There is no way to happiness: Solo PotD Naked

[Harpagornis]

A exciting journey with a Happy End - congratulations Reent!

 

I will freeze my naked Druid because i dont care anymore. I have learned so much thanks to this challenge. New strategies and ideas that took me much farer than expected.

 

And this is what this challenge was all about: Limit yourself to finally break the limits. With our knowledge "The Ultimate" should be doable. Its just a matter of time - and patience! 

 

Good luck Reent - it was a great experience. I will try my old love - the Druid - again for the new challenge. May the Chants be with you!

Edited March 30, 2016 by Harpagornis

[Esajin]

Congratulation on a challenge complete!

 

Next time, with high level scaling! :D

[Reent]

high lvl scaling only does one thing for the chanter: it makes the game longer, as long as you can get the "My Enemy" part done, the map is over, sure, the Kraken would be harder - not,

Take out Hyleas Boon and take one that gives you +1 Survival and i could use a different resting bonus and still get my +2 movementspeed, get the other bonus from the quest in act 3 and i can have +18 acc (if i do the +1 perception quest too, and thats possible, i just didnt do it because i tried it before using the "My Enemy" strategy)

Take out Ancient Memory, get +25% damage vs Vessels, take out Wound Binding, get +25% damage vs Primordeals - maybe you could take out envenomes strike, but that can be used vs the kraken... if you get more acc it could be usefull without the acc i hit 1 out of 3 tries... maybe you could take the attackspeed talent or something for it... dont know.

You can go to Stalwart before lvl 9, so you can get your lvl 9 in wm1 and get the +2 DR talent instead of the Dozens Luck talent - that would be much much much more usefull...

 

some more things and you can deal with the enemies even if you upscale - you'd only upscale act 4 and wm2, maybe act 3, but act 3 is irrelevant...

but upscaling makes it no fun - i dont know what upscaling changes... because i never did, if its something like +defense, then it suxx extremely for chanter, because the spore summoning would need more summons per kill - and that makes some fights extremely long...

 

The chanter is running in a circle, an enemy behind him that wont reset no matter what you do, with 5 stacks he summons ogres, the enemy attacks the ogres, you wait to 6 stacks, summon the spore at max range so it can attack one enemy - the chanter goes back to getting chased so even if the spore dies, as long as one enemy is dominated the enemy dies...

and you do it again and again until the group is small enough so dominated enemies dont get killed anymore, thats the point where your summons survive long enough to deal damage...

 

sure, if the enemies are immune to dominate you will summon many many many many "weapons" that deal about 20-30 damage to one target (or more if they arent that strong) per summon, with a good "My Enemy" you dont take any damage... so eventually the enemy dies...

 

 

No, upscaling is the last thing on my mind.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Reent

[Reent]

PS, i am kinda surprised my run didnt take that long - i saw the >140h on the lvl 1 character, i expected that i would need a long time too (if i even managed to do it)... but its only 44h long, sure i had quite some reloads loosing time in it... but i was afk for at least a few hours that made it in the 44h too...

[gogocactus]

Congratulations Reent. And thank you and Harpagornis both for your exciting tales. They have truly been a pleasure to read.

[Reent]

The "doing" wasnt that fun, the releasing steam in the forum was much more fun :D Act 2 is a real pain with chanter - items or no items, after that i tried a new strategy and used the run to learn ways for my ironman runs... the combination of forum+new content (first time wm2) was what made me keep going - the eyeless where a real pain... it took me a few hours (i decided that i would do it in one session or i would have lost the steam and not started again for a few days, that made me play until late night^^) just to get past them to the kraken... in front of the entrance there were 3 eyeless or something, the last 2 ranged there took me >10 mins to kill... inside there were 2 ranged eyeless in a difficult spot for me, in the end i skipped them after trying for >10 mins to kill them - i didnt come close since i couldnt get into dragon chant range without getting focused by both.

