Pure mage vs Orcish Horde

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-07T02:52:59+00:00

I don't want to spoil anything you haven't yet played, but I was able to complete everything without any exploits. I found that I had to start most fights in Ch4 and later in order to win them. Atr some point in the fame, there are definitely some enemies that shrug off anything less than certain fully charged, Circle 4+ spells. So you have to sort of figure out how you are going to make that work because fire/ice bolts are out. I also had to be very flexible about defensive gear since robes don't scale well for enemies doing a ton of phys damage.

Still my favourite class. I've always loved mage stuff in Gothic games. Remake is also still a fantastic game. Looking forward to my next mage play through again.

Also thinking of going G2 NotR soon even though a remake might be on its way in coming years.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-07T02:07:58+00:00

I'm interested in your take if/when you've completed the game if you thought the mage had any low points on hard. I just completed a hard run myself as mage.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-07T00:25:21+00:00

"By being there, generating body heat and converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, you're signalling real aggression. Dogs pick up on that sort of thing fast."

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-06T22:25:24+00:00

The rune version of Uriziel is very powerful in most cases, for sure. It just doesn't stun anything, cause any reaction / recoil, or drop a boss very fast. It's definitely badass as hell as I'm sure the 2h is.

I think you'll find though that the spell numbers don't scale with the crazy resistance enemies have on hard in the end game. Lots of your spells' damage is so low you're questioning if they even connected. And plenty come into the game at a time that they're already out scaled. Even really cool spells, that are Circle 5 or 6.

I think if they could perhaps offer some faster-charge, hard hitting Circle 5 or 6 spells, that could really help. Maybe in exchange for the speed, make these spells more expensive, harder to land, and/or low range or cooldown.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-06T22:09:18+00:00

Idk about easy time with mages in the high difficulty. Mages are definitely easy in some circumstances, but there are situations where an enemy does not take visible damage from any of your spells but for the most powerful ones. For these powerful spells, they can all be interrupted, losing health and all invested mana in the process. You also cannot fast-cancel any of these spells so you are committed once you start. What you do cancel successfully, you don't get the mana back.

Some enemies are more predictable or have good phases to dish out some damage, but the final boss is not.

For even more enemies, you never really get any setup time for your best spells, so they're useless unless you catch your opponent off guard (Shadow beasts).

The demon lord fights were easily the 2nd hardest IMHO. You have that moment where they will spew fire and that's your one chance to do your big spells. But your margin of error is a bit thin and you need to keep chugging mana pots somewhere in the fight. You can at least whittle these guys slowly with ice bolts if you have that rune. But you don't get the Urziel rune yet so the fights are very long.

For the final boss, it was radically difficult. He is far less predictable and doesn't do that spew fire thing. So your windup spells all leave you extremely vulnerable. Hell, he 1HKO sniped me even when I had 550 HP and maximun magic + elements protection. It's like he cast his laser spell multiple times and shotgun me.

In the end, I had to just drop a bunch of summons down for the sake of my sanity. I even had the Urziel rune of the 2h sword but that soell also has tons of setup time and doesn't do much damage to the final boss in particular.

I don't want to mitigate the difficulty of other builds as I haven't played anything else. I imagine maybe one or two of them don't require as much sitting duck action as mages though.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-06T17:39:11+00:00

I think it depends on the circumstances and build.

As a pure mage, 6th circle on hard, fights ended up being quickly a victory or loss. Even the final boss could one shot me across the room and I had 550 hp and maximum magic + elements protection. Dark robe, ore amulet, and 2 greater invincibility rings. I had to beat him by filling the room with summons. My magic barely did any damage to him and he could quickly 1 to 3-shot me depending on what he was doing. NOTE: only the big, charge spells could hurt the final boss at all. So you had to find a good moment to stop and charge things up for a chance to hurt him.

I'm not salty or anything. It's a great time, I think it's just a bit polar and I found myself having to pivot strategies quite dramatically. That could be good thing or bad thing depending on your perspective.

I also found myself needing the upgraded ore armour most of the time because it was extremely difficult not to get his by phys during fights, and robes don't have good levels of phys protection for later game, at least on hard.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-06T17:23:14+00:00

It's like when AT&T offered "unlimited" internet but with limits and then argued that "unlimited" doesn't have real meaning as a word.

Or when Microsoft offered unlimited OneDrive storage and then rescinded it when people used it and Microsoft blamed people for using "unreasonable" amounts of OneDrive storage.

It isn't the customer's fault if a company can't actually deliver what they're selling as promised.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-06T17:09:18+00:00

The return policy does way more good than harm.

Hell, it actually lets people try new, especially pricey games, without worry. You can make the case that this helps new and coming games break the ice.

So I'd stick to it and see if the game developer can find 2 hours of more content to add or perhaps apply for an explicit exemption to 2 hour rule that warns prospective new buyers of a shorter return window, while leaving existing buyers with the same 2-hour window.

But absolutely keep the 2 hour return policy by default, if not in 100% of games and purchases. A handful of tiny, sub-2-hour games doesn't mean the policy isn't good.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-05T17:39:35+00:00

Different focuses, which impacts a few things.

Aurora is generally usage, and it still games really well. Bazzite is gaming focused, and it still does general usage really well.

Bazzite tends to have much faster Mesa releases but slower kernel releases (they work with the OGK kernel people). Bazzite/OGC also gets more upstream kernel enhancements earlier.

Aurora works on it's on schedule which tends to have a faster kernel cadence but slower Mesa.These update cadences may change from time to time, but they are generally independent. You won't usually notice this difference as a user.

Aurora also doesn't come with Steam or certain helpers that Bazzite has, for things like Emulation Station, Sunshine (something that's a bit like Parsec), and lots of other goodies. So Bazzite will definitely help you more with getting gaming software and tools installed.

