The beginning felt too heavy compared to previous version. Seems like many monsters' life and damage were boosted, tohit also. However, stun threshold feels the same. As my problems vanished after getting a bow with increased damage. Becoming able to stun monsters felt like a relief.
I clearly remember coming across an invincible skeleton archer pack on DLVL 3. As far as I know, there is no specific defence against ranged damage.
If the beginning (mostly Cathedral) stays like that it will repel a good third of players, if not half.
With stunning monsters the game began feeling easier. But after finding Arkaines valor the difficulty became too easy
I'll spill more wisdom later when I get to caves and hell
upd
http://www.sendspace.com/file/po474m
