Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Who's playing DKS on nightmare difficulty ?

Good day citizens, and thanks for tuning in to WDKS. I'm your anchor AND fantasy, Richard of Aleroth. It is rumored, that the Orobas Fjords is being taken over by an evil sorceress. Let's go on location, at the Fjords, with our YUMMY correspondent, Elsa. Elsa, are you there?

Yes, and thank you Richard for that VERY elaborate introduction. Reports have been coming in from all over the valley, that the evil sorceress Sonoura, aka The Naked Nun, has entered the Orobas Fjords in an attempt to completely clear the area, to the point of the barrier. I'm here now, with an eye witness, Crabbe.

Crabbe, I understand you had a personal encounter with the sorceress. Can you tell us what happened?

Oh yes, my pleasure Ms Elsa. It was very difficult to focus. Her charm is very overpowering. They don't call her "The Naked Nun" for nothing, you see. Just her mere presence, with those exposed...

UM...YES, I think we get the picture. Now, about the incident...

Ah...sorry...I initially spoke with her about a mine that had been taken over by Imps. She left here for the Pri Mor Cave. A while later, I spotted her leaving the cave and making her way towards the mine. She is a very poetic swimmer. It puts you in an almost trance-like state. Watching her heart-shaped...

OH! BY THE DIVINE! Get on already...

Yes...Well...She parted from sight, around that bend. After several hours, she returned with an item.

What sort of item, Crabbe?

It was the mask of Alutiig! I couldn't believe it! She informed me the mine was clear and wandered off, back into the valley, and kept muttering something about a lvl 23.

A lvl 23? Hmm...How strange...Well, that's all from the Fjords, Richard, back to you.

Thank you, my darling...And that's all the time we have for now. Stay tuned to WDKS for further updates. This is your Champion of Aleroth reminding the lassies to leave your backdoor open and your straps loose.

After entering Maxos temple I was a little less than half way to level 17. In the mirror room I tried opening the empty barrel that spawns 3 walking armours, since in D2:ED I cleared the room with a bow and never realized there was anything special about it. The barrel is straight into the room, and then on the right, just past the half height wall. Of course it was an easy fight, but then I thought I should check if you could spawn more than one group at a time. If you open and close the barrel quickly, then the summoned opponents will stay grouped together; if you delay, then some will stay in place and some will move towards you, making them harder to deal with. The first time I tried, I opened and closed the barrel once, then stepped closer when the camera angle moved, so the spawning point moved, as well, making the resulting fight (after a third summon) a little hectic (at one point really having to dodge and use a potion). I tried again opening the barrel quickly 4 times and then jumping backwards, and had a much easier time with them. I started to leave, and then thought, 'hey, do you know what might be fun?' and then saved and went and opened the barrel about 12 or 15 times. I got hit a lot at first, but wasn't taking too much damage (needed a potion, but didn't have to get out of the line of fire). Static charge and retaliation auras were being triggered almost constantly the first 5 seconds (often 3 at a time), but my second explosive arrow into the group took out the majority of them (it was great fun seeing so many opponents go down at once). While cleaning up the last few walking armours, I went up to level 17.
I did not have my creature summoned for this. It might help to give them an alternate target, but they might also move more with another target, making exploding arrows less effective.

The fight with Amdusias was over relatively quickly. I ran up, we both fired off an arrow, I got hit with an explosive arrow and was stunned for a couple seconds, taking a little bit of damage during that time. I got a couple shots in just as my creature caught up and fired off a volley of Magic Missiles, and the fight was over. I got ok loot, but I wanted to try the fight again, anyway. Next time I jumped at an angle coming over the rise in the path, and avoided Amdusias' first attack, and the fight was over in a couple seconds. In the quest reward screen I had gold selected (after experience) and almost accepted it, but then noticed the bow in the options and decided to check it out. The base stats were decent, but it was well worth getting for the level 8 Increased Damage enchantment on it (I had level 7 from a set item in Lovis' room). The actual loot drop was forgettable.

After a trip to get Dreavan to upgrade the enchantment on my bow, I headed back to the fjords. Clearing the beach by the waterfall and swimming over to the one behind the anti-dragon shields brought me up to level 18. Clearing the path past the depleted ore mine brought me to level 19, at which point I figured I should go kill another rabbit to trigger the killer bunny (I stopped deliberately killing rabbits when I was two away, but accidentally took out another since then). The first time I killed him I got a couple equipment pieces with upgrades for my magic damage and ranged protection enchantments; nice, but not great. The second time I took out the killer bunny (using the same 'jump on a rock' technique) I got two pieces of potentially usable equipment: the amulet has +2 Stun Arrows, +6 Ranged Damage, 2 charm slots and 2 enchantment slots, while the helmet has +5 Vitality, +6 Spirit, 2 charm slots and 1 enchantment slot. I'm still wearing the Talisman of the North for when I go turn in my remaining quests, but after I get to Sentinel Island I'll have to compare these to my current equipment, and see if I have the ingredients to upgrade the existing low level enchantments.
I also used both of Bellegar's teleporters, that you need the password for. The lone chest gave me an amulet with +2 Explosive Arrows, +5 Dexterity, 2 charm slots and 1 enchantment slot. I sold the 'Spirit of the Forest' amulet that I bought for the +1 Explosive Arrows bonus, but didn't get much for it considering it was never used.

