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Hard Core for Consoles challenge


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Well, I only play "hardcore" now. Since the defrag of the PS3, things have been quite interesting without having access to.....

 

 

RUNES!

 

 

Holycrap, did I ever miss the boat on how important it is to have a few hundred of these lying around to use when I need 'em.

 

 

Anyway, I am fighting the good fight with the DW Dryad, but with a little twist: No defense skills. Passed Platinum at level 85, the only heartbeat skip was when I mis-clicked my Lances and she ran up close to the 3rd guardian and he nailed her a few times (about 75% health drop per hit, on his Combat Art). The 4th Guardian I actually fought inside the room without any issues by keeping him vined, and Scorpino distracting him.

Currently touring elf and human regions in Niob without much worry except chance to hit. :P Golden Glade Touch active 24/7, of course. Dust devil is not being used, ATM, so I could push her a little more, I feel.

 

Enhanced Perception, Bargaining, Alchemy, Hunter Focus, Voodoo Focus, Weaver Lore+Focus, Tactics, Dual Weild and Concentration. For those interested. The build is quite incomplete, I have 68 skill points to distribute, and only Bargaining and Weaver Lore are mastered. Probably will add Concentration mastery next, but I am content with her at the moment, IDK what to do ;)

 

 

Solomon, I like your HC rules. Mine only console HC rule is: NEW PROFILE. thus, empty chest. The main drawback to that one is that good stuff the HC toon finds can't be used by my other toons. (I'm offline, so no trading on PS3). She's got lotsa money, tho!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well we finally got around to finishing the game this past weekend. Not a whole lot to tell really as we blazed right through killing everything in our path without ever really getting hit. There were a few 2,400ish damage hits taken but nothing that really ever showed up on our health bars. All things considered I am glad I played this game through the winter and had a good time doing so with my wife. Below are a few random comments that I will make about the game, things I liked, things I didn't and randoms.

 

- Game is hardest on silver (first time through) when you have nothing. From there game just gets easier and easier if you take the time to shop for socketables.

- Ranged shooters seem over powered with virtually no chance of death

- Game is very complex when you first start but extremely manageable after you spend a lot of time reading

- World is too big and too sparse of monsters. I would have liked to have seen some dungeons or something just stacked with bad guys

- Would have liked to have seen the more difficult levels far more difficult. Perhaps the level minimums should have been greatly upped for each difficulty

- Really enjoyed the vastness of the game and the details (in towns and such)

- Think more of the quests should have had useful side rewards or at least chance to get usable item to encourage doing them

- After playing a couple of RPGs now I think random item modifiers are the way to go versus pre-set items like sets or legendary since random always means that the next item drop might be useful. In this game I felt that after I had my set and and some useful socketables I was done.

- More camera angles for playing 2 person co-op on same xbox would have been greatly appreciated. We couldn't even see the bosses most of the time.

- Really enjoyed the difference in characters and their skills

 

Overall a very fun game to play with a buddy/spouse on the couch with over the winter months. Thanks to all who helped me out on this site and answered my questions.

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Well we finally got around to finishing the game this past weekend. Not a whole lot to tell really as we blazed right through killing everything in our path without ever really getting hit. There were a few 2,400ish damage hits taken but nothing that really ever showed up on our health bars. All things considered I am glad I played this game through the winter and had a good time doing so with my wife. Below are a few random comments that I will make about the game, things I liked, things I didn't and randoms.

 

- Game is hardest on silver (first time through) when you have nothing. From there game just gets easier and easier if you take the time to shop for socketables.

- Ranged shooters seem over powered with virtually no chance of death

- Game is very complex when you first start but extremely manageable after you spend a lot of time reading

- World is too big and too sparse of monsters. I would have liked to have seen some dungeons or something just stacked with bad guys

- Would have liked to have seen the more difficult levels far more difficult. Perhaps the level minimums should have been greatly upped for each difficulty

- Really enjoyed the vastness of the game and the details (in towns and such)

- Think more of the quests should have had useful side rewards or at least chance to get usable item to encourage doing them

- After playing a couple of RPGs now I think random item modifiers are the way to go versus pre-set items like sets or legendary since random always means that the next item drop might be useful. In this game I felt that after I had my set and and some useful socketables I was done.

- More camera angles for playing 2 person co-op on same xbox would have been greatly appreciated. We couldn't even see the bosses most of the time.

- Really enjoyed the difference in characters and their skills

 

Overall a very fun game to play with a buddy/spouse on the couch with over the winter months. Thanks to all who helped me out on this site and answered my questions.

