whimper

Yeah, that's pretty much been my experience too! (With a couple rare exceptions for particular synergies, like Berserker/Fighter.)

In my experience, going Helwalker makes a big difference, DPS-wise (might bonuses form a substantial part of your damage input, since you don't have a lot of other passive damage boosts). Holy Slayers are pretty great, and if you go Streetfighter you can get very impressive single-target DPS. But you have to set things up to allow yourself to be flanked and/or Bloodied a lot of the time, so probably not the best bet given the style of play you're describing... : P EDIT: Though I should note that the main Streetfighter boosts only require flanked or bloodied. So as long as you make sure you're flanked most of the time (say, by using Escape to teleport into the middle of crowds of enemies) you can get most of the benefits of being a Streetfighter. (Also pretty easy to get flanked if you're doing a solo run, but not sure if that's what you're thinking about!)

FWIW, with the right equipment choices I haven't found it to be that bad. Pile on items that provide increasing damage reduction/deflection/armor/defense bonuses as you lose health, and you'll find you quickly get bloodied (because those items aren't doing much), but then tend to stay there (because all of these defensive boosts kick in). Given a Paladin/Streetfighter combo, I believe you can set up the AI to kick in Exalted Endurance when you hit 50% health, and a Lay on Hands when you hit 25% health, no? With that in place, you don't have to do that much micromanaging. EDIT: Also, the main Streetfighter boosts only require flanked or bloodied. So as long as you make sure you're flanked most of the time (say, by using Escape to teleport into the middle of crowds of enemies) you can get most of the benefits of being a Streetfighter.

Can Escape be used like Charge? I don't know what Rakhan Field Boots do, and I have not seen them yet, even though I've gone through almost 2 full games. Any other equipment options that can boost offensive capabilities of Escape?Escape isn’t offensive, I’m afraid — it’s merely (“merely”?) a cheap (1 guile) teleport that’s very useful for changing positions/putting enemies between you and some other enemy you don’t want to be near/getting at squishies hiding behind lots of bodies. (It also gives a short defensive boost, but not the selling point.) The reason it’s great with this build is that you still count as standing still when you use it, meaning your stoic steel bonus remains, Stand Firm doesn’t prevent you from moving, and so on. Thanks for the clarification. But can't you still use it to teleport to the caster or the archer whom you'd have a difficult time getting to but want to bring down ASAP? I guess I better buy a character from the in and experiment Yes you absolutely can! My most frequent use of the ability. EDIT: I thought you meant “offensive” as in “does damage” : P Ah, good! By the way, how does Paladin/Monk combo compare to Paladin/Rogue in terms of damage? I saw crazy fire damage build, but I read later in the thread that it got nerfed to the ground? I did a solo PotD run with a Darcozzi/Helwalker based on the "Burn Baby Burn" and "No Pain, No Brains" builds, and it was a lot of fun. DPS-wise, it felt pretty comparable -- worse at single target DPS, but the AOE fire blasts really helped speed up fights against lots of opponents. But that was before all of the nerfs to the Monk, and (more importantly) to the key weapons involved. (Sadly, it's now much harder to get the area of effect blasts to trigger.) So my guess is it'll fall behind DPS-wise. But I haven't done a direct comparison since then, so take that with a grain of salt! Surprisingly, I found my Goldpact/Streetfighter build to be much tankier than my Darcozzi/Helwalker build. I'm sure part of this is equipment choice, but I really noticed the effects of not having to eat a +50% across-the-board damage increase...

