Alesia_BH

Alia, Pale Elf Rogue (PotD Solo)- Entry 4: Twin Elms Some of you seem to think that Alia is moving quickly. The Leaden Key disagrees. Fast? Slow? Whatever. Just don't get in Alia's way. The Leaden Key assassins learned that the hard way. Simultaneously I learned a lesson the hard way: when you separate enemies for tactical advantage it not only strains plausibility it leads to ugly, embarrassing screenshots. Like this, for example. Here we see Alia to the east of the map, with a fighter and a chanter, both drawn from the fray with Shadowing Beyond. This fight looks way less cool than it could have, huh? Oh, well. Here we see the Leaden Key Rogue throwing down with a charmed fighter and three shades. Alia, meanwhile, is playing pinata with the Leaden Key Wizard. No candies in there, I'm afraid. Upon arrival in Twin Elms, Alia completed Hard Bargain and Sacrificial Bloodline before heading into Teir Evron. We talked to all four god groups, with the intention of completing at least three of the quests, possibly four. The Nest Above the Clouds was first. Stealthing may seem lame to some on RP grounds. I beg to differ. In fact, I think it makes perfect sense. I mean, if you had a choice between fighting all this and walking around it, what would you do? I'd totally go around- an not just because I am epicly lazy. We completed The Nest Above the Clouds peacefully and then proceeded to Into the White Void. With Int 19, this can be completed peacefully. All you need to do is pick up the Blue Crystal Key in the east and then walk over to the northwest. This was almost too easy, but we'll take it. Prison of Ice is easily completed once the elves are gone. My last rogue fell in The Old Queen and the New King. It happened right here: My character had accessed the back of the maw with a grappling hook. Upon reaching the other side, she was tired. And as luck would have it, there were two enemies there: a lion and a lion clansman. Not wanting to fight fatigued, I tried to escape and rest. Sadly, that didn't work. We ended up drawing in other enemies and dying a horrible death. Alia had no intention of making the same mistake. She took down the lion and lion clansman ASAP. Fatigue be damned. After chit-chatting with Sul, Alia decided to fight Oernos. She opened with Shadowing Beyond and then ran. Even invisible this was kind of scary. Ahh! Ahhhhhh! Where was Alia going, you ask? Here: Because when do you ever get to see lions and bears fight each other? This was super-fun to watch. And look: Alia even stole the kill, thanks to a well timed finishing blow. The fight didn't end with the death of Oernos. This turned into a brawl, spread throughout the Maw. I enjoyed this, and it actually makes sense. There was a stand off between warring factions. All they needed was a catalyst. Alia was that catalyst. No regrets here. That brings us to Alia's near death experience. At the Mercy of the Tribes is without question my least favorite quest in the game. There's nothing wrong with it in a technical sense, or in a story sense. It's just too tempting and too dangerous. Dungeon Delver is awesome; Stelgaers are not. My plan here was thin on details. The intent was to use Whispers of Treason from the Arret and Spirit Spiral to make the stelgaers fight each other. Aside from that...I don't know? Use the choke point and hope for the best? Terrible plan. By the time we ran out of summons and Whispers of Treason charges, we were left with this: That's sort of a best case scenario, and yet it was still exceedingly dangerous. Alia was knocked unconscious and brought back by the Ring of Wonder. She was one more hit from death. And then: Just in time. I mean just in time! I'll never do that again-not without a better plan, that is. Hunter Brother went better. The stelgaers went down with ease- partly because an elder had failed to join the fray. The blights and lurkers were taken down in batches, with a rest in between. This would have been a bit much otherwise. And that, my friends, was Alia's last Twin Elms quest. All that remained was to pack up and head off to the Burial Isle. Best, A.

