Dealing with extreme AC?

[CaucyBiops]

I recently got into Act 3 and man, it seems like every other major enemy I come across has like 30+ AC. Even with turning off all hit roll deductions, stacking bless, prayer, heroism, and other attack rolls buffs I can usually only manage like a 25% hit chance on my most accurate characters. It's usually the case that these enemies have insane spell resist too, so I've had to resort to pretty much spamming healing and whittling things down over the course of like 20 rounds. I had to rest after practically every encounter in [Wintersun] (was around level 10 at the time).

I get that that's just the gimmick of some enemies, but when combined with 30+ SR and saves higher than my spell DCs it just doesn't seem possible to consistently deal with this kind of stuff without inordinate amounts of metagaming or luck.

I'm playing on normal, and use the pre-generated builds for all but my main character. Is there something I'm missing? (besides the enemies)

[Fistimus Maximus]

Origineel geplaatst door GunStarX:

Origineel geplaatst door CaucyBiops:

What is the method of that -8 ac for them? I don't see any hex options that do that.

Evil eye (both) and hampering hex (cam) both give - 4 ac at level 8

dont forget to cackle aswell

[Conquista]

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

Origineel geplaatst door Conquista:

whats your lineup, usually the advice would be to get more buffs, but with pregrenerated builds thats pretty limited

Not at all. Seelah + Bard(for example) ought to be enough. Hell, if it's an Angel playthrough, you might as well go 2x Paladin(Seelah + Hospitaler / Martyr). But, yeah, what's the lineup OP?

alright if i'm wrong please explain to me how using pregenerated builds for your companions won't limit your abilites to buff

[Immortal Reaver]

Sosiel, Nenio and Cam cover buffs you want even if they are pregenrated. But yeah pregenrated Daeran and Ember will not cover them depending on spell picked, but witch is lacking some good arcane buffs anyway.
On other note Ember with UMD and Nenio's scribed scrolls can somewhat cover it.

[Gorwe]

Origineel geplaatst door Conquista:

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

Not at all. Seelah + Bard(for example) ought to be enough. Hell, if it's an Angel playthrough, you might as well go 2x Paladin(Seelah + Hospitaler / Martyr). But, yeah, what's the lineup OP?

alright if i'm wrong please explain to me how using pregenerated builds for your companions won't limit your abilites to buff

Seelah has Mark of Justice + generic Paladin buffs. Cam actually isn't half bad and can act like a pseudo Bard. She can also get very tanky. Nenio specializes in Illusion, Conjuration and Transmutation AND is a Scroll Savant - I'll let your imagination do the rest. Regill has Godclaw ability. Sosiel could be better, but is still a Cleric. Ember and Woljif can UMD, not as good as Nenio, but can.

The only truly selfish characters are those that are more dmg oriented. Graybor, Lann, Wendu and the like. With the added note that vanilla Graybor sucks. I mean, Slayer + Dwarf + Melee? Ugh. Slayer + Dwarf...heh. Wat the umgak is this? :)

[Edstyles]

Get an arcane trickster and spam snowballs . Should be quite reliable. Nenio or tiefling dude are good candidates for snowball. There is an item as well that makes all your elemental damage into electric . Good combo for a blaster

[Conquista]

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

Seelah has Mark of Justice + generic Paladin buffs. Cam actually isn't half bad and can act like a pseudo Bard. She can also get very tanky. Nenio specializes in Illusion, Conjuration and Transmutation AND is a Scroll Savant - I'll let your imagination do the rest. Regill has Godclaw ability. Sosiel could be better, but is still a Cleric. Ember and Woljif can UMD, not as good as Nenio, but can.

The only truly selfish characters are those that are more dmg oriented. Graybor, Lann, Wendu and the like. With the added note that vanilla Graybor sucks. I mean, Slayer + Dwarf + Melee? Ugh. Slayer + Dwarf...heh. Wat the umgak is this? :)

so you have paladin stuff
i don't understand what you mean with camilla being a pseudo bard, she neither has bard songs nor is she a arcane caster
nenio is a full arcane caster
regill has some moral ac
sosiel is a full divine cleric still limited on his domain powers
and ember + woljif have spells

so for buffs while you don't need all of them you be missing

bard songs
team feats
community/nobility domain
freebooter stuff
shared selfbuffs
shared judgement
rage songs

there is probably more stuff that you and i missed and of course some of these can be taken over by your main character

but unless you have a different definiton of the word 'limited' i still don't see how using pregenerated companion builds won't affect your buff selection by alot

[MagnusGrey]

Cam has the ability to give an AOE moral bonus to attack just like a bard does (with less castings per day) . For some reason its not on her quickcast bar by default

[Gorwe]

Origineel geplaatst door MagnusGrey:

Cam has the ability to give an AOE moral bonus to attack just like a bard does (with less castings per day) . For some reason its not on her quickcast bar by default

Yes, this umgak right here! Wazzock devs forgot to put it on hotbar. Ever since (I found out that ability) I got accustomed to Shaman, I realized Cam isn't half bad.

