Difficulty Levels: When To Switch?

Hey all,

My question is when did you switch over to Hard and eventually GM1 difficulties?

I'm level 26, and I've got a Rare Colossus with all Epic gear* (because that makes sense...), but I don't know what my Power level is off the top of my head. I completed some Legendary Contracts on Normal and it was way too easy. I bumped it up to Hard and got my ass kicked! I was able to complete one I think, but eventually gave up on another and dropped it back down to Normal. The difference between the two difficulties seems drastic to me.

Everyone else is farming for their gear on GM1 so I assume that means I'm just terrible at the game, which is fine. I'm just trying to determine if it's me, or if I'm still underpowered for Hard.

* two autocannons, flamethrower primer, lightning coil detonator, components focused on armor, damage, and ammo

Generally speaking hard is fairly close to the default difficulty and you should be fine to go for hard straight away.

Note that is true for contracts, legendary contracts, freeplay and story missions. The leap to hard is much more distinct on strongholds, where hard is much closer to GM1.

I suggest you join the GB Anthem discord: https://discord.gg/3nrU5U

Lots of people there to help you out and to group up with.

Okay, so it must be me then. I'm having such a different experience than everyone else that I had to ask.

For everything besides Strongholds, I was on Hard throughout the story content.

I made the jump to GM1 after I got a Masterwork weapon on Hard (The one with a 33% chance to do extra lightning dmg) and some MW components/other gear. For Colossus, the most common thing you'll see in builds is the use of the Masterwork Shock Coil since it freezes anything that it hits. If you pair that with the MW acid launcher that gives +200% combo damage, you just run around freezing and punching the ground, which basically takes care of all grunt mobs in one combo. Paired with a decent weapon (Personally using the MW Torrent autocannon) and a good amount of +Armor%, GM1 is basically a cake walk. Unfortunately, there's no point of going above GM1.

After you get a full Epic loadout at lvl 30, start doing Legendary Contracts on GM1. They always drop 1 Masterwork Component.

Masterwork Components' effects will really boost you effectiveness because they give you a decent chunk of armor and shields along with the extra Masterwork buffs which tend to give more damage. You get 3 Legendary Contracts daily.

After that you can try to start running GM1 Strongholds. It's ok to get carried by people already farming GM1. As you start getting more Masterworks, GM1 becomes totally manageable.

I played quite a bit this weekend. I did primarily Freeplay and Freeplay dungeons, and a couple of Legendary Contracts, all on Hard.

I could do the Freeplay stuff pretty easily. I had some issues when the game decided to have multiple Ice enemies at once, but no problems otherwise. I really hope they introduce some kind of mechanism to prevent being perpetually frozen or stunned because that is some bullshit.

The Legendary Contracts are definitely harder than Freeplay though. I couldn't do them by myself which I guess is to be expected considering I'm still only a 380-ish Power Rare Colossus.

Speaking of Power levels and Masterworks: the loot grind is real. Real bad. Like I said before I played quite a bit this weekend including a marathon on Sunday. My gear went from 34 Power Epic to 37 Power Epic, and my Colossus went from 360-ish Power Rare to 380-ish Power Rare. The game was oh so gracious and bestowed upon me a grand total of four Masterwork weapons, one of which was a duplicate, and none of which was useful for a Colossus.

I'm not going to run Strongholds over and over again to get loot. I'm just not. That's not enjoyable to me. Roaming around in Freeplay, forming impromptu groups with randoms, doing World Events, stumbling into Scar Luminaries and Titans - that's enjoyable to me.

It's too bad the game doesn't want to reward you for your time.