Having a real hard time with Magran's Faithful bounty

[Anoregon]

It's the damn druids. they immediately nuke my whole level 13 team with 90 damage firebugs (or 1-shot a single character with sunlance), and even if I do manage to get everyone still alive and attacking they have 150 deflection. It's like they are double the level of everyone else in the encounter.

 

I saw a video someone posted but it almost seemed like a totally different encounter, as they weren't taking the kind of damage I am taking at the start of the fight at all, so I'm sort of at a loss.

[omgFIREBALLS]

The experts are gonna want to know what your party is.

[Esajin]

Did you upscale WM2 on POTD? If so without a dedicated tank to soak their alpha strike, you might be in a world of pain. I'm also experimenting with them these days.

 

Right now my current strat is "kill kiss marry": Kill the priests (kill them), kiss the soldiers (tank them), marry the druids (dominate them).

 

I tried a couple tanking techniques for the sunlances and arquebus opener, going solo with my level 14 fighter main. One useful thing that I noticed is, Frenzy and Outlander's Frenzy seem to prevent from taking Endurance damage for its duration, but the damage is still taken as Health. Work your Burning DR as high as possible on your highest "HEALTH" character, give it the Frenzy on being crit and he should be fine for the first few seconds, giving you time to run in and land a few buffs, debuffs and dominates/paralyzes/CC.

 

With outlander's frenzy and the frenzy plate, along with the 40% health over time talent and a few DR potions & beers, my fighter was able to solo tank all of them for about a minute before running out of his 2000 hp. Both their priests died to their own AOE in the process, haha. It was faaaar from optimized (deflection tanking would probably be better), but it's a good start.

 

If all you want is kill them, you might be able to do that through an exploit (I did). Give a rogue the cloak with invisibility on being hit, and hope the bug triggers and the invisibility never runs out. You're then free to murder each and every one of them. Be careful with their boss, he deals raw damage as a melee retaliate. Kill him with ranged attacks.

[Anoregon]

I'm not even in POTD, just hard. My party is ranger (main character), zahua, kana, mother, aloth, and durance.

[Blunderboss]

Druids are not the problem  , biggest threat are the Priests they can cast Storm of Holy Fire Spell its level 7 priest spell , that does AoE fire damage for 15+ seconds  basically if you allow them to cast this your party will die , you can heal one two or three ticks of this spell but it lasts forever and eventually you wont be able to keep everyone healed , tactic which worked for me was to stun lock all of the enemies early and kill the priests first before anything , after that its just a matter of outlasting the remaining enemies who dont pose real threat compared to Storm of Holy Fire .

Looking at your party you want to :

Use Ranger with DaOM potion and Stormcaller to stun everybody 

Use Swaddling Sheet ( cape from stronghold adventure) on monk for Overhelming Wave on crit , your monk will get crit very soon when fight starts and if you fight them in the narrow pass they all will get stunned . Actually make sure you fight them in the narrow path so you can land stuns easier on all of them at once, form a frontline that blocks enemies passage to your back line and spread ranged characters but make sure all of them can get healed by priests Consecrated Ground 

White Crest armor also has Overhelming Wave which you need to cast yourself so its a bit worse than Swaddling Sheet but you should put this on front liner and chain with other stuns 

Use durance Offensively - Cast only Crowns for the Faithfull and Holly Radiance for buffing your party and follow it up by Minor Avatar + Storm Of Holy Fire ( use their tactics against them ) after this just spam heal until fight is over ,

Focus all aloth long range spells on stunned priests 

Use GM's Amplified Wave after stuns have ended you should have enough focus by then 

you should be able to finish the priests this way and your Storm spell will kill remaining enemies eventualy 

Edited April 10, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Vorad]

Cast slicken with Aloth before combat even starts and it's over before it began. With your given party you could also paralyze/stun one of the casters with Grieving mother and aoe prone a smaller group of them with Durrance. Send your monk  and ranger straight for the enemy casters as well.

[ottffsse]

You have zahua? Great! Build him like juggernaut, position him behind the enemies (opposite direction from your party's attack position so if you engage the bounty from the right side of map position zahua left and stealth him).

 

Now send tank to aggro and buff everyone like you would in a dragon fight. This is a big drawn out fight so buff.

 

Once everyone is engaged zahua should have also buffed up a bit with potions and food, take a potion of deleterious alacrity and wipe the priest and druids in order from the back. Worked for me. Zahua single handedly koed the priest and druids while basically. I had to support his endurance though with several endurance pots. This was at level 13 or 14 on potd.

