Divine Divinity vs. Sacred vs. Kult

[txa1265]

Hi:

I only recently picked up [edit]Divine Divinity[/edit], and started a couple of games, but found myself dying quickly in the Catecombs (once as Mage, once Warrior) ... I've since heard that is a very hard area, but I'm wondering if it is worth the reward - I'm more of a BG type player, so this action style is tough for me (OK, I'm also a big-time FPS player, but for some reason the diablo stuff strikes me hard). I played hours on hours of Sacred, and eventually got bored and never finished. I also recently got Kult, but DD seems much better.

Any thoughts for me?

Thanks,

Mike

[swcarter]

You might want to clarify what your question is, because your post seems to have answered itself.

SWC

[txa1265]

The question was - is the difficulty of the Catacombs worth it?

And I answered it today ... I made it through, finished some other stuff in town and then when i decided to be brave enough to follow where those Orcs told me not to go ... I found my new direction. I'm currently getting pushed from military leader to military leader in the typical 'get this from X', and X says, I'll give it to you, buy you need to do Y.

Based on what I've seen it is much better than Sacred, and seems much deeper than Kult ... I know Kult is ~20 hours or so, and I've heard DD is more like ~100, which is also a good thing.

I succeeded at blowing up the Orc supply train, then met up with a kid and took care of his house, then poisened the well, then headed south, and was totally swarmed (worse than end of catecombs) and couldn't even run away fast enough to stay alive ... tomorrow I find out where I saved last ... but something tells me I won't be happy with myself

Mike

[fable]

Run south from the village as far as you can, avoiding conflict. You'll have a meeting or two, then be able to continue south and east, over a bridge. But before you leave the village, be sure to finish the catacombs beneath it, and any quests you can do within the village. You can make a useful level or two there, and pick up some basic but helpful supplies.

[swcarter]

The forest south of the elven ranger school (or whatever it's called) is the most difficult area you can go to in the first part of the game. If you stay in the area where you start the game and visit places like the haunted abbey and the city of Rivertown (both on the northern side) you should be ok.

SWC

[fable]

Do you mean the area at the bottom of that huge orc camp, more or less to the south/southeast? The orcs do tend to swarm you. I suggest doing a bunch of quests in and around the main town, first, and picking up a few levels. Improve only your agility/dexterity: get that to the point where you're hit less than 50% of the time. For skills, be sure to get at least two, probably more levels of Freeze. The good thing about the orcs is that they're generally slow, so you can outrun them. Draw one out of pack as you leave, then cast Freeze, and hit it as often as you can before the spell runs out. Recast, repeat, until dead. At high levels, that spell also does a nice bit of damage.

[txa1265]

I have played many hours since my initial question, as a 'BattleMage', basically. I am truly enjoying this game quite a bit. Good depth and scope - not just some Sacred / Kult hack-n-slasher, despite the combat system.

I know that wooded area you speak of ... I got my second orc related quest, and after taking care of it, decided to explore. I figured I'd become pretty good at taking out Orcs, so ... well, I got majorly swarmed by 'Elite' orcs ... and couldn't use restore fast enough to keep alive to run away! Then I discovered how long it had been since my last 'save' Oh well, I've gone well beyond that now, and am amazed at the size of some of the dungeon areas ...

Mike

[fable]

Yes, the southern reaches of that huge Orc encampment is given over to the elite orcs, both warrior and archer types. The same strategy works for dealing with them, however: cull one from a group, run away from the rest, then use Freeze, and beat them. If it looks like your Freeze timer is about to run out, move away again, and either wait for them to start following you once more, or recast Freeze immediately.

And be sure to focus on dexterity/agility after making levels. That's essential.