I found where the enemy damage boosting screws everyone over

[Lyrian]

@PowerPlay

I made it to Chapter XV, Part 8/10 and the enemies are level 47/48 and I’m around the same level. I’m using the Shaman. Their battle rating is ~1700 whereas mine is 1270.

You are looking at the situation wrong.

You are positing that because your level equals that of the encounter, that the fight should be an even match. The game does not use this metric in determining the difficulty of an encounter.

Level in PQ3 means almost nothing. From Level 1-50, leveling up grants a small amount of stats to the player for each level. Post level 50, level only determines the number of points that can be allocated in the Citadel.

In this game, “level” is effectively determined by Gear Score. Enemy encounters are balanced on the power curve for expected gear levels at a given point in the game.

If I remember correctly (it has been awhile since I first cleared the story), Chapter XV was balanced against a full set of Epic 35 gear. You mentioned an enemy score of 1700ish. I messed around on my account to see what the Gear Score was for a full set of Epic 35 spells and gear… it’s 1738. Sounds about right to me.

My memory is fuzzy on the power increment for each rarity tier, but I think I remember calculating a multiplier of ~2.2. 880 / 370 = ~2.38. Are you in full Rare 25 gear? If so, no wonder you are having a hard time. You are significantly under-geared for Chapter XV. The leap in power between Rare 25 and Epic 35 gear is massive.

@PowerPlay

At no point in the endgame should the player be forced to grind more than they ever have to even make it to the final dungeon, let alone be able to beat the boss in it.

Going to agree with Tresk here, you aren’t at endgame in Chapter XV. If this was a JRPG, you aren’t at the point where you would have access to the airship yet in Chapter XV.

@PowerPlay

crafting components for armor(they also teach you not to make rare resources impossible to obtain without buying them or grinding an absurd amount) or gold to buy every non-gem Daily Deal that exists.

Are you using Eveline to craft Epic relics? She is extremely efficient in creating and converting Epic relics. She can shift them 1-for-1 for the low cost of 250 ore. She can also convert 2 Rare relics to a random Epic relic for 400 Gems if you have some Gems to spare.

Also, if you have some Gold Marks laying around from Events you can buy an Epic relic from the Mark shop on Saturdays.

Raising Gear to Epic 35 to clear Chapter XV is not that big of a deal. A bit time consuming, yes, because of the large number of relics needed. But definitely not anywhere near insurmountable.

Raising Gear past that point (Legendary +) is a whole different migraine in its own right. But that could currently be considered to be endgame content and not needed to clear Story mode at all.