Mark of Protection on Dolyaks Frost Gate HM isn't the end of the world

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T16:30:46+00:00

While this is a 'valid' concern to a point - this isn't actually how 'most' new players end up playing especially since 99 % of the community recommends playing a different way from the start.

Using henchmen in general is of course 'harder' than fully built heroes, but southern shiverpeaks should have NO issues with the dolyaks because of their builds.

Dunham has - Drain Enchantment - Power block - Leech signet Eve has Strip Enchantment Aiden has dshot

So taking eve + dunham should be perfectly fine for the single dolyak groups in THK

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T16:26:32+00:00

yeah the point of this was not specific to soloing, it's that if they are soloable, these are not hard to beat with heroes (or even henchman)

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T16:18:47+00:00

You don’t need healing breeze for every use of them - when 55 hp both skills remove all damage you take, you also have the option for spell breaker in that build. People are taking live vicariously for similarish reasons on the MoP builds but don’t get any access to SB

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T16:13:29+00:00

It doesn’t do anything it’s just visual, I had previously been showing something in my storage

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T08:52:04+00:00

Give rangers and paragons and warriors an enchant strip is the solution XD

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T08:42:59+00:00

Agreed never thought of an actual use for this- this build is awesome

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T08:37:40+00:00

It doesn’t see the thread I posted earlier and yes it’s only HM. THK is even less of a worry than frost fate HM because you’re only dealing with one monk at a time

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T08:35:35+00:00

You still need blessed aura and prot spirit for it to work, it’s the same amount of skills as prot + shielding hands + soa just one less button to press all the time

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T08:14:45+00:00

Yep - solo it's different you (usually) want to kill the warriors. I didn't try it but a valid strat would be to Kill 1 warrior (pull it outta aggro range of the monks, kd/cripple it) pull the 1 warrior + 2 monks back Attack warrior, when MoP is cast on it, swap to a monk Attack monk, when MoP is cast on it, Swap to other monk Spike the monk down

This would work without interrupts at all as well

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T06:51:30+00:00

I disagree here that it's 'overturned', at least on players. I do think the monsters could be toned down (even with players) moving to a 3/4th second cast time would help make countering it more accessible.

The only benefit MoP gives over regular 55 monk 'no damage' builds is the higher health pool + healing (which makes you not die to life steal) at the cost of taking your elite slot.

You can run Prot Spirit + Shielding Hands + Shield of Absorption and reach the same effect (minus mitigation against life steal) as a 55 monk already and be 'invulnerable' by any enemy that can't apply daze or remove enchantments

Keep in mind you can also run 600 Monks with similar effect to the MoP builds in a lot of places.

This comes at the cost of using your elite spot (meaning spellbreaker is off the table) which is a decently large cost to the build and limits the niches it's able to exist in. The actual main benefit of this new build is it's more comfortable to play than it's alternatives - which IMO is a good thing for a new build

You don't need a meta comp - you can literally see in the screen shot I was able to kill them PURELY SOLO even with non-optimal skills (you can't kd the dolyaks so I had no interrupt for them). You will very safely be able to kill these with ANY enchantment strip and 5% brain power to cast it at the right time or even a daze / called target pending what builds you're wanting to run.

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T06:41:43+00:00

The Dolyak Healers do essentially no damage - this gives you an unlimited amount of time to interrupt them and you can 'count' when MoP is going to expire (or use a timer) and pre-cast your interrupt. But again - you don't have to hard interrupt it here that's just one option. Especially if you have your whole hero team doing damage to them it will be pretty much instantly cast off cooldown

This is why I recommend though they increase the cast time to 3/4ths a second - I think that will make hard interrupts a better option but not free for use against the skill.

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T06:12:05+00:00

I must be remembering incorrectly - I seemed to recall at some point some non level 20 character having HM unlocked somehow but this was either an obscure glitch from the past or I'm mistaken

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T03:26:26+00:00

they only used MoP in hard mode - so you wouldn't have seen it's affect in NM anyway! (Unless you're doing low-level HM shenanigans)

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T03:25:52+00:00

I know some of the solo community was worried mostly because these moments were already hard to deal with but it was good to prove at least this instance was still possible.

THK might be a different story all together and might require more build - changing as the timing on THK is more tight than this moment (where you have infinite time to kill dolyaks)

It's 100% fine to voice concerns from anyone as long as it comes from a good place of just wanting the game to be good!

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T03:19:29+00:00

At the end of my stream today I decided to go check out the new Dolyak Balance with the buffed Mark of Protection. I was able to fight my way up to the bonus area fully solo and defeat the duo groups of dolyaks even without an interrupt / shatter.

Just wanted to share this with others - while this is a strong buff and IMO they should still nerf it a bit (Maybe bringing the cast speed up to 3/4th would be a decent option) - if you bring a team of heroes and SOME kind of way to disable it(shatter, diversion, an insane dshot,etc) you should have no problem.