The issue then was how far I could level before I needed to complete quests. Since leveling was so fast, I figured I should just keep going and save each level, so I could reload if I needed to.
The first level of the mine brought me up to level 20, and the remainder almost got me to level 21. At the end I found a ring with +45 hit points, +4 Critical Chance, 2 charm slots, and 1 enchantment slot with level 7 Static Charge.
I leveled after the first 2 opponents in the waterfall cave, and got half way to level 22 finishing off the accessible areas of the cave.

With my 'just turned level 21' save I headed back to Broken Valley and turned in all the quests, keeping track of how much experience each gave, and got almost up to level 22. There was no way for me to reach level 23 before heading to Sentinel Island, so I decided to reload my save outside the waterfall cave, and go check some merchants. I got a bow from Martis with a level 9 Increase Magical Damage enchantment on it, but not much from anyone else. I went and finished off what I could in the waterfall cave again, and returned to the merchants; this time I got an amulet from Dr Needleman with a Static Charge 7 enchantment (I had it on a ring I have equipped, as well, but don't currently have the ingredients to remove it and add it back), IIRC a helmet from Lamotte with Life Line 8, Butcher 8 and Fire Curse 9 from Martis and Melee Protection 8 from Mara.

Based on my experience and the rewards from quests I had left to turn in, I figured the way to level with the least amount of experience points was to complete the full 'hunting we shall go' quest, report on the bandit camp location, give all my goblin hearts to Richard, give the scrying stone to the priest and confront the deserter. I didn't really want to loose Martis as a trader, but excluding that quest led to less optimal solutions. I wasn't going to level up much more than a couple times again anyway before he would become unavailable (I should have been checking him each time I leveled, but only did so when I first entered the camp, once looking for an enchantment ingredient and then on level 20 and 21).
I calculated that should put me 30 experience points over level 22, but for some reason ended up 28 points shy (rounding differences in the displayed experience vs actual experience from the Wisdom bonuses could account for up to 14 experience difference). I'm not sure what happened there, but going through the bandit camp was enough to get to level 22 (had that not been enough, there were still a few rabbits around, and a room full of chickens in the waterfall cave, for 1 exp each). I had been mindreading everyone, so the only ones left were the soldier outside the bandit camp, Locke's cart and David on the path to the fjords.

After heading to Sentinel Island I am now level 23. I will not be getting much experience from opponents there, so the extra experience from entering the fjords early and from the first mindread on the island may or may not make up for that (I'm guessing it will, but not by a significant amount).

I have not distributed any stat or skill points since I reached level 16, and currently have 35 stat points and 10 skill points in reserve.

We finally got around to facing Laiken.

We made it all the way through the Dep Ore Mine with no probs. Using the same proven tactics as before. Even the Battle with Alutiig wasn't bad at all. It took a little time, but no more than the others really. Sonoura stayed at the top of the stairs and put on a ring to boost Charm. Charming both of the Gobs summoned by Al, she runs down to join in the fun. It was like a big blue pinata at a kids birthday party, and everybody was taking turns. Being 5 on 1, there was nothing he could do.

After clearing the OF, from everything we could access, I turned in the quest for Crabbe. That put us just over lvl 23. I done some exploring and looting chests that were left over in the valley and the island. The chests through the tower and the OF were left for later, to save space in my inventory, as I would still have access to them after the tower.

On the Island, I was able to make it up on the ridges for some extra loot chests and made my way around to the ridge on the right of the entrance, as you face the island in the first encounter with her. I remember getting up there from D2:ED, but this location had a posted notice that I don't remember (again, big surprise there) being there.

With everything done, it was time. Still with lvl 10 stats, and 48 in reserve along with 10 skill pts, we went to see Razakel...

The encounter with "Little Ms Lisp" was no contest. Sassan, Jr and Dino kept the Sum Abomos at bay, while Sonoura worked her magic and was able to blind Lispy. As Lispy was gettn' her stiches removed, one of the Abomos ran over to aid her. One quick shot of Charm and he was sent back.

Razi got in a couple of shots as she charmed his minions, but after a health pot and some dodging, he gave up. Sonoura sent the guys away to recharge and waited for her mana to go up after calling back Jr. Not actually having a real gameplan down, I told Sassan to call anybody she could. In previous playthroughs, I always had her to heal me while I zoned in on Razi. I created a save at this point and prepared myself to add stat/skills for what was surly going to be bad.

I thought about the mindread for the chest and remembered that Lai's sword had +2 Sum Mst. That might come in handy for later. When the action started, it was like a friggn' BAR-ROOM-BRAWL!!

With Sassan, Sonoura and Razi, all summoning, there were creatures running EVERYWHERE! You couldn't tell Rex from the others (good or bad), Dino from Razi or whatever! There name tags were flashing like strobes, so targeting was neer impossible. Sonoura was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Other than the occasional Charm or Blind, it was a lot of jumping, dodging, playing Ring-Around-The-Rosy with the throne and taking cover from corner to corner, all the while slamming pots.

At one point she ended up trying to take cover, behind the cage located on your left as the fight starts, and realizes that you CANNOT TARGET THROUGH THE CAGE! One step back and a quick flip and "Little Ms Sweet Briches" is untouchable. Now it's after the three min mark and pots are gettn' low. She stands there and waits for everything to recharge, as Jr and Rex go down. By now Sassan's guy or guys is grouped at the throne with Lai and Razi. Sonoura flips out of the cage, keeping it between her and the throne, and calls Dino while Jr's cooldown resets. This of course, draws an Abomo and he get turned around with charm. Now it's another flip back in the cage to wait for Jr. As she waits, I noticed a gap in the corner of the cage, facing the throne. Sometimes Razi or Lai would flash for a brief moment when there was a clear shot.