Alia, Pale Elf Rogue (PotD Solo)- Entry 3: Dyrford I have a lot of free time: I mean a lot of free time. If I had a teensy tiny bit more free time, I'd totally put together an online tourism marketing campaign for Dyrford, complete with a jingly commercial. That sounds great. Anyhoo, Alia didn't need a marketing campaign to get her to Dyrford: She, like, had to go. But compulsory or not, Alia enjoyed her vacation. And can you blame her? Good times! The Nest Egg doofuses were more threatening. I use Autopause: Enemy Sighted to insure that I can time my first action perfectly. The dialogue before this fight throws that off: there's no automatic pause between the dialogue and combat start. As a consequence, these blokes got a little too close for comfort. Fortunately, Alia was able to get a Shadowing Beyond cast in just in time. Then it was beetles down, followed by a textbook victory. Once again, we used Int 16 to get rid of the wizard and two grappling hooks to get the egg down safely. Our next target was Korgrak's cave. On normal, Astrid sneaked pass the spiders outside the cave. On PotD, I think it's safer to kill them. We didn't pull any punches here. Once we were in the cave, we stealthed to Korgrak using the short cut tunnel. Remember: keep the runny-runnies to the north, and the lazy-lazies to the south. I have a little rhyme to help me remember that. It goes runny-runny: sunny-sunny; Lazy-lazy: mayonnaise-y. That makes sense, because sunny means south and mayonaise-y mean north since mayonnaise is white like snow. You just have to remember to flip it around, because it's backwards: Runny-runny is really north and lazy-lazy is actually south, right? Oh! And don't forget: it's all good the first way if you live in Australia because everything is upside down there. Got it? Right. Once we got to Korgrak, we high fived him and welcomed him to the team. He's putting the hurt on Raedric's Undead Army as we speak. Next, Blood Legacy. By the time Alia got to Blood Legacy, she had 5 base points in mechanics. I like to do this with Hedge Maze + Gjefa bonuses. Hedge Maze grants +2 to stealth and Gjefa +1 to mechanics. 5 + 2 (Gloves of Manipulation) + 1 = 8. Mechanics 8 is the magic number for Dyrford. Mechanics 8 is particularly important in Through Death's Gate, as you'll soon see. In Blood Legacy, mechanics 8 let Alia open this door, granting her access to the inner sanctum key and bloodless quest completion. Onto Through Death's Gate. This is one of the trickier quest for my solo rogues. With a mechanics score less than 8, there are three scary bits. With mechanics 8, there are but two. The first challenging part is the druid room. The menpwgra in the center of the room is hard to get by: A Shadowing Beyond cast is required. As in all Shadowing Beyond race-throughs, we want to maximize our movement rate and Intelligence. I like to use the Orlan Bramble ring here, too, since there's a risk of being hobbled. Blacsonn could make sense as well, now that I think about it. On PotD it's a good idea to pull and kill the sporelings: there's just too many of them. Fan of Flames scrolls work great for that. This is why we wanted those spider legs back in Caed Nua. Btw, Remember to wear the Hermit Hat when pulling the sporelings! With the majority of the sporelings nixed, exiting was much safer. Ok. Next level. I totally screwed this up...The plan had been to use Mechanics 8 to open the final door and bypass the oh-so sketchy spirit room. Unfortunately, I absent mindedly rested, dispelling our Gjefa bonuses. Faced with the choice of returning to Ondra's Gift or negotiating the spirits, we chose to backtrack and see Gjefa again. That meant we had to pass through the druid and sporeling rooms three times. Remind me never to do that again! The upside, I guess, is that we got to fight this battle, the final confrontation of the quest, fully rested. That fight is totally winnable with Whispers of Treason and Fan of Flames scrolls alone, though. So that's that: We're going to Twin Elms everybody! Yay! Best, A.

Alia, Pale Elf Rogue (PotD Solo)- Entry 2: Defiance Bay The distinctions between PotD and Normal may not be seen, but they are felt. Alia's Defiance Bay battles look like Astrid's. Don't be fooled, though: there were differences. Fights lasted longer; enemies were more dangerous; death was always closer. Fortunately, Alia found herself able to thrive with a few adjustments. When Astrid arrived in Defiance Bay, she sought the Oaken Scarab figurine and the Rotfinger gloves. With those item in hand she felt capable of taking on all comers. Alia, in contrast, took a more measured approach, building additional capacity before launching into combat. After a quick trip into the catacombs on the 9th to pick up the Rugged Wilderness Hat, Alia completed Something Secret, Rogue Knight, At All Costs, Brave Derrin, A Voice from the Past, Unwanted, The Queen that Was, The Man Who Waits, and The Final Act in that order. That allowed her to accumulate a significant amount of gold and experience with but one fight: the battle with Helig in A Voice from the Past. Before taking on Helig, Alia secured the Obsidian Lamp. Fletcher's Stay + Gjefa allowed her to unlock the chest. Here we see the shades in action, mobbing Helig while Alia finishes from a far. Astrid's ranged weapon was Forgiveness. Alia prefers a crossbow. The crossbow was fast enough to allow Alia to kite the remaining revenants. This wasn't necessary. I just enjoyed the novelty: this wouldn't have worked with Forgiveness. Moving on to The Queen that Was, Alia, whose base strength is 10, used a +1 might armor enchantment and goldrot chew to reach might 14, allowing her to intimidate the practice guy and secure her hood. The Man Who Waits followed soon after. This was done entirely with stealth once again. Additional early item goals included the Rotfinger Gloves, the Munacra Arret and the Silver Crow Axe. Oaken Scarab + Obsidian Lamp + Rotfinger Gloves + Munacra Arret were instrumental to her strategy in the midgame. To illustrate: Supply and Demand. Oaken Scarab Rotfinger Gloves->Munacra Arret. The primary purpose of Whispers of Treason is to insure that enemies will continue to have a target when the beetles unsummon. On PotD, battles can last long enough for that to happen. Once the beetles disappear, it's shade time. Alia fires away with her crossbow as the battle draws to a close. The other kith fights were fought in the same way, more or less. Some groups made it to the shade phase, others did not. Dodwyna and crew never saw the shades. First the beetles. Then the rot. Combusting Wounds is a nice additional, time permitting. Endgame. The Two Story Job crew put up a better fight: they got to the shades, at least. This shot was taken just after the final Touch of Rot was released. Alia has charmed Slecg in advance of shade time. And done. All Hands on Deck and The Parable of Wael were uneventful. Alia used the same method in both. Seeking one last level up before facing Marshall Wenfeld, Alia headed north to complete two Guilded Vale quests she missed: A Mother's Plea and Vengeance from the Grace Since Marshall Wenfeld wears full plate, we swapped out the Silver Crow axe for Ravenwing, upgraded with a shocking lash and kith slaying. We built this weapon just for him. Alia wished to keep Wenfeld in engagement for the first few rounds in order to prevent him from wandering off and drawing in the crucible knights- hence the out-of-character emphasis on a melee weapon. (For my rogues, melee weapons don't really matter until Twin Elms.) For better or worse, Wenfeld scorched himself with a Pillar of Holy Fire. We only got one swing with out purpose built, carefully constructed weapon. Shed a tear. After that, we used shades to keep Wenfeld pinned. Although she's built for melee in anticipation of the endgame, Alia prefers to fight at range. That left us with one more quest: Undying Heritage. We used stealth here, save a single fight on the ground floor of the tower. The only tricky parts were outside, on the way to and from Icantha. This was tight, but we made it without Shadowing Beyond. Shadowing Beyond was required here, both out and back. We rested to insure we'd have an emergency Shadowing Beyond in reserve, in the event of an accident. We cast over by the gate near Icantha's place and then raced toward the tower. This is the last hurdle of the quest. Run, Alia, run! Made it! Alia is off to Dyrford. Best, A.

