Shieldbreakers Nightmares

[Sines]

Holy crap those are some bad dreams!

After losing a Shieldbreaker to Affliction and I dropped her (her quirks weren't inspiring either), I decided to go into another medium length dungeon with another Shieldbreaker. With slightly better equipped characters, I was just BARELY able to salvage her sanity, leaving her at 'only' 90 stress. Those nightmares do MASSIVE stress damage. Is there all that much that I can do about it, or am I just going to have to accept that the Shieldbreaker camping is an inherently risky endeavor?

As a side note, do the Shieldbreaker Nightmares prevent ambushes? That might at least be a sorta-kinda bonus to using her.

[Raven Guertena]

the nightmares, how i heard it, will stop after a while on the 7-8th time.

and no, you can't do anything against the stress damage, not even the item that is suppose to work against horror works in this special battle, making it even more usless than it is already

[Sines]

So, just take it on the chin, whether through gold spent on stress relief or just cycling out every new Shieldbreaker, and they'll stop? I'm guessing that the nightmares last for as many jounral pages as there are.

If the dreams end after a while though, does that mean the aegis scales are limited? Or can you still have the nightmares, but they don't inflict the massive horror debuff?

[A goblin shaman.]

You can bring a jester with his -stress camping buff, another character with the generic -stress buff, and/or an item with -stress. Having -40% stress really takes the edge off that horror effect.

I don't think the nightmares happen anymore, but the snakes show up in regular dungeons after the dreams. Haven't seen a scale drop yet though.

[Sines]

Yah, stacking those stress resist buffs was my plan going forward. Next dungeon I'm going into has a -15% stress charm waiting for me.

[Algol]

Her stress bar will fill regardless, don't bother with stress-reducing trinkets. Instead, try equipping her with trinkets that increase virtue chance.

[Sines]

Originally posted by Algol:

Her stress bar will fill regardless, don't bother with stress-reducing trinkets. Instead, try equipping her with trinkets that increase virtue chance.

Well yah it'll fill... or are you saying that stress reduction buffs and trinkets have no effect? I'm not trying to stop her from getting stressed, just trying to get her to be less stressed. +Virtue options are much rarer than Stress Reduction options, and I'm only starting out.

[Algol]

Originally posted by Sines:

Originally posted by Algol:

Her stress bar will fill regardless, don't bother with stress-reducing trinkets. Instead, try equipping her with trinkets that increase virtue chance.

Well yah it'll fill... or are you saying that stress reduction buffs and trinkets have no effect?

It's more like this effect of stress reduction will be so insignificant compared to large amount of stress she gets, I think you shouldn't even bother with stress reduction. Virtue just seems more viable if you equip the right trinkets, it will help her and the entire party.

Honestly though, she is not the best class to start out with (unlike the Flagellant)

[Chezz]

Not true that stacking -%stress is useless. Put a book of sanity or a madman box with the -25% stress buff, pep talk during camping and another one (Jester or Crusader for example) and she will win like 8-10 stress x round, hardly unmanageable.

[SergeTroy]

You can definitely make early game runs with the Shieldbreaker work, but if you're looking to minimize your teeth grinding and hair pulling, you should take precautions when camping. Bring a Jester (and preferably one with trinkets like the Bright Tambourine & Ancestor's Scroll in combo), make sure the Shieldbreaker is level 1 with full upgrades from the Guild and Blacksmith, and don't screw around with some whacky party line up: make sure it's party comp that works. I generally run the SB in the cove for the early levels and take a Jester, Occultist, and either a Man at Arms, a Hellion, or a Plague Doctor. I'm currently setting up to do an apprentice run with an Abomination that always shifts, though I have my own very obvious concerns.

[Corseth]

Another tip, until you run out the nightmares, bring her on at most Medium runs. Long runs won't end well, but you can definitely use Mediums to get through the nightmares and still succeed on the run. She'll usually end up Afflicted by that's not a huge deal on a Medium length.

[SergeTroy]

Originally posted by Corseth:

Another tip, until you run out the nightmares, bring her on at most Medium runs. Long runs won't end well, but you can definitely use Mediums to get through the nightmares and still succeed on the run. She'll usually end up Afflicted by that's not a huge deal on a Medium length.

I don't believe you can have 2 of the Nightmares in the same dungeon, and if you successfully complete the Nightmare you get a buff to stress resistance above and beyond any camping buffs, that lasts for the entirety of the dungeon. So in a way, it can actually be more advantageous to do Long Runs (unless they're long dark runs, in which case I hope you brought your moon cloaks, rings, etc.)

[Corseth]

Originally posted by SergeTroy:

Originally posted by Corseth:

Another tip, until you run out the nightmares, bring her on at most Medium runs. Long runs won't end well, but you can definitely use Mediums to get through the nightmares and still succeed on the run. She'll usually end up Afflicted by that's not a huge deal on a Medium length.

I don't believe you can have 2 of the Nightmares in the same dungeon, and if you successfully complete the Nightmare you get a buff to stress resistance above and beyond any camping buffs, that lasts for the entirety of the dungeon. So in a way, it can actually be more advantageous to do Long Runs (unless they're long dark runs, in which case I hope you brought your moon cloaks, rings, etc.)

Right, but if things don't go great in the Nightmare, she'll often end up Afflicted, and it's easier to finish out a Medium one with her freaking out that way than a Long one. If the OP is having issues with her stressing out on him it's safer not to test his luck in longer runs if she's picking up an affliction in the nightmare, until he runs the nightmares out.

[SergeTroy]

@ Corseth: true, totally valid points I didn't consider. OP should also keep in mind that so long as she can outlast the special "horror" stress from her nightmare, she can whittle it down: the Nightmare isn't considered a failure if the fight lasts for longer than the status effect. It's only a failure if she becomes afflicted before killing all the sneks, etc. I remember I had initialy thought I was screwed in one such circumstance, but I walked away fine with all the rewards, which was pretty cool.

[Windfall [597TH ADR]]

pair her with a jester to help handle her stress issues and a character with high damage or multi target attacks to shorten the fight, I like using lepers and abominations for that. Also flagellents are a great combo with shieldbreakers becasue they can do stress heals as well as single target damage with bleeds.