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Soloing BT Captains

Mikeltin5

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I'm sure there are some ppl out there that have soloed the captains as I may have seen their videos in other posts...but I tried doing it over the weekend and was just not having much luck. I swapped out my Conj Trinket to eliminate dbl damage from the undead slayer...and even created a new wep for the repond slayer...but either I can't get a captain alone or when I get them alone I miss 4-5 times in a row and am damn near dead anyways. Any tips/tricks yall have done to be more successful when soloing? Or is it that my cover all samp just isn't designed to cover this type of beast?
 

BeaIank

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
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There are people who manage to solo them using vampiric embrace.
I am not one of them. I use my 6x120 swords/tactics/ana/healing/chiv/parry paladin there instead, with an 100% elemental (anything but physical) broadsword with 50 hit lightning/81 hll/81 hml/30 hsl instead and a 50 hit lightning/81 hml/30 hsl/50 hla 100% elemental broadsword for necromancers and assassins. You miss to darn much to survive by life leeching alone.

Against the sampire master, the sampire might actually work well enough, because those masters are undead slayer vulnerable and have low fire resist. But overall I prefer to use that build I posted instead.
Dealing with the thick spawn to make the captain vulnerable can be a major pain with that build for daemon/reptile/fey spawns, but you quickly learn how to cope and slowly eat the spawn away.
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
I, generally, use VE to solo the captains - the 50% Hit Lightning is key, because when that lands, you do the full 300% damage modifier hit.

VE in there is kinda a pain though, since the Assassins and Necromancers, which you always end up having to kill 1 of each to clear a group, both have tainted Aura, which means any life leech = no go.

Getting them alone can be hard. Keeping them alone when they decide to start running around at 12% live remaining can be harder.

If you get unlucky and get a 70K HP macer ... good luck, you're in for a long slog. In most cases I find them more annoying than deadly - like the Bard - doesn't hit hard/often enough to be a problem, but -60SSI or those damn 30second Peace affects really slow matters own.

I need to make a 50% Hit Lightning double striking weapon for the ones with 0 resist and 5x HP.
 

BeaIank

Crazed Zealot
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Stratics Legend
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The 70K HP macers are only less annoying than the 50K HP fencers and their 75 dmg attacks. 30K HP necromancers can be quite a pain too when they cast blood omen on you. And then the lightning triggers and you kill yourself in one hit from the 200+ backlash damage. :p

Other than that, they're more time consuming than deadly. Also, remember to run far away from the mage when she shouts "you will burn in a pile of ash".
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Yeah, the AI fencer is a PITA too. I look at the 30k necromancers the same way as any Necro caster with more HP than I can kill with 1 hit - if they land a well timed Blood Oath, I'm gonna die.
 

Merlin

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Very difficult to do on a solo basis. I have a Paladin swordsman that was able to hold his own pre-publish 90, but hasn't worked so well lately. And while I could hold my own against most of the captains, there would always be one (fencers, usually), whom would just own me. You also have to have near flawless performance when doing it solo.... if you miscast one or two Chiv spells, or something like a bandage not working properly or not getting Confidence off in time - you're gonna have a bad time. Atleast in groups of two you can cross heal and more easily segregate some of them off from the spawn.

My guild runs Blackthorn's in a fairly large group about once a week for our nightly guild hunts, so I personally prefer the group play better. You can actually beat an entire Tower encounter from start to finish in a fairly short amount of time compared to doing it solo. It means having to get less artifacts, but usually is more fun. There's always some noob that will run in deep and drag out too much spawn once or twice, but they usually wise up after they realize they're going to collect a death robe every time they do that.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
I swapped out my Conj Trinket to eliminate dbl damage from the undead slayer...and even created a new wep for the repond slayer..
They are not Repond. There are no slayer for them.

I used pure archer:
120 Archery
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Healing
120 Bushido
120 Chivalry
60 Wrestling (just to get 300 points)

I used pure melee:
120 Mace
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
120 Chivalry
120 Resisting Spells
80 Bushido
100 Ninjitsu

Both templates were very good in BT. But the best was my Melee Archer:
120 Archery (90 when a sword in my hands)
120 Sword (90 when a bow in my hands)
90 Bushido
120 Chivalry
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Healing
Using this template I did 10-20 artifacts per hour.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Yesterday I tested my current Bushido Paladin against masters.
120 Sword
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Bushido
60 Parrying
95 Chivalry
100 Resisting Spells

It works good too... although not as good as Melee Archer.
It took me 4 hours to solo a city (24 masters, 49 artifacts). Spawn was easy (ice) but most masters was not very good: a lot of Fencers, Necromancers (I haven't Healing) and Bards. Just 2 Mystics and just one Wizard and just one Archer.
I need to craft a weapon with HFat against Fencers/Macer/Swordsman/Sampire. I need to craft a weapon with SSI against Bard. I believe 3 hours per city is real. May be there is a sense to replace RS by Healing for BT but I do like RS.
The hardest (longest) was Macer.

As to me there is no much difference between normal and 3x hp masters because against 3x hp ones I do 3x more damage.
 

Jalene

Visitor
Anat/healing/chiv/tact/parry/mace or swords has worked fine for me. I started with macing, swapped to swords. They aren't very fast, and they are tethered, so you can step away and heal when you need to.

