Dragon's Dogma 2

[meiam]

It mostly depend on your pawn classes whether or not they get hired. I just search based on what class I need (usually mage/thief) and then look for skill I really want (pifler and palladium or w/e).

You don't get much from them being hired though, just some RC that can be exchanged for cosmetic (maybe more NG+ that I don't know).

 

[CaitSeith]

The more I hear about Dragon's Dogma 2, the more tempted I get to give it a try. Sadly, my list of games to play is far too large as it is already.

 

[CriticalGaming]

It's not what you think.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I'm just gonna guess that if you want your pawn to be hired/recruited by other players you're gonna wanna make them a hot chick or a cat or a dog or look like Wolverine.

 

[Dreiko]

I started a new game to play as an archer this time, and the game is "better"? Ranged attacking feels better and safer as you can peck off enemies while your pawn army keeps them busy, and with archer skills you can even stagger the enemies enough that they don't get much chance to fight back and hurt your pawns themselves. Pawns are still really really fucking stupid though and will jump off cliffs for no reason only to die.

I have no idea how the pawn system is supposed to work in the sense of your pawn being hired out to other people, as my girl "jesssay" has never once been on any adventures while I've been gone. If you must always log out at an inn for your pawn to partake in another adventure that's incredibly stupid as the majority of the time I am playing out in the wild somewhere and don't have access to an Inn at the drop of a hat to log out properly.

You don't need to restart you just go to the guild and change your job, the game automatically gives you all the starting gear when you do, and various classes have passives you learn that you can transfer over to another class and make interesting hybrids, like for example fighter has a passive that increases your health and another that increases your carry weight, those are never not gonna be useful.


Pawns are all about those commands you give em, if you play a fighter grab a healer, and if you play a healer grab a damage dealer, that's the basic idea. I use a mage healer when I go ham as a warrior.

I'm just gonna guess that if you want your pawn to be hired/recruited by other players you're gonna wanna make them a hot chick or a cat or a dog or look like Wolverine.

That and the actual costume you put em in too. Stargazer's armor flies off the shelves.

 

[CriticalGaming]

You don't need to restart you just go to the guild and change your job, the game automatically gives you all the starting gear when you do, and various classes have passives you learn that you can transfer over to another class and make interesting hybrids, like for example fighter has a passive that increases your health and another that increases your carry weight, those are never not gonna be useful.


Pawns are all about those commands you give em, if you play a fighter grab a healer, and if you play a healer grab a damage dealer, that's the basic idea. I use a mage healer when I go ham as a warrior.



That and the actual costume you put em in too. Stargazer's armor flies off the shelves.

I don't really understand this game at all.

I've leveled to 18 and my archer does fucking nothing in terms of damage. I've got the best bow I can buy and I've upgraded it, I bought skills and their upgrades, and still I do next to no damage to anything stronger than goblins. My party continues to be unable to live through nearly any encounter beyond starting enemies. I've upgraded my pawn's gear and mine, and I've swapped my summoned pawns with ones at my level. Still they just get melted by everything.

Even basic enemies like the Saurian lizard fuckers can one shot me if they land thejump attack on me. And they take forever to kill. The game also keeps dropping Gryphons on my head which I stand absolutely no chance to deal with. One of my quests wants me to fight a dragon with 8 fucking health bars. So either this is a brutally unfair game or something is wrong with every single thing I'm doing, but nothing seems obviously wrong with my setup.

 

[meiam]

I don't really understand this game at all.

I've leveled to 18 and my archer does fucking nothing in terms of damage. I've got the best bow I can buy and I've upgraded it, I bought skills and their upgrades, and still I do next to no damage to anything stronger than goblins. My party continues to be unable to live through nearly any encounter beyond starting enemies. I've upgraded my pawn's gear and mine, and I've swapped my summoned pawns with ones at my level. Still they just get melted by everything.

Even basic enemies like the Saurian lizard fuckers can one shot me if they land thejump attack on me. And they take forever to kill. The game also keeps dropping Gryphons on my head which I stand absolutely no chance to deal with. One of my quests wants me to fight a dragon with 8 fucking health bars. So either this is a brutally unfair game or something is wrong with every single thing I'm doing, but nothing seems obviously wrong with my setup.

