Hyperion703

In GF2:I?

What other lance is reusable besides the Vampiric one? I'm drawing a blank.

Nope. If you're rolling with a squad of beastly bosses like you are, there really is no use for Mental Magic. It's far quicker and easier to just murder everything that steps to you. m0ar dR@yKhaNs

@Genernumlover What kind of "single target ranged creations" for a melee guardian? I tried magic shaping with mine thinking it would be a good combo and it was rough going. I had one Gazer and one Eyebeast backing up my toughguy, but they are so frail, they died all the time. I didn't have access to Essence Shield, opting to lean heavily on Regen + Lifesteal maintain health, but that doesn't work well for creations. So, I assume... Fyoras and Drayks? Also, I want to experiment with a weapon-shaping agent. If I were going to blend in any other skills, it would be from that tree. I imagine Chain Lightning is crazy good for agents.

I've found it's easy to spread yourself too thin if you're playing with creations. Well, effective creations anyway. Effective in that they have had a substantial investment in skill points, essence, and field management. Every time I've dabbled in shaping I ended up doing little else but managing them in combat: Shielding, healing, blessing... My guardian was rarely swinging his blade; my agent was rarely hurling fire. Instead of playing with a bunch of creations, I'd much rather play with myself. Just me and my gloves and my dirk.

@BenS Level 24 is a first for me. I guess the only real advice I have is pretty general. Right click on enemies when you enter a zone and see how close they are to your own level and find the zones that match closest. Join Servants, Awakened, and Barzites in that order. Remember that Leadership can sometimes net you more exp than kills. And save Iron Bars, Research Notes, reading codices for as long as possible before cashing in. That should get you to level 24. I think I went into GU around level 22.5 or so. @alhoon Maybe. But then it wouldn't be a solo run. Also, Airshock and Purge, my two main attacks, are very essence intensive. Couple that with Blessing/Protection/Haste/Mindshield every 15-20 turns, and eShield every 100 turns or so, and it gets really unmanageable to have essence tied up in creations on top of all that.

