Alesia_BH

Ashoka: Pale Elf, Kind Wayfarer- Entry 12: Dyrford Part 2- Through Death's Gate Ok, everyone! It's time to resume coverage of Ashoka's run. Ashoka completed the Through Death's Gate quest without passing through death's gate. She very nearly did though and the blame for that rests squarely on my diminutive shoulders. I messed up. I made the one mistake that every no reloader should know to never make: I became over-confident and I let that over-confidence effect my play. Ashoka nearly died here simply because I neglected to take a very real threat seriously. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again. Prior to this quest, Ashoka had never been knocked-out and her team had suffered but three knockouts in total: two to temporary party member, Kana, early in the adventure, and one to Eder while triggering a trap. Despite my constant hemming and hawing and pleas for advice, this run has been -or had been- surprisingly easy. But in no reload play, ease is an enigma: You only find it when you think you can't and you invariably lose it when it's firmly in your grasp. This run was only easy because I thought it wasn't: my constant fear kept me on my toes, on the defensive, and that, in turn, kept us safe. Once I lost my fear, ease slipped away, and Ashoka nearly slipped away with it. So: how did it happen, exactly? Let's start with the where: the Cliaban Rilag ruins. We had entered the ruins by jumping over the bridge. Aloth, whose Athletics skill is low, sprained a wrist. That led us to rest, leaving us with one set of camping equipment with a long quest ahead. I considered jumping back over the bridge to retrieve the free set near the looter's tents, but I wasn't sure of the mechanics and feared Aloth would sprain his risk again. We proceeded with one. That was fine, at first. The early encounters were super-straight forward- including our first encounter with the area's most dangerous enemies: the pwgra/druid crews. Here we see Ashoka, Eder, and Pallegina forming a line, backed by Cassia while Aloth and Ogrnd provide ranged support. Everyone is happy and healthy, except for Ogrnd who was outside of Strange Mercy range. Everything was going smoothly at this point: the first druids went quietly... and the animats -like many of our enemies- could pose no threat to a three member, full plate + Zealous Endurance front line that's continuously bathed in mass heals. But the seeds of disaster has already been sown and those early encounters had served to fertilize them. Remember Aloth's cut scene injury, and, thus, our depleted camping supplies? Remember how I was irked by the damage on Ogrnd's portrait, resulting from his position outside of Strange Mercy range? Do you remember how the animats could do no damage due to our formidable damage resistance and how the first druids fell with nary a peep? Well, I sure did. And, respectively, those experiences caused me to: 1) conserve spells; 2) group everyone together; 3) grow more confident in our DRs; 4) lose my fear of druids; . Ok: Whose ahead of me here? Who sees the problem? Who sees where this is headed? If your answer was: "Since you're conserving spells, the menpwgra/druid crew near mushroom heaven will get off its AoE stuff. And since everyone is bunched together, your whole crew is going to get tagged. And since those AoE spells will do Raw damage, the DR that you've come to rely on will be useless. And since you've lost your fear of druids, this is going to totally-blindside you. So, yeah, you're going to have a bad time." Then you're totally right: that's what happened exactly. And here is the the result. Everybody's dressed in red. We barely survived. It didn't help that I wasn't expecting a menpwgra here (this being my first run on Hard). Nor did my inept movement near the doorway help. But fundamentally, this was a failure at the level of player psychology. I had gone on cruise control and that prevented me from assessing risk. Lesson learned. Even if the challenges within the game world are meager, dangers can still reside within ourselves. Fortunately, the rest of the quest was a breeze. The spirits were so unthreatening that we could sit back, relax and let Aloth disappoint us with an underwhelming L4. And full plate + Zealous Endurance still trivializes animats. But I had learned a lesson here. Ashoka hopes I've learned it well. Best, A.

I'm glad you're here, Semiticgod! This is fun. And it's fun because we've gathered a great group of players. A big thanks to Borco, Enuhal, Semiticgod, and now Jaherias Witness for deciding to join. And an additional thanks to all the readers and commenters. May we keep the challenge rolling! Best, A.

