Inspired by a profile post on my page, I want to see whether it would be possible to beat ALL of Skyblock in its current state using no talisman power.
If you go to Maxwell (or call him), you have the option of selecting "No Power," which grants you 0 stat buffs/debuffs. Allowing you to easily simulate this.
It's important to note that despite using no talisman power, you can still gain the effects and stat buffs provided directly from the talismans themselves. So if a talisman has a +1 strength stat on it, you will still get that +1 strength. In addition, tuning points still work, meaning you can have more stats from simply having talismans in your bag
However, we will also look at a scenario where we do not have any talismans whatsoever, and seeing what our damage would be like. We won't use any tuning points whatsoever since I feel thats kinda cheaty.
We can use whatever armor and weapons we have at our disposal. As well as pets. So in this case, we will use Necron with Warden Helmet and level 200 gdrag to "maximize" our damage.
Right off the bat, you will immediately notice a HUGE shift in stats, favouring WAY more strength than crit damage. This is because strength comes from many more sources than crit damage. Mainly from reforges like Ancient and Withered, as well as pets like golden dragon.
So yeah. Let's just see how our damage looks like with no talisman power equipped. This is while using a Dark Claymore, btw
| Condition | Damage |
|---|---|
| No Talisman Power; Talismans in Bag | 480k (1,268 STR, 492 CD) |
| No Talisman Power; No Talismans in Bag | 443k (1,229 STR, 486 CD) |
Its not as much of a decrease as I imagined, and this is just with melee. Using an RCM build (specifically, using wither impact or midas staff) will yield at least 2.5x more damage with the right setup. Which is what we'll be using for most part
However, having no talismans whatsoever means we'll lose out on some pretty OP perks/passives. Some of which I will list below:
- Book of Progression : The Warrior perk has a buff which grants a (multiplicative) damage increase
- Vampire Dentist Relic : Crazy for survivability when it comes to any melee build.
- Fire/Lava Talisman : Although this grants you immunity to fire/lava outside Crimson Isles, without it this can be pretty annoying since you'll receive damage ticks, slightly hindering movements. Would be most noticeable during the F7/M7 boss fight whenever you try to lava bounce.
- Ring of Love : Has a chance to deal 100% more damage (additive buff, btw), which could potentially improve DPS
- Master Skull : Grants increased health and strength in Master Mode (Up to 10%). Although most of your stats in dungeons comes from dungeonized gear and blessings, I would say this talisman specifically can make a noticeable difference especially if you're high cata level. This is also a similar case for the General's Medallion, however this is only adding to your total multiplier provided from your Catacombs level.
- Burststopper Artifact : Makes tanking more "fatal" hits easier especially if you have low eHP. Although it is possible to get by without this talisman, there are cases, even in the harder areas of the game, where you can take a lot of damage.
There are also talismans which decrease your damage against specific mobs, which is a pretty major nerf in my opinion. Especially against voidgloom seraph, where ender relic helps A LOT with survivability.
So to avoid making this thread super lengthy, we're going to look at a worse case scenario: Not having any talismans whatsoever. Then see how well we'd do in each area of the game.
Slayers
To start off, Revenants, Tarantulas and Sven Packmasters are basically fodder, regardless of tier. So those are immediately checked off the list.
You can't hype mage T5 revs or svens. However, I feel 400kish damage should be enough to do these slayers regardless. Mind you, its possible to deal even more damage if you use infernal crimson/terror armor.
Voidglooms do pose some kind of threat, especially if you're not using Final Destination armor (which is what you should use, in my opinion, for a more comfortable fight). Atomsplit deals significantly more damage than Dark Claymore when fighting endermen while also granting damage reduction against them. So a melee build would be enough to suffice.
You can still midas spoon this slayer with Crimson Armor, but you'll most likely find yourself struggling to stay above half health if you aren't careful.
Blaze slayer is perhaps the hardest, in my opinion, since you need true defense to survive T4 blaze. Although you can stack a bunch of true defense using sorrow armor, this can significantly nerf your damage output. Especially since you can't use Dark Claymore against blaze.
T4 blaze is where I believe most will struggle the most in this sort of challenge. It may not even be possible with how little damage you will deal. Though knowing this community, there are some more talented players than myself. So perhaps those individuals may be capable of doing this.
Dungeons (Normal Mode)
Having a high enough cata level makes the ENTIRETY of Normal Dungeons easy AF given how nearly everything in this mode of Dungeons is practically fodder. Hype mage setup with cata 30+ should be enough to beat even F7
You can beat F7 earlier than cata 30, but Im putting cata 30 so the children don't cry that its "impossible" to do it at cata 24-26
Dungeons (Master Mode)
Hype mage setup alone will not be enough to do Master Mode. Instead, you gonna want a juju or terminator. Ultimately, you do want a terminator so it makes M6/M7 easier for DPS.
Its important to note that you'll be lacking A LOT of crit chance for terminator, making 100% CC with terminator very hard, maybe even impossible. However, with enough buffs you should still have a decent amount of CC to work with, making every floor beatable with enough patience and skill. And yes, this does include M7. You just may not be able to drag skip, though.
Kuudra
Yeah, Kuudra is an interesting case. You gain basically no stat buffs inside Kuudra, meaning you need to maximize your stats as much as possible. Which you can really only do with talismans.
Terminator is basically required for T5 Kuudra or else you will find yourself struggling to deal damage to Kuudra in last phase. As to how fast you need to kill Kuudra, I cannot say for certain, but I do know dodging its attacks does slowly become progressively harder to do the longer the fight goes on for. And its attacks are a one shot regardless of eHP.
Still, I don't main T5 Kuudra to speak on whether this would be actually possible, but if it is, it would be extremely hard. I didn't even consider the fact mobs in Kuudra will hit harder because of no talismans which give damage reduction against them. Though I suppose you could just hype mage them (they would take a bit longer to kill depending on tier and your wither impact damage)
Overall, with enough skill and high enough base stats, I do believe it is possible to beat Skyblock without talismans. Some areas of the game, specifically voidglooms, blaze slayer, Kuudra, and maybe Master Mode may be harder to pull off. But with enough patience I'm sure some skilled players in the community could definitely clutch it.
TL ; DR
When in doubt, just hype mage it
The only areas of the game where I could see talismans and talisman powers being CRUCIAL are Master Mode (For terminator), Blaze Slayer (for true defense + comfy damage) and Kuudra.
Everywhere else should be possible in some shape or form without talismans or talisman powers.
@UltimateAxolotl
