I died on Path of the Damned Trial of Iron - Please advise on my strategy (VIDEO) - Death

[luzarius]

I died on Path of the Damned Trial of Iron

Please advise on my approach (VIDEO) - Death

 

http://www.twitch.tv/luzarius/v/9134529

 

Problems

- No entry for Ogres in the Bestiary, didn't know their weaknesses.

- I let my guard down, too much combat in the game makes it a bit boring.

- I should've eaten proper food.

- I should've waited until level 9, someone recently told me about a spell called clear that priests get.

- For some reason my ranger didn't do the attacks that I had queued up.

 

I'm looking for the masters of the game to critique and point out all my mistakes. It was a fun fight that caught me off guard. I let my guard down for a second due to boredom and it cost me.  Learn from my mistakes.

 

Edited July 31, 2015 by luzarius

[luzarius]

Bump, can someone explain why the queued attacks I set for my ranger stopped working?

Edited July 31, 2015 by luzarius

[tnb234]

I'm not an expert ( I finished PotD with a party of 6 non trial of iron ).

 

I don't know why the queued actions didn't work out but I'd tend to think it's because of the range ( the druid went out of range which messed things up ).

 

As for why you couldn't revive your characters it's because they didn't have any health left. You can revive them if they run out of endurance but not health ( AFAIK ).

 

Also in general I think I would have used suppress affliction rather than the prayer you used ( 12s vs 10s ).

I would probably have used a bit more CCs ( slicken / mental binding )  than you did.

 

Great game anyway! Better luck next time )

[Nobear]

Ok let me critique based on how I would have done that fight with your party.

 

1) Formation Basics: First, I would never just "announce my presence" without a plan. I would have set a custom formation for my party long before any fights. For your party, Eder would have been in the space with the crosshair, which means he will end up exactly where you click, with everyone else positioned relative to him, as follows:

 

[]  []  [bear]  [Eder]  [Palegina]  []  []

[]     []     []     []     []     []     []      []

[]     []     []     []     []     []     []      []

[][][][Durance][Grieving Mother][][]

[]   []   []  [Aloth]  [ranger PC]  []   []

[]     []     []     []     []     []     []      []

 

Sorry that's not to scale, but it's the best I could do. Aloth and your ranger are furthest back because they are elves who get bonus accuracy against distant targets. Moreover, check the range on Durance's spells. Some of them are shorter than you'd expect, particularly his seals. The seals can be powerful, especially Repulsing Seal, but he has to have a clear path to successfully place it: I don't think he did in your video. Most of Grieving Mother's spells are long range, but Puppet Master is short enough that she'd also be running around too much (or blocked by other party members) if she were regularly trying to cast it from the very back. Your ranger's abilities have a shorter range than her auto attacks, which is why she couldn't get them off, but keep reading for other advice to help with this.

 

Note that if you hold down the right mouse button and move it with your party selected, instead of just clicking on the ground, your formation will rotate and you can position them at the orientation you want. I bound the Q key to select my whole party, so I can do this quickly. It's conveniently close to the 1-6 keys for selecting individual members.

 

2) Pre-Combat Positioning: Now that we have the formation basics in place, let's talk about how to take advantage of formations for a smart pre-combat positioning plan. In this case, notice that there is a breach in the wall, which is like a doorway. While stealthed, I would have rotated my formation so that it lined up against the broken wall, with my frontliners facing southwest toward the intact wall. The point is that your front line should be just behind the part of the broken wall left standing, just out of line of sight, which will force the enemies to round the corner and fight where you have no pathing or range issues. Those ended up being a huge part of your problem on this fight.

 

3) Traps (optional): If you'd ever like to use traps, this is an example of the best candidate for one. Make sure your mechanic, still stealthed, places one right on the corner the ogres will round, and falls back into position immediately afterwards. Since traps have a small radius, this is the best way I've found to ensure they are actually triggered. If she can't pull this off, more Stealth would probably help, or perhaps a move speed item/potion. Generally I tend to give everyone 3 Athletics, 10 Lore (except 10 Mechanics for one member), and put the rest in Stealth.

