Various Thoughts

Finally got through the game with my Azata character (which was a Core Ironman run for the related achievement) and Trickster/Swarm/Legend character, which just leaves Demon as the last mythic path I have to take. Azata wasn’t very good, though it at least had a unique ending. Trickster turned out insanely good in basically all respects, while Swarm would absolutely be a challenge run if you don’t happen to have the Midnight Isles DLC installed. As for Legend… it’s pretty damn powerful when used with a fighter build and adds some interesting exposition regarding your soul.

Before starting my final main campaign playthrough though I thought I may as well run through the Inevitable Excess DLC (with Legend) for the import bonuses, but since I really didn’t want to play it all that much I did so almost entirely on Story difficulty. Switched to Unfair for Inevitable Darkness and managed to kill him on the second try with the combo of Guarded Hearth, Freebooter’s Bond, Smite, Fortune Hex, and then just wailing away with Dimension Strike.

Overall I’d have to say the DLC is just as bad as suspected, with it being essentially half pointless/tedious combat and half infuriating platform puzzler. I’d strongly suggest skipping it unless you really need the import bonuses for something like a Test of the Starstone run. Something I’m currently waffling on whether to attempt or not… although I suppose I could simply start out on Unfair and just lower it if it ever become too much hassle.

The A Dance of Masks DLC for WotR adds two things to the main campaign.

The first is a somewhat sizable questline which triggers partway through Chapter V, which happens to include a mostly optional set of arena battles against an assortment of fairly random opponents. Apart from some awkward voice acting, as if the actors hadn’t had time to re-familiarize themselves with the roles (only Regil and to a lesser extent Woljif didn’t stand out), there’s nothing much on the technical side to complain about. Mechanically it’s pretty easy and tosses a bunch of overpowered items at you on top of that. That said, the arena fights on the other hand are a completely mixed bag. While most don’t pose much of an issue, there are some that are just plain ridiculous (like the wild hunt, or that shadow monk if you don’t have Mass Heal). I certainly do appreciate the free Greater Restoration after every match though and the rewards are useful enough.

The other addition is a new quest available to the Devil mythic path if the queen survives the events at Iz. Not really sure what the point of that was honestly as it feels kind of like it’s sectioned off into its own thing and doesn’t really flow well.

I played the above shortly after quickly running through the Gold Dragon endgame and finishing up my Aeon playthrough (made some mistakes there like going Crossblooded when the Abyss STR bonus gets overridden by DoM’s +4 attribute potion and forgetting Transformation) to finally get that Sadistic Game Design achievement.

Aeon’s unique ending is pretty good and the whole altering the past theme is integrated fairly well. Gold Dragon on the other hand is mostly just annoying, with its quests sending you out into the middle of nowhere, but it also has a somewhat unique ending which at least fits the theme. Devil, as it turns out, is even more annoying than Gold Dragon since you have to wait months to work through the event chain that grants Mythic Level 9… and it doesn’t even have a unique way to resolve the final battle.

Final thing to note is that I also cleared the full-power version of Sithhud added by importing a Lord of Nothing save. It is not something I ever wish to do again. The first two phases are fine, no problem. The third though… in the third you have to kill him nine times while he gets slightly stronger after each death and constantly jumps around the arena. I actually almost ran out of Empowered+Bolstered Hellfire Rays on Ember while taking him down.

The Last Sarkorians DLC turned out to be fully integrated into the main campaign. It adds a new class (which is sort of a mix between Druid and Fighter, sacrificing spellcasting for a focus on Wildshape) and a new romanceable companion with a full set of sidequests taking place in a new multi-part location.

The companion is decent enough if you spec him toward Charge damage, though he’ll need quite a bit of buffing support. The sidequests meanwhile don’t feel out of place but are a bit unbalanced in some places. Like, why does that Bloodrager have DL37 Cleric/Wizard buffs on him? As long as you’re geared to handle swarms though (and the companion comes specifically with an anti-swarm necklace, with more available in the new area) for the most part the added content doesn’t feel unfair or forced. And more importantly, clearing it won’t unbalance the main campaign’s progression.

Something that cannot be said for the integrated version of The Treasure of the Midnight Isles DLC. That one is not balanced at all.

It immediately starts you out against level 18 enemies as basic encounters (in Chapter III) yet, bizarrely, also starts out with level 5 floor bosses. Over the course of all three quests, things never really level out with the difficulty continuously jumping around all over the place. Sometimes a boss will be a one-round joke, other times it’ll inexplicably be able to cast spells with multiple metamagic effects beyond its level or have 70+ AC or 30+ Saves. It’s just a massive slog in general and doesn’t really offer any rewards worth the effort besides a boatload of (effectively useless) gold and enough XP to get you to level 20 shortly after arriving in Chapter V.

Can’t speak for the stand-alone version yet, but if it’s anything like Kingmaker‘s Beneath the Stolen Lands DLC then it ~may~ be worth picking up if you enjoy playing around with different party compositions.

As an addendum, I also just ran through the content added by the free Love Beyond Death DLC. It’s… okay? While there’s nothing annoying about it, there doesn’t seem to be much point in actually wandering down there unless you happen to have a character specialized in Earth Breakers.

The entire reason I had initially picked up Enderal earlier was because I was in the mood to play some sort of magical melee class of some kind. Yet I ended up, as I usually do in those kind of first-person open world games, playing a stealth sniper/assassin.

Still wanting to play a monk-sorcerer kind of thing after abandoning that playthrough I decided to re-install Wrath of the Righteous rather than try to look for something new. Both because I never did finish my Aeon run and never tried any of the DLC… and also since I’m still annoyed at missing the Sadistic Game Design achievement due to ONE ENEMY (Ashberry Hamlet’s ghost).

But first, because completionism is a disease, I had to run through the two stand-alone campaign DLCs so that I could import them for the rewards.

The first, Through the Ashes, is a low-level adventure (level 1-5) that doesn’t give any XP for killing stuff. Which is a big hint that you’re supposed to avoid combat wherever possible (your first companion being decent enough at stealth is another), and use environmental factors to help eliminate what you can’t avoid. It’s okay. There isn’t really anything annoying about it, but nor is there anything about it that calls for a replay.

The second, The Lord of Nothing (which brings you from 5-11), takes a more mixed stance. It’s much closer in style to the main campaign in both good and bad ways. Direct combat is encouraged a bit more here (although there are a couple ‘avoid fighting’ areas), but said combat is not always the most balanced (I still completed it on Core with a ridiculously sub-par Demon Dancer build though). You get access to a wide variety of items and equipment… but will only have enough money to buy a few of them.

Overall I’d say it’s worth running through them once with a Paladin or Dexterity-focused Tank build of some kind, but the replayability value is pretty low.