Started Hard Mode Playthrough after 0.12.1

As the title says, I started a fresh Hard Mode playthrough on a new character once Agility launched. And even though I have consistently disliked the experience, I decided to slog through the first few hours and quietly hoped it would get better. But after I defeated Imaru and made it to Dowdun Reach, I realized that this is definitively a horrible experience for me personally.

1. The majority of the difficulty stems from either (a) the player’s damage being artificially reduced or (b) enemies having way more health (I suspect it’s the former). A fight that would be over in 15-20 seconds now takes 45-60 seconds. This became extremely evident when fighting Imaru. Although I managed to clear the boss on my first Hard Mode attempt (I have the mechanics down to a T from Normal Mode), my character’s stamina dipped down to 45% by the time the fight was over (even though I started with 100% and the Cosiness buff). I had to do the final phase of the fight with 80% of my max stamina, simply because the fight took so long. The fight doesn’t take nearly that long on Normal Mode.

2. The enemy sponginess is supposed to be compensated by enemy weaknesses being more effective to exploit. But it’s only a 15% increase. So, essentially, by attacking the enemy using their weakness, you’re essentially doing the same damage as in Normal Mode (perhaps a little less). However, Guthix forbid you use the wrong style, because if you do, that fight immediately turns into a neverending gauntlet. The weaknesses/resistances are far more forgiving in Normal Mode.

3. The fact that these multipliers to weaknesses/resistances exist also means that you’re basically “locked” into using a weapon you may not prefer using (huge for me), in order make sure your DPS is even viable. For example, In Dowdun Reach, the Black Knights are weak to Crush, and they resist Slash and Stab. Can’t use my Abyssal Whip. I have to use my Zombie Axe (don’t even ask how I got the Shadow Sword vestige on my 3rd Zogre kill…), which is cool, but I definitely prefer other Slash and Stab weapons. On Normal Mode, I can use basically whatever weapon I prefer without DPS taking a significant hit.

4. Perhaps the most annoying mechanic is all current XP gains being lost on death. Circumventing the single-gravestone limitation is easy (just don’t pick up anything on the way to your gravestone), and even then, if you’re experienced, you’re not dying a whole lot for it to even matter. That XP loss, however (especially for some of the slower skills), is a huge timesink.

I truly believed that the recent changes to combat and health/healing, as well as the Agility skill, would make a Hard Mode run far more enjoyable. But they made little difference. It’s literally just one annoying obstacle after another designed to make you waste time for no reason.

And before any troll chimes in, yes, I understand that Hard Mode is supposed to be difficult. But there are experiences that are difficult and rewarding and enjoyable, and there are experiences that are not. In my opinion, currently, the definitive experience is Normal Mode. I cannot recommend Hard Mode to anyone in its current state.

Proposed Changes:

- Restore player’s damage (or enemy health) from Normal Mode and simply have enemies deal more damage than they currently do. Now fights are much higher stakes without them taking so long (think Ghost of Tsushima’s “Lethal Mode”).

-Bump enemy weaknesses from +15% to +25-30%. Reward a good player for using the correct style.

- XP loss on death should be cut down to 50%.

- Hard Mode should have higher drop rates and/or other rewards for the player’s effort.