Soloing PoE : Sucess so far ( Hard Dificulty Expert Mode )

[LastSoloer]

I just registred and I would like to share my solo XP on PoE. I saw this other post where the OP  claimed that he had a big difficulty soloing the game.

Well, I want now to share my own experience. WHen I got the game I wanted to play a Wizard class. I tend to play this class. THe early game was kind of frustrating due to the fact that first companion you can hire is nothing else but another damn wizard... HOwdy! This, far from being banal, its a huge impediment in the Wizard progress early game.

So I decided to reroll, and try to go solo since I really didnt like the combat system with my first game party ( 2 wizards 1 priest, terrible).

Here is my character, now he is lvl 6:

Druid

Race Fire Godlike

Stats ( Base )

Mig 18

Con 18

Dex 8 + 1 ( Godlike)

Per 8

Int 14 + 1 ( Godlike)

Rest 9 ( I expected to get bonus on this stat but so far no good items)

Druids Animal Form : Bear

The idea was this, to be tanky, to heal a lot and to damage my enemies with the Fire Godlike race ability ( Under 50% endurance deals fire damage to enemies ). The Bear form is just a great defense to hold with low hp while getting HP from the multiple HoT the Druid has.

The Godlike race is also good to get that +1 intelligence boost that helps on the AoE spells, the main dps source on this Druid build.

My tactic is to pull packs of enemies towards me and cast my aoe spells and then clean up with mele attacks in 1vs3 situations where my HoT make me very hard to be killed.

So far I have completed Act 1, I know is not much but I have done several quest that people tend to have probles with a entire 6 man party and I soloed without much trouble. I only had another member in party for a short time in Caed Nua with the Bard for roleplay purpose since both went heading to the same direction and wanted the same goal, to find a man.

I emptied almost the entire Raedric's Hold without facing Raedric's for same reasons ( Roleplay) but instead I  killed SPOILER ALERT his brother pretty easily.

I find the Druid a great class to solo, I dont know if I will find much more difficulties above. Im at Defiance Bay and I have already explored ahead killing multiple stacks of enemies in Wooden Plains and Stormwall Gorge. Also I have done several quest with the Crucible Knights ( SPOILER ALERT Up to the defense of the Crucible Keep from the forge Knights) with also needs in my opinon a decent build, solo or not, to face such quests and clearing those locations.

I would like to read opinions, also try to avoid spoiling me as much as you can but I would want to know if game turns much harder later on or if I have a chance of completing the game with a solo character.

Thanks for your time.

[Ansa]

Just stay on your toes, don't engage too hard enemies before proper level, watch your positioning, eat consumables before the fights, and you should be fine ))

[Zemalf]

Looking at your post, seems you missed the fighter companion in Gilded Vale, plus you could've hired custom tank from the Inn (which I did before I found the companion).

Related to soloing the game - I'm sure someone will eventually do it, but based on the hard difficulty party experience this game feels unsoloable and I'm not even that far into it.

[Mercbeast]

Looking at your post, seems you missed the fighter companion in Gilded Vale, plus you could've hired custom tank from the Inn (which I did before I found the companion).

Related to soloing the game - I'm sure someone will eventually do it, but based on the hard difficulty party experience this game feels unsoloable and I'm not even that far into it.

 

I think even POTD will be soloable likely with several classes. I've hit a point with my tank chanter where she pretty much can't be killed unless I do something extraordinarily silly.

[LastSoloer]

Looking at your post, seems you missed the fighter companion in Gilded Vale, plus you could've hired custom tank from the Inn (which I did before I found the companion).

Related to soloing the game - I'm sure someone will eventually do it, but based on the hard difficulty party experience this game feels unsoloable and I'm not even that far into it.

No, lol the idea was to solo the game. I just hired the Chanter for 2 reasons, cuz I love bards and because he specifically said that we could go along since we had the same pruporses. 

 

The other companions I met were more general. Plus the conversation with them are so cool even when you say you dont need them :D

 

Talking about food I use it its abasic. Every time before a fight, those small points in endurance and constitution can save the day, since my build is arround tanking and throwing HoT while my enemies die to my aoe spells.

 

What I fear most is if I will be able to solo the "Bosses". The Queen Spider wasnt a problem but I dont know if I will be able to kill the big mobs, we'll see! I've having so much fun so far and its so satisfying to play a solo Character in this game.

 

 

Maybe there could be an XP boost when you play alone or with fewer companions in your party. Idk if they are willing to add such thing or if they prefer to prevent solo characters to become way too powerfull by raising his lvl faster.

