Jaheiras Witness

Temple quest is harder on Hard, you will meet some upgraded versions of opponents and multiple versions of some of the tougher wilder opponents (don’t want to spoil too much for you). That said, it’s still doable and you can sneak past opponents / not go into some rooms. You may also want to go to Madhmr Bridge first, it’s an easy area and there is a nice item you can get which helps against a couple of the opponents in the temple.

Personally (and respectfully) I disagree with this. I think those talents are a waste when there are so many other great talents to choose from. Just because your tanks are engaging additional enemies, that doesn’t stop those additional enemies breaking off and going after your backline characters anyway (and they DO do this all the time). All that happens is your tank character gets a disengagement attack on them as they break off, which does a little bit of damage. And now your squishies are in trouble. So the extra engagement slots actually do very little to protect your weaker characters. They would be useful if they stopped enemies from disengaging, but they do not. A better tactic is to use terrain / chokepoints to protect your backline.

Healing is actually quite easy in PoE. A lot of healing comes from regeneration effects. Fighters get this automatically (Constant Recovery, which they can later improve with Rapid Recovery) and everybody else can take the Veteran’s Recovery talent. This is hugely beneficial to any character that will be in the thick of the action and is nearly always my first pick. Priests and Chanters can provide party wide regeneration and some other classes also have abilities that give regeneration effects (e.g. barbarians). You will also find lots of healing potions (regeneration potions are blue, insta-healing effects are purple) and you will soon be able to craft as much as you need. You can buy as well as find crafting ingredients, and vendors who sell them restock daily, so they are a virtually unlimited resource. Healing supply is therefore not an issue. What is an issue is that drinking potions in this game is incredibly buggy. You can get interrupted and even if you don’t sometimes your character goes through the animation but doesn’t actually drink the potion. It is an infuriating bug that has never been fixed. There is a mod out there that ameliorates the problem (but doesn’t fix it) by reducing the drinking time from 3 seconds to 1 second, so if it goes wrong at least it is only 1 second of combat action wasted rather than 3 seconds. It only applies to potion use, not scrolls or other items. So if you are in a life-or-death situation, try healing through an ability, talent or scroll rather than a potion. Once you get to Caed Nua, you will collect some ingredients that allow you to craft one of the most important potions in the game: Infuse with Vital Essence. Short of resting and a couple of wound binding talents, these potions are the only way to restore health points. You can only drink them in combat but the effect also restores your health when the combat ends (so you can end combat with more health than you started!). Treat these potions like Potions of Invisibility in BG2: collect them, craft them, grab every single one you can and ensure all characters have them in their quick slots. You should also bear in mind that healing is influenced by your stats. MIG influences how much you heal and INT how long a regeneration effect applies for. For this and other reasons, MIG and INT are the two most important stats in my opinion and the ones I try to max whenever I can. But feel free to experiment with stats as you like and form your own judgements. As far as combat goes, you guys have already picked up on engagement and the fact that kiting is not a good option. Other than talents such as Shadowing Beyond or others that break engagement, the one non-cheesy method to escape or reposition is to use Fleet Feet spells/potions. These allow you to outrun then enemy and once you get far enough away from the enemy they stop chasing and combat ends. Finally in terms of combat, one of the general maxims for optimal fighting is (1) buff defences (2) buff accuracy (3) crowd control (4) damage. What this hints at is that if you just charge in with your weapons, see how the fight is going and then think about which abilities to use, that is not going to work too well in PoE, certainly for more difficult fights. Instead you should broadly follow the above order of what actions to take to maximise your efficiency and chance of success. Put up key defences first (e.g. Arcane Veil for mages, fighters might put up Vigorous Defence, or you could use items such as Scrolls of Defence or Protection); then boost your accuracy if you can (e.g. Disciplined Barrage, Inspiring Radiance etc), then try to disable or hamper foes (knock-downs, blinding, hobbling, all kinds of afflictions from spells etc), and then do your damage.

To be fair once you have Dragon Thrashed chant, doing more damage is the least of your worries. Just focus on staying alive and you’ll find if the enemy doesn’t melt in 10 seconds, it will have melted after 12.

