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A:EftP - Is a No Magic Playthrough Possible?


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I'm nearing the end of my Hard-Mode file on Avernum, and as the title suggests, an idea for an unusual challenge party occurred to me. Specifically, would it be possible to complete the game without ever casting any spells? I may not get to this for a while, and those of you much better at the game can feel free to attempt this, but I have thought a little bit about some of the issues.

 

Healing:

In the absence of spells, items would be the only source of in-battle healing. This would mean I would have to very carefully manage my money as well as my supplies, and thus would require me to run out of dungeons a number of times. Thankfully, walking around outdoors heals you, so I would not have to run all the way back to town--I'd just need to step out for some fresh air, as it were.

 

One issue I'm worried about is limited stock. Am I right in understanding that stores never replenish their supplies? More specifically--are there a limited number of Return Life scrolls in the game? I know I can, with enough Cave Lore, "farm" for all the potions I'll need, but can you make Return Life scrolls?

 

Mental effects also worry me. As far as I know there aren't any items that cure Stun, Terror, or Charm, and outside of spending skill points for the sole purpose of increasing mental resistance, I don't see a way around this.

 

Additionally, I forget the location, but there is a town in which you can ask a woman to give you some food, and she'll give you a free kebob. She shows no signs of stopping when I tried it again and again. So, I could have each character carry a massive amount of kebobs that they could heal themselves with between fights.

 

Barriers:

As I've already heard, there are enough piercing crystals that you don't need Dispel Barrier Level 3, although you do miss out on some cool stuff. So I should be okay on this front.

 

Wards/Cloaks:

These can be supplied by scrolls, but also received for free at certain towns(Castle's altar, Fort Emerald's emerald). As well, since I don't ever need to rest in town, I can keep the cloak until I need a quest reward and/or to sell something.

 

Dealing Different Damage Types:

 

This is the main thing keeping me from starting this. I am particularly concerned about how I'd get around an "Ironward" foe, which are not common but show up now and then.

 

A big question I'd want to know going in is if there is any way to improve a character's proficiency with Wands. Whenever I've used them, they essentially seem to do very little damage and have a very low accuracy rate. Is there any stat that improves either the damage or hit chance of a wand? Please let me know on this one.

 

Otherwise, my only real option is to get a Flame Sword to fight these guys, and there may be a bow that inflicts magical damage. That might allow me to whittle them down in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Party Makeup:

 

I am thinking that there likely aren't enough decent swords to go around for everyone to dual wield, so one character at least will have to use a spear. I would also be interested to hear people's thoughts on archers--my feeling is that I should have at least one ranged damage dealer, although I know the damage output of pure archers is fairly low. What do you all think?

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Some weapons will do damage other than physical like the flaming sword and there is a bow for lightning damage. This will help with foes that are highly resistant to physical damage. But prepare for long fights and burning up lots of healing potions. I did some as a singleton using the least efficient attack type and it took forever.

 

An archer is useful for places where everyone can't get into melee.

 

You can save the best wands, lightning and inferno for the later part of the game when they are still effective.

 

Return Life scrolls are limited.

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I meant to say without Priest Spells, too. Yeah, I am worried that it would require too much tedium--I may do it on a lower difficulty just for the sake of my sanity. I will probably also buy First Aid skills at the trainer--perhaps not the most cost-effective investment, but it could save on some time.

 

I may just abandon this idea and do a regular Torment file next. But it might be worth trying.

 

By the way, does anyone else remember the "free food" place I mentioned? It might have been Fort Remote.

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One issue I'm worried about is limited stock. Am I right in understanding that stores never replenish their supplies? More specifically--are there a limited number of Return Life scrolls in the game? I know I can, with enough Cave Lore, "farm" for all the potions I'll need, but can you make Return Life scrolls?

 

Stores that only have a limited stock of every item they carry (in other words, every item for sale has a quantity next to it) will restock, but only if you completely buy them out of everything. For example, the Slith Village right by the entrance to the Waterfall warren that sells piercing crystals among other things will restock. If you happen to run out of piercing crystals and need more (see below), this is an (expensive) option.

