Necromancer/Barbarian journal (Contain Spoilers) + IA Enemy Manual, IA 6.52 + IA Tweaks 1.02 Options

[lroumen]

There are three reasons why your current party is having less problems than any other you might have had in the past.
1. All are warriors
2. Most are mages
3. Most have rages

Rage and mage protections make many disabling sequencers trivial and can counter imprisonment in some of the tough fights.
Being all warriors gives a lot of melee power to get rid of foes very quickly.
So in short, you chose the party well.

I notice from your videos that I generally struggle a whole lot more in my battles because I go with a mix of classes and npcs.

[Dequ]

There are three reasons why your current party is having less problems than any other you might have had in the past.
1. All are warriors
2. Most are mages
3. Most have rages

Yes and it is "illegal/cheated" party. My initial plan is just to get further than last time and then just to finish this mod even once (that is why I need strong party). After that I will use "legal" party/Bioware NPCs party. This run serve also nice learning progress for me.

[lroumen]

You are doing great and I love the reading. I have not had time yet to check the recordings but I will in the future.

Do you plan the npc party in v7?

[Dequ]

You are doing great and I love the reading. I have not had time yet to check the recordings but I will in the future.

Do you plan the npc party in v7?

Yes, but have not chosed which party members. Going to try Inquisitor as protagonist.

[critto]

Inquisitor will not have any added stronghold content, being a paladin class, but you're probably aware of that.

[Dequ]

Inquisitor will not have any added stronghold content, being a paladin class, but you're probably aware of that.

Yes, but maybe Bulian will tweak all those content available for all classes I hope But if new content only exclusive for certain class (Druid), then gonna play on that.

[critto]

The new content is a part of the druid stronghold, yes.

Yes, but maybe Bulian will tweak all those content available for all classes I hope

I might do that eventually, yes.

[lappen]

im really excited on that^^

[Dequ]

Next encounter I will try to beat Ice Golem. Tried few times without too much optimicing and was not succesfull, casted 33 Ray of Fragmentations pretty quickly and managed to drop Ice Golem hp to about 30%, but then could not finish with melee. Need to take use for minor sequencer and Vampiric Touches too. I Read some hints from forum and Potion of Freedom might be key for victory, havent tested yet. Purge Magic every 3 round or so? Pretty easy to bait it with one character.

[Dequ]

Managed to beat Ice Golem easily with Potion of Freedom. Quickly tested Pasha encounter and this will be really interesting. There will be lot of room for many strategies here. Trying to find way to deplete spawns and keep Pasha alive for max profit, but very likely that is not possible right now with pre-spellhold party.

This post has been edited by Dequ: Mar 3 2021, 07:57 PM

[Dequ]

Managed to beat Viper Queen and cleared WK level2. Pasha fight could not figure out yet for good strategies. Will upload videos today or tomorrow.

When I was coming out from Viper Queen dungeon, I encountered really funny bug (first bug so far this run).
https://ibb.co/8gg41DN


Saw this man at the edge of cliff and I was sure he is will try to commit suicide, by taking one step back. I talked to him and even the options 2&3 would have suited well for situation. But this NPC is actually supposed to spawn in De Arnise keep upper level on Fighter Stronghold Quest. For my game, he never spawned there.

[critto]

Which area is this?

[Dequ]

Which area is this?

Windspear hills first dungeon map. Same area as Ruhk Cojurer and Kamikaze Kobolds, but on the left side of map.

[critto]

OK thanks, I'll check it out

[Dequ]

OK thanks, I'll check it out

I don´t think it is Improved Anvil related bug. Even on Vanilla game there is known to be NPCs dublicates/weird stuff happened sometimes. And on my current run I have modified characters, so I wont be suprise if it causes stuff like this.

[Dequ]

7 New videos added on first page! Pretty potent enemies, but they all had some weaknesses to exploit

[Dequ]

WK3 almost done. Have anyone managed to beat Supreme Golem with pre-spellhold party? I tried quickly and got fucked pretty fast.

[Dequ]

Added 12 new videos on first page. Some of these fight had never beat before. Took me almost 1week of planning to beat Guarded Compound upstairs party with good enought tactics.

