Many of you know I only play Story mode, mostly Advanced.
So, I’m trying for a complete Career of every Story mode map, with Gold.
The next two are the most insane, Helio Hardcore on Normal and Advanced.
So, how would any of you attempt those, and is it even possible Solo?
(I know Pendles can do it but that first timer is the problem.)
Career so far, 763 hours of Story mode:
I haven’t tried her since after the patch, but Galilea is highly reliable. AOE slow and DOT, healing, healing, healing, ranged damage. Of course, you already know that. OM is always safe. Ambra might be effective.
…Yeah I’m a Master of Gal but I don’t think she has a chance Solo on Helio HC.
Mastered Mike too and he would be what I picked next to Pendles.
note: Little bit about me, why the time into this:
I’m 55 and very fit, Woodworker/Lumberjack, Vegan. (5’11" 163 pounds)
Earlier this year before BB came out I ripped some internal muscles carrying logs.
So, I built a really cool Standing Desk and have been standing here for months enyoying BB! 
I’d run Thorn with health regen and max health gear, rare Eldrid variants if you have them, and probably Bola’s Target Finder or Codex Fragment.
…Thanks, she was the first one I maxed way back, loved playing her.
Thorn gets my vote too: she’s crazy mobile, awesome range, awesome damage, and, if you spec properly, excellent survivability through Volley lifesteal. I would probably go with a good split of +hp and damage, like Symbiotic Gauntlet (+attack dam, +hp, +attack dam based on hp), Vigilant Power Scouter (+crit, +hp, +attack dam after crit), and Bola’s Target Finder (+skill dam, +attack speed, target takes extra damage for 10 secs after skill damage). This is actually the loadout I use with her all the time; if you wanted to beef up her survivability a bit, though, you might go with the Vampiric Vestment (+hp, +attack dam, +hp per kill until death) instead of the Bola’s Target Finder, which will give you an extra ~560 hp (for a total +hp of 980 extra hp).
Concerning Thorn, keep in mind that she doesn’t benefit from attack speed, reload, or recoil. Pretty much the only way to increase her damage is through crit, skill damage (which affects curse bonus damage) and attack damage (which has no effect on curse bonus damage).
All characters benefit from attack speed and Thorn is no exception, though I’ve never used it outside of testing.
I like your loadout idea, since you’re going for damage and health why not have Codex Fragment in the third slot? I’d personally still run max health and health regen for maximum survivability, Thorn’s damage output is already very high (of course this means she will benefit greatly from % increases) and I’d rather have a cheaper loadout on advanced Helio to get my gear up early, before hitting the left side at least as that’s where it gets intense.
This is basically a semantic v. practical question. Thorn gets no practical benefit from attack speed, afaik, because her attack speed is basically locked to her charged time which, afaik, attack speed does absolutely nothing for (in fact, afaik, absolutely nothing affects her charge time).
I’m not really fond of Codex Fragment because the legendary benefit is really bad. From what I know, the skill damage increase upon taking damage fades super fast and you really shouldn’t be taking a constant stream of damage as Thorn (she’s really mobile); I’d rather use a purple +skill/+hp than the Codex Fragment.
Still, I’m super fond of the Bola’s Targeting Finder, especially for Thorn. Her curse damage is considered skill damage so it should trigger the +dam from Bola’s, making basic + Volley an utterly devastating combo (I can use that to kill a Brute in about half of a second in 5 man content).
Rather than Codex Fragment (which really seems like you’re just taking it for the +hp component), I’d still probably go for the Vampiric Vestment, which is going to provide an almost obscene amount of +hp (especially on a single item, so you could buy it first and get super tanky asap) as well as a useful amount of +attack damage.
[quote]I’d rather have a cheaper loadout on advanced Helio to get my gear up early, before hitting the left side at least as that’s where it gets intense.
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I’ve never really had a problem with Helio adv at the start. The biggest problem most people make is playing too aggressively, thinking that they really need to push to beat the timer, but I haven’t really experienced much of a rush. Even taking your time, you should be able to finish with ~2 minutes left (10 minutes per side).
The hard part of helio adv is the boss rush and thrall spawns, especially when solo hardcore, because you have to survive those massive spikes in damage when a horde spawns on top of you and you need to kill stuff quickly and efficiently.
The other advantage of being solo is that you’re not sharing shards with anyone so a triple legendary loadout is even more feasible than normal.
It doesn’t affect her charge time at full draw, but it does affect draw speed, meaning more “quick” arrows for smaller enemies and finishing blows. As I said I’ve never used it outside of testing, but it does work to some degree.
Yes, I’ve tested this too and the stacks decay before an enemy Battleborn shield can recharge, but it’s a nice item for skirmishers and melee toons who take a lot of hits. Bola’s is my favourite legendary, I use it on most of my loadouts.
This is where the Codex Fragment and rare Eldrid syringe come in handy 
This is true, I guess it comes down to personal preference. I run an exclusive loadout for advanced Helio myself.
I pretty much never use quick arrows unless I know they’re going to be a kill shot regardless of how much damage is dealt mainly because, even when fighting multiple enemies, you’ve got Blight and, as I see it, 2 absolutely guaranteed PvE helices are Piercing Volley and Draw Strength, so, with proper aiming, you can kill multiple enemies with a single Volley or basic attack (I’ve actually managed to kill 2 Brute Thralls in a single basic + Volley combo; it was amazing; you can do it to 3 evolved at the same time during the Sentinel at the spike roller section).
