Poseidon's Roar, One Hero, Low Level

[dietonight]

Maybe... Human impatience isn't such a bad thing after all...

Leucothea: b27.clapalong.com/?fid=N201209249243988

I wasn't planning to do this today. Really, I wasn't! In fact, my plan was to save Leucothea until I had leveled up still further and could take advantage of Elixir tech. But... I had 48 divs lying around, no one was willing to run HL2 or HD2 with me, I needed to log off relatively quickly, and I knew Leucothea was not as impossible as Phaethon...

Obviously, the only really serious threat here is the thunder mage; the most important thing is thunder mage failing, and the second most important thing is the snowfield warrior dying quickly so I could get to hitting the mage. But NPC t-mage failing of course takes a lot of luck... I needed I think 13 tries. Still just the +80/+80/+1 wash in this fight; obviously a near-max triple wash would have served me better. Enhanced Athena's Spear to (G7)4; that was the only improvement from the Arce/Dardanus fight.

[Guest]

So have you upgraded to level 65 yet? You'll need that elixir against Phaethon.

[dietonight]

Thoosa: http://b27.clapalong.com/?fid=N20121119652546

Pushed up to M50, lost 20 times to Phaethon without even a Minor Lose, got bored, then decided to throw some divs at Thoosa, who then fell after 9 tries. I had already thrown a few dozen divs or so at Thoosa on earlier occasions, but never at M50. Definitely a big difference; but still needed luck, of course.

Amphitrite: http://b27.clapalong.com/?fid=N20121119652546

First try!

[dietonight]

So... Not only is are all the BRs in this thread expired, but the last one, Amphitrite's is exactly the same as Thoosa's because of my mistake. So now I have no documentation at all, not even the sols9 automatically generated data, that I defeated Amphitrite at Lv 64 with one hero.

Arghhhhhhh

[dietonight]

Epimetheus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N2012120219990599

Took about 15 tries today, and maybe 25 or so on earlier days. But this time I was at hero Lv 65, ren lv 66 (compared to hero lv 64, ren lv 65 last time). Also, the wash was improved to +83/+84/+85(Max). This time, like last, I was M50.

Ahhh... The titan of afterthought... The trouble with this guy is, obviously, the bottom column: The cyclops armored chariot tanks, taking a relatively large number of turns to kill and giving little healing from Mutiny Outbreak, while the water mage dishes out punishing amounts of damage. The key to winning? Several well-timed Dio crits and a heavy dose of mage fails.

My formation, by the way, was Boar's Head. It seemed to work better than my usual choice, Skein.

[dietonight]

Palaemon: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201212199264392

Ah, one more win before the update. Not a very hard one either; took just 2 tries, with only M48 at that. Crius' wash isn't so great either (by my usual near-perfect standards), at just +80/+83/+83. Obviously, this would have been a piece of cake after the update with Hero's Pride and Zeus' Cloak up, and I wasn't planning on beating this guy until later. But... meh, I was bored.

[dietonight]

Ladies and gentlemen... Have you ever felt angry, frustrated, infuriated at a certain NPC's intransigence? Have you ever just wanted to just take out your fury and retribution on another NPC, even one that should ostensibly be even more powerful? Well... That's how I felt tonight.

Aphrodite: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201212281085631

For the first time in this run, witness the power of a full, impossible-to-improve-on gear set: Kylin, Laeveteinn, Zeus' Cloak, Hero's Pride, Greetings at the Doorsteps and Spartan Charms, all maxed out.

This took 6 tries at M49, which is actually more than I expected; I thought Zeus' Cloak + Hero's Pride would neuter Aphrodite's attacks even more than they did. Still, as you can see, my defense was sufficient and even criticals from the enemy soul hunter at full health do much less damage than either of Phaethon's mages at M50. The only really big threat here is the stun from the flaming cavalry's Sneak Raid; so I need Aphrodite to either charge up a different unit, or better yet fail. Once the flaming cavalry is dead, unless Dionysus is very near death, it's game over for the Goddess of Love.

