DQ 1 Solo (w/hireling) on Kensai Fighter 13

[sephiroth1084]

Not sure if something comparable has been accomplished (the raid has been out too long for me to believe that it hasn't been done), but I was pretty happy with this, so here are the screens:
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1015/screenshot00119z.jpg
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1508/screenshot00118h.jpg
Summoned the hireling only for the last two fights after I had attempted this totally solo and got the **** torn out of me during the first fight with the queen. Still not sure what exactly was damaging me (forgot to turn on the combat log), but even when she wasn't swinging I was taking quite a bit of damage, and she seemed to be tearing right through my 51 AC (and even my 53 blocking and DR).

The hireling ended up being only semi-useful, as it was too slow to cast when set to passive and told to Heal, and got too close to the queen when no set to passive.

I made two attempts at the first queen fight: one where the hireling died twice, and I raised it both times, only to have it die yet again. I died once during that portion, and had the hireling raise me before it died for the second time. The room reset at that point, so I ran us down to the shrine.

Went up recharged with a better strategy: trying to keep the hireling out of harm's way and playing a bit more conservatively (including running around the pillars and throne chugging the last of my CSW pots before taking her down the last 20% in a flurry).

Oddly, the final fight, in the Circle of Eterny-light room was much easier than the previous incarnation, as she didn't seem to have as much attack bonus, and whatever other damage I had been taking in the throne room was gone. The hireling died again after throwing me only a Heal or two, but I managed to just power through the fight.

If I had had a better strategy in the first throne room battle the completion time would have been more like 35 minutes.

Equipment:
Head: Mineral II helm (+30 HP, +2 Cha skills, Heavy Fort, +5 Protect, Stoneskin 2/rest at CL 16)
Neck:
Trinket: Bloodstone
Cloak: +4 Resist -->Mantle of the Worldshaper partway through the fight (seemed to help a little)
Belt: Con +6
Gloves: Spectral Gloves
Boots: Firestorm Greaves -->Striding +25% when running and healing
Wrists: Levik's
Eyes: Existential Stalemate I goggles (Will +5, Posion and Fear Immunity, +6 Wis, other stuff) --yeah yeah, my first GS item and is getting recrafted before I TR again! :rolleyes:
Ring 1: Chattering
Ring 2: Seal of the Earth
Armor: +5 Mithral FP
Shield: +5 Heavy Steel
Weapon: Mineral II Dwarven Axe (Holy, Acid Burst, +4 AC)
Off-hand (did a little bit of TWF, but not much): +3 Metalline Dwarven Axe of Pure Good

Also note fairly minimal buffs: Deathward, Heroism, 10 point resists (pots), an ice games prot from fire potion, Stoneskin (goes away really fast!), and 30 seconds Hastes from clickies/potions.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

When I TR this character again, back to mostly paladin I anticipate this being much easier and not needing a hireling as I'll have 2-3 LoH, self-cast CMW (possibly with Maximize by that point), a Torc and Concordant Opposition goggles regenerating my SP to continue casting.

Some big differences will be: less standing AC (no dwarf or fighter armor mastery), slower attack speed (Haste Boost I instead of II and no Zeal yet), less sustained DPS (Greater Weapon Spec, Weapon Spec, Kensai Str boost, Fighter Weapon Mastery I, Dwarven Axe Damage II and Fighter Str III vs. Divine Favor, Divine Might II, and either KotC I or DoS I), perhaps greater burst DPS (Exalted Smite II and Divine Sacrifice I), self-healing, better saves (minor point for these fights), and possibly enough UMD to provide some other buffs (Recitation, Shield).

[Diarden]

Equipment:
Head: Mineral II helm (+30 HP, +2 Cha skills, Heavy Fort, +5 Protect, Stoneskin 2/rest at CL 16)


Fairly certain Min II items are 45hp, not 30. Might want to change that.

Other than that, nice work man.

[sephiroth1084]

Fairly certain Min II items are 45hp, not 30. Might want to change that.

Other than that, nice work man.
They can be 45 HP, but are not automatically. In my case, Mine is +10 HP, +50 SP/+2 Cha skills, +25 HP to bracket with the Concordant Opp goggles I was planning on upgrading to have +100 SP/+3 Cha skills.

When the whole TR thing hit, and some new gear from ToD and epics, I've been reevaluating my set-up and plan on moving the Mineral II to my cloak slot, and recrafting the goggles to go Wiz VI/+2 Cha skills, +15 HP, +100 SP/+3 Cha skills.

