Orc Horde Options

[Mjolnir88]

I'm having trouble with Orc Horde and I really just want to figure out the mechanics of this fight.

Zerker protag - 28
Kurgan - 27
Valgar - 24
Anomen - 7/28
Imon - 23
Aerie - 18/16

SPOILER!

I've tried outlasting them but it seems endless. I then tried to just kill them all at once via imp alacrity/timestop via wish and mass aoe dmg spells after removing mage protections via remove/dispell magic but they still spawn in. My question is will this fight be over after x amount of time and its just a matter of survival, or is there something else?

[Mjolnir88]

Nvm i figured it out

SPOILER!

i just waited it out via malaison + emotion/slow/hold spells with wish for refresh while melee tanked with hardiness + regen

[critto]

Yes, you need to survive a certain amount of time. The best way would be to keep enemy mages busy, but don't kill them. The main danger is Archers, try to get rid of them as they appear. Use one of your fighters to distract Orc Warriors, but don't kill anybody unless it's necessary. Use Hardiness, regeneration and healing potions to survive instead. Use a lot of summons. Make sure your mages are always protected with Stoneskin and PfMW.

Those characters names, those are all Bioware NPCs, right?

[Mjolnir88]

Yes they are all bioware npc's . I think kurgan tells me every few minutes that he hates me but with the happy ncps mod hes there to stay.

I won it with keeping anome,n aerie & imon in the back healing/wishing while the other 3 tanks kept the top goons busy. Emotion didnt seem to do a thing to the mages even with -6 to saving throws via doom + malaison and i must have thrown a a million emotions.

Occassionally i needed to cast hold person on a lone orc that spawned on the bottom and proved to be a nuissance to my casters.

Im on orcus atm and godamn hes a bastard. I thought that the orc horde was a test of endurance but it doesnt come close to orcus and his horde.

[matti]

Those characters names, those are all Bioware NPCs, right?

hehe, Imon's the best. ;]

i figured it out

SPOILER!

i just waited it out via malaison + emotion/slow/hold spells with wish for refresh while melee tanked with hardiness + regen

Yes. This fight is all about survival. I was unable to win via killing, must admit it.

Orcus is not that bad really, but you must know what you are doing all the time. SPOILER!

Nice tactics, risky and brave, that I used once (second runthrough) and it worked like a charm: protect your fighters against melee damage (100%), level drain and domination spells. Ignore, yes, ignore summons and just attack him immediately on enter with improved hasted fighters but don't activate your offensive hla's yet. Wait until your hits actually connects the target and then activate critical strike hla (this is what makes this tactic so mean ;]) killing him on the spot. Ah, one more thing - watch for master vampires! These abominations are extremly dangerous if left alone for too long.

This post has been edited by matti: Nov 23 2009, 08:56 AM

[Sikret]

SPOILER!

The cheesy method of hastily moving characters to Orcus before the cutscene kicks in, and killing Orcus without fighting his minions (the grandlords) is already blocked in IA v6. Now, in v6, it doesn't even matter if you move to Orcus before the grandlords appear, because he can't be killed before them. As long as you are playing v5, try to win the battle in the intended way and wait for the grandlords and kill them before Orcus. In v6, it's all fixed and the cheesy method won't work anyway.

[lroumen]

Orcus is annoying but I find the summons in that fight to be more dangerous. Those undead hit really hard and Orcus tanks too much damage so it is easier to get rid of the summons and grandlords first.

SPOILER!

I rush in with 2 warriors to get the focus of orcus and the grandlords.
Then I reposition my other 4 characters and use them to get rid of the other summons.
Gradually my warriors will kill one grandlord and proceed to the next, which is repeated until all are gone. Potions of barbarian essence get used here to keep the warriors alive, but in general they are not enough to keep the warriors alive for the entire fight. I have to use high AC, hardiness, armor of faith and also the "Regeneration" spell (which goes faster with improved haste) to keep them alive. Sometimes I also use a properly protected mage as a distraction, but that goes through the protection scrolls rather quickly and if you time it wrongly and have no stoneskin on, you can say goodbye to the mage.