 

But the fact that I cannot do Stronghold's Task with my remaining companions since I have none, it will make me earn less xp overall.

Edited March 30, 2015 by LastSoloer

[Baron_Bathory]

Awesome thread! Seems to be a number of power gaming experiences already. Can you post more about strategies, gear, and rotations?

[LastSoloer]

Embrace the power of the Nature :

[LastSoloer]

Awesome thread! Seems to be a number of power gaming experiences already. Can you post more about strategies, gear, and rotations?

Ask specifically I will be glad to help.

 

Strategies? As I said pull the bad guys and try to be in contact with the fewer enemies as posible using the envrioment...ROcks Trees.... In the city is easier.

 

I use a plate armour and a 2h Sword they arent enchanted yet as I would like to. I would go for as many CC resist as posible and I want my 2h weapon to have the Draining ench ( I have a 1h weapon with this ech I use if things go bad). When I get a decent armour and 2h I will be glad to post my full build.

 

Rotations deppends on the enemy really... Generally I start with aoe spells  depending of number / resistances and then Bear form to  recover hp. Then I start cleaning. Crucible of the Soul is an important skill, a bit OP for druid IMO. Fear is also a basic skill to prevent enemies from hitting me.

 

When the enemies/enemy are fewer or only a big one I go for DoTs on that enemy and HoTs on myself, I want long combats where the enemies will get out of spells.

 

Food is important and my build is focushed on getting a lot of Survival. I got some Stealth early on but I think its a waste remaining points should go for Athletics.

Edited March 30, 2015 by LastSoloer

[Ansa]

Hahaha the corner cheese!

Nice place

[LastSoloer]

I must add that cheesing is the only viable way of beating most enemies, but I do it not only to beat the game as a challenge that is my pruporse, but because it fits in a roleplay atmosphere.

If you were surrounded by ghost or any other enemy, wouldnt you find a way of fighting the fewer foes as posible at one time?

Edited March 30, 2015 by LastSoloer

[Baron_Bathory]

Great guide thank you. Can't wait to read the full version when you make it. I'm huge on soloing so I've been trying to connect with "researchers in the field". Would make one myself if I had the time.

 

Good luck!

[LastSoloer]

Im doing the main quest now in Defiance Bay and I feel I have leveled up too much for these quests. I also feel I could be doing them in path of the damned without much trouble



I really need to find an armour and a 2h that fits to start considering having a build. I may try to have a medium armour so I cast faster, after all I think Im tanky enough.

Druid spells too powerfull. The spell sets of this game are amazing.

[cctobias]

For soloing has anyone tried making an absolutely, completely tank oriented Chanter (to the point of completely dumping Int) that basically get 3 quick phrases out that boost some defenses and then use a summon invocation?  I think you can even possibly make one with OK might and still max out PER and Resolve.

 

I am not sure if this would work great but although it sounds a little slow, a solo try is not gonna kill fast unless they use a lot of AOE.  The summons are "permanent" and have no AOE size.  You can get a summon out fairly fast and the phantom seems decently tough and does OK damage.  You can basically summon a phantom once per 12 sec using level phrase so once you get going you can probably keep stuff coming forever as long as you don't die and they should take some heat off you as well.

 

You can do it it right away from level 1 on as your basic strategy and you have some freedom to get a second non-summon invocation.  I am not sure how the summons work as far as limits.  I know resummoning the phantom will get rid of previous phantom.  Not sure if this is per Invocation or if there is a hard 1 summon limit.  If you can get multiple summons going this might be nice.  Even with one that you can do forever it might be a possible iron man strategy, I dunno.

 

The basic idea is that for summon none of the normal caster attributes matter at all.  The only thing that matter is doing phrases as fast as possible and that is fixed.  Do one level 1 phrase over and over (or alternate if you like).  Phrases are not affected by any speed stuff either.  So you could summon exactly the same in Plate Armor as in clothes.  Plus if you are going super tanky plate armor then you might as well ignore dex and could go max Per, max Resolve and some combo of Con/might to taste such that you can hit for at least ok melee damage and still have ok Vitality and Fortitude.  Then the only thing you care about Int/resolve for is to have adequate secondary defenses and can probably dump them.

[LastSoloer]

Int makes chants to last longer I dont think is that good idea to go with low Int imo. I have found that summ are not that strong. I will try it and compare. Anyway soloing means ur only character will always be stuck in combat and Im afraid Chant cant take as many hits as a Druid.

