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Decent performance against the Kraken.

Here is the fight against the Radiant Spore. I did not yet have Little Savior and it was sorely missed. The opening position effectively put me out of range from some of the tentacles which made this fight winnable. Made a couple of mistakes in the fight, but ultimately managed to prevail. This one can be done a lot better.

Here is the fight against Raedric which shows how effective the Spirit Lance can be when fully buffed.

Here is an example of the fight against Nalrend the Wise. This is quite open and requires careful positioning, but it shows a few different ways of how the Frozen Lance can handle himself. Still low-level at this point and not yet at full potential.

Gameplay: I played the game using the Wodjee stealth approach for Act 1 and thereafter opened it up a little in Acts 2 and 3. You will note that as the build progresses in strength that melee becomes more viable. Spells used for Act 1 would be those that centered around Combusting Wounds, i.e. Chill Fog and other DoT spells. The build became fairly decent in Act 2 and quite powerful during White March I. Once leveled up, spells would be cast in the below order: Easy fights: DAoM / Shadowflame / Chill Fog (blind enemies are severely debuffed) / Infuse with Vital Essence (cast at end of combat to top up health) Normal fights: Llengrath's Displaced Image / Ironskin / Spirit Shield (for the Concentration buff) / Merciless Gaze / Citzal's Spirit Lance / DAoM / Citzal's Martial Power Tough fights: These require some adjustment. I did not use a fixed methodology for tougher fights, but adjusted depending on how the fight progressed. Ryngrim's Enervating Terror is a decent debuff (causes Weakened) and this allows other spells to hit easier. Gaze of the Adragan and Wall of Many Colors were also real game changers. Regarding spell-casting and recovery: As long as you only cast defensive spells, there is no recovery. However, the first time you perform any other action, there will be a recovery period. During easy and normal fights, the sequences above are perfect as it maximizes the time you are hasted. During tough fights I would sometimes cast DAoM earlier if I knew I was going to need the quicker recovery. For instance, casting Moonwell or drinking any potions leads to a recovery period. Therefore, it sometimes makes more sense to cast DAoM before performing those actions. However, if I went the Spirit Lance route, I would make very sure to cast DAoM again before I cast Martial Power. If not, then there would be too much of a gap between when DAoM expires and Martial Power expires - remember you cannot cast spells during this time and the attacks slow significantly.

It's been a while since I last played, but I always wanted to upgrade the Frozen Lance. The original build was a little squishy, and I also learnt a bit more about the game mechanics in the interim. Here follows a decent upgrade from the original Frozen Lance. Class: Wizard Race: Pale Elf (it fits in nicely with the them and allows the use of helms - I view this as a definite upgrade over the Moon Godlike) Background - Living Lands / Drifter - Still the same and the Stealth and Mechanics bonuses are crucial for the early game. Stats: MIG: 24 (Base 14 + 1 Living Lands +1 Gift from the machine +1 Galawain's Boon +3 Training Grounds Resting Bonus +4 Maegfolc Skull) CON: 10 (Base 10) DEX: 15 (Base 14 +1 Elf) PER: 16 (Base 14 +1 Elf +1 Songs of the Heavens) INT: 20 (Base 16 +4 Gwyn's Band of Union) RES: 7 (Base 7) Skills: Stealth: 12 (Base 9 +1 Drifter +1 Blooded Hunter +1 Dungeon Delver) Athletics: 1 (Base 0 +1 Galawain's Boons) Lore: 8 (Base 6 +2 Wizard) Mechanics: 9 (Base 6 +1 Drifter +1 Wizard +1 Dungeon Delver) Survival: 2 (Base 2) Talents obtained at level up: Weapon and Shield Style / Weapon Focus: Soldier / Deep Pockets / Scion of Flame / Two Handed Style / Apprentice's Sneak Attack / Bear's Fortitude / Secrets of Rime Story Talents: The Merciless Hand / Gift From the Machine / Blooded Hunter / Dungeon Delver / Flick of the Wrist / Dozen's Luck / Scale Breaker / Sever the Soul / Galawain's Boon / Song of the Heavens Equipment - Maegfolc Skull / White-Crest Armor / Ring of Protection / Shod-in-Faith or Viettro's Formal Footwear or Boots of Speed / Cape of the Master Mystic / Gauntlets of Swift Action / Gwyn's Band of Union / Looped Rope

As mentioned before, I tried a whole host of weapons and ultimate settled on Shatterstar with a shield (funnily enough, my Wizard now uses the same combo). You should always attack paralyzed foes and when I crit, the bonuses cause some pretty hefty damage which generates lots of focus. However, you need Borrowed Instinct to make score you score crits and you need something to speed you up. In tough fights I would use a potion of DAoM and then cast Borrowed Instinct until I had enough focus for Time Parasite. Not so tough fights, just build up enough focus to cast Time Parasite and then work from there. Always make sure that you attack foes that give the most amount of focus (lowest DR & easiest to hit) and keep them paralyzed to maximize the chances of a crit. I have already posted the link in another thread, but here is a link to a cipher I used for the Ultimate The cipher was actually pretty decent and I used a decent combo against dragons that just melted them (detailed in the thread). Fights do take longer vs a Wizard, but not having targeting circles made me feel more comfortable in big fights with the Cipher. You can review the fights I recorded in the thread - not quite over as quickly as with a Wizard (I watched your videos with your Wizard).