Great post once again, Jaheiras Witness! Best, A. Btw: I'll get everyone caught up on Ashoka's run soon!

​Same. And I think that's the natural progression: from more exploits to fewer, over time, as you become more skilled and self-aware. For me, that process began back on the old, old Bioware forums, in the original Ascension Solo Challenge. Makes sense. The tactics one is willing to use influences the set of challenges that one can undertake. Some players choose to embrace exploits in the interest of achieving one end or another, others eschew their use and work with the challenges achievable in their absence. I've always preferred the latter approach -both as a player and as a reader- but that's more a preference than anything else. It's a stylistic choice- nothing more. Best, A.

No worries, Baron Pampa. Your post was clear enough. (I just decide to take the opportunity to address the issue of tactical preferences, in the general case, for everyone's reference.) Best, A.

Agreed. I'm working with a melee mage now. While PoE's arcane defensive spells aren't nearly as robust as BG's, they are formidable. Playing on hard, my mage has yet to be knocked out in combat, despite charging into the middle of the fray in the toughest battles we've faced. Her current buff regiment is Arcane Veil (Hardened) + Lengrath's Displaced Image + Infuse with Vital Essence + Spirit Shield + Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff + Deleterious Alacrity of Motion + Eldritch Aim. She wears Blaidh Golan. It takes a while to get her buffed -and she could surely do more damage by using that time to cast behind the lines instead- but she is a capable front line warrior. In the end, PoE mages are a bit like BG mages: they seem squishy and vulnerable, but once you experiment with the mechanics you understand that they really aren't. They just need micromanagement. Best, A.

Thank you for your perspective, Baron Pampa. Know that I sympathize with your comments, in some respects. In strategic RPGs, such as Pillars of Eternity and Baldur's Gate, players tend to undergo a process of personal evolution. In the early phase, when players are new to the game and faced with challenges they don't fully understand, they experiment wildly- testing a variety of tactics until they find something that works. Once they hit upon a successful method, they then reuse it and perfect it. On occasion, they discover something that works extremely well -even too well- to the point that the method becomes reductive: each and every challenge -or at least most challenges- are met with the same tactic. Players who reach this stage are then faced with a choice: keep using that method or move onto something else. Most move onto something else. Once you've mastered a game, you understand that there are multiple ways to trivialize the adventure- many of which are widely known, others less so. At that stage, you come to enjoy play-throughs that exercise judicious restraint: employing tactics that are meted to the challenges faced, eschewing tactics that are exploitative or overpowered, and displaying a subtle, even artistic command of the game's core mechanics. Exploits and unbalanced tactics start to look like crutches. They become un-fun to use and less fun to watch. At the same time, unconstrained experimentation is an essential part of the process of player growth- both at the individual and communal level. In the Bioware BG No Reload challenge, which this challenge is based on, we strove to strike a balance: we did not ban any tactic, in recognition of the fact that players at different phases of development need to use different tools, and experimentation -at all levels of play- is a pleasurable part of the gaming experience, but we encouraged players to cultivate effective yet relatable playing styles, ones that audiences would respect and enjoy reading about. We also discouraged players from employing tactics that could lead readers to dismiss the challenge as a goofy cheese fest, partly as a courtesy to fellow participants. None of this was codified in a rule set, nor did it need to be: it worked because we had an understanding. When players discovered tactics that began to seem reductive, exploitative or just plain unfun to watch, they'd ask what others felt and then they'd make their own decisions, with community feedback in mind. Take my experience with the adra beetle figurine, for example. I noticed that it was a bit much -especially since it's available so early. I asked what others thought of it and then I made my own decision. Since no one objected to it, I decided to keep using it on occasion -for now. Once I get better, I'll stop using it (at least until I take on a challenge wherein it would no longer be over-powered). If my fellow players had found it over-powered, uninteresting or reductive, I would have chosen to phase it out sooner. That's the process: we experiment, we discover, we share. If we find something that seems broken, we highlight it and solicit feedback. We then make our own decisions in light of that feedback. Its an effective way to achieve balance: it allows everyone to experiment freely while also letting us maintain community standards. It also leaves the individual player -and his or her personal vision- as the final authority. Now: Is any reader likely to find a player whose personal practices match theirs exactly? Of course not! And that's good. Variety and diversity are a good thing. The challenge should reflect a variety of styles and sensibility. If you'd like to see a play-through in accordance with your personal preferences, there is only one way to achieve that: Play! I'm sure you'll find others who appreciate your style. I know that I will be among them. Thanks again for your comments, Baron Pampa. We hope to see you active someday! Best, A.