I use three weapons - long sword with and w/o life leech/scimitar or hammer pick with and w/o life leech/maul. Doublestrike for the 3x hp guys, AI for the others. Mace mastery's stagger is nice for the meleers (which are the main problem), overall swords probably a bit nicer for the higher dps.

For main long sword I use a 70% hit harm (also procs the way lightning does, I should remake one to hit lightning, but was lazy and I just took what the first I got was), the others are all 50% lightning. I think using 70% hit lightning/harm is the way to go for DPS - the 300% proc is worth a lot of damage.

Agree on all the other stuff - fencers and macers and a real annoynace - the rest are fine.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
I use 81% HLL Double Axe or 75% HLL Bladed Staff. When I need to heal without leaching I use Confidence.
Probably there is a sense to replace RS with Healing for BT.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Swordsman and Fencer are relatively easy. Macer and Sampire are annoying because I miss a lot.
 

Mikeltin5

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
How much dmg are u averaging per DS and AI? I'm in the ballpark of 183 with an AI but I'd imagine with 120 anat ur decently over 200 per shot and healing significantly more then I would.
 

ysolt

Seasoned Veteran
If you use a two handed axe against low resist captains you can get max damage of 500-600 damage per DS.

If you use long swords you can get max damage of 200-215 per AI.

This is with 120 anat and 120 tacts.

If you want even more DPS reforge a hit hightning/harm 70 wepon.
 
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Mikeltin5

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
So I may be missing something. I modified to Corwin's temp and put 100 healing on in place of RS. But I can't even make it past the damn spawn to try my luck at the bosses. Do yall have any special tactics to getting the spawn outa the way?
 

Merlin

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It helps when you clear out as much spawn as possible. A halfway decent slayer weapon for whatever slayer group the particular spawn is from should help with this. At the very least, clear out the spawn groups by the entrance before attempting any of the captains.
 

Tabin

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
This is what I do. I run in and whirlwind the spawn to kill it quickly. If there are two captains next to each other, I exercise caution and try to seperate the packs. HLL on your WW weap is a must if you aren't running Vamp form. Bring the appropriate slayer if you can. If you need to run, then run until the captain follows you. Eventually the captain will teleport back to its original location. Pick off the spawn bit by bit. Each captain has like 6-8 mobs around it that you need to kill before the captain becomes vulnerable. When the spawn for a specific captain is dead, lure the captain to a spot where you can 1v1 it without other captains joining. DS for the low defense captain. AI for all others. I also have one AI weapon with HLL and one without. Another fast swinging AI weapon with 30% ssi for the bard. Two more optional weapons: hit lower defense and hit lower fatigue weapons. I'm assuming you know this already but just in case, use a hit lightning weapon for the captains. ;)

I initially struggled with it too until people like Bealank, Corwin, and Tuan shared their info/strategy. You can read more about their suggestions here:
Blackthorn Mace n Shield vs regular one?

Also helps to have one other buddy go with you until you feel comfortable enough to solo it. Its less painful when you do eventually die to the 70 dmg hitting fencer or what not.

Oh last thing. There are times where the spawn is just crazy dense and difficult. Some spawns like the demon or fey slayer one is way tougher than the others.
 
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CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
You need AI and DS weapons without HLL against Necromancer/Assassin. I suggest to get HMD on those weapons.

I have one DS weapon with HLL and HMD to use against other casters. I use DS even when they have high resists. I have no AI weapon with HLL and HMD.
I have no special (fast) weapon against Bards. So I kill it slightly slower than I could. But it's pretty easy boss so I don't worry.
I have one AI weapon with HFat to use against melee bosses. When they have low resists I use DS weapon with HLightning.
 

Tabin

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
You need AI and DS weapons without HLL against Necromancer/Assassin. I suggest to get HMD on those weapons.

I have one DS weapon with HLL and HMD to use against other casters. I use DS even when they have high resists. I have no AI weapon with HLL and HMD.
I have no special (fast) weapon against Bards. So I kill it slightly slower than I could. But it's pretty easy boss so I don't worry.
I have one AI weapon with HFat to use against melee bosses. When they have low resists I use DS weapon with HLightning.
I made a set of weapons for my sampire and took your suggestion. Against the necro, it would say something like "you have absorbed corrupted mana." Then there is about a 5second timer where if I use mana, I take damage. My weapon was Hit Lightning, Hit Fatigue, Hit Mana Drain, Hit Mana Leech and Hit Stam Leech. I don't use DI or SSI because that's maxed on my suit. Do you know if it's the HMD that is causing me to take damage or HML? I don't recall having this issue with my mace/shield paladin.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
I remember that message but I didn't pay it much attention because (after draining its mana) I usually can tank Necromancer staying at the same place and using Confidence to heal.
 

Tuan

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Since when can the captains teleport you to them, without line of sight. Just now I was in the Trinsic section of Blackthorns, working on some captains. I was in the building, and then suddenly I was teleported through the wall (no sight line) and directly next to a captain.
 

BeaIank

Crazed Zealot
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Stratics Legend
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I think I have seen macers doing this before, but not any other captain having this ability.
But yes, I have been teleported to macers before, but they had line of sight to me. Your case is very unusual.
 

CorwinXX

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
macer needn't line of sight to teleport you. it even can teleport you in a room with closed doors when you are outside of the room.
 
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