Toward the Ember Tower

[nyaminathorn]

Well, I didn't know where to make an introduction, and it seems that here is the best space to speak about my adventure and to thank you for this awesome piece of a game (played on computer through Steam) I've been playing for about 90 hours now in a month.

So, I'm now on the surface, where life is coming back even if undeads swarm the city of Ember. Vraes, Kjartan, Fyona and Tamilin are teaming to reach the second tower after defeating the first Seer Lord. Well, I must say they are pretty happy to reach this place as, for the moment, fights are pretty easy compared to the Orcins and the Ratkins. Even the first Seer Lord fight was pretty easy (for now, I'm in Normal, which is fairly difficult without being punishing, Tamilin died 12 times, and Vraes 3, mostly due to a lack of Farsight/Stealth).

The place will be pretty neat after destroying the undead, I guess the Braeys will be happy to see how well they do the job. Unfortunately for Tamilin, loots are not that fantastic, however it seems that the only rewarding "loot" can be found through crafting.

They discovered the power of "SP drain" artefacts few moments ago, in Gholla Outlook. For some weird reason, they thought those artefacts would consume more SP instead of giving some back. Which makes their travel pretty easier, and their need to rest less needy.

Kjartan is the almighty killer of the band, doing great damages with his Firebolt, debuffing with its Choking Ashes and getting stronger and stronger with his Firestorm. He deals with any threat like a God would do with an unfaithful.
Tamilin is also a good debuffing thief with her Silent Strike. She's also good at any thief's job, like picking locks and disarming traps or "seeing" (invisible) ennemies at a distance. She's now getting better and better with her massive final skill.
Fyona is the righteous hand of Gods and Cortias, giving strong buff to Vraes and herself as healing them during battle. Her Zealous Strike and Consecrated Defense make her an effective melee fighter with good protections.
Vraes is the one who takes the attacks for all with his magnificient Stone Skin and Phalanx Shield. Not a killer at the moment, but his ferocity is growing little by little.

Maybe they'll respecialize as they were too dumb at the beginning of their adventure, but it seems they are doing good at the moment. At least, the undead take hits more often than other creatures they faced.

They only kill by necessity and give their chance to people and Gods. Their quest to find Gods lead them to kill Vurnak and spare Hagathrun. Yet they failed to find Rabiel...

So, thank you for your good job (and also, the good job on Templar Battleforce which is on standby as I need to finish Heroes of Steel)

[fallen]

nyaminathorn thank you for the post and welcome to the forum! Very glad to hear you are enjoying the game. When you finish Templar Battleforce, Star Traders: Frontiers will be waiting. And if you're into Kickstarters, check to Cyber Knights! www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/1770/landing

Depending on your setup and especially the types of extra damages you are doing, the City of the Dead can be a sudden uptick in challenge or feel easier than some of the earlier sections. It also depends a lot on what level you are

Love to hear the write up of each character, and love that Kjartan is roasting everyone.

There is a lot to go in the story, more adventure stretches before you!

[nyaminathorn]

Yep, HoS and TB looked like game I enjoy playing, so I didn't hesitate. And as I see both are well finished products, I'll go without hesitation on the others.
And well, I'll have a look to Cyber Knights, that's payday tomorrow so I can spare money for your good job.


The Death Chosen have discovered two unlooted location. And Tamilin is now pretty happy (it made Vraes laugh), she found a good trinket that had a huge amount of Stealth (12) and a fair amount of Security (4), which allow her to be effective against ghouls who were a bit annoying by smelling her flesh from a distance. She also can arrange her equipment for more effective fire damages, she can punish ghouls now for making her a not so effective thief.

They are at level 30-31 (Tamilin and Kjartan are ahead of the others), and it is always difficult for them to choose what talents to improve. Vraes decided to be the defender but lack dodging at the moment (however, it's not a problem as he takes damages and parry a lot), Kjartan is a pure brain with good willpower, knowledge and sorcery (his sacrificial storyline is amazing by the way, he makes Vraes feel like a chicken sometimes), Tamilin is trying to improve her throwing abilities but she's awesome with her bow and her dexterity and wants to improve her Ranged Onslaught, and Fyona is quite equilibrated with her strength, constitution and intelligence while she relies a lot on her hammer and leadership.
They mostly rely on defense, accuracy and holding strategic positions which allow Kjartan to be really effective with any ennemy (Groth was such a piece of cake for him and Vraes while other Orcins were more challenging).


