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AllanonTM

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About AllanonTM

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  1. This god is way too old for this... My powers of optimization have been eaten away by major updates of the world, all to this day unknown to me. On the bright side, you can keep your soul!
  2. I didn't find the time to play the expansion/recent patches yet, but as far as I can gather, many of the things done in this guide could be impossible now. On the other hand, you should be able to kill two skeletons with a blunt weapon at that stage of the game.
  3. Woops, didn't expect this thread to surface again, so I didn't really check for new posts, sorry! I need to re-examine my strategy to answer some of your questions, didn't play much Pillars in the last months and basically know nothing about the patch/expansion changes at the moment. Some answers: 1) "Why didn't you slow down to show items?" Well, it's supposed to be a speedrun. 2) I got the 10k gold at the same time when asking the Doemenels for the "Animancy Hearings" ticket. 3) "Why didnt you show us the real way to get these items?" The description of my run in the youtube video says all that I can say about loot table manipulation: "In the first ~30 minutes I take advantage of the way Pillars is handeling its Loot Tables. You can guarantee the drop of certain items by resting until a specific day of the month, then opening a locked container / secret stash. The day of the month will determine the drop, provided the game has been loaded at least once during the play-session. That's one of the reasons I am saving and loading the game once in the run, right at the beginning." So if you follow every step I take in the video, like save/loading once at the beginning, resting only when I do it, going to places exactly when I do it, those drops are guaranteed. Or were guaranteed, it might have gotten changed with the patching. I will verify that once I get the expansion. 4) "Why dont you say anything in this video? Some help would be fine." My spoken english is very rusty and I didn't have recording equipment at the time. Also, it's quite distracting to talk while you try for a speedrun. I guess I could have talked over the video once I was done, but at that point I already had 300+ hours invested into Pillars and got a bit burned out. 5) "Perception now affects Accuracy not Deflection so my Rogue ends up with -7 accuracy so I get a lot of misses. I wonder if the OP or anyone has suggestions of an updated attribute spread for V2.x?" My gut reaction would be to go for 18 Perception and 3 Resolve now. This might make it necessary to solve some of the quests differently. Most notably, the "Poison the Tribe Leader" quest needs Resolve 20 to finish it the way I do (you get attacked if resolve is lower). But to give a definitive answer, I need to redo the run first. 6) "The scene in 1:31:43 is not possible anymore in version 2.0 with stealth 11." The Spore room was not possible with 11 in the old version either, you need Stealth 12 and at least +1 Speed on equipment. If I remember correctly, Stealth bonuses at that point of the game can come from: (+2) Boots, (+1) Resting, (+1) Sleeping with the prostitute at the 2nd floor of the brothel. So you need a base Stealth 8 to be able to clear Cliaban Rilag. At the time of the run I didn't know about the prostitute bonus, so it would be possible to cut even more time. I got a run with a Cipher below 2h, but wasn't able to beat Thaos. 7) "In view of this I am doing a PoTD Solo run rather than trying for TCS straight off so I can survive any surprises without having to redo everything. " I did so many exploration and trial runs to prepare for the real run, it's the best way to approach a TCS run. 8 ) "Is this still a viable build for 2.0? If not, what are some of the alterations made?" Need to experiment, will take some time tho. Thanks for your interest in the build
  4. I would not recommend Monk for this particular run strategy. At least the unarmed version feels really weak compared to Rogue or Cipher. Getting to Iovara at level 8 was hell with the Monk. Didn't even try beating Thaos in earnest. I'm finishing preperations for a Speedrun video with a Cipher at the moment, will probably do voice commentary on it. I have it below 2h, but not sure how far.
  5. Thank you for your great input. I was thinking along similar lines for my future attempts vs Thaos with the Cipher. Level 9 is okay, I think it only adds a few minutes to the run. Getting good weapons might be more of a problem, because money gain is really low for that particular run. Do you suggest dual wielding? Blunderbuss was not the best of choices because of the high DR on the statues, so focus generation is too low. With a high focus generation it would be way easier. Does the focus gain really stack with Carow and Blacsonn? Ectopsychic echo was one of the first things I've tried and it works pretty well. Deep pockets I have, and 3 statues. Splitting with the statues seems okay, but a little bit unreliable sometimes. Unless I'm not doing it 100% correctly. I'm blocking the upper statue with one Beetle, then I position the other two somewhere to the left, a bit apart, so that Thaos follows after the first Bettle is dead, and then "chain kills" them. But sometimes the statue follows there, sometimes both, sometimes they follow me after all the Beetles are dead, etc... I will experiment more with that.
