Help Tackling the Puzzle of the Engwithan Digsite on PotD

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Alright, let's do this. 

 

I want to give the Engwithan Digsite an honest try. People have completed it solo, so I see no reason why I couldn't do it with a party, even a party of (mostly) story companions (And one mercenary, who I'll just say was another member of my ship's crew). That said, I'm going to need some help (And maybe a map) to go over a solid strategy for exactly how best to do this. 

 

Blessings: Bonus skills/Bonus attributes (I plan to resolve both the Mokeha quest and Gorecci Street nonviolently, because that makes sense in character). 

 

Dramatis Personae: 

 

The Watcher

 

Marauder (Berserker/Streetfighter)

 

Weapons: Blunderbuss (Most important)/Bow (For Ranged) 

 

Proficiencies: Blunderbuss/Hatchet

 

Race: Human

 

Stats (Subject to Change)

Might: 19

Constitution: 14

Dexterity: 9

Perception: 18 

Intellect: 18

Resolve: 12 

(I may drop Resolve down to 7 base to bump up Dexterity, but Streetfighter's -50% Recovery Time, according to others, essentially amounts to a pretty substantial Dexterity bonus) 

 

Background - Deadfire/Mercenary

 

Active Skill Specialization - Alchemy

 

Strategy: Powder Burns to trigger Distracted and just keep unloading one handed (Or maybe two handed) Blunderbuss shots onto the enemies while MT keeps them bunched up. Might go in swinging the hatchet to flank enemies MT has engaged. 

 

Mercenary (MT)

Paladin (Shieldbearers/Kind Wayfarer)/Chanter (Troubadour? Beckoner?)

 

Stats:

I'm not sure. I figure I'll want high Might, Con, Intellect, and Resolve - but I also feel like Resolve probably wouldn't matter too much since enemies will have 15 to their accuracy anyway. Might is important for Lay on Hands, Con is important for Health, and Intellect is important for summon/beneficial effect duration as well as AoE range/linger of chants. 

 

Basically, this guy is supposed to be the almighty wall that I plant in front of the enemies/my party. I don't know what he'll be armed with exactly, but I do know he'll be using a large shield. I want him to be using summoning invocations while chanting buffs for himself and the rest of the party. 

 

Race - Probably Aumaua 

 

Specialization: Athletics. 

 

Eder I'll be having as an OT until I can get him some decent armor. He'll be up in the front, flanking with the MT and throwing explosives/laying down traps. I'll probably make him a Swashbuckler to get the best out of flanking, as well as provide nice boosts to his Explosives/Mechanics for trap setting. 

 

Xoti is going to be a standard healbot priest, though I may steal her Hatchet and give it to the MC. 

 

I may want to recruit another Mercenary (If nothing else, it'll make ship combat a little bit easier) either as another frontline defensive fighter or as a Wizard (until I get Aloth) or a Cipher (For Charm, but then Cipher requires hits against Deflection to work)

 

The Strategy:

 

After searching the boards, the strategy for handling the exterior of the digsite seems to heavily involve splitting enemies into smaller groups and making use of chokepoints to limit the number hammering your MT. The thing is, I'm not exactly sure how best to split the mobs (I've heard that using Sparkcrackers and traps works, but I'm not sure 'how'), and I'm not sure where those chokepoints are. I've tried making them by using traps, but the enemies seem to like running over traps to murder my backrow. 

 

I'm definitely going to have to stock up on consumables before I head out there, but I'm also working on limited resources. I plan to be making use of drugs for my Watcher to help him hit and make use of the Sneak Attack bonus damage. I'll be Frenzying too, so hopefully the Raw damage will help me hit a Bloodied state so I can get On the Edge. Eder will make use of explosives to debilitate enemies, using whatever resources I'm able to scrounge from Port Maje. 

 

For the Drake, I'm assuming I can't pull that group apart, so I'm thinking I may have to just rely on the gunpowder barrel and pray from there. 

