Lighthouse story/rant

[Wald0]

Hey everyone, so just a little bit of an introduction. I'm fairly new to PoE but experienced with IE games in general.

 

So anyways, I have fun doing no death runs on BG 1 and 2 in the past. I had a couple runs already on trial of iron path of the damned, died a couple times real early to wolves. No biggie, I don't know how hard most of enemies are yet so i'll just treat those as practice runs.

 

Now I have a solid run going, act 2 party of 6. My mains' a rogue, got 2 fighters, wizard, priest, and a chanter all about level 6. I'm about 16 hours in.

 

So I wander into the lighthouse in Ondra's gift. Hey if the fight is too hard no worries, i'll just get out. So I start scouting the room with my rogue, looks empty so far. I get about halfway in then out of nowhere 3 specters and about 5 or 6 shades appear all at once. Rogue is instantly detected. My heart sank. "Oh **** oh **** oh ****". Ok plan B, I look around quickly to see if there is a corridor I can lock down and defend. Nope, room is wide open, no way i'm walking out of this fight alive.

 

You know, I would have a much greater experience if the game gave me a chance to finish trial of iron on hardest without doing a run through of the game first. Obviously if I saw all those enemies (or knew from a previous pkaythrough) I would have nope'd the hell out of there. Seriously, give me a chance, don't just insta teleport hard enemies out of nowhere with no route of escape or a proper defense. I don't want to have a full run through first to have a shot at this.

[LaSpeakeasi]

TBH it's hard to sympathize with you because... well, that's what Iron Mode means?

 

I personally find Iron Mode a terrible way to experience the game for the 1st time. It's an RPG. There's a story. Being able to go back and experience it in full is kinda a necessity.

 

Also, if you lack the ability to cope with open area fights, chances are you are going to have an even harder time in WM... So there.

[gkathellar]

Let me get this straight. Your main was a level 6 rogue, you were playing Iron Man, and you got ambushed by Shades and Phantoms - which you'd encountered in Caed Nua, so you knew exactly how much face they could wreck. Why exactly didn't you GTFO with Shadowing Beyond when you had the chance?

Edited October 11, 2015 by gkathellar

[LaSpeakeasi]

Let me get this straight. Your main was a level 6 rogue, you were playing Iron Man, and you got ambushed by Shades and Phantoms - which you'd encountered in Caed Nua, so you knew exactly how much face they could wreck. Why exactly didn't you GTFO with Shadowing Beyond when you had the chance?

If I remember correctly, once the ghosts ambush you they close all the doors so you couldn't escape and have to fight them while being surrounded on all sides.

 

Even with Shadowing Beyond the idiotic pathfinding AI might just have his rogue run in circles.

[gkathellar]

 

Let me get this straight. Your main was a level 6 rogue, you were playing Iron Man, and you got ambushed by Shades and Phantoms - which you'd encountered in Caed Nua, so you knew exactly how much face they could wreck. Why exactly didn't you GTFO with Shadowing Beyond when you had the chance?

If I remember correctly, once the ghosts ambush you they close all the doors so you couldn't escape and have to fight them while being surrounded on all sides.

 

Even with Shadowing Beyond the idiotic pathfinding AI might just have his rogue run in circles.

 

I don't ... think so? I know you can't area transition while in combat mode, which I'll grant is really stupid. But keeping the heat off of the rogue and using SB at the right moment should allow you to be hidden when the rest of the party goes down, allowing you to exit combat momentarily and run for dear life. It's possible I'm off base.

 

But yeah, Iron Man is hard. Don't do it if you can't deal with failing.

[Wald0]

Let me get this straight. Your main was a level 6 rogue, you were playing Iron Man, and you got ambushed by Shades and Phantoms - which you'd encountered in Caed Nua, so you knew exactly how much face they could wreck. Why exactly didn't you GTFO with Shadowing Beyond when you had the chance?

Yes I encountered them in Caed Nua but there was no ambush mechanic, and neither with the shades in the gilded vale dungeon as well.

 

You can't get out of the lighthouse room once combat starts. I did shadow beyond away from my knocked out party members to see if the shades would stop hovering over them and return to their original position, but no. It's over. That's my point, there was zero chance for me to continue playing as soon as I enetered as there was no way I could have known, and no way to escape.

 

Don't feel bad though, I already have a new game started on potd but no trial of iron. Trial of iron means one chance, I get that and I understood when I started my game. Unfortunately, I guess i'll have to playthrough first to know where to avoid these "no chance" encounters, at least until my level is high enough. I just thought its a low move having all those enemies appear instantly.

[globalCooldown]

If I'm understanding OP correctly, I think they just wanted to vent about the ambush tactics in the Lighthouse. And to be fair, I typically skip over the lighthouse until towards the end of Act 2. It's rough.

[Flix]

The ambush mechanic is kinda cheap, especially with enemies that teleport among your ranks at will.  Wait until you're level 10 or so to do it, you'll cut through them like butter.

[Oralaina]

 

Let me get this straight. Your main was a level 6 rogue, you were playing Iron Man, and you got ambushed by Shades and Phantoms - which you'd encountered in Caed Nua, so you knew exactly how much face they could wreck. Why exactly didn't you GTFO with Shadowing Beyond when you had the chance?

Yes I encountered them in Caed Nua but there was no ambush mechanic, and neither with the shades in the gilded vale dungeon as well.

 

You can't get out of the lighthouse room once combat starts. I did shadow beyond away from my knocked out party members to see if the shades would stop hovering over them and return to their original position, but no. It's over. That's my point, there was zero chance for me to continue playing as soon as I enetered as there was no way I could have known, and no way to escape.

 

Don't feel bad though, I already have a new game started on potd but no trial of iron. Trial of iron means one chance, I get that and I understood when I started my game. Unfortunately, I guess i'll have to playthrough first to know where to avoid these "no chance" encounters, at least until my level is high enough. I just thought its a low move having all those enemies appear instantly.

 

 

There have always been "cheesy" tactics devs have put in place.  This is one of them, and even though I have no interest in ToI or PotD personally, I think it stinks that they would put in place a mechanic (the locked doors) which makes it impossible for someone to break out of combat in a WAY over-weighted fight.  The only thing that needed to happen there is for just the door to the stairs being locked; the main door should not have been locked, since it still would have still been a huge effort to get to it - but not impossible.

 

ToI and PotD should be extremely hard, but not impossible due to one mechanic.

[Stoner]

That's some real masochistic stuff here author... I dunno, you'll probably cry when you get into new areas added by White March DLC, cause I had few unpleasant surprises and tough fights even on hard, not PoTD.

 

I honestly don't think it's possible to beat this game on trial of iron on first playthrough.

[KDubya]

At level 6 you should be able to handle the fight.

 

It might just be that your team is too squishy.

 

Were you using story companions or mercs? If mercs were they min maxed for glass cannons or balanced stats?

[mosspit]

To be fair, shades and specters popping up suddenly with exits locking up is PRECISELY what I would expect when exploring a haunted building. Trial of Iron basically is meant for those with at least some knowledge of the game so that they can preemptively prepare. Or for those knowing they will restart any number of times throughout. Or a combination of both.

 

No offence, but this rant is in the same vein as complaining PotD is too hard. You do have other less restrictive options. Chalk this up as another "extended" practice run. Oh, this isn't the last instance of spirits popping up suddenly either.

Edited October 18, 2015 by mosspit