamey, even the menus are presented in the one-take. Combat uses the same presentation as exploration and unless you open a menu fights are completely seamless. In particular, the designers went out of their way to completely reinvent the combat gameplay and in particular gave us two different stances to use and made a point of including the axe throw and retrieve as a way of seamlessly bridging them together without having to stop. It even offers a lot of fine-grained subtleties to how this is applied in combat. In short, the axe throw/retrieve combines the two very distinct stances into a coherent style. It is very Game Design. So why, then, do they bolt the Blades on top of all this? It's an extraneous second style, which exists in a binary with the first and doesn't have any transitions with it or any tactical applications for those transitions except acting as a Runic Expansion Tank. It, just, it doesn't seem to fit!
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Because they look cool
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Weird that the developers would put extremely cool poo poo to murder things with in their game about a guy who goes around murdering things in extremely cool ways.
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That's not even true mechanically, like there are many axe combos and runic attacks that link into the BLADEZ OF CHAOS in satisfying ways.
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My only regret is I wished I understood how ridiculously powerful the Unbound Potential artifact was earlier in the game. I didn't really focus on Runic for a lot of the game but when I switched over it was a revelation.
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I'm always believed the blades are in the game for two reasons: -the cutscene where you go back and get them was probably one of the first ideas they pitched and locked in after settling on the reboot's plot outline -they needed an alternate element weapon to make the final boss fight more exciting I just thought of a third, too: -they're optional in most of the game, except when Kratos literally goes to hell, where he cannot avoid them. thematic resonance!
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They're also good for general AoE when needed.
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It's this surtr's grip worth upgrading? The stats aren't much better(out actually worse) than the others, and the materials are such behind these trials which are super unfun. There's gotta be something in missing that makes it this hard to get?
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PageMaster posted:It's this surtr's grip worth upgrading? The stats aren't much better(out actually worse) than the others, and the materials are such behind these trials which are super unfun. There's gotta be something in missing that makes it this hard to get? That's the one I ended up using the most even though there are others which are higher level. The energy waves it shoots out seem to apply a stagger effect, so whenever the perk activates you can quickly rush down heavy enemies like the hammer draugrs with light attacks when normally they would be tanking through the hits and attacking you. The health regen is just an added bonus and can really help out in long fights. Never fully upgraded it since I didn't want to deal with the impossible trials but it's not like the extra 1 or 2 points in runic or whatever would make much of a difference, just upgrade it however much you can with the materials you have.
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NoEyedSquareGuy posted:That's the one I ended up using the most even though there are others which are higher level. The energy waves it shoots out seem to apply a stagger effect, so whenever the perk activates you can quickly rush down heavy enemies like the hammer draugrs with light attacks when normally they would be tanking through the hits and attacking you. The health regen is just an added bonus and can really help out in long fights. Never fully upgraded it since I didn't want to deal with the impossible trials but it's not like the extra 1 or 2 points in runic or whatever would make much of a difference, just upgrade it however much you can with the materials you have. I can't upgrade it at all but I'm guessing you want some luck to help proc? Or does the shockwave always happen? Also does level affect anything like damage bonus/penalties, or can I just jump into and valk fights at level 5?
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Enemies at significantly higher level than you will absolutely wreck your poo poo if they hit you, even if you’re blocking in a lot of cases. The scale is displayed by the colour on the enemy’s health bar. Green is below your level, yellow is equal to your level, Orange and Purple are above your level. And if you see a skull on the health bar you’re almost certainly dead no matter what you do. Enemies get a damage multiplier or something if they’re above your level so trying to fight them like that is just needlessly frustrating. I’m afraid the answer is just to follow the level gating.
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PageMaster posted:I can't upgrade it at all but I'm guessing you want some luck to help proc? Or does the shockwave always happen? Luck based. I didn't focus on luck as a stat at all but the bonus would still proc often enough to give a significant benefit in combat. In addition to what Kibayasu said, the most significant difference for me between high level enemies and enemies at your level is that higher level enemies will sometimes have the properties of their attacks change. If you're the same level as one of the hammer draugrs their attacks will be guard breaks which you can parry, if they're higher level than you those same attacks become unblockable and you'll have to start dodging them or fight at a distance. This can make it hard to deal with them in a timely manner so you're generally better off going somewhere else if you're exploring and come across enemies that are significantly higher level than you.
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The annoying thing is that a lot of the time if you do find a fight you know you can’t win there’s no way to disengage from it. So it’s either just stand there and die or restart from a checkpoint.
