Fully recorded Paladin Triple Crown Solo

[MalleGT]

Hello everyone. I have been lurking and actively reading these forums ever since Pillars was released, but never got around to contributing. I have been doing TCS runs since early April, managing to finish three classes alongside countless failures. Some of you will have seen the original TCS monk fight against Thaos that I posted, an achievement in itself, it did not validate the rest of the run. People always question the legitimacy of a run, especially S/L abuse and the inventory spam attack glitch present in numerous "legit" runs. I am therefore very happy to finally have completed a fully recorded, partially live streamed TCS run last night, attempted as a human Paladin. 

 

The recordings can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0liOWFi-LvjJJMyqqAbUjA/videos The only editing done, is cutting the boss fight from a 4 hour clip it was a part of. The last four to five hours of footage are also present in my stream archives, under the same nickname on Twitch.

 

Character specs can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/jocAj Starting point allocation in first recording. The screenshots were taken from save file before Thaos, after completing the run.

 

Some information about the run for those not interested in video footage. The run took around 11 hours and 30 minutes. Quests that I did not complete were Caed Nua, lighthouse, Dozens and Knights advanced faction quests, bounties, sanguine plate quest. I also resolved Sky Dragon diplomatically, but cleared Searing Falls for Tidefall. I completed all sidequests in Act I for level 5 before attempting Caed Nua. Paladin struggles with packs of trashmobs but excels at taking out strong opponents that are few in number, such as the Thaos fight. My character got knocked out once in Dyrford Crossing, but I was able to escape with a summon and reset combat to stand back up. I also had Ring of Wonder equipped but presume the second chance on it is bugged, unlike the Saints War Armor. The run featured excessive use of summons, but no scrolls or petrify etc. I chose Bleak Walker simply due to being most familiar with their favoured dispositions and having no interest in using a test character to check on dialogue choices.

 

 

There you have it, feel free to comment, ask questions or point out other classes with recorded TCS runs, I would be interested in checking them out!

[faraday]

100% legit TCS (w/o any reloads!!) is amazing. Are there any other videos of complete playthroughs of this or is this the first? 

It would be awesome to see a basic guide/writeup of your key strategies. Just from watching it looks like you have a really honed path through the game, of which parts of which areas, and which quests you can do at each level, and which to avoid. 

Really well done.

[the streaker]

Congrats, that's quite the achievement

Also, not to say yours or any other TCS run is not legitimate, but unless it's 100% streamed, there is always the potential of backing up saves and restarting from the last save point at every break in recording (in your case, 6 parts on youtube). The first 100% confirmed legit TCS run will be the one that is streamed live, I think.

Edited May 10, 2015 by the streaker

[MalleGT]

Thank you faraday and the streaker. According to Steam I have just under 200 hours of TCS runs under my belt, I found the mode captivating after my first party based playthrough. There are two key points I think people should realize about the mode. Starting character matters very little as every class/race can clear Act I, and doing so means every class/race can reach endgame. Secondly, Thaos is the only fight which really matters when thinking about levelling and gearing. It is the only unavoidable fight in which patience and caution will not compensate for a poor build, therefore it is crucial to pick talents and abilities with this in mind. Building a character with so called "quality of life talents/abilities" wont increase odds of a successful run, but will speed things up in the early/midgame. Most of TCS is really just trial and error, I dont feel special or talented, I just used more time and restarts than anyone ought to. The process is very reminiscent of speedrunning a game.

 

 

Congrats, that's quite the achievement

Also, not to say yours or any other TCS run is not legitimate, but unless it's 100% streamed, there is always the potential of backing up saves and restarting from the last save point at every break in recording (in your case, 6 parts on youtube). The first 100% confirmed legit TCS run will be the one that is streamed live, I think.

 

This makes sense, however as the final 4,5 hours of the run were streamed and a vod still exists on my channel, there would be 4 possible restart points, the first one being start of the game and thus irrelevant. As for the other three, they do indeed cast a doubt on the run which I had sadly not anticipated. Im happy about at least being able to prove Acts III and IV as 100% legit, just a shame about the rest. Best I can do is point out one of the sections drags on for over 3,5 hours, surely with backup abuse I would limit replayable sections to 1-2 hours. Regardless, I view this as a failure on my end as I aimed for 100% transparency and validity for the run. Perhaps I can find the energy to replay a fully livestreamed + recorded run at some point.

