Mipsy

I do wonder if selling everything to one merchant has any reasonable impact on the loading times in the game. I've shelved PoE for the time being due to 2-3 minute load times. (I'm at the last portion of the game where you can't turn back anymore). I'm pretty sure the general food merchant in one of the main towns holds over 500 items because I've sold absolutely everything to him because I didn't want to clutter other vendors.

I'm on 2-3 minute loadtimes now that I'm on the last portion of the game. It's pretty ridiculous considering the amount of times I have to load after dying to the last boss.

He skipped most mobs and abused backstabs and reset combat. It's pretty much killing mobs before they can retaliate.

How would you have changed things, if you were to redo it? I'd have more balanced stats to be honest. Slightly less Con and I'd prioritize Res over Perception. You have enough reflex from your dex stat. The deflection of the character is really low. On a side note I just downed one of the optional bosses in the game. Took a lot of planning to work out. Spoilers if you click the link below. http://imgur.com/a/SJm6k Some of the stats are lower due to the debuffs done by the boss such as "Terrify". Edit: Combat log linked if you guys wanna see just that. http://imgur.com/OGE6Fij Boss died in under 5 seconds after melee engage.

Yeah like I said if I knew as much then as I did now about stats I would've made my monk very different. This even includes the skills/talents that I've chosen.

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would. I know we have been pm'ing but how much have you been clearing from act II and III so far ANd please cut down your quotes holly **** Uhh cut down the quotes? D: I fully cleared each act before moving on to the next one. This includes things like bounties and all side quests. I'm currently on the latter part of act 3. I'm not entirely sure if there's an act 4 though.

i don't get it. with 90, they miss 44% and only hit 21% of the time. you get some actions off. just try it. did you think stun durations would keep adding up over time? stuff like that doesn't stack. it'll keep resetting to 1.8 seconds a few times in a row, then you get some better luck and get a few actions off. and if they go hit graze, it doesn't really matter, you took an extra couple points of damage. i think all a hit really gets them is if they miss immediately after it doesn't help you. also don't they have to get past your deflection before getting a roll on your fort? so that improves the odds some. i think you might have problems for different reasons. this is with the big shield and draining mace. it makes you more tanky. and brigandine and the 5 frost damage reduction cloak. so you can be stunned some of the time but you live quite a while, enough to get off a few swings and a few spells. and withdraw casts super fast if you need to do that. your math doesn't show any kind of stun lock. you didn't factor in their attack speed and how every graze/miss or miss/miss combo you get an action, basically, which happens a lot more than never, it happens pretty often. you really truly think a level 4 priest with 90 stun defense can't fight one phantom in melee WITH RELOADS and win? As soon as you get hit the 1st time your deflection goes down due to being stunned, meaning its easier for them to hit you. Assuming normal odd with an attack rate of 1 attack per second and a resetting 1.8 duration, that means that if you are lucky... getting hit once, and missed once, you will have exactly 0.2 seconds to complete an action before you are stunned again.. So no, I dont think its a plausible tactic. I have tried soloing a single phantom with: Rogue Barbarian Chanter Ranger+Pet Fighter Paladin With various combinations of Race thrown in. I even tried Pale Elf for the 10 Freeze DR, doesn't help. I just can't reasonably get enough deflection/fort to stand toe to toe with a phantom. Now.. a strategy that DOES work consistently solo is a chanter + horn + running away + summoning. However I can't get it to work well enough to trust attempting it in Iron Man mode, which is my ultimate goal. I want 100% reproducible consistent tactics for dealing with particular areas. Sneaking only gets so far, eventually you HAVE to fight some things. So what I have been doing is making level 4 characters over and over and trying to get thru Caed nua with different builds and gear that is obtainable at this point in the game. I can't rely on "Chance" that I'll get scroll mats, or potion mats.. I haven't tried a Wizard yet.. Edit I think I ran 2 characters before I got the phantoms down. To be honest I'd say the best way to do it is to get the Rymrgand (Spelling?) Cloak and use armor that negates their damage totally. In terms of stunlock, there are multiple factors that I paid attention to. Deflection Fort Recovery DR Each one of these is important when dealing with early stunlock. The hardest phantom fight occurs in the Main Entrance of the Keep in Caed Nua since there's no room to kite and you have to fight 5-6 in succession. Bottlenecking them in the lower right or lower left corner of the room (before the stairs) is your best bet. It's going to be a long fight so make sure you're fully buffed with food and rest bonuses. Summoning with the Bronze Horn Figurine here is really important and you need the scenario to constantly be 1 Phantom attacking vs You and your summon. Your character has to tank, he has to take almost no damage and the Figurine has to whittle down the HP of the phantoms. You might get attacks in randomly depending on the DEX and recovery speed of your character. Once you get too low 'retreat' with your main character into the farther area of the wall, chug potions to heal up and swap back with the figurine. You can also use a bow here if you'd like. I think I spent a total of 3 hours stuck on this portion with a character that had Below Average Deflection Above Average Fort Extremely High Recovery Speed Extremely High DR to Frost

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would. I started off with 16 Might 15 Con 19 Dex 10 Per 08 Int 10 Res Might is useful for punching through DR which is sort of a problem for big bosses that come alone. Con is useful as a buffer against casters. Raedric's Castle is an example of this. If you don't have enough con you will get bursted down instantly. Dex is useful in general as a means to spam skills to get rid of wounds. You don't need as much of this if you're using a turning wheel passive monk build. Per, Res are mainly defensive stats and are primarily used for their deflection Int determines the AoE size of your torment's reach. Dumping int too low to something like 3 will make it so small that it wont hit the creatures behind the initial target.

did you kill maerwald? what strategy? Everything maerwald casts can be dodged. I mean running away and he will cast and hit nothing. If you keep running he will run out spells to use. You'll notice when he starts doing a really weak ranged attack. Just be careful cus it seems like he saves his strongest spell fireball. He doesn't cast it while you're running. If you see him cast anything just hightail it and run out of range.

did you kill maerwald? what strategy? Maerwald is a joke. I don't understand why people have a difficult time with him.

I'm far past maerwald PoTD solo on a monk. I'm level 11 atm and in act 3.

Is there any way to do this on a solo run? I just cleared it out on PoTD solo and now I cant use the runes

Downtime isn't supposed to be a problem in solo PoTD. You use downtime to cooldown your items and your class/watcher powers as well as figurines. It shouldn't be a consideration ).

I think most people like having the companions around. I'm not even sure how they level since I've never picked one up. Do they have their own level paths or do you get to choose?

Well the thing is I believe PoTD is soloable. You don't need optimized characters to win with a party.