Any Tips On How To Do Well In Nightmare

[watersky82]

This is a great game and seems much harder than Loren.

I am choosing Ranger and Druid.
Any tips on how to do well in nightmare.

Go offensive, defensive or mixed?
If going for offense, does one 2 handed weapon or two 1 handed weapons cause more damage?

What attributes to focus on?

Also, does your choice affect the story of the game?
For example, one of the side quest in act 1, if I choose to steal some pelts, will it affect the story in anyway?

Thanks

[jack1974]

The choices have immediate consequences, in some cases change texts later in the game but not long-term consequences.
As for the strategy... there are many there isn't a single way to win, for example with Ranger:
- with 2h weapon you can deal a lot of damage and you get the Sweeping Strike to deal big damage and push an enemy on backrow (useful to exchange place with a weaker backrow enemy)
- with dual wield you get the benefits of two weapons (their combined stats power) plus you have crosscut that permanently reduces the max HP of target on each hit

and so on. But personally I wasn't able to win some battles in Nightmare there are other players here who play in NM, you can check some older threads for strategies.

[watersky82]

I see. Does Crosscut work on boss.

Also, by end game, what level will the characters reach?
What is the max level?
Character will gain a skill point every 2 level?
Also, I noticed once an attribute reach 20, it will take 2 points to increase by one.
How about later on? At which stage will take 3 points to increase by one?
Would like to know so I can plan what skill or traits to take.

Thanks

[jack1974]

Check the game tooltips, apart for the max level that I think is max 26-27 (depends how much you grind) all other questions are answered in-game. Click on the attribute names to get help, and how many attribute points are needed is explained in the screen where you assign the attributes itself!

[Troyen]

Druid/Ranger seems to be the hardest combo (since Hunter is OP). I relied on Con and regen to help with the first half of the game, but later on make sure you have plenty of Attack and single target burst damage. Agility helped out a bit, at least in the beginning, but by the end monsters start getting 300+ speed and there's no way to compete with that.

I ended the game around level 24-25 with moderate grinding, but you'll want a solid damage build by level 18. Expect spikes of difficulty. Most of the game isn't terribly difficult, but there are five or six boss fights that are an order of magnitude stronger. Save often, preferably on the map, in case you want to rethink your strategy for a fight.

The skills say which ones work on bosses. Note that Stagger does not reduce enemy stats, but does reduce yours (something that isn't clear in-game).

[fabulaparva]

I'd suggest buying more than just one potion from the Dingirran family you choose to do the family-slave-day quest for in Act 2. I haven't found a good use to IronWall Oil (Lugal), but the other 3 available potions have saved me from a few serious headaches in Act 3 (and even in Act4)