Alia, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 1: Caravan Camp to Caed Nua Show of hands: Who here remembers Astrid? That was a stupid question, naturally. This is the internet: I can't see your hands. I'm going to assume, though, that most of you would have raised you digits had you the venue to do so, and cover Alia's early game movement with sparse detail, using Astrid's posts as a reference point. Fair enough? Ok. Speaking of differences, here's Alia's pre-Caed Nua build. Skills: Stealth: 7, Athletics: 0, Lore: 2, Mechanics: 3, Survival: 0 Abilities: (L1) Blinding Strike (L3) Reckless Assault Talents: (L2) Weapon Focus: Knight (L4) Shadowing Beyond Here's Astrid's: Skills: Stealth: 7, Athletics: 0, Lore: 2, Mechanics: 3, Survival: 0 Abilities: (L1) Crippling Strike (L3) Dirty Fighting Talents: (L2) One Handed Style (L4) Shadowing Beyond With the exception of Shadowing Beyond and the skill point distribution, everything about Alia is different from Astrid. And yet they are very nearly the same character. Astrid and Alia were both setup as one handed crit specialist in the early game. The only distinction is the approach: Astrid went for hit conversion percentage, Alia went for acc. I'm not sure which approach I like better, in the general case, but I was glad to have the additional acc on PotD. So, let's get to the action. Alia breezed through Cilant Lis and then headed straight to Raedric Hold for the standard embarassingly metagame-y solo character item raid. She collected the fine brigandine, Ring of Searing Flames, Gauntlets of Manipulation and Boots of Stealth. Adding in the Ring of Minor Deflection she found at The Black Hound, and the Esternwood crossbow and she was well on her way to a complete early game item set. Alia's route through Raedric Hold was very nearly identical to Astrid's. She collected items from the sanctuary and then descended into the dungeon on the 1rst. The guards were taken down one by one in discrete locations. On the second, she collected her last items and then departed- exiting via the ramparts rather than the sewers. On PotD, I think that's the best practice: The sewers are pretty crowded and the ramparts seem pretty safe. Next, we visited Black Meadow to complete The Smith's Shipment and pick up all the other goodies. Then -in a departure from Astrid's route- we went to Mahdmr Bridge for Ferry Flotsam. The first looter was taken down almost immediately with an opening crossbow bolt and an arrow trap. The second put up a respectable fight, but we were never in danger here since Alia elected to keep rather than sell Gaun's Pledge. I like that move: Gaun's Pledge can be a difference maker in the early game. Upon returning to Guilded Vale, we dropped of Tuatanu's crate and purchased a Blunting Belt. We settled Against the Grain soon after. In Late for Dinner, Alia used Blinding Strike (crossbow) -> arrow trap to nix bandit 1 ASAP. Arrow traps are legitimately useful in the early game. The other two went down without a fuss. Our item collection schedule called for a visit to Esternwood on the 6th and a trip to the Eothasian Temple on the 7th. That yielded Torc of the Falcon Eyes and Rymgrand's Mantle. Buried Secrets was completed entirely with stealth. This move always makes me nervous but it has never been a problem. With Weapon Focus: Knight, Alia elected to upgrade Yenwood, raising it to fine and adding a lash. The Caed Nua hall required a Shadowing Beyond cast this time. Alia cast Shadowing Beyond, let the spirits contact her, and then broke for the door. Easy-peezy. We used the spiders against Maerwald, mostly because we wanted legs for Fan of Flames scrolls. Bulwarks helped against the blights. And done! We're off to Defiance Bay. Best, A.