  6. The stealth strategy is definately possible with every class. After optimizing my run some more, I am standing in front of Thaos with a level 8 Cipher and a better time. I just can't kill him! Cipher has +1 Stealth/Mechanics/Lore, so I was forced to substitute a missing stealth at level 6 for a +1 stealth bonus from one of the prostitutes in Ondra's Gift. Didn't even realize that they give boni until yesterday. But like MadDemiurg has mentioned: With stealth and mechanics so powerful for speedruns, classes without any starting boni there probably won't be contenders for the best time. Unless you find class specific ways around the obstacles. If time is not that important, missing starting attributes just translate into "get another 1-2 character levels before proceeding". Trying to get by without mechanics should probably be an important goal with those classes, and something I will try in my next runs as well. It might be beneficial to compile a list of key obstacles in the game and solo strategies to deal with them. The Cipher was really good at killing Maerwald at level 3 for example, alltho that encounter can always be made easier by employing the spiders. Here is my list of the problems that need to be solved in order to get a good time, colors represent their general difficulty (in my experience). Sometimes I don't remember what min. Sneak requirements are, so I will put a (?) behind some values until they are confirmed. I will update the list in the future, feel free to make suggestions and to correct me. The list might deserve its own thread once it has a bit more meat on it. Caed Nua Throne Room Maerwald Escaping the Sanitarium alive Heritage Hill - Entering the Tower Heritage Hill - Road to Icantha Heritage Hill - Tower Cliaban Rilag L1 - Room with the Menpwgra Cliaban Rilag L1 - Sporeling Room Cliaban Rilag L2 - Reaching the stairs up Cliaban Rilag - Getting out again Burial Isles Breith Eaman - Reaching Iovara Sun in Shadow L1 - Passing the first Shadow Drake + Minions Sun in Shadow L2 - Thaos Caed Nua Throne Room General (Peaceful): Sneak 5 to reach the door, Summon sacrificial minion to avoid combat Rogue: Sneak 5 to reach the door, Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Wizard: High enough deflection (Shield, Wizards Doubles, Hardened Veil) to avoid getting hit + Spells (Ray of Fire, Fan of Flames, Chill Fog, etc...) Maerwald General: Get spidery help, Boost elemental resistances with Bulwark Potion Cipher: Antipathetic Field Escaping the Sanitarium alive General (Peaceful): Summon sacrificial minions into the mob and hide in cell, Sneak 9 (?, with +1 Speed) to get out General (Combat): Use the door as funnel, Group targeting Spells/Skills Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat, Sneak 9 (?, with +1 Speed) to get out Heritage Hill - Entering the Tower General (Peaceful): Sneak 9 (?, with +1 Speed) General (Combat): Use the ramp and minions as a funnel, Rotfinger Gloves are very good, Beware of the paralyzing Darguls Heritage Hill - Road to Icantha General (Peaceful): Sneak 12 (with +1 Speed), Even with lower Sneak much can be avoided (The hardest do sneak past is the Dargul right in front of Icantha's house, but that fight only has one Dargul total, when the patroling Dargul is away). If you need to shake off the group after leaving the house, they stop following once you get some distance along the top road leading east. Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Heritage Hill - Tower General (Peaceful): Not sure that can be done? Sneaking past anti-clockwise on level 1 was possible, but very unreliable with Sneak 12. Additionally you get un-stealthed on using the stairs on the top of the tower, so you either have to fight on level 2 or 1 when going down again. I prefer clearing the left side of level 1 (beware of those Necrotic Lance spewing Skeleton Mages) and sneaking past stuff on level 2 with Sneak 9 (?, with +1 Speed) General (Combat): So many Darguls... Cliaban Rilag L1 - Room with the Menpwgra General (Peaceful): Not sure how high Sneak has to be, 12 is not enough. You can however initiate a fight, summon sacrificial minions and run past. Might lead to problems getting back out again. General (Combat): The first druid can be pulled without triggering something else. Druid and Pwgra next, you have to run away a bit to make the Menpwgra go away again. The Menpwgra can then be pulled on her own. After that, sneaking is not that hard anymore, or you can just kill the rest. Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Cliaban Rilag L1 - Sporeling Room (**** that room, know where the traps are) General (Peaceful): Sneak 12 (with +1 Speed), Run into the stone in the center, Circle around anti-clockwise while hugging it, Avoid the traps and click on stairs down from some distance off General (Combat): Pull the bottom left Sporelings away and deal with them, Kill the first Dank Spore on the bottom, preferably from a distance. Sneak anti-clockwise while hugging the outer wall, Run into the Swamp Spore from an angle that makes it unlikely to run to the right while dominated and kill it, or do it from a distance. Now it's possible to sneak past with much lower Stealth Cipher: Antipathetic Field is really nice to kill the Spores if positioned correctly Cliaban Rilag L2 - Reaching the stairs up General (Peaceful): Sneak 12 (with +1 Speed) & Mechanics 5 allow you to get the key General (Peaceful): Sneak 10 (?, with +1 Speed) & Mechanics 8 (+ 9 Lockpicks) allow you to get ahead without the key General (Combat): Don't think its wise to try and get they key with combat, so it's Mechanics 8 (+ 9 Lockpicks) and killing 2 Animats, and then 2 Small + 2 Normal Rain Blights Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Cliaban Rilag - Getting out again Backtracking: Well, you made it there, make it back again Swimming (Peaceful): Sneak 10 (?, with +1 Speed) to avoid the Dweller Group, Sneak 13 (?, with +1 Speed) to avoid the Oozes and Troll, If you get detected by them, running to the exit will shake off the Oozes Swimming (Combat): Sacrificial minions for the Dweller Group (not tested). With them being so slow, it might just be possible to run towards the exit and only having to fight some Trolls in the end Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Burial Isles General (Peaceful): Sneak 15 allows you to skip everything, even going up all the stairs General (Peaceful): Sneak 14 + Prybar allows you to sneak past the big group at the hole, coming from the right, after sneaking past the 2 Pwgra and 2 Menpwgra that guard the tunnel leading up there General (Semi-Peaceful): Sneak 13 + Prybar allows you to sneak past the big group at the hole, coming from the right, after killing the 2 Pwgra and 2 Menpwgra that guard the tunnel leading up there. This will not work in case the Cean Gwla does not move away again, after stepping a bit closer when come out of the tunnel. General (Combat): Good luck. I'd advise using the tunnel and spamming Paralyze and Maelstrom Scrolls onto the group in front of the hole. Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Breith Eaman - Reaching Iovara General (Semi-Peaceful): I'm not satisfied with any of my strategies here tbh... With Sneak 15 you can get past the ghost room on the left side of the dungeon. Continuing that way, you will eventually have to fight the two Animats in front of the door leading to Iovara. After the ghost room, wait for the patroling Animat (with its hugely unfair sneak detection radius) to go away, then cross the Animat room hugging the bottom. The door Animats will spot you late enough to not trigger the other Animats. Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Sun in Shadow L1 - Passing the first Shadow Drake + Minions General (Peaceful): Sneak 13 (?) + Boots of Speed. Probably works with sacrificial minions (not tested) as well. Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to avoid combat Sun in Shadow L2 - Thaos General: Split them with minions Rogue: Shadowing Beyond to split, See this for a Level 10 strategy (https://youtu.be/ZtGppK4gWkE)
  7. Thank you. Perception doesn't do anything for this build. Deflection is so low that additional deflection won't matter much, Interrupt is not very useful in general and in combination with my weapons, Reflex is nearly irrelevant. Intelligence 18 on the other hand provides a crucial Duration increase of I think 75% over Intelligence 3. That means that all those skills like Blinding Strike, Hobble, Rotfinger Gloves, etc... that put Sneak Attack enabling Debuffs on targets, run for 75% longer. So in prolonged fights your Damage over Time is way higher. Especially noticable in the last fight. A bigger Area of Effect is also somewhat useful with Rotfinger Gloves. Higher Will is okay to have, making you a bit more resistant against some nasty debuffs. It's better to avoid those entirely tho.