Great, looking forward to it . I will likely start another playthrough around christmas when I have some time off from work. Will be great to follow other people’s runs in meantime. Couple of non-spoiler hints more aimed at solo runs: there are two big milestones to reach where the game starts to become a little more comfortable for no-reload play. The first is getting to level 4: you get your second talent here, which for tank builds is likely to be weapon & shield style (assuming nearly everyone goes for Veteran’s Recovery at level 2). And you can now enchant your items to fine. In combination that is a big boost to deflection. Levels 1-3 should be navigated very carefully as solo characters are extremely fragile in early going. You can get to level 4 on Act 1. The second milestone is entering Act 2 / getting to Defiance Bay. Suddenly you have so many different quest options, equipment, you can make lots of money, you can get figurines etc. You are also much freer to do what you want where Act 1 is quite linear. It’s by far the best and most enjoyable section of the game. Finally for my fellow BG players: beware Adragans! They are the Dire Charm/PW Stun equivalent insta-killers of PoE.

No we don’t need ToI setting to be invoked, it’s perfectly possible to respect no reload without ToI and I like having backup saves in case of major bugs and to go back for screenshots for instance when writing reports. In my view (just my opinion) maim before death should not be allowed. In BG2 resurrection is part of the world/lore/game balance. In PoE it clearly isn’t. Besides the game mechanics mean it is hard to die (have to lose all your health as well as all endurance). Maim before death is basically a free “ok the first death doesn’t count, let’s give you a second go”. In my mind that’s not really in spirit of no-reload where the first death absolutely counts! Other settings can also be discussed. Disabling injuries should probably not be allowed either.

In terms of rules/guidelines I would keep it very simple: can be party or solo, on whatever difficulty you like, but it has to be true to the concept of no-reload, i.e. you willingly and voluntarily end your run when your PC dies and never reload other than for when you start a gaming session; it cannot just be an attempt to game the ToI mode by quitting/reloading just before the character dies. Sad to say that a lot of “just completed solo Triple Crown lols” forum posts and youtube videos are just gaming the ToI mode. That’s not what we want . We might set some other guidelines about which options should be allowed or disallowed (e.g. maim before death should be off, conversation qualifiers/pointers should be off etc). PS I have completed two solo no-reload playthroughs with Chanter, once on Core and once on Hard, but not yet PotD. I have played plenty with party too and other classes but never completed a no-reload playthrough with these. So I have quite a bit of experience and happy to help / advise / encourage as required!

I would happily participate when I next do a playthrough. Well familiar with BG equivalent and the forums.

Chanter is easier than Paladin IMO. Paladin has better defence but Chanter has much better offence and gets its gamechanging ability at level 9 rather than 13, which is a big difference. Chanter tank needs DEF and FOR built up to survive. You don’t need high RES (but don’t dump it, keeping around 10 is good) but weapon & shield style is a must. Use large shield until level 9, don’t worry about ACC yet since your Phantom summon + a little softening up with Soft Winds is what kills everything. You also don’t need to bother attacking with your weapon, use combat time to use scrolls and drink potions just to survive and build your defence. All you need is time, it’s not like a Cipher where you need to build focus. For a Chanter, survival = offence, since every second that passes is more AoE damage + closer to summoning. Once you get to level 9, swap to a smaller shield since you now want good accuracy but otherwise strategy is similar. Just survive and let Dragon Thrashed do its work. You usually don’t even need to summon anymore, though you can call the ogres if fight lasts long enough. With a Paladin you will have to swing the weapon and hope you can do enough damage to take down opponents. Survival alone is not enough, you need to be good with your weapon too and hope FoDs are enough for burst damage (or use spell scrolls). It’s only from level 13 that you get into easy mode with Sacred Immolation. Even then, I still prefer Dragon Thrashed since it is an unlimited resource rather than 1/encounter.

Reading through, the person who posted it didn’t even succeed given he talks about quitting and reloading. Conceptually it is sound, essentially a max Fortitude build which works well for ToI. Seems to have a heavy reliance on equipment and to proc effects from being critted, which is not always a great idea. Generally a monk is a strong class and if you go with fortitude (MIG and CON) build + good use of talents and equipment you have a good chance. Personally I would stick with fists, Lightning Strikes, Torment’s Reach, and Long Pain at level 7. Wear heavy armour and rely on the dual fists + lightning strikes for attack speed.

You can’t flee a map, you can flee an encounter on same map. Potions of Fleet Feet help. On that bear map there is no room to flee. So once you start the fight you better win. Tbh I have little sympathy in this case. It’s quite realistic, not easy to run away from an angry bear after you’ve entered its lair (where it could have its young and does on Hard and PotD) and started attacking it. And you are warned on that map that the bear is dangerous and “I wouldn’t seek it out if I were you...would hate to hear that it took another life”. So if you’re still reckless enough to enter its cave and attack it at low level, you pay the price. It’s kind of like a Darwin Award.