Hello, everyone! A couple weeks ago I promised to return with a PotD solo attempt. Well, good news everyone: the time has come. Meet our challenger. Alia, Pale Elf Rogue (PotD Solo) Game Version: 3.7.0.1318 with White March I & II, Difficulty: Path of the Dammed, Settings: Maim Before Death: On; Injuries: On; Expert Mode: OFF, Mods: None Character Description: What is there to say about Alia? Honesty, I'm not sure. Alia is the fourth in a line of characters I built in preparation for a PotD solo. Sadly, her personality is the least developed of the four. And by that I mean it's non-existent: I haven't developed her at all. Her portrait is cool, though. She looks like a noble: a refined noble. Breaking free of her roots, perhaps? Maybe. Anyhoo. I'll fill this in if and when I come up with something. Who does she look like to you? Gaming Notes: After completing my first PoE solo no reload on core, I set my sights on a PotD attempt. Following an exploratory run, I launched into action with a character that made it all the way to the second drake encounter in Sun and Shadows, falling just before Thaos. I took a break after that disappointment and ran a new character. That one fell in Galwain's Maw, due to a positioning error. Where her predecessors failed, Alia hopes to succeed. I can't guarantee a victory, but I'm confident Alia will put in a respectable showing. Wish her luck!

Noppers. I'm working on a PotD solo. I did a couple unposted runs. My first attempt ended at the second Sun in Shadows drake encounter. The next one ended in Galwain's Maw. I have a character that I'm ready to post now. I'm not certain she'll make it all the way, but I'm confident she'll put in a respectable showing, at least, like her predecessors. Best, A. @Concrete Monster Excellent progress!

Excellent progress, Serg! (I don't know if I approve of letting Aloth wear Dunryd Demon with a robe, though it looks way too weird...) Best, A. (And it case it wasn't clear, this was a joke: Aloth can wear whatever he likes)

Understood. Play at your pace, share at your pace. We're glad to have you here!

It's great to see you posting, Concrete Monster! I always enjoyed flexible, rotating member sub-6 member parties in BG, even though the experience system penalizes that. I think it's great that PoE supports that approach. Looking forward to your continued adventures! Best, A.

On PotD stats. We're on the same page. My current character is M-10, C-8, D-15, P-16, I-17, R-12, with the R-12 granted on RP grounds. She was initially M-10, C-8, D-16, P-17, I-18, R-9 but I respecced her at L1, in Guilded Vale, because the R-9 didn't feel right, character wise. Int was prioritized over Per on RP grounds, too. On PotD differences. Here's a semi-comprehensive list of differences for my rogues: 1. Exiting Raedric Hold via vines rather than sewers advisable. 2. Shadowing Beyond cast required in Caed Nua hall 3. Reaching L6 before major combat in Defiance Bay advisable 4. Shadowing Beyond cast required near Icantha, out and back 5. Killing spiders outside of Korgrak cave advisable 6. Shadowing Beyond cast required near second druid group in Through Death's Gate 7. Pulling and killing sporelings in Through Death's Gate advisable 8. Unlocking final door in Through Death's Gate with Mechanics 8 preferable to retrieving key 9. Additional questing in Twin Elms advisable to increase acc for final fight 10. Thaos battle noticeably tighter

Thanks, Concrete Monster! I appreciate your enthusiasm. Hope to see you posting an adventure soon! Best, A. NW: I definitely don't consider myself a PoE pro. My total experience with the game consists of a few weeks last winter and a few weeks this winter. I'm making progress, but I'm still learning the game. There are many, many encounters that I haven't even tried yet. Serg has a much greater claim to PoE pro status than I.

PotD increases enemy numbers and boosts enemy stats. Importantly, it grants enemies +15 to acc and all defenses. These changes are either very noticeable or marginally noticeable, depending on your party composition and skill level. For an expert player with a full crew, such as yourself, the differences would be minor in many encounters: easy is easy, after all. For a solo rogue piloted by moi, the switch to PotD significantly decreases margin for error. Fights that were cakewalks on normal become tense.; stealth paths through enemies become narrower. Over all it's much easier to die. My first solo PotD run was never intended to be a no reload. It was an exploratory run. Reloads were required for Thaos and for some Twin Elms content. I also deliberately experimented with a few encounters that seemed unacceptably dicey, notably in Through Death's Gate. In any case, I hope to show you soon. I have a rogue ready to go. And this time it's a familiar face! Best, A. Best, A.

Nice work as always, Serg! Best, A.

Hey, everyone! I completed my first PotD solo with reloads today. I think I'm ready to try a no reload. I'll let you know!

