What strategy should a melee character use to deal with bosses ? Especially those that can mess you up with freeze or confusion. I often would slaughter everything in the dungeon with ease but get absolutely wrecked by the boss. My level 18 Higher Arcane Blade just died 3 times to the Daikara boss (Rantha ?). Previously he died to the Kertul boss and very nearly died to the Maze Boss (Minotaur).
PS
My personal preference is to play magic user character but I lost / deleted my tome save folder and all my unlockables are gone. Could someone please share their unlockable file ?
How to deal with bosses ?
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Re: How to deal with bosses ?
Wild infusions help with status effects. If you are having trouble, find one that can remove Magic effects (yes, Confusion is a magical effect in the current version).
As far as melee goes, I'd suggest you try to develop your defenses as much as possible. Killing things before they reach you is never an option, so you need to be able to take a lot of hits. Arcane Blade is one class that has very few defensive options, in the traditional sense, so the Aegis tree is a worthwhile pursuit (I'd like to see it start out unlocked by default).
As far as melee goes, I'd suggest you try to develop your defenses as much as possible. Killing things before they reach you is never an option, so you need to be able to take a lot of hits. Arcane Blade is one class that has very few defensive options, in the traditional sense, so the Aegis tree is a worthwhile pursuit (I'd like to see it start out unlocked by default).
Sorry about all the parentheses (sometimes I like to clarify things).
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
100% Stun resistance
100% Confusion resistance
Without both of those, you gamble with your life.
Classes with no stun resistance? No. I can't do it. I am utterly incapable. I have tried, and tried, and tried. They're tissue paper and they die. If you have talent-based stun resistance, that gives you a chance of being able to stack enough items to cover stun and confusion resistance and not dying.
100% Confusion resistance
Without both of those, you gamble with your life.
Classes with no stun resistance? No. I can't do it. I am utterly incapable. I have tried, and tried, and tried. They're tissue paper and they die. If you have talent-based stun resistance, that gives you a chance of being able to stack enough items to cover stun and confusion resistance and not dying.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
If you ever get lucky enough to escort an Anorithil to the portal, learn Providence from him. It dispels one negative effect every turn. As bricks said, get at least one wild infusion that dispels magical and physical. That will take care of one stun/pin/freeze/confusion/daze/etc. effect. When playing melee types, I like to have a stun that I can use (especially against bosses) - stuns seriously reduce their damage output. When you notice the stun is about to wear off, retreat and stay away from the creature's attack range until your stun is back up.
Arcane Blades get phase door. Just stun the boss, attack it until the stun has one round remaining, phase door and avoid the boss until your stun is back up, stun, attack until the stun is about to wear off, phase door away, repeat. This is a basic strategy that should work well on a lot of the earlier bosses.
Arcane Blades get phase door. Just stun the boss, attack it until the stun has one round remaining, phase door and avoid the boss until your stun is back up, stun, attack until the stun is about to wear off, phase door away, repeat. This is a basic strategy that should work well on a lot of the earlier bosses.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
I thought I replied to this earlier, but I guess not.
I believe saves reduce the duration of the relevant effects. Confusion can also be mitigated by not moving. Every action you take while confused there's a random chance of acting normally. If you aren't lucky when using an activated talent or item nothing happens. If you aren't lucky when moving, including bump attacks, you move in a random direction. It's usually better to risk doing nothing than to risk moving randomly.
I believe saves reduce the duration of the relevant effects. Confusion can also be mitigated by not moving. Every action you take while confused there's a random chance of acting normally. If you aren't lucky when using an activated talent or item nothing happens. If you aren't lucky when moving, including bump attacks, you move in a random direction. It's usually better to risk doing nothing than to risk moving randomly.
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Re: How to deal with bosses ?
I go with ( as said before ):
Wild infusion with magic/physical at least to remove the most common effects.
Stun/Freeze/Pin/whatever other helpful things your class has to reduce/prevent the damage dealt to you
At least 1 teleport through phase door rune/staff of conveyance as second weapon set/teleport wand/skill to escape when you have to.
Shield and heal/regen runes naturally help too. Shield runes do not take a turn to activate, they are instant.
And finally knowing your enemy. If you know what they do its easier to survive.
Wild infusion with magic/physical at least to remove the most common effects.
Stun/Freeze/Pin/whatever other helpful things your class has to reduce/prevent the damage dealt to you
At least 1 teleport through phase door rune/staff of conveyance as second weapon set/teleport wand/skill to escape when you have to.
Shield and heal/regen runes naturally help too. Shield runes do not take a turn to activate, they are instant.
And finally knowing your enemy. If you know what they do its easier to survive.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
Stun stun stun the enemy to oblivion. With an Arcane Blade you can max out Stunning Blow to perma-stun most enemies, rendering them pretty pathetic. Also rely heavily on shield runes to prevent you getting into trouble.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
General Suggestions:
I mostly agree with the above comments - to reiterate:
1) Stun Resistance. That one resistance is the entire focus of my early game gear decisions. I may still be being influenced from the time when stun was "you cannot act", but its still extremely important. If you're lucky enough to max out stun, start working on confusion.
