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 ?

My second attempt on the higher level in Stone's fortress was much, much easier. After loading my latest save and re-killing the last skeleton on the wall, I walked down the ramp so my creature could follow, and then turned left and continued along the wall around the next corner (same direction I went before). The next two opponents I fought together, but they were not terribly difficult, even with a skeleton archer on the wall above me (that I had passed), who I mostly couldn't target and barely came into view (though he didn't seem to have too much trouble getting a few shots off at me). Once I killed the two on the ground I turned to focus on the one on the wall, and moved around a bit until I could see and target him. The creature didn't draw anyone else into the fight... when I walked down the ramp and turned left, it walked or fell off the right side, and then apparently got stuck trying to run through the ramp, only coming around when I went back to look for it.

After finishing off that section of the fortress, I took a quick flight over to another rock (with the entrance to the Inner Passage). I wasn't too far from level 27 when I finished off the opponents in the vicinity of where I entered that fortification, so left to check merchants. In Aleroth I bought a level 9 Static Charge enchantment formula (second try), and a piece of armour with a level 9 Magic Damage aura enchantment (first try). I wasn't expecting anything from the merchant in Dragon Cliff Castle, but I remembered there were a couple things I wanted to sell that I didn't in Aleroth; he had a necklace with a level 10 Static Charge enchantment. In High Hall I got something with Retribution Aura 10, and at the harbour a shield with Increase Mana 10 (I reloaded once at the harbour merchant, but he had nothing but mid level formula).
In the bunker I got a shield with a level 10 Magic Protection enchantment, and a bracelet (+8 Dexterity, +2 Poison Arrow, 2 charm slots, 1 enchantment - Magic Damage Aura 10), both on the first try. I equipped the bracelet, loosing the one I had with +2 Ranger Strength; between putting one skill point in myself and the dexterity damage bonus I came out slightly ahead. I changed my down D-pad direction to Poison Arrow rather than Crystal Skull (it is relatively easy to get to by pausing and hitting a shoulder button).

I returned to the fortress and cleared the rest of that rock, then took the teleporter to the Inner Passage (Poison Arrow came in handy a couple times there). Due to a slight error in tactics, the fight with Xanlosch and Isabelle didn't go quite as well as I would have hoped. I got off a shot after the conversation ended and then headed out and off to the right a bit to get some room; when I turned, Xanlosch was attacking my creature and Isabelle was coming after me, but not terribly close. I fired an explosive arrow at Xanlosch, figuring as long as he didn't react right away, I would be able to follow with a close range Splitting Arrow for Isabelle and then move for another attack. He reacted right away. I don't know what my creature did after that, but it wasn't helping me, and I didn't last long with both of them focusing on me. I reloaded my save in the Inner Passage and left the way I came in; I want to take out the generator to get Xanlosch to summon a couple flying demons, but I have not cleared any of the anti-dragon defenses yet in the fortress or taken out any flying opponents, which I should probably do first.

At that point I figured I should clear up some of the remaining lower level opponents in the fjords, so went and defeated Moor and Alrik, and cleaned out the ultimate creature cave, the bandit hideout and the imp cave.
I went through Bellegar's cave of moral choices first making all good choices, but despite the many stat points I have in reserve I didn't want to give up 3 points for the extra loot that gave (none of it was usable for my character build). After a reload, and trying all evil choices, my good / selfish mix of choices resulted in an empty chest.
I mindread the trader in the Red Hammer goblin cave, bought a couple pieces of jewelry with Damage Aura 9 and Magic Damage Aura 10, and sold off excess loot and 8 diamonds to clean him out of gold. Then after speaking to Svadilfari came back and killed him.
Since I was close to going up a level, I visited most of the merchants, without reloading, and got a piece of jewelry in Aleroth with Magic Damage Aura 9 and some armour from the harbour smith with Magic Damage Aura 10.


Next I headed to Raze's fortress. The first group of opponents brought me up to level 28, meaning I could use the Bow of Orobas. I also went through the armour I had been hanging on to, to replace the mining guild set pieces, and upgraded my gauntlets as well. Most of the replacement pieces were enchanted with level 9 Life Line, as were what they replaced. A set of elder leggings got Life Line and Increased Mana 9, while Amdusias' Helmet got Life Line and Magical Protection 9 (and since it had a +2 Mana Efficiency skill bonus and I already had 5 points into it, I visited my trainer to raise the level cap of the skill).
My damage went from 189-243 (2-5) to 244-382 (112-130), while mana went from 234 to 441. My hit points went up slightly (767 to 776); Ranged Armour Rating went up 2, while Melee and Magic went down 4 and 1, respectively. Vitality went up 5, while Dexterity went down 4; Spirit went from 2 to 23.

After clearing the first rock, I flew over to the one with multiple levels and fortifications on it, leading up to the teleporter to the headquarters. At the first fortification, my creature ran in to attack the closest opponent, and attracted a fair bit of attention. I defeated the first group, then explored the rest of the area, which appeared empty. So while I was standing near the base of one of the anti-dragon ballistas, a magical attack came through the structure; I couldn't target anyone and there were no opponents visible, so I moved a little bit and figured the opponents would be coming around the structure. Instead, I got attacked a couple more times (triggering a Static Charge retaliation) and then Rush Attacked, killing me.
I reloaded, and the next time my creature entered he attracted a bit more attention that the first time. I moved back out of the fortification entrance to avoid some magic missiles, and thought I could finish off the three who followed before needing to heal. I was correct, but no sooner did I finish off the last one than I was Rush Attacked by another.
After reloading again, I visited my necromancer to switch back to a mage head. This time my creature didn't attract as much attention, though I did have to fight several near the entrance (one of whom dropped an epic necklace: +3 Firewall, +9 Intelligence, +6 Indomitable Will). I ran into the same problem with a couple opponents attacking through the ballista base (with my creature casting Magic Missiles at the structure and running up and trying to melee attack). I was expecting that, though, and simply withdrew, and they soon popped into view and could be targeted.

After clearing the next fortification I took out a demon that dropped some epic earrings (+3 Ranger Surprise, +8 Ranged Damage, +6 Heightened Reflexes); too bad the skill bonus wasn't something I'd use.
I ran into a couple 'Fire' archers after that, the first of which really liked using Explosive Arrows (which hurt, BTW). The second preferred using Splitting Arrows, and was much easier to defeat.

Before the top section (with the teleporter to the headquarters), I was almost up to level 29, so headed to Aleroth to check the merchants there and sell off some loot. I bought some replacement earrings, with +2 Poison Arrows (like the ones I was using) and +8 Dexterity (rather than +1 Ranged Damage). I didn't bother checking any other merchants.
After returning to the flying fortress and finishing off the rock I was on (leveling up, and leaving the headquarters for later), I flew over to a couple of the smaller ones, where a demon dropped an epic necklace (+3 Summon Demon, +10 Magic Damage, +6 Indomitable Will). That wasn't useful, but from a nearby chest I got an epic ring (+66 HP, +0.11 HP Regeneration, +71 Mana), which I equipped and changed the enchantments to Static Charge and Magic Damage Aura 9.