So there you have it: A Group 2 NPC down in ~ 1/20 the number of tries I've thrown at a Group 1 NPC with no end in sight, and at lower prestige too.

P.S. Looked at the sols9 generated data, and saw this battle lasted 20 turns. So I was wrong when I said the flaming cavalry was the only threat, the tie system is a threat too. I guess that's true in general; if you think about, I always need to kill an enemy every 4 turns, which is inherently not an easy thing to do with 1 hero. But for some reason, I actually haven't had much of a problem with that so far. Hope it stays that way!

[dietonight]

Calypso: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302052257002

Not so hard now that I have so much awesome new equipment. Took I think something like 6 tries because, let's face it, fire mage and scorpion still do a lot of damage and Dio is still vulnerable to wasting a BM on an almost dead NPC.

Daphne: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302052270478

No troops lost on first try, despite rather bad luck with the thunder mage at the beginning.

Aeolus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302052297486

Also no troops lost on first try. Would you expect anything more from an NPC with a bomber build?

Peneus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302052311811

Again no troops lost on first try. Sure, this NPC has a thunder mage and total defense, both bad news. But no consistent hitter to really KO Dio.

Well that was fun... I was only M48, and Dionysus was only Lv 55! I'm sure there will be more fun to come, once Dio has reached max hero level. That's all for now; not going to attempt 2nd half of Poseidon's Roar without reaching the halfway point of Zeus' Mercy first, and for that Proteus merits at the very least a full power Dio.

[dietonight]

Looks like I lied about not starting 2nd half of Poseidon's Roar without finishing 1st half of Zeus' Mercy

Clytius: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302062105172

Took 7 tries, I think. Much more raw power than Group 2, as you can see, so it was pretty tough despite a relatively easy NPC build. Was quite lucky to kill that fire mage in 2 hits; he normally took 3. However... Dionysus was still at full power (only Lv 61) and prestige was still only M48.

That's it. I'm leveling up to 69 now. I had actually originally planned to due to so after Peneus, but dawdled due to a reason unrelated to DieSupport's run... But no more delaying now. Somewhat unfortunately, I can't level DieSupport any higher than 69 because that would put it out of dietonight's Wrath of Gods helper range.

[dietonight]

Leuce: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201302066577887

2 tries. Still at M48. Hero Lv 61, ren lv 69 (not 70). Kylin, Laeveteinn and Zeus' Cloak maxed to Lv 69, but Hero's Pride, Greetings at Doorsteps and Spartan Charms still at Lv 68. I could have easily raised the drachs to enhance them by degrading stuff but I didn't because... well... what's the hurry?

Going to be hard to push any farther into Poseidon's Roar. Nereus is tough for both 1 hero and 5 heroes. A water mage, a healer, 2 Sally Outbursts and a Sacred Stardust... Not much chance to gain morale there.

Nothing to do with faction map progress really, but here's a BR of Lv 105 Hades dying in 1 hit: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N2013020622242988

[dietonight]

Nereus: b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N20130615521443
Phorcys: b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N20130615538320

Made a pretty substantial number of attempts at Nereus during my long stay at Lv 69, to little avail. Not that I really cared all that much, it wasn't my plan to beat this guy at Lv 69, and I only tried on days where I was bored with everything else.

After helping dietonight complete Wrath of Gods, DieSupport upgraded to Lv 70 and after giving Dionysus a +1 ren and improving wash to +79/+78/+79, that's when I got serious. Took 7 shots at Boreas, all of which failed utterly due to blocking + thunder mage hits, then tried Nereus instead. On the 5th or 6th try, I whittled Nereus down to a single Hammer Phalanx with only 234 faculty left, only to get hit by the three green letters of death, having lost valuable turns to blocking from said phalanx. Fortunately, my frustration turned to relief when I got this win on the next try.

Flawless victory over Phorcys on 1st try. Didn't expect this mech build to put up a fight, and it didn't.

