So far we've heard a lot about people playing the new rogue archetype that EE makes possible, and we've heard about the boost that Overcharge is giving to casters, but is anyone playing something particularly exotic--let us know! Are there some crit dual-wield wanders running around? Perhaps some "druids" that run ranger but don't use a bow? We would love to discuss the awesome builds that you are all surely developing!

^

Came here to mention that Polymath does a great job of letting you sprint right for Master-level talents. If you're to grab Polymath upon getting her and leave a talent point unspent, Bairdotr can grab Predator at level 6, wait a few levels, and then respec out of Polymath into something more useful. Same with Madora and Centurion. (Sourcehunters will need to respec to pull this off, as you can't grab Polymath at character creation.)

Predator at level 6 seems pretty dirty, nice strat!

I haven't played around enough witht the mod yet, but at some point I will have something to share. I play D:OS often enough but only a bit at a time.

@Bitwyrm:

We'll be more than happy to peruse your secret tech when you post it ;)

Is this the right place to ask for strategy advice? I ran into a roadblock with my level 12 party. I can't get past the nectar drunk goblins in luculla forest. After they level up to 12 they seem a little bit strong. My party is not build around invisibility or sneaking, so I try to do tank with damage dealers (2 mages and a ranger), that worked pretty well until now, even with boss fights like Evilyn, because I always found a way to get some sort of chokepoint going and work from there, but the goblins run a full screen, then cast poison/infect and then attack, their saving throws against taunt, knockdown or fear are nothing to be sneezed at. Even an infectious flame on a maxed pyromancer does nothing (once it did 6 dmg, wtf!). I can't even get to the ward in the back, that gives them water immunity, they wipe me every time. The lack of control is the problem. Electricity works somewhat, for a round, but then they are immune and steamroll me. Summons die instantly, only Nick with his poison immunity lasts for more than two rounds (he gets healed by the spells and the occasional plant spore attack). My equipment is not the best, but the best I could get from all the available vendors plus occasional drop, but tbh even total poison and disease immunity for all party memebers (unrealistic as it is) would not guarantee a victory.

A stealth party won't have that issue but can a "standard" party even work after a certain point in the game?

I found one way to kill some of them, by luring (via pyramid) them back to Fumble who tanks like a boss even though he is only lvl 10. The goblins made the way from the goblin spot to the town entrance in two(!) turns, the battle was epic but I was not satisfied with that solution and reloaded (also Fumbles girlfriend and half the townguards died...)

Current favorite build is tank Scoundrel/Soldier. build up your tricks of the trade and single weapon skills, spam backstabs with mainhand dagger multipliers and block/spiked shell shield to absorb lots of punishment. Thick skin + fade damage reduction makes you very resistant and a 5-point lacerate replenishes 60% max health over 3 turns.

Edit: when it is your turn you can also benefit from chain stacks if an enemy gets an attack of opportunity on you and you reflect damage via spiked shell. Throw Leech on top of that to mitigate damage taken and you can get a chain stack using only 1 ap by taking a step away.

Edit 2: Battering Ram is also a very good way to get 2-3 chain stacks instantly while positioning behind your opponent for the finisher

@Furin: This definitely the right place :) I can't say I know how to help you in that fight though as I haven't gotten to it just yet in my current playthrough (if it's a serious balance issue I'll need to take a look at tuning it). Maybe someone who has bested it can chime in.

@The Nightman: Dang look at you thinking out of the box and stuff; nice idea using their attacks of opportunity to get 1ap chain stacks, that's awesome. I'd like to hear how it performs once you have Centurion and can combo it with Blur.

@The Nightman: great to hear that Scoundrel/Soldier is performing for you! I did a couple builds in a similar vein during testing, and they were my favorites too. There's just something special about sneaking around in full plate.

I tried the goblin fight again today and managed to beat it by:

- setting the place on fire for smokescreen, the burning damage is negliable
- putting burning immunity and a heal on Madora (tank) and running her right into the fire, while summoning with the rest of the party nick and an air elemental (whole party has fire weapons for this fight)
- while distracting the tanky goblins, who came straight for my mages/ranger again and sacrificing Jahan in the process, Madora manged to battering ram her way right behind the evil flower, in the corner by the water/earth ward, she healed herself, threw a smokescreen, so the goblins could not heal the ward with their spells, and the flower could not see her either, and while the rest of the party fled, she managed to break it and pyramid out of there

After the two immunities were gone, the rest of the fight ws just luring and picking apart the rest of these vile beasts (by the way, I fought this again and noticed, that the ward only affects the flowers! So the goblins heal from earth damage even after you kill the ward!). So yeah you "can" win this, with a little cheese, and not a stealth party but the typical archetype of tank/healer/mage/rouge(ranger), but it is hell of a fight! Very enjoyable, to the point of frustration. (you might even go as far as cheese the engine by blocking the road uphill with barrels and then teleport one goblin after the other in to kill them seperatly)

No other fight was this difficult yet, so I'd love if you checked these drunken goblins for what makes them so hard on the level up script.

