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Solo PvE in Mod 6 and a Point
caewin
Member Posts: 42 Arc User
Solo PvE and Mod 6
I play a TR, MI, almost 100% executioner (more on all that in a moment). I made her in June 2013, almost deleted her in the Nerfed to Uselessness Times, and rediscovered my love of playing her when I could once again actually kill things without dying every ten seconds (hey, every 30 is an improvement
). In the last few months I've found an approach to playing PvE encounters solo (minus dungeons) that works, especially in Well of Dragons. My few AoE powers (Path of the Blade, Smoke Bomb, Whirlwind of Blades) keep the adds off enough for me to focus on the boss. Then I hit level 64 and met the Crypts of Ascension. After the third time dying, I rethought my approach. Massively.
I ask you all this: while there is a definite change to how stats work and how powers/items work, and to difficulty, how many solo PvE players have adapted their playing style? Seriously. Not "well, now I need this perfect enchant instead of that one", but "okay, so instead of attacking that person first, I need to attack that person first."
Speaking of...
A Point on Characters
The overall comments about OP classes, about this power needing changing and that power needing to go completely, about these enchantments or that equipment being the only ones worth anything, fail to take one thing into consideration: not all of us build our characters the same way. I'm glad that everyone else playing a TR has been building their character the exact same way. Ever. Before the game even existed. Or computers. But my build is mine. I took some suggestions, I took some recommendations, I blended them in, and I made my TR my own. Crazy as it is, there might be other people who did the same with their TR/GF/SW/OP/HR/DC/GWF/. Your blanket calls affect us too.
I suspect I should have a pile of firewood ready for the incoming flames, but I wanted to say something this one time anyway. Happy playing.
I play a TR, MI, almost 100% executioner (more on all that in a moment). I made her in June 2013, almost deleted her in the Nerfed to Uselessness Times, and rediscovered my love of playing her when I could once again actually kill things without dying every ten seconds (hey, every 30 is an improvement
). In the last few months I've found an approach to playing PvE encounters solo (minus dungeons) that works, especially in Well of Dragons. My few AoE powers (Path of the Blade, Smoke Bomb, Whirlwind of Blades) keep the adds off enough for me to focus on the boss. Then I hit level 64 and met the Crypts of Ascension. After the third time dying, I rethought my approach. Massively.I ask you all this: while there is a definite change to how stats work and how powers/items work, and to difficulty, how many solo PvE players have adapted their playing style? Seriously. Not "well, now I need this perfect enchant instead of that one", but "okay, so instead of attacking that person first, I need to attack that person first."
Speaking of...
A Point on Characters
The overall comments about OP classes, about this power needing changing and that power needing to go completely, about these enchantments or that equipment being the only ones worth anything, fail to take one thing into consideration: not all of us build our characters the same way. I'm glad that everyone else playing a TR has been building their character the exact same way. Ever. Before the game even existed. Or computers. But my build is mine. I took some suggestions, I took some recommendations, I blended them in, and I made my TR my own. Crazy as it is, there might be other people who did the same with their TR/GF/SW/OP/HR/DC/GWF/. Your blanket calls affect us too.
I suspect I should have a pile of firewood ready for the incoming flames, but I wanted to say something this one time anyway. Happy playing.
Post edited by caewin on
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Comments
There are a lot who changed their playstyles actually, but a lot of those that complain in the forum won't. They keep saying that why shouldn't they need to change their playstyle or follow someone's guide to be able to play the game, then they complain about needing to pay for BIS gear and enchants so they can be able to play again.
I'm replying while still debating whether or not I'm included in the groups mentioned, so. I don't mind changing how I play my characters; I think it's neat, honestly. I can't be complacent anymore, which is also neat. I think, perhaps, we've seen what happens when the game becomes "log in, invoke, quest, kill, lair, kill, dungeon, kill, maybe PvP, maybe kill".
Re: builds and gear. There are a lot of excellent build guides from players here. It's more--and I should have clarified that further, so that's my bad--that there seems to be some sort of mindset that because this and this and that person who are most vocal swear on certain powers, certain gear, and certain enchants and nothing else, anything not those is rubbish. Would I love a perfect Vorpal? Yes. Is it going to take me a hecka lot of hours of playing (and maybe $30.00 for a pack of blood rubies if I can justify the expenditure)? Oh gods yes. And the combination of powers and feats is something that took a lot of time for me to work out. As excellent as the builds here are, none were quite right for me. Does that make more sense?
There are definitely things that need addressing in Mod 6 (I'm still looking at you, Shadow of Demise. But trying to sort out the legitimate issues raised to the devs versus the issues raised by people who are annoyed because their gear suddenly went wibbly-wobbly and they have to readjust everything...I don't envy the devs in the slightest.
Other then that, I played pretty much the same way as I always have. And like you I don't follow any builds to the letter, I built my TR to fit my play style.
Also, I've been 100% F2P, so I've got what I've got and gear selection has certainly influenced my style. That I am super dependent on value in a way is "fortunate," in that I have had to be super attentive to skill selection. I'm 100% PvE, so can't comment on PvP. Anyway, I've learned a few "tricks of the trade" I'll list here, apologies in advance if some are a little off topic, but thought they might be helpful to someone:
1) Even when Ioun stones were the rage, I used a healer companion. (Kiting never really caused problems in our guild runs.) Before Mod 6, a healer companion (who kites) and Llira's Bell worked great together to keep mobs off of me. But now that Angel of Protection resurrects *herself* it works even better. I can even solo 10+ player Heroic Encounters. She dies, I stealth and run. She resurrects, I beat on everything until she's dead again. When I need it, Llira's Bell resurrects her *and* gives her invulnerability for ten seconds. If you have Lathander's Set, you can also resurrect her with that. Works great. This might work well with several playing styles (I'll get to mine in a bit), e.g. maybe a Whisperknife with a Frost Mimic. Speaking of Lathander's...
2) If you were lucky enough to have an Eye of Lathander drop, then even a Lesser Soulforged with the Lesser set works great in Mod 6. It's basically a way to increase your HP, similar to using the new HP gear, and it provides offense, defense and recovery. I use Lathander's and Swash's armor (all but the Eye are on the AH for "budget" prices), because Swash's provides offense. I haven't had to bother with HP gear yet, Lathander's essentially boosts your HP by 50+%. (One word of warning, the new Greater Belt boosts WIS and something else instead of DEX and CON. I've been debating whether to keep the set.) Which leads me to my playing style.
3) So, I play an Executioner. The debuffs are great. I can't speak to the other branches, but my hits hurt. Any feat that provides a debuff, I took. But what really makes combat survivable is the TR's combination of stealth and CC. As you probably guessed, I play to not get hit. You'd think you could either tank OR play not to get hit, not both, but a TR makes it possible. The tactic I noted with AoP in my first point above I only really use for HEs, I usually don't need it. I stealth, walk up to a group of mobs, Dazing Strike, beat on something, Smoke Bomb, beat on something, SoD and whatever else procs and everything is dead before they can retaliate. BtW, "procs" is also a key word here. I use Duelist's Flurry almost exclusively because it hits a lot really fast, so things like Plague Fire enchantments (the cheapest weapon enhancement on the AH) work great for us when they may not for another class. If something survives the first wave of my assault, my companion usually has aggro and so I don't get attacked anyway.
I know these are minor tips, but I hope it offers someone some flexibility.