Of course, prestige was M50.

[dietonight]

Glaucus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201306227623732

Another annoying NPC bites the dust after maybe 15, 20ish divs today. There had been earlier attempts, but this was my first day with the full power of Lv 71. Dionysus still has the +89/+88/+89 wash but is now fully trained too, which comes to a troop grade of (G7)4.

As you can see if you watch the full battle, I used Testudo because I thought I needed the occasional block to shake things up. Not clear if it was really necessary, but oh well...

[dietonight]

Master of Souls was being stubborn, so I decided to try something else. And after approx 8 tries...

Eurybia: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201306285186166

I had made some earlier attempts at Lv 71 but to little avail. The extra level here was only part of the solution; the more important thing was probably putting Dionysus at the bottom to kill the All Around Ambusclader as soon as possible. Turns out Eurybia herself isn't all that much of a threat here, except when she crits with valor attacks; Morale Suppression does low damage, no damage at all if Dionysus has just finished firing his BM, and doesn't even drain all that much morale. I did have quite a bit of luck though, dodging the All Around Ambusclade and the sunstorm mage failing over and over again.

[dietonight]

Triton: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N20130702346090

Tough, but not as bad as it could have been. Maybe about 25 tries total with about 2/3 of them at hero Lv 73, ren Lv 74. Crius' wash at +89/+85/+81, same as in Pan and Hera fights. Obviously, need a lot of luck with blocking, enemies not dodging and those typically very rare healer fails.

[dietonight]

Minos: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N20130810930795

Approx 520 tries, second only to the ~800 attempts spent on Phaethon. No mages, no stuns, just overwhelming valor and spirit firepower amplified by devastating crit rates from the three archers. Crius is hopeless against this guy because of that bugler and because the archers take no damage from his blocks, nor can Dio handle this in normal circumstances because those enemy attacks are just so devastating. So I put Dio in Inverted Wedge and just hoped for a miracle; what else could I do?

Well, huge relief to have this guy over with. Next is Hephaestus. He's no pushover; I've already lost about 10 times. But he shouldn't be as bad as Minos, hopefully. Just need to time Dio's crits well and get a few Hephaestus fails.

[dietonight]

Hephaestus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201308116325955

Took about 40 tries. Used Inverted Wedge to try to mix things up, which ironically backfired in the winning BR. But a streak of crits at the end saved me. The key to this battle is well-timed crits, together with a fail from Hephaestus.

Leveling up to face the faction map bosses.

[dietonight]

Poseidon: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201308207279516

11 tries. +95(Max)/+95(Max)/+93 wash, Boar's Head. Got very lucky here, as you can see. Crits on first three turns together with healer fails to kill Poseidon before he could enter Total Defense mode. From that point on, it was very unlikely Dionysus would actually die; but the Tie system was still very much a threat. Good thing I continued to get some crits, and got blocked by rocky giant on top only once. Finished off the burning golden bull with only 1 turn to spare.

Virgin Poseidon Legion
Nereus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201308207658049
Eurybia (Lost): http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201308207658945

And so ends Poseidon's Roar, 333 days after beating Hades.

Bonus fight: Here's Poseidon getting beaten up by a Lv 170 player in my virgin Poseidon Legion.
http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201308207664082

[dietonight]

The true, final end to Poseidon's Roar: Victory over Poseidon Legion.

Position 3
Glaucus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309302768547
Minos: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309302769376

Position 1
Nereus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303341371
Eurybia: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303342180
Hephaestus: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303343118

Position 2
Phorcys: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303551094
Triton: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303551905
Poseidon: http://b23.clapalong.com/?fid=N201309303552848

Beat Positions 3 and 1 on first try. Position 2 took 2 tries because I lost to Poseidon on first attempt, mainly because he dodged Mutiny Outbreak. Same as in wins over Zeus Legion: All equipment maxed, hero lv and ren lv at 80, wash at +99/+96/+97.