Since I've been spending the past couple months enjoying the game Path of Exile in hardcore (one life) mode, beating it several times, I thought I'd give Wiz8's ironman mode a try -- and it's great fun.

My party is:

Samurai / Fighter / Valkyrie
Ranger / Ranger / Ranger

It's fun to play since the attacks keep the pace of the battles fast, and when I trired to include some mages/priests they would always get killed instantly, and I just prefer attack-oriented characters in RPGs.

So far, though, I keep getting stuck:

I cruise through the monastery, then, if i try to rest at Arnika Road, i immediately get surrounded (I have never rested successfully in that zone.) my only alternative seems to be to run all the way back to the first beach and rest there, but then, huge groups of extra-fast rats still surround and kill me.

I think I can progress by (a) resting only in that safe zone and (b) making sure I aalways do battles in choke points, but...

Any advice? Do the formations relly matter? If so, how do you change your formation? I couldn't figure it out by clicking.

And which stats are important for melee fighters / rangers? i honestly can't tell if it's worth inesting in Dex or Speed or Vitality or Strength.

Here's some tips for surviving Arnika Road:

It could be that you have the Search facility on. If so, turn it off and only use it after a battle has finished to find items. When on, enemies can spot you more easily.

Use the edge of the map rather than the road. You should find some handy resting places that you can back into and be slightly hidden from the road.

Although you haven't got any spellcasters, some of your characters are able to cast spells. There is a book called 'The Book of The Hound' check this out and see if one of your characters is able to cast it - it's an Air spell. Develop Air casting skills with which ever character is able to learn the spell and use it when resting.

Surviving the journey to Arnika can be one of the toughest sections of the game.

Regarding Stat increases:

One that is important to increase for both Fighters and Rangers is Senses. However, with your Valkyrie and at least one of your Rangers do increase Piety. This will affect the number of spell choices available to them and will be very useful in the long run. For instance, your Rangers can learn to cast Elementals. Piety will also increase their stamina.

I'd suggest the following as a general guide; for Fighters, concentrate on Strength, Senses, Speed, Dexterity and Vitality. For Rangers, Senses, Speed, Dexterity, Piety and Vitality. Focus initially on the first 2, then once you get to level 5 or 6, keep putting 3 into the first until it reaches max, but begin sharing the remaining 3 out. This works for me, but you may find a route you prefer and my suggestion is just that - it's not cast in iron or necessarily the perfect scheme :)

I hope this helps - enjoy your game.

The formation wheel is down near the bottom right, unless you've hidden it. You can change formation by clicking on it, although the changes won't actually happen until the end of the turn.

For a group like that you can probably leave it in the default formation. If you're getting attacked from multiple angles then you could shift the ranger to the back, and split the other three between left/center/right, as needed.

Fighters (and Valkyries) want Strength and generally take either Dexterity or Vitality as their second stat. It's useful to have almost all of the rest - even Int - for various purposes, but those three matter the most.

Rangers generally go Strength/Senses, although a purely crossbow ranger might prefer Dexterity/Senses. That said, without a gadgeteer in the group, crossbows are a bad option since you can't make double/triple ones. (You might pick up a certain NPC who can do this, but that won't happen for a while.)

Samurai benefit more heavily from Speed as a secondary stat, and since they're offense-oriented melee characters, will generally push Strength/Dexterity or Strength/Speed.


You will really have to work at training everyone's magic skills once they reach level 5, however. None of these characters will have great stats for their spellcasting specialty, and as the game goes on the defensive buffs and utility/control effects will become increasingly important.


As for the monastery, if you can't find anywhere else to rest, you can close yourself in one of the small rooms (the jail cells down below, or the small office at the end of one of the hallways on the main floor) to keep wandering monsters out. They're liable to be waiting for you once you're done, though.

Oh man - forgot Intelligence! Yep- you need to put some points into this as well over the course of the game. It's more important for Fighters than you may expect.

thanks for the tips! :)

I'm gatherting that I should just invest in all the stats, maybe focusing on Strength and Vitality for attack damage and surviviability. while getting enough magic for utility spells like Knock, Portal, Hounds.