This pretty much finished off the ground section of Raze's flying fortress, except for the headquarters. In a quick check there, the opponents were a little tougher than the rest of the fortress (unsurprisingly) and in slightly larger groups, with a few of the rangers using exploding arrows. They were not too tough (though I did have to heal more frequently), but I'm assuming I'll probably have to be a little higher level to do damage fast enough to my namesake that he isn't constantly heading for the regeneration chambers.

Next up was Keara's flying fortress. The first 3 fortifications brought me up to level 30. I ran into a couple areas here with opponents inside wizard towers. The first had the entrance blocked off, so it was relatively easy to approach and attract their attention, then move back to draw them out. The second fort was larger, and the opponents on the end I approached first (a short jump down to the wall from a platform above) were much less inclined to move closer. I jumped down towards the farther side (where there was an entrance), and had better luck getting them to move out. There was one spot in an earlier fort in Stone's fortress where I stood at the edge of the top of a wall and summoned my creature, so it would drop down and act as bait to bring several opponents into range; I tried that a couple times in the second fortification, but it didn't appear close enough to the edge of the wall to fall off.

In the upper part of the fortress there is a large ramp that just dead ends, with the last support column ending about 5 feet off the ground. An opponent on there dropped some epic earrings, which, of course, were mage focused (+3 Summon Mastery, +9 Intelligence, +6 Indomitable Will).

Towards the top of the fortress, in the area with the chest containing the Scorpion Earrings, I made it to level 31. Just before then I left to check merchants, and in Aleroth bought a level 10 Strength potion formula (earlier in the fortress I found a level 10 Dexterity formula). Nobody else had anything; in D2:ED the merchant in High Hall started carrying legendary class equipment once you reached level 30, but his inventory stays poor in DKS.
After I finished off the opponents in that area, I got an epic ring from the chest with the Scorpion Earrings (+68 HP, +5 Critical Chance, +0.11 Mana Regeneration). While it was only a modest upgrade to a current ring (12 extra HP), one of the enchantments on it was a level 10 Healing Aura, so it improved my HP and mana regeneration. I reloaded a few times to see if I could get something better, but was only offered mage jewellery (a bracelet with +3 Confusion and earrings with +3 Way of the Battle Mage) and a cuirass similar to the one I had (an extra 3 armour rating, but it was strong on ranged protection, where I was already strong, and weak on magic, where I was lacking due to not boosting Intelligence), and a couple loads with just charms or creature parts (I was watching TV during this, so reloaded more than I ordinarily would).
After that there wasn't much left to clear in human form (leaving the headquarters for later).


In what is sure to be a shocking turn of events, I decided to head to Kali's flying fortress next. I flew to the lowest part of the large northern rock, landing near the crashed zeppelin. At the end of the spiral path upwards, I got an epic sword from the chest there (two reloads didn't give anything better). A short flight up to the top level, and I cleared the large fortification, getting to level 32. Clearing the 3 small northern rocks and then heading to the southern one was relatively uneventful (a couple semi-hectic fights, but nothing worth describing), and got me about 3/4 the way to level 33. In the fortification in front of the headquarters teleporter, I got an epic shield and one of the skeleton mages on a ramp dropped an epic ring (+66 Mana, +6 Critical Chance and +0.11 HP Regeneration).

With the human portion of the Kali's fortress cleared, I headed back to Stone's fortress, to get started on the dragon defences and headquarters of all of the fortresses.


Clearing the dragon defences from Stone's fortress brought me up to level 33. Even then the fight with Xanlosch could still be a bit of a challenge, primarily due to my character's Indomitable Will rating of 2. If I got hit with a stun arrow it would end up hurting, but usually not too bad. The main danger was getting stunned after destroying the generator, before being able to move away. Approaching the fortification from the front, after flying above the anti-dragon zone and transforming, I found the best way to take out the generator was to fire an arrow through the gap in the barrier around it, after moving over to the right inside the fortification; moving to the larger break in the barriers would put me much closer to Xanlosch and make it harder to avoid the Stun Arrow after the summoning cutscene. It is possible to survive after being stunned, but not if all 4 opponents target you at once (in one try I was hit with simultaneous attacks from both demons about a half second after being stunned, with an attack by Isabelle and then an exploding arrow about a half second after that, killing me). Keeping close to the right wall, the conversation with Xanlosch would be triggered at the entrance, but he would not fight right away afterwards, making it much easier to destroy the generator and get outside to where there was enough room to transform.

The first time I defeated Xanlosch he dropped an epic ring (+64 HP, +58 Mana, +5 Critical Chance), which would be an OK upgrade for one of my rings (slightly less HP and Mana, but with a Critical Chance bonus). I decided to reload a couple times to see what else I could get (wanted to try the fight again anyway). I was offered some epic earrings unsuited to my character (+3 Battle Rage), a couple pieces of mage focused elder equipment, and finally an epic belt (+63 HP, +62 Mana, +5 Critical Chance). The belt was a better upgrade than the ring, so I went with it, swapping it out for the one I put the level 10 Healing Aura enchantment on.

The first time I defeated Stone the only item of interest in any of the loot bags was a bracelet with +3 Wisdom. While that wouldn't have been a bad item to get, you'd think out of all that loot something would be usable. The second time I defeated Stone I got nothing; the third I got some epic earrings (+3 Stun Arrows, +8 Dexterity, +8 Heightened Reflexes); finally some earrings suitable for my character... but I don't really use Stun Arrows that much any more. The forth time, though, the castle stayed up... no wait... the forth time I got several items of note: epic earrings (+3 Mindread and a couple mage type bonuses), an epic ring nearly the same as the first one Xanlosch dropped (+64 HP, +57 Mana, +5 Critical Chance) and an epic necklace (+3 Explosive Arrows, +9 Ranged Damage, +6 Heightened Reflexes). I swapped out my current necklace right away, though I'll need to turn in the skill trainer's quests to increase the level cap for Explosive Arrows before I can take advantage of the third level. I also equipped the ring, for the extra critical chance (my HP went down by 2, which is negligible, and mana dropped by 14, which doesn't matter since I never get close to running out any more); one of the existing enchantments was a level 5 Healing Aura, so I left that and replaced the other low level enchantment with level 9 Static Charge.

After retrieving the invoker jewel from the arena and returning to the headquarters to pick up the other 4 and disable the generator spawning walking armours, I got some epic leggings (+10 Vitality, +8/2/10 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating), which I upgraded to.