 

4) Start-of-Combat Buffing: Finally, this is when you should unstealth and wait for them to come to you! This is the best time to buff: preemptively! Given that Pallegina has Zealous Endurance, Durance should cast Blessing first. He should follow that with Holy Radiance, assuming he has it talented with Inspiring Radiance, which he should: it's a special snowflake among spells in that its accuracy bonus stacks with that of other spells. Buffs of the same type from spells other than Inspiring Radiance don't stack with each other, which means that your Armor of Faith suppressed Pallegina's aura and only increased your party's DR from +3 to +4: not worth the cast. Meanwhile, Aloth could cast Merciless Gaze followed by Eldritch Aim, which are probably worth it for the tougher fights. From level 9 (when level 1 spells become Per Encounter) he should be casting Eldritch Aim at the start of every fight, and from level 11 (when level 2 spells become Per Encounter) he should typically start with Merciless Gaze, since it has the longer duration of those two self-buffs.

 

(Alternately, you could have fought these particular ogres by going around and approaching from the south side IIRC, but there will be situations where the luring element in the above strategy is your best bet.)

 

5) Staying Informed and Engaged as a Commander: Pause when the enemies are in place. Make sure each of your tanks/offtanks is is attacking the enemy closest to it, and that no enemies have slipped around to hit on your back row. If one does slip by, your best bet is usually to have Grieving Mother cast Mental Binding on it and focus fire it down. If things are looking clean, you either want to pick a druid for your DPS to focus fire, or possibly the enemy that the bear is attacking, since your ranger and pet get combat advantages if they are attacking the same enemy. Take care not to interrupt any party members in mid-cast, say, by commanding them to move or auto attack an enemy. You can tell if a party member has finished casting and reached the recovery stage, because the icon around the spell will still be glowing for a moment as he recovers, but the available spell count in that rank will have gone down.

 

You can also tell at a glance generally what all your party members are doing by looking at the little circle to the left of the health bar over their heads (not their portraits). If they're idle, it will be blank. If moving, it'll show feet. If auto attacking, it'll show a sword, whether they are melee or ranged. If casting, it'll show the spell's icon. With both auto attacking and casting, a bar below their health bar will start at full and shrink from right to left, and the action takes effect when it gets to zero. Sometimes your PC/allies will give up after trying to cast a spell unsuccessfully for a moment (because of range, pathing, or line of sight), but sometimes they will be very stupid and keep trying the same thing expecting different results, so you really do need to stay alert as their commander. That said, if their casting has been interrupted due to being CCd, they will typically resume casting when the CC ends. It's usually best not to touch them in this case, unless a change in the situation calls for it (e.g. enemies have moved and you'd rather delay a spell to reposition it).

 

6) Tips for the fight itself: Suppress Affliction is absolutely a game-changer. Yes, it doesn't last forever, but it doesn't need to. Keep in mind that you have multiple casts per rank available to you, so for a tough fight, you can chain it so Durance refreshes it whenever it's about a second from wearing off. About Insect Swarm: Sickened is the least of it. The nasty part about it is that it just grinds and grinds away at your endurance and health. That's why no amount of healing could save you. In most fights, you don't worry about your health because it lasts longer than your endurance. In that fight, your healing became more and more futile as health was getting low enough to start graying out a character's portrait. What that indicates is the fact that your endurance can never be higher than your health. So, as your health becomes lower than your normal max endurance, your temporary max endurance also decreases with it until they both reach zero.

 

So, Suppress Affliction is your best friend for these fights. For emergencies to prevent someone's death that is still about to die, priests also get a mid-high level spell called Barring Death's Door. Druids have the Beetle's Shell spell, which can be useful for the rare fight that poses a threat to a tank. I say "tank" because it prevents action, and just when things are toughest is usually when you want your DPS to be doing their worst. As others have suggested, CC is your other best friend. You would have been well-advised to be pausing regularly and checking the remaining CC duration on enemies, and trying to keep them perma-disabled. I tend to prefer Slicken when I need a large area CCd, Mental Binding for its quick cast and DPS boost when I need to focus fire and kill a single enemy fast, and the priest's Repulsing Seal when I prefer a very long duration on a small radius.

 

I hope that helps your future plays!

