[Mentalist]

Tiste Simeon, on 30 January 2020 - 06:45 PM, said:

Yeah I've not come across the Nemesis system in any other games but I love it.

Supposedly Monolith's next game is a sci-fi game using it.

[Mentalist]

40 hours in. Conquered the Nurn Fortress. I forgot that this game tries for comedy sometimes.

Holy crap, there's lots of stuff now. Including online conquests. Also, 4 areas to take over.

Basically ready to move on now, but I probably need some more interesting orcs to stuff into my travel suitcase first.

[Aptorian]

Tiste Simeon, on 30 January 2020 - 06:45 PM, said:

Yeah I've not come across the Nemesis system in any other games but I love it.

Technically it's sorta there in the latest Assassin's Creed games in a watered down form.

[Mentalist]

Level 34. still didn't leave Nurn. I'm sure I'm playing this wrong, lol.

Been collecting Legendary orcs. Finally picked up a nice Marksman- that was the last Specialist Class I needed. Got a nice selection of Legendaries in high 20s, low 30s range.

My Nemesis-turned Bodyguard betrayed me! This happened after I did one of those DLC tribe missions, but failed to kill the Outlaw tribe captain, and then he Humiliated me- three times.

So naturally, my response was to track the traitor down, Shame him twice until he lost his Iron Will trait, and then recruit him again. Then I tracked down the Poison defender who did this to me, caught him and made him fight the top-ranked Pits orc to get me the Stronghold upgrade before leaving the area.

Been doing the DLC tribes challenges (Slaughter and Outlaw tribes), because those spawn some REALLY strong orcs. I got into a shaming match with this one really tough Berserker- he Humiliated me like 4 or 5 times (he earned the nickname The Humiliator), leaving me live. I Shamed him once, and was about to catch him, but I got Ambushed on the way, and he became over-levelled again. Then I tracked him down and Shamed him the second time... except he became a Maniac and now he's level FIFTY.

That might be my cue to leave for now. The Tribal DLCs spawned some really strong, Epic-level recruits. The game itself was spawning either level 20 Legendaries, or some lower level fodder. I spent my time on those Epics, while my Legendaries would level up hunting the lower-ranked ones.

EDIT: travelled back to Cirith Ungol. My Maniac Nemesis followed.
I usurped most of the hierarchy again- adding some local + DLC captains as needed. My Bodyguard betrayed me again aftain my Nemesis Shamed me- but I got him back. Ièm way too attached to this metal weirdo.

Meanwhile, my Nemesis raised himself to level 55, and picked up immunities to Poison, Beasts and Frost, as well as a Cursed weapon. I'm rocking a very nice poison sword, but it wasn't much use against him.

Seeing as the only thing that hurts him was Fire, I equipped some of my top men, the ones with immunity to Curse, and predominantly armed with ranged weapons with Fire weapons. The Maniac became Blood Brothers with one of my captains, so I was able to arrange a Duel. Because I interfered, the second Blood Brother betrayed me, siding with the Nemesis. but it was too late, and shortly after, one of my trolls wrenched the Maniac's head off from his neck.

If he comes back, I'm basically screwed.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 09 February 2020 - 08:59 AM

[Mentalist]

Welp.

I really wanted that "Blood on Blood" achievement- the one you get for making your captain kill his blood brother.

SO i finally did it. The target was a coward, who kept running away, so I had to arrange for like 5 encounters. The last time I brought his Rival (another one of my captains) for the ride to make sure he stayed Enraged and wouldn't run.

I got it. Then my captain predictably turned on me. I beat him, tried to Shame him to get rid of the Iron Will.... and he became a Maniac.

Going from lvl 41 to level 60.

Talion is level 46.

I took the cue to bounce off to Seregost. There are some story quests there, too.

I suspect this guy'll follow me, though. Because why wouldn't he?

[Mentalist]

3 fortresses down. Level 51.

