Author Topic: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut  (Read 20118 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #15 on: 06 March 2019, 12:17:05 »
@Torcer funny thing you mentioned the Champion class - the only toon in vanilla TQ that I completed this challenge with was exactly that!

EDIT: Whoops, didn't mean vanilla TQ, it was in Immortal Throne ;D

@botebote77 Yeah, as far as I know Petrify indeed works on them. But it's not like one can reliably cast it, unless the Dream Mastery is involved. It's one of the reasons why I dislike Dream-based classes and consider them broken. Even if one puts aside everything else (and there's plenty more overpowered stuff in there), the fact that they're able to apply a mechanic that almost no monsters in the game have defense against, is just wrong. But enough of that - I can spend the whole day ranting about how the 2 newest masteries are poorly balanced :P
« Last Edit: 06 March 2019, 14:52:16 by tqrunner »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline botebote77

  • mage boy
  • TQ Titans
  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1612
  • Country: 00
  • Karma: +14/-2
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: ?
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #16 on: 06 March 2019, 13:24:41 »
the only reason why you feel dream and rune are OP is because..... you like hybrids  ;D
but for non-hybrid toons, dream is just a support mastery.. a very good support mastery.. but ultimately just a support mastery
and rune is just a squishy trying hard int version of wafare
they're only good if you build em good  O0
i are TQ titans
i are many people

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #17 on: 08 March 2019, 02:43:08 »
Greetings from Rhodes!

As anticipated, Act III was a piece of cake thanks to the Ardent Greaves acquired back in Act I. There wasn't a single moment when Eluria's life was threatened - neither against the Tiger Monk (whom we encountered several times while searching for a good Sabertooth), nor against Dragonians. Advancing through the act was quick and easy, but farming up the good gear required some hard work :D

The first stop was the marsh next to the Jade Palace waypoint, where a bunch of Viny Growth charms were collected. A couple of those had bonus HP regen and were used on the Stonebiner's Cuffs we had stashed and the Hallowed Helm, kindly offered by one of the merchants in the Babylon outskirts. The torso armor was enhanced with an Essence of Set's Betrayal (with piercing damage bonus), as Eluria's HP regen was already excellent at that point and she just needed more damage to make the runs as quick as possible. The first (crappy) Sabertooth dropped in that same area, but without any points in the shield passives it didn't look very appealing. At least not as appealing as Lei Gong's Winged Mace, which dropped somewhere around Chang'an and added a lot of power to Eluria's Batter attacks. It made for an especially nasty combo together with the Frozen Buckler that she got her hands on.

The next stop were the Tigermen camps in Jinghe Wetlands (Three Sisters quest). It's a great place to get levels, gold and gear. The purple Tigermen associated with the quest can drop items with some very nice mods - like, for example, the Veteran's Champion's Coat of Rejuvenation that Eluria found O0 . Of course, there's balance in all things so all of the Sabertooth swords she found were crappy. In the end, she settled for a Poisonous one. She equipped it at level 31, when she finally unlocked all of the shield passives and a Shen-Nong relic was completed. I have to admit, though - smacking enemies with the Winged Mace was very enjoyable while it lasted :))

Next was the Telkine. I tend to get carried away with that guy, so I've come up with a rule of thumb - the farming stops when 3 Monkey King relics are completed (2 for the equipped rings and 1 for the swap-in ring). Any other usable goodies picked up along the way are welcome. In this case the extra stuff came in the form of a Soul Shiver recipe, a Guan-Yu relic and a set of Jade Greaves. I don't normally go for blue footwear this early, but those greaves rolled high both in resist (38%) and speed (17%). It felt like a nice synergy with the movement speed bonus from Guan-Yu's relic, as well as the evasion that both provide. Not to mention that it kinda matched the overall color scheme:

Spoiler for Hiden:

The last stop in Eluria's farming route was the jungle area between the Great Wall waypoint and Shaanxi Fields. The goal: an Exotic Carapace shield (dropped by Tropical Arachnos). She had to farm 5 of those until she finally got a decent one. With this, her equipment was complete (the jewelry was already in place - all pieces acquired by the Chang'an magic vendor in between runs).