Regen rate items are such a slow way of recovering hp though. If you take 30% lifesteal on Volley instead of 15% additional damage, you can give yourself a massive amount of healing every time you Volley (should be every 10 seconds or so, I believe); I regularly get 1800+ damage crits with Thorn’s Volley (Focused Volley for easier crits; same damage as Nockout in a tighter area), which is 540 healing. Even the strongest syringe is going to take more than a minute to manage that much healing (and the value of the syringe is way less on the Eldrid because they actually have native +regen).
Thanks for the input.
As for attack, Thorn’s melee is amazing, I used to focus on it a lot.
Have Blight and a Volley ready but focus on melee for many areas.
I have to disagree with this, I agree that health regen gear under normal circumstances is near insignificant, but it stacks with Eldrid passive regen. 7 becomes 14, with a blue Eldrid syringe that’s 18.2. Assuming you’re playing in a group, multiple Song of Vigor’s stack as well.
I don’t use the lifesteal on Volley because I rarely feel I need it, but that’s just me.
[quote=“Slif_One, post:12, topic:1543341, full:true”]I have to disagree with this, I agree that health regen gear under normal circumstances is near insignificant, but it stacks with Eldrid passive regen. 7 becomes 14, with a blue Eldrid syringe that’s 18.2.
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An increase of 7 hp/sec is an increase of 7 hp/sec regardless of how much regen you’ve already got. If it’s insignificant when you’ve got 0 hp/sec (when it’s actually the most valuable), it’s still insignificant when you’ve got 100 hp/sec. You have to stack up an almost obscene amount of +regen for it to amount to anything really practical, mainly because it takes forever to do its job.
Regen for Eldrid is actually worse than regen for everyone else specifically because the Eldrid are already packing some. The only real value in regen is that it allows you to heal when you’re not fighting. The Eldrid are already doing that naturally; no one else does, which is why they might get some value out of +hp.
You have to be really close together (pretty much melee range, like with the Symbiotic Spores), I believe, which is just one of the reasons why Song of Vigor is terrible (healing received as the secondary stat is another reason). Oath of the Sustained is pretty much universally better because it provides a useful secondary stat (+damage) and more healing (as long as you’re dealing more than 140 DPS, which even Miko can manage with her poison) that isn’t range limited (which is the biggest and best thing about it).
The way I see it, you either take the lifesteal on Volley or sacrifice a gear slot to some form of regen gear (or maybe the Leechsteel Brooch, which is probably better because of it working off of Curse, Blight, Volley, and Wrath of the Wild, all of which are amazing damage contributors; you also don’t really need the lifesteal if you’ve got a decent support in the group, but we’re talking solo). Each of the 3 legendaries in my loadout will outweigh the 15% increase in damage to Volley: 210 hp + ~18% increase basic attack damage (big survivability increase and massive increase to basic attack damage, which is the biggest component to Thorn’s damage if you don’t suck with it), 210 hp + 12% crit + 9% damage after crit (same as Symbiotic, but it also helps out Volley because that can crit), and 9% skill damage + 5% attack speed + 5.6% increase damage after skill hit (this is adding more to Volley than the helix while also buffing Curse, Blight, and Wrath on top of it).
I guess we’re not going to entirely agree on this lol, personal preference and unique playstyles 
I’m mainly a PvP player though, I only hit PvE for XP/credits, challenging runs (adv hc with 4-5P) or farming, though I’ve got every legendary drop at max stats now, you’re probably better at PvE than me and have a better grasp on what gear performs best, I’ve accomplished all I want to bar adv hc Helio (haven’t even attempted it TBH)
You cannot flee! I will defeat you with math! Rawr!
Either way, it’s not really a big deal. If you find something that works for you, I would probably stick with it unless you feel like testing the waters by tweaking some gear (though you might have to tweak part of your playstyle to compensate).
[quote=“Slif_One, post:14, topic:1543341”]though I’ve got every legendary drop at max stats now
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So much hate for you right now. I’m missing the Heliophagic Goggles completely and need 9 more with max rolls. It’s really annoying since, for all 9 of those legendaries, I’ve gotten 3 copies (all non-max).
Success, but Bronze, not Gold
Thorn had no problem with the timer, had 2 mins left, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible in Advanced mode.
The hardest part was probably Gunhulk but not so much. Back peddling the bomb runners was no problem.
Math me all you want, I’ll counter with my superior legendary count 
When I first got the Heliophagic Goggles I was like, "ooh sweet crit gear!"
Then I saw that the unique effect is melee specific 
Crits and melee don’t happen too often…
Actually, apologies, I am missing two legendaries, Rendain’s advanced drops. He’s stingy and I CBF grinding through that ordeal over and over…
If we’re talking unique legendaries, then I win! Muahaha!
I’ve probably also got you beat on total legendaries too: I’ve currently got 257 on hand.
Yeah, I really should’ve done Helio Adv more during the Lootpocalypse. Still, it’s actually really easy/manageable/fast with 2-3 people as opposed to 5. My fastest time is under 30 mins, in fact (which is faster than a Sabo run).
How many lore legendaries do you have?
But mine are superior, because max roll
This doesn’t bother me, I sell duplicates, 250 credits means closer to another loot pack
I also have Go-Go Juice and Voxis Core, both max roll.
Nice, well done! From what I hear adv hc Helio is rare, especially solo, you’re in a pretty exclusive club.
