Post by TeeWee on Sept 23, 2015 6:51:39 GMT -5
This post contains spoilers for Gholla Outlook. Don't read if you don't want to know about them!
You have been warned....
...
My party is a Soak-based party: VVFT.
Vraes is a spear-wielding Stoneskinned monster on Ferocity and BoS to 2MP.
Vincent is a Frigid Air curser and a Thundering Blades booster. Energy Storm to augment the Thundering Blades. Plus one point in Flash Freeze
Fyona is my offtank. Righteous Fervour, Reckoning and Holy Strickening.
Tamilin is AoE killer. Deadly Intuition is her key talent, lots of Blacknight (currently in the 2MP range) to support leading with her. Ranged Onslaught is currently at the spot where the AoE increases.
Episode 2 order is about as follows: storerooms, clear Talia, north to free the Koda-kid, then south, clearing everything on the Torrent. Then, it's time to smash the big V. After that, I visit the druid and go back north. Negotiations fail, and I'm told to visit the little Braes. At that moment, I decide to have a peek at the road to Gholla.
Ooops. This is one of those areas where you can't go back. Not so nice. First encounter. Hmmm, these Orcin hit a lot harder than I'm used to. My last battle area was the druid and before that the temple. Those were ok. Most melee hits were around 80, a touch lower, with some exceptions going to 100+. Only melee spider hosts were truly worrying, as I had enough -DMG, soak and AoE to manage the cultist mobs. Big V was actually easy. Fyona had some Elemental resist gear on her and she just sat in big V's face the whole battle.
But these Orcin on the way to Gholla Outlook, they are a jump up in difficulty. They take some beating; I have no way to get rid of enemy Armor, but with Holy strickening and Energy Storm the Lightning damage hits pretty hard. But still, lots of hit points for the Orcin and they refuse to die quickly. And hits are regularly 100+ in damage, even for Stoneskinned Vraes! Hadn't experienced that before. I must say melee is the worst. Those javelineers are ok to handle. Once Frigid Air'd, they can't hit the broad side of a barn and even if they do, it's at most some 40 DMG. But the melee Orcin (and Shamaness with lots of Elemental damage!) are awful. I find that I need to dunk a potion just about every turn. Didn't seem to have this problem previously.
Finally made it to Gholla Outlook itself. Discovered that we had a long siege to go. Sigh. Running out of money to buy more potions.
First day, using some of the +Ice and +Fire incantations and lots of Sustainment incantations, I'm fighting my way through the enemy. I get careless about once every wave: Fyona dies about 3 times on the first day. Once I sort of figured out how waves were triggered, I make sure that I prioritise old wave targets over new wave targets to avoid triggering more enemies.
Again, those melee bastards hit hard. Going through potions in an alarming rate. Even had to consume one of my super-elixers (restore HP+SP to 100%) once.
Didn't anticipate a second day. Fortunately, I still had some of that +ice on Tami. I declined a visit to the inn and added extra sustainment scrolls to my inventory. Plus potions until I run out of money.
Second day of the siege. Fortunate that lots of enemies seem to be javelineers. Those are OK. The 3 Shamanesses are far more difficult to handle. Concentrated Holy Strickening, Energy Storm and Ranged Onslaught helps a lot though. Again, Fyona gets fried in a moment of carelessness, leaving her too exposed with just a touch too few HPs.
The great Orcin was ok in the end though. Flash Freeze and Reckoning reduce the damage. The rest of the mob consists of Javelineers, which don't drain HP too much.
All in all, my verdict:
Very tense battles. Super big jump in difficulty. I hadn't experienced a death in a good while, the Gholla outlook sequence I had maybe 6 deaths, mostly Fyona (previous deaths were often a failed stealth combined with a poor spawn resulting in dead Tami, plus two storeroom deaths due to Deathkin). Fyona is a bit average for durability. Up to now, soak has worked a lot better than expected, but now, it's getting tricky. I've always been afraid that Soak is inferior to Avoidance due to damage escalation and at least on this spot in the story (Lvl 26-28), I've hit a spot where soak seems decidedly average.
Story wise, the aftermath wasn't too surprising given what I've seen before. The Great Orcin appearing was fun. Hope we don't have too many of those in the future. Such surprises should be kept to a minimum to keep its value.
Wasn't expecting such a tough sequence and I was surprised at being unable to return to Braeys lands. This adds to the tension.