[Schyzm]

very impressive. I'm usually pretty cynical but I believe you.

[knownastherat]

Stoic with reach

[Omnicron]

Contrasts!! Very good advice there

Funny that both people who have done TCS Paladin runs have chosen Bleak Walkers, like you develop hate for the world after a few tries

[otakon17]

Okay I gotta ask how you did this? Is it possible you could write a guide? Or at least a general walkthrough of what you did, what you fought, what skills/talents you took when because I cannot even attempt PotD/ToI/Expert with a solo run as of yet, it's harrowing as hell for me.

[Concordance]

Okay I gotta ask how you did this? Is it possible you could write a guide? Or at least a general walkthrough of what you did, what you fought, what skills/talents you took when because I cannot even attempt PotD/ToI/Expert with a solo run as of yet, it's harrowing as hell for me.

He posted a complete video walkthrough of everything he did, in the very first post. Isn't that more than enough?

Edited May 10, 2015 by Concordance

[Bryy]

Dear lord, son.

[Omnicron]

I have been watching your youtube vids only got thought the very early part so far, I found it a bit strange that you had an extra point of might before picking Living lands, wonder how that happened. Anyway, I wonder what you think about 20 might and dropping resolve or dex a tiny bit?

 

Also, I totally agree with the Weapon Focus early game so you can hit more consistently, not what I would have done on my own, so thanks

You took forever to pick the talent though, have you not done this like a million times?

 

I'll keep watching where I have time, and leaving questions, gonna try and duplicate the run sometime. 

Edited May 11, 2015 by Omnicron

[MalleGT]

I have been watching your youtube vids only got thought the very early part so far, I found it a bit strange that you had an extra point of might before picking Living lands, wonder how that happened. Anyway, I wonder what you think about 20 might and dropping resolve or dex a tiny bit?

 

Also, I totally agree with the Weapon Focus early game so you can hit more consistently, not what I would have done on my own, so thanks

You took forever to pick the talent though, have you not done this like a million times?

 

I'll keep watching where I have time, and leaving questions, gonna try and duplicate the run sometime. 

 

The extra might was due to Living Lands kicking in before reaching the region screen. I tend to go through the character creation once before recording it, just to have a general idea of what to do, this causes the region bonus to be displayed in advance when creating another character before the game is closed.

 

Generally I value might over dexterity, so 20 would probably have been better at the cost of dexterity. I cant imagine going under 18 in resolve, without seeing a list of all the resolve checks in the game. Being able to complete quests with resolve dialogue options (and not having to worry about the exact number required) has been a staple for me. So I have a habit of going 18 might, 18 resolve and allocating between con, dex, per, int depending on the class.

 

As opposed to character creation which I plan in advance, leveling up is completely improvised. I dont really have a good understanding of class abilities and talents, so I need to spend some time reading descriptions and thinking about what direction I want to take with the character. Especially early game decisions, regarding weaponry used for the rest of the run, can be daunting. Then again, not having a completely planned out character really increases the enjoyment of leveling up and makes a run much more exciting. It does sometimes leave me with a lackluster character for the endgame, as happened with my earlier ranger run that fell to Thaos.

[Reent]

Congrats, that's quite the achievement

 

Also, not to say yours or any other TCS run is not legitimate, but unless it's 100% streamed, there is always the potential of backing up saves and restarting from the last save point at every break in recording (in your case, 6 parts on youtube). The first 100% confirmed legit TCS run will be the one that is streamed live, I think.

the ones that play enough ironman solo should know, you dont need 100% confirmed...

showing the last fight (in a way thats easy to repeat) is more than enough for me, if its "oh, the trap crit"... sorry, but^^...

 

 

If someone tells me "i finished TCS chanter run" i dont need a video, thats enough for me... its easy, a streamer did it not legit, he had a bug where his character didnt react anymore, he had to quit and load the game... it was his first try with a chanter and it wasnt done good... but the run was easy...if the bug didnt occur, he would have finished the run legit...