Overall, I think I spent many points in useless talents mostly, for attributes and skills I'm pretty happy. It was really hard at the beginning, I think I died only thrice on Episode 2 and none at the moment in this new Episode (even if Tamilin had some hard times with ghouls).

And yeah, I'm really looking forward the next part of the story. Is it a God who help the Seer Lords ? Is it something else ? I hope I can see Cortias as Fyona is quite worried about him. And it seems there is plenty of other Gods to see. And... why not... Balgair, Lovelace,... again in the future. And... well... even if the game is long and maps are huge with many fights, I'm wondering who are the other characters, their skills, their behavior,... so I'm really pushing to finish the game and leave others aside at the moment. Which is rare enough to notice. Which convince me even more that AAA game producers are really messing badly with players.

[fallen]

Jan 29, 2020 13:40:38 GMT -5 nyaminathorn said:

And yeah, I'm really looking forward the next part of the story. Is it a God who help the Seer Lords ? Is it something else ? I hope I can see Cortias as Fyona is quite worried about him. And it seems there is plenty of other Gods to see. And... why not... Balgair, Lovelace,... again in the future. And... well... even if the game is long and maps are huge with many fights, I'm wondering who are the other characters, their skills, their behavior,... so I'm really pushing to finish the game and leave others aside at the moment. Which is rare enough to notice. Which convince me even more that AAA game producers are really messing badly with players.

Makes me happy to hear it and can't wait for you to find the answers in the story!

[nyaminathorn]

The company just arrived in front of the Storm Brothers Stronghold where they seek someone who can help them to locate Ravenna. They thought it was best after emerging from the battlefield as they asked for some Emberlog before going to the city of Ember. Maybe they are wrong and should seek someone else before.

Their journey was pretty harsh as they were defeated by the Seer Lords' Master, while its minions were no match to them. Even Fyona and Vraes didn't need the powerful Tamilin's Ranged Onslaught and Kjartan's Firestorm and Fireball. Vraes was holding the ground like never before and Fyona showed all she mastered undeads. She finished Seer Lords and later the Bone Golems, making her the company leader in those dark places.
Funnily enough, the company began to get smart just before entering the final tower so they could smith better weapons. They finally understood that he could be useful against some undeads who were parrying their attacks, making fights pretty unfinisheable. Vraes and Fyona are barely touched, but they barely touched on the other hand.
That's propbably why, exhausted as they are by all those useless and long fights, they now believe they are the Gods of the New Age. Maybe they'll come back to reality and find out they are just humans with good skills. They even believe that Vlotgar on his Glacier is a new God as well, the Pale Walker. Their fall from the finale Tower of Ember must have been pretty damaging, and they probably misunderstood Riethyn words or overinterpretated them. How can mere mortals, who came back to life 23, times believe they are Gods ?

They were pretty annoyed again with the new Orcin shamans and their invokated Spirits as it lead to very long fights where, again, nobody was able to touch anyone. Too much evasion and parades from all side until they managed to improve again their technics a bit and found some trinkets with increased way to make Critical hits, which surpringly made their travel a lot faster quite quickly.

Now, they'll see if it'll last, and if in their attempt to satisfy the Storm Brothers they'll meet Wiegarn or one of the thirteen, especially Rabiel who tormented Ravenna, making Vraes feel sorry for her.




It was a long weekend as you can read. Pretty tough, especially for Kjartan who met his first deaths due to bad positioning at crucial moments against Orcin shamans. Choosing Talents is a huge dilemma for most of them now, especially for Tamilin who seems to lack Spirit Points with her increasing Silent Stalker and Ranged Onslaught. It makes me consider a 3AP bow to make her hit less, but stronger as she has the best accuracy and criticals at the moment and should be able to do massive damages. On the other hand, all others do not need SP refill as they gain a lot by hitting, especially Kjartan who has 20% SP drain and 10-12% criticals.
It's just sometimes they miss pretty often, and sometimes they just hit each time with Critical hits each time (surpringly Fyona with her 4% critical =^-^=)

So far, it's still very nice. The story intensifies well. The challenge is to deal with summoners quickly without endangering the back line. It wasn't a problem against undeads. But Orcin are way harder. I cannot imagine if I have to deal with Ratkins again as they seem to be better at avoiding attacks.

[fallen]

nyaminathorn - glad to hear you're liking the story, it keeps climbing

[nyaminathorn]

Still do ! :-)

Well, it may take a while before I can update here as my computer "crashed" and failed to login with GRUB. I won't start a new game right now, I want to finish these one =^.^=
So it'll be a small break just as I arrive in front of the Ocean Gate.

