MalleGT

Doemenel merchant, 2nd floor of their mansion.

Congratulations on a solid run and the honesty with how it played out. I agree 100% about Thaos being the true trial, though reaching him with a legit ToI is still a massive accomplishment because there are so many little things that could go wrong. My druid run has been on hold for close to two weeks in Act 3 already, simply because I dread the final fight on a pure caster. I gave up on trying to use a caster wizard after dying to Thaos in 1.04, being pretty sure that a buff and combat centric wizard will have a consistently good chance against him, especially with the latest patch. Regarding the stats, I also agree that Per is probably the least valuable of the bunch and can easily be dumped for Con or even Dex. The combat related bugs feel way more frequent to me. Ran into both bug types that you described, the last three times I have played. I think that quitting is completely warranted in those situations, though I whipped myself to restart the runs for the sake of a "clean" recording. Anyways, good job and I enjoyed reading through the discussion here. @knownastherat: The final fight was done in 1.05 so it should still work, unless you are referring to something else.

Regarding second chance, Eder's armor has always been reliable for me but the one time I have tried ring of wonders, it failed to activate, despite having summons up and almost cost the run. So definitely stick with the armor if you want to keep rocking second chance. Ring of wizardry from the Copperlane merchant is a decent pick up, especially paired with a more defensive ring. Finreah's Grace is a staple cloak for most classes, obtainable from the Doemenel merchant, the +3 dex is hard to pass up on. The might and con bracelet from the Dozens merchant is also a good choice IF you have not found rare drops like the +5 accuracy gloves. Sanitarium should not pose a problem if you manage to get the Shade figurine before it, instead, I would advice caution with the Heritage Hill tower, as the floors might get locked into combat until all enemies have been wiped out, preventing resting or exiting the area. Since the darguls can take quite a beating, remember to enter each floor while properly rested. The wizard really kicks off once you gain access to the Spirit Lance, that weapon makes a barbarian look like a kitten. So look forward to that!

All of the classes are perfectly capable of completing a solo run at the hardest settings. Some will just have an easier time about it, while others can be very unforgiving and a single mistake could end the run. I would generalize that classes with poor AoE or ability kits for soloing have stronger base stats, and vice versa, allowing both class types to solo. Using the Animat summon, any class can clear Caed Nua at level 4 latest, opening the world enough to pick and choose sufficiently easy quests, all the way to Act IV. Race is also insignificant enough to allow for freedom of choice, but the moon godlike is strong enough to make combinations with certain melee oriented classes trivial. So I recommend choosing whichever class & race combination you feel like you might enjoy the most, as success will depend on the way you play and build your character rather than class selection. Your current barbarian should do perfectly fine and I wish you luck with the run.

The extra might was due to Living Lands kicking in before reaching the region screen. I tend to go through the character creation once before recording it, just to have a general idea of what to do, this causes the region bonus to be displayed in advance when creating another character before the game is closed. Generally I value might over dexterity, so 20 would probably have been better at the cost of dexterity. I cant imagine going under 18 in resolve, without seeing a list of all the resolve checks in the game. Being able to complete quests with resolve dialogue options (and not having to worry about the exact number required) has been a staple for me. So I have a habit of going 18 might, 18 resolve and allocating between con, dex, per, int depending on the class. As opposed to character creation which I plan in advance, leveling up is completely improvised. I dont really have a good understanding of class abilities and talents, so I need to spend some time reading descriptions and thinking about what direction I want to take with the character. Especially early game decisions, regarding weaponry used for the rest of the run, can be daunting. Then again, not having a completely planned out character really increases the enjoyment of leveling up and makes a run much more exciting. It does sometimes leave me with a lackluster character for the endgame, as happened with my earlier ranger run that fell to Thaos.

Thank you faraday and the streaker. According to Steam I have just under 200 hours of TCS runs under my belt, I found the mode captivating after my first party based playthrough. There are two key points I think people should realize about the mode. Starting character matters very little as every class/race can clear Act I, and doing so means every class/race can reach endgame. Secondly, Thaos is the only fight which really matters when thinking about levelling and gearing. It is the only unavoidable fight in which patience and caution will not compensate for a poor build, therefore it is crucial to pick talents and abilities with this in mind. Building a character with so called "quality of life talents/abilities" wont increase odds of a successful run, but will speed things up in the early/midgame. Most of TCS is really just trial and error, I dont feel special or talented, I just used more time and restarts than anyone ought to. The process is very reminiscent of speedrunning a game. This makes sense, however as the final 4,5 hours of the run were streamed and a vod still exists on my channel, there would be 4 possible restart points, the first one being start of the game and thus irrelevant. As for the other three, they do indeed cast a doubt on the run which I had sadly not anticipated. Im happy about at least being able to prove Acts III and IV as 100% legit, just a shame about the rest. Best I can do is point out one of the sections drags on for over 3,5 hours, surely with backup abuse I would limit replayable sections to 1-2 hours. Regardless, I view this as a failure on my end as I aimed for 100% transparency and validity for the run. Perhaps I can find the energy to replay a fully livestreamed + recorded run at some point.

Hello everyone. I have been lurking and actively reading these forums ever since Pillars was released, but never got around to contributing. I have been doing TCS runs since early April, managing to finish three classes alongside countless failures. Some of you will have seen the original TCS monk fight against Thaos that I posted, an achievement in itself, it did not validate the rest of the run. People always question the legitimacy of a run, especially S/L abuse and the inventory spam attack glitch present in numerous "legit" runs. I am therefore very happy to finally have completed a fully recorded, partially live streamed TCS run last night, attempted as a human Paladin. The recordings can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0liOWFi-LvjJJMyqqAbUjA/videos The only editing done, is cutting the boss fight from a 4 hour clip it was a part of. The last four to five hours of footage are also present in my stream archives, under the same nickname on Twitch. Character specs can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/jocAj Starting point allocation in first recording. The screenshots were taken from save file before Thaos, after completing the run. Some information about the run for those not interested in video footage. The run took around 11 hours and 30 minutes. Quests that I did not complete were Caed Nua, lighthouse, Dozens and Knights advanced faction quests, bounties, sanguine plate quest. I also resolved Sky Dragon diplomatically, but cleared Searing Falls for Tidefall. I completed all sidequests in Act I for level 5 before attempting Caed Nua. Paladin struggles with packs of trashmobs but excels at taking out strong opponents that are few in number, such as the Thaos fight. My character got knocked out once in Dyrford Crossing, but I was able to escape with a summon and reset combat to stand back up. I also had Ring of Wonder equipped but presume the second chance on it is bugged, unlike the Saints War Armor. The run featured excessive use of summons, but no scrolls or petrify etc. I chose Bleak Walker simply due to being most familiar with their favoured dispositions and having no interest in using a test character to check on dialogue choices. There you have it, feel free to comment, ask questions or point out other classes with recorded TCS runs, I would be interested in checking them out!