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

[Aqvamare]

spider legs drop also in the map before raedrics hold...

 

and you do not want fort to be immun against stun, you want enough fort defence, to get a window againt 1 phantom to burn the group beind him into the ground. you need circa 68 fort defence, that the windows are big enough.

 

if you have lore 4, you can alternative use sunburn spell, in the phantom room. run straith to the door in the right left corner...than boyblock a shadow (which ports in the door and is faster than phantoms) deactivate under options auto attack for characters

 

now burn the phantoms into the ground.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Aqvamare

[Ninjerk]

I agree they should care in general.

[Xionanx]

Maybe its just **** luck then on spider leg drops, since AFAIK you aren't 100% going to get them every kill, and also AFAIK monsters dont respawn.  If they did then we wouldn't be having this discussion, as I would just go "farm" some legs.

[LastSoloer]

I agree with Xionanx if you claim you have beaten the game you better bring proof. Screenshots over videos, specially on stats and bonus.

[AgentElrond]

I've never seen the famished spear spider in the tutorial NOT drop a leg, though I've seen the skuldr whelps or whatever in that area only sometimes leave an ear.

 

I haven't killed the Black Meadow spear spider to know if it always drops a leg.

[knownastherat]

It is possible to get spider legs relatively early so its luck. At least as legs go.  Are there any in the temple? I have 3 on me at lvl 4 before temple.

[curi]

Calling Shenanigans on anyone claiming stun locking phantoms aren't a problem.  They have a 61 Accuracy on their stun, meaning that you need a 61 minimum just for them to "miss" you 15% of the time.  With a 90 as has been claimed is enough to "beat" their stun, you still get stunned often enough to be locked:

 

61 - 90 = -29  |  100 - 29 = 71  |  71 - 15 = 56

 

56% of the time you will be Grazed or Hit.   Grazes, at least for me, last for 1.8 Seconds.  Which also happens to be enough time for them to hit you again, since they seem to be attack 1 time per sec.  As far as I can tell, unless you are extremely lucky, a single phantom can keep you permanently stun locked while solo.

 

If you really wanted to make yourself "immune" you need to hit 146 Fortitude by my math, which just isn't achievable at level 4 when you first run into them.

 

Also, how are you guys getting the mats to make FoF scrolls?  2x I have play up to Caed Nau, and both time I have exactly ONE spider leg.. so at most I can make ONE scroll, much less 4?  or more?

 

I am not going to believe anyone has beaten PoTD solo unless they do a complete, unedited, live play-through.  Doesn't even have to be expert & iron-man, reload all you want.

 

i don't get it. with 90, they miss 44% and only hit 21% of the time. you get some actions off. just try it. did you think stun durations would keep adding up over time? stuff like that doesn't stack. it'll keep resetting to 1.8 seconds a few times in a row, then you get some better luck and get a few actions off. and if they go hit graze, it doesn't really matter, you took an extra couple points of damage. i think all a hit really gets them is if they miss immediately after it doesn't help you.

 

also don't they have to get past your deflection before getting a roll on your fort? so that improves the odds some.

 

i think you might have problems for different reasons. this is with the big shield and draining mace. it makes you more tanky. and brigandine and the 5 frost damage reduction cloak. so you can be stunned some of the time but you live quite a while, enough to get off a few swings and a few spells. and withdraw casts super fast if you need to do that.

 

your math doesn't show any kind of stun lock. you didn't factor in their attack speed and how every graze/miss or miss/miss combo you get an action, basically, which happens a lot more than never, it happens pretty often.

 

you really truly think a level 4 priest with 90 stun defense can't fight one phantom in melee WITH RELOADS and win?

Edited April 5, 2015 by curi

[Xionanx]

 

Calling Shenanigans on anyone claiming stun locking phantoms aren't a problem.  They have a 61 Accuracy on their stun, meaning that you need a 61 minimum just for them to "miss" you 15% of the time.  With a 90 as has been claimed is enough to "beat" their stun, you still get stunned often enough to be locked:

 

61 - 90 = -29  |  100 - 29 = 71  |  71 - 15 = 56

 

56% of the time you will be Grazed or Hit.   Grazes, at least for me, last for 1.8 Seconds.  Which also happens to be enough time for them to hit you again, since they seem to be attack 1 time per sec.  As far as I can tell, unless you are extremely lucky, a single phantom can keep you permanently stun locked while solo.

 

If you really wanted to make yourself "immune" you need to hit 146 Fortitude by my math, which just isn't achievable at level 4 when you first run into them.