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 8: Thaos! Yuppers indeedy! It's time for the Thaos fight! The big show! But first: Let's talk about Astrid. Character Record Inventory Build Skills: Stealth: 10, Athletics: 3, Lore: 2, Mechanics: 6, Survival: 2 Abilities: Crippling Strike, Dirty Fighting, Finishing Blow, Reckless Assault, Blinding Strike Talents: One Handed Style, Shadowing Beyond, Deep Pockets, Weapon Focus: Knight, Unstoppable Boons: Hylea’s Boon, Gift from the Machine Does anyone have any questions? Our resting bonus? Great question! We took Accuracy Bonus v Vessel- attained by donning the Rugged Wilderness Cap before our nappy-poo. Any more questions? Ok then! Our plan, as you've likely surmised, is to knock people on their butts. More precisely, we want to knock the Headsman and the Judge on their butts- maybe even Thaos once or twice. We intend to do so with We Toki, leveraging our One Handed Style accuracy, our high Dex and our high Per. Our offensive potions, Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and War Paint will facility that, with speed and added accuracy. Our defensives are trash, but our enemies won't be hitting much because they'll be spending almost all of their time on their tuckuses. Or at least we hope so. How did it go? Great, actually! Just great! Now the question is: Am I being sarcastic or not? You'll just have to see. Here's Thaos. He's a jerk. We don't like him. But he's not that jerk we want to kill right now. We want to kill the big jerk, the guy with the hammer. Casting Shadowing Beyond will let us do that. Why? Because he'll chase. And Thaos won't. And without Thaos's spells, he's toast. Astrid runs west. She drinks a DAoM potion and gets to work. We Toki says, "Down boy!" And that's basically all it took. Astrid's axe is accurate. And with her Dex it's fast enough to hit again before her enemies can get up. DAoM and War Paint take it all over the top. The Judge got exactly one swing in. His animation is on it's feet here, but as you can see, he's prone, according to the engine. One down. Let's do it again, shall we? The Headsman faired a little better, landing two strikes and eliciting an endurance potion quaff. He didn't have much of a chance, though. I've done this two-handed with We Toki and Godansthunyr and at levels 9 or 10 One Handed does seem to work better. Just Thaos now. Our main concern is Cleansing Flame. In my experience, if you can get him to cast it on a summon, you'll never see it again. We give him some beetles. As soon as we put them down, we have one break north. That insures that that'll be at least one beetles under our control when it's time for Thaos to cast Cleansing Flame. Got him! The rest is easy. We shoot him in the face. Dump some rot on him when goes Shields for the Faithful. And when he gets to badly injured, unleash the Finishing Blows. It should go without saying that we were evading his spells, disengaging whenever he started to cast. And as you might imagine, we found time to quaff every now and then, too, to increase our efficiency. The only spells that hit us were Thaos's Dominations, which appear to be targeted directly on the foe, rather than having an AoE, like most spells. Those weren't very danger though: the durations were short and Thaos never really took advantage. Thaos is at near death. He's on his keist. This is looking good. And yes! Astrid has done it! She has become my first PoE solo no reloader. Hooray! That was fun! The question is what next? Should I give her a chance on PotD? Try a new class? Move her over to Deadfire? Share your thoughts. And feel free to share your comments as well. Thanks for following, everyone! Cheers, A.

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 7: Twin Elms to Thaos We're almost home, kids! This is the penultimate post of Astrid's run. Exciting, huh? I bet you're wondering what happened, right? Maybe you're also wondering how Astrid got through all the nasty-nasty on the Burial Isle? Well, in this post you'll find out about the nasty-nasty. You'll have to wait till the next to find out about Thaos. But first: We have some item business to attend to. When Astrid arrived at Twin Elms, she was single mindedly focused on catching Thaos. She found time to poison Simoc -and to kill Raedric- but aside from that she was all about collecting her items and catching her prey. So, what was the packing list? To make things easier, let me show you Astrid's load out just before the Thaos fight: Now, in addition to that stuff, we needed Aru-Brekr, Blaidh Golan, Boots of Stealth, Rymrgand's Mantle and the Gloves of Manipulation. I think -think- that's it. Hold on....Ok. One more thing: Godansthunyr with a shocking lash and vessel slaying. (And while I'm on the subject of upgrades, We Toki has corrosive and kith slaying. Forgiveness has long had corrosive and kith slaying. Our armors have Dex two.) It took us a little while to gather all that. But once we did -and once we had returned from our gratuitous gold and XP mission to Raedric Hold- we had the experience we'd need to reach L10 before Thaos, along with all the goodies we'd need to take him down. For the record, we went Hylea, peaceful. Not hard to guess, huh? K. Let's go to the Burial Isle. If you go north and then west, there's basically one group of spirits that you need to get by. That's what we did. There are a couple of runny-runny spirits that you have to watch out for, but they aren't a serious risk. The only one that posed a threat to Astrid was the one seen below, and that's just because I screwed up. Astrid should have been on the south side of the staircase, not the north. We ducked out just in time, saving us a Shadowing Beyond cast. (Btw, we're running Hedge Maze + Iqali here, with Boots of Stealth. IIRC, we were at Stealth 15) Now for the tough part: that large group of spirits just before The Pit. The best practice here is to max out your movement rate and intelligence. I got at little lazy on that, skipping Casita's and Farmer's. We want Blaidh Golan and Rymrgand in case we're revealed and Boots of Stealth + Hermit Hat in the hope that we won't be. We do not -I repeat DO NOT- want Footpad + Shod in Faith. For that matter, we don't want any combination with Shod in Faith. Shod in Faith is bad -very, very bad! Why? Because if you get crit with a fear effect, Shod in Faith will trigger and that will cause you to break from invisibility. Which sucks, right? So we don't want that. Ok. So we reveal ourselves to someone who doesn't have a disabling range weapon -like that shade over there. That triggers combat and we can activate Shadowing Beyond. Now you'll see why we should really max speed and intelligence. We've got to go through a lot of stuff. The faster we go, and the more time we have, the safer we are. Do you know the Velvet Underground song Run Run Run? Well, yeah: that.... And...Voila! Same plan here. This time we took a Movement Rate resting bonus and ate our Farmer's Spread. We should have eaten Casita's too. Making it! We refresh Shadowing Beyond in the corridor. There's a trap on the dark bricks- watch out for that. Got it! Ok. We rest now. And then it's time for some drakes! Well, not really... I remembered the Casita's this time... We want to be out of stealth -out of stealth- when we trigger the encounter. That will start combat sooner, letting us activate Shadowing Beyond quicker. And again: No Shod in Faith! We hit the shadows and then broke east, as fast as we could. We do it again. We want to head south this time -south and east. There's not a whole lot of room down there, but there's enough for us to end combat and hit stealth. And while the drake and shadows are distracted, killing Wael, we break for the door. And that is how we do that: No combat at all. I'll post the Thaos fight soon. Best, A.

