Fighter/Necro solo, please see topic guidelines Options

[blastermaster]

I've seen the 100% magic resistance option (though rarely). I didn't know that works.

I could ride out the Ruby Rays with both Spell Turning and GOI, but wouldn't have any RROR slots left. Killing the F/M with magic seems like a good idea if I can manage it. I just get quickly swarmed, so I'd really have to have a lot of summons at that point, and would have to keep them alive until that point.

My worry, even if I manage to kill the F/M or exhaust them of spells, is that the minor soldiers just spawn constantly, and may block my path to Yaga Shura. We'll see I guess.

Do I have to kill the fire giants when I'm sent back? My plan might just be to PFMW and get out of there. By the way, you can also leave the area mid-battle as well. When you come back, the enemies you left there are waiting for you but the ones you killed remain dead.

[chaser]

Sikret set a trap here:
SPOILER!

the minor soldiers are not infinite,they just a lot…

The only threat in both this battle and oasis battle is there mages,others can't hurt you because of PFMW,so they should be killed first.They are not immune to Imprisonment and Time Stop(only Yaga immune TS),nor do they immune to Smite,so you know what to do…

[Krell]

I've seen the 100% magic resistance option (though rarely). I didn't know that works.

I could ride out the Ruby Rays with both Spell Turning and GOI, but wouldn't have any RROR slots left. Killing the F/M with magic seems like a good idea if I can manage it. I just get quickly swarmed, so I'd really have to have a lot of summons at that point, and would have to keep them alive until that point.

My worry, even if I manage to kill the F/M or exhaust them of spells, is that the minor soldiers just spawn constantly, and may block my path to Yaga Shura. We'll see I guess.

Do I have to kill the fire giants when I'm sent back? My plan might just be to PFMW and get out of there. By the way, you can also leave the area mid-battle as well. When you come back, the enemies you left there are waiting for you but the ones you killed remain dead.

Magic resistance stops Storm of Vengeance.

Focus on the mages in order not to get quickly swarmed. Keeping Alacrity running the whole time up to the point when you kill the last F/M will help you react fast to any threat.

If you worry so much about anyone blocking your path, just cast PFMW and summon something a bit farther away from PC. Almost all enemies (except vanilla soldiers armed with normal weapons) will head to the summon. Another option is Teleport Field.

No, you don't have to kill the fire giants when you get back, but you do wanna loot the battlefield, right? That won't happen with the 5 giants on your tail. Plus they also carry gold. The most dangerous thing however is not dying to their attack before being able to react with PFMW. That's why I said a scroll just ain't good since it requires time to kick in. A PFMW memorized or one in a Trigger will however do just fine.

BTW I didn't know you can leave the area mid-battle. Probably it's worth killing a mage, running away and returning later with a full spellbook.

[blastermaster]

Imprisonment was brilliant. Got the first two of those Fighter-Mages out of the way. Smite and one Comet got me some mobility, but I goofed and hit the second cleric with it. Had to follow him into the NW corner of the map. Third cleric spawned right next to him and was able to get Storm of Vengeance off. But at this point, I was hemmed in by soldiers and assassins, which actually insulated me from the fire giants. So I was able to get the F/M to run out of Breaches on Stoneskins. He did surprise me with a Comet though :-) After that, it was just a matter of killing the (non-endless!) waves of soldiers, then the fire giants, then Yaga Shura. Wasted a ton of scrolls on this, but having saved Barbarian Essence potions for EDE makes it seem worthwhile.

Spent a few rounds hitting Yaga with Crom, forgot he was more resistant to crushing. Jhor worked well as usual, and actually helped a ton when I was burning scrolls because most 1 damage "bleeding" would cause him to pause as he pursued me. This gave me a bit of breathing room to cast the scroll without being hit by him, which is super helpful because best case it wastes a full round, worst case he traps you.

I ended up making a ton of mistakes, but in fact the most crucial part to be mistake-free was the very beginning. Having your first PFMW (after Yaga disappears) expire in the middle of your first Alacrity was the entire key. I tried this battle maybe 9 times before I figured out how to time that right (they were over quickly when I got it wrong).

[blastermaster]

Does Sendai have some kind of Thac0-lowering ability? I was whiffing a ton on her and noticed my Thac0 was at -4 at some point (it's usually around -15 or so).

Regardless, she's done and it's just the dragons and then EDE.

[Krell]

I finally caught up with your run, currently at the Abazigal's lair.

Draconis cannot be defeated by a solo character in fair melee. However, once he transforms:

Spellstrike (Draconis often gives the unremovable spell shield bug while in Dragon form)
3*Lower Resistance
Greater Malison
18*Flame Arrow (plus one from the djinni)
11*Magic Missile
and eventually 7 ADHW spells but usually it doesn't come to that.