 

Also, how are you guys getting the mats to make FoF scrolls?  2x I have play up to Caed Nau, and both time I have exactly ONE spider leg.. so at most I can make ONE scroll, much less 4?  or more?

 

I am not going to believe anyone has beaten PoTD solo unless they do a complete, unedited, live play-through.  Doesn't even have to be expert & iron-man, reload all you want.

 

i don't get it. with 90, they miss 44% and only hit 21% of the time. you get some actions off. just try it. did you think stun durations would keep adding up over time? stuff like that doesn't stack. it'll keep resetting to 1.8 seconds a few times in a row, then you get some better luck and get a few actions off. and if they go hit graze, it doesn't really matter, you took an extra couple points of damage. i think all a hit really gets them is if they miss immediately after it doesn't help you.

 

also don't they have to get past your deflection before getting a roll on your fort? so that improves the odds some.

 

i think you might have problems for different reasons. this is with the big shield and draining mace. it makes you more tanky. and brigandine and the 5 frost damage reduction cloak. so you can be stunned some of the time but you live quite a while, enough to get off a few swings and a few spells. and withdraw casts super fast if you need to do that.

 

your math doesn't show any kind of stun lock. you didn't factor in their attack speed and how every graze/miss or miss/miss combo you get an action, basically, which happens a lot more than never, it happens pretty often.

 

you really truly think a level 4 priest with 90 stun defense can't fight one phantom in melee WITH RELOADS and win?

 

 

As soon as you get hit the 1st time your deflection goes down due to being stunned, meaning its easier for them to hit you.

 

Assuming normal odd with an attack rate of 1 attack per second and a resetting 1.8 duration, that means that if you are lucky...  getting hit once, and missed once, you will have exactly 0.2 seconds to complete an action before you are stunned again..  So no, I dont think its a plausible tactic.

 

I have tried soloing a single phantom with:

Rogue

Barbarian

Chanter

Ranger+Pet

Fighter

Paladin

 

With various combinations of Race thrown in.  I even tried Pale Elf for the 10 Freeze DR, doesn't help.  I just can't reasonably get enough deflection/fort to stand toe to toe with a phantom.  Now.. a strategy that DOES work consistently solo is a chanter + horn + running away + summoning.  However I can't get it to work well enough to trust attempting it in Iron Man mode, which is my ultimate goal.  

 

I want 100% reproducible consistent tactics for dealing with particular areas.  Sneaking only gets so far, eventually you HAVE to fight some things.  So what I have been doing is making level 4 characters over and over and trying to get thru Caed nua with different builds and gear that is obtainable at this point in the game.

 

I can't rely on "Chance" that I'll get scroll mats, or potion mats..  I haven't tried a Wizard yet.. 

[curi]

if you want to do ironman, just shoot the phantom with a bow. you can kill it without getting attacked. with skill, i think you can clear the whole caed nua outdoors without getting attacked by a phantom. (or if using chanter, get your summon to tank and shoot with bow. maybe you can go melee for flanking but it might retarget you, i'm not sure, but bow way is safe)

 

it's basically safe for 90 fort priest to melee though, because i think withdraw actually does cast in under .2 seconds or whatever the time limit is for the small windows. it's really fast.

 

you seem to have avoided casters in your testing. if i don't use figurine or any spells, i agree i wouldn't beat a phantom 1 vs 1 with my priest (and maybe not with better stats from another class, i don't know). the point is just you don't get 100% stun locked, you can get some spells off and attack a little to finish it off if needed. divine mark does a lot of damage. if 2 out of 3 divine marks miss, then you'll have to cast some barbs or use withdraw (and then either rest or start bow kiting) or use figurine or reload.

 

the really hard part is the indoors part. i used figurine + chokepoint, use my spells, killed 2-3 guys (i forget which, best guess is 1 shadow 2 phantom for the first fight), and used withdraw so the remaining guys walked away. then i rested. then, second fight, i killed the rest of that group. (except 1 shadow didn't come and got killed alone after). for other classes without Withdraw, this is a big problem.

 

and for ironman, it needs a lot of testing for priest too. because whether you get out of combat by using withdraw kind of depends on pathing and AI. it's possible for them to run into each other and get stuck and just sit there until withdraw runs out, depending how many are left alive and positioning. and if you go out in the open and use withdraw, then they definitely won't get stuck but you will usually not get out of combat, they walk up, walk away, and combat ends with them still in range to instantly restart combat. 

