Stupidly Easy Part II - A Naked Mage? The Level 20 Promo Dissected

Alright, so the naked Cleric experiment wasn't all that impressive, I mean I have three options to heal myself, Heal skill, HP Potion, and HP Stone... so being naked wasn't all that bad, plus I had a shield.  So what if I didn't?  And what if I went one step massively further and upped the ante by going with the squishiest of them all?  Think it can still be done sans armor?  Let's find out!



Okay, now to be completely honest, I tried this promotion probably over 10 times testing various methods and sort of practicing.  Each time I gained a bit more insight into what I can take away or handicap myself further with.  And here is what I came up with....

Taking an 80% DMG right-hook to the jaw.

The Shadow mob, normally does about 80-90 dmg on me naked.  I'm not 100% sure if all attacks by the Shadow are m.dmg attacks (since I'm a Mage) or if there are physical hits in there.  She also hits me for nearly 80% damage with her Magic Blast attack.  If that's chained to a couple of regular attacks that I don't heal immediately, it's instant death considering I only have 297 base HP.  If two Magic Blasts come consecutively, which I've witnessed happen, it's definitely lights out, healing or not.  It is possible to get to the end of the promotion quest naked, however, the precision it takes to time your 2 max heal options is nerve wracking.  One small slip up and you're done.  Again, 297 HP is not a lot to play with when regular attacks hit you for about 25-30% and then you get an 80% hammer dropped on you in the form of Magic Blast.  Couple in the fact that you may have to also fight the summoned Stone Statue Goblin in addition to the Shadow and the task is seemingly insurmountable.  If someone wants to attempt this, by all means go ahead, it can be done, but it's going to take a lot of runs, impeccable timing, and honestly a lot of luck to do it.

The mobs along the way aren't much of an issue when taken one or two at a time, preferably singular.  The modest 28, yes I said twenty-eight, DEF is enough to get by, laughably.  So once you get to the Shadow at the end, it required some thinking...

At first, I played it straight up, taking out the Stone Statue Goblin, the Shadow Marlone Soldier, and then stood there trading blows with the Shadow.  It went okay until the Statue reappeared.  Just FYI: the Statue respawns every 45 seconds or so.  Once the two of them were attacking me, forget it, I'm dead.  So that got me thinking...

I next tried to just wait out all of the Statue respawns without engaging the Shadow.  That worked somewhat, I ended up killing I think four Statues, they spawn around the entire room.  If you're too far from them when they spawn, they won't immediately aggro you.  The respawns closest to the Shadow were a little harder to lure without having the Shadow come after you.  Eventually I got bored and just fought the Shadow, lost again after a devastating combo while I had both Pots and Stones on Cooldown.

I also tried semi-kiting the Shadow, or at least pulling her down the previously blackened hallway.  I never ventured back down that hallway after the Shadow spawns, so I wasn't even sure if it was possible or not, but it is.  I thought maybe it was blocked for some reason.  So anyway, I tried luring it once, eventually though, if you stop attacking her, she'll give up chase and return.  As you can see in one of the outtakes, I ran back to her only to get clobbered.. it would've gotten uglier anyway with the Statue also running at me.

I thought I was onto something though pulling the Shadow down the hall.  If anything at least it would delay the Statue from coming because of the travel time from their original room to wherever I'm pulling the Shadow.  So again, I tried it, failed once again because of timing issues on my heals.  So after yet another attempt, I decided to just bite the bullet and use a T1 Vitality scroll.

For good measure I picked up a pair of +1 END rings from the NPCs near Grand Master Sean.  I don't think the rings did all that much for me, but the scroll made a monstrous difference.  With the VIT scroll, I was able to withstand those combos.  I had enough time to heal and wait out the cooldowns.  So along with my slightly buffed up HP, I now had an impressive 507 HP, I used my same technique of luring the Shadow down the hallway.  I was surprised to see that it went so well and that the Statue also was unable to follow me all the way back there.  It seemed to give up chase just outside the last room I pulled to and kinda waited around before running back to its spawn point.  One on one with my additional HP, the Shadow went down fairly easily.

So what could be further trimmed?  Well the +1 END rings for sure, honestly they didn't make a bit of difference, I should have just taken them off from the start.  The T1 VIT scroll?  I dunno, again, you'd need remarkable timing and a lot of luck when dealing with what the Shadow throws at you, but it IS possible.