Solo Heart of Fury Experience Level 1 Ironman (SHEL1I) Runs - Undead Hunter
iwdee_fmc_solo
Member Posts: 60
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RUN STATUS - 0 / 1
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Character: Arthas, EL9
Cause of Death: Petrification Trap
Place of Death: Temple of Waukeen (Heart of Winter)
Proficiencies: Flail / Morning-Star 2*, Mace 1*, Longbow 2*, Two-Weapon Style 2*
Notes:
Although he only survived for ~6 Earth hours, Arthas the Undead Hunter did much with the time that he spent alive. Most importantly, he proved that the Undead Hunter has a reliable, and practical path to Heart of Winter by making it there. It is unfortunate that some of the more greedy elements of his supposedly-lawful-good-character led him to wanting to steal from a temple, and ultimately to his demise.
Playing an Undead Hunter was interesting. If I had to grade the class, I would give them a B. Running around shooting arrows at goblins and enemies is too much of a slog at times, but also part of a somewhat-exciting route because the class actually has the tools to deal with enemies in the Vale of Shadows.
General idea is to clear out the crypts until you get to Crypt 3, the one with Therik. They're reliable places to rest so you don't have to go back to Kuldahar every time. Never rest in the Vale, it will eventually spawn a Yeti, and they are stronger than you. Crypt 3 has infinitely-spawning skeletons, as far as I can tell, and a tiny chokepoint where you can take them 1v1, or potentially where 2 will get stuck and you can pepper one down for free.
Most annoying enemies in the Vale are Yetis, Therik, and Ghasts. Therik destroys you so you have to kite him. Best strategy here isn't to try and shoot him down, but to get him to enter a Crypt, and then juke him out, and go back to Kuldahar to rest. This will cause his spawn point to tie to whatever Crypt he entered, and remove him from Crypt 3. Afterwards, I just farmed skeletons in Crypt 3 until I had Level 9. Then I went to Heart of Winter, and presently got myself petrified.
It's easy to point to this as a bad beat, or a bad play (and it was - just stupid greedy), but I think it also reveals a general weakness that non-arcane classes have. Without access to spells like Protection from Petrification, you are sort of at the mercy of making your saves, or having to know what every trap does.
The Undead Hunter was fun, and it has intriguing promise, but I think it's going to be a while before I roll one up again for a SHEL1I run because the early game is a real slog. Six hours to get to Heart of Winter is about the limit of what is reasonable to do, I think. I think what I'll do instead is keep Arthas going, just to see what the route looks like in full.
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INTRODUCTION
Recently, I became very intrigued by the idea of the SHEL1I viability of the Paladin. Like the Ranger, hope for a reliable and practical run lies tantalizingly within sight for the Paladin. All the class has to do is reach EL9, then use HoW to springboard to the point where they can summon.
Unfortunately, the Paladin lacks the tools to reach EL9. Starting the game as a martial class, they can reliably and practically clear Easthaven, but have to skip Orc Cave and Kuldahar Pass. Fortunately, they reach EL6 after Goblin Bridge, so they can reliably, and practically make it to Kuldahar with Sanctuary. Sadly, this is where the Paladin, and most of their kits will flame out.
The one exception is the Undead Hunter. The Undead Hunter has all the tools they need to reliably and practically tackle the VoS, and 4.5 hours into a run I can tell you this for a fact. Lesser Shadows can be fought, Skeletons fall with ease, Yetis can be kited, Crypts can be slept in, and Ghasts can be ran away from. Currently, my character is slumbering soundly in Kuldahar at EL8, with two crypts cleared. Stay tuned for the videos!
Update: He ded, sending da videos
RUN STATUS - 0 / 1
🪦 🌹 🪦
Character: Arthas, EL9
Cause of Death: Petrification Trap
Place of Death: Temple of Waukeen (Heart of Winter)
Proficiencies: Flail / Morning-Star 2*, Mace 1*, Longbow 2*, Two-Weapon Style 2*
Notes:
Although he only survived for ~6 Earth hours, Arthas the Undead Hunter did much with the time that he spent alive. Most importantly, he proved that the Undead Hunter has a reliable, and practical path to Heart of Winter by making it there. It is unfortunate that some of the more greedy elements of his supposedly-lawful-good-character led him to wanting to steal from a temple, and ultimately to his demise.
Playing an Undead Hunter was interesting. If I had to grade the class, I would give them a B. Running around shooting arrows at goblins and enemies is too much of a slog at times, but also part of a somewhat-exciting route because the class actually has the tools to deal with enemies in the Vale of Shadows.
