what do others think about slayer, seeker, survivor DLC difficulty?

[Clerith]

Does anybody know if saving three tables instead of one or two makes difference? I mean dialogue changes or rewards.

I'd be EXTREMELY surprised if how many tables remain matters at all.

[InsaneCommander]

Used Withdraw scrolls. Helps a lot.

[LiefLayer]

What I think?

In the beginning it was really fun and every times I'm able to win it's really great. But I don't have lot's of time and this dlc it's just difficult combat after difficult combat... I'm almost tired now.

Survivor challenges are the worst... Seeker challenges try to make you think about what's the best strategy and they are all different... Slayer challenges are easier, just attack and win... Survivor challenges are just never ending minion battles... I hate to combat large amount of really crap enemies (but I already completed seeker and slayer challenges and ghouls survivor challenge... And I hate to leave something not completed), also they are not all on screen so every times I need to die one time to understand how many times they spawn... I hate that.

Right now I'm playing at difficult difficulty but the difference with the main game is brutal. I understand a little more challenge but with fewer battles and bigger enemies and more locations.

I wish the next dlc will just focus on multiple endings/choice and dialogs and maybe stealth.

[whimper]

OK, I've been slowly working my way through the quests on a solo upscaled PotD run (using a goldpact/streetfighter), and I've hit my first wall with the Contest of the Seeker quest against the team of 5 ciphers. 

 

The reaping knives doing raw damage is painful, but it's the disintegrates that really kill me (literally) -- as soon as one lands, I'm taking 400+ points of damage that ignores all of my armor and hits much faster than I can regenerate. And while I can use a couple of potions of miraculous healing to keep myself alive, that only buys me a little time before the next one hits...

 

I'm thinking maybe some Potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, the Voidward ring to slightly decrease all the raw damage, and maybe trying to boost my fort saves a little higher... but I doubt that's going to be enough. Has anyone else managed to solo this fight? Any suggestions for how to do so?

 

(Ps. Does anyone know whether effects that decrease hostile effect duration (like the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer) work against disintegrate?) 

Edited October 8, 2018 by whimper

[thelee]

OK, I've been slowly working my way through the quests on a solo upscaled PotD run (using a goldpact/streetfighter), and I've hit my first wall with the Contest of the Seeker quest.

 

The reaping knives doing raw damage is painful, but it's the disintegrates that really kill me (literally) -- as soon as one lands, I'm taking 400+ points of damage that ignores all of my armor and hits much faster than I can regenerate, and while I can use a couple of potions of miraculous healing to keep myself alive, that only buys me a little time before the next one hits...

 

I'm thinking maybe some Potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, the Voidward ring to slightly decrease all the raw damage, and maybe trying to boost my fort saves a little higher... but I doubt that's going to be enough. Has anyone else managed to solo this fight? Any suggestions for how to do so?

 

(Ps. Does anyone know whether effects that decrease hostile effect duration (like the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer) work against disintegrate?) 

 

i haven't tried this challenge yet, but i think those potions or spells that reduce the duration of active negative effects will be effective. (potion of major recovery is -10 seconds, litany is -5 and eothas is -10, which may do way more effective healing than many potions of miraculous healing, not to mention suppress affliction or liberating exhortation; i've used them before against other dots)

Edited October 8, 2018 by thelee

[whimper]

 

OK, I've been slowly working my way through the quests on a solo upscaled PotD run (using a goldpact/streetfighter), and I've hit my first wall with the Contest of the Seeker quest.

 

The reaping knives doing raw damage is painful, but it's the disintegrates that really kill me (literally) -- as soon as one lands, I'm taking 400+ points of damage that ignores all of my armor and hits much faster than I can regenerate, and while I can use a couple of potions of miraculous healing to keep myself alive, that only buys me a little time before the next one hits...

 

I'm thinking maybe some Potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, the Voidward ring to slightly decrease all the raw damage, and maybe trying to boost my fort saves a little higher... but I doubt that's going to be enough. Has anyone else managed to solo this fight? Any suggestions for how to do so?

 

(Ps. Does anyone know whether effects that decrease hostile effect duration (like the Ring of the Solitary Wanderer) work against disintegrate?)

i haven't tried this challenge yet, but i think those potions or spells that reduce the duration of active negative effects will be effective. (potion of major recovery is -10 seconds, litany is -5 and eothas is -10, which may do way more effective healing than many potions of miraculous healing, not to mention suppress affliction or liberating exhortation; i've used them before against other dots)

Ok, good. Something to try!

