My Triple Crown Playthrough

[AlexDeLarge]

Hey guys, so after finishing the game once (on POTD) i decided i was up for the challenge to start a TC run.


I figured i would stand a much better chance if i created a full custom party, instead of using story companions (which most of them have, frankly, appalling stats).


Party consists of the following:


Juggernaut Monk main char (credit to KDubya for this)

Lady of Pain Fighter dual wielding sabres(credit to Andrea and NerdCommando)

DPS Barb specialized in Greatswords (Firebrand is sick, sick damage)

Priest (probably the MVP of the group, saved my ass countless times)

DPS/CC Cipher (he's hurting a bit in 2.03 - with all the monster immunities - but with good positioning he can still do a lot in midgame, if you know how to abuse Ectopsychic Echo)

DPS/CC Wizard, specialized in blights (was an absolute beast for me in Chapter 1, Chill Fog/Slicken are so so good)


Currently i'm almost level 10 with the entire team, two thirds through in White March.


I want to share some insights if anyone else plans to start a TC run. First of all, meta game knowledge, you need to know what you're up against at any point in time. I nearly wiped in Dryford Ruins because i went to clear it at just level 5. Also, don't get c0cky and try to take fights at 70% life or whatever, just to get more mileage out of camping supplies. If you know a reasonably hard battle is coming up, rest, use all the food buffs you can beforehand, no need to take any unnecessary risks, otherwise dozens of hours can go down the drain because of one simple mistake.


Now unto the fights themselves. Positioning is absolutely key, you want to fight in spots where you cannot be surrounded and where opponents have to come through a funnel to get to you, making them easy to control. Note, if they are mostly ranged, its best to find a corner where they can chase you and you can easily close the gap on them. Another huge factor is to get all the summon items fast. Don't worry about spending 15-20k on each, gold is plentiful in this game.


Now i'm going to mention some key parts/fights of the game, some which i struggled with a lot. In chapter 1, i nearly wiped in Caed Nua and OD Nua. I foolishly tried to kill the ghosts at the main keep entrance at level 3, forgot that they paralyze. By the time the fight was over, everyone was at like 20% health. Almost the same thing happened when i tried to tackle an army of about 30 xaurips and wyrms with level 4 party in OD Nua 2. Wizard AOE and Priest Withdraw were my providence.


Raedric was very easy at level 4, i just kited his group to a doorway (equipped a disengage cloak before that on my tank).


Chapter 2 overall is also quite easy. Just a lot of Fedex quests in Defiance Bay, not much fighting happening. Under no circumstance should you battle the banshee in the lighthouse though, if you're low level you will easily get overrun.


So now i'm in White March as i said, i never explored WM in my previous playthrough, pretty much flying blind here (using Gamebanshee for some meta knowledge). I had some absolutely brutal fights so far.


Like, in Longwatch Falls, there's a HUGE group of Lagufaeths (including 2 broodmommas). I scouted them a bit with stealth, figured i could take them, but a ****load more came from the fog of war (it seems i cannot post images directly in the topic for some reason, so i'll link them instead)

 

https://imgur.com/4QTZrFG

Notice how i created a blockade using my melee chars and all the summons i could muster, while the mage split the battlefield in two with a firewall.


The hardest fight i had, by far, was the bounty task The Gleaming Society. It actually caught me a bit unprepared, i was also only level 9 with party.


My barb quickly died at the start, so i was left with just 5. Was taking massive damage, my CC only seemed to delay the inevitable, i was sure i would wipe. Cast Withdraw on my Cipher as she was about to die, she finally got released from the stasis towards the end, and a Benny Hill type of chase ensued, where 2 mobs kept trying to reach her, while she was kiting them for the entire lower half of the map lol. I literally used every ability, spell, potion and scroll i had at my disposal for that one. Essential Phantom also played a huge role in winning it. This is how my party looked like at the end: https://imgur.com/Q8BTn1b


So yeah, now i still have Durgan Battery + Alpine Dragon left from WM, and i've never done any of these before. If any veteran player would like to chime in with some tips on how to approach them and at what level, it would be much appreciated.

Feel free to ask any questions as well.

Edited November 29, 2015 by AlexDeLarge

[mosspit]

That's a good read. And I must say your progress is very speedy. When you asked about builds and stuff for your current run, I already started my PotD ToI all-melee playthrough and now you are pretty near my progress point (I only just killed Sky Dragon). Or maybe it is just that my progress is slow - I can only level once every 2 days or so.