  8. Old Vailia gives +1 INT on top of that, I like the symmetry. Also, there is actually a gameplay reason for resolve 18. Some quests require high resolve for quick completion, most notably a certain "leader poisoning" quest that requires resolve 20, and I can reach that by sleeping in the Twin Elms Inn.
  9. Does anybody know of another class that beats Thaos on max. difficulty, solo and at character level 10 (or preferably 9), somewhat reliably? Don't think I can beat my time with another class, especially as there is still some room for improvement in this run, but I'm a bit bored by Rogue atm...
  10. In my experience, you need to have loaded your game at least once in your current play-session, to make the list apply.
  11. I've just completed my TCS Speedrun (2:18h, No Glitches), so I thought I would share the build I have used. It's reliable, but not without risks. If you want to reproduce the run, I would suggest studying my video. There is also quite a bit of additional information on my strategies in the video description: Pillars of Eternity - TCS Speedrun (2:18h, No Glitches, Solo, Highest Difficulty, Triple Crown) https://youtu.be/ZtGppK4gWkE (I've just realized that I got the Relative Pacifism achievement for the run, so fewer than 175 NPCs and Creatures are killed!) Concept Push for max. Stealth and compensate Mechanics with the Gloves of Manipulation. The Stealth allows for early completion of Heritage Hill and Cliaban Rilag, opening up high XP Quests in Twin Elms. The final char level is 10, and while Deathblows at level 11 would make the final battle so much easier, its just taking too much time to reach. If you want to make sure the final battle goes right 99% of the time, you can ditch the "Speedrun" part of the build, and just do a few more side-quests before facing Thaos. Build - Moon Godlike, Rogue, Old Vailia, Dissident - Stat distribution: 18 3 18 3 17 18 Abilities - Crippling Strike, Reckless Assault, Blinding Strike, Finishing Blow, Dirty Fighting Talents - Two-Weapon-Style, Shadowing Beyond, Quick Item Slots, Weapon Focus: Soldier, Savage Attack Talent Rewards - The Merciless Hand (+0.3 Crit Multiplier) - Dungeon Delver (+0.1 Crit Multiplier) - Blooded Hunter (+1 Stealth) Skills - Stealth 10, Mechanics 4, Lore 2, Survival 4 Endgame Items - Godansthunyr (Stun on Crit, +Exceptional, +Vessel) - We Toki (Prone on Crit, Exceptional, +Burning Lash, +Vessel) - Aru-Brekr (Movement Speed Increase, +Exceptional, +Might 2, +Crush Proof) - Shod in Faith (Endurance Healing Aura on getting critted) - Rotfinger Gloves (AoE DoT's and Spells to enable Sneak Attacks) - Blunting Belt (More Protection!) - Amulet of Health (More Endurance!!) - Ring of Searing Flames (Good damage buff in the early game, also useful for final battle) - Ring of Unshackling (To negate debuffs in the final battle) Feel free to ask questions or to leave suggestions for improvements.
  12. Your list has saved me a few hours of planning time for my TCS Speedrun, so thank you for that. I've use it to get following items in the early game: - Minor Ring of Deflection - Amulet of Health - Rotward Amulet - Boots of Stealth - Gloves of Manipulation - Ring of Searing Flames All of my attempts to get early Boots of Speed have failed, but I'm not sure that they would be worth the time investment anyways. I've also given you a shout-out in my video description: Pillars of Eternity - TCS Speedrun (2:18h, No Glitches, Solo, Highest Difficulty, Triple Crown)
  13. A very nice list, with this I might go back to planning a TCS Speed Run. A question for the table under Dyrford Crossing > Temple of Skaan: Is that the secret Loose Brick guarded by one Elder Wolf on the bottom left of Dyrford Crossing? And do you know of a min. level requirment for that table to load? I was trying to get the Boots of Speed there with level 4 and it gives me a Scroll of Protection.
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