Going with the old-school combo. Now I've never successfully gotten a Sun Paladin to the East. Thus far, I haven't made it out of the starter dungeon because I keep opening up a vault on the last level and getting one-shot. Attempt #3 on its way...
And #3 went down in precisely the same way. I can clear all of the vaults except for the Skeleton Master Archer and I don't have enough escapes to flee. Sigh... I probably will have to skip it on my next attempt.
Edit: Made it to level 18 and died in a vault in the halfling's lair. I was killed by a luminous horror (just the normal one, so radiant?), which is somewhat ironic given that I had 60% light resistance and 33% light affinity. Killed me in four turns.
I really hate fighting against Sun Paladins and yet... when I play them, they're so, so, so fragile and so little damage. Oh well, I guess I just need to learn...
Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): Accidentally invalidated
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Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): Accidentally invalidated
Last edited by Delmuir on Tue Dec 14, 2021 6:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane)
Okay, what the hell?
Everything going smoothly...in the old forest and some netherworm out of nowhere does this:
Greater Weapon Focus, multiply, multiply, phase door, heartseeker, greater weapon focus, dazes me, performs another critical strike, and then another greater weapon focus. This all happens before I see him or do anything.
Life #2 was more of the same but he cut through my suncloak and my second life in one turn. WTF?
What the hell just happened?
Everything going smoothly...in the old forest and some netherworm out of nowhere does this:
Greater Weapon Focus, multiply, multiply, phase door, heartseeker, greater weapon focus, dazes me, performs another critical strike, and then another greater weapon focus. This all happens before I see him or do anything.
Life #2 was more of the same but he cut through my suncloak and my second life in one turn. WTF?
What the hell just happened?
Last edited by Delmuir on Wed Dec 08, 2021 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): so squishy!
Welcome to Insane!
Step One: Redux
Step Two: Paradox Clone
Step Three: Watch game go insane.
Step Two: Paradox Clone
Step Three: Watch game go insane.
Re: Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): so squishy!
First efforts with a Sun Paladin but I've been here before... but not with melee classes. I just don't play them on Insane.
Currently, I have a level 25 Sun Paladin using sword and shield and I'm thinking of picking up the Avatar of the Distant Sun evolution prodigy IF I can manage to get Fearscaped and survive. Overall, it's going well on this run. I've taken down the Weirding Beast and I've largely avoided serious trouble. I went into my vault to see if I had anything useful and... sadly, not really. I pulled out the Temporal Rift shield but it doesn't appear that useful.
I need a way to reduce the black cooldown but I don't play enough shield-bearers to know if there's any way to go about doing that.
Update: Got Fearscaped and managed to pick up the Avatar of the Distant Sun class evolution. It's awesome. I have Radiance which now hits for 50 (mind you, I'm only on level 25) damage every turn within range 8 and dazes or blinds at 40% chance. Also, I'm now using a two-handed weapon with a shield and... finally having a good shield makes all the difference. I was wrong about Temporal Rift. It's excellent. My block is now absorbs a huge amount of damage. I'm in really good shape now.
Update again: I killed to Horned Horror in the Maze with one block and one use of Assault... 1500 damage later and he was dead. Once your crit rate is reasonably high, block + assault is absolutely murderous.
Update again: In Dreadfell... running like hell on floor 2 from an absolutely murderous skeleton boss level enemy with, of course, Greater Weapon Focus and two nasty gap-closers, and brawler abilities. I barely survived our first encounter.
More Updates: Killed the Master and survived the Ambush, easily. There was actually a Vampire Lord Boss on the same floor as the Master who took longer to kill. He also had Necro skills. Never took down that floor 2 boss. He just does way, way, way too much damage. I did pick up the Guardian category, which is pretty "meh," but Crusade is solid. It's not a bad category but all of my best damage skills are Shield abilities that use stamina or Wave of Power, and the sustain costs really mitigate the value of Shield of Light.
My primary weakness right now is mobility. I don't have rush (though I do have gear that I'm not wearing that has it if I need it) and I really don't have a good escape. I'm using two shielding runes but I don't think I need one of them any longer so I'll probably throw on a teleportation or, if I can find one, a controlled phase rune (or whatever it's called).
And finally, the Celestial/Light tree, which has been nerfed endlessly, is finally... meh. The heal is weak. The shield is weak. Providence is okay but requires a lot of investment. It used to come with a small heal, which in my opinion, it still should. Then there's Bathe in Light... it's okay but I mostly used it to keep escorts alive. If it refreshed the duration of a stormshield rune, that'd be amazing and overpowered but my point is simply that it's just easier to kill an enemy than waste a turn casting it, and precasting it doesn't grant nearly enough of a benefit to justify the investment. I really think it's now a credibly overrated category.
