Triple Crown - Order of the Stick

[illathid]

This is really cool. I'm a bit disappointed you didn't use screenshots from the comics for character portraits though.

[Aron Times]

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Aron Times

[Infares]

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

[Ceranai]

 

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

 

it depends, i find that dumping int on a chanter that stays in melee range is worthwhile as you will always hit mobs and allies near you and durations matter very little to you. But i tae you point, in general dumping a stat is almost always a bad idea

[Infares]

 

 

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

 

it depends, i find that dumping int on a chanter that stays in melee range is worthwhile as you will always hit mobs and allies near you and durations matter very little to you. But i tae you point, in general dumping a stat is almost always a bad idea

On hard or easier, dump the hell out of stats all you want. 

 

PotD will punish you for having bad resists, though.

[Ceranai]

 

 

 

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

 

it depends, i find that dumping int on a chanter that stays in melee range is worthwhile as you will always hit mobs and allies near you and durations matter very little to you. But i tae you point, in general dumping a stat is almost always a bad idea

On hard or easier, dump the hell out of stats all you want. 

 

PotD will punish you for having bad resists, though.

 

Will rarely comes int play though, and if you get perception (i think) you can make up for bad int TBH if ive learnt one thing from min maxing the hell out of my chanter its that your starting stats arent really that important compared to your gear and talents/spells

[Infares]

 

 

 

 

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

 

it depends, i find that dumping int on a chanter that stays in melee range is worthwhile as you will always hit mobs and allies near you and durations matter very little to you. But i tae you point, in general dumping a stat is almost always a bad idea

On hard or easier, dump the hell out of stats all you want. 

 

PotD will punish you for having bad resists, though.

 

Will rarely comes int play though, and if you get perception (i think) you can make up for bad int TBH if ive learnt one thing from min maxing the hell out of my chanter its that your starting stats arent really that important compared to your gear and talents/spells

The thing about will-gated attacks is mostly the fact that they tend to be really debilitating when they do happen. 

[Ceranai]

 

 

 

 

 

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

Thing of it is, even if you didn't have a personal rule against dumping stats, you still probably don't wanna do it on PotD anyways.

 

it depends, i find that dumping int on a chanter that stays in melee range is worthwhile as you will always hit mobs and allies near you and durations matter very little to you. But i tae you point, in general dumping a stat is almost always a bad idea

On hard or easier, dump the hell out of stats all you want. 

 

PotD will punish you for having bad resists, though.

 

Will rarely comes int play though, and if you get perception (i think) you can make up for bad int TBH if ive learnt one thing from min maxing the hell out of my chanter its that your starting stats arent really that important compared to your gear and talents/spells

The thing about will-gated attacks is mostly the fact that they tend to be really debilitating when they do happen. 

 

yea but unless you are in solo play you can afford one party member to be crippled by will attacks, and in solo play and kind of cc=death regardless of your will/fortitude/whatever.

[Aron Times]

tl;dr: The biggest threat to a Triple Crown party is the game itself.

 

The Order's first ever combat encounter started poorly, much like the real Order's first encounter in On the Origin of PCs (the first prequel book to the series). In OOPCs, the party was unused to fighting together and ended up dealing a ton of friendly fire damage to each other. In PoE, my party almost died due to poor positioning, with the ranged fighters stuck in front and unable to retreat because the melee fighters were blocking them. Also, if they tried to retreat, the wolves would get disengagement attacks against them. Eventually, I prevailed, and managed to take out not just the wolves, but the bandits that held the Tenfrith hostage (he's the cook of the Black Hound Inn).

 

 

I then went into the bear cave to finish a side quest. Again, my main enemy was poor positioning and accidental disengagement. The latter is caused primarily by the difficulty in telling apart which party members are selected or not. Selected party members have very slightly brighter green circles under them compared to unselected party members. They also have a very subtle golden outline on their portrait, but this isn't very noticeable in the heat of battle. I kept moving several party members by accident and triggering disengagement attacks because I didn't know that I had them selected. I absolutely hate having to fight the game mechanics like this, and this needs to be changed. It should be more obvious which characters you have selected and which ones aren't.