Alright, after a respec, some careful equipment and food choices, and some luck, I managed to beat the Contest of the Speaker fight with my goldpact/streetfighter (upscaled solo PotD). In case anyone else finds themselves in the same situation, here are a couple things I learned: Armor doesn't matter, since almost all of the damage they inflict is raw damage -- disintegrate or reaping knives. I replaced my heavy armor with Fleshbinder for this fight, for the healing; that seemed to work well. Since almost all the damage is raw, the Voidward ring is definitely worth it for this fight. Deflection doesn't matter much, but high saves do. So ditch deflection-boosting items in favor of save-boosting items (especially fort saves). (The biggest obstacles (for me) in the fight were two things (a) avoiding getting killed by disintegrates, and (b) avoid getting paralyzed/terrified/etc too much, since they'll constantly regenerating, and you really need to keep up the constant damage in order to take one down. In both cases, you want to get your saves as high as you can to avoid these effects.) Since almost all of the bad things they do are based on duration effects, things which reduce hostile durations (Ring of the Solitary Wanderer, Mohara Wraps, Strand of Favor, Resolve-boosting items, etc.) are all really good. Food was a tricky choice: Mohara wraps boost might (which boosts DPS and fort saves), reduces hostile durations, and improves recovery time (which boosts DPS); that's what I went with. But I also spent a lot of time paralyzed and terrified, so Shark Soup might have been better. Hard to tell. Potions of Arcane Reflection can be really helpful, but you get hit by so many spells that they burn out very quickly. I was careful to time them right before disintegrates; with luck, they'll get reflected back at them and (with more luck) they'll tag themselves. With good timing, and good luck, you can get 1-2 of them to take themselves out this way.

Can Escape be used like Charge? I don't know what Rakhan Field Boots do, and I have not seen them yet, even though I've gone through almost 2 full games. Any other equipment options that can boost offensive capabilities of Escape?Escape isn’t offensive, I’m afraid — it’s merely (“merely”?) a cheap (1 guile) teleport that’s very useful for changing positions/putting enemies between you and some other enemy you don’t want to be near/getting at squishies hiding behind lots of bodies. (It also gives a short defensive boost, but not the selling point.) The reason it’s great with this build is that you still count as standing still when you use it, meaning your stoic steel bonus remains, Stand Firm doesn’t prevent you from moving, and so on. Thanks for the clarification. But can't you still use it to teleport to the caster or the archer whom you'd have a difficult time getting to but want to bring down ASAP? I guess I better buy a character from the in and experiment Yes you absolutely can! My most frequent use of the ability. EDIT: I thought you meant “offensive” as in “does damage” : P

i haven't tried this challenge yet, but i think those potions or spells that reduce the duration of active negative effects will be effective. (potion of major recovery is -10 seconds, litany is -5 and eothas is -10, which may do way more effective healing than many potions of miraculous healing, not to mention suppress affliction or liberating exhortation; i've used them before against other dots) Ok, good. Something to try!

Can Escape be used like Charge? I don't know what Rakhan Field Boots do, and I have not seen them yet, even though I've gone through almost 2 full games. Any other equipment options that can boost offensive capabilities of Escape? Escape isn’t offensive, I’m afraid — it’s merely (“merely”?) a cheap (1 guile) teleport that’s very useful for changing positions/putting enemies between you and some other enemy you don’t want to be near/getting at squishies hiding behind lots of bodies. (It also gives a short defensive boost, but not the selling point.) The reason it’s great with this build is that you still count as standing still when you use it, meaning your stoic steel bonus remains, Stand Firm doesn’t prevent you from moving, and so on.

OK, I've been slowly working my way through the quests on a solo upscaled PotD run (using a goldpact/streetfighter), and I've hit my first wall with the Contest of the Seeker quest against the team of 5 ciphers. The reaping knives doing raw damage is painful, but it's the disintegrates that really kill me (literally) -- as soon as one lands, I'm taking 400+ points of damage that ignores all of my armor and hits much faster than I can regenerate. And while I can use a couple of potions of miraculous healing to keep myself alive, that only buys me a little time before the next one hits... I'm thinking maybe some Potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, the Voidward ring to slightly decrease all the raw damage, and maybe trying to boost my fort saves a little higher... but I doubt that's going to be enough. Has anyone else managed to solo this fight? Any suggestions for how to do so? (Ps. Does anyone know whether effects that decrease hostile effect duration (like the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer) work against disintegrate?)

I’ve encountered this problem too. I’m pretty confident that it’s a bug, not intentional.

Arcane Dampener or Arcane Cleanse would presumably take down buffs, and speed up the fight a bit. But I'll confess that I've never tried that myself. All but one of my fights against him were solo fights, and all of those lasted forever... : P Thanks, no Wizard though But is this guy supposed to be a hard fight at level 15-ish? I am a bit afraid of the future if even a generic level 16 dude is that hard. This is one of the big boss fights, not a generic fight. (Unless I’m confused about which fight you’re talking about!) So no need to be scared about the future. He’s supposed to be tough!

