Best time to do Xmas Island/IaB content?

[TSFF19 0]

I was just wondering if there's a consensus here. Last time I accessed the Christmas Island and Ice and Blood content, it was after completing all the quests in Thylisium.

 

But...is it better to wait until later? I ask because while the Blood Island was manageable, the Ghost of Christmas Future kicked my ass, and I was playing on BRONZE at the time.

[Schot 407]

Ah hehe. Xmas Island can be cruel. ^^ I think around 20 was good for me. General rule of thumb would be to make sure you're a couple levels above the enemies you are fighting. Then be sure to have some new Relics to help fend off the damage. Primarily ice relics. What level are you TSFF?

 

P.s.

Try using your god spell when fighting an xmas Boss and watch out for Debuffing Fury champions.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Ah hehe. Xmas Island can be cruel. ^^ I think around 20 was good for me. General rule of thumb would be to make sure you're a couple levels above the enemies you are fighting. Then be sure to have some new Relics to help fend off the damage. Primarily ice relics. What level are you TSFF?

 

P.s.

Try using your god spell when fighting an xmas Boss and watch out for Debuffing Fury champions.

 

Yeah... That might be a bit problematic. On Silver difficulty, the snow cats and polar bears top out at about level 75 for the Christmas Island/Northland Campaigns. The Blood Forest region is a bit more forgiving - where the various critters top out at level 70 or so. The Crystal region, on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure how high the critters go. I'm currently level 90, they're level 79 and still seem to manage leveling up a bit. The rings under the critters are still greenish.

 

Now then... The three areas (four if you want to count the Northland Campaign separately) do dynamic leveling. That's to say, if you show up there as level 30, they won't be too much higher than that - depending on your difficulty level. In Bronze, they're maybe 4 - 5 levels above you, in Silver, I think they were originally about 8 - 9 levels. In Gold and beyond, I'm going to assume it's going to be even an even bigger spread. As long as you've got a solid build, you should be able to handle it - and collect a boatload of experience points to level up with.

 

Keep in mind that when you do level up in either one of those regions, you're likely to find the baddies in the area you left from to be underwhelming. They will likely be about the same level you left them at. It may be difficult, if not impossible to get thru the rest of the game and find anything being much of a challenge.

 

You might want ice relics for the Crystal region and for the Christmas/Northland areas, but you might want to consider magic (arcane) relics for the Blood Forest region since most of the critters there do magic or physical damage. Only the skinned ones (humanoid) do a tiny bit of ice damage. The dog/wolf/warg skinned ones do a tiny bit of poison damage. Best to socket some broad spectrum anti-DoT stuff..

[TSFF19 0]

Ok, thanks for the Relic advice. I've decided that I will tackle CI and the IaB content AFTER I clear out Tyr Lasia, at least up to the point where I complete the Undead Legion and ESPECIALLY the Blind Guardian quest for the epic reward gear (sadly, it will only be useful to my Seraphim, as BG apparently hates hafted weapon users. =( )

 

One last thing, which of the two IaB regions is better to start with first?

[wolfie2kX 528]

Ok, thanks for the Relic advice. I've decided that I will tackle CI and the IaB content AFTER I clear out Tyr Lasia, at least up to the point where I complete the Undead Legion and ESPECIALLY the Blind Guardian quest for the epic reward gear (sadly, it will only be useful to my Seraphim, as BG apparently hates hafted weapon users. =( )

 

One last thing, which of the two IaB regions is better to start with first?

 

First off, the Blind Guardian rewards are NOT hafted weapons. The two guitars are actually considered 2 handed swords. We had a discussion about this a while back where someone wanted to change them over to hafted weapons and we decided it would be a fairly bad idea. Why? Because they would still be 2 handed weapons - and there's only ONE charcter class that can make use of them - the Shadow Warrior. That, and it would be more of a pain in the nether region to convert the other character classes to be able to use them.

 

Secondly, Not so sure why you consider the BG gear to be all that superior - it's OK stuff, but not that spectacular. You'd do better with an officer's saber or a Sword of the Blood Dryads - both of which are Uniques just like the Blind Guardian gear. I had my first Blood Dryad blade drop in the area northeast of Benny's Corn Circles - by a kobold, no less. It's not an impossible item to find.

 

As far as doing the Ice and Blood regions... I'd have to go with the Blood Forest first. But that's just my preference.

[TSFF19 0]

Sorry, I misspoke. I meant that BG seems to hate hafted weapon users BECAUSE none of their weapons are hafted, and considering that Shadow Warriors are my class of choice besides Seraphim...

 

Also, thanks for the info. =)

[Ysne58 236]

I was wondering about when to do Xmas Island myself. I'm always going there way too early for my characters to survive.

[wolfie2kX 528]

If you've got a solid build - with the right offensive and defensive skills - you can go there fairly early. My first trip there was fairly disasterous. I was doing so so - until I got to the big bad hydra. At that point, about all I could do was get killed. But since then, I've read all kinds of stuff on how to do it right - and I haven't had much in the way of grief whenever I go there. That same character also had nothing but trouble with Xanthiar - the dragon... I was kinda surprised about that - given I was able to take out the Grunvald dragon without any problems. Gar'Collossus fell without any problems. Even Octogamolus went fairly easily. Looking back - I realized where I went wrong and later versions of my TG had no such issues.

[Silver_fox 397]

If you ask me, I'd advise you to wait for some time. The reason is that in Ice and Blood regions and on the Christmas Island the enemies' level is higher that in other parts of the game. So if you'd go there in the end of the difficulty, you'd still find it interesting (Max level in Silver Wastelands is lower than in Silver Ice and Blood regions). But if you go there from Tyr Lysia and level up quite fast in these places, you'd be so-o-o bored in Artamark with its 54lvl max.

[Ysne58 236]

If you ask me, I'd advise you to wait for some time. The reason is that in Ice and Blood regions and on the Christmas Island the enemies' level is higher that in other parts of the game. So if you'd go there in the end of the difficulty, you'd still find it interesting (Max level in Silver Wastelands is lower than in Silver Ice and Blood regions). But if you go there from Tyr Lysia and level up quite fast in these places, you'd be so-o-o bored in Artamark with its 54lvl max.

 

Good advice Silver. Thanks for that info Wolfie.

[TSFF19 0]

If you ask me, I'd advise you to wait for some time. The reason is that in Ice and Blood regions and on the Christmas Island the enemies' level is higher that in other parts of the game. So if you'd go there in the end of the difficulty, you'd still find it interesting (Max level in Silver Wastelands is lower than in Silver Ice and Blood regions). But if you go there from Tyr Lysia and level up quite fast in these places, you'd be so-o-o bored in Artamark with its 54lvl max.

 

Hmm, I never thought of it that way.

 

Alright, in that case, I think I'll wait until the endgame (Wastelands/Great Machine). Thanks for the heads up.