 

Barriers:

As I've already heard, there are enough piercing crystals that you don't need Dispel Barrier Level 3, although you do miss out on some cool stuff. So I should be okay on this front.

Yes, there are enough to open every barrier that you need to open, however there are not enough that you can just open every level 1 and 2 barrier you encounter (unless you resort to the expensive trick above). You need to plan ahead and figure out which barriers you need/want to open, and make sure you save enough crystals for those. Since you are not using any spells, you can skip all of the barriers that just have spell books behind them.

 

Wards/Cloaks:

These can be supplied by scrolls, but also received for free at certain towns(Castle's altar, Fort Emerald's emerald). As well, since I don't ever need to rest in town, I can keep the cloak until I need a quest reward and/or to sell something.

One thing to note is that these only give level 1 of the ward/cloak. Certainly better than nothing, but level 3 gives a nice bonus over level 1.

 

A big question I'd want to know going in is if there is any way to improve a character's proficiency with Wands. Whenever I've used them, they essentially seem to do very little damage and have a very low accuracy rate. Is there any stat that improves either the damage or hit chance of a wand? Please let me know on this one.

I don't think there is, no ...

 

Party Makeup:

 

I am thinking that there likely aren't enough decent swords to go around for everyone to dual wield, so one character at least will have to use a spear. I would also be interested to hear people's thoughts on archers--my feeling is that I should have at least one ranged damage dealer, although I know the damage output of pure archers is fairly low. What do you all think?

If I was trying this, I'd go with one or two archers, and two or three dual-wielding sword fighters. I know there are enough swords to equip 4 good ones, having done it, and there might be enough for three. I'd choose an archer over a pole fighter ... But I've always been a defender of archers, and not everyone shares my assessment of them. :)

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I meant to say without Priest Spells, too. Yeah, I am worried that it would require too much tedium--I may do it on a lower difficulty just for the sake of my sanity. I will probably also buy First Aid skills at the trainer--perhaps not the most cost-effective investment, but it could save on some time.

Since you won't have to buy any spells, you'll probably have a surplus of cash, so this shouldn't be a problem.

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Hmm. I may just attempt a regular Torment file. The only thing really holding me back are the Steelward enemies. While healing out of battle may be tedious, my feeling is that it would only be tedious for some of the game--once I get everyone 2 points of First Aid from the trainer, I should be able to fight a number of battles without needing to run outside for healing.

 

But Steelward foes don't seem worth the trouble. Even if I get the Flaming Sword and Lightning-damage bow as early as possible, they will still be highly resistant to my attacks, and thus it will be a boring grindfest of chip damage that could take hours. I could use wands, but with the exception of the very powerful ones, I don't see that significantly increasing my damage output against these kinds of guys. Maybe if the game had more magical melee weapons/bows this would be more doable, but I think if I do this at all, I'll save it for much later.

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But Steelward foes don't seem worth the trouble. Even if I get the Flaming Sword and Lightning-damage bow as early as possible, they will still be highly resistant to my attacks, and thus it will be a boring grindfest of chip damage that could take hours. I could use wands, but with the exception of the very powerful ones, I don't see that significantly increasing my damage output against these kinds of guys. Maybe if the game had more magical melee weapons/bows this would be more doable, but I think if I do this at all, I'll save it for much later.

I may be misremember-ating, but I don't think there were many physical resistant foes. A few yes, but not a lot ...

 

Seems like you could save up the most powerful wands for those battles.

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Ah, you know, I was just thinking that I might not HAVE to fight all those physical resistant guys. The Hawthorne quest has the Gazer on the way, but using the secret door allows you to completely avoid that fight. So that works. The Haakai Lord is still pretty vulnerable to Demonslayer, so that shouldn't be any more of a pain than any other fight.

