Anyone interested in a solo path of the damned guide?

[TR1PL36]

I finished the game over the christmas break on triple crown solo using a rogue, barbarian and monk. I had difficulty finding non paladin solo guides when I first started playing. If there is interest, I can take some time to write a detailed walthrough for each class.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Think twice. Would it be worth the effort?

You would need to get down to the level of telling exactly where to go first, which quests to do in which order, where to apply hit'n'retreat tactics and how (e.g. using summons), which direction to flee into (to end combat and not run into nearby mobs), which talents to get in which order, when to use consumables, where to sneak past enemies and with which Stealth level, when to take resting bonuses, when to fill the quick item slots and weapon slots with special items, whether and when to kite enemies.

There are a couple of surprises in the game. Not limited to crits. Building a good solo character isn't a problem, but knowing the dungeons and encounters well enough to survive without reloading - ever - requires own experience and taking notes after discovering strategies that work. Even sneaking through Stalwart and then trying to eliminate Dazir requires meta-gaming knowledge because of the surroundings and the nearby mobs or to successfully split a group of enemies.

As much as I can understand your enthusiasm after you've put so much work into unlocking The Ultimate achievement, albeit with unknown amounts of reloading, the true challenge is to become so intimately familiar with the game that no reloading is necessary. Retrospectively, it may be your impression that is has been fairly easy to get that achievement, and yet there are enough surprises in the game even when trying to unlock Triple Crown Solo without reloading ever.

Trial of Iron mode is supposed to add a lot of excitement, and it really does that, because every choice matters, whether you open a door, choose a line during conversation or flee into a wrong direction.

[The.Spaz.]

Not worth the effort. Any of it.

[TR1PL36]

Good point, a lot of the fun comes from figuring it out yourself. Just can't wait for pillars 2 now. Loved this game.

[brandonlott938]

i would love a solo path guide

[Adeptus Stark]

I'm thinking of trying solo for the first time, but not sure on race/class yet. My first thought is Dwarf Boreal Paladin as the evil guy. (Huge change in how I play)

But I don't know if Ranger would be more fun? I have yet to play a Monk and they look fun too. Hmmm

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

If you only want to solo the game at Easy or Normal difficulty, Monk and Fighter are viable options. Of course, there are the meta-gaming requirements to be successful, so you develop an idea whether and when to invest into the Stealth and Mechanics skills.

[Ultimus]

Nice job on the achievements :) I'd love to read a guide on it. Doesn't have to be very detailed. A general guide, things to notice, tips and tricks when going for The Ultimate would be really helpfull.

[TR1PL36]

Monk is my favorite class to play by far. The DPS gets pretty insane towards the end of the game. Rogue is probably my second favorite class, but it would probably be really difficult to take on dragons head on due to its squishyness.

I posted on a summary on a different thread on what I did, hope it helps.

[TR1PL36]

After multiple playthroughs and countless tries, I finally got "the ultimate" achievement (path of the damned, iron man, solo and kill all dragons and archmages). I first got interested in triple crown solo runs after watching someone play a rogue and beat the game in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Just wanted to do a quick write up to let people know that it is very doable using a class other than paladin. However, I think it would be very difficult with squishy classes such as ranger, cipher or rogue (since dragons can one shot you).

End game stats:
Living Lands Human Monk Drifter
-Maxed might
-Maxed constitution
-10 points in int
-15 points in dex
-4 points in resolve
-rest in perception

Early and mid game:

Get the highest stealth possible, unequip your armor and calisa’s armor at the beginning and sell everything including gaun’s ring to herodan except for weapons. Herodan pays something like 5x as much for items. You should have close to 3k before even getting to gilded vale. After you get to gilded vale speed run the quests and stealth loot until you get 5k and buy the bronze figurine. Head to caed nua at level 4 with a potion against bulwark elements and bronze figurine. If you get stuck at the main caed nua hall, just summon your bronze figurine and run into the corridor and the wraths will lose aggro on you. You should be in defiance bay in less than an hour and a half this way.