 

Items like swaddling sheet or white Crest armor also help at the start to knock everyone off with the wave. Then proceed to debuff their will saves and defenses, painful interdiction and cast confusion from a wizard. Meanwhile zahua is harassing the priests forcing them to stop buffing and attacking your other toons. Once a few priests go down the druids start to go at zahua and also die.

[KDubya]

I found starting off summoning every figurine I had in between them and us gave the enemy a target for all of their alpha strikes. After that is was just a slugging match where I tried to kill the priests and druids. On PotD upscaled, level 16 with Kind Wayfarer, Pellaginna, Zahua, Maneha, Kana and Devil. No casters no priests.

[Esajin]

Any tips for speeding up the Soldiers?

 

When upscaled they're kinda hard to tank, they have confident aim, sundering blows, 161 deflection, 165 reflexes (probably due to weapon and shield talent), 127 fortitude, +20 vs stun/prone. They also daze you forever and their overbearing guard kinda prevents you from using their friends against them since they instantly engage and prone each other for half a second back to reason.

 

In your opinion, is Confuse spam while the stormcaller ranger grazes them the only option for a group without a caster (no wizard/priest/chanter/cipher/paladin/druid)? The best I could do without confuse scrolls was to kill two of them before running out of health and revive scrolls lol

Edited April 10, 2016 by Esajin

[KDubya]

Confuse scrolls are always a great opening move. Summon three figurines and throw three Confuse scrolls into the pack. Should cause enough confusion in their ranks to let you start to snipe the priests. This will also get them before their buffs are up.

 

A Stormcaller Ranger would definitely help.

 

I found Kana to be a great help with either the level two paralyze or charm to be really useful. They were quick enough to use often and I'd use whichever had a better chance of landing. If you can paralyze their soldiers they are a lot easier to hit.

[Crucis]

Don't even have to be scrolls, KDubya.  Just have Aloth fire on a Confusion spell of his own.  That by itself is usually a game changer.  One thing to consider though is that in high level battles, the enemies often have very high Will defenses and most may make their saves.  That said, one Confused enemy is often just enough to throw a monkey wrench into the works for a little while.  If you want to really hit them hard with will based spells, find a Will debuffing spell and nail them with that, then hit them with another Confusion, or possibly have GM charm or dominate a number of enemies.

 

Charm, Dominate, and Confusion spells are devastating to an enemy when you can turn their strength against them, and get them attacking each other.

[Esajin]

Yeah my question was about a party without any sort of spellcasters, hence the scrolls. I've since revised my "kill-kiss-marry" strat, since they have such high defenses on POTD upscaled.

 

Soldier's weakness is Will and possibly Fortitude, as they have only 113 and 127 respectively (147 vs prone/stun) and are otherwise walking fortresses of doom thanks to their talented weapon & shield (165 deflection and reflexes, even when paralyzed they're hard to graze for your run-of-the-mill 100 base accuracy character without further buffs)

Druid's weakness is Fortitude and Deflection, as they have only 121/127 (reflexes and will are in the 140's).

Priest's weakness is Melee, as they are using arquebuses and have only 90ish deflection and 120ish fortitude

Barbarian boss's weakness is Ranged, as he has only 90ish deflection and deals a heavy raw damage retaliate melee attack

 

Charm (as in Enigma's Charm) won't work with the Soldiers, at least single target charms, because the Soldiers have Overbearing Guard and pretty much an unlimited engagement limit and far longer engagement range than their own weapon range... so charmed soldiers will have to walk to melee other soldiers and will instantly get hit/grazed/proned by the guard, ending the Charm effect half a second after it lands, for an effective 1sec CC with a 3sec cast time. The druids have 140ish will, so Charming them isn't an option either.. I think I need to Dominate/Confuse the Soldiers while my melee damage dealers charge and kill the Priests (possibly using Ottffsse's backdoor monk tactic), and hope that the druids will kill the soldiers for me with their instagibbing firebugs. Afterwards it's paralyze spam to finish the druids.

 

Or maybe charming/dominating the priests can work, hopefully they won't nuke themselves in the foot and will boon/crown/devotion me instead. They only have 123 base will, after all.

 

I'll be back at 16 I think. 14 is clearly too low for my party on the upscaled POTD version. I've seen someone kite and kill them all with persistence on a paladin on triple crown solo; I'm not sure that's even possible with the upscale (again, 165 deflection...) but having a rogue split the pack and go invisible may be an option, especially if you can have a summon tank the alpha strike.

[Boeroer]

I find all these bounties to be pretty easy if you have two or more caters - especially a Wizard, a Cipher and a Priest:

 

First of all it is great if you can find some kind of a chokepoint or an area where the can't surround you at once.

