Titan Quest dynasty - slow ride through "Legendary" play

[hoopsguy]

Tony, I'm interested in playing multi-player at some point. My schedule stinks right now, but I'm hoping by next week it gets a little more flexible for nights/weekends.

[TonyR]

sounds good. i'll pm you

[hoopsguy]

Quick afternoon session:

We emerge in the Salt Flats again, in a new territory previously unavailable, before quickly crossing over into the Lower Daemon Camp. It is here that we meet Keuthonymos (the guy with a "skin condition") who turns out to be a Neutral Daemon. He tells of an envoy carring an important message to Proseia (didn't we kill here already) who we should intercept and retrieve the message for him.

We encounter an Empusa hero, who drops a quest item named the Frost Stone.

There is a shadewe free from a soul cage who tells a tale of individuals being corrupted in Hades and wonders if the Judges are next. There is another soul cage that we are unable to open (locked by quest).

There is a cavern nearby named the Pools of Mnemosyne, which contains Formacids. A couple of Captains and Priestesses, but mostly Corporals and Soldiers, and they fall quickly.

What is a more interesting encounter is a pack of Machae, the creatures who guarded the caravan earlier. We learn that there are multiple types of Machae, the close-combat guys who hurt us pretty badly last time and their archers, who are smart and move around a lot, making it tough to stand and fire on them when they have numbers. We end up using a few potions to take out a mixed group of eight, while also losing a couple of wolves in the process.

[hoopsguy]

Next up is the Cave of Whispers, which is said to house the Mirror of Psyche (side quest item). The early encounters are with Trogs, including Jailors for the soul cages.

The next round of foes are Albino Spiders, a new enemy. They have some kind of glowing red attack that seems to be magnified if there are more spiders around you when it is launched? Hmm, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this attack in the past. But they seem very weak, so I'm not going to spend much time game-planning them.

What isn't weak is "The Bloated One" - a quest spider hero who traps me, poisons me, and whales on me. Dead quickly. I move some equipment around to get my Stun Resistance resist up to 120 and my Skill Disruption resist up to 72 - not sure if these are what come into play with being held, but I'll try it while sacrificing some DPS and Combined Armor for one fight.

Nope - still held and killed, while only doing minimal damage. I don't think it is the main spider who holds, but instead the six mini ones that are summoned. Strike that idea - it is the big spider who traps us. I need much better poison/piercing resistance to take this on. Three deaths is enough to teach me this lesson now.

I head into the inventory looking for items that will help and take this time to do a little spring cleaning. We recover a couple of charms from items that are outdated, including the Boars Hide to make a minor artifact, Molten Orb.

Molten Orb (lesser artifact)
11 Damage (compared to 10 Piercing)
36 Burn Damge over 3 seconds
+6% Fire Damage (not using a fire attack now, but could help later)
6% Damage Resistance (like it)
5% Fire Resistance (sure)
+8% Attack Speed (compared to 7%)

We lose out on 20% Poison Resistance, which means that I can't swap this out for the spider, as well as +10 Defensive. All in all, the Molten Orb is a better item and will be equipped soon enough.

I'm going to need to scrounge for items, so I'll hold off on advancing until I can get some equipment specifically for this creature.

[hoopsguy]

On a quick experience run, while looking for equipment, we ding 38. Two more points in Dream Mastery and another in Regrowth (up to 440 health healed by this spell). Attribute points to Intelligence and Dexterity.

I move the Molten Orb into equipped status for now because it gives a 35 point jump in DPS.

Health: 3300
Energy: 1096
Strength: 213
Intelligence: 401
Dexterity: 186

Resistances: Fire 23, Cold 45, Electricity 42, Poison 25, Stun 22

DPS: 385
Combined Armor: 312

Health Regeneration: 2.48
Energy Regeneration: 7.86 (took a dip with Lazarus Helm, I think)

Offensive Ability: 219
Defensive Ability: 252
Cast Speed: 110
Run Speed: 122

Gold: 6,280,291
Deaths: 57

Toughest Foe: Charon (fat spider may be moving into this spot)

Best Item: Grim Orb Staff of Rime w/Valor of Achilles
Worst Item: Diogenes' Loop w/Ankh of Isis

[hoopsguy]

So I put in a little research on the Fat Spider, and I'm not happy with what I learned. I don't have much in the way of stun, which seems to be the preferred way to beat this boss. The other strategy is to avoid the webs, which has been something I've struggled with the last couple of times. But I'm at least going to sweep through that area leading up to her and see what I come up with for equipment - if I'm in better shape for a showdown I'll give it another try. If not, this may be the first encounter I intentionally bypass in the game since it is not part of the main quest.

And I do pick up a pretty nice unique set of armor on the way to the Spider.

Occultist's Raiment (unique)
72 Armor (up 20 from current)
39% Pierce Resistance
42% Poison Resistance
+10% Intelligence (down 6% from current)
+341 Energy (highest I've seen with any item, current item is +5%)
+42% Energy Regeneration (up 2% from current)
-10 Reserved Energy Cost
-10% Recharge

Lose out on +58% Health Regeneration. I think I need to make this move and I want the Hydradon Hide from the current item for the +16% Armor Protection, but I hate to destroy that armor.