 

Ditto those remarks for me! I agree 1000% (yes, 1000%) with every one of your comments, except the difficult levels being more difficult... I feel if we had the Ice and Blood version we wouldn't be saying that at all! ;) Niob is quite tough if you go in under-levelled (or under-prepared) but becomes "easy" after careful attention is made to defense, leaving maximum room for tons of offense that is needed.

 

I enjoyed following your adventures thru the game, it is sad to think you won't be gracing the forums anymore. ;)

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Oh, I will pop in and out on occasion and see if there is any question that I might be able to help out with. Now that summer is here and we can actually do stuff outside in Ohio I just don't have time for games like this that take up a LOT of time. Who knows, maybe next fall I will start up another attempt to run the entire game without death using 2 melee characters instead of the ranged guys. Or a melee tank + magic caster guy.

 

It was fun but I do with the harder levels were harder.... Wish the harder levels had far more DENSE bad guys in it. There should be place that is just COVERED in bad guys! LOL

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Well we finally got around to finishing the game this past weekend. Not a whole lot to tell really as we blazed right through killing everything in our path without ever really getting hit. There were a few 2,400ish damage hits taken but nothing that really ever showed up on our health bars. All things considered I am glad I played this game through the winter and had a good time doing so with my wife. Below are a few random comments that I will make about the game, things I liked, things I didn't and randoms.

 

- Game is hardest on silver (first time through) when you have nothing. From there game just gets easier and easier if you take the time to shop for socketables.

- Ranged shooters seem over powered with virtually no chance of death

- Game is very complex when you first start but extremely manageable after you spend a lot of time reading

- World is too big and too sparse of monsters. I would have liked to have seen some dungeons or something just stacked with bad guys

- Would have liked to have seen the more difficult levels far more difficult. Perhaps the level minimums should have been greatly upped for each difficulty

- Really enjoyed the vastness of the game and the details (in towns and such)

- Think more of the quests should have had useful side rewards or at least chance to get usable item to encourage doing them

- After playing a couple of RPGs now I think random item modifiers are the way to go versus pre-set items like sets or legendary since random always means that the next item drop might be useful. In this game I felt that after I had my set and and some useful socketables I was done.

- More camera angles for playing 2 person co-op on same xbox would have been greatly appreciated. We couldn't even see the bosses most of the time.

- Really enjoyed the difference in characters and their skills

 

Overall a very fun game to play with a buddy/spouse on the couch with over the winter months. Thanks to all who helped me out on this site and answered my questions.

 

Congrats! you read a lot and went prepared with two great builds and in co-op, as well, which does make things go smoother. A properly built BeeEffGee is a Boss killin' machine. And nobody does crowd control like a hunter dryad with Darting Assault modded for rotate.

 

Great job and congrats again on a huge achievement for 2 first time players going the distance with their very first builds.

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Well we finally got around to finishing the game this past weekend. Not a whole lot to tell really as we blazed right through killing everything in our path without ever really getting hit. There were a few 2,400ish damage hits taken but nothing that really ever showed up on our health bars. All things considered I am glad I played this game through the winter and had a good time doing so with my wife. Below are a few random comments that I will make about the game, things I liked, things I didn't and randoms.

 

- Game is hardest on silver (first time through) when you have nothing. From there game just gets easier and easier if you take the time to shop for socketables.

- Ranged shooters seem over powered with virtually no chance of death

- Game is very complex when you first start but extremely manageable after you spend a lot of time reading

- World is too big and too sparse of monsters. I would have liked to have seen some dungeons or something just stacked with bad guys

- Would have liked to have seen the more difficult levels far more difficult. Perhaps the level minimums should have been greatly upped for each difficulty

- Really enjoyed the vastness of the game and the details (in towns and such)

- Think more of the quests should have had useful side rewards or at least chance to get usable item to encourage doing them

- After playing a couple of RPGs now I think random item modifiers are the way to go versus pre-set items like sets or legendary since random always means that the next item drop might be useful. In this game I felt that after I had my set and and some useful socketables I was done.

- More camera angles for playing 2 person co-op on same xbox would have been greatly appreciated. We couldn't even see the bosses most of the time.

- Really enjoyed the difference in characters and their skills

 

Overall a very fun game to play with a buddy/spouse on the couch with over the winter months. Thanks to all who helped me out on this site and answered my questions.

 

Congrats! you read a lot and went prepared with two great builds and in co-op, as well, which does make things go smoother. A properly built BeeEffGee is a Boss killin' machine. And nobody does crowd control like a hunter dryad with Darting Assault modded for rotate.