 

0. combat starts, someone throws summons into the midst of the mob or someone goes in as bait (like a barb with Dragon Leap or whatever). Doesn't matter if he's ko after a while.

1a. Priest casts Inspiring Radiance while

1b. Ranger casts Nature's Mark or Aspirant's Mark and

1c. Wizard casts Binding Web

2. Priest casts Painful Interdiction while

2b. Cipher casts secret Horrors

3. Wizard casts Pull of Eora

4a. Monk or any fast char runs behind that area or is there from the start while

4b. Cipher casts Antipathetic Field on someone in the Pull Of Eora area

4c. Wizard casts Wall of Flame

4d. Priest casts Shining Beacon

5. Wizard casts Chill Fog

5. Cipher casts Ectopsychic echo on the monk or whoever ran past the mob

5. Priest spams Iconic Projection from now on

6. Wizard casts Combusting Wounds

7. Wizard wants to make sure that Binding Web and Pull of Eora don't expire.

 

And while the casters are doing this your other members should use scrolls (paralyze, confusion, whatever you have) and spellbind items like crazy and pick off the ones that escape that Blender of Death. You can also use the monk to push other enemies back into that Pull of Eora with Force of Anguish or just use Torments Reach at the edge of that Pull while being the anker for the Ectopsychic Echo.

 

That should be enough. Of course this is when the plan works out. Most of the time it doesn't and you have to improvise. But the key thing here is to buy some time (send in bait) and keep the enemy in one spot (bait + Binding Web + Pull of Eora) and then drop everything you have onto their heads while making sure you can hit them (buffing and debuffing first.) Because most of them will be stuck in the web and Pull of Eora (which also interrupts a bit every time it whirls them around and which will also force a hit check for Ectopsychic Echo every time) you will have time to cast some spells without being overwhelmed. I like those spells that do something in pulses (Pull of Eora, Binding Web, Chill Fog, Mal. Cloud, Wall of Fire) because it not only ensures that most of the time at least some enemies are hit but it also works great with Combusting Wounds.

 

Giving the enemy bait at the beginning is a good thing because there is no defense against that. If you throw a squishy target into their midst at the beginning of a fight - while all others are stealthed and that target could cause lots of damage - that's like having a very strong CC effect that lasts for some time. All enemies will turn towards that bait and you will have some time for buffing/debuffing and then casting CC like Binding Web and Pull of Eora. My Immoratl Martyr was build with that in mind. You toss him in as decoy, he does some serious damage even if he goes down (and up because of second chance) and meanwhile you can buff/debuff an prepare everything while you feed the foes some summons when the bait is going down for good. In fact it's one of the most powerful CC effects I know. There's no defense or accuracy involved. You just turn the behaviour of the AI against it. YOu just have to sacrifice a team member. Best to use one which is of no special use in a specific fight. For example you could use Kana in this case. He will draw a lot of attention if he goes in first with Come Sweet WInds or THe Dragon THrashed - or any other offensive chant.  

Edited April 11, 2016 by Boeroer

[Kaylon]

 

I'll be back at 16 I think. 14 is clearly too low for my party on the upscaled POTD version. I've seen someone kite and kill them all with persistence on a paladin on triple crown solo; I'm not sure that's even possible with the upscale (again, 165 deflection...) but having a rogue split the pack and go invisible may be an option, especially if you can have a summon tank the alpha strike.

 

With a speedy character it's possible to split some of them because some casters will stop casting their spells and will be left behind. With my solo paladin I beat them upscaled by tanking the fighters and some of their casters and then I finished the casters left, but of course I was lvl16. 

[Blunderboss]

Splitting packs is cheese , better wait for lvl 16 , lvl 15-16 is when you should be doing upscalled magrans faithfull anyway , i tried with my lvl 13 MC and lvl 12 party and it was too hard without the endgame spells , when i came back at lvl 15 i got it on first try (tho i knew how the fight will go and had a clear and simple plan to stunlock them until i kill the priests , for which you need only 3 items , 2 Melee chars with overhelming wave from items and a Ranger with stormcaller ) , dont forget to use Storm of Holy Fire Spell with your priest not only on this fight , on all fights that u get from lvl 13 use that spell on hard fights u use Minor Avatar before casting this spell too 

Edited April 11, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Kaylon]

Well, if you wait for lv15 there's no challenge anymore... Once you get the last abilities you can roll over the entire content left without resting...

[fiddlesticks]

I'll be back at 16 I think. 14 is clearly too low for my party on the upscaled POTD version. I've seen someone kite and kill them all with persistence on a paladin on triple crown solo; I'm not sure that's even possible with the upscale (again, 165 deflection...) but having a rogue split the pack and go invisible may be an option, especially if you can have a summon tank the alpha strike.