 

As for Grah-Hoth...well...to be perfectly honest on my most recently completed file I should aimed all my attacks at him, then fled the castle after he was dead without taking out all of his pets. The teleport spell was involved, and only one character at 65-70% health managed to make it out, but still. It's at least concievable. That only leaves the boss fight of Final Gauntlet, and I'm sure I can find some way around those.

 

Ok, I think I'll actually try this. I'll just start a Torment file alongside it in case I get fed up. The only question now is difficulty. There's no way I'm attempting this on Torment, so it is really just a question of Hard or Normal.

 

I'm thinking 2 dual-wielders for swords, 1 spearman, 1 archer. With a heavy emphasis on tanking for all of them.

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Progress so far:

 

Decided on doing it on Hard Mode.

 

Everybody is currently between levels 9-10, and I've just got myself a Crown Token for the nephilim necklace quest. It has been tough going, but so far this is far more doable than I expected. I've bought 3 levels of Cave Lore from Vemeers, which has allowed me to make use of the healing herbs patch near the Bandit Lair, and more recently the one in by Silvar, now that I scored some Almarian Wine from the nephil fort. They don't spawn nearly quickly enough for my tastes, but I essentially get a free healing potion from each of them when they're ready. I can also buy potions, and since my money isn't tied up in spells, I can buy a LOT of them. Formello has a SEEMINGLY endless supply--the store claims to have 10 potions but restocks when sold out, and if I recall correctly will do so for quite some time until he "really" runs out--and by being fairly miserly with my supplies (I try to save the potions for battles that are difficult) and grabbing and hoarding every food item I come across, I've been managing.

 

Some interesting things:

 

-Poison is annoying. Sweet JESUS poison is annoying. Particularly since most of the nephils seem to come equipped with an area of effect poisoning attack...it's a bad scene for any party in the early game, but when it consumes a non-renewable resource, and they do it every turn, and seem to constantly get criticals...let's say I'll be glad when I'm high enough level that poison doesn't matter.

 

-I will be extremely happy when my fighters stop missing their crucial killing hits. It's not happening often, but man, I had forgotten how annoying missing was in the early game.

 

-Death, most of the time, is merely inconvenient. It means I have to return to a town, but it RARELY means that I've lost the fight. And I think I know why: most normal parties are created with synergy in mind. Each character is part of a whole strategy, and thus certain characters, when taken out, cause the strategy to fall apart. Think about what happens when they take your priest or your tank out--unless you can revive right away, the rest of the party will follow. Here though, no party member serves any crucial function, so a death merely means a small reduction in overall damage output and one less target to spread attacks out for. Thus, I've won a few major fights fairly comfortably even when they focus fire and take a guy out on the first turn.

 

My plans now are to try and make my way down to the Tower of Magi solely for the purpose of activating the portal. Then, I will use a boat to make an early trip to Bargha, so that I can buy some First Aid skills from the trainer--if I haven't misread the map, I can go west of Fort Dranlon and then north and find myself in the Giant Caverns. I don't expect to survive any outdoor combat engagements, but I think I SHOULD be able to avoid them for long enough to get into the city. Then, I'll just teleport home and resume doing quests in the Northern parts of Avernum. I can always come back for the boat later. I've held off on a few quests until I can do this, as it will mean I can more easily "commit" to a dungeon.

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Thanks for setting me straight on Bargha guys...it would have been a bit of a pain to sneak around the giants on the way to the city only to be curbstomped a few inches from the gate.

 

The investment will pay off more later in the game, I'm thinking, especially when I attempt dungeons like the Spiral Pit. The minimal amount I've bought did help with the Ancient Crypt quest (where you get sealed inside). Worth noting, if anyone attempts this, that you need a Tool Use of 5 to get into Bargha's portal. Not fun to make that trip a second time.

 

Though dungeon endurance isn't my main problem currently. I'm at that crucial point in the game where there are precious few level appropriate encounters, so I'm dying a lot, treading lightly, doing dungeons in little pieces just to gain experience.

