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Nobear

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Everything posted by Nobear

  1. Using this build, I uploaded screenshots of my solo Sulfras kill on imgur (with the guide in the captions) here. You should be able to solo her with other builds, albeit maybe not as easily. (A combination of efficient healing, Divine Retribution, and powerful Mage spells is a pretty unfair advantage.) They single biggest key to this fight imho is your summon, the ideal one being an Eyebeast. If you use a summon that's not immune to Magic, expect to have to resummon it a lot. In that case, I imagine Sulfras might give you death curse before you have a chance to resummon, but try for yourself if you like. The second biggest key I think is Blink. That said, I only actually had to Blink once in the fight, and it happened to be using the Blink crystal. This would seem to give hope to the Anama. However, keep in mind that with the consequences of an inferior summon situation mentioned above, compounding already inferior damage, you may need to use all three basins, and maybe you'll still get cursed after that. In any case, while it's technically possible to win any fight based on random number generation, I'm going to say Anama are at an even greater disadvantage than usual with Sulfras. I would be very interested if someone solo'd Sulfras on Torment as Anama without cheating.
  2. Uploaded level 40 screenshots with captions to imgur: Kaamaria's build post-sulfras.
  3. Well, Kaamaria beat Sulfras and the game at level 40. Sulfras was not hard, just long. I stood in the back near Sulfras' room, summoned an Eyebeast, kept up Pool of Ice on Sulfras, and took out the adds when they came. Sulfras mostly death cursed my Eyebeast, who's immune to the magic from the curse :). I used 2/3 of the basins. Blink is your friend. 2 AP items + plenty of Gymnastics (none assigned) + Haste + long-lasting Battle Frenzy from your Eyebeast + Skribbane = speed demon. The whole time from 29 to 40, she was resistance-capped or one point off, even with two pieces of AP gear. Conclusion: Assigning any points to Resistance is completely redundant in A3, as long as you get 15+ Priest Spells for Ward of Elements. And then you might as well go two more for Divine Retribution. The combo with Cloak of the Arcane kicks just as much butt as I thought it would. You can also finish the game with 11 Spellcraft without assigning a single point to Spellcraft, so your damage will still be great all around.
  4. You were right. Thanks for the encouragement to keep exploring there. The last fight of the Rakshasa Lair past the Defiled Crypt features two null bugs and two corrupted lizards, which are a pain. I summoned an Eyebeast and drank Invulnerability Potions. The fight became trivial once all four nullifiers were dead.
  5. Update: No null bugs in the Defiled Crypt, or anywhere north of Calloc, south of the Distant Cavern, and west of the Footracer mountains. idk if I'm ready to solo an artifact dungeon on Torment, but I guess I'll try next time I play. The Distant Cavern did seem like one of the easier artifact dungeons on my full party Torment run, aside from the puzzles (except Masok gives you the answers on a scroll).
  6. I'm level 31. I certainly cleared the bugs southwest of New Formello. lol funny thing is north of Calloc is exactly where I am atm. I cleared the Chasm of Screams and Wainscoting, and just entered the Defiled Crypt. I'm thinking null bugs are big bad chitrachs, which are enemies of vahnatai, so it's a logical place to check. Thanks, I'll let you know if I find one!