After you get the defiance bay, do the woedica quest first, so you get access to white march. Watch out for traps while dungeon crawling, I had to restart twice because of traps killing my monk and not having the time to quit before health reached 0. Head to the white march as soon as your able. Stealth to the left of the village and split pull/kill the leader of the ogres. After this you will have all the high-level quests and you can level up super quickly. Finish the white March 1 and 2 and you should be level 16 and we’re off to the dragons and bounties.

Must have equipment for dragons:

-Ryona’s breast plate – for monks this gives disciplined barrage (+20 accuracy), vigorous defense (+20 to all defense) AND triggered immunity (immunity against certain attacks) when you receive a critical hit. In my opinion when used by a monk, this armor becomes the best armor in the game hands down. You can get the armor on the northwest of the Alpine dragon map. Because the dragons’ fear auras will nearly always crit you every 30 seconds or so, you essentially have constant +20 accuracy and +20 defense. However, you would have immunity because of...

-Steadfast sword- 25% chance to cast champions boon on kill (+10 might, +10 perception), immunity to frightened and terrified. This sword is a must have for the alpine dragon and llengrath, without this sword, the dragon fights would be very difficult and you would have to spam immune to fear scrolls.

-We toki battle axe, crits inflict prone. I picked this battle axe because the sword and the axe fall into the same +6 accuracy bonus talent group.

Key Talents:

Torments reach, long stride, turning wheel, iron wheel, rooting pain.
Key Boss fights:

Adra dragon:

The key here is the adragans, we can easily take Adra dragon 1on1 if it wasn’t for petrified by the adragans. So get long fist (this makes your attacks ranged). And engage Adra dragon head on, however pick off any adragans that come close with the long fist. Adra dragon should be dead in no time if you do this.

Alpine dragon:

At the beginning of the fight, position yourself so the alpine dragon is behind the trash mob, and try to take out as many spirits and ice blithes when the dragon can’t attack you. Once that’s done, just engage him and is an easy fight with ryona’s plates and steadfast since terrify and fear auras now only buffs you rather than debuff.

Llengrath:

I never had to reload fights until I got to llengrath, I have to admit I reloaded a few times here before my hp dropped to zero because of Turisulfus. The strategy here is to run around and pick off llengrath first, and then trash mobs and leaving only the two dragons left. However, do not engage turisulfus (he will one or two shot you). Run around in a way that gafonercos is in the front with turisulfus behind him and use torments reach whenever possible so it hits both dragons. By the time gafonercos is dead, turisulfus should be close and you can try to finish him off carefully with hp > 300, if your out of pots at this point your going to have to kite him using a ranged weapon until hes dead. And make sure to get the beast camping bonuses so you have +15 accuracy against beasts.

Magran’s Faithful:

I had to use a use a arquebus and kite around the map in a circle and pick them off one by one. Took about twenty minutes but doing it any other way would have been too risky.

Thaos:

Thaos is already a joke by the time you beat llengrath. Just pot up and try to split the statutes, although I didn’t have to. I killed the first woedica statute and accidentally killed Thaos too fast before killing the second statute and the game bugged out and froze after killing all the enemies, but after reloading it was fixed.

Overall, I only found the llengrath fight to be hard. For anything else if you follow the script (always use consumables, camping bonuses, negate major debuffs) it shouldn’t be too hard. All the little things really do add up in this game.

[Cursed Life]

So you need white march for this. Thats interesting

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Blind Greedy Fool:

So you need white march for this. Thats interesting

You only need it for the extra achievements - not limited to Frozen Crown, Frozen Crown Solo or The Ultimate. You don't need it for Triple Crown Solo, which can be unlocked within the base game.

[Cursed Life]

no i mean you need the white march items

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

For what?

[Fiach]

Originally posted by TR1PL36:

After multiple playthroughs and countless tries, I finally got "the ultimate" achievement (path of the damned, iron man, solo and kill all dragons and archmages). I first got interested in triple crown solo runs after watching someone play a rogue and beat the game in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Just wanted to do a quick write up to let people know that it is very doable using a class other than paladin. However, I think it would be very difficult with squishy classes such as ranger, cipher or rogue (since dragons can one shot you).