Origineel geplaatst door Conquista:

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

Seelah has Mark of Justice + generic Paladin buffs. Cam actually isn't half bad and can act like a pseudo Bard. She can also get very tanky. Nenio specializes in Illusion, Conjuration and Transmutation AND is a Scroll Savant - I'll let your imagination do the rest. Regill has Godclaw ability. Sosiel could be better, but is still a Cleric. Ember and Woljif can UMD, not as good as Nenio, but can.

The only truly selfish characters are those that are more dmg oriented. Graybor, Lann, Wendu and the like. With the added note that vanilla Graybor sucks. I mean, Slayer + Dwarf + Melee? Ugh. Slayer + Dwarf...heh. Wat the umgak is this? :)

so you have paladin stuff
i don't understand what you mean with camilla being a pseudo bard, she neither has bard songs nor is she a arcane caster
nenio is a full arcane caster
regill has some moral ac
sosiel is a full divine cleric still limited on his domain powers
and ember + woljif have spells

so for buffs while you don't need all of them you be missing

bard songs
team feats
community/nobility domain
freebooter stuff
shared selfbuffs
shared judgement
rage songs

there is probably more stuff that you and i missed and of course some of these can be taken over by your main character

but unless you have a different definiton of the word 'limited' i still don't see how using pregenerated companion builds won't affect your buff selection by alot

You don't need any of that except if you play Core+. And then you are playing Hard modes(let's call a duck, a duck). If you play anything resembling Normal or Daring, you don't need to push so heavily. Vavakia Vanguard will ♥♥♥♥ you over anyhow, so what's the point. :)

[kirill-busidow]

Origineel geplaatst door CaucyBiops:

I recently got into Act 3 and man, it seems like every other major enemy I come across has like 30+ AC. Even with turning off all hit roll deductions, stacking bless, prayer, heroism, and other attack rolls buffs I can usually only manage like a 25% hit chance on my most accurate characters. It's usually the case that these enemies have insane spell resist too, so I've had to resort to pretty much spamming healing and whittling things down over the course of like 20 rounds. I had to rest after practically every encounter in [Wintersun] (was around level 10 at the time).

I get that that's just the gimmick of some enemies, but when combined with 30+ SR and saves higher than my spell DCs it just doesn't seem possible to consistently deal with this kind of stuff without inordinate amounts of metagaming or luck.

I'm playing on normal, and use the pre-generated builds for all but my main character. Is there something I'm missing? (besides the enemies)

Succubus with 40 AC and Alchemist Cambion with 38 AC did not surprise you in Act 1?
And now in act 3 you have trouble with 30+ AC enemies?

p.s, Bless and heroism do not stack. Morale bonus.

[kirill-busidow]

Also, i am missing the point, but you call 30 AC+ extreme? ?..

30 SR can be problematic, but you can use spells that do not need SR to pass, like Conjuration.

[dwarfpcfan]

Most enemies high very high AC, don't actually have very high AC. They have very high AC of the regular type.

Look at their touch AC, it's always much lower. Use touch spells.

[Conquista]

Origineel geplaatst door MagnusGrey:

Cam has the ability to give an AOE moral bonus to attack just like a bard does (with less castings per day) . For some reason its not on her quickcast bar by default

if that alone qualifies camellia as a pseudo bard, than i'm not sure how people use bard

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

You don't need any of that except if you play Core+. And then you are playing Hard modes(let's call a duck, a duck). If you play anything resembling Normal or Daring, you don't need to push so heavily. Vavakia Vanguard will ♥♥♥♥ you over anyhow, so what's the point. :)

the point being that i'm telling the thread creator that his buffing capacities are limited with pregenerated story companion builds and you writing that my statement is wrong

so i'm open for being wrong, but i still don't see how a party with pregenerated builds can have the same buff options as a party of non pregenerated builds

[Edstyles]

Having mercs help alot no doubt .
My merc 2 hander fauchard wielding Enlarged vivisectionist is a beast and gives shield to the team. Very good support.

Having a freebooter is Nice too , tho you can get freebooter with your regular companions. Just spec Lann or something for it

[Gorwe]

Origineel geplaatst door Conquista:

Origineel geplaatst door MagnusGrey:

Cam has the ability to give an AOE moral bonus to attack just like a bard does (with less castings per day) . For some reason its not on her quickcast bar by default

if that alone qualifies camellia as a pseudo bard, than i'm not sure how people use bard

Origineel geplaatst door Gorwe:

You don't need any of that except if you play Core+. And then you are playing Hard modes(let's call a duck, a duck). If you play anything resembling Normal or Daring, you don't need to push so heavily. Vavakia Vanguard will ♥♥♥♥ you over anyhow, so what's the point. :)

the point being that i'm telling the thread creator that his buffing capacities are limited with pregenerated story companion builds and you writing that my statement is wrong

so i'm open for being wrong, but i still don't see how a party with pregenerated builds can have the same buff options as a party of non pregenerated builds

You're not wrong. I'm simply stating that the vanilla companions aren't as bad as one might figure them out to be. They just aren't min max gish nonsense, so if you want or need that, that's what the Merc system is all about.

[Edstyles]

I dare say some of the companions Are pretty bad. Camellia is one if the better ones . Daeran too. Lann is easy to build the way you want . But then you look at wolvjiff and its pretty bad . You can salvage it sure , but U May as well just get a merc at that point