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 6: Dyrwood Sidequests And we're back! This post is out of chronological order. Please forgive. Astrid completed the Dyrwood side quests prior to entering Cliaban Rilag. I included Cliaban Rilag in the last post to maintain thematic consistency. Right call? Wrong call? I doubt anyone cares. Anyhoo. Here we are. And from here we shall proceed. We'll be covering Cat and Mouse, A Farmer's Plight, Nest Egg and Blood Legacy. Across all quests, Astrid completed a total of three fights. As a proud member of House Doemenel, Astrid sided with Medrith in Cat and Mouse. Instead of luring out Nyre, Astrid killed her. Because why not? Astrid used her standard battle method here, which by now has changed slightly. Before leaving Defiance Bay, Astrid purchased the Munacra Arret. That item, and it's three Whispers of Treason per rest, leaves Astrid well position to handle mid game fights with a minimum of adjustment to her battle plan. Her summons are dropped. Her Touch of Rots are deployed. After that, she uses the Arret to create additional chaos in the battle zone. Randos are picked off with Forgiveness at her leisure. It works very well. Too well really. Some of these items will be targets for restriction in the future. To Farmer's Plight. We completed this quest with stealth alone. Entering the cave is a cinch. Walking through it isn't too challenging either- especially with Hedge Maze and Iqali bonuses. Astrid took the short cut, rather than walking near the spider queen. There are two types of spiders here, for our purposes: runny-runnies and lazy-lazies. The runny-runnies go back and forth through the short cut corridor on the top side, the north. The lazy-lazies just chill to the south. We stayed as far south as possible through the entrance and then walked straight across, exiting like we started. That kept the runny-runnies north of us and the lazy-lazies south of us. Yay! Same thing on the way back. Done and done. We did nest egg next. We used Int 16 to nudge the wizard into leaving and then we took on the remaining crew. An immediate Shadowing Beyond allowed us to evade the opening salvo and, for the time being, steer clear of the monk. Here we see Astrid re-engaging by dropping her spirits, letting them pull aggro instead of her. Eventually, the monk did attack Astrid. A second use of Shadowing Beyond took care of that. Repositioning, we started sowing disorder in the ranks with Whispers of Treason. And done. We used two grappling hooks to get the egg down crack free. Onto Blood Legacy. Little fighty-fight here. Hardly worth mentioning, but Astrid fights are kind of rare. So here you go: look at that. So, we entered the ruins with the skeleton key proffered from the spider cave. Mechanics 8 gets you through this door. We took the Aritifcer Hall rest bonus to get us to 8. That led to a problem later on. To get to Wymund, the only other thing Astrid had to do was get the crypt master key and open the door. It's easy enough to stealth to the door, but I'm not exactly sure what score is required. Without her Hedge Maze bonus, Astrid couldn't quite pull it off. We had to use Shadowing Beyond and leave. We returned a few days later, this time with Hedge Maze and Iqali bonuses. No worries now. We told Wymund we'd help him and then we betrayed him, warning Lord Harrod. Hooray for deceit! And that's that for the Dyrford side quests. But you know what? So long as I'm here, I might as well knock off that Leaden Key ambush. We opened with Shadowing Beyond and then re-engaged with our shades on point. Then we went to work with the Rotfinger Gloves. Do you know the Lenny Kravitz song Let Love Rule. In my head I'm singing Let Rot Rule because I'm a dork from knife to fork and I just remembered how hot Lenny Kravitz is. The battle is winding down. People are dying and that dude in the middle is on our side now. And done! We'll continue soon. For now, Astrid is going to chill and have a few drinks over at Studio 54. Best, A.

Right. I see the level up symbols now!