 

What I need from you guys:

 

Polish regarding my Paladin/Chanter or perhaps a better strategy for a MT mercenary to take into this. Eder could work too. Also, if I need to recruit a fifth party member, thoughts on what I should make him? Both of these will be retired to the boat and only taken out to level - they get to be shipboard defense. 

 

Preferably a map with choke points laid out and a strategy for tackling each pull. I need to know how to make the game mechanics work for me, rather than against me. 

 

A strategy for the Drake encounter at the end - Do I really have to just blow them all up, then send in my MT and pray? 

 

Videos are fine, but I do prefer having things in writing - I don't really process video strategies all that well without written guides. 

 

Basically, I'm seeing this as an opportunity to really cut my teeth on Infinity Engine combat. I want to get better, and I won't if I just balk at the first sign of resistance. I know the game gets considerably easier later on, but I want to tackle one of its more difficult encounters before that happens. And I want to be able to do this with a character I enjoy playing. 

[mant2si]

* You can use stack splitting, rise up stealth to 2 - 3 (respect if you needed), go near first enemy, wait until enemy detect you, go away, enemy will follow you
* You can try stack splitting with traps, to do that you need to disarm all traps in start island, find a distance were enemy can detect trap, put it start fight with enemy
* Rise up Alchemy and Int with Berath blessing and Magic Belt, you can have +7 - 8 alchemy,  just use poisons in hardest fight and run until enemy die
* The easier way to do that is pick class with summons (Ghost Heart/Chanter)
* You can also pick cipher and spam charm spell
------
If you want to kill all enemies in melee, then you need to stack armor or deflection, you can mix berserker with priest of wael, and get free arcane veil. Or you can take warlock and use spirit shield, in summary enemy should miss or do only 25% of damage

Don't forget to buy Legendary Club and use drugs that has chance to interrupt and +acc
At the end you can pick monk class that use drugs, monk with their fists +10PL to Drugs is OP for first island (i.e you can achieve ~17 - 18 to alchemy power level and has > 30% chance to interrupt enemy + stun blow) 
 

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

* You can use stack splitting, rise up stealth to 2 - 3 (respect if you needed), go near first enemy, wait until enemy detect you, go away, enemy will follow you

* You can try stack splitting with traps, to do that you need to disarm all traps in start island, find a distance were enemy can detect trap, put it start fight with enemy

* Rise up Alchemy and Int with Berath blessing and Magic Belt, you can have +7 - 8 alchemy,  just use poisons in hardest fight and run until enemy die

* The easier way to do that is pick class with summons (Ghost Heart/Chanter)

* You can also pick cipher and spam charm spell

------

If you want to kill all enemies in melee, then you need to stack armor or deflection, you can mix berserker with priest of wael, and get free arcane veil. Or you can take warlock and use spirit shield, in summary enemy should miss or do only 25% of damage

 

Don't forget to buy Legendary Club and use drugs that has chance to interrupt and +acc

At the end you can pick monk class that use drugs, monk with their fists +10PL to Drugs is OP for first island (i.e you can achieve ~17 - 18 to alchemy power level and has > 30% chance to interrupt enemy + stun blow) 

 

 

Alright. Is Eder good enough as a MT if I make him a Swashbuckler or keep him a pure Fighter, or should I invest in a Chanter/Paladin or Chanter/Fighter tank like I'd considered doing? 

 

There seem to be multiple different ways to handle this. I'll probably grab a ranged Cipher hireling as well to fill out my party and keep the boars Charmed and otherwise enfeebled. That'll aid my Marauder's Sneak Attack damage with his bow too. 

 

This is definitely seeming more and more doable, if slightly less heroic. 

[AeonsLegend]

I approach from the top stairs and just aggro the first group of enemies. Run away and you can take down the panthers first because they will reach your party first. If you can charm the Drake, do it. If not focus him down because he will AoE your party with fire breath. I managed to complete the digsite on PotD multiple times. It is much easier than Gorecci street because enemies don't hit as hard and their ranged damage is much much lower. This means funneling works well.

