A new challenge.

[Sovera]

I posted this over the Brute forums but it was hidden in an unrelated thread and either flew under the radar or none felt like trying it, so I bring here to the +4x8 buffed enemies, debuffed players solo crowd.

 

 

 

I went to look for the same Shepherds that crushed my Fire/Ice Tanker and got crushed again, but this time without Ice Patch to save the day it is safe to say that doing it at +1x8 was going to be impossible (I stopped after dying twice to the first group of mobs I found, both times under ten seconds). I wanted to test to see if the extra damage would make a difference and if my first experience had been a fluke, but it wasn't, and it didn't.

 

 

It has to be said that Shepherds are a bit insane. Just look at all that they can do:

 

https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Shepherds

 

Broadswords attacks to -def, Tar Patches to -res, Vengeance when killing enemies, World of Pain. And on top of that stacking -tohit from regular attacks. Booyah.

 

Cimerorians are a joke compared to these guys. An ITF with them instead of romans would not make an ITF a walk in the park.

 

 

For someone who wants bragging rights the only place I found them was in the First Ward first chapter. Bracket 24-29:

 

 

Got to do a bit of talking first then two quick missions. The third one is all Shepherds.

 

Eagerly waiting for tales of victory or defeat!

[Sovera]

I'm not positive what would solo this well further more as it comes at a level where we don't have all our powers. Perhaps Super Reflexes?

[Bill Z Bubba]

I'll go have a looksy after the swipe/inv hits 35 tonight.

[Bill Z Bubba]

BZB Tank. +1/x8. 12 mins to mission in question. Or maybe this isn't it. Quick hunt, then door mission with DUST, then another door mission with slavers and shepherds, ok, next is Shepherd Haven, guessin this is it...

 

And faceplant when I decided to pull 2 spawns. Nice!

 

Yea, they're freakin nasty. 3 faceplants so far. If you don't get out of the tar patch immediately you're frelled.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Looks like GTFO of tarpatch and use single target so you don't kill the soothsayers until last may be the way to go.

[Sovera]

*pompoms* You can do it!

 

Is BZB the SR tank?

[Bill Z Bubba]

Yea, all 3 BZBs are claws and sr. I'll give it another go with Zariela, the SD/EM tank. Big difference between the two? Zariela's MoITF, no insps, no temps run was 1:23. BZB's was 1:51.

[ZemX]

So is this +1/x8, enemies buffed, players debuffed, no temps, no insps?

 

Is there anywhere a description of exactly what the enemies buffed and players debuffed effects actually do?

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

So is this +1/x8, enemies buffed, players debuffed, no temps, no insps?

 

Is there anywhere a description of exactly what the enemies buffed and players debuffed effects actually do?

 

Nah, man, just straight up +1/x8. Just go dive in and you'll see.

[Sovera]

6 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Yea, all 3 BZBs are claws and sr. I'll give it another go with Zariela, the SD/EM tank. Big difference between the two? Zariela's MoITF, no insps, no temps run was 1:23. BZB's was 1:51.

 

Damn, it was SR I expected to have an easier time with it.

[Werner]

I grabbed my Shield/Martial Arts Tanker and dove in at +1x8 no temps no insps, though with boosters like usual since I had four hours left on them and it's just how I play. Didn't notice much happening. Restarted and bumped it to +2x8. Better, they got me down to 50% at one point, but nah. Restarted and bumped it to +3x8. There we go! The second group almost killed me when they surrounded me and I was unable to move out of the tar patch. Fortunately they didn't also get cascading defense failure on me while I was stuck. I eventually got out. It went pretty well, but not well enough that I think I could do it at +4x8 no deaths. But I guess +3x8 is like a level 50 incarnate +4x8. Basic tactics were to target Prophets and Doomsayers, use AoE to take out the minions as I did, move if they tar patched me, run if they cascading defense failured me, and kill the Soothsayers last, and if lucky kill them all at the same time with an AoE. I was slowed down by a lack of attacks and lack of Hasten at that level, but my survivability was solid and with the slowed attacking I didn't run out of endurance, which was a concern for exemplaring. I don't think I've exemplared him before, but my build progression was based on the assumption that if I ever did exemplar, it would be to main tank for friends. I didn't quite kill all. I bypassed one group. I meant to take them down after taking down Anna, not realizing that everything went blue and friendly after doing so. For my build, I'd say about similar difficulty to 801.2.