Looking good, Serg! I've never, ever, ever taken on the spider queen and such before Maerwald. I guess that let's you get to L5 before the fight, though, huh? (Not that that's necessary, but it's cool.)

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Defiance Bay Part 3 and Cliaban Rilag Is there Instagram in Eora? If so, Astrid's feed would be all: #estramore #elmlife #glanfabulous So: How did she get there? Through stealth, mostly. This post will cover The Man Who Waits, Undying Heritage and Through Death's Gate. And it will cover, I don't know one battle? No two, actually. There were two. We slinked by everything else. Let's start with The Man Who Waits. This one is super easy- no risk at all. If you activate Shadowing Beyond immediately, all the baddies will walk away. They go far enough away to end combat and far enough away to let you activate stealth here: in the corner of Uscgrim's cell So that was easy. And there are no difficult moves on the way out. It's clear sailing. This is the closest anyone gets, and that's not near close enough, if you've invested heavily in stealth. Undying Heritage is easy, too. Unlike Undying Gate, there are no challenging moves. There are a couple of patrolling critters that can cause difficulty, but they're easy enough to avoid. Here's Astrid entering the tower. And here she is fighting her one fight of the quest. Shocky-Shocky. Hardest move of the quest was this one. And that one was easy-peasy: Astrid completed Through Death's Gate just like Undying Heritage: with stealth and a single minor fight. There were, however, two tough moves, one of which was dangerous. Astrid prepped by taking Hedge Maze and Iquali bonuses, bringing her stealth score to fourteen. The quest can be completed with a smaller number, but it's good to have extra. The early moves are simple. You walk around some trolls and oozes and then you go straight down the middle. Things don't get tricky till the shroom room. The top half of the room is fine. It's the exit that's a problem. Do you see those sporelings at the bottom of the screenie? They move back and forth really, really quick, east to west. The best practice is to pass them to the east just as they start running west. What happened here, though, is that Astrid pulled a sporeling from the top of the room. That forced her to pass to the west of the sporeling while they were to the east. Not good. Fortunately, Astrid made it. Shadowing Beyond is a great fail-safe, but it's less dependable when disablers are in play. You don't want to be seen in this room at all although, yes, the Hermit Hat helps and Astrid was wearing it. Onto level two. Astrid walked into the central chamber, went through the western door, and picked up the exit key. The only tricky part was the room with the key. There are a lot of spirits there and some are in awkward positions. A use of Shadowing Beyond is required here, in my experience. You go up the middle, through the will o' wisps. Then you pick up the key. Believe it or not, this guy won't notice you if your stealth score is high enough. He will, however, soft detect and follow. And when the wisps soft detect, you're pinned: enemies approaching from both sides. Eventually you get seen. Just use Shadowing Beyond, though and you're good. Note that there is a risk of pulling an animat. And that brings us to the battle. Astrid chose to fight the blights at the upper end of the central chamber- mostly because she wanted some primal wind for DoAM potions. With shades at her side and Fan of Flames scrolls in hand, it was a breeze (pun intended). I'll cover the Dyrford sidequests next, then we're off to Twin Elms. Best, A.

Thanks, Serg! I had actually noticed the Rauatai Cookies and had planned to use them. We have six of them in our stash already. The Pearlwood and Sweet Pie just end up getting picked up out of force of habit or at places where they don't make cookies. But your note helped, nonetheless. It was a helpful reminder! Best, A.

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 3: Defiance Bay- Part 2 By now Astrid had completed all the Defiance Bay side quests she intends to- with the exception of the Final Act. It was time to secure her place at the Duchal Palace. The easiest and best route for her is the Doemenel path. We entered the quest by killing the goons. This was a standard summons/Touch of Rot based kill. The only real drama here was the size of the Finishing Blow. She got a pretty good one. The Wenfeld assassination went well. Wenfeld uses Shinning Beacon so it's a good idea to maintain distance. We started off with a Forgiveness Crippling Strike. We followed with shades. Wenfeld went with Barbs of Condemnation, which triggered our new item, Shod in Faith. All we had to do then was dump our spells on him while he dumped his spells on the shades. Solid Finishing Blow Best, A.