Edited August 1, 2015 by Nobear

[luzarius]

Well, the good news is now I can wait for the new patch. I might as well wait for the expansion too before trying again.  I'll probably try again a year from now or less.

Great advice btw, thx.

Edited August 1, 2015 by luzarius

[Raven Darkholme]

So you never beat the game, even once?

[luzarius]

So you never beat the game, even once?

 

No, going to try again when the expansion and patch comes out.

 

Attempting to beat the game blind in trial of iron is where the fun is for me Sadly this game does not hold the same emotional drive I get from games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Witcher.

 

There is just too much combat and without a tactics system, a lot of the fights are repetitive.

Edited August 2, 2015 by luzarius

[alexis13]

Don't know If I'm a master but I've played and beat many games on the hardest mode (but not this one as I didnt want it too unfair on me for roleplay purposes)

 

But I'm soloing the game right now on hard just 1 person (i may take one other now and then for their quest but thats it) and honestly.

 

I'm a Wizard and mostly just out-tanking and blasting stuff down.

 

Honestly the I'd give you, though its a bit simple is just focus very hard on deflection.

 

Make a build at start and just max Resolve and then Perception with as much histories/bonus's you can get.

 

Then get a sword and the 2nd level shield -4 accuracy, and focus on getting it the best enchantment, get the defensive talent sword and shield style and whatever abilities to increase deflection more.

 

Thats the way to beat everything, I may not be on the hardest mode and it aint easy at all, but im the second hardest and ALONE not a party of 8 and I've found just getting ridiculous deflection makes huge differences, most MAGIC attacks deflection, barely anything doesn't.

 

And that that does, if your other passive defenses don't block it, well its a rare ability and nothing really 1 shots, so after its over its just gonna be more hitting that your deflection will block and heal up.

 

 

Secondly focus all this and mostly on your main character above all others, try to make them stronger at EVERYTHING than all your party members.

 

Lastly, go to defiance bay, go to oddra's gift early as you can and buy "The Ring of Wonders" it gives second chance (the ability to get up after you die) and it works once per encounter automatically
 

 

If your character is in a fight and you die and it activates just get up and abandon the fight, thats how to be safest.

 

Good luck.

[Nobear]

most MAGIC attacks deflection, barely anything doesn't.

 

Most damaging magic attacks Reflex. Most CC spells attack Fortitude, except for mind control spells that attack Will. There are a few spells that target Deflection. The tooltip lists which defense it targets. All physical attacks target Deflection though, so it's still generally the most important defense overall.

 

His PC for that run was a hunter, though, which in a party of six wouldn't make sense to focus on Deflection for at the expense of DPS boosts. His allies were all companions, which some players (including myself) prefer for the RP aspects, even though you can't customize their stats (legitimately).

 

While a custom frontliner might benefit from higher Deflection, it's not necessary for beating the game with a full party on PoTD, and stats don't make nearly as much difference as abilities/spells/talents and the tactics you employ.

 

Second Chance items are a good idea, though. My priest has a robe with Second Chance that you don't get until mid-late game, and he has gone down a couple of times and I've been glad he could get right back up and have a chance to turn the tide.

 

Also, on PoTD there are some things that can one-shot. Early game there are a couple of spells that can one-shot, like Necrotic Lance. Adra Dragon's breath and another move can one-shot. Most or all one-shots can be avoided if you know what to expect and cast the right spell/ability to counter and it lands (and spells miss a lot more on PoTD), but you will most likely have one or another character one-shot a few times playing PoTD blind like Lazarus attempted.

 

Overall, playing on Hard can help prepare you for PoTD simply by teaching you where the best items are etc., but you can't really get an accurate feel for the difficulty of PoTD without actually playing it. With a strong party and good tactics, most of the game can actually be pretty easy even on PoTD, but there are a few fights that stand out and really require you to go in with a good plan.

[alexis13]

 

most MAGIC attacks deflection, barely anything doesn't.

 

Most damaging magic attacks Reflex

 

Actually if you really look most of them up its really is by a good number mostly deflection and fortitude spells attack.

 

Some are reflexes, but the least, and its all the damage spells that are deflection a very few that are fortitude, most cc's are will and the aoe (and not even all the aoe some are still deflection) are reflex.