So here we are, level 37, with the following skill spec:
https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc53b553b553b5.html?mastery=Juggernaut&master1=1&master2=5&sa=5&m1=32-1-0-8-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-1-0&m2=32-0-1-1-6-1-3-0-4-6-0-1-1-1-4-1-1-1-0-0-4-0

The shield passives are kept at 4/6 so that with +2 to all skills they reach 6/6. I don't think that it's worth investing more points in those early on, as past level 6 the proc chance only increases by 1%. Of course, later in the game they will get maxed. Armor Handling and Resilience are the first 2 skills that we max. Next on the list is the trio of Eruption/Volativity/Earth Enchantment - this will be our boss killer. The skill points that we get awarded in Act IV will go to Stone Skin and Focus, so that we can get some extra mileage from the +skills items.

Here's the gear:

 * Head: Hallowed Babylonian Great Helm of Essence - enhanced with a Viny Growth with HP reg bonus
 * Torso: Veteran's Champion's Coat of Rejuvenation - enhanced with a Guan-Yu's relic with MS bonus
 * Arms: Stonebinder's Cuffs (of Life) - enhanced with a Viny Growth with HP reg bonus
 * Feet: Jade Greaves
 * Amulet: Prismatic (22%/12%/12) Talisman of Life (145) - enhanced with an Isis' relic with energy leech bonus
 * Ring 1: Molten (!) Band (87/18) - enhanced with a Monkey King's relic with intelligence bonus
 * Ring 2: Accursed Loop (26%) - enhanced with a Monkey King's relic with MS bonus
 * Primary weapon: Poisonous Sabertooth - enhanced with a Shen-Nong's relic with attack speed slow bonus (33%)
                             Exotic Carapace (26% lightning res/17% pierce res/22% poison res) - enhanced with a Rigid Carapace with bleeding res bonus
 * Secondary weapon: Good old Hand of Lycurgus // Phrygian Shield of Rejuvenation - enhanced with an Archimedes Relic with fire res bonus
 * Artifact: Shroud of Eternal Night

HP regen/sec: 63.55
DPS: 750
OA: 248
DA: 352

And the attributes:

 * STR: 190
 * INT: 130
 * DEX: 90
 * Reserved attribute points: 8

So far we've only raised our raw HP by 200 extra points. We'll likely add another 200 and stop there, because we've got some nice HP bonuses from the amulet/SBC. Lightning resistance is almost maxed out, so we're ready to kick some Dactyl ass 8). Pierce resistance isn't very impressive (37%), but our Veteran's armor provides 20% CTaP, so we should do just fine against Machae archers. The OA and DA are kinda low - this is something that we'll have to work on.

If all goes well, next update will be from Corinth. Until then - take care! ;)

« Last Edit: 08 March 2019, 11:10:46 by tqrunner »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #18 on: 09 March 2019, 10:47:55 »
Greetings from Corinth!

Act IV was completed pretty quickly, as there weren't any farming runs involved. Don't get me wrong - there's plenty of good items that can be acquired there, but after all the tedious farming done in Act III I felt like spending more time on the move. Eluria's only stop was at Hades' palace where we had to reset the seed several times in order for a Dactyl to spawn. The fight was a weird one - although it went according to plan (the Dactyl cast both his spells bringing Eluria's HP to 1/3, and then died) there was a bothersome part about it. Even though I kept pressing the Rally hotkey, the spell just wouldn't go off (yeah, we basically killed the thing without healing at all ;D). I made a recording of the fight and watched it several times afterwards. One can clearly hear (and see) the button being spammed and there's definitely no disruption effect taking place to prevent the cast from happening. I suspect that my own right clicks might've interrupted the cast animation of the spell, which is a problem, because one does not want to stop right clicking a Dactyl before all of his energy is drained. NOTE TO SELF: on my next (Defense-based) toon I should try maxing out Disruption to see if I can prevent him from casting anything at all during the fight.

Anyway, apart from the Dactyl the only other tough opponent was Cerberus. For that fight Eluria swapped the Stonebinder's Cuffs for an item with poison resistance. She only showed at the door for a second to provoke the enemy to use his Crack Fire ability and then stepped back in the hallway to clash with him there. The hallway offers limited space, but it's sufficient to dodge the Acid Puddle, which was his next attack. Upon entering the hallway, Cerberus used his third ranged ability, Acid Breath, and then engaged Eluria in melee combat. Her HP regen wasn't high enough to compensate for the massive amount of damage coming from the bites, so she only traded hits for a few seconds (to keep her opponent on top of the Eruption while draining all of his energy). As soon as Cerberus' energy was gone, she moved into the room without fear of him using Crack Fire again and then kited him for while until Rally and Eruption were available again.