  7. I would really like to insert images for this post. Following advice from the General forum, I created a post on imgur. Sadly, choosing "Insert image from URL" with either the multi-image post, or an individual image on imgur, fails. So here's a link to the imgur post I made: Kaamaria Resistance-Capped. I explain a lot in the image captions. Here are some additional notes. The Character Concept While I call Kaamaria a shaman, she's fully custom, and more similar in build to a hedge wizard if anything. I owe the name and character concept to when I let my mom play World of Warcraft, and she made a female Dranei shaman which — after she lost interest — became my main character. In WoW, shamans have both elemental damage and healing spells, like mage-priests do in Avernum. The inspiration for actually taking this character concept to Avernum came from this thread, in which Superteeth asked if a full mage-priest (19 in both) was feasible as a Torment singleton. He was told no by conventional wisdom, and I thought the conventional wisdom (that assigning points to Resistance is "necessary") was outdated due to OP blessing boxes and skill crystals up the wazoo in A3. Moreover, I thought Kaamaria could kick significantly more butt than singletons of a more conventional build, and I was excited to test my reasons for believing this, and share the results. Tips for Prioritizing Skills I started the game with 2 Mage, 2 Priest, and 1 Tool Use. Level 2 is perhaps the only level where I raised both Mage and Priest. (Recall that I raised Melee Weapons each level from 3-10.) Levels 3-5 I raised either Mage or Priest each level to get the key spells Pool of Fire, Call the Storm, and Summon Shade (insanely better than Call Beast) early. Levels 6 and 7 I raised Tool Use so that (combined with 2 Nimble Fingers) I could complete the Agate Tower. Then I went back to leveling either Mage or Priest each level, timing Icy Rain — the first spammable AoE — at level 9 just before AR at level 10. Levels 11-20, Mage and Priest (and Hardiness) probably make a bigger difference than any of the utility skills. After that, I would assign 4 each of Arcane Lore, Tool Use, and Nature Lore, in that order. Since I plan to cap out at 19 Mage, 17 Priest by level 35 (unless someone can convince me of the value of Divine Restoration), that leaves 4 points I will assign to Tool Use and/or Nature Lore, I just haven't settled on the exact distribution I'll take. Finally, a friendly reminder. In order to get a skill as high as possible, you need to first assign the maximum possible points (10 for skills other than weapon skills and Luck), then buy two levels from a trainer, then use other sources like quests or crystals. Not even the character editor will save you from the grave — and really arbitrary — sin of violating this order.
  8. Null Bug In the murder cave north of New Formello (not sure if respawn) With gremlins protecting the spell book in Squiggus (no respawn) With gremlins protecting the Perfect Flower (no respawn) I'm blanking on where else to find one. I have a quest for one which will soon expire. It's from Spineridge, the best town for courier quests. Any help?
  9. I must have taken way less than 20 skribbane (the number which the Xian Skull mentions, which others have noted may be meaningless) and I just noticed my first skribbane withdrawal message in the combat log. It reads, "You are struck by skribbane withdrawal symptoms! Your stomach cramps up and your strength seems to flow out of you." I notice no change to stats, buffs/debuffs, special items, damage or other indications of reduced combat performance. While we're at it, does anyone know the specific effects of Wounded, Dread Curse, or Bless the Land (the damage boost)?
  10. Thank you, he's there. Man it sure feels different playing with time passing quickly! Update: Zang is still around too!
  11. Day 140 and I'm just starting the troglo plague on my torment singleton lol. Aminro got sacked. I have an open quest for Mayor Najib. I assume he died in the raid, and I can never complete this quest, but you never know. Some NPCs become refugees, like Solberg and X after the Tower of Magi disaster.
  12. Is there any cheat to add items? On my Torment singleton run, idk what happened to the Hardiness crystal in the Slime Pit. I've checked the place where you're supposed to get it, my inventory, and the only place I use to store items. Edit: lol doh, found it! I checked my item storage again, and realized the crystal I thought was Sniper was actually Hardiness.
  13. Thanks, I will try again. Maybe he's not gone forever O.o
  14. lol... stuff I didn't see with a full party, with which I finished the game on torment before day 160. With my torment singleton, it's day 118 before I beat the roach plague, and the whole town of Hectar fell. idk if Father Oriathon went first or not.
  15. Doh, I refrained from killing Zang just to save him for XP, but turned in the quest like you suggest. It worked, great. Then many game hours later, I looked for him and he's gone. idk if he supposedly died (by error or by design) or fled.
  16. Thanks. I thought I remembered +15/30/45%, but I just wanted to check that it wasn't crap. I find it amusing that my "shaman" will become a better priest than an Anama can be :D.