[hoopsguy]

Upon further review, I can't slot the unique item (duh). Which is a pretty big deal, because I lose out on over 30 points of combined armor making the switch without the +16% Combined Armor. So I'll keep this armor around for the Pierce/Poison benefits, but otherwise it just doesn't stack up to my current set.

So, time to try the spider and see if I can dent her. We'll use a Scroll of Sky's Rage (lightning/stun) and equip my best poison/pierce resist items, including the new set of armor and the old artifact. That gets my poison/pierce ratings up to 67/39; I have not done a good job of stockpiling resistance items in my treasury with this character.

About halfway killed this time - did a better job of avoiding being entangled, was able to use potions more aggressively (before I was entangled), and I think the resists helped. I'll keep at it.

Died again, but I would have had her if I had made better use of Sky's Rage the last time I fought her. That will be my last death to the bloated bitch. Of course, it took three scrolls to beat her, which cost a total of 900K (had three in my inventory already, so wasn't out the money per se).

The reward for defeating her? One item - Mirror of Psyche. I bring it to Eurydice, who learns that Orpheus is indeed imprisoned. She opens a portal for us to go save her man. He is guarded by tougher Cyclops' than the ones we encountered at Olympus - but not much. And there are only two of them. Fittingly enough, Eurydice grants me a scroll of Cyclops to reward me for the rescue.

[hoopsguy]

From here, we run into another batch of Machae, seeing Master Archers for the first time. The Machae are a tough group of foes, probably the first type of monsters I have respected in the game since the Limos early in Act I. Hopefully I outgrow these guys just as I did the Limos.

We cross into the Upper Daemon camp and meet the Envoy, who we are supposed to kill. No problems there, as he is out for blood upon seeing us. He is a Keres hero who has a stun power and a lot of hits, but we are able to take him out without too much strain. So now it is time to backtrack to our Daemon "ally". We have a few battles on the way there, since stuff respawns after exiting the game, but we make our way there in one piece.

We find an interesting staff:

Ker's Fetish (rare)
59 Base Fire Damage
Speed: Very Slow
+27% Fire Damage (wow)
123 Poison Damage over 6 seconds
+11 Strength
+1.3 Energy Regeneration per second
+2 to Volcanic Orb (don't have this)

Not a great fit for me, but a cool item. I wish I could find an item like this enhancing spells I do use.

[hoopsguy]

It takes a little time to backtrack, but we move through the Upper Daemon camp and into an area known as the Vale of Mourning. It is loaded with Odontotyrannus', which basically are free experience for us. Next is Erebus, which looks like a series of stone platforms hovering over pits of fire.

We find the Necromanteion here, which I will attempt to clear out before calling it a day. It is loaded with Keros in the early going, but a Shrine of Mastery near the entrance means that I go very aggressively after them for the duration of the bonus.

The next groups we encounter are Machae; we are a little more cautious with them but overall seem to be finding a groove against this opponent.

The special creature in here is a large undead wolf called Bonescourge. He goes down very easily. Given that he was supposed to have "enormous size and power" I'm a little disappointed. Stuff like Charon and the Fat Spider were soooo much tougher than this thing. We are given a scroll of Sky's Rage for our victory.

We cross into the Far Plains and call it quits for now.

[hoopsguy]

So, I didn't call it quits - I'm getting closer to the end of this game and I'm addicted. I pushed ahead for a little while without updates, here is a brief summary of events:

- picked up Ashes of Titan, applied both skill points to Dream Mastery
- moved on to the Tower of Judgement, which has six levels (I'm on 5th)
- got Level 39
- picked up a killer item that I can't use

Gloves of the Crimson Guard (unique)
108 Armor
+10% Armor Protection (!!!)
47% Fire Resistance
45% Lightning Resistance (I'm generally not finding items in the 40% for resists, let alone two different ones!)
25% chance of 17 Fire Retaliation
+13% Health
+25% Health Regeneration
+40 Defensive Ability
Grant Skill: Heat Shield
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 290 (not even close)

[hoopsguy]

One other item of note - there is a new class of spear-based enemies out there. The rank-and-file are pretty easy, but their captains can hurt us and they also have a spellcaster type. I've been seeing a mix of these guys, the Machae, and the floating spaghetti monsters who poison in the Tower.

It is interesting that I mentioned Limos' a little earlier this morning, as I just encountered the newest version of them on the lowest level of the Tower. These ones have flame-based attacks. Another pack have frost-based attacks - hmm, have they crossed Limos and Emporas? No matter, they still are not very scary at all.

Cerberus waits at the bottom of this level. It looks like he has borrowed from Charon's example, as poison shoots out from the floor to attack us. We will switch to the poison gear for the rematch.

[hoopsguy]

2nd try with Cerberus goes fairly well - we drop a Sky's Rage on him to start the battle and I'm able to stay alive long enough to take away maybe 2/3 of his health. He has a poison area attack in addition to the room poison, so it is absolutely critical to be able to resist poison for this fight. I'm at 70% or so, which is a good start but wish I had a little better.

