LeeAbe
2923
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.
DeepT
2925
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.
Regardless of difficulty levels or number of runs through the campaign, I think you get 55 devotion points tops; after that ,shrines can give loot but that’s it. It seems not worth it sometimes to pay the materials cost for some shrines in that case, though there are achievements tied to restoring shrines regardless of whether you get devotion points or not.
I have found in reading build and leveling guides that the default way to play for many folks is to go through the game and kill Log on Veteran, then go to Elite and do the same, then go to Ultimate for the Malmouth stuff. This tends to max your faction reputation for one thing. Me, I have never finished Malmouth even on Veteran, so the characters I’m working on now I’m just ignoring it until I get to like 94 for end game gear I think.
You’re missing out. It’s good content, especially if you play using a controller. (With the mouse, Malmouth can be a bit annoying since there’s lots of planks and stairs and walkways, which are not an issue when you’re moving with the left thumbstick, but can be annoying when you’re clicking to move).
My general solution is to click and let it autopath, which works pretty well.
DeepT
2932
Ok, I was confusing Ventran with a 2nd playthrough type of thing, like something you could do after doing normal. Instead its just a variant of normal.
I do have another question about shrines, well two in specific. When looking at various check lists, some of them mention and have screen shots of shrines in the conflagration, and in the temple of the three. Yet when I go to those spots, the shrines are missing. The grim tools place lists the shrines as existing on normal, which is what I was playing on.
Were these shrines removed, or is there something special you need to do to get them to appear?
Re: Shrines With FR dropping they changed the shrines on Ultimate to include all previous difficulties shrines (if not present already in Ultimate) and added a few to different (typically more difficult or secret) locations so if you can get all your devotion shrines 0-55 on a pure Ultimate run. If you are looking at guides that say there is a shrine there and you don’t see it this is probably the reason.
I did so on my Dervish and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are looking for a personal challenge. It’s easier to head back into Veteran at some point and just cherry pick 20 or so devotions near rifts to round out what you are already got.
Re: Experience If you haven’t already, Malmoth Resistance has the +100% xp potion at Revered.
I think you are just unlucky. You only start getting legendaries after 50 for quest rewards (and only specific quests) or if the enemy is over 50 for drops.
Oh, I’ve gone through the Malmouth stuff all the way to the last boss, where I bounced hard the first time when the DLC came out. I just haven’t been back again.
For devotions, I highly recommend doing Crucible enough times (do one round, cash out, do another, etc.) to get five devotion points or so. Makes things easier.
LeeAbe
2936
I don’t do that early just because it breaks the balance of the first 2 acts. It makes everything green and takes away any danger or excitement for awhile.
Then again, the newest DLC breaks it too.
DeepT
2937
I would like to play a sword and board soldier. My concern is that the class lacks good aoe. What is a good pairing class / build to go with a sword and board soldier?
Silent
2938
Oathkeeper. Throwing the shield around is quite fun.
I’m playing as a Warlord (Soldier + Oathkeeper) now, which requires the second expansion. I think you said you only have the first expansion? I think most people with the first expansion only would probably go with a Death Knight (Soldier + Necromancer).
The second expansion has a Sword and board character class called the Oathkeeper. Not only do you get tons of skills with a bonus if you have a shield, it also has good Area of Effect spells like you want. There’s one called Judgement that’s very satisfying. Everybody gets pulled toward you, so you act like a giant magnet when you activate it and enemies stumble and fall towards you.
If you don’t have the expansion, the Soldier does have a couple of AoE skills, one is Blitz, where you rush toward an opponent, and when you make an impact, I believe the resulting impact has a radius, so enemies clustered close get hit. It has a 180 degree arc effect in front of you. There’s another skill, Blade Arc, that also hits 180 degree arc in front of you, and finally there’s a Force Wave, which sends out a wave directly in front of you that can briefly stun enemies, which is very nice for some crowd control.
If you do go with the Necromancer as your second class and stay away from pets like skeletons and blight fiends, you’ll have some nice aura effects that will enhance your damage and weaken enemies, and you eventually can get something called Siphon Souls, which is a nice area of effect damage spell.
Well, there isn’t any danger in the first two acts, unless it’s your first character ever and you have zero in your stash. The first two acts are pretty simple and straight forward for nearly any build with found gear. But yes, I’m assuming people have played the game before; if you’ve gone through the game once there isn’t much early on that is challenging unless you’re on ultimate difficulty.
I would suggest that you might want to further specify how you want to play. With Oathkeeper, you can make a lot of different sword and board character types. For example if you want great AOE with a shield, try an Arcanist/Oathkeeper and go with augmented Callidor’s tempest. Then when you attack packs just go: Vire Might, Judgement, Callidor and dissolve them in a big burst. Arcanist offers tons of offensive and defensive options and has great fire synergy.
Or Occultist and go with all the poison augmented skills in Oathkeeper and use the great debuffs combined with oathkeepers great defensive buffs.
Yeah, the synergies between classes is really what GD is all about I think. Yes, there are some pure monoclass builds, but the consensus is they are more novelties rather than really effective approaches to the game. Even if you just max out one good skill from a second class, you can really augment your original build’s effectiveness (and you can put points into the other class’ basic stats bar, and gain more, well, basic stats).