  17. I was thinking along the same lines, that "+20%" damage for 10 points seems like icing on the cake compared to other stuff. What precisely is the effect of Cloak of the Arcane btw, per level? At this point, I have beaten the Slime Plague as a Torment singleton, and am on the Roach Plague. I am thinking of starting a guide, although I haven't finished my regular torment walkthrough lol. At least a character spotlight thread, with some potentially useful things like "initiative" (i.e. Dex + Luck + 2X Quick Action) requirements for going first in key encounters. So far, my character could be a conventional singleton. She's level 13 and has AR with 8+2 Melee Weapons, 8 Mage Spells, 7 Priest Spells, 3+2 Tool Use, and 3+2 Arcane Lore. However, I I'm thinking of keeping a save soon and then taking her in an unconventional direction, motivated by this thread's original question of whether it's "possible" to have a 19/19 full mage-priest. Of course it's theoretically possible, and I have ideas to make it hopefully kick butt. In my longest post on this thread, I observed from my full-party Torment run that you can cap spell damage resistances with Hardiness, gear, and crystals, with NO points assigned to Resistance. This is more feasible in A3 than in previous games, I think, because of the (overkill, imho) blessing boxes, as well as the number of Hardiness and Resistance crystals it's possible to stack on one character. So my end goal for my singleton "shaman" Kaamaria is 19 Mage Spells, 17 Priest Spells, 10+ Hardiness, and NO assigned Spellcraft or Resistance. If level 3 Cloak of the Arcane beats 10 Spellcraft like I suspect it does, this build should offer higher damage for Priest Spells (and I love Divine Retribution) than any Anama build. At the same time, it will offer all the benefits of Mage Spells protected by level 3 Ward of Elements, and thus allow me to reach 90% armor/magic/fire/cold (and mental, of course) resistances with NO points assigned to Resistance.
  18. In this post, I'll keep a record of initiative (i.e. Dex + Luck + Quick Action) requirements I encounter to go first in various fights. 1) Lizards in The Lost Papers quest (from Theresa in Fort Emergence): 3 2) Slimes on your way from Fort Emergence to Krizsan: 4 or less 3) Worg with goblins guarding the mine at the end of Wolfrider Warren: 7 4) Chitrachs for Help Out Sliths quest in New Formello: 14 or less 5) Slith Warriors, Flingers, and Mages near Erika's Tower: 14 or less
  19. Thank you. I guess I'll play that part by ear. Well Kaamaria the shaman has officially beaten her first (singleton torment) fight and gotten to level 2. The name is from the World of Warcraft random name generator for female draenei. I let my mom play WoW once, and that's the character she made. I figure a shaman is a kind of mage/priest, so it kind of works :D.
  20. lol nice. Hey I know the post I wrote above our discussion is long, but the relevant part for planning my first torment singleton run is that I realized you can cap your magic damage resistances at 90% with the right gear and level 3 Ward of Elements, assigning NO points to Resistance. This requires at least 15 Priest Spells, and I think I'll go for at least 17 for Divine Retribution. But not assigning points to Resistance frees up skill points. The question is where is best to put those points. 1) Is there any reason to get 18 or 19 Priest Spells for a singleton? Can Divine Restoration cure any kinds of effects that can't be cured by other means, for instance? 2) If I want to have at least 12 Mage Spells for level 2 and 3 Dispel Barrier (and better mana efficiency, summons, damage type diversity, etc.), which would you give up first, Parry or Spellcraft? 3) Which is better, 10 Spellcraft or lvl 3 Cloak of the Arcane? Of course, sacrificing Spellcraft for higher Mage Spells would have other benefits beyond damage to existing spells. 4) Do you think it's worth it to assign any points to Nature Lore as a singleton? What good items would I be missing out on, and would certain areas be significantly more dangerous/annoying? What I'm thinking is getting (by level 35) 8+2 Melee Weapons (and training other weapon skills to get AR), 10+ Hardiness (18 total possible, sheesh), 19 Mage Spells, 17 Priest Spells, 10 Tool Use, 4+2 Arcane Lore (for the Move Mountains and Spray Acid spellbooks, and to access more spell books with less Vahnatai Lore in general), and 5+2 Nature Lore. What do you think? I guess the main point of leeway I see is that I could move up to 3 points from Tool Use to Nature Lore, and still beat the game with Tinker's Gloves and 2x Nimble Fingers. idk whether more TU or more NL would be better.
