Glacial Fights

[VynalDerp]

Hey! I've been playing around with the new glacial update a fair bit, and I've ran into a bit of a conundrum. Every fight I've been in the Glacial region seems way too difficult at the moment for me at level 5.

In particular, I've noted that every turn the enemy deals roughly 200-300 damage (depending on if they get crits or not, which is about 50/50 chance) to my party while I deal an entire 50, maybe 80 if I'm lucky. And this is with a full party focused on damage dealing - what always happens is 2/3 companions fail a cast or literally die turn one before they can even fight lol.

So I'm curious as to what methods other people have taken to actually winning these fights. The only fight I can consistently win is the Shark people fight, as they don't spam crit cleave and allow me to target the more dangerous enemy and focus them down first. What about you guys? Any tricks or combos you used to get through the fights? I'd love to experience the victory scenes for a change instead of just fleeing or defeat.

 

[Greyfox643]

Have a tank, or BE the tank. Brint/Brienne/Arona(firstform)/Artugia all work for this roll.
Have a healer, or BE the healer.
Cait/Secondform Ryn are good cor this.

Have an ability that CCs a whole group, or protects anyone who isnt the tank in the party. The alluring dance is effective for those vulnerable to lust attacks, for example. Quin, and Floofwife also have CC options if you dont want to do that thing.

Consider swapping armor or stats around for more physical protection. Or, consider a different class for the available passive abilities.

Dont be afraid to pop ultimate abilities. Arona's in particular is one of my favorites, as it turns her into the motherfucking DOOM SLAYER.

Garth's booze maxes out 1 stat COMPLETELY for 24 hours. This can mean either more damage, or more survivability for your PC.

Lastly. Try directly controlling all party actions.

 

[Muted_ReDead]

Royal Leathers improves your ward to enough degrees that you can survive the Avanai Rider's magical Onslaught. A fun little exploit: even though the Roc intercepts all damage done to the Avanai, any debuffs the attack would apply still goes to the rider. So you can "attack" the Avanai with a stun to buy yourself a couple turns while your party takes care of Big Bird. Save Dastardly Trick for the Avanai Rider.

Also, Bessy Mauler.

 

[VynalDerp]

Have a tank, or BE the tank. Brint/Brienne/Arona(firstform)/Artugia all work for this roll.
Have a healer, or BE the healer.
Cait/Secondform Ryn are good cor this.

Have an ability that CCs a whole group, or protects anyone who isnt the tank in the party. The alluring dance is effective for those vulnerable to lust attacks, for example. Quin, and Floofwife also have CC options if you dont want to do that thing.

Consider swapping armor or stats around for more physical protection. Or, consider a different class for the available passive abilities.

Dont be afraid to pop ultimate abilities. Arona's in particular is one of my favorites, as it turns her into the motherfucking DOOM SLAYER.

Garth's booze maxes out 1 stat COMPLETELY for 24 hours. This can mean either more damage, or more survivability for your PC.

Lastly. Try directly controlling all party actions.

Well, being the tank isn't really possible for me. An entire 215 HP points for my character makes me quite squishy and I would often die before it even became my turn again due to everyone's favorite cleave. The first fight I brought Brint into resulted in him literally dying before it was even his turn... two crit cleaves on him in row and he was gone, both dealing about 170 damage each. Granted, I died as well to the same deal and Cait was the only one lucky enough to stay alive afterwards. With how dangerous their attacks are the mere 50-60 extra HP Brint gets doesn't really seem to help a whole lot, although if he does manage to live the Cleave is helpful. Assuming they don't dodge it, which I've seen them do and which I have yet to dodge even once.

The problem with the dances is the amount of aggro you get... being squishy and generating a ton of aggro per turn is basically suicide. I would probably end up doing even worse off than I already am if I swapped lol. But Resolve isn't really the issue here - it's raw health damage, and it's so much that even when both I and Cait are healing machines it's still far too much to deal with. Normally I would go for a high burst damage to compensate... but between casts failing and the enemy dodging, fights always turn into a longer affair. Which I lose, because of the sheer damage output.

I actually ended up doing worse overall when I tried to switch to physical armor. I have a focus on casting abilities so swapping out to armor suited for physical defense ended up making me die quicker - I couldn't heal myself nearly as effectively and it was even more difficult to chew through the like 600-800 or so combined enemy HP.