3rd try - Cerberus is back to full health. And there just isn't room to maneuver in there. He backs me into a corner and I'm more or less a sitting duck. I'm sure I can do better, but this is definitely a tough fight.

4th try - no better. The bosses on this level are really tough for me. I think they are tougher than they were on the other levels, but I'm not 100% sure because it has been quite some time since I first played the game. I knew what to do against them this time (while telling the story) because I had played acts I - III with two other characters.

[hoopsguy]

Tried it with a scroll to summon a Cyclops, along with another scroll to increase my attack speed. No major difference.

Next - Sky's Rage + Cyclops + Frailty. If this doesn't do it, then I'm not sure where I go from here. Only problem is that I can't find Sky's Rage. Seeing as how my best run involved the use of this skill, I want it for the fight.

No dice here either - I'm going to have to improve the poison resist. I don't want to fight him again until I'm capped on poison resistance.

[hoopsguy]

It has been many levels since it last happened, but my faith in merchants has been restored. I finally found a new ring.

Aristotle's Jewel (rare):
+18% Intelligence (up 6%)
+6% Energy (push)
I swap ou the charm for extra health in exchange for one that gives +25% Vitality Damage and Stun Resistances, as well as +50% damage to demons. That should be extremely helpful for the remainder of Act IV, if the first 70% of the expansion pack is to be trusted.

The bump in Intelligence takes that attribute up to 435 and my DPS to 398. Good times.

Poor system performance forced a restart of the PC. That was not why I was losing to Cerberus, but it certainly wasn't helping matters at all.

[hoopsguy]

We go back to an old helm which moves the Poison Resist up to 80%, which is as good as it gets.

And it works - barely! I get trapped near the door, which means that I can't move around attacks, but it also means that the poison floor doesn't come into play. It seems like I'm on the last 20% of my health for the 2nd half of the battle, but Cerberus never kills my nymph and I keep slugging potions and casting heal spells, while mixing in attacks. The battle is pretty fast and very brutal. Glad to have it behind me.

[hoopsguy]

The path is clear to the Hall of Judgement, where we see the three judges. They tell us that they were trapped here. We learn that Hades is responsible for the unrest we are seeing; he has an army laying seige to Elysium right now. He was trying to take advantage of the assault on Olympus by the Titan. Elysium is doomed, unless we can save their heroes as the blind prophet (Elysius) has predeicted. The judge opens a portal to Elysium for us and tells us to seek Agamemnon, the leader of the Elysian forces.

Tiresius is waiting for us in Elysius. He tells us that the battle must be taken to Hades, but none of the shades may enter his palace without his express permission. So it looks like that is where we come in.

Agamemnon tells us that the battle cannot be won here; Hades must be stopped. Odysseus leads the shade forces. He will help us gain entry into the impenetrable city, as he did Troy before (remember the horse?).

[hoopsguy]

Our first battle here finds the spearmen that we encountered in the Tower. They give us the last relic piece we need to make an artifact.

Sunstone:
+10% Damage
+10% Fire Damage
+10% Vitality Damage
25% Fire Resistance
25% Skill Disruption Protection
+18 Dexterity

With no speed bonus this just knee-caps DPS, bringing it down 60 points. So I don't see using this except potentially to create a better artifact later. I puchase the last bit of storage area with the Caravan and stow the artifact there.

We are asked to take down the Siege Striders - five in number - who have caused great harm to the shade army.

We meet Nestor, who asks us to take a message to Ajax in the Delian Meadows. They need him to reinforce other troops who would otherwise be overrun.

We see our first Siege Strider, which bears some resemblence to the war elephants in LOTR. The shoot fire, which is not our best resistance, but we are able to take down our first without too much hassle. We manage to take three of them down before meeting our first death in Elysium, to a large party of spearmen.

[hoopsguy]

By far my favorite thing about Elysium is that there are shades taking the battle to the daemons throughout the land. Not everywhere - we are still doing the heavy lifting - but there is an actual resistance to the invading forces.

Ajax asks me to help support Menelaus at the Achean Pass, as he does not have men to spare. We are actually given a group of four men to join us! We head northwest into the Delian Caves to see if we can root our foes here - of course, that isn't what Ajax and Nestor have requested, but we are free spirits that way.

We lose our escort by the time we exit the cave. No great surprise, but it was interesting having the extra archers along for the ride. There are FSM's and albino spiders (no fat queens) in the cave and we clean it out with vigor.

Next stop - Elysian Acropolis, where the battle rages between shades and Empusas + spearmen. We find more of the fire-spitting eliphant creatures here. They are a real pain when mixed in with other attackers.

We make it through the Acropolis and find Menelaeus. As we talk to him a massive assault party comes in and we struggle to fend them off. We need to ask Menelaeus to fly the flag to rally the troops. We need to keep the monsters away for a spell, which is nearly impossible as they are endless and tough. The spearmen attack at close range and Empusa fire away from long range - they attack both us and the flag. So even if we defeat all of them the flag falls. We need better crowd control spells to take control of this battle - the pets are just not getting the job done.

