Cross Platform Nightmare Ironman

[matrim]

xdesperado baron fight is easy for me now to do with no deaths. When the fight spawns you run back to the other side of the double doors, things trickle in and archers can't shoot anyone. Baron usually last to show up (he is slow) and if he comes forward I blast AP down and gang beat him down. If he stays back from my cursing I whittle him dead with sneak slot and her bow attack. It's 100% no death now, has not even come close once (after I figured this trick out, before was not so good). Also, monsters don't crit, the baron has very high consistent damage due to his elemental damage, he will commonly do 300 damage on nightmare.

[contributor]

Mar 9, 2016 0:07:38 GMT -5 matrim said:

You still have about 2-3 levels before you need to worry about orcs seriously. Granthorn is not going to offer much in the way of armor for Kincaid and you will need avoidance for orcs. I usually clear the Krete to the south first (not the quest, just the area) then do the wetlands. The ratkin there are awful to fight at later levels and so I handle them early. This gives me a couple stabs at chests for 3 parry and 3 dodge items (boots of the seductress awesome, to a lesser extent the capes with crit or health). With 2 of those items you should be blocking consistently for orcs. I would clear out Crag's peak as I found some pretty awesome light armor there and the weapons will up your killing potential fast. Clear out the prospectors path to eke out that experience and try to get as many talent points as possible. While you may not like it, a couple points into SoC will really help against the orcs. You do not want any of those spears connecting, they do too much damage. If ToS is not at -2 AP level I would get it there, so valuable against berserkers and trolls, not to mention shamen. I just finished that area in my game and I can tell you if you can be 21-23 when doing it that is an extremely powerful time for characters. 24-27 is a significant power dip till 30 because of stat distribution (the mobs also gain a double level at about 25-26). I like to be in the underforge for those levels as everything there is capped so I do not suffer from the power dip. Make sure to always stay back for the Orc caverns, a bad shaman spawn or berserker spawn that you are not ready for is almost 100% loss. Side note, I really feel righteous fervour does not play to Kincaid's strength which is avoidance. I tried it and this is the point where you start to notice that its armor cannot make Kincaid into a Vraes, food for thought. This also frees Kjartan from pureflame shield to some MS which will serve you better (IMO) against the high damage that is going to be heading your way.

Those leveling dips are huge. I just started playing a group in the COD that had made it there with no deaths. They picked up there first because of sloppy play in one of the hidden levels. Once I hit level 36 though (monsters are now at 41-42) the game totally changed. They're almost to the tower and have 8 deaths. They are no longer dodging or hitting consistently and every fight is incredibly tedious.

[matrim]

The nice thing is at about 38 (at least for my group) that is when all cylinders start firing. You get a second talent maxed out with a base of buffs and the skeleton monster group is quite weak (with the exception of towers and necros). In 2 levels you should notice that you are hitting more and they are missing more. Also of note is that you can raise skills to 18 now (not sure if you read that) and at 40 you can get them to 20. This is perfect to edge out those extra dice for defense or accuracy. When I was 35-37 I put an extra tank item (2 total) on Kincaid to control the damage (12 parry and dodge) and while this slowed my killing down a bit it was very safe and he only got hit by towers and necromancers after that (38 I swapped back).

[fallen]

Mar 9, 2016 0:13:00 GMT -5 matrim said:

xdesperado baron fight is easy for me now to do with no deaths. When the fight spawns you run back to the other side of the double doors, things trickle in and archers can't shoot anyone. Baron usually last to show up (he is slow) and if he comes forward I blast AP down and gang beat him down. If he stays back from my cursing I whittle him dead with sneak slot and her bow attack. It's 100% no death now, has not even come close once (after I figured this trick out, before was not so good). Also, monsters don't crit, the baron has very high consistent damage due to his elemental damage, he will commonly do 300 damage on nightmare.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will close and lock those doors behind you

[fallen]

Mar 9, 2016 0:07:38 GMT -5 matrim said:

Side note, I really feel righteous fervour does not play to Kincaid's strength which is avoidance. I tried it and this is the point where you start to notice that its armor cannot make Kincaid into a Vraes, food for thought. This also frees Kjartan from pureflame shield to some MS which will serve you better (IMO) against the high damage that is going to be heading your way.

As discussed, leveling dips mean you can't dodge everything forever. Righteous Fervor is as much for everyone else as it is for Kincaid. Twice now, Tamilin has been brought under 84 HP (Ratkin and Krete archers in E2), which would have been deaths if I wasn't using RF. Especially in the early game, you can't be a full Dodge Tank yet. All the way up through the Krete Chieftans, when his Sure Parry is knocked down or Krete Archers are tagging him, seeing -0 or -23 dmg feels exactly where I want to be. For the Krete, the high Pureflame Shield has made all the difference, matching my 32 Res against their 30-50 Elemental Dmg (depending on mob type). He's a mix of Dodge Tank and Armor Tank. I think 91 Armor is higher than I would usually have Vraes at this point in the game?

[matrim]

I have to admit, 98% of the time I am avoidance, even early, and it is highly effective. I dropped my only armor build just before orcs because I knew it would be paper towel before their spears. If you can get through rounds with your sure parry lasting through 9ish attacks then you should be fine but if you get tagged 1-2 times by melee in that situation it's going to be a bumpy ride. Good luck!

Also no closing doors please!

[fallen]

Mar 9, 2016 11:32:13 GMT -5 matrim said:

I have to admit, 98% of the time I am avoidance, even early, and it is highly effective. I dropped my only armor build just before orcs because I knew it would be paper towel before their spears. If you can get through rounds with your sure parry lasting through 9ish attacks then you should be fine but if you get tagged 1-2 times by melee in that situation it's going to be a bumpy ride. Good luck!

Also no closing doors please!

Well, as you said, its all about finding the sweet spot with the build. I'm going to give it a try with this focus for the whole group. I will report if I get skewered!

Lol, sorry ... the doors are already set to close now. One bad thing about having an active game creator

[Kanly]

Please don't close the doors!

[fallen]

Gah, I've been told about an exploit! I can't help myself.

You guys need some kind of "fallen don't read" tag

[Kanly]

I prefer creative use of game mechanics. I honestly wouldn't have called it an exploit or I would have reported it much earlier.

Edit: I can see how it would change the balance of the fight, but using positioning to change the balance of power is about half of the game .

[xdesperado]

Close them, Close them, Close them!

Come on folks this is suppossed to be The Boss fight for Episode 1, running back out the doors doesn't really fit the build up and scene.
Besides if you can run out the doors then likely you could also run back into say the library area instead for a similar turtle approach.

[fallen]

@kanly - you're right that "exploit" is not a fair descriptor. However, it certainly wasn't the intention of the boss fight at the end of the Episode. There is plenty of other terrain you can retreat into.

Because of the door type, all I can do is close and lock them. You could retreat and unlock them still.

[fallen]

I've reconsidered and am just going to help the Baron walk faster instead.

[matrim]

There is plenty of time to unlock them. Also retreating left or right produces the same result, you just have to shuffle a bit to make sure the baron cannot attack. I did not think of this as an exploit as I do it with lots of spawns (especially with the red keep, doors play havoc with the AI there). Episode 2 is a little better as sometimes the archers will go after the target that is not the closest which then causes them to move closer.

[fallen]

matrim - after looking closer at the terrain, I came to the same conclusion. I just made a small tweak to make sure you'll have to shuffle harder.