[mant2si]

 

* You can use stack splitting, rise up stealth to 2 - 3 (respect if you needed), go near first enemy, wait until enemy detect you, go away, enemy will follow you

* You can try stack splitting with traps, to do that you need to disarm all traps in start island, find a distance were enemy can detect trap, put it start fight with enemy

* Rise up Alchemy and Int with Berath blessing and Magic Belt, you can have +7 - 8 alchemy,  just use poisons in hardest fight and run until enemy die

* The easier way to do that is pick class with summons (Ghost Heart/Chanter)

* You can also pick cipher and spam charm spell

------

If you want to kill all enemies in melee, then you need to stack armor or deflection, you can mix berserker with priest of wael, and get free arcane veil. Or you can take warlock and use spirit shield, in summary enemy should miss or do only 25% of damage

 

Don't forget to buy Legendary Club and use drugs that has chance to interrupt and +acc

At the end you can pick monk class that use drugs, monk with their fists +10PL to Drugs is OP for first island (i.e you can achieve ~17 - 18 to alchemy power level and has > 30% chance to interrupt enemy + stun blow) 

 

 

Alright. Is Eder good enough as a MT if I make him a Swashbuckler or keep him a pure Fighter, or should I invest in a Chanter/Paladin or Chanter/Fighter tank like I'd considered doing? 

 

There seem to be multiple different ways to handle this. I'll probably grab a ranged Cipher hireling as well to fill out my party and keep the boars Charmed and otherwise enfeebled. That'll aid my Marauder's Sneak Attack damage with his bow too. 

 

This is definitely seeming more and more doable, if slightly less heroic. 

 

You can take pure chanter if you fight in party, then you can summon a DRAGON :D, I like DRAGONS

Swashbuckler is OK, but on first island you can't overcome enemy acc without Arcane veil, you can also take druid/fighter, but again it will be viable after level 4 in heavy armor

 

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by mant2si

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

You can take pure chanter if you fight in party, then you can summon a DRAGON :D, I like DRAGONS

Swashbuckler is OK, but on first island you can't overcome enemy acc without Arcane veil, you can also take druid/fighter, but again it will be viable after level 4 in heavy armor

 

 

Well, I'm wanting to have my MC (Berserker/Streetfighter at range for the tutorial), Eder (Pure Fighter or Swashbuckler), and Xoti (Priest) as well as two Mercenaries, one that's intended to be a Main Tank (Unless Eder would be better suited for that) and one that's an additional support (Cipher, for Charm probably). 

[AeonsLegend]

 

 

* You can use stack splitting, rise up stealth to 2 - 3 (respect if you needed), go near first enemy, wait until enemy detect you, go away, enemy will follow you

* You can try stack splitting with traps, to do that you need to disarm all traps in start island, find a distance were enemy can detect trap, put it start fight with enemy

* Rise up Alchemy and Int with Berath blessing and Magic Belt, you can have +7 - 8 alchemy,  just use poisons in hardest fight and run until enemy die

* The easier way to do that is pick class with summons (Ghost Heart/Chanter)

* You can also pick cipher and spam charm spell

------

If you want to kill all enemies in melee, then you need to stack armor or deflection, you can mix berserker with priest of wael, and get free arcane veil. Or you can take warlock and use spirit shield, in summary enemy should miss or do only 25% of damage

 

Don't forget to buy Legendary Club and use drugs that has chance to interrupt and +acc

At the end you can pick monk class that use drugs, monk with their fists +10PL to Drugs is OP for first island (i.e you can achieve ~17 - 18 to alchemy power level and has > 30% chance to interrupt enemy + stun blow)

 

Alright. Is Eder good enough as a MT if I make him a Swashbuckler or keep him a pure Fighter, or should I invest in a Chanter/Paladin or Chanter/Fighter tank like I'd considered doing? 

 

There seem to be multiple different ways to handle this. I'll probably grab a ranged Cipher hireling as well to fill out my party and keep the boars Charmed and otherwise enfeebled. That'll aid my Marauder's Sneak Attack damage with his bow too. 