 

Kiting them with Persistence is always possible; it'll just take forever against the upscaled version because so many of your attacks will miss outright. There are definitely more fun tactics to try if you have a full team.

[Blunderboss]

Well, if you wait for lv15 there's no challenge anymore... Once you get the last abilities you can roll over the entire content left without resting...

so you say its better to cheese it earlier by abusing game mechanics and spliting the group that is meant to be fought all at once ? Troll or serious ?

Clearly it will be challenging enough even after lvl 15 with story companion party op has .

Edited April 11, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Jojobobo]

I'd say one man's unpleasant cheese is another's delicious cheese sandwich. I'm playing solo as a Rogue, and using Shadowing Beyond I split most tough groups. I guess this does feel a little less cheesy with a Rogue as physically turning invisible makes logical sense that it would cause enemies to lose you, while splitting a group with high move speed does feel less logical (do the other enemies lose interest, etc.). In fact, I guess beyond giving an extra sneak attack getting the Rogue out of the fray is pretty much what Shadowing Beyond is built for.

 

Even with move speed split-and-pulling, depending on the situation I think it can still make sense. As Kaylon points out as casters have to be stationary to cast in makes sense that they could easily be left behind if you were to run far enough away from them and fast enough while non-casters are in pursuit - why would they give chase when they become separated when they can't even be sure where you are anymore because you're so far away? I think ultimately people should just play however they feel comfortable, killing half the group that you've split-and-pulled is still going to be a challenge.

[Blunderboss]

solo is different story ,

Spliting groups with full party is pahetic cheese

If choice is between waiting level or two to kill it properly or cheese it earlier by splittig imo one should just wait few levels

Especially when op mentioned he is uderleveled and gonna wait i think there is nothing to discuss further .

Also pulling enemies back to fight them in better position is completely different from pulling enemies back far enough so half of them go back Because of stupid AI , there is no need to ever do it if you play with full party

Edited April 11, 2016 by Blunderboss

[Esajin]

Right now I feel it would be less cheesy for me to split pull than to respec or change the party composition to allow, say, Aloth, Durance and GM in and follow the great advice in this thread. But of course, having just dinged 15 this morning, that might change. I haven't yet got a taste of all those new skills. If they're half as good as half of you guys say they are, I'd be half as thankful as I'd like to be.

[Esajin]

Oh by the way, I just stumbled upon this bug report https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85882-skaen-temple-guards-nigh-unkillable/

 

Basically, any mob with weapon and shield focus will have their deflection and reflexes boosted each time there's a save/load cycle in the zone. Which is probably why OP and I have difficulties dealing with impervious soldiers and godlike druids and consider the barb and priests as easy fodder, while other people can deal with them with a relatively straightforward plan on their first or second try, but see priests as the most dangerous of the pack.

[Boeroer]

Oh my, that bug again. Sometimes I really wonder how they are developing software at OBS - with all those boomerang bugs. Maybe they can't help it because Unity forbids them to use better engineering, who knows.

Their bugs seem to be c0ckroaches: if OBS nukes them with a patch, they just crawl beneath a coded stone and reemerge after the next patch settled the dust.

 

Edit: to be clear: I think it's impossible to make bug free software in a real world environment on the first try - especially if the software is so complex. And it's great and appreciated that OBS puts out patches so frequenty, thanks for that - but normally fixed bugs don't return... 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[Esajin]

Well, I work in software development and trust me, even with the best of intentions, the best tooling there is, even with a team of seasoned rockstar vets, there's always a fixed bug crawling back to life every now and then.

 

There's a reason they're called "bugs". They're like ****roaches. You put them on rockets and send them in deep space, some of them will eventually crash on a comet, one of the comets will eventually cross back into the solar gravity field, melt down into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, only to be picked up by the solar winds and carried back home. See that shooting star in the sky? That's your deflection stacking bug coming back to say hi.

 

edit: oh and by the way, we meet again, profanity filter bug from 1998. Good to see you're still in shape. How was your trip in deep space?

Edited April 12, 2016 by Esajin

[Boeroer]

I've been a Software Engineer for over a decade now - and if the programmers that work for me would let the same bug emerge over and over again I would just kick their butts to that asteroid you described so vividly. Or I'd have to kick myself up. Because first of all it's my responsibility that the architecture of the software is so that this is not likely to happen. And I've never experienced something like this in my whole career. Bugs? Sure, tons of it. But the same bug reemerging over and over again? That must've been a really stressful and chaotic development that resulted in messy code.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Boeroer