|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 21, 2016 22:06:07 GMT
Yeeeeee! Starting to get into the really fun stuff now. I scrapped with Asimathas today a few times. First time he was all over me, but I learned a lot about him and the second fight was very brief and safe and didn't require many casts before the fight. Interposing Hand is a major perk in this build. I'm tempted to neglect Silence for this fight, but pretty sure I know better. It's not quite THAT short.
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 24, 2016 20:35:59 GMT
Doing a lot of work on Razhid today, haven't faced him yet as I've been experimenting with the guards and skeletons. Heal does a lot of work here, followed up with an empowered Hammer of the Gods, that handles all the spectres and skeletons.
The guards are a major headache, as Implosion seems to be the only reliable way I have of killing them. They're immune to many spells, including Heal, Cure spells, Destruction, Undeath to Death... and their saves are very high, meaning most damage spells do single digit damage. Implosion can work, at max wisdom and a SF: Evocation shop item plus prayer and battletide, I have 45% chance to kill and five level 9 slots. Those are good odds, but if I fail to kill even one in a group of four when my implosions run dry, it takes a while to kill the last one or two. Vortex of Teeth, Creeping Doom, pump my AB and pray to land some hits against their strong AC.
So I really only want to engage a single guard group per rest. Because of this, right now my main task is to find ways to skip as many spawns as possible while still making the kill count. So far I've been testing the trip toward the dragon. Even if I GS past things, they see me, and don't forget I'm there when GS ends, even around many corners. This means anything I spawn will run after me eventually before I can rest. Some spawns seem skippable by walking around the trigger, and I can skip the trip backward by re-entering the chamber from town. Right now it's looking like 2-3 rests for the east side of the map. It's a little much, but not enough to justify going for a Wisdom-based build or switching to Wizard levels before this point for Sunburst... Heal and Harm are still too strong on the time saves.
Unrelated, but I also keep finding myself saying "gee, it'd be so nice if I only had Maximize Spell." Really looking forward to rebuilding this with that feat. Enchantment focus feats are also looking pretty wasted, as Cleric has no trouble maxing out AB without the extra few points on GMW, and the extra soak-piercing doesn't look that useful in a build with such low Strength. If I really need more than +10, there's also shop items with SF: Enchantment so I can get +11 anyway. Conjuration is REQUIRED, so I can't drop any feats for that right now, may eventually be able to drop ESF and be okay. Considering moving Autostill 2 a bit earlier so I can use 4-6 level spells against 30 tags.
Oh, and I also thought of a potentially very clever way to avoid heal potions going off on the East Road Bandit Chief tag. With Maximize Spell, I can use some lower Inflict spell maximized to land each bandit just above half HP, then a higher Inflict spell to kill, exploiting the AI.
|
|
|
Post by condude on Apr 24, 2016 22:35:20 GMT
I'd REALLY recommend ESF evocation. Plodes can kill every single monster, including bosses, up until the lvl 30 tags. The +4 DC compared to what you have is probably going to make your life a lot easier.
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 24, 2016 23:55:34 GMT
Well, as a Theurge, the earliest I can even get Implosion is level 26, and currently I get it at level 27. Currently my strats for each boss in the 20s are:
- East Road Bandit Chief: Inflict Wounds spells - Cesspool: Maximized Inflict Critical Wounds - Corpse Lord: I forget, but he went down fast - Formian Matriarch: Bug blades with strong melee - Render Queen: Harms - Lava King: Harms - Dracolich: Heal - Hendron: Bug blades, silence, vocalized damage spells - Elder Orb: GS up to him and harm - Kard: Harm - Spawn of Uro: Maxed Inflict Critical - Deep One: Harm
[Here's where Implosion becomes available]
- Asimathas: Strong AC, Silence, vocalized Destruction / Inflict Critical. Silence can be skipped at risk of dying to Timestop. - Mother of the Corn: Earthquake for kids, Destruction and a few Inflict Critical for mom, bugs
Evocation focus is not completely off the table, though. Dropping Enchantment is going to free some things up. Touch attacks being so strong, it might be worthwhile to take Blind Fight, as I've run into a few issues already with concealment.
