Harpagornis

Most of the time Noober only weared plain Cloth for maximum attack speed. Only against specific enemies (mostly ranged ones) he sometimes switched to Plate Armor.

Thanks a lot. And thanks for the comic Tigranes - THIS was exactly the name of the game. Run like a chicken and getting Thaos tired to death so Noober could land the killing blow.

Its official: Noober > Thaos Oh dear – this was the hell of a fight. 81 minutes of pure running and terror. Not to forget: Finding the right strategy and the countless deaths during this search – a pure nightmare. As tanking was no option the only chance for Noober was kiting like a god. The main threat were not only the fast moving statues but especially Thaos „Cleansing Flame“. If he casted this on Noober it was unavoidable instadeath. The only way to avoid this was the help of summons. But - what a pity - this alone was not enough. The main goal was: Get Thaos out of his spell cycle. This happens randomly (?) for instance when the summons are dying. So once Noober saw Thaos approaching him without any spell symbol above his head THIS was the right time to start the running and kiting. Thanks to the Boots of Speed + the movement resting bonus it was possible to kite the two statues and Thaos alltogether by just running in circles using the whole battleground as kiting territory. Thanks to this running pattern Noober was able to fire one arrow when reaching the eastern side and one arrow on the western side. To avoid any melee engagement he had to fire Lenas Er from maximum distance exactly when the statues moved out of the fog of war. Everything else was instadeath. With this "simple" method he circled and circled and circled... firing his bow again and again and again. After the spell buffs expired the deflection of the statues (and Thaos) was low enough to hit them quite regularly. Only Thaos deflection of 88 was troublesome and lead to many grazes. It took nearly an hour before the first statue went down. At this point it was very important getting distance as fast as possible because of the death explosion. I forgot about that so Noober got critically hit for 50 fire damage which brought him down to 13 endurance only. Ten minutes later Noober killed the second statue and avoided the explosion completly. Now only Noober and Thaos were left. A classical 1vs1 with Noober getting tired and nearly moving into engagement range of Thaos. After this shocking moment Noobers instincts awakend again and he kited for his life like never before. Thaos - once he is out of his spell cycle will not cast any spells again unless you get into melee engagement again - something Noober avoided at all costs. Hit after hit Thaos life bar went to injured – heavy injured – nearly dead. After reaching over 80 minutes of exhausting kiting Noober finally landed the killing blow and brought it to an end. The end of the game. The end of this project. Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support. P.S. I tried capturing a video but my laptop constantly crashed for no reason. Maybe i will try again another day. But i dont think many of you want a 8X minute long kiting nightmare with endless pauses thanks to neverending micromanagement.

As i am an oldschool player who his only used in writing guides i have no experience with video software. It would indeed be very cool to post a video so can anyone give me a tip which program i should use? Thanks a lot! I dont know if i will be able to fight Thaos today as my reallife is still soaking all of my time. "May Thaos be Nooberized"

Noober did it. He jumped into the pit to clear the path to Thaos. Fully buffed he was sometimes able to oneshot the paralyzing Ghosts with his exceptional Arbalest. The rest was usual kiting with Lenas Er & summon decoy. He tricked the Adra Animats with the 3 spiders - after they soaked all engagement he just walked past with good old bear and waited for the end of combat - job done. On the second level he again pulled off the summon-decoy-tactic for the shadow dragon and his adds. Only downside: Good old bear died to the shadows while Noober barely escaped the ambush. To move on he used another trick: Whenever a cutscene triggers the pet will reappear beside the ranger - even when dead. He again lured the shadow dragon away with his summons so he could easily kite and kill the slow moving shadows one after another - easy! Noober is now standing right before the final encounter with Thaos himself. Time for some rest now. Tomorrow will be the day of judgement - one way or another. Good night!

Yeah, i was thinking about Persistence too but - damn - i like Lenas Er too much. Noober already collected the rest you mentioned except for Lilith´s Cape - the Shadows & Ghosts are no go area. If Noober will find the time he will try getting to Thaos today or at least in the next days. This will be fun!

Its just for the challenge not for the reward. Thanks to the Fireball Staff some +15 Accuracy Potions and his summons its now possible to bring at least one Ogre down to "near dead". With some lucky rolls it might be able to kill one per rest but i fear it will take forever. Maybe Noober should move on. Any items recommended before moving down to Thaos?

Hitting things isnt that hard. Unbuffed Noober has 66 Accuracy - with food buffs and potions he will be above 80. But even unbuffed he is hitting most things quite regulary so normally he fights without any buffs. Thanks for the info about the Fireball Staff Braven - maybe i will take a closer look at it. Right now Noober mainly uses Lenas Er or an Exceptional Arbalest if he wants some burst. Not to forget: He is still working to bring down Nalrend the Wise. The two elder bears and one Ogre are down but thanks to their high endurance its a pain in the ass. To make things worse: Any spell hit results in instadeath. Dont know if he can do it. The Charm-Hat works quite well so far but its just not enough. Any ideas how to make things a bit easier with his limited resoures?

