Fresh(L1) HoF players, how did you deal with the Orc Cave?
Zyzzogeton
Member Posts: 526
Specifically, how did you handle the group of archers that all go aggro in the center?
My party of 6 rest-grinded until my Fighter/Cleric got to Level 5 to cast Animate Dead while my solo Sorc picked up Monster Summoning I as their first L3 pick.
My party of 6 rest-grinded until my Fighter/Cleric got to Level 5 to cast Animate Dead while my solo Sorc picked up Monster Summoning I as their first L3 pick.
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Pull the group of orcs with any character who can take a punch or two and walk towards the exit. Place the rest of your characters near the exit beforehand. The orcs will follow you outside when you leave the cave.
Next, try to kill an orc before you get anyone of your party killed. Enter the cave again, the orcs won't follow you. Rest. -> repeat
I I didn't use any summons up until now and I'm using an abridged version of this technique to deal with the crypts in the Vale of Shadows. It's tiresome but viable.
Edit: For those who want to know what my party setup looks like (not the ideal kind of group for HoF)
Human Paladin: Longsword, mace and shield proficiency
Dwarven Berserker: Dual wield axes
Human Sun Soul Monk
Half-Elf Fighter/Druid, Spear (she wrecks hard with Call Lightning)
Halfling Thief
Elf Mage
For reference (with my third group) that lone mob in both pictures is the Orc Elite.
Normally they recommend tackling them on lv 15
I actually had to use this strategy to defeat the final group (the one with three Ogres), as it was ridiculous otherwise. Things will get better from Kuldahar onward, assuming your team composition is correct. Good luck.
That was my only chese fight in the whole run to be honest, then my f/c started to summon ud and I had 0 problems to tank the goblins you will encounter later. At around 1m exp for pc I didn't feel the contest too much different from an insane mode game and I didn't used summon anymore (only exception resting), but still I had way more fun.
HoF lvl 1 is the way to go
My party comp:
Dwarven Defender ( 2 Defensive Stance )
Cleric/Ranger ( Lvl 1: Bless, Cure Light Wounds, Command, Lvl 2: Cure Moderate Wounds )
Fighter/Cleric ( Same as above )
Fighter/Thief
Archer
Sorcerer(Lvl1 Spell: Magic Missile, Color Spray, Burning Hands, Lvl 2 Spell: Glitterdust)
Basically there are three orcs that can be lured out first.
Buff with bless. Then lead with Dwarven Defender who will get the attention of all orcs.
Focus the Shaman with Archer and Sorcerer.
C/R and F/T goes up and fight the top three archers there.
DD and F/C goes down towards the bottom archers.
Sorcerer cast Glitterdust on bottom archers.
And after all Glitterdust have been used and before the second Defensive Stance wear out you should have finished all of them.
Hide helped, as did having the right spells prepared. [i]Shield[/i] is wonderful. [i]Expeditious retreat[/i] is useful once you've gotten away and just want to run faster.
If you're talking about the final encounter in the southwest corner with the ogres, I never did kill all those foes when soloing Heart of Fury. I killed one ogre and maybe some orcs, but I never felt the need to kill all of them once I had looted the cave's two chests.
In case you are curious, here is my HoF party:
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger
Half-Elf Fighter/Druid
Bard
Halfling Fighter/Thief
I grouped my party near the entrance/exit of the cave and had my Fighter/Thief pull the orcs to my party by shooting an arrow at the first orc he saw and then running back to where the rest of the party was waiting. I had my Fighter/Cleric and Cleric/Ranger cast Draw Upon Holy might while he was doing that. Right as the Fighter/Thief came around the bend, I had my Fighter Druid cast Entangle to try to slow some of the orcs down. When the archers made it through the entangle, they stayed close together, so I had my Fighter/Druid cast Curse on them and then followed up with Hold Person spells from the Fighter/Cleric and Cleric / Ranger. I got lucky and managed to paralyze a few of them. I then focused all of my attacks on the orcs that could attack, taking them out one at a time, and casting more Hold Person spells when they grouped together.
When a character got close to death, I had him/her run around the cave to avoid attacks until the orcs targeted someone else or I could take them out with ranged attacks. Sunscorch saved one of my characters when it blinded an orc that was about to kill him. The neat thing there was that the blindness effect caused that orc to completely ignore my party for a while. Another thing that was helpful was using Bless to counter the Shaman's Curse spell. My Fighter/Druid also managed to charm one of the orcs (2nd level spell, Charm Person or Mammal). The orc did not stay charmed for very long, but it resulted in a couple of attacks where he wasn't hitting my party. He even did some damage to the orc he attacked.
I chose poorly for my level 1 mage spells, so My Fighter / Mage just attacked. If I were to start over, I would have chosen Charm Person and Spook. Those spells would have been much more useful than the ones I chose. Then again, Chromatic Orb did manage to blind one of the ogres further into the cave, so it wasn't a total waste of a choice.
Anyway, I ended up using all of my healing potions and spells to keep my characters alive. At the end of the fight, I don't think anyone had more than 10 HP left.
I hope that helps.