 

look i think you have some good points and this stuff is worth analyzing in detail, but i didn't like the implication that maybe i cheated. i certainly didn't ironman this – i only speculated about how that could be possible – but i totally did kill phantoms with priest, try out kiting with bow, etc. i agree some stuff in this thread isn't ironman safe and involves some rng, but you sorta accused a bunch of ppl of being unable to do stuff even with mass reloading, which i don't think is fair. 100% reproducible and possible with mass reloading are really different standards. i'm interesting in what's ironman safe too btw. that is one of the reasons i was testing priest – withdraw adds a lot of ironman safety in a lot of situations, by letting you get out of many fights and go back to the inn if you get bad rng. and it lets you kill one guy and get out of combat in a lot of places, so you can do a pack using multiple rests if needed. (rogue has an escape too, which is awesome, but priest has seals and other spells, can spam level 1 and 2 spells at high levels, so that seemed significantly more appealing than rogue overall)

 

i don't know anything about the odds of getting spider legs. what's cool is once you pass maerwald, you get access to tons of shops and your stronghold can generate ingredients (both plants and monster parts, but not gems, so i guess that puts a limit on things), and you can get some more figurines and things get nicer. but yeah even stuff like being able to craft enough flame scrolls before you have stronghold are a legitimate concern.

 

also i'm pretty sure you can get level 5 before doing the indoor phantoms. that's a BIG deal on casters, e.g. 2 of the shock seals for priest.

Edited April 5, 2015 by curi

[LastSoloer]

I kill packs of 4 phantoms you guys overthink too much

Ofc I wouldnt play ironman solo for this same reason

[Xionanx]

I kill packs of 4 phantoms you guys overthink too much

 

Ofc I wouldnt play ironman solo for this same reason

 

By all means elaborate how you solo packs of 4 phantoms on PoTD

[Mipsy]

Any Monk players here who progressed very far at Potd yet?

 

Rly unsure what stats at the beginning: Guess high might for sure...but rly low con/dex for Potd ? And high per and res? Guess res. makes sense bec. of some debuffs later but i feel a bit +unsecure+ with so low con /hp.

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would.

 

I started off with

 

16 Might

15 Con

19 Dex

10 Per

08 Int

10 Res

 

Might is useful for punching through DR which is sort of a problem for big bosses that come alone.

Con is useful as a buffer against casters. Raedric's Castle is an example of this. If you don't have enough con you will get bursted down instantly.

Dex is useful in general as a means to spam skills to get rid of wounds. You don't need as much of this if you're using a turning wheel passive monk build.

Per, Res are mainly defensive stats and are primarily used for their deflection

Int determines the AoE size of your torment's reach. Dumping int too low to something like 3 will make it so small that it wont hit the creatures behind the initial target.

[LastSoloer]

 

I kill packs of 4 phantoms you guys overthink too much

 

Ofc I wouldnt play ironman solo for this same reason

 

By all means elaborate how you solo packs of 4 phantoms on PoTD

 

On PotD i dont but it doesnt matter I would follow the same tactic. YOu pull leaving shadows in front hitting you phantom behind, You call spells only hitting phantom then you clear.

 

Thats why casters are the way to go in my opinion. Anyway if you ahve problems with Phantoms on PotD I dont think you will be able to beat the game. We may be missing smt here. 

 

I would like to start a wizard on potd but that bug ruined my first run... ( I really need to beat the game before PotD)

[Mipsy]

 

 

Calling Shenanigans on anyone claiming stun locking phantoms aren't a problem.  They have a 61 Accuracy on their stun, meaning that you need a 61 minimum just for them to "miss" you 15% of the time.  With a 90 as has been claimed is enough to "beat" their stun, you still get stunned often enough to be locked:

 

61 - 90 = -29  |  100 - 29 = 71  |  71 - 15 = 56

 

56% of the time you will be Grazed or Hit.   Grazes, at least for me, last for 1.8 Seconds.  Which also happens to be enough time for them to hit you again, since they seem to be attack 1 time per sec.  As far as I can tell, unless you are extremely lucky, a single phantom can keep you permanently stun locked while solo.

 

If you really wanted to make yourself "immune" you need to hit 146 Fortitude by my math, which just isn't achievable at level 4 when you first run into them.

 

Also, how are you guys getting the mats to make FoF scrolls?  2x I have play up to Caed Nau, and both time I have exactly ONE spider leg.. so at most I can make ONE scroll, much less 4?  or more?

 

I am not going to believe anyone has beaten PoTD solo unless they do a complete, unedited, live play-through.  Doesn't even have to be expert & iron-man, reload all you want.