Draconis is immune to Remove Magic. Any attempt to waste all of his combat protections while in human form fails miserably, he saves a couple PFMW and a lot of stoneskins for the dragon form. Even saves his trigger.

Agannazer's scorcher unfortunately cannot be stacked under Alacrity, and Draconis is naturally immune to cold, lightning and acid. Respectivelly he has no fire offensive spells. Haven't seen cold or electrical spells as well.

The best weapons vs Draconis are Angurvadal +5 and Foebane +5.

Potion of Invisibility quaffed in the beginning of the fight and quickly running away and casting Alacrity helps erect initial buffs. Include Spell Turning in contingencied spells or perish to Larloch's interrupter when Draconis catches up with you.

Hopefully that helps you blastermaster.

BTW I had some trouble with the *simple* battle vs Gromnir. Had to test it several times before it worked. Did you have any problems with multiple RRoR from Karun the Black under alacrity?

As for the Oasis and the Yaga-shura fights, very easy from my perspective (then again my char is a lot different), however here are several insights of my own that could help you refine strategies if you want to:

Battlemages/Elite Bodyguards vulnerable to Flame Arrow as well. Low magic resistance, one Lower Resist is enough.

Summoning something cheap (Spider Spawn) under Alacrity and PFMW a bit further from the surrounded PC has an amazing effect of all enemies switching to the unprotected target thus leaving PC to roam freely and hopefully reach the next enemy mage.After all, even Imprisonment has to make contact.

Best weapon vs Yaga - Poseidon's Wrath, can be done even without Greater Whirlwind attacks by simply switching form to Spider via the Polymorph self spell and using a Shocking Grasp (minor sequencer, spell scroll) afterwards to get rid of the spidery claws. A potion of Fire Giant str (+Girdle of Lordly Might) fixes the str issue and once there are no mages around, the spider form is immune to all attacks as long as PC continues using PFMW scrolls. A trigger can be used to refresh Improved Haste + PFMW as well whenever needed. 9 APR with Poseidon's wrath at 25 str on a regular basis - scarier than Hammer of Thor IMO.

Best tactic vs Tombelten (in order to save some PFMW scrolls) - kill everyone around him first with Criticals, then do the hit-and-run tactic - hit Tombelten until he erects a Hardiness then run around until it wanes. Standing bravely face to face with him will cost probably 5 or 6 more PFMW scrolls.

Illasera immune to Breach, seems to have forgotten that, her protections has to be waited out, killing Skeleton Grandlords in the meantime. Illasera has no Breach scrolls so no need to keep up SI:A after her casters die.

[blastermaster]

Bah, wrote out a long response but it didn't submit right.

What do you mean Draconis can't be killed fairly? I was planning to do magic on his dragon form, glad that seems to work.

For Gromnir, I forget if I killed the 3 warriors near the stairs, or the other mage (not Karun) first. I switched back and forth in a couple of tests. I don't think I tried to keep spell protections up against Karun. I remember his alacrity being more oriented towards offensive spells (he was raining ADHW on me I think). I am finding with most mages, if there's just one or two of them then I will let them run out of Breaches on my Stoneskins (9 in level 4 spell slots, and usually a 10th in Spell Sequencer) and then start using PFMW. It just seems easier than trying to make them run out of Ruby Rays AND remembering about when my SI:Abjuration will expire so that I can refresh it immediately. The one exception to this has been Odamaron, who casts Imprisonment. Since I have no defense against that, I need to run him out of RRoR, and I actually re-cast SI:Abjuration before the prior one expires, just to make sure I have no gap in coverage.

[Krell]

Well, I mean, you cannot slaughter Draconis in melee, you have to use magic at his dragon form.

Just beat his father five times in a row. Tactic is sound, more or less the same. Azi is running PFME, has to be Breached first in order for Magic Missiles and ADHW spells to work. I guess you won't have trouble, being able to memorize several Comets. There is an interruption sequence after Azi transforms, wait for the message "combat and spell protections dispelled" then cast Alacrity. Beware, a Salamander Prince will teleport next to you. Still, your win should be much easier than mine because I had to time everything precisely in order not to be Silenced. Don't load Spell Triger with Lower resistance, cast those manually, you need every Flame Arrow you can muster. I went with Wondrous Gloves, Dak'Kon zerth blade (which worsened my combat skills vs Az's human form) and the Ring of Acuity.

Acid Arrows work against Azi, yet he has a bit more hp than his son.

I suspect you will have more problems vs Azi's human form, he's a coward just like Odamaron and Karun.

[blastermaster]

Draconis went as planned. Interestingly, the first time I went with just Spellstrike, he cast Spell Turning amidst my Lower Resistances and Greater Malaisons. And then NONE of my fire arrows or magic missiles made it through (I'd have expected some of them to get through after the Spell Turning ran out of spell levels to reflect). The next time, I did Spellstrike and a handful of Ruby Rays (I had two RVEs giving me Mental Agility), and no such issues. 16 Flame Arrows and maybe the first 5 Magic Missiles did the job in its entirety.