My idea was to go Cypher solo but I dont know about it either.

I will try and tell you how It looks like compare to Druid.

[cctobias]

Int makes chants to last longer I dont think is that good idea to go with low Int imo. I have found that summ are not that strong. I will try it and compare. Anyway soloing means ur only character will always be stuck in combat and Im afraid Chant cant take as many hits as a Druid.

 

My idea was to go Cypher solo but I dont know about it either.

 

I will try and tell you how It looks like compare to Druid.

 

Yeah I suspect it might just be too little damage and that even if it works it may be rather mind numbing.  The reason to go Int as dump is basically to ignore everything but melee and summons.  If you are repeating same phrase over and over then Int does literally nothing for you.

 

So you one buff and summons.  Focus all equipment and talents to defense, large shield, shield talents etc.  You will probably take the +10 Fort, Will buff I would think so that you can get paladin like defenses.  Class deflection is same as pally/fighter.  

 

This would basically utterly depend on two things:

 

-Can you make a chanter so tough defense wise that he can stand there long enough against anything.

-Are the summons good enough.  The phantom is ok in early levels.  The drake may be pretty good later on.  But I rather doubt they can take a dragon even if you keep resummoning.  I may be wrong though.  On the other hand if they draw aggro it may over time work out quite well.  This is where the mind numbing would come in  If you are really tough AND the summons take a lot of the damage, you might be able to peck away at things for ever.  

[Aqvamare]

I play Chanter path of the Doom solo run, i cleared first town temple...

 

first think, all trash mobs have around 60-70 defence stats, you have to play a combo from shild tank and runner, actually you clear as tank with your summon and flank bonus (to do actually damage hits around 5-15 damage...and not to miss). when you cleared the map big enough, you switch to kite tactic, you simply pull the 7-9 mob groups, so that they follow you, when they go back to there start area, you try to spit pull them, until you have only 1-2 mons you have to fight. summon phantom, get flank bonus and kill the mob.

 

rince and repeat.

 

I have on level 4 88 deflection 50+ on fort, 50+ on refelx, 40+ on will, but still run a race against death.

 

I'm not sure about druide and damage, my problem with druide is, that shifting override weapons, and you get a big loose on your stats...when this happens.

think druide in Doomed work only without shapeshifting.

[LastSoloer]

 

Int makes chants to last longer I dont think is that good idea to go with low Int imo. I have found that summ are not that strong. I will try it and compare. Anyway soloing means ur only character will always be stuck in combat and Im afraid Chant cant take as many hits as a Druid.

 

My idea was to go Cypher solo but I dont know about it either.

 

I will try and tell you how It looks like compare to Druid.

 

Yeah I suspect it might just be too little damage and that even if it works it may be rather mind numbing.  The reason to go Int as dump is basically to ignore everything but melee and summons.  If you are repeating same phrase over and over then Int does literally nothing for you.

 

So you one buff and summons.  Focus all equipment and talents to defense, large shield, shield talents etc.  You will probably take the +10 Fort, Will buff I would think so that you can get paladin like defenses.  Class deflection is same as pally/fighter.  

 

This would basically utterly depend on two things:

 

-Can you make a chanter so tough defense wise that he can stand there long enough against anything.

-Are the summons good enough.  The phantom is ok in early levels.  The drake may be pretty good later on.  But I rather doubt they can take a dragon even if you keep resummoning.  I may be wrong though.  On the other hand if they draw aggro it may over time work out quite well.  This is where the mind numbing would come in  If you are really tough AND the summons take a lot of the damage, you might be able to peck away at things for ever.  

 

I cant promise that I wil try, but I will try to try it. 

 

Anyway  I was about to complete what seemed to be Act II and now I Have to repeat main quest all over again ( from act 1) because an item bugged me. This item isDrinking Horn of Moderation and I suspect its the root of my problem that is my Int Stat keeps raising and raising and raising without end and without any bonus .

 

THe item works so that when you are over 50% ENDURANCE you get +2 Int. I suspect when yo uget below 50% endurance and you heal back you get the initial 2 plus 2 or maybe plus 4 and so on.

 

Pitty. I will be back when I finish Act II with news, things were promising and INT after all afected not much but the aoe and duration and never the damage or the amout of heal.

 

 

I play Chanter path of the Doom solo run, i cleared first town temple...