Losing the shadows hurts but its not as bad as i feared earlier. The other summons also are doing a good job as decoys if needed but most of the time Noober can work without them. The +movement bonus isnt that useful anymore but for the first three acts it worked wonderful. And - yes - one have to live with the fact that you cant have everything. But working with limited resources was always something that excited me the most. At the moment Noober continues his farming - Thaos will have to wait a bit more.

Noober had some time to rest and think about his adventure. So far things have gone pretty well for him and it seems the choices he made were damn right. Starting with Stealth 2 helped in the beginning to get past dangerous enemies unseen while Surival 3 gave him the +1 movement bonus right from the start. This allowed him to run and kite much better. The missing lore points we discussed earlier didnt harm him that much. The only downside is that he still lacks the Shadow Figurine but the 3 beetles (and the other figurines) are doing their job fine. Choosing a Ranger also seems to be a good choice so far. The improved kiting and scouting power cannot be overestimated. Not to forget: As long as one of them is alive they are "immortal". Thats helps especially against tough enemies and bypassing otherwise deadly traps. Noober is still questioning himself if any other class would have been able to go this far... Only time will tell us!

Thanks to some splitpull magic "Hey Mister Cirdel is that a toothpick in your hand?" Noober kited Sly Cirdel to death - thanks to his regeneration this took some while. With the bounty reward he now has enough gold for the Ebony spider figurine. Noober has go to sleep now - tomorrow more hunting is on the schedule!

Noober is on the hunt right now. He had to face Warchief Iklak himself after kiting the young dragons and Xaurip Highpriests to death. Thanks to his 3 beetles and good old bear he managed to hitlock Iklak so he never finished his Pillar of Faith before dying - great. He not only got some nice gold reward but also the ivory worm figurine. Next will be the Ebony spder figurine once he collected 18k.

Thanks for your comments mates - and for the motivation to move on with Noober!! I would have written some news in the meanwhile but my reallife is soaking up all of my time. Maybe Noober will continue his journey in the evening - collecting items and gold for the final encounters.

If i would have enough time and the right mood i might be tempted doing a livestream just for the fun of it. But as my reallife will soak up most of my time in the next months this is just utopistic. Theoratically it should be doable as there arent too many tight spots and the rest is just a matter of careful planning and a lot of patience. In the actual challenge Noober died not that much - most of the time it was my own rush and impatience. If anyone else wants to do this: Go, go, go!

Thanks gogocactus. I could write in "real" fairytale style but then the texts would be so long that no one would read them. But... stop. There arent many readers here anyway - or at least commentators. Seems not many are caring about hardcore challenges. Maybe we have to boost the Nerd-Level even higher. What was Braven talking about - Iron Man Noober?

OKay - Noober finally got the "Boots of Speed" from the Burial Isle. The Ghosts and Cean Gwla were no match - just cautious kiting and summon decoys. Now its time to restock, getting the last summon figurines and then.... Well, should he end it or move on to the White March? I am unsure about this... oh well...and Noober is fearing Thaos for sure!

Noober made some progress even though i am very short of time. He now uses my beloved Lenas Er Hunting Bow for even more powerful - and faster - kiting. He also won Hyleas Blessing (+1 PER) after kiting the "$§%OMG?=!$ Adragans to death. Good old bear worked great as a pertrify dummy. Right now he finished "Song of the Heavens" for +1 PER again so his Accuracy with Lenas Er is now boosted to 66 (with racial bonus but unbuffed). Will be time to get some Boots of Speed soon. Or maybe trying White March? We will see...

Monks with dumped Int work perfectly even for Triple-Crown-Solo. At the end its just a matter of taste!

Not yet. But Noober will try to get them before going down to Thaos. In the meanwhile he will enjoy the wonderful nature in and around Twin Elms. He got farer than i expected so everything following from now is just a bonus.

Yeah, this can be painful. But not in Noobers case. I have played this game so many times that nowadays it doesnt matter if i finish it. The way itself - to which point ever - is much more pleasure than watching the ending screen. Once i am getting too bored - like with the naked Monk - i stop it for a while and move on to new challenges (or maybe games). Update: The Ambush on your travel to Twin Elms was much harder than i expected. The easiest - and maybe the only - way was to lure the enemies into a group of lions and elder lions. Without the help of the lions Noober missed the needed firepower to bring them down. Retreat and repeat did not work here as you cannot leave combat until all of them are dead. After the slaughter of the lions Noober picked up a nice +3 Might Girdle that boosted his Arbalest Damage to 37-53 - great.

