ValkyOfApocrypha

Hey all, I just wanted to say that my run was officially verified today! \o/ It seems like a lifetime ago, but I am really looking forward to receiving that badge - probably another couple of months down the road haha. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the summer!

@Shai Hulud Obsidian's Product Services Manager, Samuel Chin, replied to me (for my timezone) in the middle of the night yesterday. The message was very much personalised and said that he said that he would be looking at my submission over the next few weeks. If you still haven't heard anything, I'm pretty sure there's a communication blockage between you and Obsidian - spam settings or something like that. Definitely try to reach them again, maybe with a different email address.

I didn't think you were disparaging my run in any way, no no. I guess I was just doing some lofty thinking on why I had done the run in the first place, felt a little unsatisfied by the result, and wanted to do it again on a more challenging class. Your enthusiasm for the Goldpact / FF reminded me that the real joy of such challenges lies in creative theorycrafting. Since I largely just copy-pasted strategies I had seen in a bunch of other clips and forum posts and mushed them together, it left me feeling uncreative afterwards and I felt the need to justify myself.

Unkitted Wizard is definitely better, strictly speaking, but I'm up for Evoker since the spell limitations will add a layer of challenge, thus forcing me to think more creatively (it already has done, a lot!) while empowering my favourite nukes . Personally, I don't propose going completely without cheese - after all, The Ultimate was introduced as a final update challenge so everything in the game is technically 'working as intended'. From SOF to your generic legendary armor that never degrades. If Pillars were a live service game, even the most esoteric means of bending the rules would be patched out eventually. My point is, I think most people who look at The Ultimate and think 'yeah, I wanna put myself through that' are hoping to discover something unique and break the game in some original way that showcases a playstyle they invented. I would consider any Ultimate run legitimate - good luck getting to level 16 and making yourself invincible without archmage-level knowledge of this game - but to be truly satisfied with my own run, I would need to know that I have done it with a build I created. Sounds like that's what you've got going on with Godlpact / FF, so I hope it works out for you.

I experimented a bit with AI scripting but decided to keep things manual. I guess it keeps me awake lol. When I have the time, I'm going to try another Ultimate run on Evoker to get that same sense of 'legitimacy' you're talking about. This means I won't be able to (ab)use Cocoon so will have to work a bit harder in general at keeping myself and Vela safe. I had a play around this evening on my test save and managed to steal all my core spells from Hanging Sepulcres without Cocoon by casting Binding Web (scroll, because no Conjuration) on Vela in a safe space then charge into combat while she's immobilised so she procs terrified far away and doesn't get aggro. I also discovered that Major Grimoire Imprint doesn't cancel Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, so the stealing itself was no biggie. After this point, it's just a matter of managing affliction immunities and being aware of casters that use Arcane Dampener / Cleanse. I checked out a few fights from your run as well and the playstyle looks fun. You have a serious point about Shadowing Beyond, I might have to pay Beina a visit sometime! Waels challenge didn't bother me, tbh. Once I had a sense of rhythm from my test save I just did what came naturally. For me the stinker is Abydon's - I decided to do The Ultimate after a solo PoTD Herald run and I actually had a blast doing epic 1-2 hour fights against the megabosses. I really wanted to stick with Herald (I love playing tank characters) so was bummed when I found out how rough this challenge is on your armour. If I had to change class I was going to go meta, and all my research led me to regard SC Bloodmage as being the cheesemaster supreme.

Thanks, yeah it's a lot of research and planning to bring together. Congrats to you also. Regarding the acknowledgement, did you get an automated response? I emailed them this morning once my playlist had finished uploading and got one immediately, so I know my submission has at least reached their inbox. Maybe we should treat it like any other gaming support ticket and pester them weekly until getting a reply from a human being. I know Deadfire is old news, but I can't imagine they would go back on their pledge of 50 badges, that's surely not good for business in the long run. Just for the record, here's my playthrough. I hereby nominate myself for World's Cheesiest Ultimate.

I just finished The Ultimate. Oh... my... Gaun! SC Bloodmage ubercheese. All filmed. Anyone know if there are still patches going? Big thanks to all the knowledge posted by you guys, I stand on the shoulders of giants.