The Ultimate (softcore) as... druid?

[Phyriel]

Yea I'm using Fenwalkers, insane boots, I've been using Shod in Faith half of the game because I was trying to make this spiritshifting spell holding druid to work... then I used boots of speed and settled with fenwalkers.

 

For chest I switched Blaidh Golan of Raiment of Wael's Eyes for now... I've been crawling through fungus and vithrack infested levels of endless paths so I thought might as well try it on. I got a ring of thorns now so I use it instead combusting wounds one, I don't really use it anymore, after I drop storm + plague of insects and venomblood everything dies really quickly. So with that ring i keep +def when prone/stunned. 

 

I'm was thinking about stacking retaliation items and having fun with avenging storm, do you know if it work together? 

[Boeroer]

Venomblood is very powerful. What's also powerful is Rot Skulls. You can totally build a really good druid around that spell (Dangerous Implement, Marksman, Boots of Speed and so on). Its base damage is great and the AoE is also very nice. And its not considered poison as far as I know.

 

I did several bounties solo with such a druid - not a whole playthrough, only console-magic, just in order to test the usefulness of Rot Skulls - and I was really impressed. Because of that I then made a party with an implement wizard (Kalakoth's and stuff), an implement druid (Rot Skulls), implement cipher (Grudge-Keeper + bonus damage when enemies are flanked) and implement rogue (GOlden Gaze and max DR bypass). Went really well. Maybe that's not suitable for a real solo game. But the spell itself is really nice if you just want to spare some high level spells and still do a lot of AoE damage in an encounter. The AoE/DoT damage stacks by the way.

 

I wonder what a PoE2 wizard/druid with Rot Skulls + Blast would be like...

Edited June 30, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

Ye if only they weren't two handed:D 

In my 6 wizards playthough I got 3 ranged wizards that are built around implements. Its very good. But 6 wizards is so much awesome that its hard to say if implements alone make this good or a whole package:) I mean 3 frontline with insane defenses and impenetrable deflection using citzal lances. And backline spamming confusion, petrify... Not to mention that in 1 level all of my wizards will be able to learn concelhaut hammer spell I can't wait to see a fight vs dragon with 6 hammers mauling down on poor lizards.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

Holy **** cragholdt is damn hard to solo. Those packs got extreme damage very fast. And this ****ing drunken monk... 

I tried to yolo in my first few attempts and fight like 2 packs at once I got destroyed in a massive hurry. Gotta pick those fights very carefully here. 

 

Edit: Meh its too hard. I entered this optional cave with skeletons... tried 20 times can't do it. Those melee guys with citzal lances cuts thru my buffs like thru butter.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Yes, the tower itself is very hard solo and you'll have to split-pull I think.

[Phyriel]

Ye this place is no joke. I got terrible problems with those skeletons so far, need to science something out to beat it. 

 

Edit: had to splitpull with tornado. I mean I have all the counter options for what those skeletons in cave throw at me but everything takes time. And I'd have to drink 3 potions and cast 2-3 scrolls + 2-3 selfbuffs to make it trivial but it just won't happen with the amount of hurt they throw at you.  

 

I had attempts when I managed to cut out 2/3 of their lethal **** with proper scrolls but I'd be hit with that 1 effect that I just didn't have time to make myself immune to yet and bam... dead in 2 seconds. 

 

Anyway all the human packs are easy but you need to use confuse scrolls if you don't want to splitpull and cheese extremely. Thats my uneducated opinion tho. I feel that druid need atleast few more seconds to prepare and drop debuffs on the ground before he can afford getting surrounded. With wizard you can get into buffed up state and ready to drop petrify faster. 

 

I'll be getting inside soon... I'm scared of this last fight tho

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

The problem is that the enemies in the tower have so many immunities.

[Phyriel]

I'm at the last fight now... been progressing veeeeeery slowly. I got thru most of outside enemies using confusion scrolls and rest was just spamming druid stuff all over. Ancient Death Guards were problematic cause it was hard to land anything on them, in the end I just used all the pulsing spells, drank accu pot and went boar form. I was missing quite a bit but each hit left wounding effect so it was good. For hard pulls when I pulled 2+ I could only kill one this way, for the other I had to struggle with drawn in spring wounding effect. But those fights were more annoyingly slow than dangerous.

 

Inside I killed all students, for me the hardest was the one with skeletons, I dunno those skeletons that cast citzal lance and merciless gaze wreck me so fast but they are not immune to petrify so that's what carried me thru. Second hardest room was with animated weapons, I pulled outside toward the staircase behind a bookshelf that you can search for some scrolls. This was a bit micro intensive and I had to use pretty much everything to survive and keep up with killing them. Here venomblood and petrify carried me. 