[hoopsguy]

So the "defend the flag" mission is pretty much impossible - I'll likely have to reload and see if we can pull it off with the full complement of men that are at the start - just didn't know that was the goal when the initial siege took place. But the 10+ failed efforts to do this mission have resulted in the ground being covered with items and in Level 40.

Two more points to Dream Mastery, which is now up to 28/32. One point goes towards Heart of Oak (10/12).

Health: 3448
Energy: 1149
Strength: 220
Intelligence: 446
Dexterity: 194

Resistances: Fire 23, Cold 45, Electricity 42, Poison 5, Vitality 25, Stun 47

DPS: 403
Combined Armor: 312

Health Regeneration: 1.58
Energy Regeneration: 8.31

Offensive Ability: 228
Defensive Ability: 261

Cast Speed: 127
Run Speed: 139

Gold: 7,042,726
Deaths: 89 (ugh)
Toughest Foe: Cerberus - Warden of Hades (agree)

Best Item: Grim Orb Staff of Rime w/Valor of Achilles (beginning to wonder if I'll ever replace this)
Worst Item: Molten Orb (best of three artifacts, but getting ready to move up towards Greater Artifacts)

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

We find a quest item - a Jade Figurine - in a cave in the Jingyang Woods. I have found this with three of my characters now and never been able to associate it with a quest so I can get rid of this item

Just reached village of Zhidan myself, could this be what your looking for? didn't see it mentioned looking back in your dynasty.

Spoiler

Quest:



Not sure because I'm just about to boot up the game to head out of the village now.

Here's where I found it/him:



You need to talk to him twice to actually get the quest.

Edit: yep, he is the one for the figurine.

[hoopsguy]

Good to know that I've been clueless three times instead of there being a worthless quest item floating around I'll probably teleport back there at some point to unload the item so it stops clogging up my inventory.

By the way, for the people who are now playing TQ - how do your characters stack up by level with my accounting? Are they much more/less powerful? Along the same lines? If there are big differences, do you think that is by virtue of your choices with skills or items that you have found?

A secondary reason for doing this dynasty effort is to have it serve as a reference point for a future game. I enjoy replaying this enough that I'm pretty certain I'll have another character past the Colossal Squid

[Eilim]

Funny thing is, thats my favorite thing about this dynasty, (and how I caught that quest when I did) I'm constantly checking to see how I "stack up" with your character.

I'd say up until level 10 or so, you were well ahead of me as far as dps, but I had the slight edge on health. After that I lucked out and seemed to go on a a lucky streak as far as green and blue drops and tended to stay somewhat ahead of your power curve from then on.

One thing I did run into, and I should have took more to heart from reading your thread and your thought process on gear (which is a *great* part of the dynasty I must say.) was I got too narrowly focused. I pretty much went all Strength and HP as far as gear, At the expense of all else. Now this wasn't a problem, atleast not apparent to me until recently.

I had been pretty much the lawnmower man with my Defender fully utilizing the shield charge line to take down casters/heavy hitters quickly, then just stand in the middle of the leftovers and laugh while chopping them down quickly. When I finally went the Warden route, I respecced most of the points out of the charge line, leaving just the single points for the quick in-battle movement and relying on the health and attack percs with the new mastery coupled with my at the time insane str and hp to get me through.

This worked fine until I got to the tiger duo-leaders, caster, assorted melee groups and the draconian caster and hero groups. My weakness... stuns.. Up until that point I could cut down casters quick enough they played little role in any fight. Even in the early single caster/leader versions of these I was fine. But two leaders, planting those damn flags.. All it took was the caster not to go down in one strike and I was done.. too make matters worse, sometimes even when they went down in one strike they seemed to release their damn lighting/stun spell upon death.. Which with two leaders, usually 2 or 3 melees or archers.. and that damn flag down, I just couldn't recover from the stun unless I want to wait a few minutes between every fight for colossus to pop.

After getting up to that point with only 2 deaths, both because of mis-clicks on my part... then dying 3 times in a short span, not from any dumb mistake, just from getting my ass owned, pure and simple. I finally learned I need to make some changes, and realized it was for the best as from everything I've read resists are a huge part at the next two difficulty levels. Worse part is, even though I have to admit I cried when my strength dropped below 700, and my health was no longer 4500... When all was said and done.. Even with at the time I think 590 str.. I ended up with more dps, 80% stun resist, and about 350 more armor points. Oh, and I think I boosted my energy a few hundreds points and got 50% increase in energy regen I didn't have before.

Oops.. guess I went a bit off on a ramble off the subject there. Sorry about that. Happens when I have this much fun with a game.I'm off to play some more. I don't know whether to thank you for bringing my attention to such a great game... or hate you for giving yet another game I'm hopelessly addicted too.

[hoopsguy]

Heh - I know the addiction feeling well. I'm tempted to take my Defender for another run, as it was the build I was playing before this one. He is stuck at Typhos, but I think I would fare a little better with some of the loot I've stashed for him

But first things first - the Squid has got a date with Hades.

[hoopsguy]

The enemies come in three groups - it appears that the first time I tried I got nailed on the third wave. This time we held, although it cost all of the shades in the process. When I tried to re-do it I was never making it past the first wave.