 

Rather important question: Is there any place in the game where I can get a Ward of Thoughts? All I've been able to find so far is a spring for Cloak of Curses and Cloak of the Arcane, and none of my items can give me one. And I am getting a weeeeeeeeee bit annoyed at being perma-dazed when fighting Aranea.

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The Ward of Thoughts pool is indeed in the Honeycomb, but I managed to beat the Hivequeen or whatever its called without it anyway. It may be useful to have for some later fights, but I'm thinking my best bet is to just buy 2 points of Arcane Lore for everyone when I meet Erika.

 

More detailed update to come. But the short of it is I've managed to defeat some rather difficult bosses.

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Progress Update:

 

Everyone is now around Level 20. I've beaten the Ogre Mage, Rescue a Spider, Spiral Pit, and two of the island Slith Fort quests, as well as a bunch of random other quests. My next main goal is to start seeking out Demonslayer pieces, and then to follow up with the Hakkai Lord quest, once I've gotten rid of some of the easier quests waiting on my list.

 

I've got easy access to all the herb patches I'll need for the next little while--there's a couple of areas that I don't feel comfortable wandering around in, but otherwise I've got a steady cashflow and a steady influx of herbs for potion making.

 

It turns out Fort Remote, prior to its destruction, yields an unlimited supply of free kebobs if you talk to the cook. Thankfully, I've got the ipad version, so I was able to mindlessly poke at the screen for a half hour or so while watching TV and get 400 kebabs -- 100 for each character. This, combined with a group total First Aid of 9(8 bought, 1 as a quest reward) means that potions are now exclusively used for healing during battle.

 

Stat-wise, everyone is getting nice and durable. My two dual-wielders and my spearlady are either at or just a level away from having Parry and Hardiness maxed out, and my archer has 12 base Gymnastics thanks to a trainer. Everyone is also able to use Adrenaline Rush, which helps immensely with survivability--less targets attacking you. I'm going to try holding off on buying extra Parry and Hardiness levels until I can do as many Freehold quests as possible, since the trainer there lowers his prices for each one. (Though I forget if he does Parry.)

 

Two guys in the group took Negotiator as a Trait, so I'm hoping to eventually give EVERY character 2 points of Resistance, Arcane Lore(for mental resistance), Hardiness, and Gymnastics. I may be able to improve even more stats, depending upon how many scrolls and potions and stuff I end up needing for some of the bigger quests. I've managed to get by with only using (I think) two Return Life scrolls, so far.

 

Interesting little bug I've noticed: If a foe is Immobile or Ensnared for only one turn, they have effectively resisted the staus effect. Meaning, if I use Flawless Shot on someone and inflict a turn of Ensnarement on them, they won't ACTUALLY be Ensnared--they recover from it immediately at the start of their next move and are free to walk wherever they want. Which is a bit of a shame.

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Interesting little bug I've noticed: If a foe is Immobile or Ensnared for only one turn, they have effectively resisted the staus effect. Meaning, if I use Flawless Shot on someone and inflict a turn of Ensnarement on them, they won't ACTUALLY be Ensnared--they recover from it immediately at the start of their next move and are free to walk wherever they want. Which is a bit of a shame.

Yes, that is annoying - it makes status-inflicting attacks much less useful. Which is a bummer.

 

It sounds like having all four melee/bow fighters with adrenaline rush can partially serve the same purpose as magic users with AOE attacks, in that it allows you to thin out large groups of enemies quickly?

 

Thanks for posting the update - I look forward to hearing more about your progress!

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Yeah, essentially the purpose of adrenaline rush is to allow me to eliminate either 1-2 strong foes or a large number of weaker ones before they get a chance to take any actions. Focus firing(focus stabbing?) is pretty important for a party like this, since you need to reduce the overall damage output of enemies very fast.