 

first think, all trash mobs have around 60-70 defence stats, you have to play a combo from shild tank and runner, actually you clear as tank with your summon and flank bonus (to do actually damage hits around 5-15 damage...and not to miss). when you cleared the map big enough, you switch to kite tactic, you simply pull the 7-9 mob groups, so that they follow you, when they go back to there start area, you try to spit pull them, until you have only 1-2 mons you have to fight. summon phantom, get flank bonus and kill the mob.

 

rince and repeat.

 

I have on level 4 88 deflection 50+ on fort, 50+ on refelx, 40+ on will, but still run a race against death.

 

I'm not sure about druide and damage, my problem with druide is, that shifting override weapons, and you get a big loose on your stats...when this happens.

think druide in Doomed work only without shapeshifting.

If your druid works without shapeshifting it works with it xD It has no sense to say that its a negative status. It brings you tankyness enough to recover hp and let your enemies die to your spells and mele damage when they hit you.

 

You guys seem not to find the point in shapeshifting, its not just a buff to clean people, its a way to ensure your survival and place some tempo during the fight.

Edited March 30, 2015 by LastSoloer

[Aqvamare]

The problem is, you loose the shild by shifting, 

 

my chanter gets from shild and talent, 16+6 = 22 deflection, with good stat on shild, +4 deflection...shild deflection is convertet into reflex status, +22-26 refelex (needed against many cast).

 

Again, from my ~80 defelction, my shild alone is 25%, +5 deflection from weapon...actually in path of doom I use only deflection weapon as chanter, rest of items do not enough damage. 

 

Means i got 30 deflection, which will vanish in the moment, I activate druide shapeshift.

 

And i need this defelction numbers, that acutally mobs like phantom miss you and do not perma stun your character.

 

Same goes why i need Fort defence over 50, with lower numbers, you will die in anglors anker, because the primitv will stunlock you there.

 

------------------------------------

 

My question is, how do you avoid to get stunlocked as druid?

 

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Again, I speak about Path of Doomed, were mobs get +50% to all there stats, HP, Accuracy, Defence...most annoying thing is accuracy bonus, because this works to all special attacks, too.

 

you are actually forced to skill every 2 level defence talents, because it is only way to get high enough resit to avoid sunlocks.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Aqvamare

[LastSoloer]

I  also get also perma stunned and perma blinded if I have no caution. I dont use shield because spiritshift is more than enough and shields plus heavy armour kinda makes things so slow for a caster.

Different difficulties different builds I dont think there is much point talking about it. I just post what works for me.

I will try next solo run on path of the damned and compare.

Edited March 30, 2015 by LastSoloer

[LastSoloer]

Almost back where I was, soon I will finish Act II. That bug was annoying I had to redo some quest in Defiance Bay... 

I dont think I would be able to advance on PotD... I will test this difficulty when I get some more progress on this character.

[Vizjerie]

What are you going to do when enemies have mind control? i know for a fact fampyres use it on single targets even if no ones around. 

or when banshees aoe paralyze or freeze people?

[LastSoloer]

I will get  as much resolve as I can afford.

And I've seen already items that give resistance to certain CC. ( I have atm a HEavy ARmour whose stats are : Sturdy: +20 defense against Prone Attacks, +15 defense against push attacks)

 

Edited March 31, 2015 by LastSoloer

[Arctic]

If you know the game... and avoid certain fights you can probably solo it with a good tank ... almost sure a warrior, fire goodlike will solo it,  Eder is almost unkillable and its not even optimiced .. 150 Deflection ...

 

So .. if you go with scion of flame ... and so ... i think it can be done. You will just need a loooot of time xD

[Arctic]

What are you going to do when enemies have mind control? i know for a fact fampyres use it on single targets even if no ones around. 

or when banshees aoe paralyze or freeze people?

 

i didnt see even one of those in main quest unavoidable fights ....

[LastSoloer]

Im clearing everything so far, anyway when they mind control you with one target, doesnt it work like Confuse? Enemies dont attack you then, I dont think they would if they control you.

The idea is also to clear as much of the game as I Can, Im playing like a guy with 6 man party would so far. I want to complete the game and see it all, I solo for roleplaying issues and because I really enjoy it not to beat a mark.

I bet if you solo and do a run through you can beat the game with most classes, maybe, I dunno, still dont know that much about the game. But the idea is to do what you guys do but with only one character.

I mean I even discovered bugs that I could exploit, I wont use them, any of them mechanic based bugs or not.

Edited March 31, 2015 by LastSoloer