Wave 1 - spearmen and pyromancers
Wave 2 - throw in a couple of fire elephants
Wave 3 - same as Wave 1, but with some elite spearmen in the mix

Happy to have that quest behind me.

[hoopsguy]

There are a pair of bridges; we choose the one on the left and enter Celestia to find shades battling Formicids. Lots of Priestesses here along with a fire trap. The Cave of Apollo is here and loaded with albino spiders. I've found these spiders much easier than the ones that troubled me back in Asia.

There is a large building called the Academy of Sophocles. It is in ruins and empty. We cross it and enter the Fields of the Diadochi. But before moving ahead, there were some areas behind us that require a little further investigation ...

There is a cave named for Artemis that holds Epiales (Flying Spaghetti Monsters) - a lot of them - along with a smattering of albino spiders. There are several rare items in chests at the back of this cave. However, the "yellow dot" indicating a special encounter that I saw is not reachable - must get to double back around after advancing through Diadochi.

[hoopsguy]

A merchant has a staff that is almost as good as our current one - also a Staff of Rine that delivers more damage but is slower. There is a difference of 41 points on DPS, which I don't think would be entirely made up by the 12% Attack Speed by moving the relic. Close, but no cigar. Maybe the 33 cold damage relic + the 19% cold damage would offset it ... nah. When I switch I'm looking for a clear-cut decision.

There is a shimmering purple field in the fields here. I'll explore around it before trying to cross it. Around it are a number of Furies, which are one of the creatures who basically can't hope to defeat us. But there is no quest, no Odysseus, nothing that talks about entry into this area. Hope there are no issues crossing into the purple zone ...

Nope, worried over nothing. The biggest problem is visibility, as it is a little dark. There are a number of Melinoe (spearmen) here, and we hear the sounds of heated battle in the distance. The battle continues with Machae and another war elephant - those guys are a load when I don't have my fire protection buffed (separate set of armor when I know they are coming).

We emerge in the Eronian Highlands, which look tough from the outset. There is a nice blending of Machae and traps and we are losing wolves left and right. This is when the game is fun for me - when I have to move slowly through well designed encounters.

[hoopsguy]

We find a nice set of boots that we won't be able to use anytime soon - like ever.

Proioxis (rare)
114 Armor
28% Fire Resist
+17% Movement
Required Strength: 319 (99 points away)

And another ring upgrade at the merchant. Minor, but I'll take it:

Aristotle's Jewel of Acuity (rare):
+22 Intelligence
+19% Intelligence (up 1%)
+6% Energy (push)

That translates to a 33 point jump in Intelligence and an extra 13 points for DPS. I don't even have to pay for the relic transfer as I have an identical one sitting around in my inventory.

[Eilim]

Quick little interuption of this dynasty.. to report..

Eilim death count: from 5.. to 10 in about a 15 minute span. Typhon just owned me... and all my future children.

Time for some more respeccing and checking the vault for some possible gear changing and relic swapping.

I do have to say this though, he's a pretty sweet looking monster, when I start working on my custom modules I see him and variations of him making quite a few appearances.

[hoopsguy]

Heading east, and then drifting south, we move into Argolis. And there is a large troop of shades in battle here, led by Menestheus, King of Athens. They are looking to create a diversion of Odysseus. There is a Melinoe blood queen in camp nearby who has command of the area. Their mission is to destroy the queen in very public fashion to create space for Odysseus to operate. Looks like we are on the job now.

This area is just swarming with high-ranking spearmen, who definitely cause challenges for us. The good news is that we have an army escorting us, so we don't have to confront them head to head. The bad news is there are a bunch of them and they eventually converge on us. One death before getting through and our escort is lost. There were 4-5 of the higher-ranking spearmen in total.

When we face the Melinoe queen we learn that it is a spellcaster, which works much better for us. We are able to dispatch her without too much trouble.

Our merchant in Elysium continues to have interesting items.

Hallowed Wreath (rare):
54 Armor
49% Vitality Damage Resistance
+1.0 Health Regeneration per second
+23% Energy Regeneration
+1 to all skills

I'm tempted to take this one for a spin, even if it does mean giving up a bit of Combined Armor. +1 to all skills is pretty damn nice.

[hoopsguy]

We see our first soul cages in some time here in Argolis. And another 2-pack of senior spearmen. This is a recipe for disaster for us - they hit hard and run fast which makes it hard to elude and drink potions.

We learn that Hades cannot rule daemons when they make their way to the living lands. Thus he created five shards of Erebus to control them. If we are able to shatter the five shards that will mean Hades cannot lead his army. Hmm, this is pretty convenient. The shards are in the palace and obviously will be guarded. Perhaps by the people mentioned next ...

Hades has three Machae annoited as leaders, imbued with his own power. Dysnomion - general of nightmares. Makeria general of wretched death. Trophonios - general of darkness. These generals have powers to rival Titans.

Odysseus does indeed have a way to gain entry. Persephone will help us, if we are able to free her.