 

I just went through the Crypt of Drath, but had to retreat once I reached Drath himself. I took out his cronies pretty easily by just luring them into the nearby room with his Spellbooks. But even by himself he just did way too much damage--I might have been able to pull it off, but it would have cost too many Return Life scrolls, and I'm working very hard to save those. So I am going to attempt one of two things -- I will either go ahead and buy 2 levels of Resistance for everyone, or buy another level or two of Cave Lore so I can use the Mandrake patch and make some invincibility potions. Though in theory I should wait on getting Resistance until I can get it cheaper in Gnass, I can afford all but 1 point right now from Ethridge.

 

If I recall correctly, all Drath drops is a super good spellcaster cloak, which I can't really make use of. So, shameful as it may be, it may be more cost effective to let him run once he tries to. But I still can't even get him to that point, so I'm going to need to stock up on supplies before I try to beat him again.

 

By the way, is there any way to get Drath to move to the edge of his platform? If at all possible, I'd like to avoid using a Piercing Crystal in this fight, but I do absolutely need my melee fighters, since he can take out the archer pretty easily if she's the only one hitting him. I'm slightly concerned that I may have to buy out one of the merchants that sell piercing crystals...I inadvertently saved after using a crystal on a non-crucial door in the crypt.

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So I am going to attempt one of two things -- I will either go ahead and buy 2 levels of Resistance for everyone, or buy another level or two of Cave Lore so I can use the Mandrake patch and make some invincibility potions. Though in theory I should wait on getting Resistance until I can get it cheaper in Gnass, I can afford all but 1 point right now from Ethridge.

 

Regardless of how you handle Drath, I'd recommend getting Cave Lore up to 10 or 11 - it does pay off in the long run:

 

http://spiderwebforu...e-of-cave-lore/

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Success! Drath was defeated...and fully defeated, too! No running away. Though I had to use a crystal in order to drink from the basins, they were definitely worth it. I got Drath down to "flee mode" without taking any lasting damage, thanks to that long lasting invincibility. It got a little dicey at the end -- only 2 of my party members survived, and one of them only made it by the skin of his teeth. But as I said before, this is more common that you'd think.

 

Now, with Demonslayer in hand, I'm turning my attention towards the Hakkai Lord, once I've replenished my supplies. I always found Drath to be far more challenging than Adze-Hakkai on previous files...let's see if that bears out.

 

I did buy the 2 levels of Resistance for SOME of my characters, and I'm thinking that now that I can take full advantage of it, I'll buy the rest of the Cave Lore too.

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The Hakkai Lord is dead. It became clear after the first few tries, however, that this fight is not doable without any defense against mental effects. I can't cure them, of course, but I can increase my resistance.

 

So I went and quickly grabbed the Orb of Thralni (if you know where you're going, you can get it without even fighting anything), did the Old Crone quest to ease up the way into Erika's Tower, then used the Orb to fly over to her tower. After all this, for the grand cost of 6400 gold, each character got 2 Arcane Lore. This meant I could almost always resist being charmed, and at least some of the characters would resist Terror. A tough fight, but doable. It did cost me 2 Return Life scrolls, but eh.

 

Oh, and you pretty much need to be Enlightened like, all the time. The added 20% Mental Resistance is REALLY important.

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Yeah, the Giants worry me. I have gotten my feet wet, so to speak, by fighting some giants in outdoor combat. But when they are in high numbers, they're a real problem. This is one of the issues with not having an AoE spell--I can't deal easily with very large groups. For example, I haven't been able to deal with the Giant encounter right outside Bargha yet. (At least, not without burning through an unreasonable number of resources) The castle might be a bit more manageable, as I can use hit and run tactics to chip away at their numbers and try luring them into smaller spaces.

 

But before this, I'm going to attempt some other stuff. I never did kill that Slith fort north of Fort Emerald...you have to break a barrier to get inside, so I wasn't going to bother with it. But I need money and it is the goal of two quests, so I figure it's probably worthwhile. I'm also thinking I may go after the Chasm Drake...it has Smite, which will help nicely with my spear fighter.