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I wonder if the levels apply to bosses, too. I managed to finish two Valkyries, but a purple level encounter is still destroying me (could also be me being garbage at handling multiple strong enemies.) Edit: turns out they weren't even purple, just they dark elf elite fight in the fire realm challenge. The fact that there's no items to build for resistance to blindness kind of sucks and guarantees I won't be finishing that quest Unfun enemies aside, game is so good and well built; I love just exploring and listening to the three of them talk about random things or interacting with that you're seeing; I hope you start the next game with Mimir and they don't pull a "reset all your stuff" in part 2 like they did the previous series. PageMaster fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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PageMaster posted:I wonder if the levels apply to bosses, too. I managed to finish two Valkyries, but a purple level encounter is still destroying me (could also be me being garbage at handling multiple strong enemies.) Some of the dark elfs are the hardest non-valkyrie enemies in the game honestly. I never could get the hang of those things.
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PageMaster posted:The fact that there's no items to build for resistance to blindness kind of sucks and guarantees I won't be finishing that quest If you aren't aware, you can resist blindness with the tools you have- if Kratos isn't looking at the bomb when it goes off, it has no effect on him
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haveblue posted:If you aren't aware, you can resist blindness with the tools you have- if Kratos isn't looking at the bomb when it goes off, it has no effect on him This would have saved me a lot of anger at this game over the past day, and Dark Elves are still the worst enemy in the game for me. Took out the Valkyrie on top to get a crest, but still doesn't drop all the ingredients I need, so now I have to unlock all these impossible challenges? PLEASE stop teasing me along and let me upgrade my cool axe! Edit: ironically a chest at the top gives me the darkness resist enchantment.
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Kibayasu posted:Enemies at significantly higher level than you will absolutely wreck your poo poo if they hit you, even if you’re blocking in a lot of cases. The scale is displayed by the colour on the enemy’s health bar. Green is below your level, yellow is equal to your level, Orange and Purple are above your level. And if you see a skull on the health bar you’re almost certainly dead no matter what you do. I remember spending like 15 minutes at least kiting a single purple enemy who I think I was not supposed to fight that early in the game. They were a one hit kill blocking or not, but they were very slow so just needed to be patient and keep distance. Then I opened one of those rifts and three purple guys game out including a ranged one and all instakill and I was like, okay that one I can wait for.
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The game does an incredible job of making you want to fight Thor and Odin despite never seeing or meeting them. Also, when Mimir talks about Freya being cursed, he says she was cursed to be unable to harm any living thing, so how is she fighting in the sequel trailer?
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PageMaster posted:The game does an incredible job of making you want to fight Thor and Odin despite never seeing or meeting them. Presumably she returns to Asgard in a rage at Kratos and signs back up with Odin to get revenge or alternatively finds a way to overcome the spell and get revenge. Something driven by revenge.
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PageMaster posted:The game does an incredible job of making you want to fight Thor and Odin despite never seeing or meeting them. TBF she doesn't actually hurt anything in the clip from the trailer ![]()
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PageMaster posted:The game does an incredible job of making you want to fight Thor and Odin despite never seeing or meeting them. If you're in classical mythology and someone is cursed to never be able to do a thing, that's a guarantee that they're going to find a way to do the thing
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Picked this up on PC and absolutely love it. Reading through the thread and I guess I'm a weirdo for greatly preferring the blades of chaos over the axe. The axe felt ok for single target but I felt like I was more prone to getting swarmed and it made the large outnumbered fights frustrating for me at the beginning. I also hadn't played GoW since the 2nd one so they made it really feel like the game I loved playing when I was younger. It felt like I could really kick rear end and stomp groups of fools once I got them. I easily made it through nifelheim and got gold on the impossible challenges just using those so they're plenty viable and strong imo (at least on standard difficulty). That being said I like the axe more now that I'm endgame with it and have all the good upgrades and runic attacks. I'm going to start NG+ on Give me God of War so we'll see how my weapon preferences hold up. Edit: Also maybe I was just being dumb but I didn't quite pick up on how you "leveled up" (gear not exp). Was that ever clearly explained? I probably just missed it but looking back a lot of things were more frustrating initially than they should have been because I wasn't focusing on getting my gear score up. I'd hold off on upgrading armor because I thought it was only adding a few stat points. Getting your level up makes such a massive difference and it made things way easier and more enjoyable. Hakarne fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jan 30, 2022 |
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Hakarne posted:Picked this up on PC and absolutely love it. Reading through the thread and I guess I'm a weirdo for greatly preferring the blades of chaos over the axe. The axe felt ok for single target but I felt like I was more prone to getting swarmed and it made the large outnumbered fights frustrating for me at the beginning. I also hadn't played GoW since the 2nd one so they made it really feel like the game I loved playing when I was younger. It felt like I could really kick rear end and stomp groups of fools once I got them. I easily made it through nifelheim and got gold on the impossible challenges just using those so they're plenty viable and strong imo (at least on standard difficulty). The chaos blades are absolutely more powerful in most situations, and getting them so late in the game is supposed to make you feel way more powerful. It's a narrative choice more than anything, Kratos unleashing himself fully upon Asgard. The reason they're not discussed as much is because they show up so late, and not all of the new players are that far. Also while they are pretty much inarguably better overall, they're not best for every situation and there's just less to talk about with them. And they definitely don't mean you stop using the other attacks. As far as gear, it's poorly explained, but increasing gear level increases your overall level, yes. The overall level is what matters the absolute most with enemy scaling. The actual numbers of the stats on the gear matter way more for late-game or muspelheim/niflheim grinding as you can make a couple different build strats, plus the "gear level" perks/attacks that only unlock when you hit 200 in Runic or whatever. Before that point just level up whatever you like, with the caveat that covering up Kratos's chest fully is a terrible aesthetic choice.