I dont know if i will ever do a Chanter run to the Kraken for "fun" again, i can tell you, killing stuff in slow motion is no fun at all if they heal for about the same amount of damage you deal before the heal is up again (if you play safe, if you rush in, you deal more but they attack you)... i dont think items would make a world of difference (slow attacks, high damage=armor doesnt help)

 

Now i will pause before playing again, chanter is the only solo class i have the knowledge to try ultimate with - and chanter is the class i am sick and tired off at the moment :D

Maybe i will take some time to write the stuff that disturbed me this run in the technical support forum... or i will stop playing for a time or change the class, but after this run i just cant start playing chanter from lvl 1 without... pure frustration factor overload :D

[Harpagornis]

Agreed, we learned much through this challenge. Many suggested that a Chanter would be the best class to make it - they were right. If i would try hard the Druid might also do it - but not for now. I have seen the possibilities even in his limited form. So the next logical step would be to try "The Ultimate". Maybe i will start it in the next days - we will see!

[Raven Darkholme]

Agreed, we learned much through this challenge. Many suggested that a Chanter would be the best class to make it - they were right. If i would try hard the Druid might also do it - but not for now. I have seen the possibilities even in his limited form. So the next logical step would be to try "The Ultimate". Maybe i will start it in the next days - we will see!

The chanter in it's current state is just the most op class by far, that's why I suggested Chanter.

Sure, wizards, ciphers and druids have more powerful stuff but it's always limited somehow, while chanter's abilities are unlimited.

If you abuse scrolls on a non naked chanter, the ultimate is a walk in the park, but very cheesy.

[Reent]

I argued the chanter wouldnt be able to do it because the time before he could summon stuff would be hard, yeah, it was hard... really really hard.

However the watcher abilities are fast cast abilities - i didnt have them in my initial evaluation... The enemy starts to retreat but you cant summon stuff? Wait a moment (crucial, you only can use watcher abilities up to 3 times to get the aggro back) not too short but not too long (around a sec maybe 2 or something - if you have to wait 2 secs for summon, use watcher ability instead, the summon is slower to get the aggro back) and use the watcher ability to frighten or damage them... they will aggro back onto you, you cant move back - else they deaggro immediatly, so you wait until they are almost in melee range - you start running and they deaggro, you wait wait wait and at the last moment you use the watcher ability again, after that you should have enough to get the summon out...

 

Without the watcher ability i wouldnt have managed it, many times where i thought "okay, i can tank the enemy for the last stack" i died, they either stunned me, made me prone, interrupted me too much or didnt loose aggro once i summoned (try to run away, get interrupted and get massive attacks in trying to disengage despite the interrupts)

After lvl 10 it became a bit better, My Enemy is a thing then... however thats not always possible... the watcher ability is king.

 

And if the Kraken fight was a real fight (please, the Kraken is sooo weak) i wouldnt have managed either, its a fight chanters are really really bad for (no time to prepare, no place where you can keep all aggro on the summons) :D

 

 

I am thinking about my next chanter, it will be an ultimate run... but i dont know what i should do for attributes... normally i want max might, con, int, perception and dex... resolve isnt that needed. However i can't get that... i have to kill dragons so i need enough con to survive at least one breath attack, so con has to be at least 14... might will be maxed, resolve... i think i will keep it at 3 (okay, i cant lie then... but thats not "the problem"), dex at least 8 (so i can use the shortcut for the abbey - you can get +10 with every bonus (i found in the wiki, should be possible to get +11, but no risks^^), i think i will clear it the same way my naked chanter did) int will be at least 14

 

so i could (aumaua) go for 21/14/8/18/14/3... i am kinda reluctant to go for that... maybe i should change per and con... or some more points in dex... however the 18 per+21 might would make for a very hard hitting chanter, i would be able to close out fights in a very short time... with 1h no shield i would hit around 110 acc at the end (120 if i push for some items)... thats enough to hit most anything (+20 against beasts if i use that chant)

 

aumaua is just too good not to use (+20 against stun is quite safe... preservation helmet and a bit more and you dont have to fear missposition - a moon godlike still has to fear that)

 

i will look into the harder fights still awaiting me, maybe i will have to get some more "must have" points in... maybe i need some resolve (i think i read something with a spore), the preparation is the thing that is MVP for something like ultimate...

 

 

 

 

PS:

i wont use scrolls on my ultimate run, i want mechanics and survival - no place for lore.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Reent

[Raven Darkholme]

You can respec when you need mechanics.

