What have been some of your takeaways and must haves?
Lost the first one to w'wargaz as I thought I could do it without a throw barb ( could not )
Cut to him summoning 3 swords at every party member. That dude is no joke with the legendary actions.
Started a new one playing as gale. Died early but chose to continue for practice. Ketheric was next trouble. He seems like a multi attack check. If you're not aware every death within 40 feet of him is a new undead aoe birth. Dual crossbow thief warrior for crowd and oathbreaker for single target damage. About to go against the aspect and semi dreading it.
Only cleared about half of act 3 in the past, but plan to finish it with this gale honor practice save.
What have been your key takeaways from honor mode? Any must have builds or gear for your personal playstyle?
It's been a good step up from tactician feeling different but not overly bs imo.
I honestly think that honor mode is dumb. I ain't playing through several hours only to wipe out because everything is done by the roll of dice and critical failures are a thing. I could save scum; but then why would I play honor mode if I was going to do that? It seems like a thing for a very specific type of player, and I am not in that group.
My take away is that my 2H fighter with high and resistance thanks to Shadowheart has made Honor mode very easy. I'm halfway through act 3. Haven't come close to TPK. Also stealing everything with my vampire bro helps considerably to gear up.
Also I went Eldritch Knight for my fighter. Shield has saved my ass so many times I couldn't justify maneuvers over it when I was already dealing decent damage and tanking like a hero of old!
The first one you can get in the creche by killing the lady with the two wolves. The second you can get from Voss in act 1 by making him drop it or act 3 by killing him or accepting his quest. Getting Voss to drop it in act 1 is very dicey without a specific setup so make sure you research how to do it if you want that one early.
My 1st successful honor mode playthrough i did it as a vengeance paladin with shadowheart as a life cleric, astarion as a gloomstalker assassin, and wyll as a sorlock. I used invis potions and barrelmancy for all sorts of shenanigans. You can steal lots of stuff using an arrow of darkness or darkness the spell. Lots of great gear is just lying out in the open. You have to be really mercenary in honor mode. Feelings are for those who don't have the golden dice. So kill anyone for good gear if you can get away with it. A good example is the lady near the gith creche. She gets murdered for her gear. Usually after a failed pickpocket attempt. Same with the creche trader. Try to do as many combats as you can because you won't be overleveled like in normal playthroughs so you'll need the xp.
Edit:
Also I was playing dark urge because the fight against Orin is simple af when you play as dark urge who has slayer form.
I struggled with it a bit at first, probably because I hadn't spent a ton of time in Tactician, so I was learning multiple layers of things in some encounters. With my current run, I've got all of the Act 2 map open but I haven't started delving other than the Meenlock fight. Came very, very close to ending my run in the Owlbear Cave and with Grym.
At this point I'm running into the same issue I always have on hardcore/ironman/nuzlocke-style runs; I've passed the initial touch-and-go stage and reached the point where I'm confident in taking on fights, but I feel compelled to grind on lesser stuff before I proceed in order to give myself the best chance for the bigger stuff. I haven't even done all of the Creche yet. I haven't touched the run in weeks because it feels like work at this point.
I have yet to finish one. I got damn close and was about to sacrifice Gale for the win but forgot the hammer and that was that. I've gotten a bunch to act 2 or 3 but I really don't like A3 all that much - so many tedious quest lines - and I tend to just start over as soon as I get sick of it.
I recently tried taking Ansur at level 10 as soon as I got to A3 and that was hilarious. I've only done the fight once and when I got there everyone was positioned right under him. At the end of turn 1 I had three people down and one at about 25% from basically a single attack. I didn't even get to his big attack. I think I escaped and my game is technically on hold.
I cripple myself because I hate casters and paladins. My party every single game is Lae'zel as BM fighter, Karlach as throw barb, Shart as light cleric (usually in camp except during A2), Astarion usually as Monk or hand xbow ranger. Durge varies wildly, but obviously generally has to be a Cha character. I only use the other characters during their storylines.
Anyway it's going shit. I'm taking a break from honor mode. I wish I could do the legendary effects on other game modes for practice. Some of them are particularly brutal if you aren't prepared for them.
My first attempt was with a Githyanki monk. Easy Peasy. Most mess-ups I had were due to misclicks. Like when I killed half of the guests at the Tiefling party.