(NOTE: I've not played before the last big content update with the introduction of the Outpost, but this is how I see combat balance as it is.)

Well, remember, you're doing precise headshot damage; versus sweeping your sword across an entire group. Individual damage might be lower on swords/melee; but you're cutting a swath through an entire group at the same time.

Bows; long range head shots can take down a group before they get to you. Sword/shield can swipe whatever is left of the group all at the same time if lined up properly. I feel that's a nice balance.

I just recently started upgrading my sword and armor; and that helped abit; granted it is the vampire set(2% health healed per hit, armor constantly heals you[when used with the passive heal maxed out in the skill tree, it's very nice]). I've stopped using bows as of late because I've gotten so used to the melee combat; that swapping to/from bow/melee was just wasting time. =X

I've been playing more or less daily in the last few months, and I wouldn't have posted the question if I hadn't noticed a rather crass change.. maybe it's me doing something wrong and I just didn't notice that earlier.. but fighting those armored skeleton guys has very recently become a big PITA. I start hacking away at them, first the white armor bar, then the green stamina bar, and when I finally start inflicting hit point damage (red bar), their armor bar has refilled and I need to hack that back down to zero again, during which time their stamina bar regenerates.. and so on. Worst fight I had yesterday was 21 swings.. as a lvl 20 sword fighter against a lvl 7 skeleton.. and that just doesn't make any sense.
however, this seems to be mostly an issue with exactly those skeleton guys.. at least i haven't had the same experience with goblins or hungers yet.

Hmm, I've never had my enemies gain more armor. I thought once you broke their armor off; it just stayed off. You can literally see the shield or shoulder pads they wear fall to the ground. o_O

Granted, I have stuff set to easy because I play the game to relax and chill while hanging out on voice chat with friends; but I also tend to kill enemies before their stamina bar even goes down; NPC stamina when depleted makes them get dazed, but you don't need to nuke the green stamina bar to kill them. Definitely have to burn off their armor, but I've never had their armor bar refill on me(maybe that's because I'm playing on an easier difficulty?)

I think the only ones who should be regenerative anything are the zombies; who slowly regenerate health(red bar).

But yes, if you're lvl 20 and fighting lvl 7 skeletons is that bonkers, might be fair bit off. Though I tend not to count my swings; I'm sure I'm not swinging 20 times to kill a single enemy.

You can change the combat in the options menu, "Longer combat" gives you and the enemies more health. Check that, it might be set way too high; I've kept mine as standard because I don't want to get blapped by an unfortunate hit(Faster Combat; less health for me and NPCs).

Originally posted by WooShell:

For some reason, I don't seem to do any damage with 1h blades anymore since the last patch.. lvl 20 char fighting lvl 5-7 skeletons with the pirate sword that *used* to take 2-3 hits to take them down now seems to take 10-12 hits, sometimes even more if they're blocking a lot. This is.. weird. With this large level gap, those mobs should be pushovers.
Bows seem to be unaffected as far as I've seen.. they still take them down with 1-2 arrows to the face.

Here is some information on the update and balancing to clarify things:

• I have made higher level enemies stronger (everything that is not skeletons and goblins).
  
• I have made boss enemies stronger. This includes the Skeleton Defender, you are probably having a hard time with.
  
• BUT I have also increased stealth damage for bows and critical damage of melee power attacks (especially against armor).
  
• Level doesn't say much about your damage output or health. Your equipment plays a way more significant role.
  
• The pirate saber is pretty powerful, but still a tier 1 weapon in its default state. The Skeleton Defender is a boss enemy, so it still is kind of though, unless you upgraded your pirate saber.
  
• Armor does never reset. Even if enemies get resurrected.

So in general armored enemies are thougher now, but in return anything armor piercing (like the melee power attack, or bolt arrows) are stronger. In general the balancing towards mid and endgame has been changed the most. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Does it make any difference whether we use blunt or blade weapons? I'm coming from a D&D background, so I would expect blunt weapons to work better against skeletons, and blade weapons better against flesh enemies.. but does Raidborn make such a consideration, or is this purely a style choice?

Originally posted by WooShell:

Does it make any difference whether we use blunt or blade weapons? I'm coming from a D&D background, so I would expect blunt weapons to work better against skeletons, and blade weapons better against flesh enemies.. but does Raidborn make such a consideration, or is this purely a style choice?

I had skills for blunt armor and blade unarmored damage buffs in the past, but I changed it to two-handed and one-handed skills, to better fit the skill trees theme.

There are also a bunch of other skills which buff armor penetration and the bow power shot also pierces armor I think.