Might is less important than you think and doesn't necessarily need maxed.

It's a good stat don't get me wrong, just not a need to max stat.

[Reent]

you dont need maxed might if you want to use dragon chant to kill stuff, i know, even 7 nights doesnt need it maxed... but white worms is different - i want it to oneshot enemies, if it doesnt i dont have the time to use it - either 100-0 or i dont have the time to clear a full map with it (since i cant leave the map and i cant use summons and white worms in act 2 - the timing doesnt work)

And come come is different too, i tried 3 might and 18 might both took the same time to kill the target - 19 might would be faster, the difference is 3 damage per tick to 2 damage per tick... thats a bit huge to just ignore it. (i think 19 might was the divider)

Sure, 19 might would be enough too, the difference between 19 and 21 might isnt that big.

 

And to respec: i dont want to use respec, its as simple as that. Sure, its harder that way - but if possible i dont want to use it.

With respecs ultimate is much easier (i can use 18 dex when its needed, i can use 3 dex when dex isnt needed), but i... just dont want to.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Reent

[Esajin]

 

 

some more things and you can deal with the enemies even if you upscale - you'd only upscale act 4 and wm2, maybe act 3, but act 3 is irrelevant...

but upscaling makes it no fun - i dont know what upscaling changes... because i never did, if its something like +defense, then it suxx extremely for chanter, because the spore summoning would need more summons per kill - and that makes some fights extremely long...

 

@Reent, I totally understand the lack of appeal when you put it like that, don't worry

 

FYI, You can upscale WM1, if you go to Stalwart for the first time at level 9. As a matter of fact, I never played WM1, WM2 or even Act3/4 without the upscale, so I don't know exactly what it changes. My only point of reference is monsters you meet in both Od Nua and early Act3 (I'm faaaar from done with the game, taking my sweet time ), namely Adragans. Those are terrifying for my party in Elmshore, and absolutely not a problem at all in Od Nua or those Engwithan ruins near Dyrford.

 

It's certain that Upscaling upgrades all defenses by around 15 points, pushing most POTD monsters into Dragon domain, but I suspect upscaling also boosts the base attributes (Int and Dex in particular) which vastly increases the range, duration and speed of their abilities. A single Moonwell by an upscaled Adragan for instance will heal the entire screen for considerable amounts each tick, and their Returning Storm will hit your backline without fail. They will dominate faster than you can suppress your petrified teammates, and generally speaking, it takes a hell of a lot of tactics to just deal with them even in a full party. I don't recall having so much trouble with them, 5 levels ago, when I was still trying to reach level 9 to unlock upscaled WM1.

 

Whether that's all because of increased defenses and my party's inability to oneshot them (along with its strange composition, 5 melee and no casters), or whether they do have increased base attributes allowing them to pull off dirty new tricks thanks to increased range, speed, power and duration, I'm not sure and I can't say.

 

Regardless I have faith that your general strategy is sound and skews the numbers game hugely in your favor, so much so that even with all this your chanter would probably be successful (eventually), just like you managed to deal with increasingly harder odds in WM2.

 

Upscaled WM1 was a considerable challenge for me with a full group of level 9s. I guess I might attempt it without the high level toggle with the same group later on this year; maybe I can get closer to the truth about upscaling that way.

[Reent]

i wouldnt be able to upscale wm1 because i would go there before lvl 9 - so that part is out - the quests in act 2 are partly harder than wm1, so its the better choice.

 

Act 4 upscaling doesnt matter - too easy anyway (or can thaos deal around 500 damage with his dot? If he can... i could die to it)

Act 3 upscaling doesnt matter too - i dont have to do that much at that point...

 

wm2 is all that counts... and i'd find ways to deal with it even then... maybe the kraken would be harder but... with better talents.. it would be fine, maybe the ranged eyeless would be a problem (the heal -.-)  but there is no hard point where it should fail... maybe i overlooked something, but it shouldnt change anything but the time, with 15 more defense i dont need 1 min to kill one enemy, i'd need 10 mins at some points X_x - while no risk for my chanter exists^^