Some pople choose to do the swap on tier I. I did tier II. It doesn't really matter either way.

[Angelus_dead]

Not sure if something comparable has been accomplished (the raid has been out too long for me to believe that it hasn't been done)
Sure fighters have soloed that since mod3, but they usually did it the slow way: +1 Transmuting Returning Throwing Axe. (Laliat's DPS was much higher back then)

[Diarden]

That makes sense (was wondering why you put +2 cha skills but now it makes sense). Sorry for that, great feat all the same!

And thank you for admitting you did it with a hireling, and not entirely solo. Still a feat all the same, Hireling = Noob F2P.

[sephiroth1084]

That makes sense (was wondering why you put +2 cha skills but now it makes sense). Sorry for that, great feat all the same!

And thank you for admitting you did it with a hireling, and not entirely solo. Still a feat all the same, Hireling = Noob F2P.
I had considered omitting the hireling use, but felt that doing so would be stupid, particularly since I got so thoroughly beaten on my first attempt sans-hireling. Besides, it will paint a clearer picture, for any following months from now, as to how different a fighter may be from a paladin.

[Angelus_dead]

And thank you for admitting you did it with a hireling, and not entirely solo.
The word "solo" means there are no other people.

Newsflash: Hirelings are not people.

[Shade]

Sure fighters have soloed that since mod3, but they usually did it the slow way: +1 Transmuting Returning Throwing Axe. (Laliat's DPS was much higher back then)

heh must every achivement have someone incorrectly claiming that it's not first?

Few major flaws with your made up idea:
- Returning weapons with mods on them never existed in module 3, just plain old +1 to +5. I beleive they were added in module 4. Infact transmuting never existed in module 3 either, that was added in 4.
- Fighters were pretty terrible back then with extremely limited access to healing, no silver flame potions, no healing amp, just useless csw.

And Lailats "dps" was never directly changed. She deals the same damage today that she did back then. There were some changes, mostly fixes to her rather bad AI.. She would wonder around and attack a loss less frequently back then, but now solo she will just constantly attack you. Each hit does the same damage tho, well in a 4 man group, solo scaling obviously lowers the damage she deals.

Like any achivement, thers a simple rule screenshot or it didn't happen. He can always claim it as first as long as no one else has proof it was done before. Proving the SS is from a earlier mod is fairly easy if its as old as mod3 too, since the UI had a major change that's noticable somewhere around mod5.

Sure in this case it would be quite a lofty claim since the quest isn't particularly difficulty and dozens of solo completions were posted by rangers and casters.. But have any been posted by fighters, who knows.

[sephiroth1084]

heh must every achivement have someone incorrectly claiming that it's not first?

Few major flaws with your made up idea:
- Returning weapons with mods on them never existed in module 3, just plain old +1 to +5. I beleive they were added in module 4. Infact transmuting never existed in module 3 either, that was added in 4.
- Fighters were pretty terrible back then with extremely limited access to healing, no silver flame potions, no healing amp, just useless csw.

And Lailats "dps" was never directly changed. She deals the same damage today that she did back then. There were some changes, mostly fixes to her rather bad AI.. She would wonder around and attack a loss less frequently back then, but now solo she will just constantly attack you. Each hit does the same damage tho, well in a 4 man group, solo scaling obviously lowers the damage she deals.

Like any achivement, thers a simple rule screenshot or it didn't happen. He can always claim it as first as long as no one else has proof it was done before. Proving the SS is from a earlier mod is fairly easy if its as old as mod3 too, since the UI had a major change that's noticable somewhere around mod5.

Sure in this case it would be quite a lofty claim since the quest isn't particularly difficulty and dozens of solo completions were posted by rangers and casters.. But have any been posted by fighters, who knows.
Eh. I'm sure it's probably doable with a decent thrown weapon. I had taken a moment to try that strategy with a Dwarven Thrower, but obviously it didn't deal enough to punch through her DR consistently.

CSW potions were semi-sufficient in that I could break off from attacking her to chug them down, although one must be really careful doing that, as she has long reach and can therefore get you while you are trying to back off to heal and when you're running around jumping and chugging. Silver Flame pots probably would have made this much easier, and I'm hoping to get enough favor on this character sometime soonish--never have on anyone else. I ****ing hate nearly every quest in the Necro.