  21. Correction: You can enter Sharimik after completing just the slime plague quest. You may not be able to pick up the mayor's quest yet, not that you'd want to, but you can access the city to buy spells and stuff. I will take your word on Lorelei and Gale, though. In my full party runs, I always cleared the goblins and bandits in Upper Avernum first, and didn't reach the surface until level 5. idk how doable this would be as a torment singleton. I guess I can try! btw you know what part amuses me to think about as a singleton? The part where
  22. You're right, thanks. I'm sure I saw this option before, and just didn't have the game experience to see the significance of it. My questions remain about 1) whether combat order is otherwise just a countdown of Dex scores modified by Quick Action, or includes other factors like PC/NPC levels 2) what specific effect Quick Action has on combat order (e.g. 2 Dex points worth of initiative per point of QA?), and 3) whether there's some file where I can view NPC/monster stats. I suppose I could alternately have the character editor handy on my first torment singleton attempt, swap Int for Dex as needed, and take notes to report.
  23. I wonder if you could avoid those slimes by going an alternate route, although this would be inconvenient and possibly more challenging/dangerous. You'd either have to go counterclockwise around the west coast of Kriszan (through the mountain pass guarded by unicorns, or around the whole range), or go clockwise east and then south. What I know is that, at level 34, my whole party goes first against enemies including alien beasts and vahnatai. That includes my casters, who have only the 11 Dex they naturally get from leveling, and only the 2 Quick Action I bought from the trainer in Lorelei. Do you know the requirement for getting into Lorelei? You could use the Distant Hut teleporter if traveling by foot would be too dangerous. It'd be nice to know the formula for determining combat order. It seems that, unlike in previous games, your chosen party order is maintained regardless of Dex scores. But controlling for that, is combat order just a countdown of Dex scores (modified by Quick Action)? And is there some file where I can look at NPC/monster stats? It would only make sense to take such extreme measures as above if it really prevented you from having to assign points in Dex, as opposed to just postponing the inevitable.
  24. How much Dex do you need to go first in outdoor encounters, or alternately how much Quick Action? Does the requirement scale with enemy level or other factors? I ask because there are items with Dex and Quick Action, there is the third stone circle you visit, and there's a trainer in Lorelei who teaches Quick Action. But I'm guessing it would just be near impossible to make it to those sources, as a torment singleton, without starting with some Dex. What's the minimum Dex I should actually assign?
  25. TL;DR: You can hit caps of 90% magic damage resistance or 5% chance to be hit without assigning a single point to Resistance or Gymnastics, respectively. I know this discussion is months old, but I wanted to give my thoughts on some its themes, having now beaten A3 on Torment (full party) with a Dex-based archer evasion tank. First, I finished the game at level 34, lower level than I expected. I did have the Dread Curse cured that I received from attacking the Temple of Divine Lucre. (btw I wonder if I can stack all four Dread Curses at once, then have Ahonar cure them all for one XP cost. Something to test.) After beating the game, I reloaded from just before beating it to go back for some unfinished business, in particular the Tower of Magi disaster (a steamroll) and the three dragons (of which only Sulfras posed any challenge). Generally, what I found is that the game gets progressively easier as you level organically (i.e. without going out of your way to grind courier quests and train from Zang), even in the face of higher-level challenges. I found the alien beasts and vahnatai, for instance, to be pushovers compared to the golems. Sulfras brought back some level of challenge, being much harder to kill than Rentar-Irhno was to take down to 0 hp. With the generally negative difficulty curve of this game, reminiscent of Elders Scrolls games when min-maxed, one consequence I found is that having a tank at all becomes less important at higher levels. For the first 7 or so levels, not even a full-Dex tank will yet be evasion-capped against level-appropriate enemies, so such a tank serves largely as backup for when Daze misses. From about level 8 to 30, my tank took the spotlight. I would use the first round to wait for enemies to pile around her while I buffed, then really start unloading on them in the second round. I should also note that I was using mostly square area spells in this level range, like Icy Rain, Divine Fire, and the various ground effect spells. But once I got level 3 Cloak of the Arcane, Divine Retribution, and Arcane Blow, I had a newfound power to just obliterate most enemies in one round. So it's not that my archer couldn't be as awesome a tank endgame as she was midgame, it's that I literally don't have a need for a dedicated tank endgame. The other factor is that all my characters are armor-capped except my mage, who's at 89% armor using The Black Halberd, Quicksilver Sandals, and