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Well, I beat The Chasm Drake and then afterwards the Giant Chief. Each boss was not an immense challenge, simply because it is very easy to lure all the cronies out of the room before the boss notices you for each guy--their lairs have multiple entrances. I had to let a guy die in each fight--when I saw I was winning, I felt it wasn't worth the potions to keep the guy alive--but they were bothpretty doable. I just focused on killing them as fast as possible, before I took too much damage from the fire spurters/the stomps.

 

Next on my list is either Ss-Thss or Pyrog. I'm leaning towards the Slith king, as this will give me access to a cheaper trainer for Resistance, which will undoubtedly be helpful for the Pyrog fight. Everyone has reached level 30...I can't take screenshots on the iPad, but I will at a later time copy out their stats, since they won't be changing much from now on.

 

Also, I haven't noticed, but has anyone done a thread listing the various recipes for potions? If not, I'm willing to do it. Different alchemists make different things, and even when they make the same things, want different herbs. Incidentally, never have the Dharmon witch make invincibility potions for you--the guy in Patrick's Tower does it for half the herbs.

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End Game Party Stats

 

I know that some of these are probably not ideal. I'm not perfect at this game. But it should give you a general sense of what to aim for--the team has worked so far, if nothing else.

 

Leo the Brawler

Level: 31

STR: 25 (+5)

DEX: 10

INT: 9

END: 27 (+7)

Health: 377

 

Combat Stats:

Melee Weapons: 15

Hardiness: 12

Blademaster: 10 (+8)

Parry: 12

Quick Action: 7

Dual Wielding: 6 (+1)

Lethal Blow: 7

 

Magic/Misc Stats:

Arcane Lore: 2

Resistance: 2

Cave Lore: 4

First Aid: 3

 

Traits:

Improved Strength x 5

Improved Endurance x 5

Sure Hand x 1

Ambidextrous x 1

Good Health x 1

Robust Health x 1

Drath's Knowledge x 1

 

Brauner the Swordsman

Level: 31

STR: 25 (+9)

DEX: 10

INT: 9

END: 27 (+5)

Health: 352

Combat Skills:

Melee Weapons: 15

Hardiness: 12

Blademaster: 10

Parry: 12

Quick Action: 7 (+1)

Dual Wielding: 5

Lethal Blow: 7 (+1)

 

Magic/Misc Stats:

Arcane Lore: 2

Tool Use: 3

Cave Lore: 2

First Aid: 2

 

Traits:

Improved Strength x 5

Improved Endurance x 5

Sure Hand x 1

Parry Mastery x 2

Ambidextrous x 1

Good Health x 1

Negotiator x 1

Drath's Knowledge x 1

 

Charlotte the Amazon

Level: 31

STR: 26 (+3)

DEX: 10

INT: 9

END: 26 (+5)

Health: 330

 

Combat Skills:

Pole Weapons: 15

Hardiness: 12

Blademaster: 8

Parry: 12

Quick Action: 9

Lethal Blow: 9

 

Magic/Misc Skills:

Arcane Lore: 2

First Aid: 2 (+1)

Tool Use: 2

Cave Lore: 2

 

Traits:

Improved Strength x 4

Improved Endurance x 5

Sure Hand x 1

Parry Mastery x 2

Backstab x 3

Negotiator x 1

 

Diana the Huntress

Level: 32

STR: 10(-2)

DEX: 33(+7)

INT: 10

END: 19(+8)

Health: 315

 

Combat Skills:

Bows: 15(+3)

Hardiness: 2

Sharpshooter: 10

Gymnastics: 12(+3)

Quick Action: 0(+5)

Lethal Blow: 10(+3)

Sniper: 7 (+2)

 

Magic/Misc Skills:

Arcane Lore: 2

Resistance: 2

First Aid: 2

Cave Lore: 3

Tool Use: 5

Luck: 5(+2)

 

Traits:

Improved Dexterity x 5

Improved Endurance x 5

Deadeye x 1

Sure Aim x 3

Good Fortune x 1

Great Fortune x 1

 

Leo and Brauner are essentially the same guy, with the slight exception of their equipment. Both are tanks, but Leo, as the first member of the party, is slightly more defensive, while Brauner is slightly more offensive. Brauner is my Demonslayer guy, though right now I've got it in the quick use slot and have him use other swords. I am debating having Brauner wield Demonslayer all the time for the armor and resistance bonuses(more important that usual since there's no priest), but so far this set up has been working. When I face Grah-Hoth, I will probably give Brauner the +8 Blademaster sword to maximize my damage output.

