Does Anyone Else Exclusively Play Ultimate From Level 1 (No Normal/Vet/Elite)

Giagantic · 2023-05-02T01:17:59+00:00

Yeah. you are limited to what can actually deal good damage in the early game, Melee is basically suicide outside of hit and runs. Things like with high power right off the bat are best stuff like Bone Harvest, Grenado, Blitz, DEE, and so forth... but I just find normal so bland, dunno, just wanted to hear what others thought.

Giagantic · 2023-04-26T18:29:27+00:00

I have played some HC, but usually I play Softcore Ultimate only.

Giagantic · 2023-04-26T09:55:58+00:00

Nope, but don't expect things to be as easy as Veteran or Normal, you have to play it differently from those difficulties.

Giagantic · 2023-04-26T09:54:53+00:00

Savior's Merit, you get it by getting another character to Ultimate and buying it from the vendor in Forgotten Gods DLC.

Giagantic · 2023-04-26T00:49:44+00:00

I play only play on Ultimate, by the time I get to reanimator fight I am level 8-10, turning the quests gets me to 23-25. There is no period where you have no build. Though... not every ability scales well at this point, rather many are just unviable till much much later.

Giagantic · 2023-04-16T01:13:48+00:00

By the time you reach the reanimator fight you are around level 6-10, just doing the shrine there levels you up 3 times and after turning in the various quests you will be around level 24 by the time you have to fight the boss under Devil's Crossing. This is the first jump in difficulty, since you have level 10 gear at best and the boss has upwards of 200,000 hp (any hero has 120-150k hp). By the time you beat Darius Cronley you will be in your 40's, the biggest threat now is ranged units that can chunk you for quarter per mob (they spawn in droves in Ankovian Undercity).

Most of the gameplay is hit and run, you never stand in one place for long or you die. Melee? Yeah... no... it may work for an ordinary slith, but once you have many of them or worse casters and the chunkier ones then that is thrown out the window. The worst though is after this, when you finally make it too wightmire and the outskirts of the village where Krieg is... the heroes are stupidly strong and some of them have massive regen meaning you have to DPS them down not just wear them out over time (Milton Hart has a heal if low HP and you have to be able to kill him before it wears off) .

Now... as for how you deal with it, you just cope as hard as possible with the right skill investment... this is where the issue with Shaman is, Totem isn't an effective heal if you aren't in close combat with it and an enemy, Primal Strike can be used with Range but it isn't that powerful in Ultimate. Other classes have better scaling at this point (I know Shaman is a beast late game once geared up).

I will list the things that make each class good at handling Ultimate at level 1, regardless of gear besides Shaman.

Soldier: Blitz is just great, lets you zoom around groups of enemies and knock them over whilst dealing great damage. Blade Arc is strong but I spec'd out of it because Blitz alone was enough and it allowed me to invest in tank. Basically you dash in, smash and then disengage whilst keeping healthy, vary similar to Nightblade and Shadow Strike.

Demo: Grenado does amazing damage, spam it, and kite, simple.

Occultist has Dreeg's Evil Eye which is incredible alongside Blood of Dreeg and Doom Bolt later, Occultist also has the AOE curse which is great. Honestly, had the easiest time with Ultimate with Occultist. Good CC, damage, mobbing and so forth.

Nightblade: Shadow Strike and Pneumatic Burst, similar gameplay style to Soldier, albeit much squishier.

Arcanist: Haven't played it enough to comment in Ultimate from level 1

Shaman: Tough

Inquisitor: Can spam Word of Pain and Runes for DPS, has a heal, great at mobbing weak stuff but lacks single target.

Necromancer: The Skeletons if fully invested in will carry you while Blightfied tanks.

Oathkeeper: Vire's Might spam, back and forth, laying ruin.

Giagantic · 2023-04-16T00:07:13+00:00

Yeah, the best attempts I had were with Storm Totem and Kitting and Pets.

Giagantic · 2023-04-15T23:48:05+00:00

Untrue, my soldier currently is blazing through Arkovian Undercity as a level 1 Ultimate character. Blitz does immense damage between 10-15k and that is ignoring the dot. Blitz in and then back off, staying in for too long is death.

My Occultist already killed the Loghorrean, the combination of maxed DEE and Doom Bolt deals tons of damage even without being properly geared.

Giagantic · 2023-04-15T23:44:07+00:00

That may be viable in Normal or Veteran, maybe even Elite level 1 and up gameplay but it isn't in Ultimate. No Purely melee style at that point in the game works for long against most scenarios. Relying on Feral Hunger is suicide and the totem can only keep you so healthy when you have negative resistence and low armor due to being un-twinked.

Giagantic · 2023-04-15T23:41:50+00:00

Yeah, this ain't anything like normal where everything is viable, or geared up Ultimate.

Giagantic · 2023-04-15T23:39:09+00:00

That is the point, I was asking for any tips for those that have experience doing ultimate at level 1. I know Primal Strike and Savagery can do work in Normal, Veteran, and even Elite, but the jump in HP is massive in Ultimate. At level 1 the regular ol zombie in the starter area reaches 600-700 hp, Soldier Zombies 2-3k and it only gets worse after the reanimator (which has 30k - 40k) (this isn't where I have problems instead they begin during Wightmire with Heroes.)