General idea is to clear out the crypts until you get to Crypt 3, the one with Therik. They're reliable places to rest so you don't have to go back to Kuldahar every time. Never rest in the Vale, it will eventually spawn a Yeti, and they are stronger than you. Crypt 3 has infinitely-spawning skeletons, as far as I can tell, and a tiny chokepoint where you can take them 1v1, or potentially where 2 will get stuck and you can pepper one down for free.
Most annoying enemies in the Vale are Yetis, Therik, and Ghasts. Therik destroys you so you have to kite him. Best strategy here isn't to try and shoot him down, but to get him to enter a Crypt, and then juke him out, and go back to Kuldahar to rest. This will cause his spawn point to tie to whatever Crypt he entered, and remove him from Crypt 3. Afterwards, I just farmed skeletons in Crypt 3 until I had Level 9. Then I went to Heart of Winter, and presently got myself petrified.
It's easy to point to this as a bad beat, or a bad play (and it was - just stupid greedy), but I think it also reveals a general weakness that non-arcane classes have. Without access to spells like Protection from Petrification, you are sort of at the mercy of making your saves, or having to know what every trap does.
The Undead Hunter was fun, and it has intriguing promise, but I think it's going to be a while before I roll one up again for a SHEL1I run because the early game is a real slog. Six hours to get to Heart of Winter is about the limit of what is reasonable to do, I think. I think what I'll do instead is keep Arthas going, just to see what the route looks like in full.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTRODUCTION
Recently, I became very intrigued by the idea of the SHEL1I viability of the Paladin. Like the Ranger, hope for a reliable and practical run lies tantalizingly within sight for the Paladin. All the class has to do is reach EL9, then use HoW to springboard to the point where they can summon.
Unfortunately, the Paladin lacks the tools to reach EL9. Starting the game as a martial class, they can reliably and practically clear Easthaven, but have to skip Orc Cave and Kuldahar Pass. Fortunately, they reach EL6 after Goblin Bridge, so they can reliably, and practically make it to Kuldahar with Sanctuary. Sadly, this is where the Paladin, and most of their kits will flame out.
The one exception is the Undead Hunter. The Undead Hunter has all the tools they need to reliably and practically tackle the VoS, and 4.5 hours into a run I can tell you this for a fact. Lesser Shadows can be fought, Skeletons fall with ease, Yetis can be kited, Crypts can be slept in, and Ghasts can be ran away from. Currently, my character is slumbering soundly in Kuldahar at EL8, with two crypts cleared. Stay tuned for the videos!
Update: He ded, sending da videos
Post edited by iwdee_fmc_solo on
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Comments
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
When his superiors heard reports of his exploits, they realized such a man was too valuable to spend on such a task, and immediately recalled him for promotion. His replacement was the young, and promising, but untested, Arthas. Known for his impulsivity, the knight also secretly harbored in his heart an un-Paladin like greed. Will it spell his downfall, or will he master the skeletons in his closet, and forge a trail through Heart of Winter?
Episode 3:
The full saga can be found here!
Playlist:
I imagine so, still I'd give them a solid B, maybe B- for how awful it is to kite Yeti's.
You can get past the prologue, but it seems their power doesn’t scale as fast as the enemies as one progresses through the game. If it got that far, the UH would have to wait to lvl 22 for 5th level spells: 4.2 million xp. If waiting for lvl 6 spells, which is the most powerful cleric spell level for solo, that’s level 29 paladin, or 6.3 million xp. The pally will never get to cast more than 1 such spell per day, meaning it gets one entropy shield or one aerial servant per day, never both.
I was playing a (reverted) Cleric / Ranger these last couple of days, and until I derped and forget to cast Free Action, then died to a Ghast, it was going very smoothly. Wondering when serious obstacles for a strong divine caster would be appearing.
Most traps can be tanked with good saves. And Entropy Shield gives +2 to saves as well as outright blocking projectile traps, which is a good chunk of them.
Transitions seem like a dangerous way to scout given that you can pull the enemy creatures. Crypt 3 in Vale of Shadows is especially dangerous in this regard. Very tight space + in doors => hard to summon and hard to fight for Druid. Leaving is also tough because you have even less space outside, a bad position after transitioning, and not a lot of time before the skeletons transition too, and surround you. Best strategy I found for here was to pre-summon outside (Beetles ftw) then try to get behind my line for calling lightning before I got cornered.
