The Chronicles of Lars V

[Meepit]

Sadly, Lars IV has passed away. She made it all the way to the 12th floor of the Endless Dungeon before meeting an untimely end at the hands of... A Trick or Treater!

That's right. The door bell rang, I got up to answer it after hitting the spacebar to pause the game. Unfortunately, when I returned I managed to hit the edge of the screen with the mouse cursor just as I was unpausing the game. What this means is that the game minimized when my cursor jumped to my other monitor. When I got back to the game screen Lars the Fourth was dead.

Ah well. I'm looking at it like this, I now have an opportunity to change gears and try out that Arbiter build I've been thinking about.

So, here's the deal with Lars V. I'm going to chronicle my progress level by level and include information on drops, skills and what not and see just how far I can get this build to go. The concept behind this build is going to be Wands and Traps. So, if anyone has any knowledge and sees me headed down a bad path with this character, please pipe and let me know!

Onto the crawl...

Level 1: Plain ol' plain old. Hopefully a nice wand will drop on Floor 1.

Level 2: Dinged shortly after posting. Nothing spectacular, still on Floor 1 and have found a piece of armor for every slot.
Put 3 points into Magic; bringing it to 10.
Put 2 points into Defense; bringing it to 8.
Added a point to Lightning Bomb to test the skill out.
I found a green ring that gives +14 to health, a Haste I spell and a blue bow that has really crummy DPS (33) but I'll use it til I find something better. Onto floor 2.

And all hell broke loose. I stepped off the elevator to be greeted by a swarm of hostiles. No joke, it was like they were sitting there waiting to jump me. Luckily there was a Health Shrine handy and I had enough healing pots to survive. Seriously, they tried to end me right there.



Level 3: I wasn't impressed with Lightning Bomb. I won't be revisiting this skill.
Put 2 points into Dexterity (I needed them for the bow I found earlier, it has a Dex req. of 12)
Put 1 point into Magic.
Put 2 points into Defense.
I'm saving my skill point for later.

[Meepit]

I just hit level 4. I killed a spider champion and she dropped this!



Unfortunately, I'm neither level seven nor do I have the 21 defense rating to equip those just yet.
I'm thinking I'm gonna drop 5 points into Defense until I reach the required stats to use this Unique.

Again, I'm saving my skill point for later.

Killed another champion shortly thereafter (a ratkin supervisor type). He didn't drop anything of value. Bummer.

Made a pit stop to turn in the quest in town and pick up the new ones. Heading down to floor 3.

On that note, I have company coming over to watch the game. Catch up with you all later!

[userfriendly]

Would it be easier if You put this on a blog of some sort and post the link here?
Anyway, Its interesting to see how the Trapist is developing!

[Magister]

i feel bad for lars IV , keep it on with the new vanq and post your update

[Meepit]

Would it be easier if You put this on a blog of some sort and post the link here?
Anyway, Its interesting to see how the Trapist is developing!

Well, I'm hoping for community feed back as I get further in. Also I'm editing my posts rather than posting again whenever I level up. The only time I'm creating a new post is when I have to link a screen shot. That really wouldn't fit the blog format. Besides, this is the Vanquisher Discussion Forum. I can't think of a more appropriate place to post this.

Onto the crawl...

Floor 3, I finally found a scepter, courtesy of a blob champion . It's 46 dps and SAS. It does electric damage, however, so that's a plus. Fished up some tunnelshark for my dog and shortly thereafter took down a troll champion. He dropped this!



The Strength requirement is a bit steep, but it's doable in a few levels.

Fame Level 2. I'm going to save the point for right now. Also, I fished up a pair of "Unidentified Boots" from a fishing hole. I've never fished armor up before, didn't even know it was possible.

Level 5: Dinged on a Ratkin Foreman that was trapped behind a barrel and a Foreman's table.
Put 5 points into Strength to meet gear requirements. Eventually, the need to do this sort of thing should subside.
Put a skill point into Critical Strikes (For my wands, not traps), a point into Armor Expertise, a point into Dual Wield and a point into Flame Trap to try the skill out. I'll be saving up some money to buy a 1-10 map and a fireball spell soon.

[Simbert]

I have levelled my Trapper-Vanquisher up to level 19 on Vhhc now, and lightning bomb works pretty good so far. The first few levels, it does not seem to do much, since level 3, it basically kills every of the weaker mobs in in shot. But obviously, at this point i can not determine how good it will scale in once it reached max level. At the moment, i use it as my main attack besides Flechette-Traps.

[Meepit]

I have levelled my Trapper-Vanquisher up to level 19 on Vhhc now, and lightning bomb works pretty good so far. The first few levels, it does not seem to do much, since level 3, it basically kills every of the weaker mobs in in shot. But obviously, at this point i can not determine how good it will scale in once it reached max level. At the moment, i use it as my main attack besides Flechette-Traps.

That's good to know. I've just been using my wand now, since it has built in AoE and Ricochet doesn't work with wands. I may revisit Lightning Bomb if my current method starts to come up short.

I have to admit, I'm pleased with Flame Trap thus far. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, and it's nothing but glancing blows against mimics, but it does clear the trashier ratkins up pretty quickly. I probably won't put more than one point into it, though.

Hmm... I just went up the stairs to Floor 2 to retrieve Brink and the entire floor has respawned. I haven't gotten to back to Brink yet (I don't want the game to lock up on Floor 4 so I'm not taking any chances.) I found a pistol that has Knockback 10 and 7 Lifesteal built in. Oh, man... It's tempting. But I'll stick to my character concept and forgo the gun.

Level 6. Dinged on the way back to Brink.
Put 5 points into Defense so I can wear those unique gloves I found earlier. They have excellent stats.
Put my skill point into Armor Expertise.

I just noticed something strange: When I looked at the unique gloves I had picked up earlier, the requirements for them were Level 7 and 21 Defense Stat. Just now, I tabbed out of the game to post and tabbed back in and noticed the requirements had changed. They were now Level 6 and 20 Defense, I tabbed out to post that and thought to get a screen shot and now the requirements are Level 5 and 19 defense!



Also, the boots I picked up earlier have now a reduced requirement to 13 Strength.

[Meepit]

So, no Brink on the Floor, which is odd. He normally shows up on Floor 2 for me. The floor seemed to have the exact same layout but with entirely new mobs. When I got back to the stairs on the way up to Floor 1 there was a champion spider waiting for me and the Healing Shrine I had used before was now back and ready to be used again.



Here's the direct links to the two screenshots if anyone is interested in a higher resolution comparison.

Screen 1: http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll17 ... LarsV1.jpg
Screen 2: http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll17 ... Reduex.jpg

Strange things be happening.

Interestingly enough, Floor 1 had NOT respawned. The only thing that was out of place was the chests that I had opened earlier were now closed, but also not able to be opened.

So, I went back down to Floor 2 and still no Brink.

[Meepit]

Brink showed up right on queue when I got to the end of the Dank Chamber.

However, I'm 1000% sure now that my game is bugged.



O.O

It turned out to be 33 of those Brom's Roughide Tonics.



I guess this puts the breaks on this character while I go report this in the Bugs forum.

[Pushbutton]

33 Tonics! O.O Wow, that is interesting. I'm going to see if I can replicate the effect tonight. I've actually never had Brom with me when I hit level 4. The game locks up, I hit Esc, and the fight is on... Still have no idea what should happen in that sequence, lol.

[Meepit]

33 Tonics! O.O Wow, that is interesting. I'm going to see if I can replicate the effect tonight. I've actually never had Brom with me when I hit level 4. The game locks up, I hit Esc, and the fight is on... Still have no idea what should happen in that sequence, lol.

Haha! Good luck with that. I've never seen this happen before and I've killed him several times now. Ah well, I'm still only going to use one tonic to preserve my play through integrity. Still, when I saw them hit the floor I was like, "THE TORCHLIGHT GODS BE PRAISED!!!".

Since they dropped that makes them legit, right? Right?! Hahaha... *Sigh*

Also, I see that's your first post. Welcome to the forums!


Onto the crawl...

I headed back to town and sold the tonics. I used the ill-gotten gains to buy a blue wand that I'll be able to use a level from now and to put some enchants on said wand. The first optional portal from Hatch is open, but I'm going to go ahead and skip it for now.

Got another set of Unique gloves off of an item rack on Floor 5. Don't have any Identify Scrolls handy right now so I'll have to see what they are later.

Fame Level 3: Put the point into Armor Expertise.
Level 7: Put five points into Magic to meet the requirements for my new wand and another point in Dual Wield.

The gloves turned out to be Homuncultist. Inferior to my Shadow Gloves, all things considered. If I were an Alchemist they might be more appealing.
I was able to find an Enchantment Shrine on Floor 5. The champs didn't drop anything remarkable. Floor 6 awaits...

Level 8: I'm really surprised at how effective just 1 point in Flame Trap has been thus far. It's been clearing skeletons left and right and I've down three champs with it very quickly.
It's been said that Flame Trap loses it's effectiveness very quickly so I'm not gonna put any more points in it.
Put 3 Points into Defense.
Put 2 Points into Magic.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

On that note, I'm calling it a night.

Floor: The Chamber of the Sisters. Lots of undead here, so the Flame Trap is working great. It made short work of the undead Champion that was kind enough to drop me a Talon Hood. I like it for the resists, but the strength requirement is a bit steep.

Fame Level 4. Added a point to Dual Wield. It does directly affect my magic damage.

Found a really nice blue chestpiece on the way to the Sisters Three, it provides some nice base armor (at this point in the game) of 20 as well as +6 to both fire and electric resists.
Also found an Enchantment Shrine and dropped my Shadow Gloves in there. They picked up a bonus 3 Damage Reflect. Meh.

Level 9. Dinged while clearing out the Sisters Chamber before reading the journal. So far the only wands I've seen are Slowest Attack Speed and Slow Attack Speed. I'm wondering if there's anything faster out there.
Put 2 points into Dexterity for gear requirements.
Put 3 points into Magic.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

[Savur]

I hope this strange but fun bugg doesnt have any wierd consequences for the rest of your game! I had a sort of simular thing with Shade when i tried killing him on one of the last blows he turned "friendly" (i have this fun ring that has a 10% chance to turn enemies friendly for 20 seconds) the effect lasted for about 1 and a half minute than when I killed him there was this explosion of loot, unfortunatly mostly white stuff, lots of id scrolls!

On a side note, watch out with the turn for 20 second proc, it happens quite often that an miniboss turns friendly with about 20 hp left and than being killed by the other mobs around him. A qouple times this ended with no xp/fame for me!

[Meepit]

I hope this strange but fun bugg doesnt have any wierd consequences for the rest of your game! I had a sort of simular thing with Shade when i tried killing him on one of the last blows he turned "friendly" (i have this fun ring that has a 10% chance to turn enemies friendly for 20 seconds) the effect lasted for about 1 and a half minute than when I killed him there was this explosion of loot, unfortunatly mostly white stuff, lots of id scrolls!

On a side note, watch out with the turn for 20 second proc, it happens quite often that an miniboss turns friendly with about 20 hp left and than being killed by the other mobs around him. A qouple times this ended with no xp/fame for me!

You know what? The boots I was wearing at the time had a 1% chance to make enemies fight for you. I wonder if that had anything to do with the exploding loots.


=============================================================================

Just killed the Sisters using Flame Trap and that's about it. I'm wondering why so many people dog this skill, it's doin' fine for me thus far. They didn't drop anything of note, just a bunch of greens.

Level 10. Dinged while being swarmed by skeletons.
Put 5 Points into Strength to bring it up to 15 for gear requirements on that Unique head piece I found earlier. Mainly because it has nice resists on it and I'm at the point where caster and caster champions are becoming more common.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

Only five levels to go for Flechette Trap.

Floor 7 has been pretty generous to me, as far as drops go. I picked up these from a spider.



I also picked up another set of Shadow Gloves and a Healthy Chaos Gem. Good times.

Fame Level 5. I added a point to Defensive Spell Mastery.

The Overseer went down pretty easily. Just had to kite him away from the initial group of adds and then stand and deliver. No 33 Overseer's Eyes this time though.

He DID however, drop this! Squeeeeeeeeeeee!



At this point, I've basically run out of money for enchants so I'm going to try my luck in 1-10 Map.

[Meepit]

I actually opted to head into the portal that Hatch created. I figured since I was level six when he opened it the mobs would be about that level. They weren't. They're all level nine and ten. It's not been incredibly difficult so far, the only thing is all three of the champs I've faced up to this point have been casters. They hit for 115-170 damage a tick and I've only got 590ish health. So, it's been a kite fest. Also, Flame Trap has become Glancing Blow Trap, even against mobs that are "weak" to fire.

Level 11. Dinged off of a champ.
Put 5 points into Defense.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

Hopefully I'll find some better resist gear soon.

So, as soon as I exited the portal, Hatch had another one ready. I decided to check it out. The mobs are all level 10, but it's an "Abandoned Cavern" floor so the Flame Trap just chews up the monsters here.

Fame Level 6. I added a skill point to Defensive Spells.
Level 12. Dinged from turning in Hatch's quest. He's got another portal open for me to crawl.
Put 5 Points into Defense.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

I'm running low on funds again, so it's time to farm gold in another Scroll Map. I've been buying up all the cracked Pure Embers that have been for sale, I'm close to being able to transmute them into a halfway decent gem.

Fame Level 7. Added a point to Defensive Spells.

This map hasn't had any upgrades, but I've picked up quite a few gems. The pet's bringing back 1500ish gold per town trip. I'm beginning to second guess this whole "Wands" thing. I'm just not able to deal out enough damage, nor do I have access to Ricochet at this point.

Level 13. Two more levels until Flechette Trap. At this point I'm really looking forward to it. Strangely enough, I ran into a champion that was taking 300+ dmg from my level 1 flame trap. He must have had a weakness to fire.
Put 5 Points into Defense.
Added a point to Armor Expertise.

[Kulgur]

Undead in general (plus the really low level stuff) tend to take full damage from flame traps, fletchlette tends to be better though

[Meepit]

Undead in general (plus the really low level stuff) tend to take full damage from flame traps, fletchlette tends to be better though

Do you know if it's effective in the Endless Dungeon on VH mode? I'm wondering if the mobs have too strong of resists for it. Also, I noticed that there's a bonus to elemental damage. Is that just for the trap, or is that applied to your character?

[Blinkwing]

I just noticed something strange: When I looked at the unique gloves I had picked up earlier, the requirements for them were Level 7 and 21 Defense Stat. Just now, I tabbed out of the game to post and tabbed back in and noticed the requirements had changed. They were now Level 6 and 20 Defense, I tabbed out to post that and thought to get a screen shot and now the requirements are Level 5 and 19 defense!

<removed screenshot>

Also, the boots I picked up earlier have now a reduced requirement to 13 Strength.

I may be wrong, but feel free to correct me. I think the stat/level requirements were 'reducing' because you put points into armour expertise?

[RizzRustbolt]

I may be wrong, but feel free to correct me. I think the stat/level requirements were 'reducing' because you put points into armour expertise?

It looked like it was reapplying the AE bonus every time she tabbed out though.

[NWA]

Good luck with next try!

[Meepit]

I may be wrong, but feel free to correct me. I think the stat/level requirements were 'reducing' because you put points into armour expertise?

Yeah, AE does drop the requirements, but it was doubling up for some reason when I tabbed out of my game. When I looked at them later they were back up to the proper value (post AE bonuses) so I think it was just a tool-tip bug.

Good luck with next try!

lolwut? The character is still alive... It's just that... Well.. You see... Dragon Age: Origins came out (notice the date on my last post) and I haven't been able to tear myself away from it. I literally have been up all night playing DA:O.

I'll continue playing Lars V after I burn myself out a little on DA:O.