 

Great job and congrats again on a huge achievement for 2 first time players going the distance with their very first builds.

 

Hey thanks. Yeah, this site REALLY helped out a TON and getting a shopper was HUGE. Hated playing him and having to get him into Niob but it was totally worth the time.

I don't know a ton about the other characters but I do have to think that I got lucky and basically ended up making the 2 best possible combo of characters to play 2 person co-op on 1 xbox and live through the whole game. You are exactly right that my wife's ability to take down bosses combined with my ability to hog-tie them with vines basically made the game SUPER EASY! She would always have them dead before the first vine was even close to timed out! Heck, she killed a lot of bosses off the screen before we ever even saw them! Couple this was the ROTATE mod on DA that you referenced but don't forget the KNOCKBACK mod which truly makes that skill super powered in mass groups. Once I held the button down the bad guys typically got KNOCKED FURTHER and FURTHER from us before their death! It was so powerful that its almost annoying because it ends up pushing the LOOT off screen! LOL

 

Anyways, game was fun and maybe next winter we will try 2 new characters out again.

 

Thanks to all who answered all my questions and pointed me in the right direction. If anyone ever has any questions for me or about my experience with playing with my wife who is NOT A GAMER, just let me know. Remember, we survived with zero deaths and she even hit the START button several times in the head of battle which brought up freaking menu screens while the action continues and the screen starts to blink RED! Sometimes my reactions to this sort of mistake were not taken well since they were impulsive and loud! LOL

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  • 2 weeks later...
Blurgh.... my Inquisitor died at 49. Back to the drawing board.

 

Story? What happened... what you're changing in the build...

 

I'm interested 'cause I'm on an Inquisitor now... in Gold at 36, so I'd like to know what to watchout for!

 

For now, the only worry is champs/elites that survive the Maelstrom.

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Its kind of embarresing really, but:

 

Was a hybrid build, and really was unstoppable at what it was designed for, Area of Effect farming. I didnt realise how squishy it was without the soul reaver buff though, that mixed with a few drinks, and a guardian or two, was not a good combination.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how my next build will pan out, either more melee focused to take care of the bosses(with earlier defence boosting), or all out caster using NN for bosses, I do know that I cant live without clustering maelstrom and soul reaver Area of Effect farming. Its just SOO much fun. Also I'm trying to decide whether to drop bargaining, and I really loathe the thought of using another shopper to support my next character.

 

 

 

Thats the problem with Inquisitor, just not enough bloody skill slots lol

Edited by Rusto
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Its kind of embarresing really, but:

 

Was a hybrid build, and really was unstoppable at what it was designed for, Area of Effect farming. I didnt realise how squishy it was without the soul reaver buff though, that mixed with a few drinks, and a guardian or two, was not a good combination.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how my next build will pan out, either more melee focused to take care of the bosses(with earlier defence boosting), or all out caster using NN for bosses, I do know that I cant live without clustering maelstrom and soul reaver Area of Effect farming. Its just SOO much fun. Also I'm trying to decide whether to drop bargaining, and I really loathe the thought of using another shopper to support my next character.

 

 

 

Thats the problem with Inquisitor, just not enough bloody skill slots lol

Oooh, yeah... Inkies are really squishy... add a couple of wobblypops and I feel your pain (or lack thereof 8)

I just figured out how I like my Maelstrom combo last night. Boy, do I have a big smile when I think about it... and the souls in the Reaver buff... yowza, I've never seen the entire circle white with souls... Muahahahahaha I've found the "MORE" from my sig :gun2:

 

At least with the Inquisitor, we don't have to take a primary skill to unlock bargaining. I'm a little remiss to try one with less than 3 defensive skills....

 

Good Luck with the next build, I am still figuring my bosskilling plan myself (GI/AS hybrid build)

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Haha, yea filling up soul reaver with the astute combos is an AWESOME feeling.

 

I think I will be ditching bargaining for speed lore, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, when mounted I cant see my soul reaver circle of joy! secondly it will help out against bosses, thirdly, I want to see if I can go the whole 9 yards without relying on bargaining. Oh yea, plus I think it'll be cool to run faster than a horse :gun2:

 

Something like this(not in that order)

 

 

Tactics

Swords

Speed Lore

Armor Lore

Constitution

Toughness

Concentration

Gruesome Focus

Astute Focus

Netherworld Focus

 

I think Clustering maelstrom is still way powerfull enough on large groups without the Lore or Combat Discipline, and if I lay down my skills wisely it will hopefully be a boss killer.