Miss Magnolia in all of her endgame glory... 1000-pt purges, 300-pt eShields; She's designed to be more of a glass cannon than anything else. Though she needed to be able to take at least one or two return hits from high-health bosses while wearing them down. I took the advice of @TriRodent and put minimal points in Healing Craft to just get Minor Heal and Cure Afflictions (though I'm certain those can somewhat easily be avoided too, as there are sufficient healing and curing potions in the early game and you can get eShield early enough; once you do, it's really all you need). After putting 18 or more points into Battle Magic, it increasingly got prohibitively expensive to do so. At that point, I started putting points into Intellect instead as the lower cost was worth the -3% less damage (but gave my eShields a small boost too). Spellcraft was a no-brainer, mainly because I needed to maximize the chances of multiple attacks per turn (which was almost always when combined with haste and super awesome gloves). I generally like having some Stealth, but I found it was unnecessary and even somewhat detrimental because I wanted to stay as far away from my purge targets as possible. And my DPS was so high that I didn't need to sneak past pylons, I just hit them with a purge and did my thing while they recharged for a few turns. I was a deliberate uber completionist and strict min/maxer for this run. I made sure to get every canister and spell book possible outside of Shaping and Weapon Shaping and buy every level possible for Magic Skills. Obviously, the only exception to this was Minor Heal and Cure Afflictions, but, like I said, those could probably be avoided too with some strategic thinking early on. Getting four points in Purge is extremely fun when combined with +% magical damage items and blessings and I highly recommend it. The animation for it looks like they're crushed under the weight of some unseen monumental force. I love it. Once I got enough essence by mid-late game, it was really all I used aside from the occasional Searer application for bosses. Burning + Acid = GG. Sometimes I just sat there and hit Space Bar over and over until my statuses finished them off. Before that, I used Airshock and the occasional Firebolt. Essence Lances were somewhat useful in very specific circumstances for about two levels mid-game. It's cheap and sometimes Airshock was just unnecessary. I still don't see the point of Quicklash, especially with how essence-intensive it is. If it added an extra attack on top of Haste/SC/SM, I could see its usefulness. I wanted to use more Mental Magic, but after about levels 10-14, they largely became irrelevant because enemies didn't live long enough to make Madness, Wrack, or Dominate worthwhile. I only really used those spells when I felt like toying with enemies before crushing them with Purge. Early game, Daze was useful. I can't say anything good about Delirium. This is the only run in any SW game where I can say I got every magical item available. It took careful planning and I had to make sure I did X before Y before Z to get them all. You'll need to kill just about every major boss and most minor bosses in the game to do so. And you will need to save and restart until you get Rat Bone Band drops in Fort Muck. You'll ally with Barzhal for access to a couple unique items but eventually backstab and kill him and his second in command to get two other unique items. Combined with achieving level 24 and getting the most favorable ending, I believe I fully optimized the solo agent playthrough. Early on, I used various resistance armors before getting the Agent Robe. I used that up until I started getting smacked with Stun from shades and glaaks, at which point I switched to heavier armor like Crystalline Plate and ultimately Slayer's Chestguard. The armor % was mostly irrelevant due to eShield, but I needed the stun resistance. Taking @Randomizer's excellent advice, I opted for more stun resistance in the form of the Stability Belt and, up until the later stages of the game, Stability Boots and Statis Shield. Being stunned and attacked repeatedly without access to a fresh eShield was really the only way she died in the mid- and late-games, so I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. I think I used Arcane Bracers before getting the Badass Gloves of Spellmastery. For most of the game, I liked the Shiny Cloak for the magical damage bonus it provided before getting the Drakon Skin Cloak at the end of the game. Gazer Skin Boots obviously. For shields, I preferred Victor's Boon, Stasis Shield, and All-Protector at different stages of the game before getting the Agent's Shelter at endgame. For stat sticks, I went with the Shielding Knife for its defensive bonuses until getting the Spectral Cleaver for its magical bonuses. If I didn't lean on eShield so much, I'd definitely use Tek's Spectral Dirk as it is easily the best stat stick in the game in terms of defense. The Helix Ring is kind of a no-brainer for its magic skill bonuses. Before that, I either used the Frosted Annulet for the big damage increase for Airshock or the Stability Ring for stun resistance. As for charms, some of the best ones for solo agents are the hardest ones to get and they are almost all accessed in the late game. The Drayk Fang and (whatever) Wand charms you get from Zensital and a Loyalist (I think...) respectively are obligatory for solo agents. And, finally, I like the Gruesome Charm despite the -2 to Intellect. I believe the to-hit and haste bonuses are worth it. Not shown here, but I also kept a handful of Curing Potions available for those floating eyes and their damn Null Fields. I guess I needed to talk about it. lol

The end result of my recent Veteran solo agent run. By endgame, her Essence Purges were consistently over a thousand points. It could have been higher, but I couldn't sacrifice resistances and blessing bonuses. Even Gazak-Uss bosses just melted away... Anyway, it seemed kinda epic, so I thought I'd share. 🙂🙃🙂🙃

My biggest gripe with this game is this quest. If you're getting to Benerii-Uss, you're generally too high in level to actually get experience by completing it. But, that's not what irks me the most. What really bothers me is that, if you're attempting to optimize, the advanced location of the cure holds up your progress in a big way because you have to stay cool with the Awakened until you complete it, likely near endgame: Swollford's Second Book is also problematic in this regard (though it can be completed one level earlier), though it doesn't hold up progress to the same degree.

Pfizer, Moderna, or... lemme guess... J&J? Probably some Russian knock off that gives you lupus, hairy nipples, and diarrhea...

Exactly. And these bozos have the genius idea of going bigger. They have advanced genetic technology. Go small. Make a coronavirus. I hear that works wonders for paralyzing a global superpower. Or infiltrate their political system. Distract the populace with BS domestic shenanigans and sow social division. Turn common against common. You might even get lucky and, through a combination of sheer luck and skillful subterfuge, acquire the sympathies of a leading politician. Then do your will through them. I hear that works equally well. 🤔

Takers remind me of international terrorists in that they have a fair point and (usually) a just cause. But their methods and implementations are for crap. You don't fight a dominant hegemonic empire head on. That never works. You subvert it and dismantle it from the inside. You sow the seeds of division, discontent, disorder, and disruption. This takes patience, the likes of which I have no evidence for in Taker leadership. The extreme social imbalance within Shaper society is already prime for this. Watch your enemy break itself apart far behind the front lines.

"look at a creation and assert my will onto it" Sounds like a felony.

Advance West to Rising. Talk to Barzhal. I believe that will do it.

It's your big shaper energy. Everyone knows how large and in-charge you are.