Thumbs up. Good work!
You have been warned....
...
My party is a Soak-based party: VVFT.
Vraes is a spear-wielding Stoneskinned monster on Ferocity and BoS to 2MP.
Vincent is a Frigid Air curser and a Thundering Blades booster. Energy Storm to augment the Thundering Blades. Plus one point in Flash Freeze
Fyona is my offtank. Righteous Fervour, Reckoning and Holy Strickening.
Tamilin is AoE killer. Deadly Intuition is her key talent, lots of Blacknight (currently in the 2MP range) to support leading with her. Ranged Onslaught is currently at the spot where the AoE increases.
Episode 2 order is about as follows: storerooms, clear Talia, north to free the Koda-kid, then south, clearing everything on the Torrent. Then, it's time to smash the big V. After that, I visit the druid and go back north. Negotiations fail, and I'm told to visit the little Braes. At that moment, I decide to have a peek at the road to Gholla.
Ooops. This is one of those areas where you can't go back. Not so nice. First encounter. Hmmm, these Orcin hit a lot harder than I'm used to. My last battle area was the druid and before that the temple. Those were ok. Most melee hits were around 80, a touch lower, with some exceptions going to 100+. Only melee spider hosts were truly worrying, as I had enough -DMG, soak and AoE to manage the cultist mobs. Big V was actually easy. Fyona had some Elemental resist gear on her and she just sat in big V's face the whole battle.
But these Orcin on the way to Gholla Outlook, they are a jump up in difficulty. They take some beating; I have no way to get rid of enemy Armor, but with Holy strickening and Energy Storm the Lightning damage hits pretty hard. But still, lots of hit points for the Orcin and they refuse to die quickly. And hits are regularly 100+ in damage, even for Stoneskinned Vraes! Hadn't experienced that before. I must say melee is the worst. Those javelineers are ok to handle. Once Frigid Air'd, they can't hit the broad side of a barn and even if they do, it's at most some 40 DMG. But the melee Orcin (and Shamaness with lots of Elemental damage!) are awful. I find that I need to dunk a potion just about every turn. Didn't seem to have this problem previously.
Finally made it to Gholla Outlook itself. Discovered that we had a long siege to go. Sigh. Running out of money to buy more potions.
First day, using some of the +Ice and +Fire incantations and lots of Sustainment incantations, I'm fighting my way through the enemy. I get careless about once every wave: Fyona dies about 3 times on the first day. Once I sort of figured out how waves were triggered, I make sure that I prioritise old wave targets over new wave targets to avoid triggering more enemies.
Again, those melee bastards hit hard. Going through potions in an alarming rate. Even had to consume one of my super-elixers (restore HP+SP to 100%) once.
Didn't anticipate a second day. Fortunately, I still had some of that +ice on Tami. I declined a visit to the inn and added extra sustainment scrolls to my inventory. Plus potions until I run out of money.
Second day of the siege. Fortunate that lots of enemies seem to be javelineers. Those are OK. The 3 Shamanesses are far more difficult to handle. Concentrated Holy Strickening, Energy Storm and Ranged Onslaught helps a lot though. Again, Fyona gets fried in a moment of carelessness, leaving her too exposed with just a touch too few HPs.
The great Orcin was ok in the end though. Flash Freeze and Reckoning reduce the damage. The rest of the mob consists of Javelineers, which don't drain HP too much.
All in all, my verdict:
Very tense battles. Super big jump in difficulty. I hadn't experienced a death in a good while, the Gholla outlook sequence I had maybe 6 deaths, mostly Fyona (previous deaths were often a failed stealth combined with a poor spawn resulting in dead Tami, plus two storeroom deaths due to Deathkin). Fyona is a bit average for durability. Up to now, soak has worked a lot better than expected, but now, it's getting tricky. I've always been afraid that Soak is inferior to Avoidance due to damage escalation and at least on this spot in the story (Lvl 26-28), I've hit a spot where soak seems decidedly average.
Story wise, the aftermath wasn't too surprising given what I've seen before. The Great Orcin appearing was fun. Hope we don't have too many of those in the future. Such surprises should be kept to a minimum to keep its value.
Wasn't expecting such a tough sequence and I was surprised at being unable to return to Braeys lands. This adds to the tension.
Thumbs up. Good work!