The problem with popping ults is, well, the one-use affair. It's kind of pointless to pop an ult to win one fight only to get into the exact same fight you need an ult for a couple of explore turns later... in order to do that and consistently win fights, I'd have to trek all the way back to Hawkethorne (or maybe the Kitsune Den) to rest. Which I would do to grind EXP to get a higher level and make the fights easier... except I'm already at the max level.

I actually didn't know about Garth's booze, I figured they were just like a +10 stat boost or something. I'll be sure to look further into it... It might make a difference when combined with other stuff like a Bento Box or other items which max out stats.

Also, yes I do directly control actions. It's still entirely possible to lose by having Cait get staggered and as a result I can't heal the 150 damage crit cleave that just smacked me in the face and so I die in Brint's turn or after my own.

 

[Muted_ReDead]

Etheryn's Queenly Raiment set is a better healing set than Cait's imo. Also even though the rider's Roc intercepts attacks, the rider still suffers the debuffs the attacks would cause had he been hit, including stuns. What's your gear, build and stats? Don't forget you can retrain yourself completely if you want!

 

[Alypia]

Well, being the tank isn't really possible for me. An entire 215 HP points for my character makes me quite squishy and I would often die before it even became my turn again due to everyone's favorite cleave. The first fight I brought Brint into resulted in him literally dying before it was even his turn... two crit cleaves on him in row and he was gone, both dealing about 170 damage each. Granted, I died as well to the same deal and Cait was the only one lucky enough to stay alive afterwards. With how dangerous their attacks are the mere 50-60 extra HP Brint gets doesn't really seem to help a whole lot, although if he does manage to live the Cleave is helpful. Assuming they don't dodge it, which I've seen them do and which I have yet to dodge even once.

Brint is actually not a tank, he's more of a fank - he's got decent HP, but he doesn't have any aggro generation, damage reduction, or shield blocking. He can fake it - fake tank, hence "fank" - reasonably well against weaker or lower-level enemies, but against real bruisers he doesn't hold up super well.

Arona (Warhides set) and Tui are the tanks in our party so far. Level them up and try them out on the Rift, if you're not going tank yourself. Tui in particular has good utility because she can handle the cultists' Resolve damage reasonably well.

 

[Savin]

An entire 215 HP points for my character makes me quite squishy and I would often die before it even became my turn again

Remember if your build is bad or you need something else, retraining your entire character is relatively cheap and easy.

 

[sumgai]

Remember if your build is bad or you need something else, retraining your entire character is relatively cheap and easy.

Or chug one of Garth's drinks to help patch in any significant holes for the day. Spiced Wine!

 

[KAZEARC]

i want to know if the cultists will change there dialog in the future if you are a fully corrupted and romancing kas. kinda odd that kas would have them fight you or is it more to get you stronger for her.

 

[Malpha]

She's made no secret that she wants you to be stronger, as strong as you can get.

 

[Jorr The Great]

(sorry for the mistakes, but english is not my native language)
I understand your frustration, my character is a charmer with primary presence and secondary willpower, until now no enemy had been complicated for me, with a healer or tank I could hold out until their resolve was exhausted or my companions would physically knock them down, even the Avanai rider it is just annoying since the bird resists a lot of damage, but with the giants it is another matter.

Somehow I managed to beat them the first time and I said "okay" but soon I realized that it was very lucky, suddenly they started to oneshot my teammates or me, luckily I had the Senninbari equipped, my ultimate "Inspiration" was basically a lost turn since 20% more health did not make a difference against so much damage, and the great resistances to the tease or mental attacks of the giants make Quin and my OC almost useless, i tried with teammates focused on doing physical damage and i supported them but with their dodging abilities similar to an agile kitsune, it was pure luck to deal them enough damage before the 3 turns they need to finish you, to finish i tried with some combination with tanks but only made the combat longer until the same result.

In fact, as the codex paints them, the strange thing is that you get to beat them, they make it very clear to you how powerful that race is, because of the combat I think they are enemies that you can face at level 7 or 8, for me, that victory that i mention is enough, of course that's because of the story I did to my OC.

Unfortunately, the way to beat them without having to spend several ultimates is to be very lucky.

 

[Alypia]

i want to know if the cultists will change there dialog in the future if you are a fully corrupted and romancing kas. kinda odd that kas would have them fight you or is it more to get you stronger for her.

She's made no secret that she wants you to be stronger, as strong as you can get.

Yeah, what Malpha says.

