Help on Helwalker Solo Build

[SilverArrowsMP]

2 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Solo is an official game mode that you have to choose from the game menu before starting a playthrough. It prevents you from adding somebody to the party but you can still meet Edér and talk to him. Once you both land on the beaches of Maje Island you can kill him and he will drop his gear, including the Saint's Armor. No need to do it before then. If you kill him during the ship fight he will be gone but drop no loot. I never tried to kill him right after waking up on he ship - but as I said you don't need to.

if you don't activate the solo mode you can still play solo of course (by not adding somebody to your party or just removing them manually) - but it's not "officially" recognized as a solo run (for the sake of achievements for example). If you want to kill a party member you have to knock them out four times to they get more than 3 injuries. This will kill them permenently. But in order to ge the gear you can simply take it from them in the inventory screen and then remove them from the party roster the normal way. No need for killing then. 

In solo mode the is no alternative to killing Edér (or get him killed by luring several boars to him maybe?) in order to get the Saint's War Armor. 

Thanks @Boeroer. Completely forgot about the solo option tic.

Another question... how do I lower my FF ability Curse duration? I tried using the stats @mepp22 listed above (8 Might, 10 Constitution, 10 Dexterity, 19 Perception, 12 Intellect, 18 Resolve) and with BB my FF curse duration was like 7.6 seconds at level 4 (6.0 Base + 5% Monk Power Level + 20% Intellect) . I know Clarity will help with this, but is my only option beyond that to just keep stacking Resolve? Lower INT, but then wouldn't that reduce AoE of Keeper of the Flame? Or is that not really as important?

I did another FF character prior, and even at 5 INT, the curse duration at level 20 was still around 6.5 seconds.

[Boeroer]

16 hours ago, SilverArrowsMP said:

Another question... how do I lower my FF ability Curse duration? 

The higher Resolve the shorter the curse: at 35 Resolve that's -75% hostile effect duration
The lower Intellect the shorter the curse: at 1 INT (achievable with the Ring of Mule's Wit) it would be -45% - I don't recommend to dump INT though, because as you said it als has negative effects on AoE size and the duration of benefical effects. Also Resistances don't work well with Forbidden Fist - and the Ring grants some. 

Besides that there are several items, abilities and consumables that can reduce the duration for a FF without drawbacks. Items will stack their effects, Consumables will not stack their effects. The bold ones are the most important imo:

• Abilities
  • Clarity of Agony (as you mentioned, -5sec right away and then -50% hostile effect duration)
• Items
  • Ring of the Solitary Wanderer (-35% hostile effect duration)
  • Strand of Favor (-10%)
  • Cabalist's Gambeson (-10%)
  • Outworn Buckler (-5% or -10% if he bearer is a Darcozzi Paladin - works in an AoE) 
  • Burden (up tp -20%)
• Food/Drink
  • Khapa Leaf (-15%)
  • Khapa Tea (-25%)
  • Mohora Wraps (-30%)
• Drugs
  • Svef (-25% - don't recommend bc. of added Resistances)
• Potions
  • Potion of Cleansing Purge (-25%)
  • Potion of Major Recovery (-10sec)

Maybe I missed something, but that's about it I guess. Clarity of Agony costs 2 wounds so it's always a tradeoff and you have to consider if using it is worth it. If you want to spam FF ability it often is worth it imo. The Ring is a no-brainer. Best food is obv. Mohora Wraps and I use it as soon as it's sustainable. But Khapa Leaf is always a good and cheap alternative. I wouldn't use Khapa Tea against enemies who do actually use weak poison or disease (see Coral Naga) because the tea makes you immune and thus you won't get wounds from the poison effect -  which is not desirable.

The effect of the Outworn Buckler seems low and when going solo it doesn't even profit a party, BUT it always gets applied as soon as you switch to it. This stacks with itself, so if you have a hostile effect of 10 secs it will get reduced by 5% to 9.5. If you switch to it again (use a copy of the shield in a second setup) it will reduce the 9.5 secs by 5% and so on and so forth. This even works when the game is paused. You can switch weapon sets during pause so it's possible to reduce all hostile effects to nothing just by switching the shield back and forth. It only costs the switching recovery (one time). A Black Jacket/FF could even circumvent that recovery.   
 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Boeroer