From previously using Mag Mis on locked targets, held from cover, I could use this...

Another flip out of the cage and she called Jr, and a fresh Rex to fill in for Dino with a 25% health bar. A quick chug of a mana pot, and the now approaching, Abomo was turned around with a little Charm. Jumping back into the cage, you couldn't hardly tell who or what was going on at that throne, but it was fun to watch.

With Dino waiting in cooldown I was able to pick out Razi. He slipped into targeting for a brief moment through the gap in the cage. Long enough for me to get a lock, and it was spam, spam, spam and Razi goes down. The fight was by far the longest (roughly 5-6 min) and most challenging yet, (until the cage part) with this character. Closely comparing it to the final fight of D2:ED on my first playthrough.

What started out as a gag, playing just for kicks and posed doubts of ever going anywhere, has turned into my favorite character of all, bar none.

Having made it to the tower, half naked and gimped with lvl 10 stats, I have no doubt Sonoura and the gang will provide several more hours of humor and enjoyment.

I was bitter and disappointed when the demo came out, BUT because of this forum and the people in it, I gave it another chance and made a complete turn around.

So thanks to you guys and a BIG THANKS TO LARIAN for a great game.

That was hilarious!

I want to hear more broadcasts about the famed Naked Nun!

I'm pleasantly suprised your half naked Biscop (Nun) goes well so far and I think (reading your posts) it's no problem for Senoura to play to the end of Flames of Vengeance

Once I start again and try such ... not the same, but comparingly with your Senoura ... and of course with a female hero ... hmmmmmmm ....

Good luck and have Fun Senoura & Rex & ... charmed enemies & ... everybody who loves reading Senoura's adventures ...



PS :
@Raze & Senoir Cinco :
funny to read you both are already a high level when go to Mindread the Island and go to take over the Battle Tower. I did it this way earlier with my Ego Draconis Xbox version. I was almost level 22 when I first spread my wings ... But I remember I found it a little boring afterwards to be already L22 ... Now I can fly the first time at L19 .
But of course : as long as you've Fun ...

So, I started playing Nightmare too. Mage character.

Some limitations though. I am making a "lock list" (maybe Lancet will be interested :)) of all chest. As such I can never raise my lockpicking (what if it's level 1?) and keep these items. And have to keep a few skill points spare of course.
Also trying to get as many uniques as possible in my chest. From the lowliest to the highest. Probably means hauling some quite a long time around after their usefulness. But that's for later.

Also I was going for maximum XP, first killing foes, then delivering quests. But darn, killing Goblins took so long and with 2 hits I was dead (still lvl 1). So I delivered my quests, upgraded magical missile, started dual wielding a +8 magic damage and +4 magic damage weapon, and now everyone drops like flies to my magic missile spam. Time to teach the skeletons and Goblins I used to run from kiting.
We'll see how effective this tactic remains...

Maybe this can help?
Most of the chests are Lockpick level 3 I think. In the beginning I only put 1 point in lockpick in Farglow to open the chest nearby the Mage and I put a second point around level 8 or 10 (or later). I put a third point in Lockpick just before I start taking over the Battle Tower, because of 1 chest in Broken Valley Village is L4 (why I don't know). Since I know Jagon's Necklage give 1 point in Lockpick I hold that Necklage as long as possible.

I have make a list of all chests, but not their Lockpick-level . I count around 150 chests (and 15 small box'es ) for Broken Valley & Sentinel Island you can find before taking over the Battle Tower.

You can find many "keys" to open locked chests, so I always first search everywhere so I never missing a key.

I do like you: try first to kill some enemies. But since I love the "trading" aspect in RPG's and for sure in the DKS(!) I always try to do first the Mindreadings and/or Quests for a trader so he or she lowered his/her prizes ! and many times you can solve a problem (quesst) but NOT turning in the reward for that quest ! So I do to have "Locke" as a nice cheap trader very early.

But I never took the extra XP when going for a Quest Reward. I always took the extra Gold

Good Luck & much Fun with your nightmare mode playthrough Hassat Hunter !

After getting settled in the tower, We returned to the OF and took down the barrier. Sonoura called Jr and waited fro her mana to charge a little, as usual, before entering eagle's Nest to face Lord John and Lady Kara. (BTW two of my favorite NPCs) Bad move at first. Jr was shut out by the barrier over the hatch and I got a little button happy. Calling Dino and canceling him almost immediately. Leaving Sonoura with her arse hanging out and a low lvl Rex. Between doing her dodge/jump routine and spamming pots like an addic, she was able to survive the cooldowns of Jr and Dino. Once they made it in, things turned around for the better. LJ and LK were immune to Blind and Charm, so the boys were on their own. Sonoura stood by the cage making goo-goo eyes at the female champion.

With that out of the way, a little pat on the bum of the released champion, and the Damian Duo set to trade upstairs, we went back to the tower to restock the pots.

Returning to the OF, we talked to Laura. I thought the MR from her gave a skillbook. It said "gained new insights", but resulted in XPs and no book. Hmmmmm... not sure what's going on there...

After Laura, we went into see Barnabus. Dropping in on him, he sumnd an Abomo and hit Sonoura with a magic shot that dropped her health down about a third, while she called Jr and Dino. Occupied with the fellas Barnabus never fired another shot. With a quick hit of charm, the Abomo turned on it's master. A few shots later and Jr's hands glowed with warning. BAM! Killing blow of 700+! Leaving the Abomo's Charm to time out and he went down. With the XPs from that, we were a few K from lvl 24.