[hoopsguy]

We advance past Odysseus' camp and reach the Palace Wall. Here we find a secret passage. Welcome to the Palace of Hades. We hear sinister laughter in the background - haunting familiar to that of Typhos when we were at Olympus.

And there is a reason for that. We meet "Undead Typhos"!!! I didn't have nearly enough potions to deal with him, but he was not nearly as challenging as last time around. He has an attack to hold, as well as another area attack, but nothing that is as deadly as last time around where everything he did cut 50+% of our health. I had five potions, and they were enough to take Typhos down to about 40% health. Time to get supplies and see if he is fully healed.

[hoopsguy]

Twelve potions was the magic number for Typhos in the rematch - about 30 less than the live version when I was five levels behind where I'm at now. Nice trick, Hades.

Persephone awaits. She says that she wanted to depart with Hades, along with the rest of the gods, but he saw this as an opportunity for conquest. So he chained Persephone, hoping that she would join him after he is triumphant. Although we have freed her, she is powerless to stop him. Hades does not think he can fall before a mortal, but it is my lot to overthrow him.

The next area is named The Dark Processional. We also find the final teleportation chamber - so we are clearly close to the end of this Act.

Nothing of note here - a few Melinoe (spearmen) - and we advance to the Aidonean Propylon. Whatever that means. After clearing through a fleet of Melinoe we see a new foe, a new magical statue with a name that is close to Gigantic. He died too fast for me to collect it.

Gigantes - we ran into three of them the next time around, so had more time to get the name. Either way, nothing that scary as we set them down with minimal effort. However, it is a different story for their higher ranking guy who has an area attack that blasts our pets and finishes me off pretty quickly as well. Wow.

[hoopsguy]

I honestly don't know how to beat that thing without a scroll - it sends attack waves out with great range that do massive damage and fires them very quickly. So time to equip the scrolls - Sky's Rage to hold him seems like an option.

We find a battle marker and go in for another round - nope, and that is death #100 for the game. God, prior to Typhos at the end of Act III I wasn't finding much of anything that could drop multiple deaths on us. I'm clearly going to need to do some tinkering with my character in the near future to try and address some of the shortcomings. But I don't know if I can address single-shot damage and crowd control, both of which are concerns.

It looks like the enemy can only shoot those attacks every 10 seconds or so, after blasting them off in rapid succession. So that is the way to beat him - get him to use his ranged area attack, then deliver a lot of damage to him. Hard, very hard. After we get past him we enter the Court of Kouloures.

[hoopsguy]

We find the first shard, and it is not very well guarded at all. Nor does it take much damage to blow it up.

I've got a new monster charm that I would like to use.
Fury's Heartblood:
35 Vitality Damage
+8% Attack Speed
Can enchant all weapons

Back to the Palace, we pass through a set of doors into the Winding Descent. And there is another tough Gigantes here - hopefully we learned a little bit from last time out.

Nope - that attack is just illegal and reloads faster than I recall. Maybe if I had a power that took away his energy? But he still fired it with only 20% or so energy left. I give up - I'm destined to die over and over again to these guys every time I fight them.

We have to keep these guys at range - that is about the only strategy that allows the Squid to fight this thing. Watch him fire a couple of times, hope that the timing is right, and engage. Pets are worthless, as they die to the AOE attack instantly.

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

We hear sinister laughter in the background - haunting familiar to that of Typhos when we were at Olympus.

And there is a reason for that. We meet "Undead Typhos"!!!

oh god... Do we really have to fight him again? (sobs in corner)

Anyways... about 30+ health pots later, and the same for energy with two fodder cyclops thrown in for good measure.

Spoiler

[hoopsguy]

We find another higher-level Gigantes that blasts fire. He is much more manageable. Maybe I just need to figure out the damage type that the other guy is firing - it isn't fire/cold/electric/poison and I don't think it is vitality. Not bleeding, not piercing. So what the heck is it? Anyone who has played ahead and knows the answer, I would love to know.

We meet the first of the three generals - Dysnomion. He fires a bow that does poison damage. These guys are right in my wheelhouse. It costs about 10 potions and a bunch of wolves, but we take him down on the first try. Next.

Hopefully neither of the other two generals are those damn Gigantes with the wave attack.

[hoopsguy]

The general doesn't guard anything back here. Kind of strange.

As you would expect for an area named "The Winding Descent" I'm heading down a series of stone stairways. At the bottom is a doorway leading to the "Prison of Souls". We fight back a group of Albino Spiders to see a pair of locked jail cells holding shades.

Lots of spiders, but the 2nd of the generals is guarded by a ton of Machae, who swarm us. We fight well, but are overwhelmed by numbers and by ranged attacks that I believe came from the general. Our second look reveals that the foe is Trophonius, and he hits harder than his partner. I think he is delivering Vitality damage.

Upon further review, it looks like he deals out some burn damage - as we are taking damage after the fact at a rapid rate. Yeah, this guy is quite a bit tougher than the other general. But still nothing close, in terms of challenge, to the damn Gigantes lieutenants.

[hoopsguy]

We continue to descend deeper into the Palace, now to the Polis Daemonai. Here we find a third general, who has an attack that sleeps and drops us in poison. Nasty - but if we can avoid it then I don't see much that scares me.

