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Shubael strategy


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See topic. I managed to get through the first half of the fight by tanking the damage for a while until I had attracted all of the little whelping dragons over, and then retreated towards the far end so Shubael couldn't get to me. However, once she jumps down the hole (and heals to full health the little $%@#), I just don't have enough resources left to bring her down again before I get overwhelmed. (Her blinding me every turn and then following up with the fire breath that can two shot you didn't help matters all that much.)

 

Any tips on how to fight her? I'm on Veteran difficulty.

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I made to through on torment difficulty, but every time I got through the fight on beta testing, Jeff started making it harder. So I did this 4 times on torment and 2 on normal difficulties. Save at different points in the fight so if you are doing well you don't have to start from the very  beginning.

 

You may want to start from before entering with stocking up for this fight. This fight is unlike any other because the dragons have much higher evasions to physical damage and only slightly less to magical. Shubael only heals to just over half her health from upstairs, but it is still a lot. I found two characters with wands work better here so you can do two magical range attacks.

 

First replace all healing potions and empty slots with scrolls of mercy and might plus two scrolls of life for emergencies in case a fight goes bad. I also brought both energy potions, the Festival Harp, and potions to summon a sapphire skeleton and fiery construct for meat shields in the final fight. You may also want to wear rings and necklaces that raise maximum energy and swap them out between fights with ones that increase damage or armor as you use up energy.

 

You are right on retreating upstairs to take care of the whelps and they usually come in two waves. Leave combat in between to restore some energy because there isn't any for the first fight upstairs with Shubael. I stand back at extreme range from Shubael to avoid getting Void Infection to minimize wasting energy curing it upstairs. She will pull you in so retreat as fast as you can.

 

In both fights I found just using energy for healing, curing, and buffing with between 3 and 5 blessings with one from battle frenzy for haste. The extra base damage from multiple blessings will go in all attacks and these are long fights with their health. The dragons will keep casting haste so with their resistances slow isn't that helpful. The summoned constructs don't do much so you can ignore them.

 

Downstairs as you wear Shubael down you can use some energy to increase damage, however you need to hold back some for Freemind because you can get hit with fear. I used the potion monster summons here to keep the summoned salamanders busy and pick them off with the physical attackers. I also try to stay with range attacks on Shubael to avoid special melee attacks.

 

When Shubael nears half health, she casts evasion and spell shield, so have someone cast disruption to remove them. You may not have enough energy to spare for doing it to remove haste. By this point I can barely heal and buff.

 

I finished with no energy or consumable items or maybe a little left. This is the hardest fight in the game even compared with Tower of Nisse because of the evasions.

 

Good luck and if anyone else finished on torment difficulty, then tell us what you did.

 

 

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(On Veteran)

 

I started the fight by attracting the attention of a drake, then running back to the stairs. Shubael didn't follow. I had to do it another time to lure the rest of the drakes over, and one of my characters got killed as a result (an unfortunate series of turns got him pulled into Shubael and stunned), so I just revived him with a life scroll. Killing the drakes was pretty easy, if a bit annoying.

 

After the drakes were dead, beating her first phase was simple. I got a lucky slow at the beginning with a wand, so I was getting about 2 turns for every one of Shubael's until she finally decided to buff herself. After she buffed, I just kept using dispel, so she'd waste further turns buffing instead of attacking. By the time the first phase was over, I probably only used about 30% of my energy, plus one life scroll.

 

The second phase was harder, but I parked my tanky character in melee range, and kept everyone else at a distance, using summons to block the salamanders. Two of my characters had free mind (one from an item, one from being Ahriel), so it was pretty easy to get rid of fear. Curing also gets rid of blind and only costs 4 AP. I used a few scrolls of might to keep haste and blessing up so that I didn't have to spend precious energy on it.

 

I have no idea how to beat the first phase legitimately (i.e. not pulling the drakes), but the second phase was actually pretty simple for me. I might have gotten lucky with some slows from wands, however.