So, the party was doing quite great with the Orcin, dispatching them quite easily, even though they had a pretty long fight in the Wolf Lord's cave at the bridge where they had to kill a huge amount of Spirits invoked by shamans. Ultimately, Kjartan and Tamilin did most of the killing by burning and piercing while Fyona healed the front line and Vraes was taking hits (especially from shamans).
They also find a way to a monastry through the Storm Bastion where they met their deaths. Fyona was relieved to find there Cortias, but quite astonished by the strenght of her God. They couldn't defeat him and so they couldn't get the reward he can give them to fight Wiegarn. As they geared up later on, especially with awesome bow, sword and staff, they were pretty confident on their abilities to match his strength. They also found pretty good trinkets to increase their movement and Vraes armor.

After this huge defeat, they decided to find Ravenna and discovered they needed the power of Ellista. At first, they were thinking in getting the Storm sister strength but her brothers kindly asked not to do so. As new allies, the party decided to respect their decision. Regarding their options, they decided to go back to Tevensa who was pretty happy to taunt her older sister. Too bad for her she was tricked as well by Ellista and turned mad against the heroes. Making them quite worried about having two Goddess to kill later. Especially Fyona who is less and less able to hide her melancholia on the Nine matters. And with Ryethin getting weaker, even Tamilin seems a bit worried about their fate.
Anyway, they found that Ravenna is located in the south of Freeport, Tamilin's place. After dispatching Ogres they found Bloodlace and Balgair there, Balgair who meets the description of one of the Nine, a wanderer who like drinking in cups. And as they found Myshana is the leader of Freeport, they are also getting suspicious about Bloodlace and the librarian they can't remember the name. At the moment, they just destroyed all their ennemies before arriving at the Ocean Gate, their new gears are pretty amazing, they almost don't have anymore need in potions and tomes.
At the moment, they still believe they are Gods of the New Age, and are getting pretty strong and reached perfection on most of their useful talents. Kjartan is the master of fire and debuff. His new way with Immolation matches Fyona Holy Strickening which allow Tamilin to do massive critical damages with her Aimed Shot and Ranged Onslaught while her Silent Strike allow Vraes to be safer on the front line.



Well, so far still pretty good. I now have to wait, which is a bit frustrating after more than 160 hours, but hopefully it is not a major crash, I have to find my way with Arch Linux. Too bad I don't use my external hard drive for the game as it would have been easy to get the save and use it on my other computer.
Looking forward to finish it ! Especially with Tamilin getting a 20% Critical chances and 50% more Critical Damages while Kjartan has 32% SP Drain and 10% Critical Damages, I need to face Cortias again :-D
Still, I don't know exactly how Immolation works : does it increase Critical chances or Critical Damages when hit by a critical ? I guess it is the second. Anyway, landing 4, 5 or even 6 Critical at 600 or even 700 damages on Ogres with Tamilin was pretty fun :-P, and it seems she can get a way stronger bow.

[fallen]

I hope the computer issue gets resolved. It isn't Heroes specific is it?

[nyaminathorn]

Hopefully yes, it's just an Arch Linux update that crashed. Not my speciality, but I have a friend who should be able to assist me, we just need to find a proper time to do it through a chat.
It says there is an invalid block environment and it fails to start login service. More or less what is issued here : forum.manjaro.org/t/failed-to-start-login-service/25597 although it is not the exact same issue.

I had to begin to play to Thea : The Shattering anyway, now is a time to test it while waiting =^-^=

Edit : and no, it is not related to HoS, even though it's the only thing I do on this computer at the moment. But it has been a while now, it would have occurred before I guess.

[nyaminathorn]

Well, few days ago, the team finally found back their puppet-master who succeed to make them reach The Barbican. After a very hard fight against the Seer Lords, and seeing Kjartan becoming the Soulless servant of the new Goddess of Death Tamilin, they easily succeed into reaching the last part of their journey, Wiegarn's fortress. They are now waiting at the entrance of the Barbican as they hesitate to go back to Fierhold to use their huge amount of gold buying helpful goods. The message telling them that they will be rewarded with 20000 XP kind of make them think about it as it's almost a free level reward.

So we're back on track as I finally got to see my friend who was hundred of kilometers from me. I could experienced a bit of Star Traders too, which will need a lot of learning as there's plenty to do.