This game, especially the parts that Tobs writes, is pretty heavy on the completely correct idea that you can't really grow without overcoming challenges. Kas says it in the first scene. Pretty much all the foxes lay it on thick. Nareva says it. You can even read it in the Champ's own lines when talking to Ryn during the Winter City negotiations.

So Kas'll throw her cultists at you, and why not? Why waste your affection on someone who can't even beat your scrubs?

 

[KAZEARC]

Yeah, what Malpha says.

This game, especially the parts that Tobs writes, is pretty heavy on the completely correct idea that you can't really grow without overcoming challenges. Kas says it in the first scene. Pretty much all the foxes lay it on thick. Nareva says it. You can even read it in the Champ's own lines when talking to Ryn during the Winter City negotiations.

So Kas'll throw her cultists at you, and why not? Why waste your affection on someone who can't even beat your scrubs?

only coriuse that on my pc that i have at 100 corruption given birth or a few dozen imps and dones all the romance with kas the cultists are acting like you are trying to stop/kill her. all i want to do is be with my demon milf and yet kas or the pc can't tell them that. i have not played the glacial area yet with a purest character but i assume it the same.
better question is why do some random fucks get to become demons or half demons before you. i know why but why. just hope that the demon comes out soon and it comes with some new kas content. and i hope that in the end you get to be with her in taking over the place with demon shit or starting a demon family with her on a romance/corruption run.
the fighting is not that hard for me it ether one way on my side or even it just can't kas accept that you have already that you can throw anything she wants at you that ain't going to change the fact that you want to be with her and that you are probably stronger that most of the people in the game other than her.

 

[The Observer]

I mean, if you'd read the writer's guide:

The PC is not, and never will be, an ally of the demons outside specific bad-ends. You can become a demon-morph, and in the story's conclusion move towards a commanding presence as a demon lord (as in CoC), but during the story's course you will actively oppose the demon faction within Savarra.

Even Corrupted PCs recognize that a demonic invasion means an end to their freedom and way of life. If you're corrupt, you want to spread corruption and hedonism on your terms -- whether that means working as a humanoid or striving towards True Demonhood -- but you will not ever surrender to Kasyrra's control outside of a bad end. Thus the conflict ensues between the PC and Kasyrra, regardless of alignment.

 

[KAZEARC]

I mean, if you'd read the writer's guide:

can`t you just have love even if it's with a demon witch dragon cow woman.

 

[Alypia]

can`t you just have love even if it's with a demon witch dragon cow woman.

Lose to Master Whisper.

 

[KAZEARC]

Lose to Master Whisper.

just played it. that ending is kinda cute and i will say i do hope you get to KILL tollus just behead him or something at some point as he is out for his own gain and he is a prick. over coc coc and tits he is like the one npc i want to kill.

 

[VynalDerp]

snip

This has kinda also been my experience in fights as well. The Glacial area definitely feels like it's more meant for a level 6 or level 7 character, and reminds me of going to Harvest Valley right from the get go and having a rough time of it w/o a second companion and being so low level.

I hope the level cap is increased soon. It would be a real shame to keep adding more and more difficult enemies (and potentially more exciting or varied fights) but keep us shackled to a relatively low level in comparison. Kinda gets rediculous when not only does the enemy out damage you but they have more overall health as well. Means you kinda need to game the system or change your entire playstyle from scratch which may require spending weeks retraining class/new abilities/stats which is costly when put together. I kinda don't want to hit the 300 days mark already having wasted a bunch of time doing so. It's kind of moot to have an impressive 300 days but I've only actually played 200 or so.

I do hope the creators are testing the new stuff both with and without Mirror Stance. Personally I've put that quest off because it was unfinished... I don't want to fight the guard lady and end up getting locked out of future content with her or miss potentially cool dialogue you could get by talking her out of it or something.

 

[The Observer]

We're tentatively looking at level 6 now.

The sea ice sub-zone of the rift is tuned for level 6, and all that's really needed are the powers. Coming up with new and interesting ones that are meaningful and competitive in usage is always the hardest part.