@Semiticgod and Jaheiras Witness. It's good to see you in action! Best, A.

That's a fair summary. Same. There are two types of difficulty: one is the skill and knowledge required to attain mastery, the other is the likelihood of success given that you have attained mastery. BG is difficult in the former sense- less so in the latter sense. I've attempted to maintain some semblance of difficulty in BG by employing restrictions, emphasizing style, and taking long breaks, but it still feels a little done to me, at this juncture. The prospect of learning a new game is more interesting to me than any challenges I might find in the BG world. Best, A.

On No Reloading in PoE vs BG. Any fair comparison of the BG and PoE no reloading experiences has to take account of the fact that we, Serg, Enuhal, Semiticgod, and myself, ,have added mods to BG (notably SCS) in the interests of finding suitable challenges. Setting aside that complication, I do think that no reloading BG is more difficult by an order of magnitude. I started playing PoE very recently. Within a couple days of my first playthrough, I had completed my first NR -despite the fact that I'd spent very little time studying the game mechanics and reading expert posts. I've played, casually, in truth, and solicited tips here and there: That's all. Nonetheless, I already have some degree of no reload competence. I suspect that I'll complete a PotD NR shortly. Learning to NR BG took longer. In BG there are more status effects and the implications of those effects are more troubling. No reloading requires completely shutting-down a wide variety of disabers and insta-kill effects, with each instance having a significant kill probability for an untutored player. A successful BG reloaded understands that the apparently duplicate status effects, spell protections, and spell protection removers are not redundant. Secret Word and Ruby Ray, for example, are not the same: you use them at different times and defend against them in different ways. A successful BG no reloader also understands that there are meaningful distinctions between, say, a school-less innate disabler and a schooled cast one and, further between schooled disablers cast at different levels. Taking all this into account the knowledge requirements for a successful run are significantly higher. Is this a critique of PoE? Not at all. PoE was composed in a different era, to a different gaming market. And I think the game world does an excellent job of balancing complexity and simplicity, ease and challenge. A casual player can attain competence in PoE relatively soon, and at the same time, mastery does require significant study. That's a difficult balance to strike and PoE has done it well. In the end, I'm glad that both games are here. I'm glad, too, that both are suited to no reload play and that we are, it seems, on the brink of establishing viable no reload communities in not one, but both communities. That's great. Variety is good. It's good to have more than one toy and it's good to have people to play with. Play is fun. Playing with others is better. May we continue to play together. Best, A. @Hulk`O`Saurus. If you haven't tried and SCS/Ascension BG Saga playthrough, I'd highly recommend that you do so- it's definitely a gaming experience worth having. It would be great if you could attempt a no reload semi-soom and compare your experiences in that endeavour to those of us who have gone the other way: skilled BG players turned PoE novices.

Great start, Borco!

@Serg. Glad to see Gloomy Face in action! @Borco. I look forward to seeing your character. What class do you intend to play?