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo)- Entry 3: Defiance Bay- Part 1 Defiance Bay is great. It's a super easy place to accumulate experience. It's fetch quests and cakewalks galore. First we did all the fetch quests then we did the rest, starting with Helig. We began with beetles and a salvo from Forgiveness. And that was all it took. After that we just had to stab some dead people in the kidneys. (Oh. I almost forgot: we got to Helig by steathing and we reached the Temple of Woedica through stealth, too. But you probably guessed that, right? We got our hood from the practice guy. Scored a rugged wilderness cap from the catacombs altar and something useless from the other.) By now we had enough coppers to buy a very important item: the Rotfinger Gloves. These things are stupid- seriously overpowered when you find them. They let you cast Touch of Rot three times per rest and Touch of Rot three times per rest basically wins all the kith fights in Defiance Bay. Here's an example: Supply and Demand. First, we dropped our beetles. Next, Combusting Wounds via Ring of Searing Flames followed by Touch of Rot, via the Rotfinger Gloves. Not much left to do other than accelerate the thugs' demise with a Jolting Touch. Astrid uses melee mostly for the procs. In my head I'm singing "I Wanna Proc" because I'm team dork for life and the 80's were hilarious. All Hands on Deck was basically the same. If you're wondering what Astrid's been doing with her coin these days, the answer is not much, although somehow she's broke most the time anyways (Sound familiar anybody? I mean in real life...). She buys lots of crafting bits because she likes to keep a spread of single use items available at all times. She prefers Fan of Flames scrolls, Jolting Touch scrolls, potions of Infuse With Vital Essence, potions of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and potions of Merciless Gaze ( mostly because the animation looks cool). She's been upgrading her items, too. I'll give you a rundown in the next post. It was time for some new armor, so we got the Crucible Knights their stolen-soul, mechanical-monster death squadron. Standard start here: Beatles->Combusting Wounds->Touch of Rot We took some early damage from Barbs of Condemnation. That was quickly healed with Second Wind, acquired via resting bonus. We finished up the fight by shooting this guy in the face. The Parable of Wael was a familiar tale. We started over on the right side so the casters and ranged fighters would see the beetles first, targeting them instead of Astrid. And done. Astrid's physical weapon strikes are almost always Azureith Jolting Touch crits or Forgiveness Finish Blows. The logic being that if it's just a regular strike, she can get more done with a scroll or an item charge. Why poke someone with a needle when you can burn them to a crisp? By now Astrid was at level 6. And that means new friends. I'm talking shades. We put a pip in mechanics to bring us to 4 and selected Deep Pockets as our talent. We then took a snoozy-woozy in the Fletcher's Stay room of the Goose and Fox for the mechanics bonus. Base 4 + Fletcher's Stay + Gloves of Manipulation yields 7, which means we can open that chest over at the Valian Embassy, granting us the Obsidian Lamp. Here's the new inventory. It's shaping up. We need Shod in Faith and the Ring of Wonder, but we're pretty much where we intend to be from here to Twin Elms. The shades made their first showing at Purnisc's place. We had fun here. Forced to trigger the encounter in a disadvantageous position, Astrid opened with Shadowing Beyond. She headed south, and the shades joined the party. With the shades in place, we had no trouble dropping the rot. Nyrid was ended with an 80hp shot from Forgiveness and we moved on. We had to kill a couple of straggler mercenaries before heading upstairs. These were fun and roguey. The first guy took two swings. We opened with a crit our of stealth from Azureith's, triggering Jolting Touch. We followed with a Finishing Blow. Same start for mercenary 2. These Jolting Touch strikes out of stealth almost feel like backstabs. With Jolting Touch spent, we switched to scrolls. All it took was a nudge after that. On the second floor we used stealth- which will work, even with the locked door, sans Shadowing Beyond. Ok. Let's stop there for now. In our next post we'll cover the Doemenel questline. After that, it's time to face Irenicus in Spellhold Thaos in the Sanitarium. Best, A.

If anyone can handle the job it's Grim Face! I look forward to his success! Best, A,

Astrid, Pale Elf Rogue (Solo) - Entry 2 Let's continue, shall we? Astrid is currently at the Goose and Fox- resting and relaxing after a fetch questing binge in Defiance Bay. This post will cover the Temple of Eothas and Caed Nua. Both quests were uneventful- uneventful by design, that is. Astrid fought Maerwald, his blights and no one else. The rest was handled with stealth. To the action (or lack there of...) For a stealth maxed drifter wearing boots of stealth, stealthing through the Temple of Eothas is a breeze. There are, however, a few tricky moves, which I'll cover here. The spider group encountered en route to the bells can be passed to the north. Click carefully, keep moving, and its all good. The shades downstairs are no problem at all. They're slow, their detection radii aren't great, and the hallways they inhabit are large. The ooze room is harder. It's difficult to see an opening at first, but you can pass the top ooze to the north. Then you can go in between the final two. The tricky part appears when, like Missy Elliot, you flip it and reverse it. If you carefully compare the screenshot below to the screenshot above, you'll see that the eastern ooze has moved slightly: it's closer to the western one now. So, on the way back we go over the top. Upstairs, on the return, we went straight through the middle. That worked fine. Completing Buried Secrets brought Astrid to L4. We took Shadowing Beyond, on rank in lore and another in stealth. We forged some Fan of Flame scrolls, some Bulwarks and then headed to Caed Nua. The main hall can be stealthed even without Shadowing Beyond. Just hug the north wall and make your way to the door. In my head I'm singing Walk On By by Dionne Warwick because I'm still a dork but my musical taste is getting better. The fight with Maerwald went smoothly. We gulped our Bulwark and evaded some spells. Nexted, we duped Maerwald into killing his wind blights and injuring his flame blight, later finished in melee. Maerwald was killed with Fan of Flames->Melee finish. Melee alone would have worked but staying ranged facilitates spell evasion, just like in BG. The melee finish was for style points. And that's that: We're off to Defiance Bay! Best, A.