Has anyone killed the giant spider in 0.8.5 nightmare?
I mean, has anyone had the whole party take two actions each before dying? Because three spiders spamming paralysis is a creative challenge to overcome.
Let's talk combat
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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jack1974
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Re: Let's talk combat
When you write 0.8.5 I suppose you mean 0.8.6c (the latest version) right?
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
Yeah, my mind never registered when 0.8.6 happened apparently 
I can't say exactly what I find wrong about it anymore... made some progress, but still don't see myself winning.
I can't say exactly what I find wrong about it anymore... made some progress, but still don't see myself winning.
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
DIE!!!!!!!!!111oneone
I managed to win... but let me say this. I haven't been able to beat Mormont or the spider without putting my ranger in the back row. That should be a concern
Now keep your fingers crossed for me getting the cub in the time I have left.
I managed to win... but let me say this. I haven't been able to beat Mormont or the spider without putting my ranger in the back row. That should be a concern
Now keep your fingers crossed for me getting the cub in the time I have left.
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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Anima_
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Re: Let's talk combat
Maybe increasing the rewards a bit?
RPG Programmer for Winterwolves, currently working on: Amber's Magic Shop
Part-time emotionless AI
Part-time emotionless AI
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renke_
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Re: Let's talk combat
The giant spider is totally a she - only cruel queens are that hard to overcome ("She's a harsh mistress, but eventually I got her heart" [quite literally]). Not sure if this combat is still normal difficulty, but one über-boss per chapter feels right.
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
I'm gonna share my recipe for success for current nightmare mode. Would be very interested to hear in anyone doing well with a different method. I did "okay" with a more conventional strategy but I had to leave a lot of spawns untouched and I had no chance of killing the giant spider. After I completed that game I built a party around this tactic and did 7 quests in chapter one again; the previous playthrough was 4 in chapter one and 4 in chapter three.
Okay so here goes. There's pros and cons to each twin combo. I think hunter/druid is probably the best but if I can improvise my way to this tactic with ranger/hunter and succeed then I'm sure it can be done with any combo if you aim for it from square one.
This method takes advantage of the fact that the party is small so you can have just one guy in the frontline (so it won't work later on) and most encounters (animals, bandits for most part) can only hit your frontline. And that guy will be Vaelis. You activate Avoidance and then you spam Defend. The twins do the killing from the back row. If you pimp out Vaelis well (with defense and HP regen) he does not need to be healed often. I mean, less than once per fight. If you are doing really well Vaelis might run out of mana before his healer does (I'm talking about many battles in a row now), at which point you can swap in the tankiest of the twins to the front row and have them hold the line while Vaelis activates Recover and dances in the back row.
I can get more specific if need be... anyway, with this I could largely lick the map clean as I like to say, although quest encounters required a well prepared party and some experimentation. Mormont was particularly painful and I know I can just press restart until the mage and the archer use normal attacks instead of a row nuke and a Pinning Shot, but in this and the previous playthrough I decided to beat them the hard way. Although I did hit restart if the row nukes left a debuff.
Observation: If polearms have a 25% damage penalty if used from the back row, then they are pretty much bows in that regard, because a melee attack has 25% less delay than a normal shot too. But I'll bet polearms will do more damage than bows
Okay so here goes. There's pros and cons to each twin combo. I think hunter/druid is probably the best but if I can improvise my way to this tactic with ranger/hunter and succeed then I'm sure it can be done with any combo if you aim for it from square one.
This method takes advantage of the fact that the party is small so you can have just one guy in the frontline (so it won't work later on) and most encounters (animals, bandits for most part) can only hit your frontline. And that guy will be Vaelis. You activate Avoidance and then you spam Defend. The twins do the killing from the back row. If you pimp out Vaelis well (with defense and HP regen) he does not need to be healed often. I mean, less than once per fight. If you are doing really well Vaelis might run out of mana before his healer does (I'm talking about many battles in a row now), at which point you can swap in the tankiest of the twins to the front row and have them hold the line while Vaelis activates Recover and dances in the back row.
I can get more specific if need be... anyway, with this I could largely lick the map clean as I like to say, although quest encounters required a well prepared party and some experimentation. Mormont was particularly painful and I know I can just press restart until the mage and the archer use normal attacks instead of a row nuke and a Pinning Shot, but in this and the previous playthrough I decided to beat them the hard way. Although I did hit restart if the row nukes left a debuff.
Observation: If polearms have a 25% damage penalty if used from the back row, then they are pretty much bows in that regard, because a melee attack has 25% less delay than a normal shot too. But I'll bet polearms will do more damage than bows
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
Another thing Jack. I'm afraid of encouraging you to tinker with nightmare numbers now, but maybe for future bosses with few or no minions you could bear this in mind. As a player I don't feel powerful if I'm hitting the boss for less than I hit everything else for. It feels like I win because I'm stubborn. I would like it if bosses had even more health (to compensate) but lower defenses than they have now. I might win in exactly as many turns but I would be doing it to the tune of lovelier numbers.
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.
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jack1974
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Re: Let's talk combat
Yes sounds a good change, will do that for single-bosses in future 
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yayswords
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Re: Let's talk combat
Wolves still like to use Defend. They also like to buff spiders with Berserk. Not uncommon to see 9-10 duration of that on the spider and 0 on the wolves.
In other news, I actually managed to beat Mormont without nuking his mage \o/ that was a first... and only because I had to
In other news, I actually managed to beat Mormont without nuking his mage \o/ that was a first... and only because I had to
If at first try it doesn't explode, it ain't Jack who wrote the code.