Edited by Rusto
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Haha, yea filling up soul reaver with the astute combos is an AWESOME feeling.

 

I think I will be ditching bargaining for speed lore, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, when mounted I cant see my soul reaver circle of joy!

 

I think Clustering maelstrom is still way powerfull enough on large groups without the Lore or Combat Discipline, and if I lay down my skills wisely it will hopefully be a boss killer.

 

Speed lore is confusing to me. PC'ers say it adds atk/def MULTIPLIER, but the console looks like it adds BASE value (there is no %-sign).

 

I think the thing about AS Lore and Combat Discipline is that they will give us the damage multipliers we'll need for Niob (where mitigation starts getting annoying).

 

If you're taking sword lore, why not dual weild? IMO, I just cannot justify a weapon lore for anything other than weapon level without penalty. 2H swords are nice, but you can get 2x the hits (thus, lower RpH needs to be socketed) with DW.

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Yea, I know dual wielding is better for Inquisitors, but I really like my 2 handed swords. Im stubborn like that :o

 

The weapon lore also boosts the attack speed, which is quite usefull.

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Yea, I know dual wielding is better for Inquisitors, but I really like my 2 handed swords. Im stubborn like that :dance:

 

The weapon lore also boosts the attack speed, which is quite usefull.

 

Well, hells yeah, I'm always for flavour... weilding 2H Staff myself :happy: Although I haven't been using it since getting Maelstrom to work the way I want. :o

 

I won't debate the usefulness of attack speed, but it can be maxed (+50%) without using a skill slot. Just my opinion, obv.

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Oh, for Forens' sake...

 

Dead again. Passed thru the gate into the Human lands in Gold at level 36. I must've ran into an elite human, because I was dead in 1-shot from over 80% health. I was only getting beat on by 5 humans, so I wasn't even considering it a dangerous situation, but there I go assuming again. Took my eyes off the health to watch the Maelstrom Mayhemtm and I get the red flash; and even had my thumb on potion, but it was too late. I guess a Combat Art attack plus some kind of bleeding/deep wound (maybe poison, but I didn't see the DoT)

 

Definitely no complaints because I am trying to break as many of Furian's rules as I can :) Within reason.

 

I'll continue on with this Inquisitor, he's just too much fun! Admittedly, he needs re-socketing... but I'm very poor from putting together a buff suit since entering gold. Kobold farming time!

Edited by essjayehm
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Ouch, unlucky man. Maybe you went to gold too quickly? I mean in freeplay it starts at level 60 no? With my next attempt I will probably grind to the 9th skill slot, then switch to gold.

 

My melee hybrid was doing really well, but I kind of got bored when the maelstrom got less powerfull(oh the irony). So I thought screw it, started over again this time as pure caster. Damn it is hard picking skills as a caster Inquisitor...

 

I have to mention one other thing about Inquisitors. I have been playing rpgs a lot over the years, since the very first Baldurs Gate was released, and I have never been a caster, always up close and personal swinging a big 2 hander has been my style. Its a testiment to how awesome the Inquisitor is that I am constantly pulled back to the casting elements of this class.

 

I'll continue on with this Inquisitor, he's just too much fun! Admittedly, he needs re-socketing... but I'm very poor from putting together a buff suit since entering gold. Kobold farming time!

 

Even after my first hybrid died, and I'd decided to start again... I couldnt help going back a few times and just going about maelstroming stuff into oblivion. The moment you leave a town its extremely hard to stop just wondering about maelstroming.

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Ouch, unlucky man. Maybe you went to gold too quickly? I mean in freeplay it starts at level 60 no? With my next attempt I will probably grind to the 9th skill slot, then switch to gold.

 

YES. Definitely went into Gold "too early". I always get there pre-40, the allure of collecting uniques with Gold stats is too much to pass up! So I'll stay in gold, but stick to Kobolds and elves until I get enough cash to upgade my armour.

 

I have to mention one other thing about Inquisitors. I have been playing rpgs a lot over the years, since the very first Baldurs Gate was released, and I have never been a caster, always up close and personal swinging a big 2 hander has been my style.

Ahhhh... Bauldur's Gate (and the expansion)... the original PC RPG for me as well. The only thing about BG that I don't like is the question / answer system. I hate it, in every RPG they try to shoehorn it into. Heh... although the character creation was awesome. Who else made a dual-weilding half-orc swashbuckler (thief)? Backstab with 19 Str? Sooooo awesome.