2) Wild infusion that can remove magic effects. This handles freeze (if you don't have 100% stun resistance) and confusion. If you burn your wild infusion on a confuse effect, and you're fighting multiple enemies that confuse plus a boss, escape and fight just the boss.
3) Intelligent preparation. Bosses will follow you anywhere on the map, once they detect you. Use this to your advantage. Engage on your terms, and know where you're going to fall back to. Fight bosses solo whenever possible. Pillar dance, for example. Use your digger to create advantageous terrain. When in doubt, escape. Choose the appropriate escape mechanism.
Specific to Arcane Blades:
4) Open Conveyance and get Phase Door 5/5, Teleport 1/5 and Probability Travel 1/5. This is an early game priority. Keep in mind Probability travel's mana sustain cost - you may want to invest some points in Willpower depending on gear. Use it intelligently. Conveyance I open up at level 1 (because I can't convince myself to play an Arcane Blade as anything other than a Cornac). Open it at 10 if you're any other race.
5) Get 5 infusion/rune slots asap. Unless you're a skeleton. I run: Mana Surge, Wild Infusion, 3 Healing/Regen/Shield runes by level 20.
6) Open up Aegis at 30 (possibly earlier if you can an awesome shielding rune). Its your other defensive tree. Save the Aegis heal for emergency last resorts because it actively costs mana (which Arcane Blades are in short supply of). Rely on the sustains in it to enhance your resource free healing infusions and runes.
I mostly agree with the above comments - to reiterate:
1) Stun Resistance. That one resistance is the entire focus of my early game gear decisions. I may still be being influenced from the time when stun was "you cannot act", but its still extremely important. If you're lucky enough to max out stun, start working on confusion.
2) Wild infusion that can remove magic effects. This handles freeze (if you don't have 100% stun resistance) and confusion. If you burn your wild infusion on a confuse effect, and you're fighting multiple enemies that confuse plus a boss, escape and fight just the boss.
3) Intelligent preparation. Bosses will follow you anywhere on the map, once they detect you. Use this to your advantage. Engage on your terms, and know where you're going to fall back to. Fight bosses solo whenever possible. Pillar dance, for example. Use your digger to create advantageous terrain. When in doubt, escape. Choose the appropriate escape mechanism.
Specific to Arcane Blades:
4) Open Conveyance and get Phase Door 5/5, Teleport 1/5 and Probability Travel 1/5. This is an early game priority. Keep in mind Probability travel's mana sustain cost - you may want to invest some points in Willpower depending on gear. Use it intelligently. Conveyance I open up at level 1 (because I can't convince myself to play an Arcane Blade as anything other than a Cornac). Open it at 10 if you're any other race.
5) Get 5 infusion/rune slots asap. Unless you're a skeleton. I run: Mana Surge, Wild Infusion, 3 Healing/Regen/Shield runes by level 20.
6) Open up Aegis at 30 (possibly earlier if you can an awesome shielding rune). Its your other defensive tree. Save the Aegis heal for emergency last resorts because it actively costs mana (which Arcane Blades are in short supply of). Rely on the sustains in it to enhance your resource free healing infusions and runes.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
Remember that shield runes are instant actions that don't use time.
Any abilities that you can use that don't cost a round are ones that you can use to help escape a sticky situation.
Any abilities that you can use that don't cost a round are ones that you can use to help escape a sticky situation.
Re: How to deal with bosses ?
Instantaneous actions can also be used 100% of the time while confused. This was done primarily so that you can always use a wild infusion (they are instantaneous) while confused, but it has the side effect of allowing a shielding rune as well. Take note of all your instantaneous abilities; there may be more than you think. For example, Rogues have Willful Combat and Deadly Strikes, both of which are instanteous, and one of which is actually an attack! Fighters have (access to) Greater Weapon Focus which is instantaneous. Most, or maybe all, of the first tier racial talents are instantaneous (except for the undead passives). And so on.
When you have 100% stun resist and 100% confusion resist, the game becomes so very different. My Fighter who had these died at level 45 (or maybe 46) to a farportal boss's Disruption Shield explosion that did 1700 damage. (Not vaulted. For whatever reason, the game was unable to connect to the web server to log the dead character. I mentioned this issue in some thread in the bugs forum.) My non-Fighters who don't have stun/confusion resistance all die before level 25.
When you have 100% stun resist and 100% confusion resist, the game becomes so very different. My Fighter who had these died at level 45 (or maybe 46) to a farportal boss's Disruption Shield explosion that did 1700 damage. (Not vaulted. For whatever reason, the game was unable to connect to the web server to log the dead character. I mentioned this issue in some thread in the bugs forum.) My non-Fighters who don't have stun/confusion resistance all die before level 25.