You can't take on a dragon at this point, just run if you see one. Griffon is borderline too. For archer, you want explosive arrow, stick that on a monster and it'll do a good job. In term of pure damage, a sorcerer and thief are your best bet. Most enemy attack take a lot of damage out of you, but healing is plentiful so long as you have a mage in your party. Pawn are easy to resuscitate, so try having them take a the brunt of the damage in most fight.

 

[CriticalGaming]

You can't take on a dragon at this point, just run if you see one. Griffon is borderline too. For archer, you want explosive arrow, stick that on a monster and it'll do a good job. In term of pure damage, a sorcerer and thief are your best bet. Most enemy attack take a lot of damage out of you, but healing is plentiful so long as you have a mage in your party. Pawn are easy to resuscitate, so try having them take a the brunt of the damage in most fight.

Pawns are taking the brunt of the damage. Except that damage one shots them. The healing spell of a mage is useless in that regard

Never mind that bigger enemies are spawning in the world surrounded by little enemies that take too long to kill so you are quickly and constantly overwhelmed.

Boss monsters being tough and spongy i can handle so lpng as the fight is fair. But when even the little fuckers around them are spongy and deadly, it is too much.

Im running past everything at this point trying to do side quests and such in the hope that i can get something to make my damage go up. But thats not happening. Running everywhere is also just stupid and dumb design in this world because getting to your objective takes so long that it is nighttime by the tome you get to what it is you want to do. Which means you better take a nap first otherwise you're going to have a bad time.

That is a good phrase for this game. A bad time.

 

[Jarrito3002]

I don't really understand this game at all.

I've leveled to 18 and my archer does fucking nothing in terms of damage. I've got the best bow I can buy and I've upgraded it, I bought skills and their upgrades, and still I do next to no damage to anything stronger than goblins. My party continues to be unable to live through nearly any encounter beyond starting enemies. I've upgraded my pawn's gear and mine, and I've swapped my summoned pawns with ones at my level. Still they just get melted by everything.

Even basic enemies like the Saurian lizard fuckers can one shot me if they land thejump attack on me. And they take forever to kill. The game also keeps dropping Gryphons on my head which I stand absolutely no chance to deal with. One of my quests wants me to fight a dragon with 8 fucking health bars. So either this is a brutally unfair game or something is wrong with every single thing I'm doing, but nothing seems obviously wrong with my setup.

For the saurians which ones are you fighting. Cause weapons have a slash and strike damage type and some enemies are neutral weak or resist to that type of damage. Like the regular scale saurians don't like slash but the rocky bump ones you need strike or try to get a pawn to knock it over and get at that underbelly that works for both.

When you can find a dwarven smith cause knock down resist is your friend.

And you might be under leveled depending where you are at the areas don't really tell you or warn you if you are to low for that area or the missions for that matter. As long as the quest doesn't have a timer next it you can hold it off for later.

When I am archer I slot in warrior, thief or fighter with a slashing weapon for slash, keep a mage handy especially starting out for a good while they really buffed them compared to the first in terms of support and utility.

Early Dogma is tough but once your start leveling things even out and eventually you can just elbow drop everything hard so take in this suffering while it last lol I kid.

 

[CriticalGaming]

For the saurians which ones are you fighting. Cause weapons have a slash and strike damage type and some enemies are neutral weak or resist to that type of damage. Like the regular scale saurians don't like slash but the rocky bump ones you need strike or try to get a pawn to knock it over and get at that underbelly that works for both.

When you can find a dwarven smith cause knock down resist is your friend.

And you might be under leveled depending where you are at the areas don't really tell you or warn you if you are to low for that area or the missions for that matter. As long as the quest doesn't have a timer next it you can hold it off for later.

When I am archer I slot in warrior, thief or fighter with a slashing weapon for slash, keep a mage handy especially starting out for a good while they really buffed them compared to the first in terms of support and utility.

Early Dogma is tough but once your start leveling things even out and eventually you can just elbow drop everything hard so take in this suffering while it last lol I kid.

My current set up is two warriors and a mage to my archer. Ive only seen one type of saurian with the spears.

This morning i got my mage to enhance my bow with fire and that is doing more damage. Orges, minotaurs are fightable now, but the minotaur can wipe out the whole party if im unlucky and the charge attack hits everyone.