 

Well I already done my TC playthrough with a no-caster team and it was quite fun and challenging. That Lagufaeths encounter lead to one of the 5 restarts on that playthrough - it was because 2 groups of them are too near each other and will both be triggered together. It was basically an encounter of enemy size of a dozen or more, and capable of paralyse-locking your team. Fun times :D

 

Well I chickened out of Alpine in my previous TC since my party was just too restricted and I didn't wanna risk the progress that was so far into completion. But I will definitely be attempting it in my current ToI playthrough since I have a Priest. A Priest just makes things so much easier as compared to my previous playthrough without casters. For Durgan Battery, I have my Priest wield a lvl3 Nightshroud so she can Shadowing Beyond after starting the forge and re-join the group near the entrance. Doing so I can split up the Flame Constructs from the other spirits. That was literally the only reason I had Nightshroud soulbound to my priest lol(I have no rogue this time round). I might be using that for Cragholt depending on the situation.

[Boeroer]

I'm happy that your party composition works. You've put a lot of planning into it and it would have been a shame if you would have died early.

 

The Lagufaeth and Banshees always were the most annoying enemies for me because of their paralyzing abilities. The bounties in WM are pretty tough, too. If you survived that I'm pretty confident that you can do the rest, too.

 

Watch out for Crägholt - and I don't mean the Torn Bannermen outside. The hardest fights in the game (Alpine Dragon aside) I had against these stupid animated weapons inside Crägholt. I tend to use special synergies between my party members - if the enemy is immune to nearly all afflictions (like this hovering weapons) this tactic falls apart. So watch out!

 

Always risky to go into areas that you are to weak for. Lvl 5 in Dyford Ruins is very ambitious for example, hehe.

 

Ok, keep going - long life and prosper!

[AlexDeLarge]

It's done, lads! https://imgur.com/BsOvfyc

 

Will write a bit later on how I beat the hardest bosses in the game.

[AndreaColombo]

Ka-boom! Congratulations :D

[AlexDeLarge]

Ok, so i figured i would help anyone else attempting this challenge, by covering the 4 hardest (in my opinion) encounters in this game. Adra Dragon, Alpine Dragon, Concelhaut, and High Level Thaos.

 

First of all, for every boss encounter, you want to prebuff as much as possible. Personally, i like to rest at Caed Nua for 3 Con, then eat Dragon Food for 3 might, 3 resolve, 45 endurance. After that, make sure you fill up all quick slots with non food items. Most important quick slot items include: all the summonables, Potions of: Barring Death's Door, Flasks of War Paint (for melee damage dealers), Major Endurance(for tank). Then scrolls of Paralysis (amazing vs Adra, useless vs Alpine), Maelstrom, Restore Critical Endurance, Accuracy, Defense and Protection.

 

Ok, now that we established general preparations for big encounters, let's go to specifics:

 

 

How to defeat Adra Dragon

 

I find him the easiest of the four, if you know what you are doing. You want to trigger his quest from dialogue, so he doesn't immediately attack you. After that, you go to the back of his lair, where the Adragans are, do your prebuffs, then attack the furthest Adragan from the Dragon. This will trigger all his minions aggro. After you deal with them, cast all your big priest buffs (Crowns of the faithful etc), if you have Mage - summon Phantom and so on. Then, what you want to do is cast any random summon from an item and send it to the dragon to eat it's breath attack. Once you got rid of his breath, encounter becomes trivial. Chaining Scrolls of Paralysis from a couple of your NPC's completely ruins him.

 

This was my party after the battle: https://imgur.com/gmg3zlK   He barely tickled me... Moving on

 

How to defeat Concelhaut

 

I expected this fight to be insane, especially being the first time i fought him, but it was quite accessible (maybe i got lucky, dunno). So after prebuffing, and setting a trap at the doorway, move all your characters except the tank all the way back around the corner, outside Concelhaut's throne room. Then send the tank in to trigger the dialogue, when he aggro's, run him immediately back to where your party is. Meanwhile, your group has about 10 seconds to cast stuff before the enemy reaches them. So go Minor Avatar -> Crowns of the Faithful, Alacrity -> Substantial Phantom, etc. The actual fight will take quite a while to finish, but if you make sure to keep all the good buffs up with your priest and flood the battle field with summons, you should defeat him without problem. Here's how it looked like for me (start from bottom to the top): https://imgur.com/a/fycxr

 

How to defeat Alpine Dragon.