Undead Hunter, on the other hand, should just clear Crypt 1 + 2, go straight to Therik crypt, kite Therik to one of these crypts, and then farm skellies in Therik crypt until 9.
The Druid, or any other character using transitions in the big crypt, does have to know where it and enemies spawn on the other side. The enemies seem to spawn relatively far out, so the character should plan to go north or south, or even tuck in close to the door. Of course one must also place summons appropriately for how one plans to avoid targeting.
And yes, exactly. Summons outside the transition to give the skellies or whatever something to attack, and the Druid just needs to avoid being targeted. If targeted by only one, a Druid can use sunscorch to blind it, then move further away. Blindness resets the targeting mechanism, so as long as the Druid doesn’t subsequently attack and ensures another target is closer, it will be safe. Then its Call Lightning as necessary.
I agree wholeheartedly. Haven't worked out the numbers for UH, but it is a real pain because you can't handle more than 2 - 3 skellies, especially if one has a 2H sword and wants to high roll you with it. Then you gotta run away and reset
Oooh, that's interesting to know, thanks for sharing the knowledge. I've just been trying to micro my guys to get re-targets
All right, I will start a new game right now.
Of course there are "no problems" if you are reloading, and don't care about time.
Even in the Vale of Shadows, the Undead Hunter has plenty of problems. Yetis are a huge problem for a solo Undead Hunter. You can't melee them, and they take forever to shoot down. Therik is another huge problem. In splint mail he hits a munchkin character on a 7, and spending most of your cash on plate mail will only improve this to an 11. He has 50% missile resistance. He's even worse than a Yeti.
Your best bet is to clear Crypts 1 and 2, then kite Therik to one of them. He's slow so you can get him to enter, then head to Kuldahar, and rest at the inn so that his spawn location points away from his original crypt. This allows you to enter it, and farm the respawning skellies inside to EL9.
Heart of Winter is full of XP, if you don't greed for Quinn's stash and get petrified
Gloomfrost:
Dragon's Eye: Post-HoW, you probably have the strongest matchup here of any of the places although Dispel Magic, Traps, the hordes on F2, the hordes on F3, the hordes F4, HoF Yxunomei are all going to clap you.
Don't scare me too much in advance. LoL 😂
In an other solo game, my fighter (high mastery in maces) beats Yetis (1 by 1) in a honest melee. Well, sometimes he loses and I'm obliged to reload. 😉
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/88061/solo-hof-from-scratch-melee-fighter
Lothair, LG human, undead hunter, (18/43)/18/18/9/13/17, shield&sword++, flail/morgenstern++, (crossbow++ at level 6).
Current status: level 4, attracting goblins 1 by 1 in Easthaven. 😉
He's indeed obliged to use a heavy crossbow vs Yetis, it gives THAC0 = 10 and about 30% chance of hitting a Yeti. It's within the limits of my patience so far. 😎
All right and thanks for your interest. 👍
I've completed Kuldahar Pass coming from Kuldahar (or Vale of Shadow). When U come back like that, 30-40 goblins attack U immediately. First trick: let goblin archers exhaust their arrows (2-3 comebacks will be necessary). Second trick: after entering the zone, wait goblins in the narrow path (where only 1-2 of them can attack U). Cast "Protection from the Evil", enter in the melee, kill 1-3 goblins and go rest to Kuldahar (or rather into VoS in order to save money from that greedy innkeeper). Repeat the algorithm. 😉
Entry swarms in VoS caves: enter a cave and return back immediately attracting few skeletons, go to a narrow path (available near each cave) and beat 1-3 skeletons in a direct melee (your paladin should be specialized in a crushing weapon). Go away rest and repeat. Other minor undeads are also beatable in honest 1-to-1 melee (I have cleared 3 caves before going to Lonelywood). 😎
Yeah, I have actually returned to Kuldahar after "completing" the Burial Isle (looting everything without fights, using only Sanctuary). I finally cornered that greedy Aldwin, after presenting him that Eidan's Legacy Ring. Btw, now I have the Cynicism+4 sword finding traps and opening locks.
Current status: level 14, basic AC = -6, using Flail of Mae. Finally, I can go easily in melee with Yetis. I just petrified 4 Yetis in a row (including one who possessed Mirek's heirloom, darn). 😜
N.B. I have also the Girdle of Ogre Blood, summoning 5 Ogres. 😎
N.B. Even Yxi is petrifiable! 🤩
Yes, now the progression seems straightforward until Yxi etc. I will write a report, if something interesting happens. 😉
Also waiting for fights of your solo Cleric/Mage with bosses! 👍