I'm less than impressed by the treasure offered up by the generals - not even green items and not many yellows. Junk.

We defeat the Warden, who is in fact a Gigante hero with a ranged attack. But it does not destroy us the same way as the other creatures do, and we are able to grind it out, minus the pets. He releases a key that allows me to open all the cells that I've been passing. Beyond the Warden's area, we locate the second shard and blow it to smithereens.

There is an Empusa hero who presents some challenges, using the area attack that I saw with Typhos - sucking away health and energy. That is a pet killer and it is forcing me to retreat as well. There is an amulet available at the shop that offers 57% Energy Leech Resist - think I'll take this one for a spin during this battle. 190K is a fair price for this when I'm at 7.5 million.

And it doesn't matter that much - the range attack still sucks away massive health and energy no matter whether I have the amulet on or not. Enter a Sky's Rage - basically my fall-back option when I'm struggling with a creature - and it is game over. We collect a Soul Stone, to match the Frost Stone and Venom Stone collected earlier in Hades. But for what?

[hoopsguy]

Beyond the Empusa hero is a doorway to a new region known as the Crystalline Stellae. Sparks of electricity make their way across our path between crystals - we try not to be there when the sparks are flying. But we do find an unguarded shard. Three down. Make that four down, as another unguarded shard sits very close by. One to go.

We step into the throne room, which locks behind us. Enter Hades. On our first go we take away about half of his health before falling to a slow one-shot attack. It is a very long walk back to face him.

[hoopsguy]

When Hades raises his hand to cast the one-shot attack it is pretty similar to the Typhos attack - optimal time to assault him.

I don't think he is that tough, but there isn't a ton of room to maneuver. Maybe I'm just being impatient, because his health seems to be disappearing quickly enough, but the one-shot has gotten me three times now. He also summons a black circle that chases us around and does a lot of health damage if it catches up - which it can if his damage/sleep attack works.

So the next time I'm patient, and learn that Hades is like frigging Charon - multiple lives. His second iteration is kind of a spirit-like form that throws cold attacks out there. He wins when I'm through my 45 potions. Coming with 100 for next time

[hoopsguy]

21 potions for the rematch, as he was still in his frost form. Almost all area attacks, making the pets worthless, but not too much trouble to stick and move against his attacks. And boosting up the cold resist to 80% prior to the battle helped, I'm sure.

Persephone congratulates us on our victory and names us Godsbane. The gods leave the afterlife in the hands of human judges and pronounces this the age of man. We get a nice experience bump and a decent amount of loot from the battle. We get a quest item called the Overlord - no idea what this does.

I notice that there has already been a ding against my restistances - this happens as you move up a level in difficulty.

So, I'm done with the Normal level of difficulty at Level 40. I've died 119 times along the way, which is an amazing amount more than I expected to see. It took over 90 hours of play to get to this point, although I'm sure it was slowed by a few hours while typing these accounts. And Hades does indeed show up as the toughest foe I've slain.

[hoopsguy]

Beginning Epic play - time for a character close-up.

Colossal Squid:
Level 40 Ritualist
Health: 3448
Energy: 1213
Strength: 220
Intelligence: 479
Dexterity: 194

Resistances (these are really ugly and have to be addressed):
Fire -17, Cold 5, Electricity 2, Poison -35, Piercing -40, Vitality 50, Stun 72

DPS: 427
Combined Armor: 312

Health Regeneration: 1.58
Energy Regeneration: 8.64

Offensive Ability: 228
Defensive Ability: 261

Cast Speed: 127
Run Speed: 139

Greatest Damage Dealt: 1039
Gold: 6,885,875
Deaths: 119

Helmet: Lazarus Helm

Rings: Insulated Engraved Ring of Frost w/Demons Blood and Aristotle's Jewel of Acuity w/Demons Blood

Weapon: Grim Orb Staff of Rime w/Valor of Achilles

Armor: Priestess's Vestment w/Hydradon Hide

Bracers: Insulated Armlet of the Gryphon w/Herakles' Might

Leggings: Priestess's Leggings w/Hydradon Hide

Amulet: Medallion of the Lynx (empty slot)

Artifact: Molten Orb

[hoopsguy]

Level 41 comes in on the road to Sparta. Nothing much to report here - Epic is very easy so far. I'm expecting to swap out a bunch of equipment in the near future, as the stuff in the first store looks considerably better than what we now have. Just looking for stuff that actually fits well - so far that hasn't been the case.

There are new versions of relics/shards that are incompatible with the old ones. So I have a bunch of that stuff that I can basically unload when I'm tired of looking at it.

Level 41 - two points on Dream Mastery, now up to 30/32. We invest a point in Sands of Sleep to get an area attack spell. Attribute points to Intelligence and Dexterity - will be interesting to see just how many more points I want to spend on Strength/Dexterity once I'm done with Dream Mastery. I may start putting all points into Intelligence.

Other info is very similar to the last post, so I'll hold off until Level 42 to post character updates.

[hoopsguy]

On a totally unimportant note, I've decided that now is a good time to change Tunic colors. So the Colossal Squid is now sporting a black toga underneath the armor.