Having already started the seed quests from the statues in Prim Cave, before facing Lai, we talked to Siemeon and went to see Charlie. He was so damn strong, Jr's health went down rather quick, even having Hps approaching 2000. O'Charlie was, however, affected by Blind and with Dino pounding on his head, it was over shortly after that.I figured from the very few XPs gained from him, after the MR, and the Xps from the quest of Yagg, we should break lvl 24. We did.

I went ahead and turned in the quest for Siemeon, although I probably should have waited, and returned to the tower for a little one on one w/ Herm. WOW! WOW! WOW!

With a now rather calm and satisfied Sonoura, I decided to respec her skills and use the 15 I had in reserve to max them out to lvl 24. I was tired of constantly swapping out jewelry. Still having those lvl 10 stats, and 52 pts in the bank, I turned her into a pure Priest with no magic skills and no added Dragon skills. She currently only had 1 in ea of Mag Mis, Fir Bal and Un Arm. (with very little use if any) So I used those to help max out the Priest as much as I could.

These are her current lvl 24 stats/skills and armor w/ 52 stats in reserve.

HP----367
MA----332

VIT---15
SPR---9
STR---9
DEX---7
INT---23

WEP DMG---36-43
MEL RES---16.84%
RAG RES---17.03%
MAG RES---16.45%

COND BDY---11%
HGT RFX----7%
IND WIL----28%

LOK PIC---5
SUM UND---9
FEAR------4
CHARM-----4
SUM MST---3
CURSE-----7
BLIND-----3
SUM DEM---3

OROBAS BRAC AND OROBAS LEGGINGS

Along with various jewelry to add +1 or +2 to each skill used as well as maxing MR and WIS to 5 as needed. Oh, and a +1 Hide n Shad for an emergy.

For now, it's farming for Dia,to drain the one-shot-stop traveling merch near the harbor for his 50K in gold.

Nope, so far most are level 2, with a few 1's and 3's (still pre-Dragon Knight). The 4 in Broken Valley sure is the odd one out.
So far 2 seems best, and pays itself back anyways (2 skillbooks).

Same. But not all chests have keys. Otherwise lockpick would be rather useless .

I always take the XP. Higher level means higher random loot means more money. And useful random items. And power. So not that hard a choice .

Thnx.
Btw, I also keep account of my rabbit genocide, and it seems all rabbits from Farglow aren't taken into account for the Killer Rabbit. So I wonder, would the Orbjas be if not triggered in Broken Valley? (not gonna try that though...)

Derelict Tunnels.
A trigger plate spawning mage in close quarters; bad trouble. I survived... with 0 HP! Guess you need less then 0 to die.
Then triggered another plate. Fireball. I thought you couldn't die on these plates (minimal 1 HP) but that proved me wrong. Guess that's the punishment for being that lucky just 1 plate before .

Sonoura is currently lvl 28 1/2. Still running w/ lvl 10 stats (65 in reserve) and using as many skill pts that her lvl will allow, for the Priest Tree. We have cleared all the enemies in the Fjords,(aside from the Fly Forts and that Salvari something) and have completed only a few quests. Taking the others to the point of killing all the enemies associated with it, but waiting to turn them in later.

We cleared Broken Valley of the towers and moved to clear Stone's, to try and lvl a few times, before taking on any ground forces. Once Stone's towers were down, I thought I would try out Xan and Ise. Thinking that Url's Gaunts would be nice to have at this point. I dropped in from above the No-Fly-Zone, like in my previous playthrough, to try to avoid other ground enemies until I had the gaunts. I stood Sonoura just outside the entrance, to the area of Xan and Ise, to call Jr and wait for her mana to recharge. All the while, pondering a plan of attack. I figured taking them on from this position would not be that much of a problem, as I could easily step just inside the arena, to trigger the initial dialog w/ Xan, and then duck behind the exterior wall to call in Dino. I knew it would take several seconds for Xan and Ise to make it out there. With the boys meeting them at the entrance, this would give Sonoura the time to run around to the upper ledge overlooking the arena.

Dino went down first. They both concentrated in him for some reason. Sonoura called in Rex to backup Jr, whose health was still at 90% of his 5200+ total. With Rex firing energy balls from the ledge, at Ise, and JR working on her as well, her health dropped into the trigger zone for Jr to land Fat right before Xan finished him off.

Xan then rushes up the incline to our posistion and takes on Rex in a blow for blow, giving Sonoura the window to make it around the back of the upper structure to wait for Jr to cool down. Xan took down Rex and was far enough away from Sonoura, that he started walking back down the hill.

After the short break in the action, and with a fresh Jr and Dino, Sonoura and the guys make the move on Xan. Being distracted with J and D, Sonoura flanked him and started in with her little weakass Kung-Pows. Along with the continious dam from both 90% Poision and 90% Spon Comb, it wasn't long before Jr had the hot hands. A final blow with Fat and the gaunts were ours. Creating a new save at this point, Sonoura runs over and takes out the gen to drop the barrier.

Then I got to thinking, 'What If?'

What if it was possible to Charm the Flying Demon's, summoned by Xan? I had a previous save, just before the drop-in. Soooo, here we go! Turns out, they CAN be Charmed AND Blinded. The trick is, to get them charmed before they can wreck havoc on your butt. It doesn't take but about...well let's see...oh yeh, ONE! hit to kill ya. So we tried from the starting spot of the entrance. Using a bow (the only weapon equipped since the testing at the island) to take out the gen, to trigger the demons. No shame in that, right?

