-
Kingofrunes wrote on 2015-07-28 16:52
Quote from Rynn;1282962:
Group is much easier since there will usually be someone keeping up raincast and the mobs themselves just get shredded by all the flying fireballs and crash shots and kunai storms and firebolts.
On groups I just stay where the orb/raincast is and don't have to worry about aggro ranges.
Wasn't the case in my guild party as I think only one person has raincast ranked. I also died more being near the group, so I'm guessing it depends on the skill of the group in general.
Running it with just one other person though who only has play dead for aggro removal does pose issues.
I guess I should rank raincasting next seeing that I'm focusing on Alchemy now.
-
Rynn wrote on 2015-07-28 17:04
Yeah, big ass cloud will definitely make your runs way faster as long as players place them well and keep them up. Do keep in mind that new spawns will initially aggro even if there is a cloud but this is fixed via a quick crisis escape or shadow cloak or via all the fireballs everyone else is launching.
-
ironwoman wrote on 2015-07-28 18:02
Quote from Fracture;1282957:
Ugggh I think if I want to get through Advanced, much less Heroic, I'm just gonna have to focus 100% on my Magic tab for a while to get my Fireball and Firebolt strong enough to deal with this crap. Everything is just so bloody tanky... Anyone have a link to a skill-priority for maxing INT?
I should note that I got through my Heroic soloing almost purely with range... the only parts where I didn't was when there were few enough mobs left for me to just charge in, lullaby, Fireball then snap cast Fireball, and during the boss when the dumbass golem turns blue, forcing me to use Firebolt. Do note though, as for Firebolt, you actually need a well developed max damage gear as well as nice overture. Bone chip helps too.
What I did with range is stand by campfire starting from floor 3, use bone chips when I felt necessary, and crash shot and load magnum right away so that the fragments get the fire bonus too. Then again, I have over 800 max with my bow without buffs, so if you want to actually get through the difficulties you mentioned, might be good idea to raise your bow damge.
-
Kingofrunes wrote on 2015-07-28 18:05
I hate archery with a passion, and don't really have the gear for it. Gear for firebolt on the other hand, that I do have as I'm pretty good in the magic area of things. Basically use whichever long distance skillset you are more comfortable geared for.
Just say away from any skillset that puts you in the thick of mobs as you aren't going to survive for long.
-
Esileruf wrote on 2015-07-28 21:01
Quote from Kingofrunes;1282967:
I hate archery with a passion, and don't really have the gear for it. Gear for firebolt on the other hand, that I do have as I'm pretty good in the magic area of things. Basically use whichever long distance skillset you are more comfortable geared for.
Just say away from any skillset that puts you in the thick of mobs as you aren't going to survive for long.
Magic/Archery seems to be the strongest two skillsets in alban. Archery's Crash shot is geared towards the duality of not only area damage but heavily slamming your main target, and not aggroing. Magic as well has firebolt's single target, the immense mobility of spellwalk(requires master), and doing double fireball>crisis is stupid good. Nevermind how stupid good lightning rod is too. Ninja/gunner seems okay, puppets in SOME cases too, but 3rd and 4th floors become stupid dangerous for that w/o raincast.
Melee is suicide. Gunner becomes severely suicide when using SR. Better for the bosses, which puts alban up there in terms of having at least two good skillsets for the rooms and the boss.
-
Yanm wrote on 2015-07-28 21:40
Quote from Esileruf;1282977:
Magic/Archery seems to be the strongest two skillsets in alban. Archery's Crash shot is geared towards the duality of not only area damage but heavily slamming your main target, and not aggroing. Magic as well has firebolt's single target, the immense mobility of spellwalk(requires master), and doing double fireball>crisis is stupid good. Nevermind how stupid good lightning rod is too. Ninja/gunner seems okay, puppets in SOME cases too, but 3rd and 4th floors become stupid dangerous for that w/o raincast.
Melee is suicide. Gunner becomes severely suicide when using SR. Better for the bosses, which puts alban up there in terms of having at least two good skillsets for the rooms and the boss.
Agreed with everything, but the ONLY way I see melee being somewhat viable is being a giant, and doing GFS under a Rain Cast cloud. Aside from that, so much nope for FH and Bash. RIP.
-
ironwoman wrote on 2015-07-28 22:20
Don't forget judgement blade. It can be a super useful skill to use in Alban.
-
Yanm wrote on 2015-07-28 22:35
Quote from ironwoman;1282981:
Don't forget judgement blade. It can be a super useful skill to use in Alban.
That's true. So GFS and Judgement Blade or Gtfo melee >:/.
-
Rynn wrote on 2015-07-28 23:06
Melee is still the best way to deal with the boss and hidden room, so there's that!
-
Zeo wrote on 2015-07-29 00:48
I enjoyed it so far. I did attempt to solo heroic but I didn't come in too prepared at that time, so I'll try again later!
My only issue with the Alban is that when the golem goes into red hair, he'll spam that unavoidable ground attack, and have a really far agro range detection, if you're on another side of room and get out of crisis/hide, he'll use the ground attack to attack you.
-
Dragoolfire wrote on 2015-07-29 02:19
personaly, i find that no matter what i do, i just dont ever seem to be good enough for this game... so what one more new hard thing to me?
-
Rydian wrote on 2015-07-29 03:48
Quote from Kingofrunes;1282948:
I small difference, but combine that with the higher stats, and increased number of mobs and you get quite the disparity in the time it takes.
Heoric for example has 4 spawns on floor 3 and 4
Ah, yeah, that would definitely do it.
P.S. &*$# archers that ping and have heavy stander.
Quote from Dragoolfire;1282995:
personaly, i find that no matter what i do, i just dont ever seem to be good enough for this game... so what one more new hard thing to me?
Well, this content does have a much higher baseline level than other things.
-
gundamweed wrote on 2015-07-29 10:48
I duo'd hard on the first day alban was released, going in very naive of what was in store for me. The dude had to AFK, but I didn't mind because I thought to myself if I want to solo heroic, I should be able to solo hard first. The first two floors were no issue, but in the third floor I encountered my first set of mummies and was completely overwhelmed and died a few times.
My strategy at the time was bashing anything that moved, but that was clearly not going to work on these AHS enemies. While dead, I read in guild chat and someone mentioned kunai storm. So, why not? When i revived, I did my best to get my shuriken and hit shadow cloak and ran out of aggro's range. After recomposing myself, I tried it out and walked over just to where I could barely hit the mummies with kunai storm and run out of range.
Indeed, I found that you can keep spamming kunai storm on these mummies and you won't get aggro'd at all. I was able to form a strategy of drawing things out with my atlatl, one at a time, switching to my vales shield+fanatic, defending, and then bashing. For mummies, kunai storm and run away, then repeat. By then, my duo buddy came back and we were able to finish the dungeon.
However, when it came time for the boss, I noticed something. The golem turned green and wouldn't change color. My buddy was able to repeatedly hit it from max distance with his bone atlatl, upgraded for range, and the boss didn't aggro him at all. After getting greedy and impatient, we got too close and drew it s aggro, but we were able to keep it in place by having me spam ninja attacks supplemented by shuriken charge, while he tossed javelins. This way it was locked in place without chance of escape. It was amazing, despite the lengthy battle.
The bone atlatl looks like a boring and long way to cheese the boss, but at least it's something. With these strategies, I can definitely see how a heroic solo could be done, but the amount of resources and time required (as someone without a dependable firebolt) makes me think twice about making an attempt.