 

This is definitely seeming more and more doable, if slightly less heroic.

 

You can take pure chanter if you fight in party, then you can summon a DRAGON :D, I like DRAGONS

Swashbuckler is OK, but on first island you can't overcome enemy acc without Arcane veil, you can also take druid/fighter, but again it will be viable after level 4 in heavy armor

 

Dragon doesn't come available until level 17. What level are you when you get to the digsite? I'm level 4. When you're level 17 you don't even need tactics.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

Dragon doesn't come available until level 17. What level are you when you get to the digsite? I'm level 4. When you're level 17 you don't even need tactics.

 

 

So, if doing this with Mercenaries would help make things easier, what do you recommend? I'm thinking a Chanter with Ancient Memory and Skeletons, but I'm not sure. I do want to clear this at least once to say I overcame probably the biggest challenge in PotD. It'd make me feel a little more like I earned it, you know? 

[AeonsLegend]

 

Dragon doesn't come available until level 17. What level are you when you get to the digsite? I'm level 4. When you're level 17 you don't even need tactics.

 

So, if doing this with Mercenaries would help make things easier, what do you recommend? I'm thinking a Chanter with Ancient Memory and Skeletons, but I'm not sure. I do want to clear this at least once to say I overcame probably the biggest challenge in PotD. It'd make me feel a little more like I earned it, you know?

 

I think cipher would help. Charm the drake and focus on the weakest enemies first such as the panthers and imps. Make sure you got potions on you if you're in a pinch. Potion of spirit shield helps as well to keep your people alive. Having fighters makes things easier as well. They will have good defenses and regeneration. Makes them last a long time.

 

Having summons will also help them focus elsewhere, but that will only be good if they last long enough. I've not played with a chanter yet in my games.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

 

Dragon doesn't come available until level 17. What level are you when you get to the digsite? I'm level 4. When you're level 17 you don't even need tactics.

 

So, if doing this with Mercenaries would help make things easier, what do you recommend? I'm thinking a Chanter with Ancient Memory and Skeletons, but I'm not sure. I do want to clear this at least once to say I overcame probably the biggest challenge in PotD. It'd make me feel a little more like I earned it, you know?

 

I think cipher would help. Charm the drake and focus on the weakest enemies first such as the panthers and imps. Make sure you got potions on you if you're in a pinch. Potion of spirit shield helps as well to keep your people alive. Having fighters makes things easier as well. They will have good defenses and regeneration. Makes them last a long time.

 

Having summons will also help them focus elsewhere, but that will only be good if they last long enough. I've not played with a chanter yet in my games.

 

 

Alright. I think I'll recruit a Fighter/Paladin and Cipher Mercenary then. 

[AeonsLegend]

 

 

 

Dragon doesn't come available until level 17. What level are you when you get to the digsite? I'm level 4. When you're level 17 you don't even need tactics.

 

So, if doing this with Mercenaries would help make things easier, what do you recommend? I'm thinking a Chanter with Ancient Memory and Skeletons, but I'm not sure. I do want to clear this at least once to say I overcame probably the biggest challenge in PotD. It'd make me feel a little more like I earned it, you know?

 

I think cipher would help. Charm the drake and focus on the weakest enemies first such as the panthers and imps. Make sure you got potions on you if you're in a pinch. Potion of spirit shield helps as well to keep your people alive. Having fighters makes things easier as well. They will have good defenses and regeneration. Makes them last a long time.

 

Having summons will also help them focus elsewhere, but that will only be good if they last long enough. I've not played with a chanter yet in my games.

 

 

Alright. I think I'll recruit a Fighter/Paladin and Cipher Mercenary then.

 

Focus the cipher on accuracy and intelligence if you create him. Don't you have eder? He can tank. I always turn him into a swashbuckler so he can tank AND deal damage. With 4 people this should be easier. Barbarians have a really tough time early because of the low deflection they will get hit/crit a lot and die REALLY fast. I'm not a fan.