And here is the first unique item of Epic:

Charon's Funeral Wrappings (unique):
96 Armor (44 better than current, 23 w/charm)
22% Elemental Resistance (4 better than current)
45% Life Leech Resistance
+21 Intelligence
+21% Energy Regeneration (1% better)
+14% Movement
+14% Energy Absorbtion from Attacks

I like it - just wish I could slot it.

[hoopsguy]

It takes all of one potion to take out the Centaur - so far Epic has been a breeze and the terribly low resistances have not reared their head. I know that will not last ...

So I found an item that costs almost 2 million to purchase - and it is a marginal improvement item. Can't pull the trigger for that kind of money without it being clear-cut.

Overall I've added potions since starting Epic while adding the equivalent of one level of experience. I'm expecting the level of difficulty to kick up, but I'm not sure at what point I'll start to feel a sense of fear.

[hoopsguy]

We buy a new amulet for 900K:

Dreadful Beads of Clout (rare):
+71% Bleeding Damage (not used)
+26% Cold Damage
+62% Vitality Damage (do a little)
+30 Strength (may help with equipping items)

Impact - DPS up 7 points, new items available potentially due to strength increase.

And we also complete our first Epic charm:

Epic Boar Hide:
20 Armor
Completion Bonus: +9% Armor Protection
Can enhance all armor

Keeper.

I had forgotten how far Megara and Sparta are from each other. I'm getting tired of porting back to Sparta with my loot. We roll right through the area where the Squid first died - I don't believe I've been under 1,000 health in Epic yet.

[hoopsguy]

And we have a new staff!

Celestial Staff of Torment (rare)
Speed: Slow
64-73 Base Cold Damage
35 Vitality Damage
10% Chance of 4 second Stun
+1.2 Energy Regeneration per second

DPS moves from 424 to 450 and that is without a slotted item. I have a Vitality item that I'm going to slot in this one and see if I can really move this number.

Fury's Heartblood (completed monster charm)
35 Vitality Damage
Completion Bonus: +8% Attack Speed

Wow - DPS moves all the way up to 635!!! I wonder why Vitality damage is scored this way in DPS, compared to other types of damage?

[hoopsguy]

Upon further review, I think the number moved pretty dramatically in part because of my amulet, which has a +62% Vitality Damage number. That, combined with the increased speed for the weapon, must have really shot the DPS into the stratosphere.

Cyclops - untouched, thanks to the new weapon and the Greeks who distract him. That was different. And even more fun that one-shotting demons in the tomb holding the skeleton princes (have rings both slotted with +25% damage to demons on top of new DPS).

The temptation is to get a little reckless with my play, as my damage is higher than I'm used to and our foes have been weak so far. I'm finding myself wading into bigger groups and just slashing away, which is a little dumb. I don't have all that much health, my armor is nothing to write home about, and my resistances suck. Other than that, it seems like a super idea.

I pick up a new item at the store, further lower my resistances. But +20 on DPS and +37 Combined Armor are intoxicating for me until the monsters make me pay a price for my weak resistances.

Bracelet of Speed
+19% Energy Regeneration (-4%)
+24% Attack Speed (+14%)

I lose out on 27% Cold Resist, +22% Elemental Damage, and 5 Elemental Damage but that is offset by the increased speed. And I'm sure I can slot this with something that will mitigate the cold or provide another resist. Or more armor - the Boar's Hide would work for that. But I'll hold off for now to see if I'm going to pay a price on resistances.

[hoopsguy]

Level 42 comes in, and I've final completed Dream Mastery. From here on out the points get to go towards spells. Another point goes towards Sands of Sleep (3/8) - next level I'll be able to impact three targets. I put both points into Intelligence - don't see a compelling reason to spend too many more points on Strength/Dexterity at this point. Maybe some on Dexterity to increase Offensive/Defensive?

Health: 3782
Energy: 1248
Strength: 246
Intelligence: 533
Dexterity: 198

Resistances: Fire -13, Cold -18, Electricity 6, Poison -35, Piercing -40, Vitality 95, Stun 72

DPS: 665
Combined Armor: 375

Health Regeneration: 1.58
Energy Regeneration: 9.29

Offensive Ability: 233
Defensive Ability: 266

Cast Speed: 110
Run Speed: 124

Gold: 7,397,582
Deaths: 119 (and holding)

Best Item: Celestial Staff of Torment w/Fury's Heartblood (amulet is close 2nd)
Worst Item: Molten Orb (weak artifact), with torso armor in the team photo

[Eilim]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

The temptation is to get a little reckless with my play, as my damage is higher than I'm used to and our foes have been weak so far. I'm finding myself wading into bigger groups and just slashing away, which is a little dumb. I don't have all that much health, my armor is nothing to write home about, and my resistances suck. Other than that, it seems like a super idea.

This is what usually gets me. You never know when that unseen uber-Hero or a caster specializing in your one low resist is around the corner just waiting to jump in the fight which sometimes results in the slaughter reversing directions. I just seem to keep forgetting I have that bow second slotted for a reason.