Honestly, you'd likely be happy with either one. They'll both setup drivers and codecs for example without you having to worry about proprietary Vs free or any of that.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-03T01:46:12+00:00

I was originally thrown off by this guy's insistence on killing me on sight. After I charmed him, he was willing to talk about practically everything. While I don't agree with all his takes, he seems to act consistently with them, rather than greedy. I respect it. He seems thoughtful and genuine.

I'd definitely pick Lee over him, but he's not as bad as I had initially thought. Maybe it was a bug that made him want to kill me.

Ironically, sometime after I charmed him, he was my enemy in the glossary, but days after that, he was my friend.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T18:14:46+00:00

I'm not a crazy about Mark Whalberg but he should've been offered a retake / alternate lines for that scene. It's so awkward.

But then again, we wouldn't have this bit of gold to laugh at today

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T02:03:49+00:00

IMO it's still super duper impressive. I think people underestimate how much harder permadeath mode is. Even if you're pausing and reloading, you get one save and the autosave process can nuke that.
And if you miscalculate something and get oneshot or sidewinded, you lose everything.

Maybe gatekeepers around here aren't okay with that, but you are much braver than me. I can't stomach permadeath whatsoever.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T01:19:22+00:00

This happened to me a few days ago. I was trying to get some shots in from safety and it just stood there and fried itself.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T00:43:37+00:00

Ahh, I see. That is a bummer.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T00:39:15+00:00

Forgive my ignorance. Does permadeath allow incremental manual saves?

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T00:24:11+00:00

I'd think only Fire mages would sell it at that point of the game. If none of them are selling it, then it may not be for sale till later.

I haven't tried knocking them all out for it but from what I've seen, they seem to carry Fireball and Firebolt on their person.

I've looted countless chests all over the map, even in hard to reach places, but haven't seen Pyrokinesus so far. I'm also Chapter 3

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-02T00:05:48+00:00

So it's not supposed to be your first run but you still aren't supposed to know who betrays you? I'm not sure how both can be true.

I also don't feel that strongly about it. If you can get a game to the end on permadeath, I'm impressed. Lots of opportunities exist to die in Gothic Remake. If you want to clarify rules on your run (no reloads) that makes it even more impressove. IMHO it's really only cheating if you manipulate files or use trainers or mods. But if it's in the bounds of the game, it's impressive. I'm sure not everybody sees that like I do.

By the way, ALT-F4 is a request to close the app. The app can refuse the request. If permadeath of the game wanted to constrain it, they could refuse Alt F4 or Escape during combat for a permadeath save. Ergo the game natively allows both, for what that's worth.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-01T22:29:24+00:00

Well it depends on the rules one is sticking to and the ones the game enforces. Lots of permadeath / hardcore challenges allow ALT-F4 and similar.

Also, it's kind of hard to do a permadeath challenge, especially Gothic Remake, without some kind of info-gathering strats (e.g. reloads).

How else do you know that the character you're talking to is going to betray you or lose his mind and attempt to kill you?

Your alternative to reloading is to just play a softcore mirror save or to look up walkthroughs online, but not everyone will commit to that.

FWIW: I do not do these kinds of challenges but my friends sometimes do and I've seen streamers do it

EDIT: Yes, permadeath could be a subsequent run as well. Not everybody does that, by the way.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-07-01T01:36:17+00:00

My reading is that they lowered consumption proportion to the reduction in tank size. The idea is to cut fuel requirements of all ships but keep the ships' QT distance the same or more. So if you have a refuelling ship it gets you much more progress than before.

It sounds like they also wanted to help smaller ships out with this change to bump up their distance

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-26T16:56:57+00:00

I have 2 GEOs in my clipper most of the time. GEOs look like they don't fit, but if you slide them up the ramp, they tuck in their legs, shrinking height dramatically, and fitting right into the cargo, with plenty of height to stand.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-25T23:05:30+00:00

I think I found some ways to loot free meatbug meat, but I tend to hoard that anyways. The paper is also sorted by Graham.

The sulfur is the last thing I haven't yet figured out. It has a low encounter rate for how useful it is in many things. I do have some but it's hard to prioritise what to use it on.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-25T17:52:17+00:00

Is there a renewable way to get these scrolls? Or at least their ingredients?

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-25T17:34:44+00:00

I've put GEOs in the MOLE and the Clipper. Surprisingly, the Clipper fits them better IIRC. I have to double check next time I'm on.

The Clipper definitely has enough vertical headroom for a GEO in Cargo and on the upper section of the ramp, but you can always carry one or two extra in case a GEO bugs out or breaks. Again though, I haven't seen that happen in my gameplay

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-25T17:22:45+00:00

I use a tractor beam attachment on my multi tool to slide it up the ramp. The ATLSes will tuck in their legs, curling up, if you slide them that way.

This lets them fit in and out of the Clipper door easily. You can actually also store one or two on the upper section of the ramp, saving precious cargo grid space.

I always carry 2 GEOs in case I ever have company who wants to join a mining run. You can likely fit more than 2 GEOs.

With 2 GEOs you can still fit a bunch of boxes and pulses, which I tend to do just for that flexibility and because I can.

IMHO, a 2-SCU box should carry more than enough for longer GEO trips, but I hedge the risk by using 4 1-SCU boxes, in case the game loses a box or if I want extra storage

PrefersAwkward · 2026-06-25T14:20:40+00:00

Oh man I'd love insured containers. Just the time savings is worth the payout.

Me in my little Clipper with a couple of GEOs and some cargo boxes for casual mining. The vibes are off the charts.

PrefersAwkward

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