In Raze's fortress, after clearing the anti-dragon defences and the start of the headquarters, I tried fighting my namesake without using the levers to disable the regeneration chambers. WTF is up with instant teleporting into the chamber, running to the chamber while stunned, etc? After getting him very near death a few times (once I couldn't even see anything left of his health bar, hit him with another exploding arrow, and he still made it to the regeneration chamber), I decided to hit the levers, but after the first one I tried to jump back out of a group of walking armours, got hung up on something, couldn't move for a second and died. After reloading, the fight went much, much easier disabling the chambers first, and he dropped a couple mage focused elder items. The second time he dropped some epic earrings (+3 Master Herbalist, +9 Intelligence, +10 Magic Damage) and the third an elder necklace (+2 Fear, +10 Intelligence). The Master Herbalist skill bonus would at least provide some small benefit, so I reloaded that save and left.


On my way to Broken Valley I stopped by Barnabus' cave, and killed him a couple times, getting a legendary quality belt and a charm the first time and 2 charms the second. Waiting until a higher level didn't seem to have much, if any, affect on his loot drops.

Hi Raze,

nice to read you're doing well

A question :
You wrote their are coming enemies out of a Wizard Tower? So, if I FIRST destroy in dragonform all Ballista's and Wizard Towers and Lightning Towers and transform after that back in humanform ... their are less enemies to defeat ? So it's maybe/posible more fun (and more XP?) to ALWAYS FIRST going in HUMAN to kill first all groundtroups ?
Or ... ?
In my ED playthrough I remember I (always) first destroyed all I can in Dragonform. Maybe that's THE reason I found their where only a "little" groundtroups to be seen after that dragonform battles ?

If you destroy the wizard tower first, the ground opponents inside the fortification will remain there, unharmed. The opponents don't 'come out' of the tower like they were intended to actually be inside; the tower was just placed in a fortification that also had ground opponents in it, so they overlap. The ground opponents ignore the obstruction since they were not designed to work around it, but your character can not move or attack through the structure, since the game does check that.

You do get a little more experience doing the ground portions of the flying fortresses first, but not because there are more opponents. The anti-dragon structures give a fixed amount of experience, so if you delay taking them out you get more experience from ground opponents; if you level up first on the anti-dragon defences, you get slightly less than you could have from the ground opponents. For example, on level 30 and 33 you get 928 experience points for a ballista or wizard's tower in Keara's flying fortress.

In D2:ED I also cleared out the dragon defences first, as much as possible. That is part of the reason I did most of the human sections first in DKS.

O, okay, now I understand !
Thanks for the info . I go now for a "mix" : sometimes first battle in dragonform and other times first in humanform ... but I think I do it mostly this time first in humanform like you do . I think it can give me more exciting experiences & fun ... walking between anti-dragon defence towers

On this moment I haven't done much of the Flying Fortresses yet . Jurdenson is still L 25 because I haven't had the TIME to play further on last weeks. Bussy with playing the roll of "housekeeper" and "nurse" for my girlfriend who have had an operation a few weeks ago.

I make no point of it because I love my girl and do all I can to give her a pleasant time despite her pain because of that operation . Playing that "roll" give me also satisfaction and the notion "life" is more than playing a game and having a relation ...
Love is more than only romantic moments, a long kiss & ...

But I hope I can play 'now and then' again the roll of the Dragon Knight ...

Dragon combat in Broken Valley required paying attention, but wasn't terribly difficult; most human combat was relatively easy.

Defeating Geshniz the first time I got an epic shield and axe. The second time I got an elder helmet (+10 Vitality, +10 Spirit, 4/0/4 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating), earrings (+2 Evade) and axe. A third time game an epic axe and a charm, so I reloaded the save with the elder helmet, for an extra 35 HP and Mana compared to Amdusias' helmet, though with a loss of the +2 Mana Efficiency bonus (in combat after that, the difference was noticeable, but I didn't come close to running out of mana).

In Rayhun's headquarters, approaching the main room, an explosive arrow at the first opponent in range brought everyone out, leaving their leader alone inside. The first time I defeated him he dropped an epic cuirass (+9 Vitality, +9 Spirit, 0/13/6 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating), necklace (+3 Fear) and sword. The second try he dropped an epic belt (+68 HP, +71 Mana, +5 Critical Chance) and an elder belt and shield that were mage focused. The third try produced an epic bow (with damage not close to the Bow of Orobas) and a couple charms.
While the stats on the epic belt were only a modest upgrade to the one I got from Xanlosch, it did come with a level 8 Healing Aura, so I would have taken that. However, after a break to make supper, I decided to try one more time, and got some epic gauntlets (+9 Vitality, +9 Spirit, 0/6/4 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating) and leggings almost as good as the ones I was using. I had legendary quality gauntlets on, so immediately upgraded; one enchantment on the epic gauntlets was level 10 Increased Mana, so I left that and changed the other to level 9 Life Line.


The mine was much more difficult than the other human areas in Broken Valley (which were easy), when there were multiple archers (using Stun Arrows) accompanied by other opponents. I didn't die clearing most of the mine, but did come close a couple times. Unfortunately, I didn't have very many potions when I entered Broken Valley, and the rate I was using them went from occasional to frequent (maybe I was just out of practice having to dodge arrows, but any large groups in the mine I needed one or two potions for). When I reached Ba'al I started off running around the outside of the chamber trying to take out the various minions first, and was doing ok. However, at one point I decided to try to fire off and an explosive arrow and then heal, when I should have done it the other way around; there was a demon much closer that I thought behind me, and I died before I could heal.

After reloading and teleporting back to the battle tower to make some potions, I returned to the mine and stayed in the initial hallway rather than run into the main room. Ba'al could hit me there (even if I moved back out of sight or hugged the walls), but this made things much, much easier. I took out the closest couple of opponents, then summoned my creature, who got the attention of a few more (as did an exploding arrow, after moving a bit into the main room to get in range). Having them come to me made them much easier to take out (demons couldn't Rush Attack me, and when they got to the hallway I could let them get close and kill them with Splitting Arrows; in the main room I could not afford to stand still long enough to let a demon approach). I didn't need any potions, just used the Healing spell a couple times. I tried again, summoning the creature right away, but it ended up attracting the farther opponents before the closest were dead (though that didn't make the fight much harder).

In D2:ED as a duel wielding, strength based warrior, I entered the main room right away, and attacked / Rush Attacked my way around the outside of the room to clear the lesser opponents before focusing on Ba'al. Who would have thought such a successful warrior strategy would be less than optimal for a ranger in DKS?

The first couple times I defeated Ba'al he dropped some elder and epic equipment unsuited to my character, then an epic ring that was a marginal upgrade (+71 HP, +6 Critical Chance, +0.1 Mana Regeneration, with a level 6 Healing Aura enchantment). Encouraged that he might give something good, I kept going (they needed to die an extra couple times anyway, for having the gall to kill me the first time, just because I rushed in without due care). The next tries gave epic earrings (+3 Mindread) and another ring almost as good as the previous one (no healing aura, but there was a divine vitality charm in the loot). Figuring that was as good as it was going to get, I almost reloaded to take the earrings, but then decided to give it one more shot. That try gave a divine spirit charm, an epic cuirass (not as good as the one I had) and an epic bracelet that quickly replaced my previous one (+3 Splitting Arrows, +10 Dexterity, +6 Heightened Reflexes); one enchantment was level 10 Static Charge, so I changed the other low level enchantment to level 9 Magic Damage Aura.