I'm happy to see that I didn't lost my way even though Rasp probably killed Vraes 10 times before they found the solution to this long fight. And hopefully, I'll finish the game soon. Finally, after about 200 hours with them :-D

[nyaminathorn]

Hey there, it's been a while since I wanted to post here, but... laziness probably.

While my group did great by the end with Tamilin and Kjartan being monstrous killers, it was quite a pain to face one of the final dungeon against all the dragon spawning and spawning and spawning... They were not a major threat, but it was hard to reach the eggs without putting Tamilin at risk.
As for Evesse and Wiegarn (especially him)... well, they were pretty easy compared to the Seer Lords. I guess it's a matter of build.

So here are the final stats of this marvelous team (and I may engage another game with the others in easy before trying to face harder mode)

Overall : 50 deaths on normal, most of them during the two confrontations against the Seer Lords, and also ratkins, those crazy dodging ratkins, especially in the beginning of the game (about 10-15 deaths on the first chapter if I recall).
No respecialization as it was pretty okay, it was a matter of understanding patterns.

Here were the skills and attributes of the new Gods.
Tamilin:
5 Strengh - 22 Dexterity - 6 Constitution - 7 Will - 15 Intelligence - 7 Knowledge
4 Thrown - 23 Bows - 12 Lore - 7 (17) Security - 20 (50) Stealth
Aimed Shot 8 - Farsight 4 - Precision Pick 3 - Disarming Touch 1 - Loose 1 - Throw Dagger 1 - Deadly Intuition 10 - Silent Stalker 10 - Ranged Onslaught 10 - Death's Mantle 3
Kiresh Bow (3AP, 20 Accuracy) 69-132 Dmg at 8 Range, +1 Move Point, +22 Fire Dmg, 9% Critical, +7 Stealth, 4% SP Drain
Underplate Weave (63 Armor, +9 Evasion, +7 Stealth) +160 Max HP, +80 Max SP, 4% Critical, +5% SP Drain
Wise Blood Ring 10% Critical, +5 Parry, +5 Dodge, +10 Stealth, +10 Security
Thunderseam Mantle +40% Crit Dmg, +16 Resistance, +40 All Resists, +10% SP Drain
Snakescale Boots +1 Move Point, +4 Ranged Accuracy, +8 Dmg, +2% Critical, +8 Armor
Highly perfectible, especially her Talents, I spent too much point in talent I didn't need (Precision Pick, Loose and Dagger)

Kjartan:
3 Strength - 4 Dexterity - 4 Consitution - 16 Will - 13 Intelligence - 22 Knowledge
2 Polearms - 24 Sorcery - 16 Conjuring - 10 Lore
Firebolt 10 - Choking Ash 10 - Pureflame Shield 3 - Strike 1 - Immolation 9 - Firestorm 6 - Soulless Channeling 10
Demon's Rod (5 Accuracy, 11 Parry) 21-38 Dmg, 10 Ranged Accuracy, +20 Dmg, +20 Fire Dmg, +20 Lightning Dmg, 10% Critical
Robes of the Fourth Circle (60 Armor, +3 Evasion) +1 Move Point, +88 Max SP, +3 Ranged Accuracy, 2% Critical, +40% Critical Dmg, +4% SP Drain
Ender's Mantle 8% Critical, +60% Critical Dmg, +2% SP Drain
Steps of Secrets +2 Move Point, +16 Magical Dmg (Fire, Ice, Lit, Earth, Holy), +4% SP Drain
Heartstone Clasp +22 Ranged Accuracy, +100 Dmg, 5% Critical, +25% Crit Dmg
The hardest choices... Buff/Debuff... and high level Fire Talents, it was pretty hard to decide. His Firebolt was a marvel to finish plenty of targets.