 

i don't get it. with 90, they miss 44% and only hit 21% of the time. you get some actions off. just try it. did you think stun durations would keep adding up over time? stuff like that doesn't stack. it'll keep resetting to 1.8 seconds a few times in a row, then you get some better luck and get a few actions off. and if they go hit graze, it doesn't really matter, you took an extra couple points of damage. i think all a hit really gets them is if they miss immediately after it doesn't help you.

 

also don't they have to get past your deflection before getting a roll on your fort? so that improves the odds some.

 

i think you might have problems for different reasons. this is with the big shield and draining mace. it makes you more tanky. and brigandine and the 5 frost damage reduction cloak. so you can be stunned some of the time but you live quite a while, enough to get off a few swings and a few spells. and withdraw casts super fast if you need to do that.

 

your math doesn't show any kind of stun lock. you didn't factor in their attack speed and how every graze/miss or miss/miss combo you get an action, basically, which happens a lot more than never, it happens pretty often.

 

you really truly think a level 4 priest with 90 stun defense can't fight one phantom in melee WITH RELOADS and win?

 

 

As soon as you get hit the 1st time your deflection goes down due to being stunned, meaning its easier for them to hit you.

 

Assuming normal odd with an attack rate of 1 attack per second and a resetting 1.8 duration, that means that if you are lucky...  getting hit once, and missed once, you will have exactly 0.2 seconds to complete an action before you are stunned again..  So no, I dont think its a plausible tactic.

 

I have tried soloing a single phantom with:

Rogue

Barbarian

Chanter

Ranger+Pet

Fighter

Paladin

 

With various combinations of Race thrown in.  I even tried Pale Elf for the 10 Freeze DR, doesn't help.  I just can't reasonably get enough deflection/fort to stand toe to toe with a phantom.  Now.. a strategy that DOES work consistently solo is a chanter + horn + running away + summoning.  However I can't get it to work well enough to trust attempting it in Iron Man mode, which is my ultimate goal.  

 

I want 100% reproducible consistent tactics for dealing with particular areas.  Sneaking only gets so far, eventually you HAVE to fight some things.  So what I have been doing is making level 4 characters over and over and trying to get thru Caed nua with different builds and gear that is obtainable at this point in the game.

 

I can't rely on "Chance" that I'll get scroll mats, or potion mats..  I haven't tried a Wizard yet.. 

 

Edit

 

I think I ran 2 characters before I got the phantoms down. To be honest I'd say the best way to do it is to get the Rymrgand (Spelling?) Cloak and use armor that negates their damage totally. In terms of stunlock, there are multiple factors that I paid attention to. 

 

Deflection

Fort

Recovery

DR

 

Each one of these is important when dealing with early stunlock. The hardest phantom fight occurs in the Main Entrance of the Keep in Caed Nua since there's no room to kite and you have to fight 5-6 in succession. Bottlenecking them in the lower right or lower left corner of the room (before the stairs) is your best bet. It's going to be a long fight so make sure you're fully buffed with food and rest bonuses. Summoning with the Bronze Horn Figurine here is really important and you need the scenario to constantly be 1 Phantom attacking vs You and your summon. Your character has to tank, he has to take almost no damage and the Figurine has to whittle down the HP of the phantoms. You might get attacks in randomly depending on the DEX and recovery speed of your character. Once you get too low 'retreat' with your main character into the farther area of the wall, chug potions to heal up and swap back with the figurine. You can also use a bow here if you'd like. 

 

I think I spent a total of 3 hours stuck on this portion with a character that had 

 

Below Average Deflection

Above Average Fort

Extremely High Recovery Speed

Extremely High DR to Frost

[LastSoloer]

 

Any Monk players here who progressed very far at Potd yet?

 

Rly unsure what stats at the beginning: Guess high might for sure...but rly low con/dex for Potd ? And high per and res? Guess res. makes sense bec. of some debuffs later but i feel a bit +unsecure+ with so low con /hp.

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would.

 

 

I know we have been pm'ing but how much have you been clearing from act II and III so far

 

ANd please cut down your quotes holly ****

Edited April 5, 2015 by LastSoloer

[curi]

 

I kill packs of 4 phantoms you guys overthink too much

 

Ofc I wouldnt play ironman solo for this same reason

 

By all means elaborate how you solo packs of 4 phantoms on PoTD

 

 

he is playing on hard not potd.

[Mipsy]

 

 

Any Monk players here who progressed very far at Potd yet?

 

Rly unsure what stats at the beginning: Guess high might for sure...but rly low con/dex for Potd ? And high per and res? Guess res. makes sense bec. of some debuffs later but i feel a bit +unsecure+ with so low con /hp.