He has good old bear - thats better than cheese! But even if he fails - thats ok. As Noobers says: The journey itself is the reward.

Well, Thaos himself shouldnt be the problem. I kited him to death with my Druid earlier thanks to Boots of Speed. He is so dumb that he nearly never uses any spells and just tries to run up to you. This is my opinion the easiest part even though it would take ages. I a more concerned about the statues. They are fast, hit hard and have good defenses. Will the room for kiting be enough without getting the attention of Thaos? We will see. At the moment Noober has other problems...

The White March would be a real nightmare for sure - especially the dreaded Lagufaeth. And with every monster getting more and more deflection he will have a hard time hitting them. I even dont know if Noober would be able to clear the Ogres in Stalwart - theoretically: yes, practically: maybe. For the moment he is concentrating on the main story line while thinking about ways how to beat Thaos...

Heritage Hill and Act 2 are finished – Noober will be heading to Twin Elms soon! Getting through Heritage Hill was a small nightmare – especially the tower. Cleared the outer region by using summons and kiting. This alone took several hours. The Darguls were harmless as they are too slow. The main thread were the fast moving Ghuls and especially the hard hitting mages. One shotting them with Wounding Shot was the easiest way dealing with them. The first try getting through the tower failed. Why? Because you have to fight the skeleton groups in one go – no resting and retreating allowed. The second group near the stairs with two mages, thiefes and the fighters was too hard. It was impossible for Noober killing the very tough Fighters at the end. This meant: Retreating and getting the Adra Figurine first. Cleared the Dargul infested villa using the hit & run game. Thanks to Mechanic 4 Noober was able to pick the lock at the door making the way free for the mausoleum. Several fights and one instadeath later (Sunlance trap hitting him for 476 (!) damage) he finally managed to take the Adra Figurine from the coffin. Back to the tower Noober used all food buffs available and met the skeleton group again. Instakilled the two mages with well aimed Wounding Shots while the summons (3 Beetles → Animat → Adra Beetle) tanked the rest. At the end only the fighters and the Adra Beetle with good old bear were fighting for victory. A lucky crit with Cloudpiercer that triggered Jolting Touch took the Fighters down just mere seconds before the Adra Beetle vanished. Tower Level 2 was easier than expected. Noober stealthed to the Southerrn part of the room where he summoned the 3 beetles to soak all engagement. Once this was done he moved with his bear to the western stairs while the beetles lured the enemies farer away to the eastern side. This gave Noober enough time to restealth after the battle ended so he could use the stairs into safety. The rest was easy. Talking to Adhelm, getting the words, tricking the prisoners, recieving the „Gift of the machine“ and getting out of this cursed place again. Job done! Act 3 will be coming soon...

Its done. Noober retrieved the ancient weapons from the ruins of Lhe a Rhemen and won the favor of the Dozens! Here is a short summary how he managed to pull it off: 1. Cleared the Pwgra guards by pulling them one after another and kiting them to death (and dancing around their spells). 2. Accepted the quest and pecaefully talked to the Giant Killer Party so Noober got the Adra Disc. 3. Sneaked around the Knights Patrol to get into the ruins. 4. The first spiders are the most difficult. The easiest way was: Splitpull the spiders and let good old Bear run around the entrance stairs while Noober waited in the corridor to fire of one bolt each round they passed. This will take some time but finally the first spider groups will be gone. 5. The big room with nearly endless spiders was relatively easy as you now have enough room to play the classic shoot & run game cheesing around the maximum engegament range. Even if some spiders will relentlessly follow Noober just played the Circling-Bear-Game again while shooting them down from the corridor. Killing all spiders took some hours but thanks to his patience he never got hit. He just had to make sure that the big Crystal Spiders couldnt land their AoE-spell. Once it expires the rest was normal kiting. 6. Noober creeped through to tunnel where he met more spiders attacking him. This was maybe the most tricky part. He immediately summoned the beetles and waited for the spiders triggering the traps. With bad positioning the AoE-effect of the traps will wipe the whole party so everyone stepped back a little bit. Once the beetles soaked the engagement Noober could run directly to Nridek. He talked to him peacefully so even the hostile spiders will turn friendly afterwards. Noober looted the weapons and walked out of the ruins. 7. Before getting out he rested so that he could summon the beetles again when facing the Knights ambush outside. Noober let them soak all engagement and run. Once he got out of vision the combat ended and the way to Defiance Bay was open. Quest completed! This was easier than i expected. Maybe Noober will soon be ready for the last obstacle in Act 2: Heritage Hill.