Next up: level 42, back from the East to kill back-up guardians, and now I need to pick my second prodigy. I already have Avatar of the Distant Sun (it's solid but I doubt the best choice) and I'm looking at Aether Permeation (to protect my precious sustains) or Arcane Might (more power) or the thematic Irresistible Sun (honestly, I've never taken it because it looks horrible). There's also Cauterize, Spine of the World, Etheral Form, and even Eternal Guard and I can carry the world.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Currently, I have a level 25 Sun Paladin using sword and shield and I'm thinking of picking up the Avatar of the Distant Sun evolution prodigy IF I can manage to get Fearscaped and survive. Overall, it's going well on this run. I've taken down the Weirding Beast and I've largely avoided serious trouble. I went into my vault to see if I had anything useful and... sadly, not really. I pulled out the Temporal Rift shield but it doesn't appear that useful.
I need a way to reduce the black cooldown but I don't play enough shield-bearers to know if there's any way to go about doing that.
Update: Got Fearscaped and managed to pick up the Avatar of the Distant Sun class evolution. It's awesome. I have Radiance which now hits for 50 (mind you, I'm only on level 25) damage every turn within range 8 and dazes or blinds at 40% chance. Also, I'm now using a two-handed weapon with a shield and... finally having a good shield makes all the difference. I was wrong about Temporal Rift. It's excellent. My block is now absorbs a huge amount of damage. I'm in really good shape now.
Update again: I killed to Horned Horror in the Maze with one block and one use of Assault... 1500 damage later and he was dead. Once your crit rate is reasonably high, block + assault is absolutely murderous.
Update again: In Dreadfell... running like hell on floor 2 from an absolutely murderous skeleton boss level enemy with, of course, Greater Weapon Focus and two nasty gap-closers, and brawler abilities. I barely survived our first encounter.
More Updates: Killed the Master and survived the Ambush, easily. There was actually a Vampire Lord Boss on the same floor as the Master who took longer to kill. He also had Necro skills. Never took down that floor 2 boss. He just does way, way, way too much damage. I did pick up the Guardian category, which is pretty "meh," but Crusade is solid. It's not a bad category but all of my best damage skills are Shield abilities that use stamina or Wave of Power, and the sustain costs really mitigate the value of Shield of Light.
My primary weakness right now is mobility. I don't have rush (though I do have gear that I'm not wearing that has it if I need it) and I really don't have a good escape. I'm using two shielding runes but I don't think I need one of them any longer so I'll probably throw on a teleportation or, if I can find one, a controlled phase rune (or whatever it's called).
And finally, the Celestial/Light tree, which has been nerfed endlessly, is finally... meh. The heal is weak. The shield is weak. Providence is okay but requires a lot of investment. It used to come with a small heal, which in my opinion, it still should. Then there's Bathe in Light... it's okay but I mostly used it to keep escorts alive. If it refreshed the duration of a stormshield rune, that'd be amazing and overpowered but my point is simply that it's just easier to kill an enemy than waste a turn casting it, and precasting it doesn't grant nearly enough of a benefit to justify the investment. I really think it's now a credibly overrated category.
Next up: level 42, back from the East to kill back-up guardians, and now I need to pick my second prodigy. I already have Avatar of the Distant Sun (it's solid but I doubt the best choice) and I'm looking at Aether Permeation (to protect my precious sustains) or Arcane Might (more power) or the thematic Irresistible Sun (honestly, I've never taken it because it looks horrible). There's also Cauterize, Spine of the World, Etheral Form, and even Eternal Guard and I can carry the world.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Re: Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): Less squishy!
I went with Arcane Might as a prodigy, though Spine of the World might have been better. I'm now on floor three of the Vor pride without any mobility other than Path of the Sun and 0 stun/freeze resistance. I'm kind of surprised I haven't died yet because I'm in an iceblock at least half the time.
I'm about to find the Vor pride boss and he's usually the key for me. If I can kill him, winning the game is a cinch. If not, the run ends here.
Update: DOWN goes Vor! I had a Wyrm Bile that I hadn't used yet so I did and used the cat point on the Rune of Dissipation. I don't actually have great shielding runes so it's kind of a miracle I'm still alive.
Update: I really should have disarm immunity... and stun... and... what the hell was I doing on status resistances? I have none to speak of and it's starting to be a problem as I just spent a tough fight being disarmed literally every other turn.
I'm about to find the Vor pride boss and he's usually the key for me. If I can kill him, winning the game is a cinch. If not, the run ends here.
Update: DOWN goes Vor! I had a Wyrm Bile that I hadn't used yet so I did and used the cat point on the Rune of Dissipation. I don't actually have great shielding runes so it's kind of a miracle I'm still alive.
Update: I really should have disarm immunity... and stun... and... what the hell was I doing on status resistances? I have none to speak of and it's starting to be a problem as I just spent a tough fight being disarmed literally every other turn.
Re: Skeleton Sun Paladin (Insane): Accidentally invalidated
Well, somehow I invalidated the game so... I guess I'll just delete it. That's pretty damn frustrating.