Not sure a DEX 3, PER 3, dual wield retaliation build works for Trial of Iron

Greater Focus is crap in relation to everything else you can get. From the general talents, the following are basically mandatory: Veteran’s Recovery Sword & Shield style Superior Deflection From the Cipher talents you almost certainly want: Biting Whip Draining Whip Psychic Backlash So you 2 more talents from a long list of goodies to pick from: Brutal Backlash Spirit of Decay Bear’s Fortitude Body Control Apprentice Sneak Attack Hard to fit Greater Focus anywhere

Going for the initial focus blast with a gun is viable but then you have a recovery period where you can’t do much. You have to go safety first in Trial of Iron so starting with Whisper of Treason/Psychovampiric Shield and then looking to build focus without a long recovery period may be lower risk. You also need to be thnking about your talents - Quick Switch helps with the gun opening, but do you really want to invest in that if it means you miss out on a Whip/Backash talent? Sabres are still fine, you have the extra base damage, lash, and the Cipher extras from Soul Whip/Biting Whip. And if you go for Bittercut you also have Spirit of Decay.

You should also check out Victor Creed’s Youtube videos. He has a solo cipher run: it is not Trial of Iron (more Trial and Error!) but you can learn a lot of Cipher tactics, what works, equipment choices, spell choices etc

I prefer coastal aumaua (+20 vs stun and prone) as those afflictions (esp stun) are what can get you killed. Moon Godlike is top 3 choice, it’s up to you whether you can handle looks and lack of helm. Whisper of Treason is definitely viable, esp as you get +1 ACC per level as it is a spell and at only 10 focus you can cast it a lot.

Cipher easier IMO - better defences (e.g. Psychovampiric Shield, Borrowed Instinct), can start fights with Whisper of Treason to redress the odds, and can do AoE damage rather than just single target. Also has so many great talents, truly spoiled for choice. Rogue still weakest class IMO. Good single target, can load up on damage talents, but no real crowd control and bad defences. Fortitude defence is critically important for any Trial of Iron run, so don’t skimp on MIG and CON. High INT is a must for Cipher, Rogue can do without high INT (or even dump it to get better mileage out of wounding) and use points for other stats such as DEX or PER. Sword and (small) shield is pretty standard for survivability, going all-out damage (e.g. dual wield) can get you into a lot of trouble if your DEF cannot handle enemy pressure.

It’s a chance when using that item, which means you have to be attacking with it (in this case, only when using the wand, not casting spells)

Of course +5 ACC from 15 PER would be very nice, it’s just not essential. Stats in PoE are all about choice, you have to sacrifice A to get B. It just depends on your priorities and how you will play the character. For example, if is between MIG and PER, do you want a character who hits harder/heals better/higher Fortitude or who is more accurate with weapons and abilities/better interrupt/better Reflex? The first is more durable, the second is more precise. Your vision of the character should decide that. DEX is quite safe to lower. You could even go all the way down to 3 if you want and rely on the abilities that negate recovery rather than high DEX. But in play your DEX should nearly always be 2-6 points better anyway through food/bonuses so it’s never as bad as it seems.

It’s good. I would personally squeeze down DEX, PER and RES to get more points for MIG and INT especially. DEX e.g. 7 - you have various abilities that negate recovery and DEX is possibly the weakest of all stats PER e.g. 10 - accuracy should be fine, especially since Carnage ACC is +1 per level as it is ability. Priests as always can buff ACC quite easily RES e.g. 8 - or leave as is, it’s concentration that really matters rather than the penalty to deflection. That’s an additional 10 points to max MIG and INT, which are the real difference makers. Swing hard with a big carnage radius - that’s what the barbarian is for So something like: MIG 20/18 CON 15 DEX 7 PER 10 INT 18 RES 8/10

Agreed. Autopause low endurance helps

Yeah, it means with his current weapon set.

One thing with dragons is you do not want to be behind them. Recently I had a character get tail slapped by Adra Dragon. It was a hit (not a crit)...for like 460 damage. Just insane.

They're under Ingredients. Gems are used for crafting but you can sell them if you prefer.

You will be fine. Only towards the end of act 3 where you have to “jump” somewhere will you reach a point where you cannot go back. There are also some quests in Act 2 which you cannot do once you complete Act 2. I won’t give any spoilers but before you complete the quest “The Hermit of Hadret House” (which is the last main quest in Act 2) try to finish up any loose sidequests / tasks in Defiance Bay. Not all of them will be completely closed but some might.