Melee classes Potd Solo.

[Phyriel]

Yo. So I've recently reached lvl 16 on my potd solo runs with druid and wizard. With wizard I'm a bit further, just have part of wm 2 left + its bounties and thats it, just thaos left after that. 

 

With druid I kind of got bored and the constant trashing of relentless storm made me dizzy :D

 

I've also started a 6 party play-through with a "tribe" party that consist barbarian as MC + druids (off tank + shifter + ranged/implement) + 2 rangers. But I'm feeling its gonna be too easy now that I nearly beat game twice with solo chars. Especially that druids got so many "enemy only spells" and make nearly all vs beast encounters pretty trivial. So I dunno if I'll do that run.

 

But I'm kind of hungry of playing solo with a melee char. I'm not interested with paladin nor chanter for that matter. I was kind of curious about rogue but after watching The Ultimate finished by rogue I changed my mind because its so much cheese / splitpulling etc I don't dig that.

 

So right now I'm thinking barbarian / monk or maybe a.... fighter? Question is as tho... and I'm afraid I know the answer... Does rolling one of those means very strict cheesing and splitpulling all the way to end game?  

[Undesirable]

Are you going for The Ultimate achievement? If so, then you will have to use cheesy tactics at one point or another. Either luring them into doorways or splitting them off. The maths doesn't add up otherwise... no single character can be guaranteed to soak up hits from all directions without having a very weak offense, at least in the early game. Learning which pack of enemies you can or cannot attack in a given area is also tedious.

 

If you're not going for The Ultimate, then you might get away with not splitting packs of enemies off but you'd have to be lucky or save / load a lot which can also be considered cheesy.

 

This game wasn't designed with (primarily) solo play in mind, the solo achievements were added because it is remotely feasible.

 

Now I must plug my own Shaolin Dragonslayer Monk build, which provisions for solo play in addition to end-game dragon encounters. Is it designed for The Ultimate achievement? Not really, but good luck finding fool-proof builds that are.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Undesirable

[Boeroer]

I did a barb Ultimate attempt with a max MIG/CON/INT build, dual wielding hammers, that relied on self healing instead of deflection and it worked pretty well. In the beginning you have to cheese, but after some levels it was fun. I got killed by a bug though: Battle-Forged + Watcher abilities or Second Wind (athletics) produces a self hit that can kill you.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

I don't mind using doorways and such because ultimately its part of a scenery and its a valid strategy, sometimes enemies jump behind you or use push abilities to knock you out from choke points so its not like AI is hopeless to overcome that. Although in reality its very effective if not for survival then for utilizing aoe to biggest effect. I guess AI could be improved in a way to make them not clump up at the doorway but instead spread in the room, corners waiting till you're free to engage. That would make it so much harder for casters that rely on hitting full groups with aoes. 

 

I mostly despise exploiting with kiting to split groups in 3 parts with combat dropping each time etc... Thats lame as hell. As for Ultimate, no I'm not going for it as I'm using IE mod but I also don't really want to save/reload trying to get lucky. I don't mind reloading if I just get wrecked because I don't use something in good order because thats misplay and not rng factor. 

 

How far did you get with your barb Boeroer? 

 

P.S all that being said I don't expect to have same viability, powerhouse as wizard or (to a smaller degree) druid. I thought that druid was very strong after getting to mid-end game although I ran into some fights that were super tough for druid... then I switched to my wizard and boy that was easy. Wizard is easy mode this class is so broken for solo, gaze of andragan = 200+ dmg rakes even with pretty low might. Veil gives you all the time in the world to buff up to supersaian mode, the only issues were occasional stun->paralyze locks but there is nothing a good confusion can't fix. Anyway after getting Ilengrath barrier spells you're immune to anything. So yea I don't expect to top that kind of level of power with anything else. Maybe a priest but I don't dig it for some reason... too much buffing. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

I did WM I and went over to Act III and died somewhere there. I was already lvl 16 and did all WM I bounties without difficulties. Can't really remember where it ended. I wrote about it here in the forum. Maybe it was in Noonfrost? Or I was trying t get deeper into the Endless Paths? Can't remember... It wasn't a very difficult fight. Just bad luck and a bug.

[Phyriel]

Rip, just asked to have a rough estimate if you were already past some roadblocks but since you got to 16 then I guess it passed viability check:P

[Boeroer]

I guess dragons would have been very tough though (Sky Dragon I did successfully though). Same as the WMII-bounties. You can do them solo on PotD with Combusting Wounds + Heart of Fury, followed by a Vengeful Defeat - but it's a lot of risk. No problem if you can just reload, but with Trial of Iron you don't want to take unnecessary risks.

[dgray62]

Phyriel, I was curious about your run through with 3 druids. With three druids, can you have three castings of returning or relentless storm active at once? That would be insane! I ask because I've never played with more than one druid in a party.

[Boeroer]

Sure you can.

 

You can even have several instances of Relentless Storm active as a single druid.

[Dr <3]

Sure you can.

 

You can even have several instances of Relentless Storm active as a single druid.

Really? I had always thought that the same kind of storm would have suppressed the others. Nice to know

[Boeroer]

Last time I tried it (2. something) you could cast Relentless Storm several times and observe that the intervals between impact got shorter and shorter. Same with Nature's Terror by the way: you could generate a ton of parallel shocking hits. I did that to determine if retaliation druid + Combusting Wounds (Ring of Searing Flames) was any good - and it was.

 

It may be that this got altered, but I saw nothing about that in any patch note since then, so I think it still works this way.

 

However - two druids casting two separate Relentless Storms is 100% doable. With six druids casting 6 storms you'll have 6*foe-number impacts every few seconds AND your speakers will definitely break.

 

Same with 6 chanters casting White Worms by the way. Crushed my headphones...

Edited July 15, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

Ye with multiple druids you absolutely keep full screen of enemies stunlocked forever but you really have to turn sound effects down because its like multiple steel pans hitting the marble floor... constantly. Its the rain of steel pans. Btw its also a funny thing to initiate combat from far far away using multiple tornados, it kicks the combat right in and it gives you all the time in the world to buff up, summon ... multiple firestags and well you know where the fun is:P I called it Highway to Hell combo because enemies have to run thru endless wall of flames and all they enter is milions of volts to spice it up. Really funny combo, doesn't require much micro which is a big ++ for me at this point.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

I went with the monk. The Anvil build. I was afraid i'd have to splitpull, cheese a lot but man this is so much power. Retaliation + Battle Forged + Rooting Pain while using Ring of Searing Flames and Rotfinger Gloves. I went yolo for Sanguine Plate quest at level 6 or 7 and I demolished those fools. I had Merciless Hand by then so Torment Reach made ribs fly all over the screen. 

[Boeroer]

I hope you also took Turning Wheel. Because it also works with Battle-Forged and normal retaliation. +60% burning lash (with Scion of Flame) is a pretty powerful answer when you get pommeled.

[Phyriel]

Yep yep all check. Super strong in early-mid game. 

[Phyriel]

I got to level 13 on that monk, finished most of act 3 but didn't touch wm at all. But yeah Noonfrost (upscaled) gave me a cancer because both dampening magic and deprieve the unworthy there made me unable to really capitalize on flame potion... not to mention those elves got crazy high fire resistance it was pain to kill them. They didn't really do much in return but all those mobs were healing each other for eternity. Being reliant on retaliation that much isn't my thing. Probably should just respec to some totally different build now for higher level content but I'll leave it for now. Im curious about that barbarian solo tho, it seems really much more proactive. You say you used what build?