 

Oops, off-topic 8)

 

I just don't get Netherworld Combat Arts. Since Paralyzing Dread is buggy on console, I cannot justify ever using this aspect (although Soul Reaver is awesome, but I won't take a Focus or Lore skill just for one CA). Dislodged Spirit is good too, I suppose.

 

As a "pure caster" do you use any of the NN, other than Reaver? I have read lots about Inexorable Subjectation, but haven't gotten any minions out of it. Eruptive Descrecation is fun, but not much else, I never had the damage do anything for me from it.

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One combo I seen in a guide around here(cant remember which one) I decided to test on my melee hybrid, with only 9 points in NN Focus all in soul reaver, I tested this combo>>

 

Raving thrust>IS>DS.

 

It seems pretty damn strong, especially with the raving thrust hp debuff. Wildfire on DS apparently does big single target dps too, I'll try it out as the other gold mod is bugged I heard(arent they all -_-). So I'll be boosting this combo as a boss killer basically, and see how it goes.

 

Ahhhh... Bauldur's Gate (and the expansion)... the original PC RPG for me as well. The only thing about BG that I don't like is the question / answer system. I hate it, in every RPG they try to shoehorn it into. Heh... although the character creation was awesome. Who else made a dual-weilding half-orc swashbuckler (thief)? Backstab with 19 Str? Sooooo awesome.

 

Haha, no I was always the fighter, and monk in BGII hehe.

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One combo I seen in a guide around here(cant remember which one) I decided to test on my melee hybrid, with only 9 points in NN Focus all in soul reaver, I tested this combo>>

 

Raving thrust>IS>DS.

 

It seems pretty damn strong, especially with the raving thrust hp debuff. Wildfire on DS apparently does big single target dps too, I'll try it out as the other gold mod is bugged I heard(arent they all -_-). So I'll be boosting this combo as a boss killer basically, and see how it goes.

 

Hrm... yeah, it seems good, but my DS will always mis-fire if the opp. is not in melee range. Raving Thrust knocks opp. back, so I dunno about that one. I'll stick to my Executions and Mutilations. :)

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Strange, im on 360 and as long as DS is not first in the combo I have no trouble with it. Character will sometimes run 20 yards by himself to cast it lol.

 

Nothing wrong with doing things the gruesome way however :)

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Strange, im on 360 and as long as DS is not first in the combo I have no trouble with it. Character will sometimes run 20 yards by himself to cast it lol.

 

Nothing wrong with doing things the gruesome way however :)

 

Yeah... I was going to say I don't know about how it works in combos, but when slotted alone, the target has to be in melee range. Quite annoying. Also, Sacred moving my toon is highly annoying as well... obv I won't be using that combo!

 

Hrm.. Gruesome Supremacy kinda describes a Maelstrom/Mutilation combo perfectly.

One combo to rule them all, and in the darkness, recharge itself :o

 

Wooo hooo!

Post 420! I'm outta here... see you in the morning, red-eyed and bushy-tailed.

 

OK... what the heck... I go back to sloeford and take Ghanka quest (with 0 survival bonus). Get back to Sloeford after destroying the boss, and I head into the shop to sell my loot from the run. Ending SB was about 10% (for references).

I ended up getting in this one run: LL% pole, LL% shuriken, Deylen's legs, unique ring, unique amulet (forget). And, of course, a bunch of stuff I did sell.

:)

 

I gotta die more often ;)

Edited by essjayehm
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Just progressed to gold at level 54 with my pure caster. Its tough trying to balance his skills out, especially with bargaining added, but once I start getting some masteries... I can see him being very powerfull... :guns:

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Just progressed to gold at level 54 with my pure caster. Its tough trying to balance his skills out, especially with bargaining added, but once I start getting some masteries... I can see him being very powerfull... :P

Finished the swamp today at 49. I have the same dilemma with skill points, so I'm trying something "different" again.... :)

 

Only mastering Constitution for level 75, and not worried about any others for a while after that.

 

Rusto, how are you handling the bosses? I tried some Subjectation trickery on them, but so far Dislodged Spirit and Execution are the only Combat Arts I think are any good for bosses...

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Raving thrust>IS>DS combo, with raving thrust modded for debuff, and ds modded for damage. Its important that the damage is kept up to date, without the regens being too big.

 

I have run into a problem also, I suddenly decided I wanted to play a melee Inquisitor again lol, this time duel wielding swords -_- I didnt realise how much fun a high skilled dual wield could be. Here we go again..... *sigh*

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