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(Also on Veteran)

 

First, before you go in, make sure that you have roughly 10-12 jars of medicine. These wonderful potions cure lots of turns of effects, hit everyone in 5(ish) spaces, and you can use another attack or ability in the same turn. Seriously, these are the best. Now, I did it with 1 Ukat, Vol, and Ahriel. Ukat has passive bleed skills, Vol has Tower of Might, and Ahriel has Free mind.

 

My strat that worked. Start off in long range with 3 bows and 1 wand user (1 person using Fool's bow for the extra bleed chance). Stay at max range from Shubael and keep shooting her until one of the drakes wanders over. Then, retreat back a few steps and pummel the drakes as they come over. If you concentrate on them 1 at a time, there should never be more than 2-3 attacking at any moment. Kill them, preferably without using any abilities.

 

After the drakes are dead, go back to shooting Shubael from max range. Even if she draws one person in, they don't end up closer enough to get caught in her melee attack range, so they can escape. She ran away, and only one person was down energy. (From using Battle Frenzy to keep blessings up). Have them use any energy potions to top off.

 

Second phase is fairly straight forward. Have the main character and Ukat go melee on Shubael, and since they have plenty of energy from before, go to town with Bludgeon Senseless. Enough debuffs will hit that Shubael will start wasting turns trying to get rid of them instead of attacking. Summon a golem to distract the salamanders, and just lay into her until she stops moving. Use free mind as necessary, and dispel if she manages to get an actual buff in.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A bit late to the party, but I thought I should share my experience of Shubael on Torment.

 

I lined up everyone just outside the point where Shubael initiates conversation, then I started the fight by summoning a couple of golems next to Shubael and started hitting her with ranged weapon attacks. I continued summoning golems to keep Shubael and her brood distracted while I kept pummelling her from afar (my party had the Support ability that makes enemies target you less often, and I think it works). Despite my best efforts to keep up the summons, the dragonlings kept spilling over and eventually started hitting my party with Weakness and Blind, though I made sure everyone had anti-curse augments, but I was eventually able to reduce Shubael's health enough to force her down to the second floor without expending more than about half my energy and at most a few scrolls and health potions. Then I simply retreated from the top floor and left the brood to make their own way into the world. Defeating the weakened Shubael and a few salamanders was easy enough with all the energy and consumables I had left.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Also on Torment, 

the first phase was long but quite uneventful. Basically, always buffed, I keep one skeleton alive near Shubael (ie. I summon a new skeleton just after the previous dies) and pummel Shubael from distance ; I also retract in the corridor/entrance room when the whelping dragons appeared (to kill them one by one). The only noticeable events were that two times Shubael summoned a construct near my party (so I killed them), two times she pulled my priest (so he moved back to his position in the next turn) and that a whelping dragon appeared almost at the end (either he was deaf or a summon is triggered after a while). I finished this phase using ~1/3 of my energy: 3 Haven's Might, 2 heals, 2 cures and a lot of skeleton's summons. Then I used 9 energy potions so that each characters regain almost all their energies.

 

The second phase was shorter but more anarchic because sometimes, I can not kill a salamander fast enough, so it jumped and stunned one character. Basically, I remain buffed at good distance from Shubael letting her play with a skeleton and when there is nothing more urgent to do, I attack her from distance ; ie. I prioritised summoning a new skeleton near Shubael when the previous skeleton dies, rebuffing the party when the previous buff ends, healing a character if one has too little life point, attacking the salamander at arc/wand's distance of the party and finally attacking Shubael from distance. I finished with almost half of my energy.

 

Notes:

  • I do this combat with a level 20 party ; but if this zone is similar to the other Nisse's zone, the monsters' level do not seem to scale with the party level, so it is better to do it with a party at level 23,
  • I also forget to take my scrolls: I never used them so I stacked them in some chests for the big occasions and I discovered in the third floor that I did not have taken any of them :-~
  • in the second phase, Shubael uses evasion/shield spell (she was shielded about 1/3 of the time) but I did not see any difference between the beginning and the end of the combat ; maybe because she was not in the center of her zone but had moved near the south wall.

 

 

 

 

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