[Mjolnir88]

SPOILER!

I wound up having the tanks + anomen killing the GLord that spawns next to anomen. Then i moved him in the back with the casters while the 3 tanks took out the remaining summons. I had priority on vampire masters/brides-->GLords-->Lords. Once i had a clear avenue through, i moved the 3 casters to the bottom for resto/wish. Orcus wasnt that bad once they were dead. I wound up using 6 barb essences on the 3 tanks (2 left i believe) and the fight wasnt too bad with 80% (95% for Valygar via FoDW) damage reduction from barb essences + wish hardiness.

All i have left is tree (cleared rest of suldennessalar) + ancient dragon, puzzle & demogorgon in wk5 & 6 and twisted rune. Saving dragon and consequently the rest of WK for TOB so it looks like i get to try out hesperus on shengalar and his goons.

[darkjeshush]

Also 90% of the orcus fight is determined by initial positioning. I don't know if it's fixed in v6 yet but in v5 you can put the sword on the ground outside, position your summons inside first, then go back and pick up the sword. When you zone in with the sword, your summons will be in optimal position for orcus spawns. There's really no need for this cheesy tactic, since you should still have a bunch of (if not all) barbarian essenses available. You won't really need them anywhere else except maybe for the fight vs the fire giant's mom or EDE. I wouldn't mind having one for Conster, but they're not available that early on.

[critto]

You won't really need them anywhere else except maybe for the fight vs the fire giant's mom

You mean Nyalee? Why would you need to spend Barbarian Essence potions there?

[darkjeshush]

lol I've never actually spent one on Nyalee; I've just had a couple of bad experiences with her. It was probably just really bad luck but I've been chunked by a bunch of lowly skeleton lords before with JD/DW and Red Coral equipped. My vagrant could easily stand in the middle of 20 golems and pirates at the oasis and maintain 80% health, but the stars and planets all aligned on two separate occasions to allow 9-12 crappy skeleton lord spawns to put an epic .0001 probability bad beat on me. One of those point-and-laugh or face-in-palm scenarios I guess, depending on which side you're standing on.

[matti]

SPOILER!

The cheesy method of hastily moving characters to Orcus before the cutscene kicks in, and killing Orcus without fighting his minions (the grandlords) is already blocked in IA v6. Now, in v6, it doesn't even matter if you move to Orcus before the grandlords appear, because he can't be killed before them. As long as you are playing v5, try to win the battle in the intended way and wait for the grandlords and kill them before Orcus. In v6, it's all fixed and the cheesy method won't work anyway.

SPOILER!

Doh. False assumption. I mean AFTER the cutscene. Massive attack on Orcus AFTER, not before the cutscene. Watch carefully for your mages protections, watch for your cleric protections very carefully (keep the grandlors away from him), kill Orcus first and then all his minions. It depends on my decision, as a player, who I will attack first, right? Or maybe it's a modder decision who I should attack first? ;]

No cheese at all, especially considering the fact that I sacrificed all (6 or 7, don't remember) my barbarian potions using this tactic, not to mention mass consumption of potions of resurgence.

[Sikret]

@matti

SPOILER!

Of course, it's your choice whom you want to attck first; but attacking Orcus before killing all of the grandlords is a waste of time, because he won't fall (is not intended to fall) as long as his grandlords are around. The battle has never been intended to be won in that way even in previous versions of the mod. It was possible to win the battle in that unintended way in v5, but as I said, it was an exploit which is already blocked and fixed in v6.

[matti]

Heh, I killed him in "canonical" way too. Actually, report from my canonical fight with Orcus was one of my first posts in IA forum.

Anyway, more grandlords, more fun.

[eripmav]

Back to the orc horde topic, there is a relatively easy way to pass this test. However, I doubt it maybe an exploit.

SPOILER!

The only opponents can see through invisibility are the orc mages, so you just need keep killing the mages until there is none, then let all party members drink invisibility potions and wait for the end.