 

Charlotte, now that she has Smite and Quicksilver Sandals, has a damage output that roughly equals my dual-wielders. I didn't want Backstab on everyone, as it is actually sort of hard to set up in certain situations. But it is useful enough on Charlotte. Diana uses the Quicksilver Chainmail but no other Quicksilver items--the idea is that if Gymnastics kicks in AT ALL, I get 2 shots, and on the rare occasions that it doesn't, Sniper provides the second shot. Diana's Luck is a what I like to call "Archer's Hardiness"--it's not as big a bonus, but since she almost never gets hit, she doesn't need as much of one.

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Progress Update:

 

A small update this time. I have killed Sss-Thss. To be frank, it was actually kind of easy. Most of the soldiers inflict physical damage, and this party is well equipped to deal with that particular kind of damage. It is basically a party of four tanks, after all. This, combined with Adrenaline Rush, means that even his "berserker swing" that he starts doing at low health wasn't really a problem. I'm not sure I even had to use any healing items. I cut through everyone in that throne room like a hot knife through butter...and now I'm hungry. Mmm...butter.

 

Not on its own, mind you. I'm not an animal. Ahem.

 

Also, I have faced my first Ironward foes. The entrance to Khoth's Lair is guarded by a Runewarded Golem, 2 Ironwarded Golems, and 1 plain-old normal Golem(I guess Khoth had budget issues and had to cut corners on his 4th golem). The fire sword and lightning bow, combined with the fact that the golems aren't actually IMMUNE to physical damage, meant that the fight didn't really take long at all, considering.

 

Grah-Hoth is next. I'm REALLY worried about this one...he's a toughy, and those summons don't help the situation. My current plan is to have my archer hit the secret switch right off the bat and then stand in the doorway while everyone else Adrenaline Rushes the bajeesus out of Grah-Hoth before the summons overwhelm them. At that point, my archer will valiantly abandon her friends and run out the door, with her proverbial tail between her legs.

 

Plan B involves copius amounts of Invulnerability potions. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Grah-Hoth isn't bad at the start because only his demon summons can hit in the first few rounds. The problem is later when the gazers are there to heal the others.

 

 

Once Grah-Hoth dies you can leave and return later to loot without having to kill the summoned minions.

 

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Progress Update:

 

I was going to go right for Grah-Hoth, but then I remembered that Pyrog made some disparaging comments about my awesomeness. So I had to go deal with that. I was able to take Pyrog down fairly quickly, and the remaining Giants weren't a big deal. I then went through Skaggarath, and DAMN that is hard to pull off. Thankfully, I've been slowly making a decent stock of Invulnerability Potions, so it was manageable. Once I remembered that the main sentinel teleports to his throne for healing, I just focused on attacking everyone ELSE, then moving to the throne room, and only THEN attacking him. A long exhausting battle, but it worked.

 

But...

 

I ran out of Piercing Crystals! Gah!! So I'm gonna take a look at the strategy section, see if there's any piercing crystals I can still get. If not, I'm buying out the Slith merchants.

 

Also, thanks to Painted Lady for the heads-up on screenshots. It worked fine, I took a few. My question now, I guess, is how I post images on this forum?

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Also, thanks to Painted Lady for the heads-up on screenshots. It worked fine, I took a few. My question now, I guess, is how I post images on this forum?

 

Use img tags to enclose the URL of the image you want to embed:

 

[img=http://www.example.com/image.jpg]

 

If the image is on your computer, you'll have to upload it to an online image host like imgur before you can post it.

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