After the 5th try, I was able to Charm one of them. They both went at it facing each other, only a few meters apart, and hovering right above the entrance of the arena. Her current lvl of Charm lasts for 60 sec and allows 2 enemies at once. Charmed separately, and with a 20 sec cooldn in between. After watching the cooldn, I got a little button happy and Blinded the other one instead. He then flies away and takes the charmed one with him.(DAMN!) They would have probably flown away anyway. Because I had not initiated dialog with Xan, to tag him and Ise as potential targets.

Four years, two wives and 5 kids later...I managed to get another one Charmed, as Sonoura is falling to her death. But...through the red screen, I could see Ise taking dam from the Charmed Demon. That means that it is possible to target them with a Charmed Flying Demon. I will keep this save, just for fun, and make future attempts. For now, it's back to work on a plan for Raze and those leggings. I feel she will have to suit-up and stat-out for that one. Along with some high dam output skills.

Thanks to the ridicilously broken Aleroth Archmage Belt, I never have to worry about Mana ever again.

I wonder if I should spend the 5000 gold though to get the points out of mana reduction... hmmm...

My inventory filled up after clearing the start of the island and looting Vacca's cave. The hermit ran out of money, so I teleported back to Lovis's smith to sell the remainder. I wasn't expecting Carlin to have anything useful, but he had an axe with a level 9 Increased Damage enchantment and a shield with Life Line 9.


Getting 42 experience points from most opponents on Sentinel Island, and mindreading everyone (even the expensive but pretty much useless initial servant ones), I quickly went into debt. With the island cleared, the quest with the sisters done and Sassan's ring retrieved, I was still down 762 experience points (though any quest after that would be enough to clear the debt).

Speaking of the sisters, the first time I fought them I got loot geared to a mage character: a bracelet (+7 Magic Damage, +2 Destruction, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Spontaneous Combustion 7), necklace (+6 Intelligence, +2 magic Missile, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Poison Aura 2), a belt (+0.07 HP Regeneration, +0.07 Mana Regeneration, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Healing Aura 6) and a lesser damage charm.
The second try gave less loot, but at least one piece was usable; I upgraded my belt (+42 Hit Points, +0.07 HP Regeneration, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Healing Aura 7) and got a couple crappy resistance charms and some earrings worth a bit of gold (+5 Magic Damage, +2 Healing, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Healing Aura 7).


After resurrecting Sassan and clearing the battle tower up to finding the demon's name, I headed back to Broken Valley to turn in the remaining quests there, loot a couple storage areas I hadn't gotten to, and finish up with the fortune teller and Bellegar. Checking merchants, Derk gave me equipment with several enchantment upgrades: Life leech 9 and 10, Increased Damage 10, Butcher 9 and Melee Protection 9 (had 8 and 10 already). I didn't reload. Lamotte gave me Poison 10 and Ranged protection 10 on the second try, while Locke had Static Charge 8. I reloaded 3 times for Needleman and Mara, but they didn't offer anything good.

Returning to the battle tower, reporting the demon's name to Sassan brought me to level 24, so I did another quick round of the merchants. Sam had Increased Magical Damage 10, Carlin had Poison 9 and Ranged Protection 9 (both on the second try), Derk had Life Line 10 on the first try and nobody else had anything (didn't bother reloading).


The fight in the throne room was relatively easy, but I spent more time running around than actually fighting (not that anyone did too much damage with Sassan healing me), since I wanted to take out all the abominations before tackling Razakel and Laiken. Then I figured this would be a good time to learn Splitting Arrows, and reloaded to try the fight again; it did help clear out the weaker opponents faster. The second time around the loot drops were worse (and they were not great to start with), but I got a better quality charm from Laiken's chest.

The first dragon fight was also easy, and like D2:ED you just start getting the hang of things when you automatically return to the battle tower.

In the Master's chambers, picking up the 'Note from Maxos' completed a quest; one of the rewards offered was a bracelet with a level 10 Healing Aura, so I took that over the gold as my second choice.

Speaking of gold, in D2:ED I had enough gold when I got the battle tower to fully upgrade the runners right away, as well as unlearn my skills and raise the level cap of a few. In DKS I only had enough gold to upgrade Dick, and had to send him out a few times to get diamonds to sell so I could upgrade Tom, to send out for malachite ore. Heading outside again to finish off the remainder of Sentinel Island helped a bit, but there wasn't a lot of loot (of course the trip was worthwhile just for the treasure from the boat in the tree and the dragon skill book from one of the trees).


After reaching the bunker, disabling the barrier and visiting Dragon Cliff Castle, I returned to the battle tower to farm diamonds and malachite ore, so I could get all the gold from the traveling merchant on the path to High Hall and the harbour. The first encounter he offered me a ring a little better than one I had, so I bought it and the malachite gem, then sold stuff to get all the gold. Then I reloaded to try again, and got nothing (besides the gem). On my third try I got a bracelet (+5 Heightened Reflexes, +2 Ranger Strength, 2 charm slots and 1 enchantment slot), a belt (+49 HP, +48 mana, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment), a bow with a level 9 Mana Leech enchantment and a cleaver with a level 10 Fire Curse enchantment. After selling all the diamonds and malachite ore I had, Carleton still had over 12k gold left, so I sold the plants I had on me, a couple pieces of alternate and older jewelry, some leggings I kept that were comparable in quality to the ones I was using and the belt I had equipped. Then I sold all my Healing, Revitalizing and Rejuvenation potions, figuring I could make more and that would clean up that section of inventory (so I didn't have 5 size versions of everything), as well as 51 chicken legs. That still left 2266 gold, but I wasn't reloading again, and had left more gold than that in Broken Valley (didn't think to make level 1 dexterity and resistance potions to sell, etc, as mentioned by Senior Cinco and Joram in the selling equipment topic).