[whimper]

Alright, after a respec, some careful equipment and food choices, and some luck, I managed to beat the Contest of the Speaker fight with my goldpact/streetfighter (upscaled solo PotD). In case anyone else finds themselves in the same situation, here are a couple things I learned:

• Armor doesn't matter, since almost all of the damage they inflict is raw damage -- disintegrate or reaping knives. I replaced my heavy armor with Fleshbinder for this fight, for the healing; that seemed to work well.
• Since almost all the damage is raw, the Voidward ring is definitely worth it for this fight. 
• Deflection doesn't matter much, but high saves do. So ditch deflection-boosting items in favor of save-boosting items (especially fort saves). (The biggest obstacles (for me) in the fight were two things (a) avoiding getting killed by disintegrates, and (b) avoid getting paralyzed/terrified/etc too much, since they'll constantly regenerating, and you really need to keep up the constant damage in order to take one down. In both cases, you want to get your saves as high as you can to avoid these effects.)
• Since almost all of the bad things they do are based on duration effects, things which reduce hostile durations (Ring of the Solitary Wanderer, Mohara Wraps, Strand of Favor, Resolve-boosting items, etc.) are all really good.
• Food was a tricky choice: Mohara wraps boost might (which boosts DPS and fort saves), reduces hostile durations, and improves recovery time (which boosts DPS); that's what I went with. But I also spent a lot of time paralyzed and terrified, so Shark Soup might have been better. Hard to tell.
• Potions of Arcane Reflection can be really helpful, but you get hit by so many spells that they burn out very quickly. I was careful to time them right before disintegrates; with luck, they'll get reflected back at them and (with more luck) they'll tag themselves. With good timing, and good luck, you can get 1-2 of them to take themselves out this way. 

[whimper]

OK, I just managed to finish the SSS DLC with my goldpact/streetfighter (upscaled PotD solo). So, despite my earlier skepticism, it is doable. Just really, really hard (at least for me!).

 

The hardest fight for me was the Contest of the Seeker fight, described above. The other really hard fight was the last fight. I'll admit that I was exhausted enough at this point to cheese the final fight a bit; I ended up hiding on one side of the arena, and then luring them over to get killed one or two at a time. Anyway, in case anyone else also finds themselves trying to solo this fight, here are a couple comments:

• The little Ps have a nasty attack that inflicts a significant amount of raw damage over time (targeting fort save). And they use it pretty frequently. Things that boost fort save, reduce raw damage (Voidward ring), and reduce affliction duration effects (Ring of the Solitary Wanderer, Strand of Favor, Mohara Wraps) are really helpful here.
• Armor is important, and the Ps seem to change what kind of damage they do to target your weak armor. (When I wore armor weak to piercing their physical attacks were piercing, when I wore armor weak to bludgeoning, their physical attacks were bludgeoning.) So it's harder to get a high enough armor to completely ignore their physical attacks...
• The big P has a nasty grab attack, which inflicts a quick sequence of separate bludgeoning attacks that can add up to a lot of damage real quick. Fortunately, like many of the worst big boss attacks, it has limited range, and if you time it right, you can run away when you see them using it, and have them all miss. (Have to time this carefully though, sometimes when I ran away as soon as I saw it starting the ability, it just followed me and then hit me with it.)
• If you want to be a little cheesy, you can run turn invisible, run to the side of the arena, and then slowly venture back toward them. At some point one or two will sense you and run over to you, but the rest will stay there. Then you can dispatch those ones, and then start stepping toward the rest again... and so on. Unsurprisingly, this makes the fight a lot easier.
• If you want to be really cheesy, and hit the big P with a gouging strike and then hide... I'm pretty sure it won't work. The big P has an ability which allows them regenerate a bunch of damage. And while it doesn't seem to use it that frequently, it uses it frequently enough to make up for the damage a gouging strike inflicts.

  EDIT: Though thelee’s remarks, below, suggests that a version of this may be doable after all.

Edited October 12, 2018 by whimper

[thelee]

wow, good job on the solo!

 

quick note:

 

• If you want to be really cheesy, and hit the big P with a gouging strike and then hide... I'm pretty sure it won't work. The big P has an ability which allows them regenerate a bunch of damage. And while it doesn't seem to use it that frequently, it uses it frequently enough to make up for the damage a gouging strike inflicts

 

afaict from my attempts, it only uses it a few times early on... i think it must be triggered by specific (high) health thresholds, because in my several attempts it had the same usage pattern each time, and after the few early uses I never saw it use it again later into the fight (even as i dropped it into bloodied/near death territory).

[whimper]

wow, good job on the solo!

 

quick note:

 

 

• If you want to be really cheesy, and hit the big P with a gouging strike and then hide... I'm pretty sure it won't work. The big P has an ability which allows them regenerate a bunch of damage. And while it doesn't seem to use it that frequently, it uses it frequently enough to make up for the damage a gouging strike inflicts

afaict from my attempts, it only uses it a few times early on... i think it must be triggered by specific (high) health thresholds, because in my several attempts it had the same usage pattern each time, and after the few early uses I never saw it use it again later into the fight (even as i dropped it into bloodied/near death territory).

Interesting — so maybe the gouging strike tactic might work after all. Or, if the healing re-triggers when they hit a certain health threshold, it might be immune to the tactic unless you first get it below those health levels before you run off and hide.