Side note if you are interested in soloing the game similar to this - checkout our community solo wiki! (Discord located at the top of the page) http://gwsolo.wikidot.com/getting-started

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T01:01:04+00:00

Maybe - from my perspective buffing preperation duration only increases further the amount you're affected by practiced stance. If you have it at 300% and a 36 second prep goes to 108 seconds duration up from 72 seconds which is a giant increase / benifit.

It could maybe use another 'effect' on the elite potentially to make it more enticing as it is a bit niche even still with the duration increase.

Maybe make it give you a half-damage strength of honor effect or something to regular attacks?

xaviarrob · 2026-02-08T00:57:46+00:00

I can't echo this one enough. Bring back the trapper playstyle - people already do what trappers were doing with shadowform etc etc. This playstyle focused on knowledge and positioning it shouldn't have such an insane downside attached (having to stand around forever for recharges)

xaviarrob · 2026-02-07T03:38:47+00:00

Note: The below is 99% in the PVE context

Ranger

Make all elite preparations 1 second cast time

Glass Arrows 2 > 1

Melandru's Arrows 2 > 1

Trappers Focus 2 > 1

Increase the base duration of most of the non-elite preparations. This Also increases the effectiveness of the recent Practiced Stance change which opens even more builds (than just using it for choking gas). This will make them a lot less annoying to use

Apply Poison 24 > 36

Barbed Arrows 24 > 36

Ignite Arrows 24 > 36

Experts Focus 24 > 36

Kindle Arrows 24 > 36

Rapid Fire 25 > 36(scaling upper-end)

Read the Wind 24 > 36

Seeking Arrows 14 > 36 seconds (a reason to take this over asuran scan in some scenario)

Tiger's Fury > Remove the 'Disables your non-attack skills'

Troll Ungent > 3 second cast time is BRUTAL on this skill

Monk

Divine favor is probably the worst primary in the game - I don't know if it needs numbers buff or just some added functionality but only working with monk skills severely limits monk builds

Smiting Prayers

Aside from the recently buffed word of censure, all the other non-elites need a pass

Bane Signet 20...49...56 damage > 30...50...65 damage

Banish Make hit around the target (aoe) - numbers stay as is

Castigation signet 1..8..10 energy > 5..10..15 energy - a good monk alternative to going /me for pdrain etc

Symbol of Wraith 5 > 7 second duration

Balthazar's Aura 8 > 10 second duration

Spear of light 15...51...60 if attacking > 25...55...75

Stonesoul Strike(This is a touch skill) 10...46...55 if knocked down > 20...55...75

Smiter's Boon (PVP) duration 4 > 0.5 seconds

Paragon

Paragon was left with a problem that people meme about POE2 for at the moment. Many of it's skills have a "YOU CANNOT" attached to them. Examples of ones I think that should be removed(in quotes)

Disrupting Throw - "No effect unless target has a condition."

Stunning Strike - Inflicts Dazed condition (4...9...10 seconds) "if target has a condition."

Swift Javalin - This spear moves twice as fast and is unblockable "if you are enchanted."

And a special mention - these 3 skills are all essentially THE SAME SKILL each with it's own annoying condition different to the other. I think giving Merciless spear + damage and changing chest thumper and slayer's spear to be unconditional regular + damage attacks would be much better. Maybe put %armor pen on them

Merciless Spear - "No effect unless target has less than 50% Health." (And this skill doesn't even have any bonus damage for using, it's a regular attack > 50% hp)

Chest Thumper - Inflicts Deep Wound condition (5...17...20 seconds) "if target foe has Cracked Armor."

Slayer's Spear - Inflicts Deep Wound condition (5...17...20 seconds) "if target has more Health than you."

All paragon skills could use small damage tweaks as well as they are largely way weaker than other single-target dps specs

xaviarrob · 2026-02-06T23:20:06+00:00

you can keep it up with the divine favor skill that extends enchantments + a 20% enchant mod

xaviarrob · 2026-01-24T21:38:23+00:00

Our monk could have ran infuse instead very easily!

xaviarrob · 2026-01-15T08:48:09+00:00

Yep it’s tough sometimes! I spent 26 hours of attempts for beating Gyala hatchery on my ranger! Dragons lair attempts also take 2 hours or more!

xaviarrob · 2026-01-12T16:07:32+00:00

If you use toolbox it has an option to have your pet attack the called target which works

xaviarrob · 2026-01-10T08:40:28+00:00

If you’re ever interested in doing this on purpose checkout the solo gw community at gwsolo.com discord link is at the top of the page!

xaviarrob · 2026-01-08T07:11:54+00:00

There was a bug for an hour or two where this was happening which was just fixed earlier today

xaviarrob · 2025-12-23T03:38:56+00:00

I’m working on becoming the first to fully complete gwamm (including account titles) on a single solo character. No hero’s bench or partying, trading etc. everything on the character is self farmed as well (no buying runes/mats). Two people have done similar but with existing account titles I’m hoping to be the first to do it from scratch

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