Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback surface effects not intuitive and too common

I have very few complaints about DS:OS 2, but it feels like the battlefield way too quickly becomes an explosion of elemental effects, often not even intentionally.

It makes any melee build feel bad right now. There's no reason not to run full casters or at least hybrid casters, where the battle can all be fought from a range.

I really think that the way surfaces get activated needs to be tuned down so that doing so has to be more intentional. Perhaps even remove some of the new surface effects entirely? Not sure what the best solution is, only how I feel about the excessive surface effects in their current iteration.

I actually had a similar problem in the original that seems to be mostly fixed in the enhanced edition. Basically I was controlling the two melee characters in my party while someone else controlled the two mages. It basically ended up me just standing around half the time. Granted my partner was kind of a dick and I don't associate with them any more, but I get the feeling you're mentioning.

That being said I feel like the sequel is doing a lot better in this area than the original. They are definitely doing better in letting me know what areas are what and what can be done with them. It's nice to be able to hover over the pools and see what's what. I would definitely not advocate for removing any, but perhaps more careful consideration in how they get activated could be achieved.

Is there a particular place you noticed this more than others? I understand what you're saying but I felt it more in the original incarnation of D:OS than I do in this sequel so I want to test out what you're saying if you have a specific place in mind.

There needs to be some more resistance based armors to make them less scary for warriors and rogues should have easier access to levitate.

Could not agree more. Almost every single fight seems to turn into a game of "the floor is lava" which gets tiresome very quickly, and makes melee rather frustrating.

One solution i would like to see is less random magical effects from creatures, especially things like crocodiles and turtles. It just gets too silly seeing every single critter casting spells or teleporting all over the place. Not every fight has to turn into a spellcasting bonanza.

Another solution could be to remove certain triggers, such as direct hits from wands.
Using a fire wand directly on an oil barrel etc should cause it to go off, but currently just hitting an enemy with anything elemental can accidentally cause the entire screen to light up.

I agree about the environment becoming chaotic to quickly but I feel it doesnt make melee useless, it makes ranged useless. Almost every fight you get in has people that can either close that gap and cause effects under you, or has ranged attackers that are going to put effects under you. Why play ranged when everything has a way to get to you anyway?

The only strategy that really feels worthwhile is being a damage reflect tank. You put a surface under me? You take damage. You CC me? You take damage. You hit me even though ive been knocked down for the past 4 turns? Dont care I still do damage to you.

Sadly fire explosion interactions are so strong, that all other magic skills are kind of weak. Peeling magic armor without blowing everything up pays really bad and makes it really annoying. Air and water are more about debuff and CC while earth and fire are more about damage. Because magic armor cancels debuffs, air and water lose in comparison.

I have mixed feelings on this - I agree that AOEs can get out of control / sometimes persist forever which can possibly be toned down, but disagree that melee characters feel useless with a mage in the party. Even going hybrid - which has its benefits sure, can dial down the raw effectiveness of a "pure" melee character. I think melee characters can do, overall, more damage and more effective CC than ranged ones. My rougue can one shot pretty much any trash mob (and even low armor bosses) in one round. My warrior can gap close, and cripple / knock down multiple enemies while taking an absurd amount of punishment. A magic user, on the other hand, has the ability to do significant area damage, or to completely throw the fight if they aren't mindful of aoes. Also keep in mind, the Bless mechanic completely changes how area of effects play out in fights, so it's not necessarily a bad thing to have your characters stuck in an aoe. As my characters got around lvl5+ I found my mage to be somewhat lacking (comparatively) on the "overall usefulness" chart - except for the fact that having 2 heal spells slotted is invaluable, and having the occasional chance to demolish multiple enemies if fireball is in proper line of sight (which is not always the case).

I feel like they've struck a good balance by making (a damage focused) mage a "conditionally powerful but vulnerable aoe burst class". They can't single target as well as rogues. They can't survive (or even CC as well as) a tank. They can, however, provide a lot of utility and/or damage if the conditions line up. If you are playing with melee characters, you have to be mindful of them AND make sure any friends you are playing with know where you intend to AOE.

At level 6, with Glass Cannon (6 AP), Guerrilla (+25% in sneak), Ranged 5 (+25%), Finesse 20 (+50%), Huntsman 1 (+5% high ground), Flesh Sacrifice (+20%), and Snipe(+100% in sneak) I do roughly 150 physical damage to Alexandar outside of combat. Once I'm in combat,

I'm not sure how the bonuses are calculated. Snipe does 56-61 dmg after applying Flesh Sacrifice and I end up doing about 150 physical on average, in sneak, with high ground and 25-27 dmg crossbow.

This is before the battle starts. When it does start, I am too far away to take damage. Once it's my turn, with Glass Cannon I can use 1AP to Teleport the target back to low ground and out of line of sight, Get 1AP back with Flesh Sacrifice, Use 1AP to enter Sneak, 3AP for Basic Attack
that does about 65 dmg, Get 2AP back with Adrenaline, 3AP for second basic attack, 2AP for Walk in the Shadows, then go into sneak and wait out your cooldowns, and by the time Invis runs out you are already in sneak and you can use Snipe again. So, I can do abut physical 280 dmg, hide, and do it all over again.

With this strategy surfaces were never a problem for me as a ranged character.