Recommendations

[reesycup]

After dying very early over and over I started an elf archer on normal mode. I got to level 30 and about then I went east. The difference was just insane. Before heading east I was rarely challenged by any group of foes, but when I got to the east the orc patrols made elf pie out of me. How powerful should you be before heading east?

Link to character:

http://te4.org/characters/4017/tome/15a ... 1cc000edf0

[ohioastro]

Crowd control is the key for the archer. You have several tools to immobilize large numbers of foes, and the new stamina refresh arrow is a huge help. Hide behind corners, stun stuff, and use track to know where your foes are.

[shooth]

As a bit of a newbie here myself (have yet to beat the game, but have gotten east a handful of times) I would say 35. The most important bit is that you can get through the orc encounters without dying either by avoiding them (go boots of speed!) or by having some way to get to the exit quickly (control phase, speed, invis, whatever it takes...).

shooth

[Hedrachi]

Yeah, general rule of thumb: Orc patrols in east will generally be much harder than dungeons in east. Gotta hide behind the trees or rocks or whatever in the ambushes if you can't get away from them, or have as many points in CON and the Health talent as is able to TRY and survive, heh. Worked for my ghoul berserker in b21 maybe 3/4ths of the time. Died once or twice to orc patrols but once I came back I cleared the remaining orcs. There's a few threads for suggestions on how to deal with patrols on the minimap (one said you could rest on dungeon tiles until either an elf patrol passes by or you feel readier to deal with the patrol). In general I try to avoid them, but a b21 ghoul ain't gonna do that too well, hah.

[jenx]

If you have permanent high speed, as in Celerity + Armour, you can basically outrun them on the world map and never encounter them.

But faliing that, here are my top tips for orc patrols:

1. Deja Vu or Vision or some way of mapping whole area is very helpful, to know where to hide
2. Controlled phase door is VERY helpful, as you can land in a safe spot
3. Speed is very helpful (boots, movement). Not only for getting where you want, but also for outrunning missiles/spells/etc
4. Invisibility runes are extremely helpful. Basically, they have no idea where you are, and combined with speed and phase door, you can often just walk straight through them.
5. You have to study each orc that you see and look at its hit points, but particularly its monster class. So elite berserkers you don't want to be adjacent to, but archers you do want to be adjacent to. By the time they try getting away you've killed them
6. 100% stun resist is absolutely essential. If they stun you, you'll die straight away. After this, you generally don't want to be confused or blinded either, but these are less critical.
7. Long range damage is essential, either a bow or a spell, or a rune, etc
8. You simply have to be able to deal out BIG damage reliably, so that each orc you approach you can kill in one hit, two or most. So for this reason, I try to level up considerably before going East. On the other hand, when I have a high level character, well into 40s, I just approach them deliberately to fight them, as they often have the best drops. It is not uncommon to get an artifact (once I got two!) or a randart. So when you are ready, they are a cinch.
9. Telepathy helps enourmously. Amulet of greater telepathy I've only found once, and its the best. Otherwise, I find that a combination of helmet and amulet, both with telepathy, gives me the equivalent. I don't know why this works though!
10. I find Tidal Wave (via a ring usually) is very helpful, particularly if you start in a group. Keep it in your kit and equip it on the world map in case.
11. As with all critical battles, shielding + regeneration is normally the way to deal with damage, if your class/race allows them.

[Canderel]

Archers.... Biggest issues are Zerkers, and those mages types.

• Slow motion - gets you away from the spells (just move)
• Make sure stun resist is at 100% (Zerkers) Rogue Plight if it must
• Movement infusions (similar to slow motion, but can get you away from trouble too)
• Fast metabolism
• Track is your first move unless there is someone next to you (movement infusion), or you can see most enemies immediately (in which case you open with shield rune, scattershot)
• Invis, but these are pretty dangerous as we all tend to forget those light sources on
• Not a big fan of phase door/tele or even controlled phase door, but controlled is obviously best of these options.

You should be OK by lvl 30 actually, if you're prepared.

[reesycup]

I survived a few of the orc encounters. The problem was the sheer number of them at once in a fairly open area.

Infusions/runes
Shielding
Wild
Regen
Teleport (Never found a controlled phase door)
Movement

I always tried to scatter shot as soon as possible, put up my shield, then start picking them off.

Should i forgo the wild infusion for something else? I found debuff removal pretty handy.

[Hedrachi]

Should i forgo the wild infusion for something else? I found debuff removal pretty handy.

Depends on what you're playing as and what you're up against. Infusion: Wild isn't going to help much if the orcs or whatever give you something nasty on the very next turn after you've used it. (or the turn after that, if you used a second Infusion: Wild) Very annoying, died on a few chars because of that.