An Update: This bug is still there for me, and has persisted across multiple characters. But for those encountering the same problem, here are two workarounds that I've found useful. 1. If you load a game with the cape, and then switch scenes a few times and (maybe?) go through a fight or two, then I'm often able to open my inventory without the game crashing. 2. If you start a save where you're not wearing it, and then equip it, you're fine checking your inventory. So if you just make sure to always take it off before you save, you can get around this worry. A little annoying, but much more reliable than the first workaround!

Arcane Dampener or Arcane Cleanse would presumably take down buffs, and speed up the fight a bit. But I'll confess that I've never tried that myself. All but one of my fights against him were solo fights, and all of those lasted forever... : P

If you go Devoted with two weapon damage type, then you are all set, no? Well, the OPs devoted build used a great sword (which has two damage types), and they were having troubles with penetration... : P EDIT: Ninja-ed!

Re raw damage: Various weapons can do a small % of their damage as raw, but the only other weapon that does pure raw damage that I know of is Eccea’s arcane blaster. Re penetration: there’s a complicated interplay between what kinds of PEN bonuses stack with which other ones. I don’t remember all the details, but I think there’s at least one thread discussing this somewhere... Certain weapons are generally pretty good for penetration — warhammers, maces, stilettos, estocs, and pollaxes are all pretty good. And certain classes, like devoted and berserkers, get easy penetration boosts. (Though all of these options, as well as other ways of boosting penetration, have opportunity costs.) My rule of thumb is that it’s a good idea to have at least a couple options to switch between, as needed. But I’ve done alright with a devoted run too (Though even there I occasionally switched weapons and ate the -10 acc penalty.) ...so don’t know if there’s an easy answer here. : P

Yeah, same here.

Sweet! Congrats!

Okay, so, not sure if I mentioned I went into this fight totally unprepared. Meaning I have 5 healing pots, 3 summons I can use, and that’s about it. My build switches between WoTP and Sanguine greatswords (depending on surrounds by agros). I never got blackened plate, as I found fighting Fampyrs just to tedious with this build. So currently I switch between patiented plate and DoC. The rest is pretty standard to the build in the builds list. I know I can win this fight with what I have, but it will take several retries. Food whirs I’m using helinia blessings (SP I’m not at my PC). The long of the short of it is, I’m looking for a more DPS heavy build that can tank the same. Ah, devoted to a 2H weapon. Yeah, all the builds I’ve soloed Ukaizo with have been sword and board. I think that’s really the way you want to do this fight. Get a good large shield (bronlar’s or cadhu with retrained skills to match) and either the animancer’s energy blade or Kapana taga, or some other good 1h weapon. (If you don’t do the energy blade, you’ll want the food that boosts weapon penetration.) Throw on a ring of greater regeneration, and maybe even the three trolls cape. Retrain to focus on passive abilities. With that, even if you’re a devoted to a different weapon, and have to eat the -10 acc penalty, you should be able to power through. Now, I know you asked about tanky higher DPS builds; the goldpact streetfighter build fits that description. But to be honest, in the Ukaizo fight that build won’t play that differently. In my experience, a key to solo-ing many off the hardest fights is choosing the right equipment beforehand. (Case in point, my current attempt to painfully work my way through the new SSS DLC on solo upscaled PotD has definitely required some careful preparation to get through fights... : P ) To be fair greatswords are pretty awesome. But in the long run this character just isn’t doing enough DPS. It’s consistent, but just not fast enough or high enough. Crits hit for around 125ish. But I found with both Ukizo and Fampyrs that their DR really makes the battles tedious. Like two titans battling with wet noodles. Neither can do damage to the other but in time I just run out of reasources. I’m really interested in doing a run with very high single target potential on auto attack. Where skills enhance the survival side. That’s why I was thinking Goldpact/Ranger with pistols. I’ve also been reading the single class may have better potential for this sort of thing... Re DR: Yeah, that’s what makes the animancers blade amazing. It ignores DR. Completely. So you can get through those high DR fights WAY faster. (I found myself using it in 75% of the fights in the BoW DLC for precisely this reason.) Re single target DPS: Rogue is generally taken to be the king/queen of single target DPS. But with the new boosts to Ranger in 3.0, it might do very well too, especially with some prep fights to build up the appropriate bonuses. If you try a Goldpact/Ranger, I’d be curious to hear how it goes!

