Nexus Golem Gauntlet - Nightmare Solo Mage ~4min 30sec
It's not optimized to be a speed run - Cold Blooded and Runes of Spirit Warding make it way easier. Here's a 3 minute run. It's more of a poor man's run to show how to tackle the various enemies and a general tutorial of how to play a solo mage.
The Nexus Gauntlet
The enemies in the Nexus Gauntlet spawn at certain times, unlike other encounters where enemies spawn after a certain enemy or number of enemies are dead. The spawn locations are always in the 4 corners of the map, with the exception of the last spawn.
0:00 - 1 Rage Demon NE corner
0:05 - 4 Shades, 1 in each corner
0:20 - 1 Desire Demon SW corner
0:30 - 2 Shades, 2 Abominations, 1 per corner
0:55 - 1 Rage Demon SE corner, 3 Shades in the other corners
1:20 - 2 Shades, 2 Abominations, 1 per corner
1:50 - 1 Arcane Horror on West wall, 1 Revenant on East Wall
Aside from the main room, there is a little hallway that remains open that serves two purposes. First, all enemies will detect you if you are in the main room, but you can go as far as 3/4 of the way up the stairs in the hallway without anyone in the main room detecting you. Second, you can use the narrow hallway as a choke point to unleash spells or position your tank. Some people may not notice but the door that locks behind you IS pickable by a rogue, which allows any party with a rogue to kite well out of the room if they wanted to.
Solo'ing the Gauntlet as a Mage
Build
***My recommended build has changed since I wrote this. You should follow the build shown in the solo mage guide***
The build I use for this and much of Act 2 is Gravitic Ring, Elemental Mastery, and Galvanism. Gravitic Ring is essential. Going up the elemental tree and primal tree affords you a ton of single target and aoe spells that serve a variety of purposes, and the damage bonuses at the end of the tree are essential to killing the enemies of the gauntlet in the tight time constraints. This build requires 19 points, and thus is first available at 16 (15 if you do Night Terrors and take Torpor's Offer). I did it at 16, though leveling to 17 is recommended if you have the Mage DLC headpiece.
Gear
***My recommended gear has changed since I wrote this. You should follow the build shown in the solo mage guide***
I made the video with one generic 31 damage cold staff, one generic 31 damage electricity staff, and Malcolm's Honor, which is 31 spirit @ level 16. Malcolm's Honor is optional, as the only time it's used is against the Revenant, and he is weak against electricity anyway. I recommend the cold and electricity staves at a minimum. You can do better than 31 damage per staff prior to entering the Gauntlet. Cold-Blooded is a huge improvement, and in general can make the first half of Act 2 a lot easier, but it's not required and not recommended in general because of it's staggering cost.
For Gear I had Mage DLC gear, Dura's Blue Flame, Belt of the Primevals, Dirthamen's ring, and some other ring (although it would be better to have a cold damage ring in its place). Runes of Spirit Warding would go far to mitigate damage from the Desire Demon and especially the Arcane Horror.
Consumables - I used Arcane Poison, although I could barely tell if it had an effect. Tar Bombs or Combustion Grenades could be very useful if used properly.
Strategy
Patch 1.03 made solo'ing significantly harder than before for 3 reasons: (1) Buffed monster health, (2) Buffed monster damage, and most importantly, (3) Buffed commander auras. In fact, they are so buffed that the commanders in this Gauntlet - the Desire Demon and the Revenant - must be priority number one when they are on the field. You'll find the other enemies are basically impossible to kill due to the increased health regen and damage resistance caused by the aura.
Your first order of business is to take out the first rage demon that spawns before he can get the Desire Demon's aura. If you fail at this, restart. How I do it in the video is one way. With repeated tries, you'll get a better feel for the AI of the different enemies and will be able to execute more consistently.
After he's dead, switch weapons to an electricity staff (I use a weapon switching mod), target the Desire Demon and run for the hallway. If the aboms haven't spawned yet, you can precast Tempest before Gravitic, making sure to catch the Desire Demon in the aoe. You can get a good sense of how strong the health regen is because any damage done by the aoe will be negated as long as the aura is up. I cast Firestorm after Gravitic but only because the Desire Demon was still not in line of sight.
The Desire Demon will probably need a few more hits after Gravitic runs out. Walk down the stairs and back up while dodging Shades if necessary. After the Desire Demon is dead, you need to get all the remaining adds and any adds that spawn at 1:20 into the hallway with you before 1:50. There are 30 seconds in between the 2nd to last wave and the Arcane Horror, which should give you enough time. Focus on the Rage Demon if possible during this time. Before 1:50 hits (use a stopwatch if necessary, it helps!) make sure you're in the hallway, drop a Gravitic Ring, and unleash your spells. You should be able to blow up everything but the Rage Demon and a couple stragglers. Finish them up by kiting and using your dog to absorb the backstabs.
The last phase is pretty simple. Without adds, or even with a couple adds, the attacks of both Revenant and Arcane Horror can be dodged easily. I focused on the Revenant since he is the commander, but focusing on the Arcane Horror is also possible. While focusing on one, do not lose sight of the other, and continue moving to not get caught in the poison cloud. Your dog will be a great asset here distracting the Arcane Horror while you take out the Revenant. Don't forget to interrupt the spell the Arcane Horror charges (which you can do with Winter's Grasp/Chain Lightning/Stonefist).
Modifié par thendcomes, 22 août 2011 - 02:10 .
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