@Furin: basically goblins are crazy strong. They were already amongst the absolute strongest monsters in base DOS, and EE just pours that much more sauce on to thier already overflowing plate. Also that encounter has as healthy number of mobs, so as you described, they are easily matching your action economy. Often PCs with kill statistically superior monsters by running circles around them... pretty hard to do here!

One question/clarification: your battle sounds pretty epic, but did you use "smoke" from fire, or blinds from the "smokescreen" skill to keep mobs cc'd? I think the use of repeated smokescreens (the skill, right) seems correct. Mass cc is harder in EE, but there are still plenty of situations were you should be doing your damnedest to achieve it, via combos and such, since that is how you will maintian an advantageious position in the action economy. Now, if on the other hand you were forced to use "smoke" from fire rather than "smokescreens," that is a little bothersome due to the obnoxious ways that smoke works with the AI in DOS. As we all know, smoke can force the AI to take actions that essentially waste AP without any potential fo saving throws involved. Your one use of the pyramind there doesn't bother me at all, because there are lots of ways to reposition for a similar AP cost depending on what the battlefield looked like--so I don't think you have to feel like you cheesed that. And there is certainly nothing wrong with your "mop-up" step. Dividing and conquering the mobs is just good strategy.

Sandpie and I will be reaching the goblin encounters shortly in our current playthrough, so we wil definatly be very sensitive to the tuning here, since so many of you are finding these mobs fun and frustrating at the same time.

I am very curious to see how you fare in the goblin village, since there are sooooo many goblins there in an enclosed space.... I would love to have you recount the epic tale of your victory in that battle as well!

This is awesome, I'm happy to be following this thread ;)

Approaching the end-game areas and having a high level party I noticed that improved invisibility combined with a guerilla (I think thats the name of the skill for extra damage when invisible right?) ranger is sortof deadly. Especially against these high lvl scaled up mobs. Combine it with a high level tenebrium crossbow... profit.

Add some scoundrel to the mix, for adrenaline (or item), and make sure you can finish the target before it heals up. Then wait out the adrenaline turn (still invisible) while your party does its thing. Bonus points for fusilaging right in the face.

Opprinnelig skrevet av No One Maa Shoo Ha Awl Dat Powah:

@Furin:

Sorry I just saw your question. Well the smokescreen came naturally, from all the poison on the ground burning. There was a small window though through which the goblins kept healing the ward with their earth spell, I closed that by throwing a smoke grenade. Madora is my ghetto-grenadier, meaning she gets all the grenade drops, as otherwise she is a pure shield soldier. Not that grenades have a lot of effect, but hey they are not worth selling and ruining the inventory of vendors...

I just finished Grutilda in Hunters Edge at lvl 19, her being 20, and I gotta say, those goblins back then were harder to beat than her (even though she is insane strong and can wipe your party in one turn if you are unlucky). You simply lack the damage output neccesary at lvl 12/13/14 to kill the tanky goblins fast enough, before they kill your squishies. Also there are two mystics in the bunch who can heal every turn (flat heal AND hot). You can distract one by summoning Nick as the mystic will try to hurt him with the heal, but it was just not enough for my party back then.

That Hunters edge fight was a lot more realistic than in the vanilla game though, meaning that Grutilda was really badass and dangerous, while in the vanilla game you just farted in her general direction and she fell over.

Best CC in the mod is by recognizing the choke points and holding them (or creating some with boxes, barrels and whatever is available, even if it only holds for one turn until some mob decides to battering ram through it), and the goblin fights are out in the open plus they have huge movement. The toxic ooze is a wonderful blocker, but I did not have him in that fight yet, obviously. For example in the fight for Byrdotters quest (or whatever her name is), the guy who summones the bloody animals, I created chokepoints just with "strategic summoning", forcing the AI to waste their shots on summons.

The rat king is pretty dangerous too leveled up, I had one wipe there, but then I used barrels for choke points again and won. Just like you say, divide and conquer is the way to go. As taunt fails often you need other means to make sure the mobs go for your tank. They avoid surfaces too and casters tend to run away from summons, so you can keep them at bay just by placing a summon and keeping it alive until you have finished whatever this guy is healing.

Last but not least I am not sure if I want to fight the goblin village, I am kinda scared to be honest...