The new normal mode is the same as it ever was. They keep saying this, and it is the difficulty offered by default. They've only made the game easier on Easy and Very Easy.

Originally posted by paladin181:

The new normal mode is the same as it ever was. They keep saying this, and it is the difficulty offered by default. They've only made the game easier on Easy and Very Easy.

I mean Easy then which is labeled Normal more or less.

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Originally posted by paladin181:

The new normal mode is the same as it ever was. They keep saying this, and it is the difficulty offered by default. They've only made the game easier on Easy and Very Easy.

I mean Easy then which is labeled Normal more or less.

It's easier than the normal mode. The enemies do about 60-70% of their normal damage, and they have about 70-80% of their normal HP.

If the last time you played LoP was a few months ago, you're not going to see much of any differences (the normal mode is labeled normal mode, the other two modes explicitly say "easy" and "very easy" in their in-game descriptions).

As far as we know, and like paladin said, it's just damage changes. If you can't parry, you will still eventually die even on the easiest difficulty, but enemies will take a lot longer to kill you.

Pump Vitality to give yourself more leeway and you should be fine (in other words, the same stat distribution every Souls veteran uses in every game).

The game might actually be easier on your second playthrough. It was for me. The first time I playedthrough this game I got stuck on King of Puppets for weeks (not in actual play-time) but now I beat him in one or two tries. If you are half-way decent at parrying and you at least somewhat remember the fights and what you struggled the most with then it shouldn't be too bad. They did different balance changes in the last patch, although IDK how much or if this really affected the base game a whole lot.

I've never played a souls like game before and I'm having a hard time on the second boss, right when we arrive at the Circus... should I change the difficulty? Personally this feels like cheating for me, and I would really like to defeat him on the normal difficulty, but I die every freakin time.

Originally posted by Luke Kennedy:

I've never played a souls like game before and I'm having a hard time on the second boss, right when we arrive at the Circus... should I change the difficulty? Personally this feels like cheating for me, and I would really like to defeat him on the normal difficulty, but I die every freakin time.

The game is not a mindless hack and slash, you must learn enemy patterns ans exploit openings. Kinda like monster hunter.

Originally posted by Luke Kennedy:

I've never played a souls like game before and I'm having a hard time on the second boss, right when we arrive at the Circus... should I change the difficulty? Personally this feels like cheating for me, and I would really like to defeat him on the normal difficulty, but I die every freakin time.

My biggest mistake when starting this game was first trying to dodge like Dark Souls. Doesn't work. Then it was to stand in front of them and try to time the parry. A little better, but a lot them have some really tight parry windows. The answer is somewhere in between those two extremes.

These days, I try to stay mobile moving left and right during boss fights, as positioning is just as important as a good parry. If an enemy has a move set that is swing with the right, then with the left, then with the right, then with the left, sometimes moving to one side means I only have to parry half the attacks, thus giving myself a larger parry window. It can also avoid some attacks altogether.

Originally posted by Luke Kennedy:

I've never played a souls like game before and I'm having a hard time on the second boss, right when we arrive at the Circus... should I change the difficulty? Personally this feels like cheating for me, and I would really like to defeat him on the normal difficulty, but I die every freakin time.

Every boss fight is a puzzle you have to figure out. You have to focus on their attacks, their animations and react accordingly in the most effective way possible to do as much damage as possible, as well as save as much of your HP as possible.

Some bosses might take you hours until you beat them, that is all just part of it, you have to really pay attention and focus on boss fights and after every hit you receive, you have to start thinking "What did I do wrong there?" and just keep trying to figure out the best way for you to defend yourself against the boss while also trying to figure out how to punish the boss too.

Btw, daily reminder that the dodge does have iframes. It's why Ghost Walk weighs 15 freakin' pounds.

Originally posted by Luke Kennedy:

I've never played a souls like game before and I'm having a hard time on the second boss, right when we arrive at the Circus... should I change the difficulty? Personally this feels like cheating for me, and I would really like to defeat him on the normal difficulty, but I die every freakin time.

The point of games is to have fun, first and foremost. If you want to do it, do it, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. There's nothing wrong with your decision either way. Second boss is Scrapped Watchman, right? If you want some tips for a boss you're stuck on, don't be afraid to ask.

Some Souls veterans got where they are by playing in the worst way until they learned how to win, equipping the worst gear until they learned what works, and dying dozens of times on every boss until they conquered the trial. Other Souls veterans got where they are by looking things up on the wiki, using Save Managers, and watching boss fights on Youtube to figure out the best strategies. There is no visible difference in skill level between them today (though I can certainly hear some pitchforks for saying that).

The point is, as long as you're willing to learn, you're going to win eventually.

You will naturally learn the parry timing for the boss as you fight them more times. If you're set on making it through this trial, just relax and focus. A couple of general tips:
- HOLD block when you're trying to parry an attack. Do not tap the button.
- Don't discount your dodge. You really want to master parrying, but if you see a slow, non-fury attack, you can probably dodge it easier than you can parry it, and get a longer window to attack (or heal) as a result.

- Lastly, and this one may seem obvious, but I'm saying it and putting it in bold because you said this is your first Souls game: DO NOT EVENLY DISTRIBUTE YOUR STATS.

I do not like telling people how to play, as i want them to have their own unique experience, but i will freely give advice, vitality and capacity should be your highest stats, i personally keep them even, and 5 points ahead of my offensives stats.

The way i level up is i bring my vitality and capacity both up to 20, then i bring endurance and my main offensive stat up to 15, then i level vitality and capacity to 25, then endurance and my main offensive to 20, but i personally do bring endurance past 20 as it gets very poor returns after that.

Capacity may not seem important early on, but you will get very heavy, very quickly.

Originally posted by paladin181:

The new normal mode is the same as it ever was. They keep saying this, and it is the difficulty offered by default. They've only made the game easier on Easy and Very Easy.

They've nerfed several bosses and mobs over the course of the game's life, including during the last patch. "Same as it ever was" doesn't really mean anything.

Originally posted by Hiphoptimus Rhyme:

Originally posted by paladin181:

The new normal mode is the same as it ever was. They keep saying this, and it is the difficulty offered by default. They've only made the game easier on Easy and Very Easy.

They've nerfed several bosses and mobs over the course of the game's life, including during the last patch. "Same as it ever was" doesn't really mean anything.

The OP last played the game a few months ago. They're not going to notice any differences.

Because all of the important patches were back in 2023.