Fyona:
17 Strength - 6 Dexterity - 15 Constitution - 10 Will - 10 Intelligence - 4 Knowledge
21 Hammers - 10 Invocation - 10 Leadership - 11 Lore
Zealous Strikes 8 - Hammer Blow 1 - Blessed Aura 10 - Strike 1 - Consecrated Defense 6 - Shield of Cortias 4 - Holy Strikening 10 - Battlefield Devotion 1 - Righteous Fervor 6 - Reckoning 1
Plainsman Star (2AP 6 Accuracy, 5 Parry) 56-93 Dmg, +1 Move Point, +120 Max HP, +20 Holy Dmg, 5% Critical, +20% Crit Dmg, +3 Parry
Eighth Aegis (13 Parry) Auto-Blocks 42% of Ranged attacks, +220 Max HP, +120 Max SP, +40% Crit Dmg, +16 Armor
Articulated Bone Plate (92 Armor, -1 Evasion) +240 Max SP, +16 Dmg, +12 All Resists, +5% SP Drain
Iron Circle Torc 12 Accuracy, 4% Critical
Warrior's Mantle +4 Melee Accuracy, +4 Parry, +8 Armor
Whitestep Boots +260 Max HP, +260 Max SP, 4% Critical, +10 Stealth, +4% SP Drain
With Vraes, I'm absolutely not fond of my build. She couldn't land enough hits and it took me time to build her as a support member Buff/Debuff/Heal. She was my biggest weakness during the whole playthrough, although I couldn't win without her support abilities. With a better Shield of Cortias and Righteous Fervor, it would have been easier I think.

Vraes:
18 Strength - 9 Dexterity - 13 Constitution - 12 Will - 6 Intelligence - 4 Knowledge
24 (26) Blades - 3 (5) Hammers - 3 (5) Polearms - 18 Leadership - 18 Lore
Crushing Blow 2 - Stone Skin 10 - Savage Sweep 7 - Strike 1 - Phalanx Shield 10 - Natural Mastery 1 - Burst of Speed 4 - Ferocity 10 - Juggernaut 3
Shieldbearer's Blade (3AP, 11 Accuracy, 12 Parry) 77-166 Dmg, +1 Move Point, +80 Max SP, +24 Fire Dmg, +8% SP Drain
Legionaire Shield (13 Parry) Auto-blocks 5% of ranged attacks, +600 Max HP, 2% Critical, +8 Dodge
Juggernaut Plate (182 Armor, -8 Evasion, -2 Accuracy) +1 Move Point, +325 Max HP, +16 Dmg, +60% Crit Dmg, +8% SP Drain
Longclaw Boots +1 Move Point, +4 Parry, +4 Dodge, +4% SP Drain
Ring of Strength +3 Melee Accuracy, +8 Dmg, 2% Critical, +6% Crit Dmg, +2% SP Drain
Mantle of Snow 5% Critical, +8 Parry, +18 Armor, +12 All Resists
I didn't understand how to make him a good damage dealer without destroying his defense, so I focused on taking hits and avoiding them, Ferocity wasn't such a good choice and the savage sweep didn't fix his accuracy problems.

The whole group was far from perfect but managed to achieve its quest. I've let most of the other Gods alive, even Rabiel (and so Evesse as well as if I recall she fled). I couldn't find the Braeys rogue brother who's supposed to be a new God as well... even though there was many references to his growing strength. I finished Cortias quite late, I guess he was not anymore a challenge by the time. He was the toughest God in my opinion, even though the two fights against the Seer Lords were such a bigger pain.

Thanks for Heroes of Steel, one of the most challenging tactical game I've played, way harder than the hardest difficulty of the Darkest Dungeon in my opinion, and it was just the Normal difficulty =^-^=
This was a happy surprise, I bought it with Templar Battleforce (later Star Traders Frontier, which is good too but less interesting to me, as I'm not that much into spaceships) and two other indie games (Echoes of Aetheria and Skyborn which were written in a way that reconcilated me with the JRPG genre in some way)

Take care ! And thanks again !

[fallen]

nyaminathorn - always love to see the full report and all the details!

[nyaminathorn]

I wanted to make it more like the beginning of the thread but... I finished it last summer on the road with no Internet. And it took me quite some time to come back here to make the final report. But impossible to remember everything that happened to make it like an adventure journal.

I have a question about Fyona and Vraes' builds : do you think it would have been better if I didn't specialize them in Strength and Blades/Hammers considering they were the two characters that died the most (as frontliners) ? And focus more on Dex/Con/Will + Polearms (I don't recall well, but they have a better parry no ?) for Vraes to avoid more ranged attacks and soak more magical damages ? And more on Dex/Con/Will/Int + Inv/Lead/Lore to make her skills last longer and therefore use less SP so she could heal and reposition herself during battles ?
I mean, Kjartan and Tamilin were truly impressive to destroy ennemies, especially Tamilin with her Ranged Onslaught literally destroyed plenty of weaken ennemies with her ability to crit a lot after Kjartan immolated them. So I was maybe wrong to try to make the other two hit as well (Vraes nightmare being the melee ratkins he could almost never hit even with buff/debuff).