NG+ why is this so hard?

#1

So I pretty much have a party of lvl 38’s and they all have pretty good armor. I’ve reached the Sheep stage can I can’t even beat it on Normal. What the heck do I need to do? Grind? I’ve scoured this board for build advice and can only find Coyot arguing with Ohlmann.

I slept through the regular game, now things are getting way to hard. Do I need to grind?

As far as skill builds are concerned, everything I read seems to contradict each other. Some people recommend focusing on passive damage boosters while other’s suggest to specialize certain heroes.

Farts.

#2

If you can’t beat the sheep level with party level 38, it looks like you’re doing something wrong. I’m not sure at what level I beat it on Normal (I had to beat in Casual in linear playthrough, but I have a save with party level 29 and in it I already have it beaten on Normal).

Post your save if you want to hear some constructive criticism about character builds :slight_smile:

A few key points for success would be:

  1. maxxed out frenzy and dragon fire - and good timing of both. Possibly also Furious Start (=one free frenzy on each summon).
  2. good use of cheap support characters. (I have berzerkers with maxxed rage and swiftness. Boosting them only up to level 2 or 3 should give them enough opportunities to apply their high bleed to most enemies, set them to “!” so that they spread it around.
  3. concentrated killzone. Since the sheep have regen, you have to kill them quick - using characters specialized in maximizing damage. In my case, it’s flurry+madness builds of berzerkers and rapid fire + sharpshooter builds of rangers. At level 29, I am able to place 2x5 and 4x3 zerks (two of the level 3 are bleeders, rest is hitters) and one L3 ranger. It takes some effort but it can be done. (Once a few regular sheep got past and forced me to apply dragonfire a bit earlier than I wanted)
#3

Unless you’re playing linear or with other self-imposed restrictions then it’s probably easiest to ‘grind’ by going back and hunting as many normal game yellow stars as you can get. They’ll net you quite a few benefits. Several unique weapons and armor which may be upgrades to your current gear or which are upgradable in NG+ (and count towards certain achievements). The stars will also open up challenges and endless maps in the Bonus button which when beaten will offer up books for Azra that can be very helpful. Oh, and you’ll also get a few levels for your effort. The levelups are almost secondary and going back to get yellow extreme stars from battles 5+ maps earlier doesn’t really feel like grinding, at least to me, since the creeps are different and the benefits are greater than mere XP.

Unless, of course, you’ve already gotten all your normal game yellow stars and all the bonus maps. In which case you’re doing better than I could (I managed it as I was around avg level 50 I think on this heroes only run) and I can’t offer any other advice.

#4

— Begin quote from "delve"

The levelups are almost secondary

— End quote

Not to be underestimated, though - levelups (extra skillpoints aside) translate into more damage, and the difference depends both on class and on boost level. Rangers get the smallest benefit, since their base attack grows by 1 point per level, and at boost 5 this grows into 3 point difference. Zerks get 2 per level, 5 difference at boost 5. Knights get double of that benefit and dragons even more.

So, depending on composition of your party, a single levelup might increase your total DPS by anything between 3 and 10% - and especially with regen enemies, even a small increase in damage may matter.

#5

— Begin quote from "coyot"

— Begin quote from "delve"

The levelups are almost secondary

— End quote

Not to be underestimated, though

— End quote

Indeed. I didn’t mean secondary to your increase in DPS as the levelups are the primary source of that. I meant that all the other benefits make the XP grind seem almost a side effect of the activity rather than the purpose. In effect you go sidequesting for baubles that, while useful, end up being rather less useful than the levels you gain while acquiring them. Grinding? Well, yes. Or you could call it obsessive completionism since every yellow star is a point towards 100% and often a step towards additional achievements as well.

Then again, my definition of ‘grinding’ comes from an era of MUDs and pre-expansion Everquest so YMMV.