I dont think im very far into the game yet. Im basically still questing around the first big city you get to.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Here’s a bit of an archer guide if it helps -

Dragon's Dogma 2 Archer best build, skills, and augmentations

Our recommendation for the best Archer build in Dragon's Dogma 2, including the best Archer Weapon Skills, Core Skills and Augmentations.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[CriticalGaming]

Here’s a bit of an archer guide if it helps -

Dragon's Dogma 2 Archer best build, skills, and augmentations

Our recommendation for the best Archer build in Dragon's Dogma 2, including the best Archer Weapon Skills, Core Skills and Augmentations.

www.eurogamer.net

I'm already doing everything in this guide. ARcher I think is just dogshit lol.

 

[Dreiko]

I don't really understand this game at all.

I've leveled to 18 and my archer does fucking nothing in terms of damage. I've got the best bow I can buy and I've upgraded it, I bought skills and their upgrades, and still I do next to no damage to anything stronger than goblins. My party continues to be unable to live through nearly any encounter beyond starting enemies. I've upgraded my pawn's gear and mine, and I've swapped my summoned pawns with ones at my level. Still they just get melted by everything.

Even basic enemies like the Saurian lizard fuckers can one shot me if they land thejump attack on me. And they take forever to kill. The game also keeps dropping Gryphons on my head which I stand absolutely no chance to deal with. One of my quests wants me to fight a dragon with 8 fucking health bars. So either this is a brutally unfair game or something is wrong with every single thing I'm doing, but nothing seems obviously wrong with my setup.

So a couple of things, first of all, the archer is all about headshots and charged arrows, you gotta get good at hitting things weakpoints, meaning, you gotta first figure them out! Archer to me when I tried it actually felt like easymode cause you can shoot things from real afar while having a mellee pawn use its provoke skills to tank stuff as you kill it. If you find yourself close enough to an enemy where it can reach you, just run away and then turn back and shoot em when you've made space. You're an actual archer, not meant to take hits.

As for the drake (I assume you're doing the mission where you go back to Melve or something, the one with big blisters on it) that's a pretty later-on mission involved in unlocking an advanced job, but at the same time, your class level is what matters more than your char level, cause those unlock your different skills. Drakes are tough though, out of the random big monsters you come across they will be the toughest.


But yeah basically, spam those skills over the regular attacks, hit weakponts (try to figure them out, usually it's heads/eyes/big shiny bits) and hire/create a fighter pawn with that shield-bang skill that provokes every enemy and press forward on the Dpad so they will fight away from you, and just pick off things in leisure. It's not an issue about stats or weapons, even basic weapons do great damage if you use the right skill in the right way.

My current set up is two warriors and a mage to my archer. Ive only seen one type of saurian with the spears.

This morning i got my mage to enhance my bow with fire and that is doing more damage. Orges, minotaurs are fightable now, but the minotaur can wipe out the whole party if im unlucky and the charge attack hits everyone.

I dont think im very far into the game yet. Im basically still questing around the first big city you get to.

Warrior gets a skill where you can hit back an attack, so you can like get the minotaur charging and time a charged skill to hit it on its head and instant knock it down and do a lifebar+ of damage. With archer you really wanna just run the hell away from it and shoot its horns out so it'll stop charging.


And no questing around the big city is half the game, there's TONS of stuff to do there.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Warrior gets a skill where you can hit back an attack, so you can like get the minotaur charging and time a charged skill to hit it on its head and instant knock it down and do a lifebar+ of damage. With archer you really wanna just run the hell away from it and shoot its horns out so it'll stop charging.

I sniped a minotaur out of it's charge animation and knocked it down and it definitely doesn't do anywhere near a lifebar of damage. Which is where I am struggling because videos and people are saying there should be all this damage going out that's not happening. When I topple these minotaurs out of the charge it deals maybe 15% of a bar, which is cool because compared to what damage I'm otherwise seeing it's a lot. But I'm not getting the results people have been saying I should.

Even the whole aiming at the weakpoint thing. That damage is better, but it's so hard to consistently hit a weakpoint that the damage isn't worth it when I could have shot them a ton with regular shots instead. From what I've seem the best way to describe it is this, if a weakpoint shot hits for 50 damage, my regular attacks hit for 10. And I can easily hit more than 5 regular shots in the time it times to hit once in a weakpoint especially with an ogre or minotaur who is running and jumping all over the place.

 

[Dreiko]

I sniped a minotaur out of it's charge animation and knocked it down and it definitely doesn't do anywhere near a lifebar of damage. Which is where I am struggling because videos and people are saying there should be all this damage going out that's not happening. When I topple these minotaurs out of the charge it deals maybe 15% of a bar, which is cool because compared to what damage I'm otherwise seeing it's a lot. But I'm not getting the results people have been saying I should.