I was almost up to level 34, so I left the sigil in the loot bag, to come back for later (when I start turning in quests).


Heading to Kali's fortress I levelled pretty quickly clearing the anti-dragon defences. In the headquarters, Kali dropped an epic ring the first time I killed her, which would have been a slight upgrade. The next try gave an elder axe and (mage) bracelet, and an epic (warrior) bracelet. The third try gave an epic belt (+71 HP, +6 Critical Chance, +0.11 HP Regeneration), which I equipped; I'm pretty sure the loss of 62 mana from the previous belt will not be noticed in most situations, so the small boosts to HP and critical chance should hopefully be worth it.


Remembering the well cave, I decided to head to High Hall to take another crack at Zagan. This time it was easier, but still a bit of a pain. I used pretty much the same technique as before, concentrating on getting the number of flying opponents down first, to allow a run at a nest. Apparently clearing the fortresses was good practice, as I rarely got hung up on obstructions, etc. I still had a bit of a problem trying to target specific opponents, where pausing the using the right stick could, for example, cycle between demons above me, when I was flying directly towards a nest (and was a lot closer to the nest than the demons). In these cases unpausing and getting a little closer would generally allow me to target what I wanted, though the delay could help my opponents.


In the first 3 flying fortresses, after clearing the anti-dragon defences and double checking that I completed everything in human form, I didn't catch much that I missed the first time through (there was a ground opponent left in Stone's fortress, an almost dead flying opponent in Raze's, and two pairs of ground opponents in Kali's, along with a crate or two in each). In Keara's fortress, there were a couple larger groups of ground opponents (4 to 6) and a couple smaller groups (2 or 3). At least the larger groups were in fortifications that were mostly blocked off by wizard towers, and I'm pretty sure one of the pairs of black ring members was, as well (I remember looking for them the first time through the fortress; they showed up on the mini-map in a particular spot, but I could not find them flying up the to area directly above or jumping down to the one below).

After clearing the main part of the headquarters, I tried opening the door to the inner section 4 or 5 times, without naming any of the statues. I ran fairly low on mana a couple times, due to concentrating on Explosive Arrow and Splitting Arrows if there were fair sized groups (to damage as many opponents as possible). It took awhile, though, so hopefully mana will not be an issue in normal gameplay.
It took 15 minutes to clear the headquarters again, giving 13k experience; if I wanted to do that for another half hour, or so, I could have reached level 35. As exciting as that prospect sounded, I decided to pass, and just solved the puzzle.

Keara didn't drop anything worth making note of, but I did kill her a few times, just trying out different conversation options concerning her husband's ghost. In D2:ED I told Keara he wanted to wait for her in the Hall of Echoes; this time I finished by ignoring his request to talk to Keara on his behalf (I equipped my jewellery with Wisdom bonuses that time, which added a little bit of challenge to the fight, sorely lacking in earlier tries).

Pfth. I play on casual because I want to feel like a draconic warrior! The highest difficulty I have played on though was normal.

Woow Raze, you're almost done with the Ego Draconis part ?
Level 35 : in the past I ended ED at level 35. Started the final battle at level 35 and ended L 35.
(but that was at easy/normal difficulty ... now I wish to try all battles on nightmare.

The only battle I've tried so far on a lower difficulty was the battle against Zagan !
This battle is in some way indeed very painfull and lowering the difficulty didn't do much I find !! It take a long time before I killed Zagan ... on casual difficulty !!
So after this experience I NEVER go back to a lower difficulty ...

But I think (for me) the only reason why I had so much problems with Zagan is because I always have more problems in small caves. Except the Sinister Cave (Barnabus), that wasn't a problem because their my dragon had more place to fly ! AND the flying opponents in the Sinister Cave aren't so aggressive as Zagan and his flying friends !

I finished D2:ED on level 36. In DKS I still have a few small places to visit (treasure hunter cave, slayer camp and a couple others) and a bunch of quests to turn in.

For the opponents in Zagan's cave, I seemed to make faster progress getting a Firesphere off and then returning to the exit passage right away, healing when necessary (usually the case, since often there was an attack directed at me before I finished transforming), and then jumping back into the cavern. Trying to fly around in such a small space and get a few attacks in was more trouble than help (though I didn't do much of that when I went back at the higher level; just attacks of opportunity returning from going after the nests).

Yeah, Zagan, and especially the Flying Demon Commanders the Nest Towers spawn, are insanely powerful. On Casual difficulty at level 34, they were still tearing off 15-20% of my max HP (with a HP+40% armor!) from a full barrage of those red lasers they shoot.

Yeah, this is one thing I can't understand :
the differences between the difficulty levels (from casual to nightmare) aren't really that big !?

Why is for example the casual difficulty also very dangerous ? (example with Zagan!)

WHAT exactly are the differences between the difficulty levels?
Is it only the HP bars of enemies or also their sight & hearing, their strength in melee/ranged/magic damage, their speed, the strength of the skills they used, ...

My only experience with the lower difficulty levels in DKS was in Farglow, where the summoned goblins did more damage at higher levels, and took less damage (at least as a percentage of their total health; I never checked the numbers on the actual damage done). On normal difficulty I did damage to them using unarmed attacks almost as fast as with my bow; on higher difficulty levels unarmed combat became less effective, and less viable with more than one opponent.

After finishing the quest in the ministry (switching to my Wisdom bonus equipment [+8 total] when there were a couple seconds left on the timer for the main floor), I headed to the fjords to do the seeds quests, which brought me up to level 35. After that I reported back to Crabbe about clearing the mine, and got the quest to send a zeppelin for him.

In the Primordial Cave, I had poor luck with the first malachite vein, taking nearly 15 minutes to get 2 malachite gems; the second vein only required 2 or 3 minutes, though. In the Depleted Ore Mine, I got 2 gems with only 2 or 3 tries, so decided to reload some more, and got 3 gems on the second try after that. The second vein also gave 2 gems relatively quickly (a minute, or two), but a few reloads after that proved futile.

The platform puzzle in the mine was redesigned a bit from D2:ED, so it was easier, but at first glance looks like it would be harder. It took me a couple tries to find the right approach at the top, and I had to reload for a couple miss-jumps (faster than resetting the platforms), so saved when I got to the second disappearing platform. I didn't expect the loot to be great since I left it so long, but my third try gave an elder helmet slightly better than the one I was wearing (+11 Vitality, +11 Spirit, 0/4/4 Melee/Ranged/Magic Armour Rating).

In the Lost Tomb, the treasure wasn't that great (only reloaded once), but I got 2 malachite gems out of both veins (in 2 or 3 minutes each). Next I headed to High Hall to get my 4 malachite gems for killing Zagan, and after using the merchant's secret passage to loot some Drudanae, sent Gwyn off to visit Groth in the Red Hammer tribe cave.