Okay, so, not sure if I mentioned I went into this fight totally unprepared. Meaning I have 5 healing pots, 3 summons I can use, and that’s about it. My build switches between WoTP and Sanguine greatswords (depending on surrounds by agros). I never got blackened plate, as I found fighting Fampyrs just to tedious with this build. So currently I switch between patiented plate and DoC. The rest is pretty standard to the build in the builds list. I know I can win this fight with what I have, but it will take several retries. Food whirs I’m using helinia blessings (SP I’m not at my PC). The long of the short of it is, I’m looking for a more DPS heavy build that can tank the same. Ah, devoted to a 2H weapon. Yeah, all the builds I’ve soloed Ukaizo with have been sword and board. I think that’s really the way you want to do this fight. Get a good large shield (bronlar’s or cadhu with retrained skills to match) and either the animancer’s energy blade or Kapana taga, or some other good 1h weapon. (If you don’t do the energy blade, you’ll want the food that boosts weapon penetration.) Throw on a ring of greater regeneration, and maybe even the three trolls cape. Retrain to focus on passive abilities. With that, even if you’re a devoted to a different weapon, and have to eat the -10 acc penalty, you should be able to power through. Now, I know you asked about tanky higher DPS builds; the goldpact streetfighter build fits that description. But to be honest, in the Ukaizo fight that build won’t play that differently. In my experience, a key to solo-ing many off the hardest fights is choosing the right equipment beforehand. (Case in point, my current attempt to painfully work my way through the new SSS DLC on solo upscaled PotD has definitely required some careful preparation to get through fights... : P )

Whoops! Sorry, I misread that last part — I thought you said you did (as in beat) the ukaizo fight twice. It should definitely be doable with a goldpact devoted (with the right choice of weapon). (I did it fairly readily with a goldpact streetfighter, but most of the rogue advantages aren’t worth much in this fight.) But choosing the right gear and food is important. (And, if need be, retraining some abilities that are useless for this fight.) What gear and food were you using?

FWIW, I’ve found the builds that have the easiest time with the Fampyrs to have a harder time with bosses, and vice versa. (Namely, I’ve found that a tanky AOE blaster with Captain’s Banquet can go through the Fampyr fights pretty easily, but has a harder time with bosses. While I’ve found a tanky single target DPS build can go through boss fights pretty easily, but has a harder time with Fampyrs.) EDIT: But all the fights are doable with both!

Yeah, it’s a good idea. I ran with it myself.

FWIW, I think you’d be best served by making your choice about armor first, and then deciding what Paladin subclass to adopt. If you’re going for a light/med armor build, and rocking a top notch deflection (as the above build suggests) I think Kind Wayfarer would be better than Goldpact. The Goldpact ability’s armor bonus isn’t that good unless it’s added to an AR that’s already very high, which means it’s not really worth it (IMO) unless you’re going for heavy armor. On the other hand, if you’re aiming for an uber tank, with both sky high deflection *and* a sky high AR, then wearing heavy armor and going Goldpact makes sense.

I had a lot of fun with my Sage. But if I’m honest, a solo PotD run would probably be noticeably easier with an Arcane Knight. So if that’s your instinct, go for it!

I’ve done a solo PotD run with a Sage (the Mirrorback sage build in Boerer’s list). It was pretty fun. I will flag that against big bosses, it was noticeably squishier than my armor-stacking Holy Slayer run. (And it wasn’t on upscaled PotD, just “normal” PotD.) So definitely not as durable as a devoted/goldpact build. A ton of fun against mobs though. You know how I like tanky... Sage seems like it'd be fun. I probably wouldn't upscale with it either I'm thinking Arcane Knight or Thaumaturge are my top choices, the edge going toward the AK, those paladin passives are amazeballs. Yeah, Arcane Knight would definitely be tankier. Noticeably lower blasting damage (since both Mig and Int multiplicatively boost damage w the right spells, and a Helwalker can get near the 35 stat max for both). But definitely more durable! And yeah, I completely agree: the Paladin passives are amazing...