Eluria finished Act IV with a couple of great findings - Royal Cavalryman's Boots and an Aristotle's Jewel of Endowment. The boots will be very useful in Epic when we meet Cerberus again, because they provide exactly 15% damage reduction from Beasts, which, in combination with any armor piece that has "of the Glade" suffix, would give us the maximum allowed damage reduction (50%). The jewel has already been equipped in place of the Accursed Loop - the boost to INT and OA that it provides is exactly what we need. Also, energy drain can be detrimental in Act V where there's a lot of monsters with built-in Reflection. Of course, we'll still keep an Accursed ring as a swap-in option for boss fights.

Since the last update we've picked up 3 levels. Together with the quest reward from "The Dust of a Titan" that makes 11 skill points, which were invested as follows:

 * 1 point in Focus
 * 1 point in Stone Skin
 * Defensive Reaction raised from 1 --> 2
 * Rally raised from 3 --> 5
 * Eruption/Volativity/EE all raised from 1 --> 3

In terms of attributes, INT was raised to 130 and DEX was raised to 110. Health was increased by another 200 points, so we're currently sitting at 3600. Over the next 10 levels we'll be saving up all attribute points and when we hit Epic we'll decide how to spend them depending on the item drops.

HP regen hasn't changed, DPS is good (almost 900 now), OA is a little over 300 (still not satisfactory, but we're making progress).

Next update will be in good old Helos, until then - take care! ;)

« Last Edit: 09 March 2019, 11:28:36 by tqrunner »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline botebote77

  • mage boy
  • TQ Titans
  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1612
  • Country: 00
  • Karma: +14/-2
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: ?
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #19 on: 09 March 2019, 11:42:29 »
NOTE TO SELF: on my next (Defense-based) toon I should try maxing out Disruption to see if I can prevent him from casting anything at all during the fight.
yes do that.. and post the result.
spellbreaker used to make Dactyl easy
Spoiler for Hiden:

although that was dated January 2018 and i think TQ has received numerous updates after that

also, post pics next time

edit: and yep that was me playing but nope it's not my char
« Last Edit: 09 March 2019, 11:44:31 by botebote77 »
i are TQ titans
i are many people

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #20 on: 10 March 2019, 00:20:31 »
Pics are problematic because all screenshots that I take ingame appear black for some reason. In order to post that pic of Eluria's outfit in Act III I had to make a recording and use that for the SS (hence the crappy quality). It's too much work, so I'm only going to do it on rare occasions...

Not Yet Rated!

Offline Medea Fleecestealer

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2310
  • Country: ch
  • Karma: +24/-0
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +1
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #21 on: 10 March 2019, 08:59:23 »
Are you just pasting the screenshot into whatever programme you're using?  If so, don't.  Use Print Screen and there should be a screenshots folder under My Documents\My Games\Titan Quest Immortal Throne they'll save automatically to.  If there isn't, then make one.  Screenshots will then save to there and you can access them that way.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #22 on: 10 March 2019, 09:43:30 »
Greetings from Helos!

Act V and it's terrible voice acting are finally behind us ;D

I kind of dislike the Ragnarok arc, so I try to spend as little time there as possible (only completing side quests that yield good rewards). Of course, some farming had to be done, else Eluria would've finished Normal difficulty starved for levels and gear. My choice of farming spots in Act V is simple - first the Dvergr Overlords and their juicy majestic chest, then Land's End.

Yesterday's session left with me with a bitter-sweet taste. On one hand, we found a very good Master Seer Robe and a nice shield (The Boar of Witham), however, once again we failed to acquire a good weapon despite our hard efforts (pretty much the story of Act III ::)). Eluria must've done way over a hundred runs in Land's End, but neither of the giants that she fell had Raven's Beak or an Executioner with good damage mods. There are a couple of other items that we were hoping to find in Normal, too - most notably Sirona's Leggings and Arubianus Helmet. Well, at least those two can be dropped by Megalesios, so I guess we'll pay him an extended visit ;)

Eluria is now level 50, with the following skill spec:
https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc53b553b553b5.html?mastery=Juggernaut&master1=1&master2=5&sa=10&m1=32-10-0-8-1-1-0-1-0-0-1-0-8-0-1-0-0-0-10-0-10-0&m2=32-0-1-1-6-3-5-0-4-6-1-1-1-1-4-2-1-1-0-0-4-0

The trio of Eruption/EE/Volativity is almost maxed - just in time for the numerous boss runs we'll be doing in Epic. You'll also notice that we've invested quite heavily in Soften Metal. It's a multi-purpose skill that boosts both our defensive and offensive capabilities (by reducing enemy's OA/armor), while improving looks (8)). Of course, all of that comes at a hefty price - the skill drains a lot of energy, so in order to maintain it, the torso armor needs to be enhanced with an Essence of the Stew of Eldhrimnir. This means one less Viny Growth charm and it hurts the HP regen, but it's well worth it, considering that the relic also provides a significant boost to STR and comes with some nice completion bonuses. Once we get our hands on an Arubianus Helmet we'll forget about any energy issues and this will give us more options for good torso armors in late Epic.

