IDK if I am doing something wrong, but new game (not NG+) Paths expeditions seem much grindier and prone to failure now. The proliferation of auras, ice damage, and enemy shields mean you're just doing little to no damage so often. And while I'm not privy to the calculations, it seems like lower player damage output via ice debuff or enemy shields *also* lowers companion recharge rate so it's a double whammy.
It feels a lot slower and grindier than it was, and have lost quite a few mornings at this point due to losses, ilke 5-7.
For reference I'm level 17 (24/16/27 stats s/i/c) and day 39. Using Cluster, Rage, and Pure Damage gems. Emily, Katie, Bella companions. I just lost to an Ice Elemental, the first fight of a new expedition so full health. I never even broke its 500(!) shield. The only damage done to it was Bella's poison rounds since they bypassed the shield. The next day I swapped Emily for Dylan, and lost the very first fight, again, to a Fire Lord (500 shield one, whatever the name is) although it was a closer fight since I could at least damage that one, but starting out with a 40 fire DoT already stacked on you seems like a huge damage increase over the course of the fight. And it's not like you can just say hey, I can't win that fight yet I'll ignore them, since their auras imbalance all the other available fights.
Am I missing something or fuck up somewhere? Are they trying to encourage mutiple gem sets and swapping between fights, like if i had a pure fire set on slot 2 and used it that should have made it a breeze or something? Am I just being a dumbass? It feels like the game's gone from a fun and enjoyable experience to unnecessarily frustrating.
I've really enjoyed and loved these games since like, book 4 was new. I don't like posting something even semi-critical of them but idk what's going wrong now.