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One thing I'm not too happy about is that the game is seeming to get progressively easier. I'm sure there are some difficulty spikes still ahead but for the most part the fights near the beginning of the game felt harder than they do now. I'm pondering turning the difficulty up one level.
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Play posted:One thing I'm not too happy about is that the game is seeming to get progressively easier. I'm sure there are some difficulty spikes still ahead but for the most part the fights near the beginning of the game felt harder than they do now. I'm pondering turning the difficulty up one level. Don't worry, you're gonna die a whole lot against the valkyries.
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Yeah, you're used to the combat flow now, but there are definitely enemies with the abilities and/or health pool to give you trouble later
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If nothing else, the optional bosses are proper Bullshit Hard, yeah, they didn't pull any punches with those.
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Play posted:One thing I'm not too happy about is that the game is seeming to get progressively easier. I'm sure there are some difficulty spikes still ahead but for the most part the fights near the beginning of the game felt harder than they do now. I'm pondering turning the difficulty up one level. If you're playing on Normal that's pretty much how it goes. Hard also gets easier but the potential for things going south still remains.
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Ainsley McTree posted:If nothing else, the optional bosses are proper Bullshit Hard, yeah, they didn't pull any punches with those. I've spent something like 6 hours trying to beat Sigrun on GMGOW. That god drat attack where she dashes forward and hits you with a fast unblockable wing stab unless you quickly dodge right is responsible for about 90% of the hits I take and I almost certainly would have beat it a long time ago if it didn't exist. One of the other Valkyries had a consistent tell where if she dashed left then forward she would be doing the double wing swipe, if she dashed right then forward it was the unblockable wing stab and she wasn't much of a problem once I figured that out. If Sigrun dashes left then forward she'll do the double wing swipe, but can seemingly do the unlockable wing stab from a right-forward dash, or dashing backwards then forwards, or dashing forwards from standing still. The right-forward dash is the best case scenario since it's consistent and has enough wind-up that I can usually process what's coming and react accordingly. The back-forward dash seems like it might be a 50/50 on if she'll do the fast spinning attack or the wing stab and if I guess wrong on blocking or dodging it's about 70% of my health either way. If she does it from standing I usually just can't react fast enough to dodge out of the way. There are a few other things that seem almost unfair like how if you accidentally parry the wrong attack instead of blocking you get animation locked and she can combo it into her instakill air stomp, but that stab is by far the biggest problem because it has such a short tell and can be added as a finisher to so many other attacks. Going to keep bashing my head against it anyway until I finally get it, I've had a few runs getting her down to 10% or so before messing up so I think I'm close to getting it. All my gear is focused on strength and my axe is fully upgraded but she has so much health that it still requires something like 10 minutes of playing perfectly.
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If it helps any, Sigrun only steals a few valkyrie abilities at a time. I forget the exact combination but she switches between 2-3 "modes" after each air burst and she'll only use the attacks from those specific valkyries, none of the others. Once I realized that it greatly cut down on the amount of poo poo I had to remember.
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Sigrun finally down; was actually a really exciting fight but my block finger is seriously cramped now. I'm way short of hacksilver to finish upgrading what I want so back to finish the main quest finally (Niflheim is a little too tedious for me).
PageMaster fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Feb 1, 2022 |
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Yeah when I was grinding that fight out the wing attacks were my biggest killers too. Even in the punchy video I posted earlier I eat a few wing stabs and spins over the course of the fight. One of the things I did to help with that fight is to spec into max healing. Have health regen on your Rage meter and parry and runic time (I forget which of those are configurable), and have Atreus throw you healing stones. Over the course of my video I probably heal up like 2 full health bars and I was still in the red when I finally got her.
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# ? May 18, 2024 18:41 |
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Man I'm looking forward to fights like that because most of the bosses I've had so far have been absolute chumps. I'm slowly working my way through this game though, no rush, so I'm probably not that far.
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