Why do I suck at this game?

[dukereg]

I also think you should keep playing on Normal. Getting achievements and the unlocks that go with them are half the fun of the game! Don't give that up.

If grinding is getting to you, you can develop autopilot habits for safely grinding useless enemies in areas you've seen before in other play throughs. You only turn off the autopilot for random rares, unexpected heavy damage/statuses, or known risky areas/enemies/interactions. To me it feels like "lalalalalala ... Ooh an unexpected challenge, what fun! ... lalalalalala ... ooh, this bit has killed me so many times, time to play like a wuss ... ok, killed them all, lalalalala"

Another tip to avoid grinding is to give up earlier. While some builds are weak early on and get amazing later, some just aren't going anywhere. If your build isn't viable, you can just delete the character or ask for permanent death instead of respawning, grinding and dying later anyway. I had so many shitty characters that were struggling tediously through the early game and then couldn't face the early mid game areas to get more levels.

[Lotus97]

I did decide to switch back to normal. It's true that I still haven't beat it on easy, but it is more interesting on the normal difficulty. One of the reasons I had tried easy is because I was curious how end game would be in terms of stats, techniques, and gear. In regards to grinding, I do have a mod that gives an alert when I'm low health so hopefully that will allow me to get through the easy parts quickly without getting caught off-guard

One thing about the wild infusion that troubles me is that it only works on one type (physical or mental or magic). Which one should I pick of the 3? The upside is that it at least gives damage resistance. And would using armor/items that increase saves be a good idea and/or Stun, blindness, and confusion immunity?

I haven't payed too much attention to how I die specifically. It's mainly just seems like the enemy does a ton of damage. By the time I realize how tough it is I can't run away. Even if I knew it was tough it would be hard unless I had that rune which increases movements speed. Teleport isn't that reliable. At least not enough to take up a rune slot.

I haven't really tried out many classes. I've mostly done shalore with various rogue classes and dwarf alchemist. I think dwarf alchemist can be strong, but I've tried to go for a melee/STR build which is trickier. I played berserker once and they seemed pretty strong. Arcane blade a bit too. There are a lot of interesting classes, but I've been kind of hung up on the shalore rogue and dwarf alchemist.

[Atarlost]

I haven't really tried out many classes. I've mostly done shalore with various rogue classes and dwarf alchemist. I think dwarf alchemist can be strong, but I've tried to go for a melee/STR build which is trickier. I played berserker once and they seemed pretty strong. Arcane blade a bit too. There are a lot of interesting classes, but I've been kind of hung up on the shalore rogue and dwarf alchemist.

That would be part of your problem. Dwarf Alchemist should be okay, but shalore have low HP. They have very good racials, but you aren't at the level where the low HP aren't a show stopper. Especially for rogues. Rogues are both fragile and are drawn to melee.

[dukereg]

One thing about the wild infusion that troubles me is that it only works on one type (physical or mental or magic). Which one should I pick of the 3? The upside is that it at least gives damage resistance.

You can actually get ones that do more than one type later on.

It depends on your class, but Stun (phys) is often considered the worst. Pin (phys) can be a death sentence (if you have escapes but can't escape, this is often why). If you play carefully at all times you can prevent these with movement infusions, but I almost never think to do it preemptively except against archers. Confusion(mental) is said to be really bad, but I have only found it moderately dangerous. Still, I usually have a wild infusion physical to start and then physical/mental later on to cover both.

There are some magic effects that stop you healing or regenerating and also deal damage. This is deadly but happens so rarely to me that I wouldn't use an inscription just to prevent it.

More importantly, I notice you are playing Shalore. Timeless will save you from all of the above better than a wild infusion. It is awesome because usually you get heaps of statuses at the same time making a wild infusion unreliable, especially against physical.

[Atarlost]

Ah, I missed the infusions question. I recommend keeping your starting physical wild. Lacking it is another reason shalore aren't newbie friendly. You can have two of any infusion and the second wild should almost always be mental. The most important thing about any wild is having a low cooldown. Single type wilds are more reliable: if you're confused and then poisoned you really don't want your mental wild to be a mental/physical because it'll clear the mostly harmless poison instead of the potentially lethal confused. There is a case to be made for using two mental/physical wilds instead of a pure mental and a pure physical. I don't think the advantages in flexibility are worth not having the minimum cooldown starting wild, but for a shalore that option doesn't exist.

The worst common effects are stunned (phys), disarmed (phys), pinned (phys), flameshocked (phys), frozen (physical), dazed (physical), silenced (mental), confused (mental), asleep (mental), and brainlocked (mental cross-tier). You can ignore pins and dazes if you have teleports, disarmed if you don't use weapons, silenced if you don't cast spells, and sleep if you have lucid dreamer, but for the classes they affect they're devastating. All of them can prevent you from using your escapes and escapes are how you avoid dieing. Of these daze and frozen are the least bad outside builds where some of the others don't matter at all because they're cleared by damage and freeze also reduces incoming damage, but sometimes you'll need to clear even daze so you can use a movement infusion to run away right now.

[OrionJAnderson]

Shaloren aren't really all that good until level 25+. Their best skill, the 4th, isn't available until 24 and gets better with more points. Their second skill is also only good at high levels. Their low HP are a problem throughout, and so in starting without a good wild. They're great if you're dying a lot in the 20-40 range, rubbish if you're dying in the 1-20.

[Lotus97]

I've sort of taken a break from this game because I was playing too much, but before I stopped I did try using a wild infusion. It's just hard to decide because there have been so many times when either a shield rune or healing infusion saved me. I did find some items that can remove status effects, heal, or provide shielding so that at least frees up some of my rune/infusion slots.

I haven't tried a movement infusion so maybe those are useful for escaping if I'm in trouble. I think I probably rely too much on the auto explore and am not cautious enough, but it also seems like I don't realize how tough an enemy is until it's too late.

[Coldbringer]

Some classes have abilities that work like a rune or infusion to remove status ailments or shield/jump/teleport you away. That can give you the option of having a different rune/infusion setup

[Faeryan]

Like few have already said, do normal.

It took me several weeks to get past level 20, then 30, then 40 etc until I finally beat the game. You're constantly learning stuff and getting better.

Few suggestions i could offer:
- play and learn different classes, even though they seem awful. You'll start to learn new things and possibly find new favourite classes.
- pay attention to skills and stuff that say "instant" like Shield rune for example. This means you can use it whenever without enemies acting in between. Not to be confused with instant travel speed which is different.
- use a lot of time on talents page. Especially with new classes your first 20 or so level ups should take several minutes each. Compare the options.
- last but not least, be careful. There is no hurry. If something looks tough then feel free to go away and return later. On item or level up elsewhere can make a world of difference.

[Lotus97]

I appreciate the advice from everyone. I wasn't really complaining. I've been playing Dark Souls for the past year so I'm ok with a steep learning curve. It just seemed like other people were having an easier time than me.

With Dark Souls, I at least have an excuse for being bad since I play with a special control setup due to pain in my hands. I suppose with Tales I do use auto explore more than I would if I didn't have issues with my hands.

Even if I was doing everything manually, I still have a hard time gauging how tough an enemy is. I guess with auto explore I don't always know which way is safe in case I need to run away.

I normally like trying out a lot of different classes and builds, but for some reason I was just fixated on 2 or 3 classes. It's kind of strange how that happened.

[Faeryan]

Don't sweat over autoexplore. I do that every game, all the time.

[tylor]

Most important part in surviving ToME4 is the art of running away. Have several means to escape (teleport rune, move infusion etc) and use them when you see you are not in control of situation.