Haha...No idea that it was your run. I have viewed it all the way to Heritage Hill. With a wizard a more stealthy approach means less time resting. My first run with the Frozen Lance did not use much stealth and it was pretty frustrating grinding. Using a wodjee-like approach makes Act 2 much less frustrating. I have now done a second run and am currently clearing up Od Nua so that I can take on the dragons which is all that is remaining. I was not that keen on playing on Ultimate, so this is just a POTD run. Using the same Frozen Lance strategies, but have now incorporated some of the strategies I saw in TheTodWilkinson’s run. Still need to clear out the last levels of Od Nua and then do the dragons. Will post an update once I have completed this run.

Thanks for the shoutout @Boeroer, but I am sorry to report that I did not yet have the courage to attempt a Ultimate run with a wizard... My first POTD solo run was with a wizard, namely the Frozen Lance. Using the spells and strategies at the time, it would NOT be suitable for a Ultimate run - there were too many late-game fights that required luck to win. However, in the thread I linked below, there was a YouTube video where someone got the achievement with a wizard. Essentially if you build a wizard that focuses on Combusting Wounds using Chillfog, beam spells and wall spells you have the essence of his build. Not having any targeting circles though makes this very, very difficult when doing tougher encounters. My Ultimate run was with a cipher. Prepare to run two saves and do several practice runs for more difficult fights. Also, be prepared for the fact that you could underestimate certain fights due to the practice fight(s) being easy and then having things go very wrong in the Ultimate save - therefore you should always go into most encounters fully prepared, i.e. food buffs active and quick items slots filled. Here is a link to the character I used for this run. All my runs are based on @Wodjee's YouTube videos (Frozen Crown Solo and Ultimate). I would suggest you spend some time reviewing them as there a useful hints that make Act I and Act II a lot easier. Here is a link to the thread and the video is embedded there. He also has a Frozen Crown Solo Run which I completed with a rogue. Lastly, here is a run with a monk that I found on YouTube. Still need to watch it, but it may also be of use if you want to play as one of the warrior classes.

You have some flixiblity on which talents to pick. I chose them based on where I perceived weaknesses and these were also very play-style dependent. For instance, I wanted to go toe-to-toe with everything in the game and only used different tactics if that proved impossible. I would say the list I provided is pretty accurate though, but I may reconsider the following: Body Control - chose this to minimize the risk against Adragans, but there are other ways to accomplish the same like a scroll of Moonwell or Confusion. Beast Slayer / Sanctifier - I chose this to maximise damage against Dragons, but I don't think this works with spells which makes it much less useful. Haven't had a second run with a wizard yet, but have several new strategies I would like to incorporate. Pity that the YouTube videos I linked got taken down as there were some additional tactics there I never used, but thought would be very useful.

Realize I am a little late to the party, but I did a comparison of the most common weapons for a cipher. The playlist can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX9hwkxCWKq6uXqhQ5J9yL2cM67AjVSj4 I ultimately settled on Shatterstar with a shield. If you a fighting on the frontline, the most effective focus batteries tend to be stunned or paralyzed. In those case the extra damage from Annihilation was quite useful. In my case, Annihilation also helped with DR and if it didn’t, I just used other methods of dealing with the threat. Sure, some of the other weapons cause more damage, but Shatterstar and a shield provided the best balance between damage and survivability.

Any weapon focus will grant the accuracy bonus for a summoned weapon and the extra accuracy can be extremely helpful at low level.

I was not happy at all about the previous fight vs Thaos. Spent quite a fair bit of time reviewing Raven Darkholme's video of his Thaos fight again. Ironically, I encountered the same bug he did (twice) where the game does not respond to any actions and needs to be force-quit. A key to this fight seemed to be neutralising Woedica's Judge as quickly as possible. I tried a couple of times to paralyze him with Mental Binding as the opening move, but had about a 50% chance of succeeding and if it did not work, then I wasted too much time and focus which made winning the fight almost impossible. Using A Scroll of Valor increased the chances of hitting with Mental Binding, but also meant I still had Aila Braccia equipped when the first Cleansing Flame was cast at me. Usually the first Cleansing Flame either missed or got reflected back at Thaos. It only hit once out of 5 attempts and it was the only time I lost the fight. I have also had one attempt where I needed to wait for the Judge's buffs to expire. He will recast Devotions for the Faithful and as long as I avoided that I was fine. The Headsman never lasted long in any of my runs. Typical fight went as follows: Judge paralyzed -> Thaos hits himself with Cleansing Flame and goes into stasis -> Judge destroyed with Redeemer -> Thaos gets back up and rejoins the fight -> I take him out with melee (or Cleansing Flame kills him again) -> Thaos dies -> I paralyze the Headsman and he gets taken out quickly If Cleansing Flame does not hit Thaos then the fight can be significantly longer but still winnable. If Cleansing Flame hits me while Woedica's Judge is still alive odds of survival are pretty slim. Beating both Thaos and the Judge if they are buffed is something I did not manage to do. If the Judge is down when Cleansing Flame hit me, then it is manageable assuming I did not get confused, dominated, etc. Ring of Suppress Affliction may have helped to survive a Cleansing Flame hit. Did not try it as I only got hit with Cleansing Flame once. In any event here is the final fight again with my test character (for the additional information available). Much, much better fight this time. Oh, and don't forget to ALT-TAB before the fight as the auto-pause does not always trigger.