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would.

 

 

I know we have been pm'ing but how much have you been clearing from act II and III so far

 

ANd please cut down your quotes holly ****

 

Uhh cut down the quotes? D:

 

I fully cleared each act before moving on to the next one. This includes things like bounties and all side quests. I'm currently on the latter part of act 3. I'm not entirely sure if there's an act 4 though.

[curi]

 

Any Monk players here who progressed very far at Potd yet?

 

Rly unsure what stats at the beginning: Guess high might for sure...but rly low con/dex for Potd ? And high per and res? Guess res. makes sense bec. of some debuffs later but i feel a bit +unsecure+ with so low con /hp.

I'm on act 3 with a solo PotD monk. Currently stuck on a boss fight there but I'm gonna try to make it work. In terms of stats you really need something moderately balanced. You can't go too far in one direction. If I could change my build now I would.

 

I started off with

 

16 Might

15 Con

19 Dex

10 Per

08 Int

10 Res

 

Might is useful for punching through DR which is sort of a problem for big bosses that come alone.

Con is useful as a buffer against casters. Raedric's Castle is an example of this. If you don't have enough con you will get bursted down instantly.

Dex is useful in general as a means to spam skills to get rid of wounds. You don't need as much of this if you're using a turning wheel passive monk build.

Per, Res are mainly defensive stats and are primarily used for their deflection

Int determines the AoE size of your torment's reach. Dumping int too low to something like 3 will make it so small that it wont hit the creatures behind the initial target.

 

 

a minor tip about stats is you can use the rounding bug. if you try 9per 10res instead of 10 and 10, i believe your deflection will come out the same (it seems to be +1 to a defense if your stats for a particular defense type add up to a negative number). also i'd probably recommend 3per 16res instead because you get reflex from dex and from sword/shield talent, and because i think concentration would be more useful than interrupt. correct me if i'm wrong.

[LastSoloer]

Well impressive. You may be able to beat the game after all

[Mipsy]

Yeah like I said if I knew as much then as I did now about stats I would've made my monk very different. This even includes the skills/talents that I've chosen.

[boon]

 

As soon as you get hit the 1st time your deflection goes down due to being stunned, meaning its easier for them to hit you.

 

Assuming normal odd with an attack rate of 1 attack per second and a resetting 1.8 duration, that means that if you are lucky...  getting hit once, and missed once, you will have exactly 0.2 seconds to complete an action before you are stunned again..  So no, I dont think its a plausible tactic.

 

I have tried soloing a single phantom with:

Rogue

Barbarian

Chanter

Ranger+Pet

Fighter

Paladin

 

With various combinations of Race thrown in.  I even tried Pale Elf for the 10 Freeze DR, doesn't help.  I just can't reasonably get enough deflection/fort to stand toe to toe with a phantom.  Now.. a strategy that DOES work consistently solo is a chanter + horn + running away + summoning.  However I can't get it to work well enough to trust attempting it in Iron Man mode, which is my ultimate goal.  

 

I want 100% reproducible consistent tactics for dealing with particular areas.  Sneaking only gets so far, eventually you HAVE to fight some things.  So what I have been doing is making level 4 characters over and over and trying to get thru Caed nua with different builds and gear that is obtainable at this point in the game.

 

I can't rely on "Chance" that I'll get scroll mats, or potion mats..  I haven't tried a Wizard yet.. 

 

 

I haven't tried a solo Wizard either but it is one of my favorite classes. Started a POTD game last night with a monk and hired a wizard, at lvl 3 I got bulwark of the elements on her since she could get the other spells from Aloth's book. Bulwark let her tank the ghosts and fan of flames them down. Not sure if you could use this for a solo run but just wanted to give ya an idea.

[Sepsetto]

 

My kills finally boss (spoiler alert!) on Chanter (potd). Bug or not?

 

It would be good that you post the stats so we know how legit that build is. Like pretty much basic. 

 

ok

 

[curi]

Sepsetto, thank you for showing your build. one question. could you tell me what your stats (might/con/dex/etc) were at level 1?

 

EDIT: i think they were 10 19 3 2

Edited April 5, 2015 by curi

[Infares]

 

Did the Ancient Memories nerf hit this build very hard, or have you yet to upgrade to 1.03?

[Lasci]

Yeah like I said if I knew as much then as I did now about stats I would've made my monk very different. This even includes the skills/talents that I've chosen.

 

How would you have changed things, if you were to redo it?