Good news, everyone! Ashoka has made significant progress. She is currently in Twin Elms, on the brink of Level 9. The party is well equipped and nearly ready to leave for Sun and Shadows or, in the alternative, to attempt a blind run of White March 1. Since our last post, we've completed the following: Missing Sentries Endless Paths 3,4 and 5 The Man Who Waits The Final Act The Bronze Beneath the Lake The Hermit of Hadret House Blood Legacy Adragan battle near Hylea's temple (no knockouts, only minor injuries, no one petrified) The Nest Above the Clouds On balance, setting aside the avoidable mishap in Through Death's Gate, this has been a smooth and surprisingly easy play-through. Irrespective of the outcome, I definitely feel ready to move to PotD in my next run. While I may get around to posting tomorrow, I'll probably end up playing with what little time I have and then writing up Ashoka's adventurers during my layover on the 7th. In all likelihood, you'll hear the outcome then, success or failure. Wish us luck! Best, A.

Noted. In my last play through, a successful normal NR, the crystal eater encounter on level 1 was by far the most threatening. That was, I suspect, a function of the fact that the party build emphasized melee damage and deflection, making on hit melee stun/paralysis/petrification effects comparatively problematic. The spirits weren't an issue at all, in part because we had relatively few squishies and lot of fire damage options. The spirits are also optional, off to the side, I was considering leaving them for later, forging Cladhaliath at a later date. The hurdles, to my eye, are: 1) the crystal eater encounter heading into L2; 2) defeating Nridek without attacking prior to conversation, and thus allowing the party to be encircled. Once I feel confident we can clear those, we'll head in. Best, A. EDIT: We just completed the crystal easter encounter. It was trivial this time. The issue last time was that we had unwittingly pulled two crews at once by entering the area from the spirit alcove, rather than taking the direct route. That caused use to be flanked and encircled, surrounded by enemies capable of petrifying on hit, a potentially dangerous situation. Taking the direct route allows you to eliminate the potential flankers first, before taking on the main group. Following that path, it becomes a zero risk encounter- especially with summons in play, placed between the crystal easters and the party.

Noted. On normal I found it pretty straightforward at L6 with a very similar team. I was thinking L7 or L8 on hard for this run. Does that make sense? Got it. We just cleared L3. That was fun. I feel we're ready for 4 and 5. I've never been below 5. 6 and 7 are ok, apparently? The Doemenels hate us. We hate them, too. Thumbs down on that. But thanks! Best, A. NW: I'd like to do The Bronze Beneath the Lake semi-soon. Do you have any advice on fighting crystal eaters, Hulk'O'Saurus?

Sure! But I can't say anything now: I haven't been yet! (As I think you know by now, these days I spend most of my time long distance walking. I walked from Mexico to Canada this year, for example. In the off season I go to warm, sunny places, recently South America and Southeast Asia. This will be my first time wintering in Central America. I'm looking forward to Costa Rica, but it is, to a significant extent, just a place to chill while I prepare for my next long walk. It's the upcoming walk that I'm excited about more so than Costa Rica. Costa Rica is, like, a side-quest. ) Best, A.

Ashoka: Pale Elf, Kind Wayfarer- Entry 11: Dyrford Part 1 As most of you are aware, Ashoka had a close call in Dyrford's main storyline quest, Through Death's Gate. Benjamin Graham once said that the greatest sources of risk are within ourselves. He wasn't talking about NR runs, mind you, but he might as well have been: his insight is unequivocally applicable. In Through Death's Gate, Ashoka found herself prepared to take on all comers. I, however, was unknowingly losing an important battle with an inner enemy: over confidence. Happily, my failure on my battlefield didn't prevent Ashoka from prevailing on hers. We remain alive and well, ready for the adventures to come. We'll cover Ashoka's close call and the rest of Through Death's Gate in Dyford Part 2. In this post we'll talk about two Dyford side quests: A Farmer's Plight and Nest Egg. First, A Farmer's Plight. I love an old fashion ogre hunt, don't you? This was a straight forward quest for Ashoka. The ogre, Korgrak, resides in a spider-filled cave. The spiders can be trickier that the ogre himself, depending on your party and tactics. None of the above posed a threat in this case. Against the spiders, Ashoka set up a defensive line, along with Eder and Pallegina, backed by Cassia running Consecrated Ground. Buffs included Armor of Faith and Inspiring Radiance. Interdiction and Arcane Assault were deployed at first opportunity. Summoning the adra beetle was overkill here (as it almost alway is: I hate that thing- it's likely to be filed in the over-powered and unusable category soon). After resting to pick up our Accuracy v Beast bonus, we employed the same strategy against the queen herself. Ashoka took a little damage, though not enough to warrant concern. Onto Korgrak. Korgrak and his fuzzy-wuzzy elder bear friends are heavy hitting melee fighters, but they aren't really capable of threatening a well equipped L6 tank. Pallegina's Firebrand and double Divine Marks from Cassia and Ogrnd made short work of this fight. Time for Nest Egg. Nest Egg is a brief fetch quest with a party battle tossed in for flavor. I haven't found this fight challenging on any of the difficulty levels that I've tried. After dispatching the caster with an opening arquebus round, we let Pallegina and Eder wipeout the remaining eastern foes while Ashoka engaged to the west, aided by Curse of Blackened Sight and Interdiction. The battle reached endgame phase soon after. In this shot, we see Pallegina and Ashoka simultaneously eliminating their targets while double Divine Marks + Necrotic Lance dispatch a back line charger. Only one foe left now. I'll post on Through Death's Gate shortly. Best, A.