It seems that the forum software no longer allows editing of old posts and therefore it is not possible to amend the main list. I would not have posted this build here due to that, except that there seem to be no melee ciphers on this thread. Therefore, I present the "The Shattered Mind", a melee cipher whose primary weapon is Shatterstar.

Thaos is where things really went wrong. My first crack at him ended up with both judges being dead after the first hit each. The whole fight was probably over in less than a minute. The second test run ended with me dying, as well as the third. I probably did about fifteen or more test runs and probably only beat half of them. If the Judge buffed, I lost the fight. If he chose to attack, I stood a chance if I managed to destroy him before he buffed. The Headsman was usually easy. If they had buffed during my Ultimate run, I would have run around trying to not aggro the Headsman and just waited for their buffs to expire. It sort of worked with my test character...Not really happy with this fight as it was the only one where I probably had a 50% chance of survival.

Llengrath was a fair bit easier than expected. Charming the acolyte seems to be key to this encounter. I even managed to survive one of the test runs where I was grazed by Form of the Helpless Beast by Llengrath. Was quite confident going into this fight.

The Kraken itself was a fairly easy fight. Unfortunately I managed to not record the fight with my Ultimate save, therefore I redid it with my test character after the fact.

On my way to the Kraken and another plan going according to plan. Wish the rest was so easy...

After having a really easy run with my test character, I decided to show how I did Caryon's Scar. The Lagufaeth were already cleared as they had some treasure I wanted, but it does show just how powerful Mental Binding really is. Getting to the Lair of the Eyeless took some time, but never got out of control.

This is where I almost died due to video recording issues...did not start recording where I wanted and then jumping around with the recording software and not pausing at the right time almost ended this run. Ironically, the test runs with my test save were pretty easy. Looking at the video now, this fight was one of the tougher ones when compared to my test runs. The one Vithrack next to the Radiant Spore spawned in an unusual spot. Usually I was able Disintegrate all of them from my Moonwell position. The end result still looks quite decent, but I was a little worried after the start if the fight.

The Brynlod bounty was another that required smart positioning and quite a lot of tests before I was comfortable doing this fight with my Ultimate save. The chanters were a particular thorn in my side and as with the Magran's Faithful bounty, I did not really use Whispers of Treason. In hindsight, that could have made the fight somewhat easier. I could not use Wodjee's tactics as I had killed the enemies at the entrance to the temple. Not sure if I would have been able to complete that temple quest the back way though, so this was the only option I had.

Magran's Faithful was quite a tough bounty. My test cipher died quite a few times until I found the spot at the tree. The Frozen Lance walked over this bounty quite easily using his nuking tactics. However, with the potions, scrolls and proper positioning, I managed to win the test fights frequently enough to make me comfortable with this fight before I attempted it with the Ultimate save.

The Alpine Dragon was pretty easy due to the number of adds blocking the dragon from getting to me. Moonwell helped and this fight was a good example of my Disintegrate combo hitting properly. Not much else to say.

Unfortunately I forgot to record the fight against the Sky Dragon. However, I can report that it was one of the tougher fights as I did not have any adds that could be used as focus batteries. Concelhaut saved my skin in that battle and thereafter I started using potions and scrolls a little better. It was still a work in progress though, but as can be seen in the video of my fight against the Adra Dragon, I started on the right path. Still needed to use Potions of DAoM though...

Concelhaut - I chose to use Steadfast for this bounty due to the Ancient Death Guards causing the Terrified affliction which of course debuffs Accuracy so much that it becomes impossible to hit anything. Steadfast granted immunity to Terrified, but it did not do enough damage to the Death Guards to allow me to keep them paralyzed. Therefore I used Wodjee's strategy of using Scrolls of Twin Stones. I also used these scrolls to clear a path to Concelhaut in Craigholdt Bluffs. However, while I did manage to complete this quest, I was never happy with how I accomplished it. It seemed that I needed 10 Scrolls way too often - ok, only twice, but I used tons of them on this quest.