At the harbour, after turning in the remaining zeppelin parts and getting a zeppelin sent for Crabbe, I entered the harbour building to toss Svadilfari's head onto the desk of the champion's leader. Reporting back about the High Hall trolls and turning in the bounty hunter quests brought me up to level 36. After talking to Crabbe again on top of the harbour building, I headed to the slayer camp.

Does killing Saul make me evil? I tried freeing him first, but unlike in D2:ED you don't get a reward that way. Maybe if I wiped out the slayers at a relatively low level the experience could have been comparable to that from the quest reward, but leaving it this late I was getting a pittance. Is it worse if I know the almost 8k quest experience isn't going to make any difference at all when I head to the Hall of Echoes, and will be irrelevant after that, due to areas with resawning opponents?
First I'm extorting money from an innocent soldier to stay on the good side of an ok merchant, and now this...

After that I headed to Dragon Cliff Castle to visit Orobas. Except for a couple dragon skill books, the loot in and after the crypt was pretty mediocre. After that I swung by the Red Hammer Tribe to finish off that quest and finally get in to Groth's room, and got the keys for the chests in the main cave (also with mostly mediocre loot).

Turning in the battle tower servant quests brought me up to level 37. When talking to Sassan after turning in the second round of quests, I got the achievement for fully upgrading the battle tower when I still had to talk to her about the second enchantment platform upgrade. After that I visited my trainer, and spent 108k gold upgrading the level caps of my most used skills (that I would, or potentially could, eventually max). I didn't check how much I spent the first round of upgrades, when I boosted most skills I use to level 10.


In the Gremory treasure chest I got 3 divine charms and a couple pieces of equipment I couldn't use. On the second try I got an epic bracelet (+3 Poison Arrow, +8 Dexterity, +9 Ranged Damage) with 3 charm slots and 3 enchantment slots. I use splitting arrows (which is on my current bracelet) more than poison arrows, so except for the extra enchantment slot this wouldn't be a great upgrade. The forth try gave epic earrings (+3 Ranger Strength, +7 Dexterity, +7 Ranged Damage), also with 3 charm slots and 3 enchantment slots. Another 4 or 5 tries (while I was doing something else) gave two epic pieces of jewellery: earrings (+3 Splitting Arrows, +8 Dexterity, +5 Heightened Reflexes, 3 charm slots, 2 enchantment slots), a good upgrade for my current legendary earrings (+2 Poison Arrows, +8 Dexterity) and a bracelet (+3 Explosive Arrows, +8 Dexterity, +7 Ranged Damage, 3 charm slots, 3 Enchantment slots), an upgrade for my current one (+3 Splitting Arrows, +10 Dex, +6 HR).

Out of curiosity I loaded a save at level 30 and checked the Gremory chest again, getting pretty comparable equipment to level 37. The same was true in a level 25 save (a couple equipment pieces showing up with a level 28 requirement). I guess next game I will go open the chest soon after I get the battle tower.


I couldn't remember if you could unseal the door to the Hall of Echoes and complete that quest before actually entering, but I had a recent save, so tried that on the way back from the Gremory chest. It turns out you get the experience as you enter, so I decided to check out the Hall of Echoes, even though I had a couple minor things left to do.

In principle the changes to the memory eaters looked good, but the difficulty spike seemed insane. A Fire Sphere could only do about 5-10% damage, and unless they were at the far end of range, there was no way to avoid their seeking attacks. I started doing ok once by taking out the first couple nests and then circling around the area high up, but by the time I took out the first memory eater there were half a dozen more, making it impossible to survive.

After dying several times, I exited to the main menu rather than load a save, then decided to give it one more shot before I went to bed, so loaded the auto-save. The game seemingly changed the difficulty level (the setting remained on Nightmare) as this time the memory eaters were easy to defeat, attacks were relatively easy to avoid and the nests seemed slower spitting out opponents. I kept going when I was done, and the arena was also fairly easy.

The next day I reloaded the save at the Gremory chest, and double checked the difficulty setting, not wanting to make it through the Hall of Echoes only because the game decided to make it easier.


Earlier I had avoided mindreading Sepp on the harbour building, since (not counting possible Wisdom bonuses) you need to have the associated skill at level 7 to get back more experience than the mindread costs. I have two pieces of equipment with +5 Mindread bonuses combined, so was originally going to put 9 points in, but in for a penny... I put 14 points in to max Mindread (bringing me down to a scant 15 spare skill points, but with another 6 available from the Hall of Echoes).

Next I returned to the battle tower and retrieved a couple pieces of dragon equipment from the chest, that had a shield skill bonus (and I put my 3 spare points into that skill), as well as the +40% defence bonus leggings (which I didn't end up needing). Earlier I removed all dragon equipment except for the Bone Dragon Cuirass (+40% hit points) and Bone Dragon Leggings (+40% offence) once I could max Firebreath, Fire Sphere, Dragon Spirit and Dragon Burst without the need for equipment spell bonuses.

I only had about 10 each of healing and rejuvenation potions, so farmed for enough ingredients to make a stack of each (while wearing my +3 Master Herbalist earrings, of course), as well as gold ore to add some enchantments to my new jewellery. The earrings had a level 4 Healing Aura enchantment, so I left it and changed the other to Static Charge; for the bracelet I removed all 3 enchantments and added Static Charge, Magic Damage Aura and a Healing Aura (my second malachite gem used).


Returning to the Hall of Echoes, the memory eaters were tough, but not nearly as much as in my first attempt (the Dragon Shield spell also helped a bit). The killers could be killed with 2 (or sometimes 3) Fire Spheres, while the generals needed 3-5, depending on how much they healed; attacks at mid range (that I could see coming) could usually be avoided. Two memory eaters at a time were not too dangerous, especially if they were close together. Three increased the difficulty, and 4 started to make things quite dangerous.

Unlike D2:ED, it was ineffective to circle around nests while using target lock (and having a flaky target lock in DKS didn't help either). I found it best if there was a memory eater in the distance when going after a nest to try and sit on the opposite side while using Firebreath (to hopefully block any seeking attacks), then hightail it out of there to avoid taking too much damage from the memory eater if it got close (fly, heal, then turn and use Fire Sphere).

The arena was fairly challenging. In the previous play session (when the game made things easy) I didn't even summon my creature, and think I only needed 1 potion. This time combat became much more hectic, with more and tougher summoned minions, which required more potions and strategic running away tactics in a couple places. My creature even died, which hasn't happened very much when it started off a fight at full health.
I'm assuming the difficulty level when I first entered the Hall of Echoes was a glitch, and the second was how it was meant to be. I don't see how it would be possible to take out all the nests with Fire Sphere doing so little damage to the memory eaters (the nests didn't seem to be particularly resistant to Firebreath). I also had a problem the first time I encountered the large group below the Grand Knight teleporter shrine in the fjords, where opponents barely took any damage, especially at long range (the next day I loaded the same save and tried again, and they took normal damage).