Difficulty mods for this game need some way to see what buffs and spells are active on enemies, like if you hovered over them or something. You're suppose to scroll up and follow some kind of logic chain but half the spell protections don't work like they're supposed to. Bleh.

[blastermaster]

No issues with Abazigal. Took every single Flame Arrow (16), Acid Arrow (11) and Magic Missile (9) and he died on the last one. Though he was about to start getting ADHW to the face if that didn't do it.

[Krell]

Spell Turning issues watched in my own game. Seems like IA v6 Spell Turning actually will absorb (not reflect) any number of targeted spells for the duration.

Bug with the Grandfather of Assassins +5 noticed as well, description says 3 Assassinations per day, actually got only 1. Edit: Strange, it now has 3 charges. Probably right after upgrading from the +4 version it has one? Not sure really.

This post has been edited by Krell: Jun 2 2015, 08:22 AM

[critto]

Spell Turning issues watched in my own game. Seems like IA v6 Spell Turning actually will absorb (not reflect) any number of targeted spells for the duration.

What do you mean by that? A standard opcode (#200) is used for implementation.

Bug with the Grandfather of Assassins +5 noticed as well, description says 3 Assassinations per day, actually got only 1.

This is strange. In the resource file, it definitely has 3 charges. I'll check it out. EDIT: checked, it has three charges.

This post has been edited by critto: Jun 2 2015, 08:19 AM

[Krell]

Spell Turning issues watched in my own game. Seems like IA v6 Spell Turning actually will absorb (not reflect) any number of targeted spells for the duration.

What do you mean by that? A standard opcode (#200) is used for implementation.

Noticed on several occasions: when my own character is under Spell Turning and an enemy activates CC: triple Finger of Death, all of the Fingers are absorbed by the Spell Turning, it stays active, and also the Fingers of Death do not rebound to their original caster.

[critto]

I will check it out when I get the chance to do some playtesting.

[blastermaster]

I too have never noticed spells being actually reflected. And as mentioned above, one copy of it was able to absorb something like 40 levels of spells (flame arrows and magic missiles). Though maybe related to the dragon spell protections bug.

[blastermaster]

Also one other thing I guess, if you're investigating bugs, is that Spell Shield uses the Protection from Magic Energy symbol on one's character portrait. I believe there is an actual Spell Shield symbol that can be used (it's kind of moon-shaped).

[critto]

OK, we'll investigate both issues.

[blastermaster]

Thanks for looking into it!

As for the final battle, I did one quick test at around 125% physical resist and it was not sufficient. Ultra golems strike purely electricity, I think, so there's basically no defense against that since they also lower electrical resistance.

I think my plan would be to RVE-rest a few times to summon up a handful of noble djinni and other powerful summons, and then split them - half on the Northwest Ultra, half on the Prince, and Pasha on the Southeast Ultra. Supposedly he can kill it himself, though in my prior experience I've felt like I had to heal him. In this case, I'd need to have a Planetar and Farsight to heal him.

I'd begin by going after the Supreme Elemental, who would take a while to kill, and then the elementals he spawns. I'd kill some Gem/Coin Golems but would leave a few to live so they could beat on me and restore my HP for the remainder of the battle until I'm out of barbarian essence potions. Would need to be able to move though, so they couldn't completely surround me.

[Krell]

Thanks for looking into it!

As for the final battle, I did one quick test at around 125% physical resist and it was not sufficient. Ultra golems strike purely electricity, I think, so there's basically no defense against that since they also lower electrical resistance.

I think my plan would be to RVE-rest a few times to summon up a handful of noble djinni and other powerful summons, and then split them - half on the Northwest Ultra, half on the Prince, and Pasha on the Southeast Ultra. Supposedly he can kill it himself, though in my prior experience I've felt like I had to heal him. In this case, I'd need to have a Planetar and Farsight to heal him.

I'd begin by going after the Supreme Elemental, who would take a while to kill, and then the elementals he spawns. I'd kill some Gem/Coin Golems but would leave a few to live so they could beat on me and restore my HP for the remainder of the battle until I'm out of barbarian essence potions. Would need to be able to move though, so they couldn't completely surround me.

Be careful. When you're alone with the Prince he will lower your physical resistances as well.

You can RVE-rest just once. After that you need normal rest. Never seen RVE-rest option showing twice. Use normal Wish-Rest instead.

[blastermaster]

It looks like he does that physical resist lowering *every time* he hits (well, with some probability, I can't quite tell whether it's 100% of the time, 86%, or 14%). I don't see how it would only happen when you're alone with him though.

By then however, I expect to be out of potions anyways and just running on PFMW and AI scrolls if they'll last a few rounds.

I am not sure I can win this thing but it seems dumb not to try, considering I saved all of these barbarian essence potions and got this far :-)