[Dequ]

Few more fights cleared: Ancient Mage and Pasha encounter. Videos will add later.

I think only things I got left to do are Twisted Rune, Orcus and try seriously Supreme Golem.
It might takes weeks to clear even one of those, might be even that I need to postpone these 3 hard fights for later chapters. I have never been able to beat those in previous runs. But I read on forum, someone have tried/managed/said it is possible, so maybe it is. Few videos I found on 2 of these fights had much higher level character.

Twisted Rune should be doable, but I just need to analyze every single enemy and their actions and counter them.

This post has been edited by Dequ: Mar 17 2021, 07:20 PM

[Dequ]

Twisted Rune notes:

At first this fight seemed overwhelming and it made me feel like postpone is only option, but with patience I am slowly cracking the code.
Found weaknesess of each enemies and found out how they operate in variety of situations and how to counter their abilities.

1. Shangalar and Grave Silence
Take hit on silence only on 1 character.
Cast Buffs before you take hit of it, so there is not even need to cast anything while silenced.
Silence is Shangalar´s first spell, but there is way to separate him and take hit on spell the time when player choose.
We make him stuck on left room using Ring of Ram or Risk Decrement before he cast silence. We can initiate this while he is in middle, projectory will follow and change direction,
Melee attack him when PfMW not active.
Spell Immunity Abjuration important vs remove magic, We can make it last more RRoRs by having spell Shield Turning/Spell Shield and Globe of Invulnerability casted
PfME to counter ADHW, We can use wish spell to get it for all chars and cast it individually for those in need.

2. Vaxall and Improved Anti-Magic Ray
Fist ability that Vaxall uses is Improved Anti-Magic Ray, then he uses it second time on 7th round.
Effect dispel and cause miscast (100%?) on target for 8rounds. Have not found way to prevent getting hit.
But it wont dispel non-disable buffs and miscast wont prevent of casting from sequencers.
So we can prepare nice spells for sequencers (Improved Haste, Protection from Magical Energy, PfMW).
Vaxall is really tanky and low AC. so it takes while to kill him. Critical Hits works excellent, but we have only 1.
Vaxal stays invisible, so non breachable. May cast Absolute Immunity, so then we just have to wait for 4rounds.
Protection from Elements gives some decrees of protection vs Wondrous Strike.
PfME to counter ADHW
Gnasher Club works really really well vs Vaxall.

3.Revanek
He is just a fighter on steroids. He use fighter HLAs and does a lot of attacks.
We can breach him if use hardiness. Stoneskin/PfMW works really well.
Saves too good (Potion of Magic Shielding), so immune for most effects.

4.Shyressa
Vampire and does level drain on hit. We need to protect ourselves vs level drain. Easiest way is to use limited wish, but rages, shield of archons works also.
He cast Hardiness right at the start. That is why we should use breach on him right away when he spawn.
Really high HP regen, so when we want to kill him we need to use hard focus fire.
He is really fast and he will use melee and rush to us, so we dont need to move to him. Less time spend on moving = more time for other actions.

5.Layene
Very dangeourous mage. Use remove magic on 2nd round.
When second round begin and if her Immunity Abjuration not active, she cast Spell Immunity Abjuration instead of remove magic.
if she gets round 3 and cast wish. Then high chance that we have lost the fight.
Start fight as invisible, but we can use True Sight/Seeing to make her visible.
When she visible we need to use 2x Ruby Ray of Reversal and 1x Breach to make her vulnerable for magic.
For that combination we can use limited wish, prepare spell = chain contingecy
Then we need to kill her twice. She can die once/round, so hacking her down takes atleast 1round + part of second round.
Before her second life trigger we can use rest of the round for example killing Shyressa.

We can prebuf and we can pre-cast summons.
Summons can keep enemies busy and with small help even deal with some enemies.
Planetars works quite good.

Right now managed to beat this fight, but still need to optimize things much much more to bring success rate near 100%,
so no-reload challenges would be more possible to beat them. I will record video when I have polished my tactics.