Here's a brief list of things I've decided I cannot do with this build:
- Cleric 25 for Epics. They're not that good anyway when you have Rebirth Stones. - Eliminate Conjuration focus entirely. This is required, as will be seen later. - Eliminate Wizard from the build. Apart from grabs, Wizard or Sorcerer is an absolute requirement, as will be seen later. - Eliminate Cleric from the build. Creeping Doom, Destruction, etc. are too strong and would be greatly missed. - Eliminate Autostill feats. The ability to cast Bigby 9 and other important spells without removing armor is too important. - Eliminate Illusion focus entirely. I may be able to cut back, but Creeping Doom needs this to do its job. - Eliminate Empower Spell and/or Maximize Spell. Not having these seriously cripples my ability to damage bosses.
|
|
|
Post by condude on Apr 25, 2016 1:06:43 GMT
I'd definitely exchange ESF Ench for ESF Evo. Gaobin, Razh (Which is insanely good xp if you have good plodes) are made so much easier when everything just pops, and it works well even in Zhents. On the Wizard side of things, Meteor Swarm and T.Claps are both very nice AOE damage output spells.
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 25, 2016 1:34:27 GMT
I'm strongly considering focusing this build on Wisdom. There are issues with this, though.
- Air Genasi gets a -2 to WIS, and it's hard to move away from Air Genasi without sacrificing a large chunk of time thanks to the bonus kill XP.
- Intuitive Attack does not apply to the Elementalist Staff. I'd be relying on Imports weapons of a specific element, unless I can stumble on a rare weapon that works with the feat. Zen Archery isn't off the table since some bullets and such have nice exotic damage.
- A lower Strength score will mean more need for juggling gear around in bags and constantly running a Strength buff just to move at full speed. This is especially bad after a death has triggered a Rebirth Stone, unless Strength can be had from gear in most situations.
|
|
|
Post by condude on Apr 25, 2016 1:53:20 GMT
All valid points, and I especially feel the pain of the last one with my 6 strength cleric (My gear alone puts me over my carrying capacity).
The xp is, I think, the biggest hurdle for a speedrun. When you have blade barriers and Creeps, the extra physical damage from a staff isn't the end of the world to lose, but the xp will slow you down a bunch, and that's a problem. Once you hit lvl 20 or so, running POW for xp probably will make up for it, but until then, the xp loss hurts.
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 25, 2016 1:58:49 GMT
Starting at level 3 and going to level 40 is 37 levels to gain. Assuming I can manage to turn all quests in before they are capped off, that's 90 / 4 = 22.5 levels from quests, plus the book for another level and a half. That leaves 13 levels to be gained from kills. Various tag bosses give decent chunks of XP, and I have nice grinding spots before 20 in the Rift Canyon, Beholder Prison, and Umber Maze. No matter when I do the grind, the total time spent grinding will increase by 25% if I switch subraces. That can potentially be a couple hours lost.
|
|
|
Post by desocupado on Apr 25, 2016 3:36:36 GMT
Is Flensing helping blade barrier (enough)?
Since you have illusion, how's phantasmal killer working?
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 25, 2016 22:16:52 GMT
Without Transmutation, Flensing doesn't stand a chance at hitting anything it would be worthwhile to hit, at least so far. Phantasmal Killer hasn't worked terribly well either, as I get it kinda late and DC matters much more for spells with two saves. As it happens, Heartbane should see a little use.
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 28, 2016 17:54:02 GMT
Took a break from working on boss kill strats to continue testing quest experience caps on another character. Got most of it done, however I didn't realize one very important thing: to enter Anduin's Chapel, you need the tag from the staff break, NOT just the broken staff. And if you don't ever get that tag at the appropriate level, there is only one way to get into the Chapel, Catacombs, Hall of Statues, Duergar Mines, Rak Coven, Troll tunnels, and ultimately Manatakloss, under that character's power alone. That way is by using the Wall of Stone glitch on the Manatakloss main gate in the Great Cavern.
Yep. Miss a level 20 tag, and your character is forever barred from a large collection of pre-41 areas without the help of another player to port you in, or using a glitch, or transferring one of three items from another character - the Soul Stone, Jade Tooth, or Drow Wardstone.
|
|
|
Post by Retribution on Apr 28, 2016 21:18:44 GMT
Couldn't you still unite the staff over lvl 20, you just wouldn't get the lowbie accomplishment?
|
|
|
Post by johannhowitzer on Apr 28, 2016 22:18:20 GMT
That's what I did. The staff broke, the door opened, and when I clicked on the doorway, it said, "Your character does not have the appropriate accomplishment to use this transition."
|
|
|
Post by Retribution on Apr 29, 2016 21:04:38 GMT
Interesting, this seems like a bug? Rough on new players who can easily miss the accomplishment (solved for them by porting to a party member I guess)
|
|
|
Post by Test on Apr 30, 2016 8:26:59 GMT
I have a lvl 27? from memory (cant log in to check) IMMO that got it on a two man run where the other toon was also under 30. Speed IMMO is (was) simple. I only did it for a very specific purpose though and do not recommend it.
While my fondest memories are of 3 man Hell runs with Azpride I strongly recommend party play as that is what HG excels at.
|
|