@Borco. I'm thrilled that you've decided to join us! This challenge really is taking off now. With you and Semiticgod active, we'll be up to five BG NR vets, and ,soon, with the additional of Hamzy and Jaherias Witness, we'll have some PoE residents, too. That's wonderful news. When I started the challenge, I was hoping that it would be self-sufficient by the time I left for Costa Rica (two days from now). I had my doubts, in light of the low traffic volume on these forums, but it looks like we've done it. Great work, everyone! Best, A. NW: I'll be in Costa Rica for three months. I do intend to bring my computer, though. I'll be playing still but I will be less active. I won't vanish again until February, at which time I'll be embarking on another lengthy RL adventure

Noted. Yes. We were definitely talking past each other there. Since I prefer to minimize side quests on RP grounds, and keep my characters balanced for the storyline encounters, to me "Dyrford" means Through Death's Gate. If I intended to refer to a side quest, I would have mentioned the quest by name. Best, A. (In general, I find that RPGs play better with side quests limitations. It keeps level progression down and insures that the storyline fights are among the more challenge encounters. Doing so also allows each run to have its own flavor, since you can do different quests in different runs. Finally, it preserves the vastness of the game universe. After all these years, there are still BG quests that I haven't completed. In BG, I only took to completing all the major Chapter 2 quests when I turned to solo play, at which time item collection became important. In my prior party runs, I made a point of leaving for Spellhold ASAP, as soon as I had secured a stronghold and collected Gaelen's gold. My very first BG character finished ToB in the high teens. My first Triology No Reload (Questpack + Ascension, pre-SCS) + Insane Ascension solo character, Alanis, didn't get HLAs until after Gromnir and defeated Melissan at L23. Those runs were harder and more satisfying, to my eye. Nonetheless, I respect and appreciate the completionist approach. It's a philosophy/style difference. I'm glad that these games, PoE and BG, accomodate different approaches).