Even the whole aiming at the weakpoint thing. That damage is better, but it's so hard to consistently hit a weakpoint that the damage isn't worth it when I could have shot them a ton with regular shots instead. From what I've seem the best way to describe it is this, if a weakpoint shot hits for 50 damage, my regular attacks hit for 10. And I can easily hit more than 5 regular shots in the time it times to hit once in a weakpoint especially with an ogre or minotaur who is running and jumping all over the place.

Ok so first of all I was describing warrior there, not archer, warrior is the slow single big hit high damage archetype. But for archer that is kinda low, it depends on what you shot it with I guess, what is your actual vocation level, is that maxed out yet? Make sure you always have the fire enchantment on, those do a lot against most early beasts, then when something is down or dizzy climb on its weakspot and do the triangle attack or run atop it and again, triangle away, those do a lot against things knocked out. Key idea is if something's knocked out it can't hit you, so if you have that part down that's good.

Oh also go north and try to find the elf arbor (you remember this one guy in town asking you for a human bow, do his quest all the way), they have some very good archer based gear for you.

But yeah minotaur is maybe the fourth toughest big beast you run across, it's definitely harder than ogres and cyclops and maybe a bit weaker than griffins. Both tougher and stronger.

 

[CriticalGaming]

. But for archer that is kinda low, it depends on what you shot it with I guess, what is your actual vocation level, is that maxed out yet?

I have two more levels in Archer to gain still. I just dinged character level 18.

Make sure you always have the fire enchantment on

Well as much as my pawn will cast it on me.

Oh also go north and try to find the elf arbor (you remember this one guy in town asking you for a human bow, do his quest all the way), they have some very good archer based gear for you.

I just helped him try out a human bow actually. But the quest seemed to end there for now. IIRC I am back to doing some MSQ stuff because the other side quests are like "stay at the house for a week" or "wait for the beggar to do something." And i don't know how to progress them. Especially the beggar one. Also something is following me I guess but fuck if I know what it is.

 

[Dreiko]

I have two more levels in Archer to gain still. I just dinged character level 18.

Ok, the final level will give you the OP passive, your archer is definitely higher than mine, I only got it up to 5 I think, do that slow zoomed in shot where you crouch to pull the bow all the way, and equip the thing that makes it go through enemies, that can multihit big guys if it goes through something's arm and then hits it on the chest too, multiplying the damage.

Well as much as my pawn will cast it on me.

You have full control of that, press left on the dpad, that is the thing that makes pawns use buffs/heals, and sit still and keep pressing it until it does the enchant.

I just helped him try out a human bow actually. But the quest seemed to end there for now. IIRC I am back to doing some MSQ stuff because the other side quests are like "stay at the house for a week" or "wait for the beggar to do something." And i don't know how to progress them. Especially the beggar one. Also something is following me I guess but fuck if I know what it is.

He should ask you to go shooting with him, I think he either does so right away or very soon after, but anyhow, go where he was and then do his quest. As for the beggar, that one's not a big deal, you wanna explore the commoner's quarters houses, there you will find some clothes and give em to him. As for the house quest, that's how you unlock your dwelling, just rest there instead of at the inn a couple times and then that's kinda it. Then you will be able to date folks who visit you there and take em on walks. As for the follower, just legit tackle the first ruffian-looking guy you notice when at a nice part of town, I randomly did it and it worked out lol.


But yeah outside of that, go to the tavern at night and speak to the guard conspirator, that's the "main quest" line. Beyond that, legit just explore and talk to npcs, lots of em will give you random quests, like if you go at the church orphanage for example, bunch of quests in there, same for the noble's quarters.

 

[Jarrito3002]

So finished that and immediately started my second playthrough. Feels so fun knowing the different routes and directions. I barely did one mission for Brant then went off and illegally got into Bakbathall by hitching a ride on the fancy elite cart.

Right now the focus is find missions I did not do cause I see people online talk about NPC missions and I am like who the hell is that.

Also taking this time to max out my vocations for me and my pawn. Trickster I can understand is a love it or hate it class but it is clicking with me but man can be frustrating. But drawing that aggro and making the enemy AI work for your just feels good when you get it right. It requires a lot of prep and being aware how the enemy AI works.

Mind you I still ate some damage but end result was worth it make this ogre just wreck this saurians day.

