As far as I am concerned there are only two ways to solo the game on Nightmare, an Asssassin/Duelist Rogue and an Arcane Warrior/Spirit Healer Mage. All the other builds are just too reliant on health poultices to survive. I also think that in order to be able to succeed you must have both of the specializations previously unlocked as saving levels for your specialization cripples you too much to fight effectively. Also note that it is critical for you to max out your specialization skills as early as possible, this is essential for Mage build, but not as important for the Rogue, who should max out stealth as soon as possible, as it will be the cornerstone of your gameplaying strategy.
In the stat department, I would say that for the Mage, you will be wanting Magic in the thirties or forties, Wisdom definately in the thirties, Constitution in the mid twenties, and Dexterity in the mid teens to early twenties for most of the game. Wisdom is very important for you, as without a large mana pool you are dead, and when I say dead, I mean dead. Without a large mana supply you will not be able to keep your Arcane Warrior defensive abilities up and cast healing or buffing spells on yourself, the 80-90% fatigue is just too prohibitive. For Rogues, I can't really say that much, as I haven't really spent enough time playing as one to know an ideal stat build, what I can say however is that Dexterity and Cunning are your friends, so is Constiution, and to a lesser extent Strength, but as stealth is pretty much going to be the only way you can beat the game, Dex. and Cunning will help you a lot.
In terms of talents and spells, you want survivabilty first and lighting offense second. As a mage, healing spells and buffs should be your first priority (that is until you get Arcane Warrior) max out the direct healing tree as soon as possible, as it will be your backbone for the early levels. With that accomplished you want to go for the glyph tree or possibly the Creation aura tree, if only for Haste. Glyphs will really help you out in fights, whether they be used offensively or defensively, they are your friends. For offensive spells, the Ice tree is probably the best for what we plan to do, as freezing enemies, especially with Cone of Cold is very helpful and lets you escape to an area where you feel more comfortable, or simply gain enought distance to start nuking again, plus freezing and the either Stone Fist or Crushing Prison is a very efficient way of defeating lower ranked enemies. Let me again state that AS A MAGE THE MOMENT YOU GET YOUR SPECIALIZATION MAX IT OUT. I cannot tell you how important this is. Running Nightmare as a mage solo, the only way you can win basically to turn on Arcane Shield, Combat Magic, Shimmering Shield, and Cleansing Aura and outlast the opponents as an autoattack machine, nothing else works. If you try and be too offensive you DIE, it's as simple as that.
As I have little experience with Rogues, the best I can say about them in this run is that stealth and backstabs are your lifeline. Your entire battle strategy consists of either stealthing past enemies, or combat stealthing, backstabbing and enemy and then running until stealth cools down. The slightest mistake, such as getting stunned means instant death, you will get raeped if you cannot stealth. Your only hope in a straight up fight is having unholy defense, running away from enemies several times a fight, and the spamming of duelist abilities and Momentum, other than that I wish you Rogues good luck.
Now onto gameplay for an AW/SH build. You want to be going with a sword and board for almost any fight, the armor bonus will add to your survivability, and while you may not be doing as much damage as a two-hander, your entire gameplan consists of just outlasting the enemy, and the shield will help you accomplish that. NEVER GO DUALIES AS AN AW, EVEN ON CASUAL. Why? First of all, dexterity is broken, and second of all AW lets you replace strength with magic while your dexterity remains unaffected, so unless you want to be getting like one hit every ten attacks, or dropping a ton of Wisdom, Magic, or Constitution in favor of Dexterity, it just isn't worth it. Anyway, your basic battle plan goes like this. Keep Arcane Shield, Combat Magic, Shimmering Shield, and Cleansing Aura on at all times. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention earlier, this run will be very expensive, and a large portion of your money will be going into Lyrium Potions to keep Shimmering Shield from shutting down. Shimmering Shield is what seperates you from any other mage run on Nightmare, being alive mainly. Without Shimmering Shield, you die. It is for that reason you must not go overboard on offensive magic throughout the game, because that means you either end up A. Poor. or B. Dead from lack of mana. So just keep that in mind. Basically for all fights you get into try to get the enemies into a door or other chokepoint, that lets you take the enemies down one at a time with your main weapon, auto-attack. Try to position your self on one of the walls next to the door or strongpoint rather than at the door itself, so archers can't get you. Then go to town with auto-attack. Auto-attack. Auto-attack. Auto-attack. You will be doing a lot of auto-attacking in this run. If you feel slightly braver or more confident, you could spruce it up with an offensive spell or two, but make sure not to go overboard. Since you have around 80% fatigue with all of your combat spells on, be prepared to spend upwards of a hundred mana on third tier offense spells or possibly over 150 on AoE's. When health gets low, bust out some health poultices or spells. As an AW you should have fairly low health, but extreme defense meaning that a single greater health poultice can often fully heal you. Then you get to, guess what? Auto-attack some more.
I hope that my guide is atleast semi-informative or helps someone in some way, so constructive criticism is appreciated. I might even revise it and add more info if I'm asked. Hope you enjoy.
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