Most of you probably already know this, but it was a big surprise to me: When I hit level 91, I only got one skill point to spend. That means from now on, I’ll only be getting 1 skill point. I had not expected that.
So really, my character won’t be improving much from level 91 to 100, if I ever get that high. Like I said, I’m more interested in playing the level 45-60 stage anyway, that’s the most interest part of the game on Elite difficulty. But still, I’m enjoying my Purifier a lot, so if I do continue to level, this character is pretty much finalized now, except for equipment.
It’s tough to upgrade equipment. Even if I find something that’s an improvement in one way, it’s also a severe downgrade in other ways. It makes me think maybe this is it on equipment too.
94 is the level that the top end Mythical Legendaries can be used. It is a massive power spike when you can equip them. Though only if you have the gear.
Sadly, after all my quests were over with the Forgotten Gods expansion, including having to find a place for the pendant, I came back to this gate and it still wouldn’t open. So I have find another way in somehow.
I’m guessing it’s the third faction that I haven’t chosen yet, since this character chose Solael, and I got to see a new tomb and a couple of new areas.
I’m really impressed with the loot in the expansion area. They really went out of their way to create green shields that drop in the expansion area that are appropriate for nearly every sub-class in the game. I was looking at some of their properties as I was selling shields to the vendor last night. There’s +skills for every class here, and for class combinations that I didn’t expect.
It brings to mind that with only one class released for the expansion, they really expect everyone to go out and make at least one Oathbreaker, and they really wanted the combination of the Oathbreaker to have loot that went together with every other class in the game.
I looked that up out of frustration when I came to it. It’s a quest given at honored from one of the 3 new factions, don’t remember which. Not sure if you also have to have sided with them or if any character that reaches honored can get it.
Should be easy enough to get to, rep for those factions seemed to be coming in pretty quickly.
Reconfigured my old Pyromancer to a build I found using dual pistols and doubling down on fire and regen. Got her to 65 and it’s pretty solid–even without BIS gear its very tanky and has excellent killing power. Still got killed by the final guy in Steps of Torment, but that was probably because I had zero ointments and positioned myself poorly (and it still took a while to die).
One great piece of advice I read that has helped somewhat is to look at the stats you need not the rarity of the item. One theory crafter noted that often high-level greens are better than level 50 purples if they have the exact bonuses and stats you want. I’ve been much more careful in sorting through the loot now and it definitely can be surprising. That, and actually, um, paying attention to resists.
Gather round friends, and let me tell you a tale of caution.
In the Forgotten Sands expansions area north of your starting point, you eventually get a desert area called the Korvaak Sands, or something to that effect. In the sand dunes, there’s a little pedestal with an exclamation mark beside it. When I was aligned with the two of the factions in the game, the pedestal could not be activated.
Yesterday I reached that pedestal after aligning myself with the third faction, the one that can see the future. When I got to the pedestal, I was delighted to see that I could indeed activate it, so without even reading any of the messages, I did so.
So what spawned on the pedestal? A creature that looked an awful lot like Diablo. He was level 112. I was level 91. He hit me once and killed me.
What what what? What just happened? I went back there after spawning at the town. I died repeatedly just trying to see what could hurt this thing. My Purifier was laying down mines that would lower his fire and aether and chaos resists, and numbers were coming off his body as if he was getting hurt. And yet, his health bar was not moving. When I turned around fired, he would catch up to me and hit me once, which activated my shield blast and all the other spells that save me on that first hit. And then the second hit would kill me.
I lost a lot of experience, but I finally admitted to myself, that nothing I was doing was even diminishing his health bar. He was really regenerating health faster than the damage I could do to him.
So this Shield Oathkeeper class is pretty awesome. My Warlord that was able to make it through the Steps of Torment, including beating the final boss, he just also beat Port Valbury last night. That’s the first time I’ve finished that skeleton key area, all the way to the end. Either they nerfed the skeleton key areas or this character is really good at surviving spikey damage, because it used to be the worst in those areas.
Btw, I’m sure you all know this, but in case you had forgotten like I had: Purified Salt is what you need to craft for Aether resistance. You can put one on your weapon and one on your shield. That gives you a lot of Aether resistance this early in the game, and you really really need it in Port Valbury. I never would have survived in that area without near maximum Aether resist.
Ok, now I can do the area around Homestead. Time to liberate some farms!
Very much agreed, my fire/melee Shieldbreaker (oathkeeper and demolitionist) had an easy time in the Steps, the boss wasn’t even that challenging on veteran (past character either couldn’t or struggled with him at my first attempt). Port Valbury on the other hand, I went to it last night, but as you point out the aether was too much, and everything was red (I am 43), so I figured I would come back after I did some Homestead quests. I have not finished the newest DLC though, so I went to start doing that.
my warlord is now 62 just about finished with act2 on elite. I may be enjoying him more then my warder from the early days. finished the new expansion last night. They did a nice job on it only ran into a few spots that I couldn’t face tank. Going to try and take this character to 100 i think.
I have never played on any difficulty past normal. I have only finished the game once, the only DLC I have is the ashes one. I see people posting about being in the 40s or so and being on veteran difficulty and sometimes a little higher on elite difficulty. Right now, I am messing around with a warder and I am level 45 and just approaching the necropolis.
Do people just start at a new difficulty without finishing runs when they get to certain levels or do you just do some kind of fast run through normal?
I play through the whole game, DLC and all, at veteran with new characters. I tend to play in shorter sittings, and have the need to clear every inch of the maps, even when I know nothing important is there, so I think I end up a bit over leveled when I play.
In elite I either play through it or get bored and move on to a new character. Ultimate is usually just too much for my builds.
I sometimes use “Normal” and “Veteran” interchangeably, but whenever I say Normal, I mean Veteran, since I’ve never actually played on “Normal” difficulty. I don’t know if you do the same, but if you’re really playing on Normal as opposed to Veteran, that will also increase your experience. On Veteran, the monsters you fight will always be slightly above your level as you go through the campaign, so you will get more experience, and therefore be higher level by the time you get to the end.
What about the shrines? Don’t you have to tag them on multiple difficulties? Or if you hit them on veteran for the first time, you end up getting 2x devotion points?
I don’t think Veteran and Normal are considered two different difficulty levels in that way by the game. Not the way Elite and Ultimate are. You’re meant to go through the game on Normal or Veteran, your choice, and then Elite, and then Ultimate. If you do normal and get all the shrines, Veteran won’t have any shrines for you. The only thing Veteran does is it makes the monsters you fight slightly higher level, so instead of fighting a level 5 monster, he’ll be level 6, so might be slightly tougher, but worth more experience.
If you want more shrines after Normal, you have to start on Elite difficulty.
Did they changed how Legendary drops work? I’m 56 and the only purple drop was the reward for finishing Act 4, I’m playing on veteran. Am I just having bad luck? Do I need to be on epic?
Just unlucky, I think. My Warlord did the Forgotten Gods expansion area after Act 1, so he’s still a bit overleveled compared to not doing that. I’m in Act 3, trying to reach Fort Ikon and I’m level 51, and I think I’ve had 2 purples drop already, though they weren’t something I could use.