 

This one was the hardest for me. Make sure you have a dedicated tank with shield, respec him for maximum protection if required. When your enter the cave, send everyone stealthed except your tank to the right, then north. After they reach that spot, send your tank all the way bottom left stealth, then trigger the dragon dialogue. When the fight starts, you want your tank to be isolated to the lower bottom left corner, while your party is busy buffing and killing ice blights on the other side. DO NOT attack the dragon with anything at start, until you kill some of his critters, because he will spawn additional spectres. On your tank, you want to use scrolls of defense, and Llengrath Image/Endurance Potions. Despite doing all this, he still managed to KO my tank, i might have gotten a bit sloppy (but no worries, Priest Resurrect solves). You should be able to prevent this, especially if you run Paladin Tank (i ran a monk tank, not specced for weapon and shield, so he was a bit weaker).

 

After you deal with the Blights, you can start attacking the dragon, and summon some more trash to get in the way of his spectres while you focus him down. Arcane Dampener + Gaze of the Adragan works quite well here. Your Priest will work overtime on this fight, but if you know what you're doing (for me personally, it was the first time i ever encountered him, i'm sure if i had more than 1 try to fight him, i would get a lot more knowledge on how to beat him easily) you will prevail. Pics here (start from bottom to the top): https://imgur.com/a/13dzE

 

 

How to defeat High Level Thaos

 

This one can be either relatively easy or excruciatingly difficult, depending on how you approach him. If you don't want to make life hard for yourself, i recommend just focusing Thaos, while distracting his Woedica Goons with some summons. Do not, i repeat, DO NOT kill his minions before killing him, otherwise you will restore him entirely each time you do it.  Buff yourself as much as you can, as always, with the Priest and from Scrolls. Use Arcane Dampener and Gaze of the Adragan on Thaos at your discretion. You can also summon Concelhaut from his Pet, if you did the quest. He deals a ton of punishment. Concelhaut's Crushing Doom works wonders as well. He should fall quite fast, and then you only have his big boys to deal with, and they're easily dispatched.  https://imgur.com/y4zqBYQ

 

That's about it. Enjoy this amazing game.

[AndreaColombo]

Props for naming your character Aqualung :D

[AlexDeLarge]

Yeah, i'm a huge Jethro Tull (and prog rock in general) fan :D

[mosspit]

Very nice!

[Vorad]

Congratulation to the OP keep up the good job! Well done so far!!!

 

Watch out for Crägholt - and I don't mean the Torn Bannermen outside. The hardest fights in the game (Alpine Dragon aside) I had against these stupid animated weapons inside Crägholt. I tend to use special synergies between my party members - if the enemy is immune to nearly all afflictions (like this hovering weapons) this tactic falls apart. So watch out!

 

I had the same problem the first time I went there. I thought that was actually the hardest fight of entire game but on my second playthrough. I figured out that my main paladin alone could take care of the wizard and all his weapons surrounding him. So I had the paladin there level 11 tanking them like a boss while the rest of my party monk, wizard, druid, priest started from stealth position outside the door and began cleaning up with mostly aoe(full premade game companions rp ftw this time no powergaming)... it seems they are still affected by slumber by the way so it took 1 slumber + the aoe from druid + wizard vulnerability and blights etc. The priest cast buffs for the 4-5 first rounds. For as long as the paladin had 150+ deflection and 120+ fort/will he was able to take all the punishment, this time I didn't use any checkpoint at the door either(and I didn't roll moon goodlike paladin cause it would have been even easier I suppose).

 

PS: scrolls of defense and valor apart from usual buffs of priest where used by the paladin and monk. So I had crown + shield for the faithful + scroll of defense + valor immediately on in the first 1-2 "rounds".

Edited December 2, 2015 by Vorad

[AlexDeLarge]

Yes, i had some trouble with the Aumaua apprentice fight as well, my healing couldn't keep up with the insane dps from those rays. What i did was stand with my party by the door, use Withdraw priest spell whenever one of my chars got very very low, and in the meantime i blasted that room with a ton of AOE dmg. Come to think of it, that battle was harder than Concelhaut himself, my party was at like 25-30% life by the end of it. But i think it was so hard because i did not expect it. I took the apprentice note figuring it would be okay since we struck a deal, and then the whole room turned hostile lol. Had a little panic moment right then and there heh.

[Vorad]

Glad it worked well in the end!

[mosspit]

Btw you are too fast and efficient! I am still only lvl13

[AlexDeLarge]

Dedicated most of my last week to just playing PoE, so that might be a factor    Gotta figure out what to do now until WM2.. maybe have another go at BG EE Trilogy no reload challenge with Sword Coast Stratagems installed. Made it as far as Beholder Lair in Underdark last time (until an Elder Orb removed all my protections and disintegrated my ass to oblivion).

