ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hi, I got TOME on steam a while back after playing the beta for a while and I recently started playing it again. I just beat the game with an alchemist again, but I am a little annoyed by the two deaths I had. One was in Melinda's crypt and was my own stupid fault. The other was to Elander, who is my number 1 killer across all characters.

Does anyone have tips for the final boss fight? I feel like I am improving in this game, but I am always dreading this battle. The two end bosses are way too strong for me, and I always just feel lucky when I win. My last victory was because I died, rested up and came back, and the female (whose name escapes me), basically let me Snipe her from the corner of the screen while Elander was nowhere to be found (I later found out he was in in a fight with Aeryn).

What you needed, to save yourself in this situation, was Track. You can get it on items, if you're lucky. Alternatively, telepathy for humanoids at a good distance or high level Arcane Eye. Basically, what you want is some way to see them before they see you. If you achieve that, you should be able to prepare defenses (such as shielding runes) ahead of time to avoid one shotting as well plink them at a distance. I'm pretty sure max level alchemist bombs go far beyond range 10, once you take into account the blast radius.

On Normal difficulty Aeryn can tank one of the bosses for a very long time. Let her aggro one and take on the other. Also it's worth noting that despite being a "Sorcerer", Argoniel is really closer to a melee Reaver so if you aren't next to her, she can't really do much to you. Because of this I like to fight Elandar and hope Argoniel targets Aeryn until you can kill Elandar. Dispelling items are really good here since you can get rid of sustains like Elandar's Essence of Speed and Argoniel's Bone Shield, so Spellhunt Remains or gloves of Dispersal are very useful. Also make sure you have good mobility (one or two Movement Infusions and some sort of teleport are recommended) so you can get out of the bosses' lines of sight for a quick breather to heal up and wait for cooldowns. Immobilizes can also help you out with that, Rod of Spydric Poison is especially strong since it can't be resisted or saved against. If you aren't confident in your ability to end the fight in 20-30 or so turns, you might want to go for the portals while Aeryn distracts the bosses, but I don't think this is worthwhile on Normal since the fight should end before the monsters from the portals can do much.

bpat wrote:On Normal difficulty Aeryn can tank one of the bosses for a very long time. Let her aggro one and take on the other.

Depends on the class. If friendly fire isn't an issue and Aeryn goes after Elandar, I'd rather disable Argoniel (the Spydric rod is indeed good for this) and then go support Aeryn. Just keep a watchful eye on Argoniel and neuter/distract her again before she breaks free. If you can make the fight 2 vs 1 for a short while on normal, you basically won.

Elandar always runs essence of speed, potentially at very high talent levels, therefore IMO Elandar must die as fast possible or you need to remove essence of speed as fast as possible. On Madness Elandar has something like 400% global speed, and on normal its still something like 150% or so.

Let's Play Tales of Maj'Eyal - Nightmare - Dwarven Skirmisher Ep 28 - So Easy...
Let's Learn Tales of Maj'Eyal - Episode 42 - Final Boss Fight & Some Ending Lore
Let's Play ToME Steam Edition - Skeleton Sun Paladin - Episode 34 - End of the Game
Let's Play ToME Steam Edition - Higher Anorithil - Episode 37 and Let's Play ToME Steam Edition - Higher Anorithil - Episode 38
ToME - Shaloran Berserker Ep 25 - Winning Age of Ascendency Campaign

Some videos showing the end fight for the my video playthroughs on Youtube. Perhaps watching and learning can help out a bit.

jaumito wrote:

bpat wrote:On Normal difficulty Aeryn can tank one of the bosses for a very long time. Let her aggro one and take on the other.

Depends on the class. If friendly fire isn't an issue and Aeryn goes after Elandar, I'd rather disable Argoniel (the Spydric rod is indeed good for this) and then go support Aeryn. Just keep a watchful eye on Argoniel and neuter/distract her again before she breaks free. If you can make the fight 2 vs 1 for a short while on normal, you basically won.

That's a good point, Argoniel is a joke on Normal (though I remember him taking half an hour with his 102% resist all on Insane...) while Elander might actually pose a threat, so if you can disable Argoniel you can probably kill Elandar without much difficulty. Elandar is squishier anyway so it's usually better to kill him first.