Despite this belt being an upgrade for one that I had recently gotten, I removed the level 2 Retribution Aura and added a level 10 Healing Aura. Maybe I should have sent a runner for the ingredients to add a Static Charge enchantment, or something, but even if I don't keep this belt for very long, I'm still ahead of how many malachite gems I used in D2:ED, and I ended that game with plenty to spare. In D2:ED on level 13 I added a level 10 Healing Aura to the Talisman of the North and the Wishing Well bracelet, and about the same time or shortly after added another to a belt; that held me over until I was ready to head to the Hall of Echoes.
In DKS I'm using a different necklace (switching to the talisman when turning in quests) and got experience from the Wishing Well.

The bracelet from Carleton replaces one I had been using since level 2 (gotten from the beholded near the destroyed chapel), though I'll hang on to the old one for the +2 Mindread bonus.


I unlearned my skills (not that I miss-spent very many points, but I did have 3 of my own in Unarmed Expertise, which I no longer use) and put 1 point back into Healing, Evade and Regenerate, 5 points into Lockpick, Mana Efficiency, Ranger Stealth and Explosive Arrows, 8 into Ranger Strength, 7 into Splitting Arrows (not sure I need that many in the last two; I just added points until I hit a level restriction), and 1 point into Stun Arrows and Poison Arrows. This left 2 free skill points. In theory I should eventually boost Death Blow, but it isn't a high priority (unless I start having trouble doing damage fast enough).
My base stats remain as they were at level 15, with 44 unassigned points.

Raze? Do you have like me a "collection mania" for Enchantments ?

Now, if I sell potions, I sell the one that give much more gold than L1 or L2 potions ...
Now I sell sometimes a few potions, but later on, if I have more Potion formula's, upgrading my Alchemy Garden and take another point in Master Herbalist or simply do it via skillpoints on equipment : I bought in Broken Valley a Bracelet with + 1 to Master Herbalist and on my current level Abram in Eagle's Nest is selling a Yewellery item with + 2 to Master Herbalist ! - of course I WANT that item, but spend almsot all my godl at the end of level 23 buying some new L7 & L 8 Potion Formula's by the happy "Mr Poirot-like-speaking" - Zarniyar at the Plaza in Aleroth city .

I gonna try to play the whole game (FoV incl.) without unlearning all my skills.

Because of I trade a lot I have not much gold ... but I've upgraded my runner Harry twice, so (2 x 1000 + 2 x 2000 gold =>) 6000 Gold spend on my Herbs runner .
Maybe stupid not to take first Dick or Tom, but I love the Alchemy and so I wish to make later on many many great potions to sell away (or use them if I need them!). Potion L6 or L7 give already almost the same sum in gold as a Diamond ! I've bring also all the Fanny Blossoms with me from before taking over the BT (around 80 pieces) ... so soon I'll be rich ....

Now my hero Jurdenson reached level 24 . It's the first time in a RPG I used the Summoning Skills frequently and to be honest, the Priest Skills are magnificent !!
My favorite above all is my lovely Ghostly Summon Ghost ... but also Fear is fun ! And Master Herbalist, Summon Undead & Demon (the last one I gonna try later), Curse & Charm, Blind, etc ...
Form the Mage Skills I invest 4 points in Firewall and since my hero is an Intelligence based hero his Strength is much lower (as is his melee protection), so Firewall is great to fast kill melee fighters who try to kill me ... Wirlwind and rush Attack are so far the only Warrior Skills I used . I didn't invest in Mindreading, Wisdom or any kind of Weapon Expertise . Now I've 12 skillpoints left, zero statpoints left (putting all points first in Vitality early in the game and later more & more in Intelligence. The rest a little into Spirit, Strength and Dexterity ...

I only take a sort look into one of the Flying Fortresses areas, I don't remember which one, but I was fast stond dead ... a poisonous dart from a level 24 (or more) Ranger go straight through Jurdensons body ... luckely I saved before going through that portal ...

But so far I've seen the re-design of that Flying Fortress is very well done, thanks to the Librarian's, ... euhmmm ... ... (search in his stack of books from the library of the Maxos Temple ...) ... I mean, the Larian's, my excuses !

So far I've played all on nightmare difficulty except 1 fight : Zagan ! For me that battle is on casual difficulty also very hard ... ! What I know : that is the fact I'm always much more "clumsy" (with the xbox controller & fighting) in close areas like Caves. When I've place to run/fly back, all fights are much more easy for me !
I did the fight against Zagan like this : transform into Dragon, before his HP goes to much down, transform back in human, regenerate, save, back dragon etc ... it was a fight I lost many times, also on "casual" ...

I collected most of the formulas in D2:ED, but that just made the list longer than it needed to be when you have to enchant something or (to a lesser extent) create potions.