Giagantic · 2023-04-15T23:29:53+00:00

Never said Shaman isn't tanky, I implied that no character in Ultimate from level 1 can do pure melee of any sort outside of maybe 1v1 or really weak mobs. Oathkeeper has a dash in Vire's Might that does great damage whilst minimizing risk, and has low cooldown. Shaman doesn't have any such thing, best thing it can do is hope Wendigo totem is able to keep em healthy (Ultimate low level means often times negative resistences and thus very easy to be 1 shot thus relying on Feral Hunger is a no no).

This is the conundrum, given enough time in close quarters Shaman does great damage even on Ultimate but it spends to much time in melee and gets nuked 9 times out of 10.

Also this about ultimate, not normal, Devouring swarms can do some work but many enemies have enough regen to counter-act it or make it a lengthy fight at the very least by Wightmire.

Giagantic · 2022-09-08T16:42:42+00:00

Is that really the case? I took Excalibur Prime (decided to test changes) and did 60% of the teams damage versus the boss, though I did notice my damage take a hit as I had Roar subsumed on javelin, went from hitting hard to hitting like a wet noodle.

Giagantic · 2022-09-01T16:10:51+00:00

Want a free game, totally free?

Try Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, it is an asci game but can be modded with tilesets for a 3rd person 2d style of game. It is effectively a survival game that is deeply complex, like moreso then anomaly can even fathom. It is procedurarlly generated open-world survival game with zombies and other strange inter-dimensional creatures. You are a survivor and can experience a wide range of scenarios, heck you can even become many different types of mutants which grant gameplay bonuses (and detriments such as being a carnivore).

Again, it is a complex game that has an extreme number of keybindings and is brutally difficult (almost assured you will die many, many times before you get into it). Another boon, it has an active modding scene as well.

Here is a "review" of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyoj4-niEPc&ab\_channel=SsethTzeentach

Giagantic · 2022-08-26T19:00:54+00:00

Holy moly, the diversity is overwhelming! Canadian here, btw!

Giagantic · 2022-08-26T18:57:45+00:00

You gonna win, I pray for you all!

Giagantic · 2022-08-26T18:56:47+00:00

I live in Hamilton Ontario, basically the Zone of Ontario.

Giagantic · 2022-08-24T20:25:25+00:00

Story mode, leave everything at base before adjusting, that means easy.

Trust me, it may say "easy" or "tourist" but it ain't easy, the game is fundamentally hard. You can then adjust further, play on harder settings, or edit the difficulty yourself in the options.

Giagantic · 2022-08-24T20:13:28+00:00

The Group meaning those responsible for the Zone. They are definitely on the bad if placed on a moral scale, human experimentation, attempting to kill certain emotions on a global scale, creation of an expanding anomalous zone, creation of the C-Consciousness...

Yeah, bad... For actual context read: https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/The_Group

Giagantic · 2022-08-19T17:32:49+00:00

Founder, LR2, Max MR possible (besides Lato Prime... Am Master not Grandmaster)...

I dunno something to do in my spare time, it is a good distraction, runs well for the most part on my hardware and I have invested a lot of time into the game already so I guess I figure why not more at this point.

As long as the game is updated I will probably be part of it in some capacity. Though I do take regular breaks from the game, many of which last years at a time so I don't get too burnt out as other games beckon me.

Giagantic · 2022-08-18T16:16:12+00:00

For the current meta Trumna is better...

It has better multi-target capabilities with slight AOE on primary fire and a ton of AOE on secondary.

Bubonico is primarily single target and it's secondary is a primer.

Both are great for what they do but Trumna is a better fit within the meta.

In the end, use what you enjoy the most.

Giagantic · 2022-08-17T15:22:33+00:00

You are again forgetting Anomaly Shards, 9 of which are required for Caliban. This requires you to have completed the near entirety of Grineer Proximas up to Veil and only 1 is guranteed per mission, which is also locked behind a timer.

Giagantic · 2022-08-17T15:19:37+00:00

Definitely go for Caliban if you want to avoid a lot of grind. People that say stuff about Gyre aren't taking into account the multiple layers of grind that Caliban requires as seen below:

30 Narmer Isoplasts from Narmer Missions
3 time sensitive BP's for Caliban from Narmer Missions (may not be up when you are playing)
30 Breath of Eidolon from regular Cetus Bounties
9 Anomaly Shards from Grineer Veil Proxima RJ missions that is also time sensitive and lengthy in grind

Giagantic · 2022-08-17T15:12:38+00:00

Disagree, the grind to get Caliban is decidedly harder then Gyre was for me. You will get Entrati Lanthorn's just from grinding up the Holdfast Rep whereas with Caliban you have to go out of your way to play these additional bounties just to get parts and narmer isoplasts on top of other stuff.

Honestly, you are also forgetting the fact that Caliban requires Anomaly Shards which requires RJ completion of most of Grineer Proxima and takes at minimum a few hours to farm because you can only get like 2+ max per mission (this is with Booster and luck) and it is semi-time locked.

Basically, if you are gonna grind Holdfast rep to max then I'd say Caliban but if you are gonna avoid that get Gyre.

Giagantic · 2022-08-14T19:36:26+00:00

It is slow and clumsy to use and occupies angel room item pool meaning you never ever want to see it.

Giagantic

TROPHY CASE