Warning! Desecrations! Warning!

[Nurator]

With Martyr Wraps TT and Taurogs punishments are meaningless, because all of my damage comes from corrosion^^

It would work like this: You prep a Fortitude Tonic and buy another one. When you have around 40 corrosion on Horatio and thus 40 weakening on you, you take one Tonic and got 40 damage per attack+ the nerfed damage you got before. Repeat after another 40 corrosions and you have 80 damage per attack and Horatio has 20 (when you still have resists).

Or is corrosion maxed at some point? Monk is excellent at stacking corrosion fast, so I dont care about any other damage source This is true for lowlevel monks aswell, you can kill meatmen 5 level above you easily

I am still not sure if this is possible but it would be a cool achievement Binlor desecration is a harsh nerf for this tactic, but losing the Tonic and your Martyr Wraps is worse I think...

[Lujo]

I can confirm that the Martyr Wraps are possibly the best Horatio killing tool out there. If I remember correctly they used to not be affected by resistances (not sure if this is still the case if it ever was) but as long as it's the case you can probably kill him with no initial damage. Also, I think TT punishment takes away all TT boons, but if dodging stayes on that's quite helpful too. If anyone's going this route then also having Whurgarble for +20 dmg probably isn't a bad idea.

I'm a bit sceptical about being able to reach him with a monk with no resists though (due to binlor desecration). And I'm not sure about being able to build your resists up fast enough with a monk if you do manage to desecrate Binlor first. How much does Binlor punish for anyway?

Btw, what exactly is the challenge? Do you have to desecrate the altars when you find them or can you time it when it's most appropriate but before you fight Horatio? Also, are you allowed to worship stuff before you desecrate it?

[Darvin]

Actually, this challenge should clarify that the Agnostic Collar is not permitted, for obvious reasons.

My understanding of the challenge:

Prior to entering the last level of the dungeon and beginning the fight with Horatio, you must desecrate every altar except the one you are currently worshiping. You may not use the Agnostic's Collar to avoid punishment. You may desecrate altars earlier than this, if you so choose.

[Nurator]

Yes Darvin got my challenge exactly. Binlor punishes for 50% resist, so I dont know if its wise to desecrate him instantly. Getting to 75% physical resistance for leveling and then have 25% for Horatio should be enough.

I am still far from getting to Horatio with a Monk, but maybe there is something out there, we didnt found out yet. Its quite a challenge to test new stuff out:D

Maybe a Monk with the Avatar Codex? Or a Gnome Bloodmage of Dracul, that kills Horatio with 100% HP bloodpools? A vampire with enough Lifesteal to just negate anything?^^

There are many possibilities One will be definitely strong enough for this challenge

[Lujo]

Wait, you're far from getting to Horatio with a monk with this challenge in place or in general?

[Nurator]

I did VGT before, but not with a Monk. I am running out of blackspace at around the 5th subdungeon... I dont think I make monumental mistakes, so I dont know why^^

[Lujo]

Hmmm, this is odd, because the way I remember it nothing beats that place more throughly than the monk. Allthough I remember it being somewhat unintuitive or something, it was stumping me for a while but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Back when VGT was easier, we thought it was undoable (and so did the devs) but then this guy did it with a Monk, and the first incarnation was beaten by resist stacking on almost anything.

The current VGT, however, sorta gives Monks trounble by having a harder early game or something. I think I managed it by prepping Binlor and scumming up Pactmaker on the first floor or something. I would take me too much time to overcome skill decay to do it now, I think But what's your approach?

[Nurator]

I tried it with Martyr Wraps and a prepped Fireball on JJ and EM. The early game works really well, but sorcerers need a lot of ressources to get over... I mostly give up, when I get to an already explored new dungeon without having much blackspace on top left.

Maybe Binlor resist stacking would help me with that! I will try that next time^^

[Lujo]

No, deffinitely go for resist stacking, the patient "every step counts" way and with a prepped subdungeon. Endurance run setup, not burst setup. Dragonshield, that sort of thing. Possibly an early consensus to account of the knockbakc and the might on wall destruction boons, but I can't for the life of me remember the exact optimal setup (used to know it by heart).

[TheSchachter]

If I remember correctly, when I beat VGT with the Monk I started off by prepping Taurog and the Dragon Shield, then later on converting to Dracul. Definitely take the Blade and Helm, but since Dragon Shield Monk is 7% away from his max physical resistances I don't think the Armour is worth the inventory space/max mana hit, especially if you bring Patches for resists (and you should!). Body Pact and/or Blood Shield probably depends on when you encounter Dracul/Pactmaker; the earlier and higher you can boost your magic resist and max your phys resist the better.

I remember trying out Binlor and finding that I had difficulties with combining Piety management and blackspace. But it's true that the Knockback damage and Might from wall destruction would be great.

For this challenge I feel like you would absolutely need the resistances. If I'm right, then your best hope would be to try and get the Martyr Wraps to show up in a shop so you can desecrate GG (Return slots and Quest Items prep?). You would definitely want both Blood Shield and Body Pact in that case (probably obvious), and starting with Binlor would be much better since Taurog's resistances comes from items. That being said, I would probably still prep the Dragon Shield since the extra physical resistances early on are super strong, probably converting it once you get the means of boosting the resistances past your cap. Finally, I feel like being a Dwarf might actually be the way to go: your damage is going to get severely nerfed and therefore you'd be depending on Martyr Wraps, so Humans and Orcs lose out a lot of their bonus (though Humans might be worth it for tempering Taurog's desecration penalty... not sure). Dwarves, on the other hand, barely feel Dracul's desecration bonus and benefit more than anyone from multiple hits of his Blood Tithe boon. They also work very nicely with resist stacking and the Monk's double regen helps a lot with the usual problem of regenerating their health pool.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I could be wrong of course. I wish you luck with this challenge! =D

EDIT: Or alternatively scum for first floor Binlor so you can desecrate him early and then build up resists, hoping for a second floor Pactmaker/Dracul... but frankly I can't imagine getting getting to the second floor as a resist-less Monk, at least not without wasting a ton of resources. But then crazier things have happened...