So I've been slowly grinding away at the 1HP quests (post all the nerfs) and I've got fewer than 10 left in the original campaign. Some of them I have ideas on how to approach, but Order of the Core and Descent to the Core, with rockfall doing some damage to the whole team just get me. Has anyone done them post all the nerfs, and, if so, what build did you use?
Yeah, between the rockfall and the sorcerous blasts (and lack of blocking terrain), I'm having no luck even at the first map of Order of the Core so far.
For all 1hp quests below lv18 I used: Lv4 firestorm elf + Nimbus priest + 2nd Nimbus priest or Draw priest or Unholy wellspring priest As these two adventures are too low level to get major tokens, the whole nimbus/draw/buff thing tends to get mixed into both priests. On both priests I probably used 3x Shielding Token and the rest of the slots devoted to as much Inspiration or traits as I could get with the remainder of the tokens.
Smoke bomb (or a well placed ill barrier) seems like a good opener, rockfall has to be aimed after all. Its magic crushing, so counterspell and missile blocks in addition to the usual lifesaving might be worth looking into.
I've played smoke in 1hp quests. Seems like a good idea against ranged, but is pretty marginal in practice. One of the issues is that the computer plays very well against smoke when using burst attacks. The computer WILL find the only square that gives it the angle it needs to hit you through the smoke those burst 2 rock falls. On the other hand the AI plays exceedingly poorly against nimbus. Before I did these quests, I thought reliable mail might be the answer to rock fall, as rock fall only does 2 damage. But in the event I blew through so easily with firestorm/nimbus nothing else was tested.
Is it 2 or 6 dmg Rockfall? And the answer is nimbus. Thats why i got so little interest in these quests.
I have used combination of smoke and nimbus, all elves of course wiz and priests. Smoke is good to clear a lava/acid when you run out of the move cards in certain situations. Volcano is also usable in the quests with geomancers. Yes, AI is good with avoiding smoke and it is pity that smoke do not cover unreachable terrain like all those water filled trenches etc. Still it is possible to smoke to the extent that you will be safe for a while. It needs luck but it is possible to set a fire storm wizard with the resistant hide inside a smoke cloud to harass your opponents... Usually suicide mission. But certainly you cannot simply outnimbus geomancers. It is very difficult task to complete those quests - top shelf difficulty i would say. Maybe at that time i haven't got enough items to do simple firestorm + nimbus approach mentioned above by PurpleRed. Double reliable mail of one of the characters is also not bad idea. Very often most of the attacks they will push on you are 4 hp or low. I have finished it before the release of the cosmic campaign so have little idea how the items from there can help.
I tried using 1 priest-2 wizards with nimbus, but I wasn't making any headway. Ultimately what worked for me was 3 wizards with illusions and smoke -but mostly illusion. The hardest, however, was the second part of Order of the Core because of the darn Trog Scuttlers. Those bastards have too much range. In the end I managed with cold cones, force cones and gusts, plus the usual firestorms. The rest was a matter of patience.