 

I'm kind of scared now tho cause last room is mix of everything, skeletons with citzal, death guards and main boss... will see. 

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

Conceulhaut dead. Veeery close fight. I pulled with tornado and had to min/max the slow mode and pause to the extreme. Took me 5 tries and the last try I got to cast all the scrolls and buffs and nothing landed on me so that was lucky, with buffed state I was able to cast plague of insects and it landed on everything, then I just landed petrify on most of them and that was about it when it comes to trash. 

 

But at the end I got a bit overconfident...I had Concelhaut at Badly Injured with 20 sec of insects left while I was half hp. He proned me for 4-5 seconds twice in a row !!!! and tossed missiles on me, it got me down below 20% but I had a Watchful Presence active from Sentinel Girdle and Moonwell still pulsing... anyway I got up on my feet when I was 20 endurance left nonetheless... and thats only because he tossed one spell on me, he decided to buff himself with minor reflection as his second choice. 

 

Paused the game at this point and had like 2 min break because I saw him start to cast another missiles and I was at hard choice of trying to drink health pot, trying to drink +deflection pot in hope to graze and deflect with Aila Braccia or trying to nuke him and go yolo with fast cast Talon's Reach as he was already at "Nearly dead" since 2 insects ticks.

 

I went yolo with nuke. 

[Phyriel]

Adra dragon down, super easy, druid level 2 spell hold beast and gg. With scroll of valor, accuracy vs beast III from resting I had 90% to land it. Even forgot to use scale breaker until in the middle of fight and didn't use conceulhaut visage at all. Used boar form to finish her off. Boar even without any talents hit quite nicely. 

 

I was surpriced adra dragon is immune to petrify but not to paralyze which is like weaker effect. Also not immune to hobbled, prone weakened etc. 

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

Alpine down, a bit harder but i went for easy strategy which is confuse scrolls. I was able to have 50-60% chance to land lowlevel dots so I applied them all, after all mobs were dead alpine was "injured" reapplied all dots again, he went after concelhaut visage, buffed up with avenging wrath dropped petrify it landed for 9 seconds, instant scale breaker into boar form - few quick hits for 90+ gg.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Boar with wounding is good against high DR. Most dragons are not immune to charm and prone. With Munacra Arret you can charm the dragon while taking out the ads.

But do that at the start of the fight, not later when the dragon is already injured, because charm heals a bit (might be intended or a bug).

Edited July 1, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

Oh I might play a bit with druid charm on Sky Dragon or Bog Dragons then. 

 

Anyway I was close to forfeiting my potd solo run yesterday at Cragholdt, I dunno why I was so hesitant to spam pots and scrolls. I guess I thought I might run short for even harder fights but then at some point I opened my store chest and saw I got enough Topazes for 25 scrolls of Confuse so I just dropped the leash. After getting through Concelhaut I got invigorated and one shoted 2 dragons. 

 

Wondering what the next challenge will be. I'm looking forward to Llengrath, Radiant Spore and Kraken fights also got next sets of bounties in Dyrwood and not done with wm1 yet so wm2 bounties also. 

 

Also wondering about final itemization. Right now I use:

-Head: Hermit's Hat

-Body: Vengiatta Rugia

-Boots: Fenwalkers

-Gloves: Quickaction/Accurate 2 

-Belt: Sentinels Girdle 

-Rings: Protection and Thorns  

-Cloak: Cape of Master Mystic 

-Weapon sets 1) Drawn in Spring + Little Savior 2) Forgotten Tear of the Beloved + Aila Braccia 

 I want to toy with Fire Stag and Black Sanctuary Withdrawal 

 

I wanna get something better than Vengiatta Rugia as Retaliation is kinda useless for me as I just found out it doesn't work with Avenging Storm. 

Edited July 1, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

I think one of the bog dragons is immune to charm and the other one to prone - if I'm not mistaken. Those are the only ones.

Still works of course: charm one and the other will attack him. For me that fight seems to be easier than Concelhaut. Don't know exactly why, maybe because Concelhaut and his minions have too many immunities and I don't like supertanky characters. Bad combination...  