Formation matters, PCs with a short range weapon can only attack adjectant enemies,
while weapons with extended reach allow to attach from the 2nd row,
and you will want to have the max number of possible attacks on your enemies.

You can change party formation by clicking on the corcle in the lower right and draginng characters to the desired position.

The "other" formation, i.e. the character slots from 1-6 and 7+8 for RPCs
cannot be changed in game, although it is important if you order a move during combat,
because the PCs will usually act in the seqqence fom upper left to lower right, i.e. 7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6.
an exception are characters with decent value in the expert skill Snakepseed
(it will only become available for characters with speed 100, like also the other expert skills)

For you party i would recommend to have samurai valk and fighter in the 1st row and 3 rangers in center,
which sugggest polearms for the rangers and using them as healer and occasional stamina caster.
In case you can turn the party with Move command to the side
and have all 6 party members adjectant to enemies in front(e.g. in doorways/crevasses)

If you prefer the valk as the main healer she will get attacks in the back that way,
so it might be better to place her in the center and let her use a polearm,
but this would force you to distribute the 3rd ranger into another quadrant
and reduce the reachability of enemies for close combat weapons with extended range.
It would also expose the single one to more attacks if party is surrounded.

Hint:
you can click on the formation symbol while the combat round is still runnning,
that way the characters change position at the end of the running round,
useful to adapt to the tactical situation, e.g. heavily hurt character "retreats",,
or if you move to doorways its quite effective to have only one buffed PC in the front row
(guardian angel+body of stone+razor cloak)

From my experience in a lot of runs through vanilla and the different mods
the primary stats for rangers are dex + senses, close up is int.
Similar for the samurai although he will need speed to get max number of attacks lightning strike.
Valk str, dex,spd,[vit/pie/int](depending on main role, for your party i would also concentrate on casting -> pie/dex/str/vit.

Note that i push all attributes to 100 before i distribute any pts at lvlup into another
(should be taken into account at creation, i.e. keep the weak attribs in acceptable range)

In opposition to many others i neglect vit nearly completely but see a need for speed,
expecially for parties having a decent numbers of characters with instakill chance.
You have 4 1/2 of them (the fighter has the ko chance)

regarding camp on Arnika Road, i would not camp there at all.
Your characters will not break down without sleep,
either try to pass the hogar in the north if your guys cant take it out
(watch that it does not beome hostile, although this will be less dangerous when you return from the location(s) in the north)
or take the usually recommendable way south, to Arnika via Arnika Trynton Road.

For the Valkyrie I'd put Piety first (especially in this group) because she is your only healer and that stat is what controls her spells.
A good Stats chart = http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/flamestryke/wizardry8/charinfow8/attributes.html

I don't have too much to add above what is offered above, but you may want to be careful with your positioning when using elevators and in high places. Accidental deaths not related to combat can sometimes happen in this game.

Also, since the game can be really long I'd normally recommend to try and play through it once before attempting ironman, at least if you intend on going right to the end. I can understand the appeal though.

Even if the valkyrie is the main healer, she shouldn't need to turn around very much in this party (unless NPCs mess things up) because rangers have alchemy and that's almost as strong at healing as divinity is - the only things it doesn't provide are party-wide heals and Sane Mind, and the Valk can still handle the former (without needing to turn around)... eventually. It'll take a long time for anyone to get the really powerful spells, though.

Rangers shouldn't need to worry about polearms since their primary attack is ranged.



Re: random deaths - it isn't just high places (and the tendency of friendly patrols to push you off of them) - there are several traps that can wipe out the party instantly and a few places where terrain and/or object glitches can cause an instant-kill where they shouldn't. (One set of doors in the Rapax Rift is very prone to doing this.)

Thanks for the tips guys!

I restarted and beat Iron Man with:

Fighter / Valkyrie / Fighter
Gadgeteer / Bishop / Ranger

The buffs from the Gadgeteer items and the Bishop spells made my fighters into beasts. The sword-fighter had 700 or so kills at ascension. The fighters were pretty beastly with bows too.

I'm thinking of making a fighter x 5 + 1 bishop party later.

I like screwing around with parties like that. I've done it with 6 rogues and 6 lords. The 6 lords breezed through the game until I was roughly around ascension and then I just couldn't kill anything.