I would add that the suggested levels are meant to guide you a bit and eliminate some of the RPG numbers gating that you can run into. In Nioh I was routinely underleveled and it caused me major issues post game and in the DLC. I made sure to do all side missions as they opened up in Nioh 2 to keep my level at pace with the story. So I never got stalled by defense or toughness.
I would add that the suggested levels are meant to guide you a bit and eliminate some of the RPG numbers gating that you can run into. In Nioh I was routinely underleveled and it caused me major issues post game and in the DLC. I made sure to do all side missions as they opened up in Nioh 2 to keep my level at pace with the story. So I never got stalled by defense or toughness.
If you did all the side quests as they came up in Nioh 1, you were still "underleveled" for the DLC content. The recommended levels in both games do a poor job at gauging how balanced each mission will be, and that only becomes more severe on the higher difficulties.
Case in point, I had a very hard time staggering human enemies in Nioh 2 until I got my build together in the post-game content. Part of that is likely the result of aiming for a generalist build and sticking exclusively with light armor rather than minmaxing in any way, but once the numbers stabilize, a whole plethora of freedom in how you engage certain enemies opens up that can otherwise be denied altogether.
The aforementioned boss should still be fairly easy regardless of what build/gear you've got, but the strategies do change a fair amount. I found a particular human boss to be among the trickier ones in the game, but I've since been hearing most other players found him relatively easy and found yokai bosses that were a breeze for me to be more challenging.
Boss in question being Saika Magoichi
Regardless, after the patch, I don't think I'd say that any story boss in Nioh 2 is actually that difficult. Much easier than the first game all around, even if you ignore the yokai stuff that makes it even more trivial (the hardest fights to be found in Nioh 2 are the dojo missions on the higher difficulty, as there the "poise problem" becomes absolutely ridiculous on certain weapons).
I did them all in the first game too and was way underleveled. That said, I also ruined my build for most of that game by only putting points into skills that got me trophies (weapon specialization mostly) and I also threw away a lot of experience by not caring about leveling in the late game. That bit me in the ass when I fought our boy Yukimura.
Honestly, the thing that helps more than anything against Yukimura, IMHO, was getting 100% elemental damage reduction when guarding. I honestly feel like that should be the default, for a variety of reasons, but against the DLC bosses (Sanada and Date in particular), they play relatively sane with it on and absolutely bonkers without it. Every time I start constructing a build, elemental immunity when guarding is always the first and most important aspect I aim for. Gets redundant farming/re-rolling it every time.
I don't either. The function mentioned is just a general necessity to play the game in a way that I like. Fighting many enemies (wheelmonks and such) without it is just fucking tedious. The effect is perhaps most pronounced against certain bosses, but it's a general staple for making the game play much better. Same thing for bumping up the block stat as much as possible.
I think the game would play better if there were more ways to deal with elemental status effects. The game doesn’t even really tell you about what is there unless I missed a loading screen tip. Nearly everyone I know complains about fire, both in the environment and in the wheelmonk, but it’s the easiest element to deal with. Just roll a couple times and it’s gone with maybe a tick of damage at most. There should be more of that and it should be common knowledge.
I don't exactly agree with that. It's honestly usually better to just burn than it is to dash the fire out, as the ki wasted and positioning/opportunity cost wasted by getting rid of the DoT effect is almost always greater than suffering the damage. Then of course you have electricity, where even if you guard it, it almost always applies lightning immediately and now you have to forgo playing altogether for about half a minute since playing while electrocuted is just asking for death. Water is rather benign, but both fire and electricity are extremely obnoxious (honestly, all the slow down effects are just totally bunk on both ends and should probably be reworked, but alas...).
Those of you using electric weapons or Flying Bolt are no better than Sloth Talisman addicts
Missed this but you can roll your fire out in like one second. Even in a boss fight you can regen your stam fast enough that it’s a non issue. Definitely not better to eat the damage when you can cure it for free. I don’t get your logic. Most other effects have onmyo or items to instacure it. Fire doesn’t because you can just dodge roll it. In high stance you roll instantly without needing to dodge first too so less impact.
Missed this but you can roll your fire out in like one second. Even in a boss fight you can regen your stam fast enough that it’s a non issue. Definitely not better to eat the damage when you can cure it for free. I don’t get your logic. Most other effects have onmyo or items to instacure it. Fire doesn’t because you can just dodge roll it. In high stance you roll instantly without needing to dodge first too so less impact.
If you spend time hopping around, either with mid or heavy dodges, you are wasting at least one full second where you are not only depleting ki, but also preventing it from recovering. The way that most of the fire traps are set-up, you are also rolling away from fire pits, which are typically placed in the areas you need to stand if you want to punish a boss (Kasha/Katsuie). So yes, if you prance around to get rid of the fire, your opportunity cost is huge. The health cost is fairly minimal since everything kills you in 1-2 hits anyway. So long as you have tenacity equipped, the burn effect is not a huge threat, whereas even a microsecond of missed ki sustain can spell death.
Unless you’re rolling from and to a guard, your ki shouldn’t be dropping as low as you seem to think it would. Katsuie, Kasha, and wheelmonks are about the only thing that will set you on fire rapidly in the game. You can afford to roll a couple times to put it out. Without buffs to increase elemental resistance, which again I don’t typically use beyond passives because I’m not rerolling my equipment for it, it’s much worse to tank a bunch of damage. Fire can do a lot of damage to you in this game. Costing less time than it takes to pop an elixir is objectively worth it.
I also almost exclusively run light armor with the Master Swordsman set. Ki is never a problem even in the dark realm.
I beat Nioh 2 on Tuesday. I love the game. I can’t compare it to the first one because I’ve never played it. I’m gonna see if I can get platinum next time.
I’ve spent hours on her!