I've been checking for enchantment formula for the main ones I use (Increased Damage / Magical Damage, Life Line, Static Charge), Healing Aura 10, and higher levels of formula for ones that might come in handy (I just added a couple level 9 Poison Auras, to see if that helps if I have to do much close quarters fighting). For the enchantments that don't appeal to me (like Damage Aura and Magic Damage Aura) I'd still like to get level 9 and 10 formula, so I have the option to try them. I just got level 9 Mana Leech (passed on lower level formula), but that is a possible option for a third enchantment slot, and I have not used a bow with a second one yet (the smith in the harbour building has one I can use in a few levels).

I mentioned selling low level potions for before the battle tower. I actually sold iron, whisperwood and fatfern to make room in my inventory, when I had more than one stack of them. I could have gotten more gold from the plants had I converted them to potions and then sold them.

Damn, how can you sell 60K in the first place.

All due to the Diamond Farm "exploit"?
If so, I vowed not to use it, so...

It was mostly diamonds and malachite, with some from equipment I had removed enchantments from or loot I didn't need. There is no practical way to get most of the gold from the traveling merchant without farming diamonds; I think the most I've gotten for equipment sold so far has been a little over 1000 gold, with the majority less than half of that. Other merchants you can sell stuff to over time to eventually deplete their gold reserves (depending on how much you buy from them).

Not for me.
Then again, as said... no farming.

Starting on Flying Fortresses, and damn, they are hard on Nightmare.
Not warriors, my mage eats them for breakfest.
Not mages, there projectiles are easy to evade. Although they use Rush Attack (wth?) which can be painful.
Nope, it's those darn rangers with their homing missiles that do my hit point bar -30 per successful hit.
Especially when combined with that undefendable magic attack that stuns you for a short duration, although all magic becomes dangerous then. Darn spell.
Oh well... guess that's what I get for highest difficulty...

Eventually you'll deplete some merchants of their gold, even without farming (at least Grimm and Sassan, since they are relatively easy to get to and don't start off with a huge amount of gold).

I just started on Stone's fortress, and the first section you can do was relatively easy (with opponents in groups of 1 or 2). However, the difficulty jumped a fair bit flying up to the next higher section (at least in part due to me being out of practice dodging, since most of the last dozen character levels were so easy).

After flying to the harbour and talking to the merchants and NPCs there (bought the Bow of Orobas from the smith, though I probably should have waited until I meet the level requirements), I cleared the path to High Hall, reaching level 25 a little before getting there. I finished the troll quest in the mine, but left the well cave for later.

Having the first 3 zeppelin parts, I headed to Aleroth, but the merchants there didn't offer any good equipment; I did get a weapon with a level 10 Mana Leech enchantment from one, and some potion formula from the other (Healing 9, Revitalizing 8 and Rejuvenation 8).


Next I mostly cleared Barnabus' cave. Through the highest teleporter, I saved before entering the room at the top of the stairs, then again before opening the chests. In D2:ED I reloaded a few times for one of the chests, figuring if the key was a little difficult to find the reward should be decent (it wasn't). In DKS, the key is much, much easier to find, but all I got was gold and a potion, so I decided to try one reload, but accidentally loaded the save before entering the room. It was just as fast to clear the room again as load the later save, so that is what I did... and got just gold from the chests. However, I did get a cuiras from one of the vases with a +7 Vitality bonus and +8 Spirit (not good enough to break up my mining guild set for, but possibly worth considering later... if not, at least worth a bit of gold).

Barnabus was easy to defeat. The first time I did so he gave me a bracelet with a +2 Ranger Stealth bonus, which could have come in handy if I hadn't already maxed that skill. Reloading a few times, I got (in addition to the pre-determined items) earrings with strength and Life Leech bonuses, just a couple charms, and a ring almost the same as one I was using, but with 2 enchantment slots rather than 1.
I ran into an interesting glitch the third time I defeated Barnabus; I fired off an explosive arrow as he was summoning another abomination, and when the dust settled Barnabus was dead and the abomination was just standing there, looking around occasionally, neither attacking or able to be targeted. The next try I made sure to kill the abomination first, and the next summoned one was also neutral (didn't kill Barnabus until a few seconds after the summoning was complete). On the next (and last) 2 reloads, though, the second summoned abomination was hostile.
In D2:ED Barnabus gave me a very nice hammer suited to my build in a couple reloads, so I decided leave him for now, and see if I can get something worth upgrading to if I come back at a higher level (probably not, but it can't hurt to try).


Since Barnabus was easy, I decided to head back to the well cave in High Hall. Just past the first camp area there is a chest at the top of a three level scaffolding section across the width of the cave. On my first try I got some gauntlets (+8 Vitality, +6/1/1 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment slot), which replaced the Orobas Bracers I was using. Heading down the stairs past the scaffolding, I fired off an explosive arrow at the 3 demons below, killing them all and giving an epic class necklace (+7 Magic Damage, +5 Indomitable Will, +3 Summon Undead, 3 charm slots and 2 enchantment slots - Poison Aura 10 and Damage Aura 10). A couple reloads resulted in nothing, so I reloaded the save with the mage necklace and continued, getting an epic belt from the next group of demons (+57 Hit Points, +0.09 HP Regeneration, +58 mana, 3 charm slots, 2 enchantment slots). A couple reloads resulted in no loot, and of course this is a modest upgrade for the belt I just put the healing aura on.
Anyway, the final group of demons did not give any loot on the first encounter, but on the third I got a ring, which I upgraded to (+56 Hit Points, +5 Critical Chance, +0.09 Mana Regeneration, 3 charm slots, 2 enchantment slots - Poison Aura 9 and Static Charge 2, which I upgraded to level 8).
The mana regeneration bonus for this ring does not show up in the inventory or status listing. There is a topic about this issue, but it is the first I have noticed it.