 

[Lukistr]

I am going to throw my two cents here and say that with a healer Ryn Kami-no-Michi Kiyoko or Chieftain Arona and mage main I had no real problems with any of the glacial fights. The only two I lost without wanting to were the Jotuns once and that was when I fucked around with sense to see if they have the same abilities as Sigrun with companions on auto instead of actually fighting and then the cultists twice one of them the same circumstances as the Jotuns. So they are challenging but far from impossible. The hardest fights in the game imo are Alissa and Byvernia and both are perfectly beatable. If you play the orc and centaur dungeons with level 3 chars [the level Arona is after completing the orcs] Benny and Argoth and Taldahs can be a somewhat hard fight but they are the final bosses of their dungeons so makes sense. Your build doesn't have to be optimal [far from it] but it is a party based combat system there must be at least some synergy between your chars and at this point a healer is absolutely mandatory you can no longer just melt everything turn one and be done.

Edit: Small advice for the Jotuns [and anuthing else with Frenzy] Frenzy can be interrupted by knockdown so having an ability that can consistently knockdown and saving it for them popping frenzy is a good idea.
One last Edit: Also most of the times I don't bother controlling my companions since I am lazy but if you aren't and struggle going full manual might be a good idea. And sorry for the wall of text.

 

[VynalDerp]

snip

At the moment my party is usually me as a mage, Cait healing, and Brint or Kiyoko as the third.
I checked and I don't actually have Arona as a companion... I don't recall her being added as one but to be honest I hate orcs and they are easily my least favorite race in the game, hands-down. Would rather not use them if possible. It's been over 250 days since I last saw Arona and I really don't want to go back to her. Gonna have to look at Tugia as a possible alternative, I suppose.

I didn't have too much trouble with Alissa myself, it required a bit of luck to get to her but fighting her wasn't too bad for me. Not sure who Byvernia is or where to find her, doesn't have a wiki page so I have no idea who they are.

I wish the wiki was updated, and I'm kinda curious what synergies people use - I haven't found anything that synergized super well with other companions abilities or spells, but I'm not at all an expert on the game's abilities and the wiki becomes less and less helpful with each patch.

 

[KAZEARC]

Not sure who Byvernia is or where to find her, doesn't have a wiki page so I have no idea who they are.

she can be found in the foothills.
the thing with the combat if you are not playing on dark mode is that it's more on who you bring over what you have. i'm using the same set i started with being blade staff and leather armor bits and i can still fight the in glacial with no problem with cait and brienne. it's the fights that have hit you resolve that are always the hard ones for me.

 

[The Observer]

I'm writing selkies right now, another level 6 encounter for the sea ice zone, and hope to have the writing done by mid to end of next week. That should round out all the generic encounters on my part, although I believe other authors have encounters in the works.

They'll have shields, which means crit immunity.

If people are still having problems after level 6 is released, I'll push for some minor balancing to be done, but otherwise right now I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with regards to my content. None of the rift's major plotlines are in play right now, so winning or losing battles is relatively inconsequential.

 

[Greyfox643]

We're tentatively looking at level 6 now.

The sea ice sub-zone of the rift is tuned for level 6, and all that's really needed are the powers. Coming up with new and interesting ones that are meaningful and competitive in usage is always the hardest part.

Perhaps an easy solution would be to purchase/train "upgraded" versions of what we have, similar to TTRPGs with casting lower level spells at higher level.

I think if you talk took some of the level 1 and 2 abilities, and spruced them up a bit, it could both save you time, and prevent the skill book from becoming too bloated, as obtaining an improved version of a skill would remove its "base form".

Spoiler

this is in no way motivated by the hope Steady Strike gaining an extra hit, or fading strike also causing poisoning

They'll have shields, which means crit immunity.

That there is gonna be a MIGHTY big OOF to my Champion.

 

[KAZEARC]

iv only play it on a bugged corrupted pc (bugged as in i have kas as a follower.) for the cultiest parts. as until some plot part of me to go there i'm just going to avoid going there. not coz the fights are hard but it has point for me to be there cool area tho for a playthrough point.

 

[Akhter13]

The sea ice sub-zone of the rift is tuned for level 6, and all that's really needed are the powers. Coming up with new and interesting ones that are meaningful and competitive in usage is always the hardest part.

Some New Summons might be interesting might I suggest:
White Mage - a "Guardian" support/healer freeing PC to be a bit more Holy warrior
Black Mage - a "Horror" generates a lot of threat attacks focus [Dark thought/Soul arrow] tweak its effectiveness by making it harder to harm physically/lower HP

 

[GraphiteCrow]

The only problems I had in the Glacial Drifts were the demons and cultists, when you have multiple enemies focus blasting out my companions resolve, I have no real defense even dropping down a Bolstering dance and chucking a Smite barely delayed the inevitable.

I just learned to retreat as soon as I saw I was fighting demons.