Letting the game do the fighting for you - PoE2 in slacker mode

[IndiraLightfoot]

I'm still tinkering with using the custom AI to basically make the game play itself, and I'm having heaps of fun.

After several tries, I've found a party composition that absolutely thrashed through all content and all enemies, including the greater Titan blights.

The longest encounter was the Titan fight: 15 secs. Hard fights: 10 secs. All other fights: like 3-7 secs.

 

What I finally settled with was the bizarre multiclass Wildrhymer combo: ranger (Sharpshooter) + chanter (Beckoner).

I made three such party members, standing at the back, being sharpshooters, and using that phrase which enhances your ranged weaponry plus a few protection phrases. 

Then I kept singing the Enhanced Skeletons tune (which make the skellies split in two when they die) .

 

I had two of them wielding dual pistols with faster reload, and one of them wielding two wands. Let's just say that the one with the wands did the least damage.

 

They all got antelopes, because I adore them.

 

The skeleton summons do trigger traps for you! Great! However, antelopes don't (I reported that as a bug.)

 

I had two basic tanks at the front: Devoted/Bleakwalkers.

The one with dual sabres did quite  a bit better than the one with dual clubs.

I even gave them the passive: Engage one more enemy.

 

Merely 30% of all killed enemies were downed by my party. The rest were killed by the hooves and skeletal bones of my summons and pets!

And it was all pre-programmed. I more or less initiated combat, and then let the game play itself.

 

I'm 100% sure PotD will be a breeze this way, as this was Veteran difficulty, and it's the easiest playthrough I've had, and I've mostly played on Classic difficulty.

 

Enjoy the pics:

The final image shows that my army of minions is at its worst in tight squeezes.

 

"Oh, the fight's over already?" *Sips tea, and munches some dark chocolate.*

Edited April 4, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Wormerine]

Beckoners are ridiculous.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Not only that. They rarely take any damage! I checked. The average for my three beckoners was like 200 damage taken through the entire content of the beta (except Mr Super Frog by the beach).

I mean - there are walls of bones and meat in between.

Edited April 4, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I'd suggest replacing your tanks with paladin/chanter beckoners. 

 

Then everything gets paladin auras and you have EVEN MORE skellingtons.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I forgot to mention that I took the daring decision to dump Per and Res for my three Wildrhymers. In that way I had the rest almost maxed out. Was that really wise?

And I knew about Int being a secret summon duration enhancer.

 

Oh, and I had them run around in light armors (20% recovery penalty). Was that a right move?

Edited April 4, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[ShakotanSolari]

Little baby skellingtons are so cute.

[PatrioticChief]

Nice lol. Though it begs the question why having more early PL passives is bad but stuff like this is so easy to do it's not even funny. 

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Nice lol. Though it begs the question why having more early PL passives is bad but stuff like this is so easy to do it's not even funny. 

 

"See, we need to move from six player characters to five, for balance reasons. But we'll make it up to you with extra skeletons and bears. As many bears as you want."

[dunehunter]

I kinda understand why Josh insists that chanter summon spells should be 9 second cast time...

[Boeroer]

Or - don't give them DOUBLE the amount of summons? I mean 6 skeletons... They could have given him different summons (more powerful creatures) or +1 summon or whatever. 6 is already their own dance party...

 

I would have made one of the tanks a Devoted/Skald just for Mith Fyr on the skeletons and Killers Froze Stiff on the enemies. The other tank would have used Shared Flames. Did he?

[dunehunter]

Or - don't give them DOUBLE the amount of summons? I mean 6 skeletons... They could have given him different summons (more powerful creatures) or +1 summon or whatever. 6 is already their own dance party...

 

I would have made one of the tanks a Devoted/Skald just for Mith Fyr on the skeletons and Killers Froze Stiff on the enemies. The other tank would have used Shared Flames. Did he?

 

Or set a limitation on the maximum number of summons u can have? Now if you have 5 Beckoner can you summon 5x6=30 skeletons at the begin of battle?

[Veevoir]

Against harder enemies - did the skeletons hit anything? Or are they there only to block the enemy while no-perception rappers (wildrhymer sounds like somebody who does rap battles ) shoot the target and graze it to death?

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

I would have made one of the tanks a Devoted/Skald just for Mith Fyr on the skeletons and Killers Froze Stiff on the enemies. The other tank would have used Shared Flames. Did he?

Thanks for that pro tip. And well, I actually used Shared Flames on both my pallies! It's really fitting.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Against harder enemies - did the skeletons hit anything? Or are they there only to block the enemy while no-perception rappers (wildrhymer sounds like somebody who does rap battles ) shoot the target and graze it to death?

A far as I can tell, they must have hit harder stuff a lot as well. They made like 70% of all the damage my party did in my playthrough of the beta. It's like death by a thousand paper cuts.

[Boeroer]

They scale with level, have ok base acc and can buffed. Summons in Deadfire are awesome.

 

They shred Titan and Saints alike. Of course there is some grazing,missing and No Pen - but they just keep hacking till it's over.

 

@dunehunter: yes, 5 Beckoner/Rangers can have 30 summons + 5 animal companions on the field. Pretty crowded - especially once the skellies split into two BIGGER skeletons after death. Yes, that bug's still in.

[CottonWolf]

 

Or - don't give them DOUBLE the amount of summons? I mean 6 skeletons... They could have given him different summons (more powerful creatures) or +1 summon or whatever. 6 is already their own dance party...

 

I would have made one of the tanks a Devoted/Skald just for Mith Fyr on the skeletons and Killers Froze Stiff on the enemies. The other tank would have used Shared Flames. Did he?

 

Or set a limitation on the maximum number of summons u can have? Now if you have 5 Beckoner can you summon 5x6=30 skeletons at the begin of battle?

 

This sounds like a feature, not a bug.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Three drawbacks when playing all custom AI like this:

-I never used Empower

-I never used any consumables in combat

-AoE effects always pose a risk (but given how fast my party could kill stuff, it was barely an issue)

[Boeroer]

-I never used Empower

-I never used any consumables in combat

So, like 90% of people play it anyways.

[Wormerine]

 

-I never used Empower-I never used any consumables in combat

So, like 90% of people play it anyways.

Excuse me, I started using empower on regular basis with beta 4. It’s too shiny to ignore.

[JerekKruger]

Okay this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use Empower to restore my lost resources.

[Boeroer]

Haha! Superembarrassing!

 

I love it...

[PatrioticChief]

Okay this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use Empower to restore my lost resources.

That’s PoE for you. Not exactly intuitive.

Edited April 6, 2018 by PatrioticChief

[Wormerine]

Okay this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use Empower to restore my lost resources.

Click on the “oooooo, shiny!” And than on the character portrait.

[JerekKruger]

 

Okay this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use Empower to restore my lost resources.

Click on the “oooooo, shiny!” And than on the character portrait.

Thanks. I had tried clicking on the character model on the battlefield and on the resource counter but not the portrait. Note I might use Empower more.

[Wormerine]

 

 

Okay this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I haven't been able to figure out how to use Empower to restore my lost resources.

Click on the “oooooo, shiny!” And than on the character portrait.

Thanks. I had tried clicking on the character model on the battlefield and on the resource counter but not the portrait. Note I might use Empower more.

I do try clicking on character model to this day. :-D