[Bill Z Bubba]

35 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Damn, it was SR I expected to have an easier time with it.

 

It was indeed odd that I never saw my defense drop but damres went into the red and my health bar just disappeared.

[Bill Z Bubba]

27 minutes ago, Werner said:

I grabbed my Shield/Martial Arts Tanker

 

And once again Werner shows us up.

 

DAMN HIIIIIMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

Edited November 4, 2021 by Bill Z Bubba

[ThrillMill]

FWIW: 50+2 Stone/Regen Brute fell apart at +1x8 on the very first group. Turned off game in shame shortly thereafter. 

[Sovera]

Dayum Werner, you're a god damn beast 😄

[Spaghetti Betty]

The mission is Find Anna at the Shepherd Haven, right? I'll give this a shot with my Bio/Katana Tank after work.

[ihatethewind]

Just tried +1x8 on my SR/DM tank, some thoughts:

 

Definitely a challenge. The groups can kill me if I just stand in one place and they surround me and then multi tar patch me while I cant jump or move out of it.  I was kind of surprised that they were really that much of a threat even with all the tar patches because I was still sitting at close to incarnate softcap, but then I remembered SRs -def debuff resistance for some reason scales with level, so I was only at like 65% because I was auto exemped down to 29, and this is low enough for my def to actually get debuffed.  

 

The other pain point for my build was not having FA, and hence not having any -tohit debuff resistance. Soul drain right off the bat to counteract the -tohit of the autohit nightfall helps, I could kill things decently, although I still hate whiffing.  In the same vein as the defense issue, I think this is mostly because of the level restriction.  Debuffs can be very debilitating when we don't yet have all our fun tools to deal with them.  

 

All in all was a nice change of pace, I actually had to move a bit, like @Werner said it felt sort of similar to the 801 series,

 

 

[Werner]

I just completed it +4x8 no temps no insps no deaths enemies buffed player debuffed... by stealthing to Anna. 😄

 

OK, OK, I'll try to do a regular +4x8 no temps no insps kill all. This is going to get ugly.

[ZemX]

3 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Nah, man, just straight up +1/x8. Just go dive in and you'll see.

 

Well it WAS just straight up +1/x8... 3 hours ago.

 

Damnit, @Werner! 😈

[dtjunkie]

Went in feeling pretty cocky.

 

 

Got wrecked.

 

[Werner]

10 hours ago, Werner said:

OK, OK, I'll try to do a regular +4x8 no temps no insps kill all. This is going to get ugly.

Eh, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Just slow due to Tanker-level damage, some enemies +5 to me, and a whole lot of pulling and running in addition to the previously-mentioned tactics. No deaths, and I didn't get quite as close to death as I had at +3x8, probably because by now I'm more aware of what to expect and how to fight them, plus was splitting groups and being more patient. A picture proves nothing since the mission can be stealthed, but hey, Anna!

Edit: I targeted minions first at this level. They weren’t going down quickly enough from AoE, and it seemed best to thin the herd to avoid cascading defense failure.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Werner

[Sovera]

Alright. So, Stone gets creamed, SR as well, Fire. Shield is da wae.

[ZemX]

26 minutes ago, dtjunkie said:

Went in feeling pretty cocky.

 

Okay, I don't get how they dropped your resistances that far.  I thought res debuffs were resisted BY damage resistance.  Or is Tar Patch not their only res debuff?

[Werner]

5 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Alright. So, Stone gets creamed, SR as well, Fire. Shield is da wae.

And being cautious and tactical about your approach and knowing when to retreat. Of primaries I have experience with, I think Invuln would be good at this too. Good resistance and defense and defense debuff resistance, Dull Pain healing you and giving you high hit points when you're taking hits escaping from the tar patch while defense debuffed. Then a secondary with good damage output at the mid levels, not sure which. Not just single target, but also AoE to wipe out the minions faster to help avoid cascading defense failure, before switching to single target DPS since you don't want to kill the Soothsayers until the end.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Tactics. Man is THAT gonna have to chew through some godmode muscle memory...