@botebote77 asked for some screenshots, so I spent half my morning putting together this ugly image - I hope you enjoy ;D

Spoiler for Hiden:

I've only included the new items and the two character screens - ain't nobody got time to take pictures of the whole inventory! (need to grind that Telkine >:D)
« Last Edit: 10 March 2019, 14:48:14 by tqrunner »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #23 on: 10 March 2019, 12:25:33 »
Are you just pasting the screenshot into whatever programme you're using?  If so, don't.  Use Print Screen and there should be a screenshots folder under My Documents\My Games\Titan Quest Immortal Throne they'll save automatically to.  If there isn't, then make one.  Screenshots will then save to there and you can access them that way.

It's the screenshots in that folder that appear black for some reason.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline Medea Fleecestealer

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2310
  • Country: ch
  • Karma: +24/-0
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +1
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #24 on: 10 March 2019, 12:43:06 »
Um. strange.  Are you using Print Screen to take them?  Usually it's when you do that then then paste them straight into something like Paint that you get the black screen.  May be a bug in the game though.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #25 on: 10 March 2019, 14:03:42 »
Yeah, I'm using Print Screen (I'm not aware of any other options), but I'm not pasting the screenshots in Paint - I'm opening those straight from the TQ folder where they're stored and they're black.

On a side note, does anyone know if in Ragnarok there's a way to claim the skill point for killing Nessus if you did not talk to Leonidas right afterwards, but met him outside of Athens instead?

EDIT: Okay, nevermind, I found the solution posted on steamcommunity:

"You could backup your save file to another location, just leave your [player.chr] file where it is.
Start the game and load your character, teleport to Sparta, kill the boss again and talk to Leonidas.
After you get the quest reward, quit the game, keep [player.chr] file, delete everything else, and restore the backup files earlier."

Too bad that I didn't have this info in the past - last couple of times it happened to me (some 5-6 years ago) I ended up deleting my character because I would get triggered every time I opened the skill tab :)
« Last Edit: 10 March 2019, 14:36:59 by tqrunner »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline AlcyonV

  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 73
  • Country: fr
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #26 on: 10 March 2019, 16:52:59 »
For the black screenshots, alt-tab from the game to desktop, then alt-tab back to the game. The next screenshots will be fine. Old TQ bug.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline Torcer

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 13
  • Country: us
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: ?
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #27 on: 10 March 2019, 18:10:22 »
Yeah, I'm using Print Screen (I'm not aware of any other options), but I'm not pasting the screenshots in Paint - I'm opening those straight from the TQ folder where they're stored and they're black.

On a side note, does anyone know if in Ragnarok there's a way to claim the skill point for killing Nessus if you did not talk to Leonidas right afterwards, but met him outside of Athens instead?

EDIT: Okay, nevermind, I found the solution posted on steamcommunity:

"You could backup your save file to another location, just leave your [player.chr] file where it is.
Start the game and load your character, teleport to Sparta, kill the boss again and talk to Leonidas.
After you get the quest reward, quit the game, keep [player.chr] file, delete everything else, and restore the backup files earlier."

Too bad that I didn't have this info in the past - last couple of times it happened to me (some 5-6 years ago) I ended up deleting my character because I would get triggered every time I opened the skill tab :)
Steam has the ability to use F12 to take a screen shot.
« Last Edit: 10 March 2019, 19:02:46 by Torcer »

Not Yet Rated!

Offline AlcyonV

  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 73
  • Country: fr
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Awards
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #28 on: 10 March 2019, 18:47:40 »
I mean the printscreen key, saving the pictures in the screenshots folder of the game.

Not Yet Rated!

Offline tqrunner

  • Member
  • *
  • Topic Author
  • Posts: 41
  • Country: bg
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Awards
  • Time Zone: +2
Re: Diary of a teenage Juggernaut
« Reply #29 on: 10 March 2019, 21:24:55 »
I wasn't aware of that, thank you!

I try to keep the alt-tabbing to a minimum, because every time I do it the game colors change (as if someone pumped up the brightness level while I was tabbed). Another bug I suppose ;D

Tags:
 


SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal