Stuck Progression.

[SwiftShifter]

As the title suggests I’ve gotten to a point in the game that I’ve seemingly hit a wall. I reached the 17th season the other day and until that point everything was relatively linear progression.

I’ve grabbed all available quests (that I’m aware of) and am currently holding the quests for the Dragon Cult/ Snort and the Druids. All of which I’ve attempted dozens of times only to find myself trying to ninja my corpse out to clutch onto what little exp I had left. It seems that my only option of progression seems to be grinding out the standard Druids for the exp they have to offer, having minimal knowledge of the resists/ saving throws (I’m working on it, I’m forever looking into why/ how I died the way I did) is there something I could possibly be overlooking that could help me on my journey?

For reference everytime ive come to do the quests that I’ve got remaining atm, I’ve been one shot or chased through zones trying to flee (for instance today the Druid leader chased me all the way to the portal for Old Ruins and then decided to set up shop for about half hour). Also full disclosure I’m using a Fighter/ WM/ Blackguard build (yeah I quickly put my Shifter in the back burner temporarily). Without giving anything away, would looking into my gear possibly be the answer I’m looking for to face these foes?

Any suggestions/ information would be greatly appreciated.

TIA, SwiftShifter aka
Xerxes The Shifter
Merkules The Brutish

[driller]

Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to adjust every encounter to fit every class or build. You might want to consider getting someone to help you.

But, I will be adding two to three more quests that will hopefully smooth out the progression a bit.

[Ming]

Casters can be the a serious pain for a pure melee build like yours. Snort also will abuse your poor reflex save and lack of evasion/imp evasion. Same for the dragon cults annoying leader. So if you can't find someone to party up with you for these, then I suggest the following things. Assuming you have haste on something other then a weapon, you could try fighting snort and the dragoncult leader with ranged kiting tactics. Sure its not what your specialized in but it will work, eventually. For the druid leader though, you may just need more hp/levels, or a constant stream of potions since their are no heal potions.

[driller]

Try a hireling from Rodran, he can be useful when fighting Snort or the Druids. Also, there is an item in Marvale's Merchant, that can help.

[SwiftShifter]

By no means was I expecting it to be easy/ catering to everybody. It just caught me off guard was all hitting such a hard wall, so I thought I’d ask just in case I was overlooking something (such as getting stuck in Snake Cult).

Unfortunately my Haste is on my shield, but I can definitely scout out something else to apply it to. I tried kiting him around without it to no avail. As for the Hireling I need to finish the Dragon Cult first don’t I? I’ll definitely take a closer look at the Marvale Merchant though. I’ve also spent time around the BSK portal using the town crier in hope of forming a party of an average level but unfortunately had no luck.

Thanks for the suggestions though, I’ll reassess my gear/ strategy and grind out until 19/20 to try and better my chances.

[Ming]

You will need to be lvl 19 to equip the item that driller is hinting at to begin with. I personally dont find the hireling that useful vs snort, and snort has a lot of hp. I just solo'd him today on a sorcerer but he ate 4 Empowered (lvl 17) IGMS, followed by multiple other missile storms, all while kiting him as I cant take 2 hits from his pulse attack. My merc died in the first pulse attack from snort thanks to his terrible reflex save. Was doable as a caster, but still it was run run cast, run run cast. Merc gets back up, dies, back to run run cast.

[Sapphire]

There is a ring out there that'll stop his chain lightening ... But best advice with Snort as a mage is to bigby's him then pick him off out of range of his pulse weapon perhaps with a decent longbow (if your an elf) with some of those magic damage arrows from Broadmarch rahter than waste all your spells on him...

[Kane0]

Snort can also be Death Magic'd, my Necromancer had a 50/50 chance of getting him with a Wail at level 18. Energy buffer is also handy to save you from 1 or 2 unlucky pulses, and Ice Storm will slow him for a few seconds on top of the damage.

[driller]

Actually the item talking about is level 16. You can use it to distract him and take attention off of yourself.

You will need to be lvl 19 to equip the item that driller is hinting at to begin with. I personally dont find the hireling that useful vs snort, and snort has a lot of hp. I just solo'd him today on a sorcerer but he ate 4 Empowered (lvl 17) IGMS, followed by multiple other missile storms, all while kiting him as I cant take 2 hits from his pulse attack. My merc died in the first pulse attack from snort thanks to his terrible reflex save. Was doable as a caster, but still it was run run cast, run run cast. Merc gets back up, dies, back to run run cast.

[Ming]

ah, yes a distraction, I see what you mean now. I hadn't thought about doing it that way as I had the merc for my (bad) distraction.

[SwiftShifter]

Quick update, i’m proud to say that I managed to strike down Snort, Druid Leader and Dargus all in the one afternoon. It goes without saying that the tip to visit Marvale for a distraction proved useful but I never would have killed Snort without the help of a kind stranger.

Thanks for your help guys, look to see some of you online in the future.