In Ygerna's memory, my first attempt lasted about a second, with the Divine Rush Attacking me as I jumped backwards, and me dying before I could heal. The next try I jumped back slightly sooner after the conversation ended. I still got hit with a Rush Attack, but didn't take as much damage, and jumped off to the side and got around the corner before using a healing potion. Lucian was quite dangerous at medium range; at long rang there was time to react, and at short range he didn't use Rush Attack, so I could usually get off some Splitting Arrows, before running away (often needing to heal). My creature and a couple explosive arrows took care of most of the weaker opponents, with a poison and normal arrow finishing off a couple that survived. When I defeated Lucian, Zandalor was closing in, so I had to run around the room again, to give me time to grab the loot bag and pick up the skill book. My creature apparently diverted Zandalor's attention on the opposite side of the room as the entrance, so once I had the loot I got first shot in, and we traded a couple arrows and spells until I finished him off. I tried circling around when his health got low, to see if I could use a close range splitting arrow to finish him off and have time to grab any loot, but the cutscene started immediately.


Before defeating Zandalor I was level 37.47. In D2:ED I finished at level 36.75. At least part of the difference was due to balancing changes in DKS. For example, in D2:ED I got to level 18 in the fjords before heading to Sentinel Island, while in DKS I made it to level 22. The difference in experience on those two levels from mindreading the island was still only 11.7% of the experience needed to reach level 38. There was also additional experience from quests in DKS, though not a lot (I never tried to figure out how much), according to a Larian comment on quest experience balancing to make it easier to level at the start of the game.

In D2:ED I delayed turning in some quests, but didn't really go out of my way trying to level. I used the Talisman of the North for quite awhile, and between about level 13 and the Hall of Echoes got Wisdom up to level 9 or 10, 4 or 5 of which was from equipment bonuses (equipping Rothman's Bow to turn in quests). Before the Hall of Echoes I boosted it to level 13, to see if I could get to level 37 before the end of the game, thinking the area might be larger than it was. I reloaded for some useless mindreads, but not all.

In DKS I specifically tried to do all the mindreads first, then clear opponents as much as possible and then turn in quests, to maximize the experience given. I didn't learn Wisdom, though did eventually collect jewellery with a combined +8 bonus. I deliberately mindread pretty much everyone.

Neglecting the balancing and island mindread differences between D2:ED and DKS, at best (assuming only a modest increase in quest and opponent experience levels) my efforts brought me from level 36 and 3/4 to 37 and 1/3.
It seems there is a slight benefit trying to maximize experience, but not enough to worry about if you need to turn in quests early to level, or simply wish to do side quests as you get them, etc. If I wanted a more exact idea of the difference I'd play again doing side quests as early as possible; I can't see that happening for my next character, but I will not be as strict about delaying quests.



At the end of the Hall of Echoes, I had 98 unused stat points (base stat values the same as they were at level 15), and 21 unused skill points.






Skills

Ranger Strength - 10
Explosive Arrows - 6+8
Splitting Arrows - 7+3 : these 3 I should probably max soon

Poison Arrows - 1
Stun Arrows - 1 : secondary skills

Death Blow - 1
Evade - 1
Healing - 1
Regenerate - 1 : tertiary skills

Lockpick - 5
Ranger Stealth - 5
Mana Efficiency - 6
Mindread - 15


Before the battle tower I had a couple points in Poison and Stun Arrows, as well as equipment bonuses (recently replaced some +2 Poison Arrows earrings). Both still come in handy, but mostly just as a way to pause and select a specific target, then come out of pause attacking (a normal ranged attack doesn't unpause the game).

I'll probably boost Death Blow when I have lots of skill points I don't know what to do with, and after that possibly Regenerate, then Healing.
Lockpick will get maxed when I can raise the level cap. Unless I start upgrading to equipment without mana bonuses, I will not need to invest any more into Mana Efficiency.



To be continued...

eventually.

Now you can go further playing the Flames of Vengeance part of the DKS
Hope you'll enjoy that part

Note about the difficulty and savegames :
it's strange sometimes the difficulty at some point of the game is (without chnging the difficulty) 1) insane, or 2) so easy or 3) normal ... but why?
I thought it's because of "luck" because the "moment" you load a savegame can give another situation of the enemies their possition ?? Not sure, just a possibilty ?

But then again it's strange you also make lesser damage with Fire Sphere ... I can't find a possible reason why such happened ...

I'm going to take a break before starting on FoV. Another year perhaps, or a thousand.




Different opponents can vary in strength and tactics, and even fighting the same opponent or group, the difficulty can vary significantly based on your own approach. Even just reloading and having the opponents in a different position when you advance can make a huge difference in the outcome of a fight.
In one of the flying fortress I saved and approached a fortification, attacking the demon in the middle, and then having a very hectic fight. Near the end I caught sight of an opponent at the edge of my range off to the left, and waited for it to appear again from behind an obstruction, only to have a skeleton mage rush attack me from behind (thought I cleared that section). After reloading I again approached the entrance, but the demon didn't walk out as far into the opening that time, and was blocked from view before I could attack. After waiting a couple seconds for him to come out from behind a wall section, I again attacked and killed him, but didn't attract nearly the number of opponents I did the first time. I was able to clear the rest of the area a couple opponents at a time; the actual difficulty of each opponent didn't change, but the fight itself much easier.

Awhile ago, in this topic, Senior Cinco asked if anyone else had experience an automatic difficulty drop after dying and reloading. I've only noticed that happening once, and only had abnormally tough opponents twice (both fixed after quitting the game and loading the same save the next day). In D2:ED several people had a glitch where certain opponents could not be harmed (generally with one of the opponents on the mountain path in the fjords or a couple times with boars); leaving the area and returning would fix the problem.

In DKS I died a few times trying to kill Raze without disabling the regeneration chambers (as I did in D2:ED), and the same in Zagan's cave the first time I tried, and there was no automatic difficulty drop. In the Hall of Echoes I did return to the menu and load the autosave when the game made things easier, where I usually hit A to load a save on the death screen, then load a manual save. I don't know if that could have anything to do with it, though.

Hay, glad to hear you made it to FoV. AND, with lvl 15 stats, no less. That proves, stats don't play as big of a roll, as strategy. Good Job!

GIMPED CHARS FOREVER! DOING THE MOST WITH THE LEAST!

At the start of FoV I checked out the ministry first, then the merchants in the marketplace. Tiffany had a minor ring upgrade on the first try (+82 HP, +0.12 HP Regen, +7 Critical Chance, 3 charm slots, 3 enchantment slots). I reloaded a few times (a couple to try different dialog options with the other shopper there), but at best she had 2 epic pieces of jewellery (usually not), so the chances of getting something else suited to my character seemed pretty slim. I didn't bother reloading for anyone else, since they also had very little epic class equipment, and there was better unique equipment I would be able to use in the next couple levels (upgraded to the Pride of Rivertown breastplate right away).

Next I checked out the exterior of Lanilor Lane, wanting to get some combat in before starting on too many quests. I did check out the black market, though. Past the great market on my way to the other end of the city, I cleared the Abandoned Catacombs. After talking to the healers in Mardaneus Plaza, though, I went back to the market to check out the healer's house and Phoenix Inn.