End game stats:
Living Lands Human Monk Drifter
-Maxed might
-Maxed constitution
-10 points in int
-15 points in dex
-4 points in resolve
-rest in perception

Early and mid game:

Get the highest stealth possible, unequip your armor and calisa’s armor at the beginning and sell everything including gaun’s ring to herodan except for weapons. Herodan pays something like 5x as much for items. You should have close to 3k before even getting to gilded vale. After you get to gilded vale speed run the quests and stealth loot until you get 5k and buy the bronze figurine. Head to caed nua at level 4 with a potion against bulwark elements and bronze figurine. If you get stuck at the main caed nua hall, just summon your bronze figurine and run into the corridor and the wraths will lose aggro on you. You should be in defiance bay in less than an hour and a half this way.

After you get the defiance bay, do the woedica quest first, so you get access to white march. Watch out for traps while dungeon crawling, I had to restart twice because of traps killing my monk and not having the time to quit before health reached 0. Head to the white march as soon as your able. Stealth to the left of the village and split pull/kill the leader of the ogres. After this you will have all the high-level quests and you can level up super quickly. Finish the white March 1 and 2 and you should be level 16 and we’re off to the dragons and bounties.

Must have equipment for dragons:

-Ryona’s breast plate – for monks this gives disciplined barrage (+20 accuracy), vigorous defense (+20 to all defense) AND triggered immunity (immunity against certain attacks) when you receive a critical hit. In my opinion when used by a monk, this armor becomes the best armor in the game hands down. You can get the armor on the northwest of the Alpine dragon map. Because the dragons’ fear auras will nearly always crit you every 30 seconds or so, you essentially have constant +20 accuracy and +20 defense. However, you would have immunity because of...

-Steadfast sword- 25% chance to cast champions boon on kill (+10 might, +10 perception), immunity to frightened and terrified. This sword is a must have for the alpine dragon and llengrath, without this sword, the dragon fights would be very difficult and you would have to spam immune to fear scrolls.

-We toki battle axe, crits inflict prone. I picked this battle axe because the sword and the axe fall into the same +6 accuracy bonus talent group.

Key Talents:

Torments reach, long stride, turning wheel, iron wheel, rooting pain.
Key Boss fights:

Adra dragon:

The key here is the adragans, we can easily take Adra dragon 1on1 if it wasn’t for petrified by the adragans. So get long fist (this makes your attacks ranged). And engage Adra dragon head on, however pick off any adragans that come close with the long fist. Adra dragon should be dead in no time if you do this.

Alpine dragon:

At the beginning of the fight, position yourself so the alpine dragon is behind the trash mob, and try to take out as many spirits and ice blithes when the dragon can’t attack you. Once that’s done, just engage him and is an easy fight with ryona’s plates and steadfast since terrify and fear auras now only buffs you rather than debuff.

Llengrath:

I never had to reload fights until I got to llengrath, I have to admit I reloaded a few times here before my hp dropped to zero because of Turisulfus. The strategy here is to run around and pick off llengrath first, and then trash mobs and leaving only the two dragons left. However, do not engage turisulfus (he will one or two shot you). Run around in a way that gafonercos is in the front with turisulfus behind him and use torments reach whenever possible so it hits both dragons. By the time gafonercos is dead, turisulfus should be close and you can try to finish him off carefully with hp > 300, if your out of pots at this point your going to have to kite him using a ranged weapon until hes dead. And make sure to get the beast camping bonuses so you have +15 accuracy against beasts.

Magran’s Faithful:

I had to use a use a arquebus and kite around the map in a circle and pick them off one by one. Took about twenty minutes but doing it any other way would have been too risky.

Thaos:

Thaos is already a joke by the time you beat llengrath. Just pot up and try to split the statutes, although I didn’t have to. I killed the first woedica statute and accidentally killed Thaos too fast before killing the second statute and the game bugged out and froze after killing all the enemies, but after reloading it was fixed.

Overall, I only found the llengrath fight to be hard. For anything else if you follow the script (always use consumables, camping bonuses, negate major debuffs) it shouldn’t be too hard. All the little things really do add up in this game.

Wow! Now that IS a strategy guide! I'm currently soloing a monk, so this is really handy, cheers!