 

Also, the left click to select and left click to attack or move control scheme (Command & Conquer style) is terrible because it's too easy to order a character to move and eat disengagement attacks when you're trying to select another character. I know it's classic RTS controls, but there's a very good reason why modern RTS games (as well as RPGs which use RTS controls like PoE) go with a left click to select and right click to attack or move control scheme (i.e. Warcraft style) because it makes it much harder to screw up.

 

 

In Magran's Fork, I ran into a large group of wolves. It wasn't much of a challenge, and the only reason I had a downed party member was because of accidental disengagement (I thought I had someone else selected when I ordered him to attack another target). I've found that Elan's summoned spectre synergizes very well with Haley's Sneak Attack, allowing the couple to pick off tough targets one by one. For the nth time, I lost a party member because of accidental disengagement.

 

 

I then ran into a wizard and her mercenary paladins.

 

 

They weren't much of a threat. Vaarsuvius's Slicken spell pretty much ended the fight before it even began, though the wizard did manage to take out Haley with a Necrotic Lance right before she got killed.

 

 

And finally, the Order encounters a pack of boars. I actually took out a lot of them but the survivors managed to surround and take out Roy and then kill Durkon. With my front lines down, the boars managed to take out the rest of the party. This was harder than it should've been because the non-transparent trees blocked my view of my party members. When Durkon was about to fall, I tried moving Elan to the front lines because he's my third tankiest character. However, I didn't notice that Elan was using a scepter and not his rapier, and that he was all the way in the back of the group, thus, Vaarsuvius and Haley tried to tank the boars while Belkar and Elan stood in the back.

 

 

To sum it up: The reason why the Order of the Stick died wasn't because they had terrible builds. Their builds were actually pretty good, and could easily take out all of their previous encounters if not for stupid interface and control elements. From the difficulty in telling apart which characters are selected, to figuring out where each character is standing due to lack of background transparency, to the accidental disengagement due to the left click to select, left click to move controls, truly, the group's greatest threat wasn't the monsters that it faced, but rather the game itself.

[fiesher]

Quite a story, I enjoyed the whole process. Thanks for the entertainment and info

[Infares]

I'm sure a lot of TC attempts end before Magran's Fork, lol. At least you didn't attempt the Temple of Eothas before that point. 

[knownastherat]

The stat distribution is a compromise between lore and functionality. Also, I have a rule of never dumping a stat, which means no stat below 10 at all. And finally, the journey matters as much as the destination, so if this attempt fails, then it simply means that I need to try something else.

 

Unlike some of you, I'm doing this both for myself and for bragging rights with others. I've always played legitimately in my TCS attempts, and after four failed attempts, I decided to go for the lesser achievement that is Triple Crown, which is much less luck based than TCS.

 

I can understand that. just no stats bellow 10 is artificial from  every point of view I can think of, lore and realism included. But do not mind me, its your game not mine.

 

I am looking forward your finding during this journey

 

 

edit: they died because they attacked boars. you leave boars alone

Edited April 11, 2015 by knownastherat

[Ceranai]

lol so they died because you let yourself get swarmed XD

[knownastherat]

Just leave them alone, they got nothing valuable or? Attacking boars in triple crown? Alright

[Incendax]

Tackling that group of boars is pretty dangerous in Triple Crown.
However, I do not think there is a big problem telling which character is selected.
There is a dramatic difference in color and brightness for selected characters.
But even if there was not, the fact that you suffered so many engagement attacks says you're not paying attention.
One of those Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice things.
Definitely need to focus for Triple Crown.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Incendax

[Jajo]

V is a she?!?

[Incendax]

V is a she?!?

Maybe. Nobody knows! That's the joke.