[Phyriel]

Another roadblock, wm1 durgans battery, in the mines on the lower level where you loot the corpse for a key and bunch of wraiths, sirens and spectres show up. I get dimenshional shifted stunned into even more ghosts before I even get to use figurines, cast any scroll or drink any pot. I have time to cast fast spell and thats with maxed dex, gloves of quickness. After stun lands I get my preservation items proc which is ok but I just get chain stunned and I can't do ****, I don't get very damaged when I'm stunned, heck they don't even hit me that often because with preservation procs from both shield and armor i got 170 deflection 200 fort 266 reflex and 190 will so its ok but problem is that somehow... even with that kind of defenses the siren lands paralyze on me... 100% of the time... tried this fight like 10 times and same scenario happens. Once paralyze takes root it suppresses the stuns that warrant preservation status and I'm back to my normal defenses minus paralyze effect ofc and I'm shredded in seconds. 

 

Obviously I tried to cast that scroll of prayer against imprisonment, I think I managed once to resist first stun that comes almost instantly and got it off but then it ran out while I was chain stunned and got paralyzed anyway in the end -> rip.

 

Edit: Nevermind, got through, just as always in same sort of situations its a game of cc them before they cc you. Managed to get Relentless Storm before they got me, this bought me time to get scrolls out and it snowballed in my favour. Can't imagine stress when you try to do it legit way without alt f4ing when **** goes south on hardcore mode. Anyway I doubt there were many "The Ultimate" players that done it without wiping 50 times on practice softcore runs or didn't alt f4 when things went wrong or very dicy.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

I guess my next solo run gonna be a priest Who needs to stack defenses if you get Litany against major afflictions 

Immunity to Charmed, Terrified, Stunned, Petrified, Paralyzed, Dominated, Immuity to Weakened for 20.0 sec

Edited July 2, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

When I did the ultimate with a barb (got killed in Act III if I remember correctly because of a bug with Battle-Forged or so) I skipped those unneccessary encounters. You only have to do the dragons, archmages and bounties.

 

It's always very helpful to drop a weak summon that eats the first wave of CC (and dies). Buys you time. Same with a dominate from Ring of Changing Heart. It works outside of combat, that's really a great thing. You dominate an enemy, encounter starts, all the initial heat gets unloaded onto the dominated foe.

 

Priest solo is tough at the beginning (few good spells, bad starting values) - and then it gets easy. Max MIG/INT approach with Shining Beacon - Cleaning Flame wrecks everything. And as you said: lots of immunities - so most o the time no need for certain defensive talents or -items.  

Edited July 2, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

Yea thats what I normally did but this fight is scripted as ghosts appear out of thin air after you grab the key. Its like lighthouse except ghosts are nastier. I thought its a mandatory encounter isn't? I mean its a key you need to get to gain access to the forge level am I right?

 

Anyway about priest, nah I'll skip that idea as I really begin to dislike endgame that is reliant on buffing up each fight. It gets very tedious already even on a druid... It was a challenge before I got tornado because I could ofc initiate the fight with overwhelming wave and get 1 or 2 buffs off before I got enemies in close vicinity but now with tornado that bounce 3 times and change direction I can really pull mobs that are 2 rooms away by planing how tornado will bounce so it reaches them. My record was triggering combat and getting 11 seconds before they got to me without moving or kiting away at all, they just all got hit by disable and then it took them next 5-6 seconds to run to my original spot. When they reached me they had already me waiting with full set of buffs scrolls pots with tanglefoot, venomblood and thorns already waiting infront of me.

 

I can only imagine with priest its a buff fest 90% of the game and then just clearing the floor with overbuffed god. Its fun getting there ofc but it gets meh once u're there and still have like 50% of the content to clear that autopilot way. I liked my 6 wizards playthrough aka circle of the nine, amount of flashy things on the screen got insane at high level  but some fights were truly autopause galore with micro buffing and stutter stepping every milisecond;P

 

I need to think about my next playthrough. I'll probably opt for a party without much of tedious buffing so maybe something like ranger + rogues +spiritshifter and chanter + fighter/paladin as tanks 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Marking Paladin (marking weapon or even dual wielding marking weapons, Coordinated Attacks, Zealous Focus) is great ACC buffing for a single ally (+26 or even +36 when dual wielding) without casting any spell.

[Phyriel]

I went back to my 6 wizards party... holy hell things are so easy:P and then I imagined 6 druids O_o 6x returning relentless and avenging storms?? god... as a matter of fact ill go for themed Glanfathan party - multiple rangers + druids and a barbarian, could be fun. I think my ears wouldn't survive 6x storms hammering at the same time. Its already getting unbearable with 1 druid:P

Edited July 2, 2017 by Phyriel