True. I tried changing things up. I decided that I was not going to build anything and ‘live off the land’ for a play through. I went from the cross down noob river to the dregg. Picked up a some darfari gear and got lucky with medium/light pieces from exiles. Had a steel falcata, steel daggers and an iron warhammer. Killed boss in the dregg and headed east up the river toward black galleon. Aquired amore weapons armor and repair kits. Made my way to sepermaru and then north towrd new asgard. By then I had so much gear that I was steam rolling over everything.
It was a cool run and made things like repair kits and weapon drops useful but man I thought it would have been harder. Even the arena champion was a push over. Just use heavy attack combo with one handed sword. Keeps knocking her down. She never got a hit in.