My sword is a super-pricy poison weapon. My dagger does Ice damage. And my armour bonus means I do Curse damage on critical hits.

But mostly I prefer the Poison build. It's just amazingly deadly.

EDIT: a few more hours, and making actual story progress! Hunting Nazguls and such.

So apparently the Lithilad area came with a DLC and isn't part of the story. So that means now that I'm in Gorgoroth I'm actually close to wrapping up all collectibles and side-stuff.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 19 February 2020 - 05:52 AM

[Mentalist]

Got to the point where there's mostly story! got 2 quest lines to follow, and they're both jumping around in the same regions.

And more Ratbag. Ratbag is the best.

[Mentalist]

All righty.

4 Fortresses down, and I finished the Bruz and Carnan quest lines. The ending of that one was pretty sweet- I got to fight the zombie versions of pretty much every big Nemesis I had all game! And I basically wiped the floor with them, because I'm level 62 now and basically all important skills are unlocked

Now I can either push through the rest of the main story, or mess about with that last region that got added in the DLC. I need to conquer it anyway to get the achievement for winning all the pit fights. So I'll start dismantling it tomorrow.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 07 March 2020 - 05:35 PM

[Mentalist]

Working my way through Lithlad Shadow of the past challenges for the achievement, already got 4 of the 6 done.

Level 65 after dismantling all Outposts, but now that I did the Warband challenges for the Outlaw and Slaughter Tribe, I've got a bunch of new high level (like 68-70+) Captains to contend with.

While doing the challenges I finally killed the captain while hanging onto an Olog, though. so that was nice.

The game keeps telling me capturing this fortress is not necessary... but I won't get the "finish all Arena challenges" achievement otherwise, because the last 3 won't unlock until I take it!

Edit: that last part is actually wrong. Even though capturing Lithlad unlocks more Arena Challenges, they don't count for that achievement... because there's another arena to unlock in Act 3 of the main story.

Speaking of which, I am now at a story mission that has "there is no turning back" in its description. I feel like I'm largely on the home stretch with a 93% completion. Of course, if the Arkham games are anything to go by, the main story is actually like 115% complete by the time credits roll around. So who knows how much of the game is actually left?

The story is still pretty "meh" though. The content is all right as far as LOTR fanfic goes... but mechanically it feels very stilted and restricted. Fighting Nazguls just isn't nowhere near as fun as catching Poké-orcs through the Nemesis ladder.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 21 September 2020 - 01:51 AM

[Mentalist]

Finally got the "No Orc left behind" achievement. Had to game the Nemesis system for quite a while to get one of my Captains captured so that I could do a rescue mission.

But now I'm ready for the endgame.

[Mentalist]

Wow, that story really fizzles out in the end.


So I'm doing the "Shadow Wars" Epilogue now. On the bright side, I'm getting really high-level orcs popping up all over the place now. Talion's up to Level 75 and I'm facing level 80+ captains, which is fun. My favourite Bodyguard lost his fort, and after I took it back I gave it to Bruz the betrayer. He's been deranged to scream how he never wanted to take my fort; I feel there's poetic irony in me now giving him a fort-And the most high-stakes one, at that.

But back to Pushcrimp the Machine, the million-dollar orc, rebuilt to be all Terminator-like. Because he was stuck being my Bodyguard for so long, he was rather under-levelled, SO i took the opportunity of all these shiny new high-level Orcs emerging to level him up- he went from being a Level 44 to low 70s after hunting down a few higher ranked captains with Talion's shadowy assistance. Levelling him up was basically the neat challenge of the day.

I could probably mess with the systems for a while still- I'm still missing like 20 pieces of Legendary gear that I'd need to collect all sets. But I'm feeling ready to move on- maaaybe do the Eltariel DLC, but probably not right now.

Gonna try to wrap up Shadow Wars soon-ish. Though this weekend I'll probably be checking out a bunch of indie demos.