And on the comment about SN'ed completions: that was kind of my point with my initial disclaimer: I've seen MrCow's solo vid on his monk, but haven't seen any other mention of soloing this on level with anyone else. I'd imagine soloing with a ranger would be pretty easy with Manyshot and Sprint Boost. A caster, cleric or FvS could probably do it without too much trouble, although they may need mana pots to keep on going (reasonable, I suppose, though somewhat different than soloing as a melee).

And yeah, the rest of the quest was pretty easy. Managed to do it with almost zero buffs, and my first time through I drank maybe 5-10 CSW pots until the queen. Second time through I decided that since I was using a hireling anyway, I might as well park it in the center and let it sub in for CSW pots when I was done with an area. Upon finishing each section, I'd port the hireling to me, have it toss a Heal, and then I took off for the next section.

By the way, do any of you (A_D and Shade in particular, but anyone in general as well) happen to know what additional damage effects the queen has in the throne room fight? I'm not going to be sure what the additional damage from coming from until I run this again.

[Shade]

By the way, do any of you (A_D and Shade in particular, but anyone in general as well) happen to know what additional damage effects the queen has in the throne room fight? I'm not going to be sure what the additional damage from coming from until I run this again.

Yea, I recently updated the wiki with allot more details on her stats and weaponry after some careful testing on normal and epic:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Queen_Lailat

Basically if your lawful good - she will rip you to shreds with bonus dice. While if your neutral, you'll take minor damage. If your chaotic neutral, you'll take almost no damage at all.
Also make sure you have some sonic resistance, as she does a fair bit of sonic damage too.

Other then that, a solid strength score and fast movement speed (haste pots) is all you really need to solo her effectively. With a two hander I can ocasonally kill her without ever being attacked back. Especially with a hireling - just place the hireling behind the door, and she will agro it, so you can beat her tail heh. Her agro switches rather slowly, so you got a big window of oppertunity.

[sephiroth1084]

Yea, I recently updated the wiki with allot more details on her stats and weaponry after some careful testing on normal and epic:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Queen_Lailat

Basically if your lawful good - she will rip you to shreds with bonus dice. While if your neutral, you'll take minor damage. If your chaotic neutral, you'll take almost no damage at all.
Also make sure you have some sonic resistance, as she does a fair bit of sonic damage too.

Other then that, a solid strength score and fast movement speed (haste pots) is all you really need to solo her effectively. With a two hander I can ocasonally kill her without ever being attacked back. Especially with a hireling - just place the hireling behind the door, and she will agro it, so you can beat her tail heh. Her agro switches rather slowly, so you got a big window of oppertunity.
Yeah, made the mistake of making my fighter LG as I had been thinking about about splashing a couple of paladin levels for the saves, but have decided not to, so I was definitely taking some extra damage from that; however, I seemed to have been taking some other damage from something. She cast her BB, but I wasn't moving or standing on the edge of it, yet seemed to be taking a ton more damage while it was up, and appeared to be taking reactive/guard damage upon hitting her. Unfortunately my combat log was off, but it certainly seemed like a lot of damage was coming through from something other than her attacks.

And the extra damage wasn't at all apparent in the fight after the throne room, which puzzles me even more.

[sephiroth1084]

As promised, screenshots of repeating this on Ferrumrym's next life as a paladin: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=3260563#post3260563

[GeneralDiomedes]

Nice work.

Did it with a Ranger a loooong time ago, Silver Bow and and several backpacks of Cold Iron arrows from House D. I imagine anyone with martial weapon prof. could do it with a good enough running pattern. She doesn't seem to cast as many blade barriers as I seem to remember.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Just place the hireling behind the door, and she will agro it, so you can beat her tail heh. Her agro switches rather slowly, so you got a big window of oppertunity.

Heh noticed that behaviour the other day by chance. It also seemed in the circle of eternity she will aggro on party members still in the throne room.

[sephiroth1084]

Nice work.

Did it with a Ranger a loooong time ago, Silver Bow and and several backpacks of Cold Iron arrows from House D. I imagine anyone with martial weapon prof. could do it with a good enough running pattern. She doesn't seem to cast as many blade barriers as I seem to remember.
Both this, and my newer achievement were done toe-to-toe, no kiting/ranging and such.

[MrWizard]

congrats man, always an achievement to do a hard dungeon like that.

keep up the good work.

[TheBroken_JPK]

How do you avoid the knockdowns?

[sephiroth1084]

congrats man, always an achievement to do a hard dungeon like that.

keep up the good work.
Thanks.

How do you avoid the knockdowns?
Back up a bit while swinging, and hold block while on the ground, then tumble away and heal when you stand up. Also, don't run into her when you go to melee.