The Abandoned Cave brought me up to level 38 near the start (so could equip Rhode's Leggings), and three quarters of the way to the next level by the end (where I found a necklace with +2 Master Herbalist). I had purchased the Longbow of the Leopard earlier, so could equip it as soon as I went up a level, which made a nice improvement in damage.
In Gula's Archaeological Dig I got to level 39 and found a modest upgrade for my earrings (+11 Dexterity, +12 Ranged Damage, +3 Splitting Arrows).

After visiting the Circle of Trust inn, I headed to the Temple of Nimir, which almost got me up to level 40 (a quick stop by the Abandoned Catacombs to kill the first few opponents did so).
The bow Invisible Death was not a huge improvement in ranged damage over the Longbow of the Leopard (min damage went up by 68 but the max dropped by 111; magic damage went up by 23-116, though), but the extra enchantment slot meant my critical chance went from 41 to 57.
Previously I had not tried the Way of the Ranger skill (not usually a big fan of temporary boosts), but with a +5 bonus on Invisible Death, I figured it would at least come in handy for tough fights.

Since I found the key that the bartender Ricky lost, I checked out the top room in the inn, then went through most of the available locations in Lanilor Lane. In Alzbeta's Emporium I bought (and equipped) the Deep Dweller Helmet; that dropped my hit points slightly but boosted my resistances (the +4 Mana Efficiency bonus made a noticeable difference, though an unnecessary one).

After going through the Prancing Seahorse and following Ursula, she dropped a modest upgrade for my belt (an extra 7 HP and .02 HP regen). IIRC the chest there gave a divine charm and one or two pieces of elder equipment. I reloaded to fight Ursula a few times (and the initial section a couple times) and found that the WotR skill was a nice bonus (and made Splitting Arrows more effective at longer ranges).
Returning from that location, the first shop I visited (to sell off loot, maybe in the black market) offered me a slightly better belt (an extra 6 HP compared to the one I just got, and one of the enchantments was a level 10 Magic Damage Aura).

With the elvish language learned I headed to Crow's Nest. Before talking to the tree I put 5 skill points into WotR, and equipped everything I had with a Wisdom bonus (including the Helmet of Arben, that brought the skill up to level 13). Clearing the courtyard and getting into the start of Crow's Nest brought me up to level 41. I didn't even get a chance to get an overview of the layout before running into Tom, and headed back to Lanilor Lane to go through Taurus and
Luxurius' houses.

Since I skipped Madam Eve's place earlier (and was back on Lanilor Lane), I went there next, and checked out the first two rooms. My inventory filled up there, so I headed to the black market to sell off loot (during which I noticed I had 3 skill books in my inventory, so used them after that).

Back to Crow's Nest, I kept to the left this time. In the asylum, defeating Jango brought me up to level 42. I'm not sure why you have the option to let him go (depending on your dialog choices), but I didn't keep playing after trying that path, in case he didn't show up again.

In the House of Secrets I got earrings with a +3 Wisdom bonus (I had some with +2) and a nice epic cuirass (0/8/10 melee/range/magic armour rating, +11 Vitality, and one of enchantment slots had Life Line 10). Equipping the armour increased my hit points by 81 (mana dropped by 63); melee resistance dropped by 8, but I don't get within melee range often, and try not to stay there long when I do (ranged and magic resistance both went up by a negligible amount).


After mostly finishing off the rest of the buildings in the Crow's Nest (level 42.36), I decided to turn in a bunch of outstanding quests. Earlier I wanted to delay turning in too many quests until I was level 40 and could use the Helmet of Arben (+5 Wisdom bonus), then the combat wasn't terribly challenging, so I just wanted to delay leveling until I had explored everywhere. With only a couple main plot areas left (that I could access at that point), it seemed like the time to de-clutter my quest log.

I saved before turning in each quest and (for ones that had more than 1 reward and random gems) reloaded up to 3 or 4 times (usually) to see if I could get malachite gems. Seahorse Salad, A Fraud a Day, A Hunting We Shall Go Once More and The Blighted Beaker each gave me 2 gems.

The first time I defeated Halliwell he dropped the first belt I've seen with a +7% Critical Chance bonus, but it had a +83 Mana bonus, which I don't need (and +0.13 HP Regeneration). After reloading, the second attempt was much more challenging... until I remembered I switched bows after I saved the first time, so when I reloaded I was back to using Rothman's bow; changing to Invisible Death helped greatly, and he was soon dead again, this time dropping a nice upgrade for my necklace (+3 Splitting Arrows, +12 Dexterity, +12 Ranged Damage). My existing necklace has the same skill bonus, but only +10 Dexterity and Ranged Damage, though has 3 enchantment slots rather than 2 on the new one (not that that is a big loss on jewellery for an archer).

For Mind Over Matter, it took me a dozen or so tries to get 5 malachite gems (reloading periodically while doing something else). I would have given up earlier, but a couple pieces of equipment showed up as quest rewards that were almost potential upgrade candidates (a ring with a couple less hit points than my current rings and only 2 enchantment slots, but with a level 9 Healing Aura, and a belt with +7 Critical Chance, but also a couple less hit points and 2 enchantment slots, one with a level 2 Healing Aura).

In the Eerie Undercroft, the first malachite vein game me 2 gems in a couple minutes; I tried for another 5 minutes to see if I could get more, but was unsuccessful. The second vein gave me 3 gems on the forth try. On the second try Jake dropped some earrings with +3 Way of the Ranger, +11 Dexterity, +10 Heightened Reflexes, 3 charm slots and 2 enchantment slots. Completing The Murders in the Rue Lanilor quest gave me 2 malachite gems (on the second try).

After a couple reloads, the first appearance of a malachite gem in the Maxos Shrine vein was a set of 3.

Turning in Undead Rising (the last quest except for To Find a Wizard) was enough to bring me up to level 46, and gave me 5 malachite gems on the second try. At this point I had 34 skill books in my inventory (which I then used to bring my free skill point count up to 64) and 60 malachite gems (when I started turning in and finishing quests I had 27).


Checking Tiffany, I bought a slight upgrade for my belt (+81 HP, +7 Critical Chance, +0.13 Mana Regeneration and one of the three enchantments was a level 5 Healing Aura). That brought my Critical Chance up by 1 and Mana Regen by 0.1, with a drop of 3 HP and 0.01 HP Regen.

Having collected the complete Shadow Archer set I saved, swapped back to my primary equipment and tried it out, but wasn't particularly impressed. My HP dropped by 204 and HP regen by 0.44 (mana dropped an irrelevant 77). Melee resistance went up by 20, and Conditioned Body by 30, but ranged and magic resistances dropped by 7 (a couple protection enchantments rather than increased mana could have compensated, with a drop of another 120 mana). Vitality dropped by 12, Spirit by 11, Dexterity went up by 11, and Strength and Intelligence remained the same. The biggest improvement was the increase in ranged damage (by 45-87), but that was almost all due to a +5 Ranger Strength bonus, which I could easily max myself (for an increase of 46-77 with my original equipment).