Those are among the options I had in mind. As I see it, there are four defensive avenues, each with a menu of options. 1) Max endurance buffs, including Infuse with Vital Essence and Pearlwood Chicken 2) Duration limiters/supressors, including potions of recovery, Scroll of Protection, Suppress Affliction and Liberating Exhortation 3) Roll buffs (fortitude and reflex- especially fortitude), including Scroll of Defense 4) Healing options, including Consecrated Ground, potions of endurance, potions of regeneration, and Scroll of Moonwell There are more in each category, of course. The problem in this fight was, above all else, over-confidence. The game was starting to feel very easy. We hadn't suffered a knockout since Kana at L4 and we hadn't taken meaningful damage since the focal battle of Heritage Hill. We had completed the Dryford side quests without any difficulty at all and had dispatched our early foes in Through Death's Gate with nary a pause. We didn't buff. We hadn't prepped our inventories. We didn't even have healing potions ready (with the exception of Ashoka) since Strange Mercy + Consecrated Ground had been providing more healing than we needed. We did have Potions of Vital Essence, Minor Potions of Recovery and Scrolls of Defense at hand (that's become our standard practice) but I didn't expect to need them. We didn't bother to summon the adra beetle, nor did we use our #/rest abilities, at first. I appreciated that our strategy was partially reliant on DR, and that raw damage bypasses DR (which is why I expressed trepidation heading in), but I didn't expect it to be a problem. We took damage here in our Normal NR, but we never felt endangered. But on hard, there were menpwgras instead of the the expected pwgras. I hadn't even noticed that until we started seeing red. Lesson learned. Since then we've completed the triple ogre druid battle in the Endless Paths, among others. I feel more confident against druids now. In any case, thanks for the tips! Best, A.

Congrats, Semiticgod! I'm glad to hear that you finished! We're looking forward to your normal run. Cheers! A. I was referring to the Guilded Vale outcome (if you only fought Raedric once) and the Heritage Hill outcome (if you didn't destroy the machine). It's not so much the corrode spell, Autumn's Decay, but rather the raw damage over time spells. Specifically, Plague of Insects and Infestation of Maggots, intersected with Autumn's Decay. Raw damage is not subject to DR checks. Further, the damage from Infestation of Maggots is an increasing function of damage previously taken and Plague of Insects effects concentration, hindering deployment of counters. It's a slippery slope. And if you've become complacent, accustomed to resisting damage with DR, it's easy to slide off. In the Through Death's Gate encounter, all three are used together. It's an effective combo. Damage from Autumn's Decay allows Infestation of Maggots to take effect; Infestation of Maggots accelerates damage; Plague of Insects adds additional damage and limits ability to counter. I do see ways of dealing with it now. And even knowing what I knew then -as opposed to what I know now- we would had been fine had I anticipated the magnitude of the difficulty increase from normal to hard and prepared accordingly. I suppose I had also grown overconfident. We were starting to feel invincible. We hadn't suffered a knock-out in combat since Kana and we hadn't really taken significant damage for a long time. In any case, close calls can be helpful, in the end: they encourage you to refocus and remind you to never let yourself get overconfident. That's good. This will help, ultimately, I suspect.

It worked when I tried one of my old pictures from Beamdog, but not when I tried a new one on Imgur. We should continue this in PM. (Btw, the quote you snipped wasn't an attempt in and of itself. It was a clipped segment following a failed test. You can delete that.) EDIT: Got it now. The issue is the choice of copy button. If you use the copy button on the right side of the Imgur page, it doesn't work (that's a link to the page, not the image itself). If you use the copy button that pops up over the image when you hover, it does work. This: Versus this:

If you stick to the story line, doing few side quests (which I usually prefer, from an RP perspective), you reach the Sky Dragon at L7. That's surely one of the reason why the game gives you a non-confrontational solution to that encounter. I've actually never gotten above level 8/9 in this game. On normal, at least, the end game sequence is perfectly doable at 8. I do intend to pick up a few extra levels before finishing this time. Best, A.

Noted. Thanks! I was worried about Through Death's Gate, and in particular the primordials and druids there. I haven't studied druid spells yet. I haven't the faintest clue what they do or how to stop them. As it turns out, my concerns were justified. We were blind-sided by a battle that ended up being way harder than I expected. We survived, but it was a humbling close call. More on that soon. Blood Legacy is next, I guess, but I'm feeling inclined to study cipher powers first. We did His Old Self and Voice from the Past before leaving. Ashoka won't do Theorems of Pandgram on RP grounds. I guess we're ready for Missing Sentries now, if that's still available. Those are the only DB side quests that I know. I'm aware that there are others, but I'm reluctant to take them on blind. Are there ones that you'd suggest? Best, A.

Sweet! EDIT: It's not working for me. I get a "you are not allowed to use that image extension in this community" error.