VoD -Hard Mode- solo by Kelida the fighter!!

[Droken]

Ok, so I was estatic when, after 10-11 failed attempts, I was finally able to successfully solo VoD. I thought it might be the first time a fighter had ever accomplished such a feat, but apparrently someone named Saturean had beaten me to it. Considering just melees in general, many paladins and even monks have already climbed to the pinnacle of this achievement.

I set out to carve my name into the history books, and I wasn't satisfied with the mark I had left. 8 hours spent farming Death Ward visors from Tangleroot, figuring out and acquiring the perfect compliment of items to balance AC, HP, and damage, all for nothing? No, I couldn't leave it at that... That just won't do...

On Tuesday, August 30, 2011, I do believe Kelida can safely take the title of first melee to ever solo VoD on Hard across all servers!

I present to you, Kelida the Emerald version 1.2. Fully ship buffed, self buffed



About to deliver the finishing blow...


After math of the battle ...


Victory dance!


The uber lewts ...

[Musouka]

grats

now do it naked, and you'll really have a super title.

[pasterqb]

123 minutes! That deserves a metal great job.

[barryman5000]

Congratulations. Now we need to talk about nerfing ac. It over powered.

J/K. I am really amazed by this. I aspire to have as many items with purple backgrounds as you.

[Darknark]

**** man, very impressive. If you don't mind, what did you end up doing about your bat problems? More AC? or stacking resists?


Also just noticed the change from Emerald to Ruby, nice.

[Droken]

Well I read up on this one guy's ToD walkthrough about the scaling difficulties and how much AC would be needed and noticed that with each scaling from normal through hard and elite, just an additional 5 AC was needed. I assumed the same would be true for VoD. I remembered how the first few times on normal, I got molested by the bats in seconds, but was eventually able to succeed without any change to my gear or build. All I needed was to be ridiculously maticulous about keeping up every single temporary buff I have.

I was thinking about my gear, and I really ~can't~ do anything more to increase my AC. It's pretty much maxed out. Making a whole new lit2 weapon just for exceptional +2 dex would only give me 1 more AC. I could do a feat swap and take the ranger past life to get barkskin, but that's only 1 higher AC as well. That's a whole lot of work just to inch out 2 more AC.

And I figured that, although it was really hard, I ~did~ succeed on norm before my Lesser TR, and since I'd gained 5 AC after the Lesser TR from sinking con into wisdom, I ~should~ be able to handle Hard theoretically..

The first time I got to the bats on Hard, I didn't have recitation or haste up, and you'd think that's just 3AC ... but when you're litterally at the cusp of their to-hit range, it made all the difference in the world. This time, I made sure all my buffs were constantly refreshed even a good 10 minutes before the bats actually spawned. It made the difference between dying in 5 seconds, and taking slow enough dmg to let me use heal scrolls. Basically, I just had to make sure~every~ single temporary AC buff was up. Annoying as it was, losing Recitation for just a few seconds, or not forgetting to refresh my deathward or fireshield would mean I'd die in seconds.

Funny thing is I almost died ~after~ I had Sully all by himself because I was over confident and busy taking screenshots and forgot to equip a +4 insight AC item. =D He cursed me and had me just barely over 100hp. A couple of unlucky shots hereor a failed concentration check to use a heal scroll could have ended me.

This is the best I could do with my current build. I think an 18/2 Defender with ToD ring set might have a slightly easier time, but considering this hasn't been tackled before until now, I gather a bit of skill is still required. =D

[garynash7070]

A great job and well done on hard.

[Chette]

Congratulations! Now time to nerf fighters, paladins and monks. I suggest only being able to swing your sword up to five times, with one swing regenerating every 15 seconds

[jandhaer]

Congratulations! Now time to nerf fighters, paladins and monks. I suggest only being able to swing your sword up to five times, with one swing regenerating every 15 seconds

lol


Way to go Kelida makin all the DINOs proud as always RAAAAAAAAAAAAWR !!!!

[Arctik]

Congratulations! Now time to nerf fighters, paladins and monks. I suggest only being able to swing your sword up to five times, with one swing regenerating every 15 seconds

Took me a second to get that one...
After that I loled

[ShadowFlash]

Congrats...nice to finally see something other than OMG wings/DoT/barb past life... I nerd-rage quit because you HAVE to be a caster to succeed. Excellent achievement. +1 to you

ShadowFlash

[eruhuan]

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations! Now time to nerf fighters, paladins and monks. I suggest only being able to swing your sword up to five times, with one swing regenerating every 15 seconds

Well, remember in towns your swings should regenerate every 3 seconds instead

[pHo3nix]

Gratz sylm, great job

Congratulations! Now time to nerf fighters, paladins and monks. I suggest only being able to swing your sword up to five times, with one swing regenerating every 15 seconds

Aye, after all how in the hell are you supposed to swing all the day long?

[Oran_Lathor]

Grats man. To my mind the amount of micro-managing and so on makes this a truly great achievement. Sure you need a lot of great gear, but without great presence of mind and reaction time with all the short term buffs, it's still a no go. So, mad props.

[ElbionTcob]

****, gotta get Ivena up and give this a shot. Gratz man! Nice to see Cannith represent for once (or twice)

[samdsherman]

excellent achievement. way to represent

[Droken]

I got declined today for a VoD run on normal because they only wanted a bard ={ I r sad..