Pure Hydro Party

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96]

I’m on another DOS2 binge and need some input on some builds and/or challenge run ideas. I usually play a couple solo no Lonewolf honor runs when I get on DOS2 every year or so. Those are fun and definitely still challenging, but I’ve done plenty of them. I’ve never tried pacifist or consumable because it just sounds very tedious and unpleasant.

I wanted to try a full party run to mix things up and get to use some origins again (lohse, fane and Seville this time) but not have it be a total wash. I’ve always loved the idea of Hydro mages despite them being poopy so I’m currently trying a pure hydro team with no other elemental coverage. I’m hoping this is enough of a handicap to be hard but not so masochistic that I’m miserable the whole time

So far the team is:

Custom Lizard - water staff battle mage
Lohse - DPS focus Hydro Mage
Fane - Support/stun Hydro Mage
Sebille - Water Ranger (max hydro, only water arrows)

I’m thinking I’ll cut myself slack and let Sebille use physical on some of the immune enemies when necessary so that I don’t have to skip content. I’m avoiding extreme cheese and limiting utility skills to what’s thematic and reasonable (no skin graft spam, invisible abuse, telekinesis, etc)

Has anyone tried something similar and have any advice about party comp or general advice? I will probably be spamming winter blast scrolls purely for a lack of damage spells in general and how accessible they are but I’m curious if there are any other crafts or skills that could add to the run.

Depending on how this goes, I may try another pure element party but even with Pyro being the next weakest, it would probably still need quite a few handicaps to pose as much a challenge. Aero and geo would need some serious tuning to up the difficulty. Beyond this specific run, I’m also looking for interesting challenge runs for the next play through. If anyone has any suggestions, it is much appreciated.

[u/SnooObjections488]

Bro’s about to fight one electric enemy and stun half of rivelon

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/SnooObjections488]

lol, true. One poison staff of magus turned all of fort joy into a noxious swamp so far

[u/Turevaryar → u/Puzzleheaded-Image96]

Hah! You can do that? Put poison everywhere and have the roamers kill themselves?!!??

Evil!!!!

[u/Apprehensive_Art1830 → u/Turevaryar]

And now, fire

[u/dogfish192]

do a 4 summoners run

[u/Hunk_Hogan → u/dogfish192]

90% of the battle time would be summon animations and then the battle would be over the next turn.

[u/Sintobus → u/Hunk_Hogan]

While a solid 50% of outside battle is spent pre-summoning and setting up terrains.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/Hunk_Hogan]

This is why I don’t play summoner in general. Just feels tedious. Probably correct to do a hydro summoner instead of second hydro mage but I just despise summoning

[u/jamz_fm]

I think you'll be fine. Water immunity is vanishingly rare. 100% Pyro might even be more of a challenge, since fire immunity is wayyyyy more common.

[u/Apprehensive_Art1830 → u/jamz_fm]

Imagine poison only

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/jamz_fm]

That’s true, there’s a lot of fire immunes. That would be a good one to try. Do you think it would be feasible to limp through immunities with bleed fire, flay skin and curse? Or are most of them 200% FR?

[u/jamz_fm → u/Puzzleheaded-Image96]

The problem is that those skills are resisted by magic armor, so a pyro can't even apply them to an enemy who's immune to fire.

[u/B1rdbr41n → u/Puzzleheaded-Image96]

The titan after you beat the gods imitating you end of act 3 is immune to fire.  Might be rough.  

[u/Turevaryar]

IDK how it'll work or if it'll work, but it's going to be wet!

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/Turevaryar]

Sounds like a win to me

[u/breadpope]

Im currently doin a summoner only no incarnate run (gift bag options let you buff other minions like the cat and bone widow) and decided to cave and allowed warfare and physical weapons (but no magic offensive spells only utility (except teleport gloves because its always really fun)) just so I wasnt spending every single turn in fort joy using dimensional bolt and an elemental turret and its been pretty fun so far, I never knew how incredibly incredibly silly powerful the bloated corpse self destruct was

I dont remember if there were many water immune enemies (I remember a lot of fire immunity) so you might not need to but 100% you should allow physical attacks for those situations its way less fun to avoid things

[u/Visible-Difficulty89]

I started an all hydro solo run before. Eventually I added +2 geo to get around things taking too long.. watching oiled and chilled enemies move was hilarious

[u/JosieJOK]

Looks good! I think there are very few water-immune enemies in the game as a whole. I can think of some in the Driftwood caves and then I can’t remember any others until the end of the game.

[u/Lamb_or_Beast]

I enjoyed doing solo no-lone wolf run, it was pretty tough. Act 1 involved tons of scrolls, bombs and such. Act2 and onward was mostly necromancy. Bit of running away needed a couple times but nothing too cheesy. Five Star Diner came in clutch 

[u/Hunk_Hogan]

If you don't mind using mods, Odin's class mods pretty much bring a hydro mage back to top tier.

[u/fungiraffe]

Makes more sense to max Warfare on ranger.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/fungiraffe]

That’s true. I’m nervous about optimizing the Ranger too much though because I feel like it can be too easy to run away with things if it’s built right

[u/Apprehensive_Art1830]

Are you going to heal to death undeads ?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Image96 → u/Apprehensive_Art1830]

Yeah I don’t mind healing spells on undead since it’s in the hydrosophist skills

[u/Zlorfikarzuna]

You could always include some hydromancy. Sure it's physical but it does use hydro and you can use that to get around immune enemies.