When defeated Kezzz dropped an elder amulet (+2 Rush Attack, +6 Conditioned Body, 2 charm slots, 2 enchantment slots). It seemed strange that the last defender before Zagan would drop lesser quality loot than the common opponents, so I reloaded to try again, and he dropped a legendary bracelet (+4 Heightened Reflexes, +2 Splitting Arrows, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment). I don't use Splitting Arrows that much, though it is very effective at close range, so would stick with my current bracelet (Ranger Strength). I reloaded the save with the epic amulet, since I assume it is worth more (didn't bother checking the listed values).

At the malachite veins just before reaching Zagan, it seems getting one gem is a lot more probable than in D2:ED. I'm not sure if higher numbers of gems are much less likely, or if I just don't have the patience I did with D2:ED. The first vein I reloaded while I was watching TV, switching back whenever I skipped commercials or sometimes when there was a break in the scene, and eventually got 2 malachite gems. When the show was over, I reloaded repeatedly for the second vein, starting off with a 15 minute time limit. I got 2 malachite gems after the 2 minute mark, then again at 5 minutes; there may have been 1 or 2 instances I didn't make note of and then I got another set of 2 gems at the 15 minute mark, so I bumped my time limit up to 30 minutes. I got 2 gems again at 25 and 27 minutes (maybe once or twice before then), but the last couple minutes were pretty much gem free (even the relatively common single gem).
For the rest of the malachite veins in DKS, I'll be stopping at 2 gems. In D2:ED I got 3 gems out of most veins (2 from the first and 4 from the last), though missed the ones in the well cave.

Zagan himself wasn't terribly difficult to defeat, but the rest of the opponents in there were a pain. It would be easy with more space, but if you loose track of where you are going or bump into something and stop moving, that is likely to prove fatal. I tried repeatedly heading to the exit cave to transform back to human, but returning for hit and run attacks wasn't doing damage fast enough (by the time I finished the transformation animation there could be 2 or 3 opponents shooting at me, and maybe 1 or 2 casting Dragon Sphere). I tried making a couple runs at the nest tower, but the first time I stayed too long finishing it off with Dragon Breath, and died shortly after it did. The second run I broke away sooner, but got caught up on something and couldn't move for a second, so I died.
I reloaded my save before triggering the cutscene with Zagan, and will go back later to finish everyone off.


Having had enough of narrow paths and caves for awhile, I headed to Stone's flying fortress. At the end of the section across the bridge and then to the left, there is a chest; the first try I got some creature arms equivalent to the set I am using. Hoping to get a creature part upgrade, I reloaded, getting a Divine Vitality charm and an epic ring (+60 Mana, +5 Critical Chance, +0.09 Mana Regeneration, 3 charm slots and 2 enchantments); the mana regeneration rate was not reflected in the inventory or status listings. Now, if the chest would have given me a couple crappy loads I would have been happy with the charm (that I probably wasn't going to use), and sold the ring. However, it kept mocking me, offering creature parts essentially the same as what I had or epic equipment that didn't fit my character build (a sword, shield and a couple pieces of armour with Spirit bonuses). Determine to put it in its place, I kept reloading a dozen times, or so, until I got an epic belt (+57 HP, +5 Critical Chance, +0.1 Mana Regeneration, 3 charm slots and 2 enchantments) and a Divine Indomitable Will charm. This belt is arguably better than the one I got from the well cave, since the critical chance bonus helps with damage, and the mana regeneration (which is shown properly in the inventory) mostly makes up for the lack of a mana bonus.

Approaching the first fortification, the first demon I killed brought me up to level 26. The rest of that area was relatively easy to clear, since the opponents were mostly spread out, though the level 29 beholder took awhile to kill. Opening the chest by the beholder, on my second try I got some elder leggings (+9 Vitality, +1/1/8 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating, 2 charm slots and 2 enchantments), as well as a level 8 fighter head, which I decided to try out.

Flying up to the next higher level, there was an increase in difficulty. That combined with the creature's behaviour means I'm not sure how long it will last as a warrior. Using a fighter head seemed like it helped if the creature actually attacked the opponent I was attacking, but after finishing off the skeleton archers and mages on one of the wall sections, I moved back down to the ground level. I attacked a Black Ring mage, and the creature ran over to attack him after a few seconds (I would have preferred it use Rush Attack), but then got distracted, and veered off to attack someone else, drawing them into the fight. Even if the creature changed targets because it was attacked, I think that might just render the Ranger Stealth skill useless. Anyway, the creature seemed to change targets again (my view was mostly blocked), and then ran back to me, bringing at least 4 Black Ring members with it, one of whom Rush Attacked me as soon as he came into view, as an archer fired off a Stun Arrow through a gap in one of the ramps, so I never saw him, just the arrow coming at me. I (barely) survived the initial group attack and withdrew a bit, then after healing turned to attack those who followed me. I had to let them get closer that I would have liked since I couldn't target the first two, just the farthest one (I had a similar problem in the well cave with Zagan, where only some opponents showed when trying to cycle through targets, even if the one you wanted was close enough and in front of you). Once they were a couple seconds closer I could target them, and a volley of Splitting Arrows finished them both off. After that I targeted the third Black Ring member, but unfortunately didn't realize another had taken the long way around an obstruction until he was almost up to me, at which point it was too late to do anything.
Next time I play I'll keep the fighter creature, but if it becomes distracted again and gets me killed, I'm going back to using a mage head.