Now I have my opinions on the story and how it plays out but I will sit on that to get my thoughts just right enough for me.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I finished it just now. Took me just around 57.5 hours.

Overall, while the game has so much jankiness, I am glad I got a chance to experince this game. It is such an unique game in the fantasy RPG genre, both in terms of lore and gameplay. BUUUTTT I don't think I'll be coming back for a good while for several reasons.

While the world is unique, I feel the game is purposely designed to slow you down. And I am not talking about the game not having dedicated fast-travel; Those I can get by. However, there are many things working against you to keep hammering away at this game. Health Gauge loss, while interesting, forces you to rest at inn, camp, or your private residence. Granted this is probably more "realistic", but problem is the gauge loss can happen in an instant if you get surrounded or rag-dolled. Oxcart travels are nice, but I found the raids to happen way too often, with each raids destroying the oxcart. So now you gotta either walk to the city you were heading to or use one of your precious ferrystones.

The side quest varieties are nice, but the game doesn't;t tell you some of them are related, on top of being time-sensitive. I was doing a quest to help a young man not do anything stupid by challenging a dangerous bandit captain. Turns out I can offer him a honest job, but to do that I gotta go complete some other side quests first. So I complete those first, came back to look for him, out to find out he did attacked the bandit and they killed each other. IT was super confusing and I had to look it up on internet just to learn of its time sensitivity.

Also there are multiple endings to the game, but to reach the true ending you need to do something that is a tad bit obscured. I mean the game does throw a hint at you, but you wouldn't know it. Once you do the need, you end up in the near-apacolyptic world, and you have in-game 7 days to do the last bit of main quests and reach the true ending. I mean the world in such state is cool and some areas open up to explore, but with the time limit you likely won't have time to fuck around. I had to rush it to the end.

The story I feel is the weakest part of this game; They use many terminiologies that soudns important, but ultimately don't mount to anything.

They do have new game +, but I think I'm good

 

[CriticalGaming]

I am finished with the game. I keep wanting the game to click for me, or become interesting but it never seems to get there. I've gotten archer to the point where the damage is decent feeling against the same shit I've been fighting (minotaurs, ogres, cyclops) and it's simply just not fun. I even went Thief to try the climby hacky stabby combat and that also sucks. It's incredibly jank, grabbing hold of an enemy doesn't seem to be because you pushed the "grab" button, but rather on whether or not the game feels you deserve to hang from an Ogre's pubes. Not to mention stamina runs out extremely quickly making climbing a full on Cyclops or Ogre pointless because you'll be out of stamina and fall by the time you can stab at the goodie bag, so you might as well just nibble at their toes.

The world and the quests are really boring imo, the world itself is a pile of spaghettis roads all weaving about but never seeming to lead to anywhere interesting. All the villages look the fucking same, and there are a lot of cliffs and object that just get in your way of getting anywhere you really wanna go. As @FakeSympathy said the constant loss of max HP is really dumb and only ensures that once you start to lose you will continue to lose and there is nothing you can do about it if you are out in the world somewhere without a campfire or inn to rush back to.

I think the big failing of the questing system is that there is nothing to grab onto narratively. Some imposter sits on the throne in my name? So what, I am apparently the only person in the world the pawns will obey so all I have to do to gather up a ton of pawns and invade the castle myself. Nobody could stop me if I wanted to be a bastard about it. But I also have nothing to make me want the throne in the first place. I can take all my pawns and go make a bigger better castle somewhere else with free beer and hookers. Side quests are also just as flat, oh you need medicine little girl? Sucks to suck i guess. Oh one of the soldiers has been ambushed by Harpies, shouldn't be on patrol alone dumbass. The sheer number of random people out in the world alone getting fucked up by goblins or wolves or whatever is staggering and amazingly stupid. I came across a lady on the side of the road getting harassed by Goblins, and right next to her was a big fucking dragon just chilling. WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE LADY!?

There is no consistency that makes this world feel like a real place, as a result it's just a playground for the player to fight monsters in, but it's a bad playground covering in rust and half the monkey bars are missing.

I've seen videos and there is no doubt that the combat gets cool later. But in reality it doesn't get that cool, you just become so powerful that you just melt everything that threatens you and that's not exciting or good combat. It's just a game of overpowering the combat rather than engaging in it. And the sheer wall you have to climb is simply not fun to deal with.

Dragons Dogma needed good combat that feels fun and rewarding from the start, or a great world and story. Ideally it should have both. But it has neither.