[hansvedic]

I think the Wyrm summons (PL 2 invocation) are probably better than the Skeletons as they may have better armor towards fire. I'd have to double-check, though.

 

EDIT: Also, the Wyrms can last longer in terms of summon duration.

Edited June 25, 2018 by hansvedic

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Status Update! First Boar/Wurm pull is cleared - I picked up a Cipher and made the Boars fight for me. Turns out the enemies are a lot more manageable when they all fight each other. Then I was able to run away when my two charmed Boar friends ran off somewhere to frolic or something, and popped a rest. Gonna mop up the rest of the stragglers. 

 

Money is running low, hopefully I'll be able to keep my crew somewhat satisfied until we berth in Neketaka. 

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Attempting the Drake encounter now. Unfortunately I can't pull the mobs apart. First try went really well, but now the Panthers are slipping past Eder to flank my backrow. News at twelve. 

[jazzthing]

I started a solo run and there is no need to fight the beasts. You can skip the encounter and go directly downstairs. In my group run, I used split pulls and druid charm. Both net the same result.

[mant2si]

I posted this fight at least 3 times, but let's do that again :D If you have cipher in your party you can use my tactic, I tried to not split stack to much, because otherwise I can't kill them all at once, but I din't noticed that first charmed boar didn't follow me

https://youtu.be/2_wVsBaN_h8

I nearly kill all of them without stack splitting with spellblade (streetfighter), but all my healing potion ended and I died on boar :D You need to put yourself in position where only 1 enemy can attack you, take blunderbuss and distract yourself then switch to legendary club + stilleto (to overpen their armor), don't forget to kill all small wurms with powder keg, otherwise they will kill you on distance, and hope on good hit rolls

Edited June 25, 2018 by mant2si

[AeonsLegend]

I posted this fight at least 3 times, but let's do that again :D If you have cipher in your party you can use my tactic, I tried to not split stack to much, because otherwise I can't kill them all at once, but I din't noticed that first charmed boar didn't follow me

 

I nearly kill all of them without stack splitting with spellblade (streetfighter), but all my healing potion ended and I died on boar :D You need to put yourself in position where only 1 enemy can attack you, take blunderbuss and distract yourself then switch to legendary club + stilleto (to overpen their armor), don't forget to kill all small wurms with powder keg, otherwise they will kill you on distance, and hope on good hit rolls

I think it'd help if you show your stats and equipment.

[mant2si]

 

I posted this fight at least 3 times, but let's do that again :D If you have cipher in your party you can use my tactic, I tried to not split stack to much, because otherwise I can't kill them all at once, but I din't noticed that first charmed boar didn't follow me

 

I nearly kill all of them without stack splitting with spellblade (streetfighter), but all my healing potion ended and I died on boar :D You need to put yourself in position where only 1 enemy can attack you, take blunderbuss and distract yourself then switch to legendary club + stilleto (to overpen their armor), don't forget to kill all small wurms with powder keg, otherwise they will kill you on distance, and hope on good hit rolls

I think it'd help if you show your stats and equipment.

 

If you asked about cipher. There link to my build (you also can found one in the video description), https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102168-build-glanfathan-soul-hunter/. I used scepter modal to penetrate monster PotD armor and drug that give me +7 to accuracy (with 4 alchemy) and food that you can stealth from boy (+2 to Perception, +2 Dextery) in house with sleep man

 

My second attempt I done with Arquebuse, but scepter at the end was much effective, because then you can kill skeletons with it. Arquebuse you will needed  because of veil piercing and high accuracy

 

If you asked me about spell-blade, I currently wait for patch and then post video, but if you asked about items, I buyed and take all existed legendary items on port maje (club, amulet, helm), take armor with pierce + slash resistance, for other fight I took brigantine with 9 Base Armor, and eat food that give you 15% to damage absorption,  I start fight with 10 potions of healing, only one mob  can attack me, because of pale elf race, dragon can't do much damage with fire breath, with single hand you will have 60 accuracy and 10 armor with wizard buff

Edited June 25, 2018 by mant2si