First, DS2 and it seems BW too never were very tuned for veteran and elite modes.
For quest rewards specially it's a shame because it's quite easy to tune or expand a reward definitions in a way that they would drop at least a random rare/set/unique item in vertran and elite mode instead of a low-level quest reward from mercenary.
So considering the rather dispassionate 1:1 replay without any variation it's a wonder that there is at least some additional high-level stuff...
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Second, for this disscusion about armor and char levels there are some interesting game facts (based on coded rules and monster definitons, valid for orig. DS2 and for BW):
- If your char is 4 (resp. 6) levels higher, monsters will suffer a damage penalty of -25% (resp. -50%) while your char is considered by the calculations to cause 25% (resp. 50%) more damage. This tight (and quite doubtable!?) penalty system works also the other way around - that's why it is much harder to fight against a monster that is eg. 5 levels above you.
Now, if poeple import a party of average level 45 into the addon they won't get a good impression how difficult the addon is intended to be, a lower party or even a pre-made char however would be more representing.
Of course i know it's hard level slower in DS2 but actually that would be necessary, unfortunately i haven't seen any adaptions in the addon to do so.
- The armor of all monsters is approximately equal the monster level multiplied by 3 or 4, the maximum armor value a level 100 monster may is 390, and the highest damage a level 100 boss monster ever would deal is about 500 damage/second.
Of course monsters have much more life and may appear in bigger groups but it's evident that if you are able to extract one single monster it never has any chance (and in particular if you have a power left).
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Probably this make it easier to understand when one player still means 'too easy' while others get into troubles with their imported party.
A reblanacing really was required (and should go even farer), however it would have been more popular to improve the monsters and revise the rules instead of reducing the player's armor.