Runed Plate/Kilt/Helm. Ironically, my character with the lowest resistances (my dual-wielder) tends to tank bosses endgame. Sulfras is a prime example of a fight where my archer's damage was much more important than what she could offer as a tank. But I reloaded and checked that Sulfras had a 5% chance to hit her. Note that she has all her assigned points in Dex, and 5/5 Dex and Endurance traits. (btw how can I include images? The forum doesn't like my Dropbox URL.) Here are Azshandine's resistances when I beat Sulfras: However, there are two ways I could have improved these stats. One is that I never got around to training Resistance or using Resistance crystals. I also didn't assign any points to Resistance, so the only Resistance she has is the +3 from her Tarnished Chain. And her stats could have been even better as a singleton, since I had certain BIS (best in slot) items on other characters. Either easy change is enough to cap her Magic/Fire/Cold resistances with ZERO skill points assigned to Resistance. Swapping gear and using the character editor to reflect 2/2 trained Resistance and 4/6 Resistance crystals (not including the Anama one or the one from the very late-game Great Circle), here's how her resistances could look as a singleton: Note that not reflected in these stats is the fact that her Hardiness is "only" 14, but would have been 18 if I had given her all the Hardiness crystals. Funny thing is that a blessed Radiant Soulblade made no difference in these stats. Maybe there's some cap for how much armor is even translated into other resistances. My point is that assigning points to Resistance is totally unnecessary for either a tank or a singleton, at least endgame. And given that it's a final tier skill, it seems you're likely to start outgrowing it as soon as you're done maxing it. Also note that the armor reflected in the above stats isn't even the most protective in all cases, but is generally great armor for archers. Where you don't want to skimp on armor value is in the chest, where you stand to receive your single biggest chunk. Here's what Azshandine is wearing as reflected in the second set of resistances: And here are her relevant skills, not including equipment bonuses. (Key: assigned, trained, quest/special, crystal) As a singleton, you could take the extra point of Bows and the three of Luck and put them into Tool Use. You'd still need 3 more to beat the game, and you might like some Arcane Lore and possibly Nature Lore (though idk how worthwhile NL is considered for singletons). As for what to take points from, two obvious choices would be Parry and Lethal Blow. My instinct would be to keep Parry and forget Lethal Blow (which I view as icing on the cake for damage compared to Dex, gear, and Sharpshooter). I like that Parry is calculated separately, so if an enemy manages to beat your 5% chance to be hit, you still have a chance to parry the blow. It's pretty ridiculous for a tank tbh, but the question is whether you can tank/snipe your way through the game as a singleton, or whether there will be fights that are essentially unwinnable. Others have said it seems tedious compared to AoE spells, but if you happen to find it appealing as a challenge, be my guest to try it. The key points I wanted to make here are that assigning points to Resistance is totally unnecessary for capping your spell damage resistances (as either a tank or singleton), and that assigning points to Gymnastics is totally unnecessary for becoming evasion-capped. In a party, Resistance is good for your spell casters who are probably wearing less protective armor than your fighter(s), and for whom the Spellcraft points required for this aren't wasted. And if you're pumping nothing but Dex, then after early game where it's impossible to become evasion-capped against anything, you'll probably occasionally counter enemies against whom you're not evasion-capped through midgame, but this could be an indicator that you should save those enemies for later. You'll certainly be evasion-capped endgame this way. If you'd like to experiment with the minimum Dex/Gymnastics needed to be evasion-capped against various enemies at various levels, keep in mind that 10 points in Gymnastics only buys you 4 points worth of Dex. So Gymnastics is a pretty inefficient source of evasion, incurring a high opportunity cost given all the other skills you might want. There is one important detail I should point out: the above resistances are all based on having level 3 Ward of Elements, which requires 15 Priest Spells and 14 Arcane Lore. The AL requirement should be easy even for a singleton, with all the Vahnatai Lore available by this point in the game. I am thinking of getting 4+2 AL on my singleton to read the Move Mountains and Spray Acid spell books, which means I would need 8 VL to read lvl 3 Ward of Elements, or 5 if I get Sage Lore. I am also thinking of using some of the points freed up by not assigning points to Resistance, to get at least 17 Priest Spells for Divine Retribution. Then there is a choice between Parry and Mage Spells, and further between Spellcraft and 19 Mage Spells. For my first singleton run, I'll go with the conventional wisdom of caster. Archer seems like yet another level of challenge, or at least uncharted territory that I'm not ready to take on yet.
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