The Order of the Viper set actually fared a little better (ignoring the skill bonuses). My HP 'only' dropped by 68, HP Regen went up by 0.12, mana dropped by 20 and mana regen went up by 0.1. Melee resistance went up by 14, while magic dropped by 7, with ranged remaining essentially the same. Vitality went up by 11 and Strength (and Conditioned Body) by 20, while Spirit dropped by 12.

Since there wasn't any compelling reason to start using the Shadow Archer set, I reloaded and just maxed Ranger Strength (was at level 10).


In the Champion Academy I considered reading a walkthrough to find out exactly where I needed to use the Helmet of Secrets, but the blur effect didn't end up being completely unbearable.

The first time I entered the Antediluvean Vault the fight was a little hectic, but I made it through the first group and started killing them faster, and then got careless and died. Since I began turning in quests I just left on all my Wisdom bonus equipment, and only swapped back to my good bow for combat (and of course the Helmet of Secrets where required). Now with combat becoming a little challenging, I switched to my primary equipment, and then added 2 skill points to Splitting Arrows, 5 to Way of the Ranger and 6 to Explosive Arrows, maxing each.

After my second entry into the vault, the fight ended fairly quickly, and I blew right through the dialog where Bellegar ran away (my ranged attack being assigned to the A button), so reloaded again to catch it. The rest of the vault wasn't too difficult, though a couple times they were able to get some damage in and force me to jump back to heal.

At the end of the vault I picked Behrlihn, turned in the quest and continued into the zeppelin escort briefly to check it out. I will have to reassign the hotkeys to match how I got used to the dragon skills earlier in the game, so reloaded (want to do a couple things in Aleroth first), picked Bellegar and turned the quest in again to see the dialog options doing the quest that way. Reloading again, I picked Behrlihn, then saved before turning in the quest, and reloaded another couple times to get 5 malachite gems (because the 60 I had just might not be enough).


After using the 4 skill books I recently got and unlearning my skills, I had 149 skill points.
When I mindread Chanelle I had jewellery on with +3 Master Herbalist; for Najaad I had +3 Mana Leech and for Joramson +2 Healing. Not that I needed to use the skill boost mindread exploit, but I had the equipment already...

All that is left now is to run around and talk to everyone one last time, then head out to save the world (or Aleroth, at least).

Woow Raze, I think, as far as I can imagine, you've had a great experience in Aleroth, the Flames of Vengeance part !

I see new names for shopkeepers and many names of locations you mentioned ... really great to know the FoV part will be a awesome part !! I really think I gonna love this FoV part, really !
I can't wait for it, but my hero is still in the Ego Draconis part ...
Jurdenson is level 34 and a few quests to go ... searching for the "Chalice of the Dragon" ... can't remember "how" I solved this quest in the past ....

Jurdenson has found almost all Formula's for Enchanting equipment pieces . Only four kind of formula's to go to have them all

I'm thinking of unlearning all skills and rebuild my hero a bit for being a big Priest-Mage type with almost all of my favorite skills !
But only a Priest-Mage type skill-like ... so using still a bow or melee weapon too (if comes in handy).
I the meanwhile I try some skills I haven't used before to see if I like them or not.
Discovered I like Thousand Strikes a lot and Charm is really a great skill ! Also wish to try the Polymorph skill (human form - in Dragon form Polymorph is a great skill!).

If I love this Priest-Mage build I gonna try this build in the future for my next hero(ïn)

Till next time

The first time I was in Servus and Alina's House I didn't feel like searching for whatever fit in the teleporter control panel, so left intending to come back later. I promptly forgot about it until I was doing a final tour around Crow's Nest (and found it fairly quickly). Other than that, I only came across a handful of crates and barrels that I didn't get before (most of which I saw, but left until I was done doing something else, and then didn't go back).


For the zeppelin escort, my first attempt used a less than optimal strategy. The glitchy Target Lock (that doesn't necessarily lock) and target selection didn't help, either. If I'm pointed directly at a nest, in range, and hit the right stick, why the heck would the game target a flying demon way above me, or off to the side, and not at least cycle around to the nest? Anyway, the zeppelin made it to the point the captain decided to change the plan
I reloaded my save at the start of the escort, and attempted to be more systematic clearing the nests and towers. When available I tried to use the Wrath of the Patriarch on the densest cluster that was relatively close, and then flew around taking out individual structures and smaller groups, and also summoned a wyvern whenever I had a moment and thought of it (which wasn't often), figuring an extra target might help the zeppelin. I started off doing much better, but when Zandalor told me to redouble my efforts I noticed the zeppelin's health had dropped a fair bit. Looking back, I discovered it was mostly passed a platform that I had missed clearing 4 or 5 ballistas from. Rather than try getting to the end I reloaded a save from a few minutes previous, and made sure I didn't miss anything the next time. Somewhere after the mid point but before the final section I went up to level 47. The zeppelin's health started getting a little low towards the end, but they made it

After the conversation with Ygerna and Behrlihn finished I stood there and let them hit me a couple times while I cast Way of the Ranger, then used Splitting Arrows and jumped back to heal (didn't really need to, HP were about 80%, but I was expecting a tougher fight) and summon my creature (I assume it was off fighting a summoned demon after that, since I didn't notice it again until the fight was over). An explosive arrow at Behrlihn didn't seem to do much damage, but 2 or 3 normal arrows finished him off. His death animation blocked another couple arrows fired at Ygerna, so rather than wait I sidestepped to the left to get a clear angle, slightly before Ygerna tried to Rush Attack me. I rolled away, turned and finished her off with Splitting Arrows.

Cue final cutscene.




Before killing Ygerna, at level 47.12, I had 145 unused stat points (none distributed since level 15), and 87 unused skill points.

I used 2 malachite gems for healing auras, which left me with 65 to spare. Next game I'm going to have to be less stingy using level 10 enchantments and healing auras, or not bother reloading for malachite veins or FoV quests.

I did not use any charms in the game, but collected 5 lesser charms, 9 minor, 27 major, 56 blessed and 61 divine charms (7 of which were vitality, 3 spirit, 10 strength, 7 dexterity, 6 intelligence and 28 other).






Skills

Ranger Strength - 15
Splitting Arrows - 9+6
Explosive Arrows - 12+3
Way of the Ranger - 10+5

Poison Arrows - 1
Stun Arrows - 1

Death Blow - 1+4
Evade - 1
Healing - 1
Regenerate - 1

Lockpick - 0 (7 before reskilling for the end game)
Ranger Stealth - 5
Mana Efficiency - 6+4
Mindread - 1 (15 before reskilling for the end game)



Equipment (in a spoiler, since most of it was mentioned above already):

Nice write-up Raze, I hope you enjoyed Flames of Vengeance!

Now I'm curious to see how Jurdenson will fare!