 

Edit (BG SPOILER AHEAD): Since i broached the subject, would like to point out that, for all it's wonderful features and qualities, i felt like i didn't get the epic fight sensation in PoE like i did with BG2. The memories of defeating Improved Firkraag, Kangaxx or Irenicus in hell, still linger with me. Heck, it took me SIX HOURS to defeat Hell Irenicus (with SCS + Insane difficulty). Just constant reloading and trying out new tactics and hitting lucky rolls. That sh1t was gruelling, but when i finally prevailed, the satisfaction was immense. I think there are 2 main aspects that provoked that feeling in BG2 and not in PoE.

 

First, the build up. Especially in Irenicus, you are way more invested and have a lot of direct contact with him throughout the game. Plus, he affects your main char (and his family) in a lot more serious manner than Thaos. So the emotional investment vis-a-vis Irenicus is huge, in my opinion, whereas i felt detached and sort of uninterested in Thaos' plans and motives.

 

Second reason, and perhaps the most important one, the spell system. In BG2, i was on the edge on my seat in almost every big encounter, fretting whether i still have all my protections up, if my breach went through his and so on. Because there are just so many things that outright kill you (and if it's your main, that's it), your alertness must be very high at all times. Not to mention the E-Boner you get from doing combos such as Time Stop -> Improved Alacrity -> Sequencer-> Triple Horrid Wilting. But maybe we'll get something similar in PoE2, i keep my hopes up.

 

That being said, PoE improves upon a lot of aspects from BG, such as making the non-caster classes a lot more complex and enjoyable to play, removing a lot of the abuse and cheese (if you want to exploit thieves' traps in BG2, it makes most encounters trivial, unfortunately), the reputation system is much more realistic and intriguing, also minor things like needing camping supplies to rest, i find very nice.

 

Ok, end of rant, don't want to derail too much

Edited December 3, 2015 by AlexDeLarge

[mosspit]

Well to be fair, you needed SCS add-ons for the games you stated and it can be considered that this playthrough did not expand beyond the options provided by PoE. So maybe there is a PoE mod (created already or to be created in the future) that can offer something similar to those SCS added-on playthroughs.

[Vorad]

AFter finishing it successfully with the optimized party TC you could try a potd run(perhaps TC again) with the premade companions this time, that's what I did and I actually had fun although going on encounters underleveled is not an option any more cause of bad stats, Aloth's accuracy and interrupt are laughable, also the range of spells for both Aloth and Durrance, the devil got some nice immunities but she count's as wearing full plate for the purpose of armor speed penalty etc etc... overall it was fun though.

[Raven Darkholme]

BG without SCS is indeed super easy.

Lt's hope for a md, but as you pointed out, the spell system was far more advanced in BG, so idk if a mod would be thatr much more challenging.

Firkraag is a **** btw, dragons are quite disappointing even in SCS.

[AlexDeLarge]

AFter finishing it successfully with the optimized party TC you could try a potd run(perhaps TC again) with the premade companions this time, that's what I did and I actually had fun although going on encounters underleveled is not an option any more cause of bad stats, Aloth's accuracy and interrupt are laughable, also the range of spells for both Aloth and Durrance, the devil got some nice immunities but she count's as wearing full plate for the purpose of armor speed penalty etc etc... overall it was fun though.

 

It's definitely an option, i want to explore their storylines as well. Heard Durance and GM are really well written.. unfortunately, they're two of the worst built characters in the game.. i mean what the hell am i supposed to do with a low dex 19 res priest or a low might cipher?? Sagani, Eder, Hiravias seem pretty balanced though, i could try them out. Zahua, even though he has 3 attributes less, has them distributed in the right spots as well. Devil of Caroc is simply garbage and you get her very late anyway, so pass. Well i'll think about this.. still don't understand why Obsidian felt the need to include only underpowered story NPC's. I mean, where the hell are Edwin's or Viconia's or Korgan's or Keldorn's equivalents? That's what i want to play, and i think i speak for the majority of us. Not 5 Garricks.

[Vorad]

Yep totally agree, I really miss those guys too... even that slimy, backstabbing thayan wizard. Garrick really that's how bad he was the only reason why I remember his name. I never bothered having him on party perhaps as a pet I might consider but there were no pets back then... I can't say I miss Minsc either... but Viconia is a completely another story

Edited December 4, 2015 by Vorad

[AlexDeLarge]

You take that back about Edwin!! He's a gem and a sweetheart and doesn't deserve your harsh words..... Viconia.. let's just say the 12 year old me may have fantasized once or a dozen times about her smooth voluptuous midnight blue features.. Helps that she was modeled after a real life actress :D